Ghost blog part 3 - Rotom-A and the rest
Rotom-A
Personally I reckon only the oven and mower forms are using - the oven form is really good at its job of beating Forretress, while the mower form is probably the best against Groudon. Washing form is walled by Dialga unfortunately, freezer form has a stupid move in Blizzard (unless you really want to build hail just for that) and fan form is just bad. Baby Rotom could be interesting given the 91 base speed - I might want to try Specs or something on just for the hell of it, but I think its stats are likely too poor in Ubers.
Rotom-Heat @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder
- Overheat
- Protect / Pain Split / Shadow Ball
Damage calcs:
184+ SpA Giratina-Origin Thunder vs. 248 HP / 248+ SpD Forretress: 128-151 (36.2 - 42.7%) -- 95.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
32 SpA Rotom-Heat Thunder vs. 248 HP / 248+ SpD Forretress: 138-163 (39 - 46.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
32 SpA Rotom-Heat Overheat vs. 248 HP / 248+ SpD Forretress in Rain: 216-256 (61.1 - 72.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
This set basically takes full advantage of Rotom-A's traits. The EVs let you 2HKO Forretress with Thunder + Overheat in the rain after SR or 1 layer of Spikes damage. With rain, Gira-O has a chance to 2HKO Forry with HP Fire only (with 1 layer up only), and that's a roll (85% if you give it max SpA and Rash). Rotom-A guarantees 2HKO as long as you hit Overheat. This is time Forry has to set up multiple layers of hazards, or Toxic you and stall out some turns with Protect if needs to. You apply way more pressure on Forretress if they know you can just smash them with Overheat.
Despite having Overheat, I'd still run this on rain or sand - the main reason is I'd still want to use Thunder as the main move, and Overheat is there as the option for Forretress specifically.
You can also use this as a Groudon check, although with Overheat, you may not deal as much damage to it as you like, so Wisp is still needed to cripple Groudon. SubSD will still beat you unless you have Shadow Ball, and that's still a bit of a guessing game between Sball and Wisp.
The last move is pretty optional. As mentioned, Sball lets you break SubSD Groudon's Subs, Pain Split and Protect give you some longevity. You can also use Toxic for stuff, as well as other stupid options like Sucker Punch if you want to screw over some weakened sweepers or something.
Rotom-Mow @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 104 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 148 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Will-O-Wisp / Shadow Ball
Mower form is a bit more offensive and has 2 ways to play. Initially I thought the 3 attack set is nice because you can tank Groudon, spinblock and throw out STAB Thunder at the same time. You do lose quite a bit of momentum against Dialga but getting a Wisp onto it is not bad. Leaf Storm hits Groudon the hardest, STAB Thunder is cool, HP Fire if it's sunny and you want to kill Forry, and Sball lets you break SubSD Don Subs.
Rotom-Mow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Thunder
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire] / Shadow Ball
- Trick
Scarf Rotom-A lets you role-compress speed control with a spinblocker that isn't super frail. That being said, Scarf Rotom-A is not winning prizes for being durable either. A single Payback from Forretress deals like 70% to it so if you can use a Scarf on something else that would be ideal. You can also use Scarf Rotom-H if you want Overheat.
Banette @ Focus Sash
Ability: Insomnia
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave nature
- Trick Room
- Shadow Sneak
- Curse / Destiny Bond
- Taunt
Banette is another super old meme mon that can be found in the archives of Project Uber Leads. To be honest, to call it a meme is a bit of understatement, but on the right setup you might be able to surprise some people.
You'll notice I've changed this set a bit from the original mtr post in 2010 - mainly because I think Curse is a better finisher move. I've tested like a number of games with this on roomtours and vs just through matchmaking and I don't think I've ever scored a Destiny Bond kill on anyone so people are obviously clued into this set even though no-one has used this thing like ever. For this reason, I use Curse after setting up Trick Room - you force the issue because Banette dies and you've forced them out too. The only downside is if they ever lead with a Sub mon (like SubCM Ogre from all the explody Forrys) - Sub blocks Curse which is an absolute pain. As such, Taunt and Dbond are still okay for the scenario. You can also use Double-Edge if you really want to force the issue too, lol
Shadow Sneak 2HKOes standard Sash Deo-S but not Scarf, so if you get Tricked that really kind of sucks. You can always just go for Trick Room on turn 1 I suppose and if you get Taunted you get Taunted.
You'll notice I haven't dropped Speed IVs to 0 despite it being a Trick Room mon - the extra Speed before you Trick Room is still useful -> you can Taunt Forry leads and stop them setting up anything before you set up Trick Room and start your attack. Dropping down to 0 gets you to 116 Speed which is like 0 Spe Forry speed and the leads tend to creep a little bit.
Drifblim @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Endure
- Shadow Ball
- Weather Ball / Thunder
- Explosion
I already talked about this in a previous blog but this thing is cool because it's super aggressive and I love it. Being able to role compress a spinblocker, an emergency speed control, a possible cleaner + boom is amazing. That being said, there are mindgames to be played - does your opponent know about Endure + Unburden? If they do, they might just decide to kill you anyway while you think they won't attack in fear of activating it, etc etc
On the topic of Drifblim, SubCM with Petaya or even Sitrus is potentially possible too with like Sub/CM/Sball/Weather Ball but it's probably just a bit harder to get going at the start.
Mismagius @ Salac Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 12 HP / 244 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot / Calm Mind
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power Fighting / Hidden Power Fire
Okay, now we're starting to get into some truly unviable stuff now. I've used this a couple of times and it's been really disappointing, but I reckon I can potentially still see potential with it. It's kind of sad that Missy's Def is so bad that even if you burn Bronzong, your Sub still can't live Payback, so you can't do like a Spectrier-style set.
The main idea behind is to just Sub up, NP and then try to Sub down to to 25% to get the Salac boost. You're just fast enough to outspeed Deo-S at +1 Spe which is pretty respectable. This set theoretically does okay vs Eclipse since you set up easily on Blissey and Forretress but the lack of initial power if going to be tough - Latias will probably out CM you and Dialga will revenge you before you get the speed boost.
The choice between Nasty Plot and Calm Mind is a bit of an interesting one. You'd think Mismagius being as frail as it is would just love to get as much power as soon as possible, but its SpD is not bad so you may be able to take advantage of the SpD boost and maybe set up Cresselia or something o_0. If using CM then Leftovers is probably okay.
Not sure what else Missy can do, I know some others have been testing Missy recently but I'm not going to leak their ideas for now, we'll see what comes out of it...
Spiritomb @ Custap Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Atk / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Shadow Sneak / Sucker Punch
- Taunt
- Memento
So... ever wanted to role-compress a spinblocker and trapper in the same set? Who knew you can do that? Well Spiritomb can! Kind of...
Basically, you can potentially get some use out of this. Unfortunately, Spiritomb's Pursuit is really quite weak, even when it's switching out you're doing like 35% to Cresselia, which is pretty pathetic (may be enough if you're trying to get it in range for like SD or DD Ray then it could be okay, I guess.
60 Spe lets you outspeed min Speed Forrtress so you may want to creep a little bit more so you can Taunt it.
Shedinja @ Focus Sash
Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic
- Shadow Sneak
- Baton Pass
I got so sick of seeing this on ladder last month. There are actually multiple 15+ year old teams that use this that people still manage to get pastes off which have been around longer than some players have been alive. Anyway, Sheddy is terrible. It does have a couple of okay matchups that it has (like Ghost-less rain offense), but otherwise it is pretty dead weight as soon as hazards go up. The idea of Shedinja is obviously to punish those teams and potentially just win straight in the Team Builder, but even if you can get hazards off the field there are still so many ways to not lose to Shedinja so why bother...
Shedinja @ Focus Sash / Lum Berry / Power Herb
Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor
- Shadow Sneak
- Dig / Will-O-Wisp / Grudge
One idea I was toying with is potentially to just lead with it. Again, there are some leads that you're just going to lose outright to (like Tyranitar), but against things like Deo-S, Deo-A, Froslass and Kyogre you're chilling, and all you do is try and set up and take out as many things as possible before you get stopped. At least when you're a lead you devote less resources to stop Sheddy being a total dead slot.
In terms of the last slot and options, I kind of like Dig and Power Herb because a common answer would be to just set up Spikes/Rocks with their lead, then go to Dialga to Roar you out, and you can potentially just smash their Dialga hard with a +2 Dig, which is kind of funny. That being said, without Sash or Lum you're losing to Darkrai no matter what, at least with Lum or Sash you can mindgame them into Void vs Pulse a little bit.
Dusknoir @ Custap Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 SpD
Careful Nature
- Trick Room
- Taunt
- Shadow Sneak
- Memento
I haven't gotten a chance to try this yet, but theoretically you can use this like a mid-game or end-game equivalent of the Banette lead. Dusknoir's bulk, while not great, is decent enough that it can tank some stuff and set up Trick Room. Like Banette, the idea is to set up Trick Room and kill yourself to give a Trick Room sweeper a free switch-in and turn. The EVs let you tank a Draco Meteor from Latios and activate Custap to at very least Memento them for a free set up. Curse is also an option to force a switch if you fancy that too, but at least Memento guarantees that Dusknoir dies, unlike Curse if your opponent is behind a Sub. Shadow Sneak is because why the hell not, what else is Dusknoir going to use... (Fire Punch maybe)
You can also lead with this - I remember skarmgood using this during last year's old gens DPP Ubers spotlight ladder. I personally think Banette is better for that role since you can get a Trick Room off against the two most common Darkrai responses to you (Dark Void or Dark Pulse) as long as you don't get flinched.
Sableye @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Def / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
- Seismic Toss
I haven't tried this yet but Zayele has and apparently it's okay in Farceus. Actually out of all the spinblockers, this is up there to be one of the Ghosts that has the best mix of longevity vs stopping Forretress from setting up hazards for free outside of Ghostceus. That being said, Forry setting hazards while Sableye coming in is also a big problem, or Toxicing you on the way are also long term probabilities so yeah.
The main advantage of running this in Farceus over reg is obviously the decent matchup against Ekiller - that being said because it doesn't have Prankster this gen so you're taking massive damage from +2 Earthquake, and if they have Lum you just lose, so there's that. Seismic Toss is preferred over Night Shade since the one mon you want to damage is covered by it I guess.
Other options in the last slot would be like Knock Off, Toxic, etc.
I think the only other fully evolved Ghosts that's not on this long exploration of DPP Ghost-types is Rotom-N (if you count that). Rotom-N is outclassed by Rotom-A, although maybe you can use Specs for the STAB Thunder and 91 base Speed so you outspeed all the base 90s... most of them don't run max speed anyway but you might be able to surprise the odd Timid Specs Kyogre or something?
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