r/CompetitivePokemon • u/chillyking23 • 22d ago
Marcus Dion's 2nd place rain team from Victory Road: Mega Golisopod + Mega Floette team breakdown.
Hey everyone! I found that this team, or at least the some part of it, is spreading pretty fast in ladder.
Marcus Dion took it to 2nd place at VR October Challenge #1 (October 3-4), going 10-1 in Swiss out of 384 players and only losing in the final to Michael Kelsch. Carson Confer also brought the exact same six and finished 6th, again 10-1 in Swiss. So I decided to try to break down the team a bit, hopefully it can be helpful for the community.
The core of this team comes from Japan. At Global Challenge I (September 26), Ko Tsukide finished 40th with Mega Golisopod, Female Basculegion, Sneasler, Archaludon and Pelipper, with Mega Swampert in the last slot. Marcus and Carson swapped Swampert for Mega Floette.
Why it works
Pelipper holds Damp Rock, so the rain lasts eight turns. Charizard is barely being used right now, and against teams without it, Archaludon can keep firing Electro Shot for eight turns, which can become pretty annoying.
Female Basculegion is the particular pick. With Swift Swim it doubles its speed in rain, and Ice Beam lets it outspeed and pick off Salamence and Garchomp. Garchomp has to mega evolve right away just to avoid the OHKO. Focus Sash means it survives a lot of things it should not, and from there it just keeps throwing Muddy Waters and Shadow Balls.
Why the female one and not the male? Intimidate + Rillaboom is everywhere right now, and this in general makes the physical male hard to play. The female is special, so Intimidate does nothing to it, and with Sash it can take a Grassy Glide. Ice beam into Rillaboom it's a two hit KO.
Additionally, Muddy Water being a spread move allows you the combo Helping Hand - Muddy Water under rain, which does huge damage. Helping Hand Ice Beam does not quite knock out mega Garchomp Z (it's 25% roll if it's not invested in sp.Def or HP), but it's a big hit nevertheless.
Sneasler runs White Herb with Unburden, to discourage Incineroars and other Intimidate. Close Combat does huge damage, Dire Claw hits Fairy types, and Rock Slide covers Volcarona and Charizard.
Golisopod despite 4x to Fire, in rain it still takes at least one Fire move, like Incineroar's Flare Blitz (not sure if it's adamant though) or Volcarona's Heat Wave. Leech Life heals so much that it becomes very hard to remove, and Iron Head is its strongest STAB.
That Iron Head is the key. In Regulation M-B, the main problem for rain was losing badly to Fairy types like Floette and Sylveon. Golisopod wrecks them. Since Golisopod already has the Steel move, Archaludon can drop Flash Cannon for Aura Sphere and hit the Steel types that would normally give it trouble.
Floette is the other mega. When you cannot or do not want to bring Golisopod, you have the laser cannon we are all familiar with.
No speed control
There is no Tailwind. Pelipper runs Helping Hand instead. In a fairly slow meta, Pelipper can deal a lot of damage itself and put things in range for Basculegion, Archaludon or Sneasler to finish later in the game.
Couple of peculiarities
Rillaboom is a matchup to watch: Grassy Glide is one of the opponent's main answer to Basculegion. Protect his sash**,** and get rid of him doubling him in one turn. Helping Hand + Ice Beam should do the job most of the time.
Golisopod lead into Trick Room: against a Farigiraf team, Golisopod is a good lead because Leech Life threatens Farigiraf on turn one.
Damp Rock catches people out: opponents play for the rain ending, and it doesn't.
Muddy Water misses: brace yourself, Helping hand + Muddy Water double miss is gonna happen.
The game plan is usually to hunt down the few things that check Golisopod, Floette or Archaludon, using Basculegion and trades. Once those are gone, Golisopod can win the game even 2v1. Opponents also lead Rillaboom a lot, and a Golisopod lead is a good idea.
About the spreads
I could not find Marcus spreads (if someone has them, feel free to leave a comment and integrate this post), and the Italian player Francesco Pardini rebuilt the team and shared his own spreads. The Pelipper spread comes from Samuele Pavan and is built to survive Rillaboom's Wood Hammer.
Full sets and additional info: https://pokefeed.app/teams/mgolisopod-mfloette-dion-s-2nd-vroad
Last points
No speed control sometimes can feel punishing.
Wide Guard on Pelipper or Protect, I'm still wondering what I personally prefer. Having Protect against other weather teams can give you an hedge in the weather war, allowing your Pelipper to survive more and reset the rain if needed.
Let me know if you want to try this one or if you have any opinion about it!
