Creative / Underrated Sets Thread (Read the thread, NO SHITTY GIMMICKS)

[kakuna]

Today I share with you a set that isn't exactly new, but it is non-existent in OU.

@ Black Sludge
Trait: Tinted Lens
EVs: 176 Spd / 252 SAtk / 80 Def
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Substitute
- Bug Buzz​

Quiver dance venomoth boasts the combination if quiver dance and baton pass. However venomoth is never used as its own offensive pokemon which it can be. Venomoth has access to tinted lens- one of the best offensive abilities in the game, especially for set up sweepers as they are not so pressed to run coverage moves. Bug is not the best mono-attacking type but it is not the worst either. With tinted lens the only things still resisting it are heatran, gengar, skarmory, and toxicroak. Gengar is set up fodder for venomoth, provided it has enough health to take a hit. Heatran can be passed it if is really weak or rain, but it is generally not the best plan. Skarmory can be beaten if it doesn't wake up too often. Toxicroak can't hit venomoth very hard due to awesome poison typing. Poison typing also means venomoth can't be toxiced, toxic being one of the key methods to kill set up sweepers. The choice between substitute and roost is hard to make. Substitute gives protection from physical attackers and thunder wave/will-o-wisp. This set obviously appreciates rapid spin support, donphan being the primary candidate. Donphan resists rock moves and can support venomoth with stealth rock. Breaking dragonite's multiscale is especially important. Ice shard is an emergency check to any dragons that power past venomoth. This set obviously will be compared to volcarona: why venomoth over volcarona? The answers are sleep powder and tinted lens, as well as immunity to toxic. The EVs allow veny to outspeed jolly mamoswine. Max SpA is for some power and the rest is in defense so it can take a scizor bullet punch etc.

 

[Seth Vilo]

Today I share with you a set that isn't exactly new, but it is non-existent in OU.

@ Black Sludge
Trait: Tinted Lens
EVs: 176 Spd / 252 SAtk / 80 Def
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Substitute
- Bug Buzz​

SET DESCRIPTION

That...

Is really cool...

And looks far easier to support overall than Volcarona simply cause it's not at the 50%-dead SR-level Volc is, and only 4 things resist its single STAB. Fairly weak and frail overall, but if you need cool points this is how you do it.

I will try this to say the least. XD

EDIT: @ HackerKing, Sure! Whenever I get around to trying it. XD

 

[PttP]

why do you only lose 1/3rd of the time? and for that matter, why is stealth rock an assumed precondition to damage calculations? i played in today's bw tour and in 3 of the 6 games i ended up competing in, stealth rocks were never activated on one or both players' sides of the field. they're definitely not a prerequisite to bw ou battles...and even if they are up you still don't ohko sdef ttar 100% of the time. plus there's a lot of prediction involved. say you have latios out vs forretress, you expect the switch to ttar and you rain dance. instead, they predict you won't hp fire and instead volt switch, letting them in on your set plus giving them on the switch advantage. it's all a big mind game with this set and i don't like it. too much pressure is put on the latios user to make the correct prediction. finally, cbtar isn't even obligated to stay in on you, they can switch out whenever they want whereas you have pursuit to worry about. it's a win-win for the ttar user.

I don't see how you can question SR being a prerequisite when in your gengar set you said it 2hkos bulky ttar after SR

regular latios is clearly superior to rain dance water gem but c'mon at least be consistent with your arguments

 

[yee]

I understand why Rain Dance Water Gem would be appealing, especially if you want an extra out against sun teams, but normally if you want to nail TTar I would tell you to just use Grass Knot. It generally won't fail to 2HKO with Expert Belt or more, and works best with all of Draco / Surf / HP Fire / Grass Knot if you go that way. Life Orb or Specs don't really like to waste time with it for coverage reasons so you'll probably just use Expert Belt.

Bottom line from me is don't waste time running Water Gem JUST for Tar, that'll do you more harm than good. If you absolutely need to kill it just run Grass Knot and if you want Rain Dance don't pass up better items- a mostly dead Tar can be turned into a dead fairly easily and the standard items are too important for generally everything.

 

[HackerKing]

That...

Is really cool...

And looks far easier to support overall than Volcarona simply cause it's not at the 50%-dead SR-level Volc is, and only 4 things resist its single STAB. Fairly weak and frail overall, but if you need cool points this is how you do it.

I will try this to say the least. XD

Can you or Kakuna post replays / logs?
I'm interested in seeing how one would go about using it in a battle.

 

[Lavos]

I don't see how you can question SR being a prerequisite when in your gengar set you said it 2hkos bulky ttar after SR

regular latios is clearly superior to rain dance water gem but c'mon at least be consistent with your arguments

i stated that my gengar 2hkos bulky ttar after sr because it does. i never said rocks would always be up, i just stated the facts. i question sr being a prerequisite on the latios set posted because it makes the difference between beating most ttar and losing to most ttar. it's a relevant argument and i'm not contradicting myself because i never claim otherwise in my own set. if you're going to call me out in a post at least make it somewhat intelligent please

 

[Gimili]

ChestoRest Kingdra

Kingdra @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Swift Swim / Sniper
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Rest
- Waterfall
- Outrage​

I think we all know how good Kingdra is at screwing over rain teams, but outside of this role, he can also run a fantastic DD set. The idea of this set is to set up on defensive Pokemon utilizing status and residual damage to wear you down, and finally Resting after enough boosts are acquired. Seriously, if Ferrothorn didn't exist, this set would take the meta by storm. The choice of Swift Swim and another ability is a simple matter of whether you're running rain or not. Give this guy a spin; he deserves some attention in OU.

Replays

#1
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou13541407

 

[Satisfaction]

My apologies but due to the length of the matches i do not have any replays with me nor do i particularly desire to play another match to obtain one but i have a magnezone set that might be interesting for some users particularly those that hate ferrothorn and want to punish the opponent for using him (for best success i used an air balloon hitmontop as well but the set isn't particularly strong so I won't mention it further you really should use this with a spinner though)

Magnezone @salac berry
252 def 240 hp (this might have been the reverse) 8 sp atk
Charge beam
Hidden power (ice)
Substitute
Rest

When looking at the set the basic idea of it should be apparent, we're going to use the ferro as set up fodder (technically could also work on opposing magnezones or skarms lacking whirlwind but i never used it on them) until we feel prepared to sweep the rest of the team with a +6 +1 zone behind a sub. The given evs ensure that Ferros strongest attacks won't break sub and even if every single power whip crits it won't finish it off fast enough for it to not be able to heal with rest, pp stalling its attacks is certainly viable especially since most ferros will only have whip and gyro ball. Substitute is neccessary for dodging leech seed not neccessarily thunder wave as rest would heal that status anyway, still this set can still work after zone has been seeded and ironically makes the process go along faster as you're not having to wait for ferro to heal up with leftovers before attacking it with charge beam. Once charge beam gets you to +6 you can go ahead and kill ferro with hp ice, even with the mere 8 investment in sp atk and 0 investment in speed it's enough to outspeed and kill full hp multiscale dragonite (no calcs here sorry, I never used magnezone for this I thought the speed drop from ton to zone was too massive to risk turns out to be irrelevant in the long run). If you're worried about speed like I was you can use magneton too, the difference in power is significant but it still gets the neccessary kos, naturally this would include an ohko on politoad, keldeo, dragonite, salamence, breloom, thundurus, landorous, and the like. Unfortunately Magneton just missed the ohko on terrakion so I'm assuming Magnezone will ohko him (opponents usually forfeit long before I can try without leech seed this strategy takes forever). This set will work so long as the opponent has a ferrothorn or a forretress (forry doesn't resist charge beam good luck getting to +6) bolt beam is resisted by Mammoswine Lanturn and Shedinja, you can't beat Mammo without prior damage (hp ice even resisted will do moderate damage it's still 2x normal) lanturns toxic and stab electric is worthless to you but its surf will probably pose problems (Lanturns nu though I doubt people will use it with ferro keep chinchou in mind for little cup purposes though) shedinja can't win with common sets zone resists ghost sub blocks will o wisp and you can theoretically rest stall, although sleeping against a non steel is not a good idea. Sheddy can't beat you but it will put you in a position where you can't beat anything else.

In case it wasn't clear how this strategy works and largely because I feel bad about not being able to provide calcs or a video I'll give a scenario (zone user is Red ferro user is blue)

Red: Politoad is sent out *Drizzle activates*
Blue: Dragonite is sent out
Red: uses ice beam
Blue: switches to ferrothorn
Red: Switches to zone
Blue: uses power whip
Red: uses sub
Blue: uses leech seed *seed doesnt work on sub*
Red: Charge beams
Blue:*gets mad, starts setting up hazards*
Red: subs down to 1/4th *salac activates*
Blue:*tries to kill* power whips
Red: Rest to full health
Blue: runs out of pp and keeps setting useless hazards

I hope this will help you guys with stopping ferro, and that this will be used as a creative set.

 

[ClubbingSealCub]

The problem with that set is that Magnezone is 60 base speed. Your EV spread has 0 investment so it will barely scratch 250 speed which is honestly pretty pathethic if you want to attempt a sweep. At most you'll get to kill ferro and then fire a "powerful" Charge Beam / HP. Keep in mind these 2 attacks have like 50 and 70 BP respectively so they won't always OHKO everything. Also, you're giving Ferro time to get its 3 layers of spikes while you charge beam up. On top of that, if Ferro happens to get you with Leech Seed or Thunder Wave on the switch, you lose and are forced to switch out.

IMO the only good Zone set nowadays is the specs set which cleanly 2HKOs Ferrothorn under rain; and can even 2HKO if Ferro seeds on the switch with high damage rolls, minimizing the amount of hazards it gets up.

Of course, SpecsZone is not creative nor underrated, though.

 

[Lelouch6]

How do you lose switching to thunder wave if you have rest? They also said that leech seed just shortens the time. I can see getting seeded as an annoyance after ferros down but I might just let them seed if it really takes as long as they're implying. 50x4 is a stab 200 bp move off of zones (poorly invested) basically a x2 thunderbolt even factoring the lack of sp atk i don't see how it's weaker than the choice specs set and it's certainly faster as well as bulkier hopefully behind a sub before taking down ferro while at full health, 250 speed is also enough to beat a number of mons including most dragonites, toxicroaks, and politoads, seems fine for a splashable anti rain poke

 

[PttP]

i stated that my gengar 2hkos bulky ttar after sr because it does. i never said rocks would always be up, i just stated the facts. i question sr being a prerequisite on the latios set posted because it makes the difference between beating most ttar and losing to most ttar. it's a relevant argument and i'm not contradicting myself because i never claim otherwise in my own set. if you're going to call me out in a post at least make it somewhat intelligent please

lol are you serious? you can state facts all you want but the moral of the story is that you arent beating bulky ttar without stealth rock, and you obviously cared enough about it to mention that its a 2hko after rocks. the same goes for that particular latios. without stealth rock it isnt beating cb ttar. that is a fact. if you really feel that way about stealth rock then dont mention it in your post because your gengar isnt beating bulky ttar without it. in both cases ttar is beating the pokemon in question without sr. all im asking for is some consistency in arguments. dont bring up stealth rock in one scenario if you are going to dismiss it in another.

i also find it funny that you have to stoop so low as to insult another person's intelligence in a forum debate. you are a master debater after all, you should know that insults are the most petty way of getting a point across, but then again, the barrier that is the internet is quite the barrier indeed.

also, its not like im calling you out because you are a particular user. im calling you out for moving the goalposts. why so defensive ?

 

[Gronkspike9348]

Here are some of mine, feel free to share yours!

This isn't custom, but it is horribly underused
Kyurem-B @ Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam

Works very well as a late game one man clean up crew, I'd say he finishes my opponent about 90% of games. The only move here that you will really ever need is outrage, but the others are good fillers. If your opponent is left without a steel type, or a scarfed pokemon, the game is over for them.

My Custom Gengar
Gengar @ Life Orb
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Giga Drain
- HP [Fire]

Always used as my lead, allows me to scout my opponent and make an excellent switch in, as well as having counters to most common leads (GG scizor, ferrothorn, politoed, etc.). Pretty much a beast set, and Giga Drain allows me to heal off sub+life orb damage, making this gengar last far longer that most.

Video of them both:http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou13477694

 

[Tassa]

I don't say how your Gengar can pretend beat Politoed.

Scarf ? Hydro Pump is a OHKO. Even Surf has a chance of OHKO and letting you at a point were, no matter which attack you choosed, you losed
Specs ? Straight OHKO, the best you can do is waiting miss with sub. Not reliable.
Support ? You can try something here as you 2HKO without being OHKOed, but Scald do massive damage even without investment, and you let your opposent seeing that you don't run some critical move.

 

[Knight of Cydonia]

That "master debater" innuendo was truly excellent.

 

[doughboy]

Dugtrio (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Shadow Claw / Sucker Punch
- Memento

Not necessarily the most creative set but a very, very unused option that should be much more common. In my opinion it should probably be standard.

In many situations I have found that Focus Sash Dugtrio is not powerful enough to take down threats and it was not a great SR setter. Rapid Spin support to get the most out of Focus Sash is a bitch too. The power of Choice Band is really handy to get KO's, but the trap often turns around on you because the opponent sets up on a Choice-locked EQ. Enter Life Orb Dugtrio, which combines some of the best attributes of Focus Sash and CB Dugtrio, namely the ability to switch moves and extra power. EQ and Stone Edge are the bread and butter attacking moves, while Shadow Claw/Sucker Punch are just "there" because you really can't use anything else. Memento is the other aspect of Life Orb Dugtrio I really love. After Dugtrio gets its trapping job done, it can make sure an opponent's set up is in vain with Memento. Because of its blazing fast speed, every set up sweeper in OU besides lol SubCM Zam or Tornadus-I will be unable to avoid the attack drops from Memento. From there, it is easy set up for your intended sweeper.

 

[Gronkspike9348]

I don't say how your Gengar can pretend beat Politoed.

Scarf ? Hydro Pump is a OHKO. Even Surf has a chance of OHKO and letting you at a point were, no matter which attack you choosed, you losed
Specs ? Straight OHKO, the best you can do is waiting miss with sub. Not reliable.
Support ? You can try something here as you 2HKO without being OHKOed, but Scald do massive damage even without investment, and you let your opposent seeing that you don't run some critical move.

1st off, giga drain KOs politoed. Second off, the great part of this set is that it works as a scout (i explained this in my RMT) and I have the ability to switch if I'm not sure if the toed is scarfed. Besides, as we know, every set has its weakness, and this sets weakness happens to be choice scarfs. I guess we just have to accept that.

 

[Curtains]

had tremendous ladder and some tournament success with this set:


Kyurem-Black @ Salac Berry
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Hone Claws
- Roost
- Dragon Claw

The plan is really simple... Just eliminate steals and find a good pokemon to set up on. Once you get the sub up and a hone claws not much can be done to beat you. 482 attack is already massive so even just a salac berry boost should be enough to sweep with SR + 1 layer. A hone claw is just an added bonus. Two hone claws you can forget about it as you are at least 2hkoing the entire 600 pokemon roster. Roost can be used after the boost has been received or if you are in a specific situation where you are not going for the boost. The ev spread is elementary and probably can be tweaked but the concept stays the same. You want all the speed you can get before the boost and even without heavy defensive investments you are taking weak attacks just fine.... He has very nice typing. I used a team with specs gothitelle and had a great time on the ladder. Defeating skarmory and ferrothorn really opened things up for this thing as most teams don't run more than 1 steel type. Also shed shell has decreased in popularity due to popular battlers and RMTs using lefties or custap berry.

 

[HardCore]

???=???

Deoxys-D (F) @ Custap Berry
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Explosion/ Toxic Spikes

Ok hopefully I'm the first to put this up here. I've just recently been seeing this set on Forretress, which is surprisingly viable and almost equivalent to Deoxys-D's past role in the meta. It's simple. Hope you don't get 2hkod without 2 layers of hazards. You have a ghost on your team and boom, you've got what it takes to sweep with your other 4 Pokemon. Speaking of boom if your opponent plays poorly or your see that you only need SR you can just boom yourself with Explosion! Although it's quite obvious there's a possibility you can just run Ferro and 5 sweepers if you really miss Deoxys-D. I personally thought it was a waste of a bulky Pokemon, but his bulk and access to all of the entry hazards + Sturdy make him perfect for the task.

 

[Manitary]

1st off, giga drain KOs politoed.

252 Timid LO Gengar Giga Drain vs 0/0 Politoed: 66.36%-78.5%

Nope.

 

[EspeonX]

???=???

Deoxys-D (F) @ Custap Berry
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Explosion/ Toxic Spikes

Ok hopefully I'm the first to put this up here. I've just recently been seeing this set on Forretress, which is surprisingly viable and almost equivalent to Deoxys-D's past role in the meta. It's simple. Hope you don't get 2hkod without 2 layers of hazards. You have a ghost on your team and boom, you've got what it takes to sweep with your other 4 Pokemon. Speaking of boom if your opponent plays poorly or your see that you only need SR you can just boom yourself with Explosion! Although it's quite obvious there's a possibility you can just run Ferro and 5 sweepers if you really miss Deoxys-D. I personally thought it was a waste of a bulky Pokemon, but his bulk and access to all of the entry hazards + Sturdy make him perfect for the task.

I can attest to this, seeing as how similar it is to Custap Skarmory. However, it and Forretress don't like Starmie all that much, so pairing it up with Weavile and Gengar means you deal with most (if not, all) spinners and you can block Rapid Spin if you must. It works great with weatherless offense in my experience.

 

[Revontheus]

Dugtrio (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Shadow Claw / Sucker Punch
- Memento

Not necessarily the most creative set but a very, very unused option that should be much more common. In my opinion it should probably be standard.

In many situations I have found that Focus Sash Dugtrio is not powerful enough to take down threats and it was not a great SR setter. Rapid Spin support to get the most out of Focus Sash is a bitch too. The power of Choice Band is really handy to get KO's, but the trap often turns around on you because the opponent sets up on a Choice-locked EQ. Enter Life Orb Dugtrio, which combines some of the best attributes of Focus Sash and CB Dugtrio, namely the ability to switch moves and extra power. EQ and Stone Edge are the bread and butter attacking moves, while Shadow Claw/Sucker Punch are just "there" because you really can't use anything else. Memento is the other aspect of Life Orb Dugtrio I really love. After Dugtrio gets its trapping job done, it can make sure an opponent's set up is in vain with Memento. Because of its blazing fast speed, every set up sweeper in OU besides lol SubCM Zam or Tornadus-I will be unable to avoid the attack drops from Memento. From there, it is easy set up for your intended sweeper.

I don't think that set is useful, to let him trap something usually you'll have to sac something, besides even with LO it isn't that powerful so any Physical Wall would completely stop Dug, tough it might be useful in some situations.

 

[Ubiquitous]

Defensive Calm Mind Latias
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 Spe
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute

This set has been my personal favourite this generation. The EV spread is already listed in the OU analysis for Latias. Basically this more defensive EV spread makes Latias a better check for the numerous Fighting types in the tier in the early to mid-game, as well as letting her take random unSTABed U-turns, as well as not dying to Pursuits from ScarfTar and Banded Scizor. Towards the late game this set allows Latias to set up on various defensive Pokemon which now cannot break her sturdy Subs. Here are some examples:

0 Atk Careful Jirachi Iron Head vs 252/0 Timid Latias: 25-30%, guaranteed to break sub
0 Atk Careful Jirachi Iron Head vs 252/228 Bold Latias: 18-22%, never breaks sub
0 Atk Relaxed Ferrothorn Gyro Ball vs 252/0 Timid Latias: 39-46%, guaranteed to break sub
0 Atk Relaxed Ferrothorn Gyro Ball vs 252/228 Bold Latias: 21-25%, very small chance to break sub

That's just two examples of where a normal CM Latias would not be able to set up on defensive Pokemon, but with the Defense investment, her Subs are now extremely sturdy. In my opinion the ability to set up on a wider array of defensive threats, check Fighting types better, and survive Pursuits and U-turns more easily is more valuable than being able to outspeed a few random Dragon types, and therefore I believe this set deserves more usage.

 

[Gronkspike9348]

252 Timid LO Gengar Giga Drain vs 0/0 Politoed: 66.36%-78.5%

Nope.

Sorry, you're correct about being beaten by politoed. But aside from that, the set is still a major threat to many (if not all) teams I play

 

[Revontheus]

Defensive Calm Mind Latias
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 Spe
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute

This set has been my personal favourite this generation. The EV spread is already listed in the OU analysis for Latias. Basically this more defensive EV spread makes Latias a better check for the numerous Fighting types in the tier in the early to mid-game, as well as letting her take random unSTABed U-turns, as well as not dying to Pursuits from ScarfTar and Banded Scizor. Towards the late game this set allows Latias to set up on various defensive Pokemon which now cannot break her sturdy Subs. Here are some examples:

0 Atk Careful Jirachi Iron Head vs 252/0 Timid Latias: 25-30%, guaranteed to break sub
0 Atk Careful Jirachi Iron Head vs 252/228 Bold Latias: 18-22%, never breaks sub
0 Atk Relaxed Ferrothorn Gyro Ball vs 252/0 Timid Latias: 39-46%, guaranteed to break sub
0 Atk Relaxed Ferrothorn Gyro Ball vs 252/228 Bold Latias: 21-25%, very small chance to break sub

That's just two examples of where a normal CM Latias would not be able to set up on defensive Pokemon, but with the Defense investment, her Subs are now extremely sturdy. In my opinion the ability to set up on a wider array of defensive threats, check Fighting types better, and survive Pursuits and U-turns more easily is more valuable than being able to outspeed a few random Dragon types, and therefore I believe this set deserves more usage.

That set is really good if you know what you're doing, I remember using it in BW to some success. oh and in your set don't you mean Bold instead of Timid?

 

[Ubiquitous]

Oops, yes I did mean Bold. I've corrected it now, thanks.