MAMP's post-OMPL cool set dump
I came up with a lot of neat sets during OMPL that I felt like I couldn't share because I might have used them in the tournament. Some of these are sets that I used in a match, some of them aren't. Feels a bit weird posting this just before a DLC release that could render some of these sets obsolete, but that's what I get for procrastinating on this post lol
Mewtwo @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psystrike
- Taunt
- Lava Plume / Earth Power
- Leech Seed / Snap Trap / Quiver Dance
Taunt PH Mewtwo is a cool Etern check that can be really difficult to deal with defensively once stuff is a bit worn down, especially if you have reliable hazard setters and Knock Off stuff to remove Umbreon’s Leftovers and whatnot. I like Leech Seed + Lava Plume the most because it means you can actually beat stuff like Spectral Thief Zama-C. In my experience this set really rewards you for outplaying your opponent, and for keeping Taunt hidden.
Gengar-Gmax @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moongeist Beam
- Sludge Bomb
- Trick / Hex
- Volt Switch / Hex
When I was first theorycrafting it I thought Gengar was really cool because it’s basically just Lunala but faster and it has STAB Max Ooze and the G-Max move traps your opponent. But in reality I was the one that was trapped — this set is appallingly bad. I played like 10 games on mid-high ladder with it and Gengar had a very bad matchup every single time. It’s painfully frail and weak to Knock and Spectral, not fast enough to be a real threat to most teams, and not strong enough to actually force much out, just like Lunala. It looked so good on paper and then just consistently did fuck all. As a mon Gengar might still have potential, but I don't think this set is it.
Lunala @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive / Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Rapid Spin
- Hex / Spectral Thief / Moongeist Beam
- Spiky Shield / Parting Shot / Will-o-Wisp / Nuzzle / Counter
I’ve messed around with a lot of variants of PH Rapid Spin Lunala. It’s a cool Eternatus check, a spinblocker, and a very reliable spinner, with a lot of flexibility in its moveset. My favourite variant is Nuzzle + Hex, which can be very difficult for a lot of teams to manage and is great support for teammates like Excadrill that like Zama-C getting paralysed. Counter is really funny because all kinds of defensive Pokemon run moves like Knock Off and Spectral Thief that do like 60-80 to Lunala and you punish them really hard for it. It’s especially good when you’ve used Rapid Spin because people lose control of their bodies when there is the prospect of stealing a Spin boost and they click Spectral every single time. You can also live any hit from Zac-C and just kill them with Counter. It’s super gimmicky, but I actually brought Counter against dimrah in week 6 to pair with Sheer Force Mewtwo, thought I might get to lure in and take out a Snorlax or an Umbreon or something.
Eternatus @ Black Sludge
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dynamax Cannon
- Trick
- Lava Plume
- Recover
Trick + Black Sludge is ancient technology, people used to run it on Mega Venu back in like 2013. It’s a cool option on Etern paired with Spikes and a special breaker like Kyurem-W or Mewtwo, but honestly it can be difficult to justify the moveslot, especially as there is a real risk of taking a Choice Item or an Assault Vest or having it blocked by Zac-C. I love taking a Toxic Orb with it because not only do you often remove the PH mon’s only recovery, but you can then threaten to give the Toxic Orb to something else later.
clutchbox (Zekrom) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Dragon Darts
- Substitute
- Glare
This matches up really well against teams that are relying on some Fur Coat guy to deal with Zekrom, because you can Glare them and then cheese past them with full paras or by PP stalling Dynamax Cannon with Substitute. Substitute blocks Entrainment and Purify and stalls out Dynamax and is just generally a nice utility move to have: against teams that are a bit soft to this set, forcing a switch or getting a kill with a sub up often just wins the game. Unfortunately Gurp had Volt Absorb Primarina + PH Gourgeist, so clutchbox didn’t really get to do much in that match. This set looked really fantastic to me on paper, but it definitely underperformed in practice because it can often require a lot of prediction.
Zekrom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Bolt Beak
- Baton Pass
- Substitute
Another weird Substitute PH Zekrom set, a bit more utility focussed this time. Zekrom is a decent spinner, but it can really effectively take advantage of the spin boost to threaten stuff late game or pass to a teammate. Passing a Substitute, a spin boost, or both to something like Life Orb DGZ is very powerful, and the cool part is that all of the moves that facilitate that are just good on their own. This Zekrom set isn’t a dedicated subpasser, it’s just a solid utility mon that can sometimes pull off a game-winning Baton Pass, and that kind of versatility is invaluable.
gamer sauce (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sunsteel Strike / Behemoth Blade
- Photon Geyser
- V-create / Close Combat / Earthquake
- Extreme Speed / Bullet Punch
(other good options: U-turn, Trick, Bolt Beak?)
CB Dusk Mane takes quite a bit of support, but overall I think it’s a very interesting way to take advantage of the downfall of Melmetal in the current metagame. Most common physical walls just can’t switch into Photon Geyser (Seismitoad can get OHKOd), and the few things that can tend to be slower and might just die to a Dynamax. The main issue with the set is that it’s a slow ISword mon that’s weak to Spectral Thief, so a lot of stuff that you would otherwise force out just outspeeds you and hits you for like 50 and then doesn’t die because they took the boost, which sucks. It basically requires extensive paralysis support, which can make it tricky to fit onto teams, but if you are running a paraspam team this is one of the better payoffs I think. This set also works on Jolly Solgaleo, which is far easier to fit onto teams and offers more overall utility, but at that point you may as well just run Zacian-C I think.
Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Blue Flare
- Dynamax Cannon
- Dark Pulse
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick
- Dynamax Cannon
- Dark Pulse
- Blue Flare
Hydreigon looks interesting on paper because it outspeeds all of the Unova and Alola legends and hits them all super effectively and it can theoretically get through walls with Max Darkness SpDef drops, but in my experience it’s too weak to really do anything against most teams. It has a lot of exploitable weaknesses and doesn’t switch into much, loses super hard to every common special wall and Zacian, and just gets abused by Zama-C and Zacian-C. I don’t think this is ever really worth running, which is a shame because I really like Hydreigon. Hopefully the DLC brings a strong special Dark move to maybe make this mon relevant.
Bewear @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Facade
- Shift Gear
- Close Combat
- Knock Off / Spectral Thief
Like offensive PH Snorlax, but it consistently beats Zama-C and offers zero defensive utility. This set is really tough for a lot of teams to handle if it can set up, but that can be a pretty big if. Your best bet with it is pairing with some special attacker with pivoting to lure in stuff like Umbreon and Snorlax for Bewear to force out.
Zeraora @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Swords Dance
- Soak
- Spikes
no comment
ROCK OVA JAPAN (Mewtwo) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Psychic
- Earth Power
- Close Combat
- Spikes / Quiver Dance
CC to 2HKO Snorlax, Zama-C, Umbreon. I like SF Mewtwo a lot because defensive counterplay to it is actually quite limited even with just Psychic + Earth Power, which makes it really easy to run stuff like CC and Spikes to take advantage of the few things that actually do switch in.
ROCK N ROLL BAND (Zamazenta) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Low Kick / Sacred Sword
- Earthquake / Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Glare / Spore / Spikes
(other good options: Bolt Beak, Stealth Rock, Spectral Thief, Will-o-Wisp, Taunt)
SD PH Zamazenta is a pretty good late-game cleaner that is really effective at getting momentum against a lot of common special walls and being annoying to guys like Eternatus and FC Reshiram with status, Knock Off, and hazards. I ran Shift Gear a bit earlier in the gen but I think SD is way better, outspeeding Zac-C after a boost matters far less in my experience than the raw power that SD offers. Something that’s really awkward to deal with right now is that all of the Fighting-type moves we have access to have pretty substantial drawbacks: CC has too little PP and the defense drops suck, HJK is really bad when PH shield mons are so popular, Low Kick makes you play around Dynamax even against really weakened mons and doesn’t come close to 2HKOing Umbreon, and Drain Punch and Sacred Sword are just a bit weak. Low Kick and Sacred Sword I think are the best choices right now, but they’re both still quite awkward.
Primarina @ Metronome
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Quiver Dance / Scald
This is a lot like the Pixilate Magearna sets from last gen. Primarina finds opportunities to spin by forcing out Reshiram, defensive Eternatus, Umbreon, and similar. With Quiver Dance, spin boosts, and Metronome Primarina can threaten to sweep if it's left alone and it's quite difficult to handle defensively long-term. It often underperforms because it gets walled pretty easily if the Metronome gets knocked, and there’s a lot of matchups where you essentially have to sack Primarina to spin because sometimes they just don’t have anything that it actually beats.
reddit moment (Zekrom) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Dragon Tail
- Roost
- Spikes / Glare
I’ve been liking Dragon Tail a lot as a utility move on defensive Zekrom and Reshiram sets lately. It’s one of those options that becomes a lot more feasible to run when Imposter is so much worse and less common, because if something like Chansey was around you would risk losing so much momentum to Imposter running a set like this. Dragon Tail punishes people for trying to set up in front of you, it’s a very safe midground in a lot of situations, and it can wear teams down very quickly, especially with hazards up. It also becomes a pretty strong Max Wyrmwind, so you don’t lose that option either. One interesting thing about it is that it has the same priority as Teleport, which leads to some odd interactions. It creates this great dynamic where people will just leave in stuff that loses to Zekrom because they’re scared of just getting Dragon Tailed if they switch, and if you predict that you can make them look really silly. Here’s an example of that from a game I played on ladder against dimrah:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1118023976
Matchup Fish (Barraskewda) @ Choice Band
Ability: Tinted Lens
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Bolt Beak
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Barraskewda Fishious Rend (170 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Eternatus in Rain: 490-576 (101.2 - 119%) -- guaranteed OHKO
gaming in the 90s (Zacian) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spirit Break
- Snap Trap
- Taunt
- Leech Seed / Will-o-Wisp
This set capitalises on a number of specific metagame trends: steels aren’t running Anchor Shot much, defensive Reshiram and Eternatus are popular, Magic Bounce is uncommon, and stuff is running Teleport instead of U-turn. When you successfully lure something with this and kill it with Snap Trap + Taunt + Leech Seed it feels great, but I think it’s too situational. It’s a gimmick that doesn’t really do anything if their initial switch in is like, Anchor Zama-C or PH Golisopod or a Regenvester or anything like that. It does make for a pretty solid late-game cleaner though, once their stuff is all weakened and you have hazards up. This set is a lot of fun and occasionally feels really powerful, but ultimately I think it’s pretty hard to justify running unless you’re counterteaming or something.
Golisopod @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Recover
- Shift Gear
- U-turn / Earthquake
Primordial Sea Golisopod beats a lot of variants of DGZ and Zac-C, doesn’t get taken advantage of by Reshiram like the PH sets do, and can sweep late game surprisingly often. Even though a bunch of stuff still outspeeds it at +2, most of the stuff that does can’t actually threaten it and never wants to switch in anyway. Unfortunately it doesn’t cover DGZ and Zac-C by itself as you also need something to handle Bolt Beak variants of them, so it can be a bit awkward to fit onto teams sometimes. Jolly lets you outspeed neutral nature Etern and positive nature Zama-C and Marshadow, but Adamant gives you much better odds at OHKOing Zama-C after a boost and makes it more feasible to get through weakened Zekrom and Etern late-game, especially with Max Quake.
ennui (Darmanitan-Galar-Zen) @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Icicle Crash
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake / Close Combat
Basically every DGZ switchin loses hard to this except PrimSea Zacian and it’s really easy to get boosts because DGZ forces so much stuff out. This struggles a bit to beat Dynamax but it baits it out really effectively, so you can get a lot of mileage out of sending this out, SDing on a switch then switching out again on the max so that you can come back later and clean up. Needs really good hazard control.
Terrakion @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Accelerock / Baton Pass
(other options: Mach Punch, Knock Off, Trick, U-turn)
This mon is usually worse than CB Zamazenta, but it has a few cool tricks. Unlike Zamazenta, Terrakion can Dynamax to take advantage of Max Knuckle and a 150BP Max Rockfall, and it can switch into DGZ V-create (once). Head Smash just deletes shit, scoring OHKOs on stuff like Golisopod, Zekrom, Eternatus, Lunala, and FC Reshiram that Zamazenta can have a bit of trouble with. I don't think I could really recommend running this on a serious team, but it's a ton of fun to use and feels surprisingly good in some matchups.
Reflections on pre-DLC SS BH
As I'm writing this the DLC release is just a few hours away and I think it's likely to significantly shake up the tier, so I wanted to give some thoughts on the pre-DLC metagame and my relationship with it. When I first started playing SS BH it was in December, when the metagame was still largely undeveloped and very unbalanced. At that point I hadn't played BH in a few months, having taken a break from USUM BH just after the Mega Rayquaza suspect test. I had gotten really burned out on BH last gen, frustrated by the teambuilding constraints imposed by Pokemon like Shedinja, Zygarde-C, and the Mega Mewtwos, frustrated by the endless cheese on the ladder, and feeling that the tier was incapable of ever being truly balanced just due to the sheer scope of it. SS BH felt at first like a breath of fresh air, mainly because it was so different. SS BH isn't just like previous generations of BH but with different mons. The theory behind teambuilding and the dynamics that play out in games feel fundamentally different this gen. That's something that I found challenging and exciting and deeply, deeply frustrating. My experience with this metagame has been one of repeated unlearning and relearning.
This honeymoon period didn't really last however. Like with most people who have come to SS BH from previous generations, I found myself sticking on the lack of available viable Pokemon. Teambuilding in USUM and ORAS BH has this beautiful, liberating quality to it because when you have a specific role you need to fill on your team, you never have to just try and find a Pokemon that fits that role: you get to
make one, often inventing something wholly new to fill a niche that you created. It rewards creativity to an incredible degree. In SS BH, there are so few viable Pokemon that this is no longer the case. Sometimes I found myself with a hole in my team, and there wasn't really a viable way to fill it without making significant structural changes. It was difficult for me to adjust to this, difficult for me to understand this as anything other than a huge step backwards. I think it's mainly because of this that I've struggled a lot with teambuilding this gen. It came naturally to me last gen, I understood how to build effective teams at an intuitive level. Throughout OMPL I didn't put a whole lot of effort or thought into teambuilding because I was offput by a feeling that I just didn't get it, that my teams never really clicked in the way I was used to. It wasn't until quite recently that I've come to enjoy teambuilding again in SS, and I think that came not from any sort of epiphany about the nature of the metagame, but just from experience and from having experimented enough to once again have a sort of intuitive grasp on how to turn a rough concept into a functional team.
The main thing I like about this metagame is that the threats mostly feel far less overbearing. USUM BH had a ton of mons where you needed to have one of a handful of dedicated answers to them or you almost always lost. If you haven't built your team properly, there's no way to outplay NormGar, or Shed, or SF MMY — you just lose. In SS BH, most of the mons have distinct, abusable weaknesses that enable you to outplay them and effectively maneuver around them even if your defensive counterplay isn't rock solid. To beat a Pokemon like Reshiram, I feel like the play isn't to just slap on a PH Primarina and just call it a day. Rather, the most effective way to build teams that are strong against Reshiram is far more holistic, aiming to pressure it by abusing its hazards weakness, poor speed, and weaknesses to Dragon and Ground, and playing to avoid letting it get into a situation where it gets free turns. This is very refreshing to me, and I think it's a really healthy dynamic that makes teambuilding far more challenging but also more rewarding. Good teams in this metagame feel like well-oiled machines, all the pieces working in harmony.
I also like that Imposter is weaker. It wasn't until playing this metagame that I really understood what Imposter Chansey does to BH, the way it restricts teambuilding (particularly in regards to the ability Regenerator and what moves can be run on defensive Pokemon) and encourages a very particular style of pivot heavy balance. There's a strong argument that despite everything, Imposter is a necessity in USUM, that its utility as a scouting tool to mitigate the natural volatility of the metagame and its role as a check to Shell Smash and Pokemon like MMY is vital to keeping the metagame in balance. This is probably true for USUM, but I think that SS has demonstrated that it doesn't have to be true for every BH. Tools like Dynamax and Ice Scales, the limited range of offensive threats, and Shell Smash being banned make me feel like Imposter probably isn't a necessity to keep the metagame healthy anymore. Imposter Wobbufett has a relatively low usage rate, it isn't bulky enough to switch into breakers reliably, and it usually runs scarf as a result: this all means that a lot of the time you can get away with not properly imposter-proofing your breakers the way you would need to in previous generations and aiming instead to just play around Imposter. Last gen Imposter was something that you had to beat in the teambuilder (and doing so was painstaking), whereas this gen Imposter is something you beat in battle.
SS BH is a bit limited. Teams often look very similar and I do wish there was more variety on that front. However, I think the metagame has a degree of depth to it that surprised me, and there's a ton of room still for creativity. A couple of months ago I felt that we were already scraping the bottom of the barrel. I have now realised that beneath the bottom of the barrel there is a second, much larger barrel. I'm excited to explore the DLC metagame, and I can't wait to see what's to come. Hopefully Chansey doesn't fuck it up too bad.
Fuck Dynamax.
I'm going to drop a team dump/game review post in the post-OMPL thread sometime in the next week or so probably. Thanks for reading.
Although it matches well versus Eternatus in theory, realistically it couldnt even consistently 2HKO it.
Reshiram is already faster than you, and has a coverage move for nearly every type!
Psychic spam can be a good way to bypass Chansey’s special bulk, by Photon Geyser boosting or Psystrike. They can also OHKO Eternatus which is one of the most prominent Fur Coat user. 
