In Pokémon Sword and Shield, there was an online Singles tournament called the Spikemuth Cup. It replicated the condition of the Spikemuth Gym where you couldn’t Dynamax. I built a team based the team building strategy that I learnt from Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng’s Road to Ranked series. I started with a single Pokémon and then built to cover its weaknesses.

I started with Single Strike Urshifu. It is a strong Pokémon which has can ignore Attack drops with crits from Wicked Blow; and since Dynamax wasn’t allowed, it can always hit moves due to Unseen Fist ignoring Protect. I dealt with Urshifu’s Fairy weakness with Metagross since it is a Steel Pokémon. It is also a Pokémon that I rely on for a good bit of my coverage moves. I then handled Metagross’ Dark weakness with Alolan Ninetales. Unintentionally, Alolan Ninetales also dealt with the Metagross’ Ground weakness.

Porygon2 and Talonflame were then added to fix the lack of Speed Control on my team. While Porygon 2 didn’t have Trick Room, it was my option if my opponent used it. I also used Foul Play on it to handle Pokémon which have high Phsyical Attack and/or utilise Weakness Policy like Glastrier. I was going to use Eerie Impulse as well but I didn’t have enough move slots for that. Talonflame gave the option of Tailwind as well as the potential to do a single strong priority attack before my opponent got a chance to do their move.

Galarian Moltres was added just to be a stong Pokémon. It has Fiery Wrath which is a strong move that can flinch, and it had Taunt to deal with potential Trick Room before it could be set. With that this iteration of the team was complete.

Single Strike Urshifu
Urshifu (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unseen Fist
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wicked Blow
- Close Combat
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

Metagross
Metagross @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Body Press

Alolan Ninetales
Ninetales-Alola (F) @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 84 HP / 36 Def / 212 SpA / 4 SpD / 172 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Dazzling Gleam
- Aurora Veil
- Protect

Galarian Moltres
Moltres-Galar @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Berserk
Level: 50
EVs: 92 HP / 52 Def / 108 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Wrath
- Air Slash
- Taunt
- Protect

Talonflame
Talonflame (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- Tailwind
- Protect

Porygon2
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 64 Def / 192 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Tri Attack
- Foul Play
- Recover
- Protect

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/483e0f9082e4e11b

During the the tournament, while I didn’t record information of the matches to corroborate this, I felt like I was improving as compared to the previous online tournaments I have done and here are the results.

Results