Dear sweet skies, I don't think this board has ever seen an OU Monotype team before. Not that it should matter, this is written as quite a standard RMT.
With the release of 6th gen, I've found that this team has sank into mediocrity, and since 6th Gen battles are becoming the standard, I think it's pretty much time to retire these flyers, unless someone challenges me to 5th. I've had a lot of success with it in the few months it's been in use...
The team was constructed very simply: lots of defense, lots of recovery, and a couple of emergency buttons. The team lineup thus consists of two Special walls, two Physical walls, and two emergency buttons (what? I did say "a couple"). It's a long read because I suck at making things short, so I've bolded some of the more important points (one for every Pokemon), if wall of text crits you, just read that bit.
On to the RMT itself...
Myth (Gyarados) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 HP / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Thunder Wave
- Dragon Tail
The first pokemon in my teamlist, and and the last to be added; Myth the Gyarados is one of my special walls. As I toyed with my team, I realised that my other special wall, Togekiss, was too overworked - I often needed her to check three pokemon on the opposing team, because the Pokemon in this slot (a standard CP Sigilyph) was proving to be so much dead weight.
Enter Gyarados. With a 252/252+ Specially Defensive spread, Myth checks all variants of Volcarona, all variants of Special Lucario... pretty much every special sweeper not packing Thunderbolt. It's also bulky enough to survive weak electric attacks. Due to Intimidate, she can also come in on resisted and neutral physical hits, serving as an emergency check to Physical Sweepers (Lucario and Infernape, off the top of my head).
Her typing gives her nifty resistances to Water and Fire, so Gyarados is also my main check to Rain teams (man, **** Politoed. Also, **** Rotom-W) and Sun teams. Importantly, she also sports an Ice neutrality (Yes, omnipresent Ice Beam. I'm looking at you), which is important because, well, Monotype.
What does this offer over a Bulky DD set? Mostly, it's recovery, which Bulky DD doesn't offer. Sometimes, rarely, the recovery isn't necessary. A lot of the time, I'm clicking Rest two or three times a match. I could run Waterfall/Stone Edge, but I find Twave/Dragon Tail more efficient, considering I'm 0Atk and often with 3 layers of Spikes and SR. I can get 3-4 Dragon Tails off in a row, then Rest off the damage and get some more with Sleep Talk.
Running RestTalk means I also have a status absorber. Sponged a Volc Fire Blast and took an unlucky burn? idgaf. Vaporeon Scalding you all day? idgaf. Heatran fishing for Lava Plume burn? idgaf. Pory2 trolling you with Discharge? Freaking switch, he's not surviving two of those things.
Light (Togekiss) (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Body Slam
Light the Togekiss (I should have named her Reverie, but it's a little too late for that) occupies the last slot in my team list, which is a little ironic because for the longest time, and even now, Light is one of the most important Pokemon on the team (easily a contender for MVP). She's second here because Myth was first, and I decided to lump the Special Walls together for readability.
Often, Thunderbolts and Ice Beams are used for coverage, which makes them unSTABed, and not as powerful as opponents might hope. Here, calcs for you:
Light is my check to anything that carries Thunderbolt (come on, it obviously wasn't going to be a Gyarados). And by that, I mean "special attackers in general" - HP Ice commonly does 20% to her. Importantly, she's also the team's only real answer to Thundurus-T, and even then, not all that solid an answer - On the attack I live, I go for a Body Slam para, Roost stall him until I get Parahax, then start Air Slashing for 4-5hit KO.
Instead of boring you like I did with Gyarados' paragraphs, I'll explain some of the more dubious choices I've made. Right off the bat, you'll notice a Lum Berry instead of Leftovers. This is mostly personal preference - back before I ran Gyarados, a single unlucky Thunderbolt Para or Ice Beam freeze meant game over for me. Taking Scald burns or eating Toxic was less debilitating, but not by all that much. Lum Berry gives me another shot at life. Experience proved it to be far more gamechanging than the passive healing from Lefties.
The other thing you'll notice is Twave and Body Slam on the same set, with no Aura Sphere. Body Slam lets me check Thundy-T, paralyze Ground types, and beat Wobbuffet. Thunder Wave hits ghosts and is far more reliable. The redundancy has saved me more than once. Aura Sphere, in all the time I ran it, was fairly useless and I never clicked on it, nor have I since thought, "man, I really wish I had Aura Sphere now". Well, fine, once.
Valor (Skarmory) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 228 Def / 252 HP / 28 Spd
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Brave Bird
Valor the Skarmory is the first of my Physical walls. It walls most Tyranitar and Terrakion, which is huge. The EVs are PS default, with four points extra into speed from Def to speedcreep opposing Skarm in case of a Whirlwind battle. I don't even remember why they recommend 24 Spe, but I know it's to outspeed something. Notably, Skarmory is neutral to Rock attacks.
This is a bog standard Skarm set, really, not much to talk about. Instead, I'm going to talk about why it doesn't run SR. This requires a bit of knowledge about the rest of the team (specifically, a Xatu). Often, against a Flying monotype team, opponents scramble to get SR up. I can't count the number of times they led with their SR setter against Light the Togekiss. In comes Xatu for free rocks. Other times, they predict the obvious switch and drop Xatu, but I can KO them right back (you'll see why soon), so neither team gets rocks up. In such cases, I have the advantage because of Spikes. The last common scenario is when they toss out SR mid-game, and by this time, I often have a decisive lead. Either that, or I'm screwed anyway.
Against mono-flying, I'm obviously not setting up Spikes. It makes more sense to come in as a defensive pivot - just sort of sit there until they get frustrated with hitting something impervious to their attacks. Whirlwind stops those pesky setup sweepers, which is really, really important...
Silence (Gliscor) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 224 Def / 212 HP / 72 Spd
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Protect
- Substitute
- Earthquake
Silence the Gliscor is the other half of my Physically defensive duo. Notably also Rock-neutral, but with the added bonus of Electric immunity and bulky enough to take an Ice Shard from Mamo - yes, I had to do this once, damn you Stone Miss for critting twice. Similar to Skarmory, Gliscor is a fairly standard set - 72Spe neutral outruns Jolly Tyranitar, which is huge, in case it turns out to be one of those stupid Mixed ones. Gliscor also takes under 50% from most Outrages. The premise is simple - Toxic something, then spam Sub/Protect to kill it. That's the premise, anyway. Normally he doesn't stay in for that much time.
Of note here is STAB EQ, which, despite no investment, is still reasonably strong, and especially useful against opposing Rock-types. Especially, especially Rock Monotype teams. Especially, especially, especially Tyranitar - look, I'm speedcreeping the guy, man. That should tell you something... EQ is also notable for hitting everything that Toxic isn't. Bar the likes of Crobat (never seen him ever), Balloon Heatran and Skarm, of course.
Well, the only thing even slightly odd here is the EV spread. You already know that 72 Spe exists to speedcreep Tyranitar. I then maxed defense and chucked the rest of the 184EVs into HP. Afterwards, I shifted EVs from Def into HP until my HP hit a multiple of 8. I believe this maximises my physical def for a HP stat at a multiple of 8, without wasting EVs (of course, I may be wrong). The alternative spread was 180 HP/4 Atk/252Def/72 Spe, if you wanted to know.
Counter (Xatu) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 SDef / 30 Spd
- Heat Wave
- Trick
- Grass Knot
- Psyshock
What in all the skies is this abomination? A Modest Specs Xatu? And what's with that movepool? The only viable Xatu is a Twave/Dual Screens/U-Turn/Roost/Wish/insert support move here variant! Is this thing trying to be a Latios? Not that Latios would ever run Heat Wave or Grass Knot. It can't.
So, what does Specs Xatu actually do? Mostly, it drops opposing mons carrying SR. Grass Knot drops those Water/Groundmons (and Ttar), Heat Wave trolls Steels, and Psyshock is for STAB. The only common SRmon it doesn't beat is Heatran, and Heatran is known for being really weak to EQ. Which Gliscor and Salamence carry.
The other irreplaceable move is Trick, which lets me win games I shouldn't. For example, Cradily (this is a Monotype team, you see Cradily on every opposing Mono-Rock ever). Cradily can't do anything to me if it's holding Specs. How about Vaporeon? Yes, irritating, insane, half-broken HydraRest Vaporeon with Politoed support can't do anything to me if it's holding Specs. Prankstermon? Xatu comes in on anything and slaps Specs on them.
Remember, this is a defensive team, it's going to get taken apart by the likes of Tauntmons (yes, Sableye, I'm looking at you). Against some teams, Xatu is dead weight. This I admit freely (makes good death fodder). He's most likely to be sacked where necessary. But when he contributes, he really contributes.
Hope (Salamence) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
I hope you saw it coming. Hope is a Scarf Moxiemence, named so because she wins games when I'm really behind and have nothing to do but hope (Never give up hope and all that shtick). She's also a pretty effective emergency panic button. Shell Smashed Omastar at 1/2hp threatening a sweep? Hope. SD Chain Chomp just Fire Blasted Skarmory out of the air? Hope. Scarf Moxie Heracross? Hope. Need emergency damage on something that's likely to sweep me? Hope.
Often, Hope only comes out once or twice a match, KOes something that I need dropped, then immediately switches back out. Like I said, emergency panic button, and a pretty effective one.
One thing I do with this team when I'm losing is try to open up a Hope sweep. If I see that one of his pokemon is his only hope of stopping Hope, I'll try to find some way to stop that Pokemon - say, by paralyzing a Scarf Latios. Especially against Pranksters, I try to remove them ASAP; as long as there's a single opposing Prankster, there's no hope of sweeping. Sometimes I'm forced to just cross my fingers, click Outrage and hope for luck. Works sometimes.
Why run a Scarf Moxiemence when you could take another defensivemon and wall even more things? Cover up a few of the holes that your team has, eg Thundurus-T? This is not really a good question, but I think it bears answering. The emergency panic button is just that - for emergency use. Imagine I run a fifth defensivemon. Maybe it counters Thundurus-T, Tyranitar and Aerodactyl (all three of which I have trouble with). So, what happens if I lose a counter to something? SD Chain Chomp Fire Blasts Skarm out of the sky, maybe. He's just opened up a hole in my team that he can exploit. What if I misplay?
If my team is a solid brick wall, running a fifth defensivemon is like having a thicker wall. It's better at the onset, sure, but it's useless if someone breaks through. Running Hope is like having a bricklayer.
It might be fairly obvious that I get a lot of my damage from Spikestacking. Both Skarmory and Gyarados phaze well, and Gliscor tends to force a lot of switches. Against levitators and flying types, I have actual direct damage from the likes of Togekiss, and sometimes I have SR damage. Toxic from Gliscor is always useful, and Hope the Salamence exists to drop things.
It's also pretty obvious that most of my team (the walls, at any rate) can heal themselves - Skarm and Kiss pack Roost, Gyara is RestTalk, and Gliscor is Poison Heal/Protect. This gives them some pretty insane longevity as long as I play smart, and I rely on this longevity to win games by outright preventing the opponent from KOing me while damage builds on them - through Toxic, phazing, hazards or repeated flinches. As a result, I commonly win 4-0 or 5-0, although it tends to take upwards of 40 turns.
Conversely, because of this, it's also common for my losses to be 0-4 or 0-5 (man, **** Politoed). By attempting to check next to everything in four Pokemon slots, in the worst case scenario, I become susceptible to a devastating loss if I lose even one of my Pokemon. Other times, say when the opponent is packing some insane hard hitters like Darmanitan and Thundy-T (or Rain-boosted Hydro Pump), my recovery simply can't keep up. This can go for setup sweepers as well, although I do have the capability to phaze them.
The crux of this team has to be setting up a Scarf Moxiemence sweep. By whittling down the opposing team through passive damage and putting paralysis on the fast ones, it becomes decidedly simple to start dropping things at low health with a Dragon Claw, then evolving that into an unstoppable sweep of a weakened team.
With the release of 6th gen, I've found that this team has sank into mediocrity, and since 6th Gen battles are becoming the standard, I think it's pretty much time to retire these flyers, unless someone challenges me to 5th. I've had a lot of success with it in the few months it's been in use...
The team was constructed very simply: lots of defense, lots of recovery, and a couple of emergency buttons. The team lineup thus consists of two Special walls, two Physical walls, and two emergency buttons (what? I did say "a couple"). It's a long read because I suck at making things short, so I've bolded some of the more important points (one for every Pokemon), if wall of text crits you, just read that bit.
On to the RMT itself...
Myth (Gyarados) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 HP / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Thunder Wave
- Dragon Tail
The first pokemon in my teamlist, and and the last to be added; Myth the Gyarados is one of my special walls. As I toyed with my team, I realised that my other special wall, Togekiss, was too overworked - I often needed her to check three pokemon on the opposing team, because the Pokemon in this slot (a standard CP Sigilyph) was proving to be so much dead weight.
Enter Gyarados. With a 252/252+ Specially Defensive spread, Myth checks all variants of Volcarona, all variants of Special Lucario... pretty much every special sweeper not packing Thunderbolt. It's also bulky enough to survive weak electric attacks. Due to Intimidate, she can also come in on resisted and neutral physical hits, serving as an emergency check to Physical Sweepers (Lucario and Infernape, off the top of my head).
Her typing gives her nifty resistances to Water and Fire, so Gyarados is also my main check to Rain teams (man, **** Politoed. Also, **** Rotom-W) and Sun teams. Importantly, she also sports an Ice neutrality (Yes, omnipresent Ice Beam. I'm looking at you), which is important because, well, Monotype.
What does this offer over a Bulky DD set? Mostly, it's recovery, which Bulky DD doesn't offer. Sometimes, rarely, the recovery isn't necessary. A lot of the time, I'm clicking Rest two or three times a match. I could run Waterfall/Stone Edge, but I find Twave/Dragon Tail more efficient, considering I'm 0Atk and often with 3 layers of Spikes and SR. I can get 3-4 Dragon Tails off in a row, then Rest off the damage and get some more with Sleep Talk.
Running RestTalk means I also have a status absorber. Sponged a Volc Fire Blast and took an unlucky burn? idgaf. Vaporeon Scalding you all day? idgaf. Heatran fishing for Lava Plume burn? idgaf. Pory2 trolling you with Discharge? Freaking switch, he's not surviving two of those things.
Light (Togekiss) (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Body Slam
Light the Togekiss (I should have named her Reverie, but it's a little too late for that) occupies the last slot in my team list, which is a little ironic because for the longest time, and even now, Light is one of the most important Pokemon on the team (easily a contender for MVP). She's second here because Myth was first, and I decided to lump the Special Walls together for readability.
Often, Thunderbolts and Ice Beams are used for coverage, which makes them unSTABed, and not as powerful as opponents might hope. Here, calcs for you:
252 SpA Choice Specs Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Togekiss: 225-265 (60.16 - 70.85%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Sweet skies, Togekiss. Not all Latios run Specs, and I commonly find myself taking 30% from the likes of HP Ice... or Ice Beam.
252+ SpA Omastar Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Togekiss: 136-162 (36.36 - 43.31%) -- 98.85% chance to 3HKO
But it's not her job to take Ice Beams, is it? Gyara checks Omastar better, anyway. What about something that packs Thunderbolt?
252+ SpA Life Orb Thundurus-T Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Togekiss: 315-374 (84.22 - 100%) -- 6.25% chance to OHKO
What the flying-
Sweet skies, Togekiss. Not all Latios run Specs, and I commonly find myself taking 30% from the likes of HP Ice... or Ice Beam.
252+ SpA Omastar Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Togekiss: 136-162 (36.36 - 43.31%) -- 98.85% chance to 3HKO
But it's not her job to take Ice Beams, is it? Gyara checks Omastar better, anyway. What about something that packs Thunderbolt?
252+ SpA Life Orb Thundurus-T Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Togekiss: 315-374 (84.22 - 100%) -- 6.25% chance to OHKO
What the flying-
Light is my check to anything that carries Thunderbolt (come on, it obviously wasn't going to be a Gyarados). And by that, I mean "special attackers in general" - HP Ice commonly does 20% to her. Importantly, she's also the team's only real answer to Thundurus-T, and even then, not all that solid an answer - On the attack I live, I go for a Body Slam para, Roost stall him until I get Parahax, then start Air Slashing for 4-5hit KO.
Instead of boring you like I did with Gyarados' paragraphs, I'll explain some of the more dubious choices I've made. Right off the bat, you'll notice a Lum Berry instead of Leftovers. This is mostly personal preference - back before I ran Gyarados, a single unlucky Thunderbolt Para or Ice Beam freeze meant game over for me. Taking Scald burns or eating Toxic was less debilitating, but not by all that much. Lum Berry gives me another shot at life. Experience proved it to be far more gamechanging than the passive healing from Lefties.
The other thing you'll notice is Twave and Body Slam on the same set, with no Aura Sphere. Body Slam lets me check Thundy-T, paralyze Ground types, and beat Wobbuffet. Thunder Wave hits ghosts and is far more reliable. The redundancy has saved me more than once. Aura Sphere, in all the time I ran it, was fairly useless and I never clicked on it, nor have I since thought, "man, I really wish I had Aura Sphere now". Well, fine, once.
Valor (Skarmory) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 228 Def / 252 HP / 28 Spd
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Brave Bird
Valor the Skarmory is the first of my Physical walls. It walls most Tyranitar and Terrakion, which is huge. The EVs are PS default, with four points extra into speed from Def to speedcreep opposing Skarm in case of a Whirlwind battle. I don't even remember why they recommend 24 Spe, but I know it's to outspeed something. Notably, Skarmory is neutral to Rock attacks.
This is a bog standard Skarm set, really, not much to talk about. Instead, I'm going to talk about why it doesn't run SR. This requires a bit of knowledge about the rest of the team (specifically, a Xatu). Often, against a Flying monotype team, opponents scramble to get SR up. I can't count the number of times they led with their SR setter against Light the Togekiss. In comes Xatu for free rocks. Other times, they predict the obvious switch and drop Xatu, but I can KO them right back (you'll see why soon), so neither team gets rocks up. In such cases, I have the advantage because of Spikes. The last common scenario is when they toss out SR mid-game, and by this time, I often have a decisive lead. Either that, or I'm screwed anyway.
Against mono-flying, I'm obviously not setting up Spikes. It makes more sense to come in as a defensive pivot - just sort of sit there until they get frustrated with hitting something impervious to their attacks. Whirlwind stops those pesky setup sweepers, which is really, really important...
Silence (Gliscor) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 224 Def / 212 HP / 72 Spd
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Protect
- Substitute
- Earthquake
Silence the Gliscor is the other half of my Physically defensive duo. Notably also Rock-neutral, but with the added bonus of Electric immunity and bulky enough to take an Ice Shard from Mamo - yes, I had to do this once, damn you Stone Miss for critting twice. Similar to Skarmory, Gliscor is a fairly standard set - 72Spe neutral outruns Jolly Tyranitar, which is huge, in case it turns out to be one of those stupid Mixed ones. Gliscor also takes under 50% from most Outrages. The premise is simple - Toxic something, then spam Sub/Protect to kill it. That's the premise, anyway. Normally he doesn't stay in for that much time.
Of note here is STAB EQ, which, despite no investment, is still reasonably strong, and especially useful against opposing Rock-types. Especially, especially Rock Monotype teams. Especially, especially, especially Tyranitar - look, I'm speedcreeping the guy, man. That should tell you something... EQ is also notable for hitting everything that Toxic isn't. Bar the likes of Crobat (never seen him ever), Balloon Heatran and Skarm, of course.
Well, the only thing even slightly odd here is the EV spread. You already know that 72 Spe exists to speedcreep Tyranitar. I then maxed defense and chucked the rest of the 184EVs into HP. Afterwards, I shifted EVs from Def into HP until my HP hit a multiple of 8. I believe this maximises my physical def for a HP stat at a multiple of 8, without wasting EVs (of course, I may be wrong). The alternative spread was 180 HP/4 Atk/252Def/72 Spe, if you wanted to know.
Counter (Xatu) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 SDef / 30 Spd
- Heat Wave
- Trick
- Grass Knot
- Psyshock
What in all the skies is this abomination? A Modest Specs Xatu? And what's with that movepool? The only viable Xatu is a Twave/Dual Screens/U-Turn/Roost/Wish/insert support move here variant! Is this thing trying to be a Latios? Not that Latios would ever run Heat Wave or Grass Knot. It can't.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Xatu Grass Knot (60 BP) vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Gastrodon: 308-364 (72.3 - 85.44%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Xatu Heat Wave vs. 224 HP / 32 SpD Skarmory: 370-436 (113.14 - 133.33%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Xatu Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Forretress: 868-1024 (245.19 - 289.26%) -- guaranteed OHKO (no, really?)
252+ SpA Choice Specs Xatu Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tyranitar in sand: 168-198 (41.58 - 49%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Xatu Heat Wave vs. 224 HP / 32 SpD Skarmory: 370-436 (113.14 - 133.33%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Xatu Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Forretress: 868-1024 (245.19 - 289.26%) -- guaranteed OHKO (no, really?)
252+ SpA Choice Specs Xatu Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tyranitar in sand: 168-198 (41.58 - 49%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
So, what does Specs Xatu actually do? Mostly, it drops opposing mons carrying SR. Grass Knot drops those Water/Groundmons (and Ttar), Heat Wave trolls Steels, and Psyshock is for STAB. The only common SRmon it doesn't beat is Heatran, and Heatran is known for being really weak to EQ. Which Gliscor and Salamence carry.
The other irreplaceable move is Trick, which lets me win games I shouldn't. For example, Cradily (this is a Monotype team, you see Cradily on every opposing Mono-Rock ever). Cradily can't do anything to me if it's holding Specs. How about Vaporeon? Yes, irritating, insane, half-broken HydraRest Vaporeon with Politoed support can't do anything to me if it's holding Specs. Prankstermon? Xatu comes in on anything and slaps Specs on them.
Remember, this is a defensive team, it's going to get taken apart by the likes of Tauntmons (yes, Sableye, I'm looking at you). Against some teams, Xatu is dead weight. This I admit freely (makes good death fodder). He's most likely to be sacked where necessary. But when he contributes, he really contributes.
Hope (Salamence) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
I hope you saw it coming. Hope is a Scarf Moxiemence, named so because she wins games when I'm really behind and have nothing to do but hope (Never give up hope and all that shtick). She's also a pretty effective emergency panic button. Shell Smashed Omastar at 1/2hp threatening a sweep? Hope. SD Chain Chomp just Fire Blasted Skarmory out of the air? Hope. Scarf Moxie Heracross? Hope. Need emergency damage on something that's likely to sweep me? Hope.
Often, Hope only comes out once or twice a match, KOes something that I need dropped, then immediately switches back out. Like I said, emergency panic button, and a pretty effective one.
One thing I do with this team when I'm losing is try to open up a Hope sweep. If I see that one of his pokemon is his only hope of stopping Hope, I'll try to find some way to stop that Pokemon - say, by paralyzing a Scarf Latios. Especially against Pranksters, I try to remove them ASAP; as long as there's a single opposing Prankster, there's no hope of sweeping. Sometimes I'm forced to just cross my fingers, click Outrage and hope for luck. Works sometimes.
Why run a Scarf Moxiemence when you could take another defensivemon and wall even more things? Cover up a few of the holes that your team has, eg Thundurus-T? This is not really a good question, but I think it bears answering. The emergency panic button is just that - for emergency use. Imagine I run a fifth defensivemon. Maybe it counters Thundurus-T, Tyranitar and Aerodactyl (all three of which I have trouble with). So, what happens if I lose a counter to something? SD Chain Chomp Fire Blasts Skarm out of the sky, maybe. He's just opened up a hole in my team that he can exploit. What if I misplay?
If my team is a solid brick wall, running a fifth defensivemon is like having a thicker wall. It's better at the onset, sure, but it's useless if someone breaks through. Running Hope is like having a bricklayer.
---
How the team works
How the team works
It might be fairly obvious that I get a lot of my damage from Spikestacking. Both Skarmory and Gyarados phaze well, and Gliscor tends to force a lot of switches. Against levitators and flying types, I have actual direct damage from the likes of Togekiss, and sometimes I have SR damage. Toxic from Gliscor is always useful, and Hope the Salamence exists to drop things.
It's also pretty obvious that most of my team (the walls, at any rate) can heal themselves - Skarm and Kiss pack Roost, Gyara is RestTalk, and Gliscor is Poison Heal/Protect. This gives them some pretty insane longevity as long as I play smart, and I rely on this longevity to win games by outright preventing the opponent from KOing me while damage builds on them - through Toxic, phazing, hazards or repeated flinches. As a result, I commonly win 4-0 or 5-0, although it tends to take upwards of 40 turns.
Conversely, because of this, it's also common for my losses to be 0-4 or 0-5 (man, **** Politoed). By attempting to check next to everything in four Pokemon slots, in the worst case scenario, I become susceptible to a devastating loss if I lose even one of my Pokemon. Other times, say when the opponent is packing some insane hard hitters like Darmanitan and Thundy-T (or Rain-boosted Hydro Pump), my recovery simply can't keep up. This can go for setup sweepers as well, although I do have the capability to phaze them.
The crux of this team has to be setting up a Scarf Moxiemence sweep. By whittling down the opposing team through passive damage and putting paralysis on the fast ones, it becomes decidedly simple to start dropping things at low health with a Dragon Claw, then evolving that into an unstoppable sweep of a weakened team.
---
Off the top of my head, here's a list of things I have trouble beating. I'll copypasta the posted threat list into a second post, along with my answers to them.
Thundurus-T. Of course Thundy-T is first. It oneshots my entire team sans Togekiss. Thundy-T is very simple. If it's Specs, Scarf or Expert Belt and Togekiss misses her Paralyze on Body Slam or gets outright KOed (by Specs), I'm screwed. If it's LO, I try for the paralyze first. If not, I double switch between Skarm and Gliscor, hopefully keeping Gliscor alive and feeding Skarm a few HP Ice. By this time, hopefully LO Recoil has kicked in and I sack Skarm then go to Hope the Scarf Moxiemence for a KO.
Tyranitar. Man, **** Ttar. If it's banded, I'll know straightaway. You know, when Skarm and Gliscor take upwards of 50% from Stone Edge. The 252/228+ Skarm and the 212/224+ Gliscor? Yeah... Against Bandtar, I try to get Gliscor in safely, Toxic him and Sub>Protect until he's at about 40%, at which point EQ is a clean KO. If it's the mixed set, I'll know, too. When it tries to Ice Beam Gliscor. Ttar is big enough of a threat that I'll Protect against him first turn every time. If it's the mixed variant, I stall him out of Ice Beam PP. In an emergency, I go to Gyara, Intimidate him, paralyze him and phaze him out - after which Skarm beats him. No, I don't get OHKOed by Stone Edge after Intimidate unless Band.
Victini. Dear sweet skies, V-Create punches huge holes in my team. It does huge chunks to Gliscor and post-intimidate Gyara. I beat it by getting Gliscor in safely, EQing it, protecting for HP, then EQing again. If necessary... Hope.
Reuniclus. If it's OTR Reuniclus, either Gyara or Kiss hits it till it dies, or I sack something on the last turn of TR and bring in Hope. If it's the CM/Recover/Psyshock/Focus Miss variant, I slap Specs onto it and phaze it all day until it's the lastmon, then I stall it out of whatever move it chose and watch it struggle to death. Against either variant, I always consider whittling it down some, then making it collateral damage in a Hope sweep.
Politoed and his Rain cronies. As a defensive team, I have a lot of trouble with what I like to term "application of excessive force" i.e. anything that hits really, really hard (Hmm, Bandtar, Thundy-T, Victini... I'm seeing a pattern here...). Rain boosted STAB Hydro Pump off 128 SpA qualifies (Yes, Keldeo, that's you). Rotom-W gets special mention for beating Gyarados with STAB Thunder. There's no beating a well-built, well-played rain team with this one. If there's no Vaporeon, I might sneak by with a Hope sweep after Twaving the Keldeo who is probably scarfed. Otherwise... no. Speaking of Vaporeon, I'm not beating it without Tricking Specs onto it. What's this, lost Xatu already? gg
Nidoking. Eh, what? He Tbolts Skarm and Gyara and Ice Beams Gliscor, that's what. The name of the game is getting Xatu or Mence in safely, then he's dead. Kiss, maybe, if she nails a para on the first Body Slam. Normally teams with Nidoking are easily walled by my team (you only really see him on Monotype teams), so I can sack something safely.
Kyu-B. Thankfully Fusion Bolt does just under 50% to Skarm, last I knew, so I can stall him out with a combination of Skarm, Gliscor and Gyara. Go to Gliscor on the Fusion Bolt, Protect the Ice Beam, then go to Gyara. Back to Gliscor for the Fusion Bolt, then Skarm in case he got smart. Then drop 3 layers of Spikes on him and phaze him. Alternatively, get Hope in safely.
Aerodactyl. What the flying- no, really. Taunt stops Gliscor and Skarm in their tracks; Stone Edge drops Kiss, Gyara and Xatu. My best bet is to go to Gyara on Taunt or something like Double Edge and switch back to Skarm or Gliscor to tank theHead Smash Stone Edge. Stall him out of Stone Miss and he's pretty much not a threat. Alternatively, get Hope in safely.
Boosting sweepers. I can Phaze them out, usually. But remember Application of Excessive Force? Yeah. Special mention goes to Cradily for having Suction Cups, meaning the only check I have is to slap Specs onto it.
Tyranitar. Man, **** Ttar. If it's banded, I'll know straightaway. You know, when Skarm and Gliscor take upwards of 50% from Stone Edge. The 252/228+ Skarm and the 212/224+ Gliscor? Yeah... Against Bandtar, I try to get Gliscor in safely, Toxic him and Sub>Protect until he's at about 40%, at which point EQ is a clean KO. If it's the mixed set, I'll know, too. When it tries to Ice Beam Gliscor. Ttar is big enough of a threat that I'll Protect against him first turn every time. If it's the mixed variant, I stall him out of Ice Beam PP. In an emergency, I go to Gyara, Intimidate him, paralyze him and phaze him out - after which Skarm beats him. No, I don't get OHKOed by Stone Edge after Intimidate unless Band.
Victini. Dear sweet skies, V-Create punches huge holes in my team. It does huge chunks to Gliscor and post-intimidate Gyara. I beat it by getting Gliscor in safely, EQing it, protecting for HP, then EQing again. If necessary... Hope.
Reuniclus. If it's OTR Reuniclus, either Gyara or Kiss hits it till it dies, or I sack something on the last turn of TR and bring in Hope. If it's the CM/Recover/Psyshock/Focus Miss variant, I slap Specs onto it and phaze it all day until it's the lastmon, then I stall it out of whatever move it chose and watch it struggle to death. Against either variant, I always consider whittling it down some, then making it collateral damage in a Hope sweep.
Politoed and his Rain cronies. As a defensive team, I have a lot of trouble with what I like to term "application of excessive force" i.e. anything that hits really, really hard (Hmm, Bandtar, Thundy-T, Victini... I'm seeing a pattern here...). Rain boosted STAB Hydro Pump off 128 SpA qualifies (Yes, Keldeo, that's you). Rotom-W gets special mention for beating Gyarados with STAB Thunder. There's no beating a well-built, well-played rain team with this one. If there's no Vaporeon, I might sneak by with a Hope sweep after Twaving the Keldeo who is probably scarfed. Otherwise... no. Speaking of Vaporeon, I'm not beating it without Tricking Specs onto it. What's this, lost Xatu already? gg
Nidoking. Eh, what? He Tbolts Skarm and Gyara and Ice Beams Gliscor, that's what. The name of the game is getting Xatu or Mence in safely, then he's dead. Kiss, maybe, if she nails a para on the first Body Slam. Normally teams with Nidoking are easily walled by my team (you only really see him on Monotype teams), so I can sack something safely.
Kyu-B. Thankfully Fusion Bolt does just under 50% to Skarm, last I knew, so I can stall him out with a combination of Skarm, Gliscor and Gyara. Go to Gliscor on the Fusion Bolt, Protect the Ice Beam, then go to Gyara. Back to Gliscor for the Fusion Bolt, then Skarm in case he got smart. Then drop 3 layers of Spikes on him and phaze him. Alternatively, get Hope in safely.
Aerodactyl. What the flying- no, really. Taunt stops Gliscor and Skarm in their tracks; Stone Edge drops Kiss, Gyara and Xatu. My best bet is to go to Gyara on Taunt or something like Double Edge and switch back to Skarm or Gliscor to tank the
Boosting sweepers. I can Phaze them out, usually. But remember Application of Excessive Force? Yeah. Special mention goes to Cradily for having Suction Cups, meaning the only check I have is to slap Specs onto it.
