hy. this team performs pretty well against most common and generic builds that are typically seen in nu. there are a few match-ups and playstyles that are difficult to get past, but almost all of them can be played around
prior to creating this team, finchinator sparked the idea of using some of these sets together while preparing for his spl match. unfortunately, he lost with them and didn't want to re-use the same ideas with a stronger core. from there, i built my team with fireburn so that he could use it in some nu tournament and i could use it in test battles for spl. as with many other teams in their early stages, this team had a little surprise factor, so being extensively used by numerous people over a long period of time made it lose a little effectiveness, but it's still solid overall
firstly, it uses a classic core that is found on many teams as a defensive backbone. i needed a defensive core as boring and awful to look at as this one to supplement probably the best offensive core that i have come across. i actually gave out this team for many people to use during the heliolisk and steelixite suspect test, which explains the sudden surge of this team on ladder and why choice band sneasel is seen more now. almost everyone did fine with it, although both zorodark and vileman scared the shit out of me in 9 out of 10 games and finchinator had numerous outstanding chokes on ladder!! i ended up changing a few sets over time, but the team's function generally stays the same
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goal of the team
the idea was to build an effective offensive core that runs some slightly different sets to help other members of the core clean up. offensive uxie (formerly with grass knot for mega steelix), choice band sneasel, and substitute + endeavor tauros all weaken or eliminate pokemon that they would all normally have issues with. along with spikes from garbodor, seismitoad's ability to induce status, and hariyama's knock off and wide pool of coverage moves, i have a team that is decently buffered against a large portion of the metagame while advancing my win conditions wonderfully. having a balanced team with the offensive pokemon being on the extreme side of the speed spectrum leaves a lot of room to play well against the opponent regardless of their team
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defensive pokemon
these three pokemon are so common and everyone has seen it on so many teams that they are almost self-explanatory. this core checks a significant portion of the metagame while providing hazards, priority, and status
garbodor @ rocky helmet
ability: aftermath | evs: 248 hp / 156 def / 104 spe | nature: impish
spikes / gunk shot / haze / seed bomb or toxic
garbodor is the essential pokemon to handle fighting- and grass-types in the tier, especially sawk, hariyama, and lilligant. my team does not have a foolproof way to switch into kangaskhan, sneasel, or archeops, so a smart and well-timed use of garbodor can get necessary damage needed on these pokemon with rocky helmet. garbodor is also useful to save in case the opponent is using toxic spikes, because i'm already putting my pokemon on a timer by being weak to spikes. haze is for gurdurr but is somewhat of a panic button if seismitoad is weakened against threats like mawile or for rare pokemon like curse miltank. the last move is a tossup; toxic is really important for spreading status against bulky gourgeist teams while seed bomb wears down a lot of checks to tauros and sneasel. however, i would pick the move depending on what uxie is running in its last coverage slot or otherwise pokemon like quagsire can become annoying without any grass coverage. the speed is for 252 neutral-natured cacturne, exeggutor, and torterra
seismitoad @ leftovers
ability: water absorb | evs: 200 hp / 252 def / 56 spe | nature: bold
stealth rock / scald / earth power / toxic
seismitoad is just an electric-type immunity that also happens to keep me from automatically losing to a lot of water-types, though admittedly it's a very poor check to most of them. however, it fits many roles into one which is why it's an essential part of this team. the water typing is helpful to keep me buffered against klinklang which could otherwise clean my team. also, seismitoad is additionally a weak check to physical attackers in general, eventually trading itself off to try to get burn or poison. finally, seismitoad serves as one of the weak typhlosion checks to help in minimizing its powerful impact. i find that seismitoad's natural speed is often nice in order to get the jump on a lot of slower pokemon and use toxic or scald against them to fish for status before going down. i would love to run grass knot on seismitoad for opposing ones and quagsire, but it has limited applications compared to toxic
hariyama @ assault vest
ability: thick fat | evs: 252 atk / 160 sdef / 96 spe | nature: adamant
fake out / close combat / knock off / thunder punch
hariyama rounds out my defensive core, although i honestly try to avoid using hariyama in general. it is one of those pokemon that i literally just outright hate because it has no recovery, hates hazards, and is insanely slow that it gets worn down by other equally ridiculous pokemon like prinplup. however, for the needs of my team, i am just using this thing to take one hit from a really threatening offensive pokemon like typhlosion or mega camerupt to force them out, then have hariyama drop dead the next time it comes in against them. by then, hopefully i have put my other pokemon in a situation to clean up. keeping hariyama is only important in the case of facing choice scarf typhlosion or weather teams. it's also necessary if i need priority late-game. thunder punch is just to hit mantine and pelipper to punish them for using defog. after heliolisk was banned, i tried out at least five other variants of this team with changes to remove hariyama, but hariyama kind of glued my team together so it stayed
by the way, anyone who runs zero to a small amount of speed evs on hariyama does not know how to play it. have fun losing your ability to beat tangela or losing to absolute garbage like prinplup and scald just because you tied with it haha
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offensive pokemon
this was my favorite offensive core in the mega steelix metagame because these are all pokemon that chip so much damage on steelix and similar pokemon that it advances the other pokemon for a sweep. with the recent tier changes, certain threats to these pokemon are more prominent now but this core also becomes a bigger threat itself. the cool thing is that tauros and sneasel hit the 110 and higher base speed mark which means that they put a ton of pressure on both offensive and defensive pokemon
uxie @ leftovers
ability: levitate | evs: 4 def / 252 spa / 252 spe | nature: timid
calm mind / psyshock / signal beam / hidden power fire or giga drain
offensive uxie works as a lure, or even as a cleaner in some cases late-game when facing slower pokemon. the perk that it has over mesprit is the better speed and bulk, which far outweighs the issue of uxie being fairly weak. i used to have the previously underrated grass knot to do at least 40% to mega steelix at +1, but now that it is gone, i have other usable options. hidden power fire is a completely valid option to hit ferroseed, mawile, and gourgeist-large. however, using giga drain instead still maintains the ability to break rhydon, quagsire, seismitoad, and other rare rock-types. signal beam is mandatory because well-played malamar actually gives this team trouble while uxie becomes less susceptible to all other dark-types in general. if my slower pokemon were less susceptible to malamar, i would definitely use both fire and grass coverage on this set. psyshock over psychic is used generally because it beats out calm mind audino and mantine more comfortably, but psychic is valid for things like gurdurr and bulky ground-types should giga drain be dropped. max speed allows uxie to outspeed all base 90s and 91s, while also getting the jump on the uncommon leavanny and tying with other base 95 speed pokemon
tauros @ life orb
ability: sheer force | evs: 252 atk / 4 def / 252 spe | nature: jolly
substitute / rock climb / zen headbutt / endeavor
tauros is very straightforward; it hits everything hard with rock climb, netting at least 40% on some of the bulkiest pokemon that do not resist it. zen headbutt hits rotom and mismagius really hard. i previously had the standard tauros set in the mega steelix metagame, but i moved on to the classic substitute + endeavor tauros from last generation because i needed a way to break most defensive cores with more certainty. some pokemon like quagsire and signal beam or thunder wave musharna become far less of an issue with endeavor being used. if uxie and sneasel can be played well enough, then the endeavor on tauros is just extra. i still think the standard tauros set is reasonable because immediately damaging rock- and steel-types can be very useful, especially ferroseed and those that can boost speed through rock polish, shell smash, etc., but it comes down to a matter of preference and what coverage the rest of the team decide to run. i actually tend to go back and forth a lot between the two sets and can't really decide on one because they're both very effective in slightly different ways, so do consider running the standard one
sneasel @ choice band
ability: inner focus | evs: 252 atk / 4 def / 252 spe | nature: jolly
knock off / icicle crash / pursuit / ice shard
choice band sneasel solves my issues of eviolite sneasel being too weak and thus needing to waste a slot for swords dance, and life orb sneasel being worn down too fast. dark and ice are great offensive typings, which makes icicle crash and knock off very deadly later after wearing down sneasel's checks by removing their items early on. the base 115 speed is a bonus since any faster pokemon without a choice scarf are typically rare. ice shard brings strong priority to keep lilligant and vivillon from being too threatening after a quiver dance. pursuit can eliminate something that has gotten past my defensive pokemon or can prevent xatu and mesprit from being annoying. eliminating xatu is important because this team's defensive core has issues breaking past it without a scald burn or gunk shot poison, and sneasel appreciates stealth rock and sometimes spikes in order to dismantle teams. i previously had low kick over ice shard because that enabled sneasel to do a minimum of around 45% to mega steelix, hariyama, and piloswine to help my offensive core but now it isn't mandatory
252 Atk Choice Band Sneasel Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Typhlosion: 235-277 (79.1 - 93.2%)
252 Atk Choice Band Sneasel Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ninetales: 243-286 (84.6 - 99.6%)
252 Atk Choice Band Sneasel Knock Off (65 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Archeops: 225-265 (86.5 - 101.9%)
252 Atk Choice Band Sneasel Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Uxie: 300-354 (84.9 - 100.2%)
252 Atk Choice Band Sneasel Icicle Crash vs. 248 HP / 164+ Def Garbodor: 150-177 (41.3 - 48.7%)
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misc.
particularly annoying threats to this team include fast normal-types, archeops, gourgeist-large, curse miltank, malamar to some extent, will-o-wisp users. additionally, rare team archetypes like weather, trick room, and sticky web are potentially threatening, but this team can fall back on uxie and hariyama. teams with any of these threats aren't automatically unbeatable though
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big shoutouts to my old friends who already know who they are!! i've mentioned them so many times already haha
shoutouts to Fireburn, Jibaku, IronBullet93, Sam, Edgar, and Henry. they are some of the people who i had the fortune of talking to more often over the course of spl. you are all the best!!
f Edgar for not going through with our rmt idea
more shoutouts to fidanzato During Summer, copain Evuelf, and my loser ZoroDark :) all of you are also the best hehe.
also Tricking is adorable and i am glad to have to have met him recently. sei adorabile e ti amo. but please use irccloud/mirc/hexchat/anything with good notifications over garbage mibbit and answer pm better please please please please please please
and of course a big thanks to my "adoptive" teams, scooters and tigers, and my very own team from this spl: the ever grande bigs
the import and rmt uses all the same speed creep that i actually used. nothing to hide
Tauros (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Rock Climb
- Zen Headbutt
- Endeavor
Uxie @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Signal Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Garbodor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Def / 104 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Gunk Shot
- Haze
- Seed Bomb
Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic
Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 160 SpD / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- ThunderPunch
Sneasel @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Rock Climb
- Zen Headbutt
- Endeavor
Uxie @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Signal Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Garbodor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Def / 104 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Gunk Shot
- Haze
- Seed Bomb
Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic
Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 160 SpD / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- ThunderPunch
Sneasel @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
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