Introduction
Hello one and all, today I bring you a team designed to end games by trading pokemon, sacrificing one of your own in order to take down the opposition. I came to this conclusion of teams when I kept running into similar HO teams that used the same tired old pokemon that I decided I had to come up with an even dumber team that can win even quicker and beat other HO reliably. Without further ado, lets start with the teambuilding process
Firstly, we started with non-mega aerodactyl as the team's all important lead. I chose aero because it is fast; at 130 base speed it ties with screens koko and can win the 50/50 to taunt it and get up rocks, and will generally outspeed other leads and keep rocks up. It is incredibly important that my lead can do 4 things: 1) get rocks up 2) prevent opposing rocks 3) preferably chip or kill another mon 4) not lose to screens koko. Aero doesn't do #3 very well, but I can at least just blame hax if it cannot do #4. There aren't really many pokemon out there that can run rocks+taunt and beat screens koko and take down mons, because koko can taunt leads like lycanroc, set up both screens as they endeavor/accelerock, taunt again before u-turning to break sash, set up dd with zygarde, kill before you can get up rocks, and go from there. Sash oblivious mamo was also considered, but it ultimately cannot prevent sash lando-t from getting up rocks, so it was ditched too.
The reason I dont run smeargle with rocks+taunt+magic coat+dbond @ sash is because smeargle is not faster than the most common suicide rocker, sash lando-t, and even though you can magic coat the rocks once, magic coat has less pp overall than stealth rock so you can't prevent opposing rocks at the end of the day. You'd have to try and fit rapid spin somewhere, and at that point you're not really doing better than other leads.
Next come the traders, the merchants, the scarf pokemon staraptor and victini. The main purpose of these pokemon is to be fast, have lots of HP, and thus take down almost any pokemon with them through the use of final gambit. The rest of the moves are just decorations but sometimes you do actually need to attack. These pokemon can easily revenge kill threats like scarf lando-t, +1 zygarde, +1 gyarados etc and take down bulkier annoying pokemon like zapdos, toxapex, or honestly just about anything you want them to, as long as they're fast enough. Victini and Staraptor are the fastest pokemon with the highest HP total AND access to the move final gambit, making them the best choices for the job. They're also part of the reason keeping rocks off is so important, the list of mons they can OHKO drops drastically if they take rocks damage.
An unexpected visitor makes his appearance on the team as the real swiss knife on the team, and being able to take down almost any 1 pokemon with prankster destiny bond, i knew he would fit right into the team and make himself at home. Mega Banette has other tools like prankster taunt that can help with hazard control and help pressure fat shit in general, which can be nice. Ultimately, there's nothing quite like mega banette, so despite being RU he takes a solid spot on this team.
The last two are much more standard cleaners that were required to effectively make the team function, because at the end of the day, I only have 3 merchants to trade pokemon, and the remaining 3 need to be handled. Gyarados + Tapu koko were chosen for being hard to prepare for as cleaners, but also because they synergize with each other very well as sweepers. Whatever dd z-bounce gyarados has trouble with, like zapdos and celesteela, cm tapu koko can come in right after and set up, and stuff koko has trouble with, like lando-t, exca, or gastro, gyarados can come in and take out a few mons.
As I explained pretty in-depth in the teambuilding section, aero is probably the best lead for the job for its ability to get my rocks up, keep other rocks off, and not lose to screens koko. The reason I run defog in the last slot over something more practical like Tailwind is because Pressure+Defog can technically keep rocks off the field vs mons like oblivious mamoswine who cannot be taunted, but you won't be using it 99% of the time anyway. Tailwind isn't very helpful to my team at all, so i'd still rather have defog, even if its to first defog, then get up rocks, then land stone edge with more accuracy as I die. However, I think this is the one mon I would be most willing to replace if I happened to overlook a lead that fits this team better than aero. But with aero, the only time I find that rocks go up is when you're setting up with your cleaners to finish the game cleanly.
Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- U-turn
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
Victini is next as the trader of spices and hot foods, he truly will show your defensive landorus and sdef heatran a wild time. Max hp lets you hit the same number as other prominent defensive threats with base 100 hp, like mew, mega swampert, tangrowth, suicune, and ttar, and covers other prominent mons that are just a smidgen below 100 base hp like clefable and gyarados at 95, and celesteela at 97. Another added bonus of hitting 404 hp is that you even hit zygarde and other pokemon with more than 100 base hp that still only run 404 hp for the 101 hp subs. The rest of the moves honestly dont matter, I've used bolt strike once and u-turn/v-create can be mildly helpful but more often than not you want to just click final gambit and remove an obstacle for tapu koko. One thing you have to keep in mind is that this victini has almost no attack investment, so your v-create might be a lot weaker than you think. I remember failing to take out a skarmory at 70% with v-create and wishing i'd just clicked final gambit instead. Max speed is pretty self explanatory, you want to click final gambit while at full health, so naturally you gotta do it first.
Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Close Combat
Staraptor is the other scarf final gambit user of the team, and he loves trading for wild game like big bird zapdos or lions like lando-t. Staraptor's HP is a little more tricky because 85 is kind of low and misses out on lots of key threats, so you kind of rely on stealth rock damage to compensate so that you can kill zapdos and what not. I chose 212 HP because that hits the same number as Max hp Magearna, 364. You might be thinking that I should factor in rocks damage to calculate a better final gambit number to maybe nail mons that are roughly near 85 base hp, like 91 base hp heatran and 97 base hp celesteela after rocks damage, but the problem is that both of those have the potential to be protect+leftovers, which not only messes up my final gambit number because of leftovers recovery, but I also risk just clicking final gambit on protect and wasting staraptor entirely, so I think it's a waste to ev for those targets. Max speed is self explanatory, and the rest goes into attack. I chose reckless over intimidate because you actually can still do some pretty nice damage, but I've honestly yet to test intimidate and it might just be helpful in letting gyarados set up in some places. I chose to run the 3 attacks listed and not double-edge as one normally would because I'm going to be clicking final gambit on double-edge targets like zapdos and rotom-wash anyways. All in all, the bird pitches in to do what few can.
Banette @ Banettite
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
- Shadow Claw
- Disable
This guy is probably the most pleasant surprise I had when starting to use this team. Not only was a max attack shadow claw deceptively effective at softening up teams and hard to switch into, he can also be the most flexible tool in turning momentum around, checking dangerous threats, harassing fat teams, and contributing to the hazard game by shutting down stealth rock, spike, defog etc with a prankster taunt. The spread is pretty simple, I just hit 200 speed post-mega to outpace mmaw, max attack to get a strong shadow claw, and dump the rest in hp. Frisk can also be nice for scouting item slots pre-mega, and is more useful than insomnia and cursed body; overall its very nice and adds to the incredible utility banette brings to the team. I chose disable as the last slot over some other attack because taunt+disable can be used to hilarious effect when played in the right order and can proceed to totally shut down support mons that only have 1 attacking move or prevent mons like defensive non z-fly lando-t from beating you 1v1 with eq. I personally think that moves like sucker punch and shadow sneak are useless on this mon because you should almost never use priority attacks in the first place. Not only do you have no need for them with prankster dbond, it also destroys the integrity of the destiny bond itself, which lasts until you make your next move. You can have last turns prankster dbond stay in effect for up to 2 turns of enemy attack if banette is slower if you shadow claw the next turn, which can easily put most sweepers in a lose-lose situation. Either they attack you with dbond up or try to fuck around with sub/set up as you chip them down with a strong shadow claw. Depending on the team, you may have use for prankster wisp, prankster t-wave, or even something really out there like curse (prankster curse+pain split is a fun idea that will have to wait for another team). Regardless, i'm confident this is the best banette set for the team and one of the best out there.
You might be thinking of phantom force, but trust me when I say its an awful idea. Not only does it destroy the win-win situation for mbanette vs most sweepers with prankster dbond+slow shadow claw, it can be easily played around because banette really isn't some OHKOing machine, despite what the huge attack stat might make you think. The effects of dbond will have wore off, and opponents have the chance to outplay by switching out hard as you disappear and by killing you with a slower pokemon as you reappear. The extra damage is nowhere near worth the risk of wasting banette, and wasting your merchants is the #1 way to misplay this team.
Gyarados @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Bounce
- Earthquake
The team gets a lot less interesting from here, its just two somewhat anti-meta sweepers with good synergy. This is the same gyarados you've seen a 100 times before, with max attack/speed to be a good sweeper, moxie to snowball attack boosts, and z-bounce to blow away grasses and get the moxie rolling. EQ was chosen over something like sub or taunt because I dont really need it vs fat when I can invalidate defensive cores with my traders anyway, and would like the extra coverage to beat mons like pex instead. Mega Banette can also pick up the bill for taunt, and eq is nice overall. Gyara is just a pretty consistent sweeper that doesn't let you down too often.
Tapu Koko @ Fairium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Calm Mind
Tapu koko runs a pretty interesting set that I've grown fond of, and I actually decided to run the z-move here too because I feel that you only ever really click one or the other either way, and the z-dazzling gleam damage that allows you to break past bulu and lando-t at +1 is truly irreplaceable, no other item can really replicate those results. Hidden power fire hits ferrothorn, which should be weakened for gyarados, and ultimately this set can be surprisingly consistent and effective against common HO builds, especially when the most common form of revenge killing, scarf lando-t, just becomes gyarados set up fodder the next turn. You just have to be careful that you really pick and choose one sweeper to end the game with and leave them the z-move, because both of them use the z-move too well to totally give it up. Evs, items, and nature should be pretty self explanatory, koko needs to hit as hard and fast as he can because he too is quite a decent cleaner.
Scarf Kartana is probably one of the biggest threats of the team, and its something that you generally need to keep either victini or banette around for because it can revenge kill gyarados and tapu koko pretty easily if either has been chipped a bit. SD timid kart can throw you for a loop too.
Screens koko can win the speed tie vs aero and probably just proceed to dumpster the team, but what can I say? It's hard to find a lead that does it all.
Ash gren can snatch games from you with specs shuriken if your team is weakened and gyara is dead because it can outspeed banette's catch all prankster dbond.
Outside of these, most of your losses will probably just be due to making wrong predictions, wasting/misplaying your traders, having a surprise check to your sweeper, hax, or just not having enough mega banette.
Replays
Shoutouts to all the idiots in the ou room, and have fun with this dumb team. Never forget the words of our shepherd "lets just trade like world trade center."
In all seriousness, do take a moment of silence in respect for the fallen on this day.
Hello one and all, today I bring you a team designed to end games by trading pokemon, sacrificing one of your own in order to take down the opposition. I came to this conclusion of teams when I kept running into similar HO teams that used the same tired old pokemon that I decided I had to come up with an even dumber team that can win even quicker and beat other HO reliably. Without further ado, lets start with the teambuilding process
Firstly, we started with non-mega aerodactyl as the team's all important lead. I chose aero because it is fast; at 130 base speed it ties with screens koko and can win the 50/50 to taunt it and get up rocks, and will generally outspeed other leads and keep rocks up. It is incredibly important that my lead can do 4 things: 1) get rocks up 2) prevent opposing rocks 3) preferably chip or kill another mon 4) not lose to screens koko. Aero doesn't do #3 very well, but I can at least just blame hax if it cannot do #4. There aren't really many pokemon out there that can run rocks+taunt and beat screens koko and take down mons, because koko can taunt leads like lycanroc, set up both screens as they endeavor/accelerock, taunt again before u-turning to break sash, set up dd with zygarde, kill before you can get up rocks, and go from there. Sash oblivious mamo was also considered, but it ultimately cannot prevent sash lando-t from getting up rocks, so it was ditched too.
The reason I dont run smeargle with rocks+taunt+magic coat+dbond @ sash is because smeargle is not faster than the most common suicide rocker, sash lando-t, and even though you can magic coat the rocks once, magic coat has less pp overall than stealth rock so you can't prevent opposing rocks at the end of the day. You'd have to try and fit rapid spin somewhere, and at that point you're not really doing better than other leads.
Next come the traders, the merchants, the scarf pokemon staraptor and victini. The main purpose of these pokemon is to be fast, have lots of HP, and thus take down almost any pokemon with them through the use of final gambit. The rest of the moves are just decorations but sometimes you do actually need to attack. These pokemon can easily revenge kill threats like scarf lando-t, +1 zygarde, +1 gyarados etc and take down bulkier annoying pokemon like zapdos, toxapex, or honestly just about anything you want them to, as long as they're fast enough. Victini and Staraptor are the fastest pokemon with the highest HP total AND access to the move final gambit, making them the best choices for the job. They're also part of the reason keeping rocks off is so important, the list of mons they can OHKO drops drastically if they take rocks damage.
An unexpected visitor makes his appearance on the team as the real swiss knife on the team, and being able to take down almost any 1 pokemon with prankster destiny bond, i knew he would fit right into the team and make himself at home. Mega Banette has other tools like prankster taunt that can help with hazard control and help pressure fat shit in general, which can be nice. Ultimately, there's nothing quite like mega banette, so despite being RU he takes a solid spot on this team.
The last two are much more standard cleaners that were required to effectively make the team function, because at the end of the day, I only have 3 merchants to trade pokemon, and the remaining 3 need to be handled. Gyarados + Tapu koko were chosen for being hard to prepare for as cleaners, but also because they synergize with each other very well as sweepers. Whatever dd z-bounce gyarados has trouble with, like zapdos and celesteela, cm tapu koko can come in right after and set up, and stuff koko has trouble with, like lando-t, exca, or gastro, gyarados can come in and take out a few mons.
Team Members
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Stone Edge
- Defog
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Stone Edge
- Defog
As I explained pretty in-depth in the teambuilding section, aero is probably the best lead for the job for its ability to get my rocks up, keep other rocks off, and not lose to screens koko. The reason I run defog in the last slot over something more practical like Tailwind is because Pressure+Defog can technically keep rocks off the field vs mons like oblivious mamoswine who cannot be taunted, but you won't be using it 99% of the time anyway. Tailwind isn't very helpful to my team at all, so i'd still rather have defog, even if its to first defog, then get up rocks, then land stone edge with more accuracy as I die. However, I think this is the one mon I would be most willing to replace if I happened to overlook a lead that fits this team better than aero. But with aero, the only time I find that rocks go up is when you're setting up with your cleaners to finish the game cleanly.
Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- U-turn
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
Victini is next as the trader of spices and hot foods, he truly will show your defensive landorus and sdef heatran a wild time. Max hp lets you hit the same number as other prominent defensive threats with base 100 hp, like mew, mega swampert, tangrowth, suicune, and ttar, and covers other prominent mons that are just a smidgen below 100 base hp like clefable and gyarados at 95, and celesteela at 97. Another added bonus of hitting 404 hp is that you even hit zygarde and other pokemon with more than 100 base hp that still only run 404 hp for the 101 hp subs. The rest of the moves honestly dont matter, I've used bolt strike once and u-turn/v-create can be mildly helpful but more often than not you want to just click final gambit and remove an obstacle for tapu koko. One thing you have to keep in mind is that this victini has almost no attack investment, so your v-create might be a lot weaker than you think. I remember failing to take out a skarmory at 70% with v-create and wishing i'd just clicked final gambit instead. Max speed is pretty self explanatory, you want to click final gambit while at full health, so naturally you gotta do it first.
Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Close Combat
Staraptor is the other scarf final gambit user of the team, and he loves trading for wild game like big bird zapdos or lions like lando-t. Staraptor's HP is a little more tricky because 85 is kind of low and misses out on lots of key threats, so you kind of rely on stealth rock damage to compensate so that you can kill zapdos and what not. I chose 212 HP because that hits the same number as Max hp Magearna, 364. You might be thinking that I should factor in rocks damage to calculate a better final gambit number to maybe nail mons that are roughly near 85 base hp, like 91 base hp heatran and 97 base hp celesteela after rocks damage, but the problem is that both of those have the potential to be protect+leftovers, which not only messes up my final gambit number because of leftovers recovery, but I also risk just clicking final gambit on protect and wasting staraptor entirely, so I think it's a waste to ev for those targets. Max speed is self explanatory, and the rest goes into attack. I chose reckless over intimidate because you actually can still do some pretty nice damage, but I've honestly yet to test intimidate and it might just be helpful in letting gyarados set up in some places. I chose to run the 3 attacks listed and not double-edge as one normally would because I'm going to be clicking final gambit on double-edge targets like zapdos and rotom-wash anyways. All in all, the bird pitches in to do what few can.
Banette @ Banettite
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
- Shadow Claw
- Disable
You might be thinking of phantom force, but trust me when I say its an awful idea. Not only does it destroy the win-win situation for mbanette vs most sweepers with prankster dbond+slow shadow claw, it can be easily played around because banette really isn't some OHKOing machine, despite what the huge attack stat might make you think. The effects of dbond will have wore off, and opponents have the chance to outplay by switching out hard as you disappear and by killing you with a slower pokemon as you reappear. The extra damage is nowhere near worth the risk of wasting banette, and wasting your merchants is the #1 way to misplay this team.
Gyarados @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Bounce
- Earthquake
The team gets a lot less interesting from here, its just two somewhat anti-meta sweepers with good synergy. This is the same gyarados you've seen a 100 times before, with max attack/speed to be a good sweeper, moxie to snowball attack boosts, and z-bounce to blow away grasses and get the moxie rolling. EQ was chosen over something like sub or taunt because I dont really need it vs fat when I can invalidate defensive cores with my traders anyway, and would like the extra coverage to beat mons like pex instead. Mega Banette can also pick up the bill for taunt, and eq is nice overall. Gyara is just a pretty consistent sweeper that doesn't let you down too often.
Tapu Koko @ Fairium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Calm Mind
Threatlist
Outside of these, most of your losses will probably just be due to making wrong predictions, wasting/misplaying your traders, having a surprise check to your sweeper, hax, or just not having enough mega banette.
Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-804206192 vs the recently RMTd team by lydo360, and showcasing the good matchup vs standard HO
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-804284265 vs some BO that mega banette does an excellent job harassing, also when I was testing some other leads
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-802996362 vs some low ladder rain, but more importantly, shows that early game sweeping can allow the traders to end games by themselves sometimes.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-804284265 vs some BO that mega banette does an excellent job harassing, also when I was testing some other leads
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-802996362 vs some low ladder rain, but more importantly, shows that early game sweeping can allow the traders to end games by themselves sometimes.
Conclusion
Shoutouts to all the idiots in the ou room, and have fun with this dumb team. Never forget the words of our shepherd "lets just trade like world trade center."
In all seriousness, do take a moment of silence in respect for the fallen on this day.
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Stone Edge
- Defog
Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- U-turn
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Close Combat
Banette @ Banettite
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
- Shadow Claw
- Disable
Gyarados @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Bounce
- Earthquake
Tapu Koko @ Fairium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Calm Mind
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Stone Edge
- Defog
Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- U-turn
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Close Combat
Banette @ Banettite
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
- Shadow Claw
- Disable
Gyarados @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Bounce
- Earthquake
Tapu Koko @ Fairium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Calm Mind
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