Shadows in the Dark
A mono-team was something I have wanted to do for quite a while. However, while mono-teams did intrigue me, one thing that was very important was that if I were to attempt one it would be at least somewhat viable in a competitive metagame. One of the types that has always intrigued me is the ghost type; ghosts typically oscillate between super frail glass cannons and ultimate tanks, with one or two in between such as Mismagius. Building a team in the hostile OU environment was a challenge I hoped I could overcome. After playing a few dozen games, I think I have formulated a team that can win in most circumstances (Admittingly, like many monotypes a specific exceptionally powerful and quick supereffective attacker could wipe my team off the face of the planet but thats a flaw you can't fix without introducing non-ghost types).
Team Building Process:
Well, the first step was introducing a ghost that lacked common ghost type weaknesses as that would be my primary problem. Without this, the team is horribly flawed as a quick ghost/dark attacker could easily sweep the team. My two choices were Spiritomb and Sableye, and Sableye appeals to me much more with his stallbreaking prowess and ability to troll every non-fire type physical attacker with priority will-o-wisp.
While Sableye can handle an impressive array of physical attackers, he cannot handle special attacks near as well. To resolve this I needed a specially bulky pokemon, and few have near as much special bulk and utility as Jellicent. His mustache also wins cool points.
Since my team is mono-ghost, any hazards I am able to place on the field effectively become permanent fixtures. To take advantage of this, I place Froslass into the team. Froslass' spike laying, high speed, and ability to prevent dragon type setup makes her pretty good at her job. If she gets down spikes or looks ready to die, I ready the Destiny Bond button to take something down with her.
I wanted another pokemon that could handle physical attackers, specifically Terrakion. Terrakion outsped all of my pokemon and while Sableye could handle him once burned, Terrakion would murder him if switched into. Golurk not only achieves this, but he also serves as a check to Dragonite and Salamence and can setup stealth rock.
At the moment my team was a bit weak to grass attacks, and didn't particularly like fire attacks either once Jellicent was removed. To resolve this issue I place Chandelure into the team, who is the only thing on my team that can switch into Victini's ridiculously powerful V-Create without getting wiped off the face of the planet. Chandelure's sky high special attack also served as a way to punch holes in the enemy team.
Lastly, I needed a revenge killer. If a Dragon Dancer successfully setup and Sableye missed his will-o-wisp while Golurk was weakened, I was effectively screwed. To resolve this, I utilize Choice Scarf Gengar, who can not only take out any +1 speed threat commonly seen in the metagame with a lightning fast destiny bond, but also tears apart rain teams with his combination of giga drain and thunderbolt. STAB shadow ball is kept for general damage against non weather teams.
The team at a glance:
Up Close and Personal:
Sableye @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 136 SDef / 252 HP / 116 Def / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Night Shade
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
Sableye is the glue that holds this team together due to his ability to break both stall and non-fire type physical attackers. This is just the standard straight forward set with a teeny bit of speed creep to outspeed opposing Sableye. Will-o-wisp's function is obvious, without it Sableye couldn't wall anything. Taunt breaks stall and prevents setup while night shade quickens the demise of enemy mons. Priority recover allows him to stall out things he really shouldn't be able to, in a pinch.
Golurk @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Atk / 176 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Stealth Rock
Golurk serves as an excellent physical tank with an offensive presence. Duskclops was considered, but he cannot actually KO anything like I would need him to even if he could tank hits like a champ. Not only that, but Golurk sets up stealth rock... which is infinitely more annoying than normal due to the fact that the enemy team will be unable to remove it for the rest of the match, even if they are packing six rapid spinners. Golurks bulk allows him to survive a +1 outrage from Salamence and Dragonite, if only barely, and OHKO back variants not packing a Yache Berry. He also completely laughs at nearly all Terrakion, who does not have a single move that hits neutral bar the incredibly rare and usually redundant earthquake.
Froslass (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Ice Beam
- Spikes
- Destiny Bond
Unlike Golurk, who has a secondary function in tanking physical hits, Froslass' purpose is to simply throw down hazards then kamikaze some random poor enemy with Destiny Bond. Ice Beam prevents it from being total taunt bait while a taunt of its own prevents Blissey and Skarmory from doing much to it while also forcing them to attack directly into Froslass' Destiny Bond.
Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Shadow Ball
- Toxic
- Recover
Jellicent along with Sableye serves as a check to Alakazam. With Sableye's neutrality and Jellicent's incredible bulk, neither are outright 2HKO'd by shadow ball and thus they are able to kill off Alakazam. However, if a Special Defense drop hits, its very important that the other is in the wings to pick up the slack, so the redundancy is quite important. Toxic and Scald together allows Jellicent to cripple a wide variety of foes while Shadow Ball is important for securing major damage against Alakazam, Gengar, and Lat@s.
Chandelure @ Choice Specs
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SAtk / 184 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 SDef / 30 Spd / 3 Atk
- Fire Blast / Overheat
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
Chandelure is the team's resident nuke, and makes sun teams shiver in fear when it nabs a flash fire boost from a poorly predicted Fire Blast. Fire Blast is quite spammable, and those using Terrakion to sponge fire type attacks will find that he can only survive Chandelure's it once outside the rain. Energy ball allows Chandelure to hit water types hoping to sneak in to take the Fire Blast while HP Fighting allows Chandelure hurt Heatran and dark types while crippling the incredibly threatening Tyranitar. Shadow Ball is obligatory STAB, and hits anything that doesn't resist it rather powerfully with perfect accuracy. Overheat is also an option I am trying, but at the moment I am sticking with Fire Blast.
Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Destiny Bond
Gengar's job is to really mess with Rain Teams while also serving as a one-shot check to any single threat that has gotten a bit out of hand. Due to the scarf in hand, Tornadus-T is not able to simply stay in and Hurricane Gengar as it can the rest of the team and is instead OHKO'd by Gengar's powerful Thunderbolt. Focus Blast allows Gengar to annihilate Tyranitar on the switch, otherwise a massive threat to Gengar. Destiny Bond is the crux of the set, and as aforementioned earlier allows me to handle situations that have gotten a bit out of control, such as a +1 Salamence while Golurk is down.
Thanks for taking the time to read my RMT, let me know what you think!
P.S. And to those OCD about the Attack EV's, they are all minimized except on Golurk to reduce Foul Play and Confusion damage. It also technically minimizes struggle damage, but if I am forced to struggle I usually have bigger problems.
Threats (work in progress; added 11/15/12):
Offensive:
Defensive:
