Honchkrow's Merry Band of Thieves [UU team]

[spiderpony]

INTRODUCTION​

So several days ago I was playing randoms and I happened to receive a surprising gift in the form of Honchkrow. I actually got it a couple of times and I was pretty impressed by its variety in moves and its ability Moxie. I was zazzed by it enough to want to make a team featuring it, so this is what I came up with.​

THE TEAM​

From experimenting around and looking through UU, this is what I have come up with so far. I've tried to find a pretty good mix of quick offense with good defense type resistance to keep the team from dying too quickly. With this set that I am posting, it has had some good success. The only trouble it has is with speed boosters in the tier like Sharpedo and Yanmega and stat boosters like Kingdra and Scrafty but that's really the only big issue I see. But anyway, on to the Pokemon!​

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Boss Man (Honchkrow) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Night Slash
- Superpower
- Drill Peck
This set is actuallly pretty nice. Scarf gives me an extra bump in speed to out clock others that might be faster, and it really takes off after a kill or two. This is really more of a revenge kill set as its defensive stats are less than great and it will get locked in with the scarf, so ideal conditions would be to fight with something that has been weakened. I tried using the Life Orb set, but had too much trouble trying to predict when to use Sucker Punch.

Mr.Pink (Flygon) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
- U-turn
Flygon is pretty reliable, especially in pinch situations. Besides it's weaknesses, it can take some damage, allowing it to go in quick and take out a Pokemon or two after a couple Outrages. It's only problem, like I said, was his type weaknesses, which can most of the time prove fatal. Otherwise it has been a great spot on the team.

Amy Geisha (Froslass) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Cursed Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Spikes
- Destiny Bond
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
Frosslass is my go to lead and a great one at that. It outclasses pretty much everyone in the tier, allowing it to set up Spikes and have so much fun with Destiny Bond as a kamikaze due to its Focus Sash. Ice Ball and Shadow Ball round out the set and actually make it a well armed special sweeper. Its one downfalls is in its speed, as with one Thunderwave, it loses a lot of its threat level since Destiny Bond is proved to be pretty much useless while paralyzed.

8-mile Slim (Feraligatr) @ Life Orb
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
Feraligatr is tough. Even though it's RU, it has proved to be pretty well in UU matches, especially after a Dragon Dance. With the given speed and attack bonus, it can hurt anything real bad, even if it does resist the type. The move pool certainly helps even more, able to check a lot of threats. A running theme here seems to be type disadvantage, because that is really the only downside I see. If not facing an electric or grass type that is faster than it, it is a serious threat. But if it is out speeded, it's pretty much done.

Greedy (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 200 SDef / 52 Def / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Earthquake
This jolly wall has proved to be a great staller. It doesn't have a lot of weaknesses so it takes some serious damage to bring it down. Plus with Return STAB it can take on a lot. It can even take a couple fighting type moves which is great for chipping away HP and PP points. I can't see anything wrong with this set as it's always been a reliable one.

Sarsaparilla (Roserade) @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
-Rest
Do not let this little pistol fool you, it's extremely deadly. Responsible for most of my kills in this team, Roserade has proved to be a valuable asset. Speced for speed, it can out run most of the Pokemon I encounter. This along with a fantastic move set and ability, this becomes a dangerous cannon. Even when facing an enemy it isn't super effective against, Sludge Bomb easily dishes out heavy damage with the chance of poison. Aside from a list of type weaknesses, this has proved to be a great choice in rounding out the group.


So that's the team. Like I said, the only real problem besides the obvious type weaknesses are Pokemon that have some way to boost their stats, making the battle much more difficult. Aside from that, I think it's a pretty good team, but am always looking for suggestions and room for improvement. I hope you guys like it!

 

[Scotti]

Solid team spiderpony i only have one suggestion. I think you should change snorlax to a choice band set, so you can break through strong walls and because you have all attack moves and leftovers doesn't really seem to help. Great team though. Oh almost forgot you should take off Drill Peck for Sucker Punch because you already have Brave Bird and some priority seems like it could help.

Hope i Helped

 

[spiderpony]

Solid team spiderpony i only have one suggestion. I think you should change snorlax to a choice band set, so you can break through strong walls and because you have all attack moves and leftovers doesn't really seem to help. Great team though. Oh almost forgot you should take off Drill Peck for Sucker Punch because you already have Brave Bird and some priority seems like it could help.

Hope i Helped

Thanks for the suggestions scotti. I might try out banded Snorlax, though am reluctant to do so since I'd be having three choice item users. I chose Drill Peck for Honchkrow since Brave Bird has a large recoil and I can get some extra flying coverage without the health consequences. I'll certainly give it a try as it'd be good to have a quick hit in against speedier enemies.

 

[7th]

Solid team spiderpony i only have one suggestion. I think you should change snorlax to a choice band set, so you can break through strong walls and because you have all attack moves and leftovers doesn't really seem to help. Great team though. Oh almost forgot you should take off Drill Peck for Sucker Punch because you already have Brave Bird and some priority seems like it could help.

Hope i Helped

The only reason I don't like band, is that you already have 2 choice users... 3 would make your team much less flexible (w/out a spinner hazards get nasty)

If you are having trouble predicting with honchcrow, you could try a lefites set with sub, sucker punch, drill peck, and superpower/roost (latter for longevity)
A plus 1 moxie crow behind a sub is scary, and sub makes your opponent have to predict if you are going to sub, or sucker punch, bringing the prediction game back into your favor.

If you want to keep it scarfed, you could expert/lum on you Flygon for a surprise (when is the last time you've seen one that isn't scarf?)

Other than that, Croc is an awesome, underated poke (although outclassed by azumaril if banded, but your doing it right with the DD set).

Great team, limit the choice items to 2 max.

 

[GenXXZ]

Honchkrow really is a boss, isn't she? Yup. Yeah she is.

What? Rate? Oh yeah, right.

Solid team spiderpony i only have one suggestion. I think you should change snorlax to a choice band set, so you can break through strong walls and because you have all attack moves and leftovers doesn't really seem to help.

Ehhh. I think giving Flygon the Choice Band would be a better option. You never really need two choice scarfers on a team and Choice Band can solve a lot of Flygon's power problems. Snorlax can keep the leftovers; he needs to be here to tank special hits. Speaking of which, you should also definitely run a more defensive Snorlax set. Perhaps RestTalk or the Classic Curselax set.

As much as I admire your Feraligatr, I think replacing him with Calm Mind Slowbro would make your team a lot more balanced. Right now, only your suicide lead and one offensive Pokemon resists ice. That may not seem like that big of an issue, but 90% of the time Ice is used as a coverage move. I could see DD Scrafty absolutely blowing through this team with Ice Punch, same goes for Swampert too. It should also be mentioned that you have no Pokemon on this team that is dedicated to taking physical hits, which means that any physical attacker is going to do a lot of damage to this team. Slowbro is a great Physical tank, especially with Calm Mind.



Since your Roserade is so Offensive, you may want to consider Extrasensory so you can have the upper hand on opposing Roserades and Heracross.


That's it from me! Good to see some Honchkrow use.

 

[Scotti]

I actually think you should run a different Honchrow set since it won't be sweeping if you have Choice Scarf. It will get a few kills for sure, but i don't think it can do much. A sub set seems pretty good allowing you to attack behind a sub. Though the only problem i see is setting up the Sub since Honchrow is so frail. If you don't want to run a sub set a life orb set would be pretty good though. By doing that you can give Snorlax Choice Band, or if you want to keep your current set you could change Flygon to Banded to give it more wall breaking prowess. These are only suggestion, so you really don't have to accept them, but you should always test reasonable suggestions.

Lol didn't know that GenXXZ posted yea i realized that flaw, but banded flygon should help.

 

[spiderpony]

@7th I believe I actually used that set with the random battle that I played Honchkrow with, but forgot what it was. I'll certainly try that as it Honchkrow has a lot of potential and I would like to utilize that. I might try an expert belt Flygon as it would certainly help boost its Fire Punch.

@GenXXZ I tried Choice Band Flygon but had problems getting beat by others in the speed department. RestTalk Snorlax sounds good since I can regenerate lots of health and keep it around for longer. I do agree that there isn't a lot of physical defense on the team, so I'll for sure try out Slowbro as a Calm Mind tank. I think I actually did switch to Extrasensory on Roserade but just forgot to switch the move or something, so good thinking.