Other Metagames [STABmons] Where Did You Go?

Funbot28 · Nov 13, 2016

The song is fitting....

Introduction

Hey everyone, its Funbot28 and since ORAS is ending with SuMo coming upon us and my favorite OM in STABmons is leaving the main server, I felt I would like to give a tribute to one of the best metas ever by making an RMT. STABmons was really the meta that had introduced me to the concepts of OMs since I initially started as an BW NU player. Once Eevee General blessed us with this awesome metagame I got instantly intrigued by it and tested it out late Gen 5 when Normal types such as Bibarel and other threats like Espeon reigned supreme. Gen 6 STABmons was also very fun at first with all the new mons, mechanics and mega pokemon to try out and I also enjoyed playing through it as well at the beginning. I kinda stopped playing when the first transition happened in August 2015 where you were only able to use wither Attacks or Status of the specific type and to be frank, I really did not enjoy that metagame at all. When EG finally decided to revert back to regular STABmon rules in December 2015, I got back into the meta and I have been playing it consistently ever since.

I built this team during the Mega Sceptile laddering challenge (which I didn't win sadly) as Mega Scept was kind a dark horse mon that I had wanted to build around, and since I usually suck at STABmons teambuilding, I felt this team kinda stuck out to be kinda good at least to me which is why I wanted to share it.

Teambuilding Process

Ok so like I said before, I started off with Mega Sceptile in order to abide by the rules of the challenge, and quite frankly, Mega Sceptile is an underrated threat that is actually quite scary.

I decided to add the core of Heatran and Rotom-Wash simply because its one of the most constant and reliable cores bulky offence/balance could utilize due to the great amount of synergy these two mons have with each other. It also creates a neat FWG core with Sceptile which is always nice.

Next I added Aerodactyl because honeslty it is a busted ass mon that always nets at least 1-2 KOs for me each battle. It also helps me break down walls that Mega Sceptile has a hard time dealing with such as Chansey and Heatran.

Sylveon is another great mon that is also very splashable. I added it primarily as my glue mon that helps deal with certain threats such as Keldeo and Latios. It is also good hazard removal support.

Finally I added Porygon2 as my other bulky pivot pokemon that really ensures that my team can handle the most amount of threats as possible. It is also great at giving momentum and criipling things with Glare as well which is always nice.

The Team

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So Mega Sceptile is actually a major threat that a find a lot of players do not account for when teambuilding. Grass/Dragon/Fighting coverage is simply amazing and it hits a lot of things very hard coming off its 145 Special Attack. It is the teams main wallbreaker that can really weaken things down quite easily, and if not it could just put the target to sleep with Spore. It is however not the most bulky mon and is subject to revenge killing from FakeSpeed, which is why one needs to watch out for Normal types and Talonflame mainly.

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Heatran is one of the best special walls in STABmons due to the fact that it resists Fairy, Grass, Normal, and Flying which are all common offensive types in this metagame. It acts as my main answer to major threats such as Sylveon, Mega Scizor, Talonflame, Serperior, and other non Earth Power Heatran. It also acts as my main Stealth Rock user, and it also possesses Lava Plume to cripple switchins with burns and is its main STAB move and also has Earth Power to mainly lure other Heatran and Fire types in general. King Shield is there to block physical attackers such as Aerodactyl and Azumarill from completely demolishing Heatran.

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The other part of the core, Rotom-W is a great pivot mon that also possesses phenomenal typing and the good support moves to be an effective pivot. Rotom-W was also added to mainly wall Ground types that could threaten Heatran such as Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Sand Rush Excadrill. With Volt Switch, Rotom-W could easily gain momentum from switching out from the incoming opposing switchin. Scald and Nuzzle both act as great status spreaders that each serve their own personal roles respectively, with the former acting as a great STAB move and just being a great move to spam in general. Pain Split is a good filler move that allows Rotom-W to sustain itself longer especially against targets with high HP such as Chansey and Sylveon.

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Aerodactyl is an aboslute menance in STABmons and acts as my teams second wallbreaker to break balance and stall build alike. Rock Head in conjunction with its high powered STAB moves is truly terrifying to deal with, which is why Aerodactyl answers are almost non-existent. Both Head Smash and Brave Bird act as its main STAB moves it wants to spam due to the loss of drawback from using these moves (the recoil) and their ability to decimate even the most bulkiest of walls. Earthquake is another great coverage option that allows Aerodactyl to hit Steel types such as Klefki and Heatran without fearing to contact their King Shield. Lastly, Aqua Tail is the other coverage option I chose to run to mainly to 2HKO defensive Landorus-T after Stealth Rocks, which is Aerodactyl's best switchin.

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Cleric Sylveon is such a splashable and effective support mon to run on any team archetype really besides Hyper Offense. Its amazing defensive Fairy typing helps it deal with many threats such as Keldeo, Latios, and Mega Pidgeot while also possessing greats amount of power with Pixilate Boomburst at its disposal as well. Rapid Spin is there as my main form of hazard removal on the team, which is nice as it no longer gets blocked by Ghost types thanks to Pixilate. Milk Drink is its main form of recovery alongside Heal Bell which helps cure it and the rest of the team from annoying status. The EV Spread is to let it not get 2HKOed from Water Spout coming from Choice Scarf Keldeo and also prevents it to not get 2HKOed by Precipice Blades from Defensive Landorus-T.

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The final member of the team is Porygon2 and it is honestly the member that puts in the most amount of work at times tbh. Its bulk and the glue support it gives to the team is unparalleled. Boomburst acts as its main STAB move that actually deals quite a bit of damage as well which is always nice for a wall. Glare is amazing at spreading status around as it also could paralyze Ground types as well which is truly amazing for it. Recover is its main form of recovery which is necessary on a mon like Porygon2, and finally we have Baton Pass which allows Porygon2 to not me a momentum suck to the team and also can help it pass boosts it gains from Download to either Mega Sceptile or Aerodactyl which is really nice at times. The EV spread allows it to not get 2HKOed by Boombust from Pixie Plate Sylveon and avoids the 2HKO from Dragons Ascent from Scarf Landorus-T.

Threatlist

: If Heatran goes down, Tail Glow Yanmega easily becomes the most dangerous threat to the team. Without the Tail Glow boost, Aerodactyl is still able to live a hit but if it gets a boost then its GG at that point. So conserve Tran if ur facing this thing.

: Earth Power Mega Diancie variants are also extremely threatening to the team as the team does not really possess a good Fairy answer besides Heatran. Rotom-W is able to live a hit and has a chance of OHKOing it with Scald, but it needs to be at max health to do so, which makes this thing hard to deal with as Mega Sceptile can't really switchin and KO this at all.

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: Mega Pidgeot + Dugtrio form such a deadly core that really can break down my team as the main answer the team has to Pidgeot usually is Heatran. However, Heatran could easily be trapped and KOed by Dugtrio in which afterwards I don't really have a reliable answer to Mega Pidgeot. So its a lot of mindgames when playing this matchup.

: Choice Band/Scarf Tyranitar is also another huge threat that breaks down the teams walls with Knock Off. Sylveon is able to survive a 2 Knock Offs, but cannot sustain itself if it switches into the Diamond Storm. Preserving Mega Sceptile and Rotom-W is key when facing this threat.

There are other nuisances, but generally these are the most important threats from what I can see.

Conclusion

I would just like to thank everyone in the OM community from welcoming me in as its gonna be two years since I signed up to Smogon in January. I would like to just give shoutouts mainly to the following:

wishes: My main gal, honeslty you were my inspiration for starting to play STABmons as I akways admired youre dedication to the meta. Hope you come back for SuMo STABmons :).

Eevee General: Thanks for creating/managing this awesome meta from when you were (and always will be the tru general of OMs). You always had useful insight and made good decisions when balancing out the meta, and imo you were the more rational side of OM governing... We Miss you, but I hope everything in your life is going out as good as you planned it to.

@chloe: Ma cherie, comment ça va? Chloe is basically the player who helped me get into Anything Goes and brought me back into OMs in general as her dedication towards pushing AG really grew to me. J'espère que ça continue ;)

ihhca: One of the best STABmons players rn, Virginia is always there when I want to ask for help on teambuilding and always helps when I have questions as my teambuilding skills are not exactly the best in STAbbies. Hope you run STABmons well in SuMo, unban Ubers btw :>

@Transcendant God Champion : Hands down the player with the most dedication and precision when teambuilidng on this website lol (also writes the best RMTs I have ever seen). Had many good talks with you mainly concerning Anything Goes and PO Balanced Hackmons and you always help me when I build teams and I am thankful for that :)

Quantum Tesseract: Another OM player that enjoys multiple metagames and who is genuinely good at all of them. You really are a good player QT, and I must confess I creep and watch ur battles when u r online sometimes :)

LaxLapras: Another knowledgeable player who also helps me when I build Tier Shift and AAA, ur a very good player and I also admire ur knowledge on these two metas the most.

Kris and Josh: Ik we don't get along at times, but I still enjoy the debates we have at times (ik sometimes I act as a troll on purpose). Sorry if I got any of u guys upset over the past year and hope we can make up for the new year :)

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Seed Flare
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- King's Shield
- Stealth Rock

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Scald
- Nuzzle
- Pain Split

Aerodactyl @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Brave Bird
- Earthquake
- Aqua Tail

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 128 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Rapid Spin
- Milk Drink
- Heal Bell

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 124 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Glare
- Recover
- Baton Pass

Long live STABmons!
Molte grazie, arrivederci!

Tornadus-Therian · Nov 14, 2016

I like this team concept, but I think there are a lot of optimizations you could make to it. I can't really tell if you're going for offense or semistall right now, and I think deciding that would help your team a lot in terms of how you plan on checking certain pokemon.

My biggest issue with this team is that you have a mix of pokemon that live and die by momentum (sceptile and aero), defensive pivots (rotom and p2), and then completely passive sets on pokemon that are capable of putting out big damage (sylveon and heatran), but no real walls. The aero + pivot concept is really strong, but the third portion of your team saps a lot of the initiative that those pokemon can generate. If you had a bigger defensive core with more specialized pokemon, this wouldn't be a problem. But as it stands, your defensive core gets trashed by SD ursaring and lopunny, specs keldeo, aerodactyl, char-y, ground plate sylveon, as well as the pokemon you listed. I think you need to chose between beefing up your defensive core with something like AV Slowking + defensive Lando > Rotom + Sylveon, or paring the foursome down to something more lightweight like P2 + Latias, adding a fakespeeder, and swapping out your heatran for an offensive one.

I don't really want to make the playstyle choice for you and I think they're both good options, so I'm going to propose some adjustments to the sets you listed that might help your current squad.

I will always advocate for Steam Eruption / Searing Shot > Scald / Lava Plume. In the hundreds of STABmons games I've played, I think I've run out of PP and regretted that choice maybe 5 times and gotten narrow KOs at least 6 times (maybe even 7). Both of these changes help your Talonflame matchup tremendously, since it can tank a scald and isn't forced to roost quite as frequently with Lava Plume.

I would change the Sylveon spread to 252 HP / 184 SpA / 72+ SpD if you want to stick with the defensive game. This avoids the 2hko from 252 SpA Heatran's Flash Cannon and Pidgeot's Boomburst and OHKO's 0/0 Thundurus-T and does 98+ to Pidgeot, none of which your team like to switch into. I don't think checking Lando is worth it when you have Rotom-W, Aerodactyl, and Porygon2, and Sylveon's defense is so pitiful that at best it trades out with almost any physical attacker anyways. I'm not sold on Heal Bell, but there's not a whole lot that goes in that slot anyways. I've run a similar Sylveon (read: the one I just listed) with fake out in the 4th slot as an emergency button against mega lopunny and to make people think I'm running an offensive set. Super Fang is a super swag option that no one uses but ruins lives.

Alternatively, FakeSpeed Sylveon is an amazing recipient for random P2 boosts since it's agnostic to the actual boost. P2 is a fine spinner and doesn't actually benefit from Glare all that much since it likes to slow pass. Also you already have Nuzzle and a few fast-mons, so I would consider swapping it regardless. This also gives you some desperately needed counterplay against opposing fakespeeders, which seem like they blow through your team with the correct coverage move and a free turn.

SpD Heatran is OK, but I think yours is too passive and can't really beat the things it aims to check. Earth Power is nice and all, but all the other heatrans are faster than you and talonflame gets thrashed by rotom and aero (char-y doesn't even run roost so that's not helpful either). Flash Cannon lets you actually do something back to Sylveon without missing out on hitting rock types. If you go for a more aggressive team, then a fast balloon set works pretty damn well with Searing Shot or Blue Flare > Lava Plume and the rest the same.

Milk Drink >> Recover. Come on man, I thought this was a serious RMT. Get your garbage normal type recovery choices out of here (at least you got sylveon's right).

Nice team overall though!

Quantum Tesseract · Nov 15, 2016

Hey, nice team, and thanks for the shoutout :).
I'd definitally agree with ihhca that you could stand to pick an archetype, but there are some other things that I'd suggest as well.

First off, I'd suggest Ice Fang over aqua tail. Aqua tail is pretty much useless:
-1 252 Atk Choice Band Aerodactyl Aqua Tail vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Landorus-T: 134-158 (35 - 41.3%) -- 73.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
-1 252 Atk Choice Band Aerodactyl Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Landorus-T: 165-195 (43.1 - 51%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Ice fang, meanwhile, lets you do much better versus defensive varients, OHKO scarf sets after rocks, and stop standard Garchomp from setting up.:
-1 252 Atk Choice Band Aerodactyl Ice Fang vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Landorus-T: 192-228 (50.2 - 59.6%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Aerodactyl Ice Fang vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Garchomp: 384-452 (107.5 - 126.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Ihhca's point on Searing Shot>Lava Plume is also something I'd advise. Steam Eruption has the annoying accuracy, but you won't be using more than 8 Searing shots on heatran in almost all cases.

Fakespeed sylveon is a decent option, but even on a defensive set like yours Extreme Speed is often handy. If nothing else, you can get chip damage on CB tyranitar if you come in on Diamond Storm, and it lets you do decent damage to setup sweepers like Garchomp that can otherwise KO your team once set up. IT also lets you punish specs keld, which your team has no answer too.

Overall, great team, and good luck in the future!

E: Ihhca thundy-I isn't legal/

Other Metagames [STABmons] Where Did You Go?

Funbot28

Banned deucer.

Tornadus-Therian

Quantum Tesseract

Lazy Fuck

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