Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Fresh alt: dank munchlax
Dark Horse- Munchlax Munchlax |0.16581%| Unranked
Pawniard |2.07361%| B-
Gourgeist-Super |2.77508%| B+
Poliwrath |3.78768%| B
Rotom |8.48701%| A
Sandslash |7.05677%| B
GRAND TOTAL= 24.34596%
edit: switched out pyroar for poliwrath current ELO
So after getting to 1400 with jumpluff and realising it was B rank I decided to start again with zorua. I chose to go with life orb special + sucker as 252+ life orb grass knot can kill all variants of rhydon. Since the main goal was luring rhydons I wanted something that really appreciated it gone so swellow was added as with specs boomburst and the normal resist gone it can really tear through teams. Offensive regi came next as it 1) added rocks, 2) checks the flyers like scyther which lead well vs zorua and 3) gave zorua a good mon to hide as since regi struggles vs rhydon and both regi and zorua take the same damage from hazards. I decided to go with rain dance ludi in the next slot as it can kinda switch into ground types but also because it breaks through so many teams, doing a great job at weakening stuff for swellow. Bandape comes as a fast dark resist that can absorb sleep powders and put pressure on defensive teams with the turn-turn core it forms with swellow. Mismagius serves as the cc deterrent, spin blocker and as a one time sawk switch in if it needs to be, while being able to spread burns and nasty plot up to threaten teams.
Will probably edit the members as I test the team since building with Trick Room is always difficult by trying to balance between full and Semi-Trick Room and also being limited due to the nature of Dark Horse.
Update: So talk about giving yourself a double handicap while teambuilding! Not only am I trying to build a Trick Room team with Octillery, but I have to think about usage and A ranked mons. It doesnt help that the bulkiest Trick Room setters, Mega Audino, Mespirit and Musharna, are all A rank and some of the most used NU pokemon. Because of that and the fact that Trick Room is such a difficult concept to build around, I went through many members of this team trying to find mons that work well together, in Trick room and still don't bring me over 35% usage.
| 9 | Audino 11.85006% A rank
| 15 | Liepard 10.02136% B Rank
| 46 | Kecleon 5.43640% C+ Rank
| 63 | Exeggutor 3.13429% B Rank
| 84 | Lapras | 1.30314% D Rank | 141 | Octillery 0.36024% E Rank
Mega Audino and Eggy are the two MVPs of the squad being able to punch holes in the opponents team and get up Trick Room realiably almost every match. Offensive Mega Dino is never expected and many people have kept their Ferros and Mawiles in on her just to get bopped by a FIre Blast. Healing Wish also comes in clutch to get in a sweeper safely since Octillery/Eggy get worn down easily with their Life Orbs and my lack of hazard support. The other three members have been swapped out alot due to the nature of Dark Horse and numerous testing. Kecleon was a relatively low usage option giving me rocks/tr and being able to hit hard after it gets set up. This was Carbink but I didnt like the suicide lead tr set and it couldnt hit hard other than a weak Explosion. Lapras was originally Aurorous after the cost was too high and I wanted a hard hitting mon with Freeze Dry to help break Bulky waters for octillery. Disjunction will be proud :]. Liepard was my momentum grabber to help set up trick room and a speedy mon to use when Trick room couldnt get set up along with some nice priority. I also struggled with bulky set up mons and CM psychics that my other mons couldnt break through. I managed to get to 1300 after struggling with forming the final squad and this brings me to suggestions that you guys have about building Trick Room in this meta. Do you think Semi- or Full Trick Room is more effective? Who do you find are the best setters/sweepers? I know I was limited in my options but how would you suggest I change the team to help reach 1500 and achieve A-rank. I'll ask hollywood and iplaytennislol if they could comment on the nature of Trick Room in this meta because they are the only 2 members I have seen post Trick Room teams but If anyone else has made a Trick Room team lately in what way do you build it?
BasedLord Himself (Octillery) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Energy Ball
- Fire Blast
I dig the double Water offensive core, especially because both of them can beat Lanturn, the most common Water resist in the metagame, and bulky Grasses. I also really like the inclusion of Liepard. Pretty much any good Trick Room team will either have some sort of backup plan or be incredibly consistent in its Trick Room setters, the latter of which is pretty much impossible in NU.
I haven't tried full Trick Room I think pretty much at all in Gen 6 NU, but I've toyed around with semi-Trick Room a few times. I love the flexibility the playstyle has at reaming offense given the opportunity to set up Trick Room and not minding the lack of Speed as much against balance. Full Trick Room sacrifices a bit of reliability versus offense because there are times when you'll never really get an opportunity to set up Trick Room, but as the metagame is more shifted towards bulky offense and tough defensive cores, full Trick Room is probably a bit more favorable, at least in comparison to how it was in past metagames (especially mid to late XY NU which was nearly entirely Spikes offense).
So nobody claimed the god that is Metang so I'm gonna use Metang. I'm using the standard defensive Metang that sets up Rocks and can beat stuff like Mushy with Toxic as well, and it walls a lot of stuff, which is cool. Poliwrath walls most water types and takes care of Dark types, Steel types, and Fire types as well, making it a nice blanket check to a lot of stuff while having an offensive presence. I added Rock Polish Torterra for sweeping purposes and to hurt Water types and some other types while being decently bulky as well. LO Magmortar is my fave Magmortar set, so I added it for wallbreaking purposes and to soak up Sleep Powders, and to check Bugs and Grasses as well. Liepard was added for an answer for Ghosts and Psychics, and Encore is always nice. Now I needed a Fighting check, sadly all of those had too much usage for the team. (Except for like Misdreavous but no) So I decided to go weird and add Beheeyem, another Dark Horse. I decided not to go Specs and so I went with a set that is designed to somehow check Fighting types. (specifically Sawk but CB Sawk still has a good chance to 2HKO so yeah) It has Colbur Berry and Recover to be a good check to most fighting types not named Sawk and it still hits hard thanks to Analytic and Modest Nature. I would've added Mesprit or Colbur Eggy but those had too high usage rates for the team, so Beheeyem's here! yay! That is the team right now, I will get to laddering soon, especially as November is like one day from ending tfw.
Dark Horse Boy (Metang) @ Eviolite
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 32 Atk / 56 Def / 172 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Earthquake
Ok so with the November stats out, December Dark Horse can start. Post your teams, the total usage of the team as well as the individual usage of each, and fresh alts.
I know holidays are around the corners so I am expecting to see some holiday themed teams (and I would in fact encourage it). As done the last time we had drops, since there are no usage of them in November, they will not be allowed in December's Dark Horse even if they get a ranking in the VR thread.
P.S. Jim E. Russler I need you to PM me with your team and a small description (think mini-RMT) as well as the import so I can add your teams to the archive as a badge of honor for making it to A rank.
Ok so with the December stats out, January Dark Horse can start. Post your teams, the total usage of the team as well as the individual usage of each, and fresh alts.
As done with every time we have drops, since there are no usage of them in December, they will not be allowed in January's Dark Horse even if they get a ranking in the VR thread.
I hope to see some more activity than last month (although I don't expect a lot due to SPL and whatnot, but who cares lol)
prepare yourself (Fraxure) @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Low Kick
- Iron Tail
- Dragon Claw I chose Fraxure because I had played with it a bit in ORAS before the mega drops, and the band set was insanely fun with so few switchins. I just put the standard set (with Low Kick over Superpower because Low Kick 2HKOs Steelix and Klinklang anyways) and chose a Jolly nature because it really doesn't need the power. But, wait, why couldn't you just use Gabite? It's faster and has a secondary stab!
This is why: 252 Atk Choice Band Mold Breaker Fraxure Outrage vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Weezing: 174-205 (52.2 - 61.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery That's absolutely insane. china (Weezing) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic Spikes
Next comes the target of the previous calc, Weezing. I chose Weezing becuase I saw immediately that the team would need bulk to function; I can't support a slow wallbreaker without having bulky switchins, and Weezing is arguably the best physically defensive 'mon and one of the best Sceptile checks in the tier. I chose to run Toxic spikes over Flamethrower because Will-O properly neuters most Steelix, and the few special ones are walled by one of my later teammates; also, with the high usage of Lix, Klinklang is practically non-existant and so I don't need Fthrower to break its subs.
After that, I chose to get some speed control, and since I can't use Sceptile due to it being S rank, I chose the even faster mon, Swellow (Swellow fits better on the team anyways ). Swellow is, once again, a Sceptile check, but its primary job is to help break walls with its powerful Specs Boomburst, and grab momentum with U-Turn. Swellow is ridiculously good right now, and has saved my ass in testing many a time. Being the fastest relevant mon in NU with very respectable power gives it its place on this team. I chose Tailwind in the last slot over Brave Bird/HP Grass/Sleep Talk so I can support FRAXURE/Pinsir/Barbaracle since they're somewhat slower naturally. However, this leaves me extremely susceptible to sleep-n-sweepers such as Lilligant and Vivillon, as I have to rely on sleep fodder and wakeup rolls to beat them.
I then realized I need a defogger, preferably one that isn't completely destroyed by Fires. As per usual, Mantine has absolutely unreasonable amounts of usage even thought it's not even that good™, so I had to settle for the next best thing™ being Vibrava, which completely shuts down both Magmortar and stops Pyroar (if healthy) while having actual recovery and decent general special bulk, as well as a pretty slow U-turn to get Fraxure in for free. It also stops the ever popular HP Fire Sceptile with ease, taking about half from Leaf Storm and only about 30 from Giga Drain. However, a problem with it is that it is painfully passive, with its only attack being an uninvested EQ off of base 70 atk. It doesn't help that EQ has no secondary effects and doesn't really beat things like Sceptile.
the sin of vice (Pinsir) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
In order to make the above Fraxure calc work, I have to have a reliable SR setter and Pinsir was the way to go. It gives me decent power and very good coverage, as well as nearly guaranteed Stealth Rocks unless I meet a Taunt Archeops. It also serves as an emergency choiced Sawk or LO Sceptile check if need be, but past that it's kinda there as a good but usage SR setter.
Lastly, I needed another check to the mons in the 110 speed tier (the big two being Archeops and Tauros) and something that could hit hard, with few checks. You know what would've fit perfectly here? Sneasel. I chose Barbaracle since Costa, my usual Smasher of choice, doesn't outspeed the ever-common Sceptile and increasingly more common scarf Mesprit and Sawk, and it has the item slot to run a Shuca Berry allowing it to set up on mons that rely on EQ for coverage on Rock-types. It also had surprisingly low usage, which helped because I was somewhat pressed at this point. I chose EQ over Grass Knot since Steelix is literally everywhere, and Quag is literally nowhere.
I'm really threatened by Ice-type atackers, especially those with Freeze-Dry/Abomasnow, seeing as I didn't have the slot to run Hariyama instead of Vibrava as a Fire check. I'm also weak to opposing hazard teams, since Vibrava doesn't particularly like strong neutral hits, even if they are on the invested defense. However, I'm pleased with how this team turned out, and am pretty excited to use it in the upcoming weeks.
-Choice for Dark Horse will be Beheeyem,I made this team in a really short time and I thought it was pretty fun to use, Primeape was fighting choice and brings Beheeyem safely with U-turn, Rotom was first option for 3rd pokemon but it was S rank ,and with Mismagius my team ended up having 35.1% :/ so I put Misdreavus randomly (Misdreavus is only a filler option here because ill be changing it soon when i realise what fits), my defensive core consists of Pelipper/Cradily which works really well together and then I have Aurorus with Choice Scarf which is my soft Speed control outspeeding everything except Sceptile and Swellow(but it deals with swellow anyway),checks things like Jynx and some Ice/Normal types as well as brings weather in team which i find really useful here.
Ill be making new alt after posting this!
Importable:
Primeape @ Expert Belt
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
- Stone Edge