ORAS LC Fall Down 5 Times, Stand up 6

[SilentMango]

Fall Down 5 Times, Stand Up 6
-Chinese Proverb
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About Me (Not Necessary to read if you don't have time)
I am new-ish player to LC. I have started off LC a year ago, but for the first half year, I was one of those low ladder scrubs( still kinda am) who didn't know what to use and was very satisfied with breaking the 1300s in the ladder :). I started reading Smogon RMTs and many Pokemon Analyses, but never realized that Smogon as a community was a thing. After finally seeing Smogon was a thing and discovering the forums, I started reading and reading. I threw a team together and made an RMT on it, which looking back, was a bit of a colorful, hot mess. After a little while of learning, growing, and making friends with GoodMorgan/PLODE (thanks so much for all the help!), I now present my second RMT, which hopefully shows more growth as a player/team builder. I will keep on growing, because I still have lots of room, and hopefully I can shows that through RMTs.
The Embarassing 1st RMT: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/just-a-pawn-in-chess-but-a-king-in-pokemon.3519985/

About the Team
This is definitely my favorite team I have made for sure. It was the first team I have ever made from complete scratch that I have found is very decent. One day, I tried to do a really crazy thing and try entering a LC room tournament with my real account (I usually enter with my alt alienfromearth). I know all the good players out there could probably win LC room tournaments with their eyes closed, but I won my first (and probably last, because I got some good luck along the way) room tournament with this team. It was all very surprising, because I usually just got out in the first round. The team is definitely a slower more stall based team, which are the types of teams I like to play. LC does make it harder to play more defensive teams, but I like being a hipster, so yeah. The team is called "Fall Down 5 Times, Stand Up 6," because I had a lot of teambuilders block before I came up with this team, and made 5 teams that I tried, but they both ended up as trash. The 6th one happened to be this one.

This Team and all the details of it are put on a presentation website that I have to use in school, called "Prezi." I decided to do this, because A) I wanted to have fun with this, B) It makes it aesthetically pleasing, C) I wanted to try something new, and D) I don't know how to insert pictures or sprites so I just did it on the Prezi instead.
Here is the Prezi of my team and everything about it:
https://prezi.com/0kjmht-2ibw-/pumpkaboo/#
Copy and paste the link. Start the Prezi by Pressing the Arrows on the bottom screen of the Prezi. If this doesn't work, you can tell me, and I can copy and paste all the info onto this RMT.
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Quick Look at the Team/Importable. If someone could teach me how to make a hide-tag for this, it would be very appreciated :). Thanks in advance.

Spritzee @ Eviolite
Ability: Aroma Veil
Level: 5
EVs: 212 HP / 196 Def / 12 SpA / 76 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Aromatherapy

Pumpkaboo-Super @ Eviolite
Ability: Frisk
Level: 5
EVs: 236 HP /68 Atk / 196 Def
Adamant Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Synthesis
- Shadow Sneak
- Bullet Seed

Vullaby @ Eviolite
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 156 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Knock Off
- Brave Bird
Chinchou @ Eviolite
Ability: Volt Absorb
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 212 Def / 68 SpA / 152 SpD
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Timburr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 196 Atk / 76 Def / 156 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Poison Jab

Hippopotas @ Eviolite
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 5
EVs: 212 HP / 20 Atk / 212 Def / 20 SpD / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Tomb


How the Team Deals with Common Archetypes in the Metagame:

Volt/Turn- Get rocks up with Hippopotas as soon as you can, as rocks really stunt the performance of Volt-turn by wearing the pokemon down. The sand Hippopotas generates is also great for neutralizing Larvesta's Morning Sun. Pumpkaboo is for keeping those rocks on the field, unless they have a a defoger. Mienfoo can be countered by spritzee, Switch Chinchou into Chinchous, and just keep a combo of Hippo, Chinchou, and maybe Pumpkaboo if their hazard remover is a spinner for Larvesta.

Sun- Hippopotas, while not being the more SpDef Oriented set works pretty well at disabling the sun. Vullaby is a nice check to sun as well. Stealth Rocks can also hinder sun, so Hippo once again is very crucial vs sun. Timburr works surprisingly well against many pokes that people run on sun, and can Mach Punch Snipe a lot of things.
Shell Smashing- Timburr is your main answer for Shell Smashers, with a combination of Knock Off and Mach Punch. Pumpkaboo is also pretty good against the most common smasher, Tirtouga, because it can burn Tirt on the Smash and proceed to bullet seed it.

Bird Spam- Chinchou is my main Fletchling switch-in. However, Hippopotas is bulky AF, and can set up rocks to wear bird spam down, so Hippo wins at life again!

Fighting Spam- Spritzee can switch in to most fighting types, bar croagunk. Vullaby and Hippo are nice checks to Croagunk, and other fighting types. Yep, that's something else Hippopotas can cover. Hippo for S rank :).
Knock Off/Dark Spam- Spritzee is a good switch-in for all those dark types, bar Pawniard. Double Dark often have SD Pawn as their extremely threatening win condition, which Timburr can beat with a simple Mach Punch.
REPLAYS!
Winning the LC roomtour vs Aerow/ How to deal with Sun teams- Timburr wasn't even EV'd in this battle :)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/lc-191951440
The main threats to this team are Foongus and Spritzee. Here is the best way to deal with them.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/lc-192356766
Threats that I would like to have covered, but don't
1. Spritzee. Honestly this team has a hard time with opposing Spritzee, because of it's recovery, bulk, and typing. The best way to deal with Spritzee is to status it so it has to choose between wish or aromatherapy, while slowly loosing health. Then, just try to chip away at it with Poison Jabs and other moves

2. Foongus. Foongus can wall my team from heaven to back. It always ends up poisoning Vullaby, so even Vullaby fails to counter it sometimes. Combine that with Stealth Rocks to wear down Vullaby, and you've got more of a check than a counter. However, if things go right, it can be played round.

3. More that I can't think off of the top of my head right now.

Change Log (Probably Will be a ton). First change has happened!Check it out!- If someone could teach me how to make a hide tag, I'll just do that.

Hide

Croagunk is my replacement for Timburr. It is official. Goodbye Timburr! You were a worthy team player! You also made my sun matchup easier!
Croagunk @ Eviolite
Level: 5
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 132 HP / 28 Atk / 116 Def / 108 SpA / 116 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Drain Punch
- Sludge Bomb
- Vacuum Wave
- Knock Off

First, Sorry if The Neon-Green is annoying. Now that that's aside, I would like to say thank you again to Good Morgan for being someone to ask questions and talk to. Thank you for still looking at all the trash teams I threw at you. Indirect thank-you to Aerow for creating the Teambuilding Compedium, which I stole the sprites from, because I don't know how to get sprites otherwise :).
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/little-cup-role-compendium.3524037/
The role compendium. Super helpful in many ways, including stealing sprites.
Once Again, I am eager for the help and thank you for using your precious time on a random person's RMT!

 

[Eren Yeagar]

Hi SilentMango, this looks like a really well built team! You have really improved! :)

Since your team has a major problem with Spritzee and Foongus, I would like to suggest Croagunk over Timburr. Croagunk is an amazing check to Spritzee due to it having access to a poison STAB in Sludge Bomb. Timburr with Poison Jab doesn't win 1v1 versus Spritzee and it can just Wish up the health it took. It is possible to deal with Spritzee with status, but Croagunk can easily deal with it with two Sludge Bombs. Foongus also can't do much to Croagunk because HP Fire and its STABs won't do a lot and if it's ever asleep, you have Spritzee as your cleric. Much like Timburr, Croagunk can abuse the very helpful Knock Off and STAB Drain Punch. Croagunk has a great ability in Dry Skin to absorb the omnipresent Scald and not get burned. Croagunk also has Vacuum Wave as a STAB priority attack to help out. The synergy with Croagunk, Hippopotas, and Vullaby is very great too.

Croagunk set

Croagunk @ Eviolite
Level: 5
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 132 HP / 28 Atk / 116 Def / 108 SpA / 116 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Drain Punch
- Sludge Bomb
- Vacuum Wave
- Knock Off

Next, Pumpkaboo-Super's EVs should be 204 HP / 196 Def / 76 SpD / 28 Spe with a Careful Nature. With this EV spread, Pumpkaboo has access to Eviolite numbers and an odd HP number to take more entry hazards. The attack EVs you put in does secure a Shadow Sneak OHKO on Abra, but most Abras run Focus Sash, so they'll still survive anyway.

Finally, Chinchou's EVs should be 76 HP / 212 Def / 148 SpD / 60 Spe with a Bold Nature. This EV spread will allow Chinchou to have access to the 14 speed tier and outspeed the standard Fletchling, Larvesta, and Vullaby while still retaining Eviolite numbers. This is very helpful due to how you can KO Fletchling and Larvesta before they U-Turn out and Volt Switch out not having to take a Knock Off from Vullaby.

That's all I have for now. Awesome team! Good luck in your future battles!

 

[Fiend]

Hello SilentMango that is a pretty nice team you. However there are some changes you can make to make it even better.

The first of these is a simple change with Hippopotas. Changing Sand Stream to Sand Force allows for Pumpkaboo to get the most out of its recovery which can be really important due to Synthesis having only 8 pp.

Secondly, I will suggest Pawniard over Timburr as it shouldn't mess with your team's synergy too much and allow you to handle both Spritzee and Foongus better as well as add a win condition to your team. Sucker Punch still means you have priority too. Lastly, you are able to better deter defog and maintain having your SR up against more teams. Pawniard also helps handle any potential Ice types better than Timburr would have.

Lastly, change Pumpkaboo-Super's EVs to 204 HP / 196 Def / 76 SpD / 28 Spe with a Careful Nature. This allows it to hit Eviolite numbers for optimal defenses while hitting a nice HP number. Moreover, attack on Pumpkaboo is generally not worth it with few exceptions.

Additionally, to make a hide tag, type [ hide=title ] [ /hide ] without the spaces, so have fun using this now.

Pawniard set

Pawniard @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 156 Atk / 36 Def / 116 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance / Brick Break
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch

 

[Goddess Briyella]

Hi there, SilentMango!

This is a pretty cool team you have here, and it handles many archetypes of the Little Cup metagame very well, which I'm impressed with. I have a few suggestions that I believe will improve the performance of your team and also help out with the things you listed as problematic for it. The main issue I'm seeing right now is that there's currently a lot of pressure on Vullaby to serve so many roles; it works as your hazard remover (weak to Stealth Rock though), your Foongus switch-in, and your all-purpose check to sun, and sometimes you want to be able to Roost and Defog and there just aren't enough turns for that in pressuring situations. Also, your Hippopotas set is not fit to handle Vulpix and is thus an option as a check to sun that can definitely be improved upon.

->

Drilbur @ Eviolite
Level: 5
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 212 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Stealth Rock

196 SpA Vulpix Energy Ball vs. 212 HP / 20 SpD Eviolite Hippopotas: 12-16 (46.1 - 61.5%) -- 96.5% chance to 2HKO

My first suggestion is swapping out Hippopotas for Support Drilbur. As a Ground-type presence, it deals more damage than Hippopotas can, it assists Vullaby in the role of removing hazards via Rapid Spin, and it has improved Speed, notably enough to outspeed Vulpix, a trait where Hippopotas falls short. Additionally, Hippopotas's Sand Stream causes residual damage that may negatively affect other members of the team and even put some of them into OHKO or 2HKO range of attacks. Rock Tomb also has little supportive use on such a slow Pokemon like Hippopotas and will often fall short of outspeeding several important foes after hitting them with it, making the drop in power unnecessary in a lot of cases. As shown in the above calculation, Heat Rock Vulpix 2HKOes your Hippopotas even factoring in that sand replaces sun upon switching in. While switching into Vulpix also isn't necessarily a good idea for Drilbur, it can switch in and take a hit if it has to and still shift momentum while doing what it needs to do, depending on the situation. The most important improvements here are having a Ground-type that outspeeds and OHKOes Vulpix and also having Rapid Spin support to keep Vullaby from being overloaded with roles so that it can better perform.

->

Chespin @ Eviolite
Ability: Bulletproof
Level: 5
EVs: 228 HP / 28 Atk / 236 SpD
Impish Nature
- Bulk Up
- Synthesis
- Seed Bomb
- Rock Slide

The second recommendation I have is exchanging Pumpkaboo for Bulk Up Chespin. The change may seem odd at first, but I will explain how immensely this helps out your team in particular.

Threats that I would like to have covered, but don't
1. Spritzee. Honestly this team has a hard time with opposing Spritzee, because of it's recovery, bulk, and typing. The best way to deal with Spritzee is to status it so it has to choose between wish or aromatherapy, while slowly loosing health. Then, just try to chip away at it with Poison Jabs and other moves

2. Foongus. Foongus can wall my team from heaven to back. It always ends up poisoning Vullaby, so even Vullaby fails to counter it sometimes. Combine that with Stealth Rocks to wear down Vullaby, and you've got more of a check than a counter. However, if things go right, it can be played round.

12 SpA Spritzee Moonblast vs. 228 HP / 236 SpD Eviolite Chespin: 7-9 (28 - 36%) -- 1.1% chance to 3HKO

Foongus Sludge Bomb vs. Bulletproof Chespin: 0-0 (0 - 0%) -- aim for the horn next time

Chespin handles both of these Pokemon that you find problematic for your team, and is more than bulky enough to serve as a self-sufficient team glue in various situations. Spritzee's only reasonable attack is Moonblast, and Chespin can take advantage of its inability to inflict decent damage to it by continuously setting up and recovering with Synthesis. The same is true for Foongus, which cannot hit Chespin with Sludge Bomb due to its Bulletproof ability and can barely scrape it with anything else. For Clear Smog variants of Foongus, Chespin doesn't take enough damage from the move to prevent it from winning anyway with Rock Slide (unless Foongus has both Clear Smog and Synthesis, which would be really weird), and Foongus will be eventually forced to switch out anyway. Additionally, Chespin walls the same things Pumpkaboo does (Tirtouga, Drilbur, Chinchou, etc) but is not weak to Knock Off, and it also totally walls Bellsprout, which is the main sweeper on sun teams. Not only does Bulletproof block Sludge Bomb, but it also blocks Weather Ball, and Chespin's Grass typing makes it not care about Solar Beam, Giga Drain, or Sleep Powder anyway, and so it can just set up and counter-sweep after Vulpix has been defeated.

It's notable that, after attaining one Bulk Up boost, Chespin handily survives Acrobatics from Fletchling and Archen and OHKOes back with Rock Slide after Stealth Rock damage. It is also then able to set up on Pawniard and defeat it with Seed Bomb unless the Pawniard user gets a lot of hax. Drain Punch may seem like a good idea on Bulk Up Chespin, but Rock Slide provides better coverage overall for the things that Grass-types have trouble with in general, and Pawniard is usually overcome regardless as long as Chespin has a Bulk Up boost.


This concludes my rate! I hope you found my suggestions helpful and I wish you continued luck with your team!

 

[SilentMango]

Thank you so much for the rates everybody! I am definitely changing my EV spread for Pumpkaboo, as it was a really random spread that I kinda just threw on there. I think I found it on damage calc or something...? IDK. I am thinking of probably keeping Pumpkaboo over Chespin just for now until I think about it more, because Pumpkaboo is what inspired the creation of this whole team. The funny thing is, this team used to be a much more offensive version with Snubbull over Spritzee, Pawniard over Vullaby, Croagunk over Timburr, and Drilbur over Hippopotas. Now it seems that I should retrace some of the roots again, which I am completely open to doing.
The Croagunk change especially is very welcome, and I think I'll do that. The only thing is, I have a hardER time dealing with ferroseed after the switch to Croagunk, as well as a hardER time against Pumpkaboos, since Pumpkaboo outspeeds me, but I think the change is definitely leaning to the "yes" side. I just wish Croagunk packed a little more "Oomph."The Croagunk switch also means No to Pawniard. I think I like Croagunk a bit better, but Substitute Pawniard could be quite interesting to try out.

The Drilbur> Hippopotas change is definitely something for me to chew on for a bit. Hippopotas is like my secondary switch-in to everything physical, most notably fletchling. However, some of the things that Drilbur is meant to switch in on like fighting types are additionally covered by Croagunk so hmmm... I think I am almost sold on the Drilbur over Hippopotas. Just needs some more thinking and testing.

One thing I have learned is try not to change everything at once, and slow down and test everything before trying to turn your RMT into a rainbow mess, so I am going to do that.

 

[Good Morgan]

What up, Mango! Way to finally get #2 up, you little bugger, you! ^-^ BTW, super impressed about the Room Tour! :D

I definitely second the switch to Croagunk. Not only do you keep the priority, you gain a great way of dealing with Spritzee, and the new Water immunity would never hurt!

If you've got qualms about switching Hippo, you could try my (EDIT: Goddess Briyella's) Anti-Sun Hippopotas. This is the same Hippo from Pleasure in the Pathless Woods! The set will be at the end, but here's the relevant calcs:

196 SpA Vulpix Energy Ball vs. +1 212 HP / 252+ SpD Eviolite Hippopotas: 8-10 (30.7 - 38.4%) -- 17.6% chance to 3HKO
(8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10)
The +1 comes from the SpD boost from Sand; even without sand it's just a guaranteed 3HKO, safe to switch in

20 Atk Hippopotas Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Vulpix: 30-36 (150 - 180%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 36)

So we see that Anti-Sun Hippo is a beast... Woot!

Other than that, the team is perfect and Mango is perfecter ^-^