Other Metagames [Monotype] Balanced Normal

[MaxtheLax]

Hey guys, MaxtheLax here with my first ever RMT. The Normal type team above is one I have been using for quite some time and have had some pretty good battles with. You may have noticed this doesn't have you typical Porygon2 and Chansey core, which is rare. This team does change from time to because I would try to combat what teams I was facing the most.

The goal of this team is pretty straight forward. Bliss and Tank take hits, Staraptor is the Defoger, Snorlax is the set up, and Meloetta and Mega-Lopunny is there to clean everything else up. It seems pretty simple and it is, but it is fun, also.

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat/Immunity
EVs: 144 HP / 188 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Return/Body Slam
- Crunch/Earthquake/Gunk Shot
- Curse
- Rest
Starting off with Snorlax, my personal favorite since forever. I would normally run a AV Tank Lax, but I decided to run CurseLax and I fell in love with this set up due how it would allow Snorlax to demolish some of my opponents mons. Leftovers helps you to heal a decent amount every turn, while setting up. You have your pick of Return or Body Slam for STAB, I often went with Return over Body Slam. I would change up the second slot depending on what teams I faced the most, Crunch is there for Ghost and Psychic, Earthquake for Steel, Fire, and Poison, and Gunk Shot for Fairies. Of course you have Rest and Curse combo, Rest is there to get full health to get rid of status and Curse to help you sweep. On a side note I would run Immunity from time to time if I faced a lot teams that used Toxic a lot.

Blissey Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Heal Bell
Blissey is your standard Cleric/Status Absorber and part of my unusual defense core. Blissey not only being a great wall for Special Attacks, but is also great at being a Cleric and Status Absober. Thunder Wave is there to slow down some the faster mons to help out Snorlax, Mega-Loppuny, and Meloetta. Seismic Toss is there for damage, and so she can also do some damage. Soft-Boiled is pretty self explained, and Heal Bell is there to help cure my team from statues and keep them all healthy. I chose Blissey over Chansey because I wanted try out a different core and to catch people off guard.

Miltank (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Thick Fat/Sap Sipper
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Body Slam
- Milk Drink
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
Milktank is my second half of my core as well as the Physical wall for this team. This a Pokemon I hardly seen on Normal teams, so I decided to use and I enjoyed it. Miltank's job is take Physical hits and set up Stealth Rocks to help weaken the opponents team. Body Slam is there for STAB and has a chance to PAR. Milk Drink to help recover HP, and toxic to wear down the other team even more. You can also choose to run this with Leftovers, but I choose Rocky Helmet to help deal out so.me damage on top of Body Slam and/or Toxic. Sap Sipper can also be used instead of Thick Fat if you tend to face a lot of Grass Teams. I decided to use Milktank because it has a naturally high Defense stat and it complements Blissey pretty well, and I didn't want to use Porygon2

Staraptor @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat/Double Edge
- Defog
- U-turn
Staraptor is on this team for the obvious reason for being a Hazard Remover, a Offensive Pivot, and to help counter Fighting types that could threaten Snorlax. Life Orb allows Staraptor to hit hard and hit quick, thanks to its Jolly Nature. Brave Bird is there for STAB and to help against Fighting types. Close Combat is to help weaken some walls like Ferrothorn. Defog is there to remove any hazards, and U-turn so you could switch out to another Pokemon that best fits the situation you are in.

Meloetta @ Choice Specs
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Dazzling Gleam/Shadow Ball/Energy Ball
- Focus Blast
I noticed I had a lot of Physical Attackers and no Special Attackers, so that is where Meloetta comes in at. Choice Specs Meloetta is a great Physical Wallbreaker and a great Speical Sweeper at the same time, with already high Special Attack and Speed she can sweep pretty decently. Hyper Voice and Psyshock are there for STAB, Focus Blast to help with Steel and Dark types, and you have your choice of Dazzling Gleam for Dragons, Shadow Ball for Ghost and Psychics, or you could go with Energy Ball to take out Water, Ground, and Rock.

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Ice Punch/Power-Up Punch/Drain Punch/Fire Punch/Thunder Punch
I never knew that a bunny could pack so much power. Lopunny is on this team as a late game sweeper. My main goal with Loppuny was to come in late game use Fake Out and then begin to wreck havoc. I decided to run a standard set with Lopunny, but with a catch. The fourth move will always be different and relies on what you think fits best. You can run Ice Punch for coverage against Dragon, Ground, Flying, and Grass, Power-Up Punch to increase your Attack Stat, Drain Punch to heal yourself, Fire Punch for coverage against Steel, Bug, and Ice, or Thunder Punch for coverage against Water and Flying. Again the last move is depended on what you face the most.


Conclusion:
I tried my best to make this look good and give as much detail as I could. I know this team my not be perfect, or super great, but I did my best and I manged to well with it. Also, if you couldn't tell the main idea of this team is to adapt to what Mono teams you face the most, that is why there is a lot of opinions on some of these mons. This maybe consider a short RMT and I forgot the threatlist and that is because I lost notebook with my notes on this team :(, but this my first RMT and I hope I did well.

Importable

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
- Heal Bell

Miltank @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Body Slam
- Milk Drink
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Ice Punch

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 144 HP / 188 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Return
- Crunch
- Curse
- Rest

Staraptor @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Defog
- U-turn

Meloetta @ Choice Specs
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Dazzling Gleam
- Focus Blast

 

[lax]

Hey, dude! Interesting team :o here's a rate:

• I'm assuming that the slash means you're unsure, so I can try and help out with that. Regarding Snorlax, I definitely think you should pick Crunch out of the 3 slashed moves. Crunch helps with beating the ghost immunity and deals neutral damage vs steel or rock mons that you set up on. EQ doesn't seem that relevant because you set up and do a lot of damage vs types like fire and electric and they have a lot of ground immunities. EQ doesn't really help with steel also because they can easily go to skarm so the best bet is to get off as much damage as they phaze you. Gunk Shot has poor accuracy, little PP, doesn't really help with coverage at all and is just not worth it. The only thing it can really hit is fairy and grass types which take a lot from boosted returns regardless.
• Next thing I'd suggest is a rather huge change. I'd change Blissey to Chansey. Blissey is actually a lot frailer than Chansey is because chansey is able to utilize the item eviolite which is huge because their stats are very similar. There's a difference between, say,
  252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 518-612 (73.5 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO and
  252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 708-834 (99.1 - 116.8%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
  I'd also move stealth rocks to Chansey > Thunder Wave as its extremely fat normally being able to get rocks up in any situation and miltank can be replaced with a different mon. The rest of the set is good.
• With Chansey carrying rocks, you can finally complete the fat duo with Porygon2 > Miltank. Porygon2 is an amazing mon on normal and extremely fat. It also has a diverse movepool allowing you to hit many types. I'd recommend for your team, Toxic, Ice Beam, Foul Play, Recover. Toxic to cripple fat mons that would other wise wall you, foul play for set up mons, ice beam for that naturally good coverage, and recover to heal. Porygon2 is definitely one of the main normal type defensive walls.
• Next, changing raptor to scarf and replacing defog with your slashed attacking move double edge would definitely benefit your team and give it fast, offensive presence and momentum. Scarf raptor helps a ton with fighting teams and is a strong mon in general.
• You also had a bunch of slashes for meloetta's move. I'd definitely go Shadow Ball to be able to have nearly perfect coverage, hitting nearly every type incredibly powefully. It completes the moveset.
• Ok, you have a ton of slashes for lop's last move. My own recommendation is encore. Encore is a really useful move because you can force a mon to be locked into a status move such as rocks, set up, or a heal move, granting you to damage it or momentum. Encoring a wall into recover spamming allows you to switch out into a wallbreaker that can actually damage and scare it out.

That's what I suggest, here are the sets:

Sets

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat/Immunity
EVs: 144 HP / 188 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Return
- Crunch
- Curse
- Rest

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rocks
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Heal Bell

Porygon 2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Foul Play
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Recover

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Double Edge
- U-turn

Meloetta @ Choice Specs
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Encore

GL!

 

[MaxtheLax]

• I'm assuming that the slash means you're unsure, so I can try and help out with that. Regarding Snorlax, I definitely think you should pick Crunch out of the 3 slashed moves. Crunch helps with beating the ghost immunity and deals neutral damage vs steel or rock mons that you set up on. EQ doesn't seem that relevant because you set up and do a lot of damage vs types like fire and electric and they have a lot of ground immunities. EQ doesn't really help with steel also because they can easily go to skarm so the best bet is to get off as much damage as they phaze you. Gunk Shot has poor accuracy, little PP, doesn't really help with coverage at all and is just not worth it. The only thing it can really hit is fairy and grass types which take a lot from boosted returns regardless.
• Next thing I'd suggest is a rather huge change. I'd change Blissey to Chansey. Blissey is actually a lot frailer than Chansey is because chansey is able to utilize the item eviolite which is huge because their stats are very similar. There's a difference between, say,
  252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 518-612 (73.5 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO and
  252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 708-834 (99.1 - 116.8%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
  I'd also move stealth rocks to Chansey > Thunder Wave as its extremely fat normally being able to get rocks up in any situation and miltank can be replaced with a different mon. The rest of the set is good.
• With Chansey carrying rocks, you can finally complete the fat duo with Porygon2 > Miltank. Porygon2 is an amazing mon on normal and extremely fat. It also has a diverse movepool allowing you to hit many types. I'd recommend for your team, Toxic, Ice Beam, Foul Play, Recover. Toxic to cripple fat mons that would other wise wall you, foul play for set up mons, ice beam for that naturally good coverage, and recover to heal. Porygon2 is definitely one of the main normal type defensive walls.
• Next, changing raptor to scarf and replacing defog with your slashed attacking move double edge would definitely benefit your team and give it fast, offensive presence and momentum. Scarf raptor helps a ton with fighting teams and is a strong mon in general.
• You also had a bunch of slashes for meloetta's move. I'd definitely go Shadow Ball to be able to have nearly perfect coverage, hitting nearly every type incredibly powefully. It completes the moveset.
• Ok, you have a ton of slashes for lop's last move. My own recommendation is encore. Encore is a really useful move because you can force a mon to be locked into a status move such as rocks, set up, or a heal move, granting you to damage it or momentum. Encoring a wall into recover spamming allows you to switch out into a wallbreaker that can actually damage and scare it out.

• The slashes are there to mean either one can be taken.
• I was trying to avoid using the Chansey and Porygon2 core, because of it being so common and predictable. So I chose Blissey and Milktank and they were fairly decent.
• I was going to post a second set up for Staraptor using Choice Scraf using the same exact set you posted, lol, but I didn't think it would be allowed. I didn't want to run two Choice Pokemon either, since i have heard that is a bad idea.
• Meloetta and Mega-Lopunny almost always ended up being the mons that helped me win matches, so I changed their moves a lot to help me take on common teams I was facing like Water, Flying, Psychic, Dark, and Ghost.

Those are my reasons behind what I did. I am fairly new to competitive Pokemon, so I thought it was a good idea to have your Pokemon adapt to what you were facing the most. Thanks for rate and tips, friend.