ORAS NU First NU team, would love advice and rating

[0Riah]

Vileplume @ Black Sludge
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Aromatherapy
Physically defensive mon. The effect spore has a good chance to punish contact hitters and sludge bomb adds if effect spore doesnt hit. Aromatherapy cures status effects that otherwise cripple my team. Giga drain gets stab and refills health pretty well, especially on seismatoad is he decides to stay in. synthesis helps keep vileplume alive along with black sludge and giga drain if needed.

Seismitoad @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Sludge Bomb
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
Special tank of sorts. Assault vest and max sp def do its thing well. Scald gets stab and burn chance for any physIcal attackers that may want to switch in (plus mega camerupt will go down faster with a modest stab 4x effective scald) and earth power for stab and raw power. Focus blast hits audino if I get it on the switch and sludge bomb hits it otherwise, as well as grass types like carnivine and fairies like granbull. i like the idea of an assault vest better than a rock setter since i used it as a setter before and it was more of a liabilty.

Sawk (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpA
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
Physical hard hitter. Choice close combat hits hard and knock off hits psychic switch ins, any nothing likes losing an item. Ice punch for coverage on flying types and the physically defensive vileplume switch and earthquake for weezing with mold breaker if it decides to try to switch in.

Magmortar @ Expert Belt
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA
- Focus Blast
- Fire Blast
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
Special sweeper. Coverage in focus blast for rock types that want to come in like a kabutops and any bastiodon or probopass and thunderbolt for both water types aside from seismotode and flying types like swana who resist fire blast and focus blast. Psychic hits fighting types like hariyama a bit harder than my other attacks.

Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Jet
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
Physical attacker. Aqua jet gets priority plus stab with a hopeful swords dance boost. Knock off since no one likes losing an item, and stone edge for stab and guts swellow hates it since it can tank a guts boosted brave bird and finish it off with an aqua jet.

Glalie-Mega @ Glalitite
Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Ice Shard
Ice shard gets priority and stab, so it can revenge kill swellow if kabutops if out of the game already, plus revenge weakened mons a little easier. explosion for kamekaze since almost nothing will survive that, and return hits harder when speed isnt a problem. Earthquake hits rock types that may want to tank a hit and take me out like kabutops or even the rare bastiodon or probopass. steel types like klingklang wont like an earthquake and fire types like magmortar cant take an earthquake

any suggestion would be wonderful. Please and thank you :)

 

[0Riah]

I will fix that now, thank you much :)

 

[0Riah]

Fixed :) Lucina09

wait, looks like my phone and computer have a different idea of what 3 lines or more looks like, back to typing

 

[HJAD]

Hi. Welcome to Smogon!

When it came down to your team, the core of the team seemed very solid for a hyper offense team. So it would be great to treat it as such.

My first preposed change is to swap AV Seismitoad for Anti-Lead Archeops. All the sets will be below but in the first few turns it would be best to try and keep rocks off the field and try and get them on yourself as to pressure the opponent to spin them himself.

Also, you should probably change Kabutops to a Spinner varient. You have mega glalie and Magmortar both weak to Stealth Rocks, it would help their sweeping potential a lot. In this case just drop Knock Off for Rapid Spin and Swords Dance for Waterfall.

A couple changes to EV spreads:
Vileplume despite the fact you list it as your physical wall has EV's for an offensive set. I would reccomend reverting to a 248 HP/ 252 Def/ 8 Spe EV spread with a Bold Nature to improve physical tankiness.
The other EV spread I have qualms with is Magmortar. I would change the spread to 4 Def/252 SpA/252 Spe spread with a modest nature. Also as a side hint, you would want to remove IV changes since you are hindering your Mon for no reason (you were probably using HP Grass but forgot to change the IVs back!)

Archeops Set:
Archeops @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly Nature
-Head Smash
-Taunt
-Stealth Rock
-Endeavour
The main premise with this is to lead with it prevent rocks, get them up yourself then endeavour or head smash.

 

[0Riah]

HJAD huh, well look at that, looks like i put in the wrong evs for vileplume, i would never have noticed that, thanks. and yea i was doing hp grass but didnt like it. im somehwhat new to showdown since im using it to test things out for my Alpha sapphire. which mon on my team do you suggest i forgo for the archeops?

 

[HJAD]

HJAD huh, well look at that, looks like i put in the wrong evs for vileplume, i would never have noticed that, thanks. and yea i was doing hp grass but didnt like it. im somehwhat new to showdown since im using it to test things out for my Alpha sapphire. which mon on my team do you suggest i forgo for the archeops?

I suggest forgoing the AV Seismitoad. You had a decent weakness to grass at this point and since Seis didn't carry rocks, it seem kinda redundant. Having a lead Archeops always helps out hyper offense as its effective at keeping rocks off the field and setting them up. This is important on hyper offense since you want the opponent to succumb to all the pressure your mons put on him. Stealth Rock, and the removal of it is vital to any teams success.

Edit: set can be found in above post. If you want to use it.

 

[0Riah]

I suggest forgoing the AV Seismitoad. You had a decent weakness to grass at this point and since Seis didn't carry rocks, it seem kinda redundant. Having a lead Archeops always helps out hyper offense as its effective at keeping rocks off the field and setting them up. This is important on hyper offense since you want the opponent to succumb to all the pressure your mons put on him. Stealth Rock, and the removal of it is vital to any teams success.

Edit: set can be found in above post. If you want to use it.

Hmm, okay, so you said earlier that my team is solid for a hyper offense team. What does that mean exactly? I assume something along the lines of all threats that smash the other team. In this case, what other types of teams could I run? The more the better, since I use pokemon as an outlet for my always racing mind and love of strategic thinking. Perhaps the fact I never thought of hyper offence vs other types of teams may be why I have a bit of trouble (mixing up roles when I should have other pokes like in the case of using archeops). So yea, could you give me a rough run down of other types/categories of teams?

 

[Fling]

Hmm, okay, so you said earlier that my team is solid for a hyper offense team. What does that mean exactly? I assume something along the lines of all threats that smash the other team. In this case, what other types of teams could I run? The more the better, since I use pokemon as an outlet for my always racing mind and love of strategic thinking. Perhaps the fact I never thought of hyper offence vs other types of teams may be why I have a bit of trouble (mixing up roles when I should have other pokes like in the case of using archeops). So yea, could you give me a rough run down of other types/categories of teams?

The 3 main team archetypes are stall, balance and offense. Offensive is probably the most popular playstyle in NU at the moment due to there being so many amazing power house's like mega glalie and pangoro. Balance is still a good playstyle but its harder to build around the threats in the tier and trying to build a good stall team in this tier is very difficult due to pangoro being an amazing wall breaker.

 

[0Riah]

HJAD i took your advice and tried out the anti lead archeops. To help out the team a bit i also swapped out sawk for AV Hariyama max sp def and max atk with knock off ice punch close combat and bullet punch. if a weezing wants to come in i simply knock off or bullet punch (ill do a damage calc to see what does more, though i think its knock off plus it takes away the black sludge) then switch to magmortar while they try to burn me and use psychic. im liking it so far, i also adjusted kabutops as you suggested to try it out

Fling > Knock Off much thanks! ill try to do more research, would you by any chance (and i know this may be a bit to ask) gives examples of the three for a bit of better understanding for me? if not i totally understand, to give examples of 3 teams is a lot. if you would do so, feel free to use the OU tier as the example teir so there are more choices and its esier to build the specific team archtype. thanks again :)

 

[marilli]

I really do think your choice of Hariyama over Sawk is great, and was about to suggest that if you were to follow hjad's advice and go with Archeops lead. Your initial team really needs SR. I'm not sure if Archeops is the best fit but it's much better than not having SR at all.

Another issue I had with this team other than having no SR, was how slow it is for an offensive team. Your fastest Pokemon is Glalie, at base 100 speed. That's not very fast, and you are very weak to fast threats like Pyroar, Sneasel, etc., basically any fast threat your Vileplume + Seis cannot take on, you'll lose to it. This is worsened by the fact that you indeed have a random defensive Vileplume that allows your opponents to set up! Stuff like Klinklang easily sets up on Vileplume right now and it's a clean sweep from there because you don't have a secondary defensive mon to cover. In fact, try HP Fire over Aromatherapy on Vileplume. Your team is mostly offensive so Aromatherapy support isn't as necessary. Having HP Fire lets you get less wrecked by Klinklang.

Low speed calls for some sort of a revenge killer, and Glalie Ice Shard isn't enough. AV Hariyama not only tanks special attacks all day, you have Fake Out and Bullet Punch which helps immensely against weather teams and such. Instead of Ice Punch, try Fake Out instead. Ice Punch is only for hitting Vileplume, which is OK, but your team doesn't have trouble with Vileplume at all. Kabutops +2 LO Stone Edge will do a bit too much for Vileplume with prior damage, and Magmortar and Glalie just smash Vileplume outright. So instead of the unnecessary Ice Punch, Fake Out helps you finish off faster threats.

Finally, try Will-o-wisp over Psychic on Magmortar. Psychic only hits Hariyama, which is crippled by Will-o-Wisp anyways. Will-o-wisp also allows you to bypass Sucker Punch, and cripple other switch-ins if necessary.

Team archetypes aren't exactly clear-cut. You can think of it as a spectrum all the way from Hyper Offense to Full Stall. As Fling > Knock Off said it's loosely divided into offense, balanced, stall. If you get more subdivisions you might get stuff like Hyper Offense - Bulky Offense - Balance - Semi-Stall - Full Stall, but it's not really that important.

Here is an example of an Offensive team.

Brawlfest's Jumpluff Hyper Offense

Liepard @ Dread Plate
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough
- Encore

Rotom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Trick

Jumpluff
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Acrobatics
- Sleep Powder
- Swords Dance

Glalie-Mega @ Glalitite
Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Explosion
- Ice Shard
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake

Feraligatr @ Lum Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Return / Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

Crustle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Spikes

Note that he has 1 hazard user which stacks hazards asap, has 4 hard hitters, and a revenge killer in Rotom and strong priority in 3 of his Pokemon. Hyper offense aims to be in control. This means you don't have to deal with all threats reactively which is pretty hard given how many threats there are. All of his Pokemon bar Crustle is doing so much damage they cannot afford to set up against him, and if they dare they'll get Encored by Liepard. His team is pretty frail bar his Feraligatr but this is a non-issue because he aims to be always on the offensive, rarely needing to switch into attacks. If he has to switch out, these types of team will gladly sack a Pokemon to keep the offense going.

Balanced:

Teddeh's Balanced

Ninetales @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Energy Ball
- Psyshock

Musharna @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Moonlight
- Heal Bell

Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Close Combat

Archeops
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 232 HP / 64 Atk / 212 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Roost
- Taunt
- Defog

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Vileplume @ Leftovers
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonlight
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Lazy EVs because I don't know his and outdated team but you can see he has a solid defensive core in Vileplume / Seismitoad, Musharna and Hariyama takes damage while doing some themselves, Nintales and Archeops give the team some offense while providing the team with some utility. He has lots of resists, immunities, and defensive power to take on things, but at the same time he can easily go on the offensive at the right times. They are called balanced because they have both offensive and defensive threats. Unlike the other 2 teams i don't think he's posted this anywhere but I dont think he'll mind because everyone knows this team lol

Stall:

ium and sebixxl's Zweilous Stall

Zweilous @ Eviolite
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Roar
- Crunch

Garbodor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 44 SpD / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Gunk Shot
- Toxic Spikes
- Pain Split

Xatu @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dazzling Gleam
- Heat Wave
- Calm Mind
- Roost

Kabutops @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 76 HP / 180 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet
- Rapid Spin

Leafeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Leaf Blade
- Heal Bell

Steelix @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Roar

Somewhat outdated because of Pangoro but still usable. You can see how he tries to cover most things defensively. He can do damage with attacks if he wants, too, but Stall teams rely mainly on hazards, Roar, and status to rack up damage. They usually also have a 'win condition' which is a bulky sweeper with recovery, allowing him to run through the opponents' whittled down teams.

 

[0Riah]

marilli

This forum is awesome. SSo many helpful people! Much thanks! I use psychic to beat weezing, but if you think its.not needed I dont mind trying it out. And ice punch on hariyama is not needed as much, I agree. Since glalie gets both priority in ice shard or return if it outspeeds. I have school now but ill analyze your response more after. Much thanks and any other suggestions are welcome. This is beyond helpful in understanding how to play better im very greatful

 

[HJAD]

marilli

This forum is awesome. SSo many helpful people! Much thanks! I use psychic to beat weezing, but if you think its.not needed I dont mind trying it out. And ice punch on hariyama is not needed as much, I agree. Since glalie gets both priority in ice shard or return if it outspeeds. I have school now but ill analyze your response more after. Much thanks and any other suggestions are welcome. This is beyond helpful in understanding how to play better im very greatful

You really don't need Psychic for Weezing, since your main stab literally annihilates it. Its much worth running Will-o to cripple the likes of hariyama (and others) rather than running coverage PURELY for hariyama itself.

 

[0Riah]

You really don't need Psychic for Weezing, since your main stab literally annihilates it. Its much worth running Will-o to cripple the likes of hariyama (and others) rather than running coverage PURELY for hariyama itself.

alright, ill tweak my team now and give it shot, if all goes well ill take this team and make it in my alpha sapphire game and see how i do in wifi battles (specifically with other people doing NU)

 

[0Riah]

HJAD marilli

I made a few changes to the team. I switched out the expert belt on magmortar for a choice scarf which seems to be working fantastically for me so far. I noticed the evs on my hariyama were off so I fixed them (for some reason my phone likes to disagree with me and accidentally click the suggested ev spread without me noticing. I think this will be my first team for alpha sapphire NU competitive :)