Other Metagames Crooked Smile [A Monotype Normal Team]

[Wanka]

Hello everyone, I am user: Wanka and this is going to be my second monotype RMT! This is a normal team that I built a few weeks ago and in the few weeks I've been spamming it on the ladder and in tours, it has grown to be one of my favorite and most successful teams I've built. I wanted to experiment with HO on different types in the meta and normal has an array of mons that can mesh together to form an HO build, so I ran with it. Enjoy!

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process

Smeargle is probably the best option for a lead on any offensive normal build. It has access to both SR and sticky webs which are great support for this type of build.

After I had my lead, I went straight into finding a balance breaking core that includes a powerhouse on the physical and special side. Pz and diggers together are one of the best at just that.

Stara was a given at this point. It helped bolster a fighting matchup and it merits good power along with being able to outspeed and revenge kill a ton of threats to the team. Since I had stara playing the bird role, Mega Lop made the most sense to have as a mega. The speed and priority are godsends and its just an overall fabulous mon on any normal team.

Ditto was absolutely necessary in this slot. prevents my opponent from blowing through my team with certain sweepers and takes advantage of them if they try to.

Smeargle @ Focus Sash

Ability: Own Tempo​

EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature
- Dark Void
- Stealth Rock
- Sticky Web
- Taunt
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Nothing to special about smeargle. It's the primary lead for the team and its job is simple. Sleep, stack, and die. It isn't the fastest of sui leads and faster taunt users or lead fake out users put a clean stop to it. Magic coat can be run in one of the slots to anti lead certain mons but this movepool has done fine so far. Dark void's accuracy is annoying but its necessary to hit things like breloom and ferrothorn. Another move that can go in this set is explosion. things like hawlucha and gyarados use it as bait and with explosion it would help ditto take advantage of them after you boom.

Diggersby @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power​

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Return
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake
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Diggersby acts as the main physical wall breaker/balance breaker in the team. As a whole, there is no real set up wincon in the team so I chose an LO diggers set as opposed to a band set. LO is somewhat of an uncommon set because of how prominent the band set is so it does find a good amount of opportunities to set up with that unpredictability and its natural ability to force a ton of switches. It has an OK speed tier so jolly is absolutely required, especially with it being an LO set.

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Porygon-Z @ Choice Specs
Ability: Download​

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature
- Tri Attack
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Signal Beam
​

Same role fulfillment as diggers except specially oriented. Anywhere else, adapdability is by far the better ability. However, in a tier like mono where spamming coverage moves is so common, an ability like download fits a lot better. This is the main mon you are going to be playing aggresively with. Doubling on things like slowbro and skarmory and picking up a spA boost makes this mon an absolute menace to opposing balance builds. flying teams have no switchins to boosted ice beams and psy teams have no switchins to boosted tri attacks or signal beams. speaking of which, I did decide to go with signal beam over shadow ball so I could take advantage of hoopa and use it as bait to get this mon in more. the extra damage shadow ball provides has no effect on nabbing certain 2hkos or anything like that and with ghost becoming less and less relevant, it made all the sense in the world to take advantage of hoopa instead.

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless​

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- Close Combat
- U-turn
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The speed and power stara provides compliments the rest of the team so nicely. It acts as a perfect revenge killer to support the team and it gives me a form of momentum which is very helpful to get Pz and diggers into play more. It also is extremely helpful in a fighting matchup with its ability to outspeed and ohko anything on a fighting team bar scarf terrack.

Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter​

EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD

Bold Nature
- Transform
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Ditto's job is very simple on pretty much any normal team. It's a fantastic mon to take advantage of opposing teams from abusing set up mons to try and sweep through the team. Normal is just overall very prone to certain SD mons and Dragon Dancers so having a mon like ditto in the back either prevents them from trying to set up at all, or reverse sweeps them if they think its a good idea to in fact, set up. Again, its job is fairly simple like stara's but it's very effective at what it does.

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Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber​

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- High Jump Kick
- Power-Up Punch
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With staraptor playing the bird role in the team, Lopunny seemed like the mega that made the most sense for the team. It isn't inherently all that powerful but with its combo of priority and speed, it, along with staraptor can take on a lot of opposing threats to the team. It also acts as a decent anti lead to things that shut down smeargle like medicham and/or infernape. Quick attack or something like ice punch could be used in the last slot over PuP but I prefer being able to pick things off to nab boosts instead. Extra priority in QA would definitely be useful though.

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Threats​

Mega Cham is more of an annoyance rather than a threat. Mainly because it stops smeargle in its tracks. Your best bet is to counter lead it with lopunny and force it out. Ditto can also take advantage of it mid or late game and use it to spam its psy STABs against fighting teams.

These two paired with scarves can be pretty tough to deal with. You gotta use stara, webs, and ditto wisely to beat these two.

Oddly enough, slowbro can become extremely difficult to kill with porygon being the only real special threat on the team. You really have to play pz well or bro can wear out the team very quickly.

SUB SWEEPERS: Mons that have access to substitute and set up moves like dragon dance or swords dance can be huge threats to the team. Ditto cant copy things behind a sub so your best bet is to either break their sub with stara or lopunny and then use ditto accordingly. If you play carelessly around mons like hawlucha or gyara, you will lose.

Replays
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http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-361980233 vs. Grass
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-361975238 vs. Ice
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-361971326 vs. reun psy
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-361527729 vs. bug
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-361525172 vs. Fighting
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-360152486 vs. Fighting (what happens when u play carelessly)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-359685461 vs. Fighting
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/origin-monotype-296067 vs. Flying
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/origin-monotype-296050 vs. Steel
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/origin-monotype-288063 vs. Dragon
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/origin-monotype-287737 vs. stall water
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/origin-monotype-287692 vs. Psychic
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-360130556 vs. Fire​

Importable

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Void
- Stealth Rock
- Sticky Web
- Taunt

Diggersby @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Return
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake

Porygon-Z @ Choice Specs
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tri Attack
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Signal Beam

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- Close Combat
- U-turn

Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Transform
-

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- High Jump Kick
- Power-Up Punch

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[Wanka]

tagging scpinion if he wants it.

 

[Confluxx [Old]]

Cool looking team, very offensive and different from the standard bulky Normal.

I have a few suggestions.

Whirlwind>Taunt on Smeargle. If you're faster than a mon you can just put it to sleep instead of taunting it and if you're not faster Taunt isn't gonna be that useful. Whirlwind helps vs mons that carry Substitute and potentially a set-up move with it which could put you in a tough position.

Hidden Power Fire>Signal Beam on Porygon-Z. I notice a lack of Fire coverage on your team which is pretty useful for things like Mega Scizor who if played right could be a big threat. Your team is pretty fast and full of hard hitters but Mega Scizor can definitely put itself in a position to sweep as +2 BP can run through your team. PZ obviously drops to it but it's useful to bring in if Scizor is at neutral attack. On paper Ditto seems like a decent Mega Scizor check if it sets up, but you would know better how well that works since you've been using the team.

Choice Band>Life Orb on Diggersby. Just a personal preference of mine, I think Banded Diggersby is amazing and doesn't have many switch-ins, especially if Adamant because the speed it hits it solid for a wallbreaker and you're also running Sticky Webs. Swords Dance Diggersby is definitely very threatening though because people usually expect choiced. It forces a lot of mons out so that gives it opportunities to set-up and cause major damage. Like I said, I like both sets, Banded Diggersby is a bit more convenient for me though.

Very solid HO Normal team and good luck with it in the future. :]

Sets

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Void
- Stealth Rock
- Sticky Web
- Whirlwind

Porygon-Z @ Choice Specs
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tri Attack
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Fire

Diggersby @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Frustration
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack
- Fire Punch

 

[scpinion]

I'm not here to rate the team (I don't think anything I'd suggest would improve it), but I wanted to say it is a cool team. It is nice to see a quality rmt of a successful normal team without the generic fat eviolite core.

Awesome stuff dude.

 

[Wanka]

Cool looking team, very offensive and different from the standard bulky Normal.

I have a few suggestions.

Whirlwind>Taunt on Smeargle. If you're faster than a mon you can just put it to sleep instead of taunting it and if you're not faster Taunt isn't gonna be that useful. Whirlwind helps vs mons that carry Substitute and potentially a set-up move with it which could put you in a tough position.

Hidden Power Fire>Signal Beam on Porygon-Z. I notice a lack of Fire coverage on your team which is pretty useful for things like Mega Scizor who if played right could be a big threat. Your team is pretty fast and full of hard hitters but Mega Scizor can definitely put itself in a position to sweep as +2 BP can run through your team. PZ obviously drops to it but it's useful to bring in if Scizor is at neutral attack. On paper Ditto seems like a decent Mega Scizor check if it sets up, but you would know better how well that works since you've been using the team.

Choice Band>Life Orb on Diggersby. Just a personal preference of mine, I think Banded Diggersby is amazing and doesn't have many switch-ins, especially if Adamant because the speed it hits it solid for a wallbreaker and you're also running Sticky Webs. Swords Dance Diggersby is definitely very threatening though because people usually expect choiced. It forces a lot of mons out so that gives it opportunities to set-up and cause major damage. Like I said, I like both sets, Banded Diggersby is a bit more convenient for me though.

Very solid HO Normal team and good luck with it in the future. :]

Sets

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Void
- Stealth Rock
- Sticky Web
- Whirlwind

Porygon-Z @ Choice Specs
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tri Attack
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Fire

Diggersby @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Frustration
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack
- Fire Punch

thx fluxx, I'd defo be willing to try out whirlwind smearg, a lot of people just turn 1 go in with trying to sub up with things like gyara and having that would help a bunch.

 

[Seo.]

lol was skimming threw some rmts and saw this, really nice team fam. a quick suggestion is maybe run banded staraptor over scarfed, since you already have sticky webs and theres like barely any switch ins to it since Reckless + Banded op, just something i would do but good luck with this team! :)