XY LC The Mighty Mons of LC (Rate Please!)

Elijah P

Hello, my name is Elijah, and I've been on Showdown for a couple of months now. After doing quite a bit of ou battling, I've discovered something just as, if not more fun: LC. I've had a blast in this league, and this team happens to be 20-8, gxe of 72, sitting at 1321. Before I make my attempt to crack top 500 (since I'm only roughly 80 points out of it), I was wondering what you guys think of this team.

Karate Kid (Mienfoo) @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 36 Def / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
- Stone Edge
- U-turn

I've noticed one thing about any strong lc team: they all have Mienfoo. Decent movepool, stats, and it's ability Regenerator, make it one of the best 'mons of lc. I gave it max attack and speed, then poured the remaining stats into defense. This is it's eviolite set, which runs drain punch (primary STAB, and recovers hp), fake out (for guaranteed knock outs on low hp threats), stone edge (for coverage), and u turn, to make it an alternate lead for scouting. I used to run a Life orb set, which was the same but replaced drain punch with hi jump kick. It works great pre-1300, but it's too risky higher up on the ladder (due to that 50% hp loss if it misses), so i changed it to make it more efficient in the long run.

Checkmate (Pawniard) @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 Def / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head

When I was deciding what my second physical attacker should be, i'd narrowed it down to pawniard and fletchling. I chose pawniard because of it's steel typing, and that i needed a dark type. It's amazing. Stat wise, I once again gave it max attack and speed, poured the rest into defense. Defiant is great thanks to the attack boost for when it lowers a stat. It makes it a great stat drop blocker. This is it's eviolite set (I've always ran it). I gave it swords dance (to set up), sucker punch, (for priority, STAB, and if i know they are going to attack), knock off (STAB, and to remove items. Knock off is amazing in lc), and iron head (STAB, 30% chance to flinch). I've also heard of pawniard with brick break, but i wanted someone who could set up, so i chose swords dance.

I'm so Thorny (Ferroseed) @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 5
EVs: 84 HP / 36 Atk / 188 Def / 152 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Before you continue, feel free to laugh at my name choice. When I was choosing my main wall, I went with ferroseed, mainly because i tend to use ferrothorn a lot in ou. It's just as good in lc as it is in ou. Always give ferroseed iron barbs, it's much better than anticipation, it's hidden ability. Once again, i gave it an eviolite set (5 out of my 6 pokemon have an eviolite). I balanced it's defense and special defense, then split the remaining between hp and attack. I gave it sassy nature, but i guess relaxed works too. For it's moveset, i gave it Gyro Ball (so it's not a sitting duck, and STAB+low speed=really strong), stealth rock (main hazard), leech seed (secondary hazard+stalling), and protect (scouting+stalling).

Bronchitis (Koffing) @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
Level: 5
EVs: 196 HP / 156 Def / 156 SpD
Bold Nature
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp
- Clear Smog
- Sludge Bomb

I know what ur thinking: why koffing? It's the B category in the viability rankings, and there are better defensive walls than koffing. My answer is two words: clear smog. For those of you who don't know what clear smog is, it is a special poison type move that has a base power of 50, and does not check accuracy/evasion. What's special is that it resets your opponent stats. I'll say it one more time. IT RESETS YOUR OPPONENTS STATS! This is amazing, since not only does it do damage, it completely counters any threat of any kind that wants to set up (fletchling, torchic, magby, anything that has received baton pass). It has saved me countless times, and that is why koffing is on my team. Item is eviolite, split stats between hp, defense, special defense. For its moveset, i gave it pain split (to get me out of a hitch), will o wisp (to cripple physical threats), clear smog (for obvious reasons), and sludge bomb (primary STAB, and for the poison.

Asian Polygon (Porygon) @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Level: 5
EVs: 236 HP / 196 Def / 76 SpD
Bold Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Tri Attack
- Shadow Ball
- Recover

Porygon is my mixed wall/ attacker/ staller. It wide variety of roles is what puts it on this team. I had a hard time choosing it's ability (I did a lot of experimenting) and i ended up deciding to use trace, because it can take it's opponent's ability and abuse it itself. I gave it eviolite (as per usual), and made it more defensive than special defensive with it's ev's and nature, but it can still wall special attackers fine. I gave it thunder wave (to cripple fast opponents), tri attack (STAB, and 20% chance to burn/freeze/paralyze), shadow ball (to counter ghost types, and it gives opponents a surprise), and recover (to stall).

There is No Spoon (Abra) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
Level: 5
EVs: 240 SpA / 68 SpD / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fire]

My final pokemon is abra, as my special sweeper. It's fantastic thanks to magic guard, so it can take burns and poisons with ease. It's also the only member of my team that does not have an eviolite, it has a focus sash instead, to guarentee itself a chance to do some damage. I gave it max special attack and speed, and poured the rest into special defense. As for its moveset, i gave it psychic for primary STAB, and its other 3 moves are there to check it's three weaknesses; Dazzling gleam (for dark types), shadow ball (for ghost types), and hp fire (for bug types). DO NOT GIVE IT CHOICE SCARF AND HP FIRE! I played one guy who had this, and it lost to my abra because of the sash, and cost him the match. He argued that it outspeeds the entire metagame. That's great, but it gets wrecked by anything with a focus sash. When i suggested that hp fire is better than hp fighting, he argued that hp fighting wrecks pawniard and porygon. While hp fighting does ohko pawniard, hp fire has a 6.3% chance of ohko full health pawniard. That means that as long as it has a small chunck of it's hp missing, it'll do fine. And for porygon, your better off using psychic, because hp fighting does 120 damage on porygon, while psychic does 135 because of stab. That guy was an idiot.

Please help my quest to get to top 500 by making suggestions! All feedback is welcome! I appreciate you reading this whole thing

PokElijah (my ps username)
 
Hi there and welcome to LC!

I got some suggestions here and there:

Mienfoo: I don't really see Fake Out really effective except that it can KO some faster Pokémon or cripple some Pokémon w/ Sturdy or Focus Sash, so I'll suggest using Knock Off over it, not only it give great coverage against Psychic- and Ghost-types but it gives huge team support as it removes items (usually Eviolite) from Pokémon, and as you may have noticed items in LC are more important than in any other meta/tier. You can use Knock Off over Stone Edge if you want to but as you said it gives nice coverage vs Fire-types like Ponyta and Larvesta which are one of the most common Mienfoo switch-ins and it's really underrated and inpredictable.

Pawniard: I don't really have much to say about Pawniard, Swords Dance Pawniard is really nice and may catch a lot of people off guard but I'll suggest running a 236 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 196 Spe as you got meaningless additional EVs in Defense which you can put in Special Defense to make it raise from 10 to 11 (15 to 16 after the Eviolite boost).

Koffing -> Spritzee: I suggest to use Spritzee over Koffing, it can deal with Fighting-types too but the thing that gives it a better niche is that it can hit back with Moonblast as Koffing is only able to wall them and can't do anything back, Spritzee can also give great team support with Aromatherapy to remove status and can heal itself with Wish or pass them to other teammates, here is the set:

Spritzee (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Aroma Veil
Level: 5
EVs: 212 HP / 196 Def / 12 SpA / 76 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Wish
- Aromatherapy

Abra: I suggest another move over Hidden Power Fire as it only deals with Ferroseed and has a slight chance to OHKO Pawniard and your team (mainly Mienfoo) can deal with both, so I'll suggest using Protect, not only it may help you anticipate what your opponent is going to use but it also allows you not to get damage from Fake Out which will cripple your sash and allows you to gain some momentum.

Other than that this team seems nice, you don't have a defogger/spinner which may be a problem especially if the opponent is using Toxic Spikes (even though it's pretty rare), so you can use one over Ferroseed for example but it's your call. Wish I helped and good luck getting high in the ladder! :)
 
Your Porygon set is fine, but if I may add, Shadow Ball is less useful since the ban of Misdreavus; the only common Ghost-type in the metagame is Gastly. I suggest you use Psychic over Shadow Ball, while it will still enable you to hit Gastly super effectively while also hitting the likes of Trubbish, Timburr and Mienfoo super effectively.

Same for Abra; Shadow Ball is less effective than before. While I agree with Yagura's suggestion of Protect > Hidden Power Fire, I also suggest you replace Shadow Ball for Energy Ball, which punishes Solid Rock Tirtouga, Chinchou and Drilbur.

Good luck now.
 
Hello Elijah P
This is a pretty nice team, but I still have a few suggestions that might help you in your laddering endeavors.

Just so we're clear on this, B-rank is actually quite good, being "reserved for Pokemon who are great in the LC metagame", so nobody will be raising their eyebrows at Koffing's inclusion on a team. With that being said, I'm agreeing with Yagura's suggestion in using Spritzee over Koffing; it synergizes phenomenally with all of Porygon, Ferroseed, and Pawniard, and provides invaluable Wish support for the latter two. (Yagura's importable is fine.)

Your team is overall quite defensive, so Abra doesn't really fit in, providing no defensive synergy at all. As such, I would like to suggest running Staryu over Abra, covering your issue with hazards, which can be very detrimental for a team that relies so heavily on defensive synergy and thus switching. Additionally, you might have a hard time repeatedly switching into Drilbur, which Staryu can do; Staryu also provides a check to Fighting-types, such as Ponyta and Larvesta (Porygon can usually stall out Sunnybeam Ponyta, provided it comes in on Solarbeam).
Staryu @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 40 SpA / 160 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Hidden Power [Fire] / Ice Beam
- Recover
The given EV spread only allows Eviolite variants of Drilbur to 2HKO with Earthquake 12.1% of the time when factoring in Staryu's Eviolite; even if a max roll does occur, you can just spam Recover until sufficiently healthy. Staryu can then outspeed and 2HKO with Scald. Ice Beam deals with Eviolite-less Foongus and OHKOs Fletchling after Stealth Rock with the given EVs, although the EVs were designed to be used with Hidden Power Fire, so that's an option as well if you find Ferroseed to be particularly troublesome. Rapid Spin is why we're using Staryu in the first place; Dwebble leads and Ferroseed could really take their toll by Spikestacking otherwise.

I'm also agreeing with The Avalanches in Psychic over Shadow Ball on Porygon; it hits the most relevant Ghost-type, Gastly, and deals with Fighting-type switch-ins, which could otherwise be troublesome. I also think Ice Beam over Tri Attack is a good option to get rid of Fletchling and Archen after Stealth Rock; it may seem unorthodox not to run a STAB move, but Tri Attack isn't hugely powerful, anyway, and you already have multiple checks for Carvanha.

I think that this Mienfoo would be best with a set of Drain Punch/Knock Off/U-Turn/Acrobatics. Knock Off is often considered among the best moves in the game due to the incredible utility it provides, especially in a tier like LC where Eviolite is omnipresent, and it additionally provides decent coverage. Acrobatics allows Mienfoo to absorb Knock Off well, which is helpful because Spritzee greatly appreciates maintaining its Eviolite to check more threats. Acrobatics also allows Mienfoo to check Fighting-types, which is nice for a team with three Fighting-type weaknesses. With that being said, Stone Edge is still a valid move to get rid of Larvesta in particular.

The important targets of Ferroseed's Steel-type STAB moves are generally quite slow (Spritzee, Foongus, Snubbull, etc), meaning Iron Head is usually more useful. You should change the nature to Careful, set the Speed IVs to 31, and add 36 Speed EVs (just leftover EVs) accordingly. Iron Head deals the same damage as Gyro Ball against 19 Speed targets, anyway.

I also think some of the EV spreads could be optimized.
Eviolite Mienfoo is generally best off with a more defensive spread to better check a greater variety of Pokemon, but in this case, I think you'll definitely want maximum speed to get rid of opposing Swords Dance Pawniard; the ideal spread for this would be 196 Def/36 SpD/236 Spe with a Jolly nature, because with the current spread, Mienfoo is taken out by a combination of Iron Head and Sucker Punch after its Eviolite has been removed, allowing Pawniard to sweep unimpeded later on.

Pawniard should usually be Jolly; this allows it to outspeed Jolly Scraggy after its Eviolite has been Knocked Off and OHKO with +2 Iron Head, 15 Speed Fletchling, and Timid Magnemite (which is useful to let you Knock Off if its Sturdy has been broken), and speed tie with non-Choice Scarf Pawniard, non-Choice Scarf Bunnelby, and non-Choice Scarf Cranidos. Yagura's spread of 196 Atk/36 Def/36 SpD/236 Spe also gets you a SpD point for no cost.

Changing Porygon's nature to Calm will allow it to hit even defense numbers, granting it more overall bulk with Eviolite, since Eviolite boosts round down.

That's it for now. Good luck!
 
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