Monotype Mono Poison

[surnamon]

I've been using this monotype team for a long time now and I decided i wanted to post it to see if anybody can help me improve it. My peak with this team is 1419 although i will admit i got there largely from a large amount of people lower on the ladder.

Crobat(Utility Belt)

Ability:Inner Focus Nature: Jolly
Evs:252atk/4spdef/252+spd
Item: none
- Acrobatics
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Defog
Crobat serves as a utility with taunt and defog as well as ground immunity which is supplemented by Mega-Venusaur. The lack of an item is obviously to allow use of acrobatics. The reason I used acrobatics over Brave Bird is because I wanted to increase the longevity of Crobat. This longevity helps him to serve as a late game sweeper in some cases. U-turn is also nice for chip damage against psychic teams.

Venusaur-Mega(Rawr)

Ability:Chlorophyll Nature: Bold
Evs: 252hp/252+def/4spa
Item: Venusaurite
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Hp Fire
Venusaur helps deal with ground type attacks. This is the reason for the physical defense investment. Venusaur is also my main solution to Garchomp, something i struggled against before adding Venusaur. Hp Fire also provides good coverage that allows Venusaur to solo some teams once the threats to it have been eliminated.

Nidoking(KingPoison)

Ability:Sheer Force Nature:Timid
Evs: 252spatk/4spdef/252+spd
Item: Life Orb
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Sludge Wave>Stealth Rocks
- Earth Power
Nidoking helps as a strong damage dealer. Earth Power beats steel teams fairly well and the coverage Nidoking offers in general is good for dealing damage.
Nidoking's natural bulk is also helpful in a pinch.

Changes: Sludge Wave>Stealth Rocks

Tentacruel(Cruller)

Ability:Liquid Ooze Nature:Timid
Evs: 252spatk/4spdef/252+spd
Item: Choise specs
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Wave
- Scald
- Ice Beam
Now most people will see this set and think I'm crazy, but with a base 100 speed and the coverage options above, specs Tentacruel can take many opponents by surprise and pick off a mon before the other person realize whats going on. The supprise factor of this set is the main selling point for it but it does work quite well.

Changes>SLudge Wave>Rapid Spin and Choice SPecs>Black SLudge

Toxicroak(Moo im a frog)

Ability: Poison Touch Nature: Careful
Evs: 48hp/164atk/44+spdef/252spd
Item: Assault vest
- Stone Edge
- Poison Jab
- Drain Punch
- Bullet Punch
The custom Ev spread is designed to counter Volcorona. My team struggled with Volcorona for a long time so I finally decided to go and make a Pokemon that could reliably counter Volcorona. Not that stone edge is necessarily reliable but still. Toxicroak will survive any attack a +1 Volcorona throws at it save overheat. But if somebody is running Overheat on a quiver dance Volcorona I don't think i will have much of a problem. The use of Poison Touch over Dry skin is obviously to help deal with fire type moves from Volcorona. Drain Punch is handy as a fighting type move and Poison Jab has a really good chance to poison when combined with poison touch. Bullet punch can deal chip damage and has a 20% chance to poison for extra cluch damage if i really need it.

Changes:
Changed toxicroak to the set AFD recommended below
Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch

Also, I still need a real nickname for Toxicroak so if anybody has any recommendations i would really appreciate it.

Skuntank(Dank Stank)

Ability: Aftermath Nature: Adamant
Evs: 252hp/252+atk/4spdef
Item: Black Sludge
- Taunt
- Sucker Punch
- Poison Jab
- Pursuit
Skuntank is here obviously because of its psychic immunity. Pursuit helps it to trap and eliminate psychic types, however it usually comes down to a 50/50 between Pursuit and Sucker Punch. Skuntank is also helpful to eliminate anything that has set up or is about to destroy my team since sucker punch combined with aftermath usually puts an opponent in kill range for crobat or toxicroak.(unless you are a sky attack hawlucha because shadow sneak makes contact but sky attack doesnt 10/10 best logic.)

Issues:
Victini: Skuntank can check Victini and threaten to sucker punch, but can't actually switch in on an attack. A more reliable counter than simply being forced to read the other player in hopes of a revenge kill would be nice.
I need a better nickname for Toxicroak

 

[all falls down]

hi there

This team seems pretty good aside from a few underlying flaws; you lack Stealth Rock, the Toxicroak set is very mediocre and fails to do the job you state (+1 252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 44+ SpD Toxicroak: 337-397 (91 - 107.2%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO), and finally, your team has no way to revenge kill threats to Poison like Landorus, Kyurem-B, or Mega Gardevoir with the former two being able to completely sweep this team.

The lack of Stealth Rock means that you have no way to punish switches, and types like Bug, Flying, and Dragon are going to be able to switch threatening Pokemon like Mega Pinsir, Tornadus-T, and Dragonite in for free without having to worry about being worn down by Stealth Rock. In addition, the lack of Stealth Rock is the likely reason why you feel you are so weak to Volcarona; Stealth Rock means that Volcarona will only have a handful of opportunities to switch in and attempt to boost, whereas without them it is able to freely switch in and out to check your Venusaur and Skuntank and boost on them.

To address this, Stealth Rock > Sludge Wave on Nidoking. I would recommend replacing Sludge Wave instead of Flamethrower, since you happen to have Taunt Crobat and Taunt + PJab Skuntank which should be able to deal with Clefable well enough (one of the main reasons to use Sludge Wave -- yes even Poison teams are weak to Clefable) and breaking Steel teams more reliably is really appreciated for Poison teams.

Next, as I've said, your Toxicroak set is quite mediocre and will actually die to offensive Volcarona after a Quiver Dance boost. In addition, without Water Absorb or Swords Dance, it loses pretty much every niche it holds for Poison teams, since it is no longer a good way to break past Normal teams (an enormous pain for Poison teams, especially this one as you have no Knock Off users). You could replace Toxicroak with another Pokemon, but LO + SD Toxicroak > AV Toxicroak actually fits on this team quite well. It gives you a way to muscle past normal Porygon2 + Chansey cores (which, as I've said, you have no way to deal with), it gives you a check to Mild LO Kyurem-B, gives you a nice wincon against Psychic teams since you lack Scolipede, and gives you another form of priority to aid in revenge killing Landorus

Now to fix the issue of Landorus sweeping this team, along with giving you a good revenge killer in general to beat the aforementioned threats and a way to threaten more offensive types like Dragon, I recommend CB Crobat > Support Crobat. CB Crobat is great and can OHKO a weakened Landorus (40% chance to OHKO after SR as well), OHKO Mega Gardevoir, and overall does a good job vs Psychic pivoting with U-turn and works fantastically with Nidoking, as it beats most of Nidoking's checks and can U-turn into Nidoking. The last move on this set could be anything, since you already have a fantastic Breloom absorber in Venusaur so Sleep Talk isn't really needed. I recommend Roost as it can be handy if you ever get your item knocked off.

Finally, CB Crobat means that you no longer have access to hazard removal. Offensive Tentacruel is pretty neat, but Choice Specs isn't really effective as Tentacruel doesn't like being locked into a move and it likes recovery so it can soft check things. So I recommend Offensive Black Sludge Rapid Spin Tentacruel > Choice Specs. It keeps the offensive nature while adding hazard removal and giving it passive recovery to be able to switch into stuff like Heatran better. The most expendable move on the moveset seems to be Sludge Wave, since the other two coverage moves are really nice, so that is the move I would switch for Rapid Spin.

here are the sets, I hope I've helped!

sets

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze <-- the abiblity here doesn't really matter, I suppose you could use Clear Body as it may actually come in handy vs webs bug teams
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Giga Drain
- Rapid Spin

Crobat @ Choice Band
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Cross Poison
- Roost

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch

SR > Sludge Wave on Nidoking

 

[surnamon]

Thanks for the help I'll try out these changes and see how it works.

 

[DecafWizard]

Not much of a rate, but:

• I would reccomed swapping out AV Toxicroak for Life Orb+Swords dance. Better win con
• adding some way to setup hazards. toxic spikes or stealth rocks would be nice

As for why there is no poison legendary, it is theroised that the third legend in Alola will be a scorpion

 

[surnamon]

thanks for the help, SD toxicroak is definately better, and especially now that i have stealth rocks on nidoking to cover volcorona.