The Underdog Challenge

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This sounds like fun.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: cumchuter69
Underdog pokemon currently working with: Beheeyem,emolga, relicanth, clamperl, dodrio,noctowl
Current Ladder Ranking: ~
 
So far, Vileplume is probably my favorite cleric right now. No joke, this thing is awesome with Sleep Powder. It has saved my ass a bunch of times now, and I'm really happy with it. More later.

Zweilous is a mixed bag, on one hand it has that amazing Outrage that few pokemon can switch into, on the other FUCK YOU HAX. Jesus that miss rate sucks. Speed is also just god awful sometimes... so is its typing ( weakness to ice, bug, fighting). Also more later.
 

jake

underdog of the year
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Top Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
okie dokie i'm at like 1400 or smth right now and my team is absolutely annihilated by cinccino, so i'm taking a break to explain to you all how horrendous my team is! :)

ok so i've been using cb basculin, specs emolga, cb mothim, taunt + sr bibarel, scarf simisage, and a special set for beartic that i'll talk about later. cb basculin has been -ok-, albeit somewhat disappointing. i could probably attribute this to the fact that i've been using mold breaker in lieu of adaptability. 'but why, zeb?!' because i wanted to see its capabilities as far as shredding through common sturdy sr users. adamant cb ohkoes nearly every sr setter with either superpower or waterfall, sans the really bulky ones (regirock and carracosta), which is what taunt bibarel is for. before i talk about bibarel, i do want to point out one thing about mold breaker basculin: it's really, really easily taken advantage of. even if the opponent is dumb and leaves in their bastiodon or whatever, amoonguss comes in next and has its way with you. ugh it's nothing like cb rampardos which is just full of sheer power and threatens everything ever (my golem got ohkoed by a crit head smash once...). it's honestly somewhat disappointing and if i don't replace it with its adaptability variant, i probably will replace it overall.

taunt + sr bibarel has been o_k thus far. it's not been a star performer, but nor has it under-performed either. it's just... taunted stuff, and set up sr. it occasionally nailed something with super fang, but that's all it usually does before dying. nothing particularly good or bad to say about it, but i'll probably experiment with several other bibarel sets just to see how they work. likewise, cb mothim has been... well, what you'd expect from cb mothim lol. tinted lens + decent neutral coverage seems like an ok thing in general but its physical movepool is literally only three moves (u-turn, aerial ace, return) so i ended up slapping on sleep talk just to make it a sleep absorber and because i've always wanted to use choice sleep talk. the one time i actually absorbed sleep and correctly used sleep talk, it was basically this: 100% mothim, slept, vs like 80% amoonguss and some other mon that would die to sr. i rolled return on the first sleep talk and did something stupid like 50% to amoong, while it did a chunk with sludge bomb. i then woke up on the next turn and found myself using sleep talk while awake. -_-

scarf simisage has been meh. i threw it on because i figured i'd need a decent scarfer, but it's demolished by amoonguss and it doesn't even get u-turn or anything to take advantage of the always incoming amoonguss. it's just... bleh. also leaf storm misses in the most vital situations, as does focus blast. two pretty awful moves for a scarfer to rely on. :/

specs emolga is probably the diamond in the rough. i mean, it's in a team full of shitmons so really it's not that great since i'm pretty much just comparing it to the rest of them, but access to u-turn / vs is really useful, plus it hits decently hard. i've been running timid but it's still obnoxiously weak, so i'll probably give up my ability to outrun zard and stick with modest. that way, i can also make use of motor drive which makes it a solid switch-in for rotom-s. it's still probably outclassed by zebstrika, but being spikes-immune and having access to u-turn so you're not fucked by ground-types is pretty cool. i'll likely stick with it throughout this entire run, unlike probably every other member on this team.

beartic... well, i was building this team and noticed that it got reamed by a simple core of amoonguss + alomomola. i was looking for stuff that could easily smash both and then figured i'd just see if i could make a few semi-creative sets and see what i could do with that. beartic has decent bulk and i was like meh, might as well try a sub bu set. it worked ok, and has enough bulk for its sub to live amoonguss's sludge bomb and set up on either of them. it's generally very inferior to every other mon that can run a similar set (i'm thinking stuff like subsd licky). i'm really not impressed, but eh

tl;dr: my team is full of awful pokemon and i am 100% cinccino weak

feel free to discuss your own selections =)
 

watashi

is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Three-Time Past SPL Champion
World Defender
I'm at 1898 so far; Heatmor and Klang have both pulled their weight considerably. Heatmor is great at getting surprise kills with Giga Drain or Sucker Punch and just hurting stuff a lot in general with Fire Blast. Klang is a great sweeper if you play it correctly, and can run through entire teams after hard counters have been removed. I'll have more information on both after I reach 1950 tomorrow (hopefully)
 

breh

強いだね
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Chef Excellence
Underdog Pokemon currently working with: Sneasel (originally Murkrow) / Huntail / Relicanth / Hypno / Simipour / Swanna
Current Ladder Ranking: null
 
PSdown Name: mrite
Underdogs: Relicanth, Exploud
Current Ranking: 1756

Exploud, while not particularly strong, nor particularly bulky, does manage to have perfect coverage, and it can phase from behind a sub, to be honest, the main reason I'm using it is because I needed another special attacker, and I like the design.

Relicanth is a very strong poke, as it can OHKO some amoonguss with CB headsmash, and set up rocks at the same time. It is very vital to my team, as its strong headsmash, and ability to stop alot of physical attacks mean that it can often destroy 2-3 pokes
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Raizer
Underdog Pokemon currently working with: Yanma, Dwebble, Klang, Basculin
Current Ladder Ranking: Positive ^^

Since ladder is broken at the moment, I'll try to make my first decent post ^^ My Underdog Challenge team has been doing fairly well (knowing how good I am at Pokemon). So in this post I'll try to share my experiences with some rather underrated Pokemon.

I'm running a team with Life Orb Yanma, Stealth Rock + Spikes Dwebble, Klang, Life Orb Basculin, Choice Specs Floatzel and Rain Dance Ludicolo. I'll start from the most underwhelming member of this team ( I have too many Water types here o.o): Basculin. Unlike zeb, I'm using Life Orb Basculin with Taunt and Mold Breaker as Sturdy SR users stopper. Actually, it's pretty good at that. But that's, more or less, all it does.

Dwebble is cool Poke, it sets up hazards perfectly. While it's not strong and stuff, it's super physically bulky and don't let things set up in front of him (Klang does that just perfectly, actually). What is more, hazards are essential for this team main hero: Yanma. Yanma is awesome! It gets most kills in pretty much every battle. LO Yanma is really good. It can 2HKO Physically Defensive Alomomola and Specially Defensive Amoongus with SR and layer of Spikes. It KOs Sawk, Emboar, Exeggutor, Gothitelle, Offensive Gardevoir, Leafeon, Kadabra, Ludicolo, Serperior, Torterra, while 2HKOing lots more. NOTE: Stealth Rock and/or layer of Spikes is needed to ensure those KOs
While there's a lot bulkier and stronger Pokemon capable of that, Yanma exceeded my expectations.

The next guy, Klang... Klang is Klang, if you manage to set up you clean late game, if you can't set up, you just send out Water poke, kill Klang's counter and set up ^^

Ludicolo doesn't really need any explanations here. Using Ludicolo is pretty simple: set up Rain Dance, sweep. Many teams are unprepared for Ludicolo, and sometimes people just underrate its damage output.

Now last, but not least: Specs Floatzel. Many may think band is better, that may be true, but I must say Specs Floatzel is awesome revenge killer. While it only has mediocre 85 base Special Attack, his special movepool is really good, consisting of Surf/Hydro Pump, Focus Blast (I'm yet to hit 5 from 20 -______-), Ice Beam, and either Switcheroo or Hidden Power of your choice. Base 115 Speed is awesome, letting it speed tie with Cincinno and crew.

Despite my lack of knowledge about tier, I must say I've got a newfound respect for some of the Pokemon or their set. That will be all, my team may change... and good luck for all of you ^^
 

Django

Started from the bottom...
is a Tiering Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
OK I got to 1852, I'm going to attempt Gold, but I don't know if I'll have the patience for it. Anyway, my team ended up having 3 underdogs on it, Murkrow, Vileplume and Huntail. If I do get to Gold I'll make a much bigger post about them, but for now let me just say Murkrow is a king.
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Crit alway ff
Underdog Pokemon currently working with: /Beheeyem /Shelgon /Klang
Current Ladder Ranking: 1412 (updating..)

I totally missed this, I'm definitely joining.
 
I'll try this. I'll go nuts and use 6 underdogs...

Pokémon Showdown name: Nuzlocker4life

Underdog Pokémon currently working with: Dodrio, Gabite, Chimecho, Glalie, Simipour, Stunfisk.
Current rank: Nothing yet
 

breh

強いだね


So, I got my way through the ladder (this mostly becomes a "how efficiently do you mow down noobs?") with my little rain team, and this is what I have to say:

Huntail: Man, this thing is so hilariously awkward. Some times, it just gets a smash off and sweeps; other times, it's death fodder to an electric-type attack.
Hypno: If it wasn't so damned weak, it'd be pretty ok. It doesn't help that it loses to a) every pursuit mon and b) every gothitelle. Still, it is bulky and laughs at amoonguss.
Sneasel: Sneasel actually hits quite hard. If only it had Icicle Crash / Crunch... Its speed tier is genuinely nice. I didn't use Bite because I had Rain Dance, but I never really missed it.
Swanna: Those of you who saw incon (I think it was incon..) use this know that it's pretty OK as far as mons go. Perfect two-move coverage that becomes particularly beastly after Rain Dance, status immunity in rain, and the ability to roost off damage is pretty cool.
Relicanth: Probably the most viable member of my team; I swear, this thing takes so much abuse and lives through all of it. I've had it live all kinds of strong SE moves, set up Rain Dance / rocks, and romp a bit before dying. Definitely a neat mon. Such a pity it can't hit amoonguss SE, but what are you going to do?
Simipour: I posted about it in RW, but I'll reiterate. It's a very decent (if not almost... good) mon that has a nice speed tier, surprising strength (hey, I'm just going to keep <rock mon> in here while you use Hydro Pump or <grass mon> while you Ice Beam), and nice coverage. It wishes it had something less useless than Gluttony; Life Orb is the superior item (Simipour can actually take some attacks (Klang Return, for example, does about 72% at +1)) and there are so many times that I wished I was able to use Torrent.
 
Small update:
The showdown server doesn't want me to get up to silver...
I've just lost 2 games because of server disconnects, one of them against a top 15 guy.
This means 7 games in total lost to dc~.~

My team hates Golurk and Gothitelle. Everything else can be more or less easily handled^^

EDIT: my next match:
Antyi won the battle!
Ladder updating...
Error: Ladder server overloaded - ladder could not be updated.
Error: Ladder server overloaded - ladder could not be updated.

:(
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Asclepius
Underdog Pokemon currently working with: Octillery, Murkrow
Current Ladder Ranking: Unranked currently
 

watashi

is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Three-Time Past SPL Champion
World Defender


Pokemon used: Klang and Heatmor

»THE TEAM«


Heatmor @ Life Orb
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Naive Nature
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Giga Drain
- Sucker Punch

Heatmor faces a lot of competition from Charizard, Simisear, Rapidash, Magmar, and Emboar as powerful Fire-types in the tier. To keep up with these Pokemon, Heatmor has equipped itself with Giga Drain and Sucker Punch, as well as a great ability in Flash Fire. Fire Blast and Focus Blast from 309 Special Attack boosted by Life Orb is no joke; bulky Pokemon such as Gothitelle and Misdreavus are both 2HKOed by it. Even walls such as Lickilicky and Alomomola will lose on the switch in to Fire Blast followed by the appropriate coverage move. Sucker Punch is great for picking off Gardevoir, Haunter, Drifblim, and other Pokemon weak to it. It also deals a nice chunk to Cinccino or other frail attackers. Opponents without much knowledge of Heatmor usually walk right into it. Giga Drain is also great for surprising Water-types that try to tank a Fire Blast. If Heatmor can catch something like Seismitoad or Gorebyss, it will recover a lot of precious HP back.

Heatmor is also surprisingly bulky and can take hits fairly well. Even with a Naive nature, it can beat Pokemon such as Eelektross one-on-one and survives most neutral hits. Although Life Orb cuts into its longevity, Heatmor can usually stick around for a while if played correctly. I usually bring it in late-game when its counters and checks are weakened so it can clean up the opponent's team.

Heatmor has the same flaws as its fellow Fire-types. The Stealth Rock weakness really limits the times it can come in, which is why I tend to play it as a late-game sweeper. Fire Blast and Focus Blast also have sub-par accuracy which can let you down at the worst of times. Altaria walls this set to hell and back, but I don't really want to give up the utility of Sucker Punch for Hidden Power Ice. Heatmor is also not the fastest Pokemon there is, but it is quick enough to outrun Adamant Absol. It would be nice if Heatmor could outpace Timid Ludicolo and Samurott though.


Klang @ Eviolite
Trait: Minus
EVs: 80 HP / 248 Atk / 180 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Gear Grind
- Return
- Shift Gear
- Substitute

Klang should need no introduction, it has already established itself the premier underdog sweeper. The amount of Pokemon it can set up on is ridiculous; it includes but is not limited to: Amoonguss, Exeggutor, Skuntank, Swellow, Haunter, and Lickilicky. Its STAB combination is actually pretty decent and most Pokemon that resist Gear Grind take upwards of fifty percent from a boosted Return. Once they are weakened, Klang will have an easy time sweeping, bar a Gear Grind miss.

Klang can be played as a late-game sweeper or even a hole-puncher against offensive teams. It has enough bulk to survive even super effective attacks and as a result, it can beat most offensive Pokemon one-on-one. It's rarely dead weight and almost always manages to get at least one kill per game. This Pokemon definitely deserves more usage!
 
ok so im a bit late into this, but using a full team of underdogs and imma go for platinum.
Alt: Great Houdini
Pokes: dwebble, dodrio, frillish, shelgon, mawile, simisage
Im currently at 914 on PS after like 2 battles or so. in both of them, mawile and shelgon do everything once hazards are up and sage just dies like a little bitch :)
 
Alt: mortis_chaotica
I plan on testing a team of Shiftry, Heatmor, Relicanth, Beheeyem, Dodrio, and Machoke because I like them and I don't give a fuck. I might end up making changes, and if I do I'll keep you guys updated. Yes, I know this looks terrible. What's more terrible than that is I'll probably be able to get a decent ladder ranking with this team just because the players are that bad...
 
So my stall team has been hovering around in the low 1900s/high 1800s, and I've stopped laddering since I can barely win points even when I beat players... :(

Zweilous is a surprisingly bulky pokemon. I tested a specially defensive shuffle set, and it left its mark by being extremely bulky while still having good coverage with its moves. 72/70/70 is extremely good, and by investing in his SpDef he can tank all kinds of weaker electric/grass/fire/water attacks, as well as taking any kind of non-STAB Ice or Bug hits. Hustle boosts its power naturally without the investment. He is also one of the best anti-Sun pokemon there is; though sun is an extremely rare weather, it's also fairly difficult for NU stall to deal with. It also has the bulk to phaze out pretty much any special attacker and capitalizing on forced switches by setting up a sub. I tested two variants of the set, and one was very underwhelming but i'll post it anyway. The other one is a lot better.

(Zweilous @ Eviolite, 252/252/4 careful, dragon tail/sub/twave/rest)


Zweilous @ Eviolite
252 HP/252 SpDef/4 Def
Careful / Hustle

Dragon Tail
Superpower
Crunch
Substitute

Superpower can 1hko Probopass if sturdy is broken and cleanly 2hko's Lairon. Dragon Tail does respectable damage, breaking the subs of basically every setup sweeper in the tier (except Klang, duh). Crunch just barely misses out on the 2hko on Musharna due to Lefties (assuming no hazards), but any other psychic is cleanly 2hko'ed. As a bonus, Dragon Tail 1hko's Kadabra. Running enough speed to put up a sub on no-speed base 65s is an option, but the extra bulk is nice as well.

Here's some calcs that show its amazing mixed bulk:
+2 Modest Gorebyss Ice Beam: (71.26% - 84.48%)
Timid LO Swanna Hurricane: (33.91% - 39.94%)
Specs Exeggutor Leaf Storm: (31.61% - 37.07%)
Specs Eelektross Volt Switch: (14.08% - 16.67%)
LO Sneasel Ice Punch: (66.09% - 78.16%)
Timid Haunter Sludge Bomb: (23.56% - 27.87%)
Timid LO Solar Power Charizard Fire Blast: (43.10% - 50.86%)
Adamant CB Emboar Flare Blitz: (39.66% - 46.84%)
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: Aura
Underdog Pokemon currently working with: Zweilous, Vigoroth, Grumpig, Marshtomp, Whirlipede, Vileplume
Current Ladder Ranking: noneyet
 
Pokemon Showdown! Username: The Flying Carpet
Underdog Pokemon currently working with: Golduck, Beartic, Illumise, Klang, Swanna and Emolga
Current Ladder Ranking: n/a
 

Django

Started from the bottom...
is a Tiering Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
So since Gothitelle is banned from UU I can't use my team anymore :( Guess that means I'll have to stop at silver for now, and try and find another way to make gold since my team really revolved around trapping Alomomola and Amoonguss with Gothitelle. Anyway here is my final ranking:

I also got this with 3 Underdogs, so I think I deserve a special prize :) Oh and here is my team.



Vileplume: A really good alternative to Ammonguss. While it doesn't have Regenerator, it still has Moonlight to make up for it (which I didn't even end up using), and the main reason I was using it: Aromatherepy. It really is a fantastic cleric, supporting the team well in every match I played, as well as making great use of the best ability in the game, Effect Spore. Not a lot to say about Vileplume since it does basically what Amoonguss does, just with Aromatherepy included and without Regenerator.


Huntail: Huntail was a weird Pokemon. In some games it would clean up really easily, while in others it was just death fodder. If I could successfully get rid of Alomomola and Amoonguss, then Huntail would normally be able to sweep the rest of the team, if not, then yeah its not doing much. It has one major advantage over Gorebyss, and that's Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch can KO both Zebstrika and Rotom-S at +2 with some Stealth Rock damage, meaning two of the best revenge killers are basically pointless. Sucker Punch also protects it against other Sucker Punch users like Absol and Skuntank. The best thing about it though, was the ease with which it could set up. It has fantastic physical bulk, and could set up on nearly every single physical attacker not carrying a SE move, especially stuff like Golem and Piloswine. Huntail was fun to use, but I probably wouldn't use it on a more serious team.


Murkrow @ Eviolite
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 Def / 248 HP / 8 SDef
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- FeatherDance
- Roost
- Dark Pulse

This thing is oh my god incredible. I got the idea after seeing the same set used in LC ages ago, and meant to try it out but never really got round to it. Turns out it is really really incredible, and manages to counter a number of dangerous NU Pokemon. It completely walls Absol and Musharna, either boosting alongside them and winning, or just stopping them from using Swords Dance, boosting a bit and then KOing. It also managed to beat Sawk, Braviary, Altaria, Fraxure, Emboar and a number of other amazing Pokemon. It obviously struggles to switch straight into these (don't expect it to take CB Flare Blitz at +0) but once it gets in and starts doing its thing not a lot can stop it. Its greatest enemy is status (specifically Toxic, anything else can be played around) so pairing it with status absorbers / clerics is pretty much essential. It also will not beat stuff like Roar Bastiodon, so Pokemon to beat that as well make great teammates. It has been much better than I thought it was, and might even deserve a set on site! Fantastic Pokemon, you should all try it out.
 

Sweet Jesus

Neal and Jack and me, absent lovers...
So I'm a bit late, but I'll do this.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: kecleopius jesus
Underdog Pokemon currently working with: Kecleon, Tropius
Current Ladder Ranking: none

Also, love that murkrow set of django, looks amazing.
 

Sweet Jesus

Neal and Jack and me, absent lovers...
So, I should be bronze pretty soon, but for now PS is down and I thought I might wtite down my thoughts right now and then just post where I get on the ladder.


Tropius (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Harvest
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Def / 136 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Protect
- Air Slash


Everyone's favourite flying banana dinosaur... thing ! I used the classic stall tropius set, but with a little variation in the EV spread. The strategy is pretty simple, seed someone and sub protect in his face while healing like you don't give a shit. The EV's are classic but with 136 in speed to outspeed base 65's and all their speed creeps. outspeeding alomomola is a very important thing because you must not get tropius toxiced. outspeeding sub CM goth was useful too, but not anymore. Outspeeding golurk flareon and others can also save your ass quite often. The speed EV's were taken from hp because tropius is healing with it's opponent's hp and prefers defence. Air slash can take down many grass types that are immune to leech seed

Tropius did pretty good, he can come in on nearly any physical attacker that doesn't have an ice move or a powerful stab super effective move. Thanks to it's sitrus, it's extremly easy to get a sub up and you can annoy everyone all day with leech seed and heal off your other pokes when you switch out to something to take a move trop can not take. Tropius highly appreciates heal bell support if you mispredict at some point and will often make battles extremly long if the opponent has reliable recovery. people would usualy couple tropius with toxic users, but I prefer paralyzis. once his prey is paralyzed, tropius can spam sub protect until he gets parahax and then proceed to stall out anything that doesn't have taunt, perish song, encore etc. if the opponent has reliable recovery, tropius can stall him out with para flinch if it does enough damage.

Sometimes, tropius can stall out 5 pokes in a team, but sometimes he does end up being just a good wall to certan physical attackers. I used him along carracosta and keckleon for decent results.


Kecleon (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Color Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Return/Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
- Knock Off
- Recover


The mother of gimmick, Kecleon ! Kecleon has a very nice niche as a special wall, some get scared his ability will make him unreliable but most of the time, it's pretty helpful. This set mainly supports, I would run SR over knock off but carracosta already had SR. Unfortunately, our friend kecleon can't learn seismic toss along recover and has a lot of difficulty dealing damage because he has no reliable stab. This does not make keckelon a bad poke because he supports like a fucking boss. I used him along tropius to spread the para and then stall everything. His ability is often useful, and even when something seems like it could abuse it like amoonguss, it's usualy too weak too really threaten kecleon.

The bad side of using keckleon, is that he probably is your team's special wall, this will often leave you weak to sub disable haunter but mainly to specs altaria. Even then, keckleon still has amazing defensive capacities and is one of the only pokemon in NU to have good sp.d and SR without being rock-steel.
 
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