A NU team

[bobbyvaporeon]

Hey guys. this is my first RMT, so I decided to go with my best team, my NU team. I wnated to buid this team around Glaceon. I really like Glaceon, as it can be either a good revenger or a lead sweeper.
TeamBuilding Process:


As I said, I wanted to make a team with Glaceon in it. so i put that in.

I then knew that I would need a spinner that could also do a lot of damage. Torkoal fit the bill perfectly.

I then wanted a wall, and a Stealth Rock setter of my own. Alomomola is one of the best supporters there is in NU, if not the best, and Cradily is an extremely underrated Pokemon with good defensive stats.

Then I needed a Physical attacking force. I chose Rampardos, and for another Special Attacker I put Exploud in.

Now the team was good, but I decided to make a few changes to it. Firstly, I wasnt using my Hazards much, so cradily got kicked off in favor of Golurk. then Exploud was booted for Drifblim.

The Team in-depth:

Glaceon @ Choice SpecsAbility: Ice Body
EVs: 252 HP, 252 SP Attack, 4 SP Defense (Modest Nature)
Moves:
Ice Beam
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power Electric
Wish
Why?
Glaceon is the reason I made a NU team. the EVs are standard Glaceon, giving it some durability as well as Massive damage output. Ice Beam is it's STAB, getting rid or Shiftry, Golurk, and Dragonair. HP Electric is for the water types in the tier. However, I don't like getting locked into it, so I don't use it unless I need to. Shadow Ball is for Golurk again and minor Pokemon like Bannette, giving it great Coverage.

Torkoal @ White Herb
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 4 HP, 52 Defense, 252 Special Attack, 200 Speed (Modest Nature)
Moves:
Rapid Spin
Shell Smash
Fire Blast
Earth Power
Why?
Torkoal is great. My second best Pokemon on this team. Rapid Spin is for Hazards so that Drifblim and Glaceon can get switched in safely, and the remaining 3 moves go together perfectly. This thing can sweep. Nothing much else to say about it.

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP, 4 Attack, 252 Defense (Impish Nature)
Moves:
Wish
Protect
Waterfall
Toxic
Why?
Alomomola is the best wall in NU. Period. Massive HP lets it give wish huge recovery among the team, While protect stalls a turn should I want to wish myself. Waterfall is for if I get taunted, while Toxic for passive Damage.

Rampardos @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Attack, 4 Special Defense (Adamant Nature)
Moves:
Head Smash
Crunch
Stealth Rock
Superpower
Why?
Rampardos is a beast. Head smash OHKOs or 2HKOs almost everything in the tier. Crunch is for Golurk and Exeggutor, and if I dont want the Recoil from Head Smash. Stealth Rock for getting some extra damage on opponents, and Superpower rounds off the coverage nicely.

Drifblim @ Flying Gem
Ability: Unberden
EVs: 252 HP, 4 Attack, 252 Speed (Careful Nature)
Moves:
Acrobatics
Stockpile
Calm mind
Baton Pass
Why?
Drifblim is the MVP of the team. Acrobatics is the main attacking move, as with Flying Gem and Unberden it gives Drifblim Double Speed without needing to set up. After that is done, I either Calm Mind and Pass over to my Glaceon, or Stockpile over to Golurk. I love this thing.

Golurk @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Attack, 172 Special Defense, 84 Speed (Adamant Nature)
Moves:
Ice Punch
Earthquake
Shadow Punch
Stone Edge
Why?
I love Golurk. He is one of my favorite gen V Pokemon. Ice Punch Decimates any Dragons or Torterras, as it is boosted by Iron Fist. Earthquake and Ability-Boosted Shadow Punch are it's STAB moves of Choice, and Stone Edge gives Golurk literally perfect Coverage. The EVs are a bit different, as instead of HP, I invested in SP Attack because I noticed most of Golurk's Weaknesses were mainly Special Attacks. With a few Stockpiles up, he becomes really hard to take down.


Thanks for taking the time to read my RMT, and please leave any suggestions for the team in the Comments!

 

[ium]

specs glaceon / torkoal / alomomola / rampardos / drifblim / golurk

this team is horribly weak to any specially-based water-type. anything that can hit the likes of samurott, ludicolo, or gorebyss hard is outsped with the exception of drifblim, but if the latter two are able to set up, then they are able to outspeed and OHKO your entire team.

first of all, saying that rampardos can hit everything hard is great, but there's so much in the tier that can do the same. try out choice band sawk if you're looking for a hard hitter. sawk provides mold breaker so that you can deter stealth rock setters with sturdy from setting up so easily, and it can pretty much KO anything not named musharna, duosion, or misdreavus with proper prediction. sawk is also pretty fast for NU, and your team needs something that can outspeed a bunch of common threats that rampardos misses out on.

you can apply offensive pressure with sawk to keep stealth rock away for glaceon, so i don't really see why you need to stack a third weakness to it with torkoal. this slot can be particularly useful for a check to the water-types i mentioned, and ludicolo seems like the best fit here. your team lacks speed, and it needs some other win condition since glaceon is more of a wallbreaker. ludicolo does not mind taking attacks from opposing ludicolo and gorebyss if it is at decent health.

now, there's a bunch of other stuff to change. the special defense EVs on golurk can be shifted to hp. this is helpful because it allows golurk to do certain things like take a crunch or night slash from skuntank or zangoose when at full health. it's better to just invest in hp in many cases because it increases all-around bulk instead of just on one side of the spectrum. in addition, without rampardos, golurk can use stealth rock over stone edge. stone edge doesn't grant any particular advantage to golurk when it already has a majority of NU covered with its other three attacks.

drifblim's entire set also doesn't accomplish anything that well. calm mind may be helpful for its teammates, but it doesn't do anything for drifblim at all if the need arises. stockpile is really gimmicky, and there is so much in the tier that can still hit most of your team hard even at +1. using the standard acrobatics drifblim set is more reliable for several reasons. it allows you to set up a substitute in the face of many defensive pokemon in the tier, like tangela and lickilicky, without having to deal with status moves. substitute and will-o-wisp are great for bypassing sucker punch from skuntank or getting the advantage over whatever the opponent switches in. finally, destiny bond can be used as a last-ditch effort to get rid of anything that troubles your team, and it is really helpful for picking off really fast pokemon considering drifblim's speed after acrobatics is used.

the last thing to note is glaceon's set. i understand the choice for hp electric, but most water-types are generally hit hard by a specs ice beam anyway, leaving them 2HKO'd for the most part. glaceon should be more worried about probopass, bastiodon, regice, and piloswine. all of them won't fear anything from glaceon's attacks, which is why hidden power fighting is the better choice. additionally, wish is really bad to get locked into and you already have a wish user; since glaceon lacks other attacking options, baton pass would work well on it. while glaceon isn't going to be actually passing any boosts, baton pass works similarly to u-turn or volt switch in that it can give you initiative on whatever the opponent sends in to check glaceon.

summary:
hidden power fighting & baton pass hidden power electric & wish specs glaceon / ludicolo torkoal / alomomola / choice band sawk rampardos / standard acrobatics drifblim / 172 hp, stealth rock stone edge golurk

sets

Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Rain Dance
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam

Sawk (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge

Drifblim @ Flying Gem
Trait: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Substitute
- Will-O-Wisp
- Destiny Bond

 

[watashi]

gorebyss can sweep this team clean if it manages to set up since nothing can outpace it after a boost or take hits from it very well. ium's ludicolo suggestion will help with it to some extent, but ludicolo can be koed by ice beam after a bit of prior damage, so it's not a very good counter to gorebyss. to fix this, you can run choice scarf rotom-f over glaceon. this gives you a reliable revenge-killer to gorebyss, as long as its not under a substitute, and also helps with other fast pokemon such as haunter and sawsbuck which your team might have troubles with.


summary of changes:

glaceon —> choice scarf rotom-f

set(s)

Rotom-Frost @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Ice]

 

[Raseri]

Hi bobby, this is a pretty cool team. I like the use of Glaceon, its way to rare nowadays, but its such a beast!

There are lots of small things that will improve this team without even changing any of your Pokemon!

I would put Frost Breath > Wish on Specs Glaceon. Both are extremely niche moves, but Glaceon doesn't even pass big Wishes, and locking yourself into it is always a bad idea. On the other hand, Frost Breath's ability to always crit can be handy against things with defensive boosts. Sure those are rare, but at least you can hit a calm mind musharna harder than Ice Beam.

Drifblim would benefit from the set that ium suggested. The standard Acrobatics set just works. It can almost always get 1 kill and then cripple something else with WoW. Destiny Bond allows it to take something else when its time for it to depart. Its also worth noting that the speed boost from Unburden is not passed when you use Baton Pass. So that removes a lot of the gimmick in Drifblim.

Finally, Stone Edge is redundant on Golurk. It hits bugs and flying types harder, but thats about it. It just offers no real coverage. Stealth Rock could go there instead.


Now why am I suggesting SR on Golurk when you have it on Rampardos? Because Rampardos is bad. It is strong, but it is completely suicidal. And on this team it isn't contributing much to your teams goal, which I assume is a Glaceon or Torkoal sweep. Rampardos is just kinda sitting there hitting things, but actually hurting your team more than it is helping it. Right now you are swept by anything that can boost its speed, so Carracosta, Gorebyss etc. I believe that a Choice Scarf Rotom-S would work well in its place. Rotom-S would help you not autolose to every boosting sweeper, while also having volt switch to help you get Glaceon or Torkoal in.

Rotom-S @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Trick
- Air Slash

Now the only other issue I see is that your team lacks a goal, Glaceon is a powerful Pokemon, but it isn't meant to sweep. Your team will function as it is now, but in order for it to truly become a great team you need to have all of your Pokemon working together to achieve something. Your team building process just seems like you threw things together after you added Torkoal until they worked. That can work, but a much more efficient method of team building is when the rest of your squad is trying to help out Glaceon + Torkoal as much as they can. Either way, good luck with this team!!

tl;dr

Rotom-S > Rampardos
many moveset changes

 

[bobbyvaporeon]

Hey guys. I really appreciate all of the advice, its relay helping. Even though I've been playing Pokemon for a long time, I'm relatively new to the competitive battling scene, so I love getting help from you guys thanks again!