Other Metagames BH Al-Qaeda [Gen8 BH, Peak #1, 88.4% GXE]

[fwqef]

BH Al-Qaeda
by Abu Musab al-fwqef​

Introduction​

Hiii owo, I'm back with another broken shell smash spam. I made this team, tested it a bit, hopped on a 1500s account the next day, and reached rank #1 effortlessly. This team makes use of suicide mons that can help put giant holes in the enemy team for the other members of the team to abuse. This team is also tailor-made to counter the most common walls of the tier using mixed offense sets, with some victims being: Fur Coat Eternatus, Fur Coat Melmetal, Ice Scales Snorlax, and Ice Scales Umbreon.

peak

Teambuilding Process​

Hide

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/bh-heavens-wrath-peak-2-90-4-gxe.3659583/
Above is the original version of the team. As counterplay to Sun was becoming more common at the time, I instead decided to play around with suicide spam offense instead which led to the team below:

https://pokepast.es/3a88e4c2ce139a7d
I made this team but didn't do much with it since my motivation for mons was low. Some of my friends like Ignite used it and told me it was pretty good.

After some time, I decided to come back to mons, and to my surprise, forme clause was implemented, so I had to get a little more creative than spamming darm-gz. So I created this:
https://pokepast.es/f1b88fcfa3520f60
After some test games on my alt account "Eternatus Fan Club", The current version of the team was formed.

The Team
(I'm tired out from writing this I might add calcs later lol)

Excaliburn (Reshiram) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Shell Smash
- Blue Flare
- Dynamax Cannon
- Close Combat
​

This is a set that I personally came up with and it has fetched me some great results. I originally used Mold Breaker Secret Sword to try to bypass ice scales walls and hit primsea steels, but looking at Reshiram's Base Attack Stat of 120, I realized that close combat is just stronger. After that, I had a free ability slot so I decided to give it Fur Coat so that it can surprise tank Zacian-Crowned, Darm-gz, Barraskewda, boosted spectral thiefs, etc with ease if its sash is broken. Naughty Nature allows +2 Close Combat to guarantee an OHKO against ice scales Umbreon and Snorlax, which are the 2 most common special walls in the tier.
Blue Flare and Dynamax Cannon should be self explanatory. Use Dynamax on Reshiram if you can't afford to miss with Blue Flare or for the extra power on Max Wyrmwind. If Imposter comes in when you have a boost and a Sash up, use Dynamax Cannon and Imp will get OHKO'd. Watch out for Full HP Imposter coming in on Reshiram with a broken sash though, because fur coat can be hard to kill.

Fimbulvetr (Kyurem-Black) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Shell Smash
- Earth Power
- Extreme Speed
- Explosion
​

Kyurem-B is a certified suicide bomber made to blow up holes in the opponent's trade centers. Melmetal (and other bulky steels) hate getting hit by a +2 Earth Power. Although Melmetal won't always get OHKO'd, it's fine since you can finish it off pretty easily. Extremespeed is a spammable STAB that allows Kyurem-B to sweep if it gets the opportunity to. Explosion is a fantastic move that OHKO's or heavily dents everything with or without a boost, and gives you momentum to work with. You can use this guy as a lead for early wallbreaking, switch in midgame to blow up on something blocking your progress, or try to sweep lategame with extremespeeds. I usually save Kyurem-B for later if the opponent has an Eternatus on their team as Kyurem has a good matchup against it.

General Zama (Zamazenta-Crowned) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Photon Geyser
- Spectral Thief
- Shell Smash​

This set was designed to have good immediate attacking power that becomes even more terrifying after a shell smash boost. close combat is the STAB of choice which can OHKO most most attackers with a +3 Attack Boost and heavily dent Fur Coat Melmetal. +3 Photon Geyser guarantees an OHKO against +Spe Fur Coat Eternatus and a 50% chance to OHKO if it is +def nature. Spectral thief is a setup check against opponent boosts and hits Mewtwo and Lunala super effectively. For example, you can spectral thief against an Imposter/other walls holding spectral thief boosts and try to countersweep.

Queen of BH (Eternatus) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dynamax Cannon
- Earth Power
- Shell Smash
- Final Gambit
​

Eternatus is a top tier pokemon in BH in my opinion and I always have a hard time choosing how I should use it in my Balance teams because it's good at so many things. The Queen of BH demonstrates a prime example of noblesse oblige by launcing a kamikaze attack against an unsuspecting enemy infidel. Dynamax Cannon does massive damage against the dragons of the tier. Earth Power is a strong coverage move paired with sheer force as +2 Earth Power (or just 2 earth powers) allows it to OHKO most steel types. Eternatus can also be used to wallbreak early or try to sweep later depending on the matchup.

Funny Snowman (Darmanitan-Galar-Zen) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Icicle Crash
- Spectral Thief
- Rapid Spin
​

Funny Snowman provides a much needed hazard removal for the team and is probably one of the best mons at doing so. Spectral Thief is also here for setup Check. V-create and Icicle crash are Darmanitan's STABs so that it can threaten spinblockers or try to reverse sweep with spectral thief boosts. There's not too much to say about this mon except that it's pretty good at what it does.

ELO Gobbler (Obstagoon) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Power Trip
- Imprison
- Spore / Taunt
​

This pokemon is THE elo gobbler because it Auto-wins many games as some teams simply have no way to counter it once it gets a shell smash boost up. Obstagoon's unique dark/normal typing allows it to ignore spectral thief and prankster topsy turvy/will-o-wisps. I originally used Earthquake on this mon but I realized that Simple Power Trip just blows through resists (OHKOs Zacian-C for example) so it doesn't really need it. Imprison is good counterplay against Imposter but I admittedly haven't found much use out of it in most games. Spore is the overall better option over Taunt but it gets walled by Safety Goggles Pranksters with Haze, and Taunt allows you to bypass that. Maybe you can come up with a better set than mine. The only important moves are Shell Smash + Power Trip and you can come up with creative ways to make your opponent ragequit.

Conclusion​

I think hyper offense is severely underrated in this meta although it is probably the easiest and strongest playstyle available. Whether it's stigma from people thinking that shell smash spam is dishonorable, or people refusing to adapt from their gen7 BH playstyles, idk. I also prefer Balanced teams myself, but I thought hyper offense was too good to ignore. I've played with all sorts of playstyles in this meta such as Choiced Balance, PH Semistall, and Hard Stall, but I came to the conclusion that hyper offense is miles easier and effective. If you don't believe me and just think I'm a bad player, I encourage you to grab the team and try hopping on the ladder!

Importable (general game plan in description)

https://pokepast.es/aae677d7b5bd17e6

replays

I unfortunately forgot to save replays... These are the only ones I have, sorry.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1087753515
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1087854299-yjf6qetl8kb706vz2wwm0k2k9qcsn71pw