The Dark Horse Project IV

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Pokemon Showdown! Username: rise
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Deoxys-D
Current Ladder Standing: 1868 +- 187

Might get bored and stop, who knows.
 

zfs

Everything old is new again
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
So, qualifying with 6 DH mons has been harder than I expected (though I did manage to go 22-13), so instead I'll start with 1 and add another one every time I qualify for the HoF. I'll start with the mon who won me a lot of those 22 games almost single handedly, big Bronzong.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: fzs
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Big Zong
Current Ladder Standing: None
 
gonna take on a challenge and build a team around sub np jynx in rain

Pokemon Showdown! Username: nurd (what all nerds aspire to become)
Hall of Fame Standing: none
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Jynx
Current Ladder Standing: nah
 

Molk

Godlike Usmash
is a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
just posting to say that i have achieved gold with my Scrafty+amoonguss alt

Screenshot goes here:



and my new ladder record: ou 2190 95 2270 ± 66 (provisional) 43 7 0

Overall im going to have to say im still impressed with both scrafty and amoonguss, and i seriously dont get whats so bad about scrafty, only issue ive had is it seems to attract hax on the turn you get to +2 ;_;.

Now to get going on venomoth :3.

EDIT:

Decay 2 Gud



i dunno if it counts but lol
 
Restarting

Pokemon Showdown! Username: SpeedBoostVick
Hall of Fame Standing: Bronze
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Sableye
Current Ladder Standing: 1950

How did you choose your Dark Horse Pokemon for this project? What lead you to choose the Pokemon you did? Did you have regrets or were you happy with your selection?

It seams like every team i build is weak to Sableye, so i figured id try my luck with it. I originally had Wob as my Dark Horse Mon, and it wasn't bad, but it struggled against offensive teams. Alot of Defensive Mons had Toxic/WoW/Scald and that was the nail in the coffin for me using Wob. As for Sableye, i was very happy with him, he did better than expected. There is no reason this thing is not top 20 in Ou.


How did you go about building a team for your Dark Horse Pokemon? Which kinds of teammates did you consider? What factors contributed to the team you created?

First i made a list of his counters and i tried to add teammates that could beat them. Sableye is hard countered by a number of things, but most of them are vulernable to being trapped. So I threw in a Choice Band Ttar. Sable is a spinblocker and tends to force alot of switches, so i added Skarm for hazzards. Most sandstorm teams follow the formula of Tar+Revenge Killer+2 water resists+Terra+Landerous and i decided to try something different by only having 1 water immune (Vaporeon). It worked nicely although there were some games i wished i had multiple water resists.

Do you think it is more difficult or less difficult to ladder with a Dark Horse Pokemon? Why? Does the element of surprise play a factor in your battles? Is it easier to fight with a "highly used"" team or with Pokemon that are less common?

As always it depends on the Mon. Suprise did play a factor because Sableye is pretty rare. Its one of those threats that everyone says "I'll accept a weakness to Sableye because its so rare". Its easiest to ladder with less used but still effective Mons.


(For Hall of Fame members only) How did you reach the Hall of Fame? Was it easy or difficult? Did having a Dark Horse Pokemon on your team benefit you? What advice would you give to those laddering with Dark Horse Pokemon?

It was pretty easily actually. I didnt expect to make it due to poor internet but surprisingly i didnt disconnect from any battles and hax didnt bite me too hard. My advise for people using dark horse Mons is this: You are often at a disadvantage from the get-go, and one way to get an advantage is to predict. Over predict, under predict, and predict often. Just dont mispredict.

I just realized i had another Dark Horse on my team the entire time (Sandslash). My team was Ttar/Skarm/Vaporeon/Sableye/Sandslash/Genesect.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: SpeedBoostVick
Dark Horse Pokemon: Sableye
Screenshot of Top 100 Ladder Ranking:

Dark Horse Pokemon Complete Set:

Sableye @Leftovers
252Hp 128Def 128Spd
Impish Nature
Prankster
~Wil-O-Wisp
~Calm Mind
~Recover
~Taunt

Pocket EDIT: Sorry, but you haven't registered Sandslash, so only Sableye is going on HoF
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: SO BORED
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Aero / Magneton / Cacturne / Toxicroak / Accel / Cofag
Current Ladder Standing: 1726
peak: 1816

fuck i suck

----

edit: new team because i probably retire the old team

Pokemon Showdown! Username: 2CHAIIIINZ
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Aero / Magneton / jumpluff / froslass / kabutops/ weavile
Current Ladder Standing: 1826
peak:

fuck i suck
 

Lady Alex

Mew is blue
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Darkhorsesupreme
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Aero / Magneton / Cacturne / Toxicroak / Accel / Cofag
Current Ladder Standing:
Thats quite ambitious >.>
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Ever Grander
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Swampert/Jynx/Bronzong/Heracross
Current Ladder Standing: 1928

EDIT:
User: evergrander
Format ACRE GXE Glicko2 W L T
ou 1928 90 2096 ± 119 (provisional) 10 0 0

Almost there! But for some weird reason my account is showing up on the ladder. I know this sounds like typical cheater but could someone help me out? I am NOT cheating.
 

alkinesthetase

<@dtc> every day with alk is a bad day
is a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
lol zfs was going for six (toned back a little bit), it's quite doable but it'll be very challenging. i look forward to seeing anybody pull off four or more on a single team

and wow molk, you weren't kidding about you and trop taking over HoF, were you >_>

EDIT: given up with aron already lavos? =P go for the four if you want, we shall be watching
 

Lavos

Banned deucer.
I'll do 4 Dark Horses on a single team if you want. Still waiting for someone to de-throne me so I have an excuse to ladder again.
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Sol Perdido
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Cress/Sableye/Hariyama/Chancy
Current Ladder Standing: None
Starting over, sun stall gogogo
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: bruh
Hall of Fame Standing: none
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Tornadus-I
Current Ladder Standing on Pokemon Showdown!: 1000
 

alkinesthetase

<@dtc> every day with alk is a bad day
is a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
^ landorus-T is not a legal dark horse

Note that I have chosen to include Landorus-T and Keldeo on this list - I know, one of their usages for September is below 5%, but the other one is above 5%, and so is their 3 month usage, so I had to make the call and I chose to put them on the list. Maybe if their usage goes down, you might be able to take Keldeo out for a spin as your Dark Horse next month =]
 

Temp V1

Movin' at the speed of life and I can't slow down
asterat, it's because you need a +/- of less than 80 to be on leaderboard i think.
You're right, the deviation needs to be below 80 for you to appear on the ladder, so play more games and eventually it will drop below 80 placing you on the ladder.
 
Alright, time for round 2.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: ClubbingDewgong
Hall of Fame Standing: Previous Bronze
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Hippowdon, Jellicent, Shaymin
Current Ladder Standing on Pokemon Showdown!: 1714 Glicko2, slow and steady

edit: taunt/wow jellicent = MASSIVE RAGEQUITS
 
Changing alt because laddering at 6:00 AM is a bad idea.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: AmbicrowFly
Hall of Fame Standing: n/a
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Flygon
Current Ladder Standing on Pokemon Showdown!: 1000
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Allen Alt
Hall of Fame Standing: none
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Gastrodon and Lilligant
Current Ladder Standing on Pokemon Showdown!: 1511
 
Wanted to post on my current progress with Articuno and Swampert. I have had 14 battles, and Articuno is surprisingly powerful. I've actually been able to sweep teams with it, the only problem is keeping stealth rock of the field. If stealth rock is up, I have to force a free turn on something like Dragonite or Gliscor, since no one expects agility from Articuno. Swampert has been doing really well, people expect him to set up rocks and be a tank, but with choice band, I'm getting a lot of surprise kills on pokes. I'm running it in tandem with Choice specs Politoed, which has also been getting loads of surprise kills, since, like Swampert, people expect the defensive version. It has gotten me to 1600 ranking and I'm slowly climbing. Don't know if the team can get high enough for hall of fame, the team probably needs some adjustments, but it's been real fun to use so far and been doing far better than I expected :).

A few replays for those who wants to see the team in action:

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou2596185

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou2597128

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou2596878

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou2598094

Edit: if someone wants to help out with the team, just pm or reply here. Help is always appreciated ;).
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Ever Grander
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Swampert/Jynx/Bronzong/Heracross
Current Ladder Standing: 1928

EDIT:
User: evergrander
Format ACRE GXE Glicko2 W L T
ou 1928 90 2096 ± 119 (provisional) 10 0 0

Almost there! But for some weird reason my account is showing up on the ladder. I know this sounds like typical cheater but could someone help me out? I am NOT cheating.

With the new system you need to get your deviation score to 80 or below (the ± 119) to show up on the ladder. usually takes around 20-30 games on average.
 
Update! I think I make bronze?

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Super Tofu Boy
Hall of Fame Standing: Bronze
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Rotom-H, Blastoise, Celebi
Current Ladder Standing: 1983, 90, 2076 ± 66 (34th place), Wins: 30, Losses: 4



For the curious, here is the team I have been using.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 240 HP / 232 SAtk / 36 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Leaf Storm
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- U-turn

Terrakion @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Quick Attack
- X-Scissor

Rotom-Heat @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Pain Split
- Thunder Wave

Scizor @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Roost
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn

Blastoise @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Dragon Tail
- Scald
- Toxic

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 184 Spd
Lax Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake
- U-turn


This is actually quite a consistent team, I'll definitely ladder further if I have the time. I'm cashing my chips in now just in case I become too busy : )
 
Well, Zangoose is fun, but got tilted too hard around 1650, so i decided i'd try a few more games with Machamp til i moved on (tired of being lowest on the board xD) Got to 80th with 1886, so yay.



Giving up on poor Zangoose for now, going with everyone's favorite number 0 Pokemon!

Pokemon Showdown! Username: VCreate-A-Pokemon
Hall of Fame Standing: None
Dark Horse Pokemon Currently Working With: Victini
Current Ladder Standing: Nope
 
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