TEAM SELENA GOMEZ (Peaked #2 on UU leaderboard/1719 cre)

[Folgorio]

Team SELENA GOMEZ​

INTRODUCTION:

Yo guys thanks for clicking (and hopefully reading) my very first rmt! This was basically the first team I have made in a couple of months since my return to shoddy/smogon, so I was determined to understand the new metagame which was very slightly different from the one I left and make a good team for it. The team, like many others of this time, was based around raikou seeing as he is an awesome sweeper and how easy it is to decimate his counters with the use of dugtrio. Anyway like the title said it peaked at #2 and 1719 cre. I sadly stopped laddering due to my cre rising too slowly and me getting impatient after a while. Oh and I want to dedicate this team to Selena Gomez because she’s hot as fuck and waaaay hotter than stupid Taylor Swift. And obviously also because that’s the alt I laddered on. Anyway here’s the team:




TEAM:

Hariyama @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk/164 Def/92 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Payback
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Ice Punch

This lead I actually heard of from thunf so credits go to him really. Anyway hariyama does his job fantastically. He 2hkos the huge majority of all commonly used leads, and most importantly only allows lass to get 1 layer of spikes in. Not only this, but he acts as a tremendous weapon against stall, since he can 2hko everything in it bar spiritomb. Hariyama also has a very important role on the team as one of my only counters to curse umbreon. He is also ridiculously useful for status absorbing. He’s a bulky fuck and can really take a hit from nearly everything and KO back. I honestly think this is the best lead at the moment so I’m glad to have used him. The moveset is pretty simple; close combat for a powerful stab, payback for ghosts and psychics, bullet punch for priority, and ice punch for more coverage (nidoroyals, claydol, torterra).

Torterra @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 8 HP/252 Atk/248 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Wood Hammer
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

TORTERRA: Now I chose torterra after seeing a ridiculous weakness to rhyperior on my team. I soon noticed that this was probably the most underrated sweeper in UU. The amount of things torterra can get an RP on is incredible. After an RP he reaches enough speed to outpace omastar and gorebyss in the rain, and obviously enough for all non-scarfed commonly used pokes. He’s arguably my safest switch in to bulky waters like Milotic and Slowking too. He also gives my team a very nice set of useful resistances including rock, ground (sadly my only resist) and electric. The moveset is pretty self-explanatory; wood hammer (which is godly with overgrow) and earthquake are high powered stabs, rock polish is my set up move, and rock slide for coverage. The reason I chose rock slide over stone edge is b/c besides stone edge’s ability to fail you when you most need it, the things you are going to be hitting with stone edge (Moltres, scyther, swellow, and altaria) are all OHKOd with rock slide bar altaria (occasionally).

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP/156 Def/100 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Surf
- Psychic
- Slack Off

SLOWKING: Here we have slowbro’s often forgotten brother. The biggest difference between them is slowking’s significantly higher spD stat while slowbro has a much higher def stat. This spD is very crucial when countering stuff like moltres and mixken, which is why I chose slowking over his slightly cooler looking cousin. Even with his lower defense stat he can still effectively counter most fighting types and fire types though. I’m using the standard slowking set, with his stabs (surf/psychic) for unresisted coverage except against another slowking/bro, slack off for recovery and t-wave for the ever useful paralysis support. A bulky water is probably irreplaceable in this metagame and necessary for a team’s success and slowking does his job admirably.

Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/104 Def/152 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Head/ice punch
- Earthquake/seismic toss
- Thunder Wave

REGISTEEL: LOL I love that pic so much. Anyway Registeel is here to complete the infamous regibro (I guess regiking…w/e sounds cooler imo) combination and ultimately my defensive core. The amount of things registeel can do is absolutely awesome and makes him one of my favorite pokemon in the tier. He brings stealth rock onto the battlefield for my team and counters a ridiculous amount of threats (raikou, altaria, venusaur, leafeon, lantern, sceptile, scyther, spiritomb [sometimes], swellow etc.). Obviously countering ALL of these threats makes him super weak when the time comes to counter something else so I have to try to keep him as healthy as possible. I’m using the standard registeel spread except with the atk evs shifted into defense for maximum bulk. The rest of his set includes t-wave, which as I mentioned earlier is awesome, iron head/ice punch, and EQ/seismic toss. Now I never really decided which one was really better though I did try out both so I never really figured on which one to use. My team is pretty weak to both torterra and to a lesser extent mismagius so I changed it often.

Raikou @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Extrasensory
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind
- Hidden Power [Ice]

RAIKOU: By far the coolest looking of the 3 legendary dogs, raikou is here to function as a terrific end game sweeper. He can set up on a huge amount of things and after a few calm minds VERY few things can stop his rampage outside of priority/scarfers. I chose the LO set because it was actually recommended to me by whistle and also b/c I liked the additional coverage I got from not using substitute. The evs are pretty obvious max spA and speed for sweeping. Now the moveset was something I had sort of a tough time figuring out, specifically the hidden power I’d use. I decided eventually on using hp ice over water for a few reasons. First of all I’ve always thought that the amount of usage of leafeon/sceptile/torterra was much larger than that of steelix/rhyperior (I don’t really know however I’m just speculating off of experience). Second of all I’ve always had duggy to trap (and at least hurt) rhyperior and steelix. If raikou gets his counters taken out by dugtrio and I can set up its usually game over for the opponent.

Dugtrio @ Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 42 HP/252 Atk/216 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Beat Up
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch

DUGGY: Ok let me start off by saying that if I had to choose an mvp, it would most likely be duggy. He is a ridiculously important role on the team as without him this team wouldn’t probably work. Thanks to arena trap, if I can get a safe switch on stuff I can probably 2hko it. Valuable stuff I can trap and kill/cripple include: chansey, registeel, steelix, stall arcanine, NP toxicroak, lantern, blaziken, venusaur, alakazam, raikou, aggron, and rhyperior. Obviously duggy can’t OHKO most of those, but all duggy needs to due is lower their hp to 40% and raikou and take it from there. The Ev’s are probably not the most effective ones as this spread works much better with CB. I lose to all other duggy’s at the cost of some bulk, which can really help me by taking stuff like registeel’s ice punch and vacuum waves from toxicroak and blaziken. Speaking of CB, I find this set to be 100% better than the CB one. Honestly I don’t understand how some people like the CB one over LO. Anyway the moveset includes beat up, which is basically a chansey killer. It will do ~80% if I have 3 healthy members and prevents me from getting stalled out by wish+protect. Earthquake is for stab and helps me hit a lot of raikou’s counters for SE damage. Stone edge is here for the quakeedge combo and lets me hit gay stuff like moltres, swellow, scyther and levitators in general. Sucker punch is terrific on duggy since priority is always nice especially a dark one.


THREAT LIST:

GAhhh this thing is a homo. It can set up on like half my team. My only real hope is that either hariyama is healthy and if that doesn’t work (usually won’t) I’ll sack my own torterra for the recoil and killing it in the process.

Rotom is another homo. He beats easily a lot of my team, both sub charge variants and rest talk ones. Hariyama can take it out as can raikou I guess.

Ok this is BY FAR the biggest ass for my team to face. Seriously if you use this thing against my team and DON’T get like 3 kills with it, you are doing something VERY wrong. All versions except megahornless versions decimate the team. I can just hope to wear it down and use torterra for those stupid EQs and SE’s. Very hard to beat.


So that’s the team. BEFORE I FORGET I want to thank whistle as he helped me plenty with this team and laddered with it for a while too and offered me useful feedback. Anyway that’s the team so rate/hate/steal/criticize/insult w/e. THANKS FOR READING!!!!

 

[Alan]

bullet punch for stab

Not STAB on Hariyama, I'm assuming you meant priority. :(

Anywho, you could try running HP Water (yes hidden power water) on Raikou, OHKO's Rhyperior, should do a sizeable amount of damage to Torterra, and has really good overall coverage. Other than that, I can't spot much. Grats on #2.

 

[Folgorio]

Not STAB on Hariyama, I'm assuming you meant priority. :(

Anywho, you could try running HP Water (yes hidden power water) on Raikou, OHKO's Rhyperior, should do a sizeable amount of damage to Torterra, and has really good overall coverage. Other than that, I can't spot much. Grats on #2.

Yeah sorry i meant priority lol...ill go fix that.

Anyway I actually used hp water when i first used Kou but i eventually found ice to be more useful, especially since steelix is nearly nonexistant and even then ice still hits rhyperior SE. Plus both of them can be seriously weakened or killed by duggy. Thanks for the rate ^^

 

[Conflict]

Honestly for what purpose are you running Extrasensory on Raikou? All you hit with it got killed anyways by an Electric/Ice-Combination.
I suggest to use a better move instead. Some useful moves:
Roar - for scouting incoming counters and a win garanty against an opposing booster.
Magnet Rise - for fooling Dugtrio....
Reflect - you can set up against more stuff and survives against Dugtrio.
Rest - for fooling Chansey.
Shadow Ball - obviously for Rotom, it hits harder then Extrasensory....
Signal Beam - handles Grass and Psychic-Types (Venusaur to some extent) nicely, so you are free to use HP{Water}/{Grass}.

Because you are handling Chansey quite nicely and your Raikou havent enough Bulk to use Roar effectivly i highly recommmend to use Reflect/Signal Beam or maybe Magnet Rise/Shadow Ball over Extrasensory.

Also i dont get why are you running Thunderwave on Registeel? Most of his switch-Ins are grounded (Donphan, Rhyperior, Torterra) so i think Toxic, Explosion, Rest, or a Hidden Power (his Atk-Stat is as high as his SpA-Stat so you can fool some opponents with {Ice}/[Grass}/etc.) fit better.
Maybe something like SR, {Ice}, Shadow Claw, Seismic Toss/EQ....
Just try some combinations and figure the best for you out.

Unfortunately i cant think of a way for you to handle your teams threats better without tearing apart your whole team.
Although Dugtrio/Registeel are Set-Up-Bait for these threats you are relying heavily on them to handle other threats so they are irreplacebale. Just try to work your way around them - so far it seems like you can do it.

Congrats to 2nd place on the ladder.

I hope i could help you and excuse my bad english (no native speaker).

 

[Brass]

A pretty epic team for sure. There is always the HP water vs Ice on Raikou
BTW love Selena Gomez; then agian who doesn't

Conflict: Extrasensory helps agianst Venusaur specifically and the three attacks are the whole point of an offensive kou

 

[Conflict]

Conflict: Extrasensory helps agianst Venusaur specifically and the three attacks are the whole point of an offensive kou

With {Water} i am totally supporting you, but not with Ice.
+1 LO Extrasensory vs. SD-Venusaur: 103.7% - 122.3%
+1 LO {Ice} vs. Venusaur: 90.4% - 107%
{Ice} is an OHko with SR, which i just assume to be there.

Against Support Venusaur both moves are only an 2hko (with SR) - so no difference.

So insted of wasting a move for 1 Poke which hardly doesnt make any difference at all you can instead use something with a wider area of application.

 

[Nas]

Nice team as everybody has said, and well done with the (near) success you've had with it. =P Regarding the pokemon that give your team trouble, I'd say there isn't much you can do without ruining the synergy the team has except maybe using defensive Torterra over RP. With a spread of 212 Hp/252 Def/44 Spe and and Impish nature he serves as a great counter to opposing Torterra and SubCharge Rotom, and it can even take a Megahorn from Rhyperior if needed. I'd use a set of Earthquake/Wood Hammer and either Roar/Synthesis, Leech Seed/Protect, or Leech Seed/Synthesis. I know the lack of offense hurts, but the three pokemon in your threat list are relatively common and they can create huge holes in your team, so in the long run it'll be worth it.

 

[franky]

Sup Folgs ▲,

What the fuck man no credit given for suggesting Lefties > LO being the superior option on Torterra? Just joking. Anyways, having using this team the only evident problem I found was Venusaur. It can seriously screw you over (ones who are intelligent enough to Power Whip before Sleep Powder) With this I suggest CB Dugtrio over LO Dugtrio. Not only does this allow you to swiftly deal with Venusaur even at p. high health, this also lets you hit Steelix and Registeel, to name a few for harder damage. I know you won't take my advice anyways since you pretty much oppose the idea of using CB, lol.

My other advice is going for Synthesis over rock Polish since you pretty much need it at this point to aid your Rhyperior weakness. Synthesis keeps you mint so that Rhyperior will never beat you in a matter of turns (seriously EQ like 3-4 times is going to hurt). Though, this would look similar to my team then.

As for other options, Shadow Ball over Extrasensory might be a cool idea. Honestly, I was toying around with this in tandem with HP ice and its been working like a charm. Shadow Ball allows you to hit stupid Rotom who is a p. big threat to your team. (Especially Sub Wow versions). overall gl. 5 stars boy.

 

[PK Gaming]

I actually worked up a huge post but it was somehow deleted... (grr)

anywho to summarize, here are some idea's that can help alleviate some Torterra problems:

Change your Registeel's Iron Head into Ice Punch. You can't OHKO, but you gain the ability to severely cripple the opponents Torterra if they switch in. Missy is SLIGHTLY harder to beat but still maneagable.

Seismic toss over Earthquake is much better. Sure you can now *hurt* Raikou, but stripping off around 25-30% on Registeel switch in's is pretty awesome. EQ is just to weak (outside of hitting Raikou)

With this I suggest CB Dugtrio over LO Dugtrio. Not only does this allow you to swiftly deal with Venusaur even at p. high health, this also lets you hit Steelix and Registeel, to name a few for harder damage. I know you won't take my advice anyways since you pretty much oppose the idea of using CB, lol.

My other advice is going for Synthesis over rock Polish since you pretty much need it at this point to aid your Rhyperior weakness. Synthesis keeps you mint so that Rhyperior will never beat you in a matter of turns (seriously EQ like 3-4 times is going to hurt). Though, this would look similar to my team then.

I second these. CB Duggy is a lot more powerful than standard Duggy, and you have pokemon to cover switchins that might abuse locked EQ's. (Moltres-Slowking etc)

As for other options, Shadow Ball over Extrasensory might be a cool idea. Honestly, I was toying around with this in tandem with HP ice and its been working like a charm. Shadow Ball allows you to hit stupid Rotom who is a p. big threat to your team. (Especially Sub Wow versions). overall gl. 5 stars boy.

I don't know... Extra Sensory 2HKO's, and I'd much rather have HP Water so I can screw over Rhyperior who think they tank my shots. To each one's own.

Fantastic team btw.

 

[Folgorio]

@ Conflict: ok honestly I agree with most of what you said, but the truth is extrasensory was mostly filler. Ive tried using shadowl ball but the end result was basically the same. Anyway I'm rather curious on magnet rise and reflect so I'll test those out aswell. Thanks for the rate!

@ RT: wow dude itried out your suggestion and I mustsay I was incredibly surprised. It worked fantastically! It was a tremendously cool physical wall. He also helped me fix all 3 of my biggest weakness. On the other hand, now the team feels very stallish... Anyway thanks for the rate I am SERIOUSLY considering leaving the current set (defensive). Thanks for the rate!!!

@ Franky: haha sorry about forgetting to include you in the lefties thing :) anyway I took your and rt's suggestion of a more bulky torty and it worked very well to my surprise. Anyway I'm sorry guys but you CANNOT make me use cb duggy; I don't see the need for it since it's not like in missing out on any ko's and the amount of free switches cb duggy gives is disgusting. Thanks for the rate ^^

@ pk gaming: On the rmt I have ice punch/ seismic toss slashed in with eq/ iron head. I used both extensively and seismic toss was really really good. Ice punch on the other hand failed me, especially since my own torterra counters the to versions so I'm undecided on what to do... Also read my thoughts on cb duggy above. Anyway thanks for the rate !!!

 

[Aircraft Cemetery]

Hello,

First of all, congratulations for this great team and its success.
As this team doesn't really need much improvement, there are only a few minor nitpicks I'd like to mention.

First, I like the idea of a defensive Torterra set over your Rock Polisher, as it will really check the threats mentioned above better.

On Registeel I would consider using Toxic over Thunderwave as Slowking already provides you with TWave and Toxic could be a great asset to your team. Also it will cripple the likes of Donphan, Torterra, Claydol and co, who like to switch into Regi but won't mind TWave at all. For your moves I would probably stick with Iron Head+EQ most of the time.

For Raikou Calm Mind and TBolt are obvious. But choosing from many different moves available, which also deal quite the same amount of damage is hard. Extrasensory is basically used to hit Venusaur in case one uses HP Grass or Water on Raikou. With HP Ice ESensory's main target will be hit for SE damage anyway, so its utility is considerably lower. The only pokemon you will use it against will be Hariyama, because the remaining Fighting and Poison types in UU will also be koed by Thunderbolt at +1. As you need HP Ice, I would opt for Shadow Ball in the 4th slot. This will solve your Rotom problems and will allow you to ohko annoying Uxie and Mesprit, who try to TWave you.

Aside from that I don't see anything you should change.
Good Luck !