Underused Pokemon Matchmaking Phase 2 [Week 29 - Nasty Plot Infernape]

[GeniusX]

Reserving sylveon

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell / Baton Pass

Sylveon acts as a great cleric user for doublade, being able to pass wishes and take on many dark types that threaten doublade. Because of it's decently high hp stat, Sylveon can pass more reliable wished then a lot of other clerics in the tier. This helps doublade a lot as it lacks recovery and is crippled by status. It's natrual bulk allows it to form a great defensive core with doublade and STAB pixilate hyper voice hits extremely hard even when uninvested, doing large amounts of damage and can pick up kos. Hyper Voice also has the great side effect in being able to hit past subs, making it not set up bait on some pokemon such as sub gyarados once it comes in on rocks. The last move, while normally ran as heal bell, alternatively, baton pass is also a option. Heal bell allows doublade to not be crippled by burn and increases its longetivity, but baton pass can also be used for passing slow wishes, extremely useful for when doublade is very low. Doublade also helps with a lot of checks to sylveon such as m-beedrill while forming a solid steel fairy core with sylveon.

 

[G-Luke]

Reserving Florges

 

[esche]

Reserving Mega Absol

Absol-Mega @ Absolite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Play Rough/Superpower
- Sucker Punch

This is simple yet effective SD spam that aims to overwhelm their checks so that ultimately one of them can sweep. Offensively, Absol's powerful and spamable Dark STAB is very much appreciated by Doublade as it breaks walls rather easily at +2 and negates their passive recovery. The coverage options in slot #3 hit opposing Dark types that threaten Doublade, especially Krookodile and Hydreigon. Mega Absol also takes advantage of Sableye, something Doublade can potentially struggle with. Defensively, Doublade is a godsend as a partner for Absol: It serves as a check to fast threats like Mega Aerodactyl and Scarf Mienshao, deals with Fairies, and absorbs priority, namely E-Speed and Mach Punch. On the other side, even though Absol is very frail, it can still take one Knock Off aimed at Doublade and receive an attack boost as long as it hasn't Mega evolved, thanks to Justified. If you choose Shadow Claw over Sacred Sword on Doublade, Superpower is the preferred option on Absol to break Steel types more reliably, but otherwise Play Rough has the better all-around coverage.

HIDE YO PSYCHIC TYPES

 

[etern]

Pangoro @ Lum Berry
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Gunk Shot

Although Pangoro is pretty mediocre for the most part, it really gets to shine with Doublade thanks to their fantastic synergy. Doublade helps Pangoro by beating Fighting-, Fairy-, and Flying-types while Pangoro beats Dark and Steel-types.

 

[G-Luke]

Doublade is a great wincon for balanced teams, but between struggling with Special attackers, hating dark types (especially Krook), hating status and having no form of recovery whatsoever, Doublade struggles to be a top threat in UU.

This is where Florges comes in. Unprecedented special bulk. A dark resist and Wish passing + Cleric support make Florges quite the partner for Doublade. It takes on most of the top checks for Doublade quite easily, including Krookodile, Scarf Chandelure and can support Doublade with WishPassing to keep its health up, and Aromapheraphy to get nasty status off.

Florges @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy

 

[LRXC]

reserving Mega-Swampert, because yall dont understand that power

 

[Ramses]

Mienshao @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Stone Edge

Miensho is a cool partner because it makes up for Doublade's severe lack of speed, it beats all relevant Dark-types with the best move it could ever be locked in to, and it assists with giving switch-in opportunities with U-turn which is godly in tandem with priority. The bad thing is they can get overwhelmed by fairies fairly fast since Doublade has pretty lackluster special bulk and it's disappointing speed.

 

[LRXC]

(Swampert-Mega) @ Swampertite
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rain Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

Okay kids, how tf didnt you pick Mega-Swampert. Mega-Swampert+Doublade is like HO Genius, and as a HO player myself, I frikkin love this core. Lets think of all the annoying things Mega-Swampert despises on a sweep. Cresselia, Bulky Grass Types, physical nukes, crobat, etc etc. Doublade beats all of these, and they can run dual set up. These 2 honestly just plow through the meta's HO counters. (Mainly CM Cresselia, which is everyones ((offense)) answer). What does Mega-Swampert beat that Doublade hates? Fire types. Mega-Swampert also has a tendency to just plow through offensive teams, who call their water answer something like roserade. Mega-Swampert also hits steel types, electric types, fire types, and more which Doublade hates. This may have been a quick post, put seriously try out this core and you will see the power that these 2 bring to a Hyper Offensive Archetype.

 

[LeoLancaster]

Gyarados is mine

 

[LLH]

Reserving Hydreigon

Edit: I am blind lol. Passing this one then. Thanks Mr. Highways

 

[Highways]

Reserving Hydreigon

Eutychios reserved Hydreigon before you :[

Celebi @ Meadow Plate / Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
​

Celebi can defeat most of the Pokémon that Doublade can't even touch, like LO Hydreigon, Crawdaunt, Mandibuzz, Mamoswine, Krookodile, Swampert and Tentacruel. In counterpart, Doublade can defeat dangerous stuff, like Beedrill-Mega, Escavalier, Crobat and Aerodactyl-Mega, it is a very good core overall.

 

[Malin]

Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spa
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Roar / Toxic

Good old defensive Swampert as Doublade partner. They offer great defensive synergy for any team looking for a solid core to build around. Swampert is a glue mon that works well as a fire switchin, that capitalizes on free turns to either put rocks on, EQ the next switch or just Scald for burns. Rack up damage with Roar or Toxic can really help Doublade on the long run too. With those two, you get to free the next slots for almost any mon combination you are looking for to build.

 

[nv]

Sorry I am late, but it is time to vote!

GeniusX
Lord Esche
~Eternally
G-Luke
-Magic-
LittleRunnerXC
Mr. Highways
Malin

Voting ends on Monday.

 

[LRXC]

Mr. Highways....

 

[Highways]

GeniusX

 

[ericaroselia]

GeniusX

 

[G-Luke]

Malin

 

[Sun]

malin, sorry i forgot it o.o

 

[Seo.]

GeniusX

 

[etern]

GeniusX

 

[nv]

With that final vote from ~Eternally, the winner is...GeniusX Congratulations!!!

This week is, you know it, Core Week! I decided to go with a tried and true core that has become a pretty standard offensive core that also forms 2/3 of a FWG core.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Bounce

+

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute / Focus Blast

These two have great offensive synergy with Mega Sceptile serving as the bulky Water killer to allow Gyarados to blow past everything while offering up defensive utility with Gyarados's Ground immunity + Intimidate as well as Mega Sceptile's Electric immunity.

Submissions end on Friday.

 

[Highways]

Reserving Entei

Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz
​

Entei is a nice partner for both Gyarados and Sceptile because it can mainly hand Fairy-Types with ease, so Whimsicott can't annoy both of them and Sylveon can't spam Hyper Voice. Secondly, Entei has the required support to defeat Celebi too. Gyarados and Sceptile can defeat Bulky Waters for Entei. So it is a really nice core.

Edit: Ty nv lol

 

[GeniusX]

reserving heliolisk

 

[Donphantastic]

These pokemon work together to break a majority of the tier, using their strong offensive stats and decent typings to allow them to beat a lot of pokemon. However, they are not enough alone to beat teams. In order for both of these mons to fulfill their purposes, they need entry hazard(s) on the field to break through things. They also need support in the form of a rock resist since mega aero outspeeds and kills both. Gyarados is also not an entei switchin due to fear of being burned. Therefore the one pokemon that I feel would fit best here is non other than:

Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP/ 16 Atk/ 252 Def
-Scald
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock
-Roar

 

[reachzero]

That Gyarados set and Sceptile set create some inherent problems for teambuilding, so it'd probably be a good idea to find a partner that addresses some of the more serious ones, while ideally providing actual synergy for the other two. For instance, the fact that this is SubBounce Gyarados rather than Lum three attacks means that Empoleon with Ice Beam is a big problem. More seriously, using Mega Sceptile means not using Mega Aero, which means we need a bona fide answer to Mega Bee and enemy Mega Sceptile. Additionally, Whimsicott (SubSeed would be the worst) is a full stop to this combo, so they definitely need something to handle it. Defensive Cresselia is a hard stop to this combo. Gyarados is a Water that can't switch into Entei, which means you pretty much must have a second Fire resist. This is in addition to the normal UU teambuilding needs, like having something to into Hydreigon and something to beat enemy Gyarados! At this point, I would probably start over with Celebi instead of Sceptile, but since that isn't the game we're playing, I think the best solution would be with a bulky Steel that resists U-Turn, is not easy set up bait for Forretress, and can actually kill Cresselia--that means Doublade.

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw

I doubt you will see enough Earthquake Snorlax to make Sacred Sword worth it.