Other Balanced Poison Monotype

[Noxilcash]

I really enjoy Poison type but it is rarely seen/used. I wanted to create a well balanced Poison team that is viable in Monotype and here is what I came up with. I want to know what your opinions are on my team as there are only a few viable Poison teams.

Muk @ Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Careful Nature
- Power-Up Punch
- Stockpile
- Gunk Shot
- Protect

Although I haven't even tried making a team featuring Weezing, after doing some research it is to my understanding that these two pokemon usually fulfill the same roll on a poison team and are quite similar. It is up to you to choose between the two. I decided to go with Muk and I liked him from the get go so I stayed with him. With this moveset, Muk becomes a mixed wall/physical attacker (more so wall than physical attacker, but if you get him going he will be tough to defeat). Cycling between Protect and stockpile is how you would open with this Muk. Once all the stockpiles are...stocked(?) you can then begin cycling between power-up punch and protect. By switching between Protect and your next attack, Muk get a free turn to heal with Black Sludge. Once your attack is maxed you can eliminate enemies with Gunk Shot or continue using Power-Up Punch.

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Earth Power

Nidoking is a very powerful special sweeper. With the recent Baton Pass nerf his usefulness declined a bit but not by much and is still one of the best Poison special sweepers. With the combination of Sheer Force and life orb, Nidokings SpA is extremely good to begin with. I usually open with Venomoth to put the enemy to sleep, get off an agility (previously a quiver dance) then baton pass to Nido. Nidoking is now extremely strong and fast special sweeper and has multiple moves that can eliminate many different types of pokemon.

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
Shiny: No
EVs: 252 SpD / 252 Def
Calm Nature
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Sludge Bomb

Mega-Venusaur's thick fat is a very useful ability that makes Mega-Saur a stall wall! Now that his weaknesses to Fire and Ice are gone he only has to worry about Flying and Psychic. Depending on the play style you can either use him to get off leech seeds for your team or stay in and try to wall your opponent. Mega-Saur's naturally high Defense and Special Defense makes him able to take a few hits before going down, and if you have leech seed set up he can last even longer, if your opponent doesn't want to take DoT then they'd have to switch out giving you a free attack on the incoming poke.

Drapion @ Black Sludge
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Aqua Tail
- Toxic

Psychic counter. Poison mono's are notoriously weak to Psychic attacks and Drapion does a good job combating that. I also use Drapion as my Physical Sweeper. Opening with Knock Off gets that STAB and can eliminate some deadly strategies based around items. Usually using one of the previous pokes as death fodder, switching into Drapion against a strong psychic user, you can predict a switch out and get off a free Swords Dance and continue to sweep. Aqua tail for coverage, Toxic for Physical walls that switch in.

Gengar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpD / 252 Spe / 4 SpA
- Substitute
- Disable
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Troll Pokemon: No one ever expects the old Gengar build of Sub/Disable. It is hilariously effective against Choice: X users. Gengar's speed usually allows him to scout the pokemon by getting off a substitute first. Follow with disable (assuming their attack broke your sub, they would most likely use that attack again) They now lost their (hopefully) most powerful attack and that allows you to get a STAB Shadow Ball off. Focus Blast for coverage, but very unreliable. Black Sludge to restore HP you'll lose from Substitute.

Venomoth @ Focus Sash
Ability: Shield Dust
EVs: 4 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sleep Powder
- Agility
- Baton Pass
- Bug Buzz

Fast Baton Pass. Venomoth used to be more beneficial with Quiver Dance (Raising Speed and SpA which would then allow you to choose more of your poison pokes to pass into) Now that it's only speed I prefer to switch into Nidoking (although Drapion is a good choice too) after using sleep powder. There is always the chance of missing then being taunted, so Bug Buzz is there for that.

I couldn'f figure out how to post sprites, sorry :/

 

[SirSkit]

Hello! You have an interesting use of Poison Monotype here, which is really neat since you don't see a whole lot of these anymore. I think I have a few good suggestions for your team.

I noticed a few flaws with your team. You seem to lack Speed on the team, since Venomoth can't always get the pass through and Gengar is outsped by stuff like +1 Volcarona and several Choice Scarf Pokemon, and it doesn't have the power to threaten them at the moment. To help patch this up, I would recommend trying out Offensive Scolipede > Venomoth. Right now, with the somewhat recent Baton Pass nerf, it doesn't look like Venomoth fills much of a role other than passing Speed or just using Bug Buzz, which just doesn't make as much use of the slot. On the other hand, Scolipede does a lot more for your team since it has actual offensive presence and a great raw Speed stat, unlike Venomoth which is still pretty slow before using Agility. It does particularly well against Psychic Monotype if they're weakened enough, and, well, you can expect Psychic Monotype to be used a lot more with the recent tier update. If you really need it to, it can pass Speed as well without sacrificing a moveslot.

Next, I think, sadly, the Muk needs to go. It is fairly easy to wall or simply phaze out before it sets up a sufficient amount of Curses. Frankly, I think you could use more use out of this slot too. I'd like to suggest Tentacruel > Muk in that slot. It provides you with a really useful Fire-type resist, an answer to a few of the bulkier setup sweepers that your team had problems with (think Calm Mind Mega Sableye and Quiver Dance Volcarona), and an effective hazard remover. It runs a great specially defensive set if you do go for it.

Tentacruel and Scolipede

Scolipede @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Megahorn
- Rock Slide (hits Fire-types that it seems like your team struggles with)
- Earthquake / Aqua Tail / Baton Pass (EQ hits Heatran and other Fire-types a little harder, AT hits Landorus forms)
- Protect / Baton Pass
You can use Baton Pass if you still want to give a bit of Speed to Nidoking.

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 248 HP / 244 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Acid Spray
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes

These are just a few smaller changes to the team:
Try out a physically defensive Mega Venusaur instead of mixed defenses. This change works particularly well if you do go with Tentacruel > Muk, since it forms a nice core with Tentacruel, since Mega Venusaur will take on stronger Earthquakes and physical attackers more effectively while Tentacruel is simply a great specially defensive wall. In its current state, the team relies a lot on Mega Venusaur to take on stuff left and right since it seems to be the only one capable of doing so.

Remove Toxic on Drapion - I see how it works with luring in and crippling some of Drapion's switch-ins, but it seems to clash with a Swords Dance set since it only gives you two attacks to use. Instead, you can rely on other teammates to wear them down, or, if you do use it, Tentacruel can also opt to use Toxic Spikes to wear more of them down to free up the last moveslot. I believe that Earthquake, Poison Jab, or any other coverage move of your choice would be good here.

Adjust Gengar's EVs - The SubDisable set doesn't really need the Special Defense EVs. Gengar will be forcing lots of stuff out by using Substitute + Disable, so it doesn't really need extra defenses. The Sub really doesn't live many special attacks even with the investment - to put it into perspective...

0 SpA Lanturn Scald vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Gengar: 66-78 (25.4 - 30.1%) -- 1.7% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Instead, you should focus on hitting whatever they switch out into as hard as you can. 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe > 4 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe on your EV spread.

Overall though, I liked your take on Poison! Good luck with the team!