The Dark Horse Project (HUGE Update Post #121) - Page 2

Stallion · Feb 3rd, 2012, 12:33:29 AM

I've just realised in addition to Chandelure (my main focus), I am also working with both Lilligant and Slowbro as Dark Horse pokemon!

Pokemon Online Username: Tommy Trash
HoF Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Chandelure, Lilligant, Slowbro
Current Ladder Standing: 1292 and rising!

YAYtears · Feb 3rd, 2012, 12:39:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat ginganinja

considering that Nidoqueen was on my team that I got into the Hall of Fame with im not sure why. Its a solid pokemon and one of the best Terrakion counters around. I just chucked it with a few pokemon that enjoyed Toxic Spikes support and off I went.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat alphatron

Quit nidoqueen? You don't know what you're missing!

I'm not really a stall player and carrying nidoqueen requires a lot of support on the regular team. You need a conkeldurr counter, a landorus counter, a reuniclus counter, and most of the stall concepts. Anyways Empoleon is still boss, but I need better ways to support it other than hippowdon and zapdos (as I said, I'm not a stall player and I don't really like SR). And heres the set ripped off of Mynism's subtoxic tentacruel.

Matthew (Empoleon) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Scald
- Ice Beam

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat YAYtears

Pokemon Online Username:The Empoleon
Hall of Fame Standing:N/A
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With:Empoleon
Current Ladder Standing:1199

Genny edit:
the best set

AOPSUser · Feb 3rd, 2012, 12:43:37 AM

Decided to restart:

PO Username: AoPSpwnz-V
Hall of Fame Standing: N/A
Dark Horse Pokemon: Victini (Infernape at 7% noooooo!!!!!!)
Current Ladder Standing: 1051

Set:

Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
-V-Create
-Fusion Bolt
-U-turn
-Zen Headbutt

mostwanted · Feb 3rd, 2012, 12:46:17 AM

Pokemon Online Username: situation.
Hall of Fame Standing: N/A
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Mienshao
Current Ladder Standing: 1000

Lockeness · Feb 3rd, 2012, 1:23:29 AM

How did you choose your Dark Horse Pokemon for this project? I chose Latias because the sandstorm team I was running needed more bulk than Latios could provide. I was suprised to see Latias below the 5% mark because it has always had a lot of potential in this metagame. Latias is very bulky and melds well with the current metagame. Latias potential for an offensive calm mind set is, in my mind at least, better than Latios'. My first few trial battles have been very successful. I'm looking forward to this round of the Dark Horse Challenge.

How did you go about building a team for your Dark Horse Pokemon?
The team I built originally had Latios, but I felt the team was lacking in the bulk department. I am using a slightly unorthodox version of the volt turn strategy in the metagame. Latias works way better on this sort of team, because she can switch in and out so easily.

***Birkal**** · Feb 3rd, 2012, 1:46:39 AM

Alright, we should be up to date with the Registered Participants list! Remember, you can always contact me via PM or VM if I have posted some incorrect information. Also, please keep on submitting your Questionnaire answers; I've been reading through them and will definitely be uploading some comments. They contain some excellent stuff! I'm also very excited to see how this month's Hall of Fame shapes up. Hopefully we can get break our record from last time, in both Pokemon count and user count!

Also, I'd like to briefly touch on the badge that I received recently. While it is cool and all, I will assuredly direct anyone who inquires about it to this project first and foremost. Seriously, everyone's contributions and dedication to this project have made DST an excellent place. You guys are the real magic, whether you're on the ladders or sharing your thoughts in here. I could not be more thankful for how dedicated and influential you guys are. Hah, I could go on and on about how much you all have improved DST, whether it be through this project or through using your new knowledge to become more informed posters. Keep up the fantastic work!

As a mini-celebration for all of our hard work, have TM18 ;)

Quote:

There are currently (123) Registered Participants in the Dark Horse Project!

This'll be going in the Registered Users post! Just a fun little counter to see how many of us are running around with Dark Horse Pokemon on the ladder, hehe.

Finally, I'd like to speak to all of those who are looking at this topic and are not yet a Registered Participant. You should definitely consider registering! It's super easy and there has never been a better time, especially since now is the start of the month. Even if you don't think you're a good battler, just do it. Pokemon isn't about laddering, it's about having fun =D! And if you're a user reading this post who doesn't have a Smogon account (I see YOU; I check this topic multiple times a day and I see you lurkin'), then why not sign up? Smogon is a great place and we'd love to see your contributions here. Hope to see you post soon!

EBeast · Feb 3rd, 2012, 2:41:09 AM

This sounds like fun!
Pokemon Online Username: Rice Hat EBeast
Hall of Fame Standing: Doing pretty good, my current standing is-oh wait :/
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Ludicolo
Current Ladder Standing: 1000

Here's the current Ludicolo set I'm working with:

Maria (Ludicolo) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Scald

Amazing typing and with Rain Dish and Leech Seed, it can Stall hard with SubProtect. This is also being supported by Toxic Spikes from Tentacruel, who doesn't share any weaknesses with Ludi. Scald is for things that cannot get Toxiced, so instead I stall them out with Leech Seed and burn. This Ludi is more specially defensive to take on Rotom and Starmie much better. 40 Def EVs prevent Ferrothorn from having a chance of 2HKOing with Power Whip if my weather is gone at the time since Rain Dish and Protect help me stall it out easier.

I've actually tried her out with a different account earlier, so I do have a log with her....right here. She did pretty damn well, I must add. :D (In the log I was using physically defensive BTW)

Current Team

Tell me how to improve it :D

Anchormon92 · Feb 3rd, 2012, 11:30:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat EnragedBeast

I've actually tried her out with a different account earlier, so I do have a log with her....right here. She did pretty damn well, I must add. :D (In the log I was using physically defensive BTW)

Wow does that thing look fun/rage-inducing lol.

MSB · Feb 3rd, 2012, 4:50:40 PM

I tried out a team with these mons in it last month (without registering for this) and did pretty well. Now it looks like it would be a good idea to register and see if I can get into that hall of fame thingy.

Pokemon Online Username: [MSB]
Hall of Fame Standing: nope
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Raikou, Azelf, Sceptile
Current Ladder Standing: 1000

Sets

Berserker Lord · Feb 3rd, 2012, 5:48:30 PM

Pokemon Online Username: Dactylos
Hall of Fame Standing: 5th last time
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Escavalier
Current Ladder Standing: 1000

No, I'm not just trying to used an incredibly unused Pokemon. I think Escavalier truly does have potential and is not outclassed by that stupid Scizor.

**Raseri** · Feb 3rd, 2012, 7:28:18 PM

Pokemon Online Username: no more dialga
Hall of Fame Standing: none
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Weavile
Current Ladder Standing: blank

set isnt decided yet, looking into a few things

LucaroarkZ · Feb 4th, 2012, 12:02:55 AM

So Weavile and Medicham aren't working out too well, switching to another Dark Horse.

Pokemon Online Username: terrakion sucks
Hall of Fame standing: Nope
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Typhlosion
Current Ladder Standing: 1065

Here's my set, been working very well with Rapid Spin support.

Typhlosion (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Eruption
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Focus Blast

Been making a few drops, working on the team a little bit. Typhlosion's been amazing, but the team's still not doing well because I have too much Focus Blast.

TalkingLion · Feb 4th, 2012, 2:10:36 PM

Pokemon Online Username: TalkingLion[test]
Hall of Fame Standing: N/A
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Roserade
Current Ladder Standing: 1068

Pearl. · Feb 4th, 2012, 8:23:55 PM

Pokemon Online Username: A Thousand Years.

---

Dark Horse Pokemon: Hippowdon, Latias and Stoutland.

---

Screenshot of Top 80 Ladder Ranking:

...

---

Dark Horse Pokemon Complete Set:

Hippowdon -

...

Latias -

...

Stoutland -

...

---

I'm not going to reveal the team I'm using until the end of the month, since I'll most likely be forced to ladder again for the Dark Horse Project once people start to catch up.

About the Dark Horses themselves: Hippowdon is an amazing (and very underrated) weather inducer, mostly because of Dugtrio's presence in the OU metagame. If the opponent's team is relying on it to trap the opponent's weather inducer, they will most likely lose the game. Stoutland is not the strongest Pokemon, but its ability to clean during late game with Return is fantastic. The Latias set I'm currently running is useful to lure the Steel-type Pokemon that stop Stoutland from spamming Return. Also, without her, the team would probably be weak to the popular Rotom-W / Scizor combination.

Laddering was easier than I thought, probably because of the team's consistency. Every threat in the current metagame is easily covered by my defensive core, and punching holes on the opponent's team with Latias, Stoutland and the Spikes support from Skarmory is very easy, despite the teams defensive nature. And since I didn't show anything yet, I'm going to share with you the closest battle I had with this team. It was pretty quick, but had clever prediction from both sides, especially in the end. It ended in a 0-1 loss, despite all my efforts.

And I guess this is enough.

**Pocket** · Feb 4th, 2012, 8:36:30 PM

Congratulations for being the very first Hall of Famer of February, Pearl! The match you posted was awesome! The battle verified the goodness of CB Stoutland (and Hippowdon) as well as your skills as a team builder and a battler :d

EDIT: Entry hazards on your side may be an issue, though, especially limiting Stoutland's use. Perhaps a Forretress > Skarmory?

YAYtears · Feb 4th, 2012, 10:05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat YAYtears

Pokemon Online Username:The Empoleon
Hall of Fame Standing:N/A
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With:Empoleon
Current Ladder Standing:1256

I'm gonna update my status. Empoleons been working well against rain, and I just made it look good in my recent battle. I'll admit, the battle wasn't good, but it clearly shows the potential of the penguin.

http://pokemon.aesoft.org/replay-The...--2012-02-04-1

Lockeness · Feb 4th, 2012, 10:14:23 PM

Congrats to Pearl for becoming the first hall of famer. I was hoping to get there first with Latias, but you managed to beat me out! I believe I met your team on the ladder. I remember the skarm with spikes support. I can't exactly remember how it turned out, but I do remember this team as being quite good. Stoutland is completely under-rated. great work on the hall of fame spot.

Noodlez · Feb 4th, 2012, 10:21:25 PM

Pokemon Online Username: Noody
Hall of Fame Standing: N/A
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Chandelure
Current Ladder Standing: 1367

Noodlez · Feb 5th, 2012, 4:12:45 PM

Pokemon Online Username: Noody

Dark Horse Pokemon: Chandelure

Screenshot of Top 80 Ladder Ranking:

...

Dark Horse Pokemon Complete Set:

Chandelure:

...

I'm not going to reveal this team or give out any logs as of yet because I'm still using it for some things. Anyways, I pretty much just used the team I was already using which had a Chandelure. All of you should try this set out, Chandelure is awesome !!!

Ninja-persian · Feb 6th, 2012, 9:50:38 AM

Hi, i am using a para abuse togekiss, but I am having a hard time finding good partners for him. Can you guys give me some suggestions?

Thanks!

DDRMaster · Feb 6th, 2012, 10:21:03 AM

Well Nidoking really likes Paralysis support to make it easier to sweep and can take Tyranitar and Steel-types out with Earth Power, since they'll likely give Togekiss a hard time. Nidoking can also switch in on Electric or Rock attacks aimed at Togekiss while Togekiss can take Ground attacks aimed at Nidoking. Both of them are weak to Ice and won't like taking on Dragon-types in general so a Steel-type would be useful to take those attacks.

Kaitii · Feb 6th, 2012, 11:53:38 AM

Pokemon Online Username: Dark Dreams
Hall of Fame Standing: N/A
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Sawsbuck
Current Ladder Standing: 1000

~Mercury~ · Feb 6th, 2012, 12:42:30 PM

Pokemon Online Username: Mercurai
Hall of Fame Standing: -
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Raikou
Current Ladder Standing: 1351

screenshot of Top80 ranking

The Raikou set I used was:

...

Raikou @ Choice Specs
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Volt Switch
- Aura Sphere
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt

Probably not the first thing that would come to your mind when thinking of a Raikou set, but it worked really well for me; but why I chose this set, I'll explain in the next paragraph.
Choice Specs and a Rash Nature give Raikou 541 Special Attack, so it can hurt almost every foe badly just without a single turn of setup. Volt Switch is an obvious choice on a choiced pokemon, especially when it gets STAB on it and can seriously hurt foes while fleeing. Hidden Power Ice is for coverage and hits almost everything for at least neutral damage combined with an Electric move, and, even more importantly, hits foes like Dragonite, Landorus, Gliscor, Haxorus, Breloom and Salamence for super effective damage, OHKOing every single of them besides Dragonite at 100% and bulky variants of Haxorus and Breloom. Thunderbolt provides a second STAB option with additional power and no switching effect which can be useful in some situations. Also, Raikou's offensive movepool does not have really good options, I could use Shadow Ball oder Signal Beam, but they don't do anything significant for me, most targets were just hit similarly strong by Thunderbolt and HP Ice. That's also the reason why I gave up a timid nature and as such the possibility to outspeed common threats such as Terrakion, Lati@s and Infernape, to add a really useful fourth offensive move, Aura Sphere. Aura Sphere is not only surprising for most opponents, but also a really helpful coverage move, doing massive damage to Ferrothorn and Tyranitar, OHKOing the latter quite often, while also being my best bet against Magnezone, Mamoswine, Heatran and Terrakion.
The EVs are obviously offensive, but even with those EVs and the rash nature, Raikou still has significant bulk, which is especially helpful when battling against foes with strong priority like Scizor, Dragonite or Lucario.

I thought about different Raikou sets, namely Sub CM, offensive CM, Choice Scarf and Choice Specs and then decided to test the Choice Specs set first, because I found the Scarf set was lacking the power to seriously damage defensive foes, especially those Ground types with Volt Switch immunity, the Sub CM set was easily walled by Tyranitar, Ferrothorn, Mamoswine, Quagsire (without HP Grass, but with it, there are even more foes who wall it) and Gastrodon with Earthquake/Earthpower, and the offensive Calm Mind set would die too fast with Life Orb recoil and the racking up damage from Hazards, Sandstorm and opposing attacks. But I did not test those, probably some of those sets are also viable in OU when put in the right team.
But I decided to go with the Specs set, and it worked really well. Partly because of the suprise value, as often foes just do not expect that Aura Sphere or a Raikou with so much immediate power at all. But partly because it's just a good pokemon which does have its uses.

I don't want to give too much information about the team, because I still want to use it. The team was not based around a "Raikou sweep", but Raikou was included in a VoltTurn core which is able to put enormous pressure on foes. I also used Hidden Power Grass Rotom-W to lure Gastrodon, which walls Raikou to no end. The team was rounded off by a solid defensive core that stops many offensive threats that would give my team trouble otherwise, while also providing Spikes support.

Raikou might not be so easy to throw in a team like Rotom-W, but it does have its niches and has some really useful advantages over other Volt Switch users like Rotom-W or Jolteon, mainly the ability to badly hurt Ferrothorn without losing the coverage provided by Hidden Power Ice as well as its higher speed stat over Rotom-W, greater bulk over Jolteon, and more power over both. Additionally, the super effective coverage on Tyranitar, Mamoswine and others is also welcome.
Of course, it's not all good for Raikou, and it has much less possibilities to switch in due to his only moderately useful resistances (though this is a lesser problem when paired up with other VoltTurn users), and it also is vulnerable to both Spikes and TSpikes, while Rotom is not. It also lacks a powerful dual STAB, but yeah, it has some things to set itself apart from Rotom-W and other competitors, and it also can be used together with one of those, especially Rotom-W, which also covers Raikou's ground weakness and can possibly lure some of its checks or counters.

Boorego · Feb 6th, 2012, 6:43:19 PM

Well I already got to top 80 using mew the whole time (check out the name near the middle in pearl.'s screen shot ;D) before even knowing of this project. Lets see if I can do it again....for the glory of mew of course.

Pokemon Online Username:Booorego
Hall of Fame Standing:None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With:Mew
Current Ladder Standing:1358(I did it again! Will make a hall of fame post soon.)

Mafeking · Feb 6th, 2012, 8:07:08 PM

Pokemon Online Username: PowerKing
Hall of Fame Standing:
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Lickilicky
Current Ladder Standing: 1143 (Working on it!)

Feb 3rd, 2012, 12:33:29 AM	#26
Stallion Lewd, lascivious, salacious, outrageous Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 4,687 Canberra, Australia	I've just realised in addition to Chandelure (my main focus), I am also working with both Lilligant and Slowbro as Dark Horse pokemon! Pokemon Online Username: Tommy Trash HoF Standing: None Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Chandelure, Lilligant, Slowbro Current Ladder Standing: 1292 and rising! __________________ Last edited by Stallion; Feb 3rd, 2012 at 12:46:35 AM.

Feb 3rd, 2012, 12:43:37 AM	#28
AOPSUser Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 2,879 San Diego (GMT -8)	Decided to restart: PO Username: AoPSpwnz-V Hall of Fame Standing: N/A Dark Horse Pokemon: Victini (Infernape at 7% noooooo!!!!!!) Current Ladder Standing: 1051 Set: Victini @ Choice Band Ability: Victory Star EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe Nature: Adamant -V-Create -Fusion Bolt -U-turn -Zen Headbutt __________________ My Scramble Compendium CAP ASB Team Shuckle sweep HARVESTTTTTT Ahri's rage 18:35 imanalt Skrelp is a Poison- and Water-type Pokémon. Clauncher is a Water-type Pokémon. #PokemonXY 18:36 akelasb what the hell is skrelp? 18:36 akelasb it sound like a japanese std Last edited by AOPSUser; Feb 5th, 2012 at 6:03:36 PM.

Feb 3rd, 2012, 2:41:09 AM	#32
EBeast she's probably sexting nprtprt Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 751	This sounds like fun! Pokemon Online Username: Rice Hat EBeast Hall of Fame Standing: Doing pretty good, my current standing is-oh wait :/ Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Ludicolo Current Ladder Standing: 1000 Here's the current Ludicolo set I'm working with: Maria (Ludicolo) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Rain Dish EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SDef Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk) - Substitute - Protect - Leech Seed - Scald Amazing typing and with Rain Dish and Leech Seed, it can Stall hard with SubProtect. This is also being supported by Toxic Spikes from Tentacruel, who doesn't share any weaknesses with Ludi. Scald is for things that cannot get Toxiced, so instead I stall them out with Leech Seed and burn. This Ludi is more specially defensive to take on Rotom and Starmie much better. 40 Def EVs prevent Ferrothorn from having a chance of 2HKOing with Power Whip if my weather is gone at the time since Rain Dish and Protect help me stall it out easier. I've actually tried her out with a different account earlier, so I do have a log with her....right here. She did pretty damn well, I must add. :D (In the log I was using physically defensive BTW) Current Team BubbleGum (Politoed) (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Drizzle EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Scald - Protect - Toxic - Encore A Cruel Tent (Tentacruel) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Rain Dish EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Toxic Spikes - Rapid Spin - Scald - Protect Metallica (Skarmory) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Sturdy EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk) - Spikes - Roost - Brave Bird - Whirlwind Fat Bitch (Chansey) (F) @ Eviolite Trait: Natural Cure EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Wish - Protect - Seismic Toss - Stealth Rock Maria (Ludicolo) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Rain Dish EVs: 204 HP / 52 Def / 252 SDef Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk) - Substitute - Protect - Leech Seed - Scald SableCunt (Sableye) (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Prankster EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SDef Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk) - Will-O-Wisp - Recover - Taunt - Foul Play Tell me how to improve it :D __________________ Last edited by EBeast; Feb 4th, 2012 at 6:39:31 PM.

Feb 3rd, 2012, 4:50:40 PM	#34
MSB Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 137	I tried out a team with these mons in it last month (without registering for this) and did pretty well. Now it looks like it would be a good idea to register and see if I can get into that hall of fame thingy. Pokemon Online Username: [MSB] Hall of Fame Standing: nope Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Raikou, Azelf, Sceptile Current Ladder Standing: 1000 Sets Raikou @ Leftovers Trait: Pressure EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Substitute - Calm Mind - Thunderbolt - Hidden Power [Ice] Azelf @ Focus Sash Trait: Levitate EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def) - Stealth Rock - Taunt - Psychic - U-turn Sceptile (M) @ Flying Gem Trait: Unburden EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Swords Dance - Leaf Blade - Acrobatics - Earthquake __________________ Max_Stat_Boyd

Feb 3rd, 2012, 7:28:18 PM	#36
Raseri I'm a leaf on the wind; watch how i soar Moderator Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 1,811 Mentor	Pokemon Online Username: no more dialga Hall of Fame Standing: none Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Weavile Current Ladder Standing: blank set isnt decided yet, looking into a few things __________________ best Quality Control member 2012 Last edited by Raseri; Feb 4th, 2012 at 2:01:25 AM.

Feb 3rd, 2012, 12:46:17 AM	#29
mostwanted Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 941	Pokemon Online Username: situation. Hall of Fame Standing: N/A Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Mienshao Current Ladder Standing: 1000

Feb 3rd, 2012, 1:23:29 AM	#30
Lockeness (e^(i╥))+1=0 Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 307	How did you choose your Dark Horse Pokemon for this project? I chose Latias because the sandstorm team I was running needed more bulk than Latios could provide. I was suprised to see Latias below the 5% mark because it has always had a lot of potential in this metagame. Latias is very bulky and melds well with the current metagame. Latias potential for an offensive calm mind set is, in my mind at least, better than Latios'. My first few trial battles have been very successful. I'm looking forward to this round of the Dark Horse Challenge. How did you go about building a team for your Dark Horse Pokemon? The team I built originally had Latios, but I felt the team was lacking in the bulk department. I am using a slightly unorthodox version of the volt turn strategy in the metagame. Latias works way better on this sort of team, because she can switch in and out so easily.

Feb 4th, 2012, 12:02:55 AM	#37
LucaroarkZ Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,128 San Diego, CA	So Weavile and Medicham aren't working out too well, switching to another Dark Horse. Pokemon Online Username: terrakion sucks Hall of Fame standing: Nope Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Typhlosion Current Ladder Standing: 1065 Here's my set, been working very well with Rapid Spin support. Typhlosion (F) @ Choice Specs Trait: Blaze EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Eruption - Fire Blast - Hidden Power [Grass] - Focus Blast Been making a few drops, working on the team a little bit. Typhlosion's been amazing, but the team's still not doing well because I have too much Focus Blast. __________________ "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." - Milton Friedman I am not lucaroark on Pokemon Showdown. I'm always on PS as Adamant Zoroark. Last edited by LucaroarkZ; Feb 4th, 2012 at 5:07:36 AM.

Feb 4th, 2012, 2:10:36 PM	#38
TalkingLion Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 887 Virginia, USA	Pokemon Online Username: TalkingLion[test] Hall of Fame Standing: N/A Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Roserade Current Ladder Standing: 1068 __________________ 10th Place VGC 2012 Nationals Senior Division :D

Feb 4th, 2012, 8:23:55 PM	#39
Pearl. Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 264	Pokemon Online Username: A Thousand Years. --- Dark Horse Pokemon: Hippowdon, Latias and Stoutland. --- Screenshot of Top 80 Ladder Ranking: ... --- Dark Horse Pokemon Complete Set: Hippowdon - ... (Hippowdon) (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Sand Stream EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk) - Stealth Rock - Earthquake - Roar - Slack Off Latias - ... (Latias) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Levitate EVs: 108 HP / 148 SAtk / 252 Spd Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk) - Calm Mind - Dragon Pulse - Hidden Power [Fire] - Roost Stoutland - ... (Stoutland) (F) @ Choice Band Trait: Sand Rush EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Return - Crunch - Fire Fang - Ice Fang --- I'm not going to reveal the team I'm using until the end of the month, since I'll most likely be forced to ladder again for the Dark Horse Project once people start to catch up. About the Dark Horses themselves: Hippowdon is an amazing (and very underrated) weather inducer, mostly because of Dugtrio's presence in the OU metagame. If the opponent's team is relying on it to trap the opponent's weather inducer, they will most likely lose the game. Stoutland is not the strongest Pokemon, but its ability to clean during late game with Return is fantastic. The Latias set I'm currently running is useful to lure the Steel-type Pokemon that stop Stoutland from spamming Return. Also, without her, the team would probably be weak to the popular Rotom-W / Scizor combination. Laddering was easier than I thought, probably because of the team's consistency. Every threat in the current metagame is easily covered by my defensive core, and punching holes on the opponent's team with Latias, Stoutland and the Spikes support from Skarmory is very easy, despite the teams defensive nature. And since I didn't show anything yet, I'm going to share with you the closest battle I had with this team. It was pretty quick, but had clever prediction from both sides, especially in the end. It ended in a 0-1 loss, despite all my efforts. And I guess this is enough.

Feb 4th, 2012, 8:36:30 PM	#40
Pocket Talonflame :D Moderator Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 7,302 Bergenfield	Congratulations for being the very first Hall of Famer of February, Pearl! The match you posted was awesome! The battle verified the goodness of CB Stoutland (and Hippowdon) as well as your skills as a team builder and a battler :d EDIT: Entry hazards on your side may be an issue, though, especially limiting Stoutland's use. Perhaps a Forretress > Skarmory? __________________ Dark Horse Project: Conquer the Ladder! \| Word of Wisdom for Trainers \| Smogon Doubles: Let's Make It Official!

Feb 4th, 2012, 10:14:23 PM	#42
Lockeness (e^(i╥))+1=0 Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 307	Congrats to Pearl for becoming the first hall of famer. I was hoping to get there first with Latias, but you managed to beat me out! I believe I met your team on the ladder. I remember the skarm with spikes support. I can't exactly remember how it turned out, but I do remember this team as being quite good. Stoutland is completely under-rated. great work on the hall of fame spot. Last edited by Lockeness; Feb 4th, 2012 at 10:37:25 PM.

Feb 4th, 2012, 10:21:25 PM	#43
Noodlez Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 351	Pokemon Online Username: Noody Hall of Fame Standing: N/A Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Chandelure Current Ladder Standing: 1367 Last edited by Noodlez; Feb 5th, 2012 at 3:04:50 PM.

Feb 5th, 2012, 4:12:45 PM	#44
Noodlez Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 351	*Pokemon Online Username:* Noody *Dark Horse Pokemon:* Chandelure *Screenshot of Top 80 Ladder Ranking:* ... Dark Horse Pokemon Complete Set: Chandelure: ... Chandelure (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Flame Body EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Substitute - Hidden Power [Fighting] - Shadow Ball - Flamethrower I'm not going to reveal this team or give out any logs as of yet because I'm still using it for some things. Anyways, I pretty much just used the team I was already using which had a Chandelure. All of you should try this set out, Chandelure is awesome !!! Last edited by Noodlez; Mar 1st, 2012 at 9:45:54 PM.

Feb 6th, 2012, 9:50:38 AM	#45
Ninja-persian Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 169 Brazil	Hi, i am using a para abuse togekiss, but I am having a hard time finding good partners for him. Can you guys give me some suggestions? Thanks! __________________ Black Friend code: 0132 1390 2016

Feb 6th, 2012, 11:53:38 AM	#47
Kaitii Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 66 California	Pokemon Online Username: Dark Dreams Hall of Fame Standing: N/A Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Sawsbuck Current Ladder Standing: 1000

Feb 6th, 2012, 12:42:30 PM	#48
~Mercury~ Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 19 Germany	Pokemon Online Username: Mercurai Hall of Fame Standing: - Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Raikou Current Ladder Standing: 1351 screenshot of Top80 ranking The Raikou set I used was: ... Raikou @ Choice Specs Trait: Pressure EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef) - Volt Switch - Aura Sphere - Hidden Power [Ice] - Thunderbolt Probably not the first thing that would come to your mind when thinking of a Raikou set, but it worked really well for me; but why I chose this set, I'll explain in the next paragraph. Choice Specs and a Rash Nature give Raikou 541 Special Attack, so it can hurt almost every foe badly just without a single turn of setup. Volt Switch is an obvious choice on a choiced pokemon, especially when it gets STAB on it and can seriously hurt foes while fleeing. Hidden Power Ice is for coverage and hits almost everything for at least neutral damage combined with an Electric move, and, even more importantly, hits foes like Dragonite, Landorus, Gliscor, Haxorus, Breloom and Salamence for super effective damage, OHKOing every single of them besides Dragonite at 100% and bulky variants of Haxorus and Breloom. Thunderbolt provides a second STAB option with additional power and no switching effect which can be useful in some situations. Also, Raikou's offensive movepool does not have really good options, I could use Shadow Ball oder Signal Beam, but they don't do anything significant for me, most targets were just hit similarly strong by Thunderbolt and HP Ice. That's also the reason why I gave up a timid nature and as such the possibility to outspeed common threats such as Terrakion, Lati@s and Infernape, to add a really useful fourth offensive move, Aura Sphere. Aura Sphere is not only surprising for most opponents, but also a really helpful coverage move, doing massive damage to Ferrothorn and Tyranitar, OHKOing the latter quite often, while also being my best bet against Magnezone, Mamoswine, Heatran and Terrakion. The EVs are obviously offensive, but even with those EVs and the rash nature, Raikou still has significant bulk, which is especially helpful when battling against foes with strong priority like Scizor, Dragonite or Lucario. I thought about different Raikou sets, namely Sub CM, offensive CM, Choice Scarf and Choice Specs and then decided to test the Choice Specs set first, because I found the Scarf set was lacking the power to seriously damage defensive foes, especially those Ground types with Volt Switch immunity, the Sub CM set was easily walled by Tyranitar, Ferrothorn, Mamoswine, Quagsire (without HP Grass, but with it, there are even more foes who wall it) and Gastrodon with Earthquake/Earthpower, and the offensive Calm Mind set would die too fast with Life Orb recoil and the racking up damage from Hazards, Sandstorm and opposing attacks. But I did not test those, probably some of those sets are also viable in OU when put in the right team. But I decided to go with the Specs set, and it worked really well. Partly because of the suprise value, as often foes just do not expect that Aura Sphere or a Raikou with so much immediate power at all. But partly because it's just a good pokemon which does have its uses. I don't want to give too much information about the team, because I still want to use it. The team was not based around a "Raikou sweep", but Raikou was included in a VoltTurn core which is able to put enormous pressure on foes. I also used Hidden Power Grass Rotom-W to lure Gastrodon, which walls Raikou to no end. The team was rounded off by a solid defensive core that stops many offensive threats that would give my team trouble otherwise, while also providing Spikes support. Raikou might not be so easy to throw in a team like Rotom-W, but it does have its niches and has some really useful advantages over other Volt Switch users like Rotom-W or Jolteon, mainly the ability to badly hurt Ferrothorn without losing the coverage provided by Hidden Power Ice as well as its higher speed stat over Rotom-W, greater bulk over Jolteon, and more power over both. Additionally, the super effective coverage on Tyranitar, Mamoswine and others is also welcome. Of course, it's not all good for Raikou, and it has much less possibilities to switch in due to his only moderately useful resistances (though this is a lesser problem when paired up with other VoltTurn users), and it also is vulnerable to both Spikes and TSpikes, while Rotom is not. It also lacks a powerful dual STAB, but yeah, it has some things to set itself apart from Rotom-W and other competitors, and it also can be used together with one of those, especially Rotom-W, which also covers Raikou's ground weakness and can possibly lure some of its checks or counters. Last edited by ~Mercury~; Feb 8th, 2012 at 9:17:01 AM.

Feb 6th, 2012, 6:43:19 PM	#49
Boorego Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 31	Well I already got to top 80 using mew the whole time (check out the name near the middle in pearl.'s screen shot ;D) before even knowing of this project. Lets see if I can do it again....for the glory of mew of course. Pokemon Online Username:Booorego Hall of Fame Standing:None Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With:Mew Current Ladder Standing:1358(I did it again! Will make a hall of fame post soon.) Last edited by Boorego; Feb 18th, 2012 at 1:25:24 PM.