Hey all! Here's the team I used to get Top 32 this weekend at Houston Regionals, featuring a very powerful Gouging Fire! I won't have the time to make a video on this team, but wanted to share it with you all nonetheless. Full disclosure, I had almost no time to build or practice with this team - it was one of the least prepared tournaments I've had in a long time, as I had to prioritize getting other work done ahead of Champions. I built the team over the course of two days and then put it down to not touch it until the tournament, so it could likely be refined further.
Paste: https://pokepast.es/d9f9787245373c73
Torkoal: The MVP of this team, I was thinking about how it would be really nice to use Torkoal due to its positive matchup against Trick Room and Weather teams, but how difficult it is to make Eruption Torkoal work. I then thought about how Ting-Lu + Dondozo was a combination with Yawn + Sand Tomb, and decided to try it with Torkoal. Ting-Lu left due to the duos poor matchup against Landorus, but Yawn Torkoal stayed. It's here to disrupt opponents with Yawn and power up my three protosynthesis Pokemon. Trained to be as bulky as possible as it's mostly here as a supporter rather than a damage dealer.
Gouging Fire: The damage output from this Pokemon in the sun is absurd. With Helping Hand and a Tera you can one hit KO Incineroar and Terastalized Ogerpon. With all the multipliers available you actually can pretty much ignore the type chart, so I opted for Flare Blitz instead of Dragon Claw for better damage into Farigiraf and Raging Bolt. Dragon Dance is a great option when your opponent is out of position. Trained to be as fast and as strong as possible, I went with a Jolly Nature because my team didn't have a lot of speed control and outspeeding Pokemon like Landorus-I could have a major impact.
Raging Bolt: I realized that Grassy Seed Calm Mind Raging Bolt would be a huge pain to get rid of, as often times players use Incineroars knock off for good damage and to reduce the healing. With Grassy Seed Raging Bolt looked very strong against teams like Chien-Pao/Dragonite, Trick Room, and Rain to name a few. With Protosynthesis and Helping Hand you don't even need to set up but can instead just start attacking if you want. Tera Fairy was a great defensive tera that helped with Urshifu-Dark and Regidrago. Trained to outspeed most Assault Vest Raging Bolt, maxed out HP, rest in Special Attack.
Rillaboom: Standard set, trained to be one point faster than Raging Bolt so I could scout to see if I'd be faster with either Pokemon. A crucial defensive backbone, the Assault Vest let me reposition easier. Decided to use High Horsepower instead of U-turn as I felt like this team didn't need to switch as often and because I felt like the coverage was important for key threats, especially given ground is super effective against all the types that resist fairy. Water tera was chosen as a good defensive tera - fire is more standard but given I already had two fire types I didn't want more.
Landorus-I: I was really weak to opposing Landorus, so I decided to add Imprison Landorus. The least used Pokemon on the team, was still important in key matchups. Imprison locking down Protect can be really nice. Because I was Imprison I decided to use a Timid nature, as outspeeding other Landorus was crucial, and I simply ran maxed out speed and special attack. I needed a rock resistance so I chose Steel tera here, as I didn't think the extra damage from Poison Tera was worth it.
Flutter Mane: Max speed max special attack choice specs Flutter Mane. It's actually unusual nowadays to run 0 bulk but I wanted to be as fast as possible due to the sun giving me a speed boost. This Flutter Mane outspeeds Landorus-i inside tailwind as long as they don't have a speed boosting nature, plus I can always count on outspeeding other Flutter Mane. I chose power gem as my last move as fire type Pokemon were actually a little annoying for the team, and I thought the extra coverage could help.
Replays I think are funny:
1) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9vgc2026regfbo3-2558453149-vq15xdro9ecpkbhcxr00p7q2c60rx41pw
2) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9vgc2026regfbo3-2559205305-igukednl2o8nd60vb2q0n0wnwij9cagpw
3) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9vgc2026regfbo3-2558292913-iyk4fu257jf0a7866dv5cv1eacqiv40pw