creative and underrated sets for balanced hackmons (gorilla version)
marowoke (Marowak-Alola) @ Thick Club
Ability: Shadow Shield
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Brave / Sassy Nature
- Trick Room
- V-Create
- Spectral Thief / Crabhammer
- Ice Hammer
otr marowak a. if you ever face
Kadabrium and his 6 mmy team in a tour, bring this. basically it utilizes hazard control (which you should have) to tear apart those dumb ho squads who think they're safe because they have mmx or whatever. shadow shield helps in setting up trick room. you can go brave for more power or sassy to live contrary mmy's +2 psycho boost from full which is pretty good if you ask me (brave has an 18.8% chance to get ohkod). sassy also helps vs. triage ray's oblivion wing which is really pretty much the only priority move in the meta at this point.
beware moongeist etc
anyway the reason this is worth using over some other mmy-dismantling mon like pheromosa is because thanks to shadow shield, marowak lives a bunch of boosted hits from full. this allows it to function as a very nice emergency check to scary stuff.
252+ Atk Choice Band Groudon-Primal Thousand Arrows vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Shadow Shield Marowak-Alola: 229-271 (70.6 - 83.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (you lose the 1v1 unless you have ch, but you have trick room set up which gives you all the momentum)
contrary sets just get dunked on lol
+4 252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Shadow Shield Marowak-Alola: 286-337 (88.2 - 104%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
if you switch something that dies to a +2 attack into mega sceptile then i honestly don't know what to tell you. but marowak is cool, he can help you out.
for team options: wak works well vs frail offense but struggles against balance/stall, add something like slow lens pdon if you really want to have some fun. people are sleeping on lens pdon + toxic spikes
replay:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-608046578 not the best opponent but it shows wak putting in some work
next up are the MEWTWO TECH$
these are random tech moves designed to help mewtwo break through its counters and stuff. enjoy
#1:
future sight
area 69 (Mewtwo-Mega-Y) @ Psychium Z / Choice Specs / Twisted Spoon
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Future Sight
- Psystrike / Psycho Boost / Revelation Dance
- Moonblast / mmy stuff
- Leech Seed / mmy stuff
future sight mmy. the goal of this set is to help a teammate (usually pdon) get ez kills by effectively getting in 2 hits in a single turn. ideally you click future sight on a forced switch, then you get pdon in, then you click v create and watch something die.
fc giratina (the only real lens pdon "stop") dies to sr + future sight + cb lens vcreate:
252+ Atk Choice Band Tinted Lens Groudon-Primal V-create vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Giratina: 196-232 (38.8 - 46%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Mewtwo-Mega-Y Future Sight vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Giratina in Psychic Terrain: 279-328 (55.3 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
the given set is pretty imposter proof because imposter doesn't really have any threatening attacks so you can kinda just click leech seed and sit there. as a bonus, if you're not using psystrike then you can imposter-proof with your own chansey and hopefully get a kill with future sight into whirlwind from chansey. keep in mind that this doesn't happen that often but it's amazing when it does.
to get pdon in, running eject button on another mon is a cool idea for those annoying u-turns. if you want that extra "ayy lmao" value then you can run something like beheeyem or reuniclus for that nice slow pivot ez
watch me fail to use eject button correctly
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-608862079
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-608871016
#2:
C O U N T E R T W O
匚ㄖㄩ几ㄒ乇尺ㄒ山ㄖ (Mewtwo-Mega-Y) @ Fightinium Z / Psychium Z / Twisted Spoon
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 0 Def
- Shell Smash
- Psycho Boost / Stored Power
- Counter
- Strength Sap
i've had some good times with this set so for all its inconsistency, tilt generation, and general stupidity i figured i'd post it here. basically the point of this set is to take advantage of those defensive guys who like to run spectral thief/u-turn to deal with mmy. you reveal shell smash/psycho boost early game to easily force guys out. then if you get +2 vs. unaware mgyara or something, you click counter. bop
0 hp evs/31 ivs give you 353 hp, which is necessary to ohko chansey with counter. no more than that to make it easy to get back to full with strength sap (and reactivate sturdy).
if you want you can run stored power over psycho boost if you actually plan on sweeping with it but you need psychium to actually threaten guys out at +0. not the recommended option
the set imposter proofs itself through its own incompetence. imposter's only damaging attack is psycho boost. it needs shell smash to be threatening, but that raises its attack too so you can stall indefinitely with strength sap + sturdy until psycho boost loses power/runs out of pp ez
on a team i would recommend pairing this with other shell smash mmy sets, the theory being that countertwo eliminates the opponent's counterplay to setup mmy, then the other mmy sweeps. psychic surge variants in particular are very helpful for countertwo as they boost its psychic stab allowing it to more easily force out opponents to restore hp/set up.
beware prankster haze, keep in mind that it's usually only run by steel types. in the past i used to run magnet pull pdon to pick those guys off, but now you can't do that anymore so run cb v create mmy or something stupid ig
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmonssuspecttest-600558531
#3:
mixtwo
MR. IDENTITY CRISIS (Mewtwo-Mega-X) @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Psycho Boost
- Spectral Thief / Growth / other setup
- Leech Seed / Shore Up / Snatch / Strength Sap
basically an mmx that thinks it's mmy. or, from a competitive standpoint, an mmy that can kill steels. spectral thief is fun for aegi and the 3 people using av regen giratina, growth can be used instead cause those guys aren't taking +1 pboost either way. recovery is recovery, i don't think shore up is as good as the other options because of how it turns imposter into a hard counter instead of something that can switch in like twice. snatch is a fun meme but it works better on something like stakeout pdon, for that matter you can run stakeout on this too if you want cause stakeout is a borderline broken ability lol.
when i first tried this i used twisted spoon because i didn't like life orb recoil, however the boost to both moves is really big to threaten stuff like solgaleo.
sorry no replays for this one
THE DOCTOR IS IN (Audino-Mega) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- U-turn
- Core Enforcer / Spore
- Heal Order
- Defog
soundproof mega audino. i'm pretty sure this set has been thought of before, so it falls more under the "underrated" part of this thread.
anyway in the current metagame -ate answers are extremely sparse, like the best ones are fc chansey and shedinja but those come with their own problems. sassy audino can fearlessly switch into even choice specs mons without fearing any coverage.
252 SpA Choice Specs Rayquaza-Mega Blue Flare vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Audino-Mega: 166-196 (40.4 - 47.8%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO after burn damage
if you run techno blast then you should feel bad.
spore on a defensive mon is actually amazing. it beats imposter, and a slow spore is insanely good for momentum (offensive guys can't switch in). also handles normalize gengar nicely
for replays just check the ones with future sight mmy
swap shop (Giratina) @ Ghostium Z / Safety Goggles / tech
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Soft-Boiled
- hazard of choice
- Skill Swap
- Spectral Thief
swapper giratina. idk why i started using this thing but i really like it. skill swap is a really good move because not only do you suppress your opponent's ability, but you also steal it (which can be useful for regenerator etc). ph regi fails to break you either way, because you have fur coat and stuff. you lose fc when you use skill swap on the regi but it's not like they're staying in anyway.
guys like opposing magic bouncers can't usually threaten you, so you can just skill swap them and throw some hazards. double magic bounce is not a thing.
you can use ghostium z which enables you to brag to your friend that you have a normalize gengar answer when you don't really, safety goggles isn't much better because regi just knocks it off anyway. iapapa berry sounds fun as an alternative option
for team options, this set pairs incredibly well with cb lens pdon, providing it an imposter proofer as well as reliable hazards.
again check mmy replays. sorry i couldn't find better ones :(
Expand Don (Groudon-Primal) @ Choice Band
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- V-Create
- Bolt Strike
- Icicle Crash / Precipice Blades
- whatever
turboblaze is one of the most underrated abilities in bh right now imo, like soundproof. this is because of the prominence of fc giratina, which walls most pdon variants. but turboblaze doesn't care:
252+ Atk Choice Band Groudon-Primal Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Giratina: 248-294 (49.2 - 58.3%) -- 98% chance to 2HKO
icicle crash is chosen because some giratina opt to run speed to check pdon more consistently, so hitting them before they can recover is cool. pblades is cool for opposing pdon/imposter but misses out on zyg.
no replays (sorry) because this set is basically another version of the kyub set above (same moves). if you want any just let me know.
finally... something that could actually be metagame defining!
are you ready?
introducing....
T R A N S F O R M
yes, you read that right. transform. not imposter.
basically the idea is that you slap transform on an offensive mon that can fend off imposter (either imposter-proof itself, or deal a bunch of damage before getting forced out) like say cb pdon with crabhammer. this is important so you can transform when you need to
if you get low on health, you click transform as your opponent goes to their counter. then you click recover and switch out. free 50% recovery ez. if you're not choiced then you can do other fun stuff like defog
meanwhile, imposters (being transformed already) are unable to transform again, so you can just go to your imposter-proofer and do whatever.
shoutouts to
GmU pokeboss9
anyway that's all. if you want replays for any of these sets or you have any suggestions for improvements just let me know. thanks for reading, hope you have a great day!