Smogon Community - View Single Post - The (Past) Dark Horse Project

Lady Alex · Jan 29th, 2012, 7:53:25 PM

How did you choose your Dark Horse Pokemon for this project?: Originally I chose suicune as my dark horse pokemon because I've always really liked it and thought that a calm mind rest talk variant would be really viable in today's metagame with toxic spike support. Initially I had a lot of success with it, but as I got higher up the ladder, I felt that suicune wasn't able to pull its weight for the extensive support that I had to give it. I decided to give up on suicune and start over, picking cresselia, another favorite of mine. I got the idea after seeing Stunt use sun stall against ojama successfully. My team is nearly the same as his, the only difference being a few set choices.

Do you think it is more difficult or less difficult to ladder with a Dark Horse Pokemon? Why?: For me, it was a lot easier. Cress being such an uncommon pokemon, people either underestimated her or didn't know how to approach her at all

How did you go about building a team for your Dark Horse Pokemon?: Like I said above, the pokemon I used are the same as Stunt's, but I took a different approach to chansey which made a big impact on how my version of his team is played. I found myself having a hard time winning whenever several pokemon of my team got burned from scald or toxiced, so I decided to get rid of toxic on chansey for heal bell. I immediately got a lot more success, though I had to use toxic on cress since I had no room for it on chansey anymore. Toxic on cress was especially useful against tyranitar who felt safe in setting up rocks against cress and politoed who wanted to toxic her.

How did you reach the Hall of Fame?: After making changes to my team and testing it, I just got on my alt and started laddering. It was mostly really easy, because people always underestimated cress, thinking they could safely set up on it, only to lose their dragon or become crippled with toxic. My best advice would be to pick a pokemon who has a truly unique characteristic that makes it shine in today's metagame. I think that if you pick a mediocre pokemon X hoping to use it as a slightly inferior pokemon Y, you won't get very far.

Jan 29th, 2012, 7:53:25 PM	#313
Lady Alex So, I dashed all over the mansion, and I re-killed them; they were pretty alive when I found them Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 418 Stuck between a Stealth Rock and a hard place	How did you choose your Dark Horse Pokemon for this project?: Originally I chose suicune as my dark horse pokemon because I've always really liked it and thought that a calm mind rest talk variant would be really viable in today's metagame with toxic spike support. Initially I had a lot of success with it, but as I got higher up the ladder, I felt that suicune wasn't able to pull its weight for the extensive support that I had to give it. I decided to give up on suicune and start over, picking cresselia, another favorite of mine. I got the idea after seeing Stunt use sun stall against ojama successfully. My team is nearly the same as his, the only difference being a few set choices. Do you think it is more difficult or less difficult to ladder with a Dark Horse Pokemon? Why?: For me, it was a lot easier. Cress being such an uncommon pokemon, people either underestimated her or didn't know how to approach her at all How did you go about building a team for your Dark Horse Pokemon?: Like I said above, the pokemon I used are the same as Stunt's, but I took a different approach to chansey which made a big impact on how my version of his team is played. I found myself having a hard time winning whenever several pokemon of my team got burned from scald or toxiced, so I decided to get rid of toxic on chansey for heal bell. I immediately got a lot more success, though I had to use toxic on cress since I had no room for it on chansey anymore. Toxic on cress was especially useful against tyranitar who felt safe in setting up rocks against cress and politoed who wanted to toxic her. How did you reach the Hall of Fame?: After making changes to my team and testing it, I just got on my alt and started laddering. It was mostly really easy, because people always underestimated cress, thinking they could safely set up on it, only to lose their dragon or become crippled with toxic. My best advice would be to pick a pokemon who has a truly unique characteristic that makes it shine in today's metagame. I think that if you pick a mediocre pokemon X hoping to use it as a slightly inferior pokemon Y, you won't get very far.