(VGC) SporeOut [Peaked #98]

[chuavechito]

Hello Smogon! Finally I made it top the top100 so I decided to share my team. The core of this team is Scarf Spore + Fake Out as lead. I will gladly appreciate any suggestion.

Team Development

Everything started with Breloom since he is the faster Spore (except for Smeargle, but 5 Spe doesnt really overcome the underwhelming stats difference).

Infernape was the first Fake Outer I tested. I got owned by Chesto Cresselia (mostly because Fire/Fight are not a good combination), Abomasnow/Tyranitar (no Sash) and Ghosts (no Fake Out) losing 11 games in a row, completely reseting my ranking, so I decided to remove him from the team.

Weavile came next. He was really simmilar to Infernape (which is why I though he was going to fail miserably), but he was a total success. STAB Dark can shut down Cresselia and Ghosts, and Ice means I wont lose my Sash to Abomasnow.

I added Hitmontop next as a direct counter to Tyranitar. He is also very good against Hail, hitting for super effective against most Blizzard users aswell as providing access to Wide Guard shuting down Blizzard.

Togekiss was the next addition, and a good one. He turned out to be the perfect support for Spore. 60% flinch rate is pretty much the best thing you could possible want against an early wake up.

Turns out I needed some raw power so I changed my Togekiss to a Choice Spec build leaving me no choice (bad pun intended) but to add some sort of speed control. Cresselia is the best speed controller in the game so far so the next addition was an obvious one.

Then I tried out FakeOut-LastResort Ambipom, but it sucked badly because everybody has at lats 2 Ghost/Steel/Rock to stall Ambipom out.

I added Chandy to counter Trick Room teams who were a major pain in the ass, but it didnt work.

Finally, I added Sableye. He was a perfect fit since he could counter many of my counters and checks.

Cress wasnt doing much for the team. I tried different builds but ended up removing her in order to add Terrakion. Terrakion is like Togekiss distant cousin.

The Team

Breloom @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Low Sweep
- Bullet Seed
- Spore
- Fling

Breloom is my lead 99.99% of the times. Thanks to Scarf and 252+ Spe he goes to insane speed levels, been outspeeded only by Priority, a few Scarfed mons and +Spe under weather mons.

252 EVs obviously go to Spe. My HP made the difference much more times than my damage output so I decided to go for a 252 HP instead 252 Atk.

Low Sweep and Bullet Seed are my STAB moves of choice, for late game if I can switch out Breloom or early game if I cant Spore for some reason. Bullet Seed can single handly win a game against a Rain team while Low Sweep can put a major number against Tyranitar.

Finally, I want for Fling because its not uncommon to switch out Breloom for late game, and a lot of times I want to Spore again but geting Choice locked into Spore could cost me the game. I have unlocked my Breloom in late game more times than I can remember.

Weavile @ Focus Sash
Trait: Pickpocket
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Night Slash
- Swords Dance
- Fake Out

Weavile is the usual partner of Breloom. Ice and Dark are a fantastic offensive combination. He is also the fastest fake outer in the game (Faster Fake Out was one of the first problems I had). Also, since I was going to use Focus Sash on my main Fake Outer regardless, having Pickpocket was simply a godsent.

Swords Dance is a cool set up move for Weavile. He is naturally quite fast and is not hard at all to get one +2 for free. Usually I go Fake Out + Spore (mons weak to Ice or Dark are the priority here), Spore + Swords Dance, switch out into Togekiss + hit the first Spored guy. If everything goes according to the plan I usually win. This can obviously fail 1 out of 3 games (when they wake up in the first turn of sleep) but odds are in my favour.

Togekiss @ Choice Specs
Trait: Serene Grace
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Natur
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Tri Attack
- Aura Sphere
- Heat Wave

Togekiss completes my core. I need something that can hit hard to abuse the few turns of sleep. Togekiss was the best option because of Air Slash + Serene Grace. Not only he can hit like a truck, but he can also provide the flinch chance in case they wake up early from Spore.

Air Slash is the move I use the most. It cant touch Rock, Steel and Electric. Tri Attack is there to stomp Electric mons, and the 40% of status is quite cool to hit everything else when Im choice locked into that move. Aura Sphere can pierce through Rock and Steel, raping Tyranitar even under Sandstorm, while Heat Wave can shut down the common Bug/Steel and Steel/Psychic mons that plague our meta.

Terrakion @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- X-Scissor

Terrakion added more raw power and flinch support. STAB Choice Band Rock Slide is quite strong. The other moves are mostly "just in case" weapons. They can 1HKO some threats so there is no reason not to have them.

Hitmontop (M) @ Fighting Gem
Trait: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 20 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Wide Guard
- Quick Guard

Hitmontop is first back up. I use him mostly against Hail and Sand teams. 252+ Gem Close Combat can hurt something a lot while he also has the very needed Fake Out.

Wide Guard and Quick Guard are good stuff. They can both act as pseudo Fake Outs and this lineup really takes adventage of flinch so there is no reason to use Detect, Mach Punch or Sucker Punch.

20 Speed EVs has won me all speed races vs other Hitmontops so far. The rest goes to overall bulk since Hitmontop really appreciates it.

Sableye @ Wide Lens
Trait: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Recover
- Fake Out

As I said before, Sableye can counter many of my checks and counters. Fake Out and Prankster Taunt outspeeds most Taunts (minus Thundurus/Whimsicott Taunt), completely stopping their chances of shuting down my Spore.

Taunt also shuts down Trick Room, who was giving me a major trouble, by allowing me to Spore+Taunt the Trick Roomer. This way if they have Mental Herb they go to sleep and burn the Herb, and if they have Lum Berry they get Taunted and burn the Berry.

Finally, WoW + Recover is my offensive weapon of choice. WoW can shut down many of the most commons mons like Metagross, Scizor, Tyranitar, etc. I went for Wide Lens because it pumps the acc of WoW from the unreliable 75% to the consistent 83%, shuting down some of Garchomp's Sand Veil.

[TheMantyke]

Ah, I do like a good Fake Out + Sleep team. Hopefully I can lend you some insight from my experience using similar teams, although my advice is a bit of a drastic overhaul at points.

You have some pretty big problems on your hand that needs to be dealt with. First of all, most experienced player will know what's coming when they see a Breloom and a Fake Out user turn 1 and will usually double protect expecting the spore and Fake Out. Your team is composed of several frail attackers that rely on Breloom's Spore for protection and have a hard time working without other things asleep. Secondly, you have only a single water resist on your team, and that one water resist can't take Ice Beams well at all. Rain, especially rain with Ludicolo to Fake Out Breloom turn 1, is going to cause you some problems.

To remedy both of these problems, I would recommend switching out a few of your frailer members for bulkier attackers that work well in and out of Breloom's Sleep support. Specifically, I would recommend replacing Weavile, Sableye, and Terrakion with a Rotom-W, a Metagross, and a Cresselia.


Metagross @ Steel Gem
Adamant
Clear Body
252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Speed
-Meteor Mash
-Zen Headbutt / Earthquake
-Bullet Punch / Zen Headbutt
-Protect

Metagross lends a lot to your team. It gives your team a Dragon resist meaning Latios's Draco Meteors are much easier to work around. It has pretty darn good defensive defensive synergy with Breloom, only sharing a Fire Weakness. It offers you much the same offensive prowess that Terrakion gives you but trades speed (somewhat unnessisary when everything is asleep, don't you think?) for good defenses, good defensive typing, and non repetitive coverage alongside Hitmontop and Breloom.


Rotom-W @ Water Gem
Modest
Levitate
252 HP / 252 SpAtk / 6 Speed
-Hydro Pump
-Thunderbolt
-Hidden Power Grass
-Protect

Rotom-W gives your team an answer to rain and pairs very well alongside Breloom, Metagross, and Hitmontop. It doesn't even share a single weakness among those three! Offensively Rotom-W is no slouch either and gives your team some variety offensively with Thunderbolt and Hydro Pump. Seeing as how you have a Hitmontop on hand lending Fake Out support, Weavile seems pretty darn repetitive. Personally, with Intimidate at its disposal, I feel like Hitmontop does a much better job using Fake Out than Weavile, making Weavile the preferable Pokemon to replace for extra rain defense.


Cresselia @ Leftovers
Calm
Levitate
252 HP / 252 SpDef / 6 Def
-Psychic
-Icy Wind
-Helping Hand / HP Fire
-Trick Room

Finally there's Cresselia. You mentioned that Cresselia wasn't doing much for you as a method of speed control when you first used it, but I highly suggest retrying it with a bulkier set of team mates on hand. Icy Wind will do wonders for Togekiss, Hitmontop, Rotom-W and Metagross. Inverting Trick Room also means Cresselia can fill in for Sableye's lost role as an anti trick room Pokemon.

With all of those pretty drastic changes out of the way, I have just two quick suggestions for Hitmontop. You don't seem to gain much from Wide Guard and Quick Guard as when you get to the point where you can start using them turn 2, your opponents should be asleep. Instead, I would recommend replacing them with Feint and Sucker Punch. Feint allows you to still nail people expecting the turn 1 sleep + fake out with Spore and Sucker Punch offers you some additional coverage in the event of something like a Latios popping out.

Hope this advice helps!