XY UU Gen 6 toxic spikes (AKA lets use gothorita until it gets banned lel)

[Pipotchi]

So I wanted to see if I could use toxic spikes in gen 6 considering the playstyle has completely vanished, and I think I found a team who can successfully do it. I seem to have a horrible habit of picking teams in which core members will soon be banned (bye staraptor) but while the goth is with us, I wanted to make use of a team that fully exploits it.

TEAMBUILDING PROCESS:

So starting off I went for Roserade- she is my toxic spiker and probably the strongest toxic spikes user in the tier, and so becomes the foundation of the team. To compliment her, I wanted to create a semi-competent stall core that could switch around and make the most out of toxic spikes. Alomomomololola seemed like a great addition for this aim, considering she is perhaps the best wishpasser in UU, fantastic all-purpose wall and can stay alive for a very long time whilst also increasing the longevity of the entire team through wish + regenerator.

Leading on from here, I decided to pick up something with perhaps not immediately-obvious synergy with toxic stall, and that's gothorita. My reasoning for this was because of two main things- firstly, gothorita has an incredibly strong matchup vs anything which might remove toxic spikes through natural cure or aromatherapy (all clerics), and secondly, it has a very strong matchup vs most of the poison types in the tier- amoonguss, nidos, etc. It just naturally beats anything trying to outstall my stall (regenerator cores for instance, barring knock off users tangrowth and torn-t) and can take out walls who are trying to stop the sweepers who I will later add. I can definitely see why this poke will inevitably get banned.

Already my team is feeling solid, so I would like to add a little more offensive pressure now. Due to alomomoa wishes, sweepers with at least one decent defensive stat would be much appreciated. I decided to add my sweepers as a pair, as they have good offensive and defensive synergy dating back to gen5- mismagius and cobalion. Both sport decent offenses and defenses, while complementing each other with boosting abilities on the opposite sides of the spectrum. backed by alomomola my team is starting to come together.

Lastly, I noticed I needed a mega- and out of all of the mega evolutions available, I felt mega ampharos aids my team with a handy fire and flying resistance as well as providing a useful slow volt switch to keep my team running smoothly. Paired with gothitelle, volt switch is actually incredibly devastating as it becomes impossible to sponge with pokemon like blissey- as gothitelle can then come in immediately to trap and kill it.

So for the moment, this is the final team. After a bit of playtesting I feel it meshes together well and with no real disappointments so far. Every pokemon has pulled its weight in one situation or another and the lack of rapid spin and defog hasn't been a huge issue yet, with no sr weaknesses. I'm hoping to use this as a dark horse team after some feedback and more playtesting so tell me what you guys think!

Here are the individual movesets with some text talking about the synergies of the team in more depth.

Roserade @ Focus Sash
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Sludge Bomb
- Leaf Storm
- Extrasensory

Roserade is the toxic spikes setter. So far this has proven useful during the match, allowing me to deal with several pokemon after trapping and killing any clerics with gothorita. Focus Sash allows roserade to lead for me, using STAB moves as well as extrasensory to target any poison types hoping to switch in to absorb spikes. With 252 hp it can also take special attacks fairly well, and this is somewhat important as my team is weaker to special attacks than to physical, and means it takes 77% max from lead mega blastoise, allowing it to beat it with leaf storm.

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Mirror Coat
- Wish
- Protect

I went with the mirror coat variant here which works excellently with my team, as toxic is supplied through roserade and gothorita. Mirror coat means I can have a good chance at beating any special attacker who could otherwise power through my team such as hydreigon, and proceed to switch out and have a decent amount of hp back on alomomola. I think mirror coat deals damage as hp, meaning it can ohko suicune after being hit with a +6 scald for 65%. (correct me if wrong, although my team has 3 other ways to deal with suicune). Anyway, Alomomola's main task is wishpassing and it excels at it. My team appreciates the ability to send hp around without the wishpasser getting worn down, as everything has at least respectable defensive stats and alomomola's huge hp stat means enormous healing for all.

Gothorita @ Eviolite
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Toxic
- Psychic

So this is the obnoxious little thing that my team is somewhat based around. As mentioned before, gothorita completely takes care of almost anything defensive that can deal with toxic spikes, or at least the things that currently are popular in the metagame, for instance blissey, aromatisse, florges, slowbro, certain mews, amoonguss, alomomolas, etc etc etc. It can even trap poison types such as nidoking and deal a decent 75% to it. Calm Mind isn't so much for sweeping, but it means that whatever switches in after the trapped support pokemon will get smacked in the face for a lot of damage- and of course in some situations a +6/+6 gothorita can be a win condition. Psychic works best over psyshock due to the chance to reduce special defense, meaning even stuff like max spd blissey will get broken down eventually (alternatively just use toxic and pp stall the aromatherapy). I guess shadow tag will always be shadow tag.

Mismagius @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Dazzling Gleam
- Shadow Ball
- Perish Song

Mismagius is the first of my offensive 2 pokemon. Firstly, this guy has great synergy with gothorita as a perish song means a forced switch on the first turn, lest the opponent be trapped by the goth and killed. Also using perish song before death means a guaranteed trap for goth, which is great vs problematic special walls such as perhaps florges. That being said, mismagius doesn't have too many problems- with nasty plot, everyone is taking a huge hit from shadow ball. Shadow ball is strong in uu, and once again, the things that deal with it defensively are not enjoying a switch-in from goth, giving me some good mind-games. hydreigon can be an issue to my team but dazzling gleam destroys it. Lastly, mismagius has good defensive synergy with cobalion, taking the earthquakes and weak scalds aimed at him, while cobalion takes the knock-offs and hard-hitting physical attacks.

Cobalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

As mentioned before, cobalion is a much-needed dark resistance on this team. Being a decent hydreigon check is also very helpful. But my main reason for picking cobalion is his great mix of defensive and offensive presence, while maintaining a great speed tier. Together with mismagius I now have two synergistic offensive boosting sweepers who are both fast and can take hits, which is what the offensive part of the team is really about. He also provides good defense paired with alomomola who can take fire attacks, as he will deal with any grass type attacks.

Ampharos @ Ampharosite
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Mega Amph seemed fitting with my team as he provides a good amount of offense and defense- offensively the 165 base special attack is very good, provides good coverage and can volt switch into gothorita if the opponent tries to sponge hits with special walls such as blissey. It sounds simple, but this combination is actually pretty devastating. Especially for teams that rely on a pokemon for both special wall and cleric, this can end the match in one turn (or more like 50 slow pp stalling turns >_>).
Focus blast is a good move to hit hydreigon harder when not mega evolving. Physically defensive amph seemed like a good choice with its typing and ability to take punches from stuff such as honchkrow, as well as being something I just wanted to try out.



So that's the whole team. It ends up being a lot less toxic spikes-centric in the end, but I feel that could be part of the reason why it works decently in a world where defog exists. Even though this team is really new, I am really enjoying using the t-spikes this gen as many new pokemon dislike switching onto them such as chesnaught, mega absol, mega blastoise etc. I would love if people tried the team out and told me where they felt it was coming up short or lacking. Also I'd like to hear things that could replace gothorita if it gets banned- I can't really think of anything immediately that would be able to do the same.. I mean, gothita?.. Its more likely that shadow tag gets banned as a whole. I don't imagine this team will work nearly as smoothly or successfully without its support. thanks for reading and pls leave feedback! ^^
I think a serious threat to my team is hydreigon, but my team has ways around him. The life orb set is outsped by cobalion and mismagius who both ohko- and ampharos can avoid an ohko and respond with a focus blast which deals 84%. The choice scarf set is unable to achieve the same ohkos, and most notably misses the ohko on alomomola after SR who can respond with mirror coat for a knockout. Often hydra just requires a sacrifice from my team if I can't predict the move correctly, but luckily goth is a nice sacrifice if its job has been done and hydreigon can't switch safely into a large number of my pokemon.

Heres a replay of most of the things mentioned above in action (almost fucked up at the end hehe)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-138753602

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-138847284

 

[skies]

Hi Pipotchi! This is a really cool team, I like it. The one major problem I see as of now is strong Ground-types, which only Alomomola can really take on (and only physical Ground-types). You have one resist for this type, and it isn't very bulky (plus, most can beat Mismagius through other means). For example, Nidoqueen 2HKOes everything on your team except for Gothorita. For this reason, I'd recommend changing out Cobalion to Bulk Up Braviary. Bulk Up Braviary can safely switch into Choice-locked Ground-type Pokemon and provides a safe switch to something else, should you know the opposing Ground-type carries a super effective move. However, Braviary isn't just another Flying-type you can slap on, it has something important to you: Defiant. You have a spinblocker, but with Defog being so common, you've gotta have something to stop it if your team revolves around an entry hazard, which yours does. Braviary takes advantage of this with ease; plus, it can set up Substitute on Suicune, a Pokemon who can also cause issues to your team. The one problem with Braviary is that you should have hazard-removal, which you don't. You should anywho, because of Volt Switch Ampharos. However, I honestly don't think this is going to be a huge problem because you do have Alomomola to pass Wishes.

I noticed that was going on and on and on and was a huge block of text, so I'll make a new paragraph for this section. Braviary works well with Gothorita as well because it too enjoys the removal / weakening of Pokemon, except, it's a bulkier set up sweeper. I notice how you mention that Cobalion is needed for a Dark-type resist, however, Braviary is only 3HKOed by Hydreigon's Life Orb Dark Pulse, while Life Orb Draco Meteor has an 89.8% - 106.3% chance to kill Braviary, acounting the drop in Draco Meteor. This is only ~37% chance to safely kill Braviary, although Braviary can merely Roost stall it until the point where it is forced to switch and then it can set up. Choice Scarf Hydreigon just flat out loses to Braviary. Choice Specs Hydreigon's Dark Pulse has a 1.2% chance to 2HKO, while Draco Meteor is a guaranteed OHKO, but then it can be set up on and handled accordingly. Also, Braviary is immune to Ghost-types, another thing nothing on your team resists, so this is greatly helpful as well! Overall, I feel that although Cobalion is a good choice, Braviary would improve your team a lot!

Summary:

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Set:

Braviary (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 212 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Brave Bird
- Roost

 

[Pipotchi]

Thanks for feedback! I can see the logic behind braviary but it opens up some other problems, mainly due to the lower speed which means it doesn't provide the revenge killing and sweeping that the team needs. Also gothorita does a decent portion of its job better, mainly regarding beating defoggers

Braviary can't beat life orb hydreigon due to being slower than it, and can't reliably revenge kill it for the same reason and would definitely require someone else on my team to remove hazards considering its trying to be bulky yet has recoil on its attacks too. Vs the two most common defoggers in the tier, braviary is potentially outsped by defog + will-o-wisp mew and cant 2hko empoleon at +2 with that build and can get burnt. It doesn't really provide the instant offense that I require from the cobalion to revenge stuff as well as the useful steel typing, plus compounds a small SR weakness my team has (which cobalion really doesnt contribute to due to 4x resistance) and can boost to a scary offensive level very quickly, being able to offset burn.

I will try it out though, and tell you how it worked out :) I think just smart play and correct use of sashes and mirror coat/regenerator and proper switching will cover a lot of the things that braviary does, but I will still give it a shot.


edit: I'm actually considering perhaps picking up air balloon for cobalion. this gives him the ability to avoid both STAB attacks from the nidos, as well as other ground attacks being thrown out without showing the ground immunity in the team preview. This allows him to switch in easily vs krookodile too which mismagius doesn't particularly like either.

 

[Dr When]

seems pretty well balanced, how does it hold up against hyper offensive teams? It looks like Itonce the fish dies your team would take some serious damage from scarf darmanitan or infernap

 

[Eduardo2013]

I think sleep talk should be used instead of hidden power ice on amphy because dragon pulse hits harder than what hp ice is meant for , also it allows it to become a status absorber of sleep while maintaining momentum through volt switch.

 

[Sage]

Very cool team, toxic spikes are super underrated. 1 thing I would
change (though this is minor) is Gothorita's Psychic to Psyshock. The most used clerics are Blissey and Florges who both has weaker defense stats. Also in accordance to the Braviary/Cobalion argument, I'm not sure how much an Umbreon Foul play does to Gothorita, but Cobalion punishes any Umbreon by having Justified to gain attack boosts of it and being immune to toxic. As the next cleric in line this is useful. And goth would have a much harder time toxic stalling it due to being immune to Psyshock. Having extensively used Cobalion on my Dark Horse team, it punishes the opponent every time by either gaining momentum with volt switch after Umby is forced out, getting the justified boost and nuking something , or getting a free swords dance.