RU Team

Hello everyone. This is my first RMT, and I'll admit to still being a bit green to the competitive battling scene. I lurked on Smogon for about a month before I finally joined, and after being here for a while I'm slowly starting to get the hang of things around here. My competitive battling skills has improved quite a bit over when I first started, but I could still use some help. And with this being my 15th post, I should finally be eligible for the next round of tutoring, whenever that may be.

Anyway, this is the RU team I've been using. And in all honestly, this is the first team I built that had any success for me. I have an OU team that's gotten some success and an Ubers team that's been working out well for me, but this team is what started the wins for me. Every other team I made before this one won me maybe one or two battles, but then fell apart. This one has had quite a bit of success, but has slowly started going the route of my other teams as of late before the Smogon servers went down. Any tips for helping me fix this team up would be greatly appreciated.

I would do a team-building process, but this team has honestly gone through so many changes since I first built it that I'm not sure it would really be worth it to try and list that all out. So let's just jump into my team, shall we?

Your team has a whooping four weaknesses to both Ice and Bug with no resists in either case - Ice-type attackers may be rare outside of Hail teams, but a Yanmega, a Venomoth, a Durant, or a Galvantula could simply sweep through this team with little effort. I'd say that you should replace Tangela with Ferroseed - while Ferroseed dosen't learn Sleep Powder, it isn't weak to Ice or Bug and can also set up Leech Seed. Ferroseed can also set up Thunder Wave and Spikes - two things that Tangela can't do. I'd also suggest you'd replace Claydol with Blastoise - though it might get kicked upstairs to UU soon, I find that it fits with your team much better than Claydol does, given that it resists Ice and is netural to Bug. I hope these suggestions help your team.

-While I agree that the team is pretty Galvantula weak, Krookodile and Alakazam are able to beat it if its not a Scarf variant, so its not all bad.
-You only run a nature like Naive on a mixed set, and since your Krookodile is all physical, run Jolly.
-Run Overcoat > Big Pecks on Mandibuzz. Defense drops are incredibly rare outside of Crunch (but who the hell would use Crunch on a Mandibuzz is beyond me), while Hail isn't rare at all, and why take damage from hail when you don't have to?
-I agree, run Stone Edge > Thunder Fang on Krookodile. Also, Scarfed Dragon Tail? That just makes no sense. It makes anything faster than you, and it is very frail, so it only works if everything on the opponent's team can't do anything to you.

Intimidate doesn't drop Defense, it drops Attack. Run Outrage or Dragon Claw over Dragon Tail, and Stone Edge over Thunder Fang. Magic Guard Zam isn't released btw, but not many things outspeed Zam to begin with(I think Crobat does), so he can just Sub up on their status moves.

-Yea, idk why I put Intimidate. Still run Overcoat.
-Crobat is UU, but yes it does outspeed. Swellow, Aerodactyl, Electrode, and Ninjask are the only things that outspeed Alakazam in this tier (Dugtrio ties, Aerodactyl went RU this round). Magic Gaurd is for entry hazards anyway, saying as Alakazam is frail as can be. But he is right with it beign unreleased, just use Synchronise or Inner Focus until then (both work, and being able to kill Fake Out users is the reason I use Inner Focus, and it works fine)

I think the biggest problem is the lack of bug resist, huge bug weakness (x16, using the compounding method) and no priority. While Krookodile can outpace Specs Yanmega and Quiver Dance Venomoth to unleash a nasty bite (I would favor stone edge in that regard), Speed Boost Mixed Sharpedo and Speed Boost Yanmega tear apart your team once they get the speed ball going, with Sharpedo being especially bad. I like the stallish nature of the team, but that bug weakness is bad, bad news. The ice weakness is less bad, but it is a pretty big hole.

Krookodile with scarf and moxie... I don't know. You will get trapped in a single move, and if you can't kill a pokemon while in that locked move, you are screwed. 117 Base attack is high, but may not be high enough to start an overwhelming sweep if you get stuck with a bad attack.

As for rapid spinners...

Claydol is probably the best match for a rapid spinner that lays rocks. The only other viable alternative I can think of is Sandslash, unless you are willing to endure Torkoal. While Blastoise was mentioned by Some Person, you only get Rapid Spin support. That said, Blastoise can run a strong special defense or physical defense, along with rapid spin. If you are willing to split your rapid spin support and your stealth rock support, Blastoise can make a great fill in, but you will need to pick another pokemon on your team to fill in the role of rock/spike support.

Maybe Ferroseed?

Likewise, have you looked at toxic spike support?

Jhang said:

Krookodile with scarf and moxie... I don't know.

Click to expand...

You've never faced one of these things have you? Late game, once your flying type/ Levitator is gone, EQ does work.

Thank you guys for all the help and suggestions. The Bug weakness became pretty noticeable after a closer look with most people who play RU now using either Yanmega (both sets) or Quiver Dance Venomoth, though I've never had trouble with Galvantula (see waterwarrior's comment on how I deal with it, and I have yet to face a Scarf variation) or Durant (as long as I don't let it get off a Hone Claws or attack after getting one up, my Scarf Krookodile has actually been able to outspeed and crush it). I've gone ahead and made the move changes on Krookodile and changed Big Pecks to Overcoat on Mandibuzz. And waterwarrior's right about Krookodile: once all flying types/Levitators are out of the picture late-game, Scarf Moxie Krookodile comes in and cleans up very nicely with EQ. I'll try out Blastoise and Ferroseed and see how splitting the Stealth Rock/Rapid Spin roles affects this team (assuming Smogon's server comes back up soon or I find a server to use my RU team against other RU Pokes, because I don't want to touch PO's meta with this team). Any suggestions for a good Stealth Rock Ferroseed set? I already figure Eviolite will be the item to help it get close to being as much of a pain as Ferrothorn, but that and it having Stealth Rock are about as far as I can get.

I've been using this team to get into RU (I was looking through the RMT section, and I thought this one was a good one to start with), and so far, I've had 2 wins and 0 losses, and some wins in unrated battles. The defensive core of Mandibuzz, Clefable and Tangela works really well, despite the bug/ice weak. Also, I don't really think Yanmega is THAT big of a threat to this team. Clefable only takes 49% or so from SpecsLens Bug Buzz, meaning it can wishprotect stall. However, one thing I just faced, Articuno, seems pretty troublesome. It can't do much to clefable, but clefable can't do much back. Unless you manage to get Krookodile in freely, it's quite a pain. Also, would you care to explain the EV's on Clefable and Mandibuzz?

Isn't alakazam UU. It's too good to be RU