Unofficial Metagames 1v1- BanDrag

[Chickenpie2]

Coincidentally 1v1 is in the midst of discussing a suspect test for Dragonite, so here's a team showcasing one of its lesser used sets!
I'd say this team is a pretty effective team, breaks a lot of opponents and has a decent matchup against most of the current meta, particularly seeing how much of a threat Dragonite is nowadays. The name of the team is inspired by Band + Drag -> BanDrag, which also looks like it's saying Ban Dragonite. Dragonite's pretty broken but its funny to see what people can pull off with it. The team's inspiration is from playing Hijasu in 1v1 Classic for BW Finals (which was literally 1v1, not 3v3 like it is now). These are the Pokemon he used to beat me, so I thought, heck why not make a team out of my worst enemies. Yes this is intended to be a Gen 7 team, even though it is based off Gen 5 games. You could probably use the exact same team in Gen 5 and still do well if you wanted to.

And now, I present to you:
BanDrag

Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fly
- Superpower
- Earthquake / Fire Punch / Rock Tomb

The beast itself. Typically I try not to use S tiers, but I don't think Dragonite was S tier when I made the team, and ITS BANDED so I had to use it. This guy hits like a truck and Choice Band is one of the less common variants of Dragonite. The Moves and Spread are pretty self-explanatory: max damage and speed. Outrage and Fly for STABs, Superpower for Heatrans and the rare Mega Tyranitar. Earthquake for stray Fire / Steel types, Fire Punch for Genesect and unsuspecting Steels, Rock Tomb possibly for Charizard.

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 184 SpA / 72 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flash Cannon / Metal Sound
- Taunt / Will-O-Wisp / Hidden Power Ice
- Ancient Power / Rock Tomb
- Overheat

Primary Charizard killer. Dragonite actually deals with Charizard pretty well simply because most run Flame Charge over Will-o-Wisp. Heatran also deals with Steel- and Fairy-types like Mega Metagross, Mega Mawile, and Magearna, and ideally deals with Tapu Lele. Speed EVs are to outspeed Crustle, so you can Taunt them before they Shell Smash. Of course it's still a 50/50 but better than no chance at all. Will-O-Wisp can also be an option, but Taunt lets you take on Type: Null and other stally mons as well. Ancient Power for Zards, Rock Tomb if you prefer Speed control, and Overheat and Flash Cannon for mandatory STABs. Hidden Power Ice can hit Pokemon like Landorus-T, and Choiced Garchomp. It can also help against certain Dragonite.

Whimsicott @ Yache Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Def / 20 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Substitute
- Leech Seed

I realised I was weak to Greninja, so I slapped a Yache Berry on. The idea is to Protect Turn 1, so that Greninja becomes Ice-type, allowing you to tank the hit next turn and Leech Seed. This way, you don't have to worry about Prankster not affecting Dark-types. I use Moonblast over Taunt or Encore mainly for Mega Gyarados, because otherwise you lose to it which is really sad for a Grass-Fairy type. It also destroys Kommo-o, and comes in handy especially against other Whimsicotts and Jumpluffs and the like.

Threats to the team:
- Sawk is about the only Pokemon that noticeably 3-0s. It can Counter Dragonite, or just outspeed it with Choice Scarf Ice Punch. It takes out Heatran with STAB Super Effective CC, and bops Whimsicott with 4x super effective Poison Jab.
- Greninja is annoying to play against, as I run into a lot of Gunk Shot Grens for no reason.
- Mega Slowbro can be super annoying. I guess I could run like Grassium Z on Heatran or something but man Mega Slowbro is so phat.

I can't find many replays (I usually only save replays where I get haxed so hard it's funny) but I did use this team almost exclusively for a suspect test on my 1vjc jv3 account. Here's one I guess:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen71v1-875511375
ooh and another (on another alt):
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen71v1-875456141

Heatran is probably the weakest link of the team, but I haven't had the heart to drop him for anything else. I think the type synergy is pretty nice, covering all the elementals, having many immunities, particularly with the standard Dragon-Fairy-Steel core going on. Anyway, give the team a try, and let me know what you think!

 

[edudittA]

Hi. I was using this team in ladder for some time, and found a weakness to Poison Jab Choice Scarf / Choice Band Haxorus and Hidden Power Fire Choice Specs Greninja(the latter of which was noticed by Osra, so dibs to her), so I feel like replacing Whimsicott. As funny as it could look, Whimsicott relies on Yache Berry so much that you have to switch the item on Whimsicott everytime you see a Pokemon which seems to 3-0 this team, which makes this team look more gimmicky than serious. If that was the intent of the team, read no further. But I have a feeling that you wanted input to make this a more serious team, so I will try my best to that regard.

The major change I'd be proposing is instead of Whimsicott, I'd suggest Mega Venusaur, which deals with Choice Scarf Haxorus and Greninja (or at least, the set I'll be proposing will) in addition to Mega Gyarados, and other Water-type Pokemon you might encounter an issue with, including Mega Slowbro lacking Rest.

Mega Venusaur

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 136 SpA / 48 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leech Seed
- Synthesis
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain

This set lets it beat Choice Scarf Haxorus and Choice Specs Greninja.

Also, a slight modification to the Heatran set:

Heatran

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 72 SpA / 64 SpD / 120 Spe
Calm Nature
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Rock Tomb
- Overheat

The EVs let you beat all variants of Magnezone, both Timid and Modest, since otherwise Metal Sound Magnezone could have been an issue to this team.

And another minor change is to make Charizard-Mega X not OHKO you with Adamant Outrage, so I shifted some Attack EVs to defense, so Dragonite looks something like this:

Dragonite

Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 192 Atk / 64 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Superpower
- Earthquake
- Fly

So, the final look of the team is something like this:

<-- Click on the sprite for pokepaste of the team.

NGL, this version of the team looks like something that is straight out of 2017 meta, but then, even the posted team looks like some mid-2017 team. You made a decently viable teams w/o ZMoves... Grats owo

 

[Chickenpie2]

Thanks so much for the swift reply Wrath of Alakazam! Really appreciate you going out of your way to rate my team. Just have 2 points of contention:
1 - Generally I prefer to have my teams in like a rock-paper-scizor triangle, in that each mon covers the other. In my original team, Dragonite dealt with Heatran, Heatran beats Whimsi, and Whimsi beats Dragonite.
However with your new suggestion, opposing Dragonite have potential to 3-0, and I'd feel uncomfortable using my own Dragonite as the sole Dragonite check.

2- While Mega Venusaur does help with many of the other threats like Greninja (bar Specs Extrasensory lmao), and Haxorus and Sawk, it still fails to adequately deal with one of the biggest (like legit its so phat) threats to the team, namely:
MEGA SLOWBRO.
136 SpA Venusaur-Mega Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 180 SpD Slowbro-Mega: 212-252 (53.8 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Most Slowbros probably even run max SpDef, and with Rest it can easily stall out Mega Venusaur. (I just realised you also mentioned this in your reply but still)