One restricted Pokemon that stood out to me at this point was Reshiram. It has a 130 base power Fire-type move without the use of Dynamax, a 4-times resistance to G-Max Wildfire and G-Max Vine Lash, and a resistance to Behemoth Blade. This pointed me in the direction of making Reshiram a bulkier option than you might expect, which suits me since my preferred playstyle is more balanced. This specific Reshiram was built with the intention of taking combinations of attacks from the more prominent archetypes and dealing serious damage in return, the popularity of sun helping to boost Reshiram’s power unintentionally. Having the ability to OHKO Zacian goes a long way towards making it a threat, and not relying on Assault Vest to take on sun archetypes gives room for Protect and less predictable play.

I knew very early on that Landorus (Therian Forme) was a natural fit with Reshiram and supported the general direction of the team. Landorus has always been the best switch-in on opposing Landorus after all! I felt like it was the best Intimidate option for the team because Incineroar shares typing with Reshiram and they were weak to similar threats, and having Ground-type coverage on the team is always good. I wanted to make Landorus more resilient against status effects, since I spotted some Sableye and Dragapult usage during testing, both using Will-O-Wisp. Sleep Powder Venusaur was also something you needed to prepare for in teambuilding. This pointed me towards using a Lum Berry set and bulking Landorus out, having a Swords Dance option if I had an opportunity to use it and make up for the lower Attack investment.

With these two Pokémon established, Grimmsnarl and Rillaboom made absolute sense to include. Incineroar was not being used in the team, so these two helped the team’s defensive capabilities with Fake Out, speed control and dual screens support. Since my speed tiers were middling, and I knew opposing Landorus was always going to be an issue for the team, I made the controversial decision to opt for Scary Face over Thunder Wave. Alongside slowing Landorus, this was also done for two other reasons – 100% accuracy and the ability to slow myself if opposing Trick Room went up without Thunder Wave’s full paralysis. I opted for Miracle Seed on Rillaboom because I knew most tournament Kyogre tended to be more bulky, so you needed some extra power to guarantee a KO with Grassy Glide. Protect also gave counterplay to Kyogre + Life Orb Tornadus lead, because Assault Vest Rillaboom ran the risk of Tornadus Max Airstreaming for an OHKO. With Protect, the Kyogre had to predict if you were going to protect or go for an attack.

I wanted extra countermeasures against Landorus (Therian) since my Reshiram had a difficult matchup against it. Extra means of attacking Groudon is always nice too. I tried Rapid Strie Style Urshifu for a while but discovered the constant sun in the metagame made Surging Strikes considerably weaker than normal, removing the immediate threat of its attacks from a Dynamaxed Landorus target. Porygon2 was tested as well but ultimately underperformed. In the end, my good UK teambuilding friend Matt Carter (Mattsby) suggested using Blastoise. I was skeptical of it on paper, but it honestly works perfectly in the team, and G-Max Cannonade is completely broken. I also lacked a key Dynamax target on the team, and it tended to depend on the matchup. I used a Life Orb in the end, opting to hit Landorus and Groudon as hard as possible, and I stand by this being the best option on this particular team. Another bit of fun trivia – the decision to put Blastoise in the team was done two hours before the tournament started, and Robert Brewer (Chimmy) went out of his way to help me use his Blastoise in time since I didn’t have one in-game. Thank you so much for that!

I did not like having only one proactive threat against a common Restricted, and the Kyogre and Calyrex matchup was not favourable at the time. I also had a spare Assault Vest and wanted to deter the common Incineroar + Landorus core further, since I expected it to be on every other top cut team. In the end, I went with Assault Vest Thundurus with Defiant, since it covered the most gaps within the team and helped versus the matchups I discussed on paper. It also gave me a fast speed tier to Max Airstream with and a Ground-type immunity.