Gen 6 Ubers Dark Horse Project

Aberforth

is a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Ubers Leader
approved by Fireburn and Sweep


artwork shamelessly stolen from the OU version; art by ToxicPhox

Hello Ubers! A little while ago, myself shrang and brokenwings were discussing the state of the ubers ladder, when Brokenwings brought up the Dark Horse project that is taking place in OU and UU. We all thought that something like this could be good in ubers and make the ladder a lot more enjoyable than it currently is. And so I welcome you to take part in the Ubers Dark Horse Project.

There are a few good reasons to do this, as this project can help expand your teambuilding and your knowledge of the metagame, as well as increase the usage of various mons that are criminally underused in ubers right now (and balance out the fact that Chansey is more used than Blissey, for example). Also, given that this is a project to increase the quality of the ladder and the variety of the mons in which are seen on there to have a positive effect on the metagame, leadership points are awarded to those who complete the challenge, and once you have enough, the points can be converted into a community contributor badge nomination.

The rules of the project are as follows:
  • You must choose two Pokemon on the list of usage stats (found here) that have each had less than 4% usage in the previous month.
  • You must build a team with them (don't just steal an RMT that happened to have both). The entire team's usage stats combined must have 35% usage or less! In other words, you cannot use Xerneas, Primal Groudon or Arceus-normal.
  • Post your entire team in this thread or send me a PM containing your team and their percentages! Send me a PM also if you edit your team, so I can keep track. If you do not do this, you will not be considered to have completed the project.
  • You must post here stating the two Dark Horse Pokemon you were using and the fresh alt you are going to ladder under.
  • Save all the replays. I cannot stress this one enough. I am going to be checking your rank when you finish and looking at all of your replays to make sure you used the Dark Horses that you either posted in this thread or in the pms to me.
  • If you feel like a change to the team is needed to make it better (ie, changing Aegislash to Klefki), you can if you alert me to this change and the change does not involve one of the two dark horse mons. This means that you do not need to make a fresh alt for the same team that you were using with a minor change to it.
  • Movesets are flexible. So long as the team doesn't change mons, I do not need to be alerted about you changing which mon has defog on a team with an Arc form, a Lati and a Giratina.
  • You have a month to ladder, and this is considered by peak scores, not by final ranking. If you screenshot getting to 1600+, but then tilt down to 1400, that's fine, so long as you have evidence of getting to 1600 and the number of games it took you, you will have reached the requirements for B rank.
  • Once you've achieved this, edit your registration post with a screencap of your ranking to be added to the Hall of Fame.
  • If someone else took your same dark horse to a higher ranking, you don't get to enter the hall of fame for that dark horse! Only one of your dark horses needs to not be topped in order for you enter the hall of fame.
  • Every month, the Hall of Fame will be preserved, but a new Dark Horse challenge will start, so you can pick another couple Pokemon that you want to use and score leaderboard points again!
  • Note you can't get in the Hall of Fame with the same Dark Horse Pokemon multiple times (though the rest of your team can be recycled if you so wish).
  • Discussions of your Dark Horses are greatly encouraged. Post here with commentary, findings, teams, strategies, etc.—anything to do with the Dark Horse you've been using and what you've learned from it!
  • Quitting and re-entering with a different set of Dark Horses is prohibited; stick with your choices and do your absolute best. You have an entire month to ladder, or at least explain any findings and discussion you may have about the Pokemon you used. If you wish to re-enter with different Dark Horse mons, wait until the next month for the challenge to restart.
Special Mons.
  • Primal Groudon is on 66% of teams. Or is it? Looking at moveslots shows that groudon is holding an item other than the red orb 3.2% of the time, so non-Primal Groudon is seen on the ladder all of 2.1% of the time! In other words, non primal groudon is eligible for the challenge, but remember that only the user that gets highest with that particular Dark Horse goes onto the leaderboard for that month.
  • Is Kyogre in the same boat then? No. Non Primal Kyogre is actually seen on the ladder 6.35% of the time, and so doesn't count for the challenge. However, if you use non-primal kyogre, it will only count for 6.35% usage, which helps given that the usage limit is 40%. Primal Kyogre's usage will be rated at 22.5% as a result of this.
  • Both of the prior two decisions were because of the precident set by Arceus forms. On the usage ladder, they all get their own usage stat, despite being unknown at team preview. I didn't know what usage to set for Arceus forms to be eligible for the challenge, however we eventually decided that the Arceus forms were represented the way they were on the usage stats because of other arceus forms, and so we decided that the following will be eligible for the challenge.
    Steel
    Poison
    Electric
    Grass
    Fire
    Fighting
    Dragon
    Ice
    Flying
    Bug
    Psychic
  • Counting usage of Arceus. Again difficult, but I have decided that if Arceus is your Dark Horse mon, it will count for 4% usage, because of how difficult the arc forms are to measure accurately, and if you are using one outside of the Dark Horse mons, it will count as either 7.5% usage, or if it has higher than 7.5% usage already, the correct usage will be used. Effectively, this means that all arceus forms that are not used for the challenge are either Arceus or Arceus Ground, which sits at 7.55% usage anyway.
There will be three ranks in the hall of fame. C-Rank is bringing your team to Elo 1500 and will earn you 1 Leaderboard point. B-Rank is bringing your team to Elo 1600 and will earn you 2 Leaderboard points. A-Rank is earning an Elo 1700 or better and will earn you 3 Leaderboard points! Remember, these points can be converted into a Community Contributor badge nomination!

Magsyy - 2 points

Hall of Fame:
A-Rank
-none yet-

B-Rank
magsyy : Arceus-Water, Skarmory, Clefable.

C-Rank
leokia : Arceus-Electric, Landorus

EDIT: For future rounds, Arceus-Water is not eligible.

EDIT 2: Updated new rules, and lowered the cuttoff.
 
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Well, Let's do this.
Dark Horse Pokemon: Arceus-water,Clefable.
Giratina @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Dragon Tail
- Will-O-Wisp

Arceus-Water @ Splash Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 124 Spe
Bold Nature
- Toxic
- Judgement
- Recover
- Defog

Lugia @ Leftovers
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Reflect
- Ice Beam
- Roost

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stone Edge
- Payback
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Toxic
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball

Clefable (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell

Clefable=1.64589%
Arceus-water=4%
Lugia=21.04760%
Giratina= 5.99426%
Tyranitar=1.44737%
Ferrothorn=5.63946%
Sum=1.64589+1.44737+5.63946+5.99426+21.04760+4
=39.77458

My alt: Alphabeta1
Stall time!
 
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Aberforth

is a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Ubers Leader
If the teams look too standard/common, then I will adjust the usage limits. I am considering lowering the limit already, however we decided that 4% was a good place to start, and then adjust accordingly if the challenge was too easy for those who take part.
 
Sounds like fun.

Dark horses: Breloom, Jirachi, M-Lopunny, Garchomp

Alt: good2beTheKing

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

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Frustration
- Ice Punch
- High Jump Kick

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Body Slam
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stealth Rock

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Knock Off

Arceus-Ghost @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Focus Blast
- Judgment
- Recover
 
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Aberforth

is a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Ubers Leader
You need to post in here or send me a private message with what team you are going to use, and you only need to use two dark horse pokemon, not 4.
 
oh okay, I want to use 4 though for the additional challenge :)

Also, it's okay to keep tweaking the team around, right?
 

Aberforth

is a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Ubers Leader
Yes, so long as you alert me to the changes, and the Dark Horse mons that you chose are not replaced by more common mons. Moveslots however are entirely flexible, and I need not be informed.
 

Aberforth

is a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Ubers Leader
1630 stats are more indicative of the ladder as a whole, while also largely ignoring the negative impact of the lowest part of the ladder.
 

mags

Banned deucer.
Alt name is I AM DARK HORSE
darkhorse mons are Arceus Water/Skarmory/clefable
Pomman has the rest of the info gl everybody

Aight im done laddering my record was 1620. Im gonna enlighten you with some stuff about my team. Ok its pretty basic nothing new just stall with a few weird mons. The 1 thing i found interesting is that people think after 1 dd that mence can break skarmory... half the time i set up spikes when mmence was trying to kill it.

proof
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAAAAAAAc/grriqzbp8cU/w426-h240/Pokemon.png
 
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Aberforth

is a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Ubers Leader
UPDATE TIME: Congrats to magsyy for achieving B-rank, the latest usage statistics have been linked and a new round has started! In this round Arceus-Water is no longer allowed to be used for the Dark Horse Challenge.
 
Alt name: Marburg
Darkhorse mons: Arceus-electric and Landorus
Sent you a pm of all other information.

1500
 
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