Project Monotype Core Laddering Challenge: Challenge #7 (Water + Poison)

Namranan

:)))))))))))
approved by Council.
hosted by Namranan, co-hosted by Perish Song


(Banner coming soon!)
Monotype Core Laddering Challenge Cycle 1
Starter Squad and Alternative Options
2 Standard Cores, April 27 - May 11

Water
:ss/inteleon: :sm/Primarina:
Intellion + Primarina
Tag : CCSSWa1
Hall of Fame Rankings:

Platinum: 1600+
Gold: 1475+
Silver: 1350+
Bronze: 1250+


Poison
:ss/Toxtricity: :sm/roserade:
Toxtricity + Roserade
Tag: CCSSPo1
Hall of Fame Rankings:

Platinum: 1550+
Gold: 1450+
Silver: 1325+
Bronze: 1250+


Note: This project is now lead by Namranan and cohosted by Perish Song. So now all questions and suggestions regarding to CLC should be directed towards us now and not Illama, the former leader.

To register to participate in a core challenge, you must reply to this forum with the proper information to be eligible! See the example post below for details. This also applies for submitting peaks (with that said please keep all of your information onto 1 post)! Otherwise, refer to the Index Thread for the official rules and info on this project. Please make sure to post replays of your Hall of Fame Rankings, failure to do so will result in your post being ignored.

In order to win this challenge, one player must obtain the highest ladder peak with the given core. In order to be eligible for winning the challenge you have to either post a replay of your peak (Highest elo reached) or take a screenshot of your accounts highest rank on ladder. The person with the highest rank at the end of the week is the winner of the challenge and will get posted in a new hall of fame in the Index thread along with the team they were using. If you win, please PM the team to Perishing Song or Namranan along with a brief description of the team and how you got the elo you got to. (Replays are much appreciated)

Remember to keep track of your Win/Loss ratio because the person with the best ratio out of 30 games can get a shoutout after the challenge has ended. To submit your Win/Loss ratio just take a screenshot of your record and post it in your registration. The team with the best record will be added to its own Hall of Fame. That being said, if you win the challenge you must PM Namranan or Perishing Song your team with a brief description of how it works. If you do this even without winning you will still have your team posted in an honorable mentions section. You get 1 extra point this cycle if you submit your team.

Discussion on the cores is welcome as long as you are constructive and abide by smogon's forum rules.

Have Fun!​
 
Name: its.huey
Ladder alt: CCSPo1 ozy, CCSWa1 ozy
Peaks: 1480 (Poison), 1577 (Water)
Hof replays:
Poison:
Water:
W/L ratio: 43/21 - this was real struggz (Poison), 39/9 (Water)

Not sure I'll go for Plat at this point. ToxRade core was pretty tough, and I tried to do classic Balanced Poison in the beginning. This requires Toxapex/GalarWeez as a minimum, w/ ScarfGar being crucial for speed control. Leaves a tough choice between Skuntank/Drapion for the Psychic immunity or Salazzle to handle Steel, provide much needed speed and add additional stalliness. This got merk'd by any team with Psychic or Earthquake coverage thanks to general frailness and struggled to threaten much in return. Most games, I found myself with Pex against the world.

Dumping that idea, I thought I'd give Poison HO a shot and was pleasantly surprised how well this worked out. This approach allowed me to run ScarfGengar, Lead Drapion, and Sub Plot Salazzle, with a pretty useful Air Balloon Croak for much needed super-effective-against-Psychic priority. Outside of pretty much getting 6-0'd by Indeedee, actually found this style more consistent against every other typing.

EDIT: realized i forgot an S in my alts, rip.
 
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Name: sunriseXpress
Ladder Alt: CCSSWa1 sxp
Current Peak: 1577
HoF Replays: (Ladder didn't update on the first two, but they're accurate)
W/L Ratio: 33/7 - it was 24/6 when I hit my first 30!

Pelipper @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Scald
- U-turn
- Ice Beam

Rotom-Wash @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 100 Def / 148 SpD / 12 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder
- Defog
- Hydro Pump

Seismitoad @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Liquidation
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

Inteleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Soak
- Liquidation
- Substitute
- Swords Dance

Primarina @ Assault Vest
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 160 HP / 236 SpA / 112 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Hydro Pump
- Energy Ball
- Moonblast

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Spe
- Scald
- Toxic Spikes
- Recover
- Haze
Gonna be honest, this has been a lot of fun! Definitely have a newfound appreciation for Primarina, she's super solid. I wish I could say Intelleon was actually awesome, but I struggled to find ANY way to get him to contribute to the team. I know, I know - Specs/Hydro Pump. Which would be cool, but Pelipper already slings crazy damage with Specs. Started with Life Orb for revenge kills, didn't work. Eventually I came up with the insanity you see here. He's crazy hard to make use of, but it never hurts having an extra body around. I truly believe I'd have just as much, or only slightly less success if I had just 5 Pokemon.

These guys work well together. They can all tank hits and have the necessary firepower to strike back. I'm not gonna do a huge writeup or anything, especially since it would mostly be about how Intelleon is always slacking, but there's a lot going on here with the stats behind the scenes. A lot of specific answers to specific threats - this team works well only if you keep it on a swivel. The hard part is maneuvering around hazards and supereffective attacks, but once you line up the killers they go to WORK. Rain is the most important thing on this team, since it turns even Toxapex's humble Scald into a threat beyond burn. If Pelipper and Seismitoad are deployed wisely, even Grass and Electric teams can be swept under the rug.

Definitely gonna keep climbing with these guys, this is one of the most solid teams I've ever put together. Feel free to check it out, copy it, cteam it or whatever! It's a solid start but certainly has room to develop further (looking at you, Intelleon).
 
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Name: GuzzlesOwO
Ladder Alt: CCSSPo1 GuzzlesOwO
Peaks: 1500
Hof Replays:
Bronze - Ladder Didn’t Update but this is where I hit 1250
Silver - Again, no update but it’s where I hit 1350
Gold
W/L Ratio: 18/12 (my first 30)

The Team

I’m going to be honest, the team was really hard to work with in the beginning. I decided that I was going to go with the basic mons, Toxapex (stall), Galar Weezing (ground immunity), Gengar for speed control and instead of Drapion/Skuntank I decided that I would go with Salazzle for the steel matchup since Steel is much more common than Psychic, as well as Salazzle really helping in the Ice matchup, somewhat walling Alolan Ninetales.

So essentially this was a balance poision. I decided to make the Toxtricity Shift Gear and Life Orb, so I can have much needed Speed, this made the finished set Sludge Wave and Overdive (for STAB) as well as Boomburst for extra high power damage. As for roserade, I decided to go with Choice Specs - and it worked really well! It really posed a threat as a special wallbreaker with a decent amount of coverage, a decent speed tier and OHKOs most ground mons poison has a trouble with. For the final Roserade set I decided to go with Energy Ball, Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb and Dazzling Gleam. Roserade and Gengar really helped the Ghost matchup, but my team essentially got 6-0ed by hatterene unless I can stall trick room turns - honestly it got killed by pretty much any Psychic threat but Gengar outspeeds most threats with Choice Scarf and Roserade OHKOs Hatterene.

252 SpA Choice Specs Roserade Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Hatterene: 416-492 (130.8 - 154.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Honestly, the hardest mon to work with was Toxtricity, and being honest I would put Skuntank/Drapion over it any day - it worked sometimes but to do that, it needed a really nice mon to set up on, like Torkoal or Avalugg - but if it did get that Shift Gear boost it could do huge damage to the opposing team - you sometimes may have to get rid of walls like Piloswine before hand but after that it’s quite usually a clean sweep. Essentially, this team was really fun to work with and I might continue working with it and improving it.

Final Peak
 
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Namranan

:)))))))))))
Thank you all for participating, sorry for leaving this dead for over a month but I've been trying to think of ways to rework this project to make it more entertaining, So for now this will be the final CLC until further notice.

That being said, I would like to congratulate its.huey and sunriseXpress for winning the water challenge with a tied elo peak. Very impressive! I'll add your teams to the hall of fame as soon as I can. Also congrats to GuzzlesOwO for winning the Poison challenge with a peak of 1500. Very good!

As for W/L ration wins I will congratulate GuzzlesOwO for winning the poison one and sunriseXpress for winning the water one. Good work you two!

Now while there were no platinum ranks, I would like to personally say this was probably the best CLC we have had so far, as it encapsulated what I intended to do with this project. Develop the metagame and give attention to lesser used mons and their niches. Thank you for the feedback and for talking so much about your results on this forum, I wish previous challenges had more of this activity. I'll announce in the mono room when the next CLC will be so until then Chaitanya please merge this thread with the index thread. Thank you all for participating!
 

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