So I stopped posting here once I started to dislike the direction this CCAT was going in, but now that the floor's open for suggestions on past additions I have a couple of things I want to say.
Firstly, I don't know why people voted for Hyper Offense and are now nominating Pokemon that just flat-out do not fit on Hyper Offense, or talking about 'switching x pokemon into attack y'. I'm glad you got over the SDef Zapdos phase but I'm still seeing loads of people talking about having no good Scizor switch-ins etc etc etc. Whats the point of even voting for a playtyle when a lot of the posters (and as a result, the voters) don't understand the main principles behind the playstyle? The entire idea behind HO is that your opponent does not get a chance to set-up against you at all out of fear of being hit with very strong boosted attacks and being much more susceptible to your next Pokemon as a result. This team certainly doesn't seem to embody that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who perceives individual playstyles as being completely mutually exclusive things, and I'm not exactly a massive fan of labelling teams as Hyper Offense / Heavy Offense / Balance / Semistall or whatever, but I think that if we've actually voted for a playstyle then we should at least stick to it.
Another thing that I haven't seen anybody else mention: why does Zoroark even have Substitute in the first place? Sure, it eases prediction, but none of the other Pokemon on the team have Substitute (bar a slash on Haxorus, but Double Dance Haxorus is a far greater threat than SubDD considering Lum is the better item choice and it blocks status for you anyway), so as soon as you use it, its a dead giveaway that its Zoroark. It just seems to be yet another example of people using Substitute on something that doesn't necessarily gain much from it. It lets you get a hit on a revenge-killer, sure, but one of the main principles behind HO is that you just send in something (that resists the likely choice-locked attack) and force that Pokemon out; rinse and repeat. The 3 move coverage that Zoroark becomes restricted to is a large-part of what made us so weak to Volcarona / Gyarados etc etc etc in the first place, and I'd much rather see some 4th coverage move or whatever over Substitute. I was thinking Sucker Punch, as Dark Pulse + Sucker Punch is probably going to be KOing (and if not then at least very close to KOing) a lot of the stuff that tries to set-up on Zoroark (Volc/Gyara), whilst also just being cool for getting a quick jab at some weakened revenge-killer on occasion.
I personally feel that Donphan and Salamence are the weak links at the moment. I have tried using offensive Donphan extensively because it looks really cool, but I don't think I've ever had a game with it where I think its done a decent job. Frankly, it rarely gets a chance to Rapid Spin unless against dedicated hazard-laying Pokemon (like Skarmory) because its so slow and doesn't take attacks particularly well with such an offensive spread. It spins decently vs stall, but when you look at our team we shouldn't be having any issues against it anyway; we have Haxorus, arguably one of the best wallbreakers in the game which can sometimes break through even Skarmory, and Zoroark which can potentially lure in Steel-types making Haxorus' life even easier. Whenever I've used offensive Donphan, I immediately just ask myself why I'm not using something like Mamoswine instead. Offensive Donphan might not just fit my playstyle well, but I feel its speed really lets it down and I really struggled to make it work.
I'm still standing by my suggestions of Offensive SD Scizor and Lum DD Dragonite from right back at the start of the teammate nomination process. I feel these are 2 of the best options for Hyper Offense, sharing many of the same counters but providing something our team really lacks; Priority. This was something I tried to emphasize back then but I sort of got drowned out under the sea of Specially Defensive Zapdos and Forretress nominations. Ideally, you don't want to be locking yourself into an attack every time you want to try and revenge-kill a speed boosting Pokemon, because it becomes massive set-up fodder for something else down the line. I'm glad Salamence was chosen over Jirachi because going with something that gives Magnezone a free switch-in, +6 SAtk, and a Sub whilst retaining that DD Haxorus you tried to revenge-kill is obviously not good. Salamence is a better option but I'd still not really what the team needs.
That ended up longer than I expected. tl;dr I'm probably going to test something like SR Mamoswine / SD Sciz / DDNite / DDGyara / Double Dance Haxorus / Zoroark when I get some time and I'll edit this post with any thoughts on it.
EDIT: also Haxorus / Gyarados in particular really like screens support, so I'll probably give Espeon a test. Can keep hazards off the field early game + makes gyara and hax much more difficult for offensive teams to take down.
Firstly, I don't know why people voted for Hyper Offense and are now nominating Pokemon that just flat-out do not fit on Hyper Offense, or talking about 'switching x pokemon into attack y'. I'm glad you got over the SDef Zapdos phase but I'm still seeing loads of people talking about having no good Scizor switch-ins etc etc etc. Whats the point of even voting for a playtyle when a lot of the posters (and as a result, the voters) don't understand the main principles behind the playstyle? The entire idea behind HO is that your opponent does not get a chance to set-up against you at all out of fear of being hit with very strong boosted attacks and being much more susceptible to your next Pokemon as a result. This team certainly doesn't seem to embody that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who perceives individual playstyles as being completely mutually exclusive things, and I'm not exactly a massive fan of labelling teams as Hyper Offense / Heavy Offense / Balance / Semistall or whatever, but I think that if we've actually voted for a playstyle then we should at least stick to it.
Another thing that I haven't seen anybody else mention: why does Zoroark even have Substitute in the first place? Sure, it eases prediction, but none of the other Pokemon on the team have Substitute (bar a slash on Haxorus, but Double Dance Haxorus is a far greater threat than SubDD considering Lum is the better item choice and it blocks status for you anyway), so as soon as you use it, its a dead giveaway that its Zoroark. It just seems to be yet another example of people using Substitute on something that doesn't necessarily gain much from it. It lets you get a hit on a revenge-killer, sure, but one of the main principles behind HO is that you just send in something (that resists the likely choice-locked attack) and force that Pokemon out; rinse and repeat. The 3 move coverage that Zoroark becomes restricted to is a large-part of what made us so weak to Volcarona / Gyarados etc etc etc in the first place, and I'd much rather see some 4th coverage move or whatever over Substitute. I was thinking Sucker Punch, as Dark Pulse + Sucker Punch is probably going to be KOing (and if not then at least very close to KOing) a lot of the stuff that tries to set-up on Zoroark (Volc/Gyara), whilst also just being cool for getting a quick jab at some weakened revenge-killer on occasion.
I personally feel that Donphan and Salamence are the weak links at the moment. I have tried using offensive Donphan extensively because it looks really cool, but I don't think I've ever had a game with it where I think its done a decent job. Frankly, it rarely gets a chance to Rapid Spin unless against dedicated hazard-laying Pokemon (like Skarmory) because its so slow and doesn't take attacks particularly well with such an offensive spread. It spins decently vs stall, but when you look at our team we shouldn't be having any issues against it anyway; we have Haxorus, arguably one of the best wallbreakers in the game which can sometimes break through even Skarmory, and Zoroark which can potentially lure in Steel-types making Haxorus' life even easier. Whenever I've used offensive Donphan, I immediately just ask myself why I'm not using something like Mamoswine instead. Offensive Donphan might not just fit my playstyle well, but I feel its speed really lets it down and I really struggled to make it work.
I'm still standing by my suggestions of Offensive SD Scizor and Lum DD Dragonite from right back at the start of the teammate nomination process. I feel these are 2 of the best options for Hyper Offense, sharing many of the same counters but providing something our team really lacks; Priority. This was something I tried to emphasize back then but I sort of got drowned out under the sea of Specially Defensive Zapdos and Forretress nominations. Ideally, you don't want to be locking yourself into an attack every time you want to try and revenge-kill a speed boosting Pokemon, because it becomes massive set-up fodder for something else down the line. I'm glad Salamence was chosen over Jirachi because going with something that gives Magnezone a free switch-in, +6 SAtk, and a Sub whilst retaining that DD Haxorus you tried to revenge-kill is obviously not good. Salamence is a better option but I'd still not really what the team needs.
That ended up longer than I expected. tl;dr I'm probably going to test something like SR Mamoswine / SD Sciz / DDNite / DDGyara / Double Dance Haxorus / Zoroark when I get some time and I'll edit this post with any thoughts on it.
EDIT: also Haxorus / Gyarados in particular really like screens support, so I'll probably give Espeon a test. Can keep hazards off the field early game + makes gyara and hax much more difficult for offensive teams to take down.
