This group of nerds got me back to Master Ball here in Series 1 Season 2, and while I definitely want to make some tweaks (and maybe replace a mon) I'm really happy with the core concepts. Let's do the breakdown:
Coalossal
The whole point of this team - enabling Steam Enigne, while the original idea behind the team, is shockingly not always the core strategy! I can proc it myself with Palafin (with tera, Coalossal only takes ~10% from Zero Form Flip Turn), but more often, I'm either switching her in at the right time to get that speedboost, or just using her as a slow-but-bulky special attacker. Of note, she's not quite max speed - I invested exactly enough that if steam engine's procced, she'll outspeed max speed Lilligant in the sun, since After You Torkoal was something I was worried about. She's still surprisingly fast under Tailwind even without the speedboost, a fact that's probably shocked multiple opponents (and occasionally me lol). One of my favorite things to do is to lead her into rain teams, and watch as my opponent immediately falls for the bait as I tera. Moveset-wise, it's fairly basic for a special set - I do wanna teach her Tera Blast to really punish water types but I'm not 100% sure which move to cut for it.
Palafin
The other half of the initial team concept, it's just the most basic Palafin set - I'm too much of a coward to often bring her in the back, but the coverage that she offers means that she's a really strong pick a lot of the time. Assault Vest is there because I knew I wanted all 4 moves and I really didn't necessarily want to give her a Choice Band (and the Cheeseman has the Orb) since I was looking at her for side-hitting into Coalossal. Since that's way less common in practice.... well, I might adjust there. We'll see.
Murkrow
CAW CAW I'M THE META-DEFINING BIRD. Yes, haze on a team that has Steam Engine Coalossal seems weird, but like.... again, Steam Engine comes up way less frequently than I expected. Other than that, it's just a fairly basic bird.... Foul Play does work into Garchomp / Meowscarada among other physical attackers (and even to un-tera'd Gholdengo), even when they resist - so I usually don't feel like the crow is 'stuck' on the field after it gets the Tailwind up. (Hazing away Nasty Plot / Quiver Dance / Sword Dance at +1 prio after the opponent tries to set up is always hilarious)
Meowscarda
Again, another fairly common set for a fairly common Pokemon in the format. She's fast, she'll explode flowers in your face, and as long as there isn't a prio move, she'll explode flowers even harder with Sash and Overgrow. There's room to iterate but her role is to go fast and punch hard, and she's good at it
Sylveon
I know Tera Water Sylveon is picking up, but look. I don't have the shards. Again, if you're following the format, this set is super common - QA is some nice priority (even if she's got no attack stat to speak of), Tera Blast is 85% as strong as moonblast, but changes type when you tera, and Hyper Voice is just one of the best moves in the format, especially with the Throat Spray.
Gholdengo
This is literally the same String Cheese Mascot from my prior team, I needed a sixth.... and it really shows that they were added without much thought. Still really strong, but doesn't quite provide the extra space and coverage that the team might need. Again, this is just a fairly basic Life Orb + Nasty Plot Set
Leads
Murkrow + Anyone is always really strong, but my personal favorite is Murkrow + Palafin, with really any two Pokemon in the back. Palafin is just a strong lead in general, as you're able to react and pivot in response to your opponent's leads. Coalossal is always a fun lead into Rain teams (they /never/ see the tera grass coming, somehow) but this team is really flexible and there's a lot of good options for loadouts.
Notes
As mentioned, I do have some changes I know I wanna make:
- Coalossal /really/ wants Tera Blast, but I need to decide what I need to cut. The other consideration is that giving her Tera Blast means she's more dependent on being my Tera-user - right now there's a lot of neat plays I'm able to do without teraing into teams where Grass is more of a liability (snow teams, for instance).
- I need to replace Protect with Detect on Sylveon; I got imprisoned once and it sucked. There's also interesting agruments to be made about moving off Tera Fire, especially with Coalossal already on the team.
- Meowscarada - More Coverage? Sucker Punch isn't that exciting.... until it's wildly important against Trick Room teams. If I do pick up a third attacking type, Protean is probably worth it at that point.
- Palafin - Might wind up with Life Orb (see Gholdengo's comments) but no real notes
- Murkrow - literally a perfect, sinless child
- Gholdengo - Feels out of place on the team. They've got strong power, but I'm not lacking for that. I think I want to replace them with a more defensive pokemon, but I'm not 100% sure what I'd go for. The big mon that's been giving me trouble is Annihilape - Rage Fist fires in spurts, and if he shots ya, you're gonna get OHKO'd without a lot of recourse. So I'll need to explore counter-play..... Or not since next month we have paradox mons in the format so there's the balance between spending time doing big iterations here or focusing on crafting a team for next format. Choices, choices!
