Other Metagames BH: Kartana Happiness

[SuperSkylake]

I created this Balanced Hackmons team and have experienced some solid success with it on the suspect ladder. I'm hoping this success will also happen on the main ladder once it's reinstated. So here it is!

The team: Kartana / Kyogre-Primal / Giratina / Diancie-Mega / Registeel / Chansey

Teambuilding Process

I decided to start with a Pokemon I haven't used before in BH, Steelworker Kartana. With a Scarf, it can offensively check a lot of dangerous threats in the meta currently such as Mega Metwo Y, Ash Greninja, Primal Kyogre, and unscarfed Mega Diancie.

Unfortunately my team is still weak to special attacks, and in particular, Water Bubble. Enter specially defensive Primal Kyogre, which can counter Scarf Ash Greninja; if Greninja runs Specs or if Primal Kyogre is the water bubble user, Kartana dispatches it.

I then decided that a solid physical defensive wall was in order to counter Smash+power trip and Imposterproof my Kartana. Fur Coat Giratina was a great choice with its physical defense easily tanking things like Mega Mewtwo X's Ice hammer or non-STAB power trips from Shell Smashers at +2.

Next, I decided on a solid lure set to beat Innards Out and deal huge damage to Steel types that would otherwise wall my team. Mega Diancie, famous for its pixilate set, runs a powerful Magic Guard set as well, surprising all of its common checks and beating Innards out in a single teamslot.

I then needed something to impostorproof this Mega Diancie set. Immediately Flash Fire Registeel occurred to me and I added him. What a great choice!

Finally, to scout and keep stuff that my opponent might use under control, I added the standard Impostor Chansey. And with the prevalence of Innards Out Chansey, people don't know what it is until it's revealed.

Team in Depth

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Steelworker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- U-turn
- Trick
- Power Whip
Kartana is a powerful offensive mon who's Steelworker attacks can destroy anything that doesn't resist it. Its other STAB, Power Whip, takes care of Primal Groudon once it's been weakened to 60%, which is easy given the offensive pivoting nature of this team. U-turn brings in a wall to take damage while also doing some damage to your opponent, with the added bonus of dealing huge damage to the Mega Mewtwos that would otherwise severely hurt my team. Trick can cripple defensive builds, but Kartana is best played against offense and needs all that speed.

Kyogre-Primal @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 200 SpA / 56 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Scald
- Leech Seed
- Ice Beam
Primal Kyogre does a fairly good job of keeping fast special users, especially scarf Ash Greninja, in check. Notably, the ev spread survives Scarf Greninja's full power water spout twice so it can weaken it with scald and leech seed. It's also super imposterproof due to leech seed and scald. It also discourages Zygarde-C from switching in and Mega Rayquaza from staying in after a fake out because of the threat of Ice beam, and can act as a bulky wincon with quiver dance. And it's hard to pp stall it out. All this with a single mon! I invested some in Speed and a +spe nature so that it can outspeed the entire unboosted metagame including Deoxys-s after 2 Quiver Dances.

Giratina @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Dragon Tail
- Defog / Spectral Thief
- Shore Up
- Baton Pass
Giratina can stop physical attackers, even ones that boost on the switch, from doing their work. It even survives super effective 140 bp power trips from non-STAB mons pretty well. Dragon Tail phazes them out while racking up entry hazards while Defog is an unblockable entry hazard remover, unlike Rapid Spin. Baton Pass ensures that Innards Out Chansey can't switch in on a u-turn and KO Giratina. If you want a more aggrerssive approach, swap out Defog or Dragon Tail for Spectral Thief and Baton Pass your boosts to someone else, but this means that Normal type boosters, which often run Fighting coverage to imposterproof themselves, will make your life miserable.

Diancie-Mega @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Light of Ruin
- Head Smash
- Shift Gear
Diancie is the hidden star of the show. Switching in your Mega Diancie forces a lot of switches from your opponent, giving you a chance to set up if you are feeling bold. Once that's done, fire off a 150 bp, Life Orb boosted move and watch them fall. Not even Innards Out Blissy can stop you. God does it not feel good! If you are feeling super reckless you can replace Shift Gear with Shell Smash to power up your Fairy-type STAB as well, but then you are weak to Impostor since Registeel needs to be at full health to take your moves. Also, you can't afford to be recklessly sacrificing Diancie, which is something shell smash makes a lot easier to happen.

Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Parting Shot
- Shore Up
- Haze
- Stealth Rock
Registeel is the other half of my team's Defensive core. It impostorproofs Diancie which can only hit it with moves that take off 25%;, and stops most Shell Smash if it's health is relatively high. Plus, it's a very reliable Stealth Rocker.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Fake Out
- Whirlwind
- Shore Up
- Metal Burst
Standard Impostor Chansey with Whirlwind to beat Sub, Fake out to break Illusion, and Metal Burst if you feel like you can predict a powerful attack coming.

Threats to my team:

• Mega Gengar: the Entrainment set is really annoying, since it forces me to switch out. Kartana can beat it, but it requires a free switch to do so. Neither Registeel nor Giratina can avoid a 2hKO from unboosted Judgment or Secret Sword respectively, making it hard to use them as pivots.

• Innards Out: Even though I have checks to this thing, it can still catch me off guard and take out Kartana, which I really need to pressure the opposing team, if I decide to hit it.

• Stakeout Wallbreakers: Banded Primal Groudon with Stakeout can easily overwhelm Giratina with a stab Thousand arrows. Luckily I haven't faced that on the latter yet, but I have before, and it hurts bad.

• Specs Kyogre-Primal: A specs Kyogre Primal can 2hKO any member of my team with Water Spout. The best I can hope for is that Impostor Chansey will force it out..

Replays:
Diancie sweeps noob: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmonssuspecttest-536301777
Registeel stalls out stat booster: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmonssuspecttest-536724619

Hope you enjoy! Open to suggestions to make the team even better!

 

[chartung17]

It looks pretty good, except for this part:

Kyogre-Primal
EVs: 252 HP / 200 SpA / 56 Spe
Timid Nature

You should change it to this:
EVs: 252 HP / 108 SpA / 148 Spe
Modest Nature

That give you an extra 19 points of SpA without losing any speed.

Actually, this is probably even better:
EVs: 252 HP / 68 SpA / 188 Spe
Modest Nature

That gives you 10 more points of Spe, allowing you to outrun Scarf Mega Diancie (and, more importantly, Scarf Kartana) at +2, as well as 8 extra points of SpA.

 

[SuperSkylake]

I've made a few changes to the team.
For my Kyogre, I've actually moved the 200 Spa evs to def and the 56 Speed evs to Spa, which allows it to take physical attacks much better. The nature is now a Bold one as well.
on Registeel I've switched Stealth Rock to Wisp, though this makes me lose out on rocks. Registeel was simply way way too passive especially since it carried Flash Fire, and not Prankster, meaning that it had to take a boosted hit from an attacker before it could phaze the boosts away.
The biggest change is on Chansey, where I switched the Eviolite to a Spooky Plate to make myself a lot more threatening against Mega Gengar at the cost of a considerable amount of bulk. Sinc I really don't have any answer to it though, the tradeoff is worth it.

Replays with the updated team coming soon!

 

[RNGIsFatal]

Look! It's the team that froze my Registeel with Ice Beam forever and avoided the most important Bolt Strike from my Kyurem-B!

.... enough of shitposting.

If you noticed, your team is kidna weak against an -ate user with Ground type coverage or Fighting type.

Wisp is a good decision to cripple sweepers but isn't Stealth Rock a better choice overall? You can potentially stop them from spamming Shell Smash with Focus Sash (what we both hate from BH itself). But I would still say Wisp is an excellent option that also has no drawback if bounced back.

Also if you remember, I have Magic Bounce Audino in my team which completely shuts down most options from Gengar. Normalize Gengar usually has hard time inflicting damage on Audino, but Audino can't do anything back without Magic Bounce. Probably getting one in exchange of Imposter might help you against Gengar much better, without having to play Russian Roulette speed tie with Spooky Plate.

And just a minor point, how about Tinted Lens of Stakeout on Kartana?

 

[SuperSkylake]

I tried tinted lens on Kartana and the damage on it was still short of KO, I eventually switched it to dazzling which actually lets it shut down a lot of ate users but I'm not sure if I like that much either. I was also contemplating switching FC Giratina to AV Regen Xerneas in order to better take on fighting and dragon types, since contrary kyurem-w and Mega Rayquaza are becoming more and more common, and I don't have a good answer to Draco Meteor. That would probably also let me take on things like Galvanize Groudon with Earth Plate Judgment better, come to think of it.

 

[RNGIsFatal]

I tried tinted lens on Kartana and the damage on it was still short of KO, I eventually switched it to dazzling which actually lets it shut down a lot of ate users but I'm not sure if I like that much either. I was also contemplating switching FC Giratina to AV Regen Xerneas in order to better take on fighting and dragon types, since contrary kyurem-w and Mega Rayquaza are becoming more and more common, and I don't have a good answer to Draco Meteor. That would probably also let me take on things like Galvanize Groudon with Earth Plate Judgment better, come to think of it.

If you remove Giratina Pdon will destroy your team. Chansey takes 75% from Banded Stakeout 1k arrows so it is not even viable solution. If you want to keep yourself away from threats such as Contrary or Normalize, run something like Never Ending Nightmare on Giratina or Magic Bounce user who can take 2 Judgments. And simply keeping Imposter is a great check for Contrary unless they run Choice Scarf.