Project RU Best Next Thing (Cycle 21: Gardevoir)

[cyanize]

deep in the night (Honchkrow) @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sucker Punch
- Superpower
- Snatch

ever been really glad that honchkrow you're facing only has base 71 speed? i know i have. well, z-snatch pretty cleanly resolves that problem, giving honchkrow a +2 speed boost and also letting it steal a select number of status moves to use for its own. imagine a virizion tries to cheekily sd in your face, expecting you to switch but you steal it and are now a +2/+2 honchkrow. pretty scary stuff.
but that isn't all - darkinium z also lets you boost sucker punch, which lets you muscle past (slightly weakened) doublade, bronzong, and can catch unwary physdef cress on the switch with just a little bit of chip. it also serves a similar purpose to flyinium z in that you can pick up random kos that you couldn't unboosted without taking recoil/taking drops from superpower, mitigating one of the most reliable ways to beat krow, and also prevents people from pivoting random offensive flying resists in an attempt to make it die faster.

kacaw

252+ Atk Honchkrow Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 112+ Def Cresselia: 344-408 (77.4 - 91.8%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Honchkrow Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Bronzong: 428-506 (126.6 - 149.7%)
252+ Atk Honchkrow Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 230-272 (71.4 - 84.4%)
252+ Atk Honchkrow Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ampharos-Mega: 235-277 (73.2 - 86.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Honchkrow Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dragalge: 267-315 (79.9 - 94.3%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Honchkrow Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ampharos-Mega: 235-277 (73.2 - 86.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock (bb into this kos)
252+ Atk Honchkrow Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Rhyperior: 195-231 (45 - 53.3%) -- supwerpower once then this nabs a kill w rocks
252+ Atk Honchkrow Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Snorlax: 348-409 (75.4 - 88.7%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock (nice to net a ko on snorlax without literally dying)

 

[nameless90]

Choice Scarf Honchkrow

Honchkrow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Night Slash
- Pursuit
- Superpower

One of the biggest problem Honchkrow has is its middling Spe, which forces it to use the unreliable Sucker Punch.
Choice Scarf gives it an unexpected Spe boost, thus allowing Honchkrow to drop the no-longer-needed Sucker Punch to use Night Slash, which has the same base power, but with a nice crit chance, which can be game-changing if combined with a Moxie boost.

Evs spread and nature are pretty standard.

 

[Katy]

Honchkrow @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Superpower
- Brave Bird
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit / Roost

252+ Atk Honchkrow All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Registeel: 310-366 (85.1 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery
into
252+ Atk Honchkrow Superpower vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Registeel: 196-232 (53.8 - 63.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
kills of specially defensive registeel one of the bulkiest mons in the RU tier. Due to the fightinium z u dont get a att + def drop in first place which is what i like about fightinium z here.

 

[atomicllamas]

Honchkrow @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature / Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Taunt
- Sucker Punch
- Superpower

This set takes advantage of passive pokemon that attempt to come in and recover stall Honchkrow such as Milotic and Gligar. How it works is: Honchkrow forces out offensive pokemon or weakened pokemon, and fire off brave bird, the defensive pokemon coming in will attempt to recover as you Z taunt, stopping their recovery and raising your attack one stage. Other times you can use Darkium z to fire off a nuke with z sucker punch, allowing you to use a powerful dark move even when they don't attack. I have 4 replays of this set from RU open quarter and semi finals.

Quarterfinals 1: Honchkrow taunts p2, kills it, and weakens the opposing sharpedo allowing my own Sharpedo the ability to revenge it and eventually opening it up for Nidoqueen to win https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-628528150

Quarterfinals 2: Early game black hole eclipse prevents cresselia from walling nidoqueen, I messed around afterwards but nidoqueen auto won once honchkrow had black hole eclipsed into not moonlight (didn't z taunt cause he had seen it already) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-628536745

Semis 1: opp bring cheese, and brick break doublade saves the day, but honchkrow still gets 2 kills https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ru-314750

semis 2: honchkrow lures in and kills milotic with z taunt as it is made to do, unfortunately I lose due to an EQ crit on doublade, but honchkrow still the goat https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ru-314753

While these replays are from an older meta, the number of Milotic and Gligar running around still makes this Honchkrow a great choice for dealing with those passive mons in this meta.

 

[Master Chief]

Honchkrow @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sucker Punch
- Mirror Move
- Superpower

Some of the murder krow sets I’ve seen so far are super cool. This is a fun set I use occasionally on a few teams. Z mirror move is basically a swords dance and you can then fire off your own z move vs a slower target. It doesn’t work all the time and a switch out just basically gives you a +2 but there are some niche times it works especially if webs are up and the +2 allows krow to secure some important kos like vs milotic. You can also of course use regular z sky strike as a nuke if you need it.

Just a fun set I like to use from time to time but I really like a lot of the other sets for murder krow in this thread

 

[Master Chief]

Llamas z taunt

 

[MultiAmmiratore]

Z-Mirror Move

 

[Katy]

cyanize deep in the night

 

[Harpp]

Rabbits flyinium z honchkrow

 

[nameless90]

Atomicllamas' Darkinium-Z set

 

[cyanize]

z taunt

 

[zizalith]

Shaymin is an influential Pokemon in the tier due to its good stats and potent coverage, which make it an easy choice on many teams as a scarfer, offensive pokemon or as a SubSeed set that is annoying to deal with on stall and bulky teams. Despite Shaymins relatively small movepool, its access to moves such as Leech Seed and Growth can make it an unpredictable foe to face. What interesting sets can this Cycles innovators create?!

Sets:

Shaymin @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Seed Flare
- Earth Power / Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psychic
- Synthesis / Rest

Shaymin @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Seed Flare
- Healing Wish
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power Ice

Shaymin @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Seed Flare
- Air Slash

 

[MultiAmmiratore]

reserving specs

 

[Katy]

Sonic Hedgehog (Shaymin) @ Groundium Z
Ability: Natural Cure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seed Flare
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Synthesis

I decided to go for Groundium Z Shaymin as Shaymin gets pretty much walled by Mega Ampharos and Z-Earth Power helps shaymin immensively to go past thru Mega Ampharos: 252 SpA Shaymin Tectonic Rage (175 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Ampharos-Mega: 294-346 (91.3 - 107.4%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
Also I find this set is able to catch people off guard with their switchins to Shaymin. I also like that u can get past Mega Camerupt with the Z-Earth Power Variant: 252 SpA Shaymin Tectonic Rage (175 BP) vs. 172 HP / 0 SpD Camerupt-Mega: 306-360 (94.4 - 111.1%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
The last slot is reserved for Synthesis for the longevity. Seed Flare as strong stab and HP fire for escavalier and opposing Shaymins.

 

[mofro5]

Shaymin @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Seed Flare
- Tailwind
- Healing Wish

Shaymin's the fastest mon in the tier with access to both Tailwind and Healing Wish (the only other one being Smeargle..). While Seed Flare is great, Shaymin will often have problems securing KOs on grass resistant mons either due to coverage or lack of power so why not help the rest of your team do that instead. Ever see a Tailwind CB Bewear or Ttrum before? yeah it's frightening. Healing Wish on top of what it already does normally (aid setup, clear status, allow another switch into hazards), is also a way for Shaymin to get out of the way into a "sweeper" safely after setting Tailwind and between the two, there will most likely always be some way that Shaymin wil be able to support an offensive team in a given situation if its attacking presence is no longer needed.

 

[KW]

Shaymin @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 160 SpD / 96 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Syntheis
- Leech Seed
- Grass Knot
- Toxic

Hard defensive Shaymin can actaully switch into a lot, and is good at annoying defensive teams with its leech seed recovery and ability to natural cure status. Grass knot is used so it can't be PP stalled like Seed Flare, and Toxic is able to annoy most other things in conjunction with leech seed.

 

[MultiAmmiratore]

f I forgot to post
voting for tailwind healing wish

 

[nameless90]

mofro5

 

[roman]

mofro5

 

[zizalith]

Sigilyph is a rather unexplored pokemon in this meta, both as a threatening Calm Mind sweeper or as a capable Defogger. Both sets are aided by an incredible ability in Magic Guard and great coverage. However, it can be a somewhat linear Pokemon to use, which is what this cycles innovators must change in this cycle!

Standard sets:

Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog / Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Roost

 

[MultiAmmiratore]

reserving psycho shift flame orb

Sigilyph @ Flame Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stored Power
- Psycho Shift
- Roost
- Cosmic Power

Cosmic Power Flame Orb Sigilyph is usually used to cripple some physical attacker while being a wincon in some games, 204 speed is used to outspeed jolly feraligatr and burn it the rest evs are bumped in hp and def to let it be more bulky, u could try psychic>stored power so it can actually do some damage even w/o boosts but the lack of sp.atk evs and lo means it still won't do much damage.

 

[mofro5]

Sigilyph @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Psychic
- Air Slash / Calm Mind / Defog
- Heat Wave / Random coverage move / Random support move

Ok so by now it's very apparent that I have a hard on for Tailwind since I find it to be such an interesting and surprisingly versatile move with differing applications per mon. On Sigi, Tailwind allows it to act as a revenge killer in conjunction with sash + Magic Guard ensuring sash is never broken from SR and imo is much more effective and reliable than using Twave for that purpose (Flygon/zydoge just say sup to that), quite possibly even turning the tables after the initial rk due to the speed. Unlike most other scarf revenge killers, Sigi outspeeds quite literally everything under Tailwind from Timid Venu in sun to Scarf Lazzle and even Kingdra under rain. Because of Sigi's large movepool as well, you can pick and choose what it wants to revenge from coverage options in Energy Ball, Ice Beam, Dazzling Gleam, Flash Cannon, or Dark Pulse. In addition if you just want your team to abuse Tailwind then Sigi can also use any of its other support moves before biting the dust as well such as Defog or screens. You can even get a guaranteed CM on slower threats if you need the power due to lack of LO.

 

[nameless90]

Focus Sash Attacker

Sigilyph @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Air Slash
- Heat Wave
- Thunder Wave

Magic Guard allows Sigilyph to keep its Focus Sash intact, while Thunder Wave is a nice move to spam in order to cut in half the Spe of the threat in front of you. Magic Guard is a better choice than Tinted Lens, which is still nice, because this set is designed to ruin at least one of Sigilyph's revenge killers.
Double STAB is mandatory, whereas Heat Wave is preferred over Energy Ball for further coverage.

 

[KW]

Sigilyph @ Psychium Z
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Miracle Eye
- Cosmic Power
- Stored Power
- Roost

This set always wins unless you get crit, which is most if the time but whatever. Miracle eye allows Sigilyph to WAKE UP so it can cosmic power stores power everything. Psychium can be a one time attack boost or a nuke.

 

[Mac3]

kw