18th SpearPillar S/V Cart Tour Champion Team Report

Yo guys! I'm Daazak, a VGC player from Italy and today I'll talk about the team I used to win the 18th SpearPillar S/V Cart Tour featuring one of my favourite ever Pokémon, Frosmoth. I started playing in 2019 just for fun but I got into playing BO3 VGC only in December 2023, so winning this tournament is a big achievement for me and I hope you find this team report interesting.

Why Frosmoth?

Before talking about its set, I think that Frosmoth deserves a brief explanation.

As I said I first got into VGC during Sword and Shield, and before actually building and playing online with my competitive teams, I had to travel the Galar region and discover all the new Pokémon introduced in Gen 8. I immediately fell in love with Frosmoth because of its sick design but I was so disappointed with everything else about this Pokémon: the typing is awful and it got OHKO by almost everyone in every format even when Dynamaxed, and an amazing ability like Ice Scales felt really wasted on a Pokémon with so many common weaknesses. So I always felt Frosmoth had potential, and with the new tera gimmick fixing the typing problem, it was its chance to shine, so I kept it in the back of my mind. 

General composition 

Talking about the team composition, this is an archetype that became quite popular in the last 2 months, used by top players like Alex Gomez and Eric Rios in Liverpool and Dortmund, and Averi Biery in Knoxville. Their teams and mine all have differences between each other in the Pokémon used, teras, sets and spreads, but the core idea is similar.

The core of Incineroar, Amoonguss and Kommo-o is unbelievably good into physical attackers: Incineroar can lower their attack with both Intimidate and Parting Shot, Kommo-o can become basically unkillable if allowed to setup with Iron Defense and Amoonguss can support Kommo-o redirecting attacks or using Spore to allow Kommo-o to set up. This is the main core of the team, that is present in every version of it.

Ting-Lu is necessary to deal with Flutter Mane with Heavy Slam and to increase the special bulk of the team with Vessel of Ruin. He’s also very good into a lot of the most common special attackers that threaten Kommo-o, but more on that later.

Porygon2 is one of the most underrated Pokémon in this format. He’s ridiculously bulky, can set up Trick Room which is huge for a slow team like this, use Recover to heal back and deal huge damage with Tera Blast especially if he gets a Special Attack boost with Download.

The Ice Queen Frosmoth was added for a number of reasons, but most importantly because it was another great answer into Landorus-Incarnate, Raging Bolt and Ursaluna Bloodmoon and also because with Quiver Dance it could turn into a very fast and strong sweeper, allowing me to switch up the pace of the battle, catching my opponents off guard if they were not positioned well. It was a great addition to a team that was severely lacking damage and it won some games literally on its own which is crazy for a Pokémon that is basically never seen in VGC.

Overall, we’re talking about a very defensive but versatile team, that has incredible tools for switching, recovering HP and reducing the opponent’s firepower. Generally this team plays very slowly with a lot of switches and repositioning, something that I think suits my playstyle a lot, and can win games by:

• Stalling out the opponent slowly chipping them while they struggle to do damage.

• Slowing out the game buying turns to setup and then sweep with Kommo-o or Frosmoth. The thing I like the most about the team is that the set up sweepers get not only stronger, but bulkier too the more they set up.

• Stalling the game and win on timer (something that wasn’t rare at all) due to how hard it is for some teams to take KOs when facing this composition. 

• Focusing on using a specific Pokémon that the opponent has little answers for, helping it with the incredible support tools this team has.

• Invalidating the main threat of the opposing team, making all the support around it useless. This is how I won the final against a really tricky Dondozo-Glimmora matchup.

Obviously, there are many ways this team can win, I just listed the most common ones. Identifying your path to victory is crucial when using this team.

The Team

Incineroar @ Safety Goggles  

Ability: Intimidate  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Ghost  

EVs: 236 HP / 188 Def / 84 SpD  

Impish Nature  

IVs: 29 Spe  

- Flare Blitz  

- Knock Off  

- Fake Out  

- Parting Shot

The Pokémon I used the most both in testing and in the tournament, and I don’t regret it one bit simply because Incineroar’s support is unmatched in the format and this team takes full advantage of it. 

The set is pretty standard with Fake Out to block powerful attacks and buy time to use Trick Room with Porygon2 or set up with Frosmoth or Kommo-o, Flare Blitz is a much needed Fire type attack, Parting Shot to both switch easier and lower the opponent’s firepower and Knock Off to remove annoying items like Assault Vest (problematic for Frosmoth) and Safety Goggles (problematic for Amoonguss). Knock Off is also very useful against opposing Ghost-Tera Incineroar that can be a problem for Kommo-O.

The EVs spread is designed to make Incineroar extremely bulky on the physical side, since this spread always survives 252 Adamant Tera-Water Ogerpon Wellspring Ivy Cudgel if Ogerpon is intimidated, while also surviving 252 Timid Choice Specs Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Moonblast, even without Vessel of Ruin. 29 Speed IVs are used to be slower than opposing Incineroar allowing to Parting Shot after them, while also moving before in Trick Room. 

I used Safety Goggles to get an immunity to Amoonguss and Tera Ghost to improve the matchup against Hard Trick Room teams (that often run Gallade) and the combo of Chien-Pao and Dragonite but also to become immune to Fake Out, which is huge since this Incineroar is always slower than opposing ones. The Ghost Tera is what allowed me to win game 3 of the final pretty easily, turning off Incineroar weakness to Dondozo’s Earthquake, recycling Intimidate onto it.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet  

Ability: Regenerator  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Water  

EVs: 236 HP / 236 Def / 36 SpD  

Bold Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Pollen Puff  

- Spore  

- Rage Powder  

- Protect 

Amoonguss fits really well into this team thanks to its ability to slow the game down with Spore and heal back allies with Pollen Puff. Paired with Trick Room, it can put Pokémon to sleep before they can even move, allowing its partner to set up freely.

The set is again very standard and Rocky Helmet is used to punish Fake Out users and to break Chien-Pao and Urshifu-Single-Strike’s Focus Sash. 

The EVs Spread is again more oriented towards the physical side since I already have two amazing special walls plus Vessel of Ruin. 236 HP is the highest 3n number, used to optimize Regenerator recovery, 236 Defence is used to resist a wide variety of attacks, most importantly being a 3HKO from 252 Adamant Black Glasses Kingambit Kowtow Cleave. This calc is extremely important because Kingambit’s Defiant ability makes it a tricky matchup if I don’t bring Kommo-o, so Amoonguss here allows me to have another answer for it. The Special Defence is enough to be a 3HKO from 252 Timid Choice Specs Tera Fairy Flutter Mane Moonblast and Water Tera is useful against heavy fire hitters like Entei.

Kommo-o @ Leftovers  

Ability: Overcoat  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Steel  

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 156 Def / 92 SpD / 4 Spe  

Impish Nature  

- Iron Defense  

- Body Press  

- Iron Head  

- Protect

The first sweeper of the team and the hardest Pokémon to KO if allowed to use even just one Iron Defense.

The set is pretty much self-explanatory with Protect to keep itself safe, Iron Defense to set up, STAB Body Press to sweep and Iron Head to hit Flutter Mane. Overcoat is another immunity to Amoonguss while Tera Steel is also a must since having a 4x weakness to fairy in this format is really not ideal. Leftovers are used since Kommo-o tends to stay on the field for a very long time, so the amount of Hp you can recover from it really makes the difference.

The Kommo-o EV Spread is the same used by Michael Zhang to win the Sacramento Regional: max HP, 156 Defence to allow Kommo-o to pick up a KO against non-bulky Ogerpon after just one Iron Defense and 92 Special Defense allows Kommo-o to be a 3HKO from Special Attack Booster Energy Flutter Mane Shadow Ball. This calc is important because Shadow Ball is used a lot against Kommo-o since against Flutter Mane you always want to be Tera Steel and also the Booster Flutter Mane is the worst to come up against since it can use Protect, allowing my opponent to slow down Kommo-o blocking the Tera Steel Iron Head or the Ting-Lu’s Heavy Slam, something the Choice Specs Flutter Mane cannot do.

Ting-Lu @ Assault Vest  

Ability: Vessel of Ruin  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Poison  

EVs: 212 HP / 164 Atk / 4 Def / 124 SpD / 4 Spe  

Adamant Nature  

- Snarl  

- Stomping Tantrum  

- Sand Tomb  

- Heavy Slam

Ting-Lu is the next piece of this core, being my number one answer to Flutter Mane, while also providing immense special Bulk with both Assault Vest and Vessel of Ruin, with the latter also helping its allies. Also the offence it provides is fundamental to how the whole team works.

Snarl is used mainly to lower the Special Attack stat of some heavy hitters, mainly Raging Bolt and Bloodmoon Ursaluna, and worked really well paired with Vessel of Ruin, Ice Scales and Quiver dance (these are all different multipliers, so they stack up incredibly well). Snarl was also amazing into Landorus-Incarnate: since it often used Substitute, with Snarl being a sound move, it lowered Landorus’ Special Attack even behind the sub, so my opponents got stuck with a Landorus at -1, with Vessel of Ruin active, doing very little damage, so most of the times they were forced to switch it out with the sub still intact. Stomping Tantrum is a reliable STAB and Heavy Slam’s main purpose is to OHKO every single Flutter Mane. The last move is Sand Tomb and it’s my win condition against stall teams: the team I’m using can sometimes struggle to do damage against bulky teams, and in those sets, the games quickly turn into a stall match that will only end on timer. In this scenario, Sand Tomb allows Ting-Lu to trap on the field a Pokémon with mediocre bulk, forcing it to take damage every turn, and focusing on it to take a KO. Once you have a Pokémon advantage, all you need to do is stall out the rest of the game and win on timer. The number of games I’ve won like this on timer is extremely high and even if it happened just once in the whole tournament, when I tested the team on Switch it happened a lot more. In previous versions of the team I had Fissure instead of Sand Tomb for the exact same reason (take a KO and win on timer), but now I think I prefer Sand Tomb since it’s more reliable. 

The EVs are chosen to always OHKO even bulky Flutter Mane and to maximize Ting-Lu’s Special bulk, making it a 3HKO from most Special Attack Booster Energy Flutter Mane Moonblast (as I said before, the Booster Energy set is harder to play against than the Choice Specs one). Regarding the Tera-Type, Tera Poison is used to turn off Ting-Lu’s weaknesses to Fairy and Fight, making some end games impossible to win for your opponent if they lost their answer for it.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite  

Ability: Download  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Poison  

EVs: 244 HP / 196 Def / 12 SpA / 52 SpD / 4 Spe  

Bold Nature  

- Trick Room  

- Recover  

- Ice Beam  

- Tera Blast

Now it’s time to talk about the most underrated Pokémon in Regulation F in my opinion: Porygon2.

This Pokémon can do basically everything: setting up Trick Room to support the rest of the team, being extremely bulky even without the support of Incineroar or Ting-Lu, healing back HP with Recover and spam surprisingly good damage with non-Tera STAB Tera Blast and Ice Beam especially if it gets the Special Attack boost from Download. We’re talking about a TR setter that is bulkier than Cresselia (considering Eviolite of course) and that can hit almost as hard as Hatterene with the Download boost, so I really think it has a lot of potential to be used in a lot of different archetypes and not just this one. Tera Poison is amazing and is the Tera I’ve used more together with the Tera Steel on Kommo-o and the Tera Water on Frosmoth since it’s useful to deny super effective Fighting type damage but most importantly can turn Tera Blast into a Poison type attack, picking up a surprise KO against non-bulky Ogerpon: the fact that such a wall can sometimes OHKO the best or second best Pokémon in the format speaks for itself, and is a huge statement on how underrated this Pokémon is.

The Ev Spread is designed to be a 3HKO against 252 Timid Choice Specs Flutter Mane Moonblast, to survive +2 208 Modest Raging Bolt Draco Meteor and to have a high chance to survive even 252 Modest Choice Specs Tera Fire Chi-Yu Overheat, when Ting-Lu is on the field too. 196 Defence EVs are manily used to be a 3HKO from 252 Adamant Urshifu-Single Strike Close Combat at -1, with Porygon2 non-Tera. You might notice that this Porygon2 is not slow and I even have 4 Speed Evs despite it being my Trick Room setter, why? The answer is that Porygon2 tends to stay on the field for a long time thanks to its immense bulk and healing capability, and while Incineroar and Amoonguss are Pokémon you want to switch in and out multiple times to take advantage of their abilities, it’s not the same for Porygon2. So I wanted it to be faster than opposing Pokémon with base 60 speed, to have slightly better matchup out of Trick Room, a situation I faced many times. I’ve used a slower Porygon2 in previous versions of the team, and I prefer this “fast” one, but if you prefer having a slower one, that’s totally fine.

Frosmoth @ Sitrus Berry  

Ability: Ice Scales  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Water  

EVs: 244 HP / 252 Def / 12 SpA  

Modest Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Ice Beam  

- Tera Blast  

- Quiver Dance  

- Protect

The star of the team. It turned some bad matchups into great ones, and as I already said, it could single-handedly win me sets especially if left unchecked for even one turn. Frosmoth is particularly good against the most common special attackers in the format like Raging Bolt, Landorus-Incarnate, Flutter Mane, Bloodmoon Ursaluna, Tornadus, Articuno and with the Water Tera also checks Chi-yu, Torkoal and Glimmora.

Quiver Dance is amazing, stacking up with Ice Scales so well and making Frosmoth both faster and stronger and even after only one Quiver Dance, Frosmoth's special bulk becomes immense. Ice Beam is a good STAB move with great coverage and Tera Blast is used because Frosmoth relies a lot on its Tera, and having a Water move to hit Fire types is really valuable and even if Frosmoth learns other good moves like Dazzling Gleam or Bug Buzz, I never felt the need for those.

A lot of people asked me about the Frosmoth EVs spread, so let me explain why I chose this one. I went for a modest bulky set to use its good Special Attack while also being able to tank a few hits thanks to the 244 HP EVs, reaching the highest possible even number of HP (to optimize Sitrus Berry and Pollen Puff recovery) and max Defence that allowed Frosmoth to be as physically bulky as possible. With 244 HP, 252 Defence, the Water Tera and the Sitrus Berry, Frosmoth is a 3HKO from even 252 Jolly Mystic Water Tera Water Urshifu-Rapid Strike Surging Strikes and even Choice Band Arcanine-Hisui can’t hit it for a OHKO when Frosmoth is Tera Water. Add to that the Intimidate support, that is something you don’t want to give up easily when bringing Frosmoth, and it becomes surprisingly hard to KO. Having 0 speed EVs might sound strange but i had a very specific reason for it: if I set up Trick Room and wait for the last few turns, I can switch Frosmoth in and set up a few Quiver Dance before the opponent can attack me, becoming really bulky and taking little damage, then Trick Room ends and I’m now very fast, very strong and unkillable by special attacks. This is my favourite way of using Frosmoth, turning its middle speed stat into a strength. The goal was to outspeed Landorus-Incarnate when I’m at +2 Speed, which I don’t need any EVs for.

Gameplans and most common leads

Regarding team modes and common leads, the team doesn’t really rely on specific leads, in fact in this tournament I think I’ve used every single Pokémon both in lead and in the back at least once, with the only exception being Porygon2, that I never used in the back. I’m someone who always gets drawn into using only two or three specific leads when playing VGC, so the fact that I don’t have a preferred lead and that I even tried never-before-seen leads in crucial games, is a huge statement on how versatile this team is. For example, in the final of the tournament I’ve used a lead of Kommo-o and Ting-Lu, a lead I’ve never used before in the tournament, and I don’t even remember ever using it.

So how to choose a correct lead? When using this team, leads and gameplans are planned by identifying your win condition, and trying to eliminate the Pokémon that are a problem for that. For example I might build a gameplan around Kommo-o, bringing Frosmoth in the back to deal with the problematic Raging Bolt and Landorus-Incarnate (so in this case I will go for Porygon2 + Kommo-o in lead, with Frosmoth and Incineroar/Amoonguss in the back), or Ting-Lu to deal with Flutter Mane (so Porygon2 + Incineroar/Amoonguss in lead, with Kommo-o and Ting-Lu in the back). Or again, I could build the gameplan around Frosmoth, using Porygon2, Incineroar and Ting-Lu/Amoonguss to eliminate threats to Frosmoth.

Since the leads are very versatile and can change a lot at the slightest variation in the opposing team (for example Choice Specs Flutter Mane is not that bad to fight without Ting-Lu since it can’t Protect, while the Booster Energy set is really hard to play around without it), I’ll quickly talk about each member’s strength and weaknesses when it comes to leading.

Incineroar: The most versatile Pokémon in the team, can be used with great success both in lead or in the back and it’s probably the Pokémon I selected the most. When using Frosmoth, the Initimidate support is almost mandatory.

Amoonguss: Another very versatile Pokémon. If the opponent has at least three immunities to powder moves I basically never select it, but other than that it could almost always be a great help in the game. I tend to bring it in the back, even though it could be used in lead if you expect to face powerful attacks right from the beginning of the game.

Kommo-o: Almost always in the back, waiting for the perfect chance to switch in and use Iron Defense, if the opponent has 4 or 5 physical attackers (like in most Gouging Fire builds), Kommo-o is your win condition and must be selected at all costs.

Ting-Lu: The more Special Attack the opponent has, the more you want to bring Ting-Lu. It’s the main answer to Flutter Mane (Booster Energy set in particular) and is the most important Pokémon in the stall matchup too with its ability to trap with Sand Tomb. Can be used in lead or in the back.

Porygon2: When I’ve used it, it was always in lead, setting up and early Trick Room that is so good against Tailwind teams. Generally speaking, the faster and frailer your opponent’s team is, the better Porygon2 does.

Frosmoth: Mainly in the back but could also be used in lead. Is amazing into every single special attacker in the format, but when you bring it you almost always want to commit Tera with it, so be careful not to waste it on someone else. Raging Bolt, Landorus-Incarnate, Flutter Mane, Chi-Yu, Landorus and Gholdengo are all Pokémon that can’t do anything against a boosted Frosmoth.

If I had to order the team members by how often I selected them, I would go with:

Incineroar > Kommo-o > Frosmoth > Amoonguss = Ting-Lu > Porygon2

Team Weaknesses

The perfect team doesn’t exist and sadly this team is no different. 

The first weakness I want to mention is the one regarding the inability to apply immediate offensive pressure right from the start of the game. Frosmoth’s Ice Beam in the strongest move I have available, which is not even comparable to a Choice Specs Flutter Mane Moonblast or a Focus Sash Urshifu-Single Strike Wicked Blow, so you will never start a game forcing the opponent to play defensively, which could be a problem if you make the wrong lead. 

The second weakness of the team is the difficulty to handle at the same time two very oppressive and bulky sweepers on the field together, if one is a special attacker, and the other is a physical one. Ursaluna Bloodmoon and Clear Amulet Iron Hands for example is a very hard duo to handle, since what you use to counter Ursaluna Bloodmoon, is not what you want against Iron Hands, and vice versa. This doesn’t happen with Flutter Mane and Chien-Pao (I’ve never lost to this duo even if played together) because you can almost always threaten a OHKO, so your opponent might be reluctant to make this trade, and play more defensively.

The final weakness of the team is having a few tricky matchups: Gholdengo becomes annoying when it starts to get boosted, so Ting-Lu, Incineroar and Tera-Water Frosmoth are your best friends here (Frosmoth is particularly good since Gholdengo often runs Tera-Dragon), Hard Trick Room teams are hard to play against because of all the mind games with your Porygon2 about who will set up Trick Room, and also because Gallade is really good against this team. When facing Hard Trick Room you will often need to get a few reads right and Tera-Ghost Incineroar will be your most important Pokémon since is the only one who can do something against Gallade. Dondozo is another hard matchup since it ignores your stat changes and can cause huge damage. If you are facing Unaware Dondozo, your only win condition is recycling Intimidate onto it (it’s what I did in the final of the tournament) while if you are facing Oblivious Dondozo, you need to make sure that once it doubles its stats with Tatsugiri’s Commander, you already have on the field a boosted Frosmoth or Kommo-o, better if both.

So is Frosmoth actually good?

I’m sure when you first opened this team report, that’s the question you likely wanted an answer for, so I’ll give you one. The answer is yes, Frosmoth is a good Pokémon that can become a real pain to play against in the right circumstances. Does that mean that Frosmoth is at the same level of Flutter Mane, Chi-Yu, Ursaluna Bloodmoon and Gholdengo? No. The main strength about the four Pokémon I mentioned, and meta Pokémon in general, is their ability to work in a lot of different teams without the need for any special support from their partners. Frosmoth shines in this team because the supports it gets is huge and basically unmatched by any other archetype in the format, and with this support, Frosmoth can use all its best tools (Quiver Dance and Ice Scales) to become the best version of itself, never making me wish I had a Flutter Mane or a Chi-Yu instead of it. It’s also worth noticing that another reason why Frosmoth is so good in this team is because it’s extremely good against all the stuff the other 5 Pokémon struggle against, something that is not true for other Pokémon I had considered using.

Final Thoughts

So here’s everything you need to know about this amazing team! I’m really happy I managed to win this tournament and I’m even happier to have done it using such a niche pick like Frosmoth. I really hope this can inspire newer players to use different and creative Pokémon and not to be afraid even if they see a usage stat like this one over here:

After all this reading, it’s time now to try the team. If you do, I’d love to see what results you can get, so make sure to tag me on Twitter @_Daazak to show me!

Paste: https://pokepast.es/3ad73a8c9a689dd9

Rental Code: KK29RF

Hope you have fun using it! Bye 😊

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