Psych Up Politoad: Having fun spamming Muddy Water at Torino

This is a gimmick team. It is decently positioned in the Regulation M-A metagame and it feels good to play, but more than anything it was just really fun to bring to the first European Pokémon Champions event. Here is the current version of the team:

What the team is trying to do

The whole team is built around one board state. Espathra gets a turn or two to click Calm Mind while Speed Boost ticks up, then it Baton Passes everything into Archaludon. Archaludon already has a great physical Defense, so once it inherits the Calm Mind boosts (the special bulk and the Special Attack) it becomes really hard to kill on the special side and starts sweeping.

The problem I kept running into while testing was that getting the Baton Pass off did not always win the game by itself. Archaludon is at its weakest the turn it comes in. The passed boosts do nothing for its Defense, and it has not attacked yet, so a strong hit could take off a big chunk before it got rolling. That is what Psych Up is for. Politoed copies Archaludon’s boosts as it switches in, so even when Archaludon takes a lot of chip on the way in, I still have a second boosted sweeper to close with. Once both of them are going, the game is usually over.

Everything else is there to get me to that point. Mega Gengar wins the weather war by trapping the opposing weather setter. Choice Scarf Vivillon throws out fast Sleep Powder to buy Espathra free setup turns, and sometimes just wins the game on its own against teams that cannot deal with it. And the Mega Fake Out lead keeps Espathra safe from the Ghosts that would otherwise remove it.

Where the idea came from

In the weeks before Torino I tried to build something normal. I spent most of my time on standard meta, mostly Charizard-Y and Dragon Dance Mega Tyranitar, and nothing really clicked. The evening before the event I was frustrated and just scrolling through the legal Pokémon when I saw Politoed. It is one of my favorite Pokémon, and I figured if I was going to crash and burn I might as well do it on something I actually like. I looked through its movepool, saw Psych Up, and the idea for the team showed up right there.

A few weeks earlier I had seen a GC team report running the Archaludon plus Calm Mind plus Baton Pass gimmick, and combining that with Psych Up sounded too funny to pass up. I made a quick draft and sent it to a friend. That is when I found out that a week before Torino, at NAIC, an Espathra and Archaludon team had actually done well. For a second that killed the surprise factor for me. Then I looked at the team and saw it had no Psych Up on Politoed. So I decided to bring my version anyway and keep the Psych Up as my own little surprise.

This is the exact team I brought:

For how little time I had put into it, the event went well. I ran into a lot of standard meta and kept up better than a thrown together gimmick should. Most of my games were close and I had to really focus, but a few were complete stomps in one direction or the other, depending on whether my opponent had brought a clean answer or not. I finished 5 and 3. That was just short of Day 2, but good enough for Top 128.

I liked most of the team. Two things bugged me though. Mega Kangaskhan did its job and nothing more. It always felt a bit underpowered with no real ceiling. And Gengar’s Taunt was a dead slot that I did not click once the whole event.

The changes I made

Three changes. Two that matter and one that is just cleaner math.

Mega Kangaskhan to Mega Lopunny. This is the big one, and it works as an almost perfect swap because both Pokémon get Scrappy, so I keep the job of Fake Out on Ghost types. Lopunny just does it better:

• Scrappy timing. Kangaskhan only has Scrappy before it Mega Evolves, so I kept getting tempted to delay the Mega to keep Scrappy or go for a second Fake Out, and that meant giving up the extra bulk and damage from the Mega. Lopunny gets Scrappy after it evolves, so I get the power and the Ghost coverage at the same time with no awkward choice.
• Speed. Mega Lopunny is faster, which fixes my most annoying matchup from Torino: Fake Out Sneasler. It was pretty much the only relevant Fake Out user that was consistently faster than my max speed Kangaskhan, so it could Fake Out my lead to stop my Fake Out, or Fake Out Espathra to stop my setup. Lopunny just outspeeds it.
• Coverage. Kangaskhan had to run a Dark move to hit Ghosts for real damage. Lopunny hits them with Close Combat thanks to Scrappy, which is stronger and frees up a slot.
• A nice bonus. Lopunny outspeeds and one shots Focus Sash Aerodactyl with Triple Axel, since the multiple hits break the Sash.

It is frailer than Kangaskhan, but Kangaskhan never really survived much anyway, so I do not miss the bulk.

Gengar: Taunt to Skill Swap. Taunt was dead weight. Skill Swap might not be the best option, but it does a few useful things off Mega Gengar’s Shadow Tag. It can reset my rain if I Skill Swap with Politoed. It can break an opposing perish trap by putting Shadow Tag onto my own trapped Pokémon, because a Pokémon with Shadow Tag cannot be trapped by Shadow Tag, so it gets to switch out. And it can take Prankster away from Whimsicott, so I do not get hit by a priority Encore that locks Espathra into the wrong move.

Espathra: Bold to Timid. This one is just optimization. A nature is a percentage boost, so you get more out of it on the stat with the higher base, which for Espathra is Speed rather than Defense. Putting the boost on Speed and the EVs into Defense reaches the exact same Defense and Speed as the old Bold spread, but with two points left over that I put back into Defense.

The Pokémon, in detail

The team splits into two halves. The core is the win condition: Espathra, Archaludon and Politoed. The other three are there to handle the matchups the core cannot deal with on its own.

Espathra

Espathra is the simplest member to explain. Calm Mind, Baton Pass and Protect are all required for the gimmick to work, and Lumina Crash is just its best attacking move. The spread goes for as much bulk as possible with barely any Speed, since after one Speed Boost I am already faster than almost everything. I put the defensive EVs into physical Defense on purpose, because one Calm Mind already pushes the Special Defense past the invested Defense, so loading the physical side keeps both defenses even. Colbur Berry is the important item. The Dark resist lets Espathra set up in front of Kingambit, which would be a big problem otherwise.

Archaludon

This is the Pokémon that actually wins games, so the spread is picky. I max HP because it works well with Leftovers and makes every boosted defensive number bigger. I put one point into Special Defense to land on an even stat total, since the Calm Mind boosts multiply and an even number rounds better. The rest goes into physical Defense, because that is the one defense Calm Mind will not boost, and Archaludon needs to live a super effective physical hit on the switch in. The moves are all about coverage so the sweep is clean once it gets going: Electro Shot, Flash Cannon, Dragon Pulse and Protect.

Politoed

Politoed sets the rain with Drizzle, but Psych Up is what makes it special. The Speed EVs are set so it sits exactly one point faster than Archaludon. That way, after Politoed copies the boosts, I can Rain Dance and Electro Shot in the same turn with the Rain Dance landing first, which guarantees the Electro Shot goes off with no charge turn. The rest of the spread, plus Sitrus Berry, just adds bulk, since Politoed is scary enough once it is holding copied boosts. Muddy Water is the generic spread move, which is exactly what you want when you hit that hard.

The Rain Dance and Psych Up combination was the real game changer. Since Psych Up also copies the Speed Boost that gets passed down the chain, Politoed ends up faster than Charizard-Y after just one copied boost. That let me Rain Dance over Zard-Y’s sun before it could even move, and it won me a lot of games.

Lopunny

Lopunny’s main job is to Fake Out Ghost types (Scrappy, after Mega) and, as one of the fastest Fake Out users in the format, to shut down the opponent’s Fake Out before they can use it on me. The spread leans all the way into that with max Speed to win those races and max Attack, since bulk barely matters on it. The full reason I picked it over Kangaskhan is up in the changes section.

Gengar

Gengar is the offensive answer, so it runs both STABs with max Special Attack and just enough Speed to outspeed Mega Charizard-Y after it evolves. It is on the team for two matchups. Against Charizard-Y I pressure it and trap it, and the moment it Megas to set the sun, Politoed comes in and the rain goes right back up with no counterplay, because Zard cannot switch out. Against Whimsicott I Skill Swap the Sash variant to take its Prankster and avoid the Encore on Espathra. A non Sash Whimsicott just gets one shot by Sludge Bomb through the trap, and if it runs on turn one before I Mega, it cannot come back in to use the Encore anyway.

Vivillon

Vivillon is simple. I wanted some redirection as insurance for anything the rest of the team could not handle, even if I end up barely clicking it. Choice Scarf is the best fit, because against the right teams it just wins on Sleep Powder spam. Max Speed handles the Scarf Vivillon mirror, and max HP gives it a small chance to live a neutral hit.

Leads and game plans

The leads follow a pattern. Espathra almost always leads, the partner depends on the matchup, and the back two are almost always Archaludon and Politoed, which I bring in once the lead has done its job.

• Lopunny and Espathra is my default lead. Fake Out buys Espathra a safe first Calm Mind, and Lopunny clears the Ghosts and the opposing Fake Outs that threaten the setup.
• Vivillon and Espathra comes out against teams that fold to fast sleep. Usually it is just spamming Sleep Powder while Espathra sets up behind it.
• Gengar and Espathra is the targeted lead, mainly into Charizard-Y (trap it, then bring Politoed for rain over sun) and Whimsicott (take the Prankster with Skill Swap, or Sludge Bomb it through the trap).

From there the game tends to play out the same way:

1. Lead Espathra with the matchup partner.
2. Use Fake Out, Sleep Powder, or the trap to buy Espathra a safe turn for Calm Mind while Speed Boost ticks.
3. Once it is boosted, Baton Pass into Archaludon.
4. Bring Politoed in to Psych Up the boosts (and Rain Dance to guarantee Electro Shot or to override sun).
5. Close the game with two boosted sweepers.

The main thing to watch out for is a big hit landing on Archaludon the turn it comes in, before it can get going. Psych Up on Politoed is the backup for exactly that, so a chunked Archaludon does not have to cost me the game. Get past that and the gimmick takes care of the rest.

That is the team. It started as a frustrated experiment the night before the event on one of my favorite Pokémon, and it turned into the most fun I have had at an event in a while.