This is my first gen 8 RMT (and second overrall) and this is my take on the HO playstyle. It differs a lot from the common obstagoon/pult hos in which it thrives immensely vs bulky teams, but tends to have a hard time vs a lot of offensive mons.
I had vikavolt as the first member of the team and the one who would get webs up, thanks to it's unique typing and strong stabs.
Excadrill was the next member and a natural addition for the team. With the rapid spin buff it can boast more of a offensive threat too.
Kommo has been a Pokemon I've always wanted to experiment with since gen 7, but it never got too much satisfying results, however in this new meta, I've decided to give kommo another chance and it has earned it, and it manages to be one of the main wincons almost every match.
After adding kommo, I wanted something to break fairies and punish hazard removal, so bisharp was the next logical step. On the first version of my team, since I was (I still am, but I can combat it a little better) 6-0ed by sand rush excadrill, I ran shuca berry bisharp, however I stopped using it after I found out you still died to lo excadrill so lol
After adding bisharp, I wanted something to break bulky cores reliably. And so I decided to use dracovish, however with the meta overprepping for it, I would have to be a little more creative with my approach of it.
And this is the old version of my team. Cinderace was added so you could combat other cinderaces (it ran sucker punch hjk)
And revenge kill problematic threats like hydreigon, and togekiss. However with new meta trends like dugtrio everywhere, and bulky waters being even more annoying with it's addition, I felt like I needed something to bait these in, and something that could punish excadrill.
And finally, the current version of the team. With cloyster, the matchup vs other offense got much easier, with the lack of good ice resists in the tier, and being able to punish excadrill leads, cloyster was also pivotal in the bulky matchup, where stuff like toxapex would be weakened or killed by dracovish, which allowed cloyster to shine.
Vikavolt @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Sticky Web
- Bug Buzz
- Volt Switch
Vikavolt was the webber of choice because it's the one who gets webs up the best, and also can be useful outside of webbing as a pure breaker. Turns out 145 spa bug elec coverage has pmuch no good answer too in the tier, and exca can be taken advantage of quite easily by cloyster (which is why it would become the replacement for cinderace) the lack of knowledge abt this pokemon renders it so the opponent switches in their elec wall such as seismitoad or ferro carelessly, only to get promptly blown up by a bug buzz. It's bulk allows it to live impressive hits such as a dragapult life orb dragon darts after rocks(252 Atk Life Orb Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Vikavolt: 218-260 (60.8 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO) which means that after setupping webs, it can fire off a 145 spa hit.
Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
Excadrill is simply put, the best suicide lead on OU. With the rapid spin buff, getting hazards off the field is no longer a waste of turn, and can even lend you a advantage, like chipping a scarf dracovish and getting rocks up afterwards. It has access to mold breaker to beat hatterene and rotoms, and I chose iron head over steel beam to beat togekiss and flinch cloyster who think they're gonna beat a +2 speed exca. Besides, I already have lots of ways to take advantage of corvinight.
Kommo-o @ Salac Berry
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Belly Drum
- Drain Punch
- Earthquake
Kommo seemed to only get better with the generational shift. It's greatest checks, the tapus, all got snapped, akin to his other arch nemesis, landorus t. The metagame being slower also favored it heavily, as it's once mediocre speed of 85 actually means it's now on the upper eschelon of speed tiers now. With sub and Belly drum, kommo pmuch wrecks anything that the opponent would send out to counter it's more popular set in throat spray. It's typing allows you to get a surprising amount of free subs, like on sylveon, mandibuzz, ferro, seismitoad (50/50 but unless they know your set they are probably toxicing) and you can also easily scout haze pex, and if it is, you can force them to sack their pex in fear of drum. Eq is used as the coverage move so you beat baneful bunker pex, Aegislash, and dragapult.
Bisharp @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
- Throat Chop
- Iron Head
Bisharp is an staple of HO. It's powerful sucker punch and good typing (offensively and defensively sometimes too) means it has been HO's go to choice to punish removal since xy. Black glasses were chosen as the chip can be extremely annoying and lose you games, and is unnecessary as most of the time you are clicking the dark move anyways. Bisharp is the teams check to cloyster and ghosts.
Dracovish @ Metronome
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Crunch
- Fishious Rend
- Earthquake
My personal fave of the team, sub metronome dracovish. It was originally going to be dracozolt, but I don't like the idea of hustle. So, I tried to do something similar with dracovish. It plays a lot like dracozolt, the main difference is that you won't have to worry about fishious rend missing on clef and you losing the whole game. Metronome allows it to go through it's checks like vaporeon, seismitoad, and gastrodon, by spamming crunch. Eq is on the last slot instead of psychic fangs so I don't get poisoned by baneful bunker and lose to pex, which is the main target of the set.
Cloyster @ King's Rock
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
And last, but CERTAINLY not least, is ya boy cloyster. With Kings rock, it has a 41% chance to bullshit away all it's checks and you to click x and call me bad. Cloyster is there to capitalize on everything Vish does( break bulky waters) and win from there. It's amazing phys def is a huge boon for the team as it allows it to take advantage of stuff like mimikyu, lead excadrill, and punish court charge from cinderace ( provided it's not blaze boosted) Most offensive teams have either bad ice resists ( rotom heat) or rely on priority to beat it (mine lol) which means having cloyster on the team in certain ways improved the matchup on bulky offense , while also having a good mu vs semi/hard stall.
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1052114547
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1052106440
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1049638085
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1045367350
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1039991950
Threats
Importable:https://pokepast.es/c700d4fb28145c22
Proof(s) of peak