Best Team for Ranked Battle from a World Top 3 Player

This is a strategy guide and complete explanation of the team of a former World Top 3 player for the games Pokemon Sword and Shield. For a team using heavy hitters like Dragapult, Grimmsnarl, and Excadrill, look no further.

Read on for tips on how to use this team in competitive play, with recommended movesets & best builds for each Pokemon.

Team Summary and Rental Code

Pokemon	Dragapult	Excadrill
	Grimmsnarl	Togekiss
	Snorlax	Cloyster
Rental Code	0000 0004 0M8P P6
Twitter	Top Secret
Words from the Trainer	As the way to use this party should be apparent enough, this set is easily accessible to anyone, beignner or otherwise. That said, it's highly capable of holding its own in the Master Ball tier, so give it a whirl and see if it fits your style.

How to Use the Team Effectively

A party from a former World Top 3 Player

The creator of this party once held the number 3 spot in competitive play in a former game in the series. It's typically run in an easy to understand Grimmsnarl → Togekiss → X order, making it easy to handle even for metagame beginners.

Moveset & Best Build for Each Pokemon

Physical attacker Dragapult with Lum Berry

Dragapult - Best Build for Ranked Battle

There are more builds for Dragapult than grains of sand in the Ganges, but this build sets it up as a Physical attacker. Dragon Darts and Phantom Force are powerful attacks with STAB, while Steel Wing is used primarily to handle Fairy types.

Assault Vest Excadrill

Excadrill - Best Build for Ranked Battle

HP EVs are set to reach a 16n-1 value (i.e. will take 1 fewer damage from Sandstorm and Hail), and to allow it to survive a hit from Wash Rotom's Hydro Pump except at the highest possible random number value. Against a HP 252, Def. 4 Wash Rotom, it can get a definite one-hit KO with Earthquake, so it's a useful counter to the Wash Rotoms seen all over the metagame.

Grimmsnarl the wall-builder

Grimmsnarl - Best Build for Ranked Battle

This build utilizes the most common Grimmsnarl moveset, the dual-wall setter. Together with the increase of Grimmsnarls in the competitive scene, Excadrills have been increasing to counter them, using their ability Mold Breaker to ignore the effects of Prankster. For this reason, this set includes Foul Play to take down Excadrill.

Also, 12 EVs are placed in Speed simply to outspeed if the opponent uses Grimmsnarl as well, in which case the order of attacks prioritized by Prankster will be determined by which Grimmsnarl has higher Speed.

※Some aspects of this build remain from a previous build on the same Grimmsnarl. A Bold nature (+Def, -Atk) without placing 4 EVs in Attack would be preferable to lower Confusion damage.

Togekiss, the Dynamax candidate

Togekiss - Best Build for Ranked Battle

This build uses Weakness Policy together with EVs placed in HP and Special Attack. As a support move, Nasty Plot has been selected, for boosting your Special Attack by two stages when you're able to read the opponent's move effectively. This build is organized with the expectation of Dynamaxing, so keep this in mind when using this Togekiss build.

Snorlax, the Special defender

Snorlax - Best Build for Ranked Battle

Snorlax's ability Thick Fat allows it to take halved damage from Fire and Ice-type moves. While absorbing its opponent's attacks, it can use Curse to up its Attack and Defense, allowing it to serve faithfully as both an offensive and defensive player.

Cloyster can seize an opportunity

Cloyster - Best Build for Ranked Battle

Cloyster's Ability Skill Link allows its multi-strike moves to always hit five times, giving them all a spectacular total power of 125. In this build, Cloyster is running Icicle Spear and Rock Blast as its multi-strike moves. The basic pattern is to start with Shell Smash, leading into Icicle Spear or Rock Blast to deal fast, heavy damage. Wtih King's Rock, each hit of its multi-strike moves has a chance of causing flinching, adding another layer of usefulness to Cloyster.

Thoughts from the Game8 Team

Easy to use and effective from the start!

One common disadvantage of Rental Teams is that it can be difficult to grasp how the creator intended them to be used. For this set, the order to send out Pokemon as well as their intended attack patterns are easy to understand, and any player can use the team reliably while taking advantage of the balanced power of the party.

Related Links

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All Ranked Battle Team Guides

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Competitive Ranked Battle Guides

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Doubles Tier List		Team Building		Rental Teams