Introduction
Hey everyone I'm shaneghoul, some of you may know me from the nu community or from the nu room on PS! Lately I've had incredible success with a team I made which, with drops, is less effective then it used to be so for my 300th post I decided to rmt it. I've been using this team for pretty much every tour since sceptile dropped to nu and it's been very successful for me, going undefeated in the playoffs of a tour called the nu league, a circuit tournament that has been going on since August. The team utilises a lot of mons that I like to use such as av hariyama and defensive mesprit and I think it is a great representation of the type of builder I am and the builds I like to use. I haven't gotten any ladder peaks with it since generally I don't enjoy laddering but I've passed it to a few friends who have had good success with it on ladder, and with that onto the team!
Teambuilding
So the idea for this team came about when I was talking about building teams for nul with my friend Luck O' The Irish since we both happened to make playoffs and he suggested LO sceptile + sub smash barbaracle. The idea with this core is you let sceptile die to a poison type like weezing. From there you go to barbaracle and sub as they try to wisp you, then smash and win. Sub isn't really a move that anyone runs on barb (or at least wasn't, I've started to see more people running since I made this team) so you generally had a very free sub vs most defensive mons that rely on status. At +2 +2 most teams in the current meta can't deal with barb, especially with a sub up, so you generally win from there.
After adding these two I instantly knew I wanted to use memento skuntank. It synergises well with the team serving as a semi answer to grass types but the main reason was because of how well it supports barb as a) you absorb t spikes which is crucial for a sweep and b) memento support makes it ridiculously easy to safely get smashes off in a lot of matchups, especially with sub.
Looking at the team now I was looking pretty weak to fighting types like yama and sawk and I had a bit of an issue with ground types like piloswine. For this reason I added defensive mesprit which I honestly think is one of the best rockers on the tier, especially on these bulky offense type teams and it's why you'll see me use it so much. A bulky pivot that sits in a nice speed tier, adds rocks, healing wish support and a switch in to the scary fighting types in the tier is so hard to pass up and fits really nicely here.
From here sd samurott was looking to be an issue if sceptile got weakened as well as steelix if it got in for free on mesprit. For this reason I added offensive spell tag rotom as it patched up a lot of defensive holes in it's ability to revenge kill a lot with it's great typing, nice speed tier, decent bulk and incredibly potent wisp hex volt switch combination. I feel like most good teams need a ghost type in this meta and rotom is just so good it's often very hard to pass up as it does what it does so well.
At this stage I was looking incredibly weak to magmortar and ice types like aurorus as barbaracle was my only resist for both those types which really doesn't want to be switching into very much at all if it wants to have a chance to sweep. On top of that I was looking pretty weak to ludicolo while swellow got a kill every time it came in and finally special combusken just walked through me. For this reason my last mon wasn't a very hard decision at all, hariyama. With av hariyama is an incredibly consistent special sponge that very rarely fails to make it onto my teams as it just does so much. It gives me an answer to everything I was having trouble with while being able to keep jynx in check with fake out + bp and knock everything off. Yama really holds this team together and fits the last slot very well as it keeps so much in check.
And with that I have the team! I haven't really looked back at all from this original squad and I can't really see anything that I would consider changing, nothing on the team has been lacking in any way and the 6 mons work together better then I could've imagined :D
After adding these two I instantly knew I wanted to use memento skuntank. It synergises well with the team serving as a semi answer to grass types but the main reason was because of how well it supports barb as a) you absorb t spikes which is crucial for a sweep and b) memento support makes it ridiculously easy to safely get smashes off in a lot of matchups, especially with sub.
Looking at the team now I was looking pretty weak to fighting types like yama and sawk and I had a bit of an issue with ground types like piloswine. For this reason I added defensive mesprit which I honestly think is one of the best rockers on the tier, especially on these bulky offense type teams and it's why you'll see me use it so much. A bulky pivot that sits in a nice speed tier, adds rocks, healing wish support and a switch in to the scary fighting types in the tier is so hard to pass up and fits really nicely here.
From here sd samurott was looking to be an issue if sceptile got weakened as well as steelix if it got in for free on mesprit. For this reason I added offensive spell tag rotom as it patched up a lot of defensive holes in it's ability to revenge kill a lot with it's great typing, nice speed tier, decent bulk and incredibly potent wisp hex volt switch combination. I feel like most good teams need a ghost type in this meta and rotom is just so good it's often very hard to pass up as it does what it does so well.
At this stage I was looking incredibly weak to magmortar and ice types like aurorus as barbaracle was my only resist for both those types which really doesn't want to be switching into very much at all if it wants to have a chance to sweep. On top of that I was looking pretty weak to ludicolo while swellow got a kill every time it came in and finally special combusken just walked through me. For this reason my last mon wasn't a very hard decision at all, hariyama. With av hariyama is an incredibly consistent special sponge that very rarely fails to make it onto my teams as it just does so much. It gives me an answer to everything I was having trouble with while being able to keep jynx in check with fake out + bp and knock everything off. Yama really holds this team together and fits the last slot very well as it keeps so much in check.
And with that I have the team! I haven't really looked back at all from this original squad and I can't really see anything that I would consider changing, nothing on the team has been lacking in any way and the 6 mons work together better then I could've imagined :D
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In-DepthBarbaracle @ White Herb
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 16 SpD / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Razor Shell
- Return
- Shell Smash
Disregarding the sub this set is very standard, in the current nu meta return + razor shell is incredible coverage as teams are relying on stuff like mantine and pelipper to act as their water resists on balance and on offense a lot teams are relying on stuff like sceptile and rotom to revenge kill them. Of course you still see the rare ferroseed but a lot of them drop gyro in favour of knock off + twave now so you actually beat them 1v1. Stall is pretty non existent so quagsire is a very rare sight and almost never seen in tournament play. All these factors have led to barb being a menace which a lot of teams just can't deal with no matter how well they play around it.
However substitute is what makes this set unique and it's the reason why I wanted to build around it. Sub lets you set up on a lot of mons that rely on toxic or will-o-wisp to stop barb from tearing through their team such as weezing and mawile. However it's the combination of sub + memento support that really makes this so good, this essentially lets you set up on every bulky mon that isn't a grass type and a large amount of offensive mons as well. White herb is an obvious choice since it lets me set up my sub again after setting up vs mons that need two attacks to break the sub (which is a lot of mons at -2). The 16 SpDef evs are there since it makes it easier to set up subs on a -2 lanturn's volt switch since you don't actually need any more speed then that as it lets you outpace scarf rotom at +2 anyway and that's the fastest scarfer you're gonna be outspeeding anyway unless you run jolly.
However substitute is what makes this set unique and it's the reason why I wanted to build around it. Sub lets you set up on a lot of mons that rely on toxic or will-o-wisp to stop barb from tearing through their team such as weezing and mawile. However it's the combination of sub + memento support that really makes this so good, this essentially lets you set up on every bulky mon that isn't a grass type and a large amount of offensive mons as well. White herb is an obvious choice since it lets me set up my sub again after setting up vs mons that need two attacks to break the sub (which is a lot of mons at -2). The 16 SpDef evs are there since it makes it easier to set up subs on a -2 lanturn's volt switch since you don't actually need any more speed then that as it lets you outpace scarf rotom at +2 anyway and that's the fastest scarfer you're gonna be outspeeding anyway unless you run jolly.
Sceptile @ Life Orb
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
The king of nu. I'm actually convinced sceptile is broken in nu and have thought this for a while, against offensive teams this mon is incredibly good as it's speed tier means that it can revenge kill so much and offense doesn't really carry switch ins, relying on either outspeeding it with stuff like swellow or using something like garb that can take a hit and kill it. But it's not just offense that if fucks over as it's difficult for balance to deal with it too, I usually lead with either this or rotom just because it puts on so much pressure right off the bat. The only reliable switch ins that I can think of are sliggoo and clefairy, both mediocre mons, as every other 'answer' lacks recovery and gets worn pretty easily throughout the game i.e yama dislikes switching in multiple times, rotom-fan hates coming in on rocks and weezing hates taking repeated giga drains due to sub-par special bulk.
I decided not to run leaf storm on this set as I feel like on this team there isn't really any move that I'd feel comfortable dropping, you could try it over eq but I really like eq so that you have to worry about poison types like skunk or fire types like mag, mainly skunk tho since I don't actually have any switch ins to that. For this team particularly the purpose scept serves is as a way to revenge kill some of the offensive threats that can get out of hand like samurott and kabutops while luring in weezing for barbaracle and just generally pressuring walls. Really there isn't much reason not to run sceptile rn
I decided not to run leaf storm on this set as I feel like on this team there isn't really any move that I'd feel comfortable dropping, you could try it over eq but I really like eq so that you have to worry about poison types like skunk or fire types like mag, mainly skunk tho since I don't actually have any switch ins to that. For this team particularly the purpose scept serves is as a way to revenge kill some of the offensive threats that can get out of hand like samurott and kabutops while luring in weezing for barbaracle and just generally pressuring walls. Really there isn't much reason not to run sceptile rn
Skuntank @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 204 Atk / 100 Def / 192 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Fire Blast
- Poison Jab
- Memento
Skuntank is a really nice mon since it can fill a lot of roles, the set I've gone with is quite an interesting one and I've been told a few times it's bad but its worked very well for me so far and that's good enough for me :D Skunk acts as my psychic answer being able to stop mush from being annoying while serving as a great switch in to all forms of mesprit. While I can still deal with these mons without skunk it just makes them much easier to handle as I don't have to worry about them sweeping me. Skunk also serves as my answer to audino, sceptile, lilligant. Most importantly though, other then checking various threats skuntank provides memento support for barb which is crucial and it's probably the reason why this team has been so successful. A lot of people just don't see memento coming and it makes for such easy set up for barb that I sometimes question how balanced it is lol
While the evs on this aren't exactly standard they're nothing special. With a shuca berry you can relatively easily take a leaf storm + eq from lo sceptile after rocks, on top of that you can healthily live a +2 eq from swords dance sceptile which otherwise is really scary for this team like it is for all offensive teams. Other then that the bulk is just generally helpful for helping check things like audino and mushy, the attack is pretty self explanatory, more attack = more damage. 12 speed is just so I don't tie with uninvested skunks.
Now with regard to the moves, obviously I need memento since that's the main reason I decided to use skunk. Sucker punch is pretty necessary since it's a strong priority that helps me deal with fast stuff that might get out of hand. P jab is a pretty important stab that beats down on audino and musharna. The one I've gotten questions about is the adamant fire blast skuntank, I actually find this set to be really effective since being walled by steelix is incredibly annoying but more importantly I need to get steelix to a range where it won't get back to full with lefties after switching in on rocks because otherwise barb can't sweep. Fire blast does a really good job of this as even with a -SpA nature it does 33% min to a SpDef steelix meaning that it will struggle to get up to full opening the way up for a barb sweep.
252 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 192 SpD Skuntank: 136-160 (39.1 - 46.1%) -- 25% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
4 Atk Life Orb Sceptile Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 100 Def Shuca Berry Skuntank: 100-118 (28.8 - 34%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252+ Atk Sceptile Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 100 Def Shuca Berry Skuntank: 217-256 (62.5 - 73.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0- SpA Skuntank Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 128+ SpD Steelix: 118-140 (33.3 - 39.5%) -- 46.1% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Mesprit @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Healing Wish
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- U-turn
Rotom @ Spell Tag
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball/Signal Beam
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
Hariyama @ Assault VestWhile the evs on this aren't exactly standard they're nothing special. With a shuca berry you can relatively easily take a leaf storm + eq from lo sceptile after rocks, on top of that you can healthily live a +2 eq from swords dance sceptile which otherwise is really scary for this team like it is for all offensive teams. Other then that the bulk is just generally helpful for helping check things like audino and mushy, the attack is pretty self explanatory, more attack = more damage. 12 speed is just so I don't tie with uninvested skunks.
Now with regard to the moves, obviously I need memento since that's the main reason I decided to use skunk. Sucker punch is pretty necessary since it's a strong priority that helps me deal with fast stuff that might get out of hand. P jab is a pretty important stab that beats down on audino and musharna. The one I've gotten questions about is the adamant fire blast skuntank, I actually find this set to be really effective since being walled by steelix is incredibly annoying but more importantly I need to get steelix to a range where it won't get back to full with lefties after switching in on rocks because otherwise barb can't sweep. Fire blast does a really good job of this as even with a -SpA nature it does 33% min to a SpDef steelix meaning that it will struggle to get up to full opening the way up for a barb sweep.
252 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 192 SpD Skuntank: 136-160 (39.1 - 46.1%) -- 25% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
4 Atk Life Orb Sceptile Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 100 Def Shuca Berry Skuntank: 100-118 (28.8 - 34%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252+ Atk Sceptile Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 100 Def Shuca Berry Skuntank: 217-256 (62.5 - 73.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0- SpA Skuntank Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 128+ SpD Steelix: 118-140 (33.3 - 39.5%) -- 46.1% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Mesprit @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Healing Wish
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- U-turn
Defensive mesprit is an amazing pivot on bulky offense teams, it gives me nearly everything I want in a rocker as it acts as a slow bulky pivot which can switch in on fighting types, has the ability to grab momentum with it's semi slow u-turns and finally provides amazing healing wish support which is a great addition to any team and it allows me to play a bit more recklessly with some pokes as I know I can just bring them back up later on in the match. Not being able to rock on xatu is a shame and mesprit can sometimes get worn down pretty easily due to lack of recovery and me opting to run colbur berry over leftovers. Like I said this is my answer to fighting type so colbur is pretty necessary and it also acts as my switch in to ground types like piloswine and poison types like weezing and vileplume. The moveset is pretty self explanatory with healing wish over twave as I don't feel like I need the speed control that much and healing wish is just so hard to pass up.
Rotom @ Spell Tag
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball/Signal Beam
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
Spell tag wisp hex rotom is one of my favourite mons in nu right now, it's amazing how it rips through balance teams with it's dual stab + burn combination. At the moment I feel like most teams need a ghost type just to deter ccs and rotom is easily the best of them. With it's great defensive typing and usable bulk it can switch into a lot of threats and put on tons of pressure and paired with healing wish it on it's own is often too much for some teams to deal with. While there are defensive answers to it like audino and semi answers like pyroar that fit on balance rotom can easily just volt switch around on them, weakening them for later. Signal beam can be run over shadow ball to help alleviate the malamar weakness but in general I prefer shadow ball as it's much more useful in most matchups an it lets me put pressure on camerupts and pick off weakened defensive mons like piloswine and garbodor as the difference between volt switch and spell tag boosted shadow ball is very significant.
While it's main purpose is to put on offensive pressure rotom's great typing give it some defensive use acting as a reliable switch in to steelix, primeape, garbodor and weezing while serving as a semi answer to tauros, archeops, scyther and hitmonchan. It also serves as a revenge killer for sd samurott or kabu and an answer to mesprit or musharna in case sceptile or skuntank get weakened. Finally it can be used to get off a last ditch wisp for stuff I don't really have an answer to like SD pinsir and SD mawile, even if they are both relatively uncommon.
While it's main purpose is to put on offensive pressure rotom's great typing give it some defensive use acting as a reliable switch in to steelix, primeape, garbodor and weezing while serving as a semi answer to tauros, archeops, scyther and hitmonchan. It also serves as a revenge killer for sd samurott or kabu and an answer to mesprit or musharna in case sceptile or skuntank get weakened. Finally it can be used to get off a last ditch wisp for stuff I don't really have an answer to like SD pinsir and SD mawile, even if they are both relatively uncommon.
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
- Bullet Punch
And finally we have the best mon in the tier, hariyama (I don't actually think it is but it's a really really solid sponge and an offensive answer to a lot of stuff that's hard to deal with, hence the reason why it makes it on to the majority of my teams). Hariyama is the glue that holds this team together. With it an av equipped yama gains insane special bulk due to the fact that it hits 429 hp without any investment and with thick fat it gains key resists to ice and fire, allowing it to serve as a switch in to aurorus, magmortar and pyroar which is very important as my only other ice and fire resist is barbaracle which really doesn't want to have to switch in on attacks if it's going to sweep. However yama doesn't just deal with the ice and fires as it can serve as a very general special sponge serving as an answer to swellow, which is usually a huge threat to offense and ludicolo which improves my rain matchup which is another playstyle that offensive teams generally struggle with heavily.
Not much to be said about this spread as it is incredibly standard, but incredibly consistent. Close combat and knock off are obligatory on pretty much every fighting type since it's very solid neutral coverage. I usually find fake out + bullet punch to be the best option as my second two as the priority is really nice but more importantly it lets me keep jynx in check which otherwise is a massive threat to this team.
While a fair people disagree with my opinions on yama and find it a bit passive and not really useful in a lot of matchups I strongly disagree as being able to fire off knock offs all day is really nice and having a nice pivot to a lot of the special threats is invaluable imo and it's why I really believe that yama is deserving of A+ in nu (or at least was, zard might mess that up).
Threat ListNot much to be said about this spread as it is incredibly standard, but incredibly consistent. Close combat and knock off are obligatory on pretty much every fighting type since it's very solid neutral coverage. I usually find fake out + bullet punch to be the best option as my second two as the priority is really nice but more importantly it lets me keep jynx in check which otherwise is a massive threat to this team.
While a fair people disagree with my opinions on yama and find it a bit passive and not really useful in a lot of matchups I strongly disagree as being able to fire off knock offs all day is really nice and having a nice pivot to a lot of the special threats is invaluable imo and it's why I really believe that yama is deserving of A+ in nu (or at least was, zard might mess that up).
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I've got a pretty good idea of everything that threatens this team but there isn't really a simple fix for most of these and from what I've tried changing the team to try and cater for these threats just makes me weaker to more stuff and makes the team worse in general. On top of that a lot of the threats that I struggle with are either strong wallbreakers that most teams struggle to find an answer to or they're very uncommon stuff that you won't run into very often. Just bear in mind that it's impossible to have an answer to everything especially with a more offensive team so please take that into consideration when looking over the team.
Going in order of biggest threats to the team taking into consideration both commonness and threat level.
Malamar: Malamar is definitely the biggest threat to this team as I really don't have any answer to it so when the opponent has it I know i'm gonna be in for a rough ride and need to get lucky with sleep talk rolls if I'm going to beat it. Thankfully the only thing it can properly set up on is yama and it needs to come in after a down so usually my course of action is going straight to rotom before it gets any boosts. From there I wisp and just continually click hex pretty much sacking rotom as, unless they get the first sleep turn knock off they will be well under 50%, from there I can revenge kill it pretty easily. Don't think I explained that too well so here are some replays showcasing it
If the malamar knocks off rotom when u burn it - http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/nu-328290789
If the malamar rests after you burn it - http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/nu-328292195
If they do roll knock off on the first sleep turn mesprit can revenge it with u-turn assuming it has no boosts and you don't get some really shitty rolls.
However that scenario there is assuming that you're able to keep rotom pretty healthy and that they don't predict you on the switch (no one ever does that tho). Really malamar is just something that i've accepted being very weak to as I couldn't see a way around it that didn't make my team much worse. If you're really worried about it two options are 1) putting signal beam over shadow ball on rotom but I'm really reluctant to do that as it's really nice being able to pressure camerupts with spell tag shadow ball and being able to pick off weakened garbs, piloswines and stuff like that as the power difference between spell tag shadow ball and volt switch is very significant. Option number 2) is to replace u-turn with signal beam on mesprit but I'm even more reluctant to do this as dropping u-turn makes the team flow so much worse and stops mesprit from grabbing momentum. Healing wish is something that i'm definitely not dropping as it makes this team so much easier to use knowing that I can bring back my mons at a later date, not having to worry about lo hits or toxic damage racking up. Overall malamar is a huge threat but if it's played right it can be dealt with.
Rotom: Rotom is annoying, like it is to most teams. My team doesn't really have anything to take burns as I run shuca skunk over lum which means rotom can pretty freely fire off wisps on the majority of the team. Usually I have to let sceptile take the burn against it as while it doesn't like being burnt, it can deal with the damage and I can healing wish it back up later. Pretty annoying mon but it can definitely be dealt with, I'd say the most annoying set to face is the sub lefties discharge one but thankfully that's not too common.
Rhydon: Defensive rhydon isn't too much of an issue but sd rock polish rhydon can be annoying. Fortunately it can only set up on mesprit which is fine as I can freely u-turn out on it and in to yama. Unfortunately if yama is at less then 67% then I have to use up my healing wish on it, once mesprit goes down it can't set up on anything although it does force skuntank to use it's memento. If you do let it set up both boosts you pretty much click the x but generally the only way that should happen is if you miss or misplay horribly.
Jynx: Jynx is pretty scary as it's faster then 5/6 and nothing stops it from putting something to sleep. Thankfully because it's jynx it also can't switch in on anything which means that it's only going to be putting on pressure after a down in which case I normally go skuntank then pivot right out to yama which can threatens it with fake out + bp. Pretty scary mon to deal with but the rocks weakness and the fact that it can't threaten me with lead sash due to yama makes it manageable.
Pinsir: Sd pinsir is pretty threatening to me, especially if it's lum, thankfully it's pretty scarce and the lum variant is even more scarce. Like a lot the threats it doesn't really set up on too much making it easier to handle but if it does manage to get +2 you have to sack rotom to get a suicide burn off. If it's lum skuntank can take a +2 eq after rocks up (+2 lo kills) and take it out with a fire blast + sucker but it will have left a massive dent in your team. An alternate way of beating it when it's +2 lum is memento-ing it with skunk and then smashing with barb if their team is sufficiently weakened.
Ninetales: Shuca ninetales is probably the single biggest threat to this team but thankfully, no one uses it! (Idk why it's really good). The problem with running hariyama as my fire resist is that a lot of my teams get run over by ninetales due to its nasty plot + psyshock combination. It can setup with relative ease on mesprit and rotom if necessary, with a shuca berry it can eat up sceptile's earthquake taking around 36% and kill that off meaning that my means of revenge killing dies. From there I have to go skuntank and sucker punch but by this stage I've already lost two key mons to it and am put in a very bad spot. Other variants of ninetales are annoying but sceptile can revenge them which is nice.
If the malamar knocks off rotom when u burn it - http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/nu-328290789
If the malamar rests after you burn it - http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/nu-328292195
If they do roll knock off on the first sleep turn mesprit can revenge it with u-turn assuming it has no boosts and you don't get some really shitty rolls.
However that scenario there is assuming that you're able to keep rotom pretty healthy and that they don't predict you on the switch (no one ever does that tho). Really malamar is just something that i've accepted being very weak to as I couldn't see a way around it that didn't make my team much worse. If you're really worried about it two options are 1) putting signal beam over shadow ball on rotom but I'm really reluctant to do that as it's really nice being able to pressure camerupts with spell tag shadow ball and being able to pick off weakened garbs, piloswines and stuff like that as the power difference between spell tag shadow ball and volt switch is very significant. Option number 2) is to replace u-turn with signal beam on mesprit but I'm even more reluctant to do this as dropping u-turn makes the team flow so much worse and stops mesprit from grabbing momentum. Healing wish is something that i'm definitely not dropping as it makes this team so much easier to use knowing that I can bring back my mons at a later date, not having to worry about lo hits or toxic damage racking up. Overall malamar is a huge threat but if it's played right it can be dealt with.
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Conclusion
I'll keep this short since I doubt you want to read any more. With the time I've spent using it this team has been incredibly fun to use and has shown itself to be very consistent throughout it's tour use. There's not much more that I want to say but I felt weird without giving this a formal ending, I don't expect too much in terms of rates since I feel like this team is as good as it can be but any advice is definitely appreciated! Thanks to everyone who's put up with me and spent the time to read this and thanks to Disjunction for putting up with me, I know it killed you to see me bring this every round ;]
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-109689 - NUL vs Galbia
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-110374 - NUL vs Waters (1)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-115266 - NUL vs Can-eh-dian
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-116863 - NUL vs Davon
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-118615 - NUL vs Waters (2)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-110374 - NUL vs Waters (1)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-115266 - NUL vs Can-eh-dian
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-116863 - NUL vs Davon
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-118615 - NUL vs Waters (2)
Barbaracle @ White Herb
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 16 SpD / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Razor Shell
- Return
- Shell Smash
Sceptile @ Life Orb
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
Skuntank @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 204 Atk / 100 Def / 192 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Fire Blast
- Poison Jab
- Memento
Mesprit @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Healing Wish
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- U-turn
Rotom @ Spell Tag
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
- Bullet Punch
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 16 SpD / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Razor Shell
- Return
- Shell Smash
Sceptile @ Life Orb
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
Skuntank @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 204 Atk / 100 Def / 192 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Fire Blast
- Poison Jab
- Memento
Mesprit @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Healing Wish
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- U-turn
Rotom @ Spell Tag
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
- Bullet Punch
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