DarkSpam v2.0
Hey people on earth! In the early days of Gen 7 UU I made a DarkSpam RMT featuring Mega Absol and friends. At its time, the team was pretty successful but as time went, the team became less viable because of new threats that entered the metagame.
Since always I loved using Honchkrow and in my opinion, it is a really overlooked Pokémon. It has two good STAB moves, priority, a really high attack stat and unique movepool. So, I decided I want to build a team around it and the result is pretty successful.
I present you - a revised DarkSpam team I have worked on and would love to share, with a bit fancier presentation than the former DarkSpam team.
Without further ado, let's begin.
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Brave Bird is the move you will be using at most. Its Honchkrow's most powerful STAB and hits like a truck.
- Sucker Punch is used against faster checks such as Keldeo and Infernape, weakening them for Bisharp and Scizor.
- Pursuit hits opposing weakened Pokémon that attempt to switch out so you don't get your Moxie boost / Superpower mainly hits Empoleon.
- Icy Wind hits Gliscor for super effective damage and allows you to lower the speed of faster Honchkrow switch-ins so you could pick them up with a strong Brave Bird / Heat Wave mainly hits Scizor.
252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 239-282 (60.6 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 80+ Def Hippowdon: 200-238 (47.6 - 56.6%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Raikou: 172-203 (53.5 - 63.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Raikou: 203-239 (63.2 - 74.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Keldeo: 129-152 (39.9 - 47%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance is your way of breaking teams. Bisharp's typing and acceptable bulk allows you to set it up at least once on every game.
- Iron Head is Bisharp's tool of hitting fairies for super effective damage. It allows it to break the Fairy types which most of my team members struggle against.
- Knock Off is your primary move. It is really powerful and is your main way of damaging the opponent's team.
- Sucker Punch is used to hit faster checks such as Infernape and Keldeo.
Bisharp is the first set-up sweeper of the team. Unlike most dark types, it has the tools to hit Fairies, one of the two types that Dark type struggle against at most, for great damage It has an amazing offensive synergy with its fellow Honchkrow. Both Bisharp and Honchkrow lure the same checks, making them a really good pair.
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Ability: Speed Boost -> Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Ability: Speed Boost -> Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect is mandatory on every Sharpedo as it gives you an auto speed boost.
- Crunch is Sharpedo's main move. It is powerful as hell - a decent 80 BP, further boosted by STAB bonus and Strong Jaw.
- Waterfall is Sharpedo's way of hitting threats such as Mega Aerodactyl for super effective damage. It is also pretty powerful thanks to the STAB bonus it gets and has a 20% of flinching your opponent.
- Psychic Fangs is Sharpedo's secondary move. Even though it's not a STAB move, it has a higher BP than Waterfall has and is boosted by Strong Jaw, which gives it a pseudo STAB boost.
Mega Sharpedo is the team's main late-game cleaner. Its typing, coverage and abilities make it a really threatening cleaner. It also appreciates the removal of Dark checks that Honchkrow and Bisharp provide.
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance is Scizor's main way of damaging the opponents team, but it can still do pretty well even without one.
- Bullet Punch is your primary move. A priority that is further boosted by STAB bonus and Technician, has a high PP and is really spammable.
- Bug Bite hits Pokémon that resist Bullet Punch such as Mega Blastoise. Note that after a Swords Dance and prior damage, Scizor is able to kill even resisted foes with Bullet Punch.
- Superpower hits what Bullet Punch and Bug Bite don't, mainly steel types.
Even though Scizor is not a Dark type, it has an amazing synergy with Dark types, as all share similar switch-ins such as Keldeo and Infernape. Scizor is the team's secondary set-up sweeper and secondary late-game cleaner. It is so powerful it can destroy several teams by its own.
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor is Latias' most powerful attack. It has an amazing 130 BP which is further boosted by STAB bonus. Use it with caution, as it lowers your special attack by two stages and allows some set-up sweepers to set-up.
- Psyshock is Latias' way of hitting Keldeo, Clefable (forcing it to heal) and such.
- Hidden Power [Fire] a great Scizor lure. I wanted a Scizor lure so Sharpedo has an easier type cleaning late-game.
- Recover is for longevity, as this team really needs a Keldeo switch-in.
As you can see, Latias is the only special attacker on the team. I had to pick up a special attacker and Latias was the best option I could pick, I feel. Dark spam teams really need a Keldeo switch-in, as they are so weak to it. Not only that it helps with Keldeo, it also lures Scizor, another Pokémon that Dark spam teams are weak to and nukes it with Hidden Power [Fire] and is a strong wallbreaker in general with two great STAB boosted moves.
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly / Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock is the main purpose of this Pokémon. Just get it up and explode.
- Taunt prevents slower hazards setters from getting up hazards on your side. It may also help against set-up sweepers trying to set-up on Azelf.
- Magic Coat is explained here / Flamethrower mainly hits steel types.
- Explosion to gain momentum and deal damage, even if you explode against immunes.
I don't think there's much to say here. Azelf is the suicide lead of choice in the team. We all know what it does because it's basically everywhere - it gets up Stealth Rock and dies. Use Jolly nature with Magic Coat and Naive nature with Flamethrower.
That's it for the team!
Here are the team's main threats that are on the top of my mind:
- it is really bulky and can OHKO Bisharp and Mega Sharpedo, two important team members with Mach Punch. It could be played around though.
- it has an amazing coverage that threats most of my team - Fire Fang for Scizor, Earthquake for Bisharp and its two STAB moves hit the rest of the team really hard.
- stall is a really hard playstyle to play against. Honchkrow is able to demolish stall but it just dies too quickly after taking all the recoil.
Proof of Peak
Importable
Replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-560639937
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-560244888
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-559981896
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-559971486
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-559956676
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-559940348
Thanks a lot for reading, I really appreciate it! Feel free to use the team - it's really fun!
Here are the team's main threats that are on the top of my mind:
Proof of Peak
Importable
Replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-560639937
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-560244888
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-559981896
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-559971486
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-559956676
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-559940348
Thanks a lot for reading, I really appreciate it! Feel free to use the team - it's really fun!
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