Ok, I'm here to dethrone Lavos. Lgi!
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Kasugami
Hall of Fame Standing: Platinum
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Dog (Stoutland)
Current Ladder Standing: 2412
How did you choose your Dark Horse Pokemon for this project? What lead you to choose the Pokemon you did? Did you have regrets or were you happy with your selection?
I made this team back during round 1 of The World Cup Of Pokemon and I got the core of Stoutland (as the main sweeper) & Magnezone (traps steels that resist Stoutland's STAB) from my friend: Ripamon. The core works amazingly and I instantly fell in love with Stoutland, with it's 518 speed under the sand - which outspeeds pretty much the entire metagame - it's ridiculous power, bulk and decent coverage; Stoutland can spell
doom for any team. I decided to use it for this challenge because I was able to easily adapt the team to function well in the BW2 metagame and this team has quickly become my favourite team ever.
How did you go about building a team for your Dark Horse Pokemon? Which kinds of teammates did you consider? What factors contributed to the team you created?
Well, outside of Magnezone to trap steels, A sand inducer was essential to Stoutland's success. I had a choice between Hippowdon and Tyranitar, but I chose Hippowdon because Tyranitar gave me bad synergy, as it would just give me a 3rd pokemon weak to fighting, but the main reason is: Hippowdon is a much more reliable sand inducer than Tyranitar, because of it's reliable recovery move, superior defensive typing and not being trapped by Dugtrio.
I definetly needed some water resists, I chose Specially Defensive Rotom-W, because not only did it resist water and hit water types back with it's super-effective Volt Switch but it also checked / countered half the biggest threats in the current metagame and it's easily the second best Tornadus-t counter, second only to Specially Defensive Jirachi. Specially Defensive Rotom-W was the most amazing set I've ever used and it just functions so well in the current metagame. I still felt like a I needed another water resist, because a few pokemon, such as Keldeo, were a bit too much for Rotom-W to handle alone and something to check sun would be great. I chose Latias, it meets all the criteria and it took advantage of Magnezone's steel-type removing capabilities, letting it spam Draco Meteor to its heart's content.
Lastly, I needed some sort of wall breaker to aid Stoutland, my team was also rather weak to a few pokes like Breloom, even with Latias and Sleep Talk on Magnezone I at least needed one more check. Things like Sub Toxic Gliscor were a pain and if I managed to somehow lose Hippowdon to a weather team and lose the weather war, dragons didn't have much trouble sweeping the rest of my team, as I lose the speed needed for my revenge killer (Stoutland) and Hippowdon was the only thing that can tank multiple hits. I decided to use Mamoswine and it worked perfectly and the team was born. This was a very quick version of how I made the team, but I will be making an RMT of this team sometime in the forseeable future if you're interested in a much more in depth look.
Do you think it is more difficult or less difficult to ladder with a Dark Horse Pokemon? Why? Does the element of surprise play a factor in your battles? Is it easier to fight with a "highly used"" team or with Pokemon that are less common?
Tbh, I almost always build around a "dark horse" pokemon when making new teams, this is because when using standard, run of the mill pokemon and sets in tourney battles you have no tricks up your sleeve, no suprise factor. If you lack these important elements in your teams you'll often find the battle's outcome being decided by hax and team matchup. Although the ladder's different from tourney battles, I pretty much only ever make teams for tourney battles... yeah. To answer the question: for the most part I find battling with dark horse pokemon easier, but they're both pretty equal, using a dark horse pokemon has suprise factor whereas the standard, commonly used pokemon are used often for a reason, but there's always a few underrated pokemon down in the depths of the usage list that can destroy everything with enough support.
How did you reach the Hall of Fame? Was it easy or difficult? Did having a Dark Horse Pokemon on your team benefit you? What advice would you give to those laddering with Dark Horse Pokemon?
Reaching the hall of fame was rather easy for me and I was really amazed with the sheer brilliance of Stoutland as well as a few other amazing pokemon I discoverd along the way, eg. Tank Latias & Specially Defensive Rotom-W. The best advice I can give to anyone trying to get to the top with their Dark Horse pokemon is to not go out of your way to try and make a lower tier pokemon work in ou, test some stuff out and then use something you know can function well in OU.