[SMOGON] The Good Cores Thread: Sun/Moon Edition! (SINGLES)

The Good Cores Thread: Sun/Moon Edition! (SINGLES) - Printable Version

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The Good Cores Thread: Sun/Moon Edition! (SINGLES) (/Thread-SMOGON-The-Good-Cores-Thread-Sun-Moon-Edition-SINGLES)

The Good Cores Thread: Sun/Moon Edition! (SINGLES) - croissant - Nov 14, 2016

Hi, and welcome to the Good Cores Thread. Here, you can find good cores to use on your teams or submit some cores that you like to use. This thread will be updated frequently with new cores by me and (hopefully) others, so be sure to check the new additions from time to time if you are trying to build a team.

TO SUBMIT A CORE

1-Fill this:

- Pokémon featured:
- Metagame:
- Core type(offensive/balanced/defensive):
- Sets:

2- Give a explanation (minimum 3 lines of text) of how the core works (ex. how they complement each other, what they can accomplish, matchup versus the current metagame).

3- (Not required) If you want, add a replay/battle code to showcase the core in a game.

Any core that I find to be sub optimal will be deleted. Sprites are cool if you want to add those.

P.S.: Keep in mind this is only for singles (Battle Spot Singles/Smogon tiers). Another thread with cores for Doubles exists, so be sure to check it out if that's what you're looking for.

RE: The Good Cores Thread: Sun/Moon Edition! (SINGLES) - croissant - Dec 5, 2016

Tapu Lele + Excadrill

Tapulele

- Pokémon featured: Tapu Lele and Excadrill
- Metagame: S/M OU (for now)
- Core type: Offensive
- Sets:

Tapu Lele is a monster. Not the kind of monster that you would find under your bed, obviously, but a monster in the competitive scene: it has incredible Special Attack, a great ability and powerful STABs. You can read more about this Pokémon in OU here if you want! However, it struggles against Poison and Steel types, but don't worry; Excadrill can fix this. Excadrill is an incredible partner for Tapu Lele, as it can remove Steel and Poison types (except a few things like Skarmory and Celesteela), spin away hazards to allow Tapu Lele to switch in more times, and takes care of special walls that would be an issue for Tapu Lele, which can remove physical walls for Excadrill. Furthermore, Excadrill's Fighting weakness is covered by Lele. They also have great synergy as Excadrill is very good against offense, having nice Speed with the Choice Scarf and hitting fairly hard, while Tapu Lele just breaks through bulky stuff with ease because of its raw power, making it great against balance.

RE: The Good Cores Thread: Sun/Moon Edition! (SINGLES) - Kidakairis - Dec 6, 2016

Ok so I am going to try this and hopefully I get what you mean by core so I pick
[Image: BI5TmJb.png]

- Pokémon featured: Alolan Marowak and Celesteela
- Metagame: BattleSpot! Singles (what I play)
- Core type: Balanced (I think)
- Sets:

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 16 Atk / 116 SpD / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Bonemerang
- Substitute

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SpD / 156 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Substitute
- Fire Blast

Alola Marowak hits hard and with a little EV investment in HP and Special Defense because slightly bulky. Marowak has 3 immunites when using the ability Lightning Rod and even though he doesn't take advantage of the Special Attack increase he loves to switch into electric type attacks that would otherwise hit Celesteela hard, he also has a fire type resistance and the bulk to switch into at least a few. Alola Marowak has two great STAB moves in Flare Blitz and Shadow Bone both hit extremely hard even against Pokemon that only take normal effective damage. I prefer Bonemerang to Earthquake because of the Grassy Terrain and it allows Marowak to hit through Subs and potientally Mimikyu also for overall coverage. I prefer using Sub on my Marowak because of the amount of Electric types that like to switch out of Marowak or the Pokemon stuck in Choice Item Moves. Even with Speed investment Marowak is only able to outspeed Pokemon that have a speed of 81 also Marowak is weak to several types of moves.

Celesteela is an incredibly nasty Pokemon to use against Pokemon who can't hit it super effectively or can't set up. Celesteela is the only non grass type Pokemon to have access to Leech Seed. A combination of Leech Seed and Leftovers heals 1/8 of your max HP, combined with SubProtect Celesteela becomes incredibly hard to kill when set up correctly also being Steel Type means the opponent will not have an effective way to stall out Celesteela and most use brute force. Leech Seed however cannot set up against grass type Pokemon but Celesteela does not care about this. Celesteela gain access to Fire Blast with decent base Special Attack to kill theses threats. Unless a grass type has Hidden Power Fire there is not much they can do to handle Celesteela. Fire Blast also let's Celesteela kills other Celesteela who try and set up on it. When paired up with Marowak, Celesteela has a ground immunity to help Marowak from being hit by one. Celesteela has no Weakness in common with Marowak and is bulky enough to switch with Marowak you suspect someone is going to use one of thouse type of Attacks.

Overall I have had great success with these two, predicting moves is however part of using this core. One false prediction could lead to one of them take a large amount of damage of being OHKO. One Pokemon who proves trouble for this pair is Chandelure being able to Shadow Ball OHKO Marowak or Fire Blast OHKO and with the ability infiltrator can hit behind ether of there Subs and normally outspeeds both so adding a Chandelure check is required when battling one Snorlax with Thickfat is my personnal favorite. Celesteela is extremely prone to Taunt and should be avoided in Battles where this is suspected. Again if a Pokemon is suspected of setting up prepare a Unaware Pokemon or have a way to quickly take care of this.

Hopefully this is considered a core if not let me know and I will delete it Smile

RE: The Good Cores Thread: Sun/Moon Edition! (SINGLES) - croissant - Dec 18, 2016

Volt Turn

- Pokémon featured: Ash-Greninja, Tapu Koko and Mega Scizor
- Metagame: S/M OU
- Core type: Hyper Offensive
- Sets:

This core is super fun to use: everything is super strong and is either very fast or has access to priority. It is also a VoltTurn core, so you'll be sure to always have momentum (if played properly, of course) because of the switch advantage. Ash-Greninja is one of the strongest Pokémon in the format, having disgustingly high Attack, Special Attack and Speed, coupled with an impressive movepool. It is also very easy to get Battle Bond to activate due to Greninja's good base speed even in normal form. Tapu Koko, while not as strong, is also a very fast attacker with a good movepool. It also has a fantastic ability in Electric Terrain, making its Electric moves much more powerful. However, both of these Pokémon are very frail and are walled by special walls, but Scizor fixes all of this: it is very bulky, both physically and specially, and it is a physical attacker, so it can get past special walls with much more ease. It also gets Swords Dance to boost its already great Attack stat, and it has access to priority in Bullet Punch, fixing its underwhelming Speed Stat. Bullet Punch is also boosted by its ability Technician, which makes it even stronger. It also has access to reliable recovery in Roost, allowing it to stay alive for much longer. This core is made for offensive teams, as they appreciates fast Pokémon, priority and VoltTurn. It also works very well on Rain teams; Greninja's Hydro Pump gets boosted by the rain, Tapu Koko can use a 100% accurate Thunder in the rain, and Scizor's fire weakness gets halved by the rain.

RE: The Good Cores Thread: Sun/Moon Edition! (SINGLES) - croissant - Dec 18, 2016

Landorus-T + Tapu Fini

Landorus-therian

- Pokémon featured: Landorus-T and Tapu Fini
- Metagame: S/M OU
- Core type: Defensive
- Sets:

Similar to Lando-T + Rotom-W in OR/AS, Lando and Tapu Fini are a nice defensive core that works really well on bulky offense teams. While Tapu Fini lacks some things Rotom had, such as Will-O-Wisp and Volt Switch, it has access to Defog and Taunt, and having a defensive core that can both set up and remove hazards is really good to have in the current metagame. They also cover their respective weaknesses really well, and have overall good defensive synergy.