A Work in Progress

[silentscreaming]

Well hello there friends, Pokémon community, Smogon, welcome to my very first RMT post! With NU being my favourite tier, I have put in the effort to make a team and wish to share it with the rest of you. Well there may be a number of weakness and imperfections with the arrangement, I do find that this team does very well for me. Well here we have it!

Golem (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 72 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast

Basic Stealth Rock setter. Acts as a counter/check to flying types, Swellow and Braviary respectively, and also provides some weak priority. Leftovers for health gain and to regain Sturdy whereas the EVs give decent bulk, power and enough speed to outpace 60 Speed Golem and below. All in all, pretty normal.


Misdreavus (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 28 Spd / 252 HP / 228 Def
Bold Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Pain Split
- Taunt

A physical wall able of stopping the likes of Cincinno and Sawk. Standard set so there is not much to say other than, paired with Miltank, I have myself a fairly solid Defensive core.


Miltank (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Milk Drink
- Body Slam
- Heal Bell
- Toxic

One of the better special walls in the tier, Miltank makes a cameo on this team. Leftovers are used as means of recovery alongside Milk Drink and a Careful nature is used to maximize Special Defense while not lowering Attack. Body Slam gives a nifty paralysis rate, Heal Bell adds the roll off cleric to the mix and Toxic is used as a means of status for bulkier walls. Lastly, Thick Fat provides some added resistances.

Note: Replacing Miltank with Lickilicky is always an option in order to pass wishes while still keeping the cleric roll intact. Also, I realize that having a cleric on a team with Gurdurr is not the most common but status really hurts Ludicolo.


Skuntank (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Taunt

Basic Skuntank here is all. She is useful for getting rid of the ghost and psychic types present in the tier so that Gurdurr does not have to rely on Payback to do damage. The EVs remain standard, as does the moveset. Aftermath is the optimal ability, delivering 25% damage once downed (by a physical move I believe).


Gurdurr (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Payback

The physical threat on my team, Gurdurr proves to be ever so valuable. With priority, a means of boosting, great bulk and a stellar ability in Guts, it's no wonder why Gurdurr strikes fear into the hearts of onlooking peers! The EVs are there to maximize power while retaining bulk and an Eviolite is given to add more bulk. Payback hits Psychics and Ghosts that would otherwise laugh at Gurdurr's other moves, resisting them or being immune altogether whereas Mach Punch and Drain Punch provide priority and recovery. Lastly, an Adamant nature is used because Gurdurr is slow to begin with and the boosts in attack is greatly appreciated.


Ludicolo (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance

Ludicolo is easily the best Pokémon in the NU tier. With Rain Dance and Swift Swim, he is able to outpace and demolish a number of walls with STAB Hydro Pump and/or Giga Drain. Ice Beam is there to round off the coverage while Life Orb gives some added oomph! 29 IVs minimize Life Orb recoil and a Modest Nature is given because Swift Swim makes up for the missing Speed. Ludicolo is stopped by nothing but Swanna and opposing Ludicolo, which can be worked around rather efficiently.


Well that's it guys! I would very much appreciate your feedback! I find Amoonguss to be annoying but thankfully, I do not see it used as frequently. Have a great day!

 

[watashi]

gurdurr has little use for payback since most psychic-types are slower and take minimal damage from it anyways. ice punch should be used to hit flying and grass types which are arguably more dangerous to your team.

ludicolo needs a timid nature to outspeed pokemon such as emboar, adamant braviary, and tie with standard samurott. you don't miss out any ohkos and you have the added bonus of being able to outpace scarf zebstrika and cinccino in rain.

skuntank needs poison jab to be able to hit fighting-types for decent damage and kill off opposing dark-types such as cacturne, shiftry, and absol. you can drop taunt since you already have misdreavus for that.

lastly, this team could have troubles with bulkier walls since it doesn't really have a wall-breaker. amoonguss or alomomola could be really hard to deal with since they can effectively stall out the majority of your team. to fix this, you can run curse over toxic on miltank. this allows you to set up to +6 on most walls in the tier with ease in conjunction with heal bell and milk drink.


summary of changes:

payback —> ice punch on gurdurr
modest nature —> timid nature on ludicolo
taunt —> poison jab on skuntank
toxic —> curse on miltank

 

[silentscreaming]

Well alright thanks! Alomomola gets OHKOed by Giga Drain but if Ludicolo goes down it is troublesome. I'll try your suggestions! Thanks!

 

[Raseri]

Hey silentscreaming, this is a pretty good team that doesn't need many changes to function. First and foremost, Ludicolo needs to run Timid in order to be at its best. Though the drop in power frankly sucks, pokemon like Samurott share a speed tier with Ludicolo, and Timid allows you to at least force a speed tie instead of being outright OHKOed by Megahorn.


Gurdurr should run Ice Punch > Payback. Most psychic-types are slower than Gurdurr, so Payback wont be that useful anyways.


Finally, I'm not convinced that Miltank is the best Pokemon in that slot. You don't really need a cleric. You do have trouble with other defensive cores like FLCL said, but instead of Miltank I believe that RestTalk Regice would work quite well in that place.

Regice @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA Def / 8 SDef
Modest Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt


This set is very good at defeating defensive cores, and can also act as a status absorber if you aren't comfortable going to gurdurr. It is very difficult to break through, and can help you with potential Samurott issues you could have(well its better than Miltank). This set is admittedly easier to wear down than Miltank, and will make you weaker to Fire-types than before, but overall its a much better buffer against defensive teams than Miltank is.

tl;dr

Timid > Modest on Ludicolo
Ice Punch > Payback on Gurdurr
Resttalk Regice > Miltank

 

[silentscreaming]

alright, i will keep that in mind!