(NU) Team SoulRock

Dracoyoshi8 · Feb 3rd, 2013, 7:20:24 PM

By Koukouvayia of deviantART

INTRODUCTION

I'm Dracoyoshi8, and this is NU. In terms of variety and overall balance (with some feline exceptions), Neverused is probably the best tier that I've played in Gen V. The number of Pokemon that are viable is staggering. It his home to many fan favorites like Charizard, Butterfree and Pikachu as well as numerous obscure and forgotten Pokemon, like Chimecho and Mothim. It is a tier where getting creative and even gimmicky can often lead to success, and most of the best sets don't come from the onsite analyses. With that in mind, it is easy to see why I was drawn to it, in addition to the fact that many off my favorite Pokemon happen to reside in it.

Team SoulRock is essentially my first real success and what finally allowed me to break the 1700 benchmark, often one point per match. It was fun path to walk, though, as the NU community is one of the funniest, good-sported and creative Pokemon communities, including players who frequent Smogon and those who don't even have a forum account. It is generally surprising to see the sportsmanship of the players, especially with some of the things that they face regularly on the ladder. So, it is without further adieu that I present...

* __| ~SOULROCK~|__ *
|

|
* __________________________ *

/

Levitate
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
~

Stealth Rock
~

Morning Sun
~

Will-O-Wisp
~

Rock Slide

Solrock is amazing. Seriously, it is. It can take physical hits like a champ with Will-O-Wisp and its good Defense, heal with Morning Sun, set up Stealth Rock and switch in on Earthquake or Return with incredible ease. Will-O-Wisp is really the pièce de résistance. There is nothing more satisfying than hitting a Skuntank or Samurott on the switch with a burn. Rock Slide is there mostly to avoid being forced to Struggle by Taunt and for hitting birds, who Solrock can take on quite well. Solrock's ability to consistently get up rocks and cripple attackers has earned it the honor of being the title of the team. He really is, like matthew, much too bright.

/

Harvest
4 Spd / 252 HP / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature
~

Air Slash
~

Roost
~

Leaf Storm
~

Whirlwind

Tropius is easily my second favorite Pokemon, so I try to use it when I can. On this team, it serves a triple role: bulky attacker, status absorber and phazer. Air Slash is an excellent move in NU, as it hits common threats like Sawk, Ludicolo and Gurdurr for great damage. Leaf Storm is there for when I need more power. Roost allows Tropius to stay alive and take Rock-type moves fairly well, in addition to recovering off SR damage. Whirlwind punishes stat boosters or SR weak counters to Tropius, such as Regice and Charizard. Harvest and Lum Berry is an awesome combination that allows Tropius (or Exeggutor) to repeatedly take status. I chose Tropius over Eggy not only because it's awesome, but also because I preferred a 4x Ice weakness to a 4x Bug weakness along with a weakness to Pursuit.

/

Solid Rock
252 SAtk / 32 HP / 224 Spd
Timid Nature
~

Fire Blast
~

Earth Power
~

Eruption
~

Hidden Power

Someone on IRC suggested Choice Specs Camerupt to me. This turned out to be a very good suggestion, because SpecsRupt is a total beast. Very, very few things can safely switch into a full-health Eruption. Fire Blast is the back-up Fire STAB, still packing plenty of power. Earth Power is a great Ground-STAB and has a very useful secondary effect. Hidden Power Rock hits Altaria, Mantine and other such Pokemon for super-effective damage. The Speed allows Camerupt to outpace things like Alomomola, who would otherwise for it out.

/

Torrent
252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Timid Nature
~

Hydro Pump
~

Ice Beam
~

Hidden Power
~

Scald

Most people use Swords Dance Samurott, which is fine. However, Samurott can use its great Special Attack to be an extremely effective revenge killer and lategame cleaner, thanks to Choice Scarf. Hydro Pump is the main STAB move, as it completely decimates anything that doesn't resist it or have gargantuan Special Defense. Ice Beam hits Grass-types and birds while Hidden Power Grass allows Samurott to deal with Seismitoad and other Water-types. Scald is the reliable STAB move and has the chance to burn something like Ludicolo on the switch, which kicks ass.

/

Sticky Hold
252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
~

Shadow Sneak
~

Haze
~

Poison Jab
~

Brick Break

Muk is an excellent Pokemon. Some people prefer Weezing for Will-O-Wisp and Levitate or Garbodor for Spikes, but when you need a pure Poison-type who can bring the hurt and take a hit like a champ, Muk is the best choice, bar none. Haze is Muk's ace up the sleeve, as it allows it to take out bulky Pokemon who require numerous boosts to do damage or fix Attack drops from Intimidate. Poison Jab is the STAB of choice for its reliability. Shadow Sneak allows Muk to get the jump on Ghost-types and take out weakened Pokemon. Brickl Break ensures that Steel- and Rock-types don't utterly wall it. Thanks to Sticky Hold, Muk can hang on to its Black Sludge and block Trick, which is always a boon. Muk is also my best answer to Articuno thanks to its bulk, who is this team's biggest concern.

/

Scrappy
252 Atk / 212 HP / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature
~

Drain Punch
~

Return
~

Sucker Punch
~

Substitute

Kangaskhan is, in my opinion, the best Normal-type in NU. She is strong, incredibly durable and, most importantly, versatile. Kangaskhan is sort of the glue that holds this team together. She can come in on just about anything, throw up Substitute to block status and start throwing around incredibly powerful Returns. Drain Punch is great for recovery and hitting the likes of Bastiodon for heavy damage. Sucker Punch allows her to revenge-kill faster Pokemon and trap opponents while behind a Substitute. The EVs allow her to make 101 Substitutes, meaning Seismic Toss won't be able to break them. Leftovers allow for passive recovery, which helps her produce more Substitutes in the long run.

CONCLUSION
I hoped you enjoyed my RMT. All compliments, critiques and criticisms are appreciated. If you haven't tried NU, I highly recommend you do. See ya on the ladder!

credits to:
serebii.net, for the images
#neverused, for tolerating all my liepard rants and being awesome
FLCL, for me unintentionally stealing his rmt name
Raseri, for being adorable
and the NU PS! ladder, for all the great matches

~

**FLCL** · Feb 3rd, 2013, 7:27:50 PM

this is a cool team, but i see a problem to faster sweepers such as gorebyss and sawsbuck. running fake out over substitute can help you wear down these threats faster since you can bombard them with priority.

you should also try out chesto berry and rest on tropius to abuse harvest even more. you can still absorb status but gain the ability to recover all of your hp at once.

ium · Feb 3rd, 2013, 9:42:07 PM

redoing my rate. :(

solrock / tropius / choice specs camerupt / choice scarf samurott / muk / kangaskhan

yeah, so it looks like swift swim water-types are a bit of a bitch to deal with for your team. muk could take one hit, but that's pretty much all you got as your "line of defense." musharna is also problematic, because it fears nothing aside from your camerupt, and can proceed to set up from there.

water-types such as gorebyss and carracosta can rip through your team at +2, so running choice scarf rotom-s over tropius will help you check such pokemon while being able to maintain a fighting-type resistance. it also has trick to dissuade musharna from setting up so easily.

since rotom-s is the scarf user of choice, samurott can just use its standard special set. the last slot can be dedicated to either taunt or megahorn. the former helps a bit against musharna and stealth rock users while the latter is if you want to nail ludicolo trying to switch in for free.

lastly, muk feels a bit out of place because it doesn't offer too much aside from haze. even though haze is generally a useful move, muk doesn't make good use of it when setup sweepers already hit it hard or when muk can already hit such sweepers hard right off the bat. therefore, i think life orb gardevoir would be interesting here for a number of reasons. it offers something that can revenge kill swift swim and chlorophyll pokemon that plague a majority of your team. it also has destiny bond to remove troublesome pokemon as a last resort.

of course, i also agree with flcl's minor change. fake out on kangaskhan is extremely helpful since your team is still a little slow against some of the fastest threats in NU.

summary:
solrock / choice scarf rotom-s ~~tropius~~ / choice specs camerupt / life orb ~~choice scarf~~ samurott / life orb gardevoir ~~muk~~ / fake out ~~substitute~~ kangaskhan

sets

**Raseri** · Feb 5th, 2013, 2:10:21 AM

solrock / tropius / camerupt / samurott / muk / kangaskhan

This is clearly the greatest NU team in existence. Your use of both Tropius AND Solrock show that you know much more about the tier than me, but I do have a few small suggestions to fix this team up.

One weakness I see that this team has is against offensive psychic-types. Switching into Gardevoir is a bitch for this team, it can do major damage to everything!

I believe that you can fix this issue by using a specially defensive ludicolo (or lombre ) over Muk. Ludicolo is able to take on the offensive water types that you struggle with, while also taking on psychics better than most other things. This does make you weaker to Articuno, but it is rare and Muk isnt exactly the best answer anyways :). The set I believe would help you the most is:

Ludicolo @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish / Swift Swim / Own Tempo if you hate Liepard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SpDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Giga Drain
- Synthesis
- Toxic / Ice Beam

Toxic can let you hit Articuno on the switch, they will come in once they realize you're bulky, other than that I believe its pretty standard. If you have any questions let me know!!

tl;dr

WhiteDMist · Feb 7th, 2013, 1:24:49 PM

After testing this team a few times, I've still found myself prett stumped on what to suggest that no one else has already. The only thing that I think doesn't work as well is the EVs for Kangaskhan. If you have a spread of 216 Spd / 252 Atk / 40 HP with a Jolly Nature, you outspeed +Spe base 85s like Articuno. You can keep Sub too, or you can go for Life Orb for the power boost. It's not like that many Pokes use Seismic Toss in the first place, you opposing Wartortle are a free switch for Tropius. Nice Team! :)

Feb 3rd, 2013, 7:20:24 PM	#1
Dracoyoshi8 weapon of mass seduction Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 600 intentionally infiltrates	Team SoulRock By Koukouvayia of deviantART INTRODUCTION I'm Dracoyoshi8, and this is NU. In terms of variety and overall balance (with some feline exceptions), Neverused is probably the best tier that I've played in Gen V. The number of Pokemon that are viable is staggering. It his home to many fan favorites like Charizard, Butterfree and Pikachu as well as numerous obscure and forgotten Pokemon, like Chimecho and Mothim. It is a tier where getting creative and even gimmicky can often lead to success, and most of the best sets don't come from the onsite analyses. With that in mind, it is easy to see why I was drawn to it, in addition to the fact that many off my favorite Pokemon happen to reside in it. Team SoulRock is essentially my first real success and what finally allowed me to break the 1700 benchmark, often one point per match. It was fun path to walk, though, as the NU community is one of the funniest, good-sported and creative Pokemon communities, including players who frequent Smogon and those who don't even have a forum account. It is generally surprising to see the sportsmanship of the players, especially with some of the things that they face regularly on the ladder. So, it is without further adieu that I present... * __\| ~SOULROCK~\|__ * \|\| * __________________________ * / Levitate 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd Impish Nature ~Stealth Rock ~Morning Sun ~Will-O-Wisp ~Rock Slide Solrock is amazing. Seriously, it is. It can take physical hits like a champ with Will-O-Wisp and its good Defense, heal with Morning Sun, set up Stealth Rock and switch in on Earthquake or Return with incredible ease. Will-O-Wisp is really the pièce de résistance. There is nothing more satisfying than hitting a Skuntank or Samurott on the switch with a burn. Rock Slide is there mostly to avoid being forced to Struggle by Taunt and for hitting birds, who Solrock can take on quite well. Solrock's ability to consistently get up rocks and cripple attackers has earned it the honor of being the title of the team. He really is, like matthew, much too bright. / Harvest 4 Spd / 252 HP / 252 SAtk Modest Nature ~Air Slash ~Roost ~Leaf Storm ~Whirlwind Tropius is easily my second favorite Pokemon, so I try to use it when I can. On this team, it serves a triple role: bulky attacker, status absorber and phazer. Air Slash is an excellent move in NU, as it hits common threats like Sawk, Ludicolo and Gurdurr for great damage. Leaf Storm is there for when I need more power. Roost allows Tropius to stay alive and take Rock-type moves fairly well, in addition to recovering off SR damage. Whirlwind punishes stat boosters or SR weak counters to Tropius, such as Regice and Charizard. Harvest and Lum Berry is an awesome combination that allows Tropius (or Exeggutor) to repeatedly take status. I chose Tropius over Eggy not only because it's awesome, but also because I preferred a 4x Ice weakness to a 4x Bug weakness along with a weakness to Pursuit. / Solid Rock 252 SAtk / 32 HP / 224 Spd Timid Nature ~Fire Blast ~Earth Power ~Eruption ~Hidden Power Someone on IRC suggested Choice Specs Camerupt to me. This turned out to be a very good suggestion, because SpecsRupt is a total beast. Very, very few things can safely switch into a full-health Eruption. Fire Blast is the back-up Fire STAB, still packing plenty of power. Earth Power is a great Ground-STAB and has a very useful secondary effect. Hidden Power Rock hits Altaria, Mantine and other such Pokemon for super-effective damage. The Speed allows Camerupt to outpace things like Alomomola, who would otherwise for it out. / Torrent 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP Timid Nature ~Hydro Pump ~Ice Beam ~Hidden Power ~Scald Most people use Swords Dance Samurott, which is fine. However, Samurott can use its great Special Attack to be an extremely effective revenge killer and lategame cleaner, thanks to Choice Scarf. Hydro Pump is the main STAB move, as it completely decimates anything that doesn't resist it or have gargantuan Special Defense. Ice Beam hits Grass-types and birds while Hidden Power Grass allows Samurott to deal with Seismitoad and other Water-types. Scald is the reliable STAB move and has the chance to burn something like Ludicolo on the switch, which kicks ass. / Sticky Hold 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef Adamant Nature ~Shadow Sneak ~Haze ~Poison Jab ~Brick Break Muk is an excellent Pokemon. Some people prefer Weezing for Will-O-Wisp and Levitate or Garbodor for Spikes, but when you need a pure Poison-type who can bring the hurt and take a hit like a champ, Muk is the best choice, bar none. Haze is Muk's ace up the sleeve, as it allows it to take out bulky Pokemon who require numerous boosts to do damage or fix Attack drops from Intimidate. Poison Jab is the STAB of choice for its reliability. Shadow Sneak allows Muk to get the jump on Ghost-types and take out weakened Pokemon. Brickl Break ensures that Steel- and Rock-types don't utterly wall it. Thanks to Sticky Hold, Muk can hang on to its Black Sludge and block Trick, which is always a boon. Muk is also my best answer to Articuno thanks to its bulk, who is this team's biggest concern. / Scrappy 252 Atk / 212 HP / 44 Spd Adamant Nature ~Drain Punch ~Return ~Sucker Punch ~Substitute Kangaskhan is, in my opinion, the best Normal-type in NU. She is strong, incredibly durable and, most importantly, versatile. Kangaskhan is sort of the glue that holds this team together. She can come in on just about anything, throw up Substitute to block status and start throwing around incredibly powerful Returns. Drain Punch is great for recovery and hitting the likes of Bastiodon for heavy damage. Sucker Punch allows her to revenge-kill faster Pokemon and trap opponents while behind a Substitute. The EVs allow her to make 101 Substitutes, meaning Seismic Toss won't be able to break them. Leftovers allow for passive recovery, which helps her produce more Substitutes in the long run. CONCLUSION I hoped you enjoyed my RMT. All compliments, critiques and criticisms are appreciated. If you haven't tried NU, I highly recommend you do. See ya on the ladder! credits to: serebii.net, for the images #neverused, for tolerating all my liepard rants and being awesome FLCL, for me unintentionally stealing his rmt name Raseri, for being adorable and the NU PS! ladder, for all the great matches ~~~~~~~~~ __________________

Feb 3rd, 2013, 7:27:50 PM	#2
FLCL Moderator Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 1,039	this is a cool team, but i see a problem to faster sweepers such as gorebyss and sawsbuck. running fake out over substitute can help you wear down these threats faster since you can bombard them with priority. you should also try out chesto berry and rest on tropius to abuse harvest even more. you can still absorb status but gain the ability to recover all of your hp at once. __________________

Feb 3rd, 2013, 9:42:07 PM	#3
ium Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 463 Mentor	redoing my rate. :( solrock / tropius / choice specs camerupt / choice scarf samurott / muk / kangaskhan yeah, so it looks like swift swim water-types are a bit of a bitch to deal with for your team. muk could take one hit, but that's pretty much all you got as your "line of defense." musharna is also problematic, because it fears nothing aside from your camerupt, and can proceed to set up from there. water-types such as gorebyss and carracosta can rip through your team at +2, so running choice scarf rotom-s over tropius will help you check such pokemon while being able to maintain a fighting-type resistance. it also has trick to dissuade musharna from setting up so easily. since rotom-s is the scarf user of choice, samurott can just use its standard special set. the last slot can be dedicated to either taunt or megahorn. the former helps a bit against musharna and stealth rock users while the latter is if you want to nail ludicolo trying to switch in for free. lastly, muk feels a bit out of place because it doesn't offer too much aside from haze. even though haze is generally a useful move, muk doesn't make good use of it when setup sweepers already hit it hard or when muk can already hit such sweepers hard right off the bat. therefore, i think life orb gardevoir would be interesting here for a number of reasons. it offers something that can revenge kill swift swim and chlorophyll pokemon that plague a majority of your team. it also has destiny bond to remove troublesome pokemon as a last resort. of course, i also agree with flcl's minor change. fake out on kangaskhan is extremely helpful since your team is still a little slow against some of the fastest threats in NU. summary: solrock / choice scarf rotom-s ~~tropius~~ / choice specs camerupt / life orb ~~choice scarf~~ samurott / life orb gardevoir ~~muk~~ / fake out ~~substitute~~ kangaskhan sets Rotom-Fan @ Choice Scarf Trait: Levitate EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def Timid Nature - Volt Switch - Thunderbolt - Air Slash - Trick Samurott @ Life Orb Trait: Torrent EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def Timid Nature - Hydro Pump - Ice Beam - Hidden Power [Grass] / Hidden Power [Electric] - Taunt / Megahorn Gardevoir @ Life Orb Trait: Trace EVs: 252 Spd / 4 Def / 252 SAtk Timid Nature - Psychic - Shadow Ball - Focus Blast - Destiny Bond

Feb 5th, 2013, 2:10:21 AM	#4
Raseri I'm a leaf on the wind; watch how i soar Moderator Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 1,806 Mentor	solrock / tropius / camerupt / samurott / muk / kangaskhan This is clearly the greatest NU team in existence. Your use of both Tropius AND Solrock show that you know much more about the tier than me, but I do have a few small suggestions to fix this team up. One weakness I see that this team has is against offensive psychic-types. Switching into Gardevoir is a bitch for this team, it can do major damage to everything! I believe that you can fix this issue by using a specially defensive ludicolo (or lombre ) over Muk. Ludicolo is able to take on the offensive water types that you struggle with, while also taking on psychics better than most other things. This does make you weaker to Articuno, but it is rare and Muk isnt exactly the best answer anyways :). The set I believe would help you the most is: Ludicolo @ Leftovers Trait: Rain Dish / Swift Swim / Own Tempo if you hate Liepard EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SpDef Calm Nature - Scald - Giga Drain - Synthesis - Toxic / Ice Beam Toxic can let you hit Articuno on the switch, they will come in once they realize you're bulky, other than that I believe its pretty standard. If you have any questions let me know!! tl;dr Ludicolo > Muk

Feb 7th, 2013, 1:24:49 PM	#5
WhiteDMist If happy ever after did exist Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 567 I'm at a payphone!	After testing this team a few times, I've still found myself prett stumped on what to suggest that no one else has already. The only thing that I think doesn't work as well is the EVs for Kangaskhan. If you have a spread of 216 Spd / 252 Atk / 40 HP with a Jolly Nature, you outspeed +Spe base 85s like Articuno. You can keep Sub too, or you can go for Life Orb for the power boost. It's not like that many Pokes use Seismic Toss in the first place, you opposing Wartortle are a free switch for Tropius. Nice Team! :) __________________ Message me for NU RMT rates! PU: Pokemon Database The PU Viability Rankings PU- NU in NU PU Research Week Project PU