Other The Dark Horse Project

[Ropeburn]

I always wanted to try Aerodactyl, though I wanted to see if the hone claws set would work. Also, on that note, starting June 1st (2 days), the cutoff for Dark horses will be changed to 3%. Just a heads up.

I gave it a try at one point, but you're shooting yourself in the foot in terms of coverage, and Aerodactyl doesn't get many set up opportunities because its hp is a big letdown. Mega Aerodactyl's strongest points come from its revenge killing potential, and good coverage, so I didn't think it was worth a slash. Not to mention +1 doesn't help it deal with any of its counters very well.

Maybe a Hone Claws set could work in the lower tiers, but it's tough to pull off in OU right now.

 

[Eatthepear]

BTW I would like to add Mega-Ampharos as one of my dark horses. Thanks.

 

[Mowtom]

New month+New usage stats+Thread that deserves a bump=New Dark Horse challenge!

Pokemon Showdown! Username: HorseOfDarkness2

Prior Hall of Fame Standing: May 2014, Bronze Rank

Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Victini and Mew

Explanation of Dark Horse(s): I chose Victini while scrolling through the Viability Ranking Thread, and decided I wanted to see how well it would do in OU. Interesting fact: An Adamant Choice Band STAB V-Create from Victini has a 25% chance to OHKO 252/4 Deoxys-D with no prior damage. I chose Mew because Victini will need Defog support to do its job, and I've been hearing a lot of good things about Mew lately. It will be interesting to see if a team with 2 psychic types will work in the Ghost and Dark heavy OU meta.

Out of curiosity, can a user get into the hall of fame more than once per month if it is a different challenge each time?

 

[rachet67]

Out of curiosity, can a user get into the hall of fame more than once per month if it is a different challenge each time?

Yep.

Just as a general note, for the next 10 weeks I'll be working at a summer camp, and will be on a lot less. I can still manage hall of fame, but don't expect me to be too quick on updating it.


PS: Someone needs to do Lucario, it's sitting at less than a percent and it's so underrated. I would but I'll be gone.

 

[Ropeburn]

PS: Someone needs to do Lucario, it's sitting at less than a percent and it's so underrated. I would but I'll be gone.

I was actually planning on doing Lucario.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Tootersquad
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: Mega Aerodactyl (Senor little meat)
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Lucario
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): Lucario is so underrated this gen that it's disgusting. With STAB Close Combat and Swords Dance he becomes a threat to be reckoned with. I want to experiment with Lucario to see why people aren't using him and to see how much support it requires.

 

[Ropeburn]

Since there's been such little participation since I was away, I'll just bump this to see if anyone's still interested. Anyways, I made it above 1650 on the OU ladder using Lucario


Pokemon Showdown! Username: TooterSquad
Dark Horse Pokemon: Lucario
Screenshot of 1650+ Elo on OU ladder:

Dark Horse Complete Set:

Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ice Punch/Crunch/Earthquake
- Extreme Speed
-Close Combat

It's pretty clear what I was aiming for with this set considering it's been Lucario's staple for about 3 gens now. So how does Lucario fare in its base form, while its mega evolution is banished to Ubers? Pretty well actually, better than you'd think it would. STAB Close Combat is hard to come in on, and with SRocks and Extremespeed, it's tough to switch in on him. Ice Punch was my move of choice, since I liked hitting Landorus on the switch in, but Earthquake/Crunch is better for once you start hitting a point on the ladder where Aegislash becomes unbearable.

Final thoughts:
All in all, my experience with Lucario was rather good. It certainly does feel clunky compared to the rest of OU, but when it works, it works. It gives just as much as it receives in my opinion, and was never dead-weight.

This generation was even less kind to Lucario, so all in all I enjoyed the team I used with him very much and enjoyed using such a difficult, yet rewarding pokemon in a metagame where everything has become rather cookie-cutter. Give it a try sometime, it only needs a little support, yet does wonders if given the opportunity.


Description of team as a whole:

So here's the team. It mainly focuses around using team synergy both offensively and defensively, while being able to check as much of the OU metagame as possible, while also focusing on providing support to help Lucario put dents in the rest of the team.

Keldeo was a great pokemon for this team. It provided a good special wallbreaker, while also providing a good check to numerous threats like Bisharp and Azumarill in the case of Mega Venusuar falling too quickly.

Mega Venusaur is the backbone of this team both offensively and defensively. It provides a great mesh with Keldeo, while also providing for Lucario by removing Azumarill and other notable bulky water pokemon.

Aegislash is the biggest hindrance to Lucario this gen, therefore, I needed a good, dependable Pursuit trapper. Tyranitar did this well, but I hated the fact that Sand messed up Mega Venusaur's Synthesis, so I just stuck with the Red Power Ranger himself for my trapper.

Chansey is a weird choice, but it actually helps out a lot on this team by providing a solid mixed wall. It provides me checks to offensive pokemon such as Greninja and Thundurus, while setting up Rocks, and even providing Cleric support in the face of a Prankster T-wave or Burn on Lucario. If I fear a Knock Off, I can switch into Lucario to preserve my eviolite while giving Lucario a +1 boost.

Thundurus does wonders for this team. Slowing down threats for Bisharp, Venusaur and Lucario, while providing Taunt support has proven itself incredibly helpful on countless occasions against Deosharp teams, since this team lacks proper hazard cleaners. It also provides an answer to Flying Spam teams. (Note: If you want to try this team, consider Zapdos for this position, as it is a much better answer against flyers. I have yet to try it, so I'd be interested to hear about your results.)





Importable:

Skywalker (Lucario) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch

Behemoth (Venusaur-Mega) (M) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 240 HP / 28 Def / 216 SAtk / 24 Spd
Modest Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Synthesis

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Scald
- Secret Sword

Zaprong (Thundurus) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt

Vengeance (Bisharp) (M) @ Dread Plate
Ability: Defiant
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head

Eggcelent (Chansey) (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Def / 4 HP / 252 SDef
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Heal Bell

 

[Salemance]

Since there's been such little participation since I was away, I'll just bump this to see if anyone's still interested. Anyways, I made it above 1650 on the OU ladder using Lucario


Pokemon Showdown! Username: TooterSquad
Dark Horse Pokemon: Lucario
Screenshot of 1650+ Elo on OU ladder:

Dark Horse Complete Set:

It's pretty clear what I was aiming for with this set considering it's been Lucario's staple for about 3 gens now. So how does Lucario fare in its base form, while its mega evolution is banished to Ubers? Pretty well actually, better than you'd think it would. STAB Close Combat is hard to come in on, and with SRocks and Extremespeed, it's tough to switch in on him. Ice Punch was my move of choice, since I liked hitting Landorus on the switch in, but Earthquake/Crunch is better for once you start hitting a point on the ladder where Aegislash becomes unbearable.

Final thoughts:
All in all, my experience with Lucario was rather good. It certainly does feel clunky compared to the rest of OU, but when it works, it works. It gives just as much as it receives in my opinion, and was never dead-weight.

This generation was even less kind to Lucario, so all in all I enjoyed the team I used with him very much and enjoyed using such a difficult, yet rewarding pokemon in a metagame where everything has become rather cookie-cutter. Give it a try sometime, it only needs a little support, yet does wonders if given the opportunity.


Description of team as a whole:

So from all the battles you had with them, did you seem to see that often the other OU mons did more work for your team more than your Dark Horse did itself? The answer may be yes considering its 5 OU to 1 Darkhorse, but its just something I am curious to ask as with other people ive seen, the dark horse was not nearly as significant than another. Your experiences?

 

[GloriousGore]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: GloriousGore
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: none
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Gothitelle
Explanation of Dark Horse(s)
Well, I had Charizard-X as my sweeper. So I decided I need to trap Pokemon that would be troublesome to achieve the sweep such as Quagsire, so I picked Gothitelle. It also has good Special stats that could also potentially double as my Special Attacker. I heard it could dismantle damned stall cores.

Stop being a poser .-.

 

[Ropeburn]

So from all the battles you had with them, did you seem to see that often the other OU mons did more work for your team more than your Dark Horse did itself? The answer may be yes considering its 5 OU to 1 Darkhorse, but its just something I am curious to ask as with other people ive seen, the dark horse was not nearly as significant than another. Your experiences?

My goal with using such a standard team was seeing just exactly how much Lucario was doing, and honestly Lucario still justifies its slot on the team. Lucario needs a lot of support, but if you get Lucario in on certain stuff late game, it's pretty much a wrap at that point. He is way better against Balance teams, as long as you get put some damage in on them. Skarmory Chansey teams are literally free points as long as you don't screw around too much. Hyper Offense, on the other hand, gives him a lot of trouble if he can't get in and get a swords dance off. This team really likes having Lucario on it, and it meshes well with the other members. The whole goal of the team is to do as much damage while also whittling away at the things Lucario can't handle.

Despite all the problems with Lucario, I still think it's a good OU pokemon. It's certainly not the MVP of the team constantly, but the amount of pressure it puts on teams once it gets a swords dance up is still really impressive for a dark horse. Basically, Lucario is never deadweight. Extremespeed and 90 speed are extremely helpful traits. Feel free to take that team and change it around any way you'd like. I honestly had a blast using it and it was a fresh experience to run such an underrated threat.

 

[Salemance]

Bump time!

After going through many trials with my current team, I've noticed several things.

The team I have is Crobat, Arcanine, Crawdaunt, Zapdos, Gengar, and Ferrothorn. Gengar is often one of if not the better players on the team with his SubDisable set allowing for a myriad of switch in oppurtunities to better support the team, but for each good thing I can say about him, I can say a multitude of things wrong with one of my other members in Crobat.

I had inserted him there as I believed he had gained a lot during the gen transfer from Flying being a premier offensive typing, Defog, and Poison buff in general, but he is saddled with just a lot of mediocre ness. I have been using a utility set with Roost, Brave Bird, U-Turn, and Defog and his good assests he performs them spectacularly. To think he can shake off so much and dismantle with his Bird STAB alone is nice, but its a horrendously hard time just trying to get him in the field at the first place. With weaknesses shared between a few of my other pokes (he stacks weaknesses with every team member bar Ferrothorn) if one thing threatens one of the other guys, it will threaten him almost definitely. When he does his job, he does it well, but that's rarely more than getting rocks gone for the Zapdos and Arcanine.

Arcanine is serving as my physical wall with Intimidate, and often he works to great success just due to the fact most really don't expect him to be that bulky. He comfortably stomachs one hit to then burn to then heal the following turn,, its a beautiful thing seeing him work as he does. Zapdos is a nice complimentary Sp. Def Wall for my team, becoming hard to take down if the enemy is lacking a non burned physical mon. The defensive core is then added with Ferrothorn, who takes the hits Arcanine would rather not and deals lots of chip damage via rocky helmet and leech seed. These guys wall all they can till its time for the dismantler to finish it up: Crawdaunt.

He destroys a lot of stuff, frail as can be, but hits like a jackhammer with his Crabhammer. not much if anything enjoys his power, and its a beauty to see in action.


Overall, my team did not work as much as I would have liked due to a few flaws, and Crobat was a large one even if he gave me the necessary Defog I would later need. Truly a sad thing but it was what it was. Heres to the next one though!

 

[Enigami]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: EnigamiDHP
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Milotic, Gardevoir (non-mega), Huntail (Current peak ELO: 1431 - 219 from Bronze)
Explanation of Dark Horse(s):

Milotic - 1.619%: I set out with the purpose of building a team around Competitive Milotic, but instead shifted to Flame Orb Marvel Scale Milotic.

Gardevoir (Non-Mega) - 0.745%: (Percentage is from taking Gardevoir's OU usage (3.725) and then multiplying it by the percentage of non-Gardevorite usage). Gardevoir's primary purpose is to receive Shell Smash to let loose +2 SpA 140BP STAB Stored Powers. Trace can also occasionally nab an awesome ability, such as Protean or Magic Guard.

Huntail - 0.000%: The quarterback of the team, its job is to let its teammates create an opening for it, move in, and pass Shell Smash (+Iron Defense, if able) to a receiver. If it is not immediately threatened, it can pass Iron Defense as well. It can can also pull some suprise KOs with boosted Waterfall.

The Team:

Milotic @ Flame Orb
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 236+ Def / 20 Spd
Bold Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Haze
- Recover

Defensive tank and debuffer. Speed increased to outspeed everything except unboosted Scarf users after receiving Shell Smash.

Kyurem-B @ Power Herb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 232HP / 252+ Atk / 24 Spd
Modest Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Dragon Claw
- Freeze Shock
- Roost

Physical sweeper. A well timed Mental Herb Freeze Shock nuking can OHKO many pokemon. Speed increased to outspeed unboosted everything except Scarf users after receiving Shell Smash.

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 224+ SAtk / 32 Spd
Rash Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Light Screen

Special tank. Hidden Power Fire is to hit Steel types that expect a safe switch in. Light Screen can also shore up Special Defense after recieving a Shell Smash pass or help Huntail set up on Special attackers. Speed increased to outspeed unboosted everything except Scarf users after receiving Shell Smash.

Gardevoir @ Lum Berry
Ability: Trace
EVs: 244 HP / 224 Def / 8+ SAtk / 32 Spd
Modest Nature
- Stored Power
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Heal Bell

My main sweeper and target for Smash Pass (also can give cleric support in a pinch). HP and Defense EVs allow it to survive Mega Scizor Bullet Punches and Talon Flame Brave Birds after Stealth Rock and OHKO them before they get another chance to strike. Hidden Power Fire is chosen over Ground for Steel coverage to OHKO Scizor. Heal Bell allows it to support the team when it hasn't received Shell Smash. Lum Berry keeps prankster status from crippling a sweep. Speed increased to outspeed unboosted everything except Scarf users after receiving Shell Smash.

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252+ Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- Smack Down

Physical sweeper. Smack Down is for predicted flying/levitating switch-ins like Rotom-W, Zapdos or Gengar to allow Landorus to wreck them with Earthquake. Smack Down can also OHKO Talonflame or Charizard (before mega evolving) with no chance of a miss, so there's that too.

Huntail @ White Herb
Ability: Water Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 4+ Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Iron Defense
- Baton Pass
- Waterfall

Weakened or physical/water weak pokemon can be outright killed with boosted Waterfall, allowing it to generate great momentum while being able to pass its boosts when it faces anything it can't handle. It is best if Huntail can get Shell Smash and Iron Defense, as Gardevoir can easily tank priority attacks with that x2 defense. Speed increased to outspeed unboosted everything except Scarf users after receiving Shell Smash.

Edit Log:
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[jpw234]

Sup yo I wanna do Sableye

Pokemon Showdown! Username: jpwTimeToLadder
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: nah
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Sableye
Explanation of Dark Horse(s):
Sableye is the best stallbreaker on stall and also singlehandedly ruins a bunch of offensive teams. Priority WoW saves games and Knock Off gives you a long-term advantage in stall vs. stall. My set:

Sableye (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 244 HP / 252 SDef / 12 Spd
Careful Nature
IVs: 30 SAtk / 30 SDef
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp

Let me tell you a story about Sableye. I used to run 8 Speed EVs to outspeed other Sableye. Then I speed tied with this other guy's Sableye. I asked him what his speed EVs were and he said "8 to outrun other Sableye".
I run 12 Speed EVs on Sableye to outrun other Sableye. 252 SDef because it's more important than Defense since you have WoW, and rest in HP.
Notably Sableye has a very good chance to survive LO Latios' Draco Meteor and hit with Knock Off before Recovering off the damage:
252 SpA Life Orb Latios Draco Meteor vs. 244 HP / 252+ SpD Sableye: 261-308 (86.4 - 101.9%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
So it's pretty tanky.

Knock Off for stall and offense, really, such a great move. Taunt is pretty self explanatory to break stall along with WoW, Recover for recovery. Recommended to run with cleric support since poison or burn ruins your day. Can 6-0 teams with some help.

EDIT: I didn't realize we included all Dark Horses on the team, while I'm emphasizing Sableye I'm also using Alomomola. Set is here:

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Knock Off

I'll have a longer explanation when I post the results, but made to counter non-boosting Aegislash, Keldeo, and Conkeldurr while healing teammates with Wish.

 

[Croven]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Croven, but for this I'll use Dark Croven
Prior Hall of Fame standing: None
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Togekiss
Explanation of Dark Horse:

Well I wanted to build a team around this paraflinching beauty for one reason: It's my favorite Pokemon. I don't really have much other reason than that, but I was determined to make this team work, having tried once before and failing. Everyone hates it; it's one of the most annoying Pokemon for a reason. Thunder Wave + Air Slash + Serene Grace pretty much negates most chances of moving. Sometimes, when I just wasn't in the mood, I spammed Air Slash on a Chansey at 60%, and it ended up dying from flinches. So my favorite set was the wall/utility set, and three moves were kinda self explanatory. Twave, Air Slash, and Roost. For the last slot, I was deciding whether to use Defog or Heal Bell, both of which would help the team. I decided on using Defog as it was the biggest niche that Togekiss held over the other defensive fairies, not making it totally outclassed.

Konoha (Togekiss) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Air Slash
- Defog
- Roost

I got to 1650 on Croven, just using this team, but I forgot to register my account here before laddering ;~;, so I'll just start fresh with Dark Croven.

Cheers if you can get the nick reference.

 

[Salemance]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Croven, but for this I'll use Dark Croven
Prior Hall of Fame standing: None
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Togekiss
Explanation of Dark Horse:

Well I wanted to build a team around this paraflinching beauty for one reason: It's my favorite Pokemon. I don't really have much other reason than that, but I was determined to make this team work, having tried once before and failing. Everyone hates it; it's one of the most annoying Pokemon for a reason. Thunder Wave + Air Slash + Serene Grace pretty much negates most chances of moving. Sometimes, when I just wasn't in the mood, I spammed Air Slash on a Chansey at 60%, and it ended up dying from flinches. So my favorite set was the wall/utility set, and three moves were kinda self explanatory. Twave, Air Slash, and Roost. For the last slot, I was deciding whether to use Defog or Heal Bell, both of which would help the team. I decided on using Defog as it was the biggest niche that Togekiss held over the other defensive fairies, not making it totally outclassed.

Konoha (Togekiss) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Air Slash
- Defog
- Roost

I got to 1650 on Croven, just using this team, but I forgot to register my account here before laddering ;~;, so I'll just start fresh with Dark Croven.

Cheers if you can get the nick reference.

Idk, I keep thinking Croven from one of the people I see on Frost but eh. It is what it is. You, jpw234 and Enigami will be registered now! :D

 

[Enigami]

My account is listed Enigma. Can you get that fixed?

 

[Salemance]

My account is listed Enigma. Can you get that fixed?

Sorry bout that. *fixes* Guess I typed it right in this page, then thought enigma on the other. Sorry bud. Happy laddering though

 

[Croven]

Actually Salemance, I am from Frost. Imperium League Flying Gym Leader, here I am.

 

[Salemance]

Actually Salemance, I am from Frost. Imperium League Flying Gym Leader, here I am.

Figured. Welcome to Smogon Forums bud!


..........I don't think I need to state who I am but Sale here of the mighty Yeah!!! :D

 

[Croven]

lol Thanks Sale! I will enjoy my stay here in the Forums.


P.S. Imperium is better than Yeah!!!. Gtfo.

 

[madbadger]

May as well give this a go:

Pokemon Showdown! Username: WrongWarp
Prior Hall of Fame Standing:
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Chesnaught. Usage: 1.065%
Explanation of Dark Horse(s)
Chesnaught is a great physical wall with many support options. It can act well as a lead and a pivot on a stall team. It creates a FWG core with Charizard X and Quagsire on this team.

Chesnaught @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Hammer Arm
- Spiky Shield
- Leech Seed
- Earthquake
(shoutouts to Ajwf for this set)

The EV's allow it to take most physical attacks easily. It is a hard counter to most non subtoxic/flash cannon Aegislash and can scout its sets with spiky shield.
Got to around 1650 on this on my old Alt so will see how it goes with this one.

 

[Salemance]

Registered ya be madbadger.

.............and hopefully sometime today I can get through the registry and clean out the people who made the archive status and all.

 

[jpw234]

Okay! So, I made it to 1898 ELO (good for about #30 on the ladder) with Sableye and it's time to post the team. I'm bumping rather than editing since we've been so inactive :P

Pokemon Showdown! Username: jpwTimeToLadder
Dark Horse Pokemon: Sableye (and Alomomola)
Screenshot of 1650+ Elo on OU ladder: Terrible screenshot:

Hide

Dark Horse Complete Set: Here's the whole team:

Hide

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Defog
- Roost
- Whirlwind

Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
- Soft-Boiled
- Heal Bell

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 204 SpD / 60 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Roost

Quagsire (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
- Earthquake

Sableye (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 244 HP / 252 SpD / 12 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Mirror Coat

Sableye's set is specially defensive and he gets decently bulky on this side (notably tanking LO Latios' Draco Meteor at full health, retaliating with Knock Off and Recovering off the damage), with WoW to mess with physical attackers and Taunt to break stall. Knock Off helps win the war of attrition against stall and can give an advantage against offense as well. However, Foul Play is possible (and I should test it more) to deter switch-ins from physical attackers that you can't WoW like Char-X and Talonflame, neither of which really mind Knock Off - in particular, this team really doesn't like giving bulky WoW Char-X any free turns.

Team Description:
This is a stall team with Sableye used as a stallbreaker and stallbreaker-breaker. Basically it's useful as a team slot that can singlehandedly beat other stall teams while also playing defense against Taunt-based stallbreakers like Mew and Gliscor with Prankster, and serve as a check to threatening physically attacking stallbreakers like Mega-Heracross and Mega-Medicham with priority Will-O-Wisp.

The team as a whole is fairly simple. SkarmChans core takes care of a large number of major metagame threats and the rest of the slots fill in what they can't take. Notably Quagsire handles boosting physical attackers like DD Char-X and Bisharp (and also notably handles Thundurus-I lacking Grass Knot, which means I don't have to expose Chansey to a possible Knock Off). Gliscor handles some additional threats like Aegislash and CM Lando-I while also serving as my Stealth Rock user. Alomomola provides a secondary check to many physical attackers, backup recovery for each pokemon with Wish, and is my Keldeo counter and a secondary check to non-LO Aegislash. Also Mirror Coat is a free kill any time the opponent runs Rotom-W.

This team does have trouble with a couple of threats still - notably SubCM Keldeo and RainRest Manaphy are a simple GG. Additionally, it can succumb to a barrage of physical threats backed up by hazard support since the meta shakes out such that most physical attackers pressure Skarmory and make it difficult to get Defog off (this should get easier with the Deo forms banned). However, I think it's a pretty good team. Sableye is very important on this team providing a way to beat stall without relying on drawn-out PP wars or hax and also being a secondary check to basically every physical attacker.

 

[Ropeburn]

Out of curiosity, was my Dark Horse completion with Lucario ever seen? I looked at the front page, and I still don't see it. I could have sworn I sent the post to the thread owner, but I don't remember anyone getting back to me about it.

 

[Salemance]

Are ya referring to HoF status? Sadly Ratchet can't get to that for a bit (he is a little indisposed by life atm) and all we got is me running Registration. Just got to wait till he can get to it as im sure he has quite a large list to update....


Also jpw234 , while I am not as impressed by the Sableye dark horse (that thing is stupid in any tier) I don't see you discussing anything about Alomo. Mind talking a bit bout the mighty Wish Passer to see how she contributed outside of being second fiddle cause im trying to see how well Alomo worked on your team and if it was able to be done better (not harshly saying so, I want to know how well it performed its Dark Horse Job).

 

[Ropeburn]

Thanks for the heads up, Salemance. Just wanted to check up on it since it had been a few weeks. I'm planning on starting a new Dark Horse project (gonna try and run 3 Dark Horses this time) so I wanted to make sure the thread was still getting updated.