Monotype "The Plastics": A Hyper Offensive Normal team

[Tyke]

Introduction
Hello, it's Tyke. This is a cool little hyper offense team I've been working on since Mega Pidgeot was released built around a strong momentum core and ample speed control. I've always lamented H.O. Normal's reliance on Sticky Webs, and outfitted the team so that it can function without them by making use of strong priority, a bulky offensive core, and a splash of Tailwind. I've had a lot of fun with this team and archetype so I figured wynaut share.

Teambuilding​

Teambuilding Process

So the core of the build was a Hyper Offensive Normal team around Mega Pidgeot. Obviously that means including Smeargle

After that I added Normal's premiere wallbreaker, Diggersby.

The team needed a special wallbreaker now, since Mega Pidgeot is pretty easily walled. Enter Meloetta.

Splash on a revenge killer in Staraptor.

And now Normal's best Z-move user and cleaner, Porygon-Z.

I found after initial testing that Porygon-Z was pretty difficult to make use of on a hyper offensive archetype, as I had far less control over creating opportunities for it to set up against passive threats. I also found I had a serious weakness to priority sweepers and physical attackers. Bewear solves both of those problems.

The Team

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Sticky Web
- Stealth Rock
- Nuzzle

This is a pretty standard lead Smeargle set that sets up hazards and spreads Status. Focus Sash ensures it'll be able to spore (and subsequently set a hazard). Sticky Webs helps support the whole team with speed control, Nuzzle is to keep Smeargle from being totally shut down by Taunt and to cripple switches lured in after opponents sack something to Spore.

Pidgeot @ Pidgeotite
Ability: Tangled Feet
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Tailwind

Mega Bird was the Pokemon I wanted to build the team around, as Mega Pidgeot's speed, power, and relative ease of use make it Normal's most flexible revenge killer. This set features Tailwind, which Mega Pidgeot has ample opportunity to set with the switches it forces before it pivots out with U-turn. Tailwind provides speed control outside of Sticky Web and creates immense offensive pressure for the team alongside wallbreakers such as Diggersby and Meloetta.

Diggersby @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Frustration
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack

The scariest physical attacker Normal has to offer, Diggersby is a huge asset as the team's premiere wallbreaker. An Electric immunity is also invaluable considering the threat posed by Electric teams (Alola Raichu) and opposing Volt Switch Momentum cores. A swords dance set is chosen over Choice Band because Fire Punch coverage isn't really necessary for Steel when you have Bewear, and without PorygonZ the team needed a potent cleaner.

Meloetta @ Choice Specs
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyshock
- Hyper Voice
- Focus Blast
- U-turn

Meloetta is the teams hard-hitting special wallbreaker and tank, hitting hard on both sides with Psyshock. Meloetta brings meaty special bulk to the team, which makes it easy to pivot into with U-turn Staraptor or Mega Pidgeot and allows it to tank hits from and check special threats that may otherwise overwhelm the team such as Alola Raichu, Tapu Koko, or Mew.

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Defog / Frustration
- U-turn

Scarf Staraptor is a threat that's easy to forget about with how standard Defensive has become, but face it and you'll be reminded that its an excellent revenge killer with a good speed tier, excellent power, and handy Fighting coverage. Staraptor able to check threats, clean teams, and pivot to generate momentum throughout any match. This set uses Intimidate to make use of Defog and soften physical threats for the team to manage. However, Reckless can be used if you're feeling... reckless.

Bewear @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Fluffy
Happiness: 0
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Superpower
- Frustration
- Taunt / Earthquake

Bewear is a pokemon I've been trying to find use for ever since the start of the gen, and offers this team an appealing mix of steel-breaking while checking the three 3 most dangerous priority sweepers in the game that otherwise beat the team: Mega Scizor, Azumarill, and Bisharp. At the same time, it's a strong physical attacker and bulky check to threats such as Terrakion. Speed EVs are for Rotom-wash, mega venusaur, bulky mega scizor.


Replays
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-583112023 (vs Fighting)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-578751755 (vs Steel)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-572950999 (vs Electric) (/w PZ)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-561102208 (vs Flying) (/w PZ)​

Shoutouts
Moosical, SirSkit, Jo' Z, Bondie, StarBlim, The Excadrill and the rest of the mono staff and community!

Importable​

Importable

You go, Glenn Coco (Smeargle) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Happiness: 0
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Sticky Web
- Stealth Rock
- Nuzzle

That's so Fetch (Pidgeot) (F) @ Pidgeotite
Ability: Tangled Feet
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Tailwind

Gretchen Weiners (Diggersby) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Frustration
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack

Get Pregnant & Die (Meloetta) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyshock
- Hyper Voice
- Focus Blast
- U-turn

Regina George (Staraptor) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Defog
- U-turn

Grab some Rubbers (Bewear) (F) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Fluffy
Happiness: 0
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Superpower
- Frustration
- Taunt

 

[smub]

Hey Tyke, I just wanted to say that your team looks really great. I never thought I would see Bewear on a HO Normal team, let alone be this amazing. I also never thought too much about Life Orb Swords Dance Diggersby, since I always just use Choice Band.

Regarding my suggestions, I only have a few:

Magic Coat over Nuzzle on Smeargle: I definitely understand why Nuzzle is there and how it helps your team, but Magic Coat can not only prevent Smeargle from being Taunt bait, but it can also allow Smeargle to prevent hazards altogether, which would further improve your matchups vs Fighting and Psychic.

Dazzling Gleam over U-turn on Meloetta: Looking at it, the team seems pretty vulnerable to Mega Sableye, with Diggersby not being able to set up in front of it, and Intimidate Staraptor being unable to 2HKO it. Mega Sableye can also easily find ways to recover vs the team if it ever comes in vs Smeargle or Bewear when at 35%(Adamant Earthquake doesn't KO from that range).U-turn pivoting is definitely beneficial for your team, but with Mega Sableye threatening your team to quite a large extent, Dazzling Gleam may prove to be exceptional in the Ghost and Dark matchups.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Meloetta Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 204-240 (67.1 - 78.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Meloetta Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 184-218 (60.5 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Overall, really awesome team and I hope you have more success with it! :)

 

[StarBlim]

Hey Tyke, I just wanted to say that your team looks really great. I never thought I would see Bewear on a HO Normal team, let alone be this amazing. I also never thought too much about Life Orb Swords Dance Diggersby, since I always just use Choice Band.

Regarding my suggestions, I only have a few:

Magic Coat over Nuzzle on Smeargle: I definitely understand why Nuzzle is there and how it helps your team, but Magic Coat can not only prevent Smeargle from being Taunt bait, but it can also allow Smeargle to prevent hazards altogether, which would further improve your matchups vs Fighting and Psychic.

Dazzling Gleam over U-turn on Meloetta: Looking at it, the team seems pretty vulnerable to Mega Sableye, with Diggersby not being able to set up in front of it, and Intimidate Staraptor being unable to 2HKO it. Mega Sableye can also easily find ways to recover vs the team if it ever comes in vs Smeargle or Bewear when at 35%(Adamant Earthquake doesn't KO from that range).U-turn pivoting is definitely beneficial for your team, but with Mega Sableye threatening your team to quite a large extent, Dazzling Gleam may prove to be exceptional in the Ghost and Dark matchups.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Meloetta Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 204-240 (67.1 - 78.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Meloetta Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 184-218 (60.5 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Overall, really awesome team and I hope you have more success with it! :)

I wouldn't say either of those are really needed :x

 

[Moosical]

Hey Tyke, I just wanted to say that your team looks really great. I never thought I would see Bewear on a HO Normal team, let alone be this amazing. I also never thought too much about Life Orb Swords Dance Diggersby, since I always just use Choice Band.

Regarding my suggestions, I only have a few:

Magic Coat over Nuzzle on Smeargle: I definitely understand why Nuzzle is there and how it helps your team, but Magic Coat can not only prevent Smeargle from being Taunt bait, but it can also allow Smeargle to prevent hazards altogether, which would further improve your matchups vs Fighting and Psychic.

Dazzling Gleam over U-turn on Meloetta: Looking at it, the team seems pretty vulnerable to Mega Sableye, with Diggersby not being able to set up in front of it, and Intimidate Staraptor being unable to 2HKO it. Mega Sableye can also easily find ways to recover vs the team if it ever comes in vs Smeargle or Bewear when at 35%(Adamant Earthquake doesn't KO from that range).U-turn pivoting is definitely beneficial for your team, but with Mega Sableye threatening your team to quite a large extent, Dazzling Gleam may prove to be exceptional in the Ghost and Dark matchups.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Meloetta Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 204-240 (67.1 - 78.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Meloetta Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 184-218 (60.5 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Overall, really awesome team and I hope you have more success with it! :)

Magic coat on smeargle is a pretty bad choice in general, even if you didn't want to run nuzzle. Considering this is a hyper-offense team, smeargle has literally only 2 jobs, that being setting webs and rocks. By running magic coat and electing to press it vs a common taunt user (which aren't very common in gen7 monotype besides on a few select mons), you're letting that turn be extremely prediction heavy. If you miss-predict, you're severely punished by not having any opportunity to do its primary job by just dying. Electing to run nuzzle though, has a few advantages. If you're vs a common taunt user such as heatran, not only do you pop its balloon if heatran clicks taunt, but you also make it slower than both diggersby and bewear; the same can be said for cobalion and deoxys-s, which allows your full hp smeargle to switch out to wait for another opportunity to set up. If they don't click taunt, and just attack (aside from magma storm heatran), they're now slower than smeargle allowing you to still set webs or rocks. The other advantage would be being able to paralyze the switch-ins after the initial mon is put to sleep, as tyke described.

As for dazzling gleam over u-turn, that's generally a pretty bad coverage option; you're only now hitting mega-sableye and dragon types. While u-turn isn't always the best choice depending on who you ask, I'd still rather run shadow ball as it hits psychic and ghost types in general super-effectively. If you were really worried about mega-sableye, I'd be more likely to suggest running substitute over frustration, and always running earthquake on bewear, as it gets free set-up everytime vs mega-sableye, but even that is a very iffy choice.

 

[smub]

Magic coat on smeargle is a pretty bad choice in general, even if you didn't want to run nuzzle. Considering this is a hyper-offense team, smeargle has literally only 2 jobs, that being setting webs and rocks. By running magic coat and electing to press it vs a common taunt user (which aren't very common in gen7 monotype besides on a few select mons), you're letting that turn be extremely prediction heavy. If you miss-predict, you're severely punished by not having any opportunity to do its primary job by just dying. Electing to run nuzzle though, has a few advantages. If you're vs a common taunt user such as heatran, not only do you pop its balloon if heatran clicks taunt, but you also make it slower than both diggersby and bewear; the same can be said for cobalion and deoxys-s, which allows your full hp smeargle to switch out to wait for another opportunity to set up. If they don't click taunt, and just attack (aside from magma storm heatran), they're now slower than smeargle allowing you to still set webs or rocks. The other advantage would be being able to paralyze the switch-ins after the initial mon is put to sleep, as tyke described.

As for dazzling gleam over u-turn, that's generally a pretty bad coverage option; you're only now hitting mega-sableye and dragon types. While u-turn isn't always the best choice depending on who you ask, I'd still rather run shadow ball as it hits psychic and ghost types in general super-effectively. If you were really worried about mega-sableye, I'd be more likely to suggest running substitute over frustration, and always running earthquake on bewear, as it gets free set-up everytime vs mega-sableye, but even that is a very iffy choice.

I guess the reason I suggested that was because I had some pretty bad matchups vs Fighting and Psychic, and guaranteeing Sticky Web against them seemed too good to pass up. Nuzzle would probably be better for the team looking at it again. I do agree that Shadow Ball could do nicely against Ghost and Psychic teams. It may be more important than covering Mega Sableye in the long run. Substitute on Bewear over Frustration would leave it walled by Flying types like Mantine and Zapdos, which at times isn't the best idea. I would more than likely go for replacing Taunt, since it usually has the offensive presence to not make it setup bait and can break through most Pokemon with recovery.

 

[Tyke]

Hey Tyke, I just wanted to say that your team looks really great. I never thought I would see Bewear on a HO Normal team, let alone be this amazing. I also never thought too much about Life Orb Swords Dance Diggersby, since I always just use Choice Band.

Regarding my suggestions, I only have a few:

Magic Coat over Nuzzle on Smeargle: I definitely understand why Nuzzle is there and how it helps your team, but Magic Coat can not only prevent Smeargle from being Taunt bait, but it can also allow Smeargle to prevent hazards altogether, which would further improve your matchups vs Fighting and Psychic.

Dazzling Gleam over U-turn on Meloetta: Looking at it, the team seems pretty vulnerable to Mega Sableye, with Diggersby not being able to set up in front of it, and Intimidate Staraptor being unable to 2HKO it. Mega Sableye can also easily find ways to recover vs the team if it ever comes in vs Smeargle or Bewear when at 35%(Adamant Earthquake doesn't KO from that range).U-turn pivoting is definitely beneficial for your team, but with Mega Sableye threatening your team to quite a large extent, Dazzling Gleam may prove to be exceptional in the Ghost and Dark matchups.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Meloetta Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 204-240 (67.1 - 78.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Meloetta Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 184-218 (60.5 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Overall, really awesome team and I hope you have more success with it! :)

Thanks for the rate!

That said, I agree with Torkool that replacing Nuzzle for Magic Coat is just going to make Smeargle more unreliable in the long run by introducing an unnecessary element of prediction. Dazzling Gleam on Meloetta also seems unnecessary. It isn't hard to pressure Mega Sableye to put it into range of LO Diggersby with Staraptor or Mega Pidgeot. I admit my team struggles with Mega Sableye, but that's also a pretty uncommon threat and even then I have counterplay.