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Introduction
Hey there, this is my first RMT here in the forums, and I decided to make a team in the NU tier, which is my favourite one by far. By the way, if you don't know me, I'm a guy who loves playing pokemon in PS and usually makes decent teams (I guess), I access the NU room with the nickname TeamTestingFTW, and there are a lot of nice persons there, anyways, after learning a lot about NU there I decided that it's time to see if my teambuilding abilities are decent or not. Now, about the team, I'm a person who really wants to use the best things the tier has to offer. If we look at the Viability ranking thread, we can see that there are five S Ranked mons, and since they're supposed to be the best pokemon the tier has, I decided to build a team around one of them (actually, I ended up using three of them), the team was built around mesprit. Now, there are three (probably more) viable mesprit sets, two offensive variants and one that is more defensive. I ended up running a mix between offense and bulk with rocks support. And with rocks support, I remembered I love running hazard stacking offense, so I decided to run my favourite pokemon in the tier, garbodor, since it has good type synergy with mesprit, and in my opinion is the best spiker in NU with qwilfish gone. With garbodor's addition, I had a lot of hazards, but nothing to abuse them, so I brought the number 1# hazard stacking abuser, pawniard. Not it only has nice synergy with mesprit, but it also prevents defog and counters sticky web teams (They're not that common, but they do exist). I was looking a little bit weak to fire spam at that moment, I was listening to "falling sky" - Red and then I rembered that archeops is a solid check to fire spam, and it's also a good mon in general anyways, it also helps me against ferroseed, which is a threat, since 4 out of my 6 mons cannot touch it. Anyways, even with archeops the team was still weak to fire spam since archeops' bulk is nothing to write home about, so I decided to add All-Out Attacker Samurott (With HP Fire to help me against ferroseed) to have a backup check for fire spam. And that's it, with this five mons I was feeling really comfortable, but I noticed that the team had a huge weakness to magneton, it was able to 2HKO/OHKO my entire team. So I decided to counter the threat with my own threat, and the team ended up with eviolite hp ground magneton to trap opposing magnets. And that's how I ended up with an offensive hazard stacking team with some of the top threats in the NU tier. And for those who want to know, this team hasn't peaked yet, but a team definitely don't need a certain number in the ladder to prove that it is good. So that's it, this team works really well when played right, the theme song was choosed because archeops is just my mvp, if we take a look at the S rank description: "Pokemon who can sweep or wall significant portions of the metagame with little support", that's archeops, the sky monster.
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Teambuilding
As I said, I wanted to build a team around mesprit, I gave it a colbur offensive set with stealth rock, not a really common set, but it works wonders since it has a good synergy with the rest of the team and can always prevent free switches with u-turn, forming a volt-turn core with magneton (I wasn't thinking about this core at the start btw).
Since I wanted to run hazard stacking offense, garbodor was the best option, it's my favourite spiker ant it also provides a good fighting check. It also helps me against malamar, which is one of the biggest threats in NU. It's just a wonderful pokemon in general.
With hazards I needed something to benefit from them, pawniard is a good option since it can take ghost/dark types mesprit hates and that can also take almost any hit from full HP due to eviolite. It was the one pokemon to abuse the hazard stacking thing.
As I said, I was looking a little bit weak to fire spam, looking at the role compendium thread, the best offensive options for that are archeops and samurott, and they're just fantastic pokemon to use in this tier since together they can take on the entire tier without many problems.
I didn't have any electric type switch-ins, so I added magneton to take hits and hit hard at the same time, it also checks klinklang and other magnetons since I'm running enough speed to outspeed modest max speed magnets.
Acording to Can-Eh-Dian, my team was a little bit weak to tauros, archeops and kangaskhan, so offensive rhydon over spdef was a good choice to keep the offensive feeling while giving me stealth rock support. And to check lilligant and mixed cacturne I added banded sneasel, thanks to Can-Eh-Dian
Magneton is getting banned soon, so maybe I should think about a replacement
Changes in bold
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In Depht
Rhydon @ Eviolite
Ability: Lightining Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Att / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Megahorn
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
Offensive rhydon is one of my favourite pokemon in NU, it is replacing mesprit's place, since I was weak to a lot of things rhydon easily checks, and I don't lose SR support with this change, which means that I don't have to rethink about the entire team synergy to make this change. Megahorn also gives me a nice lure to cacturne when they predict EQ and malamar, since I can't take 2 superpowers from full HP and fire off a powerful megahorn. The ability for rhydon doesn't really matter, since all of them are useless if you're not running double-edge, and you're immune to electric type attacks anyways.
Garbodor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Impish Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Seed Bomb
When I need spikes support, I always think about garbodor, it's a great spikes setter and has a powerful stab in gunk shot and a nice coverage move that helps me against sneasel (walled by honedge ;-;) Rocky Helmet is the best item since the damage that my opponent takes from it can be necessary to guarantee some OHKOs. And since I already have a way to deal with quag, I don't think seed bomb is worth it. "96 Speed EVs allow Garbodor to outrun neutral-natured max Speed base 55s, such as Exeggutor and Cacturne. Max HP investment gives optimal overall bulk, and the remaining EVs are put into Defense with an Impish nature to better handle Fighting-types, and often-physical contact moves." - by smogon. Aftermath is really useful paired with rocky helmet, it forces my opponent to think twice before killing me, and when he's thinking, I can get up my spikes and make everything easier for the rest of the team.
Sneasel @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
To cover my weakness to lilligant, I decided to replace pawniard with banded sneasel, which is also a really cool mon is the current meta, it's fast and hits hard, two of my favourite things in a pokemon. Knock off, ice shard and the EV spread are so obvious, so I will talk about Ice punch or crash, I really don't see a difference between them, just a little less powerful, but has a chance to miss, and since I'm a person who likes playing safe (even though you need to be agressive with this team sometimes), I prefered accuracy over power. And pursuit is to stop rotom volt switch shenanigans, and also to trap opponents at low health so they can't switch-out to save themselves..
Archeops
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Acrobatics
- Heat Wave
- Earthquake
- Roost
I present you one of the best pokemon in the tier, when you teambuild you kinda need to know that this thing is a huge threat, and you need at least two checks to avoid getting destroyed. If it only got other ability... man. Anyways, as I mentioned, ferroseed is a threat, so keep heat wave. And since heat wave already covers steel types, I think you could replace earthquake with stone edge, but e-vire is getting common, and earthquake is a way to deal with it. A naive nature so I don't need to mess around with priority shadow sneak and stuff.
Samurott @ Life Orb
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Aqua Jet
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
I love samurott, it's just one of the best all-out attackers in nu. With stab hydro pump and nice coverage in ice beam and grass knot. You can't switch in without taking a ton of damage. As I said in the beginning, another fire check was needed because archeops can deal with them since it's in the field, but it can switch in without taking a huge ton of damage, and with defeatist activated archeops is useless. Hidden power fire is, of course, for that stupid seed, and grass knot is for quag, I have no other grass moves in this team, so quag can be annoying if you lose samurott. When you see quag, save samurott so it won't be problematic.
Magneton @ Eviolite
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 192 HP / 140 SpA / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
And here we got my favourite drop, I have it in like, all my new teams, but it's just way too good. About the EV spread, 176 Speed EVs with a timid nature is enough to outspeed modest max speed magneton, and 196 HP is there so I can take hits from opposing magneton really well if I need my magneton for something else. This thing has some really good defense stats with eviolite, and it's for sure one of the bests pokemon in NU, although it's not my favourite (But I still use it in all my teams, because it's too good). Magneton to check another magnetons is a really cool strategy.
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Threatlist
All right, guys help me with this one, I have problems identifying threats, I only know about this one...
It's at +2? It it has EQ click that X button.
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Threatlist
All right, guys help me with this one, I have problems identifying threats, I only know about this one...
It's at +2? It it has EQ click that X button.
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Importable
Rhydon @ Eviolite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
Garbodor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Impish Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Seed Bomb
Sneasel @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit
Archeops
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Acrobatics
- Heat Wave
- Earthquake
- Roost
Magneton @ Eviolite
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 192 HP / 140 SpA / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
Samurott @ Life Orb
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Aqua Jet
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
Garbodor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Impish Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Seed Bomb
Sneasel @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit
Archeops
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Acrobatics
- Heat Wave
- Earthquake
- Roost
Magneton @ Eviolite
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 192 HP / 140 SpA / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
Samurott @ Life Orb
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Aqua Jet
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
Thanks for reading.
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