Pokémon Team Builder — Weakness & Coverage

How to read the strip

The eighteen columns under your team are the eighteen types that can attack it. They never move and they never reorder, so the shape of the strip is the same shape every time you come back, and you learn to read it once.

Each column fills from the bottom as your team's exposure to that type stacks up. One Pokémon weak to Ground puts a small amount of ink in the Ground column. Three of them fill it. The number in the middle is the plain arithmetic: how many of your six take extra damage, minus how many resist or ignore it.

Two marks matter more than the rest. A column labelled ×4 means something on your team takes quadruple damage: one hit, one Pokémon gone, no calculation needed. A column outlined in ink and labelled OPEN is worse in a quieter way: something takes extra damage from that type and nobody on the team resists it, so there is no safe switch and no way to absorb the hit.

The dots under each number are your six slots in order, so you can see at a glance which members are the ones taking the damage rather than just how many.

Worked example

Below is the strip for the six most-used Pokémon on the current Regulation M-B ladder. Nobody built this team; it is the top of the usage table dropped into six slots. Kingambit at 36.8%, Incineroar at 33.9% and Garchomp at 33.2% lead that table. It is useful precisely because it is not a designed team:

Fighting, Ice, Poison and Rock hits someone for quadruple.
Nothing on the team is weak to Ghost, Grass, Normal and Psychic.

A real team fixes that by changing one slot, not five. The strip tells you which one.

Kingambit

DRK · STL BST 550

Incineroar

FIR · DRK BST 530

Garchomp

DRA · GRD BST 600

Charizard MEGA Y

FIR · FLY BST 634

Whimsicott

GRA · FAI BST 480

Farigiraf

NRM · PSY BST 520

Weakness / Resistance

BUG

1

DRK

1

DRA

1

ELE

1

FAI

1

FGT

2

×4

FIR

2

FLY

1

GHO

0

GRA

0

GRD

2

ICE

2

×4

NRM

0

POI

1

×4

PSY

0

ROK

2

×4

STL

1

WAT

2

×4 damage

Fighting Ice Poison Rock hits something on this team for quadruple.

Holding

4 of 18 types cannot hit anyone here for extra damage. 0 types have no resist anywhere on the team.

Screen recording: a Pokémon is searched for, seated in slot one, and the Weakness and Resistance strip below fills in the columns the team is now exposed to. — Seating a Pokémon updates the strip immediately. There is no build button and nothing to submit.

Nothing to submit

Most team tools ask you to finish before they tell you anything. This one recalculates on every change, because the moment you actually want the answer is the moment you are deciding between two Pokémon, not after you have committed to six.

Search by name, by type, or by what the team is missing. Seat it. The strip moves. If the column you were worried about got shorter, that was the right pick.

Nothing is stored and no account exists. Your team lives in the address bar, which is also how you share it: copy the link and the person who opens it sees the same six and the same strip.

What actually makes a team fragile

Most advice about team building is about offence: coverage, sweepers, what beats what. But the teams that fall apart rarely fall apart because they could not hit something. They fall apart because three of their six answer the same attack the same way, and one Pokémon takes advantage of all three.

There are three distinct failures, and they are not equally bad.

A ×4 weakness

Two types stacking the same weakness is the loudest problem and the easiest to see coming. It is also the most survivable, because it usually belongs to one member: you know which Pokémon cannot come in, and you play around it. The strip marks these because they are worth knowing, not because they are fatal.

A stacked weakness

Three or more of your six taking extra damage from the same type is a different kind of problem. Nothing on the board looks alarming, every individual matchup is merely bad rather than catastrophic, and then a single Pokémon of that type walks in and half the team has to stay in the back. This is the failure the strip's fill height exists to make visible before you have finished building.

An unanswered type

The quiet one. Somewhere on your team is a weakness that no other member resists. You can switch, but every switch takes the hit at neutral or worse. Over a long game this is the weakness that decides it, and it is close to invisible in a list of six Pokémon, which is why the strip outlines it instead of leaving you to notice.

Fixing any of the three is usually a one-slot change. The point of laying all eighteen columns out at once is that you can see whether the change you are considering fixes the hole or simply moves it.

The typings that hold the most

Before you pick Pokémon, it helps to know which defensive typings are structurally sound. The table beside this is computed from the type chart itself — every single type and every one of the 153 two-type combinations, ranked by how few types hit them for extra damage and how many they resist or ignore outright.

None of this depends on stats, abilities or the current metagame. It is arithmetic, and it has been true since the type chart last changed. A Pokémon with one of these typings gives your strip a head start; it does not guarantee a good team, but it means the slot is contributing resistances rather than borrowing them.

Read it alongside your own strip. If your team is stacking Ground weaknesses, a member whose typing resists or ignores Ground is worth more than a stronger Pokémon that does not.

BugSteel 1 weak · 8 resist · 1 immune

DarkPoison 1 weak · 4 resist · 1 immune

GhostNormal 1 weak · 2 resist · 3 immune

GroundWater 1 weak · 4 resist · 1 immune

DarkGhost 1 weak · 1 resist · 3 immune

Electric 1 weak · 3 resist

Normal 1 weak · 0 resist · 1 immune

FairySteel 2 weak · 9 resist · 2 immune

Casual and competitive are the same page

Most people building a team are playing through a game. They want six Pokémon that cover each other, and asking them to set effort values first is how a tool loses them. Casual mode is the default for that reason: seats, types, the strip, and nothing else.

Competitive mode adds what a ladder or tournament team actually needs — ability, held item or Mega Stone, nature, effort values, individual values, four moves, and a legality check against the current regulation with a reason on any slot that fails. It also imports and exports in Pokémon Showdown's paste format, so a team you already have takes about three seconds to bring across.

The switch does not change the address, the team, or the strip. It changes how much of each slot you are being shown. Everything you set in competitive mode survives switching back.

Pokémon Champions, Regulation M-B

Competitive play moved to Pokémon Champions in April 2026, and Scarlet and Violet stopped being the tournament platform on 1 June. Regulation M-B has been the ranked and event format since 17 June 2026 and is the ruleset for the World Championships.

310 Pokémon are legal in this format, and 74 of them are Mega Evolutions. That second number is the one that changes how teams are built: Mega Evolution is back as the marquee mechanic, and Terastallization does not exist in Champions at all. If you are carrying habits over from Scarlet and Violet, that is the habit to drop first. The builder does not offer a Tera type in a Champions format because there is no such thing to offer.

The usage figures beside this are Smogon's published statistics for the Regulation M-B VGC ladder, drawn from 1,764,686 battles. They are ladder data, not tournament results, and they describe what people are playing rather than what is strongest.

Regulation M-B closes on 9 September 2026. When the next set arrives, the legality and usage on this page are regenerated from the same sources rather than rewritten by hand.

Most used, Reg M-B ladder	Usage
Kingambit	36.8%
Incineroar	33.9%
Garchomp	33.2%
Charizard-Mega-Y	30.6%
Basculegion	30.2%
Sinistcha	26.1%
Whimsicott	22.5%
Sneasler	20.9%
Farigiraf	20.2%
Sylveon	17.5%
Floette-Mega	15.0%
Archaludon	14.3%
Pelipper	12.9%
Staraptor-Mega	11.3%
Grimmsnarl	10.4%
Aerodactyl-Mega	9.9%

Figures carry a foil mark anywhere on this site when they come from measured ladder data rather than calculation.

The type chart

Rows attack, columns defend. The strip above is this table applied to six Pokémon at once and summed — which is the only reason a chart this dense is worth memorising in the first place.

Attacking type in rows, defending type in columns. 2 is super effective, ½ is not very effective, 0 is no effect.
	BUG	DRK	DRA	ELE	FAI	FGT	FIR	FLY	GHO	GRA	GRD	ICE	NRM	POI	PSY	ROK	STL	WAT
BUG		2			½	½	½	½	½	2				½	2		½
DRK		½			½	½			2						2
DRA			2		0												½
ELE			½	½				2		½	0							2
FAI		2	2			2	½							½			½
FGT	½	2			½			½	0			2	2	½	½	2	2
FIR	2		½				½			2		2				½	2	½
FLY	2			½		2				2						½	½
GHO		½							2				0		2
GRA	½		½				½	½		½	2			½		2	½	2
GRD	½			2			2	0		½				2		2	2
ICE			2				½	2		2	2	½					½	½
NRM									0							½	½
POI					2				½	2	½			½		½	0
PSY		0				2								2	½		½
ROK	2					½	2	2			½	2					½
STL				½	2		½					2				2	½	½
WAT			½				2			½	2					2		½

Questions

Do I need to know about EVs to use this?

No. Casual mode is the default and it never asks for effort values, natures or individual values. Seat six Pokémon and read the strip. Competitive mode is one switch away when you want the rest.

Which games does it cover?

Every Pokémon from the full National Dex is available to seat, including all Mega Evolutions. Regulation legality is checked against Pokémon Champions, where 310 Pokémon are currently legal in Regulation M-B.

What is a “hole” in my team?

A type that hits at least one of your six for extra damage while nobody on the team resists it. There is no safe answer to that type, so every exchange against it starts badly. The strip outlines those columns in ink.

Is a ×4 weakness always bad?

Not always. It usually belongs to a single member, so you know exactly which Pokémon cannot switch in and you play around it. A weakness shared by three members is more dangerous than a quadruple weakness carried by one.

Can I import a Pokémon Showdown team?

Yes. Switch to competitive mode and paste a Showdown export. Teams export back in the same format.

Does this work on a phone?

It is built for one first. Six slots, the full eighteen-column strip and the search all work at 375px wide with one hand.

Is there Terastallization?

Not in a Pokémon Champions format, because Champions does not have it — Mega Evolution took its place as the format-defining mechanic. Tera controls appear only for formats that actually use them.

How do I share a team?

The team is encoded in the address bar. Copy the link. Anyone who opens it gets the same six Pokémon and the same strip, and nothing is stored on our side.

	BUG	DRK	DRA	ELE	FAI	FGT	FIR	FLY	GHO	GRA	GRD	ICE	NRM	POI	PSY	ROK	STL	WAT
BUG		2			½	½	½	½	½	2				½	2		½
DRK		½			½	½			2						2
DRA			2		0												½
ELE			½	½				2		½	0							2
FAI		2	2			2	½							½			½
FGT	½	2			½			½	0			2	2	½	½	2	2
FIR	2		½				½			2		2				½	2	½
FLY	2			½		2				2						½	½
GHO		½							2				0		2
GRA	½		½				½	½		½	2			½		2	½	2
GRD	½			2			2	0		½				2		2	2
ICE			2				½	2		2	2	½					½	½
NRM									0							½	½
POI					2				½	2	½			½		½	0
PSY		0				2								2	½		½
ROK	2					½	2	2			½	2					½
STL				½	2		½					2				2	½	½
WAT			½				2			½	2					2		½

	BUG	DRK	DRA	ELE	FAI	FGT	FIR	FLY	GHO	GRA	GRD	ICE	NRM	POI	PSY	ROK	STL	WAT
BUG		2			½	½	½	½	½	2				½	2		½
DRK		½			½	½			2						2
DRA			2		0												½
ELE			½	½				2		½	0							2
FAI		2	2			2	½							½			½
FGT	½	2			½			½	0			2	2	½	½	2	2
FIR	2		½				½			2		2				½	2	½
FLY	2			½		2				2						½	½
GHO		½							2				0		2
GRA	½		½				½	½		½	2			½		2	½	2
GRD	½			2			2	0		½				2		2	2
ICE			2				½	2		2	2	½					½	½
NRM									0							½	½
POI					2				½	2	½			½		½	0
PSY		0				2								2	½		½
ROK	2					½	2	2			½	2					½
STL				½	2		½					2				2	½	½
WAT			½				2			½	2					2		½

	BUG	DRK	DRA	ELE	FAI	FGT	FIR	FLY	GHO	GRA	GRD	ICE	NRM	POI	PSY	ROK	STL	WAT
BUG		2			½	½	½	½	½	2				½	2		½
DRK		½			½	½			2						2
DRA			2		0												½
ELE			½	½				2		½	0							2
FAI		2	2			2	½							½			½
FGT	½	2			½			½	0			2	2	½	½	2	2
FIR	2		½				½			2		2				½	2	½
FLY	2			½		2				2						½	½
GHO		½							2				0		2
GRA	½		½				½	½		½	2			½		2	½	2
GRD	½			2			2	0		½				2		2	2
ICE			2				½	2		2	2	½					½	½
NRM									0							½	½
POI					2				½	2	½			½		½	0
PSY		0				2								2	½		½
ROK	2					½	2	2			½	2					½
STL				½	2		½					2				2	½	½
WAT			½				2			½	2					2		½