Hi everybody! So it hasn't been long since my last monotype rmt, but here I am again with yet another team that I hope you'll appreciate. Today I'm bringing out a dark team. I am currently at 1776 elo, rank 13. Apart from a few personal tweaks that I'll explain, it has not a lot of originality in my opinion but at least it'll give a good insight of what a competitive monotype team can look like nowadays. If I have enough time, I'll try to post one team of each type before gen 8 comes in. As always, feel free to rate, react and give advises, especially for the nicknames, because we all know it's the most important thing in any competitive team xd! Without further ado, let's get started!
The Team :
Crazy Frogs (Greninja) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Extrasensory
- Ice Beam
- Surf
I must confess that for this set I'm really open to suggestions since it's very bad and I'll explain why. First, we need to talk of trivial things that we don't really care about: the moves. At the beginning of USUM, spikes was a go to move for greninja and so, since smogon recommended it, I began my journey complying to these wise advises. As time passed by however I quickly dropped that move for several reasons: primo greninja is very frail and he won't be able to set spikes often in the game, which is a problem since we're playing a rather fat balance; secundo being locked in a non damaging move gives up so much momentum and is bait for every living setup sweeper; tertio the extra coverage is actually very helpful, drastically changing some matchups while I previously almost never found good opportunities to set up spikes without sacrificing greninja which is quite a shame since he's more often than not the star of the team. As for the damaging attacks, ice beam is I think a must, dealing with flying, grass, dragon, and ground types with rather high power given protean and a hefty freeze chance. Now the big question is: why not gunk shot? We're playing dark, so why not using a poison type move to counter fairies? Well, here again, albeit debatable, I have my reasons: 1) it forces us to split our evs making us again frailer which forbids us more than ever to play agressively with greninja; 2) Gunk shot has actually very limited use even in the fairy matchup since klefki is completely immune to it and can then proceed to either spam spikes or t-wave us while we're not a dark type anymore. It can ohko bulu, but so does ice beam the majority of the time, it can not even ohko diancie, you only miss the ohko on koko but you can put him in range of ice beam and surf pretty easily by other means (life orb recoil, sandstorm and stealth rock damage,...); 3) gunk shot has a shaky 80% accuracy, yes it does slightly more damage than surf to +1 volcarona but even in this case if you had these two moves vs volcarona, which one do you click the most? I prefer surf over hydro pump because once again I value reliability over sheer power since it only misses the 2hko on klefki compared to surf. Just to mention that even vs klefki, the chance to 2hko him with hydro pump is only 64% if we take the accuracy into account (and we can't even stay in vs him because of the t-wave threat...). Then, why not u-turn? Well, because once again it forces to split evs and/or very low damage output, provides lackluster type coverage for dark teams (we're already stellar vs psychic teams, and u-turn power is otherwise only remotely useful vs opposing dark team). Still the momentum can be good but I feel the extra coverage is much more important: hp fire takes care of ice, bug, grass and especially steel types like m-scizor and ferrothorn and extrasensory of poison and fighting types, the latter being one of the worst foes we have to face. Now, the really important things: design and trivia! The choice between shiny and non shiny is debatable as although I overall appreciate more the non shiny blue version, I feel that the shiny black one is more in harmony with the rest of the "black parade". No, the real problem with this set is the nickname: crazy frogs! Seriously? It's not even a rock band! Please, help me fix it as soon as possible with a rock band name which has some link to a frog or something xd!
Imagine Dragons (Hydreigon) @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Roost
- Taunt
Ok, so enough jokes and let's get more concise! I originally started my dark journey with bisharp in tandem with greninja's spikes I figured that bisharp's defiant ability to deter defog combined with m-sableye anti spinning high deeds could make the job vs fatter teams. I had rather poor success with this method and so tried to dismantle defensive cores with other methods. Here comes Imagine Dragons aka hydreigon. As a stallbreaker he's a natural. Taunt and devastating drake ensures the opposing wall become radioactive while roost ensures your hp doesn't fall to zero, zero too soon. It's also worth noting that greninja is a believer in hydreigon, the two of them sharing awesome offensive synergy as we'll discuss in further details in the matchups section.
Fall-Out-Boy (Muk-Alola) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Gluttony
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Curse
- Recycle
Alomuk aka Fall-Out-Boy is our sole fairy switch-in so it should be preserved in that matchup. If m-diancie wants dance like Uma Thurman, be sure to bury her till she confesses. Curse boosts your damage output while slowly improving your bulk so that your opponent can remember you for centuries. If you say to yourself 'sugar we are going down' don't worry because recycle and iapapa berry makes you revive like a phoenix and state that if you are bulky enough and beware of knock off you could be immortal. Knock off is there to act both as a grand theft autumn to steal your opponent's item and of course as a ghostbuster. If fairies wanna dance, dance, I don't care, poison jab will tell them thanks for the memories.
The Rolling Stones (Tyranitar) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Tomb
- Toxic
- Protect
Tyranitar is a secondary special tank which brings good utility to the team. Stealth rock ensures that the hazard war is under my thumb. Reliability over power as always, I chose rock tomb as a stab and yet another utility move since I can get no satisfaction from stone edge's accuracy. Toxic is useful vs fat defensive mons so that time is on my side. Protect is a useful move to gimme shelter, racking up poison and sandstorm damage while recovering from leftovers and scouting for potential choice locked mons.
Eagles (Mandibuzz) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Foul Play
- Toxic
Mandibuzz is the physically defensive tank of the team. Roost heals off damage taken and enables me to get over it. Foul play is there so that setup sweepers don't take it easy on me. Now the questions you may ask is: why not defog? It's the only option for defogging on a dark team except for the very niche skuntank. Do you plan to take it as your last pokémon? Ha, ha, well actually... no. But my last slot takes very good care of hazards anyway while my team is not very much hindered by hazards as a whole: not many stealth rock and spike users can set up vs my last slot pokémon, toxic spikes are absorbed by a-muk and only greninja is a bit concerned by sticky web since the team has four slow members and hydreigon is immune to it. In many matchups I also very much like stealth rocks on the opposite side of the field so for instance even if my bug opponent sets a sticky web, I'm very unwilling to defog his sticky web and my rocks at the same time. The two last moves are quite situational in my opinion but I found them just a tiny bit more useful than defog. If you have some interesting tech ideas though, I'm open minded. U-turn brings some momentum so that when the opponent wants to threaten mandibuzz she's already gone. Toxic, despite being also carried by tyranitar can do again more of the dirty laundry: dealing with defensive cores. I thought of several other options: taunt is nice as well but hydreigon already performs as a great stallbreaker, I even considered iron defense to better take on physical attackers but I feel that mandibuzz is already sturdy enough for the job and unfortunately, defense boosts have no real purpose when faced to a critical hit.
Diamante (Sableye) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Protect
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
Probably the most pokémon which inspires the most hatred from these last generations. His hazard bouncing, spinblocking and status absorber qualities are all very much appreciated. With protect, diamante fights like a girl (well technically she is so no sexism here ^^) but that's the way she does it, while with will-o-wisp, she's coming in hot. Knock off makes the opponent remember when he had an item. Recover ensures you outlast your opponent who probably ragequited anyway, saying he had enough. No doubt that m-sableye will get your foes haunted, haunted, haunted.
Matchups:
Bug: very easy: Let's quote this article: https://www.smogon.com/articles/monotype-bug which wisely states that dark is a very good matchup for bug teams as most of us should assume: "Mega Pinsir can put immense pressure on a Dark team, as between Aerilate-boosted Frustrations and Close Combat, there is almost nothing that can stomach an attack from it after a Swords Dance. Even Mandibuzz is cleanly OHKOed by a +2 Frustration after Stealth Rock damage". Well, I have a question for you sir: how do you manage to get the rocks vs m-sableye in the first place? Ah, yes, by critting two stone edges in a row on the swicth with an unscathed armaldo, it's possible. The problem is, without stealth rocks on my side, mandibuzz takes m-pinsir forever. On the other hand that same armaldo (and forretres to an even greater extent) can't spin vs m-sableye, which means volcarona and m-pinsir, the two usually greater bug threats are left with only half their hp. It's a huge problem given that ttar has many opportunities to set up rocks in that mu and then proceed to do some big damage with rock tomb. Muk tanks all-non +1 firium z volcarona sets which tyranitar can handle. Hydreigon experiences some trouble switching-in but everytime he does, he gets a free kill. Greninja not only revenge kills volcarona and m-pinsir, thanks to hp fire, he can very easily clean late game. There are two reasons why I was wavering to claim this matchup is very easy but instead of rather easy. The first one is that if you play carelessly, banded scizor can put mandibuzz in range of scarf heracross and m-pinsir by u-turning out of it albeit by taking rocky helmet recoil. It is litterally the best thing a bug team can do to you and frankly it shouldn't be much of a nuisance, especially if you set the rocks early. The second reason is that you're left with no switch-in to the very rare m-heracross and greninja can't even rk it.
Dark: slightly favorable: You're a very slight favorite vs most offensive dark variants. They do have very notable threats in m-tyranitar or m-absol (m-sharpedo is a lot easier to take on with mandibuzz), weavile and to a lesser extent bisharp but once tyranitar has been weakened by hydreigon's devastating drake, your greninja can sweep late game while you're bulletproof vs that thanks to alolan-muk. It's definitely not a piece of cake though as the aforementioned threats can prove troublesome. Vs the balance mirror matchup, try to hide your hydreigon set in order to z alolan muk at the opportune moment to open a door for greninja. You're in big trouble if you face blumenwitz's cm dazzling gleam m-sableye.
Dragon: slightly favorable: Another very even matchup. But this one differs quite heavily depending on the mega they chose. M-latias is no more than setup fodder for us while m-altaria is terribly difficult to deal with. Combined with kommo-o, they often overwhelm alolan muk and can tear us apart quite easily. Happily though, we have our own counterplay in greninja. He is just stellar in that matchup, ohkoing everything outside of the very rare dragalge, the even rarer goodra, and healthy m-latias or kyurem-b after stealth rocks. Keep him healthy though, as he needs all his hp to tank one e-speed from dragonite late game.
Electric: very difficult: I would argue this one is probably our worst matchup. This is almost solely due to one mon: zeraora against which we have no remotely good switch in. Try to make him take recoil damage from rocky helmet by sacking mandibuzz so that at least greninja can revenge kill him. Then in a dream world you set up with alolan muk, play wittily so that your iapapa berry is not knocked off, do not get a full para and sweep. That's wishful thinking but it's the best we can do.
Fairy: Strangely enough, the worst three matchups are following each other in alphabetical order. Diancie is a monstruous threat since a-muk is a very loose check to it since both diamond storm and earth power do around 50% damage to you; you're basically saved by your berry but more often than not have to rely on no crits and no drops. Fortunately poison jab has a hefty 30% chance of poisoning her. There are other threats like tapu bulu and azumarill who can together overwhelm mandibuzz on a good day, or bad day for you. The mimikyu teams are even more threatening, feel free to trade hydreigon for mimikyu's disguise when faced vs it. Hopefully, a a-muk sweep is much more foreseeable than vs electric since nothing takes well poison jab on a fairy team besides kelfki which is complete curse fodder.
Fighting: very difficult: It may seem that with a defensive core sporting two neutrality and one immunity to fighting, you're quite well prepared vs it. Well, unfortunately, not quite. Both keldeo and and especially kommo-o are threats to take into account. The two of them combined can easily dispatch alolan muk which is their only switch-in. You can try to scout for choice locked keldeo or make kommo-o waste his z-move with protect but sometimes your opponent uses substitute and you figure that you lose to belly drum salac berry kommo-o. Although these attackers are slightly less threatening than dragon's core, your counterplay is far more potent here. Despite this, you're more than happy to have extrasensory, allowing to dream of a late game sweep.
Fire: rather easy: Tyranitar is by far the mvp here: putting rocks i absolutely key. Once it's done, you can spam rock tomb and tear holes. Keep him healthy. Sableye ensures that torkoal can not set up his own rocks or spin but you can't prevent rotom-h from defogging, which is a bit of a shame. If volcanion is absent or out of the picture, which is manageable since he is 2hko by extrasensory after rocks, greninja can sweep with surf; although torkoal's sun hamper this a bit; hence the importance of tyranitar's sand. Fire teams have their chances though with charizard-x, infernape and victini, all of which can quickly overwhelm tyranitar if you play carelessly.
Flying: slightly favorable: In this matchup you're a slight favorite. For sure, a-muk, your check to charizard-y and thundurus-t is rather shaky and it's even worse vs m-aerodactyl. You do have your own tricks however as although greninja is initially kept at bay by mantine and celesteela, hydreigon pressures them to a great extent. Although they generally pack 2 defoggers, the constant need to remove the hazards can make them lose quite a lot of momentum. Vs offensive flying, their checks to a greninja sweep are even scarcer. In any case none the less, it's a very even matchup.
Ghost: rather easy: Mimikyu is a huge threat but pretty much the only one. Once his disguise is broken, hydreigon sweeps effortlessly. If you happen to trade him vs mimikyu well, it's m-sableye vs m-sableye... You love the metapod vs metapod battle in the anime, don't you?
Grass: very easy: An easy matchup. M-sableye shuts down their defensive core, hydreigon slowly breaks through while mandibuzz takes everything from tapu bulu and breloom as long as they don't crit their rock type attack. Although he needs to heavily predict or have its checks weakened, once again, greninja can also sweep having extrasensory for venusaur, ice beam for cradily and hp fire for ferrothorn. Tectonic rage celebi can be slightly annoying since it can bypass alolan-muk, his natural check. In the same vein, if he gets extremely lucky with glare paralysis or z-hyperbeams you at +2. Although this result in long matches, you're definitely on the sunny side of the torture.
Ground: slightly favorable: Try to lure and poison gastrodon with toxic. This is when having two toxic users can prove it handy as when the opponent sees that either one carries it, he may not expect another mon to have it. When this is done, or seismitoad is heavily weakened, greninja has two great attacks to spam in ice beam and surf, leaving little chance to your opponent. Beware of mamoswine and especially sand rush excadrill though as they can quickly get out of control.
Ice: rather easy: A rather good matchup for you. Like vs fire, tyranitar is stellar: setting rocks, disrupting the veils, and spamming rock tomb. Mamoswine and cloyster are big threats but the latter can find it difficult to set up and both can be reliably revenge killed by greninja which can sweep late game with hp fire.
Normal: slightly favorable: Normal teams tend to be more and more prepared to the dark matchup, which I personnaly take as a compliment and proof of this type respectability. Sableye shuts down chansey, so you won't have rocks on your side of the field. Restrain yourself from using will-o-wisp early game since it will most likely bounce back to you via ditto and porygon2. Mandibuzz is the bastion that should stay firm as diggersby unfortunately 2hkos it if he predicts correctly. If you can read his set well and avoid the swords dance variant, protect scounting can greatly alleviate this, leaving almost no settup opportunity for diggersby. Muk can somehow render porygon-z useless by forcing him to use breakneck blitz to do anything meaningful, thus leaving it unable to omniboost. Offensively, hydreigon very slowly but very surely whittles down normal's defensive core with taunt and roost.
Poison: very easy: How cab they break through m-sableye already? Ow, well, they can't. Even a nidoking lead can't 2hko you since you'll just knock off his life orb and then spam recover. Ah, and he can't even hope for a spd drop because of sheer force. If it wasn't enough, hydreigon excels here and once opposing alolan muk is dealt with, greninja can spam extrasensory and easily ko everything. I can think of very little ways for poison to try to balance this matchup and all of them are gimmicky or easily scoutable: life orb dazzling gleam nihilego, life orb/twinkle tackle gengar, destiny bond gengar,... . Probably the most one sided matchup in our favor. Feel free to add your own lures here.
Psychic: very easy: As expected, this matchup is very good for you. Hydreigon gets a kill every time it enters the field while also dealing efficiently with cm m slowbro. A-muk can easily setup and win. Sableye shuts down half their team: deoxys-s, m-gallade, defensive mew,... . Tyranitar can set up rocks and soft check victini together with mandibuzz and his job is eased by protect scouting. Their best mon vs you is jirachi which is a bit tedious to deal with. Since these teams are quite unpredictable, don't think you have won already otherwise you'll be as ridiculous as me vs Rejio xd.
Rock: rather easy: Their big threat is as expected m-diancie. Once you adequately dealt it, there's very little to stop greninja from sweeping except the very passive cradily which can be easily taken advantage of. Banded tyranitar is the other notable threat but with correct prediction and careful play, this one is a lot easier to deal with.
Steel: slightly favorable: Another episode of why you should use all the coverage you can on greninja. Hp fire does so much work, combined with surf to deal with heatran and scarf excadrill at a higher amount of hp. Mandibuzz deals with m-scizor although he can get overwhelmed if there's bisharp on the opposing team. A-muk soft checks jirachi and heatran while having a decent chance to sweep late game if knock off users are eliminated beforehand. M-sableye can get a tiny bit pressured by offensive heatran variants but it hard counters ferrothorn. It's not that important to set up your own rocks but it can sometimes be crucial to avoid your opponent's. It may be the only matchup where defog puts more use than toxic or u-turn. Despite this, mandibuzz is already pressured enough, it rarely sees opportunities to defog (especially in front of bisharp) while keeping himself healthy at the same time.
Water: rather difficult: It's difficult to give an overall opinion given the huge number of viable mons and archetypes on this type. Stall variants are probably the easiest to deal with thanks to mr stallbreaker hydreigon which can dispatch everything if you avoid toxic. A very slow but rather easy game. Vs balance teams, keldeo can be problematic, especially waterium z variants who can pressure alolan muk to enable their greninja sweep. Not to mention that they can also swap their movesets, greninja acting as a lure with groundium z and scarf keldeo sweeping late game with secret sword if you didn't foresee the sets beforehand. However, once again, hydreigon is very good at breaking their defensive core which gives you decent chances, albeit not completely equal. Vs offensive swift swim, mandibuzz is a very losse check to m-swampert, their biggest threat with keldeo. Although you do have your own tricks, this variant is a rather bad matchup for you despite being quite uncommon at high ladder.
proof of peak:
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Be sure to give me your thoughts, questions and advises!
The Team :
Crazy Frogs (Greninja) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Extrasensory
- Ice Beam
- Surf
I must confess that for this set I'm really open to suggestions since it's very bad and I'll explain why. First, we need to talk of trivial things that we don't really care about: the moves. At the beginning of USUM, spikes was a go to move for greninja and so, since smogon recommended it, I began my journey complying to these wise advises. As time passed by however I quickly dropped that move for several reasons: primo greninja is very frail and he won't be able to set spikes often in the game, which is a problem since we're playing a rather fat balance; secundo being locked in a non damaging move gives up so much momentum and is bait for every living setup sweeper; tertio the extra coverage is actually very helpful, drastically changing some matchups while I previously almost never found good opportunities to set up spikes without sacrificing greninja which is quite a shame since he's more often than not the star of the team. As for the damaging attacks, ice beam is I think a must, dealing with flying, grass, dragon, and ground types with rather high power given protean and a hefty freeze chance. Now the big question is: why not gunk shot? We're playing dark, so why not using a poison type move to counter fairies? Well, here again, albeit debatable, I have my reasons: 1) it forces us to split our evs making us again frailer which forbids us more than ever to play agressively with greninja; 2) Gunk shot has actually very limited use even in the fairy matchup since klefki is completely immune to it and can then proceed to either spam spikes or t-wave us while we're not a dark type anymore. It can ohko bulu, but so does ice beam the majority of the time, it can not even ohko diancie, you only miss the ohko on koko but you can put him in range of ice beam and surf pretty easily by other means (life orb recoil, sandstorm and stealth rock damage,...); 3) gunk shot has a shaky 80% accuracy, yes it does slightly more damage than surf to +1 volcarona but even in this case if you had these two moves vs volcarona, which one do you click the most? I prefer surf over hydro pump because once again I value reliability over sheer power since it only misses the 2hko on klefki compared to surf. Just to mention that even vs klefki, the chance to 2hko him with hydro pump is only 64% if we take the accuracy into account (and we can't even stay in vs him because of the t-wave threat...). Then, why not u-turn? Well, because once again it forces to split evs and/or very low damage output, provides lackluster type coverage for dark teams (we're already stellar vs psychic teams, and u-turn power is otherwise only remotely useful vs opposing dark team). Still the momentum can be good but I feel the extra coverage is much more important: hp fire takes care of ice, bug, grass and especially steel types like m-scizor and ferrothorn and extrasensory of poison and fighting types, the latter being one of the worst foes we have to face. Now, the really important things: design and trivia! The choice between shiny and non shiny is debatable as although I overall appreciate more the non shiny blue version, I feel that the shiny black one is more in harmony with the rest of the "black parade". No, the real problem with this set is the nickname: crazy frogs! Seriously? It's not even a rock band! Please, help me fix it as soon as possible with a rock band name which has some link to a frog or something xd!
Imagine Dragons (Hydreigon) @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Roost
- Taunt
Ok, so enough jokes and let's get more concise! I originally started my dark journey with bisharp in tandem with greninja's spikes I figured that bisharp's defiant ability to deter defog combined with m-sableye anti spinning high deeds could make the job vs fatter teams. I had rather poor success with this method and so tried to dismantle defensive cores with other methods. Here comes Imagine Dragons aka hydreigon. As a stallbreaker he's a natural. Taunt and devastating drake ensures the opposing wall become radioactive while roost ensures your hp doesn't fall to zero, zero too soon. It's also worth noting that greninja is a believer in hydreigon, the two of them sharing awesome offensive synergy as we'll discuss in further details in the matchups section.
Fall-Out-Boy (Muk-Alola) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Gluttony
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Curse
- Recycle
Alomuk aka Fall-Out-Boy is our sole fairy switch-in so it should be preserved in that matchup. If m-diancie wants dance like Uma Thurman, be sure to bury her till she confesses. Curse boosts your damage output while slowly improving your bulk so that your opponent can remember you for centuries. If you say to yourself 'sugar we are going down' don't worry because recycle and iapapa berry makes you revive like a phoenix and state that if you are bulky enough and beware of knock off you could be immortal. Knock off is there to act both as a grand theft autumn to steal your opponent's item and of course as a ghostbuster. If fairies wanna dance, dance, I don't care, poison jab will tell them thanks for the memories.
The Rolling Stones (Tyranitar) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Tomb
- Toxic
- Protect
Tyranitar is a secondary special tank which brings good utility to the team. Stealth rock ensures that the hazard war is under my thumb. Reliability over power as always, I chose rock tomb as a stab and yet another utility move since I can get no satisfaction from stone edge's accuracy. Toxic is useful vs fat defensive mons so that time is on my side. Protect is a useful move to gimme shelter, racking up poison and sandstorm damage while recovering from leftovers and scouting for potential choice locked mons.
Eagles (Mandibuzz) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Foul Play
- Toxic
Mandibuzz is the physically defensive tank of the team. Roost heals off damage taken and enables me to get over it. Foul play is there so that setup sweepers don't take it easy on me. Now the questions you may ask is: why not defog? It's the only option for defogging on a dark team except for the very niche skuntank. Do you plan to take it as your last pokémon? Ha, ha, well actually... no. But my last slot takes very good care of hazards anyway while my team is not very much hindered by hazards as a whole: not many stealth rock and spike users can set up vs my last slot pokémon, toxic spikes are absorbed by a-muk and only greninja is a bit concerned by sticky web since the team has four slow members and hydreigon is immune to it. In many matchups I also very much like stealth rocks on the opposite side of the field so for instance even if my bug opponent sets a sticky web, I'm very unwilling to defog his sticky web and my rocks at the same time. The two last moves are quite situational in my opinion but I found them just a tiny bit more useful than defog. If you have some interesting tech ideas though, I'm open minded. U-turn brings some momentum so that when the opponent wants to threaten mandibuzz she's already gone. Toxic, despite being also carried by tyranitar can do again more of the dirty laundry: dealing with defensive cores. I thought of several other options: taunt is nice as well but hydreigon already performs as a great stallbreaker, I even considered iron defense to better take on physical attackers but I feel that mandibuzz is already sturdy enough for the job and unfortunately, defense boosts have no real purpose when faced to a critical hit.
Diamante (Sableye) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Protect
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
Probably the most pokémon which inspires the most hatred from these last generations. His hazard bouncing, spinblocking and status absorber qualities are all very much appreciated. With protect, diamante fights like a girl (well technically she is so no sexism here ^^) but that's the way she does it, while with will-o-wisp, she's coming in hot. Knock off makes the opponent remember when he had an item. Recover ensures you outlast your opponent who probably ragequited anyway, saying he had enough. No doubt that m-sableye will get your foes haunted, haunted, haunted.
Matchups:
Bug: very easy: Let's quote this article: https://www.smogon.com/articles/monotype-bug which wisely states that dark is a very good matchup for bug teams as most of us should assume: "Mega Pinsir can put immense pressure on a Dark team, as between Aerilate-boosted Frustrations and Close Combat, there is almost nothing that can stomach an attack from it after a Swords Dance. Even Mandibuzz is cleanly OHKOed by a +2 Frustration after Stealth Rock damage". Well, I have a question for you sir: how do you manage to get the rocks vs m-sableye in the first place? Ah, yes, by critting two stone edges in a row on the swicth with an unscathed armaldo, it's possible. The problem is, without stealth rocks on my side, mandibuzz takes m-pinsir forever. On the other hand that same armaldo (and forretres to an even greater extent) can't spin vs m-sableye, which means volcarona and m-pinsir, the two usually greater bug threats are left with only half their hp. It's a huge problem given that ttar has many opportunities to set up rocks in that mu and then proceed to do some big damage with rock tomb. Muk tanks all-non +1 firium z volcarona sets which tyranitar can handle. Hydreigon experiences some trouble switching-in but everytime he does, he gets a free kill. Greninja not only revenge kills volcarona and m-pinsir, thanks to hp fire, he can very easily clean late game. There are two reasons why I was wavering to claim this matchup is very easy but instead of rather easy. The first one is that if you play carelessly, banded scizor can put mandibuzz in range of scarf heracross and m-pinsir by u-turning out of it albeit by taking rocky helmet recoil. It is litterally the best thing a bug team can do to you and frankly it shouldn't be much of a nuisance, especially if you set the rocks early. The second reason is that you're left with no switch-in to the very rare m-heracross and greninja can't even rk it.
Dark: slightly favorable: You're a very slight favorite vs most offensive dark variants. They do have very notable threats in m-tyranitar or m-absol (m-sharpedo is a lot easier to take on with mandibuzz), weavile and to a lesser extent bisharp but once tyranitar has been weakened by hydreigon's devastating drake, your greninja can sweep late game while you're bulletproof vs that thanks to alolan-muk. It's definitely not a piece of cake though as the aforementioned threats can prove troublesome. Vs the balance mirror matchup, try to hide your hydreigon set in order to z alolan muk at the opportune moment to open a door for greninja. You're in big trouble if you face blumenwitz's cm dazzling gleam m-sableye.
Dragon: slightly favorable: Another very even matchup. But this one differs quite heavily depending on the mega they chose. M-latias is no more than setup fodder for us while m-altaria is terribly difficult to deal with. Combined with kommo-o, they often overwhelm alolan muk and can tear us apart quite easily. Happily though, we have our own counterplay in greninja. He is just stellar in that matchup, ohkoing everything outside of the very rare dragalge, the even rarer goodra, and healthy m-latias or kyurem-b after stealth rocks. Keep him healthy though, as he needs all his hp to tank one e-speed from dragonite late game.
Electric: very difficult: I would argue this one is probably our worst matchup. This is almost solely due to one mon: zeraora against which we have no remotely good switch in. Try to make him take recoil damage from rocky helmet by sacking mandibuzz so that at least greninja can revenge kill him. Then in a dream world you set up with alolan muk, play wittily so that your iapapa berry is not knocked off, do not get a full para and sweep. That's wishful thinking but it's the best we can do.
Fairy: Strangely enough, the worst three matchups are following each other in alphabetical order. Diancie is a monstruous threat since a-muk is a very loose check to it since both diamond storm and earth power do around 50% damage to you; you're basically saved by your berry but more often than not have to rely on no crits and no drops. Fortunately poison jab has a hefty 30% chance of poisoning her. There are other threats like tapu bulu and azumarill who can together overwhelm mandibuzz on a good day, or bad day for you. The mimikyu teams are even more threatening, feel free to trade hydreigon for mimikyu's disguise when faced vs it. Hopefully, a a-muk sweep is much more foreseeable than vs electric since nothing takes well poison jab on a fairy team besides kelfki which is complete curse fodder.
Fighting: very difficult: It may seem that with a defensive core sporting two neutrality and one immunity to fighting, you're quite well prepared vs it. Well, unfortunately, not quite. Both keldeo and and especially kommo-o are threats to take into account. The two of them combined can easily dispatch alolan muk which is their only switch-in. You can try to scout for choice locked keldeo or make kommo-o waste his z-move with protect but sometimes your opponent uses substitute and you figure that you lose to belly drum salac berry kommo-o. Although these attackers are slightly less threatening than dragon's core, your counterplay is far more potent here. Despite this, you're more than happy to have extrasensory, allowing to dream of a late game sweep.
Fire: rather easy: Tyranitar is by far the mvp here: putting rocks i absolutely key. Once it's done, you can spam rock tomb and tear holes. Keep him healthy. Sableye ensures that torkoal can not set up his own rocks or spin but you can't prevent rotom-h from defogging, which is a bit of a shame. If volcanion is absent or out of the picture, which is manageable since he is 2hko by extrasensory after rocks, greninja can sweep with surf; although torkoal's sun hamper this a bit; hence the importance of tyranitar's sand. Fire teams have their chances though with charizard-x, infernape and victini, all of which can quickly overwhelm tyranitar if you play carelessly.
Flying: slightly favorable: In this matchup you're a slight favorite. For sure, a-muk, your check to charizard-y and thundurus-t is rather shaky and it's even worse vs m-aerodactyl. You do have your own tricks however as although greninja is initially kept at bay by mantine and celesteela, hydreigon pressures them to a great extent. Although they generally pack 2 defoggers, the constant need to remove the hazards can make them lose quite a lot of momentum. Vs offensive flying, their checks to a greninja sweep are even scarcer. In any case none the less, it's a very even matchup.
Ghost: rather easy: Mimikyu is a huge threat but pretty much the only one. Once his disguise is broken, hydreigon sweeps effortlessly. If you happen to trade him vs mimikyu well, it's m-sableye vs m-sableye... You love the metapod vs metapod battle in the anime, don't you?
Grass: very easy: An easy matchup. M-sableye shuts down their defensive core, hydreigon slowly breaks through while mandibuzz takes everything from tapu bulu and breloom as long as they don't crit their rock type attack. Although he needs to heavily predict or have its checks weakened, once again, greninja can also sweep having extrasensory for venusaur, ice beam for cradily and hp fire for ferrothorn. Tectonic rage celebi can be slightly annoying since it can bypass alolan-muk, his natural check. In the same vein, if he gets extremely lucky with glare paralysis or z-hyperbeams you at +2. Although this result in long matches, you're definitely on the sunny side of the torture.
Ground: slightly favorable: Try to lure and poison gastrodon with toxic. This is when having two toxic users can prove it handy as when the opponent sees that either one carries it, he may not expect another mon to have it. When this is done, or seismitoad is heavily weakened, greninja has two great attacks to spam in ice beam and surf, leaving little chance to your opponent. Beware of mamoswine and especially sand rush excadrill though as they can quickly get out of control.
Ice: rather easy: A rather good matchup for you. Like vs fire, tyranitar is stellar: setting rocks, disrupting the veils, and spamming rock tomb. Mamoswine and cloyster are big threats but the latter can find it difficult to set up and both can be reliably revenge killed by greninja which can sweep late game with hp fire.
Normal: slightly favorable: Normal teams tend to be more and more prepared to the dark matchup, which I personnaly take as a compliment and proof of this type respectability. Sableye shuts down chansey, so you won't have rocks on your side of the field. Restrain yourself from using will-o-wisp early game since it will most likely bounce back to you via ditto and porygon2. Mandibuzz is the bastion that should stay firm as diggersby unfortunately 2hkos it if he predicts correctly. If you can read his set well and avoid the swords dance variant, protect scounting can greatly alleviate this, leaving almost no settup opportunity for diggersby. Muk can somehow render porygon-z useless by forcing him to use breakneck blitz to do anything meaningful, thus leaving it unable to omniboost. Offensively, hydreigon very slowly but very surely whittles down normal's defensive core with taunt and roost.
Poison: very easy: How cab they break through m-sableye already? Ow, well, they can't. Even a nidoking lead can't 2hko you since you'll just knock off his life orb and then spam recover. Ah, and he can't even hope for a spd drop because of sheer force. If it wasn't enough, hydreigon excels here and once opposing alolan muk is dealt with, greninja can spam extrasensory and easily ko everything. I can think of very little ways for poison to try to balance this matchup and all of them are gimmicky or easily scoutable: life orb dazzling gleam nihilego, life orb/twinkle tackle gengar, destiny bond gengar,... . Probably the most one sided matchup in our favor. Feel free to add your own lures here.
Psychic: very easy: As expected, this matchup is very good for you. Hydreigon gets a kill every time it enters the field while also dealing efficiently with cm m slowbro. A-muk can easily setup and win. Sableye shuts down half their team: deoxys-s, m-gallade, defensive mew,... . Tyranitar can set up rocks and soft check victini together with mandibuzz and his job is eased by protect scouting. Their best mon vs you is jirachi which is a bit tedious to deal with. Since these teams are quite unpredictable, don't think you have won already otherwise you'll be as ridiculous as me vs Rejio xd.
Rock: rather easy: Their big threat is as expected m-diancie. Once you adequately dealt it, there's very little to stop greninja from sweeping except the very passive cradily which can be easily taken advantage of. Banded tyranitar is the other notable threat but with correct prediction and careful play, this one is a lot easier to deal with.
Steel: slightly favorable: Another episode of why you should use all the coverage you can on greninja. Hp fire does so much work, combined with surf to deal with heatran and scarf excadrill at a higher amount of hp. Mandibuzz deals with m-scizor although he can get overwhelmed if there's bisharp on the opposing team. A-muk soft checks jirachi and heatran while having a decent chance to sweep late game if knock off users are eliminated beforehand. M-sableye can get a tiny bit pressured by offensive heatran variants but it hard counters ferrothorn. It's not that important to set up your own rocks but it can sometimes be crucial to avoid your opponent's. It may be the only matchup where defog puts more use than toxic or u-turn. Despite this, mandibuzz is already pressured enough, it rarely sees opportunities to defog (especially in front of bisharp) while keeping himself healthy at the same time.
Water: rather difficult: It's difficult to give an overall opinion given the huge number of viable mons and archetypes on this type. Stall variants are probably the easiest to deal with thanks to mr stallbreaker hydreigon which can dispatch everything if you avoid toxic. A very slow but rather easy game. Vs balance teams, keldeo can be problematic, especially waterium z variants who can pressure alolan muk to enable their greninja sweep. Not to mention that they can also swap their movesets, greninja acting as a lure with groundium z and scarf keldeo sweeping late game with secret sword if you didn't foresee the sets beforehand. However, once again, hydreigon is very good at breaking their defensive core which gives you decent chances, albeit not completely equal. Vs offensive swift swim, mandibuzz is a very losse check to m-swampert, their biggest threat with keldeo. Although you do have your own tricks, this variant is a rather bad matchup for you despite being quite uncommon at high ladder.
proof of peak:
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Be sure to give me your thoughts, questions and advises!
