Untitled 3- a CAP Mollux Playtest RMT
 

Hey everyone, it's me posting the team I used during the Mollux Playtest. It served me pretty well during the playtest, getting me a record of 56-7 or something like that and winning the Mollux playtest with a rating of ~1960 or something like that.

Untitled 3

This team is almost the definition of balance, using both offensive and defensive Pokemon with good synergy to achieve one of two win conditions: either wear the opponent down with Sandstorm damage and hazards or to sweep the opponent with one of the two set-up sweepers on the team. The CAP 3 playtest metagame was a mostly balanced metagame with Sand and Rain teams dominating, so this team does seem rather cookie-cutter in retrospect. Still, I'm pretty proud of it and I would love to hear how others would edit or alter this team or even modify it to fit the current CAP metagame. Also now it has nicknames for all the pokemon! omg now you want to rate xd lol The team is as follows:

http://img.pokemondb.net/artwork/tyranitar.jpg


YOSO (Tyranitar) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
Adamant Nature (+Atk -SpA)
176 HP, 252 Attack, 80 Speed
-Stone Edge
-Crunch
-Pursuit
-Superpower

The headliner of this team is rarely the Pokemon that leads it. Tyranitar is a vitally important piece of this team because he combines titanic offense with great Special bulk. I've heard it a hundred times: "Mollux slows down matches", and that's true. Mollux is a wonderful defensive Pokemon whose impact on the metagame is so great that it turns 30 turn matches into 60 turn matches. Because Mollux increased the usage of slow, defensive Pokemon, Choice Band Tyranitar became one of the best sets in the metagame. Most slow, defensive Pokemon use support moves on most of their moveslots and use a mono-attacker set with a weak Special move (e.g. Heatran, Mollux, Tentacruel, Jellicent). Choice Band Tyranitar preys on those Pokemon because he switches in and can blast whatever switches in with a Crunch or Stone Edge. However, by far his best asset is a little move called Pursuit. In fact, that's where he gets his name from. YOSO is short for You Only Spin Once, because after Mollux switches into something like Skarmory and Rapid Spins, it promptly loses 60% of its health to Pursuit. Tyranitar simply slays Mollux.

http://faqsmedia.ign.com/faqs/image/ani227.gif

Its a Skarm (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Impish nature (+Def, -SpA)
252 HP, 228 Defense, 28 Speed
-Brave Bird
-Roost
-Spikes
-Whirlwind

This is a Skarmory. It does what most Skarmorys do. It comes in on stupid shit like Landorus and Spikes in their faces. Then it Whirlwinds out the Heatrans and Molluxs that switch in so they can't Spin or set up SR or whatever they feel like doing. It's fun to lol at mollux when it switches into SR+Spikes only to meet a random Whirlwind and then when it switches in again it's at 30% health and Tyranitar food. Also if stupid shit like Celebi or Terrakion is sweeping me i phaze them. yay skarm

http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/th...40Virizion.png

Surprise! (Virizion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
104 Attack, 152 Special Attack, 252 Speed
-Work Up
-Giga Drain
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge

When you see a Pokemon with base 90 offenses, the first thing you think of is "omg mixed work up", right? Right??? Okay, this set is a bit of a shocker, but it's a real diamond in the rough. It combines the Mollux-killing effects of Swords Dance with the "not dead in 3 turns because of LO+Sand" of Calm Mind to create a durable, powerful mixed sweeper. I try to keep Work Up secret for a long time in the match, as Mollux is a common switch-in to Virizion's Grass attacks. After the opponent sees Giga Drain, they'll stay in with their mollusk and then lose 65% of their health to Stone Edge. Looking back, one thing I would change on this team is to put more Attack EVs on Virizion to do a little more damage to Mollux, but I've rarely found it necessary. The opposite works as well. If the opponent wants to stall out Life Orb recoil after seeing Close Combat, I can surprise their Water-types with Giga Drain and restore half my health. Oddly enough, the one move I don't use often on Work Up Virizion is Work Up, as I prefer the surprise factor with the attacks. I often considered switching Work Up to Hidden Power (Ice) to troll Landorus, who can give this team a little trouble. Either way, this guy does work.

http://arkeis.com/images/pokemonfactory/reuniclus.png

The God (Reuniclus) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
252 HP 252 Defense 4 Special Defense
-Calm Mind
-Psychic
-Focus Blast
-Recover

The best set in the playtest, bar none. In a slow metagame where defensive Pokemon dominate, Calm Mind Reuniclus stands out as the #1 anti-metagame threat. He sets up on defensive Mollux, Politoed, some Tyranitar (though not recommended), Tentacruel, and just about anything that doesn't run super-effective attacks. Furthermore, Mollux made Rain twice as popular as usual and wiped Reuniclus's #1 counter, Scizor, off the face of the planet. Calm Mind Reuniclus is the primary late-game sweeper of Untitled 3, as he can come in at 100% health without caring about hazards and then wreck shop with massive defenses and over 400 Special attack with only one boost. Calm Mind Reuniclus beats a lot of teams all by himself and is, in my opinion, the best Pokemon in Mollux Playtest.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6...u8ro1_1280.png

Molly (Mollux) @ Leftovers
Ability: Dry Skin
Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
216 HP, 24 Defense, 252 Special Defense, 16 Speed
-Rapid Spin
-Recover
-Lava Plume
-Sludge Wave

Mollux is a great Pokemon on Sand teams because he does so well against Rain. People were saying that Mollux was underwhelming, but I disagree. I think people were asking too much of Mollux and spreading his talents too thin. Mollux, from what I've seen, can only afford to run one supportive move at once because he needs, needs, needs two attacking moves. Mollux is a Rain counter, and mono-attacking with Lava Plume just isn't going to get the job done. Sludge Wave is a great complement to Lava Plume because it's a powerful STAB attack that has surprisingly decent neutral coverage and gives Mollux a way to hit hard in the Rain. Thunderbolt could probably go here as well but it really doesn't matter. They're both good moves. The EVs are there to give him similar defensive stats to defensive Heatran and to Speed Creep something. I think it was Scizor maybe? idk

http://images.wikia.com/pokemon/imag...an_Artwork.png

Meatran (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Calm Nature (+SpD,-Atk)
252 HP, 244 Special Defense, 12 Speed
-Lava Plume
-Stealth Rock
-Earth Power
-Roar

Mollux's partner in crime, Specially defensive Heatran! Since Mollux can't do too much on his own, I gave him a partner in Heatran who pretty much does the same thing as Mollux. Since I pretty much dedicated two teamslots to the same thing, it's nice that I let both of them use coverage moves in Sludge Wave and Earth Power, respectively. Earth Power is magnificent in that it beats other Mollux and Heatran. Roar is great to stop Dragons (at least those foolish enough not to have Earthquake) from setting up. I usually like Protect here but in practice I rarely find myself wishing for it. Heatran's role is to set up Stealth Rock and check Mollux. Though Mollux is really not that threatening anyway.

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Okay, that's the team. I would love to hear feedback from anyone who's played against it, since I feel it could have been even better. Virizion is the Pokemon in particular I'm worried about, though he definitely pulled his weight in battle. Also here's a threat list, shamelessly stolen from the RMT section of Smogon:

nice team lolcat ther isn't really any chanes I can think of to do

Yeah... I was running a Smack Down Landorus in the play test and it looks bad for you. Alternatively Magnezone + Landorus would do the same. Not like either was common in the play test though. Virizion doesn't really need HP Ice to beat Landorus though. It already resists the edge quake and giga drains. Looking pretty hard at this for holes, I concur it's really just a solid team for what the playtest meta was. The biggest threat seems to be SunTrio and I wonder how you usually played around it.

i urinate upon this team and all that it stands for especially reuniclus because CBTAR SURVIVING +2 CELEBI GIGA DRAINS

also lando < virizion gg srk

Yes, Pwnemon. Of course. I'm not disagreeing now nor was I then, but as you see in his own threatlist: "Substitute + 3 Attacks - If there's no Smack Down then Skarmory. If there is then shit idk virizion?" I wrote in my post that Virizion doesn't need HP Ice to beat Landorus, as Lolcat was suggesting it did. I am in full agreement Virizion > Landorus.

But Virizion is not immortal, and if he thinks Skarm is enough to handle a Landorus that happens to have Smack Down, it's GG. That being said, I also said that his team was very solid, especially seeing as Smack Down Landorus is uncommon.

I still am wondering how he played around SunTrio teams. Dugtrio destroys half this team, and if running Aerial Ace for whatever reason, 4 of 6.

Well, I guess I should respond to the rates about SunTrio, as for some reason I never had too much trouble with it during the playtest.

I think the main reason I was able to contend with Dugtrio teams is that a lot of the people on the ladder simply did not play well with Dugtrio. For starters, many Dugtrio I fought used the Choice Band set, which is simply not that threatening as all it can do is fire off not-strong-enough Earthquakes. If I remember correctly, Tyranitar actually beats CB Dugtrio if at full health.

I played very conservatively when playing against Dugtrio teams, and attempted to predict Ninetales switch-ins as best I can to flat-out kill it before his buddy Dugtrio can trap Tar. I almost never switched to anything besides Reuniclus, Virizion, and Skarmory with the opponent had an active Dugtrio, and when I did switch to a Dugtrio-weak Pokemon it was only to lure the mole into Spikes and a switch into Reuniclus, Skarm, or Viri.

If Mollux, Tar, or Heatran were to bite the bullet against Dugtrio, then I would immediately go to Reuniclus for setup opportunity and switch the momentum right in my favor. If Dugtrio wants to revenge something, then Dugtrio's master better be prepared to face a +1 Reuniclus. Since Scizor is nowhere to be seen in this metagame and Dugtrio is rarely paired with Tyranitar, there is very little on the average team that can take down Reuniclus.

Furthermore, I am not super-concerned with losing the weather war. If Dugtrio does get in on Tyranitar, then it's probably not getting out with more than 1% of its HP. Choice Band Dugtrio has a lolriffic 1% chance or something like that to KO Tyranitar, and Reversal Duggy has to Substitute down to 1 HP to beat the rock monster. Assuming I'm fighting in the Sun for the rest of the battle, I very well could still have the advantage because Reuniclus will definitely get a setup opportunity and Reuniclus fares pretty well against Sun teams.

So I guess in short my strategy against SunTrio is to outpredict my opponent until the opponent's Ninetales is dead or I'm in a postition to sweep with Reuniclus regardless of weather. If I can't outplay my opponent with this strategy, I might be in for a rough ride. It's definitely better with this team to play conservatively with this team unless you know Ninetales is coming in, in which you trapkill it with tar.

on ginga's rate: hmm I remember that battle pretty well. Psyshock might be a good move to use there as it makes Volcarona a much smaller issue against this team. I wish Psyshock was just a little stronger so it could also beat other CM Reuniclus though... Thanks for the rate!

I didn't play much at all this playtest but I often did end up playing you with Duggy + Sun and it really did threaten you. I was able to trap Heatran with Duggy, and then bring in Morning Sun Volcarona on Reuniclus and force a win from there.

There is not really much you can (or could) do about this since after I trap Tran, you do struggle against it, especially as Mollux, Tar and Tran are all easily trapped by Duggy. Just a quick fix I could recomend is running Psyshock over Psychic on Reuniclus. A +1 Psyshock would hurt the fuck out of Volcarona and basically means that it cannot risk staying in too long against you. Its a small change, but I think it would just give you a little more of an edge against sun.

Just something to consider.