GSC
Note I did not invent these... duh. They were merely lesser used things I brought that I happen to like and would like to bring some attention to.
Perun (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
IVs: 26 Def
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Rest
Simply throwing out a TWave with Zap can be devastating. All too often I see Zaps run low on Thunder PP from flailing against Snorlax or trying to paralyze Raikou; this is the best lure in the game for that Pokemon and from there there's a whole host of things you can go to town with. Getting a guaranteed para on Snorlax certainly isn't bad either. Another great thing it does is paralyze opposing Zap without touching it so it can't Rest and that makes it infinitely easier to deal with while opening up Pokemon like Machamp, Marowak, Rhydon and Vaporeon. You'll definitely want to make sure you can handle Nidoking in particular when packing this set, which can't be the eternal prick it is with Restalk but is pretty easy to wake up if you play well and you should be abusing the paralysis it's spread beforehand.
Mikula (Machamp) @ Leftovers
- Cross Chop
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
Extra coverage is great for those games when you're never really getting a chance to Curse and just want to hit things hard. Earthquake nails Nidoking and Gengar with ease, and the harder hit against Raikou is lovely. You'll hit the former most often and that is one Pokemon you'll really like the damage on. Even if you don't get the hit off, you limit their Champ answers and that can be exploited with switches. Fire Blast gets a big hit on Skarm while still hurting Egg. Namely, it disposes of Forretress which is one of the most potentially annoying Pokemon for your average Cloyster offense; most of the time it'll Spin + boom on Champ and that's super bad. I didn't want that to happen so I gave this a shot and it's really solid for keeping up pressure. Even gets a surprise KO now and again.
Needs support against Zapdos because you won't be breaking through with unboosted Rock Slide. It doesn't have the same potential to force a sweep that Curse does unless it's very late in the game and you win pretty much by having a Machamp, but it can make things happen very effectively. Stinging Heracross is nice too so you force it to Rest rather than hit your shit hard, and it actually hits Meganium harder than HP Bug. Make sure you have a plan for what you're going to do against Suicune.
Triglav (Exeggutor) @ Leftovers
IVs: 6 HP / 28 Atk / 24 Def
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psychic / Giga Drain
- Stun Spore
- Explosion
I first came up with this set in SPL 6 (not that I invented it ex nihilo, just that it came into my head naturally without having seen it before; it's been used since GSC's heyday, I'm pretty sure) when making a Marowak offense team for Picollo to use vs. Colchonero; in turn, I used it against New Breed this year.
It originally had Giga over Psychic; being walled by Zapdos didn't concern me because the plan was to Stun and not touch it so Wak could blow right through it, and I thought I needed Giga because it's good against Tyranitar if you land para on it. However when Earthworm used the team against VIL this season he ran Psychic and I think it's probably more useful. My Tar Pursuit paranoia from my 3 main gens led me to Giga Drain immediately but after EW-VIL I realized paralyzing it on the switch and getting out of the way is a better plan. From the Tar user's perspective, trying to Pursuit a healthy Egg without its set revealed is usually a silly move, so there's that to consider as well. Odds are your team appreciates the hell out of a paralyzed Tyranitar anyway - even something like Marowak/Machamp enjoys having one less thing that can revenge kill at low health and Champ can actually switch into it much more safely now. Your other mons will abuse it in all kinds of ways - Lax can do all sorts of stuff, helps out Electrics/Gengar, Steelix can actually threaten it, the whole nine yards. Not that Egg will be useless beyond paralyzing Tar - the fact it lures in Tar so hard can easily be abused, especially because of Egg's ever-threatening Explosion. Psych gives you a move to actually hit Snorlax and Raikou decently which can be very crucial. It'd also suck to not be able to kill a 20% paralyzed Zapdos without Exploding, or like Nidoking/Gengar and such. Not that I completely renounce GD or anything, it's still a perfectly good option.
Anyway the reason HP Fire is so crucial here is because I noticed that Stun Egg in particular has a tendency to lure in Forretress, who you do not want fucking with your team. Being able to actually hurt a paralyzed Skarm can be incredibly useful as well. Those are the main uses but having a move to put pressure on opposing Egg is also really nice and you hit Steelix very, very hard as well. This is all kinds of useful but most notably can draw them into Exploding much earlier than they'd like which you can take advantage of.
TL;DR version: Stun Spore + HP Fire Exeggutor is very cool, good and hip.
Morana (Jynx) @ Leftovers
- Lovely Kiss
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Substitute / Nightmare
Standard Jynx, it's pretty great. I was really skeptical at first because of how damn frail it is but Cased kept telling me how great this thing was against boom offense and he was very much right. It is an utter terror against Zap/Lax/Cloy/Egg/Lix/filler (usually Machamp). Its Ice Beam is sooo strong... Vaporeon on that team (ST variants mostly) can get on its nerves but Jynx rattles those other Pokemon so hard it's still dangerous and Vappy isn't an immediate threat. It almost straight up sweeps the more common Machamp variants. Plus, if you run Nightmare as is standard and as Cased wanted me to (which makes it good against more defensive teams; Raikou, Suicune, a sleeping Snorlax on any team) it can annoy Vap as well.
I wanted Sub because I was still wary of Jynx's frailty, although it turns out Sub doesn't really help with this so its main purpose was easing my mind for that game. However it really locks those Explosion teams down because it's so easy to get one up against so many of their Pokemon that you scare; it makes it much likelier you'll get to pick your target with LK and from there you're really cruising cause it's so hard to stop its attacks with a Sub up. It's kind of a luxury so overall Nightmare is better against a wider variety of teams (and it's not like you lose against the teams you're meant to beat, you still throttle them) but with the prevalence of (Explosion) offense in the meta it's definitely going to be very useful very often. Another pro of Substitute is against a non-HP Fire Exeggutor out of IB range; Giga Drain doesn't work against Subs so you just stuff it and it has to bomb. Both options are great, it really depends on the user/team. But yeah, Jynx is terrific, it's been seeing a LOT of use lately. Thief sets are cool too.
Zeme (Golem) @ Leftovers
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Rapid Spin
- Explosion
I've been a fan of Golem for a while but could never really fit it on teams and I think it's because with the standard EQ/FB/Spin/Boom set I always ended up with teams where I could never fit in everything I wanted to. It was always great when I used it though because spin is something your average offensive team can't afford and it makes dealing with both electrics so much easier. This was another Cased recommendation - using it with Roar instead of Steelix on my Jynx team was all his idea and I love it to death. Golem itself has been talked about but Roar on it not so much. Obviously it is not going to be your only method of stopping Lax but it is much better than not being able to phaze it at all while it slowly destroys your team. Dropping Fire Blast sucks and obviously I'd love to be able to run 5 moves on it just like I'd love Sub + Nightmare Jynx. However I think it's well worth the tradeoff. Golem's a beast.
who's your friend (Forretress) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic
- Protect
My biggest fear when using Forretress is having it worn down by Spikes (Roars, Tyranitar's Pursuit on occasion) and (or in conjunction with) attacks from Cloy/Nido/Egg and the like. It can be a real hassle before you get that Spin off and if a Steelix player is really on his game he can wear you down to where Cloy just lays em back down. This aims to solve that. It can also help you scout movesets (nice try, FB Nido) and it works beautifully with Protect of course. Fucks with Missy too. Needs Gengar Pursuited obv.
Mati-syra-zemla / Frankie why (Suicune) @ Leftovers
- Surf
- Toxic
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
This is the furthest thing away from an original set but I don't recall the last time I saw one apart from a Mount Silver RMT. The standard ST Suicune packs Ice Beam for absolutely crushing Nido/Wak no matter what and the most common set overall is Toxic/Roar or ST Roar (haven't seen shit like Mirror Coat/Curse ever used in a serious match). Not that these aren't all great sets but man I never leave home without this thing. Toxic is so good for forcing Rest from just about everything which lets your stall team get the momentum back to where it wants it. You still dump on grounds. I don't like being helpless while asleep though and ST is essential to continue to be a threat AND reinforce Cune's unkillability. It's such a perfect set of attributes that when I was making my first stall team and wanted to use the benefits of Cune it struck me that this was the only way to do it. Toxic Roar can be pretty nasty and I will try him more but being threatening while asleep is, to me, so crucial for letting the stall team remain aggressive and really choke the opponent out.
Murder (Gengar) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
- Thunder
- Ice Punch
- Dynamic Punch
- Explosion
I feel a lot more secure clicking DP against a paralyzed target and this Gar spreads the love. I'm not quite insane enough to run Zap Cannon. It's also another tool at your disposal regarding gameplan because you can para shit like Kou and Umb without having to Explode on them to help your sweepers out. It's nice having more than one thing to aim at Kou cause people tend to burn through Zap's Thunders pretty fast and this Gar can leave Umb with a para so that divide-and-conquer strategy isn't as useful (parad Umb is pretty awful). Increased damage is nice in a variety of scenarios. Of course Gar's frailty has me clutching my nuts a lot when hitting even like Skarm but I really like the extra depth it gives the teams it's on.
ADV
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug]
- Focus Punch
Nothing revolutionary, it's basically the classic SubPuncher (viltar?) with EQ over Sub. Alternatively, it's physical RoarTar with Focus Punch over Roar. With SubPunch, I loved smacking the hell out of Pert and friends but I always disliked being out of Dug range and still dying to it, plus not being able to significantly hurt Pert without a Sub sucked; that doesn't happen with EQ. Conversely, with RoarTar I loved DD's coverage of RS/EQ/Bug without much care about paralysis from Snorlax/Jirachi/Blissey/Porygon2/Regice/even Zapdos that'd utterly ruin an actual DD set since it doesn't need speed and Roar to lay down the hurt on its switchins with Spikes, but making no progress against Flygon really sucked. Not being able to really put the hurt on Skarmory bugged me as well. So... combine them. With Focus Punch you smash Flygon and utterly maul Swampert (especially with Spikes). Plus, with EQ you can actually follow it up for decent damage instead of relying on HP Bug and/or Rock Slide flinches. FPing the shit out of Skarmory never gets old either. It doesn't reinvent the meta but it's a damn solid set. Having this much bulk and this much attack on Tar without being ruined by paralysis makes it a threat to every team, especially cause you can't capitalize on lack of coverage.
Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 48 Def / 72 SpA / 120 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Leech Seed
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Light Screen
Fear's SpDef Celebi but with Light Screen (and some different EVs). Incredible team player. Skarmory takes shit from Magneton and shit like Regice/MixGross are laughable, MixMence has to waste a turn using Brick Break so you can Leech Seed safely, Swampert doesn't fear HP Grass from Tyranitar... I could go on forever but it generally assists immensely in stopping a specially offensive onslaught. LS also helps a lot by forcing switches with Spikes and healing teammates with recovery from... the other LS.
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Light Screen
- Toxic
- Rest
I really, really like Light Screen. Toxic Zap is amazing in general. LS makes it a phenomenal team player and is so nice with Pressure. Roar (over Toxic) and Thunder are good alternatives as well, preference/team dependent etc.
Another good Zapdos is Thunder on offensive sets (over TBolt, but I used both on my old Regirock team and it worked great; Tbolt the Tar switch, they think they're safe, drop em). Power difference is huge (even when you're hitting Blissey) and the option of paralysis alongside extra damage is huge for breaking down walls (Cele, Jira). TWave is great at this too of course but it takes up a moveslot and Thunder does (a lot of) damage while going for the para. Think GSC Zap minus the resilience to status (free restalk!!!) but with much more average damage dealt out. You've gotta play real heads up to make the most use out of it but it's really good and the strength is just orgasmic.
Lada (Blissey) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
Inspired by UD/BeerLover, who was the first to have success with Fire Blast Blissey. He didn't even run max spatk, instead opting for a lot of speed and Toxic, but even with less investment it stroked Metagross hard and didn't let Skarm get away unscathed. TWave Bliss is very underrated but against more defensive teams it can be annoyingly Skarm bait despite para being nice. So, I combined the two, and maxed spatk (54-64 aka guaranteed 2HKO with Lefties on max/max Skarm, 60-70 against max HP Gross). It's not great in a longer 1v1 against Swampert like most Bliss are so keep that in mind for your team but most things get paralyzed or hit really, really hard. Pairs beautifully with Choice Banders, especially when you slow down faster CM Pokes.
DPP
Gliscor @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Thunder Fang
Monstrous sweeper. Cleaves through Skarmory like nobody's business without being on a timer thanks to its sand and Spikes immunity; it's very hard to take a continuous onslaught from this thing. Good defensive value too like with any Gliscor thanks to its ability to check Lucario, Flygon and Tyranitar. Adamant can be worth it if you know what you're doing with the team. Make sure you can handle Bronzong.
BW
Dragonite @ Life Orb
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Mild Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Extreme Speed
Literally Standard DPP MixNite is extremely good in BW thanks to Multiscale letting it lead off against most shit, plus there's the incredible surprise factor and lack of SpDef Hippowdon to get in its way (should he show his face, that's Breloom entry). Outside of being a dangerous lead it rips shit up except unlike Hydreigon it's got a powerful priority move to use against offense and checks the Incredibly Broken Volcarona. I had an SR Jirachi that I'd switch to on the team this was on because early rocks/uturn = good so I didn't bother investing for Latios but you could definitely do that if you wanted, the attack investment doesn't do a ton in practice. Feel free to make it faster as well.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Custap Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 44 SpA / 212 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
For insurance against Excadrill. Custap is useful in a variety of situations of course (stopping a rampaging ScarfChomp/Keld/Shao being my favorite in particular) and offensive Lando is always great. Nice hit on Ferrothorn real nice as well, surprises BalloonTran and can pick off a weakened Skarmory / Rotom-W. Normally I hate +Speed Lando but it's actually useful here because Superpower eats Hydreigon and Kyurem, Naughty is viable as well of course and usually I prefer it. 44 SpA is surprisingly useful.
ORAS
Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Taunt
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
We've all seen a million games where Weav hits Sciz/Clef coming in and then switches as they heal up. Taunt stops that since their recovery move is absolutely necessary and it's easy to see how this can be incredibly useful. LO is also nice since CB has become so prominent that people often dance around a Weav weakness by predicting it. Taunt shits on Skarm as well which can help against a lot of really annoying teams, and preventing Mega Slowbro from Slacking Off is really good for those times endgame where it's ready to sweep. Nice against shit like Suicune, Alomola and Quagsire as well.
Svetovid (Landorus-Therian) @ Muscle Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Rock Polish
DD Lando is absolutely incredible in ORAS but I never see it (which is understandable given the importance of its other sets). It doesn't take much for it to be a serious threat in any given match and of course it's a Lando so you'll get use out of it almost no matter what.
The item choice keeps me up at night. I like MB since I want the EQ jacked up (Ferro/Clef/Mew/Cune/Bro/MZor/Keld (for an RP sweep)) but any boost to SE is good against shit like Rotom, Skarm, Lati, Tang, Serp, other Land. Even if 10% doesn't seem like a lot in practice I've found it very useful. Earth Plate is a great option of course and blows through attempts to stop it via Unaware, plus Keldeo
really gets crushed by it so a lot of offensive teams are at risk of getting swept almost from the word go. If you go with EP I would consider Smack Down over SE so you're getting the most out of your boost. Life Orb could work if you like to live life on the edge! Leftovers is always a good option as it gives longevity to your setup and helps defensively. Lum Berry is also something I've considered for burns from weak Scalds at high health/Mew/Talonflame/making your setup against Tran free.
This Lando also turns Gliscor into setup fodder and we all know how nasty Glis can be. It's even nastier if you can fit Healing Wish - I had it on the bulky SR/Uturn Jira that was on my team which is imo this thing's best friend.
Berstuk (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Iron Head
The moveset can be whatever, this is just what I used on my Medicham team. Max defense Ferrothorn is awesome though. I was getting really sick of Weavile and Bisharp so I devised this and it really works. Those are its main uses but overall it just tanks the shit out of everything physical - CBtar Superpower, LO Chomp Fire Fang bounces off, Landorus Earthquakes are laughable, Pinsir's Close Combat doesn't even break 60%, Lopunny's HJK does 75 to 89, Metagross Hammer Arm is pitiful, it's much improved against behemoths like Crawdaunt and Diggersby, it even comfortably lives Natural Gift Fire Azumarill. Best part: SpecsKeld Secret Sword is a mere 70.6-83.7% which is ridiculous.
You get the gist; increased physical bulk can be a lifesaver and the decreased SpDef, while something to keep in mind, shouldn't be a detriment to how you handle things. It still tanks Latios more than well enough for you to play your game unless your game was to use it as your sole switch into Specs Meteor 8 times. It can still Leech + Protect if you're worried about health of course and I'd probably do that on most teams to make as much use out of the incredible bulk it has to stay in range for it to live against those targets (notable against shit that's hitting it in the 50-60 range so it can actually switch in and still do something rather than just rack up Iron Barbs (which, don't get me wrong, can still be incredibly useful in dancing around big threats)) unless my team really needs it to do something else; for example, on the first one I wanted SR Spikes so the rest of my team could be offensive as hell and on another I wanted Knock to help wear down Tran/other Ferro. Tect is also nice for the always dangerous Cham/Lop. Lastly, it has a 12.5% chance to survive 252 Atk Talonflame Flare Blitz (lmao)
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 8 HP / 248 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Air Slash
This is kinda silly but any Tornadus user will tell you how infuriating it can be to have to rely on Hurricane. Some players use Wide Lens, which is pretty fun, but sometimes you still want AV's bulk. I aimed to fix that with this - you're familiar with Torn's confuse antics but you haven't seen anything until you give it a 30% flinch move on top of Hurricane. It's a nice safe move to use against Keld and shit. It's also cool cause it can flinch something like a weakened Knocked Clef into Hurricane range. It has a veritable smorgasboard of applications. The 4th slot on Torn is home to a lot of stuff to try and I think you could definitely do worse.