Noah's Arch (vgc2026 reg ma) - P0k3m0n.4
- Rockwell Anyoha
- 11 minutes ago
- 14 min read
An anti-meta Mega-Blastoise/Mega Glimmora Rain team
The Origin of Noah's Arch
I built a team that has an extremely favorable matchup into weather-based teams and Mega-Floette. I spent a lot of time playing Joe Ugarte’s sand team and realized that I could beat everything except for the unexpected combination of manual rain dance Farigiraf, Mega-Blastoise, and Archaludon (Cybertron popularized a similar manual rain team featuring Sableye/Archaludon, but the lack of Blastoise’s coverage made it more manageable). As the sand player, Blastoise’s “STABs” (Aura Sphere for Tyranitar, Hydreigon, and Excadrill and solid neutral damage for everything else) along with Archaludon’s Electroshot spam was very difficult to deal with. Moreover, Excadrill’s ground damage would be outpaced by the combination of Archaludon’s Stamina boosts and Sinistcha’s healing (I’m being reductionist here, they also had other pieces that made the matchup tricky into my pieces yada yada). I wrote off the strategy because I thought it was cheesy and niche, but I recently revisited the concept because I realized that it could be generally strong into sun and snow teams.
The first version of the team consisted of Archaludon, Mega-Blastoise, Farigiraf, Sinistcha, Pelipper and Kingambit (credit to lolling-man for destroying me on the Pokemon Showdown Bo1 ladder with that six):
I’ve been beaten by a few different flavors of manual Rain Dance Farigiraf on the Champions ladder and I would love to discover where this concept originated from to give credit where it’s due (if any sleuth’s could help me out that would be much appreciated), but I chose to start with this six because it was the only Showdown replay I could find!
Picking up the team was intuitive. Most games I would lead with the bulky duo of Blastoise/Farigiraf and either Fake Out/Trick Room or preferably attack/Trick Room. In the back I would have Archaludon and either Sinistcha or Pelipper. Occasionally I would swap in Archaludon a bit early to get a free Stamina boost and start the Rain Dance into Electroshot spam early. Some games I would just kill everything with Blastoise (if it didn’t take too much damage I could switch in Sinistcha/Pelipper and Waterspout and just keep hitting things). Kingambit was what I would bring into Floette balance teams. I would use Blastoise to set up Gambit with Fake Out/Swords Dance and try and get an iron head off into the Floette. I quickly realized that this was not a stable solution for a couple of reasons: Redirection made it difficult to hit Floette, Floette was also paired with many fire types such as Incineroar or Charizard and Floette was also often paired with Sneasler that could destroy Kingambit. I tried substituting Kingambit for Mega-Scizor and that felt like a side grade at best. Scizor’s STABs were also a lot worse than Kingambit’s STABs, which made it a lot less useful as a general attacker, but the tradeoff was better overall stats and not having an inconsistent priority move. And THEN I ran into a Floette/Farig team and realized, Scizor literally can’t do anything here (of course it can Bug Bite the Farig for a lot of damage but that’s a whole turn that Floette is free to do what it wants, and I STILL had to get around redirection when the Farig was down. So, I thought, ok this team is strong, it has an awkward matchup into Floette/Fire types and it’s even more awkward when they have priority blocking, but every team has some tricky matchups right? And THEN I remembered something that my friend Vincent had been theorizing, Sludge Wave Glimmora. To paraphrase, he believed that Glimmora was a stale Pokemon and Sludge Wave was the innovation that could push it forward. So, I tried it! I really only needed that sixth slot to beat Floette, and having the spread damage meant I didn’t have to worry about the redirection stuff. It also seemed appealing because it wasn’t weak to the Fire types that pinned Gambit/Scizor. Let me tell you, the results were WOW. I did not expect a one for one swap to have such an immediate impact and do exactly what I needed it to do.
The very first set was love at first sight! The perfect matchup against Floette/Delphox with redirectors:
So, this is the six that I continued to develop and I’m quite happy with where the team has landed. During testing, several moves and EV changes were made. Rock Polish on Glimmora was changed to Earth Power, Psychic on Farig was changed to Psychic Noise, a lot of EVs went into Special bulk over Physical bulk across the board, and speeds were adjusted. But, without further ado, let’s get into the team, the individual Pokémon, and specific matchups!
The Team:
This team centers around Archaludon, which can function in Trick Room, Tailwind, and even without speed control (supported by Sinistcha). Archaludon excels at trading with physical attackers, especially upon gaining defense boosts from Stamina after which it can take super effective attacks. Archaludon struggles against powerful special attackers such as Mega-Floette, Mega-Charizard Y and Sylveon, and the team is built around mitigating that weakness. Trick Room enables Archaludon to move first against these threats. Lead Mega-Blastoise and Farigiraf, Fake Out and Trick Room, and bring in Archaludon when it has a speed advantage and after the opponent’s threats have been weakened by Blastoise. Another way to support Archaludon is eliminate those special attackers with Mega-Glimmora. In some cases, Archaludon can be left behind for a more hyper offensive strategy. Finally, Archaludon and its partners have been trained specifically to compensate for weakness to Special Attackers.
The team has a favorable matchup into some of the most common strategies in the format. Regulation MA is defined by weather wars, Tailwind hyper offense with powerful spread damage, and protect the king strategies (centered around Floette and sometimes Mega-Charizard X). Manual Rain gives you ultimate weather control, Trick Room is a great counter to the fast attackers in the format, Pelipper provides Wide Guard support for key spread attacks such as Garchomp’s Earthquake as well as Tail Wind support for flexibility in the speed wars, and Glimmora’s Sludge Wave shuts down redirection support for protect the king strategies (not to mention Farigiraf prevents the Fake Out and setup strategies these teams love to open with).
The Pokemon:
Mega-Blastoise "Lord Wes"
This guy is a beast. Bulky waters are not easy to hit in this format. Blastoise almost always comes in the lead with Farigiraf to help set up Trick Room, and it usually doesn’t take much damage in return. If you can get away with it, attacking with Blastoise and clicking Trick Room with Farigiraf on the same turn is ideal. As an example, people like to lead Basculegion to kill Farigiraf with Wave Crash and avoid Blastoise’s Fake Out, but you can simply Dark Pulse and kill the Basculegion for a fair trade (or even better switch to Archaludon to take the Wave Crash for an unfair trade…for them). One calc that I love is that Blastoise can take a Solar Beam from Charizard, which gives you a lot of options when leading into sun teams. It doesn’t quite take an Electroshot from Archaludon, so you’d need to be careful there (Fake Out plus Trick Room into Helping Hand Aurasphere the next turn is usually how I like to deal with those).
Farigiraf "Necky Minaj"
This is a very “specially” defensive giraffe that you can count on to take big attacks such as Light of Ruin from Floette, Hyper Beam from Sylveon, and at least TWO Sludge Waves from your own Mega-Glimmora. It’s here to win the weather war and force opponents to play fairly in the speed control that you set by denying pesky priority moves. Psychic Noise is a cheeky addition that gives a lot of utility against: Draining Kiss Floette, Sinistcha’s entire kit, Corviknight’s Roost, Venusaur’s Giga Drain, Opposing Archaludon’s Leftover healing… you even completely wall Bitter Blade Ceruledge!
Archaludon "Peak"
This mon can snowball completely out of control. Games where you just get to click Electroshot over and over feel so easy, and just when you’re about to get low, Sinistcha comes in, Hospitality, Life Dew, Protect it get’s Leftovers just GG shake hands. The Calm nature is very important. It makes you heavily favored in Archaludon mirrors, it allows you to take two Dazzling Gleam’s from Floette (essentially forcing them to set up if you have Sinistcha support), and it allows you to take Weather Ball from Charizard in the sun (in case you’re out of position). If you can switch it in for one or two free Stamina Boosts and start your stat stacking strategy early, it’s often game ending for opponents that hope to stall your speed/weather conditions and get off a big attack (such as High Horsepower or Close Combat).
Sinistcha "Teabo Baggins"
A calm health pack ready to take at least one Hurricane!
Pelipper "Jaw Mogger"
Pelipper is the glue guy of the team. It’s so so so important into Garchomp because of the Wide Guard support and often lets you come in next to Archaludon with momentum. The Sitrus Berry lets you take the combination of Sneasler’s Dire Claw and Kingambit’s Kowtow Cleave, allowing you to set Tailwind in end games
Mega-Glimmora "Glimmer"
This is the sauce of the team, specifically the Sludge Wave. Dare your Opponents to try and play set up Floette with Incineroar and Sinistcha and watch them suffer. Helping Hand + Sludge Wave kills ALL Floette, Calm Mind is their only chance of surviving and by then it’s usually too late. Glimmora can also serve as and end game win condition against Charizard Y. Something I continue to consider is putting back Rock Polish, and I would drop either Spiky Shield, or Power Gem (in that order). Fake Out/ Rock Polish was a combo that was VERY fun during testing, but I felt I needed Earth Power to hit Kingambit. If you're playing with the team I would give the set of Sludge Wave, Spiky Shield, Earth Power, and Rock Polish a try first (before trying the set where Spiky Shield is dropped)!
Specific Matchups:
vs Arsal Puri's Zard Y team:
When opponents see Sludge Wave Glimmora, they usually correctly identify that they cannot play Floette Balance and lean more into the Charizard/Venusaur mode. Therefore I like to lead Blastoise and Farigiraf so that I can Fake Out the Venusaur, set Trick Room, and double the Venusaur the next turn with Psychic Noise and Dark Pulse to prevent sleep spam. Blastoise survives Solar Beam so trading a big chunk of health for Trick Room is worth it. In the back I bring Pelipper and Archaludon or Sinistcha. Pelipper is important as a defensive measure against Garchomp. Archaludon is nice in order to hit Charizard and Incineroar, and it takes Venusaur's Earth Power extremely well, but Sinistcha is also valid (and my preference) in order to lean into Blastoise/Pelipper offense (Hurricane and Weather Ball are very strong STABs into this team so Pelipper can really put in work. Occasionally in a game two (or even game one), I like to also weave in the Glimmora to keep them honest. In that case, I like to lead Farigiraf and Glimmora with Sinistcha and Pelipper in the back. If they lead Incin/Floette you get to just click powerful super effective attacks, but if they still lead Charizard and Venusaur you can Power Gem the Charizard and click Trick Room (or even Sludge Wave and click Trick Room). They cannot sleep the Farigiraf AND kill the Glimmora on the same turn, so you either get Trick Room up or You get a bunch of damage on the board and you get a nice Pelipper swap afterwards.
vs Michael Zhang's Ttar/Froslass team:
This team cannot hit Blastoise. Lead Farigiraf and Blastoise, click Fake Out and Trick Room, and start hitting things with Dark Pulse/Aurasphere/Water Spout. Pelipper and Archaludon are the perfect back mons, but you can also drop Pelipper for Sinistcha and Rely on manual rain (although for this six I heavily prefer bringing Pelipper). Glimmora never comes to this one
vs Marco Fiero's Perish/Floette team:
This is quite a fun matchup with playable lines on both sides! Farigiraf Blastoise is extremely solid into the Gengar Mode because Blastoise can threaten Gengar with Dark Pulse and Farigiraf can block Fake Outs from Incin/Sneasler. Farigiraf can also hit Gengar and prevent Kommo's healing. You can ALSO lead Glimmora and Farigiraf to put immediate pressure onto the Floette. The Gambit doesn't have Iron head which makes it a lot less threatening into Glimmora. What I like to do is start with the Blastoise Farigiraf mode and have Glimmora and Pelipper in the back. Depending on what they lead (for example if I see Floette) I may not mega the Blastoise and save it for Glimmora. I'll Fake Out and Trick Room and if I don't take damage on the Blastoise THEN I can mega it and Water Spout, but if I do take damage on the Blastoise I can hit Floette's partners and use Glimmora to KO Floette later. No pokemon on this team can one shot Farigiraf, so use it to your advantage to alleviate pressure from its partners! When leading with Farigiraf and Glimmora, you have to be careful that a led Gambit doesn't get out of control. A surprise Helping Hand and Earth Power into the Gambit can win you the game fairly quickly (this has a 50% to KO if they are Max HP and you DON'T mega!), but you can also split damage (for example Psychic Noise into Sneasler and Earth Powder into Gambit) as a mid-ground option. In this case, I'm usually bringing Blastoise and Pelipper in the back. Occasionally you can weave in Sinistcha in this matchup, but Archaludon is usually what I'm leaving behind here.
vs Sejun Park's redirection team (played by Arash Ommati in Turin):
This is as close to an auto-win as you can get in modern VGC. Lead Sinistcha and Glimmora with Farigiraf and Pelipper in the back. If they lead Vivillion you can Rage Powder the Sleep Powders, if they lead Incineroar you can switch in Farigiraf and attack immediatley. Psychic noise completely shuts down their Sinistcha, and Glimmora resists all of their spread damage. All you have to do is not get hit by Delphox's Psyshock.
vs Avery V's rain team:
We love Rain mirrors! Maybe not Espathra, but this one is in our favor. The main thing to pay attention to is the Nature of the opponent's Archaludon. If they are Modest, there is a good chance that Aurasphere will one shot them. If they are Calm, there is a decent chance that you actually survive their Electroshot! Lead Farigiraf Blastoise (at this point let's just call it the bread and butter lead): Farig shuts down Sableye while Blastoise threatens Basculegion with Dark Pulse and Archaludon with Aurasphere. Setting Trick Room is very important here. Archaludon and Sinistcha come in the back every time. Our Archaludon matches up very well against opposing Archaludon because of the Calm Nature. It's also a fantastic switch against opposing Wave Crash. If they lead Basculegion and threaten to kill Farigiraf, swap that slot for Archaludon and enjoy your free Stamina boost as you revenge KO their Basculegion with Dark Pulse.
vs Zard Y Slop:
There are quite a few variants of Zard Y slop teams out there (credit to Suica as the original architecht of this concept). Here I'm showcasing a variant used by Nelson Fonkoua in Turin, but most of these matchups can be approached the same way. This matchup is heavily in our favor but there are some wild things the opponents can do to force volatility. In a "standard" game, the bread and butter lead of Farigiraf and Blastoise works perfectly well with Pelipper and Archaludon/Sinistcha in the back. It can be tempting to bring Glimmora here, but I wouldn't do it in a game one because opponents will often tunnel on it and lean into their Garchomp. Farigiraf is important for manual rain and shutting down Whimsicott (also Trick Room). In these games, you want to trade damage as efficiently as possible; your defensive natures and speed advantage gives you a big edge. Just make sure to position your Pokemon correctly against their threats (for example you want Arch and Blastoise in front of Basculegion/Gambit, you want Pelipper in front of Whimsicott/Garchomp. If they bring Floette there are some key things to be aware of. Farig is the only thing that survives a Modest Light of Ruin. Blastoise can do it but the odds are not in your favor if they are literally max Special Attack. Pelipper survives a Moonblast 94% of the time, while EVERYONE else survives Moonblast 100% of the time. In most cases, the Floette NEEDs to Light of Ruin for a KO and that costs have of it's health. In Rain, Blastoise does over 50% of Floette's health with Waterspout as long as it has 65% of it's HP. Flash Cannon also does more thatn 50% of Floette's health. So you can see that even without Glimmora, this team can actually trade into Floette very effectively. If you're up a game or feeling cheeky, just bring the Glimmora and roll over their Floette (I'd still bring it in the back, it doesn't have set up so you can hit it any time). But I would still lean towards the main mode of Farig/Blastoise with Peli and Arch/Sini in the back. Other variants of this team (with Incineroar or Sylveon for example) are less scary that the one I'm showing here.
vs Brendan Dewarth's Sand Team (a Joe Sand Variant):
They basically have one shot, and that's to flinch you. Nothing threatens Blastoise, and Archaludon in position is very scary especially with manual rain. Bonus points if they go for the double Rock Slide and you switch in Archaludon immediatley. Here I like to go Blastoise Farigiraf with Archaludon and Sinistcha in the back. Sometimes I'll do Pelipper over Sinistcha, but the manual Rain is unstoppable as long as you get up Trick Room. If you get defense boosts against this team and are able to protect and heal Archaludon with Sinistcha, it's an uphill battle for them.
vs the Frosslass Lycanrock team:
Against this, just don't let the Gambit set up for free. Whenever a Kingambit doesn't have Chople Berry, Blastoise smiles. The standard mode of Farig/Blastoise with Pelipper and Archaludon in the back works great. You can also bring Glimmora over Archaludon but that's a bit riskier into Basculegion.
vs Zard X balance (piloted by Markus Hamann in Turin):
Glimmora goes crazy here; their only real way of dealing with it is Kingambit (a big Close Combat from Sneasler is something that they also aim to do). I like leading Pelipper and Glimmora with Farigiraf and Archaludon in the back. If they lead Sneasler, I like to prioritize it early so that Archaludon can sweep later. Pelipper can take any combination of attacks from Sneasler and Gambit, so you can use that to set Tailwind. In game two I like to switch it up to the bread and butter mode (Farig/Blastoise with Archaludon and Pelipper/Sinistcha in the back). Helping Hand Aurasphere kills Gambit through the Chople Berry, so you can often delay setting Trick Room or you can actually forego Trick Room entirely and use Tailwind with Pelipper in the back. This is a team where you can also lead the cheeky and classic Pelipper/Archaludon. If they lead Sneasler you can have your Sini/Farig swap ready. Pelipper set Tailwind safely against this team and you can start Electroshotting right away if they don't lead Sneasler!
vs William Brown's Espathra Rain Pass team:
This can be a tricky matchup and I'm teched out for it almost as much as I am for Floette. The very last change I made to this team was to slow down Blastoise to underspeed Speed neutral Archaludon's (Modest/Calm/Etc) in Trick Room. In a vacuum, our Arch rain mode beats their Arch rain mode because of the way we are trained and the fact that we have Sinistcha, but if they get the Calm Mind Baton Pass stuff for "free" it becomes very annoying to deal with. I like to lead the bread and butter mode to Fake Out Trick Room and put as much pressure on the Espathra as possible with Dark Pulse (Archaludon and Sinistcha in the back). They cannot mega both Scovillain AND Dragonite, so if they lead Scovillain it usually means they intend to pass to Archaludon which is actually better for us (because we can redirect at least two attacks away with Sinistcha later as opposed to being able to redirect only one Hurricane away from Dragonite). If their Arch is Modest, Helping Hand plus Aurasphere has a VERY good chance to kill their Arch even if they get a Calm Mind up, so that gives us a lot of leeway. Blastoise can do a lot of work even before our Own Archaludon comes in. Never bring Glimmora to this.
Overall Impression:
This team is so fun to play and feels very strong an intuitive into the current regulation MA meta! I'm very impressed with Blastoise and Archaludon in particular, they are huge stat balls and people typically aren't prepared for them. The Farigiraf has also become a favorite of mine. The utility of Psychic Noise has been much greater than I anticipated, and Prio blocking/Trick Room is very strong right now. I love this team and it's unfortunate that I only finished it at the very end of the regulation; hoping other can enjoy it in the week we have left!
Pros
blows through weaker opponents
many easy matchups (it feels like I have a team advantage is most games)
great in best of one and best of three
very high floor and decently high ceiling
both megas can come in their baby forms
Cons
Blastoise has 4 slot syndrome, doesn't feel too bad but sometimes I wish I had Dragon Pulse as well
Glimmora can be awkward to weave in sometimes
Garchomp can be annoying to hit
Enjoy!
-R
P.S. I may add a few more matchups later. The EVs will be released as soon as the last user of the team gets knocked out of NAIC! DM me if you want the paste and I'll decide if you're worthy :p
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