Under The Sea (peaked #3)

[destinyunknown]

Under The Sea

Introduction
This is my first RMT I have posted at Smogon, and it showcases the team I have been using in the NU ladder the last weeks. This team has peaked (so far) at #3 on the ladder with 1419 points, being the 3rd team in Stage 1 of breaking the 1400 benchmark, after Ice-Eyes and SuperPascal ones. It also ended at the #4 spot on the ladder at the deadline for NU Council election. To be honest, I was kinda disappointed when I wasn't picked for the Council this round, but oh well.

This team has done quite well on the ladder, beating almost every good player on it, and it's one of the most solid teams I have ever made, handling almost any threat of this metagame. I'm finally retiring it, because I'm a bit bored of using it and I want to test some new stuff. I don't want to be too boring so, with further adieu, here's the team ^^ (btw, I will skip the teambuilding process because I have tested so many things this round that it would be so boring ;P)




The Team at a Glance

In Depth

Absol (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Night Slash
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
- Superpower

Absol is totally amazing in this metagame, is one of the biggest threats in NU, and for a good reason. There's not much to explain about the job Absol's do in each team, as all of us know how good she is at what she does. Basically, it revenge kills boosting/faster sweepers, threats stalls and puts pressure (no pun intended) in the opponent each time it shows up on the screen. While she is the first pokemon in the Team Preview, I rarely lead with absol, but as I said, putting her on the ''lead'' position in the preview put the opponent in pressure, something i really like :P
The evs and moves are quite straightforward, and I choosed the Adamant nature as it gives more power and im not really outspeeding anything important with jolly.​

Sawk (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Toxic

I don't really know how I ended having this on the team, I think I just wanted to try how good CB Sawk was, considering almost everybody was using that silly weak Scarf version. CB Sawk is one of the best wallbreakers in the NU metagame, and is really so good at it. Even considering his rather poor movepool, it can 2HKO resistant pokemon like Exeggutor or Mesprit, who thinks they can safely switch into this. However, Sawk's utility doesn't end at just hitting hard. His ability is really useful if I can manage to keep hazards off my field, and I have won some important games just because that. It's also my better kind of ''check'' to absol, I know sawk is not very good at that, but I haven't ever had much troubles with absol though.
The evs and moves are quite standard again, is not like Sawk has many options to play with. I choosed Jolly Nature as it always outspeed magmortar and to try to outspeed Adamant Sawk.​

Duosion (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Recover

Duosion is a great fighting type counter. You may wonder why I have chosen her over other Psychic types like Exeggutor or Mesprit, and the answer is quite simply, the ability to switch into undesirable moves like scald, body slam, lava plume or simply toxic is really awesome for offensive teams. The incredible bulk she has eviolite allows her to take hits other psychic type fellows cannot, like CB Sawk Stone Edges, which Duosion can simply sponge and recover. Duosion ability to plow through stall teams is really incredible too (even considering how rare stall is in NU) The evs are again quite straightforward, but I have added 8 speed evs because I speed creep EVERYTHING. Psyshock is simply there because it wins CM Wars, which are seen quite often and Duosion wins all the time unless it gets haxed.​

Jynx (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Lovely Kiss
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast

Choice Scarf Jynx is one of the better scarfers on today's metagame, simply because it checks gorebyss so well. She was my choice for checking gorebyss due to the fact that most people don't expect Scarf Jynx (I know that's silly, but I have killed so many swellows in turn 1 that is it not even funny). Also, the ability to recover HP by switching into Scalds make the SR weakness not that bad sometimes. Another reason to pick jynx over other fast scarfer was Lovely Kiss, as I always like to have at least 1 sleep move in every of my teams because a sleep is like a guaranteed KO with this gen sleep mechanics.
The moves are standard, but i'm considering running psyshock or Shadow Ball because I'm a bit weak to NP Jynx and that would allow Jynx to revenge kill them. She's also cool (even with that odd looking) at sweeping late game, because once absol and fire types are weakened or worn down, she can usually spam Ice Beam for a late game sweep.​

Regirock @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Thunder Wave
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

I chose Regirock as my bird counter only due to 1 reason: Is the better rock at handling magmortar. I have tried a lot of rock types on this spot, including gigalith, golem and even other regirock versions. However, since this team was Magmortar weak, I finally decided to run SDef Regirock, one of the best checks to it. To be honest, I would like regi more if it has Rock Blast to fuck substitute users, and specially ninjask, which is the main reason of me using golem sometimes. The moveset is quite standard again (my team is quite standrad in general though), using the EdgeQuake coverage (I don't like Drain Punch that much because is so weak), Thunder Wave annoys sweepers, and Stealth Rock is there because breaking Sturdy/Sashes is pretty important, and because the residual damage can often mean getting or failing a sweep.
​

Leafeon (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Chlorophyl
EVs: 72 HP / 184 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Leaf Blade
- Frustration
- Swords Dance

Last, but not least, is leafeon. When I built this team, I needed a realiable switch to rock and ground types, so I knew I wanted a grass type. I inmediately though about exeggutor, but I finally decided to give Leafeon a try, mainly because of her really good speed, boosting move and, why not, because she's so cute <3 Oh, and because it can act as an absol check by playing Substitute mindgames. The spread can look weird, but is actually pretty simple. The max speed is for tying with Haunter and Jynx, two pokemon that can be a headache if not handled correctly, and the Hp evs allow Leafeon subs not being broken more than 80% of the time by Lickilicky's body slam. Frustration and Leaf Blade are the best hitting moves Leafeon has, you know, Leafeon movepool sucks sadly. Btw, I use Frustration>Return because I always forget to put the happiness on the teambuilder lol.​

Conclusion
As said in the introduction, this team has been one of the best of the ladder during the last month, and it's still a really solid and effective team in the metagame. If you are wondering why the team is called ''Under The Sea'' even if there's no Water Pokemon on the team, I just called it that way because of the influence Gorebyss has caused to the meta, and Gorebyss looks somewhat similar to the Little Mermaid, don't you think? :P

importable

Absol (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Night Slash
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
- Superpower

Sawk (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Duosion (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Recover

Jynx (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Lovely Kiss
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast

Regirock @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Thunder Wave
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Leafeon (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 72 HP / 184 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Leaf Blade
- Frustration
- Swords Dance

 

[shnen]

This is a fantastic team which I have always lost to ( I think), and was always hard to play against. I have always preferred just running max speed on leafeon to beat jynx etc, but that is really personal preference. Not much to say, great team DU!
Edit: woops misread it and thought it was max atk :3

 

[D4RR3N]

Yo Man. I can't really find a single flaw on this team, it's really well built, gj on that. Something I would like to run would be Lum Berry > Life Orb on Absol, as Jynx would usually try to put Absol to sleep before setting a sub. In that case, you'll get to net a surprise kill on Jynx, which might be annoying late game. Another thing you might wanna try is Rock Slide > Stone Edge on Regirock, as Stone Edge doesnt hit anything specifically harder then Rock Slide. But on the other side, Rock Slide provides a cool 30% chance of flinching your opponent, and pairing it with T-Wave, it'll annoy your opponents to never ending. I guess that's all, GJ on the success you got with this team and keep it up on wreckin NU =]

 

[destinyunknown]

Thanks to both for the rates :)

@Shnen: Yeah, at first I didn't run max speed on leafeon but considering how much jynx and haunter are used I decided to run max speed which is clearly better :P

@D4RR3N: I thought about rock slider sometimes when using the team, even more because the higher PP and accuracy helps with things like Ninjask (which are oh so annoying) and the flinch rate can help with things like duosion (Natgeo >.>) I like the idea of Lum Absol because of the (again -.-) popularity of jynx, which is really annoying for this team, I might try though I don't like the loss of power. I guess it helps for random burns too. Thx man :)

 

[spuds4ever]

Really nice team. I haven't played a lot of NU recently but isn't your team a bit vulnerable to baton-passing (which, in my short experience of NU, was very popular). A phazer or even something with taunt I think would be good at beating the ever common baton-passers like gorebyss and ninjask.

 

[destinyunknown]

I guess I'm a bit weak to baton pass, but the only baton pass user I have seen is Ninjask (and I haven't seen full baton pass at all), and if I change Rock Slide in Regirock, Ninjask won't give me trouble anymore. Still, most of the time I manage to surprise ninjask with jynx so I have only lost once to ninjask (and it was against shakeitup so..)

 

[Dayzah]

Really nice team. Jynx is just so good! I actually prefer the Sub/Nasty Plot set with it. Loved the presentation too!

Jynx@Leftovers
Trait: Dry Skin
EV: 252SAtk/252Spe/4SDef
- Lovely Kiss
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
- Ice Beam


- Dayzah

 

[destinyunknown]

to be fair I would use that set (I really prefer it over my current one) but if I used it I would have much more trouble with gorebyss (as that set usually loses to it) and I would have more problems with fast sweepers like tauros
Thanks for the suggestion though :)