ORAS NU Beginner Team Advice

[Thynne28]

Hey there,
Looking for some advice on team strategy and overall tips, suggestions and improvements. I'm new to the metagame and only just starting to get the hang of it. It's pretty obvious that i'm not acquainted with the more subtle strategies and nuances so i've stuck to an offensive sweeping team in the NU tier. Thoughts?


Gorebyss @ White Herb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 24 SpA / 232 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shell Smash
- Baton Pass
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam

Smash/pass lead to set up Archeops physical sweep and Vivillon special sweep. Ice Beam coverage for grass weakness. This coupled with high STAB Hydro Pump allows it to deal decent damage with stat boost when switch isn't viable

Archeops
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Acrobatics
- Aqua Tail
- U-turn
- Rock Slide

Physical sweep for smash/pass setup. Acrobatics focus with no held item for boosted power. Aqua tail covers potential rock/ground switch ins. Good use as revenge KO

Vivillon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sleep Powder
- Quiver Dance
- Hurricane
- Bug Buzz

Quiver Dance special sweep. Compound Eyes boosts accuracy for strong STAB hurricane, along with stat boost for reliable OHKO. Likewise for sleep powder, removing dependence on Gorebyss. Focus Sash secures smash/pass momentum from Gorebyss.

Mismagius @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Sneak
- Pain Split

Good prevention for counter sweep with taunt and will-o-wisp for attack drop. Pain split + Leftovers for stalling and increasing burn damage. Shadow sneak for priority to cover focus sash/sturdy opponents blocking sweeps.

Sawk @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake

Good wall breaker, especially late game back up with failed sweeps . Smash/pass also works well as an alternative to Archeops, coupled with life orb for bulk offense. Ice Punch provides good variety and often unexpected type coverage catching players by surprise.

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Gyro Ball

Stealth Rock/Dragon tail to counter switch ins. Works as solid defensive wall with electric immunity, weakness shared by Gorebyss lead and Archeops/Vivillon sweeps. Smash/Pass works surprisingly well with STAB Earthquake, though speed boost is counter productive with Gyro Ball.

 

[Lord Alphose]

hey Thynne, welcome to Smogon :)

First thing I noticed is that you have Steelix on your team but it's not Mega. There's pretty much no reason to not use Mega Steelix, as the only difference is better stats. Whoo, go buffs. So I changed Steelix ---> Mega Steelix. Not really a different Pokemon, more a different set. Here's the set I used on it:

It's long, hard, and heavy

Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Heavy Slam

Heavy Slam is an auto 120 Base Power move, so it's probably a better option than Gyro Ball, imo.

Next, I noticed that Mismagius really doesn't much help your team. What you're running right now is something of a stallbreaker, anti-setup sweeper set. With such an offensively oriented team, it really didn't fit in there. Your opponent will be unlikely to set up because they're unable to find time, due to your offensive pressure. So I changed Mismagius ---> Xatu, which is a good SmashPass receiver. Plus, you're kind of lacking a special Shell Smash receiver. The set I ran was this:

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's just a bird

Xatu @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Stored Power
- Heat Wave
- Dazzling Gleam
- Air Slash

Stored Power is what, like, 140 Base Power with all the Shell Smash boosts. Air Slash is a nice secondary STAB attack. Heat Wave is used to take down pesky Steel-types that resist both of your STABs. And because fuck Ferroseed. Lastly, Dazzling Gleam to hit Dark-types that resist Stored Power, your strongest STAB attack. This is the best set as far as I know, but if someone else has a better set that you can use, that'd be cool.

Other smaller changes that I made: With Taunt Mismagius gone, you lacked an answer to hazard setter, which might bother your team somewhat. So, I changed Aqua Tail ---> Taunt and U-turn ---> Defog. I also changed Rock Slide ---> Earthquake. Despite not having a STAB boost, Flying + Ground coverage is significantly better than Flying + Rock coverage, imo. I changed Ice Beam ---> Substitute on Gorebyss. I wasn't really using Gorebyss to do much damage anyways, with the exception of the occasional opposing hazard setter, which tend to take super effective damage from Hydro Pump anyways. Plus, I was having trouble dealing with Ferroseed Leech Seeds and Thunder Waves from everything and its mother. So, Substitute it is. Focus Sash Vivillon is almost always used as a lead Pokemon instead of an alternative setup sweeper. You should try changing Focus Sash ---> Leftovers, in order to help mitigate some of the damage you take while setting up. Also, Flying + Bug coverage is walled by a lot of Steel- and Rock-types. I changed Bug Buzz ---> Hidden Power Ground. It did less damage, but it meant that I could now hit the Steel-, Rock-, and Electric-types that resisted Hurricane.

And that's pretty much it. I wanted to keep the idea of your team, the HO SmashPass strategy, 'cause it's really cool. I'm just hoping the suggested changes help the team be more versatile, as they allow every Pokemon to do well after receiving a Pass(even Mega Steelix!), even though they can all still function perfectly fine without one.

I hope they work out for you :)

~~LA

 

[Shiny Fairymon]

Hi there- I have experience with Mega Steelix, and I think the main reason you used regular Steelix was so you could use leftovers for recovery. The one reason to use a normal 'mon over a Mega is that Megas can't hold items- which would appear to be your mindset here. Most recommended movesets for M-Steelix don't have any decent recovery moves on them. Because of that, I've found them to be worn down rather quickly. However, if you gave stealth rock to Archeops instead, then Mega-Steelix could have a ResTalk set for the sake of recovery, and thus remove any reasons you might have for not using the Mega version. I had it recommended to me by another user in a RMT I posted, and ResTalk Steelix is incredibly tanky. Also, I agree with Alphose's advice that gyro ball be replaced with heavy slam.

 

[Thynne28]

Thanks Lord Alphose, I could definitely feel those discrepancies with Steelix and Archeops moveset. I'm keen to try out these improvements and can already see a lot of previous gaps being covered. Everything is clearer with hindsight I guess. Although SmashPass is the basis of the team I might toy around with the idea of lead Vivillon then follow it up with Gorebyss. And lastly, fuck Ferroseed
Shiny Fairymon, The main reason I wasn't using M-Steelix was simply that I was having trouble actually having it, something to do with an unreleased tag...idk. But yeah definitely taking that on board, seems like it's valuable enough to bother figuring out ahah. Mega ignorance might also be attributed to my lack of XY and ORAS gameplay experience (thanks uni)
Definitely vibing on the support right now, got to admit it's pretty cool to experience people willing to lend a hand. Certainly feeling welcome right now