BH Balanced Hackmons

Tanny89k · Apr 10, 2022

Here's another team

Team Name: Global Cheese

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/7bb6b2bfc7e2c031

Description: 3 attackers + spikes offense

How to Use:

The basic gameplan of this team is to lay on hazards and break holes in the opponent's team with Xerneas and Regigigas.

Your two main options when leading are Giratina and Necrozma. Giratina tends to lead better against most offensive mons and Necrozma can lead against more passive things that'll let it set up hazards. Try to get Regigigas in safely as soon as possible.

From here, simply set hazards and try to bring something down with Xerneas and Regigigas. Additionally, Necrozma can switch into Strength Sap and kill with Liquid Ooze. Keep in mind that Xerneas and other mons with 126 base HP or more live using Strength Sap on Necrozma, if barely.

Once a hole has been broken and hazards are on the opponent's side of the field, try to bring in Kyurem on something that can't Nuzzle it or deal enough damage to bring it into Life Orb chip range. Additionally, make sure the opponent doesn't have any priority users to work with. Once Kyurem is in safely, just click Shift Gear and watch as your opponent loses three mons. From there, you can just clean with Xerneas or Regigigas, or even stall out whatever's left with your defensive mons.

Speaking of defense, this team's defensive backbone consists of Giratina and Celesteela. Giratina can stop non Dark setup sweepers and mess with Poison Heal. Celesteela can eat pretty much any non super effective physical attack and threaten with Nuzzle.

As for how this team matches up against Imposter, Kyurem is improofed by Celesteela, Celesteela self Improofs, Xerneas is improofed by Necrozma, Necrozma self improofs, Giratina lets Regigigas activate Toxic Orb for free, and Regigigas is improofed by Celesteela. Regigigas can even take on Imposter on its own if healthy.

Weaknesses:

Sniper Eternatus is extremely dangerous for this team. If it safely sets up Focus Energy, there's a good chance that you simply lose. In terms of counterplay, Xerneas can 2HKO Eternatus with Boomburst and can take it out with Extreme Speed after a Boomburst and Spikes chip, Regigigas can phaze Eternatus out with Dragon Tail, and Kyurem can send it to the afterlife with either STAB.

Fur Coat Steels are pretty tough to break. They usually carry Nuzzle, which Kyurem is extremely afraid of, most of them don't care about Xerneas at all, and Regigigas struggles to break them with Precipice Blades and is scared out by Entrainment. If they're carrying Strength Sap, Necrozma can switch in to take them out, and Kyurem can often break them after a Shift Gear boost and some chip damage.

Bulky Ghosts are also quite difficult to break. Specifically, Giratina and Lunala. The only thing on this team that can hit them for super effective damage is Celesteela's Spectral Thief, which won't do a great deal of damage. Kyurem is extremely valuable in this matchup, as it can OHKO Giratina with either STAB and 2HKO Lunala with a boosted Dragon Darts. Spikes are valuable for chipping Lunala into Dragon Darts range.

Effectiveness:

The highest I've gotten with this team is 1700 Elo.

Replays:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1549794554
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1547585346

Zord · Apr 14, 2022

Team: https://pokepast.es/c5da290ff644125f

Setup offense team I built a while ago. Got to 1400 elo before I started losing (much more of a skill issue than a team issue, i assure you).

The star sweepers are Dawnwings and Gigas, both of which are extremely difficult to switch into even without boosts but become game winners under the right conditions.

Dawnwings requires support from Magearna, whose quiver dance + baton pass combo is very easy to set up turn 1 against taunters, hazard setters, or status condition users. Dawnwings is so absurdly powerful that it can get very close to onetapping top threats like Xerneas or Zamazenta without any boosts and a speed increasing nature, so with speed support from Fini or Magearna it forces the opponent to offer their prankster hazer's head on a platter. Psychic and Ghost cover every type and type combination in the game aside from Dark, which can be effectively walled by Zamazenta or Gigas. It also serves as a switch-in against fighting type moves that threaten Zamazenta, Gigas, and potentially Yveltal. However, aside from the previously mentioned case, Dawnwings struggles very much to get in safely, and can be easily revenge killed by basically any physical attacker with Spectral Thief if there isn't adequate speed control. It is the very essence of a glass cannon refined into a single pokemon.

Guts-STAB-Facade Regigigas threatens every single pokemon in the meta bar Giratina or Zamazenta. With a single gear shift, Gigas can sweep extremely early, or deal frankly stupid amounts of chip to otherwise nigh unbreakable walls such as Giratina. There is not much to say, as Facade onetaps anything without a resist and Spectral Thief can steal boosts and deal super effective damage to ghosts. It cannot be countered by Impostor mons, as they will not get burned to gain Guts and Facade boost, and the boosts cannot be stolen via Spectral Thief because Gigas is immune to it. Recover is simply there to insure Gigas won't die to burn, but since it's also surprisingly bulky, it can wall other select offensive threats and hit them back with a Facade. As I mentioned before, it is also immune to Spectral Thief, meaning attempts to counter Yveltal or Magearna using said move means little more than a free switch-in to the win condition. Prankster Haze doesn't even matter that much, since as long as it isn't immune to it, Facade deals illegal amounts of chip (80%+) to them even without any boosts! Its fighting weakness is a major liability with the amount of Zamazentas running around, you can then semi-safely switch into Dawnwings, Magearna, or Fini. Removing Gigas should be a top priority for the opponent, as this set sets up in one turn and wins immediately.

The other mons are there for synergy; Magearna to set up for Dawnwings and bounce back annoying status moves like hazards or Glare, Fini to set up webs, glare, haze, or use prankster parting shot to pivot to weaker mons, Zamazenta to strengthen up the weaknesses against certain mons such as Xerneas (god i fucking hate that dumbass deer,) and Yveltal to have a dark type immune to prankster and to have a secondary (yet admittedly far less consistent) win condition. Every mon (aside from Yveltal tbh) has its own purpose and they do it well.

However, it is not without weaknesses. This team struggles heavily against bulkier mons like Zygarde-Complete or Giratina. Additionally, if sticky webs happen to fall on your side, you fucking lose, as defog doesn't have a good fit on this team and the minus speed makes all of the wincons much harder or straight up impossible to reach. This makes Magearna an invaluable asset as it is your only answer to hazards. Before you remove counters, you must be EXTREMELY CAREFUL to not let any of your mons (other than yveltal honestly) die, as one link gone makes the entire team fall apart.

Other than that, this team's offense is extremely potent and defensive play is not impossible either. It has its flaws, sure, but they can be ironed out. Ideas to replace/fix Yveltal would be very appreciated. Would triage synergize with the rest of my team? I haven't given it any thought.

Tea Guzzler · Apr 15, 2022

I've noticed a couple things looking around these forums over the past few days, and probably the most important of these is a general lack of resources for newer players getting into the tier (beyond the sample teams / sample submissions). So, thought i'd chip in a bit and give some guidance on the big breakers of BH because I enjoy doing that and bc why not, no-one else is doing it (VR update who)

also note that big scary breakers with 0 longevity can be hard to use/justify if all they do is be big scary breakers with 0 longevity (see the top 3 mons, note that they all do something else as well)

TEA GUZZLER'S BH BREAKER TIER LIST
(I mean breaker tier list, so sweepers like Hero Zacian/Zamazenta aren't included)

S RANK

:ss/xerneas:

(Sets here)

Best mon in BH. The amount of both offensive and defensive utility this offers is unparalleled, and this is just ONE of it's possible sets, hence why it's the best BH mon. Fairy type is phenomenal as there are no good non-passive fairy resists outside of Ho-Oh, which is why Diamond Storm and Fishious Rend are options. Boomburst has absurd power, Rapid Spin can do all of boost speed, PP stall and clear hazards in one slot, Strength Sap can be used as massive immediate healing (Recover can be used instead, which is overall worse but good if you're paranoid about Magic Bounce Steels), and every other option listed in the paste has it's merits, with Extreme Speed, Volt Switch, Rapid Spin and Quiver Dance being the most common. There is no reason why you should not consider this as your breaker.

Advantages:

Overpowered Type
Great Base Stats
Amount of coverage is absurd
Great Item Variety
Pixilate Boomburst is stupid
Can choose coverage to beat whatever check it wants
Reliable game-on-game

Disadvantages:

Magic Bounce steels that aren't Zamazenta-C can be annoying
Annoyed by paralysis
The entire meta is prepared for it because of how good it is
Running Pixilate Xerneas means you aren't running Poison Heal Xerneas, which is also phenomenal

Regigigas @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance / Dragon Fance / Shift Gear
- Facade
- 2 of Wicked Blow / Precipice Blades / Glacial Lance / V-create / Nuzzle / Knock Off / Spikes / U-Turn / Sacred Fire
- ^^^

Easily top 2 in the game. Logic is 'Absurd base stats + STAB Facade + Poison Heal + 160 base attack', and that's all you really need to know. The massive damage output of Facade, further bolstered by a boosting move, means any neutral target is likely to drop, often even through Fur Coat - the coverage on this, similar to Xerneas, is also immense and can be used to make gradual progress (Knock Off, Spikes), annoy walls (Knock Off, Spikes, Nuzzle, U-Turn, Sacred Fire) or just straight up beat them (Wicked Blow, Nuzzle, Precipice Blades, Glacial Lance, V-Create). The staying power of Poison Heal is also ridiculous, meaning this threat persists for the majority of the game and is often the reason why games will be ended - Normal Type and great base stats also support this staying power. There's no reason to not consider this either.

Advantages:

Great Base Stats
STAB Facade is a delete button
Great Staying Power
Great Coverage Options, meaning there is no true counter
Is not restricted to solely breaking
Reliable game-on-game

Disadvantages:

Depending on how you choose to improof this (ie. make it hard lose to one mon specifically), there's a chance you run into that mon but on the enemy team, at which point you are having a rough time. (Example, if I run Swords Dance/Facade/Wicked Blow/Spikes, intending to Improof with Magic Bounce Zamazenta-C, then if the enemy has Magic Bounce Zamazenta-C then gigas does very little until it is removed since the gigas is designed to not do anything to it)
Similar to Xerneas, being so good means the entire meta is prepared for you
Mandated item/ability slot

Regigigas @ Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shift Gear
- Multi-Attack
- Wicked Blow
- V-create

this isn't reliable and probably shouldn't be considered for a serious team, but MAMP made this a while back and it is the funniest shit to just shift turn 1 and just get 3 or 4 kills against the poor guy on the other end

:ss/eternatus:

(Sets here)

In my opinion, the 3rd best mon in the tier and a contender for the 3rd breaker on par with Spectrier (below). Eternatus is good because of Poison STAB + Ridiculous Base stats, which allow it to sponge a significant amount of hits and fire back with immense power. Eternatus' ace, however, is set variety - all of the above abilities are viable and each can choose between gradual breaking or immediate breaking, and with whichever option it can choose which walls it chooses to destroy. For reference:

Regenerator provides the most longevity and is great for more balanced teams
Simple / Mold Breaker are very offensive sets that excel on Hyper Offence / Can instawin in a large number of matchups, but heavily struggle with poor matchups
Adaptability is good in all situations but doesn't tilt too far in either direction between offence and balance
Specs + Dragon's Maw is a funny instakill machine but is otherwise a waste of the etern slot imo (it falls flat as soon as you load into a competent player)
Sniper + Scope Lens is about as anti-stall as they get but isn't very good otherwise (crits ignore sp.attack drops from things like parting shot / crit rate can't be removed by haze, spectral or topsy-turvy)

Overall, eternatus' biggest asset as a breaker is it's unpredictability. More offensive sets can be susceptible to poor matchups but in the average game it is a strong performer. Hell, even defensive sets like Ice Scales can do breaking if you just whack on Nasty Plot or something.

Advantages:

Great base stats, including super-effective STAB against the best mon in the tier
Absurd set variety
Ability to pick and choose which walls it destroys
Improofing your specific set is fairly easy

Disadvantages:

Many sets lack longevity outside of Black Sludge
Well prepped for
Susceptible to bad matchups
Hates Paralysis

A RANK

Spectrier @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest / Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Astral Barrage
- Moongeist Beam
- Volt Switch
- Trick / Focus Blast / Lunar Dance

Who would've guessed that the fast ghost type would be good in a fast tier with few ghost resists? Spectrier excels at exploiting the lack of viable ghost resists in BH (seriously, there's a whole 2 you'd consider for the average team) with not one, but TWO super-powered STABS in Astral Barrage and Moongeist Beam. Astral Barrage, combined with Choice Specs and Adaptability, deals huge damage to everything without Ice Scales or Assault Vest thanks to being a 120 Base Power, 0 drawback move - Moongeist Beam deals slightly less damage, but has the benefit of cutting clean through Ice Scales and still maintains key 2-hit KOs on almost every important target. In addition, if you don't want to predict which one to use (or you want to save one of your 16 breaking PP), just volt switch all your problems away! And to top this all off, you still have a 4th move slot, which you can honestly put pretty much anything in - Trick excels at crippling switchins for the rest of the game and can be a final gambit if you're not getting in again, Focus Blast can be used to exploit teams using Regigigas as their switchin and force even more mindgames than you already do, and Lunar Dance exists but needs proper timing. Spectrier's fair bulk also lets it reliably come in to do damage, and it can sponge a hit in a pinch if needed.

Advantages:

Ghost STAB is busted, and you have 2 Ghost Moves
Fair Bulk
Excellent Speed
Imposter cannot come in safely
Relatively easy to Improof

Disadvantages:

Regigigas is on almost every team so often you're predicting every time you're in
Needs team support to break down RegenVest mons
Paralysis is a death sentence
While strong, you usually aren't instakilling
Choice Locked
Lacks defensive utility

Ho-Oh @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- V-create
- Nuzzle
- Recover

Ho-Oh @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fire Lash
- Brave Bird
- Nuzzle
- Recover

Despite it's seemingly defensive use as a Xerneas check, these sets manage to both break things and check Xerneas at the same time. The Life Orb set (Fire Lash, Brave Bird, Nuzzle, Recover) excels at abusing Fire Lash's constant defence drops to repeatedly force switches and spread paralysis, whereas the Desolate Land set (Swords Dance, V-create, Nuzzle, Recover) excels at constantly threatening absurd damage with +2 V-create coming off of 130 Base attack in Sun. These are great breakers because they both can be use to check not only Xerneas but also other special attackers, particularly Eternatus, due to Ho-Oh's stellar 106/154 special bulk. A burn immunity on a breaker is also a very important trait. Ho-Oh's main issues are Core Enforcer removing Magic Guard (which hurts especially bad if you're been Toxic poisoned and have not considered the buildup of toxic turns), and Knock Off -> Stealth Rock for the Desolate Land variants. Neither also particularly likes Giratina sitting in front of it.

Advantages:

Great base stats
Compounds a special wall and a breaker into one slot
V-create attacker that can easily punish Primordial Sea
Easy to Improof
Constantly forces switches
Can slow down other offence, giving more opportunities to break
Burn Immunity

Disadvantages:

4x Rock weakness (Both from Stealth Rock and from Diamond Storm coverage)
More dedicated special attackers, such as Xerneas with coverage / choiced attackers, can overwhelm you
Can't actually damage Primordial Sea for meaningful amounts
Annoyed by Zygarde-Complete / Giratina
Most teams are prepared for it

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Band / Expert Belt
Ability: Mold Breaker / Adaptability / Tinted Lens
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Glacial Lance
- V-create
- Precipice Blades
- U-turn / Bolt Strike / Trick

Busted moves: The mon. Black Kyurem carves it's niche by abusing the absurdly powerful moves Glacial Lance and V-create which, combined with a Choice Band, 170 Base attack and an ability of your choice, create a feast-or-famine machine that has the potential to get a kill every time it hits the field so long as you get your predicts. Kyurem's bulk is also a surprising 125/100/90, which against neutral hits allows it to come in fairly reliably. The only major issue with Kyurem is the lack of longevity - more apparent than other breakers is the weakness to Stealth Rock and inability to outspeed some very common threats, meaning Kyurem needs a large amount of team support in order to function effectively through means such as Paralysis or effective Hazard Control.

Advantages:

Good Bulk
Fair Speed
Great Instakilling Power
Good Coverage Options
Ice Type = STAB Glacial Lance

Disadvantages:

Poor Typing
Underspeeds key targets such as Xerneas
Notoriously difficult to Improof
Often lacks any defensive / pivoting utility
Choice Locked

Palkia @ Lustrous Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty / Naive Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Dragon Energy
- Shift Gear / Rapid Spin / Nuzzle / Spikes / Steam Eruption
- Strength Sap

Busted moves 2: electric boogaloo, Fishious Rend and Dragon Energy are ridiculous and Palkia takes full exploitation of that with STAB on both, Lustrous Orb and Adaptability. These combine into a fierce breaker that 2-hit KOs almost anything in front of it, and this is before considering speed boosting options in Rapid Spin / Shift Gear which only increase the scope of mons you can kill. This is further aided by the fact that there are a whole 2 viable mons that resist your STAB combination - Tapu Fini and Ferrothorn - neither of which are stellar meta picks. The issue with Palkia is being a Dragon Type in a meta with Fairy Types being so good, and with Improofing (if you want to be safe, you basically need Tapu Fini or Ferrothorn).

Advantages:

Abuses Fishious Rend and Dragon Energy to be basically unwallable without an intact enemy Tapu Fini / Fur Coat Steel
Free slot for utility
Key speed tier in outspeeding Xerneas
Access to Lustrous Orb, which is a drawback-less damage boost

Disadvantages:

Fairy-Weak
Hard to Improof
Enemy Prankster Tapu Fini almost invalidates this mon
Hates Paralysis

(Sets here)

Calyrex-Ice is very similar to Black Kyurem in that they both abuse Glacial Lance. However, whilst Kyurem normally uses a Choice Band setup, Calyrex-Ice has a few more options due to being REALLY bulky. Choice Band still works as it would on Kyurem, but this mon has a perfect speed tier of 199 to outspeed all the base 130 mons, namely Eternatus, after a shift gear, making it excellent as a setup breaker. The bulk also lets it have a lot more utility options such as Nuzzle or Spikes, actual healing in Regenerator or Sap, and actual defensive utility such as being a switchin to many physical walls (provided you've scouted coverage). The main place Calyrex falls short in is in the Improofing department (Kyurem is already really hard, so have fun Improofing +1 Kyurem that also outspeeds you), and also that the speed is very low without boosts.

Advantages:

Ideal speed tier for setup
Why is this so bulky
Great base stats
Ice Type = STAB Glacial Lance

Disadvantages:

Hazard weakness
Low speed when not boosted
Psychic type isn't massively useful (for example, adds a Wicked Blow weakness)
Hard to Improof

B RANK

Rayquaza / Yveltal @ Life Orb
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive / Rash Nature
- Boomburst
- V-create
- Extreme Speed / Knock Off
- Strength Sap / Quiver Dance / Explosion

One of my personal favourites, Mixed Aerilate has phenomenal damage output due to Flying being really good in current meta + these 2 Aerilate breakers having great mixed attacking stats. V-create is an option to destroy Steel types with it's massive base power, and the 3rd slot depends on the mon - Yveltal has STAB Knock Off, which is great, whereas Rayquaza normally runs Extreme Speed as there's not really another alternative and having a powerful ESpeed is always appreciated. Yveltal is the safer option due to having the ability to hard switch into Core Enforcer and having higher overall bulk, whereas Rayquaza's higher offences mean increased damage output and some key calculations that Yveltal just misses out on such as guaranteed 2-hit KO'ing Ho-Oh from full with Boomburst. The main issue with both of these is the lack of defensive utility they provide beyond Yveltal Knock, and also the Life Orb + Sap issue which still plagues me to this day (where, if the enemy has a Magic Bounce mon, you either Sap, meaning the Bounce mon can come in and block your healing, or you attack, putting you dangerously close to death from Life Orb recoil and chancing the enemy just going to a wall).

Advantages:

Great mixed attacking stats
Great attacking type and moves
Fair Speed
Yveltal's Knock and Rayquaza's ESpeed both provide important utility
Both hover over spikes, making getting in less of a hassle

Disadvantages:

Lack of defensive utility
Both are Fairy and Stealth Rock weak
Non-Zamazenta-C Fur Coat Steels are very annoying
Both don't enjoy Paralysis

Groudon @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability / Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Precipice Blades
- Thousand Arrows
- Glacial Lance
- Trick / U-Turn

Groudon's great Attack stat, good bulk and Ground STAB let it do significant damage to anything. Thousand Arrows is one of the most spammable attacks in the game and can be used realistically whenever, whilst Precipice Blades is a stronger alternative if there's no need for Arrows. Glacial Lance hits Giratina and Zygarde-Complete, the only real safe switch-ins besides Golisopod, deleting would-be nuisances for other Physical Attackers. Groudon overall, unlike most of the other breakers here, is always able to hit something for high damage, which speaks to the strength of Ground STAB when the best type for containing the top meta threats is Steel Type. Breaker Groudon's main issue that holds it back from A rank is the opportunity cost - because Groudon is a great mon, using breaker Groudon means you aren't using one of Groudon's other, arguably more useful, sets such as Prankster, Soundproof, Magic Bounce or the like. This can end up causing difficulties in the builder and otherwise suboptimal role allocation.

Advantages:

Ground STAB is really good
Thousand Arrows / U-Turn both ease predictions significantly
Hits pretty much everything hard with either ability
Bulky ground type = Nuzzle switchin

Disadvantages:

Base 90 speed means a few mons, particularly Xerneas and Palkia, can outspeed and either threaten out or spam Strength Sap in front of you
Precipice Blades' 85 accuracy is a thing that needs to be considered
Opportunity cost of not using another Groudon set
Choice Locked

Blacephalon @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Astral Barrage
- Moongeist Beam
- V-create
- Strength Sap

Blacephalon @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Astral Barrage
- Mind Blown
- Strength Sap

Blacephalon is great due to the combination of Fire/Ghost STAB, which allows it to abuse all of Astral Barrage, Moongeist Beam and V-create. These, in combination with great mixed attacking stats, mean Blacephalon is easily capable of doing > 70% to even the bulkiest walls and outright instakilling a large proportion of the metagame. The speed tier is useful as well for passing a significant portion of the metagame. Notably, Blacephalon is one of stall's worst nightmares due to it's massive damage output, and it's ability to threaten common Fur Coat/Ice Scales walls with the other side of the attacking spectrum. On the other hand, Magic Guard Mind Blown goes all in on the special side with the massive damage of Mind Blown bolstered by Quiver Dance, which allows Blacephalon to both break and sweep so long as Mind Blown's 8PP is conserved. Blacephalon's key issue is it's frailty - the thing has 53/53/79 bulk, which is absolute paper, so it absolutely mandates heavy team support to perform but can absolutely perform well given this.

Advantages:

Good speed tier
Excellent STAB combination
Imposter does not come in safely
Fire Type means it can live Xerneas Boomburst in a pinch
Can instakill a large part of the metagame

Disadvantages:

0 defensive utility
Bulk is basically non-existent other than fringe cases
Stealth Rock weakness + not flying above Spikes
Magic Guard sets need to conserve Mind Blown PP to be useful
Constantly spends turns sapping due to chip

Kartana @ Choice Band
Ability: Steely Spirit / Tinted Lens
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- V-create
- Glacial Lance
- Trick / U-Turn

The main reason you'd be using Kartana is for the Steel Type - either through Sunsteel Strike ignoring abilities, or through Steely Spirit being used to boost Sunsteel's damage (and the damage of any stray Doom Desire teammates like Dialga). Kartana is very potent due to it's ability to ignore Fur Coat as a whole with Sunsteel, which when combined with Tinted Lens allows for ridiculous damage output against anything, or with Steely Spirit to have massive damage output against non-resists. A good speed tier and surprising physical bulk also aid it coming in too. Kartana's main issue is it's lack of special bulk making it difficult to hit the field without a slow pivot, Doom Desire strats being predictable, and lack of defensive utility.

Advantages:

STAB ignores abilities
Can be stacked with Doom Desire support for significant breaking power
High Speed
Good Physical Bulk

Disadvantages:

Can be difficult to Improof
If enemy Imposter is a consideration, forces mind games between Sunsteel and V-create
Low defensive utility
Lack of special bulk means any stray special attack is probably doing >60%
Choice Locked

Zekrom @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Volt Tackle
- Dragon Energy
- Spikes / Shift Gear / Soak
- Strength Sap

Magic Guard Zekrom is good. I don't have a ton of experience with it myself but Volt Tackle has good PP and is great at forcing answers, Dragon Energy lets you hit on both sides of the attacking spectrum, Sap is high, Improof-able healing and the last slot can be used to either make gradual progress with Spikes or force switches with Shift Gear / Soak. This is also excellent defensive utility on teams that find themselves weak to Ho-Oh. Zekrom has similar issues to Palkia in that it's a Dragon Type in a meta laden with Fairies and Faster Dragons, and often doesn't carry a way to boost it's speed. In addition, Groudon being so good holds this back, particularly given that Groudon is almost always running a way to boost Ground damage (usually Soft Sand), thus is often doing at least 85 in one hit to Zekrom.

Advantages:

Good defensive utility in answering Ho-Oh
Great mixed attacking types
Harder to PP stall than most breakers
Nuzzle immunity, and isn't completely bricked by Burn
Can make gradual progress with Spikes

Disadvantages:

Can be difficult to get in against common meta mons
Dragon/Electric is weak defensively and leaves it open to common coverage
Typical Improofs aren't 100% safe (they can usually get crippled by Volt Tackle paralysis)

Magearna @ Pixie Plate / Metronome / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Boomburst
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch / Quiver Dance / Anchor Shot
- Strength Sap

This pretty much works as Xerneas does, but you lose the ability to run significant coverage. In exchange for this and for overall worse base stats, you gain the Steel type, which mainly exists to ease the matchup against utility Eternatus sets / Zamazenta-C. There's really not a lot to say about this other than "it's worse pixi xern but it's steel type". You'd probably run this if you want to stack Fairies but are already using non-Pixilate Xerneas and don't fancy using Zacian-H, or for some other specific reason that would depend on the rest of your team. Anchor shot can also self-improof but you lose pivoting which is rough.

Advantages:

Best type in the game (Steel/Fairy)
Pixilate is good
Better matchup against Zama-C and Eternatus than Xerneas

Disadvantages:

Almost completely predictable
Loses the masses of coverage options that Xerneas has
Steel type introduces some unwanted weaknesses, namely Fire but also Ground
Just use Xerneas if you have the option

C RANK

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

Mewtwo is OK as a breaker. I'm not sure it's down here with Barraskewda but i'm also less keen on it being as good as Magearna, so it'll stay here for now. Choice Specs PsySurge Expanding Force gives very high damage output against neutral targets due to Mewtwo's 154 Special Attack, making Mewtwo one of the few ways to offensively pressure Eternatus. In addition, it's high speed tier lets it outrun and threaten almost all of the metagame, similar to Spectrier. However, I think that breaker Mewtwo is overall a downgrade than Spectrier, mainly due to the inferiority of Psychic STAB which fails to leave a mark on the countless steel types roaming the tier (with the exception of Zamazenta-C).

Advantages:

Psychic Surge blocks priority, and means you still have increased damage output if you lose ability
Good base stats with a great special attack
Easy to Improof

Disadvantages:

Psychic is not a very good attacking type
Trouble with RegenVest
Little defensive utility
Choice Locked

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Primordial Sea / Tinted Lens
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Diamond Storm
- U-turn / Volt Switch
- Trick

A matchup fish, in the most literal sense. Palkia already shows that Fishious Rend is dumb, so how about Fishious Rend but coming off of 408 speed? Fishious Rend boosted by either Tinted Lens or Primordial Sea is an absolute machine at getting kills, and you instawin in certain matchups just because this move is dumb. However, this thing is nowhere near consistent - Desolate Land is Barra's fun police (this is why you run U-Turn / Volt Switch over Flip Turn, with VS negating Rocky Helmet chip but doing less damage), really bulky resists like Giratina / Palkia blank even Tinted Lens sets, and Paralysis / enemy priority basically mean this is a dead mon. It's fun to break out but do not expect reliable results with it.

Advantages:

Fishious Rend is stupid
Diamond Storm kills the most common Desolate Land user, Ho-Oh
Great Speed tier, outspeeds all but 3 relevant mons (Zacian-H, Zamazenta-H, Dragapult)

Disadvantages:

Really frail
0 Defensive utility
Prediction Reliant
Fur Coat can be rough to break
Matchup Reliant
Choice Locked

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability / Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Precipice Blades
- Dragon Ascent
- Glacial Lance / Thousand Arrows
- Trick / U-turn

This niche option is virtually the same as Groudon, except you exchange a large proportion of the bulk, the rocks resistance and 5 base attack for Flying STAB. It's cool, but it's not been seen in a while and personally I'd prefer the additional benefits that breaker Groudon offers. Flying STAB can be nice for hitting niche walls like Golisopod and as another means to not get PP stalled by Giratina, but it's not massively beneficial to how the mon functions. If anything, it makes it harder to Improof since you remove your own options.

Advantages:

Slightly higher speed than base 90s
Ground/Flying STAB is nice
Workable bulk

Disadvantages:

Flying STAB isn't massively beneficial
Harder to Improof than Groudon
Still gets Sap Spammed
Precipice Blades Accuracy

Kyurem-White @ Choice Specs / Choice Scarf
Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest / Rash Nature
- Boomburst
- Dragon Energy
- Blue Flare / Explosion
- Trick / Explosion

White Kyurem, unlike it's brother, does not have a good time breaking. Whilst Choice Specs + Modest 170 Sp.Atk + Refrigerate Boomburst seems strong in theory, you must remember that the tier is littered with Steel types that do not care at all about this attack. Blue Flare has similar issues with Eternatus as coverage in that you still don't beat Scales Steels and it can miss, but Kyurem has it worse due to the only-average base speed and rocks weakness. I do not recommend using this if you want results.
Note: you can run minimum SpDef Scarf as a funny tool on Hyper Offence that maximises damage on Imposter with Dragon Energy. Once again, do not expect wins.

Advantages:

Probably instakilling any non-resist
Fair speed tier
Pretty good bulk

Disadvantages:

Does not enjoy steel types
Very frail
Poor typing for staying alive for any amount of time
Choice Locked

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

:mamoswine:

Ground/Ice STAB is really cool, but the base 80 speed + comparatively low base stats + painful Improofing hold this back.
:dialga:

Great mon, but not really used as a breaker. Magic Guard + Life Orb can do stuff but you'd probably rather use another set on Dialga.
:necrozma-dusk-mane:

Dual STABS on ability-ignoring moves is cool, and the high attack is great, but the attacking types aren't tremendous.
:heatran:

Magic Guard is nice because you have STAB on both Mind Blown and Steel Beam, but that's about all this has going for it.
:reshiram:

Same as above, Mind Blown is strong but that's mostly everything Reshiram has.
:thundurus-therian:

Specs Aerilate Boomburst is very strong and it has a crucial speed tier of 101, but otherwise offers 0 defensive utility and is only ever clicking Boomburst, Volt Switch or Trick.
:urshifu:

STAB on 2 Auto-Crit moves in Wicked Blow and Storm Throw is very strong, but 0 defensive utility and a 4x fairy weakness hold it back.
:pheromosa:

This thing has negative defensive utility but it's blazing speed and Fighting STAB are worth mentioning.

VERDICT

This is just intended to give some general guidance on what breakers to implement into your teambuilding - they can be hard to use if all they offer is breaking potential, which is why Xerneas, Regigigas, Eternatus and Ho-Oh are all ranked so high. These sets are by no means binding either, so feel free to experiment with other utility options, coverage moves, items or abilities. Any mons that aren't on this list aren't necessarily unviable but probably aren't recommended for use as breakers for one reason or another.

edit: fixed formatting. i spent 3 and a half hrs on this and somehow it never occurred to me that this wasn't useful in any way

XxLazzerpenguinxX · Apr 15, 2022

Thank you all for being so patient. Samples are finally updated - congrats to all those who had an accepted sample submission!

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/balanced-hackmons.3656408/post-8286447

(team descriptions coming soon, and expect some VR stuff in the coming weeks)

cityscapes · Apr 22, 2022

NOTES ON NICKNAMING MONS

this post is for pretentious people and TectonicDestroyer if you are neither of these then do something else with your time

nicknames are cool because they can give your pokemon an extra layer of meaning. you get 18 characters on every mon and can do whatever you want with them. a notable option is nicknaming a mon to a url shortener such as bit.ly to allow for pretty much endless amounts of information, but in practice most people will not click on the links so i'm not fond of this option.

another option i'm not too fond of in nicknaming is naming the whole team after a specific theme, such as characters in a show or lyrics in a song. in my opinion this does a disservice to both the team and the thing it is referencing; the team is not the song, and the song is not the team. that said, i think borrowing names from other places is perfectly fine as long as you aren't structuring the entire team around said other place. (as a matter of fact, the star of the show in this week's ompl game will be named after a song i'm fond of.)

i think the best philosophy to have in mind when nicknaming mons is to imagine you're composing an album and need to think of titles for all the songs. names should be descriptive, but not necessarily direct (we have all seen ladder mons named stuff like "tank" and "sweeper" for example). this is a very broad description that imo makes nicknames the most fun and flexible, and has also led to my favorite nicknames such as WORST MON ON TEAM (aegislash), Super Star Shooter (magearna), and PLAGUE BE UPON YE (latios).

this is probably a good note to end on. nicknames are something you should have fun with, they certainly aren't a hyper serious affair. now get out there and name your mons!

Nighstar o3o · Apr 24, 2022

cityscapes said:
View attachment 420451
NOTES ON NICKNAMING MONS

this post is for pretentious people and TectonicDestroyer if you are neither of these then do something else with your time

nicknames are cool because they can give your pokemon an extra layer of meaning. you get 18 characters on every mon and can do whatever you want with them. a notable option is nicknaming a mon to a url shortener such as bit.ly to allow for pretty much endless amounts of information, but in practice most people will not click on the links so i'm not fond of this option.

another option i'm not too fond of in nicknaming is naming the whole team after a specific theme, such as characters in a show or lyrics in a song. in my opinion this does a disservice to both the team and the thing it is referencing; the team is not the song, and the song is not the team. that said, i think borrowing names from other places is perfectly fine as long as you aren't structuring the entire team around said other place. (as a matter of fact, the star of the show in this week's ompl game will be named after a song i'm fond of.)

i think the best philosophy to have in mind when nicknaming mons is to imagine you're composing an album and need to think of titles for all the songs. names should be descriptive, but not necessarily direct (we have all seen ladder mons named stuff like "tank" and "sweeper" for example). this is a very broad description that imo makes nicknames the most fun and flexible, and has also led to my favorite nicknames such as WORST MON ON TEAM (aegislash), Super Star Shooter (magearna), and PLAGUE BE UPON YE (latios).

this is probably a good note to end on. nicknames are something you should have fun with, they certainly aren't a hyper serious affair. now get out there and name your mons!

Be me, with 166 teams as of now. Every single mon Nicknamed. Some of them I'm more fond of than others, and some carry on in legacy. I'll share some of my Favs!

Mawile: Will ALWAYS be Female and Always nicknamed: Iris Hollow. Back when I was like, 12, I had an online dating phase, and had a girlfriend with that username. It was fun, silly, and stupid, and I named my fav pokemon after her. I will always name my mawile that, and never, Ever stray.

Durant: Man I love this guy. Alot. I never used to have a set name, but now I do. Ant vs the world. An awesome nickname, I do think. Right now, I'm up to Ant vs the world 8, as most have been on my BH teams. I like to run Flashfire, life orb, Shiftgear, Glacial lance, v-create, Sunsteel strike. He truly takes on the world

Zygarde: By Far my favorite Legendary, I have 3 main names I use for this good boy. 2minutes2midnight, Gundam the end/Devil Gundam, Herasy 2.0, and EVA U.N.I.T 42. He's basically a Gundam, and the two I think fit the most are the Devil gundam, in which a constantly involving thingy, and Gundam the end, who also Fires lasers from shoulder hands. Herasy 2.0 because he is defender of earth and probobly hates tech. And EVA because its a Living Mech, just like the EVA units.

Dialga: Back when I was a wee lad of like, 8, My grandma got me my first Pokemon Game, Pokemon Diamond. I had played the game with 0 knowledge, And simply watched the anime Before hand. I picked piplup as my starter, and named him Shellshock, After the Blastoise in the The first Pokemon Movie. I would eventually solo the elite 4 and Cynthia with only my overly leveled HM Laiden Shellshock, and my Dialga, who went by my crush at the time, Maddison/Maddy. Now It's just like Tradition.

Runegrigus: So, Uh. This was my first ever shiny I ever Encountered. I love her so much. She's still on my Switch. So, now whenever I play on Showdown, I always name her after my shiny: Sayori. Er, you know, after a totally a cute and fun kids game where you write poetry with cute girls. There's no way a ghost type pokemon would ever have anything in common with that, right???

Garchomp and Nigileo: Cynthia Stan and Lusamine Stan, Respectively.

Wishiwashi: Apes2getherstrong Do I really have to explain?

Zekrom: A Bit of a newer one, but I always now name mine Red Eyes B. Dragon

Eturnatus and Lando T: I always name these two Cancer

Xurketree: Pile O' Wires . He's had many generations. Up to Pile O' Wires 7

Girantina: Angy Moth noises/Mothra/LAMPLuvr Did you know that Toho produces the sound for the pokemon anime, and often rip there Kaiju sounds? And that Mothra and Anime Girantina have the same Cry? And Also Lunala for some reason? And Zygarde? Well Now you do. And Palkia has that wierd Star wars ride that General Kenobi had in Episode II

Yveltal: Baron Samedi. God of the Afterlife and Crossroads. Literally the Pokemon of death, and is shaped like a crossroad. Fitting.

Registeel and Zam-C: Irishcancerbuster and Breastcancerbuster, Respectively. There shiny forms. Registeel is green and bust Cancer. He's also Irish. Meanwhile, Zam Is an Advocate for breast cancer awareness. Zam C will also go by Buster Blader For me.

Heatran: This one I have 0 clue where it came from, but I've been using it so long its Tradition. Erotic Noise. That is all

Tsareena: Step on me Mommy. No I will not explain myself.

Regilieki and Regigigas: Electric Boogaloo and His body is Regi, Respectively Regigigas will also go by John Cena

Slurpuff: Another of my traditions. They always go by: Chris Pratt(Mario)

Anyway, some of my favorites uwu

Tea Guzzler · Apr 24, 2022

(Writing another big post again because i feel like it, and also because i'm a greedy bastard and want the 1,000th post)
Wanted to make some general guidance on things that work on Hyper Offensive structures bc why not. I find HO incredibly fun to play and as one of the few ways to play BH without entering a slogfest against the 18 trillionth 'Unique Bulky Balance w/ Swords Dance Regigigas and Pixilate Xerneas'. This is by no means a comprehensive or exhaustive guide, but rather a general pointer on "what's good and why is it good".

Note: Hyper Offence is by nature a volatile playstyle. Playing HO often requires great situational awareness, great decision making ability, a well-formed mix of damage dealers and effective ways to make progress in a short amount of time. By itself, this makes it difficult to use but highly effective, since many teams are not prepped entirely for HO (the most common structure you will encounter is Imposter + Prankster + Possibly Fur Coat/Ice Scales, which is fairly manageable).

TEA GUZZLER'S HYPER OFFENCE NOTES
(spelt offence instead of offense because your mum)

GENERALLY GOOD SETS

:ss/xerneas:

Xerneas @ Life Orb / Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive / Rash Nature
- Boomburst
- Extreme Speed
- Rapid Spin / V-create / Fishious Rend / Diamond Storm / Nuzzle / Knock Off
- Quiver Dance / Explosion / Volt Switch

Surprising absolutely nobody, this is incredible on every team structure imaginable. Boomburst's absurd power, especially when item boosted, breaks holes in almost anything, especially when bolstered by coverage options, QD boosts or even just inting with explosion. You can even opt for a more utility-focused set that can still pack a punch but focuses on alleviating hazard pressure in the short term, and just volt switch all your problems away. You really can't go wrong with Xern on HO.

:ss/regigigas:

Regigigas @ Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shift Gear
- Multi-Attack
- V-create
- Wicked Blow

+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Tough Claws Regigigas V-create vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Fur Coat Zamazenta-Crowned: 387-458 (99.7 - 118%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
that's the whole point of this set. you maul almost everything.
Note: Swords Dance Regigigas sets also work on Hyper Offence but I typically find these end up going for aggressive Hazard Builds, since getting bogged down against dedicated checks is a nightmare for HO.

:ss/kyurem-black:

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shift Gear
- Glacial Lance
- V-create
- Precipice Blades / Bolt Strike

Kills pretty much anything and everything after a boost. This is notorious for basically having no improof, however, so Prankster Eviolite Type: Null is about as close as you're getting and even that's unsafe. If you are to use this, ensure you can guarantee that imposter is a non-factor before you bring it in.

BELLY DRUM + UNBURDEN

example set:

:ss/necrozma-dusk-mane:

Photon Geezer (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Belly Drum
- Sunsteel Strike
- Photon Geyser
- Wicked Blow

cityscapes said:
View attachment 420451
NOTES ON NICKNAMING MONS

this post is for pretentious people and TectonicDestroyer if you are neither of these then do something else with your time

nicknames are cool because they can give your pokemon an extra layer of meaning. you get 18 characters on every mon and can do whatever you want with them. a notable option is nicknaming a mon to a url shortener such as bit.ly to allow for pretty much endless amounts of information, but in practice most people will not click on the links so i'm not fond of this option.

another option i'm not too fond of in nicknaming is naming the whole team after a specific theme, such as characters in a show or lyrics in a song. in my opinion this does a disservice to both the team and the thing it is referencing; the team is not the song, and the song is not the team. that said, i think borrowing names from other places is perfectly fine as long as you aren't structuring the entire team around said other place. (as a matter of fact, the star of the show in this week's ompl game will be named after a song i'm fond of.)

i think the best philosophy to have in mind when nicknaming mons is to imagine you're composing an album and need to think of titles for all the songs. names should be descriptive, but not necessarily direct (we have all seen ladder mons named stuff like "tank" and "sweeper" for example). this is a very broad description that imo makes nicknames the most fun and flexible, and has also led to my favorite nicknames such as WORST MON ON TEAM (aegislash), Super Star Shooter (magearna), and PLAGUE BE UPON YE (latios).

this is probably a good note to end on. nicknames are something you should have fun with, they certainly aren't a hyper serious affair. now get out there and name your mons!

read the name and weep city

Anyway, Belly Drum and Unburden combo into a devastating sweeper that is able to usually cut clean through the enemy given that you're got Prankster / Unaware out of the way. This is a relatively tall order, though you have multiple ways of going about achieving this goal, with the most common being Final Gambit but with other tools being useful as well. The way the set works is that, when you click Belly Drum, you drop your HP to half and consume your Sitrus Berry, gaining the Unburden speed boost - so, now you're at 4x attack, 75% HP and have doubled speed. The important factor is that Imposter will never have this speed boost because, in order to gain the speed boost, you have to actively lose your item - simply entering the field with no item does not grant the boost. Dusk Mane is a noteworthy DrumBurden user since you have Dual STABS on moves that ignore abilities (Photon Geyser/Sunsteel Strike), and can also remove Defence EVs such that you can instakill Eviolite Imposter with Wicked Blow.
Any mon really goes with DrumBurden, so long as it can instakill Eviolite Imposter from full and has sufficient killpower to threaten to drop anything in front of it. Some other examples:

:ss/zygarde-complete:

Zygarde-Complete @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Precipice Blades
- Glacial Lance
- Final Gambit

Zygarde-C's massive HP stat lets it click Final Gambit in front of anything it's unable to directly kill, which can include Prankster mons, Bulky Fur Coaters like Melmetal/Suicune, and known Unaware users. Specifically, if you're at 75% HP, you can gambit and kill anything with base HP lower than Solgaleo (137 Base). Just remember that the reliance on Precipice Blades (which is preferred over Earthquake to guaranteed kill Fur Coat Zama-C and Solgaleo, as opposed to an unfavourable roll) is important due to it's accuracy.

:ss/ho-oh:

Ho-Oh @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Pyro Ball
- Fishious Rend
- Glacial Lance

Noteworthy for it's ability to instakill Fur Coat Melmetal, arguably the bulkiest FC mon, with Pyro Ball. Unlike other DrumBurden users it is not reliant on V-create as a steel-type killer due to it's Fire STAB. Once again, Pyro Ball accuracy.

SIMPLE SETUP

:ss/lunala:

Lunala @ Focus Sash
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 5 SpD
- No Retreat
- Stored Power
- Astral Barrage
- Final Gambit

1 turn of setup turns this into an absolute monster with 220 Base Power Stored Powers, augmented by +2 in every stat making it incredibly hard to directly kill. A total Sp.Def stat of 201 gives you a guaranteed instakill on Imposter Chansey with Astral Barrage, and thanks to the focus sash you can set up in front of a surprising amount of targets (if you're intact when Imp comes in, you can also use the sash as a way to guarantee that your Astral connects). Gambit, similar to the Zygarde set above, can be used to destroy troublesome mons such as Pranksters or Unaware. If you aren't concerned with Instakilling imp (for example, you have a Yveltal in the back), you can instead opt for Moongeist Beam and increased special bulk to get past some abilities. Be wary of random spectrals.

:ss/necrozma-dawn-wings:

Necrozma-Dawn-Wings @ Focus Sash / Life Orb
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- No Retreat
- Stored Power
- Spectral Thief
- Final Gambit / Moongeist Beam / Astral Barrage

Dawn Wings Necrozma's additional damage output is often unnecessary/won't make enough difference, and the bulk increase is only marginal. In addition, Final Gambit is significantly less threatening due to the lowered base HP (137 -> 97), and you're reliant on Spectral Thief to instakill imposter as, even at minimum Sp.Def, Astral Barrage is never a guaranteed OHKO.

Edit: Sevag has informed me that Life Orb is a good item choice in order to do massive damage to punch through Scales ZamaC after chip (Stored Power does 84 - 98.9%), every non-resist Assault Vest mon (Vest Kyogre takes 110.3 - 130.1%) and to threaten an instakill on Prankster non-topsy Giratina (unboosted Astral does 88.6 - 105.1%). Do your own calcs for mons, you often overlook things like this.

Other Simple + No Retreat users are heavily flawed, such as relying on Shed Shell or Baton Pass to switch, being Fairy Weak (if using Power Trip), or inadequate damage output (Cheese Obstagoon with Imprison, No Retreat, Haze, Power Trip).

:ss/eternatus:

Eternatus @ Black Sludge
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Core Enforcer
- Sludge Wave / Sludge Bomb
- Earth Power

:ss/spectrier:

Spectrier @ Life Orb
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Moongeist Beam
- Boomburst
- Strength Sap / Taunt

The second main form of Simple Setup, SimplePlot uses mons with absurd special attack and speed to make them into sweeping monsters that one-shot a significant portion of the metagame. These are great as the main users (Eternatus and Spectrier) are reasonably bulky, with Eternatus notably carrying Black Sludge for passive recovery, and Spectrier having sap as an option due to Normal/Ghost being effectively unresisted - meaning that you can repeatedly bring them in to fish for opportunities to deal damage. Spectrier's STAB Moongeist makes it more efficient as a killing machine due to ignoring Ice Scales (Life Orb is necessary to guarantee the OHKO on +Sp.Def ZamaC), but Eternatus' much higher bulk is well appreciated. Both severely dislike both Paralysis and Imposter.

Note: SimplePlot Mewtwo exists, but Imposter is highly problematic due to being able to hardswitch into Photon and basically forcing you into some Yveltal variant to safely improof it.

:ss/necrozma-dusk-mane:

Photon G... (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Life Orb
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shift Gear
- Photon Geyser
- Sunsteel Strike
- V-create

Simple + Shift Gear/Dragon Dance is the last main form of Simple Setup. The greater variety of strong Physical moves allows these to pose a significant damage threat even accounting for the +2 attacking boost as opposed to the +4 from SimplePlot. The majority of these SimpleGear mons will want some way around Fur Coat walls, which is why I use Dusk Mane as an example, with the other main SimpleGear user being Calyrex-Ice (due to STAB Photon). The main issue with these is that Imposter is significantly less threatened by them, they often can't do much to Prankster and can fall short against Bulky wall like Melmetal.

:ss/zacian:

Zacian @ Fairy Memory / Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws / Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- V-create
- Fishious Rend

:ss/zamazenta:

Zamazenta / Zamazenta-Crowned @ Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws / Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Coverage / Sunsteel Strike
- Coverage

I'll leave these here. These can function as great cleaners for Bulky Offence teams but are about the only things able to run Simple + SD reasonably well on HO.

CHOICED ATTACKERS

:ss/eternatus:

Eternatus @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability / Dragon's Maw
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Energy
- Sludge Wave
- Volt Switch / Blue Flare
- Final Gambit

Realistically, anything can work as a choiced breaker so long as you have a breaker that actually benefits your team. This Eternatus is infamous for OHKO'ing everything in sight short of Primordial Sea Magearna, for example. Compared to other Hyper Offence attackers, Choiced Attackers provide the highest immediate damage and are best used for opening holes rather than sweeping themselves. You probably also want pivoting on them to help scout/keep momentum.

:ss/kyurem-black:

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker / Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Glacial Lance
- V-create
- Bolt Strike / Precipice Blades / Trick
- U-turn

Another example of a good breaker. Can not only wear down Imposter if it hard switches into you due to the absence of recovery, but Fire/Ice is tremendous for attacking and you can almost always guarantee a positive outcome (either a kill or momentum) whenever this comes in. Whilst choiced breakers are often slated for their lack of longevity, that isn't a significant factor on these types of teams.

SETUP + PRIORITY

:ss/kartana:

Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Belly Drum
- Sunsteel Strike / Glacial Lance
- Drain Punch
- Horn Leech

The first example of this is TriageDrum. This works by abusing Triage's +3 Priority to blitz past Extreme Speed, Prankster-boosted moves and even an enemy Triage-boosted Oblivion Wing. Kartana is about the only good user of this set, and this is because whilst it seems good in theory, in practice it is very difficult to pull off - this is because of a number of mons being unthreatened by it's attacks, such as most Fur Coat mons (even Zama-C is a 6.25% roll to OHKO with drain punch), Eternatus, Prankster Giratina, and more niche options like Lugia. In addition, the imposter matchup is a raw speedtie, though with a Lonely nature and 0 Defence EVs you can guarantee the kill if you win. These issues are largely due to there being a whole 3 Physical Triage options in Drain Punch, Leech Life and Horn Leech.

:ss/marshadow:

Marshadow @ Ghost Memory
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Multi-Attack
- Drain Punch
- Coverage

Unlike the Kartana set above, Marshadow limits it's Triage move down to one in Drain Punch, but has the moveslot to run Multi Attack. Marshadow is unique on Hyper Offence in that, given a Ghost Memory, you can attack with STABS whilst imposter is unable to actually do any damage to you thanks to Multi Attack (note that Poltergeist + No/Used item has the same effect). The main drawbacks of this set compared to the Kartana one are the significantly lower base Attack and the loss of Life Orb in order to improof, which makes you actually deal less overall damage with Drain Punch despite the STAB.

:ss/zacian:

Crying over pixies (Zacian) @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Extreme Speed
- V-create
- Coverage

DrumSpeed isn't a reliable option and shouldn't be considered as a sweeper in the majority of circumstances. This is because every DrumSpeed user hard loses to imposter and, in every case except Zacian, falls short against Fur Coat users that can remove the attack boosts. Often, you're also only able to use Drum once since recovery in the 4th slot is not very good, and many -ate abilities can run into Pranksters that resist that type (eg. this Zacian might run into Prankster Melmetal), meaning you are powerless to stop your boosts getting removed.

:ss/yveltal:

fob this ya btec (Yveltal) @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Oblivion Wing
- Thunder Cage
- Taunt

Triage O-Wing works as it would on any other team, but Hyper Offensive sets can choose to make use of dedicated coverage in order to eliminate things as best as possible. Thunder Cage/Taunt is the best example of this IMO, as you can use Cage/Taunt to trap and eliminate virtually any target, opening a significant hole for the enemy team. In addition, you're a cleaner that also has self-sustain and hard beats every Prankster except trapping-immune / slow pivot ones, which is always beneficial. Rayquaza is an option over Yveltal to make use of Core Enforcer to make Imposter less safe and force through Scales walls, whilst also having a more powerful Oblivion Wing.

CHEESE OPTIONS

:ss/marshadow:

Marshadow @ Ghost Memory
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Multi-Attack
- Close Combat
- Taunt

Makes use of Prankster Taunt to deny the enemy of Haze/Topsy-Turvy, whilst still beating Imposter due to the Ghost Memory trick discussed above. Main issue with this is that the damage output isn't terrific and you are weak to the most common forms of priority (Triage and Pixilate ESpeed), whilst still underspeeding +Spe ZamaC and everything faster. The below-average bulk also makes it difficult to set up with.

:ss/obstagoon:

Obstagoon @ Shed Shell / Black Glasses
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- No Retreat
- Imprison
- Haze
- Power Trip

I mentioned this earlier, but the combination of Normal/Dark makes you immune to Spectral Thief and Prankster Topsy-Turvy, and Imprison means you seal both Power Trip for Imposter and Haze for enemy Pranksters. This still doesn't mean you're running a good set, however, as not only do you take 2 turns to set up but you are still vulnerable to non-prankster Topsy-Turvy (which, due to Swords Dance Regigigas, is on the rise), are weak to Fairy and often aren't even doing enough damage since you have a whole 1 attack, meaning often you can either get Strength Sap spammed by a resist or flat out killed by Zama-C's Fighting move.

:ss/chansey:

Chansey (F) / Zygarde-Complete @ Eviolite / Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Filler
- Filler

Substitute in general is very volatile. Whether this is through Substitute + Baton Pass or through the attacker itself Substituting, the risks are often not worth the reward. Substitute prevents Imposter from copying you, and blocks status moves that target you (so it blocks topsy-turvy, but not haze since this targets the field), which sounds good in theory since you can have a mon behind a possibly-fat substitute that no longer has to care about the Imposter matchup. However, issues arise due to the inability to block Haze + sound moves and Spectral Thief ignoring substitute, meaning that when you're behind a Sub you're still not as protected as you'd have hoped.

:ss/groudon:

Groudon @ Assault Vest
Ability: Klutz
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Precipice Blades
- Glacial Lance
- Trick

This works by using a setup move to bait/force in prankster, then using Trick to send the enemy prankster an Assault Vest, removing the ability for that Prankster to click status moves, the most important of these moves being Haze / Topsy-Turvy. Klutz turns off your item, meaning you can hold/Trick an Assault Vest since AV's "can't click status moves" effect isn't active. This is very inconsistent and Imposter can easily come in to scout your set, making the tech infinitely harder to pull off since Imp can see that you have Klutz/Trick and are gunning for their Prankster. In addition, due to not having an ability/item (Klutz also turns off AV's special defence boost), the user of the tech is almost useless outside of the tech, making it about as high-risk high-reward as sets come.

IMPROOFING

The standard setup for Hyper Offence is to have 1 non-attacking mon that can improof the majority of your attackers, and another mon to improof the rest. See Sevag's Apricot Princess for a good example of this, where Ho-Oh is the improof for Xerneas and Eternatus, and Yveltal gets free entry from Imposter Lunala/Dusk Mane, whilst also self-improofing due to Unburden. The key with Hyper Offence is to ensure that your improofs are not massive momentum sinks, and that they can exploit Imposter being in such as using it to set up, or pivot into an advantageous position. That 'passive mon improofs most of your team' also isn't strict - you could theoretically have every offensive mon improofed by another, but I find that it's the easiest to accomplish without significant coverage downgrading. Improofing can also be very hard to pull off whilst maintaining a standard HO structure if you opt for certain hard-to-improof sets, which is why I said to be careful using Shift Gear + Mold Breaker Kyurem-B earlier (if so, enjoy using Prankster Null).
The main gimmick of several HO sets is that they also hard self-improof, so I often recommend using at least one of these on the team as they are highly effective at getting kills and forcing the enemy into dangerous positions.

Nihilslave · Apr 24, 2022

Tea Guzzler said:
TEA GUZZLER'S HYPER OFFENCE NOTES

NOOOO How can you anticipate what I was going to post and post it ealier?

Tea Guzzler said:
Playing HO often requires great situational awareness, great decision making ability, a well-formed mix of damage dealers and effective ways to make progress in a short amount of time.

Good post tho. I especially like this sentence.
Dw I'll post my version of this weeks later with another point of view ;)

Nighstar o3o · Apr 24, 2022

Tea Guzzler said:
(Writing another big post again because i feel like it, and also because i'm a greedy bastard and want the 1,000th post)
Wanted to make some general guidance on things that work on Hyper Offensive structures bc why not. I find HO incredibly fun to play and as one of the few ways to play BH without entering a slogfest against the 18 trillionth 'Unique Bulky Balance w/ Swords Dance Regigigas and Pixilate Xerneas'. This is by no means a comprehensive or exhaustive guide, but rather a general pointer on "what's good and why is it good".

Note: Hyper Offence is by nature a volatile playstyle. Playing HO often requires great situational awareness, great decision making ability, a well-formed mix of damage dealers and effective ways to make progress in a short amount of time. By itself, this makes it difficult to use but highly effective, since many teams are not prepped entirely for HO (the most common structure you will encounter is Imposter + Prankster + Possibly Fur Coat/Ice Scales, which is fairly manageable).

TEA GUZZLER'S HYPER OFFENCE NOTES
(spelt offence instead of offense because your mum)

GENERALLY GOOD SETS

Xerneas @ Life Orb / Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive / Rash Nature
- Boomburst
- Extreme Speed
- Rapid Spin / V-create / Fishious Rend / Diamond Storm / Nuzzle / Knock Off
- Quiver Dance / Explosion / Volt Switch

Surprising absolutely nobody, this is incredible on every team structure imaginable. Boomburst's absurd power, especially when item boosted, breaks holes in almost anything, especially when bolstered by coverage options, QD boosts or even just inting with explosion. You can even opt for a more utility-focused set that can still pack a punch but focuses on alleviating hazard pressure in the short term, and just volt switch all your problems away. You really can't go wrong with Xern on HO.

Regigigas @ Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shift Gear
- Multi-Attack
- V-create
- Wicked Blow

+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Tough Claws Regigigas V-create vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Fur Coat Zamazenta-Crowned: 387-458 (99.7 - 118%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
that's the whole point of this set. you maul almost everything.
Note: Swords Dance Regigigas sets also work on Hyper Offence but I typically find these end up going for aggressive Hazard Builds, since getting bogged down against dedicated checks is a nightmare for HO.

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shift Gear
- Glacial Lance
- V-create
- Precipice Blades / Bolt Strike

Kills pretty much anything and everything after a boost. This is notorious for basically having no improof, however, so Prankster Eviolite Type: Null is about as close as you're getting and even that's unsafe. If you are to use this, ensure you can guarantee that imposter is a non-factor before you bring it in.

BELLY DRUM + UNBURDEN

example set:

Photon Geezer (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Belly Drum
- Sunsteel Strike
- Photon Geyser
- Wicked Blow

read the name and weep city

Anyway, Belly Drum and Unburden combo into a devastating sweeper that is able to usually cut clean through the enemy given that you're got Prankster / Unaware out of the way. This is a relatively tall order, though you have multiple ways of going about achieving this goal, with the most common being Final Gambit but with other tools being useful as well. The way the set works is that, when you click Belly Drum, you drop your HP to half and consume your Sitrus Berry, gaining the Unburden speed boost - so, now you're at 4x attack, 75% HP and have doubled speed. The important factor is that Imposter will never have this speed boost because, in order to gain the speed boost, you have to actively lose your item - simply entering the field with no item does not grant the boost. Dusk Mane is a noteworthy DrumBurden user since you have Dual STABS on moves that ignore abilities (Photon Geyser/Sunsteel Strike), and can also remove Defence EVs such that you can instakill Eviolite Imposter with Wicked Blow.
Any mon really goes with DrumBurden, so long as it can instakill Eviolite Imposter from full and has sufficient killpower to threaten to drop anything in front of it. Some other examples:

Zygarde-Complete @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Precipice Blades
- Glacial Lance
- Final Gambit

Zygarde-C's massive HP stat lets it click Final Gambit in front of anything it's unable to directly kill, which can include Prankster mons, Bulky Fur Coaters like Melmetal/Suicune, and known Unaware users. Specifically, if you're at 75% HP, you can gambit and kill anything with base HP lower than Solgaleo (137 Base). Just remember that the reliance on Precipice Blades (which is preferred over Earthquake to guaranteed kill Fur Coat Zama-C and Solgaleo, as opposed to an unfavourable roll) is important due to it's accuracy.

Ho-Oh @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Pyro Ball
- Fishious Rend
- Glacial Lance

Noteworthy for it's ability to instakill Fur Coat Melmetal, arguably the bulkiest FC mon, with Pyro Ball. Unlike other DrumBurden users it is not reliant on V-create as a steel-type killer due to it's Fire STAB. Once again, Pyro Ball accuracy.

SIMPLE SETUP

Lunala @ Focus Sash
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 5 SpD
- No Retreat
- Stored Power
- Astral Barrage
- Final Gambit

1 turn of setup turns this into an absolute monster with 220 Base Power Stored Powers, augmented by +2 in every stat making it incredibly hard to directly kill. A total Sp.Def stat of 201 gives you a guaranteed instakill on Imposter Chansey with Astral Barrage, and thanks to the focus sash you can set up in front of a surprising amount of targets (if you're intact when Imp comes in, you can also use the sash as a way to guarantee that your Astral connects). Gambit, similar to the Zygarde set above, can be used to destroy troublesome mons such as Pranksters or Unaware. If you aren't concerned with Instakilling imp (for example, you have a Yveltal in the back), you can instead opt for Moongeist Beam and increased special bulk to get past some abilities. Be wary of random spectrals.

Necrozma-Dawn-Wings @ Focus Sash
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- No Retreat
- Stored Power
- Spectral Thief
- Final Gambit / Moongeist Beam / Astral Barrage

Dawn Wings Necrozma's additional damage output is often unnecessary/won't make enough difference, and the bulk increase is only marginal. In addition, Final Gambit is significantly less threatening due to the lowered base HP (137 -> 97), and you're reliant on Spectral Thief to instakill imposter as, even at minimum Sp.Def, Astral Barrage is never a guaranteed OHKO.

Other Simple + No Retreat users are heavily flawed, such as relying on Shed Shell or Baton Pass to switch, being Fairy Weak (if using Power Trip), or inadequate damage output (Cheese Obstagoon with Imprison, No Retreat, Haze, Power Trip).

Eternatus @ Black Sludge
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Core Enforcer
- Sludge Wave / Sludge Bomb
- Earth Power

Spectrier @ Life Orb
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Moongeist Beam
- Boomburst
- Strength Sap / Taunt

The second main form of Simple Setup, SimplePlot uses mons with absurd special attack and speed to make them into sweeping monsters that one-shot a significant portion of the metagame. These are great as the main users (Eternatus and Spectrier) are reasonably bulky, with Eternatus notably carrying Black Sludge for passive recovery, and Spectrier having sap as an option due to Normal/Ghost being effectively unresisted - meaning that you can repeatedly bring them in to fish for opportunities to deal damage. Spectrier's STAB Moongeist makes it more efficient as a killing machine due to ignoring Ice Scales (Life Orb is necessary to guarantee the OHKO on +Sp.Def ZamaC), but Eternatus' much higher bulk is well appreciated. Both severely dislike both Paralysis and Imposter.

Note: SimplePlot Mewtwo exists, but Imposter is highly problematic due to being able to hardswitch into Photon and basically forcing you into some Yveltal variant to safely improof it.

Photon G... (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Life Orb
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shift Gear
- Photon Geyser
- Sunsteel Strike
- V-create

Simple + Shift Gear/Dragon Dance is the last main form of Simple Setup. The greater variety of strong Physical moves allows these to pose a significant damage threat even accounting for the +2 attacking boost as opposed to the +4 from SimplePlot. The majority of these SimpleGear mons will want some way around Fur Coat walls, which is why I use Dusk Mane as an example, with the other main SimpleGear user being Calyrex-Ice (due to STAB Photon). The main issue with these is that Imposter is significantly less threatened by them, they often can't do much to Prankster and can fall short against Bulky wall like Melmetal.

Zacian @ Fairy Memory / Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws / Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- V-create
- Fishious Rend

Zamazenta / Zamazenta-Crowned @ Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws / Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Coverage / Sunsteel Strike
- Coverage

I'll leave these here. These can function as great cleaners for Bulky Offence teams but are about the only things able to run Simple + SD reasonably well on HO.

CHOICED ATTACKERS

Eternatus @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability / Dragon's Maw
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Energy
- Sludge Wave
- Volt Switch / Blue Flare
- Final Gambit

Realistically, anything can work as a choiced breaker so long as you have a breaker that actually benefits your team. This Eternatus is infamous for OHKO'ing everything in sight short of Primordial Sea Magearna, for example. Compared to other Hyper Offence attackers, Choiced Attackers provide the highest immediate damage and are best used for opening holes rather than sweeping themselves. You probably also want pivoting on them to help scout/keep momentum.

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker / Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Glacial Lance
- V-create
- Bolt Strike / Precipice Blades / Trick
- U-turn

Another example of a good breaker. Can not only wear down Imposter if it hard switches into you due to the absence of recovery, but Fire/Ice is tremendous for attacking and you can almost always guarantee a positive outcome (either a kill or momentum) whenever this comes in. Whilst choiced breakers are often slated for their lack of longevity, that isn't a significant factor on these types of teams.

SETUP + PRIORITY

Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Belly Drum
- Sunsteel Strike / Glacial Lance
- Drain Punch
- Horn Leech

The first example of this is TriageDrum. This works by abusing Triage's +3 Priority to blitz past Extreme Speed, Prankster-boosted moves and even an enemy Triage-boosted Oblivion Wing. Kartana is about the only good user of this set, and this is because whilst it seems good in theory, in practice it is very difficult to pull off - this is because of a number of mons being unthreatened by it's attacks, such as most Fur Coat mons (even Zama-C is a 6.25% roll to OHKO with drain punch), Eternatus, Prankster Giratina, and more niche options like Lugia. In addition, the imposter matchup is a raw speedtie, though with a Lonely nature and 0 Defence EVs you can guarantee the kill if you win. These issues are largely due to there being a whole 3 Physical Triage options in Drain Punch, Leech Life and Horn Leech.

Marshadow @ Ghost Memory
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Multi-Attack
- Drain Punch
- Coverage

Unlike the Kartana set above, Marshadow limits it's Triage move down to one in Drain Punch, but has the moveslot to run Multi Attack. Marshadow is unique on Hyper Offence in that, given a Ghost Memory, you can attack with STABS whilst imposter is unable to actually do any damage to you thanks to Multi Attack (note that Poltergeist + No/Used item has the same effect). The main drawbacks of this set compared to the Kartana one are the significantly lower base Attack and the loss of Life Orb in order to improof, which makes you actually deal less overall damage with Drain Punch despite the STAB.

Crying over pixies (Zacian) @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Extreme Speed
- V-create
- Coverage

DrumSpeed isn't a reliable option and shouldn't be considered as a sweeper in the majority of circumstances. This is because every DrumSpeed user hard loses to imposter and, in every case except Zacian, falls short against Fur Coat users that can remove the attack boosts. Often, you're also only able to use Drum once since recovery in the 4th slot is not very good, and many -ate abilities can run into Pranksters that resist that type (eg. this Zacian might run into Prankster Melmetal), meaning you are powerless to stop your boosts getting removed.

fob this ya btec (Yveltal) @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Oblivion Wing
- Thunder Cage
- Taunt

Triage O-Wing works as it would on any other team, but Hyper Offensive sets can choose to make use of dedicated coverage in order to eliminate things as best as possible. Thunder Cage/Taunt is the best example of this IMO, as you can use Cage/Taunt to trap and eliminate virtually any target, opening a significant hole for the enemy team. In addition, you're a cleaner that also has self-sustain and hard beats every Prankster except trapping-immune / slow pivot ones, which is always beneficial. Rayquaza is an option over Yveltal to make use of Core Enforcer to make Imposter less safe and force through Scales walls, whilst also having a more powerful Oblivion Wing.

CHEESE OPTIONS

Marshadow @ Ghost Memory
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Multi-Attack
- Close Combat
- Taunt

Makes use of Prankster Taunt to deny the enemy of Haze/Topsy-Turvy, whilst still beating Imposter due to the Ghost Memory trick discussed above. Main issue with this is that the damage output isn't terrific and you are weak to the most common forms of priority (Triage and Pixilate ESpeed), whilst still underspeeding +Spe ZamaC and everything faster. The below-average bulk also makes it difficult to set up with.

Obstagoon @ Shed Shell / Black Glasses
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- No Retreat
- Imprison
- Haze
- Power Trip

I mentioned this earlier, but the combination of Normal/Dark makes you immune to Spectral Thief and Prankster Topsy-Turvy, and Imprison means you seal both Power Trip for Imposter and Haze for enemy Pranksters. This still doesn't mean you're running a good set, however, as not only do you take 2 turns to set up but you are still vulnerable to non-prankster Topsy-Turvy (which, due to Swords Dance Regigigas, is on the rise), are weak to Fairy and often aren't even doing enough damage since you have a whole 1 attack, meaning often you can either get Strength Sap spammed by a resist or flat out killed by Zama-C's Fighting move.

Chansey (F) / Zygarde-Complete @ Eviolite / Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Filler
- Filler

Substitute in general is very volatile. Whether this is through Substitute + Baton Pass or through the attacker itself Substituting, the risks are often not worth the reward. Substitute prevents Imposter from copying you, and blocks status moves that target you (so it blocks topsy-turvy, but not haze since this targets the field), which sounds good in theory since you can have a mon behind a possibly-fat substitute that no longer has to care about the Imposter matchup. However, issues arise due to the inability to block Haze + sound moves and Spectral Thief ignoring substitute, meaning that when you're behind a Sub you're still not as protected as you'd have hoped.

Groudon @ Assault Vest
Ability: Klutz
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Precipice Blades
- Glacial Lance
- Trick

This works by using a setup move to bait/force in prankster, then using Trick to send the enemy prankster an Assault Vest, removing the ability for that Prankster to click status moves, the most important of these moves being Haze / Topsy-Turvy. Klutz turns off your item, meaning you can hold/Trick an Assault Vest since AV's "can't click status moves" effect isn't active. This is very inconsistent and Imposter can easily come in to scout your set, making the tech infinitely harder to pull off since Imp can see that you have Klutz/Trick and are gunning for their Prankster. In addition, due to not having an ability/item (Klutz also turns off AV's special defence boost), the user of the tech is almost useless outside of the tech, making it about as high-risk high-reward as sets come.

IMPROOFING

The standard setup for Hyper Offence is to have 1 non-attacking mon that can improof the majority of your attackers, and another mon to improof the rest. See Sevag's Apricot Princess for a good example of this, where Ho-Oh is the improof for Xerneas and Eternatus, and Yveltal gets free entry from Imposter Lunala/Dusk Mane, whilst also self-improofing due to Unburden. The key with Hyper Offence is to ensure that your improofs are not massive momentum sinks, and that they can exploit Imposter being in such as using it to set up, or pivot into an advantageous position. That 'passive mon improofs most of your team' also isn't strict - you could theoretically have every offensive mon improofed by another, but I find that it's the easiest to accomplish without significant coverage downgrading. Improofing can also be very hard to pull off whilst maintaining a standard HO structure if you opt for certain hard-to-improof sets, which is why I said to be careful using Shift Gear + Mold Breaker Kyurem-B earlier (if so, enjoy using Prankster Null).
The main gimmick of several HO sets is that they also hard self-improof, so I often recommend using at least one of these on the team as they are highly effective at getting kills and forcing the enemy into dangerous positions.

Question, Mr. Tea, are you going to be posting about Niche mons? I'd also like to point out a recent Discover of mine: Download Scarfed Rayquaza

Sky's the limit (Rayquaza) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Energy
- V-create
- Dragon Ascent
- Oblivion Wing

The theory is, that at maxed out EV's, That Rayquaza has a respectful 399 Atk and Special atk (Assuming you don't have an unfavorable nature) The reason I had for making this is, With download, Ray come in either 'Spec'd' Or 'banded' Depending on what the Opponet is weak too.

Bieng Scarf means it will outspeed anything other than Prankster mons

Dragon Ascent+ Oblivion wing (Though you could run Aeroblast for higher damage output, but lose stab recovery) Make for Solid Stab SpA +Atk options.

Dragon Energy can realistly almost oneshot any dragon in the game (Unless it's something like Ice scales Dialga), and with your speed and Download boost, even Eturn can't outspeed you

The last slot I always debate over. I Usually either run V-create/Glacial lance. One one hand, Glacial lance has better coverage, with weaker damage potential, but no drawbacks. On the other, V-create Is one of the highest damaging fire attacks in the game, with no drawbacks other than a speed drop, (And even then, ray's scarfed, and realistically you COULD get 2 solid hits in before switching out)

Running Ra this way with 2 spA and 2 Phys Atk means that you combine all three 'choice' Items into one. This can free up other team slots, leading for a more fruitful team. Play your cards right, get reads in, and this thing can be a phenominal Offensive threat

Downsides: Pixilate boomburst and other Glacial lance users exist. Realistly you won't surviveA single hit from mons who commonly run these. Pixelate e-speed or Refrigerate e-speed is also deadly. Definition of glass canon. Still.

Final Verdict: Rayquaza's really cool

PS: How the heck do I insert sprites and team thingys? Teach me your ways, Wizards

Tea Guzzler · Apr 24, 2022

Nighstar o3o said:
Question, Mr. Tea, are you going to be posting about Niche mons? I'd also like to point out a recent Discover of mine: Download Scarfed Rayquaza

Sky's the limit (Rayquaza) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Energy
- V-create
- Dragon Ascent
- Oblivion Wing

The theory is, that at maxed out EV's, That Rayquaza has a respectful 399 Atk and Special atk (Assuming you don't have an unfavorable nature) The reason I had for making this is, With download, Ray come in either 'Spec'd' Or 'banded' Depending on what the Opponet is weak too.

Bieng Scarf means it will outspeed anything other than Prankster mons

Dragon Ascent+ Oblivion wing (Though you could run Aeroblast for higher damage output, but lose stab recovery) Make for Solid Stab SpA +Atk options.

Dragon Energy can realistly almost oneshot any dragon in the game (Unless it's something like Ice scales Dialga), and with your speed and Download boost, even Eturn can't outspeed you

The last slot I always debate over. I Usually either run V-create/Glacial lance. One one hand, Glacial lance has better coverage, with weaker damage potential, but no drawbacks. On the other, V-create Is one of the highest damaging fire attacks in the game, with no drawbacks other than a speed drop, (And even then, ray's scarfed, and realistically you COULD get 2 solid hits in before switching out)

Running Ra this way with 2 spA and 2 Phys Atk means that you combine all three 'choice' Items into one. This can free up other team slots, leading for a more fruitful team. Play your cards right, get reads in, and this thing can be a phenominal Offensive threat

Downsides: Pixilate boomburst and other Glacial lance users exist. Realistly you won't surviveA single hit from mons who commonly run these. Pixelate e-speed or Refrigerate e-speed is also deadly. Definition of glass canon. Still.

Final Verdict: Rayquaza's really cool

PS: How the heck do I insert sprites and team thingys? Teach me your ways, Wizards

to begin with, sprites can be inserted by the following formats:
:ss/themon: brings the sword/shield sprite for the mon
eg. :ss/kyurem-black:

:bw/themon: brings the black/white sprite for the mon
eg. :bw/kyurem-black:

:themon: brings the menu sprite for the mon
eg. :kyurem-black:

now on to the set. the main issue with this rayquaza, and to an extent scarf in general, is the lack of flexibility. say you were to come in on an eternatus, and gain the attack boost. now what do you do? click dragon ascent and risk the enemy going into a fur coat wall, or click v-create to eliminate the fur coat wall but risk the enemy staying in? this is the issue that you run into. whilst in theory, you can replicate gorilla tactics sets of old, in reality you lack flexibility, are a prediction machine that doesn't even get maximal results from these correct predictions, and don't have any way of making progress outside of direct attacks. in addition. no recovery. if you look at the few mainstream viable mixed attackers there are in current meta:

:ss/blacephalon:

Blacephalon @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Astral Barrage
- Moongeist Beam
- V-create
- Strength Sap

:ss/palkia:

Palkia @ Lustrous Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Dragon Energy
- Shift Gear
- Strength Sap

:ss/rayquaza:

Rayquaza @ Life Orb
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Boomburst
- V-create
- Extreme Speed
- Strength Sap

All of these have recovery, aren't choice locked and still have similar, if not greater, damage potential than this Rayquaza. They all have a large degree of flexibility which they can use to defeat their checks. Download's issue is it's inconsistency since the download boost you get won't necessarily correlate to the download boost you'd like / will be hitting a target with.
now, compare it to another choiced breaker:

:ss/kyurem-black:

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Glacial Lance
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- U-turn

Not only is this able to pivot if it chooses so, but is able to negate the need for scarf by simply killing the thing in front of it, as opposed to needing to predict right and hoping the enemy stays in for the 2hko. The underlying issue with the Ray set is that you aren't rewarded enough for your predicts and don't generate significant offensive pressure, whilst simultaneously offering no defensive utility. O-Wing also doesn't really constitute reliable recovery since you basically need both the sp.atk boost and a suitable target to heal for significant amounts.

also i will keep iterating that aeroblast is a shit move until the day i die, and no-one can convince me otherwise

ps. the inflexibility of scarf is also why i think scarf imp should be dropped from the VR as a whole. scarf in general is not very good.

Nighstar o3o · Apr 24, 2022

Hrmm-

Nighstar o3o · Apr 24, 2022

Nighstar o3o said:
:ssmawile

Hrmm-

I have 0 clue what I'm doing. Anyway, In a bit, I'll bring a few new teams I made. Or maybe I should Copy Paste what I posted in the discord-

Nighstar o3o · Apr 24, 2022

Alright, First off, I wanna clarify That while I peaked at 1500 on the BH ladder, I would have climbed higher if not for my incessant need to make new and dumb teams, like my below 600 bst BH team.

Anyway, Here's a few of my Better teams that do really well on ladder

https://pokepast.es/4ef96c9191343d91 - Slandered team, One mon with prankster, an Unburden Belly drummer that self improofs, Entei for Xern switch ins, Xern for Dragon Counters, Zam C for Phys switch ins, and Kyerum B for massive damage. Solid team

https://pokepast.es/6d34aa3d7eb143d1 -This is my first ever BH team, and with the help from Tea Guzzler, and I mean ALOT of help, we got it up to snuff, one of my best Teams I have made. Dialga is an Excellent switch in for most, if not all special attackers, even Pix xern. Triage Yvel for damage output and to be faster than pranksters with obliv wing, Searing shot for Burn fishing and Thunder cage for trapping chip Dam. Standered Palkia Set, Fishious rend go brr. If that wasn't enough, two poison heal bois in Zygard and Regi. Regi is a wall, but doubles as a powerhouse since facade chews through things. Zyg is a bit different. Through ALOT of testing, he can tank a single Pix boomburst and a single Glacial lance, and metal bursting said mons is funny as hell. Otherwise, solid team

https://pokepast.es/c62d436172cd9612 - This one is pretty cool. While it doesn't have that wow Factor, it DID play with neat Ideas. For example, Darm zen mode is an excllent fish rend and Prim sea counter. It forces them to switch, which gives you a chance to use something like Future sight, Sear shot, ETC. Weakness policy because the off chance they use a dark or Earth move, with its bulky stats, you will tank the hit and come out stronger for it. Triage Urshifu is Funny, Since it gets access to stab Drain punch and a bug type for ghost types such as Spectrier and Lunala. Wicked blow is great for catching other mons unaware, and its stab. As for eturn, I is indeed the fabled crit set. Solga is here for the express purpose of making any Sap sippers life a living nightmare. On strentgh sap from a xern that has lost a little hp will most certainly OHKO itself. Funny as hell to see. Zyg came back as a tank
Stars, what if I want 6 fat mons?

Don't worry, I got you covered for that too

https://pokepast.es/546d400836f3ef6a Behold, a living nightmare for your enimies and friends alike. Whats that? Blissy with furcoat? What are you, stupid? Not when I Guard split I'm not. Thats when She becomes nigh unkillable. Usually the only thing that can are crits and toxic, but you have Dialga in the back to Aroma if that happens. Same concept for Zyg and Dusk mane return, as well as a Magic bounce non-prank Hazer and Spinner, in the

But Stars I want A weather team!
Sigh, fine fine, Here

https://pokepast.es/d66fd1ae55f099bc - Bring the pain, Except replace the P with an R. Here we have Gira as a rain setter, Primarily since it isn't weak to grass or electric, so its a good first turn mon. Fairly tanky. Now you have your Offensive core, Barraskewda and Palkia. Palkia has swift swim, because it was fast before, but it sure as shit ain't losing the speed game now unless they have prankster, triage, or extreme speed xern. Barraskewda gets adaptability and choiceband, Because fishious rend and Surging strikes go brrrr. Dusk mane and Zyg make a Return

https://pokepast.es/497341386fc3d1b1 - This team I am Super proud of. Yes, they are all Yugioh names, and yes, there is an odd one out, but I couldn't do that to The MILF- I mean Lusimine Stan. Anyway, Zam C here is Scary as hell. A ta +1 Shift gear, it will devestate most mons, and even prankster Haze mons will have issues, Since you have 2 options for them. If its something Like groudon, ez, Surge Strikes. Prankster Yv? Gotcha covered! Storm throw. Registeel? Storm throw! Giratina? Ez! Wicked blow two taps even the beefiest Giratina. Zyg here returns as the Support core, With Zekrom here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and he's all out of ass- Wait- Anyway, He's self improofed, so even if you've statted up and they send a chancy in, Its not like they can do anything but see Not very effective On there screen. Yv Here takes a support role, and Mewtwo is here for utility, either through Paralysis or burn, and You could Optionally run Blizzard and focus Blast instead of Magma storm. Nihi here is your Xern switch it, as well as Rock setter. With shore up and the spD boost from sand stream, its hard to displace it unless you have groudon with prec blade. Sideshell arm is a great poison move, mosty because it Poisons and is fairly accurate

Next, we have by far my best and most successful team/ my favorite, mostly because I came up with it mostly by myself. I have, in BH, discovered the mon with the highest unstatboosted damage in the main Game- Xurkitree. Rising Voltage + Magnet + Electric terrain + Stab + Transistor + Highest base spA in game = Big wins
https://pokepast.es/c4710e2f528876e1 Zam C returns with its pretty decent Typing speed and bulk as a terrain setter. Keep him and Xurk alive as long as possible Losing Xurk even is fine, but do NOT lose both Xurk and Xekrom, without them your kinda just drifting in the sea with no support. The other mons on there own can't do enough to outdamage other teams walls. Keep em alive tho, and you'll have no problem sweeping most mons. Hoho Is here as A spinner, with aerialte extreme speed and fire lash. Dialga is your nuzzler and SpA switch in, And Giratina is your prankster mon. Zekrom Is self improofed Again and Boltsrike is absolutely nutty on Elec terrain. Xurk is the Star here, High damage output, strentgh sap for switch ins, Ice beam for ground types, and a move that mostly one shot every grounded non ground in the game unboosted, if elec terrain is up

Lastly, some experimental Teams that you should only use if you want to confuse your Opponent

https://pokepast.es/5c10ab050e0245f7
https://pokepast.es/7a7494cd13d41de5
https://pokepast.es/0ff32c306e605ac2
https://pokepast.es/918203fcec167eaa

Honorable mention to this team, who has potential but I need to Iron out kinks

https://pokepast.es/95f50f5953f31e2e

Dishonorable mention goes to 4 dragons and a tornadus weather sun team: https://pokepast.es/41506fd3686b2e59

Conversion Team banished to the doom Dimension: https://pokepast.es/841610d3ccaf7f85

The original Xurk team in which I broke 1400 with on the BH Ladder: https://pokepast.es/7dc6875dcfebb757
The ring target was for ground types to get destroyed by Elextric moves and for Ghost normalizers to hate there life

And A Recycle concept team that when works is funny af. THo it Often doesn't: https://pokepast.es/df974034f6eadfaf
Red card recycling is based

Riotgamer2502 · May 5, 2022

Nighstar o3o said:
Question, Mr. Tea, are you going to be posting about Niche mons? I'd also like to point out a recent Discover of mine: Download Scarfed Rayquaza

Sky's the limit (Rayquaza) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Energy
- V-create
- Dragon Ascent
- Oblivion Wing

The theory is, that at maxed out EV's, That Rayquaza has a respectful 399 Atk and Special atk (Assuming you don't have an unfavorable nature) The reason I had for making this is, With download, Ray come in either 'Spec'd' Or 'banded' Depending on what the Opponet is weak too.

Bieng Scarf means it will outspeed anything other than Prankster mons

Dragon Ascent+ Oblivion wing (Though you could run Aeroblast for higher damage output, but lose stab recovery) Make for Solid Stab SpA +Atk options.

Dragon Energy can realistly almost oneshot any dragon in the game (Unless it's something like Ice scales Dialga), and with your speed and Download boost, even Eturn can't outspeed you

The last slot I always debate over. I Usually either run V-create/Glacial lance. One one hand, Glacial lance has better coverage, with weaker damage potential, but no drawbacks. On the other, V-create Is one of the highest damaging fire attacks in the game, with no drawbacks other than a speed drop, (And even then, ray's scarfed, and realistically you COULD get 2 solid hits in before switching out)

This ray set actually looks quite nice, but I would consider changing up some of the moves on it. I generally feel that running a pivoting move is going to make this set far more flexible as it allows you to keep applying pressure especially if paired with a slow pivot, and a slow pivot will also make your use of this mon depend less on predictions. Having three STAB moves feels a bit weird to me so I would probably keep oblivion wing and d-energy as well as a physical move to pressure special walls that can tank its STABs e.g. V-create for Ice Scales Zam. I think these changes will make the set more viable overall between a pivot to keep momentum if you get the wrong boost, and V-create having a surprise factor that can catch out mons they assume would wall coming in after the first time, especially if you use volt switch. Hope you consider these changes and thanks for introducing me to a fun concept in this set.

Lunatic Hai · May 7, 2022

Riotgamer2502 said:
This ray set actually looks quite nice, but I would consider changing up some of the moves on it. I generally feel that running a pivoting move is going to make this set far more flexible as it allows you to keep applying pressure especially if paired with a slow pivot, and a slow pivot will also make your use of this mon depend less on predictions. Having three STAB moves feels a bit weird to me so I would probably keep oblivion wing and d-energy as well as a physical move to pressure special walls that can tank its STABs e.g. V-create for Ice Scales Zam. I think these changes will make the set more viable overall between a pivot to keep momentum if you get the wrong boost, and V-create having a surprise factor that can catch out mons they assume would wall coming in after the first time, especially if you use volt switch. Hope you consider these changes and thanks for introducing me to a fun concept in this set.

A move change won't really help you salvage a corpse. You drop to priority (unlike other attackers that at least have the bulk or typing to not fold), and the novelty of what you're trying to pull off wears off very quickly. VC is a stupid move and does blast kids; unfortunately, the hellhole of ladder likes to pull unsets like psea or FF steels (ZAMN), which happens to stop ray dead in its tracks. Unlike the other top attackers, (Regi/Xern/Etern), this Ray is lacking in the bulk, extra utility, and power that the others provide while being just as weak to status as the latter two. It not having boots makes it more susceptible to rocks chip, which you don't particularly like in a pivot mon. There's also basically no reason to run owing on anything that isn't np triage. You'll do about -3 damage if you do. Aerilate Boomburst >>> a possible +1 owing

We already have aerilate ray as a breaker ray, who packs more of a guaranteed punch than download. Like tea said, it's inherently unreliable and your ability slot is best used on something that actually gives steady, reliable value. Even batshit gambit etern is more reliable, given that you'll likely get a 1 for 1 trade and manage to also get some other progress via status, hazards, etc.

Tea Guzzler · May 14, 2022

problem: am bored
solution: do forum post

I'm just going to ram something else in here because I think it's important within the game but not a lot of people actually talk about it. This is referring to planning - how you want to go about winning a game, once you're already in the game (so this isn't about teambuilder prep). This is something I see quite a few ppl failing to do, which seriously hurts your chances of winning (ie. mindlessly clicking buttons hurts your odds). Also, as the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail, and all that waffle, let's move on.

PLANNING N SHIT

As discussed above, this isn't a concern on teambuilding - so, let's assume that the team is sound, and my main wincon is some arbitrary set like the below:

:ss/eternatus:

the krusty krits (Eternatus) @ Scope Lens
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Focus Energy
- Draco Meteor
- Sludge Bomb
- Overheat

And let's say you load an unknown team, such as the one below:

There's some things you should instantly be thinking about when you see the matchup:

What is the apparent hazard control?
What are the apparent damage threats?
What are the defensive mons you will have to break to get Eternatus through?
What looks like the Prankster mon (if there is one)?

Now, It's pretty naive to assume that you'll be able to get all of these assumptions correct simply by the sight of the team. However, you can make some educated guesses that can help decide your early game actions:

Hazard control looks most likely to be Pixilate Xerneas improofed by Ho-Oh, or Aerilate Ho-Oh likely improofed by Zygarde with some Pheal Xern set.
Xerneas is always a damage threat, Kyurem is always a damage threat, but on preview you can't really decipher if Eternatus and Ho-Oh are.
Ho-Oh will be the main roadblock for your Eternatus, and it's currently unclear if ZamaC will be Ice Scales/Primordial Sea/Assault Vest or not.
Zygarde seems like the most likely Prankster if there is one.

From here, you're going to want to plan the best way to scout - that is, learning what the enemy mons do. Getting this information is a vital avenue to confirming or denying the above suspicions, and thus how you want to go about getting through the defensive mons. Early scouting often involves a lot of pivot spam and careful play, since things can go very wrong if you make a risky play and get punished for it (the most common example I see is people recklessly trying to activate Regigigas' Toxic Orb and getting Nuzzled on the way in), so take it slow. If using offensive mons, you can go into them and launch attacks to see how the enemy responds to them, in order to decipher what the walls that you'll have to get through are. One such example would be (safely) getting Eternatus in and launching a Draco Meteor, since this tests both the switchin and, unlike Sludge Bomb, also tests for Ice Scales if ZamaC is the one coming in.
Whilst scouting, however, you don't want to be too passive or too aggressive - playing too aggressive risks something horrible happening like the ZamaC being Magic Bounce and getting Anchor Shotted whilst switching to Xerneas (meaning you just die), whereas playing too passive means you give the enemy much more room to set up their own initiative (such as laying hazards or poking at your own defences) and begin making progress against you. Worst case with playing passive is that you let Kyurem in for free, which can be disastrous (especially given that, since Kyurems like to run Mold Breaker and/or ways to boost attack, walls are often more the mons themselves rather than the sets, making it slightly easier to do things against unscouted targets).

So, let's say now that after some early scouting and safe play, a few things have been confirmed:

ZamaC is Ice Scales.
Kyurem is Mold Breaker, at the time the item is unconfirmed.
The Hazard management is Bounce Zygarde-C + Pixilate Xerneas.
Ho-Oh is Desolate Land.
Eternatus has not been brought in yet.

From here, you have confirmed some of your suspicions, such as the Pixi Xern hazard management, the Specially Defensive ZamaC, and quite importantly the Kyurem's agenda. Whilst you're doing this scouting, you also have time to figure out what you're going to be doing if your Hypothesis is correct - that is, 'if Zama IS walling Etern, how do I go about beating that without getting run over by Kyurem?'

Based on these confirmations, you can draw a few conclusions:

There isn't a massively safe Kyurem improof, nor a clear Kyurem wall since you don't know it's moves and item.
The Eternatus set is likely one that wants to remain a secret, and also that Paralysis severely hinders it's ability to do things.
Hazard control hinges on Xerneas.

And from this point, the door is open to you. Individual steps from here are dependent on the team, and so how you go about playing to your wincon and to the assumptions is more clear since you've done most of the important scouting early on. Hell, probably one of the best things you can draw from this is that getting Eternatus through the walls is a pain in the ass, so you mightn't even want to go for the Eternatus sweep and instead go for a secondary wincon like SD Regigigas (which is good to know now so you're not stuck at turn 70 still trying to force your way through Zama).

Scouting guidance done, now for some meta talk:

PARALYSIS
People speaking about para is honestly a revolving door at this point, with discussions being highlighted by current OMPL circumstances such as Losr vs TTTech being decided by 5/6 Palkia full paras. Honestly, I myself am torn on the matter - on the one hand, it's important for keeping offensive threats in check and punishing 'flowcharting' - the practice of following a cycle of clicking buttons until something important happens. On the other, it's shit for spectating, tilting if you're on the receiving end, often a risk-free punish, runnable on almost anything, and the counterplay is fairly limited with a whole 3 viable Nuzzle sponges (by typing) and solutions being 'just run heal bell you tool' (which I personally think is shit advice when PH is arguably the best legal ability). Nothing can be done about the RNG check though, since a Para mod is IMO the worst way to go about the problem.
Would I support Paralysis being modded? No.
Would I support Zap Cannon, Glare and Nuzzle all being banned? No.
Would I support Nuzzle OR Glare being suspected and/or banned? Possibly. Banning ONE seems like a reasonable limitation.

edit: twave, stun spore, glare and any other para status moves can be compressed into the same thing action wise.

BELLY DRUM
By nature, incredibly volatile and high-risk-high-reward. Drum itself removes a large part of skill from the game as an offensive weapon, and is arguably the biggest matchup fish in the tier. My issue with Drum is that the answers are limited, and if you spec into multiple answers in order to combat either drumspam or a well-crafted drum team then you aren't speccing enough into countering other playstyles (aided by the fact that unaware is kind of shit and common drummers often have ways around common FC walls/imp). The argument of "It's risky to set up on the side of the drummer" also doesn't really transpire enough for pretty much the sole argument in favour of keeping drum free (plus, if you're having to drum in risky scenarios, you're either running drumspam, on the back foot or throwing).
Would I support Belly Drum being suspected and/or banned? Most Likely.

GLACIAL LANCE
~~kyub my beloved~~
Seriously though, spare the hyperactive gameplay bias, I don't think Glance is tremendously banworthy. It's limited coverage that only really serves to hit the dragons and Groudon hard, and the amount of mons that can get consistent use out of it are somewhat limited. The main one is Regigigas, who can use it to force past Zygarde walling attempts and to dent Fur Coat Groudon / Prankster Giratina looking to slow it down. Other uses of it are mostly limited to DrumBurden mons looking to not get bricked by Zygarde, and the poor amount of viable Ice types combined with the fact that it isn't Tough Claws boosted mean that it's only hitting the things it hits SE for significant damage outside of acting as Kyurem-Black and Calyrex-Ice's main STABS.
Would I support Glacial Lance being suspected and/or banned? No.

Ending note: someone better than me, can you please make a post abt all this meta shit, i'm sick of joining omcord VC and all i hear is complaining. people want a resolution.
Ending note 2: it took all my strength to not make 'throwing' (under belly drum) link to chew's week 5 bh game

quojova · May 14, 2022

tzaur · May 15, 2022

I'm not at all better than Tea Guzzler by any stretch of the imagination (the opposite), but I thought I'd also share my thoughts.

I used to aggressively oppose Glacial Lance and straight-up wanted the move quickbanned, but I no longer find it banworthy. The two primary STAB abusers have too many other flaws for the move to be too overwhelming most of the time or perform as consistently as the STAB abusers of the other "nuke"-type moves (such as DGZ with Glance/VC when it was around, Pixi Xern, Adapt Palkia with Rend, Zekrom with Bolt Beak, etc). Kyu-B often has a hard time safely getting in, has somewhat of a middling speed tier and thus tends to crumble to good positioning/any offensive pressure, and oftentimes has flimsy improofing since IMO the mon is a bitch to improof without making the overall set fundamentally worse vs. everything else. Still can be a very scary mon but not enough to warrant a Glance ban; plus, even if it did, I could see more Technician/TC + Taxel Kyu-B sets popping up, anyway which I could also see being very powerful.

Caly-I is overall a mediocre mon at best and requires good support to function well (see: most recent team samples), and I'd even argue that STAB Glance is one of the main things keeping this mon's head above water. Poor defensive typing despite the good defensive stats, Ice + Psychic isn't a great offensive combination, incredibly slow and therefore exploitable, often has to run HDB. Primary thing it has over Kyu-B is not getting completely ROFLstomed by offensive Fairy- or Dragon-types faster than it. As for the non-STAB abusers, I genuinely think it's nice to have around to smack some of the powerful dragons + offensive Dons running around in this format without wiping them off the map entirely. Would not support a suspect let alone a ban, but I would possibly support a reinstatement of Bolt Beak if for whatever reason it does.

Have secretly and vehemently wanted Belly Drum gone ever since I started playing this format, and that sentiment never changed for me. Biggest and most uncompetitive MU fish in the format IMO. Not only is it very difficult to predict/account for unless you're matched vs. an obvious HO build such as Apricot Princess and the like, but the answers to it are both limited if it gets set up and completely dependent upon the Drum variant. Prankster Steel-type? Loses to Triage + Drum. Prankster Ghost? Loses to -Ate + Drum. Unaware? Pray the user lacks Sunsteel Strike if you don't resist it and pray you outspeed on top of that (also as mentioned above, Unaware is generally buns and often ends up being a big passive momentum sink). Imposter? Loses to Unburden, and you're still SOL in some cases vs. other BD variants if they stay in and win the speed tie and you lack an emergency check to it. Some otherwise-viable structures just straight-up lose to certain BD variants on team preview; they're all very counterable individually and have their own sets of flaws, but it's beyond frustrating to see people lose on the spot to an unexpected BD just because they didn't happen to carry the correct answer at the time against the specific one on their set of 6, even if it's otherwise a competently-built team. I firmly believe that getting rid of this move would cut players some slack on their "setup control" when teambuilding.

No real opinion on Nuzzle/Paralysis at the moment. The main reason I'm feel hesitant to lean towards a ban on it is that the speed reduction, as Tea mentions, helps tremendously in dealing with a lot of the offensive threats in the format and helps some of the slower breakers shine. On the other hand, it all but mandates a Poison Heal, a Ground-type, or an Electric-type on most teams to sponge paralyses. On top of that, none of those can just mindlessly switch in on every Nuzzle holder since it's common for breakers to run it, too (e.g. Zygod can't just switch in on a Gigas's Nuzzle since it can get worn down rather quickly by Facade if not something like FC or straight-up get deleted by Glance). Also sucks to have an important check vs. a certain threat para'd and being put into a position where it's literally 1-2 full para(s) away from an entire L for the player. Somewhat skeptical of Misty Terrain since it seems underexplored if even viable at all. Aromatherapy and Heal Bell have low PP, make it more difficult for you to spread and abuse your own status if the opponent has Imposter, are difficult to fit on teams, and force you to constantly play around Knock/Corrosive Gas/Trick if you also decide to use a Poison Healer on the team. Jungle Healing is OK on very specific offensive sets, but the 1/4 healing often just doesn't cut it. Would either support nothing done or just a sus/ban on Nuzzle strictly to revoke RegenVesters' access to it; that's probably my biggest issue with that move.

Would also love to hear the council's/other people's thoughts on these things and the overall meta since they're much more seasoned in this format than I am!

cityscapes · May 15, 2022

wanted to explain this neat building concept

Flow Invader (Dialga) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Core Enforcer
- Bolt Strike
- Spikes
- Shore Up

in ompl week 3 vs mamp, i brought this mon and loaded it into bounce ho-oh + aerilate celesteela, where it put in a ton of work killing celesteela and getting up spikes. but nothing about this mon makes any sense! what's going on here?

Ecocide Suite (Kartana) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Flower Veil
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Anchor Shot
- Low Kick
- Glacial Lance
- Recover

the original idea with the dialga was covering for this kart, which made progress unless the opponent had a water, ho-oh, or celesteela. but even then, dialga just isn't a very hard mon to counter, and something like defensive zama-c would make quick work of it.

The Superchain (Regigigas) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Nuzzle
- Precipice Blades
- Facade
- Spikes

when this mon is added in, the pieces start to fall into place. both regigigas and kartana benefit from dialga just existing with these moves, even if on its own it's a pretty terrible progress maker. regigigas's spikes can be bounced by giratina or spun away by celesteela, and dialga remedies both of these issues as well. if the opponent brings something like fc defog zama-c, then regigigas nuzzles it, dialga gets spikes on it, and kartana can try to low kick thru it. regigigas also importantly covers the spin xern + bounce ho-oh matchup.

overall dialga acts as a sort of "bridge" between regigigas and kart, helping them act as a cohesive breaking core while still maintaining the role of a defensive fc wall. this made the team very solid defensively, but also able to fit a utility xern and go in hard on offensive measures.

does anyone else know of unconventional building tactics that get you better-than-normal cores?

Tea Guzzler · May 19, 2022

Hi, random short post about the things we know/can speculate on for Gen 9 BH since people keep asking questions. Important changes (that we know to be important) will be highlighted in Bold.
This is the SV trailer btw.
(Note: when referring to PLA moves, stat changes are compressed into offensive and defensive stat changes)

Combee's cry can be heard at 1:21. Heal Order may be in the game, meaning more 50% recovery moves -> less likely to run into imprison shenanigans and have your move being the sealed one. Vespiquen is in SS and Heal Order is absent though, so no guarantee.
Petilil at 1:32. This means Hisuian Lilligant should be in the game, which means Victory Dance - a Legends Arceus move that gives an attack buff, defence buff and a 50% damage increase - is likely to make an appearance. This, if unnerfed, is probably banworthy, but nothing has been confirmed as to whether PLA's arguably busted moves will be nerfed and/or changed (see Stone Axe / PLA Shadow Force, which boosts evasion and is 1 turn)
Clauncher at 1:43. Maybe Mega Launcher gets some busted moves?
Swablu at 1:45. Idk who still uses Cotton Guard but it's there.
Pikachu at 1:46. Light Ball imp will still exist, and the overwhelming likelihood is that Nuzzle will as well (whoop de fucking doo).
Blissey at 1:50. The main imp mons remain, unless they do something whack like removing Eviolite for some reason.
Magnemite at 1:53. Magnet Pull getting banned again.
I forgot where to look for it (idk if i'm blind but I don't see it in the trailer) but apparently Hisuian Zorua is confirmed, meaning Hisuian Zoroark is and thus Bitter Malice - which is Hex but it applies Frostbite (a PLA status that is basically special burn). No clue if Frostbite is making it in, but this move is going to be some madness. Note that it's effect rate is 30%, and in PLA it has the same PP as Hex but 5 less base power.

Speaking of PLA moves, none of the below is officially confirmed but we can infer that most/all PLA mons will make it in, meaning:

Ursaluna, a Normal/Ground type with 130/140/105/45/80/50 stats, and it's signature move Headlong Rush (ground type Close Combat). No longer a reliance on PreciMiss Blades, can probably replicate PH Regigigas if that or Slaking aren't in.
Hisuian Typhlosion - worse Blacephalon, but has a signature move Infernal Parade, which is Bitter Malice but burn instead of frostbite.
Wyrdeer and it's Psyshield bash (a weak Psychic move and gives you Cosmic Power boosts) aren't likely to have a significant impact.
Kleavor and it's signature Stone Axe - whilst Kleavor itself is basically just Armaldo (slow Bug/Rock with good attack), Stone Axe is interesting. In PLA, Stealth Rock and Spikes are now weak moves that apply residual damage to the target whenever they move (damage is equal to a 25 BP move from the setter). Whether it retains this residual damage property, or actually just sets rocks, is to be seen.
Sneasler and it's signature Dire Claw - Sneasler itself is a fast, frail physical attacker. Dire Claw is a weak (60BP) move that has a 50% chance to inflict one of Posion, Paralyze or Drowsy (PLA's sleep). Banned under sleep moves clause, otherwise not really noteworthy.
Overqwil is itself unremarkable, but it's signature Barb Barrage is Poison-type Bitter Malice that inflicts Poison instead of Frostbite. It's physical though, so I don't really know what can use it well outside of Mega Beedrill if that makes a comeback.
Enamorus is Fairy/Flying, therefore is likely to be a menace and a half. It's Incarnate stats are threatening, with a spread of 74/115/70/135/80/106, and it's Therian stats make it bulky AF by shifting it's Def/SpDef/Spe to 110/100/46. I can see this seeing high usage, and is likely to be the premier Pixilate user if Xerneas and Magearna are absent (which is likely). It's signature, Springtide Storm, is equally nuts - when used by Enamorus-I, it has a 30% chance to raise the user's offences and defences, and when by Enamorus-T, it has a 30% chance to lower the target's offences and defences. 95BP and 80 Accuracy. Note that, since the move is dependant on the user's form, it may be one of the 'Fails if not used by X species or something transformed into it' moves, similar to Hyperspace Hole / Hyperspace Fury.

Some other noteworthy moves which were added to existing mons:

The storm moves - Bleakwind Storm, Sandsear Storm and Wildbolt Storm. These are the Genies' signatures, each with 95 base power, 80 accuracy and a 30% chance to inflict Frostbite, Burn and Paralysis respectively. I suspect these might be niche STAB options but otherwise aren't likely to be used due to their accuracy.
Mystical Power - a signature of the Lake Spirits that raises offences if the user's offensive stats are higher, and defences if the user's defences are higher. It is unclear whether this compares Physical or Special stats.
Shelter - Hisuian Goodra's signature. raises defences and evasion. Banned under evasion clause.
Lunar Blessing - Cresselia's signature. cures status, heals 50% and raises evasion. Banned under evasion clause, but even without that it'd be silly unbalanced.
Take Heart - Manaphy and Phione's signature. Cures status and raises offensive and defensive stats. I can definitely see this getting use on offensive speedsters that want to shake off Paralysis without Heal Bell support.
Power Shift - Swaps Atk with Def and Sp. Atk with Sp. Def. Mixed attacking Shuckle anyone?

Now for the biggies - Origin Dialga, Origin Palkia and Legend Plate. There are no confirmations on any of these, and Legend Plate either doesn't make it in or gets banned IMO, but i'll talk about them regardless.

Origin Dialga swaps Attack and Special Defence compared to base Dialga - meaning it has 100/120/120 bulk. Direct upgrade IMO, vest Dialga users popping off.
Origin Palkia swaps Attack and Speed compared to base Palkia - it now has 100/150/120 offenses. Palkia's viability will very much be tied to the presence of Fishious Rend and Dragon Energy, and if we assume they are in, Palkia-O's viability will be determined by whether the drop in Attack is worth the speed tier (since, currently, 100 -> 120 doesn't really change anything except for outspeeding Kartana and Blacephalon).
Legend Plate. I don't even need to elaborate how this thing is omega busted and will be insta-banned, but for the uneducated, Legend Plate Arceus will transform into the type that is most advantageous against the target when it uses Judgement, with the outgoing Judgement being of that type. For example, targeting a Rhyperior with Judgement will make Arceus Grass type (Grass is chosen over water as Grass resists one of Rhyperior's STABs), and THEN fire off a STAB-boosted Grass Judgement. Given that this means you have literally perfect coverage in ONE move slot, a knock/trick sponge, AND with Arceus' stats I don't see how this would ever remain. Since there are no held items in PLA, it's unknown if Legend Plate gives the 20% damage boost that the regular plates do.

That concludes everything relevant that can feasibly be understood/inferred from the one trailer we have. If I missed anything, chances are I ignored it because it's not relevant enough to bring up (or i'm just stupid, that too).

Steel With It · May 20, 2022

Tea Guzzler said:
Speaking of PLA moves, none of the below is officially confirmed but we can infer that most/all PLA mons will make it in, meaning:

I apologise for the one-liner, but I think Basculegion's Wave Crash deserves a mention - it's listed alongside the priority moves in PLA's coding and has 75 BP in that game (which lowered the BP of most moves to account for Strong Style), meaning that it looks like we're getting a Water-type Extreme Speed (albeit with recoil).

ljsdnlsdln · May 25, 2022

Heres this really fun team Ive been using on the ladder and have managed to peak past 1550 on it before.

:ss/spectrier:

Spectrier @ Leftovers
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Hex
- Nuzzle
- Magic Powder

One of the two offensive mons this team is built around. With its amazing stab type, speed and nuzzle it can easily disrupt the whole enemy team once its gets a sub up by denting enemy statused mons or paraing half the team. Initially i ran spell tag but it allowed a maximum of four subs with no chip or hazards so I switched to leftovers which, with how reliably spectrier can fish for full paras with its speed and sub gives it much better longevity. For the fourth move i went with magic power for normal and dark types, but u can go kings shield for more leftie recovery and scout for spectral thief(which goes through sub) or leech seed/natures madness(or even curse ig) to slowly chip the enemy spectrier answer.

:ss/Calyrex-Ice:

Calyrex-Ice @ Never-Melt Ice
Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- V-create
- Extreme Speed
- Facade

The other offensive mon in the team. Simple what it does with its amazing attack stat. Fake out and E-Speed let it ignore its terrible speed and v-creat to chip zam and imposter chansey. was thinking of adding P-blades but enemy imposter caly wont be checked by lanturn then and facade can, theoretically, be useful.

:ss/Lanturn:

Lanturn @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Baneful Bunker
- Glare

So i started playing BH after seeing a replay of someone using uu/ru mons and beating 680 bst monsters with them. One of the mons they used was ph lanturn and i tried it out myself too, and it is amazing. With three ways to status someone of which only one is blocked by mb and its unique typing, it soft checks or pivots on a lot of mons such as defensive zam.Slow volt switch provides momentum, scald/glare cripples offensive mons and bunker puts defensive mons on a timer.

:ss/Zygarde-Complete:

Zygarde-Complete @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Shore Up
- Thousand Waves
- Spectral Thief

I used to run yveltal but it could not reliably check imposter spectrier and was always crippled by nuzzle. A bulky magic bounce ground type was what i needed and zygarde was the best available. Spikes for progress, spectral thief for going through sub and checking other sweepers and waves to trap.

:ss/registeel:

Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Ice Scales
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Doom Desire
- parting shot
- Rapid Spin
- Shore Up

spinner and blanket special check, specifically for xerneas(u better hope its not running v create). You just mostly click parting shot on it anyway.

:ss/Zamazenta-Crowned:

Zamazenta-Crowned @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Parting Shot
- Thunderous Kick
- Shore Up

My check to phys offensive mons. I prefer wisp over anchor shot or some other offensive move as this team appreciates statuses a lot and thunderous kick is good enough as a sole stab option.

Heres the paste for the team: https://pokepast.es/323bae611e36a9ba

Below are some replays of this team. 1 and 2 show just how easily spectrier can abuse para hax.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1582295343

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1563852349

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1566277434

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1565472648

Nihilslave · May 25, 2022

ljsdnlsdln said:
Heres this really fun team Ive been using on the ladder and have managed to peak past 1550 on it before.

I understand you only want to show the interesting mons in the team but Zamazenta-C still should have its name.

ljsdnlsdln · May 25, 2022

Nihilslave said:
I understand you only want to show the interesting mons in the team but Zamazenta-C still should have its name.

Oh mb i completely missed that ill add it.

Sweet Jesus · May 27, 2022

Two fun sets I've been playing with:

Blacephalon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Mind Blown
- Spectral Thief
- Endeavor
- Spikes/Stealth Rock/Glacial Lance/Volt Tackle/Spiky Shield/Astral Barrage

This set alone should bump blacephalon up the tier list. The offensive threats in this tier are so diverse and so powerful, it's impossible to cover everything with 6 mons, especially with a non-stall team. Because of that, good teams usually carry something to stop sweepers in their tracks in case you mess up one turn and let a sweeper set up (like prankster d bond or haze). This guy does just that but it's so easy to fit in on any team because he can stop just about any sweeper that doesn't carry a multi-hit move AND he can bring down just about any wall that's stopping you from punching holes, making him good against just about any team.

Focus Sash + Magic guard guarantees you'll survive anything other than a multi-hit move. You can then plow through the sweeper with a recoiless mind blown, steal his boosts with spectral thief or bring him down to 1hp with endeavor. you might kill it off after endeavor with spiky shield if it's using contact moves, but you should still carry a priority user in case. Spectral thief is also nice because unlike many other users, blacephalon can use quiver dance boosts because it packs a great special attack, speed and a killer move. The fact spectral thief also covers everything that's immune to endeavor means he'll be playing the guessing game even if he has a ghost counter. Hazards and astral barrage are also nice tools in the guessing game if he carries a fur coat or regenerator giratina.

Your opponent isn't using any sweepers and your usual prankster haze users are a waste? Not this guy! He might be even better against stally teams since once any weak hit brings him down to 1hp, he's an absolute monster to switch into and can come in regardless of hazards. You just have to pivot him in anytime your opponent put's in a slower mon he can't afford to lose and he has to tank a 1 hp endeavor which is probably the hardest non boosted move to properly counter.

Calyrex-Ice @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Glacial Lance
- Thousand Waves
- Encore
- Strength Sap

Much harder to fit on a team because I like my prankster users to carry destiny bond, but it still a nice offensive gimmick that isn't easy to counter. I really like the concept of trapping + fast encore because it stops your opponent from doing just about anything that isn't dealing direct damage or pivoting, including healing because you have enough encore pp to simply drain all the healing move's pp. Even if you can't kill the opposing mon with calyrex after, draining the healing move's pp will make sure it dies to hazards or another mon in the long run, kind of like knock off + purify on a poison heal mon.

I chose this mon to execute the strategy because ghosts, giratina more specifically, make any trapper dead weight as long as it's alive. With a powerful glacial Lance, Giratina can't switch-in and thousand waves is amazing coverage to glacial lance (other trapping moves just don't have a 2 type duo with this good coverage and hit power)(Flying types also counter this strategy when using thousand waves to trap but glacial lance usually keeps them in check too). Calyrex' raw power and coverage is also a great way to force switches and trap on the switch, forcing your opponent to go for the kill or pivot immediatly to not get encore'd. With strength sap, you can even trap and kill stuff that attacks on the physical side and kind of force people to use a non-attacking move at some point which will trigger an encore opportunity.

Kyurem-B could also be used as an alternative, the extra speed can really help vs other prankster users that come in, use a non attacking move and then use a faster parting shot to get out before the encore. I still prefer the extra bulk and arguably better typing of calyrex though.

I've tried many other trapping + encore strategies with speed over prankster and partial trapping moves + binding band/grip claw and they all worked to some extent, but this one is close to my favorite.

BH Balanced Hackmons

Tanny89k

Zord

Tea Guzzler

forever searching for a 10p freddo

XxLazzerpenguinxX

cityscapes

Take care of yourself.

Nighstar o3o

Tea Guzzler

forever searching for a 10p freddo

Nihilslave

Nighstar o3o

Tea Guzzler

forever searching for a 10p freddo

Nighstar o3o

Nighstar o3o

Nighstar o3o

Riotgamer2502

Lunatic Hai

Tea Guzzler

forever searching for a 10p freddo

quojova

tzaur

فلسطين حرة

cityscapes

Take care of yourself.

Tea Guzzler

forever searching for a 10p freddo

Steel With It

ljsdnlsdln

Nihilslave

ljsdnlsdln

Sweet Jesus

Neal and Jack and me, absent lovers...

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