This generation introduced a very annoying pokemon that has probably caused more rage quits than all the other pokemons together: klefki. Since I first saw this thing I knew I wanted to (ab)use it on a team. Normally klefkis role is simply to annoy the opponent or set up some screens, but in a dedicated prankster team the para-confussion is an integral part of the strategy.
Most prankster teams I have seen tend not to do very well since swagger is a very risky move, but this team seems to be doing ok so far. Over 1950 on the ladder and I am still playing it so it may rise. Not fantastic considering the ladder just got reseted, but not bad for a (normally) gimmicky strategy either. I could probably get higher if I played it a little better so I think there is room for improvement.
Anyway, the main objective of the team is to sweep with megalucario. It goes beyond saying that megalucario at +2 is an extremely dangerous threat able to OHKO most of the metagame. It can set up very easily against defensive teams since there are some pokemon that can do little to it (florges, t-wave less chansey or ferroton, mandibuzz, etc) but against offensive teams it usually struggles to find an opportunity to set up. This is where para-confusion comes in. Against a pokemon both paralyzed and confused, lucario has >50% chances of setting up successfully. Against a confused pokemon is around 40%. And many times the opponent will have at least one defensive pokemon on which lucario can set up, meaning on average lucario will be setting up successfully more often than not.
This is the team:
Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
Deoxys suicide leads got a little worse with the introduction of defog, since the opponent can just take one turn to blow away all you hazards and you wasted a pokemon for nothing, but this thing is still very good. He was uber last Gen after all. Hazards are very important here because they turn many lucario 2HKO into OHKO. Most notable, stealth rock is absolutely necessary to break the multiscale from dragonite, and spikes are needed to ensure dark pulse OHKO against aegislash, who can kill me with shadow ball + shadow sneak. Thunder wave is nice because it fits the para-confusion theme. He specially loves to t-wave lead genesects and greninja so they can get outrunned and killed by lucario or latios.
Lucario-Mega @ Lucarionite
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Flash Cannon
Special megalucario. The main weapon of the team and the most dangerous pokemon right now. Special over physical because special is much more consistent, not being able to be intimidated or crippled with burn. I have found he doesn’t really need priority most of the time and the 3 damaing moves are necessary for coverage. The only things that prevent this thing from sweeping are scarfers, dedicated checks such as gyarados and a combination of pokemon with priority, since despite his low defences he is still able to survive most priority moves (even super effective one such as mach punch and unboosted vacuum wave from opposite megalucario).
Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spd
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Swagger
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
Klefki is all you could want from a prankster. Decent bulk, nice typing and great support moveset. Klefki’s job is to facilitate a lucario sweep but is not uncommon from her to do some sweeping of her own. I have had games where klefki alone killed three or more pokemon, for example. While it certainly requires luck to pull off is not that difficult against strong offensive pokemon that do a lot of damage to themselves on the confusion, or things that are weak to foul play such as alakazam or the latis.
Thundurus Leftovers
Ability:Prankter
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Substitute
- Swagger
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
My second prankster and The only one that seems some use outside of non prankster teams. The set works a lot like klefki but hits harder with foul play. Not sure if I should invest in Atk or HP.
Swagger from this guy turns everything into a coinflip basically. Even bulky special attackers risk losing to Swagger + Foul Play, and Substitute forces even more coinflips. You either hax or get haxed.
Sableye @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Will o Wisp
- Swagger
- Foul Play
- Substitute
Sableye is my last prankster and the one with STAB foul play. Recover would be nice on him but I am realizing it doesn’t really come up very often since most moves 2HKO him anyway. I don’t like the reduction of confusion damage will o wisp bring either, but still burning a key sweeper has aved my ass more than once. Sableye can also spin block to protect my hazards.
Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
My back up sweeper. Latios originally carried memento to support lucario, but I dropped it for hidden power fire since the memento thing almost never comes up and scizors/ferrotrons love to switch in on latios. Having a second sweeper on the team is mandatory since relying on one single pokemon proved to be very bad. Without Latios I would pretty much lose every time lucario got checked/revenge killed. Life orb Latios has an amazing coverage and is able to OHKO/2HKO a lot of the metagame. Plus he has some nice type synergy with lucario, being able to switch on the earthquakes and fire moves thrown at him. I think the life orb offensive set is quite underused right now since everyone seems to use it to defog, but this thing can usually sweep half of a team if you let him.
Previous teams members and pokemon being considered:
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Lax Nature
- Scald
- Yawn
- Earthquake
- Recover
Quagsire seems odd at first until you consider his unaware ability and the fact that it nullifies the 2x given by swagger. This thing acts as my failsafe against ground types and other pokemon that get rid of the confusion, kill klefki and end up with 2x Atk. It has saved my ass several times but other times he is just dead weight and I would rather just have thundurus or sableye. Yawn is to force switches and on the rare occasion that the pokemon stays, lucario can set up on the sleeping pokemon. I like him but I don't know what to remove. (EDIT: Quagsire sucks)
I have also considered Liepard. Very fast and it can run the same set as klefki, with STAB and higher Atk on foul play. The only notable advantage being the fact that she can switch into a previously swaggered pokemon and do a lot of damage with a fast foul play, if not outright KO. However her bulk really lets her down. She does not resist any hazards, cant switch into anything, and unlike sableye is not immune to common priority like mach punch and extreme speed. Not sure about this one.
Other than Liepard I am considering just using another dangerous sweeper instead of Deoxys to ease the burden on lucario a little bit and I simply hate when the opponent just defogs my hazards. Sword dance Aegislash is very dangerous and can benefit greatly from the paralysis. Greninja with ice beam, grass knot and dark pulse has nearly perfect coverage alongside latios, with these two pokemon being able to hit almost everything for super effective damage. Shift gear genesect is very scary if it gets a download atk boost. The thing is hazards help a lot sometimes and Deoxys is one of the few pokemon that can set them reliably.
Most prankster teams I have seen tend not to do very well since swagger is a very risky move, but this team seems to be doing ok so far. Over 1950 on the ladder and I am still playing it so it may rise. Not fantastic considering the ladder just got reseted, but not bad for a (normally) gimmicky strategy either. I could probably get higher if I played it a little better so I think there is room for improvement.
Anyway, the main objective of the team is to sweep with megalucario. It goes beyond saying that megalucario at +2 is an extremely dangerous threat able to OHKO most of the metagame. It can set up very easily against defensive teams since there are some pokemon that can do little to it (florges, t-wave less chansey or ferroton, mandibuzz, etc) but against offensive teams it usually struggles to find an opportunity to set up. This is where para-confusion comes in. Against a pokemon both paralyzed and confused, lucario has >50% chances of setting up successfully. Against a confused pokemon is around 40%. And many times the opponent will have at least one defensive pokemon on which lucario can set up, meaning on average lucario will be setting up successfully more often than not.
This is the team:
Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
Deoxys suicide leads got a little worse with the introduction of defog, since the opponent can just take one turn to blow away all you hazards and you wasted a pokemon for nothing, but this thing is still very good. He was uber last Gen after all. Hazards are very important here because they turn many lucario 2HKO into OHKO. Most notable, stealth rock is absolutely necessary to break the multiscale from dragonite, and spikes are needed to ensure dark pulse OHKO against aegislash, who can kill me with shadow ball + shadow sneak. Thunder wave is nice because it fits the para-confusion theme. He specially loves to t-wave lead genesects and greninja so they can get outrunned and killed by lucario or latios.
Lucario-Mega @ Lucarionite
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Flash Cannon
Special megalucario. The main weapon of the team and the most dangerous pokemon right now. Special over physical because special is much more consistent, not being able to be intimidated or crippled with burn. I have found he doesn’t really need priority most of the time and the 3 damaing moves are necessary for coverage. The only things that prevent this thing from sweeping are scarfers, dedicated checks such as gyarados and a combination of pokemon with priority, since despite his low defences he is still able to survive most priority moves (even super effective one such as mach punch and unboosted vacuum wave from opposite megalucario).
Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spd
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Swagger
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
Klefki is all you could want from a prankster. Decent bulk, nice typing and great support moveset. Klefki’s job is to facilitate a lucario sweep but is not uncommon from her to do some sweeping of her own. I have had games where klefki alone killed three or more pokemon, for example. While it certainly requires luck to pull off is not that difficult against strong offensive pokemon that do a lot of damage to themselves on the confusion, or things that are weak to foul play such as alakazam or the latis.
Thundurus Leftovers
Ability:Prankter
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Substitute
- Swagger
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
My second prankster and The only one that seems some use outside of non prankster teams. The set works a lot like klefki but hits harder with foul play. Not sure if I should invest in Atk or HP.
Swagger from this guy turns everything into a coinflip basically. Even bulky special attackers risk losing to Swagger + Foul Play, and Substitute forces even more coinflips. You either hax or get haxed.
Sableye @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Will o Wisp
- Swagger
- Foul Play
- Substitute
Sableye is my last prankster and the one with STAB foul play. Recover would be nice on him but I am realizing it doesn’t really come up very often since most moves 2HKO him anyway. I don’t like the reduction of confusion damage will o wisp bring either, but still burning a key sweeper has aved my ass more than once. Sableye can also spin block to protect my hazards.
Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
My back up sweeper. Latios originally carried memento to support lucario, but I dropped it for hidden power fire since the memento thing almost never comes up and scizors/ferrotrons love to switch in on latios. Having a second sweeper on the team is mandatory since relying on one single pokemon proved to be very bad. Without Latios I would pretty much lose every time lucario got checked/revenge killed. Life orb Latios has an amazing coverage and is able to OHKO/2HKO a lot of the metagame. Plus he has some nice type synergy with lucario, being able to switch on the earthquakes and fire moves thrown at him. I think the life orb offensive set is quite underused right now since everyone seems to use it to defog, but this thing can usually sweep half of a team if you let him.
Previous teams members and pokemon being considered:
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Lax Nature
- Scald
- Yawn
- Earthquake
- Recover
Quagsire seems odd at first until you consider his unaware ability and the fact that it nullifies the 2x given by swagger. This thing acts as my failsafe against ground types and other pokemon that get rid of the confusion, kill klefki and end up with 2x Atk. It has saved my ass several times but other times he is just dead weight and I would rather just have thundurus or sableye. Yawn is to force switches and on the rare occasion that the pokemon stays, lucario can set up on the sleeping pokemon. I like him but I don't know what to remove. (EDIT: Quagsire sucks)
I have also considered Liepard. Very fast and it can run the same set as klefki, with STAB and higher Atk on foul play. The only notable advantage being the fact that she can switch into a previously swaggered pokemon and do a lot of damage with a fast foul play, if not outright KO. However her bulk really lets her down. She does not resist any hazards, cant switch into anything, and unlike sableye is not immune to common priority like mach punch and extreme speed. Not sure about this one.
Other than Liepard I am considering just using another dangerous sweeper instead of Deoxys to ease the burden on lucario a little bit and I simply hate when the opponent just defogs my hazards. Sword dance Aegislash is very dangerous and can benefit greatly from the paralysis. Greninja with ice beam, grass knot and dark pulse has nearly perfect coverage alongside latios, with these two pokemon being able to hit almost everything for super effective damage. Shift gear genesect is very scary if it gets a download atk boost. The thing is hazards help a lot sometimes and Deoxys is one of the few pokemon that can set them reliably.
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