ORAS LC predestination

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PREDESTINATION
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predestination: the belief that everything that will happen has already been decided by god or fate and cannot be changed - merriam-webster
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PREFACE
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this is a drifloon-meta team i built around the core of drifloon and trapinch. seeing as our favorite ghastly balloon is banned now, i figured i'd share it with you guys. thanks to FellFromtheSky for the art.
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TEAM_DEVELOPMENT
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i knew that drifloon and diglett formed a really lethal core, but i wanted to see how well trapinch would pair with drifloon. i'd recently been introduced to trapinch by my lcpl teammates Corporal Levi and Star., and i'd been wanting to try it out.
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porygon is a great pokemon to use when you don't know what pokemon to use. it beats chinchou, which trapinch has trouble beating on its own.
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ponyta seemed like a nice pokemon to go with here because of how well it checks the physical side of the metagame. it can cripple mienfoo, pawniard, and fletchling, and it helps bail me out when i play badly.
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i really hate being stealth rock weak, although i don't generally use them myself. staryu fit really nicely on the team.
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finally, i needed a solid fighting check. cottonee fit the bill and helps a lot with the momentum it generates.
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THE_TEAM
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predestination
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DETAILED_ANALYSIS
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cottonee @ eviolite | prankster
timid | 36 / 0 / 120 / 64 / 40 / 232

  • encore | used to cripple set-up sweepers. also great for general utility
  • giga drain | stab and a great move for recovery. hits water-type threats hard
  • dazzling gleam | stab that hits the omnipresent fighting-types for great damage
  • hidden power fighting | helps the team beat pawniard, which would otherwise be a pain
overview:
cottonee's purpose on this team is to take fighting- and water-type attacks and prevent sweeps. the ev spread is fast offensive cottonee, which does everything normal cottonee does while having increased offensive presence.
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alternative options:
you can use knock off instead of hidden power fighting if you're not worried about pawniard. alternatively, if you want to have more yellow magic, you can use stun spore instead of hidden power fighting.
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staryu @ eviolite | natural cure
timid | 0 / 0 / 156 / 116 / 0 / 236

  • thunder wave | cripples switchins not named chinchou
  • scald | stab and general utility
  • rapid spin | helps me keep the field nice and tidy
  • recover | ensures that staryu stays healthy for the whole game
overview:
staryu is a very important pokemon for this team because it makes ensures that my pokemon are unharmed by sneaky pebbles. it's also a backup water check and has great utility with thunder wave. the ev spread is standard, giving staryu considerable speed and fair defense and special attack stats.
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alternative options:
you can use psychic instead of thunder wave if you really want to hit fighting-types, especially croagunk.
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ponyta @ eviolite | flame body
impish | 0 / 0 / 236 / 0 / 76 / 196

  • will-o-wisp | chip damage and utility
  • flame charge | beats diglett if you play well
  • flare blitz | stab and great offensive presence
  • morning sun | keeps the pony happy and healthy
overview:
ponyta is a great little pokemon. it blanket checks the physical side of the metagame, most importantly mienfoo, pawniard, and fletchling. it also serves as a great snivy check, which is something very important in this metagame. the ev spread is standard bulky ponyta, which lets it take physical attacks better than 19 speed ponyta.
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alternative options:
if you're feeling like a wild child you can use toxic over flame charge, but beware that it leaves you vulnerable to a sneaky little mole. you can also use wild charge or double-edge to hit water-types and chinchou specifically. if you're worried about stuff like gastly and other 18 speeders, you can use a spread of 0 / 76 / 156 / 0 / 76 / 196 with a jolly nature.
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porygon @ eviolite | trace
modest | 0 / 0 / 196 / 156 / 156 / 0

  • tri attack | powerful stab, hits chinchou
  • thunder wave | cripples switchins
  • psychic | hits fighting-types
  • recover | healthy ducks are the best ducks
overview:
porygon is, hands down, the best glue in the metagame right now, and it was when i was building this squadron as well. it checks porygon, abra, gastly, chinchou, diglett... it's a fantastic little duck. if your team needs a sixth pokemon and doesn't mind if it's fighting-weak, use porygon. the ev spread lets porygon hit very hard and live attacks while minimizing chip damage from stuff like stealth rock or burn.
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alternative options:
you can use ice beam or thunderbolt to pop the balloon. if you're feeling fabulous, try hidden power fighting to lure pawniard (you'll have to change the evs though).
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drifloon @ berry juice | unburden
jolly | 36 / 36 / 84 / 0 / 84 / 196

  • recycle | helps keep my balloon from popping
  • acrobatics | gives the balloon some offensive presence
  • substitute | great for activating berry juice and racking up burn damage on the foe
  • will-o-wisp | cripples physical attackers and gets chip damage
overview:
oh, drifloon, how i miss thee. i don't think this pocket monster should have been banned, but there's not a whole lot i can do about that outside of bitching on an internet forum. anyway, drifloon beats a very healthy chunk of the metagame with this set; you can stall them out with recycle and feel like a wonderfully terrible person while doing it. the ev spread is standard, letting drifloon outspeed a lot of pokemon before unburden while staying bulky.
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alternative options:
don't change the set, it's the reason drifloon was banned.
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trapinch @ berry juice | arena trap
adamant | 156 / 36 / 236 / 0 / 76 / 0

  • earthquake | stab that hits stuff like ponyta, pawniard, and magnemite
  • rock slide | great coverage in tandem with earthquake
  • superpower | hits porygon hard
  • feint | lets trapinch revenge kill pokemon like fletchling
overview:
trapinch is definitely top 3 all time cuteness. look at that cheery little face. anyway, trapinch's role on the squadron is to trap fearsome foes and rend them limb from limb, all while maintaining a joyous demeanor. fearsome foes to be rend include, but are not limited to, ponyta, magnemite, and pawniard. the ev spread is standard- it gives trapinch considerable bulk and lets it hit very hard. trapinch is used instead of diglett because its increased bulk lets it trap pokemon like pawniard and chinchou, with which diglett struggles. trapinch also consistently 2hkos ponyta even when burnt.
.alternative options:
if you're not worried about porygon, you can use toxic instead of superpower to wear down spritzee.
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SPECIAL_THANKS
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thanks to:
  • Vubon for being a great friend and building squads with me
  • Corporal Levi for drafting me this lcpl and being a cool dude
  • tcr for turning me into a weeb
  • all of my friends for being super supportive and great people
  • FellFromtheSky for making the fantastic art for this rmt
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POSTFACE
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i hope you like this team. it was one of my best (and favorite) teams to use during drifloon-meta, and hopefully you can have fun using it with your friends.
 

Fiend

someguy
is a Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
LC Leader
Hello friend,
I believe that your team would benefit best with Ice Beam > Tri Attack on
, as you still do more than enough to
with Psychic and burn damage. Ice Beam allows for an emergency check to
,
,
(not burnt), and
while also turning
into a better
answer, which is important as its your Flying-resist. Ice Beam eases the strain on
overall, allowing it to generally do its job throughout the match. What dropping Tri Attack negatively effective is how well Porygon deals with opposing
,
,
, and
; teammates should be more than enough to make up for this loss against the first 3, while
needs to be played against much more carefully. The Physical set is dealt with in combination of
and
, while the Special is dealt with as it comes in on
Acrobatics and then you switch out to
.


There are other little things you can do, such as making
fast as to not take a Scald + Volt Switch from
, or to outpace
. You can make
drop its 36 EVs in Attack and add it to its bulk, as the extra Attack isn't especially important and the added HP lets
a) not usually die to
if you miss Wisp and b) allows for
to be 2hkoed less often by
. You can of course add the EVs to Special Defense as well, as even if you live the Knock Off from
, you still will die to it after probably getting the burn off as planned. 13 Special Defense allows for
to reliably keep a sub up versus
while having a chance to beat rest talk
1v1 if you play smartly.

Cheers!
 

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