Hi! First time posting in the smogon forums (and first time posting in any forum i believe lol). With gen 9 coming in just 2 days i wanted to post a team i built that i was very happy with, it managed to get to top 30 in ladder (1560 elo), so it's at least decent if you ask me. As the title implies, its a hyper offense team centered around the insanity in my head that came up with agility + swords dance mienfoo, with surprise factors involved.
Peak of the team:
The team: (blue is a cool color)
https://pokepast.es/d10ffcb287975cf9
The Pokemon:
As mentioned earlier, I was probably insane when i thought of swords dance + agility mienfoo. I've tried swords dance mienfoo before, didnt really work because of other pokemon being faster than it, so i ditched the idea, until i saw some random player on ladder using agility, only then, the idea of using both moves together hit me.
Mienfoo's combination of a fighting + dark type attack thrives from the lack of relevant fairy types on the meta, spritzee is probably the most common, which this team doesn't struggle against. If you have rocks, you can 2HKO the bulky poison types of the tier after a swords dance, and of course, you outspeed every lc mon after a one use of agility. The reason i'm running drain punch over high jump kick is because something this mienfoo seemed to struggle with was longetivity, it's not going to ohko everything on it's sight and it took way too much damage from mareanie's/koffing's sludge bomb, both who can tank a hit from mienfoo, even after a swords dance, drain punch makes it much harder for opponents to ko mienfoo, specially those who are unlucky enough to not get a scald burn with their mareanie, or those who don't carry will-o-wisp on their koffing. You want to use agility, so this set is better off with an adamant nature. Additionally, since you're not using high jump kick, and generally you don't like to switch out, the prefered ability is inner focus. This also allows you to catch enemies by surprise by setting up in front of their own mienfoos. As you may have noticed, this set relies on that sweet surprise factor, but then again, when was the last time you saw a double dance mienfoo? As a newish player can't say i've seen one myself.
The only threats that come to mind are focus sash abra, bulky timburrs and foongus, who can spore.
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
So, the surprise factor.. Generally, hyper offense teams would run dwebble as their leads, right? Well if you see a dwebble on team preview followed by ponyta, grookey and carvanha, you know what to expect right? That's the main reason pawniard is in this team.
Pawniard's job is to disrupt the opponents lead, set up rocks, maybe knock off the opponent's item, and make way for one of its partners to start applying offensive pressure on the opponent. Knock off is of course, valuable for multiple reasons. If you want, you can knock off opponent's eviolites for an easier sweep with mienfoo or other members. Beat up is a move I wanted to experiment with, sucker punch wasn't getting much value out of the common mienfoo lead, so i thought maybe beat up would help against other leads, but you're free to use sucker punch. Iron head is simply there for a reliable attacking move with STAB.
Ponyta is an overall great attacker and a force to be reckoned with in the LC metagame. This is the standard set for ponyta in the tier, nothing to special about it. It's strong flare blitz + coverage in high horsepower + wild charge make it a scary pokemon to deal with, and after using one flame charge, nothing outspeeds this beast.
As many other hyper offense teams do, this ponyta set uses flame body, you're not gonna be switching out too much and you'd rather have those chances of burning any opponents that come in contact with you. Most opponents will use mareanie/staryu as an answer to ponyta, even if they get a ko, it's ideal for you as their answers to mienfoo/grookey have been weakened.(and even then they still don't like switching into ponyta as a successful predict can make them useless against the almighty ponyta). It also pairs up well with carvanha as those two can answer ground and rock types like trapinch and onix.
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
Grookey is another hyper offense staple, it's offensive presence with its swords dance boosted grassy glides can be devastating for teams unprepared for it, or teams that have lost their respective answers for said pokemon.
Grookey is in this team because it makes a nice core when paired up with both ponyta and carvanha, they can answer each others counters. The set used is another standard grookey set usually seen in hyper offense. If your opponent has foongus as their bulky poison type, this is great, a foongus can't live a swords dance boosted acrobatics. Drain punch is there for coverage and longetivity, of course. It can also act as a pseudo bulky mon thanks to the defense boost from grassy seed and the lower damage from knock off, it's great at answering diglett and trapinch, which this team doesn't particularly like facing. Be careful with bulky poison types, as their sludge bombs shred through grookey, while most being comfortable with taking a hit from grookey
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
Can you tell i love this thing? Little robotic friend is capable of shredding through the tier and most of its "answers" either get blown up by one of it's coverage moves or just get frozen from tri attack.
I wanted this special attacker for the team thanks to its coverage and to serve as the main way of dealing with physical walls, I actually opted for an agility set here because it's hard to answer if you manage to set it up, and being able to switch moves made certain match-ups easier. But the main advantage was having to switch out less, this is something i mentioned, this team likes not being forced to switch, so not being locked in bad match-ups is great. It also makes easier to answer certain pokemon and, of course, it adds up to the surprise factor, fooling opponents who believe you were running the choice scarf set. Being able to run eviolite too is nice, porygon is a fairly bulky pokemon so it can take hits if necessary. Thunderbolt is the coverage move i chose because it answers frillish, mareanie and certain flying types nicely. Ferroseed isn't a pokemon i faced a lot throughout my laddering matches, but even if you do, you have a lot of coverage moves in the rest of the team to back you up.
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
A fairly dangerous pokemon in hyper offense, speed boost allows carvanha to sweep without needing any turns of set-up (other than the turn you protect but its very safe to do it ig).
Carvanha completes the grookey/ponyta/carvanha core, which I really like using thanks to its high speed/access to priority and their capabilities of checking many pokemon in the tier. Flip turn is being used because it allows carvanha to switch out of unfavorable matchups, but liquidation is also usable. Access to protect + flip turn allows carvanha to pivot into grookey in the trapinch match-up, forcing out a dangerous pokemon for the team. Psychic fangs is also a move that can deal with the pesky bulky poison types that can wall many members of the team. Finally, Crunch is used as the obvious STAB dark type move. Due to its poor bulk it works better as a late game cleaner along side mienfoo, who heavily appreciates its access to psychic fangs. Both pokemon are deadly after their respective checks have been cleared out.
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
The weaknesses:
Throughout my laddering with this team i noticed multiple weaknesses that tried to take into consideration while adjusting some pokemon/movesets.
The three musketeers are capable of taking hits from multiple members of the team, and dealing lots of damage in return, this are pretty common pokemon so i tried to adjust some answers for them. Psychic fangs carvanha can be deadly if their eviolites were lost, or if they've taken too much damage. Porygon is the main answer for the bulky poisons, thunderbolt answers the most problematic out of the 3, mareanie, and tri attack hits all 3 for big damage. Fortunately for this team, most teams only carry one, so if you can break through the opponents respective bulky poison, the rest of your team should have a much easier time breaking through.
Ideally you want to get rid of this as soon as possible, it can spread paralysis which is what makes it so annoying to face. Your best bet is to use ponyta to force uncomfortable situations for your opponent.
I'm not entirely sure if it's me as a player getting countered by this pokemon, or if its the team, regardless, its an incredibly threating pokemon, your best bet against it is grookey using acrobatics, thanks to grassy seed it can take a few hits from timburr.
Smaller threats:
Natu can take hits from grookey pretty well, and it can bounce of pawniard's stealth rock, which can be bad for the rest of the team, specially ponyta and carvanha. Although you have multiple answers (+2 knock off from mienfoo, pawniard's knock off, carvanha crunch, ponyta wild charge) it's still a pokemon that you should be careful playing around
I mentioned trapinch multiple times before, because of how bulky it is, it can be difficult to deal with, porygon should be able to tank hits
36+ Atk Trapinch Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Porygon: 9-12 (39.1 - 52.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
36+ Atk Trapinch Superpower vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Porygon: 16-20 (69.5 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
The rest (additional thoughts):
As mentioned at the beggining, this is a team i made for fun entirely with the concept of surprising opponents with swords dance + agility mienfoo. It's definitely not very consistent due to its reliance on both moves but if you can pull it off it can certainly sweep an entire team.
As someone who hasn't participated in any tournament (yet) I believe, after seeing multiple matches, that the surprise factor is a heavy contributor to victory and I wanted to incorporate that into a team, hence why i opted to not run ideal hyper offense pokemon like dwebble or abra.
But I still believe it can work! It got me higher in ladder than ever before so I say it has potential.
Peak of the team:
The team: (blue is a cool color)
https://pokepast.es/d10ffcb287975cf9
The Pokemon:
As mentioned earlier, I was probably insane when i thought of swords dance + agility mienfoo. I've tried swords dance mienfoo before, didnt really work because of other pokemon being faster than it, so i ditched the idea, until i saw some random player on ladder using agility, only then, the idea of using both moves together hit me.
Mienfoo's combination of a fighting + dark type attack thrives from the lack of relevant fairy types on the meta, spritzee is probably the most common, which this team doesn't struggle against. If you have rocks, you can 2HKO the bulky poison types of the tier after a swords dance, and of course, you outspeed every lc mon after a one use of agility. The reason i'm running drain punch over high jump kick is because something this mienfoo seemed to struggle with was longetivity, it's not going to ohko everything on it's sight and it took way too much damage from mareanie's/koffing's sludge bomb, both who can tank a hit from mienfoo, even after a swords dance, drain punch makes it much harder for opponents to ko mienfoo, specially those who are unlucky enough to not get a scald burn with their mareanie, or those who don't carry will-o-wisp on their koffing. You want to use agility, so this set is better off with an adamant nature. Additionally, since you're not using high jump kick, and generally you don't like to switch out, the prefered ability is inner focus. This also allows you to catch enemies by surprise by setting up in front of their own mienfoos. As you may have noticed, this set relies on that sweet surprise factor, but then again, when was the last time you saw a double dance mienfoo? As a newish player can't say i've seen one myself.
The only threats that come to mind are focus sash abra, bulky timburrs and foongus, who can spore.
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Eviolite Mareanie: 10-12 (43.4 - 52.1%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Knock Off vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Mareanie: 11-13 (47.8 - 56.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 76+ Def Eviolite Koffing: 9-11 (45 - 55%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 76+ Def Koffing: 8-9 (40 - 45%) -- 25% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Drain Punch vs. 84 HP / 108+ Def Eviolite Ferroseed: 20-26 (90.9 - 118.1%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76 Atk Mienfoo Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 44 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Foongus: 11-13 (45.8 - 54.1%) -- 31.3% chance to 2HKO
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Knock Off vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Mareanie: 11-13 (47.8 - 56.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 76+ Def Eviolite Koffing: 9-11 (45 - 55%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 76+ Def Koffing: 8-9 (40 - 45%) -- 25% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76+ Atk Mienfoo Drain Punch vs. 84 HP / 108+ Def Eviolite Ferroseed: 20-26 (90.9 - 118.1%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 76 Atk Mienfoo Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 44 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Foongus: 11-13 (45.8 - 54.1%) -- 31.3% chance to 2HKO
So, the surprise factor.. Generally, hyper offense teams would run dwebble as their leads, right? Well if you see a dwebble on team preview followed by ponyta, grookey and carvanha, you know what to expect right? That's the main reason pawniard is in this team.
Pawniard's job is to disrupt the opponents lead, set up rocks, maybe knock off the opponent's item, and make way for one of its partners to start applying offensive pressure on the opponent. Knock off is of course, valuable for multiple reasons. If you want, you can knock off opponent's eviolites for an easier sweep with mienfoo or other members. Beat up is a move I wanted to experiment with, sucker punch wasn't getting much value out of the common mienfoo lead, so i thought maybe beat up would help against other leads, but you're free to use sucker punch. Iron head is simply there for a reliable attacking move with STAB.
Ponyta is an overall great attacker and a force to be reckoned with in the LC metagame. This is the standard set for ponyta in the tier, nothing to special about it. It's strong flare blitz + coverage in high horsepower + wild charge make it a scary pokemon to deal with, and after using one flame charge, nothing outspeeds this beast.
As many other hyper offense teams do, this ponyta set uses flame body, you're not gonna be switching out too much and you'd rather have those chances of burning any opponents that come in contact with you. Most opponents will use mareanie/staryu as an answer to ponyta, even if they get a ko, it's ideal for you as their answers to mienfoo/grookey have been weakened.
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
236 Atk Ponyta High Horsepower vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Eviolite Mareanie: 10-14 (43.4 - 60.8%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
236 Atk Ponyta Wild Charge vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Eviolite Mareanie: 10-14 (43.4 - 60.8%) -- 88.7% chance to 2HKO
236 Atk Ponyta Wild Charge vs. 0 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Staryu: 12-16 (63.1 - 84.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
236 Atk Ponyta Wild Charge vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Eviolite Mareanie: 10-14 (43.4 - 60.8%) -- 88.7% chance to 2HKO
236 Atk Ponyta Wild Charge vs. 0 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Staryu: 12-16 (63.1 - 84.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Grookey is another hyper offense staple, it's offensive presence with its swords dance boosted grassy glides can be devastating for teams unprepared for it, or teams that have lost their respective answers for said pokemon.
Grookey is in this team because it makes a nice core when paired up with both ponyta and carvanha, they can answer each others counters. The set used is another standard grookey set usually seen in hyper offense. If your opponent has foongus as their bulky poison type, this is great, a foongus can't live a swords dance boosted acrobatics. Drain punch is there for coverage and longetivity, of course. It can also act as a pseudo bulky mon thanks to the defense boost from grassy seed and the lower damage from knock off, it's great at answering diglett and trapinch, which this team doesn't particularly like facing. Be careful with bulky poison types, as their sludge bombs shred through grookey, while most being comfortable with taking a hit from grookey
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
+2 236 Atk Grookey Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 44 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Foongus: 24-30 (100 - 125%) -- guaranteed OHKO
236 Atk Grookey Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 236 Def Eviolite Trapinch in Grassy Terrain: 14-20 (66.6 - 95.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
+2 236 Atk Grookey Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 76 HP / 236+ Def Eviolite Larvesta: 22-26 (95.6 - 113%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
236 Atk Grookey Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 236 Def Eviolite Trapinch in Grassy Terrain: 14-20 (66.6 - 95.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
+2 236 Atk Grookey Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 76 HP / 236+ Def Eviolite Larvesta: 22-26 (95.6 - 113%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
Can you tell i love this thing? Little robotic friend is capable of shredding through the tier and most of its "answers" either get blown up by one of it's coverage moves or just get frozen from tri attack.
I wanted this special attacker for the team thanks to its coverage and to serve as the main way of dealing with physical walls, I actually opted for an agility set here because it's hard to answer if you manage to set it up, and being able to switch moves made certain match-ups easier. But the main advantage was having to switch out less, this is something i mentioned, this team likes not being forced to switch, so not being locked in bad match-ups is great. It also makes easier to answer certain pokemon and, of course, it adds up to the surprise factor, fooling opponents who believe you were running the choice scarf set. Being able to run eviolite too is nice, porygon is a fairly bulky pokemon so it can take hits if necessary. Thunderbolt is the coverage move i chose because it answers frillish, mareanie and certain flying types nicely. Ferroseed isn't a pokemon i faced a lot throughout my laddering matches, but even if you do, you have a lot of coverage moves in the rest of the team to back you up.
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
+1 236+ SpA Porygon Thunderbolt vs. 236 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Frillish: 18-22 (72 - 88%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 236+ SpA Porygon Thunderbolt vs. 116 HP / 180 SpD Eviolite Mareanie: 18-22 (78.2 - 95.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 236+ SpA Porygon Tri Attack vs. 0 HP / 36 SpD Eviolite Mienfoo: 13-16 (61.9 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 236+ SpA Porygon Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 196+ SpD Pawniard: 13-16 (61.9 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 236+ SpA Porygon Thunderbolt vs. 116 HP / 180 SpD Eviolite Mareanie: 18-22 (78.2 - 95.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 236+ SpA Porygon Tri Attack vs. 0 HP / 36 SpD Eviolite Mienfoo: 13-16 (61.9 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 236+ SpA Porygon Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 196+ SpD Pawniard: 13-16 (61.9 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
A fairly dangerous pokemon in hyper offense, speed boost allows carvanha to sweep without needing any turns of set-up (other than the turn you protect but its very safe to do it ig).
Carvanha completes the grookey/ponyta/carvanha core, which I really like using thanks to its high speed/access to priority and their capabilities of checking many pokemon in the tier. Flip turn is being used because it allows carvanha to switch out of unfavorable matchups, but liquidation is also usable. Access to protect + flip turn allows carvanha to pivot into grookey in the trapinch match-up, forcing out a dangerous pokemon for the team. Psychic fangs is also a move that can deal with the pesky bulky poison types that can wall many members of the team. Finally, Crunch is used as the obvious STAB dark type move. Due to its poor bulk it works better as a late game cleaner along side mienfoo, who heavily appreciates its access to psychic fangs. Both pokemon are deadly after their respective checks have been cleared out.
Calcs i'd consider relevant:
196+ Atk Life Orb Carvanha Psychic Fangs vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Eviolite Mareanie: 13-18 (56.5 - 78.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ Atk Life Orb Carvanha Psychic Fangs vs. 0 HP / 76+ Def Eviolite Koffing: 13-16 (65 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ Atk Life Orb Carvanha Psychic Fangs vs. 44 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Foongus: 16-21 (66.6 - 87.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ Atk Life Orb Carvanha Crunch vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Diglett: 17-21 (94.4 - 116.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
196+ Atk Life Orb Carvanha Psychic Fangs vs. 0 HP / 76+ Def Eviolite Koffing: 13-16 (65 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ Atk Life Orb Carvanha Psychic Fangs vs. 44 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Foongus: 16-21 (66.6 - 87.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ Atk Life Orb Carvanha Crunch vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Diglett: 17-21 (94.4 - 116.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
The weaknesses:
Throughout my laddering with this team i noticed multiple weaknesses that tried to take into consideration while adjusting some pokemon/movesets.
The three musketeers are capable of taking hits from multiple members of the team, and dealing lots of damage in return, this are pretty common pokemon so i tried to adjust some answers for them. Psychic fangs carvanha can be deadly if their eviolites were lost, or if they've taken too much damage. Porygon is the main answer for the bulky poisons, thunderbolt answers the most problematic out of the 3, mareanie, and tri attack hits all 3 for big damage. Fortunately for this team, most teams only carry one, so if you can break through the opponents respective bulky poison, the rest of your team should have a much easier time breaking through.
Ideally you want to get rid of this as soon as possible, it can spread paralysis which is what makes it so annoying to face. Your best bet is to use ponyta to force uncomfortable situations for your opponent.
I'm not entirely sure if it's me as a player getting countered by this pokemon, or if its the team, regardless, its an incredibly threating pokemon, your best bet against it is grookey using acrobatics, thanks to grassy seed it can take a few hits from timburr.
Smaller threats:
Natu can take hits from grookey pretty well, and it can bounce of pawniard's stealth rock, which can be bad for the rest of the team, specially ponyta and carvanha. Although you have multiple answers (+2 knock off from mienfoo, pawniard's knock off, carvanha crunch, ponyta wild charge) it's still a pokemon that you should be careful playing around
I mentioned trapinch multiple times before, because of how bulky it is, it can be difficult to deal with, porygon should be able to tank hits
36+ Atk Trapinch Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Porygon: 9-12 (39.1 - 52.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
36+ Atk Trapinch Superpower vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Porygon: 16-20 (69.5 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
The rest (additional thoughts):
As mentioned at the beggining, this is a team i made for fun entirely with the concept of surprising opponents with swords dance + agility mienfoo. It's definitely not very consistent due to its reliance on both moves but if you can pull it off it can certainly sweep an entire team.
As someone who hasn't participated in any tournament (yet) I believe, after seeing multiple matches, that the surprise factor is a heavy contributor to victory and I wanted to incorporate that into a team, hence why i opted to not run ideal hyper offense pokemon like dwebble or abra.
But I still believe it can work! It got me higher in ladder than ever before so I say it has potential.