Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/26e2a05d0cc5b720
Hey, I thought I'd write here to detail a team that I've built over the last month or two and is finally fully completed. The team was originally built as a meme team around Mespirit to face Darkinium for BSSC. It did not work out very well in large part due to having poor and cheesy sets, but I did enjoy part of the team and it was ripped off to build this current variant of team that I would ladder to around 1570-1580 peak on the showdown ladder and win a BSPL tournament set with despite my awful playing and would finally tweak it to the current version. Also it has a cool colour scheme other than Lando-T the odd one out. I'd have liked to use it on cart, however I'm simply too lazy to build it :)
Building Process:
When I build, I tend to do it very simplistically. Some BSS players (such as my master Solerme) can build very intricate teams, however I'm not one of those people. My idea was essentially to have a team of three different parts, each of which would be two separate mons and would create a solid team combined.
Offensive Core:
I started off with an offensive core of Naganadel + Mega Metagross.
The best place to start with this core is Naganadel. When playing this team, most of my wins were due to this pokemon and its phenomenal z-draco set and my team was built around this win condition. Naganadel, in my opinion is one of the most threatening mons in the current meta, having very few solid switch-ins as well as a blistering speed tier, which in conjunction of beast boost can snowball games heavily. Two of the most popular Naganadel pairings are Naga-Scizor and Naga-Gyara. I ended up liking mega metagross more than either of these.
In the case of Naga-Scizor, both are pressured heavily by Heatran, which also happens to be Naga's best counter, whilst Mega-Gross, whilst not having the slow u-turn into Naga, does have Earthquake. I also like the ability for Mega Gross to force switches and I personally think it is better at wearing down teams and getting chip on multiple mons than Scizor is, which is important in setting up Naga win condition. When it comes to Naga-Gyara, I am of the belief that Gyara is a more difficult mon to build around whereas Gross is more flexible so I avoided it for this reason.
Defensive Backbone:
I then decided to compliment these two with a defensive backbone to create a core of four mons (Mega Metagross, Lando-T, Fini, Naganadel)
When picking Tapu Fini and Landorus-T, I wanted a switch in to special attacks that wasn't Tapu Lele so I could free up pressure on Mega Metagross, something that could deal with fat as well as a Mega Blaziken/Mega Salamence check. I didn't spend very long picking these two mons, Lando-T gave me an important ground immunity and Tapu Fini gave me a way to deal with many of the predominant threats such as hippowdon. Misty terrain is also an extremely useful ability for neutering annoyances like Breloom. At this point I'd realised that Porygon2 and Protean Greninja were the most prominent threat to the team, so I'd started keeping that in mind at this point.
Building Sets:
Generally I like to have six mons before building sets, but I did it a bit differently this time. The last two mons were meant to be somewhat of wild cards, stuff that will throw off opponents or could be used to shore up specific matchups, so I decided to create the sets for my first four mons beforehand.
Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 212 Atk / 4 Def / 28 SpD / 220 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
My Mega-Gross set was originally Zen/Iron Head/Ice Punch/Toxic. The Toxic was there specifically for Porygon2 and Suicune. Due to the effectiveness of another set below and not really seeing much in the way of Suicune, I replaced toxic with Earthquake. I'd considered TPunch here too, but I valued the ability to hit Heatran and the ability to trade in the mirror for Naganadel. Zen Headbutt is there specifically for Mega Venusaur. The tour set I built this for was against a team that had used Mega Venusaur multiple times so I kept that very much in mind. I ended up enjoying it anyways since the team otherwise did struggle in that matchup.
In terms of the EVs, the first thing I did was ev gross to live a specs shadow ball from Tapu Lele as well as ghostium-z from mimikyu. I decided that doing for adamant mimikyu was too much, so it ended up being a roll, with jolly being a guaranteed 2hko.
252 Atk Mimikyu Never-Ending Nightmare (140 BP) vs. 44 HP / 4 Def Metagross-Mega: 134-158 (83.2 - 98.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Shadow Ball vs. 44 HP / 28 SpD Metagross-Mega: 136-160 (84.4 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I wanted this guaranteed so gross could always switch into Tapu Lele and get off a big hit, even if it happened to be specs.
From there, I looked at the speed. I wanted to outspeed Adamant Mega Salamence at 220 Speed Jolly. The rest was placed into attack. One adjustment that could be made as the meta is changing, is to speed creep modest greninja at 236 speed jolly, but have kept it there for now.
(Election 4th, Approx 40%)
Naganadel @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Nasty Plot
The Naganadel set is pretty standard, though there are two slight changes from most people's sets. I do not use 20 hp to 1v1 Chansey, I think this team does not need it since I have Lando-t and Fini that help deal with fat. The extra few points of firepower can often be clutch, especially for a mon like Naga, that gains so much from just getting slightly better rolls. The second one is Fire Blast over Flamethrower. I will be the first to admit that Fire Blast miss has lost me a game. I however favour this:
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 174-206 (104.1 - 123.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Over this:
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 144-170 (86.2 - 101.7%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery
Especially since shadow ball into shadow sneak or any z-move from a bulky modest Aegislash will KO, stopping Naganadel from sweeping. This is a big hurdle in the Koko-Aegi-Mence matchup, where Naganadel can otherwise put in a large amount of work. Naga in general as well as cloyster who I will talk about later was just great for stomping noobs too.
(Election 3rd, Approx 50%)
Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 44 Atk / 4 Def / 212 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb
Lando-T is basically my special soak. In certain matchups, it would be there literally just to be sacked off. An example of this would be versus Porygon2 teams, I'd often use it to knock off the eviolite in exchange for about 60%. Originally Lando-T was exactly this set except it was adamant. The purpose of adamant was for rock tomb to always break certain substitutes, specifically bulky mences. I didn't feel that was too important and decided to just change it to careful without doing much more optimisation which seemed to be an excellent decision. Lando barely tanks Z-Draco into Draco from naganadel and can live 1 ice beam from protean (non-life orb) greninja. As not much on my team gives naga setup, I was happy with that. U-turn was my attempt of giving naganadel free switch ins, rock tomb is for the likes of char-y and volcarona, both of which Lando is meant to check. Knock off is mainly for P2/Hippowdon lead situations, where I'd knock off the berry/eviolite and then u-turn out.
252 SpA Naganadel Draco Meteor vs. 228 HP / 212+ SpD Assault Vest Landorus-Therian: 64-76 (33.1 - 39.3%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO
252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 228 HP / 212+ SpD Assault Vest Landorus-Therian: 94-112 (48.7 - 58%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Protean Greninja Ice Beam vs. 228 HP / 212+ SpD Assault Vest Landorus-Therian: 156-184 (80.8 - 95.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Something else I considered was char-y, which this can tank a hit from at least and the attack investment guarantee KOs non-bulky zard/volc.
252 SpA Charizard-Mega-Y Flamethrower vs. 228 HP / 212+ SpD Assault Vest Landorus-Therian in Sun: 79-94 (40.9 - 48.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
44 Atk Landorus-Therian Rock Tomb vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Charizard-Mega-Y: 156-188 (101.9 - 122.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(Election 1st, Approx 65%)
Tapu Fini @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 28 Def / 36 SpA / 4 SpD / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Nature's Madness
- Hydro Pump
- Moonblast
Tapu Fini was designed with a dual purpose, firstly to check Mega Blaziken/Mega Salamence and secondly to wind up fatter teams. Firstly 228 speed was placed, this is in order to outspeed Gyarados and taunt, allowing Fini to 1v1 with natures madness/moonblast. The 36 special attack guarantees KO of Mega Blaziken with hydro pump other than two rolls, which I felt was worth it. The rest was put into HP and Defence. The defence investment was tweaked slightly so that HJK into TPunch from Jolly Mega Blaziken never killed and allowed fini to tank physical hits slightly better, specifically Mimikyu's Mimikyu-z -> Shadow Sneak, which Fini lived with or without berry proc:
252+ Atk Mimikyu Let's Snuggle Forever vs. 212 HP / 28 Def Tapu Fini: 120-142 (69.7 - 82.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Mimikyu Shadow Sneak vs. 212 HP / 28 Def Tapu Fini: 25-31 (14.5 - 18%) -- possible 6HKO
36 SpA Tapu Fini Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blaziken-Mega: 152-180 (98 - 116.1%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
+1 52+ Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Return vs. 212 HP / 28 Def Tapu Fini: 141-166 (81.9 - 96.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
There could be further optimisations to this set for sure, it was the one I was most unsure about. 244 HP allows for a 12.5% chance to be KO'ed by scarf koko's Tbolt instead of a 25% chance. At the same time, having more defensive investment 124hp/112def could be placed in for P2 download boost, but figured it would not be worth it. The big one I could think of was outspeeding adamant mimikyu and guaranteeing Mimikyu-z hits into berry range if that did not sacrifice other calcs. Anyways, planned for other measures for mimikyu, not that the team was awful vs. it.
(Election 2nd, Approx 55%)
Wildcards:
Essentially I wanted two mons here that really covered the teams weak spots. In my mind, these two major glaring weaknesses were Mega Salamence and Greninja. Having a backup special sponge would also be great for mons like Koko/Lele. The most important criteria though for me was that these mons had to 1. be unconventional as well as underrated and 2. be something that opponents would be forced to pay attention to in team preview, 3. they could win games solo.
I tried a few variations here. Originally the duo was Mespirit and Magnezone, which I swapped pretty quickly with Mimikyu + Rotom-H. I liked the idea behind Rotom-H in particular, a mon that is just a menace to common meta teams, but didn't want to use Rotom-H itself so I found myself Snorlax. Snorlax was a mon that was starting to rise in popularity in top Japanese teams in S8-10 as a hard counter to Greninja and I instantly fell in love. I've always been of the opinion that curse/recycle lax is just such a pain to deal with for the opponent, so was glad to add it onto my team. The second mon I decided on was Cloyster. Cloyster I think is a mon that, like Snorlax, is underutilised, but can in the right circumstances be a threat. I valued in particular its ability to set up on mimikyu as well as being able to OHKO adamant loom and become faster than pretty much anything on the field with one smash. One trend I'd been noticing in particular was the lack of priority on top teams asides from Mimikyu Sneak which I could EV for and Greninja Shuriken on teams, making Cloyster all the more deadly. Tried it out and it worked a charm.
Perhaps not the best example of gameplay, but this was the team matchup for my BSPL game which should help showcase the effectiveness of these two mons:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7battlespotsingles-796296310
This was the third of our games, but to summarise it, Snorlax and Cloyster heavily pressure his team. My opponent cannot deal with Snorlax very easily due to it being stupidly fat without knocking off the berry and therefore trading Scizor which in turn allows Cloyster to put in work, which was my strategy for victory.
Building Sets:
Snorlax @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 148 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Def / 92 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Fire Punch
- Curse
- Recycle
The Snorlax set is a pretty typical lax set, explained better than I could by DMDW here:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/snorlax-singles-gp-0-2.3635035/
The reason Fire punch was put on was specifically for 1v1ing celesteela easier and generally the coverage was better than EQ which could cause problems if there was a skarmory/celesteela. Every time I threw off an attack with big lax, I wanted damage to happen to the enemy, so this also applied to other fliers/levitaters. Especially if toxiced, this allowed for more pressure on these mons. This was the only set I didn't specifically EV myself since I was happy enough with the standard spread.
(Election 5th, Approx 25%)
Cloyster @ Focus Sash
Ability: Skill Link
Level: 50
EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Liquidation
- Rock Blast
I played around with Cloyster's EV spread before getting to one I liked. This one has two purposes, firstly being able to set up on mimikyu and second being able to set up on Zard. 126 speed allows you to outspeed base 100s at +1 when you have shell smashed, leaving open the possibility of setting up on mons like Zard even if they have flame charged which is kinda cool. Also outspeeds adamant loom and OHKOs, leaving that as a possible lead in team preview. One possible adjustment to this could be to go up to 212 speed to outspeed scarf thundurus-t, however I didn't believe it too important when making the team as lax/lando/gross did more than enough for that. I like Liquidation over ice shard, just think it's solid stab to hit steel types.
252+ Atk Mimikyu Let's Snuggle Forever vs. 52 HP / 4 Def Cloyster: 84-99 (63.6 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Mimikyu Shadow Sneak vs. -1 52 HP / 4 Def Cloyster: 27-33 (20.4 - 25%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO
(Election 6th, Approx 15%)
Thoughts/Matchups/Struggles:
What I enjoyed about this team was that I actually in the few hundred games or so I played with it, used every single mon quite regularly.
Hippo/Mence/Aegi/Koko = Fini + Lando + 1
Generally I like to lead Lando vs. these sorts of teams, knock off hippo and then go into Fini. Lax is solid if they have greninja here. Otherwise Cloyster or Mega Gross can be cool. Cloyster needs to be in the back and you need to set it up so you are vs. koko/hippo (under misty terrain) though. Aegislash is the main annoyance of this team, so it is key that you get chip off with natures madness or earthquake from Lando/Gross. Naga actually 6-0s these sorts of teams, so if you can get a slow u-turn off from lando into naga, then you can really put the pressure on. Ofc depends on variant.
Breloom/Mimikyu = Fini + Gross + 1
If it is on a trick room team, ala Suropoke, Fini is really your cornerstone specifically for mega gyarados. A wide variety of other mons can be brought here. Fini Gross is my current favourite combination for loom lead and Mimikyu + Breloom specifically whilst it also covers mawile switches and can eat a hit from naga, but it is actually pretty flexible. I like snorlax in this sort of matchup, as long as you can get rid of breloom, it can be a nightmare for the rest of most TR teams. Outside of trick room teams, Cloyster can break Breloom/mimikyu on its own.
Hippo + Zard Y = Lando + Fini + 1
You will notice a general trend of bringing lando and fini when the opponent has a hippo. It's not that you can't bring other mons, you can, but these are simply the best two. Naganadel can put in a lot of work here which it can do in pretty much any non-heatran/ttar matchup.
P2 + Mence = Lando + Cloyster + 1
I actually like Cloyster in this specific matchup assuming they dont have hippo to break sash. Bait P2 into coming into lando, which is pretty easy, knock that boy off and win.
Mega Gengar = Lando lead
Pretty much your best lead against mega gar. Can 1v1 most sets, even if wow. If it's casino-gar, well just pray I guess.
Metagross + Fini = Gross + Naganadel + 1
Mega Gross teams, I generally like to counter with my own mega gross + Naga. When I use to have toxic Gross, I'd lead Naga and fire blast turn 1, which was bad, so I added EQ to gross. Essentially you want to chip opposing gross to 70% and then Naga wins pretty much.
Kommo-o teams = Gross/Fini/Cloyster
You are in a fortune that Kommo-o isnt a huge worry to your team, just pick one of these. You don't need to pick fini.
Greninja = Big Lax
If you see this bad boy and you are worried, pick big lax and you'll be good :). Fini can also work vs. Torrent gren, but not an ideal matchup either ways. If you really can't bring lax, cloyster can generally eat one hit and pressure back with a liquidation if you think it is protean.
Celesteela = Naga or Big Lax
If you see one of these on opposing side, you will have to bring one of these two, otherwise you will never be able to break this beasty. Heatran can be quaked as can Aegislash and Mega Gross, not this. Skarmory is the same category as this except its a worse mon that is less annoying and easier to deal with.
Main issues with this team atm are greninja and steel types, keep these in mind.
So there you go.
Hey, I thought I'd write here to detail a team that I've built over the last month or two and is finally fully completed. The team was originally built as a meme team around Mespirit to face Darkinium for BSSC. It did not work out very well in large part due to having poor and cheesy sets, but I did enjoy part of the team and it was ripped off to build this current variant of team that I would ladder to around 1570-1580 peak on the showdown ladder and win a BSPL tournament set with despite my awful playing and would finally tweak it to the current version. Also it has a cool colour scheme other than Lando-T the odd one out. I'd have liked to use it on cart, however I'm simply too lazy to build it :)
Building Process:
When I build, I tend to do it very simplistically. Some BSS players (such as my master Solerme) can build very intricate teams, however I'm not one of those people. My idea was essentially to have a team of three different parts, each of which would be two separate mons and would create a solid team combined.
Offensive Core:
I started off with an offensive core of Naganadel + Mega Metagross.
The best place to start with this core is Naganadel. When playing this team, most of my wins were due to this pokemon and its phenomenal z-draco set and my team was built around this win condition. Naganadel, in my opinion is one of the most threatening mons in the current meta, having very few solid switch-ins as well as a blistering speed tier, which in conjunction of beast boost can snowball games heavily. Two of the most popular Naganadel pairings are Naga-Scizor and Naga-Gyara. I ended up liking mega metagross more than either of these.
In the case of Naga-Scizor, both are pressured heavily by Heatran, which also happens to be Naga's best counter, whilst Mega-Gross, whilst not having the slow u-turn into Naga, does have Earthquake. I also like the ability for Mega Gross to force switches and I personally think it is better at wearing down teams and getting chip on multiple mons than Scizor is, which is important in setting up Naga win condition. When it comes to Naga-Gyara, I am of the belief that Gyara is a more difficult mon to build around whereas Gross is more flexible so I avoided it for this reason.
Defensive Backbone:
I then decided to compliment these two with a defensive backbone to create a core of four mons (Mega Metagross, Lando-T, Fini, Naganadel)
When picking Tapu Fini and Landorus-T, I wanted a switch in to special attacks that wasn't Tapu Lele so I could free up pressure on Mega Metagross, something that could deal with fat as well as a Mega Blaziken/Mega Salamence check. I didn't spend very long picking these two mons, Lando-T gave me an important ground immunity and Tapu Fini gave me a way to deal with many of the predominant threats such as hippowdon. Misty terrain is also an extremely useful ability for neutering annoyances like Breloom. At this point I'd realised that Porygon2 and Protean Greninja were the most prominent threat to the team, so I'd started keeping that in mind at this point.
Building Sets:
Generally I like to have six mons before building sets, but I did it a bit differently this time. The last two mons were meant to be somewhat of wild cards, stuff that will throw off opponents or could be used to shore up specific matchups, so I decided to create the sets for my first four mons beforehand.
Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 212 Atk / 4 Def / 28 SpD / 220 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
My Mega-Gross set was originally Zen/Iron Head/Ice Punch/Toxic. The Toxic was there specifically for Porygon2 and Suicune. Due to the effectiveness of another set below and not really seeing much in the way of Suicune, I replaced toxic with Earthquake. I'd considered TPunch here too, but I valued the ability to hit Heatran and the ability to trade in the mirror for Naganadel. Zen Headbutt is there specifically for Mega Venusaur. The tour set I built this for was against a team that had used Mega Venusaur multiple times so I kept that very much in mind. I ended up enjoying it anyways since the team otherwise did struggle in that matchup.
In terms of the EVs, the first thing I did was ev gross to live a specs shadow ball from Tapu Lele as well as ghostium-z from mimikyu. I decided that doing for adamant mimikyu was too much, so it ended up being a roll, with jolly being a guaranteed 2hko.
252 Atk Mimikyu Never-Ending Nightmare (140 BP) vs. 44 HP / 4 Def Metagross-Mega: 134-158 (83.2 - 98.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Shadow Ball vs. 44 HP / 28 SpD Metagross-Mega: 136-160 (84.4 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I wanted this guaranteed so gross could always switch into Tapu Lele and get off a big hit, even if it happened to be specs.
From there, I looked at the speed. I wanted to outspeed Adamant Mega Salamence at 220 Speed Jolly. The rest was placed into attack. One adjustment that could be made as the meta is changing, is to speed creep modest greninja at 236 speed jolly, but have kept it there for now.
(Election 4th, Approx 40%)
Naganadel @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Nasty Plot
The Naganadel set is pretty standard, though there are two slight changes from most people's sets. I do not use 20 hp to 1v1 Chansey, I think this team does not need it since I have Lando-t and Fini that help deal with fat. The extra few points of firepower can often be clutch, especially for a mon like Naga, that gains so much from just getting slightly better rolls. The second one is Fire Blast over Flamethrower. I will be the first to admit that Fire Blast miss has lost me a game. I however favour this:
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 174-206 (104.1 - 123.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Over this:
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 144-170 (86.2 - 101.7%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery
Especially since shadow ball into shadow sneak or any z-move from a bulky modest Aegislash will KO, stopping Naganadel from sweeping. This is a big hurdle in the Koko-Aegi-Mence matchup, where Naganadel can otherwise put in a large amount of work. Naga in general as well as cloyster who I will talk about later was just great for stomping noobs too.
(Election 3rd, Approx 50%)
Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 44 Atk / 4 Def / 212 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb
Lando-T is basically my special soak. In certain matchups, it would be there literally just to be sacked off. An example of this would be versus Porygon2 teams, I'd often use it to knock off the eviolite in exchange for about 60%. Originally Lando-T was exactly this set except it was adamant. The purpose of adamant was for rock tomb to always break certain substitutes, specifically bulky mences. I didn't feel that was too important and decided to just change it to careful without doing much more optimisation which seemed to be an excellent decision. Lando barely tanks Z-Draco into Draco from naganadel and can live 1 ice beam from protean (non-life orb) greninja. As not much on my team gives naga setup, I was happy with that. U-turn was my attempt of giving naganadel free switch ins, rock tomb is for the likes of char-y and volcarona, both of which Lando is meant to check. Knock off is mainly for P2/Hippowdon lead situations, where I'd knock off the berry/eviolite and then u-turn out.
252 SpA Naganadel Draco Meteor vs. 228 HP / 212+ SpD Assault Vest Landorus-Therian: 64-76 (33.1 - 39.3%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO
252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 228 HP / 212+ SpD Assault Vest Landorus-Therian: 94-112 (48.7 - 58%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Protean Greninja Ice Beam vs. 228 HP / 212+ SpD Assault Vest Landorus-Therian: 156-184 (80.8 - 95.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Something else I considered was char-y, which this can tank a hit from at least and the attack investment guarantee KOs non-bulky zard/volc.
252 SpA Charizard-Mega-Y Flamethrower vs. 228 HP / 212+ SpD Assault Vest Landorus-Therian in Sun: 79-94 (40.9 - 48.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
44 Atk Landorus-Therian Rock Tomb vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Charizard-Mega-Y: 156-188 (101.9 - 122.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(Election 1st, Approx 65%)
Tapu Fini @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 28 Def / 36 SpA / 4 SpD / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Nature's Madness
- Hydro Pump
- Moonblast
Tapu Fini was designed with a dual purpose, firstly to check Mega Blaziken/Mega Salamence and secondly to wind up fatter teams. Firstly 228 speed was placed, this is in order to outspeed Gyarados and taunt, allowing Fini to 1v1 with natures madness/moonblast. The 36 special attack guarantees KO of Mega Blaziken with hydro pump other than two rolls, which I felt was worth it. The rest was put into HP and Defence. The defence investment was tweaked slightly so that HJK into TPunch from Jolly Mega Blaziken never killed and allowed fini to tank physical hits slightly better, specifically Mimikyu's Mimikyu-z -> Shadow Sneak, which Fini lived with or without berry proc:
252+ Atk Mimikyu Let's Snuggle Forever vs. 212 HP / 28 Def Tapu Fini: 120-142 (69.7 - 82.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Mimikyu Shadow Sneak vs. 212 HP / 28 Def Tapu Fini: 25-31 (14.5 - 18%) -- possible 6HKO
36 SpA Tapu Fini Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blaziken-Mega: 152-180 (98 - 116.1%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
+1 52+ Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Return vs. 212 HP / 28 Def Tapu Fini: 141-166 (81.9 - 96.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
There could be further optimisations to this set for sure, it was the one I was most unsure about. 244 HP allows for a 12.5% chance to be KO'ed by scarf koko's Tbolt instead of a 25% chance. At the same time, having more defensive investment 124hp/112def could be placed in for P2 download boost, but figured it would not be worth it. The big one I could think of was outspeeding adamant mimikyu and guaranteeing Mimikyu-z hits into berry range if that did not sacrifice other calcs. Anyways, planned for other measures for mimikyu, not that the team was awful vs. it.
(Election 2nd, Approx 55%)
Wildcards:
Essentially I wanted two mons here that really covered the teams weak spots. In my mind, these two major glaring weaknesses were Mega Salamence and Greninja. Having a backup special sponge would also be great for mons like Koko/Lele. The most important criteria though for me was that these mons had to 1. be unconventional as well as underrated and 2. be something that opponents would be forced to pay attention to in team preview, 3. they could win games solo.
I tried a few variations here. Originally the duo was Mespirit and Magnezone, which I swapped pretty quickly with Mimikyu + Rotom-H. I liked the idea behind Rotom-H in particular, a mon that is just a menace to common meta teams, but didn't want to use Rotom-H itself so I found myself Snorlax. Snorlax was a mon that was starting to rise in popularity in top Japanese teams in S8-10 as a hard counter to Greninja and I instantly fell in love. I've always been of the opinion that curse/recycle lax is just such a pain to deal with for the opponent, so was glad to add it onto my team. The second mon I decided on was Cloyster. Cloyster I think is a mon that, like Snorlax, is underutilised, but can in the right circumstances be a threat. I valued in particular its ability to set up on mimikyu as well as being able to OHKO adamant loom and become faster than pretty much anything on the field with one smash. One trend I'd been noticing in particular was the lack of priority on top teams asides from Mimikyu Sneak which I could EV for and Greninja Shuriken on teams, making Cloyster all the more deadly. Tried it out and it worked a charm.
Perhaps not the best example of gameplay, but this was the team matchup for my BSPL game which should help showcase the effectiveness of these two mons:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7battlespotsingles-796296310
This was the third of our games, but to summarise it, Snorlax and Cloyster heavily pressure his team. My opponent cannot deal with Snorlax very easily due to it being stupidly fat without knocking off the berry and therefore trading Scizor which in turn allows Cloyster to put in work, which was my strategy for victory.
Building Sets:
Snorlax @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 148 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Def / 92 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Fire Punch
- Curse
- Recycle
The Snorlax set is a pretty typical lax set, explained better than I could by DMDW here:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/snorlax-singles-gp-0-2.3635035/
The reason Fire punch was put on was specifically for 1v1ing celesteela easier and generally the coverage was better than EQ which could cause problems if there was a skarmory/celesteela. Every time I threw off an attack with big lax, I wanted damage to happen to the enemy, so this also applied to other fliers/levitaters. Especially if toxiced, this allowed for more pressure on these mons. This was the only set I didn't specifically EV myself since I was happy enough with the standard spread.
(Election 5th, Approx 25%)
Cloyster @ Focus Sash
Ability: Skill Link
Level: 50
EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Liquidation
- Rock Blast
I played around with Cloyster's EV spread before getting to one I liked. This one has two purposes, firstly being able to set up on mimikyu and second being able to set up on Zard. 126 speed allows you to outspeed base 100s at +1 when you have shell smashed, leaving open the possibility of setting up on mons like Zard even if they have flame charged which is kinda cool. Also outspeeds adamant loom and OHKOs, leaving that as a possible lead in team preview. One possible adjustment to this could be to go up to 212 speed to outspeed scarf thundurus-t, however I didn't believe it too important when making the team as lax/lando/gross did more than enough for that. I like Liquidation over ice shard, just think it's solid stab to hit steel types.
252+ Atk Mimikyu Let's Snuggle Forever vs. 52 HP / 4 Def Cloyster: 84-99 (63.6 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Mimikyu Shadow Sneak vs. -1 52 HP / 4 Def Cloyster: 27-33 (20.4 - 25%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO
(Election 6th, Approx 15%)
Thoughts/Matchups/Struggles:
What I enjoyed about this team was that I actually in the few hundred games or so I played with it, used every single mon quite regularly.
Hippo/Mence/Aegi/Koko = Fini + Lando + 1
Generally I like to lead Lando vs. these sorts of teams, knock off hippo and then go into Fini. Lax is solid if they have greninja here. Otherwise Cloyster or Mega Gross can be cool. Cloyster needs to be in the back and you need to set it up so you are vs. koko/hippo (under misty terrain) though. Aegislash is the main annoyance of this team, so it is key that you get chip off with natures madness or earthquake from Lando/Gross. Naga actually 6-0s these sorts of teams, so if you can get a slow u-turn off from lando into naga, then you can really put the pressure on. Ofc depends on variant.
Breloom/Mimikyu = Fini + Gross + 1
If it is on a trick room team, ala Suropoke, Fini is really your cornerstone specifically for mega gyarados. A wide variety of other mons can be brought here. Fini Gross is my current favourite combination for loom lead and Mimikyu + Breloom specifically whilst it also covers mawile switches and can eat a hit from naga, but it is actually pretty flexible. I like snorlax in this sort of matchup, as long as you can get rid of breloom, it can be a nightmare for the rest of most TR teams. Outside of trick room teams, Cloyster can break Breloom/mimikyu on its own.
Hippo + Zard Y = Lando + Fini + 1
You will notice a general trend of bringing lando and fini when the opponent has a hippo. It's not that you can't bring other mons, you can, but these are simply the best two. Naganadel can put in a lot of work here which it can do in pretty much any non-heatran/ttar matchup.
P2 + Mence = Lando + Cloyster + 1
I actually like Cloyster in this specific matchup assuming they dont have hippo to break sash. Bait P2 into coming into lando, which is pretty easy, knock that boy off and win.
Mega Gengar = Lando lead
Pretty much your best lead against mega gar. Can 1v1 most sets, even if wow. If it's casino-gar, well just pray I guess.
Metagross + Fini = Gross + Naganadel + 1
Mega Gross teams, I generally like to counter with my own mega gross + Naga. When I use to have toxic Gross, I'd lead Naga and fire blast turn 1, which was bad, so I added EQ to gross. Essentially you want to chip opposing gross to 70% and then Naga wins pretty much.
Kommo-o teams = Gross/Fini/Cloyster
You are in a fortune that Kommo-o isnt a huge worry to your team, just pick one of these. You don't need to pick fini.
Greninja = Big Lax
If you see this bad boy and you are worried, pick big lax and you'll be good :). Fini can also work vs. Torrent gren, but not an ideal matchup either ways. If you really can't bring lax, cloyster can generally eat one hit and pressure back with a liquidation if you think it is protean.
Celesteela = Naga or Big Lax
If you see one of these on opposing side, you will have to bring one of these two, otherwise you will never be able to break this beasty. Heatran can be quaked as can Aegislash and Mega Gross, not this. Skarmory is the same category as this except its a worse mon that is less annoying and easier to deal with.
Main issues with this team atm are greninja and steel types, keep these in mind.
So there you go.
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