Hey everyone, I've been using this team for a couple of weeks to quite some success and since I'm starting to see it pop up now and again thanks to some french youtuber that got it somehow (glad to see it being used tho!) I figured I'd share the team for everyone to use and change as they please. This is a very fun but very volatile team to use and I think it encapsulates what Hyper Offense is all about. It got me to #29 as Tarrigo, and my buddy beatiful to #2!
As far as teambuilding goes, I wanted to build with Lucario, who I think is very underrated, specially in the Darmanitan meta. Lucario is able to find setup opportunities in Dark types such as Mandibuzz, Bisharp and Hydreigon and there are very few things on this meta who can take +2 CC or outspeed and not die to Bullet Punch. At first I decided to partner him up with fellow DPP staple Shuca Berry DD Tar, who in theory could force Dugtrio to break its sash, giving Lucario an easier time breaking fat teams who rely on duggy.
I figured the best way to use it would be Hyper Offense, so I quickly partnered him up with pseudo Deoxys D Mew, Bisharp and Air Balloon Aegislash. These guys make sure that hazards stay up and punish hazard removal attempts aside from Cinderace's Court Change. I didn't know what to put last so I went for DD Gyara as kind of a courtesy water resist.
In testing, the team did decently well, but I kept finding myself wishing for more inmediate power against fat stuff. Gyarados was the weak link and I decided to go for another fan-favorite for offensive teams in SD LO Crawdaunt, in order to punish the passive water resists people are using to counter Dracovish.
As I kept testing I noticed I didn't really need Shuca Tar to deal with Duggy, as the team had very organically developed into a team full of priority mons that forced in dugtrio, and since Ttar was becoming just a sac the more games I tested and I had an extremely noticeable Scarf Vish weakness, I decided to swap DD Ttar for DD Dragapult, and boy oh boy, this thing puts in work!
(couldn't find him in a smaller size ;_;)
Now let's take a look at the squad!
Mew @ Red Card
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt / Magic Coat
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Skill Swap / Self-Destruct
Mew getting Spikes is amazing and I'm glad to be seeing more suicide lead Mews on the ladder. This is, in essence, Deoxys-D from early XY with access to Self-Destruct if you want. The set has many variations that make some matchups better or worse. For example, Sticky Web HO is very hard for me to beat if I'm not packing Magic Coat to bounce the webs back, but on the other hand lacking taunt makes you vulnerable to early set up from mons like DD Pult or Nasty Plot Rotom. Red Card is a great item for Mew, when Darm was around a frequent sequence would be Stealth Rock as they U-Turn and get Red Carded into an inconvenient mon as I get a Spike and die. That's as ideal as it gets. With Darmanitan gone I'd consider Mental Herb > Red Card to help against fast Taunt users such as Cinderace.
Max Speed to at least tie opposing Mew and outspeed most of the tier, and Max HP allows to survive a plethora of hits, including but not limited to Scarf Darm's U-Turn, Specs Shadow Ball from Pult, Dark Pulse from Hydreigon and many many more, which works great with Red Card.
Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
I've had my eye on SD LO Lucario since the start of this generation because of the generally slower metagame and the lack of other fast hard-hitting Fighting types. Lucario gets many set up opportunities on things like choice locked or Sub NP Hydreigon, Knock Off Mandibuzz, Bisharp, Ferrothorn and generally anything that's threatened to switch out. Lucario can either sweep or weaken things to support my other sweepers in the back.
The biggest question is Adamant or Jolly. Adamant guarantees various OHKOs after a single round of Stealth Rocks on things like Seismitoad and Corviknight and guarantees the Bullet Punch OHKO against Darm after rocks. Now that Darm is banned, I think Jolly is better overall in order to get the jump on Mold Breaker Drill and the fast Rotom Appliances. SD and Close Combat are a deadly combo as always, while Bullet Punch lets Lucario sweep through Gengar and Dragapult after a bit of chip. Earthquake is probably the odd one out in this set but I think it's the best coverage option for this team, if not for Lucario in general. Earthquake lets Lucario KO Toxapex at +2 after rocks, which is huge since Toxapex is many people's initial switch in into this thing, and of course EQ still hits Aegislash and it even avoids the King's Shield mind games. Overall a fun and effective mon!
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Throat Chop
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
Bisharp got a huge nerf this generation in the loss of Knock Off, but I thought it was still worth using thanks to its niche of resisting Dragapult and Hydreigon's dual stab and being an excellent abuser of Defiant. Bisharp lacks the power to actually KO Corviknight and Mandibuzz at +2, but if played correctly it severely weaken said mons in order tu pull a sweep with some of out later guys, specially Dragapult!. The moveset is straightforward so I don't have that much to say about him. I'm thinking about going Adamant > Jolly for the extra power which can KO some Corviknights at +2, but the extra speed is nice to outspeed Toxtricity and Dracozolt/Vish.
Aegislash @ Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance
It's funny how this generation most Aegislash are dropping King's Shield in order to abuse Aegislash's offensive capabilities, and this set is no exception. Aegislash's primary function is as one of the most reliable spinblockers while holding the Air Balloon and an excellent offensive partner for the team. I can't count how many teams I've switched this thing into drill and KO'd with CC as they break my balloon with Iron Head. Of course, you can always spinblock with the other ghost on the team if you feel like Aegi's health will be important or if you think your opponent already knows the tech. Either way, this set is fairly straightforward. Aegi's natural bulk allows many set up opportunities and the combination of CC, Iron Head and Shadow Sneak is extremely hard to deal with late game. I go for max speed to outspeed most Clefable, which is extremely important to avoid them KOing with their strong LO Flamethrower. You also outspeed Sylveon, Conkeldurr, very defensive Rotom, Corviknight, many Tyranitar, Adamant Crawdaunt and just all those mons hovering around 200 speed. I'm very happy with this guy and it's a staple of the team!
Crawdaunt @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Crabhammer
- Aqua Jet
- Swords Dance
Crawdaunt is the definition of wallbreaking. With its strong Adaptability attacks, it gives the team much needed inmediate power to break through tougher defensive cores. Crawdaunt finds various opportunities to come in for a Strong Knock Off, specially on passive water types that are forced to heal. Crawdaunt of course is another mon that "resists" Dragapult's Shadow Ball, which is useful and does come in handy, although I wouldn't switch it in most of the time. Crawdaunt may be a wallbreker but SD allows it to transform into a deadly sweeper if the opponent feels to comfortable healing or if a switch out is telegraphed.
While Crawdaunt faces competition from Dracovish I think he's got its own spice with access to SD and the ability to break through the water resists that plague the tier right now. Crawdaunt is a great mon right now, able to do work against all kinds of teams, including offense thanks to its strong priority Aqua Jet!
Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Dragon Dance
Let's talk about this mon, while this set is not nearly as popular as Specs or Sub Hex don't let that fool you, this set can be quite deadly under the right circumstances. Substitute allows Dragapult to dodge status and ease prediction. Dragon Dance allows Dragapult to become faster than everything outside of Rain Barraskweda and don't forget: Dragapult has quite a high attack stat, as opposed to its ok Special Attack. Dragon Darts is a strong STAB move, able to break through cheeky Focus Sash mons. Lastly, Phantom Force works great in conjunction to Leftovers, as you can use it strategically to get yourself out of range of certain attacks, such as Aegislash's Shadow Sneak or Cinderace's Sucker Punch and the fact that it breaks protection means you can't be trolled by the plethora of scouting this generation.
In conjunction with Aegislash, we have a nice little ghost spam core that works wonders. Very often you will be able to switch gameplans mid game from breaking with Aegislash and sweeping with Pult to the reverse!. This mon is also great for the team, as it alleviates the Dracovish weakness by outspeeding and threatening the KO, therefore making it take hazard's damage and putting it in range of Bisharp's Sucker Punch or +2 Sneak.
Of course, this set literally can't beat cores of Fairy + Normal such as Snorlax + Sylveon unless your opponent misplays, so it's important to let the rest of the team pressure those mons for you before trying to set up. Overall this mon has worked great for me and I hope it does for you too!
As far as threats go, I think these guys give me the most trouble
Surprisingly enough, Court Change is not the biggest deal in the world for this team, since I'm kind of ok with trading rocks with this thing and forgoing Spikes so they don't get CG'd. Court Change by itself would be fine, but coupled with this thing's ability to outspeed most of my team and resisting Lucario's Bullet Punch makes this thing a menace and always hard to beat.
Or more specifically, Sticky Web HO. While Bisharp gets a boost from Sticky Web, it's often not enough to compensate the huge loss of speed, as most of my team is grounded and the one guy who isn't is slow as balls. I think Magic Coat > Taunt on Mew can alleaviate this weakness, but the loss of Taunt is noticeable in other matchups.
This freaking guy... he is faster than most of the team and resists 2/4 of my priorities (actually inmune to one of them!). He is not only fast, but threatens the KO on literally every single one of my mons. The counterplay is usually to sack accordingly to get a little bit of chip to the point where either Dragon Darts, Aqua Jet or BP can KO this beast. Spikes are very helpful against him, and Lucario can outspeed Adamant, although most are Jolly in my experience.
Psychic Terrain makes things very difficult for the team, as it negates a lot of my priority. This mon itself can be quite the threat because of its speed. Luckily one of the most frequent abusers of Psychic Terrain in Hawlucha doesn't get the benefits of inmunity to priority, so it's manageable but hard.
Faced a stall team with this thing once and there was quite literally nothing I could do to beat it. I couldn't not list this guy because of how helpless I am against it. Luckily you don't see him very often.
There are other difficult matchups, such as Sun and Rain HO, but they have been more manageable in my experience.
And that's the team! I'm probably going to "retire it" soon, as I'm kind of getting bored with it haha, but if you have any suggestions or variations of your own feel free to leave them here, I would appreciate it!
EDIT: I'm a dummy and forgot the importable, have fun :]
Thank you for reading! :J
As far as teambuilding goes, I wanted to build with Lucario, who I think is very underrated, specially in the Darmanitan meta. Lucario is able to find setup opportunities in Dark types such as Mandibuzz, Bisharp and Hydreigon and there are very few things on this meta who can take +2 CC or outspeed and not die to Bullet Punch. At first I decided to partner him up with fellow DPP staple Shuca Berry DD Tar, who in theory could force Dugtrio to break its sash, giving Lucario an easier time breaking fat teams who rely on duggy.
I figured the best way to use it would be Hyper Offense, so I quickly partnered him up with pseudo Deoxys D Mew, Bisharp and Air Balloon Aegislash. These guys make sure that hazards stay up and punish hazard removal attempts aside from Cinderace's Court Change. I didn't know what to put last so I went for DD Gyara as kind of a courtesy water resist.
In testing, the team did decently well, but I kept finding myself wishing for more inmediate power against fat stuff. Gyarados was the weak link and I decided to go for another fan-favorite for offensive teams in SD LO Crawdaunt, in order to punish the passive water resists people are using to counter Dracovish.
As I kept testing I noticed I didn't really need Shuca Tar to deal with Duggy, as the team had very organically developed into a team full of priority mons that forced in dugtrio, and since Ttar was becoming just a sac the more games I tested and I had an extremely noticeable Scarf Vish weakness, I decided to swap DD Ttar for DD Dragapult, and boy oh boy, this thing puts in work!
Now let's take a look at the squad!
Mew @ Red Card
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt / Magic Coat
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Skill Swap / Self-Destruct
Mew getting Spikes is amazing and I'm glad to be seeing more suicide lead Mews on the ladder. This is, in essence, Deoxys-D from early XY with access to Self-Destruct if you want. The set has many variations that make some matchups better or worse. For example, Sticky Web HO is very hard for me to beat if I'm not packing Magic Coat to bounce the webs back, but on the other hand lacking taunt makes you vulnerable to early set up from mons like DD Pult or Nasty Plot Rotom. Red Card is a great item for Mew, when Darm was around a frequent sequence would be Stealth Rock as they U-Turn and get Red Carded into an inconvenient mon as I get a Spike and die. That's as ideal as it gets. With Darmanitan gone I'd consider Mental Herb > Red Card to help against fast Taunt users such as Cinderace.
Max Speed to at least tie opposing Mew and outspeed most of the tier, and Max HP allows to survive a plethora of hits, including but not limited to Scarf Darm's U-Turn, Specs Shadow Ball from Pult, Dark Pulse from Hydreigon and many many more, which works great with Red Card.
Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
I've had my eye on SD LO Lucario since the start of this generation because of the generally slower metagame and the lack of other fast hard-hitting Fighting types. Lucario gets many set up opportunities on things like choice locked or Sub NP Hydreigon, Knock Off Mandibuzz, Bisharp, Ferrothorn and generally anything that's threatened to switch out. Lucario can either sweep or weaken things to support my other sweepers in the back.
The biggest question is Adamant or Jolly. Adamant guarantees various OHKOs after a single round of Stealth Rocks on things like Seismitoad and Corviknight and guarantees the Bullet Punch OHKO against Darm after rocks. Now that Darm is banned, I think Jolly is better overall in order to get the jump on Mold Breaker Drill and the fast Rotom Appliances. SD and Close Combat are a deadly combo as always, while Bullet Punch lets Lucario sweep through Gengar and Dragapult after a bit of chip. Earthquake is probably the odd one out in this set but I think it's the best coverage option for this team, if not for Lucario in general. Earthquake lets Lucario KO Toxapex at +2 after rocks, which is huge since Toxapex is many people's initial switch in into this thing, and of course EQ still hits Aegislash and it even avoids the King's Shield mind games. Overall a fun and effective mon!
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Throat Chop
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
Bisharp got a huge nerf this generation in the loss of Knock Off, but I thought it was still worth using thanks to its niche of resisting Dragapult and Hydreigon's dual stab and being an excellent abuser of Defiant. Bisharp lacks the power to actually KO Corviknight and Mandibuzz at +2, but if played correctly it severely weaken said mons in order tu pull a sweep with some of out later guys, specially Dragapult!. The moveset is straightforward so I don't have that much to say about him. I'm thinking about going Adamant > Jolly for the extra power which can KO some Corviknights at +2, but the extra speed is nice to outspeed Toxtricity and Dracozolt/Vish.
Aegislash @ Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance
It's funny how this generation most Aegislash are dropping King's Shield in order to abuse Aegislash's offensive capabilities, and this set is no exception. Aegislash's primary function is as one of the most reliable spinblockers while holding the Air Balloon and an excellent offensive partner for the team. I can't count how many teams I've switched this thing into drill and KO'd with CC as they break my balloon with Iron Head. Of course, you can always spinblock with the other ghost on the team if you feel like Aegi's health will be important or if you think your opponent already knows the tech. Either way, this set is fairly straightforward. Aegi's natural bulk allows many set up opportunities and the combination of CC, Iron Head and Shadow Sneak is extremely hard to deal with late game. I go for max speed to outspeed most Clefable, which is extremely important to avoid them KOing with their strong LO Flamethrower. You also outspeed Sylveon, Conkeldurr, very defensive Rotom, Corviknight, many Tyranitar, Adamant Crawdaunt and just all those mons hovering around 200 speed. I'm very happy with this guy and it's a staple of the team!
Crawdaunt @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Crabhammer
- Aqua Jet
- Swords Dance
Crawdaunt is the definition of wallbreaking. With its strong Adaptability attacks, it gives the team much needed inmediate power to break through tougher defensive cores. Crawdaunt finds various opportunities to come in for a Strong Knock Off, specially on passive water types that are forced to heal. Crawdaunt of course is another mon that "resists" Dragapult's Shadow Ball, which is useful and does come in handy, although I wouldn't switch it in most of the time. Crawdaunt may be a wallbreker but SD allows it to transform into a deadly sweeper if the opponent feels to comfortable healing or if a switch out is telegraphed.
While Crawdaunt faces competition from Dracovish I think he's got its own spice with access to SD and the ability to break through the water resists that plague the tier right now. Crawdaunt is a great mon right now, able to do work against all kinds of teams, including offense thanks to its strong priority Aqua Jet!
Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Dragon Dance
Let's talk about this mon, while this set is not nearly as popular as Specs or Sub Hex don't let that fool you, this set can be quite deadly under the right circumstances. Substitute allows Dragapult to dodge status and ease prediction. Dragon Dance allows Dragapult to become faster than everything outside of Rain Barraskweda and don't forget: Dragapult has quite a high attack stat, as opposed to its ok Special Attack. Dragon Darts is a strong STAB move, able to break through cheeky Focus Sash mons. Lastly, Phantom Force works great in conjunction to Leftovers, as you can use it strategically to get yourself out of range of certain attacks, such as Aegislash's Shadow Sneak or Cinderace's Sucker Punch and the fact that it breaks protection means you can't be trolled by the plethora of scouting this generation.
In conjunction with Aegislash, we have a nice little ghost spam core that works wonders. Very often you will be able to switch gameplans mid game from breaking with Aegislash and sweeping with Pult to the reverse!. This mon is also great for the team, as it alleviates the Dracovish weakness by outspeeding and threatening the KO, therefore making it take hazard's damage and putting it in range of Bisharp's Sucker Punch or +2 Sneak.
Of course, this set literally can't beat cores of Fairy + Normal such as Snorlax + Sylveon unless your opponent misplays, so it's important to let the rest of the team pressure those mons for you before trying to set up. Overall this mon has worked great for me and I hope it does for you too!
As far as threats go, I think these guys give me the most trouble
There are other difficult matchups, such as Sun and Rain HO, but they have been more manageable in my experience.
And that's the team! I'm probably going to "retire it" soon, as I'm kind of getting bored with it haha, but if you have any suggestions or variations of your own feel free to leave them here, I would appreciate it!
EDIT: I'm a dummy and forgot the importable, have fun :]
Thank you for reading! :J
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