XY RU RU Balance. First RMT.

[SwannaForUbers]

Hey all! I'm Swanna. I'm a PS RU room voice but never really got involved with the forums. Looking to change that with my first RMT. I used this team to get reqs for the Zoroark/Yanmega suspect test. Let's jump right in.

Rhyperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
Impish Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Att / 252 Def
-Stealth Rocks
-Toxic
-Earthquake
-Rock Blast​

I'll start off with my defensive core. Rhyperior started out as Alomomola but my team really wanted rocks and so I made the switch to Gligar. Soon I realized I didn't want a wall to be badly crippled by the omnipresent Knock Off, so Gligar was out. Rhyperior came in and worked out well. Stealth Rock and his 2 STABs were a given, but the last move was up in the air between Toxic and Roar. When this team was made, Sub + BU Gallade and Sub + CM Meloetta weren't as popular as they are now and I went with Toxic.

Aromatisse @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Calm Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
-Spore
-Clear Smog
-Giga Drain
-HP Fire​

Next up is my special wall, Amoonguss. This thing is bulky and annoying. Regenerator pushes it over the top in RU. Spore is a 100% accurate sleep inducing move that does not work on grass types or pokes with the ability Overcoat. Giga Drain is pretty self-explanatory as it's STAB damage + health regeneration. Clear Smog took the place of Sludge Bomb because I chose not to run roar on Rhyperior and this was my concession to the set-up pokes in the tier. HP Fire was my most questioned move but wanted to run it for things like Cobalion, Abomasnow, and Escavalier. Been told Foul Play > HP Fire. Also, upon further advice (thank you Glass and Ari) I would probably creep the Def up on Amoon in order to switch in more comfortably on Sharpedo.

Meloetta @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
Timid Nature
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Psyshock
-Focus Blast
-Hyper Voice
-Shadow Ball​

I will proudly say that Scarf Meloetta is (I think) my invention since I'd never heard it used before. I used this thing very early in XY RU and loved it. I have a very common trend in my teams of pairing a scarfer of middling speed (so that it outspeeds non-scarfed pokes but may not outspeed other common scarfers) with an already fast poke to make up my offensive core. Here I use Meloetta with Jolteon as the brunt of my offense. In OU, I use scarf Heatran (yes you heard right) paired with Tornadus-T for example. This set outspeeds scarfed Adamant Hitmonlee (LEL) for the record. And it also outspeed Sharpedo at +1 speed which will be explained more fully under my Hitmonlee.

Hitmonlee @ Life Orb
Ability: Reckless
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Att / 4 Def / 252 Spe
-Rapid Spin
-Knock Off
-High Jump Kick
-Sucker Punch​

My Hitmonlee was originally a bulky-offensive Hitmontop until I got fed up of being laughed at by ghost types. Rapid Spin/Defog is almost a necessity on every team. Knock Off is an amazing move even without the added bonus of giving Lee something to really dent pesky Ghost types with. HJK is powerful as all hell with the Reckless ability. The last move is probably pretty controversial. The standard would be to run Mach Punch as a free kill on Sharpedo. However as this set became commonplace, no one would keep Sharp in on Lee anyways and I found myself never using it. I replaced it with Sucker Punch to deal with things like Meloetta and Delphox who can easily revenge kill Hitmonlee due to a combination of outspeeding and Psyshock. Sucker Punch also does far more damage to Yanmega than Mach Punch.

Jolteon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
Modest Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Volt Switch
-Thunderbolt
-Shadow Ball
-HP Ice​

The second part of my offensive core is specs Jolteon. Lightning fast and very powerful (especially with Choice Specs) Jolteon can dent even the toughest special walls in the tier with a Volt Switch, dealing big damage AND gaining initiative. Its fairly shallow move pool leaves a lot to be desired though. Thunderbolt is only there when you need a little extra OOMPH behind your hits (mainly late game). Shadow Ball is fairly standard and has decent coverage across the board. HP Ice is there for the pesky Ground types like Rhyperior and Gligar that will switch in on your predicted Electric moves. Thunderbolt wasn't used altogether too much and was on the chopping block. One of the replacements I considered was Heal Bell as my team definitely needed it.

Sharpedo @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Att / 4 Def / 252 Spe
-Protect
-Waterfall
-Crunch
-Poison Jab​

Last but not least, Sharpedo. The clean-up crew. This thing is a monster when used correctly. I would rarely bring this poke out early, using it to mop up as the game started to draw to a close. Waterfall/Crunch/Protect are pretty self-explanatory. Poison Jab on the other hand, is not always used. Usually, Sharpedo runs Earthquake. However, I elected for Poison Jab in order to his things like Whimsicott, Virizion, and Aromatisse. It all comes down to personal choice IMO.


Well thank you guys for reading! Hope you enjoyed the team. I do realize that this team is not without flaw, Yanmega can really give it a run for its money. The best way to deal with it is to get Rocks up and keep them up, that way 1 Sucker Punch from Hitmonlee + LO recoil will kill it. If that's not possible, Amoonguss can take 1 Air Slash and then Spore it to sleep (barring a flinch). Also, Mega Abomasnow can present some problems but is fairly easy to dispatch due to its very low speed. Anywho, I think that about raps it up. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

​

 

[Sam White]

Do you know the move earthquake? Pretty popular move. Not a big RU player so i dont know the huge threats, but i know this, nothing on your team cleanly switches in and eats up and EQ. Sure Amounguss can, or? 252+ Atk Choice Band Rhyperior Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Amoonguss: 381-448 (88.1 - 103.7%) -- 25% chance to OHKO Not saying this is a common set whatsoever. All im saying is, a flying type or resistance would be nice.

 

[xastify]

Do you know the move earthquake? Pretty popular move. Not a big RU player so i dont know the huge threats, but i know this, nothing on your team cleanly switches in and eats up and EQ. Sure Amounguss can, or? 252+ Atk Choice Band Rhyperior Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Amoonguss: 381-448 (88.1 - 103.7%) -- 25% chance to OHKO Not saying this is a common set whatsoever. All im saying is, a flying type or resistance would be nice.

I disagree, like Swanna said, Mega Abomasnow can present problems, so hitting it with poison jab on a switch will be helpful

 

[SwannaForUbers]

No he means that I don't have anything dedicated to TAKING EQ's. Definitely valid point.

 

[Sam White]

No he means that I don't have anything dedicated to TAKING EQ's. Definitely valid point.

see he understands

 

[Molk]

Hello SwannaForUbers, cool team you have here, although there are definitely some ways to improve it.

On Rhyperior, i'd definitely change around the EV Spread a little bit and run Roar over Toxic. My personal favorite EV spread to use on Rhyperior is 248 HP / 16 Attack / 220 Special Defense / 24 Speed with an Adamant Nature. This reaches a jump point in Attack, speed creeps other Rhyperior and Doublade, and lets Rhyperior take special hits from things such as Moltres, Meloetta, and choiced Delphox that much better. Rhyperior's physical bulk is already extremely high anyway, so investing in Defense is overkill. Roar lets you phaze out things such as CM Reuniclus, CM Cresselia, and Substitute+Calm Mind Meloetta, and Substitute+Bulk Up Braviary, among others.

With the changes to Rhyperior, i'd change Amoonguss to a physically defensive EV Spread. This gives you a much better switch in to Hitmonlee and Sharpedo as well as a better check to Fighting-type Pokemon/better Pokemon to take Earthquakes with in general. With Rhyperior now running Roar, i'd run Sludge Bomb over Clear Smog on Amoonguss as well, as you have no real need for it when you have another method of phazing. With Sludge Bomb being used over Clear Smog, you can freely run Foul Play over Hidden Power Fire on Amoonguss. Mega Abomasnow gets hit harder by Sludge Bomb than Hidden Power Fire anyways (270 BP vs 240 BP), and AV Escavalier/Doublade get hit harder by Hidden Power Fire as well. The only thing left untouched is Cobalion after Sleep Clause, which is a bit of an annoyance, but you have at least two Pokemon that can revenge kill it regardless.

Third of all, i'd change Jolteon's nature from Modest to Timid, The Speed is important to ensure you can outspeed Dugtrio, preventing it from trapping you if you're using a coverage move. This also lets you outspeed Cinccino, the occasional Sceptile, and speed tie at worst with other Jolteon. Something else i'd suggest is to change Jolteon's Hidden Power and coverage move to Hidden Power Water and Signal Beam. Hidden Power Water has the advantage of hitting both Gligar and Rhyperior hard at once, while Hidden Power Ice doesn't really dent Rhyperior tbh (especially if it's the EV Spread that i suggested earlier). Meanwhile, Signal Beam gives you another way to smack around Mega Abomasnow (which you mentioned was a big threat to your team), and Grass-types in general (although a lot of RU's most common ones are sadly only neutral to it :x). Lastly, changing Jolteon's Item from Choice Specs to Life Orb could be nice, especially against Dugtrio teams, but there's really nothing inherently wrong with running Choice Specs.

Also if Yanmega gets banned i'd definitely consider putting Mach Punch back over Sucker Punch on hitmonlee, just because i like that extra insurance against Sharpedo :x.

EDIT: you with those changes you might find yourself struggling against Amoonguss a little bit more though, so running either Ice Beam or Zen Headbutt over Poison Jab on Sharpedo might be helpful.

EDIT2: Something else to think about, i think you could realistically make Choice Scarf Meloetta Choice Specs Meloetta, this gives you another wallbreaker, and the combination of Jolteon and Sharpedo+Hitmonlee's priority is more than enough Speed in the first place. It's not really required but its something to try out for sure.

Hope i helped!

 

[SwannaForUbers]

Thanks for all the advice, I'll definitely take those into consideration for when I plan to use this team next! I run LO Jolteon on another team and definitely prefer it, but with 3 LO pokes and no Wish passer on this team, they get worn down really quickly is the one potential problem I see. Also, WHEN Yanmega gets banned, I will change back to Mach Punch. Finally, people have all been saying HP Water > Ice. I never found myself wishing I had Water instead but TBH I hadn't even considered it so it never thought to compare during battles. With changing Shadow Ball to Signal Beam, I can definitely see myself wanting something to better hit Steel pokes with and Ice just won't cut it.

My biggest concern is the 3 LO pokes with no Wish passer. Do you guys think that's doable or just too much recoil damage?

 

[New Breed]

I'm going to agree with the changes that Molk suggested, to be honest SwannaForUbers I don't see having 3 LO users as being a huge problem but it's down to personal preference so I suggest that you test out LO Jolteon and if you do in fact decide that your team gets worn down too easily you can always just make the easy switch back. I definitely second the Hidden Power Water and Signal Beam over your current coverage, they just offer superior coverage in the metagame at the moment and being able to 2HKO both Gligar and Rhyperior with Hidden Power Water is extremely useful. I'm also going to agree with the Meloetta change from Choice Scarf to Choice Specs, with Jolteon, a Speed Boost Pokemon and priority from Hitmonlee I think revenge killing is less of an issue and Choice Specs would offer your team so much needed assistance in breaking down defensive cores.

Meloetta

Meloetta @ Choice Specs
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock / Psychic
- Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast / U-Turn / Hidden Power Fire

I hope I was able to help.