XY NU fargo

[ium]

THIS IS A TRUE STORY
the events depicted took place in minnesota in 2006
at the request of the survivors, the names have been changed
out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred​

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INTRODUCTION

i'm a bit tired of playing nowadays, but i still like building teams with people and having some casual battles from time to time. regarding the team itself, this is something that existed since the first tier shift of xy nu. i wanted to build straightforward spikes offense with Rowan using sigilyph when it was existent at the time, because that very same pokemon made it difficult to build bulkier teams without resorting to the same cores. unfortunately for me, sigilyph being banned meant that i had to replace my own. the introduction of slurpuff to the tier made things even harder as i needed to shift around sets which led to a slight deviation from the function of the team. this has stayed around for quite a while in an unstable, changing metagame where Cherub Agent and Rowan have still seen some success with it even in its lesser state and despite them tending to choke a lot!! however, i honestly feel like it lost enough effectiveness and has been used for so long that i'd rather post it at this point. the idea was to pair a spikes user with many setup pokemon to try to take advantage of any attempts at hazard removal to maintain momentum as much as possible. although close, it doesn't always work like that, but it did end up being a decent team for some time

TEAMBUILDING

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fast hazards. omastar sets hazards up quickly and reliably, and most attempts to deter hazards can be seen fairly easily

setup pokemon. sigilyph was almost a given because it wallbreaks effectively and barely needs to set up to punish defog users or just any slow pokemon in general. feraligatr was chosen for its great late-game potential and ability to switch into fire-type pokemon and threaten back with aqua jet, especially when omastar is gone. sceptile obviously works well with feraligatr type-wise while giving great speed, and gurdurr rounded everything off by being a bulky setup pokemon that handles just about any physical threat in the tier

spinblocker and speed. although gurdurr helped glue things together from a defensive standpoint without giving up too much momentum, rotom did so offensively. it patched up any resistances i lacked once omastar went down and helped ensure that i would be able to handle other omastar and gorebyss effectively. trick was also great for hampering rapid spin users or just most bulky pokemon in general

sigilyph goes to bl2. as a result, i used the closest similar pokemon in xatu because of same typing with similar coverage and speed. the life orb recoil and susceptibilty to stealth rock (should it get up) was a bit off-putting given that xatu is used to check certain bulky pokemon and would like to stay as healthy as possible, but it still fit the role decently. any other item or set would make it significantly weaker

slurpuff drops to nu. gurdurr became much more ineffective by having to resort to a four-attack set to prevent slurpuff from easily setting up. this set deviated from the idea from the team and made it harder to pressure the opponent since there was no way to set up with gurdurr anymore, making pokemon like spiritomb more of a nuisance. also, xatu didn't feel so reliable given the life orb recoil, damage output, and relative frailty. i would rather have some kind of reliable and strong pokemon while being able to check a good portion of the tier like gurdurr did. these led to the use of vileplume and klinklang where the former filled the role i was looking for and the latter was a setup pokemon that halted many psychic-types and other pokemon my team seemed weak to

TEAM IN-DEPTH

LORNE MALVO

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omastar @ focus sash
ability: weak armor | evs: 4 def / 252 spa / 252 spe | nature: timid
stealth rock / spikes / surf / icy wind
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this is what is used to lead a majority of the time, even in the face of certain things that can threaten it. this isn't meant to be looking for a favorable matchup type-wise or something; the idea is just to get stealth rock and/or spikes as quickly as possible before going down. in certain situations, depending on the entire team, i try to avoid leading with this against certain taunt users like qwilfish or certain hazard removers like cryogonal or mantine. icy wind is a really fun move to use on this set because it has the speed lowering effect which is devastating to common hazard deterrents like shiftry and xatu, both of which are threatened with a 2HKO. otherwise, the set is fairly straightforward with weak armor and focus sash aiding omastar in trying to set up the most hazards as it possibly can. just for reference, omastar can outspeed any pokemon hit by icy wind up until and including pyroar, which sits at base 106 speed. toxic spikes and scald are legitimate options to consider for this set, but spikes is extremely helpful for sceptile and klinklang to be able to KO things; for example, stealth rock and a layer of spikes allows +2 sceptile to KO defensive vileplume. scald is more likely to find itself on the set as nabbing a burn on pokemon like cryogonal will help make it easier to wear down

LESTER NYGAARD

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rotom @ choice scarf
ability: levitate | evs: 4 def / 252 spa / 252 spe | nature: timid
volt switch / shadow ball / thunderbolt / trick
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rotom is an absolutely generic choice scarf user yet it fills certain roles that the team appreciates. it is capable of spinblocking in case my opponent relies on rapid spin over defog and can then proceed to dump its choice scarf or volt switch out depending on the situation. in some cases against rapid spin users, rotom ends up being a "sacrificial pivot" when the opponent expects its switch in and uses, say, knock off with a sandslash. that's all fine because then feraligatr and sceptile can come in to add another level of pressure to the opponent and force them to rapid spin while allowing me to swords dance, or switch out while still having to deal with hazards. in most other cases, rotom needs to be played with care because the decision between preserving or tricking the choice scarf is important in some games. it really depends on weighing out the benefits and seeing whether the opponent's fast pokemon is very threatening to where you need to force it out with a faster rotom, or whether there are problematic bulky pokemon, like ferroseed, that need to be limited. sometimes placing the choice scarf on a weak bulky pokemon is great for helping the rest of the team set up easier and break down cores. rotom all-in-all is fairly helpful for its speed, volt switch, trick, and typing

MR. NUMBERS

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vileplume @ black sludge
ability: effect spore | evs: 248 hp / 252 spa / 8 spe | nature: modest
sludge bomb / giga drain / hidden power fire / moonlight
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vileplume turned out to be one of the odd additions to the team, especially considering the fact that it ended up being the final replacement for both sigilyph and xatu. it is basically the "check everything" member of the team and helps me deal with opposing vileplume, seismitoad, lanturn, poliwrath, spiritomb, and most other grass-types quite easily since i don't want to deal with burns or sleep on other team members. i stayed true to the offensive nature of the team by giving it max special attack which allows me to launch a strong sludge bomb against pokemon that think they can comfortably lose some hp to check vileplume. it's also very handy at beating other vileplume in a one-vs-one situation since i would rather not risk sleep powder on klinklang unless i can expect a different move or pull a double switch to safely set up. i opted out of life orb because i like bluffing a standard defensive set and would not like to lose hp on something so slow. hidden power fire is solely for luring ferroseed and pawniard as the former can otherwise set up spikes on quite literally any member on my team and the latter would be hard to handle should it get a free swords dance. if not for those two, i would have stuck with sleep powder. anyway, props to Fuzznip for using offensive vileplume a ton last generation; it's a great set and tough to switch into

MR. WRENCH

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klinklang @ leftovers
ability: clear body | evs: 84 hp / 252 atk / 172 spe | nature: adamant
shift gear / gear grind / return / substitute
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klinklang is one of the setup pokemon i have chosen for this team particularly because of its ability to check most psychic-types and ability to boost its speed significantly. without it, things like uxie, mesprit, and musharna would get away with setting up calm mind way too easily and i would be forced to try to trick them with rotom. substitute aids me greatly when it comes to avoiding status or leech seed from things like vileplume, gourgeist, ferroseed, uxie, and so forth since they are usually problematic to most of my other team members. the speed investment does several things; one is simply to outspeed choice scarf pyroar, usually the fastest common user, after a shift gear while the other is to outspeed barbaracle by one point so that you can setup alongside it and/or weaken or KO it. its really important to calculate damage when using klinklang because it sometimes relies on hazards to get specific KOs and also because it has great natural bulk where it can even set up on some non-stab super-effective moves. it is extremely solid alongside spikes and the grass-types on my team which help pressure the pokemon that check klinklang, such as seismitoad, qwilfish, poliwrath, and lanturn

MOLLY SOLVERSON

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sceptile @ no item
ability: overgrow | evs: 252 atk / 4 def / 252 spe | nature: jolly
swords dance / leaf blade / earthquake / acrobatics
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sceptile is such an incredibly hard pokemon to switch into although it doesn't really have great immediate damage output. special or mixed sets seem quite common, but a swords dance set fit everything i wanted on this team to help me pressure common rapid spin users, such as sandslash and cryogonal. this set deviates itself a little by using an itemless acrobatics set which helps me lure opposing grass-types to give feraligatr a better chance to clean up late-game. having no item is also nice because i can take advantage of knock off from a choice item sawk or worry less about setting up against things like sandslash and seismitoad. i really enjoy sceptile with hazard support because its speed is incredible for getting a hit off on weakened pyroar, typhlosion, archeops, and most other things that are a bit fast for most of the tier. it's also useful for checking swords dance feraligatr considering vileplume is OHKO'd by +2 ice punch. the unpredictability of sceptile's set alongside its useful speed far outweighs its relatively low damage output. i usually try to avoid using sceptile until late-game, but i will bring it out early when i need to nab a quick KO at minimal risk or check feraligatr

GUS GRIMLY

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feraligatr @ lum berry
ability: torrent | evs: 64 hp / 252 atk / 192 spe | nature: adamant
swords dance / waterfall / return / aqua jet
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feraligatr is arguably the best late-game cleaner in the tier right now. however, due to its limited coverage, it really needs the support to be able to muscle past pokemon, particularly other water- and grass-types, but with hazard support, two grass-types, substitute klinklang, and a choice scarf rotom, it's really hard to find many situations where feraligatr cannot perform at least decently in a match. it was primarily chosen for how good it is after setting up, but as the team developed, it has found other purposes too. with omastar being sacrificed early on, a secondary fire-type check in feraligatr was necessary. its natural bulk allows it to take most hard-hitting coverage moves from such pokemon, and aqua jet is useful for forcing them out or picking off weakened things in general. with gurdurr being replaced, feraligatr is the only source of priority on this team so it is crucial to save it if it seems necessary. as many pokemon that feraligatr would otherwise love to set up on carry a status move, lum berry is helpful to give those solid opportunities. the spread is mainly to outspeed neutral nature base 70 speed pokemon. it can use a slightly bulkier spread only to outspeed qwilfish, but a lot of qwilfish, particularly ones with taunt, run considerable speed anyway so it's really difficult to guess how to speed creep

THREATS

despite being a long list, these threats range from mild to severe. most of these pokemon can be handled if played out carefully, but a combination of them can prove to be a huge issue

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ferroseed: it can literally set up spikes against my entire team except for hidden power fire vileplume and maybe rotom threatening to use trick. in the latter case, however, ferroseed can scout trick with protect. klinklang can use substitute on ferroseed and proceed to set up with no worries, but it takes a lot of setup in order to break through it

barbaracle: barbaracle can mess up this team heavily since it can shell smash on rotom locked into shadow ball, or unboosted feraligatr somewhat comfortably. it's crucial to minimize its setup opportunities by having spikes up fast, and it especially helps to keep feraligatr around for an aqua jet

archeops: there are quite literally no safe switch-ins, so the team relies on feraligatr's aqua jet and rotom with its choice scarf still held in order to force it out. sceptile can outspeed it, but it requires stealth rock support and/or some prior damage since leaf blade does around half when unboosted

accelgor: rotom and vileplume both take a hit fairly well and can hit it hard in return although neither OHKO. otherwise, it can dent any member of my team with its great power and coverage and set up spikes rather easily as well to limit my pokemon. it's not one to break through the entire team but it's threatening enough

xatu: with grass- and fire-type coverage moves and the ability to deter hazards, it's really difficult to switch into offensive variants and wear it down at the same time. omastar can catch it by surprise with icy wind and rotom can take any one hit to threaten it with volt switch. sceptile can only do around half, so it's not really reliable

jynx: i have no safe switch-ins and no priority against this, but it suffers from frailty. lovely kiss deters stealth rock or spikes from being set up which can be problematic if there are other threats on the opponent's side. the idea is just to hit it hard with sceptile and rotom, or in a dire situation keep feraligatr healthy to use return

sceptile: both the physical and special sets are difficult to switch into, and rotom isn't exactly the strongest hitter against it. i try to keep vileplume and klinklang as healthy as possible as the former can tank the special set while the latter can survive an earthquake from the physical one if unboosted. from high hp, my own sceptile can take on any set that doesn't have acrobatics and there's always the speed tie to risk

swift swim pokemon under rain: there's literally no way to handle this at the team's current state, and honestly rain teams are fairly strong right now in general. if anything, icy wind from omastar is sometimes helpful to get the needed jump with sceptile and rotom, while vileplume can take any one ice beam from full, but that's literally it

TEAM IMPORT

molly solverson (Sceptile) (F)
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Earthquake
- Acrobatics

gus grimly (Feraligatr) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Return
- Aqua Jet

lorne malvo (Omastar) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Surf
- Icy Wind

mr. numbers (Vileplume) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 Spe
Modest Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Moonlight

mr. wrench (Klinklang) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shift Gear
- Gear Grind
- Return
- Substitute

lester nygaard (Rotom) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Trick

END NOTE

so this is it—this is a team that Rowan and i put together. although truthfully i did many of the changes, he has done so much help with testing and giving initial ideas that i consider him a co-creator in a way. spikes offense is just really fun to use when you're able to have a multitude of ways to keep the pressure going. it's rather silly that this team had sigilyph in mind but it now doesn't exist in the tier, but that's how it goes. with the metagame developing a little and certain threats to the team rising in popularity, i feel like it's better to stop using this team for once and try more new things. even though this team is still usable, i think it has run its course

also to be honest, xy is unfortunately a terrible generation. surprisingly, even bw nu was more enjoyable despite some shortcomings, although it has seen better days than its final stage. i'll probably continue to play casually as i still have friends who enjoy it with me but this is a tier i don't really like right now unfortunately. maybe it'll be better to play sometime in the future

SHOUTOUTS

i can't be bothered to type out individual things for each person, but i don't think i need to explain anything to show that i love all these people!! unfortunately some of them are brainless bums :'( and hopefully i didn't forget anyone but if i did just imagine your name was here

Rowan
Cherub Agent
TV-Rocka :D
Al_Alchemist
FireMage
DHR-107
tennisace
Biosci
Hulavuta
CrashinBoomBang n_n
Jirachee n_n
Harsha n_n
BKC n_n
Funkasaurus n_n
Fiction. >:(
Redew
Fuzznip
Zracknel
Stellar ...

 

[Brawlfest]

Hey ium this is a really cool team! Its got tons of power, and is insanely threatning with few issues. This said, I honestly feel that Physical Sceptile is your weakest link. It isn't doing that much for your team due to its low attack stat anyways, and its fraility makes it rather difficult for it to find setup opportunities. I think the easiest solution is to simply run Swords Dance Shiftry over it, which fixes a lot of the "threats" you have listed. In your threatslist, it cripples ferroseed with Knock Off, revenge kills Barb with sucker punch, pressures Arhceops with Sucker Punch [although sceptile outsped anyways], decimates psychic types, and again can easily take out Ludicolo or Sceptile with Sucker Punches. Shiftry's physical capabilities with or without a swords dance are through the roof, and it simply has much more offensive presence than Sceptile and has a much better time dealing with your team's specific threats as well as sweeping with SD.

Hope this helped ^.^

 

[watashi]

pawniard over klinklang lets you check most of the threats listed with sucker punch and helps wear down ferroseed with knock off. it also fits in nicely with the theme of the team as it discourages defog although it does make you slightly weaker to slurpuff if it manages to somehow grab a set up opportunity.

if you do decide to stick with klinklang though, move 4 hp evs to speed so you're faster than shiftry

also unless surf can grab a crucial ko for omastar i don't see the point of using it over scald

 

[Shuckleking87]

Yeah I'd try to use one of the pokes mentioned that has sucker punch, looks like scarf jynx with focus blast can be a really big problem to your team.

 

[Cherub Agent]

252 SpA Omastar Surf vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Magmortar: 284-336 (97.2 - 115%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Omastar Scald vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Magmortar: 252-296 (86.3 - 101.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

252 SpA Omastar Surf vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Typhlosion: 308-366 (103.3 - 122.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Omastar Scald vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Typhlosion: 276-326 (92.6 - 109.3%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO

252 SpA Omastar Surf vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Golurk: 324-384 (84.8 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Omastar Scald vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Golurk: 288-342 (75.3 - 89.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Omastar Surf vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Armaldo: 324-384 (91.5 - 108.4%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Omastar Scald vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Armaldo: 288-342 (81.3 - 96.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

It's admittedly not a big difference against the last two, but against the former two (where Scald also can't burn, and just puts one into Blaze range) when using the team I do really appreciate this extra damage. I also use Life Orb on Vileplume, but a pansy thinks he needs to take hits or something ;O; Dish 'em out ium, getting the kill on Ferroseed is VERY important for this team. I like Brawlfest's suggestion of SD Shiftry, will try that out.

 

[Blast]

Yeah I think running a Dark-type over one of your current sweepers would be a good idea since it at least sort of helps against most of your threatlist and provides good utility in general with Sucker Punch. I'd personally lean towards Brawlfest's suggestion of Shiftry a little more, primarily because of its much higher initial power which makes revenge killing stuff easier and helps to make up for your team's lack of initial power, since most of your Pokémon are kind of reliant on boosting to really be threatening. It also makes wearing down Ferroseed easier due to its stronger Knock Off and immunity to Leech Seed.

Also I don't really like Rotom on this team because it's really weak and the roles it fills aren't too important for you other than spinblocking. I'd give Scarf Haunter a try because it checks Accelgor better and is a lot stronger in general, and can still disrupt stuff with Trick. A fast Destiny Bond is also nice if you can predict right against Cryo or something.

edit: oh and I also agree with Cherub on LO > Sludge on Plume

 

[ium]

i used surf on omastar in the past on older teams because i needed a 2HKO on doublade and have just been too lazy to try out scald since then, but i found that i was grabbing chances to KO on golurk with speed and some other bulky pokemon that could take a super effective hit, although i can't remember what else exactly right now!! so i ended up never changing it although i can see that scald has more utility which is why it has always been a good option which i'll definitely use more to compare its effectiveness

shiftry is a decent suggestion that i have considered before although i become more reliant on priority in handling certain pokemon. many pyroar use substitute or will-o-wisp, some magmortar carry substitute, and jynx always has lovely kiss so it doesn't exactly help against these pokemon in particular. pyroar and magmortar can be an extreme pain to this team with only one resist outside of omastar that takes plenty of damage from other moves. i think my other issue with shiftry is that i'm forced to sucker punch a choice band sawk or else i have to play the guess with my opponent. i can see why it was suggested and it's definitely something to try out, but i'm just pointing out why i leaned towards sceptile

pawniard is rather interesting but klinklang is my first go-to for slurpuff while its held item isn't activated yet so it would be pretty nasty guessing around it and i would have to try my best to keep feraligatr and pawniard itself around. i'm actually liking pawniard better as a suggestion because i'm not jumping down an incredible number of speed tiers from losing klinklang as compared to losing sceptile, and therefore i'm not shifting around a ton of weaknesses, but both are worth trying individually. i also didn't really think about the extra 4 evs on klinklang because i almost always use a faster shiftry myself and was only thinking about barbaracle, but yea i'll do that

in regards to rotom and haunter, i definitely would like to try out haunter, but keeping rotom for its speed is so crucial to the team so being able to pivot out with volt switch while grabbing a KO is helpful whereas haunter becomes spiritomb bait immediately after a KO. i would especially not use haunter if i were to lose sceptile for shiftry, but it is worth trying otherwise. also rotom can take any one hit from offensive xatu and then keep momentum against it most of the time which is always helpful, and it can clinch a KO on gorebyss and omastar when they are trying to boost, so i'm not sure about haunter for those scenarios

and i'm not fond life orb as i've talked about it before with connor... he just likes sacrificing everything just to clinch a KO on literally one or two pokemon when doing more than half to anything is good enough for me. i can't really stress how much i use vileplume to take hits from things and wasting more turns to moonlight when giga drain isn't sufficient just to make up for life orb recoil isn't really good for the role it fits

thanks for the suggestions

 

[g]

at the end of fargo there is a disclaimer that says the story is false lol

Anyway this team is really really cool but you might want to change Icy Wind on Omastar with Stone Edge for Cryogonal, Xatu, and Jynx (which is a massive threat and usually switches into lead omastar after it reveals hazards) or even Hidden Power Fire for Ferroseed as lures are never enough and that is a mon that tends to switch into Omastar a lot. I personally don't like the suggestion of Shiftry over Sceptile because it forces you to mindgames to beat Cryogonal and Sceptile does its job anyway but Pawniard over Klinklang is a good one in my opinion

 

[Karane]

I think this team has too many setup sweepers. Not that it is bad but you need something to hit hard right off the bat because you struggle with bulky offense. I would suggest Shiftry w Explosion over Sceptile. Baits Vileplume. Checks rain, Archeops, Barbaracle and shit ton of threats your team is having trouble with. Releases off the pressure to take on psychics. And first and foremost, lets Gatr sweep by appropriately punching holes [plume]

Shiftry @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Explosion

Had fun using this team on the ladder :]