Welcome to my RMT! I've been working on improving this team for over a month now, and I'm finally confident that it is good enough to post. It is built with a Wobbuffet darkspam base, and I hope you enjoy reading!
Team Song
When I think of darkspam, I think of a deranged team hell-bent on messing with the opponent's head. Therefore, I chose a song which is written from the perspective of a mad, deranged girl. Most of the lyrics are nonsensically vague or ridiculous, with a slight hint of pain or sadness, giving the overall song a crazy and psychotic feeling. Therefore, I felt it was the perfect fit for the team. This song is the alternative J-Rock hit Matryoshka—which was written by Hachi for the vocaloids Hatsune Miku and GUMI in celebration of the former's "birthday."
Teambuilding Process
This was a long one, so I'll try my best to remember the process and explain the reasoning behind my decisions.
This is the core that I wanted to build around. For anyone who is unaware of what the core does, I made a post about it in the good cores thread here.
I chose Mega Scizor because I wanted a slow VoltTurner to support Wobbuffet. It also provided good synergy with my teammates (if you ignore the glaring fire weakness), making it an ideal teammate.
Hydreigon provided me with a second VoltTurner, a Fire-type resistance and a third Dark-type, giving me special presence. I felt it was a better fit than Hoopa-U due to its typing and access to U-turn giving it better synergy with the team.
In case you can't tell, I'd thrown the notion of having synergy out of the window at this point. Constantly thinking about synergy makes teambuilding boring anyways, and I always have much more fun messing around with six things I've thrown together. I wanted something which could lay lots of hazards and spin, so I chose Forretress because it could lay both Stealth Rock and Spikes, could spin opposing hazards away and could act as a third VoltTurner.
My team had a horrific weakness to stallbreaker Talonflame, so I decided that I needed a defensive stop to it. I opted for TankChomp on the basis that it made Talonflame impale itself every time it attacked it while being able to lay Stealth Rock and discourage Talonflame from Roost stalling with Earthquake, which was a huge plus and made (at least in theory) would make it easier for me to handle it.
Having been talking to BlazeLatias through PM on Showdown for a while, he/she (soz idk ur gender ;;;;) suggested I used Latias over Hydreigon and I completely agreed. It provided the team with much-needed hazard removal, provided Healing Wish support for its teammates (which the team really appreciates) and lessened the pressure placed onto Wobbuffet to handle Keldeo - which otherwise 5:0'd the team once Wobb was gone.
The team faced lots of problems with Manectric, so I decided to switch TankChomp for Rocky Helmet Hippowdon. This allowed me to stop Manectric and Raikou cold while also handling Talonflame (which was the reason I used Garchomp in the first place).
I replaced Scizor with Heatran to act as an answer to Scizor and Talonflame, and I gave it Power Herb+Solar Beam to allow it to lure WashTom and Keldeo sufficiently. However, I very quickly noticed that it wasn't really fulfilling its role on the team effectively due to its weakness to Superpower and Talonflame's tendency to just switch out of it to something which just took advantage of it, and I desparately needed about 6 moves on it to actually achieve what it was trying to achieve consistently. Therefore, I started searching for a replacement.
I replaced Heatran with Rotom-H because I wanted my answer to Talonflame and Scizor to be able to grab momentum with a VoltTurning move while actually being a sufficient answer to them. I gave it a Passho Berry to allow it to act as an emergency pivot for Wobbuffet v.s. Keldeo, reducing the pressure placed onto Latias to check it and luring Keld in on an Overheat or Wisp KO and taking its Scald or Hydro Pump with ease.
I had a lot of trouble choosing a sixth member for this team due to me having the perception that I had the key issues handled. I messed around with a lot of things in this time period, and the next few stages are me messing around. The first of these was special Mega Altaria. I felt the team lacked specially offensive presence, and I wanted something that could handle Dark-types while also luring Heatran. Therefore, Hyper Voice+EQ Altaria felt like the perfect fit.
Altaria wasn't cutting it as it usually just ended up being dead weight with the rest of the team. However, I still wanted something to beat Heatran and take on Dark-types. Meloetta came to mind due to its ability to lure the latter pre-Relic Song and proceed to rip half of the metagame to shreds with Close Combat.
Meloetta opened up weaknesses that I didn't even realise it opened up, and its typing on switch-in clashed horrifically with that of Latias. I decided I wanted another Fighting-type to fill the role, and Lopunny came to mind immediately due to its access to Baton Pass, giving me another VoltTurner for Wobbuffet.
I found myself becoming overly reliant on Rotom-H to check Scizor defensively, and it started to lag behind due to me becoming overly reliant on it to check too high a number of attackers at once. However, I faced a dilemma, being that if I sacrifice it I lose to either Talonflame or Scizor, depending on what I sacrifice it for. However, I then remembered Coba Berry, and Keldeo acted as a way to lure Talonflame in after scoring a KO while also being able to bluff Choice Scarf v.s. slower targets. It was the perfect fit for the team, so I swapped Rotom-H out for it immediately.
With Keldeo now being part of the team, Lopunny was mostly redundant due to it only being there to tackle Dark-types. However, when battling with the squad (with Lopunny) I realised that, to my horror, I had let my Manectric weakness open up again. I thought about Hippowdon, but I very quickly realised that it wasn't well-suited to the nature of the team. I was at a roadblock in my teambuilding ability. However, I then remembered talk from months ago in the VR thread about something which fits well on hyper offense due to a combination of its typing and the attributes of its movepool; its typing allows it to take on all forms of paralysis induction while checking both VoltTurn and birdspam, and its movepool allows it to set up Stealth Rock and PHaze out setup sweepers like Clefable in such a way which doesn't kill momentum for the team. This Pokemon is Stunfisk. I swapped Lopunny out and messed around with it a little, and the team all of a sudden felt capable of taking on the metagame sufficiently for the first time since its the Hydreigon+Forretress incarnation, yet it lacked any major weaknesses like said incarnation was littered with. However, after a long time playing (and help from below this post), I decided that the team needed a few changes. These mostly came in the form of moveset adjustments, but there was a member change involved too:
Serperior fills a big chunk of the weaknesses that the team faces: it covers stall, it covers bulky waters and it lures Talonflame with Coba HP Rock. Contrary Leaf Storm is a great tool for getting past stuff like Suicune, Gastro, Quagsire etc., and its access to Taunt allows Wobbuffet an easier time trapping and KOing stuff like Heatran while allowing it even more consistency in stallbreaking.
The Team
The signal reception is good, 5-2-4 (Wobbuffet) @ Custap Berry / Colbur Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 12 HP / 248 Def / 228 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Destiny Bond / Safeguard
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
Wobbuffet is one of my favorite Pokemon, and Wobbuffet offense is easily my favorite playstyle. I've built with this thing more times than I can count, and I felt it appropriate for my biggest project yet to include the big guy himself. Custap improves the Lop matchup and Colbur improves the Weavile matchup, and they are interchangable, so feel free to use whichever you prefer The EVs mean Wobbuffet always takes Bisharp's Knock Off with Custap Berry (or less than 50% from adamant LO Bisharp's Knock Off with Colbur Berry in tact so that I can still use it to trap scarfers etc. after the hit), which can come in clutch.
As a fun fact, the reason I chose that line from the song for its nickname is because Wobbuffet's HP with this investment happens to be equal to 524.
I'm a mad matryoshka covered in patches (Bisharp) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 204 Atk / 52 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
Bisharp is so useful in so many ways. Its stupendous firepower in conjunction with its great offensive typing and abilities make it hugely threatening in the current metagame. In particular, the strength of dark as an offensive type in the current metagame makes it scary for anything which doesn't resist both of its STABs to have to take on. For a long time this was actually a mixed variant with Grass Knot and Life Orb to take on Quagsire, but when the team (rather ironically) started having trouble taking on Mew I felt the need to give it Lum Berry so that it could take it on reliably. However, Lum Berry isn't just a one-trick pony for it. The team has difficulty with Clefable, and Lum Berry allows Bisharp to check said Pokemon more consistently by allowing it to come in on it without having to worry about being crippled by Thunder Wave.
Due to the loss of Life Orb, Grass Knot became a poor option due to the combination of Knock Off+Grass Knot not 2HKOing from full without Life Orb to back it up. While I could have swapped Grass Knot for Taunt so that it can retain its ability to tackle Quagsire, I found that the speed investment on Wobbuffet in conjunction with Quagsire's tendency to just click Earthquake v.s. me made it redundant to the team. Therefore, I swapped it with Pursuit so as to trap things which Wobbuffet locks into moves which don't affect me, although its the biggest draw to this was my ability to guarantee a boost on Defog locks—namely from the Lati twins—while also allowing me to check Mew more consistently.
You and I, having a rendezvous? A rendezvous? (Weavile) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off
-
Weavile's amazing speed tier allows it to round off the core nicely; its speed tier allows it to tackle offense, reducing my reliance on Wobbuffet to handle it,
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind
- Secret Sword
Coba Keldeo is my way of luring and KOing Talonflame; Coba Berry allows it to take advantage of Keldeo's great offensive presence take a hit from Talonflame which come in after a KO and proceed to OHKO it back with Hydro Pump, which is there due to SpD Talon's ability to take a hit from Scald. It also provides nice defensive synergy with the rest of my team, taking hits from opposing Weavile, Scizor and Bisharp with ease and threatening back with its powerful STABs. Pump also has the advantage of allowing me to bluff Scarf, which never lacks said move due to its low power output. While the lack of HP Electric sucks, the team doesn't struggle with waters too much anyways. Coba also has the added benefit of allowing me to take on Tornadus-T in a pinch, allowing me to score valuable damage on it and lessening the pressure placed onto Weavile to eliminate it.
Parade? Marade? Just clap a bit more (Serperior) @ Coba Berry
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Dragon Pulse
- Taunt
Serperior has replaced Keldeo to improve the team's matchup v.s. stall. Taunt allows it to both support Wobbuffet by reducing the need for it to Encore, allowing me to use it more aggressively, and allows Serperior to stallbreak consistently - as well as allowing me to guarantee the trap+KO v.s. Heatran (if it outpaces I know its scarf, and if it doesn't it can't use its status moves to play around Wobb). Running Serperior also gives me a more consistent way of taking on the bulky waters which absolutely plague the team. HP Rock with Coba Berry allows me to lure and beat SpD Talonflame, which reduces the pressure placed on Stunfisk to handle it. It only helps v.s. offensive sets if they don't use Flare Blitz, but that is somewhat alleviated by Stunfisk anyway.
Kalinka? Malinka? Just pinch my cheeks (Latias) @ Latiasite / Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 32 HP / 224 SpA / 252 Spe (Latiasite) OR 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe (Life Orb)
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Healing Wish
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psychic
- Defog
Latias is my defogger and is able to lure Scizor and hit it hard with HP Fire. Healing Wish is great utility for this offensively-oriented team due to its ability to act as a Full Restore for its teammate without killing momentum for the team. I opted for Psychic over Psyshock because hits on the special side, which the team benefits hugely from, and it is used over Draco to enable Latias to take out Keldeo without becoming heavily abusable. I replaced Life Orb with Latiasite after McMeghan and KidMagic suggested to do so and it has greatly helped due to the lack of Roost making Latias' longevity irritatingly short, taking advantage of the increased bulk at the cost of an absolutely miniscule drop in power. The Latiasite EVs take jolly Black Glasses Bisharp's Sucker Punch from full health, which comes in clutch occasionally by letting me nail it with HP Fire. However, Life Orb's slight boost in power is still a valid option because the lack of Draco does hurt its power, and if you opt to use Orb just use the standard spread.
Freud? Kelloid? Just hit the keys (Stunfisk) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 228 HP / 100 Def / 136 SpA / 44 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Earth Power
- Yawn
- Stealth Rock
Stunfisk is jesus. Its ability to shut down the problematic birdspam and VoltTurn archetypes is a huge help to the team, and being able to PHaze out setup 'mons with Yawn and help score KOs with Stealth Rock make it a great asset to the team. This is an old spread which I can't be bothered to work out the aim of, but it is able to check what it aims to check sufficiently; this makes it a valuable member of the team. Rocky Helmet lets it give VoltTurn the middle finger and allows me to switch it into contact moves to score the final bit of damage needed for a KO.
Threatlist [updated]
- Fairyspam: Mega Diancie is a big threat, outpacing everything bar Weavile and Serperior and forcing 50:50s with Wobb. I have no switch-ins for Sylveon and Mega Gardevoir, meaning I need to make at least 1 sac every time they come in. Azumarill bops everything here barring Serp (which can't switch in), meaning that if Wobbuffet gets pressured it can be difficult to eliminate. Usually requires at least one sac.
- Talonflame: This causes problems for this team if Serperior is weakened too much, meaning that I could potentially rely too much on Stunfisk. Fisk has no trouble with it, although it is easily worn down.
- HEATran: The heatah fajitah itself gives me headaches and usually requires at least one sac to eliminate. However, Taunt allows me to catch it on the switch with Serp and trap+deal heavy damage to it with Wobb, or I can Taunt it as Serp is about to go down and guarantee the KO with Wobb if its healthy due to two remaining turns of Taunt.
- Mega Lopunny: This outpaces my whole team and can easily sweep if I don't get a para from either Static or Discharge and Wobbuffet is weakened.
Replay(s)
I've not been that lucky with replays, so I'll probably add them as I go along.
- http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-291479099 - Misplays were made on both sides, but it shows of Stunfisk's ability to take on Talonflame and its sheer bulk.
- http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-291755249 - Credit to TheDementedCube for this. Another replay that shows off Stunfisk well.
The signal reception is good, 5-2-4 (Wobbuffet) @ Custap Berry / Colbur Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 12 HP / 248 Def / 228 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Destiny Bond / Safeguard
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
I'm a mad matryoshka covered in patches (Bisharp) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 204 Atk / 52 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
You and I, having a rendezvous? A rendezvous? (Weavile) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
Parade? Marade? Just clap a bit more (Serperior) @ Coba Berry
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Dragon Pulse
- Taunt
Kalinka? Malinka? Just pinch my cheeks (Latias) @ Latiasite / Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 32 HP / 224 SpA / 252 Spe OR 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Healing Wish
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psychic
- Defog
Freud? Kelloid? Just hit the keys (Stunfisk) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 228 HP / 100 Def / 136 SpA / 44 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Earth Power
- Yawn
- Stealth Rock
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 12 HP / 248 Def / 228 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Destiny Bond / Safeguard
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
I'm a mad matryoshka covered in patches (Bisharp) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 204 Atk / 52 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
You and I, having a rendezvous? A rendezvous? (Weavile) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
Parade? Marade? Just clap a bit more (Serperior) @ Coba Berry
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Dragon Pulse
- Taunt
Kalinka? Malinka? Just pinch my cheeks (Latias) @ Latiasite / Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 32 HP / 224 SpA / 252 Spe OR 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Healing Wish
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psychic
- Defog
Freud? Kelloid? Just hit the keys (Stunfisk) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 228 HP / 100 Def / 136 SpA / 44 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Earth Power
- Yawn
- Stealth Rock
[note: I will not be posting full team importables, just the individual set(s).]
Life Orb+HP Ground>Coba+HP Rock on Serperior
This allows me to lure and KO Heatran at the cost of increasing my reliance on Stunfisk to beat Talonflame. Pretty straight foreward really.
Serperior @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power Ground
- Dragon Pulse
- Taunt
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power Ground
- Dragon Pulse
- Taunt
This improves my matchup v.s. Lopunny at the cost of worsening it v.s. Weavile. Pretty straight foreward too.
Wobbuffet @ Custap Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 12 HP / 248 Def / 228 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
- Encore
- Destiny Bond
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 12 HP / 248 Def / 228 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
- Encore
- Destiny Bond
Giving shoutouts to cacturne Typhlito Air Ununhexium regirock Ranger Mike Astara QuickBH as ur all great friends. I hope the convo can revive itself ;;;
HypnoEmpire you're a good friend and we need to stay in touch more
Matt_192 IRL friend; just try and get Cannu to keep the server up more consistently lol
mac1275 Good friend its great to see u getting back into competitive. Next time we build joke teams with heat mons actually bring a joke team tho as opposed to some rain tryhardery ;P
Akumeoy Thanks for all of the great contribution to Move Equality so far, and I hope that we can get the meta a little further off of the ground :)
Ghoul King You have been making good contributions to Move Equality in terms of talking about stuff. Thanks for all of it :)
BlazeLatias Thanks for the help you gave me during around the middle of the time I spent developing this team :)
HypnoEmpire you're a good friend and we need to stay in touch more
Matt_192 IRL friend; just try and get Cannu to keep the server up more consistently lol
mac1275 Good friend its great to see u getting back into competitive. Next time we build joke teams with heat mons actually bring a joke team tho as opposed to some rain tryhardery ;P
Akumeoy Thanks for all of the great contribution to Move Equality so far, and I hope that we can get the meta a little further off of the ground :)
Ghoul King You have been making good contributions to Move Equality in terms of talking about stuff. Thanks for all of it :)
BlazeLatias Thanks for the help you gave me during around the middle of the time I spent developing this team :)
All I can do now is thank everyone on the site for making this such an amazing community to be a part of :) keep up the good work and keep Smogon as amazing as it is now :D
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