(NU) pika, b*tch

[Wilhelm Vanderkunt]

Hey everyone,

I decided to post an RMT for this NU team, which has been tested a little and works very well in theory. I have been unable to find all too many hard stops to it and would really appreciate it if anyone could point anything obvious out.

I decided to make a team starring everyone's favorite mouse.

Using Pikachu on a team is always a challenge, since he has paper bag defenses and can really only run one item. However, I didn't stop there. I decided to use another 1st Gen pokemon with a unique item that hits really hard.

Marowak is a pokemon with the potential to do an incredible amount of damage to the NU tier. Unfortunately, he needs quite a bit of team support to be able to do so. So I decided to give him and Pikachu the best possible chance of setting up with what is quite possibly the most annoying pokemon in the tier.

Lopunny's interesting set of setup moves provides both of my First Gen pokemon with a chance to sweep. However, I didn't want my team to become one dimensional; I realized I would have a hard time breaking through some of the sturdy walls in the tier without a powerful Special Attacker.

Ludicolo is capable of breaking through many of the walls that have a chance at stopping Pikachu or Marowak. He is very capable of being a threat on his own, but the next pokemon is able to help him set up and to sponge many of the attacks aimed at my guys.

Mantine serves as the only defensive pivot on what became a very offensive team. I looked at the five pokemon I had chosen and realized my team lacked immediate speed and power. I therefore decided on my final pokemon.

Braviary brings speed and raw power, as well as superb coverage to the table. So without further ado, my goofy NU team.

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Pikachu @Light Ball
Ability: Static
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Volt Tackle
-Encore

This Pikachu is the one I decided—nay, needed—to run. Focus Punch Pikachu hits incredibly hard with the Light Ball Boost. Volt Tackle is its most powerful attack, and while it hits hard, it takes an incredible toll on his health. Substitute eases prediction, as does encore, and both take advantage of the fact that I am not running standard Lightningrod Pikachu. Interestingly enough, substitute and encore allow me to lock a slower foe into a Ground type move (which are often aimed at the little guy) for Braviary, Mantine, or Ludicolo to take advantage of.


Marowak @Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP
-Substitute
-Bonemerang
-Stone Edge
-Double Edge

This Marowak is capable of inflicting serious damage, provided it can set up. Adamant nature makes the most of the Thick Club boost, and I use it over Jolly since Marowak is unlikely to be outpacing any foes on his own any time soon. Bonemerang over Earthquake for breaking Substitute, Sturdy, and Sashes (which is very useful since I don't have a Stealth Rocker on this team). The other two moves are used for coverage. Marowak also doesn't take recoil damage when using Double Edge due to his ability.


Lopunny @Leftovers
Ability: Limber
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe / 4 Def
-Substitute
-Encore
-Agility
-Baton Pass

This Lopunny is often what I end up leading with. In an ideal situation, I will Substitute while the opponent uses a non-attacking move and will Encore them into said move. After that, I set up Agility, and Marowak is basically guaranteed to come in with full health and a doubled Speed stat. The ability to Baton Pass Substitute to Pikachu is worth noting because it often means I can get a Focus Punch off. This Lopunny set often catches people off guard, as they expect a Switcheroo set and react as if it were one. The surprise factor alone makes it worth using this Lopunny.



Ludicolo @Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
-Rain Dance
-Giga Drain
-Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam

My team finds another powerful setup sweeper in the form of Rain Dance Ludicolo. This set makes my Duxican able to deal with what few counters fully set up Marowak and Pikachu have. Alomomola, Golem, Vileplume, Tangela, Misdreavus, and Golurk are among those that give my physical attackers a hard time but are dispatched with relative ease by Ludicolo. Modest nature is to hit those walls as hard as possible, and is speed is often irrelevant as it is likely to be raining. Ludicolo also likes Baton Passed Substitutes from Lopunny, as it allows him to set up Rain Dance for free.


Mantine @Chesto Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
-Rest
-Rain Dance
-Scald
-Toxic

This Mantine is used as a defensive pivot, and is able to set up Rain Dance in the event that I don't want Ludicolo to take any damage. Scald is useful for the burn chance, and Toxic is useful on every team. I opted for RestoChesto over RestTalk because the idea of Sleep Talking Rain Dances made me uneasy. Mantine is bulky enough to take many attacks, and RestoChesto makes it easier for Mantine to set up the rain more than once in a match.


Braviary @Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
-Brave Bird
-Return
-U-Turn
-Superpower

My team is obviously pretty slow without setup. Choice Scarf Braviary mitigates this problem, and is also incredibly powerful himself. His STAB also grants him the ability to deal with the bulky Grass types that give my other sweepers trouble. This is a standard Scarf set, and fits well with the rest of my team.

So there it is. My team revolves around sweeps from shenanigans with Lopunny, Swift Swim, or clean-up with Scarf Braviary. Substitute on three of my pokemon, as well as Encore on two makes setting up relatively easy. Once set up, any of my three main sweepers will put holes in the enemy team. The rest can be cleaned up by my other sweepers.

I would greatly appreciated any and all feedback while I continue to test the team. Thanks for reading.

-Wilhelm Vanderkünt

[Magcargo 2]

Ninjask is a better baton passer than lopunny. It can pass both attack and speed boost unlike lopunny. It also has a reasonably powerful x-scissors.

[Wilhelm Vanderkunt]

Yeah, but Ninjask is predictable. People see Ninjask and Marowak on the same team and immediately know my strategy; not many people would see Lopunny and Marowak on the same team and immediately think Baton Passing Agility. The surprise factor is half of what makes it work.

[Magcargo 2]

Originally Posted by Fat Wilhelm Vanderkunt

Yeah, but Ninjask is predictable. People see Ninjask and Marowak on the same team and immediately know my strategy; not many people would see Lopunny and Marowak on the same team and immediately think Baton Passing Agility. The surprise factor is half of what makes it work.

But there is no denying that ninjask is flat out more effective than loppunny. Sawk can Easily beat lopunny with CC and special attacks have no trouble against loppuny. Ninjask can get many "free boost" thanks to his speed. Also, maroak can't get any attack from lopunny boost. The suprise factor can somewhat migate this however.

[Wilhelm Vanderkunt]

Hell, half of the time Marowak doesn't need an attack boost. He rips through everything in the tier barring dedicated physical walls, and mind you I have Ludicolo waiting in the wings. Original sets ftw man, Ninjask is too easy to use and is really predictable.

[Magcargo 2]

Baton pass sawsbuck might be a good idea if you want a good baton passer that can suprise your foe. It can also nab an attack boost with sap sipper.

[hathater]

you dont have a physical wall, also you are weak to gurrdurr ice punch can beat braviary, and mach punch can finish of loppuny and marowak, pikachu has bad defenses, but a good sweeper nonetheless. I like the theme, but gurrdurr is what sets it back

[Wilhelm Vanderkunt]

Half the reason I'm not running Specially Defensive Mantine is for Fighting types with Eviolite and Sawk (provided he doesn't lock himself into Stone Edge). Mantine is fully physically defensive and takes standard Gurdurr's moves with ease. The opponent could surprise me with Stone Edge...but Gurdurrs typically just run Bulk Up / Mach Punch / Drain Punch / Ice Punch

[ium]

you don't have a way to reliably handle to normal-, flying-, and fighting-types. things that would give your team trouble the most would be swellow, zangoose, kangaskhan, choice band sawk, and several other pokemon, which are all commonly seen on many teams. the weakness to all of these pokemon is mostly because of the fact that there are no useful resistances on your team, which means that these pokemon can nab easy 1-2HKOs against anything when it comes in safely against some of the slower members.

This Mantine is used as a defensive pivot, and is able to set up Rain Dance in the event that I don't want Ludicolo to take any damage.

and how is this going to happen? you still have to get ludicolo in safely, and the only way you're going to be doing this is sacrificing mantine or trying to predict some non-damaging move that won't cripple ludicolo. even if you do get it in, you've wasted an extra rain turn out of your limited five. the point is that rain dance on mantine is really unnecessary.

mantine needs to be replaced anyhow, and misdreavus fits nicely here, because it can handle choice band sawk (mantine is unreliable since it's cleanly OHKO'd with stone edge, or 2HKO'd with close combat after stealth rock), and can cripple a large number of physical threats that plague your team using will-o-wisp. with access to taunt, you will still have a great answer to defensive pokemon, such as alomomola and lickilicky, especially on stall teams.

next off is your inability to switch into flying-types and certain normal-types—particularly ones that misdreavus dislikes such as zangoose or sub bu braviary—very well. there's several ways to handle this, but it involves either replacing pikachu or marowak because your team is trying to execute too many strategies at once. even though it's good to have multiple win conditions in case one of them matches up horribly against your opponent, you need to leave room to be able to check a majority of the threats in the metagame. therefore, i'm proposing several options for changes:

first option

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having stealth rock over substitute on marowak is really helpful. the lack of stealth rock is an issue because, as i've said, flying-types can easily wear this team down, especially in the case of something like charizard or articuno. even if you did keep mantine around to act as a check to these two pokemon, a combination of hazards and repeated offense will make it difficult for mantine to stay around.

this still doesn't fully help against the problem i mentioned earlier, so shell smash carracosta over pikachu will work here. aside from the resistances it provides, it can set up and sweep against swellow or a choice-locked braviary, or just threaten many pokemon out with priority, which your team is lacking. in addition, carracosta has the ability to defeat substitute + bulk up braviary one-on-one whereas pikachu is too frail to switch in.

second option

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replacing marowak with golem is probably the best idea here, because it has a rock typing to prevent the likes of zangoose or swellow from running through the team easily. it still maintains its ground typing so that rotom-a has a more difficult time taking advantage of your braviary, and it can set up stealth rock to give flying-types a hard time. finally, golem can provide some form of priority that your team would appreciate since the tier is really offensive.

additionally, pikachu would like lightningrod over static since choice scarf rotom-a is extremely common, so being able to take advantage of a choice-locked rotom-a with this immunity would be great to have so that pikachu can set up a substitute rather easily.

finally, you absolutely need a timid nature on ludicolo in order to speed tie with samurott outside of rain instead of being outpaced and outright OHKO'd by a megahorn. ludicolo does not miss out on much power, especially when rain is up, so the positive speed nature is more beneficial.

so in short:
misdreavus over mantine, timid nature on ludicolo, and either one of the options proposed above in the hide tags.

sets

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misdreavus @ eviolite | levitate
bold nature | 232 hp / 252 def / 24 spe
shadow ball / will-o-wisp / pain split / taunt

carracosta @ life orb | solid rock
adamant nature | 252 atk / 252 spe / 4 def
shell smash / waterfall / stone edge / aqua jet

golem @ leftovers | sturdy
adamant nature | 200 hp / 252 atk / 56 spe
stealth rock / rock blast / earthquake / sucker punch

[Wilhelm Vanderkunt]

All of that is good advice. I'll try and test out bits and pieces to see what works: for now changing Ludicolo's nature, replacing Mantine with Misdreavus, and running Stealth Rock over Substitute on Marowak. If I find that I have problems keeping the Marowak or Pikachu sets (both of which I'm incredibly partial to) I'll consider your suggestions for alternate partners.

[WhiteDMist]

I completely vouch for ium's suggestions, and would like to put my approval for option 1. Carracosta is far more consistent than Pikachu, and you need the powerful priority more than a second Encore user. You may also consider keeping Marowak the way it is and using the Tank Carracosta set.

I'm assuming Braviary is meant to be a Defiant user with Return right? Well, I highly recommend that you give it a Jolly nature as well since otherwise it is outsped by Timid Scarf Gardevoir. Other than that, I think it is a really interesting use of Lopunny's main advantage over Ninjask: Encore.

[Wilhelm Vanderkunt]

Alright I decided to test out option one with decent results. I added a Shell Smash Carracosta to my team, and ended up replacing Substitute on Marowak with Fire Punch for the Grass Types that resist Bonemerang. Choiced Flying and Fighting types no longer really threaten my team, and I am still pretty successful when it comes to passing Marowak speed boosts. However, in this battle,

http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/nu11476172

I found myself struggling against Harvest Exeggutor. Does this Pokemon give my team trouble, or is there a more effective means to take it out that I can't think of?

[fire r a g e]

Your Braviary should be able to take out Exeggutor with ease. Most Exeggutor that are using Harvest are usually without sun, so Braviary should outspeed and OHKO with Brave Bird.