(RU) I'm kinda new, need help!

[Slaka King]

Hey guys, me and my roommates all love pokemon and periodically hold tournaments between each other to give one person the title of "Pokemon Master" of the house.

So far we've had an OU Tier tourny (with no legendaries), a second OU Tier Tourney (where we each picked 3 types out of a hat that we had to make our teams out of), and now finally we are moving on to a RU tier tournament.

P.S. Winner of this final tournament gets the right to take home the 50" HD tv we all pitched in to buy at the beginning of the year. So I'm kinda invested into this haha.


And this is where I ask for your help. I want to make a team filled with pokemon I really like to use but are also pretty strong. I understand the basics of type coverage, and how to utalize walls, disablers, and sweepers. The biggest part I think I need help with is how to pick my team in regards of countering many of the popular RU pokemon since I'm not the most experienced with this meta.


So... if you actually read all that introduction, your'e awesome and I love you already. Here are some of the pokemon I'm really looking into putting on my team. Most of them are particular favorites of mine, but I was hoping some of you guys could look through the list and pick out six that would make a good covering team against the common RU threats. So... without further ado...


Absol

Nature: Adamant
Item: Razor Claw
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Movelist: Night Slash, Psycho Cut, Sucker Punch, Slash


Was going for a physical sweeper type here. With Super Luck, Razor Claw, and 3 extra crit rate attacks I think he'll have close to a 50% chance to crit with every move. And each crit is going to be wrecking people in this case. If Absol gets low enough, I can also use Sucker Punch to get in one last crazy strong stab before I hit it.


Slaking

Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Movelist: Earthquake, Pursuit, Giga Impact, Rock Slide

Hit and run strategy with Slaking. Choice Band with those ridiculous offensive stats. I can send him in against someone who'll switch out vs him as well and get a very strong Pursuit off as well. I was going with Rock Slide so that I would be able to have a 4x effective move on any Ice/Flying, Fire/Flying, etc. pokemon. Most of the time though, It'll just be one Giga Impact then a switch out.



Articuno

Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Sp Defense, 4 Defense
Movelist: Ice Beam, Roost, Toxic, Protect

Using Articuno as a special wall, I think Roost, Toxic, and Protect will be enough to wall off most people and scout their moves with protect, while Ice Beam offers a great type coverage with a high base power too. And articuno doesn't have too shabby of a Sp Attack stat either.


Marowak

Nature: Adamant
Item: Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 HP
Movelist: Double-Edge, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Fire Punch

Here's my ace up my sleeve. Physical Sweeper. Once Exeggutor has gotten a Trick Room off, he'll be wrecking everyone and everything with Double-Edge and Earthquake. Should be able to 1 or 2 hit KO just about anything in this tier.



Exeggutor

Nature: Modest
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Sp Attack, 4 Defense
Movelist: Trick Room, Psychic, Sleep Powder, Giga Drain/Leaf Storm


Either my lead, or someone I'll quickly switch into once I see an opportunity, Exeggutor will by my Trick Room starter allowing my Absol and Marowak to start the sweeping they were meant for. With these EVs and a Life Orb though, Exeggotor will also be able to pack quite the punch even after Trick Room's been set up.


Hitmonlee

Nature: Jolly
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Reckless
EVs: Speed 252, Attack 252, 4 HP
Moves: Rapid Spin, High Jump Kick, Stone Edge, Double-Edge

Primarily used as my Rapid Spinner since stealth rock needs to be removed before I can send in Articuno, Hitmonlee can also provide a great offense pokemon with High Jump Kick and Double-Edges amazing base power, Reckless, and a Life Orb. I'm looking to clear hazards and deal a surprising amount of physical damage with this set.


Other Pokemon I was looking into: Magmorter, Bouffalant, Electivire, Escalivier, Gallade, Lapras, Kabutops (second choice for spinner), Accelgor, Crawdaunt, Cryogonal, Smeargle, Tangrowth, Uxie, and Steelix.


So... there ya have it. I know it was a lot to read/analyze, but if anyone could give me their advice on how to proceed, that'd be awesome. Thanks in advance!

[Silvershadow234]

Hi there welcome to smogon. I feel that to make this team viable, I would need to change too much, and this is a rate my team not rebuild my team. Therefore, I recommend visiting Battling 101 to learn more about teambuilding. For this challenge, you could just copy one of the team in the archive (one of the newer ones at least).

[Slaka King]

Sorry, I know how annoying it can be when someone posts something in the wrong place. Thanks for the directions, I'll check out the Battling 101 and see if it can help me.

[Slaka King]

Originally Posted by Fat evillocke

Yeah, this team has way too many problems. Slash? Really? No offense.

Yeah... like I said, I'm new here and honestly don't know very much about the competitive battling scene. But slash really doesn't sound too bad to me, with a razor claw and super luck, Absol's crit chance is 33.3% and with his very strong base Attack I don't see why this isn't a good move.


Edit: Wait... if I have Night Slash and Psycho Cut, then I'll be able to hit everything with Night Slash except for Dark, Steel, and Fighting and Psycho Cut takes care of fighting. And Slash isn't very effective vs steel, so slash would really only help me out vs other Dark pokemon. Is that your reasoning behind why it isn't a good move for this set? And then would you recommend superpower instead since it would be able to hit both Steel and Dark types for super effective damage?

[A dude]

Here is one problem behind this team. If Exeggutor faints, nobody else can give Marowak the Trick Room support it needs. And yeah, you really should do a bit more research before you do an RMT. This team really needs a lot of polish.

[evillocke]

Originally Posted by Fat Slaka King

Yeah... like I said, I'm new here and honestly don't know very much about the competitive battling scene. But slash really doesn't sound too bad to me, with a razor claw and super luck, Absol's crit chance is 33.3% and with his very strong base Attack I don't see why this isn't a good move.


Edit: Wait... if I have Night Slash and Psycho Cut, then I'll be able to hit everything with Night Slash except for Dark, Steel, and Fighting and Psycho Cut takes care of fighting. And Slash isn't very effective vs steel, so slash would really only help me out vs other Dark pokemon. Is that your reasoning behind why it isn't a good move for this set? And then would you recommend superpower instead since it would be able to hit both Steel and Dark types for super effective damage?

YES! Use superpower instead! It deals twice as much as lolslash.