Other Metagames V is for Victory !!!! Mono Psychic Peaked 5th

NorthLondonLedians16 · Jul 1, 2016

[Monotype] Psychic -
Simple & Effective Peaked 4th (1746 elo) Psychic HO

The Harder
The Battle,
The Sweeter
The Victory !

Introduction

Hey guys NorthLondonLedians here.

This is my first monotype peak, while I mainly play within the OU meta, the monotype tier always intrigued me as something fresh, especially after the stale OU meta as of recent.

However, recently I've tried to rekindle my passion for playing pokemon and remind myself why I use to love it so much when I used to play. Fancying a change, one type that's always intrigued me was Psychic, and automatically I was drawn to it.

After speaking to some friends I decided that psychic would be my mono of choice and after building a team and doing well with it, I came to the conclusion that this was the type for me.

Huge thankyou to Gingerninja23 and the greater Fire Island Ruins community for the help, guidance and the confidence to improve my game.

Latios formed one part of my Psychic hard hitting core, having a huge amount of elemental coverage at my disposal to hit a variety of types super effectively. Trick was removed as I hit mid ladder to improve my matchup vs Water and Ground respectfully with energyball.

Choice Scarf Victini provided the team with some much needed speed, fire coverage and is invaluable vs bug teams. It also helps a lot in our matchup vs Grass and Steel, killing almost every mon common on Grass combined with other team members.

The wallbreaking core was very weak to steel once Victini went down, so I opted for Substitute Hoopa to serve as a win condition vs a variety of steel and ghost type teams. Running maximum speed lets me outspeed base 70s such as bisharp and has enough hp to always get a sub vs 0 SpA Slowbro's scald.

Opting to take a mostly offensive force, I knew one pokemon I needed was slowbro, Slowbro is the hero of the team, it takes physical hits so well, and along with rocky helmet, prevents scarfed physical mons and a variety of threats from completely destroying this team.

Gardevoir is an essential team member in removing bulky dark types and combined with trace pre- mega, gives me a number of infinite situations in which to abuse the opponents abilities. Gardevoir on its own helps to lure in potentially hazardous mons to the core such as steel types, namely Scizor or Ferrothorn. Gardevoir with will-o-wisp also causes us to be able to have some counterplay vs Bisharp, allowing us to play a 50/50 to avoid being swept.

Jirachi's bulk and typing allow it to switch reliably into special attackers such as Mega Gardevoir, Porygon Z, Mega Diancie and more. From here, U-turn gave Jirachi the ability to wear down its switch-ins allowing an easier time for team mates and lastly gave us a form of entry hazards in which to apply pressure.

Team Description

Latios @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball/ Trick
Latios resides in a great Speed tier, allowing it to outspeed and check many threats such as Garchomp and Keldeo. In addition, it has a great Special Attack stat, coupled with an extremely strong move in Draco Meteor, making it a great sweeper.

Furthermore, a decent defensive typing allows Latios to comfortably absorb hits from the likes of Mega Charizard Y and Keldeo and, as a result, gives it ample opportunities to switch in, Specs was chosen to maximize the damage output. Trick was later replaced with Energyball to deal with water and ground teams easier.

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Blue Flare / Zen headbutt / Glaciate
- U-turn

Standard tini set acts as a great pivot can do great damage to most neutral mons with v-create and has good overall coverage with this set.

Early in team development with Victini, it was decided to opt for Blue Flare over Zen headbutt. Zen headbutt hits really weak considering victini only has base 100 attack, because Bug is a problem due to after using v create your speed keeps lowering forcing switches to preserve Victini. In an effort to make that matchup vs bug easier, blue flare was added to sweep after rocks went up. I tossed up Blue Flare compared to Glaciate over and over in my head, but Blue Flare won in the end was the more useful move.

Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 160 Atk / 96 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Substitute
- Drain Punch
- Psychic / Hp Fire
Hoopa is a necessary evil for Psychic monos due to its amazing offensive typing and the ability to create many switches which means potential subsitutes. Going for the standard Breaker Hoopa set which as the name suggests does an amazing job at breaking many threats such as common steel types as it's able to use Substitute on Bisharp's Sucker Punch, kill Scizor with HP Fire / Dark Pulse, Doublade with Dark Pulse, Heatran with Drain Punch and generally spam dark pulse for days on everything inbetween.

The typical wallbreaking Psychic core is very weak to steel and ghost so this set serves as a win condition vs steel and ghost type teams. It has enough speed to outspeed base 70s such as bisharp and enough hp to always get a sub vs 0 SpA Slowbro's scald.

Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam

Slowbro's solid Water / Psychic typing and excellent defensive stats allow it to handle various important threats such as Landorus-T, Garchomp, Keldeo, Darmantian, and Mega Lopunny. The combination of Regenerator and reliable recovery in Slack Off makes it easy to keep Slowbro healthy and allow it to act as an all-around defensive pivot.

The given EV spread maximizes Slowbro's physical bulk while allowing it to survive two Hydro Pumps from Choice Specs Keldeo after Stealth Rock. Ice Beam was taken to deal with the Flying Matchup easier while relaxed nature was chosen over Bold due to the trend of Trickroom Fairy and Steel teams at the time allowing for some surprises.

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 80 HP / 232 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Will-O-Wisp

Hyper Voice hits incredibly hard and does a huge chunk of damage against any Pokemon that does not resist it. Psyshock hits special walls, most notably Chansey, on their Defense, allowing Gardevoir to break through them. Focus Blast hits the Steel-types that resist Gardevoir's STAB moves, such as Ferrothorn. Will-O-Wisp is great for burning Mega Scizor, Landorus T, and Jirachi on the switch which softens up many threats.

196 Speed evs with timid, allow me to outspeed base 70 pre mega, hugely important for Bisharp, and in Mega Evolution allows me to outspeed base 92 Krookadile, because of these benchmarks, timid was chosen over modest, the remaining evs were placed in HP for natural bulk. Most notably these evs allow me to outspeed most gardevoir variants.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Punch
- U-turn

32 Speed EVs allow Jirachi to outrun Jolly Tyranitar and neutral-natured base 70s, such as Bisharp and Breloom. The remaining EVs and the Careful nature serve to improve Jirachi's special bulk, aiding it in taking on special attackers such as Latios and Mega Gardevoir. Fire Punch gives us a way to deal with the steel matchup while U-turn offers the team a secondary form of momentum and lastly leftovers serves as a form of passive recovery.

Latios @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Blue Flare
- U-turn

Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 160 Atk / 96 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Substitute
- Drain Punch
- Psychic

Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 80 HP / 232 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Will-O-Wisp

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Punch
- U-turn

The FIR mentor community
Pokemon Fire Island Ruins
Pokemon Central
GingerNinja23 for helping to make the team

and

Bug in General, the aim is to keep sticky web off the field or apply enough pressure in which to weaken Mega Pinsir and or scizor through the judicious usage of Victini and pressuring Galvantula with Mega Gardevoir. Thunderwave support from Slowbro and Will-O-Wisp from Gardevoir respectfully deal with the matchup well. This matchup can be hard because I opted to not take defog on Latios.

Keeping rocks on the field to weaken it and dissuade Dragonite for coming in for free is the prime objective in dealing with Dragonite. From that point I can then try to t-wave or burn it. Alternatively Gardevoir can also deal with it assuming it is choice locked. As an alternative resort, Slowbro also has Ice Beam to deal massive damage to Dragonite and any Flying or Dragon partners on the switch.

This pokemon can give me big trouble. The combination of Crunch + Water coverage + Speed Boost destroys my core. As Sharpedo can only generally be thunder waved for speed control, this is a huge threat to my team and must be dealt with efficiently and timely as possible. Against predicted protects, Hoopa can generate 1 free sub in which to deal with Mega Sharpedo alternatively.

This is a huge threat to the team and can sweep as early as 2 dragon dances. Going to victini immediately to KO with bolt strike or throwing burn / paralysis support from Gardevoir and Slowbro can make this pokemon much easier to manage.

Vs Dark and Psychic respectfully, I am forced to lead with Victini and to U-turn out and to apply pressure with Hoopa U + Gardevoir. Against psychic, I have to go to Hoopa and grab a KO on the predicted switch and keep Victini and Hoopa healthy as possible. Against dark, I am forced to go to Mega Gardevoir and grab a KO and have to keep the pressure up. Because of the nature of switching, this gives Hoopa many opportunities to sub or for Mega Gardevoir to grab a free burn.

scpinion

Confluxx [Old] · Jul 1, 2016

Hey there, really cool team! I have a few suggestions that you might like.

Blue Flare / Zen headbutt / Glaciate --> Blue Flare ; Regarding this slash, definitely go with Blue Flare. It sweeps Bug after Stealth Rock and it has no drawbacks like the stat drops from V-Create. Psychic STAB on Victini is not necessary for Psychic-type teams and Glaciate is pretty weak. Most of the time you're gonna find yourself just clicking V-Create because it's ridiculously powerful.
Psychic / HP Fire --> HP Fire ; HP Fire allows you to hit Ferrothorn and Scizor which this type of set, also known as "Steel Breaker Hoopa" should focus on hitting and giving Psychic a much easier time against Steel-type teams. Psychic STAB on Hoopa-U is not needed on Psychic-type teams as it prefers the coverage.
Rocky Helmet --> Colbur Berry, Ice Beam --> Grass Knot ; Colbur Berry lets you check threats such as +2 Bisharp, Mega Sharpedo for when you're not able to keep Slowbro at full HP and Mega Gyarados. Grass Knot allows you to not be walled by Substitute Mega Gyarados because it breaks it whether it mega evolves or not. Grass Knot also hits Mega Sharpedo but just Thunder Waving that thing is enough. Although you do have other checks to Mega Gyarados such as Mega Gardevoir which can hit it through Substitute with Hyper Voice if it hasn't set up yet, or Victini which outspeeds it and does a lot of damage with Bolt Strike, but having the extra safety and being able to deal with a number of Dark-type threats is very useful.
Fire Punch --> Wish ; Fire Punch doesn't 2HKO Ferrothorn, doesn't OHKO Mega Scizor and there's not much use for it on Jirachi considering you check both of those really well with Victini and even Hoopa-U if Mega Scizor hasn't set up. Wish provides great utility by allowing Jirachi not only to heal itself after getting worn down, but the rest of the team as well.

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Blue Flare
- U-turn

Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 160 Atk / 96 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Substitute
- Drain Punch
- Hidden Power Fire

Slowbro @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Grass Knot

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Wish
- U-turn

Hope this helped, good luck!

NorthLondonLedians16 · Jul 1, 2016

Thanks for the recommendations!

I'll definitely try out all of your suggestions and HP fire on hoopa does make alot more sense than psychic.

One thing I would probably keep is ice beam on slowbro, just because it's really helpful vs dragons that set up such as dragonite and salamence, which can otherwise be problematic [:

Other Metagames V is for Victory !!!! Mono Psychic Peaked 5th

NorthLondonLedians16

Confluxx [Old]

Banned deucer.

NorthLondonLedians16