~~
UU MONOTYPE CHALLENGE WEEK 4 - POISON
~~
Hello again ^.^ I'm a little late on this entry, so sorry about that. Silly IRL stuff tsk.
This week was really, really fun once again. I had a lot of help making this team, especially from the lovely ScarfedGaryBusey and CoolStoryBrobat. I had lots of people ask me about the next week and really take interest in what I'm doing, and I just wanted to thank you guys all again for being awesome and supportive and making this series really fun to do. <3
Anyway, soppy blather aside, this week went pretty well. It was no Week 2, but it certainly rose above the average and managed to score a pretty good final W/L.
(P.S. At this point, you should have all seen previous weeks of this challenge. If not, here's a link to Week 1 so you understand what the fuck I'm talking about. http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3483413)
The Stats (zzz ;)
This teambuilding process was actually fairly long. At certain times, I completely scrapped entire teams for other teams (the shit I do for you guys ;)) because I just didn't like the entire playstyle. I had a very early iteration of this monotype in some very, very, prelim testing, but I forgot it so I'm going to have to start with the earliest one I can remember.
The first thing I started with was a staple in many of my normal teams and a poke I knew could perform well. I decided to make an HO style team so I started off with a banded Brobat.
Brobat needed a partner to cover his electric weakness, as well as someone to set up hazards for him, so I added a Nidoqueen.
Offensive Roserade came next, providing me with sleep support as well as some beastly coverage.
I lacked some bulk, so I put in a spiker Qwilfish for some more utility.
Wild Card time. I really had no idea where to go for a Wild Card, so I just did the most logical thing. I knew that the two weaknesses that Poison had were Psychic and Ground (Kitten knows his typing chart, give 'em a gold star). Therefore, I opted for a Honchkrow to absorb both of those weaknesses and give me a little boost in physical firepower.
At this point, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I'd gotten through 5 pokes and I was comfortable and experienced with using all of them. I had absolutely no idea what to put in the last slot, so I opted for something that looked like shit but I'd heard was okay - SD Drapion.
Yeah, don't use Drapion. Like, ever. It's sort of the poison equivalent to Altaria. After being underwhelmed by that and going through a bunch of bad options (Amoonguss, Muk), someone kindly informed me that Nidoking and Nidoqueen aren't actually the same species. WHO KNEW. (facepalm) Sooo I added a scarfed Nidoking, which wasn't that great but was the best thing I could get.
I played with this team for quite a while, getting a bit under a 2.0 W/L with around 60 battles, but I really just wasn't happy with it. I went to Brobat and SGB for help, and they suggested that I either revamp the whole team, or try a Venomoth.
I tried Venomoth for a couple of battles, but it just wasn't doing so hot. It was then that I decided to just go to the completely other side of the spectrum and go for a stall team.
A lot of the Pokemon could just be adapted to stall by giving them Sludge and changing their moves around a bit. I started with Stallbreaker Crobat, Defensive Phazoqueen with Rocks, SpD Roserade, and Defensive Qwilfish.
To fill the new wild card slot, I tried out a BU Scrafty, a pokemon that I quickly began to love and which became my main win condition for the team.
I rounded out the sixth slot with another hidden gem from the tiers down under - Skuntank. Skuntank helped me by trapping things like Victini and Chandelure with its awesome Pursuit/Sucker Punch shenanigans, as well as to give me some more bulk and make things die with aftermath. It also had some phazing capabilities.
Although the team was doing okay, it just wasn't strong enough as a bulky stall team and was too easily worn down, and couldn't do much in return. I decided to just add some offense by switching EVs and movesets around, and ended up with the following, and best iteration of the poison monotype team I could create.
Importable:
~~Pleasure Kitten/Kitten Milk <3
UU MONOTYPE CHALLENGE WEEK 4 - POISON
~~
Hello again ^.^ I'm a little late on this entry, so sorry about that. Silly IRL stuff tsk.
This week was really, really fun once again. I had a lot of help making this team, especially from the lovely ScarfedGaryBusey and CoolStoryBrobat. I had lots of people ask me about the next week and really take interest in what I'm doing, and I just wanted to thank you guys all again for being awesome and supportive and making this series really fun to do. <3
Anyway, soppy blather aside, this week went pretty well. It was no Week 2, but it certainly rose above the average and managed to score a pretty good final W/L.
(P.S. At this point, you should have all seen previous weeks of this challenge. If not, here's a link to Week 1 so you understand what the fuck I'm talking about. http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3483413)
The Stats (zzz ;)
Alt: Kitten Poison 10 (lots and lots of iterations)
Overall W/L: 71/29
W/L Ratio: 2.45 = Pretty Good :)
ACRE: 1772
GXE: 79
Glicko2: 1838±47
Average W/L Ratio: 2.81
Average ACRE: 1774
Average Glicko2: 1822±46
Current "best" Monotype: Bug
Total W/L Ratio: 291.5/110.5
Challenge Percent Complete = 23.5%
Overall W/L: 71/29
W/L Ratio: 2.45 = Pretty Good :)
ACRE: 1772
GXE: 79
Glicko2: 1838±47
Average W/L Ratio: 2.81
Average ACRE: 1774
Average Glicko2: 1822±46
Current "best" Monotype: Bug
Total W/L Ratio: 291.5/110.5
Challenge Percent Complete = 23.5%
The Meat
~~Teambuilding Process~~
This teambuilding process was actually fairly long. At certain times, I completely scrapped entire teams for other teams (the shit I do for you guys ;)) because I just didn't like the entire playstyle. I had a very early iteration of this monotype in some very, very, prelim testing, but I forgot it so I'm going to have to start with the earliest one I can remember.
The first thing I started with was a staple in many of my normal teams and a poke I knew could perform well. I decided to make an HO style team so I started off with a banded Brobat.
Brobat needed a partner to cover his electric weakness, as well as someone to set up hazards for him, so I added a Nidoqueen.
Offensive Roserade came next, providing me with sleep support as well as some beastly coverage.
I lacked some bulk, so I put in a spiker Qwilfish for some more utility.
Wild Card time. I really had no idea where to go for a Wild Card, so I just did the most logical thing. I knew that the two weaknesses that Poison had were Psychic and Ground (Kitten knows his typing chart, give 'em a gold star). Therefore, I opted for a Honchkrow to absorb both of those weaknesses and give me a little boost in physical firepower.
At this point, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I'd gotten through 5 pokes and I was comfortable and experienced with using all of them. I had absolutely no idea what to put in the last slot, so I opted for something that looked like shit but I'd heard was okay - SD Drapion.
Yeah, don't use Drapion. Like, ever. It's sort of the poison equivalent to Altaria. After being underwhelmed by that and going through a bunch of bad options (Amoonguss, Muk), someone kindly informed me that Nidoking and Nidoqueen aren't actually the same species. WHO KNEW. (facepalm) Sooo I added a scarfed Nidoking, which wasn't that great but was the best thing I could get.
I played with this team for quite a while, getting a bit under a 2.0 W/L with around 60 battles, but I really just wasn't happy with it. I went to Brobat and SGB for help, and they suggested that I either revamp the whole team, or try a Venomoth.
I tried Venomoth for a couple of battles, but it just wasn't doing so hot. It was then that I decided to just go to the completely other side of the spectrum and go for a stall team.
A lot of the Pokemon could just be adapted to stall by giving them Sludge and changing their moves around a bit. I started with Stallbreaker Crobat, Defensive Phazoqueen with Rocks, SpD Roserade, and Defensive Qwilfish.
To fill the new wild card slot, I tried out a BU Scrafty, a pokemon that I quickly began to love and which became my main win condition for the team.
I rounded out the sixth slot with another hidden gem from the tiers down under - Skuntank. Skuntank helped me by trapping things like Victini and Chandelure with its awesome Pursuit/Sucker Punch shenanigans, as well as to give me some more bulk and make things die with aftermath. It also had some phazing capabilities.
Although the team was doing okay, it just wasn't strong enough as a bulky stall team and was too easily worn down, and couldn't do much in return. I decided to just add some offense by switching EVs and movesets around, and ended up with the following, and best iteration of the poison monotype team I could create.
Team Analysis
For your listening pleasure: I decided to add some song lyrics throughout this part of the RMT because I really like this song and I love gimmicky RMTs so yeah >.>. It's deep if you think about it, so there's that too. Here's the song
And the obligatory dubstep version ^_^'
Enjoy ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
=
♪♪They didn't warn me
when I was running wild
the dragons breathing fire
in the backyard at night♪♪
Eagle4 for President - Crobat @ Black Sludge (An awesome 10 of you voted for poison, so I unfortunately have to mesh all of your names together ^.^")
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 172 HP/192 Atk/144 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bat
- Taunt
- U-turn
- Roost
You may have noticed that our little flappy friend was in every single step of the teambuilding process. That's because Crobat is an absolute monster in UU, and in the restrictions of a Poison mono he is no exception. Primarily, he is an extremely fast poke that helps compensate for the lack of speed from most of the poison type pokemon. Although his amazing resistances to fighting and grass aren't as useful given that I have 4 other poison types (._.), he's still an awesome all around poke. It's basically a standard stallbreaker set with a little bit of speed creeping to win out against other Crobats, which my team can have a somewhat hard time dealing with otherwise. The moves are pretty standard too, with U-turn taking precedence over Toxic because it's not the only thing on the team that can poison things :P. Roost, Taunt, and Brave Bat are for reliable recovery, preventing hazards and status, and fucking shit up, respectively.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
=
♪♪we live in circles
and its so hard to breathe
maybe the same old fears, what have we here
don't bring me down... with you♪♪
Johnny Pooh31 - Qwilfish @ Black Sludge (Your names go absolutely awful together js ^.^)
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP/252 Def/8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Waterfall
- Pain Split
- Thunder Wave
- Spikes
Qwilfish is always a monster. He especially helped in this mono because, unlike the pseudo-phaze dual spiker I've run before, he is limited to only one type of spikes but then gets massive amounts of extra utility in Pain Split and Thunder Wave, which are amazing for this team. Spreading paralysis especially can help things like Scrafty or Nidoqueen sweep more easily, and can cripple some special threats like Raikou who like to switch in to it. Qwilfish does its job amazingly well, absorbing physical hits like a boss, especially fire and fighting hits. His weaknesses are covered by Scrafty, Skuntank, and Nidoqueen, and he can survive for the whole match easily by using Pain Split as well as his Black Sludge recovery. Waterfall is for the relatively powerful uninvested stab, and Spikes are... well... spikes ._. Overall, Qwilfish does its job amazingly well, and it needs to come to UU already. Like, seriously for reals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+
=
♪♪now i'm just chasing time
with a thousand dreams, I'm holding heavy
and as we cross the line these fading beats have all been severed
don't tell me our youth is running out...
Its only just begun♪♪
Yoshinite Vampire - Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpA/4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
Nidoqueen is another shining star on this team. The ability to set up rocks is extremely useful, and its also an amazing all-around poke. With a bulky EV spread, it can take loads of hits as well as dishing out massive damage with Modest nature, full investment, SF LO boosted attacks. I originally had Black Sludge, Roar Nidoqueen, but I felt that LO SF was just too good to not abuse, and that Queen generally wasn't bulky enough to serve as an effective phazer. The coverage is pretty standard, Earth Power for the reliable and ridiculously strong stab, Ice Beam to hit Flygon, Gligar, and anything else floating off the ground hard, and Fire Blast for other stuff, like Ferro and Esca and Balloon Registeel (?). I prefer Nidoqueen massively over Nidoking, and I'm happy that she fit in well on this team. The Ground-typing helps me a lot as well, allowing me to switch in fearlessly on electric type attacks, especially from Choiced mons, and get a free turn to set up my rocks or fire off a powerful special hit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+
=
♪♪If i asked you for good news,
would you smile, and turn away
it's like a bad dream that is too afraid to wake...♪♪
Othesemoking87 - Roserade @ Black Sludge
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/4 SpA/252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Toxic Spikes
Roserade, like, most of the other mons on this team, has a tremendous amount of utility. It can put things to sleep, incapacitating them for the entire match, lay down Toxic Spikes to help me wear my opponents walls down faster, and has amazing dual stab in Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb which deals damage and recovers HP even without any investment. I chose to go halfway between an Offensive and Defensive spiker, which allowed me to still deal out some damage with coverage but maintain my strong SpD stat. I originally had Synthesis in place of Sludge Bomb, but I rarely used it and it seemed sort of useless compared to the coverage that Sludge Bomb provided me. Roserade is a pretty important part of this team, as she can take any special hits and disable walls like Umbreon by putting them to sleep. Toxic Spikes are also helpful in keeping things from setting up on me. (Funny thing, like 5 people throughout testing tried to lay down toxic spikes on my side of the field. It was like they didn't notice that I had 4 grounded Poison types, a Crobat, and a Lum Scrafty ^.^) Overall though, Rade is a great mon and one that deserved a major spot on this team.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~5~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
.jpg)
=
♪♪there are many among us
and we're changing all the time
maybe the same old fears, what have we here
don't bring me down, with you...♪♪
Scotti - Skuntank @ Black Sludge
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Roar
- Taunt
Skuntank is the sixth and final addition to this team, and I have to say he surprised me. I assumed that it would be merely another shit filler pokemon to round out the bunch, but he actually proved very useful. He can trap things like Victini, Chandelure, and Mismagius, who I can usually mind-game enough to KO them without taking much damage. Taunt and Roar prevent Skuntank from being set up on, and Aftermath is awesome for getting that last bit of damage on something when I just need to sack anything. Between Sucker Punch and Aftermath, even things that aren't weak to dark will have a major chunk bitten out of them by taking down Skuntank. I chose the EV spread to maintain bulk as a taunter/phazer while keeping a large amount of pure power to make Pursuit and Sucker Punch as powerful as possible. Sucker Punch is my only priority on the team, so it's better to have it as strong as possible in case I just need to get damage on something really threatening. Skuntank was also useful when I predicted psychic moves from things like Mew, Azelf, or Cress, as I could switch in and then proceed to Taunt/Pursuit and deal with them accordingly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~6~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, I couldn't think of a clever word pun for Scrafty. Sorry >.>"
♪♪now i'm just chasing time
with a thousand dreams I'm holding heavy
and as we cross the line these fading beats have all been severed
don't tell me our youth is running out
It's only just begun...
It's only just begun......♪♪
PTJon7 - Scrafty @ Lum Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpD/252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Punch
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
Scrafty was a poke that I hadn't really fully explored the potential of in UU. On my poison stall team, the BU set was really helpful, but it just got wrecked by faster special threats like Shaymin and Nidoqueen. Therefore, I decided to try out the DD set now that my team is a little bit more offensive, and I haven't been disappointed. Lum Berry gives me lots of free set ups, and Moxie gives me tons of boosts. This is my main win condition for this team and with all the support provided from everything, it's usually pretty easy to pull off. Drain Punch gives me some semi-reliable recovery, where as Crunch is a useful secondary stab and Ice Punch wrecks face for things like Gligar. It's a pretty standard set, but it's standard for a reason - the coverage is close to perfect and it's a very reliable sweeper. Scrafty's natural base 115 defenses aid it in sweeping as well, because it can take some hits if it really needs to. Overall, Scrafty is an absolutely amazing mon, and is easily the MVP of this team. I think it's one of the best possible wild cards for a poison team, as it not only fills up the gap of strong physical Pokemon, but also covers one weakness. Because of the pure amount of support that this team offers, Scrafty can easily shine.
~~Conclusion~~
This team was quite a lot of fun to make, but I didn't realize something important until the final iteration of the team. Poison seems like it would be an amazing monotype, it has very, very good pokes in UU. Roserade, Qwilfish, and Nidoqueen are all high or rising in usage, and for very good reason, as they can perform a multitude of roles very well. Unfortunately, it is this extreme utility of almost all poison types that leads to the resultant team not being that amazing. Because everything can do everything okay, it's sort of a jack of all trades, master of none idea. Everything is filling a similar utility role, but the only true sweeper on the team is Scrafty. There aren't any true special or physical walls either, Qwilfish doubling as a T-Wave spreader and a spiker, Roserade doubling as a Toxic Spiker and a Sleeper as well as an offensive poke, and Nidoqueen doubling as a special attacker and a SR set-up poke. Because there is only one poke whose moveslot and EVs are made purely for the sake of sweeping, and because poison types are generally not viable for that sort of set, there is so much emphasis on the one pokemon (in this case Scrafty) that when it goes down it's hard to even come up with a win condition other than perhaps stalling everything out or spamming Brave Bat. That problem is what prevented this team from being truly amazing, as unfortunate as that is, and it really made me realize how all poison types truly are similar in their role as support pokes.
The following replays are what I believe showcase good usage of the pokes on my team. They are not necessarily against top-tier players, but they do show what happens in an average battle. Enjoy!
Replays
I'll be updating the second post on this page with a complete threat list, as well as designing a banner for the Monotype Challenge in general and probably one for this team as well, so yeah. Thanks again for all the support, and remember to rate, luvdisc, and most importantly vote in the poll on which type you'd like me to do next :)
For your listening pleasure: I decided to add some song lyrics throughout this part of the RMT because I really like this song and I love gimmicky RMTs so yeah >.>. It's deep if you think about it, so there's that too. Here's the song
And the obligatory dubstep version ^_^'
Enjoy ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
♪♪They didn't warn me
when I was running wild
the dragons breathing fire
in the backyard at night♪♪
Eagle4 for President - Crobat @ Black Sludge (An awesome 10 of you voted for poison, so I unfortunately have to mesh all of your names together ^.^")
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 172 HP/192 Atk/144 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bat
- Taunt
- U-turn
- Roost
You may have noticed that our little flappy friend was in every single step of the teambuilding process. That's because Crobat is an absolute monster in UU, and in the restrictions of a Poison mono he is no exception. Primarily, he is an extremely fast poke that helps compensate for the lack of speed from most of the poison type pokemon. Although his amazing resistances to fighting and grass aren't as useful given that I have 4 other poison types (._.), he's still an awesome all around poke. It's basically a standard stallbreaker set with a little bit of speed creeping to win out against other Crobats, which my team can have a somewhat hard time dealing with otherwise. The moves are pretty standard too, with U-turn taking precedence over Toxic because it's not the only thing on the team that can poison things :P. Roost, Taunt, and Brave Bat are for reliable recovery, preventing hazards and status, and fucking shit up, respectively.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
♪♪we live in circles
and its so hard to breathe
maybe the same old fears, what have we here
don't bring me down... with you♪♪
Johnny Pooh31 - Qwilfish @ Black Sludge (Your names go absolutely awful together js ^.^)
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP/252 Def/8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Waterfall
- Pain Split
- Thunder Wave
- Spikes
Qwilfish is always a monster. He especially helped in this mono because, unlike the pseudo-phaze dual spiker I've run before, he is limited to only one type of spikes but then gets massive amounts of extra utility in Pain Split and Thunder Wave, which are amazing for this team. Spreading paralysis especially can help things like Scrafty or Nidoqueen sweep more easily, and can cripple some special threats like Raikou who like to switch in to it. Qwilfish does its job amazingly well, absorbing physical hits like a boss, especially fire and fighting hits. His weaknesses are covered by Scrafty, Skuntank, and Nidoqueen, and he can survive for the whole match easily by using Pain Split as well as his Black Sludge recovery. Waterfall is for the relatively powerful uninvested stab, and Spikes are... well... spikes ._. Overall, Qwilfish does its job amazingly well, and it needs to come to UU already. Like, seriously for reals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
♪♪now i'm just chasing time
with a thousand dreams, I'm holding heavy
and as we cross the line these fading beats have all been severed
don't tell me our youth is running out...
Its only just begun♪♪
Yoshinite Vampire - Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpA/4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
Nidoqueen is another shining star on this team. The ability to set up rocks is extremely useful, and its also an amazing all-around poke. With a bulky EV spread, it can take loads of hits as well as dishing out massive damage with Modest nature, full investment, SF LO boosted attacks. I originally had Black Sludge, Roar Nidoqueen, but I felt that LO SF was just too good to not abuse, and that Queen generally wasn't bulky enough to serve as an effective phazer. The coverage is pretty standard, Earth Power for the reliable and ridiculously strong stab, Ice Beam to hit Flygon, Gligar, and anything else floating off the ground hard, and Fire Blast for other stuff, like Ferro and Esca and Balloon Registeel (?). I prefer Nidoqueen massively over Nidoking, and I'm happy that she fit in well on this team. The Ground-typing helps me a lot as well, allowing me to switch in fearlessly on electric type attacks, especially from Choiced mons, and get a free turn to set up my rocks or fire off a powerful special hit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
♪♪If i asked you for good news,
would you smile, and turn away
it's like a bad dream that is too afraid to wake...♪♪
Othesemoking87 - Roserade @ Black Sludge
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/4 SpA/252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Toxic Spikes
Roserade, like, most of the other mons on this team, has a tremendous amount of utility. It can put things to sleep, incapacitating them for the entire match, lay down Toxic Spikes to help me wear my opponents walls down faster, and has amazing dual stab in Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb which deals damage and recovers HP even without any investment. I chose to go halfway between an Offensive and Defensive spiker, which allowed me to still deal out some damage with coverage but maintain my strong SpD stat. I originally had Synthesis in place of Sludge Bomb, but I rarely used it and it seemed sort of useless compared to the coverage that Sludge Bomb provided me. Roserade is a pretty important part of this team, as she can take any special hits and disable walls like Umbreon by putting them to sleep. Toxic Spikes are also helpful in keeping things from setting up on me. (Funny thing, like 5 people throughout testing tried to lay down toxic spikes on my side of the field. It was like they didn't notice that I had 4 grounded Poison types, a Crobat, and a Lum Scrafty ^.^) Overall though, Rade is a great mon and one that deserved a major spot on this team.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~5~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
♪♪there are many among us
and we're changing all the time
maybe the same old fears, what have we here
don't bring me down, with you...♪♪
Scotti - Skuntank @ Black Sludge
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Roar
- Taunt
Skuntank is the sixth and final addition to this team, and I have to say he surprised me. I assumed that it would be merely another shit filler pokemon to round out the bunch, but he actually proved very useful. He can trap things like Victini, Chandelure, and Mismagius, who I can usually mind-game enough to KO them without taking much damage. Taunt and Roar prevent Skuntank from being set up on, and Aftermath is awesome for getting that last bit of damage on something when I just need to sack anything. Between Sucker Punch and Aftermath, even things that aren't weak to dark will have a major chunk bitten out of them by taking down Skuntank. I chose the EV spread to maintain bulk as a taunter/phazer while keeping a large amount of pure power to make Pursuit and Sucker Punch as powerful as possible. Sucker Punch is my only priority on the team, so it's better to have it as strong as possible in case I just need to get damage on something really threatening. Skuntank was also useful when I predicted psychic moves from things like Mew, Azelf, or Cress, as I could switch in and then proceed to Taunt/Pursuit and deal with them accordingly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~6~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, I couldn't think of a clever word pun for Scrafty. Sorry >.>"
♪♪now i'm just chasing time
with a thousand dreams I'm holding heavy
and as we cross the line these fading beats have all been severed
don't tell me our youth is running out
It's only just begun...
It's only just begun......♪♪
PTJon7 - Scrafty @ Lum Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpD/252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Punch
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
Scrafty was a poke that I hadn't really fully explored the potential of in UU. On my poison stall team, the BU set was really helpful, but it just got wrecked by faster special threats like Shaymin and Nidoqueen. Therefore, I decided to try out the DD set now that my team is a little bit more offensive, and I haven't been disappointed. Lum Berry gives me lots of free set ups, and Moxie gives me tons of boosts. This is my main win condition for this team and with all the support provided from everything, it's usually pretty easy to pull off. Drain Punch gives me some semi-reliable recovery, where as Crunch is a useful secondary stab and Ice Punch wrecks face for things like Gligar. It's a pretty standard set, but it's standard for a reason - the coverage is close to perfect and it's a very reliable sweeper. Scrafty's natural base 115 defenses aid it in sweeping as well, because it can take some hits if it really needs to. Overall, Scrafty is an absolutely amazing mon, and is easily the MVP of this team. I think it's one of the best possible wild cards for a poison team, as it not only fills up the gap of strong physical Pokemon, but also covers one weakness. Because of the pure amount of support that this team offers, Scrafty can easily shine.
~~Conclusion~~
This team was quite a lot of fun to make, but I didn't realize something important until the final iteration of the team. Poison seems like it would be an amazing monotype, it has very, very good pokes in UU. Roserade, Qwilfish, and Nidoqueen are all high or rising in usage, and for very good reason, as they can perform a multitude of roles very well. Unfortunately, it is this extreme utility of almost all poison types that leads to the resultant team not being that amazing. Because everything can do everything okay, it's sort of a jack of all trades, master of none idea. Everything is filling a similar utility role, but the only true sweeper on the team is Scrafty. There aren't any true special or physical walls either, Qwilfish doubling as a T-Wave spreader and a spiker, Roserade doubling as a Toxic Spiker and a Sleeper as well as an offensive poke, and Nidoqueen doubling as a special attacker and a SR set-up poke. Because there is only one poke whose moveslot and EVs are made purely for the sake of sweeping, and because poison types are generally not viable for that sort of set, there is so much emphasis on the one pokemon (in this case Scrafty) that when it goes down it's hard to even come up with a win condition other than perhaps stalling everything out or spamming Brave Bat. That problem is what prevented this team from being truly amazing, as unfortunate as that is, and it really made me realize how all poison types truly are similar in their role as support pokes.
The following replays are what I believe showcase good usage of the pokes on my team. They are not necessarily against top-tier players, but they do show what happens in an average battle. Enjoy!
Replays
I'll be updating the second post on this page with a complete threat list, as well as designing a banner for the Monotype Challenge in general and probably one for this team as well, so yeah. Thanks again for all the support, and remember to rate, luvdisc, and most importantly vote in the poll on which type you'd like me to do next :)
Importable:
Qwilfish @ Black Sludge
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Def / 248 HP / 8 Spd
Impish Nature
- Pain Split
- Thunder Wave
- Waterfall
- Spikes
Crobat @ Black Sludge
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 172 HP / 192 Atk / 144 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Roost
- Taunt
- U-turn
- Brave Bird
Nidoqueen (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
Roserade @ Black Sludge
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Toxic Spikes
Skuntank @ Black Sludge
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Taunt
- Roar
Scrafty @ Lum Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Def / 248 HP / 8 Spd
Impish Nature
- Pain Split
- Thunder Wave
- Waterfall
- Spikes
Crobat @ Black Sludge
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 172 HP / 192 Atk / 144 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Roost
- Taunt
- U-turn
- Brave Bird
Nidoqueen (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
Roserade @ Black Sludge
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Toxic Spikes
Skuntank @ Black Sludge
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Taunt
- Roar
Scrafty @ Lum Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
~~Pleasure Kitten/Kitten Milk <3
