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Been thinking about this project a lot and I have a bit to say regarding certain rules.
Why just a Hall of Fame for the top 100?
Don't get me wrong I'm not against the idea as it encourages the use of dark horses higher in the ladder but I think the dark horse project shouldn't be so demanding of a user. It is pretty certain most players will not update their posts with experiences unless they consider the challenge over therefore by making achievement only top 100 on the ladder you make it the standard for when a challenge is considered over and a person can post their experiences. A dark horse ladder run should have a ranking system (points assigned to each rank) with a definitive start and end point having the lowest ranking being achievable to most players, this way a player can feel encouraged to post their experiences post dark horse project while getting some recognition for participating in the project with the project resetting every month with new usage stats. Some ways of doing this would be with ELO setting rankings (1600-1650 for lowest rank seems fair while the highest rank being around the top 100 on the ladder). My personal preference is actually for Ashley11's system in the little cup dark horse project: achieving a certain GXE within a certain number of matches as not only is this easy to tell but it keeps each challenge relatively quick with many "end points". While the current # on the LCDHP is 25 matches since lower OU is filled with more derps it is reasonable to adjust the GXE standard and the number of matches for OU. Also by setting the standards lower it would be easier to implement my next suggestion.
Why is the minimum only 1 Dark Horse?
This one is more opinion but I feel that only using 1 dark horse is not in the spirit of the project as your dark horse is much more likely to get overshadowed by the regular OU Mons on your team. With 2 dark horses a team actually has to have synergy and has to use the dark horses to fulfill vital roles on a team. For instance a team using HO and one dark horse can use bisharp, deoxys, thundurus, Balloon Aegislash and a hazard remover then just throw in a dark horse with some decent synergy. The team doesn't play any different from normal HO as all the roles needed can be preformed by OU mons and the dark horse doesn't need to fulfill a role. With 2 dark horses at least one dark horse must fulfill a role nessacary to the teams play style and find a niche usually reserved for a regular OU mon which is what the dark horse project is all about.
Sorry if this sounds overly critical, but I love this project and would hate to have it not function as intended.
TL;DR: The achievement in the dark horse project should be easier as the current ones intimidate new users and don't have a definitive end. The minimum for dark horses should be 2 as it ensures that the dark horses perform a real role on the team as 5 OU mons can cover all roles a team needs making your dark horses less important.
I think you have a valid point with having a more accessible hall of fame, to encourage more users to post about their dark horse. I also think people need to talk about why people are choosing their dark horses, what kind of teams they're in, and whether they're the star of the show or the supporters, all in their registration post. I'll update the OP with both changes. I think we should encourage multiple dark horses, but honestly I'm happy if even one is used, and as you can see, many people are being adventurous and chosing multiple dark horses. Thanks for your suggestions.
Pokemon Showdown! Username: precious and grace
Current rank: 1861 (47 for 6)
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Mega Heracross and Shuckle
Mega Heracross is a huge wallbreaking threat but its low speed and competition with other megas leaves it at less than 4% usage. In theory by combining it with a lead Shuckle with Sticky Web and Stealth Rock onto a hyper offense team, both pokemon should have a chance to shine.
Laddered up a bit just now and am done for the night so I can give a bit of feedback so far. The team is 27 for 2 so it is at least on par with my other teams against the low ladder. Shuckle is pretty reliable at setting up both Sticky Web and Stealth Rock with Mental Herb and huge bulk, and it can deter set up sufficiently with Encore and Infestation to deal a bit of damage. Sticky web is good if I can keep it down and the opponent doesn't have too many ground immune pokemon. Unfortunately a lot of offensive pokemon are immune to sticky web so I've been left floundering a few times against faster foes.
Mega Heracross is as good as I remember, breaking apart defensive teams and one shotting a lot of offensive pokemon. Its really shining when Sticky Web is up as it can now just blast past its usual checks like Keldeo. Currently using Jolly 4 attacks but I may use Adamant if I don't run into good reasons not to.
Time will tell if the team is viable as I reach 1700+ and people know how to stop Shuckle etc.
So I reached top 100 easily enough barring some infuriating hax, ladder decay on ps is pretty harsh to people if they don't play daily.
Heracross @ Heracronite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Pin Missile
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
Shuckle @ Mental Herb
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Bold Nature
- Sticky Web
- Stealth Rock
- Encore
- Infestation
Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Wild Charge
- Knock Off
- Fly
- Bulk Up
Aegislash @ Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Iron Head
- Sacred Sword
- King's Shield
Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Tomb
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 30 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 SDef
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Extrasensory
I'm pleasantly surprised with Shuckle's performance. It pulled its weight in every match and the support it provides was really helpful for the team I threw together. By backing it with balloon Aegislash and Defiant Thundurus the opponent has a hard time removing the hazards. Mega Heracross wrecks with Sticky Web up and Rock Blast auto wins against baton pass teams. Sash Breloom and Greninja were added to provide revenge killing and more speed for the threats that Sticky Web can't catch - Lati@s and Thundurus mainly.
Overall I'm glad I tried this, Shuckle in particular may find its way on to my teams over the standard Deoxys-D.
As ratchet has explained, once you update your reasoning bout why you chose who you have, then I will update it accordingly. I will do so once I get home and all along with mine.
I'd also think that it would be nice to hear how some of y'all are doing with your teams. Are they working well or what's changed is what id like to know.
Pokemon Showdown! Username: the second kira Prior Hall of Fame Standing: 1000 Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Ludicolo, Kabutops, Politoed
I like these Pokemon, and rain hyper offense is a criminally underused playstyle (according to the usage statistics). I'd expect all three of these Pokemon to pull their weight when placed under the right conditions. Naturally, Politoed's Drizzle will provide the stage for which Kabutops and Ludicolo can shine on, and thanks to Politoed's respectable bulk, it can come in and set rain multiple times through the battle. The Drizzle boost to Water-type moves also assures that Politoed will never be dead weight.
Pokemon Showdown! Username: the second kira Prior Hall of Fame Standing: 1000 Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Ludicolo, Kabutops, Politoed
I like these Pokemon, and rain hyper offense is a criminally underused playstyle (according to the usage statistics). I'd expect all three of these Pokemon to pull their weight when placed under the right conditions. Naturally, Politoed's Drizzle will provide the stage for which Kabutops and Ludicolo can shine on, and thanks to Politoed's respectable bulk, it can come in and set rain multiple times through the battle. The Drizzle boost to Water-type moves also assures that Politoed will never be dead weight.
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Nene king
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: http://gyazo.com/6e8c48d88089c6161bb3d63dce0d7675 1000
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Magnezone, Staraptor
Team: http://pastebin.com/JWYxvq7E I don't know how to use hide tags lol. Please help me adjust this team because I'm not sure how to make it better. Thanks!
I was testing on my main alt and I have to say, Choice Band Staraptor is pretty powerful. I only lost like one game so far during my testing session and that was because of pure and utter hax. Still, idk if this team is good or not so I sent the pastebin to ask for help. Any help would be appreciated! :]
Explanation of team: So the sets for the Dark Horses are in the pastebin. Basically I want this team to be a double bird team with Magnezone to trap steels who threaten double bird cores. Conkeldurr is there because I needed a bulky tank that could take on Heatran and Rotom-Wash. Latios is obviously there for Defog support, but does massive damage with Life Orb. I put Choice Scarf Keldeo because my team is pretty slow and I felt like Choice Scarf Keldeo would be a good option for a scarfer since I had nothing to hit mons like Hippowdon. The double bird core consists of Staraptor and Mega-Pinsir. The core is pretty simple, Choice Band Staraptor weakens things so that Mega-Pinsir can clean up. I run Feint over Quick Attack on Mega-Pinsir to negate Protect and because I've never tried it on Mega-Pinsir. I'm pretty sure I shouldn't need to explain the rest of the moves on Pinsir or any of the moves on Staraptor because they're pretty standard. Hope this explanation will do!
All those who have posted have been edited in to the registry. To those that have put forth explanation, some of it is very acceptable (the one above me using Magnezone for birds like it did for Dragons is an enjoyable one I find) and hope the ladder experiences are going well!
Pokemon Showdown! Username: the second kira Prior Hall of Fame Standing: 1000 Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Ludicolo, Kabutops, Politoed
I like these Pokemon, and rain hyper offense is a criminally underused playstyle (according to the usage statistics). I'd expect all three of these Pokemon to pull their weight when placed under the right conditions. Naturally, Politoed's Drizzle will provide the stage for which Kabutops and Ludicolo can shine on, and thanks to Politoed's respectable bulk, it can come in and set rain multiple times through the battle. The Drizzle boost to Water-type moves also assures that Politoed will never be dead weight.
I gotta second this. Swift Swimmers like Kingdra, Kabutops and Ludicolo are absurdly powerful in rain and they can rip through offensive and balanced teams like they're nothing. Stall teams, especially w/ Ferrothorn are a bitch though but they can be beaten.
I don't have time right now to ladder up another account but the entirety of my team, bar Mawile, is under 4% usage (Kabutops/Kingdra/Politoed/Tornadus-I/Chesnaught.) So yeah if you want to run a "Dark Horse" team try rain.
All those who have posted have been edited in to the registry. To those that have put forth explanation, some of it is very acceptable (the one above me using Magnezone for birds like it did for Dragons is an enjoyable one I find) and hope the ladder experiences are going well!
I gotta second this. Swift Swimmers like Kingdra, Kabutops and Ludicolo are absurdly powerful in rain and they can rip through offensive and balanced teams like they're nothing. Stall teams, especially w/ Ferrothorn are a bitch though but they can be beaten.
I don't have time right now to ladder up another account but the entirety of my team, bar Mawile, is under 4% usage (Kabutops/Kingdra/Politoed/Tornadus-I/Chesnaught.) So yeah if you want to run a "Dark Horse" team try rain.
Although rain is an excellent playstyle, the one big issue I find when laddering with it is that it's a magnet for hax - it has a lot of crucial Hydro Pumps/Stone Edges that absolutely have to hit because they're often coming from mons that are not very bulky or have poor defensive typing. It's excellent if you hit all your stuff but if Kabutops misses one crucial Stone Edge or something you're often in trouble. General hyperoffense teams tend to have less of a problem with this as they don't often have a Stone Edge mon, plus it tends to use inaccurate moves more to break stall where missing is not as big a catastrophe (Landorus missing Focus Blast on Skarmory, for example).
I won't deny it's a very strong team archetype though, Kabutops in rain is devastating if you can break stuff like Megasaur and Ferrothorn.
Pokemon Showdown! Username: GloriousGore
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: none
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Gothitelle
Explanation of Dark Horse(s)
Well, I had Charizard-X as my sweeper. So I decided I need to trap Pokemon that would be troublesome to achieve the sweep such as Quagsire, so I picked Gothitelle. It also has good Special stats that could also potentially double as my Special Attacker. I heard it could dismantle damned stall cores.
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Dasgilichance
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: nope
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Cloyster, Volcarona
Explanation of Dark Horse(s)
I love Cloyster for the un-mitigated havoc you can cause teams with a well timed shell smash, as well as the capability (even at -1!) to tank M-pinsir and ko back.
Volcarona is my little firebug, capable of taking a heavy attack, setting up a couple quiver dances and then sweeping an unprepared team.
I have to agree with whoever said 4% was too high. A lot of the pokemon used are already well respected threats in OU (Volcarona, Kabutops, Goth, Politoed, Starraptor). Just under 4%, you see them 1 per 20 battles I believe. All things considered, that's not that low of a rate. Hell, some of the really fantastic teams in the RMT already run these "Dark Horse" threats, but really I can't consider something like Goth (especially since it's BL) a 'dark horse' anything.
Pokemon Showdown! Username: PantingCrobat
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Landorus-I, Quagsire, Zapdos, Blastoise, Porygon2, Diggersby
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): I was already playing a BL only OU team, so I somehow found this(looking for Porygon-Z lol) and decided to join with something all Dark Horses
Landorus-I: It hurts. I have experience with Nidoqueen, so this is just overkill compared to Nidoqueen.
Quagsire: Unaware screws all setups possible, other than stored power.
Zapdos: I personally love Zapdos and think it kinda needs more love.
Blastoise: Dunno, never used Blastoise-Mega, so this is more of a test.
Porygon2: I love the pory line and I needed another tank so hey look it's an eviolite user who's NOT chansey.
Diggersby: I was using this on my BL team and it won me games due to it being unexpectedly fast.
I have to agree with whoever said 4% was too high. A lot of the pokemon used are already well respected threats in OU (Volcarona, Kabutops, Goth, Politoed, Starraptor). Just under 4%, you see them 1 per 20 battles I believe. All things considered, that's not that low of a rate. Hell, some of the really fantastic teams in the RMT already run these "Dark Horse" threats, but really I can't consider something like Goth (especially since it's BL) a 'dark horse' anything.
I definately consider Volcorona, and possibly Kabutops dark horses, but I can understand where you're coming from. At this point, it's too late to change the cut off as people have already started laddering, but perhaps I'll change the cutoff later. If I change the cut off later it will probably be at 3%, which omits Alakazam, Manectric, Gardevoir, Quagsire, Vaporeon, Smeargle, Scoliopede, Goodra, and Medicham.
Pokemon Showdown! Username: PantingCrobat
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Landorus-I, Quagsire, Zapdos, Blastoise, Porygon2, Diggersby
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): I was already playing a BL only OU team, so I somehow found this(looking for Porygon-Z lol) and decided to join with something all Dark Horses
Landorus-I: It hurts. I have experience with Nidoqueen, so this is just overkill compared to Nidoqueen.
Quagsire: Unaware screws all setups possible, other than stored power.
Zapdos: I personally love Zapdos and think it kinda needs more love.
Blastoise: Dunno, never used Blastoise-Mega, so this is more of a test.
Porygon2: I love the pory line and I needed another tank so hey look it's an eviolite user who's NOT chansey.
Diggersby: I was using this on my BL team and it won me games due to it being unexpectedly fast.
I definately consider Volcorona, and possibly Kabutops dark horses, but I can understand where you're coming from. At this point, it's too late to change the cut off as people have already started laddering, but perhaps I'll change the cutoff later. If I change the cut off later it will probably be at 3%, which omits Alakazam, Manectric, Gardevoir, Quagsire, Vaporeon, Smeargle, Scoliopede, Goodra, and Medicham.
If you are ever gonna lower the cutoff, allowing any pokemon below OU cutoff would be best imo.
Also, i am waiting for the usage stats of April, before choosing my dark horse and signing up. I don't like to be screwed. :-P
I see, but I dont get what you mean by Salamence lol. When I checked it said Landorus, it said it was 2.153% (it still says that lol) Zapdos says 2.869%. Am I reading the wrong place for those 2? Just while writing this, I figured it out :P Never mindddd.
Since, I must redo two of them:
Sableye: My favorite UU pokemon of all time. He's such a prankster and wins me many fights :D
Staraptor: I didn't really think I needed another Sp. Atker (AKA Alakazam) so I decided to go with a fast Physical Attacker.
Therefore team now is:
Sableye
Staraptor
Quagsire
Blastoise
Porygon2
Diggersby
I see, but I dont get what you mean by Salamence lol. When I checked it said Landorus, it said it was 2.153% (it still says that lol) Zapdos says 2.869%. Am I reading the wrong place for those 2? Just while writing this, I figured it out :P Never mindddd.
Since, I must redo two of them:
Sableye: My favorite UU pokemon of all time. He's such a prankster and wins me many fights :D
Staraptor: I didn't really think I needed another Sp. Atker (AKA Alakazam) so I decided to go with a fast Physical Attacker.
Therefore team now is:
Sableye
Staraptor
Quagsire
Blastoise
Porygon2
Diggersby
You can use non dark horse pokemon such as Landorus-I and Zapdos, I was saying that they're not considered the dark horses of your team. You're actually only required to have one at the moment, though at least two is highly encouraged. Salemance is the guy in charge of registration. Re-read the OP more carefully to get a better idea.
Yah, sorry was working with animals all day and only now just got home.
Two teams for this, while not stated, are nice to abuse, as showing that you can utilize even more teams with different dark horses is quite nice. I will be updating that shortly along with some of the new people who wished to register. Thanks for the question
Edit: Currently at 1656, plan on laddering more but will post this here for now.
Shedinja is unfortunately pretty hit or miss in OU. I have no problem keeping hazards off the field, but the presence of Tyranitar on a lot of teams means Sheddy is dead weight until I can wear that fucker down. It really sucks that 2 of the best things to switch Shedinja in on (Landorus and Keldeo) are usually paired with Tyranitar.
That said, he has his advantages. He's not prepared for at all so you can run into teams where half the team can't touch you. Basically, kill the other 3 and you win. Baton pass can't touch you at all either.
Overall fun to use. Most likely too inconsistent to reach #1 on the ladder with, but if you want a challenge go ahead and use him.
Best part of Shedinja is you auto win vs any baton pass team that doesn't have an attacking mega Absol. Which is almost all of them.
Edit: I would like to amend this comment. You CAN lose vs. BP teams that have roar Zapdos thanks to pressure stalling your PP and roar preventing you from matching the boosts. Teams that lack Zapdos are laughably easy, however.
