Hi all! It's been a while!
I'm back playing lots of monotype and wanted to get some opinions on how to better counter popular meta teams as I push higher up on ladder. I have successfully pushed to 1400 on a new account (ss at bottom) with this team but find I struggle with a few matchups, mostly bulky flying and poison teams as well as of course fighting and fairy (the latter of which will always be hard of course but perhaps some tweaking could improve my bad matchups). Here's the build:
In order of how I built the team:
No Love (Darkrai) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Bad Dreams
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Sludge Bomb
Darkrai is one of my favorites so I really wanted to build the team around it. I went with a pretty basic specs set to maximize that damage output and coverage. The main appeal of this set to me is access to psychic and sludge bomb which cover dark's fighting and fairy weaknesses respectively. Coming off that base 135 SpA, these moves hit very hard and can 2HKO almost anything it hits for super effective damage, often grabbing OHKOs on non invested mons especially after hazard chip. Dark pulse does a ton of work against neural targets and serves as a surprisingly strong way to finish off a weakened Archaludon or Rotom-W, for example.
Continuing building, I figured Darkrai needed some defensive support due to its frailty, and although base 125 speed is great, I also figured speed control was needed.
So next, I added probably the most common defensive core for mono dark to support Darkrai with pivots and hazard control: Ting-Lu + Mandibuzz.
On GP (Ting-Lu) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Ruination
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
Ting-Lu acts as my SpDef wall and primary hazard setter, while also providing critical ground typing to grant electric immunity for Mandibuzz. This set came straight from the forums and it works perfectly as advertised. Rocky helmet seemed a bit strange on a spdef mon to me so I experimented with leftovers too, but found that little bit of recovery was not as valuable as being able to punish u-turns or physical attacks with chip damage, as even uninvested this mon has surprising physical bulk. Whirlwind is essential to check setup sweepers from running through my team. Not much else to say as this set is very standard.
Hustle Bones (Mandibuzz) (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Overcoat
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 23 Spe
- Toxic
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Another tried and true set directly from the forums. -23 speed IVs allows a slow u-turn on Skarmory to bring in a teammate safely. Mandibuzz bulks banded Dragapult darts with ease and can roost them off, for example. This set is definitely vulnerable to taunt, but with smart pivoting I haven't found it to be much of an issue. Toxic is nice to stop unaware Quagsire/other similar nuisances, and Mandibuzz also serves as my hazard removal for the team. The main strength of this set though is its synergy with Ting-Lu, forming a strong defensive backbone that allows me to control the pace of the game, manage hazards, wear down mons that check my offensive threats, and pivot around opposing strong attackers.
From this point, I figured my team could use a physical setup sweeper since Darkrai covers the special side (but lacks flexibility). And thus:
Deep Web (Roaring Moon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Roost
This set came from the forums as well, and I would say I'm only moderately happy with it, but don't exactly know how to change it. Let's start with the positives:
Even unboosted, that knock off hits non-defensive mons very hard while obviously providing utility. The strong earthquake is much appreciated against the ever-common steel matchup, as well as serving as my main answer to poison teams (if this guy dies, I pretty much lose to poison balance). Roost + leftovers is awesome to keep it alive against bulkier teams who try to pivot around, and the threat of dragon dance forces the opponent's hand often not allowing free defensive switches against it like a scarf or band set would.
My main gripe though - this set feels kind of weak overall, especially once items are gone, and ground-immune mons are everywhere in this tier making this set slightly less potent. Dragon dance helps a lot, but wasting turns can be very bad against opposing offense, especially in unfavorable matchups. I find this set plays more like offensive utility than a sweeper, which is fine, but it clashes with the other knock off user on the team as well (next mon). Overall I'm in a position where I feel like I kind of need roaring moon, but am sometimes disappointed with it.
From here, the team really badly needs speed control, more coverage, and immediate physical attacking power, so I went ahead and added:
Bottomless Pit (Meowscarada) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Triple Axel
- Flower Trick
- U-turn
This is a pretty standard choice band set that I decided to switch for scarf. I used band for a little bit, but found I was losing a lot to the tier's main speedsters, namely: dragapult, sneasler, scarf roaring moon, flutter-maine, etc. Switching to scarf has clutched up lots of games for me since it is slightly unexpected. I do sacrifice a decent bit of power, but the blisteringly high speed of 568 catches many players off guard. Overall I'd say I'm pretty happy with this set, although it very much suffers from 4-moveslot syndrome. Play rough would be nice to have and I did use it for some time over triple axel, but found that I needed the strong and fast ice attack for the mono flying matchup really badly. Flower trick is great against water teams too, as many players don't expect such a fast flower trick. I do hate having to rely on triple axel so heavily, which is why I mentioned earlier the flying matchup can be hard sometimes, because ice beam from Darkrai alone is not enough to do the job against bulkier builds.
Finally, I felt the team needed a priority user, and the mon for the job with excellent role compression was:
Guillotine (Samurott-Hisui) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ceaseless Edge
- Aqua Cutter
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
Samurott-Hisui rounds out the team nicely with the much appreciated water typing and coverage as well as spikes support from ceaseless edge. This set comes right off the forums and is great. Sucker punch mindgames tend to mess with the opponent and this helps greatly against rain teams, and otherwise high-speed builds. This set also serves as a great stallbreaker too helping a lot in that dubious poison matchup as well as normal stall matchup. Hazard stacking becomes a real strategy against a lot of teams combined with Ting-Lu's rocks once the hazard battle has been won. I find that Meowscarada and Mandibuzz together create many opportnities to pivot Samurott in and the opponent is often left in a tough spot having to predict whether I set up an SD, simply attack, or click sucker punch.
Coming off a long break from the game, all in all I'd say I'm most happy with this team above the other monotype teams I've built. Although, it could definitely use some refinement to better succeed in the current meta, especially if I want to climb higher than 1400. Any and all feedback/ improvement suggestions are appreciated, even if it means major changes to the build.
^ proof of ladder placement for my 1400 game (name censored because they were being salty).
Thank you for checking out my team!
-5penny (formerly Spenny0107 on PS)
I'm back playing lots of monotype and wanted to get some opinions on how to better counter popular meta teams as I push higher up on ladder. I have successfully pushed to 1400 on a new account (ss at bottom) with this team but find I struggle with a few matchups, mostly bulky flying and poison teams as well as of course fighting and fairy (the latter of which will always be hard of course but perhaps some tweaking could improve my bad matchups). Here's the build:
In order of how I built the team:
No Love (Darkrai) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Bad Dreams
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Sludge Bomb
Darkrai is one of my favorites so I really wanted to build the team around it. I went with a pretty basic specs set to maximize that damage output and coverage. The main appeal of this set to me is access to psychic and sludge bomb which cover dark's fighting and fairy weaknesses respectively. Coming off that base 135 SpA, these moves hit very hard and can 2HKO almost anything it hits for super effective damage, often grabbing OHKOs on non invested mons especially after hazard chip. Dark pulse does a ton of work against neural targets and serves as a surprisingly strong way to finish off a weakened Archaludon or Rotom-W, for example.
Continuing building, I figured Darkrai needed some defensive support due to its frailty, and although base 125 speed is great, I also figured speed control was needed.
So next, I added probably the most common defensive core for mono dark to support Darkrai with pivots and hazard control: Ting-Lu + Mandibuzz.
On GP (Ting-Lu) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Ruination
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
Ting-Lu acts as my SpDef wall and primary hazard setter, while also providing critical ground typing to grant electric immunity for Mandibuzz. This set came straight from the forums and it works perfectly as advertised. Rocky helmet seemed a bit strange on a spdef mon to me so I experimented with leftovers too, but found that little bit of recovery was not as valuable as being able to punish u-turns or physical attacks with chip damage, as even uninvested this mon has surprising physical bulk. Whirlwind is essential to check setup sweepers from running through my team. Not much else to say as this set is very standard.
Hustle Bones (Mandibuzz) (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Overcoat
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 23 Spe
- Toxic
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Another tried and true set directly from the forums. -23 speed IVs allows a slow u-turn on Skarmory to bring in a teammate safely. Mandibuzz bulks banded Dragapult darts with ease and can roost them off, for example. This set is definitely vulnerable to taunt, but with smart pivoting I haven't found it to be much of an issue. Toxic is nice to stop unaware Quagsire/other similar nuisances, and Mandibuzz also serves as my hazard removal for the team. The main strength of this set though is its synergy with Ting-Lu, forming a strong defensive backbone that allows me to control the pace of the game, manage hazards, wear down mons that check my offensive threats, and pivot around opposing strong attackers.
From this point, I figured my team could use a physical setup sweeper since Darkrai covers the special side (but lacks flexibility). And thus:
Deep Web (Roaring Moon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Roost
This set came from the forums as well, and I would say I'm only moderately happy with it, but don't exactly know how to change it. Let's start with the positives:
Even unboosted, that knock off hits non-defensive mons very hard while obviously providing utility. The strong earthquake is much appreciated against the ever-common steel matchup, as well as serving as my main answer to poison teams (if this guy dies, I pretty much lose to poison balance). Roost + leftovers is awesome to keep it alive against bulkier teams who try to pivot around, and the threat of dragon dance forces the opponent's hand often not allowing free defensive switches against it like a scarf or band set would.
My main gripe though - this set feels kind of weak overall, especially once items are gone, and ground-immune mons are everywhere in this tier making this set slightly less potent. Dragon dance helps a lot, but wasting turns can be very bad against opposing offense, especially in unfavorable matchups. I find this set plays more like offensive utility than a sweeper, which is fine, but it clashes with the other knock off user on the team as well (next mon). Overall I'm in a position where I feel like I kind of need roaring moon, but am sometimes disappointed with it.
From here, the team really badly needs speed control, more coverage, and immediate physical attacking power, so I went ahead and added:
Bottomless Pit (Meowscarada) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Triple Axel
- Flower Trick
- U-turn
This is a pretty standard choice band set that I decided to switch for scarf. I used band for a little bit, but found I was losing a lot to the tier's main speedsters, namely: dragapult, sneasler, scarf roaring moon, flutter-maine, etc. Switching to scarf has clutched up lots of games for me since it is slightly unexpected. I do sacrifice a decent bit of power, but the blisteringly high speed of 568 catches many players off guard. Overall I'd say I'm pretty happy with this set, although it very much suffers from 4-moveslot syndrome. Play rough would be nice to have and I did use it for some time over triple axel, but found that I needed the strong and fast ice attack for the mono flying matchup really badly. Flower trick is great against water teams too, as many players don't expect such a fast flower trick. I do hate having to rely on triple axel so heavily, which is why I mentioned earlier the flying matchup can be hard sometimes, because ice beam from Darkrai alone is not enough to do the job against bulkier builds.
Finally, I felt the team needed a priority user, and the mon for the job with excellent role compression was:
Guillotine (Samurott-Hisui) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ceaseless Edge
- Aqua Cutter
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
Samurott-Hisui rounds out the team nicely with the much appreciated water typing and coverage as well as spikes support from ceaseless edge. This set comes right off the forums and is great. Sucker punch mindgames tend to mess with the opponent and this helps greatly against rain teams, and otherwise high-speed builds. This set also serves as a great stallbreaker too helping a lot in that dubious poison matchup as well as normal stall matchup. Hazard stacking becomes a real strategy against a lot of teams combined with Ting-Lu's rocks once the hazard battle has been won. I find that Meowscarada and Mandibuzz together create many opportnities to pivot Samurott in and the opponent is often left in a tough spot having to predict whether I set up an SD, simply attack, or click sucker punch.
Coming off a long break from the game, all in all I'd say I'm most happy with this team above the other monotype teams I've built. Although, it could definitely use some refinement to better succeed in the current meta, especially if I want to climb higher than 1400. Any and all feedback/ improvement suggestions are appreciated, even if it means major changes to the build.
^ proof of ladder placement for my 1400 game (name censored because they were being salty).
Thank you for checking out my team!
-5penny (formerly Spenny0107 on PS)
, I just have a few pointers but overall the team is pretty good.
-> 
/ 
