Rating: 8/10. Build details in description.
Slowking-Galar @ Shell Bell
Ability: Curious Medicine or Regenerator
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Modest Nature
– Stored Power
– Skill Swap
– Acid Spray
– Nasty Plot
Vitamins: 25 HP Up (or Health Mochi), 25 Iron (or Resist Mochi)
Feathers: 2 Health Feathers, 2 Resist Feathers
Stats at lvl 100 w/ perfect IVs:
HP : 394
Defense : 259
Sp.Atk. : 281
Sp.Def. : 256
Speed : 96
NPC Advantages: viable with no helpful NPCs but to avoid relying heavily on good heal cheer RNG, needs 1 intimidator (arcanine, tauros, or staraptor) or gardevoir (life dew). does not need both. bellibolt (light screen) helps.
Strategy: skill swap. acid spray. wait for your stats to reset. defense cheer. acid spray until you get KO’d. charge tera orb with acid spray. terastalize ASAP. heal cheer if you need HP. after the 2nd player stat clear, 2x nasty plot. stored power. nasty plot. stored power until salamence resets its stats. optional acid spray. stored power to victory.
Notes : ability should not be own tempo because skill swapping it onto salamence makes it immune to NPC intimidate. at -1 attack, salamence won’t use earthquake against slowking pre-tera. to win without helpful NPCs, your first heal cheer will need to heal at least 50% of max HP. bold nature can be used to boost survival, but it increases likelihood of running out of clock time, especially after using multiple heal cheers.
Pros: tera type matches base type, excellent HP stat, good defense and special defense stats, great special attack stat. no weaknesses after terastalizing. skill swap removes moxie from salamence. acid spray debuffs special defense 2 stages through shield while charging tera orb. nasty plot buffs special attack 2 stages. stored power deals STAB damage (tera-boosted when terastalized). its base power is 20 + (20 * # of positive stat stages), which is 140 at +6 SpAtk. shell bell heals when attacking, an amount equal to 1/8th of damage dealt.
Cons: weak to earthquake before terastalizing. tera type not supereffective, outsped by salamence. can’t debuff attack so post-dragon dance critical hits hit hard.