Nihilego is one of my favorite pokemon, and last time I tried building with it (with mega doom) nihi ultimately limited the potential the team could have. (s/o to Viv for the quality rate ^^). This time around, I decided to build around a core that I submitted for Break This Team— protect Nihilego and Colbur celebi. I originally liked the thought of making nihi Z to surprise opponents, since celebi is assumed to have the Z typically, but soon into testing I didn’t like the lack of power outside of Z and I thought black sludge with protect would be good. Thank u, next was chosen because it’s a fucking BOP and this team has been through many changes featuring different cores and ideas, but went back to the beginning. Also I’m writing this RMT on my phone bc 8 hour road trip so sorry if quality isn’t that great lmao.
Team building process
These two at first glance seem, quite frankly, bad to build around. Scarf Krook, Z lati, shark, are all threats to the core, however the fast dark types are all handled by Colbur celebi pretty nicely. Celebi can also defeat bulky grounds for Nihilego easily, though I wouldn’t drop grass knot on nihi because of that. The big flaw with these two together as-is was how neither of them could hit scizor very hard. But that’s what teammates are for, right?
Cobalion has stuck around with most variants of the team, typically rocky helmet. It could seriously dent scizor, and was a solid bullet punch resist. Cobalion’s great ability justified discourages Krookodile from just spamming knock off, and being locked into EQ is nice for celebi. And of course, Cobalion meant I had the “required steel” for the team.
Frequently when I’m building, I end up having a bad matchup against primarina. Grass coverage may be more frequent but I think the water absorb gives a solid reason to use them. It can also synergize well with protect Nihilego because of it. Cobalion and celebi are grass resists while Nihilego has a nice sDef stat, and thus can take most grass coverage.
Hydreigon is soooo good and can run a variety of sets. Hydrei on this team serves as a hardback hitter with LO, while being consistent hazard removal. I’ve tried out scarf, but the power and more consistent removal has been cool. I’ve thought about making it an odd Z set, and make Cobalion back to rocky helmet and improve the scizor matchup but I’m unsure on how to execute this well.
3 attack Mega Altaria is one of my favorite sets for it, as it’s a nice answer for :clanger: (Kommo-o). While I’m running a roost hydreigon set, it being worn down is always a risk, and it’s nice to have an additional krook/shark answer should I want to save celebi’s berry or Cobalion is worn down. Altaria once mega evolved provided me a fairy type to counter Dangerous dragons in general. All in all, the set is nice for everything besides rotom-h (which is stopped by seismitoad consistent with how little hp grass is ran) and Moltres (shut down by Nihilego and this Cobalion).
The team/set analysis
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 80 HP / 176 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Grass Knot
- Thunderbolt
- Sludge Wave
As mentioned in the teambuilding process, hydreigon is not scarfed, meaning I have no formal speed control (though this hasn’t been an issue). Thus, I determined that a cleaning spread would be a convenient option. Nihilego hasn’t really gotten any clean ups by the virtue of the speed beast boost since the 1300s, but I still consider it a good pick for the team as it is.
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psychic
- Giga Drain
- Nasty Plot
Celebi is an absolute menace against fatter squads, and still is without the ground coverage or z. Giga drain gives it staying power, psychic is the standard strong STAB, and dazzling gleam is to take advantage of taking a dark pulse from hydreigon (scarfed) better. I haven’t experimented with other items on celebi due to the interest in using the Colbur Berry set, but something different may synergize with nihilego better, idk. I believe hidden power fighting over dazzling gleam on celebi could be viable, but again I haven’t tested this.
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
Cobalion isn’t hard to fit on teams, tbh I’m surprised it isn’t A+, and it has been a consistent member as mentioned earlier. It helps remove the need for z on nihilego, as well as the lack of earth power on celebi. Swords dance is an essential move on Cobalion to take advantage of its typing and break shit. Stone edge I put on a version of the team that had nihilego a z user and thus had less longevity, and couldn’t check Moltres as well.
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
Seismitoad is forgotten a lot but the water immunity is very threatening when paired with protect nihilego. Not beating suicune when you’re immune to water is depressing but celebi has that covered. The other members at this point handle typical grass coverage well, so the x4 weakness wasn’t going to be an issue.
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Roost
- Defog
Hydreigon is incredibly versatile, and with how flexible it ends up on a lot of my teams. I haven’t tried out using Z crystals on hydreigon for this team, but the basic life orb has been good for the power. Clearing hazards is manadatory for any successful team (albeit not so much on teams where they can pressure the enemy into doing it for them).
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Atk / 44 Def / 4 SpA / 124 SpD / 16 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Body Slam
The EV’s here are wacky but they hit nice benchmarks. S/o to Twilight for the spread, used their RMT. The HP and Def investment is for surviving a Bullet Punch from a CB Scizor after SR. The Atk investment reaches 3 important benchmarks— one being to guarantee the OHKO with Body Slam on Latias after SR. The second was to guarantee 2OHKO Specs Primarina with Body Slam (Assuming you get the para on switch-in) and the third to 2OHKO Tentacruel with Earthquake (based on the Smogon ev set not the one on the calculator). The 4 SpA investment with a Relaxed nature means you guarantee 2OHKO Z-move Celebi. The SpD investment means you can eat a Sludge Wave from non Life Orb / Expert Belt Nihilego after rocks as well as always survive a Corkscrew Crash from Hydreigon from full.
Threats
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-832090115 (versus semi stall from the Teambuilding Lab)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-832136130 (against offense, pretty standard one outside of the special shark)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-832219718 Synergy
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-832136130 (against offense, pretty standard one outside of the special shark)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-832219718 Synergy
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the team! I think it’s a lot more solid compared to my first RMT :P I’ll probably increase the description lengths when I get rest, and improve the general a e s t h e t i c.
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