Resource Monotype Sample Teams

It's Madness... · Apr 4, 2018

Stakataka Steel

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 148 SpD / 108 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
- Trick Room

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 24 Atk / 232 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock

Stakataka @ Rockium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Lonely Nature
IVs: 15 Def / 0 Spe
- Stone Edge
- Gyro Ball
- Trick Room
- Earthquake

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Swords Dance

Celesteela @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Flash Cannon
- Air Slash
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Toxic

This is an offensive team with a focus on Trick Room, but doesn't necessarily rely on it, taking advantage of the natural bulk many Steel-types have to offer, while having a variety of speed control methods. Half the team is well-known sets everyone knows, and the rest are tweaked to support the team's needs.

Jirachi is one of the two Trick Room setters, as two is really all you need. It's specially bulky to survive many hits, like Magma Storm, so it can set Trick Room against almost any Special attacker. It serves as a viable lead option against many types, as this team has no strictly dedicated lead. It has 108 Speed so it can consistently outspeed Breloom, using Zen Headbutt to knock it out quickly. Once Trick Room is set, the Speed will make you usually move last, allowing you to absorb a hit while you U-Turn into a sweeper you don't want to risk.
For alternate versions of the set, you could use Healing Wish, to ensure your sweepers can stay alive even longer, Heart Stamp, or changing Speed as you like.

Heatran is the other best lead option, as a Stealth Rock setter with enough power to KO many things the team might otherwise struggle with, like Mega Sableye. This versatility makes it work as a good lead or sweeper. You could replace a move with Taunt if you want another stallbreaker, but between Scizor, Celesteela and Stakataka, as well as Toxic Excadrill, not much can wall this team.

Stakataka is the other TR setter, and just having it in play can often end a match. It survives many hits like Mega Gyarados's Waterfall and defensive Gliscor's Earthquake due to the extreme Physical bulk it has even when made for an Attack Beast Boost. Like Jirachi can set up against nearly any Special attacker, Stakataka works against most Physical.

Mega Scizor has enough Physical defense to be 3HKOed even in base form by attacks like Scarf Heracross's Close Combat, giving you time to set up and start sweeping. Bullet Punch is especially important as it's nice to be able to consistently move first on a team with intentionally slow Pokemon. Knock Off is for Pokemon like Chansey and Jellicent, but you could run Bug Bite, though the Bug STAB isn't really important on Steel. You could also run more Speed to make Azumarill and other Pokemon around that level a little easier to deal with.

Celesteela is the team's primary Special sweeper, using two STABS, a reliable draining move that can KO Ground and Water types that otherwise threaten the team, and a powerful Fire attack for Pokemon like Ferrothorn or Skarmory. Assault Vest gives it great longevity in conjunction with Giga Drain, even allowing it to take out Garchomp 1v1. Once it gets a Beast Boost, it snowballs easily, and causes Giga Drain to heal it even easier.

Excadrill is emergency speed control, being able to take out a variety of opponents from rival Steel-types to Fire-types like Mega Charizard Y when you may not be able to set TR. Toxic is great to catch Physical walls like Hippowdon, Porygon2, and Physical bulk Zapdos off guard. I opted not to use Rapid Spin because Spikes are rare outside of Fairy and Grass, which are easy matchups anyway, Steel resists Stealth Rock, is immune to Toxic Spikes, and Sticky Web is actually doing this team a favor.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-710717354

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-710947836

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-711749707

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-712148860

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-712742387

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-708727717

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-712204429

Dusky™ · Apr 17, 2018

Harpp said:
Balanced Ground Team:

Excadrill @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

Seismitoad @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 80 HP / 252 SpA / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Knock Off

Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Gravity
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Sludge Wave

Dugtrio @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Reversal
- Sucker Punch
- Sludge Wave

Garchomp @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Fire Fang

: Choice banded excadrill acts as a very good sweeper/cleaner on the team as it can take out opposing pokemon easily with sand rush and sand stream support. Choice band and adamant nature to make out the most of its physical prowess. Iron head is a stab move that helps a lot in fairy match up. Earthquake is the main stab move here hitting very hard with a choice banded boost and earthquake having a very good offensive coverage. Rockslide is for flying types such as Mega charizard y,Gyarados,zapdos and so on.Lastly rapid spin is to clear out hazards as excadrill forces switches. Jolly Nature is used to outspeed scarf Greninja in sand.

: Hippowdown is a very good partner to excadrill,providing it with sand stream which makes it possible for excadrill to outspeed a large chunk of the metagame in sand. Hippowdown is a physical wall for the team with stealth rock support to pressure types such as flying and bug. Earthquake is used as an attacking move so that hippowdown is not a total taunt bait. Whirlwind is to phaze out potential set up sweepers and to rack up stealth rock damage. Slack off is used for sustain/recovery.Leftovers is used as an item for more longetivity.

: Seismitoad on the team is crucial as it has the ability water absorb which helps a lot vs water types/moves. Seismitoad is used here over gastrodon as it has more offensive presence. Assault vest set is used here to let it sponge special attacks for the team.As for the moves,scald is a stab move with a very good chance to burn the opponent, earthpower helps vs grounded steel types.Knock off is a great utility move that certainly helps in normal match ups and to cripple pokemon that are item reliant such as porygon2 and chansey. Lastly sludge wave helps vs threatening pokemon to ground such as azumarill and tapu bulu. 176 speed evs with a timid nature ensures that seismitoad outspeeds adamant banded tapu bulu and hit it first with sludge wave.

Landorus is the special wallbreaker in the team with its strong life orb and sheer force boosted attacks that makes it very hard pokemon to switch into.Gravity allows landorus to better check pokemon such as celesteela which are pain to deal with otherwise for the team. Gravity allows teammates to freely use Earthquake without fearing a switch in to flying type or levitate user.Focus blast is mainly used here for ferrothorn and air balloon heatran. Sludge wave is used here for fairy types such as tapu bulu,tapu fini etc.

Dugtrio on the team with its great ability in arena trap allows it to trap and take out grounded threats to the team such as greninja and Raichu alola effectively. Dugtrio can also trap and kill/weakened pokemon such as chansey and make a way for landorus to wreck havoc. Earthquake is its main go to move for taking out threats. Reversal in combination with focus sash allows for a very strong fighting type attack as it reaches 200 base power once dugtrio is down at focus sash. Sucker punch allows it to revenge kill faster pokemon such as alolan raichu without losing its focus sash and memento helps in easier set up opportunity for a teammate such as swords dance garchomp. Sludge Wave is used for Tapu bulu which is huge threat for a mono ground team.

: Swords dance garchomp rips apart defensive teams and gains upper hand easily. Earthquake is a reliable stab move that hits very hard after a sword dance boost. Dragon claw can be used as dragon stab as well however the damage is unimpressive, outrage is used to hit ridiculously hard and to wall break in combination with dragonium z as it reaches 190 base power move. Fire fang is used for steel types as after a boost it can blow throw most steel types.

EDIT:Updated with changes.
Edit2: Updated with changes.

Just a small question: what about slashing Psychic as an OO on Landorus? I noticed this team has some small issues against MegaVenusaur, and even though MonoGround just walks on MonoPoison's bones, I think Psychic can be useful to keep MegaSaur at bay:

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 28 SpD Venusaur: 296-351 (81.3 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 28 SpD Venusaur: 296-351 (81.3 - 96.4%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 28 SpD Venusaur: 296-351 (81.3 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage

Just asking since I'm relatively new to Monotype, and only played MonoPoison (which, with MegaSaur/Crobat, can somehow handle MonoGrounds)

GnralLao · Apr 17, 2018

Dusky™ said:
Just a small question: what about slashing Psychic as an OO on Landorus? I noticed this team has some small issues against MegaVenusaur, and even though MonoGround just walks on MonoPoison's bones, I think Psychic can be useful to keep MegaSaur at bay:

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 28 SpD Venusaur: 296-351 (81.3 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 28 SpD Venusaur: 296-351 (81.3 - 96.4%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 252 HP / 28 SpD Venusaur: 296-351 (81.3 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage

Just asking since I'm relatively new to Monotype, and only played MonoPoison (which, with MegaSaur/Crobat, can somehow handle MonoGrounds)

Hi!

Earth Power already 2HKOes M-Venusaur and even if it uses a more specially defensive spread, the Sand greatly hampers the effectiveness of Synthesis. So Psychic isn't really needed, especially if it's for a single target (or two including Crobat, but Gravity is a thing) that Landorus already takes care of nicely.

Oh and Garchomp's Devastating Drake OHKOes M-Venusaur at +2.

Dusky™ · Apr 17, 2018

K, didn't see the +2 DDrake, thanks :)

Guwahavel · May 12, 2018

I thought that a second Ice sample might be nice.

Offensive Ice (feat. Avalugg+Piloswine Defensive Core)

This is a fairly standard Ice team that showcases some mons not in the current sample, like Avalugg, Piloswine, and Cloyster. Despite Ice being a poor defensive typing, Aurora Veil combined with the sheer bulk of the defensive core lets this team stand up against many strong attackers while using Cloyster and Scarf Mamoswine as strong cleaners with support from Alolatales and Kyu-B.

Kyurem-Black is a staple on almost every Ice team due to it being a fantastic mixed wallbreaker that can deal with pesky Steel and Water types extremely easily. This set runs the standard coverage of Ice Beam, Fusion Bolt, and Earth Power, with HP Fire used over Roost so the team has a way of offensively pressuring Mega Scizor and dealing with Ferrothorn easily.

Avalugg is the best physical wall and defensive Rapid Spin user Ice has access to, being able to take strong physical hits throughout the battle. Avalanche gives Avalugg decent offensive presence, Recover lets it sustain itself, and Roar lets it not be complete setup bait against things Avalanche doesn't hit for relevant damage. Rocky Helmet is preferred over Leftovers so it can rapidly wear down physical attackers combined with hail.

Ninetales-Alola is one of Ice's saving graces, supporting the team with Aurora Veil so the entire team can tank hits better. Dual stabs let it exert good offensive pressure and deal with Mega Sableye, and Encore shuts down passive mons, particularly Stealth Rock setters so they can be managed easier.

Piloswine becomes a bulky special tank while holding an Eviolite, and Thick Fat lets it handle special attacking Fire types quite nicely. Earthquake and Rock Slide let it threaten most offensive Fire mons. Stealth Rock is mandatory on almost any competitive team and running it here allows Mamoswine to run a more offensive set. Toxic wears down attackers and puts them on a timer. 12 Attack EVs guarantee Volcarona is OHKOed by Rock Slide.

Cloyster is a strong late-game cleaner with Shell Smash that can find a decent number of setup opportunities thanks to it's solid physical bulk and Aurora Veil. Rock Blast and Icicle Spear with Skill Link, combined Z-Hydro Pump sweeps through the majority of the metagame after a boost. 144 SpAtk EVs are run to OHKO Bulky Mega Scizor with Hydro Vortex after rocks at +2.

Mamoswine with a Choice Scarf provides valuable speed control and handles a number of threats to Ice teams, and has good late-game cleaning potential. Dual stabs hit the majority of the metagame for strong damage, Stone Edge lets it deal with threats like Charizard Y and Mega Pinsir, and Superpower lets it deal with Mega Lopunny. However, Knock Off could be run over Superpower to also improve the Normal matchup by weakening the Eviolite Core.

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 30 Def / 30 SpD
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Avalugg @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Avalanche
- Roar
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast
- Aurora Veil
- Encore

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Cloyster @ Waterium Z
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 112 Atk / 144 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Blast
- Icicle Spear
- Hydro Pump
- Shell Smash

Mamoswine @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Superpower

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-746327983 vs. HO Dark

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-746338081 vs. Balance Water

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-746347847 vs. Balance Normal

Vin Flint · Jul 21, 2018

Whiscash Stall Water - "Triple Degenerator"

Yes, this team has a Whiscash on it. No, it's not a liability, Whiscash is an important piece to this team, and it functions excellently. It's a hidden gem from the lower tiers that complements the other tanks on this team. I have peaked at #7 on the ladder with this team at a rating of 1766 solely with this team, and I'll put replays below to further show that this isn't just a meme, it's a legitimately scary team. This team is easy to use, extremely effective, and is a lot of fun to use, so I think it would be a good team to put down as a sample team for new players to pick up. I will go in depth about matchups and playstyle below.

Whiscash @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Rest
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Whirlpool

Pelipper @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
- Scald

Toxapex @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze

Slowbro-Mega @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Calm Mind
- Fire Blast

Slowking @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Power Gem
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heal Bell
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Scald

So to start, we have to address the elephant in the room, Whiscash. This is a trapping set intended to kill things that cannot fight back. Whirlpool + Toxic are a great way to chip at an annoying enemy wall, and Earthquake is a solid stab move that deals a lot of damage to electric types, one of this team's few weaknesses (although I should mention here that the mono-electric matchup is actually favorable to the player using this team, I'll go more in depth below). Finally, rest rounds this set out by giving Whiscash a recovery option as well as an effective PP stall method. Whiscash has great synergy with Pelipper, as it is able to spam rest in the rain and wake up immediately with its ability, Hydration. Hydration also allows Whiscash to heal its other statuses without wasting a PP for rest or Lanturn's heal bell. Although primarily a trapper, Whiscash can also simply lay down toxic if it is unfavorable to use a turn to click Whirlpool. This set is able to completely sweep bulkier teams without ways to set up or hit Whiscash hard. Combine all of this with its underrated bulk, and Whiscash is the star of this team.

The next Pokemon on this team is Pelipper. This is on here pretty much as the defogger of this team. A common tactic to beat stall is to set up multiple hazards so that it is hard to switch back and forth between walls, so Pelipper is crucial to stopping this. Most hazard setters are relatively weak, making it possible for Pelipper to safely defog and roost after if it takes any damage. Its ability to set rain for a few turns is also important for this team. Besides having synergy with Whiscash, as previously mentioned, the rain also boosts the power of scald on Slowbro, Slowking, Toxapex, and Lanturn as well as itself, which can actually let this team deal damage beyond just clicking Toxic. This is especially helpful against mono-steel because you cannot just Toxic stall the enemy. Overall, this is just a safe, standard pick for mono-water. Mantine is also possible here, but I prefer Pelipper for the rain synergy with Whiscash which has been crucial in many match ups.

The third pick starts to introduce the primary defensive core of this team that I dubbed "triple degenerator." Toxapex, Slowbro, and Slowking all get the ability regenerator, which allows them to switch back and forth to heal without using any moves while wasting the opponent's PP. I've mentioned PP a lot in this description, and I'll go further in depth below, but PP stall is a very viable, and sometimes necessary, strategy with this team, but sometimes it leaves the opponent helpless. Regenerator switching can help mitigate the effects of hazards if Pelipper goes down too early to remove rocks, and overall it keeps this core healthy throughout the game. Anyway, Toxapex is the only hazard setter on this team with T-Spikes. This is obviously to spread status so that you can focus on keeping your walls alive and healthy while your opponent slowly loses his Pokemon. Toxapex is also one of the few members of this team able to take a grass type attack. This makes it a crucial part of beating any mono-poison team with Mega Venusaur or in having a fighting chance vs Tapu Bulu mono-fairy. Scald is a standard move used to deal little bits of damage as well as potentially burn targets that you can't poison, and Haze prevents enemy sweepers from setting up. Recover rounds this set out by giving Toxapex a recovery move to spam as the opponent dies slowly to poison damage. This set is nothing special on its own, but in combination with the rest of the team, it can become a monster.

The next mon up in the triple degenerator core is Mega Slowbro. Mega Slowbro, having one of the highest defense stats in the game, makes for a great physical wall against any team, regardless of type matchups. It is not always in your best interest to immediately mega evolve, as Slowbro does get access to regenerator. This set's main purpose is to sweep the enemy once they have been thoroughly stalled out by setting Calm Minds and attacking with Scald and Fire Blast. Scald is just a standard stab move, and Fire Blast hits steel types and grass types for super effective damage, specifically Ferrothorn who, without Fire Blast coverage, would be able to single handedly take care of this entire team. Finally, Slack Off gives Slowbro recovery that allows it to take on the likes of Tyranitar and other strong physical attackers.

The final mon in this disgusting core is Slowking, the special wall counterpart to Mega Slowbro. With Assault Vest, Slowking eats almost every unboosted special attack out there barring electric terrain electric type attacks. When I was talking about Pelipper, I deliberately left out how you could use it to win the weather wars vs monofire teams that use Charizard-Y because Slowking covers that problem. Slowking takes between 30% and 40% from solar beam, and it hits back hard with Power Gem (more precise calcs below). Slowking only fears mons that set up, which Toxapex covers nicely, or physical mons that Slowbro walls. Ice Beam is handy in dealing 2x damage to dragon types such as Hydreigon and the Lati's. The main weakness of this mon comes in the fact that it cannot use recovery moves, but regenerator covers for that nicely, allowing the player to switch between two regenerator mons until Slowking is up to the health it needs, provided that it isn't taking too much damage in between switches.

The last mon to round this team out is Lanturn, this team's main answer to electric types. Lanturn has few weaknesses, which makes it very good for taking a hit and spreading Toxic to another mon. More importantly, however, Lanturn has access to Heal Bell, which can remove Toxic or burn from your own Pokemon. This has some synergy with Whiscash as well, especially if Pelipper was already knocked out, because you can Heal Bell the sleep from Rest away. Finally, Volt Switch gives Lanturn the ability to slow pivot into something else as well as lay down decent electric stab damage against certain targets, and Scald rounds the set out by being a solid move to use in general.

This team has a pretty simple playstyle, being a stall team: residually whittle down at your opponent while keeping your own Pokemon alive. Generally you want to send in something that can take a hit from the mon that is out at the moment, then recover the damage away while they switch out to deal with your new wall. Throughout this whole process, try to set up Toxic Spikes if they would help you against the other team (so don't set them against mono-poison, steel, or flying lol), and always try to deal residual, permanent damage on things that cannot recover. Against opponents that can recover, try to toxic them if you can, or force them to use their recovery moves and PP stall them. At this point, I should bring up PP stall because it's an important skill to have for any budding stall player. There are a lot of matchups that are only winning because the regenerator core is able to PP stall. Against Mega-Venusaur poison, Toxapex + Slowking can completely stall out leech seed PP as well as Giga Drain by swapping in and out thinking about it. In other scenarios, you can PP stall a lot of mons with recovery by trapping them with Whiscash and using Toxic or Earthquake to deal damage over time. This is best seen against Chansey, which can get rid of the Toxic damage by simply switching out. However, if you can trap the Chansey and then Toxic it, then you can make the Chansey waste a bunch of Soft-boiled PP before it is freed from Whirlpool. Eventually, if you can get rid of all of the Soft-boiled PP, you no longer have to worry about being walled out because scalds over time will remove Chansey from the game. PP Stalling may not be the most fun way to play this game, but it's also an important skill for a stall player to have, regardless of their team. If someone wants to pick up this sample team in the first place, they probably enjoy stalling the opponent out so the PP stall aspect of this team probably won't be that much of an issue for them anyway. It's not like you need to PP stall against every matchup anyway, and I'll go through each type below and whether or not PP stall is necessary.

Here, I will go over some special cases that are important to success in laddering. Some types have relatively uncommon threats that change the matchup entirely, or have threats that require a specific playstyle to defeat, so I will go over those here.

Grass: Just to get this out of the way, you will almost invariably lose to this type. It's not worth explaining all of the things you can try to do to win because you just won't. I don't advocate for forfeiting based on matchup alone, so I would still encourage you to play the game, but don't get your hopes up about this matchup. It's ok though, every other matchup is winnable, and mono-grass is uncommon anyway.

Normal: The normal type matchup should be easy barring maybe Diggersby. Diggersby's pure damage dealing power can tear through many of the walls on this team. The only thing that can take a hit is Mega Slowbro, which takes between 38% and 45% from banded Return. If you can somehow set up a position where you can land a Scald on the Diggersby, you have a chance at an OHKO, so Slowbro is your best bet for this threat. Otherwise, Mono-normal is basically freelo. Send Slowking in on Meloetta every time (unless they are a random Relic Song set), trap Chansey and Porygon2, spread Toxic everywhere, and stall the game out like any other stall team. This matchup is 90-10 in your favor, 60-40 if they run Diggersby.

Water: Against other water teams, it is crucial to trap Toxapex with Whiscash and PP stall the recover. Once Toxapex is fully PP stalled out, you should be able to kill it with Whiscash after trapping it again. From there, Toxic Spikes should be able to win the game. Otherwise, just focus on spreading Toxic to everything you can. Toxapex can come in pretty safely on Greninja every time, even if it is running Extrasensory since that only deals 53-63%. Against rain, Slowking walls Kingdra hard and Pelipper walls most Mega Swampert sets since they don't run Stone Edge much anymore. Although, if you want a safer option, Slowbro walls Swampert as well. The only big threat that water poses is that Manaphy can set up and ruin your team with one Tail Glow. Although Slowking can take a few hits from Manaphy, Manaphy can ultimately force Slowking to switch to heal with regenerator and take out other things on your team. If Manaphy comes in, immediately switch to Lanturn and start chipping away at it using Volt Switch and Slowking's Scalds. It's important to point out that Toxapex cannot easily Haze these Tail Glows away because most Manaphy carry Psychic, which deals too much damage for Toxapex to stay in. Also, since most Manaphy sets run Z-Rain Dance, you cannot use Toxic to stall Manaphy out because it also gets Hydration to heal it. You have to deal damage using Lanturn and Slowking before it gets fully set up to beat it. Overall, against most Water teams you have a favorable 70-30 matchup and against Manaphy Water, that drops to 40-60, but it's still doable.

Electric: Recently, after perfecting the playstyle against electric type teams, I have found that this team actually has an 80-20 favorable matchup against mono-electric. In this matchup, I abuse Lanturn to set Toxic everywhere while taking little damage in return. Tapu Koko Grass Knot deals almost nothing to Lanturn, and I can use Volt Switch and Scald to whittle Tapu Koko down after setting Toxic on it. Lanturn can also heal itself by eating electric type attacks if you can make decent predictions. Finally, Whiscash can trap and kill everything on Mono-Electric that doesn't have a grass type move including Rotom-W, Zapdos, Magnezone, Zeraora, and Mega-Manectric, among others. I will post replays below as a model of how to play this matchup well.

Dragon: This matchup would be extremely easy if not for Kyurem-B. Kyurem can click Fusion Bolt on most of the team, and Ice Beam deals over half to Whiscash. Thankfully, Mega Slowbro takes less than half from Fusion Bolt, making it a good counter to Kyurem. Furthermore, if your opponent no longer has a way to Toxic your Slowbro, you can just Calm Mind sweep them. Since Shell Armor makes it impossible to land a critical hit, you can get guaranteed set up and win easily. Slowking also walls Hydreigon pretty hard, even though Hydreigon has Dark Pulse. This matchup is probably 70-30 or 80-20 depending on how well you play.

Fairy: If Tapu Bulu didn't exist, this matchup would be almost free. However, Tapu Bulu will completely blow through this team, whether it has Choice Band or not. Choice Scarf Grassy Terrain Wood Hammer, the most common set, deals at least over half to everything on this team if it doesn't outright OHKO it, and things only get worse if it can set up or has Choice Band. However, not all hope is lost, as if you can land a Scald burn, then this matchup is a lot more doable. You might have to sacrifice a mon or two, but if you can land the burn on Tapu Bulu, then Toxapex walls it hard. From there, if you can deal with Diancie and Tapu Koko, you will be able to win this matchup. I would put this matchup at 30-70 against this team since Scald has a 30% chance of burning.

Poison: Only thing to remember is that Toxapex hard walls Muk-Alola and that you can beat Venusaur-Mega through PP stall. Otherwise, this matchup is pretty free. 80-20.

Vs Psychic https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-774999620
Vs Electric https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-771587482
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-771443494
Vs Fairy (an example of how to take down Tapu Bulu and to showcase that once Bulu goes down there is little way for fairy to break Toxapex)
EDIT I messed up and forgot to post the replay and I lost it, but basically I got a Toxic off on the Tapu Bulu and let it die from Toxic + Wood Hammer recoil. Then I proceeded to snack on his team.

Thanks for checking out this team regardless of whether it makes it or not. I decided to post this team because A. There was no stall water sample team and I feel like having two balanced water teams was redundant when stall water is very possible and although not common, still around here and there. B. Whiscash is very underappreciated IMO, which makes sense because Swampert does a lot of what Whiscash does except better (actually, Swampert can run the exact same set with better stats, just without access to Hydration). However, I think that the few sets Whiscash can run that Swampert cannot (rest stall with Hydration in the rain) are noteworthy and strong enough to be noticed.

Guwahavel · Jul 28, 2018

Just dropping a couple of changes that would bring the existing teams more up to date. I tried to keep this not as personal preference but mostly what the norms are of team building in the current meta.

Curse Muk > Assault Vest Muk
Curse Muk has become the standard set ran on most balanced dark teams due to it being a great bulky-wincon while still reliably switching into special attackers thanks to the ability to heal itself.

Muk-Alola @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Gluttony
EVs: 248 HP / 12 Def / 248 SpD
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Recycle
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab

Change Tyranitar to 252/252
Chople Berry Tyranitar is really not used anymore, it generally runs max SpDef these days to serve as a special wall and hazard setter and let Mandibuzz check the physical attackers.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Rock Slide
- Thunder Wave

More Speed on Gliscor
Since Gliscor serves as the team's consistent Heatran switch-in (Charizard fears Stone Edge and can't switch in if rocks are up), it probably makes sense to run enough speed to outrun it. This also lets it outpace threats like Adamant Diggserby.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 152 SpD / 112 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Roost
- Taunt
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Switch the Toxic User
Chansey being the Toxic spreader is almost a given since it is able to avoid Toxic itself thanks to Natural Cure, whereas Porygon2 forces a "status exchange" when facing an opposing Toxic user. Porygon2 can either opt to carry Thunder Wave itself or run a Download+3 attacks set.

Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock
- Soft-Boiled

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Ice Beam
- Thunder Wave
- Recover

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Discharge
- Hidden Power [Fire]

HP Fire > Sludge Bomb and EV adjustments
HP Fire provides much more useful coverage than Sludge Bomb, especially considering Poison teams do not struggle to spread status with Toxic Spikes+Poison Touch. Also the 32 SpDef EVs aren't needed when they are intended for Mega Alakazam, which is very rare and is trapped by Muk easily anyway.

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Synthesis
- Leech Seed

1 more point of Speed lol
This is tiny but 60 speed puts it at 201, so it can always U-Turn before a 16 Speed Mega Venusaur can hit it with HP Fire.

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 200 SpD / 60 Spe
Careful Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
- Swords Dance

FairyTailed · Jul 31, 2018

Hi. First I will comment on the current Ice Sample. Later today or this week, I will suggest a second one - a balanced ice team. Ice can play balanced and not just hyper offensive. It all depends on what match-ups you want to make easier. In advance I want to apologize for my formatting. I have no idea how to properly format on here.

Special thanks to Vid for learning me how to format!

My point of view on the current sample:

Weavile is a great mon for ice as it gives immense offensive pressure. Sadly, it's only really viable on a hyper offensive team, as is the case for the sample.

The set seems perfectly fine but Low Kick should at least be listed as an option over Pursuit. While Pursuit gives you the amazing advantage of locking Pokémon in place or chipping on a switch out, Low Kick actually provides some very welcome damage to the steel matchup, while also being able to OHKO Tyranitar and Mega Tyranitar (unless Mega Tyranitar is 252 hp 252 def, which never happens and even then it's a range). Low Kick was listed in the description of Smub's HO Ice, so I'm not sure why he didn't add it into the sample himself. It should at least be mentioned. In fact, I think it's better than Pursuit (see calcs below). I do not grasp the idea of not putting the option in the importable. People can easily press validate to check this or actually read the samples. If they do encounter a problem, the chat can certainly help them out.

Do I have to mention that Victini, listed as one of the examples to trap with Pursuit, actually lives a Pursuit if it stays in, even if it's at -1 defense? It doesn't even always die if rocks are up. 68,8% is not exactly a solid chance. While you're still in the better position, if you do opt for Pursuit and they stay in, the Psychic matchup suddenly becomes way harder.

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Pursuit vs. -1 0 HP / 0 Def Victini: 242-289 (70.9 - 84.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock.

Another example that was given was Marowak-Alola. What if the opponent sacks off their Marowak while you chose for Pursuit? It actually lives with ease:

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Pursuit vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Marowak-Alola: 151-179 (48 - 57%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock.

While I still believe Pursuit is a good move, it can be risky to use at times. Knock off does a ton of damage to the entire Psychic match-up and Ghost match-up anyway, which makes me believe Pursuit isn't exactly needed. I think Ice being able to punch through Steel and hard Rock types is much more valuable.

Some extra calcs:

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 307-361 (95 - 111.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 307-361 (79.5 - 93.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (60 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Excadrill: 244-289 (67.5 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Magnezone: 237-281 (84.3 - 100%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock (While also outspeeding even a scarfed magnezone)
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 294-346 (90.4 - 106.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kyurem-Black: 322-380 (82.3 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

etc...

There's definitely a case here to use less EV's in speed.

There's not a single Pokémon within the 60-65 base speed bracket that ever uses a Scarf or can boost his speed by 1 that actually beats Weavile's speed. They don't even reach close to 380.

1. Scarfed Magnezone reaches 360 speed.
2. +1 Tyranitar reaches 365 speed.
3. +1 Mega Tyranitar reaches 398 speed - which outspeeds full speed Weavile anyway.
...
(Feel free to check for yourself: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pokémon_by_base_stats_(Generation_VII-present) ).

So logically, let's see which Pokémon are around Weavile's 125 Base Speed stat that are actually played in Monotype.

A. Swellow

This mon is barely seen, while also being shut down completely by Rocks and Ice Shard.

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Swellow: 244-291 (93.4 - 111.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

B. Weavile
A counter match-up. Or maybe used on Dark? Let me tell you straight up that sacking any other Pokémon is better than risking a speed tie anyway. If somehow Weavile vs Weavile ends up being the last Pokémon on both teams, you probably have misplayed the match-up anyway. A speed tie here is a risk that should never be taken and thus max speed is also here not required.

A. Ribombee:

Ribombee is a harder one to decide on, as it OHKO’s Weavile with Moonblast, while Icicle Crash nearly always OHKO’s:
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Icicle Crash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ribombee: 259-305 (99.2 - 116.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock.

But of course, if Ribombee is used, it's always used as a Sashed Lead. So it will beat Weavile anyway even if Weavile does outspeed it at max speed. This mon can easily be taken care of by others and can be Ice Sharded later on if needed.

A. Noivern:

This mon is barely ever seen and can be OHKO'd by a single Ice Shard:

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Noivern: 395-468 (127 - 150.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

A. Greninja:

So this mon, is where I personally would stop with dropping speed. If you manage to Knock Off Greninja's scarf OR if he doesn't run one (Water), I would personally always like to outspeed this mon. This means that Weavile needs a minimum of 378 speed.

This means Weavile needs a speed investment of 232 which frees up 20 investments to be used elsewhere (HP, Def, SpDef).

Crucial on literally every ice team.

The set in the sample is the only viable set for Alolan-Ninetales and needs no changing.

The same case for speed investments could/should be made here. The only mons that reach the same speed are Ninetales-Alola, Heliolisk, Durant and Kartana, of which only Heliolisk sees actual play sometimes and usually is scarfed/specs anyway, which means Ninetales should never stay in on it. 347 speed is the minimum needed to outspeed non scarfed Infernape, Terrakion, ...

This means that 4 speed EV's can be placed elsewhere.

The set in the sample is the best viably set for Mamoswine on this particular team which lacks Piloswine as a Rocks setter. HOWEVER, Smub's sample had Thick Fat for Mamoswine, while the posted sample has Oblivious. This should obviously be corrected to Thick Fat.

I read a comment saying that that person doesn't like seeing Thick Fat over Oblivious on a Mamoswine set with Sash Rocks. Now let me ask you this: How do you intend to use your sash properly if it's broken vs fire mons? You run no Piloswine on this team.

Just a few examples:

252 SpA Blacephalon Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat Mamoswine: 248-294 (75.1 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Tough Claws Charizard-Mega-X Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Thick Fat Mamoswine: 306-362 (92.7 - 109.6%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat Mamoswine: 278-330 (84.2 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
0 SpA Heatran Lava Plume vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat Mamoswine: 164-194 (49.6 - 58.7%) -- 98.4% chance to 2HKO (Imagine Heatran with balloon)
252 Atk Infernape Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Thick Fat Mamoswine: 204-240 (61.8 - 72.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

(Note that nothing can taunt you anyway in the fire matchup besides Sash Nape lead, in which case you ALWAYS press EQ anyway)

There's just so many cases where I can think of that Thick Fat does more than Oblivious. You can only be stopped from dropping your own Rocks by Taunt. Nearly every lead that has Taunt is a lead that you preferably would lead something else against or EQ down. I can say this with over 100's of games of experience on many different accounts and builds.

Again a case could be made to drop some speed EV's for other investment. Adamant nature is not an option since it means you get outsped by the likes of Bisharp. You don't want to take the risk of getting Flinched, even with a sash. You also would like to outspeed Heatran and Banded Diggersby. And while undercutting Buzzwole seems great to take advantage of Endeavour, you usually want to keep this move for a Scarfed Heracross.

Since as sashed Mamoswine does not have Icicle Crash, there's no need to speed tie with max speed Dragonite, as your only option is to Ice Shard anyway, and Extremespeed will always take priority over Ice Shard.

At max 4 speed EV's should be taken off, unless you really want to undercut Buzzwole. Atleast 240 Speed EV's should be ran to speedcreep Diggersby. Earthquake does more damage to it than Ice Shard (unless Ice Shard can KO it's remaining HP, of course).

Again, the only set that I find viable for this kind of team. It needs Rapid Spin due to the lack of Avalugg, and thus can run Swords Dance. Maybe Icicle Crash could be dropped for a different coverage move. But as I'm writing this, I'm not sure which move. Maybe Rock Slide. But Icicle Crash does fine damage to Charizard Y as well, after which Weavile outspeeds it anyway. Without Icicle Crash it doesn't do anything against Flying either. Food for thought.

Here we go again. Time to drop Speed Ev's. Alolan-Sandslash has a Base Speed of 65, which brings it to a total of 251 speed - that is 502 in hail. It is crucial to check both speed in and outside of hail for speed tiers. However, please do immediately note that it does never outspeed scarfed base 103's. As Nihilego, f.e., hits 502,5 speed = 503 speed.

The only Pokémon that it has to outspeed without hail in the speed bracket of 61-65 base speed is a possible max speed normal Tyranitar. Which means it has to run at least 224 speed EV's.

Of course we should again discuss a possible counter matchup.

252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Sandslash-Alola: 205-242 (70.2 - 82.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 32 Def Sandslash-Alola: 198-234 (68 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Both sets (one with 224 speed and 32 defense) can 2HKO each other, which means the faster one should always win. It also has a chance of flinching with Iron Head, which also allows it to 2HKO, all though with a drop in chance of about 20%.

252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Iron Head vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Sandslash-Alola: 121-144 (41.4 - 49.3%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 32 Def Sandslash-Alola: 118-140 (40.5 - 48.1%) -- 61.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

The answer here depends on the use of Avalugg or Cloyster on your team. If it doesn't have either, run max speed. If it has Avalugg or Cloyster, switch to one of those. Avalugg completely walls it and lets it die to it's own Life Orb unless Slash gets 2 Iron Head flinches in a row. It can also Roar it out if it happens to have and use Swords Dance.

252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 133-159 (33.7 - 40.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 55-65 (13.9 - 16.4%) -- possible 7HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cloyster: 86-101 (35.6 - 41.9%) -- 76.6% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cloyster: 71-84 (29.4 - 34.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Let's start from the point of view that it has 224 speed EV's and reaches 244 speed. If you double that, you get 488. Let's find out what scarfers that hit, by dividing it by 1.5. You get 325,33...

That means that Slash will already outspeed any scarfers that have 324 speed. For example, Hydreigon.

We find that Hydreigon has a base speed of 98. We obviously want A-Slash to outspeed Charizard X after a Dragon Dance. Charizard X has 100 base speed and reaches 328 speed. After a Dragon Dance, that becomes 492. Which means Slash should at least have 493 speed in hail and thus have at least 247 speed without hail. This requires 232 Speed EV's.

Next up we have Thunderus-T and Landorus-I at 102 Base Speed and normal Garchomp at 103 Base Speed. I've never seen any of these run a scarf in monotype. But if you're the type of person that prefers to be better safe than sorry you need at least 498 speed in hail to outspeed the first two while you need 501 speed to outspeed Garchomp (assuming that his 499.5 gets rounded off to 500). Or otherwise said: 244 EV's for the first and 252 for the latter.

Conclusion: at least 232 speed EV's should be ran with a jolly nature, which means 20 EV's can be put into preferably HP or Defense.

Again, seems like the only viable set for the HO team. However, I prefer a Hasty Nature as it removes the chance for Tapu Koko with magnet to OHKO Kyurem after Rocks.

252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Kyurem-Black: 258-306 (65.9 - 78.2%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock (Naive)
252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kyurem-Black: 230-272 (58.8 - 69.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock (Hasty)

This also means that Porygon2 will not get a Sp. Attack raise as your Defense will be 212 and Special Defense will be 216.

Let's look at Speed Ev's again. All other Kyurem's you meet run either 1. exactly the same set, which mean it's just roost-fest or run 2. Iron head with a scarf, in which a speed tie doesn't matter or 3. Subzium Z which usually runs adamant so it can't Outrage you anyway if you need to hit it first. There's no need to tie with enemy Kyurem-B.

So let's repeat the process one more time. Kyurem at 95 Base Speed reaches 317 speed. This is only equaled by Gliscor (which never runs max speed) and by normal Sharpedo, which will protect anyway and 99% chance be a mega, which means it will outspeed nonetheless.

There's also no scarfers or speed boosters that I can think off in particular that might hit close to 317 speed.

So if we look down in the list, the first thing we see is Krookodile, which is sometimes used as a lead for Dark (or Ground). This mon hits a max of 311 speed, which means that 232 Speed EV's are sufficient.

This mon is actually very outdated on the sample. Even Smub himself does not use Lapras anymore but has switched to Cloyster. This is due to the fact that Specs Lapras has no speed and still locks itself into the move. Arguably the only matchups that are easier with Lapras in theory are Water (way easier) and Normal. The latter because Smash'd Cloyster can be stolen by Ditto and wreck your own team if you run Rock Blast.

Now of course, Lapras is still a very viable mon, but Cloyster is better in most matchups. Thus I would prefer to see Cloyster in this Hyper Offensive sample. Lapras gets 2HKO'd by bullet punch after +2 as well. Even by defensive Scizor.

Cloyster @ Waterium Z
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 112 Atk / 144 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Hydro Pump
- Rock Blast/Hidden Power [Fire]

All though HP Fire should probably be left out. Where it is a decent option to use against Scizor and Mega-Scizor without having to shell smash, it's usually still outclassed by Hydro Pump and Hydro Vortex. If you give Scizor a free +2 before going to Cloyster, you've already lost the match-up anyway, sadly. I wish it got a more reliable fire move. Running HP fire over Rock Blast could also be done so Ditto can't sweep your team. But I guess it's not worth the trade off. Might as well only list Rock Blast.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and give some thought to my insights.

TL;DR

Use Cloyster, adjust Mamoswine Ability as it does better in harder matchups, adjust Kyurem-B nature, adjust EV spreads and give Weavile Low Kick.

Guwahavel · Jul 31, 2018

FairyTailed said:
Hi. First I will comment on the current Ice Sample. Later today or this week, I will suggest a second one - a balanced ice team. Ice can play balanced and not just hyper offensive. It all depends on what match-ups you want to make easier. In advance I want to apologize for my formatting. I have no idea how to properly format on here. If somebody feels like doing it for me, feel free to pm me the formatted version, and I'll thank you gladly.

My point of view on the current sample:

1. Weavile:

Weavile is a great mon for ice as it gives immense offensive pressure. Sadly, it's only really viable on a hyper offensive team, as is the case for the sample.

A. Set:

The set seems perfectly fine but Low Kick should at least be listed as an option over Pursuit. While Pursuit gives you the amazing advantage of locking Pokémon in place or chipping on a switch out, Low Kick actually provides some very welcome damage to the steel matchup, while also being able to OHKO Tyranitar and Mega Tyranitar (unless Mega Tyranitar is 252 hp 252 def, which never happens and even then it's a range). Low Kick was listed in the description of Smub's HO Ice, so I'm not sure why he didn't add it into the sample himself. It should at least be mentioned. In fact, I think it's better than Pursuit (see calcs below). I do not grasp the idea of not putting the option in the importable. People can easily press validate to check this or actually read the samples. If they do encounter a problem, the chat can certainly help them out.

Do I have to mention that Victini, listed as one of the examples to trap with Pursuit, actually lives a Pursuit if it stays in, even if it's at -1 defense? It doesn't even always die if rocks are up. 68,8% is not exactly a solid chance. While you're still in the better position, if you do opt for Pursuit and they stay in, the Psychic matchup suddenly becomes way harder.

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Pursuit vs. -1 0 HP / 0 Def Victini: 242-289 (70.9 - 84.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock.

Another example that was given was Marowak-Alola. What if the opponent sacks off their Marowak while you chose for Pursuit? It actually lives with ease:

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Pursuit vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Marowak-Alola: 151-179 (48 - 57%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock.

While I still believe Pursuit is a good move, it can be risky to use at times. Knock off does a ton of damage to the entire Psychic match-up and Ghost match-up anyway, which makes me believe Pursuit isn't exactly needed. I think Ice being able to punch through Steel and hard Rock types is much more valuable.

Some extra calcs:

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 307-361 (95 - 111.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 307-361 (79.5 - 93.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (60 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Excadrill: 244-289 (67.5 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Magnezone: 237-281 (84.3 - 100%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock (While also outspeeding even a scarfed magnezone)
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 294-346 (90.4 - 106.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kyurem-Black: 322-380 (82.3 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

etc...

B. EV's:

There's definitely a case here to use less EV's in speed.

There's not a single Pokémon within the 60-65 base speed bracket that ever uses a Scarf or can boost his speed by 1 that actually beats Weavile's speed. They don't even reach close to 380.

1. Scarfed Magnezone reaches 360 speed.
2. +1 Tyranitar reaches 365 speed.
3. +1 Mega Tyranitar reaches 398 speed - which outspeeds full speed Weavile anyway.
...
(Feel free to check for yourself: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pokémon_by_base_stats_(Generation_VII-present) ).

So logically, let's see which Pokémon are around Weavile's 125 Base Speed stat that are actually played in Monotype.

1. Same Base Speed: 125

A. Swellow:

This mon is barely seen, while also being shut down completely by Rocks and Ice Shard.

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Swellow: 244-291 (93.4 - 111.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

B. Weavile:
A counter match-up. Or maybe used on Dark? Let me tell you straight up that sacking any other Pokémon is better than risking a speed tie anyway. If somehow Weavile vs Weavile ends up being the last Pokémon on both teams, you probably have misplayed the match-up anyway. A speed tie here is a risk that should never be taken and thus max speed is also here not required.

2. Base Speed 124:

A. Ribombee:

Ribombee is a harder one to decide on, as it OHKO’s Weavile with Moonblast, while Icicle Crash nearly always OHKO’s:
252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Icicle Crash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ribombee: 259-305 (99.2 - 116.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock.

But of course, if Ribombee is used, it's always used as a Sashed Lead. So it will beat Weavile anyway even if Weavile does outspeed it at max speed. This mon can easily be taken care of by others and can be Ice Sharded later on if needed.

3. Base Speed 123:

A. Noivern:

This mon is barely ever seen and can be OHKO'd by a single Ice Shard:

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Noivern: 395-468 (127 - 150.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

4. Base speed 122:

A. Greninja:

So this mon, is where I personally would stop with dropping speed. If you manage to Knock Off Greninja's scarf OR if he doesn't run one (Water), I would personally always like to outspeed this mon. This means that Weavile needs a minimum of 378 speed.

This means Weavile needs a speed investment of 232 which frees up 20 investments to be used elsewhere (HP, Def, SpDef).

2. Alolan Ninetales:

A. Set

The set in the sample is the only viable set for Alolan-Ninetales and needs no changing.

B. EV's

The same case for speed investments could/should be made here. The only mons that reach the same speed are Ninetales-Alola, Heliolisk, Durant and Kartana, of which only Heliolisk sees actual play sometimes and usually is scarfed/specs anyway, which means Ninetales should never stay in on it. 347 speed is the minimum needed to outspeed non scarfed Infernape, Terrakion, ...

This means that 4 speed EV's can be placed elsewhere.

3. Mamoswine:

A. Set

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The set in the sample is the best viably set for Mamoswine on this particular team which lacks Piloswine as a Rocks setter. HOWEVER, Smub's sample had Thick Fat for Mamoswine, while the posted sample has Oblivious. This should obviously be corrected to Thick Fat.

I read a comment saying that that person doesn't like seeing Thick Fat over Oblivious on a Mamoswine set with Sash Rocks. Now let me ask you this: How do you intend to use your sash properly if it's broken vs fire mons? You run no Piloswine on this team.

Just a few examples:

252 SpA Blacephalon Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat Mamoswine: 248-294 (75.1 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Tough Claws Charizard-Mega-X Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Thick Fat Mamoswine: 306-362 (92.7 - 109.6%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat Mamoswine: 278-330 (84.2 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
0 SpA Heatran Lava Plume vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat Mamoswine: 164-194 (49.6 - 58.7%) -- 98.4% chance to 2HKO (Imagine Heatran with balloon)
252 Atk Infernape Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Thick Fat Mamoswine: 204-240 (61.8 - 72.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

(Note that nothing can taunt you anyway in the fire matchup besides Sash Nape lead, in which case you ALWAYS press EQ anyway)

There's just so many cases where I can think of that Thick Fat does more than Oblivious. You can only be stopped from dropping your own Rocks by Taunt. Nearly every lead that has Taunt is a lead that you preferably would lead something else against or EQ down. I can say this with over 100's of games of experience on many different accounts and builds.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

B. EV's

Again a case could be made to drop some speed EV's for other investment. Adamant nature is not an option since it means you get outsped by the likes of Bisharp. You don't want to take the risk of getting Flinched, even with a sash. You also would like to outspeed Heatran and Banded Diggersby. And while undercutting Buzzwole seems great to take advantage of Endeavour, you usually want to keep this move for a Scarfed Heracross.

Since as sashed Mamoswine does not have Icicle Crash, there's no need to speed tie with max speed Dragonite, as your only option is to Ice Shard anyway, and Extremespeed will always take priority over Ice Shard.

At max 4 speed EV's should be taken off, unless you really want to undercut Buzzwole. Atleast 240 Speed EV's should be ran to speedcreep Diggersby. Earthquake does more damage to it than Ice Shard (unless Ice Shard can KO it's remaining HP, of course).

4. Sandslash-Alola:

A. Set

Again, the only set that I find viable for this kind of team. It needs Rapid Spin due to the lack of Avalugg, and thus can run Swords Dance. Maybe Icicle Crash could be dropped for a different coverage move. But as I'm writing this, I'm not sure which move. Maybe Rock Slide. But Icicle Crash does fine damage to Charizard Y as well, after which Weavile outspeeds it anyway. Without Icicle Crash it doesn't do anything against Flying either. Food for thought.

B. EV's

Here we go again. Time to drop Speed Ev's. Alolan-Sandslash has a Base Speed of 65, which brings it to a total of 251 speed - that is 502 in hail. It is crucial to check both speed in and outside of hail for speed tiers. However, please do immediately note that it does never outspeed scarfed base 103's. As Nihilego, f.e., hits 502,5 speed = 503 speed.

1. Base Speed stat: 65 Base Speed up to 251 speed.

The only Pokémon that it has to outspeed without hail in the speed bracket of 61-65 base speed is a possible max speed normal Tyranitar. Which means it has to run at least 224 speed EV's.

Of course we should again discuss a possible counter matchup.

252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Sandslash-Alola: 205-242 (70.2 - 82.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 32 Def Sandslash-Alola: 198-234 (68 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Both sets (one with 224 speed and 32 defense) can 2HKO each other, which means the faster one should always win. It also has a chance of flinching with Iron Head, which also allows it to 2HKO, all though with a drop in chance of about 20%.

252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Iron Head vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Sandslash-Alola: 121-144 (41.4 - 49.3%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 32 Def Sandslash-Alola: 118-140 (40.5 - 48.1%) -- 61.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

The answer here depends on the use of Avalugg or Cloyster on your team. If it doesn't have either, run max speed. If it has Avalugg or Cloyster, switch to one of those. Avalugg completely walls it and lets it die to it's own Life Orb unless Slash gets 2 Iron Head flinches in a row. It can also Roar it out if it happens to have and use Swords Dance.

252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 133-159 (33.7 - 40.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 55-65 (13.9 - 16.4%) -- possible 7HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cloyster: 86-101 (35.6 - 41.9%) -- 76.6% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Sandslash-Alola Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cloyster: 71-84 (29.4 - 34.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

2. Speed in hail

Let's start from the point of view that it has 224 speed EV's and reaches 244 speed. If you double that, you get 488. Let's find out what scarfers that hit, by dividing it by 1.5. You get 325,33...

That means that Slash will already outspeed any scarfers that have 324 speed. For example, Hydreigon.

We find that Hydreigon has a base speed of 98. We obviously want A-Slash to outspeed Charizard X after a Dragon Dance. Charizard X has 100 base speed and reaches 328 speed. After a Dragon Dance, that becomes 492. Which means Slash should at least have 493 speed in hail and thus have at least 247 speed without hail. This requires 232 Speed EV's.

Next up we have Thunderus-T and Landorus-I at 102 Base Speed and normal Garchomp at 103 Base Speed. I've never seen any of these run a scarf in monotype. But if you're the type of person that prefers to be better safe than sorry you need at least 498 speed in hail to outspeed the first two while you need 501 speed to outspeed Garchomp (assuming that his 499.5 gets rounded off to 500). Or otherwise said: 244 EV's for the first and 252 for the latter.

Conclusion: at least 232 speed EV's should be ran with a jolly nature, which means 20 EV's can be put into preferably HP or Defense.

5. Kyurem-Black:

A. Set

Again, seems like the only viable set for the HO team. However, I prefer a Hasty Nature as it removes the chance for Tapu Koko with magnet to OHKO Kyurem after Rocks.

252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Kyurem-Black: 258-306 (65.9 - 78.2%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock (Naive)
252 SpA Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kyurem-Black: 230-272 (58.8 - 69.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock (Hasty)

This also means that Porygon2 will not get a Sp. Attack raise as your Defense will be 212 and Special Defense will be 216.

B. EV's

Let's look at Speed Ev's again. All other Kyurem's you meet run either 1. exactly the same set, which mean it's just roost-fest or run 2. Iron head with a scarf, in which a speed tie doesn't matter or 3. Subzium Z which usually runs adamant so it can't Outrage you anyway if you need to hit it first. There's no need to tie with enemy Kyurem-B.

So let's repeat the process one more time. Kyurem at 95 Base Speed reaches 317 speed. This is only equaled by Gliscor (which never runs max speed) and by normal Sharpedo, which will protect anyway and 99% chance be a mega, which means it will outspeed nonetheless.

There's also no scarfers or speed boosters that I can think off in particular that might hit close to 317 speed.

So if we look down in the list, the first thing we see is Krookodile, which is sometimes used as a lead for Dark (or Ground). This mon hits a max of 311 speed, which means that 232 Speed EV's are sufficient.

6. Lapras

This mon is actually very outdated on the sample. Even Smub himself does not use Lapras anymore but has switches to Cloyster. This is due to the fact that Specs Lapras has no speed and still locks itself into the move. Arguably the only matchups that are easier with Lapras in theory are Water (way easier) and Normal. The latter because Smash'd Cloyster can be stolen by Ditto and wreck your own team if you run Rock Blast.

Now of course, Lapras is still a very viable mon, but Cloyster is better in most matchups. Thus I would prefer to see Cloyster in this Hyper Offensive sample. Lapras gets 2HKO'd by bullet punch after +2 as well. Even by defensive Scizor

Cloyster @ Waterium Z
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 112 Atk / 144 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Hydro Pump
- Rock Blast/Hidden Power [Fire]

All though HP Fire should probably be left out. Where it is a decent option to use against Scizor and Mega-Scizor without having to shell smash, it's usually still outclassed by Hydro Pump and Hydro Vortex. If you give Scizor a free +2 before going to Cloyster, you've already lost the match-up anyway, sadly. I wish it got a more reliable fire move. Running HP fire over Rock Blast could also be done so Ditto can't sweep your team. But I guess it's not worth the trade off. Might as well only list Rock Blast.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and give some thought to my insights.

TL;DR

Use Cloyster, adjust Mamoswine Ability, adjust EV spreads and give Weavile Low Kick.

I dont think every EV spread need to be hyper-optimized to creep certain things. Have you considered wanting to be able to Speed tie with the same Pokemon? Kyurem-Black should be running Naive so it can live an unboosted Bullet Punch from Mega Scizor easier. Tapu Koko’s only run Dazzling Gleam on Specs sets anyways making the provided calc innacurate. Also you seems to have a misunderstanding of how Pursuit on Weavile works. Victini and Alolan-Marowak are destroyed if they stay in on a Knock Off, so Pursuit is used to hit them hard if they try to switch out. Both listed examples will literally never be sacked by a smart player since they are huge threats to Ice teams. Lastly, you probably should condense text walls into Spoiler tabs since scrolling through is painful atm.

FairyTailed · Jul 31, 2018

Guwahavel said:
I dont think every EV spread need to be hyper-optimized to creep certain things. Have you considered wanting to be able to Speed tie with the same Pokemon? I especially found the Ninetales-Alola example confusing since it needs max Speed to tie with Keldeo and Coballion. Kyurem-Black should be running Naive so it can live an unboosted Bullet Punch from Mega Scizor easier. Tapu Koko’s only run Dazzling Gleam on Specs sets anyways making the provided calc innacurate. Also you seems to have a misunderstanding of how Pursuit on Weavile works. Victini and Alolan-Marowak are destroyed if they stay in on a Knock Off, so Pursuit is used to hit them hard if they try to switch out. Both listed examples will literally never be sacked by a smart player since they are huge threats to Ice teams. Lastly, you probably should condense text walls into Spoiler tabs since scrolling through is painful atm.

1. I think every EV spread should be hyper-optimized. In fact, it makes no sense to me not too. Why waste EV's if they can be used elsewhere more usefully? Why run 12 attack on Piloswine with Rock Slide to OHKO Volcarona? Everything should be optimized.

2. Ninetales-Alola doesn't. It has 109 BP, Cobalion, Terrakion, Infernape and Keldeo have 108, so it can lose 4 points there.

3. Yes, I considered wanting to speed tie in every single of my considerations and it was never worth it. Did you read the post?

4. Koko's don't only run Dazzling Gleam on specs. Magnet is still very common.

5. Only full offensive Mega-Scizor with no swords danse makes a difference with Rocks included. Not to mention if you run Naive anyway, you'll KO yourself with Life Orb by using a move that Mega Scizor can easily rest off. Of course in the best of best worlds you get Hydro Vortex on Offensive Scizor and you can get Kyurem B to press Earth Power to have a 2HKO, even with rocks up. But then what exactly are you going to use to beat Celesteela, Excadrill scarf, ...? And not to mention the chance of Mega-Scizor not having a Swords Danse up at that point is very low unless you lead with Cloyster.

6. I guess I'll have to re-look the Kyurem-B nature and re-evaluate some things anyway.

7. I do not have a misunderstanding of how Pursuit works. But think of it this way: if your opponent doesn't know you run Pursuit, you can get a free kill as he will always switch. If he knows you have Pursuit, he might very well reconsider. If Pursuit becomes the main stream move, things like that will start to happen. You also have to grasp the concept that when a player knows he'll get KO'd nonetheless, he'll just stay in. Not to mention that Knock Off already hits ALL Psychic types and ALL Ghost types that are used bar Mega Sableye - Which doesn't get hurt by anything Weavile throws at it. Compare this to the calcs I provided with Low Kick and Low Kick is an easy go every time. Steel Match-up is one of the hardest and OHKO'ing any Tyranitar is good too.

7. Lastly, at the start of my comment I posted I have no idea on how to format and if someone did, I'd gladly copy that.

Rei · Jul 31, 2018

FairyTailed said:
1. I think every EV spread should be hyper-optimized. In fact, it makes no sense to me not too. Why waste EV's if they can be used elsewhere more usefully? Why run 12 attack on Piloswine with Rock Slide to OHKO Volcarona? Everything should be optimized.

2. Ninetales-Alola doesn't. It has 109 BP, Cobalion, Terrakion, Infernape and Keldeo have 108, so it can lose 4 points there.

3. Yes, I considered wanting to speed tie in every single of my considerations and it was never worth it. Did you read the post?

4. Koko's don't only run Dazzling Gleam on specs. Magnet is still very common.

5. Only full offensive Mega-Scizor with no swords danse makes a difference with Rocks included. Not to mention if you run Naive anyway, you'll KO yourself with Life Orb by using a move that Mega Scizor can easily rest off. Of course in the best of best worlds you get Hydro Vortex on Offensive Scizor and you can get Kyurem B to press Earth Power to have a 2HKO, even with rocks up. But then what exactly are you going to use to beat Celesteela, Excadrill scarf, ...? And not to mention the chance of Mega-Scizor not having a Swords Danse up at that point is very low unless you lead with Cloyster.

6. I guess I'll have to re-look the Kyurem-B nature and re-evaluate some things anyway.

7. I do not have a misunderstanding of how Pursuit works. But think of it this way: if your opponent doesn't know you run Pursuit, you can get a free kill as he will always switch. If he knows you have Pursuit, he might very well reconsider. If Pursuit becomes the main stream move, things like that will start to happen. You also have to grasp the concept that when a player knows he'll get KO'd nonetheless, he'll just stay in. Not to mention that Knock Off already hits ALL Psychic types and ALL Ghost types that are used bar Mega Sableye - Which doesn't get hurt by anything Weavile throws at it. Compare this to the calcs I provided with Low Kick and Low Kick is an easy go every time. Steel Match-up is one of the hardest and OHKO'ing any Tyranitar is good too.

7. Lastly, at the start of my comment I posted I have no idea on how to format and if someone did, I'd gladly copy that.

Thing is this isn't some 1v1 metagame (Sorry that was I meant) shit where you are trying to EV in a way to live some type of attack, or whatever. Shifting EVs like this is not helping much. Moving 4 EVs into HP or something on Ninetales is not gonna make it live anything. Lemme just go tho all of this since I play Ice a lot and used some wack sets. Weavile with Low Kick is an ok option for Rock- Dark- and Steel-types, but Pursuit is a lot better to chip off Pokémon that are weaken to the point where they will not live as Pursuit doubles in attack if the opp switches out. This does a lot to for the Psychic mu as is and also helps with the latis on Dragon that are locked into Psychic. Weavile is frail as is, and adding 20 EVs is not making it live anything that it would not without investment. Now with Mamoswine, it runs Oblivious so it will not get taunted. It is meant to set up rocks, and then Endeavor slower Pokémon then it, or Ice Shard for some chip. Again, shifting EVs on Sandslash is not gonna do much as the rolls still end up the same. I dunno about Kyurem running Hasty nature as now it gets KOed from full from Bullet Punch unlike if it was running Naïve. Cloyster or Walrein is better than Lapras right now, and is the only change I can see from this. Walrein has Thick Fat which can help with Fire-types and its only drawback is mostly in its movepool as it does not get Freeze-Dry. All I can say is that shifting EVs without a reason is pretty bad unless its needed like Piloswine with 12 Attack EVs.

Eien · Jul 31, 2018

I won’t rehash the other correct arguments others posed but there are also hidden metagame impacts of trying to EV like this.

If everyone runs 312 Speed Kyurem-B, then Zapdos that wants to Substitute stall Kyurem-B also drops to 313, at which point Kyurem raises to 314, Zapdos to 315, etc. until we’re back to 317 Speed Kyurem-B. There are many underlying reasons we do not do this sort of “optimizing” that are not immediately obvious. This is exactly why we do not care whether you use Frustration or Return vs. a 255 or 0 Happiness Ditto. It is purely meta and does not matter in the long run.

This is not limited to Kyurem-B either in your suggestions. Take Mamoswine as well. Many Pokémon end up in a growing Speed trap when trying to EV in this range. You want to outspeed Adamant Excadrill by being 276, but you might as well be 279 to outspeed Heatran too, then 280 for Lucario and Meloetta, then 281 for Jolly Diggersby, then 285 for Mamoswine, then 288 for Gyarados, then 290 for Kyurem-B. Trying to be clever and cheat the system by exactly Speed creeping will never work on a larger metagame stage because you’re thinking in too narrow of a space without considering the other parts of what makes up the USUM Monotype metagame.

Remember what sample teams are meant to do. They represent the metagame for new players to learn from. Doing these “optimizations” doesn’t just run counter to the goal of samples. It outright opposes it by imposing false trends upon the metagame that would need to be slowly corrected at the cost of the new players that accidentally set them who won’t even know what went wrong. For what it’s worth, actual optimizations are always welcome if they benefit the team. These hurt the team even if we ignore the metagame impacts.

I’m going to ask that we move on from this topic to avoid pointlessly derailing this resource. There are other much more suitable locations for this sort of discussion like the Monotype room or the SQSA thread if you want to understand EVing and spread creation.

FairyTailed · Jul 31, 2018

Eien said:
I won’t rehash the other correct arguments others posed but there are also hidden metagame impacts of trying to EV like this.

If everyone runs 312 Speed Kyurem-B, then Zapdos that wants to Substitute stall Kyurem-B also drops to 313, at which point Kyurem raises to 314, Zapdos to 315, etc. until we’re back to 317 Speed Kyurem-B. There are many underlying reasons we do not do this sort of “optimizing” that are not immediately obvious. This is exactly why we do not care whether you use Frustration or Return vs. a 255 or 0 Happiness Ditto. It is purely meta and does not matter in the long run.

This is not limited to Kyurem-B either in your suggestions. Take Mamoswine as well. Many Pokémon end up in a growing Speed trap when trying to EV in this range. You want to outspeed Adamant Excadrill by being 276, but you might as well be 279 to outspeed Heatran too, then 280 for Lucario and Meloetta, then 281 for Jolly Diggersby, then 285 for Mamoswine, then 288 for Gyarados, then 290 for Kyurem-B. Trying to be clever and cheat the system by exactly Speed creeping will never work on a larger metagame stage because you’re thinking in too narrow of a space without considering the other parts of what makes up the USUM Monotype metagame.

Remember what sample teams are meant to do. They represent the metagame for new players to learn from. Doing these “optimizations” doesn’t just run counter to the goal of samples. It outright opposes it by imposing false trends upon the metagame that would need to be slowly corrected at the cost of the new players that accidentally set them who won’t even know what went wrong. For what it’s worth, actual optimizations are always welcome if they benefit the team. These hurt the team even if we ignore the metagame impacts.

I’m going to ask that we move on from this topic to avoid pointlessly derailing this resource. There are other much more suitable locations for this sort of discussion like the Monotype room or the SQSA thread if you want to understand EVing and spread creation.

Fair, but can you still look at Low Kick Weavile and Cloyster? Even Smub the sample user uses Cloyster over Lapras in that spot. The only comment about it actually agreed with that.

OrangeGuru · Jul 31, 2018

FairyTailed said:
While I understand what you mean, Guwahavel didn't even know that A-Tales had 1 BP more than Keldeo/...
Being a renowned and long time monotype player doesn't always mean everything. While I certainly think they have much knowledge and probably more all around knowledge than me, I wouldn't be surprised if I knew more about the ice type. I've been using it for an extremely long time and even when I play OU/AG/... I often use full ice teams. Just for fun.

I'm also not really pro the argument "listen because they know more". I'd rather have the smarter people enlighten me as well. Why am I wrong, etc.

That's fine and all, but it seems you ignored the rest of my post about the actual speed tie and how your own Low Kick Weavile beats you if you don't go for the speed tie. My argument wasn't "shut up and listen to better people;" it was more about take into account what more experienced battlers are telling you, especially when it comes to EVs

Guwahavel · Jul 31, 2018

Bulky Offense/Balance Mega Latias Psychic

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 176 SpD / 80 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 120 SpD / 136 Spe
Timid Nature
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Soft-Boiled

Slowbro @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Fire Blast
- Scald
- Slack Off

Latias-Mega (F) @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Recover
- Refresh

Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Brick Break
- U-turn

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Trick
- Defog

Pretty standard balanced/bulky offense (I honestly don't know what to call it lol) featuring some of Psychic's big threats that currently are unrepresented in the samples. Jirachi serves as the team's hazard setter and can pivot with U-Turn since it is able to force alot of switches due to the fear of crippling status or flinch spam, with enough speed to outspeed Adamant Diggersby. Mew helps check physcial attackers with Will-O-Wisp and cripple walls with Taunt+Knock Off, and has enough speed for 252 Timid Suicune. Slowbro serves as the physical tank of the team, which uses the standard Colbur Berry+Thunder Wave combo to check threats like Mega Sharpedo, as well as Fire Blast for Scizor and Bisharp. Mega Latias serves as a strong bulky wincon against types like Water, Normal, and Flying. Victini with Choice Band helps as a strong wallbreaker for matchups like Dark and Steel which Mega Latias struggles to do anything against. This set carries Brick Break to dent Heatran and remove Tyranitar, two common switchins, but this could be exchanged for Trick to let it freely U-Turn on these threats at the cost of power. Latios lastly serves as the speed control as well as Defogger, with Trick so it cripple a wall and Defog more freely against passive types like Water.

These replays are mainly just to show how busted Mega Latias is, despite many newer mono players overlooking it.

6-0 vs Electric https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-784097051

Shows how Greninja on Water cannot check it due to being PP Stalled eventually (staus makes it faster) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-784099368

ButtinHDI · Aug 1, 2018

Bisharp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch

Bronzong @ Focus Sash
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Hypnosis
- Protect
- Trick Room

Ferrothorn @ Lum Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Knock Off
- Power Whip
- Swords Dance

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 224 HP / 32 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Earth Power
- Magma Storm
- Stone Edge
- Taunt

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 19 Spe
- Healing Wish
- Iron Head
- Trick Room
- U-turn

Stakataka @ Rockium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Stone Edge
- Trick Room

Cam · Aug 1, 2018

ButtinHDI said:
Bisharp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch

Bronzong @ Focus Sash
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Hypnosis
- Protect
- Trick Room

Ferrothorn @ Lum Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Knock Off
- Power Whip
- Swords Dance

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 224 HP / 32 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Earth Power
- Magma Storm
- Stone Edge
- Taunt

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 19 Spe
- Healing Wish
- Iron Head
- Trick Room
- U-turn

Stakataka @ Rockium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Stone Edge
- Trick Room

Thanks for your submission but this is the sample teams thread. If you have a team you want to submit first read the OP, as it says your team should be titled as one of the playstyles: Offensive, Balanced or Stall. There should be a brief description of your team and how its used below the importable.

It also says in the OP not to submit niche teams. Trick Room steel is a niche and isn't widely effective which would make it an unsuitable sample team. If you need help with your team you can ask in the monotype chat room on Showdown or on the RMT forum and someone will be able to help you there.

GnralLao · Aug 3, 2018

Looking at the sample teams, one of them deeply struck me as being outdated. So, to remedy this problem, I'm suggesting a new team that better reflects the current metagame trends:

Offensive Electric

Golem-Alola @ Focus Sash
Ability: Galvanize
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Frustration
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

Raichu-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Defog

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Zeraora @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Close Combat
- Fire Punch
- Knock Off

Compared to the current sample Electric team, Tapu Koko is the one to act as a special wallbreaker, and is a great Dragon deterrent with Dazzling Gleams that can KO pretty much any Dragon-type. Volt Switch provides Tapu Koko's team momentum and a way to generally damage foes much more than it could with U-turn. A-Golem is, once again, the team's Stealth Rock setter. Due to the absence of Magnezone on the team, A-Golem uses Earthquake over Stone Edge to OHKO Excadrill. Zapdos now uses a physically defensive spread to better deal with Tapu Bulu and Choice Scarf Excadrill. It also has enough Speed investment to outspeed certain threats like non-Scarfed Tapu Bulu and Jolly Diggersby. Pressure is used so that Zapdos can PP stall out Stealth Rock from opposing hazard setters and Excadrill's Rock Slide. Additionally, Rotom-W changes from a physically defensive spread to a specially defensive one so that the team can have a better Heatran switch-in (not to mention other special attackers). Finally, Zeraora puts immense pressure on Normal and Steel teams thanks to its coverage moves and Knock Off's utility. Indeed, even Porygon2 isn't a safe switch-in as Knock Off + Close Combat is a clean KO after SR damage. What's more is that Zeraora is fast enough to outspeed Scarf Tapu Bulu and can KO it after some prior damage (from Specs Tapu Koko's Volt Switch in Grassy Terrain for example). Yes, using Zeraora over Magnezone will make the Grass matchup much harder, but since Grass teams are far from being the most viable ones, I personally think that it'd be better to solidify the Normal matchup, as Normal teams are way more viable than Grass ones.

Edit #1: A-Raichu keeps the exact same set because the team needs a way to harm M-Venusaur and Water-immune Ground-types (not to mention that it outspeeds the whole metagame under Electric Terrain).

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-785882666 vs Psychic (With the help of many Volt Switches, Zeraora puts a ton of work and gets five KOs)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-785923833 vs Fairy (The matchup becomes much more manageable after crippling Tapu Bulu and uncovering its set (from Stone Edge's damage output) on Turn 1)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-785935489 vs Steel (After Heatran is out, Zapdos PP stalls Excadrill and basically wins the game)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-785941833 vs Fighting (A classic A-Raichu sweep)

More replays coming soon! (hopefully...)

Edit #2: Just realized that A-Raichu was Timid in all of the replays above. A Modest nature wouldn't have changed much, but still...

FairyTailed · Aug 5, 2018

Monotype Ice Sample Team: Bulky Offensive Ice

I felt like Ice could use a slightly more Balanced Sample as well, since currently it only has a hyperoffensive one.
The main pros of using a balanced team over a hyperoffensive one, are durability with more room for slight errors or hax and being able to rely on solid defenses, meaning you don't have to sack a mon every time you get pressured. Furthermore the team doesn't have to rely on a single mon for being both the highest speed tier and the rapid spinner (Alola-Sandslash) and can use the offensive part of Mamoswine to it's full potential, while Piloswine does the setting part - being a great special tank too.

The offensive core is formed by Mamoswine, Kyurem B and Cloyster. The defensive core is formed by Avalugg and Piloswine. Ninetales is the GOAT mon for Ice, known for it's Aurora Veil and Encore trapping, while also damaging Water with Freeze Dry.

Mamoswine @ Choice Band
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Superpower

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 240 Atk / 16 Def / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Iron Head
- Fusion Bolt
- Earth Power

Avalugg @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Avalanche
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
- Roar

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Atk / 244 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Encore
- Moonblast
- Freeze-Dry

Cloyster @ Waterium Z
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Hydro Pump

I decided to divide the set descriptions into sections for readability. First off, you have a general team description that looks at the build and playstyle. Secondly, you have a list of in depth descriptions per mon used on the team.

Kyurem-B is the speed tier of the team, while Mamoswine is the wallbreaker. At first sight, this might seem odd given how good of a wallbreaker Kyurem-B is with Life Orb. However, there are multiple reasons as to why Band Mamoswine and Scarf Kyurem-B are better:

First off, the only matchups that really need Kyurem-B as a wallbreaker are Psychic (balance), Flying and Water. The last two should be won regardless of the Kyurem set. Flying gets overthrown by band Ice Shard's and Cloyster setting up, while Piloswine can actually switch into Charizard Y under veil and force it out or drop rocks. Water has so many mons that are 4x weak to Tails's Freeze Dry, that he matchup is still really in favor no matter what. The Psychic matchup is really hard. Scarfing Mamoswine doesn't help this, since it lacks damage and speed nonetheless. If the Ice user wishes to beat Psychic, Smub's HO Ice sample is the way to go.
Secondly, Mamoswine has a lackluster speed tier, while doing nothing that Kyurem can't. Kyurem's speed tier is needed to outspeed scarf Heracross and Kommo-o at +1, which are big threats to your team. Mamoswine is ran with a scarf to OHKO things since as Lopunny, Charizards and Mega-Diancie. However, Kyurem-B can OHKO all of those himself, while being faster. The range on Lopunny with outrage is pretty risky, but can be guaranteed with a Naughty nature - making it still faster than Mamoswine. Both Charizards get pretty much OHKO'd by Outrage (87,5% chance vs Y with Naive). Lastly, Scarf Kyurem-B is a bigger threat to Fairy than Mamoswine, since it forces Mega Diancie out even though nothing wants to take an Iron Head to the face at all.
Thirdly, scarf Mamoswine and wallbreaker Kyurem B are autoloss vs Normal, since neither Kyurem or Mamoswine can break the defensive core of Porygon2 and Chansey. My build can actually beat Normal very frequently, despite being said to be one of the hardest matchups for Ice this gen. Also, as mentioned above, scarfed Kyurem-B has insane pressure against Fairy, which Mamoswine lacks.

Conclusion: use Mamoswine to break team's defenses and use Kyurem-B as your speed tier.

Ninetales-Alola is the goat mon for Ice, but use it well. It can't switch in to anything, and it needs it's health preserved to reset weather and setup Veil in the late game. Ninetales-Alola has a unique option in trapping people with Encore, guaranteeing you to veil or get a switch into Cloyster. Preserve its health at all cost vs Water. It needs to spam Freeze-Dry through the team to break a way for Kyurem or Mamoswine to come in.

Cloyster is used as a setup sweeper. Be cautious and know what mons it can setup on. It can setup on most physical mons, but it can't setup on most special mons - not even with veil. Always keep that in mind. Waterium Z is ran not only for pesky threats like Mega-Scizor, but also because Aurora Veil can free Cloyster from using a sash. Sash is still better against matchups like Electric, where you're otherwise forced to just sack Cloyster and not use it at all. Hp Fire + Waterium Z are ran to give this Ice team a very decent chance at winning the Steel matchup - a type that's prominent on the ladder. The player could also opt for the more common Rock Blast set though.

Piloswine and Avalugg form the defensive core. Avalugg walls a lot of things, having the reliable recovery move Recover. Be wary though, as it's also the team's Rapid Spinner and has abysmal special defense. Think well before switching it in and out. Piloswine on the other hand, lacks recovery moves. While it's absolutely great vs Fire, make sure you never lock Kyurem-B into Earth Power, or you're most-likely going to have to sack Piloswine on Charizard-X, meaning you can't use it for Volcarona. The main point of using Piloswine is to drop rocks and take special hits. However, don't be greedy to drop rocks vs Bug or Fire, however tempting it seems. Piloswine needs his Eviolite and health to take on Volcarona.

This thing is the team's wallbreaker. Mamoswine has two major choices on this team: Choice Band or Life Orb. Both are good options. I prefer Choice Band over Life Orb because Ice stil has trouble taking hazards down, since Avalugg can only switch into so many mons. Avalugg can't switch into most special mons and even has trouble against some physical mons who can deal a punch, certainly with rocks up. Life Orb damage + hazards is usually too much self-harm for the team's wallbreaker, especially if it doesn't have a reliable recovery move. Downsides of being locked into one move is that certain matchups become harder. Notably: Electric, Fire who have Flying Types/Balloons to stop Mamoswine from spamming Earthquake.

Icicle Crash is ran to attack things like Celesteela and Mantine, while Ice Shard is a superb priority move that no-one likes to take, especially not those weak to ice moves.

Superpower allows Mamoswine to punch through normal and steel types. With small hail chip or rocks damage, not even Porygon2 can switch into Mamoswine, as it will die from a second Superpower. That said, one should be wary when using Superpower. While it's the only good thing this team has to try and beat Ferrothorn, Ferrothorn itself can take care of Mamoswine easily. It can OHKO Mamoswine with Gyro Ball no matter what and it can OHKO Mamoswine with Power Whip after a Superpower defense drop. Lastly, Superpower also hits annoying pokémon like balloon Heatran and the rather uncommon balloon Magnezone, while also hitting specially defensive Celesteela for half.

252 Atk Choice Band Mamoswine Superpower vs. 252 HP / 72+ Def Ferrothorn: 268-316 (76.1 - 89.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mamoswine: 368-434 (101.9 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 Atk Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. -1 0 HP / 4 Def Mamoswine: 440-522 (121.8 - 144.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Choice Band Mamoswine Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 374-440 (96.8 - 113.9%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery (Note that this is against defensive Heatran)
252 Atk Choice Band Mamoswine Superpower vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Magnezone: 348-410 (123.8 - 145.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Superpower can be changed with Knock Off, all though Mamoswine's lackluster speed doesn't really allow it to hit that many Psychic types with Knock off without taking a huge beating. Furthermore Superpower is better in the normal matchup, since nothing can switch into Mamoswine apart from Staraptor. That last mon is taken down by literally every member on the team though.
Knock Off removes Eviolite from Porygon2 and Chansey, while also being great moves against Ghost and Psychic. All though the Hyperoffensive sample is notably better in both of those matchups.

Earthquake is Mamoswine's strongest stab moves that destroys anyone who doesn't resist it.

This mon is used as the team's speed tier. Pros of using scarf on Kyurem are his ability to outspeed Mega-Lopunny, Sash and Band Infernape, Charizard X and Charizard Y, Mega-Diancie and being a serious threat to the Fairy matchup with Scarf Iron Head all together. Cons are that Kyurem-B is locked into one move and can't fully abuse the Life Orb - Roost wall-breaking set it has on Hyperoffensive Ice.

Naughty nature can be used to break Slowbro, Chansey, Mega-Gallade, Toxapex and Mega-Lopunny. Ranges which are otherwise nearly unbreakable or too risky without any other chip. However, a Naive nature provides the only option for Balance Ice to outspeed scarf Heracross and Kommo-o at +1, which are crucial. Since the first three can be dealt with by having hazard setup or hail/... chip, a Naive nature is still preferred, as outspeeding the former two is crucial for ice. Naive nature also means Kyurem-B speed ties with other Kyurem-B, which it doesn't with a Naughty nature.

Calcs for examples:

240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Iron Head vs. 16 HP / 0 Def Diancie-Mega: 392-464 (160 - 189.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Outrage vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Infernape: 313-370 (106.8 - 126.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Outrage vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heracross: 303-357 (100.6 - 118.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Outrage vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Charizard-Mega-Y: 292-345 (98.3 - 116.1%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO (also guaranteed with fusion bolt)
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 163-193 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Fusion Bolt vs. 252 HP / 232+ Def Slowbro: 182-216 (46.1 - 54.8%) -- 9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Fusion Bolt vs. 252 HP / 216+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 126-150 (31.9 - 38%) -- 95.6% chance to 3HKO
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Outrage vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 315-372 (44.8 - 52.9%) -- 25.8% chance to 2HKO
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Outrage vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gallade-Mega: 247-292 (89.1 - 105.4%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Outrage vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Lopunny-Mega: 252-297 (92.9 - 109.5%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Fusion Bolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 142-168 (46.7 - 55.2%) -- 11.7% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
Possible damage

The above calcs are all (near) guaranteed with a Naughty nature. However, most of them are too after Hazard damage with or without Hail chip.

The EV investment for this Kyurem is slightly specific. The extra EV's in attack only raise tha chance of OHKO'ing Mega-Lopunny and Slowbro by a few %, which aren't exactly reliable. The defense EV's are given for one sole purpose. Making Kyurem-B the best possible lead against Fire. Torkoal is dealth with by using 2 earth powers, while any version of Infernape can actually be dealth with as well. Banded Infernape is outsped and OHKO'd by outrage (see above). Sash Infernape and Scarf Infernape are also OHKO'd by Outrage (after sash), while guaranteeing Kyurem-Black to always live a non-crit Close Combat, which it doesn't without the defense investment:

252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 16 Def Kyurem-Black: 330-390 (84.3 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Piloswine isn't as good of a lead against Fire, since it loses the battle vs Torkoal cause of Yawn and needs to be awake and have it's health preserved to beat Blacephalon and/or Volcarona.

Earth Power is chosen over Ice Beam since the only notable things to hit with Ice Beam on physical Kyurem are Gliscor, Landorus and Mega-Venusaur. The first two can be dealth with by Ice very easily, whereas the second is killed by Encore-trapping and forcing it to switch in to or a take a hit by wallbreaking Mamoswine. Ice Beam is required in the matchup against grass, since you'll have trouble removing Rocks + Spikes AND breaking through M-Venusaur at the same time. Earth Power is very welcome in the Fire matchup, while also being crucial in the Electric matchup with a banded Mamoswine, being able to OHKO scarfed or specs Magnezone, while also severely hitting any other Electric type without wings. On top of that Earth Power hits every Rotom type due to Terravolt, while also making specially defensive Rotom-Heat useless if it switches into Stealth Rocks. Earth Power is also good vs Electric for the sole reason of not being locked into Outrage and easily revenge killed by Tapu Koko.
In the long run I feel Earth Power is better, because running Ice Beam makes more than one match-up suffer and grass isn't common on the ladder. Out of all the replays I have, I have none of grass. Let that be a statement of how uncommon the type is on the ladder.

0 SpA Teravolt Kyurem-Black Earth Power vs. 76 HP / 0 SpD Magnezone: 332-392 (110.6 - 130.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 SpA Teravolt Kyurem-Black Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Rotom-Wash: 144-170 (47.3 - 55.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Teravolt Kyurem-Black Earth Power vs. 248 HP / 252 SpD Rotom-Heat: 228-272 (75.2 - 89.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Outrage is ran for great stab, Fusion bolts hits Celesteela and Toxapex hard and Iron Head wrecks the Fairy matchup. Fusion bolt kills Azumarill more often than not at 50% under screen, while Azumarill's Aqua Jet doesn't even do half. Fusion Bolt is also very welcome to kill off all kinds of bulky Water Pokémon and being able to hit Mega-Pidgeot without being locked into outrage, etc...

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 16 Def Kyurem-Black: 156-184 (39.8 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
240 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Fusion Bolt vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Azumarill through Reflect: 159-188 (46.6 - 55.1%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

Note that in the case Azumarill isn't OHKO'd, it's easily revenge killed by an Ice Shard or killed off by hail weather. In fact, if hail is up while it uses Belly Drum, it's always OHKO'd by Fusion Bolt. Also note that Azumarill can be roared out by Avalugg while setting up and is unable to ever OHKO Avalugg Avalugg from full hp because of Sturdy.

Avalugg is the team's physical part of the defensive core. This mon is just a boss brick of ice that likes to get tickled by physical hits, while walling and killing the same mons often times completely (e.g. scarf Tapu Bulu, scarf Excadrill, Breloom, Banded Zeraora, ...). In the case of banded mons, Avalugg usually has a harder time against super-effective moves. In this case, to ease revenge killing, a Rocky Helmet can be ran on Avalugg. Rocky Helmet is very notable in the Normal matchup to guarantee Scarfed Kyurem-B to OHKO Mega-Lopunny after. I personally prefer Leftovers to keep Avalugg as healthy as possible, since it's the only way of removing rocks from the field - they hurt Ice a lot. Sturdy allows it to always take an attack from full hp, which can be crucial at times - and can be acted on with Mirror Coat if ran.

Avalanche is the perfect offensive move for this defensive, already slow mon. Here are two example calcs:

0 Atk Avalugg Avalanche vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 356-420 (136.3 - 160.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO (While Avalugg walls Breloom completely).
0 Atk Avalugg Avalanche vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tapu Bulu: 264-312 (93.6 - 110.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery (solo beats scarf Tapu Bulu)
252 Atk Choice Band Zeraora Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 164-194 (41.6 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (Can't break it without crit or rocks)
0 Atk Avalugg Avalanche vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 187-222 (58.9 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

...

Rapid Spin is core since they are your only way to semi-reliably remove Hazards which Balance Ice REALLY needs.

Roar is amazing to stop setup sweeps such as the aforementioned Azumarill. Mirror Coat can be ran over Roar, but is never really worth the survivability Roar gives you.

Recover is core since it's one of the most amazing healing moves in the game which a Physical wall gladly takes to recover his health against mons it walls.

Piloswine. The special wall and dark horse of the team. Dark horse, since I can't remember how often people comment: "Wtf how tanky it is" while it just sits in place with hair on its eyes.

This thing drops rocks and this thing thanks fire hits. (All of the calcs below are in the sun and without Aurora Veil up - so just imagine how this thing tanks).

252 SpA Charizard-Mega-Y Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 244+ SpD Eviolite Thick Fat Piloswine in Sun: 206-246 (50.9 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Tough Claws Charizard-Mega-X Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Thick Fat Piloswine in Sun: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Blacephalon Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 244+ SpD Eviolite Thick Fat Piloswine in Sun: 200-236 (49.5 - 58.4%) -- 98.4% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Volcarona Inferno Overdrive (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 244+ SpD Eviolite Thick Fat Piloswine in Sun: 312-368 (77.2 - 91%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Magnezone Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 244+ SpD Eviolite Piloswine: 174-206 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.7% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 244+ SpD Eviolite Piloswine: 105-124 (25.9 - 30.6%) -- 15.3% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

...

Toxic is ran to stop things from setting up and sweeping 6-0, and is ran to effectively slow-kill threats to your team (example: wall Porygon2).

Notably, this thing also does serve damage with stab Earthquake and thus shouldn't be underestimated in power, having next to no switch-ins in the Fire matchup:

12 Atk Piloswine Rock Slide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcarona: 312-368 (100.3 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
12 Atk Piloswine Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Infernape: 288-342 (98.2 - 116.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
12 Atk Piloswine Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Blacephalon: 362-428 (146.5 - 173.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
12 Atk Piloswine Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 412-492 (106.7 - 127.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
12 Atk Piloswine Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Charizard-Mega-X: 200-236 (67.3 - 79.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
12 Atk Piloswine Rock Slide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Charizard-Mega-Y: 272-320 (91.5 - 107.7%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
12 Atk Piloswine Earthquake vs. 76 HP / 0 Def Magnezone: 388-460 (129.3 - 153.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

...

The core mon of all Ice teams. This thing sets Aurora Veil and Hail while also being able to stallbreak with Encore and being able to seriously damage Water, Flying, Dragon, Dark and Fighting with it's stab moves.

Light Clay is ran to extend Aurora Veil duration. Light Clay is always preferred over Icy Rock but especially in non-Slash teams. Veil does more than the Hail chip.

Cloyster, the team's setup sweeper.

Before reading on I will immediatly mention that I do not mind changing the Cloyster set to the normal 112/144 spread if anyone feels this is the required spread. That set is standard and is very good on any Ice team.

I will also specifically list this replay here in case you want to see my Cloyster set take on Steel:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-790923575

The reason why I went for this full special attack Cloyster without Rock Blast is the following. When reading up on Cloyster on the forums, I found that the reasoning for the 112/114 EV investment came from the thought to look where Cloyster could hit Mega-Scizor, while preserving Attack for it's amazing Skill Link moves. While this is obviously a logical thought, I started from the opposite thought. Since Steel gets hurt way more by special attacks and is a bigger threat than any other matchup, I started off by 252 special attack and actually looked if Icicle Spear would miss any ranges without the 112 attack. I didn't actually find any spectacular need for attack investment on Cloyster, since Icicle Spear at 5x hit is just so strong after a Shell Smash. Most notably the Water matchup gets weaker, but this is traded off for an easier matchup in the Steel matchup. Furthermore the water matchup has many mons that are very weak to Freeze Dry from Ninetails and are weak to band Mamoswine and Kyurem all together. Kyurem-B isn't dealth with by Cloyster either. But honestly, Dragon matchup will/should be won regardless of Cloyster OHKO'ing Kyurem B. Another matchup that seems to get weaker is the bug matchup. But this is false, since nearly every mon dies to Icicle Spear regardless. And if they don't, they die to Hydro Pump.

This set gives Ice a bigger chance in the Steel matchup. HP Fire hits Mega-Scizor, Ferrothorn and Skarmory, ... while also having a 100% hit rate compared to Hydro Pump. HP Fire helps this team kill off and break Ferrothorn, which it otherwise sucks at. Furthermore, and more importantly, this set allows Cloyster to have a guaranteed 2HKO on specially defensive Mega Scizor with a combo of Hydro Vortex and HP Fire after Stealth Rocks WITHOUT Shell Smash, while the 144 sp attack investment doesn't even come close to that without a boost and can just be roosted off by Mega-Scizor. On top of that, both HP Fire and Hydro Vortex guarantee a 2HKO after Rocks on offensive Mega-Scizor, meaning Waterium Z can be preserved. Lastly this special attack investment gives Cloyster the ability to have 75% chance of OHKO'ing normal Scizor (bug) after Rocks with HP fire, while also having an 81,3% chance to OHKO that Scizor with Hydro Vortex without any kind of Hazards up. Ranges at 144 special attack are listed for comparison.

252 SpA Cloyster Hidden Power Fire vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Scizor-Mega: 148-176 (43.1 - 51.3%) -- 95.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Cloyster Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Scizor-Mega: 169-199 (49.2 - 58%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Note that at minimal damages: 43,1% + 49,2% = 92,3% which means OHKO after rocks

144 SpA Cloyster Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Scizor-Mega: 153-180 (44.6 - 52.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
144 SpA Cloyster Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Scizor-Mega: 91-108 (26.5 - 31.4%) -- 34.9% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Note that the 144 special attack set doesn't run Hidden Power Fire.
Note that at maximal damages: 52,4% + 31,4% = 83,8% which means no OHKO after rocks.

Also note that +2 Cloyster nearly always OHKO's specially defensive Mega-Scizor with Hydro Vortex, whereas you need really need Rocks for the same calculation at 144 Special Attack:

+2 252 SpA Cloyster Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Scizor-Mega: 337-397 (98.2 - 115.7%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
+2 144 SpA Cloyster Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Scizor-Mega: 304-358 (88.6 - 104.3%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO

Calcs against Bug's normal Scizor:

252 SpA Cloyster Hidden Power Fire vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Scizor: 236-280 (83.9 - 99.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
144 SpA Cloyster Hidden Power Fire vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Scizor: 212-252 (75.4 - 89.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

(as said before, the 144 set doesn't run HP Fire, but this is just shown as an example that running HP Fire with 144 special attack isn't worth it).

252 SpA Cloyster Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Scizor: 271-321 (96.4 - 114.2%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
144 SpA Cloyster Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Scizor: 244-288 (86.8 - 102.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

There's a lot of replays in here. Hope you enjoy them all.

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-135437 (Losing cause of a single Hydro Pump miss, very salty. GG nonetheless).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-791399633 (Close call vs Bug. Pulled out the win though. At least Mega-Pinsir bug is easier than Mega-Scizor).

3. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-795188967 (Guy was pretty low ladder so pretty much beat-down).

4. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-797568220 (Not really your common bug build, took me by surprise).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-137086 (Close match vs. Dark. Could certainly have played it better).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-146499 (Convincing win vs a HO Dark team).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-137077 (Poor game by me, still a win since it's vs Dragon).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-136283 (The average game vs Dragon).

3. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-789104622 (Opponent near 1700 elo. Ice beam crit on avalugg fucked me over, else it always lives 2 - in which case my opponent could've won the battle by using Stealth Rocks on Garchomp instead. Ice Shard crit felt deserving).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-785774618 (Mamo with Knock Off. Double sack against Tapu Koko was to bring it in damage range for Kyurem-B after hail damage).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-785282202 (Enemy Zapdos was at least partially physically defensive).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-137189 (Some hax, but don't think most would've mattered in the end).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-791428770 (Fairy without Klefki).

3. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-794254642 (Beat Fairy really convincingly here).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-791845772 (Close win vs fighting).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-793200349 (Idk why he didn't abuse Terrakion after my Avalugg died).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-782901710 (this was before I thought about Kyurem lead, hence Mamoswine. This battle displays how good Piloswine is at taking fire hits).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-133642 (Sorry for how much talking there is in this game. I was overexcited. Ignore it and focus on the gameplay!)

3. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-788854991 (1600 elo game, I played really well imo. Good win!)

4. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-145648 (opponent made the mistake of switching in Charizard X into Cloyster. Else he would've won for sure).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-137134 (Vs Flying, should always be a win unless automatize Celesteela)

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-793868694 (Ghost is rare on ladder. Low tier type just like Ice).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-794259073 (Sandless Ground can't really do much vs Ice...).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-794262067 (Sand Ground has trouble as well, and hax wasn't in my favor).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-137055 (Beating Normal pretty convincingly here. Balanced Ice def better vs Normal).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-787671376 (Normal with Mega Pidgeot and offensive Staraptor 1600+ ladder opponent)

3. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-141389 (That Mega-Lopunny HJK miss is pretty bad. Basically sealed the matchup even more than it already is. He should have never gone for PUP though, since HJK nearly guaranteed OHKO's after Fake Out. I should've led with Kyurem or Avalugg).

4. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-791397769 (Offensive Normal, Casual start play: let tails get spored and activate hail, let Avalugg spin).

5. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-794250934 (Another offensive Normal form, without Smeargle though).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-793782936 (Kill Crobat = win).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-793197743 (Vs. Some HO variant of Psychic).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-789090312 (Balance team actually does decent vs. Rock. I did not allow my opponent to trap Cloyster and let Shuckle set up. As soon as both Terrakion (why did he put it in?) and Mega-Diancie (2%) were dead this was auto win, hence the forfeit).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-789102614 (Diamond Storm miss against Piloswine made this an auto loss, since it could just solo Terrakion, the only threat to my team with scarf Kyurem-B).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/azure-gen7monotype-136503 (Unorthodox Steel team. Not sure why I hard sacked Ninetales, getting rid of Balloon was fine. Luckily they had an offensive Mega-Scizor, so Cloyster could shine).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-790923575 (Cloyster tearing a steel team apart).

3. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-791144901 (Just mentioning here that Gyro Ball/Power Whip is always the play vs Mamo since the first OHKO's, while the latter does 80-90% which means a chance to OHKO after Barbs proc. Sacking mamo there is worth it though since it's not as necessary as Cloyster for breaking steel. The Ninetales sack was to get a free switch into Kyurem and to preserve Avalugg's Sturdy against Celesteela).

4. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-793768010 (No ferro makes this matchup a lot easier).

5. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-793778869 (Again, no ferro, so thanks for that).

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-788857589 (Around 1650 elo. Good game as well I feel. Shows power of banded swine really well).

2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-793242748 (Goes to show you don't need Rock Blast Cloyster or Lapras to beat water).

Tyke · Aug 8, 2018

Just an update, since I've been kinda quiet for a while: the next sample team update should be finished within the next few weeks!

We're going to need a good deal of new teams to cover developments made in the metagame over the last few months. Suggestions for existing teams are always welcome as well, and can make updating them much easier.

Thanks for your patience, everyone!

Harpp · Aug 8, 2018

Going to post here some teams which I believe can be used as samples, also going to propose some set changes on some of the existing sample teams.

* Zeraora Electric Offense:

Golem-Alola @ Air Balloon
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch

Zeraora @ Choice Band
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Iron Tail

Raichu-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 132 SpD / 108 Spe
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Roost
- Defog
- Heat Wave

Tapu Koko @ Magnet
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Ice]

The set for Alolan-Golem is an offensive trapper set which works in similar fashion to Air Balloon Magnezone to trap and take out threats like Ferrothorn and Excadrill for Electric-type teams. It also has Stealth Rock so the set works as a great role compression and hence why it is chosen on the team. Next up we have Choice Band Zeraora which is a very good wallbreaker, being able to break Normal-type teams with Close Combat and Plasma Fists. Iron Tail is for Tapu Bulu since it outspeeds Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu and Knock off is just for general utility. Then we have Alolan-Raichu on the team to take advantage of Electric Terrain and to act as a cleaner as well, it also takes care of bulky Ground and water types such as Swampert and Seismitoad with Grass Knot. Next there is Bulky Rotom-Wash on the team to cripple Physical attackers with Will-O-Wisp and provide Slow Volt Switch support to the team. Completing the defensive core there is specially defensive Zapdos on the team providing Defog support and lastly Tapu Koko as the Electric Terrain setter and a check to Dragon-types.

*Metagross Balance Psychic:

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Ice Punch

Slowbro-Mega @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Scald
- Slack Off

Celebi @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 48 SpD / 80 Spe
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Giga Drain
- Recover

Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- U-turn
- Trick

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Def
- Counter
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Healing Wish
- Defog

So this team is around Metagross as it has seen an increase in usage mainly due to it being a good asset vs matchup such as Fairy-type teams and it is a good wallbreaker in general providing the team with a priority as well.Mega Slowbro in general is a very good set up sweeper and provides the team with the ability to sponge physical hits well. For Metagross set I decided to go Bolt-Beam coverage for it since it reliefs pressure off Victini to check Steel-types such as Celesteela and Skarmory as Metagross with a Choice Band and Adamant Nature can easily 2hko those Pokemon. Ice Punch on Metagross allows it to beat Gliscor as it is pretty common on Flying-type teams right now. Bullet Punch is a handy priority move for the team being able to revenge kill threats such as Greninja or Hydreigon for the team. To help for the normal matchup and to make a very strong wall breaking core with Metagross, I decided to use Choice Band Victini. Then I added in utility Celebi to provide the team with Stealth Rock support and a Ground resist to the team. Sash counter Alakazam was added as a blanket check to various threats to Psychic-types teams, Dazzling Gleam is used on it so it can do better vs Pokemon such as Hydreigon and Mega Sharpedo as it sometimes runs Substitute. Lastly I needed a Speed control so I added Scarf Latios with Defog and Healing wish to the team for Mega Slowbro.

*Mega Slowbro Balance Water:

Slowbro-Mega @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Psychic
- Slack Off

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 16 SpD / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Protect
- Scald

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover

Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rest
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Greninja @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Gunk Shot
- U-turn

Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 160 SpD / 96 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Defog
- Haze
- Roost

Mega Slowbro is sporting a CM set as it is a great set up sweeper and the set which it is running allows it to break Poison-type teams on its own. 44 speed evs allows it to outspeed Toxapex and use Psychic on it before it can recover or use Haze. I paired Mega Slowbro with another Calm Mind user which is Suicune which just wins a lot of match ups such as against Steel-, Normal- and does good against Fairy-type teams. Most teams find it hard to deal with two Calm Mind users as they both have almost the same checks and so checks are pressured. Added Scarf Greninja as it beats both Tapu Bulu and Tapu Koko with Gunk Shot and it is an excellent asset in the Dragon-type matchup thanks to STAB Ice Beam and Dark Pulse is for Psychic-type teams. Next we have the defensive core where Toxapex is running Toxic Spikes and Toxic set for a very good reason and that is to not only to have better match ups against types like Normal, Fairy and Bug due to Toxic Spikes but to also beat checks to Mega Slowbro and Suicune such as Mantine with the help of Toxic. Toxic Toxapex is a great teammate to both Mega Slowbro and Suicune as it basically allows the Calm Mind Sweepers on the team to win once checks like Mantine is crippled. The Toxapex set also greatly improves mirror Water-type match ups where it is able to cripple above mentioned check to CM sweepers on the team. Next we have Swampert on the team providing Stealth Rock support and is running a specially defensive set because the team has a fantastic physical wall in Mega Slowbro and specially defensive Swampert does well against Pokemon such as Life Orb Kyurem-B and Tapu Koko. Lastly added Mantine on the team for Defog support and a check to special attackers.

*Psychium Z + HP Electric Volcarona Bug Offense:

Heracross-Mega @ Heracronite
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Blast
- Pin Missile
- Swords Dance

Volcarona @ Psychium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Galvantula @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Sticky Web

Armaldo @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Stone Edge

Buzzwole @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Superpower
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

This is a team with Psychium Z + HP Electric Volcarona as it has seen decent usage in tournament and high ladder play as it beats Water-type teams beating Pokemon such as Toxapex and Mantine while also doing good against Flying-type teams as the only thing that checks Volcarona defensively after a Quiver Dance boost is Mantine which is threatened by Hidden Power Electric. Since the set does not carries Hidden Power Ground to beat Heatran, teammate that do well against Steel-type teams such as Mega Heracorss and Choice Scarf Buzzwole are added to the team as they both excel at breaking Steel-type teams as Steel teams lack a safe switchin. Scarf Buzzwole is also the revenge killer of the team beating threats like Mega Charizard Y, Blacephalon and Volcarona. Next there is Galvantula to provide Sticky Web support for its teammates and standard Armaldo set for utility. Scizor on the team is a good wallbreaker and able to beat Pokemon such as Nihilego, Mega Diancie and Victini after it uses V-create on something as Jolly Nature allows Scizor to outspeed and do big damage with Pursuit.

*Sub CM Jirachi Balance:

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 28 Atk / 224 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stone Edge

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Toxic

Stakataka @ Rockium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Lonely Nature
IVs: 15 Def / 0 Spe
- Stone Edge
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Trick Room

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 124 SpD
Impish Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Toxic
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 16 SpA / 240 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Psyshock
- Thunderbolt

This is a team built around Sub CM jirachi as the set is really good at beating Water-type teams and specifically threats such as Suicune. Max HP allows it to create 101 HP subs which require two Seismic Toss to break. Balance team with OTR Stakataka and Sub CM jirachi since they complement each other really well where Jirachi preys on Balance Water teams and is a good bulky set up sweeper thanks to Calm Mind taking care of bulky water types such as Toxapex that can prove obstacle for Stakataka. Stakataka also beats Dragon-type teams pretty well as Dragon-type teams runs threats such as Kommo-O which have the ability to beat Steel-type teams on its own. Scarf Excadrill for necessary speed control and Electric immunity to the team, the team also has a good switch in to water types in Ferrothorn which also happens to be the Stealth Rock setter for the team. Stall breaker Heatran breaks down balance core for offensive teammates while acting as a switch in to fire type moves, Lastly defensive Celesteela also helps in breaking down teams thanks to its immensely effective utility moves in leech seed and Toxic.

*Mega Latios Balance Psychic:

Latios-Mega @ Latiosite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earthquake
- Roost

Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Trick
- U-turn

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Healing Wish
- Defog

Slowbro @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Fire Blast
- Thunder Wave
- Slack Off

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Def
- Counter
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Focus Blast

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 176 SpD / 80 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock

Balance team around Mega Latios which is good at breaking Steel-type and Poison-type teams pretty much on its own. Paired it with Choice Band Victini as a threatening wallbreaker and to improve the Normal-type match up of the team. Added Slowbro as a defensive wall and for item colbur allows it to check / cripple Pokemon such as Bisharp and Hydreigon with Fire Blast and Thunder Wave respectively. Added Scarf Latias as Speed Control and Offensive Defog user of the team. Sash Alakzam makes sure that the team can beat Pokemon such as Mega Sharpedo and set up sweepers in general. Lastly added Jirachi for Stealth Rock support and check to Fairy-types such as Clefable and Mega Diancie.

Now some proposed changes for existing sample teams:

1. On the balance Dark team posted by Smub, Hydreigon is running Life Orb as an item and is running this set:

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Taunt
- Roost

The team does not carries a Z move user and I would like to suggest to change the item to Dragonium Z due to the following reasons:
- Life Orb makes it easier to wear down Hydreigon and pressures it more to rely on Roost.
- Dragonium Z allows Hydreigon to use a powerful nuke in general which allows it to wallbreak and dent teams much better as it can also do a Devastating Drake followed by Draco Meteor.
- Running Z move as an item allows it to bluff the set it is running which is not the case if the item is Life Orb.

2. Changing the Nature of Greninja on Balance Dark Team by Smub.

Greninja @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- U-turn / Spikes
- Ice Beam
- Gunk Shot
- Hydro Pump
Greninja should run a Naive Nature to stand better chance against Strong Priority users like Choice Band Dragonite.

3. On the Balance Normal team by Seo:
This is the current Diggersby set on the team
Diggersby @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
- Fire Punch
I want to suggest to change the set to Swords Dance Diggersby which is this set:

Diggersby @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Huge Power
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
Reasons: a). Metagame has evolved to check Choice Band Diggersby where types such as Water use Baneful Bunker Toxapex and Mantine to scout and play against it and use appropriate plays depending upon the move diggersby uses. This is a similar case for bulky Dark-type teams where Mega Sableye runs Protect to scout and play safe against Diggersby as the team has Mandibuzz if Diggersby uses Earthquake. In a similar Fashion even Poison-type teams have started running Baneful Bunker over Haze to play around against Choice Band Diggersby.
b) Using Swords Dance Diggersby allows Normal-type teams to beat such Water-, Dark and Poison-type teams where a free turn (usually on a predicted Baneful Bunker or Protect) for Diggersby results in dismantling of such defensive cores and allowing the team to have better match ups against such types. It is important that the porygon2 set to be changed to Discharge, Ice Beam and Hidden Power Fire, Roost as a teammate for this particular Diggersby set as the Porygon2 set allows to threaten Steel- and Flying-type teams.

Guwahavel · Aug 8, 2018

Harpp said:
3. On the Balance Normal team by Seo:
This is the current Diggersby set on the team
Diggersby @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
- Fire Punch
I want to suggest to change the set to Swords Dance Diggersby which is this set:

Diggersby @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Huge Power
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
Reasons: a). Metagame has evolved to check Choice Band Diggersby where types such as Water use Baneful Bunker Toxapex and Mantine to scout and play against it and use appropriate plays depending upon the move diggersby uses. This is a similar case for bulky Dark-type teams where Mega Sableye runs Protect to scout and play safe against Diggersby as the team has Mandibuzz if Diggersby uses Earthquake. In a similar Fashion even Poison-type teams have started running Baneful Bunker over Haze to play around against Choice Band Diggersby.
b) Using Swords Dance Diggersby allows Normal-type teams to beat such Water-, Dark and Poison-type teams where a free turn (usually on a predicted Baneful Bunker or Protect) for Diggersby results in dismantling of such defensive cores and allowing the team to have better match ups against such types. It is important that the porygon2 set to be changed to Discharge, Ice Beam and Hidden Power Fire, Roost as a teammate for this particular Diggersby set as the Porygon2 set allows to threaten Steel- and Flying-type teams.

I agree with this but wouldn’t Normalium Z be a better item since the the lacks a Z-Move user? Silk Scarf is a solid item but the Z-Move lets it get around annoying rolls like this.

Venusaur-Mega
+2 252 Atk Silk Scarf Huge Power Diggersby Return vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 294-346 (80.9 - 95.3%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252 Atk Huge Power Diggersby Breakneck Blitz (160 BP) vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 384-453 (105.7 - 124.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Mandibuzz
+2 252 Atk Silk Scarf Huge Power Diggersby Return vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Mandibuzz: 328-387 (77.5 - 91.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Huge Power Diggersby Breakneck Blitz (160 BP) vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Mandibuzz: 430-507 (101.6 - 119.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

This also makes it a bit less reliant on SD since Return+Breakneck Blitz is enough 2hko many walls on the switch-in.

Harpp · Aug 8, 2018

Guwahavel said:
I agree with this but wouldn’t Normalium Z be a better item since the the lacks a Z-Move user? Silk Scarf is a solid item but the Z-Move lets it get around annoying rolls like this.

Venusaur-Mega
+2 252 Atk Silk Scarf Huge Power Diggersby Return vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 294-346 (80.9 - 95.3%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252 Atk Huge Power Diggersby Breakneck Blitz (160 BP) vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 384-453 (105.7 - 124.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Mandibuzz
+2 252 Atk Silk Scarf Huge Power Diggersby Return vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Mandibuzz: 328-387 (77.5 - 91.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Huge Power Diggersby Breakneck Blitz (160 BP) vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Mandibuzz: 430-507 (101.6 - 119.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

This also makes it a bit less reliant on SD since Return+Breakneck Blitz is enough 2hko many walls on the switch-in.

I did not give a thought on Z move as Silk Scarf is also a pretty good item, boosting its attacks but yeh Z move can be a good option too as evident by your calculations. However Silk Scarf boost its Normal-type moves everytime you use a Normal-type attack especially Quick attack so both are good options imo.

FairyTailed · Aug 12, 2018

Harpp said:
This is a team built around Sub CM jirachi as the set is really good at beating Water-type teams and specifically threats such as Suicune. Max HP allows it to create 101 HP subs which require two Seismic Toss to break. Balance team with OTR Stakataka and Sub CM jirachi since they complement each other really well where Jirachi preys on Balance Water teams and is a good bulky set up sweeper thanks to Calm Mind taking care of bulky water types such as Toxapex that can prove obstacle for Stakataka. Stakataka also beats Dragon-type teams pretty well as Dragon-type teams runs threats such as Kommo-O which have the ability to beat Steel-type teams on its own. Scarf Excadrill for necessary speed control and Electric immunity to the team, the team also has a good switch in to water types in Ferrothorn which also happens to be the Stealth Rock setter for the team. Stall breaker Heatran breaks down balance core for offensive teammates while acting as a switch in to fire type moves, Lastly defensive Celesteela also helps in breaking down teams thanks to its immensely effective utility moves in leech seed and Toxic.

This team is extremely good. I gave this one a try on the ladder with a new account (see picture) and had a very convincing test with it. It has a very high chance of beating Water teams and autowins against any Fairy team. It's really hard to break this team in general, and it also hits extremely hard. Good job.

4 losses in 30 games of which 1 was a dc, 2 were vs Ground (obvious loss) and 1 was against a scarfed Eruption Heatran.

That said, here are a few things I tried differently:

1. I ran 24 attack EV's on Heatran, since 24 are enough to OHKO Charizard Y with Stone Edge if that was what you were going for. (Edit: 28 needed if Charizard has +4 defense)
2. I built Celesteela more defensively bulky, since you need something to tank fighting hits i.e. Terrakion, Scarfed Heracross, Banded Bulu, ..., especially with the absence of bulky Mega-Scizor. (Edit: This has now been adjusted in the main post!)
3. I tried HP Ice as a tech on Celesteela over Flamethrower. I don't think it's necessarily better than Flamethrower, but it gives the team some much needed damage against Landorus teams and against Gliscor. If anything Flamethrower is probably better to solo Ferrothorn. (Edit: main post now runs Toxic over either. All three options are fine while Toxic or Flamethrower are actually preferred.)
4. I ran max speed on Jirachi since I wanted to speed tie with other base 100's. I wasn't sure why you went for 240 speed investments.
5. I ran Psychic on Jirachi over Psyshock to burst through Fighting, Toxapex and M-Venusaur. It has Thunderbolt for specially defensive water types. Psychic covers what Jirachi needs to hit better than Psyshock, since most of those mons are either weaker on the specially defensive side or just run maximal physical bulk. Furthermore the general need for Psyshock is decreased due to the amount of physical damage already present on the team.

0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Venusaur-Mega: 168-198 (46.2 - 54.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 110-132 (30.3 - 36.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 144-170 (47.3 - 55.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery
0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 92-110 (30.2 - 36.1%) -- 46.8% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery
+1 0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Terrakion: 318-374 (98.4 - 115.7%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO (Way better roll at +1)
+1 0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 284-336 (87.9 - 104%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Heracross: 204-240 (67.7 - 79.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heracross: 218-260 (72.4 - 86.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock (Doesn't matter which one you take and at +1, both are guaranteed to OHKO even without rocks.)
+1 0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Pinsir-Mega: 159-187 (58.6 - 69%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Pinsir-Mega: 111-132 (40.9 - 48.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock (All though only if full HP Mega-evolved Pinsir jumps into rocks, which is probably rare).

I couldn't really think of any situation where Jirachi would prefer Psyshock over Psychic, since even against Mega-Gallade the difference between the two is literally 1% on min-max roll.

Feel free to take those 5 points as you like.

Again, good job.

Harpp · Aug 13, 2018

Psyshock is to break

FairyTailed said:
This team is extremely good. I gave this one a try on the ladder with a new account (see picture) and had a very convincing test with it. It has a very high chance of beating Water teams and autowins against any Fairy team. It's really hard to break this team in general, and it also hits extremely hard. Good job.
View attachment 132265
4 losses in 30 games of which 1 was a dc, 2 were vs Ground (obvious loss) and 1 was against a scarfed Eruption Heatran.

That said, here are a few things I tried differently:

1. I ran 24 attack EV's on Heatran, since 24 are enough to OHKO Charizard Y with Stone Edge if that was what you were going for.
2. I built Celesteela more defensively bulky, since you need something to tank fighting hits i.e. Terrakion, Scarfed Heracross, Banded Bulu, ..., especially with the absence of bulky Mega-Scizor.
3. I tried HP Ice as a tech on Celesteela over Flamethrower. I don't think it's necessarily better than Flamethrower, but it gives the team some much needed damage against Landorus teams and against Gliscor. If anything Flamethrower is probably better to solo Ferrothorn.
4. I ran max speed on Jirachi since I wanted to speed tie with other base 100's. I wasn't sure why you went for 240 speed investments.
5. I ran Psychic on Jirachi over Psyshock to burst through Fighting, Toxapex and M-Venusaur. It has Thunderbolt for specially defensive water types. Psychic covers what Jirachi needs to hit better than Psyshock, since most of those mons are either weaker on the specially defensive side or just run maximal physical bulk. Furthermore the general need for Psyshock is decreased due to the amount of physical damage already present on the team.

0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Venusaur-Mega: 168-198 (46.2 - 54.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 110-132 (30.3 - 36.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 144-170 (47.3 - 55.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 92-110 (30.2 - 36.1%) -- 46.8% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

+1 0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Terrakion: 318-374 (98.4 - 115.7%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO (Way better roll at +1)

+1 0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 284-336 (87.9 - 104%) -- 25% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Heracross: 204-240 (67.7 - 79.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heracross: 218-260 (72.4 - 86.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock (Doesn't matter which one you take and at +1, both are guaranteed to OHKO even without rocks.)

+1 0 SpA Jirachi Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Pinsir-Mega: 159-187 (58.6 - 69%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

+1 0 SpA Jirachi Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Pinsir-Mega: 111-132 (40.9 - 48.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock (All though only if full HP Mega-evolved Pinsir jumps into rocks, which is probably rare).

I couldn't really think of any situation where Jirachi would prefer Psyshock over Psychic, since even against Mega-Gallade the difference between the two is literally 1% on min-max roll.

Feel free to take those 5 points as you like.

Again, good job.

The reason the set runs psyshock is to break suicune and beat it 1v1 better. Psyshock also allows it to get past chansey as jirachi creates 101 HP subs so it can set up on it and psyshock allows to beat other calm mind users.

Resource Monotype Sample Teams

It's Madness...

Dusky™

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FairyTailed

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Eien

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OrangeGuru

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Cam

The Colby Covington Of Smogon

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No rain, no flowers.

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FairyTailed

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