The Cult™
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A warm welcome my fellow hardstuck and skill lacking player.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are you sick and tired of being down in the trenches of 1300s and below?
Do you have a severe lack of brain capacity, but goals of a high achiever?
Most importantly, do you wish to worship Satan in all of his unholy doing?
Then this is the place for you! Welcome to "The Cult™", also known as "Satanic HO™".
First and foremost, how did the cult form?
One dark day, after trying to build an honest bulky offense team and getting owned by WaterPon one too many times, dropping during testing from 1600 to 1300, honest me decided that it was time to leave any trace of light behind within this unholy generation of Pokemon.
So after throwing it all away and starting a new, it dawned on me.
I had to become satanic.
After surfing the internet for a while, I have stumbled upon a video by a content creator I admire a lot, Pinkacross.
Pinkacross video on
is one that piqued my interest, as I too had strong opinions on that Pokemon, in spite of never using it myself.While during the video there have been many mentions of many sets, I found myself wondering, "just how far could one
set be pushed? How greedy and Satanic could one get behind that smile?"So it had begun, the building of the possibly most evil
set in the history of Pokemon, the birth of "Satan".The result? I had gone from 1300s as "playtesting" to #81 with 1867 before I could notice. Not just is this the first time I had entered T500, let alone T100, but I beat many formidable opponents on my way there.
Now, let me introduce all of you to the members of "The Cult".
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The Participants
I welcome you,
The Advocate (Glimmora) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Power Gem
- Energy Ball
- Mud Shot
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Power Gem
- Energy Ball
- Mud Shot
The Advocate is the primary recruitment force of The Cult, she is on the street, in brothels, the media, the lobbies.
You can never avoid her.
She is the primary lead character of The Cult, utilizing her special skills to disrupt and take out, even if it is at the stake of her life.
If it is for The Cult, then she is glad to be a sacrifice.
She is equipped for every situation.
A lead
or 
? The Modest combination of Mud Shot and Energy Ball or Power Gem will make quick work of either of them.It does not need to be the fastest, if it can hold you down and restrict you enough.
The worst lead it could see is a
or 
, but even those are not a worry to The Advocate.Do not be afraid to sacrifice her either, she loves the pain.
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Who could corrupt such a virtuous soul for such corrupt cause? It is;
The Ogerponzi (Ogerpon-Wellspring) (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- Horn Leech
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- Horn Leech
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Ogerponzi has built a following for The Cult, with her strong, seductive presence, alongside the pressure she excerpts, she is a thread to every well composed society.
Insidious is what describes this little creature best, even if she may be part of an evil machine that thrives on chaos, she is composed and patient.
Now, this might sound contradictive, as you find yourself asking "What about Swords Dance? What about Power Whip?" The answer to those foolish questions is simple; consistency.
A steadily growing pyramid will reach the heavens, but if the voice on top, the engineer, crumbles, so will the very foundation.
Ogerponzi is what is keeping this pyramid together, especially in the face of stall.
Stall is a famously bad matchup for hyper offense, but The Cult has infiltrated even those corners of society.
We know the matchup inside out, so we know how to slowly tear it apart, how to reliably break past it and win at its own game.
The first secret lies in the combination of Horn Leech, Knock Off and U-Turn, you are never afraid to utilize them into any Stall matchup, especially not Horn Leech and U-Turn, as both are highly reliable and one of them recovers the accumulated chip over time, draining your enemy where it hurts.
Some might argue that Swords Dance over U-Turn is better, but from my testing I have only missed Swords Dance about twice, and it mattered only once into a stall team that has been reconfigured after matching up into The Cult two times.
So hold together the pyramid, we shall expand! Your sacrifice and contribution will be utmost appreciated in "The Cult™".
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In a perfect world, everyone would see the truth.
Everyone would follow The Cult, witness its perfection.
But unfortunately, we live in a society, in which us honest people are ridiculed, mocked, shunned, and bullied for simply choosing to undertake the true faith, which requires little thinking, little to none adaptation and JUST AN OUNCE (in case you can’t tell, that is an understatement) less brainpower than what is required by your typical Pokemon team.
And so they oppose us, in their understanding nature. How predictable.
Luckily enough, their efforts, even if many, are rendered useless. This is all thanks to
The Witch (Hatterene) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Psychic Noise
- Mystical Fire
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Psychic Noise
- Mystical Fire
The Witch is built to last, no matter how harsh worship may get.
She is devoted in faith, similar to The Advocate, yet she is much more well-versed in the mystic arts.
Opposition in the face of The Witch is useless, sticks and stones may be thrown, but karma will find its way around to favor The Cult.
Draining Kiss and Psychic Noise are consistent means to hurt Stall, even in the face of
or 
.Calm Mind and Mystical Fire allow you to consistently take on other Witches or the Golden Advocate, even if neither of them are particular threats.
, 
, , and so many more shudder in the face of her, in the case of it even extends to the more offensive Swords Dance variants, as the recovery and damage output proves to be simply too much to handle.So stand strong in the face of any adversity, allow them to hurt using the very weapons they wanted to muster up against you.
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Let them grow weak, weary, just to eventually kneel in the face of
The Idol (Iron Moth) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 124 Def / 132 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- Dazzling Gleam
- Substitute
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 124 Def / 132 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- Dazzling Gleam
- Substitute
Its disgraceful Dance in the flame allows it to grow ever stronger, many times outpacing would be checks such as
and potentially winning outright, if The Idol blesses you with its favor.With a ridiculous amount of speed, and the force to back up the fragility, it is a truly terrifying entity, deserving of the anxiety it induces.
Sludge Wave is a strong Stab move, that potentially allows it to outright OHKO opposing
, even without any boosts. If it does end up forcing a Tera, then it is all the better.Dazzling Gleam in conjunction with Substitute and Tera Fairy are amazing to devastate
and its physical counterpart 
, allowing scouts, potential OHKOs and more chances to set up.The defensive flip into a psychic neutral Fairy can help beating
more conistently, if a sweep seems reasonable. Though please only do so if you are certain that your damage output is high enough with enough accumulated chip.Otherwise, The Idol will not forgive you.
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As we draw near, we shall present you with the highest being amongst The Cult,
Satan (Dragonite) (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Spinner
- Earthquake
- Encore
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Spinner
- Earthquake
- Encore
This is truly the most despicable creature that I have ever had the pleasure of interacting with.
His charisma, his smile, the warmth in his cold "Spin", the way he "Dances", when he makes the "Earth quake" and best of all the "Encore".
He is the answer to everything, he is what breaks the unbreakable, shakes the unshakable, touches the untouchable, it's Satan baby.
Via Multiscale Satan can take any damage just once, with only a few minor exceptions like
, though there is no need to take that damage.There are only a very few ways you will have hazards on your site of the battlefield, the most common being
with Court Change, but this actually is perfect.Satan is not like the other
that are afraid of Will-O-Wisp, Thunderwave or even Dragon Darts, Satan is special.Thanks to the
Satan is holding, it is allowed to take any status effect once, allowing for many sequences that otherwise are ludicrous.A
is your perfect opportunity to set up.You use Dragon Dance on its Will-O-Wisp, allowing you to set up unpunished and getting a free kill via Earthquake, or using two Dragon Dance on a Court Change followed by a Will-O-Wisp. At that point the game usually is over already.
"What about
?" you might ask, well fellow simpleton, do not be afraid.Usually you will sack some Pokemon and then have the opportunity to bring in Satan.
Satan will then proceed to dance once, which is inviting
in, but at that point it is too late already.You Dance again and live Dragon Darts, or eat your Lum Berry after a Will-O-Wisp, just to kill it with Ice Spinner the following turn, as you outspeed it.
Alternatively you can also just outright use Ice Spinner, as that is making a Tera to try for another Will-O-Wisp less likely.
Ice Spinner and Earthquake are (from my testing) the ideal moves, as you hit everything grounded via Earthquake and anything flying is hurting from Ice Spinner.
On rare occasions it will help with terrain removal too.
As for Encore, it is the ultimate set up extension, you can easily remove checks such as Iron Defense
, even if that usually results in you dying to the 
chip. I have faced Cosmic Power Unaware
too, but you will statistically beat it via crit. Now, it is not the most consistent way, but probability wise you are more likely to crit than not.The last big question to this satanic contraption, why tera Ghost?
Ghost is a pretty solid neutral typing, allowing you to take neutral damage from most sources, but this is not where it accelerates.
Encoring a
into Rapid Spin after you tera Ghost and Dragon Dance can mean a game loss on the spot. The same goes for any Extreme Speed users that want to break Multiscale, or even 
that go for Body Press/Close Combat.I am not exaggerating when I am saying that this, truly, is Satan.
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At last, here is the man behind all of this. The glue, the ultimate physical threat,
The Leader (Kingambit) (F) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Kowtow Cleave
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Kowtow Cleave
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
Now, while Satan is the object of worship,
is the one pulling the strings.His Black Glasses too tough, his Punch too Sucker, his Head too Iron, and his Cleave is Kowing.
They want to see him dead, they persecute, they counter, they fright.
But in the face of his Swords Dancing, they are all silent, as they can do naught, but watch in horror.
If a stall player ever believes themselves to have won, remind them that Black Glasses fallen 5
is 252+ Atk Black Glasses Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 186-219 (36.9 - 43.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
.Tera Fire is the
of , while it has not as many defensive benefits as other options, we are playing HO at the end of the day and must somehow still get the damage done.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matchups
Now as for matchups, I do not think that there are any matchups that are unwinnable for the team. None.The Cult is a strong force that must be recognized and respected, however, there are certain cores that prove themselves to be more difficult than others.
The most prominent being
. is inviting in, but the follow up switch to can be quite devastating. Usually
cores get worn down by fairly easily, but the is quite challenging.The only singular Pokemon that genuinely is trouble is
, as you need to preserve 
to deal with it efficiently.After its booster has run out, it is pretty much dead though.
As for
, it is much less of a threat thanks to Satan being around.Be wary of Nasty Plot Focus-Blast
though... you need /
to beat it.The best gameplan for the team usually is to just punch holes and take advantage of the opportunities granted via U-Turn, Encore, Magic Bounces, etc.
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Replay Dump
The replays will be from varying elo, going from early test variations of the team, over to the later/final iteration of the team.As a last statement for this section, I should note that there have been many more stall games, I just do not keep them around as those mostly have been up against players from the Stall Discord (SupaGMoney) and I would rather not use those.
The only match into stall that I have lost is into the reworked version of the reworked version of
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Last Words
Wow, this team has been a journey.
Going from playtesting, to T500 for the first time, to T100 is... not something I expected.
Especially since T500 seemed like such an unreachable goal for so long, yet I did it.
Using a team I have built myself and am so proud of means a lot to me, so I am all the more proud to present it on Smogon to the community.
I want to give a shoutout to the content creators that have drawn me into competitive Pokemon with their amazing contributions to the community.
PokeaimMD is one of the first that comes to mind, not just as somebody I actually beat once on AAA NatDex, but also as one of the first creators I have had the pleasure of watching.
Shortly after it was Blunder who I met through his content, so my shoutout goes to the Agency, including Suave who is a super cool guy and Sama as one of the genuinely funniest people ever.
(Much love Sama)
Most importantly, the man who I have to thank for the concept in the first place, Pinkacross. Thank you for the amazing content, resources, ideas and discussions.
If Mr Aim, Blunder, Suave or Sama decide to use my team in any of their videos, I would feel utmost honored.
So if you could get this to any, or as many as possible, of them, then I would be grateful.
Shoutouts to the Big Stall Discord too, there are amazing people on there that I have made some good friendships with, so a special shoutout to SupaGMoney and Deli/Shblov for being genuine, kind and funny people to interact with.
At last, thank you dear reader for sticking through all of this and enjoying, as well as hopefully joining, The Cult™, a team that has proven to me, that there is so much more to my own abilities.
In teambuilding and playing.
Much love!
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reliably once Waterpon is down/heavily chipped?