Sorry to say that I’m still a bit hung up on SageGrimm, but since it’s been a while since the last update, I thought I’d dip into the Bonus well. Here’s a build that came to me almost immediately after I started doing SB caricatures. Some people are hard to match with 'mon, while others come to me in a flash.
I think it helps if you’re already a walking caricature.
@108, as Select Button’s resident trickster god, you’re a natural fit for Gengar, the mischeivous grin of the poke-kingdom.
Perhaps the most impressive trait of Gengar is its legacy as a high-tier threat. A polarizing break-out star since gen 1, you’ve adapted to the passing years, and yet you always maintain an appreciation for the fundamentals (as well as a central irreverence) that stands out in the realm of poke-violence.
When it comes to typing, your impressive defensive qualities are balanced by a limited offensive typing, making you, shall we say, “not for the noobz” (heh heh heh). As fans of the first poke-gen will remember, Gengar’s typing is a bit counter-intuitive. Ghosts are offensively strong against only two types: Ghost and Psychic. And yet Ghost darling Gengar is actually Ghost/Poison, which makes it defensively weak to Psychic, anyway. Luckily, you’re still immune to Normal and Fighting, and your Poison typing makes you unable to be poisoned. You should be weak to Ground, but your only ability, Levitate, makes you immune. So, altogether, with three immunities and only three weaknesses, you’re in pretty great shape. Plus, your Poison typing gives you a very valuable STAB bonus against Fairies, one of the most defensive pure types this gen.
108 (Gengar) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick
We’ll emphasize your naturally high Speed and Special Attack, maxing out your Speed to ensure that you’ll have the jump on every fellow Ghost other than frostlass and a great deal of Psychics, including mew and the flinch trap jirachi–not to mention the majority of the metagame.
Though you’re quite fast and powerful and fairly frail, you’re not quite a Sweeper. Rather, you’re best used as a mid-game Stall Breaker or maybe even a Wall Breaker. You can switch into a Fighting, Normal, or (most likely) a Ground-type move, taking no damage thanks to your immunities. If the opponent has a Dark ‘mon on the team, you can predict that switch-in with a super-effective Dazzling Gleam, a powerful Fairy move that also offers useful coverage against Dragons and Fighting. If you predict a Psychic or Ghost switch-in simply use your STAB move Shadow Ball, whereas your Poison STAB Sludge Bomb will be for chasing the Fairies that have been avoiding you for the entire battle.
We’ll reserve your fourth slot for Trick, a fun little move that switches your held item for the opponent’s. Trick is most typically used with Choice Scarf, an item that doubles a ‘mon’s Speed while locking them into a single move until switched out. In that case, the user will almost certainly go first, since their Speed is doubled, and they can predict that an enemy with a varied moveset or the potential to set up with stat boosts will be severely set back by the limitation.
In your case, we’ll have you hold Black Sludge. While others might see this item as a worthless handful of goo, your curatorial eye sees its true genius. It will recover 1/16th of your HP per turn but will subtract 1/8th HP from any non-Poison types you foist it on. It’s a nearly 100% effective way to take down a Wall, Stall or Set-Up ‘mon, since it can only be cured by losing the item. Think of it was a romantic kiss goodbye when your opponent has you on the ropes.
Ultimately, 108, you fit in by standing out. While most teams can get by without a Ghost or Poison type, you offer something invaluable in competitive battle: pseudo-predictability. Your very presence creates a mind-game, and your strength lies in turning your opponent’s uncertainty into your own momentum. When you’re on the field every move seems to hang in wont of a punchline, hovering in the realm of interpretation. Is it a lie, a joke, a non-joke, post-irony, or…whatever exists between? The only certainty that you seem to be having a good time.
i love gengar
i love that he is “gangar” in japanese
hi tim
Wait, does “gangar” mean something in Japanese? What a seemingly arbitrary change…
I’ll let you know if/when I battle you on an SB team and who your teammates are. I’ll link to recordings of your victories and defeats in the thread as well, and maybe post them on the IC Facebook page or something, so you actually see them.
I might put you on a team with Jaffe, because he would be good bait for ghosts that you could then murder. Or you could kill the ghosts that would kill him, thus freeing him up to stat boost into invincibility.
@SageGrimm, your lifelong fascination with the old-world creepy-violence mythology of the Grimm brothers, marks your kinship with weavile, a pokemon based on the kamaitachi youkai, who–among other myths–are said to work in gangs of three to steal the leg meat from people’s calves and sew it up in the blink of an eye, leaving people to assume that they tripped for no reason.
Now, it’s taken me an absurd amount of time to actually divine your poke-identity. And part of this has been my internal debate as to whether you are best embodied and/or most formidable as a standard weavile + Life Orb set or the more unconventional sneasel + Eviolite.
Anyone who’s read my previous write ups knows that Life Orb boosts all the holder’s attacks with a hefty 30% bonus, while draining 10% of your HP with every attack. Eviolite boosts both defensive stats by 50%, provided that the holder is not fully evolved. The advantages of both options are clear, but the questionable part is which lends best to your talents and personality.
Weavile is the evolved form of sneasel, but as an evolution it’s basically just an upgrade on the theme. Weavile and sneasel are very attack-oriented. Their Speed and Attack are notably high, while their HP and defenses are relatively low. Their Dark/Ice typing is great offensively: a potent threat to Ghosts and Psychics as well as filling that delicate Ice niche which threatens the many Dragons and Flying type of the OU meta. However, it’s a bit of a defensive disaster. You’re weak to five types, including Fairy, Steel, and Fire–the first two being incredibly popular with the latter a staple as an offensive typing. You’re even super-weak to Fighting, which is also pretty common.
SageGrimm (Weavile) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Pursuit
This certainly limits you, but it doesn’t count you out. With skillful play, you’ll never have to face any of your weaknesses until you’ve done your share of damage, and with your natural Speed stat being what it is, you can out-draw almost any adversary, if fully invested. The problem is what happens after you get your first attack in. Thus the the full investment in Weavile’s already very high Attack stat, topped with Life Orb to eke out as many OHKO’s as possible. With this build you’re instant death to any Dragon (except Multiscale Dragonite who will take half damage at full health) or any Psychic (save Alakazam who outspeeds your Knock Off with a 70% chance for a Focus Blast OHKO).
Knock Off does STAB damage, plus doubles against enemies holding an item and annoys any ‘mon you haven’t OHKO’ed by knocking their item off. Ice Shard is your STAB priority move to counter the handful of priority move that won’t kill you. Ice Crash is your more powerful Ice STAB. And Pursuit is for strategy. Pursuit is Dark move with 40 base power. Pretty damn weak, though it doubles in power against a foe that switches out and actually attacks that foe as they flee. It’s the only move that can do that, and as such great for cleaning up against Psychics and Ghosts escaping your typing.
So, we can see the efficacy of Life Orb Weavile. You wouldn’t be quite the Sweeper your old handle implied, but you’d be a fairly reliable mid-game Wall Breaker or an excellent pocket threat to any team relying on a Dragon Sweeper.
On the other hand, your longevity is severely limited, and it would take some skill to deploy you at just the right time. That’s where Eviolite sneasel comes in.
While sneasel’s Attack and Speed are very much inferior to its evolved form, they’re still higher than average for the format–and combined with your boosted defenses, you become better than average all around. With some investment in your HP and defensive stats, we can even make you into a Pivot, able to take a hit for a teammate and maybe even use the opportunity to set up with a Swords Dance, doubling your Attack, thus making you nearly as strong as Life Orb weavile (and significantly stronger than non-Orbed weavile). The problem, though, is that to take advantage of Swords Dance, you need to stay in the ring (like all boosts, it resets at switch-out). And, due to your weak defensive typing, staying in the ring is only really advisable if we’ve taken out all of your many threats (which is pretty unlikely). As a result Eviolite sneasel becomes more of a Pivot-chipper and shell game fodder. If we throw you in, you can take a hit and ensure the opponent doesn’t play a Dragon, Psychic or Ghost type while inviting Fairies, Steel, and Fire–narrowing our predictions significantly.
Grimm Sweeper (Sneasel) @ Eviolite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Swords Dance
It’s not as sexy a niche as being a live fast, die hard assassin, but it is a lot cushier than being OHKO cannon fodder.
So there you have it: I couldn’t quite choose, so I thought I’d lay both options on the table. Testing didn’t really yield a clear winner, but after writing this out and running the numbers, I think I’ll lean towards Weavile, though I’ll keep your sneasel as an alt. Since sneasel is the earlier form, I thought it made sense to name him Grimm Sweeper. It’s also a bit of a mind game, since the play-style for that build is pretty far from sweeping. And as a creepy Japanese skin thief, I figure you’re all about petty deceptions
love Sneasel + Weavile + kamaitachi
Wait why the fuck doesn’t Sneasel learn RAZOR WIND
You mean because it has to hold a razor to evolve, and it’s the “sharp claw pokemon”?
I 'unno.
But–y’know–who needs Razor Wiind, anyway?
Btw, if anybody feels that they have a strong sense of Brandon Sheffield’s personality and a decent grasp of Pokemon and wants to sway me on his build, let me know. I wanna do him as a bonus build, and I’m really torn between two good but very different options for him.
Possible bonus: you’ll get a BEHIND THE SCENES view of what Brandon could have been–which I can also just tell you (via PM) if you’re curious and have no input.
no because RAZOR WIND is literally Kamaitachi in Japanese & is supposed to be a reference to kamaitachi
Ah, okay! Yeah. Well. The Pokemon Company is dumb, I guess.
First off @la_ciel, you have no idea how close you came to being a Mr. Mime, based solely on the fact that your first avatar was from the scene in Fire Walk With Me in which Lynch is translating signals from an FBI mime. I basically had the build all ready, after testing the efficacy of five variations. But then I remembered that I have a kind of unwritten rule against just basing ‘mon on people’s avatars. Then your true tulpa just came to me. I’ve actually always wanted to play around with this guy, so this is a great excuse to use a great pokemon.
Not quite as unusual as Mr. Mime, but a more well-rounded set.
Anyway….
@la_ciel, your experiences with toxic environments harkens to your connection to gliscor, a gliding scorpion-bat that is exactly as cool as it sounds.
As a gliscor, your personality is built upon a fundamental conflict of identity, a struggle which is ultimately one of your greatest strengths. Though you have a scorpion tail and several Poison type moves you’re actually a Flying/Ground type–two types that generally oppose each other. However, it’s this contradictory relationship that makes them so complimentary as a dual-typing. They fill each other’s holes, making you immune to both Ground and Electric attacks, weak only to Water and super-weak to Ice, a fairly uncommon element in the metagame.
Though you’re not a Poison type yourself, you have a particular connection to Poison ‘mon–a familiarity that makes you both resistant to Poison attacks and immune to Poison status effects The latter comes from your ability Poison Heal, which actually heals you by 1/8th of your HP each turn if poisoned, rather than draining you. To compliment this ability, you carry Toxic Orb which induces poison immediately, ensuring that you’re poisoned on your own terms.
Overall, your base stats are quite good, though your mediocre HP and Special Defense stats threaten to hamper your excellent Defense, thus limiting your longevity. To keep you in the game, we’ll invest in these weaker areas and give you just enough speed to get the jump on some OU format threats. This doesn’t take great advantage of your good Attack, but we can compensate for that with Swords Dance, a move that raises your Attack stat by two levels, effectively doubling your attack power until you switch out.
The Ground type STAB Earthquake is a no-brainer, and for now let’s give you Rock Slide to surprise any fellow Flying types that are immune to Earthquake. We may switch that for Knock Off, if we want to get a shot in on a Psychic or Ghost, or simply annoy your enemies by knocking off their items.
nocode (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 248 HP / 204 SpD / 56 Spe
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
For the final move slot, we have a choice: Roost (heals 50% of your HP) or Substitute (lose 25% of your HP to hide behind a substitute, immune from attacks and status effects until 25% of your HP is exhausted). It’s honestly a bit of a toss up: depends on the style of play and the team itself. However, at this point in your life, you’re feeling more cautious than you might have a few years ago. Better to put up the Subsitute while you try to save up your Attack boosts than to take the hits and assume you’ll have time to heal later. Of course, that’s not to say that you’ll never feel reckless again, epecially once you realize how much laterality your strengths lend you.
When they first encounter you, your opponents are tempted to judge you by your cover, but they do so at their own peril. Given the opportunity, you have both learned abilities and the natural assets to set up a formidable offense on the foundation of solid defense. While nothing’s a sure thing, and you’ll still have to be conscious and even clever at times–ultimately, you have everything you need to set the pace of the battle. You are your own safety net.
I’ve been tripped up by that pokemon in the main game before because it looks like a Golbat enough to think “hm, probably Poison/Flying.” Ditto with encountering Drapion in the Elite Four fight; it’s off-type to the rest of his team (Dark/Poison instead of Bug/etc.).
Thanks for the pokemon(s), @BIGHEADMODE! I never thought I would be embodied as a calf-stealing youkai but I’m liking it more and more.
Yeah, I’m thinking that the typing has to be partially based on the fact that the Crobat family is already Poison/Flying (illogically), so they were like, “Well…scorpions are on the ground…”
Glad you’re getting into your 'mon. I went through a bunch of ideas for you, but none of them seemed to particularly fit, and none of them were that good.
When I narrowed it down to Weavile, I considered Chandelure for a hot minute, because…I dunno: a haunted chandelier could be in a Grimm story, maybe. But I ultimately couldn’t get the hang of Chandelure and didn’t think it was a good enough fit to justify the weak performance.
Who knows, though, someone might remind me of one later, and I might find a way to work it in. That’s partly why I don’t talk about my alternate takes on people.
This is genuinely gratifying. Made my day to read this. Pretty tricky build, too!
A Self Contradicting Flying Squirrel Bat Scorpion is a p nice spirit pakkoman to have
Glad you’re happy nocode! Yeah: gliscor is a great 'mon, and you should be easy to fit on a strong OU team. Your Ground immunity can compensate for Ronk and Courier Rice’s lighting weaknesses. You could even get a free set-up move when the Electric type’s switch out.
You just have to watch for non-Ice 'mon packing Ice moves, but they’re not too hard to sniff out.
@jsnlv, as SB’s resident Homestuck/Undertale fan, your gooey poke-innards most resemble slurpuff, the adorable idiot cupcake of pokewhatever.
Though you seems harmless enough at first, your opponents will likely be slow to realize that within your fluffy center beats the heart of a ruthless JRPG tactician. The cute monsters are always the scariest. Duh.
Your pure Fairy typing is extremely defensive, with immunity to the threatening Dragon type and weaknesses only to Steel and Poison. While your stats are mediocre across the board, it’s your studied, omnivorous movepool that allows you to rise to become more powerful than your enemies could ever imagine.
jsnlxndriv (Slurpuff) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Unburden
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 180 SpD / 80 Spe
Calm Nature
- Cotton Guard
- Calm Mind
- Dazzling Gleam
- Rest
Out of the box, you’ll want to use Cotton Guard, a fairly rare move that multiplies your Defense stat by 2.5, turning your mediocre 86 base Defense to the equivalent of 215–incredibly high even for the Uber tier. From there, you’ll use Calm Mind to season. Calm Mind raises your Special Attack and Special Defense by 1.5. After one or two usages you’re pretty powerful. But with three, you’re essentially unstoppable. Now, with two-to-four turns of set-up you’ll have taken some damage, even with your defensive boosts. And you might have picked up some status effects along the way as well.
If you need a quick heal, simply use Rest, a move that puts you to sleep for two turns but fully heals your HP and cures all status ailments. Usually, two turns of inactivity would be a huge issue, but that’s why you’ve packed a Chesto Berry. You’ll down that sucker and immediately wake from your slumber, good as new.
But that’s not all! With your ability Unburden, using up your item will double your Speed, making you faster than any pokemon in the game, not wearing a Choice Scarf (which multiplies Speed by 1.5).
So, to review, by your fourth turn, your Defense is boosted by 2.5, your Speed, Special Defense and Special Attack are doubled. You’ve basically become one of the most powerful pokemon in the game with one of the best typings. Now it’s time to unleash Dazzling Gleam, your Fairy STAB move, now powerful enough to OHKO most opponents.
Now, I make it sound good, of course, but there are some potential hiccups in this plan.
Impressive as your stats might be, you’re ultimately still somewhat vulnerable to a powerful Steel or Poison types. A crobat could be a problem for you, but in the OU, you’re more likely to be taken down by a scizor or excadrill or any of the many powerful steel ‘mon out there. Worse yet, mega-scizor can use you to set up its own Swords Dance Attack doubling, and it will likely take two more ‘mon to bring that thing down, if it doesn’t just sweep your whole team.
Though perhaps your biggest worry is enemies with Taunt (locks you to attack moves for three turns), Encore (locks you to the last move you used until you switch out), and Roar-type moves (switch you for a random ally). These are the general perils of a set-up ‘mon. And with such a long set-up, you’re particularly vulnerable. And, of course, after you use your Chesto Berry the first time, Rest will truly incapacitate you for two turns, during which time your enemy could simply poison you or paralyze you again or bring in a Steel or Poison type to wear you down.
It’s important to note that once you’ve used your Chesto Berry, it’s really best not to switch you out again. So, overall, we most likely want to put you on a team with a fire ‘mon like u_u or a Steel trap like drobe. nocode can actually threaten Steel with his Ground moves as well, but only Fire can threaten scizor.
But hey, if we find we need to use you in a more quick and dirty way, we can always do a Belly Drum set.
Belly Drum cuts your HP in half but maxes out your Attack, literally multiplying it by 3. It works best with a priority move, but we can give you Lum Berry, which will replenish ¼ of the HP you lose after drumming. Once you’ve eaten this berry, you’ll have your double Speed. Wish replenishes 50% of your HP on the next turn, which allows you to Cotton Guard, take some damage, Wish, take a little more damage, Belly Drum, Lum Berry, and then get your Wish-heal to almost full health. With no way to heal status effects, and a an only moderately high Special Defense stat, this build gives you a shorter time limit, but it also turns you into an effective sweeper a lot faster.
jsnlxndriv (alt) (Slurpuff) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Atk / 244 SpD
Careful Nature
- Cotton Guard
- Belly Drum
- Play Rough
- Wish
Of course, no pokemon is an alway-effective, full-team sweeper. It’s the nature of the game that everything has checks and no ‘mon is safe to just sit there. Still, in general, once a player gets in a free set-up, there’s little an opponent can do to throw a wrench in your plans. And even if you prove to be vincible, you’ll certainly take quite a few of your antagonists down with you. Not bad, for an idiot cupcake.
@jsnlv, just to get you pumped about your build, here’s an example of you totally 0-6 sweeping an opponent while I was testing you:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-357559095
Okay, to be fair, they forfeited before you got your true satisfaction–possibly because I took two minutes for my next move while I went downstairs to get my dinner delivery–but I think we had proven pretty thoroughly that there was only one possible outcome.
They also had absolutely nothing that could counter you, so it was a pretty stacked match. And they were a pretty terrible player. But–y’know: a win’s a win.
Note that we get a disadvantage off the bat: a Knock Off takes out your Chesto Berry, meaning you don’t get your free Rest. So it’s not like it was a totally charmed match.
If y’all look closely, you can preview some upcoming builds for this thread. Everyone on that team is an SB member.
@Persona, your mind-over-matter imagination and propensity for internet collaborations with other green blobs makes you a reuniclus, the bulky (non-mecha) fetus that saves the day when needed but never steals the show.
You’re great starting stats offer you quite a few options. Your natural bulk and excellent abilities Regenerator (heals 1/3 of your health upon switching out) and Magic Guard (you are unable to be damaged indirectly) along with your awesome base Special Attack make you a serious menace in the UU format. Sure, your Speed is too low to sweep in OU, but it would be easy to get by with Trick Room (slowest pokemon go first, fastest go last), dispatch a few Fighting types, and call it a day. But that’s not you. Instead, you’ll double-down on your talents, and through studious dedications to self-improvement, become a true threat to be reckoned with.
Persona (Reuniclus) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Def / 204 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Acid Armor
- Recover
Like jsnlvdrlx, you’re blessed with a movepool that allows you to dramatically raise your stat as well as an ability to support it. However, you have the added advantage of excellent bulk and a true 50% healing move in Recover. We’ll max out your HP and give your defensive stats a nice balance. Your Special Attack is already quite high, so investing in that becomes overkill after one boost anyway, and ultimately as a slow buff ‘mon it’s more important to be able to take an extra hit than to deal out one less.
Generally, we’ll want to bring you in clean without taking a hit (though you can take a bruise or two, as long as it’s not super-effective). If we expect you to take a special attack, we’ll go for Calm Mind, boosting your Special Attack and Special Defense by 1.5. If we’re anticipating a physical attack, Acid Armor will double your Defense. From there, it’s just a matter or building your Special Attack until you’re ready to unleash your powerful STAB Psychic. Basically, we take you from a Tank to a full on Wall, with enough offensive power to OHKO almost any ‘mon before they can do anything you can’t simply heal back next turn.
So let’s talk about Magic Guard. While Regenerator is a great ability with many applications, Magic Guard offers excellent synergy with your chosen lifestyle. One of the greatest fears of any ‘mon that plans to hang around a while, especially as a Wall, is being worn down with HP drains like Toxic, Will-o-Wisp, and Leech Seed. They’re a ticking clock for a ‘mon that would otherwise happily pick away at an opponent indefinitely. Magic Guard completely alleviates this concern, meaning your only worry is interruption statuses like Paralyze, Confusion, Freeze, and Sleep–the latter three occurring rarely, and the former being something you can tank through.
But let’s not forget: Magic Guard also has one unique bonus. It allows you to equip Life Orb, boosting all of your attacks by 30% without losing any HP. And with the amount of damage you’ll be doing after just one boost, 30% is quite a lot. This gives you that extra edge, OHKOing enemies that might’ve hung on otherwise and taking others past the point of a heal comeback.
Of course, all this security comes at a price. With the extra move slot taken by Acid Amor, we can’t equip you with a back-up attack type move. This makes Dark types your greatest enemies. Simply put: you can’t touch them (they’re immune to Psychic moves), and they stand the best chance of breaking through your defenses with super-effective attacks. While Whirlwind and Roar users could force a switch and undo your build up, there’s no reason you couldn’t build again. But if it all comes down to you vs. a Dark type, that’s “gg”: no way out. So, while this build is quite effective overall, you’ll have to be paired with one of your many Fighting allies as well as a Fairy, both of which can take down any Dark types with ease.
Though you’re not exactly a surprise threat in the OU meta, you don’t rest on your laurels either. Instead, you’re constantly committed to the climb: upping those stats and staying one move ahead of anyone out to tip you from your foothold.