Project OM Matchmaking - On Hiatus Until gen 9

[The Number Man]

Slowest Brother (Slowbro) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Slack Off
- Teleport
- Skill Swap
- Scald

I picked Magic Bounce slowest brother for 2 reasons:
1) Cobalion is an excellent rocker, as it pressures most Magic Bouncers by either threatening to hit them hard w Steel Meme (Hippo, Mew), Close Combat (Blissey) or getting solid to heavy chip on them with Volt Switch (Zapdos, Bro, Corviknight). This means that it's very good at making rocks go up as well as punishing foggers for trying to remove them by chipping them. When you can ensure rocks will reliably be up on your opponent's side, they are incentivized to suck it up and just try to trade rocks instead of clearing them. This is where Bounce Bro comes in - its a relatively reliable bouncer given that Chomp/Pert/Terrak are 3 of the more common rockers in the metagame and this set should have a winning MU vs them.

2) While Cobalion is an offensive Lax check, it doesn't answer it as reliably as something like SD Regen Terrakion does, so it's good to have an out for when Lax somehow manages to get to +2. This is where Skill Swap comes in, ensuring that you can turn of Lax's PHeal and force it out (or kill it if last mon Lax).

Slowbro also does well vs everyone's favorite fish, chipping it to punish repeated flip turns - which quickly adds up when we take rocks chip into account as well. Both of these mons are kinda weak to Gengar, Volcarona and Noivern, so adding something like Snorlax, Incineroar or Nihilego could help shore up that weakness.

 

[in the hills]

Thank you to everyone who submitted. The submissions are as follows:
Thinkerino with Skill Link Kyurem
OM with Poison Heal Garchomp
In The Hills with Triage Gengar
The Number Man with Magic Bounce Slowbro
Voting closes 1/31. As always, you may vote if you submitted a set as long as you do not vote for yourself, and as always I will use my vote as an example:
1. Thinkerinio
2. OM
3. The Number Man

 

[Isaiah]

In the Hills
OM
TNM

 

[in the hills]

Thank you to the uhh... one person that voted! OM comes in first with Thinkerino and In The Hills tying for second. Next week is BH...

Week 18: Transistor Regieleki (Balanced Hackmons)

Regieleki @ Choice Band
Ability: Transistor
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
IVs: 0 Def
- Bolt Beak
- Glacial Lance
- Fishious Rend
- Toxic​

The deadline to submit a partner for this bouncy boy is 2/5. As always, reservations last for 24 hours so try to finish posts in a timely manner.

 

[Champion Leon]

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Shore Up
- Rapid Spin
- Anchor Shot
- Spectral Thief

Trap set up, steal their boosts, remove your side’s hazards, and use Rocky Helmet to wear down Imposter / punish on the switch-in. Works great to cover PH Xerneas without a Fire move, and can Spin away their Spikes.

Can support Regieleki by bouncing back Imposter Toxics, and walling all of its moves without using a competing status. Can wall common STABS from Dragons like Zekrom, which can come in on Regi’s Fishous or Bolt Beak. Ferrothorn, in return can add Rocky Helmet damage, trap, and steal its setups, as well as serve as check to PH QDance Palkia, and as a soft check to Choice Specs Eternatus once you know it’s not locked into Blue Flare.

It can also handle switching into Zacian-C lacking V-Create, as well as numerous others, while its Magic Bounce serves as a deterrent to walls that attempt to use non-Attacks.

Magic Bounce also serves as a counter to Parting Shot users, and can play mind games if they have it.

Let Ferrothorn be a thorn to your foe’s side. It’s packing Rocky Helmet, so you know it can Rock & Roll your foes attacks, and even bounce back your foe’s Stealth Rocks.

 

[avyrie]

Kartana @ Choice Band
Ability: Tinted Lens
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Power Whip
- U-turn
- Knock Off

I'm taking a slightly different approach to supporting Eleki, for they share checks in a lot of FC Dragons, as well as FC Steels. Regieleki is able to draw them in and use Toxic on all except the Steels, and given that Kartana Tinted Sunsteel actually 2HKOs half of them and is very close to 2HKOing the rest, keeping pressure with the core lets Sunsteel eventually turn from a 3HKO to a 2HKO, after the Toxic damage. The core can proceed to power through the rest of a team easily given their sheer power and great coverage.
U-turn on Kartana provides pivoting to safely bring in Eleki. Knock Off removes annoying items like Leftovers and Helmet so it can click safely. On Kartana's ability, I prefer Tinted Lens for better chances against Steels since they're Toxic immune, but Steelworker and Adaptability can be used to straight up 2HKO all Giratina sets.
For non-FC Zama-C and Solgaleo that can still check Kartana, Eleki Bolt Beak actually 2HKO's them very easily. Eleki also serves as a speed control partner for Kartana. Another bonus is that Kartana can serve as an emergency improof to Eleki, taking at most 45.6% to Imposter Bolt Beak. Both of Kartana and Eleki can also be improofed with ease with the above FC mons since Imposter lacks Band to 2HKO them.

FC calcs

list of FC: Giratina, Palkia, Reshiram, Zekrom, Dialga, Zama-C, Solgaleo, Ferrothorn, Melmetal
252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Giratina: 201-237 (39.8 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Palkia: 226-266 (58.8 - 69.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Reshiram: 226-266 (55.9 - 65.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Zekrom: 220-258 (54.4 - 63.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dialga: 200-236 (49.5 - 58.4%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Zamazenta-Crowned: 174-204 (44.8 - 52.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Zamazenta-Crowned: 192-226 (49.4 - 58.2%) -- 62.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Solgaleo: 216-254 (45.1 - 53.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 186-222 (52.8 - 63%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Melmetal: 176-208 (37.1 - 43.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

 

[a loser]

Preface: Regarding the Eleki set

I feel like it needs U-turn to take advantage of Choice Band but I'll work with what I'm given

Dragapult @ Life Orb
Ability: Dragon's Maw
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Darts
- Poltergeist / Destiny Bond / Spectral Thief
- Strength Sap

Dragon's Maw Dragapult takes on the fat dragons that Eleki really dislikes so that Eleki can keep clicking Bolt Beak. D-Maw + Life Orb really makes up for Pult's lackluster SpA and makes Draco Meteor very threatening. Dragon Darts is also powered up and comes from a slightly stronger Attack stat that makes it tough for anything that doesn't resist or have immunity to switch in. Poltergeist is on there mainly to not be completely walled by Zacian-C, but Spectral Thief is also an option as well as Destiny Bond if you want to use Pult's good Speed to take out something unsuspecting like Zama-C in a pinch. Strength Sap rounds out the set and gives it some much needed recovery to shake off LO recoil. This set is walled pretty hard by most Fairy-types as Poltergeist doesn't do too much damage and also can't hit Zama-C or other Steel-types super well, so Eleki comes in to blast them with Bolt Beak. Mixed Pult puts big dents in slow Fur/Scales guys like Umbreon and Darm-Z.

Calcs vs various things

Giratina
252 SpA Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Giratina: 484-569 (96 - 112.8%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Giratina: 422-500 (83.7 - 99.2%) -- approx. 2HKO
Zygarde-Complete
252 SpA Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Zygarde-Complete: 343-406 (53.9 - 63.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Zygarde-Complete: 564-665 (88.6 - 104.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Zygarde-Complete: 380-452 (59.7 - 71%) -- approx. 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Dialga
252 SpA Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Dialga: 375-442 (92.8 - 109.4%) -- 50% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Dialga: 165-196 (40.8 - 48.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dialga: 194-228 (48 - 56.4%) -- approx. 93% chance to 2HKO
Eviolite Imposter
252 Atk Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Eviolite Chansey: 390-458 (55.3 - 65%) -- approx. 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Dragon's Maw Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252- SpD Eviolite Chansey: 484-572 (68.7 - 81.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

 

[XxLazzerpenguinxX]

Calyrex-Ice @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Icicle Spear
- Spikes
- Will-O-Wisp
- Low Kick

Regieleki on paper appears as a really strong pokemon, boasting the ability to KO Zacian, and 2hko a lot of resists, and non-resist fur coat pokemon. However, in game it tends to often struggle, as it really only wants to click one move, bolt beak, and will often find itself not able to click this move because of fur coat dragons which hard wall it and deny it the opportunity to make any progress such as Dialga, Giratina, and Reshiram. Fur Coat Zamazenta-Crowned and Melmetal will also deny it of such an opportunity. Thus, often times it's bad to pair it with another breaker, as it won't be able to support the paired breaker since it can't make progress. Regieleki is a wincon, and not much else. It is an exceptionally good wincon however, and thus forces many predictable switch-ins into it. And that's how Regieleki is best used. Therefore, I have decided to take advantage of these predictable switch-ins and pair regieleki with Calyrex-Ice. Calyrex-Ice, can hard switch into many dragons, and get off great chip with Icicle Spear. It has a ton of pp, so unlike Glacial Lance the opponent can't pp stall it. Spikes on Calyrex-Ice allows it to do the heavy lifting in terms of making progress, something which Regielki can't do, and if there are 2 spikes on the field, then Regieleki is will 2hko Zama-C. Will-O-Wisp pairs well with Toxic on Regieleki by spreading a lot of hazards and chipping away at the opponent, (with wilo hitting steel types as well). Low Kick allows Calyrex-Ice to 2hko non-fc steels, and even put a lot of pressure on Zama-C after it's burned. These two work well together, with Calyrex-Ice chipping away at the opponent and putting a ton of pressure on their FC mons, eventually leading to an opening for Regieleki to come in and sweep.

 

[SuperSkylake]

Reshiram @ Terrain Extender
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 HP /252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spd
Bold Nature
- Lava Plume
- Roost
- Court Change / Core Enforcer / Spectral Thief
- Teleport

Most PH mons such as Gigas and Xerneas don't want to take on Eleki in terrain, so Reshiram lures them into be teleported on, at which point Eleki can go to town with an even more powered up Bolt Beak. Court Change lets you reflect back PH users' hazards, and Lava Plume can burn FC mons to soften them up for Eleki. Not a big fan of the Eleki set, but if I had to build a team around it I would probably try and make an eterrain one. Not having to run Goggles on random mobs to avoid Spores is definitely useful. Pair this with a bulky FC ground such as Swampert to improof eleki. Core Enforcer lets you hit Zygarde and FC Giratina really hard, probably forcing them to switch out. Spectral thief is a solid utility move to control setup.

 

[Lunatic Hai]

Day 17 of shilling for Metrosexual. Is it a tired old trope of mine already? Yes. Has it become a meme? Yes. Does that make the mon any less good? No. So, without further ado,


Ke$ha (Xerneas) @ Metronome
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Boomburst
- Magma Storm / Lava Plume / Spikes/ literallywhateverhassynergy
- Strength Sap
- Rapid Spin

Your main concerns with this Regi are physical steel and dragon walls. What better way to get rid of both than with an immensely powerful special threat that easily slots in supereffective moves? Enter a set as goated for Gen 8 as Purple Frog is to Natdex. For brevity's sake, I'll just link this post detailing its many great qualities outside of this specific scenario.

Scales steels and, if your opponent didn't get the memo about Tina, dragons, will be scouted out rather easily by this set given Boomburst's power. If you're trapped or just walled out, Metro Xern has both the stalling potential and sustainability to keep itself alive and give you much needed information. Scales or FF Zam? Great. It's not killing you after you start sapping it, and now you know Regieleki can blow it to smithereens. If they're running FC or some other ability instead? You get to obliterate them with Xern. Without any pivot and toxic as its only non-breaking move, Regieleki is sorely lacking in the utility department, so a partner that carries utility, scouts for it, and eliminates sets that do wall it makes for a very strong partner. Magma Storm serves to trap, deal super-effective damage to steels, and add residual damage, while Lava Plume boasts more PP (useful for ramping damage up with Metronome), better accuracy, and a chance to burn the enemy.

(Other options for this moveslot)

- Hazards to help rack up damage and get both Xern and Regi to certain breakpoints.
- Paralysis moves if you want to be plain rude.
- Fishious Rend to hit special walls. You have Regieleki for this, admittedly, but being able to click a fossil move in one less turn can be rather valuable, especially considering mixed Metrosexual is pretty solid in its own right. You'll want to run a Rash nature over Modest in this case, though, and given that you're paired with Regi, it's probably better to stick to serving as a partner to it than hitting from both sides of the spectrum.
- Quiver Dance / Nasty Plot for further setup. By now, most people will expect non-PH Xern to be a breaker rather than a setup mon, and while Metrosexual serves as a hybrid of these both, it can be helpful to push this even further. Admittedly, between Rapid Spin and Metronome boosts, this can be rather redundant, but the extra nudge can be clutch against unprepared foes.

And hey, as strong as Metro Xern is, it still is annoyed by that damn pelican. Solve those issues with a bouncy yellow ball, and you've got quite a dynamic duo.

 

[in the hills]

Thank you to everyone who submitted! The submissions are as follows:
Champion Leon with Magic Bounce Ferrothorn
lph with Tinted Lens Kartana
a loser with Dragon's Maw Dragapult
XxSevagxX with Poison Heal Calyrex-Ice
SuperSkylake with Electric Surge Reshiram
Lunatic Hai with Pixilate Xerneas
Voting closes 2/7. As always, you may vote if you submitted a set as long as you do not vote for yourself, and always I'll use my vote as an example.
1. lph
2. Lunatic Hai
3. Champion Leon

 

[XxLazzerpenguinxX]

1. lph
2. SuperSkylake
3. Lunatic Hai

 

[a loser]

lph
Lunatic Hai
SuperSkylake

 

[Champion Leon]

1. lph
2. Lunatic Hai
3. SuperSkylake

 

[SuperSkylake]

1 A Loser
2 LPH
3 Lunatic High

 

[avyrie]

lunatic hai
sevag
a loser

 

[Lunatic Hai]

1: XxSevagxX
2: lph
3: SuperSkylake

 

[in the hills]

Thank you all for voting! lph comes in first, with Lunatic Hai in 2nd and SuperSkylake in 3rd. Next week is AAA!

Week 19: Adaptability Tapu Koko (Almost Any Ability)

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Roost​

The deadline to submit a partner for Tapu Koko is 2/12. As always reservations last 24 hours, so be sure to finish posts in a timely manner.

 

[The Number Man]

Reserving return to monke Zarude
E: actually heatran, gonna finish it in a few hours


Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 248 HP / 184 SpD / 76 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Solar Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt

The biggest obstacles to Koko's attempts at making progress are Swampert and VA Fairy resists such as Pex or Corviknight. Heatran gets a free switch on the latter two, getting a chance to set up rocks or try trapping something with Magma. As for Swampert - Swampert teams are notoriously weak to Desotran defensively (since pert gets trapped w magma and killed by solarbeam, unless AV. in order to kill AV a more offensive spread should be used), unless they specifically run something that checks Tran such as a Flash Fire or a Psea mon. Barraskewda is Koko's only Scarfless offensive check so the fact that Heatran switches into Barraskewda variants lacking Close Combat pretty safely is very useful for Koko, as it prevents Barra from grabbing Flip Turn momentum.

On the flip side, Koko is an offensive check to Garchomp and Terrakion, both mons that scare Heatran out while also swiching in at least once, or repeatedly if running Pheal/Regen. The fact that Koko + Tran beats both common ground types (Chomp and Pert) coupled with the current trend of only using one or the other on teams means that this core should be well positioned at making progress vs the current meta.

Last, KokoTran has additional synergy as each of the two exploits one of the two common Blissey sets. Bounce Blissey gets worn down by repeated Volt Switches, whereas Regen Blissey gets trapped and taunted by Heatran.

Both are very weak to ground defensively, so make sure to run a bird or a grass type to shore up that weakness.

 

[Lana]

Weavile @ Choice Band
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Triple Axel
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Poison Jab

Voltturn + strong physical breaker is a core I really like using and koko + weavile works pretty well in AAA from what I've observed. Weavile itself is a threatening breaker with little number of reliable switch ins. Koko can freely volt switch vs incoming blissey, chansey, silvally, and whatever else switches into it, to give Weavile a free knock off or potentially kill something with the right predict. not much to say, its just a fun BO core. works best if you get rocks up early. alternatively you can also use the technician set but I think band works better with koko.

 

[Isaiah]

Tapu Bulu @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Atk / 24 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Horn Leech
- Close Combat
- Darkest Lariat

Pretty straightforward. Tapu Bulu smashes the Ground-type pokemon that try to pivot into Tapu Koko (Swampert, Garchomp, Landorus) while Koko kills birds for it (Noivern, Mandibuzz, Corviknight, Moltres, [Zapdos]). They pair relatively well outside of the type synergy as well, as Bulu offers speed control versus potential scarfers like Garchomp, Archeops, and Blacephalon (which it OHKOs at +2 with Horn Leech) and also creates the potential to enable its own sweeps by chipping things down with Tapu Koko and then eventually getting up Swords Dance(s).

 

[Atha]

Gengar @ Grip Claw
Ability: Normalize
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Infestation
- Skill Swap
- Taunt
- Shadow Ball

Regen Blissey, Silvally-Elec, Snorlax, AV Swampert are the most common answers to Tapu Koko. You kill them with this Gengar set. You kill pretty much any special wall with this Gengar set, except for Bounce Blissey, which you just Volt Switch on to death. Teams usually have only one good answer to Koko, so it makes sense to use a lure set like this one.

 

[drampa's grandpa]

Zapdos-Galar @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Thunderous Kick
- U-turn
- Taunt

Zapdos-Galar forms a VoltTurn core with Koko, allowing them to smack stuff around for a lot of chip damage and force lots of switches. Zapdos was chosen because it can check Grass types like Bulu that Koko likely hits with Volt Switch, while also murdering Blissey because it's a physical Fighting type. Taunt helps keep hazards off for Koko and prevent recovery on stuff you want to chip.

 

[in the hills]

Zarude @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 96 HP / 160 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Darkest Lariat
- Power Whip
- Protect
I decided to go with PH Zarude as I felt that it was a pretty solid check to Tapu Koko's switchins, namely Swampert and Blissey. I went with Poison Heal so that it could reliably switch into these checks, though any Zarude set pairs decently with Koko. In return, Koko is able to check some of Zarude's checks, most importantly Corviknight, which is nice. This core does struggle a good deal with Tapu Bulu, so it's important to have solid counterplay for it with the rest of your team.

Submissions are now closed! I'll be posting voting shortly.

 

[in the hills]

Thank you to everyone who submitted! The submissions are as follows:
The Number Man with Desolate Land Heatran
pichus with Tough Claws Weavile
Thinkerino with Triage Tapu Bulu
Atha with Normalize Gengar
drampa's grandpa with Magic Guard Zapdos-Galar
In The Hills with Poison Heal Zarude
As always, you may vote if you submitted a set as long as you do not vote for yourself, and as always I'll use my vote as an example:
1. Thinkerino
2. Atha
3. drampa's grandpa