LC Playstyles: Hyper Offense

Rowan

The professor?
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blarajan

I'm sure everyone knows that offense is a very strong playstyle in LC and this thread aims to advise players on how to go about creating and useing a successful offensive team, focusing on offensive synergy. When most players think about 'synergy' in Pokemon, they think about defensive cores which resist each others weaknesses to allow easy switching. However, offensive synergy is about offensive Pokemon working together to bring overwhelm defensive Pokemon.

Wall-breakers
When building an offensive team, wall-breakers are some of the most important Pokemon to include. They do exactly what the name suggests: weaken walls to allow other offensive Pokemon to sweep through their counters. When using a wall-breaker you have to think about what kind of walls they can weaken to allow something else to sweep. For example, Murkrow can often weaken Rock-type Pokemon which may allow another Flying-type, such as Taillow or Fletchling, to sweep. For a wall-breaker to be successful, they'll need 2 things: immense power, and good coverage. Here a few examples:


Life Orb Murkrow, is known as one of the most threatening Pokemon in Little Cup and for good reason. With 85/85/91 offenses and a moveset of Brave Bird, Sucker Punch, Heat Wave and Hidden Power Grass or Dark Pulse, there are hardly any Pokemon that can avoid a 2HKO. Although it's prone to getting worn down very quickly due to recoil from Brave Bird and Life Orb and a weakness to Stealth Rock, it's still sure to take a couple of Pokemon down with it, or at least severely weaken them.


Meditite is the most powerful physical attacker in the tier due to its ability, Pure Power. Equipped with a Life Orb, there aren't many Pokemon that can withstand its attacks. With good dual STABS in Zen Headbutt and Drain Punch or High Jump Kick, alongside coverage in the form of Thunder Punch, it can put a large amount of pressure on the opposing team and easily take out a couple of Pokemon if played well.


Although, not quite as powerful as Murkrow or Meditite, Pawniard has one thing that sets it apart as a wall-breaker; STAB Knock Off. As most defensive Pokemon will carry Eviolite, Knock Off will drastically reduce their bulk, allowing something else to sweep past its counters. Dark and Steel provide perfect coverage outside of opposing Pawniard, Houndour and Carvanha, which allows it to hit a large proportion of the tier for decent damage.

Further Wallbreakers:
Life Orb Abra
Life Orb Bunnelby
DeapSeaTooth Clamperl
Adaptability Corphish
Thick Club Cubone
Life Orb Gastly
Life Orb Houndour
Choice Specs Taillow
Life Orb Vulpix


Example Hyper-Offensive Cores
An offensive core will often focus on a few Pokemon that are countered by similar things, so that they eventually wear their counters down. They can include wall-breakers or just a pair of sweepers that can sweep one after the other to completely destroy the opposing team. A fantastic thing to include in a hyper-offensive core is a lure. A lure is a Pokemon which has a slightly unexpected set, allowing it to take down its usual checks and counters.
The following three cores provide three different methods of luring a counter, either by removing it or crippling it, and another Pokemon which can take advantage of this.

1) Destiny Bond
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Known as threatening sweepers in their own right, when paired together, Carvanha and Tirtouga make a very threatening offensive core. Thanks to its egg move, Destiny Bond, Carvanha can often remove a Fighting-type, such as Mienfoo or Meditite, or a Grass-type, such as Foongus or Lileep, which allows Tirtouga to sweep without having to worry about these Pokemon.

Other notable users of Destiny Bond include Drifloon, Honedge, Gastly, Misdreavus and Houndour.

2) Trick or Switcheroo
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Noibat can run an effective Choice Specs set with Switcheroo which can cripple many Pokemon. It can trick a Choice Specs onto a Pawniard, Chinchou and other Flying-type counters. It can stop them recovering with Berry Juice, or remove their bulk from Eviolite and can completely cripple any Physical attacker. If you successfully do this, Taillow will have a much easier cleaning late in the game.

Other notable users of Trick and Switcheroo include Misdreavus, Gastly, Buneary, Binacle and Inkay.

3) Unexpected coverage moves.

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Mienfoo has access to Stone Edge,which can easily remove 2 common switch-ins to it, Larvesta and Ponyta. Once this happens, its not hard to set up a Swords Dance with Pawniard and sweep, without worrying about a burn or a super-effective Fire move.

There are many Pokemon which can utilize an unexpected coverage move. The most notable move is Hidden Power, which all Special attackers have access to. Pokemon that have 4x weaknesses are very susceptible to being lured by unexpected coverage.

Other things to consider:

-Easing Switches

As hyper-offensive teams aren't going to be utilizing walls, it can be much harder to switch between Pokemon. These are two good methods that offensive teams use to make switching easier:

1) Volt-Turn
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Volt-Turn is a particular type of offense that allows offensive teams to always have the upper-hand. Its a very simple strategy to use; if you have a Mienfoo out, and predict a Poison- or Fairy-type to switch in, you can easily U-turn out to Magnemite which will have the advantage against these Pokemon. Then, if you predict a Fighting-type to switch into Magnemite, you can use Volt Switch to switch in Larvesta and so on. Volt Switch and U-turn also provide a way to get frail sweepers into battle safely.

Other notable users of Volt-Turn include Chinchou, Taillow, Fletchling, Bunnelby, Darumaka and Elekid.

2) Defensive synergy

Although this thread primarily focuses on offensive synergy, having good defensive synergy is important in any team. For this to work on offensive teams, you often have to consider what types of Pokemon your sweepers can set up on.

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Scraggy and Fletchling provide a good core of set-up sweepers that can easily switch into each others counters. If Mienfoo, Timburr or Croagunk are threatening Scraggy, Fletchling can switch into them and use them as set-up bait. Likewise, Scraggy can set up on the Rock- or Steel-types which can threaten Fletchling.

-Hazards


Due to the offensive pressure that offensive teams have, it is often very difficult to use Rapid Spin or Defog against them, making hazards very viable. Stealth Rock and Spikes help to wear down opposing walls, and help sweepers net some KOs. Sticky Web allows slower sweepers to be even more threatening. Because you don't want to lose momentum, its very important to get hazards up early in offensive teams, and therefore dedicated suicide leads like Dwebble and Surskit are useful. It's not advisable to use bulky walls such as Ferroseed for your hazard setter in hyper-offensive teams, as this could allow your opponent to gain offensive momentum, which can be difficult to get back.

Conclusion

When building hyper-offense teams, it is very important to think of offensive synergy and how you can remove walls for a sweeper to sweep. If you start teambuilding with a late-game set-up sweeper, think of ways you can lure and remove its counters for it to sweep. For example, if you want to use a Belly Drum Zigzagoon, you might want to consider pairing it with Life Orb Murkrow to wear down Rock- and Steel-types or Pursuit Pawniard to remove Ghost-types. If you start building with a wall-breaker think of Pokemon that appreciate it wearing down certain threats. For example, if you want to use Life Orb Houndour, consider Pokemon that appreciate Water-, Fighting- and Rock-types being worn down, such as Shell Smash Dwebble.
 
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I made a team with 6 scarf mons for fun, and it worked out pretty well. You just need synergy. That's essential for every team. Hyper offense or not.
 
Good read, hyper offense is one of the scariest things to play against because of how unforgiving of mistakes it is for both sides. I'd add wallbreakers as a section to include things like Clamperl, LO Meditite, Specs Tailow, LO Gastly, etc.
 

Rowan

The professor?
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Good read, hyper offense is one of the scariest things to play against because of how unforgiving of mistakes it is for both sides. I'd add wallbreakers as a section to include things like Clamperl, LO Meditite, Specs Tailow, LO Gastly, etc.
I've added some further wallbreakers to the OP but not written descriptions on them because I don't think it's necessary to write descriptions on all of them, and they generally all work similarly. If anyone has any other cool wallbreakers then feel free to post about them!

Also, everyone should feel free to post any more offensive cores you've been using, or any cool lures you've thought up etc.
 
Could Wynaut be considered a wallbreaker? It Encores their non-attacking moves then gives you time to set up with a sweeper like Tirtouga, etc
 
Ok then a fantastic offensive core i have been using is actually physically defensive wynaut+carvahnna. Wynaut comes in and traps all the fighting types that carvahnna loses to (besides scraggy) and can ko back with counter (mienfoo does not want to u-turn less they lose another poke) and then with counters removed carvahnna easily cleans up. This core can also be applied to pawniward tirtouga and many more.
 
LO Mienfoo HJK hits like a truck, and it has Knock Off and U-turn for anything it can't kill.

Has nobody mentioned Torchic? +2+2 anything is incredibly scary, and so is +1+1+1 from Curse Torchic. Torchic + Meditite + Deerling is a scary BP core.

Also apparently LO Elekid is good at wallbreaking? It has great coverage, 20 speed, and Volt Switch.

ALSO SOAKCHOU IS THE BEST GRASS LURE

Also Scarf Frillish / Scarf Vulpix / Mixed Dratini are pretty awesome late game cleaners + revenge killers + nukes. Click STAB move and watch things die.
 
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Anthiese

formerly Jac
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
I can confirm that Soakchou is a shithead at luring grass mons

Speaqking of wallbreaking why havent we touched on dat Cranidos?

Head Smash p much 2hkos all neutrals hits
Zen Headbutt cause why not and fuk poison types
Crunch = gg ghost switch ins
Earthquake? fuggeaboutit watch things die

Mold Breaker to catch those hip to your ways... or Web Support LO + SF to really catch folks off guard since 2/4 get a boost (i might be wrong cause idr if flinch counts as a SF flag)

But if you want a HO Wallbreaker, look no further.

EDIT: Wynaut a wallbreaker? awk but i can see what you mean.
 
LO/Band Cranidos 1 shots basically the whole tier but takes too much prediction, needs Adamant, and needs a completely free switch in to do anything which is what keeps it from being entirely competitive. It was really good at the end of Gen V when everyone ran Foongus/Mienfoo/Chinchou/Larvesta cores on almost every team, but it wasn't good when Gligar was around.

Maybe it's changed, who knows, will have to test.
 

tcr

sage of six tabs
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Also I just noticed, but Sticky Web offense should be in its own subcategory. Sticky Web isnt just "another hazard," it was literally the definition of early Gen 6 meta. Teams that ran Pawniard+Surskit+Bunnelby+meditite dominated the metagame to a degree that I heard people regard it as "noob strategy" similar to ChloroTang. Lumping it in with Spikes stacking is not doing it ustice at all :< especially since there are many viable benifactors of sticky web, like pawniard, honedge, meditite, amaura, bunnelby, etc.
 

Anthiese

formerly Jac
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
LO/Band Cranidos 1 shots basically the whole tier but takes too much prediction, needs Adamant, and needs a completely free switch in to do anything which is what keeps it from being entirely competitive. It was really good at the end of Gen V when everyone ran Foongus/Mienfoo/Chinchou/Larvesta cores on almost every team, but it wasn't good when Gligar was around.

Maybe it's changed, who knows, will have to test.
there are a few unwanted 2hkos but qq Scarf Cranidos is the matchmaker for me. I think really one of the only 2hko i had was gligar and that's gone now. Most evio physical mons are absolutely maimed by EQ/Crunch if they resist Head Smash.
 
archen can be a pretty neat wallbeaker... the opponent is forced to sac something as rock +flying +earthquake offensive options are hard to resist or avoid the 2hko in general
 
there are a few unwanted 2hkos but qq Scarf Cranidos is the matchmaker for me. I think really one of the only 2hko i had was gligar and that's gone now. Most evio physical mons are absolutely maimed by EQ/Crunch if they resist Head Smash.
Both have their own advantages and serve their own roles.

252+ Atk Cranidos Head Smash vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 22-27 (95.6 - 117.3%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Sheer Force Cranidos Crunch vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 22-26 (95.6 - 113%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Cranidos Head Smash vs. 212 HP / 196+ Def Eviolite Spritzee: 16-21 (59.2 - 77.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

But...
252+ Atk Cranidos Head Smash vs. 156 HP / 236 Def Eviolite Mienfoo: 9-11 (39.1 - 47.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

While SF LO Cranidos...
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Cranidos Zen Headbutt vs. 156 HP / 236 Def Eviolite Mienfoo: 23-29 (100 - 126%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Cranidos Superpower vs. 236 HP / 196 Def Eviolite Porygon: 23-29 (88.4 - 111.5%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Cranidos Rock Slide vs. 212 HP / 196+ Def Eviolite Spritzee: 13-17 (48.1 - 62.9%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO
 

Anthiese

formerly Jac
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Both have their own advantages and serve their own roles.

252+ Atk Cranidos Head Smash vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 22-27 (95.6 - 117.3%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Sheer Force Cranidos Crunch vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 22-26 (95.6 - 113%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Cranidos Head Smash vs. 212 HP / 196+ Def Eviolite Spritzee: 16-21 (59.2 - 77.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

But...
252+ Atk Cranidos Head Smash vs. 156 HP / 236 Def Eviolite Mienfoo: 9-11 (39.1 - 47.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

While SF LO Cranidos...
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Cranidos Zen Headbutt vs. 156 HP / 236 Def Eviolite Mienfoo: 23-29 (100 - 126%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Cranidos Superpower vs. 236 HP / 196 Def Eviolite Porygon: 23-29 (88.4 - 111.5%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Cranidos Rock Slide vs. 212 HP / 196+ Def Eviolite Spritzee: 13-17 (48.1 - 62.9%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO

i prefer scarf still since i need fast and heavy hitting kos but i'll keep those in mind if i decide to change that team up.
 
I think you can put snubbull under defensive synergy as it is great for offensive teams by not killing momentum, and simultaneously providing an answer to fighting type mons.
 

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