Monotype Spooky Fear team

[TrueIssue]

It's been a while since I made a team to rate here, so I figured why not rate the current team I'm having fun with? I wanted to make a team based on different phobias, so ghost types worked best.

Equinophobia (Spectrier) @ Life Orb
Ability: Grim Neigh
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draining Kiss
- Dark Pulse
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute

Equinophobia is the fear of horses. is a fast special attacker, honestly nothing groundbreaking here. While Substitute seems a bit off since has a , it is there to bait out status moves from mons like . Keeps itself healthy with Draining Kiss, so if it can get a single kill it can snowball to a wincon fast.

Trichophobia (Flutter Mane) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Power Gem

Trichophobia is the fear of hair. is another powerful special attacker, pretty basic for ghost teams. As a mon, goes with a Modest nature to hit just a bit harder while still being able to outspeed most mons with a single speed boost, mainly from the matches I've played. Moonblast and Shadow Ball for STAB, Energy Ball and Power Gem for coverage. Main use is to punch holes into the enemy team, potential wincon if I can weaken some of the bulkier mons first.

Aichmophobia (Ceruledge) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bitter Blade
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak

Aichmophobia is the fear of sharp objects. was put on the team to have a solid physical attacker. Another basic set, to switch into Knock Off or to come in after a KO if there are no hazards. Bitter Blade can bring him back to full HP if a special attack didn't eat the . Close Combat is for any dark types that try to come in and farm the ghost team, or for since it's Sand Stream breaks without activating Weak Armor. Shadow Sneak is just a final move in case is slower, or the enemy has their own priority in Shadow Sneak or Sucker Punch while he is faster.

Herpetophobia (Dragapult) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Darts
- Psychic Fangs
- Sucker Punch

Herpetophobia is the fear of reptiles. This was put in to have another physical attacker but has had mixed results. Dragon Dance on safe switches like a choice locked mon with a not very effective atttack. Dragon Darts breaks any potential and is the only STAB on the set. Psychic Fangs is there as a coverage due to lack of coverage, as well as a desperation play against and setting up Aurora Veil. Sucker Punch is also coverage, but also priority once again. As I type this, I am considering switching to a set and replacing Dragon Dance with U-Turn for a bit more control.

Chrometophobia (Gholdengo) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot
- Thunder Wave

Chrometophobia is the fear of spending money. is really just here to be annoying. Another mon with a little less success, so I need to change up the set a bit. is for switching in against ground moves, might be changed for another . Nasty Plot on switch-ins that try to status like and . Make It Rain and Shadow Ball as the STAB attacks, nothing special overall.

Botanophobia (Brambleghast) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Wind Rider
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
- Poltergeist
- Power Whip

Botanophobia is the fear of plants. is honestly really here as a hazard setter and hazard remover, although it rarely gets to set any of its own. Another mon I need to completely redo, possibly change. Poltergeist and Power Whip hurt when they land, but the accuracy has come to bite me before. Against other ghost teams, feels like deadweight, so I have no idea how to improve it.


I come here for a bit of thoughts regarding the last three mons. The first three are solid, work wonderfully. and just need a bit of adjustment, but is probably going to be changed, but I have no idea for what. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[thinkusstinkus]

Oooooh spooky!

I think I like this team overall. I personally run scarf on my spectrier to have it function as a revenge sweeper but I get the reasoning behind a life orb.

In regards to the 3 mons you want to adjust, I would give gholdengo a salac berry instead and also run recover instead of thunder wave.

For brambleghast, I would suggest removing hazard denial in general as ghost works reallllly well as hyperoffense. For my ghost team, which I would like to think is pretty decent, I use pecharunt as my one bulky stall with recover, malignant chain, substitute and protect alongside leftovers.

 

[Pengairxan]

This honestly has the makings of a solid ghost team, but it lacks the tools to truly push it forward to be something great. This mainly comes down to having damage boosting natures on the two most notable speedsters and the lack of bulk overall.

Choice Scarf Flutter mane especially if being ran really wants Timid as it allows it to actually get the jump on Scarf Meowscarada, Darkrai, and Roaring Moon which are otherwise problematic to switch into for Ghost.

Gholdengo would prefer a bulkier spread generally with recover enabling it to setup on weaker threats reliably and punch holes through a team, 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 Spe Bold is generally what is used, this can actually enable it to take multiple Knock Offs, notably from Alolan Muk (which does less than 40% after balloon gets popped) turning a mon that would otherwise eat this team Alive for the most part into a spot for Ghost to just run through Poison.

Finally, I think Spectrier should either run a choice item (realistically Choice Specs in this case), or should be bulky leftovers with Hex Wisp. I'm personally more partial to bulky Spectrier personally as it can just be a rough mon for flying to handle as it setups and just goes to town. But either works.

There are other minor changes I think could be made, but these are the most pressing ones and should hopefully turn this team from something good into something great.

 

[boomp]

Dope team here are my thoughts.

Spectrier @ Leftovers
Ability: Grim Neigh
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 64 HP / 164 Def / 64 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot

I agree with peng here with going Bulky horse here. This mon is a absolute unit in Flying, Poison, and Ground mu being able to basically snowball the mus while comfortably hiding behind sub; this also synergizes well with the team being able to spread burn on most physical threats which can be a pain to deal with overall. This spread is what I be running to outspeed Darkrai and Weavile while also having a favorable roll to ohko Gliscor at +2


Timid > Modest like peng said but also Thunderbolt > Energy Ball on
- Tbolt pretty straight forward and basically targetting the same mons but a better into Flying as well. Energy Ball was solely for Gastrodon when it was relevant in the meta but its basically a flop / only really used on stall water which is not worth it. Tbolt pressure flying, doinks pelipper to prevent rain water to triumph, while also pressuring Physically Defensive Toxapex all in one slot. We also have teammates that help in those respective mus as well: Brambleghast can pressure the Water Ground mons well via power whip and use that opportunity to setup Spikes on switch ins which allows for Flutter Mane to revenge kill easier.


Dragapult should always be jolly nature in this metagame.
- This metagame is really reliant on speed control and running adamant Dragapult means your losing the mirror versus opposing dragapults; You are now slower than Flutter Mane, Spectrier, Barraskewda and now Speed tie with Darkrai and Weavile which is just absolutely sad. I also would change this pult to a Choice Band set for immediate wallbreaking potential. Ceruledge + Gholdengo should be enough setup sweeping potential for the team and now you just flat out ohko Greninja via dragon darts. As you said in your post, you can now run U-turn to doink non-Choice Scarf Meowscarada while also pivoting out of unfavorable walls like Skarmory and Archaludon to bring in your teammates that handle the aforementioned threats. Phantom Force should always be on Pult so your just not useless against Gholdengo and Flutter Mane. Its also just a great STAB to have overall so 3rd slot is where you choose between Sucker Punch and Psychic Fangs. Sucker Punch is nice to pick off weaken mons that threatens out Dragapult like Scarf lati whereas Psychic Fangs doinks poison and fighting, but also breaks screens so your teammates are not hinder vs the Fairy Match up. I personally dislike locking myself into Sucker Punch so lets add Psychic Fangs here.

Refer to Peng's suggestion on Gholdengo as i would also utilize that ev spread + recover as well.

Lastly bramble set is fine its just all about positioning and setting up spikes on swap outs.

Here is the updated paste: https://pokepast.es/e5372d92f4f5fe20

Happy gaming!