Zenith Mode
can also be called Z-Mode
Peak #1 - 1747 elo, 93.9% GXE
Introduction
Remember when I said Natural 2 was the last RMT I was making until I came up with a great reason to make a new one? Well, I suddenly decided to tryhard my way to the top of the ladder again, which ended up giving me a reason much sooner than I expected as I've successfully accomplished my goal.
Before I go any further, let me bring up the definition of "Zenith"
(I took these from 3 different websites, so not one source is gonna have everything written here simultaneously.)
noun: zenith; plural noun: zeniths
1. the time at which something is most powerful or successful.
"under Justinian, the Byzantine Empire reached its zenith of influence"
2. Zenith means the high point — it comes from astronomy, where it describes the highest point in an arc traveled by a star or a planet or another celestial body.
1. Reaching the Zenith
When you reach the zenith, you're at the top, the pinnacle, the summit, the peak. Zenith developed from an Arabic phrase meaning "the way over one's head," and then traveled through Old Spanish, Medieval Latin, and Middle French before arriving in English. As long ago as the 1300s, English speakers used zenith to name the highest point in the celestial heavens, directly overhead. By the 1600s, zenith was being used for other high points as well. The celestial term is often contrasted with nadir, which refers to the point that is vertically downward from the observer (imagine a line going through the Earth from the observer's feet and out the other side into the sky). Figuratively, nadir simply means "the lowest point."
noun: zenith; plural noun: zeniths
1. the time at which something is most powerful or successful.
"under Justinian, the Byzantine Empire reached its zenith of influence"
2. Zenith means the high point — it comes from astronomy, where it describes the highest point in an arc traveled by a star or a planet or another celestial body.
1. Reaching the Zenith
When you reach the zenith, you're at the top, the pinnacle, the summit, the peak. Zenith developed from an Arabic phrase meaning "the way over one's head," and then traveled through Old Spanish, Medieval Latin, and Middle French before arriving in English. As long ago as the 1300s, English speakers used zenith to name the highest point in the celestial heavens, directly overhead. By the 1600s, zenith was being used for other high points as well. The celestial term is often contrasted with nadir, which refers to the point that is vertically downward from the observer (imagine a line going through the Earth from the observer's feet and out the other side into the sky). Figuratively, nadir simply means "the lowest point."
I took this definition and applied it to the context of a Pokémon Showdown ladder. "Reaching the Zenith" means reaching the pinnacle of the ladder. It means crushing the ladder by making it to the top. I didn't consider an elo peak alone to be enough for this definition. I considered the "Zenith" of a Pokémon Showdown ladder to be the peak elo and GXE simultaneously, aligned together like the stars would. This only really works for newer ladders and ladders that aren't extremely big as keeping track of GXE becomes impossible otherwise. Therefore this interpretation is exclusively off what I see for the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder and my own capabilities on it.
For this RMT, I will be referring to the achievement I've made with Whatever It Takes as "Reaching the Zenith", as I was on top of the ladder with the highest GXE in the metagame at the time.
Tryharding to reach the zenith again is nice and all but to be honest my reasoning and motivation for doing so was kinda petty.
Truth be told, I was never fully satisfied with the Whatever It Takes RMT and the accomplishment behind it. There was something that constantly bothered me about the team I first accomplished reaching the zenith in. I went through multiple phases in my mind trying to suppress it for several months through rational thinking, which worked from time to time, but my discontent still ended up re-emerging to keep pestering me. It was something I felt regret about. I was proud to have reached the zenith on ladder and make its first 90 GXE, but what I regretted was how it was done.
You see, Audino is my favorite Pokémon of all time. It is also a Pokémon who has been there for much of my story involving the Pokémon community and all of my biggest accomplishments on Pokémon Showdown, Smogon, and Pokémon in general, including the rest of my most important RMT posts (Cats and Rabbits, Hopes and Dreams, Hopes and Dreams 2, Natural 2). Another thing to note is that Audino, in its Mega Evolution forme, is incredibly good in my favorite metagames, serving as one of the best Wonder Guard Pokémon in Generation 6 Pure Hackmons and the single best Wonder Guard Pokémon in Generation 7 Pure Hackmons. This is especially critical as Wonder Guard is the primary thing that keeps Gens 6 and 7 Pure Hackmons competitively playable.
Outside Hackmons, pure and balanced, Audino has always been seen as a punching bag for EXP farmers in official Pokémon games and is otherwise seen as a laughing stock. Even I thought this was a joke Pokémon back when I was a kid. Audino's Mega Evolution didn't help either, as it was given the worst of its base forme's abilities instead of the best, leading to Mega Audino becoming much worse in competitive gameplay than it otherwise would have been among legitimate Pokémon. Mega Audino received lots of hate off its ability while I initially just saw the Mega Evolution as an extension of a joke Pokémon. I saw Mega Audino as a classic move from the game developers to give the joke Pokémon a Mega Evolution, fully expecting there to be no way Mega Audino was ever going to be good in battle. This was until people started running it seriously in the ORAS Classic Hackmons OM of The Month ladder and I decided to give Mega Audino a shot. Before running Mega Audino, I had just lost a 20-0 ladder streak to perfect coverage Primal Groudon and had long been running Arceus and Xerneas as my primary Wonder Guards far prior. I figured bringing a new bulky Normal-type AND Fairy-type Wonder Guard into the pool of Pokémon I often used could make for a change of pace. From there, I built what I consider to be my first ever fully serious team with Mega Audino. Mega Audino ended up being fascinating, being a strong part of the team that helped me top a Hackmons ladder for the very first time ever. I didn't like the team for a while due to the experiences I've had with it (not involving the team's quality or any of the Pokémon). I warmed up to the team over time and especially appreciated Mega Audino's presence in it. This Pokémon was proving me wrong. Turns out there is a place for it.
Years went by without much going on for Hackmons until mid 2018, when I was given the opportunity to bring Gen 7 Pure Hackmons to life. Mega Audino continued to be great there, leaving me impressed. Months following the launch of Gen 7 Pure Hackmons discussion on Smogon, I noticed development for a metagame called Super Staff Bros Brawl was being made. This metagame was based on the the main video game of my childhood and the one I played the most throughout my time growing up, Super Smash Bros Brawl. The concept involved having staff members on Pokémon Showdown create a set of their own in order to battle all the other Pokémon sets Pokémon Showdown staff members made for themselves. It was a fun way to celebrate those who committed time to serving as Pokémon Showdown staff. Any Pokémon Showdown Global Staff member, public Room Owner, Quality Control staff, or Programmer for the metagame could submit a set for themselves. I was neither of these at the time, but due to drastic circumstances that were going on in the communities I was contributing to at the time, I figured out on my own that being eligible to enter a set for Super Staff Bros Brawl was a matter of when and not a matter of if. I knew that being able to enter into Super Staff Bros Brawl was inevitable at this point. Let's just say that. With this in mind, I decided to build a draft for a Super Staff Bros Brawl set very early and keep it saved outside Smogon until I was able to use it.
As for the Super Staff Bros Brawl set I was making, I only had one goal. My goal was to build a set that would represent Pure Hackmons without being too broken for Super Staff Bros Brawl. My first thought was to use Wonder Guard since it was the flagship ability of Pure Hackmons. My idea was to give it to Tyranitar since it had a significant amount of weaknesses. I then felt this would be risky as the chances it would get rejected by the Super Staff Bros Brawl Quality Control staff were high and Tyranitar had no significance in Pure Hackmons either way. I was also worried a Wonder Guard Tyranitar would otherwise be bad for having so many weaknesses. After some thinking, I decided to design a set based on Huge Power, another ability defining Pure Hackmons, instead. When thinking about what Pokémon to make a Huge Power set on for Super Staff Bros Brawl, I quickly considered there would be no better choice than Mega Audino. Mega Audino had been a definitive and unique presence in Pure Hackmons since the forme's inception and could easily run Huge Power without being too broken for Super Staff Bros Brawl. I insisted to myself that there was no better choice to have as my Pokémon for Super Staff Bros Brawl than Mega Audino. It felt a little odd since I wasn't really used to choosing more feminine Pokémon for personal matters like this, but I realized I did not care. As long as it accomplished what I wanted.
After saving the draft, I spent several months reflecting on my decision to make sure Mega Audino was what I wanted as my Super Staff Bros Brawl Pokémon. Within those months, I became a Room Owner of the Other Metas room and a Global Staff member on Pokémon Showdown. Being able to submit a set for Super Staff Bros Brawl was still a matter of time as the metagame finished its initial stage of development and the Super Staff Bros Brawl Quality Control staff were waiting for a period of time before re-opening the submissions process. This gave me a lot more time to think and reconsider when possible... except not once have I reconsidered. I kept being set on Mega Audino and no other Pokémon to be my Super Staff Bros Brawl Pokémon. The thinking only ever led to me finding more and more reasons to like the Pokémon, such as reflecting back to when Mega Audino was a huge part of the team I used to I top the Hackmons ladder for the very first time and how Audino advanced so significantly as a Pokémon after I thought of it as a joke. I had an Arceus avatar planned to use as my Custom Avatar if I ever got Pokémon Showdown Global Staff, but for my firm decision to have Mega Audino as my Super Staff Bros Brawl Pokémon and all of the reasons I've kept finding, I decided to have Mega Audino be in my first custom avatar on Pokémon Showdown instead.
About a month and a half after receiving my first custom avatar, I would go on to make Cats and Rabbits. Cats and Rabbits was a team I assembled together in order to test Magearna, which then created a mostly unintentional theme of having just cat and rabbit Pokémon, including Mega Audino. After lots of testing, I ended up really liking the team and thought I should make a large post about it somewhere. I was also about to make 1500 posts on Smogon and as far as I knew, there had never been a Pure Hackmons RMT on Smogon before. I decided to use these factors as an opportunity to make Cats and Rabbits into Smogon's very first Pure Hackmons RMT. Around the time this was happening, I was finally able to submit my Super Staff Bros Brawl set and have myself be implemented in the metagame as Mega Audino, representing Pure Hackmons without being too broken.
Within the timeframe of my Super Staff Bros Brawl Pokémon getting released and the launch of the first Pure Hackmons RMT on Smogon, I noticed a thread about sharing your favorite teams of all time was made in the Ruins of Alph subforum. I was the first person to react to it and I ended up using the thread as an opportunity to look back at my old teams. The team I used to top Hackmons ladder for the first time had once again caught my attention. All the sudden, I had future plans. I now had plans to write an RMT for that team in the future, which was previously unnamed but would turn out to be Hopes and Dreams.
I got to thinking even more, piecing together a couple realizations. Mega Audino was a Pokémon I took with me to the top of the Hackmons ladder for the first time; it was the Pokémon I decided to choose as my Super Staff Bros Brawl character; I had just written the first Pure Hackmons RMT on Smogon, which Mega Audino just happened to be in, and I was already making future plans to make another RMT with Mega Audino in it. All the sudden I realized that not only had Audino made significant impact on my journey in Pokémon Showdown and Smogon, but that this was not stopping anytime soon. I've then realized one more thing... all throughout my childhood before I got into Pokémon Showdown and before Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out, I only saw Audino as a Unova punching bag; the Magikarp of Unova; a joke Pokémon designed to be one of the weakest ever and not be taken seriously; then a joke of a Mega Evolution when ORAS came out. I, someone who usually only played OM formats, even decided to play OU games specifically to use Mega Audino when ORAS OU came out just because I thought it was that hilarious that Mega Audino started out in OU. You see, we all know Audino as a Pokémon you could consider to be in absolute need of modifications in order to be good in battle. Not even the Mega Evolution could save Audino from being terrible in standard formats, as Mega Audino was given a terrible ability and became a laughing stock off that. However, when given the chance in Pure Hackmons, given the modifications, the hacking done to make the Pokémon as great as it could possibly be, Audino, through its Mega forme, proves me wrong and becomes one of the greatest Wonder Guard Pokémon of all time. It utilizes the very ability responsible for defining Pure Hackmons and holding the metagame together like glue more masterfully than almost any other Pokémon across all generations it's present in up till now. Mega Audino even handles Wonder Guard more masterfully than ALL other Pokémon in Generation 7 Pure Hackmons, the main metagame I played and led its resources for at the time! Mega Audino became one of the best Pokémon available to use in Pure Hackmons and in a way that's not only arguably better, but more important than what Regigigas and Slaking could pull off. With those thoughts in mind, I've considered Audino to be the perfect representation of Hackmons. Audino is a Pokémon who, across high-power formats, uniquely shines in Hackmons. With Hackmons, Audino goes from being a jester of battle to being one of the best Pokémon available and one of the most important Pokémon in Pure Hackmons history. Upon this and all the other aforementioned realizations, it was at this moment, on May 27th 2019, that I officially decided for Audino to be my favorite Pokémon. At the same time, I've realized I made an amazing discovery I must write about somewhere. Anywhere! I was not sure where and it took a while for me to figure that out! Because of Audino, I have figured out the philosophy behind the concept of Pure Hackmons and wanted to share it with everyone! This is directly what inspired the What Is Hackmons? article released on July 2021, during my 7th anniversary on Smogon.
I had actually not even recognized Mega Audino as the best Wonder Guard Pokémon in Gen 7 Pure Hackmons until a while after choosing Audino as my favorite Pokémon. I only recognized Mega Audino as a really great Wonder Guard Pokémon worthy of being considered the best representation of Hackmons. After months of having Audino in the top spot, I ended up finding myself slapping Mega Audino on a suspiciously high amount of Gen 7 Pure Hackmons teams without much conscious thought. I took it upon myself investigate why I was doing this, because it was actually not out of bias of Audino being my favorite Pokémon. I just wanted good teams. I eventually realized my behavior in doing this was because Mega Audino is lowkey cracked in a way no other Wonder Guard Pokémon in the metagame could match and having any Wonder Guard Pokémon was always very important. Mega Audino was one of the most splashable Pokémon in the metagame. There was no escape from the rabbit.
Since then, I've gone on to achieve many things with Audino. It was the Pokémon I used to represent myself when I was OM Leader on Smogon and Administrator on Pokémon Showdown, it was the primary Pokémon that was with me to complete the National Pokédex all the way up to 905 during Gen 8, it was a Pokémon I miraculously got the rare Epic Trait variant of in Pokémon Rumble World, which allowed the Audino to overcome the main story when none of my other Pokémon could, including Arceus and Mewtwo, as well as fight to overcome Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon in World Championship X, the final challenge of Pokémon Rumble World's postgame and what I personally consider to be one of the most difficult battles in all of Pokémon. Audino also became a part of all the best runs I've ever had in mainline Pokémon games, including an Omega Ruby run where I set up my own group of boss fights, later expanded to play in Ultra Moon's postgame and an Ultimate Adventure I made in Pokémon Ultra Moon which consisted of me battling a group of boss teams made to celebrate my accomplishments with Pokémon. Some of those other accomplishments also involved having topped the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder with Mega Audino and Mega Audino being involved in some of the teams I used to make the first 90 GXE of the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder, eventually reaching the zenith for the first time.
For any additional information, refer to this post I've made four years ago. It's mostly niche stuff remaining.
Outside Hackmons, pure and balanced, Audino has always been seen as a punching bag for EXP farmers in official Pokémon games and is otherwise seen as a laughing stock. Even I thought this was a joke Pokémon back when I was a kid. Audino's Mega Evolution didn't help either, as it was given the worst of its base forme's abilities instead of the best, leading to Mega Audino becoming much worse in competitive gameplay than it otherwise would have been among legitimate Pokémon. Mega Audino received lots of hate off its ability while I initially just saw the Mega Evolution as an extension of a joke Pokémon. I saw Mega Audino as a classic move from the game developers to give the joke Pokémon a Mega Evolution, fully expecting there to be no way Mega Audino was ever going to be good in battle. This was until people started running it seriously in the ORAS Classic Hackmons OM of The Month ladder and I decided to give Mega Audino a shot. Before running Mega Audino, I had just lost a 20-0 ladder streak to perfect coverage Primal Groudon and had long been running Arceus and Xerneas as my primary Wonder Guards far prior. I figured bringing a new bulky Normal-type AND Fairy-type Wonder Guard into the pool of Pokémon I often used could make for a change of pace. From there, I built what I consider to be my first ever fully serious team with Mega Audino. Mega Audino ended up being fascinating, being a strong part of the team that helped me top a Hackmons ladder for the very first time ever. I didn't like the team for a while due to the experiences I've had with it (not involving the team's quality or any of the Pokémon). I warmed up to the team over time and especially appreciated Mega Audino's presence in it. This Pokémon was proving me wrong. Turns out there is a place for it.
Years went by without much going on for Hackmons until mid 2018, when I was given the opportunity to bring Gen 7 Pure Hackmons to life. Mega Audino continued to be great there, leaving me impressed. Months following the launch of Gen 7 Pure Hackmons discussion on Smogon, I noticed development for a metagame called Super Staff Bros Brawl was being made. This metagame was based on the the main video game of my childhood and the one I played the most throughout my time growing up, Super Smash Bros Brawl. The concept involved having staff members on Pokémon Showdown create a set of their own in order to battle all the other Pokémon sets Pokémon Showdown staff members made for themselves. It was a fun way to celebrate those who committed time to serving as Pokémon Showdown staff. Any Pokémon Showdown Global Staff member, public Room Owner, Quality Control staff, or Programmer for the metagame could submit a set for themselves. I was neither of these at the time, but due to drastic circumstances that were going on in the communities I was contributing to at the time, I figured out on my own that being eligible to enter a set for Super Staff Bros Brawl was a matter of when and not a matter of if. I knew that being able to enter into Super Staff Bros Brawl was inevitable at this point. Let's just say that. With this in mind, I decided to build a draft for a Super Staff Bros Brawl set very early and keep it saved outside Smogon until I was able to use it.
As for the Super Staff Bros Brawl set I was making, I only had one goal. My goal was to build a set that would represent Pure Hackmons without being too broken for Super Staff Bros Brawl. My first thought was to use Wonder Guard since it was the flagship ability of Pure Hackmons. My idea was to give it to Tyranitar since it had a significant amount of weaknesses. I then felt this would be risky as the chances it would get rejected by the Super Staff Bros Brawl Quality Control staff were high and Tyranitar had no significance in Pure Hackmons either way. I was also worried a Wonder Guard Tyranitar would otherwise be bad for having so many weaknesses. After some thinking, I decided to design a set based on Huge Power, another ability defining Pure Hackmons, instead. When thinking about what Pokémon to make a Huge Power set on for Super Staff Bros Brawl, I quickly considered there would be no better choice than Mega Audino. Mega Audino had been a definitive and unique presence in Pure Hackmons since the forme's inception and could easily run Huge Power without being too broken for Super Staff Bros Brawl. I insisted to myself that there was no better choice to have as my Pokémon for Super Staff Bros Brawl than Mega Audino. It felt a little odd since I wasn't really used to choosing more feminine Pokémon for personal matters like this, but I realized I did not care. As long as it accomplished what I wanted.
After saving the draft, I spent several months reflecting on my decision to make sure Mega Audino was what I wanted as my Super Staff Bros Brawl Pokémon. Within those months, I became a Room Owner of the Other Metas room and a Global Staff member on Pokémon Showdown. Being able to submit a set for Super Staff Bros Brawl was still a matter of time as the metagame finished its initial stage of development and the Super Staff Bros Brawl Quality Control staff were waiting for a period of time before re-opening the submissions process. This gave me a lot more time to think and reconsider when possible... except not once have I reconsidered. I kept being set on Mega Audino and no other Pokémon to be my Super Staff Bros Brawl Pokémon. The thinking only ever led to me finding more and more reasons to like the Pokémon, such as reflecting back to when Mega Audino was a huge part of the team I used to I top the Hackmons ladder for the very first time and how Audino advanced so significantly as a Pokémon after I thought of it as a joke. I had an Arceus avatar planned to use as my Custom Avatar if I ever got Pokémon Showdown Global Staff, but for my firm decision to have Mega Audino as my Super Staff Bros Brawl Pokémon and all of the reasons I've kept finding, I decided to have Mega Audino be in my first custom avatar on Pokémon Showdown instead.
About a month and a half after receiving my first custom avatar, I would go on to make Cats and Rabbits. Cats and Rabbits was a team I assembled together in order to test Magearna, which then created a mostly unintentional theme of having just cat and rabbit Pokémon, including Mega Audino. After lots of testing, I ended up really liking the team and thought I should make a large post about it somewhere. I was also about to make 1500 posts on Smogon and as far as I knew, there had never been a Pure Hackmons RMT on Smogon before. I decided to use these factors as an opportunity to make Cats and Rabbits into Smogon's very first Pure Hackmons RMT. Around the time this was happening, I was finally able to submit my Super Staff Bros Brawl set and have myself be implemented in the metagame as Mega Audino, representing Pure Hackmons without being too broken.
Within the timeframe of my Super Staff Bros Brawl Pokémon getting released and the launch of the first Pure Hackmons RMT on Smogon, I noticed a thread about sharing your favorite teams of all time was made in the Ruins of Alph subforum. I was the first person to react to it and I ended up using the thread as an opportunity to look back at my old teams. The team I used to top Hackmons ladder for the first time had once again caught my attention. All the sudden, I had future plans. I now had plans to write an RMT for that team in the future, which was previously unnamed but would turn out to be Hopes and Dreams.
I got to thinking even more, piecing together a couple realizations. Mega Audino was a Pokémon I took with me to the top of the Hackmons ladder for the first time; it was the Pokémon I decided to choose as my Super Staff Bros Brawl character; I had just written the first Pure Hackmons RMT on Smogon, which Mega Audino just happened to be in, and I was already making future plans to make another RMT with Mega Audino in it. All the sudden I realized that not only had Audino made significant impact on my journey in Pokémon Showdown and Smogon, but that this was not stopping anytime soon. I've then realized one more thing... all throughout my childhood before I got into Pokémon Showdown and before Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out, I only saw Audino as a Unova punching bag; the Magikarp of Unova; a joke Pokémon designed to be one of the weakest ever and not be taken seriously; then a joke of a Mega Evolution when ORAS came out. I, someone who usually only played OM formats, even decided to play OU games specifically to use Mega Audino when ORAS OU came out just because I thought it was that hilarious that Mega Audino started out in OU. You see, we all know Audino as a Pokémon you could consider to be in absolute need of modifications in order to be good in battle. Not even the Mega Evolution could save Audino from being terrible in standard formats, as Mega Audino was given a terrible ability and became a laughing stock off that. However, when given the chance in Pure Hackmons, given the modifications, the hacking done to make the Pokémon as great as it could possibly be, Audino, through its Mega forme, proves me wrong and becomes one of the greatest Wonder Guard Pokémon of all time. It utilizes the very ability responsible for defining Pure Hackmons and holding the metagame together like glue more masterfully than almost any other Pokémon across all generations it's present in up till now. Mega Audino even handles Wonder Guard more masterfully than ALL other Pokémon in Generation 7 Pure Hackmons, the main metagame I played and led its resources for at the time! Mega Audino became one of the best Pokémon available to use in Pure Hackmons and in a way that's not only arguably better, but more important than what Regigigas and Slaking could pull off. With those thoughts in mind, I've considered Audino to be the perfect representation of Hackmons. Audino is a Pokémon who, across high-power formats, uniquely shines in Hackmons. With Hackmons, Audino goes from being a jester of battle to being one of the best Pokémon available and one of the most important Pokémon in Pure Hackmons history. Upon this and all the other aforementioned realizations, it was at this moment, on May 27th 2019, that I officially decided for Audino to be my favorite Pokémon. At the same time, I've realized I made an amazing discovery I must write about somewhere. Anywhere! I was not sure where and it took a while for me to figure that out! Because of Audino, I have figured out the philosophy behind the concept of Pure Hackmons and wanted to share it with everyone! This is directly what inspired the What Is Hackmons? article released on July 2021, during my 7th anniversary on Smogon.
I had actually not even recognized Mega Audino as the best Wonder Guard Pokémon in Gen 7 Pure Hackmons until a while after choosing Audino as my favorite Pokémon. I only recognized Mega Audino as a really great Wonder Guard Pokémon worthy of being considered the best representation of Hackmons. After months of having Audino in the top spot, I ended up finding myself slapping Mega Audino on a suspiciously high amount of Gen 7 Pure Hackmons teams without much conscious thought. I took it upon myself investigate why I was doing this, because it was actually not out of bias of Audino being my favorite Pokémon. I just wanted good teams. I eventually realized my behavior in doing this was because Mega Audino is lowkey cracked in a way no other Wonder Guard Pokémon in the metagame could match and having any Wonder Guard Pokémon was always very important. Mega Audino was one of the most splashable Pokémon in the metagame. There was no escape from the rabbit.
Since then, I've gone on to achieve many things with Audino. It was the Pokémon I used to represent myself when I was OM Leader on Smogon and Administrator on Pokémon Showdown, it was the primary Pokémon that was with me to complete the National Pokédex all the way up to 905 during Gen 8, it was a Pokémon I miraculously got the rare Epic Trait variant of in Pokémon Rumble World, which allowed the Audino to overcome the main story when none of my other Pokémon could, including Arceus and Mewtwo, as well as fight to overcome Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon in World Championship X, the final challenge of Pokémon Rumble World's postgame and what I personally consider to be one of the most difficult battles in all of Pokémon. Audino also became a part of all the best runs I've ever had in mainline Pokémon games, including an Omega Ruby run where I set up my own group of boss fights, later expanded to play in Ultra Moon's postgame and an Ultimate Adventure I made in Pokémon Ultra Moon which consisted of me battling a group of boss teams made to celebrate my accomplishments with Pokémon. Some of those other accomplishments also involved having topped the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder with Mega Audino and Mega Audino being involved in some of the teams I used to make the first 90 GXE of the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder, eventually reaching the zenith for the first time.
For any additional information, refer to this post I've made four years ago. It's mostly niche stuff remaining.
Despite Mega Audino being in some of the teams I used to previously reach the zenith on the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder, Mega Audino was not present in the final team I used. It was not in the final match I had to play in order to reach it. I know this sounds silly, but no matter what I did, the thought of not having used Mega Audino in that final match kept lingering in my mind as something to regret.
I regretted not using Mega Audino in that battle when it could have been used. I've been through virtually everything with the Pokémon and it was certainly great enough in Gen 7 Pure Hackmons to justify always using in this position, so it felt odd that Mega Audino was not there for the 90 GXE peak accomplishment. It was there to celebrate my achievement and there to help me make it that far in the first place, but it not being in that final match kept bothering me.
I thought there was not much I could do about this because after I made the first 90 GXE on the ladder, arkeis became active on ladder again and skyrocketed his way up to 94, 95, then eventually 96 GXE! I felt there was no way I could realistically reach 95+ GXE on the ladder, at least within a reasonable timeframe. For a while I knew if I tried, I could reach 93 or 94 GXE no big deal (and I was very confident in this considering what I felt it took to be able to reach first 90 GXE in the meatagame). Despite this, I still felt 95+ GXE was gonna be a reach, especially when I don't prefer actively fishing for mid/low ladder players and instead just laddering whenever, risking a higher chance of battling other players who could really compete with me. No one else even had 94+ GXE aside from one occasion where TheCreatorOfBullsht made it that far with one of their accounts.
This screenshot was taken on September 2024.
Almost a month after the screenshot above was taken, I was hit with a revelation. arkeis suddenly tilted on the ladder. He tilted really hard, losing over 100 elo and multiple full points of GXE within a very short duration of time. It appeared he was actively running a team that wasn't doing so well against the ladder and kept insisting on using it regardless. As arkeis's GXE reached below 95%, I became stunned at first, but then realized something big. I realized this was my opportunity to strike and make things right!
I decided I was going Zenith Mode. This meant I was aiming all the way back up the top, going all the way back up to the highest elo and GXE simultaneously in the metagame again, reaching the zenith, but with Audino fully involved this time. I learned enough about the metagame's ladder to the point of immediately figuring out the type of team composition I wanted and the type I needed to make it up there. I swiftly built a team, mixing in my favorite Pokémon with Pokémon who are great at the Pure Hackmons metagame. This ensured my run on Zenith Mode would be something I could not regret!
Teambuilding Process
Audino.
/ 
I was giving into Karen's philosophy and mixing it with the Gentleman's in ORAS, who opposes her view. My goal was to mix in my favorites with Pokémon that can win battles. This metagame lets me do this. It's one of the biggest reasons why Gen 7 Pure Hackmons is my favorite metagame. Fortunately for me, Chansey and Blissey are some of my favorite Pokémon and are the most viable in Gen 7 Pure Hackmons. I thought about whether to use Innards Out or Imposter, but decided I would rather have the ability to use any Pokémon in battle since it was more fun and more representing what I desired for this team. Imposter is really cool because using it is like using any Pokémon in the game, but set to the level of a boss fight. I wanted a team I could be proud of and enjoy having every member present in it. I ran Eviolite Chansey at first but decided to give my Imposter Pokémon a Choice Scarf halfway through my ladder session after losing a game to a bad matchup. The Choice Scarf would help patch my team's weaknesses. While replacing Eviolite with Choice Scarf, Chansey decided to evolve due to high friendship and I wasn't hitting down the B button so... now I have Blissey!
This team was gonna have Mega Mewtwo X. Period. The Mega Mewtwo X was to have an overwhelming moveset with moves to answer nearly anything, including Mega Slowbro and opposing Zygarde-Complete. I needed an imposterproof for the job. I looked no further than Doublade, the best Mega Mewtwo X check in the metagame and a Pokémon I went out of my way to promote in the previous months of the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder. Doublade proudly makes its return to being part of my teams and is not holding back its potential! By coincidence, this became reminiscent to when I built Aegislash to be part of the very first Hackmons team I ever used on Pokémon Showdown.
One of the game's greatest godsends. An all-out attacker feared by all who tread this metagame. Mega Mewtwo X! If I wanted to reach the zenith, I needed significant power and coverage, because I'm not a stall player. Mega Mewtwo X has almost always been there to carry my Hackmons teams since the days of Pokémon X and Y. Using Mega Mewtwo X? I was not taking no for an answer. This Pokémon originally ran Spooky Plate Judgment for Zenith Mode but had this replaced with Choice Band First Impression around the same time Chansey evolved.
Huge Power FakeSpeed has always been a huge godsend for the ladder. It's even how arkeis got as far as he did. This set has helped me a ton with reaching my previous peak. If I was getting serious, I knew running Huge Power FakeSpeed was the route to go. I considered Regigigas at first, as I instinctually pick Regigigas for FakeSpeed sets more often than not, but I chose not to use Regigigas this time. You see, Slaking made it through a large chunk of my experience with Hackmons, from being in my teams back in Gen 5 when I was playing Hackmons on the Pokémon Black cartridge with my friends irl, to directly being a part of the first Hackmons team I ever used on Pokémon Showdown. It was there for me in the beginning and was even there for one of my biggest moments on Pokémon Showdown, as I was apparently running it on a Gen 3 Pure Hackmons team the moment I got promoted to Pokémon Showdown Administrator in 2020! I've determined I needed to carry Slaking here. This slot was either gonna be a Slaking or Regigigas regardless either way, but Slaking meant more to me as a Pokémon.
Were you surprised? No? Good. If you know me, or if you've just seen my previous RMTs, you'd know dang well I was NOT doing this without Zygarde-Complete! Zygarde not only carries at being one of the best Pokémon of all time, but making teams CONSISTENT at a rate I'd argue is higher than any other Pokémon in the metagame! It's even consistently been one of the biggest contributors to all of my major ladder peaks on the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder, if not even outright the single biggest contributor. All those peaks had Zygarde sets I've invented too! Chansey/Blissey's biggest niche involves scouting, revenging, and/or being able to take down any one Pokémon of choice. Scouting is super important and Chansey/Blissey can fit on a wider variety of teams than Zygarde-Complete or Mega Mewtwo X. Mega Mewtwo X's biggest niche involves heavily breaking teams and cleaning games. Zygarde's biggest niche involves this thing called: winning. It does this by instantly invalidating 90% of the metagame's Pokémon on sight. Chansey/Blissey show you how to win. Mega Mewtwo X paves the road for you to win. Zygarde just wins. Maybe to put it more accurately, Zygarde helps you not lose. Another thing to note is that almost all the other accounts that've made the highest GXEs on ladder have ran this Pokémon if not just all of them.
Team Description
I'll admit I rushed the building of this team and the changes made throughout my ladder session because I was PUMPED and not patient to play the game. For this reason, not all of these sets are at their most optimal. This team still worked very well regardless as the differences were not enough to hamper my ability to win in any match I played. The sets affected will have a more optimal version of the set given in the importable on the bottom of this post. The sets displayed under the Team Description set are specifically what I used to make this new ladder peak accomplishment.
Audino-Mega (F) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 HP
- Soft-Boiled
- Aromatherapy
- Defog
- U-turn
I had to make things right! Please welcome the star of the show! Audino is the heart of Hackmons and the Pokémon I most adamantly refused to build this team without! Fortunately for me, it's still the best Wonder Guard Pokémon in the metagame! Mega Audino's job is very straightforward. Clear hazards, clear status, recover, and pivot. Wonder Guard blocks OHKO moves and Safety Goggles blocks the many users of Spore this metagame has to offer. This Mega Audino should be Relaxed Nature with minimum Attack and Speed, including EVs and IVs in order to maximize Mega Audino's effectiveness in slow-pivoting with U-Turn and avoid OHKOing a minimum Defense Innards Out Chansey. Aside from that, the +Defense nature is great for potentially eating up more Sunsteel Strike hits or physical hits in general. It can even offer Mega Audino the chance to survive a Sunsteel Strike from many Mega Mewtwo X sets or a Searing Sunraze Smash from Mega Rayquaza and Primal Groudon. It then also has 30 HP IVs in order to take less indirect damage from moves. This includes the likes of hazards and status moves, which are mostly prevalent in Pure Hackmons.
Move Descriptions
Soft-Boiled: One of the many 50% HP recovery moves Mega Audino can feasibly use in the metagame without repercussions. The reason I chose Soft-Boiled over the rest is because it reminds me of Chansey and Blissey, who Mega Audino is teaming up with. Sand is virtually nonexistent in Gen 7 Pure Hackmons, so you're not losing anything off running Shore Up. Actually, you're losing a bit off running it as Shore Up recovery rounds down instead of up, unlike the other 50% HP recovery moves.
Aromatherapy: This move recovers all status effects the team carries. I figured this would be useful in case this team's Mega Mewtwo X or Slaking gets burned.
Defog: Clears hazards like Stealth Rock, Spikes, and Toxic Spikes, allowing the team to last longer in dire circumstances.
U-Turn: Allows for Mega Audino to pivot into a teammate while being able to break Focus Sashes and chip Innards Out Pokémon. Thanks to Mega Audino's low speed, it also uses this move to build momentum by usually moving after the opponent. This was formerly Parting Shot, but I ran into a bad matchup on ladder that required me to change this move to U-Turn afterwards. I also just find U-Turn more useful overall.
)Blissey (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlwind
- Recover
- Spikes
- Parting Shot
Originally a Chansey, I decided to let this Pokémon evolve to Blissey midway through laddering when given the opportunity to, just because I liked both and wanted both to be represented. Blissey's role is to serve as the an Imposter Pokémon with the highest HP in the metagame. The extra HP points could help Blissey win a fight against Innards Out Chansey, which actually did matter in the very last match I had to boot up in order to once again reach the zenith. Imposter is extremely useful for scouting the opponent's sets, revenge-killing threatening Pokémon, sweeping, or otherwise sneaking in surprise knockouts by invalidating speed-ties with Choice Scarf. To my surprise, this still worked with Blissey instead of just Chansey. Having the Imposter ability means this Blissey will almost always not use its own moves or raw stats aside from HP, but Blissey was still given a full set just in case it's unable to transform into the target. Bold Nature helps maximize Blissey's Defense, as that's what any Blissey needs most. Lastly, as aforementioned, Choice Scarf allows Imposter Blissey to invalidate speed ties.
Move Descriptions
Whirlwind: If Blissey is unable to transform, chances are it's because the opponent is behind a Substitute. Whirlwind phazes the opposing Pokémon out and removes their Substitute, allowing for Blissey to transform on the next switch-in.
Recover: One of the many 50% HP recovery moves Blissey can feasibly use in the metagame without repercussions. The reason I chose Recover over the rest is because it reminds me of Mega Audino, who I often give this move to and who Blissey is teaming up with.
Spikes: Could work as an extra support move to further chip opponents on every switch-in they make.
Parting Shot: This move helps Blissey pivot to another Pokémon while lowering the opposing Pokémon's offenses. It can even be particularly useful against bulky Shadow Tag users thanks to the speed on this specific Blissey.
Doublade (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Recover
- Spectral Thief
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
Doublade is the premier hazard setter and imposterproof needed for this team's Mega Mewtwo X and Slaking. I could not reasonably fit a second Wonder Guard in with the team composition I had but still needed a second OHKO move blocker if I wanted to make it very far. The one FakeSpeed Slaking on this team can only go so far when opposing No Guard Pokémon are being paired with Innards Out Chansey. I've determined Doublade would probably still be great at the job I designed it to do without the need of a specific ability. With this in mind, I figured that maybe I could try out Sturdy Doublade for the first time and hope it works. Turns out, this Pokémon is GREAT! I was actually very impressed with what it was able to do. Not only does Doublade effectively block No Guard OHKO moves, even surprising opponents believing this Pokémon could not possibly block them. Doublade can do this while still being great at tanking most physical hits in the game and harshly punishing this metagame's biggest threats! This set runs Impish Nature in order to maximize Defense, but should run Relaxed Nature along with minimum Speed EVs and IVs for the most effective slow-pivoting. Doublade unfortunately, is also tied to exclusively running Eviolite. It can't realistically run any other item. The Defense and Special Defense boosts are too valuable for this Pokémon.
Move Descriptions
Recover: One of the many 50% HP recovery moves Doublade can feasibly use in the metagame without repercussions. I usually default to this recovery move unless I'm faced under certain conditions like the metagame's environment or the Pokémon I'm using. This move also helps PP stall Imposter Chansey or Blissey out of Sunsteel Strike when they're transformed into Slaking.
Spectral Thief: This move steals the target's stat boosts for whenever they have them either through already having the boosts or the opponent trying to set up in front of this Pokémon. It also does great chip against most attacking Pokémon and confidently 2HKOs opposing Mega Mewtwo X at +0 stat boost.
Stealth Rock: Sets up hazards for the team, helping this team's Mega Mewtwo X and Slaking out, as well as punishing the opponent's switch-ins.
U-Turn: Largely the same case as with Mega Audino. This was formerly Parting Shot, but I decided to switch to U-Turn instead because I deemed breaking as many Focus Sashes as possible to be more important than lowering the offense stats of opposing Pokémon. Especially when this team's walls were still doing great regardless. U-Turn allows for Doublade to slow-pivot into another teammate. I can play around Wonder Guards blocking this move by moving slower than them, since they're likely to pivot out anyway, or making calculated switch-ins when they're favorable.
Mewtwo-Mega-X @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Photon Geyser
- Sunsteel Strike
- Close Combat
- First Impression
Choice Band Mega Mewtwo X is back, better than ever before! Mega Mewtwo X only has one job, break. It was given everything it could to do its job effectively. It has Huge Power to double its raw attack, Choice Band to rack up even more damage, and Naughty nature to maximize its damage output. It should run Adamant instead to not sacrifice any important stat it is using but this Mega Mewtwo X originally ran Spooky Plate Judgment instead of Choice Band and I forgot to change its Nature when I gave the Mega Mewtwo X a Choice Band instead. Being Naughty Nature doesn't really affect this Mega Mewtwo X negatively in like 99.9% of circumstances but there may be an extremely small off-chance this team finds a match where Adamant could've won otherwise. This Mega Mewtwo X is carrying maximum EVs and IVs for each stat because it's optimal and mostly harmless, but I more recently came up with the idea of a nasty Baby-Doll Eyes Mega Audino set. I would advise minimizing Mega Mewtwo X's Special Attack EVs and IVs when they aren't being put to use in case Baby-Doll Eyes ever becomes a thing in the metagame. Mega Mewtwo X likes either hardswitching in front of vulnerable walls or being pivoted into by a defensive support Pokémon. From there, it carries huge momentum, as there's hardly anything switching into it let alone taking it well. If this Mega Mewtwo X isn't against opposing Doublade, it's probably fine. Outside that its biggest weaknesses are Imposter, which I use this team's own Doublade to cover for, and Shadow Tag Pokémon who could take advantage of Mega Mewtwo X getting locked into a move in order to revenge kill.
Move Descriptions
Photon Geyser: Mega Mewtwo X's main STAB move. It'll be using this to bust through most threats in the metagame with ease thanks to Choice Band. This should be the go-to move to use unless you're trying to make predicts, hit something super effectively, or revenge kill something.
Sunsteel Strike: Sunsteel Strike is the best overall attack move in the metagame. It lets Mega Mewtwo X deal with a plethora of things without having to deal with switch-ins being immune. Works very well especially when this Mega Mewtwo X is Choice Band. You can really just use Sunsteel Strike a lot of the time without much of an issue. This move also works really well against opposing Alolan Muk specifically, who blocks this Mega Mewtwo X's other moves.
Close Combat: This is Mega Mewtwo X's strongest STAB move. It nukes Steel-type Pokémon such as Mega Steelix, Solgaleo, Necrozma Dusk Mane, and Kartana, who may otherwise survive Mega Mewtwo X's other moves. Choice Band Close Combat also OHKOs Zygarde-Complete after a bit of chipping and otherwise serves a small chance of outright OHKOing from 100% HP. Low Kick is an alternative that can be used here but I prefer Close Combat for more consistent damage output, which may matter especially if the Mega Mewtwo X's Choice Band gets removed.
First Impression: Priority move given use for revenge killing offense threats with low HP or to use against Psychic-type Pokémon such as Mega Slowbro, Mega Mewtwo Y, Meloetta, Deoxys-Attack, and Deoxys-Speed. After their Focus Sash is broken (unless they don't have a Focus Sash), Choice Band Huge Power Mega Mewtwo X can easily clear all of these Pokémon with First Impression.
Slaking (M) @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Extreme Speed
- Sunsteel Strike
- Extreme Evoboost
Huge Power FakeSpeed is super good in Pure Hackmons, especially Generation 7. This Slaking can revenge kill most opposing Pokémon as long as they don't have some sort of major Defense boost. I decided to turn this set into a potential sweeper as well, resulting in me adding Extreme Evoboost and giving this Slaking a Leppa Berry to restore Extreme Evoboost PP. Slaking is Adamant Nature to maximize Attack without sacrificing any stat important to it, Huge Power was given to double Slaking's raw Attack for more consistent damage output, and Slaking carries almost all maximum EVs and IVs due to this being optimal and harmless for the Pokémon. It doesn't have Special Attack EVs due to Pokémon Showdown automatically removing them, but it doesn't need them anyway.
Move Descriptions
Fake Out: Causes the opponent to flinch. It's super good for breaking sashes before coming in for the KO with Extreme Speed. Also for building more momentum overall.
Extreme Speed: Best priority attack move in the game and a super good STAB attack for Huge Power Slaking to revenge kill Pokémon or sweep games with.
Sunsteel Strike: Mold Breaker attack move used primarily to bypass Wonder Guard Pokémon as they would otherwise block the rest of Slaking's attacks.
Extreme Evoboost - Genuinely cracked move that gives the Pokémon an omniboost. I'd argue that for Huge Power users, this is a better move to use than Shell Smash. This is largely for several reasons, being that in many cases, the immediate power you get off Huge Power alone allows the Pokémon to fulfill its main niche as an attacker. Not having stat buffs isn't a major loss to Huge Power Pokémon in most circumstances. The stat-boosting move is just there as an option for Huge Power Pokémon to finalize games more easily when they have the opportunity to. In addition, Unlike Shell Smash, Extreme Evoboost doubles the Defense stat as opposed to reducing it, making the Extreme Evoboost user significantly more difficult if not outright impossible for many opposing Pokémon to revenge kill once they get their stat boosts going. Shell Smash leaves Huge Power Pokémon more vulnerable to getting immediately KOed by a priority attack or any other attack depending on the circumstance. Extreme Evoboost fixes this. Last but not least, you don't need to use this move more than twice to win a game. You have one Extreme Evoboost by default, then a second one from Leppa Berry restoring its PP. As someone who has messed with Huge Power Extreme Evoboost Pokémon many times in this metagame so far, If you wasted both Extreme Evoboost uses, you misused the Pokémon in that battle. This applies to all Huge Power Pokémon with set up moves. With Shell Smash, if you are having to use Shell Smash on a Huge Power Pokémon more than twice in a game chances are your opponent is outplaying you pretty badly in order for you to be forced in this position and you're bound to lose your Huge Power Pokémon soon. Huge Power Pokémon also tend to be faster than the target, allowing Pokémon with high defensive stats to perform extra chip damage to take advantage of defenses lost from Shell Smash. Extreme Evoboost is better in situations where the Huge Power Pokémon can threaten opposing Prankster Haze Pokémon, rendering no other Pokémon able to stop Extreme Evoboost from decimating the game. Priority moves or Ice-type moves are great for this, making the use of Extreme Evoboost more justifiable.
Zygarde-Complete @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Haze
- Thousand Waves
- Heal Order
- Reflect
The MVP of Whatever It Takes is back and with the same set I've invented but with some slight changes. Its job is to stop as many breakers and sweepers as possible, which it can successfully do with the combination of its sheer bulk and the moves it's been given. Just this sheer combination alone single-handedly invalidates an overwhelming majority of the metagame to the point where players are forced to run an Ice-type move, a special Fairy-type move, or time a Z-Move correctly if they want to even dream of overcoming Zygarde-Complete. I love this Pokémon so much. Prankster is mandatory for this set to work effectively, as Haze, Heal Order, and Reflect heavily depend on Zygarde-Complete's ability to move first. Safety Goggles is critical here as it prevents Zygarde-Complete from being put to sleep by most set-up sweepers. Impish Nature helps gives Zygarde-Complete the extra push it needs against opposing Mega Mewtwo X, Imposter transformed into Mega Mewtwo X, and other physical sweepers. Lastly, it's been given maximum EVs on all stats. It could be given 248 EVs on HP instead to minimize any amount of passive damage it could receive, especially since it may often have to step in on Toxic Spikes, Spikes, and Stealth Rock.
Move Descriptions
Haze: This move is essential for clearing the plethora of set-up moves in this metagame, especially when it's up against Shell Smash and Extreme Evoboost. In other words, this move stops you from losing the game.
Thousand Waves: This move allows for Zygarde-Complete to 1v1 offensive threats such as Mega Mewtwo X, Mega Gengar, and non-Wonder Guard Kartana. It also traps Imposter users, forcing them to Struggle and lose the 1v1 against Zygarde-Complete. An easy solution to Imposter is so valuable for this team.
Heal Order: One of the many 50% HP recovery moves Zygarde-Complete can feasibly use in the metagame without repercussions. The reason I chose Heal Order? Well... it's because the name of this move perfectly describes Zygarde's role as a legendary Pokémon. What does Zygarde do? Heal Order. Yes. I chose this move because it fits well into Zygarde's lore and I could get away with it since this Zygarde needs a 50% HP recovery move anyway. I know I know. Huge Ransei move. But guess what? So is Reflect!
Reflect: Even Zygarde-Complete could use the extra Defense support against this metagame's most powerful physical threats. It catches opponents off guard especially if they're trapped by Thousand Waves, allowing Zygarde-Complete to outlast just about all the biggest nukes in the metagame if they don't run an Ice-type move. Zygarde-Complete can even eat up Light That Burns The Sky from non-banded Mega Mewtwo X by having Reflect. Zygarde-Complete can run Will-O-Wisp but I wanted a more consistent approach, as considering the Pokémon Zygarde-Complete has to wall, the 15% miss can be immensely detrimental. Players can easily lose games outright by missing their Will-O-Wisp especially since Zygarde-Complete often wants to halve the damage it's taking when most dire. With Reflect, I can always have double the Defense whenever I need all without sacrificing Prankster. This move can even help teammates take attacks from opposing Pokémon! Zygarde-Complete once again performs Fortnite dances on Mega Mewtwo X and Kartana, but even lets its own teammates do the same by sharing the effects of Reflect with them! This move creates a whole Fortnite dance party!
Checks and Counters
Doublade: This team doesn't have a proper answer to opposing Doublade. I made changes to the team hoping to not encounter Doublade, as it was a relatively rare Pokémon on the ladder. Fortunately, I didn't encounter a single opposing Doublade in this run! If I were to encounter Doublade, this team's only hope would be to attempt pressuring the Doublade with Choice Band Photon Geyser Mega Mewtwo X.
Primal Groudon: A Huge Power Ice Shard or Let's Snuggle Forever Primal Groudon can bust this team apart after it sets up with a stat-boosting move. Slaking can handle the Primal Groudon if the Groudon has Shell Smash over Extreme Evoboost. Blissey could revenge kill or threaten if the opponent lacks any active Imposterproof for Huge Power Primal Groudon. If the Primal Groudon has Extreme Evoboost or even a Choice Band, this team would have a very difficult time winning against it
Wonder Guard Ice Shard Kartana: I don't think this team has a great answer to Wonder Guard Ice Shard Kartana sets. Ice Shard can defeat Zygarde-Complete, Kartana can set up x2 Atk and x2 Speed to OHKO Mega Mewtwo X, and most of this team's Pokémon who can take a hit can't really do anything back. Wonder Guard Kartana also usually run Fire Memory to Imposterproof themselves, making things very difficult for Imposter Blissey. Maybe the play here is to have Doublade force Kartana to set up multiple Shell Smashes then once your Pokémon is KOed, send out Choice Scarf Imposter Blissey to outspeed and OHKO the Wonder Guard Kartana with Sunsteel Strike.
Shadow Tag Pokémon: The majority of teams are gonna be checked by specific Shadow Tag Pokémon with the moves to directly counter them. This team is no exception, as it lacks Shed Shell and doesn't have many Ghost-types. Fighting Shadow Tag Pokémon forces this team to play more cautiously in order to avoid being trapped and destroyed. These Pokémon can easily get an edge over you if you aren't playing cautiously with pivoting moves.
Prankster Taunt Pokémon: I ended up fighting a game where I nearly lost to more than one Prankster Taunt Pokémon in a specific team. Prankster Taunt Pokémon with higher speed than Zygarde-Complete can render this team's Zygarde unable to use Haze or Heal Order when necessary. Taunt also stops Mega Audino and Doublade from being able to make much progress. Your best way around this is to try and play with offense as well as possible with this team's Mega Mewtwo X and Slaking.
Pikachu: I played an unrated match where the opponent brought my own Pikachu team. I won but the Pikachu transformed into my Choice Band Mega Mewtwo X and from there I found out Doublade was not a switch-in for Imposter Light Ball Pikachu. There are definitely ways to mitigate around Pikachu when transformed into Mega Mewtwo X, such as using the Huge Power FakeSpeed Slaking or setting up Reflect with Zygarde-Complete after the Pikachu lands a KO. However after running a few calcs, I discovered that had the Pikachu transformed into this team's Huge Power Slaking instead, there would've been almost no chance of winning the game. The only thing I would be able to do at all is continuously sack Pokémon, send out this team's own Slaking, use Fake Out, and repeat until the Pikachu faints, eventually leaving little room left for this team to do anything. So yes. This team where I topped the ladder and held the highest GXE in the metagame with while using my favorites is seriously weak to a frickin PIKACHU of all things. Honestly? I love that!==========================================================================================================================
Innards Out Chansey: The team as presented above in the RMT is weak to Innards Out Chansey, but with the importable on the bottom fixing Mega Audino's EVs, Innards Out Chansey becomes less of a burden to play around. Innards Out Chansey is a threat because it can choose to take out most Pokémon it wants in the metagame with ease, which could potentially leave a massive dent on this team.Conclusion (P1)
If I were to begin going on Zenith Mode, I needed to figure out what account to activate it on first. I wasn't sure. I thought of going back to Ultra Hackmons, the account I used to make the first 90% GXE on the ladder. This would have been nice since this was my closest alt to the new GXE peak at the time. I then thought it would be best to test the team on a separate account first to 100% make sure my team was ready. I ended up deciding to use my main, Ransei, to test the team. My main account already had 1500 elo but was decayed past the point of being able to show up on the leaderboard. Last time I checked prior to this run, Ransei had around 87 to 88 GXE. I went back to laddering on Ransei and once I made it far enough, I decided to have my main account be the one to tackle this end goal instead of Ultra Hackmons. The thought of bringing my main account up there made this achievement feel more significant to me. Funnily enough the first game on my attempt to use the Ransei account had me use a separate team I also felt confident in, but ended up losing to Comatose Deoxys-Speed and No Guard Deoxys-Speed paired together on the very first battle. This embarrassing loss hurt my account's GXE by several points right at the start of my run. A few games later, I decided to go fully Zenith Mode. I whipped out Zenith Mode and ended up going from late 1400s to 1747 elo undefeated, peaking the ladder and making the highest GXE simultaneously on the ladder. I was laddering as Ultra Hackmons along the way as well, but ended up losing one game on Zenith Mode with it, leading to the aforementioned patches mentioned above.
Replays
Your boy Ransei saved up a lot of replays for this. He's gonna need to sort out which of these were the most relevant. Bear with me. Most of the replays I saved will be shown.
Yo it's your boy Ransei here and it turns out when I add the replays, this post well exceeds the 65,000 character limit. I'm gonna have to make the replays into a second post. My bad.
Conclusion (P2)
In case you weren't able to tell by the tone of my teambuilding process, I built the team knowing exactly what team composition I felt I needed in order to make it back up to the top. All the experiences I've had on the ladder up to that point had shown me the way and I ended up being very confident in being able to easily reach the zenith once arkeis tilted down enough GXE. I was even so confident in this team being the one to make it back up there that I immediately gave it the name "Zenith Mode" from the start, as that's what I was on during this run! I then decided to remove the name midway through laddering until I actually reached the zenith peak again so I wouldn't have to embarrass myself in case I for whatever reason, somehow could not reach that peak. I've intentionally designed this team to be one hell of a beast, knowing its value over the ladder through my experiences. The run itself wasn't very difficult even. Nowhere near as much stress as I had with Whatever It Takes either and I did well in calming myself through the laddering experience as I was still going strong. I even actually went into my screenshots and realized I won 29 matches in a row, from 1475 to 1747 elo in order to make this peak. I went from 133-37 to 162-38. This is the biggest streak I've ever made on the Gen 7 Pure Hackmons ladder so far, yet oddly enough it was starting not from 1000 elo, but 1475. Zenith Mode was used in all games in this run except the first two or so on the Ransei account. The only thing I was most unsure about was how effective a Sturdy Doublade could end up being. The main thing I learned from this run is that, Doublade's an absolute godsend in this game and it took having Sturdy very well when I needed it to wall things. Just the sheer Defense stat and type combination alone was enough to make the Doublade work and I never needed to fix my team composition overall to make up for running Sturdy! I'm proud of this team! I know this was a long RMT, but I just wanted to make it as I felt being able to accomplish this peak with my favorite Pokémon meant a lot to me. Now my grievances have finally ended! Thank you for spending your time reading this post or just reacting to it. I hope it was a great read. Farewell. Until next time...
Importable
Original Ver | Optimized Ver
Click on the image itself to receive the version I officially reached this ladder peak with.
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