Project LC Core Laddering Challenge [INDEX THREAD]

Plas

Plas

is a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnus
K. It's been long enough. Talking about Core B. Notice: I mixed up the name. So I used Core B Using the Core A account. I lost original write-up so it's gonna be quick. With that out of the way Core B.


Record I got and peak unless I get more time but holidays so unlikely.

Chinchou @ Berry Juice
Ability: Volt Absorb
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 212 Def / 68 SpA / 148 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Scald
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam

Gastly @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 5
EVs: 40 Def / 200 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Substitute
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Snivy @ Eviolite
Ability: Contrary
Level: 5
EVs: 236 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Leaf Storm
- Defog
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Mienfoo @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Fake Out

Bunnelby @ Normalium Z
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 5
EVs: 52 HP / 228 Atk / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Quick Attack
- Return
- Earthquake

Onix @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Endure

This is the team I used. I personally think it's hot garbage but it's fun. Started the core around LO HP Fighting Gastly because it's switch ins are super limited and it breaks through teams whose answers are just Pawniard or Onix. Basically Chinchou does what Chinchou does, Water answer that doesn't die to ice moves, bird and fire check. Pivot that thunder waves stuff. I used thunder wave mainly to compliment Bunnelby which is a very fun but meh set. I saw boobnoob123 use this awhile ago with double dance and I tried it as a nuke and with u-turn so I could bluff scarf and for a more offensive pivot. Normalium just nukes and loves t-wave support. The rest is just standard offense glue. Mienfoo we all know what it does same with Snivy and Onix. Mienfoo knocks shit, has ok priority, u-turn regen shit, Offensive or bulky pivot, and hjk hits hard. Onix is a blanket check to the meta with 3 lives with sturdy juice and has a solid offensive presence and rocks. Snivy gets defog, gives me something for webs and another super standard offensive presence.

Core
It's meh. It's weird to talk about because it's not really a core. It's an amazing pokemon stuck with a meh pokemon that gets a pivot move. The 2 don't synergize at all. It's just a subpar bulky pivot to let a team's offense in.

Thoughts I guess
I really like the idea of this project or challenge or whatever it is and it was pretty fun. Hope more people join and reviving the ladder is always a cool thing. Would like to see some more unusual/fun cores but I realize that will come with time.

Some replays
Platinum
Gold
Bronze
 
Tyeh

Tyeh

PS Name: Cry
Laddering Alt: CCAa1 Cry
Bronze = http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679132855
^ A terrible replay to showcase the core, but it’s the one where I peaked 1200 before stopping playing so... You can thank arena trap diglett for all that.

The most painful laddering experience of my life. Was in the 1190’s like 5 times before finally getting the win to carry me into the 1200’s. yes, i suck.

Preface: Had very little experience with LC prior to today, and still lack a lot of knowledge regarding the tier. Now that I’m looking at the EV’s my mons had, I want to punch myself (fuck psd suggested sets).

Onix:
Onix @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Heavy Slam
- Roar

Decided to make onix my anti setup mon, able to roar out most things and OHKO the irritating Psychic choiced Abra before being restored back to full by berry juice. Heavy slam also took out most shell smashers due to their decreased defensive stats. If everything went to shit I could just roar out my opponent (although had trouble doing this against moves that hit multiple times for obvious reasons) and stop it from setting up again by fake out spamming (Mienfoo + life orb technician meowth). Onix is a very good LC mon due to the double sturdy when used with berry juice, stopping most mons from setting up and OHKOing many mins whose stats are all spread between attack and speed, such as magby, Abra and shell smash shellder.

Foongus:
Foongus @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 236 SpA / 236 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain

I managed to forget to give Foongus an ability until the last game, so it had effect spore and was a lot less useful than it could have been. I think foongus has a lot of potential, but struggles in LC due to the hard counter of shell smash shellder icicle spear, which is on at least half the teams I play against. Sludge bomb managed to do a good amount of damage to most switchins, and made grass types such as Snivy think twice before switching into it to nullify spore (foon has great typing for this). The main issue is that it has so many weaknesses which commonly pop up (Shellder, Staryu, Rapidash, Vullaby). I do like using this mon as a wall though, typically able to switch into a resist and get a heavy hit/ spore before switching out once again and getting the regenerator health.

The two mons are relatively good on their own, but have practically no synergy as a core. Mons such as Staryu can hit both of them extremely hard.
Summary of the rest of my crappy, poorly built team:
  • Meowth = Fake out, last resort alongside life orb. Get any ghosts/outspeeds out of the way and then spam LR for huge damage.
  • Dwebble = Gets double sturdy with berry juice. Shell smash turn one and you’ll be able to take out any 1 mon, and more if they don’t have resists/priority.
  • Mienfoo = On every team. Standard regenerator set but added drain lunch over HJK.
  • Gastly = Was able to OHKO slower weaker mons but died to any attack. Primarily used this as a Destiny bond to get any problematic mons off the field.
 
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Myosin

Myosin

wishy fishy
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
PS Name: Myosin
Laddering Alt: CCAa1 Myosin

Bronze: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679252079
Silver: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679257950
Gold: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679261367
Platinum: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679274571

Laddering Alt #2: CCBb1 Myosin

Bronze: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679911735
Silver: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679915061
Gold: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679925816
Platinum: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-679934549
 
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OrangeGuru

OrangeGuru

PS name: OrangeGuru
CCAa1 Orange
Bronze replay: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-683291692
Silver replay: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-684198911


These two form a solid core with foongus covering Onix's water, fighting and grass weaknesses and Onix taking flying moves for foongus (which is especially useful if running the weak armor set considering the majority of flying attacks are physical in this meta). Foongus' pivoting ability is useful for switching around the plethora of fighting types although it doesn't like knock off (then again, not much likes it). Clear smog is a great check to set up sweepers like snivy lacking HP Ice and to sweepers that think they can set up on you despite the handy tool that is spore. The first replay shows Foongus sporing AlolanPix, which sets up Scraggy's DD and wins me the match (tho u-turning into the spore was a bad play on my opponents part), while the second replay shows Foongus wiping away Buneary's Z-Splash sweep opportunity (tho I played really horribly to start that match)

Big problem with Foongus is the reliance on eviolite and even then ground moves hit it harder than you expect sometimes, which is real unfortunate for a grass-type (tho it helps the fighting matchup), leading to being 2HKOs when you least expect it and putting you behind the 8 ball. S/O to that person that brought scarf Sandile against me. Also, a ton of Staryu I ran into run Psychic (perhaps a trend? My staryu don't run it lol), which hurts Foongus obviously.

I had three teams already built that had Onix + Foongus on them, but I only got to use two of them during the challenge.
https://pokepast.es/8a98cb876143c67e (DD Scraggy + Croagunk Fighting Spam - went 11-4 with it, really liked the team, but it could probably use some fine tuning.)
https://pokepast.es/90e9468ec09a6e83 (Triple Regen Core with Scarf Magnemite - went 4-1 with it, but didn't have time to test out the slowpoke who replaced Spritzee)


CCBb1 Orange
Bronze replay: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-681936498
Silver replay: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-684245384


This is an interesting "core." There isn't a whole lot of synergy, especially defensive between the two (other than Gastly switching into a ground type attack). Chinchou's pivoting is always useful and scald allows it to beat ground-types that would typically counter electric-types (other than SturdyJuice Onix). However, this is why I prefer Berry Juice Chinchou over Scarf (locking into volt switch at the wrong time can really backfire), but I see good uses for scarf. The first replay shows Chinchou's offensive abilities which helps shut down the Torchic Pass team (including a nice read on my part against Snivy, but also a lucky freeze :|) and the Berry Juice helps Chou switch in an extra time.

Gastly really has no defensive utility at all. I ran a Fairium Z set (as well as a SubHex set) to nuke stuff since it naturally outspeeds a lot and can take out answers to the rest of the team. However, even with a Z-item, it is still OHKOd by Knock Offs which really hurts. SubHex can set up on quite a few pokes, scare out physical attackers with Wisp and then go to town with Hex, in which case Sub can save you against Scarf users or naturally faster mons like Abra (tho S/O to that odd Scarf physical Abra I ran into on ladder lol). The first replay showcases Fairium Z Gastly's ability to break past usual counters by Subbing and then nuking a threat like Alolan Grimer. The second replay (with SubHex Gastly) shows some of Gastly's limited defensive capability, switching in against non-Knock Off Croagunk and setting up a free Sub and leads to kills against Croagunk and Pumpkaboo. Also, Abra would have fallen to Gastly if it had come to that which is super nice!

I had two teams built that already had this core involved as well, tho I somehow didn't discover the second team until about 4 hours before the challenge ended lol.
https://pokepast.es/083e583055ce979d (Fairium Z Gastly - went 12-4 with the team, but it definitely needs some fine-tuning with no hazard removal and a bad matchup with other ferroseed)
https://pokepast.es/a1f8d0dab526c1a1 (Croagunk Webs Offense - went 4-0 with this team over the last couple hours of the challenge, but this is a really fun team I discovered randomly in my teambuilder; Gastly loves Webs to outspeed Abra and other threats and helps keep Webs up)

Thanks to my wifi being super spotty the last two days, my laddering time got cut short, but this was still fun!
 
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snow

snow

This cycle is over, thank you to everyone that participated. No more entrants after this post will count.

Unfortunately my internet is out until Monday but winners will be announced then and the new core will follow shortly after that.
 
snow

snow

Congratulations to Fille for getting the highest peak with the Onix + Foongus core and MeButYou82 for getting the highest peak in the Chinchou + Gastly core. However, MeButYou82 please make sure to show proof of each HoF peak from now on. I gave you the benefit of the doubt this time. Both of your peaking teams have entered the HoF.

Also congratulations to everyone that made platinum :].

tagging Quote to merge this with the index thread
 
snow

snow

Approved by Quote



USM Challenge #2
4 Cores, Jan 8 - Jan 22


Alolan Vulpix + Alolan Sandshrew
Tag: CCVs2
Hall of Fame Rankings:
Platinum: 1650+
Gold: 1550+
Silver: 1450+
Bronze: 1350+


Hippopotas + Drilbur
tag: CCHd2
Hall of Fame Rankings
Platinum: 1600+
Gold: 1500+
Silver: 1400+
Bronze: 1300+


Ponyta + Bellsprout
tag: CCPb2
Hall of Fame Rankings
Platinum: 1500+
Gold: 1400+
Silver: 1300+
Bronze: 1200+


Purrloin + Mantyke
tag: CCPm2
Hall of Fame Rankings
Platinum: 1450+
Gold: 1400+
Silver: 1300+
Bronze: 1200+

Note:To register to participate in a core challenge, you must reply to this forum with the proper information to be eligible! This also applies for submitting peaks (with that said please keep all of your information onto 1 post)! Otherwise, refer to the Index Threadfor the official rules and info on this project.

Due to a good amount of interest from users on this project, I have confidence in having more than two cores some cycles. It will not usually be four and some of these cores may not even get Platinum finishers, however, as I was going to use two weather cores I thought it would be good to have four weather cores as I probably would not find room to add them into other core challenges. LET THE WEATHER WARS BEGIN!​
 
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Mando Lino

CCPm2 svvord

Gold: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-686372553
Platinum: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-686720973

All hail the omanyte

Peak 1600: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7lc-689233093

Ok think I'm gonna stop here. Laddering with this team is becoming a pain in the ass. The team (and the core) work better than I first thougth, but I'm always walking on the line with it. It tears apart unprepared players, but needs a lot of foreshadowing to work and doesn't allow mistakes against good ones. Lots of victories I had at the start were due more to Omanyte rather than to the core itself. However, as I got more practice, I started to find Mantyke very useful. Its lack of recovery and low speed outside the rain drag him back a lot tho. Purrloin was useful to set rain late game to sweep, but was dead weigth for most of the time.
So, concluding, imo: the team works but it's situational and it will never be goat. Omanyte is a great mon, but him, Mantyke and Purrloin need lotta support. I've got no experience with Wingull but it's probably a better Mantyke, being fast, hitting hard and needing less support.

I leave it here if someone wants to try and/or improve it.
Kyle (Mantyke) @ Waterium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 5
EVs: 156 HP / 36 Def / 200 SpA / 116 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hydro Pump
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Rain Dance

Lord Helix (Omanyte) @ Eviolite
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shell Smash
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power

Foosen (Mienfoo) @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 156 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Fake Out

was cuter when sitting (Purrloin) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Prankster
Level: 5
EVs: 188 HP / 36 Atk / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rain Dance
- Copycat
- Knock Off
- Thunder Wave

Roger (Pawniard) @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 156 Atk / 36 Def / 116 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock

Gustavo (Foongus) @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 124 HP / 156 Def / 156 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
 
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