The Dark Horse Project IV

Round 2?

Birkal said:

Jobriq, what convinced you to use Mandibuzz on a Hail team? You didn't release your entire team (which is cool) but I'm just curious as to what went on in your mind in the teammate selecting phase there. I am by no means saying it's a bad choice! I am just genuinely curious as to why you picked that Pokemon specifically.

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I discovered Mandibuzz in a Randbat against TropiOUs on PS, in which she was practically invincible, but eventually brought down through parahax and regice. I was surprised that a pokemon with incredible 110/105/95 defenses was struggling in RU. I remembered seeing her on an OU sand team, but I found it difficult to fit her on a sand team of my own, since the larger variety of sand-immune pokemon makes it harder to justify a team slot for her. Gliscor, for example, can be played similarly to a physically defensive Mandibuzz. I turned to Hail teams where Mandibuzz fits more easily as only ice types and those with certain abilities are immune. I had used his team before, so I used Delko's Christmas RMT: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3458509 as a starting point and his Heatran set made it on my team unchanged.

My whole team here:(I've been wanting to make an RMT but I never got around to it)
It's worth mentioning this team was made early BW2, before Genesect and Techniloom were released. Also, you'll notice the team is seriously weak to terrakion, which is why I'm not gonna try to ladder any higher. Tspikes was how I brought down Terrakion usually, so any team with Terrakion and Tentacruel or Starmie usually wrecked me.
Finally, since it seems no one else is using him...
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Spores
Hall of Fame Standing: Silver?
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Smeargle
Current Ladder Standing: None

Not sure if I should go for baton pass or spike stacking...

Forgot to ladder since... basically my last post in here.
I'll try to remember tonight.

thanks for fixing my Suicune gif link, Pocket :o

dw lavos it's like the sixth of october lol, shit's gonna go down if SIU remembers to keep laddering
EDIT: well, weak for the moment lol ;)

Anyway let's all give Pocket a hand for that crazy hof update, that was huge and this thread is getting long >_> I've also updated my post accordingly, so once Pocket clears the next few hofs that we've got in here (jobriq's silver, electrolyte's, and that correction for molk... i think that's all, as of this post), we should all be in working order. Keep it up, OU!

alkinesthetase said:

dw lavos it's like the sixth of october lol, shit's gonna go down if SIU remembers to keep laddering

Anyway let's all give Pocket a hand for that crazy hof update, that was huge and this thread is getting long >_> I've also updated my post accordingly, so once Pocket clears the next few hofs that we've got in here (jobriq's silver, electrolyte's, and that correction for molk... i think that's all, as of this post), we should all be in working order. Keep it up, OU!

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shake is one of the weak challengers i was mentioning...

and yeah big hand to pocket for being so on top of all this hof stuff, i've bugged him so much about updating my rank every other battle and he's not even complained about my constant bitching!

also another big hand to alkinesthetase for being a good guy in general

Updated my post with top 100 screenshot for arcanine.

@eranu- Your deoxys-D is safe for now, but watch out! (If I understand the new rule correctly, anyway DX)

yep, as pocket said: if player X holds the current hall of fame slot for a certain mon, and you 1) beat player X's ladder rating and 2) either match or exceed their leaderboard rank with said mon, then you can take that hall of fame position from them. lots of mons are on the table 8D

oh and yeah if you make or improve hall of fame standing, it's good to leave a new post in addition to updating the old one, so we'll notice right away - as much as that will clutter the thread, it'll also make bookkeeping a little easier when we wander in after an hour or two to see who's gotten where.

HoF is updated again! The silver rank is filling quickly, thanks to Joybriq and Electrolyte's success in MandiHail and Mixed Cobalion, respectively! Molk has also ascended to the ranks of Platinum with his Stoutland team xD

Amazing Discussion Responses, Electrolyte - it was an enjoyable read! I appreciate that you have identified the purpose of this project so well - to discover the many plethora of useful mons that happen to be forgotten for more conventional ones. Finding your Dark Horse Pokemon the niche that it can perform best is another excellent advice.

I realized that I have wrongly placed SubakSupreme in Bronze, so I have placed him in Silver where he belongs. Really interesting team, too - Normal Gem Explosion Ferrothorn, Double Dose of STAB Hurricanes - pure IDGAF heavy offense >:D ScarfToed may put you at a vulnerable spot, though - I'd prefer a support physically defensive Toed with Ice Beam and either Encore or Perish Song. Also Scarf Terrakion and to a lesser extent Scarf Keldeo seems like a rather big threat to this team, so I would try minimizing this weakness by, again, going bulky with Politoed and possibly replacing Dragonite for Pokemon like Toxicroak or Breloom.

Congrats Electrolyte! I've been using that same Cobalion set, actually, except with Stone Edge over Taunt. (originally saw it in the Creative movesets thread) I've used it on a sort of VoltTurn team, forming a core with Genesect and Landorus-T. I've got Lead Terrakion (who has Taunt, hence why I don't have Taunt on Cobalion; LO Latios for my main special threat; and Mamoswine.

Also, I think the thread title needs to be updated; post 170 isn't anything significant.

Updated my post with my Arcanine set and team. I also peaked higher than I did earlier (Couldn't quite take Deoxys-D away from Eranu. Tied with glicko2 but only ranked 68. Went on a heavy tilt afterward).

round 3 get

heres my peak:

here is my ladder record: ou 2106 94 2217 ± 79 (provisional) 29 3 0

and here are my detailed descriptions =).


Scrafty @ Leftovers
Trait: Shed Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Drain Punch / Hi Jump Kick
- Crunch
- Ice Punch

Ever since its introduction in generation 5, Scrafty has been one of my favorite Pokemon, idk why, i just like it, lol. I know Scrafty recently dropped to UU for being "bad" in OU, but when i used him, he did fine, im not sure whats supposed to be wrong with him tbh. Out of the 29 wins i had on my alt, just about half of them were scrafty sweeping my opponents team once their check/counter was weakened, lol. One of the main things i like about DD scrafty is that it can take quite a few neutral hits even uninvested, 65/115/115 is more than enough to take your fair share of hits. Thanks to these defenses, Scrafty doesnt care about priority too much either, in fact, the only priority user who can actually OHKO a full health scrafty is LO breloom, and even then it needs a high damage roll to do so. Thanks to Scrafty's impressive bulk, its rather easy to get up a DD, in fact, i can usually get off two without much trouble if i play well. Drain Punch is awesome on Scrafty, thanks to Scrafty's low hp stat, a boosted Drain Punch can give it a lot of health, often putting it out of the KO range of my opponents revenge killer! Hi Jump Kick is also an option if you want/need more power on your team, but whenever i use it, i always miss the sweet, sweet recovery Drain Punch provides. Crunch and Ice Punch hit what drain punch cant, mainly Ghosts, Psychics, and Fliers(i cannot tell you how many matches i have won by simply setting rocks and hitting a tornadus-T on the switch with Ice Punch, lol). Ice Punch also comes in handy against Dragon-types like dnite and haxorus, and it also stops gliscor from walling me =). I chose lefties shed skin mainly for the longetivity it provided in tandem with Drain Punch, as well as to make Scrafty a pretty good status absorber, but i also like a Lum Moxie set on more offensive teams, that way Scrafty needs to set up less to sweep, and also gets a free attack boost from knocking out things like tornadus-T and terrakion on the switch. Ill post that set in hide tags as well =). Overall, i really liked scrafty during my ladder run, despite what other people say about it being a piece of shit/unviable.

Lum Moxie



Amoonguss @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 28 SAtk / 232 SDef
Calm Nature
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]

I actually used Amoonguss in my Weavile run, but it had already been taken by another user, then the new rule set in and i asked pocket if i could add amoonguss to my post, he mentioned that i should probably use it on a different alt, so i added it to my Scrafty team. Amoonguss was the perfect fit for my team atm, i had slowbro before i even added amoonguss, so of course i had to take advantage of that regenerator core. Amoonguss also helped out against Breloom, Water types, Celebi lacking Psychic, certain pokemon used on sun, most electric types, etc. Amoonguss also served as a last minute "oh shit" button against quite a few pokemon thanks to its bulk and access to spore. Amoonguss doesnt really hit that hard, but Spore more than makes up for the lack of firepower. With Spore, Amoonguss basically gets a free KO every match bar sleep talk and things like sap sipper/first turn wakes. I usually dont spore with amoonguss until i predict something threatening like Tornadus-T coming in to take a giga drain or something, crippling the biggest threat to my team often leads to me getting free wins out of battles that would have been very difficult otherwise. I chose hidden power fire in the last slot to lure in annoying things like Ferrothorn, Forretress, Scizor, and Genesect and cripple them. The main and pretty much only problem i had with amoonguss is that it was rather easy to switch into after sleep clause activated, and could often end up being dead weight for the rest of the match, but in the end, i really liked Amoonguss, he was the perfect fit for my team, and he played a crucial role in pulling a win with scrafty thanks to spore's free turns =).

EDIT: something funny i noted, both of my other dark horse alts are in that screenshot as well, lol.


Im going to ladder a bit more with this alt and see how it goes :).

Stop making me have to do more ladder runs :(

somebody kick Lavos out of GM, thanks >:0

set used this time:
Froslass (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Spikes
- Ice Beam
- Destiny Bond
- Taunt

Short version: Set hazards, prevent other mons from getting them, and if you get the chance, get a free kill without really trying. I picked Cursed Body because I didn't want hail and I felt it would be the superior choice to potentially stop a mon from attacking (think Terrakion) and give me a second or third layer of spikes.

I actually changed this cutie set a bit while laddering with it. Originally I had Shadow Ball because it can 3hko Deoxys-D, but eventually decided to scrap it for Ice Beam because Taunt would prevent Deo-D from doing its job(unless random Magic Coat) , and would make eliminating it with other pokemon easier later in the game. I also decided to use Ice beam because emergency check to Breloom is cool.

Lol molk has 3 alts in the top 30... at this rate he'll make HoF with every pokemon in UU... also I'm probably gonna try something else since I can't seem to make smeargle work in OU ;_; baton pass is fun until you get crit.
Edit:Trop's froslass (previous post) totally trolled my crappy baton pass team

Edit2:
I've decided to use the mascot of the DHP (or its evolved form) cuz why not?
Pokemon Showdown! Username: ThreeStrika
Hall of Fame Standing: Silver?
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Zebstrika
Current Ladder Standing: None

Made it after getting a +18 win streak and subsequently crashing and burning in spectacular fashion, losing 9 in a low...

Conveniently for me I don't need to take a screenshot: confirming as Qomolangma in the screenshot in the previous post. Cheers, TropiOUs!

YES YOU DO

Here's the set I used. Quite creative, don't you think?

Ditto transformed into Arceus!

Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Quirky Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Transform
-
-
-

I literally threw Ditto onto a team at complete random and called it a day. I knew that doing so would normally doom your team to failure, though Ditto is one of the few Pokemon that any team can utilise, regardless of playstyle.

To describe Ditto's performance in one word - inconsistent. There were many games where Ditto did nothing useful at all, yet I also had matches where Ditto was an absolutely crucial team member. Ditto makes for an excellent win condition: it can turn the tables on a seemingly lost game in an instant, thanks to its amazing ability. Given the offensive nature of the metagame, a dedicated revenge killer isn't really a wasted slot in my opinion. It doesn't always pull its weight, but few things are more satisfying than sweeping a team with a Ditto (second only to sweeping with Spinda).

The fact that Ditto is so underused also helped its cause. I swear half the ladder doesn't even know about Ditto's new ability, as its presence in my team preview didn't stop people trying to set up their DDMences and such. Sure it faces massive competition for a team slot, but it's a failsafe like no other that deserves more love. I hope my success proves that Ditto isn't just a gimmick in OU.

phew was playing games and the time was flying so i nearly forgot to do a late-night update! also, i'm so used to seeing zebraiken while lurking in NU that i thought the mon itself was called zebraiken (rather than zebstrika)... >_> too much smogon for me

and wow molk AND trop at 3 alts each, this is gonna be absolutely crazy. if you guys actually fill up the hall of fame this month we are gonna be clamping down on reqs SOOO much next month i swear. keep it up OU!

also, first blood to molk, who successfully stole amoonguss from clubbingsealcub with his scrafty/amoonguss alt! sealcub is still in hof thanks to sandslash, but let's get this shit started guys, it's a dark horse free for all!

Going for it again!

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Aoraki
Hall of Fame Standing: Silver
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Victini, Cresselia
Current Ladder Standing on Pokemon Showdown!: 1000

Speaking of first blood, Lady Alex is also close to kicking Eranu's Deoxys-D out of HoF, since their rating is tied atm! It's worth it, too, because just a little push and Arcanine would reach Silver :d

I'd like to know more about your Arcanine, Lady Alex! Did it meet your expectations? How well did it contribute to your HO team?

Congrats, DarkBlazeR, in becoming the highest ranked HoFer in Silver Class with Ditto! I urge you to keep on playing despite the recent loss streak to get yourself into Gold :d

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It did pretty well. It wasn't very frequently the all star of the team, but it wasn't a burden. It's pretty difficult to switch into. It's a shame I wasn't able to steal Deoxys-D, but I've tilted so hard that I'm going to move on to my next pokemon (which I'll be stealing xD)

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Triangles
Hall of Fame Standing: Platinum
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Mew, ninjask, mr. mime
Current Ladder Standing: None

Finished

Proof


Team


It's a BP team. la. di. da.

I've been having a lot of success with Rotom-H, so I'd like to give this a shot.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Super Tofu Boy
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Rotom-H, Blastoise
Current Ladder Standing: 1000

Pokemon Showdown! Username: The Killer Moth
Hall of Fame Standing: Platinum
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Venomoth
Current Ladder Standing: none on this alt

not done with scrafty yet, but after i get gold on that, using this

Pokemon Showdown! Username: discoman
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Chansey
Current Ladder Standing: 1000

I wanted a challenge and molk told me to do this. This is a not a joke

Pokemon Showdown! Username: GOML PS
Hall of Fame Standing: Silver
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: THE MIGHTY METANG
Current Ladder Standing: none on this alt

I disapprove - Pocket

TropiOUs said:

Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: THE MIGHTY METANG

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Better not be giving that boss an item!