Monotype Vegans must see! A noob making a Grass Team

[itram2001]

(It's just a joke, don't be offended)

Hey there!

So I found Monotype and it really appealed to me, I started making teams, and after a while, here's THIS:

Well, nothing new about this guy, flawless defensive stats, godlike typing and dreamlike movepool to back it up. It can also set up Spikes, which, coupled with SR from Cradily, chunk away decent pieces of HP from opponents.

I wanted to do something arround this guy, since I think he is a really good pokemon, specially in Monotype, thanks to its good defenses and its fabulous typing. I use him as a Stealth Rock setter and special wall.

I LOVE Grassy Terrain, and Tapu Bulu can ripp off huge amounts of HP to enemies that don't resist its powerful Wood Hammer. I also use Nature Madness on him, which really annoys certain pokemon.

Man, this pokemon is a jewel that gods kept since Gen1. I use him as my Mega Evolution, with a half-stall half-offensive set with Leech Seed as my only form of recovery, because Grassy Terrain also gives me more recovery.

Quite an underrated pokemon, which I use to couter Landorus-T, which is really dangerous otherwise. It has a specially defensive set with Rain Dance + 3 attacks and Rocky Helmet to annoy physical attackers.

This is the main surprise of my team, my check to Steel-Types. I really like Torterra, since it came out back in Gen4 it caught my eye. It has 3 attacks + Synthesis and Lefties as recovery, which make him a permanent pain for most Steel-Types.
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Let's see the sets, shall we?

Touch me, dare (Ferrothorn) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 8 Def / 248 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes

If you played BW or OrAs you know this is a huge pain in the ass. With these EVs and Relaxed nature it gets 330 on both defenses. It can stack spikes like a boss and its low base speed make it hit only 40 speed, which can be used to make Gyro Balls (haha balls lol) really powerful and painful. Power Whip is there as a way to deal with these annoying Water-Types, and coupled with Leech Seed, give Ferrothorn a way to break a lot of offensive Water-Types like Starmie. Spikes is, as mentioned earlier, my secondary hazard in the team, which can chunk away up to 25% HP of enemy pokemon.

WTF is this? (Cradily) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rock Slide
- Giga Drain
- Stealth Rock
- Recover

This thing is, in my opinion, really underrated in Monotype. The EVs make CradILY hit 334 SpD, which can be used to tank really powerful hits like Volcanion's Steam Eruption or Tapu Koko's Thunderbolt. Rock Slide and Giga Drain provide extra recovery and a way to hit Fire and Flying-Types, which is really useful on a Grass team. Recover is a reliable source of instant recovery that I use to stay alive as long as possible and it just makes CradILY an excelent special wall. Its physical defense is no slouch either, hitting 230 when uninvested, and it can tank some powerful hits thanks to it. Examples are Kabutops' Stone Edge or Waterfall.

Tapu Toro (Tapu Bulu) @ Grassium Z
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Horn Leech
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge
- Nature's Madness

What do you get when you mix passive healing for all grounded pokemon and a boost for all Grass-Type moves? Grassy Terrain, the main reason behind Bulu being here. It also hits like a godammn truck. It's my Z-Move user, with Z-Wood Hammer being able to anihilate nearly all of the targets that don't resist it. It also has Stone Edge for coverage against Fire and Flying-Types, and it is more reliable that CradILY's Rock Slide. Nature's Madness helps me wear down Steel-Types, that resist both Grass and Rock-Type attacks. I wanted to run max Spe to be able to outspeed other base 75 pokemon and hit faster, since its Atk is already absurdly high.

Big Ol' Fatty (Venusaur-Mega) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 152 HP / 52 Def / 252 SpA / 52 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sludge Bomb

What happens when you choose a good pokemon and give it 2 less weaknesses and more defenses? IT BECOMES FAT. Mixed defenses with 252 SpA and Modest nature are used to be pretty bulky and hit like a trailer running it down a highway crashing. Giga Drain and Leech Seed provide recovery, which can be coupled with Grassy Terrain. This makes Mega Venusaur last for a really long time in battle. HP Fire hits Steel-Types like (Mega) Scizor or Kartana that might want to switch onto it since they resist its STAB moves. Sludge Bomb is a way to hit Fairy-Types and other Grass-Types harder that HP Fire. It is also my main STAB, since it has high base power and it does a good amount of damage thanks to Mega Venusaur's 377 SpA when fully invested. I didn't invest anything in speed because i wanted to be more durable in battle rather than hitting faster.

Ludo colo (Ludicolo) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rain Dance
- Scald
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam

One of the two surprises of the team, Ludicolo can be an extremely valuable team member. It is a good counter to many Ground-Types like Excadrill or Landorus-I lacking Sludge Wave. Since its SpD is already pretty decent, I focused on its physical side by giving it full investment and a Rocky Helmet. The offensive moves provide perfect neutral coverage on all of the metagame. Rain Dance is like a personal favourite, I use it when I want to switch in Ferrothorn or I want to be faster by making use of Swift Swim.

FKIN stop birds (Torterra) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Wood Hammer
- Synthesis
- Stone Edge

This is the second surprise of the team. It is my main way to deal with Steel-Types. Earthquake and Wood Hammer are two reliable STAB moves that, while its coverage isn't that good, hit some foes hard. Stone Edge provides almost perfect neutral coverage, which makes Torterra hard to switch into. An example of a pokemon that it counters could be Magnezone, which only deals up to 20% with HP Fire, and it OHKOes back with STAB Earthquake. It's a really good offensive tank that has high Base Power moves backed up by great Atk stat. Its stats are also good defensively. While its typing is pretty bad, I don't have trouble with Ice, Fire, Bug and Flying-Type moves, so I don't really mind about that. It's really an offensive tank that can pressure a lot on offensive teams that don't have a safe switch-in.

Importable

Touch me, dare (Ferrothorn) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 8 Def / 248 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes

WTF is this? (Cradily) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rock Slide
- Giga Drain
- Stealth Rock
- Recover

Big Ol' Fatty (Venusaur-Mega) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 152 HP / 52 Def / 252 SpA / 52 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sludge Bomb

Tapu Toro (Tapu Bulu) @ Grassium Z
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Horn Leech
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge
- Nature's Madness

FKIN stop birds (Torterra) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Wood Hammer
- Synthesis
- Stone Edge

Ludo colo (Ludicolo) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rain Dance
- Scald
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam

Replays

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-565059293 (Ludicolo vs the world)
not more atm :/

 

[Tyke]

Hey, you've got the outline of a decent grass team, but also a lot of quirks and odd picks to iron out, so let me give you some suggestions to fine tune your squad.

Rocky Helmet --> Leftovers & Power Whip --> Protect on Ferrothorn, as while Rocky Helmet seems great on paper the passive recovery offered by Leftovers can really be gamechanging considering Ferrothorn lacks reliable recovery like Slack Off or Roost. Adding Protect will help Ferrothorn scout opposing threats and will help you stall out Leech Seed, Leftovers, and Grassy Terrain Recovery which provides Ferrothorn with much more sustained defensive presence throughout a match. Finally, a more tentative recommendation would be to use a Mixed Defensive Spread over Max SpD, as it does a better job of managing threats in the metagame such as Landorus-T.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 184 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Protect

Grassium Z --> Choice Scarf on Tapu Bulu, to offer your team a source of speed control and immediate spammable power. Z-Move Tapu Bulu is difficult to support on Grass, and Choice Scarf allows Tapu Bulu to blanket check a broad range of threats to Grass such as Mega Charizard Y, Landorus-I, Nidoking, Greninja, etc. While Choice Scarf is not make use of Bulu's wallbreaking capabilities, grass benefits more from a reliable revenge killer than a wallbreaker.

Tapu Bulu @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Horn Leech / Zen Headbutt

However, if you are adamant about keeping a Z-move on Bulu, use Rockium Z as Z-Stone Edge has much better coverage and hits mega-saur, celesteela, skarm, mega scizor, etc. Also run Swords Dance instead of double grass STAB.

Giga Drain --> Toxic or Mirror Coat on Cradily, and your Cradily set is far too passive and easy to take advantage of. Grass-type STAB is pretty worthless to Cradily, and both these moves offer excellent utility for managing offensive and defensive threats in the metagame.

Bulky Offensive M-Saur --> Mixed Defensive M-Saur, as the dinoplant offers more to grass as a defensive gluemon than an offensive tank in most matchups, and with Leech Seed and Synthesis can serve as a much sturdier check to threats such as Heatran, Nidoking, Kommo-O, Buzzwole, etc. It wasn't Venusaur's offensive prowess that made it a staple of grass monotypes, after all.

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 160 Def / 84 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Synthesis
- Leech Seed / Giga Drain

If you do want to stick with an offensive Mega-Venusaur set, your set still needs adjustments.

Offensive Mega-Saur set

You'd definitely want Synthesis over Leech Seed as your choice of recovery, for one. And you'll want at least 16 Spe to outrun max speed Azumarill, though I personally prefer going for a bit more (44 Spe) to get the drop on other Mega Venusaurs and the Pokemon who commonly try and speed creep it (Magearna, Buzzwole, Pelipper, Scizor-Mega, etc).

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 208 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Synthesis

This leaves us with two remaining teamslots, and unfortunately, neither of your current choices are great choices.

Drop Ludicolo and Torterra from the team, as they simply aren't viable or effecitve Pokemon in Monotype, to be blunt. While Ludicolo seems good on paper as a Fire and Ice neutrality and decent special attacker, it isn't strong or bulky enough to make an impact in those uphill match ups. It certainly doesn't function effectively as a physically defensive wall, as your set suggests. Torterra offers appealing Ground-type STAB and a decent physical movepool, but ultimately is too slow and has too exploitable of a typing to make use of either. Both Torterra and Ludicolo are situational and inconsistent, and they carry the opportunity cost of other strong Grass-types who are more broadly effective in the meta.

So what should you replace them with?

Add Focus Sash Breloom, a strong physical attacker who offers valuable utility in Spore and strong priority who is an excellent pick for any Grass Team. Technician allows Breloom to wallbreak with Bullet Seed and clean with boosted Mach Punch, both of which synergize well with Grass's balanced Hazard stack. With Focus Sash, Breloom can act as a check for dangerous offensive threats such as Volcarona, Mega Charizard X and Salamence, able to cripple them with Spore or deal heavy damage with Rock Tomb.

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Swords Dance / Rock Tomb

Add Celebi or Contrary Serperior, both strong sweepers who round out your core with special offense and take great advantage of Grassy Terrain to punch holes in teams and clean lategame.

Celebi offers valuable Psychic-type STAB for hassling Poison teams as well as coverage in Earth Power for Steel- and Fire-types. Celebi also sports sturdy 100/100/100 bulk with handy Psychic- and Fighting-type resists.

Celebi @ Life Orb / Groundium Z
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Earth Power
- Giga Drain / Hidden Power [Fire]
- Nasty Plot / Recover

Serperior meanwhile is a speedy special sweeper who can quickly snowball lategame with Contrary Leaf Storm. Serperior enjoys with a speed tier that places it comfortably above most of the unboosted metagame and offers some unique speed control in Glare. While Serperior's offensive are one-dimensional and it's coverage options being literally Hidden Power, Contrary is a broken ability and it can easily clean lategame with Leaf Storm spam.

Serperior @ Miracle Seed / Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute / Giga Drain / Glare

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With all these changes, your team could look something like this.

Revised Team

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 184 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Protect

Cradily @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rock Slide
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Recover

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 160 Def / 84 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Synthesis
- Leech Seed

Tapu Bulu @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Horn Leech

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Swords Dance

Celebi @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Earth Power
- Giga Drain
- Recover

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I hope these suggestions help!

 

[itram2001]

I'm really not an expert with Ferrothorn, I just know he is a pain in the ass. I understand that choice, I just didn't think about it that much. About Bulu, I didn't think about a Choice Scarf, mainly because of its middling speed, but I have tested it and it becomes a powerful revenge killer, REALLY powerful. I only used CradILY on a Stockpile + SD set in online battles and I'm not used to it on Monotype. About Venusaur, well, I still think that the set I listed works farily well, but this one you suggested is also really threatening. I don't want to talk about the two last pokemon, it was more like a "concept proof", and I didn't think about Breloom in Grass mono, since I usually see him more often on Fighting teams due to Spore support, but it really does work well on Grass too. And dear god, is Celebi a beast. It just forces a lot of switches since it can be a ton of different sets. Thank you so much for the suggestions, I appreciate them.

P.D.: I use SD on Breloom and HP Fire and Nasty Plot on Celebi