Project OU Next Best Thing: Cycle 87 - Not hosted anymore

[Egor]

Apologies for being inactive quite a bit, we're here again! Let's start the voting phase! We got 9 submissions do far:
Bulk Up by Katy
Life Orb by Martin
ToxTaunt by Lando-San
Choice Specs by Bandkrook
Rain Wallbreaker by arn.av136
SubNP by APW001
Fast Assault Vest by nameless90
Slow Assault Vest by glava222
Power Herb + Fly by incorolla

gye5 your submission was not included because you haven't filled up your reservation. The deadline is Sunday 7th of February.​

 

[nameless90]

Life Orb by Martin
because Tornadus-T has the niche of being one of the few LO users with Regenerator.

 

[Katy]

ToxTaunt

 

[arn.av136]

Choice Specs

 

[658Greninja]

Specs

 

[Latias]

Lant-San's ToxTaunt

 

[Banbadoro]

Voting Life Orb.

 

[Band]

life orb

 

[incorolla]

Voting for Bulk Up

 

[RufflesPro]

Bulk Up

 

[AM]

Specs

 

[Pokeglace17]

Specs. Sorry bulk up.

 

[voyage]

Specs.

 

[Contrary Servine]

Specs.

 

[Egor]

And the voting is over! By its results, the winner of the Cycle 42 is Choice Specs by Bandkrook. Congratulations! Your submission will be added to the Hall of Fame soon. Let's move forward!

Cycle Forty Three - Slowking-Galar


Slowking-G has been rising quite a lot lately on SPL XII: its typing, special bulk, and Regenerator allow it to be a sturdy special sponge, while a colorful offensive movepool including options like Future Sight, Flamethrower, Scald and so on, together with a decent Special Attack stat, seriously reduces the passiveness of Slowking-G. Typically Slowking-G uses an Assault Vest set, but its movepool definitely is wide enough for y'all to come up with some real heat!

Banned Sets


The deadline is Saturday 13th of February. Good luck!​

 

[658Greninja]

Slowking-Galar @ Black Sludge/Heavy Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 112 HP / 132 SpA / 124 SpD / 140 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock/Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot

Nasty Plot Slowking-G

Glowking is notorious for being difficult to consistently switch into for Balance/Stall teams while being hard to wear down due to it’s bulk and Regenerator. So why not apply both of these strengths and make it even harder to switch into. This is what NP Slowking-G is meant to accomplish. Thanks to its bulk, Regen, and Poison/Psychic typing, it is able to have plenty of opportunities to come in and setup against fatter teams. Psychic/Psyshock is ofc STAB. Focus Blast hits the steel and dark types. Grass Knot lets Glowking hit Slowbro, Hippo, and Quagsire. In fact with the ev spread, Grass Knot OHKOs them both at +2. As well as OHKO most Tran variants, Hydreigon, Pex, and Pult with Focus Blast and Psyshock after rocks. 140 Speed evs let it outrun Toxic + Protect Melmetal, Tangrowth, and Hippowdon with the rest of it’s evs scattered to HP and SpD. Despite having less bulk than its AV counterpart, it still has enough to fulfill its role in checking certain threats in the metagame, just to a lesser extent. Even a Modest Specs Shadow Ball from Pult or a LO Dark Pulse from Hydreigon isn’t killing it in one hit. (It dies if rocks are up but you can run Boots to neglect that). Grassy Terrain support makes Glowking even better as it can OHKO defensive Lando with Psychic after rocks and not die to EQ.

​

Defensive Calcs

252 SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 112 HP / 124 SpD Slowking-Galar: 273-322 (76 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


252+ SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 112 HP / 124 SpD Slowking-Galar: 296-350 (82.4 - 97.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


252+ SpA Choice Specs Magearna Flash Cannon vs. 112 HP / 124 SpD Slowking-Galar: 178-210 (49.5 - 58.4%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO


+2 252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 112 HP / 124 SpD Slowking-Galar: 262-310 (72.9 - 86.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


252 Atk Libero Cinderace Sucker Punch vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Slowking-Galar: 254-302 (70.7 - 84.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

​

​

Offensive Calcs

+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 248+ SpD Hippowdon: 410-484 (97.6 - 115.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock


+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Grass Knot (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowbro: 370-436 (93.9 - 110.6%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO


+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Heatran: 318-376 (82.3 - 97.4%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock


+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Focus Blast vs. 164 HP / 0 SpD Hydreigon: 504-594 (137.7 - 162.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO


+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 88 SpD Corviknight: 239-282 (59.7 - 70.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (forced to roost which turns this into an OHKO.)


+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 294-346 (92.7 - 109.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock


+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 418-493 (58.5 - 69%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Grass Knot (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Unaware Quagsire: 436-516 (110.6 - 130.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO


+2 132+ SpA Slowking-Galar Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 313-369 (81.9 - 96.5%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

​

​

 

[Katy]

black sludge 3 attacks + slack off


Slowking-Galar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Bomb
- Focus Blast
- Slack Off​

This Galarian Slowbro set aims to be as durable as it can get with the offensive pressure it still has on teams. Flamethrower hits Ferrothorn, Melmetal, and Corviknight. Sludge Bomb hits most of the tier for neutral damage and has a chance to poison the target, whereas Focus Blast hits Dark-types such as Hydreigon, Tyranitar, and Obstagoon for super effective outcome. Black Sludge coupled with Slack Off gives Galarian Slowbro the endurance it needs, moreover Regenerator helps Galarian Slowbro in this case as it has basically 3 ways to stay healthy and have a lot of different ways to gain reliable recovery.

 

[glava222]

reserve block+disable

 

[AM]

Offensive Trick Room (OTR) G-King

Slowking-Galar @
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Sludge Bomb
- Focus Blast
- Trick Room

I talked about it more in this post awhile back here. The set was a bit different months back that I used so this would probably be better unless you want to hit Blissey a bit harder with Psyshock. Sludge Bomb for the poison chance and Focus Blast is coverage here to cover T-Tar, Ferrothorn, Heatran in one slot and immediately threaten. Flamethrower is fine to if you have these covered and want to punish Corviknight/Skarm/Kartana instead of relying on inaccurate Focus Blast, based on team comp really. In the linked post I used a Trick Room team but considering the meta it's probably better off just using this as a stand alone if you were to ever use it. Pair with Spikes support you should be good.

 

[Band]

Shuca Berry + Belch

Slowking-Galar @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Belch
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast / Flamethrower
- Slack Off

A Shuca Berry allows Glowking to live an Earthquake from Offensive Excadrill and OHKO it back with Focus Blast. It also lets Glowking live an EQ from Offensive Landorus-T and Garchomp and hit them back hard with Psyshock. Most importantly, it activates Belch, a 120BP STAB Poison-type move. Belch always OHKOes Clefable and Rillaboom and has a very good chance of OHKOing Tapu Fini after Stealth Rock. Belch can also be used for the rest of the battle, so you can spam it. Alternatively, Flamethrower can be used in place of Focus Blast to threaten Ferrothorn and Kartana more easily, but you are then completely walled by Heatran, so its up to your team. Slack Off gives Glowking some recovery outside of Regen e lets it check stuff like Toxapex more reliably.​

 

[incorolla]

Reserving wonder room trapper

Slowking-Galar @ Black Sludge / Binding Band
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Block/Whirlpool
- Wonder Room
- Sludge Bomb / Psychic
- Fire Blast / Psychic / Hydro Pump / Slack Off

Wonder room is a move that functions similarly to Trick room, but swaps defense and special defense of all Pokemon.

This is great with a trapping move, because as your foe sends in something to tank your powerful special hits, they get locked in and their defences swapped, making them take hits from their weaker defence stat.

Either trapping move works - I prefer Block for the accuracy but Whirlpool's chip is nice, and can even work with Binding Band if you're crazy. Wonder Room is the crux of the set.
Your main stab will depend on the rest of your team - I like using Sludge Bomb with Magnezone to eliminate Steel types, and if you use Psychic make sure to smack the foe's dark types beforehand.
Your last slot is coverage as needed. You can run Slack Off but I personally prefer having extra coverage, as Black Sludge and Regenerator recovery is often enough imo.

This set is a really fun bit of heat that no one expects - so many players don't know what wonder room does which is fun, don't knock it til you try it.

 

[Banbadoro]

Stored Power Slowking-Galar

Slowking-Galar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 212 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stored Power
- Calm Mind
- Iron Defense
- Slack Off

A mono-attack Stored Power set, that works on other mons such as Latias & Reuniclus. CM & ID raise King's stats up as far as you dare to make one pretty invincible mon. Slack Off is King's recovery, and Stored Power will climb up to a massive 380 base power when full set-up; of course being able to fully set-up may well be uncommon, but use any 2 boosts and you have a 100 power STAB move just like that. The 44 Speed EVs are there to outspeed Toxapex, which will otherwise Haze to undo all your good work. Of course this set has a couple flaws that spring to mind; firstly, and most prominently, only having Psychic attacks means it cannot touch Dark-types at all, so you will need to eliminate those in order for this to be able to do something in the game. You could get around this by replacing Iron Defense with a coverage move of choice, of which there are plenty of options given Slowking-G's diverse movepool. Secondly, there is the matter of setting-up, and though it can be done without support by getting it in at the right time, screens would help no-end, even just a few turns of them whilst Slowking gets going.

 

[nameless90]

Trick Black Sludge Slowking-G

Slowking-Galar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 176 SpA / 80 SpD
Calm Nature
- Future Sight
- Sludge Bomb
- Fire Blast
- Trick


Here we have a Slowking-G with the combination of Trick + Black Sludge in order to cripple an opposing monster not Poison-type.
Future Sight is here to provide some teammate support in order to scary out a Dark-type.
Sludge Bomb is the poison STAB chosen due to its 30% chance to poison, which is useful since many targets resistant to this move don't have reliable recovery.
The Fire move is picked over Flamethrower to hurt more reliably Scizor.
* 176 SpA Slowking-Galar Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Scizor: 336-396 (97.9 - 115.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

Trick is an utility move useful to exchange Black Sludge with something else that you think it is more useful.

The SpD EVs + the Calm nature allow to tank this hit:
* 252 SpA Life Orb Starmie Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 80+ SpD Slowking-Galar: 153-181 (38.8 - 45.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

 

[Amir]

CM Slowking-Galar

Slowking-Galar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 240 HP / 144 Def / 48 SpD / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Flamethrower
- Slack Off​

So I made this set somewhat a few months ago and the idea revolves using Slowking-G as basically a powerful late game sweeper that is also capable of working once it's checks and counters are weakened a bit.
Psyshock is the stab I used and beats Pex and Blissey, Flamethrower is great for breaking steels like Ferrothorn and Corviknight. Unlike the normal Slowbro or Slowking that we saw in past gens OU that also ran Calm Mind, has an additional niche of being immune to Toxic and Toxic Spikes.

The EV spread is where it gets interesting.
The HP and defense investment allows you to tank a hit from Scarf Landorus-T and Knock from LO Kartana and retaliate with Psyshock or Flamethrower for nice chip.

252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 240 HP / 144+ Def Slowking-Galar: 330-390 (84.3 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 240 HP / 144+ Def Slowking-Galar: 328-387 (83.8 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The HP and Special defense on other hand allows you to lure in Nidoking, tank a hit and put a dent into that too.
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Earth Power vs. 240 HP / 48 SpD Slowking-Galar: 330-390 (84.3 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
0 SpA Slowking-Galar Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Nidoking: 234-276 (77.2 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The speed on the other hand was used to outspeed Neutral speed nature Gastrodon and uncommon faster than usual Toxapex and Melmetal to dent those.

As for pokemon such as Heatran well you kinda shrug off their hits.
0 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. +1 240 HP / 48 SpD Slowking-Galar: 79-94 (20.2 - 24%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO after Black Sludge recovery and trapping damage

Shadow Balls from Pult are also delicious.
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 240 HP / 48 SpD Slowking-Galar: 288-342 (73.6 - 87.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
(Yummy)

Anywho have fun with it, get creative and feel free to tag me if you ever build around this thing or send me replays.

 

[Contrary Servine]

Slowking-Galar @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Belly Drum
- Zen Headbutt
- Drain Punch
- Liquidation

Belly Drum Trick Room Slowking-G

This is a stupid meme set I came up with after realising that Glowking gets access to Belly Drum and doesn’t have a terrible physical movepool. After a Belly Drum, Glowking can 2HKO the entire tier bar Slowbro, making it a formidable mon to switch in to. If your opponent assumes that Glowking is running the standard set, you can take them by surprise with Belly Drum and proceed to do major damage to their team, as many common switch-ins to AV Glowking get mauled by this set. Zen Headbutt is for STAB and take care of Pex, Fighting-types and pretty much anything that doesn’t resist or have great physical bulk. Drain Punch is solid coverage for Steels like Heatran and Ferrothorn, both of which get OHKOed after Belly Drum, and also helps Glowking to regen health after a Belly Drum. Liquidation is here for Hippowdon, Lando-T and ensuring the 2HKO on Corvinknight. Thanks to Sitrus+Regenerator, Glowking can Belly Drum multiple times if need be, setting it apart from other Belly Drum sweepers which tend to be boom or bust. This set (only) works well on Trick Room teams which allow Glowking to outspeed and OHKO mons that could otherwise pick it off.
This is a really dumb set, but it was better than I expected and I had a lot of fun with it.
Calcs:
+6 252+ Atk Slowking-Galar Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 390-462 (128.2 - 151.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252+ Atk Slowking-Galar Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 80 Def Ferrothorn: 340-400 (96.5 - 113.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252+ Atk Slowking-Galar Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 436-514 (112.9 - 133.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO (48.9% recovered)
+6 252+ Atk Slowking-Galar Liquidation vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 193-228 (48.2 - 57%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+6 252+ Atk Slowking-Galar Liquidation vs. 252 HP / 248+ Def Hippowdon: 334-394 (79.5 - 93.8%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252+ Atk Slowking-Galar Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tangrowth: 226-267 (55.9 - 66%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1279819073
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1279848130
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1279835756