**To use Houndstone effectively in the current VGC format, leverage its Ghost type typing and build around its top-performing movesets.** Houndstone appears as a prominent choice in the current Pokémon Champions format, with usage data pulled from competitive teams, tournament results and Showdown-ready pastes tracked by MetaVGC. This page brings together its most common moveset, nature, ability, item, teammates and type weaknesses so you can judge where Houndstone fits in a VGC team.

The most common build highlights Sand Rush, Sitrus Berry and Adamant 2/32/0/0/0/32. Its frequent moves include Last Respects, Protect, Will-O-Wisp, Ally Switch, Phantom Force, and Psychic Fangs. Treat those choices as a data-backed starting point: they show what players are bringing, while EV spreads, Tera Type and the final move slot should still respond to your expected matchups.

Defensively, Houndstone has important weaknesses to dark 2x, ghost 2x. That matters during teambuilding because a strong composition needs ways to cover those attacks without giving up offensive pressure. Partners such as excadrill, tyranitar-mega, rotom-wash, venusaur-mega, and corviknight appear often because they can add positioning, type coverage, speed control or safer switches into common checks.

MetaVGC tracks recent teams using Houndstone. Open the Houndstone teams page to compare complete structures, copy Showdown pastes and see how players combine Houndstone with other Pokémon in the active format.