Okay, so long story short I've mostly been playing BSS on cart with kind of uncoordinated, random cores built on the fly from whatever pokes I had trained and available, and while that works pretty well in the 15-1600 range life starts getting rough once you start running into the actually good players in the high 1700/1800 rang. So I decided to actually build out a team the hard way on simulator. I'm still playing up through the bottom tiers with people running 6 alolamon meme teams atm but I figured it'd be best to seek criticism early even though I'm not having that many problems with it.
Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Freeze Dry
- Moonblast
- Nasty Plot
Ninetales-A is my standard lead and offers so much to both of my cores in the form of aurora veil, which increases the effective bulk of my setup sweepers. Most of the things that can check M-Mence simply no longer check him under Aurora Veil. Hail is also super useful for breaking sashes/sturdy.
Though it feels strange to not opt for blizzard on a snow warning user, Freeze Dry lets it murder rain teams, scoring x4 effective hits on common pokemon like Kingdra, Gastrodon and Pelipper. Nasty Plot is a bit of a filler move but it does allow Ninetales to be an offensive threat in its own right when the situation permits it.
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Roost
This is a very standard DD roost set that got a slight boost in SM due to the burn nerf. From my on-cart experience, this thing and M-Gyarados are the two generally most powerful megas, and I chose to not carry M-Gyarados because I am running another physically offensive water type. This really benefits from the Ninetales-A support I included on the team since after a DD, roost will outspeed everything and remove its x4 weakness, making it very resilient behind Aurora Veil, especially after an intimidate.
Azumarill @ Normalium Z
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Superpower
Azumarill gained a pretty significant buff in Z-Belly Drum which gives it a lot more flexibility, you don't really need to worry about being outsped and taking chip so much anymore, if you don't get OHKO'd you'll get a belly drum, period. Most of Azumarill's old counters are locked behind bank, but it gained a few new ones. Toxapex and Kartana in particular are very nasty, but Azumarill has a partner that helps it deal with pesky counters.
Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Cursed Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Perish Song
- Protect
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
Perishtrap Gengar was a staple (read: cancer) last gen for a good reason, it has the ability to practically guarantee a kill on quite a few things at very low risk, and can absolutely dismantle an unprepared player with the annoying combo of sub protect. Its job here is as a way to trap and remove things that might get in the way of my Azumarill's sweep.
The primary things this is meant to take out of the picture atm are Toxapex, Kartana and M-Slowbro, but after bank all of the other targets like M-Venusaur will return as well. Can also work fairly well against Pheromosa and can revenge non-scarfed Lele leads with at least one turn of hail damage on them. Night Slash Kartana can give it major problems but from my experience SD is much more common in that slot and easier to deal with.
Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Poison Jab
It's scarfchomp. Not much more to say, it's really nice to have around with Azumarill in particular as an "oh shit my sweep ended one turn early" option. I don't like that it doubles up on weaknesses but I have a 6th pokemon that rectifies any fairy/ice weak issues. I don't find myself bringing it very often though so this slot might be better filled by a more matchup oriented pokemon.
Nihilego @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Sludge Wave
- Power Gem
- Psyshock
Fairy exterminator and lategame cleaner. I usually carry it with Salamence to avoid doubling up on megas or dragon weaknesses. I think both this and Garchomp are potentially replaceable in a way that might enhance my overall team synergy.
Another thing I'm considering is stripping out the Azumarill/Gengar core and replacing it with M-Metagross/Tapu Lele. Don't get me wrong, it's a great core, but I just find myself defaulting to Ninetales/Salamence so much more and games with it feel like they go so much more smoothly than Azumarill games.
Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Freeze Dry
- Moonblast
- Nasty Plot
Ninetales-A is my standard lead and offers so much to both of my cores in the form of aurora veil, which increases the effective bulk of my setup sweepers. Most of the things that can check M-Mence simply no longer check him under Aurora Veil. Hail is also super useful for breaking sashes/sturdy.
Though it feels strange to not opt for blizzard on a snow warning user, Freeze Dry lets it murder rain teams, scoring x4 effective hits on common pokemon like Kingdra, Gastrodon and Pelipper. Nasty Plot is a bit of a filler move but it does allow Ninetales to be an offensive threat in its own right when the situation permits it.
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Roost
This is a very standard DD roost set that got a slight boost in SM due to the burn nerf. From my on-cart experience, this thing and M-Gyarados are the two generally most powerful megas, and I chose to not carry M-Gyarados because I am running another physically offensive water type. This really benefits from the Ninetales-A support I included on the team since after a DD, roost will outspeed everything and remove its x4 weakness, making it very resilient behind Aurora Veil, especially after an intimidate.
Azumarill @ Normalium Z
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Superpower
Azumarill gained a pretty significant buff in Z-Belly Drum which gives it a lot more flexibility, you don't really need to worry about being outsped and taking chip so much anymore, if you don't get OHKO'd you'll get a belly drum, period. Most of Azumarill's old counters are locked behind bank, but it gained a few new ones. Toxapex and Kartana in particular are very nasty, but Azumarill has a partner that helps it deal with pesky counters.
Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Cursed Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Perish Song
- Protect
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
Perishtrap Gengar was a staple (read: cancer) last gen for a good reason, it has the ability to practically guarantee a kill on quite a few things at very low risk, and can absolutely dismantle an unprepared player with the annoying combo of sub protect. Its job here is as a way to trap and remove things that might get in the way of my Azumarill's sweep.
The primary things this is meant to take out of the picture atm are Toxapex, Kartana and M-Slowbro, but after bank all of the other targets like M-Venusaur will return as well. Can also work fairly well against Pheromosa and can revenge non-scarfed Lele leads with at least one turn of hail damage on them. Night Slash Kartana can give it major problems but from my experience SD is much more common in that slot and easier to deal with.
Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Poison Jab
It's scarfchomp. Not much more to say, it's really nice to have around with Azumarill in particular as an "oh shit my sweep ended one turn early" option. I don't like that it doubles up on weaknesses but I have a 6th pokemon that rectifies any fairy/ice weak issues. I don't find myself bringing it very often though so this slot might be better filled by a more matchup oriented pokemon.
Nihilego @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Sludge Wave
- Power Gem
- Psyshock
Fairy exterminator and lategame cleaner. I usually carry it with Salamence to avoid doubling up on megas or dragon weaknesses. I think both this and Garchomp are potentially replaceable in a way that might enhance my overall team synergy.
Another thing I'm considering is stripping out the Azumarill/Gengar core and replacing it with M-Metagross/Tapu Lele. Don't get me wrong, it's a great core, but I just find myself defaulting to Ninetales/Salamence so much more and games with it feel like they go so much more smoothly than Azumarill games.
