[Competitive] All-Psychic Team for Competitive Battling

Hello to everyone!

I just want to solicit advice from anyone regarding this Battle Team I built for Double Battles (advice on move set, held item, nature, etc). So far, I have already finished 10 battles (Ranked Battles) using this team, with 8 wins and 2 losses. This is also the team that raised my rank from 5 (Poke Ball Tier) to 7 (Great Ball Tier), but I think it needs some polishing. Preserving my loyalty to Psychic types has always been my priority since Gen IV games, so including a non-Psychic type is not an option for me.

1. Meowstic (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: No
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Nature: Calm
- Trick Room
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Helping Hand

2. Gigantamax Hatterene (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Healer
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def
Nature: Quiet
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam

3. Galarian Slowbro (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Quick Draw
Shiny: No
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def
Nature: Quiet
- Fire Blast
- Shell Side Arm
- Psychic
- Hydro Pump

4. Gallade (M) @ Quick Claw
Ability: Justified
Shiny: No
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Nature: Adamant
- Stone Edge
- Leaf Blade
- Psycho Cut
- Close Combat

5. Indeedee (F) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Psychic Surge
Shiny: No
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def
Nature: Modest
- Mystical Fire
- Expanding Force
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball

6. Rapidash (F) @ Bright Powder
Ability: Pastel Veil
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spd
Nature: Adamant
- High Horsepower
- Megahorn
- Psycho Cut
- Play Rough

Update: I reached Rank 8 just now.

Hocus_Pokemon said:

ping

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The team looks interesting (and monotype - neat)! What are your strategies here, and your reasoning for the moves and held items (i. e. what does each Pokémon do)? Are there any opponents you do especially badly against? Which Pokémon do you take to battles most often, and which least? If we knew that, it'd be much easier to help you out.

I must ask: why is your Rapidash trained in Special Attack and has an Attack-lowering, Special Attack-boosting Modest nature when you use physical moves on her? That setup just makes her bad at physical attacking, which seems to be her job on your team. I suggest giving her an Adamant mint to have her Attack be boosted instead, and retraining her EVs to give her high Attack.

Indeedee will be banned come next month (2 days from now), so you'll need a replacement there. I see you're using her as a tanky, slowish special attacker, so I suggest things like Reuniculus, Gothitelle or Beheeyem as candidates for you to consider for that position.

NikolaP said:

The team looks interesting (and monotype - neat)! What are your strategies here, and your reasoning for the moves and held items (i. e. what does each Pokémon do)? Are there any opponents you do especially badly against? Which Pokémon do you take to battles most often, and which least? If we knew that, it'd be much easier to help you out.

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Thanks for responding!

Before I revised this team, its composition was as follows. Meowstic didn't have Trick Room then. With Alakazam there, it wouldn't work to our advantage. Alakazam is a very fast sweeper, but with Modest Nature, Jolly Cinderace is faster. But this version of the team gave me nine wins. The current version gave me twelve more wins.


I made Meowstic hold Focus Sash (it was Light Clay prior to revision) so that he can most likely execute Trick Room successfully. Then the following turn, he would still have the chance to use Reflect or Light Screen when left with 1 HP.

Gallade's Speed is just average, not too slow, so I made him hold Quick Claw. But most sweepers are faster than him, so with some luck, he could be able to move before them.

Slowbro's Special Defense is relatively low, so he really needs to hold Assault Vest.

Moves that threaten Hatterene are mostly contact moves, so I made her hold Rocky Helmet.

So far, we've knocked out Cinderace only twice, but we've beaten Dragapult and Togekiss several times! Of course, Dragapult wouldn't enjoy a direct hit from G-Max Smite, right? 😂 That hidden ability of Cinderace is really too much. If only there's a Psychic Pokemon that has Defense and HP high enough. Any of the Light Trio could easily beat him especially Dusk Mane or Dawn Wings Necrozma (having Prism Armor that reduces the damage of super effective moves), but of course they're banned!

If it were in the anime, I would have any of my Psychic Pokemon send back that Pyro Ball into Cinderace's face using Psychic!

NikolaP said:

I must ask: why is your Rapidash trained in Special Attack and has an Attack-lowering, Special Attack-boosting Modest nature when you use physical moves on her? That setup just makes her bad at physical attacking, which seems to be her job on your team. I suggest giving her an Adamant mint to have her Attack be boosted instead, and retraining her EVs to give her high Attack.

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There was a couple of typo errors! It's 252 Atk, not 252 SpAtk; Adamant, not Modest 🙂 I corrected them in the original post just now.

NikolaP said:

Indeedee will be banned come next month (2 days from now), so you'll need a replacement there. I see you're using her as a tanky, slowish special attacker, so I suggest things like Reuniculus, Gothitelle or Beheeyem as candidates for you to consider for that position.

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Yeah, I know she'll be banned the day after tomorrow! To be honest, I've never sent her to battle since the revision of this Ranked Battle team although she battled several times prior to the revision of the team. The reasons for her inclusion were, of course, to counter Ghost types and to create Psychic Terrain at the beginning of the match. That protected us from priority moves, so Meowstic was able to succesfully use Reflect and Light Screen without being hindered by Fake Out.

Reuniclus and Beheeyem sure have high Special Attack. And you forgot Musharna in your list. 😄 I think I should look into their learn sets 👍

With the release of Crown Tundra, I will be able to include Metagross and Latios. Metagross can increase the Defense of my team by using Max Steelspike, so that would be great when combined with Prankster+Reflect, right? But Latios cannot enjoy the benefits of Psychic Terrain. 😞

I think I should be contented about reaching Rank 8 for now 😇
https://twitter.com/Hocus_Pokemon/status/1300042750700609538

Worth noting, Prankster won't help you set Trick Room first because Trick Room has a negative priority that Prankster's +1 can't mitigate.

Go for Reuniclus or Gothitelle over Indeedee (since the above poster said it will be banned?). Magic Guard and Shadow Tag are both excellent abilities, especially Shadow Tag.

gimmepie said:

Worth noting, Prankster won't help you set Trick Room first because Trick Room has a negative priority that Prankster's +1 can't mitigate.

Go for Reuniclus or Gothitelle over Indeedee (since the above poster said it will be banned?). Magic Guard and Shadow Tag are both excellent abilities, especially Shadow Tag.

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Yeah, I found out about the -7 priority of Trick Room before teaching that move to Meowstic. That's why I made him hold Focus Sash. I'm thinking about replacing Meowstic's Trick Room with an offensive move. Would it be a better idea for me to choose another Trick Room setter? The best candidate for that is a Pokemon with high Defense, Special Defense, and HP.

Gothitelle has only average base Special Attack, so I think Reuniclus and Musharna would be better options. I found out that Reuniclus has access to Flash Cannon, thus, being able to use Max Steelspike that would surely be useful to us.

Just to share, I replaced Meowstic's Helping Hand with Trick and his Focus Sash with Flame Orb. I've tried this new strategy in only three battles, and so far that gave me two wins and one loss (due to communication interruption! 😡) . I was really sure I was gonna win because my opponent's Snorlax was burned after I made it hold Meowstic's Flame Orb. And he/she was left with only two Pokemon (Galarian Corsola was the other one; Snorlax left with red HP bar) while I still had three. Then communication was interrupted because our internet service provider sucks! 😡

Will that Flame Orb-Trick strategy work on Cinderace? Because that would take away its Life Orb, and damages from its physical attacks would be halved, right? Though it still has Libero, but switching out won't cure its burn (neither would reverting its type to Fire). Lowering its Attack with Charm might just force it to switch out, and then it would return like just nothing happened.

I'm interested in hearing more about your strategy and why you selected those specifically for this team.

Thanks!