Moltres Goes Berserk!
My name is Nuno, also known as Pyreon, and this is my journey in VGC 2021 so far, with a team built around Galarian Moltres. I used the team in Players Cup EU Qualifiers, making it to Top 64 (losers bracket, round 5). I also used it to make Day 2 and Top16 in Francesco Pardini’s Battle Pike II tournament and finished 5–3 in VGC France’s Hexa Cup.
Galarian Moltres was something I wanted to build around ever since it was revealed. Not only it has a pretty neat design, it also had a typing combination and an ability that appeared to fit well in a balance meta team. Its stats only further increased that feeling and I decided to enter VGC 2021 by building around Galarian Moltres.
Although the team suffered several changes throughout the month, I used the same core for all 5 tournaments and this report will cover all variants from the early pré-VGC21 draft to the final version used in VGC France’s Hexa Cup, the last tournament of the month.
Teambuilding
Early Stages
Since I was playing in the Players Cup there wasn’t much time to explore and I had started theorizing some cores way before we even knew stats. Luckily, my prediction of Moltres’ stats was accurate and therefore I could start testing my drafts right away.
This was the first team composition I tested. The main idea was to support a Moltres setup while taking advantage of its ability and its amazing max moves. Tapu Fini provided good synergy and bulk, Amoonguss helped protecting both from electric moves and other threats and Landorus would help Moltres by checking physical attackers with Intimidate. The last two members were added to address some holes I saw on the team right away. I lacked a steel type and a fire type, and I lacked a fast aggressive mode. Enter Cinderace and Weakness Policy Metagross, that ended up becoming a major threat in the first week of VGC 21.
Preparation for Players Cup II — Phase 1
During testing, I noticed Cinderace’s need to max to be useful was a hinderance, since Metagross, Moltres and sometimes Landorus and Fini wanted to max themselves. I also noticed that Amoonguss wasn’t doing great and Metagross was becoming a key part of the core. So I ended up sticking with the main core of Moltres, Fini, Landorus and Metagross and started looking at replacements for the other two.
I ended up changing the team quite a bit, replacing the aggressive fast mode from Cinderace to Regieleki, which was increasing in usage a lot. This meant I needed a defensive fire type that could complete the FWG core so I changed Metagross to Heatran and Amoonguss was replaced by Kartana since it seemed to be a better fit on the team and Amoonguss wasn’t doing well in testing.
I wasn’t a fan of Regieleki in the end due to how one-dimensional it felt, so I ended up testing a couple other electric-types in that slot. Heatran was also not doing great so I added Cresselia to allow extra support for it, and tested all the variants below.
I then realised with some input from other players that Rotom-Heat was very good at the time and was being overlooked, so I tried it out. Rotom fitted perfectly into the team, not only for its great position in the meta but also because it gave the team the electric type I was struggling with and the more defensive fire type I was also struggling with. It had the perfect mix of bulk and offense to fit with Kartana and Tapu Fini as a very balanced FWG core.
Preparation for Players Cup II — Phase 2
With the inclusion of Rotom I was finally starting to see something I liked on the team and decided to lock the concept for Players Cup. The ultimate test? Victory Road’s Tundra Challenge, first big tournament of the format held one week before the Cup. The perfect way to decide if the concept was good enough. I locked in Dragapult as a 6th member with a supportive set that allowed me to have some speed and support my slower setup Pokémon better.
Despite the poor result, I felt the team was solid enough. I won convincingly against Glastrier and lost twice to the same core of Zapdos + Urshifu, which was an actually bad matchup I had not considered, and was unlucky to face it twice to end my run early.
Preparation for Players Cup II — Phase 3
Entering the last week of preparation I worked on that Dragapult slot which felt underwhelming and started adjusting sets and working on bad matchups, namely the Thundurus/Zapdos + Urshifu core. I struggled a bit to find a way past it and ended up working with a concept EmbC (Eduardo Cunha) showed me that had a slightly different approach to the core and made the team a bit more reliable. After some discussions with him in order to flowchart some matchups and improve the spreads, I ended up picking Cresselia as my 6th. With Colbur Berry, it can set up Trick Room against Thundurus + Urshifu combos and allow Rotom to reverse sweep. I also changed my Moltres and Fini sets, giving them an extra dimension and a little bit more pressure with Heal Pulse’s good synergy with Berserk and Moltres’ natural bulk further increased by its Misty Seed. Edu also advised me to change Landorus to a bulkier set to complement the nature of the team and provide more utility.
I was happy with the result in the end. The team felt solid, despite some tough positions sometimes and a bit of a struggle against hyper offense. I felt I was playing it well for my usual level and it definitely had answers and gameplans against a very big part of the meta.
Post Players Cup
With Players Cup out of the way I decided I would keep this core and work on it for the time being. As a preparation for the online tournaments happening later in the month I entered a ladder tournament hosted by Italian eSports team Orpo Team, the Battle Pyramid. I felt the team still lacked immediate offensive pressure, as the Misty Seed Moltres still required some setup, so I decided to try a combo I had dismissed earlier as being bad: Comfey and Weakness Policy Moltres. This allowed me to maintain the possibility of Trick Room, keep the partner healing with Floral Healing, and proc Moltres’ WP to provide an immediate threat that would force my opponent to react. I used the Battle Pyramid tour to test how that went and Comfey felt surprisingly solid and ended up being useful for more than just activating Moltres’ WP. In this tournament, due to its Bo1 nature, I ran Taunt on Comfey as it could be more useful for the surprise effect against stuff like Nasty Plot Rotom, Calm Mind Fini and some Trick Room setters, and it ended up paying off.
The next tournament was the Battle Pike II, organized by the same Italian team and by former champion Francesco Pardini. For this tournament, in a Bo3 scenario with open teamsheets, the only change I made was swapping Taunt for Trick Room on Comfey as it would be more solid and give me some sort of speed control against fast Airstream users. I knew the matchup against one of the most popular teams of the meta wasn’t great (the famous core of Thudurus Urshifu Nihilego), but I decided that I’d rather take a likely loss against that if it meant I could play with something I was comfortable with, which would greatly improve my chances in all other matchups. It paid off really well, as I managed to make Day 2 with a 6–2 record, losing to two great players in tyo and International Champion Pado, and getting ultimately knocked out in Top16 by the very same matchup I wanted to avoid.
The entire tournament showed me the team was actually decent and I was playing it well enough, so there was no reason to change much ahead of the last tournament of the month, Hexa Cup hosted by VGC France. I adjusted Comfey’s EV spread that was not optimized before and decided to add an extra twist on Landorus. U-turn and Yache Berry were becoming irrelevant. I felt like with how the team worked Landorus could afford to run a Swords Dance set and that made me think of sort of replicating the Moltres set I ran in Players Cup. So I tried out Misty Seed Landorus with a setup move to see how it worked.
Unfortunately missed the top cut by a little, but the squad still showed its potential and overall I’m happy with how these tournaments went in the end.
Now that I have explained the whole teambuilding process that led me to these choices and variants, it’s time to go through each member and set.
The Team
Moltres-Galar @ Sitrus Berry / Misty Seed / Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 156 HP / 172 Def / 76 SpA / 4 SpD / 100 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Wrath
- Air Slash / Hurricane
- Nasty Plot
- ProtectMoltres had three sets throughout the month. All three items are valid, although I believe the best item on it is always Sitrus Berry if you don’t have a way to self-proc the Weakness Policy.
The EV spread was made by a member of a Discord teambuilding server I’m in and it has amazing calcs. Outspeeds Adamant Metagross by one point. KOes Max HP Metagross with Max Darkness and Max Dragapult under Friend Guard with +2 Max Darkness. Under Dynamax, it lives +2 Max Hailstorm from Metagross and Max Hailstorm from Life Orb Glastrier. Also has a chance to live two Max Hailstorms from non-Life Orb Glastier when Intimidated, although that is safer in the Sitrus Berry set.
Not much to say about the moves, I ended up going for Hurricane later because with the Comfey approach I wanted more power in the Max Airstream since I was maxing it more often and going aggressive.
Tapu Fini @ Wiki Berry / Sitrus Berry / Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 108 SpA / 44 SpD / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 116 SpA / 44 SpD / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Muddy Water / Scald
- Calm Mind / Heal Pulse
- ProtectThe Tapu Fini suffered some changes even with the EV spread. The final version (in bold) is in my opinion more solid, although the version with Scald and Heal Pulse did very well when I tried it. It just makes no sense with Comfey on the team at the moment.
I honestly don’t remember exactly the calcs on both spreads but they are pretty solid and standard and live what they have to live. I prefer the Modest nature because Fini lacks damage otherwise, even with Calm Mind.
As for the item, all three are valid and all three were useful, but Leftovers was clutch especially in Fini mirrors which can become problematic sometimes, so that would be my recommendation.
Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 196 SpA / 60 Spe
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 68 SpA / 4 SpD / 100 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Nasty Plot
- ProtectRotom’s only change was the spread, where I ended up using a faster and bulkier variant suggested by Edu.
Safety Goggles was almost replaced a couple times, but it is key to win the Venusaur matchup. Although most of them no longer run Sleep Powder, some still do, and Goggles makes all the difference. Also helps against Amoonguss and was key on one of my Battle Pike matches. I always recommend on keeping it as it is because the chance of running into Sleep Powder is still there and without it the matchup becomes a lot harder.
Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 156 HP / 100 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Aerial AceKartana didn’t change at all throughout the month. The Assault Vest variant fits perfectly on the bulky FWG core and still provides enough of a threat offensively. Only consideration would be to run Giga Impact over Aerial Ace to allow a strong hit on Rotom-H and Zapdos, but Airstream seemedbetter as speed control for the team since it avoids hitting into Defiant users (Thundurus) and Clear Body users.
The EV spread is once again worked out by Edu. It lives Glastrier Close Combat in base form and LO Zapdos Heat Wave while maxed.
Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb / Yache Berry / Misty Seed
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
EVs: 228 HP / 92 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fly / U-turn / Swords Dance
- ProtectLandorus started out as an offensive powerhouse with a Jolly Nature, Life Orb and potential for a Max Airstream, but it wasn’t being used that much as a max target and I ended up opting for a slower, bulkier variant when I picked up Edu’s concept before Players Cup. Yache Berry provided some safety net against Ice users like Cresselia, Gastrodon and Ice Shard Mamoswine, but it ended up never coming into play. U-turn was also seldom used, so in the end I went for a Swords Dance set. Misty Seed was an attempt to replicate the Moltres set I used before and it gives Landorus the benefits of an Assault Vest while keeping Protect and Swords Dance. Lum Berry is a very valid alternative as Landorus is very vulnerable to burns.
The EV spread allows Landorus to live LO Zapdos Airstream and +1 Nihilego Meteor Beam.
Wildcard Slot
This slot had three Pokémon throughout the month, all do different things and are not supposed to be changed at will. The remaining sets were all adjusted every time this slot changed, so it is key to how the team functions.
Dragapult @ Focus Sash
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Light Screen
- Will-O-WispThe idea behind Dragapult was to support/enable the several set up modes the team had, namely Moltres, Fini and Rotom. Since those three, Landorus and Kartana all liked to Dynamax often, I opted for a supportive set that allowed Dragapult to put up work outside of max. It was not bad when it had to work, it was able to burn Thundurus and Landorus sometimes, but in the end it was frail and often had to be left behind.
Cresselia @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 236 HP / 20 Def / 252 SpA
Bold Nature
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock
- Helping Hand
- Trick RoomWhile working with Edu on ways to improve the Urshifu+ Thundurus/Zapdos matchup, he suggested Colbur Cresselia. The spread is made so it lives LO Airstream and Choice Band Wicked Blow with Colbur, guaranteeing the Trick Room against most hyper offensive cores. The problem was it became weak to Dragapult without Kasib Berry and made that matchup worse. I like offensive Cresselia a lot, ever since VGC16, hence the Special Attack investment, and it was able to pull off a great comeback in Players Cup by beating an opposing Calm Mind boosted Fini in a close endgame thanks to that. Psyshock instead of Psychic is mostly for that reason, to hit Fini and Assault Vest users for more damage.
Comfey @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 140 SpA / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draining Kiss
- Floral Healing
- Helping Hand
- Taunt / Trick RoomThe final version of the team has what is probably the “worst” option of all three on paper, but also the one with the best results. So the idea behind Comfey was to give Moltres a more aggressive route with the self-proc of the Weakness Policy. Comfey ended up being much more than that. It pressures Urshifu a lot to start with, and its support with Helping Hand and Floral Healing is useful for all other members as well, especially given the setup nature of most of them.
Trick Room provides a decent option for speed control, something the team otherwise lacks, while Taunt provides a way to shut down Trick Room setters and setup Pokemon like opposing Moltres, Fini and Rotom. Both are valid, and Taunt may even have a place instead of Helping Hand. Light Screen and Charm are also good options for Comfey.
The spread took me some time to make but in the end it allows Comfey to always live Thundurus LO Airstream and non-Choice Band Wicked Blow from Urshifu after Sitrus Berry. It has a 75% chance of living Nihilego Sludge Bomb and a 94% chance of KOing Urshifu with Draining Kiss.
General Thoughts and Gameplay
The team in general has a bad matchup against Thundurus Urshifu Nihilego, there’s no way around it. That’s the only thing stopping me from saying this is a top tier team. My goal at this point is to improve that matchup as much as possible. I am a believer that there’s no perfect team, and you’ll always a bad matchup, but let’s be real, being weak to one of the most common cores of the meta at the moment is not a good thing.
However, the team is very solid in general and is able to work very well against a vast majority of the teams in the meta. It has a fantastic core in Rotom, Fini and Kartana and the duo of Comfey and Moltres provide an aggressive mode that conditions your opponent from team preview.
The team is very focused on setup. 4 of the members have a setup move, and the team usually has ways to punish passive plays with those setup options. This nature also makes it weaker to hyper offensive leads since it can’t immediately match their speed and/or power.
While the team was initially built around Moltres, this is a team in the real sense of the word. You can play it around any one of the main 5 members, with Comfey as the support. You should look at your opponent’s 6 and think about your gameplan, which Pokémon you want to max and which one is your wincon. All of them can be made the “star” of the team, and that versatility is one of the major pros about this composition. It relies on your ability to adapt to your opponent. I feel it is an archetype that once it works out the bad matchup against Thundurus has the potential to last the entire meta without losing its place.
Common Leads
I will not specify flowcharts for the reasons I just stated. It varies. It is very dependent on you as a player, on the opposing team, opposing sets and opponent playstyle. There’s no recipe. You will have to decide the gameplan on your own every time you face a new challenge. However here are some common leads:
Moltres + Comfey
This is the most aggressive lead the team has and the one that offers the most immediate pressure. Lead it when your opponent lacks ways to pressure Moltres in the early game so you can activate your Weakness Policy and hit hard since turn 1.
Moltres + Landorus
Useful against slower teams and setup based teams (like hard Trick Room). Moltres and Landorus both have setup moves that can take advantage of opposing passive turns (like Follow Me + Trick Room / setup) and both have solid spread moves that bypass redirection.
Moltres + Rotom
Also a common lead against Trick Room teams focused on Glastrier, Rotom can set up a Nasty Plot while Moltres threatens the Trick Room setter with the possibility of a flinch and solid super effective damage. Rotom can then Max to match the Glastrier.
Landorus + Fini
Fini activates Landorus’ Misty Seed and provides good support and pressure with Calm Mind. Landorus checks the Electric types Fini doesn’t want around and and help boosting Fini’s bulk with Intimidate and Max Quake. Balance lead with a heavy setup element on it.
Rotom + Fini + Kartana
Any combination of the FWG core is a valid lead. They cover each other’s weaknesses perfectly and have amazing synergy both offensively and defensively. When in doubt, these are almost always decent leads in all scenarios.
Final Thoughts
I won’t claim this is a top-tier team. I am aware it has a couple bad matchups that need fixing. However the team is very solid and has a place in the meta and some potential to be improved, especially around the FWG core of Rotom, Fini and Kartana. I will continue working to improve it but feel free to try it, change it and enjoy it.
Shoutouts to the whole Players Cup preparation Discord who helped brainstorming and throwing ideas around, to Edu who helped a lot with the EV spreads and suggestions for sets and gameplans, and to PinkSylvie for bouncing ideas with me every day.
