SM RU A Balanced Diet - Bulky Offense with Fire/Water/Grass Core

[Setendo]

Introduction​

Hello lads and ladies. I'm back, and this time with a team that isn't a complete gimmick. After learning more about cores, I decided to try my hand at creating a bulky offense team. I decided to go with a Fire/Water/Grass core, and I placed a heavy emphasis on U-turn to create momentum, force switches, and rack up Stealth Rock damage. I feel like it performs fairly consistently, with most of its losses chalked up to me being a terrible battler. Without further ado, here's the team.

Teambuilding Process​

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Mega Blastoise was the obvious choice for the Water component of the core with its good bulk and firepower, as well as its access to Rapid Spin.

The Grass part initially belonged to Rotom-Mow, but I felt that Tsareena fit the bill better with its better attacking power and access to Synthesis, as well as the fact that it isn't force out after using its strongest attack.

Although it's largely outclassed by Arcanine as a Fire-type Intimidate user, I chose to use Incineroar because of its access to U-turn, which is useful for gaining momentum.

With the amount of switches the team causes, having Stealth Rocks up is a major bonus. I chose to run Gligar because of its good bulk with Eviolite along with its access to Roost for recovery.

Mismagius is the sweeper of the team, packing both Nasty Plot to boost its attack power along with the ability to set up easily thanks to its Ghost typing and Levitate.

This team desperately needed speed control, so I chose to use Choice Scarf Primeape because of its amazing coverage and access to Defiant.

The Team​

Water Bowser (Blastoise-Mega) @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rapid Spin
- Water Pulse
- Dark Pulse
- Aura Sphere
​

The Rapid Spinner of the team. It has good attacking power, allowing it to threaten the likes of Gligar and Doublade and other Pokemon my team can struggle with. It's bulk, even univested, allows it to act as an emergency check to offensive Pokemon like Shell Smash Cloyster. Timid is chosen over Modest to let it outspeed Nidoqueen and Tyrantrum, among other things. Rapid Spin is essential for this team. With all the switching my team does, it can get worn down easily by Stealth Rocks, so removing them is important. At the same time, the team also forces a lot of switches, so keeping my hazards up is a major boon. The rest of the moves are fairly self explanatory: Water Pulse for STAB (chosen over Scald for more damage), and Dark Pulse and Aura Sphere for coverage.

T H I C C (Tsareena) @ Meadow Plate
Ability: Queenly Majesty
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Power Whip
- Synthesis
- U-turn
- High Jump Kick
​

Tsareena functions as a general pivot while also threatening Pokemon that would otherwise give me trouble like Mega Blastoise and Milotic. Maximum Attack and Speed with a Jolly nature allow it to outspeed as many Pokemon as possible (most notably Modest Mega Blastoise) while also hitting as hard as possible. Meadow Plate boosts its STAB attack without any drawbacks and helps make up for the loss in power from running Jolly over Adamant. Synthesis gives it recovery, U-turn lets it gain momentum, and High Jump Kick lets it threaten Pokemon like Registeel and Umbreon.

Tony (Incineroar) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Flare Blitz
​

Incineroar acts as a secondary pivot, and an especially good one given its access to Intimidate, which gives it good artificial bulk, and U-turn, which lets it gain momentum. Iapapa Berry gives it some staying power, letting it stick around for longer. Jolly Incineroar does not outspeed anything of note, so Adamant is chosen to maximize its attack power. Fake Out is good for hitting faster threats and getting guarenteed damage. Knock Off is a solid STAB move that also lets it remove items, and Flare Blitz is a more powerful attack to hit Pokemon like Florges harder.

Annoying (Gligar) @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Roost
​

With the amount of switches forced by the team, getting up Stealth Rocks is a crucial part of the game plan. Gligar was a fairly obvious choice; good bulk coupled and reliable recovery in Roost lets it set up Stealth Rocks throughout the match if need be. Its a fairly standard set, with Earthquake to give it an attack and U-turn to gain momentum.

Spooky (Mismagius) @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
​

Mismagius functions as the sweeper of the team. Good Speed, Good Special Attack, and Nasty Plot all combine to turn Mismagius into a fearsome threat that can tear through weakened teams. Ghostium Z turns Shadow Ball into a one-time nuke to let it get past Pokemon it can't OHKO at +2 like Mega Blastoise and Mega Steelix. Dazzling Gleam hits Dark-types, and when coupled with Shadow Ball it gives Mismagius near perfect coverage. This frees up a moveslot, which I chose to fill with Substitute to dodge status and ease prediction against Sucker Punch users.

Unbridled Rage (Primeape) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
​

Speed control was desperately needed to prevent my team from being swept by faster threats, so Choice Scarf was mandatory. Ultimately, I chose to go with Primeape. Base 95 Speed is solid and lets it outpace Gardevoir and Roserade, and base 105 Attack is definitely solid. The main draw for me, however, was Defiant. Not only can it come in of Defog and gain a free +2 Attack, it can also flip the script on Intimidate Arcanine and get a +1 Attack. Its good base speed even lets it function well against Sticky Web teams. It also gets amazing coverage, with Gunk Shot to hit Fairy-types and Stone Edge to nail Flying-type, which is especially good since they're the ones that often use Defog. The last moveslot was tough for me. I initially had Ice Punch to hit Gligar, but I found it to only be good at doing that and not much else. Throat Chop let it hit Ghost-types, but Doublade can stomach even a +2 Throat Chop and Mega Bannette can cripple it with Will-O-Wisp before Primeape can attack. In the end, I chose to go with U-turn to let it pivot around.

Threat List

Set-up Sweepers​

Pokemon like Shell Smash Cloyster and Barbaracle, Belly Drum Slurpuff, and Dragon Dance Flygon and Zygarde can give my team major issues. They exploit the team's general lack of speed and barrel through most of them with ease if they get the chance to set up.

Choice Specs Swellow
​

My team has no switch-ins for Swellow's Boomburst. The most I can do is let a Pokemon die and try to kill it with Primeape.

Noivern
​

Although usually not as powerful as Swellow, dealing with Noivern is still pretty difficult. Mega Blastoise can only check it for so long. This could just be a case of the Pokemon being generally annoying to deal with, but that doesn't make it any less of a threat to my team.

Chip Damage
​

Toxic cuts into the life span of my Pokemon, and, with no way to heal it, it's often a death sentence. Burns not only pile on chip damage, but they make Tsareena and Primeape virtually useless (which is especially trouble for the former since its supposed to come in on Milotic). Stealth Rocks and other entry hazard chip away at my team's health while its pivoting around.

Conclusion​

All in all, I feel like the team performs fairly well, although its not without its faults. I have virtually no way to stop set up sweepers once they get going, and it generally struggles against more offensive teams. Maybe I should change some of my Pokemon or give them different moves? Let me know what you think.

​

Replays

Note: Some of these replays have a Jolly Incinerorar instead of an Adamant one, but it plays virtually the same

Wins
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-835025333
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-835044223
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-835040101

Losses
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-835042751
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-835038382
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-835035811

Importable

Water Bowser (Blastoise-Mega) @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rapid Spin
- Water Pulse
- Dark Pulse
- Aura Sphere

T H I C C (Tsareena) @ Meadow Plate
Ability: Queenly Majesty
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Power Whip
- Synthesis
- U-turn
- High Jump Kick

Tony (Incineroar) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Flare Blitz

Annoying (Gligar) @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Roost

Spooky (Mismagius) @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam

Unbridled Rage (Primeape) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
- Stone Edge
- U-turn