Monotype Scrappy [Fighting Team] (Peak 1703)

[iLlama]

How's it going guys, my name's Llama and I'm bringing you my first RMT of a fighting team I made for Core Challenge #59. The two mons required for the Core Challenge were Mega Medicham and Scrafty. I was able to climb up to 1703 (around #13) during LT1 and on a ladder that was heavily dominated by Psychic and Flying teams. Right off the bat when building this team I figured Scrafty would replace Heracross and so I tried a few sets throughout my ladder with this team (Band, Scarf, Bulknesia) before deciding on DD. Having Scrafty instead of Heracross on this team really changed a ton of match-ups. Psychic now became much easier to handle, Poison (though rare) was not nearly as difficult as it may be running scarf Heracross, and even Flying (with HaxKiss) was manageable once I've gotten a couple of DD's. Throughout the challenge, Mega-Medi stood out as the obvious carry for this team and as an absolute power-house post Sablenite ban. I tried running both Adamant and Jolly but usually ran Adamant for the extra power since I'm running dual-priority. It also ended up becoming one of my favorite mega evos. I think I've babbled on long enough, an RMT awaits!

Medicham (F) @ Medichamite

Ability: Pure Power
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature / Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- High Jump Kick

Mega Medicham is an overall amazing Pokemon and Wallbreaker, and with Sablenite out of the way, it's strengths shine even greater. I predominantly used Adamant as I felt this team needed that extra power and I prefer not dealing with speed-ties (Char-Y, other max base 100s), I'd rather just know that I'm slower. I settled on running Dual-Priority over Ice Punch since this team doesn't have as much guaranteed speed control.

Scrafty @ Leftovers

Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Poison Jab / Ice Punch

Scrafty was an interesting mon to deal with. I really wasn't sure what set would work best on a Fighting Mono, so I tried every set that I could think of that would benefit this team the most. When I finally settled on a Dragon Dance set, I immediately wanted to stay away from Moxie/Intimidate and Lum Berry. I knew this guy would get status-ed, especially multiple times, and that I really needed more than one boost in order to make better use of him. So I decided to use Shed Skin and to give it Lefties instead of Life Orb. If anything, I wanted Scrafty to be difficult to kill than for him to have extra power (that's what Adamant Mega-Medi was for). So I then decided on Knock Off and Drain Punch for survivability and getting rid of those pesky choice items. With its final move, I used Poison Jab a majority of the time, but I sometimes switched to Ice Punch, especially if I knew Flying or Dragon were active on ladder at said time.

Keldeo @ Choice Specs

Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind

The first addition to my core was Keldeo and I felt Choice Specs was the obvious choice. Sub-CM and Taunt-LO can be useful in their own rights, but I really wanted guaranteed power above anything else. The set itself is pretty self-explanatory, but I did end up choosing Scald over a Hidden Power just so I could a reliably accurate STAB Water move.

Breloom @ Focus Sash

Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Tomb

Breloom is the Rock, Ground, and Water counter for this team as well as additional speed control in wake of Scarf Heracross. Focus Sash being the item of choice was a given. Spore, already a great aspect of Breloom, adds additional usage as it gives Scrafty the chance for a free turn of set-up which definitely came in handy in some battles. Mach Punch/Bullet Seed were also a given, and instead of using Swords Dance, I chose Rock Tomb for two reasons. Speed control (as mentioned before) and because I knew Flying was extremely active on ladder at the time.

Cobalion @ Leftovers

Ability: Justified
EVs: 180 HP / 76 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Iron Head

For hazards I decided on going with Cobalion rather than Infernape, and Bulky Cobalion at that. Taunt/SR/T-Wave is great lead coverage and helps to manage stall and semi-stall teams as well as walls and opposing hazard setters (Skarmory, Ferrothorn, Chansey, etc.). I went with Iron Head instead of Volt Switch as well as EVing Cobalion so that Iron Head can Ohko Mega Gardevoir as well as doing nice chunks of damage to other Fairy mons.

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Earthquake

Lastly, we have the tried and true monster of this team, Scarf Terrakion. I chose to run the generic Scarf set instead of having a fourth coverage move or anything like that. I've really grown to like Sub-SD Terrakion much more than Scarf, but without Heracross, Scarf was a necessity, and well, that's that.

Threats:
​

Fairy teams in general are already tough for Fighting teams to handle, but tossing in Scrafty just made this match-up almost a 5-6. If I could somehow get Scrafty in and with a Boost, it would become much more manageable, especially with Poison Jab, but a lot of the time I'd simply have to sack it to preserve either my Sash on Breloom or the HP on my Cobalion. Of course, having Mega Medicham would be a godsend at times, but this match-up was pretty rough, nonetheless.

For some reason there were a lot of Mega Gallade fighting teams on ladder (1500s - mid-1600s) at the time I did the Core Challenge and I'll tell you, not having Heracross against this guy made this match-up a living hell. The only thing I could really do was wither it down and try to kill it with Mega Medicham before it set up.

Did I mention that not having Scarf Heracross was a pain yet? Well, this guy took great advantage of that problem. Flying teams in general were not as rough as they were before, but Scarf Kiss still puts a huge dent in this team.

Even having Scrafty didn't completely alleviate that pain of facing Scarf Latios and Dragon teams. All you can really do is wither it down and put it in range of priority.

The occasional Scarf Hoopa-U really did a number on this team. I feel like this no Heracross thing is getting old.

​

Importable

Medicham (F) @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature / Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- High Jump Kick

Scrafty @ Leftovers
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Poison Jab

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

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Tomb

Cobalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 180 HP / 76 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Iron Head

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Earthquake

Replays

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-393321191 - Flying
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-395527476 - Grass

I only kept the replays for the Core Challenge itself though this team only ended up losing to two flying teams out of about twelve and went pretty much 50/50 with psychic teams above 1600.

Shoutouts

Zyo aka Seo aka Zyga aka Clumzzy aka IronBullet'sBae aka Tygastro57 for being a Scrafty loving punk :]
Waszap, TheOfficialVodoom, zugubu royale, PhoenixElite, Eien feenix broskis
Bitana for all those free ladder points against your rock teams ;)
KGBanter for the salt given and taken
Sky Might Fall flying master race
Tyke my fellow Theorymon madman
Confluxx flexxes
The Excadrill for being a nerd
Dece1t Kabutops water core when???
That one ice dude that forfeited at preview every time I faced him.
The denial boys and anyone else that I missed.

 

[Confluxx [Old]]

Hey dude, nice team! Only other thing I would try out is a different Scrafty set.

• 
  Dragon Dance --> Bulk Up ; I've used a Bulk Up Scrafty with max SpD in the past and it works as a very nice bulky sweeper. It does have a pretty big weakness to Fairy-types which your team doesn't appreciate obviously, but not like you comfortably set up DDs vs Fairy anyway. It's worth trying out if you haven't already, as unless your opponent has a very strong super effective attack to hit it with, chances are this thing is going to destroy him.

Set

Scrafty (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rest
- Crunch
- Drain Punch
- Bulk Up

Good luck with the team!

 

[iLlama]

Hey dude, nice team! Only other thing I would try out is a different Scrafty set.

• 
  Dragon Dance --> Bulk Up ; I've used a Bulk Up Scrafty with max SpD in the past and it works as a very nice bulky sweeper. It does have a pretty big weakness to Fairy-types which your team doesn't appreciate obviously, but not like you comfortably set up DDs vs Fairy anyway. It's worth trying out if you haven't already, as unless your opponent has a very strong super effective attack to hit it with, chances are this thing is going to destroy him.

Set

Scrafty (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rest
- Crunch
- Drain Punch
- Bulk Up

Good luck with the team!

Thanks for the rate man! I actually tried Bulk+Rest before Bulknesia and I ended up thinking and finding DD to be more useful.