Research Week #11: Golbat, Piloswine, Carracosta, Frillish

[Steamroll]

Erisia has been inactive so I'm taking liberty and posting the latest Research Week.

Introduction:
NU is a tier where many Pokemon are usable, and there are a ton of different options. Research Week aids in helping explore the tier, and is especially effective right now as NU is relatively balanced. Who knows, maybe in future tier changes one of these Pokemon can be incredibly useful, potentially being able to check the new threats well. Maybe one of these Pokemon may find uses in other tiers and is not just a simple throw-away Pokemon, unlike some unfortunate Pokemon in NU.

Some rules:
-Be open-minded, don't just say something is terrible and walk away; at least look into them and see what options they may be able to utilize!
-Feel free to theorymon, but make it clear that you are theorymon'ing. At the end of the week, however, I want discussion to move towards how useful the Pokemon actually are in NU, and what sets are effective on them.
-Just because an analysis has been done for a Pokemon doesn't mean there isn't more to explore; it's quite possible that something might have gone unnoticed or is missing.
-Do not post in this thread complaining about the Pokemon I choose and/or suggesting ones we should do for future weeks. I want discussion to stay on topic about the 4 Pokemon we are "researching". Feel free to VM / PM me these suggestions, but don't expect the next research week to have all the Pokemon you suggested, or any of them.

This testing period:
This Week (well it spans two weeks so idk) we'll be looking at some rather overlooked pokemon, spanning all five Generations bar Sinnoh (because we used four mons from then :\). All four of these pokemon have unique abilities and niches in NU that really can set them apart from each other and the rest of NU, It's just up to us to find it!

The Research Week Challenge:

• Users will use any number of the research week mons on their team
• Users will attempt to reach as high as possible on the ladder with the Pokemon. Breaking past the 1400 mark on the ladder with your registered alt will earn you a spot on the Hall of Fame: Gold Class. Crossing the 1325 mark will secure you a Silver Class spot while a 1250 rating will earn you a Bronze Class spot. Post a screen-shot of your peak in order to achieve this, and a pastebin of your team.
• Users will be expected to post their experiences with the pokemon they use, the teams they used, the problems they encountered while trying to make the said pokemon work.
• If a user does not participate in the discussion, he will be passed over.

In order to participate in the challenge, simply post here with a brand new alt. Post battle logs, experiences with your team on the ladder, and generally how a Pokemon has worked out for you: past or present.

Don't forget you're not just limited to this topic to discuss these Pokemon, I encourage you to talk about them on the #neverused irc chat as well! At the end of the week I hope we can reach a general consensus on how good these Pokemon really are, and maybe we might find some interesting discoveries.

One person will get chosen as the Research Week Champion for this week. This will be decided by me; the person who ladders the most and contributes to the research week discussion the most will get temporary Half Op status on #neverused and they will potentially get a few other perks! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE DISCUSSION THAT COMES OUT OF THIS!

HALL OF FAME!

Gold Class: 1400+

...

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1456 CrashingBoomBang -- Kangaskhan (Team n thoughts)(RMT-outside RW)
1452 Raseri -- Shelgon (Team n thoughts)(RMT-outside RW)
1406 CrashingBoomBang -- Rapidash, Articuno
1405 FLCL -- Rapidash
1401 FLCL -- Ampharos

Silver Class: 1350-1399

...

---

1383 shnen Stunfisk
1360 Raseri -- Rapidash
1360 Cherub Agent -- Tauros (Team n thoughts)

Bronze Class: 1300-1349*
*will be downgraded to 1250 but I need to dig all those up, too.

...

---

1344 erisia -- Rapidash
1329 Shnen -- Ampharos, Kangaskhan
1301 Django Reinhart -- Rapidash

Participants:
MMF ~ -Challenger-
Raseri ~iresar
Zebraiken ~ RAIK
FLCL ~ Carracosta
Drakon136 ~ NURW
NuclearMedicineT ~ Turtletank
VintageBooks ~ Beirut
Full2Half ~ Flintrock
Erisia ~ Erisiabat
CrashingBoomBang ~ CrashinBoomBang
Straw Hat ~ imverydrowzee
TropiOUs ~ GOML.
AlexanderTheGreat ~ .Aleeskl.
Endorphins ~ EndorphinsRW
Wartortle ~ Sweet Rice
breh ~ Zolotaya Mish
HiipFire ~ imdabes
bean1706 ~ What a horrible day
WhiteDMist ~ WDMist
Steamroll ~ moleman

[MMF]

Alt will -Challenger-

And I shall use Carracosta! (and maybe Piloswine)

[Raseri]

alt will be iresar.

I'll be using all four at once! :)

[Zebraiken*]

piloswine is my man

alt: RAIK

[FLCL]

Alt: Carracosta

Before I start laddering, I would like to share my thoughts on this beast. Carracosta is one of the most underrated sweepers in all of NU. People generally write it off as a inferior Gorebyss that's stopped by Tangela and Quagsire or a slow, bulky rock type with no Stealth Rock. In reality, Carracosta is a monster capable of smashing through stall and offense alike.

By running a mixed Shell Smash set with Life Orb (which is a better option than White Herb in my opinion), Carracosta is able to "smash" through it's number on counter, Tangela, even if a Jolly nature is used. Even Quagsire can be disposed of by Hidden Power Grass with just a few EV's in special attack and a Naive nature thanks to Carracosta's decent special attack. However, running both Ice Beam and Hidden Power Grass is not a very good idea since Carracosta needs some move slots to abuse its fantastic dual STAB's. A Life Orb Stone Edge after a Shell Smash hits like a truck; common walls such as Lickilicky or even Physically Defensive Misdreavus are OHKO'ed after Stealth Rock damage. Rotom-S will fall to a boosted Aqua Jet if it has already taken Stealth Rock damage before switching in. Other Scarfed electric types will suffer the same fate if they have taken some previous damage.

Defensively, Carracosta is no slouch either. Its rock typing gives it many chances to set up on Pokemon such as Swellow, Skuntank, and Choiced Pokemon like Emboar or Braviary. Solid Rock paired with a huge defense stat means that weaker physical attackers such as Regirock will fail to do significant damage with Drain Punch or Earthquake. However, keep in mind that after a Shell Smash, Carracosta's bulk will reduce noticeably if using Life Orb.

Even though Carracosta can hit hard and take hits, it still has some flaws. First of all, its speed stat leaves much to be desired. Even with a Jolly nature, positive nature'd Pokemon with a base speed of 115 or higher still outspeed Carracosta after a Shell Smash. This makes it extremely vulnerable to revenge killing, especially early on in matches. It's typing also gives it many weaknesses to common attacking types such as Fighting, Electric, Grass, and Ground. Carracosta sweeps usually will require removing specific Pokemon beforehand.

With all that said, Carracosta is definitely a great offensive Pokemon. With a solid move pool that includes the famed Shell Smash, Carracosta can devastate an unprepared team. With proper team support, sweeps will not be hard to come by. The advantages of Carracosta out weight its disadvantages and it should be used more.

Tl;dr: strong slow

[drakon136]

Alt: Helias NURW
Pokemon: Piloswine

[MMF]

Adding on to what FLCL said, Carracosta has an excellent Tank set as well. It provides a pretty good switch in to birds and can take on Emboar and Magmortar as well. Running Toxic allows you to cripple something like Tangela or Quagsire on the switch which is invaluable to a lot of teams. Pair with something like Leafeon which can give Carracosta free oppurtunites to come in and attack is wonderful as well.

[NuclearMedicineT]

Carracosta for sure. Gonna try the Curse set and see how it works out.
Alt: Turtletank

[Vintage Books]

Frillish lgi

Alt: Beirut

[Full2Half]

Flintrock is my alt,

using carracosta and maybe some of the others.

[erisia]

Steamroll, I didn't create a new Research Week thread because I was told by DTC that we were abandoning the project for now. Has this stance changed?

[Steamroll]

I made it as a last horrah for NU before Tiering changes, and BW2. It's due to end before then and hopefully tiering changes + BW2 won't fuck us up too much.

[erisia]

Okey doke, that's fine by me I guess. If I have any time, I'll test out Golbat.

Alt: erisiabat

[CrashinBoomBang]

Okay, I'll join as CrashinBoomBang, really eager to try out Piloswine after hearing so much about it.

[Steamroll]

alrighty when I get home about 6 hours from now I'll update the Hall of Fame fully along with everyone and their alts plus potential rankings if my PO isn't a shit.

[Straw Hat]

be using carracosta as imverydrowzee

[TropiOUs]

Because Molk made me use Pilowsine a week or two ago, Carracosta is my chosen one for this because it is the only one able to pull off an offensive set without being awful.

Alt: GOML. (the "." is part of my alt)

[AlexanderTheGreat]

Ok Go Into

Alt : .Aleeskl.
Pokémon : Carracosta

[Endorfins]

alt: endofinsRW
poke: Golbat

[Wartortle]

I'd like try out Golbat. Quad resistance to fighting, grass, and bug seems nice. I'll maybe try the others too.

Alt: Sweet Rice

[breh]

I'll get to Golbat eventually.

alt: Zolotaya Mish

[HiipFire]

Let's go

Alt: imdabes
Powkewmown: Golbat.

[bean1706]

Alt: What a horrible day

Testing Golbat for now.

[Steamroll]

Alright the participants list is updated, battle as much (and as best) as possible. The Hall of Fame will be updated later on tonight when I get off my fat ass and finish enrolling in classes for college. I don't mean oh for this RW, I mean all of them :D

[Full2Half]

Well, great news.

Anyways, let me talk about carracosta. For me it has been a mixed bag, but this is only because in most my battles i've either played him wrong, or he got haxed to death when he otherwise wouldve swept. But however, costa has also proven to be a very effective late game cleaner. After a smash, costa cleans out opponants like nobody's buisness and the physical set ive been using is great with proper use in cores (ie, magmortar etc. etc.) My rating isnt so high atm, but ill keep working on it.