My Return to Pokemon!


Hey there Smogon! My name, as you can see, is The Goddamn Batman. Now although I’m sure close to none of you remember me, I was a frequent battler in the early stages of RU. I took a break from competitive battling for about 10 months, and now that I have sent in all of my college applications, I feel like it’s the time to rejoin the Smogon community and start to contribute once more. And with that said, I have an RMT for you all! Anyway, to preface my team, Cresselia’s presence has made a huge impact in RU, and I really want to utilize her to her full potential as long as she remains in the tier. With this in mind, I’ve taken a semi-stall approach to battling, utilizing hazards, phasing, and status to wear down my opponent. The team has tested my patience, as I am used to fast paced battles full of revenge kills, but I truly believe that semi-stall is the way to go in this round. I’ve tried to assemble a team that not only has great type synergy, but also can comfortably take on both physical and special threats equally well. Without further ado, I present my team!


@ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge​

My lead more often than not, Sandslash’s main job is to get up rocks and get out as quickly as possible, in order to keep him alive to spin hazards away. As long as I have Moltres waiting in the wings, I need to keep Sandslash alive to keep Stealth Rock off of my side of the field. I’m not the biggest fan of Sandslash, as he reminds me of that dead-weight Claydol back in the earlier stages of RU. However, because I despise using Kabutops in a defensive role, I have gone with Sandslash and have been satisfied with the decision so far. The other advantage that Sandslash has over Kabutops is a much-needed Electric immunity, stopping Choiced Rotom and Manectric in their tracks and swinging momentum to my side. The moveset is pretty standard, but because I have no investment in attack, I wonder if another support move could be more useful over Stone Miss. All in all, Sandslash does everything expected of him—but often no more.

Potential Changes: I have fully invested in defense, but I often wonder if a mixed EV spread is more effective. And if there are Kabutops fanboys out there who would like to see me make the switch, please go ahead suggest a support set that is more effective than the one on the SmogDex.



@ Black Sludge
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 20 Spd / 252 HP / 236 Def
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Waterfall
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Toxic Spikes

My secondary lead, and primary physical wall, I go to Qwilfish in order to sponge powerful physical threats like Entei, Hitmonlee, and Escavalier. Intimidate an amazing ability for my team, often forcing switches and allowing free turns for Qwilfish to set up hazards. I run both sets of Spikes on Qwilfish as opposed to Pain Split, as I already have plenty of other walls with reliable recovery to stick around for the battle. Once I take out a team’s spinner, I’ll usually try to get up as many layers of Spikes as possible until Qwilfish goes down. Qwilfish is the one of the three members of my team that carry Thunder Wave in order to slow down opposing offensive teams, and I have found dual status to be a great help to me in my battles. Although Qwilfish lays down the Spikes I consider essential to the team’s success, I find myself tempted to switch to a Pokemon that isn’t such set-up bait for opposing sweepers, perhaps an additional phazer. And of course, because this is a RMT, I would love to hear any suggestions you have for Qwilfish.

Potential Changes: I wish that I could run Taunt, but because Qwilfish suffers from 4MSS, I find it hard to swap out one of the moves. Also, as a full replacement to Qwilfish, I have considered Roselia in this spot. What do you guys think?



@ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SDef / 244 Def
Careful Nature
- Force Palm
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Whirlwind

Hariyama is by far the MVP of my team. I run a set very similar to a Snorlax set commonly seen in UU, and it shares the same purpose: spread paralysis and rack up massive hazards damage. Force Palm is a great move for this set, as it gives me a quasi-answer to the numerous Steel-types running around the tier, and also is another way to paralyze quicker threats. Whirlwind helps me to chip away at walls through hazards damage, and to phaze out set-up sweepers. ResTalk is one of my favorite combos in the game, and with Hariyama’s massive bulk, I can run it quite effectively. I have chosen to maximize Hariyama’s special bulk, because with Thick Fat, Hariyama is a great check to Cryogonal and Typhlosion, forcing them out and in the process forcing them to take even more hazards damage. Hariyama is great against other stall teams too, healing off status and disrupting the opponent’s gameplan with Whirlwind. Hariyama has been a great component of the team so far, and I don’t envision having a whole lot of success without him.

Potential Changes: Not too many that I could think of, except maybe an optimized EV spread since I took this one right off the SmogDex.



@ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Calm Mind
- Thunder Wave
- Moonlight

Cresselia is the ultimate RU pivot. She can come in, weather a hit, and Moonlight on the switch, which is disastrous for offensive teams that are prone to hazards damage. Like most other members of my team, Cresselia uses Thunder Wave to slow down threats in order for Moltres to clean up later. However, Cresselia is different because she can be a late game force in her own right. Cress3elia’s main counters/checks (Escavalier, Drapion, Spiritomb, etc.) all lack reliable recovery. Therefore, they can be worn down easily through hazards damage and weak attacks from my other team members. And once those threats are removed, Cresselia can boost with Calm Mind until she can sweep with Psychic. In addition, Cresselia has great synergy with Qwilfish, and provides a much needed Ground immunity for the team. Cresselia is definitely one of the most versatile Pokemon in RU right now, and her spot on the team is irreplaceable.

Potential Changes: I have considered running either Psyshock or Ice Beam over Psychic, but because Cresselia has so little power anyway I don’t know if I could afford to do that. I have also thought about running a stallbreaker set with Substitute / Calm Mind / Psychic / HP Fighting, but I don’t want to sacrifice too much bulk in order to do so.



@ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 HP / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Body Slam
- Heal Bell
- Milk Drink
- Thunder Wave

Miltank shares a lot of jobs with Hariyama on this team, but is also his most effective partner. While they both have Thick Fat to sponge Fire and Ice-type attacks, are useful for spreading paralysis, and have a considerable amount of mixed bulk, Miltank’s role as a cleric is what defines her on my team. I find that a team’s first response to Cresselia is to poison/burn her, which is why it is so important to support her with a cleric like Miltank. Recently, I have felt that having both Body Slam and Thunder Wave is redundant / a waste of a moveslot, and I have considered switching to Return. However, I find that the 30% chance of paralysis often kicks in and I wonder if switching out Thunder Wave is more appropriate. Anyway, Miltank certainly does her job of coming in, walling hits, forcing switches, and crippling sweepers on the switch-in.

Potential Changes: I have considered running a Curse set along with Scrappy in order to hit unexpecting Ghost-types in the tier. However, the loss of Thick Fat is not an appealing option. Thoughts?



@ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Roost

Moltres has always been a key member of my RU teams, simply because of the raw power it possesses. I mainly use Moltres to finish off teams after they have racked up hazards damage. Due to the nature of the team, and its ability to spread paralysis like wildfire, I have foregone a Timid Nature in order to achieve more power. Modest Moltres picks up quite a few additional 2HKOs, most importantly on defensive Slowking after Stealth Rock and a layer of Spikes. I also have a hard time ignoring the inaccuracy of Hurricane, therefore I have replaced it with Air Slash, the standard from BW1. Of course, if I’m completely missing something, feel free to point out to me why Hurricane is superior to Air Slash and I’ll replace it without hesitation. Due to Moltres being the sweeper on my team, I often find that I don’t get to utilize its team slot as often as the other members of my team. However, when I really need that last KO, Moltres can deliver more often than not.

Potential Changes: I am really tempted to run a Choice Scarfer or Entei in this slot to give my team a little more speed. If someone can make a suggestion for a faster threat (or even a slower threat that shifts the team towards full stall), I would be willing to test different options.


Finally, although I have been satisfied with my team’s performance so far, I have four major concerns with the team going forward.

1. I am worried that I am running too much paralyzing moves along with Toxic Spikes. With my team’s ability to spread both statuses extremely quickly, I feel as though I have less and less control over which status is delegated to each opposing Pokemon.

2. Hariyama, and Miltank are completely useless against Ghost-types, with Cresselia also unable to take on Spiritomb. Furthermore, because Qwilfish and Sandslash having little offensive capacity, Moltres is really my only source of direct damage towards Ghost types. This is really a problem when I can’t Rapid Spin away hazards in order to have Moltres come in and take out the Ghost types. So far I’ve been able to play around Dusknoir and the like, but Spiritomb is one of the biggest threats to my team, and I need to find another way to damage it outside of hazards support. Perhaps change Miltank’s Ability to Scrappy?

3. With no priority or Grass-type on my team, Whimsicott (when used effectively with a spinner) is crippling. I have no real way to deal with it. My first thought is to run Taunt on Qwilfish in order to temporarily slow it down, but what do you guys think?

4. No spinblocker, with no team member able to be replaced by Spiritomb or Rotom-N and still keep the synergy I have at the moment.

That’s about all I have to say about my team. Right now I’m winning my battles about 75% of the time, but I know I can increase that percentage with your help. Thank you all so much in advance, I look forward to hearing your suggestions!

 
hey a couple things first of Cresselia is no longer in RU, it got moved to BL2 so you will have to find a replacement to play in RU. Also to answer your Air Slash vs Hurricane question, it may seem odd but some people actually run Moltres on rain teams to give Hurricane 100% accuracy. Personally i hate missing so unless you want to change your whole team to run rain i would stick with Air Slash especially since u went with a modest nature to make up for the power.
 
I'm pretty sure Cresselia has dropped back down to RU until November 11th, someone correct me if I'm wrong though. She is usable on PS in the RU tier, so I assume it is still ok. But thank you for your rate regarding Moltres, I'm glad to see that someone else views accuracy as more important than power!
 
oh okay on the tiers list it says Cress is BL2 but i play wifi, so i guess use it unless someone calls you on it. About accuracy, there is no point in having a ton of power if it doesnt hit anyone and your nature makes up for most of the loss anyway, if you can Thunder Wave the Pokes that outspeed it then Moltres should be able to wreck teams.

I sort of skipped rating your team as a whole because i figured you would have to change it, however, i think it is pretty good. Most members of your team have limited move pools so be careful of entry hazards because you will likely have to switch alot because of this so keep sandslash alive as best you can. Fortunately thunderwave + your teams overall bulk and whirlwind should be able to prevent your opponents from being able to set up something you cant stop most of the time. However if they are able to set up a sweeper with a boosting move, such as Swords Dance on a Swift Swimmer or Growth on a Chlorophyll user in the sun, you could have some trouble. you dont have much speed on your team or any priority move users so be careful. Those are the main weaknesses i could find. If you are able to identify and handle the Pokemon who threaten to sweep then i think you will be pretty successful.
 

watashi

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I'm not a frequent RU battler, but I would like to point out that Toxic Spikes on Qwilfish contradicts greatly with your four paralysis spreaders. It is also not very effective in general with all the Nidoqueens running around. You should try something like Pain Split, Taunt, Poison Jab, or Haze in its place.
 
you dont have much speed on your team or any priority move users so be careful.
So far, I haven't lost too many battles because of being outsped, as I'm not running a very fast team anyway, and there are few Pokemon that I have found to run straight through my team. However, I definitely see how priority can become a problem, as Moltres isn't the bulkiest cleaner and is especially weak to Kabutops' Aqua Jet and Entei's Extremespeed. Any thoughts on how I can remedy this issue?

I'm not a frequent RU battler, but I would like to point out that Toxic Spikes on Qwilfish contradicts greatly with your four paralysis spreaders. It is also not very effective in general with all the Nidoqueens running around. You should try something like Pain Split, Taunt, Poison Jab, or Haze in its place.
That's what I have been thinking too. I am leaning towards Taunt over Pain Split, do you or does anybody else have some experience with running Taunt Qwilfish? And with Qwilfish's low speed, is Taunt even viable in this metagame? Which targets (besides Slowking/Tangrowth) is Taunt crippling?
 
as far as a remedy for the priority issue i think you could either get another fast pokemon or a priority user of your own, Hitmonlee is as option for a sweeper with both priority and fantastic speed on the Unburden Set after using Fake Out, however he is extremely frail. He could replace Hariyama however you would lose whirlwind. Hitmonchan is a bulkier option who can use Iron fist boosted Drain Punch Ice Punch and Mach punch for Priority as well as Rapid Spin all backed by a decent 339 maximum attack. Kabutops will have alot of trouble with the fighting type moves they offer. Hitmonchan could replace Sandslash although you would no longer have Stealth Rock, and would have two fighting types, which could be a problem. You could always put Bullet punch on Hariyama although it would probably not do enough damage on the set you are running. A more offensive set with guts as its ability could fill the priority attacker role pretty well with access to both Fake Out and Bullet Punch. Im sure there are plenty of other options you could try that i havent suggested or you could simply leave your team how it is if you dont run into this problem enough for it to be an issue. every team has its weaknesses so you cant win em all.
 

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