Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 40 Atk / 216 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Flamethrower
- Brick Break
- Hidden Power [Bug]
I think salamence got a bad wrap from ABR's recent (to me lol) VR post. I think mixmence is fantastic in the current metagame and this is one way to do it. Mixmence often gets bricked by celebi, as its a poor stop to CM pass and often gets outsped and flamethrower/fire blast (I don't like inaccurate moves unless I have to use it, for example, I think Machamp needs Cross Chop or else just use medicham) don't do enough damage. HP bug hits celebi as hard as max invested hp fly and you at least speed tie it, so you prevent them from getting more than one CM.
Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 48 SpA / 208 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Brick Break
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Dance
Not saying I invented this guy, but I only really now started to appreciate how good it was once I watched a fruhdazi/garay oak replay. I personally like going fast, strong, and forgoing any bulk, as gars have long started to be more physically frail in the increasing arms race to beat spinners, so you really get a lot out of max attack. mence's natural bulk + intimidate works on a faux mixmence like this. You certainly miss slide against zap/aero, but some good manuevering can let you hide it and you get to nail skarm (I think flame is too weak here without investment, you can't 2hko skarm).
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 44 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Counter
- Roar
- Protect
McM posted this guy a while ago, and I wanted to bring it back into the forefront bc its fantastic way to get past lax on a sandless, dugless spikes balance. Those sandless spikes balances I used to love really struggle to bring meta these days are bulky dd tar is everywhere and you also like having a non skarm phazer, leading you to use pert (or cune, but cune needs dd tar back up if you're dugless). Counter + Roar really surprises lax and you easily survive even +2 lax. EV spread can kind of be whatever; I like either going this w HP grass bulk or 104 SpD to survive hp grass after one spike. I also sometimes put a little spa, always bold, always max hp.
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpA
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Explosion
- Rapid Spin
This is my favorite spread for hp fire phys def forre. I like investing the spa to give me a shot to 2hko spdef forre after 3 layers, rest in phys def. I also dislike tox (even though I get it), bc having the panic button of boom really helps the teams this guy typically finds itself on.
Dragonite @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Focus Punch
- Earthquake
I was watching an old pasy/marcop replay and wanted to port CB Dnite into modern advance and came up with this guy. Dragonite doesn't have too many advantages over mence due to lacking an ability compared to intimidate, but it does have important move pool differences (heal bell, twave, boltbeam are big ones) and a lot more special bulk in exchange for slower and more specially weak, but the biggest advantage is focus punch. DD Focus Punch on a water resistant DD mon is game breaking against skarmdug, as you dd on dug or dol with your skarm offense, milo tries to tox you but +1 focus punch + hp fly kills it. Skarm takes ~65 from +1 focus punch. You COULD do jolly + hp rock for better coverage, but I think the power loss is enormous and you really like have hp fly. I think every team you build should have plans vs skarmdug.
Snorlax @ Choice Band
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Def / 116 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Body Slam
- Sleep Talk / Brick Break
- Focus Punch / Shadow Ball
- Self-Destruct
I think CB Lax is a fantastic opener for a lot of teams, as it lures skarm/tar/meta really well for a superrachi/dd mence/etc in the back. Just make sure you have plans vs gar/ protect or sub tar. I think people should always go gar if they have it vs lax leads if you lead tar. The evs: max attack obv, 8 hp + 48 def survives cb meta mash, 84 speed creeps forre (booming on forre leads before spikes is awesome), rest in spdef. Note focus punch isn't called by sleep talk, so it's free to put there and comes in handy sometimes, but if you can't deal w gar, use shadow ball (or eq if you have suit) + brick to not just lose your lax t1 into a gar.
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 48 Atk / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Mild Nature
- Ice Punch / Fire Punch
- Thunderbolt / HP Grass
- Doom Desire
- Body Slam
I think Doom Desire is the future of mixrachi. I think DPunch is super mediocre, not just bc of the miss chance, but the main reason to have it is the threat of using it. I never want to sit in front of tar/twave bliss and have to click DPunch. I originally built this to mimic future sight in later gens -- use a fatter wish rachi, spread para with body slam, and then when bliss comes in, use doom desire and then switch to focus punch machamp or tar. Focus Punch + bliss doom desire ko's every non ghost pokemon in the game, as long as DD hits. I eventually realized it is honestly better with coverage bc lefties tar (big 5 is still everywhere on the ladder) sits on you and then have to deal w focus punches. But it's still really good.
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 80 SpD / 176 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunder Wave
- Charge
I originally used charge as a meme way to get past spdef rachi (twave it on the switch, switch out, tbolt as it wishes, charge on the protect turn, it does like 75ish), but it honestly turned out pretty good. It still doesn't 2hko bliss, but you do a ton of damage to every non ground type/jolt in the game, and you'll typically force them in, giving you a good shot to grass them (bc fat flygon is starting to get pretty rare these days).
Glalie @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Explosion
- Spikes
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Ice Beam
The key to using CB Glalie imo is using it on a fatter team to fake being aggressive so you can weather clear for suicune. HP Fight doesn't kill tar unless they are bulkless, but it does a shitton and tar will never switch out of glalie, meaning you'll trap it. This is a conglomeration of several different ideas: the first is my old jynx + zap weather clear team after Mcm told me I didn't really use dug, the second is I saw arctic and goofy cord a while ago use hp fighting glalie into dug and I think this is the best way to do it, and I saw ABR use wailord into dug on spikeless and I think glalie is better at it. Do note that if you use those boom spam + dug without skarm you must be careful against ninjask unironically, without roar cune and with milo (it's why my other cb gar lead version uses perish song > Dbond and milo > cune) you lose immediately to ninjask lead or anywhere else. Losing to ninjask immediately anywhere when you ladder is a no no.
Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Rain Dance / Encore / Fury Swipes (lol) / anything
- Focus Punch / Brick Break
I think Shadow Ball is mid on slaking. Even without pursuit support, the amount of times I want to actually click Shadow Ball hard reading the ghost is pretty rare. Double-Edge hits harder than super effective shadow ball on celebi. I liked what river did with encore, I think that's really effective. I threw rain dance on it bc the teams slaking finds itself on often are strapped for moveslots as is and slaking when it's about to die and walled without hard reads can just throw up rain dance if tar is dead. Also gives you something to do in front of protect
Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 140 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Bug]
- Aerial Ace
This is my spread on lead dug -- meant to survive meta non cb eq and lets you ko/live almost every tar hit except max spa ice beam. You live modest bliss ibeam 7/8 of the time. You're slow as shit, but I thought this was pretty effective except against faster lead dug :(
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
- Snatch
I am not claiming to have invented tox snatch bliss, but I wanted to focus it here bc I haven't seen it at the tour level in a while and wanted to explain my spread on bliss. I see when people rank bliss highly on the vr they always talk that tox is an option, but typically you only see tox on ice (bolt/fire/stoss) bliss or rarely double status. The key to snatch is to hide it right before you need it -- you can't snatch wish in gen 3, but you can snatch sub (I believe you take their hp iirc and make the sub, awesome), refresh, all set up moves, and rest. Snatching milo or pert's refresh is great. For rest, when you snatch rest not at full HP, you go to sleep and then they can rest next turn. try to heal up when cune is mid health and poisoned -- they typically will get greedy and try to cm a few times the first time instead of just resting.
i believe all bliss should be sped crept. On ice bliss I typically creep past min base 60 so to 157 or past tar to 160 speed. On bold bliss I speed creep to min speed dol. You can def go further but you really start to eat into ice power if you creep past skarm and bold's bulk. I like creeping bliss bc a lot of mons (fat off pert for example) creep to 150ish speed to outspeed bliss and you outspeed that. Can't tell you how many times I keep bliss alive at 10ish% bc I know I will outspeed their bliss and heal on them.
Weezing @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 24 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 228 Spe
Modest Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunderbolt
I explored weezing a lot. I think weez is good and bad -- it really only fits imo alongside agility meta, but you can pick your boom targets and still spread wisp well against tss, as switching into tox skarm is hard. Modest max has the same spa as min spa gar, so tbolt grass flame etc hit pretty hard. I like tbolt grass to prevent milo/pert from walling you all day. I also like speed creeping defensive rachi a lot.
Heracross @ Salac Berry
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Megahorn
- Focus Punch / Reversal
- Swords Dance
- Substitute / Endure
I think salac hera is fantastic on mixed offense, cm pass, any style without spikers. Hera is unmatched in its ability to just switch in an emergency on anything and come out on top. It's one reason I like jolly on it -- you switch into agility meta mash for example, survive, and then outspeed and megahorn. Same thing for dd tar. That's its niche over medicham in my opinion, as medi can't survive those hits nor does medi have the instant nuke of megahorn. I think playing it like this instead of sweeping helps mean you only have to hit one or two megahorns instead of chaining them for a sweep. I think hera should almost always have salac, as cb, lefties sd imo don't have enough upside in a metagame infested with dug. I don't like dropping sd (being in perfect position and being unable to ohko like an aero is so sad) and i don't like rock slide, simply bc unless you have mag, you don't take enough advantage early in the game and mag offense struggles to fit hera imo. I do like reversal outside of like dug cheese, as hera often ends up at low health and reversal hits pretty hard even at like 20% and can't miss.
Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Def / 224 SpA / 8 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hypnosis / Rain Dance
- Recover
Some people talking about offmilo, I think this is the best spread on it. I like still having max defense, as without investment, milo is still pretty frail physically. You still want to switch in on pert and take on aero in an emergency. You still have good special bulk, although be careful against moltres with this. Really nice pivot on mag offense and mixed offense, who often hate mixmence. I don't think the status is necessary, but it is really nice to have, weather clear is cool.
) have been an important new wrinkle on the concept, and I think that's probably the place where you can expect to see the most interesting ideas, for the simple fact that double-Spin better supports Suicune and and Forre with boom, HP Fire, Counter, or HP Ghost supports other odd slots.
