ORAS PU Alcohol Poisoning [PU Balance]

[ProBenchWarmer]

​

Whats up, Smogon peeps! ProBenchWarmer here, bringing my first RMT. I usually ladder in UU and I currently have a series on YT in UU. I was looking for a change of pace in the PU tier because quite frankly, every other tier was stale. TheMinimizer and I just hopped in a chat and built a team around Banded Floatzel. We quickly noticed a theme going here: The team works like an alcoholic.
We'll explain that in a bit.

The Brewery

Lets Explain:

Vodka (Floatzel) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Water Veil
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Frustration

So we started with Banded Floatzel. With great speed and solid attack, this thing punches holes in a lot of PU teams. Jet gives us a solid answer to SD Monferno. Waterfall is pretty spammable. Banded Ice Punch is solid coverage, able to put holes in Flying and Grass types like Roselia, Cacturne, Dodrio, and Altaria. Frustration is here for neutral coverage. It was Crunch before but it didn't get clicked like...ever. I haven't tested Frustration yet so who knows? It might get swapped out for Switheroo.

Cider (Roselia) (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Synthesis
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain

Okay, so here's where the theme starts to kick in. Floatzel struggles against Water, Electric, and Grass types namely Gourgeist, Lumineon, Raichu, and so on. Roselia fit the role for the grass mon for the job because of one one thing: Toxic Spikes. With Toxic Spikes up, It helps Floatzel break through fatter mons mid to late game while also just whittling opposing teams that do not have hazard control. Its a standard set, but it pairs so well.

Whiskey (Armaldo) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 224 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Rock Blast
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock

Speaking of hazard control, we needed some ourselves. Also, we got handled pretty nicely by Rotom- Frost and Rotom- Fan. We figured Armaldo would be a good fit for the team so far, being pretty bulky already and boasting a nice 125 base attack to make it not just dead weight. Rock Blast is for sashes and Sturdies if we decide to lead with Armaldo. Knock Off is good utility for getting rid of scarfs and Life Orbs if Armaldo can tank the hit. Then Spin and rocks for hazards and removal.

Rum (Dusknoir) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 248 HP / 52 Atk / 164 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder Punch
- Pursuit

Okay so we need hazards to function well. Also, we struggled with Life Orb Zebstrika, Scarf Mr. Mime, and Metang. Insert Dusknoir. This set has enough attack to 2HKO Scarf Mime with Sneak while its unable to do much in return. It also Pursuits Zebstrika and has enough speed to outspeed and burn Metang. We originally had Pain Split on the set but it was pretty lackluster in performance. We struggles with flying types namely Swanna so we swapped Pain Split for Thunder Punch.

Tequila (Monferno) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Fire Punch
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance

So the team needed some more offense. With the hazards whittling teams down, Monferno fit here as a solid powerful attacker. +2 Mach punch can clean up a ton of mons in the tier after they've dealt with rocks and poison damage. Monferno is really here to handle the threats that Floatzel cannot deal will too well. It also makes this team have so much priority.

Beer Me (Rotom-Frost) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Trick

We lost to opposing Floatzels as well as fast scarf mons. Also Flying spam puts a hole in the team as our flying resist was...Armaldo? Rotom Frost gives us an offensive approach to handling these issues. Rotom- Frost's Bolt-Beam coverage was perfect to throw in here, as it hits a ton of mons for strong neutral damage. Trick gives us the option of locking a threat into one move to make it more managable as well as making walls struggle.


Threats

• Grounded Poison Types like Muk and Arbok. They remove t spikes and set up pretty freely
• Flying Spam. Through we have Rotom-F, it takes a ton of damage and slowly stops becoming a check.
• Clefairy. Calm Mind Clefairy has been giving me some issues as our answer to it is critting sludge bomb with Roselia.

Replays

I got only a few replays because I didn't orginally want to make an RMT of this, but here are a few. These battles were during the testing stages, so not all the sets are 100% the same. Most of the changes were to Dusknoir and Floatzel anyways.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-449154517

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-448521590

Must be fun to run into your exact team!

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-448981694

Importable

Vodka (Floatzel) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Water Veil
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Frustration

Cider (Roselia) (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Synthesis
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain

Whiskey (Armaldo) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 224 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Rock Blast
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock

Rum (Dusknoir) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 248 HP / 52 Atk / 164 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder Punch
- Pursuit

Tequila (Monferno) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Fire Punch
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance

Beer Me (Rotom-Frost) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Trick

 

[Anty]

Hi there, nice team

The team seems pretty balanced with no outstanding weaknesses, however several Pokemon do look annoying, such as Psychic- and Poison-types, along with the rest of your threatlist. However, a very nice way to reliably check all these things (keep in mind most teams only have one or two of them at a time) would be to replace Armaldo with Metang. It has an immunity to Poison and 4x resists Psychic-type hits, taking a lot of pressure away from Dusknoir, and Metang can heavily pressure Clefairy, along with providing you with a Flying resistance. Armaldo's Spin is nice but not crucial, and its rock weakness prevents it from constantly switching in to tank hits, so Metang's support is much nicer.

Additionally, I think you should use Choice Band Dusknoir over the current set as a stronger Pursuit is very nice in helping Monferno to sweep late game. You can still lure Flying-types with Thunder Punch, and now Earthquake provides you with a much stronger attack, meaning Dusknoir is harder to set up on, and allows it to deal more damage to Poison-types in case Metang gets warn down. Lastly, since you are running Jolly on Monferno, I think you should run Flare Blitz over Fire Punch to add more power, as Fire Punch can be underwhelming, for example:
+2 252 Atk Monferno Flare Blitz vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 216-255 (76 - 89.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Monferno Fire Punch vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 135-160 (47.5 - 56.3%) -- 85.2% chance to 2HKO

changes

Metang @ Eviolite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Dusknoir @ Choice Band
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Earthquake
- Thunder Punch
- Pursuit

Monferno
Flare Blitz --> Fire Punch

Hope I helped!

 

[TheMinimizer]

Hi there, nice team

The team seems pretty balanced with no outstanding weaknesses, however several Pokemon do look annoying, such as Psychic- and Poison-types, along with the rest of your threatlist. However, a very nice way to reliably check all these things (keep in mind most teams only have one or two of them at a time) would be to replace Armaldo with Metang. It has an immunity to Poison and 4x resists Psychic-type hits, taking a lot of pressure away from Dusknoir, and Metang can heavily pressure Clefairy, along with providing you with a Flying resistance. Armaldo's Spin is nice but not crucial, and its rock weakness prevents it from constantly switching in to tank hits, so Metang's support is much nicer.

Additionally, I think you should use Choice Band Dusknoir over the current set as a stronger Pursuit is very nice in helping Monferno to sweep late game. You can still lure Flying-types with Thunder Punch, and now Earthquake provides you with a much stronger attack, meaning Dusknoir is harder to set up on, and allows it to deal more damage to Poison-types in case Metang gets warn down. Lastly, since you are running Jolly on Monferno, I think you should run Flare Blitz over Fire Punch to add more power, as Fire Punch can be underwhelming, for example:
+2 252 Atk Monferno Flare Blitz vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 216-255 (76 - 89.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Monferno Fire Punch vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 135-160 (47.5 - 56.3%) -- 85.2% chance to 2HKO

changes

Metang @ Eviolite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Dusknoir @ Choice Band
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Earthquake
- Thunder Punch
- Pursuit

Monferno
Flare Blitz --> Fire Punch

Hope I helped!

Hi, firstly, in your calc you didn't factor on Iron Fist so here's the actual calc: +2 252 Atk Iron Fist Monferno Fire Punch vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 162-192 (57 - 67.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO.
We don't find that it does much difference other than limiting our sweeps by slowly killing ourselves. It nabs almost all of the 2 and 1HKOs that Flare Blitz does. This will almost definitely stay the same.

On Armaldo>Metang and Dusknoir, there are pros and cons on both sides on both arguments.

Armaldo spins away Rocks, which a lot of the team like, especially Rotom as it does no longer have any limited times it can volt switch. It also has, whilst not the best, some actual recovery to speak of and gives us a check to Fire Types once Floatzel is weakened or fainted.

The bulk, passive recovery and WoW on Dusknoir give it a lot more team support. The passive recovery and bulk allow for safety in 50/50s allowing is to have an advantage in these situations. WoW is extremely nice as it allows Monferno to set up safer and our walls, namely Roselia, much better handle physical threats as they are all designed to take on different special threats.

We will definitely keep these changes in mind and probably test them out and change the team to our liking. Thanks for the feedback :]