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- Hey there, ReuzeSmurf here with team I used for Normal's third Core Ladder Challenge.
- So, I didn't have any experience with Normal before this Core Ladder Challenge. In fact I didn't have experience with any other type besides poison and rock. I was starting to get a little bored with poison and in the monotype room i saw 2 new cores for the Core Ladder Challenge: Rock and Normal. I decided to try out the Rock challenge as it seemed like a nice change of pace. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected so after I finished it, the Normal core challenge looked suddenly very interesting. I decided to step out of my comfort zone and into something new.
- The Core Challenge consisted of Kecleon and Meloetta. I had already a basic understanding of how Meloetta could work, but Kecleon was completely unfamiliar to me. I decided to just look at the Smogon analysis for some inspiration. Initially I ran assault vest with Drain Punch, Sucker Punch, Ice Punch and Shadow Sneak, but later on I added Power-Up Punch and gave it a life orb. Coupled with protean it functioned as revenge killer/ setup sweeper. It proved to be a very useful tool especially against Ghost and Rock teams. I decided to run Meleotta with Choice Specs alongside it to break just about anything that Kecleon can't really touch. These two attackers formed a nice offensive core to start with.
- Starting with these two, I decided to add a (generic) defensive core of Chansey + Staraptor to make my team more balanced. From this point forward I had the choice to either go semi-stall or balanced offensive. I decided on the latter because Mega-Pidgeot seemed like a really fun poke to use and I felt like I needed something besides Staraptor to combat fighting-types better. Looking at my team at this point it seemed to be lacking some physical offense since Kecleon isn't too strong and Staraptor was bulky. So i finished building this team with one of the most powerful physical attackers Normal has access to: Choice Band Diggersby. With Meloetta as a special wallbreaker and Diggersby as a physcial wallbreaker, there was very little that could stop them both.
- Here are the sets I used.
- Kecleon @ Life Orb
- Ability: Protean
- EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
- Adamant Nature
- - Drain Punch
- - Power-Up Punch
- - Sucker Punch
- - Shadow Sneak
- Meloetta @ Choice Specs
- Ability: Serene Grace
- EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Modest Nature
- IVs: 0 Atk
- - Hyper Voice
- - Psyshock
- - Focus Blast
- - Shadow Ball
- Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
- Ability: Natural Cure
- EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
- Bold Nature
- - Stealth Rock
- - Soft-Boiled
- - Thunder Wave
- - Seismic Toss
- Staraptor @ Leftovers
- Ability: Intimidate
- EVs: 216 HP / 252 Def / 40 Spe
- Impish Nature
- - Roost
- - Defog
- - Close Combat
- - Brave Bird
- Pidgeot @ Pidgeotite
- Ability: Big Pecks
- EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Naive Nature
- - Hurricane
- - Heat Wave
- - U-turn
- - Roost
- Diggersby @ Choice Band
- Ability: Huge Power
- EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Adamant Nature
- - Quick Attack
- - Return
- - Earthquake
- - U-turn
- Details:
- Kecleon: Drain punch provided some nice recovery and did well against the Rock and Steel types that resist Normal STAB. Power-Punch was used as a way to boost Kecleon's mediocre attack. Sucker Punch was very useful as forms of priority and was surprisingly powerful after the STAB boost gained due to Protean, especially after a Power-Up Punch. Shadow Sneak alongside allowed to terrorize many ghost teams and was a safer option for revenge killing than Sucker Punch. It also has a nice bonus of making Kecleon Immune to fighting for that turn, removing its one weakness.
- Meloetta: Hyper Voice was used for nice neutral coverage and is one of Meloetta's most powerful moves. Psyshock was a nice secondary STAB against against fighting types and really helped with some special walls that wall its other moves. Focus Blast hits the Rock and Steel types that resist Hyper Voice and Shadow was added because I found myself having trouble with Psychic types.
- Chansey: I didn't have anything else to use Stealth Rock with so I gave it to Chansey. Softboiled for recovery. Thunder Wave was chosen over something like Toxic because slowing down the opponent gave Meloetta and Diggersby room to wreak havoc. Seismic Toss was for reliable damage output.
- Staraptor: Roost for recovery. Defog to deal with teams that like to stack hazards. Close Combat was chosen over Feather Dance since fighting types are already shit on by Mega-Pidgeot and it was a nice option against Bisharp who is rather threatening to this team otherwise since Feather Dance doesn't do jackshit to it. Brave Bird for STAB, Awesome against fighting types.
- Pidgeot: Hurricane for that powerful STAB confusion hax inducing haha I can't miss spam. Heat wave for coverage against electric and steel (and to really make bug and grass users wish death upon your soul). U-turn to switch out of its counters (mainly rock types) and to provide momentum. Roost because i didn't feel the need for more attacking moves. Was actually kinda nice filler.
- Diggersby: Quick Attack for nice powerful priority, mainly used as a revenge killing tool. Return and Earthquake for STAB. U-turn was chosen to form an awesome momentum core with Mega-Pidgeot and to switch out of its counters.
- Threats:
- This team had a lot of trouble with Weavile because it outspeeds Mega-Pidgeot and nothing on the team likes taking Icicle Crash or Knock Off. Mamoswine was a problem for the same reason, altough it doesn't carry Knock Off too often. Setup Sweepers such as Mega-Charizard-X and Bisharp were also very threatening since Bulkyraptor cannot wall them and this team lacks Ditto to revenge kill. Ground teams were probably the hardest to as the physically offensive pressure combined with the residual damage from the sand gave Staraptor a run for its money sooner or later which allowed Sand Rush Excadrill to wreak havoc. Having nothing to hit ground types super effectively was something I later discovered to be troublesome. Overall teams that could break my defensive core effectively or could outspeed Mega-Pidgeot were troublesome.
- I had a lot of fun using this team and I encourage everyone to try out the Core Ladder Challenge. It's definitely a lot of fun!
- Replays:
- http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-242042552 VS Normal (haxy ending <_>)
- http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-241811980 VS Normal
- http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-242034089 VS Fighting
- http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-241955509 VS Ghost
- http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-241813114 VS Flying
- Don't have many more quality replays, sorry for that.
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