Mega Latias

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.

Mega Latias was the initial idea of the build, as I had gotten a bit tired of building fast paced offenses and wanted to try some bulkier stuff, and CM Mega Latias was a Pokemon I always found very fun if you played it right. I chose the Sub + SPower set since with Weavile so popular, feel Substitute forcing Triple Axel alongside a Rocky Helmet Pokemon would be really really fun, alongside potentially Hazard Stack letting me quickly wear down Weavile so Mega Latias could win.

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With the idea ingrained in my head of HStack + Helmet + Sub Mega Latias, I immediately jumped to Ferrothorn since that's a Pokemon which I thought was incredible in the current metagame, and after seeing a lot of Ferrothorn + Mega Latias builds in both NDPL and old SM replays, I was convinced to use it over the obvious other contender in Skarmory. Initially I had used a Rocky Helmet on it to go with my initial idea, but as ill detail later on I eventually swapped it to Leftovers and moved the Helmet to a different Pokemon.

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Clefable was a quick pick for the next slot, it let me slot in Stealth Rocks, a secondary Win Condition, as well as a Dark Resist to help with the likes of Ash Greninja, Weavile, and Hydreigon. I’ve always been a big Clefable advocate, and know how dumb its Calm Mind sets can be, but after playing around with the CM Rocks set for a bit, I realised in meta where Corv is uncommon, and so many Steel types like Mega Scizor, Melmetal, and Heatran so popular, not being able to punish them is horrible. I then decided to make Clefable Rocky Helmet instead as with Clef having actual consistent recovery, it could abuse the Helmet better, as well as opt for Thunder Wave over Stealth Rocks where I got inspiration from a common ORAS Clefable set which seemed demonic.

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Okay, here came the issue of both slotting Stealth Rocks, having some Volcarona and Serperior counterplay, and having a way to pressure Mega Mawile and Ferrothorn comfortably. Heatran was the fairly obvious answer here, and I just opted for a relatively standard SpDef set with Toxic to deal with Volc, and put a timer on Mega Charizard Y, which is a major threat since they are almost always paired with Weavile.

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At this point I realised breaking Toxapex would be annoying since I was SPower MTias, and the likes of CM Tapu Fini, offensive Grounds such as SD Gliscor and Garchomp would be hard to break through. Rotom-W was a choice suggested by a friend, and not something I would think to use on a balance build like this. My skepticism quickly faded as I found out how useful this Pokemon was in battle. Pain Split was a tremendous asset against a lot of teams, and the defensive utility it in itself brought was extremely useful in tight situations.

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Ah yes, I forgot the number one thing all ND teams should have (for the most part). A Ground type. The team also felt quite slow, and with MTias being SubSPower, it meant SD Kartana and the Offensive Grounds were annoying. Scarf Lando T was the clear choice here, filling in all the holes I needed, and completed the team :).