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

[Vemane]

Love the starmie set. Will definitely be using it! :o

Speaking of which: Sand Force dugtrio is now a very potent threat.

Since ps now only shows that a switch may be cancelled, arena trap is only assumed. Thus, sand force comes in (if in sand). This gives dugtrio the equivalent of nearly 110 base attack while still basically functioning as an arena trapper.

Huge improvement over his base 80 attack

 

[Lavos]

actually sand force dugtrio kinda sucks because whenever ps says you might be trapped, you can just click on one of your other pokemon and if you really are trapped it'll say something along the lines of "you can't switch because you're trapped!" so yeah that doesn't work unless you're facing someone careless

 

[dcae]

I highly doubt most people on the ladder would care to check, they merely automatically assume. In higher level of play I would be inclined to agree with you Lavos, but what Vemane says can hold true very well on the ladder.

 

[Magcargo]

A similar concept can apply to choice specs analytic magnezone.

STAB CS analytic Flash cannon does 63% minimum to tyranitar.

 

[Vemane]

actually sand force dugtrio kinda sucks because whenever ps says you might be trapped, you can just click on one of your other pokemon and if you really are trapped it'll say something along the lines of "you can't switch because you're trapped!" so yeah that doesn't work unless you're facing someone careless

Oh. I was under the impression that it would cancel the switch, costing the turn.

Owell

Would still function in ladder play I suppose

 

[doughboy]

Gliscor (M) @ Flying Gem / Focus Sash
Trait: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Acrobatics
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock

An interesting cross between lead Gliscor and Acrobat Gliscor. This set takes some inspiration from lead Garchomp with SD, but it holds one important distinction: Taunt. Gliscor is pretty fast (hits 317 Speed) so you will be able to Taunt a variety of opposing leads. Acrobatics is a great move to get an opening shot at the opponent. Accounting for STAB and Flying Gem, it is just shy of being the same base power as explosion. If you manage to survive the initial hit againt Gliscor (but most do not expect it being a lead) you can SD to augment your power and really hurt he opponent. The fast Taunt, Gliscor's bulk, and SD+Acrobatics quick power makes it pretty effective against defensive teams.

 

[Explorer]

Gliscor (M) @ Flying Gem / Focus Sash
Trait: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Acrobatics
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock

An interesting cross between lead Gliscor and Acrobat Gliscor. This set takes some inspiration from lead Garchomp with SD, but it holds one important distinction: Taunt. Gliscor is pretty fast (hits 317 Speed) so you will be able to Taunt a variety of opposing leads. Acrobatics is a great move to get an opening shot at the opponent. Accounting for STAB and Flying Gem, it is just shy of being the same base power as explosion. If you manage to survive the initial hit againt Gliscor (but most do not expect it being a lead) you can SD to augment your power and really hurt he opponent. The fast Taunt, Gliscor's bulk, and SD+Acrobatics quick power makes it pretty effective against defensive teams.

Faster Taunts still give this trouble, though. Also I question if this is really any better than lead Landorus-T, who has Intimidate and a much higher attack. You still get points from me for creativity though.

 

[thesandman]

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 Spd
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock / Toxic / Protect
- Earthquake
- Taunt
- U-turn

I've been running something kind of similar on one of my teams recently: taunt u-turn gliscor. This gliscor is basically a speedier (though less powerful and less bulky without intimidate) lando-t with taunt. It beats a lot of common leads, like sash terrakion, bulky landot, custap skarm, and jolly breloom. U-turn breaks sashes, and taunt prevents hazards/spore from going up on pokemon slower than it

 

[dcae]

Gliscor (M) @ Flying Gem / Focus Sash
Trait: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Acrobatics
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock

An interesting cross between lead Gliscor and Acrobat Gliscor. This set takes some inspiration from lead Garchomp with SD, but it holds one important distinction: Taunt. Gliscor is pretty fast (hits 317 Speed) so you will be able to Taunt a variety of opposing leads. Acrobatics is a great move to get an opening shot at the opponent. Accounting for STAB and Flying Gem, it is just shy of being the same base power as explosion. If you manage to survive the initial hit againt Gliscor (but most do not expect it being a lead) you can SD to augment your power and really hurt he opponent. The fast Taunt, Gliscor's bulk, and SD+Acrobatics quick power makes it pretty effective against defensive teams.

I like this set as it reminds me of one of my favorite BW1 sets, Acrobat Scor with Sand Veil to trollhax. Sadly, the banning of evasion abilities put an end to the fun. I must, however, ask why you aren't running Poison Heal. I see it more useful as you could switch into a random Toxic, and then gain useful healing. Another choice is moving SR out and maybe using Earthquake instead to abuse the SD boosts with superior coverage, hitting a lot of the tier hard. Another possibility I would consider is U-turn over Swords Dance. Imo running one boosting move to one offensive move isn't the best ratio, and U-turn keeps momentum aol it can be a nice utility poke throughout the game. I see how that would change the purpose of your set, though, making it more utility oriented rather than suicide lead type.

 

[LudwiG]

I like this set as it reminds me of one of my favorite BW1 sets, Acrobat Scor with Sand Veil to trollhax. Sadly, the banning of evasion abilities put an end to the fun. I must, however, ask why you aren't running Poison Heal. I see it more useful as you could switch into a random Toxic, and then gain useful healing. Another choice is moving SR out and maybe using Earthquake instead to abuse the SD boosts with superior coverage, hitting a lot of the tier hard. Another possibility I would consider is U-turn over Swords Dance. Imo running one boosting move to one offensive move isn't the best ratio, and U-turn keeps momentum aol it can be a nice utility poke throughout the game. I see how that would change the purpose of your set, though, making it more utility oriented rather than suicide lead type.

Hyper Cutter blocks intimidate, which should be more common than a random toxic.

 

[thesandman]

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Dragon Tail

Pretty much the same as the onsite banded ttar set, but with dragon tail over superpower. Superpower is filler anyway, and dragon tail can knock expected switches for respectable damage while shuffling the opposing team through hazards. Obviously works better with more hazards, but works well enough with just rocks up anyway. It also prevents any kind of setup, so crunching that latios doesn't lead to terrakion setting up and demolishing your team

EVs are standard and should probably be speed creeped a bit

 

[Gary]

I don't know if a shuffling move like Dragon Tail is a good idea to have on anything Choiced. Sure you get off free damage on whatever switches in plus hazard damage, but then T-Tar is locked into a pitifully weak move that always goes last. This can be risky, as T-Tar could end up phazing into a bad match up. I feel like Dragon Tail would be MUCH more effective on its specially defensive set, since it has the freedom to switch moves if need be. Also, I wouldn't call Superpower a filler at all. It breaks through Heatran without having to rely on Stone Edge, always OHKOs Blissey and sometimes Chansey, and deals huge damage to Ferrothorn. It has more uses, but I feel that's enough to suffice for an explanation.

 

[HabibsHotDogs]

This set is hardly original or creative as it has its roots in generation 4, however after messing around with Metagross in OU for a little while to see why everybody hates on it so hard.. I have come to the conclusion that this is actually a surprisingly effective set for the current meta and Metagross is criminally under-represented despite being a viable fit in OU!

Metagross @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
- Trick

Meteor mash and Zen headbutt are both stabs with secondaries that synergise nicely with the scarf, it also gives Metagross the purpose of revenging or hitting a variety of pokemon such as Breloom, Latios, Terrakion, Toxicroak, Rotom-W, +2 Lucario and Gyarados (some of these pokemon usually wouldn't fear metagross).

Thanks to clear body Metagross can never be countered by Landorus-T who must be wary of ice punch and even zen headbutt depending on how heavily invested it is. Meteor mash is only let down by its 85% accuracy, late game a +1 in attack can lead to a clean sweep. In a similar vein, Gyarados, is 2hkoed by zen headbutt after stealth rock, no matter its ability!

Ice punch is really there for Landorus-T, the rare Gliscor and some other miscellaneous x4 ice weak pokemon, it comes in handy for taking out a +1 Dragonite. Really the fact that Metagross is one of the few physical attackers that fears literally nothing from Landorus-T (all 3 of its moves hit it neutrally at worst, immunity to intimidate) combined with the fact that many offensively inclined teams are starting to rely on Landorus-T as their primary physical check allows Metagross to really shine in some battles.

Trick is the essential move to give your scarf to the steels/walls that potentially switch in, allowing Metagross to maintain validity against bulkier pokemon that can otherwise sit in front of it all day! Obviously if you are running a trick pokemon, its a good idea to have set-up pokemon to take advantage of any choice locking, for example if Ferrothorn, Jirachi or Skarmory are what consistantly switch into your metagross, then a Lucario makes a great partner (despite type similarities), Landorus-T is also not an issue for metagross whilst steels are not an issue for Lucario.

 

[Lavos]

habib, that's actually a pretty good set you just posted considering the state of the current metagame. metagross actually has the potential to do some real work, with all the things it does well against seemingly just lining up in a row to get donked by his excellent dual stab or ice punch. sometimes i do run earthquake over zen headbutt, so you might want to slash that in, just to hit stuff like heatran and jirachi that would otherwise escape the rampage, but then i miss out on a clean ohko on keldeo and easy 2hko on tentacruel, which kinda sucks. it's a matter of preference and team support, really, though zen headbutt's probably the better thing to be locked into (even though i find myself tricking the scarf rather early, usually to something like heatran that metagross can't beat with the current set). thanks for posting scarf metagross, it's a really underrated set right now and i'm glad someone is at least trying to bring it back.

 

[LudwiG]

habib, that's actually a pretty good set you just posted considering the state of the current metagame. metagross actually has the potential to do some real work, with all the things it does well against seemingly just lining up in a row to get donked by his excellent dual stab or ice punch. sometimes i do run earthquake over zen headbutt, so you might want to slash that in, just to hit stuff like heatran and jirachi that would otherwise escape the rampage, but then i miss out on a clean ohko on keldeo and easy 2hko on tentacruel, which kinda sucks. it's a matter of preference and team support, really, though zen headbutt's probably the better thing to be locked into (even though i find myself tricking the scarf rather early, usually to something like heatran that metagross can't beat with the current set). thanks for posting scarf metagross, it's a really underrated set right now and i'm glad someone is at least trying to bring it back.

In that case, consider using earthquake instead of trick.

 

[Arcticblast]

Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Memento

I built a team around Volcarona yesterday, and when I decided to run Hail (I can't build Sun teams that I actually like...) I realized that I couldn't run Sash Dugtrio. Choice Band was my next thought, and so far it's been performing quite well. Earthquake hits so much harder than on regular Dugtrio, and even allows it to beat certain hazard setters if it can get in, making spinning much more effective. I've been thinking about tweaking the EVs for certain threats (224 Speed outspeeds ScarfTar, for example).

This might just apply to Dugtrio in general, but it makes a great partner with Latias - it plays some crazy mindgames with enemy CBTar, and the things that will switch in on Earthquake don't like facing a Latias.

 

[HabibsHotDogs]

Ok, so recently I've been experimenting with the less represented pokemon of OU, looking for those dark horses lurking at the bottom of OU.

Some are obvious like Haxorus, but some are not so obvious, Staraptor is one of those not so obvious ones. Usually people think of Staraptor as a reckless brave birder that loses too much hp from stealth rock, isn't worth spinning for, and is too fragile to make an effort to build an offensive core around.

Staraptor @ Choice Band
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Return
- U-turn
- Close Combat

Scarfed staraptor is all but redundant with Salamence and Venusaur forcing the speed requirement for a scarf to remain at 100+, banded staraptor on the other hand is simply amazing!

In OU, double edge is an entirely redundant skill seeing as brave bird already has recoil and the same power and hits mostly the same threats for the same amount of damage! Therefore return is Staraptor's ideal 2nd choice STAB, and the bulk retention from no recoil can be really important. A lot of the same targets are better off being hit by return, return 2hkoes every single bulky rotom (even max/max) whilst ohkoing every single offensive rotom, brave bird is really there just as a potential threat, i find myself using return or u turn most of the time.

When using Staraptor, I recommend a few things:

1. Stop using spinners!! spinners take away momentum and staraptor is no where near bulky enough to be on a balanced or non offensive team, try offensive taunt strategies, I've played around with a few different partners, Whimsicott is a good one as it stops a lot of SR users, combining it with another taunter like Keldeo covers approximately 95% of viable SR users in OU!

2: You really want pokemon that bait celebi/landorus-t/gliscor/Jellicent etc, Breloom is great lure for Celebi for example, as is Keldeo (who also lures Jellicent). You want partners that can cover Skarmory and ferrothorn though, one can survive everything Staraptor has and the other can deal so much recoil damage, the raptor becomes all but useless.

3. Intimidate is actually a good ability, its really clutch in some battles, sometimes I sack Staraptor in order to give a sub user/set-up sweeper a good chance to sweep after it faints, you'd be surprised!!

Ok heres a replay showing why avoiding SR is important, Staraptor can do work if you keep it relatively healthy enough to survive the odd move.

(yes my team is one of a few I was testing staraptor on, its nothing amazing and is weak to sun, lol)

http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-16863148

 

[ElectivireRocks]

I'd stick with Toxic Orb Gliscor even on an offensive set, unless you plan to lead with it.
Any Gliscor without Toxic Heal activating at the end of the turn is a dead giveaway that it's running Flying Gem and Acrobatics.

 

[Chester]

On Gliscor's merit, wouldn't Hyper Cutter work as a non-orb ability? Especially if running SD...

 

[ryan]

Staraptor is a really cool mon, and I'm glad you're having success using it. Flying/Fighting is such good coverage (see: Torn-T), so the loss in power from Double Edge to Return isn't even that big of a deal. Also, since you're running CB anyways, the loss in power is negligible. I've always run Reckless Staraptor, but your set it pretty cool; I might give it a try in the near future.

 

[shilly]

does this count as a creative set? hell, i don't know. probably not for the most part but w/e. it's mostly for just this one move, hehe.

NotThisShitAgain (Togekiss) @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 176 HP, 80 SpAtk, 252 SpDef
Calm Nature
- Tri Attack
- Air Slash
- Thunder Wave
- Roost

ohhhh my goodness, i can't believe people usually don't run tri attack on togekiss, whether in ou or uu. it's amazing. it works wonders on a paraflincher set when you're stuck with that hippowdon or gastrodon (yeah, there's only a small chance to get paralysis instead of burn or freeze, but it's an instant ragequit for some ground-type enthusiasts.) it's also great STAB, and a 40% chance (w/ serene grace) to get paralysis, burn or freeze.

my togekiss got his name from my friend, whom i was battling a couple of weeks ago and i sent out this asshole. togekiss is just awesome.

 

[Vert]

does this count as a creative set? hell, i don't know. probably not for the most part but w/e. it's mostly for just this one move, hehe.

NotThisShitAgain (Togekiss) @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 176 HP, 80 SpAtk, 252 SpDef
Calm Nature
- Tri Attack
- Air Slash
- Thunder Wave
- Roost

ohhhh my goodness, i can't believe people usually don't run tri attack on togekiss, whether in ou or uu. it's amazing. it works wonders on a paraflincher set when you're stuck with that hippowdon or gastrodon (yeah, there's only a small chance to get paralysis instead of burn or freeze, but it's an instant ragequit for some ground-type enthusiasts.) it's also great STAB, and a 40% chance (w/ serene grace) to get paralysis, burn or freeze.

my togekiss got his name from my friend, whom i was battling a couple of weeks ago and i sent out this asshole. togekiss is just awesome.

This is an interesting set, but you are relying on hax for the whole set and Parafusion is much better than the random status Tri Attack provides. You also waste a moveslot for Thunder Wave if it status is in effect. I would run either Hyper Voice or Aura Sphere. Coverage is important and the extra power is much more appreciated than a 50 / 50 chance of good or backfire.

 

[boo836]

Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Memento

I built a team around Volcarona yesterday, and when I decided to run Hail (I can't build Sun teams that I actually like...) I realized that I couldn't run Sash Dugtrio. Choice Band was my next thought, and so far it's been performing quite well. Earthquake hits so much harder than on regular Dugtrio, and even allows it to beat certain hazard setters if it can get in, making spinning much more effective. I've been thinking about tweaking the EVs for certain threats (224 Speed outspeeds ScarfTar, for example).

This might just apply to Dugtrio in general, but it makes a great partner with Latias - it plays some crazy mindgames with enemy CBTar, and the things that will switch in on Earthquake don't like facing a Latias.

Seems like great minds think alike- I've used the same set for a sun team for Volcarona and Venusaur. I'm generally a shitty team builder though, so I couldn't really get it to work well. If I was going to get back into playing though, I'd definitely try running it on HO.

 

[Tressed]

Okay, I'll be honest, I haven't really tested this (I'm unwilling to make a sun team. Hate Ninetales too much), but I think this could be pretty good for sun.

Victini @ Leftovers/Expert Belt
Adamant / Naughty Nature
252 HP / 252 Attack / 4 Speed
V-Create
Glaciate
Final Gambit
Filler

Basically, this set aims to remove weather inducers and V-Create resists (you know, the ones that try to tank one and kill you before you can get off the next one?). Glaciate is the crux of this set. Force out an enemy with the threat of a V-Create and Glaciate on the switch. This forces any faster resists to slow down, allowing Victini to hit again next turn. From there, you can choose to nail the switch-in again with Glaciate, if it hits hard enough to 2HKO, or you can use Final Gambit to remove said Pokemon from the match, and leaving holes for other members of your team to push through. The last move can be whatever you choose. U-Turn, Bolt Strike, Brick Break, and Substitute are all decent options.
EVs are basic. Max Attack and an Adamant nature for V-Create and other offensive options, max HP for Final Gambit. Leftovers heals Victini, keeps HP up for Final Gambit, blahblahblah. Running a Naughty nature and Expert Belt allows you to 2HKO offensive Dragonite through Multiscale with Glaciate, as well as do the same with all variants of Garchomp (including YacheChomp) and Salamence (watch out for scarfers, though).
This set can lure in and kill off both Tyranitar and Politoed, two enormous problems for Sun teams, and which Ninetales cannot deal with effectively. It also removes potential problems such as Heatran and Latias.

So. Yeah.

 

[PureQuestion]

You do realize that that Glaciate is a special attack and thus is being weakened by the adamant nature?