Golden Spirit Exeggutor: A VGC2020 Team Report
Hi, I’m Mini Hoopa, a VGC player since Gen 8. This is my first time sharing a team report in the Jolly Breloom Forum. This an interesting doubles team, consisting of two fire types, two grass types and two normal+psychic type Pokémon.
Team Building Process:
After the Isle of Armor release, plenty of new Pokémon became available, I suddenly wanted to build a team with an Exeggutor core. The idea came from a damage calculation by MiLi(米粒): “Even with a power spot boost, Charizard’s Max Overgrowth still can’t OHKO a Dynamaxed Assault Vest Tyranitar under sun.” This calculation inspired me: Could Exeggutor, who has the highest SpA among all grass types in this meta, be good in this format? Hence, I started building a team with Exeggutor, after changing from a fast mode to a hard Trick Room mode, I achieved 1739 on the Showdown ladder, starting from 1200 with this team. This is my second time achieving top 500 on the ladder, and accomplished my intention to show the value of Exeggutor.
General idea of the team:
People usually think Exeggutor as a fast sleep powder user under sun, as such, I abuse the information gap to set Trick Room up with it. Then Exeggutor, Torkoal/Lurantis could dish out damage under Trick Room. Try to best use the TR turns to deal damage and make switches without hesitations.
The Team:
Indeedee-F @ Focus Sash
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 12 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Expanding Force
- Helping Hand
- Follow Me
- Mystical Fire
Indeedee-F is an outstanding support, no matter under Trick Room or not. This Indeedee is quite a standard physical bulky set, and would lead almost every game. Follow Me could help Exeggutor set up Trick Room or Cinderace to deal damage. As of item, both Focus Sash and Safety Goggles have their own benefits. I chose Mystical Fire as the 4th move to lower Lapras’ damage, it could be replaced by Protect but then Indeedee would not be able to use attacking moves once your opponent Imprisoned you.
Exeggutor @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Harvest
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Expanding Force
- Trick Room
- Ancient Power
1. TR setter
When I was testing the team, I found if I lead Oranguru, it could be easily countered by Imprison. Then I realized that Exeggutor could set up Trick Room by itself. In team preview, when my opponent sees a Torkoal beside Exeggutor, they almost always think it as a high speed sleep abuser, and would be aware of the Torkoal switch-in, therefore the success rate of Indeedee+ Exeggutor lead to set Trick Room is pretty high. The only thing you worry is your opponent’s STAB Heat Wave. Regarding the ability, since Chlorophyll is a negative ability under Trick Room, I chose the only other ability that it had, Harvest.
2. Sweeper
Exeggutor has an amazing 125 SpA, which would be more insane after activating Weakness Policy. Almost all Dynamaxed Pokémon that doesn’t resist Psychic would be KOed by a +2 Max Mindstorm under Psychic Terrain, while Oranguru uses Expanding Force to pick off the remaining mons on the field. With the boost of Grassy Terrain, Max Overgrowth could OHKO Dynamax Tyranitar even in sandstorm, not to even mention if you set up sun. Max Rockfall is used to hit Incineroar or Dynamaxed Marowak-Alola out of Psychic Terrain. But if your oppoenent Dynamax Incineroar, it would be really difficult to deal with.
Other Pokémon that are hard to deal with: Scizor, Bisharp and Ferrothorn
Potential counters for them are Torkoal and Lurantis.
Oranguru @ Iron Ball
Ability: Symbiosis
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
— Trick Room
— Brutal Swing
— Expanding Force
— Instruct
I like Oranguru’s design a lot, being the guru that it is, holding a fan calmly, it’s the real core of the team. 252 SpD could let it survive a Max Darkness from Life Orb Duraludon. However, there could potentially be better spreads for it. Typical strategy: Oranguru’s Speed stat is 29 so it could use Brutal Swing to activate Exeggutor’s Weakness Policy after Indeedee is down, and Exeggutor could Dynamax or use Expanding Force afterwards.
1. Signature Ability — Symbiosis
Even if at min speed, Exeggutor could not underspeed Hatterene. The only way is to let Exeggutor hold an Iron Ball. But I don’t want to drop Exeggutor’s damage, so the idea is to use Brutal Swing to activate Exeggutor’s Weakness Policy and then pass the Iron Ball to Exeggutor, which drops Exeggutor’s speed to 27.
2. Signature Move-Instruct
Even if Exeggutor is down, Oranguru could Instruct Torkoal for another Eruption or Insruct Lurantis to use Superpower so the team could still do well under TR.
Torkoal @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
— Burning Jealousy
— Eruption
— Solar Beam
— Earth Power
If Eruption creates wonders, then Choice Specs Eruption creates 3x more. If Exeggutor or Oranguru is KOed, Torkoal could just spam Eruption. Although rare but it can also be switched in beforehand by reading your opponent, seize the opportunity under Trick Room to deal damage.
Lurantis @ Expert Belt
Ability: Contrary
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
— Superpower
— Poison Jab
— Night Slash
— Protect
MiLi’s favourite Pokémon. I chose three Physical moves for coverage: Superpower to hit Tyranitar, Excadrill, Incineroar and Porygon II, Poison Jab to hit Fairy type Pokémon, and Night Slash to hit Ghost type Pokémon. With Expert Belt, +1 Superpower can OHKO Incineroar. Also, it’s worth noticing that the speed stat of Lurantis is the same as Marowak.
Cinderace-Gmax @ Life Orb
Ability: Libero
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 220 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
— Bounce
— Iron Head
— High Jump Kick
— Sucker Punch
The only fast sweeper in the team, and the secondary Dynamax candidate. G-Max is to pretend that Cinderace has a Fire type move. You can also use a standard 252/252 spread. It can hit targets that Exeggutor has difficulty dealing with, and it also provides a false sense that the team is based around a fast mode, forcing your opponent to set up Trick Room, benefitting the rest of the team.
Common Matchups
1. High speed teams/teams with no speed control
Strategy 1:
Leads: Indeedee+Exeggutor; Back: Oranguru+Torkoal/Lurantis
Follow me+Trick Room, If Indeedee is not KOed after first turn, switch Oranguru in immediately. Exeggutor can easily be KOed, but it’s worth to do so to maximize its damage under TR.
Strategy 2:
Leads: Indeedee+Cinderace; Back: TR Setter+Sweeper
Use Max Airstream to fake a trick room out of the opponent, or set it up yourself later. Try to get 2 KOs in the meantime.
2. Trick Room with no Torkoal
Leads: Cinderace+Indeedee; Back: Oranguru+Torkoal/Exeggutor
Pressure the opponent with Max Darkness+Expanding Force, then switch in the Pokémon at the back to simply sweep the rest.
3. Trick Room with Torkoal
Leads: Oranguru+Exeggutor/Cinderace; Back:Torkoal/Lurantis/Exeggutor
The idea of this mode is to try to fight outside of Trick Room.
If the oppoenent leads Indeedee+Hatterene, they may be afraid of Oranguru’s potential Imprison, hence try to KO Oranguru with Helping Hand, which is the best scenario. But they might also try to go for Follow Me+Trick Room, so it’s more like a coinflip. Torkoal or Gastrodon with Iron Ball are hard to deal with too.
Conclusion and thoughts
In the China-France Friendly, MiLi used this team, but was defeated by RedSilver, the champion of the Köln Regionals.
In that game, the weakness of my team, that is, having a hard time dealing with Dark type Pokémon, was noticed by RedSilver in the second game where he chose to Dynamax Incineroar. Which isn’t the situation that I would like to see the most. But, no pain no gain, only when you give up something, can you get more in return. If you want to use non-meta Pokémon, you’ll be bound to lose some structural completeness during team building.
I’m Mini Hoopa, a VGC player who loves to use non-meta Pokémon. I have used a team with Marowak- Kanto and Bouffalant to get second place in an online tournament previously.
I will continue developing the potential of non-meta Pokémon, and try to discover more possibilities in VGC.
In my next semester, I would go to study in France. I have a dream, to do well with non-meta Pokémon in Regionals, and rise yet another Chinese Flag on the International stage.
Original Creator:
Mini Hoopa
Translators:
Mailly
Yihui — — — — — — — Twitter@YihuiVGC
Setsuku(節栩） — — — Twitter@genrayz
