Mega Sableye on an offence team

[2Fruit]

Mega Sableye is an interesting pokemon. It can screw over a ton of attackers, Shelter the team from hazards, and boost up with Calm mind or Nasty plot until it scrapes everything off the plate with dark pulse. . I wanted to try something different with the black diamond however, and decided on an offensive Mega Sableye team.

The goal was to create a team that makes the most out of Mega Sableye's abilities while countering the gemkeeper's foes, particularly those equipped to bomb stall.

Sableye @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 108 SpA / 60 SpD
Modest Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
- Recover

Starting out with a sableye that is really quite typical, but it gets the job done. Didn't really think much about the EVs, gave it what I thought was a combination of bulk and offence.

Talonflame @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Roost

Talonflame is a great Pokemon to pair with Sableye, and acts as a secondary win condition with swords dance and brave bird. I gave it max Atk and enough speed to outpace base 100 pokemon, pumped the rest into HP.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off

Ferrothorn pairs well with Talonflame and Sableye and acts as a hazard/bulky support pokemon, that can also act as a lead and cripple item dependant pokemon. Somewhat checks Azumarill, though it can be muscled past assuming the Blue mouse can set up.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Recover

Starmie is placed in the team with the idea that mega Sableye will sometimes be unavailable/on the sidelines. It can do some of Sableye's jobs to a lesser extent, removing hazards while protecting Ferrothorn and Talonflame, act as a status absorber, and even hit back with a decent combination of speed, bulk, and power. Psyshock over psychic to hit Azumarill harder in the event that it used superpower. Starmie also hits Talonflame hard enough, letting other party members pick it off if not outright KOing.

Scolipede @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Megahorn

I'm a bit on the fence about Scolipede, but he does a good job as a cleanup or opportunist. I hardly ever see it, which is surprising since a base 100 attack powered megahorn with a life orb and Stab behind it, riding on a swords dance and a speed boost, is a very scary thing. Completely countered by Skarmory and Talonflame, which is a bummer.

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Fusion Bolt

Kyurem-B is the middlegame workhorse, switching in, outspeeding and smacking something with powerful offensives. I felt I needed imediate power, placing outrage instead of dragon claw. I know it has a lot of drawbacks, but the ammount of power granted makes up for it by acheiving neutral KOs. Whereas some people run both dragon type moves, I saved a slot for earth power, which hits levitate pokemon due to Teravolt.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Mega Sableye is better off using a Bold nature with max HP/max Defense in order to take physical hits more comfortably, in order to compensate for Calm Mind not boosting Defense. CM boosts Special Attack and Special Defense anyway, so no investment is needed for those stats.

 

[2Fruit]

Thanks, I changed it to that.

 

[Nah]

You want to run a Jolly nature on your Talonflame with that spread. Lets you outspeed base 115s that way. Swords Dance makes up for the lesser Attack.

The reason you don't see Scolipede anymore is because its primary niche was Baton Passing Attack/Defense and Speed boosts to teammates, but since you can only pass one of those at a time now it's basically lost its place in the game. Base 100 Attack's also not amazing and it loses to too much **** to be viable.

Your team also kind of loses to sand offense once Ferro is weakened or killed, and (CM) Mega Slowbro walls your whole team, particularly if Mega Sableye is weakened or is behind in the CM war. Black Kyurem can't exactly break it either:
252 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-B Fusion Bolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Slowbro: 126-150 (31.9 - 38%) -- 95.6% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Teravolt Kyurem-B Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Slowbro: 112-133 (28.4 - 33.7%) -- 0.7% chance to 3HKO

Rain offense is probably no fun either. A powerful Grass type would sorta help with all three of those, but that kinda stacks weaknesses. A good Fighting type basically beats the typical Tyranitar+Excadrill pair, but doesn't solve the Mega Bro or rain problems.

Idk, maybe someone else will have ideas.

I also have a strong dislike of using Outrage in a meta where Steels and Fairies are insanely common. Would personally prefer Dragon Claw on Black Kyurem.

 

[Dark Azelf]

This is one of those "offensive" teams that cannot break bulky stat uppers well at all. CM Suicune, CM Manaphy and MegaBro ruin your whole team essentially. Scalds make your primary switch ins useless and Ferro cant even touch waters, it needs Power Whip badly.

 

[2Fruit]

How do you guys think a spore Breloom would do?

 

[Anti]

yeah d_a is pretty spot on here, only i'd generalize his comment and say that you don't have much breaking capacity at all. i don't like sableye's fit on the team but if you want to keep it then go ahead, though those evs are terrible and i'd run mixed defense on it (don't agree w/ platdude at all i think phys def is pretty iffy but to each his own). scolipede is pretty shitty, i'd run a real breaker though like uhhh idk do people still run gengar or alakazam or something? lastly, sd talon wants jolly and uhhh i think 168 speed? whatever the number to outspeed raikou and scarf mag is. you don't want to have to predict their switch-ins to kill w/ flare blitz.