Hey everyone! Here's the team I used to place second at the very first Pokemon Champions Regional, featuring Mega Steelix: https://pokepast.es/826e605b9a9b1b0d
The team began with Mega Steelix - I was looking for an offensive Ground type Pokemon when I came across Steelix. I'd used it before and knew that it had a lot of undervalued strengths, and I thought it could be good in this format specifically for a few reasons:
-There are TONS of Physical attackers, and Mega Steelix has the highest base defense in the game
-The two best steel type Pokemon (Archaludon and Kingambit) don't actually resist Fairy moves. A steel type Pokemon that can OHKO Floette after Intimidate and actually resists Fairy seems valuable
-Many of the special attackers in the format match up poorly into Steelix - Sylveon, Floette, and Archaludon all have a major disadvantage against it, but even Pelipper completely loses once you overwrite Rain with Sand.
For context, Steelix is almost unthinkably bulky on the Physical side. Super effective moves like Garchomp Earthquake and Kingambit Low Kick cannot KO it in two hits. Max attack Adaptability Adamant Mystic Water Basculegion Wave Crash doesn't even KO 20% of the time.
I didn't want to use a standard Meta team for the first Champions event, and so I decided to give Steelix a shot. I was overall impressed with it - while it isn't good in every matchup and is overall difficult to pilot, it's also a Pokemon that can really lock up games when positioned correctly. I knew I wanted Protect, Heavy Slam (which is 120 BP with no drawback on a majority of the field) and High Horsepower (which is its strongest Ground type move), and for the last move I chose Wide Guard to give it utility outside of Trick Room. Wide Guard + Sand actually allows you to hard wall Sun attackers that use Heat Wave/Weather Ball/Solarbeam. I was asked a few times why I didn't use Body Press but the truth is that an 80 BP move without STAB isn't as strong as you'd expect and also most things you'd Body Press you'd rather just High Horsepower. Sturdy is by far its best ability in base, giving it utility outside of its Mega form. The EV spread is simple - maxing HP gives it the most overall bulk and maxing attack raises its damage. I went with a Brave Nature as I figured I'd never outspeed anything outside of Trick Room anyway and inside Trick Room you speed tie Pokemon like Galarian Slowking
The most obvious next Pokemon for the team is Tyranitar. These were the only two Pokemon I was certain would be on the final squad, because in order to access Steelix's full power you need Sand. Sand Force (the ability of Mega Steelix) gives its rock, ground, and steel type moves a 30% damage boost while sand is active. This is the equivalent of Life Orb but without the drawback. The question with Tyranitar though is: which item and which set?
I eventually realized that Mega Tyranitar was an exceptional partner for Steelix. This is because Tyranitar is totally fine playing without its item - while Chople Berry and Focus Sash can be nice at times, they aren't mandatory. It's worth noting that this calculus was made easier by the lack of items in M-A - had Assault Vest been present in the game, the opportunity cost of choosing to run no item would be much higher. However, with the limited item pool I didn't feel I was losing too much power. It helps that Tyranitar is a good Pokemon even when it doesn't Mega Evolve. With the Mega Stone though Tyranitar is exceptional against Charizard-Y teams who Steelix struggles with.
With the item secured, I needed to figure out the set. I'd been messing around with Dragon Dance Mega Tyranitar before starting this team - it's the set I used to get second place at Regionals with in 2012 (with another sand force ground type in Landorus-i no less) and to win US Nationals in 2012 as well. I also won Charlotte Regionals with it in 2018 and have used it many times over the years. Personally, it's my favorite Tyranitar set, and I found it to be very effective against Charizard-Y as you can Mega Evolve safely on the first turn ensuring they don't get Sun up while you Dragon Dance, and now you outspeed and threaten with Rock Slide.
Protect, Dragon Dance, and Rock Slide are all givens - the question was the last move. I initially had Crunch but in the end settled on Knock Off. Knock Off has utility in that it can remove items and is stronger vs an opponent with a held item, but is worse vs opposing Mega Pokemon and Pokemon without items. In testing the downsides of Knock Off never cost me games, and the same held true in the tournament. The power upside is also noticeable, especially against Garchomp where you can KO them at +1 after some chip.
The spread is straightforward here - max speed Jolly allows you to outspeed Aerodactyl and Mega Gengar after a Dragon Dance (in mega form), and you need all the attack you can get in my experience. Tyranitar is also made to feel bulkier due to support from the other Pokemon on this team.
Speaking of, the third Pokemon that I knew I wanted on the team from the beginning is Sinistcha. Sinistcha provides some extremely valuable support for the team - most obviously through healing its partners with Hospitality. The initial theory is that Steelix is so physically bulky that it's hard to remove quickly, and being able to heal it prevents your opponent from whittling it down. Sinistchas typing is also amazing here - it's immune to Fighting which both Steelix and Tyranitar are weak to and resists the Water and Ground moves they're weak to as well. Sinistcha can set Trick Room up, which allows Steelix to reach its full potential, and it can support Tyranitar with Rage Powder, saving it from dangerous Fighting moves especially. Matcha Gatcha is a completely unbalanced move with a 20% burn chance on both your opponents Pokemon - dealing with Steelix with a burned Physical Attacker is borderline impossible.
The EV spread is intuitive - max HP, enough defense to get the nature bump, the rest put into special defense. This spread gives it good odds of surviving Mega Charizard-Y heat wave in Sand or Light Screen as well as Dark Pulse from Mega Blastoise while still maintaining good Physical bulk.
I considered using Life Dew instead of Protect which would allow me to heal my Pokemon without switching in and out, but in the end I thought that Sinistcha without Protect is too abusable and that I'd rather keep Sinistcha alive for longer in bad spots than be able to heal more in good spots.
I went with Sitrus Berry for my item. The other consideration on this team would be Kasib Berry, as the matchup against Basculegion is a bit suspect and being able to consistently survive would be nice since I don't currently live Last Respects after 1 Knock Out, but in reviewing my replays I felt that Sinistcha staying alive was extremely important for it to continue supporting the team and so I chose Sitrus Berry to maximize its staying power.
At this point, I got stuck. I tried many Pokemon to advance the team and nothing felt good. I was convinced Kommo-o was the correct 4th Pokemon but it was just too vulnerable against Fairy types. Eventually, I dropped Kommo-o and realized I needed another Fighting type Pokemon instead.
Sneasler was the 4th Pokemon added and ended up being mandatory for the team to work - although this specific Sneasler is a bit unusual. Even though Sneasler is often used as an offensive Pokemon, this spread focuses entirely on its bulk and speed. It's trained to outspeed every Adamant Sneasler while surviving Aerodactyl Dual Wingbeat and Jolly Garchomp Earthquake - though it has a 69% chance to survive Adamant Earthquake too.
This is by far my favorite Sneasler set I've used - the general theory is that since everyone is training their Pokemon to survive Sneasler anyway, you can afford to drop the attack - and the extra bulk means more chances to Dire Claw, Fake Out, and Close Combat. Unburden with White Herb is the standard set for a reason, protecting Sneasler from Intimidate and the defense drops of Close Combat one time and doubling its speed in the process.
Initially I had Coaching over Fake Out on Sneasler, but I found it to be pretty inconsistent. Fake Out is especially nice with the Dragon Dance Tyranitar mode as well as to reposition generally or set up Light Screen with Rotom or Swords Dance with Talonflame. Protect is mandatory on this Sneasler in my opinion, I don't think I could afford to run both Coaching and Fake Out.
The 5th member of the team is Rotom-Wash. I actually had it on earlier versions with the Choice Scarf but found it to be underwhelming. Rotom was really incredible on this team and arguably the MVP overall. It matches up extremely well into many of the common threats of Sneasler, Kingambit, Basculegion and Garchomp just to name a few, not to mention other Sand teams. It does this with Will-O-Wisp and its good defensive typing - these Pokemon become much worse once burnt.
Rotom and Tyranitar pair surprisingly well together as Tyranitar is able to overwrite the sand against Charizard who threatens Rotom with Solarbeam and weakens its water moves with sun. If you're using Rotom-Wash you need Hydro Pump as your other coverage options aren't great, and despite the lower accuracy than I'm normally comfortable with I feel it was the right option here - I rarely ended up in spots where I needed to hit a Hydro Pump to win. For the last move I went with Light Screen. This is because against certain Charizard-Y teams (like ones that would lead Whimsicott and Glimmora) I felt that Light Screen would allow Dragon Dance Tyranitar to completely run away with the game with support from Sinistcha and Sneasler. It's also nice against Charizard-Y as you're able to lead Tyranitar with Rotom and go for a safe mega evolution and light screen play to ensure you don't get hit with Solarbeam.
Rotom-Wash helps a lot with some of the more niche matchups that cause the team trouble such as Mega Blastoise and Corviknight. It's also the strongest special attacker I have which is not a good thing as it has 0 special attack investment - whoops! Will-O-Wisp damage is often instrumental in the truly abysmal matchups (such as iron defense kommo-o) as you can use burn and sand to chip down Pokemon over time and you can use Knock Off to remove their leftovers or other healing items. This strategy can also be used against Archaludon in a pinch.
Rotom is trained to outspeed modest Pelipper, with max HP, the defense nature bump and the rest in special defense. I felt like overall the spread was good, I wouldn't change it if I could go back and do it again.
At this point I knew the team had some pretty major weaknesses, and I also knew I didn't have time to fix all of them perfectly. In the end I decided to focus on three main threats causing me trouble: the Incineroar/Sinistcha combo, Kommo-o, and Mega Venusaur. I also think the team has some weaknesses against Mega Gengar, Corviknight, and frankly many other Pokemon but I felt like if I did not have an explicit answer for the Pokemon above I'd lose to them with certainty.
The obvious thread here is that all these Pokemon are weak to Flying moves, but the issue is that the special flying type Pokemon have to either rely on Hurricane which will miss or Air Slash which is too weak, and the physical flying types struggle against Intimidate Incineroar or boosted defense from Kommo-o.
And that's when I considered Talonflame with Swords Dance. The general idea is that this team actually doesn't need Tailwind so you have a moveslot open, and against Incineroar and Sinistcha they actually aren't able to stop you from setting up. Talonflame can't be burned my Matcha Gatcha and resists it with both its types, and it outpaces Incineroars Intimidates with Swords Dance.
I wasn't confident the idea would work but in practice it held up - it's definitely a band-aid but it's an effective one. Talonflame having priority can be nice against faster threats or inside Trick Room too. There's obvious anti-synergy between Talonflame and Tyranitar as the sand causes you to lose your gale wings, but since my Talonflame is so fast (and mostly comes against Pokemon it's already faster then anyway) this wasn't such a big deal. I actually won a very difficult matchup by setting Swords Dance up, using Sand to break my own gale wings against Farigiraf, and then switching Sinistcha in when the opponent had switched Farigiraf to Scarf Garchomp to heal back to full HP, regain gale wings, and KO the Mega Venusaur before the Rock Slide KOd me.
The set wasn't super obvious to me, but I eventually decided to go with Sharp Beak and Brave Bird for my Flying move. I considered no item + acrobatics but after mulling it over I felt like if I was bringing Talonflame I needed it to take KOs, and so maximizing damage was the best way. After a Swords Dance Brave Bird KOs Garchomp without bulk and every reasonable Floette, even bulky ones. I decided to use Flare Blitz as my last move, and it won me a crucial set when it KOd a Mega Froslass at +1.
Talonflame is trained to be two points faster than max speed Sneasler, speed creeping any Pokemon exactly 1 point faster (which came up in practice against Mega Gengar). I gave it 6 points of HP to put it 1 below taking an additional point of sand damage, and put the rest in attack. Talonflame survived multiple times in the tournament with less than 6 HP, so this bulk was definitely worth it.
Overall I would say this is one of the most difficult teams to play I've used in as long as I can remember. I felt I had to work extremely hard to get my wins, and I never had any easy sets. I think getting second place was honestly extremely fortunate - if you play this tournament again I wouldn't be shocked if I didn't make day 2. That being said, I had a lot of experience with this team and felt like my odds with it were better than if I tried to build a new "better" team with less practice. While this team is flawed, it's flawed in a way I understand - and I think ultimately this is what allowed me to succeed. If you try this team and it doesn't feel good for you though, just know it often didn't feel good for me either!
Hope you enjoyed the games - I am pleased to say that with this performance I have qualified for the 2026 Pokemon World Championships - all thanks to Mega Steelix.