ORAS LC Double Weather Double Fun (Peaked 1515)

[AOJ]

Hi everyone guys. I know I posted another RMT just a couple of weeks ago, but I've been playing a lot with the team I'm about to present you and I think it's worth sharing. I've always loved both weather teams and using underestimated mons, so I decided to build a Hail and Sand team for ORAS LC. Without further losses of time, let me introduce the squad

Snover @ Eviolite
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 5
EVs: 196 HP / 120 Def / 24 SpA / 120 SpD / 40 Spe
Bold Nature
- Blizzard
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard

The first member of the team is the first weather inducer: Snover. Eviolite+Def+SpD investment guarantees that this guy can take a significant amount of damage. Snover offers a key counter to Water types and can switch into anything that doesn't hit him super effectively and just proceed to heal himself with Giga Drain or fire a perfectly accurate Blizzard. Hidden Power Fire is necessary to hit Ferroseed (who would otherwise cause huge problems to this team) and Pawniard on the switch. Ice Shard offers useful priority which can allow this little guy to clean the house late game if the main sweepers are gone.

Carvanha @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Def / 236 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Substitute
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Blizzard

I found the Snover-Special Carvanha core somewhere in a sample team on this forum, and it works quite well. Snover offers perfect accuracy to Carvanha coverage move and some chip damage, who in return simply ends the game when his checks are KO. Substitute is a way better option than Protect IMHO. Although Protect may be situationally better, everyone expects it, and your opponent just has to switch out your target and let his wall come in, status Carvanha and stop your sweep. Beside Substitute, the rest of the movest is pretty self-explanatory: Ice+Water offers great coverage, Dark Pulse offers another STAB with perfect accuracy out of the hail and has a nice flinch possibility.

Croagunk @ Eviolite
Ability: Dry Skin
Level: 5
EVs: 132 HP / 28 Atk / 116 Def / 108 SpA / 116 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Drain Punch
- Sludge Bomb
- Vacuum Wave
- Knock Off

The basic idea of this team is simple: set up rocks and do some chip damage, remove anything that may stop the weather sweepers' job, sweep. To complete part two of the mission, I needed two utility mons who could spam Knock Offs and remove Eviolites, switch into attacks aimed to the weather inducers, stay healty throughout the match and hit things that the sweepers had problems going past. Mixed Utily Croagunk is a great mon in general and has the necessary skillset to be the best in this role. He can switch into the omnipresent Fighting types who threat Snover and Carvanha, Grass and Waters who hit Hippo very bad, and spam KO on the switch. Drain Punch keeps him healthy, Poison STAB is necessary vs Spritzee, who is pretty problematic for this team, Vacuum Wave is useful in general and allows Croagunk to revenge kill weakened foes.

Vullaby @ Eviolite
Level: 5
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 116 HP / 76 Atk / 236 Def / 76 SpD
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Knock Off
- Brave Bird
- U-turn

Vullaby is another great glue-mon, just so good in general and fitting in almost any team. That said, some of his qualities make him really perfect for this team. I needed a Flying mon to check Bulk Up Timburr and Fighting types in general, a Foongus counter (Overcoat blocks his Spore, and allows Vullaby not to take damage from the weather) and all the utility I said before + slow U-turn support to grab some momentum. STAB Knock Off is priceless, Brave Bird is as I said necessary to put the hurt on Fighting Types, Roost is self-explanatory.

Hippopotas @ Eviolite
Level: 5
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 212 HP / 20 Atk / 212 Def / 20 SpD / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind

Hippo is just so underrated. Besides being compulsory on sand weather teams, he is just so fat he is one of the best rocks setters in the game, with realiable recovery, hard hitting STAB (even with minimal investment) and the always useful Whirlwind to stop setup sweepers and piss your opponent on the switch. Nothing more to say I guess: Hippo is a super reliable mon who always gets his job done.

Drilbur @ Life Orb
Level: 5
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 236 Atk / 36 Def / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Shadow Claw
- Rapid Spin

The sand core endes with the second sweeper: Drilbur. Life Orb turns crucial 2HKOs in OHKOs and it's by far better than Eviolite in this case. EQ is just a mostrous STAB who OHKO half of the tier with minimal prior damage, Rock Slide is necessary coverage, Shadown Claw is there to hit the super-predictable Gastly on the switch, Rapid Spin provides fundamental hazards removal and is better than Swords Dance (you don't usually have time to set up, and hazards control is indispensable).




Thanks for reading, I'm waiting for your suggestions :)

 

[Oma]

Hi AOJ, this is a really interesting team idea that makes use of 2 underrated weather styles. Obviously not a whole lot can be changed to the weather cores without ruining the structure of the team, but there are a few ways this team can be improved.

-The team as of now has a notable weakness to Cottonee, as it counters Drilbur and Hippo while threatening Vullaby and Carvanha. For this reason, I would recommend running Poison Jab>Rapid Spin on Drilbur. Sand has very limited turns, so wasting them on a rapid spin will shorten the time you have to sweep and also let checks come in safely. Poison Jab will let you get a surprise OHKO on Cottonee, letting you keep Drilbur in for more turn. I would also recommend using a Jolly Nature over Adamant, as sand can not be depended on to always be up. While you lose a bit of power (it still beats what it wants to after Stealth Rock), you keep a much better speed tier that can be used outside of sand.

-Another Pokemon that severely threatens your team is Magnemite, as it beats Snover, Vanha, and Vullaby one on one while having no safe switch-ins. Running a spread of 136 HP / 20 Atk / 212 Def / 100 SpD / 20 Spe with an Impish Nature on Hippototas lets hit an Eviolite number in special defense. Thanks to the greater special bulk, it avoids the 2HKO from Sturdy Magnemite's Flash Cannon, but you still have to be careful switching into Analytic.

-If your run Poison Jab on Drilbur, be sure to use Defog>U-turn on Vullaby. Vullaby is a much more reliable hazard remover than LO Drilbur, and since hazards wear your team down easily you need the reliability that Vullaby provides.

There's not a whole lot else that can be changed about this team. (I personally am not a huge fan of SubVanha and would recommend Protect but that's how Snovanha works) Good luck with the team and your future battles in LC!

 

[tcr]

yo what up friend! As Omastar42 said, not much can be done to the team without completely revamping the team simply due to the structure and foundation of the team (Snovanha + dual weather). In the future, I would recommend sticking with one idea, as they can be really solid teams! However, you limit yourself by saying "I want to use this, this, and this" since often times it might not click together. Again, Omastar42 is correct, a Jolly nature is better on Drilbur, while switching U-turn --> Defog and Rapid Spin --> Poison Jab is more beneficial to your team and what you are trying to accomplish. Just looking at your team, you have absolutely no switchins to Magnemite. The better EV spread that Omastar suggested definitely helps, however even then Analytic Magnemite just destroys you. Luckily you could keep up offensive pressure with your team and try to force it out, but you really don't want to take the bait and have Magnemite actually be Sturdy, as then you lose your Drilbur, you lose Hippopotas, etc. Nothing much to really be done here, just try to maintain pressure and you should be good.

One thing I do see that could ravage your team is Fletchling, which is a pretty big issue. It forces out Snover, Croagunk, Drilbur, etc and can do upwards of half to Hippo (who cannot even touch it other than Whirlwinding it out) and Vullaby gets 2hkoed by Acrobatics. and even then, Brave Bird does not OHKO. I really do not think that Snover+Carvanha fit on this team, as I stated earlier it can sometimes be hard to fit a couple concepts on the same team, and instead I think that Snovanha deserves its own team. Going to this point, swapping out Snover for Lileep is a really cool addition for you. Lileep helps a lot with Fletchling, and can lure in things like Mienfoo to Toxic. It also completely absorbs Water-type moves for your team, and remains a good Foongus counter. Adding in Lileep also helps a lot with dealing with Omanyte, which previously you had to weaken it with Croagunk, or sac Hippo and OHKO with Drilbur, which is not optimal. With Lileep, you can simply switch in any time its up, and kill it.

Now, without Snover, special Carvanha really isn't needed. One thing that I think is really cool is to run Magnet Pull Magnemite as this can help you a bit with Ferroseed and Spritzee. Magnemite retains its ability to smash through teams with good SpA, and can retain momentum for the team. Its number 1 counter, Chinchou, is easily taken care of by Drilbur, Lileep, Croagunk, so it should often be free to spam Volt Switch and trap Steel-types. I don't think Pawniard is as big of a threat as Ferroseed is, but if you believe it is you can HP Fight to isolate it. Magnemite also brings to the table a good answer to Fletchling! Anyway with these changes, I hope that I helped your team out, or at least gave you ideas for future teams : ) Good luck friend!

 

[Corporal Levi]

Hey AOJ,
If your goal is a sturdy team, then Amaura's suggestion to get rid of one of the two weather cores is probably ideal. However, I really like the uniqueness of the current rendition of the team, so if turning the team into standard snovanha or sand is too boring when it comes to dealing with Fletchling, you could give the hyper offense route a go by just spamming priority; you will often have to choose which Pokemon to ditch to wear Fletchling down enough for something else to clean up, though.

Firstly, you can change Croagunk to a variant that is fast enough to outspeed the usual bulky Fletchling, preferably with Nasty Plot so that Fletchling doesn't have to be as weakened for Croagunk to KO it during a possible late-game gunk sweep.
Croagunk @ Berry Juice / Eviolite
Ability: Dry Skin
Level: 5
EVs: 52 HP / 36 Def / 188 SpA / 36 SpD / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
- Knock Off
- Vacuum Wave
- Sludge Bomb
- Nasty Plot
Although this variant's frailty makes it a little bit less effective at checking stuff, it shouldn't actually make that big of a difference considering how a lack of survivability is already one of bulky gunk's bigger issues, and besides, most of what it checks you have other teammates to soft check as well, eg Vullaby checks Grass- and Fighting-types, and Snover checks Water-types.

I don't see much use for Substitute on Carvanha; in very rare situations it could come in handy, but in general, Carvanha is frail enough that even walls will often opt to simply attack it. Aqua Jet is a move that I feel could be more consistently useful, even if not by much, not only for Fletchling (keeping in mind that Fletchling will need to switch into Stealth Rock twice and take three turns of sandstorm damage before ajet KOs), but for any Rock Polish Rhyhorns that may get out of hand.
Carvanha @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Atk / 236 SpA / 236 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 9 HP
- Aqua Jet
- Hydro Pump
- Blizzard
- Dark Pulse
You'll lose a defense point, but I doubt it'll be missed.

I think oma covered everything else I had to say. Good luck!

 

[AOJ]

Hey guys, thanx for the replies.

Magnemite is a pretty big problem indeed, but luckily Croagunk can deal with it pretty well. That said, it reamains a huge threat and I actually hate when I see this thing on team preview.
Cottonee is a problem too, so I prefer not to start a sweep if it is still alive. Croagunk can take care of it well too, by just scaring it out and spamming KO on the switch or on Cottonee itself if it decides to stay in. Vullaby can switch into Stun Spore, take a Dazzling Gleam and hit it hard with Brave Bird or, again, click KO or U-turn on the predicted switch.

Fletch is really not a big issue, since Hippo walls every set and can Whirlwhind him and threaten his health when rocks are up. Vullaby can soft check him too.