SM RU Midnight City: Dual Dance Gatr HO: Peak #1

[KW]

Midnight City​

INTRODUCTION
Hi all, welcome to my second RMT of Sun and Moon, and first of the USM meta. The team I'm showcasing here is a hyper offense build, built around the slightly substandard dual dance Feraligatr, and containing some other interesting choices to support it. I wasn't originally planning on doing an RMT for this, but this team proved to be very solid and reliable in performing on the ladder, maintaining #1 for some time. Overall, while it has its flaws, the team is pretty intuitive, easy to use, and can generally play around almost any matchup. It's also very fun of course, in my opinion. Spikes offense in general hasn't died as many predicted in USM with the defog buff, but rather I feel it has flourished in a more offensive form, and I think that this team exemplifies this as well. But without further ado, on to the team.
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Sheer Force | 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe | Jolly

Swords Dance

Agility

Liquidation

Ice Punch

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Dual Dance Feraligatr was the original inspiration for the team, and for the most part it has payed off. Having both SD and agility allows Feraligatr to both punch through balance when needed, and to sweep through offenses faster checks in the lategame simultaneously. The problem with the set, of course, lies in having limited coverage options. Obviously I selected Feraligatr's newly buffed STAB move, Liquidation, which boasts extremely impressive power on its own. For my second move, I went with Ice Punch, to take advantage of Agility outspeeding Choice Scarf Roserade and Shaymin, as well as to hit targets like Chesnaught and Decidueye after an SD. The glaring problem, of course, was the set being totally walled by Milotic, thus much of the rest of the team is focused around luring Milotic in and wearing it down to allow Feraligatr to put in valuable work. Jolly nature could be dropped in favor of Adamant nature to make better use of agility, but always outspeeding Decidueye, Nidoqueen, and the like is generally much more consistently valuable.

Skill Link | 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe | Naughty

Shell Smash

Icicle Spear

Hydro Pump

Explosion

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I needed a complement to Feraligatr, that would wear down its checks, and thus I decided to use Z Explosion Cloyster. Z explosion does over 80 min to max-max Bold Milotic, and has an over 50 percent chance to KO after rocks. Generally, Milotic is a primary switchin to Cloyster, as with Z Explosion rarely seen it can beat most sets reliably with haze without having to lose a Pokemon, which allows this Cloyster to effectively lure it. This in turn gives Feraligatr a chance of putting in work, or pulling off a late game sweep. Cloyster can be a threatening win condition in and of itself, with Icicle Spear as the next obvious choice to take advantage of its high Base Power skill link STAB, and Hydro Pump doing a massive chunk to Doublade (which this team also appreciates weakening) and picking off Mega Steelix and Durant. Shaky accuracy of Hydro Pump is less than ideal, but it is necessary for this set to hit everything it needs.

Refrigerate | 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe | Jolly

Spikes

Double Edge

Ice Shard

Taunt

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At this point in building, the team was basically destined to become full offense, and looked to be in need of spikes to add in sweep and a stop to taunt setters, so I added Glalie. This mon has gotten tons better in USM, in my opinion, as the best spikes setter thanks to taunt access, which can also prevent the rocks (either by forcing out setters like Nidoqueen and Kommo-o or by hard predicting a setter that would threaten you, which is often worth it with this team.) Spikes are essential, for both the Feraligatr and Cloyster above, but for the next member of the team Linoone to sweep. Double Edge is your main attacking move, which can be absurdly strong even with the nerfed refrigerate. Ice Shard is chosen as priority, over running something to hit Doublade, such as Super Fang, as only a little chip is needed for Cloyster's Hydro Pump or Linoone's Stomping Tantrum to take it out, and the priority is generally very helpful in a variety of applications, espcially with regards to Honchkrow and Zygarde-10%. Generally I use this thing to aggressively Spike or prevent rocks, almost as a quazi suicide lead. Double Edging into Steelix can even be worthwhile (does around 30%), as it can opens up the door for Linoone to sweep later on by almost putting it in range of +6 Stomping Tantrum.

Gluttony | 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spe | Adamant

Belly Drum

Extreme Speed

Return

Stomping Tantrum

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With Spikes Offense, this mon is almost obligatory in my opinion, as it can win almost any game if positioned correctly, and its counters are forced to take a bit of chip. The set here is the same as the set Linoone have been running for a while now, albeit with the new and immensely valuable Stomping Tantrum to hit steels, and my own personal preference of running return over seed bomb. In the current meta, return as an option over seed bomb is vastly underated, in my opinion,as it acheives the required KO on max-max Bold Milotic, while guaranteeing the OHKO on Umbreon (assuming no random phys def) and generally doing a lot more to phys def mons that otherwise check Linoone. Chesnaught, for example, can be OHKO'd after spike and Stealth Rock, and variants of Gligar running the trendy Spdef creep have a chance to drop as well. Of course, it also is capable of taking out Tsareena, though it comes at the cost of needing more speed and causing your HP to creep low, though the difference is still the matter of a couple points on any given damage role. Overall, Linoone can be incredibly threatening with Spikes support, and honestly serves as the primary wincon for about half of this teams games.

Magic Bounce | 252 SpAtk / 4 Def / 252 Spe | Timid

Psychic

Hidden Power Fire

Shadow Ball

Trick

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Next is Scarf Espeon. Scarf Espeon is never great, that is to say in most games it struggles to put in meaningful work, but it fits on the team thanks to the various utilities it provides in one clean slot. It is foremost a hazards, and especially Sticky Web, deterrent on a team lacking a Defogger or Spinner. It also provides this teams only method of revenging Salazzle, Durant, or Kommo-o and Feraligatr at +1, which is incredibly vital in the endeavor of not losing. Finally, it allows you to trick something on stall, somewhat easing this team's hardest matchup. Since HP fire is needed to guaranteed cleanly revenge the broken Durant, which otherwise destroys this team, and Trick is too useful vs. stall and as a makeshift check to curselax, Espeon is forced to choose between Dazzling Gleam and Shadow Ball. I opted for shadow ball, as not having a way to hit opposing psychics proved more onerous that lack of a way to hit the relatively few dark types, since Honchkrow needed to be predicted on the switch, Pangoro was relatively rare, and Dazzle barely did anything to Umbreon anyway. Overall, this mon pathces up the team well, and is pretty essential in blanket checking the plethora of stuff that outspeeds this relatively slow offense.

Sheer Force | 252 SpAtk / 4 Def / 252 Spe | Timid

Earth Power

Ice Beam

Thunderbolt

Stealth Rock

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Nidoqueen is chosen for the last slot for a variety of reasons. It provides me with an electric immunity, which is always useful despite the relative scarcity of good Electric-types at the moment,. It provides me with Stealth Rock, which along with Spike greatly helps to put targets in range of sweepers. Earth Power and Ice Beam are standard coverage, hitting most of the tier for at least neutral damage. Thunderbolt was chosen as another way to lure Milotic, as it can 2HKO the fully phyically defensive Bold set further helping Feraligatr out. Normally I prefer Modest for the power, but the team was slow enough as it is, so I opted for Timid. Overall Nidoqueen is a solid Pokemon to set up Rocks and take a hit when needed (especially from Durant) which proivdes a good rounding out to this squad.

Notes:

Stall is the most difficult matchup, especially if they have the increasingly popular Pyukumuku over Quagsire, which flatout stops all my sweepers. Using taunt Glalie + trick Espeon + doubles can pressure these squads allowing you to win, but it will generally fall to you to make a string of correct predictions, which can be frustrating vs. stall on the ladder.

Webs can be annoying, given that taunt + espeon doesn't stop them, as they can invalidate your teams ability to revenge kill Pokemon such as Feraligatr and Kommo-o at +1, which will otherwise pretty much just win if they get the oppurtunity to set themselves up. Agility Gatr can help surprise win vs. these squads as well though!

Banded Extreme Speed from Zygarde-10% is really annoying, as it can stop Linoone, Cloyster, and Feraligatr from finishing their sweep if they have taken too much damage. Cloyster gets setup on band extreme speed though.

Housekeeping:

importable

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Agility
- Swords Dance
- Ice Punch
- Liquidation

Cloyster @ Normalium Z
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Hydro Pump
- Explosion

Glalie-Mega @ Glalitite
Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Ice Shard
- Taunt
- Spikes

Espeon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Trick

Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Thunderbolt

Linoone @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Extreme Speed
- Return
- Stomping Tantrum

proof of peak

Conclusion:

Overall, this team is fun to use, easy to ladder with, and in tune with the new USM meta. Hopefully you'll like it as much as I did if you decide to try it out.
Peace