So when I was a kid I had Pokemon: Silver version and In between Goldenrod city and Ecruteak city there’s a path that’s blocked by a Sudowoodo and at the time I had no idea what is was. So I was stuck in the first quarter of the game for what felt like forever and I got a chance to explore. One day I was in the Dark Cave trying to get to the item (because there was nothing else to do) and I encountered a Pokemon that I’d never seen before. It was a Dunsparce!
Looking back the encounter rate was 1% and me being the spaz I was would have never went out of my way to intentionally do encounters. I love this Pokemon. That being said of course when I played Silver this passing week I had to go back and walk around for a few hours trying to get him.
Before I knew it I found my self once again logging onto Pokemon showdown to further ride this Pokemon kick only to find VGC (video game championship) 2018 rules had been recently released. The allowed Pokemon have been increased because of the national Pokedex and guess who was the first national Pokemon to come to mind when I though to build a team??
You already know it was your boy.
And after actually planning and combing over all his moves I finally thought of a usable set.
Dun Dun DUH! (Dunsparce) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Protect
– Glare
– Rock Slide
– Coil
The idea behind this was to flinch everything that threatened your sweepers with it’s Serene Grace while Rock Slide chips for 10-20% . And if that didn’t work glare something. It turned out Dunsparce actually lived a bunch of frequently used special attacks from popular sweeper in the format. I couldn’t really think of any kind of specific EV spread so I did the average 252/252/4 spread. The pokemon that I felt this set could handle well were limited to the Flying and Fire types that lead battled being Zapdos, Charizard Y, Arcanine, Salamence, Thundurus, however when I say “well” I mean it lives one attack long enough to get a Coil off and do some real damage after my trick roomer sets up.
Now the glaring problem with this set was if anything that resisted Rock Slide and/or physical moves in general
And the team didn’t have the options to lead much else. So Dunsparce was just dying in the first few turns without really doing anything.
But we never give up so it was back to the drawing board. I decided that most of the problem was that the entire team was awful because I’m not good at team building let alone VCG team building that I knew nothing about. So I went to the Smogon VGC forum and it turns out they had a “mandatory team building exercise” to weed out people trying to make teams with no basis (ME) and to nurture an understanding of why Pokemon are built a certain way for VGC.
The task was to pick a team from one of four tournament reports, put all of the pokemon of the team in an editor, figure out how the pokemon work together and fill in the details of the sets(ability/moves/EVs). It was like a big puzzle. That I did get wrong the first time, but someone on the forum asked me about my EV spreads and said to “think a little more” he directed me to the Speed Tiers and I realized that I didn’t need to max any stats unless it was for a reason. I was so used to singles and 252/252 spread I wasn’t even thinking about the literal stats or what they were actually doing. The Raichu on the team went from max Speed and max Sp. Attack to being able to love a lot of different incoming moves and still being able to do its job. Then I watched a video on team building and the prominent cores in vgc.
I Then went back to the drawing board rebuilding from top to bottom to make a team that fundamentally worked. Building from a core called “fantasy core” consisting of a Fairy type, Dragon type, and Steel type. And spent a day “calcing” different EV investments.
Mawile-Mega @ Mawilite
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Fire Fang
– Iron Head
– Play Rough
– Protect
Mega Mawlie is the first piece of my fantasy core. I took Mawile as my mega because I knew it was going to stay a trick room team and she’s always been one of my favorites. She’s my fairy type coverage with fire fang to deal with Amoongus and Mega Metagross. This EV lets her live heat waves from stuff like Charizard Y (low EV investment) and Heatran.
Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 192 SpA / 36 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Draco Meteor
– Dark Pulse
– Tailwind
– Protect
Hydreigon is the second piece to my core, and he provides a secondary type of speed control in Tailwind. This thing hits super hard with both it’s stab moves, including that ever prevalent monster Mega Metagross. The investment in bulk allows it to live Mega Kangaskhan Return, Mega Salamences Dragon Pulse
Aegislash @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 188 HP / 4 Def / 236 SpA / 4 SpD / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– King’s Shield
– Shadow Ball
– Flash Cannon
– Wide Guard
The last piece of the fantasy core is Aegislash. This is a good stuffs pick that has a really strong Z move. Wide guard lets me block the spread moves that would plague him and his counterpart Mawile, letting Mawile many times just get lethal attacks in. This Pokemon is just a huge threat to anything that would threaten the other Pokemon on this team that take even neutral damage from either of its stab moves.
Slowbro @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Oblivious
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Trick Room
– Scald
– Psychic
– Ice Beam
Slowbro with Oblivious almost guarantees you the Trick Room in the situations you need it in. It also counters the Fighting types that would threaten Dunsparce when you lead them together. Slowbro’s bulk mixed in with his coverage is crippling to more offensive leads minus the Electric ones (but Dunsparce can nix those ones).
Tapu Bulu @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 116 Def / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Wood Hammer
– Horn Leech
– Superpower
– Protect
Because of the teams weakness to not only Water types but also to Earthquake I decided Tapu Bulu was perfect. Grassy terrain protecting Mawile, Aegislash and Dunsparce from Earthquake as well as healing them is huge for the team. Also his Wood Hammer is so strong being able to OHKO neutral Pokemon with Miracle Seed makes him a legitimate threat to in combination with anything next to him.
Dunsparce @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 196 HP / 76 Atk / 40 Def / 196 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Protect
– Last Resort
– Rock Slide
– Coil
For the current working version of Dunsparce I have Last Resort because after you support with 60% Rock Slide flinch, Last Resort can hit frailer sweepers at +1 for 40-50% as long as they don’t resist. This EV spread lets it live incoming non Z special attacks from almost any Pokemon, and the Def investment lets it live Arcanine/Marowak Flare Blitz, Garchomp Ground Z, and Mega Salamence Double Edge.
Here are some of the games I played with the improved team:
The teams consistency and performance boosted a ton after these changes and doing my homework. Especially when you understand that Dunsparce is a really niche counter to specific Pokemon that take enough from Rock Slide so the game doesn’t stagnate and give your opponent set up or sweep. Honestly though I’m still learning Pokemon synergies so there might be better options for the team and I might update in the future.
The whole process of getting to this point was probably my favorite thing I’ve ever done in Pokemon. however there is an elephant in the room. This team was a labor of love and therefore is really enjoyable for me to play but from an objective view point I want to show you how I can make this team 10x better.
Landorous-T is the most common Pokemon in competitive for a reason. It does what I can get Dunsparce to do and more, being able to kill and do serious damage with no boosts. Its stats are versatile and its movepool is amazing. All around this Pokemon is simply better regardless of whether or not the team is good or bad.
In conclusion I think there’s the player in all of us that wants to do something original and fun. It’s always a cool journey trying to create a path of your own and I think even if something doesn’t work out it’s worth exploring possibility because you never really know what can happen in a realm where you can possibly pioneer something even if it’s just for yourself, but there will always be an optimal choice. I think it’s important to ask yourself “Is being able to play this more important than winning?” and if you really consider yourself competitive I think you know the answer.
Heres’s links to Showdown and the resources i used for this venture:
Moonlit Monitor 