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I've pretty much gotten a chance to try out all the new drops, so might as well post something about them
Easily the best of the drops, Heliolisk is already getting a suspect because of its great power, speed, and coverage. It's basically the perfect Volt Switch user as it can punish any Ground-type with either Surf or Grass Knot. In spite of its frailty and questionable typing, it actually provides a fair bit of defensive synergy for offensive teams, being immune to Water-type moves and checking Ghost-types, especially Rotom. It can Volt Switch out of all its checks and counters like Vileplume and Gourgeist as they switch in to a Fire-type or something else that threatens it, and the only pokemon that can reliably switch into its Volt Switch, Lanturn, without getting bopped by coverage can't do much of anything to it
The best of our drops not leaving soon (though frankly RU is going to take it back on May because it's good again), the tier is likely to further develop around it for now. The Swords Dance set is a powerful sweeper that's difficult to revenge kill because of it's speed and bulk (use physical Scarf Mesprit, it's a god) and can choose it's coverage move to get past some of its counters, namely Zen Headbutt for Poison-types and Stone Edge for Flying-types. It can find plenty of set-up opportunities using either its great special bulk or its resistances to Ground-, Water-, and Grass-types. It also has a CM set that I have zero experience with but can get past some of its checks/counters like Xatu, Vileplume, and Gourgeist with HP Ice while being hard for Stall to handle (allegedly). It's pretty weak unboosted though, especially without a Life Orb, and things like Archeops and Sneasel are more common than ever
Mawile's an awesome wallbreaker with a defensive set that's for now kind of outclassed by Mega Steelix. Sheer Force LO has incredible power as both Play Rough and Iron Head are boosted by it, and access to Sucker Punch is just the icing on the cake, giving both defensive and offensive teams trouble. Swords Dance boots its attack to the point where it can actually get past the likes Weezing, but it also has other options for its last slot like Fire Blast for Steel-types, especially Mega Steelix. It actually finds plenty of opportunities to switch in and/or set up thanks to its amazing typing against Dark-, Flying-, Poison-, Psychic-, and Ice-types in spite of its bad bulk. It also happens to pair rather well with Virizion
This is the drop I've used the least, but it's very significant because it revitalized stall by giving it a great response to a lot of set-up like Xatu, Musharna, Feraligatr, Malamar, Mega Audino Curse Mega Camerupt, etc (though frankly a lot of these come down to pp stall wars). It can run both a physically and specially defensive sets, with the latter being mostly to check Fire-types while still handling bulky set up sweepers well. It's also a solid option on balance, but I've only run it on stall and I like my Ground-types to be able to set up Stealth Rocks. Recover sets it apart from other bulky Ground-types though. The 4x weakness to Grass is not pretty (though it's kind of hilarious when you find a Virizion without Leaf Blade :]), but other than that it's a great defensive pokemon
I didn't say too much that hasn't already being said (including me in the np thread), but I really don't want to see this thread die :/
101th post! (I accidentally wasted my 100th :c)
NU is my favorite tier, and I'm happy to be here
All of the NU community both in chat and forums for being awesome
I completely forgot I was supposed to be doing this this week, I've been spending all of my time on a side project. But I did manage to get a few games in last weekend. Overall, I'd echo Pokedots, so I won't be too verbose here. But I will expand on Quagsire and Mawile, because I used two kind of different sets on them.
For Mawile, I used a kind of bulky pivot set with Intimidate and Baton Pass. She was able to switch into a surprising amount of threats, and worked really, really well with Virizion. I feel like it isn't utterly outclassed by Steelix because it checks fighting types just a tiny bit better and threatens them a bit more with stab Play Rough. Even being able to pass a Swords Dance to Virizion to help start a sweep. The other two moves were Play Rough and Sucker Punch. I think you could easily swap Swords Dance out for Stealth Rocks and maybe opt for a more defensive spread than I was using.
My Quagsire was mostly the standard physically defensive set, but I swapped Curse in for the last slot. Not the weirdest set, but not standard, and it's an effective wincon against very physical teams, or after you've gotten rid of stray grass coverage. (Note: My main purpose for using Curse was to actually kill resttalk Malamars, since my team didn't really have a way of doing that. It can't kill standard Quag, but Quag can't kill it either)
just posting to let people know that with the suspect ladder ending, there might be some trouble with posting ladder scores. Please still partake in discussion but just letting you know that ladder scores aren't a necessity to be put in the hall of fame this week.
but in the end I don't think it is the best one, WoW, Defog, and Acrobatics are mandatory, but the last move is where you get to be creative. Sucker Punch, Knock Off, Destiny Bond, there are lots of options there.
The other set that got use is from Can-Eh-Dians RMT
With no item, Acrobatics is powerful right away, but the lack of an item means you cant use Unburden to clean up. But other than that is probably a better supporter, while my set is a better Offensive support Pokemon, ive definitely cleaned up with Drifblim a few times :)
Other cool sets include Endure + Weakness Policy, but any priority beats it. Endure + other items could be cool too, but i havent seen them used much
I blame all of you inactive posters for making me double post.
The ladder changing ruined my rise to fame, but I suppose that doesn't matter this week.
Is that Superman? Is that a plane? Uhh is that a bird?
NO IT'S AN AWKWARD LOOKING WEATHER BALLOON!
So I got interested in Drifblim when Can-Eh-Dian posted the RMT and I've been trying it out for a while, but then we also got Sheer Force Feraligatr and I quickly realized how great of a partner to it Drifblim can be.
As Poliwrath is by far the best answer to DD Feraligatr, I really needed something that can come in on a Circle Throw and punish the annoying glovetoad. Using 184 Atk EVs with an Adamant Nature allows Drifblim to 2HKO it after Leftovers recovery. It's still enough to OHKO the likes of Ludicolo and Sawk, thus investing fully into Attack didn't seem worthwhile for me. The 84 Def EVs and having no held item allows Drifblim to survive a Knock Off from CB Sawk if ever needed, before destroying it with Acrobatics. Using 240 Spe EVs allows it to outpace Adamant Feraligatr and get a Will-O-Wisp off before it starts setting up or hiding behind a Substitute. I originally used Sucker Punch on this set, but I found Memento far more superior on a team that is meant to support Feraligatr. Defog is there to have a mean of hazard control in early-game, but I only got pressured into using it only if the opponent brought more means of entry hazards besides Stealth Rock.
The team I used was a lot of fun to play with, so I thought I'd post it too;
Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
Rotom-Fan @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Air Slash
- Will-O-Wisp
Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Circle Throw
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Typhlosion @ Charcoal
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Eruption
- Fire Blast
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Yes, it's Feraligatr + Offensive Feraligatr Check + Defensive Feraligatr Check + Offensive Feraligatr Check's Check + Defensive Feraligatr Check's Check + Hypephlosion. Yes, I'm that scared of Feraligatr. Yes, I want to sweep with Feraligatr THAT much.
Feraligatr's spread allows it to outspeed Swellow after a boost, but I'm still pondering between going Adamant with just enough speed for base 110s. With Steelix moving up to RU, I found that Volt Switching got a lot better; Rotom-S was my pick here as it gets more damage off compared to regular Rotom, while still outspeeding the threats I needed it for with a Choice Scarf. The EV spread on Poliwrath allows it to also take on special Feraligatr to an extent. Zweilous was added after a trial of errors as an answer to Choice Scarf Volt Swithes aimed at Feraligatr and because Magmortar used to be a pain to deal with. The Defense drop from Crunch came in handy many times against Quagsires, and having a double RestTalk core made it easier to have consistent safe switches throughout the game. Drifblim does all the stuff I mentoned earlier. I have honestly used Typhlosion just because of the Flash Fire hype. It's also a nice way of getting rid of Quagsires that expect it to be choiced and having a way to easily get past Ferroseed. Will-O-Wisp is my way of not giving Feraligatr a free turn. And well, it's Typhlosion; it hits hard. The goal is to sweep with your own Feraligatr, if you didn't pick up on that yet.
Shoutout to Punchshroom for opening my eyes to Charcoal Typhlosion.
tbh I think Claydol is a pretty cool Pokemon, Volt Switch immunity, Fighting resist, Rapid Spin, it has a lot of really cool things all piled into one Pokemon. Like the rest of this weeks mons, it definitely isnt top tier, but it still has a bunch of really cool niches in NU.
Claydol is one of the most reliable spinners in the tier if running an offensive set, Shadow Ball does enough to every ghost type that they wont like to switch in. I find Claydol to be the easiest of the 3 good spinners to fit on a team (the three being Cryo, Sandslash, and Claydol), mainly because of the Fighting resistance, so I can use Claydol as a secondary check to things like Hariyama and Sawk while running Psyshock.
Claydol also has a bunch of other fun innovative sets. iplaytennislol (i think) was using a Weakness Policy Rock Polish set, which is as gimmicky as it sounds, but with all of Claydols weaknesses, its almost viable :O, i tried it out too and it can definitely clean up, 75 SpA still hits pretty hard at +2!
Beyond that, I've had success with a Life Orb set and a Choice Specs set, both of which are meant to lure in things that expect claydol to have no SpA investment and eat a hit comfortably. None of these sets (except for RP) will ever be sweeping teams, but they are definitely handy to plug holes in most teams.
The only set I want to try that I haven't yet is a CB lure, because Claydols physical movepool isnt bad at all. EQ / Stone Edge / Zen Headbutt / (Trick / Rapid Spin) could be a fun set, idk if it would be any good, but its worth trying out
