BH Balanced Hackmons

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Before I retire, 1 last post:
Dusknoir, Doublade, or even Aegislash clear Regigigas with Body Press.

252+ Def Doublade Body Press vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Regigigas: 158-188 (37.2 - 44.3%) -- 27.5% chance to 3HKO after Poison Heal

252 Atk Doublade Thunderous Kick vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Regigigas: 130-154 (30.6 - 36.3%) -- 12.6% chance to 4HKO after Poison Heal

Body Press, Spectral Thief, Strength Sap / Recover, Filler are enough to provide good coverage and utility:

Fighting + Ghost is unresisted and Doublade has 110 Atk base to take advantage of it for STAB Spectral, good utility (also Imposter can be Strength Sap’d from hurting you too much with Spectral), and Body Press on Doublade makes so much sense and gives it a reason to hurt other Pokémon, albeit Thundorous Kick is not bad either.

Body Press is not impacted by Strength Sap, which is nice, especially against stuff like Zamazenta-Crowned:

252+ Def Doublade Body Press vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Zamazenta-Crowned: 130-154 (33.5 - 39.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

If you opt for STAB Anchor Shot, in the Filler, you can literally trap, rack up damage with Thunderous Kick weakening their Defense, and stall with Strength Sap and Spectral Thief to keep set-up and physical attackers at bay.

252 SpA Pixilate Xerneas Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Ice Scales Doublade: 55-65 (17 - 20.1%) -- possible 5HKO

Giving it Ice Scales and boosting its utility as a nice switch-in to Xerneas is helpful, but what separates it from other Ghosts is allowing it to use Toxic or Poison Fang without Fear of Imposter, which is something other Ghosts cannot do without fear of Magic Bounce, or being Poisoned via another opponent directly.

The goal is high Defense for Body Press, or STAB Anchor Shot to trap and use Thunderous Kick, and/or Toxic to wear down opponents without being afraid of either move. Eviolite let’s Doublade handle Imposter

Spectral Does good enough neutral damage against some foes in general.
Oh yeah, this is how you actually use Darmanitan-Z:
Set Name: “Hot As Ice

71E11F79-EA3A-4A1D-855A-56A3FABF36C3.jpeg

Darmanitan-Zen @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Ice Scales
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Lava Plume
- Entrainment
- Volt Switch
- Strength Sap / Shore Up

- Lava Plume works for strong coverage due to STAB, while letting you Burn foes to weaken their physical damage, add chip damage to them, and covers yours Def stat, since you are using Ice Scales for SpA tankiness.

- Strength Sap also works wonders against Imposter (partner with a Liquid Ooze user), and if you can underspeed SpA sweepers walled by it, you can hit their incoming Atk sweeper.
This is bc when they pivot out, you can heal more off their higher Atk physical sweepers, and reduce their damage simultaneously as they can come in to try and threaten you back.

- Entrainment also works to keep foes switching out, as it makes it so easy to break potential threats on predicted switch-ins, like PHeal Regigigas; or Flash Fire Steels.
Suddenly; their check is vulnerable, and you can slow pivot as they are forced to switch.

- Volt Switch takes advantage of slow Spe, high SpA, good coverage in hitting Pokémon like Ho-oh that would normally force you out anyways, and a way of avoiding those pesky Anchor Shots.

As for its Physical Bulk—Darmanitan-Z has the resistances to survive the strongest and most common physical coverage moves like Glacial Lance, V-Create, Sunsteel Strike, Close Combat, etc.

Its typing is ideal Bc it works in tandem with Ice Scales to absolutely tank the biggest SpA threats like Pixelate Xerneas, Refrigerate Kyurem-W, etc.

Overall:

With low Atk, and even lower Speed, Darmanitan makes an ideal slow pivot that doesn’t attract Strength Sap, and cannot be countered very well by Imposter.
Thanks to its amazing Fire-typing, it can use STAB Lava Plume to burn without fear of Imposter coming in doing the same, (unlike Scald users), and severely underspeeds most foes, so you can safely send in your next teammate.

With perfectly balanced HP, Def, and SpD, Darmanitan-Z is bulky enough to take hits, effective at chipping away at foes via high SpA and % Burns, force switches via Entrainment, and pivot out - while going second, so you can send in the right checks and counters to your foe.

Not only does this specific moveset rack up entry hazard damage thru making your opponent have to switch out, but it keeps the momentum on your side, without sacrificing anything.

My suggestion: Darmanitan-Z is to be ranked B-Tier.

This set proves how much it can accomplish, especially due to its typing and stats in the right places.
 
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TTTech

My fate is a haunted curse!
is a Pre-Contributor
I'm only just starting to dabble into Balanced Hackmons, and wouldn't Archeops be viable?
His stats are far from bad, and the main reason he sucks is purely his ability, so could he potentially do really well in the metagame?
You're right, arch isn't bad and has a potential niche. However, its downfall is that it's not bulky enough for the metagame and unfortunately has one of the worst typings in a tier filled with glance, fishious rend, etc. It's usable still though
 
I may be a bit late to the whole Impform discussion, but here are my two cents:

I've played BH for quite a while(usually somewhere in the 1500-1550ish range) and I have somewhat mixed feelings on the whole concept on Impform. Let me separate my points into pros and cons about keeping it allowed below:

-Pros: There are definitely ways to play around Impform, especially if you know it's coming. You can scout out the set rather reliably, with either Imp going off first allowing you to pivot into a ghost, or in the case that they anchor you first, using a pivot move to check where their set is going. From my experience the impform user will repeatedly try to get the combo off over the course of the game in case of a ghost switch in. Another option I have found some success with is running Prankster Taunt, which stops the combo in its tracks and gives you some valuable momentum in return. Baiting them to switch in and tricking them a Choice item also works decently well, although it's a bit harder to pull off, as a lot of players would tend to see that coming.

-Cons: The strategy is very centralizing, basically requiring every team to account for it. If your team is weak to this one strategy, it's simply not good. Be it with ghost types, the arguably far worse Shed Shell, the afforementioned Prankster Taunt, tricking a Choice item and so on. The viable Ghost types are rather limited as well, as you peeps also mentioned before. On my main team I run a NDW, for example, the only other options would be stuff like Giratina and maybe Dusc/Aegis. Also, on a rather subjective and personal note, playing against this team style simply isn't fun in my opinion. I have been matched against teams that run 3 or more Impform mons and it's just such a slog. Also if you blunder even once, you are guaranteed to lose at least one mon. Sure, we should not balance a tier around blunders, but if your opponent uses multiple Impform mons or manages to kill your Ghost with an unexpected strat, you suddenly are at a HUGE disadvantage. Lose your ghost and there is high chance you flat out lose the game. I don't think that this is a particularly healthy state. Also, on another personal tangent, I don't see how Impform is healthier for the tier than Nuzzle, which got suspected not too long ago.

I would most definitely be in favor of a suspect test, but if I get stuff wrong big time in this post(As I very may well, I don't usually type out such paragraphs in a non-native language), please feel free to correct me.
 
Hello friends, so we've got some announcements here for y'all. First, the BH council recently held a vote for imprison / transform and have voted to ban transform! The reasons for this can be seen above in many of Tea Guzzler's and cityscape's posts. The vote was as follows:
XxLazzerpenguinxXcityscapesquojovaTea GuzzlerMAMP
TransformDo no banbanbanbanabstain
This also concludes the last of our tiering for gen8bh!

Secondly, I have a very special announcement. Quojova is now our new Co-Leader. He's been a very devoted and active council member for the time he's been with us, and this is very deserving. I look forward to leading gen9bh with him!

Lastly, in the linked thread below, you can find our council's plans for gen9bh. I will warn you, there are many spoilers there, so do not click the link if you are worried about anything getting spoiled.
 
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Tea Guzzler

forever searching for a 10p freddo
is a Site Content Manageris a Social Media Contributoris a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributor
HE GOT PUT IN A SPLIFF (impform is gone :crabrave:)
to be completely honest, i don't understand why it took so long to be removed. it both forces you into barely-viable team structures (if you aren't already using one of two viable fat ghosts) and also forces both players to play the lamest game imaginable to deal with the threat, on top of there still being no good anti-ban arguments. glad it's gone.

on a separate note, i've been trying a couple things these past few weeks that i'm probably just ramming here since i haven't done one of these posts in a while.

:ss/heatran:
Heatran @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spectral Thief
- Knock Off
- Nuzzle
- U-turn

this thing is alright? to be completely honest, the main use of this is as a sidegrade regenvest melmetal, with fire type being the main difference (water weakness in return for fire stab and not being weak to blue flare). decent mon espeically if you're wanting prankster melmetal, i don't think other heatran sets are that viable atm. spectral is just to not need a second xern check (for pheal sets), can also be blue flare for about the same reasons you'd run scald on ogre.

:ss/eternatus:
Eternatus @ Dragon Fang
Ability: Dragon's Maw
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Energy
- Sludge Bomb
- Final Gambit
- Soft-Boiled

yeah this thing is kind of mental. dragon energy does exactly what it says on the tin, gambit is probably the single most effective tool for removing troublesome zamac (who you fall just shy of 2HKOing) without needing to resort to specs and forces progress in basically every matchup. binning off a team's main special wall makes cleaning up easier for stuff like xern and yvel, running spikes gives you alright odds to 2hko zamac so you can avoid having to gambit on it if they have something like a ho-oh or melmetal in the back.

:ss/kartana:
Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sunsteel Strike
- V-create
- Glacial Lance / Power Whip

also kind of mental. paralysed imposter is all this really needs to start going ham - +2 sunsteel is an absolute nuke and OHKOes everything that isn't a resist, giratina or zygc, speed boost keeps you topped up from spamming v-create (meaning you never actually slow down) and can just evaporate imp users whilst outspeeding pult with adamant. glance matches better into fat dragons (OHKOing zyg unboosted and outdamaging sunsteel on every gira except fc) whereas power whip means you don't autolose into the dual screens suicunes that have been cropping up + hit palkia harder.

:ss/lunala:
Lunala @ Life Orb
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- No Retreat
- Stored Power
- Astral Barrage
- Low Kick

life orb and low kick seems weird, and it is, but you get the benefit of being able to just blow past things that lunala would normally be hard-stopped by. regenvesters and steel types (both regenvest and scales) crumple to life orb stored power and low kick, respectively, with low kick used to not lower your own stats and because everything it's hitting is kinda heavy. doesn't offer any benefit against yveltal despite neutrality, though if you wanted that you'd be using moonblast. losing gambit is annoying but with life orb you can still out-DPS many pranks like groudon, melmetal and giratina (especially if helped by status).

meta is good as is, happy to be leaving it here.
also can someone on staff implement this on ladder lol sev forgot to tag
 
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:ss/lunala:
Lunala @ Life Orb
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- No Retreat
- Stored Power
- Astral Barrage
- Low Kick

life orb and low kick seems weird, and it is, but you get the benefit of being able to just blow past things that lunala would normally be hard-stopped by. regenvesters and steel types (both regenvest and scales) crumple to life orb stored power and low kick, respectively, with low kick used to not lower your own stats and because everything it's hitting is kinda heavy. doesn't offer any benefit against yveltal despite neutrality, though if you wanted that you'd be using moonblast. losing gambit is annoying but with life orb you can still out-DPS many pranks like groudon, melmetal and giratina (especially if helped by status).
I've been trying something similar with Xurkitree.

Tree (Xurkitree) @ Throat Spray
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Clangorous Soul
- Thunderbolt
- Steam Eruption
- Blue Flare

I've been attempting to make him a really powerful special sweeper. It's right now a gimmick, but I think with the right help I could improve the set.
 

Clas

My death was... greatly exaggerated
is a Tiering Contributor
Hello friends, so we've got some announcements here for y'all. First, the BH council recently held a vote for imprison / transform and have voted to ban transform! The reasons for this can be seen above in many of Tea Guzzler's and cityscape's posts. The vote was as follows:
XxLazzerpenguinxXcityscapesquojovaTea GuzzlerMAMP
TransformDo no banbanbanbanabstain
This also concludes the last of our tiering for gen8bh!

Secondly, I have a very special announcement. Quojova is now our new Co-Leader. He's been a very devoted and active council member for the time he's been with us, and this is very deserving. I look forward to leading gen9bh with him!

Lastly, in the linked thread below, you can find our council's plans for gen9bh. I will warn you, there are many spoilers there, so do not click the link if you are worried about anything getting spoiled.
Tagging Kris to implement if not done, thanks!
 
Top 7 Masterpieces of Nihilslave in Gen 8
  1. Unova Dragons (Pre DLC)

    :kyurem-black::zekrom::shedinja::reshiram::zacian::melmetal:


    Best team of my old H.O. style + Very early application of Mixed Attackers + Feeling undefeatable almost all time

  2. Psychic Brothers (Pre DLC2 NDBH)

    :necrozma-ultra::deoxys-attack::arceus-steel::kyogre-primal::groudon::chansey:


    My only excellent NDBH team + Discovery of Necrozma-Ultra + Beautiful and symmetric mon choice

  3. Regigigas HO (Pre Calyrex-S Ban)

    :regigigas::calyrex-shadow::xurkitree::zamazenta-crowned::chansey::dialga:


    Application of my new H.O. style + Full Innovation on everything except Chansey + Breaking the unprepared meta again

  4. Cramorant Offense (Pre Cramorant-Gorging Ban)

    :cramorant-gorging::eternatus::kartana::zacian-crowned::zekrom::type-null:


    My only Raw-Power-Style H.O. in Gen 8 + Early Application of Improofing with Cramorant + Perfect Suspect Ladder Run

  5. Standard Balanced feat. Zac-C (Pre Rusted Sword Ban)

    :zacian-crowned::zamazenta-crowned::giratina::chansey::xerneas::celesteela:


    My first excellent Standard Balance + Zacian-Crowned so good + Period

  6. Paper Balance [Pre Regi-Xern Para Hazard Spam(?)]

    :eternatus::zamazenta-crowned::necrozma-dusk-mane::xerneas::giratina::chansey:


    Huge advance in teambuilding of mine + Re-Discovery of Necrozma-Dusk-Mane + Best Ladder Tour Run in all

  7. Magic Guard Offense [Pre Regi-Xern Para Hazard Spam ×2]

    :celesteela::ho-oh::zekrom::lunala::groudon::zamazenta-crowned:


    Mature understanding of building from structure + New use of Magic Guard team style + Winning a BH Open Semis game for Sevag
After the historic ones let's see some practical ones (for those who need to play gen 8 bh in gen 9 or later):
Ordered By Time
1. Magic Guard Offense (the #7 team above)
2. :regigigas::xerneas::zygarde-complete::yveltal::type-null::spectrier: - See the #6 team in this post
3. :groudon::xerneas::chansey::regigigas::zamazenta-crowned::lunala: - Standard and good enough despite a shameful tour game played with it
4. :xerneas::regigigas::eternatus::chansey::ho-oh::giratina: - Rebellion to Regi-Xern Para Hazard Spam (remember to change the nicknames before use)
5. :groudon::eternatus::calyrex-ice::regigigas::kartana::registeel: - Application of Download (not necessarily good)
6. :reshiram::ho-oh::zamazenta-crowned::barraskewda::zygarde-complete::registeel: - Application of double PrimSea (not necessarily good)
7. :palkia::xerneas::regigigas::melmetal::giratina-origin::zygarde-complete: - Built when teaching how to build, untested in tours but should be good. Watch this if you understand Chinese.
 

Tea Guzzler

forever searching for a 10p freddo
is a Site Content Manageris a Social Media Contributoris a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributor
this is a teamdump post. most of these i've already revealed at some point but congregating them all into one post is just more useful and saves having to dig through threads full of waffle to find them. unlike nihilslave i don't have teams from older metas, because relative to everyone else i'm a new face; my first contact with the meta was the day before the Intrepid Sword ban, and i didn't actually pick the tier up until the end of the sleep suspect. these are all the teams still in my builder, other stuff that i've used but isn't here is likely not good enough to share (otherwise i would've kept the paste).

This team doesn't have a name (Nov 2021) - old, illegal HO
:regigigas::kartana::lunala::zygarde-complete::kyurem-white::xerneas:
This crutched completely on surprise factor and the fact that people spammed barely viable mons like Tapu Fini all the time. The first time I saw MAMP's LOTC gigas I was hooked, and so this team was built with the intention of using that. Lunala is the self-proof set, Kartana sometimes just autowon if they threw Etern too early or there wasn't Prank Giratina (and scarf unaware Zyg-c was so that, when improofing, sunsteel wouldn't just evaporate), and scarf Kyu-w got far too many kills than it deserved with min spdef used for dragon energy to ruin imposter. 24 speed IVs on Gigas are so it can trade damage with Imposter and die, Lunala can come out, live with Wicked Blow thanks to sash, and outspeed Gigas after No Retreat.

Sky-High Drive-By (January) - Rayquaza Sand Offense
:rayquaza::nihilego::groudon::magearna::dialga::dusclops:
First proper team I ever built. Mostly crutched on people sleeping on Flying-types, with most Steel-types not being fully equipped to deal with them and Zekrom completely off the grid, along with some fringe options that managed to fit the bill like Sand Stream Nihilego and Magic Bounce Groudon. Struggles in current meta due to a lack of backfoot play and weakness to any Xern not running mono-fairy, however sometimes you get a good matchup with Rayquaza and just get to start blasting.

Critical Wounds (February) - Rayquaza + Palkia Offense
:rayquaza::groudon::celesteela::palkia::tapu fini::zamazenta-crowned:
Back on the Ray train, more offensive stuff like the overkill shift gear Palkia with an umnon to improof it. scales Don improofs ray and also is the v-create Xern check, Steela is here so I have an actual ground immunity (although Fini is normally sufficient) and also improofs Don. Heavily offensive but similar to SHDB in that it lacks backfoot play and struggles with Xern, this one moreso Plate + V-create sets.

Criminal Enterprises (June) - Double -ate Balance
:regigigas::zygarde-complete::xerneas::melmetal::chansey::yveltal:
Built for OMPL with the help of stresh, currently one of the samples. The synopsis is there, but in short you play slow with Spikes stacking and let Xern get in through pivot moves to do the heavy lifting in terms of damage. Zyg-C, Melmetal and Imposter form a reliable defensive backbone which walls long enough for you to win by yourself.

SUPER DOG (August) - Zama-H Balance
:regigigas::lunala::xerneas::zamazenta::groudon::zamazenta-crowned:
Built for BH Seasonal. This was the first time i'd ever encountered base Zamazenta in my whole time playing BH, and it didn't disappoint thanks to it's ability to outspeed and OHKO Zama-C without keeling over to a slight breeze like Pheromosa. The rest of the team is designed with this in mind, with pretty standard stuff across the board that aims to set up a Zama sweep late game. Has issues with being on the back foot due to the lack of any pivot moves, Bounce Ho-Oh is really annoying, and Zama-C stonewalls Regigigas so if they have Zama-C + another Fur Coater (ie. one that actually walls Zama-H) then you can have a hard time.

something something acupressure (September) - Acupressure cheese
:giratina-origin::yveltal::chansey::zygarde-complete::solgaleo::regigigas:
Built for BH seasonal. Goal is basically to snag something you can boost on with Giratina, spam Acupressure until you get to +6 all, go to Yveltal, click Imprison and win the game. Outside of this the team stuggles a lot, since if you can't get the boost off for whatever reason then at best you're in a 4v6 with 2 sacks, and the general strategy is to just spam Spikes with Gigas and hope their team structure is weak enough to crumple to it. Not consistent but funny to see people forfeit after the first Acupressure when the penny drops.

WE ARE IN ENGLAND (September) - Rain HO
:palkia::barraskewda::zacian::zygarde-complete::melmetal::zamazenta-crowned:
Built for OMWC. When I saw that career ended wasn't playing BH in week 1, and that it was instead Potatochan (who I hadn't seen playing BH before), I knew i could get away with Rain to invalidate any passed teams and because nobody expected it. This team crutches entirely on the fair and balanced move that is Fishious Rend, which under rain lets Palkia potentially OHKO RegiXern and Drizzle means that Barraskewda can choose it's ability (Mold Breaker here is pure paranoia about Water Absorb, you beat Fur Coaters anyway so other abils like tinted or dazzling also work). Zama-c's PrimSea interrupts your own rain but is solely there to be a defog bot + check the incredibly troublesome SG DesLand Ho-Oh.

Searing Assault (September) - Desolate Land Ho-Oh Offense
:ho-oh::xerneas::zamazenta-crowned::zygarde-complete::regigigas::melmetal:
Built for OMWC, is both a sample and has a RMT. Goal is for Ho-Oh to just tear through stuff with Life Orb, +1, Sun-boosted V-create, and Regigigas is there as a support piece to help break past anything Ho-Oh can't like Fire-Immune Steel-types and Fur Coat Fires/Waters. Rest of the team is pretty standard bulky stuff like Prank Melm and Bounce Zyg-C, Rend Xerneas is so you don't autolose to Bounce Ho-Oh in drawn out hazard wars.

Dragon Energy: The Button (September) - Double Dragon Energy Offense
:eternatus::xerneas::heatran::groudon::zamazenta-crowned::palkia:
Built for OMWC. This is only barely less of a clicker team than the rain, Dragon's Maw Etern is ridiculously easy to break with and Final Gambit removes any hard walls like Scales Zama-C, Recover's in the back so you don't just start doing nothing when you get to low health. AV Heatran improofs Xern and Etern + just does standard AV stuff, Palkia is here just because I already had the FC Zama-C here to improof it and it does big damage. Team's only major flaw is that Dragon Fang Eternatus barely falls short of 2HKOing opposing Zama-C so Etern normally ends up clicking Final Gambit into it with varying effect, switching out Palkia for some Spikes setter might help in this department.

i think it's really interesting to see how my building has evolved over the past year, helped by the fact that there haven't been any massive meta changes over the past year besides that one period of a couple weeks where we thought the nuzzle apocalypse was upon us. going from unviable, ultra-lopsided teams like this one (which i think is my first team ever) and this one to what you see above i think showcases how much of a better player i've gotten.
 
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