ORAS NU First NU team

[Robbom]

I've never been the best at teambuilding, but this is my attempt at building around CM virizion

Virizion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Calm Mind

This seems to be able to set up on a lot of things with that already nice spdef and i feel like it fit my team better than a swords dance set, which i was originally thinking of. This guys here to sit in the back until he gets a chance to set up late game and put in work.

Kangaskhan @ Assault Vest
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Drain Punch
- Power-up Punch
- Sucker Punch

Formerly a fake out set, the offensive pressure provided by power-up punch has proved to be far superior in weakening various walls and dealing with dangerous threats. In many cases it has dealt with 2 or even 3 pokemon before going down. The reason for running assault vest is to provide an alternative way of checking Typhlosion and other special attackers if needed as otherwise Seismitoad can be worn down and my team left extremely vulnerable

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 200 HP / 56 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Oh seismitoad, i love this guy. A great rock setter and a great tanky check to mega cam, typhlosion and many others. Water absorb can come in handy if stalling feraligatr as needed but generally its a special sponge that can dish out burns and hit mawile and other pokemon weak to eq reasonably hard while usually being able to set up some rocks.

Claydol @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Psyshock
- Earth Power
- Toxic

Formerly a defensive Granbull, Claydol provides a reasonable check to similar fighting types while providing rapid spin support and nice dual stab coverage, although its special attack may be lacking. It also counters standard Garbador quite well which was a previous issue for my team.

Rotom-Fan @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Air Slash
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Trick

Formally a choice scarf Magmortar, Rotom-Fan is a great offensive pivot, as well as a secondary fighting resist and pretty nice check to said fighting types. As Steelix isn't an issue with ferroseed and seismitoad in the back and grass types are mostly checked and in some cases countered by Rotom, it replaces and outclasses Magmortar perfectly. Because of all of these factors it has become an integral part of the team.

Ferroseed @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Protect

Finally the sponge of the team as well as a great seed staller and hazard setter. This is a great switch in on many of the pokemon that would otherwise terrorise seismitoad as well as a decent lead most of the time. It also provides a good switch in for feraligatr although what it can actually do to it is questionable past seed stalling.

While this team seems to work ok at my current rating of around 1300 I'm wondering whether it is actually any good or if there are any changes that could be made to improve it. The main issues i have are with xatu (hazards are my main way of dealing with things like typhlosion and are generally pretty important for my team) and typhlosion. Malamar can also be a problem as my granbull increases its attack on switch in.
Any suggestions and constructive criticism are much appreciated
Thanks!

 

[Lord Alphose]

Quick comments before I head off to class:

Seismitoad with that investment has no chance to wall Typhlosion. In fact, Typhlosion 2HKOs about 70% of the time with Specs Eruption and cleanly OHKOes with Hidden Power Grass. In fact, nothing on your team wants to switch into it. I suggest changing Seismitoad's spread to a specially defensive spread of 200 HP / 56 Def / 252 SpD with a Sassy nature. To compensate, you could make Ferroseed a physically defensive wall, changing it spread to 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD.

A couple other suggestions I don't really have time to make. Maybe consider changing Focus Blast to Earthquake on Magmortar, changing Granbull to something else(a Poison-type does a great job of walling these Fighting-types, so maybe try Weezing or Garbodor.

Yeah, maybe try these and maybe don't. Good luck either way!

~~LA

 

[Robbom]

Quick comments before I head off to class:

Seismitoad with that investment has no chance to wall Typhlosion. In fact, Typhlosion 2HKOs about 70% of the time with Specs Eruption and cleanly OHKOes with Hidden Power Grass. In fact, nothing on your team wants to switch into it. I suggest changing Seismitoad's spread to a specially defensive spread of 200 HP / 56 Def / 252 SpD with a Sassy nature. To compensate, you could make Ferroseed a physically defensive wall, changing it spread to 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD.

A couple other suggestions I don't really have time to make. Maybe consider changing Focus Blast to Earthquake on Magmortar, changing Granbull to something else(a Poison-type does a great job of walling these Fighting-types, so maybe try Weezing or Garbodor.

Yeah, maybe try these and maybe don't. Good luck either way!

~~LA

Thanks! I'll try the main suggestion out and see how it goes thanks :)

*EDIT*
Worked out pretty well :) changing the details on the post
thanks!

 

[ryan]

Hey Robbom, cool team. Calm Mind Virizion is a fun set. Hope you're having success with it.

Granbull / Ferroseed / Seismitoad is a pretty solid defensive core, so you're honestly not weak to many offensive threats. I don't really care for Granbull personally, but I think it's fine on this team. Toxic Spikes are kind of bothersome, but I don't think there's a good way to alter the team to fit something to handle them. You can try Earthquake over Drain Punch on Kangaskhan as a way to hit Garbodor, especially since not much on your team outright threatens it. If you're worried about running Assault Vest without any recovery, you can also try Silk Scarf over Assault Vest on Kangaskhan, but that's up to your preference.

The only other suggestion I have is to try something else over Magmortar. I do believe your team would appreciate a Choice Scarf Pokemon because it's fairly passive and needs something to take on offensive threats in case your defensive core gets overwhelmed, but Magmortar isn't an ideal Choice Scarf user because it's fairly slow and really needs Life Orb to give it that extra push in damage. If you're concerned about bulky Grass-types (which I agree you kind of should be since your best switches into them can't do much to threaten them), you can try Choice Scarf Rotom-Spin, which is fast enough to outspeed everything up to boosted Gorebyss, including Scarf Sawk and +1 Lilligant.

Hopefully these changes help. Best of luck with the team.

Suggested changes:

@ Choice Scarf | Levitate
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe | Timid
Volt Switch / Thunderbolt / Air Slash / Trick

Kangaskhan: Drain Punch -> Earthquake

 

[Ares]

Hey Robbom neat looking team you have here. I'm going to build off of Holly's rate with the exception of replacing AV with Silk Scarf as I think that would open you up to Fire-types as it would put a ton of strain onto Seismitoad which can only take Typhlosion on so many times before dying.

Anyways, onto my rate. To start off I see two things that can give your team trouble, the first of which is that your team is easily worn down against teams utilizing hazards. As far as balance goes there are two things that most of those teams do to combat getting worn down, the first is to add in a Wish Passer but I don't think your team can really fit on Audino or Lickilicky to comfortably, which brings up the second thing, hazard removal. Defog is pretty counterproductive to your spike stacking team, so adding Claydol > Granbull seems like the best place to fit a spinner onto the team. Claydol is also pretty decent as a Fighting-resist, but more importantly it lets you remove hazards which seem like a pretty big problem. The issue with this change is that you have to play around Knock Off a bit more against Fighting-types, but luckily you have Virizion which can bluff a physical set and force them out with a +1. With Hollywood's suggested change of Rotom-Spin, this also provides you with a second Fighting-type resist so I think you'll be able to play around Fighting-types. The second thing I noticed is that your team is a bit passive, which would be fine if it had reliable recovery to fall back on as you could easily wear down opposing walls to open up a hole for Virizion to sweep. The issue is that you're going to need to sweep earlier than if you had said walls, if something happens to Virizion I think your team would be hard pressed to win. For this reason I'm going to suggest running Power-Up Punch > Fake Out on Kangaskhan as a second set up sweeper that can reliably recover with Drain Punch and boost past defensive walls. I personally find Fake Out to be pretty weak without the Silk Scarf boost, but I wouldn't recommend switching out AV to Silk Scarf as like I said earlier this would open you up to Fire-types as Kangaskhan provides a second Fire-type check. You should also keep Drain Punch as you have a perfect switch in to Garbodor with Claydol.

@ Leftovers | Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA | Bold Nature
Rapid Spin | Earth Power | Psyshock | Toxic

Hope these changes helped ^.^

 

[Robbom]

Hey Robbom, cool team. Calm Mind Virizion is a fun set. Hope you're having success with it.

Granbull / Ferroseed / Seismitoad is a pretty solid defensive core, so you're honestly not weak to many offensive threats. I don't really care for Granbull personally, but I think it's fine on this team. Toxic Spikes are kind of bothersome, but I don't think there's a good way to alter the team to fit something to handle them. You can try Earthquake over Drain Punch on Kangaskhan as a way to hit Garbodor, especially since not much on your team outright threatens it. If you're worried about running Assault Vest without any recovery, you can also try Silk Scarf over Assault Vest on Kangaskhan, but that's up to your preference.

The only other suggestion I have is to try something else over Magmortar. I do believe your team would appreciate a Choice Scarf Pokemon because it's fairly passive and needs something to take on offensive threats in case your defensive core gets overwhelmed, but Magmortar isn't an ideal Choice Scarf user because it's fairly slow and really needs Life Orb to give it that extra push in damage. If you're concerned about bulky Grass-types (which I agree you kind of should be since your best switches into them can't do much to threaten them), you can try Choice Scarf Rotom-Spin, which is fast enough to outspeed everything up to boosted Gorebyss, including Scarf Sawk and +1 Lilligant.

Hopefully these changes help. Best of luck with the team.

Suggested changes:

@ Choice Scarf | Levitate
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe | Timid
Volt Switch / Thunderbolt / Air Slash / Trick

Kangaskhan: Drain Punch -> Earthquake

Rotom has worked brilliantly to counter what was one of my biggest threats, Xatu, as I had absolutely nothing to deal with it. It is also great at neutralising walls that would otherwise give me huge problems by using trick :) I'm surprised how little I miss Magmortar, Steelix really isnt a problem for me suprisingly and grass types get destroyed by this thing.
Thanks again!

 

[Robbom]

Hey Robbom neat looking team you have here. I'm going to build off of Holly's rate with the exception of replacing AV with Silk Scarf as I think that would open you up to Fire-types as it would put a ton of strain onto Seismitoad which can only take Typhlosion on so many times before dying.

Anyways, onto my rate. To start off I see two things that can give your team trouble, the first of which is that your team is easily worn down against teams utilizing hazards. As far as balance goes there are two things that most of those teams do to combat getting worn down, the first is to add in a Wish Passer but I don't think your team can really fit on Audino or Lickilicky to comfortably, which brings up the second thing, hazard removal. Defog is pretty counterproductive to your spike stacking team, so adding Claydol > Granbull seems like the best place to fit a spinner onto the team. Claydol is also pretty decent as a Fighting-resist, but more importantly it lets you remove hazards which seem like a pretty big problem. The issue with this change is that you have to play around Knock Off a bit more against Fighting-types, but luckily you have Virizion which can bluff a physical set and force them out with a +1. With Hollywood's suggested change of Rotom-Spin, this also provides you with a second Fighting-type resist so I think you'll be able to play around Fighting-types. The second thing I noticed is that your team is a bit passive, which would be fine if it had reliable recovery to fall back on as you could easily wear down opposing walls to open up a hole for Virizion to sweep. The issue is that you're going to need to sweep earlier than if you had said walls, if something happens to Virizion I think your team would be hard pressed to win. For this reason I'm going to suggest running Power-Up Punch > Fake Out on Kangaskhan as a second set up sweeper that can reliably recover with Drain Punch and boost past defensive walls. I personally find Fake Out to be pretty weak without the Silk Scarf boost, but I wouldn't recommend switching out AV to Silk Scarf as like I said earlier this would open you up to Fire-types as Kangaskhan provides a second Fire-type check. You should also keep Drain Punch as you have a perfect switch in to Garbodor with Claydol.

@ Leftovers | Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA | Bold Nature
Rapid Spin | Earth Power | Psyshock | Toxic

Hope these changes helped ^.^

I've found that the combination of Claydol and Rotom allow me to deal with fighting types, the only problem being that its not as much of a safe switch than Granbull was previously. However the utility Claydol supplies with rapid spin and the reasonably effective dual stab more than makes up for this. The change to Kangaskhan has made it so much better and I've found it so much easier to set up than I had thought it would be. It also has done exactly as you wanted and allows me to provide way more offensive pressure so my core doesn't get worn down
Thanks!