Excuse the double post, but the previous one was just introductory on what I intended to do. Kinda irrelevant now though since Hail is no longer with us... on the plus side Braviary will be far more effective. Anyway, I guess I'll go into the teambuilding process. But first of all I want to give big thanks to Agent Dell for being a huge help with the teambuilding process. You had some brilliant ideas mate, and I'm sure that the team wouldn't be the same without you help. Thanks a lot :D
So anyway, as previously stated, I decided to start off with Braviary. With the lack of Hail and Cinccino, Braviary was an excellent focal point, and I needed to find ways to support it. My first thought was: what's left in the tier that can actually threaten Braviary? Agent Dell and I quickly came to the conclusion: Electric types. Specifically Rotom-S, as not only is it faster than Braviary, it has the bulk to take multiple Brave Birds and OHKO. Other Electric mons such as Eelektross, Zebstrika, Electrode and Electabuzz aren't AS problematic, as they're either frail enough to be hurt by Brave Bird, or slow enough that Roost can remove Braviary's Flying-type, and thus his weakness to their STAB moves. Nevertheless, I decided that I wanted a solid switchin to Electric-types, and since Roselia just dropped, we figured why not give her a go?
Roselia gave us a nice switchin to Electric moves, and a lovely special tank. Spikes are also a godsend for Braviary, as most of his problem Pokemon are grounded. Next, we were kinda stuck thinking of a next Pokemon, so we turned to theorymoning the upcoming metagame. With Hail and Absol gone, we hypothesized that Musharna would be an incredibly dominating Pokemon in the tier. We thought about what could bring her down, and we immediately thought of Skuntank. However, I felt that I'd used Skuntank too much in my previous NU career, so I wanted something different. The problem was finding a Pokemon that can deal horrific damage to Musharna and have good synergy with my previous two Pokemon. I decided on Choice Band Golurk, for a couple of reasons. One, it already has lovely defensive synergy with Braviary. Two, it has lovely synergy with Spikes, spinblocking them and more importantly abusing them. With entry hazards, Golurk has a far better chance of bringing Musharna down with a single Shadow Punch.
Now it's fairly obvious what issue my team has: it's incredibly weak to Ice. It was absolutely crucial that my next Pokemon resist Ice. I wanted something that could take physical hits well, and act as a nice offensive pivot at the same time. I decided that I also wanted to fit Stealth Rock into this slot, so that I didn't end up slapping it on some random Pokemon towards the end. It's fairly obvious who my next Pokemon was going to be. Piloswine was something else that I had never personally used extensively, but I heard that a lot of players were praising it. Like Braviary, I wanted to see if it would live up to its hype.
This team was already starting to look pretty balanced. I had most of the things that I was already looking for in a solid balanced team: entry hazards, a spinblocker, a powerful offensive wallbreaker, a slow, bulky and deadly setup sweeper, priority, etc. My next thought to be honest was mainly to try and alleviate my Ice weakness a bit. Then I thought that I'd like a secondary setup sweeper, as well as a more solid bird check. I expressed these thoughts to Agent Dell, and I was already thinking Klang, since it's a Pokemon that I haven't used for a very long time. But then Agent Dell piped up with Carracosta. I decided why the hell not? I'd only ever used the tank Carracosta set, and was curious to try the dreaded Shell Smasher for myself. the nice meaty Fire resist was nice as well, otherwise Rapidash may have started to look troublesome for my team had I decided on Klang.
Something that I have to carry on every single team of mine is a Choice Scarfer. I love having the ability to revenge kill boosted threats. I brainstormed a bit with my teambuilding partner, and we decided that a nice fast Electric-type would benefit our team. I initially thought Zebstrika as it was another Pokemon that I'd never tried out before, but Agent Dell turned it down, informing me that it was really weak, and besides, we no longer needed the extra Speed for outrunning Cinccino. He had me convinced, as I want my revenge killer to pack a bit of a punch as well, and 80 base SpA just didn't cut it. Next I thought Rotom-S. It was a Pokemon that I'd used many, many times to great success, but I don't think Agent Dell was convinced. So I threw out Electabuzz as a last option, and he seemed pretty enthusiastic about the idea. It's understandable too, as Electabuzz can switch in and out more so than Rotom-S as it doesn't carry that Stealth Rock weakness. Vital Spirit was also a cool ability. I might have preferred Rotom-S, because even though it gave me another Ice weakness and was weak to SR, it was an excellent choice at fending off opposing Gurdurr, which is such an excellent Pokemon that I'm always afraid of it. We don't have a Psychic-type to take it out, and Braviary is neutral to Gurdurr's STAB, so I'll have to see. Meanwhile, I'll test Electabuzz, and if it doesn't work out I'll just switch to Rotom-S.
Here's the importable of the team:
So there you go, that's how I'd make a balanced team in this meta. I hope it was useful to the newer players, and while I've only played three matches with it (only challenges mind you, as PS! hasn't updated with Roselia yet) I've won them all. Ludicolo is a nasty bugger though, as he can 2HKO Roselia. Be sure not to switch her in on an Ice Beam, otherwise you've probably lost. Sludge Bomb can kill Ludicolo after SR, Spikes and LO recoil though. If you Poison it, all the better. If not, you'll have sacked Roselia but can revenge kill the crippled bastard with Ice Shard from Piloswine.