I have a curse.

I got back into competitive Pokemon for a little stint back at the start of the year, the first time taking it semi-seriously since around 2015. Though I do enjoy the game, I'm not a huge competitive game person, and I like Pokemon chiefly for the Pokemon; what this means for competitive is that most of my fun comes from using Pokemon that are! Absolutely dogshit!

Behold, the instrument of my destruction. The team that, against all odds, allowed me the strongest ladder run I've ever had.

The scariest team you will ever see.

The curse.

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SCOVILLAIN: The cornerstone of the team, and do not let my wording confuse you with that other Grass/Fire type - Scovillain is all you need. Its role as an attacker might seem obvious, but no villain is without its tricks - Rage Powder allows it to act as a clutch redirector, particularly for Farigiraf or Hydreigon, and Tera Fairy allows it to swallow an opposing Hydreigon's Draco with ease. (Tera Blast is a holdover from before we had OTS, and it wasn't even good then - should definitely be Wisp!)

HYDREIGON: Tera Fire Heat Waves were hard to avoid in Series 1, but become even more deadly backed by a Sun boost. Focus Energy might seem like a terrible waste of a moveslot -- if you're a fool! Not only does it allow you to ignore your own Draco drops, but guaranteed crits let you penetrate the unsinkable warship known as Dondozo. (Shame the team has no good way of giving it a free turn!)

TORKOAL: The anchor, bridging the path between the Sun and Trick Room modes. A very standard sweeper set, but push it out early to set up the sun if it allows Hydreigon or Scovillain to pick up an unexpected kill. Tricks like these demonstrate the team's true potential to farm mid ladder crush all who stand before you. (Though it's really hard to position if you want to pull it back and try to set up TR later!)

HARIYAMA: Walled by Ghost types? Oh no! I can't knock Annihilape for 20% and give it a free Rage Fist stack! While Hariyama's iconic role is to click Fake Out once and then die immediately - and there's absolutely no shortage of that here - Tera Normal Facade allows it absolutely nuclear damage against anything it can't click CC into. And they want you to believe Amoonguss is a TR answer! (You do have to survive a turn to get it off, though, which is the only thing harder than the team's Dondozo matchup)

FARIGIRAF: My incredibly cold take pre-release is that the TR setter that can block priority moves would be good (no way!), but what I was not able to predict is how much damage it could put out. When you click Tera Normal, not only do you stop evil threats like Meowscarada and Hydreigon taking you out for free, you also boost the power of Hyper Voice, boost it further with Throat Spray, and then you have an accidental pocket nuke on the mon that nobody expected to do anything except click TR and then sit there like a Dusclops. (Nothing to say here - this mon rules and I'm glad it's getting its redemption arc in more recent formats)

KINGAMBIT: Looks like a bad set now, but this was back when people were spamming AV with weird defensive teras. "awww but i need my siwwy widdwe defensive covewage!!" WRONG. Tera Dark Kowtow Cleave. Let it be known that *I* invented having fun with Kingambit. (PLEASE do not ask me why I have Supreme Overlord, though)

40 wins. 14 losses. And possibly the worst VGC team you have ever seen.

Happy Halloween!