Nails
Double Threat
Nails’ LC Team
This is the team I’ve used for a long while on the CAP server LC ladder. It had the #1 spot on the ladder for like 2-3 months solid (like, a week total of other people on top of the ladder), hitting a peak of like 1620 iirc, maybe higher, and never really dropping lower than 1580 for that entire period. So, I’m kind of just retiring this team, because I got more than my fair share of mileage out of it. That said, anything that’ll make it better would be helpful!
At a glance:
pohca (Machop) (M) @ Oran Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 196 HP/196 Atk/116 Def
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Ice Punch
- Protect
- Bullet Punch
This machop is probably the best lead in LC, dead serious. It loses to like 3 things, all of which hit hard specially, and are handled by the rest of the team (munchy). It has an incredible amount of bulk, and hits like a truck. To give examples, Gligar does something like 60% with earthquake to it, and it then activates oran berry. Ice Punch then responds back with a ohko. Here’s the lead stats from the time when I was first using the team (I built around the end of june, those are july’s stats), along with lead matchups.
Machop: They’re frequently less bulky than me, so I can win a DPunch war on average. I can also switch to gastly and hypnosis it.
Snover: Leads can’t ohko me, I ohko/knock it down to sash + bullet punch.
Meowth: Protect on the fake out, dpunch for the ohko. If they have hypnosis I lose.
Kabuto: Dpunch turn 1, they set up rocks or attack. If they set rocks, protect turn 2, then bullet punch t3 to give them an extra shot at hitting themselves. If they attack, bullet punch because I don’t want to give them a shot to get up rocks when I don’t have to.
Aipom: Same as Meowth except slightly more powerful and no hypnosis. Protect on the fake out, then dpunch.
Hippopotas: Dpunch spam, they’re bulky as hell but machop wins out due to confusion hax. They probably get rocks though, barring speed ties and a huge amount of confusion hax.
Abra: Switch out to houndour to take the psychic, and then switch to munchy on the coverage move. Switch to munchy would admittedly work, but I like saving damage whenever possible.
Diglett: DPunch. They get rocks or a weak EQ on chop.
Gastly: No clue what this is doing, probably hypnosis and/or trick room. Switch to Dratini on the hypnosis to troll with shed skin and hypnosis’s already shitty accuracy (it’s like a 42% chance of a sleep being on it at the end of the turn).
Chimchar: Protect on the fake out, if they set up rocks that turn whatever. Machop has a decent shot at living an overheat, but fake out kills those chances.
Voltorb: Dpunch while they get their 8 turns of rain. Technically a lose, but most stuff loses to it.
Gligar: Ice Punch, it comes nowhere near ohkoing.
Bronzor: Switch to houndour on the sr/psychic, spam fire blast unless I know their team.
Houndour: A fantastic lead, I have no clue how it was 14th that month. That said, I switch out to my own houndour on the fire attack, dark pulse while they reversal so I don’t get koed, followed by hp ground to finish it off. Leadour is really a fantastic lead and should be top 5 every month…
Drifloon: Ice Punch nearly kills it, just keep spamming it or bullet Punch if it’s in ko range.
As you can see, there’s like 3 leads machop loses to (Natu’s another, dammit Zari) and it frequently has enough hp left afterwards thanks to oran to revenge kill something lategame. There’s a reason it had like 17% usage that month, and it’s not just because I inflated the stats. To compare, deoxys-e had 7% usage at its peak as a lead, and azelf was at like 10% at its peak usage iirc. So that’s my lead.
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inita (Dratini) (M) @ Oran Berry
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 28 HP/244 Atk/196 Spd/36 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Extremespeed
- Outrage
- Waterfall
Dratini is the pokemon on the team I’m least happy with. It generally is sacrificed to sleep or death foddered. Every so often it sweeps 6 pokemon, but it’s generally difficult to set up the 2 dd’s required to sweep the metagame, and bronzor beats you without something like +4. It was thrown up to try and provide resists, but it doesn’t have the bulk to absorb hits. That said, it’s nice to have its priority, but it could still be replaced fairly easily.
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xalhcnu (Munchlax) (M) @ Oran Berry
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 236 Atk/116 Def/156 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- Body Slam/Frustration
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
The best pokemon in LC, it provides so much to a team that I don’t understand why you WOULDN’T want one on your team. It goes like this: you switch into something, it switches out or dies. That’s it. Pretty much any ev spread is viable on munchy, as long as it has max+ attack. I chose to put 2 points into def and SpD, I could move a point from SpD into hp but it wouldn’t do that much, and it works. Frustration is actually quite important on munchy, as it gives quite a few extra koes (ohko on Dratini for example, which BS doesn’t). However, getting a para allows you to get a free hit on the other guy, so it’s not always worth it. Ice Punch over Fire Punch because I have houndour so Bronzor isn’t a huge threat, and an extra Gligar check is cool.
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yltsa (Gastly) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 36 HP/40 Def/200 Spd/200 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Hypnosis
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
This is kind of the signature pokemon of the team (along with the machop). It all started out with me wanting to find a viable use for leftovers in lc (to be fair, I later found out that it was listed in the LC guide, but I came up with this set before I read it). I decided that I would have to get as many free turns as possible, so basically I want for as many immunities as you can get (3), a move that incapacitates the opponent (hypnosis), and a move that gives me another free turn (subs). The set works because the moves and pokemon have great synergy. Gastly itself forces a ton of switches. This gives me a chance to set up a sub. I then get 2 shots to hit hypnosis (assuming I’m faster), upgrading its awful 60% accuracy to 84% over 2 turns. Hitting hypnosis then gives me a free chance to sub, all of this giving me many many free turns. As for the attacks, hp fighting is admittedly an odd attack to use because sludge bomb is nearly always better (its strongest attack in fact). However, RP Aron sets up on Gastly if I don’t have it, which is very bad, as my team’s only counter, Machop, can only counter it if it’s living and at a decent hp level. I don’t want to use hp ground because then Munchy rapes me.
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uohcni (Chinchou) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 52/228 Spd/228 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Chinchou is the team’s scarfer, because every team needs one basically. It provides a lot of bulk, and power, and 24 speed is cool. Modest over timid because I like the extra power, and there’s like 3 scarfers that hit 25. It’s a standard moveset, with dual stabs, ice beam to revenge Dratini and hit grasses, as well as Gligar if I don’t want to risk missing. Hp ground vs hp grass are basically equal, I went with ground for the hell of it. There isn’t a lot to explain here. It serves as my Elekid counter, as hydro pump + one LO recoil koes and chicnhy switches in for free on electric attacks… but yeah, that’s about it.
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ruonduo (Houndour) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 36 Atk/36 Def/236 Spd/200 SAtk
Hasty nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Sucker Punch
Houndour is here for its typing and power. Max speed is fantastic on Houndour, so it can tie with other hounds. Max SpA and LO for hitting as hard as possible, the attack point is for SP, and the last point is stuck in def instead of SpD to balance out the defenses. Dual stabs should be obvious, hp ground is for other houndour, sucker punch for priority.
Something about houndour that is frequently ignored is its dark typing. A particularily lulzy thing to do is switch into a lead slowpoke while it uses Zen Headbutt and then ohko with a SE dark pulse. The fire/dark typing also allows it to basically destroy anything ever seen on a trick room team (bronzor, slowpoke, exeggcute, cubone, duskull, ect.). That’s basically its role on the team, switch in once or twice and score a ko.
Weaknesses:
Rain Dance: Sorta kinda, munchy checks special stuff, chinchy dies pretty fast, and then I just have to prevent setup or I can be swept on the second set up. Gastly does well at stalling out rain though.
Scarf Gligar: Kinda beats my team, I have a couple checks that get worn down fast and only one eq immune/resist. Destroys chinchy, Dratini, and houndour. However, gastly gets a free setup on scarfed eq.
Scarfed Doduo: If it predicts right nothing can switch in. No one uses it, but I think I lost to one… once? Just a theory weakness because no one uses it, but it’d be mildly threatening, since.
So, there’s my team. Rate/Hate/Steal, I can guarantee it works well. Thanks for reading it!