Gen 6 A Prophecy of Tribulation (Pure Hackmons, Mono-Ghost Stall, Peak top 20)

[Onyx Onix 7]

The Challenge / Introduction: ​

Pure Hackmons is unique in the respect that it’s an open meta, in that almost anything can succeed. Since I haven’t seen anyone in the Pure Hackmons community attempt a mono-type challenge run (At least successfully), I thought it would be well worth seeing through what could be accomplished with the right building expertise.

The ruleset I decided to use for the mono-type challenge for Pure Hackmons is as follows:

1. All Pokemon on my team must share the same type
2. Pokemon with a BST of over 500 are not allowed in this challenge
3. Boosting with other teams to increase my ladder score is banned
4. The challenge must start with a fresh alternative username

Type Selection: ​

As with any challenge of this nature, one must first select the type to build around, as that influences most of the decision-making going forward. For this challenge, I selected ghost types as the type I wished to work with since it was the month of October when this challenge began and because ghost types are almost as dead as I am.

The Team-Building process:​

Right away, I realized that I needed a way to absorb the strong dark moves hurled by the ever-present Mega Gyarados and Huge Power Pokemon. As such my first addition to the team was Wonder Guard Mega Sableye to ensure I would have some form of counterplay to that subset of pokemon.



From there, I needed a bulky Prankster user to have some form of control over Mold Breaker setup. For that role, I selected Dusclops since it had the best bulk out of the options I had.



Once I had established my defensive core, I needed to establish a wincon for the team. Since most of my offensive options were looking dire, and I needed more than just Dusclops to control set-up, I added two Level 1 Prankster Duskull with Prankster Sleep, Curse, Pain Split and Substitute to control set-up and have a wincon.



I added a 3rd Duskull as a ghost Wonder Guard user to ensure that the team won't instantly lose to no-guard users.



Lastly since I relied on Curse as my team’s main wincon, Gengarite, Perish Song Gengar ensures the team has an out against Magic Guard pokemon and other miscellaneous threats.

The Team:

Accursed Seer (Duskull) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 1
Shiny: Yes
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD / 0 Spe
- Dark Void
- Pain Split
- Substitute
- Curse​

The Duskull on the team serves simultaneously as a way for the team to make progress and a means outside of Prankster Dusclops for defeating aggressive Mold Breaker Pokemon. It does so via its prankster Dark Void, which can outspeed most common threats and can put them to Sleep. From there instead of passively sitting about like most Prankster pokemon traditionally do, Duskull sets up Substitute and attempts to aggressively drain the Hit Points of opposing pokemon. Since Duskull is level 1 and thus has a measly 11 hit points itself, Pain Split reliably cuts the Hit Points of pokemon while also healing Duskull back to full HP for subsequent Substitutes and Curses. Curse ensures this strategy won’t be foiled easily by Substitute and allows Duskull to reliably finish off foes whose HP has already been ravaged by Pain Split. Lastly, Duskull’s IV’s and EV’s are set so it has an odd HP stat to ensure it can use Curse 3 times and Substitute up to 4 times.

Accursed Seer (Duskull) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 1
Shiny: Yes
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD / 0 Spe
- Spore
- Pain Split
- Substitute
- Curse​

The second Duskull on the team functions fairly similarly to the first Prankster Duskull. As with the 1st Duskull prankster, Sleep is utilized for suppressing opposing offensive foes and defensive options alike, and Curse and Pain Split are used to whittle away at the Hit Points of opposing pokemon. However, what separates this Duskull from the prior one are its choice in item and Sleep move. Since Spore is 100% accurate unlike Dark Void, Sash is less necessary as a contingency plan in case of a miss so Lum Berry is used to cure status conditions in case an opponent tries to reflect sleep back to Duskull with Magic Bounce. Additionally, as a result of the high accuracy of Spore, this Prankster Duskull is more reliable as a defensive option vs a myriad of offensive Pokemon.

Accursed Seer (Duskull) (F) @ Mental Herb
Ability: Wonder Guard
Level: 1
Shiny: Yes
Serious Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD / 0 Spe
- Curse
- Pain Split
- Substitute
- Dark Void​

Since Huge Power users carry multi-hit moves such as Gear Grind and No-Guard users often have moves that can hit through substitutes like Grass Whistle, the Level 1 Prankster often Duskulls aren’t enough to hold the line defensively. Thus, the final Duskull is designated as the team’s counterplay option to No-Guard and Huge power, as with Wonder Guard it can effortlessly absorb most multi-hits aimed at the other Duskull and survive OHKO moves thrown with its ability Wonder Guard. While the moveset is exactly the same as the 1st Duskull, it tends to function very differently. Instead of being used to target set-up pokemon, Duskull’s role is to find pokemon that can’t touch it and set Substitute and start spreading sleep and damage throughout an opponent’s team. Slow sleep spam and Substitute ensures that an opponent won’t often have a good switch-in and serves doubly to protect Duskull from Pursuit users such as Mega Gyrados and Mold Breaker attackers like Mega-Rayquaza. Mental Herb is the item of choice with this set to guarantee that Duskull has the opportunity to sleep potential Encore and Taunt users at least once and begin the slow process of breaking them down.

Unhinged Greed (Sableye-Mega) (F) @ Mental Herb
Ability: Wonder Guard
Level: 2
EVs: 76 HP
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Dark Void
- Curse
- Pain Split​

Mega Sableye is by far the most vital pokemon on the team as it is the only component that keeps the team from falling to threatening Dark Type attacks like Pursuit and Knock-Off. It accomplishes this via its ability Wonder Guard which offers an immunity to all non-Fairy Type moves so long as those moves aren’t coming from Mold Breaker pokemon. Mega Sableye in addition to its defensive utility uses a Level 2 Pain Split set with Curse to pressure pokemon with massive chunks of passive damage. Similar to the prior level 1 Wonder Guard Duskull Sableye uses Dark Void to attempt to control the game with the threat of sleep and Mental Herb to negate attacks like Encore, Taunt, and Curse from foes like Prankster Giratina.

Prophet of Dread (Dusclops) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Destiny Bond
- Curse
- Recover​

Level 1 pokemon tend to struggle quite a bit against Mold Breaker pokemon, especially with Multi-Hit options such as Beat Up / Water Mega Gyarados. Prankster Dusclops offers the team an out to such threats with its massive bulk and excellent utility options in Encore, Destiny Bond, and Curse. Encore can lock foes into their set-up moves to give the team a chance if the opportunity window to proactively sleep them is missed. Destiny Bond, similar to Encore is another last-ditch utility option to ensure that if something gets an opportunity to set-up it won’t sweep the entire team and instead is dragged into the void with Dusclops. Dusclop’s EV spread of 252 Defense and 252 Special Defense ensures it gets the greatest possible benefit from Eviolite and maximizes its overall mixed bulk to take on miscellaneous attacks, that the rest of the team won’t handle well.

Ill Omens (Gengar) (F) @ Gengarite
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Encore
- Perish Song
- Spiky Shield​

The final pokemon on the team, Gengar, is given the role of luring in and removing Pokemon that are resistant to Curse damage or have problematic multi-hits or coverage options for the rest of the team. Gengar uses its Mega Stone to exploit a loophole in the BST clause to gain its much faster Mega Form. This faster Mega forme is vital since it allows Mega Gengar to outspeed pokemon such as Mega Rayquaza and Diancie and be able to put them out of commission with Spore or Encore. The rest of the moves are standard to most Perish Song Trapping set in Pure Hackmons: Spiky Shield stalls for turns and ensures that Mega Gengar can safely Mega Evolve to get its higher Speed Stat, Encore can lock passive pokemon into non-pivoting moves to claim Kos, and of course, Perish Song to actually claim the KO. Mega Gengar is EV’d with maximum speed and maximum HP and given the ability Illusion to ensure it is as bulky, quick, and sneaky as possible to maximize the chances of the Perish Trap being successful.

Threat List: ​

Random Multi-Hit moves on Mold Breaker Pokemon:

Since the team predominantly relies on low level pokemon with Curse and Pain Split to make progress this is a huge issue. Vs this strategy typically the best out is to leverage Illusion Gengar to remove said threat.

Magic Guard:

Magic Guard is a huge obstacle for a number of reasons. Magic Guard pokemon typically are immune to status such as sleep vs status orbs and can’t be Cursed. Generally, the best option again is to try and snag them with Gengar.

Magic Bounce and Substitute:

Typically Magic Bounce and Substitute are fairly manageable, however, when they are combined into one pokemon the two can easily drain the team of HP since Pain Split won’t work. It’s even worse when these pokemon have reliable Recovery and Curse. There really isn’t any option besides to pray you don’t load into this match-up.

Proof of Laddering Peak:

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As one can observe in the following screenshot, I peaked at about 16th Place on ladder with a gxe of about 87%, (as can be seen in the replays Despairing Duskull was the alt I used for the laddering challenge).

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Replays:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6purehackmons-1681262406-w62b2j5v2lh76798o3fzt7j0xj1dw18pw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6purehackmons-1681168721-a3uk4yibr5skquzt7995v7fjdatvkvapw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6purehackmons-1680964475-poi9lqphfake6r3nf3d79octcrwizlipw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6purehackmons-1685800196-fjq6z5w79xalj0kldw42g90dy469t58pw

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Team Importable:

https://pokepast.es/14ffc76a324b80ce

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Art Citations:

Sableye by Puppsicle,
Check out their deviant art page here:
https://www.deviantart.com/puppsicle

Duskull by L-Y-N-S,
Check out their deviant art page here:
https://www.deviantart.com/l-y-n-s

Dusclops by OnixTymime;
Check out their deviant art page here:
https://www.deviantart.com/onixtymime

Gengar by Dragolisco;
Check out their deviant art page here:
https://www.deviantart.com/dragolisco

 

[SpaceSpeakers]

funny team to use
Tks for it