BH Balanced Hackmons Resources Thread

[Chessking345]

VR update! Role compendium also updated. As usual if you have any questions regarding any changes feel free to ask here or on Discord. I'll make a post on the main thread covering some of the general meta trends soon.

Rises

B+ -> A
B+ -> A
B+ -> A
B+ -> A-
B -> A-
B -> B+
B -> B+
B- -> B+
B- -> B
B- -> B
B- -> B
B- -> B
B- -> B
C+ -> B-
D -> B-
D -> C
C- -> C
D -> C-
UR -> C-

Drops

A- -> B+
A- -> B+
A- -> B+
B+ -> B
B -> B-
B -> B-
B -> C+
B- -> C+
B- -> C+
B- -> C
C+ -> C
C+ -> C
C -> C-
C -> C-
C -> C-
C -> C-
C -> D
C -> D
D -> UR
D -> UR
D -> UR
D -> UR
D -> UR

 

[Fish Gaming]

Good morning, everyone.

As I've been playing, I've realized, there's been a secret new threat lying under the fog that only true gamer GODS know how to properly use and demolish with.

I may be disappeared by the BH Mafia for posting this.

Here it is.


Dustox @ Assault Vest
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 69 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Explosion
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes

Look at him, bow down, and put him in S++ where he beloings.

 

[Chessking345]

Post-OMPL VR update. Other resources may or may not be updated in the near future due to ongoing suspect. As usual if you have any questions/clarifications regarding any changes feel free to ask here or on Discord.

Rises

A -> A+
Generally useful utility, fitting Dragon immune, speed control etc in one
A- -> A
Usually unwallable, making it the most reliable breaker + rocks resist make it relatively easy to use
B+ -> A-
Useful Fairy check and can run 20 different "immunity" abilities to circumvent counterplay, one of the defining mons on the special offense spectrum
B+ -> A-
One of the more warping mons in the teambuilder
C+ -> B+
Splashable blanket AV, notably checking Fairies well and generally being annoying
B- -> B+
Current day most reliable mono FC
B -> B+
Cage immunity gives leeway as an AV, and has general all purpose utility and such
B- -> B
Regen is a non FC check to SG Blaze, and checks Band when paired with a Fire immune, FC can handle the big 2 physical breakers
C+ -> B-
Fast AV gives little room for big 3 breakers to come in, while being a decent Steelceus check
C -> C+
Good Bouncer, works well with Chomp
C -> C+
Fat physical Water good
D/UR -> C+
Pika-S is trivially easy to improof and can dish out fair amount of damage, also profits from numerous Waters
C -> C+
People have found success with defensive Zacian sets again
C- -> C
MG and Desoland are both used to some success
C- -> C
Speed control, a degree of offensive pressure/sweeping, and spinblocks 3Arrows Fightings
D -> C-
Blaze soft check, and can be annoying to switch into
UR -> C-
Very resilient Garde check
D -> C-
VD sets have remained as one of the more successful GaG wincons
UR -> D
People have found some niche use as a Poison type with the Grass-type resists

Drops

A+ -> A
Ghostceus can feel awkward at times with taking up the Arc slot while generally preferring MG
A+ -> A-
Meta trends are somewhat straying away from Scales and though the Moongeist immunity is always very useful, it has difficulties actually dealing with special mons like Garde and Steelceus
A -> A-
Being OHKOed by SG Blaze is an issue for Zama's consistency, especially with the decline of physical Gren
A -> A-
Remains as a good Chomp check as long as it dodges Sunsteel since unlike most checks it directly OHKOs
A- -> B
Novelty of Encore is over and it doesn't enjoy the rise of AVs like Regi and Ting over likes of Cele
B+ -> B
Band is increasingly difficult to use, and while Sheer Force can still be anti meta it still is somewhat hit or miss
A -> B
Meta has generally been hostile to blobs, with stuff like Arc formes being more conscious of sapblocking and special offense meta straying away from stuff like MG SSA Etern
B -> B-
Speed tier is very unfortunate with more emphasis on having speed control (>=135) mons
B -> B-
Typing is not as relevant, still the premier Ghostceus check but not much else
B+ -> B-
See Chansey
B -> B-
Struggles with 4MSS greatly, and does not like stuff like Regi rising, since falls like Scales Audino are not significant enough to completely forgo Gigaton
B- -> C+
Generally outclassed by Eleceus for answering mixed offense
B+ -> C+
Typing is very poor, not answering Garde, Steelceus, nor Dragons
B -> C+
A Steel that is vulnerable to Flutter's secondary STAB is problematic in itself, and the Psychic typing isn't that useful. Fast Steel has heavy competition from Steelceus
C- -> C-
Low usage, and Zama falling a bit doesn't help
C+ -> C-
Cannot keep up, as Steels prefer having SpD in current meta
C -> D
Minimal usage, UNecro's Dragon STAB and raw power is more useful despite having a much worse speed tier
C -> D
Minimal usage
C -> D
Almost never justifiable over Chomp
C- -> D
Power Trip banned and only really good vs Alakazam
C -> D
Minimal usage
C- -> UR
Zero usage
C- -> UR
Power Trip banned
D -> UR
Minimal usage
D -> UR
Zero usage

 

[cityscapes]

i wasi n the middle of writing this when the update happened

scales set being first listed is super weird to me, i dont know what special attackers you're even beating. at best you can land knock on th arcs and then go to imposter, but often th arc will have a secondary imposter-proofer like bounce etern or imposter so this isn't reliable counterplay. every other special attacker just spikes, pivots, or encores on you, you can't remove hazards, you're bad into regenvest. bounce is a better set, fc is a better set

fine mon still but there are a few problems with it. all its sets are super predictable, it does no damage into every regenvest except ting, it loses to eleceus, it gets owned by poisons, its not great into chicken. scales and pixilate feel super inconsistent. just dont like it

first of all fc mirai feels a lot worse than both fc korai and fc etern cause youre scared of mortal and you cant actually do much besides click some shitty special attacks that do 20% to every regenvest. the mg sets have this stupid ass idea where you need a ton of support to use them in the first place, so you have to hold on for 100 turns to get real pressure on their regenvests, then after that you STILL have to win speed ties vs the imposter in order to win the endgame. dumbest most convoluted shit of all time if you know someone using this mon make sure to give them a mental health checkup

has enough set diversity that you can expect to meaningfully make progress into the counters, also a good para spreader / setup sweeper on offense

(all above noms actually went through, i just wanted to talk about the mons anyway)

why the fuck did this guy not rise. put him in like a- or some shit. icebeam and secret sword are both really good sets that have non-overlapping counterplay, you always beat every other th arc except for groundceus and diabolical cage mg guy, you dont have to worry about fake pokemon like etern and garde, and typically can pull off some bullshit against imposter even if you get knocked. lots to appreciate here.

i was gonna recommend dropping this to like c or d because it has all the same problems as mirai and on top of all that has no defensive utility, but at least it actually won a couple ompl games. whatever. keep it where it is i guess

put this guy in like b-. i used two sets during ompl (prank webs, fc), both were excellent at their jobs. i think palk is the single best fc water in the game short of waterceus; fc bro is so fucking passive and you need to click recover every other turn or he gets in range of everything. only big annoyance is chomp whos never that hard to cover especially given the setup chomps havent seen as much use as of late

the one time i used this piece of shit i ran into grass knot sg chicken and autolost. fuck dondozo.

move this guy up. fc is a pretty basic zama alternative for people who want to consistently beat sg chicken. mg and regen are surprisingly robust sets that can offer a lot of utility.

john pork. zama alternative that spinblocks. ive used this guy quite a bit including once in ompl, very consistent mon, lives a lot of stuff you wouldnt expect. put him in d

rank this guy. you run adamant jaw lock/sap/dd/gigaton with the crystal and hit some truly unholy rolls like 75% to ohko ting from full at +1. potent cheeser, pair it with guys that exploit fc waters and get free wins

| 28 | Kyurem-White | 6 | 5.56% | 16.67% |

ive used mg brave bird jaw lock sets and the syringe np mg, both are terrible into eleceus but work pretty consistently otherwise. since flying is such an irrelevant offensive type right now, you can get away with some stuff. maybe even ray could be considered down the line.

regenvest ogre has felt like it's drastically fallen off and is now only used by people who don't mind losing to imposter such as sevag. this is great news for a certain pokemon known as primal kyogre, which really appreciates the drop in usage of the only water resist in the metagame (besides waterceus i guess). put this mon in b, it can do anything it wants, sky's the limit

add scrappy and put it above mg. scrappy is the only bunny i trust rn

drop this to d, you cant beat ting registeel and fighting types while remaining imposter-proof, hurts to say cause i like it a lot but things arent going well for rockceus

free darkceus the encore set is legitimately uncompetitive and evil you use this mon once and instantly become an incorrigible offense main

put this in c, fits right in with fireceus and zacc, disgusting mon that you hate thinking about but does admittedly perform reasonably well in its use cases

if you guys are wondering i actually restrained myself here, had i been allowed to continue i wouldve started nomming shit like tentacruel shocks entei scizor and scream tail to d

council denies the existence of offense pass it on

 

[Chessking345]

Post-HPL VR update. Other resources, being role compendium and speed tiers, have been updated as well. As usual if you have any questions/clarifications regarding any changes feel free to ask here or on Discord.

Rises

B+ -> A-
Blanket checks a lot of "anti-meta" stuff, very good at retaining momentum due to being slower than 50s in a meta of increasing RegenVest momentum importance, prevents Alakazam from steamrolling by being resistant to its 3 most punishing moves (Psycho Moongeist Volt). Can be compared to Imposter in terms of gaining momentum on defensive stuff and blanket checking while still retaining utility against sets Imposter would be annoyed by.
B -> B+
Ice Scales is like the best mixed wall in the tier, on top of providing standard Ice Scales utility, Ice Beam is a broken move capable of winning games, and Secret Sword existing means teams cannot be reliant on just blobs to check it.
B -> B+
Fur Coat Ho-Oh is one of the more if not most reliable singular Fur Coat that is not Arceus-Water due to checking Blaziken without crumbling to Garchomp, and appreciates the sharp decline of Sniper Gren. Other sets like Magic Guard, Desolate Land, Teravolt, and the old Ice Scales all still have good merits in the tier, and they all provide at minimum a solid soft check to Gardevoir.
C+ -> B-
Exceptionally easy to improof allowing for high customization of coverage to pick and choose counters. One of the more potent mixed attackers currently.
D -> C+
Saw notable experimentation and use during HPL with various sets proving to be strong offensively. Speed tier is also highly coveted being able to force out the entire tier, especially otherwise annoying mons like Flutter Mane and the Fightings.
C- -> C
Respectable alternative to Altered forme with significant offensive boost to threaten pivots with moves like Astral/Parade while still having enough bulk to perform tasks like scout Blaziken.
C- -> C
Despite the decline of Gardevoir, Heatran is still useful with a Fire-neutrality preventing it from getting sniped by coverage. Fire offensively also is useful for pressuring opposing Steels. Most particularly held back by its Fire primary typing, preventing it from checking Norm Flutter effectively.
UR -> C-
Niche Fur Coat wall that has the perfect number Speed tier to outspeed Adamant Blaziken with Jolly, while STAB Ground can be nice to complement the tried and true Fighting + Mortal Spin combination. Exceptionally low special defense also can allow for easy offensive improofing.
D -> C-
Reasonable enough pivot being one of the best Alakazam answers, and Poison-typing gives it solid utility by being resilient to Mortal and removing TSpikes, which is enough for it to be bumped up from D.
UR -> D
MG Palkia is a good enough to be ranked mixed presence.
UR -> D
Has seen enough high level usage with degree of success to be ranked.

Drops

A+ -> A
This shift was less of Eternatus getting worse and more of Eternatus is not on the same level of Flutter Mane in terms of splashability and impact on the tier, being more on the level of the A ranks instead.
A- -> B+
Meta is becoming increasingly hostile to it, as it exhibits the same passive problem it has in other BH metas. Ghost immunity is still useful but its niches outside of that are diminishing.
A- -> B
Really hates the ubiquity of Regen Steels not named Celesteela as it becomes pivot fodder. Due to being a Take Heart user it is super reliant on Leftovers so it can't tech Umbrella against Blaze like say Arceus-Fighting, and though its one of the better Garchomp checks by threatening the kill well Sunsteel is still the "standard fourth" even if its the most commonly replaced move.
B+ -> B
Really has not found the meta kind with too many soft and harder checks existing. Compared to the Chomp who has rocks resistance, and Blaziken who is extremely forcing in terms of plays, both of which also easily OHKOs most RegenVests, Gardevoir has been lacklustre as a slower wallbreaker, as it simply requires too many turns of setup and pivoting to claim kills, by the time the opponent's breaker probably already accomplished their prereqs to win.
B -> B-
Sheer Force is not enough to hold AshGren in B.
B -> B-
Miraidon kind of loses to all the offensive Pokemon except for Greninja which it still doesn't very handle well, meaning it provides minimal defensive utility which loses a lot of its role as an offensive utility mon. Meta turning away from Ice Scales users also hurts its job at doing long term chip with Thunder Cage.
C+ -> C
A case of C+ being pruned properly rather than it becoming notably worse, Arceus-Ground despite seeing some success is too inconsistent to be in the same rank as the current C+.
C+ -> C
Also a case of C+ being pruned, as Clod has not really gotten better or worse.
C+ -> C-
Dialga has gotten minimal usage in the past months as it simply fails to provide anything useful defensively. The Fairy neutrality is very punishing and there are more useful checks to stuff like SF Gren to use. Strong Doom Desire is not enough of a niche.
C+ -> C-
The speed is too punishing and if you need a mono Fur Coat that isn't Arceus-Water you can just use Ho-Oh and fit a Greninja check elsewhere through stuff like Koraidon.
C+ -> C-
Outside of teams that fail to have a proper Ice resist Kyurem-White has the exact same problems as Gardevoir except it has a rocks weakness on top.
C+ -> C-
Arguably could be dropped further due to absolute minimal usage.
C -> C-
Minimally useful defensive utilities and also is momentum sink to the RegenVests. However still retains a niche through Final Gambit sets on offense.
B- -> C-
Sceptile would still be a B-tier mon if it was able to run 5+ moves, but it has extremely severe 4MSS and people are running checks to it without even considering its existence.
C -> C-
Not able to keep up, "checking" Triple Arrows Zamazenta isn't enough.
C- -> D
New toy syndrome wore off.
C -> D
Ice Scales has like every issue of Audino except being way more vulnerable to chip and utility, and Audino was never going to be the sole Alakazam check. For a dedicated Alakazam answer use Muk-A.
C- -> D
Pruning.
C- -> UR
Pruning.
D -> UR
Niche usage has ended.
D -> UR
There are better offensive Pokemon to use, many.
D -> UR
Turns out people did not use this after its initial experimentation.

 

[Chessking345]

Some miscommunications so some updated changes:
B+ -> A-
More on par with the stuff in A- than B+
B- -> B
Speed tier is really good for forcing out everything, coverage is able to hit everything relevant and Moongeist is spammable after AVs inevitably get removed. Also appreciates Imposter being ever more difficult to fit on many structures.
C+ -> B-
Speed tier and Encore make it a respectable disrupter, and it also compresses a defensive Fairy with Speed control without being Flutter Mane, making it a useful anti-Glaive tool.
D -> UR
We will give this a bit more time to prove itself before ranking it.

 

[The Guy Who Has Many Alts]

I am nomming Tyranitar-Mega to S rank.

Thanks to STAB Knock Off and Stone Axe, very few can boast of Tyranitar's achievements: being unwallable. Tyranitar is a fantastic offensive RegenVest that compresses utility, offensive presence and defensive presence into one. It can even run Combat Torque to punish unsuspecting Imposters, Ting-Lu and Registeels. It's also the perfect bait for Fighting types so it consistently gives a free entry for your favourite mon Flutter Mane or Flying-types.

"The man who knocks" redefines the concept of regenvest pivots in 2025 generation 9 balanced hackmons.

 

[cityscapes]

raikou should be ranked, at least d but maybe in c somewhere. the basic idea is that it works similar to eleceus for most relevant purposes, but then doesn't take the arc slot. i've been consistently making use of this mon on various offense structures (though i see no reason why it wouldn't work the same on balance) and i have no complaints at all with it.

in fact, raikou is actually better at eleceus at winning th wars, because lower hp makes its sap stronger (which also means that you heal for more on flutter/zam/aud) and lower atk makes it a better sapblocker. i offer here a demonstration of raikou switching in on eleceus's cage and winning the 1v1 with minimal hax: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2465443867 there exists another game where raikou won vs both a leftovers imposter and a scales eleceus, but i won't post that one here because i assume my opponent wants it hidden.

the main downside is that due to the slightly lower stats, it can be less reliable at holding down the fort vs special wallbreakers like mgarde zam and off etern. in response i claim that eleceus shouldn't be your only line of defense against these threats in the first place, as their attack stats are too low for sap to consistently hard-wall them. just carry raikou for the vast majority of th arc, fist plate steelceus, and the 2 people who still use sceptile, and bring someone else to handle the specs clickers + off flutter and you're good to go.

theoretically it would also be possible to use bellibolt or mmane for similar purposes but i think raikou is by far the best at the job, being fast enough to sap most stuff from low hp is so nice, and the 90/75/100 bulk goes much further than you'd expect while 115 spa is on-par with arc and sufficient to e.g. ohko chomp with +1 icebeam.

 

[BurntWaffles]

I think xurkitree deserves a spot in probably D, with electric surge + rising voltage, it 2hkos most special walls scales arceus, blissey, audino mega, and most regenvests. ohkos nearly all non-special walls, and with hazards is almost unwallable. it is a great stallbreaker, and can come in on more defensive mons on balance and basically guarantee a ko, since strong electric attackers are not very common, quite a lot of cores don't wall it reliably it can also make progress against counters by 2hkoing them with coverage, it also pairs nicely with either kyurem white or gardevoir in breaking cores.

but it also has several downsides, mainly its speed tier as any offensive mon outspeeds and kos. it is also walled by resist ice scales such as eternatus and arceus electric, lu is immune to rising voltage, and ho oh surprisingly walls it due to not being grounded, and while coverage options 2hko these walls, they can still come it on rising voltage, and most importantly garchomp can come in on a voltage and threaten a ko or setup, but with pivots to come in on slow mons, and offensive partners that beat these counters these weaknesses can be diminished.

it is a fairly reliable attacker and stall breaker on semi stall, hazard stack, HO and maybe even webs teams, imo it should be ranked as a niche attacker with almost unparalleled attacking power, that on certain teams can be amazing with help beating its counters, if you think it doesnt deserve to be ranked, please feel free to tell me in a reply.

btw this is the set I've had success with on ladder:
Xurkitree @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Modest Nature
- Rising Voltage
- Volt Switch
- Sandsear Storm
- Ice Beam

 

[cityscapes]

View attachment 788283I think xurkitree deserves a spot in probably D, with electric surge + rising voltage, it 2hkos most special walls scales arceus, blissey, audino mega, and most regenvests. ohkos nearly all non-special walls, and with hazards is almost unwallable. it is a great stallbreaker, and can come in on more defensive mons on balance and basically guarantee a ko, since strong electric attackers are not very common, quite a lot of cores don't wall it reliably it can also make progress against counters by 2hkoing them with coverage, it also pairs nicely with either kyurem white or gardevoir in breaking cores.

but it also has several downsides, mainly its speed tier as any offensive mon outspeeds and kos. it is also walled by resist ice scales such as eternatus and arceus electric, lu is immune to rising voltage, and ho oh surprisingly walls it due to not being grounded, and while coverage options 2hko these walls, they can still come it on rising voltage, and most importantly garchomp can come in on a voltage and threaten a ko or setup, but with pivots to come in on slow mons, and offensive partners that beat these counters these weaknesses can be diminished.

it is a fairly reliable attacker and stall breaker on semi stall, hazard stack, HO and maybe even webs teams, imo it should be ranked as a niche attacker with almost unparalleled attacking power, that on certain teams can be amazing with help beating its counters, if you think it doesnt deserve to be ranked, please feel free to tell me in a reply.

btw this is the set I've had success with on ladder:
Xurkitree @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Modest Nature
- Rising Voltage
- Volt Switch
- Sandsear Storm
- Ice Beam

not really a xurk believer. first of all, let me explain why i think this mon is bad on offense specifically. speed and (perhaps surprisingly) defensive utility are extremely high-value traits on offense mons, and xurk has neither, resisting nothing and switching into nothing. i've gotten some good use out of mons such as primarina, empoleon, ferrothorn, kingambit, and mega altaria on offense despite their offense stats being a fraction of xurkitree's. the reason for this is that they're much harder to dislodge, matching up well into common progress makers and doing a good job at harassing the regenvests that come in to grab momentum and spin away their hazards. so they can end up clicking attack after attack, while xurkitree only gets to attack once and then has to run away (specs also doesn't help with this).

if i did want to use xurk on offense, the set i'd probably consider first would be take heart/thunder cage/ice beam/sap, leftovers, speed boost. the imposter matchup here is kind of dubious cause they can try to kill you with ice beam, but i can see the extra power and speed being legitimately really good compared to competing th users; you can very realistically get through softer answers like topsy flutter and knocked regenvests. from there i'd probably add on an "anti-th th" like bounce fairyceus or scales groundceus (taking care to prep for blobs) and continue the team as normal. the idea is that by fixing xurk's speed with speed boost and its survivability with th/sap, its strength (special attack) is able to shine through more.

you can also try sun growth speed boost or torch unburden but that works on like any mon in the game, and also xurk struggles cause of low survivability (making it harder to switch in and set up) and inability to ohko imposter from +2. i had this one gen7 team with specs triage xurk, but this (and its np/th triage cousins) are generally pretty silly.

with aggressive elecs, i think you'll get more success out of mirai, pika, ampharos (prank dbond), hands (something like leftovers hazard/2atks/bunker adapt), or sandy shocks. not including eleki here because it unfortunately does not do damage.

anyway, moving on to slower styles like balance. my first thought here was "what does this do over zam, they lose to all the same things except for specifically spdef steels, and zam has speed" then i thought of using both of them together and realized that was actually pretty funny:

Xurkitree @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Rising Voltage
- Sandsear Storm / Volt Switch
- Fleur Cannon / Ice Beam
- Knock Off

Alakazam-Mega @ Choice Specs
Ability: Beads of Ruin
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psycho Boost
- Moongeist Beam
- Volt Switch
- Fleur Cannon

the synergy here isn't bad, knock xurk will be really effective at drawing in specifically regenvest ting and imposter to get knocked, leaving zam to go crazy as a result. this is a fine core and you can build a fine team around it. unfortunately, knock xurk improofing throws a wrench in our double regenvest + fc + imposter schema, but we can amend this with options such as fleur xurk + fc tidy/shackle groundceus with ogre and registeel as the regenvests.

but also look at this shit. i came up with this in like 5 seconds:

Greninja-Ash (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive / Rash Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 SpD
- Water Spout
- Steam Eruption
- Volt Switch
- Moonblast [for koraidon/giratina] / Fleur Cannon / something else, idk

Sandy Shocks @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Sandsear Storm
- Thunder / Wildbolt Storm [more reliable vs desolate land hooh]
- Steam Eruption
- Knock Off

how 2 use: step 1) lead gren vs imp, step 2) hard shocks on volt switch and bluff water absorb

anyway, specs gren can be really finicky at the best of times, but at a glance this core looks a lot more fluid to use than the one above. we aren't wholly reliant on choice item predictions to do anything at all, opposing imposter is on a much shorter timer, shocks unambiguously ohkos itemless ting in rain, just in general the number of mons that can expect to survive vs this is pretty small. gren counter + defensive flutter can maybe do it, blissey can do it, weird scales like zac can do it. who cares. throw on fist plate gag steelceus 3rd (to block split), run like giratina + fc zac + regenvest guy/imp or some shit, watch the wins cascade into your palm. (edit: i got a ladder game here, gren/shocks/steelceus just tear apart the overly passive core)

i would say that the takeaway from all of this is that 1) extremely one-dimensional sets can be strong, but i don't think they're ever the best options available and they're nearly always contingent on matchups and/or choice predictions, and 2) xurkitree doesn't really lend itself to any other type of set. so i would rather see other unranked mons get a spot before it.

 

[BurntWaffles]

not really a xurk believer. first of all, let me explain why i think this mon is bad on offense specifically. speed and (perhaps surprisingly) defensive utility are extremely high-value traits on offense mons, and xurk has neither, resisting nothing and switching into nothing. i've gotten some good use out of mons such as primarina, empoleon, ferrothorn, kingambit, and mega altaria on offense despite their offense stats being a fraction of xurkitree's. the reason for this is that they're much harder to dislodge, matching up well into common progress makers and doing a good job at harassing the regenvests that come in to grab momentum and spin away their hazards. so they can end up clicking attack after attack, while xurkitree only gets to attack once and then has to run away (specs also doesn't help with this).

if i did want to use xurk on offense, the set i'd probably consider first would be take heart/thunder cage/ice beam/sap, leftovers, speed boost. the imposter matchup here is kind of dubious cause they can try to kill you with ice beam, but i can see the extra power and speed being legitimately really good compared to competing th users; you can very realistically get through softer answers like topsy flutter and knocked regenvests. from there i'd probably add on an "anti-th th" like bounce fairyceus or scales groundceus (taking care to prep for blobs) and continue the team as normal. the idea is that by fixing xurk's speed with speed boost and its survivability with th/sap, its strength (special attack) is able to shine through more.

you can also try sun growth speed boost or torch unburden but that works on like any mon in the game, and also xurk struggles cause of low survivability (making it harder to switch in and set up) and inability to ohko imposter from +2. i had this one gen7 team with specs triage xurk, but this (and its np/th triage cousins) are generally pretty silly.

with aggressive elecs, i think you'll get more success out of mirai, pika, ampharos (prank dbond), hands (something like leftovers hazard/2atks/bunker adapt), or sandy shocks. not including eleki here because it unfortunately does not do damage.

anyway, moving on to slower styles like balance. my first thought here was "what does this do over zam, they lose to all the same things except for specifically spdef steels, and zam has speed" then i thought of using both of them together and realized that was actually pretty funny:

Xurkitree @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Rising Voltage
- Sandsear Storm / Volt Switch
- Fleur Cannon / Ice Beam
- Knock Off

Alakazam-Mega @ Choice Specs
Ability: Beads of Ruin
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psycho Boost
- Moongeist Beam
- Volt Switch
- Fleur Cannon

the synergy here isn't bad, knock xurk will be really effective at drawing in specifically regenvest ting and imposter to get knocked, leaving zam to go crazy as a result. this is a fine core and you can build a fine team around it. unfortunately, knock xurk improofing throws a wrench in our double regenvest + fc + imposter schema, but we can amend this with options such as fleur xurk + fc tidy/shackle groundceus with ogre and registeel as the regenvests.

but also look at this shit. i came up with this in like 5 seconds:

Greninja-Ash (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive / Rash Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 SpD
- Water Spout
- Steam Eruption
- Volt Switch
- Moonblast [for koraidon/giratina] / Fleur Cannon / something else, idk

Sandy Shocks @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Sandsear Storm
- Thunder / Wildbolt Storm [more reliable vs desolate land hooh]
- Steam Eruption
- Knock Off

how 2 use: step 1) lead gren vs imp, step 2) hard shocks on volt switch and bluff water absorb

anyway, specs gren can be really finicky at the best of times, but at a glance this core looks a lot more fluid to use than the one above. we aren't wholly reliant on choice item predictions to do anything at all, opposing imposter is on a much shorter timer, shocks unambiguously ohkos itemless ting in rain, just in general the number of mons that can expect to survive vs this is pretty small. gren counter + defensive flutter can maybe do it, blissey can do it, weird scales like zac can do it. who cares. throw on fist plate gag steelceus 3rd (to block split), run like giratina + fc zac + regenvest guy/imp or some shit, watch the wins cascade into your palm. (edit: i got a ladder game here, gren/shocks/steelceus just tear apart the overly passive core)

i would say that the takeaway from all of this is that 1) extremely one-dimensional sets can be strong, but i don't think they're ever the best options available and they're nearly always contingent on matchups and/or choice predictions, and 2) xurkitree doesn't really lend itself to any other type of set. so i would rather see other unranked mons get a spot before it.

yeah sorry i was probably just glazing xurkitree cuz its extremely fun to use on semistall and webs teams since those help with its weaknesses and i got top 10 with it, but i see how other offensive electrics and zam are better than it in most scenarios, i am going to try that speed boost set and the zam synergy tho, it looks like a fun combo that could work well. Oh and other unrankeds such as raikou you said earlier definitely be ranked before it.