This is a spikeless mixed offense/hyper offense team I made that I feel is pretty strong. It has some immediately threatening special attackers and setup physical attackers. However, building "hyper offense" feels strange in gen 3, and I hesitate to try and emulate it (hence the appearance of some defensive mons on the team) since there's no consistent stupidly broken leads that just put you at an obvious advantage turn 1 like there are in modern tiers (alolan ninetales + veil, prankster dualscreens, glimmora staking multiple types of hazards, etc.). Basically, I'm not sure if it's worth/possible to lean harder into offense, since this team can lose some momentum into things like skarm, pert, and milo after switching in pert, for example.
Let me know what you think!
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The paste: Mixed Sub Pass Offense
Note: There's a bit of a theme with certain coverage moves on this team being up in the air, since one choice leaves me weak to one mon but stronger into another. I haven't found the right balance yet, so suggestions to that end are welcome.
The Team
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice] / [Grass]
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
Zap is the sub passer I'm most familiar with. It can scout early booms, and block status moves from over-predictions to get a free sub out the gate so that 1 of my setup sweepers can put on pressure as early as possible. It also scares out the occasional lead spikers like cloyster and skarm. Currently, it is HP Ice to trade with or punish stubborn mence leads that think I don't have it, and to help with flygon who walls my 2 physical sweepers. However, the team struggles a bit breaking pert w/o spikes, so I'm considering going grass.
Charizard @ Leftovers
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 24 Atk / 240 SpA / 244 Spe
Rash Nature
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Fire Blast
- Focus Punch
Zard contributes power on the special side while being able to directly punish blissey and bulky ttar that love to switch into it. Sub punch enables that punish, and grass is mandatory given the previously mentioned pert weakness. This set seems straight forward, but again any optimization suggestions welcome.
Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug] / Double Edge
- Dragon Dance
Win con #1, fast dd tar. Standard set and an obvious inclusion for this type of offense. Not as obvious is what the 3rd attacking move should be. Bug is the standard to hit claydol and celebi, but leaves me weaker into pert and flygon than double edge would.
Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 152 HP / 252 Atk / 104 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Explosion / Rock Slide
- Agility
Win con #2, agigross. Running boom to let this force trades early game or just agi sweep late game. The rock slide sacrifice is felt, but not too heavily thanks to max speed ice zap and max speed dd tar. This also acts an emergency rock resist if swampert gets boomed on or worn down.
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 92 Atk / 128 Def / 40 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Roar / Focus Punch
Swampert acts as some defensive glue, making sure the team isn't run over by rocks if I trade with meta. It has some attack to always 2hko standard bulky meta and some speed to out-creep blissey. I like roar as an emergency answer to opposing setup sweepers, though I may just be bad and focus punch my be better to really punish bliss. This slot is really where it feels hard to make a hyper offense style that isn't just zapdug spoff, without a solid rock resist this team loses to aero spikes instantly. Hell, you could argue it still does without a fully def pert with no protect and no spin.
Regice @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Atk / 152 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Fire] / Thunder Wave
Lastly we have the premier offensive special wall, Regice. This niche is pretty real, and it feels like it fits well despite being a defensive mon. Being able to blank starmie, zapdos, unboosted suicune, etc and threaten boom to keep momentum or positional advantage is great. I recently saw a regice run HP fire over twave, which I think works better for this team than the somewhat unnecessary twave, since chip on incoming meta is huge for tar to sweep at +1. Though that's kind of the only use case for it I can think of.
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So that's the squad. I'm working on practicing team building and this is the result of that. Thanks for reading, all suggestions are welcome.
- JoJ
Let me know what you think!
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The paste: Mixed Sub Pass Offense
Note: There's a bit of a theme with certain coverage moves on this team being up in the air, since one choice leaves me weak to one mon but stronger into another. I haven't found the right balance yet, so suggestions to that end are welcome.
The Team
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice] / [Grass]
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
Zap is the sub passer I'm most familiar with. It can scout early booms, and block status moves from over-predictions to get a free sub out the gate so that 1 of my setup sweepers can put on pressure as early as possible. It also scares out the occasional lead spikers like cloyster and skarm. Currently, it is HP Ice to trade with or punish stubborn mence leads that think I don't have it, and to help with flygon who walls my 2 physical sweepers. However, the team struggles a bit breaking pert w/o spikes, so I'm considering going grass.
Charizard @ Leftovers
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 24 Atk / 240 SpA / 244 Spe
Rash Nature
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Fire Blast
- Focus Punch
Zard contributes power on the special side while being able to directly punish blissey and bulky ttar that love to switch into it. Sub punch enables that punish, and grass is mandatory given the previously mentioned pert weakness. This set seems straight forward, but again any optimization suggestions welcome.
Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug] / Double Edge
- Dragon Dance
Win con #1, fast dd tar. Standard set and an obvious inclusion for this type of offense. Not as obvious is what the 3rd attacking move should be. Bug is the standard to hit claydol and celebi, but leaves me weaker into pert and flygon than double edge would.
Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 152 HP / 252 Atk / 104 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Explosion / Rock Slide
- Agility
Win con #2, agigross. Running boom to let this force trades early game or just agi sweep late game. The rock slide sacrifice is felt, but not too heavily thanks to max speed ice zap and max speed dd tar. This also acts an emergency rock resist if swampert gets boomed on or worn down.
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 92 Atk / 128 Def / 40 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Roar / Focus Punch
Swampert acts as some defensive glue, making sure the team isn't run over by rocks if I trade with meta. It has some attack to always 2hko standard bulky meta and some speed to out-creep blissey. I like roar as an emergency answer to opposing setup sweepers, though I may just be bad and focus punch my be better to really punish bliss. This slot is really where it feels hard to make a hyper offense style that isn't just zapdug spoff, without a solid rock resist this team loses to aero spikes instantly. Hell, you could argue it still does without a fully def pert with no protect and no spin.
Regice @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Atk / 152 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Fire] / Thunder Wave
Lastly we have the premier offensive special wall, Regice. This niche is pretty real, and it feels like it fits well despite being a defensive mon. Being able to blank starmie, zapdos, unboosted suicune, etc and threaten boom to keep momentum or positional advantage is great. I recently saw a regice run HP fire over twave, which I think works better for this team than the somewhat unnecessary twave, since chip on incoming meta is huge for tar to sweep at +1. Though that's kind of the only use case for it I can think of.
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So that's the squad. I'm working on practicing team building and this is the result of that. Thanks for reading, all suggestions are welcome.
- JoJ