So some quick background; This team was made for cycle 7 of Monotype's core challenges. The thread for cycle 8 can be found here. I picked up this core after being the first one to reach Platinum rank with the companion core consisting of Mega Medicham and Scrafty. The most notable thing about this core is that I'm the only person to reach Platinum with it, and to my knowledge only one other person even reached Gold. That's just how hard this core is. At a later date this team was posted in an article of Smogon's Flying Press: The Monotype Core Laddering Challenge, as one of the stand out teams that Dece1t particularly wanted to showcase. I unfortunately couldn't get a RMT done in time for him to reference there, so he had to make his own assumptions with the copy of the team that I gave him. This is that RMT that I couldn't have done before. I admit I kind of needed to come up with a real name for the team just for this, so I referenced the band Rush's 'The Wreckers,' which was a group of people who lived on an island and used a lighthouse to guide ships onto rocks and cause them to wreck so that they could steal the cargo. With this team's use of misdirection as well as the massive power of Crawdaunt it seemed to fit. So, enjoy.
Current Wreckers
Crawdaunt @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Crabhammer
- Swords Dance
Crawdaunt was one of the two Pokemon required by the core challenge. This is Crawdaunt's most effective set in monotype, which is why I used it. It's, in practical use, unwallable by anything. Even Unaware Quagsire risks a 2hko after Rocks or if Leftovers is removed. It brings much needed power to the team, brutally ripping holes in the opposing team. It also carries a powerful Aqua Jet to pick of weakened Pokemon in the late game and clean up, allowing it to serve as either a wallbreaker or late game sweeper. 252 Speed is necessary to outspeed uninvested Rotom forms.
Blastoise @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Aura Sphere
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
Blastoise was the second Pokemon required by the core challenge. I chose to make it the team's Mega solely because regular Blastoise is dead-weight next to a Crawdaunt. Even as a Mega, though, it ended up being sacrificed a lot of the time, often just spinning and fainting. It does, however, serve as necessary hazard removal, as I can't spare another slot for a second Pokemon that learns Rapid Spin with how much constraint having Crawdaunt and Blastoise put on my team choices. The moveset I played around with a lot before Miyoka mentioned that she had used Blastoise before, and after using what she had used I decided that it was optimal. Scald is arguably the best water type STAB outside of Steam Eruption. Ice Beam provides essential coverage alongside Scald and if specially defensive Zapdos switches into Blastoise on Rocks will 2hko before Zapdos makes a move. Aura Sphere hits Ferrothorn, Bisharp, Tyranitar, and an assortment of other Pokemon that can take Scald, allowing Blastoise to threaten most anything that would swap in on a Rapid Spin outside of Jellicent. Rain Dish is the only ability a Blastoise with a Blastoisinite can carry that will get any use ever, if only to switch on rocks in the rain and not net any rock damage, and it's therefore used here. 252 SpA Modest is used for optimal hitting power, as it's all Blastoise truly has going for it outside of Rapid Spin and enough bulk to usually last through one attack. 252 Spe may seem like a weird choice, but it actually speed ties with Adamant Diggersby, which is a very threatening Pokemon to a mostly defensive team such as this.
Note: After feedback from The Excadrill I updated my EV spread for Blastoise to 60 Hp/-0 Atk/252 SpA/196 Spe from 0-Atk/4 Def/252+ SpA/252 Spe
Azumarill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Perish Song
- Protect
Azumarill was simply too necessary to not have on the team despite having another Pokemon locked in that performs a similar role already. Without the Fairy typing there was no way to fight back against Dragon attacks and the team had somewhat of a disadvantage to Fighting teams, especially Breloom, however. So instead of doubling up on wallbreakers with priority, I used Azumarill defensively. Azumarill is a deceptively bulky Pokemon, capable of withstanding a lot of punishment. Sap Sipper allows it to hard counter SD Breloom and check Rock Tomb Breloom, making this defensive take on Azumarill a huge boon in playing. The problem with Sap Sipper, however, is that Azumarill is just too weak without Huge Power. So instead of trying to deal damage, Azumarill instead aimed to cripple opponents with Scald burns and Toxic poisoning. The problem with these two moves is that it left Azumarill as setup bait to things unafraid of those moves such as Substitute Gyarados and Keldeo as well as Magic Guard Clefable. This was handily solved by the addition of Perish Song, which ignores substitute and doesn't need to deal damage. Perish Song was able to therefore act as a pseudo haze tool by forcing opponents to make switches and rack up more damage on hazards and its status conditions. The final move, Protect, has amazing synergy with the rest of Azumarill's moveset. It adds an extra turn of burn or Toxic damage, buys a free turn on the Perish counter, and allows Azumarill to slowly regain health safely with Leftovers. In addition, it also aids in prediction. 240 HP EVs were selected as a leftovers number, as Azumarill has no other form of recovery on this team. SpD was maximized to allow Azumarill to almost always avoid the 3hko from Timid Mega Charizard Y's Fire Blast. The rest of the EVs were put into defense, as this Azumarill has no need for offensive EVs and the extra defense helps to take advantage of Scald burns.
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
Swampert gave the team much needed hazards with which it could wear down the opposing team as well as an electric immunity and physical bulk to pair with Azumarill, so it was a fairly easy choice to make. Stealth Rock also pairs amazingly with all of the switches that Azumarill forced, making it even more necessary. It also brings to the table valuable phazing and ground coverage with Earthquake, letting it cover where the previous Pokemon lacked. Scald is, again, too valuable of a move to not use, offering amazing burns to the team. Although either Torrent or Damp can be used on Swampert, depending on what you want to prepare for, I stuck with Torrent, and won a couple of games through it. Swampert can usually weather through strong special hits with a little bit of health, boosting its Scald with Torrent to respectable power and netting me a couple of essential KOs while I laddered. Leftovers is Swampert's only form of recovery, so it proved essential for tanking. 240 HP is a leftovers number for Swampert as well, and physical bulk was maximized. The remaining EVs were directed to SpD to offer a little bit more bulk.
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 208 SpD / 52 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Rotom-Wash was an all-star of the team. It brought to the table a secondary special tank that, unlike Azumarill, can take electric attacks. It also offered ground immunity, which is incredibly useful for water teams when dealing with things like Landorus-I. In addition to tanking, it offered the team incredibly valuable momentum through volt switch, getting on the field without a sacrifice the fragile Crawdaunt, the Blastoise that needs to preserve its bulk for the right moment, or a check to a threat. It secondarily offered electric STAB, which has some important uses. Hydro Pump pairs incredibly well with Volt Switch, nailing anything immune to the move for decent or serious damage outside of Lanturn. Will-O-Wisp allowed Rotom to spread burns more consistently than its Scalding teammates when necessary and cripple a lot of switch ins. Pain Split is Rotom's only form of semi-reliable recovery that doesn't require two moveslots to utilize properly, and I didn't have another moveslot to spare for Sleep Talk if I wanted to use Rest. Pain Split also has the added benefit of helping to wear down opposing Pokemon. Another person who got Gold in the core challenge used Lanturn over Rotom, but I found the consistent burns and ground immunity far too essential to pass up. Rotom was made specially defensive in order to take Thunderbolts for the team, as shown by the EVs, but some speed was invested in order to outspeed tank Landorus-T sets. When I gave the team to Dece1t the teambuilder had reverted the Spe EVs from 52 to 48, which is why it appears incorrectly in the Flying Press article. 52 Spe EVs allows Rotom to outspeed Landorus-T and 2hko it if necessary, or just cripple it with Will-O-Wisp to make it safer to use Blastoise against.
Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Calm Mind
- Slack Off
At this point the team still lacked a few things. A physical wall, something for cementing the team's ability to win against Fighting, actual reliable recovery, a true special sweeper to make up for the places in which Blastoise fails, and speed control. Slowbro could do all of these things, but not on one set. The moveset selected only fails to provide speed control to the team, which I decided was less important than having Calm Mind around to help Slowbro break through sticky situations. In order to make up for the lack of speed control on the team, I gave my opponents reason to mispredict and believe I did have it. Rocky Helmet is, on a Calm Mind set, suboptimal as an item. What it does do, however, is make my opponent believe that I'm using the far, far more common Thunder Wave set. That misprediction buys Slowbro essential turns with which it can recover, set up, or get a burn, or even predict a switch and deal serious damage. Fighting also struggles immensely with this set, as its only two Pokemon that can deal significant damage to it can't deal significant damage to Azumarill and are weak to Psyshock, making it hard to even switch in those two checks. Helmet also allowed Slowbro to break sashes, punish the use of U-turn, and offered a way to stop low HP Rapid Spin from things like Forretress from succeeding in getting rid of Rocks.
Note: After feedback from The Excadrill I updated my EV spread for Slowbro to 252 Hp/0- Atk/232+ Def/24 SpD from 252 Hp/0- Atk/252+ Def/4 SpD
This team had some hard matches to deal with. Psychic was winnable if Crawdaunt was played perfectly and used to sweep late game. Flying was actually a really bad matchup for this team, having Thundurus-I, Mega Charizard Y, and Landorus-I all available to it. Normal had to be played very carefully against in order to prevent Diggersby from breaking the team. Grass was still an autoloss despite the preparation for grass types because Azumarill isn't enough. Electric won automatically for the most part because just Swampert isn't enough in terms of electric immunities. Those two served to be more useful in other matchups against types that contained electric Pokemon. Fire is another problematic matchup because it contains the presence of both Charizard Y, Victini, and Volcanion, making it hard to win against with the incredibly slow average speed of the team. Poison had Mega Venusaur, which autowins with two STAB moves, making for another bad matchup.
This core challenge was Water on hard mode, a fairly rare thing for Water as a type. Prediction played an incredibly important role in earning victories, as well as causing the opponent to mispredict. There were certain errors that had to not be made when using the team. Blastoise was one of them. There was almost never a time where preserving Blastoise when it was in a bad situation could lead me to victory, so it was a harsh lesson in letting go. If anything the team centered around Crawdaunt. Wear and tear to let Crawdaunt clean up or use Crawdaunt to tear holes in the opponent's strategy so that the rest of the team could add a little wear and tear and finish with either a few well timed attacks or Slowbro setting up. Slowbro was also a lesson in letting go, actually. There were times where I had to set a Calm Mind for pressure reasons but the situation turned sour and I had to just let the boost be wasted by immediately switching. Overall a I learned a lot building and playing this team.
vs. Lt1 Apples Fairy http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-396758095
vs. Flying http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-396449406
vs. Flying 2 http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-393345298
vs. Fighting http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-396445378
vs. Flying http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-396449406
vs. Flying 2 http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-393345298
vs. Fighting http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-396445378
Crawdaunt @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Crabhammer
- Swords Dance
Blastoise @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Aura Sphere
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
Azumarill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Perish Song
- Protect
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 208 SpD / 52 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Calm Mind
- Slack Off
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Crabhammer
- Swords Dance
Blastoise @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Aura Sphere
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
Azumarill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Perish Song
- Protect
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 208 SpD / 52 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Calm Mind
- Slack Off
Last edited:
