Thank goodness I'm don with reqs bc I've been wanting to share a couple of the mons I used ever since the first week, but didn't want to reveal any of my team. For the record, I used largely the same team all the way through on both ladders with only one mon change that I felt would be necessary to better handle a ladder w/o mega lix and ttrum. So, let's have fun!
Aura Burst (Diancie) @ Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 232 HP / 24 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Diamond Storm
Offensive Trick Room Diancie is something I don't see many people ready to face. Offense has very few ways to switch into it once it sets up and it can act as more of a wallbreaker of sorts against fatter teams. It still can provide its team with a way to check Houndoom, birds, and Exploud (I'd recommend a sturdier response tho, just to be safe) With 0 Speed IVs, Diancie falls just behind base 30s (Slowking), meaning only Escavalier and Mega Camerupt can possibly be slower. I had Psychic for a while in the last slot, but Braivary got to be pretty common on the suspect ladder, so I went for Diamond Storm just so I could reliably beat Sub Bulk Up sets with Diancie. Moonblast for STAB and Earth Power for Steels and opposing Diancies.
Lurgy (Venusaur) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 24 SpA / 20 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Leech Seed
Another Pokemon I decided to use because the team I was using needed a Fighting resist, and I wanted to do some exploring with defensive Venusaur since I hadn't really done so since Amoonguss left. I'm so glad I did. It was almost laughable how many teams were not prepared to deal with this thing. I had Sleep Powder on Venusaur for most of the run on the first ladder, but it started proving to cost me matches too many times (seriously, at least 5 of my 12 losses were bc of a Sleep Powder miss) so I put Leech Seed on. Since it has Sludge Bomb, most Grass-types don't want to switch in and Sigilyph is the only other Pokemon that's immune to the passive damage. With Leech Seed, something like Emboar or Escavalier would have to take 24% damage minimum just to launch an attack on something they want to switch into. Considering this also keeps your checks and counters to these threats a bit healthier as a result. It's also surprisingly difficult to kill this Venusaur since it has Black Sludge, Leech Seed, Synthesis, and Giga Drain as forms of recovery. Yeah, that's 4 ways to recover HP and still be an absolute nuisance to defensive cores.
Summon Flare (Emboar) (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Reckless
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Sucker Punch
Expert Belt Emboar was the one new Pokemon I used on that team for the suspect ladder considering I anticipated Escavailer to be much more common and I had no offensive way to force it out reliably previously. The moves speak for themselves, but Expert Belt is what makes the set work so well. While some people like the Band set or use Life Orb, this team needed Emboar to switch moves and still have power. Thus Ebelt became an easy choice and it was usually pretty easy to lure in stuff like Alomomola and Slowking so Diancie and Flygon could go to work later. Sucker Punch is cool asf to chop down Fletchinder and Sigilyph once they realize you're not choiced. There was maybe 1 or 2 battles out of around 50 that I wanted Life Orb on Emboar for the extra damage. Note that you can run Jolly if you want in order to outspeed Exploud, but you'll lose the chance to KO Slowking with Wild Charge after it switches into Flare Blitz and Stealth Rock. (if it's AVest, it won't matter)
Really cool mons that I feel people should try some more as they were really fun for me to use during this run. I'm also completely shocked that I ran into a total of 0 Aggrons or offensive Druddigons O_O