Introduction:
This is my first RMT ever so please forgive me if it doesn't look all that fancy; I'll try my best.
Hi, Im Corthius and I recently got promoted to Room Driver in the NU Chatroom on PS! and I wanted give something back to the community and what better thing than a fancy RMT?
The Team:
<<click here for the pokepaste>>
I build this team around one of my favorite wallbreaker we have in the tier right now, Choice Specs Indeedee-F. I paired it with two of the best potential partners in my opinion, Mienshao and Diancie. Mienshao is amazing at drawing pokemon like Vileplume and Dragalge (slow walls in general) and U-turn-ing out on them to bring in Indeedee-F. Diancie is the only fairy that is able to check the only two notable Dark types faster than Diancie-F, Drapion and Zoroark, so it was a given. Escavalier + Vaporeon add onto the defensive core. I am really enjoying Wish Vaporeon to keep Escavalier and Diancie healthy since they lack recovery their own. Talonflame is the fighting resist and hazard removal of the team.
The Members:
The star of the team, Choice Specs Indeedee-F, has the standard set for Choice Specs. Expanding Force nukes everything that doesn't resist it/is immune to it and has 'solid' base power even outside of terrain. Dazzling Gleam gives Indeedee-F the ability to hit opposing Dark types which are immune to your STAB attack Expanding Force. Mystical Fire hits the second big group of pokemon that might want switch into a Psychic attack, Steel types, for super effective damage. The last move is usually Trick, which helps in two ways: It can a) cripple and incomming wall like Bronzong and cut its only form of recovery in Leftovers to make it easier to wear down, and b) ease the matchup against teams that give Indeedee a hard time locking into an attack. These teams usually contain a Dark- & Steel type and some form of other bulky special wall for example Guzzlord + Escavalier + Mantine or something similar. Against those type of teams, tricking away your Choice Specs is usually the way to go as it makes it way more easy to actually break the opponents team. With Protect being pretty common right now, Indeedee-F can have a hard time making the right choice.
The EV spread is pretty simple, maxing your breaking power and speed with a Timid nature which allows to be one of the fastest choice breaker in the tier, outspeeding both Pandas, Tyrantrum and Goodra.
Like I said in the short description of the team, Diancie was a given for me, as it is able to check the two notable Dark types that are faster than Indeedee-F, Drapion and Zoroark. Diancie also acts as a overall Fire-, Flying- and Dark resist and check against Bewear, Pangoro, Talonflame, Arcanine, Braviary and many others. Diamond Storm in combination with Body Press makes Diancie, even as a defensive pokemon, a force to be reckoned with and with the right matchup can even proceed to sweep/clean opposing teams. Moonblast allows Diancie to be more effective as a Bewear check as Body Press' damage gets affected by Fluffy. Stealth Rock is my personal last move of choice and makes Diancie the rocker of the team.
The EVs enable Diancie to be as physical defensive as possible and thus maximizing its ability to check the mentioned physical attacker. I personally don't want to make it a -speed nature so I am able to speed tie with opposing Diancie.
Mienshao is arguably one of the, if not the, best pokemon in the tier. Its Choice Scarf set gives the team much appreciated speed control and a really good late game cleaner. Close Combat hits increadibly hard and doesn't require that much chip damage on neutral targets. Knock Off gives Mienshao coverage against Ghost types and allows it to remove the item of incomming checks; that gets especially useful when the opposing Mienshao check is Talonflame/Arcanine as them losing their Heavy-Duty Boots makes it way easier for Mienshao to clean late game. U-turn is another reason Mienshao is such an amazing Choice Scarf user as it can easily scare out opposing pokemon and pivot out to bring in Indeedee-F or another teammate. The last move is personal preference and can be either Poison Jab or Stone Edge. Poison Jab allows Mienshao to hit Fairy types like Sylveon on the switch or make it easier to revengekill them, while Stone Edge is prefered when your team struggles with Talonflame a lot and you need to catch that thing on the switch or revengekill it. For this team I chose Poison Jab as I have the ways to beat Talonflame and heal the potential burn on Mienshao. Regenerator further increases Mienshao's pivot potential as it doesn't care about hazard chip damage nor damage from Rocky Helmet etc. It also allows it to tank a weak neutral move if need be and recover it off again.
Maximizing the attack and speed stat is self-explanatory as it makes Mienshao as fast and strong as possible.
For the Cresselia check and bulky Steel type of the team I chose Escavalier. Escavalier is one of the best answers to the very strong Calm Mind Cresselia. It also is able to check pokemon like Dragalge. Overall being four times weak to Fire type attacks makes it pretty risky to check pokemon like Indeedee-F or Goodra with it, as one coverage Fire type attack can deal massive damage to it. Iron Head is my STAB of choice, as it is more consistent than Megahorn and doesn't allow Threats like Tyrantrum in for free or at least punishes them more. Knock Off is, similar to Mienshao, used to remove the item of an incomming check to Escavalier, most notably defensive Fire types that lose their Heavy-Duty Boots. Protect gives Escavalier the ability to scout for opposing moves against potentially choice locked pokemon while also gaining one more turn of Leftovers recovery. Swords Dance makes Escavalier even beat the sturdiest Cresselia sets 1v1 while also acting as a semi-stall breaker. This is also the main Vileplume/Grass type check of the team even tho you would prefere to bring in Indeedee-F when you catch the Vileplume with a U-turn with Mienshao.
The EVs can probably be more optimized. E.g. you can speed creep some pokemon above Escavalier but I just went with max special bulk to better take on Celebi and co.
Vaporeon was my bulky Water type of choice, being able to check a wide variety of pokemon in the tier e.g. Shell Smash Blastoise. Vaporeon also adds nice Wish support for the teampartner that don't have recovery of their own, mainly Diancie and Escavalier (and obviously for itself too). For my preference, Heal Bell is needed, as Mienshao will most likely be statused by either opposing Vileplume or Talonflame so getting rid of that is key for success of Choice Scarf Mienshao. It also removes annoying status on Diancie and Escavalier which they are prone to. I opted for Scald as my last move as it allows Vaporeon to have an easier time soft checking physical threats with a potential burn.
The EV spread makes Vaporeon's Wishes as big as possible and max out its physical defense.
The last member of the team is Talonflame. Talonflame provides a Mienshao answer, a overall Fighting type resist and hazard removal in Defog. Brave Bird is my STAB of choice as it hits decently hard and allows Talonflame to reliably soft check choice locked Fighting types like Mienshao. Roost is obviously for longevity and gives Talonflame the ability to stay healthy throughout the match. I personally chose Will-O-Wisp as my last move 90% of the time, in order to reliably cripple opposing physical threats. Flame Body is a nice utility ability that is able to punish all physical contact attacks aimed at Talonflame.
The given nature and EVs in the speed stat make Talonflame faster than max speed Inteleon as that thing is a legit threat to the team as Vaporeon is more focused on taking physical hits and getting flinched to death by Dark Pulse is a legit way to lose even tho the odds are in my favor. The remaining EVs are used to maximize Talonflame's overall bulk.
Threat List and Potential Changes:
#1:
Tyrantrum literally comes in and picks up a KO. Choice Band Head Smash reaches damage output that threatens everything on the team. Both Diancie and Vaporeon can take at least one hit and either Moonblast kill it in return or hope for a Scald burn. There isn't really anything I can do about it. The best way to make the team more Tyrantrum proof would be replacing Vaporeon with Gastrodon and use Recover every time you have to take a hit because otherwise Gastrodon won't be able to check Tyrantrum. So even that is not ideal.
#2:
Salazzle, more specifically SubTox Salazzle is always a big threat if you don't have a dedicated check like a Rock type with Rock Blast to hit through Substitute. One way to help out with that would be choosing a different Rock type like Gigalith over Diancie and adding a Fairy type/Dark resist somewhere else. But on the bright side, Mienshao and Talonflame both outspeed it and can deal big damage in return.
#3:
You would be lying if you say Rotom-Mow doesn't get to pivot for almost free against your team. Not only does the team not feature a Ground type to block Volt Switch, even with, Rotom-Mow's second STAB in Grass would scare these out anyway. Using Gastrodon over Vaporeon would at least make it harder for the opponent to freely click Volt Switch when they run Choice Scarf Rotom-Mow. But the matchup vs Rotom-Mow is always painful.
Final Words:
Please treat this as a real RMT, I am far from being a perfect builder and this team is far from perfect too, so let me know how you would change it to improve it in your eyes.
Thank you for reading this, sorry if my english is lacking at some points.