Using its numerous strong points, including a great typing, powerful STAB moves, and the immediate and devastating power of its held Z-Crystal, Garchomp can be a very effective wallbreaker and entry hazard setter. Its great type combination allows it to find plenty of setup opportunities against Pokemon like Mega Charizard Y and Volcarona. Swords Dance lets it pick up KOs against various entry hazard removers like Great Tusk, Landorus-T, and Gliscor, making Garchomp a very effective hazard setter. Outrage has limited usage, as it leaves Garchomp vulnerable to Fairy-types and Steel-types, but it can allow Garchomp to trade with a Ground-immune switch-in like Landorus-T or Gliscor in a pinch; however, Dragonium Z with Outrage allows Garchomp to bruteforce past some of its biggest checks like Landorus-T, Great Tusk, and Alomomola. Stone Edge is a much safer move than, letting Garchomp hit Flying-types like Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Moltres super effectively and also hit Ground-immune Pokemon like Corviknight and Landorus-T. Rockium Z allows Garchomp to hit Corviknight, Landorus-T, and Gliscor for bigger damage, but it leaves Garchomp weaker against its other checks.

Utilising its various traits, such as a great defensive profile and high power STAB moves, Garchomp can find a spot on team structures like hyper offense and bulky offense. Its role as a great entry hazard setter shouldn't be ignored either, as it can scare away certain defensive Pokemon like Gholdengo and Toxapex, giving it good opportunities to set up hazards as they switch out. Due to being able to take care of Mega Charizard Y and Volcarona, it can form a great hazard stacking core with Ferrothorn, which is otherwise very weak to the aforementioned Fire-types. Ferrothorn can act as a great switch-in against Dragon-types such as Dragonite and Roaring Moon and Fairy-types such as Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko. Special attacking cleaners like Iron Valiant, Mega Diancie, and Volcarona are helped by Garchomp's ability to eliminate most of the defensive Poison-types including Toxapex, Clodsire, and Galarian Slowking. Pokemon like Iron Valiant, Choice Scarf Tapu Lele, and Weavile are all great checks to Garchomp, being able to immediately shut it down. Mega Scizor can help against them, being able to take hits and dish out big damage in return. Garchomp may also help circumvent Mega Scizor's four times weakness to Fire-type moves. A notorious wall to Garchomp's Z-Move set is Corviknight, which via its typing and bulk is able to shrug off Garchomp's attacks and recover with Roost. As such, special attackers like Raging Bolt, Zapdos, and Mega Charizard Y prove great allies to Garchomp, which in return can deal with common specially defensive walls such as Clodsire, Toxapex, and Heatran.

Garchomp leverages its good defensive typing and decent bulk to become a solid tank that checks several prominent Pokemon, including Mega Charizard Y, Heatran, and Volcarona. Toxic allows Garchomp to deal with Mega Charizard Y and bulky Volcarona while also punishing several Pokemon that would otherwise switch in easily, such as Great Tusk, Zamazenta, and Moltres. Protect allows Garchomp to rack up Toxic damage, keep itself as healthy as possible with Leftovers, and scout Choice-locked foes such as Choice Scarf Hisuian Samurott and Choice-locked Tapu Lele. Garchomp is a solid entry hazard setter, as it can pressure some common hazard removal options, most notably Great Tusk, Terapagos, and Zapdos, with Toxic. Dragon Tail is a good alternative if the team has other hazard setters, as it lets Garchomp rack up hazard damage and temporarily remove foes that might try to set up on it, such as Air Balloon Gholdengo, Swords Dance Gliscor, and Swords Dance Kartana. Leftovers allows Garchomp to stay healthy throughout the game and synergizes well with Protect, while Rough Skin punishes contact moves from the likes of Urshifu-R, Hisuian Samurott, and Great Tusk. The given EV spread allows Garchomp to best check special attackers like Mega Charizard Y and Volcarona, while the Speed EVs allow it to outrun Modest Heatran. 40 Speed EVs with a Jolly Nature let Garchomp outrun Raging Bolt, but the reduction in bulk makes Garchomp noticeably worse against Gholdengo and Heatran, and Garchomp can't safely switch into Raging Bolt anyway.

This Garchomp set fits well on offense and bulky offense teams, as it has limited longevity but provides these teams with much needed role compression in checking Mega Charizard Y, Heatran, and Volcarona while also setting up entry hazards. Garchomp does well supporting offensive teammates that dislike these specific threats, such as Gholdengo, Kingambit, and Kartana. Gholdengo is an especially good teammate, as it can deny hazard removal attempts from Terapagos and Zapdos, which is important as Garchomp has limited longevity and will likely not be able to repeatedly set up hazards in longer games. Alomomola is another solid teammate, as it can pivot into threatening physical attackers such as Great Tusk, Mega Lopunny, and Zamazenta that Garchomp cannot reliably handle, due to the frequency with which they run Ice-type coverage. It also can Wish pass to keep Garchomp healthy. Knock Off users such as Kingambit, Kartana, and Mega Scizor can remove Heavy-Duty Boots from the likes of Zapdos, Moltres, and Terapagos, therefore letting Garchomp's hazards make significant progress by themselves. Fast and powerful offensive teammates such as Tapu Koko and Zamazenta appreciate Garchomp taking a few strong hits from the likes of Mega Charizard Y, Gholdengo, and Heatran, and they can make up for Garchomp's lack of longevity by generating significant offensive pressure. The aforementioned teammates can also help revenge kill certain faster threats that Garchomp dislikes, such as Ogerpon-W, Kartana, and Mega Diancie.

Garchomp serves as a dangerous cleaner due to Loaded Dice giving the possibility of boosting its Speed and dealing damage at the same time. It is able to leverage its great typing to find setup opportunities against Pokemon like Mega Charizard Y and unboosted Volcarona. Fire Fang gives it great coverage against Mega Scizor, Corviknight, and Ferrothorn.

Garchomp fits best on bulky offense and hyper offense structures, where its combination of Swords Dance and Scale Shot can quickly overwhelm the opposing team if not taken care of properly. It uses its powerful combination of STAB moves to prey on a lot of bulky Pokemon like Toxapex, Dragonite, and Galarian Slowking, to the benefit of teammates like Volcarona, Raging Bolt, and Iron Valiant. Garchomp's typing leaves it weak to attacks from notable Pokemon like Tapu Lele, Iron Valiant, and Weavile while also not being able to do much against Landorus-T, which can come in very often to drop Garchomp's Attack via Intimidate. Mega Scizor is a great solution to this problem, as it can take hits from the aforementioned Pokemon while being able to consistently force Landorus-T out. Urshifu-R can also be a great teammate for it, as it can lure in Toxapex and Raging Bolt, which then get removed by Garchomp. The Defense drops from Scale Shot leave Garchomp vulnerable to strong priority users like Weavile, Dragonite, and Kingambit. Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge is able to circumvent this issue by making these priority moves unable to hit. In exchange, Garchomp is able to take care of Tapu Lele's counters like Gholdengo and Heatran. Tapu Lele is also able to eliminate Great Tusk, which also presents itself as a threat to Garchomp by being able to shrug off its hits easily and KO it in return with an Ice Spinner.