The Panda & The Bird | Peaked #1

[Guilas D]

Hi everyone, Guilas here. This is my first RMT here so I hope you all like it :].
I would also like to apologize for my English, surely I have some mistakes since it is not my first language, I'm from Spain.

I have an Spanish version of this RMT, feel free to check it out if you feel like: http://ps-salaespanol.proboards.com/thread/1033/oras-balanced-panda-bird-peaked.

Today, January 28th, could be one of the last days that my beloved bird is in the RU tier. I would like to leave this team here in case Mega Pidgeot gets banned with the suspect test. The first thing that should be said is that this team is balanced, with ways to win against any kind of playstyle (stall, balanced, HO, etc). It has checks to all common RU threats and should not have a problem with them if the team is played properly. It features what, to me, are the two biggest offensive threats of the tier.

The Panda & The Bird

Teambuidling process :

• What was clear. The bird is simply the best Mega on the tier. And that pulling Hurricanes without fail is like ...
  

• The following were my two physical sweepers. Which are perfectly covered including
  

• The defensive core. Simply the best to stop the biggest RU threats . With Defog and Stealth rocks support
  

• The glue of the team. Great coverage and useful addition to the bulk that gives the AV
  

I will now explain the individual sets.

espiritu santo (Pidgeot-Mega) @ Pidgeotite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- U-turn
- Roost

I hope that my vote and those of other people prevent this bird from being sent to UU. In RU, where Regenerator cores and stall in generally are very effective playstyle, we need wallbreakers like Mega Pidgeot. With a very hard-hitting Hurricane as well as great Speed, Pidgeot can easily sweep teams once its checks and counters have been eliminated. (That's another point against banning the bird: it has plenty of viable checks... Well, this isn't the thread to discuss the ban so I digress on this topic.)

A common way for this team to win is by using its physical sweepers to eliminate the Pokemon that can contain the bird. The most common used Pokemon to stop Mega Pidgeot are SpDef Rhyperior, Registeel, and Bronzong (I will use this opportunity to recommend SpDef Stunfisk as a response to Mega Pidgeot, and it also has access to Stealth Rock and Thunder Wave). These Pokemon can be eliminated without problem by U-turning out of them into the offensive core formed by Pangoro and Virizion, as none of Pidgeot's checks appreciate a blow from either of these two.

panguilas (Pangoro) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch

The RU meta is really slow, and that the panda is used. SD with STABs + Ice Punch makes it practically impossible for any wall to switch into this thing without being 2HKOd or set up on. Lum Berry ensures that Scald burns or Toxic stall are not a problem. It can destroy 90% of annoying walls, such as Gligar which comes in to take the Knock Off and is instead demolished by an Ice PunchMay weaken wall Alomomola annoying as 90% of the time (it's a way of speaking, of course). The Speed EVs let Pangoro outspeed most walls, including uninvested Gligar and Cresselia. However, carrying Ice Punch means that Pangoro cannot deal with Aromatisse, so it should be taken care of beforehand.

frenzone (Virizion) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Leaf Blade

Double Lum? Yes. It is simply the item that is most useful for both sweepers. Life Orb wears Pokemon down and forces prediction, but the goal of these two Pokemon is to weaken the opponent for a final bird sweep, so Lum Berry is most appropriate for both sweepers. It also makes it much easier to set up an SD in front of various walls without the fear of status. This ultimately results in at least one kill each time these two are allowed to set up. Virizion has a good bulk in addition to the Grass typing that I always like to have to help with the synergy of the team. What counters Virizion? Well actually Reuniclus, which is eliminated without a problem by Pangoro.

tenasitas jr (Gligar) @ Eviolite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Earthquake
- U-turn

With a very good typing, access to Defog, and access U-turn to keep the momentum on its team's side in the fight, this is the best defensive Pokemon in the tier. It's amazing how many kills you can get by simply slow U-turning into one of the team's physical sweepers. Earthquake is Gligar's STAB move and Eviolite allows Gligar to come in against most physical attacks of the tier. The final two team members complement Gligar's defensive presence.

heavy metal (Bronzong) @ Leftovers
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Gyro Ball
- Rock Slide

Something that's always bothered me is how people list the sets without explaining its reason and the purpose it plays on the team. So let me explain why I'm carrying Heatproof Bronzong. If you look at the special attackers in the tier that are a problem to my team, you can see that Mega Pidgeot and Serperior give my team some trouble. With Levitate on Bronzong, Mega Pidgeot will cleanly 2HKO with Heat Wave, while a +2 Serperior will be a huge threat to the team since most carry HP Fire in RU. With Heatproof, Bronzong can contain them both without any problem, and besides, nobody tries to hit me with Earthquake because everyone assumes that you have levitate :]. In addition, Gligar and Mega Pidgeot make opponents think twice before using Earthquake anyway. I have been asked several times why I use Heatproof, and hopefully it's clear now why I do.
Notably, Bronzong also walls Dragalge, another big threat in the RU meta. The reason I use Rock Slide is to contain Fletchinder, which can set up on Gligar and sweep my team. Bronzong really is an important member of the team as it fulfills an essential role to support my team.

slowpope (Slowking) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock

This Pokemon is perfect glue for my team. With an Assault Vest, its special bulk is awesome, and its great coverage can hit a variety of Pokemon in the tier. Fire Blast for Steels, Scald for STAB and obviously the 100% 30% probability of burn, Ice Beam for Grass-types and to OHKO Gligar. Psyshock is a second STAB move and hits enemies on their physically defensive side. Thanks to Regenerator, Slowking is very hard to kill and functions as my second special wall if Bronzong has fallen or is pressured.

Well, I think I'm done with this general explanation of the team, so now I will make a short overview of how we should play the squad depending on the type of team that we face:

Stall: Stall is something of no concern to this team. It's pretty easy to set up rocks early in the game and then find the opportunities to put one of the team's sweepers in a position to set up and weaken the opponents team, leaving room for the other members of my team to clean up. Pangoro is usually the win condition in this case.

Offense: These teams are often weak to Mega Pidgeot, so usually the game plan is to weaken its checks to ensure a late game sweep with the bird. The team structure enables us to wear down threats to the bird on the opponent's team. No offensive Pokemon in particular hurts this team.

HO: They will usually set up Rocks on turn 1, though this doesn't bother too much of the team barring Pidgeot. Gligar should attempt to remove hazards as soon as it can, though this does not that mean that it should be sacrificed just to remove Rocks. This is because every member of the defensive core is important; Gligar is the team's only switchin to Hitmonlee, for example. It is best to maintain offensive pressure against HO teams since they usually don't have any Pokemon with an exclusively defensive role.

I think that is all. The most important thing is to know how to play with the team against different matchups, depending on the team/opponent that we face. Here are a few replays of different battles I've had during my ladder experience:

This is one that shows the power of M-Pidgeot to sweep teams once they are already sufficiently weakened:http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rususpecttest-205942655
In which I get enoght COIL to vote : http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rususpecttest-205950526
And the one I get the top 1: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rususpecttest-206123304

In addition to reaching #1 on the RU Suspect ladder on Pokemon Showdown, this team also reached the top 10 of the RU ladder before the start of this suspect test. The alt is used is "u got klefkied", not my main account. Here is proof of my username and peak:

Peak: http://gyazo.com/9faf686cf06fc6a315f395301a1528fa
User: http://gyazo.com/34cfcf5e9f65187fcaf5cec47605b3da

Shout outs to rocoso, broxx, and mellow for helping me testing the team :]

Finally, I leave you with the importable of the team. Hope you get good results if you decide to try it. And remember #Pray4theBird

Regards, Guilas ;) !

I also would like to thank dodmen who gave me another version of this RMT with a improved text translated than the one I wrote . I really appreciate it :]

EDITS ON BOLD

Importable

panguilas (Pangoro) @ Lum Berry

Ability: Scrappy

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Swords Dance

- Knock Off

- Drain Punch

- Ice Punch



tenasitas jr (Gligar) @ Eviolite

Ability: Hyper Cutter

EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def

Impish Nature

- Defog

- Roost

- Earthquake

- U-turn



slowpope (Slowking) @ Assault Vest

Ability: Regenerator

EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD

Modest Nature

- Scald

- Fire Blast

- Ice Beam

- Psyshock



heavy metal (Bronzong) @ Leftovers

Ability: Heatproof

EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD

Sassy Nature

IVs: 0 Spe

- Stealth Rock

- Toxic

- Gyro Ball

- Rock Slide



frenzone (Virizion) @ Lum Berry

Ability: Justified

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Swords Dance

- Close Combat

- Stone Edge

- Leaf Blade



espiritu santo (Pidgeot-Mega) @ Pidgeotite

Ability: No Guard

EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Hasty Nature

- Hurricane

- Heat Wave

- U-turn

- Roost

 

[MZ]

I don't play enough RU to give a full rate, but at a quick glance I'd say change pidgeot's nature to timid because U-turn is meant for momentum and not damage, so why lower your defenses. Also, you can use a spoiler for the importable so it doesn't take up so much space. Use

nameofspoiler

at the top and

at the end.

edit: how do I demonstrate spoilers without making one ?_? do [/hide] to end it and, in brackets ([ ]), hide=nameofspoiler to start it

 

[Guilas D]

I don't play enough RU to give a full rate, but at a quick glance I'd say change pidgeot's nature to timid because U-turn is meant for momentum and not damage, so why lower your defenses. Also, you can use a spoiler for the importable so it doesn't take up so much space. Use

nameofspoiler

at the top and

at the end.

edit: how do I demonstrate spoilers without making one ?_? do [/hide] to end it and, in brackets ([ ]), hide=nameofspoiler to start it

Thanks , I didn´t know how to do that :P
About the nature , yes its ok if you like to run it jolly , but is not something that matters too much , because the bird does not have to take many hits .

 

[col49]

yo

tight-lookin' squad big dog, really like the synergy here, and double fight has always been a bit of a cool interaction for me. all things considered, i feel the team itself is rather well-orchestrated and shows some p.reasonable foresight in terms of team-building. that being said, most of my comments will be rather nitpicky, as i feel there are some very slight changes that can really tighten the team's performance in standard games. i'll do my best to explain the changes as i do, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

one thing i'd highly advocate is the use of a timid nature on pidgeot, rather than a hasty one. the immediate application of this is rather simple, and it is that u-turn is honestly just piss-weak either which way, and it is more worthwhile to have slightly better physical defenses than it is to be catching rhyperior for, like, 5% more w/u-turn haha. in practice, i think this would sizably improve the team's ability to handle serperior; as it stands, your only responses to serp are 'zonger (which is the most overload-able pokemon in the world rn, not to mention pursuit-weak) and pulling aggressive switches into m-pidgeot, which pressures you to m-evo as early as possible. having that extra physical defense makes it that much easier to keep pidgeot out of sr + leaf storm range, which is just a nice bit of improvement in your serp match-up.

another thing i would advocate here is a swap of coverage moves on your fighting-types, specifically utilizing zen headbutt > stone edge on virizion and gunk shot > ice punch on pangoro. the idea behind this change is to offer two things to the team, improvement in your team's match-up with more stall-oriented builds and to increase self-sufficiency against dragalgae offense. as i mentioned earlier, i dislike relying so heavily upon bronzong to cover offensive threats, and in running stone edge on virizion, you yield a free turn to dragalgae, thereby pressuring a defensive switch-in, which i dislike all the more b/c both possible responses are sizably pursuit-weak. while i understand you /can/ pivot slowking, then go zonger to somewhat cushion this, it becomes very taxing on your defensive backbone over time. zen headbutt > stone edge also helps in breaking through amoonguss, another vexing pokemon at this given time, since it can really just pick away at your team with reasonable safety rn. gunk shot > ice punch on pangoro is kinda what makes it a great breaker, imo. all things considered, gligar is getting significantly beaten down by getting knocked off regardless, and especially with spdef gligar being of about equal value to phys.def currently, there is no guarantee you can't just be beating this pokemon regardless. on the other hand, being able to push through a phys.def aromatisse actually has a lot of value for the team, since it being dispatched will oftentimes open up tons of leg room for virizion to go to work on balance, which i think is a real shining quality to this kind of double fighting core.

lastly, i'd consider a bulkier slowking spread; honestly, this pokemon's defensive value on the team greatly outweighs its offensive potency, and having it retain a slight capacity to handle certain offensive threats better (sd cobalion, sd fletch, lo moltres, etc.). improving your consistency vs.fire birds in particular would be significant here should you opt for zen headbutt on virizion, since you no longer retain that option to catch them on the switch. i'd consider a spread of 252 hp / 92 def / 124 spa / 40 spd (still modest), which would ensure slowking would avoid the 2hko from +2 cobalion's cc from full and standard fletch after sr, relieving a notable amount of pressure from gligar and zonger to handle these pokemon for you.

as i said, mostly nitpicks here, but i feel they would really optimize the team's performance. thanks for sharing, and gl in the future bud

 

[Guilas D]

yo

tight-lookin' squad big dog, really like the synergy here, and double fight has always been a bit of a cool interaction for me. all things considered, i feel the team itself is rather well-orchestrated and shows some p.reasonable foresight in terms of team-building. that being said, most of my comments will be rather nitpicky, as i feel there are some very slight changes that can really tighten the team's performance in standard games. i'll do my best to explain the changes as i do, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

one thing i'd highly advocate is the use of a timid nature on pidgeot, rather than a hasty one. the immediate application of this is rather simple, and it is that u-turn is honestly just piss-weak either which way, and it is more worthwhile to have slightly better physical defenses than it is to be catching rhyperior for, like, 5% more w/u-turn haha. in practice, i think this would sizably improve the team's ability to handle serperior; as it stands, your only responses to serp are 'zonger (which is the most overload-able pokemon in the world rn, not to mention pursuit-weak) and pulling aggressive switches into m-pidgeot, which pressures you to m-evo as early as possible. having that extra physical defense makes it that much easier to keep pidgeot out of sr + leaf storm range, which is just a nice bit of improvement in your serp match-up.

another thing i would advocate here is a swap of coverage moves on your fighting-types, specifically utilizing zen headbutt > stone edge on virizion and gunk shot > ice punch on pangoro. the idea behind this change is to offer two things to the team, improvement in your team's match-up with more stall-oriented builds and to increase self-sufficiency against dragalgae offense. as i mentioned earlier, i dislike relying so heavily upon bronzong to cover offensive threats, and in running stone edge on virizion, you yield a free turn to dragalgae, thereby pressuring a defensive switch-in, which i dislike all the more b/c both possible responses are sizably pursuit-weak. while i understand you /can/ pivot slowking, then go zonger to somewhat cushion this, it becomes very taxing on your defensive backbone over time. zen headbutt > stone edge also helps in breaking through amoonguss, another vexing pokemon at this given time, since it can really just pick away at your team with reasonable safety rn. gunk shot > ice punch on pangoro is kinda what makes it a great breaker, imo. all things considered, gligar is getting significantly beaten down by getting knocked off regardless, and especially with spdef gligar being of about equal value to phys.def currently, there is no guarantee you can't just be beating this pokemon regardless. on the other hand, being able to push through a phys.def aromatisse actually has a lot of value for the team, since it being dispatched will oftentimes open up tons of leg room for virizion to go to work on balance, which i think is a real shining quality to this kind of double fighting core.

lastly, i'd consider a bulkier slowking spread; honestly, this pokemon's defensive value on the team greatly outweighs its offensive potency, and having it retain a slight capacity to handle certain offensive threats better (sd cobalion, sd fletch, lo moltres, etc.). improving your consistency vs.fire birds in particular would be significant here should you opt for zen headbutt on virizion, since you no longer retain that option to catch them on the switch. i'd consider a spread of 252 hp / 92 def / 124 spa / 40 spd (still modest), which would ensure slowking would avoid the 2hko from +2 cobalion's cc from full and standard fletch after sr, relieving a notable amount of pressure from gligar and zonger to handle these pokemon for you.

as i said, mostly nitpicks here, but i feel they would really optimize the team's performance. thanks for sharing, and gl in the future bud

Thanks for the rate , I really appreciate it :]
At first I think that I am gonna change the Bird nature to jolly since ,as you said , serperior could be a problem if bronzong get trapped .
With the moveset changes Im not agree . Zen Headbutt allows me to hit Amoongus , right . But as long as I have a Lum on the panda , and the bird to deal with it is not a problem for the team . I like SE to hit some M-Pidgeot if it didn´t mega-evolve , and catch some birds on the switch .
The Gunk Shot over > Ice punch . When I started my climb on the ladder I was using the set with Gunk Shot instead of Ice punch , but as soon as I get higher practically every team had a Gligar , so I decided to change it . Aromatisse is annoying yes , but I did not face too many of them . I also have free switch on Zong .

 

[Taiwan Province]

I like that lum berry panda (i am using lum too but that's because i am using a baton pass set). I prefer using iron fist over scrappy though -- as you do carry knock off and have two punching move. Besides, ghost types in ru are either slower (doublade, spiritomb, confagrigus) or countered by lum berry (spiritomb, confagrigus, banette with speed investment). Non-iron fist pangoro miss out some important kills.

Timid would be better than hasty as it only reduce u-turn's damage by ~10% but let pidgeot live some attacks, for example:
abomasnow's ice shard after stealth rock and hail damage might kill the bird if you are using hasty;
hasty pidgeot won't survive defensive Rhyperior's 3 hit Rock Blast but timid one would have a slight chance, and if it hit 2 times timid pidgeot is garanteed to survive after stealth rock damage but hasty does not;
timid pidgeot has 50% to survive a choice band pangoro drain punch, but hasty one won't survive;
etc.

The others looks alright, although it maybe because of i didn't use them at all apart from bronzong (i use physical def one).