Cloud Coverage

[Nexas]

Hello, Nexas here. I am very much new to competitive battling, but I heard friends talking about Pokemon Online while I was tinkering around on Black version and decided to check it out. Of course, not wanting to look like a complete idiot, I stumbled upon Smogon in my quest to become a Pokemon Master make a halfway decent team. Much of what I put together is just based on personal theory (i.e. stuff that I hope works) and what little I've read across the internet.

Team

Team at a Glance

Team Building Process​

As I read about competitive battling, I saw that weather teams had become quite the fuss, something that I hadn't really considered much. Therefore, I decided that instead of waging a weather war, I would instead opt to find a way to soft counter the early impact of weather. Compared to Golduck and Altaria, Lickilicky has impressive bulk and a movepool that gives it great coverage against conventional weather openers.

Of course, Lickilicky's bulk could easily be overwhelmed by a Fighting-type Pokemon, and given their prevalence that was not something I needed to cover. Enter Starmie. I happened upon Eggbert's Dark Horse team and decided to give this a go. Providing the necessary Fighting resist, Starmie also spins away entry hazards and provides some good coverage against Sandstorm and Rain teams, the dominant weathers of the meta.

This Quagsire was found in TriNitroToluene, thanks to Drezza Laa (or whomever else inspired the idea). It provides ample coverage against physical or status-enhancing threats, acting as one of my few defensively-minded Pokemon. I like it because unlike normal stalling, this feels more like sneaky sweeping.

Reuniclus. I found that I was missing out on ways to counter Special threats, and with great coverage and Recover, Reuniclus proves itself to be that much needed bulk that can stand against those enemies while still dishing out the damage. The fact that it plays Trick Room teams at their own game is icing.

Conkeldurr fills a similar role to Reuniclus, but physically. Its ability to deliver strong Fighting attacks with either priority or a healing component as well as some needed dark coverage are nice additions to the team.

Given the popularity of Sandstorm teams, I wanted something that provided itself a bonus in their 'storm while at the same time still being a good counter to a lot of other nonsense. While Excadrill was my original choice, I decided to utilize Garchomp instead for the Grass coverage it provides as well as its own powerful STAB moves.

Individually

Lickilicky @Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 192 SpDef / 64 Def
Ability: Cloud Nine
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Power Whip

The anti-weather, making for a decent lead and otherwise providing decent coverage all around. He can open on Politoed, Tyranitar, and Ninetails with super-effective coverage while ticking away at their Leftovers with Toxic. Protect helps maintain its sizable weight while ticking away at the adversary.

Starmie @Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin

Starmie borrowed from The Dark Horse. I replaced Thunderbolt with Thunder: if I'm worried about weather I may as well have a Pokemon that can abuse the rain just as well as they can. Rapid Spin stays of course, as it helps me keep rocks and spikes clear.

Quagsire @Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Stockpile
- Recover
- Swagger
- Scald

TriNitroToluene's Quagsire, point for point. I couldn't find any way to improve it, personally. I am considering replacing Scald with Surf to provide more immediate damage if need be, but I think that is more appropriately covered with Starmie's Hydro Pump, while Scald and Swagger could provide two layers of indirect damage (Burn and Confusion).

Reuniclus @Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Sp. ATK / 6 Speed
Nature: Modest (+SpA, -Atk)
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Recover

Provides some powerful Special Sweeping in the form of Psycho Shock and Focus Blast, with Shadow Ball for coverage. Recover keeps its bulky backside where it does best.

Conkeldurr @Leftovers
Trait: Guts
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 156 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Payback
- Mach Punch

The gutsy Conkeldurr. Provides some strong Physical sweeping with STAB Fighting moves that provide priority or recovery, as well as a good Dark move for coverage. Can also set up when dealing with annoying walls and the like.

Garchomp @Life Orb
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Swords Dance

Garchomp provides me much needed Grass coverage in addition to the straight up power it provides in its STAB moves, Earthquake and Outrage, which are only improved after a Swords Dance. Fire Blast is the Fire attack of choice as it provides great damage against Defense-oriented threats, such as Ferrothorn and Skarmory.

Anyways, my first time at this. Hope it looks good. :D

 

[Kepperino]

This team can certainly counter weather.
But you're having some issues.
If you plan on blocking out rain with Lickylicky, why are you running Thunder on Starmie?

 

[Cshadow]

Running Speed on Lickilicky is absolutely useless. Lickilicky has 50 base speed while Excadrill has 88. Jolly Max Speed Excadrill will always outrun Lickilicky. If you're looking to abuse Cloud Nine, capitalize on his bulk.

 

[D-Nite FTW]

For Lickilicky, try to maximize its bulk since you want to take out their weather and Lickilicky must survive to do it. BTW, Jolly Max Spd Excadrill ALWAYS outspeeds Lickilicky even without Sand Rush.

If you want to abuse Excadrill in sand, use Sand Rush as without it, other Excadrill will have no problem taking out Excadrill.

For Lickilicky's set, try this:

Lickilicky@Leftovers
252 HP 192 SpDef 64 Def
Impish Nature
Cloud Nine
Toxic
Earthquake
Protect
Power Whip
This set's aim is to take out the weather inducer as it has Toxic to wear it down slowly and Protect since Lickilicky only gets Rest as a recovery move and Protect helps stall for Toxic damage and gets a bit of Leftovers recovery. Earthquake and Power Whip help wear the inducer down with super-effective damage.

 

[mukery]

I agree with all the earlier posts, but to say something fo my own, your team looks pretty Grass weak.

 

[Nexas]

This team can certainly counter weather.
But you're having some issues.
If you plan on blocking out rain with Lickylicky, why are you running Thunder on Starmie?

If I understand it correctly (which it is entirely possible that I do not), Cloud Nine blocks the effects of weather, but the weather still exists. So even though it would be raining, it would be treated as though it were not raining until Lickilicky left the field.

If that's not the case, I'll likely have to reconsider some elements of the team. But thank you for pointing that out.

Running Speed on Lickilicky is absolutely useless. Lickilicky has 50 base speed while Excadrill has 88. Jolly Max Speed Excadrill will always outrun Lickilicky. If you're looking to abuse Cloud Nine, capitalize on his bulk.

For Lickilicky, try to maximize its bulk since you want to take out their weather and Lickilicky must survive to do it. BTW, Jolly Max Spd Excadrill ALWAYS outspeeds Lickilicky even without Sand Rush.

If you want to abuse Excadrill in sand, use Sand Rush as without it, other Excadrill will have no problem taking out Excadrill.

For Lickilicky's set, try this:

Lickilicky@Leftovers
252 HP 192 SpDef 64 Def
Impish Nature
Cloud Nine
Toxic
Earthquake
Protect
Power Whip
This set's aim is to take out the weather inducer as it has Toxic to wear it down slowly and Protect since Lickilicky only gets Rest as a recovery move and Protect helps stall for Toxic damage and gets a bit of Leftovers recovery. Earthquake and Power Whip help wear the inducer down with super-effective damage.

Thank you both for pointing that out, but was that including with the Choice Scarf? I was quite sure with the scarf it could outrun 'drill. But it wouldn't be the first time the early morning hours were not compatible with my math. :D

Anyways, thank you for a defensive set. I will definitely try that out. For some reason I always thought TTar was Ground/Dark. I feel dumb for not noticing that it was weak to EQ.

I agree with all the earlier posts, but to say something fo my own, your team looks pretty Grass weak.

Something that I thought I countered and... forgot I un... countered. O.o Originally, I was going to utilize Chandelure or Volcarona, but dropped them in favor of Reuniclus. Although I guess I could either go back to Ice Beam on Starmie (drop Psychic as Reuniclus covers that) or drop Reuniclus and return to using Volcarona, as it's fear of SR should be alleviated by Starmie.



Again, thanks for the comments guys :D

 

[Cloud 8]

Although yes sandstorm is common you have enough to counter it without using excadrill. Against non-sandstorm teams excadrill is completely outclassed by something like trerakkion or landorus. you might want to use a sandstorm abuser that can function outside of sandstorm better. I would consider a landorus as it can set up swords dance and would give you 1 less weakness to grass.... although you could go in a completely different direction and use a grass resist. Maybe even a sun sweeper-fire type as a venausaur with sun could set up on your lickilicki, quagsire or conkeldurr and wreck you. I wouldnt replace your reunclus with such but excadrill instead...

 

[Nexas]

Although yes sandstorm is common you have enough to counter it without using excadrill. Against non-sandstorm teams excadrill is completely outclassed by something like trerakkion or landorus. you might want to use a sandstorm abuser that can function outside of sandstorm better. I would consider a landorus as it can set up swords dance and would give you 1 less weakness to grass.... although you could go in a completely different direction and use a grass resist. Maybe even a sun sweeper-fire type as a venausaur with sun could set up on your lickilicki, quagsire or conkeldurr and wreck you. I wouldnt replace your reunclus with such but excadrill instead...

Thanks for the advice. My only concern here is what I lose by losing Excadrill. He provides a diverse number of attacks that need to be accounted for, especially if I'm orienting this towards my grass weakness.

My idea for this is Garchomp.

Garchomp @Life Orb
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hardy nature (Neutral)
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Swords Dance

This Garchomp is my answer to what I lacked with Excadrill on my team. It continues to provide some Sandstorm hate in Sand Veil, and although it is not as potent as Sand Rush was, it still uses the enemy's weapon against them. Furthermore, it covers my Grass weakness with Fire Blast, which is enhanced in the Sun. STAB Earthquake and Outrage take up its other two slots, providing it great coverage that can be enhanced if I manage a Swords Dance. I figure that the loss of my only Bug-type move, X-scissor, is acceptable since the typings it hard-covered (Grass, Psychic, Dark) are accounted for with more reliable sources.

Other changes I'm considering as well...

Starmie
- Drop Psychic
+ Add Ice Beam

This will provide me additional coverage against Grass types with a more dedicated Special Sweeper as well as some flying hate when it isn't raining. It will not be my first line of defense against Grass given Starmie's typing, but it will give me something to fall back on if Garchomp becomes subdued.

Conkeldurr
I also think I want to drop something here to make room for Stone Edge, but the setup seems solid as is. I want something that provides me some hate against fliers, especially since it provides some physical damage against them that Ice Beam wouldn't on its own. I think that Conkeldurr can safely set up at least one Bulk Up, and Drain Punch helps its staying power, so my options are strongly leaning towards Payback (my second answer to Psychics) and Mach Punch (my answer to fast threats that can be dealt with via priority).

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Camisado]

What about a Scarf Lickilicki to answer Excadrill? Something likePowerWhip/Return/Earthquake/Explosion

 

[Nexas]

What about a Scarf Lickilicki to answer Excadrill? Something likePowerWhip/Return/Earthquake/Explosion

That was originally my plan, as after a certain number of Speed EVs (I think it was 192) I was pretty sure he outsped Jolly Max Speed Excadrill since weather wasn't a factor.

That being said, the recommended setup has been doing rather well for Licki.

 

[MMF]

If you run a Garchomp over Excadrill use Jolly nature over Hardy as it does nothing for you. The moveset you have is good though.

 

[CheezyMoon]

I wouldn't have Thunder instead of T-bolt on Starmie, since you might miss an important KO, such as on Gyarados, or any Water or Flying type.

 

[hoiboy]

Why Fire Blast on Garchomp? After SD, Fire Fang should be doing more damage.

 

[Nexas]

If you run a Garchomp over Excadrill use Jolly nature over Hardy as it does nothing for you. The moveset you have is good though.

Thanks for the advice. I will do that.

I wouldn't have Thunder instead of T-bolt on Starmie, since you might miss an important KO, such as on Gyarados, or any Water or Flying type.

Good point. I have had my moments where Thunder would be make it or break it... and it was break it. I'm also going to go for Surf. I've missed WAY too many Hydro Pumps...

Why Fire Blast on Garchomp? After SD, Fire Fang should be doing more damage.

Fire Blast was more so I could deal with the higher Defense threats, such as Ferrothorn and Skarmory, who really hamper my team with their bulk.

 

[Cloud 8]

Ok, I do think garchomp is better then excadrill; I would just like to maintain that the very common chloryphyll venasaur could easily set up and sweep your team. If your team is really designed to counter weather I find it odd you dont have anything for sun and the chloryphyll sweepers.....