Alright everyone, it’s time for my second OU RMT. This one is all about the king; Nidoking that is! He’s really underappreciated and something I’ve wanted to use competitively since last generation, so when the OU CCAT selected him I was really pleased. Unfortunately, that ended up taking more time than I wanted, so I decided to go ahead and throw together a team myself. I finally ended up with a pretty viable team, but I need help to get it to its full potential, so I’m posting it here.
Process:
Be warned; I do my team building through trial and error, so this section is going to be long and arduous!
At a Glance:
This is a team that is simply designed to do well, rather than abuse a certain Pokemon, though using Nidoking is a big draw for this team. Each member has a role to play in order ensure victory for me. Nidoking is my primary sweeper, Skarmory is my Physical wall and Phazer, Starmie is my speedster and spinner, Blissey is my special wall, healer and paralysis spreader, Quagsire deals with most stat boosters and Dragonite wall breaks and revenge kills with Choice Band Outrage and Extremespeed. Together they can deal with most of the threats in the metagame as long as I play well. It’s an old style team; one that doesn’t rely on some sort of overarching theme to win, but instead relies on covering as many bases as possible.
In-Depth Look
Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
The King himself, and a Pokemon I don’t understand the lack of use of. I guess a lot of people are turned off by that base 85 speed stat, but you know what? It’s really not that bad. With max speed, it actually outruns uninvested base 100s... and guess what, most base 100s are uninvested these days. It’s amazing how many surprise KOs I get just because someone thinks they can outspeed it when they can’t. In fact, surprise factor is one of his greatest assets; people just don’t expect him to be as powerful, fast, bulky, or... well anything really. They just plain underestimate him, right before he toasts their Scizor after taking a CB Bullet Punch or he Earth Powers their Jirachi into oblivion. It isn’t the most powerful special attacker around, but it hits hard enough. Where he really shines is his unbelievable coverage: Forget just being able to hit everything in the game neutrally, this guy has super effective coverage that gives Electivire a run for his money, hitting 11 types super effectively. Usually after the opponents faster Pokemon have been eliminated or paralyzed, Nidoking is free to sweep. Of course he’s not without his issues; while he’s not exactly frail, he still can’t take a tonne of punishment and switching him in isn’t always easy with all the ice, psychic and water attacks flying about. Blissey helps alleviate this to a large extent with Wish and also helps him with Thunder Wave, allowing his sweeps to happen. Overall though I’ve never been anything less than impressed with his capabilities, and have no intention of booting him out without a really damn good argument.
Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Serious Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind
Skarmory here serves several key roles on my team. The main one is to get Stealth Rock up, as it makes dealing with many top threats much, much easier. I would use Spikes and put Stealth Rock on another member of my team if I could find room for it, but what I said in the team building process section outlines my difficulties with that. Even after its gotten rocks up though it continues to serve me well as a defensive pivot and phazer for the threats that Quagsire and Blissey can’t handle. Its resistance to Dragon-type attacks is particular useful, since dragons option to use a band can usually just muscle past Quagsire. I’ve been having issues with survivability though; in this metagame, even the fabled SkarmBliss combo can’t deal with everything. It often has difficulty getting opportunities to roost, allowing it to be worn down fairly quickly.
Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
Starmie has earned a spot on my team for the multiple roles it fills. Obviously one of them is as a Rapid Spinner, though honestly I only use it as such when situations are desperate due to life orb recoil. It’s usually more useful to me as a revenge killer and utility counter, thanks to its useful resistances. It hits pretty hard and has great coverage, allowing it to deal with most of the quick threats that give my team trouble. It also has good offensive synergy with Nidoking; they often have similar checks and counters, meaning that when one falls the other one can take up where the other left off. Starmie also works well for eliminating a lot of the faster threats that can prevent Nidoking from sweeping. Starmie does have one glaring drawback though; keeping it alive for the length of a match is insanely difficult. Between Life Orb Recoil, taking attacks and passive damage it gets worn down really damn fast, and I often find myself being forced to sack it to keep momentum. I don’t really know what I could replace it with though; without it spike stacking would absolutely kill my team, and I need its speed to deal with a lot of threats.
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
- Seismic Toss
Blissey is without a doubt the absolute linchpin of my team. Without her, the entire team tends to crumple. She’s my only answer to many special attacking threats, and her wishes have proved insanely useful ever since I gave her the move. Thunder wave is also outstanding support for my relatively slow team, though she has difficulty paralyzing more than a couple targets due the same Pokemon always switching in. She can even stall out some of the weaker physical attackers out there. Ultimately though her strength is also my weakness; if she faints to an unlucky crit or a misplay, my team is pretty much doomed. Without her healing my offense falls apart, and then I get stuck in stall wars I’m not equipped to win.
Quagsire (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic
- Earthquake
Damn, why do so few people use Quagsire? The metagame is almost custom made for him with the insane number of stat boosters populating it. There are very few stat boosters that can take him down, and an astounding number of people seem to be, well, unaware of his ability. It’s really funny to watch someone sit there and boost while Quagsire whittles away at their HP, only for them to do pitiful damage when they finally do attack. Quagsire isn’t without his issues though. His grass type weakness means there are some Pokemon that he can’t wall, and leads to a lot of annoying surprise KOs when someone sticks a grass move on something I don’t expect. Additionally, his special defense means he’s easy prey for powerful special attackers, though he’s still usually OK against boosters like Reuniclus. What’s really annoying though are the physical threats he’s unable to wall. Mostly it’s just band users, but some of the more powerful boosters like Terrakion and Lucario can just barely squeak in 2HKOs. Thankfully, usually what he can’t wall something else can, and as such he’s become an incredibly vital member of the team.
Dragonite (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- ExtremeSpeed
- Fire Punch
- Brick Break
Dragonite here was a recent addition, chosen for her ability to lay down immediately offensive pressure while still being bulky and for having access to a powerful priority move. She’s pretty much here for two purposes; break down the walls that Starmie and Nidoking can’t get through, and to counter some of the threats my team can’t deal with. Volcarona is dealt with quite handily by her unless it’s carrying HP Rock/Ice, in which case Blissey can handle it. He also deals with anything speedy that’s taken a bit of prior damage thanks to Extremespeed. Once his job checking threats is done, I tend to just suicide him by using Outrage until he dies; depending on the number and condition of the steels on the opposing team and my luck, anywhere from 1-4 Pokemon are going down with him. However all is not roses with this raging girl, as prediction can be really hard to do. Usually the choice is between Outrage and Fire Punch; if I use Fire Punch and the Steel I’m expecting doesn’t come in, I lose all my momentum. If I use Outrage and they do switch to a Steel, Dragonite could end up fainting for nothing, and frequently they’ll use the outrage turns to set up hazards too. Choosing wrong can all too easily end a match for me; witout her power, sometimes getting through the opponents walls becomes impossible.
Threats and Difficulties:
In general, my team has trouble breaking through Stall and with Sun teams. Rain and Sand usually don’t give me much trouble, seeing as Sand is now lacking any outstanding abusers while Rain is torn apart by Nidoking and Starmie. Sun though, that’s another story. The biggest issue is that the stat boosters they typically use eat Quagsire for breakfast thanks to most of them being grass type, and Skarmory can’t handle them thanks to all the HP Fire. Dragonite and Blissey help, but Sun teams always have ways of dealing with them and usually they happen to be ways that screw the hell out of all my other team members.
Stall is another issue I have, simply because I don’t have enough attackers that can bust down walls nor any taunt users with which to shut them down. Dragonite is of some help with this, but again, there’s only so much she can do. Starmie can usually only spin hazards away once per a game as well, and that’s frequently not enough, not against stall teams with 92 bazillion ways of laying hazards and keeping them up.
Finally a more general weakness is the lack of redundancy in my team. Often I find if I lose one member, I lose the match. The worst offenders for this are Quagsire and Blissey. Quagsire is such a key counter to so many Pokemon, that when she falls my team suddenly feels defenceless. It’s even worse when Blissey goes down. She’s not only a counter to just as many Pokemon as Quagsire, but my team also relies very heavily on her healing. I’m not really sure how to address this issue, but it really does annoy me when I lose because of one lucky crit.
As for weaknesses against individual Pokemon, I actually don’t have that many. Terrakion is a pain due to the difficulty in walling him, particularly with Choice Band. Nidoking can actually take a hit from anything but Earthquake and KO back, but only if he’s relatively healthy. Starmie can also do the job sometimes, but again is a shaky check. Infernape really gives my team trouble when using a mixed set, as nothing on my team is able to wall it, while only Starmie is able to check it reliably. Dragonite and Quagsire can both work... but depending on the coverage they can fall flat too. Chesto-Rest Volcarona used to be a huge threat before I added Dragonite. Ferrothorn is another huge issue, as only Nidoking and Dragonite can beat it, and it requires Dragonite to use the easily wallable Fire Punch as well as breaking his Multiscale.
Conclusion
Well I hope that’s enough information for me to get some help with this, because I really have reached a bit of an impass. Every time I make a change to solve one issue it just seems to open up other issues, so I really need some help looking for solutions. Just remember that if you’re going to make a suggestion, please make sure it is well reasoned and that I haven’t already tried it.
Anyway, let the rating begin!
Process:
Be warned; I do my team building through trial and error, so this section is going to be long and arduous!
Stage 1:
I wanted to use Nidoking NOW, not wait the CCAT to finish, so he’s the first member of my team.
At the time I was thinking of making some sort of anti-meta team, so I threw in Kingdra and Celebi to counter weather with Rain Dance and pure coverage.
After that I thought that everyone here would really appreciate some healing support, so I plunked Blissey and Jirachi on the team.
Finally I threw Quagsire on so that I didn’t get demolished by stat boosters. I had a basic team set up so now I jumped onto PO to test it a bit. I’m not one to spend a massive amount of time theorymoning; I find it easier to adjust through trial and error.
Stage 2:
After some playtesting on the PO server, I realized that I needed some physical offensive presence. I quickly glanced at my team and decided that Quagsire hadn’t done anything for me in the few games I was in, so I bumped him out for Conkeldurr.
I also realized I had no hazard control but instead had two Pokemon designed to take on rain. Celebi was working better than Kingdra, so I ditched Kingdra for Rapid Spin Starmie with the intention of adding Stealth Rock to something else... but I forgot to do so in the end.
Stage 3:
After several games with that last team, I realized that I really needed some entry hazards of my own, and that though Starmie did its job when it came to rapid spinning it was underwhelming offensively. I also realized that having Aromatherapy on Blissey wasn’t helping much since I had three Pokemon with Natural Cure, one Pokemon that is nearly immune to status and another that actually liked status. So I decided to ditch Jirachi and Starmie, give Blissey Wish over Aromatherapy, and use Forretress for all my hazard control needs. I needed something to deal with stat boosters again, and I needed something else to spread paralysis now that Jirachi was gone, so I decided to use Parashuffler Dragonite to serve both purposes.
Stage 4:
The above team performed better than its predecessors, but still faced major issues. Chief among them was that Dragonite was not really performing its job as a phazer. It spread paralysis like a boss, but pretty much every stat booster under the sun had a super effective move for him. For the first time, I really understood the difference between a shuffler and a phazer. I was also noticing a slight weakness to sun, with only a couple of my Pokemon being able to switch into common abusers, and those not being able to do much back. So I decide to switch out Dragonite for a Swampert with Hail, Roar and Blizzard. Between those boosting dragons are absolutely fucked and it gives me a way to end my weather woes permanently after destroying the opponents weather starter. Blissey takes over the role of paralysis spreader, gaining Thunder Wave over Toxic.
Stage 5:
Swampert is underperforming in its role of phazer, as it is completely useless against special based ones and many physical ones can muscle past it since he has no recovery. Additionally, his typing isn’t ideal for dealing with Sun due to all the grass types. I’ve decided to switch back to Quagsire, giving it a similar moveset to Swampert but with Recover over Roar and Toxic over Blizzard. As long as I make sure to keep him healthy, he should be able to check any boosting threats without grass type attacks.
Stage 6:
Quagsire is performing very well, but Blissey isn’t paralysing stuff as well as I’d like. That’s not the main issue though. No, the main issue is hazard control. As before when using Forretress, I’m experiencing what I like to call “all-your-eggs-in-one-basket Syndrome” meaning that if it dies before the opponents hazards are permanently eliminated, I lose the hazard battle. Stealth rock isn’t a big issue, but Spikes REALLY hurt my team. Usually this syndrome though can be played around... but the problem is that this time it really can’t, with spinblockers being a constant presence and with me having no reliable way to get past them. As such, I’ve decided to split my eggs into two baskets. On the hazard laying side, I’ve swapped out Forretress for Ferrothorn, who’s easier to keep alive and has more offensive presence. He can also provide additional paralysis support! My only real issue with him is 4 moveslot syndrome... On the hazard removal side, I’ve brought back Starmie in place of Celebi. Though Celebi has served me well, Starmie can serve the same anti-rain function while also being a reliable spinner... a reliable spinner that is actually able to beat spinblockers. Also, Quagsire got Hail replaced with Ice Beam as it became clear he really needed it to check the boosting threats he’s supposed to check.
Stage 7:
My team is doing better than ever now, for the first time consistently placing above 1000 (doesn’t sound like much but trial and error does that). I am noticing a few issues though. For one, Life Orb Starmie is not the best rapid spinner due to its laughable bulk. However, I don’t really need to rapid spin every hazard that comes my way; it’s only when the hazards start getting stacked that I need it, and it’s fast enough it can usually pull that off. Its revenge killing capabilities have also proved extremely useful. A more worrying issue is a weakness to fighting types. Turns out that having both your walls weak to fighting isn’t a good thing. For this reason I decide to try Skarmory over Ferrothorn, and while I lose Ferrothorn’s useful Grass Type coverage (I ended up ditching Thunder Wave in favour of Power Whip), I also get a back up method of dealing with stat boosters, since Quagsire can only do so much.
Stage 8:
Skarmory is doing pretty much the exact same job Ferrothorn did, and so I did a little looking for a Pokemon that could solve all my current issues; weakness to Volcarona, Fighting types, Sun... and I came upon one Pokemon that could do everything I needed; Hippowdon. My team already doesn’t mind Sandstorm that much, and though it doesn’t work great with Starmie it’s worth the price I pay for the multitude of benefits Hippowodon gives me. Physical defense? Check. Weather control? Check. Stealth Rock? Check. Volcarona check? Check. Phazer? Check. It shares a couple weaknesses with other members of my team, but that can be said of anything I choose. It’ll also be forgoing STAB in favour of Stone Edge, which might seem odd but I don’t really need his ground type attack when I have Nidoking around. Hopefully this’ll be the nudge I need to get what I need out of this team.
Stage 9:
Yeah, that’s didn’t work because grass, water and phsychic types suddenly became a huge threat. Not good enough type synergy. Still I have a problem... Every goddamn stealth rock user is weak to shit my team can’t afford to be weak to. So I decide to make a radical change and give up Conkeldurr for Choice Band Dragonite. Sure Conkeldurr has done great... downright amazing even, but I need to have better synergy with potential SR users... and Dragonite has resistances that are perfect for the role. Also, it can pick off weakened Volcarona with Extreme Speed or flat out OHKO with Aqua Tail (even in the sun it does almost enough to KO) while being able to take both Bug Buzz and Firey Dance/Fire Blast with ease. The only risk is getting burned by Flame body, but that’s the way it goes... and it’d be worth it to be rid of that moth. As for a SR layer, I’m thinking Bulky Celebi. Resists Fighting types, can use Heal Bell/Aromatherapy Powerful grass type STAB... I like it. Let’s see how this works.
Stage 10:
Well Celebi turned out to be a mistake in the same vien of Hippowdon; no type synergy. Though, it DID do better at its base job than Hippowdon did. It’s just a shame that it left me so open to so many Pokemon... and allowed sun to run all over my team. I decided I didn’t give Skarmory a good enough chance, so I decided to bring it back.
I wanted to use Nidoking NOW, not wait the CCAT to finish, so he’s the first member of my team.
At the time I was thinking of making some sort of anti-meta team, so I threw in Kingdra and Celebi to counter weather with Rain Dance and pure coverage.
After that I thought that everyone here would really appreciate some healing support, so I plunked Blissey and Jirachi on the team.
Finally I threw Quagsire on so that I didn’t get demolished by stat boosters. I had a basic team set up so now I jumped onto PO to test it a bit. I’m not one to spend a massive amount of time theorymoning; I find it easier to adjust through trial and error.
Stage 2:
After some playtesting on the PO server, I realized that I needed some physical offensive presence. I quickly glanced at my team and decided that Quagsire hadn’t done anything for me in the few games I was in, so I bumped him out for Conkeldurr.
I also realized I had no hazard control but instead had two Pokemon designed to take on rain. Celebi was working better than Kingdra, so I ditched Kingdra for Rapid Spin Starmie with the intention of adding Stealth Rock to something else... but I forgot to do so in the end.
Stage 3:
After several games with that last team, I realized that I really needed some entry hazards of my own, and that though Starmie did its job when it came to rapid spinning it was underwhelming offensively. I also realized that having Aromatherapy on Blissey wasn’t helping much since I had three Pokemon with Natural Cure, one Pokemon that is nearly immune to status and another that actually liked status. So I decided to ditch Jirachi and Starmie, give Blissey Wish over Aromatherapy, and use Forretress for all my hazard control needs. I needed something to deal with stat boosters again, and I needed something else to spread paralysis now that Jirachi was gone, so I decided to use Parashuffler Dragonite to serve both purposes.
Stage 4:
The above team performed better than its predecessors, but still faced major issues. Chief among them was that Dragonite was not really performing its job as a phazer. It spread paralysis like a boss, but pretty much every stat booster under the sun had a super effective move for him. For the first time, I really understood the difference between a shuffler and a phazer. I was also noticing a slight weakness to sun, with only a couple of my Pokemon being able to switch into common abusers, and those not being able to do much back. So I decide to switch out Dragonite for a Swampert with Hail, Roar and Blizzard. Between those boosting dragons are absolutely fucked and it gives me a way to end my weather woes permanently after destroying the opponents weather starter. Blissey takes over the role of paralysis spreader, gaining Thunder Wave over Toxic.
Stage 5:
Swampert is underperforming in its role of phazer, as it is completely useless against special based ones and many physical ones can muscle past it since he has no recovery. Additionally, his typing isn’t ideal for dealing with Sun due to all the grass types. I’ve decided to switch back to Quagsire, giving it a similar moveset to Swampert but with Recover over Roar and Toxic over Blizzard. As long as I make sure to keep him healthy, he should be able to check any boosting threats without grass type attacks.
Stage 6:
Quagsire is performing very well, but Blissey isn’t paralysing stuff as well as I’d like. That’s not the main issue though. No, the main issue is hazard control. As before when using Forretress, I’m experiencing what I like to call “all-your-eggs-in-one-basket Syndrome” meaning that if it dies before the opponents hazards are permanently eliminated, I lose the hazard battle. Stealth rock isn’t a big issue, but Spikes REALLY hurt my team. Usually this syndrome though can be played around... but the problem is that this time it really can’t, with spinblockers being a constant presence and with me having no reliable way to get past them. As such, I’ve decided to split my eggs into two baskets. On the hazard laying side, I’ve swapped out Forretress for Ferrothorn, who’s easier to keep alive and has more offensive presence. He can also provide additional paralysis support! My only real issue with him is 4 moveslot syndrome... On the hazard removal side, I’ve brought back Starmie in place of Celebi. Though Celebi has served me well, Starmie can serve the same anti-rain function while also being a reliable spinner... a reliable spinner that is actually able to beat spinblockers. Also, Quagsire got Hail replaced with Ice Beam as it became clear he really needed it to check the boosting threats he’s supposed to check.
Stage 7:
My team is doing better than ever now, for the first time consistently placing above 1000 (doesn’t sound like much but trial and error does that). I am noticing a few issues though. For one, Life Orb Starmie is not the best rapid spinner due to its laughable bulk. However, I don’t really need to rapid spin every hazard that comes my way; it’s only when the hazards start getting stacked that I need it, and it’s fast enough it can usually pull that off. Its revenge killing capabilities have also proved extremely useful. A more worrying issue is a weakness to fighting types. Turns out that having both your walls weak to fighting isn’t a good thing. For this reason I decide to try Skarmory over Ferrothorn, and while I lose Ferrothorn’s useful Grass Type coverage (I ended up ditching Thunder Wave in favour of Power Whip), I also get a back up method of dealing with stat boosters, since Quagsire can only do so much.
Stage 8:
Skarmory is doing pretty much the exact same job Ferrothorn did, and so I did a little looking for a Pokemon that could solve all my current issues; weakness to Volcarona, Fighting types, Sun... and I came upon one Pokemon that could do everything I needed; Hippowdon. My team already doesn’t mind Sandstorm that much, and though it doesn’t work great with Starmie it’s worth the price I pay for the multitude of benefits Hippowodon gives me. Physical defense? Check. Weather control? Check. Stealth Rock? Check. Volcarona check? Check. Phazer? Check. It shares a couple weaknesses with other members of my team, but that can be said of anything I choose. It’ll also be forgoing STAB in favour of Stone Edge, which might seem odd but I don’t really need his ground type attack when I have Nidoking around. Hopefully this’ll be the nudge I need to get what I need out of this team.
Stage 9:
Yeah, that’s didn’t work because grass, water and phsychic types suddenly became a huge threat. Not good enough type synergy. Still I have a problem... Every goddamn stealth rock user is weak to shit my team can’t afford to be weak to. So I decide to make a radical change and give up Conkeldurr for Choice Band Dragonite. Sure Conkeldurr has done great... downright amazing even, but I need to have better synergy with potential SR users... and Dragonite has resistances that are perfect for the role. Also, it can pick off weakened Volcarona with Extreme Speed or flat out OHKO with Aqua Tail (even in the sun it does almost enough to KO) while being able to take both Bug Buzz and Firey Dance/Fire Blast with ease. The only risk is getting burned by Flame body, but that’s the way it goes... and it’d be worth it to be rid of that moth. As for a SR layer, I’m thinking Bulky Celebi. Resists Fighting types, can use Heal Bell/Aromatherapy Powerful grass type STAB... I like it. Let’s see how this works.
Stage 10:
Well Celebi turned out to be a mistake in the same vien of Hippowdon; no type synergy. Though, it DID do better at its base job than Hippowdon did. It’s just a shame that it left me so open to so many Pokemon... and allowed sun to run all over my team. I decided I didn’t give Skarmory a good enough chance, so I decided to bring it back.
At a Glance:
This is a team that is simply designed to do well, rather than abuse a certain Pokemon, though using Nidoking is a big draw for this team. Each member has a role to play in order ensure victory for me. Nidoking is my primary sweeper, Skarmory is my Physical wall and Phazer, Starmie is my speedster and spinner, Blissey is my special wall, healer and paralysis spreader, Quagsire deals with most stat boosters and Dragonite wall breaks and revenge kills with Choice Band Outrage and Extremespeed. Together they can deal with most of the threats in the metagame as long as I play well. It’s an old style team; one that doesn’t rely on some sort of overarching theme to win, but instead relies on covering as many bases as possible.
In-Depth Look
Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
The King himself, and a Pokemon I don’t understand the lack of use of. I guess a lot of people are turned off by that base 85 speed stat, but you know what? It’s really not that bad. With max speed, it actually outruns uninvested base 100s... and guess what, most base 100s are uninvested these days. It’s amazing how many surprise KOs I get just because someone thinks they can outspeed it when they can’t. In fact, surprise factor is one of his greatest assets; people just don’t expect him to be as powerful, fast, bulky, or... well anything really. They just plain underestimate him, right before he toasts their Scizor after taking a CB Bullet Punch or he Earth Powers their Jirachi into oblivion. It isn’t the most powerful special attacker around, but it hits hard enough. Where he really shines is his unbelievable coverage: Forget just being able to hit everything in the game neutrally, this guy has super effective coverage that gives Electivire a run for his money, hitting 11 types super effectively. Usually after the opponents faster Pokemon have been eliminated or paralyzed, Nidoking is free to sweep. Of course he’s not without his issues; while he’s not exactly frail, he still can’t take a tonne of punishment and switching him in isn’t always easy with all the ice, psychic and water attacks flying about. Blissey helps alleviate this to a large extent with Wish and also helps him with Thunder Wave, allowing his sweeps to happen. Overall though I’ve never been anything less than impressed with his capabilities, and have no intention of booting him out without a really damn good argument.
Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Serious Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind
Skarmory here serves several key roles on my team. The main one is to get Stealth Rock up, as it makes dealing with many top threats much, much easier. I would use Spikes and put Stealth Rock on another member of my team if I could find room for it, but what I said in the team building process section outlines my difficulties with that. Even after its gotten rocks up though it continues to serve me well as a defensive pivot and phazer for the threats that Quagsire and Blissey can’t handle. Its resistance to Dragon-type attacks is particular useful, since dragons option to use a band can usually just muscle past Quagsire. I’ve been having issues with survivability though; in this metagame, even the fabled SkarmBliss combo can’t deal with everything. It often has difficulty getting opportunities to roost, allowing it to be worn down fairly quickly.
Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
Starmie has earned a spot on my team for the multiple roles it fills. Obviously one of them is as a Rapid Spinner, though honestly I only use it as such when situations are desperate due to life orb recoil. It’s usually more useful to me as a revenge killer and utility counter, thanks to its useful resistances. It hits pretty hard and has great coverage, allowing it to deal with most of the quick threats that give my team trouble. It also has good offensive synergy with Nidoking; they often have similar checks and counters, meaning that when one falls the other one can take up where the other left off. Starmie also works well for eliminating a lot of the faster threats that can prevent Nidoking from sweeping. Starmie does have one glaring drawback though; keeping it alive for the length of a match is insanely difficult. Between Life Orb Recoil, taking attacks and passive damage it gets worn down really damn fast, and I often find myself being forced to sack it to keep momentum. I don’t really know what I could replace it with though; without it spike stacking would absolutely kill my team, and I need its speed to deal with a lot of threats.
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
- Seismic Toss
Blissey is without a doubt the absolute linchpin of my team. Without her, the entire team tends to crumple. She’s my only answer to many special attacking threats, and her wishes have proved insanely useful ever since I gave her the move. Thunder wave is also outstanding support for my relatively slow team, though she has difficulty paralyzing more than a couple targets due the same Pokemon always switching in. She can even stall out some of the weaker physical attackers out there. Ultimately though her strength is also my weakness; if she faints to an unlucky crit or a misplay, my team is pretty much doomed. Without her healing my offense falls apart, and then I get stuck in stall wars I’m not equipped to win.
Quagsire (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic
- Earthquake
Damn, why do so few people use Quagsire? The metagame is almost custom made for him with the insane number of stat boosters populating it. There are very few stat boosters that can take him down, and an astounding number of people seem to be, well, unaware of his ability. It’s really funny to watch someone sit there and boost while Quagsire whittles away at their HP, only for them to do pitiful damage when they finally do attack. Quagsire isn’t without his issues though. His grass type weakness means there are some Pokemon that he can’t wall, and leads to a lot of annoying surprise KOs when someone sticks a grass move on something I don’t expect. Additionally, his special defense means he’s easy prey for powerful special attackers, though he’s still usually OK against boosters like Reuniclus. What’s really annoying though are the physical threats he’s unable to wall. Mostly it’s just band users, but some of the more powerful boosters like Terrakion and Lucario can just barely squeak in 2HKOs. Thankfully, usually what he can’t wall something else can, and as such he’s become an incredibly vital member of the team.
Dragonite (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- ExtremeSpeed
- Fire Punch
- Brick Break
Dragonite here was a recent addition, chosen for her ability to lay down immediately offensive pressure while still being bulky and for having access to a powerful priority move. She’s pretty much here for two purposes; break down the walls that Starmie and Nidoking can’t get through, and to counter some of the threats my team can’t deal with. Volcarona is dealt with quite handily by her unless it’s carrying HP Rock/Ice, in which case Blissey can handle it. He also deals with anything speedy that’s taken a bit of prior damage thanks to Extremespeed. Once his job checking threats is done, I tend to just suicide him by using Outrage until he dies; depending on the number and condition of the steels on the opposing team and my luck, anywhere from 1-4 Pokemon are going down with him. However all is not roses with this raging girl, as prediction can be really hard to do. Usually the choice is between Outrage and Fire Punch; if I use Fire Punch and the Steel I’m expecting doesn’t come in, I lose all my momentum. If I use Outrage and they do switch to a Steel, Dragonite could end up fainting for nothing, and frequently they’ll use the outrage turns to set up hazards too. Choosing wrong can all too easily end a match for me; witout her power, sometimes getting through the opponents walls becomes impossible.
Threats and Difficulties:
In general, my team has trouble breaking through Stall and with Sun teams. Rain and Sand usually don’t give me much trouble, seeing as Sand is now lacking any outstanding abusers while Rain is torn apart by Nidoking and Starmie. Sun though, that’s another story. The biggest issue is that the stat boosters they typically use eat Quagsire for breakfast thanks to most of them being grass type, and Skarmory can’t handle them thanks to all the HP Fire. Dragonite and Blissey help, but Sun teams always have ways of dealing with them and usually they happen to be ways that screw the hell out of all my other team members.
Stall is another issue I have, simply because I don’t have enough attackers that can bust down walls nor any taunt users with which to shut them down. Dragonite is of some help with this, but again, there’s only so much she can do. Starmie can usually only spin hazards away once per a game as well, and that’s frequently not enough, not against stall teams with 92 bazillion ways of laying hazards and keeping them up.
Finally a more general weakness is the lack of redundancy in my team. Often I find if I lose one member, I lose the match. The worst offenders for this are Quagsire and Blissey. Quagsire is such a key counter to so many Pokemon, that when she falls my team suddenly feels defenceless. It’s even worse when Blissey goes down. She’s not only a counter to just as many Pokemon as Quagsire, but my team also relies very heavily on her healing. I’m not really sure how to address this issue, but it really does annoy me when I lose because of one lucky crit.
As for weaknesses against individual Pokemon, I actually don’t have that many. Terrakion is a pain due to the difficulty in walling him, particularly with Choice Band. Nidoking can actually take a hit from anything but Earthquake and KO back, but only if he’s relatively healthy. Starmie can also do the job sometimes, but again is a shaky check. Infernape really gives my team trouble when using a mixed set, as nothing on my team is able to wall it, while only Starmie is able to check it reliably. Dragonite and Quagsire can both work... but depending on the coverage they can fall flat too. Chesto-Rest Volcarona used to be a huge threat before I added Dragonite. Ferrothorn is another huge issue, as only Nidoking and Dragonite can beat it, and it requires Dragonite to use the easily wallable Fire Punch as well as breaking his Multiscale.
Conclusion
Well I hope that’s enough information for me to get some help with this, because I really have reached a bit of an impass. Every time I make a change to solve one issue it just seems to open up other issues, so I really need some help looking for solutions. Just remember that if you’re going to make a suggestion, please make sure it is well reasoned and that I haven’t already tried it.
Anyway, let the rating begin!
Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Serious Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind
Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
- Seismic Toss
Quagsire (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic
- Earthquake
Dragonite (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- ExtremeSpeed
- Fire Punch
- Brick Break
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Serious Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind
Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
- Seismic Toss
Quagsire (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic
- Earthquake
Dragonite (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- ExtremeSpeed
- Fire Punch
- Brick Break
