Project Pokemon Matchmaking v2 [Closed]

[false]

I'm going to end this week early, because it doesn't appear like we're getting any more nominations. Thank you again everyone for the activity. It's been consistently fantastic for a number of weeks now [:

Also, congratulations to Random Passerby for 20 archived nominations.

The Winners:

Aragorn the King's Mega Manectric

bludz's Talonflame

Random Passerby's Weavile
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Week 38 - All-Out Attacker Mega-Lopunny

Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- High Jump Kick
- Ice Punch
- Fake Out

Yes, it must be shiny.​

 

[heritage]

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tail Glow
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball / Psychic

Pair up a Pokemon that devastates balance and stall teams with a Pokemon who nearly single-handily destroys offensive teams, and you've got a scary core. Manaphy is able to take down Pokemon such as Hippowdon, Quagsire, Slowbro, and Skarmory that are able to threaten Lopunny. In return, Lopunny terrorizes offensively oriented threats such as Kyurem-B, Serperior, Raikou, Ferrothorn, and Weavile which are able to revenge kill or beat Manaphy.

Psychic is an option over Energy Ball to defeat Mega Venusaur and Amonguss, which can otherwise beat the two Pokemon, however more Pokemon are threatened by Energy Ball.

 

[Tressed]

Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast
- Taunt

Classic wallbreaker / cleaner synergy. Gengar does really well against defensive cores that Lopunny tends to struggle with, while Lopunny is strong against offense, where Gengar isn't as good. The two have decent type synergy too, with Lopunny being able to switch into Dark attacks and make the most of Gengar being potentially Pursuit bait, while Gengar can kinda switch into Fairies and can come in on Earthquakes from Garchomp and Landorus-T.

 

[nameless90]

Mixed LO Hoopa-U

Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 160 Atk / 96 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Drain Punch
- Gunk Shot
- Psychic

Despite how powerful new hoopa-unbound is, it is a complete dead weight vs offense so why not pair it up with Lopunny? Lopunny's speed and power allows the bunny to break offense apart while Hoopa-U takes care of the bulky fat stuff (although you stack another Fairy weakness).
Hoopa-U's set is mixed: in the first slot you have your dark stab which does crazy damage to pretty much everything. Drain Punch gives you some form of recovery while nailing Bisharp, Tyranitar and Heatran on the switch while also getting a decent amount of hp back in return. You, then, have Gunk Shot which hits stuff supereffectively like Clefable and Azumarill/Mega Altaria while also hitting all non resists pretty hard and, last but not least, you have Psychic to cover annoying Fighting and Poison types (i.e. Mega Venusaur, Amoonguss, Toxicroak). The split evs on hoopa get you some kos on certain clef spreads after rocks while also being able to hit Hippowdon for over 50% health.

U-Turners or Volt Switchers are really good partners as they allow Lopunny and Hoopa-U to enter in the battlefield for free. Also pokemons that resist common priority moves (i.e. from Talonflame and Scizor, but even CB Azumarill) are really important such as Endure Rocky Helmet Garchomp which punishes physical priority moves. Thunder Wave support is appreciated to help Hoopa's sweep.

 

[StarZabRighT]

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 152 Def / 108 Spe
Impish Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Swords Dance
- Baton Pass
- Recover

Celebi has huge potential when combined with mega Lopunny. Its ability to pass a boost to MLop can be deadly and it gets an ample amount of opportunity's to do so, such as against the likes of Weavile, Bisharp, and Tyranitar as Lopunny can provide as a soft check to all of those. Celebi also has the ability to check fighting types that may pose as a threat towards MLopunny such as scarf Keldeo and Breloom while also being able to absorb status due to natural cure. The EV spread on Celebi is rather standard, enough speed to outrun max speed jolly Bisharp, and the rest in Defense.
The only striking weakness that this core has is to the forsaken flying types, so when building your team your going to want to keep that in mind.

 

[Random Passerby]

Bisharp @ Lum Berry / Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch

Bisharp is a nice partner for Mega Lopunny as it can check Clefable and Mega Altaria while also being able to defeat bulky Psychics such as Mew, Metagross, Slowbro and Celebi, which troubles Mega Lopunny. Lum Berry is used to heal off burns from Will-O-Wisp / Scald to check those threats more reliably. Bisharp also loves Mega Lopunny luring FatChomp and Landorus-T. It can also play mindgames with Mega Alakazam although you might want a better check to it.

 

[Infernal]

Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Zen Headbutt
- U-turn

Bulky grounds like Hippowdon and Landorus-T often come in on Mega Lop. Attacks from CB Victini aren't easy to stomach, and these same Pokemon are often used as switch ins. Because CB V-Create is so powerful, bulky grounds like them are greatly weakened by it, and will be softened up for Lop. Although RH Chomp is problematic for CB Victini, Lop is good at weakening it with Ice Punch, making it easier to work around the issue. Other Pokemon that Lop has a hard time with include Skarm, Mega Venu, and Clef especially. They are all taken advantage of by CB Victini, who uses their presence as a chance to either smoke something with V-Create, or grab momentum with U-turn. The main wall that can take a V-Create and trouble Lop is Slowbro. However, if it gets caught by Bolt Strike (61.4 - 72.5%), it's going to have a harder time coming in on Lop.

CB Victini also has U-turn to provide free switch in opportunities for Lop. For example, if you're in against Mega Venu and they go to Heatran to take on Victini, you now have the chance to bring in the bunny and threaten something. CB U-turn also chips away Slowbro with SR down, which Lop likes. Vulnerability to being trapped is one downside to using Victini. It's scared of offensive threats like Tyranitar, Weavile, and so on. On the bright side, Lop takes advantage of the dark types Victini is fearful of, and can also check threats like Gengar, who freely spams Shadow Ball after finding the chance to come in for free. Similarly, Victini can take advantage of priority users like Breloom, who is annoying for Lop with Mach Punch.

Overall, they form a good offensive duo capable of taking advantage of the Pokemon they each invite in, while breaking walls down for one other.

 

[Kav]

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

rotom is stellar on the standard hyper offense goon squad that lopunny is used on. it gives a flying check, sand excadrill answer, annoys grounds/waters/birds with hydro pump and volt switch, and spreads burns which lopunny and friends can typically very easily take advantage of. volt switch is excellent support for lop since its not particularly bulky but loves any opportunity to spam its stab moves. typical partners like hoopa, gengar, or bisharp can immediately threaten switch ins to rotom, while common setup buddies like manaphy or azumarill will appreciate an easy turn to set up.

 

[MANNAT]

Heatran @ Leftovers/Power Herb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt/Solar Beam/Stone Edge
- Toxic/Solar Beam/Stone Edge

Heatran is a nice stallbreaker that really does well against stall staples like clef and mew that give lop headaches along with beating a ton of common counters and pressuring others. Every psychic type in OU that is supposed to wall lop despises heatran in between its ability to taunt, cripple them with toxic, and large chip damage with magma storm. Taunt can also deter slower defoggers from defogging, keeping rocks up on the field for Lop to sweep easier. Magma storm is also really nice for putting a ton of damage on fat shit that walls lop in general, making it so that they can't switch in anymore. Also, power herb beam is really nice to lure in and trap bulky waters that annoy your team as well as hitting keldeo on the switch, which can be really annoying to Lop if scarfed. If you go down the list of Lop's checks, Heatran help with every single one of them, physical walls get worn down and crippled quickly by magma storm/taunt/toxic, tran is a really nice fairy check in general, psychics are hurt up by storm and can get toxiced, scarfers are really chipped away at by magma storm, and heatran can beat scarf lando-t locked into not-earthquake as well as dclaw scarfchomp, Talonflame is checked really well by tran, and you can even run stone edge to 100% beat it 1v1. Heatran's taunt can also prevent rockers from getting rocks up, and it beats rocky helmet ferro which is really annoying to Lop as well. Generally, stallbreaker tran is an amazing partner to lop and can do a ton of shit ot help it out.

 

[Mars Lowell]

Garchomp

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 240 HP / 176 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
- Earthquake
- Toxic

This is pretty much a natural partner for Mega Lopunny. It checks Talonflame by having the natural bulk it needs to tank hits as it will kill itself via recoil and rough skin/rocky helm damage. This also plays as your hazard setter and can force other pokemon out that are not fairy. Although it has a weakness to fairy and is pretty much KO'd off by some natural threats such as Specs Sylveon and Ice type moves hitting its face, Lopunny can easily 2HKO them with a combination of Fake Out + Return/Frustration. Toxic for wearing down Physical Walls such as Hippowdown and Unaware Clefables so they are unable to heal themselves up and thus gets easier for Lopunny to sweep the opponent.

 

[Martin]

Set

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Healing Wish
- Fire Punch

Scarfrachi is a great partner for Mega Lopunny due to providing it with a certain amount of support that it values. Firstly, it shares a number of checks with Lopunny - namely Landorus-T - which allows it to help wear it down for Lopunny. Secondly, U-turn is valuable support because it allows Rachi to scout for switches, which helps get the frail Lopunny onto the field more safely v.s. stuff Rachi lures, such as Heatran. Thirdly, its ability to lure Mega Scizor with Fire Punch is very valuble support for it, as PhysDef SD MegaZor (as well as 44 def MZor, but the SpD spread from the analysis is outdated and bad) walls it too. Finally, Healing Wish is amazing support as it allows Lopunny to fulfill its role for even longer while offering a buffer v.s. burns and paralysis (the latter is only post-mega, because its not hard to delay m-evoing a turn v.s. something like Klefki to protect you from the paralysis w/ Limber).

 

[pika pal]

LO Kyurem-B

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 20 Atk / 252 SpA / 236 Spe
Mild Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt
- Roost/Outrage/HP Fire

So, Wallbreaker + Cleaner is always a common idea for teambuilding, and with offense covered by Lopunny, Balance Breakers like Manaphy or Kyub here can run rampant as well. Ice Beam and Fusion Bolt let Kyurem hit the myriad of Bulky Ground and Bulky Water types that Lopunny hates dealing with for pretty decent damage, as well as some miscellaneous targets such as Mega Venusaur. His coverage in general makes it easy for him to crack defensive cores, and in a lot of these types it tends to be one mon that hampers Lopunny or some other teammates ability to work. Other Pokemon that are just simply bulky also take a decent chunk from him neutrally, possibly 2HKO'd if there's a little prior damage on them. Lopunny already puts pressure on quite a few things like various Steel types and some of the more dangerous mons for Kyurem to break like certain T-Tar and fast attackers such as the Latis or Keldeo. Kyurem-B in turn can break a lot of troublesome bulky mons like Rotom-W, some Clefable, and Skarmory.

The core appreciates mainly a way to deal with Flying types and priority users, particularly Talonflame. This role can be decently filled by Tankchomp, Slowbro, or Thundurus. Also does well with hazards to weaken things Kyurem forces out and help both net some close KOs'. Ferrothorn and Klefki can lay Spikes or Rocks, and provide decent Fairy checks.


Besides this, Kyurem is the subject of this week's Next Best Thing thread, so if you can't find a build for this set you like, might find something interesting there.

 

[false]

Ridiculous amount of nominations this week. Thank you everyone for continuing to support the thread [:

Also congratulations to Recreant for making it into the Hall of Fame, with 5 archived nominations.

The Winners:

Recreant's Manaphy

nameless90's Hoopa-Unbound

StarZabRighT's Celebi
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Week 39 - Specially Defensive Skarmory

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Whirlwind
- Spikes
- Roost

I've used this Pokemon too much to not have nominated it yet.​

 

[Dr Ciel]

Taking Mega Altaria.

Make Them Gold (Altaria) @ Altarianite
Ability: Cloud Nine
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 SpD
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Hyper Voice / Return
- Heal Bell
- Flamethrower / Earthquake

Support Mega Altaria is an excellent partner for Skarmory as they resist each others weaknesses perfectly and resist all but two typings in the meta. Altaria has no problem walling powerful special attackers such as Mega Charizard-Y, Thundurus, and a slew of others thanks to her phenomenal typing. Altaria can also provide Heal Bell support for her team, ridding Skarm and herself of status. In return, Skarmory can take on and beat opposing Fairy types with STAB Iron Head and can wear down Mega Venusaur with Iron Head and Spikes.

 

[Infernal]

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Crunch

Scarf Tyranitar is a common Skarmory partner, and for good reason. One of Skarm's main jobs is laying down hazards. The last thing any player wants is for those hazards to be removed by a defogger like Latios, or spinner Starmie. Other less common hazard removers such as Zapdos also fall under this category. That's where Tar comes in, being able to trap or threaten those Pokemon relatively well and potentially remove them from the match. This support goes a long way in keeping Spikes in play and controlling the hazard game, and is why Tar is such a common choice on teams with the steel birdy.

In terms of covering what the other is weak to, Skarm and Tar work like a charm. When locked into a move like Pursuit, Tar invites many dangerous attackers to come in. Among these include Mega Diancie, Mega Altaria, Clefable, Excadrill, Hippowdon, Garchomp, and so on. Skarm can check these Pokemon nicely, and take advantage of most of them to lay down Spikes. Skarm often invites electrics like Mega Manectric and Raikou to come in. Tyranitar handles them well, and is able to check other Pokemon threatening to Skarmory, like Kyurem-B and Charizard-Y.

 

[nameless90]

TankChomp

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 240 HP / 176 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Toxic/Rest

Here we have TankChomp which provides the useful SR support towards the Fire types that Skarmory hates and with Dragon Tail (even better with Spikes support) discourages many set-up sweepers. Garchomp has an easy time towards many Steel/Fire/Electric types thanks to its Ground typing and the STAB Earthquake. Garchomp + Skarmory both lay down hazards and both are able to phase out the opponent while tanking hits.
Skarmory can take on and beat opposing Fairy types with STAB Iron Head and can help to wear down Mega Venusaur/Celebi and so on stacking residual damage.

 

[SANJAY]

Skarmbliss tbh

Manaphy @ Wacan Berry
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tail Glow
- Rain Dance
- Scald
- Psychic / Ice Beam

Manaphy is a pretty good partner for skarmory as it likes to take advantage of the spikes on the field making it easier to sweep. It also works pretty nicely as a core as manaphy can take fire type attacks and skarm can take grass type attacks pretty decently. Manaphy with rain dance and hydration also helps take care of statuses which skarm hates and it also powers up scald which is a nice boost. Wacan berry manaphy helps the weakness of electric to this core. In my opinion these two work pretty well together.

 

[MANNAT]

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
- Toxic/Thunder Wave (lol)
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
- Heal Bell

Skarmory gets absolutely roasted (pun intended) by common specially attacking fire and electric types in the tier, and chansey matches up well vs all of them, taking paltry damage from their STAB moves, and it can cripple them with toxic or kill for rest of game cripple them with twave if you feel like being mexican. Also skarmchans is a really solid core that can wall a large portion of the metagame so there's that.

 

[Random Passerby]

How is this not done yet?

Sableye @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Foul Play

Sableye offers the team a spinblocker which Spikes setters like Skarmory loves. It also serves as a check to Electric-types, Mew, Gengar and Mega Medicham while using Magic Bounce to discourage opponents from spamming hazards of their own. Skarmory checks Sableye counters such as Fairy-types and Serperior. Just have something else to not get 6-0ed by a Fire-type or Keldeo, both of which can be checked easier in defensive builds which feature this core.

 

[Sun]

(Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Roost
- Earthquake

I think latios is a great teammate for Skarmory, because they have a lot of synergy, skarm beats sand offense (ttar, Excadrill) lando, which are very irritating to latios, eliminating latios reciprocates with earthquake Heatran, eliminating mana with Draco, keld with psyschock also it protects skarm mega mane, raikou and fire type as MCharizard Y, also check zard x

 

[eden]

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Slack Off

Hippowdon and Sp.Def Skarm just about go hand in hand(only thing that goes better with it is MEye :p); Hippowdon+Skarm forms a hazard stacking core and Hippowdon checks the electrics and some other stuff like ZardX, that like to switch in with no repercussions on Skarmory. This is an extemely solid core, for most stall or semi-stall teams to start bulding around, because it covers most of the threats on the physical end of the spectrum(and the fairies because of Sp.Def Skarm), except for maybe MCham/MCross.

 

[false]

Sorry that I'm late this week. I was on a plane for almost the entirety of yesterday, but I'm home now [:

The Winners:

Infernal's Tyranitar

Master Sunny-EX's Hippowdon

Dr Ciel's Mega Altaria
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Week 40 - Nasty Plot Thundurus

(Thundurus) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Nasty Plot​

 

[Random Passerby]

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 16 HP / 8 Def / 232 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Taunt

Thundurus is a good partner for Mega Gardevoir because it helps to take care of Jirachi, SpD Talonflame, Metagross and Klefki which likes to switch into Mega Gardevoir. In return, Mega Gardevoir heavily damages Mega Venusaur, Mega Altaria, Lati@s and Kyurem-B which checks Thundurus. Taunt also shuts down recovery of Pokemon such as Clefable, Hippowdon and Chansey so that the core breaks through them easier.

 

[Laurel]

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

Sand + Stealth Rocks wears down things like Chansey and Latias, Hippowdon checks almost every mon that revenge kills Thundurus barring Starmie and Weavile. The list of checks include things like Lopunny, Manectric and Excadrill. Whirlwind in the last slot to weaken things just enough so +2 Thundurus can sweep. Stone Edge is pretty irrelevant too with Thundurus to check flyers.

 

[nameless90]

Scarf Keldeo

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind

Keldeo can check Weavile and Choice Scarf Tyranitar which both threaten Thundurus with fast&strong attacks making the pony very useful aside from being good itself. It also benefits from Thundurus's sheer power to KO Magic Guard Clefable and Celebi, as well as weaken Latios and Latias, making it a particularly good partner.
The key of the set is Icy Wind through which Keldeo can weaken many Dragons/Grass and Scarf users/faster attackers to the point they are easily handled. Secret Swords 2HKOes the Pink Blob whereas the Water stabbed attacks destroy the Ground, so Keldeo hinders most Thundurus' checks/counters bar -most notably- Electric types and Mega Venusaur (but I like to say that they are easily worn down).