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NP Ape is criminally underused and has a lot of fun against this team. It threatens Terrakion with vacuum wave/speed tie, hydreigon with vacuum wave, Blastoise with Z, and Klefki, Nidoking and Doublade with fire blast. Scarf Latias is here for potential healing wish support should ape get in range of shadow sneak or paralyzed by Klefki (allowing nidoking to revenge). Latias threatens Hydreigon, Terrakion, and Nidoking well by its own right too. A spread of 4 HP / 36 Def / 216 SpA / 252 Spe lets Latias take a stone edge from Terrakion, but max max seems fine in this matchup.
So this is another Celebi core but the main goal is to get Altaria to pull a sweep off. Celebi always invites in Hydreigon which is a free set-up for Malt or an oppurtunity to fire off some chip dmg via doubling. Again Celebi outspeeds and deals with Nidoking and Blastoise as well as Klefki + Doublade thanks to (Z) Shadow Ball. It also acts as a status absorber for Malt as T-Wave Klefki can be annoying, plus it can bait it to use Magnet Rise to avoid a potential Earth Power. So very standard DD Malt as the partner except I opted for an Adamant nature which lets you pick up certain OHKO's and helps with roles. You still outspeed everything after +1 except Hydra but that can't touch you. Hope you like the core, enjoy ^_^
+4 252 SpA Celebi Never-Ending Nightmare (160 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Klefki: 342-403 (107.8 - 127.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 SpA Celebi Shadow Ball vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 332-392 (104 - 122.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Altaria-Mega Earthquake vs. 240 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 150-178 (47 - 55.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252+ Atk Altaria-Mega Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Nidoking: 394-464 (130 - 153.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Altaria-Mega Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Klefki: 346-408 (109.1 - 128.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Pixilate Altaria-Mega Return vs. 64 HP / 0 Def Blastoise-Mega: 249-294 (79 - 93.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Blastoise-Mega Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Altaria-Mega: 214-252 (73.5 - 86.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
My thought process for this was to immediately look at this team's breaking potential, and i noticed that the only two physical attackers were both pokemon that did not appreciate taking a scald and that you would never regularly want to leave in on a bulky water type. Due to this, I decided to go with one of my all time favorite pokemon in suicune. I decided on the substitute set and gave it enough ev's to outspeed mega blastoise, while going with a bold nature to maximize the defensive bulk in order to deal with terrakion better (only potential threat to +1 suicune). Looking at the team we were intended to break, once suicune gets to +1, it becomes incredibly difficult to stop.
To further exploit this weakness to calm mind users, I decided to use reuniclus. It's another really popular pokemon and i felt that with the acid armor cm set it could deal rather well with the team. I elected to run shadow ball over psychic because it gets rid of doublade and also allows you to hit hydreigon (this set is not very preferable outside of this matchup). I went with the maximum hp and spdf in order to be able to better take on hydreigon, since that is going to be the most likely switch in on my opponent's end and I invested enough speed into this to outspeed the adamant doublade
TIC TAC TOE (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Toxic
ON ME (Togekiss) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Defog
- Trick
PAY YOU BACK (Scizor) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Technician
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
Pretty basic bulky offense build with a couple mons I've been wanting to try out for awhile now: SubToxic Moltres and Mega Blastoise. The support is pretty simple, Offensive U-turn Scizor to bring in Blastoise for free vs the multitude of Steels that can check Scizor, CM BoltBeam Latias to give me a dedicated wincon, Max Defense Hippowdon to give me a shaky but usable check to the omnipresent Terrakion, and lastly Scarf Togekiss. Scarf Togekiss gave me an extra Defogger for Sub Toxic Moltres as well as a way to cripple a potential defensive team w/ Trick.
Aerodactyl-Mega (M) @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Aqua Tail
- Hone Claws
Terrakion @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
HC Aero does a nice job with terrakion since with boosted aqua tail it can heavily damage one of terrakion's most common answers Gligar. Together they do well against this team as they can overwelm hippowdon. Terrakion forcing out switches also puts it in the position to nuke scizor/set up a sub. Aerodactyl presence prevents moltres from having free reign post stalling out terrakion's stone edges over the course of the match.
Zeraora @ Expert Belt / Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Knock Off
- Plasma Fists
- Grass Knot
- Close Combat
Nihilego @ Rockium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 176 SpA / 80 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Acid Spray
- Grass Knot
- Power Gem
- Stealth Rock
So this is a team I think Zeraora can put in work against. Zera outspeeds every member here bar the Scarf Togekiss which could be annoying to be tricked a Scarf. Due to its coverage it can blow back every member on this team by either OHKO or 2OHKO them. LO picks up garuanteed OHKOs on Blastoise + Moltres and the 2OHKO on Scizor but at the cost of longevity. Expert Belt (The item I opted for) can pick up these same benchmarks but with the help of SR. Grass Knot 2OHKOs Hippo on the switch and Latias is also 2OHKO by Knock Off. Thanks to it being a Boltbeam set it doesn't fear much either and can always eat the Z-move thanks to Volt Absorb.
So Acid Spray Nihilego isn't unheard of but I've really enjoyed using a Rockium set from a post I saw from Pearl. It shuts down Moltres and Togekiss and provides SR for Zera to pick up those benchmarks. Grass Knot also 2OHKOs Blastoise + Hippo but after an Acid Spray on the switch it can OHKO them. As mentioned I prefer Rockium-Z but you can run Sludge or E-Belt, whatever floats your boat. Rockium picks up the OHKO on Scizor after SR + it lets you play mind games on the Roost or U-turn prediction. It doesn't care about Boltbeam Latias thanks to Acid Spray + Z-Move. EV spread is to get a speed boost and potentially sweep.
The core struggles switching into Hippo cos of EQ but both pack coverage for it so just takes a few predictions + they both invite it in to bop, hope you enjoy the core ^_^
176 SpA Nihilego Continental Crush (160 BP) vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Scizor: 291-343 (87.9 - 103.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
176 SpA Nihilego Continental Crush (160 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 195-229 (64.5 - 75.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
176 SpA Nihilego Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Hippowdon: 318-376 (75.7 - 89.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
176 SpA Nihilego Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. -2 252 HP / 4 SpD Hippowdon: 638-752 (151.9 - 179%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176 SpA Nihilego Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 104 HP / 0 SpD Blastoise-Mega: 180-214 (55.3 - 65.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
176 SpA Nihilego Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. -2 104 HP / 0 SpD Blastoise-Mega: 360-424 (110.7 - 130.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176 SpA Nihilego Continental Crush (160 BP) vs. -1 4 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 291-343 (96.3 - 113.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Expert Belt Zeraora Plasma Fists vs. 104 HP / 0 Def Blastoise-Mega: 305-360 (93.8 - 110.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Expert Belt Zeraora Plasma Fists vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Moltres: 374-442 (97.6 - 115.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Zeraora Plasma Fists vs. 200 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 147-174 (44.4 - 52.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
4 SpA Expert Belt Zeraora Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Hippowdon: 276-326 (65.7 - 77.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Expert Belt Zeraora Knock Off vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Latias: 168-199 (55.6 - 65.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Nihi has a cool match up versus Moltres and Togekiss and can keep rocks up versus this team, making use of Electrium Z to keep Blastoise away. WIth such, I noticed that with some chip on Hippo and Scizor Mega Sharpedo is rather annoying and takes advantage of Scarf Kiss not being a good speed control measure versus it so I've decided to go with that. Nihi also can make Hippo want to come in and weaken it with Grass Knot for Shark. Liquidation is also an option but I think that may be cteaming I'm not sure.
This core won't 6-0 by itself but I think it gives a good starting point for any team that has those
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
- Soft-Boiled
- Heal Bell
Aggron @ Aggronite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Fire Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
This team has very few ways to properly circumvent Blissey, only the Scizor and the Togekiss with trick are fully guaranteed to ruin Blissey's day (Moltres can be carefully played around as can the non-Psyshock Latias) And both the Scizor and Toge can be easily handled by Aggron. As such, this core creates a bit of a wall that's near impossible for this team to penetrate, and can wear it down over time.
