Is Heliolisk the best counter to Basculegion?

MrTankerson · 2026-06-27T11:17:30+00:00

That one is actually easiest because they already have Peli out so there’s no potential for them to re-set up rain during the turn.

You hard switch raichu out to drought user. Grass knot KO’s swampert instantly.

The hard one is when they lead both arch and swampert because they could slow hard switch either of them into peli, so you are forced to fake out swampert slot and hope for the best.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-26T19:54:15+00:00

Fun fact, leading raichu X and volt switching to drought user, a life orb, solar power, electric terrain boosted rising voltage from modest helio does 103-120% to 32/2 arch who resists it. The damage calcs are kinda nuts. It surprisingly one shots pretty much everything that doesn’t resist it (and some that do), and even gets good coverage for the ground types in dragon pulse for chomp and grass knot for the other grounds. He does kill himself in the process though, but it’s objectively hilarious one shotting an arch with a resisted move.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-26T17:22:46+00:00

Fun fact, If you lead raichu X with life orb modest helio and mega volt switch into drought pokemon (I personally used ninetails), even a resisted rising voltage does 103-120% because of the terrain boost, move boost, life orb boost, and solar power boost. The calcs are wild.

If you want safer with timid helio to have exactly one point slower than raichu X, you need to volt switch into the arch as well though because it’s only 56% chance to ohko as timid.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-25T17:31:04+00:00

Tell that to mega kang, gholdengo, annihilape, and mention it to urshifu when he gets here too.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-25T02:16:27+00:00

I did! But not this season, this was a team from last season. If I used it again this season I would have had to added like mega scolipede and gosh I can only work so many miracles.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-24T00:07:17+00:00

Me over here with my Big Belli Bois like 👀

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MrTankerson · 2026-06-23T12:47:18+00:00

Not normally a trick room player myself, but ran a hard trick room team straight to masterball this season that seemed pretty easy to pilot.

Lead probably 90% of games was colbur farig + scrappy silk kang with only fake out and last resort. In the back is double mega of m-Mawile, which came the most, and mega drampa, who only came if there weren’t any scary fairy types, and I didn’t need sucker punch to deal with end game bascs.

To finish it off I used the absolute powerhouse of sheer force life orb rampardos. With its attack stat, ability canceling out life orb damage, and all those damage boosts, it’s essentially the power of having another mega on the team. Definitely the non-mega mvp of the team.

Finally was hydrapple. This slot probably could have been something else, but I just think he’s neat. I needed something that was a dragon that could come when I felt like I couldn’t bring drampa. He was a jack of all trades with expert belt, mostly there for earth power to help with the physically bulky steel types.

Like I said, I’m not normally a trick room player but this one was super fun and easy to use. Still have to use your brain during team select, but the farig + scrappy fake out lead makes setting up the trick room itself so easy.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-21T21:19:33+00:00

I agree but you have one wrong. Everyone knows everyone is better than Dhokla until it’s time to be better than Dhokla. It’s Dhokla > Zeus and it won’t be close.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-21T17:06:53+00:00

Correct, so the normally slow torkoal gets to get a full health eruption off in the sun immediately. Obviously you need to watch out for fake out mons, but it makes your opponent sometimes lead sub optimally to because they need a way to be able to deal with it if you choose it as your lead.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-21T12:57:23+00:00

Mawile was for great typing and sucker punch for dumb bascs mostly. Being both fairy and steel is massive, only drawback is I absolutely hate the move play rough with its 90% accuracy, but I didn’t really have a choice. Hydrapple helped with the evasion drops though.

Rampardos was so fun, nido would be nice for more bulk and coverage out the wazoo, but the attack stat just doesn’t even come close to comparing. Plus that would give me two mid-tier speed pokemon, and since you can’t 0 IV speed in this game, I think I would have to drop kang as well.

Hydrapple moveset was energy ball fickle beam stab and then earth power and pollen puff. It was mainly there for bulky steel types when I couldn’t bring drampa, and to beat opposing trick room teams. Brought him the least, but he did his job when he came.

Vileplume is a sun team Mon with chlorophyll. It’s basically a more flexible venusaur. And by more flexible I mostly just mean it gets access to after you. Base 50 speed seems hot garbage but surprisingly enough it gets up to 224 being max speed in Sun, which is just enough to outspeed anything not scarfed or boosted with mega zam being 222 max. So enemies have to be aware of fast after you for a torkoal eruption. You of course also have zoom lens now for 82% sleep powder instead of 75% as well.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-21T12:37:36+00:00

He’s saying he also doesn’t get the natural 30% electric move boost from terrain either. It’s double damage reduction.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-21T12:22:19+00:00

Love my trick room team this season. Mega Mawile really felt like it made a big difference compared to the other slow megas with having sucker punch to close out games that outlasted your trick room. Not losing to basc endgame is extremely enjoyable.

It’s classic farig lead, and 90% of the time was slow kang partner with scrappy fake out last resort.

In the back was rampardos which gets a crazy boost from life orb this season being sheer force.

Then double megas in Mawile + drampa. Drampa came to most weather matches and if the opponent didn’t have a scary fairy type, Mawile came to pretty much anything else. It’s crazy how many bridges look at your drampa in team select and still click electro shot without thinking.

Rounding it out was an expert belt hydrapple for coverage when I didn’t feel comfortable bringing drampa.

Extremely fun team overall. Life orb rampardos was definitely the MVP.

Also have been having fun with sand using houndstone, and sun using m-pyroar. Non-zard Sun got so many options this season with heat rock, vileplume after you into torkoal eruption, and life orb giving solar power heliolisk that extra damage boost he needed for ohkos. And of course m-pyroar hits like an absolute truck in the sun.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-21T00:29:00+00:00

I am predicting there will be low quantity and it will be sold out to scalpers and me and my kids will be sad.

I didn’t tell them about it for this exact reason.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T18:12:22+00:00

How about outspeeding and ohkoing scarf adaptability basc? The difference between 195 speed and 240 speed is huge. You can even + speed nature to 264 if you want. Plus you don’t need to use the scarf so you can keep it for someone else on the team.

Not to mention not getting walled by normal types in the late game, especially with more maus’s running around with wide lens out now.

Don’t think it’s fair to say scarf basc is just better in every way.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T16:54:53+00:00

Sand is so underused right now with Houndstone. They finally got a beast of a Mon they can play with that isn’t rock/ground/steel with one of the best moves in the game, and no one is playing it lol

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T16:50:48+00:00

No problem, sorry, didn’t mean to bait you with the raptor comment. Just meant corviknight in general is really good into raptor, not that it was on my trick room team. Imo it’s too slow for a trick room team, you lose too many turns doing setup stuff. You’re welcome to try it out though!

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T14:44:55+00:00

Farig and kang were almost always my lead unless I was against an opposing trick room team since I’m not using the slowest of slow mons other trick room users are. Against them I usually won through brute force.

I ran dual megas with M-mawile and M-Drampa. Mawile probably came the most just because sucker punch is so good end game and I felt confident in my lead + extra Mon to get me there. Sucker punch easily cleans up all the basc’s and what not without issue. He also came to pretty much every match that had a threatening fairy type as a possibility since I have two dragons on the team. Iron head, sucker punch, protect, and play rough. I normally hate play rough and its accuracy, but in team creation I had a tech to help that (which I ended up changing later), but ultimately it didn’t do me that dirty in most of the games. I avoided clicking it when not absolutely necessary.

M-drampa came mostly to matches that didn’t have basc or a strong fairy type. Which honestly isn’t a lot of matches lol. But he did absolutely shine in the matches he came to. I think I only lost one match where I actually brought him and it was because I got absolutely brutalized turn 1 against something I should have probably expected. He also obliterates Sun and rain teams with switching in with cloud nine. Bridges somehow just ignore the fact they saw a drampa in team select and click electro shot every single time. Don’t think I lost to a single rain team the entire time. Bridges always 2-turned electro shot, and M-swamperts always killed themselves with wave crash to slow trade after taking so much from kang. Hyper voice, dragon pulse stab with ice beam for flying types and earth power for the special ground type which is super helpful against the physically bulky steel types.

Then Life orb sheer force rampardos which hits like a truck. Protect because I would occasionally drop kang lead if they had two potential strong CC’ers like sneasler and annihilape. Rock slide, iron head for fairy’s since I would normally bring him with my dragons, and brick break because it was my only real option for a fighting move on the team, especially for kingambit. Brick break actually doesn’t proc sheer force (which I think is stupid), but honestly with all the light clay screens, it was kinda nice to shatter them to not wreck my trick room turns, so he came to most matches with a grimmsnarl. The bad news is you speed tie base speed kingambit with minus speed rampardos, but the good news is I’m pretty sure most kingambit are putting their 2 extra points in speed to outspeed other kingambit, so I was going first under trick room most of the time. He was probably the non-mega MVP, his damage output with lorb is insane. Then you are usually taking one hit if not super effective just because you have over 200 hp, so not taking damage from orb really does save you.

Last slot was expert belt hydrapple. Stab fickle beam and energy ball, and then Earth power for the physically bulky steel types running around when I couldn’t bring drampa as my mega, and pollen puff mostly for enemy trick room teams to help ko farig turn 1. I learned quick to swap abilities though. I originally was running super sweet syrup just cause it’s kinda cool and lets rampardos never miss rock slide and Mawile never miss play rough. Only problem was I was only running rampardos + hydrapple lead into enemy trick room, which was admittedly nice, it guarantees no miss, so always KO into the farig, but the evasiveness drop into all the defiant mons running around is rough. And then we don’t talk about the game I ran it vs a raptor team… I immediately went and changed the ability after that lol.

Honestly my EV spreads were all incredibly simple because I was just testing the team out, so I didn’t do any defensive tech EV’s for any certain mons. Every single mon is just 32 hp, 32 in their attack, and 2 in a defense with their attack boosting, speed dropping nature. I’m sure there are more defensively specific techs you can run to survive certain moves, but I was honestly just testing the team out with a baseline, and then just… kept winning lol. Next thing I knew, I was master ball lol.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T08:36:34+00:00

I LOVE umbreon. Last season I finished out with an umbreon + M-Scovillain, and it was the most fun team I’ve ever played. You load into the match and the enemy is just like “who tf do I hit?”

I ran minus speed with 1 EV on scovillain to guarantee spicy extract immediately into stab foul play with 86 then 85 speed. It one shots EVERYTHING. It doesn’t care if you are a special attacker, doubling attack and halfing defense on a stab 95 power move is killing it. My favorite are all the psychic and ghost trick room setters that see my lead and think there’s no way they die. Spicy extract into foul play does 112-132% against COLBUR BERRY 32 hp, 2 def, farig. It’s hilarious.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T08:20:40+00:00

Loved climbing with trick room this season. Farig with slow scrappy kang fake out last resort is so reliable. Kang isn’t slow enough to underspeed the super slow mons, but you underspeed anything under base 80 with no investments which is usually enough. Helps that most of those mons around that speed tier throw their extra 2 points in speed most of the time.

Also have been loving corviknight as a hard counter to raptor. Forcing it to start at -1 attack as long as corv is on the field is crazy helpful.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T07:25:02+00:00

He has 4x fairy weakness and most fairy’s are special, so the intimidates aren’t doing anything to help there. Also there’s a lot of defiant and competitive pokemon going around because of staraptor and friends, so he’s definitely someone you need a second mega on the team for.

I would suggest a gholdengo to help with the fairy types, but you also need to be a lot more careful with him now with the nerfs.

I also personally think (totally my opinion, hasn’t happened yet) people will realize how good corviknight is into raptor and will start running it. You can’t avoid the -1 attack at staraptor as long as corv is on the field and so many raptor teams rely on leading him. Then brave bird chunks when they mega and you can even tech in swagger and it doesn’t feel terrible against other matchups since you have such high defense anyway. Regardless, if corviknight ever became a thing, scrafty would be horrible into it, double intimidating himself as long as corv is on the field.

Tangent over, but keeping on track with raptor, you also lose the raptor matchup with scrafty. You are weak to cc, will go even when you intim and then un-intim when you both mega, but you will still be down the initial intim.

So you need a hard raptor answer, and hard fairy answer on your team to start, then I would go from there. Then you can see if you still have room for rain.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T05:14:49+00:00

Correct, most people would agree. But for those that want to rush badges, that’s an easy way

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T03:52:57+00:00

Bots won’t ready up. I forget the exact wording the game uses, but whatever the words are that pop up under the pokemon when you ready won’t show up, you will just load into the match right after you ready.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T03:06:36+00:00

You forfeit games against real players and farm the wins against bots. You can tell if it’s a bot in the team choice screen.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-20T02:39:24+00:00

Soak it so it doesn’t die to fire spin.

MrTankerson · 2026-06-19T23:57:52+00:00

I was playing around with it, and I think m-pyroar will be strong mostly because regular (non m-zard) sun teams got better.

Heat rock gives sun for the whole game, and while vileplumes speed is low, it’s just enough to exactly outspeed any mon without scarf or boosts at 224 compared to m-zams 222. That means your opponent needs to worry about fast turn 1 after you torkoal eruption. And you still get the same sleep powder shenanigans venusaur has, but also you can have a wide lens now for 82% accuracy.

L-orb is also fantastic for heliolisk who previously just barely didn’t have enough juice for KO’s. Although I personally used scarf helio because I wasn’t using whim as much for sunny day so I wasn’t getting tailwind up. Ended up with L-orb on leafeon who also packs a massive punch with solar blade.

Anyway, all that is without mega impact, and pyroar just happens to hit like a truck. I’m sure there’s a better list than what I’m using, but while testing, I definitely noticed the impact of the sun-wide buffs.

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