Header artwork by Estler.
Hello! I’m Michał Kwiatkowski, better known as Narret, and this is my 2025 Gdańsk Regional Top 8 team report. It still feels unreal to see my name next to some of the best players in the world and a very big part of my success was my (slightly) innovative take on balance. Without further ado, let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
Teambuilding process
The original idea was mixed between 2 concepts:
CORE 1 – Kingambit + Rillaboom
My starting point was the duo of Kingambit and Rillaboom.
I knew that I was exceptional at using Kingambit, proven by my 2024 Gdańsk Regional win in Seniors and many great runs using its special counterpart – Raging Bolt. I knew pretty much from the start that I wanted to either go Dark Tera Type or Black Glasses to get enough damage to OHKO choice-locked Pokémon like Gholdengo or Basculegion consistently. I decided on using Black Glasses, because keeping my weakness to Fighting would be suboptimal with Sneasler having around 50% usage. My Tera Type of choice was Fire – which as of writing this is still very underused on Kingambit – allowing me to resist Flare Blitz from Incineroar, Eruption from Torkoal and Hisuian Typhlosion and every attack from Volcarona. It also removed my Fighting-type weakness to Sneasler. Fire Tera Type might seem bad against some of the Water types in the format, but I kept the idea of countering strong Water types in mind (which I will come back to) and it definitely ended up being the correct choice.
My main reasons for using Rillaboom were:
- Terrain control, which helped a ton into a lot of cheesier teams in the format (like Dondozo + Tatsugiri, fast psyspam or hard Trick Room teams) and allowed me to spam Sucker Punch freely
- Helping Kingambit set up with Fake Out and terrain recovery
- Threatening damage on bulky Water and Rock types, like Dondozo, Primarina and Tyranitar.
With that in mind, I knew that Assault Vest and U-turn as the last move were the optimal choices. The use of Ghost Tera Type was a last-minute change, since I was using Fire Tera Type on my Kingambit in the match-ups where Rillaboom would want to use it, I decided I’d rather have a Tera Type that resists both of Sneasler’s STAB moves and makes Rillaboom extremely good into Guts Ursaluna. Another big thing was not being weak to Expanding Force (which would happen if i went for the other Sneasler-resisting type – Poison).
CORE 2 – Alolan Ninetales + Sneasler (+ Kingambit)
This was the innovation that people were overlooking – the reason why it’s so unintuitive to put Alolan Ninetales and Sneasler in a team together is because both of them really want the Focus Sash – there were a few ways to make that not a problem, though.
I stole the Icetales set from Koen van Cann while playing his Dortmund team (spoiler alert: this was not the only borrowed idea), originally running Focus Sash and Ice Tera Type. I came to a very similar conclusion that I had with Kingambit – I could give Icetales a damage-boosting item and give it a defensive Tera Type. This worked very well in practice, since getting Dire Claw’d (which was a horrible thing for Focus Sash Icetales, especially with poison procs) was not a problem with Ghost Tera Type. This meant that I could use the best “dragonslayer” in the format with Sneasler, the best Pokémon in the format, a combo that not many people were using, and very few people were prepared to face. The duo was also very good at stealing games – the combination of Blizzard freezes + Dire Claw statuses meant that the game was never truly over, even if I was in a losing position and RNG could just screw up my opponent at any point in time.
This offensive duo had 1 big problem – Gholdengo, which resisted Ice type attacks and was immune to Sneasler’s STAB moves – so the obvious choice to complete the attacking core was Kingambit. I don’t think I need to tell anyone how broken of a duo Sneasler + Kingambit is, with Sneasler hitting all of the types that resist Dark for super effective damage; what I want to add to that is how superior Fake Out is to Coaching – it allowed me to set up Swords Dance turn 1 in so many scenarios.
As a side note, Swords Dance-spamming Kingambit was also exceptional at abusing Pokémon that were frozen or fell asleep! 🙂
Finishing the team
With the core finished, I realised I was lacking a few things:
- A reliable way to KO Sneasler, or break its Focus Sash
- Redirection, as most good teams in the format had it
- Super effective moves into Fire types, as well as Fire-type switch-ins
- Counters to Dondozo, Amoonguss and other sleep users
With the list in mind, i once again used Koen’s team for inspiration and added Choice Scarf Basculegion, to help break Sneasler’s Focus Sash with Flip Turn and win 1v1’s against it in later stages of the game. It was also very helpful as a Water resist that could deal a ton of damage to Primarina and Dondozo if it got its Last Respects boosted to 150+ base power.
Even though I originally had Electabuzz as my redirection, I decided on using Magmar since my rain match-up was very strong already, and it would finish my Fire + Water + Grass core. I was originally using Taunt, but Michał Dziurzyński / Yoship suggested Will-o-Wisp to help against Coaching spam strategies.
Final thoughts on team composition
The team was a really nice take on balance, having both terrain and weather control as well as having access to double Fake Out, redirection and set-up, while having overall fast Pokémon that were able to both support the team and threaten huge damage. The team is also exceptional at forcing out Terastallization and abusing their use with strong super effective options. The one problem with this team composition is the lack of strong special attackers, since Magmar has more of a supportive role, and even though Ninetales has a high-BP Blizzard and Ice is a strong offensive type, its 81 base Special Attack is quite disappointing.
The Team
Get the team’s paste here!
Ninetales-Alola @ Never-Melt Ice
Ability: Snow Warning
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Blizzard
– Freeze-Dry
– Encore
– Protect
This spread maximises the Dragapult roll. Even though I was running some bulk prior to the event, so few people were using Adamant Sneasler (that had a decent roll to KO) that I decided to go for a 252/252/4 spread.
252 Atk Sneasler Dire Claw vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Ninetales-Alola in Snow: 116-138 (78.3 – 93.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Never-Melt Ice Ninetales-Alola Blizzard vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Dragapult: 156-186 (95.1 – 113.4%) — 75% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Never-Melt Ice Ninetales-Alola Freeze-Dry vs. 116 HP / 180 SpD Dondozo: 116-140 (48.3 – 58.3%) — 55.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Rillaboom @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 220 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 68 SpD / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Wood Hammer
– Fake Out
– U-turn
– Grassy Glide
With this spread, Rillaboom accomplishes the following:
- Enough speed to outspeed Modest Pelipper and be 1 point slower than my Magmar
- Survives 1 Dire Claw after a poison proc from Adamant Sneasler
- Hits a stat bump in Attack.
252+ Atk Sneasler Dire Claw vs. 220 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 164-194 (80.7 – 95.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
Magmar @ Eviolite
Ability: Vital Spirit
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 236 HP / 220 Def / 4 SpA / 4 SpD / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Protect
– Heat Wave
– Will-O-Wisp
– Follow Me
Magmar is 1 point faster than my Rillaboom (which outspeeds Modest Pelipper) while getting a really solid roll on surviving an Adamant Dragapult’s Dragon Tera Type-boosted Outrage and always surviving non-Adamant ones’.
252 Atk Choice Band Tera-Dragon Dragapult Outrage vs. 236 HP / 220+ Def Eviolite Magmar: 136-162 (80 – 95.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
28+ SpA Liquid Voice Primarina Hyper Voice vs. 236 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Magmar: 80-96 (47 – 56.4%) — 23.8% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
Sneasler @ Focus Sash
Ability: Poison Touch
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Fake Out
– Dire Claw
– Close Combat
– Protect
Just a 252/252/4 spread, nothing to note here 🙂
The important thing here is: DO NOT change this to a Stellar-Tera Type Coaching set. Fake Out is incredibly important to help Kingambit set up, and avoiding Fake Out with Ghost Tera Type is definitely better. Also no Protect is not a good option as well, please don’t change this set.
Kingambit @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 156 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Kowtow Cleave
– Swords Dance
– Sucker Punch
– Protect
The main idea of this EV spread was to speed-creep the recently-released paste of Gabriel Agati‘s team as well as outspeed the Ursaluna on Marco Silva‘s sun team (which wasn’t ever expected by my opponents). Also as I said before, Fire is definitely the best Tera Type on this team since i have a lot of ways to deal with popular Water and Ground types.
252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Stomping Tantrum vs. 92 HP / 4 Def Kingambit: 143-172 (76.4 – 91.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Sneasler Close Combat vs. 92 HP / 4 Def Tera-Fire Kingambit: 88-105 (47 – 56.1%) — 23.4% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery 116+ Atk Rillaboom High Horsepower vs. 92 HP / 4 Def Tera-Fire Kingambit: 90-108 (48.1 – 57.7%) — 53.9% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
Basculegion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 4 HP / 220 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Wave Crash
– Flip Turn
– Tera Blast
– Last Respects
This spread has a really good roll into both Rillaboom’s Grassy Glide and Fairy-Tera Type Tera Blast from Volcarona at +2 Special Attack. As for the moves, Fighting-Tera Type Tera Blast is a very good tech, allowing Basculegion to threaten Kingambit, resist Sucker Punch and not be weak to Grassy Glide.
One thing to keep in mind: Fighting-type Terastallization removes the Adaptability boost from your Water-type and Ghost-type moves!
116+ Atk Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 4 HP / 28 Def Basculegion in Grassy Terrain: 162-192 (82.6 – 97.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
+2 36+ SpA Tera-Fairy Volcarona Tera Blast vs. 4 HP / 4 SpD Basculegion: 166-196 (84.6 – 100%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
How to use the team
The following are the main lines against usual match-ups.
vs Rain teams
Lead +
Back, /
Kingambit + Sneasler lead is very strong at forcing out Terastallizations from Archaludon and Basculegion, and it’s also good against the annoying Maushold variants which spam side-Beat Up. The answer to Maushold + Archaludon leads is always Sucker Punch + Close Combat to Maushold to cover for Ghost Tera Type.
The one line that you have to keep in mind is Water-Tera Type Basculegion’s Wave Crash into Kingambit with a Pelipper switch-in in the other slot. It might look really bad, but you get a lot of tempo with the weather control you get from Ninetales switching in, and that short tempo swing combined with the Sucker Punch and recoil damage that Basculegion took, means that you have pretty much guaranteed 2 KOs worth of damage incoming.
vs Gabriel Agati's team
Lead +
Back,
The theme of forcing out Terastallizations continues – the duo of Sneasler + Ninetales hits the entire team for super effective damage, so your opponent is forced to Terastallize early – but after that:
- Your lead duo takes guaranteed KOs
- Your Kingambit and Magmar in the back are really strong
vs Charizard sun teams
Lead +
Back, /
Fire-Tera Type Kingambit is very strong into the team – the biggest threat to it is Ursaluna, but if you can position yourself to KO Jumpluff early with Magmar‘s Heat Wave (or force its Terastallization out), Ursaluna becomes extremely vulnerable. The option to switch to Rillaboom early to reduce Earthquake damage is very nice, especially since the Kingambit + Magmar duo is so strong into the rest of the team.
vs MDB's Magmar balance team
Lead +
Back,
The Michael Kelsch / MDB‘s Magmar balance team matchup is quite tough, you have to pretty much call the lead, BUT this approach is good into 2 of the most popular leads I encountered – that being Magmar + Primarina and Sneasler + Dragapult. If you can KO the opposing Magmar fast enough to prevent the Primarina from dealing too much damage, the endgame should be good.
vs Joan Garcia's solo Dozo team
Lead +
Back,
The most important thing in the Joan Garcia‘s solo Dondozo team matchup is not letting Sneasler get too many Coachings into Dondozo – Fire-Tera Type Kingambit is very strong into the rest of the team, so if you can KO Sneasler early, then you can deal a lot of damage with Kingambit, so you can finish the Dondozo with Basculegion and Ninetales; it should be fine.
vs Dondozo + Tatsugiri teams
Lead +
Back, //
Kingambit is usually very good at dealing with the offensive Pokémon like Glimmora, Gholdengo and Indeedee in the early game. Even though the DozoGiri (Dondozo + Tatsugiri) mode might seem tough to beat on paper, it is really easy to overpower it with 150 BP Last Respects from Basculegion. If you know that the Dondozo is not max Speed, you can abuse that by using Encore and a combination of Wood Hammer or Freeze-Dry + Close Combat to cover for Terastallization.
vs Nils Dunlop's sand team
Lead +
Back,
Against Nils Dunlop‘s sand team, you can very easily abuse your double pivoting moves in U-turn and Flip Turn to secure terrain control and weather control. As soon as Indeedee is KO’d, the game is pretty much over, since your opponent doesn’t have a clear way to beat Basculegion and Sneasler.
vs Sneasler + Ursaluna + Porygon2 teams
Lead/ +
Back/,
The matchup is really nice, your priority should be setting up a Swords Dance with Kingambit, and if you survive Trick Room turns against Ursaluna, Porygon2 and Amoonguss you can pretty freely spam Kowtow Cleaves in the endgame and get a ton of damage off.
Click on the tabs to see some notes!
+
Back
, /Kingambit + Sneasler lead is very strong at forcing out Terastallizations from Archaludon and Basculegion, and it’s also good against the annoying Maushold variants which spam side-Beat Up. The answer to Maushold + Archaludon leads is always Sucker Punch + Close Combat to Maushold to cover for Ghost Tera Type.The one line that you have to keep in mind is Water-Tera Type Basculegion’s Wave Crash into Kingambit with a Pelipper switch-in in the other slot. It might look really bad, but you get a lot of tempo with the weather control you get from Ninetales switching in, and that short tempo swing combined with the Sucker Punch and recoil damage that Basculegion took, means that you have pretty much guaranteed 2 KOs worth of damage incoming. +
Back
, The theme of forcing out Terastallizations continues – the duo of Sneasler + Ninetales hits the entire team for super effective damage, so your opponent is forced to Terastallize early – but after that:- Your lead duo takes guaranteed KOs
- Your Kingambit and Magmar in the back are really strong
+
Back
, /Fire-Tera Type Kingambit is very strong into the team – the biggest threat to it is Ursaluna, but if you can position yourself to KO Jumpluff early with Magmar‘s Heat Wave (or force its Terastallization out), Ursaluna becomes extremely vulnerable. The option to switch to Rillaboom early to reduce Earthquake damage is very nice, especially since the Kingambit + Magmar duo is so strong into the rest of the team. +
Back
, The Michael Kelsch / MDB‘s Magmar balance team matchup is quite tough, you have to pretty much call the lead, BUT this approach is good into 2 of the most popular leads I encountered – that being Magmar + Primarina and Sneasler + Dragapult. If you can KO the opposing Magmar fast enough to prevent the Primarina from dealing too much damage, the endgame should be good. +
Back
, The most important thing in the Joan Garcia‘s solo Dondozo team matchup is not letting Sneasler get too many Coachings into Dondozo – Fire-Tera Type Kingambit is very strong into the rest of the team, so if you can KO Sneasler early, then you can deal a lot of damage with Kingambit, so you can finish the Dondozo with Basculegion and Ninetales; it should be fine. +
Back
, //Kingambit is usually very good at dealing with the offensive Pokémon like Glimmora, Gholdengo and Indeedee in the early game. Even though the “Dozogiri” (Dondozo + Tatsugiri) mode might seem tough to beat on paper, it is really easy to overpower it with 150 BP Last Respects from Basculegion. If you know that the Dondozo is not max Speed, you can abuse that by using Encore and a combination of Wood Hammer or Freeze-Dry + Close Combat to cover for Terastallization. +
Back
, Against Nils Dunlop‘s sand team, you can very easily abuse your double pivoting moves in U-turn and Flip Turn to secure terrain control and weather control. As soon as Indeedee is KO’d, the game is pretty much over, since your opponent doesn’t have a clear way to beat Basculegion and Sneasler./ +
Back
/, The matchup is really nice, your priority should be setting up a Swords Dance with Kingambit, and if you survive Trick Room turns against Ursaluna, Porygon2 and Amoonguss you can pretty freely spam Kowtow Cleaves in the endgame and get a ton of damage off.Tournament run
Day 1
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Win |  Patrick Tiedemann (Patrick) |       |  |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R2 | Win |  Gabriel Netz (Netz) |    | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R3 | Win |  Khalil Hoggui (KalionD) |    | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R4 | Win |  Luca Lussignoli (MOODY GIRL) |   | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R5 | Win | Pierre Coste (Guacamou) | | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R6 | Win | Sebastian Kaiser (BastiBlitz) |   | |
📹 Watch my Round 6 match against Sebastian here!
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R7 | Loss |  Naim Spiteri (Nerf) |     | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R8 | Win |  Joan Poyato (Kurbitoo) |   | |
Day 1 summary: 7-1 — Advancing to Day 2!
Day 2 Swiss rounds
Day 2 Swiss rounds summary: 1-1
Final Swiss result: 8-2 — Advancing to Top Cut!
Top Cut
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 32 | WLW | Oliver Gausden (Dinomite) |  | |
The match-up looked very solid – with the only Kingambit counter being Unaware Clefable that i could overpower with Sneasler and Basculegion.
Game 1:
My opponent decided to go with the Volcarona mode, and I punished it with my Fire-Tera Type Kingambit which resisted both of Volcarona’s attacks. I got a crucial early-game read of doubling Rillaboom with Dire Claw + Sucker Punch on a High Horsepower and was able to snowball from there.
Game 2:
My opponent switched up their plan, going for a Sneasler + Dragapult lead. I played it way too safe, taking way too much Dragon Darts damage in the process. I tried to go for a very risky read that might’ve won me the game, but I overestimated poison damage and lost the game on the spot.
Game 3:
I switched up my lead, going for Magmar + Kingambit, but the early turns were still very awkward for me. I ended up trading Sneasler for Clefable, but took a lot of damage in the process. It was a 3v3, and the opposing Kingambit had enough HP to threaten my Basculegion in the back and secure the win. I found my win condition of going for Ghost Tera Type on Magmar and using Heat Wave to get Kingambit into +2 Sucker Punch range – and got a burn on Kingambit that just immediately won me the game, since I was able to spam Last Respects + Sucker Punch with my faster Kingambit. I did check how much the burn actually mattered after the game, and it turns out it didn’t matter at all since Heat Wave dealt enough damage to put opposing Kingambit into Sucker Punch range anyways.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 16 | WW | Ferdinand Krammer (Ferdi) | | |
It is kind of ironic how I pulled the exact same match-up I played on stream in my top 16 match. I was feeling pretty confident because of how the on-stream games went, so I used the exact same approach.
Game 1:
My opponent used the thing I was most scared of – Poison-Tera Type Kingambit lead with Coaching-spam Sneasler. I got a good turn 1, and converted that into a lot of Kingambit damage in the early game. Even though I lost my Sneasler, and opposing Kingambit had a lot of Attack and Defense boosts, I was able to finish off Kingambit with my Ninetales and won the game pretty comfortably with my late-game Basculegion.
Game 2:
This game was unfortunate for my opponent – my Dire Claw put his Dondozo to sleep and I was able to convert that into a huge lead that I did not throw, and with that I advanced to the top 8.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 8 | LWL |  Hsuan-Chih Kuo (Suggy) | | |
Another Volcarona, this time it had Fairy Tera Type – I didn’t have any practice vs this team but it seemed like Fire-Tera Type Kingambit should once again be solid.
Game 1:
I got a really nice turn 1, OHKO’ing Maushold with Close Combat and dealing a lot of damage to Volcarona with Kowtow Cleave. I really messed up the next turn, and instead of going for double Protect I attacked with both Pokémon to catch out a greedy Quiver Dance. I ended up losing Sneasler and later took too much damage from Volcarona’s Heat Waves. I had a shot since I got the game to a 2v2, and if my opponent protected Sneasler, I still had a chance. I saw the Protect. Grassy Glide came out from the Rillaboom, and… my Basculegion went down. It turns out his Rillaboom had a lot of Attack investment and got a high roll, losing me the Game 1.
Game 2:
Very similar scenario as Game 1, but I protected and switched Magmar in instead of losing Sneasler that turn. The game looked good, I got a ton of damage off with my Kingambit, but it ended up being decided by a roll. If my Basculegion survived a Fairy-Tera Type Tera Blast at +2 Special Attack (which was a 6,3% roll to OHKO), the set would go to Game 3. The HP bar started going down… but Basculegion was left at 15 HP, and it KO’d Volcarona with a 200 BP Last Respects!
Game 3:
I got a great turn 1 – setting up Swords Dance for free and getting a Poison Touch proc on Volcarona for free. I KO’d Sneasler on the switch in as Volcarona used Quiver Dance. I switched out to Magmar, got a ton of damage on Volcarona (who survived on around 2 HP after poison proc and Grassy Terrain recovery) and KO’d Maushold next turn. It was a 4v2 – if I baited out Protect, my Sneasler would KO Volcarona with Fake Out and the game would be over. I went for a Sucker Punch – Volcarona protected and my Kingambit went down. At that point I realised that the game would come down to if Volcarona gets a double Protect. I went for a Fake Out and… Volcarona got the double Protect. It was still not over. As long as my Sneasler got a double Protect, I could stall out the Grassy Terrain, Volcarona would go down to poison and I could KO Rillaboom. I went for the double and… didn’t get it. This is how my tournament run ended.
Top Cut summary: 2-1
Final Swiss rounds + Top Cut record: 11-3 — Eliminated in Top 8
How to improve the team
The question now is – does this team have potential to get more results? I truly believe that the team has everything needed to do well at future events, but there are definitely a few things worth considering such as:
- Life Orb on Ninetales – I kept missing crucial rolls during the tournament, and Life Orb would definitely make that better
- Jolly Basculegion – There are a few things that this would be helpful against, like Choice Scarf Modest Gholdengo, Jolly Dragapult and max Speed Talonflame, since that is a speed tie with Adamant Basculegion
- Will-o-Wisp on Magmar didn’t feel that great throughout the tournament – there might be a better move like Clear Smog, Helping Hand or Taunt
Final Words
I hope that I’ll continue doing well in future Masters events, it feels surreal to do so well at my first one.
A few quick shoutouts to my trusty six Pokémon, Koen, Yoship, Ciqarettan and the entire B-lizards team, all of whom made this amazing run possible. I really want to thank the staff of Victory Road for the opportunity to publish this report – it means a lot!
And if you, dear reader, want to support me – please DO NOT switch to Coaching Sneasler in this team!
See y’all soon! Polska Gurom!
