wsg, lately ive come to realize how ridiculous sleep is in 1v1 and decided to see how i could do while using a mono sleep team (spoiler: pretty well)
The Team:
Team building process (in order of how i built)
Sylveon @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 4 SpA / 16 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Yawn
- Protect
- Mystical Fire
(it's a sets compendium spread)
So like i said above, when making this team it was my goal to see how well i could do with mono sleep. This poses a series of questions like what sources of sleep do i want to use, what mons should i use, etc. I started out with yawn sylveon because it is probably the most well rounded sleep user in 1v1, at least in my opinion. Its a great blanket check to a lot of the tier such as almost every dragon, urshifus, zera, and so on. Yawn and protect were required as my source of sleep. I chose hyper voice because it's sylveon's go to fairy stab and is great for stuff like sub users like pult which can otherwise finesse sleep. For my fourth move i got a bit quirky and chose mystical fire. When looking at what my team was projected to look like i realized i had a serious issue with stuff like ferrothorn. Mystical fire takes care of ferrothorn and can also finesse stuff like magnezone as well.
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hypnosis
- Hex
- Protect
- Sludge Wave
Next up is gengar. I chose gengar because seeing how fairy is the best typing in 1v1, it is probably a wise decision to have a reliable answer to them. Initially i wanted to use yawn weakness policy slowbro galar for the quick draw sleep odds but then realized that my team would be too slow to beat stuff like necrozma and venusaur if i did. So instead i chose the next best option, hypno gengar. While this mon may be unranked in gen 8, it is iconic in oras and sm with its mega evolution and handles fairies very nicely. Additionally it has good odds vs pretty much every steelif you hit hypnosis. Life orb was my item of choice because i wanted to be able to also take care of stuff like fini (misty terrain blocks hypnosis) and zarude (LO sludge wave ohkos) without luck being involved. Protect is for custap users such as primarina, magnezone, avalugg, etc and can be swapped out as needed if you want.
Swampert @ Lum Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 208 Def / 48 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Yawn
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
Finally we have swampert. When deciding on a third i was somewhat conflicted on whether I wanted a sleep powder user like venusaur, or if i wanted a second yawn user. I eventually decided to go with pert for its solid typing that helped cover holes like darmanitan galar and naganadel. The evs are specifically for darmg while the spdef helps vs naganadel. I decided on ice punch over waterfall because i wanted a better matchup vs stuff like landorus and garchomp. Lum was there because i realized my team had a dire matchup vs spectrier and other yawn users if they decided to copy me. Other options for moves if you want to change it up would be like hydro cannon, earth power, waterfall, etc.
Rough matchups
This team does have a poor kartana mu. Gengar should beat any non scarf set with a raw hex (or hypnosis into hex if god forbid its av) and sylveon should beat scarf though so it is manageable. Additionally, your stall matchup is pretty rough since you have no anti stall measures. Alternatives for this would be to run fake tears on sylveon, nasty plot on gengar, or changing the swampert spread to be more offensive potentially.
What this strategy does well
While this team isnt perfect it does have some benefits. The biggest benefit is that sleep is incredibly easy to mindlessly spam due to its uncompetitive nature. It's one of those gimmicks where you dont have to think while using it you can just click what has the best mu and say fuck it. It is also incredibly difficult to be hard 3-0d when using sleep. As long as you can get a yawn/hypnosis off you always have a chance at winning the game. I would say this isn't something that is very healthy in 1v1 where sleep is near unavoidable without a lum berry or misty/electric terrain.
Where this strategy struggles
Although thecheese finesse factor of sleep is high, it is nowhere near consistent. If you are getting 1 turn sleeps or are missing hypnosis you will obviously struggle. While this is often seen as something that keeps sleep balanced, making games dice rolls and coinflips isn't inherently healthy for either party. Yes it does keep sleep in check but i wouldn't consider inconsistently to be good.
Anyways, this is my first one of these but I mostly wanted to attempt to prove that sleep is pretty problematic in 1v1. I honestly didn't expect it to go this well but turns out sleep is pretty stupid and a very easy way to climb. I highly recommend going and ruining people's days with it because I had a lot of fun and will continue to spam it when bored because it is pretty easy to use while multitasking. Only took me like 75 games to hit this peak which is very fast as well. Hope you enjoy and have a nice day!!
s/o's DEG Potatochan and Rosa for giving me this idea, and sorry for ruining your ladder experience Nick.see and Blanched
EDIT: I actually topped ladder with this finally, it wasn't solo this team but from 1400s until i topped i exclusively used this team LOL
The Team:
(fresh alt btw only used this team)
I might try and peak #1 with it but I already am #1 as well so it seems like a drag to pass myself, idk we will see (edit: i did this)
Team building process (in order of how i built)
Sylveon @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 4 SpA / 16 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Yawn
- Protect
- Mystical Fire
(it's a sets compendium spread)
So like i said above, when making this team it was my goal to see how well i could do with mono sleep. This poses a series of questions like what sources of sleep do i want to use, what mons should i use, etc. I started out with yawn sylveon because it is probably the most well rounded sleep user in 1v1, at least in my opinion. Its a great blanket check to a lot of the tier such as almost every dragon, urshifus, zera, and so on. Yawn and protect were required as my source of sleep. I chose hyper voice because it's sylveon's go to fairy stab and is great for stuff like sub users like pult which can otherwise finesse sleep. For my fourth move i got a bit quirky and chose mystical fire. When looking at what my team was projected to look like i realized i had a serious issue with stuff like ferrothorn. Mystical fire takes care of ferrothorn and can also finesse stuff like magnezone as well.
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hypnosis
- Hex
- Protect
- Sludge Wave
Next up is gengar. I chose gengar because seeing how fairy is the best typing in 1v1, it is probably a wise decision to have a reliable answer to them. Initially i wanted to use yawn weakness policy slowbro galar for the quick draw sleep odds but then realized that my team would be too slow to beat stuff like necrozma and venusaur if i did. So instead i chose the next best option, hypno gengar. While this mon may be unranked in gen 8, it is iconic in oras and sm with its mega evolution and handles fairies very nicely. Additionally it has good odds vs pretty much every steel
Swampert @ Lum Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 208 Def / 48 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Yawn
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
Finally we have swampert. When deciding on a third i was somewhat conflicted on whether I wanted a sleep powder user like venusaur, or if i wanted a second yawn user. I eventually decided to go with pert for its solid typing that helped cover holes like darmanitan galar and naganadel. The evs are specifically for darmg while the spdef helps vs naganadel. I decided on ice punch over waterfall because i wanted a better matchup vs stuff like landorus and garchomp. Lum was there because i realized my team had a dire matchup vs spectrier and other yawn users if they decided to copy me. Other options for moves if you want to change it up would be like hydro cannon, earth power, waterfall, etc.
Rough matchups
This team does have a poor kartana mu. Gengar should beat any non scarf set with a raw hex (or hypnosis into hex if god forbid its av) and sylveon should beat scarf though so it is manageable. Additionally, your stall matchup is pretty rough since you have no anti stall measures. Alternatives for this would be to run fake tears on sylveon, nasty plot on gengar, or changing the swampert spread to be more offensive potentially.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501076172-7zhp1rvuawvfnbdwifssm94pn9j0o0opw (me cheesing a sylveon)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501077773-6wgabskld17b9moewunf8lhxxx53ocwpw (mystical fire go brr)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501078252-rcqqhinrxuu2t4gjxx722jtyqu3cx2tpw (gengar shouldnt be beating nag but ig if its modest it does)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501078660-g5316q6umk55h8b2wiicrn5x72pgdn9pw (ik i crit but gengar shouldnt beat arc ever)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501087072-3xcbaky8m8s2kccbjfpd1o9tce69pa8pw (standard sleep win)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501097753-lprhie3w937g55x1hcsk6j3vaqkvl6vpw (LOL?)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501101651-5fttbuk9gfp7h3rv1g0opdqy875zz2apw (LOOOOOL)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501077773-6wgabskld17b9moewunf8lhxxx53ocwpw (mystical fire go brr)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501078252-rcqqhinrxuu2t4gjxx722jtyqu3cx2tpw (gengar shouldnt be beating nag but ig if its modest it does)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501078660-g5316q6umk55h8b2wiicrn5x72pgdn9pw (ik i crit but gengar shouldnt beat arc ever)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501087072-3xcbaky8m8s2kccbjfpd1o9tce69pa8pw (standard sleep win)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501097753-lprhie3w937g55x1hcsk6j3vaqkvl6vpw (LOL?)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1501101651-5fttbuk9gfp7h3rv1g0opdqy875zz2apw (LOOOOOL)
What this strategy does well
While this team isnt perfect it does have some benefits. The biggest benefit is that sleep is incredibly easy to mindlessly spam due to its uncompetitive nature. It's one of those gimmicks where you dont have to think while using it you can just click what has the best mu and say fuck it. It is also incredibly difficult to be hard 3-0d when using sleep. As long as you can get a yawn/hypnosis off you always have a chance at winning the game. I would say this isn't something that is very healthy in 1v1 where sleep is near unavoidable without a lum berry or misty/electric terrain.
Where this strategy struggles
Although the
Anyways, this is my first one of these but I mostly wanted to attempt to prove that sleep is pretty problematic in 1v1. I honestly didn't expect it to go this well but turns out sleep is pretty stupid and a very easy way to climb. I highly recommend going and ruining people's days with it because I had a lot of fun and will continue to spam it when bored because it is pretty easy to use while multitasking. Only took me like 75 games to hit this peak which is very fast as well. Hope you enjoy and have a nice day!!
s/o's DEG Potatochan and Rosa for giving me this idea, and sorry for ruining your ladder experience Nick.see and Blanched
EDIT: I actually topped ladder with this finally, it wasn't solo this team but from 1400s until i topped i exclusively used this team LOL
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