Dan Taylor

Gouging Fire Priority Spam After not posting teams for a while , I'm back with sharing weekly teams that perform well. The team today finished Top 32 & Top 64 in EUIC. It also eliminated me from the tournament. I think it's unique and strong. The Team: pokepast.es/609e9fb198f4488a Chien-Pao: Chien-Pao usually is the key piece to enable priority spam. With Sword of Ruin, it boosts the damage output of everything in the team which is pretty nice. The attacks are common. You really want to run Sucker Punch to punish Ghost/Tera Ghost for Dragonite and Sacred Sword is important for the Steel types as well. Icicle Crash is chosen over Ice Spinner to keep the Focus Sash intact against Spiky Shield and Rocky Helmet Pokémon. You also keep the Grassy Terrain that your own Rillaboom might set up. I went for a really cool spread though. With 84 Defense EVs, you survive Mystic Water Surging Strikes most of the time. I decided to give Pao another Defense point to change the Tera Surging Strikes roll from Jolly Urshifu from 96% to KO to 31%. Tera Ghost helps to get around Fake Out and opposing Extreme Speed. Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: Safety Goggles Urshifu with Taunt is an amazing Pokémon into Porygon2 + Ursaluna Balances. Urshifu is a great fit to the team because it provides offensive water couverage which helps out a ton against Incineroar. I like Tera Water a lot here to get rid of common weaknesses like Flying, Fairy and Psychic while still getting a damage boost on Surging Strikes. The damage boost is really helpful against bulky Flutter Mane, Chien-Pao and Ogerpon-Hearthflame. The defensive spread allows this Urshifu to survive Thunderclap from Assault Vest Raging Bolt, Earth Power from Landorus and Moonblast from 4 SpAtk Flutter Mane most of the time. Also, 4 SpAtk Moonblast equals 36 Modest SpAtk Sky Plate Tornadus. That means, that you take that Bleakwind Storm most of the time as well (31.25% Chance to KO). On the physical side you survive stuff like -1 Wood Hammer from Hearthflame (always) and Rillaboom (most of the time). Speedwise it is cool to outspeed everything that speedcreeps on Raging Bolt (some Dragonite, Gholdengo, Urshifu, etc.). Gouging Fire: Gouging Fire is also a center piece of the team. With Howl, it increases the damage output of both party members which is super valuable. Fire couverage is also really nice for the steel types and annoying Pokémon like Gholdengo or Amoonguss. I won't start a discussion if Burning Bulwark is better than Protect but I can see the merit here. Especially against opposing Dragonite or Chien-Pao, it can come in handy. Max speed is really good for the Gouging Fire mirror. It also allows you to outspeed everything up to 117 in Tailwind (or if you are paralyzed). 68 Attack is sweet to get the OHKO on very bulky Flutter Mane with +1 Attack. This also applies to Amoonguss and Tera Steel Landorus. The defensive bulk allows this Gouging Fire to survive Choice Specs Tera Fairy Moonblast from 196/68+ Flutter Mane. Sludge Bomb from Landorus is also not a KO if you terastalize. Speaking of which, Tera Fairy is just a great choice here. Flipping the matchup chart against Dragon Types is phenomenal. It can also be used against Urshifu-Single, Dondozo or Chi-Yu. Rillaboom: Clear Amulet Rillaboom is another great pick for this team. Psychic Terrain based teams are usually very annoying for priority spam. That is why Rillaboom is almost a must have. With Clear Amulet, it is not as weak into Intimidate cycling as well. High Horsepower therefore makes a lot of sense to hit Incineroar and other fire types very well. The remaining 3 moves are also very important out of obvious reasons. Tera Fire is amazing into Chi-Yu + Flutter Mane boards and it ensures that you can stay in front of Ogepron-Hearthflame or Incineroar as well. The bulk ensures a survival of non attack invested Incineroar's Flare Blitz. The survival also aspect also applies to Sword of Ruin/Tera Stellar boosted Close Combat from Urshifu. On the special side, Specs Moonblast from Flutter Mane and Bleakwind Storm from 252 Tornadus cannot get the knockout as well. 120 Speed outspeeds everything that speedcreeps on Gouging Fires in Tailwind (which is 118 speed). Kingambit: Assault Vest Kingambit is a Pokémon that might feel very bad in certain matchups. On the other hand, it makes some matchups really good. I like the choice of Tera Flying, paired with Tera Blast. Tera Flying is great into Ursaluna and Landorus and offensively Tera Blast OHKOs Ogerpon and Amoonguss (with +1) which is really good. The good matchups I mentioned are mainly Regidrago + Steel Type. Your opponent needs to use Urshifu or Ogerpon-Hearthflame to deal with Kingambit but they both Struggle against Dragonite or a well timed terastalization. The moveset is good as it is. The speed allows this Kingambit to underspeed Min Speed Smeargle as well as 31 IV Quiet Porygon2 which makes the Trick Room matchups even easier. I chose a small amount of special defense to survive Earth Power from Landorus and 2x Moonblast from Choice Specs Flutter Mane. Dragonite: Tera Normal Extreme Speed, brrrr. This actually works quite well since there are a lot of Pokémon that punish Steel and Ghost types (and rock types ig x.x) really well. Dragonite also provides some good resistances against Urshifu-Rapid, Rillaboom or Ogerpon-H/W. Outrage can be used if you need a lot of immediate damage and Aerial Ace is overall a consistent move. Stomping Tantrum can come in clutch against Gholdengo or Tera Steel Urshifu. I decided to run some speed investment to get the jump on some Raging Bolt or Rillaboom. The bulk is also not random. Landorus (252/116+) cannot 2HKO with Sludge Bomb. Same goes for Urshifu-Rapid and Calm Mind Raging Bolt (if you use Tera Normal). Life Orb Draco Meteor from Raging Bolt is also not a KO most of the time (12.5% chance) which makes this Pokémon just incredible into Bolt Balance teams. Variations: Protect over Burning Bulwark on Gouging Fire would be the first thing I'd consider changing. Chien-Pao can run other tera types as well (Grass for Thunderclap, Grassy Glide and stronger Surging Strikes or Stellar for more damage) but Ghost is fun next to Dragonite to be fully immune to Fake Out. Ángel Cervetto Bernal used the team first in Birminham and got a really good finish with Drum Beating Jolly Rillaboom instead of Clear Amulet Wood Hammer. And lastly, Dragonite can run Giga Impact for insane damage against Tera Fairy Amoonguss or Ursaluna. Conclusion: The team is amazing and I'm not surprised that I got knocked out by it. It can feel rough sometimes, especially if your opponent sets up Trick Room without too many sacrifices but I'd give the team a try if you like offensive teams. It also fits pretty well into the current metagame, so yea, try it out before it's too late!

“An unusual submission”. Slightly later than promised, my analysis of today’s ruling dismissing Suella Braverman’s attempt to persuade the Court of Appeal that manslaughter sentences passed on PC Andrew Harper’s killers were unduly lenient: rozenberg.substack.com/p/an-…