XY/ORAS Singles Mono-Dark Team

[voidaquariums]

So, I decided to make a mono-dark team for some reason, and I need some help.

Weavile, Scarfed, Pressure. Ice Punch, Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Knock Off. Jolly. 252 Atk+Speed, 4 HP.

Absol, Absolite, Super Luck. Fire Blast, HP Psychic, Dark Pulse, Foul Play. Naughty. 252 Sp. Atk+Speed, 4 Sp. Def.

Darkrai, Black Glasses, Bad Dreams. Dark Void, Dark Pulse, Focus Blast, Knock Off. Hasty. 252 Sp. Atk+Speed, 4 Atk.

Zoroark, Life Orb, Illusion. Flamethrower, Night Daze, Pursuit, Toxic. Hasty. 252 Sp. Atk+Speed, 4 Atk.

Hydreigon, Life Orb, Levitate. Flamethrower, Dark Pulse, HP Fighting, Dragon Pulse. Timid. 252 Sp. Atk+Speed, 4 Sp. Def.

Arceus-Dark, Dread Plate, Multitype. Judgment, Focus Blast, Fire Blast, Stone Edge. Mild. 252 HP+Sp. Atk, 4 Atk.

 

[pokeman266]

You have way too many pokemon that know fire type moves. There is just no need. Aswell you have too many pokemon on your team that are only Dark. I think you should only use 1 or 2. But if you're going to keep your team as it is here are some changes. Note: I am not an expert so you don't have to follow what I have to say.

Add Calm Mind to Arceus instead of either Fire Blast or Stone Edge and lose the 4 Atk and get Modest Since you have no Physical attacks

You can keep your Zoroark as it is but you could make him a physical Attacker since you already have 4, and get Foul play instead of Night Daze and get Uturn instead of flamethrower. Then either get Jolly or Adament.
Another thing you could do is make him choiced but then you would have to make major changes.

For Hydreigon get Fire Blast instead of Flamethrower if you want a fire move. There is no real reason for having HP fighting so replace it with either Draco meteor, Focus Blast or even Surf instead. Timid is good. You can replace the Life orb with Choice Specs but you don't have to.

For Weavile:There is no reason to give her +252 Speed, make her scarfed AND make her Jolly since either one will make her the fastest thing on the field. It's move set is ok at the moment. Keep Aerial Ace since it does well against bug and fighting.

Absol has some really good attack so make him Physical. He can't learn Foul Play, but give him Knock Off, Night Slash, Sucker Punch or a move that's not Dark and whatever other move you want. But swords dance is a move to consider. If you do this make him Adament

Darkrai should loose the glasses since it only gives dark type attacks 20% more power. I'd also get rid of Knock Off for Calm Mind.

 

[voidaquariums]

Thank you, but Absol CAN learn Foul Play, and what's a good replacement for the Black Glasses?

 

[Alexxander]

There are a few things I've picked up on

Overall there isn't a wide range in move coverage there are way, way too many Dark and Fire moves and you honestly have nothing to deal with Fairy types. There is also too many mixed attackers, most Pokemon execute mixed attacking poorly if you want to set up a mixed attacker make sure they have a movepool wide enough and attacking stats that are similar. The other issues overall include typing in monotype the secondary typing can be crucial for switching into weaknesses for example if you're dealing with a Fairy something like Drapion or Bisharp could switch in and tank it better. There is also the issue with Darkrai and Arceus in most competitive environments these 2 will be banned, some environments also don't allow dual items which means two Life Orb users on the same team may not be accepted.

Now I'll go onto each Pokemon.

Weavile is a good choice and it does have nice coverage but I'd either choose Knock Off/Night Slash (I prefer Knock Off) or Ice Punch as your main STAB move not both. Stick Pursuit and Ice Shard on it and use a Life Orb this has been what Weavile has been best at (revenge killing with Ice Shard and hitting switching foes). Brick Break is fine but Low Kick tends to do better as most stuff you'll be wanting to hit with a Fighting move will be heavier foes such as Ferrothorn or Tyranitar.

Absol is a physical attacker, Night Slash is better than Foul Play as Foul Play's damage is calculated via the targets Attack stat which is obviously no good against a Special Attacker. As for the other moves Play Rough is a good solid option as it offers good type coverage. Superpower is good if you want Fighting type coverage. If you don't want Superpower then Swords Dance + Baton Pass is a good idea so you can switch out without wasting the SD boosts. The other options are Sucker Punch for priority but you have to predict the foe well or Fire Blast for Pokemon such as Skarmory and Aegislash. Iron Tail could be used against Fairy types but the accuracy is a bit pants.

Darkrai is a special attacker and wants no physical investment. Normally I'd put Life Orb on Darkrai but as Weavile needs it more Leftovers will do perfectly fine. Dark Void and Dark Pulse are perfectly fine and should stay and I'd replace Focus Blast with either Sludge Bomb for dealing with Fairys or Thunderbolt/Thunder as it gives a nice coverage to Water and Flying types which are incredibly dangerous this gen. Dream Eater could be used as recovery but is risky as most opponents will attempt to switch. The fourth slot should be a support move Taunt usually does well to stop Pokemon setting up against it. Nasty Plot is also nice as it boosts that immense power even more.

Zoroark is way too frail to pull Toxic off, if you want a support move their then Trick is best and combined it with Choice Specs which is useful for shutting down physical attackers. Flamethrower is good coverage as for the other moves Dark Pulse and Extrasensory do well. While Night Daze is slightly stronger I'm not sure it's competitively legal due to the accuracy lowering plus the flinch chance on Dark Pulse is better. Unfortunately Zoroark doesn't have many special attacks the other options are Focus Blast but we don't want to overload the team with Fighting moves and it's inaccurate or you could play around with Hidden Power.

Hydreigon is a brilliant special attacker but is a little on the slow side to sweep so I'd Choice Scarf it. As for moves for the 10% less accuracy Draco Meteor is a better choice over Dragon Pulse (if this is in-game and not Showdown then you need to get it from BW2). The next move I'd put as either Fire Blast/Flamethrower or Earth Power both strong moves I'd personally go for Earth Power as there is a good deal of Fire move already on the team. The last two slots would be best suited to any of these moves Dark Pulse for STAB, Surf as it adds good type coverage or U-Turn to get out of situations using Hydreigon's decent physical attacks stat. With it being double weak to Fairy it could do with a counter Flash Cannon best suits Hydreigon because of it's better special attack and it's chance to lower special defence however many Fairy types are bulky in this stat such as Sylveon and Florges so Steel Wing may be more useful.

Finally Arceus you could go two routes with this either destroying stallers or being a more supportive/tanky member due to the lack of defensive members I'd go the tanky route. For tanking I'd put 252 in HP and the rest in the other two defenses as you see fit. Recover is a staple for Arceus for it's other moves have one attacking move in Payback it should be able to tank whatever hits it a hit back harder then easily recover afterwards the others should be support moves. Will-O-Wisp is good for stopping physical attackers (if you do use this move have higher special defence than defence). Mirror Coat is a good special counter. Roar is incredibly useful for force switching and a staple of any team Stealth Rock. Pick the two that works best for you.

If you want to be a staller killer then Calm Mind, Recover and Judgement are must haves the final move traditionally is Refresh to stop status inflictions however if you want to go all out attack just replace Refresh with Sludge Bomb to deal with Fairy types.

Like I said at the start you could do with some coverage in secondary types and Arceus and Darkrai may have trouble being allowed in some environments. There are many good Dark types that could take a place on your team Drapion, Bisharp, Honchcrow and Scrafty just to name a few.

 

[pokeman266]

I'd go with Alexander's advice since it looks like he knows what he's talking about. Oh, and Absol can NOT learn Foul Play.

 

[voidaquariums]

Yes, he can.

 

[pokeman266]

Google Absol moveset -.-

 

[voidaquariums]

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Foul_Play_(move)#By_Move_Tutor
I just did, Absol learns by move tutor

 

[pokeman266]

I did not check if he could learn by move tutor I am sorry for that. But if you're planning on making this team in the game then it will not be possible.

 

[voidaquariums]

Nah, just for showdown

 

[Shocari]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. No guys. Just no. Arceus and Darkrai are BANNED AS HELL because they are Uber, so having them on a Monotype team will NOT WORK on Showdown. Find two replacements for those. As for things you can actually use...

Weavile's insanely fast and thus does not require a Scarf. There are far better moves than Aerial Ace. Try something like:

Weavile@Life Orb
Adamant/Jolly
252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
-Fake Out
-Ice Shard/Ice Punch
-Night Slash/Knock Off
-Low Kick

Standard lead Weavile. Fake Out is always a great option, Ice Shard or Ice Punch are good for either getting priority damage or just straight-up murdering something, your preference here. Night Slash or Knock Off for Dark STAB, again for your preference. Knock Off is a great initial hit since everything has an item. Low Kick is immensely powerful against heavy things that come in on you, like Ferrothorn.

Absol can go mixed, yes. Haven't tried a mixed Mega Absol yet, but I can say that with the heavy amount of Special damage you have on the team already, you'll probably want it to go physical. Try something like this:

Absol@Absolite
(insert Absol ability) ->Magic Bounce
Jolly
252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
-Swords Dance
-Sucker Punch/Night Slash
-Psycho Cut
-Play Rough

Lots of options on Absol. Swords Dance makes you insanely strong and with Magic Bounce, no one can stop you. Sucker Punch is powerful priority, but I'd personally drop it for Night Slash sine Sucker Punch is easy to bait out once revealed. Foul Play is good, but since it works better if the enemy has stronger attack, I'd again go with Night Slash as reliable damage, plus a crit chance! Psycho cut is good for taking care of the Fighting types slower than you(which is most of them). Play Rough is good for stopping them as well, but now you can also take care of other Dark types. Absol has a pretty expansive movepool though, so there's lots of room to experiment!

Zoroark is pretty close there, but let's just fix it a little bit.

Zoroark@Life Orb
Illusion
Hasty/Naive
252 Speed, 212 Special Attack, 44 Attack
-Nasty Plot
-Sucker Punch
-Night Daze/Dark Pulse
-Flamethrower

I don't do too much Zoroark, but this should be close to standard. The Attack EVs allow Sucker Punch to hit harder. Zoroark can force a switch easily enough with Illusion, which is enough to buy you a free Nasty Plot on the switch. From there, you take your Dark STAB of choice from Night Daze and Dark Pulse and begin to wreck shop. Flamethrower takes care of stuff that would otherwise resist you. If you wanted, you could forego Sucker Punch and Attack EVs altogether and replace it with Grass Knot or Focus Blast. Hidden Power Ice could work, additionally.

Hydreigon is fairly solid, but could also use a minor tweak.

Hydreigon@Expert Belt
Levitate
Timid
252 Special Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP/Special Defense
-Dark Pulse
-Dragon Pulse/Draco Meteor
-Earth Power/Any of the below
-Fire Blast/Surf/Charge Beam/Focus Blast

Hydreigon has a few Special toys it can play with. Your choice of STAB between Dragon Pulse and Draco Meteor, although if you Scarf Hydreigon, it can revenge kill like a boss and just Draco Meteor and switch. Expert Belt helps bluff a choice set and isn't too much of a drop from Life Orb, although you can use that if you wish. Pick of the litter for the last two moves between the options listed, though I'd personally go for Earth Power and either Fire Blast or Surf. Flamethrower can be used in lieu of Fire Blast if you don't like the accuracy.

But yeah, Ubers ARE banned on Smogon's Monotype, so keep that in mind. Some Dark types to consider are Sableye, Crawdaunt, Sharpedo, Greninja, Umbreon, Krookodile, (Mega?)Tyranitar, and (Mega?)Houndoom.

 

[Alexxander]

I already said they were banned from most competitive environments. I made sets regardless just in case it was being used in Ubers or something since it's usually common knowledge that Arceus and Darkrai are banned. I still give good suggestion to use Drapion with the rampant use of Fairies.

 

[voidaquariums]

In replacement of Arceus and Darkrai, I put Drapion and Mightyena, and I'll probably test if Mightyena is strong enough or if I should replace it with something else.

Drapion @ Black Sludge
252 HP, 128 Sp. Atk+Atk, Naughty, Sniper
-Cross Poison
-Knock Off
-Sludge Bomb
-Toxic Spikes

Mightyena @ Roseli Berry
252 Atk+Spd, 4 HP, Jolly, Moxie
-Crunch
-Fire Fang
-Iron Tail
-Assurance

If Mightyena doesn't work, I'll probably replace it with Sableye or something.

 

[Alexxander]

Drapion really doesn't have the special attack even with full investment to do much with it. So give it 252 in Attack and Speed and give it an Adamant or Jolly nature. Naughty is garbage on Drapion as it lowers it's Special Defense which is it's weak defensive stat. Black Sludge is nice but if you're getting to damaged by special moves I'd switch to Assault Vest (but would mean dropping Toxic Spikes). In place of Sludge Bomb I'd put Earthquake and if you do end up going for Assault Vest drop Toxic Spikes for either Aqua Tail or X Scissor.

As for Mightyena the Roseli Berry may be nice for stopping one Fairy move but I don't think it's worth an item slot. I'd personally go with scarfing it as for nature and stat spread pretty much perfect there. Moves are almost there Crunch and Fire Fang are both good and Iron Tail is a preference choice but Assurance is a no. Ice or Thunder Fang could replace that and then it's your preference on whether you want to keep Iron Tail or put the third fang move on.