B2/W2 NU Team

I have spent the last few hours devising this team for NU. In NU, there are so many things to choose from it made this very hard for me. Bu I did it, so here it is!


Cacturne @ Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Role: Physical Sweeper
-Swords Dance
-Seed Bomb
-Sucker Punch
-Drain Punch

When I was first thinking of making a team, I decided on using a Dark/Ghost core due to perfect synergy. Therefore, here's the first half. Just your standard SD Cacturne. Seed Bomb for STAB, Sucker Punch for second STAB and priority, and Drain Punch for coverage and to heal off Life Orb recoil. Standard physical sweeping EV spread.


Lampent @ Eviolite
Nature: Modest
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Spd
Role: Special Sweeper / Spinblocker
-Pain Split
-Fire Blast
-Shadow Ball
-Energy Ball

The second half of my offensive core. Lampent provides near perfect coverage for Cacturne and can take some hits because of Eviolite. Fire Blast and Shadow Ball for STAB, Energy Ball for coverage, and Pain Split is for semi-reliable recovery.


Wartortle @ Eviolite
Nature: Bold
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Sp. Def
Role: Physical Wall / Spinner
-Scald
-Rapid Spin
-Haze
-Foresight

I had Cacture and Lampent, might as well get that Fire/Water/Grass core going. Rapid Spin to spin away hazards (especially Stealth Rock for Lampent), Scald to do some damage (especially in Torrent range) and to hopefully get burns on stuff. Haze is for stopping setup sweepers in their tracks, and Foresight so Wartortle can't be stopped from spinning by a Ghost-type. Wartortle is weak to Electric and Grass, both of which are primarily special. Therefore, it made sense to max out Defense as I don't want it taking those moves.


Wigglytuff @ Leftovers
Nature: Careful
Ability: Cute Charm
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Sp. Def
Role: Special Wall / Stealth Rocker
-Stealth Rock
-Wish
-Protect
-Seismic Toss

In NU, most of the Stealth Rockers there are Steel and/or Rock, which hurts this team's defensive synergy. However, Wigglytuff, a Normal-type with only one weakness fits right in as Lampent can take hits for it. Stealth Rock is the most important/best move in the game, gotta have it. Wish because this needs good, reliable recovery, Protect so Wigglytuff can heal itself, and Seismic Toss for consistent damage and so it isn't Taunt bait.


Eelektross @ Expert Belt/Leftovers
Nature: Rash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 212 Sp. Atk / 44 Spd
Role: Mixed Attacker / Cleanup (sort of)
-Wild Charge
-Flamethrower
-Giga Drain
-Drain Punch

Great attacking stats at both ends of the spectrum, decent bulk, a moveOCEAN, and no weakness. Eelektross can fit onto almost any team, and it certainly fits on mine. As opposed to being a special sweeper or a physical Coil set, I decided to take a mixed approach. Wild Charge is there for a powerful STAB and Flamethrower for coverage against Grass and Steel-types. Giga Drain and Drain Punch are there both for coverage and so Eelektross can heal off Wild Charge recoil from the physical and special sides.


Swalot @ Black Sludge
Nature: Bold
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 Sp. Def
Role: Mixed Wall / Toxic Spikes Absorber
-Encore
-Yawn
-Sludge Bomb
-Pain Split

Let me tell you right now. This thing's ANNOYING! It can phaze you out by locking you into a move with Encore or by using Yawn so your Pokemon doesn't fall asleep. Sludge Bomb is for STAB and the 30% poison chance is very nice. Pain Split is to ensure it never dies.

So here you go! Look at it and tell me what you think of it. There aare some problems with this team. One of which is that nothing here is very fast, meaning I'll be taking a lot of hits. If someone can help out with that, much appreciated.​
 

Celever

i am town
is a Community Contributor
This is a very interesting team, using new pokemon and new strategies. However like you said, there are some problems with the team, the one being, like you said, is that it is so slow. I need to just say something though, how are you using yawn on swalot? Yawn should be used to try and force switches, not to put pokemon to sleep. The other problem with that though, is that there is no reason your Swalot set would want the switch. Another problem is that it has encore, which can be used well, but Swalot is too slow to use the move that well. While it may work once, once again making them switch, which Swalot does not need, your move is now in the open and the opponent shouldn't fall for it again. I can see what you are trying to do with swalot, but I think Liepard should be used over him. Liepard is very fast, getting rid of the problem of slowness for your team (at least reducing the blow) but the fact that it has prankster basically does what Swalot does - but better and faster. Not only this, but your slow team can be benefited from this even more since Liepard has prankster thunder wave, making it so that your team can outspeed the paralyzed pokemon Liepard set;
Liepard @ leftovers
-Encore
-Swagger
-Thunder wave
-Foul play
EVs, 252 HP, 252 sp def/def, 4 atk.

Basically you just need to paralyze the opponent, cripple him with encore and then paralyze the switch. It should make 2 pokemon a lot more in-effective against your team, especially if you manage it on a ludicolo or another fast mon such as that.

Eelektross is fine for the most part, but do you really need 2 HP regaining moves? Also if you just go on either physical attack or special then you can have more speed investment, as Eelektross' attack is higher, I suggest adding crunch over giga drain by the looks of things your pokemon has trouble with musharna and gardevoir anyway once cacturne is out of the way, and most teams with psychic types run a gurdurr or something to get rid of the annoying dark types - that, or the psychics run hidden power bug. It's more of a last resort kind of thing as you need a back-up for the common psychics. You can keep flamethrower though, as Eelektross' physical movepool is fairly small, tbh. It could also be an idea, though, for fire punch over flamethrower if you want to go all-out physical. This once again helps the slowness of your team.

Wigglytuff is a very nice, rare set. I can see your reasoning and right now see no reason to change it.

I'll be honest, I have always hated wartortle. It is a nfe that is only good at spinning away hazards. But your set really is different, it has haze which is a nice touch and even foresight for the spin-block switchers and spin-blockers as a whole. Its a nice set that you shouldn't really change.

On lampent, you should replace fire blast with flamethrower I think. However, since it is your only special sweeper, you could keep fire blast for the powah if you think it better. Just put on a hidden power of what you think counters your team the best or just something SE on pokemon that scare lampent. I let you pick this time, since you know what you have trouble with better than I do of course.

Cacturne is good.

To recap:
Swalot --> Liepard
Liepard set:
Liepard @ leftovers
-Encore
-Swagger
-Thunder wave
-Foul play
EVs, 252 HP, 252 sp def/def, 4 atk.

Giga drain & flamethrower Eelektross --> Fire punch (possibly) and crunch Eelektross

Scald wartortle --> Surf wartortle

Pain split & fire blast lampent --> Hidden power of your choice & flamethrower Lampent


Have fun and good luck with the team!! :D
 
The team is pretty interesting.

With Elektross, you run now a mixed set. This has obviously both advantages and disadvantages and with Elektross you can go fully physical and fully special as well. I disagree with Celever about Elektross; this set does quite well at what it does, and is very hard to wall, especially as the two most common physical walls are hit extremely hard by Giga Drain (Alomomola) and Flamethrower (Tangela) respectively, whereas most special walls, like Probopass, don't appreciate Drain Punch.
Expert Belt is probably the best item since you have two attacking moves that provide recovery anyway.

Wartortle should never run Surf; it's SpA is pathetic so the burn chance is more valuable that the minor extra damage that would deal.

Talking about Expert Belt, this team is weak to Expert Belt versions of the most common NU Pokémon, Sawk, which can outspeed and hit your entire team for super-effective damage if it runs the correct moves, and even if it does not, it can still OHKO five members of your team (Wartortle walls it though, but that might not be enough especially if Sawk runs Knock Off).
A Kadabra would mitigate this problem as it can revenge kill Sawk with ease, provided Sawk's Sturdy isn't active, but even then, Sash Kadabra wins.

To do so, and to fill the gaps which come if I replace one of your Pokémon, I would run Coil Arbok of Cacturne (so you still have a Toxic Spikes absorber, and have another Fighting resist (note that Arbok is still weak to Earthquake, STAB or not)), and Kadabra instead of Swalot.

Arbok @ Black Sludge
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Coil
-Gunk Shot
-Earthquake
-Sucker Punch

Kadabra @ Focus Sash
Nature: Modest
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IV's: 0 Atk
-Psychic
-Shadow Ball
-Hidden Power [Fighting]
-Encore


Note that Kadabra has big trouble switching in despite immunity to hazard- and status damage, because so many attacks threaten to KO it or bring it down to its Sash, meaning priority can kill Kadabra off with ease. Kadabra is extremely frail, physically it has not any more bulk as Pikachu, so keep that in mind.
I suggested Shadow Ball + HP Fighting since Skunk survives a HP Ground from Kadabra with ease and can proceed to kill Kadabra if it has a free switch in (either on Psychic, either because Kadabra killed something) even if Kadabra has Sash intact (Crunch + Sucker Punch).

Another option, is to replace Wartortle with Weezing, Swalot with the aforemented Kadabra while keeping Cacturne, but this would leave you weaker to Toxic Spikes, and since Weezing does not have Sucker Punch, Gardevoir and Kadabra have more switch-in oppertunities.
 

WhiteDMist

Path>Goal
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
If you've only just made this team, I wouldn't post it. Most players spend quite some time working out the kinks of their team until they personally can't find anything else they can do, which is where the raters come in. You should also put some depth of information into the descriptions, since everyone here already know what the moves you have do. I'll give you a small rate regardless, but keep that in mind next time please.

Instead of Energy Ball, you really should try Substitute on Lampent. The coverage isn't that useful when you are forced to switch out by opposing Water-types regardless, and you also have Cacturne for Grass-type coverage. Substitute gives you a buffer against status and also protects you from an attack. Eventually, you''ll be able to Pain Split a massive amount of HP from your opponent as well, so you should really take advantage of that.

Eelektross doesn't work to its fullest potential when its using both offensive stats. You lose a lot of significant bulk that way, and it doesn't really help your coverage much at all. With your team, I think the Special variant is the way to go since you really like a slow Volt Switch to let Cacturne start its set up.

I see no real reason to use Swalot. It is hardly a wall, and even Encore and Yawn aren't exactly enough. With its low Speed and average bulk, it is easily replaced by many different options. Garbodor is a pretty useful option for this slot because it does a lot of what Swalot wants to do, while still being able to set up hazards to make your life much easier. While it can take on Sawk's Close Combat, Earthquake from a Banded Sawk can take out most of your team. Wartortle and Cacturne are hardly reliable answers to it, so another option for Swalot's slot can be a Pivot Musharna. You don't have as many answers to Skuntank as I would expect, but the pivot set can Thunder Wave it on the switch and Baton Pass right out. Stopping so many attackers on its own is a great benefit for your team as well, since you don't deal with Psychic types very well, especially the ones that use Substitute.

Changes:

Lampent: Substitute>Energy Ball
Eelektross: Special>Mixed
Garbodor OR Musharna>Swalot

Eelektross @ Leftovers/Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Giga Drain
- Flamethrower
- Thunderbolt/Acid Spray

Garbodor @ Black Sludge
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Gunk Shot
- Rock Blast/Toxic Spikes
- Pain Split/Toxic Spikes/Clear Smog

Musharna @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Moonlight
- Baton Pass/Heal Bell


Edit: @Aasgier: Cacturne doesn't not suck. It is a very powerful threat with its massive base Atk, powerful priority, Swords Dance, and Spikes. Also, GSP, Arbok doesn't suck either; it is a pretty good anti-meta Pokemon with its great defensive typing and offensive coverage.
 
This is a very interesting team, using new pokemon and new strategies. However like you said, there are some problems with the team, the one being, like you said, is that it is so slow. I need to just say something though, how are you using yawn on swalot? Yawn should be used to try and force switches, not to put pokemon to sleep. The other problem with that though, is that there is no reason your Swalot set would want the switch. Another problem is that it has encore, which can be used well, but Swalot is too slow to use the move that well. While it may work once, once again making them switch, which Swalot does not need, your move is now in the open and the opponent shouldn't fall for it again. I can see what you are trying to do with swalot, but I think Liepard should be used over him. Liepard is very fast, getting rid of the problem of slowness for your team (at least reducing the blow) but the fact that it has prankster basically does what Swalot does - but better and faster. Not only this, but your slow team can be benefited from this even more since Liepard has prankster thunder wave, making it so that your team can outspeed the paralyzed pokemon Liepard set;
Liepard @ leftovers
-Encore
-Swagger
-Thunder wave
-Foul play
EVs, 252 HP, 252 sp def/def, 4 atk.

Basically you just need to paralyze the opponent, cripple him with encore and then paralyze the switch. It should make 2 pokemon a lot more in-effective against your team, especially if you manage it on a ludicolo or another fast mon such as that.

Eelektross is fine for the most part, but do you really need 2 HP regaining moves? Also if you just go on either physical attack or special then you can have more speed investment, as Eelektross' attack is higher, I suggest adding crunch over giga drain by the looks of things your pokemon has trouble with musharna and gardevoir anyway once cacturne is out of the way, and most teams with psychic types run a gurdurr or something to get rid of the annoying dark types - that, or the psychics run hidden power bug. It's more of a last resort kind of thing as you need a back-up for the common psychics. You can keep flamethrower though, as Eelektross' physical movepool is fairly small, tbh. It could also be an idea, though, for fire punch over flamethrower if you want to go all-out physical. This once again helps the slowness of your team.

Wigglytuff is a very nice, rare set. I can see your reasoning and right now see no reason to change it.

I'll be honest, I have always hated wartortle. It is a nfe that is only good at spinning away hazards. But your set really is different, it has haze which is a nice touch and even foresight for the spin-block switchers and spin-blockers as a whole. Its a nice set that you shouldn't really change.

On lampent, you should replace fire blast with flamethrower I think. However, since it is your only special sweeper, you could keep fire blast for the powah if you think it better. Just put on a hidden power of what you think counters your team the best or just something SE on pokemon that scare lampent. I let you pick this time, since you know what you have trouble with better than I do of course.

Cacturne is good.

To recap:
Swalot --> Liepard
Liepard set:
Liepard @ leftovers
-Encore
-Swagger
-Thunder wave
-Foul play
EVs, 252 HP, 252 sp def/def, 4 atk.

Giga drain & flamethrower Eelektross --> Fire punch (possibly) and crunch Eelektross

Scald wartortle --> Surf wartortle

Pain split & fire blast lampent --> Hidden power of your choice & flamethrower Lampent


Have fun and good luck with the team!! :D
Thank you for your rate, however I don't think adding Liepard will make my team better as it'll just add another Fighting weakness to my team. So if Lampent goes down, Sawk will have a field day. Swalot can at least take a few Close Combats and use Yawn.

I use 2 HP-regaining moves because no matter what Eelektross' up against, it'll be able to heal itself up if it's HP gets too low. Crunch is an option though and I JUST might put Crunch on it.

Surf on Wartortle is terrible. It's Special Attack isn't all that great and the burn is much better than the slight power boost.

Lampent is meant to be a special sweeper, so Fire Blast and I might forego using Hidden Power for Substitute.
The team is pretty interesting.

With Elektross, you run now a mixed set. This has obviously both advantages and disadvantages and with Elektross you can go fully physical and fully special as well. I disagree with Celever about Elektross; this set does quite well at what it does, and is very hard to wall, especially as the two most common physical walls are hit extremely hard by Giga Drain (Alomomola) and Flamethrower (Tangela) respectively, whereas most special walls, like Probopass, don't appreciate Drain Punch.
Expert Belt is probably the best item since you have two attacking moves that provide recovery anyway.

Wartortle should never run Surf; it's SpA is pathetic so the burn chance is more valuable that the minor extra damage that would deal.

Talking about Expert Belt, this team is weak to Expert Belt versions of the most common NU Pokémon, Sawk, which can outspeed and hit your entire team for super-effective damage if it runs the correct moves, and even if it does not, it can still OHKO five members of your team (Wartortle walls it though, but that might not be enough especially if Sawk runs Knock Off).
A Kadabra would mitigate this problem as it can revenge kill Sawk with ease, provided Sawk's Sturdy isn't active, but even then, Sash Kadabra wins.

To do so, and to fill the gaps which come if I replace one of your Pokémon, I would run Coil Arbok of Cacturne (so you still have a Toxic Spikes absorber, and have another Fighting resist (note that Arbok is still weak to Earthquake, STAB or not)), and Kadabra instead of Swalot.

Arbok @ Black Sludge
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Coil
-Gunk Shot
-Earthquake
-Sucker Punch

Kadabra @ Focus Sash
Nature: Modest
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IV's: 0 Atk
-Psychic
-Shadow Ball
-Hidden Power [Fighting]
-Encore


Note that Kadabra has big trouble switching in despite immunity to hazard- and status damage, because so many attacks threaten to KO it or bring it down to its Sash, meaning priority can kill Kadabra off with ease. Kadabra is extremely frail, physically it has not any more bulk as Pikachu, so keep that in mind.
I suggested Shadow Ball + HP Fighting since Skunk survives a HP Ground from Kadabra with ease and can proceed to kill Kadabra if it has a free switch in (either on Psychic, either because Kadabra killed something) even if Kadabra has Sash intact (Crunch + Sucker Punch).

Another option, is to replace Wartortle with Weezing, Swalot with the aforemented Kadabra while keeping Cacturne, but this would leave you weaker to Toxic Spikes, and since Weezing does not have Sucker Punch, Gardevoir and Kadabra have more switch-in oppertunities.
Thanks for the rate. I really wouldn't use Arbok. It generally sucks and doesn't really do much for this team except Intimidate (but on this offensive set, Shed Skin is better). Though I just might use it so Cacturne isn't the only one with priority on this team.

Also, yeah, Kadabra's far too frail to take any hits and would get easily KOed while only taking out 1 or 2 Pokemon.

Weezing can be a pretty good replacement for Swalot, but I think Swalot's average defenses on both ends outweighs Weezing great Defense and lousy Special Defense. Also yeah I would like a grounded Poison-type. Toxic Spikes hurt this team a lot and I would like them out of the way.
If you've only just made this team, I wouldn't post it. Most players spend quite some time working out the kinks of their team until they personally can't find anything else they can do, which is where the raters come in. You should also put some depth of information into the descriptions, since everyone here already know what the moves you have do. I'll give you a small rate regardless, but keep that in mind next time please.

Instead of Energy Ball, you really should try Substitute on Lampent. The coverage isn't that useful when you are forced to switch out by opposing Water-types regardless, and you also have Cacturne for Grass-type coverage. Substitute gives you a buffer against status and also protects you from an attack. Eventually, you''ll be able to Pain Split a massive amount of HP from your opponent as well, so you should really take advantage of that.

Eelektross doesn't work to its fullest potential when its using both offensive stats. You lose a lot of significant bulk that way, and it doesn't really help your coverage much at all. With your team, I think the Special variant is the way to go since you really like a slow Volt Switch to let Cacturne start its set up.

I see no real reason to use Swalot. It is hardly a wall, and even Encore and Yawn aren't exactly enough. With its low Speed and average bulk, it is easily replaced by many different options. Garbodor is a pretty useful option for this slot because it does a lot of what Swalot wants to do, while still being able to set up hazards to make your life much easier. While it can take on Sawk's Close Combat, Earthquake from a Banded Sawk can take out most of your team. Wartortle and Cacturne are hardly reliable answers to it, so another option for Swalot's slot can be a Pivot Musharna. You don't have as many answers to Skuntank as I would expect, but the pivot set can Thunder Wave it on the switch and Baton Pass right out. Stopping so many attackers on its own is a great benefit for your team as well, since you don't deal with Psychic types very well, especially the ones that use Substitute.

Changes:

Lampent: Substitute>Energy Ball
Eelektross: Special>Mixed
Garbodor OR Musharna>Swalot

Eelektross @ Leftovers/Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Giga Drain
- Flamethrower
- Thunderbolt/Acid Spray

Garbodor @ Black Sludge
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Gunk Shot
- Rock Blast/Toxic Spikes
- Pain Split/Toxic Spikes/Clear Smog

Musharna @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Moonlight
- Baton Pass/Heal Bell
Thanks for the rate. I actually made this team about a week and a half ago, so I should probably change that starting sentence. Also, sorry about the descriptions. I wrote on a day my brain was fried and I was tired, I was actually planning on changing them today.

Anyway, yeah I had a feeling Sub would be better on Lampent. Most bulky Water-types in NU can take an Energy Ball and retaliate.

I like Special Elektross, but I don't think it fits well on this team because it does what other things on this team can do better and it takes the ease off Cacturne and Lampent. I was actually thinking of switching to a more bulky Physically attacking set.

And Garbador over Swalot. I sort of forgot this thing was around. If I remembered, I most likely would've chosen it over Swalot.
 
Arbok doesn't suck more than Cacturne and Swalot. Cacturne sucks, pretty much. An annoying load of weaknesses to pretty much every common attacking type and lousy speed hurt it. Arbok at least has more speed to fall back on, better typing (and hitting Psychic types who intend on KO'ing it with Sucker Punch).

Arbok + Swalot or Arbok + Cacturne on the same team however, is not a good idea, which is why I suggested Kadabra in the place for the other teammate.

About Physical Eelektross: Misdreavus laughs at it.
 
Arbok doesn't suck more than Cacturne and Swalot. Cacturne sucks, pretty much. An annoying load of weaknesses to pretty much every common attacking type and lousy speed hurt it. Arbok at least has more speed to fall back on, better typing (and hitting Psychic types who intend on KO'ing it with Sucker Punch).

Arbok + Swalot or Arbok + Cacturne on the same team however, is not a good idea, which is why I suggested Kadabra in the place for the other teammate.

About Physical Eelektross: Misdreavus laughs at it.
That's what I was getting at. I would like to keep Cacurne, Lampent, and Wartortle. The other 3 can be interchanged. Kadabra could make a good teammate, but like we both said, it's too frail. However, I think it's worth giving a shot.
 

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