Hello, everyone! I am Tsai Chien-chien, or ChienX2, co-builder of this Eternatus team and also used it to get top 8 in Kaohsiung Regionals. This team report is a translation done by me, while the original was written in Chinese by Liu Jian-ting, or Sayha, who was the main one building it and ended up winning the Regionals.
Sayha and I have been teambuilding together so far for the three Regionals held in Taiwan in the Sword and Shield era, we all used the same teams we built and both top cut each time.
The following will be speaking from Sayha’s perspective. Let’s see how he came up with this unique team. Enjoy!
Hello, I am Sayha! This is my first time ever winning a Regionals-level tournament, although I have cut Regionals multiple times, but the runs usually ended in a most regrettable way, so this championship certainly means a lot to me.
Winning the Regionals has been one of my dreams, while it brings me happiness to finally make it, a greater goal I have lies beyond, and thus I will need to work even harder to secure my Worlds invite.
Table of Contents
Teambuilding process
When the Regionals were announced, there was no place to practice Series 11 yet, so I was meddling on ladder with a mono-Steel team. Despite the expected awful result from mono-Steel, I thought Perrserker among it is an underrated Pokémon, having good synergy with Trick Room and the potential to deal massive damage.
Keeping the idea in mind, I built a Series 11 team with Perrserker and Dusclops, then adding the pair of Venusaur and Torkoal and Eternatus as a quick Kyogre check.
But as it turns out, Perrserker sucks. Eternatus and Dusclops on the other hand, performed quite well in comparison. As mentioned in our last report featuring Drampa, we originally wanted to build an Eternatus team, so we thought this might be a decent starting point.
Chien first proposed Life Orb Regieleki since it also benefits tremendously from Dusclops’s Helping Hand, and Electroweb or Max Strike allow Eternatus to outspeed some important threats.
Then I added Araquanid, Drampa, and Centiskorch to complete the Trick Room aspect, respectively checking Zacian, weathers, and Ice Rider Calyrex.
Among all the Eternatus teams I have tried, this version was the only one I felt relatively comfortable with, centered around Dusclops, and thus it can reliably deal massive damage from both sides of speed to create an offensive tempo.
However there are two major flaws that invalidate the team, which are:
Offensive Dragapult. Dragapult’s typing and speed just happens to shut down these six completely.
The combination of Zacian, Grimmsnarl, Landorus and Gastrodon. This popular Zacian team has Grimmsnarl to hinder Eternatus from doing enough damage and Gastrodon to totally nullify Araquanid as a Zacian counter.
I went on to experiment with other Restricted Legendary Pokémon but had no results, so it was not until two days prior to the Regionals I did come back to Eternatus.
The two problems are obviously a result of choosing Drampa and Centiskorch for their niches, so I took them out and attempted to find a better well-rounded solution to the issues. Everything finally clicked when I came to the conclusion that Glastrier is what I need, since it can effectively deal with Dragapult and Landorus, and most importantly hit the rest of the sun team hard once the threat from Charizard is removed by Eternatus.
I thought Glastrier was the right addition to the team, but Glastrier still struggled to face Zacian when it is needed for Landorus, and the team cannot bypass Grimmsnarl’s screens either. Thus Incineroar is added for the last spot, providing consistency and durability to allow me to switch to defensive plays against Zacian or both Calyrex.
The final version looks much more consistent than the previous one, but little time was left to test how well it works, so we were not confident at all going into the tournament. Fortunately, it seems like Eternatus was the right call as we both made top cut in the end.
The Team
Get the team’s paste here!
Eternatus @ Dragon Fang
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Dynamax Cannon
– Sludge Bomb
– Flamethrower
– Protect
Eternatus’ stats are well-distributed, but Eternatus as a whole is somehow awkward in the meta due to both its offense and defense options being barely sufficient.
However, Eternatus is still capable of functioning like Zacian, hitting Dynamax Pokémon with the Dragon-type Dynamax Cannon and its high speed, while being slightly bulkier than Zacian. Behemoth Blade to Dynamax Cannon is a trade-off, although it cannot deal damage to Zacian, but it instead threatens multiple Dynamax options in the meta that got popular because of doing well against Behemoth Blade, such as Charizard and Thundurus. With Helping Hand, Eternatus may OHKO lots of Dynamax Pokémon with no bulk investment.
At first we tested Choice Specs to make sure Dynamax Cannon can guaranteed OHKO those targets, but realized that Zacian being immune to both STABs hurts and that Protect is greatly appreciated under our own Trick Room, so we chose Dragon Fang instead. Life Orb was not chosen because we did not want to sacrifice Eternatus’ decent bulk, and Dynamax Cannon is its main weapon anyway.
For the EV stats, 252 SpA EVs and Modest Nature are needed to maximize the chance of OHKOing Landorus, Thundurus, and Charizard. The rest 244 goes to Speed to outspeed Thundurus for 2 points while avoiding speed tie if we actually run into another Modest Eternatus.
Regieleki @ Life Orb
Ability: Transistor
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Rising Voltage
– Hyper Beam
– Electroweb
– Protect
Regieleki is the most reliable fast hitter in the meta by spamming Max Lightning.
This Regieleki is set to be a main Dynamax option from the beginning hence the max Speed and Special Attack. Life Orb and the 140 BP Max Lightning from Rising Voltage are both necessary in order to guarantee one-shot Zacian without bulk, and if Regieleki still lives after Dynamax, Rising Voltage allows it to continue dealing heavy damage. Hyper Beam (Max Strike) and Electroweb can provide Eternatus with speed control, being able to put Shadow Rider Calyrex and Max Airstream users slower than Eternatus. This makes these two Pokémon an oppressive combination.
Dusclops @ Eviolite
Ability: Frisk
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Night Shade
– Helping Hand
– Haze
– Trick Room
Dusclops functions well for both the fast mode (Eternatus and Regieleki) and the slow mode (Araquanid and Glastrier) of the team.
The Ability Frisk is especially important when the team is trying to sweep at a fast tempo, being able to check whether the opponent has Focus Sash or Assault Vest. Once it is identified, Dusclops’ Helping Hand provides an immense KO range with the four attackers’ great damage output.
Dusclops also enables Trick Room when Eternatus or Regieleki are up against Tailwind or when Araquanid or Glastrier have a better matchup. This is the reason Dusclops is chosen instead of other Trick Room setters like Porygon2, since it is a reliable Trick Room setter on its own and does not slow down the offense for both fast and slow mode. Leading with Dusclops + Eternatus will force the opponent into a dilemma that they have to be prepared for either Helping Hand + Dynamax Cannon or the potential Trick Room. For the same reason, Pain Split, which is great for durability, is dropped for Haze, since it is crucial to not let Araquanid and Glastrier lose the precious Trick Room turns to Intimidate.
The EV spread is made with instinct because we had no time. It just works for some reason.
Araquanid @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Bubble
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
– Liquidation
– Substitute
– Wide Guard
– Protect
Araquanid under Trick Room in late game is a very strong Pokémon, and it works exceptionally well with this team usually going for Dusclops and Eternatus in early game, which preserves Trick Room as an option and forces the opponent to trade resources.
Araquanid’s fantastic Water/Bug typing and decent bulk make it positive matchups against most common Restricted Pokémon (Zacian, Kyogre, Groudon, both Calyrex), but it really suffers from the Max Airstream users. Fortunately in this team, not only do Eternatus and Glastrier hit those Pokémon hard, they also often cannot survive Max Geyser from Araquanid with the help of Trick Room and Helping Hand. When testing, there were multiple times I found myself making a comeback in late game with Araquanid, as long as Trick Room or Substitute was set up at the right time.
Liquidation is the only attacking move Araquanid needs, hence I chose Wide Guard and Substitute to stall out spread moves and Dynamax moves.
Paired with Leftovers, Substitute Araquanid is bulky enough and can hold on until it finds the right time to attack since it does not rely on Dynamax to be a good attacker.
Glastrier @ Lum Berry
Ability: Chilling Neigh
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Icicle Crash
– High Horsepower
– Close Combat
– Protect
Glastrier is just as good offensive-wise as it was in Series 7 or 9, only overshadowed by Ice Rider Calyrex.
Glastrier is a great Trick Room attacker as everybody knows, while also good enough an attacker outside of Trick Room as long as there is no Zacian. The main reason Glastrier is added to the team, as mentioned in the teambuilding process, is because it is the strongest attacker against Landorus and Dragapult, which both counter Eternatus. The other reason is that it one-shots Venusaur without bulk no matter what with Max Hailstorm and Lum Berry, regardless of the possibilities of Gigantamaxing, Focus Sash, and Sleep Powder.
Glastrier is actually a key piece in the sun matchup despite its type disadvantage against Charizard, since sun teams lack enough bulk to survive Dusclops + Glastrier under Trick Room, while Charizard can be either knocked out by Eternatus or have its insane power toned down by Max Hailstorm removing the sun.
Incineroar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 92 Atk / 92 Def / 76 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
– Flare Blitz
– Snarl
– U-turn
– Fake Out
Incineroar is great for defensive switch-ins and repositioning the attackers.
Incineroar’s kit of Intimidate, Fake Out and U-turn allows me to tank firepower in the transitioning between different modes. Intimidate is really important to keep Zacian’s damage in check, and Incineroar is also essential against Shadow Rider Calyrex, which hits Dusclops and Eternatus too hard. Therefore this Incineroar is given Assault Vest and Snarl to better sustain Calyrex, while on the physical side can survive a +1 Sacred Sword from Zacian.
Considering practically no Speed is invested anyway, Relaxed Nature might have been better to slightly improve the damage from Snarl.
Conclusions
It had been 8 months since the last official offline event, so it was exciting to come back and win the whole tournament. I always aim to build teams that can thrive in the meta while adding my own ideas, and thus it is pleasant to succeed with Eternatus, a legendary which had almost no usage in Series 8, and see it picking up its deserved usage after the Regionals.
The Regionals here only award Swiss rounds byes for Taiwan Nationals but no Worlds invites or CP, and now that I have my two-round byes already, maybe it is time for something cooler next time?
Also, this time works fine in the best-of-one in-game ladder. Proof of it is that I got a 13th place in the November Ranked Battles season!
See you in the next Taipei Regionals!
