Spoiler: importable Zigzagoon @ Berry Juice Ability: Pickup Level: 5 EVs: 136 HP / 200 Atk / 108 Def / 28 SpD / 36 Spe Adamant Nature IVs: 30 SpA - Belly Drum - Extreme Speed - Thief - Protect Stunky @ Eviolite Ability: Aftermath Level: 5 EVs: 252 HP / 12 Atk / 244 Spe Jolly Nature - Crunch - Pursuit - Play Rough - Memento Gothita @ Choice Scarf Ability: Shadow Tag Level: 5 EVs: 244 SpA / 244 Spe Modest Nature - Thunderbolt - Psychic - Energy Ball - Hidden Power [Fire] Croagunk @ Berry Juice Ability: Dry Skin Level: 5 EVs: 212 HP / 28 Atk / 40 Def / 108 SpA / 116 SpD Quiet Nature - Knock Off - Thief - Vacuum Wave - Sludge Bomb Archen (F) @ Berry Juice Ability: Defeatist Level: 5 EVs: 76 HP / 20 Atk / 156 Def / 196 Spe Jolly Nature - Stealth Rock - Defog - Acrobatics - Earthquake Ponyta @ Eviolite Ability: Flame Body Level: 5 EVs: 76 Atk / 236 Def / 196 Spe Jolly Nature - Flare Blitz - Wild Charge - Will-O-Wisp - Morning Sun Posted this on smogon and got 0 rates. Hopefully PO is better. So when Misdreavus got banned LC players looked at the three big normal types (Aipom,Bunnelby,Zigzagoon) for inspiration. While Zigzagoon lost it's most common check it also lost the perfect Memento pokemon.This is my attempt at a Zigzagoon that deviates from the standard Diglett + Cottonee that is most commonly run alongside it. I figure I might as well share now LC Slam is over for me. Zigzagoon @ Berry Juice Ability: Pickup Level: 5 EVs: 136 HP / 200 Atk / 108 Def / 28 SpD / 36 Spe Adamant Nature - Belly Drum - Extreme Speed - Thief - Protect Bog standard set here for the Pokemon that the team is centred around here except with Def and SpD ev's switched around as I feel that physical attacks right now are much stronger and have a better chance to KO it before setting up. Protect is used as the filler move to deal with Fake Outs that threaten this and to get extra turns for Pickup to trigger. At +6 there is a only a handful of Pokemon that can stop this and that is where the rest of the team comes in. Stunky @ Eviolite Ability: Aftermath Level: 5 EVs: 252 HP / 12 Atk / 244 Spe Jolly Nature - Crunch - Pursuit - Play Rough - Memento A very weird set but it does exactly what you want for this team. 18 speed lets you surprise everything with 17 and hit them with Memento before they can even move to let Zigzagoon set up. Crunch is good STAB if you need it and Pursuit is a good way to hit Sash Abra that decide to be greedy and come out early game. It also helps with Gastly but ideally Gothita will be taking care of that anyway. Play Rough lets you punish fighting types that low to switch in thinking they are safe. It also gives you a better attack to hit Pawniard with which is something this team desperately needs. Sucker Punch would be nice over Play Rought but because you already are 18 speed and the team already has Scarf Gothita, Vacum Wave and Extreme Speed you don't need it so much. Gothita @ Choice Scarf Ability: Shadow Tag Level: 5 EVs: 244 SpA / 244 Spe Modest Nature - Thunderbolt - Psychic - Energy Ball - Hidden Power [Fire] THIS THING IS SO UNDERRATED. Seriously Gothita traps and takes care of so much it is unreal. Thunderbolt is mostly for Archen but I guess it also hits like Mantyke and is the best move on Psychic types like Abra if you ever get in that situation. Energy Ball is for the extra damage on Tirtouga and Chinchou( so many teams are Ponyta weak when Chinchou goes down). Finally HP Fire lets you roast Ferroseed which you can usually force out early with Archen. Psychic is obvious STAB. Croagunk @ Berry Juice Ability: Dry Skin Level: 5 EVs: 212 HP / 28 Atk / 40 Def / 108 SpA / 116 SpD Quiet Nature - Knock Off - Thief - Vacuum Wave - Sludge Bomb Fuck Pawniard core part 1. Seriously that's why this thing is here. I could have put Mienfoo or Timburr here and they are both worth trying out in this space but I just think Croagunk is the best early game annoyer in the Tier. If you see a Tirtouga then you might want to keep this thing healthy instead until you know it's set. Berry Juice over Eviolite because the amount of 2HKO turned into 3HKO's is great. Thief has great synergy with Berry Juice and I have always found people will never let you Drain Punch what you want to hit with it to be worth a moveslot. Ponyta @ Eviolite Ability: Flame Body Level: 5 EVs: 76 Atk / 236 Def / 196 Spe Jolly Nature - Flare Blitz - Wild Charge - Will-O-Wisp - Morning Sun Fuck Pawniard core part 2. Again this slot could easily be replaced with something else like Porygon or other glues that do well against Pawniard. Ponyta was chosen because its fast, has decent offensive pressure and can spread burns around the opposite team. Nothing else to say as this is an analysis Set. Archen (F) @ Berry Juice Ability: Defeatist Level: 5 EVs: 76 HP / 20 Atk / 156 Def / 196 Spe Jolly Nature - Stealth Rock - Defog - Acrobatics / Rock Tomb - Earthquake Fletchling check and hazard control. This slot would be a Drilbur if Fletchling wasn't a thing but unfortunately it is. Thankfully the offensive pressure makes it very hard for Fletchling to get a SD up to break past this. Archen is the protection against Spikes or Sticky Web teams that this team needs. Any rock stab is a decent option over Acrobatics since this team can trap fighting types however Gothita might be down or something. THREATS: Pawniard: The only decent zigzagoon check that the team can't check. Really hard to face but Ponyta / Croagunk do very well against this. Archen can beat Eviolite set and +6 Ziggy only needs a small amount of prior damage. Fletchling: Only one flying resist. RIP. Thankfully you can usually stop it getting an SD up and doing too much damage. Porygon : Burn it, Knock it off and pray. Can be used as set up fodder if you feel like para is going to be nice to you. Diglett : This is why porygon over Ponyta or Timburr over Croagunk are good options. Just hope double priority and Goth is enough. Bunnelby: Annoying to face early game as it forces prediction from you. Corphish: SAVE CROAGUNK
As much as I wanna rate this I have no idea how to run Ziggy offense so meh .3. Only thing I can really tell yah is that thief doesn't look like the best move on ziggy since ziggy is (almost) always OHKO'd by gastly's LO sludge bomb, doesn't OHKO max/max pumpkin and you have a pursuit trapper. Of course it doesn't have many other options in the first place buuuuuuut you could run something like seed bomb/rock smash or even gunk shot if you hated spritzee that much. I'm not a fan of gunks set but you're kinda (entirely) right about the drain punch thing. IDK thief just seems redundant.
Pawniard and Fletch are aids. Which is really disappointing since this deviates from the mentioned boring-ass Cottonee memento teams for Zig (well it's still the same basic concept but Cottonee is a personal hate of mine) and I'd like to see this without the troubles with those huge threats (Suspect Fletch ezpz). You gave me this team a while ago to ladder LC with and it was really fun to use and it actually won a lot despite my rust and being bad. So good job. While I get what ur saying with Drain Punch I really didn't see much opportunity to make use of Thief either when using the team, Croagunk has like 6/7 more usable moves so I'm not entirely sure what I'd use. Drain Punch would give at least an option to threaten Porygon beyond Knock Off and Sludge Bomb Poison. Also gives you another way to hit Ferroseed hard beyond Goth, which is especially useful if you're running Porygon over Ponyta. I found Turtle fairly troublesome personally. Especially EQ variants (I saw 2!!) for obvious reasons. To that end Fake Out could even be an option on Croagunk for those desperate times when Sturdy needs breaking without having to sac Croagunk and bring Zigzag in early. Though EQ Turtle isn't overly common afaik, but that's still more use than I ever got out of Thief myself. I don't know about Ziggy's last move. I didn't kill any ghosts with Ziggy, but I also don't see any use in any other moves it learns. So yeah. I guess Seed Bomb is neat and it can actually hit Tirtouga since it's slower. Feels weird talking about LC since I'm pretty damn rusty with it, but I felt I had to post since I liked this team. Excuse anything heinously stupid that I may have said n_n Spoiler I made the mistake of not saving Croagunk for a Corphish once :^[