A Beginner's Guide to SS Monotype

By mushamu and roxiee. Released: 2022/02/01.
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A Beginner's Guide to SS Monotype art

Art by anundeadboy.

Introduction

So you want to get into Monotype but aren't sure where to start? That's what we're here for, so buckle yourself in and let's get on the road!

The first thing you need to know about Monotype before we go anywhere is not to put too much stock into type matchups. While in some cases, such as Fire against Grass, the type matchup is unbearable, others such as Flying vs Rock are completely the opposite of what you would expect! Pokémon that are immune to the type's weakness, such as Gastrodon and Seismitoad being immune to Water-type moves for Ground teams, are essential for turning the tables on these otherwise poor matchups.

Although they do help, what matters the most in Monotype isn't necessarily the number of weaknesses and resistances a type has. The most important quality of a type is in the Pokémon available for use. Oftentimes, as long as you're not playing with an unviable type, of which there are only a few, you're on the right track.

So on that note, let's try to pick out a type!

Choosing a Type and You!

While we certainly do not have the luxury of going very in-depth into each type, we can still briefly cover what types you should try out. We've divided the list of types into balance and offense (and ordered the types by relative viability within each group), so choose whichever you find more fun to play!

Balance teams uses an offensive frontline with a defensive backbone to support it. The main goal is to pressure foes with an offensive threat, retreat to a defensive pivot, and then go back into another offensive threat. These teams get their namesake from balancing offense with defense instead of going all out in one direction or the other.

Offense teams focus more on hitting fast, hard, and often. They tend to lack the ability to take hits, but they dish out great damage in return. By using fast Pokémon, they seek to get the first hit in to avoid taking damage back. These teams look to overrun the opponent by gaining momentum and keeping the pressure on.

Balance

Steel

Steel is a common balance choice due to it covering a number of types. It accounts for its weaknesses defensively through Aegislash, Celesteela, Corviknight, and Skarmory for Fighting, Ferrothorn for Water and Ground, and Heatran for Fire. The traditional Steel team has the defensive core of Heatran, Ferrothorn, Aegislash, and one of the aforementioned Flying-types. Offensive teammates can also cover a few types like Aegislash and Jirachi for Fighting, Melmetal and Scizor for Flying, Bisharp for Ghost and Psychic, and Excadrill for Fire and Electric. Steel teams are known for stacking entry hazards from Pokémon like Heatran, Ferrothorn, and Skarmory to help offensive teammates clean up late-game. If you enjoy inflicting residual damage through entry hazards, Leech Seed, and status and proceeding to clean with a sweeper like Excadrill, then Steel is the type for you!

Dark

Dark balance teams consist of defensive options in Mandibuzz and Tyranitar and four other offensive teammates. Mandibuzz performs an amazing role as a physically defensive support Pokémon by slow pivoting faster teammates in with U-turn and providing Defog support. Tyranitar, on the other hand, is the specially defensive wall that sets Stealth Rock, cripples faster Pokémon with Thunder Wave, and gets rid of Bug-types with its Rock-type STAB attacks. Optionally, Sableye checks Pokémon carrying Fighting-type coverage like Galarian Zapdos and Zeraora. Offensive teammates such as Hydreigon, Weavile, and Zarude all perform crucial roles; Hydreigon can break through defensive Pokémon with Nasty Plot or Choice Specs, Weavile checks Flying, Dragon, and Ground teams, and Zarude helps with Water and Ground teams. Drapion and Bisharp are also options for a better matchup against Fairy teams. Dark is also known for its great offensive teams with dual screens; nonetheless, if you enjoy playing balance, Dark is a great pick for you.

Psychic

Psychic is a great typing for balance teams because its distinguished defensive and offensive Pokémon confer diverse coverage. Standard balance teams consist of a core of Teleport Slowbro, Victini, and Tapu Lele. Thanks to Tapu Lele's Psychic Terrain, priority users like Azumarill, Bisharp, and Mimikyu have fewer opportunities to revenge kill. Defensive Pokémon like Jirachi and Bronzong set Stealth Rock, Slowbro checks physical attackers, and Galarian Slowking absorbs Toxic Spikes and checks special attackers. Psychic teams also have great offensive options like Victini to cover Bug and Steel teams, Tapu Lele and Hatterene for Dark teams, and Celebi and Latios for Water teams. Additionally, Mew can act as multiple roles such as a stallbreaker, setup sweeper, or even utility. Furthermore, reliable momentum control in U-turn Jirachi and Teleport Slowbro in addition to solid offensive teammates makes Psychic a great balance choice.

Flying

Flying is one of the most reliable balance types because of the number of options it can run while covering pretty much all types defensively and offensively. Standard balance Flying teams carry a defensive core of Landorus-T and a Steel-type such as Celesteela, Corviknight, or Skarmory. In terms of covering natural weaknesses, Flying teams have the aforementioned Steel-types and Mantine for Ice teams, Dragonite, Thundurus-T, and Landorus-T for Electric teams, and Landorus-T and previously mentioned Steel-types for Rock teams. Outside of the typical defensive core, Flying teams also have a variety of powerful offensive coverage options. Some good examples of consistent offensive options are Thundurus-T for the Flying mirror and Water teams, Galarian Zapdos for Ice and Dark teams, and Galarian Moltres for Psychic and many other balance types like Steel and Poison. Overall, Flying's wide berth of options, flexibility, and inarguable consistency mean it is one of the best balance types in Monotype.

Offense

Water

Water is a dangerous offensive typing when Drizzle Pelipper's legion of rain sweepers are taken into consideration. A common example is Swift Swim Barraskewda, which outspeeds the entire metagame under rain, as well as powerful wallbreakers such as Urshifu-R and Keldeo. Other options on rain teams include Kingdra for Dragon and offense matchups, Crawdaunt for Psychic and balance teams, and Tapu Fini for Misty Terrain and another tool to help with Dragon-types. However, despite rain Water teams being naturally very offensive, these teams commonly carry defensive Pokémon as well. Swampert provides Stealth Rock support, an immunity to Electric-types, and momentum control through Flip Turn, while Teleport Slowking can similarly serve as a momentum grabber that can break sequences with Future Sight when paired with Urshifu-R's Close Combat. Finally, Toxapex can be used as a defensive backbone through its amazing typing and bulk, and it can even carry Eject Button to pivot into a dangerous rain sweeper. If you would like to try out weather offense in Monotype, rain Water is an excellent pick.

Electric

Unlike Water, offensive Electric teams aren't reliant on weather, but instead function around Electric Terrain set by Tapu Koko. Despite almost always carrying the same six Pokémon, Electric teams are known to be incredibly consistent in Monotype due to the strength of their offensive core and defensive synergy with Rotom-W and Magnezone. Tapu Koko and Alolan Raichu exert tremendous offensive pressure; Tapu Koko sets Electric Terrain for the entire team and beats Dragon matchups, and Alolan Raichu outspeeds and revenge kills the entire metagame, barring Barraskewda under rain. When you throw in Zeraora's amazing physical wallbreaking capabilities and the borderline unwallable Choice Specs Zapdos thanks to the lack of good Hurricane switch-ins, you've got a dangerous offensive core capable of putting tremendous pressure on the entire metagame. Apart from its Steel typing giving the team many resistances, Magnezone also offers offensive merit, as it can trap threats to the team's offensive core such as Ferrothorn and Celesteela as well as Choice Scarf Excadrill if it's not locked into Earthquake. Players who enjoy using Terrain offense that takes control of momentum completely with Volt Switch spam will find starting out with an Electric team enjoyable, as it is an incredibly consistent type and amazing in tournament-level play.

Fairy

Fairy offense's claim to fame is that it runs dual screens teams exceptionally well. The type has many dangerous offensive Pokémon such as the Guardian Deities, Azumarill, Togekiss, and Mimikyu, which pretty much covers any matchup across the board. However, Klefki truly is the key to success on Fairy teams, as it unlocks the potential of frailer offensive threats by supporting them with a key Poison-type immunity as well as Prankster-boosted screens, Spikes, and Thunder Wave. Screens are especially effective when helping setup sweepers put in work. Clefable is a great Stealth Rock setter that provides utility with Knock Off and serves as a defensive wall. Fairy is a great choice for players that like to focus on an aggressive playstyle centered around screens and entry hazard stacking.

Dragon

The average Dragon team functions off Garchomp setting Stealth Rock accompanied by 4-5 offensive teammates. Dragalge does great against Fairy and Psychic matchups thanks to Toxic Spikes, and pairing it with Garchomp creates an entry hazard core, making it easier for offensive teammates like Dragapult, Hydreigon, and Kyurem to pick up KOs. With its high Speed and great attacking stats, Dragapult is an essential pick and can fulfill multiple roles such as a setup sweeper with Dragon Dance, wallbreaker with Choice Specs, or even a fast revenge killer with Choice Scarf. Latias creates opportunities for its offensive teammates to gain momentum through Defog and Healing Wish. Dragon makes a great beginner type if you are interested in powerful wallbreakers, setup sweepers, and having the pleasure of dropping Draco Meteors.

Notably, stall doesn't have a section. While stall technically exists in Monotype and, yes, can be quite powerful in the right hands, it's very difficult to use and has its own unwinnable matchups. Water is the only type that can pull off a slightly viable, full stall team, but it's strongly recommended that you choose one of the other main playstyles instead.

That was a lot to take in, but you've hopefully now got an idea of what type you want to play with. Most of these styles are the best ways to build these types, but some types like Water are versatile enough to be used successfully in different ways as well! You probably noticed that there are some types not listed here. Some of them draw poor matchups too commonly such as Rock or simply don't have a lot of viable Pokémon like Normal. The others are still quite good, and almost every type is viable on some level, especially at the highest level of play. However, it may be best to hold off on exploring the more difficult-to-use types until later!

How Do I Get Started?

The first thing you need to do is get in touch with our resources. We have plenty of them in the Monotype subforum, and the most useful of them all is the Viability Rankings. The Monotype community works very hard to keep it updated to make sure you can always check out what Pokémon are best in the metagame. All you need to do is open up the section for your type; the best Pokémon for your type are listed right at the top, and in most cases, you can just load your team up with the A- and S-rank threats and you will probably do fairly well during the learning process.

But, you may ask, do these Pokémon really work that well together? Luckily, we've got more resources for you to use. Our Sample Teams thread contains a list of teams that are made just for you! You can use them for yourself, or you can compare them to your own teams. Many of these teams use established cores that have great success in Monotype, so absolutely feel free to copy some of them! If your team looks strangely like a sample team, you're probably doing something right. The whole point of our sample teams is to help new players get a feel for how Monotype teambuilding works and how to pilot a reliable team, so there's no harm in trying them out.

You can also check the Smogon Strategy Pokédex for Monotype-specific sets and analyses. Almost every Pokémon that is decently ranked in the Viability Rankings thread will have an analysis on the website for you to check out. These analyses are written by great players and checked for quality before they're uploaded for you to use, so don't worry about if they're accurate or trustworthy! They come with sets, usage tips, and team options so you can learn the nuances and niches of your Pokémon. Take advantage of these resources and learn all that you can from them!

If you are having trouble adjusting to unique sets and Choice Scarf users in Monotype, then the SS Monotype Speed Tiers thread is a great resource for you. This project showcases a diverse range of Speed stats and collages the information in tiers as a helpful visual aid! This is a great way to see how many Speed EVs you should invest in a Pokémon when building teams.

How will you keep all these links together? Well, you can always find them all right here in our Forum Index along with other important information.

Getting Help

This guide isn't a catch-all and I'm sure you still have some questions, which is great! We're happy to answer any questions you have. There are a few main places you can ask your questions and get fast help:

Closing Words

I hope this has helped you get a start in Monotype and introduced all of the many resources available to you. Don't feel shy! You don't need to be a veteran Monotype player to talk in our chatrooms, so definitely join in on discussions you're interested in. Once you've built your team and gotten comfortable, check out some of our most competitive tournaments! Monotype is also known for team tournaments like the Monotype Premier League (MPL), Monotype Winter Premier League (MWP), Monotype World Cup (MWCOP), and the Monotype Best Leaderboard Tournament (BLT). Monotype BLT is an amazing tournament for beginners trying to integrate themselves into the tournament scene by working with our very own room authority as managers during the duration of the tour! On behalf of the Monotype staff and community, welcome to our metagame, and we hope you have a blast playing with us!

HTML by Ryota Mitarai.
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