Monoteams

[broodjekebab]

Raikoulover, how do you deal with bulky tauntGyarados? And with Rhotom?
I tried mono-fight myself, and had some trouble with Gyarados. (My Heracross dealt with non-overheat Rhotoms well enough. )

 

[SJCrew]

You will need a combination of one Choice Scarfer + a physically defensive Hariyama w/Thunder Punch to minimize the risk of being swept by Gyarados. A lot of people use Stone Edge over Bounce, so Hariyama should handle it perfectly if it's in relatively good condition. Hitmontop with Intimidate and Stone Edge is a weak answer to it, and Technician will help more in an OU environment anyway, so I'd advise you not to use it.

Your scarfer can be anything, but Heracross would work wonders if you're not already opting for band (which you should in most cases since it's the best chance your team has of getting past Rotom-A and Dusknoir).

 

[RaikouLover]

Scarfers in my experience create more problems. Especially on a mono-team. That same Scarfed Heracross used to revenge Gyarados means I can be getting set up later. I haven't had any trouble with Gyarados at all mainly because it doesn't set up against anything very easily. Waterfall / Stone Edge variants utterly fail against Poliwrath and Breloom also. From my experience, Gyarados really only comes in on Hitmontop or Machamp, who have no issue with Gyarados at all. By the time Lucario comes out Gyarados is long gone lol.

 

[M BLADE]

I've been using a competitive mono ghost: it's surprisingly "effective".
PS: Keep in mind this a old team: like, from 2 years ago! I did some small changes here and there though, and it isn't yet complete.

Froslass @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 SpA /252 Spe /6 HP
Nature:Timid
-Spikes
-Destiny Bond
-Ice Beam
-Shadow Ball


Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 6 HP
Nature: Hasty
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Focus Blast
-Explosion

Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 6 HP
Nature: Timid
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Overheat
-Trick

Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Def/ 6 SpA
Nature: Bold
-Will-o-Wisp
-Calm Mind
-Dark Pulse
-Pain Split

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
Nature: Adamant
-Substitute
-Ice Punch
-Focus Punch
-Pain Split

Mismagius @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 48 HP/ 208 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Substitute
-Calm Mind
-Shadow Ball
-Hidden Power Fighting


Considerations: Dusknoir is near damn useless. I'll probably change it.
Froslass is the only lead a ghost team should use. No one's going to spin against you anyway, so Spikes the hell out!.
Spiritomb often saves my ass from being swept. CM patches up it's special attacks while Will-o-Wisp is a nasty surprise. It doesn't sweep but it certainly opens up holes and disturbs many strategies along the way.
It is the MVP of any mono ghost team. Always carry one if you use mono ghost.
Gengar is the fast hard hitter. Standard set of LO and 4 attacks. Last one being Explosion. Save for late game and it often sweeps with some ease.
Rotom-H is the so needed Scarf poke and a insurance against Gyarados/Scizor trying to hunt my team down.
Mismagius is the only fast set up sweeper this metagame has. CM was to set up on special attacks: though i believe Nasty Plot is needed now. There's not much i can set up CM, so NP may be the best alternative.

The top 3 problematic pokes are:

1-Tyranitar: bet you saw this coming. Scarf is a pain and can kill 5/6 of my team. That's why Spiritomb is so important.
2-Scizor: ghots are frail. Bullet Punch hurts. I have Rotom, but if it's locked on Shadow Ball...
3- Heatran: i need something that packs a punch against it: Gengar is my only alternative (and it dies to Scarftrans). Pressure semi stall is appreciated though.

Also: lack of SE moves means Hippowdon can just stay there and Roar me out multiple times.

Quick Solution: turning my useless poke (Dusknoir) into a all around "check" to all those (except Tyranitar of course).
How i do that? Well... dunno.
This team needs some changes. Old team is old team after all.

 

[Axa]

Well there are only 3 other Ghosts outside Giratina. Shedinja is kind of novelty, but it can set up on Scizor at least. It falls to the ubiquitous Sandstorm though.

Drifblim has some use as a SubCMpasser. Banette is the only substitute for Dusknoir if you want to take out Blissey, since you'd have no physical attackers otherwise.

 

[vahki95]

Great idea considering it removes the overpowered dragons, I'm new so I'm just kinda learning about everything, I plan on trying to get a tutor

 

[kanak0]

So I have been playing around with a mono ground team with pretty good results.
Its,
Nidoqueen, toxic spikes lead
Hippowdon, physical wall + yawn
Flygon, scarf revenge killer
Torterra, subseeder
Quagsire, surprise special wall with recover, ice punch, waterfall, and toxic. Helps with the huge bulky water weakness.
Rhyperior, with rock polish to clean up end game.

 

[Andy Wijsman]

Am playing a Mono Electric Team myself.
"Manectric, Rotom, Luxray, Magnezone, Electivire, Zapdos"
The reactions people give are mostly negative. Even if they barely win against it so that's kind of lame. It's not an all winning team but it's not an all losing team. It even get's me better results then playing with a standard team ^^
One of the key things to play a mono team is to get your own flow i think. Doubt that anyone can really work with the same Electric pokemon i use and this combination works the best for me. Tried several other pokemon like Pikachu, Jolteon and Ampharos but it didn't fit my style. Which made me lose alot of battles.
Mono teams are indeed handicaps that give you a battle on the edge cause one mistake can really cost you alot more then just losing 1 pokemon. However that is the fun of it and for me enough to keep my focus :p

 

[RaikouLover]

mono electric with no lanturn? BLASPHEMY!!!!

 

[min min]

That mono electric team seems to be Ttar weak, if it carries earthquake. Your two quake absorbers are pursuited and stone edged respectively.

 

[leafeon]

The very first team I ever made was a monotype grass team. It was pretty cool, because I grew completely used to playing with it so I knew it really well. I pulled off a few wins against a few users on this other forum I go on. Whenever I make new teams, if they aren't themed, then I get bored. ^^;

 

[Farewell]

Water works Best:

Ludicolo
Suicune
Swampert
Kingdra
Lanturn
Tentacruel / Qwilfish

Tentacruel allows for a Kindgra sweep, & Suicune sweep, while Qwilfish works in the Rain with Ludicolo, Lanturn, and Kingdra.

Type coverage is great as 2 Electric Immunities, 2 Electric Neutral Pokemon, 3 Grass Neutral Pokemon, and a strong amount of physical defense (Suicune/Swampert), to work with a good Special Defense (Lanturn/Tentacruel).

Empoleon could be used over Suicune with Tentacruel to maintain good type coverage (immunities/neutrality).

 

[Bughouse]

I have a monopurple team in UU that scores REALLY well. Ambipom, Espeon, Nidoking, Spiritomb, Weezing, Cloyster.

 

[TPM]

Mine is OU; Crobat, Muk, Shiny Lapras, Exploud, Drapion, and Gliscor.
Yes I said OU

That is not a monocolour team. True mono-colour teams go off their dex colour.

 

[moe1216]

I went with a mono-ground team and I've built around fifteen pokemon or more of the type from all tiers to use in a monotype tourny my friends are hosting on August 16th. What I noticed about ground, other than having the most type advantages, tied with fighting, it holds a wide variety of pokemon from Claydol to Hippowdon and many hit hard and some hit fast. I made nine specifically for the tourny, which is the most we can use.

Team
1.Garchomp (we don't use tiers or legendaries)
2.Swampert
3.Flygon
4.Gliscor
5.Claydol
6.Mamoswine
7.Camerupt
8.Hippowdon
9.Quagsire

 

[sir_arthur]

im running a mono fighting team with street fighter names with fairly succes, tho i lost to fast peaced teams because fighters aren't any fast... maybe you can give me some suggestions:

Infernape (Blanka), standard lead ape, rocks are a must because of flyer, specially gyarados and zapdos

Physical Tank Hariyama (E Honda), with more HP investment than attack to resist more and phaze, OU hits hard lol...

Brelom (Zangief), standard breelom, just because i can put a counter to sleep..

Machamp (Sagat) Subchamp with encore to allow switching easier

Heracross @Scarf (Akuma), my revange killer, outspeeds almost anything without a scarf..

Lucario (Ryu), i have been trying Calm Mind Lucario, switching into encored atacks that machamp gets, or resisted ones, like bullet punch and hit hard with aurasphere/vaccum wake, looks gimick but works incredibly good!

I used to have Gallade as a Choice Bander with Trick, but it is very slow, also i have thinking in on Toxicroak to counter gyarados, but i can't find who to switch into...

 

[Balsty]

Well, I really enjoy Mono-Water.
I managed to put together a team of a couple favourites and some things I never really thought to use in my other teams. Sure, there's a hard grass weakness here and there, but the electric weakness is what makes my team better than anybody would expect.
Swampert(Makes for a pretty good lead, doesn't afraid of much except Sceptile and I rarely see that guy)
Starmie(Wonderful revenge killer, almost always gets one in per battle, but I don't find myself using him very much otherwise)
Gyarados(This is a part of my team's Gyaraturn core. Get Lanturn in there, do some things, take a bit of damage maybe unless there's rocks up or I don't need him. Gyarados does his thing, if he has to switch because of Jolteon or Starmie, I'll send in ol' Lanty with his volt absorb and his special walling abilities get some parahax up in this bitch, then proceed to constantly heal myself and fire off stab moves until I feel like he's done enough for the greater good)
Tentacruel(Generic spinning and toxic spiking, nothing to see here, folks)
Lanturn(I've actually swept 4-0 with him, believe it or not. Or is it 0-4? I have no idea how that terminology works. I just battle)
Empoleon(that agisubpetaya set is really deadly, when I actually manage to eliminate his potential counters on the enemy team and set him up perfectly, it's pretty much a guaranteed win)


Decided to try a Mono Steel team for the hell of it but I find myself getting brutally fucked by mixed Dnite and Rotom-H.
Currently I'm running with,
Jirachi Lead
Scizor
Forretress
Heatran
Skarmory
Bronzong with Levi

Any suggestions? I was thinking of adding in Magnezone to help with the ground and electric holes in my team.
Even with Heatran I find it hard to get that massive fire weakness under control with my stream of justice.

 

[Balsty]

Scarfers in my experience create more problems. Especially on a mono-team. That same Scarfed Heracross used to revenge Gyarados means I can be getting set up later. I haven't had any trouble with Gyarados at all mainly because it doesn't set up against anything very easily. Waterfall / Stone Edge variants utterly fail against Poliwrath and Breloom also. From my experience, Gyarados really only comes in on Hitmontop or Machamp, who have no issue with Gyarados at all. By the time Lucario comes out Gyarados is long gone lol.

Have you not ever heard of putting Bounce on Gyarados?
Checks Breloom instantly for an OHKO, DD or not. Hitmontop? Gone.
Machamp not so much but there's other ways of dealing with him.
Then again I guess nobody thinks a two-turn move is good at all.
What I find funny is that NOBODY ever switches out Breloom when I Bounce. Maybe they expect parahax or something? Idunno. It's never happened anyways.

 

[Rogan]

I like mono dragon, but it really lacks members. Bans make things that much harder. Maybe fifth gen will introduce a bunch of new dragons. However, for the moment it's limited to ubers play.

 

[HART4FLOON]

Have you not ever heard of putting Bounce on Gyarados?
Checks Breloom instantly for an OHKO, DD or not. Hitmontop? Gone.
Machamp not so much but there's other ways of dealing with him.
Then again I guess nobody thinks a two-turn move is good at all.
What I find funny is that NOBODY ever switches out Breloom when I Bounce. Maybe they expect parahax or something? Idunno. It's never happened anyways.

You do realize that he posted that a few months ago, right? The metagame has changed quiet a bit since then so he probably adjusted his monoteam as well (assuming that he still uses it)

 

[Vratix]

Have you not ever heard of putting Bounce on Gyarados?
Checks Breloom instantly for an OHKO, DD or not. Hitmontop? Gone.
Machamp not so much but there's other ways of dealing with him.
Then again I guess nobody thinks a two-turn move is good at all.
What I find funny is that NOBODY ever switches out Breloom when I Bounce. Maybe they expect parahax or something? Idunno. It's never happened anyways.

Bounce isn't all destroying of Breloom either.
Alot of Bulky Gyara don't outrun max-speed Breloom (which most Brelooms are) without a DD up. (I suspect that the Standard BulkyDD was changed recently because of sub-seed Breloom at max-speed).

I haven't bothered to check any statistics but I would guess that nearly half of Breloom's carry substitute.

Sub first to check speeds and discover whether Breloom is faster (30/70 chance on those Bulky Bouncers). Then a)If you are faster: If DD is up, sub immediately. If no DD is up sub in the air; OR b) just sub whenever possible. If leech seed and poison heal are active you can stall out any Gyarados.

Bounce is great and all but if you're running mono-flying you certainly shouldn't rely on Gyarados as your Breloom counter. (plus bounce has that unfortunate NOT 100 accuracy.)

 

[Tortipouss]

I really enjoy monoteams and my two most succesful, like a few other peoples, are poison and normal. My poison team was my first ever attempt and I have constantly changed it since then. Its best members (past and present) include Crobat (useful ground immunity and very fast hypnosis), Tentacruel (toxic spikes and spinner), Gengar (choice scarf revenge killer), Drapion (psychic imunnity and physical haxing sweeper), Nidoqueen (stealth rocker and phazer), Roserade (spiker), and Toxicroak (sub puncher of awesomeness).
And my normal team is more recent and consists of Ambipom (life orb lead), Swellow (guts sweeper), Clefable (SRer and wish passer), miltank (scrappy cursing sweeper), Bibarel (destroyer of everything, haxer) and my necessary wild card Mismagius (bulky version). And yes, it's a UU team, but I use it to equal success in OU.
Anyway, just wanted to share my feelings on my favourite gimmick.