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Unfortunately what I laddered with wasn't to the Week 3 rules, I used 3 RU to NU mons and only one OU to PU. I think I got confused with Miltank since it dropped from OU to NU. Someone pointed this out to me with like 45 mins left to ladder so I just tried to do the most I could. Its nowhere near as good as what I did with the other team :(
Pinsir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
My saucy mon for this week is the mixed bulky Cramorant.
I had a pretty good win streak this time around and the only game I lost was because I missed 3 hurricanes in a row, so almost a perfect run. Watching Aawin and stepbro's Elo go all over the place when they tried to beat GW made me sure I should just stop.
I tried out a couple teams in testing but found building a little limiting since there was only 5 mons to choose from for RU->NU. Also, since 4/6 mons had to be from the two lists, it was challenging to build properly around a super saucy mon like Dunsparce. This is the team that I ended up laddering with.
I made a few moveset/item changes throughout to try out different stuff, like Specs instead of Scarf Decidueye, but the extra speed was really necessary for the team. I also tried a set with Hurricane instead of Hex and ran Rest on Cofagrigus with the intention of using Heal Bell Miltank to wake it up.
This was quite a challenging week, and in the end I made it even harder for myself by using 2 RU->NU and 3 OU-PU mons, as it just sort of worked out that way. The team was OK and obviously because it needed to fulfill requirements, it was hard to go up against more optimal NU teams. That being said, it was still fun to see the potential of some of these mons. Licki is an excellent wish passer and although its a fairly standard set, throwing Heavy-Duty Boots on it was the spice, and really helped it come in more often to heal bell and or pass some wishes.
Pinsir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- X-Scissor
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
Lickilicky @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Knock Off
I guess my saucy set for this week is Scarf Pinsir with rocks! It did suck not having stone edge in certain circumstances but really the point is for pinsir to set rocks and then dip out until late game when it can cleanly sweep with moxie boosted scarf X-scissor.
Pinsir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- X-Scissor
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
In case you forgot, Petaya berry raises special attack when under 25% hp.
This thing is actually surprisingly strong with the berry activated, and its decent speed tier lets it outpace many of the tier's threats.
Cheek Pouch also comes in very handy as it leaves it out of range of priority like Mach Punch once it endures.
Wow. This week was a hard one. I've only been in this game for the last two weeks, but I already understand why you guys like this more than regular laddering. I decided I wanted to get fancy, so I made a sand team this week. Needless to say, sand is not the most viable play style, since the sweepers are both mostly walled by Weezing and the slightest special attack will send most of my team flying. Do not be deceived by the number of games that my account says I played, I played over 50 games this week, just after my tilt I deleted those games since I did not want to look at the depressing 29 to 28 record. It was truly a roller coaster, as when I was points from 1st place, I dropped 50 points and started my first tilt. It was deserved, as xerovis and Aawin pointed out I had used my Pawniard spikes team for 3 or 4 games(it was about as viable as sand) and that team was illegal in the format. Karma hit like a truck and I dropped to 1064 before I started my come back. In the last few games I used a more standard double poison spikes team because I did not want to risk the match up dependent sand.
Hippopotas @ Eviolite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Toxic
zeus (Stoutland) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Facade
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Play Rough
All in all sand is pretty fun, I got some sweeps with both Sandslash and Stoutland, and the teams I made are pretty solid. One of my saucy sets for this week is the Smooth Rock Miltank to set up extra long sand for my breakers. No one expects a fat cow to whip up a sandstorm and let the slow mons sweep. My other saucy mon for this week is the modest Weezing. Weezing is a surprisingly strong breaker, and it catches some mons off guard. The Psybeam was inspired by my friend Mariannabelle who pointed out that it OHKOs toxicroak and does over half to most Weezing.
Miltank (F) @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Sandstorm
- Milk Drink
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
Decidueye @ Life Orb
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Poltergeist
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- U-turn
The creative set I used was Emolga. Emolga doesn't seem like it can do much but it can. It is fast enough to outspeed most of the tier and has a decent enough Special Attack stat to do some damage.
Emolga @ Life Orb
Ability: Motor Drive
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Roost
- Air Slash
- Energy Ball
another pretty inactive week (focusing a pet mods stuff) but I actually had a good amount of fun in the battles I did do
The Team:
Pretty standard Sand team since 2 of the OU to PU drops were Sand abusers in Sandslash and Stoutland, rounded out by Duggy and a setter in Sandaconda, plus 2 RU drops that help with Sand's weaknesses in Decidueye and Cramorant. Dugtrio was definitely the MVP of the team, Life Orb + Sand Force-boosted Iron Head chunked literally everything and it's so fast that it doesn't even need sand to be effective like Sandslash and Stoutland do.
Since literally every single person I play leads with Basculin, this thing is the one thing that keeps me from getting swept. NP Decidueye was great at being super annoying for teams to deal with, weakening their Waters and walls until Duggy or Stoutland could go to town, with Roost keeping it healthy enough to do it again later. Special Decidueye was also huge in making it so that I don't get walled by a single Avalugg outside of Sand. While I originally used Lefties, no item Decidueye lures and beats Poltergeist Gourgeist, which is neat.
Ok I got my but kicked on the ladder, so do take my takes with a grain of salt, as they're not the most reliable. Why don't we start with the team?
I decided to go with the go to Kanga + hazards team, allowing Kanga to score KOs after some chip. Lycanroc Midnight form was added to be an offensive rock setter with taunt, while Decidueye was my spin blocker + defog user. The reason why I didn't run poltergeist was because I had corroisve gas on my peculiar Weezing set, which I'll get into later. Scarf Malamar suprised my oponents and could easily snowball out of control while Lanturn provided cleric support + volt switch. Overall a solid team which could have won more games in the right hands (not mine tho)
Yup, you're seeing it right. Physical Weezing. Now before we get deeper into that, corrosive gas and taunt provided great utility, as corrosive gas got rid of leftovers on bulky mons like Sandaconda, allowing an easier time for Kanga to overwhelm it, while taunt prevents SR and even TR + Body press Cofagrius, which is greatly annoyed by this set as it can remove its ghost resist berry as well, granting Deci an oppurtunity to murder it.
Explosion had two roles to fullfil, deter hazard removal and most importantly, catch a suprise kill on Gallade on the switch in. Now most Gallades would prefer not to in fear of a burn, but I just really needed a lure to stand a chance agaisnt it while it was still around. Boom is also useful agaisnt slower mons as well. For people doubting how hard it can hit, Weezing has a slightly higher base attack than its special attack. I just slapped assurance on it to hit ghost types.
Evs and item are straight forward, rocky helmet for chip while max attack for a nuke, speed investment to speedcreep opposing Weezing and the rest dumped onto HP.
For those too lazy to read, this set was tailored to specificaly support Kanga, as taunt + corrosive gas could wear down it's defensive checks, while explosion allowed it to kill Gallade and Garbodor, which it could not normaly achieve.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nu-1149214571 Scarf Malamar was a suprise to the opposing Alolan Persian and would have cleaned the team if not for the forfeit. Weezing was also able to lure Garbodor for a boom.
HO with these did restrictions made me fail :( it was fun trying a few things around but this is the best I got. Duggy was absolutely a liability compared to better suicide leads. Scarf decide helped with speed and Basc. Kanga was a cool setup mon with Portective Pads PuP and Sucker. Skun and Silv are HO staples for breaking bulky cores down and having good defensive typings.
Pinsir @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Quick Attack
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
STAB-less Pinsir works cause CC is just as strong as X-Scissor anyways and pairs better with Knock Off. You got a weak but noticeable priority that can help start the Moxie boosts, while Pinsir’s decent Defense and Fighting-type resistance can give it a chance to SD in the first place.
Silvally-Water @ Water Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Parting Shot
Loses to any flying type and decidueye. Was a fun team though. Feel like I don't really have to explain much just click webs, make plays, and win. Feel like most of the mons suffered in the creative sets department because of the team style so for my creative set:
Lickilicky @ Life Orb
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Power Whip
- Body Slam
- Fire Punch
Classic SD set. Whip mainly for Quag, BSlam for STAB, Fire Punch for Decidueye and ferroseed. Had some success Needs webs or it wasn't doing anything. Max speed outspeed things that usually run 210 in creep that's cool I guess but I feel like the metagame got faster so it doesn't matter as much.
My take on the xerovis special of "Burnt Cake", 28 speed allows you to outspeed uninvested Lanturn I guess, modest nature is used to make this hit a slight bit stronger while still retaining bulk, flame orb because it allows you to avoid toxic/paralysis, and automatically activates when you pivot in using Persian-A.
I ended up doing pretty well this week. It was definitely an interesting challenge trying to build a solid team with 4 of the 6 mons being restricted, depsite accidentally using 5 of those mons which technically made my run not part of the rules (its ok almost everyone cheated). Here is the team I used for week 3 bots. I am definitely satisfied with still making a decent squad with a cool set I would not have used otherwise.
Sandslash @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 116 Def / 136 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
Sandslash got spikes this gen, so I decided to try out a spikes rapid spin set. With Garbodor being decently common on ladder and with it being able to check a lot of physical Pokemon, it did not perform as bad as I expected. I would still probably use a different Spiker on most other normal teams, but it is still a nice option :D