Liepard @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Assist
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
Smeargle @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 1 HP
Serious Nature
- Spore
The core of this strategy is to have only Spore on Smeargle so Liepard's Assist will always use it.
Prankster will grant priority on Assist, Substitute and Nasty Plot, and Liepard's high speed is enough to outspeed most pokémons when using Dark Pulse.
Leftovers is useful to recover the HP lost due to Substitute.
Steps:
1: Start with Liepard
2: Use Assist (= Spore)
3: Use Substitute
4: If enemy is still sleeping, use Nasty Plot. If opponent woke up, go back to step 2
5: Repeat until 4x Sp. Atk.
6: Start sweeping with Dark Pulse
7: Profit!
Notes:
- Before using Dark Pulse, make sure the opponent is sleeping and (most important!) your substitute is up, because you can be easily OHKOed if he doesn't get knocked out.
- Don't be afraid to switch to Smeargle if you have to. E.g: you are taunted, lost your substitute and still didn't use the 3 Nasty Plots. In these cases, the best scenario is Smeargle dying rather than switching back to Liepard to avoid the risk of getting knocked out on switching back. That's why we don't have Leftovers, Focus Sash or Moody on him.
Known counters:
- Grass type. You can't use Spore, thus you can't setup. Of couse, if the grass type comes after you have 4x Sp. Atk., you still have a chance.
- Magic Bounce: Same logic: you can't use Spore. There are some cases where you can still do something, e.g. if it's an Espeon, since you can still kill it because of your type advantage. If it's a Sableye, you can start with Substitute and hope for the best. Other than these two, you are pretty much screwed
- Higher priority (e.g. Extremespeed etc): you can get low to a point that you can't use Substitute anymore
- Moves that bypass substitute: bug buzz, hyper voice etc