Free The Mighty Bird
Introduction
Introduction
Hi, I am C AllStar (name copied from a band in Hong Kong). This is my first RMT posted in smogon. This team is originally created to test the viability of SubBU Braviary. It turns out to be a big success, leading me climb up to top ten of the ladder (sorry that i don't know how to print screen). Now lets go on the team.
Team Building
As what I said above, my team is based on Braviary. Bravairy is the first member added to my team.
Now, I need something to set up stealth rocks as they are essential for a good team. Piloswine seems a good choice from my experiences using it before. It has good bulk and the coverage between its STAB moves are really useful. Besides, its priority ice shard is quite useful to revenge kill things with low health.
Now, I need something to set up stealth rocks as they are essential for a good team. Piloswine seems a good choice from my experiences using it before. It has good bulk and the coverage between its STAB moves are really useful. Besides, its priority ice shard is quite useful to revenge kill things with low health.
As SubBU Braviary is a stallbreaker, I need something to check offensive teams. Tauros has great speed and its attack boosted by sheer force has great power to clean up frail offensive threats. Besides, its bulk is quite impressive for an offensive mon. It allows it to take a hit and retaliate with a finishing hit to the opponent.
Now, I need a way to beat fighting types as both Sawk and Gurdurr are running through my team easily. Musharna is the obvious choice with its insane bulk and great utility overall. Besides, its calm mind set is really threatening to teams without ways to quickly get rid of it.
Even with Tauros, my team is still prone to some faster threats and set-up sweepers like Gorebyss. I need a way to revenge kill them. I don't like rapid spinning in NU with only SMASHcoal and Armaldo viable (don't even talk about wartortle and tentacool), therefore I am not choosing the rotom formes. Absol seems a great choice for me to be a wallbreaker as well.
The last slot for my team is for a sweeper. I have used Ludicolo before and it work wonders in DPP OU. Its rain dance set is just fast and powerful and is not as vulnerable to rotom-a as gorebyss. It therefore fills my team's last spot.
After some testing, I found that my fighting weakness is still to terrible even with Musharna around. I found that Piloswine is the most replacable pokemon in my team and I therefore switch it to Golurkk, which is both bulky and powerful. My team is quite solid that time, leading me to top 10 in the ladder.
I hate you, hail!!!!! My originally quite weak to ice attacks before, but hail takes it to a whole new level with Musharna's moonlight weakened and the power of BLIZZARDs. Even Ludicolo's rain dance can cancel out hail, I found out that replacing it with Samurott is more beneficial to my team. And this is the current version of my team.
In Depth
Braviary
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 188 SDef / 68 Spd
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Brave Bird
- Roost
This pokemon is what the team based on, and is the poke that sweeps most teams. While Alomomola walls standard Braviary, SubBU Braviary can easily use it as set up bait. Substitute protects Braviary from status and crit hits. Even rare, it protects Braviary from having Ditto copying its boosts (though Braviary beats it one on one if not having too low health). Bulk up is for setting up to make Braviary stronger and it's substitutes harder to break. Brave Bird is obvious as STAB move. It is used over Return to break through ghost types as it actually set up on defensive Misdreavus. Roost is for much needed recovery as Braviary will kill itself before sweeping teams. Some says that SubBU does not do well against offensive teams, but this is not entirely true as it always net at least one to two kills in every battle. Leftovers is the best item for SubBU Braviary for slowly recovering its health. The speed Evs gives Braviary a jump over min speed Misdreavus, preventing it from using Will-o-wisp and thus setting up on it. 252 Hp Evs are for making 101 hp substitutes, and others are dumped into special defense to maximize its special bulk. Hell, Braviary's bulk is godly. Its Sub is not broken by Amoongus' super effective hidden power. It even shrugs off STAB volt switch from Electabuzz easily.
Golurk
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 176 HP / 168 Atk / 164 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Shadow Punch
- Drain Punch
Golurk is my choice of stealth rocker, but it turns out to be better than that. Stealth Rock is obvious. Earthquke is Golurk's main STAB move. It even 2HKOs some Amoongus (well, I don't know it's EVs). Shadow Punch is its secondary STAB and is useful for hitting Musharna and other psychics decently. Drain Punch is for recovery as I prefer Golurk living longer. I am considering changing it to Stone Edge to hit flying types. Stone Edge > Ice Punch in a hail metagame. Leftovers is essential for Golurk since it has no recovery except Drain Punch, which is really not enough. The Evs are copied from on-site. 164 speed evs for outspeeding uninvested Garbordor and KO it with Earthquake (not a OHKO garunteed). Adament Stunktank cannot OHKO Golurk with Sucker Punch with 176 hp evs. The remaining Evs are dumped into attack to make Golurk hit as hard as possible.
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rock Climb
- Zen Headbutt
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
I really like Tauros after trying to use it. While it is not gen 1 where Tauros is the single most dominant pokemon, Tauros is just the BOSS of BW NU. The role of Tauros in the team is cleaning up and be a pain to offensive teams. Rock Climb is the best STAB move for Tauros. Double Edge kills Tauros too quickly while has negligible power boost over Rock Climb while Return is simply too weak and does not neglect Life Orb recoil. While Rock Climb has imperfect accuracy, Tauros has the bulk to afford one miss. Earthquake, while causing Life Orb recoil, is essential to hit rock and steel types and is also Tauros’ strongest move against Golurk. Rock Slide is for flying types and ice types as most of them a quite bulky, the power over Rock Climb is needed to beat them. While I use Fire blast on the last slot in RU, I think that Zen Heatbutt is simply better now with Tangela’s decline in usage. Besides, Zen Headbutt hits Amoongus, Sawk and Emboar super effectively, all of which are huge threats to my team. Life Orb is really needed to provide a power boost to all of Tauros’ moves while letting it to switch moves. Sheer Force neglects the LO recoil of 3/4 moves anyway. The Evs are quite straightforward, maximizing Tauros’ power and speed and the remaining 4 ev goes to Hp.
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Baton Pass
- Psychic
- Moonlight
I LOVE Musharna. This guy is my switch in to almost anything. Its bulk is so godly and has saved me from many dangerous situations. It walls many top threats like Sawk, Cincinno, Regice etc and dishes out powerful psychics back. I choose the calm mind set for its ability to sweep teams without a way to break through it. Calm Mind is self-explanatory. Psychic is obvious for a STAB powerful move. Moonlight is the crux of this set in order to make Musharna to take as much hits as possible. Baton Pass is a little twist to the standard sets. I found it more useful than Heal Bell and Signal Beam as status is rare in NU and Baton Pass helps Musharna dealing with dark types anyway. Besides, Baton Pass lets Musharna acts like a pivot and gives me switch advantage. I can even pass my boosts to Samurott to increase its power (ludicolo is better in this aspect as it is basically gg when I do so). Leftovers is the obvious item for Musharna to let it take more hits. The speed Ev let it outspeed Amoongus and hit it with Psychic before it uses spore. The remaining Evs are used to maximize its physical bulk, letting it take powerful hits from that of Cincinno and Tauros. Calm Mind increases its special bulk anyway therefore investment is not needed.
Absol
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Superpower
- Night Slash
Absol is one of the most prediction-reliant pokemon in NU. I like using it since I am good at prediction with it. I use a Swords Dance set to further increase the threat of Absol to more balanced and stall teams as well as punish people predicting Sucker Punch wrongly. It can be both a revenge killer and stallbreaker. Sucker Punch is Absol’s most powerful STAB move and is the only reason to use Absol in the first place. While Sucker Punch has an undesirable side effect, it is so strong that is it even OHKO Amoongus in +2, let alone the frail offensive mons. Superpower provides perfect neutral coverage along its dark type STAB, missing only Croagunk (this is actually good, only in LC). While Night Slash may be redundant with Sucker Punch, it is more reliable and is good for mind games. I like the situation where Gorebyss tries to use Shell Smash to avoid Sucker Punch only to be slashed on the face. I don’t find either Zen Headbutt or Megahorn useful. While Zen Headbutt provides coverage on fighting types, both Sawk and Gurdurr are easily handled by the rest of my team and Emboar is already hit hard by Superpower. Megahorn is solely for Tangela which is basically nonexistent nowadays. Life Orb is important on Absol as it provides a constant power boost to it, while Absol should NEVER use choice items. Absol's bulk is negligible anyway. The Evs simply maximizes Absol's attack and speed while a prefer jolly to outspeed jolly Emboar.
Samurott
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Superpower
- Grass Knot
- Surf
- Ice Beam
To be honest, I don't like Samurott to the team. It actually makes the team WORSE aside from reducing the team's weakness to hail and fire type attacks. Samurott's role in the team is to be a tank that is able to soak fire and ice attacks and retaliate. Surf is Samurott's STAB, hitting many things in NU hard. Grass Knot and Ice Beam provides perfect neutral coverage along Samurott's STAB except Chinchou lol. I use Superpower for its ability to hit ice and normal types super effectively. It greatly helps against something like Regice and Licklitung (most of them are specially defensive I think). Life Orb is used to give a constant power boost to all of its attacks. The Evs again are quite straight forward, maximizing Samurott's special attack and speed. The extra point of attack gives a minimal boost on Superpower. Hasty nautre is choosed since I am not going to lower Samurott's attack. Special Defense is more important to me to take the blizzards from the likes of Glaceon so I choose to lower its defense.
Major Threats
HAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hail is the hugest threat to my team. This caused me to change my precious Ludicolo to Samurott. My team has no ice resist except Samurott, which is simply not that bulky. While hail stall is still hard to deal with, hai offense is more a threat to me. With Musharna's moonlight rendered near useless, it cannot beat Glaceon one on one now with calm mind. Glaceon can then steamroll through my team with its ultimately powerful blizzards. The only way to beat hail is to set up rocks as quick as possible. Usually, Golurk will be the first to be sacrificed to deal as much damage to hail teams as possible with drain punch. Samurott's Superpower and Tauros' Rock Slide can do major damage to the ice types. Scarf Glaceon is the most threantening thing. It MUST be KOed as soon as possible to all costs.
Zangoose
Zangoose is really a powerful sweeper. It is obviously better than that shit Cincinno. While it is hard for it to activate its toxic orb, if it do so without taking any damage, my team is in great trouble. This can be accomplished by a slow u-turn or volt switch from Eelektross. Fortunately, Zangoose is on a timer with toxic damage racking up. Besides, Tauros outspeeds and can OHKO it while shruging off a quick attack easily with its bulk. Fortunately, for some reason, this guy is really rare.
Emboar
Emboar is really a great poke in NU. Basically, if it switches in for free. One of my pokes will get killed. Even Musharna falls to its extremely powerful banded flare blitz. Fortunately, many of my team outspeeds and can OHKO it. It can basically only come in on Absol (where superpower does a ton) and Golurk to threaten my team.
Absol
As you see, my team has no dark resists. Absol, the strongest Sucker puncher in the world, can steamroll through my team with some prediction. Fortunately, Absol is really frail and is mostly adamant. Therefore, my own Absol can outspeed and OHKO with Superpower. I can even set up Bulk Up with Braviary if predicting Sucker Punch, giving the opposing team a great trouble.
Cincinno
While I always think that Cincinno is overatted, It is quite a threat to my team. Its power and coverage is nowhere as threatening as Zangoose, but I can't wear it down simply by switching. It also outspeeds my whole team, therefore I can only revenge it by sucker punch, which is easily predictable. Therefore, I must play casually with Musharna if I see Cincinno in the opposing team.
Haunter
Well, I consider Haunter as a threat in theory, but it never does much against my team thanks to my prediction. Theroretically, Haunter can OHKO to 2HKO every member of my team with the right move, but it has a hard time switching in to anything. It usually switches in after I kill something with Golurk and substitutes. Therefore, I always shadow punch the first time. Even it attacks, shadow ball doesn't OHKO Golurk in full health while shadow punch OHKOs. After I breaks it sub, the opponent will think that I am a noob and uses shadow ball, while I switch to Tauros and OHKO Haunter with Zen Headbutt. Still, Haunter can be threantening if my team is weakened.
Importable
Braviary (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 188 SDef / 68 Spd
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Brave Bird
- Roost
Tauros (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rock Climb
- Zen Headbutt
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
Musharna @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Baton Pass
- Psychic
- Moonlight
Golurk @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 176 HP / 168 Atk / 164 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Shadow Punch
- Drain Punch
Absol @ Life Orb
Trait: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Superpower
- Night Slash
Samurott @ Life Orb
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Superpower
- Grass Knot
- Surf
- Ice Beam
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 188 SDef / 68 Spd
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Brave Bird
- Roost
Tauros (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rock Climb
- Zen Headbutt
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
Musharna @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Baton Pass
- Psychic
- Moonlight
Golurk @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 176 HP / 168 Atk / 164 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Shadow Punch
- Drain Punch
Absol @ Life Orb
Trait: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Superpower
- Night Slash
Samurott @ Life Orb
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Superpower
- Grass Knot
- Surf
- Ice Beam
