XY RU Spinners, Sweepers and an Eagle?

[Dauntless]

Hey there guys I just wanted to get some advice on my RU team, it feels pretty solid in the ladder so far but there are some holes in the team that need to be filled so some help would be much appreciated.

Cinccino @ King's Rock

Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Blast
- Tail Slap
- U-turn
Cincinno offers many things that other RU sweepers lack, Skill Link for a start ( which I believe only Ambipom gets along with Cin), which in turn gives him great use of the King's Rock giving him a roughly a 40% chance to flinch which is pretty decent. I'd imagine he could quite well with either of the choice items and become a pretty good revenge killer, or add on a Life Orb for an extra bit of damage but I feel the utility that King's Rock provides is great for Cinccino.

Moltres @ Assault Vest

Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Extrasensory
With the Assault Vest Moltres is able to take a decent amount of damage, able to withstand t-bolts from a variety of Pokemon in RU or below. He works wonder's against Amoonguss and Tangrowth who I see regularly in RU and is one of the few pokes I have able to take them on. He is my only special sweeper on the team but he does quite a good job of it.

Braviary @ Life Orb

Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Slash/Crush Claw/Return
- Steel Wing/Superpower
- Roost
I'm still experimenting with Braviary at the moment, as I'm never quite sure what will activate Sheer Force or not. I had Crush Claw on him for a while but I think Slash works with Sheer Force and I prefer moves with 100% accuracy as I'll know that when I need it to hit it will. I've seen Return on a few sets but again I'm not sure if it works with Sheer Force. Steel Wing Beats out Rock types and also doesn't drop stats like Superpower and also ignores Life Orb. Roost on there for obvious sustain reasons.

Gallade @ Leftovers

Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Psycho Cut
- Substitute/Will o Wisp
I had Bulk Up Gallade for the majority of the time I was in BW RU and it did me wonders, pretty much just copied him over to XY and he's still doing pretty well. With one or two Bulk Ups he becomes pretty beefy and can take a few hits, especially with Lefties and Drain Punch he becomes very difficult to kill. I prefer Sub (and use it about 99% of the time) as the 4th move but Will o has helped win one or 2 games and helps break the tankier Pokemon that he doesn't have the coverage to beat.

Floatzel @ Life Orb

Ability: Water Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
Arguably I could have just picked Sharpedo but I prefer the instant power and speed of Floatzel. The moveset gives him a really good overall coverage of RU and certainly has enough punch to be very threatening. Whilst matchups like Slowking, Doublade and Amoonguss/Tangrowth can be very hit or miss he has carried my team single handedly at times

Armaldo @ Leftovers

Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 124 Def / 128 SpD
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
I pretty much just wanted a Rock Setter and Spinner when I picked up Armaldo. I prefer him over Claydol as he doesn't get wrecked by Grass Types as much and can hit back with the STAB X Scissor. It's probably better overall for my team if I choose Claydol as it gives me an extra form of Special Attack but I've liked what Armaldo has brought to the team.

Overall weaknesses with the team.
Obviously the lack of Sp attackers can often lead the team to being completely walled out by physically bulky pokemon. Even with Moltres and Braviary I still have trouble with Tangrowth and Amoonguss if rocks are on the field then I have to either send Moltres out till he dies as unless I clear the rocks he dies in two SR hits, or Brave Bird with Braviary and have him easy pickings for a revenge killer or Priority user .

I do have some trouble with Alomomola but that's probably to do with me not knowing how to beat it that well. Slowking gives my team some problems but Floatzel and Cinccino is often able to deal with it.

So any advice or change I should make for my team.
Thanks in advnace

 

[Molk]

hey Dauntless! i'm gonna to try as hard as possible to help you out here.

First off, the Cinccino set looks solid, but i have a few suggestions for it. First off, King's Rock can grab a free KO thanks to the flinch chance *sometimes*, but i'd honestly heavily prefer a more consistent item such as Choice Band or Life Orb in that item slot. Think about this way, instead of having a 40% chance to get another attack off, with either of these items you'll have an 100% chance of having a significant boost on what attack you're using. You'll simply be steamrolling some of the things that you'd have to rely on flinching to get past before, where Pokemon that are extremely bulky such as Alomomola will be giving Cincy trouble regardless of the item you use.

Also, i'd suggest trying Knock Off to hit Doublade somewhere on your set, although U-turning out on it works out fine too.

As for the Moltres set.... i think that needs a lot of work personally.

Assault Vest has a reputation as a bit of a "noob trap" item, and i've gotta say it really isn't doing Moltres any favors here. It simply gets worn down too quickly because of its lack of roost and 4x weakness to Stealth Rock to use AV effectively, not to mention things like Slowking will beat Moltres regardless of whether it has Assault Vest or not. Instead i'd suggest using Life Orb on your Moltres. This increases Moltres's power significantly, helping it do what it does best (break walls) even more effectively. This also means that you can use non attacking moves on Moltres, leaving a slot open for Roost, which helps Moltres stay alive throughout the game.

As for the set itself, i personally think that Moltres needs all the power it can get to perform its wallbreaking job properly, so i'd suggest using Fire Blast and Hurricane over Flamethrower and Air Slash, obviously making sure Moltres hits as hard as possible. Hidden Power Ice isn't really doing much of anything for your Moltres here, and i actually can't think of anything it hits harder than Fire Blast and Hurricane off hand. Instead i'd suggest you run Hidden Power Grass over Hidden Power Ice on Moltres, this lets you smash Rhyperior and Gastrodon quite easily, two Pokemon that would trouble Moltres otherwise. Then, put the aforementioned Roost in the last moveslot since Extrasensory isn't really doing much for Moltres and the reliable recovery is pretty important. With this, i'd change the EV spread to 4 Defense, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed with a Timid Nature. This EV spread makes sure Moltres can switch into Stealth Rock twice without KOing itself (which the current EV spread doesn't accomplish), and ensures Moltres can outspeed as much as possible while wallbreaking. With one important target being Hitmonlee.

As for Braviary, i don't really think Sheer Force is worth it on the american eagle, and i'd heavily use Defiant as the ability instead. Sheer Force doesn't really boost the base power of many important moves in Braviary's movepool (Rock Slide doesn't offer important coverage, Crush Claw is still weaker than Return, not much else really gets boosted). Defiant ensures Braviary isn't stopped by the occasional intimidate user, and gives Braviary a +2 attack boost if it switches in on anything trying to remove your Stealth Rock with Defog. Definitely more useful than Sheer Force imo. As for the slashes, i'd personally use Brave Bird/Return/Superpower/Roost, but i'd change the EV spread on Braviary to 252 Attack / 4 Defense / 252 Speed with a Jolly nature to make sure Braviary is as fast as possible (this also lets you outrun adamant Hitmonlee just like Moltres currently can).

Looking at Gallade..... I don't really understand the EVs tbh. Substitute+Bulk Up Gallade doesn't need all the initial power to cleanly sweep, and in fact wants as much bulk as possible to ensure it can set up safely and cleanly sweep. This is why i suggest you change your Gallade EV spread to 252 HP / 212 SDef / 44 Speed with a Careful Nature. This lets Gallade safely set up a Substitute against Gligar with Toxic (forces a 50/50), as well as some Cresselia varients, along with everything slower, while also making your Gallade as bulky as possible, which is very useful for taking Thunderbolts and the like, which your team is currently quite weak to. I'd also run Knock Off over Psycho Cut on Gallade. Knock Off is a great utility move in general, gives Gallade perfect coverage with the exception of Fairy-types such as Aromatisse, and hits the Psychic-types and Doublade that walled your previous set hard, a good tradeoff imo.

I really don't Floatzel is worth using over Sharpedo tbh, you mention that Floatzel has more initial power and speed than Sharpedo, but the former is actually completely untrue: Sharpedo has way more initial power than Floatzel, especially on Crunch. Sharpedo's base Attack is base 120 while Floatzel's is only base 105, not to mention Sharpedo can effectively run an Adamant nature while Floatzel has to use Jolly. The initial Speed stat rarely matters regardless because Sharpedo can simply use Protect to acquire a free Speed Boost, so i don't really see a reason to use weasel over shark here. Sharpedo set listed below.

Sharpedo

Sharpedo @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Zen Headbutt

Zen Headbutt is used here to hit Virizion, who walls Sharpedo's dual STAB combination otherwise, it hits Amoonguss pretty hard as well.

Lastly, i'd probably suggest replacing Armaldo with a Sandslash. Sandslash is much better at pulling off Rapid Spin in the current metagame compared to both Armaldo and Claydol, and i believe it fits your team better overall too. Sandslash can easily beat down pretty much every common spinblocker in the metagame (especially Doublade, who's by far the most common of them all), can pull off a Rapid Spin reliably because of its excellent physical bulk, and unlike Claydol, has a real offensive presence to go with it. Outside of pulling off Rapid Spins. Sandslash has a resistance to Rock-type moves and an immunity to Thunderbolt and Volt Switch, two attacking types that you struggle with quite a bit at the moment. It's also notable that Sandslash is exceptionally good at checkmating Rotom-C when paired with Gallade, if it Volt Switches Sandslash can set up Stealth Rock or use Rapid Spin, and if it uses Leaf Storm, then Rotom-C is simply set up fodder for Gallade.

Sandslash

Sandslash @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off

Hope i helped!

 

[Dauntless]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

I'll definately look into Defiant Braviary, like I said I was toying around with him as I;ve had him in the team for about a day or 2 and I normally quite like having a sheer force attacker on my teams but Definat looks like it could well be better.

The Gallade evs came from the suggested evs of PS, they seemed to work for what they were doing so I just went with it.

I will admit I do have a soft spot for floatzel and I was digging for a reason to use him over Sharpedo and the speed thing I probably valued more than anything. I'll throw Sharpedo onto my team see how he does.

agains thanks for the advice

 

[Molk]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

I'll definately look into Defiant Braviary, like I said I was toying around with him as I;ve had him in the team for about a day or 2 and I normally quite like having a sheer force attacker on my teams but Definat looks like it could well be better.

The Gallade evs came from the suggested evs of PS, they seemed to work for what they were doing so I just went with it.

I will admit I do have a soft spot for floatzel and I was digging for a reason to use him over Sharpedo and the speed thing I probably valued more than anything. I'll throw Sharpedo onto my team see how he does.

agains thanks for the advice

Just for future reference, PS's suggested EV spreads are often misleading, and i wouldn't really use them often. Some major examples of it mucking up are telling you to use physically defensive spreads on sweeper klinklang, kyurem-b, and bisharp.