Other Metagames Monotype: Welcome to Night Vale!

[Redenstien]

Welcome to Night Vale

Hello, and welcome to Night Vale!
For some introductions, my name is Redenstien, but more often known by Bysshe on PS! or by my other alt, Whitney's Ass. I've been using this ghost team for a while and it does pretty well if you can play patiently, so I wanted to share it with everyone! As for the theme, WTNV is the best podcast right now, their book came out today (10/20/15), and ghosts are spooky! Just like Night Vale! On to the members!

Dana Cardinal (Sableye) (F) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 200 HP / 48 Def / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Will-O-Wisp
- Snarl
- Recover

So, pretty basic for a Mega-Sableye set, but I'm running Snarl over Dark Pulse as A) my main way to deal damage isn't by directly attacking, it's by chip damage and stall, and B) with Will-o-Wisp and Snarl together, I can minimize how much any attacker can really do. Truthfully, with proper set up, Mega-Sableye 6-0s low ladder teams and teams without powerful fairies. WoW means I don't have to invest so much in defense, and the additional SpD bulk means I can take hits while using CM and Snarl to minimize damage on that side.

I named her after Mayor and former intern Dana Cardinal because she's like the guardian of the town, just like a giant red ruby.

(Testing "utility" sableye as recommended by Stunfisk and others. Currently, it's WoW, Recover, Knock Off and Foul Play.)

John Peters, You Know, the Farmer (Trevenant) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 200 Def / 52 SpD
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Phantom Force
- Will-O-Wisp

Trevenant is an underrated threat and a half. In one replay in particular, this baby basically tanked and saved my ass. Harvest is an incredible ability, and ol' John Peters, you know, the farmer? here can avoid and take damage is amazing. I use him mainly as a physical wall, which doubles up with WoW. Seed + burn is enough already to make most people cry, but when I add in substitute and phantom force, which can break through protection and avoid hits, letting the stall damage add up... Your opponents will need imaginary oranges to recover.

(Trev is being tested out in favor of Chandelure, but the jury is still out rn.)

Erica (Golurk) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Dynamic Punch

You know how angels are definitely, absolutely, in no way real? Well, that's how most people see my scarfed Golurk. My favorite thing to do is lead against Yzard with it because most ghost monos lead with Sableye, right? So, I always lead Golurk against Yzard, scarfed outspeeds and that 100% accuracy Stone Edge OHKOs. The other moves are coverage, and Dynamic Punch gives me fun hax that Ghost depends on. The downside is how sloooow Golurk is, even scarfed, but it catches what it needs to off-guard and bops 'em with a No Guard.

"He is holding a cat."

Carlos (Gengar) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Shadow Ball Hidden Power Ice
- Destiny Bond
- Dazzling Gleam

Gengar is too good not to be on every ghost and poison mono. OG and strong still, mega banned, totes bae, just like Carlos. Dazzling Gleam really helps me with the fighting matchup since apparently every damn fighting type gets Knock Off, but it also helps in the mirror match and when I'm starting down Sableyes. I run sash because... I do. I'm not sure why I originally chose sash, but it works for now. DBond is my real secret weapon here. I normally resort to Dbond after switching in to rocks on something with specs I can't kill otherwise or, as mentioned earlier, the Sableye staredown.

Props to Stunfisk The Great for the HP Ice suggestion. Immediately helped my ground matchup. (Go to Hell Gliscor)

Cecil G. Palmer (Aegislash) (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Gentle Nature
- King's Shield
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Ball/Flash Cannon
- Sacred Sword

Okay... Yes, this is extremely redundant and old Aegislash set. but I still find it being useful in like every game. It takes a ton to KO this thing, King's Shield is the most broken move in the game, and there's a reason Aegislash is banned everywhere else. I see Cecil as an Aegislash because, voluntarily or not, he protects the town from evil abroad and encourages it within. He's also inherently gentle, just like this Aegislash set. It's mostly physical as most of the team is special oriented, but I have shadow ball for nuking if needed. Flash Cannon might be better here, but that's up to you.

The Glow Cloud (Jellicent) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 4 SpA / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover

ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD. ALL. HAIL.
All hail. Jellicent acts as my go-to special wall. He's fat, he's wet, he's exactly what I want. Toxic gives me the kind of status I don't have already from my two wispers, scald and Ice beam gives me coverage and Scald gives me even more burn (the bestest status). Recover is just a great move, so why not? Also, walls need longevity. The EVs are so I can take a non-stab Knock Off pretty OK and at least get status on it.

I hope you've enjoyed this RMT! Please leave your comments about how I can improve the team overall, or just how great Night Vale is, etc. Replays and importable below (change anything, but leave the Glow Cloud (ALL HAIL)).
Today's proverb: Don’t be afraid of the dark. Be afraid of the terrible things that are hiding in there, and the terrible things they will do.

And as always, good night, Night Vale.

Good night.
​

Importable

Dana Cardinal (Sableye) (F) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 200 HP / 48 Def / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Will-O-Wisp
- Snarl
- Recover

John Peters, the Farmer (Trevenant) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 200 Def / 52 SpD
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Phantom Force
- Will-O-Wisp

Erica (Golurk) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Dynamic Punch

Carlos (Gengar) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Destiny Bond
- Dazzling Gleam

Cecil G. Palmer (Aegislash) (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Gentle Nature
- King's Shield
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Ball
- Sacred Sword

The Glow Cloud (Jellicent) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 4 SpA / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover

Replays

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-255421555 (against fighting)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-262029451 (against ghost)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-259181512 (OLT Tour win against fighting)

scpinion tagging for showcase consideration maybe?

 

[Dece1t]

Welcome to Night Vale

Hello, and welcome to Night Vale!
For some introductions, my name is Redenstien, but more often known by Bysshe on PS! or by my other alt, Whitney's Ass. I've been using this ghost team for a while and it does pretty well if you can play patiently, so I wanted to share it with everyone! As for the theme, WTNV is the best podcast right now, their book came out today (10/20/15), and ghosts are spooky! Just like Night Vale! On to the members!

Dana Cardinal (Sableye) (F) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 200 HP / 48 Def / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Will-O-Wisp
- Snarl
- Recover

So, pretty basic for a Mega-Sableye set, but I'm running Snarl over Dark Pulse as A) my main way to deal damage isn't by directly attacking, it's by chip damage and stall, and B) with Will-o-Wisp and Snarl together, I can minimize how much any attacker can really do. Truthfully, with proper set up, Mega-Sableye 6-0s low ladder teams and teams without powerful fairies. WoW means I don't have to invest so much in defense, and the additional SpD bulk means I can take hits while using CM and Snarl to minimize damage on that side.

I named her after Mayor and former intern Dana Cardinal because she's like the guardian of the town, just like a giant red ruby.

John Peters, You Know, the Farmer (Trevenant) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 200 Def / 52 SpD
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Phantom Force
- Will-O-Wisp

Trevenant is an underrated threat and a half. In one replay in particular, this baby basically tanked and saved my ass. Harvest is an incredible ability, and ol' John Peters, you know, the farmer? here can avoid and take damage is amazing. I use him mainly as a physical wall, which doubles up with WoW. Seed + burn is enough already to make most people cry, but when I add in substitute and phantom force, which can break through protection and avoid hits, letting the stall damage add up... Your opponents will need imaginary oranges to recover.

Erica (Golurk) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Dynamic Punch

You know how angels are definitely, absolutely, in no way real? Well, that's how most people see my scarfed Golurk. My favorite thing to do is lead against Yzard with it because most ghost monos lead with Sableye, right? So, I always lead Golurk against Yzard, scarfed outspeeds and that 100% accuracy Stone Edge OHKOs. The other moves are coverage, and Dynamic Punch gives me fun hax that Ghost depends on. The downside is how sloooow Golurk is, even scarfed, but it catches what it needs to off-guard and bops 'em with a No Guard.

"He is holding a cat."

Carlos (Gengar) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Destiny Bond
- Dazzling Gleam

Gengar is too good not to be on every ghost and poison mono. OG and strong still, mega banned, totes bae, just like Carlos. Dazzling Gleam really helps me with the fighting matchup since apparently every damn fighting type gets Knock Off, but it also helps in the mirror match and when I'm starting down Sableyes. I run sash because... I do. I'm not sure why I originally chose sash, but it works for now. DBond is my real secret weapon here. I normally resort to Dbond after switching in to rocks on something with specs I can't kill otherwise or, as mentioned earlier, the Sableye staredown.

Cecil G. Palmer (Aegislash) (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Gentle Nature
- King's Shield
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Ball/Flash Cannon
- Sacred Sword

Okay... Yes, this is extremely redundant and old Aegislash set. but I still find it being useful in like every game. It takes a ton to KO this thing, King's Shield is the most broken move in the game, and there's a reason Aegislash is banned everywhere else. I see Cecil as an Aegislash because, voluntarily or not, he protects the town from evil abroad and encourages it within. He's also inherently gentle, just like this Aegislash set. It's mostly physical as most of the team is special oriented, but I have shadow ball for nuking if needed. Flash Cannon might be better here, but that's up to you.

The Glow Cloud (Jellicent) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 4 SpA / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover

ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD. ALL. HAIL.
All hail. Jellicent acts as my go-to special wall. He's fat, he's wet, he's exactly what I want. Toxic gives me the kind of status I don't have already from my two wispers, scald and Ice beam gives me coverage and Scald gives me even more burn (the bestest status). Recover is just a great move, so why not? Also, walls need longevity. The EVs are so I can take a non-stab Knock Off pretty OK and at least get status on it.

I hope you've enjoyed this RMT! Please leave your comments about how I can improve the team overall, or just how great Night Vale is, etc. Replays and importable below (change anything, but leave the Glow Cloud (ALL HAIL)).
Today's proverb: Don’t be afraid of the dark. Be afraid of the terrible things that are hiding in there, and the terrible things they will do.

And as always, good night, Night Vale.

Good night.
​

Importable

Dana Cardinal (Sableye) (F) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 200 HP / 48 Def / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Will-O-Wisp
- Snarl
- Recover

John Peters, the Farmer (Trevenant) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 200 Def / 52 SpD
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Phantom Force
- Will-O-Wisp

Erica (Golurk) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Dynamic Punch

Carlos (Gengar) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Destiny Bond
- Dazzling Gleam

Cecil G. Palmer (Aegislash) (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Gentle Nature
- King's Shield
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Ball
- Sacred Sword

The Glow Cloud (Jellicent) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 4 SpA / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover

Replays

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-255421555 (against fighting)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-262029451 (against ghost)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-259181512 (OLT Tour win against fighting)

scpinion tagging for showcase consideration maybe?

Hey bud, I think this is an aye ok ghost team. 1st thing id suggest though is maybe make golurk a sashed set, so you have some form of hazards, and with a choice scarf your not outspeeding a lot, besides just barely base 100s, plus you lose out on power running Jolly nature. Also, I don't see the need for ice beam on jellicent, I would maybe opt for hex, taunt, or acid armor. For aegislash I probably would not run sp def on a wp set, maybe LO and 24 speed evs (enough to outpace ttar) would be better. Your also ground weak, and the likes of mega Garchomp aND landorus I can wreck you. Try out hp ice on gengar to solve that. Lastly, perhaps utility sableye with metal burst can help you, as your fairly weak to Mega gyaradod. I can provide sets when I get home, but that's the advice I can give to you.

 

[Redenstien]

Hey bud, I think this is an aye ok ghost team. 1st thing id suggest though is maybe make golurk a sashed set, so you have some form of hazards, and with a choice scarf your not outspeeding a lot, besides just barely base 100s, plus you lose out on power running Jolly nature. Also, I don't see the need for ice beam on jellicent, I would maybe opt for hex, taunt, or acid armor. For aegislash I probably would not run sp def on a wp set, maybe LO and 24 speed evs (enough to outpace ttar) would be better. Your also ground weak, and the likes of mega Garchomp aND landorus I can wreck you. Try out hp ice on gengar to solve that. Lastly, perhaps utility sableye with metal burst can help you, as your fairly weak to Mega gyaradod. I can provide sets when I get home, but that's the advice I can give to you.

This is all excellent advice and I am very grateful for it! Honestly, this team was rather slapdash in the beginning and most of what I did just *worked* more or less, so I left it. I like all the ideas you've given me though! Thanks! :D I'm going to tweak and try a few of them and see what happens.

 

[ed wins]

I'm posting this now so that you can see the initial rate. I'll update this later with sets and a wrap up and make it look pretty as well.


As far as Mono Ghost goes, this is pretty generic and appears like 100000 other Ghost teams, which is actually a good thing, since Ghost doesn't have anywhere near as many viable mons as other types, and building ungeneric Ghost requires one to be incredibly comfortable with the type.

As mentioned above, you lack hazards, so offensive and bird teams can easily have a field day with you. To mitigate this, I would make Golurk a rocks set as stated above.

Furthermore, you have no potent wall breakers with your current set up, so your team can easily be weathered by a strong, defensive core with reliable recovery. Because of this, a utility set on Sableye should be used over a CM set, so you can cripple bulkier teams with burns while knocking off valuable defensive items.

Like most balance Ghost teams, this team is rather bulky. Trenevant doesn't really offer much to the team, as Sableye and Jellicent encompass threats just fine. Furthermore, you don't have Toxic Spikes to fully take advantage of his walling capabilities. Because of this, I would replace Trenevant with Scarfed Chandelure. Chandelure lets you check a myriad of threats, such as Mega-Lopunny, Mega-Gyarados, Life Orb Gengar, provides a solid wincon against Grass, Ghost, Water, Ground, and offensive Fire.

To have more of an offensive presence, I would replace Focus Sash on Gengar for a Life Orb. This lets you maximize your damage output to allow Chandelure to more easily pick off weakened teams. Focus Blast should replace Dazzling Gleam and the last slot is a toss up. Destiny Bond can still be the fourth slot, as it lets you eliminate Meloetta, Hoopa, Landorus, and even opposing Sableyes all in one slot while preventing Sharpedo from setting up on you and giving you an easier matchup against Bisharp.

I have yet to use this type sufficiently enough to properly analyze the benefits of Weakness Policy Aegislash as opposed to a Life Orb or offensive Leftovers set, but I feel like a Life Orb set is best here to fully to advantage of his offensive prowess and continue to support Chandelure.

Lastly, Jellicent and the team receive zero benefit from the use of Ice Beam, so Acid Armour should be used in it's place. Acid Armour extends it's walling capabilities and often times lets it single handedly wall entire types after a boost or two, such as Fighting, Fire, Fairy, Rock, and Psychic.

 

[Redenstien]

I'm posting this now so that you can see the initial rate. I'll update this later with sets and a wrap up and make it look pretty as well.


As far as Mono Ghost goes, this is pretty generic and appears like 100000 other Ghost teams, which is actually a good thing, since Ghost doesn't have anywhere near as many viable mons as other types, and building ungeneric Ghost requires one to be incredibly comfortable with the type.

As mentioned above, you lack hazards, so offensive and bird teams can easily have a field day with you. To mitigate this, I would make Golurk a rocks set as stated above.

Furthermore, you have no potent wall breakers with your current set up, so your team can easily be weathered by a strong, defensive core with reliable recovery. Because of this, a utility set on Sableye should be used over a CM set, so you can cripple bulkier teams with burns while knocking off valuable defensive items.

Like most balance Ghost teams, this team is rather bulky. Trenevant doesn't really offer much to the team, as Sableye and Jellicent encompass threats just fine. Furthermore, you don't have Toxic Spikes to fully take advantage of his walling capabilities. Because of this, I would replace Trenevant with Scarfed Chandelure. Chandelure lets you check a myriad of threats, such as Mega-Lopunny, Mega-Gyarados, Life Orb Gengar, provides a solid wincon against Grass, Ghost, Water, Ground, and offensive Fire.

To have more of an offensive presence, I would replace Focus Sash on Gengar for a Life Orb. This lets you maximize your damage output to allow Chandelure to more easily pick off weakened teams. Focus Blast should replace Dazzling Gleam and the last slot is a toss up. Destiny Bond can still be the fourth slot, as it lets you eliminate Meloetta, Hoopa, Landorus, and even opposing Sableyes all in one slot while preventing Sharpedo from setting up on you and giving you an easier matchup against Bisharp.

I have yet to use this type sufficiently enough to properly analyze the benefits of Weakness Policy Aegislash as opposed to a Life Orb or offensive Leftovers set, but I feel like a Life Orb set is best here to fully to advantage of his offensive prowess and continue to support Chandelure.

Lastly, Jellicent and the team receive zero benefit from the use of Ice Beam, so Acid Armour should be used in it's place. Acid Armour extends it's walling capabilities and often times lets it single handedly wall entire types after a boost or two, such as Fighting, Fire, Fairy, Rock, and Psychic.

Thanks for your analysis so far!

Right now, I do have acid armor over ice beam on Jellicent, that was just filler after all.

You and Stunfisk have both suggested to me to use a utility set on Sableye. What do you recommend for that? I wouldn't mind it so much so that I can have a better "sweeper," but this team isn't especially supposed to be balanced. I wanted it to be slightly more defensive in nature.

I will say this so far. I've gotten to 1500 before and having no hazard hasn't been an issue so far. It would've been nice sometimes, but I never thought "if only." I do realize that SR is important, I just don't know about having non-scarf Golurk because I know it's crappy. I know it's bad. Nobody runs it, but that really does give me an advantage sometimes. I will definitely try Max HP/Atk Sash lead or sash rocker at least and see how it does.

I agree, LO over Sash on Gengar. WP Aegislash works for me for right now, and I don't really see a benefit of Life Orb beyond immediate offensive presence, but that isn't the game Aegislash should play 100% of the time. His mind games make him the best mon on ghost.

As for the switch to Chandy from Trev, I will at least try it to say I did. I'm not entirely sure about that though. Trev is an amazing staller, but I understand why Chandy might be a better pick.