Gen 4 Donny P (W). but he's never used

[vivalospride]

ello, I stumbled into DPP NU a year or two-ish-idk back during the first DPPPPPPPPPPPPPL where my teammates crushed the competition with no difficulty on the back of Donphantastic. I personally enjoyed the tier a fair bit, I think it's stupid as fuck but I think it's stupid as fuck in a good way, I have fun playing it in ways I haven't felt w mons in quite a while. The fact that obviously I'm pretty much limited to a certain amount of games per year probably makes it more memorable and fun for me because I can't bash my head into a wall with how frustrating mons is while playing it too often... considering the only opportunities to get games in this tier is p much just NUPL and Classic, including friendlies tbh lmao.

This team is being presented to the RMT subforum because Donphantastic and I built this team together in discord DMs one day while we were waiting for our opponents to be revealed in NUPL a handful of months back, and ever since the team has dominated without difficult very consistently. In both tour games and tests.

This was so much the case that up until literally like some hours ago the only time I could recall the team not winning was in a MIRROR matchup vs. donny, where we fuckin TIED, team literally allergic to losing.

Building Process

Basically donald peter and I just wanted a Glalie offense to spam, and that was the foundation we tried to build upon. Obviously add things that abused hazards and had offensive pressure, etc etc. Main mon of substance beyond just a lead hazard setter that we were interested in exploring was Electrode, so we tried to do the rest with that in mind.

We pretty much decided blimp was near mandatory with such a brittle and easy to pressure first two mons, this is pretty much our "defensive backbone". Obviously it's not actually a defensive backbone, it just gives us the bare minimum amount of utility for the team to function in the tier in less than ideal circumstances, good example: lead zard, lead medi, etc. Regigod is the best mon in the tier and I don't think it's up for debate, boom makes it more than viable on a team this offensive despite it's presence primarily being for more utility purposes, it obviously gives rocks and it is able to blanket check a lot of things early on (zard, blim, even more neutral shit like mane/trode). Blim I think is an amazing mon in the meta, it has a ton of utility whilst being an extremely reliable end-game wincon. It is rare I don't have at least some level of hope to pull out a W when blim is unrevealed and it's late into the game, it gives us a spinblocker, blanket soft fighting answer, and a good wincon.

Rounding the team out we have some hard hitters that I think hit the things the team needs. Shiftry is basically there as an emergency prio user and more importantly a Slowking abuser, also smth that forces out Regirock and is threatening is extremely powerful with Glalie lead. Being a Slowking/Dusclops/Sableye abuser is basically the big + here and reason for it being an important slot on the team, realistically it's strong here bc it's STAB combo and power w LO and boom is just extremely threatening in this tier, and I like it a lot as a mon on builds like this. Medicham is another hard hitter, again it synergizes pretty well with Glalie lead specifically. It's got priority and is another super-soft check to fighters which takes some weight off of Blim's back if it is the best shot at a late-game wincon, especially since medi is extremely good at breaking early. Synergizes well with Shiftry and Drifblim as well quite a bit by making Dark types' lives more difficult... also forgot to mention but don't wanna revise the whole paragraph but Shiftry also deters a STAB locked scarf mane which is important here!

In-Depth

big hoss

Glalie @ Lum Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icy Wind
- Spikes
- Explosion
- Taunt

Just standard stuff really, went Lum > Sash ofc just to fuck with sleep leads. Glalie's typing defensively is obviously complete ass but it's bulk could be worse so it's rare where I wish I had sash, especially with it's speed tier not being the worst either. Everything here is surely self explanatory.

blimp

Drifblim @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 12 HP / 172 Def / 136 SpA / 12 SpD / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Usual blimp shenanigans happening here rly. EVs that look fuckin stupid are necessary, the Def investment is important to be able to do what it's largely intended to do as a soft-blanket both answer both offensively and defensively to some threats like Hitmonchan and Medicham. I think on builds like this, outpacing Scarf Tauros is pretty important, so that is something this spread does as well. There's a few different ways you can go about this imo, smth like Endure w Petaya > Sub and Sitrus is definitely something. Also Petaya > Sitrus straight up is definitely an option as well. I am personally most partial to this route though. I don't like Petaya on sub all that much as I feel like it doesn't open up Blim's opportunities proactively all that much. Blim's output is nothing insane even at +2 but even with that being the case it only needs +1 a lot of the time to be a realistic wincon. I feel like Sitrus gives it more opportunities to do what it's supposed to do on this team. HP Ground is ultimately what I decided on as I felt like rly berating skunk felt good on top of also hitting elecs harder while still hitting regi. But I think you could do whatever there and it'd be fine if I'm keeping it a buck.

ballboy

Electrode @ Life Orb
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Signal Beam

This guy is pretty strong but nothing is too crazy here that needs a ton of explanation. This guy chips things like Regirock very well which aids a large portion of the team heavily. On top of that it's speed tier is extremely important here as it outpaces pretty much the entire metagame barring scarfers and blim without an item. Being able to rkill such a wide variety of things is rly nice for a team like this, for example stuff like Haunter can be extremely threatening vs. a team like this where the dark type is Shiftry... Regirock is on paper the best answer defensively by far. Electrode's existence is really crucial in situations like this where you need to pressure something but there's also a pretty solid chance you're gonna be able to make progress as well due to a lack of consistent splashable answers defensively existing (aside from Vileplume). Really good mon vs. offense in general and can also act as a late-game winpath.

Dwayne

Regirock @ Chople Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Atk / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Slide
- Explosion
- Earthquake

Despite regi not having as much oomph offensively as most of the rest of the team. It's a great fit for a team like this as long as it has boom. It's atk stat really is not too shabby and as long as the mon is used correctly it can really glue everything together perfectly with a moveset like this. You can easily lure or punish fighters with Chople Berry here which takes a ton of weight off of the rest of the team to do their roles as breakers. For example, if I catch Hitmonchan with explosion, it can no longer rkill Shiftry, nor can it Mach Punch chipped targets like Electrode. Basically anyone who knows the tier knows why Regirock is here, but for the vast majority of the smogon userbase that probably even wonders why this tier is played/exists... it blanket checks a large portion of the tier and is especially a good answer for Charizard which is an extremely powerful mon offensively that has a very top heavy group of defensive answers. Obviously having stealth rock is important here and another big reason this slot is here, but Regirock also makes having Shiftry as my dark type > smth like skunk much more doable due to it's ability to avoid 2HKOs from Haunter clicking the wrong move the first time and especially Drifblim. Obviously also handily deters explosions and Skunktank as a whole. Due to the offensive nature of the team, it's lack of longevity is preferred as you should be encouraged to let it be a punching back and get a boom off, Custap > Chople definitely also a really good option here. EQ pressures random things that I think is important for its role on this team too, mane, nidoq, other regis, etc.

tree

Shiftry @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dark Pulse
- Sucker Punch
- Explosion

Donny and I used to spam this mixed SD set with no way of hitting Drifblim aside from getting Sucker Punch right. I ditched that on most of my builds but still liked the idea of a mixed Shiftry. Explosion is obviously broken this gen, so not much to explain there, being able to keep momentum with really good and strong neutral coverage vs resists is great. Sucker Punch is still there for emergency prio which comes in handy frequently. Otherwise Leaf Storm and Dpulse are all you need most of the team because this mon forces out the two most common mons in the tier reliably and is extremely threatening and difficult to consistently find a splashable answer for, especially with hazards up.

nipple knees

Medicham @ Life Orb
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch

Life Orb is obviously a very strong item competitively as it makes the damage output on any mon much more impressive. But this mon feels like it's OHKOd by it pretty frequently due to a lack of consistent bulk/speed tier. Neither of them really being good enough to consistently come in throughout the course of a game and remain threatening. Being full HP or near full HP as long as possible I think is important for this thing's effectiveness as a breaker and after doing a lot of thinking about LO HJK vs. Lefties HJK vs. LO Dpunch we basically decided Dpunch was the best, as it remainded very threatening while offering it some pseudo-longevity to give some more utility and clutch up a moment or two every few games.

IMPORT

Glalie @ Lum Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icy Wind
- Spikes
- Explosion
- Taunt

Drifblim @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 12 HP / 172 Def / 136 SpA / 12 SpD / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Electrode @ Life Orb
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Signal Beam

Regirock @ Chople Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Atk / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Slide
- Explosion
- Earthquake

Shiftry @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dark Pulse
- Sucker Punch
- Explosion

Medicham @ Life Orb
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch

Replays

DPP NU Cup vs. Neomon (W).
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4nu-1652912022-9cn1kp3avr9fqcwh4wolivzmi3o159tpw
DPP NU Cup vs. Phoopes (W).
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4nu-1662081613-1ynt2tvatz6qx8i72wsktccmpghelsgpw
DPP NU Cup vs. MrSoup (W).
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4nu-1663739083-sq4e1uf54fbsdd4vem8dtkd5k18hypcpw
DPP NU Cup vs. Shing'n Streets (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4nu-649821
2022 NUPL vs. Staxi (W).
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4nu-631661
some random game (W).
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4nu-1588616817-wf3tpavh87nalytfdl9menaive5nilvpw

Closing Thoughts

Ultimately I think this team is what best represents my enjoyment of the tier, although the tier is top heavy (regiking, etc), I believe there is a decent amount of room to explore and use what you wanna use. Donny and I love this team and figured it's time to retire it after it was passed around a little without us knowing and it generally being extremely successful, test games were completely unloseable with this six I really wish I saved more of the games, especially the mirror mu that tied, it might be under a diff name or smth but I can't find it and I'm too lazy to search across alts.

Hope this tier continues to grow and at least one or two people read this and become interested in investing even a few minutes into learning/playing the tier. It's an interesting one for sure that I think is worth it if you enjoy tom foolery.

s/os Donphantastic

s/o Beraldinho for representing the tier well
shiloh for being my buddy
Expulso for letting me play this tier last nupl and more

s/o Barclay's Chazz Tomb​