Other The Dark Horse Project (ORAS Edition)

[Spuun]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: horsepuun
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: none.
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Jellicent, Hippowdon.
Explanation of Dark Horse(s):
rip mandibuzz. Sand stall is pretty cool, even cooler now that Greninja is gone. I've been toying with it before, and now I have a reason to throw on Jellicent, which completely walls the main water mon Keldeo. It also has Taunt and thus the potential to shutdown Manaphy and Water Absorb for most Slowbros.
Hippowdon has a massive defense and recovery, and pairs well with Jelli which can tank ice and water hits. The utility is good, because it can phaze and bring rocks, or it can run ice fang to punish landour-t / glisc trying to set up on it.

These two go pretty well, especially with the next 4 being sick stall mons. I'm going to have fun.

 

[Hogg]

Spuun , which stats are you looking at? From what I can tell, the December 1825 OU stats have Mandibuzz at 3.55%: http://www.smogon.com/stats/2014-12/ou-1825.txt

 

[Spuun]

Spuun , which stats are you looking at? From what I can tell, the December 1825 OU stats have Mandibuzz at 3.55%: http://www.smogon.com/stats/2014-12/ou-1825.txt

prolly november or something, will just edit it out of the post, still have hippo and jelli anyway.

 

[ThePack]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Impex
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None.
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Dragalge (0.63431%), Crawdaunt (1.49047%)
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): [Lengthy Blab Incoming] With Greninja gone, and Mega Sableye taking its rightful place as the king of stall, I see two things rising; the Stall playstyle, and Fairies, even with the presence of Mega Metagross. This sets the stage for the first of the Adaptability Duo; Dragalge. Specs Dragalge is a true monster; nothing eats up a hit from this bad boy. Its unique typing also aids its wallbreaking capabilities, as it cannot be Toxic'd and hence, cannot be worn down like other wallbreakers.
However, its Psychic weakness and the presence of blobs like Chansey halt this things true potential to decimate everything; hence, enter...The Crab.

Crawdaunt's, stats, typing and ability make it a great partner for Dragalge, as it appreciates Fairies and Grass types being gone, and can threaten Psychics, and can cripple physical walls such as Chansey for Dragalge to wreck havoc.

In short, this should be fun :P

 

[Karxrida]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: horsepuun
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: none.
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Jellicent, Hippowdon.
Explanation of Dark Horse(s):
rip mandibuzz. Sand stall is pretty cool, even cooler now that Greninja is gone. I've been toying with it before, and now I have a reason to throw on Jellicent, which completely walls the main water mon Keldeo. It also has Taunt and thus the potential to shutdown Manaphy and Water Absorb for most Slowbros.
Hippowdon has a massive defense and recovery, and pairs well with Jelli which can tank ice and water hits. The utility is good, because it can phaze and bring rocks, or it can run ice fang to punish landour-t / glisc trying to set up on it.

These two go pretty well, especially with the next 4 being sick stall mons. I'm going to have fun.

Manaphy runs Energy Ball so it can beat Mega Slowbro, so you're not even a check.

 

[DarkBlazeR]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Tschermakite
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: N/A
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Houndoom
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): The hell hound is one of the more underrated megas in the current metagame, especially now that Greninja is gone. Fire/Dark is a pretty good offensive typing, and with a great speed stat of 115, it outspeeds most non-scarfed 'mons. With a moveset of Nasty Plot/Dark Pulse/Fire Blast/Taunt, it can do some real work vs the majority of stall teams, especially those built around Mega Sableye.

EDIT: Wasn't aware that having two DHs was a requirement; will update this post with a different alt/2 DHs.

 

[Hogg]

Currently 12-1 at ELO 1309. The team pretty much auto-loses to CM + Dark Pulse Mega-Sableye... I can sometimes beat it, but not without destroying my defensive core. That was a problem when testing this team on the suspect ladder, too, so I'll have to keep thinking on how to fix that. (My other version of this team is way less weak to CM Sableye, but also easier to break in general.)

 

[McBeengs]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Tschermakite
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: N/A
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Houndoom
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): The hell hound is one of the more underrated megas in the current metagame, especially now that Greninja is gone. Fire/Dark is a pretty good offensive typing, and with a great speed stat of 115, it outspeeds most non-scarfed 'mons. With a moveset of Nasty Plot/Dark Pulse/Fire Blast/Taunt, it can do some real work vs the majority of stall teams, especially those built around Mega Sableye.

Er, I'm very sure that you need at least 2 Dark Horses on your team

 

[Reverend]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: PrrettyReverend69
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: Noperino
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Entei, Escavalier
Explanation of Dark Horses: Entei is one of the most annoying pokemon to deal with in the tier due to have a STAB physical super Scald, which can easily annoy or outright cripple most things that want to switch in to eat up a fire move. It also provides utility in the form of Extreme-Speed. It's also reasonably bulky thanks to its amazing HP stat and gets free switches in on common pokemon like Clefable and Sableye. Escavalier is an underutilized pokemon thanks to Scizor's presence but serves as a sturdy Pursuit trapper for the Lati twins with AV while also providing a rare non grass-type counter for Breloom which is greatly appreciated with how much of a pain that pokemon can be to deal with otherwise.

 

[Hogg]

Slowly but surely working my way out of the low ladder silliness. Currently at 1427 (18-1), but it'll probably get less easy once I get into the 1500s or so. Thus far my only loss has been to a CM Dark Pulse Mega-Sableye, which puts such a number on this team that I'm actually considering Skill Swap on Chansey just to make sure I don't auto-lose to it...

 

[McBeengs]

Ok, I'm a little afraid about what I'll say, but I'm currently removing Tangrowth from my original core. Ironically, my team was suffering from bird-spam way more than it should, and Growth wasn't pulling his weight as I tought.

To keep in mind, I know that da rules tell me to create a new account if that happens, but in all honesty as anybody can check in THIS link, I doesn't had a single battle on my 2nd login (Revoltib), so a new PS! username will not be necessary IMO (but I can anyway, just trying to free me from thinking in another name).

Still getting much success from Aero and Suicune tho: Suicune handles Stall fairly easily when it got +2 and it shows me to be able to win the Calm Mind War against Mega Sableye (*hint*hint*,Hogg*hint*hint*) and Aero, oml just obliterates anything without priority or a Scarf... It always hits twice in a row (1 when the opponent switches and another when he attacks) and by now, this is the mega I've had the most fun to this day. My original post has been edited and my team was adjusted accordingly, and I think he's ready. Waiting for the green light from Recreant to start laddering.

 

[You...You...]

Pokemon Showdown Username: SlurSlurpSlur
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None. Like pretty much everyone else lol.
Current Dark Horses: Slurpuff and (Mega) Beedrill
Explanation:

Slurpuff is a pokemon I feel has some untapped potential as a belly drum sweeper in ORAS. At plus six and with an unburden boost coupled with great bulk (good enough to be a wishpasser) Slurpuff is very hard to stop. However Slurpuff is not without weaknesses, clearly or else it would be top tier OU. One of the biggest flaws is it's inability to get past certain steel types. Because of this I will be partnering it with a couple of steel lures and trappers.

Mega Beedrill is an excellent Revenge Killer, Late-Game sweeper and momentum gainer all in one. Armed with an excellent abillity and high attack as well as blistering speed Mega Beedrill is a major threat who I think should be used more. A lot more.

 

[Thunderorange]

Pokemon showdown name: Pidgey's Revenge
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: first. I'm the very best. Never done this before.
Current Dark Horses: Pidgeot, Volcarona, Dugtrio
Explanation of Dark Horsies:

Basically I started with wanting to use Pidgeot because I never thought I would ever build a competitive team around him and Volcarona since he was one of my favourite BW pokemon. The main thing that is holding these two mons from standing out is Heatran. That's where Dugtrio comes in. Duggy eliminates Tran so Pidgeot can spam Hurricanes and Volcarona can carry on his sweep with his greatest enemy gone. Dugtrio is also very effective with Pidgeot's U-Turn since when a Heatran wants to come in on Pidgeot he can just U-Turn out into Dugtrio without risk.

 

[hey yal]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: luchadorisahorse
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: n/a
Current Dark Horses: hawlucha, manectric
Explanation of Dark Horses: so when looking at the usages my eye instantly fell on hawlucha and i was instantly interested. turns out, in theory he sounds like a very great mon. outspeeding common speed tiers like 110s (before unburden) and with unbirden outspeeding jolly sand exca and the other new fast megas. also one thing i noticed is that this mon can set up on the most used mon in the meta scarf landoge(eq,knock off,uturn). it also has quite a bit of attacking power with an sd up so i decided on it. after i wanted smth to be the 2nd dh and i knew that the poor mexican macho would struggle against strong birds like talon and pinsir and the fat slowbro. a simple fix would to get an electric thing as it would a) handle birds and bro and b) most likely have voltswitch to let lucha get a free switchin and also giving momentum. after looking for a while, AND CRYING THAT FRICKING RAIKOU IS NOT UNDER 3% i found megaman who seemed like a great fit. having intimidate can ease physical attackers for lucha so it can find moar opportunities to set up. i used to love that thing back in xy, and i think it has some untapped potential to be a threat.

 

[Hogg]

Still getting much success from Aero and Suicune tho: Suicune handles Stall fairly easily when it got +2 and it shows me to be able to win the Calm Mind War against Mega Sableye (*hint*hint*,Hogg*hint*hint*) and Aero, oml just obliterates anything without priority or a Scarf

Heh, I actually considered CroCune for a while before settling on a Alomomola. In the end I decided on the latter, because I was looking more for a defensive pivot than a sweeper, and Momo's wishpassing took a lot of pressure off of Chansey. I've got a lot of love for Suicune in general (Gold was my first pokemon game, so the legendary dogs in general are always some of my favs), but I decided Alomomola was just a better fit for the team.

In case anyone is wondering, my other team idea was also Sheddy stall, using Shedinja, Mega-Sableye, Unaware Clefable, Heatran, Mantine and Chesnaught. In testing it was surprisingly fun, but the defensive core was also easier to break than a more traditional stall core. Still a pretty cool team, though.

I was hoping to hit 1500 tonight, but I ended up working late and I'm tired, so I'm stopping at 1482 (21-1). Here's a quick replay from my most recent game showing how Shedinja works as a pivot on a stall team: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-202362697

 

[Spuun]

I was hoping to hit 1500 tonight, but I ended up working late and I'm tired, so I'm stopping at 1482 (21-1). Here's a quick replay from my most recent game showing how Shedinja works as a pivot on a stall team: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-202362697

I really didn't expect much of this Shedinja pick, but its honestly got some really cool synergy with Magic Bounce Mega-Sableye the god of stall. Its really cool. Unfortunate that Chomp has Rough Skin now, but you predicted around that too easily.
And the alomomola's wish passing to Shedinja, obviously best support.

 

[BenTheDemon]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: DemonicDragonite
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None
Current Dark Horses: Volcarona, Crawdaunt, Sceptile, Diggersby, Starmie
Explanation of Dark Horses: Honestly, I just wanted to try a few of the BLs out. I've used Mega Sceptile in OU before to sucess, so I built a FWG around it. I've also used Starmie in previous Gens and I'd like to try it this Gen. Diggersby is one of those Pokemon with a decent viability ranking despite being low-usage. I know this doesn't sound like much. I just wanna play around with these Pokemon.

 

[Machi]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: DHQuibbit
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Xatu, Coballion
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): This is already my team so technically I already qualified the whole time XD That being the case I use Xatu for anti-hazard as well as U-turn utility, and a good check to pesky Ferrothorns and Klefkis. Coballion is my hazard setter and steel type, primarily hazard setter that carries some offensive pressure and defense.

 

[Thunderorange]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: DemonicDragonite
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None
Current Dark Horses: Volcarona, Crawdaunt, Sceptile, Diggersby, Starmie
Explanation of Dark Horses: Honestly, I just wanted to try a few of the BLs out. I've used Mega Sceptile in OU before to sucess, so I built a FWG around it. I've also used Starmie in previous Gens and I'd like to try it this Gen. Diggersby is one of those Pokemon with a decent viability ranking despite being low-usage. I know this doesn't sound like much. I just wanna play around with these Pokemon.

Pokemon Showdown! Username: DHQuibbit
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Xatu, Coballion, Diggersby
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): This is already my team so technically I already qualified the whole time XD That being the case I use Xatu for anti-hazard as well as U-turn utility, and a good check to pesky Ferrothorns and Klefkis. Coballion is my hazard setter and steel type, primarily hazard setter that carries some offensive pressure and defense. While Diggersby is my MVP and clean up due to his brute strength.

Just saying that Diggersby is not a dark horse by a tiny percentage. The correct usage stats are "OU 1825".

 

[Machi]

Just saying that Diggersby is not a dark horse by a tiny percentage. The correct usage stats are "OU 1825".

Oh the link on the first page is outdated.

 

[Mega-Charizard]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Topkekleonz
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: none.
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Serperior, Exploud and Kecleon
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): Serperior getting contrary was a blessing, its power with leaf storm can help with late game cleaning, Exploud has the specs boomburst set where it can wall break, Kecleon is now the only Protean user in OU and has several priority moves with recovery.

 

[Jeronado]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: Reactive
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: N/A
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Aggron (0.17741%), Chandelure (0.49896%)
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): Aggron's been one of my favourite pokemon for a while, ashamed to say I've only built one team with it, and that was I was just getting into competitive pokemon. Anyway, Aggron serves as a wonderful check to threatening Physical attackers like Bisharp, Mega Pinsir and Mega Metagross, having only a small chance to be 3 or 4HKOed by MegaGross depending on whether or not it's running Hammer Arm or Earthquake. It's also non standard, which is good cause all my balance teams are starting to look the same.

Chandelure, is here to help Stallbreak, it also turns common mons like Ferrothorn and Heatran into liabilities thanks to Substitute. Chandelure is also a full stop to Mega Charizard Y which is a mon that threatens Aggron.

 

[heritage]

Oh the link on the first page is outdated.

The correct usage stats are "OU 1825".

Fixed this

 

[ShadySjin]

Pokemon Showdown! Username: kektus plant
Prior Hall of Fame Standing: None
Current Dark Horse Pokemon: Victini, Cacturne.
Explanation of Dark Horse(s): Victini is just powerful and can fulfill a lot of roles. Physical/Special scarf, band, even specs if you're a bit crazy. It has access to trick room, which could be thrown on to support cacturne in theory (though cacturne doesn't have enough bulk to make use of it, really). Tini has tons of coverage, bolt strike, tbolt, glaciate, focus blast, dazzling gleam, grass knot, shadow ball. It also has good stats all around and has hard hitting STABs for each offense. It also gets U-turn and Willo for utility. Toxic, trick, twave and sub are all decent options.
Cacturne ALSO has good offenses and access to STAB moves for each of them. It also has set up in both NP AND SD, dbond, subseed, spikes, and it got spiky shield in ORAS. It has good coverage options and STAB sucker punch. It has drain punch and giga drain, so it can heal itself regardless of which offenses you decide to make use of. Great mixed potential on both of these mons, and they both hit especially hard with a life orb or other boosting item.

EDIT: WHOOPS, forgot to mention that Tini baits water attacks for cacturne and covers it's fighting and fairy weaknesses quite well, while Cacturne in turn patches up Tini's dark weakness.

 

[Thunderorange]

I'm finally out of Elo hell and cruising, sitting at 1335 Elo with a record of 14-1. Here is a match I played which was the best battle I've had so far while laddering for this excellent project. It has many predicitions, mispredictions and predictions of predictions and it ended with one of my dark horses (Volcarona) sweeping. It also shows how my team is supposed to function fairly well. Enjoy.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-202639720

Turn by turn explanation

Turn 1
I led with Pidgeot mainly because I wanted to Mega evolve early as I could and Pidgeot could Mega versus the majority of his team. I also wanted to go for the U-Turn on the possible Heatran switchin to trap him with Duggy early. My oponenet led with serperior which surprised me but was also in my favour. I U-Turned him hoping to catch the Heatran.

Turn 2
He ended up switching into Magnezone and not Heatran which I thought was an odd play since Mega Pidgeot outspeeds Jolly Scarf Magnezone and kills with Heat Wave. However I'm not complaining as it allowed me to take out his Magnezone which could have potentially trapped my Ferrothorn.

Turn 3
After losing his Magnezone he goes straight out into Serperior and clicks glare as I bring in my Ferrothorn to absorb the expected Leaf Storm.

Turn 4
I switched out not wanting to risk the HP Fire though looking back I should have expected it to not have it considering he had a Magnezone, a Gallade and a Heatran.


Turn 5
The switch from both sides puts me at a disadvantage so I U-Turn out just in case he double switches predicting Dugtrio. At this point I was debating between switching in Rotom-W and Dugtrio but I decided on Rotom because I didn't want to risk the Lava Plume burn (I was getting haxed a lot in previous matches). It is a good thing I did because he went for the Will-O-Wisp.

Turn 6
I used Volt switch expecting him to switch out as he switches into his serperior and I go out into Pidgeot to bait in Heatran.

Turn 7
I go for the U-Turn expecting Heatran but he predicts that and stays in. I predict the Glare and go out into Ferrothorn.

Turn 8
This turn is a turn a whole lot of nothing happens. He Leaf Storms and misses and I attempt to go for SR and get paralysed.

Turn 9
After him staying in with his serperior I go for the Gyro Ball as he chooses this turn to switch out to Lando-T.

Turn 10
I switch to Rotom to threaten him out as he goes for his own rocks.
Turn 11
I go for the Hydro Pump just to be safe as he bring in his sylveon and drinks my Hydro Pump.
Turn 12
I bring out Ferrothorn to take the Hyper Voice.

Turn 13
He reveals the HP fire as I get paralysed.

Turn 14
He switches into Heatran as I go for the Gyro Ball to weaken the Sylveon for my Latias to kill with Psyshock after determining his likely spread using the damage from Rotom's Hydro Pump.

Turn 15
I switch into Rotom to absorb a hit as he predicts that and roars me out into Latias.

Turn 16
I decide I may as well defog while I'm in against this Heatran since it allows my Dugtrio to keep his sash, my Volcarona to keep half it's health and it stops my Pidgeot from being worn down. My opponent goes for the flash cannon.

Turn 17
I switch into Dugtrio expecting him to flash cannon again (I'm sash) but he predicts that and catches me with a will-o-wisp.

Turn 18
I go for a half power EQ as he roars me out into my Pidgeot and his Heatran lives to fight another day.

Turn 19
He switches out into Lando to bait in and wear down my Rotom-W which is the only thing other than Dugtrio that can deal with his Heatran.

Turn 20
He switches into serperior again as I go for the volt switch into my Pidgeot.

Turn 21
I decided to go for the Hurricane since my opponent has already shown his reluctance to switch into Heatran. Another reason I went for Hurricane is to kill his Serperior if he gets cheeky and stays in on a predicted U-Turn. Anyway my opponent ends up switching into Lando and takes a decent chunk.

Turn 22
I go for the Hurricane again as he switches into Sylveon not wanting to risk me U-Turning against Heatran and takes only 30% from it confirming my suspicions that he was specially defensive.

Turn 23
I go for the U-Turn because I really don't want to eat a Hyper Voice. I go into Ferrothorn to sack him and potentially get off a little bit of damage.

Turn 24
I die to the incoming HP fire which I didn't expect based on the previous roll. Looking at my situation I am in a fair bit of trouble. I am going to find it hard to take out that Heatran. I decide to go into Volcarona as a desperate attempt to lure in Heatran to trap him with my burned Dugtrio. This is a big gamble which may end with a dead Heatran Trapper and possibly a lost game.

Turn 25
I pull the risky double into Dugtrio and it comes off. The Heatran which he played so well with and cautiously with is trapped and KOed. This opens up the floodgates for my other two dark horses Volcarona and Pidgeot to tear throug his team.

Turn 26
I go straight for the memento to lower the incoming Mega Gallade's attack. This provides the setup opportunity my Volcarona needs to close out the game.

Turn 27-34
Volcarona Quivers up and tears through my opponent's team.