Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Here's a simple rain team I made when I felt like trying out Dracovish. I initially went with Band on Dracovish, but found that Scarf was better, as Band got outsped by a lot and Scarf has similarly obscene power under rain. Pelipper is the rain setter and a decent pivot, not too much to say there. Gyarados is the team's setup sweeper and a key check to opposing Seismitoads, as it outspeeds the common defensive set and Power Whips. Seismitoad himself hits like a truck under rain, Hydro Pump 2HKOing even most resistances, and outspeeds opposing Scarf Darms. Corviknight is there for hazard control purposes and as a secondary pivot, although he's the shakiest Pokemon on the team and is subject to possible replacement. Finally, Rotom-Heat is a check to Ferrothorn which otherwise shuts down the team, a secondary check to G-Darm (because you need one in this meta), and a good pivot besides.
Dragapult is the biggest threat to this team, as it can Thunderbolt, outspeed the whole team besides rain Seismitoad, and isn't hit supereffectively by any members of the team that can switch into it. Because of this, it's necessary to preserve Seismitoad against opposing Dragapults, as it is immune to Thunderbolt and can outspeed + 2HKO Dragapult with Hydro Pump under rain. I was thinking about replacing Corviknight with Grimmsnarl due to this, as hazards aren't too much of a problem for this team and it desperately needs a Dragapult check, but I'm unsure. Please let me know what you think!
I found that mandibuzz can remove hazards, check dragapult, and retain momentum all at the same time, I think it would do you well. Replace corviknight with this:
Mandibuzz @ Heavy-Duty Boots/Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Roost
- Defog
- Taunt
Here's a simple rain team I made when I felt like trying out Dracovish. I initially went with Band on Dracovish, but found that Scarf was better, as Band got outsped by a lot and Scarf has similarly obscene power under rain. Pelipper is the rain setter and a decent pivot, not too much to say there. Gyarados is the team's setup sweeper and a key check to opposing Seismitoads, as it outspeeds the common defensive set and Power Whips. Seismitoad himself hits like a truck under rain, Hydro Pump 2HKOing even most resistances, and outspeeds opposing Scarf Darms. Corviknight is there for hazard control purposes and as a secondary pivot, although he's the shakiest Pokemon on the team and is subject to possible replacement. Finally, Rotom-Heat is a check to Ferrothorn which otherwise shuts down the team, a secondary check to G-Darm (because you need one in this meta), and a good pivot besides.
Dragapult is the biggest threat to this team, as it can Thunderbolt, outspeed the whole team besides rain Seismitoad, and isn't hit supereffectively by any members of the team that can switch into it. Because of this, it's necessary to preserve Seismitoad against opposing Dragapults, as it is immune to Thunderbolt and can outspeed + 2HKO Dragapult with Hydro Pump under rain. I was thinking about replacing Corviknight with Grimmsnarl due to this, as hazards aren't too much of a problem for this team and it desperately needs a Dragapult check, but I'm unsure. Please let me know what you think!
The threat from Pult is real. Doesn't really matter the set. I like the idea of Grimmsnarl or Barraskewda, but LO Clefable also works. You already have enough rain oriented damage in Vish and Toad, why not swap out Gyarados for LO Clefable? Immune to Dragon and it threatens Pult out with Moonblast. It has the added benefit of shredding essentially every defensive core that exists right now lol. It also gives you a good mix of Special attacking and physical attacking and Vish will do damage regardless. It pokes holes in teams so that Vish can clean up.
Here's a pretty basic sand balance team I helped a friend make. The defensive backbone of the team is Seismitoad/Corviknight/Rotom-heat, which have amazing defensive synergy and can pivot easily with U-turn and Volt Switch. Special attacks aimed at Corviknight also give ample opportunity to bring in Ttar, who can smash pretty much anything with the great coverage on his CB set. Scarf Hydreigon defends ttar from offensive threats while overloading defensive checks in opposing corviknight and ferrothorn. Sand rush drill neatly fills a finisher role who can clean up the mess that ttar leaves behind.
Like a lot of balance teams right now, LO clefable is the scariest offensive threat to this team. Ttars EV spread allows it to outspeed standard clef spreads and OHKO with stone edge, but it needs to come in on a predicted tbolt or flamethrower, since ttar gets neatly 2HKOd by Moonblast. Speed boosting sweepers like Gyarados can be scary too, so getting in an early paralysis or burn with Rotom is key.
Here's a pretty basic sand balance team I helped a friend make. The defensive backbone of the team is Seismitoad/Corviknight/Rotom-heat, which have amazing defensive synergy and can pivot easily with U-turn and Volt Switch. Special attacks aimed at Corviknight also give ample opportunity to bring in Ttar, who can smash pretty much anything with the great coverage on his CB set. Scarf Hydreigon defends ttar from offensive threats while overloading defensive checks in opposing corviknight and ferrothorn. Sand rush drill neatly fills a finisher role who can clean up the mess that ttar leaves behind.
Like a lot of balance teams right now, LO clefable is the scariest offensive threat to this team. Ttars EV spread allows it to outspeed standard clef spreads and OHKO with stone edge, but it needs to come in on a predicted tbolt or flamethrower, since ttar gets neatly 2HKOd by Moonblast. Speed boosting sweepers like Gyarados can be scary too, so getting in an early paralysis or burn with Rotom is key.
Here's a pretty basic sand balance team I helped a friend make. The defensive backbone of the team is Seismitoad/Corviknight/Rotom-heat, which have amazing defensive synergy and can pivot easily with U-turn and Volt Switch. Special attacks aimed at Corviknight also give ample opportunity to bring in Ttar, who can smash pretty much anything with the great coverage on his CB set. Scarf Hydreigon defends ttar from offensive threats while overloading defensive checks in opposing corviknight and ferrothorn. Sand rush drill neatly fills a finisher role who can clean up the mess that ttar leaves behind.
Like a lot of balance teams right now, LO clefable is the scariest offensive threat to this team. Ttars EV spread allows it to outspeed standard clef spreads and OHKO with stone edge, but it needs to come in on a predicted tbolt or flamethrower, since ttar gets neatly 2HKOd by Moonblast. Speed boosting sweepers like Gyarados can be scary too, so getting in an early paralysis or burn with Rotom is key.
Hydreigon is obviously not the choice, as it's also weak to fighting. Gyarados can work, as well as really anything that resists / is immune to fighting.
It has to handle the following mons in one way or another : Conkerldurr, Hawlucha, Kommo-o
I am a bit iffy on Gyrados as it loses to Hawlucha thunder punch a bit too easily along with a decent amount of electrics around (yes yes, I know you have ground types but I just have a bad feeling about Gyarados). An interesting option might be Air Balloon nasty plot Gengar running Nasty Plot, Taunt, Shadow Ball and Dazzling Gleam, with 44 Def/212 Spa/252 Spe and a Timid Nature. The reason I chose Gengar is because, with this EV spread, it always lives Hawluca's Brave bird whilst threatening a KO and if it is set up then the incoming brave bird can be resisted with a swap into something that scares it out, turning Conkeldurr into setup fodder as it either switches out or (if it uses thunder punch to at least do some damage to Gengar) both giving ample opportunity to set up a nasty plot and start going to town on the opposing team. The least important matchup, in my opinion, is with Kommo-o as it's most common set is a special attacker with no fighting moves. If it is running fighting moves then it likely is either dropping clangorous soul as an all-out attacker and putting in something like body press which means you do not need to fear it's clanging scales and can just delete it with Dazzling gleam, or flamethrower in which case it gets revenge killed by Excadrill if sand is up. I find this matchup to be the least likely one where the fighting immunity is needed due to everyone just running braindead smogon sets. And when looking at its matchup against the 2 EQ users, the only one it loses to is Excadrill in sand/with a rapid spin boost/with SD boost, due to it not being able to hit it the second time with the speed boosts and dying on the first iron head with the SD boost, outside of that it beats every other EQ user in the tier. Overall this would be an interesting pokemon to try out on your team.
Hey long time lurker, made an account to gather thoughts on this balance team I've been working on and getting some W's with. I started with a FWG core of Ferrothorn+Gastrodon+Flareon because I've always loved Flareon and I couldn't pass up a chance to capitalize on it being actually viable for once. Pretty good defensive synergy between these three, with some great immunities to boot. What I especially like about Flareon is that a lot of mons that it likes to check often have fire coverage, and Flash fire boosted Flare Blitz hits pretty decently hard even without atk investment. I copied Gastro's set from the strategy dex, and it's working out so far. Not sure if I wanna keep Clear Smog, but it doesn't have much else to put in that last moveslot anyway. Maybe Curse?
Rounding out the team we have LO Clefable for wallbreaking cause it's busted, Excadrill for Rapid Spin and SD sweeping cause it's busted, and Scarf Gengar for speed control cause it's bust... well, it's not busted, but it's a really good scarfer in this meta imo. Went with Modest for the extra power cause it still outspeeds unboosted Dragapult. I'm considering Scarf Timid Hydreigon cause it does about the same thing but with Levitate and my team is pretty weak to EQ. I really really like Gengar though. If I do stick with Gengar, I'm not 100% on the moveset. Shadow Ball and Focus Blast are givens, but Dazzling Gleam/Thunderbolt/Energy Ball/Trick/Sludge Wave all have a lot of good reasons to use them. Other things I'm not 100% sure on is the necessity of two Heavy-Duty boots users AND rapid spin. I mean rapid spin has the added benefit of speed boosting and getting rid of leech seed, so probably still works out cause you can kinda just set up on Ferrothorn. Also not sure if Spikes or SR on Ferrothorn is better.
This team also appreciates the Darm ban, cause while Scarfgar outspeeds it, it can't switch in, and if it's zen mode it's a 6-0 lmao
Centiskorch @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Fire Lash
- Knock Off
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
I wanted to make a Weavile team after hearing about the Darm ban. Weavile is a solid substitute for it. Fast, hard hitting, and is able to threaten common threats like Hydreigon, Mandibuzz, and Dragapult with its stabs and priority Ice Shard. It also outspeeds Adamant Scarf Dracovish. Hatterene bounces off hazards and status for Weavile and helps with dealing with Physically Dfse Pex. Corviknight removes hazards and helps get Weavile in with slow U-Turns. Offensive Toad is underrated, its a good lure to Ferrothorn and Hydreigon as it 3HKOs standard Ferro with Focus Blast after rocks, and 2HKOs Hydra. Its a nice partner with Weavile which threatens Mandibuzz and provides it with rocks and checks Cinderace. ChestoResto Rotom-Mow counters Seismitoed and is the team’s second pivot. Centiskorch is this team’s answer to Spirit Break BU Grimm and LO Clef.
Teambuilding strat was just to throw as many top tier mons together as I could. Using Frog and Bird as a defensive core, the team uses LO Clef and Rotom to poke holes so Hydrei or Aegis can clean up.
Team hates Hatterne though (and if it's TR paired with Conk then it's pretty much GG)
Teambuilding strat was just to throw as many top tier mons together as I could. Using Frog and Bird as a defensive core, the team uses LO Clef and Rotom to poke holes so Hydrei or Aegis can clean up.
Team hates Hatterne though (and if it's TR paired with Conk then it's pretty much GG)
lmao ngl my best team has the exact same pokemon and similar sets and I posted it in discord
I don't really think LO clef is going to be the best set for this team, especially not max max.
spdef clef would be a better replacement, as its one of the best glue mons.
And heattom would prefer 216+ speed and HP and rest is dumped in SpA.'
And that Corv set is subpar you want U-Turn over Body Press.
Shadow Sneak>Close Combat on Aegis
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Clear Smog
Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Wish
- Protect
- Mystical Fire
I want to share this team with stall lovers, as I don't think there are too many stall samples yet.
Build process:
An important feature that stall teams should have is counterplay against set up sweepers.
In this OU metagame, however, it appears that both Quagsire and Pyukumuku - the only viable Unaware users - are not good.
Many set up sweepers are specially oriented and without Chansey, it seems hard to find an answer to all of them.
If you try to counter them all, you will probably end up using niche pokemons that only counter one or two threats and those will weaken your stall team more than anything.
That is why I started with Ditto, which is mandatory in my opinion.
Ditto not only gives a very good match up against other stall teams, but can also be an offensive presence in some other match ups to avoid being too pressured.
+
One thing I noticed is that Corsola Galar is like the only Conkeldurr counter.
Even Jellicent loses if it carries Thunder Punch:
252+ Atk Guts Conkeldurr Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Jellicent: 258-304 (63.8 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Corsola Galar brings Stealth Rock to the team which is good.
+
+
Because of Dracovish, you're forced to use a Water Absorb Storm Drain pokemon, which is why I picked Gastrodon.
SpDef Gastrodon also checks Gengar, Rotom (bar Rotom-Mow), Clefable, Aegislash, ... so it has great defensive utility on stall.
+
+
+
Dugtrio is the team's answer to dangerous wallbreakers like Crawdaunt, Choice Band Dracovish, Choice Band Tyranitar, LO Clefable, ... that have very few counterplay.
+
+
+
+
At this point I needed hazard removal. Corviknight is the best choice, being able to beat Excadrill, Ferrothorn, Clefable, Tyranitar, Seismitoad, whereas Mandibuzz loses to some of them.
+
+
+
+
+
Finally, I needed something that can beat both Dragapult and Hydreigon, so I naturally chose Sylveon.
Sylveon also helps the team on the special defense side, and wish gives Ditto more longevity if needed.
Comments:
1/ Threats
The biggest threat is Aegislash. Gastrodon and Sylveon are both full SpDef to help a little bit against Shadow Ball spam from Specs. Rotom-Mow is also a threat, but can be played around using Ditto + Sylveon + Corsola.
Defensive pokemons, especially Ferrothorn can be annoying.
2/ Sets
Dugtrio:
It needs to be Jolly (and not Adamant) for Cinderace.
Substitute is needed to avoid Sucker Punch, and sometimes Toxic / Will-o-Wisp.
Sylveon:
Mystical Fire gives it much more offensive presence than Calm Mind, hitting Ferrothorn, Excadrill, Corviknight, Aegislash.
Gastrodon:
Because Gastrodon is going to switch in on water moves quite often (Dracovish, Seismitoad, Toxapex), I think it's a good idea to capitalize on the SpA boost and use a Recover + 3 attacks set.
Ice Beam is mainly there so Gastrodon does not give Rotom-Mow a free switch in, but it can also hit stuff life Dragapult, Hydreigon, ...
Earth Power lets it beat Toxapex. Clear Smog is quite passive but allows it to counter CM users like Clefable, Hatterene, Reuniclus and Sylveon.
Corviknight:
Brave Bird is the best offensive move there.
Corvi is used as a pivot to Dugtrio or Ditto, thanks to U-Turn.
However, even though U-Turning to Dugtrio / Ditto is a strong tech, Taunt over U-Turn is something worth considering in order to beat Ferrothorn.
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Ice Beam
Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Wish
- Protect
- Mystical Fire
I want to share this team with stall lovers, as I don't think there are too many stall samples yet.
Build process:
An important feature that stall teams should have is counterplay against set up sweepers.
In this OU metagame, however, it appears that both Quagsire and Pyukumuku - the only viable Unaware users - are not good.
Many set up sweepers are specially oriented and without Chansey, it seems hard to find an answer to all of them.
If you try to counter them all, you will probably end up using niche pokemons that only counter one or two threats and those will weaken your stall team more than anything.
That is why I started with Ditto, which is mandatory in my opinion.
Ditto not only gives a very good match up against other stall teams, but can also be an offensive presence in some other match ups to avoid being too pressured.
+
One thing I noticed is that Corsola Galar is like the only Conkeldurr counter.
Even Jellicent loses if it carries Thunder Punch:
252+ Atk Guts Conkeldurr Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Jellicent: 258-304 (63.8 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Corsola Galar brings Stealth Rock to the team which is good.
+
+
Because of Dracovish, you're forced to use a Water Absorb Storm Drain pokemon, which is why I picked Gastrodon.
SpDef Gastrodon also checks Gengar, Rotom (bar Rotom-Mow), Clefable, Aegislash, ... so it has great defensive utility on stall.
+
+
+
Dugtrio is the team's answer to dangerous wallbreakers like Crawdaunt, Choice Band Dracovish, Choice Band Tyranitar, LO Clefable, ... that have very few counterplay.
+
+
+
+
At this point I needed hazard removal. Corviknight is the best choice, being able to beat Excadrill, Ferrothorn, Clefable, Tyranitar, Seismitoad, whereas Mandibuzz loses to some of them.
+
+
+
+
+
Finally, I needed something that can beat both Dragapult and Hydreigon, so I naturally chose Sylveon.
Sylveon also helps the team on the special defense side, and wish gives Ditto more longevity if needed.
Comments:
1/ Threats
The biggest offensive threat to that team is probably Rotom-Mow. But still it can be played around using Ditto + Sylveon + Corsola.
You have an answer against all other threats.
Defensive pokemons, especially Ferrothorn can be annoying.
2/ Sets
Dugtrio:
It needs to be Jolly (and not Adamant) for Cinderace.
Substitute is needed to avoid Sucker Punch, and sometimes Toxic / Will-o-Wisp.
Sylveon:
Mystical Fire gives it much more offensive presence than Calm Mind, hitting Ferrothorn, Excadrill, Corviknight, Aegislash.
Gastrodon:
Because Gastrodon is going to switch in on water moves quite often (Dracovish, Seismitoad, Toxapex), I think it's a good idea to capitalize on the SpA boost and use a Recover + 3 attacks set.
Ice Beam is mainly there so Gastrodon does not give Rotom-Mow a free switch in, but it can also hit stuff life Dragapult, Hydreigon, ...
Earth Power lets it beat Toxapex.
Corviknight:
Brave Bird is the best offensive move there.
Corvi is used as a pivot to Dugtrio or Ditto, thanks to U-Turn.
However, even though U-Turning to Dugtrio / Ditto is a strong tech, Taunt over U-Turn is something worth considering in order to beat Ferrothorn.
Iron Head indeed hits Clefable, Hatterene and Sylveon, but seems weaker against everything else.
Gastrodon + Sylveon + Dugtrio is solid enough to beat them in most cases. If anything, Clear Smog over Ice Beam can be used on Gastrodon. It helps against CM Clefable, CM Hatterene, CM Reuniclus and maybe stuff like Curse Snorlax. It is probably better actually, but so far I have been liking Ice Beam, I will probably change that later.
This is fixed.
Another thing that should be changed is the spread on Corvi.
Max physical def seems better, at least to have a switch in for Choice Band Aegislash.
Also fixed.
So those two points; and maybe Taunt over U-Turn, is what I am not 100% sure about yet.
Dracovish is great at getting OHKOs on a large chunk of the game with Fishious Rend as long as it outspeeds, that's why Choice Scarf is a great item. Psychic Fangs is good coverage and can be used to break screens. Crunch is also coverage. Outrage is strong STAB when either Dracovish can't outspeed or Fishious Rend isn't very effective.
Pepsi (Pelipper) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- U-turn
- Scald
- Hurricane
- Roost
Even when Dracovish outspeeds, sometimes it barely misses the OHKO on Fishious Rend. This is why Rain is a good idea to give Fishious Rend a 1.5x boost. Pelipper uses U-Turn for a safe switch into Dracovish. Scald and Hurricane give Pelipper a little bit of offense. Roost keeps Pelipper alive, so it can continue providing boosts to the whole team.
Dasini (Seismitoad) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Happiness: 252
EVs: 252 SpA / 148 SpD / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Focus Blast
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
This Seismitoad is good counter to Dragapult, a Pokemon Dracovish struggles with because it cant outspeed it, during rain. Its EVs allow it to outspeed Dragapult during rain, 2HKO it with Earth Power, and live Dragapult's Draco Meteor. Focus Blast is for coverage. Hydro Pump and Earth Power are good STABs, with Hydro Pump boosted by rain. Stealth Rock chips away at opponents, making it hard to stall out rain turns or forcing them to Defog, getting rid of their own rocks.
Dragapult is a great offensive threat that helps cover some of Dracovish's weaknesses. Expert belt gives it extra super effective damage, which Dragapult often gets. Draco Meteor is it's strongest stab and good for getting rid of tanky threats. Shadow Ball is another great STAB with good coverage and doesn't drop special attack. Surf is good coverage and run over Fire Blast because Surf gains a boost from rain, and only has slightly less coverage then Fire Blast. Fire Blast also receives a down-grade from rain. Thunderbolt is also good coverage.
Coca Cola (Bisharp) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Throat Chop
- Sucker Punch
Bisharp fits well on the team because it's fire weakness is covered by rain and can handle Dragapult. It's also great at punishing Intimidate users with Defiant. It also punishes switches as then it can set up a Swords Dance then get of great damage with Iron Head, Throat Chop, or Sucker Punch if the opponent outspeeds.
Corviknight is great bulky support that benefits from rain. Roost keeps it alive, while Defog gets rid of rocks that Dracovish suffers from due to it needing to switch out often. Brave Bird gives it some offense, and U-Turn lets it safely bring in other Pokemon.
OK. So a lot of this team isn’t exactly original per se, but the idea is to use an uncommon set from a very common mon as my wincon - Calm Mind Clefable.
This mon can use free turns from the opponent misreading it as LO to set up calm mind to sweep. Rotom H comes in, you’ve already got +1/+1 and can stall it out while it tries to nasty plot into overheat. Ferrothorn also set up bait even if it’s running gyro ball.
Notable offensive mons that Clefable struggles against include Aegislash, Cinderace, Dracovish, and Excadrill in addition to mons like Conkeldurr depending on the it’s set. Basically, physical attackers that can 2HKO it or worse, especially with fire/steel attacks (or just fishious rend lol). Toxapex also walls this mon and Trick can ruin my win con so it’s important to scout early and avoid the temptation to throw clefable in looking for a 6-0 if the opponent lacks the aforementioned checks and counters.
so to deal with many of those offensive threats, a standard Corviknight/Seismitoad/Rotom-H core is employed. not a ton to really explain here, but this core puts in work in the current meta and as a bonus Clefable acts as another defensive mon in the early game with max hp/defense investment and fairy typing that goes well with these guys.
I also needed something other than Rotom for Toxapex and I wanted to take into account fairy switch ins and common defensive mons ran alongside Toxapex. life orb Hydreigon can absolutely tear through Toxapex cores and I don’t even really care if I eat a Toxic as long as Hydreigon can break past Toxapex before it goes down. Hydreigon also beats Aegislash and +2 Flash Cannon hits opposing fairies hard in the switch or OHKOs with some prior chip damage like SR or volt switch from Rotom-H.
I fiddled around with the last slot quite a bit but kept coming back to Dragapult. First as specs, then as subdisable, and then as specs again. I needed speed control, and ghost typing is great for when Conk is going to press a fighting move or facade vs Hydreigon or Clefable respectively. Infiltrator is the MVP of abilities and provides huge utility to my team. Obviously this mon is also a great revenge killer with Draco meteor in particular and cleaner with shadow bolt in the event that clefable eats a crit and goes down.
OK. So a lot of this team isn’t exactly original per se, but the idea is to use an uncommon set from a very common mon as my wincon - Calm Mind Clefable.
This mon can use free turns from the opponent misreading it as LO to set up calm mind to sweep. Rotom H comes in, you’ve already got +1/+1 and can stall it out while it tries to nasty plot into overheat. Ferrothorn also set up bait even if it’s running gyro ball.
Notable offensive mons that Clefable struggles against include Aegislash, Cinderace, Dracovish, and Excadrill in addition to mons like Conkeldurr depending on the it’s set. Basically, physical attackers that can 2HKO it or worse, especially with fire/steel attacks (or just fishious rend lol). Toxapex also walls this mon and Trick can ruin my win con so it’s important to scout early and avoid the temptation to throw clefable in looking for a 6-0 if the opponent lacks the aforementioned checks and counters.
so to deal with many of those offensive threats, a standard Corviknight/Seismitoad/Rotom-H core is employed. not a ton to really explain here, but this core puts in work in the current meta and as a bonus Clefable acts as another defensive mon in the early game with max hp/defense investment and fairy typing that goes well with these guys.
I also needed something other than Rotom for Toxapex and I wanted to take into account fairy switch ins and common defensive mons ran alongside Toxapex. life orb Hydreigon can absolutely tear through Toxapex cores and I don’t even really care if I eat a Toxic as long as Hydreigon can break past Toxapex before it goes down. Hydreigon also beats Aegislash and +2 Flash Cannon hits opposing fairies hard in the switch or OHKOs with some prior chip damage like SR or volt switch from Rotom-H.
I fiddled around with the last slot quite a bit but kept coming back to Dragapult. First as specs, then as subdisable, and then as specs again. I needed speed control, and ghost typing is great for when Conk is going to press a fighting move or facade vs Hydreigon or Clefable respectively. Infiltrator is the MVP of abilities and provides huge utility to my team. Obviously this mon is also a great revenge killer with Draco meteor in particular and cleaner with shadow bolt in the event that clefable eats a crit and goes down.
Interestingly, I threw together a nearly identical team. I had Sub Aegislash over Dragapult, Rocks on Clefable over CM, and Gastrodon over Seismitoad. I also used the Sub+NP Hydreigon set, too.
A quick message to say that Corsola-G is actually a terrible pokemon.
This is a far better Conkeldurr check:
Hippowdon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
252+ Atk Guts Conkeldurr Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 170-201 (40.4 - 47.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Guts Conkeldurr Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 136-162 (32.3 - 38.5%) -- 98.1% chance to 3HKO (18 - 21.4% recovered)
So with Sandstorm + burn recoil + Rocky Helmet damage, Conkeldurr has no recovery.
It needs Close Combat to beat Hippo:
252+ Atk Guts Conkeldurr Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 219-258 (52.1 - 61.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
But if carrying Close Combat, it's not running Drain Punch, which means it has no recovery. And because of defense drops it becomes Dugtrio weak.
Hippo is also good at checking stuff like Bisharp, physical Aegislash, DD Tyranitar, Cinderace, Centiskorch, etc.
Sandstorm damage is also really appreciated on fat teams in a metagame where Toxic users are so rare.
So below is an improved version of the team posted:
Because it gives Aromatherapy to the team, which helps considering Dragapult, Seismitoad, Toxapex all have burning moves (+Toxic).
Wish on Sylveon is also easy to play around, because you can use Stealth Rock or anything that presures the team (like SD Aegislash) the turn Sylveon is going to use Protect. Recover is better for this reason.
Aroma Veil is a good ability as it makes Alcremie immune to Disable and Taunt.
The downside of that option is that you can be PP stalled by Sub Hydreigon.
However, semi stall teams seem a lot more efficient this gen I have to say, stall just doesn't seem to have all the tools it needs to be consistent.
