Here's my all new team update for Super Singles. I haven’t posted in over a year, since I lost my previous streak at 216 and thought I would try to get a good win streak with never used before mon’s. this run has been on and off, because i either lost interested, or because i actually lost a run, well anyway...
Now currently at 216 wins like before, but I need my sleep at 3 in the morning, from typing this up.
Say Hello to Team Venomoth!!
Meowstic: Male (PussInBoots).
Item: Choice Scarf.
Nature: Calm.
Ability: Prankster.
IV’s: 31/ 10/ 31/ 21/ 31/ 31
EV’s: 252 HP. 124 Def. 134 Sp. Def
-Trick
-Torment
-Protect
-Thunder Wave
Durant: Female (Nat).
Item: Focus Sash.
Nature: Jolly.
Ability: Truant.
IV’s: 31/ 31/ 31/ 04/ 31/ 31
EV’s: 124 HP. 124 Def. 252 Speed.
-Entrainment
-X-scissor
-Iron Head
-Crunch
Venomoth: Female (Dovahkiin).
Item: Black Sludge.
Nature: Modest.
Ability: Tinted lens.
IV’s: 31/ 14/ 31/ 31/ 31/ 31
EV’s: 252 HP. 4 Def. 252 Sp. Atk
-Quiver Dance
-Protect
-Bug Buzz
-Substitute
My EV’s look weird but there are some that make sense. My Durant should have 252 atk, but since it was an old one I was experimenting with, I kinda forgot to re-EV train it. Woops.
Suppose I better explain the concept here. Use a Prankster Pokemon turn 1 holding a choice scarf, to force the opponent into only using 1 move. Use Torment to force that Pokemon to use struggle every other turn, and paralyse them with thunder wave to bring the speed stat back down again, before it goes down, and then go with the Entrainment Durant route as normal. Set up and win.
Sounds good on paper doesn’t it… not quite. The Trick, Torment strategy only works if the opponent uses a damaging move turn 1. If they go for something like Swords Dance, then they’ll switch out eventually. But thankfully Torment and Thunder wave still do work to the newly switched in Pokemon to the point that the new pokemon isn’t an immediate threat. Even Fire types. Ground types are still immune to thunder wave though.
Protect gives me a win condition against Arena trap Dugtrio, as I can force it to use struggle to death under Choice, Torment lock. Same goes with shadow tag Gothitelle.
I can also use Protect on Struggle turns so Meowstic dies to a normal attack so Durant won’t take the normal attack.
Meowstic as my Prankster lead, was the choice I made, because I wanted to be original with my team, and not have to rely on copying other people's teams too much. Like using Whimsicott. I tried using Murkrow and Liepard in testing, with a taunt lead, but things didn’t work out well for me. The idea was that prankster taunt Thundurus and Tornadus, (my arch nemesis) would be 2HKO by Sucker Punch, if they did get taunt on me. While Murkrow and Liepard did take kos, thanks to taunt/ sucker punch combo, it wasn’t reliable enough, as on turns where I wanted them to die so I got a free switch to Durant they might survive. And if they die on the last turn of Taunt and Durant comes in, it might get protect/ detect blocked.
The evs on Meowstic are tricky. You want to be able to survive at least 2 hits from any attack, however no matter what ev investment you give it, you’ll still be OHKOed by either a special or physical attacker. Namely Chandelure and Rampardos.
If you put evs in def, and Bold nature, you can prevent Naughty Rampardos from an ohko. (a quick calc for you guys)
252+ Atk Rampardos Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 196+ Def Meowstic: 153-180 (84.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
If you put evs in Sp. Def and Calm nature, you can prevent an ohko from a modest Chandelure.
As you can see from my chosen ev’s, I choose the Chandelure route. (heres another quick calc for you guys)
252+ SpA Chandelure Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 134+ SpD Meowstic: 152-180 (83.9 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
With that out of the way, let’s move onto Durant. Nothing to say here (Except it’s evs I’m not happy with. I suppose it can take physical hits better I suppose, but that's it. Like I said earlier it was one I was experimenting with earlier). Durant comes in. Sets up entrainment and gets the hell outta there. But this set is slightly different. It has Focus sash. Since the opponent is going to be paralysed from Meowstic’s T-wave, I don’t have to worry about being outsped by anything. And if the opponent is stuck in the Choice Scarf, Torment lock, and they used a normal damaging move to KO meowstic (Not struggle), all they are going to do is use struggle on me. LOL. This is funny when the opponent is locked into a fire type move, and they have to use struggle on me because of Choice, Torment lock.
The Focus Sash is there for when things go bad. By bad I mean, opponent gets Choice locked into a non damaging move. Switches. I still get to Torment the new Pokemon but Meowstic will have to be able to tank the hits of the new Pokemon. If it dies after Torment and the opponent is somehow faster than Durant, if I was unable to set up the T-Wave, they could ohko me. Focus Sash ensures that Entrainment is still pulled off nicely. Even against Fire type attacks. If I still mess up for whatever reason, and durant goes down, before I can use Entrainment (most likely caused by opponent spamming Protect and Detect on the new Pokemon) then Torment, acts as a weaker, lesser Truant ability on the opponent, forcing them to not use the same move every turn. Paralysis from an opponent's electric type move is still an issue here.
If they have a super effective attack on my Moth, they can only use it every other turn any way, giving me a chance to set up sort off. It can still protect on turns where the super effective attack will land. However one of the Maisons Blaziken’s have 2 fire type damaging attacks. Yikes!
One last note. The last move on Durant, crunch, is there just for Chandelure. Moth at +6 sp. Atk still can’t ohko it. If I lose Moth, Durant can come in and finish it off with crunch.
Which brings us to the main event… The Dragon born Dovahkiin the Venomoth! (ATV FTW!)
I was looking for a decent set up sweeper, and loved the idea of Drapion being used by the top players, however I wasn’t a fan on acupressure. I then decided I want just as many stat boosts as I would of gotten from acupressure but being more reliable. Which is where Quiver Dance comes in as I get 3 stat boosts out of it. Now there’s also Shell smash but lowering the defences isn’t ideal for a substitute set up. (I guess sub cloyster could work, though never tried it).
Now first thing I thought of was Volcarona, the most powerful Pokemon with Quiver Dance. However, the X4 stealth rocks weakness, and toxic spikes weakness threw me off, leaving me to find a pokemon that would be immune to toxic spikes. There are many Quiver Dancers but most which where immune to toxic spikes where also X4 weak to rocks. One pokemon stuck out though, and that was Venomoth. Still weak to rocks, but only X2.
I also found out if I used a set up pokemon with an immunity, and the lead pokemon was choice locked into a move I was immune to, it would switch.
An example. Lead pokemon is locked into earthquake. My set up mon is an Altaria. (one of my previous runs) I’m immune to earthquake, so the opponent would switch out after X number of turns.
Venomoth has zero immunities, meaning zero chance the opponent will ever switch out, while I set up on it. This is one advantage over Drapion, while using Trick, Torment lock.
Not only does Venomoth have some nice resistances to fighting, bug, poison, fairy and grass, but it comes with Tinted Lens, which is amazing! It takes away those not very effective hits making them neutral, and the X4 resisted pokemon would only take half damage from me. Which is pretty nice in itself.
This would allow me to get OHKO’s on birds and other things resisted to bug.
If the lead Pokemon chose to attack Meowstic with a super effective move on psychic, like X-Scissor, then Venomoth is able to eat them up, due to resistance and survive multiple hits inside its substitute.
Lead fire, psychic, rock and flying types are also more likely to use a dark, bug or ghost move if they have them against Meowstic (if they have any) meaning Venomoth can save pp on protect by going for multiple dances in a row, (as long as i’m in a sub)!
The move choice was tricky. Bug buzz is more powerful, and gets some ohkos on the quad resist Pokemon, and goes through opponents subs, but gets stopped by Soundproof. Or go Signal beam, which is a guaranteed 2 hit on most of those quad resisted mons, however you may lose your sub if they attack, which can be bad. Especially if it's only the second Pokemon. Gale wings, brave bird, Talonflame is an example of a bad matchup for signal beam as Talonflame has priority, and you’ll never be able to get off a second attack. But Bug Buzz OHKO’s Talonflame. Sludge Bomb was considered, but I get walled by steel types.
In testing Venomoth can successfully PP stall out many of the soundproof pokemon if using the Bug Buzz route, with PP maxed on every move. (R.I.P Bastiodon. LOL) However I don’t have much in the way to combat Ice Shard Abomasnow, which cost me a run. I can stall out Stone Edges from a Bastidon no probs. It only has 5PP. But 30PP Ice Shards… no chance. Its for this reason, that it's important to have as much hp on both Meowstic and Durant as possible, so I can switch out, if I see the Abomasnow and can immobilize it and get Truant on it.
Venomoth doesn’t have speed evs due to the fact that a +6 speed boost from quiver dance still outspeeds everything, which lets me give it max hp investment, which is great for subs.
And there you have it. Team Venomoth on a roll with over 200 for its win streak.
Let me know what you guys think of this team. I will most likely be fixing the evs on durant, since I think it really needs the 252 attack, when going with a focus sash route.
I will post a video if i reach 250 or lose before then.
