Akontistes

Yes, that is his post! He ended up choosing Electric and he's enjoying the challenge, being a steep curve already in the early game according to him. Regarding Ice, having watched his half run I can't do anything but agree, it did look much easier than I was envisioning. I agree with all the other points you mentioned. Grassy Terrain especially being absolutely unusable against Fire types and Poison types (Sludge wave turns it into Corrupted Terrain which is, if possible, even worse than the Grassy Terrain on fire). Same can be said for Sunny Day but when you can use those moves to set up your sweepers it's a really good sight. Again, versatility is key for this monotype. Losing Unburden is the worst thing possible to happen to Sceptile as a whole, using Seeds and putting EVs on HP is a much better idea and that's what I did for the E4.

Hey buddy, as Pokemon Challenges once said, if the game messes up with you, you have all the right in the world to mess up with it! Ain't no "degenerate" strategies in such a difficult game, there's only victory! I'll be gladly staying in touch with both of you, I recently made this account just to comment on this post cause I found your discussion to be incredibly interesting so feel free to reach out to me and we can share discord # or whatever. There's also another friend of mine with whom I frequently talk about strategies and Reborn monotypes as we've done 4 different ones in the two of us and we usually tackle tough battles together to come up with strategies. He's actually the one who linked me this post and prompted me into sharing my opinion so I'm sure he'd be glad to join the conversation. He recently started an Ice monotype and found it too easy (the absolute guts) and now he's started an electro run while I'm starting my own fairy run. As for your research of the "optimal team" it would be super interesting to find 18 good teams for the E4 but as for the rest of the late game it does feel like switching stuff constantly has to be the correct solution for most runs, bar maybe a couple very good strategies like Hail teams or Swift Swim teams but maybe I'm wrong so who knows! Before answering your questions I wanted to add another small note to my previous comments: While it is true that grass lack "efficient" setters, Grassy Terrain, Sunny Day and Growth are moves almost universally shared in the roster so it's easy having the right pokemon who can set up with powered up growth doubling atk or sp atk on a favored terrain or under chlorophyll effect, this is another effect of having a lot of choice. I used Hidden Power fire Venusaur Grassy Terrain growth and Roserade Weather Ball Growth Sunny Day to sweep Titania for example, one of the toughest gyms for the type that gets absolutely stomped by this small strategy, paired with other stuff to counter Klefki and Excadrill specifically. To answer Cassandra's question to the best of my ability: Yes, I ended up having at least 4 out of 6 different pokemons for basically every single main battle past Charlotte but I do feel most of them shared some almost unremovable Pokemons. If I were to give you the most well rounded team to tackle most of the end game it would end up being something like: Serperior, Breloom, Physical Sceptile (focus sashes are the only thing keeping Serperior from sweeping the entire game in my opinion), Ferrothorn, Meganium and Venusaur. Unluckily this leaves out some amazing Pokemons like Whimsicott, Rotom, Chesnaught, Decidueye, Leafeon, Torterra, Ludicolo, Tangrowth, Tsareena, Lilligant, Cradily and so on, but you can clearly see that these Pokemon I mentioned still have their niches and are insanely good in some battles which get absolutely carried by them, the problem being they all have a very similar Pokemon counterpart in the main team I mentioned that outshines them in the versatility aspect. A small example is Swift Swim Ludicolo + Storm Drain Cradily who make Charlotte one of the easiest gyms in the game as long as you Blizzard with Abomasnow to shut down the Field. These kind of 3 pokes strategies have been the staple of my late game. As for the other points you stated and things you asked, Whimsicott is a very swingy Pokemon who can end up solo carrying entire battles or being absolutely useless. Tailwind is best used paired with mons with mediocre speed but insane offensive stats, especially Breloom under Tailwind swept me many battles. Some other examples are Tsareena, Gogoat, the very same Venusaur, Decidueye and many others. Sunny Day + Encore can be super valuable against the many Alolan Ninetales you face in the game, making the last Glass Gauntlet a 2v1 battle for example. Taunt is another good move to cheese some doubles, much like Shiinotic's Spotlight can cruise you through some tough tough battles. By now I think you got the gist of it, Whimsicott is amazing in doubles, an absolute must bring that can outmaneuver half the game. Unluckily for him his single battle potential is very minimal with the only thing it can do being setting up Tailwind and being oneshot to ensure the longest possible duration of the buff but I think I used this strategy only once to ensure an outsped Spore on Breloom to set up a sword dance sweep and that's basically it. You stated a very good point in Sceptile's versatility being basically its only saving grace. Movepool is nothing short of amazing and Dragon type stab on a super fast pokemon make Cal and Saphira in Labradorra manageable while otherwise being impossibly hard. His speed tier is basically unmatched, opening up some good possibility like placing his EVs on HP to ensure he doesn't get oneshot by prio moves while still being fast enough to outspeed basically anything once Unburden procs (giving up his mega is honestly not a big deal, Mega Sceptile is much worse than Mega Venusaur anyway and the added Dragon type has very niche uses). His stats are incredibly mediocre and he relies on at least two sword dances or sometimes even three work ups, making it very tedious to use and making Meganium with screens and grassy terrain his absolute inseparable buddy. All in all I hated using Sceptile from the bottom of my heart every single time but he still proved to be an irreplaceable asset. What can I say about Jumpluff. He's a beast: Use seeds, baton pass swords dance Leafeon, whatever to buff his attack even just slightly and he will carry you through the entire first 2/3rds of the game.

I got my update for you guys, as you asked! I literally just finished the game on a "bad ending" route (it makes a huge difference cause Champion's Togekiss was a major pain) and I have to admit that Labradorra onwards gave me some problems. Sceptile became suddenly unremovable for me due to his ability to sleep and sweep on some tough battles on the Dragon's Den and, unsurprisingly, Nature Power and Hidden Power Fire still reign supreme in my movesets. The latter especially is so good on Serperior to check the Scizor you were talking about, I don't think I've found other strategies for that other than giving Hidden Power Fire to my Venusaur as well. Before anything else I want to point out that I do play set mode with no items, since I didn't state it in the previous comment cause my stupid brain thought it obvious while it clearly isn't. As a final judgement I still would not count the run as one of the hardest. Glass Gauntlet was smooth sailing for me, Ferrothorn has to be one of the best pokemons in the entire game (as long as you get him out of the rather frequent Heat Waves) and once you have access to anti X supereffective move berries you can setup with Spore Sword Dance Breloom with his impressive learnset or the forementioned unburden Sceptile (or mega Sceptile) with grass whistle and Work Up/Sword Dance. I even ended up building two Sceptiles, a physical and a special one. You might think it unreliable but Grass Whistle has 80% on Grassy Terrain and it honestly wrecked through some of the toughest battles, sweeping both Saphira and last Cal. Pulse Clawitzer has to be the hardest fight in the game for this run and I ended up having to rely on luck on that. I'm not proud of it but sometimes it's all you need. Victory Road battles were hilariously easy. Turns out Flamethrower Harvest Alolan Exeggutor was much better than I was expecting him to be if you set up Sunny Day and Trick Room. The elephant in the room is ofc E4. Without spoling: First battle is very easy, I think that E1 team is pretty bad and any moderately fast pokemon with access to Rock Slide and Sword Dance can sweep. E2 I was at a bit of a loss cause my Ferrothorn Jumpluff strat didn't really work well so I borrowed Xes strategy (big shout out to his monograss, much much cleaner than mine) with trick room Gourgeist A Exeggutor since they both learn Flamethrower Sunny Day Protect and Trick Room. E3 is a joke, spam Nature Power -> easy win. E4 was really really tough but again Nature Power and Hidden Power Fire were the real MVPs. Champion 1 was decently easy with Serperior sweeping, the real problem is the last pokemon (again don't want to spoil since it has story implications) but I ended up sneaking a Trick Room under him and killing him with Flamethrower and (no, I'm not joking) Struggle on a Choice Band Breloom who had 1PP of Rock Slide. Champion 2 is just Recycle Shiinotic fest, dude soloed all 6 pokemons with +6 in all stats. And that's the end of the run. Again what I think it's really busted for this run is the insane choice of sweepers, setters, trick room, type coverage, you name it you got it. This paired with some incredibly strong pokemons (namely Ferrothorn, Mega Venusaur and Serperior) and some very versatile ones (Sceptile, Meganium, Breloom) makes 95% of the battles very easy with decent preparation. Nature Power is the strongest move in the game and any pokemon that can learn it and has decent enough stats instantly becomes a menace, turns out almost the entirety of my roster could learn the move, had some setup potential and could be paired with Spore/Sleep Powder/Grass Whistle/Glare/Trick Room/Chlorophyll/Swift Swim (Ludicolo <3). This carried me through the last stages of the game in which having single strong pokemons isn't enough. You need to think A LOT, I will not lie on that, but that doesn't mean the run is as hard as others you mentioned down the list, easily top 3 early and mid game and top 10 late game in my humble opinion. To summarize my run: Serperior is the best starter, Spore Grass Whistle and Sleep Powder are your best friends, Jumpluff should be in your team up until Titania and only at that point you should get rid of it (dude solo swept Ciel and Samson, just saying), if you ever find yourself in a bad spot just teach Nature Power to someone strong enough to sweep or with some setup potential, Ferrothorn is awesome, Sceptile is your best late game pokemon by a very long shot but he's honestly useless without Grass Whistle and either Work Up or Swords Dance, Hidden Power Fire Alolan Exeggutor and Sunny Day Weather Ball Roserade are much more than enough to get rid of Steel and Bugs, Meganium is a 530 stats defensive pokemon who learns both screens, Grassy Terrain and Nature Power 'nuff said. If you have anything you want to ask, be my guest! I'm super proud of my little plants and I can talk about them all you want!

Hi lads, sorry to interrupt you but I'm going through a mono grass myself and I have to say it's been smooth sailing so far. This is my second mono run after a psychic run and I'm having way less problems than I had with psychic types. It may be due to me being slightly more aware of the game and knowledgeable but honestly, aside from Serra, I first tried so many of the boss battles up to Ciel, which I'm going to fight in a couple hours. For most of those battles I didn't really have crazy strats, I just played the way I thought was best. First of all Jumpluff has to be one of the most underestimated Mons ever. Dude legit solo swept like four gyms, has access to a lot of moves, stabbed flying coverage is unsurprisingly god tier and his speed tier is incredible. My starter was Serperior and even if I regretted it while doing Serra, my god as soon as he got leaf storm he's just annihilating everything on his way. Charlotte should be one of the hardest gyms, I beat her in two tries with blizzard abomasnow and swift swim rain dance Surf Ludicolo/storm drain Cradily. Everything that survived was outsped by Jumpluff and Serperior and I still could rely on Breloom Mach punch to close the deal. All in all I could talk about mons being strong for hours cause I didn't take more than 3-5 tries for every single battle aside from Serra. She was a nightmare, it made me appreciate Meganium more than I ever should cause, again unsurprisingly, screens and grassy terrain with frail sweepers is mandatory. What is making this run so easy for me is the setup potential and the overall strength of a trick room team if needed. It is true that we don't have access to many fast pokemons but Sceptile, Jumpluff and Serperior more than make up for the lack of it, they are all Incredible. Lilligant is another amazing sweeper with access to Quiver Dance and own tempo petal dance set, oneshotting Terra first try just to name one. So many pokemons can learn Grassy Terrain, Growth, Sleep Powder, Sunny day+Chlorophyll. You need to have a strategy for some battles, that is true, but there's plenty of options and fallback plans if something doesn't go right. When it comes to the fast pokemons not being good enough, why not just drop a trick room and use your slow ones instead. Dhelmise and Cradily are powerhouses that cover many weaknesses. Trevenant and Lurantis can be really good and you already know how strong Tangrowth is, same can be said for Torterra. I don't even have access yet to Ferrothorn and Mega Abomasnow but I can already tell that most likely once I will, my team would be trick room half the times. I'm still not far enough in the game to tell you that grass should be on the top 10 spots, even though I think it should, so I will keep you updated about the big obstacles that I'm about to face. Until then, just wanted to share my opinions with you!