Team Builder

Mega Lucario is the star of the show, his power on the field is what makes this strategy possible. He's like the oncoming storm, destroying our enemies by fire and maneuver.

The EV spreads are specifically designed to allow this. 172 speed makes us faster than every Zard Y, basically every fairy type, every Kingambit, every Archaludon, and so much more. There are a fair few meta threats that outspeed us, but more on that later. The "mixed attacker" spread is what makes this favorable matchup into fairy types possible, our only physical damage is meteor mash and basically everything else is taken care of by special damage.

Base Lucario has the Inner Focus ability, which comes up fairly often and even makes delaying mega evolution a viable strategy sometimes

Aura Sphere and Meteor Mash are pretty standard, so lets talk about Terrain Pulse. The reason its there is to OHKO Zard Y and the only other option for that is Stone Edge which feels like it never hits due to its 80% accuracy. I was not content to have my favorite 'mons viability be reduced to a coin flip, so I sought out alternative methods. Terrain pulse becomes a 100 BP move when inside a terrain and typically receives a 30% boost in power in that terrain, otherwise its a 50 BP normal type move. So what now? Electric Terrain, it lasts for 5 turns. 5 precious turns where you can reliably threaten Zard Y. Once I realized that I had to find a way to make it work, hence the terrain team you see now.

Protect is just beautiful. Theres a build with this same EV spread for Lucario that runs 4 attacking moves and includes Bone Rush, but no protect, and the natural consequence is that you end up going one for one if youre lucky. However, with the addition of Terrain Pulse we get a couple more coverages out of 1 move to say nothing of terrain benefits. Add in the fact that Lucario can, from time to time, survive exactly 1 attack and protect allows us some decent staying power to maximize Lucarios sweeping power.

Whimsicott is one of the two dedicated support pokemon on the team. Honestly, I hate this mon. Truly I do. But I lose to it enough that Ive decided "if you cant beat em, join em" applies in this instance. It helps that prankster is one of the best abilities ever, and its typing is really good into some of our weaker matchups.

The EV spreads are basic, max speed, max sp. atk, focus sash. We have Moonblast to keep from being locked out of the game by Taunt, and 3 support moves with no protect.

Grassy Terrain replaces protect for exactly 2 reasons: 1.) It halves earthquake damage. 2.) It makes terrain pulse a grass type which is good into Mega Swampert. The passive healing is also decent but its not really a focus

Tailwind is there for obvious speed control reasons

Encore is one that I cant envision Whimsicott going without, its such a power addition against other support pokemon to include trick room teams and even just a random protect. It wont win a game by itself, but it will create and advantage.

Rotom-Wash is the second dedicated support pokemon on the team. Its a but unorthodox and doesnt actually use a water type move, but Hydro Pump isnt what makes Wash interesting to me, its the typing. It has exactly one weakness: grass type moves. Now those are around here and there, but this Was is running a super bulky EV spread so its not gonna go down to a single grass type move, hence the support role.

Ive written a little about the Electric Terrain enabling Lucario to OHKO Zard Y, this is the terrain setter. Its slower than Lucario, which is not how I originally envisioned terrain pulse working, but if its not slower then Rotom will be frail as a sickly medieval child and probably go down after one or two hits which is not ideal. Hence the bulk. Additionally, it functions on its own without being a "terrain bot" because of its other two supporting moves.

Thunder Wave and Will-o-Wisp together seems counter intuitive, however, Rotom Wash is here mostly for two matchups: Sun and Rain. Its typing makes it really strong into both of the main Megas for those strategies, but Will-o-Wisp cant burn Charizard and Thunder Wave cant paralyze Swampert. Heres the thing, I dont want to burn Zard Y, I want to slow it down. I also dont want to slow down Mega Swampert, I want to make it weaker. So I included both moves, frankly, Im not sure if thats optimal or not but I have a feeling its good.

Volt Switch instead of protect because were so bulky that I dont feel bad letting Rotom take a couple hits, additionally, a slow switching move is really nice for positioning Mega Lucario or our other sweeper without fear of major damage.

Farigiraf is here because of Sneasler. This team really doesnt do well into that mon because its got the fastest fake out in the game, hence Armor Tail. But even more than that, Hyper Voice and Psychic give decent chip damage which often closes the gap between my pokemons stronger attacks and an enemy 'mons defenses.

We give Farigiraf a defensive EV spread with a Sp. Atk boosting nature to make the Trick Room mode possible, and the inclusion of helping hand is for redundancy since there are times we need a neutral damaging move to do more than it should.

This Incineroar is somewhat unique, given the EV spread and the inclusion of Helping Hand over a dark type move. But consider that he is the second of our two "hybrid" type pokemon. Where Farigiraf comes with a form of speed control, Incin brings Fake Out and a positioning tool in the form of Parting Shot. Just like with Rotoms Volt Switch we like having the slower switching move for the sake of keeping our sweepers out of harms way until the time is right.

I chose Flare Blitz for Incineroars damaging move mostly for its raw damage output, after some damage calculating I found out 26 points into Atk plus the Adamant nature reliably one shots Venusaur and does about 80% to Mega Froslass through Aurora Veil in the snow. 20 points in both defense stats give it some bulk to fall back on and Helping Hand lets it be useful against 'mons thst resist fire.

Mimikyu is here as our secondary sweeper, and its the typing that really stuck out to me. Fairy typing counters one of Lucarios biggest weaknesses: Garchomp. Additionally, the Disguise ability gives it a one-time get out of jail free card against Earthquake. Couple that with a super powerful, life orb boosted Play Rough and Garchomp wont be around for long.

Shadow Sneak is most there for the ghost/psychic matchups, after a swords dance or coupled with a bit of chip damage most 'mons are going down to super effective damage

Generally, Mimikyu is clicking Swords Dance turn 1. It super charges its damage output and makes it a Kill on Sight kind of threat, particularly for Mega Staraptor and the dragon types scattered throughout the format.

Protect is here to preserve the disguise, for the same reason that its good on Lucario it works here. Mimikyu already has decent staying power with good typing and the disguise ability, but a well timed protect makes all the difference.

Noteably, Mimikyus speed lets it work in both Trick Room and Tailwind. Even despite its ghost type priority move ignoring speed order, Play Rough is also quite powerful and has to obey the speed which is what makes this speed stat relevant.