Monotype Merciless Toxapex - Having Fun

[garatoi]

Where to play merciless toxapex if not in a full poison team ?

Goal of the team : toxic the whole opponent's team, killing some poke if possible, then trick room and explode to let (hope) toxapex finish in 3 turns.



Roserade @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Dazzling Gleam
- Leaf Storm
- Sludge Bomb

For toxic spikes, i first thought about roserade because outside toxapex i think she is the best poison poke to fullfill this role. I still hesitate with drapion for this role and to put a vileplume instead of roserade to best tank ground moves - physical moves.
I still don't know what to think about this set.
dazzling gleam is here to help against mono dragon. leaf storm and sludge bomb are good stab. sludge bomb has a chance to toxic current/flying target to help toxa sweep.



Toxapex @ Life Orb
Ability: Merciless
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gunk Shot
- Liquidation
- Knock Off
- Recover

THE STAR !!!
I still hesitate with choice band since we are in monotype and i never changed my first move under trick room until now, but i think it is good to have the possibilty to change move, vs ground (always 1 water immunity) for example. i like recover to come a few times before trick room and bait classic toxapex, and because toxa doesn't have a lot of good physical moves.
The golden thing with this set imo is to come on poisoned boosting mons (curselax, cosmic power clefable) who think to be safe and one shot them with a crit
funny thing : toxa is faster than curselax at -2 speed (forgot to upload replay sry)



Haunter @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Explosion
- Shadow Ball

he is here lack of anything better : his family (gengar/gastly) are the only poison type to have trick room.
he's best than gengar because he can live a hit and also has ground immunity which is very useful in a mono poison.
Explosion seems safer than destiny bond to me. Otherwise i put him some coverage cause i didn't know what moves to learn him.



Salazzle (F) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Protect
- Flamethrower

Can toxic anything that toxic spikes cannot. Golden against mono steel. Classic set and always do the job, especially against more defensive teams.



Drapion @ Black Sludge
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Aqua Tail

Providing psychic immunity and some coverage. Need help with his set, i also thought about skuntank to have some priority (sucker punch).
Knock off is the best dark move of pokemon.
Earthquake seems to be mandatory for coverage. Aqua tail ? well i don't know ...



Toxtricity @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Volt Switch
- Overdrive
- Sludge Wave

Imo the team needed some volt-turn and speed so i decided to go scarf toxtricity. He helps a lot againt water. he can finish/weaken a lot of fast threats.
his moves are very classic.

Replay :
haunter lives an incineroar's knock off :
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8monotype-1127705643

i'll try to add more

Pokepaste :
https://pokepast.es/a57206121b780b1d

 

[Conflux]

Hey, interesting team, but it definitely needs some changes to be considered viable.

Major Changes

Roserade -> Vileplume

->

Vileplume is the best Poison/Grass type for Poison teams because of its bulk and access to Strength Sap. It's amazing against Water- and Ground-type teams, checks Excadrill which is a massive threat to your team, has a useful ability in Effect Spore which can help you luck out of a tight situation, and can also put opponents to sleep with Sleep Powder. What makes it better than Roserade in the Water and Ground match-ups is its longevity thanks to Strength Sap, meaning it can stick around to put in work for the majority of the game, while Roserade will get worn down by Life Orb and can't even get through Toxapex as opposed to Vileplume which can Sleep Powder it.

Toxtricity -> Galarian Weezing

->

Between Vileplume, Toxapex, and Gengar you're already pretty solid against Water, so Toxtricity is expendable. Galarian Weezing provides a Ground immunity thanks to Levitate and helps glue your team together thanks to its great bulk, useful Fairy-typing, and access to moves such as Will-O-Wisp, Defog, and Pain Split. It's a good switch in to threats such as Mamoswine, Diggersby, Conkeldurr, Darmanitan and more, and is a must on every Poison team due to how much it contributes.

Haunter -> Gengar

->

No reason to run Haunter over Gengar. Poison has access to a better Ground immunity in Galarian Weezing as just mentioned, and Mold Breaker Excadrill, one of the biggest threats to Poison, bypasses it anyway. Don't really see the point of Trick Room either since Poison doesn't really have abusers that would make this playstyle worth it. Gengar is the best offensive Pokemon Poison has access to it so it would be a waste to not use it. The set I recommend here is Choice Scarf for Speed control, since we just removed Scarf Toxtricitiy (which is pretty slow anyway). This will allow you to outspeed threats such as Scarf Excadrill and Scarf G-Darmanitan.


Minor Changes

Drapion

Set

Drapion @ Black Sludge
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Taunt
- Toxic Spikes

I recommend a specially defensive set here with Toxic Spikes since I replaced Roserade with Vileplume meaning you lost your TSpikes setter. The main reasoning for a specially defensive set is because Drapion plays a very important roll for Poison which is obviously a Psychic immunity. However if your opponent predicts Drapion and clicks Moonblast with their Gardevoir or Hyper Voice with their Indeedee you will take a good amount of damage and then your Drapion's capabilities of checking these Pokemon will be limited. But with the investment in Special Defense paired up with Black Sludge you can do so more effectively.

Toxapex

Offensive Toxapex is unfortunately not viable, don't think I have to go too much into detail on why. This Pokemon is meant to be a defensive menace and you'll get the most value out of it if you run a defensive set to take advantage of its capabilities. Toxapex's Attack is pretty bad so even with the critical hits thanks to Merciless this set just can't compete with the standard one which gives you an amazing pivot with Regenerator, allows you to check setup sweepers with Haze and spread burns with Scald. It seems like Merciless Toxapex is the face of your team so I guess I'll leave it, but consider using a defensive set if you want your team to be as viable as possible.


[click on the sprites above for importable]

Hope you find my suggestions helpful, good luck with the team!

 

[garatoi]

Hey thx for your reply man !

I like your changes, but i'll keep my merciless toxapex ;)
I know it's not viable but this thing just kills me everytime it crits.

I changed my roserade to vileplume and my drapion's set as you mentioned, and i think it's way better this way. Thanks a lot for your help.

Otherwise, i know haunter is bad, but i really want to play TR to give a chance to toxapex to sweep so i'll keep it.

With keeping haunter, do you think gengar scarf is still better than scarf toxtricity ? Or should i put a galarian-weezing instead ?

Thx again !

 

[Conflux]

Hey thx for your reply man !

I like your changes, but i'll keep my merciless toxapex ;)
I know it's not viable but this thing just kills me everytime it crits.

I changed my roserade to vileplume and my drapion's set as you mentioned, and i think it's way better this way. Thanks a lot for your help.

Otherwise, i know haunter is bad, but i really want to play TR to give a chance to toxapex to sweep so i'll keep it.

With keeping haunter, do you think gengar scarf is still better than scarf toxtricity ? Or should i put a galarian-weezing instead ?

Thx again !

Well I think Galarian Weezing is a must, but then you lack a Scarf user, which isn't necessarily too bad but your team will be better if you have that Speed control to revenge kill certain threats. Your team is also very weak to Corviknight because the only Pokemon that can somewhat handle it is Salazzle which can't afford to switch in on Brave Bird since it does too much. With Scarf Gengar you'd be able to use Trick to cripple it. Chances are you're only going to be able to use Trick Room once or twice per game, and I don't think 4 turns (or 3 since you'll need a turn to get Toxapex in) is enough because again, Toxapex isn't strong enough to sweep a team and relies on the opponent being poisoned. But if you're adamant about keeping Haunter then I'd just use Galarian Weezing as the last and accept the weakness to Corviknight.

 

[smashmallow101]

If you wanna go further, use special Toxapex with Venoshock, giving you a 140 BP move that always crits.

If you're gonna go offensive, you might as well go full memelord.