Monotype M.W.A. - Monz With Attitude: A Monotype Dark Balance Team

Straight outtta Kanto, the best dark team I've made so far, gotten into the 1500s with it and it's served me well. Thought I might bring it to RMT to see what some more experienced players might think.



Sableyice Cube (Sableye-Mega) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Foul Play
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp

Sableyice Cube is there to magic bounce status and hazards, spread burns, knock off items, punish physical setup mons with foul play, and be a general annoyance thanks to it's defenses and reliable recovery. Not to much to explain, it's mega-sab, he's there to ruin your day, call you a bitch nigga, and steal your girl.



DJ Zilla (Tyranitar) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stone Edge
- Fire Blast
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock

DJ Zilla is the special wall and rocks setter who can also spread paralysis, punish steel switch-ins with fire blast (primarily ferrothorn), and still hit fairly hard with stone edge even without investment. The sandstorm it sets up gives it stupid amounts of special bulk (mega diancie's moonblast isn't even a 2HKO), and the residual can be good for wearing down opponents, albeit it can be a nuisance to other team members not named Easy B or Avian Prince.



Avian Prince (Mandibuzz) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Foul Play
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

Avian Prince is our physical wall, with insane physical bulk and not-too-bad special bulk. It serves as the team's defogger and a defensive pivot, whose slow u-turns are extremely useful in getting in other members of the team safely and gaining momentum. With overcoat protecting it from sandstorm damage, it forms an ideal defensive core with DJ Zilla, and works in tandem with Sableyice Cube to improve the matchup against bug and fighting.




Dr. Dreigon (Hydreigon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power

On to our offensive core, Dr. Dreigon is our primary special wallbreaker. It's numerous resistances and 2 immunities, on top of respectable bulk, gives it many switch-in opportunities, and with choice specs, very little can switch in on it safely. If you want, you can replace earth power with flash cannon to better deal with monofairy and the occasional monorock team, but I find earth power or Fire Blast tends to 2HKO most fairies not named Sylveon after rocks anyways. As most hydreigon do not run earth power, this can take some mons by surprise, particularly toxapex and nihilego.



Easy B (Bisharp) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Pursuit

Easy B is the punisher, the executioner, insertedgymetaphorhere. Jokes aside, it's the team's primary physical powerhouse and holy hell this thing makes mons drop. It punishes opposing defog, random stat drops from moves, and the occasional sticky web thanks to defiant, and is incredibly dangerous at +2. Knock off hits the entire tier for respectable if not lethal damage and robs any non-mega/z-move mon of their item, crippling choiced mons, softening up eviolite walls (particularly ones found on normal), and robbing other walls of leftovers recovery. Sucker punch is powerful priority that can force mindgames, iron head is secondary STAB that murders fairies and has a juicy flinch chance, and pursuit is occasionally useful for trapping. Assault vest is used over life orb for the fact that with an assault vest, bisharp lives many hits it otherwise would not (a nasty surprise for many would-be special revenge-killers), most importantly avoiding a potential OHKO from mega-diancie's moonblast, who otherwise only MC Gren could check, and obliterating it in return with iron head.



MC Gren (Greninja) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Gunk Shot
- Ice Beam
- U-turn

Last but certainly not least, MC Gren is the team's speed control, primary revenge killer, and a hardass g that don't give a shit 'bout the law, he's whatever type he wants, fuck the police. It's lack of power from it's stats and lack of a life orb/expert belt/choice specs is of little consequence when it gets STAB on everything and outspeeds the entire unboosted metagame. Most importantly, it outspeeds tapu koko, a common lead on electric teams, and destroys it with gunk shot. U-turn provides excellent momentum, forming a U-turn core with Avian Prince, and Ice Beam, Gunk Shot, and Hydro Pump provide valuable STAB coverage for the team. If you're really scared of volcarona or any other potentially devastating rock-weak mons, you could replace hydro pump with rock slide, but I would advise against it, as DJ Zilla already counters those threats.

As it stands right now, this team is fairly well prepared against almost all threats, though there are mons that threaten it terribly. Keldeo is one such example, being very difficult for any mon to switch into and the team lacking much in the way of good switch-ins. Sub-keldeo is even more problematic, as then it can't even be given status ailments and would force me to sack a mon to stop it at absolute best and auto-lose to it at worst. Sub-cobalion presents a similar problem, but is a bit more manageable.
 
Hey there! This team looks pretty solid already, so I've only got a few suggestions to make.

First, I think you should consider dropping Bisharp for Alolan Muk. You have an interesting idea of using Assault Vest Bisharp to check Fairy-types, but Bisharp is a little too squishy to really fulfill that role. While Bisharp will successfully beat one, maybe two, Fairy-types, it cannot switch into attacks because it'll take too much damage and really doesn't have the capability of soaking up attacks in other matchups particularly well. This is why I think Alolan Muk is superior for your team. Alolan Muk has much better bulk and will still be able to cover Fairy-types for you, just like Assault Vest Bisharp did. In addition to that, it also takes care of various special attackers much more easily: Nasty Plot Alolan Raichu, Quiver Dance Volcarona, and more. For the set, I opted to run Rock Slide because, as you mentioned in the section discussing Greninja, you are a little weak to Volcarona. It is also very helpful for hitting Mega Charizard Y, which your team is not particularly good at beating.

On your Hydreigon, I think Focus Blast is better than Earth Power. Thanks to your Knock Off users, you can remove Chansey's Eviolite. Doing so actually lets Hydreigon 2HKO Chansey, and that means it also OHKOes or 2HKOes every other commonly used Normal-type. This would really help you beat Normal teams, which look pretty painful to handle right now. While Focus Blast wouldn't help you against Poison-types, Dark Pulse already deals significant damage to both Toxapex and Nihilego, and neither can switch into Hydreigon reliably.

Finally, on Mandibuzz, I would recommend a 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe spread. Those 16 Speed EVs give you enough to outspeed Adamant Azumarill, and your STAB Foul Play OHKOes a +6 Azumarill, making sure you don't get swept by it! The lost bulk is minute compared to this benefit.

I hope that helps and good luck with the team!
Avian Prince (Mandibuzz) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Foul Play
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

Dr. Dreigon (Hydreigon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast

Muk-Alola @ Assault Vest
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 248 HP / 12 Def / 248 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Rock Slide
- Fire Punch
 
Thanks for the reply, I'll definitely change mandibuzz's EVs and give Hydreigon focus blast. However, I'm not sure if replacing bisharp with alolan-muk is the best idea. Bisharp's priority and ability to get to +2 with a defog has won many matches for me, and I've have not had that much trouble with special attackers. Alolan muk is also much weaker than bisharp, so a replacement would rob my team of offensive presence and its only steel-type.

Also if you happen to know a way for my team to better deal with keldeo I'd be glad to hear it. As it is right now, only mandibuzz can reliably eat a hit, and even then it can't do all that much back except slowly whittle it down with many, many foul plays, and only Gren can check it with gunk shot. I could give mandibuzz toxic instead of foul play or u-turn but not having those moves on mandibuzz is hugely detrimental for other scenarios.
 
Thanks for the reply, I'll definitely change mandibuzz's EVs and give Hydreigon focus blast. However, I'm not sure if replacing bisharp with alolan-muk is the best idea. Bisharp's priority and ability to get to +2 with a defog has won many matches for me, and I've have not had that much trouble with special attackers. Alolan muk is also much weaker than bisharp, so a replacement would rob my team of offensive presence and its only steel-type.

Also if you happen to know a way for my team to better deal with keldeo I'd be glad to hear it. As it is right now, only mandibuzz can reliably eat a hit, and even then it can't do all that much back except slowly whittle it down with many, many foul plays, and only Gren can check it with gunk shot. I could give mandibuzz toxic instead of foul play or u-turn but not having those moves on mandibuzz is hugely detrimental for other scenarios.
Hey, unfortunately, Keldeo is one of the biggest threats to Dark teams. Not only do Dark teams lack a solid Water switch-in, but they are also naturally weak to its Secret Sword. One of the advantages of Alolan Muk is that even Keldeo's Choice Specs-boosted Scald and Hydro Pump do (relative to most Dark-types) rather little damage. That lets it threaten a Knock Off. If you can remove Choice Specs Keldeo's item, Mega Sableye and Mandibuzz are both more than capable of taking it on. There's really not much else you can do other than try to pressure Keldeo with the threat of Knock Off or Thunder Wave. Keldeo cannot really switch into most of your team for fear of any number of moves, so that's the main way you'll get around it.
 

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