Supreme Swaggotry

[TheMantyke]

Hey,

So I have not played OU since Gen 4 and I'm really not too keen on playing it very seriously now since I prefer to play battlespot and VGC formats having finally got a grip on this game with their mechanics. I do however still love to read through a lot of the theory and effectiveness of different Pokemon in OU so I lurk through C&C and OU fairly often. One post that really caught my attention and made me really want to play around with something was this post pairing Ditto and Klefki together so Ditto could take advantage of your own swaggers. I thought the idea was really cute and couldn't help but want to try to snag a Ditto sweep off of my own Swagger.

I threw a team together consisting of Klefki + Ditto with a Thundurus-I for back up should Klefki die too soon / need to be foddered. A Deoxys-S was added to throw down hazards so the switches from Swagger and Thunder Wave actually meant something. From there, I picked up a Genesect to generate switch in opportunities / grab some momentum / get in klefki and Thundy so they can switch in and kill the opponent's momentum / be a late game cleaner / be a general beast. Mega Lucario was added on since all the paralysis, confusion, and switching generated a lot of chip damage that made it really effective late game.

This team has some really glaringly obvious and massive vulnerabilities and has to play off of sacrificial switches fairly often. It's not something that will be a serious threat anytime soon, but it's surprisingly not god awful. I'm sitting at a .7 w/l after maybe 50 games with a rating of about 2200, though the w/l ratio is absolutely nothing to write home about given the incompetence of a lot of opponents on the ladder and neither is the ranking given how the ladder is shitting itself at the moment. However, I think it's an absolute blast to use and as far as generic swagkey centric teams go, this one is on the less horrible side.

I can also say that I've been called a (BAN ME PLEASE) more often with this team than I have in my entire history of online gaming. This includes posting on rare occasions on SPUF and 4chan. This is the power of Klefki.

OH, and of course every team needs a good nickname gimmick.

Team:

Nickel Buddy (Deoxys-Speed) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Magic Coat
- Taunt

Deoxys-S gets the hazards up pretty much every team member needs to operate at maximum effectiveness. It always sucks to go against teams with a Rapid Spinner or Defog user since Deoxys-S's usefulness plummets considerably to getting off a few hazards now and hopefully getting a Lucario switch in or free sub against the defog or get severely less useful mid to late game hazards up. Still, it's so useful when it gets a chance to shine, I find it hard to think about axing this guy.

Funny Muffler (Genesect) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Hasty Nature
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower

Genesect is here to revenge kill, sweep late game, and to sneak in Thundurus-I and Klefki with U-Turn. Not really much left to say with Genesect. It pulls its weight very well when swagger flips aren't going my way and is really deadly when they are. It's saved a lot of games for me and

Jerky Pound (Lucario) @ Lucarionite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch

Lucario is the late game sweeper once Klefki and Thundurus-I have caused enough damage through Swagger, Foul Play, and general switching into entry hazards. It's actually surprisingly useful and easy to preserve to unsheath mid game to bust walls when a wall who has little offensive presence is sponging swaggers and taking little from Foul Play. Obviously though, its main role is to get off a Swords Dance on a wall that's been sitting on a Swagger user contently and close out the game. It's absolutely phenomenal.

Boo Boo Keys (Klefki) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
- Foul Play

Prankster Swagger User #1. Klefki's defensive typing pairs fairly well with Thundurus-I and the two can play off eachother's defensive vulnerabilities fairly well, baring some obvious attack types. The amount of times I actually have to rely on the chances of Thunder Wave and Swagger getting lucky rolls in situations where I deserved to die from the odds being against me is surprisingly low. The simple threat of a Thunder Wave usually generates a switch which gives me the time for a substitute. From there, a Swagger or Thunder Wave on the switch in while my sub breaks gives me a nice probability to start spreading status more or stating using Foul Play off of a missed turn. Lucario and Genesect love taking advantage of a decent chunk of the things that come in to sponge swagger and Thunder Wave. Killing opposing momentum with this guy is just too much fun.

Snake Eyes (Thundurus) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SDef
Bold Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Foul Play
- Substitute
- Swagger

Prankster Swagger User #2. What probably stands out the most here is that Thundurus-I is running Thunderbolt over Thunder Wave. I feel like thundurus-I needs Thunderbolt for this set to deal with some powerful threats to Swagplay, mainly Rotom-W and Mandibuzz who a Foul Play will barely scratch. Foul Play needs to stay as well as most of the time a Ground-type like Excadrill or Landorus-T will switch in to sponge the Thunder Wave. Without it, I'm relying on swagger for damage exclusively which despite what Yilx might proclaim fails more often than not. Beyond that, he operates identically to Klefki, just switching directly into attacking instead of alternative status conditions after getting his free sub back.

Bubble Buddy (Ditto) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Transform
-
-
-

And here's the catch all stop to Swagger backfiring. I set out on making this team with the intention of getting at least one ditto sweep off of my own swagger. It turns out Ditto is right behind Lucario for the title of "most games closed". Swaggering derpy physical attackers once their team's revenge killer is gone closes out games fairly often. Even with their revenge killer still around, having a scarfed Excadrill, Landorus, Garchomp or something puts some serious wholes in teams to which Lucario or Genesect can work with later. Ditto is the man and I think any Klefki caring Swagger should have this as a partner.

======


and that's everything, give it a rate, though I'm a little stiff to changing much


and plz dont call me a (BAN ME PLEASE) my self esteem is in tatters after using this team =(

Importable

Nickel Buddy (Deoxys-Speed) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Magic Coat
- Taunt

Funny Muffler (Genesect) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Hasty Nature
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower

Jerky Pound (Lucario) @ Lucarionite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch

Boo Boo Keys (Klefki) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
- Foul Play

Snake Eyes (Thundurus) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SDef
Bold Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Foul Play
- Substitute
- Swagger

Bubble Buddy (Ditto) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Transform
-
-
-

 

[Yilx]

unavoidable heart stop (confidence)

-1145148101919364364 points, lawsuit filed

 

[TheMantyke]

I guess I'll bump this with a few thoughts about this team now that I've thought about it a little bit more:

Lucario and Ice Punch > Crunch- About 10 matches in to playing this team, I decided to switch from Crunch to Ice Punch with the reasoning of "What am I hitting with Crunch anyway?" since I don't think I had used it once in my time using it. Of course the answer to this is Aegislash which did eventually dawn on me, but never from actually fighting one in battle and being walled by one, just as a passive realization. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Klefki and Thundurus-I where probably the best sources of Aegislash bait I could ever want. So many like to switch in on klefki and Thundurus for whatever reason thinking they can set up or through around shadow balls or whatever. The problem is, they get absolutely wrecked by foul play, especially in blade form, and King's Sheild just gives the both of them free subs. It turns out Swagplay and Lucario had a lot more synergy than I initially thought than just slapping it on as a late game sweeper. I guess if you can find something that play with Aegislash like that, it'd make a great partner for Mega Lucario or anything that hates Aegislash. As for what could do that, I'm not really sure? Random stuff with Foul Play maybe? At first I was thinking of Mandibuzz, but Aegislash isn't staying in their at all.

Reliable Aspects of Swagger- So I think Swagger has some real power behind it that isn't luck dependent at all. Swagger's primary source of power comes from the simple possibility of a wasted turn. Players really jump at the possibility of a wasted turn from confusion The actual wasted turn and confusion damage are icing on the cake. I think that if anyone's using swagger / swagplay, they ought to be relying more on the power of the possibility of luck moreso than the actual luck itself.

On Klefki / Swagplay Bans- No, don't. I noticed a few people calling for swagplay / klefki bans in the Klefki thread in OU. Against competent players with a decent tank or wall on their hands (preferably specially oriented), this team really struggles. There is a frustrating luck aspect to swagger, but it's not the primary focus of Swagger's effectiveness and is not anywhere near as powerful as other strategy with a central focus on luck like Moody. Most of the time, you have yourself and not luck to blame for swagplay getting set up for somehow giving it a free turn off of setting up entry hazards or something. If you're really sick of swagplay and want to use something that's fairly viable in OU to deal with it, here's a quick, non all-inclusive list of a few things that have given my team trouble as answers to swagplay.

• Bulky Rotom-W- The #1 Pokemon in the metagame cares very little about swagger and can Volt Switch out to break subs and stop confusion.
• Double Volt Switch- In addition to Rotom-W, any duo of pokemon relying on Volt Switch for a Volt-Turn team give swagplay massive problems.
• Mandibuzz- Barring Thunderbolt on Thundurus, there is nothing that swagplay can do to mandibuzz (and I only remember thunderbolt doing like 50% to mandibuzz since I'm not invested). Any swagplay user completely dependent on Foul Play gets destroyed and eventually Whirlwinded out.
• Knock Off and status on the switch- Swagplay's on a timer once the leftovers are gone. If you can knock them off, you only have to deal with the for a little while longer. Knock Off pretty much forces a swagplay user to keep subbing, or there's a 55% chance the next hit they take from risking the swagger will take them out of the game very soon.
• Clefable- Any Clefable with Cosmic Power is a nightmare. Unaware Clefable makes Swagplay complete set up bait. I guess Quagsire also fits this bill, but it's kind of underwhelming / I have actually broken through the one I fought since it didn't resist Foul Play

Really hope I don't sound pretentious or just a general moron with these points, but this was all enjoyable to think reflect on. Hope people using / going against this team find this info helpful.

 

[Alejandro36]

Hey, interesting team. I actually used a team consisting of Deoxys-S, Kefki, Thundurus, Sableye, Latios and Lucario myself. It can be surprisingly good for a gimmick. I think I also got around the 2000 which is decent for a normally gimicky strategy. My favorite thing was to set up with lucario against a paraconfused pokemon that I usually shouldn't be able to set up on.

Losing lucario will really such for prankster swagg, since lucario can set up on or deal with many pokemon that usually cause swagg teams trouble, such as mandibuzz (without whirlwind), blissex (without t-wave) or fairies.

What would you use instead of lucario? Now that his ban seems imminent.

 

[TheMantyke]

Charizard X would probably be what I pick to replace Lucario. It has fantastic synergy alongside Klefki and Genesect and actually provides the team with a fire resistance, lol. Charizard X might actually fit better over lucario here to start, but it's just so damn powerful I couldn't resist opting out of Mega Lucario.

 

[Alejandro36]

They are both weak to EQ once he megaevolves, so is not such a fantastic synergy. But yeah, he is quite a dangerous set up sweeper.

 

[moonbase]

This team would annoy me if someone tried to use it against me. I still like troll teams better in gen 5 i.e. 4x Scarf pokes w/ assist + troll riolu + ditto, Troll never got to that level ever again.

 

[TheMantyke]

So Swagger's been banned! I don't know if I helped unveiled the problem with swagger a little bit with this team or if anyone came across this laddering, but it's been very interesting to see the whole situation with swagger unfold over the last 3 months. This team is now an absolute relic of the past with 2/3rds of the team illegal by either move, item, or pokemon bans so I guess it's done in for good. Hope those of you who messed around with it had some fun!