My 2nd RMT (NU) - Altaria Lover

[Chronai]

Hello everyone, my name is Chronai (at least it is to everyone on the Internet), and today I've come to these forums looking for any help I can get on a NU Team that I've recently made and am currently trying out. Without further ado, let's get right into this.

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How did I create my team?
First off, I've really had an urge to try out Altaria in NU, because she's adorable and also relatively bulky. So I knew I had Altaria down as a team member from the very start.

Current Team:
-Altaria

Next, I also wanted to try out Prankster Liepard, because I've been getting Prankster Purrloin quite often lately on Showdown, and it's worked amazingly as the ultimate troll. And since Altaria resists Liepard's weaknesses, I decided to use Liepard as well.

Current Team:
-Altaria
-Liepard

Since I already had a Special Wall (Altaria), I wanted to Physical one as well. On top of that, I wanted a Physical wall that could hit hard as well. I found that Musharna fit this bill nicely. However, being more of a wall than an actual Special attacker, I decided my Special attacker would be Combusken, since after a couple Speed Boosts, nothing could really outspeed it.

Current Team:
-Altaria
-Liepard
-Musharna
-Combusken

Next, I needed some Physical Pokes. I needed a Choice Band user, and I noticed Braviary works pretty well with my team, since it is very fast and capable of OHKOing or 2HKOing most NU Pokes with a Choice Band. And lastly, I needed a really fast Physical sweeper, but still felt I needed a Water type, so I picked Floatzel to fit this.

And so, here is my team:

Fluffy (Altaria) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Roar
- Heal Bell

Altaria is my Special Wall. Since Dragon types already resist so many types, Altaria's Special bulk only helps to tank hits, phaze out sweepers, and heal the rest of my team. I went with Roar over Perish Song because Roar immediately gets threats out of my sight, as opposed to having to wait for the next turn for them to switch. I could have went with Toxic, and may end up trying it out, but I usually leave my Liepard to wearing down opponents.

Altaria's main weakness is Stealth Rocks. While I don't have a Rapid Spinner, I'll usually lead with my biggest threat to my opponent's Stealth Rocker, forcing them out. Keeping Stealth Rocks out of the equation helps Altaria live much longer.

El Pollo Loco (Combusken) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Protect
- Substitute

Combusken is my Special "Sweeper" of sorts. While I know Combusken doesn't have the greatest Special Attack in the world, Protect and Substitute help prolong his life. I start with a Protect to get one Speed Boost up, then I can either Substitute to scout for opposing moves, or use one of my own. I went with Life Orb over anything else to get an extra bit of power out of my attacking moves, since I'm not using Specs or anything.

Combusken's largest threat would definitely be bulky Water or Psychic types, such as Alomomola or Musharna. He really can't do anything to those. I have Liepard to counter Musharna, and since Alomomola doesn't usually carry Ice Beam, Altaria can come in and take pretty much anything Alomomola can do, since she has the Natural Cure ability.

Fetus (Musharna) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight
- Psychic
- Signal Beam

Musharna is my Physical Wall and another Special Attacker on my team. Musharna can counter fighting types like Sawk all day long, and either set up a Calm Mind to attempt a sweep, or just go straight for the Psychic. Moonlight is there for healing, and helps prolong Musharna's stay. I could have used Heal Bell over Signal Beam, but since Altaria already has the Heal Bell, I went with Signal Beam for coverage.

Musharna's biggest threats are definitely dark types like Absol and Skuntank, or bulky Ghost types like Misdreavus. Because of the relatively low speed of those Pokes (other than Misdreavus), either Braviary or Floatzel can come in and KO with their strong Physical moves (particularly Superpower on Braviary). Combusken can also come in and get a Speed Boost up and use Focus Blast to scare Absol off.


Amurica (Braviary) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Return
- Superpower
- U-turn

Braviary is my Physical Sweeper. With a Choice Band, almost nothing can come in and live for more than 2 turns. The combination of Brave Bird, Return, and Superpower is nearly unresisted if I can get the correct prediction. Even Regirock can't come in without the possibility of being 2HKOed by Superpower.

Braviary's biggest weaknesses would be Stealth Rocks and very strong Physical walls, such as Regirock, Probopass, or even Musharna, who can take a Superpower or Brave Bird and either hit back with a Rock type move or heal up to nullify any damage taken. Stealth Rocks dramatically decrease Braviary's survivability, meaning he can only switch in a maximum of 4 times before dying.

Troll Face (Liepard) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Thunder Wave
- Swagger
- Foul Play
- Substitute

As I said earlier, I discovered this set on Purrloin during Random Battles I had on Pokemon Showdown, and it is an amazing trolling set. With Liepard's very high speed, and priority Substitute, Thunder Wave, and Swagger, Liepard can really deal some damage to an opponent if they get bad luck. If I'm able to get up a Substitute after the opponent hits themselves in confusion, I can really deal some damage with Foul Play. Add to this some Paralysis, and the opponent is really in trouble if they stay in.

Pretty much any fighting type or Physical Wall can come and end Liepard with one, possibly two hits if they get minimum damage or something. Also, faster Pokemon, such as Cinccino, can come in and ruin Liepard with a Skill Link Tail Slap. However, those Pokemon run the risk of getting hit with a priority Thunder Wave.

Flotation Device (Floatzel) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Water Veil
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Ice Punch

Last up is Floatzel. I'll usually use Floatzel as a late-game sweeper of sorts, since I can usually get a Bulk Up up and then sweep because of Floatzel's nearly unrivaled base 115 speed. The Jolly nature makes sure I can outspeed nearly everything, and the Life Orb paired with Bulk Up makes Floatzel very physically powerful.

Floatzel does have quite a few downsides, however. Faster Pokemon (mostly Choice Scarf users) can come and take Floatzel down quite easily. Pokemon such as Zebstrika or Cinccino can come in and take down Floatzel since they're faster and have super-effective moves. Also, Physical Walls such as Alomomola or Tangela can come in and tank Floatzel's hits all day long, even an Ice Punch on Tangela.

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with this team so far. Prankster Liepard gives me a lot of laughs, and I love using Altaria, since she is so awesome. Obviously this team has flaws, and that is why I am coming to these great forums to get help from all of you great people. Any help with movesets/Pokemon would be greatly appreciated, and I thank you all for taking the time to read this.

 

[ium]

hey there. i would love to give a full set of suggestions for this team, but unfortunately i can't really do so without changing too many things around. this team doesn't look like it can perform well at all in this current metagame, or even the pre-snow warning one either.

I've come to these forums looking for any help I can get on a NU Team that I've recently made and am currently trying out.

this is not a positive sign of a good RMT. found in the rules here, this is what is expected of anyone who posts an RMT:

Play with your team before putting it up for rate. We as a community cannot emphasize this enough. No one wants to rate the team that you freshly created while eating breakfast or the gimmick you randomly put together. We as a community want teams that have been battle tested so that the obvious flaws have been hammered out.

also, as far as i'm aware, you already have an RMT open from not too long ago? you need to be aware of this then:

You are only permitted to have one active RMT thread open at any given time. Don't post a new team every week, wait some time before posting another RMT. Ideally you should post a new RMT after two weeks from your last team's post.

i'll help you out a little though.

aside from being weak to ice-types (floatzel and combusken aren't exactly bulky), you lack good checks to fast normal- and flying-types. to add even more to that, offensive rain dance ludicolo and most water-types will give you a great deal of trouble. in addition, not having a stealth rock user also means that you're allowing the likes of charizard and ice-types to run rampant when you have extremely shaky checks to them. for the most part, all your team can do is paralyze them while everything on your team aside from musharna is easily OHKO'd by a majority of these things.

consider running a rock- and/or steel-type of sorts that can set up stealth rock for you while keeping normal- and flying-types such as swellow and choiced braviary in check. probopass or bastiodon may be good options because they fulfill these roles while also having a neat resistance to ice-types.

next, musharna has lost a lot of usefulness ever since snow warning snover was allowed in NU. moonlight doesn't recover 50% hp in hail, so musharna would automatically be disadvantaged should you face a hail team. i would suggest using duosion instead. it performs pretty much the same role without having its recovery move hindered by hail (and rain), but it also does not care about toxic-stalling walrein and stuff like alomomola.

braviary does not need sheer force either; use defiant. it has very situational uses but it is much better than sheer force which boosts none of your moves.

of course, this isn't a complete rate, but these are just a few notes to steer you in the right direction.

for people, including myself, to actually give you substantial rates, you should thoroughly test the team first so that you can work out the major flaws (mostly the ones i pointed out above). and next time, please refrain from posting RMTs too frequently.