Introduction
Hello Smogonites. It's been an eternity since I last attempted laddering, so I thought to myself "Why not".
I'm currently ranked #19 on the ladder with a score of 1883, but peaked at 1919. Ended going down a bit due to Showdown being in limbo between 5th and 6th gen a while ago which caused me some frustration when my Sleep Powders were failing against Grass-types even on the Gen V ladder, which did cause some unfortunate losses and the team at the time being less well balanced.
Current ladder: http://i.imgur.com/3dSMnTd.png
I'm fairly happy with the team so far. The basic objective of the team is to paralyse faster opponents with either Stun Spore or Thunder Wave from Tangela and Probopass respectively, and then hammer home with slower offensive threats like Sawk, Golurk and Samurott. The team does take prediction to use properly otherwise you lose offensive momentum with the team. I'm not sure what to classify this team as personally, so I'll let commenters decide.
Anyway, I'll get on with the team now. It is cookie cutter to some extent, but there are custom sets too.
The Team
Noodles (Tangela) (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 4 SAtk / 8 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sleep Powder
- Stun Spore
- Knock Off
The first half of our defensive core is Noodles the Tangela.
Noodles' physical bulk is simply phenomenal, hitting 540. I typically EV my HP to be odd in order to reduce hazard damage. The defences are also odd in order to maximise efficiency of Eviolite. To my knowledge, stat calculations use the INT function, so having a 540.5 defence stat would cause it to round down, not up. People can feel free to correct me since that's only an assumption. The 4 EVs in Sp. Atk can be invested in speed if one prefers to out-speed opposing Tangela over a small increase in power. The IVs in attack are to counteract confusion and Foul Play damage, and I do this on all Pokemon with no physical attacks.
Noodles' can easily switch in on Golurk, Sawk, Primepare or any other physical attacker with impunity. Just for reference on how extreme this bulk is, Banded Adamant Sawk's Ice Punch only does 41.44 - 48.94% damage to Noodles, meaning that it cannot 2HKO Noodles even after Stealth Rock. Unlike the more common Alomomola, Noodles actually threatens the pokemon it walls with a commendable base 100 Sp. Atk and an arsenal of debilitating support moves, allowing you to maintain momentum and prevent 2HKO's by pokemon like Sawk.
Sleep Powder aids in gaining switch opportunities for the team, allowing you to switch in your premier offensive threats safely and then inflict sever damage to the opponent. Stun Spore lets you paralyse faster pokemon or a sneaky Primeape switch, making it much easier for the rest of the team to handle. Giga Drain is a strong STAB move that also heals Noodles, making it even harder to take down. Finally, Knock Off completes the set, ruining pokemon who are dependant on their items, such as Eviolite users.
Of course we have Regenerator as our ability just to make Noodles live even longer, but this should be a given.
Come Gen VI, Grass-types will start giving Tangela issues since it can't do anything with resisted STAB or double Powder. Ludicolo especially will set up in your face with the change since it can absorb dual powders.
Suggestion Box said:
- Sludge Bomb for Grass weakness (Gen VI)
Hidden Power Ice for Sawsbuck and Miltank weakness. Sawsbuck is too rare to warrant a dedicated moveslot, and Sludge Bomb hits it harder. Noodles can't do anything to the cow either way.- Hidden Power Rock for Scolipede weakness.
Leech Seed over Knock Off. Removing Eviolites and Scarves is more important than yet another recovery method on a Pokemon that's function is not to stall.- 248 / 0 / 136 / 0 / 124 / 0 spread to prevent Ludicolo having a chance to OHKO.
Super Moai Bros. (Probopass) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Power Gem
- Volt Switch
The second half of our defensive core is Super Moai Bros. the Probopass, who serves as our universal special wall and flying counter. SMB's role is effectively the special answer to Noodles, and they form a formidable defensive core. SMB resists the Ice and is immune to Poison, making it a good partner for Tangela. Its Sp. Def is great enough to stay in on Fire-types also. Tangela can also switch in happily on all the physical Fighting, Ground and Water-types that SMB doesn't want to fight. Just to put into perspective how bulky SMB is, Timid Jynx's 4x Super Effective Focus Blast does 80.49 - 95.35%, so you won't even be taken down to your Sturdy (which is important if Rocks are up). SMB also hard walls most Psychic, Ghost, Dark and Flying-types. Haunter isn't even guaranteed a 2HKO with HP Ground / Fighting, which is pretty amazing when you think about it.
SMB is our Stealth Rocker and only hazard user. The hazards can be used on free turns or be set up more immediately if the opponent uses Jynx, Charizard or any other hazard-weak Pokemon. Thunder Wave completes the paralysis core with Noodles, allowing us to paralyse virtually anything. Power Gem is our STAB move and and does decent damage to anything weak to it, and has a good chance to OHKO Charizard even without investment, which is always nice. Volt Switch allows us to take a hit and then switch out into an aggressive Pokemon to threaten the opponent out and hit something extremely hard.
Our ability is Sturdy because we have no way to capitalise on either Magnet Pull or Sand Force. Leftovers gives us an awful lot of survivability allowing us to stay in on resisted hits nearly indefinitely, and has certainly granted me the ability to restore my Sturdy on several occasions.
One does have to be particularly wary of Ground-types, however. Proper prediction will let you double switch into them with something to KO them, however. I can't stress how important it is to not let a Ground-type come in on a Volt Switch or Thunder Wave since it resets your momentum and normally leaves it up to Noodles to try and salvage it.
Come Gen VI he does lose two resistances, but absolute lack of good Dark-types (currently) in the tier and the fact that most Ghost-types couldn't even scratch our iron-clad plumber lookalike anyway does balance things out. Tangela deals with physical Cacturne, Shiftry and Golurk, and SMB still deals with the special sets of the two former. The Fairy resistance may come into play too, but I doubt there will be any good Fairy-types in the tier. If there are, one can run Sludge Bomb on Tangela to counteract its new Grass weakness and the Fairy-type all at once.
Suggestion Box said:
Toxic to take on Musharna one-on-one. Paralysis support is more important on an offensive team and Musharna isn't important enough to warrant a dedicated counter.- 248 / 0 / 0 / 56 / 204 / 0 spread to possibly 2HKO Jynx and always OHKO uninvested Charizard.
Dobby is Free (Sawk) @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge
Sock is our cookie cutter Choice Bander. We should all know from experience how astonishingly powerful Sock is. After the opposing team is paralysed and the opponent's Ghost-types are removed, Sawk can run town. Nothing that isn't Alomomola, Tangela, Musharna or maybe Misdreavus really like to switch into this thing. All of the above have a solid counter on this team. The EV spread maximises our power and gives us enough speed to outpace any paralysed pokemon and punch a new anus for any slower Pokemon naïve enough to think they can take the hit.
We go with Mold Breaker to beat Sturdy users, and to OHKO Eelektross (although the Smogon set is OHKO'd by Close Combat anyway). Basically most lead hazard setters are OHKO'd. There isn't any point to using Sturdy on Sock since most of the time it will be broken by a hazard and there's no way to restore it. In my personal experience, Mold Breaker is definitely the go-to ability for the banded set.
Do not attempt to bring this in on Golurk since Ice Punch is not guaranteed OHKO and it will retaliate and kill you. Stick to relying on Noodles for Golurk.
Do not attempt to spam Close Combat when the opponent's Alomomola / equivalent is alive, instead double switch into something to handle them more appropriately or you'll lose a lot of momentum and you need initiative on those walls to stop them crippling your checks. Like Probopass, proper prediction is absolutely vital to use Sock.
Magnus (Golurk) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Shadow Punch
- Ice Punch
- Drain Punch
Magnus is primarily here for his wonderful immunities to Fighting, Normal and Electric; strong offensive presence and his ability to tank hits. It's unnecessary to carry Stealth Rock on this set. One wonderful thing about Magnus is that he outspeeds the Smogon set by one point, meaning he wins the one-on-one most of the time. No Guard sets cannot OHKO Magnus with anything, which is lovely if you intend to teach those who bank on hax a lesson in sportsmanship. Conversely, Magnus has a 31.25% chance to KO other Golurks with Shadow Punch, which is very nice. It also has the chance to OHKO Misdreavus with Shadow Punch provided Noodles did its job in removing its Eviolite, and definitely OHKOs after rocks and a little Knock Off damage.
We're running Iron Fist because we're good sports that don't like to bank on hax (and I find banking on confusion builds very poor habits) and we want to have more power on our Ghost STAB. Iron Fist also grants us a 90 base power Ice Punch and Drain Punch, which is very nice for coverage and longevity.
We're running Leftovers to keep Magnus alive for longer, which does come into play quite often. Especially because we have a reliable recover move in Drain Punch. Leftovers also helps Magnus get one more switch if it survives a big hit on a smidgeon of HP, which does matter since Magnus can still be used as a cleaner late-game when it doesn't have to worry about being out-sped as badly.
Magnus is a tank, so play him sparingly. Not much OHKOs him, but he will be 2HKO'd by an awful lot of Pokemon, so keeping him healthy really comes into play when you need him to take a hit in order to win.
He does share a lot of coverage with Sock, but it's good coverage so it doesn't really matter. We're not running Stone Edge because I don't trust the accuracy (it's barely used on Sock for that reason). Sawk will tend to be your early game offensive Pokemon to do massive damage to everything, and then Magnus can clean up most of the scraps later.
Again, the paralysis core really helps with Magnus because he is somewhat sluggish. Same rule regarding physical walls also applies to Magnus.
Do be wary of Skuntanks. Again, double switch if your predict them. If they're in, it's your call as to what move to make.
Suggestion Box said:
Banded set for more power. Excessive number of Choice users would result, and needing to change moves is important.- Expert Belt for stronger coverage.
Switch to Kangaskhan. Used to be a part of the team, but got cut because it lacked immunities, power and coverage.
Voltergeist (Rotom-Fan) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Trick
Voltergeist the rotary Rotom's job is a simple one. He's there to maintain offensive pressure with a fast Volt Switch to complement SMB's slow Volt Switch, beat Scolipede leads with the 30% flinch with Air Slash, provide lovely Flying-type coverage, and make sure opposing defensive walls don't get up to any shenanigans by tricking them a Choice Scarf and rendering them useless for the remainder of the game. Do be wary of Primeapes that want to ruin your fun by switching in on Trick. Luckily you have Air Slash to beat them if you predict properly.
Voltergeist also ruins teams if it gets hold of Eviolites, since you can potentially cripple one Pokemon and leave yet another with a redundant item. Getting a hold of Leftovers is also a pretty nice deal since Voltergeist does have some decent natural bulk even without investment.
Unfortunately, Voltergeist has the same issue as Probopass: it's completely walled by Ground-types. It also has a weakness to Stealth Rocks which is unfortunate. Fortunately, almost all Stealth Rockers in the tier are OHKO'd by various parts of this team, so it's not a massive deal. He also has an unfortunate Ice weakness, which does add up with Tangela and Golurk. The team does have two resists, but you have to be careful.
Voltergeist has one particular niche that offsets his flaws: Stall teams absolutely despise him. They hate the way he looks, they hate the way he dresses (I mean who would wear such an ugly scarf?). They even hate the way he smells (mildly of office appliances). He's immune to both types of Spikes (notably Toxic Spikes), can Trick annoying stalling Pokemon and render them totally useless, beat lead Scolipede rather easily, and threaten physical walls like Alomomola and Tangela rather badly. Being equipped to deal with that is absolutely critical when one reaches the 1700+ ratings where people often resort to stall for freebie wins. It's doubly important with such an aggressive team.
Come Gen VI, he also gets a paralysis immunity, which is absolutely fantastic for him.
If you're worried about not having enough Ground counters, you can also run Air Balloon instead.
Unicorn (Samurott) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Taunt
The most recent addition to the team, our rainbow-spewing Unicorn. I looked far and wide for a strong special attacker that was ideally Water-type (to help take ice-type hits) and arrived at Unicorn. Unicorn really helps round off the team.
I'm going with the Smogon EV spread for now until I have a reason not to. Samurott packs the power that other specially offensive pokemon simply lack in NU. Over my time of playing NU, which stems back to around when Jynx was move down, I have noticed a severe lack of strong special attackers that aren't made of papier-mâché. Eelektross, Musharna and Duosion are the only others that come to mind that break the 100 base Sp. Atk threshold. I've used all of the above extensively, but for some reason never got around to trying a Samurott until recently. Needless to say, I've fallen in love with my Unicorn.
The Life Orb boosted Water/Ice coverage is very nice, and really helps deal with the Ground-types of the tier, only the rare Onix and invested Seismitoad out-speed our Unicorn. Grass Knot is there specifically for Seismitoad (who may thing you are physical) and against Ground/Rock types when you don't want to risk Hydro Pump. Hidden Power Grass is basically the same thing in most instances. Because of the upcoming nerf, Grass Knot will be better in virtually all scenarios except versus very obscure things like Luvdisc.
I'll be upfront about it: I dislike Hydro Pump because of its accuracy, but I'm rolling with it for now.
Taunt helps beat shenanigans and stops any tricky plays. Taunt also means you can use the Tanglepass with 100% safety.
Suggestion Box said:
- Megahorn to deal with Jynx and Ludicolo.
Previous Teammates
Dealing with the Meta
I'll do a quick run down of the top 10 Pokemon according to September's usage standard stats and how I deal with them.
Other Threats
Conclusion
Overall I'm fairly pleased with how this team has evolved over the past month or so. The Ice-type weakness is unfortunate, but manageable most of the time. The team generally handles most of the meta, although it doesn't like stall that much.
As far as I remember, this is my first RMT, so go easy on me. :) Let me know how I did, and also if I broke any rules that I wasn't aware of. Feel free to leave corrections, and constructive criticism is appreciated. Also, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. I'm bound to have skipped over things.[/CODE]
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