The Illusion Fox Pokemon (Peaked #96)

Adamant Zoroark

catchy catchphrase
is a Contributor Alumnus

#571 - Zoroark - The Illusion Fox Pokemon

Dark Horse RMT



Why, hello Smogon! I feel great today! So, when Birkal started up the Dark Horse Project again, I knew for sure what I was using - none other than Zoroark! Yeah, it's my favorite Pokemon, so.... Why not? I just love Illusion, it's a great ability, and since Showdown now fully supports it... It's even better!

The team started off seeming rather mediocre, but as I gradually made improvements, it got better and got me to #96, just above the requisite Glicko2 rating, therefore getting me into the Dark Horse Project's Hall of Fame.

And now, for the team!



Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Superpower

Mamoswine is pretty important on this team - First, it's my primary way of revenge killing Dragon Dance Dragonite, Choice Scarf Salamence, Landorus, and stuff like that. Second, it prevents Chlorophyll sweepers from having a field day with my team. Originally on this team, Mamoswine also served the role of setting up Stealth Rock. However, I quickly changed that because I found out that it was putting too much work on Mamoswine, causing it to die faster, while I would often fail to get up Stealth Rock. So, I added Heatran, and even though I ended up compounding Fighting weaknesses even more, it helped me reliably set up Stealth Rock.



Keldeo-Resolution @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Electric]

This thing sweeps. Plain and simple. At first, I was unsure of its effectiveness, but then I took it for a spin. Wow. How is this thing not in the top 10? This thing's amazing. Basically, it goes like this: Set up Calm Mind, sweep. Okay, you have to get rid of shit like Latios, but that's easy. I use Surf on this thing because I found Hydro Pump to be horribly inaccurate, and I already have enough hax in the form of Focus Blast on Zoroark. Now, what I didn't consider for a while was Hidden Power Electric - At first I was using Ice to help against things like Celebi, Dragons, and Amoonguss, but then found that using Ice made me weaker to Jellicent, as all of a sudden Zoroark was my only way of handling Jellicent. So, I added HP Electric to cover Jellicent, while also doing major damage to Tentacruel, another Pokemon I found I was having trouble with. Additionally, HP Electric gives Gyarados a run for its money.



Zoroark @ Choice Specs
Trait: Illusion
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
- Trick

Star of the show. Amazing in UU and great in OU, Zoroark seriously deserves more respect. Many times I have Tricked (pun intended) multiple Pokemon such as Gyarados and Deoxys-D, making these Pokemon significantly easier for me to handle. In addition, although Zoroark is not really intended to sweep, it can pull off a late-game sweep with its powerful Specs Dark Pulse if you need it to. When disguised as Scizor, it can bait Heatran and 2HKO (pretty sure) with Focus Blast. It also baits Jellicent and smashes it with Dark Pulse. If I ever think they'll switch to Blissey, try to set up, or something along those lines, I'll go for Trick and make their shit easy to deal with. I've tricked Blisseys and shit and then they eventually end up dying because Blissey does not like having Choice Specs.



Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Although now overshadowed by Genesect and Breloom, Scizor still plays an important role. First, it's probably one of the best (if not the best) offensively-oriented checks to Reuniclus in the game. Second, it lets me handle Terrakion (although Breloom can do this too, lol, but hey Genesect can't really do that). And finally, this is my first go-to Pokemon when considering disguises for Zoroark. As said in the description for Zoroark, disguising Zoroark as Scizor lets me bait Heatran and Jellicent, allowing Scizor to wreck later on. Of course, Scizor can also provide some momentum with U-turn, and momentum is great for offensive teams. Need to trap a Latios? Scizor's your man.



Heatran (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Heatran was added to my team as a reaction to the fact that Mamoswine was not really the best option for Stealth Rock support. Additionally, Heatran can handle the omnipresent Genesect with ease. With its Air Balloon intact, it can also serve as a back-up to a rampaging Dragonite or Scarfmence if Mamoswine is down (and trust me, I manage to keep that balloon intact very well). Additionally, it beats many defensively inclined Steel-types one-on-one, such as Ferrothorn and Skarmory, allowing Scarfmence to destroy later on. And Flamethrower > Fire Blast for the same reason of Surf > Hydro Pump on Keldeo.



Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 SAtk / 252 Spd / 252 Atk
Hasty Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

Thing's amazing. Serves as my revenge killer, primary way of beating Volcarona, and yet another late-game sweeper alongside Keldeo. Oh, another cool thing! Keldeo and Scizor beat Mamoswine one-on-one, making it even easier for Salamence to destroy things! It also outspeeds Scarf Genesect, so if Heatran's down I'm not entirely screwed. Basically, I just send this out late-game when the opponent's Steel-types have been weakened, and let it basically win me the game by pretty much KOing everything with Moxie + Outrage.

--

Well, that's the team! Hope you enjoyed this RMT and any advice is greatly appreciated!

Importable:

Code:
Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Superpower

Keldeo-Resolution @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Zoroark @ Choice Specs
Trait: Illusion
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
- Trick

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Heatran (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 SAtk / 252 Spd / 252 Atk
Hasty Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
 
Quickest (and probably worst) rate of all time - try some form of Leftovers Starmie over Keldeo. You lose a Rock resistance, but it gives you a good Keldeo, Terrakion, Conkeldurr and even Breloom check, four things which basically destroy this team utterly-while also giving you Rapid Spin which is important when using Zoroark, Keldeo and Scizor together.
 

Adamant Zoroark

catchy catchphrase
is a Contributor Alumnus
I have already seen the weaknesses to Keldeo and Terrakion - The former is just barely manageable with Scarfmence (Keldeo must be weakened), while Terrakion I usually deal with by using Scizor and lots of prediction. I outright disagree with the Breloom weakness (Mamo/Mence can beat it, I'm pretty sure Mach Punch doesn't OHKO Keldeo, dunno about Heatran) and haven't had too many troubles with Conkeldurr. I may look into Starmie though.
 
I second bubbly's idea of Starmie over Keldeo. With 3 Fighting weaknesses, 1 resist, and no attacks to hit them hard, Fighting types in general look like a huge problem. Starmie gives an additional resistance, and can run either Psychic or Psyshock with STAB to rectify the issue. As a bonus, it can function as a Spinner, which your team (especially Mence) would appreciate. I think something similar to the Defensive Rapid Spinner set might be ideal. For example:

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Moveset
~ Scald/ Surf/ Hydro pump
~ Psyshock / Psychic
~ Rapid Spin
~ Recover
 

Adamant Zoroark

catchy catchphrase
is a Contributor Alumnus
I've been thinking about Starmie a little bit more, and here's what I came up with:

Using bulky Starmie is a definite no-no. This is an offensive team, and from my experience, bulky Starmie is not powerful enough to deliver the offensive pressure I want. I'm not even sure about offensive Starmie to be honest; With Leftovers it's cockblocked by Jellicent, with Life Orb it dies too quickly for a spinner. It also makes my team weaker to things like Blissey/Chansey (esp. Chansey since I'd absolutely have to rely on Tricking Zoroark's Choice Specs), Jellicent, Volcarona (without Keldeo, Salamence is literally my only reliable answer), Ferrothorn (Heatran would be the best option to take it down in the rain), and probably many more I've not listed here. Keldeo also just helps against stall in general. I'd rather have a weakness to a few threats that I can compensate for by adjusting my play-style instead of outright lose to a whole group of teams.
 
Hey, Ryuu. I see this team is doing good for you. That's nice.

Anyway, like you told me on Skype, your team is weak to fighting. But I definitely see rain stall walling your team for days, but your Keldeo can take advantage of it and deal a lot of damage. Terrakion is another problem. To me, for once, I think Choice Scarf Terrakion can really perform well against your team better than Choice Band. Any other strong physical Choice Band Pokemon hurt your team too. And your team doesn't even have any sort of healing moves and Stealth Rock can wear you down slowly. Especially with Salamence because he can't help you tak fighting hits anytime soon, and once he's dead, it is killing time for any fight type.

But that's all I can give it out for now until we actually battle. So yeah. Sorry for the shitty rating, but good luck.
 

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