I have recently been on a kick of laddering without Spikes, Sand or trappers. This was partly inspired by this video of Vapicuno's and partly as a personal challenge - almost all of my successful ladder teams to date have contained one of these elements (particularly Tyranitar) and so I wanted to try and broaden my horizons a bit. After a couple weeks of obsessive ladder grinding, I finally produced a team I was happy with and managed to top the ladder with it.
Basic Ideas/Thought Process
After going through many different mixed offence iterations, with this team I kind of went back to basics and slapped a CB Metagross in the lead slot. I figured Regirock would be a good supporting partner: while accomplishing the same basic goal of damaging/crippling Skarmory and other physical walls, it is also sturdy enough as a physical wall (together with teammates) to allow Metagross to be traded off early and aggressively with explosion when necessary.
At this stage it almost felt mandatory to add a Celebi to switch into the bulky waters which Metagross and Regirock invite in and maintain momentum. I also felt I needed something to directly switch into Skarmory and pressure common TSS structures, and Charizard seemed to work well - it covers the weaknesses of the first three to Metagross, CM Jirachi/Celebi and to lesser extent fighters. It also provides a decent source of speed control.
Finally, in the last two slots I put the trusty Claydol - Suicune Combo. Claydol is a bit of no-brainer on a structure like this being the most reliable spinner when Skarmory has been taken down. Suicune is just a great long term win-con to play for. It synergises and the remaining team members as it also pressures Skarmory and can be set up for via trades from the teams three explosion users. Together Claydol and Suicune act also as secondary Tyranitar/Aerodactyl checks.
Set Details
Strengths and Weaknesses
When playing with this team, I was pleasantly surprised by the consistency and match-up spread. I think you genuinely have the tools to win any game, especially if you land the right Booms. As mentioned above, Regirock is amazing vs a lot of physical/mixed offence and often puts you at an advantage. Against many TSS teams you can often go in with Zard in the early-mid game or win with Suicune in the mid-late game, as they rarely have a great answer to both. The only issue here is if you get your Claydol outplayed by a potential Gengar, but that is the nature of the game. Bulky set-up teams with Suicune/Lax are farmed by Celebi which gives you so much time for your threats to break. Against fat V5 style teams, you often want to try to boom on their bulky water to open up something like Zard. This is often pretty manageable as, after their Skarm has taken a beating, they are often forced to go there as to not get obliterated by Meta. You always have you own Suicune to play for in these MUs as well.
The main problem MU I found with this team was Special Offence. There wasn't a particular single problem mon (though offMie can be a bit rough), but I found these teams were best able to exploit the issues of using Celebi as a special check by overloading it or trapping it. Often, you need to make the right trades in these games with your explosion users, which can be rough as these can feel telegraphed due to the lack of direct pressure things like Claydol and Regirock apply to Celebi/Suicune. The two things you have going for you in these games is Zard's ability to pressure the CM pixies and CroCune: Crocune tends to beat most of the Suicune or other Waters used on Special offence 1v1 and Roar offCune can be lured in and statused by Zard. Playing for late game Suicune can often be the best line therefore.
There are also issues with certain TSS/spike teams that use defMie and CM Blissey since they are pretty resilient against the Zard-Suicune Combo. DefMie is hard to land a Boom on since they typically have another physically bulky mon like Pert/Meta. It often requires making the right prediction with Metagross to make progress here, or getting good luck with attack raises. I will say that Body Slam is pretty useful here since it can be good at breaking through the likes of DefMie+Pert+Low Health/Crippled Skarm.
Conclusion
If you have gotten this far, thanks for reading. I hope people like the team - I don't know how original it is but it was certainly satisfying to come up with something that worked after the last couple of weeks of kind of going insane on the ladder. It might just be me but the ladder is in a very weird state at the moment where I feel like I play more mono Body Slam Curse Lax than TSS, but that could just be cause of running without Spikes/Sand. I could write a whole essay about this and some of the different stuff I tried and failed with but I think some of it might still have potential to be saved for a later date. The one thing I will say though is that I think you can succeed on the ladder without using Skarm/Tar/Dug and the like, I think it just takes a little more thought and perseverance. I am confident this team could go further and achieve a higher rating with some tweaks and possible piloting from someone more experienced/dedicated. That might be me in the future, but I think I will leave it now for my own sanity.
Basic Ideas/Thought Process
After going through many different mixed offence iterations, with this team I kind of went back to basics and slapped a CB Metagross in the lead slot. I figured Regirock would be a good supporting partner: while accomplishing the same basic goal of damaging/crippling Skarmory and other physical walls, it is also sturdy enough as a physical wall (together with teammates) to allow Metagross to be traded off early and aggressively with explosion when necessary.
At this stage it almost felt mandatory to add a Celebi to switch into the bulky waters which Metagross and Regirock invite in and maintain momentum. I also felt I needed something to directly switch into Skarmory and pressure common TSS structures, and Charizard seemed to work well - it covers the weaknesses of the first three to Metagross, CM Jirachi/Celebi and to lesser extent fighters. It also provides a decent source of speed control.
Finally, in the last two slots I put the trusty Claydol - Suicune Combo. Claydol is a bit of no-brainer on a structure like this being the most reliable spinner when Skarmory has been taken down. Suicune is just a great long term win-con to play for. It synergises and the remaining team members as it also pressures Skarmory and can be set up for via trades from the teams three explosion users. Together Claydol and Suicune act also as secondary Tyranitar/Aerodactyl checks.
Set Details
- : Boom, Mash and Earthquake are all mandatory. In the final slot I went for Body Slam. We have Regirock for strong rock coverage and this frees us up to do for a different move in the last slot. Body slam mid-grounds a lot of targets like Zap/Pert and helps spread paralysis which generally helps the team out a lot: most of the team are on the slower side and Zard has Sub to abuse Paralysed targets. In terms of EVs I went Max attack, enough speed to get the jump on most Milotic (202) and put the rest in HP. I like having Meta still be relatively solid against DD/CB Tar if needed - I tend not to just Houdini turn 1 unless directly against Skarm.
- : Thunder Wave spreads Paralysis and Rock Slide is a consistent stab move which synergises with this. Superpower allows Regirock to directly handle Tar and Bliss if Meta has boomed. Explosion keeps up momentum. I have Speed-crept Blissey and put enough HP EVs (216) to live a CB-Meta Mash. The rest is put into attack. This mon is amazing against physical/mixed offence and often trades 2 for 1.
- : Standard Leech Seed + 3 Attacks. I have fallen out with this set somewhat but on this team it works really well. We have Regirock, Claydol and Zard to help with Zapdos and Gengar. Zard also lures in and cripples a lot of Waters (see next) and we have Claydol to spin. I feel this frees this set up a lot to apply pressure and farm bulky set up style teams with Lax/Suicune/Blissey. It also pressures Skarmory well and provides the team with relative longevity. I have gone with a reasonably slow set (245 raw speed) with 248HP EVs and the remainder in Special Attack. I felt we didn't need the speed given we are spreading a lot of paralysis but given we are Sand/Spikeless, we need Celebi to pack a punch directly.
- : Here I am running Substitute, Flamethrower, Toxic and Focus Punch with a Hasty nature. This set sacrifices some immediate power for speed and consistent damage over time. Sub is great in combination with the Paralysis spreading and Leech Seed. Toxic cripples a lot of switch-ins like Suicune, Vaporeon, Mence and Aero. Focus Punch hits Tar and Blissey (Sub+Tox+FP makes Blissey cry). I was originally running Fire Blast but I came to value the consistency and higher pp of Flamethrower here: there are games where you definitely need the pp of Flamethrower into stuff like Zapdos or when just wanting to click your Fire move repeatedly in Blaze. I know this set isn't anything new, but I think it deserves more exploration on Mixed Offence - it is a Dug punish which tends to lure in and cripple Aero, which seems like something these teams often want.
- : Not much to say here, just the standard utility Claydol set. I am sure more experienced players would adjust this a bit, but I haven't built with Claydol enough to be confident in doing this.
- : Again, not much to say, just the standard CroCune Set. This mon is inevitable. Even when not used as a win-con it is great as a bulky check to Tar, Aero, Meta in the late game if needed. Also, just spamming strong Surfs in the early-mid game can be surprisingly useful.
When playing with this team, I was pleasantly surprised by the consistency and match-up spread. I think you genuinely have the tools to win any game, especially if you land the right Booms. As mentioned above, Regirock is amazing vs a lot of physical/mixed offence and often puts you at an advantage. Against many TSS teams you can often go in with Zard in the early-mid game or win with Suicune in the mid-late game, as they rarely have a great answer to both. The only issue here is if you get your Claydol outplayed by a potential Gengar, but that is the nature of the game. Bulky set-up teams with Suicune/Lax are farmed by Celebi which gives you so much time for your threats to break. Against fat V5 style teams, you often want to try to boom on their bulky water to open up something like Zard. This is often pretty manageable as, after their Skarm has taken a beating, they are often forced to go there as to not get obliterated by Meta. You always have you own Suicune to play for in these MUs as well.
The main problem MU I found with this team was Special Offence. There wasn't a particular single problem mon (though offMie can be a bit rough), but I found these teams were best able to exploit the issues of using Celebi as a special check by overloading it or trapping it. Often, you need to make the right trades in these games with your explosion users, which can be rough as these can feel telegraphed due to the lack of direct pressure things like Claydol and Regirock apply to Celebi/Suicune. The two things you have going for you in these games is Zard's ability to pressure the CM pixies and CroCune: Crocune tends to beat most of the Suicune or other Waters used on Special offence 1v1 and Roar offCune can be lured in and statused by Zard. Playing for late game Suicune can often be the best line therefore.
There are also issues with certain TSS/spike teams that use defMie and CM Blissey since they are pretty resilient against the Zard-Suicune Combo. DefMie is hard to land a Boom on since they typically have another physically bulky mon like Pert/Meta. It often requires making the right prediction with Metagross to make progress here, or getting good luck with attack raises. I will say that Body Slam is pretty useful here since it can be good at breaking through the likes of DefMie+Pert+Low Health/Crippled Skarm.
Conclusion
If you have gotten this far, thanks for reading. I hope people like the team - I don't know how original it is but it was certainly satisfying to come up with something that worked after the last couple of weeks of kind of going insane on the ladder. It might just be me but the ladder is in a very weird state at the moment where I feel like I play more mono Body Slam Curse Lax than TSS, but that could just be cause of running without Spikes/Sand. I could write a whole essay about this and some of the different stuff I tried and failed with but I think some of it might still have potential to be saved for a later date. The one thing I will say though is that I think you can succeed on the ladder without using Skarm/Tar/Dug and the like, I think it just takes a little more thought and perseverance. I am confident this team could go further and achieve a higher rating with some tweaks and possible piloting from someone more experienced/dedicated. That might be me in the future, but I think I will leave it now for my own sanity.
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