Gen 7 Attempt 1

[Aloysius O’Hare]

I want to make a team that I can replicate in ultra sun (ideally without legendaries) and this is what I’ve gotten so far.


Gengar-Mega @ Gengarite
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sludge Bomb
- Substitute

This is my counter to any ghost Pokémon that can ignore endeavour - the goal is to status them beforehand and the hex them for superegfec

Toxapex @ Icium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Haze
- Toxic
- Recover
- Scald

This is my wall for when anything problematic happens - z haze heals 100% of health and toxic and scald pair well with hex on gengar

Cottonee @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 1
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Encore
- Endeavor

Leech seed is particularly useful if I want to switch in a Level 1 and keep it on full health - it also allows me to win the game if there’s one Pokémon left.

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Toxic Spikes
- Endeavor
- Rapid Spin

Rapid spin removes hazards and all of the other moves pair well with Gengar.

Togedemaru @ Shell Bell
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 1
- Endeavor
- Nuzzle
- Fake Out
- Spiky Shield

My favourite team member - nuzzle paralyses and spiky shield can get a cheeky kill. Fake out also does this and endeavour is the mai

Nosepass @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 1 HP
IVs: 0 Atk
- Pain Split
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock

Volt switch allows me to flit between Pokémon much easier and stealth rock helps finish off Pokémon.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Please offer improvement.

 

[fake tom numbers]

IMO, running a bunch of level 1 mons in a format you aren't familiar with is boring. Because the truth is, anyone can run level 1 mons or other shitmons, but not everyone can make those shitmons work at a high level and succeed. I do think this team could work though. (also i am gonna assume u mean ou and not like playing thru the game normally or something because you have both level 1 mons and level 100 mons)

If you want to run endeavor mons, you'd probably want mons that can synergize well with them, such as a consistent weather, hazard or status setter. You definitely should replace nosepass with something like ferro or gliscor because even though it's funny, you have other meme options on your team and by removing it you allow your other options to perform better.

I also don't know what direction your team wants to go in; I'll assume stall because you got pex and have 0 offense. In that case I would replace gengar with sableye because sab is a much better support mon and yeah gengar shadow tag is broken but thats banned and if you are just playing vs an ai they will never switch so its whole niche with shadow tag is useless.

The last thing I'll suggest is to replace smeargle with an actual hazard remover, something like torn-t is nice as you can put the z crystal from pex over to torn so that u dont waste it. Other things I'd recommend is giving togedemaru toxic over fake out and maybe replacing cotonnee with an actual usable pokemon, but the most important thing I'll recommend is to just test things out yourself, like use something like tentacruel or vanilluxe or other niche mons, and make sure they help contribute to the team. I really do like your original team because there's potential there, but you gotta just do stuff your way.

 

[Cdijk16]

Is this team for Gen 7 AG/Ubers on Pokemon Showdown or for in-game usage? You said you want the team to be replicable in Ultra Sun, that's why I'm asking. If it's both, then Gen 7 AG/Ubers and in-game USUM are also very different from each other and I wouldn't reccomend sharing a team between them. Strategies that work well in in-game USUM likely will not be optimal in Gen 7 AG/Ubers and vice-versa.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Is this team for Gen 7 AG/Ubers on Pokemon Showdown or for in-game usage? You said you want the team to be replicable in Ultra Sun, that's why I'm asking. If it's both, then Gen 7 AG/Ubers and in-game USUM are also very different from each other and I wouldn't reccomend sharing a team between them. Strategies that work well in in-game USUM likely will not be optimal in Gen 7 AG/Ubers and vice-versa.

The goal is to use Pokémon available only in ultra sun - e.g arceus, yvetal and Rayquaza are all off limits.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

IMO, running a bunch of level 1 mons in a format you aren't familiar with is boring. Because the truth is, anyone can run level 1 mons or other shitmons, but not everyone can make those shitmons work at a high level and succeed. I do think this team could work though. (also i am gonna assume u mean ou and not like playing thru the game normally or something because you have both level 1 mons and level 100 mons)

If you want to run endeavor mons, you'd probably want mons that can synergize well with them, such as a consistent weather, hazard or status setter. You definitely should replace nosepass with something like ferro or gliscor because even though it's funny, you have other meme options on your team and by removing it you allow your other options to perform better.

I also don't know what direction your team wants to go in; I'll assume stall because you got pex and have 0 offense. In that case I would replace gengar with sableye because sab is a much better support mon and yeah gengar shadow tag is broken but thats banned and if you are just playing vs an ai they will never switch so its whole niche with shadow tag is useless.

The last thing I'll suggest is to replace smeargle with an actual hazard remover, something like torn-t is nice as you can put the z crystal from pex over to torn so that u dont waste it. Other things I'd recommend is giving togedemaru toxic over fake out and maybe replacing cotonnee with an actual usable pokemon, but the most important thing I'll recommend is to just test things out yourself, like use something like tentacruel or vanilluxe or other niche mons, and make sure they help contribute to the team. I really do like your original team because there's potential there, but you gotta just do stuff your way.

Thanks for the feedback - I think I’ll swap nosepass for Mimikyu later.

 

[Just A Shroom God]

change gengar's set to this:
Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
-Disable
-Substitute
-Protect
-Perish Song
a lone attacker on a team with so many gimmick mons doesn't have much synergy. This set aims to get at least one cheeky kill with subdisable, investing in hp to survive a move, perish song, then protect/sub/disable to stall out turns before switching out on the last turn, forcing a KO.

To be honest, this team is not very good. Having a full team of lvl 1 FEAR mons means you autolose to a ton of stuff: sandstorm/hail, taunt, hazards, ghost and grass types, multi-hit moves, etc. If you wanted a real team, you could look at the viability rankings for gen 7 OU: there's some teams with no legendaries, for example this Mawile Chansey balance:https://pokepast.es/0b68282b393cde6f
or this sand team, swapping out zapdos for skarm or something: https://pokepast.es/a7dbb4a163282e75
if you're truly dead set on the lvl 1 theme, there's not much else you can fix about it, though.

 

[Cdijk16]

The goal is to use Pokémon available only in ultra sun - e.g arceus, yvetal and Rayquaza are all off limits.

I know that, my question is what do you intend to use the team for? Battling in-game trainers or real people?

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

I know that, my question is what do you intend to use the team for? Battling in-game trainers or real people?

Real people - trainers wouldn’t be feasible with level 1s.

 

[Cdijk16]

Real people - trainers wouldn’t be feasible with level 1s.

Level 1 gimmicks are extremely unreliable against real opponents. They can get very easily countered by a dozen different things that are very common in competitive: Multi-hit moves, Sandstorm, Hail, damaging entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes, Toxic etc. For this reason, I don't recommend using Level 1 gimmicks if your goal is to win consistently. They practically never work against knowledgeable opponents.
Also, by battling real peole do you mean battling random opponents on WiFi or one of the Smogon/VGC formats?

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Level 1 gimmicks are extremely unreliable against real opponents. They can get very easily countered by a dozen different things that are very common in competitive: Multi-hit moves, Sandstorm, Hail, damaging entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes, Toxic etc. For this reason, I don't recommend using Level 1 gimmicks if your goal is to win consistently. They practically never work against knowledgeable opponents.
Also, by battling real peole do you mean battling random opponents on WiFi or one of the Smogon/VGC formats?

A bit of everything tbh.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Ok - I’ve been thinking.
Ideally, this team should function in Ubers, and this means that I can use the majority of legendary Pokémon. Namely, primal Groudon. This will be a support set - the main reason for the choice is desolate land (it will remove any weather conditions).

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Latias would have been a good fit for the team (healing wish AND Defog); alas, it’s ultra moon.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Smeargle can do this as well :)

 

[Cdijk16]

A bit of everything tbh.

It's not a very good idea to share the same team between different formats because they are very different from each other and require different builds to perform well in. If you're interested in winning, I would strongly recommend having separate teams for separate formats.

Ok - I’ve been thinking.
Ideally, this team should function in Ubers, and this means that I can use the majority of legendary Pokémon. Namely, primal Groudon. This will be a support set - the main reason for the choice is desolate land (it will remove any weather conditions).

This thread is good reference for knowing what the SM Ubers meta is like: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ubers-old-gens-hub.3714123/post-9462706
When making an SM Ubers team, you should make sure your team can deal with the pokemon in the A-S tiers of the VR in the thread linked above, especially Primal Groudon and NDM.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Thanks for the advice everyone - this is my new idea for a team (the last 2 are maybes).


Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Precipice Blades
- Overheat
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

I love the idea of using desolate land to neutralise weather conditions - it’s also a great stealth rock setter.

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Healing Wish
- Spore
- Endeavor
- Rapid Spin

Rapid Spin removes stealth rocks, spore and endeavour helps in general and healing wish could bring a pokemon

Togedemaru @ Shell Bell
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 1
IVs: 0 Spe
- Endeavor
- Nuzzle
- Fake Out
- Spiky Shield

Same as before.

Mimikyu @ Focus Sash
Ability: Disguise
Level: 1
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Taunt
- Trick Room
- Destiny Bond
- Infestation

Trick room brings the team together and destiny bond helps remove annoying pokemon.

Now here are the 2 Pokémon I’m not so sure avout

Cottonee @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 1
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Encore
- Endeavor




Nosepass @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 1
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Pain Split
- Volt Switch
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Same as before.

Im looking for another defogger that can stay alive (it also has to be available in ultra sun) so please give recommendations for the whole team.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

An updated team: (defog and aromatherapy xerneas in place of nosepass).
Again, please offer improvements.
https://pokepast.es/0ee0cd870cca05c4

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Xerneas should have defog in place of sleep talk - I'm unsure if aromatherapy is necessary though... please advise.

 

[Cdijk16]

An updated team: (defog and aromatherapy xerneas in place of nosepass).
Again, please offer improvements.
https://pokepast.es/0ee0cd870cca05c4

Level 1 gimmicks get completely ruined by damaging entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes, and this team doesn't have very consistent entry hazard removal. There's a ton of things in SM Ubers that counter Level 1 gimmicks, so I don't reccomend using them in that format period.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Level 1 gimmicks get completely ruined by damaging entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes, and this team doesn't have very consistent entry hazard removal. There's a ton of things in SM Ubers that counter Level 1 gimmicks, so I don't reccomend using them in that format period.

For hazard removal I have Defog Xerneas and rapid spin Smeargle (after Mimikyu trickroom).

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Is there anything I should add?

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

Latios with haze and z-memento could also be a good stealth rock clearer…

 

[Cdijk16]

Is there anything I should add?

You could put Defog on Cottonee as emergency entry hazard removal. I dont think Aromatherapy on Xerneas is needed here, I recommend keeping Sleep Talk and replacing Aromatherapy with Defog in case you insist on keeping the Level 1 gimmicks.

For hazard removal I have Defog Xerneas and rapid spin Smeargle (after Mimikyu trickroom).

Xerneas isn't that reliable a hazard remover because it fails to keep Stealth Rock off against Defensive NDM and Swords Dance + Stealth Rock Primal Groudon, and it fails to keep Spikes off against Gyro Ball Ferrothorn and the niche Taunt Greninja.

 

[Aloysius O’Hare]

What reliable hazard removers are there?

 

[Cdijk16]

What reliable hazard removers are there?

Ground Arceus is the most reliable one to my knowledge. It has a good matchup against Primal Groudon and NDM, who are some of the most common Stealth Rockers.
Arceus-Ground @ Earth Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 24 SpD / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
- Judgment
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Defog
This is the set the Smogon Analysis reccomends for Support Groundceus.