Blue and Yellow

[frewboo]

A SECOND LOOK
By using this original team more and more, I realized the gaping flaws it had, and tirelessly searched for ways to fix them. The complete weakness to fighting made me realize that I pretty much could not beat any team that had Zangoose, Braviary, or Sawk. Even Sawsbuck was a problem. After fixing and editing some of the aspects of this team, I took it back to the battle field. It was a little better, but still had a few flaws. I toyed around with different sets and pokemon, and here's what I have so far. It works pretty well, but I think it could be better. I'll keep working with it.

Edits are in Bold
TEAM BUILDING PROCESS

So I started with Pikachu because 1) he's a boss and 2) because he's actually pretty good when equipped with Light Ball. Yes, his defenses and hp are junk, but he's not really meant to be a tank. He's meant to hit hard and get out when he has to.

Next I was looking for a ground counter-part be a good switch-in from Pikachu. I originally planned on Camerupt, but later I decided on Probopass because of his access to volt switch and also to utilize his steel typing as a wall. Yea I know he's not ground type. Deal with it.

After adding Probopass, I decided that I needed a physical wall as well. This was actually a big step for me bringing in another wall as I generally have very offensive teams. Lickylickly was just too damn cute to resist.

Not only does Regice serve as another special wall, but also as another special attacker. His Special Defense is so good you don't even have to EV it, leaving plenty of room for other stats. Never underestimate the cold. I now realize that having a second special wall with the same weaknesses as the other was pretty stupid. I ended up scrapping Regice for the suggested Misdreavus.

Any team can always use a ninja. No, but really, Sawk is really my one and only strong physical attacker. There is no Pokemon that can resist all four of his attacks. Rest assured, ninjas always win.

The last of the team, I realized I really had no speedy Pokemon. Sawk is pretty fast, but I needed a fast and strong revenge killer. Also, FRIGGEN EVERYONE USES MUSHARNA BUT TRY THAT NOW HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! I debated and tested several dark-type Pokemon, but in the end Sneasel seemed to work the best with this team and he was just more effective than all of the alternatives. I was kind of so absorbed in finding a counter just for Musharna that I lost sight of the bigger picture. Its funny though, because since scrapping Sneasel, I haven't seen a single Musharna. Whatever

Now ain't that the sexiest NU team you ever seen?


DETAILED ANALYSIS

Storm (Pikachu) (M) @ Light Ball
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Substitute/HP Fire
- Grass Knot

A fairly standard Pikachu set, except I exchanged the usual encore for Volt Switch. I did this mainly because I'm bad at using Encore, but also because I figure if I came up against a threat, why waste time encoring when I could just Volt Switch out? There is the threat of failing on a ground type, but then they would be vulnerable to a grass knot. With someone pointing out the obvious contradiction of Substitute and Volt Switch, I realized I was stupid. So i took that away in favor of HP fire seeing as I had no real move to check a grass type.

Crocker (Probopass) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Power Gem

Again, a standard set, but that doesn't mean it's not effective. I usually lead with this guy just to get up stealth rocks early and then volt switch out if it's unsafe. Thunder Wave is also a great crippler to fast threats that can't OHKO this rocky beast.I kept this guy the same even though someone suggested switching T-wave for toxic. You'll see why.

Buddha (Lickilicky) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect
- Dragon Tail

I'm not big on making like every single Pokemon on a team shiny, but this guy is an exception. He's bright yellow. But anyways, this is usually the boss I switch into from Probopass. I then proceed to Dragon Tail the **** out of the other team. Other than that, a pretty self-explanitory support set here. Wish into protect to regain health, or heal bell to get rid of those dang statuses. Overturning the suggestion to take out Licklylickly, I decided to keep him because he could get 3 support moves in one set and I think the Stealth Rock-Dragon tail combo is really effective. The only time it becomes problematic is when they set up subs.

Boo (Misdreavus) (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Pain Split
- Toxic

Taking from a suggestion, I added in Misdreavus as a check to fighting and normal types. The set here is pretty self-explanatory. I chose toxic over heal bell because Licklylicky already knew that, and I didn't get rid of him. The only thing I don't like is that Misdreavus has no reliable recovery. But it's still better than Regice.

THE FALLEN

Hide

Glass Curtain (Regice) @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SAtk / 8 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Sleep Talk
- Rest

My bro Regice here is cooler than coolio. Running the big T-bolt incase pikachu dies and the opponent gets cocky. The other three moves are pretty self-explanatory. STAB, recovery, and attacking while recovering. Also a second special wall. I'm not really sure where the 8 Sp.Def EVs come in, but it was recommended and I figure Smogon set-creators know what they're talking about. Even though I liked him a lot, I had to get rid of Regice. I just noticed that he was the pokemon that contributed least to the team, and I already had ice and electric moves. Besides, he had the same weaknesses as my other special wall, so I decided he was unnecessary.

HIYAH! (Sawk) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

One of the strongest physical attackers in NU, Sawk dishes out some serious damage. With 4 strong moves that will be at least neutral against any pokemon, Sawk is able to put a big dent in pretty much any pokemon in the metagame. Also, he can be used to quickly despose of fire types that could hurt my 2 fire-weak special walls.

Glider (Gardevoir) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Trick

A standard set here with Gardevoir. I brought him in because Sneasel was just too frail and could really only kill one pokemon before he himself was killed. Gardevoir just worked as an overall better pokemon in my team, and had much better durability. I though about running signal beam instead of Focus blast, but realized that focus blast was worth the accuracy drop for the power it has. Plus they both check dark types, so there's really no reason to choose signal beam.

THE FALLEN

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Demon (Sneasel) (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- Ice Punch
- Ice Shard
- Brick Break

Like I said, one of the main reasons I keep this guy around is to check Musharnas. A choice-band pursuit will make quick work of any psychic that thinks they can mess with me. We also see some nice STAB priority, and some coverage with the brick break. Like I said, as well as other people, sneasel was just too frail, and while being a good pokemon in the tier, there were just others that worked better.

THREATS
Altaria:
Dragons are always pretty intimidating. If I can get stealth rocks up before one comes out, it's a big help. A quick Ice punch or ice shard would stop this guy, but there's the risk of being OHKOed on the switch or to much dragon dancing making it faster than Sawk or Sneasel. I still stand by this as a threat. Even though I have checks, I'm just afraid of dragons.

Charizard:
I only list him because he's a fire type, and my two special walls are weak to fire. If they were running physical, I'd be fine, but this guy is pretty bulky. Thinking about it now, this guy never really was a threat. I had plenty of coverage and I really don't see why I listed him.

Sawk/Zangoose/Braviary:
Yea, my own guy could come back to bite me in the ass. Actually, really any fighting type move, considering my three walls and Sneasel are weak to fighting, and Pikachu wouldn't take a close combat or superpower. My best bet would be to either thunder wave and then use Licklylickly or Regice, or to Steath Rock- dragon tail combo. Fighting is definately the weak point of my team, but I dont find them too abundant in NU. Even though I added in checks, these guys are still threats. I can always look for the switch in to Misdreavus and then go for burn, but against a smart player I still have to be careful

Jumpluff:
He doesn't seem scary, but Jumpluff will mess you up before you can even move. A quick Ice hit would kill it, but there's always the threat of Sleep powder and SubSeed set. Not the most prominent threat, but something to keep in mind. I rescind this for similar reasons that I did Charizard. Jumpluff is really more annoying than a threat. And I have plenty of checks

Garbodor:
I don't really have much against this piece of trash. I have earthquake, but it's not STAB, and with defensively weak attackers, he could wear them down. Similar to jumpluff, he's just more annoying than a threat.


CONCLUSION
So I edited this team to the best of my ability while still keeping the color scheme (YES YES YES!!). I still think there might be room for improvement, seeing as I haven't gone undefeated with this team, but It's not bad where it is. I've been trying to think of ways to incorporate spikes into the dragon tail phazer, but I'm not sure how to do so without sacrificing other crucial moves. Here's a link to a recent battle where I used this team.
http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/nu13337688
Well, I hope you liked this RMT. It's my first one, and I think I put a good amount of effort into it. Feel free to blast me with all the criticism you can put out. I want to get better, and hopefully you guys can help. Thanks!

 

[jam]

I know it's listed in your threatlist, but you really should do something about the sawk problem. Sawk itself can 6-0 your team, and with how common it is, that's a problem. Perhaps replacing Lickilicky with a pokemon like Musharna, which stops Sawk and is a strong pokemon in it's own right, possessing many viable sets that you could use although I recommend using Calm Mind. Another option you could use is Misdreavus, which is also a good mon on it's own right while checking Sawk. Good luck!

 

[frewboo]

I know it's listed in your threatlist, but you really should do something about the sawk problem. Sawk itself can 6-0 your team, and with how common it is, that's a problem. Perhaps replacing Lickilicky with a pokemon like Musharna, which stops Sawk and is a strong pokemon in it's own right, possessing many viable sets that you could use although I recommend using Calm Mind. Another option you could use is Misdreavus, which is also a good mon on it's own right while checking Sawk. Good luck!

Yea, to be honest, I only realized my extreme weakness to fighting while I was writing this RMT. However, I blame that on the fact that In my almost 2 hours of playing with this team I hardly saw any fighting types, and the few i saw didn't cause any major problems. But you do bring up a good point. Thanks, and I'll look into it

 

[Shuckleking87]

Pikachu/Probopass/Lickilicky/Regice/Sawk/Sneasel

Well, welcome to Smogon! I like the thought process of picking your team, centralizing it to fit the needs of pikachu, however, a couple changes might be made to make this team more effective.

Actually, looking at your threats, either I do not agree with most of your threats, or you have had trouble handling these pokes when you tested your team (I hope you did that prior to the RMT). I would say that Sawk is the biggest threat to your team, especially choiced scarfed, as it can literally kill your entire team. Garbodor can be a pain setting up hazards, but it should be somewhat manageable.

Other things: your team is fairly slow, and your two fastest pokes, Pikachu and Sneasel cannot take practically any hits. Sawsbuck, Gardevoir and Zangoose come to mind that are either fast pokes with good coverage that can do significant damage to your team, while Gardevoir can do high damage to your pokes with a scarf minus regice and sneasel. Golurk is a common poke that can dent your team with choice band or even the stealth rock varient, even though sneasel can do high damage and pikachu can with grass knot. Musharna with a coverage move like hp ground or signal beam can take on sneasel with only a CB Pursuit (which does 30-35%), though lickilicky can eventually phase it out.

A couple changes:
Since fighting types, primarily sawk, are a big nuisance to your team, there are 2 pokes that can serve you very well: Misdreavus or Musharna

Misdreavus@Eviolite
Bold 252HP/232D/32Speed
Shadow Ball/Will-o-wisp/Pain Split/Heal Bell

Musharna@Leftovers
Bold 252HP/252D/4Speed
Synchronise
Psychic/Calm Mind/Moonlight/Heal Bell or Hidden Power Ground or Signal Beam or Thunder Wave

Misdreavus can spread burns and handle alot of physical attackers in the tier, while musharna can take sawk and set-up calm minds. Both have access to heal bell and recovery moves, so this would take the place of Lickilicky, as I see this as your weak link, even though phazing is nice. Lickilicky cannot phaze sub users.

I also don't think Sneasel is working that well, even though it is a great poke in this tier. Pursuit just isn't strong enough, even with Choice Band. I would say that a scarfed poke would be extremely nice, but not necessarily. 3 pokes that come to mind that can replace Sneasel are Kangaskan, Braviary and Swellow. Silk Scarf Kangaskan with Fake Out/Double Edge/Sucker Punch/Drain Punch with scrappy is an extremely good poke in the tier, and can do damage to all special and physically defensive pokes except alomomola, and rock types. Choice Scarfed Braviary is not as popular as it once was, but is still a major threat and would be a great scarfer to complement your team. Swellow is a big offensive threat that outspeeds all nonscarfed pokes and electrode, but is walled by rock and steel types.

Some little changes: Maybe put toxic over thunder wave on Probopass? That can handle musharna better, but thunder wave works, whatever you think your team needs more. Also, volt switch and sub seem somewhat counteractive, either you want to stay in and you miss a coverage move, or you use volt switch and rarely use sub. That being said, ice and electric is a very good combo, as seen with your regice, so hidden power ice can be used to have better coverage, or hidden power ground to hit camerupt and steels that dont take much from grass knot. Eelektross is also a very good poke instead of pikachu, but I think pikachu is too cute to replace.

So these are only suggestions, but I hope I gave you some help! Good luck!

 

[ium]

yea, this team is quite weak to sawk, zangoose, certain other normal-/flying-types with good coverage, and ground-types like golurk. you can't switch into any of these, so at best you can only revenge kill. not really a good thing if you keep losing something each time they're safely in against the slower half of your team.

lickilicky and regice are quite odd to have together considering they both check similar threats; i would rather much replace lickilicky with alomomola so that you have a decent answer to a good handful physical attackers. this is also handy because you will have a decent answer to normal- and flying-types with coverage moves that hurt probopass.

the next thing here is that your team cannot directly deal with something like musharna. variants with signal beam will not even care about sneasel since it is 2HKO'd by signal beam while a non-switch pursuit only scores a 3-4HKO on musharna in return. so really, sneasel is a rather poor check considering how common signal beam is. of course, you have enough pokemon capable of attempting to stall musharna out, but putting toxic over thunder wave on probopass is a much more direct and effective way to wear it down.

from what i established above, i feel like sneasel doesn't really do too much for your team at all. instead, i would try running choice scarf gardevoir. it's a solid revenge killer to a handful of threats, but it also has trick which is quite important for crippling slower things. locking musharna, some wall, or some eviolite user into a single move is extremely helpful for your team. gardevoir is neat against some psychic- and ghost-types that you aimed to threaten with sneasel, and it also acts as a revenge killer to swift swim threats under rain, which can take some of the pressure off regice if needed. it also acts as a secondary check to sawk considering how alomomola isn't a true counter to a choice band set if hazards are up.

alomomola @ leftovers | regenerator
impish nature | 248 hp / 252 def / 8 spd
wish / protect / toxic / waterfall

gardevoir @ choice scarf | trace
timid nature | 252 spa / 252 spe / 4 def
psychic / shadow ball / focus blast / trick

 

[Konata Test]

While Trick is a good option for crippling threats, Gardy without tbolt fails to do enough damage to SubBU Braviary. 252+ SpA Gardevoir Psychic vs. 252 HP / 192+ SpD Braviary: 144-171 (35.64 - 42.32%) -- 92.29% chance to 3HKO

And Alomomola can be setup bait as well for him.
0 Atk Alomomola Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 87-103 (21.53 - 25.49%) -- possible 5HKO

It's not guaranteed to break his sub, which in turn he can setup Bulk Up. your best bet is Pikachu, but you can't confront it after it has a sub up. Probopass can be a good option, but if your opponent has a fighting type. it's best not to bust it out early, since you'll have Braviary problems.

Band sawk generally benefits more from Mold Breaker, as his purpose is to dish out as much damage as possible and it allows you to hit Misdreavus before switching in to something else, in some cases even 2HKO missy with rocks on the switch-in. While scarf on the other hand generally uses sturdy as a way to deal with Rotom-S, +2 Gorebyss, etc.

 

[Cherub Agent]

Pikachu / Probopass / Lickilicky / Sawk / Gardevoir / Misdreavus

Hey, I like the look of your current team. The fact remains that there are several extremely powerful threats that can still give your team trouble: Zangoose, Musharna, Jynx, Swellow, and Braviary come to mind. I think a small change that you could do is to replace your Probopass with a Metang. Metang still gives you Stealth Rock, but also a full counter to Swellow, Musharna and Zangoose, and a good enough check to Braviary and Jynx. Here's the set I'd use:

Metang @ Eviolite
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Meteor Mash
- Psych Up
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Psych Up means that Metang can just steal BU Braviary and CM Musharna's boosts while their STAB moves do next to nothing to him. He can then proceed to whittle them down with Toxic. Even with no EVs Meteor Mash always breaks BU Braviary's Substitutes providing you both have the same boosts. Metang also greatly benefits from your Lickilicky's Wish.