Dressin' (Gardevoir) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 SpA (Added type: Electric)
- Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
Will O Wisp is Dressin's "safe" move -it surprises me how often absolutely everything on the enemy team is going to be unhappy with a Burn. It's also there for Shedinja, particularly in conjunction with Shadow Ball -Shedinja can protect itself from one or the other, but the closest it get to protecting against both is Lum Berry+Dark typing or Focus Sash+Fire typing, which I've yet to see either of. Dressin' herself is used fairly sparingly -she can't heal, she's not immune to Toxic, Burn, Sandstorm, or Hail (I haven't seen Hail yet), she doesn't resist Stealth Rock nor is she immune to Spikes, and I don't have anybody to pass Wishes to her, so I have to have a very good reason to switch her in. One trick I have picked up is that I realized Mega Gardevoir doesn't increase Defense any over regular Gardevoir -so against Physical threats I will often hold off on Mega Evolution if there's any possibility of getting use out of Trace later in the match. (Tracing Regenerator and switch-healing her, tracing Wonder Guard and sweeping the entire enemy team because they can't touch her, tracing Intimidate on a switch-in to more safely switch in on the Intimidator, etc)
It's nearly impossible to wall Dressin', barring Eviolite Chansey. Steel/Grass comes close, but barring the odd Grass Heatran that frequently means it's a Physical attacker I drop a Will O Wisp on, and the double Fire weakness can be exploited by multiple team members. There's probably other combinations that would be reasonably effective, using Electric immunity Abilities for instance, but I've yet to see them.
The Electric typing is fantastic, and ensures that Dressin' can reliably counter Flying Heatran (Which most Heatran are), providing Steel resistance (Without providing Fire vulnerability like Steel would), and similarly actually allows Dressin' to revenge-kill Talonflame -usually Talonflame Brave Birds into Dressin', expecting a OHKO, removes 50% of her health, and then the Thunderbolt is a OHKO. (Calcing it, they must all be Banded Talonflames, otherwise it would be noticeably less) Flare Blitz with a Band will usually OHKO Dressin' (Always, if she's lost anything to Stealth Rock/Spikes/Sandstorm/previous attackers), but so far that's only happened once. Similarly, a Ground Talonflame would probably handily kill Dressin', being immune to Thunderbolt, which I would only discover after losing half her health -but every Talonflame I've encountered has been Steel, which incidentally has allowed me to Flamethrower them to death with Pinky with surprising frequency. In general, Dressin' has excellent offense and especially often throws people -everyone expects their Steel-typed Pokemon, or Fire/Psychic, or similar, to wall Dressin' just fine, and then Thunderbolt rips off most or all of their health while they thought they were safe setting up.
Dressin's biggest flaw is probably that I don't have her speed-specced. This has cost me against Gliscor that I would'ved OHKOed with Hyper Voice but they Earthquaked me before I moved, against Speed-specced Dragonite, and other things like that. On the other hand, her combination of bulk and offense has saved the day so many times I can't bring myself to change it.
Sometimes I wonder if Steel typing would be better, mostly when Sandstorm and Toxic are being thrown around, but then I remember it would compromise her ability to counter Flying Heatran (Or non-Flying Heatran, for that matter), and in general dramatically reduce her offensive pressure, and I'm OK with my decision.
Rage (Gyarados) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpA / 30 SpD (Added type: Ground)
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Dragon Dance
It surprises me how often people
still try to hit Rage with an Electric move, blithely expecting to rip her up. I'm not sure if people just aren't giving any thought to what Gyarados would want, or if they're assuming she's a Mega Gyarados (For whom Ground would actually be pretty sub-optimal), but either way, free turns for me. Rage is a weird utility Pokemon for the team -she's not got the kind of offensive pressure other team members have, she doesn't produce the runaway-train effect that Punkette and Meany Face can pull off, and yet she remains a consistently useful member of the team because she can switch in on expecting Electric moves (Most notably Volt Switches) without fear, switch in on Earthquakes without fear, and in general shrug off most attacks, but especially Physical attacks because of her Intimidate. I've sometimes wondered if Moxie would be a worthwhile trade over Intimidate, but I switch her out so often I'm not convinced it would be that helpful. She's also, amusingly enough, one of my fastest team members, and often ends up troubleshooting things that can outspeed most of my team, such as Landorus-Therian.
The big appeal of adding Ground is of course covering Gyarados' double Electric weakness, but it also removes Rock/Stealth Rock weakness and adds STAB to Earthquake, which I'd want to run anyway. The added weaknesses to Ice and Grass don't crop up very often -and Rage is generally best off switching out on problematic Grass types anyway, if she can't OHKO them with Ice Fang- and I've only once seen someone other than myself running Freeze Dry, or indeed a Pokemon that can
learn Freeze Dry at all!
The EVs are generic. Go fast, kill things hard, have teeny bit extra durability.
Punkette (Scrafty) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD (Added type: Poison)
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Dragon Dance
Knock Off, Knock Off, Knock Off.
It's not the only thing Punkette does, but it's by far the most
common thing for her to do. Tyranitar? Assume it's Ghost, Knock Off. Bisharp? Assume it's Ghost, Knock Off. Ferrothorn? Knock Off to get rid of its Rocky Helmet/Leftovers, and if it wasn't Super Effective, then I Drain Punch it. (If it was, I Knock Off it again) Really, basically anything that isn't probably a Mega (And even some of those, like Tyranitar) gets hit with Knock Off -in part because if the enemy switches, it basically doesn't matter what switches in, it's probably unhappy being hit with Knock Off. Using Punkette has convinced me that Ghost is
not the best thing to add to Eviolite Chansey -it already doesn't want to be hit with Knock Off, and now you're making its one weakness Knock Off? Even if it survives the first hit, it's probably not going to survive a second.
Punkette is also a catchall troubleshooter. She's immune to Toxic, resists Grass and Poison (She's been crucial in overcoming Mega Venusaur), and if she can pull off a couple of Dragon Dances can frequently Moxie her way to a clean sweep of the entire enemy team. Just the threat of this possibility alone can force the enemy to switch, either allowing a free Knock Off on the switch-in (Breaking Dragonite's Multiscale, for instance) or giving Punkette a turn to Dragon Dance, potentially leading to this uncontrolled sweep. As such, even though I often find myself wondering whether I should have Intimidate, to make it safer for her to switch in on enemies, or Shed Skin, so she can shrug off Burns, I have never actually moved away from Moxie -its threat provides so much of her offensive pressure and sorely punishes a variety of mistakes the enemy might make.
Only two things, thus far, have proven to be a major problem for her. Ghost Mega Tyranitar, and Talonflame of any kind. Ghost Mega Tyranitar just laughs off everything Punkette does, and if I switch it's going to Dragon Dance, and my team really struggles to deal with Dragon Danced Tyranitar, so that's cost me matches. Talonflame on the other hand will OHKO Punkette, no questions asked, no amount of Dragon Dances will save you now. Fortunately it has to
revenge switch in most of the time -it cannot take Knock Off after a boost or two, and won't be happy taking even an unboosted Knock Off. Even then, I just switch out, crying a little inside at sacrificing that +2-4 on Attack and +1-2 on Speed.
Poison is a fantastic added typing for Scrafty, reducing the Fairy weakness to a manageable level, removing the Fighting weakness that often gets Scrafty OHKOed by Close Combats, High Jump Kicks, or even just Drain Punches delivered by hard-hitting foes, while throwing in immunity to Toxic and providing surprisingly useful Poison, Bug (U-Turn), and Grass resistances. This has saved me a surprising number of times, and Fire is the only thing I consider anywhere near a contender, due to it providing immunity to Burn -and even then, Poison only adds one weakness, where Fire adds two and announces itself when switching in on Stealth Rock.
The EVs are because I need 201 Speed to outspeed most threats after one Dragon Dance, and anything more that I need more to outspeed is probably not within EV reach, while otherwise I want some bulk on Punkette, in part to sustain Moxie rampages.
Meany Face (Dragonite) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpD (Added type: Steel)
- Iron Head
- Dragon Claw
- Roost
- Dragon Dance
If the enemy lacks Heatran, Meany Face can often set up on something and kill the entire team without much issue. There are other things, like Prankster Sableye with Will O Wisp, that can mess it up, but Heatran is the only thing I've seen people actually pack. Skarmory is also something of a check, assuming it's packing Whirlwind. Otherwise it's just more time to set up. Meany Face is, amusingly, my primary counter to enemy Fairies, is a check to enemy Dragons, and in general frequently subs in to deal with something no team member is specifically competent against. The fact that it's walled by any random Steel type (So long as they aren't part Fairy, Dragon, Rock, or Ice) isn't really a big deal -it has to be something like Heatran (Burning Meany Face), Skarmory (Whirlwinds me out), or something else that can cripple Meany Face or remove her stat boosts. Otherwise she just Dragon Dances until she can outspeed their healing, or she's maxed, or whatever I feel is the minimum needed to outspeed something crucial on the enemy team, such as Kyurem-Black that's probably Scarfed, and then goes on to KO whatever is supposed to wall her.
Seriously, Meany Face frequently sweeps entire enemy teams, basically by herself.
Not much else to say about her -she's only got one weakness, she's got STAB on Iron Head, she can set up and kill way more things than she "should" be able to. I've seen a number of different Dragonite builds from other people, but none of them seems to match Meany Face's performance.
I honestly don't remember if the EVs are what Showdown shoved on me or if I made a deliberate effort to tweak them. Regardless, they work for much the same reason as Punkette's EVs work -the bulk is nice, and while I need Speed I don't need
that much after a Dragon Dance -which Meany Face will pretty much always get a chance to do if I'm switching her in, barring Stealth Rocks breaking her Multiscale while up against a noticeably boosted opponent.
Pinky (Clefable) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe (Added type: Fire)
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight
Everybody assumes it's Steel typed. Nope, Fire, for Flamethrower STAB. It still covers up the Steel weakness, and the untouched Poison weakness doesn't crop up too much, since many Pokemon can't (Or won't) run Poison as coverage and not many Poison Pokemon have shown up in this meta. Plus people frequently assume it's Steel (Or at least are too afraid of the consequences of being wrong) and thus don't hit Pinky with Poison moves. Phantom typing benefits!
Pinky himself frequently destroys Steel-typed foes, whether they are just unsuspecting Skarmories (Who aren't running Dragon typing), Steel Landoruses, or whoever, or are actual offensive Steel threats expecting to freely switch in and destroy him. He's also got a weird relationship with Heatran: he has essentially zero ability to hurt Heatran, but most Heatran aren't any better against him. If it weren't for the fact that so many Heatran are running Roar (Or occasionally Earth Power, but my opponents often refuse to use it on Pink, for reasons that mystify me), things would be firmly in Pinky's favor, since he could just Calm Mind up (With the occasional Moonlight) until either Heatran switched or it was time to melt it with Moon Blast. As is Pinky still frequently gets Heatran's Special Attack down, paving the way for someone else (Dressin') to deal with it in relative safety.
Pinky is also a fantastic check to most Dragonite. If they aren't running Steel, Moon Blast is horrible news for them. If they are running Steel, I can Flamethrower and possibly Burn them in the deal. In any event he's neutral to Iron Head and immune to Dragon, so barring the occasional Flinch, Pinky will usually take apart Dragonite, because it almost always Dragon Dances/Hone Claws (Multiscale broken by testing Flamethrower) and then Iron Heads (Dragonite finished off with either a second Flamethrower or a Moon Blast, depending on how effective Flamethrower was) with Pinky still having about 30% health remaining.
Pinky is also a huge frustration to a variety of opponents that expect to be able to Toxic him out of the way. Most people assume Pinky is Unaware -and sometimes switch out when they have substantial set-up and basically have the match in the bag! It surprises me, actually, how often my opponent overlooks the fact that Pinky switched in on Stealth Rocks without taking damage and then tries tossing Toxic on him anyway.
The funny thing is, Pinky is a huge bag of weaknesses -Poison, Rock, Ground, and Water all, none of which are good to be weak to. Nonetheless, Pinky often survives for a surprisingly long period of time, probably partly because my opponents never seem to guess that Pinky is part Fire -luck into killing him easily because they're using Earthquake anyway? Absolutely. Assume he's Steel and Earthquake him? Yep. Actually guess he's Fire, even after being melted by a Flamethrower? Not that I've noticed.
I've found the Fire typing fantastic, though really Pinky is one of the low-performance members of the team. He'd probably be the first to go if I found the team started struggling consistently.
Devastator (Slowbro) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe (Added type: Fire)
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
My latest team member, replacing Hitmontop (Steel), who replaced Articuno (Ground), who replaced Cryogonal (Steel), who replaced Crawdaunt. (Fighting)
Devastator is an experiment, and one that's working fairly well thus far, for all that he means that 2/3rds of my team is weak to Ground, instead of just half. Thus far he's proven fairly solid, which I hadn't really expected, in all honesty, though I may yet to decide to return to Fighting Crawdaunt for the priority and sheer stopping power. (Crawdaunt was an amazing lead and made a huge difference in my ability to deal with Tyranitar, particularly Mega Tyranitar, which Devastator doesn't help against at all. On the other hand, when I was running Crawdaunt my team was painfully vulnerable to Will O Wisp) In any event nobody ever seems to expect Flamethrower out of Slowbro, presumably because it's a Water type and they're just assuming it can't get Fire moves.
I still don't have a clear sense as to whether Devastator is adding much to the team or not. Some of his utilities overlap with other team members and/or make me remember how awesome Crawdaunt was, such as his ability to take on Flying Heatran just fine, which is both. I haven't used him enough to say how well he works. The idea was he could be used to soak hits and make my team less vulnerable to being chipped away -but I haven't actually gotten that use out of him. Maybe I just haven't fought the right kind of team for him to shine.
The added Fire typing covers the Grass and Bug weaknesses, but in exchange adds Ground and Rock weaknesses. I dunno, there's no really amazing type to add to Water/Psychic, and just the fact that people never anticipate it is huge. Unfortunately, my team is very Ground weak, and Devastator just makes things worse. Again, I may yet revert to Crawdaunt. Alternatively I could swap Fire typing for Grass or Bug typing, which would actually resist Ground, cover up the Grass weakness, and cover up the Electric weakness in the case of Grass. (Though making the Bug weakness horrendous)