Research Week Mk. II - Back in Black

still got time :3

alt: graytail

mandibuzz probably

Faint said:

Results were as expected. I will update this post later with a more in depth look at Hydreigon. I was surprised at how easy it is hit top 10 on the ladder, since I'm currently sitting at #3 with my team. I'll pastebin that later as well, but will be excluding EV spreads.

Click to expand...

Just wondering, what sort of set did you run on Hydreigon? After using it a little and looking at its potential in comparison with other Uber dragons I thought a physical set using moves such as U-Turn, Crunch and HeadSmash, looked much more appealing than a special since it seems horribly outclassed in that respect.

Back to Mandibuzz however, heres a half decent replay where Mandibuzz harasses a Lugia which don't think any other Pokemon can really pull off.

http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ubers8110458

Enguarde said:

Just wondering, what sort of set did you run on Hydreigon? After using it a little and looking at its potential in comparison with other Uber dragons I thought a physical set using moves such as U-Turn, Crunch and HeadSmash, looked much more appealing than a special since it seems horribly outclassed in that respect.

Back to Mandibuzz however, heres a half decent replay where Mandibuzz harasses a Lugia which don't think any other Pokemon can really pull off.

http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ubers8110458

Click to expand...

The set that I was using can be found here, only with a few minor adjustments. I ended up going with a Mild nature and adding a few extra EV's to attack, since I found the speed jump on the base 95's to be useless (Kyurem), not to mention with Genesect running around it didn't seem like it was worth it. I also tried out Head Smash for a while in replace of Dark Pulse, but I found myself wanting Dark Pulse more often than not (Mewtwo, Arceus-Ghost, late game reliable STAB, etc).

My final spread ended up being 64 Atk / 252 SpA / 192 Spe, with a Mild nature as previously mentioned, and a moveset of U-Turn / Dark Pulse / Draco Meteor / Fire Blast. I guess Surf can be used if you're going to be using this in rain, as it can still 2HKO Forretress and OHKO Excadrill, but that decision is entirely up to you.

Well I managed to gain a Silver Rank with my team, if I get some more time I'll try and improve my rank to Gold.



Team:



After trying out many playstyles I wasn't too much of a fan of Mandibuzz in stall just because I couldn't get over it being an inferior Lugia in my mind, and sometimes these thoughts were confirmed when it ended up doing absolutely nothing, when I knew that if it was a Lugia I'd have had the upper hand. Expecially in situations where Outrage or Extremepeed Spam is coming

I was quite fond pairing Mandibuzz up with Ferrothorn and Genesect since Mandibuzz matches up will with Pokemon that usually come in too take a U-Turn (Giratina, Lugia, etc), in which Mandibuzz essentially had a free switch to do what it pleases, whether that be phase, deal damage or Taunt things. As Donkey said Arceus Grass also matches up well with it but since I wanted to use Arceus Ghost I went for Ferrothorn which does the job arguably better by covering its weaknesses.

Overall, I was either impressed by what Mandibuzz could do. For example, just taking a +2 Extremespeed from Arceus and deal massive damage back, take Draco Meteors well when Ferrothorn wasn't an option, and generally harass ghosts and stall.)

But still, there have been too many times where it was dead weight or sleep fodder although it can somewhat take Darkrai and was easily the most dispensable Pokemon on the team.

So I probably wouldn't rate it too highly, but the niche is definitely there!

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I mananged to get Gold with the team in my previous post.



I think I've blabbed on about my thoughts on Mandibuzz enough in my posts so I won't repeat myself again, other than to say about 25% of the time its an asset, 75% of the time its a hinderance. ^_^

Although unlikely if I get some more free time I'll attempt to give Hydreigon a go with the set Faint posted, on most likely a sun team. But I don't put myself down to starting a fresh alt as of yet.

just enough for gold :3

Mandibuzz doesn't have a particularly defining trait, but many. His unique typing allows him to resist ghost and still remain neutral to fighting. This allows him to check Darkrai and Arceus Ghost. Thanks to Taunt, he can act as a stall breaker with Toxic, no pokemon can set up against him and forretress and ferro who would have a field day with lugia and most other walls can do anything him. Overcoat allows him to be used on a sand team with no detriment. Mandibuzz is also fortunate to have a one turn recovery move.



i was also considering mini lugia to block status and rest talk to deal with darkrai better, but mini lugia can also do that as long as he can get sub up before darkrai

also yay 100 posts :D

This Research Week is over! Congratulations Faint for winning it with a score of 2132 with Hydreigon!