Project Monotype Rising Sets VIII - Submissions

[Showl]

Approved by moderation

Monotype Rising Sets

Welcome to the eighth edition of the Monotype Rising Sets that aims to unveil the future of Monotype. You have been using an unknown set for a long time or have just thought about a new way of using a Pokémon? Come sharing your findings with the community!

This event will be run in the form of a contest. You will have 3 weeks to submit ONE set of your choosing for whichever Pokémon, before a poll is launched in the Monotype room to determine the winning set.

Rules:

• Only one post per person is allowed.
• Both the Pokémon and the set you want to feature are up to you.
• A set is valid if and only if it does not exist in the Monotype SV SmogDex.
• Item/Move-swap sets are not allowed, unless they change fundamentally the way the Pokémon is used.
• You may import your set from your PS! teambuilder or write it down.
• Your set proposition must include the following elements: set, description, potential teammates, and either replays or damage calculations.
• Replays and damage calculations must showcase the set's uniqueness, so choose them wisely.
• Please convey the uniqueness of your set while avoiding emphatic language ("It's the greatest set ever!")
• Do not react to other submitted sets in your post, focus on yours.

Hereunder you will find the accepted format for submissions as well as an example of accepted and rejected sets.

Player proposition format

Name of the set + Pokémon name + (Type) (ex: "Choice Specs Dragapult (Dragon)")

(you may import the set directly from your PS! teambuilder)

Pokemon @ Item
Ability:
EVs:
x Nature
- move 1
- move 2
- move 3
- move 4

Set Description

Describe what your set is achieving, which niche does it fill? Why is it interesting in the current metagame?

Teammates

Describe who would be the ideal teammates to surround it with which set.

Replays OR Damage calculations (doing both is accepted)

1. xxx
2. xxx
3. xxx

They should be commented and help you to make your point.

Rejected

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Flip Turn
- Close Combat
- Poison Jab

Changing one coverage move by another does not change the way the set is used, it is still Choice Band Barraskewda inside.

Accepted

Barraskewda @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Muscle Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Flip Turn
- Close Combat
- Psychic Fangs

By swapping Choice Band with HdB or Muscle Band, the way the pokémon is used drastically changes. Now Barraskewda acts as an Offensive Pivot, which comes with its own perks. Changing the moveset is not mandatory, but it does not mean the moveset should be lazily copy/pasted from an existing set. Your moveset should always be backed up with arguments.

Rewards:

• ^ rank on Monotype room for a month
• The winning set will be featured in the Monotype room
• Addition of the set in the SmogDex

If you feel the heart of a builder, come sharing your best craft with the community!

Deadline for set submission is November 27th @ 11:59pm GMT-5​

 

[Showl]

Past editions winning sets
​

Edition​	Set​	Submitter​
March 2025​	Choice Scarf Chomp (Ground) Dragon Dance Kommo-o (Dragon)​	cpt.kraken RoyalReloaded​
May 2025​	Bulky Wisp Darkrai (Dark)​	Wincon​
June 2025​	Assault Vest Emboar (Fighting)​	cpt.kraken​
July 2025​	Weakness Policy DD Dragapult (Ghost)​	Wilsondude​
August 2025​	Choice Band Urshifu-R (Water)​	Wincon​
September 2025​	Close Combat Weakness Policy Ceruledge (Ghost)​	Molemitts​
October 2025​	Dual Screens Prankster Meowstic-M (Psychic)​	Jahkem​
November 2025​	TBD​	TBD​

 

[Molemitts]

Banded Trapper Trapinch - Ground

Pinched (Trapinch) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Arena Trap
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack
- Stone Edge/Superpower

Don’t you hate when you’re playing ground and your opponents have pesky pokemon like and that keep ohkoing your pokemon and switching out when you try and revenge? Look no further! It’s time to get pinching, baby!

Set Description:

The basic concept of this set is to abuse Trapinch’s ability, Arena Trap and, for the most part, click First Impression with a reasonable base 100 attack and a Choice Band. This set can trap key threats that would otherwise be free to escape and (continue to) poke holes in your team. Notably Meowscarada, Greninja, Samurott-Hisui, Darkrai, Ogerpon-Wellspring take supereffective damage from the bug typing on First Impression and are priority ohkoed while trapped. These are not the only pokemon that are trapped and killed but they are notable threats to a ground team.
With 252 hp invest you can also trap and easily 1v1 certain walls that could otherwise prove problematic. Notably, Toxapex and a grounded Skarmory (foreshadowing is my favorite literary device) were two pokemon that I trapped and killed several times during my testing. The team I was using had a lack of special attackers, but trapping certain special walls like Blissey could be beneficial to a team with a more balanced physical/special attacking structure.

First Impression and Earthquake are the moves you will almost always be clicking. It’s usually going to be the former unless you’re breaking a wall. Quick Attack is another priority option that can be used for endgame scenarios to not give free turns or for if First Impression is like 4x resisted or something. The last slot is usually not going to be clicked, but Trapinch gets a couple relevant, high base power coverage moves you can slot there on the off-chance a scenario comes up that it would be necessary not to click the other 3 moves.

Teammates:

Trapinch is notably not usually able to do what he does without support from his bros. Water Absorb Clodsire was a no-brainer teammate, and being that the nature of this Trapinch gives free turns after doing his thing, it seems prudent to slot an Unaware Quagsire. These two are also good at stacking hazards for chip that let me put things into range for Trapinch to clean them up. Another teammate that proved himself extremely valuable in supporting what trapinch was Sub/Bulk Up Landorus-Therian with Smack Down. This turns airborne targets that would otherwise be immune to Arena Trap’s effect to be trapped and slammed with either First Impression or EQ from our little guy.

Replays:

Calcs:

The OHKOs

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Meowscarada: 720-848 (245.7 - 289.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 374-440 (131.2 - 154.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ogerpon-Wellspring: 312-368 (103.6 - 122.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Samurott-Hisui: 322-380 (100.3 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Darkrai: 294-348 (104.6 - 123.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 356-420 (101.4 - 119.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

There’s The Big Pinch trapping and OHKOing 5 of the scary pokemon for a fat ground structure and a little bonus dragon ownage for your pleasure.

Chip Required

Unfortunately, some pokemon that you want to murder are neutral to what you’re doing here with The Pinchler. To use our “free win” button we need to set our guy up for the slam dunk.

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ogerpon-Hearthflame: 156-184 (51.8 - 61.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

This one is probably the trickiest to set up, frankly speaking. Half to guarantee the kill is quite significant chip. Landorus-Therian has been more or less vital in setting this kill up for Trapinch and preventing an all-out disastrous loss to Trailblaze Hoger. Scarf Iron Treads has also been useful for putting hoger into range. Hazards are just not as reliable a way to get this chip versus fire because of Cinderace and just how low you actually need to get hoger. Regardless, I’ve pulled this off several times and it has been a crucial moment in each match I have done it.

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Ice Greninja: 187-220 (65.6 - 77.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Ice Meowscarada: 181-213 (61.7 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

With two rounds of hazards or any hit on these two they are trapped and in pinching territory. Not much to say really. You can’t always get Trapinch in on them before Protean triggers.

These are the important ones that come to mind, as these mons just break apart fat ground if left unchecked for too long.

Walls

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 240-284 (79.2 - 93.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Trapinch Earthquake vs. 16 HP / 252 Def Blissey: 444-523 (67.7 - 79.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

These are the two walls that come to mind that can be notably frustrating to break if allowed to freely pivot on you that Trapinch really owns.

Here’s a defensive calc from the VR post that pikachu<3 made and the relevance that he explains.

252+ Def Skarmory Body Press vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Trapinch: 189-223 (64.2 - 75.8%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after 3 layers of Spikes

in case they Whilwind you into 3 layers of Spikes while Smacked Down and try to Bpress to kill.

Shoutout and special thanks to pikachu<3 for being another true believer who prays at the altar of the pinch. He was particularly helpful during the early cooking process of what teammates to surround Trapinch with, and continued testing teams and eventually, impressively got an account that would be reqs legal for the current suspect (had he not already gotten reqs) while only using Trapinch ground. If that doesn’t show that there’s a niche here, I don’t know what does.

Check out his VR update submission for Trapinch as well!

(I’m feeling lazy right now after all that writing and will drop my replays with brief descriptions later)

 

[londi g]

Web Setter Leavanny (Grass):

Stickbugged (Leavanny) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Overcoat
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 160 HP / 84 Atk / 12 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect / Lunge
- Sticky Web
- Triple Axel / Poison Jab / Knock Off / Pounce

Set Description:

Grass has quite a few mons that would be very threatening, if it weren't for their speed. Indeed, the standard grass team's only form of speed control is Scarf Meowscarada. Leavanny can remedy this by being a solid sticky webs setter that also offers further utility in the form of screens and a myriad of useful moves to choose from for its last slot.
The given EV spread allows Leavanny to survive Choice Band Dragapult's Dragon Darts as well as Choice Specs Iron Crown's Tachyon Cutter, which would otherwise bypass Leavanny's Sash. The rest of EVs are used to maximise speed and then attack.
Sticky Webs is Leavanny's main role, enabling its slower teammates to become real threats. Light Screen and Reflect serve as further support, making it easier to set up with teammates. Alternatively, Lunge can serve a similar purpose as Reflect. The last slot has to be an attacking move to prevent Leavanny from being fully passive, but there are many viable attacks to choose from: Triple Axel targets lead Garchomp and Gliscor, Poison Jab targets Hatterene on the switch that would try to bounce back your webs, Knock Off is a general utility option, and Pounce serves to slow down enemy leads that would try to setup on Leavanny.

Teammates:

-Scarf Meowscarada is still required to handle fast scarfers and flying types, but the sticky webs make its job a lot easier, as it no longer needs to be the only answer to every fast threat.
-Breloom, with loaded dice or swords dance, is an excellent abuser of sticky webs, as it can punch massive holes into enemy teams with Bullet Seed, but it can also provide utility with Spore
-Ogerpon-Heartflame is also great at abusing Laavanny's webs and screens, and with its already good speed, can only be stopped by a select few scarfers and walls
-Brambleghast, with an offensive set, utilises its good attack to do massive damage with Poltergeist, while also providing spikes, hurricane immunity, and hazard removal
-Rotom-Mow is the special attacker of choice over Sinistcha here, as it greatly eases the flying matchup, which ignores sticky webs, and also provides Will-O-Wisp support

Calculations:

Defensively:
252 Atk Choice Band Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 160 HP / 0 Def Leavanny: 278-330 (83.9 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 160 HP / 12 SpD Leavanny: 278-330 (83.9 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Offensively:
84 Atk Leavanny Triple Axel (120 BP) (3 hits) vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Gliscor: 324-388 (92 - 110.2%) -- 60.7% chance to OHKO
84 Atk Leavanny Triple Axel (120 BP) (3 hits) vs. 244 HP / 244+ Def Gliscor: 248-296 (70.4 - 84%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal
84 Atk Leavanny Triple Axel (120 BP) (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garchomp: 408-484 (97.1 - 115.2%) -- 96.6% chance to OHKO

84 Atk Leavanny Poison Jab vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 102-120 (32 - 37.7%) -- 0.3% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery (may seem unimpressive, but remember you have a 30% chance to poison)
84 Atk Leavanny Poison Jab vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ogerpon-Hearthflame: 148-176 (49.1 - 58.4%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO

84 Atk Leavanny Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dragapult: 196-232 (61.8 - 73.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

84 Atk Leavanny Lunge vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Samurott-Hisui: 230-272 (71.6 - 84.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Replays:
coming soon

 

[Pengairxan]

[SET]
Slowking-Galar @ Expert Belt / Heavy-Duty Boots
Name: Offensive Trick Room (Poison)
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Power Gem / Focus Blast / Psyshock

[SET COMMENTS]
With Trick Room, Galarian Slowking can become a devastating late game cleaner for Poison teams making use of Trick Room to outspeed and delete everything. Ice Beam provides vital coverage managing to snipe problematic Flying- Ground, and Dragon-types such as Tornadus-T, Gliscor, Great Tusk, and Latios. Flamethrower melts Steel-types like Skarmory, Gholdengo, and Excadrill along with catching out some threats such as Alolan Ninetales and Amoonguss. Finally Galarian Slowking has a lot of valuable last moves to run as a last option. Power Gem completely cleans up against Flying being a great way to handle Articuno and Moltres along with slamming Fire-types such as Volcarona and Torkoal, Focus Blast deletes Heatran and Mamoswine and is the best option for chunking Dark-types like Greninja and Darkrai should Glowking be in trick room, while Psyshock gives a STAB option that is good for getting through special walls like Blissey and Clodsire. Expert belt is the preferred item enabling Glowking to always OHKO Gliscor (even max/max variants), 2HKOing mixed Def Corviknight with Flamethrower, and having a chance to OHKO offensive Heatran while boots can give safe entry onto hazards.

Choice Specs Gengar makes for an excellent teammate alongside this variant of Galarian Slowking as Gengar can more reliably smash through the likes of Steel and Ghost with its Shadow Ball which otherwise presents a large issue for Galarian Slowking. Okidogi and Sneasler can similarly provide support into Steel while also being excellent at breaking through special walls and Dark-types such as Blissey, Ting-Lu, and Hisuian Samurott. Parting Shot Pecharunt can pivot Galarian Slowking in while also being able to check Bullet Punch Scizor with Foul Play and can appreciate Trick Room allowing it to underspeed Ceruledge. Otherwise Standard teammates such as Alolan Muk, Amoonguss, and Galarian Weezing are also helpful and don't really care about Trick room being up except for Amoonguss who can abuse Trick Room to fire of a very free and fast Spore.

[SET COMMENTS Other Options]

Surf can be ran as a last option being able to cover all the Fire-type options that we want to hit like Volcarona, Heatran, and Moltres in one slot along with being good for hitting Mamoswine reliably, however the lacking power and all the other options being better at their job makes Surf less desirable. Shuca Berry can allow a healthy Galarian Slowking to freely use Trick Room or one of its offensive tools infront of foes like the Landorus formes, Iron Treads, and Gliscor. Life Orb is a very nice power boost, at the cost of Galarian Slowking's already reduced bulk, enabling it to 2HKO Assault Vest Tornadus-T with Ice Beam and have a 87.5% Chance to OHKO offensive Heatran (up from Expert Belt's 37.5%). Fire Blast is a move and can OHKO Phys Def Corv after SR Chip, but I hate low accuracy options when something more reliable exists, power be damned.
Earthquake is still your best option for Alolan Muk.

Calcs

252+ SpA Expert Belt Slowking-Galar Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gliscor: 398-470 (112.4 - 132.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Expert Belt Slowking-Galar Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Corviknight: 204-242 (51 - 60.5%) -- 88.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Expert Belt Slowking-Galar Power Gem vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Volcarona: 394-466 (108.2 - 128%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Expert Belt Slowking-Galar Focus Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Heatran: 290-343 (89.7 - 106.1%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Expert Belt Slowking-Galar Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 160 Def Clodsire: 370-439 (79.7 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery (87.5% chance to OHKO 4 Def EVs Clodsire)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9monotype-2470478074?p2 Vs Ground (Only replay I have as if you notice by the date, the suspect was soon after and screw using Poison for suspect laddering, I need to meta)