Get the Bugspray
It has been a while since I've posted a team here. I had the idea for this one in 2018/19 while taking a look at Specs Yanmega. Obviously terribly flawed mon but it has basically zero switch-ins except Blissey. Sadly no matter how much spin support you give to this guy, it's not meant to stay for long. After testing it for a while I came to the conclusion that what was needed weren't ways to make it stay alive but another mon with similar qualities exploiting on the holes Yanmega forces naturally.
I built a lot of offenses like this during that time and they all have the same idea:
Overload the same switch-ins with some special specs spam and take out Clef / Blissey with Bandtar or lure them with LO Boom Gengar. The team linked above is the most barebones / raw version of it, CM Tect Suicune, Scarf Latias, Lum Jirachi, Taunt Gengar are all worth considering and can improve it / make it more versatile. Anyway let's get back to Yanmega.
So the mon with the most similar profile to Yanmega happened to be Venomoth. Although much weaker in power some teams really struggle to deal with another Tinted Lens Specs Bug Buzz after Yanmega's initial assault. Don't get me wrong I'm not advertising Venomoth as a good choice, but it's kind of useful in this spot and I really wanted to stack bug-types for once. And it just happens to fit this weeks theme so it's the perfect time to post this.
Pretty straight forward. Specs Tinted Lens Bug Buzz is hell to switch into, Air Slash to hit Skarm, HP Ground to hit Heatran. Sleep Talk to abuse 4x resistance to Breloom and absorb Spore. No U-Turn because everything slower than Yanmega get's eaten alive and pretty much everything faster eats you alive or it doesn't matter if you U-Turn or hard switch. It can be useful for Sash Azelf, but even then you're having rocks on your side, Yanmega is in the back and it will struggle to find another opening.
Lil bro. Does pretty much the same thing and absorbs Toxic Spikes. Sludge Bomb to fish for Poison chance if Steels are gone, HP Fire to hit Skarm, Forre, Scizor and overall decent coverage. U-Turn because we already have Sleep Talk on Yanmega and it's nice to invite my two Pursuit users in to remove their special answers. Generally you want Yanmega to eat the Spore and then switch Venomoth into Loom the second time so you don't have to gamble on waking up and missing a turn on a failed Sleep Talk later. Technically HP Fire isn't necessary so you could as well play Toxic Spikes or Sleep Powder.
Normally not a big fan of offensive Starmie but it is needed here. Right now I'm just stacking Insects with no longevity so having Spin really turns some late games. I will add double Pursuit support later so chances are high Starmie actually gets to spin at some point. 3 Atks because I don't want to give any entry points to offense and Starmie is actually pretty good at exploiting the structural damage Yanmega creates. Spread is to survive +1 EQ from Gyara after Rocks. Could drop speed to 216/220 and max Sp.Atk but that's player preference.
The weird uncle. Normally I wouldn't choose defensive SR Swampert on such a fast paced / momentum based team because it inevitably invites in Loom for free which is disastrous. With both Yanmega and Venomoth that is covered extremely well so I can afford it. Swampert does a lot of things here: Getting up Rocks, Single handedly improving the DD Spam matchup by a lot, Absorbing Twave, offering a second fire resistance so Scarftran doesn't autowin. Normally this guy hates Toxic Spikes and Roserade but we have Venomoth so that is covered as well.
Bug #3. Scarf so it can trap Gengar, Latias, Starmie or just unexpectedly U-Turn on them in case of HP Fire Latias or offensive Starmie. Otherwise fast special sweepers autowin so far if played correctly. Bullet Punch is very nice to have to finish off DDTar after Swampert traded against DDNite etc. It forms a nice U-turn pairing with Venomoth as well as it either instantly traps the switch-in, keeps momentum or threatens a Superpower on a steel type like Heatran (obviously have to scout for scarf Heatran first).
Originally this was a Dugtrio and Scizor was CB. That was the perfect solution to lure in Heatran and trap it while at the same time being able to remove Blissey and Clef. Having a fast Pursuit was a good benefit as well.
Anyway those times are gone so I needed to adapt. CB TTar obviously can't replace Duggy perfectly but it has one quality in common which is being able to remove Blissey and Clef. It serves as a first entry point to Heatran as well so I don't have to gamble Swampert or Starmie on a potential HP Grass. If you bring this guy in something dies either instantly or after a double to Yanmega. Having a stronger Pursuit than Scarf Scizor is appreciated a lot so Starmie can do its thing after Rotom is removed.
Some replays at ca. 1450:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2275672284-8i7pjbcufxjj9ww1gncht6hb1qiolbcpw?p2
Venomoth actually cleans up in this one after Yanmega tanks the Spore from Breloom and heavily chips Heatran. Tyranitar and Scizor together deal with Scarf Rotom and then nothing is left to stop the moth. tbh that's the perfect scenario.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2275664245-dslecqdn7jg0a9bj2mrl4nis1081z1ypw
Here once again TTar takes out Rotom, Starmie gets off the spin and then the bugs clean up and overwhelm Heatran.
Overall pretty fun team, got some decent results on ladder (25/5) but in the end still a team with Venomoth.