Balanced Hackmons is unique in that one has full agency over the moves, abilities, and role of any given Pokemon. As such, pokemon randomizers pose an intriguing challenge as one can still leverage teambuilding skills and creativity to overcome the challenges that the ladder presents. Even against overwhelming odds such as staring down the strongest of legendaries with not fully-evolved-pokemon, one can still prevail.
Since the team was created via a random generator, the construction of the team was fairly straightforward: just randomly generate teams until something usable is created. Following a few hours of creating various teams for the challenge, I settled on this team:
as it had many useful attributes like a variety of Pokemon with solid attack stats, a high HP Pokemon for an Imposter user, and a fast ghost type for Normalize shenanigans.
Sneasel has one of the highest available attack stats of any NFE Pokemon and has a useful Ice typing to hit common dragon types like Eternatus and Giratina. Because my team has no defensive Pokemon to Imposter Proof Sneasel, I selected a Prankster set with, Swords Dance, Glacial Lance, Close Combat, and most importantly Destiny Bond. Glacial Lance is a 130 bp Ice move that can take advantage of Sneasel 's decent attack stat to damage Pokemon weak and neutral to ice, and Close Combat clobbers the steel types that attempt to eat Glacial Lances and allows Sneasel to OHKO Imposter Blisseys and Chanseys that transform into it thanks a quad weakness to Close Combat. While base 95 attack is good in the context of NFE, it is not high enough to reasonably threaten anything in Balanced Hackmons, thus Swords Dance is a necessity to do a reasonable amount of damage to the bulky legendaries, Megas, and Ultra beasts that populate the meta of BH. Prankster Destiny Bond ensures that if an Imposter copies Sneasel it will have to sacrifice itself to either Destiny Bond or Close Combat to take down Sneasel and serves as the team's defensive backbone. With the low stat totals of NFE Pokemon there is no longer any reasonable way to deal with fast and powerful set-up Pokemon like No-Retreat Arceus Ghost, Nasty Plot Eternatus etc. . . and so Prankster Destiny Bond lingers as the only consistent method of having any survivability.
Acrid Radiance (Raboot) @ Eviolite
Ability: Desolate Land
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Victory Dance
- V-create
- Mortal Spin
- Synthesis
As one transitions from fully evolved Pokemon and legendaries to not fully evolved Pokemon the loss in wallbreaking power due to low stat totals becomes noticeable. In fact, there are only two NFE pokemon with attack stats over 100. As such to to make up for the loss in power, for the challenge, I selected a randomly generated team with the Fire Type Raboot. This was done as Fire Types can use the combination of the 1.5 times boost of Desolate Land and V-Create’s 180 to reach ludicrous levels of damage. Even with a measly attack stat of 86 (at least by BH standards), the combination described earlier grants enough additional power to OHKO or 2HKO to bulky legendaries that are weak or neutral to fire. Raboot’s Victory Dance allows it to boost past numerous 2HKO thresholds of common Pokemon like Mega Steelix, Dialga-O, and Neutral Arceus formes lacking Fur Coat and gives it the speed increase it needs to move before offensive threats like Mega Mewtwo X. Mortal Spin gives Raboot the ability to Poison Pokemon that it cannot K.O. outright with V-Create while simultaneously removing hazards so its teammates with Sashes are better able to switch into overbearing threats. Lastly, Synthesis gives Raboot the ability to consistently heal, set-up, and offer hazard support throughout the course of a game.
Lacerated Loch (Dewott) @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Primordial Sea
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wave Crash
- Victory Dance
- Will-O-Wisp
- Strength Sap
While Water is significantly worse of an offensive type than Fire, and Water Types don’t have a move quite as strong as V-Create, the boost from Primordial Sea in tandem with 120 bp moves like Wave Crash isn’t insignificant. Thus, even with a low 73 attack stat, Dewott can still take chunks of HP from the high BST Pokemon in BH. Similar to Raboot, Dewott uses Victory Dance to boost enough to take down stronger Pokemon and to outpace faster and frailer Pokemon. Dewott's Strength Sap strengthens its resolve and enables it to set-up in front of physical threats and Will-O-Wisp burns the Pokemon it can’t outright K.O. Since Dewott is an NFE and can run Eviolite to greatly boost its defense, it might seem bizarre to randomly use a Covert Cloak. However, Cloak ensures Dewott can switch into any of Raboot's attacks in the event it gets copied by an Imposter. Covert Cloak protects it from Mortal Spin and Primordial Sea blocks V-Create, thus rendering an Imposter helpless. The same is also true in reverse. If an Imposter copies Dewott it won’t be able to touch Raboot and gets punished with Mortal Spin.
Despairing Depths (Krokorok) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Headlong Rush
- Spikes
- Destiny Bond
Krokorok has a decent attack stat of 92 (For NFE that is) and an excellent Dark/Ground typing that allows it to avoid the passive damage from the common Thunder Cage and switch into common Ghost moves even in the event its Focus Sash is broken. Similar to Sneasel, the team has no realistic way to imposter-proof Krokorok without compromising its integrity with an ability like Levitate and thus Krokorok uses the same Prankster Destiny Bond strategy out of necessity. Krokorok, just like Sneasel uses Swords Dance to boost its power enough to do significant amounts of damage to pokemon weak or neutral to ground with its STAB Headlong Rush. Since the team already has a plethora of more potent wincons, Krokorok opts for Spikes to chip away at the HP of opposing teams and support the Drakloak endgame.
Rasping Roots (Drakloak) @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Normalize
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Entrainment
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Judgment
While Drakloak isn’t quite as fast as Sneasel, it still has enough speed to outpace the ubiquitous base 90-100 speed Pokemon like Giratina, Dialga, and Kyreum-B. Drakloak’s high speed is vital as it enables it to shut down as many Pokemon as possible with the combination of Entrainment and Normalize. Normalize additionally synergizes well with Spikes from Krokorok as it tends to force a lot of switching. Once it changes the ability of a Pokemon to Normalize, Drakloak can proceed to boost its speed with Agility to defeat even faster Pokemon like Mewtwo X and Miraidon and use Nasty Plot to boost the power of its ghost type Judgment. In hindsight, take Heart would’ve been a better option as many games were unnecessarily lost due to stray Toxics, Will-O-Wisps, and Glares, but for the challenge Nasty Plot was naively used. Once Drakloak has boosted enough, it can begin to clean up teams whose Normalize checks have been removed by Destiny Bond or a teammate or teams that have no Normalize counterplay to begin with.
Pestilent Pistil (Jigglypuff) @ Eviolite
Ability: Imposter
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Trick
- Block
- Heal Bell
Out of all the Not Fully Evolved Pokemon Jigglypuff has the highest health stat of 115. Since the only stat that matters for an Imposter Pokemon is health as all the other stats are stolen from the Pokemon that Jigglypuff turns into when it hits the battlefield, Jigglypuff is the optimal Imposter user for a randomly generated team of not fully evolved Pokemon. Jigglypuff uses a standard moveset with generally useful utility moves like Block to trap opposing Imposters, Recover to heal off damage, Trick to trade items, and Heal Bell to cure status, in order to make the most of its untransformed state in the rare it will be untransformed. Since items like HP stats aren’t copied, Jigglypuff abuses an Eviolite to maximize its bulk in the face of a variety of potential threats it will be charged with scouting and defeating for its teammates.
I wish I saved more of the replays, but here are the few I did save:
Vs Test Unstall:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-1946515591
Vs Test Unstall Again:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-1946569996
Vs harrimarron 2:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-1946565293
Vs Xiriot:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-1945934703
As one can see, the alt I used for the challenge is RPG Grimm, and I managed to get to 492nd place on the ladder with a WL ratio of 33-10.
Team Importable: https://pokepast.es/b1203c86e417cb44
Randomizers can pose as some of the most intriguing laddering challenges, especially with open-ended game modes such as Balanced Hackmons. Even up against insane hurdles, one can prevail with creativity and the ability to work with the tools they have. Since top 500 is possible with NFE Pokemon, it raises the question: Can top 500 be obtained with only little cup? Monotype? How far can randomized challenges be pushed?
Pokemon Showdown makes it easy to create a randomized team. Just use the command: /randpoke “ #ofpokemon”, “Tier or blank if unspecified”, “Unreleased or blank”, “type or blank if unspecified” in chat to obtain your team. One can set whatever goal or challenge one wishes.
Shoutouts to Artemis04 for pioneering randomizer challenges in Balanced Hackmons.
Sneasel by AutobotTelsa check out their Tumblr here:
https://autobottesla.tumblr.com/
Raboot by ZymonasYH check out their DeviantArt here:
https://www.deviantart.com/zymonasyh/gallery
Dewott by kanami, check out their page here:
https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=kanami
Krokorok by salanchu, check out their DeviantArt here:
https://www.deviantart.com/salanchu/gallery
Drakloak by gen 8 hype, check out their DeviantArt here:
https://www.deviantart.com/gen8hype/art/Alone-in-the-Night-825540929
Jigglypuff by Biifolio, check out their DeviantArt here:
https://www.deviantart.com/biifolio/gallery
The Challenge:
The ruleset for the challenge is as follows:- Every team that is used must be randomly generated and contain only NFE Pokemon
- The challenge begins with a fresh alt with the prefix RPG ( RPG stands for random Pokemon gauntlet)
- Boosting with other teams and forfeiting alts is prohibited
- To beat the challenge one must reach the top 500 on the ladder or higher
Teambuilding Process:
Since the team was created via a random generator, the construction of the team was fairly straightforward: just randomly generate teams until something usable is created. Following a few hours of creating various teams for the challenge, I settled on this team:
as it had many useful attributes like a variety of Pokemon with solid attack stats, a high HP Pokemon for an Imposter user, and a fast ghost type for Normalize shenanigans.
The Team:
Blistering Petals (Sneasel) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Glacial Lance
- Close Combat
- Destiny Bond
Blistering Petals (Sneasel) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Glacial Lance
- Close Combat
- Destiny Bond
Sneasel has one of the highest available attack stats of any NFE Pokemon and has a useful Ice typing to hit common dragon types like Eternatus and Giratina. Because my team has no defensive Pokemon to Imposter Proof Sneasel, I selected a Prankster set with, Swords Dance, Glacial Lance, Close Combat, and most importantly Destiny Bond. Glacial Lance is a 130 bp Ice move that can take advantage of Sneasel 's decent attack stat to damage Pokemon weak and neutral to ice, and Close Combat clobbers the steel types that attempt to eat Glacial Lances and allows Sneasel to OHKO Imposter Blisseys and Chanseys that transform into it thanks a quad weakness to Close Combat. While base 95 attack is good in the context of NFE, it is not high enough to reasonably threaten anything in Balanced Hackmons, thus Swords Dance is a necessity to do a reasonable amount of damage to the bulky legendaries, Megas, and Ultra beasts that populate the meta of BH. Prankster Destiny Bond ensures that if an Imposter copies Sneasel it will have to sacrifice itself to either Destiny Bond or Close Combat to take down Sneasel and serves as the team's defensive backbone. With the low stat totals of NFE Pokemon there is no longer any reasonable way to deal with fast and powerful set-up Pokemon like No-Retreat Arceus Ghost, Nasty Plot Eternatus etc. . . and so Prankster Destiny Bond lingers as the only consistent method of having any survivability.
Acrid Radiance (Raboot) @ Eviolite
Ability: Desolate Land
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Victory Dance
- V-create
- Mortal Spin
- Synthesis
As one transitions from fully evolved Pokemon and legendaries to not fully evolved Pokemon the loss in wallbreaking power due to low stat totals becomes noticeable. In fact, there are only two NFE pokemon with attack stats over 100. As such to to make up for the loss in power, for the challenge, I selected a randomly generated team with the Fire Type Raboot. This was done as Fire Types can use the combination of the 1.5 times boost of Desolate Land and V-Create’s 180 to reach ludicrous levels of damage. Even with a measly attack stat of 86 (at least by BH standards), the combination described earlier grants enough additional power to OHKO or 2HKO to bulky legendaries that are weak or neutral to fire. Raboot’s Victory Dance allows it to boost past numerous 2HKO thresholds of common Pokemon like Mega Steelix, Dialga-O, and Neutral Arceus formes lacking Fur Coat and gives it the speed increase it needs to move before offensive threats like Mega Mewtwo X. Mortal Spin gives Raboot the ability to Poison Pokemon that it cannot K.O. outright with V-Create while simultaneously removing hazards so its teammates with Sashes are better able to switch into overbearing threats. Lastly, Synthesis gives Raboot the ability to consistently heal, set-up, and offer hazard support throughout the course of a game.
Lacerated Loch (Dewott) @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Primordial Sea
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wave Crash
- Victory Dance
- Will-O-Wisp
- Strength Sap
While Water is significantly worse of an offensive type than Fire, and Water Types don’t have a move quite as strong as V-Create, the boost from Primordial Sea in tandem with 120 bp moves like Wave Crash isn’t insignificant. Thus, even with a low 73 attack stat, Dewott can still take chunks of HP from the high BST Pokemon in BH. Similar to Raboot, Dewott uses Victory Dance to boost enough to take down stronger Pokemon and to outpace faster and frailer Pokemon. Dewott's Strength Sap strengthens its resolve and enables it to set-up in front of physical threats and Will-O-Wisp burns the Pokemon it can’t outright K.O. Since Dewott is an NFE and can run Eviolite to greatly boost its defense, it might seem bizarre to randomly use a Covert Cloak. However, Cloak ensures Dewott can switch into any of Raboot's attacks in the event it gets copied by an Imposter. Covert Cloak protects it from Mortal Spin and Primordial Sea blocks V-Create, thus rendering an Imposter helpless. The same is also true in reverse. If an Imposter copies Dewott it won’t be able to touch Raboot and gets punished with Mortal Spin.
Despairing Depths (Krokorok) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Headlong Rush
- Spikes
- Destiny Bond
Krokorok has a decent attack stat of 92 (For NFE that is) and an excellent Dark/Ground typing that allows it to avoid the passive damage from the common Thunder Cage and switch into common Ghost moves even in the event its Focus Sash is broken. Similar to Sneasel, the team has no realistic way to imposter-proof Krokorok without compromising its integrity with an ability like Levitate and thus Krokorok uses the same Prankster Destiny Bond strategy out of necessity. Krokorok, just like Sneasel uses Swords Dance to boost its power enough to do significant amounts of damage to pokemon weak or neutral to ground with its STAB Headlong Rush. Since the team already has a plethora of more potent wincons, Krokorok opts for Spikes to chip away at the HP of opposing teams and support the Drakloak endgame.
Rasping Roots (Drakloak) @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Normalize
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Entrainment
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Judgment
While Drakloak isn’t quite as fast as Sneasel, it still has enough speed to outpace the ubiquitous base 90-100 speed Pokemon like Giratina, Dialga, and Kyreum-B. Drakloak’s high speed is vital as it enables it to shut down as many Pokemon as possible with the combination of Entrainment and Normalize. Normalize additionally synergizes well with Spikes from Krokorok as it tends to force a lot of switching. Once it changes the ability of a Pokemon to Normalize, Drakloak can proceed to boost its speed with Agility to defeat even faster Pokemon like Mewtwo X and Miraidon and use Nasty Plot to boost the power of its ghost type Judgment. In hindsight, take Heart would’ve been a better option as many games were unnecessarily lost due to stray Toxics, Will-O-Wisps, and Glares, but for the challenge Nasty Plot was naively used. Once Drakloak has boosted enough, it can begin to clean up teams whose Normalize checks have been removed by Destiny Bond or a teammate or teams that have no Normalize counterplay to begin with.
Pestilent Pistil (Jigglypuff) @ Eviolite
Ability: Imposter
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Trick
- Block
- Heal Bell
Out of all the Not Fully Evolved Pokemon Jigglypuff has the highest health stat of 115. Since the only stat that matters for an Imposter Pokemon is health as all the other stats are stolen from the Pokemon that Jigglypuff turns into when it hits the battlefield, Jigglypuff is the optimal Imposter user for a randomly generated team of not fully evolved Pokemon. Jigglypuff uses a standard moveset with generally useful utility moves like Block to trap opposing Imposters, Recover to heal off damage, Trick to trade items, and Heal Bell to cure status, in order to make the most of its untransformed state in the rare it will be untransformed. Since items like HP stats aren’t copied, Jigglypuff abuses an Eviolite to maximize its bulk in the face of a variety of potential threats it will be charged with scouting and defeating for its teammates.
Replays:
I wish I saved more of the replays, but here are the few I did save:
Vs Test Unstall:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-1946515591
Vs Test Unstall Again:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-1946569996
Vs harrimarron 2:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-1946565293
Vs Xiriot:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-1945934703
Proof of Laddering Peak/ WL Ratio:
As one can see, the alt I used for the challenge is RPG Grimm, and I managed to get to 492nd place on the ladder with a WL ratio of 33-10.
Team Importable:
Epilogue:
Randomizers can pose as some of the most intriguing laddering challenges, especially with open-ended game modes such as Balanced Hackmons. Even up against insane hurdles, one can prevail with creativity and the ability to work with the tools they have. Since top 500 is possible with NFE Pokemon, it raises the question: Can top 500 be obtained with only little cup? Monotype? How far can randomized challenges be pushed?
How to make a randomized Team?:
Pokemon Showdown makes it easy to create a randomized team. Just use the command: /randpoke “ #ofpokemon”, “Tier or blank if unspecified”, “Unreleased or blank”, “type or blank if unspecified” in chat to obtain your team. One can set whatever goal or challenge one wishes.
Shoutouts:
Shoutouts to Artemis04 for pioneering randomizer challenges in Balanced Hackmons.
Artworks:
Sneasel by AutobotTelsa check out their Tumblr here:
https://autobottesla.tumblr.com/
Raboot by ZymonasYH check out their DeviantArt here:
https://www.deviantart.com/zymonasyh/gallery
Dewott by kanami, check out their page here:
https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=kanami
Krokorok by salanchu, check out their DeviantArt here:
https://www.deviantart.com/salanchu/gallery
Drakloak by gen 8 hype, check out their DeviantArt here:
https://www.deviantart.com/gen8hype/art/Alone-in-the-Night-825540929
Jigglypuff by Biifolio, check out their DeviantArt here:
https://www.deviantart.com/biifolio/gallery
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