Other Metagames [Inheritance]Balance of Dual Psychic

[Chopin Alkaninoff]

Balance of Dual Psychic

​

Introduction: Greetings. I'm Chopin Alkaninoff and I wanna share a team in a metagame called Inheritance. This probably my first time making RMT here, so bear with me. What is Inheritance? Inheritance is a metagame where your pokemon inherits the combination of Ability and Moves from other pokemon. For example, Suicune inheriting from Quagsire, which people mostly used. This means that Suicune can have Quagsire's Ability and Moves, which means it can run Recover and Encore. This makes the metagame has many possibilities and that's the fun of it. Every poke has at least 2-3 viable pokes to inherit from and covering all threats is pretty impossible, so I just make a team and revise it until I have the team with consistent wins.

This team's objective is to use Mega Medicham or Azelf to sweep and wallbreak opposing team. The other teams is to clear hazard, wall and weaken opposing attackers and generally gives momentum for Mega Medicham or Azelf to sweep or wallbreak.


A Little Teambuilding History: At First, I used the Mega Medicham + Hoopa C + Staraptor core, with Chansey, Scarftran and Suicune. It worked well (and I peaked the ladder with it). The core is very good at breaking Stall teams, but eventually struggle against Gengar, Adaptability Terrakion, Landorus T and other strong attackers. Despite having to Extremespeeders (Staraptor + Mega Medicham), none of my pokes have over 100 Speed, so my only hope is to outspeed it with Scarftran or wall it with Suicune or Chansey, which everyone know how to manage. I realized that I need a strong poke with more than 110 Speed. Protean Azelf is the best poke for this criteria. So I switched out Hoopa and put Azelf. The team... performs just as bad because I don't really have wall for Terrakion and Landorus Therian. I changed my Hustle Staraptor to Doublade inheriting Staraptor because I need checks for Landorus T and Terrakion. I no longer use Hustle Staraptor because it's unreliable and I already have an Extremespeeder.

The sets also undergoes changes. At first I use the Transform Chansey set from Mew with Defog, Roost and Stealth Rock, but it's bad because of the passiveness. It's easily Tauntable and statusable. I change it to Mega Sableye set because it's not easily Tauntable and it can cripple Physical Attackers with Will-o-wisp. Suicune is the same Unaware from Quagsire, but because people are starting to use Mold Breaker set up sweepers, I change one of the moves to Encore (I used Toxic before this).

Explanations for each sets: The small icons are what it inherits from.

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Encore
- Safeguard

This is the most common Suicune set in the meta I've seen so far and it's often used for a reason. It's probably the best set up stopper in the meta and it fits in a lot of teams. Scald is for damaging opposing attackers and possibly burn it. Recover is for longevity. Encore is for Mold Breaker set up sweepers that can break Suicune with enough boosts. I sometimes switch between Encore and Haze when laddering because Haze goes through Magic Bounce to prevent Magic Bounce Cresselia with Clam Mind, which is a dangerous poke to this team. Safeguard is to prevent Status and provide support for Mega Medicham to prevent getting burned while trying to set up Swords Dance to sweep.

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Steel Wing
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

This is what I used to wall most Physical attackers, including Terrakion, Mega Pinsir, Staraptor and other strong Extremespeeders and Physical attackers. Steel Wing is because Staraptor has no Steel moves besides it (sad excuse I know), Roost is for longevity, Defog is for clearing hazards and U-turn is for momentum. An alternative donor is Mew because it learns Stealth Rock, Defog and U-turn at once, though it has no Intimidate, but Synchronize is not a bad ability to troll opposing status users.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Recover
- Metal Burst

This poke is to defend most Special Attacks and bouncable Status moves. It can defend most Desolate Land and Primordial Sea users (as long as it's not full HP Specstran) and basically many powerful Special Attackers, including Sheer Force, Adaptability and Specialized Protean users. Taunt is to prevent opposing poke to set up more, so if you worry about set up or Substitute, use Taunt to stop it. Recover is for longevity and Metal Burst is for deflecting attacks and possibly KO back opposing poke because of Chansey's HP. It's like Counter and Mirror Coat. The reason for 0 IVs and Relaxed Nature is because Metal Burst has no Negative priority, so this might be useful for Metal Burst.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Eruption
- Solar Beam
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast

This Heatran inherited from Primal Groudon (sorry I can't find Primal Groudon sprite so I used regular Groudon) and this is intended to be a revenge killer, but the power of Eruption in the sun allows it to break walls as well. The moves are fairly straightforward. Eruption is the moves that you'll be spamming, as it's very strong. Solar Beam and Earth Power is for coverage to hit opposing Water and Rock types (beware. if you suspect opponent has a Primordial Sea user, do not use Solarbeam or you'll regret it) and possibly Flash Fire users. Fire Blast is for alternative of Eruption if you're low on HP.

Medicham @ Medichamite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Close Combat
- Crunch

This is the main member of this team. It inherits from Lucario and it's job is to sweep, revenge kill or wallbreak. Yes, with it's power, it's able to become a sweeper, cleaner, wallbreaker and revenge killer in one slot. At +2, Extremespeed, even un-STABed, 1HKO almost all faster non-resisted pokes with Mega Pinsir's bulk or lower (yes, that thing with 120 base Defense is 1HKO'd by this thing). Close Combat destroys most walls, even Suicune, which is supposed to wall set up sweepers, is 2HKO'd by it. Crunch is for Psychic and Ghost types. If played correctly, this thing is very powerful and can win many games. All it needs is proper support because it's quite frail and vulnerable to status.

Azelf @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 176 Atk / 80 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

This is actually designed to be a wallbreaker, but it's fast Speed allows it to be a Revenge Killer as well. Drain Punch, Thunderbolt and Ice Beam pretty much has perfect coverage that can hit everything neutral. Protean + Life Orb makes this basically got an -ate ability for it's moves, making it hit very hard. The EV spread is designed so that it guarantees 2HKO on Specially Defensive Suicune. Sucker Punch is to revenge kill faster threats or heavily damaging it.


Threats to Watch Out for:

Cresselia: Magic Bounce + Calm Mind Cresselia is a threat to this team and I suggest Suicune to run Haze because of this. Your best bet is to use Mega Medicham and Crunch it. Other than that, well, PP stall it with Suicune (Safeguard has 40 pp).

Mixed Proteans: Uh, this poke is also hard to stop. Your best bet is to revenge kill it with Scarf Heatran or Azelf, but something is gonna die in this team if you meet a Mixed Protean user.

Mega Altaria: This thing is pretty unpredictable. It can run Extremespeed, Boomburst and defensive sets. Something will die in this team if you predict the wrong set. It's slower than Mega Medicham though, so it's revengable. Just be careful if you see Altaria in opposing team.


Possible Alternatives: Some things in this team can be changed to deal with threats easier.

Suicune: As mentioned, You can switch Encore with Haze to prevent Magic Bounce Calm Mind sweep your team. If you're more afraid of Mega Gyarados or other Mold Breaker set up sweepers, use Encore. You can use both Encore and Haze at once, but you're more vulnerable to status.

Doublade: You can change this to Mew as the donor if you want to use Stealth Rock, though you lose Intimidate, which is quite valuable. Reason I don't use Stealth Rock is my team somehow performs fine without it. Sashes are annoying, but other than that, it's okay. Also Toxic is also an alternative to help against Unawares that can be hard to break.

Edit: Mega Medicham: Isa Simple pointed out that Unaware Florges counters Close Combat variants of Mega Medicham, but High Jump Kick has a chance of 2HKO, so you can consider that.

Heatran: Thunderbolt can be used over Earth Power to hit Water types Primordial Sea users that tries to switch in.

Import/Export:

Balance of Dual Psychic

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Encore
- Safeguard

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Steel Wing
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Recover
- Metal Burst

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Eruption
- Solar Beam
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast

Medicham @ Medichamite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Close Combat
- Crunch

Azelf @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 176 Atk / 80 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

Achievements:

Hide

The first three alts are mine and all of them use the same team with minor changes (as mentioned above).

Also won a tour.

 

[Jack Dalton]

Cool team, I haven't tried the SD Espeed version of Medicham, I normally go with the D-dance sweeper inheriting from Scrafty. One thing I might mention about your team is that if Medicham goes down at all, you will get cleaned up by Chlorophyll Breloom inheriting from Maractus. So be wary of sun teams(even though I think I'm the only one who runs weather at all).

 

[Isa Simple]

Getting number 1, 2,and 3 on the ladder is pretty darn impressive, but I still think that there are some improvements that can be made.

Firstly, why does Medicham have Inner Focus pre mega? Surely Justified has far more practical uses. In fact with two Eviolites and no Dark resist, surely Justified would be really good in soaking up at least weak Knock Offs from stall mons.

Another thing that could help is perhaps replacing Chansey with Umbreon. You can run pretty much the same set inheriting from Mega Sableye, only with Knock Off > Taunt. You are weaker against Desolate Land Heatran, but I think that the benefits are well worth it. Firstly you get Knock Off support, it makes your own team far less weak to Knock Off, it isn't killed by Psyshock, and it isn't as susceptible to Mold Breaker Taunt.

Also have you considered inheriting from Hydreigon on Doublade? Basically again you can keep the same set only with Levitate>Intimidate and you have to forgo Defog. You should have enough Defence to check everything you need to without Intimidate, and Levitate would be really nice considering it covers a weakness, and you lack a Ground resist. You lose Defog, but you still have Magic Bounce on Chansey/Umbreon, and your team really isn't weak to SR at all. Spikes aren't that common from what I've seen. Hydreigon offers some handy replacements like phazing in Roar/Dragon Tail, or status in Thunder Wave. I just feel like Levitate would be really valuable but if you value Defog too much don't bother with this one.

Also I wanna say that you are really weak to stall, but I feel like it might just be my stall team, considering my physically defensive Unaware Florges counters both you win cons. But I guess most stall teams will need separate check for Medi, Azelf and Heatran, considering no one actually runs physically defensive Unaware Florges other than me. That said though, when building a stall team, the 1st three things you wanna be checking (other than perhaps Hoopa-C) are Mega Medicham, Desolate Land/Primordial Sea, and Mixed Protean. And given that Heatran and Azelf are the faces of Desolate Land and Mixed Protean respectively, a well built stall team should still give you a heap of trouble. Also Cresselia is on almost ever stall team, and you've already stated how weak you are to it.

This would be a pretty massive change so I'm not sure how it will play out, but I'd suggest perhaps trying Hoopa-C > Azelf. Adaptability/Super Luck with Nasty Plot / Psyshock / Shadow Ball / Filler from either Porygon-Z or Togekiss respectively can potentially 6-0 most stall teams, especially if your filler catches them off guard. This also allows you to smash past Cresselia. Its lower speed could be a problem against more offensive teams, but your Heatran and Medicham should be able to smash most fast and offensive pokemon anyway. Also if you do choose to go with Hydreigon Doublade, Thunder Wave will greatly help you with Hoopa's lower speed. But most importantly, this change still allows you to maintain your Dual Psychic Core! In fact its even more dual Psychic-y because Hoopa retains its Psychic typing and doesn't go changing with Protean.

Here are the sets just to make it easier for you should you choose to use them:

sets

Umbreon @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Recover
- Knock Off
- Will-O-Wisp
- Metal Burst

Hoopa-C @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute / Filler

or

Hoopa-C @ Scope Lens
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Aura Sphere / Filler

Threw in a couple example fillers for God knows what reason.

Hope this helps! :D

 

[Chopin Alkaninoff]

Getting number 1, 2,and 3 on the ladder is pretty darn impressive, but I still think that there are some improvements that can be made.

Firstly, why does Medicham have Inner Focus pre mega? Surely Justified has far more practical uses. In fact with two Eviolites and no Dark resist, surely Justified would be really good in soaking up at least weak Knock Offs from stall mons.

Another thing that could help is perhaps replacing Chansey with Umbreon. You can run pretty much the same set inheriting from Mega Sableye, only with Knock Off > Taunt. You are weaker against Desolate Land Heatran, but I think that the benefits are well worth it. Firstly you get Knock Off support, it makes your own team far less weak to Knock Off, it isn't killed by Psyshock, and it isn't as susceptible to Mold Breaker Taunt.

Also have you considered inheriting from Hydreigon on Doublade? Basically again you can keep the same set only with Levitate>Intimidate and you have to forgo Defog. You should have enough Defence to check everything you need to without Intimidate, and Levitate would be really nice considering it covers a weakness, and you lack a Ground resist. You lose Defog, but you still have Magic Bounce on Chansey/Umbreon, and your team really isn't weak to SR at all. Spikes aren't that common from what I've seen. Hydreigon offers some handy replacements like phazing in Roar/Dragon Tail, or status in Thunder Wave. I just feel like Levitate would be really valuable but if you value Defog too much don't bother with this one.

Also I wanna say that you are really weak to stall, but I feel like it might just be my stall team, considering my physically defensive Unaware Florges counters both you win cons. But I guess most stall teams will need separate check for Medi, Azelf and Heatran, considering no one actually runs physically defensive Unaware Florges other than me. That said though, when building a stall team, the 1st three things you wanna be checking (other than perhaps Hoopa-C) are Mega Medicham, Desolate Land/Primordial Sea, and Mixed Protean. And given that Heatran and Azelf are the faces of Desolate Land and Mixed Protean respectively, a well built stall team should still give you a heap of trouble. Also Cresselia is on almost ever stall team, and you've already stated how weak you are to it.

This would be a pretty massive change so I'm not sure how it will play out, but I'd suggest perhaps trying Hoopa-C > Azelf. Adaptability/Super Luck with Nasty Plot / Psyshock / Shadow Ball / Filler from either Porygon-Z or Togekiss respectively can potentially 6-0 most stall teams, especially if your filler catches them off guard. This also allows you to smash past Cresselia. Its lower speed could be a problem against more offensive teams, but your Heatran and Medicham should be able to smash most fast and offensive pokemon anyway. Also if you do choose to go with Hydreigon Doublade, Thunder Wave will greatly help you with Hoopa's lower speed. But most importantly, this change still allows you to maintain your Dual Psychic Core! In fact its even more dual Psychic-y because Hoopa retains its Psychic typing and doesn't go changing with Protean.

Here are the sets just to make it easier for you should you choose to use them:

sets

Umbreon @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Recover
- Knock Off
- Will-O-Wisp
- Metal Burst

Hoopa-C @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute / Filler

or

Hoopa-C @ Scope Lens
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Aura Sphere / Filler

Threw in a couple example fillers for God knows what reason.

Hope this helps! :D

Thanks for the input. Yeah, I'll try out Hoopa instead of Azelf considering Doublade + Chansey + Suicune checks many relevant threats. And, no. I actually have never been troubled by stall teams whenever I ladder (which is why I get #1, #2 and #3), but yeah. No one used Unaware Florges besides you.
Also, Unaware Florges countering Mega Medicham makes me consider High Jump Kick over Close Combat for Mega Medicham (Lucario gets both).

252+ Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 177-209 (49.1 - 58%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Close Combat only has like, 2% chance to 2HKO, while this has a good chance to 2HKO. It's kinda risky, but might be worth it I think.

Levitate Doublade is one of the things I considered before, but I use Defog because I guess I am too afraid of Stealth Rock. I might try forgoing Defog considering my team isn't SR weak.

 

[I like donkeys]

For Azelf, if your main target for thunderbolt is Suicune, then may i suggest running grass knot instead? Grass knot hits Suicune for 100 bp over thunderbolt's 90 bp, so you can opt for even less SpA investment (if you want) in fact you don't need ANY SpA investment to 2HKO:
0 SpA Life Orb Protean Azelf Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Suicune: 221-265 (54.7 - 65.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Thunderbolt doesn't really hit anything relevant that grass knot doesn't (except for Gyarados, but they're usually megas so it doesnt matter too much)

 

[bp scrub]

btw, Groudon gets tbolt so you could use that instead of solarbeam to nail primordial sea users on the switch

 

[Ghoul King]

http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/9/98/383PMS.png

Primal Groudon small sprite for your use.

I hate you and everything you stand for hate your Azelf and Mega Medicham like the team. Seeing the Mega Medicham set contextualizes part of why I've gotten so much use out of Unaware Zapdos, though, if the standard version of it looks anything like yours.

I'm kind of surprised you don't have Toxic anywhere on the team. Maybe replace Steel Wing on Doublade with Toxic? It helps a lot against a lot of popular setup sweepers, such as Stored Power Cresselia, while pressuring various stallmons, and Doublade doesn't have to fear bounced Toxics. I'm not sure what Steel Wing actually brings to the table. U-Turn alone makes it decent at not being complete Taunt bait.

I don't really see anything else that seems like an easy improvement.

Solid team.

 

[motherlove]

If you do decide to go levitate for doublade, you can inherit from flygon and you get pretty much the same moveset with iron tail instead of steel wing (which is better tbh).
Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Tail
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

Gotta get that slow u-turn. Flygon also learns dragon tail and whatnot.

Also, consider this:
Hoopa @ Choice Specs / Choice scarf
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Extrasensory
- Focus Blast
- Trick

Opens the way for medicham against stall and if you run scarf you can rk a lot of stuff since you're immune to a lot of prio. Also deals with SpeDef ph throh which can be annoying to you team on a doublade / throh / goodra core (which I'm pretty sure adrian runs). And illusion can get you a lot of turn 1 kill (like, a lot) which instantly give you the upper hand against anything. (specially since a lot of ppl like to lead with a protean carrying fake out).

Great team thought.

 

[Chopin Alkaninoff]

For Azelf, if your main target for thunderbolt is Suicune, then may i suggest running grass knot instead? Grass knot hits Suicune for 100 bp over thunderbolt's 90 bp, so you can opt for even less SpA investment (if you want) in fact you don't need ANY SpA investment to 2HKO:
0 SpA Life Orb Protean Azelf Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Suicune: 221-265 (54.7 - 65.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Thunderbolt doesn't really hit anything relevant that grass knot doesn't (except for Gyarados, but they're usually megas so it doesnt matter too much)

Yes, Grass Knot hits stronger than Thunderbolt for Suicune, but if I use Grass Knot over Thunderbolt, I won't have any way to hit Skarmory or Doublade.

http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/9/98/383PMS.png

Primal Groudon small sprite for your use.

I hate you and everything you stand for hate your Azelf and Mega Medicham like the team. Seeing the Mega Medicham set contextualizes part of why I've gotten so much use out of Unaware Zapdos, though, if the standard version of it looks anything like yours.

I'm kind of surprised you don't have Toxic anywhere on the team. Maybe replace Steel Wing on Doublade with Toxic? It helps a lot against a lot of popular setup sweepers, such as Stored Power Cresselia, while pressuring various stallmons, and Doublade doesn't have to fear bounced Toxics. I'm not sure what Steel Wing actually brings to the table. U-Turn alone makes it decent at not being complete Taunt bait.

I don't really see anything else that seems like an easy improvement.

Solid team.

Good point. My main reason of not using Toxic is my other two members already have burn inducers, but it may be useful for Unaware. I'll add that.

btw, Groudon gets tbolt so you could use that instead of solarbeam to nail primordial sea users on the switch

I'll add that too as an alternative. Thanks.

If you do decide to go levitate for doublade, you can inherit from flygon and you get pretty much the same moveset with iron tail instead of steel wing (which is better tbh).
Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Tail
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

Gotta get that slow u-turn. Flygon also learns dragon tail and whatnot.

Also, consider this:
Hoopa @ Choice Specs / Choice scarf
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Extrasensory
- Focus Blast
- Trick

Opens the way for medicham against stall and if you run scarf you can rk a lot of stuff since you're immune to a lot of prio. Also deals with SpeDef ph throh which can be annoying to you team on a doublade / throh / goodra core (which I'm pretty sure adrian runs). And illusion can get you a lot of turn 1 kill (like, a lot) which instantly give you the upper hand against anything. (specially since a lot of ppl like to lead with a protean carrying fake out).

Great team thought.

The Illusion Hoopa set seems cool, but problem is, I don't know what should be the Illusion poke. Probably Chansey, but it's suspectible to Knock Off. An interesting set though.

 

[motherlove]

The Illusion Hoopa set seems cool, but problem is, I don't know what should be the Illusion poke. Probably Chansey, but it's suspectible to Knock Off. An interesting set though.

Medicham, medicham's main switchins are doublade, cress and megabro who all die to shadow ball.