Research Week #3: Altaria, Arbok, Linoone and Pinsir

[skylight]

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Introduction​

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NU is a tier where many Pokemon are usable, and there are a ton of different options. Research Week aids in helping explore the tier. Who knows, maybe in future tier changes one of these Pokemon can be incredibly useful, potentially being able to check the new threats well. Maybe one of these Pokemon may find uses in other tiers and is not just a simple throw-away Pokemon, unlike some unfortunate Pokemon in NU.​

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Some rules​

• Be open-minded. Don't just say something is terrible and walk away; at least look into them and see what options they may be able to utilize.
• Feel free to theorymon, but make it clear that you are theorymonning. At the end of the week, however, I want discussion to move towards how useful the Pokemon actually are in NU, and what sets are effective on them.
• Just because an analysis has been done for a Pokemon doesn't mean there isn't more to explore; it's quite possible that something might have gone unnoticed or is missing.
• Do not post in this thread complaining about the Pokemon I choose and/or suggesting ones we should do for future weeks. I want discussion to stay on topic about the 4 Pokemon we are "researching". If you want to suggest something, send a forum Private Message to me. Also, Pokemon from past research weeks will be used again simply because the metagame has obviously changed since this project was last brought about.

The four Pokemon for this week (09/07/13 - 16/07/13):​

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Questions to consider when posting here​

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How useful are these Pokemon in NU? What sets can they run effectively? What gives them trouble? What advantages do they have over other Pokemon? How well do they work in the metagame? If you have anything to say about any of these Pokemon, please post about them! It doesn't matter if you've used them or have just faced them in battle, anything is fine (but please, do try them). Just be sure to back up your posts with good competitive reasoning. Remember, discussion is not limited to this topic, you are encouraged to talk about these Pokemon in #neverused as well!​

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The Research Week Challenge​

• Users will use any number of the research week mons on their team
• Users will attempt to reach as high as possible on the ladder with the Pokemon. Breaking past the 2000 mark on the ladder with your registered alt will earn you a spot on the Hall of Fame: Gold Class. Crossing the 1850 mark will secure you a Silver Class spot while a 1700 rating will earn you a Bronze Class spot. Post a screen-shot of your peak in order to achieve this, and a pastebin of your team. Note: this is for Glicko2. You must also have a deviation of 85.
• Users will be expected to post their experiences with the Pokemon they use, the teams they used, the problems they encountered while trying to make the said Pokemon work.
• If a user does not participate in the discussion, he will be passed over.
• In order to participate in the challenge, simply post here with a brand new alt. Post battle logs, experiences with your team on the ladder, and generally how a Pokemon has worked out for you: past or present.

Please include more substance in your posts than just "in" and what Pokemon you're using. What sets are you planning on using? What interests you about whatever Pokemon you're using? Remember: people who contribute a lot to Research Week will be listed on the hub page as an outstanding contributor for this Research Group (yes, I'm aware I'm c/ping this but I'm actually going to actively update the hub, so!)​

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Every one or two days during the week I'll post questions which I expect you guys to be involved in. If you have any questions about this project, feel free to send me a PM, otherwise just compete in the challenge, and actively post here too discussing the sets throughout the week. Remember that the NU mods keep an eye over everything even when they're asleep and you could get one step closer to earning CC if you actively post here and keep up discussion. n_n​

 

[skylight]

Hall of Fame

Hide

Gold Class: 2000+

Annoyer / bleckkk | 1968 | 90 | 2088 + 85

Ashley11 / | 1950 | 2049 + 70

Silver Class: 1850-1999

Bronze Class: 1700-1849

 

[Farobi]

Testing arbok with alt a-borkrk

 

[Shuckleking87]

I already know how great expert belt moxie pinsir with quick attack can be, as people too often assume it is scarfed or life orbed. I don't know if linoone is too frail to actually be successful, though choice band extremespeed seems enticing with the frailer tier and the prevalence of spikes. I have always preferred muk over arbok for some reason, as muk is just really bulky, but I want to see arbok succeed, so I will probably use that (and maybe linoone).

 

[Celever]

I've already used all of these pokemon rather extensively, so I'll post my thoughts on them:

Altaria is an interesting pokemon in NU. He has some love-or-hate defensive typing, very to ice, and weak to rock, both of which are common, but resistances to many other common types, such as the FWG cores, particularly grass. This is important, as Altaria is very much a defensive pokemon, as both her stats and movepool show. She is one of my favourite clerics in the tier believe it or not, if I want to use a cleric that isn't Misdreavus (who is obviously the best in the tier though, particularly with the main drops from RU, new kacaw doesn't count as much imo) I would probably go for Altaria. She has unresisted coverage in just two moves - dragon pulse/draco meteor and fire blast/flamethrower, and also learns reliable recovery in roost to use substitute to avoid status well, allowing it to use cloud nine, which, while for the most part would be non-sensical when her other ability is natural cure, nullifies a massive threat in NU - rain. My favourite set just ignores having a fire attack and uses draco meteor/roost/heal bell/substitute. Thanks to roost, she is also very much capable of using an offensive set utilizing life orb, using her perfect coverage to her full advantage. She is a pretty diverse pokemon, even with the ability to use dragon dance (before I was made aware of Fraxure over irc, I was a massive fan of DD Altaria) with some advantages over Fraxure, - reliable recovery and eathquake mainly.

Arbok... I don't like this pokemon. On paper he is really good, fairly good bulk, coil to boost that and his attack, as well as the ability to use less-effective moves thanks to coil. However in practice, due to his poor defensive typing, fairly lackluster speed, particularly now, and poor movepool he just doesn't perform well. I am interested in trying out a paraphazing set though, using glare and dragon tail on Arbok, if I get round to doing research week this week I will be using said set.

Linoone is a monster. I haven't actually used him since pede, jynx and ape dropped, so I don't have a definite idea of how he acts differently in this stage of NU, however I can't see the drops affecting his strategy all that much. Linoone is not a pokemon you can just slap on a team by any means, your team must be built around Linoone for him to do... anything. His strategy is using belly drum and extremespeed to outspeed everything in the tier, since almost nothing else gets something with +2 priority besides him. The reason why he needs the team built around him? He needs memento users to let him set up, otherwise he just dies due to his frailty. While I have seen him used to some success on teams without memento, simply by going in and threatening an almost dead pokemon with extremespeed forcing them to switch and setting up, any experienced players would see it coming and just stay in. If not then... gg.

Pinsir, how cruel the drops have been to you. Pinsir was originally the boss bug of NU, taking after his brother in UU, but after Scolipede dropped no one uses him any more... my question is this; why? He can still use a scarf, he still has moxie over scolipede, he is still as effective as ever, and Jynx gave him a new target to demolish. Pinsir is as good as he ever was or has been, and as far as I can see, he never will get worse. He has stone edge for mandibuzz btw, she didn't screw him over.

So that is my opinion on these four pokemon, btw, y'all should use Pinsir more!!

 

[Annoyer]

alt: bleckkk

ive played a couple of matches already with pinsir and although ppl think its outclassed by scolipede, its not exactly. the set i was using is the set i always use with pinsir which is swords dance / x - scissor / earthquake / quick attack with moxie + adamant nature and this set is honestly amazing. eq allows it to hit golurk as well as hit stuff like scolipede and rock/steel-types harder. its moxie ability is like a snowballing effect because the more boosts it gets, the harder it is to stop and once you wear down its checks/counters enough, it wont be able to take pinsir on anymore. you can set up with pinsirs decent bulk and typing on stuff and after an sd and a moxie boost, a lot of scarfers such as jynx cant take a quick attack. (at +1 it kos jynx after rocks, and at +2 it ohkos without any extra damage) it breaks through teams extremely easily and it destroys flcl which is a plus too ^-^ ill go into more detail later once i get a better ranking.

 

[NfskMjmMal]

I've used Linoone a fair amount on a somewhat gimmicky team built around Gorebyss and Linoone sweeping. Unfortunately, Linoone's Attack is so low that it can't do too much by itself. I don't see that much use in it as a revenge killer because pretty often the opponent can just switch out to something that can take all of its unboosted attacks easily, and if you're trying to revenge kill something it's pretty ballsy to Belly Drum right in something's face predicting the switch out because they could just be leaving it in as fodder. It's got great Speed, but that's about it.

Nonetheless, I have found good success by using the following Gardevoir set. Since my team is dedicated to Linoone sweeping, I didn't mind using a teamslot for a fully support Pokemon because that's what I needed.

Gardevoir @ Light Clay
Trait: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Memento
- Light Screen
- Reflect

This Gardevoir allows Linoone to Belly Drum and get at least one attack off safely in the ballpark of 99% of the time if played correctly. In my experience, I've gotten up to +6 and begun firing off attacks safely around 40 times in a row and counting. Given that the huge risk of Belly Drum is dying afterwards and not being able to do anything, I think that really says something about this set. Due to its Speed, I can Taunt nearly all defensive Pokemon, crippling them. Offensive Pokemon are rendered nearly useless after dual screens and Memento. Also, this outspeeds the normal variant of Skuntank, which this Gardevoir lures out and sets up on. Part of the reason this set works so well is because nobody expects it. This isn't just for Linoone either. It's a good stallbreaker and general team supporter, and many other things, like Pokemon with Shell Smash, Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, manual weather, or Substitutes can get them pretty freely.

Yeah, that's great and all, but the point is Linoone requires quite a bit of team support to be used effectively. Dual screens are a bare minimum I feel, because Linoone is not bulky and is easily KOd from 75% health, or less often times because of hazards and/or not running a Sitrus Berry. On my Linoone I actually have a Lum Berry, which I've found to have worked out much better than Sitrus Berry or Silk Scarf. I can afford to have a Lum Berry over a Sitrus Berry due to the insane support my Gardevoir (and I have a Weezing with Memento on that team also, so him too) provides. After screens and Memento, Skuntank's Crunch does around 15%, for example. If you don't have a Memento user on your team though, you're probably better off with Sitrus Berry for better survivability, especially against Fake Out users, who stop Linoone quickly.

There are two sets Linoone can run: the standard Jolly set that's EVd specifically to just outspeed Timid Haunter, and then the Adamant max power set. Normally you should be using the Jolly set unless you have Skuntank or another good Pursuit user who can take care of Haunter. Linoone also loves tons of hazards, as there are a few Pokemon who can survive a +6 Extremespeed but can't if you have Rocks and Spikes up. I believe there are also situations in which Adamant OHKOs but Jolly does not, so now that I think about it, if one can justify using the Jolly set to not get beaten by Haunter, one could also justify the Adamant set to not be beaten by those who can survive a +6 Jolly attack but not an Adamant one. Regardless, I have found that many of these Pokemon who can survive one attack, like Misdreavus, Alomomola, Tangela, etc. try to status Linoone, all of which fail due to Lum Berry. This is why I have found Lum Berry to be more helpful in my case, because it seems like the more common response is to try to status Linoone rather than revenge it.

In summary, Linoone has a very unique and interesting niche, but it requires a bit of team support to shine. Because of this, it might not be that wise to put Linoone on a really serious team because you'd have to sacrifice moveslots and perhaps teamslots to make Linoone viable, but once Linoone gets going, it's deadly. Unfortunately, there are just a few too many things that can survive and stop it. If only it had like 5 or 10 more base Attack. Yeah, there's Silk Scarf, but then it just makes it even easier for Linoone to get crippled or KOd. Weaken its checks, though, and then Linoone is nearly unstoppable.

 

[Leafshield]

Well, since I've only really used Altaria in this meta, I'd like to give my 2 cents on it:

Altaria

Altaria is known for being the only fully evolved Dragon-type in NU. It's Dragon/Flying typing is a blessing and a curse, allowing it to effortlessly switch in on Grass-, Bug-, and Ground- Type moves, but exemplifying its weakness to Ice- and giving it a detrimental neutrality to Electric-. The afore-mentioned Ice- weakness is very scary to have with Jynx running around, but that doesn't ruin its viability in the slightest, as Altaria synergises well with common Jynx checks, such as Metang (Altaria's 3 weakensses can be tanked by Metang for the most part, and Metang takes Jynx on handily with Bullet Punch.) and Grumpig (Thick Fat and naturally high Special Defense allow Grumpig to effortlessly combat both Scarf Jynx and the standard Sub set with access to Whirlwind.). Altaria also sports a fantastic ability in Natural Cure, making Rest a vialbe option for instant recovery upon switching out.

As far as sets for Altaria go, one of the more common ones seems to be SpecsTaria, which is very powerful due to Altaria's high-power coverage moves and modest Special Attack stat. Another common set is the Dragon Dance set, which is powerful in its own right due to the availability of powerful coverage in Earthquake and Fire Blast being just enough to take on the few Steel-Types in the tier. One set that is not commonly seen anymore, for good reason due to the way the meta is now, is a defensive set. Altaria has a lot of useful defensive options with moves like Cotton Guard, Heal Bell, Perish Song, and Roar, making a defensive set enticing. In truth, I'm not so sure how viable a set such as that still is, but I can see it working, as Altaria packs a lot of resistances that defensive, hazard stacking teams would love to have. Not only that, but Altaria is a useful absorber of status due to Natural Cure, aiding defensive teams immensly.

Some sets for reference:

Altaria @ Choice Specs
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Pulse
- Rest / Hidden Power [Fighting]

(I have used this in the past in order to hit max/max Lickilicky hard, but I'm not sure how viable it is and if Draco hits harder already. Rest is the superior opion, generally due to Natural Cure.)

Altaria @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage / Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast / Substitute

(Substitute can be used over Fire Blast to block status, which helps a ton when boosting)

Altaria @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpDef
Calm / Careful Nature
- Cotton Guard
- Roar
- Dragon Claw / Dragon Pulse / DragonBreath
- Toxic / Heal Bell / Perish Song

(You can use 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpDef if you use DPulse > DClaw)
(Calm and Careful Natures can be altered depending on the STAB you run, just as above)
(DragonBreath is actually cool due to its Paralysis chance. I've used it a lot, personally.)

Other sets include a SubRoost set, a Sub + 3 Attacks set with a Life Orb, and even a ChestoRest set with DD. All in all, Altaria is a versatile threat in this meta, but likes a lot of support.

 

[Majestic Electric]

In and I will be testing Altaria.

Altaria @Choice Specs
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
-Draco Meteor
-Fire Blast
-Hidden Power (Ground)
-Rest

 

[Raseri]

Pinsir is a pretty cool mon, it's struggling a lot right now with Scolipede, which makes it even more important to play to its strengths! Pinsir has amazing attack (same as Sawk), and cool speed (Same as Sawk), while also having some physical bulk! Swords Dance sweeping is probably the best way to use Pinsir, because he has super coverage and power, and typing that allows it to tank a bunch of hits pretty well.

X-Scissor has really good coverage in NU, hitting a lot of the best mons super effectively. Pinsir is also cool because for coverage it has: Stone Edge, Close Combat, and Earthquake. And it has super weak priority in Quick Attack, which is only useful for hitting Jynx and already weakened mons.

I wonder how Stealth Rock on Pinsir would work, it has poor matchups against most common leads which sucks, but outside of that it could work if you don't intend on setting up turn 1. It would also be really unexpected right now! I remember liking it in gen 4, but it isn't nearly as good right now.

 

[DTC]

swords dance pinsir is pretty cool, but most of the time i would rather have scolipede in the slot (note that pinsir x-scissor does around as much as scoli megahorn). the trick to pinsir is to keep applying pressure on the opponents by sending it on weakened mons in order to try and snowball with moxie boosts. you easily snowball with a moxie boost or two once the revengers are weakened. i like running close combat > swords dance to hit normal-types and certain other pokemon a little harder, although you'll get totally walled by alomomola this way. one thing that is really cool about pinsir over scolipede as a sweeper is it can kill weakened scarfers that are trying to revenge it, which is especially easy when the most popular scarfers atm are jynx and charizard. the former being very frail, while the latter gets worn down by sr. pinsir's coverage moves are also stronger and he has better bulk.

i'm not so much of a fan of altaria because it's so weak, but i'll talk about the other 2 a little bit too

arbok is a pretty cool mon that has an easy time setting up coil's because of intimidate and good speed. you really need to get those coil's up though, otherwise he's really weak and gunk shot is very unreliable. he can revenge faster mons with sucker punch and does decent damage once he gets a few coil's up.

linoone is a very strong sweeper when supported. use something like a gardevoir with reflect / light screen / memento or a ampharos with reflect / light screen / volt switch and you're set. you have to fulfill a lot of objectives before you can sweep, though: is regirock / misdreavus / probopass / metang sufficiently weakened and stuff like kanga dead? you also have to make sure you're not setting up on something that can status you. you should probably get one of lum berry / safeguard (probably only situation i'd consider using this move, but it's hard to find a moveslot for it. you should still probably have it on at least one of the supports on dual screens) if you want to try sweeping against better players, because they will bring in something that can status linoone if they see gardevoir setting up all these screens. dual screens teams are pretty strong especially with stuff like sd scoli/pinsir in the tier so i recommend trying them out.

cb linoone is also cute if you want a really strong priority user, but all it does when you're not facing a hyper offense team is switcheroo cripple something basically.

 

[watashi]

all four of these pokemon look good on paper but i don't think any of them are particularly good in this metagame.

pinsir is probably the best of them, being able to set up swords dance and clean up frailer teams with quick attack and moxie, but in most cases it's outclassed by scolipede. coverage is a huge problem especially if you're using the swords dance set and even if you have four attacks you're still walled by the likes of misdreavus and golurk. its speed is decent but not that impresssive and its typing leaves a lot to be desired.

altaria is one of the pokemon i tested and it's simply too weak to make an impact. choice specs draco meteor doesn't do nearly as much as one would like and a boosted outrage isn't that much better either. rock and ice type attacks are everywhere so it's rare that you will even get a chance to set up. on top of that, it's weak to stealth rocks so you won't get many chances to switch into the likes of alomomola or seismitoad anyways.

arbok is another pokemon i tested and i had a lot of expectations for it. it had the ability to set up all over stall teams thanks to shed skin and packed a lot of power with gunk shot. however, when it used it, arbok was simply too frail or too slow or too weak. once again, its typing is not amazing but it does give it some advantages, but its stats are just too horrible to make it a threat in the metagame.

linoone has just gotten worse and worse as the metagames progress. kangaskhan is everywhere and metang or other steel-types are not a rare sight due to the presence of jynx. hazards are also everywhere and it severely limits the amount of chances it gets to set up. i can't see it accomplishing much against any well built team.

 

[Ashley11]

So i have been trying to use band linoone with low expectations, cause i really didnt think it would work to well >.> but i am actually surprised. I based a team entirely around trying to clean up with Choice Band Linoone, and it actually is working quite well. I am using this set.

Linoone (M) @ Choice Band​

Trait: Gluttony​

EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def​

Adamant Nature​

- ExtremeSpeed​

- Return​

- Seed Bomb​

- Shadow Claw​

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The goal of using this choice band set is to try to revenge kill frail mons like jynx but also late game sweep with hazards and weakened pokemon on the other side of the field. It works really well so far, and is great if you play it right.​

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This shows what Choice Band Linoone can do late game if you play him right.​

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Calcs:​

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252+ Atk Choice Band Linoone ExtremeSpeed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zebstrika: 210-247 (71.91 - 84.58%) -- guaranteed 2HKO​

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252+ Atk Choice Band Linoone ExtremeSpeed vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Sawk: 181-214 (62.19 - 73.53%) -- guaranteed 2HKO​

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252+ Atk Choice Band Linoone Shadow Claw vs. 8 HP / 0 Def Jynx: 374-440 (136.99 - 161.17%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

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252+ Atk Choice Band Linoone ExtremeSpeed vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rotom-F: 135-160 (56.01 - 66.39%) -- guaranteed 2HKO​

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252+ Atk Choice Band Linoone ExtremeSpeed vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Primeape: 216-255 (79.7 - 94.09%) -- guaranteed 2HKO​

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252+ Atk Choice Band Linoone ExtremeSpeed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Gorebyss: 138-163 (54.76 - 64.68%) -- guaranteed 2HKO​

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252+ Atk Choice Band Linoone Seed Bomb vs. 176 HP / 0 Def Golurk: 230-272 (63.36 - 74.93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO​

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252+ Atk Choice Band Linoone ExtremeSpeed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Gardevoir: 204-241 (73.38 - 86.69%) -- guaranteed 2HKO​

 

[DTC]

i would replace shadow claw with switcheroo. it gives linoone more utility vs bulkier teams because of his ability to cripple a pokemon by giving them choice band. shadow claw doesn't do anything besides hit haunter (as well as metang and misdreavus, but using switcheroo on both of them does much more) who you don't even outspeed anyways. in addition, pokemon like jynx and musharna take more from STAB return than super effective shadow claw.

 

[Ashley11]

Thats actually very nice idea. I would definitely prefer Switcheroo over shadow claw any day. ^_^ Also, If you use Choice Band Linoone make sure you have a pursuit trapper, and i personally prefer skuntank. it will get rid of the hindering ghost types for linoone and you will also have something to put damage on things as they switch to allow linoone to late-game sweep.

 

[Shuckleking87]

After testing CB Linoone, it really sucks unless you have alot of hazard support. Linoone is only working with a 70 base attack, which is the same as Castform, Wigglytuff, Beautifly and Unown (jk, Unown actually has a better attack stat). Granted, it has the best priority move in the game with stab, and a good speed tier to outspeed kanga fake outs, but linoone is just too weak and too frail to be used that effectively as a CB user. I would much rather use CB braviary, Kangaskan, tauros or swellow (to name a few) that all have much better attack, and with kangaskan and swellow, fast priority as well, while tauros outspeed a significant portion of the meta. The fact that a banded max attack neutral move cannot even ohko sawk or primeape is pathetic. The most success I had with CB linoone was tricking items onto walls such as misdreavus, musharna and metang. Really, the belly drum set is the way and only way to go for linoone, and that almost needs another pokemon or two committed to it.

 

[watashi]

i used cb linoone last time jynx was in the metagame (over a year ago) and from my experiences you shouldn't be trying to sweep with it at all. it's great for picking off weakened offensive pokemon since they most likely won't switch out due to fear of belly drum but other than that all it will really do is cripple a wall with switcheroo. see this thread for more details

 

[Dat Aggron]

Conveniently I happened to be testing an Arbok set (inspired by my recent Kanto playthrough) when I heard about this. Here is the set I am running.
Arbok Careful 252 HP 252 S.def 4 atk Shed Skin
Coil Gunk Shot Dragon Tail Rest
I've found this set to obviously lack immediate power needing at least 1 Coil to do some damage and two to be threatening. The Idea is to bring it in on pokemon that cant do much to it such as Alomomola and Misdreavus and proceed to setting up coil. After just 1 boost he usually has the bulk to take a physical hit which allows him to have a snowball effect and rack up some coils while simultaneously forcing switches. Needless to say it appreciates hazard support to take advantage of dragon tail and get Koes it normally wouldn't.
The main problems I have faced with this set are strong special attackers. mainly psychics such as Gardevoir, and overwhelming physical attacks like Golurks Earthquake. Ive recently added a skuntank to my team to trap and remove psychics and Mandibuzz to take hits Arbok can't.
So far this was my most successful battle with Arbok http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/nu-39237436
another succesfull arbok sweep http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/nu-39295110

 

[Ashley11]

I did some laddering with my Choice Band Linoone team and I am currently #94 on the ladder with an ACRE of 1885 and a glicko2 rating of
1986 ± 93. A lot of my matches were matches where linoone revenge killed 1 or 2 pokemon, and others were where he fully late-game sweeped teams with like 4 pokemon left. I am very impressed with Choice Band Linoone, and i will keep laddering with him for now. He is very great revenge killer and offensive pokemon and can switcheroo his choice band to a wall if he needs to. One thing that has surprised me a lot is that not once has linoone failed to get a single ko on my foe's team. Linoone is a great pokemon to use and i definitely recommend trying him out. I will post later when i get the requirements of the challenge. this is the team that i am using too.

http://pastebin.com/vQ4yj2bG

 

[Dat Aggron]

Today I am going to try out Linoone. This is the set I will be using.
Linoone Choice Band Jolly 252 speed 252 Attack 4 Hp
Extreeme Speed Shadow Claw Belly Drum Switcheroo
I know it seems weird having belly drum on a choice band set but hear me out. Normally once Linoone cripples a wall with switcheroo it lacks power coming off of a base 70 atk stat. Belly Drum allows him to remain useful even after switcheroo. On an added note if he manages to lock a pokemon into something such as stealth rock he can belly drum safely as they switch out. So now I am off to go try out this set and would appreciate advice on it.

 

[Celever]

Just go with Ashley's set, the set you proposed is very much flawed in practice and is very situational.

 

[Ashley11]

Ok, so i got the reqs for gold rank on the research week challenge but i dont know how to post a screenshot, so just look it up on ps or irc? lol sorry about that but i dont know how. I ended with 1950 ACRE and a Glicko2 rating of 2049 and a deviation of 70. I will edit this post with my experiences with linoone later.

 

[skylight]

OKAY at the request of a few I changed the deviation for reqs for this to 85, so hf! Keep laddering and posting there's like a day left (I'll be more actively posting/involved next week ;x)

 

[Ashley11]

skylight do you need me to post a screenshot? if so i will figure out how.

 

[Annoyer]

sry for not participating much other than the first post, i wasnt going to ladder at first but now that the deviation requirements were easier i decided to do it. =)

My team for this was SD EQ + QA + X-Scissor Life Orb Moxie Pinsir as a sweeper, Defensive Golurk with Toxic to catch stuff like Alomomola which can be annoying for Pinsir with no boosts, Shell Smash Costa just as a general sweeper and a Flying resist, SubBU Braviary to set up on walls and Grass-types as well as being a sponge for special attacks, Scarf Jynx cause revenge killer and a cleaner, and the last slot was basically a filler. For most of the early matches, I used a 3 Attacks Muk with Memento to allow my teammates to sweep easier, but I changed it to Gurdurr later as a status absorber and for Piloswine. I have to say Pinsir was really really good and honestly I'm not even overselling it. A couple of my ladder matches and matches against FLCL were easy Pinsir sweeps. It's so easy to make a gameplan with Moxie Quick Attack on Pinsir - one misplay by the opponent can lead to a clean sweep. Sometimes just killing a mon for the Moxie boost is enough. My team was filled with set up sweepers which allowed for multiple gameplans and offensive strategies. Pinsir and Gurdurr/Muk made a really good offensive core because both mons had similar counters/checks so they could wear each others down with ease (especially with the tounch). Anyways I'll definitely keep using Pinsir in the future (btw the loss was cause of a fucking Sitrus Berry Weezing smh)