I managed to reach the 1800 milestone for the first time since Regulation C with this team. I know that this is not a major achievement, but I really like this team, so I decided that I will write something a bit longer. As with many/all of my teams, this is not necessarily an unbeatable top 100 team, but it has some interesting elements and it is able to at least hold its own against most matchups.
I did not attempt too many serious cartridge runs during Regulation D and the one time I did try to achieve a (for Crayfish standards) good finish, I was really thrown off by the mid-season introduction of Ogerpon. It also did not help that I had really unstable internet for one or two months during the previous regulation. I am glad that this problem is behind me.
For some reason I like the current regulation a lot more, even though there are not too many new meta defining mons. But I think that the few relevant additions improved the meta overall. Ogerpon is of course a contentious new element, with a seemingly never movepool. However, unlike other somewhat versatile offensive threats, like Chien-pao, Urshifu and Flutter Mane, it cannot hold an item, has a predetermined tera type and has less crazy stats. This makes this mon in my opinion a bit more manageable, despite its crazy power after terastallization. Ursaluna-Bloodmoon and to a lesser extent Ninetales-A and Gliscor also see decent usage, but I think that they are all manageable enough and they add interesting dynamics into the metagame. Btw, I am convinced that Ursaluna-Bloodmoon was designed by someone who hates Drifblim evasion-cheese… It ignores Minimize and the normal immunity, Strenght Sap and Will-O-Wisp are almost useless and it even has a STAB move to hit through Substitute. That cannot be coincidental.
Concerning the team, I had to do several changes and adaptations throughout the month. There were 2 mons that stayed consistent, which were Fezandipiti and Crawdaunt. Both are Pokemon that I like very much both in terms of design and gameplay mechanics. This indecisiveness and experimentation led to many struggles and 5 digits gameplay sessions early on, but eventually I found a group that managed to bring in consistent enough results. Previous members included AV Mamoswine and Life Orb Tornadus-Therian and Dragapult. None of them were necessarily bad, but they were ultimately not a good fit. I also went on a 6 game losing run for improvising a team around my DLC playthrough Mons Infernape and Yanmega, in order to get the Master ball ribbon for them. I think I also tried out some more stuff, but I cannot remember which Mons exactly right now.
Below I will present each member with advantages and disadvantages and provide some calcs for my stupid EV-spreads.
Ernie (Fezandipiti) @ Leftovers
Ability: Toxic Chain
Level: 50
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Atk / 220 Def / 20 SpD / 28 Spe
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Taunt
- U-turn
- Dual Wingbeat
Like I said, one of my founding members. I really like poisoning stuff and when I heard about this new trio, I really wanted to try out their new ability. I went with the physical route, with 2-times hitting Dual Wingbeat providing a decent chance of severe poisoning, while doing pathetic amounts of damage. With the addition of taunt and an amazing defensive typing, this set can shut down a decent amount of not overly powerful defensive mons, while not getting poisoned itself. This made this Mon amazing against the most common stall cores. Chansey, Avalugg, Dondozo and (the less common) Amoonguss cannot really do anything against this bird, while Toxapex might survive longer, but can do very little else in return. I don't think I lost a single game against dedicated stall. Other targets include Rotom, which my team is a bit weak against otherwise and Breloom, which gets outsped (if Adamant) and KOed through the Focus Sash. Flutter Mane, Iron Bundle and Iron Valiant also have trouble breaking through Fezandipiti, even with as little special defense investment as I have here.
Still, this set (and Fez in general) has several severe weaknesses, mainly Steel- and Poison-types, as well as just overwhelming offense. A well timed U-turn can be useful to get out of these matchups, but it is still annoying to deal with such counters. The main problem is obviously Gholdengo, but Tera Poison or Steels on pretty much anyone can be a big obstacle for this Mon to do anything. Fez's low damage output can also invite setup, like a Sword Dance from Chien-Pao or Ogeron, which can lead to the opponent sweeping the rest of the team. In general it is really important to identify the right matchups for this set and leave it at home if it cannot outright counter at least one of the opposing Mons.
EVs: Outspeeding Adamant Breloom, HP is /16+1 for efficient Leftovers recovery, phys. def. jump point, the rest in special def.
Calcs:
252+ Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Icicle Crash vs. 236 HP / 220+ Def Fezandipiti: 85-102 (44 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers rcovery
252 Atk Hearthflame Mask Mold Breaker Ogerpon-Hearthflame Ivy Cudgel vs. 236 HP / 220+ Def Fezandipiti: 82-97 (42.4 - 50.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 236 HP / 20 SpD Fezandipiti: 85-102 (44 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
4 Atk Fezandipiti Dual Wingbeat (2 hits) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 136-168 (100 - 123.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 236 HP / 20 SpD Fezandipiti: 75-88 (38.8 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Clawdio (Crawdaunt) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 92 Def
Adamant Nature
- Crabhammer
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet
- Tera Blast
Crawdaunt is one of my favorite pokemon and I wanted to try something different than the normal boring Focus Sash. I also do not necessarily think that Focus Sash is very good on Crawdaunt in this meta, due to 1. being a bit predictable, 2. not really being able to get the necessary KOs on a lot of relevant stuff and 3. being revenge-killed by priority. One great thing about Crawdaunt (with some bulk) is that it can usually win the 1v1 against almost every Basculegion set. I feel like most Basculegion players are not really aware of this in team preview. Other than that, this spread can live several moves from meta defining Mons, that you would not expect it to (see the calcs below). With Adaptability it obviously also has (sometimes with Tera) the damage output to at least severely damage those threats in return. Tera Fairy is great defensively and can pick up some unexpected KOs. Unfortunately it takes away the Adaptability for the Water- and Dark-moves. The Rocky Helmet can help to break potential Focus Sashes or Multiscale.
Ultimately, I brought Crawdaunt to less and less matches, because I could never 100% figure out its best role. As lead it can be a Tera-hog and in the back it cannot really switch into anything, despite the bulk-investment. The lack of speed is obviously also a major downside and there are few relevant mons that are slower than this crayfish. Even Ursaluna-BM only needs a few speed EVs to outspeed my spread here. Still, I do not think that more speed will make a huge difference in most matches. I prefer the bulk. Nonetheless, I still found moments for it to shine and it can definitely work in this meta, despite some serious limitations.
EVs: HP is /16-1 (which coincides nicely with some calcs below)
Calcs:
252 Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Sacred Sword vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Crawdaunt: 134-158 (84.2 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 164 HP / 0 SpD Tera Fairy Crawdaunt: 135-159 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Beads of Ruin Chi-Yu Overheat vs. 164 HP / 0 SpD Crawdaunt: 134-158 (84.2 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Crawdaunt: 66-78 (41.5 - 49%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+1 252+ Atk Tera Normal Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Crawdaunt: 118-141 (74.2 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Adaptability Tera Fairy Crawdaunt Tera Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: 192-228 (109.7 - 130.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Basculegion Last Respects vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Crawdaunt: 130-154 (81.7 - 96.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (with 150 BP)
Flutter Mane @ Choice Specs
Ability: Protosynthesis
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 100 HP / 20 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Shadow Ball
- Power Gem
- Psyshock
Now one of the boring team members. This spread is actually from regulation C or B, not sure. I just moved 100 EVs from defense into HP for no particular reason, other than a bit more overall special bulk. Regardless, it outspeeds base 110 Mons. Back then that was useful for Iron Moth and after that fell off a while ago now, it is now a useful speed tier again vs Ogerpon. Other than that, it is pretty simple, Specs FM just does ridiculous damage and it was often a great wall breaker and managed to get unbelievable KOs. Power Gem is almost exclusively there for Ogerpon-Hearthflame, while Psychock is nice to have against a rare Clodsire, Iron Moth and most importantly, lead Glimmora. Power Gem will unfortunately not get the KO against bulkier Ogerpons, which can lead to a lot of trouble. Luckily, there are still many basic offensive Ogerpon-Hearthflame, as bulkier variants tend to be a big weakness for this team in general.
There were numerous instances where I wish I would have gone for max speed, as almost all Chien-Paos and other FMs were faster than this one. Additionally, it sucks being often slower than Dragonite after just one Dragon dance. I am also not sure how useful the bulk here really is. There is still a lot of stuff that can OHKO this spread, which is why I think there are better EV-optimisations out there for this FM at this moment in time. But, as with most FMs, it did its job very well and killed a lot of stuff, so I cannot be too disappointed
EVs: HP is /16-1, special attack jump point, outspeeds base 110
Calcs:
196+ SpA Choice Specs Tera Fairy Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Ninetales-Alola: 178-210 (98.8 - 116.6%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
196+ SpA Choice Specs Tera Fairy Flutter Mane Power Gem vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Ogerpon-Hearthflame: 154-182 (99.3 - 117.4%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
196+ SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Ursaluna-Bloodmoon: 126-148 (57.2 - 67.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Ursaluna-Bloodmoon Blood Moon vs. 100 HP / 4 SpD Flutter Mane: 103-123 (72 - 86%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Heatran: 106-126 (53.5 - 63.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Heatran Flash Cannon vs. 100 HP / 4 SpD Flutter Mane: 116-140 (81.1 - 97.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Led Wingz (Corviknight) (M) @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 196 Def / 52 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Bulk Up
- Roost
- Iron Head
- Body Press
This bird almost single handedly turned the fortunes of this team around, when I added it later on. It is able to handle several threats that I did not have a good answer for before. The most important one is of course Dragonite (well, most of them at least). The other important ones are Scizor (who became popular af for some reason) Roaring Moon, Garchomp, Landorus-T and Gliscor, who all rarely have an answer to this set (or Corvinight in general). Ursaluna-Bloodmoon also does not like facing this mon. The Teratype (Dragon) is of course great vs Ogerpon (Water and Fire), useful vs Urshifu-RS and in general a nice option vs other random Fire-or Electric-types. An underrated aspect of Corv is that it rarely even wants to Tera, its natural typing is so useful and good that it enables other teammates to Tera instead. I am using Bulk Up with two attacks, because I hate being walled by Ghost-types with only Iron-Press – Flutter Manes hate this trick! Iron head (and Covert Cloak of course) is also important to win vs Garganacl, who seem to be almost always Tera Fairy these days. Pressure is chosen over Mirror Armor, due to Covert Cloak and Mirror Armor kind of stepping on each other's toes. Another great aspect of Covert Cloak are the lack of Icicle Crash flinches and Scald burns.
Pressure is also great vs one of the biggest weaknesses of slow setup sweepers in Gen 9 BSS: Encore. I had sveral endgames, where I won because the opposing Dragonite was only able to go for 4 Encores, instead of 8. Unfortunately I also lost some of those and once mons like bulky Ogerpon or Iron Bundle go for Encore, this set really loses its bite. It also sucks a little bit to not bounce back Charm or Intimidate, due to not having Mirror Armor. Taunt would also be nice sometimes, but like I said, I prefer 2 offensive moves. Just like Fezandipiti, Corv also gets completely walled by Gholdengo, and struggles against other more specific matchups that are usually not thaaat common. Corv is still amazing and imo severely underrated in the current meta.
EVs: Def jump point
Calcs:
252+ SpA Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Corviknight: 84-99 (40.9 - 48.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+1 196+ Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tera Normal Ursaluna-Bloodmoon: 108-128 (49 - 58.1%) -- 98% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Ursaluna-Bloodmoon Blood Moon vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Corviknight: 72-85 (35.1 - 41.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
4 Atk Corviknight Iron Head vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 132-156 (100.7 - 119%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Nemo (Chi-Yu) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beads of Ruin
Level: 50
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Flamethrower
- Dark Pulse
- Psychic
Probably the most uninteresting, but nonetheless one of the most important team members. This was the final member that I added, in order to fulfill two purposes. Firstly, I needed a better answer into Gholdengo and with its ok special bulk and perfect STAB resistance, Chi-Yu was able to help out in that department. Then I desperately needed speed, as my comparably slow Flutter Mane was the next fastest Mon on this team and not having one mon that could reach the base 135 speed tier was really annoying. Other than that, there is not really much interesting to say about this set. It's maybe worth mentioning, that this speed stat is exactly one point faster than Timid Rotom, but that's about it.
Mulan (Decidueye-Hisui) (F) @ Scope Lens
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 220 HP / 220 Atk / 4 Def / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Triple Arrows
- Synthesis
- Sucker Punch
Now my favorite team member. I was many times in awe about how much hidden utility this archer has. Triple arrows is in my opinion the most broken offensive move that Gamefreak has ever created. For those who don't know: High crit chance, 50% chance to lower the opposing defense stat AND 30% flinch chance IN ONE. On so many other mons this would be gamebreaking. I used the Scope Lens in order to raise the crit chance on both STAB moves up to 50% as well. Decidueye and Fezandipiti were the keys to unlock stall. The high crit chance and the defense drops basically meant that this mon could bully its way through many different extremely bulky pokemon, even through defense boosting. Usually I allowed Decidueye to get poisoned by the one layer of Toxic Tpikes (Fez would previously ensure with Taunt that it would stay at one layer) and with Synthesis this thing was able to beat a lot of stall cores almost alone (Toxapex, Dondozo, Chansey, Avalugg and more).
I know that stall is not very common at the moment, but Decidueye is also very good against many more offensive mons. Every single one of the Ruinous quartet hates taking hits from this Mon. This is also the case for Flutter Mane, Iron Bundle, Ogerpon-Hearthflame and Roaring Moon. Tera Fire is great in order to survive one or multiple hits from many of these mons and Decidueye is in general deceivingly bulky. Scappy is also great, as many Gholdengo players seem to forget that this ability exists. However, arguably the most important matchups are Ogerpon Rock and Water. Decidueye resists both forms' STAB moves and can do massive damage in return. A similar dynamic applies to Rillaboom. Sucker Punch is also very useful to finish off those targets. Sometimes I am wondering if Shadow Sneak might be the better option here, but Sucker Punch is definitely not bad to have.
Unfortunately there is a major downside to Decidueye in BSS and that is Dragonite. Decidueye hardly learns any moves that can touch Dragonite and this set almost always invites a free switch-in or Dragon Dance for the King of Gen 9 BSS. Other Poison- and Flying-types are of course also annoying, but none are as bad as Dragonite with Multiscale, Roost and Encore. In fact, with Synthesis, Decidueye is even capable of winning 1v1 against stuff like Tera Poison Ting-Lu. If it wasn't for the Dragonite obstacle, I would recommend Decidueye for a lot of teams. But as of right now it is more of a wild card if a team struggles with certain matchups, like Ogeron or specific bulky cores.
EVs: HP is /16-1, attack jump point
Calcs:
Typical precise offensive calcs are a bit unhelpful/misleading for this Pokemon, since it will cause a lot of crits and defense drops. In practice these two factors influence the damage output so much that I do not think it's overly helpful to include many offensive calcs here. Just remember that it can do a lot of damage.
252 SpA Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 220 HP / 60 SpD Decidueye-Hisui: 164-194 (85.8 - 101.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
220+ Atk Decidueye-Hisui Triple Arrows vs. 252 HP / 236+ Def Gholdengo: 114-134 (58.7 - 69%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 220 HP / 60 SpD Decidueye-Hisui: 168-198 (87.9 - 103.6%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Cornerstone Mask Tera Rock Ogerpon-Cornerstone-Tera Ivy Cudgel vs. 220 HP / 4 Def Decidueye-Hisui: 77-91 (40.3 - 47.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Final thoughts:
The team struggles with certain offensive threats, like Swords Dance (Tera Electric) Chien-Pao or certain Dragonite builds that are good vs Corviknight. During my final loss I also noticed complications against Tera Poison Wo-Chien and I am glad that I did not face this thing more often. Bulkier Ogerpons are also a bit of an issue, since they can survive a Power gem and Corviknight has trouble beating them (after Tera) if they have Encore.
Due to these flaws, I am not sure if I could have gone too much further, but I also don't think that the 1900s would have been impossible. I guess I will never find out. Next season I will try to reach the 1900s with a different team. For now I was just glad that I reached the 1800s again, which is why I stopped playing a few days early.
Unlike other BSS team reports, I will not include a team selection section, because I play too instinctive and not aware enough for such insightful sections.
Anyways, peace and love,
Crayfish
