Project PU Next Best Thing: Gnarly [Cycle 3: Won by SergioRules]

Congratulations to 2xTheTap for winning Cycle 1 of PU NEXT MF THING with Defensive Nasty Plot :rocky_helmet:. ONTO CYCLE TWO.

Cycle 2 - Sandcastles
:sv/palossand:

Palossand knocks out a lot of things you'd typically look for naturally in teambuilding like being a spinblocker thanks to its Ghost-typing, providing Electric-immunity to prevent Volt Switch momentum, and utility in Stealth Rocks. These factors alongside sustain in Shore Up allows Palossand to be a threat for Pokemon like Arcanine, Pawmot, and Emboar. The deadline for submissions will end on May 17th (Wednesday - Saturday).
Palossand @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Water Compaction
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Tera Type: Water / Dark
Bold Nature
- Shore Up
- Stealth Rock
- Shadow Ball
- Scorching Sands / Earth Power
 
:choice-specs: :palossand: Specs Palossand :palossand: :choice-specs:

Palossand @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Compaction
Tera Type: Ghost / Water
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Earth Power
- Trick
- Shore Up / Sludge Bomb

The Idea:
While looking at what palossand had to offer, the first thing I realized was that it had a pretty decent special attack stat and that its coverages were pretty good into the ghost ressists of the tier. This paired with access to the move trick made me want to build a choice specs set.

Why using Palossand instead of other ghost special attackers:
SV PU has two main ghost types that can run choiced sets. These are :hoopa: and :typhlosion-hisui:. Both these are glasscannons that hit hard and that have specs sets with very few switch ins. Either way, specs palossand still has a niche for the following reasons:

- Luring walls into being tricked: Most normal people while looking at team preview will think palossand is just a defensive rocker. This makes defensive mons such as :cramorant: , :milotic: or :altaria: switch in wanting to defog or claim an scald. Trick shuts down these almost completely.

-The Bulk: Palossand is not a glasscannon and once you click trick, it can become an useful wall due to its natural bulk and HP investment. Because of this shore up is prefered as 4th move.

- Coverages: Earth power lets you hit ghost ressists such as :skuntank: or :qwilfish-hisui: and sludge bomb hits :grimmsnarl: and :wo-chien:

252+ SpA Choice Specs Palossand Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 240+ SpD Eviolite Qwilfish-Hisui: 282-332 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

252+ SpA Choice Specs Palossand Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Grimmsnarl: 234-276 (59.3 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Palossand Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Wo-Chien: 208-246 (55.6 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Other details:
Tera Ghost is prefered to boost stab shadow ball while removing the water weakness. This tera allows palossand to hit the 2hko on :milotic: :
252+ SpA Choice Specs Tera Ghost Palossand Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Milotic: 198-234 (50.2 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Tera water is a more serious option for longevity once you clicked trick.

The ev spread allows palossand to hit 127 speed, outspeeding :bellibolt: and no investment :lurantis:
 
:palossand: Crushed under a sandcastle :palossand:

Castle of glass @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Compaction
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 16 SpA / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
- Gravity
- Earth Power
- Tera Blast
- Shore Up


Well well well, what happens here? probably one of my weirdest cook, but it doesn't come from nowhere

The Idea : Most of the time, palossand will bring opposing cramorant into the field, 16 spA guarantees the ohko on it
16 SpA Tera Electric Palossand Tera Blast (80 BP) vs. 248 HP / 56 SpD Cramorant: 348-412 (101.4 - 120.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Therefore it opens the way for the rest of the team to thrive with cramo being already out

The spread stays otherwise pretty classic, with the speed crept to outspeed defensive rhydon, bellibolt and other stuff at this speed with Earth power being way stronger than scorching sands, you might wanna give that extra punch to actually 2hko
Palossand stays bulky enough and can make a better use of water compaction with tera, a single water compaction proc makes it so it can 1v1 rhydon reliably

Now why Gravity? the simple idea is so you can click earth power without thinking twice, surprising some levitating pokemons like Heatom
and pretty much everything that would switch on palo pretty freely

The more complex idea around it revolves around 2 points :
- Enabling strong ground type moves users (mainly earthquake) to bring some damage and wallbreak
- Enabling less accurate moves to be guaranteed | every moves above 60% accuracy will have 100%, and dynamic punch/zap cannon will have 83,5% accuracy

Of course the set can be changed, mostly the tera and the spA creep to get the KOs you need in order to make your team function, in this case and in most cases I have encountered, Cramorant seemed to be the worthiest one to lure in.
 
i originally reserved custap dbond but i changed my mind in favor of something cooler

Luminous Moss SpDef Palossand
:sv/Palossand: @ :luminous-moss:
Palossand @ Luminous Moss
Ability: Water Compaction
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shore Up
- Shadow Ball
- Scorching Sands
- Giga Drain

I've been obsessed with the idea of making one of the obscure items like Luminous Moss, Absorb Bulb, and Cell Battery work, and I found the perfect candidate for it: Palossand. In a tier with Milotic everywhere, a set that shuts down non-haze sets and become unkillable has the potential to win games. Enter Luminous Moss + Water Compaction + SpDef Palo. This set can easily switch into a Milotic scald and only get 2hko'd 3% of the time after rocks, gain +1 SpDef and +2 Def, and from Giga Drain, Shore Up, and Dual Stabs, become very VERY hard to remove. Its typing is good enough to where it can still kinda do its usual role, but now it turns Milotic and other surf users into setup fodder. Giga Drain is here to be cool and style on Milotic while getting a bit of extra recovery, and tera fairy prevents you from being forced out by dtail if your opposing non-haze milotic is dtail, and if its haze bring out your tatsugiri or smth idk

replay where im claiming i lost to hax and not because i need to take a break and team if you want this palo to happen
nobody else in 3 games wanted to water move my palo for some reason
 
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:sv/palossand:
Palossand @ Custap Berry / Focus Sash
Ability: Water Compaction
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Scorching Sands
- Shadow Ball
- Imprison

I got this idea from his access to Stealth Rock and Imprison with the type Ghost.
Timid can outspeed Avalugg-Hisui.
 
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:palossand::palossand::palossand:
Palossand @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Compaction
Tera Type: Poison / Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 Spe
Impish Nature
- Sand Tomb
- Curse
- Shore Up
- Protect

Palossand actually has an incredibly specific niche out of Ghost-types, especially those in PU. It is one of the few Ghost-types that gets the combination of Curse with reliable recovery. It further solidifies this niche by also having access to a trapping move in Sand Tomb, allowing it to fully destroy off a Pokemon it walls. This set uses all of these moves with Protect in the last slot to rack up more Curse/Sand Tomb damage.
The given Speed of this set allows it to outspeed Lurantis, Bellibolt, and 0 Speed Exeggutor-Alola. The goal would likely be to Curse on the switch, then Terastallize and Sand Tomb on the next turn against one of these Pokemon. Though this can be played around fairly easily if the opponent can predict the set, if you manage to pull it off it can clear the way for a sweeper in the back that might not appreciate the Grass-typing or Static of Bellibolt like SD Bruxish or Ambipom.
 
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Cycle 2 - Palossand (Voting)
61577.gif

Voting ends on Wednesday night for Palossand. Thank you for all submissions!! :sandygast: Please remember that voting for your own set is not allowed, and advertising for people to vote for your set will disqualify your submission.

Choice Specs :choice_specs: by Bloshh
Gravity + Tera Blast Electric :leftovers: by VyoletRayn
Imprison :custap_berry: | :focus_sash: by PorygonBG
Luminous Moss + Giga Drain :luminous_moss: by LettuceLeaf07
Sand Tomb + Curse :leftovers:by SergioRules​
 
voting Gravity + TB elec
would have voted Imprison cos its cool but it actually loses to avalugg in current state
 
Congratulations to VyoletRayn for winning Cycle 2 with a shiesty Gravity + Tera Blast Electric Palossand :palossand: :leftovers:!

Cycle 3: Gnarly
:sv/hariyama:

Trying to build off the ZUBL is a gnarly approach to teambuilding. Hariyama is the gnarliest test subject that has access to a wide range of physical attacks and setup capabilities. More proven Fighting-types like Pawmot and Tauros-Paldea-Blaze outclass it due to the nature of the tier, however, Knock Off on paper still makes progress alongside notable abilities in Guts / Thick Fat. The deadline for submissions will end on July 20th. Extended Cycle.
Hariyama @ Leftovers
Ability: Guts / Thick Fat
EVs: 12 HP / 200 Atk / 252 SpD / 44 Spe
Tera Type: Steel
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
 
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hariyama.gif

Hariyama @ Eject Pack
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 40 SpD / 204 Spe OR 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Headlong Rush / Ice Punch
- Heavy Slam / Bullet Punch
- Thief / Knock Off

Hariyama has traditionally acted as a Bulk Up sweeper for the majority of this generation, with its new access to Drain Punch perfectly complementing it's already massive bulk. This set aims to use another new tool gained in SV with Eject Pack (technically it was introduced in Gen 8 but since Hariyama wasn't there it never got the chance to use it). This set aims to turn Hariyama into more of an offensive pivot than a sweeper or even a Flame Orb breaker. The idea of this is to switch Hariyama into something obviously threatened by it, and by clicking CC or Headlong Rush, you can gain intel on what your opponent's initial switch-in is while also doing massive damage to it and pivoting to a better response.

Sometimes the initial switch-in is pretty telegraphed e.g. Florges or Altaria, which is where your other moves come in. Because this set isn't meant to set up like the BU set, I find Heavy Slam is much more useful than Bullet Punch would be specifically for that Florges matchup and there's definitely a case to be made to drop Headlong for Ice Punch in the case of Altaria, Galarian Articuno, or Hisuian Braviary. Since you'll be losing your item most of the time, I thought Thief in the last spot would be a bit funny to not only get rid of your opponent's item like Knock Off but also potentially nab yourself another useful item in the process. Now, this could potentially screw you over if you steal something like a Choice item that isn't Band so Knock Off is definitely still an option here.

The EV spreads depend on your coverage moves of choice. If you're using Headlong Rush and Heavy Slam, 204 Speed EVs allows you to outrun min Speed Florges and KO it with Tera Steel Heavy Slam (even though most Florges run some Speed this is still preferred). Meanwhile, those running Ice Punch will likely want 244 Speed to get the jump on min Speed Altaria (again, though most Altaria run some Speed this is still your best move for it without having to Terastallize).

This set would definitely struggle with physically bulkier Pokemon that it can't hit for super-effective damage like Uxie, Mesprit, Palossand, or Mudsdale, so strong special attackers like Hoopa, Typhlosion-H, or Articuno-G that can deal with these Pokemon synergize nicely and also appreciate the pivoting support from Eject Pack. Special/mixed Zoroark also deserves a mention here as it can disguise itself as Hariyama and handle these Pokemon, even doing a decent job of baiting these things with its Knock Off to make it seem as though it actually is a Hariyama.
 
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