Monotype Offensive Mono Bug

[Barragan]

This team in general works fine but i have some doubt about what can be modified to make it even better.

Armaldo @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Stone Edge/EQ

Armaldo>Forretress simply because the rock STAB plus more attack allow me to not start 5vs6 vs monofire, i am considering EQ vs Bisharp and Toxicroak who resist SE and set-up.

Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Giga Drain
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power[Ground]

Standard volcarona, i used Giga Drain over the bug STAB because i want to OHKO water/ground pokes and in general not being stopped by bulky water after +1.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn

I choose this set over SD because i very rarely have the possibility to SD and hit before Scizor is KOed.

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit

The Mega could have better vs some pokes but speed plus attack boost for each KO is too strong overall.

Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Aerilate
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Quick Attack
- Close Combat
- Frustration

This guy is nuts, 'enough said.

Galvantula @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Energy Ball
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Sticky Web

HP[Ice] over HP[Ground] because i have several pokes to OHKO Heatran and i need a OHKO on Gliscor other than Volcarona.​

 

[Magii]

Welcome to Smogon, and monotype!

To be frank, your team has issues. Many of your pokemon are good, but your movesets don’t do them justice. A few changes a are in order.

Foretress is fine, nothing wrong there, typical lead.

On Volcarona, it typically runs a special sweeper set, and isn’t bulky enough for a resto chesto set.

Volcarona @ Firium Z / Bugium Z / Psychium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance/Fire Blast
- Psychic/HP Ground

I suggest replacing Heracross with Armaldo. Armaldo helps with many matchups like fire, and gives you a better switch-in.
(I have to hurry this along now)

Also, replace Beedrill with Mega Pinsir, and Scizor to use the bulky SD set. Use the smogdex for sample sets. Also, I believe sticky webs Galvantula would be better than specs.

I hope you have a great day, and an even better smogon career!

 

[Barragan]

I modified Volcarona because there are more situations where Toxic does not give me problems than the contrary, and most of the times +2 Sucker Punch KO Volcarona even at full health.

The role of Heracross is to be a fast sweeper, there is no point on switching him with someone else who has another role.

The problem with Beedrill is simply that i like too much the Mega design to change him, it's not a question of gameplay xD

I gave to Scizor the set proposed by Smogon. They suggest also 252/252 jolly nature but his role is to hit hard when the big sweepers of the enemy team are already down, not to outspeed them.

 

[AsuraBlue]

Hi! This team looks pretty solid, honestly! One critique I do have is that you should definitely go Volt Switch in your fourth slot on Forretress so you get a great defensive pivot and a slow Volt Switch if you wanna get in Scizor damage-free. You’re definitely going to want to preserve Forretress in case the other team carries hazards, as it takes damage, so the switch after it’s set rocks up is probably the best play anyways.

As for Scizor, you could definitely go Roost over Superpower if you wanted to. Even though you’ll have one less Ferro counter, it’d still be worth it, as a boosted neutral hit still puts dents in most things. Bug Bite’s good, but seeing as I personally play Bug teams with a lot of VoltTurn mechanics, Is personally recommend U-Turn instead.

And although I do agree with Kingdra on replacing Heracross, I feel like Buzzwole’s a better option, as it’s got better offenses and a more varied move pool than Armaldo.

Hope this helps!

 

[Barragan]

The problems of Forretress are Swampert and MSwampert which can switch-in, set-up their SR and i have to switch giving them a free hit on other pokes, this is why i need Toxic on him, to stall MSwampert while spinning his SR. I am trying Volt Switch over Gyro Ball to see if it's worth it.

Scizor in the end i think it's much better Banded because i very very rarely have the possibility to Roost and/or SD.

I am not convinced on taking out Heracross because sacrificing a good sweeper for another defensive poke it's not worth, it makes sense to me to add Armaldo if i take out Forretress for Shuckle to have the Web and SR in one poke, so that Armaldo can be the needed spinner.

 

[Magii]

Hi! This team looks pretty solid, honestly! One critique I do have is that you should definitely go Volt Switch in your fourth slot on Forretress so you get a great defensive pivot and a slow Volt Switch if you wanna get in Scizor damage-free. You’re definitely going to want to preserve Forretress in case the other team carries hazards, as it takes damage, so the switch after it’s set rocks up is probably the best play anyways.

As for Scizor, you could definitely go Roost over Superpower if you wanted to. Even though you’ll have one less Ferro counter, it’d still be worth it, as a boosted neutral hit still puts dents in most things. Bug Bite’s good, but seeing as I personally play Bug teams with a lot of VoltTurn mechanics, Is personally recommend U-Turn instead.

And although I do agree with Kingdra on replacing Heracross, I feel like Buzzwole’s a better option, as it’s got better offenses and a more varied move pool than Armaldo.

Hope this helps!

The question isn't better movepool, it's if the pokemon helps said type. Although Buzzewole is decent, it is outclassed by Armaldo because of the latter's tendency to help with the fire mu.

 

[Escavalier Royale]

One thing that I notice is that you rely solely on Forretress' Rapid Spin to remove Stealth Rock, which makes it near impossible to remove this hazard against Fire teams and literally impossible against Ghost teams. This can be problematic when carrying Volcarona and Megadrill. However, I don't really know how to solve this, as most of Bug's Defoggers are 4x weak to SR themselves. Scizor can run it if you forgo Choice Band (or you can be like me and run Defog on a Band set, but I want to say it's really risky)

 

[Barragan]

Better to have one less move on Scizor than to play a poke useful only for that weakening the entire team overall. Dunno if replacing SPower or Pursuit with it, the first one is strong but very rarely i use it and the second one is situational but it let me get rid of some problematic low hps poke and it’s the only effevtibe tool i have vs ghosts with Scizor.

 

[GoldenTorkoal]

Hi, welcome to Smogon! I'm a big fan of Bug teams and it's always good to see they have a lot of popularity among players. With that said, i think your team has some issues that i'm going to try to address so you can conclude with a better and more competitive team. First, i don't really know if your initial idea was to build a Bug team around Mega Beedrill or just to build a Bug team with whatever mega you thought it was more suitable. Anyway i'm just going to suggest you to use the best mega Bug teams can have, which is with no doubt Mega Pinsir. Mega Pinsir is a powerful Sword Dance late-game cleaner , which has enough bulk to set up Sword Dance in front of a lot of Pokemon while also having STAB priority in Quick Attack. This monster is a huge threat for types like Bug, Dark, Fighting, Fire, Ghost, Grass, Normal or Poison, and offers more than Mega Beedrill to a Bug team. In my opinion Mega Beedrill doesn't provide anything very useful to a Bug team despite outspeeding Tapu Koko and being able to OHKO it with Poison Jab; this would improve the Electric matchup but it would be still too hard because Alolan Raichu outspeeds Mega Beedrill under terrain and OHKOs it with Pyschic. Mega Beedrill could also help against Fairy but you can have Scizor for that. In conclusion the first thing i'd change is replacing Mega Beedrill with Mega Pinsir:

Mega Pinsir set

Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
- Close Combat

Next issue is Forretress. I just don't feel this Pokemon has a place on Bug teams because it's very passive, it's a useless Pokemon against Fire (you already have Scizor, so i don't think having 2 Pokemon with a x4 weakness to Fire is acceptable) and it doesn't provide anything that Armaldo can't do. Armaldo can spin away opposing hazards and set up Stealth Rock for you, just like Forretress, but it also has Rock STAB to help you against Fire and Flying. Armaldo can also learn Knock Off, which is more important than most people think at first glance because it removes items like Rocky Helmet from the opposing Stealth Rock setters (mainly Skarmory), which lets Armaldo freely spin away Stealth Rock. For those reasons i'd replace Forretress with Armaldo:

Armaldo set

Armaldo @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stone Edge
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off

I'd also change the Scizor EV spread because you need the speed to outpseed certain threats (you don't want Scizor to be slower than Azumarill believe me). Choice Band is fine because is the best possible item, so i don't agree with other people's advice of running Sword Dance (you lose too much momentum from setting up Sword Dance). Another minor tweak is that i'd run Knock Off over Pursuit, but i'd day that's up to personal preference. I prefer to run Pursuit on Heracross because it can trap Victini after using V-create (scarf Heracross outspeeds all variants of Victini after using V-create, and Scizor does not). I wouldn't get rid of Heracross as someone suggested above because you really need it to deal with Steel, Normal and Flying.

Scizor set

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Knock Off

Heracross set

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit

Nex thing i'd change is the Volcarona set. This is no longer ORAS, where you could run the bulky set; in this metagame, Volcarona needs the coverage, the Speed and the Special Attack. For that reason, i'd go with the offensive Volcarona set:

Volcarona set

Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Finally, i don't agree at all with you when saying your team does not need Sticky Web. Sticky Web is the best form of speed control in the metagame, and it helps your team with threats like Victini, Terrakion or Excadrill. The only reason to use Galvantula in a Bug team is its capacity to set up webs (also the combination of STAB Thunder and Energy Ball, which is very useful against Water). For that reason i'd change the Galvantula set:

Galvantula set

Galvantula @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sticky Web
- Thunder
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I hope all these changes help you having more success with the team. I'm sure the team will perform much better with these suggestions. I'll leave you the importable down below:

Importable

Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Moxie
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
- Close Combat

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Knock Off

Galvantula @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sticky Web
- Thunder
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Armaldo @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stone Edge
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off

If you really wanna use Mega Beedrill, smub built a team around it here http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/monotype-teambuilding-workshop.3607287/page-4#post-7449980 ; in this case he uses Buzzwole over Heracross as the scarfer since he's running Pursuit Mega Beedrill to trap Victini. The only things i'd change from that team are Galvantula's item and Armaldo's EV spread.

 

[Barragan]

I agree with everything you said except Pinsir over Beedrill, Sticky Web on Galvantula and Max Spd Scizor.

I want to keep MBeedrill in this specific team because i like too much its design and i like to play it, even if that means to not be really top tier with this monobug. In case i would like to play MPinsir i would just build a second monobug with that.

About Galvantula the problem is that in my matchups (at least for the points i have now) very rarely i need a slow and several times having more sheer power has been necessary to get the KO to win the match. It's just not worth for the point i am now in the ladder.

About Scizor is very similar to Galvantula: most of the pokes i would need to be more speedy to KO with Scizor can easily be KOed with someone else and several times Scizor has been a decent "wall" vs fairy attacks or some non super effective physical ones in general.

With Armaldo as i wrote there is the problem of Toxicroak and Bisharp; definitely one SE is not enough to KO them but +2 Sucker Punch can easily OHKO most of my team, and i do not want to sacrifice Volcarona just to have a burn on them and a chance of OHKO after that i lost one poke already. With Forretress his huge defense would have let me to EQ them and win a 1vs1 even with them at +2, but giving EQ on Armaldo means i have to replace his STAB which means i will have less possibilities to OHKO fire pokes a bit bulkier than the average. Should i go with an offensive Armaldo 252/252/4 Adamant with EQ over Knock Off?

 

[Escavalier Royale]

Well I like Escavalier's design but I don't use it on my MonoBug either.

Not many matchups where you would need Sticky Web? Just wait until you face the horror to Bug teams that is Choice Scarf Victini...

 

[Barragan]

Yes, i know it's not really smart competitively speaking to play pokes for the design alone, but i concede myself this fun xD

About Victini;
252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Armaldo: 244-288 (68.9 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Armaldo Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Victini: 390-458 (114.3 - 134.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
So if i change Armaldo from defensive to 252+ Atk i can use him to get rid of the prob :D

 

[Escavalier Royale]

Yes, i know it's not really smart competitively speaking to play pokes for the design alone, but i concede myself this fun xD

About Victini;
252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Armaldo: 244-288 (68.9 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Armaldo Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Victini: 390-458 (114.3 - 134.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
So if i change Armaldo from defensive to 252+ Atk i can use him to get rid of the prob :D

Armaldo has a pretty big chance of dying after SR damage tho. Which sucks, as it is supposed to switch into SR to spin it away.
Also, Mega Beedrill is just... Not worth using at all. It only improves matchups Bug is already good against. It contributes a little to Fairy, but Scizor beats that anyway and it can't take Azu's Aqua Jet.

Mega Pinsir, on the other hand, helps immensely with matchups like Fighting and opposing Bug, and is useful in pretty much every matchup overall. Mega Heracross helps a lot with Steel, Rock to some degree, and the rare Ice. Finally, Mega Scizor capitalizes on the types its base form already is good against by giving Fairy, Rock and Ice teams a really tough matchup against it.

If you want to use Mega Beedrill, go play UU or Camomons or something.

 

[Eien]

Hey so by now a lot of others have told you about how Mega Beedrill is awful. Since it's the whole point of this team, I won't suggest removing it and will try to help make your team as good as it can be with that in mind.

My first suggestion is running Pursuit instead of Knock Off on Mega Beedrill. You're running Pursuit on Heracross right now, but I'm going to make a suggestion later that changes that. Mega Beedrill's Pursuit is stronger than Heracross's, and you certainly don't need Knock Off when you have Knock Off on your Choice Band Scizor. Mega Beedrill's is incredibly good at punishing switches with its use of both Adaptability-boosted U-turn and a powerful Pursuit. Notably, where Heracross is locked into Pursuit after using it, Mega Beedrill is not! This lets it U-turn safely out of whatever comes in to try to revenge kill or set up on it. If you're going to run Mega Beedrill, it's best to maximize its utility, and I think making it your Pursuit user is the way to go here. As a very small optimization, you should not use 4 HP EVs on Mega Beedrill in order to minimize Stealth Rock damage.

My second suggestion is why we need Pursuit on Mega Beedrill. I think you should use Buzzwole over Heracross. Buzzwole's advantage is that it pressures Dragon teams significantly with the combination of Superpower and Ice Punch have no real switch-in. Your team really struggles with Dragon right now, as it lacks Swords Dance (Mega) Scizor in favor of Choice Band's immediate power. Buzzwole patches that up. Heracross is normally quite useful for making the Psychic matchup in your favor, but you have Mega Beedrill for that purpose already, so there's no need to have that redundancy. I opted to put Poison Jab on Buzzwole so that you have a reliable way to beat Z-Belly Drum Azumarill, as Buzzwole can easily eat the +6 Aqua Jet and OHKO with Poison Jab even with a turn of Grassy Terrain recovery (which would reduce Earthquake damage as well!.

Now, you've addressed why you don't want to use Sticky Web, but it's quite literally essential. Sticky Web enables you to have a real way to combat Pokemon such as Swift Swim Kingdra, Sand Rush Excadrill, and Choice Scarf Greninja that you are literally incapable of handling right now. Against rain teams, Kingdra will literally click Surf 6 times and OHKO your entire team one by one. Only Mega Beedrill even has a chance to survive one Surf, and it drops to Hydro Pump at full or if it takes chip damage from say Stealth Rock, which Mega Swampert is guaranteed to keep up versus your Rock-type Armaldo. That is not something you should be okay with allowing. Thus, you literally need to have it to make Bug a viable type. I would suggest dropping Bug Buzz for Sticky Web and using Focus Sash as the item. Bug Buzz is rather useless for your team because you already have so much powerful Bug-type STAB in two U-turn users. Focus Sash has more than just suicide lead utility. It also makes Galvantula a possible emergency check to Pokemon that you can't outspeed. While you might think your team is fast enough to not need Sticky Web, almost every single team in Monotype has at least one Pokemon that outspeeds your entire team. In some cases, that Pokemon is strong enough to just completely sweep you. I believe it is possible for you to have success using Mega Beedrill, but it is simply not possible if you don't have Sticky Web.

I would also suggest you keep Stone Edge on Armaldo, as that prevents Pokemon like Mantine from Defogging safely against you. While Bisharp can be annoying, it really isn't that much of a threat at all because we just added Buzzwole, which completely walls it! Toxicroak is pretty much not even a Pokemon in Monotype, but again, Buzzwole walls that as well. You should keep the spread you have right now as well, since that makes sure Armaldo survives a V-create from Choice Scarf Victini even if it takes Stealth Rock damage. (By the way, keeping the Scizor spread is fine on your team. Fast Scizor doesn't make sense for your team at all in my opinion.)

Volcarona should definitely use a Timid nature, as that allows you to outspeed Pokemon such as Choice Scarf Hydreigon and Choice Scarf Landorus-T, which are unaffected by Sticky Web, while also making sure you at least get a Speed tie with Choice Scarf Victini if you are unable to keep Sticky Web up. The extra power from Modest is simply not useful compared to making sure you hit these Speed benchmarks.

I hope these changes help! Good luck with your team. It is a more unorthodox idea but I think you can definitely make it work here.

importable

Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Giga Drain
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Galvantula @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Energy Ball
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Sticky Web

Beedrill-Mega @ Beedrillite
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Poison Jab
- Drill Run
- Pursuit
- U-turn

Buzzwole @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Poison Jab
- Stone Edge

 

[Barragan]

After more testing i decided to listen to your suggestions and replace Beedrill with Pinsir.

Still skeptical about Galvantula but i will do some other games before posting another team.

 

[GoldenTorkoal]

After more testing i decided to listen to your suggestions and replace Beedrill with Pinsir.

Still skeptical about Galvantula but i will do some other games before posting another team.

Just take into account what Eien said, one of the best players in Monotype. You have a Mega Beedrill team in that post and a very similar team at the end of my post.

 

[Barragan]

Superpower negates the Atk boost from the ability which means that i cannot sweep an entire team weak and neutral to fight as i can do with Heracross, and in general the absence of a bug physical move on a fast sweeper impacts negatively some matchups. Buzzwole in the end has only much more bulkiness than Heracross but offensively speaking it does not seem stronger to me, but i will try before changing the first post or not.

 

[Tyke]

Superpower negates the Atk boost from the ability which means that i cannot sweep an entire team weak and neutral to fight as i can do with Heracross, and in general the absence of a bug physical move on a fast sweeper impacts negatively some matchups. Buzzwole in the end has only much more bulkiness than Heracross but offensively speaking it does not seem stronger to me, but i will try before changing the first post or not.

Keep in mind that Eien’s suggestion to use Buzzwole was back when you were using Mega Beedrill, which has a lot to the same anti-psychic + trapping utility as Heracross, freeing you up to use Buzzwole.

Now that you’re using Mega Pinsir, I would stick with Heracross.