ORAS PU Fighting Spam

[EnemyJurist]

So here's my first RMT. I chose PU because I've been loving it ever since ORAS came out.

I based the team around Machoke and Monferno, the two best fighting-types in PU. Most teams only carry one counter to fighting-types (if any) and I wanted to exploit that.

Teambuilding Process

The team started with Machoke and Monferno. Machoke weakens Monferno's checks and Monferno as the cleaner.

Relicanth was added as a birdspam deterrent, as well as an alternate win condition with Rock Polish.

Metang was added as a Pursuit trapper for annoying psychic types like Grumpig and Kadabra.

Zebstrika was added as a grass type counter with Sap Sipper due to my having the Relicanth. However, I changed it to Lighting Rod after someone in the PU room pointed out that I have no electric immunities.

Arbok was added as a fighting check for my side. It also helped weaken walls.

Vullaby took the place of Arbok when I realized that I had no hazard removal and no ground immunities.

Metang was replaced with Arbok when I realized Metang wasn't really helping the team as much as I hoped with Shadow Ball being run on all the Grumpigs I wanted to force out.

Machoke @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Ice Punch

The original idea behind the team. It takes hits like a (Ma)champ, and it can wallbreak with extremely powerful attacks. It's main roll is to weaken Monferno's checks; however, against offense, it can act as a potent threat due to its high bulk and easy ability to OHKO almost anything. It forces opponents to sacrifice a mon to stop it. It also acts as a mild status absorber.

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance

The other half of the original team concept. It is a late game cleaner but can also act as a wallbreaker with Swords Dance. Close Combat is just great STAB, Flare Blitz as well, and Mach Punch because priority is always nice. Fighting type priority with STAB and Iron Fist Boost is great too. I originally tried Fire Punch>Flare Blitz but a game with Dundies where it left a Metang at 2% made me switch.

Relicanth @ Stone Plate
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Waterfall
- Head Smash
- Stealth Rock

Relicanth has a few important rolls. It prevents me from getting annihilated by Chatot, Dodrio, and the like, it discourages normal spam, it supplies the Stealth Rocks, it breaks holes in unprepared teams with Head Smash, and it can act as a secondary win condition (assuming Head Smash lands, which of course it misses at the most inopportune times.)

Arbok @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Coil
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake
- Gunk Shot

Arbok is mainly here as a Machoke counter. Intimidate is good for that. It can also act as a Stunfisk lure, Coiling on the switch and Earthquaking twice as the Shuca Berry is consumed. Gunk Shot is very powerful, putting major dents in even defensive mons with boosts. It finds opportunities to boost fairly often, and rarely does nothing to help the team.

Zebstrika @ Life Orb
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Zebstrika is my electric immunity, since most ground-types in the tier are physical and not fast at all. Volt Switch gains momentum, Thunderbolt is strong STAB, Overheat is necessary coverage, and Hidden Power Ice is for common ground switch-ins, although I often find myself wishing I had more Ice-type attacks on this team.

Vullaby @ Eviolite
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Foul Play
- Knock Off

Vullaby is the psychic counter and hazard remover. Before adding this, my team really struggled with psychic-type mons like Grumpig and Kadabra due to Metang being 2HKOed by Grumpig's Shadow Ball. Defog is the main reason for using Vullaby along with the psychic immunity, Roost keeps Vullaby healthy, Foul Play is useful for the offensive metagame that currently is PU, and Knock Off does an okay amount of damage while removing items. I have't tried U-Turn here but I see how it could be argued for over Knock Off or Foul Play.
​

As of now, I'm not entirely satisfied with this team due to the amount of pressure to predict certain mons like Rotom-F. It also puts a lot of pressure on my Vullaby to sponge strong attacks, although as I write this I feel like that's slightly mitigated by the Arbok and Relicanth. Vullaby also has to take grass attacks if Arbok dies.

Threatlist

High natural bulk, high base power STAB moves with great coverage, and just high enough speed make Articuno a monster this team struggles with. The only mon that outspeeds timid Articuno is Zebstrika, and if the Articuno has an electric immunity for a teammate, you're about to have a bad time. Hope they miss a Hurricane and attack with Monferno. If modest, it's a lot easier to handle.

​

Shoutouts

Dundies , for complaining that there are never PU RMTs and convincing me to make this one
cryalot , for being a good friend online
Akir , a cool moderator (iirc) in the PU room who's open to ideas
ShuckleDeath , another cool moderator who got really excited at the prospect of Agility Chatot
-The PU room for the good discussions and the players who ask/think they know what PU stands for (IT'S IN THE ROOMINTRO)

Importable

Machoke @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Ice Punch

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance

Relicanth @ Stone Plate
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Waterfall
- Head Smash
- Stealth Rock

Arbok @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Coil
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake
- Gunk Shot

Zebstrika @ Life Orb
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Vullaby @ Eviolite
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Foul Play
- Knock Off

Replays:
vs. Cryalot really smooth game
vs. Road to Zion with dundies' changes (i really like them btw)
vs. Kaboom finals of an official tour

(will add more replays in as I get good ones, will add more threats as I play with the team more)

 

[Dundies]

Hey EnemyJurist, cool team, glad the RMT turned out nice. I'm just going to suggest a few changes to better the team.

To begin with, I notice a huge weakness to Mr. Mime, whether it's Life Orb, Choice Scarf, or Choice Specs, as it can come in on a Fighting-type move or as Vullaby as Roosting and basically get a kill. On top of this, Ice-types like SubWisp Rotom-F and Articuno can definitely mess up your team and you don't have any true switchins. In order to alleviate the pressure these Pokemon put on your team, I'm going to suggest you chance Relicanth --> Metang, which will give you a switchin to all of these Pokemon while also maintaining the role of a Stealth Rocker and a Normal resist.

Golem is also something that's super threatening, considering it either OHKOs or 2HKOs your entire team and it comes in on Vullaby and Zebstrika pretty easily. In order to help you out with this, I'm going to suggest you change Offensive Machoke --> Defensive RestTalk Machoke, which allows you to maintain the same build of your team and weaken Monferno's checks, but this way you can switch into it much more confidently and also have something to switch into Rotom-F's Will-O-Wisp.

Something that can also be a bit threatening to your team at this point in time is special Water-types like Floatzel and Simipour, so I'm going to suggest you change Arbok --> Yache Berry Leafeon, which gives you a nice sort of lure for Water-types like the two mentioned above as well as another check to Golem, as Machoke can have a bit of trouble handling it if its Eviolite is Knocked Off. With this change, you become a bit weaker to Machoke, which is why I also suggest you run Zen Headbutt and enough Speed for opposing Machoke on your Metang as an extra check.

tl;dr

Metang @ Eviolite | Clear Body
236 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Spe | Adamant
Stealth Rock / Meteor Mash / Zen Headbutt / Earthquake

Machoke @ Eviolite | No Guard
248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def | Impish
Dynamic Punch / Knock Off / Rest / Sleep Talk

Leafeon @ Yache Berry | Chlorophyll
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe | Jolly
Swords Dance / Leaf Blade / Knock Off / Synthesis

Hope I helped

 

[GeneralAnnoyance]

In terms of switching Arbok for Leafeon, your team has a really hard time versus Stunfisk and being able to switch into an earth power/tbolt goes a long way here. Leafeon would provide a physical water resist as well, which is something you don't have. Special Waters and Shell Smashers give you a bit of trouble too. If you remove Arbok you lose your sucker puncher and you'll get a lot of grief from stuff like Gorebyss and Huntail. So you have to be on the look out with mons like those.

 

[Anty]

Hi enemyjurist, nice team

I agree with Dundies that running Restalk is a necessary change on Machoke to significantly improve your matchup vs Rotom-f while also absorbing status so being less worried about Stunfisk's static, for example, though I do think you should have more attack on it. I think you should also try Life Orb on Monferno to give it a much easier time sweeping (for example Floatzel it put in range after rocks + one LO hit) and more importantly you do over 80% to grumpig with CC.

In order to deal with your slight Water weakness running Roselia over Arbok could help. It not only a more reliable Electric and Water switch in to what you already have, but it also has the ability to bait in Grumpig and hit it hard with either a Leaf Storm or put it to sleep (in practise i have found it happen quite a bit even if they aren't switching in as the opponent will often predict you going into Vullaby and rose has a enough bulk to take a Psychic). Spikes are also really helpful for monf to pick stuff off with CC. To help improve your matchup vs Fighting-types you should then run Brave Bird on Vullaby over Knock Off (it can be over another move depending on what you like best), this allows you to threaten out both Fighting types with more ease.

Hide

Roselia @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 212 SpA / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Sleep Powder
- Sludge Bomb
- Spikes
speed is for uninvested base 70's like toed and vibrava

Machoke @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Knock Off
- Close Combat

Vullaby
Knock Off ---> Brave Bird

 

[EnemyJurist]

Thanks to everyone who rated and/or liked this! I really appreciate the amount of support I got!
I tried out both Dundies' and Anty's suggestions, one on my main account and one on a separate.
Dundies' version is really smooth in use; it might just be my new favorite PU team. It has ways to deal with threats well and can pull out wins where none were to be easily found (see above replay.)
Anty's version is the one I have not used as much, but when I did use it I got absolutely dominated by rain. Roselia as my water check is fine for one mon, but several is just too much for it to handle. I've also ragequit a few times because of missing a sleep powder/head smash that was my only way to win a game.