Gastrodon

The idea to build a team with Gastrodon and Spikes started somewhere in week 1 of NDWC. I believe Stareal was facing someone that really liked stuff like Rotom-W VoltTurn, which is why Gastrodon was part of the core idea we picked. You don't really make progress with Gastrodon just by cockblocking Rotom-W, so you really do need something to punish and wear down its teammates, Spikes is one of the best ways to do this.

The original idea for a Spiker was Ferrothorn, but that became really awkward with the rest of the team, not really sure what it was about exactly anymore. Eventually I figured Mew could work despite not having a true Steel-type because specially defensive Mew is fine paired with Volcarona against Tapu Lele. God forbid it's Calm Mind Tapu Lele though.


Clefable is a very logical fit for the next slot. It compresses a Dark resist and Stealth Rock user. It's also just a generally good Pokemon against stuff like Mega Medicham, defensive Landorus-T, Slowbro, etc. and blocks Ferrothorn's Leech Seed to boot.


The matchup against Pokemon like Swords Dance Garchomp, Landorus-T, etc. is still really wacky with these 3 in place. Mega Latias is a good check to those Pokemon and is in general just a very deadly and threatening Pokemon when Spikes are up.


The last 2 Pokemon came together on the team pretty well. I knew I wanted a Pressure Pokemon for Defog, and Zapdos happened to be a great fit. Weavile still looked really annoying, so the fact that SubRoost Zapdos can force it to Triple Axel made Volcarona a very enticing Pokemon to use, especially because it resists Fairy and beats mono Moonblast CM Clefable. SubRoost Zapdos is also not a very truthful check to Mega Scizor and Kartana and Volcarona helps with that. Flame Body is so good for this.