Metagame USUM Pure Hackmons

[WindySnivy_]

FRICK I'M LATE I'M LATE GO GO GO PLS DON'T CLOSE SUBMISSIONS
SAMPLE SUBMISSION
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hot psyspam (peaked #1 at 1758 I think with 90 gxe)​

This is probably the second most consistent and most fun team I have ever built. I don't actually have any replays of this team because I am braindead and forgot to save any, and I didn't play in tournaments with the team so I didn't have to reveal it.

As someone who has played Lunala on two different successful teams, I can assure you that Lunala does not suck. It's certainly not the best mon in the format, either, but its Ghost + Psychic typing was great for my team, giving me a good Moongeist STAB paired with Photon STAB. Innards Out allows it to KO almost anything if it's KO'd from full, and Lunalium Z allows it to basically cheat in a 5th move. Speaking of moves, I went with Defog to punish passive plays by removing potential hazards, and Shell Smash to pose as more of an offensive threat while sneakily dropping its defenses and allowing more attacks to OHKO it. A Mild Nature with minimum defenses perfectly complements its offensive Innards playstyle.

Bulky MHound is an amazing (and amazingly underrated) self-Improof and blanket Improof on Psyspam. With Wonder Guard, it only has 4 weaknesses: Water, Ground, Rock, and Fighting, while resisting Ghost and Steel and being immune to Psychic. Evoboost + Recover gives it the longevity it needs to function against Imposter, and Fist Plate Judgment + Photon Geyser ensures opposing Imposters can't get anywhere near it. Timid allows it to outspeed Adamant MMX, Jolly Kart, Modest Arceus, and the very rare Modest MGar.

I got the idea for this set from Anson's newest installment of random deranged HO that wrecks ladder. Lovely Kiss catches Safety Goggles
mons as well as Kart and MScept off guard, which are pretty common nowadays. It also fakes NG, which conditions your opponent to make weird plays. Ring Target Trick is cool because it forces mindgames vs. Dark types and has the added bonus of removing items (as long as you don't Trick a Sash mon). Rocks + Webs supports the HO playstyle well while also counteracting opposing Webs. Naive is nice for outspeeding MMX, MMane, and MGar as well as lowering its annoyingly high SpDef. Speaking of, it's running minimum defensive EVs to allow it to die in one hit to more attacks, which comes up a lot.

Gold's standard Evoboost MMY set. It's a great user of Spore + Evoboost + Double Moldy, with Terrain Extender PsySurge to act as the offensive backbone of the team. Watch out for Imp, though, as a well-played Eviolite Chansey or Shed Shell Blissey can possibly dismantle the team. Timid is great here for the aforementioned Speed benefits.

Photon + LTBTS + Sunsteel + PFists is possibly one of if not the most broken offensive type combinations in USUM PH. It hits every meta-relevant mon extremely hard barring Kart, MHound, and MLix, as well as completely obliterating all stall teams after Innards is removed. Deo-A is used over MMX here for three reasons: It self-Improofs with sash, it outspeeds a ton more mons, and it's indistinguishable from the other Deo-A. Of course, it doesn't put up the same numbers as LOrb Adamant MMX, so I'm running it with PsyTerrain and SSS to boost its damage output. 30 SpA IVs allows it to hit on the physical side with its Psychic moves. Not having min Atk might seem counterintuitive, but the only reason they would be lowering your Attack anyway is because they lived your physical move. Naive allows it and its doppelganger to Improof as long as Sash is active.

MG Deo-A has a really great spot in the meta right now, as it outspeeds MMY, who is the #1 most used mon in the format, as well as countering the many Innards Chansey / Blissey running rampant in the meta. Mind Blown over the usually considered superior Spore allows Deo-A to destroy Primal Kyogre Stall as well as strengthening the MHound Improof. It's Naive for the same reason as the previous Deo-A.

MATCHUP SPREAD (best at the top, worst at the bottom)​

Good Matchups
Stall: The two Deo-A destroy almost all stall teams, and Ring Target Trick MMY poses a huge threat to mons that can withstand the deadly duo.
Balance / BO: Like all other HO teams, this team can rip apart balance with its onslaught of powerful offensive mons.

Decent Matchups
Offense: Similar to balance, except their higher amount of offensive mons can pose a decent threat. Luckily, most offense teams can't outspeed Naive Deo-A.
HO: HO likes to run Webs and NG, which kinda suck if played right. MHound + Double Innards kinda goobs it, though.

Bad Matchups
Uhh STag I guess? I honestly have no idea

IMPROOFING​

Everything is at least loosely improofed by MHound, even MMY. It's a bit annoying if they exhaust your Evoboost PP, but you can always eliminate Imp with Deo-A.

BONUS​

----- Black Magic v2 peak 1769 but that was on top of the sample submission
The 2nd edition of Gold's favorite team out of the teams I've built, if you lead Gren with Kart in the back you can make your MMY disappear. I discovered this in Bullsht's replay of Tseng's hidden MMY. The rest of the team is just standard offense + Prank Kart. The benefit of hiding your MMY is that you can have double the surprise factor with NG and Illusion. Funnily enough, I did get someone to forfeit in front of my game-losing MMY.

 

[hendrit]

VR noms​

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With the gen 7 ladder going there are a few vr noms I want to make with it. I disagree with most placements on the current vr but a lot of the stems from meta development and me being less generous with placements than others, so I don't think it's worth discussing them. There are, however, a few mons I think desperately need to be changed.

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1, Yveltal, B+ - B- ​

I know, its a shock and no one could have predicted this being here. I don't think yveltal is a good pokemon. It consistently underperforms at its roles because of its incredibly sub-par stats. In my opinion, yveltal has 2 sets worth using, being magic guard and support wonder guard. Magic guard is fine, its a pursuit bot with a fissure immunity. Wonder guard is a dark type that avoids being weak to fighting and ground, which is a rare trait. Wonder guard does require quite a bit of support for rocks and sheer cold but it can perform well on some teams.

My problem with these sets is that they're competing with other mons for a team slot, who often need less support due to simply having better stats (such as mega gyarados), or an overall better type such (such as alolan muk).

People also keep trying to make other sets work for yveltal, and they all consistently keep underperforming, largely due to yveltal having pathetic 131 offences and a pitiful 99 speed, making it weaker and slower than most of the meta. It being weak to several common types (such as fairy and ice) certainly doesn't help it either. I genuinely think this is the most overrated mon in the whole meta.

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Mega Gengar, A+ - A/A- ​

I think mega gengar has a few solid sets, such as parental bond and no guard, but they typically share a problem. Most mega gengar struggle into bulky teams. Parental bond is a great anti-offence set, but into fat it devolves into coverage fishing. No guard typically faces problems with every support mon running magic coat at this point, and its other sets often face similar problems. I think gengar can be great, but its weakness into fat teams, as well as pokemon like arceus, hurts its viability enough to not be A+. I personally rate it A- but I also rate nearly every mon at least one subrank below where they are on the current vr.

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Mega Diancie, B+ - A-
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I know I just said that I rank nearly every mon lower than their current placement on the vr, however I am also a diancie glazer. I think diancie is a solid anti-offence mon with its pixilate set. Its main competition is with slaking/regigigas in this role, and while I think they're better mons, I think diancie absolutely has use cases over them.

The first thing diancie does is that its able to actually hit ghosts, meaning it isn't complete fodder into ghost attackers such as, gengar (which despite resisting it still hits pretty hard at -1, with a chance to even kill) and protean mewtwo y, which can be helpful into certain teams. Another thing that diancie has over slaking/regigigas is that its better at abusing wonder guards. Most people will just switch in an innards out or dedicated check to these mons when faced with one, which limits their ability to abuse peoples counterplay other than swapping with them. Diancie on the other hand struggles to hit wonder guards, so people don't usually have an issue bringing them in. This allows diancie to do things like guarantee hazards with rocks/spikes + taunt or catch them off guard with a powerful cfz. It also has a magic guard set which is fine but nothing special.

Another thing diancie has over these mons is its increased ability to run bait sets because of its supposed wonder guard weakness. I don't necessarily think this is better than more standard sets, but catching your opponent off guard with something like a huge power cfz can snowball into winning a difficult matchup.