ORAS NU Curse pass

[TTFTW]

Hi.

Welcome to my third NU rmt on smogon. There's been a while since I posted an nu rate my team, mainly because the old metas were just boring, sneasel + gallade meta was like: every team had 5 standard mons and one different filler, and in the magneton meta everyone and their mum was using lanturn and stunfisk and hp ground lures were also everywhere (even in ferroseed lmao), that made me stop playing NU for a while. But now I have finally found a reason to come back: sneasel + gallade is gone, magnets is gone, and August tier drops didn't bring any overpowered shit, but three mons (skunk, shiftry and hitmonchan) that are pretty fun to use imo. And with uxie and fletchinder moving up I think the tier is probably going to be focused on a more offensive playstyle knowing that two of the biggest threats to offense moved up (fletch could revenge kill most offensive threats like lilligant and fightings, and uxie was like the ultimate switch-in to everything lol, in offense you needed a dedicated uxie killer), that's why I decided to build again. About the team: when I started building I wanted to create some type of toxic spikes bulky offense, which I think is pretty viable in this meta even though tspikes absorbers such as skuntank and vileplume are rising in popularity. With that strategy in mind I started looking for a solid wincon that can take advantage of toxic spikes being on your opponent's side. With a wincon and tspikes I added two glue mons to complete this team, which is one of the "funniest yet surpirisingly effective" things I have ever created. Curse Pass. Ah and if ladder matters for you I'm 18-2ing it atm, and the 2 games that I lost were big misplays on my part (like forgetting to check sawk's ability before switching in weezing on a mold breaker EQ lel), and I also won 2 or 3 tours in the NU room with this team so I think it's pretty strong, still want advice :]

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Curse Pass​

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dfhvasjdhfaksjdf Curse Mushy is good I swear

Drifblim @ White Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Acrobatics
- Facade/Knock Off
- Phantom Force
- Sucker Punch

Ah white herb drifblim, you're the funniest thing I have ever used in this tier (really guys, try it out). I'm using this set posted by me in the Creative/Underrated sets thread, and it's hella fun to use. This is how it normally goes: Once its checks (Rhydon, regirock, costa, quag and fat shit in general) are weakened by toxic spikes Drifblim gets a slow baton pass from mushy (with 4 or 5 curses) and doesn't take any damage in the switch, its white herb activate due to curse's effect and you get to +2 speed, reaching 518 and outspeeding scarf scyther, and the things it can't outspeed like scarf pyroar and ludicolo in rain are checked by its team members with priority and, to a certain point, curse passer mushy (unfortunately you can't moonlight 50% in rain :[ ). Anyways, remember I said my wincon was going to take advantage from toxic spikes? Yeah, drifblim's phantom force lets it get crucial toxic damage on your opponent by evading every attack they try to go for, which lets you knock them out in the following turn. But if you're really worried about ludicolo and scarf pyroar you can run jolly to outspeed them at +2, but drif loses a decent amount of KOs with this change.

Musharna @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Curse
- Baton Pass
- Moonlight
- Psychic

Not expecting this set to get through some of the rates, BUT IT'S GOOD I SWEAR. Musharna's insane bulk lets it check stuff like magmortar and samurott while setting up at the same time. Psychic stab weakens stuff like weezing (not like it will stay in on you anyways, but it MIGHT try to switch-in when your mushy starts cursing up and weezing feels safe with its "I check every fucking physical attacker in this tier" problem, ok get bopped by this special attack) So it's a key mon to this team since without mushy drifblim is dead weight and the team is extremely vulnerable to strong special attackers. Baton pass is also the t way to attract skunktanks/dark types and nuke something with sawk. An alternative spread with enough speed for gurdurr and quagsire can be used if you don't want to take damage from knock off/get recover stalled, but mushy really needs as much bulk as it can have to better check what it's supposed to.

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Bring your antidotes

Weezing @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 148 HP / 252 Def / 108 Spe
Bold Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flamethrower

Weezing is without a doubt my favourite tspikes setter in the tier, I'm using it over garbodor because I wanted a better switch-in to tauros and archeops, and since garbodor gets bopt by eq... Anyways, flamethrower is a must because otherwise you're klinklang food, weezing is your best check to it (though pilo can take ONE hit) so flamethrower is necessary. Taunt is another cool move on tspikes weezing, stopping stuff like megadino from setting up on your face and also preventing defogs from stuff like mantine, and since I'm using taunt 108 speed is to outspeed something important, but I don't know what (I think you can check the EV spread compendium for more info on this spread because I completely forgot what can you outspeed with 108 EVs). Weezing doesn't have a lot of pressure to beat tauros + archeops since you have piloswine.

Skuntank @ Dread Plate
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Taunt
- Poison Jab
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch

Ah Skunk, you're probably my favourite drop this month, and you do like a lot of important stuff to this team, being able to trap xatu (so weezing can set up tspikes with ease), rotom(so musharna can keep cursing up without fearing a potential trick) and ghosts in general by having a really strong dual stab when holding a dread plate. Skunk is the best lilligant/shiftry/psychic check I have, it also can revenge kill weakened stuff with priority (better, be real and pursuit them!). I invested a lot in spdef to check better the mons I mentioned in this paragraph (I know there's a better spread, but this is just what came in my mind when I wanted an offensive spdef skunk lol). Taunt also gives me a secondary mega audino check, and prevents mawile from setting up rocks on your face, which is pretty cool.​

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No Pokémon, item, move, ability or nature named 'switch-in' was found

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant/Brave Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Spead/Icicle Crash/Freeze-Dry
- Stealth Rock

"Every competitive team outside of doubles needs stealth rock". Piloswine is the best rocker in the tier, hands down. As someone once mentioned in the NU room, pilo is one of those things that is really hard to OHKO, so it will always be able to get up rocks against your opponent. Icicle spear OHKO's lead archeops and vivillon which is nice, but freeze dry is another option (I don't think I'm really quagsire weak when I have sawk that 2HKO's it and two taunters + toxic spikes to wear it down, but if you feel like luring it...) I honestly don't know why Piloswine is still B Rank on the viability rankings, because seeing how bulky and powerful this thing is, I'd even say it deserves A+ (I'm probably overrating it, but it's just amazing). It's the team's secondary check to Dancing Rhydon if weezing gets weakened, also checks aurorus.

Sawk @ Choice Band
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch

Sawk is a really important mon on this team, its wallbreaking power can be used to weaken your opponent's drifblim checks, and the things it can't nuke on (xatu, defensive mesprit) are trapped by skunk. Zen headbutt hits weezing and garbodor while ice punch can be used to hit defensive torterra and stuff like that. Adamant over Jolly is questionable, but the capacity of OHKOing DDance Rhydon without rocks is really cool, so adamant is my favourite ability on it. Uh, this description is probably the shortest, but what can I say? It's a banded sawk, bring it in on a double or on a baton pass from mushy, type /dt switch-in in the chat and proceed to destroy something.

Threats

This team is not aurorus weak, but to its ability, snow warning limits mushy's recovery, so another wallbreaker like magmortar can destroy me.

Mold Breaker can lure weezing and weaken it with EQ, which is really problematic.

Weezing is relatively easy to wear down by hazards, as well as piloswine, then this thing just wrecks me :[

Fuck normal spam. Thankfully it's not common :]

"Teams without a water resist tends to lose to water types" - iplaytennislol, 2015

There are other threats, but I can't think of them right now.

I don't have any replays of the team's final version, sorry guys :[ Before I started using it on the ladder I had aurorus over sawk. Raters/Anyone that wants to use this team, feel free to share replays with your proposed changes if you want to, it will be good to see if they're really necessary.

Shoutouts to the NU room :]

Importable: http://pastebin.com/uek54unw

Sorry for grammar errors, not a native speaker.​

 

[HJAD]

hey TTFTW

Nice team you have here, its extremely well built as your defensive core takes on the entire meta extremely well. I remember playing you and you beat me purely because I couldn't break down your defensive core. As far as threats to the team are concerned, definitely Klinklang right of the bat, it beats all of your team once it starts shifting gears and I would think be the primary threat to this team, especially in the late game when everything has been worn down. Stuff like Kangaskhan / Zangoose / Normal Types that can hit Drifblim are also major threats since your ways of beating them are vulnerable to wear or just straight up can't switch in directly (spdef mushy). Pawniard is would class as a threat to this team since your way of dealing with it, Sawk, doesn't appreciate a Knock Off, Iron Head or a +2 Sucker Punch. Kabutops with SD is scary too!

Onto the reccomendations and I feel like with all these things accumulated, BU Gurdurr > Sawk makes much more sense. It checks Klinklang, Kanga, Kabutops and Pawniard really easily and serves very well as a strong physical meta check, in the same way spdef Musharna is a good special meta check. It also benefits greatly from Skuntanks pursuit shenanigans, removing / weakening the Psychic type checks (like Mesprit etc) for a late game Gurdurr sweep. The downside to this change is that you lose some of your wall breaking potential and speed, but in return you complete the defensive core, relieve Weezing of immense stress so it can do its own job effectively and gain a priority user / settup sweeper which you lacked originally (unless curse Psychic Musharna is your settup sweeper of choice ofc.) It also gives you a Scald switchin since Guts, which you also didn't have before.

set

Gurdurr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Mach Punch

I wouldn't worry too much about your lack of water resist, Musharna serves as a great spdef meta check for those. Gurdurr can also chew a hit
Best of luck for the future,
~HJAD

 

[TTFTW]

BU Gurdurr is cool, and I'll definitely try it out, even though I will lose wallbreaking power gurdurr is an amazing glue mon. Though I'm worried about the lack of speed control in my team with sawk gone.

 

[HJAD]

BU Gurdurr is cool, and I'll definitely try it out, even though I will lose wallbreaking power gurdurr is an amazing glue mon. Though I'm worried about the lack of speed control in my team with sawk gone.

As far as speed control is concerned, when you have 3 powerful priority users, its not that hard to create a kind of psuedo speed control since these Pokémon may not naturally outspeed but have priority to revenge any Mon with. Sawk isn't even THAT good speed control in the first place, speed isn't its defining factor xd

 

[TTFTW]

As far as speed control is concerned, when you have 3 powerful priority users, its not that hard to create a kind of psuedo speed control since these Pokémon may not naturally outspeed but have priority to revenge any Mon with. Sawk isn't even THAT good speed control in the first place, speed isn't its defining factor xd

You do have a good point, then sawk -> gurdurr

Btw, are there any cooler skunk spreads? that one just doesn't seem right

 

[HJAD]

You do have a good point, then sawk -> gurdurr

Btw, are there any cooler skunk spreads? that one just doesn't seem right

QueenOfLuvdiscs has a cool Skunk spread which he posted in the np: thread (and will hopefully in this one too)
I use 112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 Spe Adamant Nature
It's far from efficient but it allows you to outspeed stuff like modest Samurott, AV Magmortar which was crucial for some teams that I made with it. Lum Berry is a cool item to consider and Crunch alongside it (so you can OHKO the Rotom / Mismag that stay in and Will-o predicting pursuit. (But I wouldn't reccomend it since megadino is scary for your team)

 

[TTFTW]

Cool spread :] Thanks for the help

 

[QueenOfLuvdiscs]

24 or 88 hp / 224 atk / 176 or 112 spdef / 84 spe are the spreads I use on taunt skunk. I only use the 88 hp one when my team is quite weak to shiftry, but since you have a weezing, I'd the the 24 hp one.

 

[Kiyo]

Hey there, TTFTW

Drifblim / Musharna / Weezing / Skuntank / Sawk / Piloswine

Curse Pass is a really cool strategy, I wish we still had access to Sceptile because it plays almost exactly the same as Drifblim and adds another recipient. :c Anyways, you've done a pretty good job of identifying the biggest threats to your team in Klinklang, Water-, and Normal-types, so I'll do my best to suggest changes to help remedy these weaknesses.

For what its worth, I agree with HJAD's suggestion of replacing Sawk with another Fighting-type. Gurdurr can really help you out in the matchup vs certain Normal-types and definitely helps you vs Klinklang; however, if you want to stick with the mindset of racking up residual damage with Toxic Spikes, then you might consider Hariyama > Sawk / Gurdurr. You can easily EV Hariyama to live +1 Gear Grind from Klinklang if you're still worried about it, but you also get the added benefit of Fake Out + Bullet Punch racking up damage with Toxic Spikes. I also feel like Sturdy Sawk without hazard support is often a weaker choice than another Fighting-type.

Looking at your team I honestly feel that Skuntank is your weakest link by far. Having the ability to trap Xatu for Weezing is nice, and when you do face the rare Scarf Rotom I could also see it coming in handy. Although in this metagame I'd argue that less than 20% of the Rotom's you'll be facing will be Choice Scarf. I do think theres a way to lessen your Water- and Normal-type weakness without sacrificing the ability to take care of these annoyances to your team however. It's a bit of an odd suggestion, but I'd consider CB Gourgeist-XL > Skuntank.

Ok, so hear me out. CB Gourgeist-XL does a great job of luring in Xatu, as most players will anticipate fat Gourgeist going for Leech Seed or Will-O-Wisp and you can bop them with a strong Shadow Sneak, Rock Slide, or Explosion. Gourgeist would also help you to check Rotom variants, players will often bring Rotom in on Gourgeist during a double-down situation and attempt to Shadow Ball or Hex you for damage, you just so happen to OHKO Rotom with Shadow Sneak however. But wait there's more! Gourgeist resists Water-type attacks and is immune to Normal-type attacks! It can even take hits from Klinklang in a pinch.

Summary of Changes:

--->

Hariyama sticks with your teams plan of racking up residual damage and provides a solid check to Normal-types and Klinklang.

--->

Gourgeist still helps your team fulfill its goals while also giving you a more solid answer to Water- and Normal-types. It also lures in the same Pokemon that Skuntank beats.

Importable of Sets

Gourgeist-Super @ Choice Band
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Seed Bomb
- Explosion
- Trick / Phantom Force / Rock Slide

Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch / Earthquake