Break Free [Peaked #1]



Introduction:
Welcome to another one of my NU RMT's Smogon! Break Free was designed around 2-3 months ago, around what was a SpecZard. Around a month or so ago, that changed to Ebelt Zard, a complete beast in the metagame, tearing holes through teams with it's wallbreaking power even without a specs boost, as well as newfound versatility in its Expert Belt. With that in mind, I built a tight team around it to try to beat out any and all threats to it, so that it can comfortably clean up games with little to no issue. While I do not feel like posting any ladder ACREs on this one (comfortably reached 1984), it did go around 500-100 in terms of games, giving me a pretty chill 5-1 win / loss ratio, which I'm perfectly alright with. As a whole, this team relies on synergy in both bulk and offense, and does not have defined roles. All Pokemon act as Sweepers as well as Defensive pivots dependent on the situation taking on a interesting style of Bulky Offense. So without further ado, here is one of my best teams, Break Free!

PEAK #1:


+
= STRONK AF.


The Team:


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5,778 Kelvin
Charizard @ Expert Belt
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Air Slash

- Roost

Easily one of the best sets I've come across in the NU tier. In it's essence, Expert Belt Charizard isn't amazing. But it's because of the serious hype that Specs and Scarf Charizard have gotten across the tier these past few days that this set becomes effective. Being able to comfortably bluff because of the common-ness of choiced sets is what makes this set such a major threat in the tier. Fire Blast is the primary STAB, being stupid strong. It's scarily unresisted in a tier where water and rock types take a rather offensive role in general. In Blaze range it is even more ridiculous, hitting for 50%+ against even resists, bringing it near the power of Specs. Roost helps us gain back lost HP when livability is more important than hitting hard. Hidden Power [Grass] is the primary move that we attempt to bluff, assassinating Seismitoad, Golem, and other standard Choice-Locked zard sets with little to no issue. Finally, Air Slash offers a second STAB, hitting hard across the board, and offering a rather appealing flinch rate!


#STEROIDS
Gurdurr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch

Good old gurdurr. Reliable. Strong. Bulky. It's easily the best fighting type in NU in the current metagame in my opinion, being the team's go to check to things like opposing Kangaskhan, Primeape, and other monsters who typically tear through my team. He also acts as my primary setup sweeper, being able to completely tear through teams after a single bulk up. Drain Punch, our main STAB, is quite powerful even when
unboosted, doing fair amounts to many opponents. Mach Punch aids Gurdurr by patching it's sub-par speed, as well as allowing it to revenge kill a variety of threats when I need it to. Ice Punch is my final move, covering Golurk, Drifblim, Exeggutor, and just Psychic / Ghost types which typically wall Gurdurr as a whole, and packs a nasty 10% freeze chance to aid me in my sweeping. Gurdurr is honestly the MVP2 of the team, and easily finds its place as one of the best bulky setup sweepers in NU.





Wrath of Khan
Kangaskhan (F) @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch

Our team lacks a revenge killer, as well as threat check against setup sweepers. This is where Kangaskhan comes in. With Fake Out + Sucker Punch, he can reliably take out already set-up sweepers. He also acts as emergency check to fast scarfers such as Jynx who may pose a threat, hitting hard with Fake Out to aid me in revenge killing. It is so crucial that I am having threat control from Kangaskhan, because without him, so many pokemon simply tear holes through my team with little to no issue. Silk Scarf is a great tool for boosting the power of Fake Out and Double Edge, letting me hit harder than normal, but not being as recoil-indusive as a Life Orb. Scrappy is the single best ability out there for normal types, becoming worry-free when spamming their primary STABs. Double Edge capitalizes on Kangaskhan's sheer power, hitting for high amounts of damage even on bulky pokemon. Earthquake and Sucker Punch round off our coverage and utility, wrecking Rocks + Steels who may even attempt to take our Fake Out, as well as offering a final form of priority to give Khan the edge in speed.





Bubble Gum
Musharna @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SDef
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Moonlight
- Baton Pass

Musharna replaced Eelektross for the sole reason that it is the perfect glue to hold my team together. While Eelektross put my team in a favorable position against stall teams with it's perfect coverage, I lost the ability to defensively pivot consistently due to lack of reliable recovery, as well as Volt Switch being occasionally stopped by Ground type switch ins. As pointed out by Jonater and Dat Blast, Musharna was definitely the better choice, giving my team much better defensive presence, as it is able to pivot constantly in and out of attacks, while healing off any damage with Moonlight. Psychic is a surprisingly hard hitting attack, dealing harsh damage to any offensive pokemon willing to switch in. Thunder Wave is the crux of the set, letting me slow down opposing pokemon, allowing my own team to go hyper offensive, quickly and efficiently taking down opposing threats with sheer offensive pressure. And baton pass lets me scout for an opponent's moveset, as well as gaining advantage on forced switches, and viewing what his checks and counters to my pokemon are. Overall, Musharna is a wonderful replacement with her stellar mixed bulk and amazing pivoting capabilities, and I have not looked back once.





Deodorant
Skuntank @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 80 Spd / 176 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Taunt
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit

Being able to check psychic pokemon is so key to this team's success. Without Skuntank, CM Musharna, LO Gardevoir, and Jynx will simply tear gargantuan holes through my team with little to no issue. His ability to force the opponent into Sucker Punch + Pursuit mind games is invaluable, as it easily makes opponents choke, giving me an edge oftentimes. The set is very much standard. Poison Jab acts as a reliable STAB, eliminating Grass types, and hitting the tier as a whole pretty relentlessly and quite powerfully. A 30% chance to poison the opponent is the icing on the cake, putting consistent pressure on the opponent, and holding their life on a timer. Sucker Punch is really the crux of the set, being the strongest priority my team packs, hitting equally as hard as poison jab but much harder. It can quickly and efficiently eliminate frailer offensive Pokemon, dealing respectable damage to a variety pokemon. Finally, pursuit lets us trap annoying pokemon such as Haunter, Jynx, or Musharna, eliminating them permanently for the rest of the match. Taunt lets us consistently beat walls that we normally cannot, and also can potentially keep hazards or screens off the field if need be. Overall, Skuntank provides a undeniably large amount of support to my team, that simply cannot function without it.


Porous Fissures
Porous Fissures (Seismitoad) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SAtk / 36 Spd / 220 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Seismitoad is invariably important to my team, taking Electric, Water, and Rock moves for Zard, and providing amazing synergy with the rest of my team as well. Toxic is often my only way to wear down something like Alomomola, so it is extremely important that he carries it. I chose the offensive stealth rocks set, as I did not want to lose offensive pressure with the more defensive sets. Hydro Pump is surprisingly strong, hitting for large chunks against even defensive pokemon, and Earth Power is the secondary STAB, hitting with just as much power, but a added chance for a SDef drop, which sometimes can be key to my win. Stealth Rocks is the final move on the set, bringing a lot of pokemon into the OHKO range of my mons, often putting a surprising amount of pressure on opponents, even if its only doing 12% on the switch.

5,778 Kelvin (Charizard) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Air Slash
- Roost

#STEROIDS (Gurdurr) @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch

Khan (Kangaskhan) (F) @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch

Bubble Gum (Musharna) @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SDef
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Moonlight
- Baton Pass

Deodorant (Skuntank) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 80 Spd / 176 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Taunt
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit

Porous Fissures (Seismitoad) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SAtk / 36 Spd / 220 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic


____________________________

Well, thanks for reading! I'm going to leave the RMT off here as I need to go do HW and study for finals, but I appreciate any and all comments on how I can improve the team, and I will see everybody soon! Bye!
- Brawlfest
 
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Okay, so i'm going to try to give you a suggestion, so please forgive me if the rate is bad.

Sawk can just sweep this team once Charizard goes down, which it usually will because of hazards, mainly stealthrocks. I recommend Pivot Musharna over Pivot Eelektross to serve as a secondary check to sawk and fighting types that can rip through your team. It also forms a nice Dark/Fighting/Psychic core with your team. A plus over Musharna is its semi-reliable healing move, moonlight, which allows Musharna to take more hits than Eelektross.

That's all I can think of, good luck on your team!
 
Okay, so i'm going to try to give you a suggestion, so please forgive me if the rate is bad.

Sawk can just sweep this team once Charizard goes down, which it usually will because of hazards, mainly stealthrocks. I recommend Pivot Musharna over Pivot Eelektross to serve as a secondary check to sawk and fighting types that can rip through your team. It also forms a nice Dark/Fighting/Psychic core with your team. A plus over Musharna is its semi-reliable healing move, moonlight, which allows Musharna to take more hits than Eelektross.

That's all I can think of, good luck on your team!
I have considered this change in the past, and will continue to try it! Thank you for your input Jonater! Mush really gives me the necessary tool to beat CB Sawk and standard Gurdurr, but my problem is that it makes my team slightly more susceptible to Alomomola. I will test though! Thank you!
 
To be fair Kangaskhan does a good job of checking Sawk (though i'd make it Jolly to catch Jolly Sawk), as Fake Out + Double Edge is an effective OHKO. Gurdurr can actually check it too so long as it hasn't taken much prior damage, as CC fails to OHKO it and then Gurdurr can KO back with Drain Punch + Mach Punch (after the defense drop).

If you have three Pokemon which beat Sawk 1v1 and you're still getting walked on by it, you are simply being outplayed.
 
To be fair Kangaskhan does a good job of checking Sawk (though i'd make it Jolly to catch Jolly Sawk), as Fake Out + Double Edge is an effective OHKO. Gurdurr can actually check it too so long as it hasn't taken much prior damage, as CC fails to OHKO it and then Gurdurr can KO back with Drain Punch + Mach Punch (after the defense drop).

If you have three Pokemon which beat Sawk 1v1 and you're still getting walked on by it, you are simply being outplayed.
Still, I have noticed that CB Ape and Sawk have ran train through me! You are perfectly right in saying that Gudurr, Khan, and Zard can take it on one on one, but if I'm put in a position where gurdurr or zard is damaged, I'm left being swept with ease. That being said, I normally play well enough that I can beat them as you stated~!
 
I don't think Gen5 NU is gonna die anytime soon.

As you've said, Fighting types run through the team and only thing you can is revenge kill. It is hard for me to suggest pivot Musharna without significantly changing your team but one thing I would definitely suggest is to make Eelektross mixed. My opinion on why you should run it:

Bulky offense teams like yours struggle against stall teams because you lack hazards and most importantly a wall breaker. Your best bet is to Stall break with Skuntank but every stall teams have a counter to it. (Scald Burn, Body Slam Parahax, Magic Coat Taunt etc) Defensive teams with Licki and Mushy become almost impossible to break through. Eelektross is a bitch to stall teams because of its insane coverage. Moreover, Eelektross and Charizard work great together because they share common counters like Audino/Licki/Munchlax/Probopass which are lured by Eelektross and destroyed by Superpower.

Eelektross @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
Evs: 124 Spe / 244 Sp.atk / 140 Atk
Rash Nature
~ Thunderbolt
~ Giga Drain
~ Flamethrower
~ Superpower
 
I don't think Gen5 NU is gonna die anytime soon.

As you've said, Fighting types run through the team and only thing you can is revenge kill. It is hard for me to suggest pivot Musharna without significantly changing your team but one thing I would definitely suggest is to make Eelektross mixed. My opinion on why you should run it:

Bulky offense teams like yours struggle against stall teams because you lack hazards and most importantly a wall breaker. Your best bet is to Stall break with Skuntank but every stall teams have a counter to it. (Scald Burn, Body Slam Parahax, Magic Coat Taunt etc) Defensive teams with Licki and Mushy become almost impossible to break through. Eelektross is a bitch to stall teams because of its insane coverage. Moreover, Eelektross and Charizard work great together because they share common counters like Audino/Licki/Munchlax/Probopass which are lured by Eelektross and destroyed by Superpower.

Eelektross @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
Evs: 124 Spe / 244 Sp.atk / 140 Atk
Rash Nature
~ Thunderbolt
~ Giga Drain
~ Flamethrower
~ Superpower
I actually used to have Ebeltross. My main issues are two things. Distinct lack of recovery means that one of my bulkier mons is worn down quickly, and lack of volt switch makes it hard to scout opponents and bring others in safely. I'll try it out, but I'm still leaning towards special tross.
 

Blast

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Honestly Sawk and Primeape aren't even as big threats as Gurdurr is for this team, as Charizard is pretty much your only defense against it and even that's not particularly reliable with SR up. I agree that you should probably switch something for Musharna but Kanga is probably the most replaceable since you already have two other priority abusers on your team so you're not really losing all that much.

This team is also really weak to special attackers such as Charizard and Rotom-F because you lack any sort of specially defensive pivot to come in and take a hit. You should probably use Probopass over Eel because it accomplishes this while still giving you a slow Volt Switch and Flying resist. Probopass can also serve as the SR setter which frees up space on Toad.

You're pretty weak to Alomomola at this point so I would use SubToxic Seismitoad which allows you to almost 100% counter it. I'd also recommend a faster EV spread on it since you're kind of weak to Water-type sweepers like Samurott and Gorebyss--either 160 Spe to outspeed Timid Gorebyss or just max Speed to outspeed Otter.

Musharna @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SDef
Bold Nature
- Baton Pass
- Psychic
- Moonlight
- Heal Bell / Calm Mind

Probopass @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 56 SAtk / 200 SDef
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Power Gem
- Toxic
- Volt Switch

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 96 HP / 252 SAtk / 160 Spd or 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Substitute
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Toxic
 
Honestly Sawk and Primeape aren't even as big threats as Gurdurr is for this team, as Charizard is pretty much your only defense against it and even that's not particularly reliable with SR up. I agree that you should probably switch something for Musharna but Kanga is probably the most replaceable since you already have two other priority abusers on your team so you're not really losing all that much.

This team is also really weak to special attackers such as Charizard and Rotom-F because you lack any sort of specially defensive pivot to come in and take a hit. You should probably use Probopass over Eel because it accomplishes this while still giving you a slow Volt Switch and Flying resist. Probopass can also serve as the SR setter which frees up space on Toad.

You're pretty weak to Alomomola at this point so I would use SubToxic Seismitoad which allows you to almost 100% counter it. I'd also recommend a faster EV spread on it since you're kind of weak to Water-type sweepers like Samurott and Gorebyss--either 160 Spe to outspeed Timid Gorebyss or just max Speed to outspeed Otter.

Musharna @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SDef
Bold Nature
- Baton Pass
- Psychic
- Moonlight
- Heal Bell / Calm Mind

Probopass @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 56 SAtk / 200 SDef
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Power Gem
- Toxic
- Volt Switch

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 96 HP / 252 SAtk / 160 Spd or 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Substitute
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Toxic
I really do not want to lose my Khan, but those are some very good changes. SubToxic Seismitoad is an especially good check to Alomomola, which is very important to my team. That being said, I will not be using probopass, as my team has enough of a ground weakness on it's own, but at least it can deal with it via other options. Probopass honestly doesn't benefit me largely, and loses a lot of offensive pressure for me, inviting setup sweepers.

I think Mush is a great idea, but I am still unsure whether to use it over Khan or Eel. I will continue testing and report results later!
 
I would suggest leftovers skunktank. Roost is a good way to cover from stealth rock damage but loses a turn for the opponent to attack, focus blast may be a better choice for hitting rock types harder but with shaky accuracy may be a good reason not to keep it.
 
I would suggest leftovers skunktank. Roost is a good way to cover from stealth rock damage but loses a turn for the opponent to attack, focus blast may be a better choice for hitting rock types harder but with shaky accuracy may be a good reason not to keep it.
Sorry. Lum Berry is absolutely essential to beat Jynx or Musharna, allowing me to pursuit trap / taunt even through a thunder wave or lovely kiss. And I will keep roost!

Ty for input anyways!
 
Sorry for the bump, but I decided that Pivot Musharna is definitely the choice over eelektross. Across over 100 games, the change has significantly improved my win rates, making the team more stable defensively, while not losing any offensive momentum! Thank you Dat Blast and Jonater !
Simply put, it's amazing mixed bulk in tangent with it's ability to shut down opposing offensive threats with Thunder wave makes it a great asset to my team, making for the perfect defensive glue to support my relatively offensive team!

Also Fighting Dark Psychic cores are manly af.
*EDIT*
Changes to the Importable, Banner, Avatars, Analysis, and Moveset have been made.

The #1 Peak is Here.
 
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