jake
underdog of the year
speaking of the monkeys, i've been playing around with a bunch of stuff that i've never used before on the ladder and honestly think should be seeing more usage.
sub + 3 attacks simisage: this isn't especially spectacular, but now that it picked up overgrow this is more than good enough to justify using it on the ladder. it plays similarly to other fast grass-types (namely sceptile in RU) but our only other real proprietor of this set was serperior who just got dominated by amoonguss. simisage packs enough of a punch that it can actually 2hko amoonguss after sr which makes it actually worthwhile. still probably not as good as your plethora of other grass-types (ludicolo / exeggutor in particular are significantly better after a turn of setup imo) but it is still a neat addition that works much better than it has in the past.
kangaskhan: ok i've never particularly been a fan of kanga, but between carrying multiple forms of priority and hitting deliciously hard with adamant lo double-edge (or silk scarf if you are a pussy), kanga has really really grown on me as of late. it's a failsafe for just about everything, since you can do stuff like stall out rain turns with fake out and then KO afterwards with sucker punch. i've also seen a few other interesting sets like a subpunch + disable set which looked... interesting, to say the least. obviously it has its issues with dealing with bulkier teams, but you have teammates for that. kangaskhan is just a hugely helpful addition for dealing with all kinds of offensive teams.
piloswine: i talked about this in the last np: thread but good god piloswine is fantastic and it has probably become my favorite sr setter. literally no other sr setter plays so well against the majority of the metagame, and when you live stuff like charizard fire blast and set up sr or go untouched against popular stuff like rotom-a, haunter, and skuntank.. piloswine has such a combination of power, utility, and bulk that lately i cannot seem to build a team without it. :(
a few other brief mentions of sets i've been using; sd mawile was pretty neat, can set up on quite a lot of stuff and hits surprisingly hard with lo sheer force iron head. it struggles if it can't get that opportunity to set up but once it does, you're probably gonna roll. shell smash liechi carracosta - i talked about it in the nu underrated threats smog article, and it's still just as fucking good. you can literally 6-0 a mediocre team just by leading with it (as FLCL has proven...). fraxure is incredibly underrated and has a ton of sweeping potential if you can nab the right opportunity to set up. very, very little can actually stand up to a boosted fraxure and live to tell the tale. uhhhh the last thing i was using was... oh yea, regice. i don't know why i disliked regice for so long but every time i've used it i've been more and more impressed. the thing is incredibly specially bulky and tanks just about everything you'd ever need it to. those of you looking for a reliable answer to ludicolo outside of your own colo, this guy is your MAN.
what stuff have you guys been using? :o
sub + 3 attacks simisage: this isn't especially spectacular, but now that it picked up overgrow this is more than good enough to justify using it on the ladder. it plays similarly to other fast grass-types (namely sceptile in RU) but our only other real proprietor of this set was serperior who just got dominated by amoonguss. simisage packs enough of a punch that it can actually 2hko amoonguss after sr which makes it actually worthwhile. still probably not as good as your plethora of other grass-types (ludicolo / exeggutor in particular are significantly better after a turn of setup imo) but it is still a neat addition that works much better than it has in the past.
kangaskhan: ok i've never particularly been a fan of kanga, but between carrying multiple forms of priority and hitting deliciously hard with adamant lo double-edge (or silk scarf if you are a pussy), kanga has really really grown on me as of late. it's a failsafe for just about everything, since you can do stuff like stall out rain turns with fake out and then KO afterwards with sucker punch. i've also seen a few other interesting sets like a subpunch + disable set which looked... interesting, to say the least. obviously it has its issues with dealing with bulkier teams, but you have teammates for that. kangaskhan is just a hugely helpful addition for dealing with all kinds of offensive teams.
piloswine: i talked about this in the last np: thread but good god piloswine is fantastic and it has probably become my favorite sr setter. literally no other sr setter plays so well against the majority of the metagame, and when you live stuff like charizard fire blast and set up sr or go untouched against popular stuff like rotom-a, haunter, and skuntank.. piloswine has such a combination of power, utility, and bulk that lately i cannot seem to build a team without it. :(
a few other brief mentions of sets i've been using; sd mawile was pretty neat, can set up on quite a lot of stuff and hits surprisingly hard with lo sheer force iron head. it struggles if it can't get that opportunity to set up but once it does, you're probably gonna roll. shell smash liechi carracosta - i talked about it in the nu underrated threats smog article, and it's still just as fucking good. you can literally 6-0 a mediocre team just by leading with it (as FLCL has proven...). fraxure is incredibly underrated and has a ton of sweeping potential if you can nab the right opportunity to set up. very, very little can actually stand up to a boosted fraxure and live to tell the tale. uhhhh the last thing i was using was... oh yea, regice. i don't know why i disliked regice for so long but every time i've used it i've been more and more impressed. the thing is incredibly specially bulky and tanks just about everything you'd ever need it to. those of you looking for a reliable answer to ludicolo outside of your own colo, this guy is your MAN.
what stuff have you guys been using? :o