Astral-Go-Brrr(age) (vgc2024 reg g) - P0k3m0n.3

After many iterations of team building in the regulation G format, I’ve settled on a hyper offensive team centered around a hare and its ominous steed, Calyrex Shadow-Rider. Turn one, tera ghost, Astral Barrage, next to Follow Me, Fake Out, or Helping Hand is the obvious threat every opponent must respect, but equally unsettling are a cast of self-sufficient supporting pieces capable of creating favorable board states for a horse in “da back”. Sharp explosive lines coupled with forgiving, and flexible leads makes this team exceptionally dangerous in the hands of a skilled player. So, without further ado, let’s get into the details!

Calyrex Shadow-Rider (Epownedya)

Power level over 9000

The glass canon, Calyrex Shadow-Rider, with its ultra speed and power, commands tremendous respect from opponents on lead. Calyrex is only naturally out-sped by Regieleki. An Astral Barrage, boosted by Tera-Ghost and Choice Specs, will kill all frail and unresisting Pokemon. Afforded by Grim Neigh, if such a mon is KO’ed, the lines to victory become stronger (likelier to result in a win) and sharper (the best moves are clearer). This pinches opponents into leading reactively (to get immediate board control or assume a defensive position via bulk, a defensive tera, or wide guard), thus predictably. Consider the example of opponents leading Incineroar into Calyrex as a “predictably defensive” response. Calyrex’s Tera-Ghost boosted Astral Barrage on turn one, followed by a Helping Hand-boosted Astral Barrage on turn two, will eliminate MOST Incineroars (our Incineroar takes a minimum of 95.5%-112.8% HP from this combo). And so, Incineroar next to a “mild” offensive threat is an invalid lead against Choice Specs Calyrex. On the other hand, Incineroar next to a strong offensive threat (one that can out-speed and OHKO Calyrex) is very threatening, particularly if the Incineroar itself can knock out Calyrex with Knock Off (4 attack Incineroar will not knock out this Calyrex), giving opponents options against Astral Barrage + Fake Out as well as Astral Barrage plus Follow Me. Thus, the key to playing Calyrex on this team is to leverage opponents pinched leads into streamlined, preferably aggressive, game plans with clear win conditions. We achieve this by choosing the precise supporting cast that enables that first Grim Neigh.

BUT WHY PROTECT?

The point of using Tera-Ghost Choice Specs Calyrex is to do as much damage as possible right out the gait. You don't need to set up Nasty Plot to be a monster, you are already there. The downside is that you are much more susceptible to pins and lack the ability to "stall" bad situations (Tailwind, Trick Room, pins, etc). Let's say you somehow find yourself in this position on lead. You called the wrong lead and now your Calyrex is a sitting duck. You either switch out your Calyrex or lose it. With Protect, you are guaranteed to stall one turn of that board before switching out. If positioned next to Incineroar, you can even Protect and side Roar and essentially reset your lead for free. I have won a fair number of games this way, but I have yet to recieve equal value from a "fourth" attacking move. If I did make the switch to have a fourth attacking move, I would consider Hyper Beam, Snarl, or Leaf Storm.

Mienshao (Ori)

"Support"

The offensive support, Mienshao, combines a disruptive toolkit and considerable offense to complement Calyrex. Fake Out neutralizes pieces that threaten Calyrex (mainly powerful Choice Scarf holders or Tailwind abusers), Feint breaks opposing Wide Guards, Wide Guard prevents opposing spread moves (most importantly Astral Barrage), and Close Combat hits opposing Normal types that are immune to Astral Barrage. Mienshao itself is also quite strong due the combination of many unique traits. First,194 attack is nothing to scoff at. Tera-Fighting Close Combat does 80-95 percent of most non-bulky restricted’s hit points and makes Mienshao deceptively potent in end game 1v1s (Fake Out into Close Combat into Feint). Second, Mienshao’s Fake Out is reliably faster than that of Rillaboom or Incineroar. This enables the very tricky pairings of Mienshao/Roaring Moon or Mienshao/Ogerpon-Wellspring. With the former, we can set Tailwind; with the latter, we can weaken threats with chip damage (Chi-Yu, Urshifu, Flutter Mane, etc). In either case, a potential switch in to Incineroar or Indeedee coupled with Close Combat becomes a huge threat. We can often get off three or even four Close Combats (potentially into the Normal and Dark types we expect our opponents to bring), before Calyrex even hits the field! Last, Mienshao’s ability, Inner Focus, allows for consistent damage and disruption even when opposing Fake Out users are under Tailwind. Much like Calyrex, these properties affect how opponents can lead and create very predictable scenarios.

Indeedee (Penny)

say "Pauses priority protects partner Pokemon" fast five times

The redirection and priority blocking support, Indeedee, protects partner Pokemon and breaks damage calculators with Helping Hand. It’s a reliably slow Terrain setter (although a min speed Rillaboom would technically under-speed it), making it fairly safe on lead. Indeedee enables Calyrex’s Expanding Force mode, often necessary into teams with Terapagos, Ursaluna, and/or Farigiraf. The key to using Indeedee is to know when to lean into the Expanding Force mode on lead verses having Indeedee in the back. Indeedee can execute a handful of skillful maneuvers that can get us out of a pickle. Resetting Terrain is sometimes essential, although switching out Indeedee never feels easy because of the tendency to preserve the health of other pieces on the team. Managing the potential anti-synergy between Psychic Terrain and Fake Out or Feint also takes some getting used to. It's not uncommon to bring both Indeedee and Mienshao to games and we often seek to use our opponent's Terrain to enable our own late game Fake Out/Feint. While Indeedee doesn't do much damage by itself, it has an incredible ability to wall and stall. Sometimes we will find ourself in a position where we need to pivot our our Calyrex and stall Trick Room or Tailwind or simply switch attacks. The combination of Indeedee's bulk and the move Protect can help us achieve this. In one of my favorite end games ever, Indeedee and Calyrex were facing down a full health Zamazenta. Our Calyrex was in range of being knocked out by Heavy Slam, and Indeedee, with 60% health, was taking around 40% from Heavy Slam. So what did I do? I clicked Follow Me with Indeedee and locked in Pollen Puff with Calyrex and targeted Indeedee. Every turn, I alternated between targeting Indeedee with Pollen Puff and Zamazenta with Pollen Puff until it was finally whittled down to 0 hit points. By doing this instead of clicking Astral Barrage, I avoided being walled by Wide Guard and Struggling due to running out of PP. Thanks Indeedee!

Ogerpon-Wellspring (Sad Gyal)

Mask on mask off

The redirection and sleep immune bruiser, Ogerpon-Wellspring, excels at soaking damage and trading positively into many of the attackers that Calyrex hates (Chi-yu, Ursaluna, Urshifu). After Calyrex, it is the biggest user of Tera on the team. It is great at dealing consistent neutral damage and can take advantage of opposing rain. Ogerpon is often essential into Flutter Mane + Chi-Yu leads as both an offensive and defensive threat. It is also pivotal for protecting partners against single target attackers alongside Indeedee.

Incineroar (Mr. Morale)

Roarrrrrr

The Swiss army knife, Incineroar, needs no introduction. However, this Incineroar wields the unique tech, Roar. There were many options for the fourth move (Will-O-Wisp, Taunt, Flare Blitz), but Roar was ultimately chosen for three reasons. First, Roar can dissuade or prevent Pokemon from using set up moves (Calm Mind, Nasty Plot, Trick Room, Minimize). Second, Roar can break delicate boards that require precisely positioned pieces (more common in the single restricted format). And finally, Roar can reposition Incineroar's partners after they've soaked damage with Protect. Side Roaring into our own protecting Calyrex has personally wiggled me out of otherwise game losing positions.

Roaring Moon (Azula)

Your feast is prepared my Queen

The board managing, Roaring Moon, provides bulk, speed control, and puts vAriaNCe iN Our fAVoR. It is, by far, the most difficult Pokemon to pilot, but can warp the pace of the battle and create completely novel win conditions. I bring Roaring Moon the least often (admittedly due to the laziness of not wanting to think in many games), but it has the highest win rate of any Pokemon on the team by a significant margin. Roaring Moon is tricky to use because it does many things very well, but not easily. For example, it has a very fast manual Tailwind, but it’s still slower than Flutter Mane’s Icy Wind. It has a very good utility move in Knock Off, but its attack isn’t quite high enough to get outright KOs. Also, It loses its speed boost when it switches out, so Tailwind won’t be as reliable if a switch out occurred. Rock Slide, while providing flinch chances, is relatively inaccurate and weak. So why is Roaring Moon on this team and what scenarios do we bring it out? Roaring moon is very good into balance teams and excels at walling many of the hyper offensive Pokemon that threaten Calyrex. It has a very similar role to Ogerpon in that it acts as a utility style bruiser, but its ability to also set up Tailwind after chipping things down gives it a very important niche. When the matchup looks impossible, Roaring Moon is often the answer. It makes convoluted game plans possible to execute.

Team Preview Examples

Top Calyrex Ice-Rider team at the 2024 NAIC piloted by Patrick Connors

This matchup looks heavily in our favor. There are no natural Normal types and Calyrex Ice-Rider is weak to Astral Barrage, so if the opponent Teras something other than Ice Rider, (like Rillaboom into Normal), it will die to one attack. Incineroar's Knock Off, Urshifu's Tera-Water Surging Strikes, and Raging Bolt's Draco Meteor all threaten to OHKO Calyrex. Unfortunately for this opponent, these are all single target attacks that can be redirected with Follow Me. Urshifu naturally outspeeds Calyrex, but it is susceptible to Fake Out. Opposing Fake Outs from Rillaboom or Incineroar are unreliable because Calyrex is a Ghost type, Mienshao cannot be flinched, and we have Indeedee. Finally, Wide Guard blocks Glacial Lance and our opponents Wide Guard can be penetrated with Feint. Given these, I would consider leading Calyrex and Mienshao with Indeedee and Incineroar in the back. This gives me Fake Out and attack options as well as Fake Out and switch options. One unsettling thing about this matchup is that our opponent has an incredible number of lead combinations which means we still need to play Pokemon to win this game rather than relying on specific lines.

Top Terapagos team at the 2024 NAIC piloted by Aurélien Soula

This is an extremely difficult matchup. Our opponent has both Normal and Dark types which means that if we lead Calyrex, we will most likely need to switch it out later. At least five Pokemon on the opposing team threaten to OHKO Calyrex (Dark Pulse from Terapagos, Shadow Ball From Flutter Mane, Snarl or Dark Pulse from Chi-Yu, Surging Strikes from Urshifu, and Foul Play from Grimmsnarl). Prankster Thunder Wave from Grimmsnarl is very annoying, but if we bring our Dark types to block this, we are weak to the two fighting types. Ogerpon is fairly strong into the special attackers, but becomes weak to Terapagos and Iron Hands if it Teras. Mienshao is quite strong but we have to be careful because it cannot hit Flutter Mane and Reflect from Grimmsnarl with make it much less effective. Indeedee is also a pretty nice wall into their team but threatens to be "dead weight" otherwise. I would probably lead Ogerpon and Mienshao, with Indeedee and Calyrex in the back. My hope would be to get rid of the Chi-yu so I can lock in to Expanding Force in the late game. I'd also consider leading Ogerpon and Roaring Moon with Mienshao and Calyrex in the back because there's a low chance I would get a lot of effectiveness out of Fake Out on turn one. Being able to Protect could also be useful to scout for opposing Fake Outs, choice locks, and Teras.

Top Calyrex Shadow-Rider team at the 2024 NAIC piloted by Eduardo Cunha

This is a very manageable mirror match that slightly favors us. Calyrex and Smeargle is annoying, but the lead of Incineroar and Ogerpon solve this by having sleep immunities, the threat of Tera-Water Ivy Cudgel form Ogerpon, and the ability to Roar Calyrex that tries to set up with Nasty Plot. I would have Indeedee and Calyrex in the back. Indeedee walls Calyrex and prevents the opposing priority moves (Fake Out, Grassy Glide, and Thunderclap). Follow Me is also very strong against their single target attackers. I would also consider Mienshao or Roaring Moon in the back over Indeedee as an adjustment depending on my opponent's preferences.

Top Koraidon team at the 2024 NAIC piloted by Juan Manuel Odriozola

This matchup slightly favors our opponent but is quite manageable. Flutter Mane and Chi-yu are the biggest threats because they can do significant spread damage to Calyrex. I would lead Ogerpon and Mienshao and hope to get off an Ivy Cudgel/Close Combat into the Chi-yu and a Wood Hammer into the Flutter Mane. The Chi-Yu needs to be taken care of before Calyrex comes on the field because of Snarl. Once Chi-Yu is gone, I'd want to position Calyrex next to one of the Follow Me users (Ogerpon if it's still alive or Indeedee which will be waiting in the back).

Top Kyogre team at the 2024 NAIC piloted by Shiliang Tang

This is a nightmare matchup that realistically requires our opponents to play much worse than us. The opponent has four dark types and screens are very annoying. Ogerpon has to come to this match because it hits everything incredibly hard with Ivy Cudgel in rain. If Kyogre Teras into Grass to resist Wood Hammer, then I can hit Wo-Chien with Calyrex's Pollen Puff. Thunder Wave from Grimmsnarl would be annoying, but I'm not sure it's worth bringing Indeedee to prevent it (I would consider this has a game two adjustment). Instead I might bring Roaring Moon for it's immunity to Prankster and resistance to Water moves. Mienshao also looks great here, particularly as a lead alongside Ogerpon. Nothing stops our Fake Out and Close Combat does significant damage to all of the opposing Pokemon. And finally I would bring Calyrex. Astral Barrage, while much less effective into our opponents team, will still do a lot of damage (especially after boosted by Grim Neigh). Pollen Puff is also interesting because it threatens a lot of damage into Wo-Chien.

Top Miraidon team at the 2024 NAIC

This is an explosive matchup that will require reads to win. From my experience, opponents never bring Urshifu and additionally drop one of Iron hands or Farigiraf. We will lead Indeedee for immediate Terrain control and Calyrex to punish them in case they didn't lead Chi-yu. If they lead Whimsicott and Miraidon, we click Helping Hand and Expanding Force. If they Tailwind and Volt Switch into anything other than Chi-Yu, we gain a lot of momentum. If they Volt Switch into Chi-Yu, then we can Dazzling Gleam with Indeedee and swap out Calyrex. In the back we can bring Incineroar (to Intimidate the Iron Hands and Knock Off a potential Choice Scarf on the Chi-Yu) and Mienshao (for it's Focus Sash). Another annoying lead for us would be Farigiraf and Chi-Yu. In that scenario, we would have to switch out the Calyrex into Incineroar and Dazzling Gleam with Indeedee. We also need to be prepared for a Farigiraf + Iron Hands lead. In that case, we'd have to make the call between Follow Me + Expanding Force (targeting the Iron Hands slot in anticipation of a Miraidon switch), Helping Hand + Tera-Ghost Expanding Force (to avoid being OHKO'd by Foul Play), and Helping Hand + Tera-Ghost Astral Barrage (in anticipation of a Chi-Yu switch in, the most unlikely play).

Top Zamazenta team at the 2024 NAIC piloted by Michael Zhang

This is another 50/50 matchup that will require us to actually play Pokemon. The obvious threats are Wide Guard from Zamazenta, Shadow Ball from Flutter Mane, and the Dark types. Tyrannitar's sand is annoying because it invalidates Mienshao's Focus Sash. Incineroar is very interesting because we can use Roar to eliminate Flutter Mane's speed boost or Zamazenta's defense boost. Ogerpon is interesting because it hits four of the opponents Pokemon for strong neutral damage. Roaring Moon may be important for speed control and can be a great defensive pivot against the Dark types (and Rillaboom), but it's weak to Body Press, Moonblast, and Draco Meteor. Given all of this, I would consider leading Incineroar and Ogerpon with Calyrex and Mienshao in the back. This gives me both offensive and defensive options on turn one. With Incineroar, I can Fake Out, I can threatened Fake Out and instead Roar to reset stat changes or Parting Shot to Pivot into another Fake Out, or I can Knock Off immediately. With Ogerpon, I can threaten immediate damage (and depending on the lead I might Tera it immediately for the special defense boost.

Overall Impression

This team was extremely strong in early regulation G but is sadly outdated. After many strong recent performances from Calyrex Shadow-Rider at major tournaments, players have started to add many counters making it much more difficult to cut through teams with Astral Barrage. Calyrex itself is still amazing, but the Tera-Ghost Choice Specs variant is less reliable. Teams that have both Normal and Dark types make it harder to stay on the field and click the same button, and an increase in Grimmsnarl usage dampens our ability to pick up that first Grim Neigh boost. That being said, this team still punishes opponents that don't respect to Calyrex Shadow-Rider. When players start to drop Calyrex-countering Pokemon or techs, this team will rise again. Until them, I will be making a few changes to the team so it is up to date against the current field!

Don't get me wrong, this team is still useable and capable of reaching top 100 on ladder, it's just that the effort of perfect play is much greater than the effort of making tweaks. We strive to make teams that carry us, not the other way around!

Pros

• blows through weaker opponents

• many easy matchups

• great in best of one and best of three

• very high ceiling
  

Cons

• outdated

• easy to “counter-team”

• little room for error

• some extremely difficult matchups

• requires a lot of knowledge (especially in hard matchups)

Otherwise if you are looking to get to Master Ball tier in record time or level up a Showdown account as quickly as possible, this is the team to use! Doing tons of damage is super fun and I enjoyed not being the last person to finish rounds at the locals.

Cheers!

-R

Bonus! Showdown Replays

Terapagos

Miraidon

Koraidon

Calyrex Shadow-Rider

Calyrex Ice-Rider

Zamazenta

BONUS! Old version of the team vs Muk/Smeargle