Total Destruction (Peaked #4)

Introduction​

So yeah, what's up against smogon. I, D4RR3N is back with another RMT, this time being a team for the RU tier. Being encouraged by users yee, Upstart and DittoCrow to start playing RU, and after watching some of the RU battles and found them being interesting, I decided to dip my hands into the tier. I spent around 2 weeks looking through the RU forums, and having talks with people in the #rarelyused channel, only to get to know how the tier works, before i settled down to build a team myself.

As many of you know, I'm an offensive player. I simply can't stand sitting there for like 70 turns stalling. Therefore, I decided to make myself a Hyper Offense team as it not only gave me respectable success in other tiers (OU,UU), it's also my favourite playstyle of all time.

This team is meant to kill as fast as possible, while at the same time winning me the match. It's centered around the common yet fearsome sweeper by the name of Feraligatr, and being paired with Moltres and Sceptile to form the infamous Fire/Water/Grass combo, it's certainly built to wreck. This team peaked #5 on the Smogon RU ladder with a rating of 1292 on my first try, without losing a single match, so that pretty much shows how well built this team is. The final peak for this team is #4 with a rating of uhh... 1320 if i remember correctly, under the alt The Boys.

So without further ado, let me present you: Total Destruction!

Team Overview:



Teambuilding Process:




Aerodactyl (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Every good team needs a Stealth Rocker in my opinion, and this team is no exception. Aerodactyl is hands down, one of the best Stealth Rockers in the current RU metagame, thanks to his amazing 130 speed and access to Taunt. Lead Uxies were very common when this team was created, and Aerodactyl was capable of handling them really well (Fuk TrickScarf seriously), being able to Taunt them and completely stopping them from setting up rocks, crippling me with T-Wave/Yawn, and also stopping them from setting up Stealth Rocks. The EVs are pretty simple, maxed speed to outspeed like every non scarfed mon, and maxed attack to hit as hard as possible as Aerodactyl also has a really respectable Attack stat, allowing it to still hit pretty hard after setting up rocks. Focus Sash is a great item, as nobody expects that. I still honestly see people trying to kill my Aero with opposing Aero's Stone Edge, but then it lives and OHKO back with Rock Slide, which also caused a lot of rage quits. Rock Slide and Earthquake forms the infamous EdgeQuake combo, being able to hit the majority of the metagame for a neutral damage. Rock Slide was chosen over the usual Stone Edge as Stone Edge's accuracy really pisses me off all the time, in any tier. Besides, Aerodactyl is also a really great check to Life Orb Moltres, being able to resist Fire Blast and Air Slash, as HP Grass is too weak to deal a lot of damage to Aerodactyl.



Moltres @ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Roost

Gosh this thing is totally the powerful. Being popularized by user Pearl., this thing is forced to be reckoned for being able to hit everything in the tier extremely hard. On this team, it serves as the first pokemon of my Fire/Water/Grass core, and also one of my mid game sweepers. Maxed Special Attack and Maxed Speed were given, as this thing was meant for sweeping. Life Orb speaks for it itself, being able to boost Moltres's already high attacking powers to a higher level. Fire Blast and Air Slash are totally powerful stab moves to have on a beast pokemon like Moltres, and both moves are certainly capable of 2HKO'ing anything in RU that doesnt resists them. HP Grass rounds off the attacking moves of this set, hitting Rock types, Lanturn and Slowbro really hard. Roost is an important move to keep Moltres healthy, as in my opinion Moltres is a really important pokemon to have at good health no matter if it's early game or late game.



Sceptile (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Rock]

Sceptile is another amazing pokemon in the tier, with base 105 Special Attack and base 120 Speed, and a powerful stab by the name of Leaf Storm, it immediately makes people scream sweeper upon encountering it. In this team, Sceptile is featured as the second part of my Fire/Water/Grass core. It also serves as the Hole-Puncher on my team, helping me punch holes on opposing teams, just so Feraligatr can have a easier time sweeping later on. A Choice Scarfed set was originally chosen for this team seeing as I dont have a Scarfer on this team. But after some playtesting, I decided to remove the Choice Scarf on my lovely Sceptile, seeing my team doesnt need a scarfer as I already have enough priority and an Aerodactyl. After some playtesting, I decided to have a go with the Choice Specs set. Leaf Storm is immediately added, seeing it's the most powerful stab move Sceptile can have. Focus Blast and HP Rock were added afterwards to round off the coverage by hitting Steels and Moltres respectively. Giga Drain is pretty much a filler, but I find it useful at times when I don't wanna use Leaf Storm, as Leaf Storm still has imperfect accuracy.



Hitmonchan (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Rapid Spin

Teams with Moltres are bound to have a spinner, and this team is no exception. So after deciding that I need a spinner, i was looking through the list of vialable spinners in RU, but most of them were either slow as fuck or hits like a pussy, as in my opinion I don't wanna spin of hazards and have it being death fodder afterwards. Hitmonchan immediately caught my eye, as it neither as frail as Hitmonlee, or as weak as Claydol. I originally had a bulkier spread with Drain Punch/Ice Punch/Rapid Spin/Foresight, but then I immediately noticed how weak my team is to boosted Omastars and Sharpedos, so I immediately switched Hitmonchan to an Offensive spinner set with Mach Punch. 252 Attack allows me to hit as hard as possible with Hitmonchan's decent base 105 Attack, while 224 speed allows me to speed creep other Hitmonchans and KO them with a CC. Lefties was chosen over Life Orb because I don't like having Life Orb on a spinner, as it would make the spinner die very quickly, which isnt that great especially against stall. The moves are rather usual, with Close Combat being my main stab to deal damage. Ice Punch hits flyers trying to switch in, and Mach Punch is pretty much for revenge killing Sharpedos and Omastars.



Spiritomb (M) @ BlackGlasses
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Shadow Sneak
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit

As I mentioned earlier, having Stealth Rocks up is very, very crucial for my team, therefore a SpinBlocker was added. A Nasty Plotting Trick Room Cofagrigus had this spot on the earlier version of the team, but then after realizing how weak my team is towards opposing Nasty Plot Trick Room Cofagrigus, and seeing how easy it can set up, I decided I need to make a change. Spiritomb was chosen as the replacement after some testing, as it not only helps with the Cofagrigus weakness, it also helps by removing stuff like Rotom easier, which would only makes sweeping easier for the rest of my team. The Black Glasses set was chosen, as I prefer a more offensive variant of Spiritomb. 252 HP give me maximum bulk, allowing +2 Cofagrigus to never come close to OHKO'ing me with Shadow Ball. 252 Attack allows me to hit everything hard, and it's especially hot when i have 3 stab moves to abuse. Sucker Punch revenges slightly weakened threats, and also performs a notable 2HKO on cofagrigus, which would've only spell trouble against my team. Pursuit traps ghosts, notably Rotom, while at the same time removing annoying spinners such as Claydol. Shadow Sneak allows me to revenge the likes of Jynx who would usually use Lovely Kiss against me assuming all I can do is Sucker Punch or Pursuit. Wisp cripples defensive mons, notably spinners that arent Dark/Ghost weak, therefore makes removing Spinners easier for my team.



Feraligatr (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 208 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Return

Last but not least, it's GATRRRRRRR TIMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! Jokes aside, here's the star of my team. Not even words can describe how awesome gatr is, it's just a total beast. Swords Dance is the chosen set as in my opinion it's better then the Dragon Dance set, as +1 attack is never impressive in my opinion, plus +1 speed Aligatr still end up getting outsped by alot of scarfers anyway. Swords Dance is well, more powerful, and I get to abuse Aqua jet, a very valuable priority to its fullest. With Aqua Jet, I get to revenge kill the likes of Scarf Manectric, which Dragon Dance variant could've only wished of doing so without +2. Maxed Attack paired with Adamant hits hard as fuck, and in my opinion that's the best thing to run on Swords Dancers. 208 Speed allows me to speed creep most of the Gatrs running around, while also giving me the opportunity to outspeed Honchkrows as well. As for the moves, ya know, Waterfall and Aqua Jet are powerful moves I need to break through teams, and Return rounds off the coverage by hitting the likes of Slowbro, Lanturn and other Feraligatrs. The only thing that doesnt fear it could only be Ferroseed, which can be easily handled by Hitmonchan and Moltres.


That's all I guess. Hopefully this would make an enjoyable read for you guys. Apologies for my somewhat bad English, as it's not my main language. And last but not least, go play RU! It's certainly not as gay as OU, yeah you can trust me on that. Feel free to try out this team, I wont mind xD.

Importable:


Example Replays:


Threat list would be up shortly.

reserved for threat list.

Hello Darren, once again :D
I am not into RU that much, but the only thing I noticed (I don't know if it is too huge or not though) is a vulnerability to Toxic Spikes, and Qwilfish for that matter. If it has Haze, it shuts down Feraligatr. If it has Taunt, it shuts down Spiritomb, it completely walls Hitmonchan and with Intimidate I think it can even take Aerodactyl 1 vs 1. But if you change your team, you'll lose offensive power. It's a very good team, just wanted to point this thing out. Sorry if I was not very helpful :(

Nice overall team and even more of the tank that is feraligatr (and all swords dance sets too :S).

My main crititcism would be that you have 3 electric weaknesses and one unreliable resistance. Manetric could therefore give your team a hard time I think while easily stealing your momentum and being able to solidly revenge kill everything except feraligatr at +2 with its typical scarf set. The same goes for galavantula to slightly lesser degree.

The only thing I could reasonably suggest for a HO team is either bulky SD gligar or agility lanturn, who does a really good job of late-game cleaning in my experience as well as being unexpected. Of course you could run different sets but that's just my 2 cents.

Hey Darren. You have a very nice HO team thats almost as good as mine :P. nah jk. But you do have trouble with a few other pokes i can tell. CS Manectric can be a huge pain to this team. it can either cripple your set up sweepers with trick, and hit a bunch of your mons for SE damage. It also gains momentum for the oppopsing team as well.
I would suggest a CS manectric of your own over Moltres. Because the majority of spin blockers can beat Hitmonchan due to there good bulk and WoW. And moltres is really worn down from SR and LO if you can't spin away the rocks.
Manectric gives your team an easier way to beat stall thanks to trick and a psuedo FWG core because of Overheat. Manectric can absorb t-waves that Sceptile or any mon wouldnt enjoy as well as giving you offensive momentum from volt-turn.

I'll post a set once i get to a computer. GL

teams gud.

@Santuga, yeah, TS is annoying, that's why i have to get it spun away before i switch my sweepers in. I usually switch monchan into toxic spikers that can't hurt it, then predict a switch to ghost if he has one and double switch to spiritomb to trap it, and then i'll spin. After spinning, chances of them not being able to set up them back just cuz how hard everything on my team hits.

@Brii, Ilu <3

@spuds, Agility Lanturn sounds like a great idea, definitely testing it out!

@double01, Manectric sounds cool, even though i have to remove my beloved moltres =(, i'll try it out anyways as who knows what would be best for this team.

@yee, juz that swagga :]

Yeah good team, I've got nothing to say that hasn't been said already. Luvdisc!

Great team D4RR3N, showng that all the great teams run gatr. Luvdisc for you!

Ugh Darren why are you such a beast.

I'll edit in a full rate later, but this is an excellent team and you're getting a <3DISC.

besides trying double01's suggestion, you might want to try just a life orb over choice specs sceptile. Considering you want to limit set up opportunity as much as possible, i feel sceptile, no matter how hard it hits, gives opponents the time needed to set up. THis obviously can't happen as you need all the momentum you can get.

The LO Recoil turns out to be somewhat countered by Giga Drain which does heal a very decent amount of health even against resistances like entei. This gives your team much more flexibility handling threats like opponents LO moltres who can come in on choice specs leaf storm and proceed to kill something. Now i know SR + LO damage means he gets one attack or roost before revenge killed, but this small play swings the momentum away from you when you could easily switch to HP rock for the kill and maintain momentum.

Small suggestion but honestly the team works fine with or without it. Good Job

Pretty good team, I really like the Spiritomb set! Nothing else to say, luvdisc'd :)

I would say that whimsicott leads really screw over this team as they can taunt aero and priority stun spore your entire team.