Mono-Ghost Team

[Atrum]

I'm entering a mono-type tournament on another site using my favorite type: Ghost. Should I be placed in the top eight, I will receive a gym leader position there, so I'd an analysis on how this team would fare against both other mono-type teams as well as the general OU metagame would be very much appreciated.

Froslass
Ability: Cursed Body (Dream World)
Item: Focus Sash/Choice Scarf
Nature: Timid
Taunt/Trick
Spikes
Ice Beam
Destiny Bond
4HP/252SpAtk/252Spe

As it was last generation, Froslass is my beloved lead. Taunt is to be used with Focus Sash, Trick with Choice Scarf. Both versions have the same goal: Set up Spikes and take out one of the opponent's Pokemon through Destiny Bond. Ice Beam is for if 'Lass gets Taunted. The Choice Scarf version is a bit riskier, but generally comes with greater rewards. It will only work well if the opponent uses a common lead such as Aerodactyl or Swampert. A suicide lead such as Aerodactyl is likely to Taunt first, but due to the Scarf, Froslass Tricks Aero out of its Focus Sash and locks the ancient speed demon into Taunt. In the case of a bulky lead like Swampert, the Scarf is Tricked onto the opponent and they are horribly crippled for the rest of the match. An anti or attacking lead, however, will likely benefit from the Scarf and thank me for it. Cursed Body is preferred over Snow Cloak because a 30% chance to disable an opponent's move is better than the nonexistent benefits of Snow Cloak on this team.

Cofagrigus
Ability: Mummy
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Calm Mind
Will-o-Wisp
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power Fighting
252HP/252Def/4SpAtk

Cofagrigus's amazing bulk and decent Special Attack make it perfect (in my opinion) for using Calm Mind. After a few boosts it becomes absurdly bulky on both sides of the spectrum. Shadow Ball and HP Fighting provide perfect neutral coverage. WoW allows Desukaan to cripple Physical sweepers and make it even more of a pain to take down. Sadly, lack of recovery outside of Leftovers really lets the mummy down.

Spiritomb
Ability: Pressure
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Rest
Sleep Talk
Calm Mind
Dark Pulse
252HP/252Def/4SpDef

An old favorite of mine, Spiritomb is back to tank again. CroTomb works wonders provided it gets to set up. Simply use CM until you're down on health, then Rest up and use Sleep Talk to boost and blast away at your opponent. The provided EVs send its Defense sky-high and with the boosts from Calm Mind, its Special Defense is even higher. Even off of 'Tomb's... I'll say decent Special Attack, a few Calm Mind boosts are gonna make those Dark Pulses leave a mark.

Chandelure
Ability: Flash Fire
Item: Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Calm Mind
Substitute/Hidden Power Ground
Shadow Ball
Fire Blast
4HP/252SpAtk/252Spe

Chandelure has the power and bulk to make a CM set viable. Calm Mind boosts its already outrageous Special Attack to obscene levels and Substitute helps to protect it from attacks and status. Chandelure's STAB Shadow Ball and Fire Blast grant amazing neutral coverage. The most notable threat to this is Heatran, who resists Shadow Ball and gets a boost from Fire Blast. If it is seen as too much of an issue, HP Ground can replace Substitute.

Jellicent
Ability: Water Absorb
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Boiling Water
Recover
Will-o-Wisp/Toxic
Shadow Ball
252HP/252Def/4SpDef

Though I am not much of a fan of Pringles Jelly, I can't deny that it is great at the strategy I prefer: Stall. Boiling Water makes a great STAB and has that nifty 30% chance of burning the opponent (Like I don't already have three Pokemon with Will-o-Wisp for that). Recover is the thing which sets this apart from other Ghosts, as it does not have to rely on Pain Split to heal. Will-o-Wisp can be used to guarentee a burn, but Toxic could be used to spread a different status. Shadow Ball makes another great STAB for the regal jellyfish.

Dusknoir
Ability: Pressure
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Impish
Will-o-Wisp
Pain Split
Earthquake
Ice/Fire/ThunderPunch
252HP/28Atk/228Def

I opted for Dusknoir over its boosted prevo for two things: greater offensive presence and Leftovers recovery. As with other Ghosts, Pain Split is for healing through abuse of its poor HP and WoW is to burn opponents. Earthquake is a great move and deals good damage to anything that doesn't resist it. The elemental punches are for coverage and filler.​

There you go. I'm sad to say that I did not include Gengar on this team. The team is primarily focused on bulk, and Chandelure beat it out in that regard. I'm still wondering whether or not I should opt for Dusclops over its evolved relative. If anyone would mind giving me some advice on that point (as well as any other replacements/alternate set suggestions), it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JolteonX]

evolite will always beat lefties, but duskinor has better attack

Dusclops (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Seismic Toss
- Rest
- Confuse Ray


I don't think sleep talk is nessesary on this. it is made to wall physical attacks, however changing the EVs and the nature around to special def. can give you an advantage of having a balanced mixed wall.

 

[Azertyl]

Heres some suggestions:

You could replace Will-O-Wisp with Pain split on Cofagrigus

Night Shade, the Ghost type version of Seismic Toss seems better to replace Shadow Ball with on Jellicent.

If you wanna keep Dusknoir, give it Ice punch for good coverage with Eq.

Other than that, nice mono team but watch out because too much def evs are given to your walls.

 

[Soto]

Trick > Taunt [Froslass]
Substitute > HP Ground [Chandelure]
Flamethrower > Fire Blast [Chandelure] (+ PP and + Acc, is great for set!)
Toxic > WoW [Jellicent]
Dusclops > Dusknoir (Dusknoir sucking penis)

 

[Atrum]

Thanks for the feedback, you guys.

Jolteon: Yeah, I've been looking at the analyses of the two since designing this team and have found the same conclusion of Eviolite > Lefties. I'll try out that 'Clops set with the team and see how it goes.

Azertyl: Thanks for the suggestions, though I don't think Cofagrigus actually gets Pain Split.
Not sure on whether Night Shade would be better than Shadow Ball on Jellicent. I'll run some calcs on that.
As for the EVs, I think you may be on to something there. With all the Wisps, half my opponents are likely to be Burned anyway, so I suppose maxing out everything's Defense may be overdoing it a tad as well as leaving me open to special sweepers.

Soto: Pretty much what I was thinking. After some thought I realized that Taunt cripples less than what Trick cripples and fails to cripple whatever Trick fails to cripple. An anti/attacking lead isn't going to mind being Taunted any more than it's going to mind the Scarf.
Substitute gives added bulk (And HP Ground was really only for Heatran, who isn't too common from what I've seen.) Flamethrower would be better for the bulkier nature of the set than FB.
Toxic since Scald already burns and half of the team has WoW. Should take out opposing walls rather nicely as well.

 

[Splitr]

If you could replace one of the ghost types with a wildcard (non ghost type) what would it be?

 

[dustyballs]

@Azertyl
cofagrigus can't learn pain split.
And to the poster, i don't kno if it cuz of a dream world ability, but dusknoir can't have levitate.

 

[Atrum]

Splitr: The tournament rules do not allow for wild cards. You can only use Pokémon of the type you picked.

Dusty: Did I really? You're right. Dusknoir has Pressure, not Levitate. Thanks for pointing that out; I'll go edit it right away.

 

[wacky tabaky]

Because this is mono ghost you are weak to dark(duh) so dusk I believe should be a sub split punch set with WoW. Chandelure can be a choice scarf/spec set of energy ball, flamethrower, shawdow ball and another move so you have a reliable sweeper to pick off the last few pokemon. I think for most off your pokemon you have used to much def so if you have the time make them more specially defensive as burn lowers attack.
Good luck in the tournament.

 

[Farewell]

A Hex + Venushock Gengar set wouldn't be too bad for your team. It would have a Sweeper, and a Pokemon with 2 very strong Base Power STABs. Gengar could be Scarfed for a way to clean up foes. With the amount of Status moves used, it is very realistic to use. It also adds a Ground Immunity which is great vs ground teams against Shandera, and also isn't hurt by Spikes.

Rotom-H might also be an option.

Also Driftblim might be useful for Baton Passing. I noticed a lot of your team is slower and stalls individually, Driftblim could make your team rely less on boosting just their own stats and receive Calm Minds, etc. from Driftblim and free up a moveslot.

 

[Atrum]

Once more, thanks for all the reviews. Brilliant ideas from all of you. If I win this thing, I'll know who to thank.

Wacky: A SubPunch Dusknoir, I assume/ In which case, yes, I'll probably build one of those to keep on the side for if/when I go against the Dark user. And I know I'll need a good counter should I end up against him. He's one of the better battlers I've gone up against; with the type advantage, he's likely to cream me.

Never really liked Choice Chandelure, to be honest. Should SubCM prove ineffective, though, I may switch to using one.

As stated before, yeah, I'm likely to switch some EVs around to wall special attacks better. Probably the biggest threats from that side of the spectrum will be coming from a Dark user's Hydreigon or a Poison user's Gengar.

Farewell: I almost forgot about that set for Gengar. I just love the first gen specter, so I'll probably build one for use on the side. However, Venoshock won't be too useful since it only doubles power on Poisoned opponents; only a couple would be poisoned from Jellicent. Nigh on everything else will be burned.

Rotom-H is no longer part Ghost and as such cannot be used on my team.

I've tried a BP Drifblim before and it failed catastrophically. Despite its bulk, it seemed to get taken out by anything under the sun, even special attacks. It's pretty unlikely that I'll try using it again without a very brilliant amount of evidence that it's worth the while.

 

[Farewell]

How did the tourney go?

You're right about Venushock, maybe Destiny Bond.

 

[Atrum]

How did the tourney go?

You're right about Venushock, maybe Destiny Bond.

Tourney's still going, actually. I'm doing pretty well. Won't be unlikely for me to get one of the spots.

Destiny Bond should work, yeah. If Gengar's low on health and they don't predict it, my opponent could end up losing a key Pokémon.