Defensive/Bulky Sweeper NU Team

[amzfishman]

Hello everyone! This is my first RMT, so hopefully I won't wreck it. Anyways, I've always enjoyed stall teams. I stand by the idea that it's hard to enjoy the battle of wits that is competitive Pokemon if two brutal sweeping teams come together and the war is over in 15 turns. This team is designed to wear down the opponent by using the pokemon's bulk to either set up on the opponent and sweep or slowly wear them down with toxic. I have already had decent success with this team. It currently has a record of 21-8 on PS with a rating of about 1750. Let's get to the team.

How I Built The Team

I wanted a defensive core, starting with one very physically bulky and one very specially bulky pokemon. What two pokemon better for that than Alomomola and Munchlax?

I knew Munchlax was going to be a Curse+Rest Talker, so he could hold his own, but Alomomola would eventually die to Toxic Poisoning without support. So, I gave it that support in a Musharna with Heal Bell.

Walls are great, but none of these pokemon are specifically designed for any offensive presence. Sticking with the theme of bulky, I chose Eviolite Gurdurr.

Next, I decided I needed a pokemon with Taunt, because this team is already somewhat weak to set up sweepers. I chose a bulky-sweeper Skuntank to fill that role.

Lastly, every good team needs a lead: A reliable source of entry hazards. Going against the standards of the rest of the team, I've always liked suicide leads. Hazards and gone. Custap Berry Golem fit this idea the best. And that is the team.

A More In-Depth Analysis

Alomomola@Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252HP, 252Def, 4SpD
Impish Nature
~Toxic
~Wish
~Protect
~Waterfall
​

Alomomola is the primary physical wall of the team, and she does this very well. With her massive HP and decent defense, a choice banded Sawk's Close Combat doesn't even do half damage. Its main source of damage is using toxic and then Wish-Protecting to stall away, but Wish also serves to heal other pokemon very effeciently, courtesy of the new Wish mechanics and Alomomola's massive HP. Waterfall is necessary as an attacking move and can actually do decent damage to pokemon who have had their defense compromised, mainly Close Combat users(so Sawk, pretty much).

Munchlax@Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252HP, 252SpD 4Atk
Careful Nature
~Curse
~Body Slam
~Rest
~Sleep Talk
​

Munchlax is the main special wall, and it is probably the best special wall in NU. Most special attacks, even boosted, do not threaten him. A +2 Hydro Pump from a Gorebyss does a maximum of 48%. With curse, he is able to boost his physical defense as high as his special, and once that happens he will slowly wear down any non-ghost types unless they can force a switch with the likes of Dragon Tail or Whirlwind. It is also extremely difficult to stall because of RestTalk. This is one little hungry munchkin you don't want to mess with.

Musharna@Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252HP, 252Def, 4SpD
Bold Nature
~Calm Mind
~Psychic
~Moonlight
~Heal Bell
​

If any pokemon is ever statused and it needs healing, Musharna is there. It is mainly to support Alomomola, but obviously functions for anything. With its combination of Heal Bell and Moonlight, it is literally impossible to stall because residual damage never had a chance to stack up. It is invested in physical bulk, but has enough special bulk to hold its own until it gets a chance to use a Calm Mind or two. Once calm mind has been set up, Psychic becomes incredibly powerful and can wreck any team that lacks a dark or steel type.

Gurdurr@Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252HP, 252Atk, 4SpD
Adamant Nature
~Bulk Up
~Drain Punch
~Mach Punch
~Ice Punch
​

This is your standard Gurdurr. Bulk Up combined with Iron Fist makes it absurdly powerful, and the Eviolite gives it extra bulk. Ice punch for flying types. Mach punch for its priority, making it pretty much the only "fast" pokemon on the team. Not a whole lot to say about it.

Skuntank@Leftovers
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252HP, 252Atk, 4Def
Adamant Nature
~Taunt
~Sucker Punch
~Crunch
~Pursuit
​

Skuntank is what stops pokemon from setting up, merely because of its presence. Anything that wants to set up immediately gets taunted and either sucker punched of pursited. It is quite bulky and has great attack power with Crunch having the possibility of lowering defense and Sucker Punch if the opponent is faster. Aftermath can be very, very useful in almost any situation, I chose it over Stench to possibly increase its wallbreaking efficiency.

Golem@Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252HP, 252Atk, 4SpD
Adamant Nature
~Stealth Rock
~Stone Edge
~Sucker Punch
~Explosion
​

Last, but certainly not least, and possibly the most important pokemon, the rock-setter, Golem. With Sturdy, he sets up Rocks with absolutely no fear of being KO'd. If he gets the chance to use his Custap Berry, with maximum attack, almost nothing will take kindly to an Explosion from it. If it is not practical to explode, namely things like Drifblim, Stone Edge and Sucker Punch come to the rescue. Its strategy is simple, but extremely difficult to counter without something like Sleep Powder.



So, that is my NU team. It's a good team already (I recently won a tournament with it) but I am looking for opinions on tweaks to make it even better. Thanks!

 

[scorpdestroyer]

Just a little nitpick; I don't think making your Golem a suicide lead is a particularly great idea, since by doing so, you're leaving yourself really weak to things like Swellow and Braviary, since without a Normal or Flying resist, they can easily run through you, and with a few hazards up, Alomomola will be unable to continuously tank hits from them. I feel a defensive Golem with Toxic over Sucker Punch will suit your team better for these reasons, and it gives Golem a bit of extra staying power and gives your team a Normal and Flying resist. Toxic would be really useful for Golem to wear down threats for the team. If you're sticking with Custap, try running Earthquake over Sucker Punch and Rock Blast over Stone Edge. While priority is useful, Earthquake is invaluable as it allows Golem to beat opposing leads such as Metang and Probopass, which Sucker Punch fails to do. Meanwhile, Rock Blast is better because it allows you to KO past subs and sashes from things like Braviary, Ninjask, Kadabra, and Drifblim. Besides, Stone Edge has really bad accuracy and Rock Blast is much more reliable.

 

[Lasagne]

this seems like a pretty solid team tbh, utilizing the classic musharna/gurdurr/skuntank core. I have a couple of recommendations, however. First of all, I'd go with scorpdestroyers first recommendation of using bulky golem instead of the set you currently have, as a way to beat normal and flying type Pokemon such as swellow, braviary and Kangaskhan. However, I would use toxic over explosion, not sucker punch, as sucker punch is useful for picking off opponents at low health, whereas explosion isn't at all beneficial for a bulky Pokemon that wants to stay alive a long time.

I also recommend the use of Payback over Ice Punch on Gurdurr. This lets you hit many otherwise troublesome Pokemon, such as Misdreavus and Musharna, much harder than you would be with ice punch. Payback also keeps the covrage against Golurk. Unfortunately, it loses coverage against flying, ground and grass types. This generally isn't too much of a problem, as the majority of them are hit hard enough by drain punch.

 

[Blast]

Just a few things: first off, I would recommend you change your Skuntank set to this:

Skuntank @ Lum Berry
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 204 SDef / 52 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Taunt
- Sucker Punch
- Crunch
- Pursuit

Not much changed here, but I highly recommend Lum Berry on your Skuntank to deal with Jynx, so you can absorb Lovely Kiss then kill it with anything. 52 Speed EVs let you outspeed standard Misdreavus (but some people Speed creep so feel free to add a few more if you're unsure). Anyway, outspeeding Missy is a pretty huge benchmark, since you can switch in on anything (even Will-O-Wisp thanks to Lum Berry), Taunt, then Pursuit trap. The rest goes into Special Defense rather than HP, since Skunk has high HP and SpD investment will increase his special bulk by a larger margin.

Also, agreeing with the above two guys about Golem. Bulky Golem is honestly just better suited for this team, especially being bulky offense; Custap lead works better on full offense, and by killing your Golem early you really leave yourself open to Normal / Flyings (see the above two posts about moveset changes). Btw, I'd also change the EV spread to 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spd, so you can outspeed Shell Smash Torkoal before the boost and the loss of bulk is minimal.

Finally, I'm really not that huge a fan of your Munchlax. It's really just in general a mediocre Pokemon, and it doesn't really seem to suit your team's needs all that great. I think you should consider Roselia over Munchlax, since your team in general is gonna be forcing a lot of switches which Roselia can take advantage of by setting up Spikes. She also deals with a lot of problematic walls (opposing Alomomola, for example) that your team looks to struggle against. She synergizes really well with Alomomola, with the two of them being able to cover most threats in the meta and rack up hazard damage.

Hope I helped, and good luck with the team!

Suggested changes

Skuntank: Lum Berry > Leftovers, change EVs to 252 Atk / 204 SDef / 52 Spd

Golem @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Roselia @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Spikes
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Rest

 

[Dell]

Hey there.

First of all, I especially agree with the suggestion on Golem. The Golem suggestion in particular works well for your team because the combination of Rock Blast and Toxic gives you a defensive backbone against Bulk Up Braviary, who would otherwise be a significant threat to a portion of your team. In other matters, I think you should try Guts and Payback on Gurdurr. Even with the extra Speed for Skuntank, the problem with matching this team up with stallbreakers like Misdreavus or Mandibuzz is still persistent, as they are fast enough to force most of your members out with Taunt and status stuff around for a while, slowly breaking through most of your team. These two moves add an optimal role for Gurdurr that allows it abuse that situation so that it can turn favorable for it and thus increase its damage output against the two of them, beating them 1v1.

If you take the suggestion of Roselia, one thing that you should keep in mind is that this makes you a lot more vulnerable to Charizard, which can be somewhat mitigated if you tweak Alomomola's EVs a bit. 136 HP / 252 Def / 120 SpD makes it so that you don't lose much utility out of your physically defensive capabilities while in return it helps you take on special variants of Charizard and Samurott a lot more efficiently, avoiding the 2HKO from them most of the time now.

Hope I helped.

Suggested changes

Alomomola - Current spread < 136 HP / 252 Def / 120 SpD
Gurdurr - Guts and Payback > Iron Fist and Ice Punch