Battle Spot Singles Shuffler Offense

[Kadabrium]

Introduction​

Fast paced offensive teams are often difficult to manage in Battle Spot Singles given the overwhelming matchup uncertainty every frailer attacker faces whenever sent out. This team makes an attempt at alleviating this issue by taking advantage of offensive phazing measures in conjunction with the underrated Stealth Rocks to scout for threats as well as dealing chip damage and finding setup opportunity.

Teambuilding Process​

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The Team​

Mimikyu @ Red Card
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Play Rough
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance
- Will-O-Wisp
​

Mimikyu can stop the majority of setup sweepers with a Red Card with only a handful of exceptions such as Gyarados and Cloyster. It has decent offensive capabilities for a secondary attacker of such a team, and a useful speed tier right above base 95s led by Tapu Lele. When sent out to revenge a setup sweeper, it can either setup a Swords Dance just like what every Mimikyu does best, or even use Will-O-Wisp if the current opponent pokemon is faster and there are known physical attackers in the back.

Tapu Koko @ Light Clay
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Volt Switch
​

**Screens Tapu Koko facilitates setup of Lucario, Cloyster and Mimikyu, as well as discouraging opponent to send out too many Water and Dragon types during team preview. Dazzing Gleam is chosen as the lone attacking move because it hits common setup dragons, Sableye as well as wears down Ground-types better than Thunderbolt, and this set is not supposed to singlehandedly go toe to toe against bulkier opposing pokemon. When predicting a switch Volt Switch can be used to pivot into another teammate, but I am currently considering replacing it with U-turn since many common switch-ins are completely immune to it, but at the same time also being setup fodder for Cloyster if given a safe switch.**

Mamoswine @ Focus Sash
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
​

Mamoswine is the usual lead of this team, setting up stealth rocks against the majority of the tier. Roar prevents it from becoming setup fodder, racks up rocks damage, as well as scouts for remaining opponent members. Oblivious is chosen over Thick Fat since this Mamoswine is not meant to take hits, let alone those from Fire-types, and reliably setting up rocks through Taunt is much more integral to the team.

Cloyster @ Waterium Z
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Shell Smash
- Hydro Pump
- Icicle Spear
- Ice Shard
​

Cloyster deals with physical Ground- and Dragon-types for the team as well as functions as a general purpose sweeper. Z-Hydro Pump hits most Steel-types harder than any other move in its inventory, among which notably Aegislash, Celesteela and Scizor. It also deals heavy damage to Sableye, possibly putting it into Ice Shard KO range after Will-O-Wisp. However, this does come at the cost of a better single-turn survivability with Focus Sash which means it can no longer setup against special or boostet opponents.

Lucario-Mega @ Lucarionite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- High Jump Kick
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
​

Running HJK over close combat with Lucario has always been my personal preference; although I have certainly lost games due to it missing, I find it ultimately more unacceptable when Close Combat misses important KOs or causes me to be revenged by priority or weak attacks from defensive pokemon. Just for a few examples, unboosted Conkeldurr and Breloom cannot knock out Lucario with Mach Punch without a defense drop, and Close Combat has a much smaller chance of knocking out Garchomp or 252/0 Tapu Fini at +2 after rocks damage. Earthquake is the chosen coverage move as it hits Aegislash, which gives the team more trouble than Flying types in general, as well as Marowak.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 124 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Iron Head
- Shadow Ball
- King's Shield
​

Aegislash serves the team as a bulky pivot mainly against faster pokemon or scarfers. A more defensive spread is chosen to more reliably switch into attacks such as +1 Earthquake from Dragon Dancers.

Threats​

• Fast special attackers: Pokemon such as Gengar and Tapu Lele can easily heavily damage the team if Aegislash or lead Mamoswine is not available in a healthy state.
• Cresselia: This team lacks a reliable way to hit Cresselia when Aegislash can be outstalled with just a bit of prior damage. A possible solution is running Crunch over Earthquake on Lucario (HJK does already hit Fairy-types stronger than it), but this will give among others opposing Aegislash a much higher chance to break through the team core.
• Ground-types: This team has 3 members weak to Ground, meaning there won't be reliable switch-ins to them most of the time, and is often forced to sacrifice a pokemon before any revenging may be possibly attempted. When paired with defensive cores or pokemon that wears down Aegislash, such as scarf Garchomp or Excadrill with a rain offense pair, this team will not have many good answers.

Importable

WoodIntoRear (Mimikyu) @ Red Card
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Play Rough
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance
- Will-O-Wisp

ChickenTinder (Tapu Koko) @ Light Clay
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- U-turn

HalalIceshake (Mamoswine) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock

InsertOnixHere (Cloyster) @ Waterium Z
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Shell Smash
- Hydro Pump
- Icicle Spear
- Ice Shard

1PunchDoge (Lucario-Mega) @ Lucarionite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- High Jump Kick
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance

Friendzone (Aegislash) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 124 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Iron Head
- Shadow Ball
- King's Shield

 

[Solerme]

Hi, this team looks pretty balanced already!

Anyway, at first glance, outside of the threats you listed i would also say that you are pretty weak to Fire-types. For example Volcarona could pretty much threaten your whole team, specially if rocks are not up.

Since you already enough tools vs dragons, i would swap Mamoswine for Hippowdon and give the Focus Sash to Cloyster. This could help to deal a little bit better with the Volcarona match up.

@ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Yawn
- Whirlwind

This set can survive to a +1 Giga Drain from Volcarona, or to a +0 Z-Fire Blast. It can even survive from things such as Psychic/Psyshock from Choice Specs Modest Tapu Lele.

Whereas to mitigate the Ground-type weakness you listed in the threats, you could consider adding Dragonite somewhere that makes a very solid core with Hippowdon and Mega Lucario, and works pretty fine with Tapu Koko and Aegislash too, specially behind the screens.

@ Lum Berry / Choice Band / Electrium-Z / Firium-Z / Flyinium-Z
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed / Thunder Punch / Fly
- Earthquake / Fire Punch

Since you have a lot of physical attackers i would run a Lum Berry on it. But even Choice Band or Z-Fly/Z-Thunder Punch/Z-Fire Punch could be viable options i guess.

 

[Kadabrium]

Hi, this team looks pretty balanced already!

Anyway, at first glance, outside of the threats you listed i would also say that you are pretty weak to Fire-types. For example Volcarona could pretty much threaten your whole team, specially if rocks are not up.

Since you already enough tools vs dragons, i would swap Mamoswine for Hippowdon and give the Focus Sash to Cloyster. This could help to deal a little bit better with the Volcarona match up.

@ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Yawn
- Whirlwind

This set can survive to a +1 Giga Drain from Volcarona, or to a +0 Z-Fire Blast. It can even survive from things such as Psychic/Psyshock from Choice Specs Modest Tapu Lele.

Whereas to mitigate the Ground-type weakness you listed in the threats, you could consider adding Dragonite somewhere that makes a very solid core with Hippowdon and Mega Lucario, and works pretty fine with Tapu Koko and Aegislash too, specially behind the screens.

@ Lum Berry / Choice Band / Electrium-Z / Firium-Z / Flyinium-Z
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed / Thunder Punch / Fly
- Earthquake / Fire Punch

Since you have a lot of physical attackers i would run a Lum Berry on it. But even Choice Band or Z-Fly/Z-Thunder Punch/Z-Fire Punch could be viable options i guess.

Thx for input!
This team as it currently is has only barely sufficient ways to deal with bulky steels such as celesteela and scizor, and that often involves racking up chip damage with mamoswine and then let lucario or cloyster beat them 1v1. I tried dragonite in place of aegislash, and more often than not I end up finding it needing both lum and firium to perform these duties as well as pivoting better than aegislash. Depending on circumstances it can be difficult for dragonite to win 1v1 vs gengar, tapu lele and several steels which aegi used to deal with.
im interested in trying out other bulky dragon dancers but they often take up another mega slot, and im not yet sure how to structure the team taking that into account.