CHALK Analyses: A Better Understanding.

Today I’ll be discussing one of the most highly argument’d topic in the VGC 15 season. You already know from the title and I know how late I got all because of my laziness and getting distracted a lot by other things during the time of some holidays I took the time to write up this analyses for you guys, it’s better late than never right? I myself have used CHALK core teams to success and have really liked them, in this post I will cover up analyses on CHALK and other topics that can relate to it, let’s get started:

Artwork by @yudeyude123 on twitter

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What is CHALK:

This weird looking word is an abbreviation for the words Cresselia, Heatran, Amoonguss, Landorus and Kangaskhan. This is actually a penta-core of mons used at great success in the VGC15 season as most of you are familiar with it, it even won Worlds 2015 in the hands of Shoma Honami (SHADEViera), this trend also originates from his homeland of Japan and many other players from around Japan were also using this common found core, soon this became meta in the US and came to us as the name of CHALK core.

Soon after CHALK cores/teams gave rise to the worlds was boring argument it also started the Playing to win argument amongst players which still clashes and goes on to this day. I feel like on the side of being playing to win argument even after using the weirdest mons in my teams and consider it more sensible of a side, as I feel that VGC players are not entertainers and will and have the full right to use the teams and mons that’ll make them win tournaments, in this case which is CHALK.

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CHALK’s composition:

This part of the post will highlight what chalk core brings altogether and what are the main aspects that lead this core to success in the VGC 15 format.

Physical Attackers:

On the very first glance you will be noticing 2x physical attackers on this CHALK core these are landorus and kangaskhan both are known for dealing as much damage as possible and are considered great mons for their usual jobs, as like for the composition of a team these two handle the physically weak side of the metagame such as the well known rain modes (however they are somewhat threatened by it :P)  and mega gardevoirs.

Special attackers:
Though less in the manner of power you will notice 3x mons on this CHALK core who can deal damage to opponents through special attacks, cresselia and amoonguss are known for their supportive roles however their offensive presence is important (discussed ahead) most of the special offense on the CHALK core comes from and is bounded by Heatran, heatran’s great offensive typing ’fire’ can hit many mons for good damage.

Speed Control:

Seriously who doesn’t loves speed control in their teams, similarly how can this popular CHALK core lack it. The speed control on the CHALK core is almost 100% confirmed to be with cresselia, cresselia can use different speed controls as it gains access to things like icy wind, thunder wave and trick room, extremely rare CHALK’s LO landorus variants carry the move rock tomb to aim OHKO’es on CHALK at a less chance of hax and for partial/emergency speed control.

Sufficient Bulk:

CHALK on it’s own is definitely extremely bulky at the very first glance. Kang’s natural bulk even if not invested bulky is enough for some matchups, is very bulky, similar are basic thoughts in the names of cresselia and amoonguss known well for their bulk, heatran’s great defensive typing also counts as something valuable for CHALK teams, Landorus’ intimidate adds to this bulk and furthermore the assault vest variants of landorus are also very tanky., all this makes CHALK live many attacks and reign supreme.

Efficient Offense:

Similar as it’s bulk all the CHALK embers can perform sufficient offensive work and hit hard a lot of meta mons, kang and landorus with heatran included are the major offensive power houses of the VGC format,whereas cress’ and amoonguss’ one or two yet weak attack can really back up the threats to CHALK core and have essential offensive presence for this core, as said before this will be discussed in depth with when and why in the individual member analyses headings.

Support:

A the first glance you notice mons most well known for there supportive presense, these include cresselia and amoonguss both can provide essential support roles like status spammer, redirectioner or speed control advantages. Not only with that, CHALK also supports it’s friends with abilities as well, most important ones are heatran’s flash fire to turn fire attacks aimed at amoonguss on it’s advantage, as well as landorus’ intimidate which cuts opposing mons’ attacks which becomes essential mainly for specific calculations related and makes amoonguss and cresselia takes lots of hits in general.

Priority:

Though less, but CHALK cores do pack priority of offense in the form of Kangaskhan, whether it is just an important fake out use or using sucker punch to target a faster mon hanging w/ slivers of health. Kangaskhan often becomes a big danger for mons faster than it for the same reasons. Priority gives this core a bit of relief from the speed tiers and adjustments or worries as long as they are not facing a priority matchup.

Hax:

Hax has been one of the dirtiest topics to discuss in VGC because of the fact how it can make up someone’s day and then ruin another one’s. it is bad because it is dependant entirely on RNG which again is mostly luck  and you might have a bad luck day in the VGC lab. I consider it as a part of the game, landorus’ rock slides are the main topic of hax in CHALK or any other teams the 30% flinch chance is real! and if you get frozen from a cresselia’s ice beam then you should get the right to face palm yourself.

Common Questions about CHALK:

Is CHALK good:

Ofcourse it is good, this is proven through worlds 2015, where top finishing teams were CHALK or derivations of this core, the fact is this won’t work for everybody if their playstyle isn’t suiting it, which first of all gave rise to this question that many have.

Is CHALK predictable? :

No the most fun things about CHALK teams are that these are very unpredictable, you will see the combination of Heatran, Cresselia, Amoonguss, Landorus and Kangaskhan in team preview but how these beasts are played can be a completely different story. Most of this diversity found is in movesets, item choices and spreads, spreads in diversity vary over which pace of speed will CHALK play at.

Is CHALK a trick room Core:

As discussed beforehand, no, CHALK is not always a trick room core, it is true that the most effective teams of CHALK at worlds were trick room modes however other forms of speed controls do exist in CHALK teams.

Should I use CHALK? :

I do like CHALK and would be playing with it, however I will never recommend it to anyone, because how effective it seems for you can be only told by your own play style and comfort ability with it.

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CHALK individual Member analyses:
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Kangaskhan:

Type: Normal

Common Moves: Fake out, Protect, Double-edge, Return, Sucker punch, Low kick, Power-Up-Punch.

Common Items: Kangaskhanite 100%  200%

Common Reasons of use:

·        .  Lead pair up synergies.

·         . Fake out support

·         . Sash breaker ability.

·         . Priority of offense.

·         . Easy to use Mega.

 Kangaskhan has been one of the most dominating mega pokemons by the start of the VGC 2014 season, it’s power was doubted at many places in the 2015 season but then it dominated worlds and took home the championship which tells us that this mother is no joke. Kangaskhan has to be said the centre of this CHALK core, therefore being discussed the first in here. Kangaskhan is simple and an easy to use mega mon here it gives a lot of support to it’s team members as well as takes equally back from them. Fake out support can help heatran set up a substitute, cresselia set up a trick room as well as help others escape from an important attack or essential OHKO for your opponent, a substitution to which is the move protect, protect can help kang get away from attacks and let it’s partner do all the work, this on CHALK is mostly team dependency, this protect also fills up the lack of the essential protect on this chalk core usually. Double edge and return are personal preferences and also are the argument of power over recoil and vice versa. Similarly two moves power-up-punch and low kick are team dependant, low kick can get essential OHKO’es on opposing mons and kangs whereas p-u-p can negate burn effects and make kang a monster.

On this core kangaskhan makes an amazing lead pair up with literally all the CHALK members e.g. Cress + kang = fake out support + trick room; kang + landorus a proven combination in this season; kang + amoonguss is a classic lead combination from 2014 which still counts effective, with all these advantages kang makes an even harder opponent to beat. Kangaskhan can help in absorbing ghost type attacks for no damage aimed at cress. Kangaskhan’s diverse speed stats invested can range from 252+ (jolly) to 4 invested neutral.

Sample spreads:

Kangaskhan-Mega (F) @ Kangaskhanite  
Ability: Scrappy  
Level: 50  
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 20 SpD / 4 Spe  ; 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature ; Jolly Nature 
- Fake Out  ; Protect
- Double-Edge  ; Return
- Low Kick  ; Power-up-Punch
- Sucker Punch

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Cresselia

Type: Psychic

Common moves:

Trick room, Icy Wind, Thunder wave, Psychic, Ice Beam, Helping Hand, Moon light, Toxic, Skill Swap, Calm Mind.

Common items:

Sitrus berry, Rocky helmet, Leftovers, Mental Herb.

Common Reasons of use:

·         . Speed control

·         . Bulk

·         . Set-up-tank

·         . Chip damage + recovery annoyer.

Cresselia truly is the pokemon that will define on what pace of speed will the CHALK core run and it is not easy to guess it, it can carry any three moves all which are countered differently it can be trick room, icy wind or thunder wave, taking notes while keeping a a lead in the game is hard when you face a CHALK cresselia. Trick room signals a generally slower team of mons like heatran and kang not invested speedy, thunder wave is raw speed control so you can either expect the mons to be semi bulky or either fast, icy wind indicates and favors a faster CHALK team that you are facing. Chalk cresselia’s are the most unpredictable mons on these teams, their item choice and movesets vary from teams to teams and hard to predict as it gets soo many good moves to fit in the same teams. It’s variants can signal what movesets and variants it may be carrying, a rocky helmet variant is mostly to annoy kang and other contact physical attackers and their hits, these sets signal things like moon light to be on the mon, similarly if it is a sitrus variant you can expect a raw support mon generally good for supporting, leftovers lurks in the same lines of it’s usage, Mnetal herb is a wise choice for this mon as it’s supportive potential gets completely crippled by taunt and encore to cancel these threats mental herb is often seen used . It’s other moves are really effective and interesting; phychic can handle mons like amoonguss and other poison types really well as well as conkeldurr, ice beam is a very effective utility move needed to put a lot of pressure on offensive threats like mega salamence and landorus therian, it can even get OHKO’es on certain varying invested variants. Calm mind cresselia is an absolutely brute, it has been seen and proven well against players and teams who can’t handle it well. Moves like skill swap and toxic are rare but important slots on some teams, with the help of toxic cresselia can degrade bulky water type mons like rain modes which are a threat to this core (discussed ahead) and also other mons like CM cresselia or others who depends upon recovery like milotic. Skill swap again is a very interesting move that cresselia uses for itself and it’s partners, it can be used to pass levitate to the 4x weak to ground heatran, as well as reset intimidate or steal opposing useful abilities in a battle, skill swap is a proven form of played cresselia. Cresselia can take fighting attacks really well for kangaskhan and heatran as well as is a ground immunity makes a great companion to heatran.

Sample Spreads:

Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet  ; Sitrus berry ; Leftovers ; Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate  
Level: 50  
EVs: 212 HP / 172 Def / 36 SpA / 68 SpD / 20 Spe  ; All Bulk
Calm Nature  ; Bold Nature ; Sassy Nature
- Skill Swap  ; Helping Hand ; Toxic
- Moonlight  ; Calm Mind
- Psychic ; Trick Room  
- Icy Wind ; Ice Beam

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Heatran:

Type: Fire, Steel

Common Moves:

Heat wave, Flamethrower, Earth power, Overheat, Substitute, Protect, Flash Cannon.

Common Items:

Shuca berry, Leftovers, Life orb (rare), Safety Goggles.

Common Reasons:

·         Special attacker

·         Bulky typing

·         Flash fire

·         Mega resistant (actually a thing)

·        Anti amoonguss

Heatran, is one of the power houses of this CHALK core with sufficient support from partners it can deal a lot of damage to a lot of opponents. Fire is one of the most offensive typings in VGC and so can deal heaps of damage. Now for the moves: the usual ‘firepower’ favorite for many people is Heat wave which is an amazing spread attack to deal tons of damage to opponents, a replacement to which is made by flamethrower over the following common thoughts: it is more powerful than a spread attack like heat wave, it is better in accuracy, infact 100% accurate at targets, it is a much better offensive option against wide guard users especially aegislash, it prevents you from activating any accidental flash fire abilities which are mainly opposing heatran. Earth power is again a favorite of heatran which again is concerned with mirror matches that are heatrans, flash cannon and overheat are rather rare for the taste of usual CHALK players and users. Flash cannon takes part in handling rock types and fairies, whereas overheat is the thought of monstrous power; both these moves are somewhat a replacement for the slot of substitute, on some teams flash cannon > earth power goes the way. Last but the signature kind of move for this mon is Substitute an excellent technique to use use whenever acting lazy… not really; substitute is manly use for status and OHKO danger protection especially a big and strong defensive strategy for heatran and is proven before by many people. Heatran is a really good pokemon for shutting down charizards without HP ice and basically sun modes and also takes advantage from them, it’s ability is both an immunity and a boost for this mon. the best part about this mon is that it can resist all the STAB powered attacks from the most powerful megas like salamence, gardevoir, kangaskhan, charizard and well those, this is quite an un-discussed property of this mon that I thought should be highlighted in this post, as you will notice many variants of these mons have started to run things like namely low kick, HP ground or earth quakes to specifically counter this mon. it’s item choices have also made it a threat to this metagame. Shuca berry is a recent however the most popular trend amongst CHALK heatrans which counts as a survival for surely to landorus’ EQ as well as mirror matches of heatrans’ earth power. Second most popular is the leftovers’ choice; not much discussion to do for it other than it goes well with substitute, AKA the leftosub combo of item and move. Life orb variants are rare and present for more power, whereas safety goggles variants are equally non-popular but for amoonguss and brelooms who aim to spore spam this metagame. Heatran’s speed investments are some of the most unpredictable things in CHALK cores, it can range from 252 timid to 4 speed invested neutral, these are seriously a big thing for heatran.

Sample spreads:

Heatran @ Shuca Berry  ; Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire  
Level: 50  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  ; EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 188 SpA / 20 SpD / 4 Spe  
Timid Nature  ; Modest Nature
- Heat Wave  ; Flamethrower  
- Earth Power 
- Substitute  ; Flash Cannon ; Overheat
- Protect

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Amoonguss:

Typing: Grass, Poison

Common Moves:

Spore, Rage Powder, Protect, Giga Drain, Sludge Bomb.

Common Items:

Sitrus berry, Black Sludge, Rocky helmet, Mental herb.

Common Reasons of Use:

·         Redirection support

·         Trick room counter

·         Status inflictor

·         Chip damage

Amoonguss is a simple mon who is used as is for years now, why? Why you ask? There simply can’t be  better moveset for this mon. Amoonguss is the second support variant of this CHALK core. Amoonguss can provide little however very essential support to this CHALK core and by far is the most predictable, like you know what moves it carries and stuff and can easily guess the 0 IV’s with a speed negating nature. This is mainly for just one pure but evil purpose which is countering trick room. Similarly, it’s true potential lies within the trick room modes of CHALK where it can spam spore everywhere and make it’s opponents completely helpless, on faster CHALK teams it counts as a counter to trick room modes. Rage powder is pure redirection support and further protection for it’s partners. Amoonguss can do little but essential work to some big threats to CHALK cores, threats like swampert and gastrodon who have the potential to somewhat shut down CHALK. On other teams amoonguss runs sludge bomb to get a bit of more damage on gardevoir and othe fairy types as well as grass types, it is a bit better against mirror matches. Amoonguss pure investments fall into it’s defenses and not even a single point is shared with the offenses whatsoever. It’s item choices are kind of interesting as well sitrus berry variants are there for general recovery after redirection and are the most common, whereas rocky helmet variants are present to irritate kangaskhan, black sludge also goes with recovery reasons and counters chip damage. Mental herb is again an amazing choice against taunts that can cripple it completely. Amoonguss is definitely built to live all the non-super effective hits in this format and also can take some super effective attacks well.

Sample Spreads:

Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry  ; Rocky helmet, Black Sludge, Mental Herb
Ability: Regenerator  
Level: 50  
EVs: 220 HP / 196 Def / 92 SpD  ; EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 SpD  
Sassy Nature  ; Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe  
- Protect  
- Giga Drain  ; Sludge Bomb
- Spore  
- Rage Powder

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Landorus-Therian :

Type: Ground, Flying

Common Moves:

 Rock slide, Earthquake, U-turn, Knock off, Superpower, Stone Edge, Protect.

 Common Items:

Assault vest, Choice Scarf, Life orb.

Common Reasons of use:

·         Intimidate utility

·         Ground and Paralyses immunity

·         Spread damage

·         Flinches

·         Coverage

Landorus comes in as the last member of CHALK in this post. Landorus is most popular for it’s ability to use fast rock slides and spam flinches everywhere; similarly a great reason is also for spread damage in this format, nowadays it’s rock slides are mostly through an assault vest which is a safer variant discussed ahead, which are equally good under the speed control head of cresselia. Another big reason is it’s intimidate ability that can cut other’s attack stats upon switching in and directly help amoonguss and cresselia in taking a lot of attacks as well as activate special calculations in the EV spreads of usually kang and heatran, this also provides sufficient bulk to landorus itself. It’s further ground immunity means protection for heatran. Rock slide is said of a ten times before, Earthquake is a 100% STAB move which every good mon needs. The last two slots are quite optional and team dependant of course they provide coverage. U-turn is good for safer switch ins as well as a counter to the deadly yet rare perish trap strategies, super power is important fighting type coverage that can be used to beat a tons of mons in this format, it’s alternative is knock off a move that can be helpful in revealing information as well as beat the types that superpower can’t touch like ghost and phychic. Note; on some variants either knock off or super power are present, on others u-turn is absent for both these moves, so for stone edge (move for more power) Assault vest variants are the most common ones in CHALK cores which makes them a tank and they can now handle ice type attacks, scarfed variants are present for the sole purpose of spreading tons and tons of rock slide flinch hax, Life orb variants are there for more power and also carry protect with them.AV variants can interestingly range from 252/252/4 to very complex and bulky spreads.

Sample Spreads:

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest  ; Choice Scarf ; Life orb
Ability: Intimidate  
Level: 50  
EVs: 148 HP / 100 Atk / 4 Def / 156 SpD / 96 Spe  ; EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Adamant Nature  ; Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide  
- Superpower  ; Rock tomb
- Earthquake  
- U-turn ; Knock off ; Stone Edge

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Good Partners with CHALK:

This part of the post is to highlight some mons that go well with this CHALK core, these are found in common among the teams and you should expect to see when seeing one, let’s head into these mons:

Thundurus-Incarnate

Type: Flying, Electric

Common Moves:

Thunderbolt, Swagger, Thunder wave, Taunt, Protect, Hidden power ice.

Common Items:

Sitrus berry, Life orb.

Common Reasons of Use:

·         . More hax

·         . Speed control

·         . Ground immunity

·         . Gimmick blocker

With CHALK bound to take care of threats for the metagame thundurus can take on additional/unusual things that this team might be facing. Thundurus on some teams depends on pure luck and for others little means of offense. Another big reason for it’s usage is that it pairs up well with landorus which is quite well known and proven inside the metagame by many popular players. Thundurus further supports this core by means of speed control and be able to shut down other support pokemons like amoonguss and cresselia with it’s ability to taunt them. Parafusion is the annoying combination of thunder wave and confusion that thundurus can get access to, chances are that you’ll least likely make a move; not a good thing for a bad RNG day right? It truly isn’t, beware…. Thundurus gets thunderbolt on all of it’s different move sets, HP-ice, swagger, taunt, thunder wave and protect are optional over the 3 empty slots on this mon. HP-ice can do significant work to mega salamences and landorus. Mostly thundurus variants are bulky and present with sitrus berry, other offensive variants are with life orb and max speed and special attack investments.

Sample Spreads:

Thundurus (M) @ Sitrus Berry  ; Life Orb
Ability: Prankster  
Level: 50  
EVs: 148 HP / 152 Def / 4 SpA / 168 SpD / 36 Spe  ; 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Bold Nature  ; Calm Nature ; Modest Nature ; Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt  
- Hidden Power [Ice]  ; Protect ; Swagger
- Thunder Wave  
- Taunt

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Charizard:

Type: Fire, Flying

Common Moves:

Heat wave, flamethrower, Overheat, Protect, Solar beam, HP ground, Tailwind.

Common Items:

Charizardite y

Common Reasons of Use:

·        . Weather Control in CHALK.

·         . Specially Offensive mega option.

·       .   Good synergy with 3x CHALK members.

Charizard as a raw pokemon in my opinion seems like the best member with CHALK. It almost fits as well in the mega slot like kangaskhan. It isn’t used the most with chalk because of the presence of thundurus being more common. Charizard can make amazing lead options with CHALK members alone because of typing and it’s amazing drought ability; it can be paired with cresselia so that it can get more health back from sun boosted moonlight recoveries and annoy it’s opponents. Charizard can pair up with heatran for immense offensive pressure to be put on your opponents; landorus + charizard is a perfect pin combination and is proven to be a strong combination overall. Charizard’s sun boost also degrades the rain weather, and threats bulky water types directly; overall protecting landorus and heatran from all that danger. Charizard can turn around the weather condition in CHALK’s favor which it doesn’t has the ability to often on. It’s moves are team dependant and personal taste dependant, other notes on them are that solar beam threatens water types which are a threat to CHALK, HP ground is kept for heatrans that can completely wall this mon. Tailwind is an option for some teams that wanna find it’s joy in speed control; truly a remarkable mon behind that.

Sample Spreads:

Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y  

Ability: Blaze  

Level: 50  

EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 36 SpA / 4 SpD / 196 Spe  

Modest Nature  

- Flamethrower  ; Heat wave

- Solar Beam  

- Tailwind  ; Overheat ;  HP-ground

- Protect

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Aegislash:

Type: Ghost, Steel

Common Moves:

Shadow ball, King’s Shield, Substitute, Wide Guard, Flash Cannon, Toxic, Shadow Sneak.

Common Items:

Safety Goggles. (wait….)

Common Reasons for use:

·         . Counters CHALK

Aegislash is a pokemon you don’t hear about a lot as a CHALK counter or you are probably thinking I this guy trolling me? Well no seriously, the fact that makes it weird is a safety goggles aegislash and I’ll explain. Aegislash is a pokemon that has the potential to threat all of the CHALK members how? Aegislash stands immune to kangaskhan’s attacks as long as it doesn’t attacks it because sucker punch guys aegislash threatens cresselia in the form of shadow ball, amoonguss is being threatened with substitute or safety goggles, it can shut down landorus’ offensive potential with it’s unforgiving wide guards; it can also block heatran’s heat waves however it is quite threatened by it which can be a problem for this mon. All the aspects of this mon are ideal for countering CHALK cores. Rare variants of aegislash do carry shadow sneak which is a good surprise priority move, whereas toxic can be used to completely stall out a few mons.

Sample Spreads:

Aegislash @ Safety Goggles  

Ability: Stance Change  

Level: 50  

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD  

Modest Nature  

- Shadow Ball  

- King's Shield  

- Wide Guard  ; Substitute

- Flash Cannon ; Toxic

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Threats to CHALK:

Now that we have discussed some pokemons that make good partners with this CHALK core, let’s talk some other mons and their combinations that are known well to beat this core that are the arch enemies of this core and can put tons of pressure on it.

Rain Mode: (Politoed + Ludicolo)

Politoed:

Type: Water

Common Moves:

Scald, Hydro pump, Rain Dance, Ice beam, Helping Hand, Protect, Encore, Perish song.

Common Items:

Sitrus berry, Leftovers, Choice Scarf, Wacan Berry (rare) , Eject button (rare).

Common Reasons of Use:

·        .  Rain (weather control)

·         . Partial support

Ludicolo:

Type: Grass, Water

Common Moves:

Fake out, Hydro Pump, Scald, Ice beam, Giga Drain, Scald.           

Common Items:

Life orb (rare), Assault vest.

Common Reasons of Use:

. Swift Swim sweeper

. Fake out support

. Bulky utility.

Rain duo is by far the biggest threat to this CHALK core. Rain has potential to cripple all the members of CHALK core, how and why? Ludicolo is faster than any possible CHALK members can be, so it out prioritizes kang’s usual fake out, rain carries burns in the form of scalds that can cut through the power of physical attackers like landorus and kangaskhan also cresselia’s bulk is heavily affected by it. Rain’s weather effects can further ruin heatran’s offensive potential, rain can also knock out landorus and amoonguss with faster and strong ice beams. All this solid reasoning makes Rain such an amazing counter to CHALK.

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Aegislash:

Re-read the paragraph for it above.

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Blaziken:

Type: Fire, Fighting

Common Moves:

Overheat, HP-ice, Superpower, Flare blitz, Protect.

Common Items:

Life orb.

Common Reasons of use:

. Mixed Sweeper

. Faster offense

Blaziken is an odd mon to be discussed as a counter to CHALK but bear with me as I unfold it’s potential to beat CHALK. This would never come across my mind if I hadn’t seen Cybertron’s 2015 Worlds team who had a blaziken on it; he used this mon to counter CHALK teams and cores. However blaziken is one of the hardest pokemons to play considering the stat drops it gets from it’s most powerful attacks and it’s frail-nature. Blaziken is better to be paired up with a pokemon that uses the move helping hand in my opinion. Blaziken straight off has the potential to OHKO 4x CHALK members excluding cresselia only (which is actually a threat to it’s existence :P). Well blaziken has it’s regrets but it should be well supported and baked u when used; nonetheless it serves an amazing counter to the CHALK core as well.

Sample Spreads:

Blaziken @ Life Orb  

Ability: Speed Boost  

Level: 50  

EVs: 4 HP / 56 Atk / 204 SpA / 244 Spe  

Naive Nature  

- Overheat  

- Hidden Power [Ice]  

- Superpower  

- Protect

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Conclusion:

So guys this post is finally coming to an end here and I enjoyed writing it up and then typing it down and I excuse for my laziness due to which i wasn’t able to post it up in time and some other distractions that kept me from properly doing this post. In the end as always hope you liked it and enjoyed going through this post and maybe learned something (hopefully) also let me know what other topics should I highlight in my analyses or articles on the blog. Bye for now!