BH Balanced Hackmons

[lph]

DLC is here!

While there are many interesting additions to the metagame from returning Pokemon to newly introduced moves, the most meta-defining addition should undoubtedly be Chansey. Boasting an incredible HP and access to Eviolite, it would most likely make Imposter much more viable and threatening.

However, I feel that there is still much unexplored of Chansey beyond its classic Imposter set. It has a great Special Defense stat backed up with Eviolite, and it can even be physically defensive in some sets. Here are a few sets and an overview of Chansey:

50 shades of chansey

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk, 0 Spe

• Aromatherapy
• Will-O-Wisp
• Wish
• Teleport

don’t use it and waste ur valuable chansey slot smh

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Ice Scales
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Soft-Boiled
• Teleport
• Knock Off / Spectral Thief
• Will-O-Wisp / Spectral Thief

Ice Scales Chansey does a wonderful job in being a catch-all sponge for special attackers. Its insane bulk is self-explanatory, it comes in and basically forces out every special attacker. Mold Breakers couldn’t do much as it already has insane special bulk. Even Pokemon like Psystrike Lunala/ Mewtwo couldn’t bypass it as Ice Scales applies to all special moves.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Will-O-Wisp
• Soft-Boiled
• Spectral Thief
• Teleport

Chansey reaches 356 Defense with Fur Coat and Eviolite. That’s really bulky paired with a titanic HP. It catches all the physical breakers attempting to heavily damage Chansey by taking minimal damage and using Will-O-Wisp. The rest of the set is self-explanatory.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature

• Soft-Boiled
• Rapid Spin
• Stealth Rock
• Parting Shot

Magic Bounce is just a great defensive ability, and it pairs well with Chansey’s natural bulk to have solid Hazards control for your team. This set also sets hazards as Chansey usually gets a lot of free turns from tanking hits and forcing switches.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Soft-Boiled / Knock Off / Spectral Thief
• Super Fang
• Teleport
• Purify

Unset #1: This Chansey forces switches as usual, and uses Super Fang on whatever the opponent sends in, heavily weakening their attackers or forcing their walls to Recover, while you tank another hit and Teleport away and regenerate your health. I also thought it would be a good idea to punish Poison Heal switch-ins by using Purify after they absorbed a Knock Off. Unset but I think it could catch a lot of people off guard.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk, 0 Spe

• Teleport
• Soft-Boiled
• Wonder Room
• Haze

Unset #2: Prankster Hazer with Wonder Room to catch physical breakers off guard. Under Wonder Room it takes any physical attacks like a champ and Teleports out as they switch. Too bad it’s pretty passive outside of forcing switches


Overall Chansey allows a lot of creativity in its sets given its amazing bulk, but it heavily relies on Eviolite and it’s pretty passive in general, as seen in the sets above. It’s very prone to Knock Off and Taunt, also non-Fur Coat sets get smashed by physical attackers. Given these checks here’s a few partners in crime to further support Chansey:


Poison Heal sets are a great partner for Chansey, being able to absorb Knock Offs, provide offensive pressure and amazing utility. I like the idea of Lava Plume Reshiram or other users with Will-O-Wisp, to help cover Chansey’s weakness in physical attackers. In return, Chansey can provide safe switch-ins to PHealers with Teleport, Wish support or even Super Fang and Teleport into strong attacks from the PHealers.

use imp blissey lmao Imposters are great for scouting opponents’ sets to prevent any mixed attackers from surprise KOing Chansey like a V-Create Mixed Reshiram.


Again, Fur Coat users cover Chansey’s physical weakness while Chansey tanks special hits that these can’t handle, forming a FurScales core which are usually hard to break.

Checks to these cores:

• Physical Mold Breakers can greatly punish Fur Coaters which are usually weak to Ground/Dragon, and has the potential to OHKO Chansey. Some Memory sets (Ground or Dragon) is even self-improof to discourage Imposters.
• Psychic spam can be a good way to bypass Chansey’s special bulk, by Photon Geyser boosting or Psystrike. They can also OHKO Eternatus which is one of the most prominent Fur Coat user. oh maybe a surprise belly drum so photon becomes physical
• Dedicated Offensive cores to FurScales can pressure both Chansey and Eternatus/ Reshiram (just listing a few FC users there’s a list going on)
• belly drum unburden sweep ha

For me, Chansey is a pretty solid addition to the metagame, it could cause some troubles because Imposters (or some of you say unhealthy) but I think the meta would soon evolve to adapt to it. I don’t think anything should be banned apart from Dynamaxing Imposter. Thanks for reading and feel free to add some more Chanseys below!

 

[MAMP]

A few new things I've used in the new DLC meta:


its tangrowth (Tangrowth) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Teleport
- Baneful Bunker
- Apple Acid
- Scorching Sands

Tangrowth is a pretty solid Zekrom counter and is good at coming in on random defensive mons and pivoting about and never dying. Apple Acid + Scorching Sands can make it a bit annoying to switch into and stops opponents from just futzing around in front of it, especially with the threat of dynamaxing to kill an opponent with lowered stats.

Urshifu-Gmax @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Low Kick
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Will-O-Wisp

(other probably good options: Sucker Punch, Shift Gear, protect variant, hazards, pivoting, Purify)

Urshifu-SS can function as a decent PH spinner that also solidly checks the increasingly popular Lunala, Mewtwo, and Dragapult. This can be pretty threatening late-game with Max Knuckle + Spin boosts. Benefits a lot if people start running fighting moves less often on Zama-C to beat Imposter more consistently. For Urshifu-SS I think Gmax is better than regular because it can't really take advantage of Max Darkness drops at all.

Zarude @ Leftovers
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Shore Up
- Leech Seed
- Spectral Thief

I'm unsure if Zarude is any good, but there's definitely some potential. It has solid physical bulk, outspeeds all the base 9Xs, and its typing lets it take on Zekrom and psychic types decently well. The issue with it I think is how much it gets owned by random coverage moves like V-create, Blue Flare or U-turn. I don't have much faith in offensive sets, but there's a lot of cool options like Grav Apple and Taunt on this that are worth experimenting with. Fun meme: Grav Apple > Soft Sand Max Quake is a good roll to kill non-FC Reshiram and only needs a bit of chip to kill Zama-C, Zekrom, and Eternatus.


Magearna @ Metal Coat
Ability: Tinted Lens
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Doom Desire
- Moonblast
- Nasty Plot
- Roost

Like the Dialga sets of yore. Dynamax is great for these kinds of Doom Desire sets, because the constant threat of a +2 Tinted Max Steelspike really limits the opponent's ability to play around Doom Desire. I think this pairs well with PH Zekrom, who can switch in on a lot of stuff that beats this and really benefits from the extra offensive pressure that Doom Desire provides. Lots of defensive Magearna sets going around on ladder rn, so this appreciates the surprise factor. Pretty tough to Imposter-proof. Also a great Reshiram lure: +2 252+ SpA Metal Coat Tinted Lens Magearna Max Steelspike vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Reshiram: 420-494 (103.9 - 122.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO


Eternatus @ Black Sludge
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Shore Up
- Dynamax Cannon
- Scorching Sands

Defensive Eternatus often ran moves like Scald and Lava Plume to chip down checks (particularly Zama-C), and I think Scorching Sands is going to better a lot of the time. It annoyingly has less PP but less is immune to it and it's generally just better coverage.


Mewtwo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Expanding Force
- Volt Switch
- Trick
- Earth Power

Expanding Force is implemented wrong on PS atm and has 32 PP and doubles in power under terrain, which is completely bananas. Even when it's coded correctly as 16 PP and 1.5x under terrain it's still an upgrade for Psychic Surge Mewtwo despite not having the utility of Photon Geyser or Psystrike. I don't know if this 20% boost is actually enough to make Specs PSurge Mewtwo worth running however.

There's heaps of new stuff still to explore! I'm particularly interested in Dragapult sets with Poltergeist atm, I'll try building with that and let you all know how it goes.

 

[Champion Leon]

DLC is here!

While there are many interesting additions to the metagame from returning Pokemon to newly introduced moves, the most meta-defining addition should undoubtedly be Chansey. Boasting an incredible HP and access to Eviolite, it would most likely make Imposter much more viable and threatening.

However, I feel that there is still much unexplored of Chansey beyond its classic Imposter set. It has a great Special Defense stat backed up with Eviolite, and it can even be physically defensive in some sets. Here are a few sets and an overview of Chansey:

50 shades of chansey

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk, 0 Spe

• Aromatherapy
• Will-O-Wisp
• Wish
• Teleport

don’t use it and waste ur valuable chansey slot smh

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Ice Scales
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Soft-Boiled
• Teleport
• Knock Off / Spectral Thief
• Will-O-Wisp / Spectral Thief

Ice Scales Chansey does a wonderful job in being a catch-all sponge for special attackers. Its insane bulk is self-explanatory, it comes in and basically forces out every special attacker. Mold Breakers couldn’t do much as it already has insane special bulk. Even Pokemon like Psystrike Lunala/ Mewtwo couldn’t bypass it as Ice Scales applies to all special moves.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Will-O-Wisp
• Soft-Boiled
• Spectral Thief
• Teleport

Chansey reaches 356 Defense with Fur Coat and Eviolite. That’s really bulky paired with a titanic HP. It catches all the physical breakers attempting to heavily damage Chansey by taking minimal damage and using Will-O-Wisp. The rest of the set is self-explanatory.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature

• Soft-Boiled
• Rapid Spin
• Stealth Rock
• Parting Shot

Magic Bounce is just a great defensive ability, and it pairs well with Chansey’s natural bulk to have solid Hazards control for your team. This set also sets hazards as Chansey usually gets a lot of free turns from tanking hits and forcing switches.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Soft-Boiled / Knock Off / Spectral Thief
• Super Fang
• Teleport
• Purify

Unset #1: This Chansey forces switches as usual, and uses Super Fang on whatever the opponent sends in, heavily weakening their attackers or forcing their walls to Recover, while you tank another hit and Teleport away and regenerate your health. I also thought it would be a good idea to punish Poison Heal switch-ins by using Purify after they absorbed a Knock Off. Unset but I think it could catch a lot of people off guard.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk, 0 Spe

• Teleport
• Soft-Boiled
• Wonder Room
• Haze

Unset #2: Prankster Hazer with Wonder Room to catch physical breakers off guard. Under Wonder Room it takes any physical attacks like a champ and Teleports out as they switch. Too bad it’s pretty passive outside of forcing switches


Overall Chansey allows a lot of creativity in its sets given its amazing bulk, but it heavily relies on Eviolite and it’s pretty passive in general, as seen in the sets above. It’s very prone to Knock Off and Taunt, also non-Fur Coat sets get smashed by physical attackers. Given these checks here’s a few partners in crime to further support Chansey:


Poison Heal sets are a great partner for Chansey, being able to absorb Knock Offs, provide offensive pressure and amazing utility. I like the idea of Lava Plume Reshiram or other users with Will-O-Wisp, to help cover Chansey’s weakness in physical attackers. In return, Chansey can provide safe switch-ins to PHealers with Teleport, Wish support or even Super Fang and Teleport into strong attacks from the PHealers.

use imp blissey lmao Imposters are great for scouting opponents’ sets to prevent any mixed attackers from surprise KOing Chansey like a V-Create Mixed Reshiram.


Again, Fur Coat users cover Chansey’s physical weakness while Chansey tanks special hits that these can’t handle, forming a FurScales core which are usually hard to break.

Checks to these cores:

• Physical Mold Breakers can greatly punish Fur Coaters which are usually weak to Ground/Dragon, and has the potential to OHKO Chansey. Some Memory sets (Ground or Dragon) is even self-improof to discourage Imposters.
• Psychic spam can be a good way to bypass Chansey’s special bulk, by Photon Geyser boosting or Psystrike. They can also OHKO Eternatus which is one of the most prominent Fur Coat user. oh maybe a surprise belly drum so photon becomes physical
• Dedicated Offensive cores to FurScales can pressure both Chansey and Eternatus/ Reshiram (just listing a few FC users there’s a list going on)
• belly drum unburden sweep ha

For me, Chansey is a pretty solid addition to the metagame, it could cause some troubles because Imposters (or some of you say unhealthy) but I think the meta would soon evolve to adapt to it. I don’t think anything should be banned apart from Dynamaxing Imposter. Thanks for reading and feel free to add some more Chanseys below!

Replace Aromatherapy and Wish with the new move: Jungle Healing.

“The user becomes one with the jungle, restoring HP and healing any status conditions of itself and its ally Pokémon in battle.”

Now your Chansey can have a spare move if it cannot Imposter.

Also; you are forgetting Triage, which is a great ability since it boosts Purify, in addition to Jungle Healing, while Aromatherapy was never boosted by Triage, as a possible option over your Regenerator (un)set.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Recover
• Teleport
• Super Fang
• Purify

Healing yourself first makes a huge difference, as does applying Purify before a foe can Taunt (like MAMP ‘s PH Mewtwo set), or Substitute (PH Zekrom), etc.
—————
I would like to make a post about Jungle Healing as a whole.

The move is a game-changer, now you can cure yourself of W-o-W, Nuzzle, Toxic (Spikes), etc. and basically recover at no opportunity cost, and while I do not know if it is a 50% Heal, it’s certainly better than just using Refresh with no Heal.

Jungle Healing will be used by every wall, and can change the viability of whether status move will be as prevalent in the metagame post DLC, as they were pre-DLC.

——————
Next Technician got a HUGE boost in viable options:

https://serebii.net/swordshield/isleofarmormovetutor.shtml

Plus other moves naturally learned and not tutored, like Wicker Strike.

Urshifu Rapid Strike Style @ Choice Band / Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Triple Axel
- Flip Turn
- Storm Throw
- Surging Strikes

Surging Strikes with Technician, becomes on par with Fishous Rend, without the need for a Speed Boost, while also boosting its other moves. (and not Imposter).

 

[a loser]

I would like to make a post about Jungle Healing as a whole.

The move is a game-changer, now you can cure yourself of W-o-W, Nuzzle, Toxic (Spikes), etc. and basically recover at no opportunity cost, and while I do not know if it is a 50% Heal, it’s certainly better than just using Refresh with no Heal.

Jungle Healing will be used by every wall, and can change the viability of whether status move will be as prevalent in the metagame post DLC, as they were pre-DLC.

Let's slow down a bit here. First off, the wording of this move heavily implies that it is to be used in doubles to heal ally Pokemon, NOT Pokemon in your party. I'm pretty sure it is confirmed to heal 25% as well, from what I've seen in the datamines. 25% healing + Refresh is certainly unlike other healing moves, but with Poison Heal being so common and much more reliable recovery moves to choose from, I do not think this move will be a game changer.

Chansey

How do you manage to post six Chansey sets and not mention Metal Burst in one of them? Super Fang is kinda cool to make Chansey less passive, but Ghost-types are also kinda rising in usage lately so I'm not sure it should be a staple on sets.

 

[Champion Leon]

Let's slow down a bit here. First off, the wording of this move heavily implies that it is to be used in doubles to heal ally Pokemon, NOT Pokemon in your party. I'm pretty sure it is confirmed to heal 25% as well, from what I've seen in the datamines. 25% healing + Refresh is certainly unlike other healing moves, but with Poison Heal being so common and much more reliable recovery moves to choose from, I do not think this move will be a game changer.

How do you manage to post six Chansey sets and not mention Metal Burst in one of them? Super Fang is kinda cool to make Chansey less passive, but Ghost-types are also kinda rising in usage lately so I'm not sure it should be a staple on sets.

”Jungle Healing restores the HP of the user and its allies by 25% of their maximum HP, and heals any non-volatile status conditions they may have.” Bulbapedia / Serebii finally updated.

Ya I meant to edit my point on “Aromatherapy” to “Refresh” on all mentions, I forgot to edit the first part of my post to match the latter part where I stick to Refresh. I suspected the same as you did.

If I had the updates earlier then I wouldn’t have posted, knowing the 25% Heal.

Although, if you do have Poison Healers (or my Zacian set), it would be a useful alternative to Aromatherapy; so you don’t have to worry about Knock Off, since you can maintain your status condition.

It is more of a replacement for Refresh / Aromatherapy, especially with the recent popularity surge of Poison Heal; and not the replacement for Recover that I thought it would be.

Ultimately, it would make the most sense on a fast, bulky, physical support that doesn’t like Paralysis, or Burn, and cannot take advantage of Poison Heal, such as Zamazenta-Crowned, although it would require Leftovers support, and possibly a Protect-clone move (such as Obstruct, to lower the opponents’ Defense stat for next turn follow-up). This would mean recovering 37.5% HP before your foe can land a hit, or it could partner well on Triage sets so it could possibly recover via attacks like Drain Punch, and be a useful Burn remover.

In the end, if it recovered more than 25%, then it would have been the game-changer it wanted to be. So I agree it is hard to justify really using it. Better luck next new healing move!

Also, I am excited to see the new combinations for the new moves, not just to pair with Technician, but also to pair well with the new Pokemon. At the very least, we have new Dark-types that can work to replace whatever viability Tyranitar and Bisharp once had, and punish the rise of Ghost-types.

 

[a loser]

The Magnificent Seven: The Best BH Battles to Binge from OMPL VIII
OMPL VIII is finally almost over (pending a tiebreak game that might not even happen) so I wanted to gather up the best games I could find so anyone out-of-the-loop could catch up on what happened.

Tack :] vs GL Volkner
Let’s start by addressing by far the worst game of Balanced Hackmons from this season, and likely the worst I’ve ever seen. If you’ve never seen this battle, do yourself a favor and don’t watch it. A brilliant summary of the game is shown below, though.

MAMP said:
With no offense intended to either of the players, this is one of the worst tournament BH games of all time. From Tack's mono-Strength Sap Prankster Eternatus that couldn't recover vs Mandibuzz, to Volk letting the Mewtwo that won from preview take 70 for no reason and then wasting his dynamax, to the awful 95 turn double trap, this game really had it all. A recurring theme here was that Tack seemed unfamiliar with how to play PP stall situations. Keeping a Strength Sap PP with Zacian instead of Wisp/Entrainment was questionable but ultimately low stakes, but the way he kept using PP unnecessarily in the potentially winnable protracted PP stall endgame was pretty frustrating to watch. In this game, a PH Zamazenta intentionally ran fully out of PP on all of its moves so that it could use Struggle for more consistent damage against an Incineroar. In this game, both players said gg more than 200 turns before the game actually ended. In this game, 5 Pokemon were stalled completely out of their attacking moves, and 3 of them died to Struggle recoil. To top it all off, the players messed up trying to end the game on turn 420 (haha funny weed number lol), with Tack instead forfeiting at the beginning of turn 421. Btw, the game was still winnable for Tack at this stage — Volk was forced to eventually click attacks with Mewtwo to stop Tack from switching back and forth, and if Tack switched Golis into Earth Power so that Mewtwo died to Life Orb he could've stalled out the last 3 Scalds and won the match. A complete travesty of a match.

7. PinkDragonTamer vs highlighter
While the outcome of this game might look a little lopsided, this was one of the funnest games to watch this season thanks to PDT’s hot tech with Facade Snorlax, Baton Pass, and some extremely skillful play with two mons at very low health putting in work.

6. Gurpreet Patel (Sent you a Friend Request) vs DF-Shock
This was a pretty wacky game, with both sides having to deal with at least two layers of spikes for 65 turns and most of the major work being done by like four mons. This was pretty hax-filled, with a miss and seven full paras, four of which were consecutive and resulted in a KO. Things are really looking up for DF-Shock until he makes a series of questionable plays, resulting in a surprise comeback for SL42.

5. Gurpreet Patel (Sent you a Friend Request) vs MAMP
This game was really interesting because as early as turn 5, we see that MAMP’s Kyu-W can completely tear through SL42’s team if played carefully. Unfortunately for MAMP, it wasn’t played carefully and took chip all five times it entered the field, either from hazards or attacks.

4. sugarhigh vs PinkDragonTamer
This is a classic BH tour game of offense vs offense. Clocking in at only 18 turns, this game was clean, fast-paced, and fun to watch while it lasted.

3. GL Volkner vs highlighter
This game was really fun to watch, as Volk starts out with a ton of momentum thanks to his Zekrom, but then has the momentum flip-flopped for the rest of the match when HL’s Zekrom tanks an Adaptability LO Draco Meteor thanks to Dynamax bulk and a Haban berry. After that Volk does his best to dig out of the hole, and almost gets there. A great match between two great players, definitely didn’t disappoint.

2. Gurpreet Patel (Sent you a Friend Request) vs dimrah
I was really looking forward to this matchup, pairing one of the best BH players of all time against the up-and-coming ladder hero, and it didn’t disappoint either. Both teams were neat and both sides played very well, and the game was pretty clean with key misses on both sides to even it out.

1. MAMP vs dimrah
This was hands down the most entertaining battle to watch. I feel like this game shows just how important each turn is, and one small difference can help change the outcome of the game. I wish we could have seen more dimrah this season, cause he’s just really fun to watch.

 

[Champion Leon]

Marshadow @ Sitrus Berry / Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum / Swords Dance
- Poltergeist
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch / Flying Press

Break the opponent without resorting to the 1x use Unburden. Imposterproof since you use up your item, and thus Poltergeist cannot hurt you, but you can KO Imposter.

Mach Punch can be used to 1HKO Prankster Hazers (Snorlax, Umbreon, etc.), while Flying Press offers coverage for Pokemon like Urshifu, and Zarude (4x effectiveness) to KO before setting up, and threatens Pokemon like Zamazenta-base form.

+6 252+ Atk Marshadow Mach Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Umbreon: 378-446 (95.9 - 113.1%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

+6 252+ Atk Marshadow Mach Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Snorlax: 524-620 (100 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 252+ Atk Marshadow Flying Press vs. +1 252 HP / 252 Def Zamazenta: 500-590 (128.8 - 152%) -- guaranteed OHKO

EDIT:

The Dynamax factor -

If you get Hazed by something else, like Eternatus, you can Dynamax to add pressure via Max-Phantasm, to lower their Def and break them, so they cannot just Spam Recover / Haze in a row.

Max Knuckle can also re-boost your attack, which helps if you can no longer Belly Drum.

 

[cityscapes]

"uhhh maybe we can open up samples in a week maybe when the meta has formulated" -bad unplayers
https://pokepast.es/4d18fe9fe4e78e76


this team plays similarly to balance teams in standard tiers so it serves as a decent introduction to those who are new to bh. the basic gameplan of the team changes depending on which matchup you're playing. urshifu, etern, and zekrom serve as the non-passive mons that do most of the breaking work while gear + slowbro is the defensive core and imposter helps out vs ladder stuff.

i have included some replays so you can see how the team is typically played.
vs offense:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1137668505
vs balance:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1137576288
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1137674188
vs stall:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1136566124
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1137615638

while this team has served me well and been quite consistent on ladder, it relies on somewhat delicate positioning and i could see it becoming unviable pretty quickly once people figure out how to use stuff like zac-c. that said, i think having samples in place in a new metagame is important, so that's why i submitted it so early.

 

[Giznawzdnunie]

it doesn't have to be cinerace any fast physical attacker will do and the moves are interchangeable as long as they have recoil. I chose these move specifically because they have 100% accuracy

Cinderace
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 1 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- Volt Tackle

 

[a loser]

Cinderace
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 1 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- Volt Tackle

Welcome to Smogon and thanks for posting in the thread! For any future posts, please try to avoid simply posting sets without describing their purpose or providing replays of them in action, if you have them.

Using Rock Head attackers is a pretty common trend I've seen from people new to Balanced Hackmons, and most quickly learn that Magic Guard is an all-around better ability since it avoids recoil damage along with indirect damage like entry hazards. You mention Cinderace is not required on the set, which is good because it is outclassed by the faster and stronger Darmanitan-Galar-Zen. A good example of a Magic Guard attacker is shown below.

Darmanitan-Galar-Zen @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create / Flare Blitz
- Icicle Crash
- Bolt Beak / Wood Hammer
- High Jump Kick
. . . . . . . .
Even though this DLC meta is very new still, feel free to submit your own sample teams for review now. Please use the guidelines found in this post when submitting your teams. Since the meta is still adapting, I strongly encourage you to thoroughly play-test your team on the ladder before submitting to be reviewed. After we've gotten a handful of submissions, the council will review and try to get some new samples up sooner than later.So while I'm here, I'm gonna submit a team for samples as well.

Team Name: The Heist
Short Description: Balanced Offense built around strong Physical and Special attackers
How to use the team: Spread burns by spamming Lava Plume and Scorching Sands to keep physical attackers at bay and keep Poison Heal users honest with Venoshock Eternatus and Worry Seed Darm-Z. Mewtwo acts as a great stall breaker and late-game cleaner with powerful Life Orb boosted attacks that ignore Ice Scales and great longevity with Strength Sap. Lunala is a neat spinner/spinblocker with Baneful Bunker and Hex to punish contact moves and threaten Ghost-types. Zama-C can come in on most special attackers thanks to its Assault Vest and steal boosts from any setup attempts. Darm-Z is a great check to most Zacian-C and DGZ sets but must be kept healthy and watch out for lures like Fishious Rend to perform best. Prankster Zekrom is a neat disrupter that can do big damage with priority Bolt Beak and stall out Dynamax turns with Substitute in a pinch.
Match-ups: Unburden Belly Drum is not a great matchup, depending on the drummer, as this team doesn't have Prankster Haze. It is not always easy to anticipate a drummer, but they can be played around with a well-timed burn or Spectral Thief. Tweaking Zekrom's role to a support mon with moves like Haze, Glare, and Recovery in the last three slots makes the Drum matchup much better while keeping team synergy intact. This team fairs well against Imposter, as each mon can be taken advantage of by a teammate in one way or another.
Effectiveness: This team has given me success on the ladder and in some room tours. It is pretty straightforward to use and holds its own in both short and long battles.

Against Stall:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1133181285-ez07mhb5rmqumx
5o9cbi1xxc88egt3epw
Against Balance:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1133700512-422gvoqgsocd7do6xtl1vqlbdt995o4pw
Against Offense:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1133304681-plxu30k90nt7rn8c03p3krsc3z55ktnpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1140154158

 

[TeddiursaYoshi216]

Intrepid sword must go. There are reasons why other attack-boosting abilities have huge drawbacks.
Gorilla tactics locks you into into your first move, which can easily be played around due to this meta having a ton of walls.
Hustle makes you miss 100% 20% of your attacks, which is bad because of recover spam.
Intrepid sword can sometimes force the opponent to run an unaware or fur coat physically defensive wall like Toxapex or Golisopod. Intrepid sword is is just baby huge power, which is way too oppressive.
Although, this could just make the metagame way too stally, but that worked fine in USUM.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Intrepid sword must go. There are reasons why other attack-boosting abilities have huge drawbacks.
Gorilla tactics locks you into into your first move, which can easily be played around due to this meta having a ton of walls.
Hustle makes you miss 100% 20% of your attacks, which is bad because of recover spam.
Intrepid sword can sometimes force the opponent to run an unaware or fur coat physically defensive wall like Toxapex or Golisopod. Intrepid sword is is just baby huge power, which is way too oppressive.
Although, this could just make the metagame way too stally, but that worked fine in USUM.

There are other downsides to Intrepid Sword that make it less than "Baby Huge Power".

As you alluded to, it's negated by Unaware as well as Haze, unlike other power-boosting abilities. More importantly, it can also be turned against you with Spectral Thief and Imposter (the imposter will copy your boost and then Intrepid Sword activates and gives them another boost). Also, because it's a stat boost and not a separate multiplier, it doesn't give as big of a boost when paired with stat boosting moves:

+3 252 Atk Silvally Multi-Attack vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Silvally: 322-379 (81.7 - 96.1%)
+2 252 Atk Hustle Silvally Multi-Attack vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Silvally: 387-456 (98.2 - 115.7%)

 

[SuperSkylake]

Submitting my sample team, The Doggies https://pokepast.es/331213d093bfa2cd

Has gottne me to a ladder peak of 1708, ranked #5 only below all of Dimra's accounts

Overview: This team is fairly simple. You want to get both toxic orbs successfully activated which can be a little hard since there is no actual pivoting, but you can often force your opponent to allow them to activate by threatening to set up, or getting hazards up so they are compelled to bring in their hazard control. Jellisent is a general disrupter, annoying choiced attackers with king's shield, getting spikes up, threatening defoggers with scald burns and whirlwinding the other team into more hazards. Zamazenta can sometimes completely 6-0 defensive teams, as its coverage of fighting and dark handles a huge portion of the meta, and taunt prevents mons from recovering on it so it just chips them down. Kyurem-B is a great tool against offensive, as it's able to threaten KOs on any non-FC mon after it gets set up. Zamazenta-c improofs it and works as a switchin to ground attacks which are becoming more and more ubiquidous, such as Earthquake and Scorching Sands, while also helping to control hazards. Zekrom and Incineroar round out the defensive core and Zekrom is actually an able rocker since so many choice-locked mons just have to switch out when it blocks them while Incineroar can hold off hazard-happy teams with Court Change. They're a little weak to mixed attackers such as adapt Zekrom with Draco and Boltbeak so you just want to play around that. This team, because it doesn't have a prankster, is a bit weak to belly drum and setup spam, though the defensive mons all have spectral thief or another way to control setup if you predict accurately, so the game isn't totally lost from tp.

Replays (I don't save enough of these, will probably edit as I get more good ones)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1136121497
Zamazenta stallbreaking

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1138137691-vfea9zf8gfyeurg07u887mxoea63alipw
vs offense

 

[Champion Leon]

Welcome to Smogon and thanks for posting in the thread! For any future posts, please try to avoid simply posting sets without describing their purpose or providing replays of them in action, if you have them.

Using Rock Head attackers is a pretty common trend I've seen from people new to Balanced Hackmons, and most quickly learn that Magic Guard is an all-around better ability since it avoids recoil damage along with indirect damage like entry hazards. You mention Cinderace is not required on the set, which is good because it is outclassed by the faster and stronger Darmanitan-Galar-Zen. A good example of a Magic Guard attacker is shown below.

Darmanitan-Galar-Zen @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create / Flare Blitz
- Icicle Crash
- Bolt Beak / Wood Hammer
- High Jump Kick
. . . . . . . .
Even though this DLC meta is very new still, feel free to submit your own sample teams for review now. Please use the guidelines found in this post when submitting your teams. Since the meta is still adapting, I strongly encourage you to thoroughly play-test your team on the ladder before submitting to be reviewed. After we've gotten a handful of submissions, the council will review and try to get some new samples up sooner than later.So while I'm here, I'm gonna submit a team for samples as well.

Team Name: The Heist
Short Description: Balanced Offense built around strong Physical and Special attackers
How to use the team: Spread burns by spamming Lava Plume and Scorching Sands to keep physical attackers at bay and keep Poison Heal users honest with Venoshock Eternatus and Worry Seed Darm-Z. Mewtwo acts as a great stall breaker and late-game cleaner with powerful Life Orb boosted attacks that ignore Ice Scales and great longevity with Strength Sap. Lunala is a neat spinner/spinblocker with Baneful Bunker and Hex to punish contact moves and threaten Ghost-types. Zama-C can come in on most special attackers thanks to its Assault Vest and steal boosts from any setup attempts. Darm-Z is a great check to most Zacian-C and DGZ sets but must be kept healthy and watch out for lures like Fishious Rend to perform best. Prankster Zekrom is a neat disrupter that can do big damage with priority Bolt Beak and stall out Dynamax turns with Substitute in a pinch.
Match-ups: Unburden Belly Drum is not a great matchup, depending on the drummer, as this team doesn't have Prankster Haze. It is not always easy to anticipate a drummer, but they can be played around with a well-timed burn or Spectral Thief. Tweaking Zekrom's role to a support mon with moves like Haze, Glare, and Recovery in the last three slots makes the Drum matchup much better while keeping team synergy intact. This team fairs well against Imposter, as each mon can be taken advantage of by a teammate in one way or another.
Effectiveness: This team has given me success on the ladder and in some room tours. It is pretty straightforward to use and holds its own in both short and long battles.

Against Stall:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1133181285-ez07mhb5rmqumx
5o9cbi1xxc88egt3epw
Against Balance:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1133700512-422gvoqgsocd7do6xtl1vqlbdt995o4pw
Against Offense:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1133304681-plxu30k90nt7rn8c03p3krsc3z55ktnpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1140154158

I love Darm-Z, and your use of Copycat Bolt Beak, like I had mentioned in the early meta!

I think if you switch in the last 3 moves for Glare, Haze, and Recover, you would need to switch to Bolt Strike, since you are likely not going first (no Copycat).

You also need to consider if Draco Meteor serves you, wouldn’t you be better off with Multi Attack and Dragon Memory? Nearly the same base power, off of a more powerful Attack stat. Sure there is Fur Coat Eternatus, but then again, there is also Ice Scales Eternatus.

Would Speed Boost be a better option? You could then replace Copycat, and always go first (plus Copycat gets disrupted by Protect, etc.), using Recover in its place, and replace Leftovers with Dragon Memory, and Draco with Multi Attack.

Rio (Zekrom) @ Dragon Memory
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Substitute / Spectral Thief / Topsy Turvey / Haze
- Recover
- Multi-Attack

Now going first isn’t conditional beyond turn 1.

Usually priority attacks are often based off of setting up first (like Triage), to outspeed Prankster Haze / Destiny Bond, but here you don’t need Copy Cat.

Multi-Attack hurts Imposter, while not being as big of a threat Vs you. Recover negates the need for Leftovers, and provides the ability to really use an Adamant nature, no longer needing to consider Jolly at all, and replacing Lonely to max your defense.

Zekrom isn’t afraid of its Imposter, Recover means it has nothing to fear.

252+ Atk Zekrom Multi-Attack vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Eviolite Imposter: 222-264 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 86.3% chance to 3HKO

Remember, if Imposter is slow pivoted in, or switches in (under the assumption you will use Bolt Beak) it won’t get the Speed boost. This lets you outspeed it, while Scarf Imposter isn’t a threat since it cannot use both Recover and an Attack.

While Substitute let’s you stall out Speed Boost / Dynamax turns, you could also consider swapping in Spectral Thief to supplement for Prankster Haze, since you can effectively outspeed the foe and use their own boosts to your advantage. Spectral Thief could go over Substitute, however if you are afraid a wall will just Spectral Thief them back, you could also try Topsy Turvey or Haze, since removing your own Speed won’t matter when it boosts again at the end of the turn.

Now you have a stat boost remover, a secure way of outspeeding the foe, dual STAB, and reliable Recovery.

People always sleep on Speed Boost, but it truly is a game changer when paired with the right moves.

Afterall, a fast Topsy Turvey is a check to Intrepid Sword users.

 

[willdbeast]

willdbeast's BH Seasonal Adventure
aka Proving the Haters Wrong by Outperforming all OMPL BH Starters
aka OMPL Rejectee Loses to Tier Shift Player (Twice)
aka I Lost But I Still Want the Likes
aka How to Be a Good BH Player (but not as good as Jeran)
aka Random Haxes some Good Players, Again
aka How to Build Polished BH Teams for a Competitive Environment
aka A Subtle Cry for Help
aka SSNL Team and Replay Dump​

Since I've not been posting replays for most of the tour I though I would dump them all here. I didn't ask my ops but the tour ended and the meta we were playing doesn't exist any more so I hope no-one minds. I've tried to format it so if all you want to see is the teams or replays it's easy to get.

Round 1 vs Dragonillis
Game 1 - Team
Game 2 - Team - by xavgb
Game 3 - Team

willdbeast talking nonsense for a bit pls ignore

g1 Team - I thought triage zama might be cool cos it can deal quite nicely with a lot of the physical attackers in the meta, killing darmgz with priority and really shutting down most other stuff with strength sap (especially bolt beak mons). In retrospect I think photon is better coverage but I'd lost to gourgeist earlier that week and I think it got to me. Shift Gear lax is another thing that I thought was a really nice wincon because with KS it sets up on almost everything and a lot of teams are lacking good PH answers with Core Enforced being dead. However Zama seems to have risen in popularity which really hurts this set, especially with no eq. The rest is just kinda random stuff. The etern set seems pretty bad tbh, i tried to copy a good pdon set i had (twaves, toxic, recover, entrain) but it turns out having a strong stab move and insane attack was actually beneficial to the set, who knew.
g1 Game - I don't think I played this very well, I kinda let him get up rocks for free and lost resh for no good reason.
The realisation
☆willdbeast: oh i have 5 ground weak mons
is something you will probably notice more and more throughout this....
But then lax just won so none of it mattered anyway lol

g2 Team - I stole it
g2 Game - idk i didnt really do anything zama just kinda won

Round 2 vs SaDiSTiCNarwhal
I can only find one replay for this - Team

willdbeast talking nonsense for a bit pls ignore

g? Team - Triage zama makes a comeback
g? Game - This time zama actually does a lot of work, basically none of his team really scares it that much except lunala. Kinda a weird battle but idk what to say about it.

Round 4 vs Quantum Tesseract
Game 1 - Team - by xavgb again but I changed shell smash for something else cos it got banned
Game 2 - Team - by MAMP
Game 3 - Team - by MAMP again, with a small change cos the mewtwo had shell smash (instead of sap i think)

willdbeast talking nonsense for a bit pls ignore

g1 Team - stolen
g1 Game - this game starts off with a couple of non-turns where little happens, followed by qt making the interesting decision to stay in on my ferro with Resh. At the time I kinda thought this was a weird move but then it turns out he had an awful lot of pp so I'm guessing the thought process was "This ferro is really solid against my team so I will hope it's not rapid spin and stall it out even if it costs resh most of its usefulness". 100 turns later ferro dies and he has a resh at +5. Here I send out etern and he goes for some reasonable damage with lava plume, which does make it a lot easier for darm to win later and if I don't have spectral then it doesn't really cost anything. But as it turns out I do have spectral and it was a really bad idea to stay in cos now I get to take down one of his mons with something that should never be a threat. After NDM dies gen 8 things happen which I can't really claim any playing on either side went into, just neither of us knew the mechanic and it happened to screw him up and that's basically gg. Zama was still a big threat even if it played out differently, but with lunala alive (which had dbond i think) it could have definitely ended up differently. The 20 turns when stuff happened were quite interesting but ruined by the 100 of pp stall.

g2 Team - stolen
g2 Game - This game starts out very poorly from my end when I let him get up spikes in order to set up lax, which was pretty dumb because literally no doublade should be dying to lax. I then sludge wave a steel type hoping his lax comes in, which it doesn't. Thinking back, if I killed the doublade then lax had some potential to get things done so it was quite risky from him. After that I basically just sack one mon after another but I think it was the letting spikes up that cost me.

g3 Team - stolen
g3 Game - This game I think he let mewtwo do way more than it should have done. Him trading off hp zama-c vs zama-c really let mewtwo do some damage and his lunala could have checked it a bit more. Then he accidentally dynamaxes which costs him the endgame. I think there was room for both of us to play that differently but it just most ended up as trading mons off.

Round 6 vs Alternatif
Game 1 - Team - by MAMP
Game 2 - Team
Game 3 - Team - by MAMP

willdbeast talking nonsense for a bit pls ignore

g1 Team - stolen
g1 Game - this game was weird. I feel like I could have made a lot more progress with zekrom but i kinda fudged it by not getting it in on a fisheous rend and letting etern heal up too much. The biggest mistake was letting darm set up cos then it just killed everything.

g2 Team - the first sighting of Pikachu! People had been shitting on pika for ages but i got to thinking... no-one really improofs that hard (at least before the dlc) and with dyna you don't even have to wholely rely on speed ties to survive. Plus, as I think Champion Leon said somewhere, if you can pass a sub it removes basically all drawbacks. Added a toxic orb wobb just to help with the stuff that beats pika. The etern set is absolutely useless... I was just going through a phase of putting choice trick on everything. The NDM is pretty cool because water/photon hits most threats especially with the rain boost and it's pretty unexpected so you can often get free turns to set up while they're messing around trying to defog or something, while still being a useful wall. The imposter proofing is kinda non-existent and yes i forgot the EVs.
g2 Game - the battle started reasonably well for me, managing to cripple both his golis and kyuw with a couple of nice tricks then immediately killing the kyuw. A few turns after etern gets forced out I get in pika for free and risk the speed tie on his zekrom, which I win, however he's get a heat set so I lose pika and I'm so impressed I call the gg, before reconsidering and apologising. I then try the same thing again but with wobb this time and manage to get a couple of kills as well as a nice para on his zama-c. I have to say though I'm pretty confused as to why he didn't go to ferro instead (which is what I predicted and tried to call out with a nuzzle on the switch). After that there wasn't much left on his team to force out Resh so I messed around a bit with king shield then finally passed a sub to zama which managed to finish the game. Again, sorry for the fake out gg I really need to think more lol

g3 Team - stolen
g3 Game - for the final game I was facing rain, and I was fairly confident because it looked like he hadn't changed much from the team I knew, so with fur coat etern I would have a good answer to most of his stuff. I lead barra hoping to capitalise on his own rain and start the pressure early so he didn't have room to move, but the dry skin rune cancelled that out perfectly. Knowing his team (mostly) let me make a play I probably couldn't otherwise and send in zama-c on kyub to teleport then get rocks which was really helpful in keeping kyub out. I then get sf mewtwo in off a pivot and with dynamax made a pretty big hole in his team, killing the drizzle mon. After that it was mostly waiting out the rain and his dynamax because after that my team would be mostly quicker and etern could do a lot of damage.

Round 8 vs PinkDragonTamer
Game 1 - Team
Game 2 - Team
Game 3 - Team

willdbeast talking nonsense for a bit pls ignore

g1 Team - this is uh..,. a team. Honestly I have no idea what the plan was. I started off by thinking that PH grounds with shift gear could be really good, especially defensive looking ones, because they perform a reasonable job defensively at least checking zekrom usually but can be extremely threatening thanks to how ground weak the meta is. Resh I thought was a nice rock setter so I have that and an improof. The zekrom set idk i just felt like taunt that week and i needed a setup check of any sort... the gyarados idfk it's just the first improof I thought of for the hippo.
g1 Game - the game starts with me trying to work out why I have this team, but I manged to get rocks up and some good damage on lax before reshiram was forced out. Turn 4 was interesting with us both switching out fearing something and somehow me ending up with the right mon. Turn 5 he switches zacc into a likely scald which I don't really get but I suppose he didn't feel like he had a good switchin at all without knowing the set, but lax was certainly an option. When he does bring lax in I use this opportunity to bring out the wincon hippo and get some good damage on golis then go to primarina again while he heals which I think was a mistake but it ended up okay because he was sap but it did reveal that my prim doesnt beat zekrom after all. I then go back to hippo hoping his only recovery was sap and thinking he would switch out but he has roost too. He then goes to Steelix to spin, probably thinking he can recover off any eq but thanks to shift gear on the switch I can really pressure it out. I then taunt because I thought it covered both him staying in and him going golis decently and I didn't wanna try predicting too much and risk giving up the threatening position hippo was in, then suspecting that the golis couldn't do much when taunted I eqed to catch out steelix. After some more messing around with golis I end up trading hippo for chip on ndw to get it into range for both zacc and gyara and get a lucky predict with zacc. After that it's just gyara stopping a zekrom sweep and then zacc winning thanks to the chip from the earlier scald on his zacc getting it in range. Interesting game for sure.

g2 Team - pika again, fun fact: by this point I'd shown the team to 2 people and neither reminded me about evs :[
g2 Game - I think turn 1 here is the key turn, crippling golis which was looking like the only potential ndm counter. No idea why I switched pika into zaccian. Letting pika get para'ed staying in on zama-c was quite a risky play, but I thought it was regenvest and the sets I'd seen him use usually couldn't kill me and there wasn't really anything he could switch into double power boomburst, so he has to sack golis and after that ndm just wins, despite me trying my best to choke the game away. Oh I also forgot that low kick doesn't work on dmaxed things.

Round 10 vs Akashi
Game 1 - Team
Game 2 - Team
Game 3 - Team

willdbeast talking nonsense for a bit pls ignore

g1 Team - the main idea of this team was to use spore + bp zacc to get zekrom in with +1, then use a funky mixed qd set to blow away most of the checks with draco for fc mons and acid apple to a) help draco net kills and b) kill grounds without lowing my stats. Normpult was meant as another abuser of the +1, since with the boost most magic bounce mons can't really switch into fish, but I never really got a chance to use it that game since he had zacc to keep it in check. PrimSea ferro, fc resh and PH lax provides a fairly resiliant defensive core with some power and wish lax helps to make sure zacc and zekrom can trade HP for position then recover later on.
g1 Game - everything went according to plan to start with, I spored what seemed like a decent mon, got +1 to zekrom (tho at the cost of a lot of HP) and successfully lured hippo. Another baton pass later and even reshiram showed itself to be a potent threat, tanking +2 zama and koing with dyna cannon into +1 v-create. He sent in Mewtwo which snorlax seemed to decently check and I managed to get zacc back to health. The next few turns I'm not sure if I played right, I knew the zama-c was scarf and expected trick and decided snorlax was the best option to take it, but maybe
pult would have been better, since lax being scarf turned out be to quite annoying. At this point I'm sure zekrom can win if I wear down imposter, but the spikes on my side are an issue and I need to stop him healing up but it works out in the end.

g2 Team - I'm not really sure what the plan was with this team, everything just kinda went off the rails a bit
g2 Game - idk what to say for this, mostly I was let down by the fact that I forgot to put recovery on silvally and my spinblocker had wish not recover... I think if those were changed I'd have had a lot more options, tho I played it pretty poorly towards the end anyway. Just a bad team ngl and the zacian basically beat everything sooner or later.

g3 Team - pika again, it has evs now and the etern set is a bit less bad but still bad
g3 Game - idk what i was thinking i just saw stall and lost the will to live then resigned. then the next day i realised "hang on i had toxic orb imposter, that was a decent chance to win" E#

Round 11 vs PinkDragonTamer again
Game 1 - Team
Game 2 - Team
Game 3 - Team - by Ivar57 RMT Here with a couple of tweaks to coverage

willdbeast talking nonsense for a bit pls ignore

g1 Team - pika v3, this is the final form! not only do the mons all have evs and moves and stuff. this time a more defensive etern set fills out the defensive core and wincon toad replaces ndm - carrying on the great legacy Hippo started. This time it has toxic though because it's a bit more defensive a team and I thought it would be nice for wearing down things neither pika nor wobb want to face. Luckily he didnt have a PH golis otherwise it would have done 0.
g1 Game - this game it was apparent from quite early that the wincon toad had a good matchup, so to start with my plan was to get it in safely and win. This started well with toad killing the prank hippo with toxic, but I got forced out by resh (rightly) fearing the dynamax. Paralysing the darm-gz was extremely good for me because it meant etern was a much better counter, being able to heal up from low in front of it and not risking any flinches, and it also meant that he basically couldn't kill a mon with it without pika being a huge threat (I'm assuming he had cc or something that could at least threaten solga). In the midgame it turns out Reshiram is quite a big threat, with spike stacking being really strong against my team (a repeated weakness), and with wobb and toad being chipped it can be quite dangerous. However I used the opportunity to get wobb in to set my own spikes, so that I could then use solg as a chance to get a sub up on resh and pass to toad to win, which he stops with zekrom but this suddenly enables pika to straight up win... or it would if I'd remembered to click the dynamax button and calced properly. Thankfully some luck bailed me out anyway and it was just left to toad to clean up.

g2 Team - I'd wanted to use webs for quite some time, and after looking at the magic bouncers and hazard removers pdt had used a lot the majority of them couldn't deal with drill, especially with spectral as coverage for Lunala. I also thought that drill might force some switches before he knew the set and I could use that to get webs up without sacrificing it. The rest of the team is mostly just improofs and breakers.
g2 Game - Turn 1 got the game off to a very bad start. I thought he wouldn't risk losing a mon for free on the possibility I was scarf so I was thinking I could get webs for free on the switch but instead I got drill down to sash and forced out, then resh got shut down by umbreon and the game was basically over at that point.

g3 Team - stolen - i thought some of the coverage was a bit wack or outdated so i tweaked it a little
g3 Game - I lead barra because I didn't want to start passively and let in zekrom for free or w/e but he leads lax, which I'm pretty sure has a protecty move and I really really don't wanna get forced out by lax t1 cos it turns out none of my mons really beat it reliably so I decide to dyna right out the gate, to get another attack boost and force it out then hopefully kill something else. I use watery move next just to be safe and to set rain, which was a good idea since he goes lunala. However it's fc and only takes 34% even at +2. Fortunately for me the next move crits which finishes it off. I think even without the crit I kill the lunala since he takes ~50 in rain and once dyna runs out I can use rend which would do about 65 so if he recovers it dies a bit later. However without the crit he can spectral and do a good amount of chip while making it a lot less threatening or if he has wisp or w/e he can cripple barra for good which would have been very bad for me later on and probably cost the game. A few turns later I crit past another mon which is mega dumb. I think if either of those crits doesnt happen then I almost certainly lose to lax in the end game. Mostly this battle goes to show how crippling protect moves can be against weather/terrain teams and how stupid mons is.

Finals vs Akashi again
Game 1 - Team
Game 2 - Team
Game 3 - Team

willdbeast talking nonsense for a bit pls ignore

g1 Team - pika again
g1 Game - I'm pretty sure this whole game just went to a pika speed tie. His play t6 was good but in retrospect I feel like it was something I should have at least considered and made safer plays for, I really didn't need to sub on that turn in particular even if he stays in. t17 I could have gone to pika and clicked boomburst cos he was in range and that's literally the one specific scenario I put boomburst for but I forgot about it lol. Later on zekrom being alive plays to my favour but I think with it gone I'd probably have been better off overall. I think t49 was a misplay from me, sending in wobb and letting him get zekrom in safely, probably sending in zama would be better idk, but then im risking a para (but still better than a speed tie). Quite an interesting game.

g2 Team - Don't ask why I brought this team after seeing how awful it was before.
g2 Game - I think I straight up choked t1, his pod doesnt really wall anything I have but my zama should be really annoying for him to deal with... terrible decision by me to basically trade them. and I could have just spored it first :? oh well. t2 I then choke again and let it get spikes :? I think that pretty much decided the game. Also I'm pretty salty the two times I've ever used that resh set he's had prim sea zacian :[

g3 Team - why did i bring this g3 of finals :/
g3 Game - Another battle I waste my PH mon t1. At least it got a kill and rocks up. I think wasting resh was a huge mistake on my end, both t1 and letting it die to zacc. Not sure what I'd have done with it but since the end game was fairly close as it was I'm sure it could have helped, plus it was like my only mon that beats fc toad. Pretty messy and fun game but I threw it way too early which was a lame way to end the tour.

Sets

I've not played anything post-dlc so you'll have to judge for yourself if any of this is remotely relevant.

Good

Hippowdon @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shift Gear
- Earthquake
- Bolt Beak
- Taunt
We've seen this bad boy before. It's good.

Reshiram @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Glare
- Dynamax Cannon
- V-create
Good. Nice rock setter (or equally spikes). Glare can be really nice against offensive mons if you tank a hit or against some mons like primsea Zama-C which becomes a lot easier to deal with afterwards thanks to the potential free turns and suddenly outspeeding with stuff like zekrom. Could be nuzzle depends if you want to para bouncers or like toad and what improofing you're doing. Pretty standard set not much to say.

Pikachu @ Light Ball
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Nuzzle
- U-turn
- Boomburst
I think pika was really underrated, but probably sucks now people actually have to improof.

Zekrom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Bolt Beak
- Draco Meteor
- Apple Acid
Mixed zekrom is cool.

Maybe Has Potential?

Zamazenta-Crowned @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Crash
- Strength Sap
Seems not completely worthless, maybe on the right team it could be good, with a different choice of coverage.

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Leftovers
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Shift Gear
- Fishious Rend
- Photon Geyser
- Strength Sap
Definitely not expected but hits decently hard while being a useful wall. It's always nice to have another wincon in the back.

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Spectral Thief
- Bolt Beak
- Sticky Web
Maybe I'm delusional but I don't think this mon was the reason the team sucked, I think the idea behind it is workable at least.

Bad

Primarina @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Spectral Thief
- Recover
- Entrainment
Terrible, literally only deals with resh and golis, loses to every other mon in the meta.

Gyarados @ Choice Band
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- U-turn
- Trick
- Earthquake
This is a bad set. Also MAMP said it should be Motor Drive and he was right but I forgot to change it.

Silvally-Grass @ Grass Memory
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Teleport
- King's Shield
- Spectral Thief
- Will-O-Wisp
Self explanatory

Reshiram @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- V-create
- No Retreat
- Volt Switch
This seemed cool on paper but really it was just a liability.

Thanks to MAMP and xavgb for letting me post the teams of theirs I used with the replays (and for passing the teams) and thanks to loser, rex, pdt, mamp and probably some other people for their help with "building" (term used loosely). It's not their fault the teams were bad. Also thanks to tcot for the moral support.

Also ggs to everyone I played it was a lot of fun even when I messed up.

Hope this was useful/interesting/a good opportunity to make fun of me for at least someone reading it.

 

[willdbeast]

Guys submit more sample teams please >:[

 

[a loser]

Team Name: Punisher

Short Description: Balance / Semi-Stall team with a Coat/Scales core and stallbreaker DGZ
How to use the team: Keep pressure on the opposing team by setting Spikes with Eternatus, spreading burns with Scorching Sands, Will-O-Wisp, and Lava Plume. Rapid Spin on PH Urshifu is great for keeping hazards off your side of the field as it forces out Ghost-types looking to spinblock, which means DGZ can come in without taking chip from Stealth Rock and the like. Double Fur Coat with Eternatus and Darmanitan-Zen handles most of the common physical attackers while Snorlax covers them against threats like Kyurem-W, Mewtwo, and Lunala. DGZ ignores Fur Coat and Flash Fire walls while firing off high powered STABs and strong coverage moves. Ice Multi-Attack lets Eternatus handle Imposter and gives it a strong, spammable STAB to 2HKO Eternatus. Zamazenta-C rounds out the team to keep setup threats like Belly Drum in check and is a backup hazard control with Court Change. I opted for Rusted Shield on it to have something Trick immune, but other items like Safety Goggle or Leftovers could be used instead.
Effectiveness: This team is pretty effective on the ladder, holding its own against both lower ladder strategies and higher ladder balance and stall teams.

Against Stall:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1135474551-twh9pdf44nlemo2feg5r3r3nedxi43jpw
Against Random Balance:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1139409660-6zlk8ai1hnvkuki5h8ky4iieq0odz6npw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1140065238-vwvrypvuzt8nveop6d3ubfabddoqljcpw

 

[blueberrychill]

https://pokepast.es/f8e8fc0e68d1f6b2

Not really posting this for sample submissions, as I don't have replays to accompany it and I don't think it's a very good team anyway since it struggles with a lot of of the best Pokemon like Darm and setup, but it was one I made and played with for a while before DLC happened and I just felt like sharing it I guess since I had fun using it. Dragon Tail Zekrom is cool but with HDB being so good, it doesn't often do as much in practice besides shuffle switches to FC Dragons/Electric resists. Scarf Exca is also fun since it outspeeds Zacian with Jolly and OHKOs with Earthquake if it's taken minimal chip but sacrificing damage from Adamant can occasionally be troublesome.

 

[a loser]

The sample teams have finally been updated! While there weren't as many submissions as we'd hoped for, I think that these four teams will be great options for those getting to know the metagame better.

As seen in these samples, Balance builds are still the way to go for BH this generation but we'd love to have more options of either Hyper Offensive or Stall that have seen success on the ladder. I encourage you to keep building and feel free to submit a team for samples if you wish.

Also, I don't know about you all but I wish that Crown Tundra would just hurry up and get released.

 

[Marsopa Trump & Test Rex]

 

[a loser]

Imposter Chansey is usually a controversial topic in Balanced Hackmons, especially for newer players who can easily get overwhelmed and/or frustrated by its incredible bulk and utility in scouting your sets. Its massive base HP stat along with boosts from Eviolite make it extremely hard to wear down, especially if it has transformed into a mon with good defensive stats. I agree that facing Imposter Chansey can be frustrating and I used to think that anyone who used it was carried, but my opinions on the blob have changed over time and my early frustrations with it actually helped me become a better builder. So I'm going to talk about the various ways Imposter Chansey can be dealt with and prepared for.

How to Imposter-proof
If you're playing in a meta with Imposter Chansey, you have to start with the basics and Imposter-proof your team. This concept is very simple but not always easy to do when you're in the builder. If you don't improof your team, you absolutely will have issues when facing Imposter and could easily find yourself in an unwinnable matchup due to Imposter's "unlimited PP" if it can freely switch in and out of your team members without repercussion. There are multiple ways to improof your team and I'll get into those right now.
(For convenience, whenever I mention "Imposter" in this guide I am talking about Eviolite Imposter Chansey unless otherwise noted.)

Self-Improofed Sets

Having a set that is both effective and not worried about Imposter taking advantage of it is a great thing to have but not always easy to achieve. However, it can be achieved in several different ways. Certain combinations of moves, abilities, and typings help sets to become self-improof and I'll show some examples below.

Self-Improof via Trapping
Zamazenta-Crowned @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire / Fur Coat / Ice Scales
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Anchor Shot
- Knock Off
- Recover
- Spectral Thief

This set takes advantage of a trapping move in Anchor Shot and the fact that it naturally resists its Steel-type STAB and uses these advantages to trap Imposter Chansey if it switches in or decides to stay in and fight. Due to Imposter's limited 5 PP in each move, this set traps its Imposters and after 24 turns or so they are KO'd by Struggle. The only cost of this exchange is losing your held item from Knock Off, but I'll address why this is fine in a little bit. In general, Steel-types are great at being self-improof because they get STAB on Anchor Shot and resist damage from it. The only downside of trapping sets is you can't run pivot moves like U-turn or Teleport because that means Imposter gets away.

Self-Improof via Held Item
Marshadow @ Ghost Memory
Ability: Adaptability / Mold Breaker / Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Close Combat
- Shift Gear
- Taunt

Ghost-types have a unique advantage as attackers because they are weak to their own STAB but immune to Normal-type attacks. This makes them perfect users of held items that effect move typings like memories. Marshadow is a great example here because Ghost Memory allows it to have a 120 BP Ghost STAB that Imposter cannot use because it almost never holds memories. Being immune to its own Fighting STAB as well means Imposter is completely useless against this set and is forced out or KO'd.

Zekrom @ Dragon Memory
Ability: Adaptability / Mold Breaker / Tough Claws
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Bolt Beak
- Shift Gear
- Fishious Rend / V-create

Other typings have similar advantages but don't use immunities to become self-improof. Zekrom is a good example here because its Dragon/Electric-typing means it resists Electric attacks 4x but is weak to its own Dragon STAB. This allows it to hold a Dragon Memory to hit opposing Dragon-types and its Imposter super effectively while its Imposter is left with a Normal-type attack and other moves that Zekrom resists. The main difference here from Ghost-type attackers is that Imposter can damage you with Multi-Attack but it risks being 2HKOed after Shift Gear, so you just have to make sure your mon is healthy enough to take an attack before an attempted sweep.

Self-Improof via Poison Heal
Zamazenta @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Body Press
- Cotton Guard
- Will-O-Wisp / Spiky Shield
- Knock Off

Poison Heal users have an advantage over their Imposter because they passively heal each turn while Imposter is worn down and denied healing. This set is good because it can't be burned once the Toxic Orb activates and it takes neutral damage to its own STAB so any Imposter that stays in against it is heavily crippled by being burned and losing its held item. The only drawback of this set is it can't take on Imposter from Turn 1 (unless running a Protect clone) because it risks being burned or losing its Toxic Orb, so it requires team support like a slow pivot move or just a good predicted switch to safely activate the orb.

Zekrom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Bolt Beak
- Will-O-Wisp
- Fishious Rend / Shift Gear

This set shows another option for Poison Heal but that is weak to its own STAB. Sets like this have to be played much more carefully since it is very vulnerable to Imposter before it has a chance to burn it. This Zekrom can take comfort knowing that it is guaranteed to survive a Dragon Darts from Imposter, unless it lands a Critical Hit, and burn it in return to cripple it. This makes running this set risky compared to the PH Zamazenta from earlier but is worth it to ensure Zekrom is not forced out by other Dragon-types. Running this set likely requires some support from teammates, whether it be another burn spreader or something that can handle Zekrom's attacks like Steelix or a Fur Coat wall.

NOTE: Improofing your team with Poison Heal users is great but has other effects on teambuilding that must be considered. Running support moves like Heal Bell is off the table because if your PH mon has their orb removed, they of course will no longer benefit from Poison Heal if their status is cured by this move. Other moves like Toxic, Baneful Bunker, and Toxic Spikes can be used but must be used cautiously when playing against Imposter because if Imposter gets poisoned then your set is very likely no longer self-improof and you have to deal with a very bulky version of it that heals itself.

Improofing with Teammates

Not every set can or should be self-improof. If you try to build this way, your team will not be optimal for facing the rest of the threats in the metagame. Another method of improofing your team is to use a teammate to check the Imposter of another teammate. Look at the examples below for further explanation.

Improofing Offensive Mons with Defensive Teammates
Zamazenta-Crowned @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Sunsteel Strike
- U-turn
- Earthquake / Fishious Rend

Golisopod @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- U-turn
- Spiky Shield
- Glare
- Stealth Rock

This is one of the most common and reliable improofing methods. This Zamazenta-C is threatened to be OHKOed by Imposter using Close Combat due to Intrepid Sword's mechanics making Imposter have +2 Attack. Zama-C can only hope to 2HKO Eviolite Imposter in return so Golisopod comes in to serve as the improof. Golisopod naturally resists Zama-C's STAB moves and has nice physical defense to help it stomach boosted attacks from Imposter. Coverage moves, like EQ or Fishious Rend, can be chosen to help Zama-C's moveset be optimal for hitting as much as possible while still making Golisopod a good improof. The Golisopod set is built to both absorb the Imposter Zama-C's attacks and cripple it and gain momentum on it at the same time. If the Imposter decides to stay in, Golisopod can Glare it or set Stealth Rock at no cost, or just U-turn out as Imposter is forced to switch out.

Improofing offensive mons with defensive teammates can look very different depending on the offensive mon of choice. Abilities like Fur Coat and Ice Scales are great for improofing Physical and Special Attackers, respectively. Some examples of this include things like all-out-attacker Zacian-Crowned with Fur Coat Seismitoad to improof and Adaptability Lunala with Ice Scales Incineroar to improof. There are also options like Flash Fire, Volt Absorb, and similar immunity abilities that stop Imposter from taking advantage of offensive mons.

Improofing Defensive Mons with Defensive Teammates
Another extremely important aspect of improofing is improofing defensive team members. Imposter loves coming in on defensive mons and getting free opportunities to steal your healing moves and become super bulky, so you have to limit how much it can do this. But as I mentioned before, not every set is going to be self-improof and this includes defensive mons. Running Anchor Shot or other trapping moves on every defensive team member is not a good strategy and can get you in trouble in certain matchups. Pivot moves are great in Balanced Hackmons because you can run them on anything you want and they are very useful to help keep momentum on your side. Pivot moves also help get you out of trouble and avoid being trapped yourself and falling victim to things like Imprison + Transform or Soundproof Perish Song. So if you want to run moves like Teleport, U-turn, or Parting Shot on your wall then go for it, just make sure you have an improof. See below for some examples.

Melmetal @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Recover
- Haze
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn

Eternatus @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scorching Sands
- Dynamax Cannon
- Recover
- Teleport

Say you want to use this Prankster Melmetal to check Physical Attackers like Zacian-C and Zekrom with Will-O-Wisp and serve as a slow pivot with U-turn. This set is fine at its job, but it lets Imposter get free recovery and a chance to burn you or pivot out, which can be a problem. Enter Eternatus, who with Magic Bounce can punish Imposter for trying to burn you and has a Rocky Helmet to chip its health if it U-turns and has Scorching Sands to punish it if it decides to stay in. While Imposter might get a chance to heal itself with Melmetal, using Eternatus as the improof allows you to be in charge and keep momentum since any move it makes can be taken advantage of in one way or another.

Eternatus @ Black Sludge
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dynamax Cannon
- Teleport
- Recover
- Sludge Bomb

Magearna @ Metronome
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rapid Spin
- Boomburst
- Soft-Boiled
- Teleport

Eternatus is a great Fur Coat mon in the meta to help handle Physical Attackers but it is quite vulnerable to Imposter since it is 2HKOed by its own Dynamax Cannon. Having a teammate like Pixilate Magearna helps to ease dealing with Imposter of Eternatus thanks to Magearna being immune to both its STABs and racking up nice chip damage with strong Boombursts if Imposter tries to recover. The Metronome allows Magearna to out-damage the Imposter's recovery attempts after a couple turns.

The important takeaway here is that you can't always deny Imposter from using your walls but you can always punish it when it does.

Improofing Mons with RegenVest
Regenerator is a very useful ability in Balanced Hackmons and can become even more useful when combined with an Assault Vest. This helps your team check opposing Special Attackers all while getting healed up when you switch out. This sounds great, but Regenerator mons are basically a magnet for Imposter. Since Regen is normally used defensively, Imposter really benefits from switching into RegenVest users and taking advantage of its insane bulk and free recovery all while scouting your team. This sounds bad, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use this ability. Here's an example of how to improof a RegenVest mon.

Zamazenta-Crowned @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Body Press
- Spectral Thief
- U-turn
- Nuzzle / Knock Off

Zama-C is a common user of RegenVest thanks to its neat typing and great 92/145/145 bulk. However, Imposter gets 250/145/145 bulk that is boosted by Eviolite and gets free healing. Running a set like this can be very useful for checking a myriad of Special Attackers but you can't let Imposter fully take advantage of you every time you use it. One way to do this is with your own moveset. Moves like Nuzzle and Knock Off are not only useful to cripple any opponent but also Imposter that comes in expecting free recovery. RegenVest mons can't be fully self-improof so you'll have to use a teammate that can punish Imposter. An example teammate that goes well with this Zama-C is shown below:

Zekrom @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Glare
- Bolt Beak
- Recover
- Teleport

Using this Fur Coat Zekrom as a teammate helps improof Zama-C because Rocky Helmet cuts down on the recovery Imposter hopes to gain and Zekrom's typing helps to absorb attempted Nuzzles. The rest of Zekrom's moveset is not only relevant and viable for checking Physical Attackers but also is built to punish Imposter of Zama-C that greedily stay in to burn PP.

Improofing Offensive Mons with Offensive Teammates
This method of improofing is sometimes referred to as a "hard-improof" and is good for team builds that are offensively oriented. The idea is to use multiple offensive team members to put pressure on the opponent that also check each other's Imposters. This type of improofing often comes at the cost of running uncommon sets with the benefit of making Imposter useless to gain opportunities to setup or get momentum. See some examples below.

Zeraora @ Magnet
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Zap Cannon
- Bolt Beak
- Dynamic Punch
- Shift Gear

Golurk @ Ghost Memory
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shift Gear
- Earthquake
- Multi-Attack
- Bolt Beak

:Gourgeist-Super:Gourgeist-Super @ Leftovers
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- King's Shield
- Teleport
- Spectral Thief
- Recover

Darmanitan-Galar-Zen @ Ice Memory
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Multi-Attack
- Bolt Beak / Shift Gear
- Close Combat

This example is a core I've used on an offensive team. It uses multiple team slots that all check one another while also pretty much shutting down Imposter. Zeraora kicks off the core by spamming high-powered Electric STAB and RNG thanks to No Guard and if Imposter comes in on it, you can switch straight to Golurk because Zeraora can't touch it. This gives Golurk a chance to setup and potentially get a kill. Golurk makes use of Ghost-Memory but running EQ means it isn't self-improof completely, so Gourgeist takes advantage of Imposter not holding a memory and its unique typing to resist Golurk's coverage. It can steal boosts with Spectral Thief or pivot out with Teleport for momentum. If Imposter comes in on Gourgeist, DGZ comes in to threaten it with Ice Multi-Attack and in return, your Gourgeist also improofs Imposters of the DGZ.

Niche Options for Improofing

There are several other methods of improofing your team that can prove effective at stopping Imposter but at the cost of running sub-optimal sets that struggle to break past common things in the metagame that aren't Imposter. These types of builds can be helpful for particular matchups, like in a tournament setting against an opponent you are prepping for. Other than that, I wouldn't recommend regularly using this type of strategy because it is not does not provide consistent results. Here's an example of niche improofing:

Imprison Setup Sweepers
Obstagoon @ Leftovers
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- No Retreat / Clangorous Soul
- Power Trip
- Imprison
- Haze / Recover / Spore

A set like this aims to counter popular checks to setup sweepers by cheesing their way past them. Obstagoon's unique typing makes it immune to Spectral Thief and Prankster status moves like Topsy-Turvy and Will-O-Wisp, so its goal is to spam setup moves until it gets enough power to blow past things with STAB Power Trip. Imprison is the key on this set because it prevents the very common Prankster Haze from being used and also means Imposter can't come in and use its moves once Imprison is set.

If you use this set and have success, then bully for you. This set has plenty of problems, though. First off it takes at least two turns to fully setup and become threatening, which gives the opponent two full turns to react to your strategy. Second, Imposter can risk a Speed tie to set Imprison before you do, which forces you out. It can be fun to use cheesy/niche strategies like this, but you have to go in knowing it is very dependent on your matchup and won't always give good results.

If you build your team with the above mentioned things in mind, you can pretty much beat or shut down Imposter before the battle even begins.

Facing Imposter in Battle
Building your team and improofing your sets is one thing, but actually battling against an intelligent opponent using Imposter is another. Good players that use Imposter will generally play it carefully rather than aggressively, as they know things like trapping, Knock Off, and status threaten to cripple their Imposter.

What to Expect and How to Beat Imposter

Knowing this, battles against a team using Imposter might have to start off slowly (unless you are using the offensive hard-improofs) so that you can get your team fully setup. This could mean using a Protect clone like Spiky Shield or a slow pivoting teammate to safely activate any Poison Heal team members or using an Imposter of your own to scout the opponent's sets to find what might threaten your team. If you aren't running Poison Heal as a means of improofing, then just proceed as you normally would in battle.

Once the battle gets going, you can judge how aggressively the opponent uses their Imposter and adjust your playstyle as needed. With Balance being a popular playstyle, it is important to limit the number of times an Imposter can freely come in on your team members without consequences. Things like Knock Off, entry hazards, and status inflicting moves are important so that Imposter can be crippled and worn down early on in the battle and be less effective at its role as a scout in the long run.

How NOT to Use Offensive Mons (and How to Use them Correctly)
Something else that I really want to stress is that you should NOT give your opponent's Imposter free opportunities to heal when transformed into your offensive teammates. What I mean is don't blindly run a set like the one below, even if you have a decent improof for it.

Reshiram @ Life Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blue Flare
- Dynamax Cannon
- Quiver Dance
- Synthesis

While this set looks good and threatening on paper, it is pretty much guaranteed to either lose to Imposter or at the very least give it a chance to completely heal itself. This is what I call a lose-lose situation.

Instead of this, ideally your offensive mons shouldn't have recovery options that Imposter can steal, like Poison Heal attackers, or the offensive mon shouldn't have recovery at all. Without recovery, Imposter is limited in how many times it can switch into your attacks and is slowly worn down throughout a battle, paving the way for your offensive mon to break through. One example of a set that pulls this off is the Choice Band Zama-C I talked about earlier. While Imposter does win in a 1v1 situation here, it can't repeatedly switch into Close Combat or EQ unless it has found an opportunity to heal itself.

Why Knock Off is so Important
You might have noticed I've mentioned Knock Off more than a few times so far, so I'd like to address this move and its importance in facing Imposter. First off, Knock Off is an incredibly useful utility move that I'd recommend using on your team even if you aren't considering Imposter. But with Imposter in mind, its held item is really the only thing you can't prepare for in the teambuilder, so removing its item is very beneficial.

Eviolite is by far the most common held item for Imposter Chansey, for obvious reasons. In most situations, Eviolite gives it the most utility and longevity in a battle if it can hold onto it. Removing its Eviolite makes it much easier for you to wear it down, but its bulk from its massive HP is still something you have to deal with.

Also, it isn't uncommon for Imposter to hold different items, like Shed Shell, Choice Scarf, Toxic Orb, or even something like Ground or Dragon Memory. It is also worth considering Light Ball Imposter Pikachu, which is massively crippled by Knock Off. But for Imposter Chansey, running these other items can make it a much different threat to deal with. I'll briefly discuss the impact these items have on your matchup with Imposter.

• Imposter Chansey with Shed Shell can help Imposter to out-stall certain trapping mons that are relying on beating Imposter via trapping. Something like Flash Fire Melmetal with Anchor Shot, Recover, Spectral Thief, and Court Change can be trapped by Shed Shell Imposter only to have 20 of its own PP burned away without being able to stop it. After stalling for a bit, the Imposter can freely switch out to a teammate and is free to come back in on this Melmetal whenever it wants later.

But if you look at the Anchor Shot Zama-C set I shared above, it is running Knock Off in order to stop this from being an issue. If Shed Shell Imposter attempts to come in and out-stall a trapping set, they'll be forced to flee as to not be trapped and Struggle to death. You don't have to always run Knock Off on your trapper though, and can use a teammate for Knock Off support instead to avoid issues with Shed Shell.​

• Imposter Chansey can hold something like a Toxic Orb or a Memory to take advantage of offensive mons that rely on denying Imposter healing and/or super effective coverage, like the self-improof mons I mentioned earlier. This situation is very similar to the Poison Heal Zekrom with Dragon Darts example, in which I mentioned having a backup improof can be very useful. It is advisable to carry a backup improof to any Multi-Attack or Poison Heal user just in case your mon isn't healthy enough to defeat its Imposter.

Outside of having a backup improof, having Knock Off support helps to avoid situations where Imposter can cheese past your offensive mons by holding these items. If you suspect your opponent could be running Toxic Orb Imposter, like in a tournament setting perhaps, it is important to be cautious when sending out your PH mon and to take advantage of Steel- and Poison-type teammates that deny Imposter from activating its orb.​

Conclusion
If you follow the advice in this guide and take the time to improof your team, you really shouldn't have a problem facing any number or variant of Imposter. Each battle is different though, and of course RNG happens like critical hits and missing moves, but there is only so much you can control when playing mons. Hopefully this can help some people to become better and smarter team builders and to end their woes of dealing with Imposter Chansey.

 

[Champion Leon]

Obstagoon wants Shed Shell over Leftovers, so it can switch out after No Retreat...

I would also like to add this "Niche Option for Imposterproofing" -

Marshadow @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Poltergeist
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch / Drain Punch

Unlike Obstagoon, this Pokemon only requires 1 turns of set-up.

This set uses Mach Punch to deal with Prankster Hazers, and Topsy-Turveyers like Melmetal, Type :Null, and Snorlax once you have set-up Belly Drum:

+6 252+ Atk Marshadow Mach Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Snorlax: 524-620 (100 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252+ Atk Marshadow Mach Punch vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Eviolite Type: Null: 306-360 (77.6 - 91.3%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Otherwise, Drain Punch works well so you can heal off damage to set-up Belly Drum in the future, so you can heal before you get forced out.

The big deal about this set, is that you can use Poltergeist vs Imposter, but it cannot use it against you, since Poltergeist only works on foes that have a held item. Since you have eaten Sitrus Berry after Belly Drum, automatically, by the time Imposter comes in after it saw you set up, it wont be able to deal any damage, while you can 1HKO it in a single-boosted blow!

Poltergeist is also rarely seen, and rarely understood compared to Multi-Attack, meaning that when the foe sees you eat a Sitrus Berry they may assume its safe to bring in Imposter since they know you don't have a Ghost Memory. With 110 base power, and no fear of Knock Off, it offers most of the same power, and a unique condition that prevents Imposter from affecting it.

+6 252+ Atk Marshadow Poltergeist (110 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 848-1002 (120.6 - 142.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Overall, Marshadow is able to set-up +1 Speed and +6 Attack in 1 turn, is not threatened by Imposter, can KO Prankster Hazers before they can clear your boosts, and Marshadow gets to use both of its Dual STAB for awesome unresisted coverage. Lastly, Drain Punch combined with Belly Drum allows it to heal off damage while attacking foes it would normally KO anyway (i.e. Poison Heal Snorlax, non-Fur Coat Melmetal, etc.), allowing for re-usability.

Others Prankster Hazers like Eternatus that resist Mach Punch, and Unaware sets can avoid being swept. However, this set even turns Fur Coat sets into 2HKOs thanks to the strong coverage offered, as nothing can resist both of its STAB coverage moves, making Fur Coat sets soft-checks, but not true counters like Unaware.

Another ability to counter Imposter is Unburden, allowing you to set-up upon consuming an item, which, like Poltergeist, does not work for Imposter since it cannot use up its own item. Sets often include Belly Drum + Sitrus Berry, Throat Spray + Clangorous Soul, so they can double their speed without fear of being Speed tied, or outsped, and then KO Imposter with their own Attacks before Imposter can move.

Examples include:

Zekrom @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Dragon Darts
- Belly Drum
- Close Combat / Fishous Rend

+6 252+ Atk Zekrom Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252 Def Eviolite Chansey: 712-844 (101.2 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO

This allows them to not feel limited by their moveslot choices (like a Memory + Multi-Attack), so they can customize their sets, as long as it can KO Imposter.

 

[Bean Man]

How to Imposter-proof

Miss Shedinja where you could minimize defense to cripple any imposter chansey that was stupid enough to stay in very easily. Those were the days...

 

[a loser]

Just a reminder to everyone that the Fall Seasonal Tour is about to get underway and there are only two days left to sign up. I encourage everyone who hasn't to sign up and play so we can get an image of what this metagame is actually like outside of all the Simple No Retreat and Imprison + Transform we're seeing on the ladder.

Speaking of the ladder, I've been on it a lot recently and want to share some sets I've been having success with.
Zekrom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Taunt
- Shift Gear
- Scald / Filler

The main draw here is Taunt. Taunt is a move that I really like but can almost never find room to fit it anywhere. Taunt Zekrom is really cool because it is fast enough to outspeed slower walls and deny them from healing up, which can really pay off in a long battle. Other than that, it is just Bolt Beak being insanely powerful as always. Scald is a weird choice but it hits Ground-types and lessens damage from Spectral Thief and such with burns. Feel free to run Dragon STAB on this instead of Scald, just make sure you have something that can improof it.​

​

Eternatus @ Life Orb
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Draco Meteor
- Strength Sap / Quiver Dance
- Focus Blast

This set is tougher to use at times compared to standard sets, but I like it because it uses the great defensive utility of Fur Coat while taking advantage of Etern's nice SpA. Life Orb Draco Meteor notably OHKOes all the scary Dragon-types that Dynamax Cannon can't, which is super useful and keeps it from being forced out by full health Reshiram, Zekrom, etc. Wish support from a teammate is really handy to help this set work since Strength Sap isn't the most reliable recovery method.​

​

Snorlax @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Facade
- Knock Off
- Spore
- Shift Gear

I keep being pleasantly surprised by this set. With Core Enforcer being gone, ability removal is not super common (but probably should be) and if this big guy gets an opportunity to get rolling, it is really hard to stop. Just remember, this is Snorlax and you're still outsped by like half the meta after one Shift Gear.​

 

[SuperSkylake]

The Case for a Baton pass ban

So if anyone has played the gen 8 bh ladder they will probably have ran into the player that is Hushreg, who has been running variations of a Baton Pass team for at least a half a year. The team is extremely consistent, unless you go out of your way to counterteam it, in which case you just lose to the rest of the meta. The main BP abusers are his Zacian-C, which can still run 3 attacks + bp which forces switches meaning he can easily bp his Intrepid Sword boost, and Type: null, which runs Substitute / Strength Sap / Spectral Thief / Baton Pass. The Eviolite boosted defenses of Type Null make it nearly impossible to prevent it from BPing Substitute, unless you manage to knock it out before it can, which is really really hard. For example, even a Low Kick from Zamazenta can't KO it, unless you have knocked off its eviolite first, in which case it probably got its substitute up and then Strength Sapped you to restore all its health.

Now you can argue, ah, it's Intrepid Sword that's the problem. I disagree, mainly because Baton Passing a Substitute to monstrous offensive threats such as Mewtwo, Zacian-C or Darm-GZ makes them extremely hard to deal with too. In order to beat Mold Breaker Darm-GZ behind a sub, you still need to hit it twice, even if you have set up Stealth Rock, meaning you lose at least one and maybe even two mons just to bring in your check, at which point it can switch back out to the Sub Passwer and just repeat the cycle. Substitute also blocks Imposter, meaning that you can't even use that instead, and again, setting up a Substitute is really easy right now.

Here are some of the ways to fight sub BP.

1. Spectral thief: this only works if the sub-bper is not a normal-type and is faster than your spectral thief user, since you prevent it from passing. I'm pretty sure Hushreg runs a very slow Type Null to fight this. Spectral thief also doesn't break the sub meaning that you can just pass the sub anyway.

2. Whirlwind and Roar: These pretty much make your mon unable to be self-improofed which is usually not a good thing since now you just lose to teams with one or more Imposters instead of the Sub-pass team. They do work great against Sub pass though.

3. Infiltrator. If you're running this, and that's inconsistent, though I guess in this case since Hushreg is on the ladder so much, you actually might win more with Infiltrator than without, so maybe it's meta now? Hmmm...

4. Just boost faster. I think this actually might work. If you can Baton Pass more boosts faster and prevent the anti-setup measures from working, you can win. Of course, broken checking broken isn't a good reason to keep it around, and it's also very matchup dependent.

5. taunt: this is another move that's hard to fit because every mon is already so strapped for moveslots as it is. Still, it does shut down non-magic bounce passers, and works through substitutes too. It only works on opponents slower than the taunter, meaning that Zacian-C is still able to pass without issues. Taunt is also nice for stallbreaking mons.

In short, none of these options are foolproof, nor are they all that useful against the rest of the meta. I don't think banning Intrepid Sword would make much of a difference in the prevalence of these teams, as Download is a suitable ability replacement, and Substitute + pass is still just as oppressive. It would do the least amount of colateral damage to get rid of Baton Pass, as we still have plenty of other pivoting moves available. I don't disagree that Intrepid Sword might deserve a suspect in the future, but Baton Pass definitely does.