ORAS CAP Good Cores Thread

[cbrevan]

Approved by king boober HeaLnDeaL
Taken over from Tadasuke, inspired by every other Good Cores thread.​

ORAS CAP Good Cores Thread

​

One of the most critical aspects of teambuilding is the use of effective cores between a group of Pokemon, that when used in combination with each other, work towards a certain goal or win condition. There are three main types of cores, which by nature mirror the three main teambuilding archetypes, offense, balance, and defensive. Offensive cores are designed to allow a team to break through the majority of other team styles, defensive cores use a combination of bulk and type synergy to give a team a defensive backbone and the ability to switch around common threats, and a balance core combines both offensive presence and staying power to provide support and utility for a team.

The goal of this thread is to act as a resource for newcomers to the metagame and to provide a basis for the creation of teams. If you have a core you would like to share withe the community, this is the place to post it. Likewise, feel free to comment and ask questions about cores posted in this thread.

Now, let's move on to guidelines for submission.

• Submit full movesets for the Pokemon and explain every part of it. EV spreads deviating from a 252 / 252 format must be explained.
• Explain why the Pokemon work well together and what they're meant to achieve.
• Include replays of the core working if you can.
• Use an importable.

Here's a sample core for reference.

Sample Core

Tomohawk @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def/ 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Air Slash
- Stealth Rock
- Haze

Colossoil @ Assault Vest
Abilty: Guts or Rebound
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch

Scizor @ Scizorite
Abilty: Technician
EVs:248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
- Swords Dance

This is an incredibly simple balance core that serves as a solid backbone for a lot of balance teams by providing hazard control and checks to common threats. Tomohawk and Assault Vest Colossoil have great synergy together as they can handle Psychic-, Electric-, Fighting-, and Bug-types that the other hates while providing hazard control. Haze was chosen on Tomohawk to serve as a stop to Cawmodore and other setup sweepers, as well as an emergency stop to Manaphy and Mega Charizhard-X. Colossoil has Sucker Punch over U-turn or Pursuit to give the team more options against faster threats, although the other two options can work as well. Guts or Rebound are both useful abilities and is up to the user to decide which one they like better. Colossoil and Tomohawk are both threatened by Fairy- and Ice-types, which Scizor handles well. Scizor also provides the team with a win condition and notable revenge killing power. EVs are standard bulky Swords Dance so it has easier setup versus Ground- and Fairy-types.

Mega Charizard-X and Talonflame can give this core problems, so bulky Water-types and Rock-types make good partners. Azumarill in particular can check Charizard-X and can weaken walls to allow Scizor to clean up late game.

Happy Posting!

 

[cbrevan]

Cores Archive!

Offensive Cores

Mega Charizad Y + Necturna + Feraligatr
Aurumoth + Manaphy
Mega Crucibelle + Volkraken
Mega Medicham + Kerfluffle
Kyurem-Black + Naviathan

Balance Cores

Tomohawk + Colossoil
Arghonaut + Mega Scizor

Stall Cores

Tomohawk + Chansey

 

[cbrevan]

reserved

 

[DJTHED]

Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 SpA / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Fire Blast
- Solar Beam
- Earthquake
- Roost

Necturna @ Choice Band
Ability: Forewarn
EVs: 136 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Power Whip
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak
- V-create

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

I've been using this core with great success. Fire/Water/Grass cores are classic, as they provide excellent offensive and defensive synergy.

Starting with Mega Charizard Y, it's given a Hasty nature to prevent it from lowering its physical attack stat to take advantage of its under appreciated base 104 attack with earthquake, since ground coverage is absolutely amazing to have in CAP, and it allows it to not get stopped cold by the likes of Mollux and Heatran. The EVs are standard except for the 8 EVs given to its special defense, which allows it to live a Timid Specially Offensive Krilowatt's thunderbolt guaranteed at full HP.

I've come to believe that Necturna is the best grass type teammate that Zard Y can ever have simply because it has access to sun boosted V-create. Necturna's set is its standard Bulky Attacker set with a choice band with slight modifications. The EVs to its speed allows it to outspeed Colossoils without any speed investment. Attack EVs get maxed with an Adamant nature, and the rest goes into bulk with an odd HP number.

Lastly, we have Feraligatr. When I was originally building this core, I had Calm Mind Naviathan instead of Feraligatr since it provided additional fantastic defensive synergy with Necturna and Charizard with its additional Steel typing, but it failed to function very well at all because of Charizard Y's Drought was constantly lowering the base power of its only offensive move. I decided to switch Naviathan out for something more offensive, and my choice was Feraligatr with mono Water typing. It works much better alongside Charizard Y as it's not limited to only using water type moves, though it can still hit decently hard with water STAB even with the sun still present. The spread is standard, though its speed was lowered just a tad for some extra bulk so that it can just outspeed Timid Scarf Mollux at +1 since Feraligatr's speed tier is rather uncommon.

Replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-293418662 (I choked this one away so hard ;-;)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-293412997
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-293408022
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-293395368
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-287313954
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-286861996
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-286560996

 

[sparktrain]

I'll post one of my favorite offensive cores, the Tail Glow duo of Manaphy and Aurumoth.

Manaphy @ Leftovers / Wacan Berry
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tail Glow
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball

Aurumoth @ Life Orb
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Tail Glow
- Bug Buzz
- Psyshock / Psychic
- Overheat

Manaphy's classic TG + 3 Attacks set is plenty effective, as it can set up on and threaten a wide variety of defensive threats in the metagame. Manaphy is normally forced to choose between several viable coverage options, including Ice Beam, Energy Ball, Psychic, and Hidden Power Fire, and lacking certain moves can potentially leave it walled and subsequently threatened by defensive Pokemon such as Mega Venusaur, Mollux, Ferrothorn, Cyclohm, etc. This is where Aurumoth comes into play. LO TG Aurumoth is a very potent wallbreaker in its own right, especially with Illusion, which allows it to disguise itself and force out Pokemon it normally wouldn't be able to, grab a TG boost, then devastate the opposition with a +3 LO-boosted attack. It just so happens to form a great offensive duo with Manaphy, as it provides an excellent teammate for Aurumoth to disguise itself as. With Bug/Psychic/Fire coverage, LO Aurumoth can lure and pummel through Manaphy's defensive checks with ease. For example, Aurumoth's STAB Psychic-type move blasts through Pokemon such as Mega Venusaur and Mollux, and Overheat lets it obliterate Ferrothorn without thinking twice. Also, with Modest and a Life Orb boost, Overheat can even 2HKO physically defensive Unaware Clefable (Unaware ignores the SpA drops!), which is incredibly helpful for breaking stall teams that are over-reliant on Unaware Clefable to check boosters. Bug/Psychic/Fire coverage is honestly really great all-around, with very few exceptions. The most notable exception is Heatran, which really isn't a huge problem in the context of this core, as Manaphy sets up all over it, and very few players would willingly send Heatran into what appears to be Manaphy.

This core can be used at virtually any point in the match, but I've found that it works incredibly well early-game to open up holes in the opposing team's defensive cores. You can lead off with Aurumoth with Manaphy in the sixth slot, or Manaphy itself, immediately putting the opponent in a very risky situation. This is especially the case if the opponent is forced to switch turn one, as they won't know for sure which mon just used Tail Glow as they send in their Manaphy check. Even if your opponent is aware of the Illusion tactic, they are still forced to play very conservatively with their Manaphy check throughout the match and are forced into suboptimal plays.

The core isn't without its faults, and does require some support to function at its best. Manaphy and Aurumoth have excellent offensive synergy and can break past a lot of defensive threats together, but their defensive synergy leaves a bit to be desired. Also, their somewhat average Speed can render the core less effective against offensive teams. Strong, faster Special Attackers in particular can prevent this core from accomplishing a whole lot. To remedy some of these issues, a mon like AV Colossoil can be paired up with them to sponge Electric-type attacks among other Special Attacks and provide Rapid Spin support to ensure that Illusion functions optimally. Strong priority users and/or fast mons in general are good to pair with Manaphy and Aurumoth to clean up after they've finished wallbreaking, and will help the core's matchup against offense.

tl;dr If you're capable of playing aggressively and dislike opposing stall, try out this core. LO TG Aurumoth with Illusion makes Manaphy 100x more threatening and effective.

 

[Take Azelfie]

Revive?

AoA Mega Crucibelle + Scarf Volkraken U-turn Core

Claymore (Crucibelle-Mega) (F) @ Crucibellite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Gunk Shot
- Head Smash
- Wood Hammer

Hydroctane (Volkraken) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Surf
- Power Gem
- U-turn

I found this when I was testing out how Mega Crucibelle (specifically AoA) does in the meta. Basically these two can switch off into eachother or even into a powerful wallbreaker like Hoopa Unbound. Volkraken targets down Steel-types that scare off Crucibelle (especially with the lack of Low Kick.) Volkraken also picks off weakened Ground-types like Collosoil and Landorus-T, the former because Sucker Punch is scary and the latter because Grass isn't super effective. Both are extremely hard to switch into. Cruccibelle might also not provide that much for Volkraken outside of hitting some Water-types with Wood Hammer but it is still an excellent pair that fit really well onto teams that have a powerful Wallbreaker.

 

[Take Azelfie]

Double posting because whatever.

Going to dump a lot of cores so this can be used as an OR/AS resource for newer players once we go into Sub and Moon.

Stall

Chirpsy + Hawk

Tomohawk @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Haze / Earth Power
- Stealth Rock / Rapid Spin / Reflect

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
- Soft-Boiled
- Toxic / Wish / Thunder Wave
- Heal Bell / Protect
- Seismic Toss

One of the most annoying stall cores to deal with period. Chansey hates three things, Fighting-types, Knock Off, and physical wallbreakers. Tomohawk can complete all three of those task while Chansey compliments Tomohawk by being a specially defensive counter part and providing support with Toxic to start racking up damage or Heal Bell to increase there longevity. Chansey also isn't a fan of Steel-types so Tomohawk can check those to.

Balance

Staple

Colossoil @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts / Rebound
EVs: 252 Atk / 36 Def / 220 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin / U-Turn / Pursuit
- Sucker Punch / U-Turn / Pursuit

Tomohawk @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Aura Sphere / Nature Power
- Earth Power / Nature Power
- Roost / Healing Wish

or

Tomohawk @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Haze / Earth Power

A heavily spammed core but that is because of how much support it can give a team. Colossoil draws in Electric, Psychic, and Kitsunoh for Tomohawk while Tomohawk checks Fighting- and Grass-types that want to pressure Colossoil. Offensively they both can hit everything naturally and pressure specific types / Pokemon that are very powerful in the meta such as Mega Crucibelle and Steel-types. Beware that this core is very Weak to Ice and Fairy-types

MegaZor + Bulky Water 1

Arghonaut @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 200 HP / 220 Atk / 88 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Recover
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off /Roar / Gunk Shot

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Atk / 176 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Knock Off / Bug Bite / U-Turn

MegaZor is often paired with a bulky Water-type since Scizor only has one weakness which is Fire. The Water-type of choice is very dependant on the user but in this core Arghonaught is used. While it unfortunately struggles to check special Fire-types, it is one of the best Mega Charizard X counters due to its ability in Unaware. But Scizor covers Argho' s weaknesses pretty well by resisting Grass, Psychic, and Fairy. Even though Size is a part of the team you might want to keep Gunk Shot so you don't have to risk Magnezone coming in after Scizor switches into the Fairy.

I'll be continuously adding more but I'm tired and have to start on my 1.5K Post z.z

 

[Drapionswing]

Ancient Gods

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Band
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Iron Head
- Dragon Claw
- Fusion Bolt

Naviathan @ Leftovers
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Slack Off

This is a really nice core for dealing with fatter teams. Naviathan is able to break the likes of clefable for kyurem-b to spam it's high powered dragon type moves. While breaking more fat mons for kyube navi also acts as a nice pivot into mons that may try to revenge kyube like cruci. Kyurem-b then gives back to naviathan by pressuring mons like cyclohm which navi can't break. The core struggles with offensive fighting types so something to deal with those are appreciated also.

 

[Morsel]

Wow this hasn't been updated in ages. In honour of the most recent addition to the CAP metagame, Kerfluffle, here is a core utilizing it to great effect:


Mega Medicham+Kerfluffle fighting spam

Sets

Kerfluffle @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Parting Shot
- Aura Sphere
- Moonblast
- Rest / Sludge Bomb / HP Ground

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Fake Out
- Zen Headbutt / Ice Punch
- Bullet Punch / Ice Punch

This offensive core is designed to be used on bulky offensive and hyper offensive teams. Kerfluffe and Medicham serve to put immense pressure on fighting resists, and together can easily break through them due to the immense power both Pokemon carry. In essence, this is an overload core that aims to work together to break collective checks such as Clefable, Slowbro, Tornadus-T, Hippowdon, Gliscor to name a few. However, this synergy goes far beyond this. Kerfluffe also serves to beat notable Medicham counters like Mega Sableye, and can grant Medicham free switches courtesy of parting shot. Meanwhile, Medicham serves to destroy bulky poison types that can easily check Kerfluffe -- notably Amoonguss, Mega Venusuar, Mega Crucibelle and Mollux.

Let's go through each Pokemon specifically. On Medicham, bullet punch is needed to revenge kill offensive fairy types that greatly threaten this core such as opposing Kerfluffe, Mega Diance and Mega Gardevoir. Zen headbutt is prefered to actually beat the poison types which wall Kerfluffe; however, ice punch is perfectly viable in order to improve the core's matchup versus bulky ground and flying types on the switch. Looking at Medicham's partner, Sludge bomb is the ideal final move if bullet punch is not used on Medicham. However, rest is an alternative to improve Kerfluffe's matchup against more passive builds in particular, as it greatly improves its longevity. If Zen Headbutt is not run on Medicham, then HP Ground is prefered in the last slot to OHKO Mega Crucibelle and Mollux.

Here are some replays showcasing the core's effectiveness. These were both tournament battles against an excellent CAP player (he is currently #3 on the ladder):

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-457668689.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-457664787.