This is a team I have been theory crafting and making changes to for a few days. After a bit of playtesting I think I am almost there, just could use a bit of help with the finishing touches. Laddering with this team in showdown, has been around 70% successful. I will go into the weaknesses under each separate mon.
I wanted to go Hyper offence this gen, I had always gone more slow or balanced in the past, and I wanted to try something out. The team was mostly designed with Toxtricity and Polteageist in mind, they are probably my favorite 2 coming out of this gen, I'm just in love with their design.
Anyway here is the team:
Toxtricity @ Choice Specs
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Overdrive
- Volt Switch
- Sludge Wave
This set is designed all around the power of both his signature move overdrive, and also of boomburst. Choice specs to maximize my power along with max investment in both special attack as well as speed. Overdrive is my stab, fantastic for taking out any flying types, and great at severely chunking anything that isn't immune that happens to switch in. If there are no ghost threatening a switch in however, I almost always click boomburst, as its base damage is around 180 with punk rock ability. Volt switch for momentum, because bringing tox out generally forces a switch. And finally sludge wave for fairy coverage, capable of 2Hko bulky hatterenes and bulky sylveons.
Polteageist @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shell Smash
- Shadow Ball
- Stored Power
- Giga Drain
Polteageist is my underrated gem of this team. It will almost always get a shell-smash off, that combined with weak armor make it very hard to counter its speed, sans priority. With the boost from shell smash, my main goal is to just sweep using stored power, to anythings thats x2 or neutral, and use shadow ball for the rest. For my final move I had strength sap as a way to cripple attackers as well as fix my sash if the first attack on me didnt bring me down to 1hp, however I have opted to change out to giga drain to still gets some healing from it, but it is mainly used as a Seismitoad counter, capable of 1HKO both toad and Gastrodon while unboosted. The biggest weakness is sucker punch, as there are an obscene amount of mons that are capable of learning it, and it is always a gamble on whether or not they will have it or not. I toyed around with having Indeedee as a support mon to set up psychic terrain, but that ended up being less successful than this version of my team.
Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Transform
I originally had Dracovish in this spot, however without any real way of speed controlling with this team draco was consistently falling flat. I opted to put ditto in because there arent many better revenge killers out there than him. Holding choice scarf to always have an advantage over ones that I copy that dont have it, and possibility of speed tying ones that also have a choice scarf. I also tend to scout out moves with ditto, namely if the opponent has a mon that has the capability of having priority, I will switch in ditto to confirm whether or not they do in fact.
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
There are few if any mons that can outspeed dragapult, barring choice scarf users. I went with specs because his physical move pool, despite being a better attack stat, leaves much to be desired. With a less than optimal Special attack stat, choice specs are necessary. Infiltrator to be a secondary counter to sub users (first being toxtricity). Timid nature as well as max speed investment in order to be as fast as possible without a scarf. Draco meteor is my great neutral move. There isnt much that enjoys being swapped into a specs draco, it just hits very hard and even with the SpA drop from it I can still sometimes hit it more than one time. Shadow ball to counter other ghosts or pesky psychic types. If the opposing team has a ferrothorn, I will almost always lead dragapult and click fire blast, if they dont switch they die if they do switch something else gets slapped by specs fireblast and doesnt enjoy it. Thunderbolt seems to be my move that most often catches out opponents. I use it as a secondary flying/water coverage move from toxtricity, so I often will not show it until I absolutely have to and I have even had opponents switch in a corviknight only to get hit by a specs thunderbolt for their troubles.
Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Psychic Fangs
- Crunch
Before realizing it was Uber tier, I had Galarian-darmanitan in this slot to be my fast and hard hitter. When I did realize I had to go back to the tier lists to try to find an OU tier that was a good fit for my team, needing to have both a high speed stat to outspeed most of my opponents, and also a high attack stat to pair with a choice band to hit fast and very hard. There was nothing in OU tier that really fit my needs so I had to go searching to find this other gem hidden in the UU tier. Barraskewda really catches opponents off guard, not knowing how truly fast it is. One opponent even said he had never ever even seen this mon. Swift swim to help punish against rain teams, but its speed is so high, It will almost always move first even without it. Max attack and speed investment to add to his crazy ability. I use barra as another revenge killer. Liquidation for stab, Close combat to cripple or sometimes outright kill steel and those pesky dark types. Psychic fangs to hit fighting types, and often as a pure water type barra will force a switch into toxapex, which psychic fangs will severely cripple. And finally crunch to deal with ghosts, who barra outspeeds all but dragapult.
Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ironhead
- Rapid Spin
I had this mon as a suicide lead to maybe get rocks off and then chip but I found that while I sometimes needed rocks, they werent always necessary, and most matches I would just try to predict what mon the opponent was bringing in first and counter it. So I decided to add a scarf, and change to iron head from steel beam as to not cripple myself. With scarf excadrill has a crazy high speed stat, outspeeding most opponents, and hitting hard with stab earthquake and stab ironhead. Moldbreaker ends up catching a lot of opponents off guard as well. Often 1hko rotom heats with earthquake. I did leave on the rocks and rapid spin just to still have some sort of control over the arena, and poltea is dead in the water with hazards up.
I have found this teams biggest counters to be a few bulky fairies, if toxtricity cant get a sludge wave off. And if a Bisharp gets a swords dance up, I'll almost always lose due to priority sucker punch mixed with frail pokemon on my team. You are all more than welcome to test out the team yourselves before leaving advice, I was up and down a lot in the ladders, but overall had around a 70% win rate. As of right now, I'm stuck on how to improve my team more, if I even can improve while wanting to stick to the hyper offence route.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for any advice given!
I wanted to go Hyper offence this gen, I had always gone more slow or balanced in the past, and I wanted to try something out. The team was mostly designed with Toxtricity and Polteageist in mind, they are probably my favorite 2 coming out of this gen, I'm just in love with their design.
Anyway here is the team:
Toxtricity @ Choice Specs
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Overdrive
- Volt Switch
- Sludge Wave
This set is designed all around the power of both his signature move overdrive, and also of boomburst. Choice specs to maximize my power along with max investment in both special attack as well as speed. Overdrive is my stab, fantastic for taking out any flying types, and great at severely chunking anything that isn't immune that happens to switch in. If there are no ghost threatening a switch in however, I almost always click boomburst, as its base damage is around 180 with punk rock ability. Volt switch for momentum, because bringing tox out generally forces a switch. And finally sludge wave for fairy coverage, capable of 2Hko bulky hatterenes and bulky sylveons.
Polteageist @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shell Smash
- Shadow Ball
- Stored Power
- Giga Drain
Polteageist is my underrated gem of this team. It will almost always get a shell-smash off, that combined with weak armor make it very hard to counter its speed, sans priority. With the boost from shell smash, my main goal is to just sweep using stored power, to anythings thats x2 or neutral, and use shadow ball for the rest. For my final move I had strength sap as a way to cripple attackers as well as fix my sash if the first attack on me didnt bring me down to 1hp, however I have opted to change out to giga drain to still gets some healing from it, but it is mainly used as a Seismitoad counter, capable of 1HKO both toad and Gastrodon while unboosted. The biggest weakness is sucker punch, as there are an obscene amount of mons that are capable of learning it, and it is always a gamble on whether or not they will have it or not. I toyed around with having Indeedee as a support mon to set up psychic terrain, but that ended up being less successful than this version of my team.
Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Transform
I originally had Dracovish in this spot, however without any real way of speed controlling with this team draco was consistently falling flat. I opted to put ditto in because there arent many better revenge killers out there than him. Holding choice scarf to always have an advantage over ones that I copy that dont have it, and possibility of speed tying ones that also have a choice scarf. I also tend to scout out moves with ditto, namely if the opponent has a mon that has the capability of having priority, I will switch in ditto to confirm whether or not they do in fact.
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
There are few if any mons that can outspeed dragapult, barring choice scarf users. I went with specs because his physical move pool, despite being a better attack stat, leaves much to be desired. With a less than optimal Special attack stat, choice specs are necessary. Infiltrator to be a secondary counter to sub users (first being toxtricity). Timid nature as well as max speed investment in order to be as fast as possible without a scarf. Draco meteor is my great neutral move. There isnt much that enjoys being swapped into a specs draco, it just hits very hard and even with the SpA drop from it I can still sometimes hit it more than one time. Shadow ball to counter other ghosts or pesky psychic types. If the opposing team has a ferrothorn, I will almost always lead dragapult and click fire blast, if they dont switch they die if they do switch something else gets slapped by specs fireblast and doesnt enjoy it. Thunderbolt seems to be my move that most often catches out opponents. I use it as a secondary flying/water coverage move from toxtricity, so I often will not show it until I absolutely have to and I have even had opponents switch in a corviknight only to get hit by a specs thunderbolt for their troubles.
Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Psychic Fangs
- Crunch
Before realizing it was Uber tier, I had Galarian-darmanitan in this slot to be my fast and hard hitter. When I did realize I had to go back to the tier lists to try to find an OU tier that was a good fit for my team, needing to have both a high speed stat to outspeed most of my opponents, and also a high attack stat to pair with a choice band to hit fast and very hard. There was nothing in OU tier that really fit my needs so I had to go searching to find this other gem hidden in the UU tier. Barraskewda really catches opponents off guard, not knowing how truly fast it is. One opponent even said he had never ever even seen this mon. Swift swim to help punish against rain teams, but its speed is so high, It will almost always move first even without it. Max attack and speed investment to add to his crazy ability. I use barra as another revenge killer. Liquidation for stab, Close combat to cripple or sometimes outright kill steel and those pesky dark types. Psychic fangs to hit fighting types, and often as a pure water type barra will force a switch into toxapex, which psychic fangs will severely cripple. And finally crunch to deal with ghosts, who barra outspeeds all but dragapult.
Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ironhead
- Rapid Spin
I had this mon as a suicide lead to maybe get rocks off and then chip but I found that while I sometimes needed rocks, they werent always necessary, and most matches I would just try to predict what mon the opponent was bringing in first and counter it. So I decided to add a scarf, and change to iron head from steel beam as to not cripple myself. With scarf excadrill has a crazy high speed stat, outspeeding most opponents, and hitting hard with stab earthquake and stab ironhead. Moldbreaker ends up catching a lot of opponents off guard as well. Often 1hko rotom heats with earthquake. I did leave on the rocks and rapid spin just to still have some sort of control over the arena, and poltea is dead in the water with hazards up.
I have found this teams biggest counters to be a few bulky fairies, if toxtricity cant get a sludge wave off. And if a Bisharp gets a swords dance up, I'll almost always lose due to priority sucker punch mixed with frail pokemon on my team. You are all more than welcome to test out the team yourselves before leaving advice, I was up and down a lot in the ladders, but overall had around a 70% win rate. As of right now, I'm stuck on how to improve my team more, if I even can improve while wanting to stick to the hyper offence route.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for any advice given!
