Glass Gauntlet Team

[Arrok]

I've hit the glass gauntlet. And the more singles oriented hyper offense team I've been running for a while is just not cutting it, so I need to change things up.

Here's what I want to do. During the fire type gym I ended up sweeping with +1 spa typhlosion using eruption. The thing was one shotting fire-types in sun and fire terrain. So I'm looking to make a fire terrain doubles oriented team centered around getting typhlosion in on a blazing field, and clicking eruption over and over, so to that end I'm looking for some ideas. A few important notes: I play with the set battle style and with a mod that disables item use in battle entirely. So no potions, x-items etc for me or my opponent. I also have never done the glass gauntlet before, so I only know what's up with the first two trainers don't know anything about the later trainers and I don't want to until I hit them. 

 

Here's my current ideas:

Typhlosion:

Max speed, flash fire, item TBD. I'd like to use the field seed, but since I won't be able to re-up it between battles in the glass gauntlet I don't think that's a winning proposition.

-Eruption

-heat wave (I think I can get it from a tutor. Else I'll run flamethrower or lava plume)

-solar beam (not great honestly unless I set sun, or have grassium-Z, but that would overwrite the terrain. Decent for resetting burning terrain if it gets cleared I guess)

-Extrasensory (suspect. Likely should be changed to something else. Protect seems alright the issue is getting the TM. Focus blast is another move I need to look into more)

For typhlosion I also have toyed with the idea of running a rest-talk set to try and get more full power eruptions out of it, but that seems more memey than good

 

I'm considering slivally + incineroar as the leads to set burning terrain with pledges, then one or both parting shot out. Incineroar I'll probably have running amplified rock to be the one that actually uses the combo move. I'm not necessarily married to using silvally as the grass pledge user, it would be easier though since I have silvally at a high level already. The biggest problem I feel inceneraor has is its ground weakness, so a powerful ground type attacker could just ruin my day immediately.  I've toyed with the idea of using a grassy terrain setter and using eruption itself to set blazing field, but that makes typhlosion's damage output a little less immediate when it comes out. Also all pokemon that learn it by level up are slower or speed tie with typhlosion so I wouldn't be able to run max speed typhlosion. The potential setters faster than typhlosion I could breed for if I would rather go the grassy terrain route are serperior, skeptile or jumpluff, but I haven't looked into them so far. 

 

Silvally:

unsure of EV spread and item. If incineroar has the rock silvally needs to be faster than it. Silvally being powerful enough to take out the hazard setter in the first gauntlet battle after a fake out seems like where I want to be

-parting shot

-multi attack

-grass pledge

-? (toxic, protect and sunny day all feel like good contenders)

 

Incineroar:

Intimidate

Bulky, likely max hp and little to no speed investment (for slow parting shot). Amplified rock probably to be the field setter. Alternately I could run somehting like incinium-Z and have silvally run aplified rock. 

-fire pledge

-parting shot

-fake out

- ? (flare blitz and protect seem like the obivous contenders for this slot.  brick break has some situational useage, and knock off is also useful)

 

The last three team members are very up in the air. Here's a few things I've considered: healing support for typhlosion (e.g. comfey) to keep eruption at near max power. A rage powder/follow me user could also be good. I have an amoongus trained that could fill that slot, though it would take damage from the burning field. Eviolite togetic or a togekiss are the other, probably better options for this slot. Jumpluff also knows rage powder and u-turn, so it has the movepool to run a support set. It has lackluster defenses though. 

I also want at least one backup attacker, preferably physical. I'm not entirely sure what to do on this front. I could have something that benefits from burning field, but that would make me very fire heavy. I was thinking Mega Pinsir might be a decent pick, it has strong priority in quick attack, a good neutral stab. However, I'm not familiar with its strength in doubles.

 

[Seel The Deal]

Since Typhlosion because noticably weaker with even a slight bit of chip, you'd probably want a backup sweeper. Mega Houndoom is just about the strongest Sun attacker you can get your hands on, spamming Solar Power, Burning Field, Sun-boosted STAB Heat Wave to bust through even bulky resists. Houndoom + Ninetales is one of the few 2-mon combos that reliably beats the entire gauntlet, and that's without even setting terrain.

 

Also keep in mind that you don't need pledges to set the Burning Field. It's probably better to make use of Bloom Doom since that's also a strong attack, coverage against Water and Rock, and nothing's going to be getting a chance to douse the field if you play your sweepers right (same mindset you'd apply to making the Corrosive Mist field really) so you don't desperately need multiple chances. This would let you drop Silvally which doesn't really fit into any form of hyper offense very well. You can also just outright use Grassy Terrain in which case I'd consider Roserade so it can make use of Weather Ball boosted by both Sun and terrain, or Jumpluff since it doesn't take damage from the terrain and has a Ground immunity.

 

If I were to make a whole team around this I'd probably do something along the lines of Roserade/Grassium Z Typhlosion/Houndoom-M/Ninetales, with the last two slots dedicated to essential Doubles support such as Follow Me, Fake Out, and Intimidate users. Sets would look something like this:

 

Roserade@Eject Button (instant switch to sweeper teammate after setting terrain) - 252/252 SpA/Spe Timid - Technician - Energy Ball, Hidden Power Rock, Grassy Terrain, Weather Ball

Typhlosion@Grassium Z - 252/252 SpA/Spe Timid - Flash Fire - Solar Beam, Focus Blast/Protect, Eruption, Flamethrower/Heat Wave

Houndoom@Houndoominite - 252/252 SpA/Spe Modest - Flash Fire or Early Bird - Hidden Power Grass, Heat Wave, Dark Pulse, Nasty Plot/Protect

Ninetales@idk some sort of berry probably - 252/252 SpA/Spe Modest - Drought - Solar Beam, Heat Wave, two of Protect/Nasty Plot/Imprison/Will-O-Wisp

 

Could also run Specs on Ninetales, at that point it's hitting as hard as any other Sun sweeper but you lose the nice utility it brings to the table, as Imprison shuts down any opponent with the same idea as you and Will-O-Wisp helps deal with fast Rock Slide users. Ninetales should be Modest to underspeed Typhlosion's Bloom Doom and create a Burning Field with Heat Wave. Can also lead with Roserade and use a slower Sun+Burning setter like Torkoal (or really just anything with Heat Wave, doesn't even have to be Fire type).

 

Anything you run in the 5th/6th slots should either be immune or resistant to the field damage, so Levitate users and Flying types are top priority. Togekiss is the only Flying/Levitate user of Follow Me, and no such mons with Fake Out exist Delibird doesn't count, so you might have to get a bit creative here in order to avoid stacking 5 Fire types.