Battle Stadium Singles blog #7 — Primarina-Dracozolt with triple Steel (S5-6)
After not managing to get a finish above the low triple digit ranks for Season 5 (April) despite actually pushing on the final day for once (and meeting more disconnect abusers on that final day of the season than over the course of the rest of the season put together), I figured I'd at least report on another 30-game challenge thing I made up for myself as the backup plan. The team is relatively straightforward, so here goes:
When a 6.3% roll almost gets you: 315, 320, 322, 328, 330, 335, 338, 343, 346, 351, 354, 359, 361, 367, 369, 374 (Haxorus 252 Att Life Orb Outrage / 370).
Grassy Terrain boosted Max Overgrowth desperation managed to overcome Toxapex.
Bailed out of a well-deserved loss against +1 Def & SpDef Fissure (!) Hippowdon by Horn Drill.
Rental code: 0000 0007 7MKN WX
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/cbfdcbc0f64c1a8e
1) Team overview:
Primarina
The Speed creep on this sewer mermaid plays into the offensive investments that threaten most unresisted targets with a 2HKO just as much as it does to its crowded Speed tier. Indeed, this set goes as high as a real Speed stat of 92 to threaten opposing Corviknight with the 2HKO, and, yes, even outspeed the sneakiest Snorlax set of them all, the +252 Spd Belly Drum Gmax (90).
Offensive options on this set consist of repeatedly clicking Moonblast in order to high-roll SpAtt drops against things like Weakness Policy Lapras, or until hit by something like a Yawn, after which Max Starfall or a switch out is in order.
When walled defensively, Primarina likely finds itself against Toxapex (against which it is best benched anyway), Snorlax (even non-Assault Vest sets are considerably bulky), and, especially, Ferrothorn, the overcoming of which a decent amount of thought in the building of this team has gone, and about which you will read more below.
Dracozolt
A word to the wise: losing as Weakness Policy Dracozolt is one of the worst ways to go in the entire format. First, outside Dynamax, you are constantly at the mercy of the Hustle whiff painfully familiar to most from Durant's — whose real +252 Spd stat of 177 this Dracozolt is incidentally EV'd to outspeed by 1 at +1 — time of ascendance earlier in about seasons 1-3.
Second, as a form of lure set on the greedier side, Weakness Policy sets are mostly pigeon-holed into the dedicated Dynamax role due to having cut so much power in exchange for survivability. This, of course, means that if sniffed out, they can be switched around to exhaust their Dynamax turns without any hope of breking through the opposing Dynamax. This then opens up the Hustle out for the opponent even if somehow otherwise checkmated by +2 Spd Dracozolt with perfect type coverage.
Neither of these are concerns to this extent for Life Orb Max Airstream sweeper or Choice Scarf/Band sets by design, because the former is only employed in games where it is virtually guaranteed to pop off (absence of or answers to Dragapult's prohibitive speed tier, Mimikyu, or both), and the latter is ideally paired with defensive U-turn/Volt Switch users that can repeatedy recover momentum by inserting Dracozolt back in via slow pivot. Focus Sash Dracozolt is also something you occasionally see, though not as often as one would perhaps expect.
Excadrill
Scarf Earthquake lead is often the ideal start with defensive pairs in Corviknight or Dracozolt in the back, although Dynamaxing to get out of the Scarf lock with Dracozolt in the back is not a prospect one would relish, but something that does occasionally just win.
In any case, Scarf Excadrill remains a nice reactive answer to offensive Mimikyu, Rotom-H/W, and is also intended to surprise the few natively faster opposing pure Fire-types like Arcanine, Charizard, and Cinderace that might want to show up against a triple steel line up on the opposing side.
Excadrill is also helped by the fact that Corviknight usage is somewhat in decline at the time of writing, owing in no small part to things like zero attacks Mimikyu, and Gmax-Lapras as both an offensive and a defensive tool, which means the choice whether to bring or bench Excadrill is made that much easier by the fact that the two most serious Earthquake-immune opponents that threaten to switch in and really abuse the Choice-lock momentum loss left are Gyarados (handled somewhat by Corviknight/Mimikyu in the back) and Togekiss (Dynamax Excadrill or hard switch in Aegislash to take a hit/Sash Iron Head abuse a greedy Nasty Plot are among the most palatable options).
Brick Break would make it easier to handle screens and to have the option to Dynamax against Ferrothorn and Snorlax, but Horn Drill is one of the few outs this team has to things like hard stall featuring Toxapex and Quagsire/Corviknight. Brick Break, Rock Tomb or even Rock Blast have some merit too over the least clicked move slot across my 30 games — that occupied by Rock Slide.
Mimikyu
Because Excadrill risks getting Choice-lock abused as outlined above, Corviknight is a massive potential momentum drain especially after U-turn is revealed, and Dracozolt is just dodgy in general, one must surely be forgiven for employing the biggest gluemon crutch of them all: offensive Mimikyu.
I've added Drain Punch as a Max Knuckle option for when bringing something like Primarina-steel-Mimikyu or when immediate burst is needed to break some reception loops. Ferrothorn, in particular, is something that, with a bit of chip (15-20%), can potentially be dispatched without breaking Disguise if it switches into a Max Knuckle, whereas Swords Dance, even when paired with Phantom Force-as-Max Phantasm (130BP) would need 25-30%+ of prior damage on it or it misses the 1HKO. And this is against the standard fully Def-invested variants, mind you, not to mention the effect of potentially forcing out the opponent's Dynamax on Ferrothorn if it's not the absolute standard set and switches into that Max Knuckle. Drain Punch from +2 Att against Ferrothorn also lets Mimikyu bruise it to a point where another Dynamax option in the back can come in to clean up after its sacrifice, perhaps a more realistic scenario all things considered.
Other interesting options for the Drain Punch slot on this team, outside the painfully obvious Phantom Force/Shadow Claw, are basically limited to Substitute (especially popular on offensive Mimikyu sets on Dynamaxer-Aegislash-Mimikyu teams in general in order to deal with the opposing Dynamax), Curse (only really useful as a form of set up for a Dynamax user against the merficully rare stall teams), and Destiny Bond (genuinely interesting for bamboozling Snorlax and Ferrothorn when Corviknight is benched, but too situational overall given its unfortunate Dynamax interaction, or lack thereof).
Corviknight
Ideally benched as often as possible, and outside of its ability to checkmate opponents unable to break Iron Defense + Body Press, this bird really only exists on this team to click U-turn to get a sweeper in after it switches in on turn 2 to recover momentum after a botched lead read.
On a slightly more serious note though, Corviknight is nice in that it positively bops things like, again, Ferrothorn, that seek to abuse a Mimikyu-Snorlax metagame, and remains a solid bring against the myriad hyper offense all ins featuring physical attackers like Mimikyu, Gyarados, or something behind screens/Tailwind like Haxorus.
Aegislash
As this team does not carry Stealth Rock, having access to yet another priority move user for Sash-breaking is welcome. Dracozolt also always benefits from something that can trade 1-for-1 so consistently to get a KO with its Max Airstream opener so as to preserve its health for the inevitable super effective would-be revenge kill in the back.
With this in mind, a number of potent Sash options would do well in this role as described above. Indeed, Cinderace, originally the 6th slot on this team, for instance, would potentially bring both priority and Counter/Taunt (even the outrageously situational Court Change may be worth it considering the problems this team has with breaking through screens), and would do a good job at luring out Stealth Rock setters like Hippowdon to abuse in the lead match up mindgame.
Likewise, Cinderace's U-turn would help Primarina against Ferrothorn match ups without necessarily having to rely on double-switching as often, being able to freely pivot against vast swathes of the metagame thanks to its superior Speed tier.
All this being said, though, Sash Aegislash is just too good at wallbreaking through things like Snorlax through a combination of Swords Dance and Sacred Sword, with the added benefit of not being as crippled by status (Trick/Thunder Wave from potential leads like Grimmsnarl), and, with its +2 or +4 attacks, ideally putting Ferrothorn and even a number of its potential partners like Gastrodon into range for your Dynamax sweepers.
Having slightly better match ups against both Lapras (against which it can waste three turns of the screens buff if it hard switches into Max Resonance) and Gyarados (outside the Sash Counter set) are also in no small part responsible for why I changed over to Aegislash. Swords Dance openings are also potentially devastating for something more telegraphed like screens Ninetales-A/Grimmsnarl/Meowstic/Espeon, although in Ninetales-A's case, Excadrill's Scarf Iron Head is obviously the thing best applied.
2) Usage notes:
Hard leading Dynamax is an option for this team because Aegislash and Mimikyu in the back are so good at trading against non-stall/screens teams that getting a 1-for-1 at a minimum is a good outcome for something like lead Excadrill, Primarina, or Dracozolt in Dynamax form.
Screens teams are another matter entirely, though, necessitating the worst kind of counter play imaginable: wasting screens turns switching around with Corviknight and type resistances. That being said, dedicated screens play is not always even evident from the team select screen, with things like Dragapult (especially when paired with Togekiss, though things like Snorlax do attempt offensive set up behind screens, to make things even harder to read) carrying Light Clay screens alongside Will-o-Wisp, making both lead Excadrill and Aegislash questionable.
2.1 — Usual team compositions
Primarina/Dracozolt-Aegislash-Mimikyu
Excadrill-Corviknight/Dracozolt-
Primarina-Excadrill/Dracozolt-
2.2 — Most brought, by rate/member (descending)
No fancy Excel spreadsheets here.
These statistics are based on my 20 games playing this team at around ranks 4000-1000 in late season 5...
The higher you get late in the season, the higher the chance of hitting a "cutting bug" enthusiast. Also, >Eject Button Grimmsnarl.
...combined with another 10 games to start off season 6's climb:
2.3 — VS Team Select Screen
Note: I have made some minor updates to the descriptions of the archetypes below, as well as reordering them in descending order of frequency based on my experience of hundreds of games around ranks 3000-600.
Balanced or Momentum Offense (goodstuffs compositions)
Excadrill, Aegislash, Mimikyu, Darmanitan-Toxapex/Rotom/Ferrothorn, Dragapult, Togekiss/Gyarados, Rotom-H/W, Yawn Hippowdon/Snorlax. At first glance, almost everything bar 1-2 defensive anchors is potentially an offensive threat, likely with a solid defensive backbone in something like Hippowdon or Snorlax. With multiple threats like this, something might also have an unexpected support set like Sash/Stealth Rock Rock Tomb Excadrill or Yawn or even Trick/Yawn Togekiss in order to get an edge over everyone else slapping together teams of the most impactful pokemon in the format like this.
Aegislash-Mimikyu-
Primarina-Excadrill/Aegislash-Mimikyu
Excadrill-Dracozolt/Corviknight-Mimikyu/Primarina
Aegislash is a good lead that beats most other Sash leads and Stealth Rock setters (with the major exception of Hippowdon), and even has a decent Darmanitan match up even without King's Shield (Primarina needs to Dynamax turn 1 to avoid the 1HKO from Jolly Choice Band Earthquake, for example). Dragapult-Togekiss is also popular enough as a Screens play that it should be factored in whenever present in the team select screen.
Screens or Tailwind Offense
Grimmsnarl or other Light Clay Dual Screens as leads or as follow ups to Dynamax damage leads à la Trick Room offense builds. Alternatively, dedicated suicide/cripple leads like Tailwind/Memento/Switcheroo Whimsicott (Sash, Eject Button, Flame Orb) or Will-o-Wisp/Thunder Wave/Curse Dragapult/Mimikyu. Win conditions consist of Dragon Dancers (Haxorus is a dead giveaway), Cloyster, Max Airstream (especially Togekiss) mode etc.
Aegislash-Corviknight-Mimikyu
Primarina-Corviknight/Aegislash-Mimikyu/Dracozolt
Aegislash and Primarina are probably the better lead options, because the former can Swords Dance on most forms of Screens play, and the latter does well against lead Screens Dragapult, Grimmsnarl and Lapras. Corviknight does a decent job of stopping physical-based Screens abuse and does not particularly mind switching around or boosting and Roosting to waste Screens turns.
Trick Room (Hyper) Offense Mode
Curse Mimikyu typically paired with Rhyperior, Snorlax, Dracovish, or even something like Primarina/Lapras. Likely partners include Sash/Dynamax leading a sweeper like Cloyster, Durant, Sash Cinderace etc. to trade 1-for-1 at a minimum so that Trick Room Mimikyu and its partner can clean up. The other, conventional mode may consist of Ferrothorn, Dracozolt, and even Gyarados and/or Togekiss play.
Primarina-Mimikyu-Aegislash/Corviknight
Excadrill-Primarina-Mimikyu
Corviknight is consistent against Rhyperior/Dracovish/Snorlax mode (although needing to have an Iron Defense under its belt beforing encountering Choice Band Dracovish). Mimikyu is a decent option against hyper offense in both following up on any kind of aggressive lead trade, and in making the Trick Room mode less appealing as the bring for the opponent in general owing to its ability to waste turns through a combination of Disguise and Max Guard.
Dedicated Defense (stall mode)
Toxapex, Quagsire/Gastrodon, Avalugg/Corviknight, Ferrothorn. Mimikyu, Ditto etc. as sweeper options.
Excadrill-Dracozolt/Corviknight-Primarina
Horn Drill spam is the major out here. Dracozolt's unboosted Max Wyrmwind gets Recovered off by the inevitable Quagsire/Gastrodon as a Toxapex/Corviknight partner. Meanwhile, Primarina, Aegislash and Mimikyu are hard walled by Toxapex.
3) In Conclusion:
With two more seasons left of the pre-DLC metagame, I've still yet to wring out the last drops of jank this ruleset has to offer, so look forward to seeing some more original garbage in the future. This season, my backlog is going to be cleared of Yawn/Whirlpool/Memento Gastrodon-Gothitelle/Snorlax one way or another, for example.
- Tox
SW-0021-9848-8999
