(NU) the best of the forgotten ones (peaked at #1)

[SuperPascal]

Hello everyone! As most of you knows, NU was released a few days ago on smogon's PO server and just like in 4th gen, it's a lot of fun. I quickly made a team consisting of what I thought was the best of the forgotten and never used pokémon. After some minor changes, this team won every battle (except one :P (hello Doodle)) and quickly got the #1 spot on the ladder. So, without any furder ado, here's the team!

The forgotten ones​

Sawk (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Toxic
Sawk is usually my lead because most people try to put stealth rock first turn and I don't want any entry hazards to break sturdy. He also hit hard most stealth rock users. Anyways, Sawk is an offensive powerhouse who can create some holes on the opponent's team early on in the match and give me some advantages. Choice Band give him max power and is prefered over life orb because it would break sturdy. The moveset is fairly straightfoward except for Toxic which is there for things like Sableye who think they can switch in freely.

Mesprit @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
Mesprit, the forgotten Pixie, is my defensive wall and stealth rock user. It's main job is to check dangerous physical sweepers and spread paralysis with thunder wave. I had ice beam before instead of thunderbolt but this gave me a big Klingklang weakness so that's why I am now using Thunderbolt. Overwall, definately a key member to my team.

Rotom-S @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Confuse Ray
- Substitute
- Air Slash
Rotom-S's goal is to be the team's special wall as well as being an annoying paraconfusion flincher. The combination of twave, confuse ray and air slash gives to Rotom a lot of free turns to set up sub and simply haxes its opponents to death. This set worked great in RU and it's even better in NU. This set can also help setting up others members of my team by giving them some free turns.

Klinklang @ Leftovers
Trait: Plus
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Shift Gear
- Gear Grind
- Return
The most important member. Substitute let it deal with Sableye and other status inducers as they switch in to cripple you. Shift Gear let you outspeed max speed Swellow (who can't really touch you anyways) after one turn of setup with no speed investment. Finally, Gear Grind and return offers pretty good coverage down there in NU. The only pokémon resisting this combination are the few steel types in NU like Magneton, opposing Klingklang, Metang, Mawile and Wormadam-S.

Swellow (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Quick Attack
- Facade
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
Swellow, one of the fastest threat in this new NU metagame can destroy just about any pokémon that are not steel or rock types. Unfortunately Stealth rock and toxic also put a counter on him. That's why I need to use him at the right time. Thankfully, u-turn can be used to gain the better matchup early on in the match when stealth rock are not up.

Gorebyss (F) @ White Herb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SAtk / 208 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Shell Smash
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power (Grass)
This explosive fish (I wonder how she uses shell smash) is often my last way out when the rest of my team falls apart. I only need one turn of setup and then she can easily sweep a weakened team outspeeding Swellow and everything slower. I originally had baton pass over hp grass but I don't really have any baton pass recipient so I decided to put hp grass to deal with Poliwrath and opposing Gorebyss better. I am considering changing white herb for a lum berry.

Counters to this team​

The main counters to this team are phazers, steel types and electric types. Magneton is one the biggest treat since only Sawk can easily deal with it and I have no electric resist. Gorebyss can also cause me some trouble after a boost. Thankfully, Rotom-S can take a +2 ice beam and paralyzes with thunder wave.


If you have any suggestion to improve this team, please reply. I am looking forward to see whre the NU tier is going. Thanks for reading :D

 

[Choice Socks]

I remember this team. It is very good I must say.
The only counter I can think of, you've already mentioned. How to you handle Magneton being run with Sableye? Sawk being you're only pokemon capable of taking down Mag, is victim to Sableye

Perhaps run Braviary over Swellow? A scarf set running superpower will enable you to catch magenton on the switch and still have the power to walk over teams when spamming bravebird. Sableye is still a threat, but I have a feeling he will be banned from Ru very soon, so will be bannished from NU too.

 

[SuperPascal]

thanks for the reply choice Socks,
I think the best way to take care of Magneton and Sableye is to shell smash with Gorebyss and then OHKO both of them. Of course, that's hard to do since both of them won't let me a turn of setup but it can be manageable late game.

Also, if I have Sawk against Magneton and my opponent has a sableye, I will easily predict the switch and either go for a choice banded earthquake or toxic which cripple Sableye for the rest of the match. I will try to keep Sawk alive until Magneton is down.

 

[Yeah Galo Sengan]

If you dont want to smashpass and consider it cheap, run hp electric/grass over bp on gorebyss.

 

[Darkoness21]

If you dont want to smashpass and consider it cheap, run hp electric/grass over bp on gorebyss.

I agree with replacing Baton Pass for Hidden Power but there is no doubt that Hidden Power Grass is a better option over Hidden Power Electric because you want to hit pokemon such as Quagsire and Seismitoad.

 

[Xephyr]

I really think the decently common Scarf Gardevoir could tear this team up a bit, since everyone besides Rotom is killed by its common moves (Psychic, Shadow Ball, Focus Blast). I really think people are overrating Swellow's usefulness, considering Eviolite Rhydon and Magnetons and the like are all over the place due to their abilities to set up rocks and counter Klinklang, respectively. Swellow is really a wasted teamslot that kills like one thing and then just dies immediately. I really think Sneasel would work better actually, because even though no one uses him, he's one of the best revenge killers in the tier. Altaria? Swellow? Gardevoir? Slowking? All of them fall to some attack from CB Sneasel. It opens you up to Sawk a little bit more but Mesprit and Rotom should be able to handle him without too much trouble. Besides, Scarf Sawk was beating your Swellow anyway.

 

[asterat]

On sawk, i have had extreme success with O bulky IVS and reverssal

 

[SuperPascal]

@Gungnir86 and Darkoness21 Thanks for the replies!
Yeah I will do that eventually. It's funny how smashpass was once a suspect in UU and now all the smashpass users are in NU!

@Xephyr
I have battled scarf Gardevoir before and I never had trouble with her since she's lock in a move! It can be problematic if she tricks my Rotom but nothing too serious.

Like I previously said about Swellow, you need to use him at the right time. You can't just throw him in the middle of a game and expects him to destroy everything. If I bring Swellow early in the game, it's usually to u-turn on its counter to gain momentum.

Your CB Sneasel is quite interesting. Like you said, it can open up a path to a fighting type sweep. Unfortunately, I really can't change any of my guys for him. I will make sure to use this strategy on another team however. Thanks!

@Regirock
Reversal is a great move on Sawk but it needs rapid spin support with a choice set. Still, thanks for the reply

 

[Molk]

Hey SuperPascal, congrats on the new peak.

while i havent really gotten into NU yet, I do not see much wrong with this team
(except rotom-s with its double immunity, freakin black magic) If anything i would say
That you may want to run quick attack over u-turn on swellow for revenging. but other than that this team seems good.

 

[asterat]

How do you deal with kangaskhan

 

[King John]

I never got why Sawk never made it to OU. It runs an excellent Choice band set....

Anyway. great team you have here. You have a minor Kangaskhan issue, but it's not all that crippling.

 

[BLINGAS]

I never got why Sawk never made it to OU. It runs an excellent Choice band set....

Anyway. great team you have here. You have a minor Kangaskhan issue, but it's not all that crippling.

Why would Sawk be OU. its terrible. Pretty decent team except for magneton + misdreavus can practically wall the whole team outside of gorebyss. Which only does 80% from +2 to a 252/200 magneton

 

[verbatim]

Sawk has the same attack as Heracross and slightly worse speed, it'd be in Heracross's place if not for Heracross's dual typing and access to Megahorn.

 

[jake]

Sawk has the same attack as Heracross and slightly worse speed, it'd be in Heracross's place if not for Heracross's dual typing and access to Megahorn.

Guts is also a huge boon for Heracross.

 

[SuperPascal]

How do you deal with kangaskhan

Surprisingly enough, I have not encontered any Kangsaskhan yet. If I battle one, I will preobably try to overwelm it with my strongest attackers. Also, most of my guys can take a hit from him anyways (but fake out is annoying for Sawk).

On another note, Sableye is out of NU :D I didn't had too much problem with it but it was still a great counter to Sawk.

 

[SuperPascal]

It's a great day for this team. Magneton is moving up to RU this month.! That means Klingklang and Swellow will have an easier time sweeping. :)

Edit: Unfortunately, Magneton will not go up until probably January or December :(

 

[SuperPascal]

Here's a good example of this team in action: http://pokemon.aesoft.org/replay-NU-eyes-vs-SuperPascal--13-novembre-2011-at-14h23-1