Metagame USUM Pure Hackmons

[HartetheWooper]

https://pokepast.es/9a0f1eaba7554d7f
How would someone improve this team?

The Magic Bounce MMX is just a lead thats good for psysurge mmy and hazard setters. spec is there as a improof sorta. If imp come in copying a shell smash, either mmx outspeeds and ohkos or loses sash and ohkos. sunsteel is cause sometimes theres alolan muk or something. Not sure if its worth the lack of stab. combat hits arc and slak and karts.

Dazzling mmx is there to kill not only triage ray, but Eyeos' triage ray. spear bypasses sash and kills ray after the turn where mmx shell smashes and ray realizes it cant use owing. spec is for improof. if eyeos sent in the meloetta in that team, i would have had to switch.

hp mmx. i wanted a mmx pumped full of cfzs. it hits stall hard. i won a stall battle in like 13 turns with that mmx. this mmx likes hazards to sash break. mmx vs stall: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2503457955-rygl32ls5v4q83ibc5h3egt71bkrdawpw

blissey. backup improof.

hp slak with sfire instead of fakeout. people send in kart or celesteela against this when sfire isnt revealed. they die.

aerodactyl is a fissure ng. imposter almost always sings, so you send in mb mmx to beat it. who is using fissure on a flying type? double hazards for some reason. mb mmx shell smash sunsteel always ohkos imposter aero

if you take this team, you could probably play it better than me

(edit: it may have been a bad idea to post something right after a new official vr)

 

[Guysmash]

Beedrill-Mega (Huge Power)

How is Beedrill-Mega's only Ability HP when it’s MG set is really cool ? I've never seen HP working but MG can shine in some teams

 

[Rain]

i accidently posted this whilst writing it so im just going to leave it up and edit it later, did it half way throught talking about doublade

I didnt accidentally post this whilst writing. I just cant wait to post this

what this guy did to get in the same tier as the likes of mgar and slaking is beyond me. this guy's main usage with real players comes from magic bounce on stall, and it doesn't really excell at this role it's just that it happens to be on the most popular stall.

usage dont mean much here as the ladder has been pretty bad dont have to explain this one

prankster is mostly a balance exclusive set (which is not at all a good thing considering it is generally considered one of the worst archetypes and is rarely used), and here its role is walling guys you can't rkill, soft checking huge power guys like mmx, and walling special attackers if it gets lucky.

WRONG
who tf said prank is balance exclusive set, prank can absolutely be a good defensive staple on bulky offense to shut down the random anti offense type of setup sweepers(wg kart, gren and arc if you want to). as moldy moves have 3 pps you can simply stall them out.

"prank zygarde forces the whole meta to run suboptimal coverage just to beat it" is also heavily over exagerated and there are mamy ways you can break zygarde whilst also doing other things such as lor, stab fairy, freeze dry, huge power cfzs, ohko moves, set up + priority (e.g. shell smash/evoboost slaking), and ice shard (sure shard wouldn't get usage if zygarde didn't exist but it's still useful for guys like kartana to outrade sash guys).

fairy coverages do get a drop in usage if zygarde never existed as most abusers of those uses photon/moongeist as the moldy move in which fighting would be easily better coverage on most of the other things. freeze dry is absolutely a big cteam on zygarde for its 70 bp is hurting a lot and outside of zygarde it hits like water types, flying types and thats almost it, electric would be so much better here, and 70bp to 100bp is nearly a spec boost (42% more). huge power cfzs and ohko moves do have their job done well against everything ill give it to you, shell smash/evoboost + priority is pretty sus here as you get a +2 speed boost to outspeed shts and priority make it even harder for you to improof, but its more like a fuku on every prank haze users instead of zygarde. no comment on shard

and you didnt even mention zygarde with other abilities for some reason. Ill assume thats because its not listed on the vr, yet still there are some notable sets utilizing its crazy bulk to full potential such as No Guard

yes you guys think its gonna be a meme but no. The combo of no guard+fissure make it possibly the best piece trader in the whole game although thats not really relevant in the meta. With the bulk to tank nearly every hit for at least once, an absolutely strong fight back is very appreciated here. This set can 1v1 far more sets including the bouncers. and by spamming gastro acid you can force out the wonder guards to take hazard damage(not to mention its great cooperation with pbond mgar when you bring tspikes on zygarde). This is just one of the easiest way to demonstrate the more usage of the bulk.

mbro has noticably fallen off recently, you even said this yourself, and yet its ranking doesn't reflect this with it somehow being above guys like steela, ferro and pogre. if i tried to pinpoint a reason for this, i think it'd be because 1. it doesn't fit on offense 2. balance probably prefers the steels for a physical wg because they can pivot on special attackers 3. stall usually prefers innards as opposed to non wg/bounce physical walls, fur coat requires ltbts switch ins which is limiting on the builder, and prankster only soft checks mmx running coverage for it which stal doesn't like because it cannot expect to be positioned correctly (pivot moves being difficult to fit plays a part in this) and 4. it's weak to zap cannon with absolutely no special bulk making up for it. this is always been an issue but u-turn weak is also unfortunate. b+ or something.

yes mbro have fallen off but not like fallen off harder than fuking steela or pogre? ferro might be a bit underrated but those two are absolutely not better than mbro by any means. Seemingly people are stopping to remember the fact that teams like mmx spam with 4 hp ones can absolutely do a great job in the balance era. Anyways mbro truely isn't a great choice as the pure defensive piece in offense, and it do fits on balance but its pretty bad rn, and for 3 I'll have to disagree with you. I do know the fact that you probably play a lot more stalls than me and have massive amount of experience but seemingly you have fell to the trap with the innards spams. Innards is NOT fully reliable on ANY kind of archetype, its not a magic spell that solves all your problem and mguard pursuit can easily ruin your life as you only have a cute little 327 speed, which is even slower than positive nature base 100 speeds as well as the neutral nature base 115 speeds. Mbro absolutely does a good job in defensive cores, easily proofed by usage in stalls and semi stalls around phpl. After phpl semi stalls fall and I still don't think full stall is gonna be a good archetype. 4 you are valuing zap cannon WAAY too high. Uhh I just noticed steela is also in A- what. What are you even aruging mbro and steela in same tier what do you want. wait WHY ARE THEY IN THE SAME TIER RANSEI, HOW IS STEELA JUSTIFIED TO BE A- POKEMON WTF KYORGE IN A- AND AMUK IN B+ WHY

ok kyorge is easily a fraud
252+ Atk Huge Power Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Kyogre-Primal: 178-210 (44 - 51.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
as a special wall it can hardly outclass the eggs and the fact that there is no special huge power make special attacker naturally worse, as well as making special walls less good.

celesteela is tricking people with the numbers
252+ SpA Parental Bond Gengar-Mega Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Celesteela: 214-255 (53.7 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Huge Power Mewtwo-Mega-X Light That Burns the Sky vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Celesteela: 306-361 (76.8 - 90.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Huge Power Mewtwo-Mega-X Photon Geyser vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Celesteela: 153-181 (38.4 - 45.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
not to mention the fact of the existance of vcreate which have great coverage as well as sky high bp that is almost as much as the cfzs.

b+ for hoopa unbound is genuinely wild. the only times i have seen this mon this year are 1400s on ladder, somaroga (who's team is not good and also hasn't been changed in a year), and that one child of night team. this mon by itself is really bad and ths only justificafion for running this guy is improofing. the only way it does anything into offense and ho is if it manages to set up and get hazards up, and against everything else it's coverage fishing and regardless likely does nothing due to some wg tanking a hit from it, clicking a pivot move and either dying because it's u-turn or being forced out/killed by fimp/diancie fake speed. this should be in b or b-.

agreed. as a wg being 4 times weak to uturn hurts too much, and the speed tier is not high enough to get it justified. Btw why is ashgren so low, faster than mmx/mgar and photon/moongeist immunity/resistance really helps a lot. Its so much more than just wg ng and coma, hp mbounce prank are all fitting great on it. it should switch place with gyara.

all i have to say is being slower than mmy really hurts, and some of the qualities its typing brings (rocks resist, bug resist, ghost immune) hardly justify it. on top of being really fast, other ngs have their own positives from their typing (aero fake speed resist and fissure immunity, or sceptile spore immunity). aswell mgar does actually justify being slower than mmy because it can actually use zap cannon, it can bluff scarf pbond threating leads that would beat its ng set, and imo its defensive traits (fake speed immune and tspikes absorb) are preferable to the bunny's. b or b-.

yea aero is better into ho but lopunny is not only a lead, it's rock resistance and moongeist immunity give it massive defensive utility to make it better than aero. Aero have hardly anything more than fake speed immunity and being able to tank the hardest hitting pixilate and aerilate fake speed for short, but it can't be a consistent switch in into stuff for its rock weakness. mgar is 130 spe, not enough as a no guard user. The bluff is not rly big tbh. lop can't be simply replaced in its role.

why is scizor a whole subtier below steela and ferrro? yes steela and ferro bring their own positives (steela's extra special bulk, spikes immunity and fissure immunity, and ferro's spore immunity, slow pivotting and rock resist) but they both bring extra problematic weaknesses (electric and fighting respectively) that often deters me from choosing them in the builder, and imo shouldn't put them a whole subrank above scizor. i don't really care what order they are in because it's probably personal preference but i would like to see scizor move up to a-.

agreed. Scizor should be same tier as ferro at least. steela should be lower

everything other than prankster is complete larp on mlix, and for its specific role i can't remember the last time i've wanted to use it over other similar mons. the only things i could actually expect this thing to do are 1. wall wg kart and sss hp kart (which prank doublade does better because fighting immune, and fighting synergises really well with sss) and 2. soak ltbts from mmx (in which prank doublade actually walls the standard leppa mmx thanks to the fighting immunity rather than just absorbing ltbts). i even prefer registeel to mlix because while yes it doesn't soak mmx ltbts, it makes up for it with a lot more special bulk which actually lets it function as a solid special wall and wall protean mmy which is big, and if you have dark type teamates not soaking ltbts isn't a huge deal. registeel really should of made it onto the vr (especially considering shit like magearna was included) and mlix needs to move down to b or b-.

fur coat and bounce might be larp but the unlisted no guard is sth. It's one of the most reliant physical wall in the game, not to mention your automatic access to priority dbond as a prank user in the worst case. registeel is not fuking justified.

i feel like doublade has been completely misrepresentes here. magic bounce is just question mark, and sturdy is a niche improofing option that has only ever been ran on one team. i don't like fur coat either because it only matters for thousand arrows, and i think things like flash fire and prankster are better. i think flash fire is better because fire is both superior and more common coverage than physical ground, and i think prankster is better because it still soft checks tarrows mmx, with strength sap it can check standard leppa mmx, and it checks sss kart (better than mlix bc fighting immunity). i still think fc is better than sturdy and bounce tho so if you want 3 abilities imo they should be prank, flash fire and fc.

"i feel like doublade has been completely misrepresentes here." no its not. mbounce is sth, sturdy might be a question mark i don't like defensive ng answers anyways, and idk about fc or flash fire but both aren't appealing to me. prank should absolutely be listed. And still no guard.

btw seeing the b tier bros reminds me of a funni team of mine
Doublade (Fur Coat, Magic Bounce, Sturdy)
Giratina-Origin (Innards Out, Harvest)
Greninja-Ash (Wonder Guard, No Guard, Comatose)
https://pokepast.es/99e91eb62fbc939b
its pretty bad the point of it is to be funny

D Rank

Bisharp (Wonder Guard)
Beedrill-Mega (Huge Power)
Darmanitan-Zen (Wonder Guard)
Froslass (Magic Bounce)

Excadrill (Innards Out)

Gardevoir-Mega (Wonder Guard, Magic Guard)
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite (Wonder Guard, Illusion)

Magearna (Wonder Guard)
Mamoswine (Magic Bounce)
Mawile @ Mawilite (Simple)

btw why is mamoswine here wtf, mamoswine serves a niche of blocking a very specific set of no guard being sheer cold+zap cannon which is a good set ill admit but its not justifiable to use a MAMOSWINE to stop them, you don't reliably stop no guard users and because of the fact that they are no guard users you can simply blunder a piece guessing the wrong set and eat a fissure/guillotine(horn drill if you dont want aura) or a photon geyser/sunsteel strike/moongeist beam that will instantly OHKO or 2HKO it. froslass/articuno is good enough for a actual no guard stopper.



im tired ill write the rest later

 

[WindySnivy_]

https://pokepast.es/9a0f1eaba7554d7f
How would someone improve this team?

The Magic Bounce MMX is just a lead thats good for psysurge mmy and hazard setters. spec is there as a improof sorta. If imp come in copying a shell smash, either mmx outspeeds and ohkos or loses sash and ohkos. sunsteel is cause sometimes theres alolan muk or something. Not sure if its worth the lack of stab. combat hits arc and slak and karts.

Dazzling mmx is there to kill not only triage ray, but Eyeos' triage ray. spear bypasses sash and kills ray after the turn where mmx shell smashes and ray realizes it cant use owing. spec is for improof. if eyeos sent in the meloetta in that team, i would have had to switch.

hp mmx. i wanted a mmx pumped full of cfzs. it hits stall hard. i won a stall battle in like 13 turns with that mmx. this mmx likes hazards to sash break. mmx vs stall: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2503457955-rygl32ls5v4q83ibc5h3egt71bkrdawpw

blissey. backup improof.

hp slak with sfire instead of fakeout. people send in kart or celesteela against this when sfire isnt revealed. they die.

aerodactyl is a fissure ng. imposter almost always sings, so you send in mb mmx to beat it. who is using fissure on a flying type? double hazards for some reason. mb mmx shell smash sunsteel always ohkos imposter aero

if you take this team, you could probably play it better than me

(edit: it may have been a bad idea to post something right after a new official vr)

alright, let's see. it's an HO team with a funny name. it looks nice in the teambuilder. the maero and slak sets are really cool. now, read those three things that i just said about the team. what's missing? that's right, mmx. all three mmx sets are too niche to actually function well. cfz spam just does not break stall the way it should. mbounce mmx really only beats spore mmy (and hard hazard setters that aren't mold which suck in this meta), and some of them aren't even running spore anymore. finally, dazzling mmx is just a complete triage mray cteam that doesn't actually help the team much because dazzling mmx is a complete waste of an ability slot that has 0 damage output. also, mray can just spore > moongeist you. (funny calc: 252 Atk Mewtwo-Mega-X Icicle Spear (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Rayquaza-Mega: 348-420 (84 - 101.4%) -- 0.2% chance to OHKO)

i actually don't think triple mmx can work with these teammates as you don't really want to run ng mmx with ng maero, psysurge mmx with fakespeed slak, or mg mmx with innards bliss (which can be improofed with maero if done well but this is the kind of team where you lead maero, maybe take some kos, and die). you could run harvest mmx but it's too frail to actually pull this off.

 

[aidan amoongus]

hi. i like weird mons. im going to yap about niche mons here if u dont mind. credits to the people who created these (not me)


Zapdos @ Shed Shell
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Zap Cannon
- Shore Up
- Spikes
- Anchor Shot

yeah so first we have this motherfucker. i have no idea what he does but he supposedly counters non-moongeist ng mgar. basically the idea is ng mgar usually runs fissure as ohko move of choice to hit alolan muk. this zapdos also is neutral to zap cannon, a common move on ng mgar, and reverse zap cannons because ng always makes BOTH pokemon always hit their moves. it also mbounces tspikes, taunt, and other hazards and stuff. my biggest problem is this is so specifically cteaming a specific set of mgar. mgar can run multiple sets, such as mg, pbond, etc. and you really have to just scout. another thing is stab moongeist fucks you up. supposedly, phcord told me people run zap cannon, tspikes, taunt, fissure on ng mgar??? which is dumb. stab geist really just works. additionally, if they run sheer cold this set does nothing. on paper it doesn't seem half bad, but in practice its kinda dumb

---


Magneton @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Shore Up
- Anchor Shot
- Spectral Thief

this set is hella outdated and i'll go over that in a bit. firstly, this set aims to counter hp kart. hp kart has minimal defensive checks not named innards. (this is assuming the hp kart is hp sss sunsteel ice shard smash, which was popular back then, hence magneton is sorta outdated) iirc they were heatran and magneton and one other im forgetting. magneton quad resists sunsteel and eviolite does make it bulky and anchor and spectral and healing help it stay longer and annoy kart. now this completely folds to a kart with more variety, where the kart trades dual stab for something like vcreate or earthquake?? (hella weak but usable). again this is outdated, but yeah, it sort of works

---


Mamoswine @ Air Balloon
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Careful Nature
- Shore Up
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off / Twineedle
- Thousand Waves

not a believer, sorry. this is just anti ng that every offense beats. it's typing is horrendously bad. this is like articuno but you're electric immune but not fissure immune after balloon pops. the idea is you mbounce hazards, gastro, sing, etc. and you are ng immune (sort of - watch me run horn drill). i dislike it very much, but it works on paper weirdly enough. not much to say, Yourself talked about it in an earlier post go check it out

---



Ninjask @ Focus Sash
Ability: No Guard
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sheer Cold
- Sing
- Entrainment
- Spikes

ninjask is a ng user that is pheromosa with slightly faster speed and web immunity. personally i find it bad, and phero's attacking stats outvalue web immunity and a minimal speed difference. phroom people are telling that this works but uhhhhhh

edit 1 @ 2:32pm est - jask edited

 

[PenultimateToast]

WRONG
who tf said prank is balance exclusive set, prank can absolutely be a good defensive staple on bulky offense to shut down the random anti offense type of setup sweepers(wg kart, gren and arc if you want to). as moldy moves have 3 pps you can simply stall them out.

hard to fit on bulky offense from my experience as i'd rather have something that can more reliably improof my offensive mons, zygod doesn't really hard check anything well enough for me to feel comfortable using it as an improof

fairy coverages do get a drop in usage if zygarde never existed as most abusers of those uses photon/moongeist as the moldy move in which fighting would be easily better coverage on most of the other things.

fairy coverage is still good even without zygod? most of my photon mons have fairy coverage, geist mons i'll give you that but from my experience photon likes fairy a lot of the time, plus sunsteel/geist/fairy is the best coverage combo in the game so :P

freeze dry is absolutely a big cteam on zygarde for its 70 bp is hurting a lot and outside of zygarde it hits like water types, flying types and thats almost it, electric would be so much better here, and 70bp to 100bp is nearly a spec boost (42% more).

freeze dry isn't really a cteam to zygod, sets like sunsteel/geist/freeze dry and mglo freeze dry pdon are still difficult to wall even not considering zygod, sure electric would likely be preferable on sunsteel geist outside of zygod but mg pdon would likely still want freeze dry for swampert, ho-oh is beatable if you can get rocks up (not too difficult of a task) so freeze dry likely still is preferable over volt tackle here

shell smash/evoboost + priority is pretty sus here as you get a +2 speed boost to outspeed shts and priority make it even harder for you to improof

shell smash + prio is still good? you get to sweep much easier unlike without prio, and prio doesn't really make it harder for you to improof (in fact i'd argue it makes it easier to improof cause your coverage is more limited).

and you didnt even mention zygarde with other abilities for some reason. Ill assume thats because its not listed on the vr, yet still there are some notable sets utilizing its crazy bulk to full potential such as No Guard

no guard is mostly just surprise factor, and you can run random ng on practically anything so i don't really think this is something that sets zygod apart from like anything else.

With the bulk to tank nearly every hit for at least once, an absolutely strong fight back is very appreciated here.

fair but i'd rather run random ng on something that can more reliably wall certain mons (e.g. ho-oh for sunsteel/geist/fairy mons) so you can more reliably get the ohko off

and by spamming gastro acid you can force out the wonder guards to take hazard damage

this goes for every ng ever and it doesn't really do this job that well cause you're outsped by multiple wgs

yes mbro have fallen off but not like fallen off harder than fuking steela or pogre?

mbro has gotten noticeably worse than both of these mons? mbro isn't really a reliable switch in to basically anything cause it's weak to so many coverage moves, steela's just okay imo but it's better than mbro cause the wg steel role is more valuable than a 50% chance to wall whatever's in front of you, and pogre has gotten much better as of late with the rise of sunsteel/geist/fairy and just being a nice special/mixed wall

and for 3 I'll have to disagree with you. I do know the fact that you probably play a lot more stalls than me and have massive amount of experience but seemingly you have fell to the trap with the innards spams. Innards is NOT fully reliable on ANY kind of archetype, its not a magic spell that solves all your problem and mguard pursuit can easily ruin your life as you only have a cute little 327 speed, which is even slower than positive nature base 100 speeds as well as the neutral nature base 115 speeds.

innards stall is probably one of the top archetypes as of now, mguard pursuit isn't prevelant enough for that to be too big of an issue (plus innards stall usually runs stuff such as scarf innards or def investment for mguard pursuit anyways). i feel like the success of innards stall teams + the rise of leppa mmx which megabro doesn't like at all both prove yourself's point

Mbro absolutely does a good job in defensive cores, easily proofed by usage in stalls and semi stalls around phpl.

i feel like phpl isn't really a good representation of the meta and from what i can tell in most phpl games mbro didn't even do much :P

4 you are valuing zap cannon WAAY too high.

don't really agree, most ng gars are zap cannon and blocking that is really nice, tbf you don't want to switch mbro into gar but being able to block that is still nice even if that isn't your main role

Uhh I just noticed steela is also in A- what. What are you even aruging mbro and steela in same tier what do you want. wait WHY ARE THEY IN THE SAME TIER RANSEI, HOW IS STEELA JUSTIFIED TO BE A- POKEMON WTF KYORGE IN A- AND AMUK IN B+ WHY

both mbro and the wg steels should probably drop tho mbro should drop to like low b+ maybe high b. wg steels are b+. muk is kinda whatever i don't really like it, b+ is justified

ok kyorge is easily a fraud
252+ Atk Huge Power Kartana Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Kyogre-Primal: 178-210 (44 - 51.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
as a special wall it can hardly outclass the eggs and the fact that there is no special huge power make special attacker naturally worse, as well as making special walls less good.

kyogre isn't trying to wall kartana??? it's a mixed/special wall mainly you shouldn't use it as a primary sunsteel wall. i don't understand why you're comparing the eggs (if you mean wg they're not a mixed wall at all and if you mean innards that's a completely different role so idk why you're even comparing them), and special attackers still demand prep in the builder due to sets like sunsteel/geist/fairy being really hard to wall.

not gonna respond to the rest of the post cause i'm lazy :lickylicky:

 

[PenultimateToast]

ignore double post

​

saw splodge do a christmas team a while back and i figured i might as well. definitely unoptimized even with the christmas restriction but who cares. kinda one note descriptions for most of the mons, a lot of these are pretty standard tho so not much to say really

Xerneas @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Innards Out
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
IVs: 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Shell Smash
- Searing Sunraze Smash
- Moonblast
- Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom
set stolen from aerobee. sunsteel/geist/fairy is broken and xern can run it pretty well (although you don't 2hko zygod with moonblast), aside from that it just does innards stuff. not much to say other than that

Sceptile-Mega @ Focus Sash
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sheer Cold
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Sticky Web
ng lead. what do you want me to say about this


Kyurem-White @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Shell Smash
- Searing Sunraze Smash
- Moongeist Beam
- Freeze-Dry
bounce kyurem that improofs the ng lead wow!!! sss to actually break shit that isn't maud and also kinda selfproof

Sceptile-Mega @ Focus Sash
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fissure
- Guillotine
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
kinda the ng gar but not really. fissure is fissure guillotine is mainly to cteam rando bouncers, tbh it isn't much worse than zap cannon on this kinda set imo, taunt is broken and rocks are rocks. rocks on this guy and not the other sceptile to cteam bounce mamoswine stall better so yourself can't call this mamoswine stall food

Necrozma-Dawn-Wings @ Ultranecrozium Z
Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Shell Smash
- Sunsteel Strike
- Moongeist Beam
- Photon Geyser
set stolen from akira in offense-offensekillerv2 or whatever it was called. iirc you beat imp with unecrozium though i'm not 100% sure? you do beat not-eviolite imp though eviolite imp i don't remember. aside from that triple mold is good (sunsteel is dogshit before ultra burst though it's fine after you ultra burst) and unecrozium is funny and maybe lets you like surprise kart or something sometimes. fits the christmas theme cause unecro is kinda like the lights on a christmas tree, definitely reaching but who cares i don't wanna use some bullshit like xurkitree

Diancie-Mega @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Shell Smash
- Extreme Speed
- Searing Sunraze Smash
- Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom
i think i stole this set from aerobee's teambuilder? can't remember for sure though. more sunsteel/geist/fairy cause it's broken, pixilate is also nice prio. cfz versions of sunsteel and geist cause diancie can't really break that well without them, also cfzs are broken. diancie doesn't really fit the christmas theme but i wanted a good mon and it didn't feel completely out of place

don't really have many replays cause i didn't really feel like playing with this team that much
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2495809531?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2495812530

 

[Child of Night]

The many trials and tribulations of WG sweeper Arceus

Arceus @ Fist Plate
Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shell Smash
- Taunt
- Moongeist Beam
- Judgment
​

This set (Nicknamed Tauntceus) has been one of the most popular WG sweepers for a while now, and it is arguably also the best WG sweeper, but there are a lot of things that hold it back, which I want to explore here.

---

You can't really understand what's wrong with a set if you don't understand what it does, so I'll add a short list here.

1. Selfproofs against Imposter mons (not holding a Fist Plate)
2. Mono Normal typing lets it be a nice improof for certain sets that use Moongeist, and this typing also allows it to switch into certain attackers that may not be able to hit it.
3. After a Shell Smash, Arceus has very good type coverage with Moongeist Beam and Judgment, letting it hit a wide array of Pokemon for at least Neutral damage.
4. Even at 0+ Arceus is pretty fast for the usual WGs, meaning it can Taunt most of them before they can do anything. This lets it avoid being shut down by most phazing and status moves. The one exception to this is Prankster Haze, but most mons that run this set can't really touch it after that initial haze, and have to switch out to get rid of Taunt.
5. Because it is a Normal type (and also because it has WG), its boosts cannot be stolen by Spectral Thief, which is a common anti-sweeper tool used by defensive Pokemon.
6. Arceus' bulk is also decent, meaning it can set up on a decent number of Pokemon without going down instantly.
7. It can block Trick

---

Now that we know what it is supposed to do, let's discuss how it fails and underperforms in a lot of ways.

1. Damage

Sweepers should be able to OHKO most non reists at +2 atk/spa. Arceus does not do that almost ever. Due to the fact that this set does not run any STAB moves, and Arceus' poor offensive stats, it does not OHKO almost any neutral targets (or not even doing half to some), only occasionally getting OHKOs when lading Super Effective attacks.

Tauntceus Damage Calcs

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Rayquaza-Mega: 179-211 (43.2 - 50.9%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Mewtwo-Mega-Y: 316-372 (75.9 - 89.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Mewtwo-Mega-X: 358-422 (86 - 101.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Mewtwo-Mega-X: 358-422 (86 - 101.4%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Fist Plate Arceus Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Arceus: 378-446 (85.1 - 100.4%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Kyogre-Primal: 116-137 (28.7 - 33.9%) -- 99.2% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Celesteela: 177-209 (44.4 - 52.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Fist Plate Arceus Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Chansey: 378-446 (53.6 - 63.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Fist Plate Arceus Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 316-374 (44.2 - 52.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Fist Plate Arceus Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Zygarde-Complete: 221-261 (34.7 - 41%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Fist Plate Arceus Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Slaking: 558-658 (110.7 - 130.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 252+ SpA Fist Plate Arceus Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Regigigas: 402-474 (94.8 - 111.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Fist Plate Arceus Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Gyarados-Mega: 356-420 (90.3 - 106.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Muk-Alola: 81-96 (19.5 - 23.1%) -- 18.5% chance to 4HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Fist Plate Arceus Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Aerodactyl-Mega: 221-261 (60.7 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 148-175 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ SpA Arceus Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Necrozma-Dusk-Mane: 338-398 (84.9 - 100%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

2. Hazards

Due to Tauntceus' meager attacking stats and lack of STAB, it basically forces the team it is used on to have a very reliable hazards setter so it can get certain damage ranges to help it OHKO things. Even then, hazards don't really save it here as it can't even reliably OHKO both the Mega Mewtwo forms after rocks damage. Especially MMY, who has a very small chance of actually dying to Moongeist Beam. MMX despite having lower special bulk, also gives Tauntceus major problems as it resists Stealth Rocks, meaning that it can only OHKO it 50% of the time. For a better OHKO chance, you have to run the much worse Spikes. Of course, a lot of Pokémon that are faster than it also really like to run Focus Sash, which means if you don't run hazards, they could possibly just set up on you and then outspeed you and OHKO you.

3. Breaking Potential

Taunt is used on the set as otherwise it basically has no way of breaking most defensive WGs, but even then, it usually fails. Almost every team now has a good way of dealing with it without having to try all that hard to do so. Normal type WGs not weak to fighting can just run things like Magic Coat + attacking move, Circle Throw, Magic Bounce Haze Zygarde and so on. Usually, the most useful thing Arceus can do against defensive teams is just Taunt the Pokemon coming in and then switch out to something else that can possibly make use of it better, assuming the Pokemon being sent in can block U-turn.

---

So if Tauntceus can't sweep well, and it can't break well, what does it actually do? In my opinion, its best trait is improofing other Pokemon on your team and being a WG not weak to OHKO and a lot of other common moves. That's about it. It probably won't be doing much into most competent teams or players, but this set is still used for its unique qualities for a good reason. It is maybe used a bit *too* much, but that's not really the sets fault, rather the players using it.

Also, I will put a small note here to say that Tauntceus is very good on ladder because a lot of people don't know how to deal with it for whatever reason, but this post was mainly directed at top level play, and not the general game itself.

Here are some Tauntceus replays that I did not check the contents of at all (except for one):

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2490349611
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2488704306?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2490480094-1192qtf9judmer1oau2pnqrwnwdlmwfpw?p2 One of the only games where I got Arceus to actually break stuff, but it had a lot of help doing it.

 

[WindySnivy_]

If you like weird mons, then you'll like...

SAWSBUCK HAZARD STACK
-----
The team peaked 1652 at #7 which is I believe the second highest I have ever gotten with niche mons. (yes i am talking about arat)
​

-----
Mold Breaker hazards are really cool. They let you get hazards up on MBounce, HO's only hazard deterrent except for Defog Innards, which gets blocked by Taunt. MBee does four things better than MMX (the only other mold hazards mon that actually sees usage) in this role: it absorbs TSpikes, it's fast, it has U-turn STAB, and it doesn't die to PBond Scarf MGar Moongeist.

-----
Lunala is like Gira-O but it dies to more things. Plus, low ladders have 0 IQ and love to click Sneak on Innards Ghost- types. Two more good things about Lun are that it blocks Trick and outspeeds more things. It's also the team's only hazard removal. If you're having trouble with HarvSlak, you could replace Defog with Whirlwind to force it out.

-----
Read the above post. It's pretty short and it summarizes this mon well.

-----
The team was originally supposed to be MMY Hazard Stack, because my god does this thing do damage. Photon is MMY's go-to damage dealer that does reliable STAB damage, Moongeist hits all S- mons, Bug Buzz beats Melo and Hoopa-U, and Oceanic Operetta nukes PDon and Ho-Oh in dire situations. PBond Specs MMY is actually extremely underrated, and I personally think it deserves more usage.

-----
Kart, while it might feel kind of slapped-on, is also great with hazards since +2 Kart destroys a lot of things with their Sash broken. I didn't really want to run SSS on this thing because most stall teams now have ways to deal with it, like Heatran and Innards. 136 Speed EVs is the fastest it can go without Imposter sweeping the entire team.

-----
It's the moment you might've been waiting for if you were ever interested in making Sawsbuck work. The set is basically Gold's Prank Kart set with Spikes > Webs and an Adamant nature. However, don't just assume I'm using Sawsbuck as a worse Kart for the memes. Sawsbuck has an actual niche (shocking, I know) of being immune to Ghost and being slow. This matters for several reasons: you can switch in on PBond Scarf MGar if you need to, you can cteam Gold's Prank Kart, you can sort-of self Improof, and you can have a slower SThief. It's also conveniently faster than 136 Speed EVs Kart (who knew)!

Matchup Spread (best at the top, worst at the bottom)​

Good Matchups
Hyper Offense: It's really hard for HO to beat this team as Specs MMY just obliterates everything after their Innards is removed.
Offense: A similar story to HO, except it requires a bit more of playing around their defensive mons.
BO / Balance: Taunt + Hazard Stack is quite good against this teamstyle. It's definitely not easy to beat, though, especially if they have HarvSlak.

Bad Matchups
Stall: It's not unwinnable, but a good Stall player will know how to deal with this team.

In hindsight, maybe I just made a HO cteam. Oh well.

 

[Wyrd]

Ninjask @ Focus Sash
Ability: No Guard
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sheer Cold
- Sing
- Entrainment
- Spikes

ninjask is a ng user that is pheromosa with slightly faster speed and web immunity. personally i find it bad, and phero's attacking stats outvalue web immunity and a minimal speed difference. phroom people are telling that this works but uhhhhhh

edit 1 @ 2:32pm est - jask edited

The Jask! It works and very fun too use, (serious wyrd who doesn’t care about how cool the jask is taking over typing now) the jask is ruined by rocks, and it’s only niche is to wreck phero webs teams. However, this it does better than any other mon (usually 6-0s if u get up spikes and its the no innards version, with a magic guard 6-0 is still possible but more unlikely) but this is literally the only team it does better than maero against, (apart from maybe deo a webs) and is kinda just worse than maero after the use of webs phero has plummeted, with it literally only dealing with the tseng webs deo a spam team. Regular wyrd back now. Praise the jask!
EDIT: Jask should always be 248 hp evs because it means it can switch into rocks twice.

 

[Guysmash]

Yo, I built this (https://pokepast.es/9f689b08e6e33f0d) like one or two weeks ago but almost didn’t use it and since I'm not playing the tier as much as I used to I'm giving it here, do whatever you want with it


Classic NG lead, SheerCold > Fissure for KyuW improof and entraînement > gastro acid because GAcid sucks


MB set to improof MAero, can’t remember what calcs were important with LO but I'm pretty sure they were some. The rest is pretty classic


My fav mon in this meta, the moves are chosen so most counters to the set (WG slak/arc, AMuk...) are weak to a move
These super effective moves don’t do much damage tho, not sure of this set tbf


I like this set so I decided to use it. VTackle > Freeze-Dry cause there's already 2 Ice moves in the team. Can’t be improofed in the team so be careful (only like MPert and PDon resist the coverage, idk for WGs tho)


I realised I had no priority moves, which sucks, si I added this set. Searing Shot and BBuzz for great coverage but could surely be optimized. Spore cause it’s annoying and I like being annoying


Idk why but I wanted to make it a wish passer. Spiky shield cause king’s shield reduces Atk which is just bad. Whirlwind + PShot are the 2 staples I use on Bliss Innards but use what you prefer. Wiki Berry to help the MU against strong special attackers and can heal while wish passing.
Improofs KyuW, MGar and kinda MMY ig.
Be careful tho, it kills the opposing imp for KyuW and MGar so if they are running Imp spam you'e doomed

 

[WindySnivy_]

HOW TO BUILD WINDYSNIVY_ STYLE HO TEAMS
I'm not sure why you'd ever need this
​

There will be two examples provided for each step. Example PokePastes are listed at the bottom.

Step 1: Add a Hazard Setter
Hazards are key on HO teams, since they're one of the best ways to support and onslaught of damage, whether by breaking Sashes or slowing down the opponent.

Example 1
----- Prank Kart is a great hazard setter, since it can easily set Rocks and sacrifice itself when needed.
Example 2
----- Innards Scarf MMY has grown on me lately as a revenge killer, emergency sacrifice, and hazard setter in one package.

Step 2: Add a No Guard
No Guard is a staple of any HO team, allowing the user to plow through unprepared / weakened opponents.
I have a strange habit of putting my NGs in my third slot

Example 1
----- MAero is basically Jask but without the copium.
Example 2
----- Gengar has gained usage lately as a great Taunt + TSpike NG with STab Moongeist and a immunity / resistance to FakeSpeed.

Step 3: Add a Scarfer
The Choice Scarf is one of my favorite items, since it allows quite a few Pokemon to suddenly outspeed things that they shouldn't. This also adds a nice surprise factor to the team.

Example 1
----- Scarf MMX felt great on the first team I hit #1 with, so I also included one here for its damage and speed combination.
Example 2
----- PBond Scarf MGar is an amazing counter to other HO teams, forcing them to reposition out of their attacking pieces, which in turn allows for extra good-old U-turn reads.

Step 4: Add a Setup Sweeper
Setup Sweepers are used in pretty much every Showdown format, as they're basically the win conditions of the team.

Example 1
----- Protean MMY was something I saw on Sussy's wall breaking post that I really enjoyed, due to its amazing move options.
Example 2
----- Since Zygod was falling in popularity, I decided to try Spec Thief Unwallable Kart for a better matchup into opposing setup sweepers.

Step 5: Add an Innards Out
Innards Out is the backbone of HO teams, allowing them to get rid of powerful offensive threats at the push of a button.

Example 1
----- Innards Out Blissey felt right here for its ability to sacrifice itself on Imposter Blissey.
Example 2
----- The same story as the last team, but with a slightly different set.

Step 6: Add anything
(DISCLAIMER: I do not mean literally anything.) I usually like to add either a support or a final attacker that matches well into my team's weaknesses.

Example 1
----- Psysurge MMY felt amazing on this team for the support it provided to the other Mewtwos and Prank Kart.
Example 2
----- Imposter Blissey made way for safer maneuvers around threats and it allowed the team to reverse sweep. Scouting sets was always a nice bonus.

Teams Used
----- three two maero v2 (peak 1802 #1)
----- dual mgar ho (peak 1780 #2)

 

[Child of Night]

Example 1

----- Prank Kart is a great hazard setter, since it can easily set Rocks and sacrifice itself when needed.

I feel like there are much better hazard setters out there, especially when ladder likes to lead with random magic bouncers that kart might not be able to beat. Something faster, with maybe mold, works much better for HO.

 

[WindySnivy_]

I feel like there are much better hazard setters out there, especially when ladder likes to lead with random magic bouncers that kart might not be able to beat. Something faster, with maybe mold, works much better for HO.

the nice thing about kart is that it's really good for role compression since you can use it for hazards and emergency sac depending on the situation, the latter being pretty much absent from mold hazards users is what makes me reluctant to use them. i mean like mbee can dbond on mmy but if it sets up (which is why you dbond in the first place) it's a bit hard to play around.

 

[Rain]

I feel like there are much better hazard setters out there, especially when ladder likes to lead with random magic bouncers that kart might not be able to beat. Something faster, with maybe mold, works much better for HO.

utility prank bond have always been decent but on the other hand its not THAT good, people do used to underrate it but like I said its not that reliable. Kart is not particularly a good user of it outside of the benefit from the spore immunity. Still you can have sub or stuff to prevent those. On the other hand idt its that good as a hazards setter for it surely can set hazards up because you have priority but you dont have enough offensive pressure to stop your opponent from clearing them.

 

[Rain]

DUO DEOA PSYSURGE HO

https://pokepast.es/561886f42876cd39


It started with the scarf hp deoa. I was thinking about how can I actually bait in the impostor and get rid of it permantly. You might know about how I loved defensive atrap users but the main job for it which it actually does good for is to get rid of the impostors for good. But given that defensive plays are inconsistent and annoying especially on ladder where losing feel extra bad, the defensive atrappers don't really find themselves a good reason to be used. So I was thinking how to offensively get rid of the impostors. And by staring at the /ds mod=gen7,weak dark, attack desc, we have our ghost on the very top. After running the calc I immediately started to hate this mon. (252+ Atk Huge Power Deoxys-Attack Photon Geyser vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Mewtwo-Mega-X: 363-427 (87.2 - 102.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock) Yet I decided to save this set from being thrown into the trash can, and psysurge automatically pairs well with deoa. And the team is here.


Deoxys-speed can take control over the game as the lead thank to its speed tier, the only problmatic match up would be against opposing deos, which you have to go for a speed tie and if you lose that you're gonna lose a lot. But luckily deos is not appearing so much, and if you really hate them so much and is confident of your playing skills use mcoat over defog on chansey to counter them.


Deoxys-attack with scarf is the star of the show. This set is absolutely great when paired up with psychic surge. Scared fire is mainly for kart and the neat little 50% burn chance so that I have a chance to break over sash and not let them just come up and setup and sweep. Photon is the spammable stab, no need for explaining this, and uturn is a good neutral click while being a helpful coverage as well.


And now that we have 2 deoxyses, why not add another? The setup deoa is the late game cleaner, as well as an emergency game saver. Shell smash grants a nearly unreachable speed in the tier, thanks to its natural high speed tier, making sure that it can win the speed war when setting up infront of the setted up guys. the rest is pretty simple, huge power +2 light that burns the sky in psychic terrain is something more fun than hp kart sss. Just let the mmy solve the dark types if possible. Sunsteel can still hit a lot of them if needed. The reason huge power is here instead of magic guard is because I don't want it to lose to common prank haze users like zygarde, as well as letting it to be able to do sth without actually setting up, for 150 base speed is still very fast and can get a good bunch of chance of firing.


After that we have the support team. Innards mmy is always one of my favorite sets. Ring target trick are usually referred as a cscl type technique, aka random bullsht that only works when your name is cscl, but I still have some success with it, as long as I'm not on my main and people don't recognize this team. So ring target trick can solve the dark types for the whole team, if not they kill it and get bursted because dark type mguard with pursuit is still a strong thing. this is the best representation of offensive innards, which is forcing your opponments to kill you or you will do great damage to their teams. under psychic terrain this set is even better not only because of the boost to photon and ltbts, but also stopped it from getting huge chip from fake outs so you are garenteed to die in one hit in most cases.


Now its giratina. viewing it back now in 2026 I feel like its pretty awful but the depressing fact is that ts still works. Moongeist is for kart and some psychic types. Uturn is to maintain momentum and break sash which both are despreate needs of the team. shore up and defog are pretty normal. Figy berry can punish those who wanna chip it before killing and use uturn after to bring up its teammates safely when needed.


And finally we have out chansey. This is pretty normal outside of darkium z. dark z pshot is here instead of googgles/shed shell+uturn is becuase letting deos come up twice is not a easy job, and with both of them will lead to the problem of losing momentum into wg(gira have moongeist and offensive stat to threat them) and the fear for trick trapper/uturn imprison trapper. Either way its gonna ruin the team but the latter one is not appearing a lot nowadays, and the former one can be escaped by uturn so not really that big of a problem on ladder. It's not primally a ladder team but with 3 innards and psysurge you can't go too bad anyways.


Common threat list
the dark types will easily be a problem for this team, especially for those who aren't weak to bug. usually you're supposed to use mmy to try to burst them down or trick out your ring targets, but you have only one chance for that and if failed you are gonna have a hard time
although I have been trying pretty hard to counter them by alting evs or movesets, mguard pursuit is still a pretty big problem, especially when they are usually all dark types. try to get to know who should you sac and who can change flip the matchup.
mlix/msableye/mlix+msableye
both are hard to get rid of especially when they have support from innards and each other in the worst case.
prank bond utility sets
I hate and I love this thing. psy terrain sadly can't deny prank hazards, meaning its a bad matchup for deos to have against, not to mention the prank bond is nearly unsolvable for the team. Some people overrate it and some people underrate it but its there and its gonna annoy this team really bad
I think mentioning specifc things it lose to is not really informational or helpful I think that'll be it for now, Ill add things later if needed

 

[PenultimateToast]

some vr noms, originally was gonna do this earlier but decided to wait until the vr got updated first

-> A-
general consensus seems to be this mon's a- or lower and i agree. doesn't really check stuff that well anymore due to cfzs/no guard being more popular and mostly only fits on bulkier non-stall teams which idt are it

-> B+/B
kinda whatever. doesn't check mmx that well due to leppa ltbts being more common and having a ton of weaknesses mean you don't wall stuff all that well. not great and should drop imo

-> B-
this mon is so bad. wg sweeper sets are beyond horrible (fimp weak is awful and you don't have much defensive utility which you really want as a wg sweeper, i do think stuff like akira's scarf mmm hoopa are cool though not great), other sets are okay but not enough to rank it much higher

-> B
mmy victim

-> B+
not better than scizor enough to warrant being an entire subrank above it

-> B
used this guy a fair amount and idt he's that bad. hidden power water with leppa ltbts is honestly quite nice and other sets aren't too bad either, plus you wall most sunsteel/geist mons which is extremely valuable nowadays due to people spamming it. fissure weak/speed issues/slight power issues do hurt, i do think the draws make him justifiable enough though

-> C
4x sunsteel resist and it can't even check kart LMAO this mon is horrible

-> C
ransei's rambled about why he thinks this mon is b before but i really don't think his defenses are that good. the type of improofs pika preys on aren't as common nowadays, and most teams have innards/prio they can throw at pika and due to pika's horrible base hp it's tanking absolutely 0 priority. sash is also very troublesome for pika, even on the ash ketchum team rocks are still avoidable as mmx is slow enough to be exploited pretty easily and the team has multiple mons defoggers can come in on to remove rocks (pika transformed into a passive mon, gren cause he's breaking nothing, mlix, and maud). far too much effort to support and not really worth running over imp chans/bliss

-> UR
literally why is this ranked? when i asked ransei his arguments were "when i fought it it wasn't that bad" and "it doesn't drag the team down unlike most of the mons in d", both of which are very questionable arguments to me. first, just saying "it wasn't that bad when i played against it" isn't enough justification to rank something imo (especially in ph when anything can run anything), for example while something like drapion might do well in game it's straight up outclassed by muk so it shouldn't be ranked, tina has a similar story by being outclassed by tina-o. the second argument of "it doesn't drag the team down unlike d rank mons" is also very questionable to me. innards tina-a is definitely dragging your team down these calcs are sad man

calcs

252 Atk Huge Power Mewtwo-Mega-X Photon Geyser vs. 252 HP / 0- Def 0 IVs Giratina: 466-550 (92.4 - 109.1%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Huge Power Mewtwo-Mega-X Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 0- Def 0 IVs Giratina: 342-403 (67.8 - 79.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 SpA Mewtwo-Mega-Y Photon Geyser vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Giratina: 379-447 (75.1 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 SpA Mewtwo-Mega-Y Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Giratina: 480-566 (95.2 - 112.3%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Parental Bond Gengar-Mega Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Giratina: 466-554 (92.4 - 109.9%) -- 59.4% chance to OHKO
+2 252 Atk Groudon-Primal Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 0- Def 0 IVs Giratina: 299-352 (59.3 - 69.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Diancie-Mega Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Giratina: 342-404 (67.8 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Diancie-Mega Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Giratina: 478-564 (94.8 - 111.9%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

won't put more calcs i'm sure you get the point, this mon is way too tanky for an innards. not sure what reasoning you'd realistically have to use this over another innards mon

-> C/D
ransei likely forgot about this mon when updating the vr and i can see why though he should probably be ranked. like mdoom you beat most sunsteel/geist mons and you have more bulk so you can function as a defensive mon better. unsure if he should go in c or d

-> blacklist
cmon

 

[Child of Night]

In defense of Zeus HO
(RMT)


https://pokepast.es/d8793b63b09f8d7b​

---

Just to clarify before I begin, this team has never been used or was made by Zeus the Ruin, but it was heavily based on many variations of their teams so in honor of that, the teams name is Zeus HO (Hyper Offense).

This "Zues style" of teams has been dunked on for a very long time, but I feel like there is a lot to take away from this team and how it works. By todays standards, it is pretty weird looking, as it has no Innards Out, no hazard removal, no No Guard and no Wonder Guard. Despite all this, it has performed quite well over a long period of time, without really seeing drops in viability. And its viablity is decently high, managing to beat several notable players, such as Eyeos, Lycan, Aidan Amoongus, Guysmash, Resolaris, Splodge, Ptoast, Yourself, lag=bad and more. It has also hit no. 1 on ladder.

---

Groudon-Primal @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 0 SpD
- V-create
- Oceanic Operetta
- Searing Sunraze Smash
- Stealth Rock

Starting off with the usual lead of the team, Pdon has the very important job of setting and preventing hazards, while also hitting hard as hell. It is a Pdon over other common offensive bouncers due to its ability to selfproof with Oceanic Operetta, and having the hardest hitting V create in the game, which is nice to have. This means it can set up rocks while also threatening a lot of offensive (and some defensive) Pokemon, forcing them to choose to either set up, and then tank a massive V Create or SSS, and then probably get R killed by the prio users or 2HKO Pdon (if possible). Naive nature with min spd is its nature as power isn't the sets main focus, and so that it can always OHKO eviolite imp.

Possible replacements for this set

Groudon-Primal @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Sunsteel Strike
- V-create
- Thousand Arrows

Kyurem-Black @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Shell Smash
- Sunsteel Strike
- Freeze-Dry
- Sacred Fire

Heracross-Mega @ Focus Sash
Ability: Parental Bond
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Storm Throw
- First Impression
- Sunsteel Strike
- Spectral Thief

Heracross is the second potential lead since it can OHKO many bug weak mons with a Fimp through Focus Sash. When Heracross isn't a lead, it is the teams primary revenge killer. With STAB Fimp, Storm Throw and strong Spectral Thief, it can revenge kill a lot of offensive Pokemon. Sunsteel is in the back just so it does not get completely walled by popular WGs and gives it a chance to possibly reverse sweep after a spectral boost. Heracross is also the improof to a lot of the mons on this team.



Meloetta @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Genesis Supernova
- Shell Smash
- Boomburst

Meloetta has a lot of roles on the team but it is primarily a revenge killer/reverse sweeper for mons that Heracross can't deal with, such as WG setup sweepers. It can do this due to having Mold Breaker Spectral Thief. Due to there not being any Nomal+Ghost type Pokemon in gen 7, this allows Hera and Melo to Revenge kill basically every mon in the game. Besides this, Meloetta can: break (Boomburst + Genesis), block priority (Genesis), tank special hits, and block Spectral Thief. Melo brings some insane role compression into the team, and even though it started as a Pbond MMY improof, I realized that the set works surprisingly fine on its own. Imposter turning into Melo can be a problem if it sets up Psychic Terrain but it is not unmanegable. Also, to note, Genesis might seem weird to some as half the team has priority moves, but from experience this isn't really an issue. If you feel like it is, feel free to change it to some other CFZ move.



Mewtwo-Mega-X @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Extreme Speed/ Pursuit
- Spectral Thief
- Storm Throw
- Photon Geyser

The teams third revenge killer/reverse sweeper. Yes you heard that right, we are stealing ALL the boosts from the opposing team! Jokes aside, MMX is here in the possibility that hazards go up, or Melo and Hera can't do their jobs for 1 reason or another. Not much else to say except MMX was chosen for STAB Storm Throw and pretty good speed.

Possible replacements for this set

Mewtwo-Mega-X @ Focus Sash
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Photon Geyser
- Sunsteel Strike
- Close Combat

Mewtwo-Mega-Y @ Focus Sash
Ability: Dazzling
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shell Smash
- Moongeist Beam
- Moonblast
- Photon Geyser

MMY is the teams Special Sweeper and much needed priority blocker. MMY is very fast so Dazzling suits it very well, and can cheese out some kills since Dazzling isn't all that common. Moonblast, Mgeist and Photon give MMY decent options for a lot of mons. Not much else to say here, the set is pretty standard. If you will be using the team without a hazard setter, I recommend chaning the ability to Parental Bond as it can sweep a crap load of offensive teams if they don't have priority.




Slaking @ Lum Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Evoboost
- Extreme Speed
- Sacred Fire
- Sunsteel Strike

Slaking is the teams primary Physical sweeper with strong priority STAB Espeed and Sacred Fire for the pesky Steel types. It also acts as one of the teams revenge killers, but that isn't its usual role. Not much else to say, pretty standard set and the only set not really changed from the OG Zeus the Ruin team.

---

In conclusion, I think the team is really cool and works decently well. Cool, because it doesn't comform to the usual style of building HO teams. Of course, it does have some major weaknesses, such as Imposter (if it manages to get in many times), Mold Breaker hazards setters, and possibly Normal type/WG Evoboost Spam.

 

[Electra102]

Regigigas is used over Slaking on this team so MMX and Heracross can kill it easier if Imposer becomes it. Not much else to say, pretty standard set and the set that was least changed from the original Zeus team (only change is Slaking to Regi).

Believe it or not, Imposter turned into Slaking would actually be easier to kill than Imposter turned into Regigigas. Slaking is physically bulkier than Regigigas, but this is due to having much more HP, not base defense (Regigigas actually has base 10 Defense more than Slaking). As for why this matters, Imposter will copy every stat, other than HP, which is how Slaking is normally physically bulkier than Regigigas.

To make this not too short of a post, I wanted to post a few cool sets I’ve found. I don’t really play USUM PH anymore, but maybe someone else will find these interesting.

Meloetta @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 0 Atk
- Extreme Evoboost
- Light That Burns the Sky
- Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom
- Recover

This is probably one of my favorite USUM sets. With this, you get a hard-to-stop special Harvest sweeper that is immune to Spectral Thief (while most other Harvest sweepers are not). You do need to pair this with a Shadow Tag trapper to handle Dark-types (I personally used Beedrill-Mega), but that generally hasn’t been that much of an issue in practice.

Rayquaza-Mega @ Focus Sash / Leppa Berry
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 0 Atk
- Clangorous Soulblaze
- Clanging Scales
- Blue Flare
- Shell Smash

If I had to give you my set for PH All-Stars, this would be mine. It is nearly impossible to improof without a blob (unless you really like Tapu Fini or Altaria-Mega), but as long as you use Clangorous Soulblaze reasonably well (or in other words, don’t waste it on a Fairy-type, although most of them are bad), you should be decently hard to stop. I don’t really have much else to say on this one.

Other thoughts on the metagame​

Not really going to order these

• Audino-Mega is no longer the best Wonder Guard, although I would argue it is probably the best defensive Wonder Guard.​
• Top Wonder Guards right now are probably Kartana and Slaking, maybe Arceus (although I honestly don’t like Arceus that much, due to its flaws).​
• Houndoom-Mega is seriously underrated. Give him a try.​
• PHPL II is going to either be a peak for stall, or will be its demise. I personally think this stall hype will see its end after it fails under true tournament play, but I’m willing to have my mind be changed about stall.​

 

[TheCreatorOfBullsht]

Aight it's my 2nd post now, probably.

Triple Innards + MG Slak(GOAT)

- This team has cooked so many innards spam (Only 27% of the high ladders that have encountered with this team) despite the minor issues that i eventually ran into.


The Gambler @ Lum Berry
Ability: Innards Out
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 0 Def
- Shell Smash
- Photon Geyser
- Sticky Web
- Lovely Kiss

MMY THE GAMBLER The lead of the team, i first thought of this that having an versatile innards is much better (imo.)
PROs: Has an important role to slow down any fast setters and sweepers and status them with sleep as much as possible, while avoiding MGpursuits and MBncers and MCoats. Although while against Impostors, a 50/50 for them to choose either web/sleep to counter back against a faster mon(Maerodactyl)
CONs: Can be overlooked and checked by well-known high ladders, BAD MUs against MGpursuits(goggles) MBncers MCoats on lead.

To your answer: I choose lovely kiss instead of spore cus i like to gamble and yes, for kart and ferro.



The Lamb (F) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Innards Out
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Gentle Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Def
- Defog
- Baton Pass
- Magic Coat
- Shore Up

ORIGINALLY: It was Solgaleo, an offense bulky innards with defog to deal with hazards.


BLISSEY THE LAMB The sacrificial mon for any setup sweepers that you want to eliminate to avoid any further damages.
PROs: Not much to say, a common setup for an innards.
CONs: Having to rely on bliss on what to eliminate, whilst having hazards to deal with, and getting stag and taunted could be annoying. it could also be a waste if left unchecked against MG mons/w pursuit.



The Fool @ Lunalium Z
Ability: Innards Out
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Def
- Shell Smash
- Light That Burns the Sky
- Moongeist Beam
- Stoked Sparksurfer

LUNALA THE FOOL A special sweeper innards while tanking most of the special attacks except ghost/dark moves.
PROs: Cannot be tricked/switch item due to Z-Item while setting up for a counter attack, it can be a really good sweep.
CONs: Can be left unchecked if up against MGs, potentially wasted. Can be walled against most of the WGs and could get predict switch and waste a Zmove.


The Omega @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Sunsteel Strike
- Pursuit
- Extreme Speed

SLAK THE OMEGA A priority revenge killer with STAB normal moves that can easily deal with most of sweepers that can't deal with prior moves.
PROs: With the silk scarf, it can 2HKO any mon with fake+espeed unless its furcoat.
CONs: This mon apparently i didn't know until now, had alot of issues. It can get trapped by any mon that can tank its stab moves, gets walled easily by Steel types, could get left unchecked when dealing with Innards, Pranksters and WGs that has burn status/moves.



The GOAT @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Extreme Evoboost
- Sunsteel Strike
- Recycle
- Recover

SLAKING THE GOAT The Late Game Changer, an absolute menace during the epic fight against Sussy in HPL Week2
Honorable Mention: https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/battle-gen7purehackmons-2422690532-dv509q84jxf22v723yndjuld3jrtxwapw
PROs: Most of the match that i played that have innards in their team would switch while i get boost stats for free, easily sweeping most of the mons.
CONs: Despite being the goat, it has many weaknesses after a lot of matches, it gets forced switched out with whirl/roar/cthrow or gets trapped/stag by a mon with a specific move with Psong/Ssap while tanking with 2x/3x/4x boostats sunsteel. MMX with sash+adamant can one tap Slak with Sacred Sword, and with no hazards on the opponent side, can get you OHKO with NGs+sash and possibly worst luck of all, is getting crit by an Impostor while having boostats 2x/3x/4x...

The Pterror (Aerodactyl-Mega) @ Focus Sash
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sing
- Sheer Cold
- Gastro Acid
- Spikes

ORIGINALLY: I replaced sheer for fissure because it was supposed to be selfproofed for Impostor but then i realized it can't deal with Mrays. (specifically MBnce)

AERO THE PTERROR A versatile NGuard with hazard setup that can be a potential threat to late game.
PROs: With a lot of knowledge and gameplay to the ladders, you can easily setup hazards whilst dealing Gastro Acid to WGs that has defog/mcoat while asleep.
CONs: Can be left unchecked when dealing with BAD MUs against MCoats or Impostor/NG(scarf). Gets walled by Mbncers Ice Types and most WGs.

IN CONCLUSION: After throughout analysis, this team is overall good and decent, even though the majority of the teams weaknesses, can be overlooked now at this point. but nonetheless, here's some notable replays;

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2425699416-ofukd9ey4x1xycr7pbsm11r2f525q01pw
Vs Resolaris

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515925950-0j6g3m3b5qew7fitwutwv39gm76tbmspw
Vs WindSnivy

 

[Rain]

In defense of Zeus HO
(RMT)


https://pokepast.es/d8793b63b09f8d7b​

---

Just to clarify before I begin, this team has never been used or was made by Zeus the Ruin, but it was heavily based on many variations of their teams so in honor of that, the teams name is Zeus HO (Hyper Offense).

This "Zues style" of teams has been dunked on for a very long time, but I feel like there is a lot to take away from this team and how it works. By todays standards, it is pretty weird looking, as it has no Innards Out, no hazard removal, no No Guard and no Wonder Guard. Despite all this, it has performed quite well over a long period of time, without really seeing drops in viability. And its viablity is decently high, managing to beat several notable players, such as Eyeos, Lycan, Aidan Amoongus, Guysmash, Resolaris, Splodge, Ptoast, Yourself, lag=bad and more. It has also hit no. 1 on ladder.

---

Groudon-Primal @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 0 SpD
- V-create
- Oceanic Operetta
- Searing Sunraze Smash
- Stealth Rock

Starting off with the usual lead of the team, Pdon has the very important job of setting and preventing hazards, while also hitting hard as hell. It is a Pdon over other common offensive bouncers due to its ability to selfproof with Oceanic Operetta, and having the hardest hitting V create in the game, which is nice to have. This means it can set up rocks while also threatening a lot of offensive (and some defensive) Pokemon, forcing them to choose to either set up, and then tank a massive V Create or SSS, and then probably get R killed by the prio users or 2HKO Pdon (if possible). Naive nature with min spd is its nature as power isn't the sets main focus, and so that it can always OHKO eviolite imp.

Possible replacements for this set

Groudon-Primal @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Sunsteel Strike
- V-create
- Thousand Arrows

Kyurem-Black @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Shell Smash
- Sunsteel Strike
- Freeze-Dry
- Sacred Fire

Heracross-Mega @ Focus Sash
Ability: Parental Bond
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Storm Throw
- First Impression
- Sunsteel Strike
- Spectral Thief

Heracross is the second potential lead since it can OHKO many bug weak mons with a Fimp through Focus Sash. When Heracross isn't a lead, it is the teams primary revenge killer. With STAB Fimp, Storm Throw and strong Spectral Thief, it can revenge kill a lot of offensive Pokemon. Sunsteel is in the back just so it does not get completely walled by popular WGs and gives it a chance to possibly reverse sweep after a spectral boost. Heracross is also the improof to a lot of the mons on this team.



Meloetta @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Genesis Supernova
- Shell Smash
- Boomburst

Meloetta has a lot of roles on the team but it is primarily a revenge killer/reverse sweeper for mons that Heracross can't deal with, such as WG setup sweepers. It can do this due to having Mold Breaker Spectral Thief. Due to there not being any Nomal+Ghost type Pokemon in gen 7, this allows Hera and Melo to Revenge kill basically every mon in the game. Besides this, Meloetta can: break (Boomburst + Genesis), block priority (Genesis), tank special hits, and block Spectral Thief. Melo brings some insane role compression into the team, and even though it started as a Pbond MMY improof, I realized that the set works surprisingly fine on its own. Imposter turning into Melo can be a problem if it sets up Psychic Terrain but it is not unmanegable. Also, to note, Genesis might seem weird to some as half the team has priority moves, but from experience this isn't really an issue. If you feel like it is, feel free to change it to some other CFZ move.



Mewtwo-Mega-X @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Extreme Speed/ Pursuit
- Spectral Thief
- Storm Throw
- Photon Geyser

The teams third revenge killer/reverse sweeper. Yes you heard that right, we are stealing ALL the boosts from the opposing team! Jokes aside, MMX is here in the possibility that hazards go up, or Melo and Hera can't do their jobs for 1 reason or another. Not much else to say except MMX was chosen for STAB Storm Throw and pretty good speed.

Possible replacements for this set

Mewtwo-Mega-X @ Focus Sash
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Photon Geyser
- Sunsteel Strike
- Close Combat

Mewtwo-Mega-Y @ Focus Sash
Ability: Dazzling
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shell Smash
- Moongeist Beam
- Moonblast
- Photon Geyser

MMY is the teams Special Sweeper and much needed priority blocker. MMY is very fast so Dazzling suits it very well, and can cheese out some kills since Dazzling isn't all that common. Moonblast, Mgeist and Photon give MMY decent options for a lot of mons. Not much else to say here, the set is pretty standard. If you will be using the team without a hazard setter, I recommend chaning the ability to Parental Bond as it can sweep a crap load of offensive teams if they don't have priority.




Regigigas @ Lum Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Evoboost
- Extreme Speed
- Sacred Fire
- Sunsteel Strike

Regigigas is the teams primary Physical sweeper with strong priority STAB Espeed and Sacred Fire for the pesky Steel types. It also acts as one of the teams revenge killers, but that isn't its usual role. Regigias is used over Slaking on this team so MMX and Heracross can kill it easier if Imposer becomes it. Not much else to say, pretty standard set and the set that was least changed from the original Zeus team (only change is Slaking to Regi).

---

In conclusion, I think the team is really cool and works decently well. Cool, because it doesn't comform to the usual style of building HO teams. Of course, it does have some major weaknesses, such as Imposter (if it manages to get in many times), Mold Breaker hazards setters, and possibly Normal type/WG Evoboost Spam.

Notable replays:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2516090568-ofcxtqibh5471gwe441r9bo4jlt4ofmpw?p2 Winning despite the opponent having ways of getting Imp on the field many times.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2516063762 One of the many Eyeos games

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2446520183?p2 Lag=bad game

This team is bad, non of the mons outside of groudon selfproofs and you dont have a single stag rkiller so the impostor can just come in, grab a kill and get away like that.

To make this not too short as a post because I already have too many one liners I'll post some sets I either like or find underrated asw and give quick analysis on them. hopefully most of you guys will hate those.

Greninja-Ash (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- King's Shield
- Spore / Lovely Kiss

Yea I know "holy fuk Anson is posting the random sht sets again" but this time I'll give it to you, that's what I thought when I saw it. But I found it better than it seems to be on the first glance. The moldy move resistances are letting it to be able to find a chance to come in, notably photon immunity, and in the mmy's case you can still use King's shield to scout for coverage moves although it might cause in lose of momentum and I don't think any of the mmy's will try to setup infront of a random greninja that's switching in to it. Magic Bounce also provides great ultiliy and further provides chances for it to switch in. King's shield is primally for lowering the attack of the defensive uturn pivots as well as taking free leftovers heal, and can make it to be able to annoy non setup mmx by alternatively using shield and sub before finally pivoting out with baton pass and let the defensive staggers on the back to sht on it or the setup sweepers to get a free chance to sweep. This can be paired with tspikes and work pretty well.

Pheromosa / Beedrill-Mega @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Sunsteel Strike
- Choose two from U-turn / First Impression / Spore / Lovely Kiss

Yea yea "Anson is now posting another sht mon omg" this is not really popular and easy to fit but it does do sth. Life orb vcreate ohkos mmx for both. Idk what to say this is pretty good into offense and fishy stalls if they should get a mention.

 

[ANinjaDude]

The GOAT @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Extreme Evoboost
- Sunsteel Strike
- Recycle
- Recover

SLAKING THE GOAT The Late Game Changer, an absolute menace during the epic fight against Sussy in HPL Week2
Honorable Mention: https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/battle-gen7purehackmons-2422690532-dv509q84jxf22v723yndjuld3jrtxwapw
PROs: Most of the match that i played that have innards in their team would switch while i get boost stats for free, easily sweeping most of the mons.
CONs: Despite being the goat, it has many weaknesses after a lot of matches, it gets forced switched out with whirl/roar/cthrow or gets trapped/stag by a mon with a specific move with Psong/Ssap while tanking with 2x/3x/4x boostats sunsteel. MMX with sash+adamant can one tap Slak with Sacred Sword, and with no hazards on the opponent side, can get you OHKO with NGs+sash and possibly worst luck of all, is getting crit by an Impostor while having boostats 2x/3x/4x...

Real gamers know that the best MG Slak set is Mind Blown+Sparksurfer+Oceanic+Pursuit smh. Anyways, I do very much appreciate seeing more usage of Slaking that isn't just "oh STAB HP fakespeed" or "oh HarvSlak," because I've seen some people saying that Slaking is only good with HP/Harvest, and all the other sets are much worse, and I cannot tolerate this slander.

 

[Mewtwo's Greatest Soldier]

you know if you're going to make a claim like this you should have actually remembered to add everyone. off the top of my head registeel, lando-t, and zeroara should have been included but there's probably more. also include piloswine for the funnys, you slow pivot and don't really lose much bulk and gloomstalker also topped ladder with it.


conclusion

the fact i was able to say yes this many times about a mon who is ranked in d tier is pretty insane, though mamo could really easily just fall off due to prep so maybe this means nothing. idk why i posted this, this is like the easiest way i could farm wow and haha reactions but anyways bye gas pump emoji.

KIND OF A JOKE GUIDE BUT IT WORKED LUL LMAO LADDER MOMENT

Guide to building ladder topping teams with random shitmon

step one make sure the random shitmon has some semblance of a niche like it beats no guard or harvslak or some other scary guy for stall
step two add a ho oh (good check to random ass) and 2-4 chanseys
step three add some other stuff that beats things you dont beat easily like a sunsteel check other than hooh or a stag guy or your own harvest
step four congratulations! you just peaked ladder with imp+innards spam + shitmon.

Anyways, I'm posting here today to avoid posting a real RMT about the surprisingly good team I recently topped ladder with after the stallers stopped gatekeeping it.

THE TEAM

There are actually two variations of the team, the groudon version and the swampert version. The team peaked rank one with 1714 elo and 88.6 GXE but I don't have access to the screenshots as I'm writing this so you'll have to trust me for now. The record was not extremely impressive, going 49-6 although I did lose multiple games before "finalizing" the team. I was undefeated except for one game versus PenultimateToast past 1500 iirc though.

The team itself is quite simple. I shuffled the mons around for aesthetic, but I started with the gengar after running the basic taunt+tspikes gar, getting annoyed about arceus, and adding focus blast for it and then sludge bomb for Audino-Mega. The only real improofs for this are Meloetta or Yveltal, and I was tired of using Yveltal because I was spamming it quite a lot, so I opted for Meloetta. Melo's set was really easy to figure out, and I now needed a way of killing opposing Meloetta and checking offense so Slaking was an easy add. Fake Out + Extreme Speed annihilates nearly any non-resists that aren't boosted defense and Pursuit not only snipes Melo for Gengar but also breaks sash and heavily damages offensive mons who want to avoid dying to fakespeed. For example, leading Slaking versus Deoxys-Speed allows for either instantly removing it if they dare stay in or nukes it down to sash on the swap. Importantly, Pursuit puts MMX into range of Extreme Speed, meaning it's no longer able to switch in on Slaking and force it out. This can also be used to OHKO innards blobs, as they will rarely be left in to baton pass versus slaking as extreme speed would kill. A Jolly nature ensures that pursuit will always kill chansey even with scarf but makes your revenge killing significantly less reliable- I would not recommend it.

With Slaking, Sashgar and coat Melo providing at least a decent matchup into offense, my weak Balance+Stall matchups needed work. Slaking being available to kill Innards on stall meant that I wanted to opt for an electric type attacker with a decent matchup into Sableye to annihilate CoN stall, and then they told me they were additionally opting for Scizor over Celesteela to beat electric attackers. A huge power mon with Sunsteel, Plasma Fists, and V-Create would provide an amazing matchup into this after innards dies, and Ice Shard for Zygc balance or other random mons like stag rayquaza or chipped attackers would be a good last move. Therefore, I added the Yourself MMX. A second sash mon is good utility into offense, and the stall samples obviously lack options for counterplay. On the groudon version, it can even go Petal Blizzard to occasionally goob Swampert if it's being used as a cteam but missing Ho-Oh is really bad.

I started with Groudon as the MMX improof, giving it Lava Plume to OHKO Kartana or potentially burn it to cheese through sash while also making non-wgs not want to switch in. Stealth rock was another easy choice as the team lacked hazards at this point, and healing + pivoting are extremely standard. Improofing this set would require a bouncer, which I already wanted to preserve sashes, that didn't care about Lava Plume which is a difficult ask due to how powerful Groudon is. Ho-Oh is immune to burn and easily soaks Lava Plume. It received defog, as nothing else could really fit it, circle throw to stop Arceus and generically shuffle things, healing and pivoting.

The team was doing really well until around mid 1600s, when I ran into penultimatetoast loading a bolt strike fissure Kartana that fried my entire defensive core and lost. I then swapped groudon for Swampert without any other modification and proceeded to go undefeated all the way up to rank one.

ANALYSIS OF MUS COMING LATER

I'll start this section now by saying that mmx is a weak matchup that needs you to outplay with slaking or gengar or trade with your own mewtwo. You also struggle with evoboosters or smash steels because your rkillers are gengar (needs sash) mmx (ice shard/needs sash) and fakespeed slaking. Fortunately, most steels are easy because you have a lot of anti-steel utility.


BATTLING THE SAMPLES


mmx spam ho (https://pokepast.es/2e6f87e4bc3ac038): Slaking never ever breaks groudon or swampert barring crit if you just swap in and press healing move until it's pp stalled. If you're max you can risk going for lava plume or an attack but if it attacks there is a very strong chance it 2hkos swampert. It never 2hkos groudon, however. Swampert also walls 2/3 mmx (you die to LTBTS) but groudon only walls 1 (you die to fissure). The no guard is also walled by ho-oh, but good luck preserving ho-oh's HP as you do really need to swap it into deoxys. If hazards aren't up you can use your own mmx to rkill something, gengar to rkill something, and try to pop one of them to innards. Slaking lead is really solid, as no one would leave deoxys in normally. You can then go for pursuit or double to MMX to try to pick off innards. The team lacks swaps for your mmx. You can also double gengar into slaking's fake out or extreme speed and force it out, which threatens to pick up a kill with fissure. Overall it's favorable for you because you can conditionally wall all the mmx except the one that reveals itself, melo is a strong sack to scout the set, slaking and gengar threaten to slaughter everything and your own mmx is either a great trade into anything, a great fake lure for gengar to get in, or a great option to click into innards. If you get outplayed or accidentally sack melo to the wrong thing/the wrong thing to mmx you might just lose though. You also have to outplay around deoxys and innards.

gold ho (https://pokepast.es/38172ec8d2e1bb9d): is a weird matchup, to say the least. Psysurge is really really bad for you because it shuts down slaking but if slaking is actually in on mmy you brutalize it like (political comment here) so it doesn't want to switch in. Lopunny is theoretically really bad but you have bounce and coat wg so it definitely isn't unplayable. It also gets pursuited by slaking pretty efficiently. Innards is a huge bounce victim but it lets in mmx who is a huge threat, so this is another weird matchup. MMX threatens to kill everything but the team is actually pretty used to that so slaking and gengar can both put out a huge threat on it. Neither Kartana is really threatening because you have multiple fast priority users and council took off bond so both pert and pdon nuke them. Overall I'd call the MU even as psysurge + mmx is really bad but you have outs and while psysurge is up they can't remove so it's quite awkward. Psysurge also cannot go up versus slaking as although you may not die you will take a lot of damage and struggle to just attack as melo is also annoying. People also consistently spore into berry as Ransei popularized leppa evoboost which is a really bad fakespeed set (you don't break sunsteel walls, and you mostly just force innards/sash + ng versus offense; fakespeed setup is so fake.)

Aerobee HO (https://pokepast.es/41aaa410ec71be40): Requires outplay but this is a really strong matchup. Ho-Oh should be able to beat gengar if you're healing berry and don't get haxxed too hard, or if you just don't get haxxed at all if you aren't. Slaking forces vile 50/50s with every member of the team and also has this silly thing where it 1v1s every mon on the team. Ho-Oh beats almost everything, actually. MMX can be a good sack to Giratina, or you can try to outplay their Z-moves with swampert + melo. Melo beats kyurem and mmy. There is no swap for mmx except Arceus (who you heavily damage with sunsteel anyways). The game can be a little bit of a tossup if they play really well (so if they're aerobee) but the matchup is really weighted in your favor thanks to having a grounded poison, loads of prio, fissure, and Child of Night 's goat BIG BIRB.

Pikachu (https://pokepast.es/607542bade1f8a78): Why is this still samples real talk... This should be the rare good matchup for the team so let me teach you how to butterfly and rectify it. Gengar can beat everything on the team except for Greninja who outspeeds and breaks the sash you so desperately need. Moldy mmx can only do one thing out of either get rocks or break your sash because it's a bad lead. Click sludge bomb or focus blast versus it turn two to try and catch Greninja or Audino coming in- It's usually audino if they broke your sash and greninja if they got rocks, sometimes they just sack it though. Gengar is a great utility piece in the matchup because it is a roll for 2 hit +2 icicle spear to kill and mmx needs a 4hit for that roll without boost. Slaking should be clicking pursuit versus unboosted, as it always wants to go to steelix. Ho-Oh can be sacked to click circle throw to maybe deny setup once you no longer need to remove as Greninja isn't really a threat even at +2 if mmx has sash. Get ho-oh in versus steelix if you can to click defog. Pikachu cannot break groudon with either sunsteel mon but threatens to break swampert with both. It needs mmx sash broken though, and needs to outplay slaking but threatens to kill it with pursuit. Generally, gengar lead leaves them on the back foot enough that you can remove rocks, click off a Z-Shot to heal things up, and outplay pikachu with pursuit. You are softproofed balance without a good steel prank or innards, so the matchup is only even as you can both deal heavy damage with certain breakers- but can be dominant easily if you outplay. Going for V-create to ohko their mmx is always a funny moment if you win speed tie. Tailwind is always a momentum sink, just don't kill steelix with offensive guys and get in hooh or melo or swampert to click your utility.

Diamancie Revamped (https://pokepast.es/9369a50fd0e3775e): Suspiciously close to a free 6/0 with the only thing holding you back being the fact that MMX is a garbage matchup. The counterpoint is look at your own mmx. Gengar is a fraud because they have melo who is your improof so rely on it as an occasionally sack to mmx's click right up until you double slaking into melo and demolish it with pursuit. After that v-create mmx is a free click and the game basically ends. Outplay their mmx with pursuit and fakespeed as well and the game will quickly swing in your favor. Just keep up momentum and don't give them a second free and you easily halt Diancie''s progress and instantly win once the mewtwo dies.

Stag Gyara Stall (https://pokepast.es/f23859ee81b76c77) lol they forfeit on preview look at ur mmx and look at their 6. Not only does shed shell ho-oh stop them from burning or setting any hazard ever but you also just have perfect coverage and they don't have a single innards. Tspikes would be really terrifying if there wasn't a gengar... You can maybe lose to getting stagged on Swampert and then taunted and pp stalled but guess what! they can't stop ho-oh from slow pivoting out of their gyarados so they can't even try to stag swampert unless they get innards in versus mmx which also requires mmx having been in and since it's easy to slow pivot in... you get the point. The matchup is really dominant although technically losable to pert getting stagged. Try to only bring in mewtwo when it's going to score kills and maybe try to outplay stag swapping in if you still have sash active versus imp and you win.

Kyogre Stall (https://pokepast.es/8424993b9a3f5643) This is like the same thing but instead of needing to play around stag you need to play around one singular innards. This means that you need to go hard slaking and outplay the baton/hardswap (it has in my experience always been hardswap) and then Mewtwo kills everything plus ho-oh walls all the hazards ever and you post "nothing ever happens" for 50 turns and then Zygarde gets chipped for about 40% and now mewtwo has no walls and ice shard eats the entire team. Aromatherapy lasts for a very short time relative to how many lava plumes and self-toxics you may have to eat, and ho-oh's health is hardly in risk if you come in to click defog unless kyogre is doubled. Rocks never even go up, so that isn't a concern.

LOADS OF REPLAYS + SHORT ANALYSIS COMING LATER

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515317265 versus Binderpaper's Kyuw+Raticate+Nihilego offense,1567 elo. They lack switchins for gengar as Focus Blast OHKOs Raticate-Alolan and Fissure OHKOs both Nihelego and Kyurem-White. I avoid Nihelego baiting with innards, survive Kyurem's moongiest with sash and gengar sweeps the team.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515384138-j1xh6khdnfuv6j19hr0eyf60jjk67cnpw versus Dessembered's innards zygc+marshededinja balance, 1281 elo. Ho-Oh+Maud bounce back spite and toxic spam and Gengar kills Ultra Necrozma and threatens to clean the rest of the team. They forfeit after Toxic is bounced onto zygarde.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515389787-0880r0eqdvrtr1lyr2nvopknb98lpojpw versus Cresujist's Stag Arc and Tina + NG Deos offense, 1459 elo. Slaking's Fakespeed avoids getting locked into a move before being tricked a scarf, and sunsteel threatens to kill Giratina before it can get up more than one spike. Ho-Oh gets caught by the fissure+sheer cold deoxys before coat melo blocks sleep and forces it out. Both Melo and Swampert are toxicked by muk, but rocks go up and muk gets hit with parting shot so I risk leaving in Gengar to moongiest and pop balloon to OHKO it with fissure. Gengar then would clean up the team but they forfeit before it happens.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515396747 Versus sussymonkey300's dual deos + triple arc offense, 1339 elo. I misplay around a spore + max hazards Arceus, assuming it would swap and giving it max layers. I then switch around a bit and get in Ho-Oh, who bounces back spore and defogs. NG arceus comes in but gets circle thrown and I clean up the Arcs with gengar before Comaphase deos is revealed and is incapable of winning due to hazards being removed. They forfeit before slaking or mmx can win.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515407820-b4t3lrlbyc9o0w8f9992c6mrtdx15ikpw versus Captainaustria's quadruple shuckle balance, 1294 elo. MMX threatens an OHKO on even max bulk shuckle, meaning it can clean up the entire game. They forfeit after the first KO.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515400270 versus Plaguey Platypus's houndoom + ng deos + traige ray HO, 1440 elo. I eliminate MMX with slaking, go into ho-oh to block fissure from deos, and after some pivoting kill Houndoom with gengar's fissure. Melo and Ho-Oh combine to force out Rayquaza and bounce rocks onto their side, eventually landing circle throw on slaking for some minor chip, walling it with swampert, and removing it and Giratina with Gengar. With Rayquaza and Deoxys hardwalled by Meloetta and Ho-Oh respectively, they forfeit.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515414520 versus LegitamatePotato loading outdated Ransei balance but with melo, 1436 elo. Reminds me of a sample, actually... Anyways, MMX is an unwallable threat and they have enough of a core to fall back on that Slaking can't reliably out-offense. Slaking picks off Necrozma early and I sack gengar's sash to force out MMX. I then get goobed by melo being sap, rocks, defog, and uturn all at once meaning it's not possible to pursuit trap, it forces in ho-oh, it removes my hazards, and can go out to MMX on ho-oh reliably. I end up forced to sack the useless Gengar and outplay the MMX, clicking Fake Out for chip as it reads pursuit. I unfortunately do not pursuit and instead go for extreme speed, landing minor chip on the Zygarde. After some pivoting, mmx gets hit with Circle Throw, leaving it in in 100% kill range from Extreme Speed. Mewtwo gets in again and I choke and sack Swampert instead of Meloetta. Slaking gets fried and doesn't pursuit again, and I switch around until Greninja enters and forces chip on melo. MMX gets in and heavily damages zygarde, but I get forced out again by Greninja and then end up clicking sunsteel as zygarde heals. Fortunately, I crit Greninja with Ice Shard leaving it in range of Slaking. Mewtwo scores a massive 75% on Melo as I read it to u-turn, and Chansey enters and reads the Ho-Oh swap with Plasma Fists. I get in my own melo versus the choice-locked Imposter, and Z-Parting shot restores Mewtwo's sash and it kills Zygarde with Ice Shard. I trade V-create for Sunsteel vs imposter, get some chip with Ice Shard before going down, and they sack imposter to Slaking Fake Out presumably reading it to Pursuit. Fortunately, everything is in range of Slaking and slower at this point, so it cleans up the game with a Sunsteel and some extreme speeds. Easily the most challenging game of these despite the team being really old due to lacking innards or any mmx check.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2514629004 versus BinderPaper's ScarfDon + Recycle Leppa MMX Offense, 1529 elo. Gengar goes to sash t1 to fissure pdon and then dies to Maud's U-turn turn 2 for 62% sludge bomb chip. MMX comes in and I choke predicting it to swap out of slaking and die instantly to SSS while pursuiting. Groudon forces it out and lands a Lava Plume on Doublade, dealing over 80% and crippling it for the rest of the game. I get rocks as gyarados enters and baton pass out as it defogs, letting in MMX who kills it instantly with pfists. I go into Groudon on MMX Let's Snuggle Forever and baton pass out to melo on NDW and parting shot out as maud enters, bringing in MMX to sunsteel and kill it. Doublade is sacked to v-create right after and MMX reveals sss+recycle as Groudon forces it out with Lava Plume. NDW enters again but I bring in meloetta and start spamming spectral thief to chip down MMX and get 60% chip on Necrozma. Groudon should comfortably wall it, but a crit SSS leaves me low enough that I have to go into Ho-Oh and heal, giving Necrozma free entry to greed up a smash and then get 40% chip on Meloetta as spectral kills. Mewtwo tries to Recycle to get through Groudon but another spectral thief ends the game.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2514696179 versus PenultimateToast's Dual Regigigas + Stag Dialga offense, 1680 elo. Ptoast's Kartana has bolt strike + fissure meaning it can break my entire defensive core. I lead Gengar versus Regigigas and land two moongiests into Kyurem-White, taking 65% from innards. Swampert scares Gengar out and Circle Throw crits for a third of Dialga's health, bringing in Regigigas. Regi doubles to swampert on my Baton Pass to MMX, who I have recently updated with Petal Blizzard to cteam ptoast after I saw them laddering this and lost. Cry about it. MMX OHKOs swampert cleanly and tanks Dialga's MMM on sash, killing it as well with V-create. It finally lands ice shard versus Regigigas, dealing a quarter of it's health and goes down to Pursuit. Gengar comes back in as Ptoast copes and seethes in chat, killing Regigigas with Fissure. Kartana comes in and lands bolt strike on Ho-Oh, killing it even through Wiki Berry. Slaking crits fake out versus it, and I double into Meloetta on the expected Fissure but instead Regigigas enters. Melo would likely die to an attack, but if Regigigas chooses to set up I may lose. However, I instead used Z-Parting shot, allowing me to restore Gengar's broken sash and rkill the Regigigas with Fissure. Ptoast forfeits before Gengar can kill kartana, malding so hard in chat they forget what year it is.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2514726731 Versus Dessembered's Blaziken-Mega + Mold Unecro Offense, 1356 elo. Slaking kills Blaziken early and swaps out as Unecro presses Clangorus Soulblaze twice and kills meloetta. Gengar comes in to revenge kill with sash fissure before swapping out of Sableye-Mega's spectral thief. Ho-Oh uses heal order as Zygarde comes in and clicks toxic, which gets bounced back. It baton passes to Gengar and comes back to bounce a tspike and circle throw Steelix out to Shedinja as it enters, killing Shedinja
and causing Dessembered to forfeit.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7purehackmons-2515325319-5opq7p7fjd3ibxa99fdip3t63rtf3kdpw Versus AbsoluteBullsht's triage ray + diancie + slaking priospam HO, 1518 elo. Slaking leads versus Deos and lands pursuit as it goes to innards, forcing it down to sash. It goes out to Ho-Oh, who gets tricked innard's scarf, and Bullsht goes hard out to slaking on ho-oh's baton pass to Gengar. Gengar's fissure flubs into Mega Rayquaza, who clicks Owing on the Melo swap and goes into innards on my penultimateshot. I trade mmx for innards and go swampert on the slaking, easily getting rocks and baton passing into Gengar who kills it with Fissure, costing sash in the process. Deoxys comes back in and dies to rocks before Rayquaza enters and reveals Leech Life, dealing massive damage to Meloetta. I try to sack gengar but Bullsht goes for a tail glow, forcing me into Ho-Oh to circle throw it out. With Ho-Oh at 32 percent, I wall Diancie with Swampert and land a lava plume on Rayquaza as it goes for tail glow. Rayquaza is threatening to sweep my entire team but I double around it to pp stall moongiest beam. Swampert survives a 50/50 roll to land Lava Plume on Rayquaza and I barely manage to chip it enough that it dies to it's own life orb recoil taking out Ho-Oh and Swampert. Meloetta blocks trick from Gengar although strictly speaking getting tricked was fine as Sunsteel would win. Melo parting shots out, lowering Diancie's attacking stats so Slaking can force it out with Sunsteel Strike. Even with it's stats reset, Diancie wouldn't be capable of KOing Slaking so Bullsht forfeits after sacking Gengar. The game was very close and could have easily gone differently if Swampert didn't survive the attack, although considering I failed a few reads and got teched for by leech life it's definitely quite impressive that I managed to clutch the game anyways.

more replays when I find where I saved them


RANDOM DUMP MAYBE COMING LATER

please update samples half the teams are outdated (diamancie) and the other teams were never good (pikachu) there's like one good sample rn.

 

[ANinjaDude]

I would like to second the call for updated samples, because a lot of them are shit.

MMX Spam: Nothing inherently wrong with this, but currently there's just too much stuff thats prepped for mmx spam, so the team just isn't good rn.

Gold's team: Decent team, but you get a 30% debuff if you aren't Gold, because you don't have godlike sleep RNG.

Aerobee Kyu-W: Don't have anything really on this, but I personally don't vibe with it and can't explain why. If I had to guess, it's probably because your only way to stop opposing offense is Innards Tina.

Ash Offense: This team is fundamentally flawed and unredeemable. This should never have been a sample, but was made one because it was made by Ransei and because "it'll bring in new players," ignoring that the average new player that would be enticed to play probably doesn't know the sample team thread exists. There is no reason for this team to be a sample, other than the equivalent of nepotism for teams.

Diamancie: Just straight not good in the current meta. Your only threatening mon is a banded MMX, so it will either get innards sacked on, or pursuit trapped, etc. After that, any Sunsteel resistant WG prevents Dia from making any progress ever, and your defensive core doesn't have the capability to force progress either.

Both stalls: I don't think that stall should be a ph sample in general, because it is primarily built around just countering whatever is most popular at the moment, and is just not the sort of thing that a new player is going to be good at.

 

[Yeetoos]

utility prank bond have always been decent but on the other hand its not THAT good, people do used to underrate it but like I said its not that reliable. Kart is not particularly a good user of it outside of the benefit from the spore immunity. Still you can have sub or stuff to prevent those. On the other hand idt its that good as a hazards setter for it surely can set hazards up because you have priority but you dont have enough offensive pressure to stop your opponent from clearing them.

I feel as if the best utility prankbonder is Goggles Mlop, being immune to 1/3 moldy moves and spore is too valuable to say no to (i see why gold uses it for ng) while I can see kart being good (spore immunity without needing an item thus leaving room for sash) mlop is just so good.