Golem Lead

[Zigman]

Alright...So.... Here's my first RMT. (I hope I did a decent job, I’m kind of winging it here). I've made quite a few teams for Shoddy and made it up the ladder to about average in both OU and UU, but really haven't wanted to do a RMT until now as it can be time consuming. This is my latest team for UU and I'm looking for things that could improve the performance of this team.

*Quick Note* IVs and EVs are all what the sets here on Smogon say. There’s one case where I changed a move, but you can find out about that in a minute.
Alright, so let’s bring these guys out… *throws the pokeballs*

Let me guess. You’re either thinking “Golem?! WHAT?” or “Golem! Awesome!” Or my guessing skills need to be honed just a little bit more and you’re not thinking anything. For the rest of my team, I chose a mix of widely used UU Pokemon as well as others that people may not expect. Nothing is more satisfying than sweeping with something that the opponent is completely unprepared for. I’m looking for suggestions onto what could I do to change this team but still keep the unexpected nature to it.
Let’s start off with the lead…

Golem (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 12 HP/252 Atk/244 Spd/2 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Sucker Punch
- Stone Edge
With the ability to earthquake many leads and either activate their focus sash, then finishing them off with a sucker punch, or get a 2HKO. Earthquake hits many leads for a 2HKO and is pretty much the attacking move for golem during the first turn for me. I don’t really like switching Golem out at all so I mainly keep him in for as long as possible and try to kill as much as I can. For most everything that switches in through a U-Turn or after a quick KO, Golem can explode right in their face for an almost guaranteed kill. It’s hilarious. That’s why a Golem lead is awesome. It works a lot of the time and is hilarious; it’s also something that isn’t too expected.

The Swords Dancer/Baton Passer

Leafeon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 132 HP/162 Atk/216 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
- Baton Pass
- Return
As a fast and very powerful Pokemon with 130 base Defense, I chose Leafeon because he can reliably set up at least one swords dance and then I can either A. Baton Pass it to Ursaring B. Baton Pass to Azumarill or C. Attempt to sweep with STAB Leaf Blade. The reason for Return on this set rather than something like Roar or Synthesis like the set recommends is because it can hit anything that resists the Leaf Blade minus Registeel, but if Registeel switches in, I’m going to baton pass anyway. I may want to try Synthesis in its spot though as I have run into situations where Synthesis could prove handy. Return is one experiment that has paid off in some situations by allowing Leafeon to hit Venusaur and others very hard, especially after a swords dance or two.

The Sweeper

Ursaring (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Quick Feet
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Facade
- Crunch
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
Just in case I don’t get a baton pass to this guy, Swords Dance is extremely helpful boosting the power of the rest of his moves, namely Facade to enormous levels. With the boosted attack and Quick Feet, Ursaring can quickly make work of the opposing team, which is good seeing as he’s getting hurt by the toxic orb every turn. Close Combat is for Registeel, Crunch is for those pesky ghost types (namely Mismagius) and Facade everything else. There’s not much else to say except that it’s really fun to sweep with this guy. Especially against people who don’t expect the Quick Feet set.

The Physical Wall

Weezing (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Thunderbolt
- Will-o-wisp
- Pain Split
The standard Physical Wall set with Weezing here. There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said about him before. Will-O-Wisp basically everything that he dares stay in to (or who dare to stay in to him) and either Flamethrower or Thunderbolt given the right situation. Pain Split is obviously to get some heals. Weezing is super cool. The one problem I have is that Arcanine or Houndoom can switch into a flamethrower or a will-o-wisp and gain a flash fire boost; something that I don’t need happening. I want to keep Weezing, but I might want to try a different move or two if possible.

The Sweeper #2

Azumarill (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP/240 Atk/18 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Ice Punch
-Aqua Jet
The Sub-Punch set here rather than the choice band because in the best circumstances, a swords dance is baton passed to this guy. (And it’s nice to change moves). But it can work on its own too, dealing massive damage to a lot of things with focus punch. It’s nice to have another physical sweeper to baton pass a swords dance to if what my opponent switches in is something that really hurts Ursaring. Substitute up on Milotic and focus punch away is what I usually do, but if needed, Ice Punch and Aqua Jet can be used. Aqua Jet is handy for a priority move other than Golem’s Sucker Punch that can take down really weakened Pokemon. I just need to not get burned with this guy, getting burned is not fun.


The Special Wall

Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/100 Atk/156 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Thunder Wave
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock
- Shadow Claw

It’s Registeel... He’s specially defensive and can set up some stealth rocks. I’m pretty sure that if you’ve played UU, you know about this guy. Nothing really special here.


You wanna see them one last time? FROM THE BACK!

Final Thoughts: I have a problem with Sceptile. He’s so fast and can deal a hell of a lot of damage to a lot of my team. If there’s something that I can add to keep the same feel of my team while keeping Sceptile at bay, that would be helpful. Otherwise, feel free to comment!

 

[HouseFantastic]

Problem 1) Three of your pokemon are weak to fighting attacks. Problem 2) You say you have problems with Sceptile. The cure for both of these is a flying type, but when you add any of the normal flying types in, you now have 3 weaknesses to ice. If you absolutely must keep golem, you've got to prepare your type coverage around his numerous weaknesses. That being said, I believe that instead of Ursaring, you should try out Swellow (Although I love Ursaring so much.) Two of the other common flying-types in UU have 50% weaknesses to stealth rock, and without rapid spin, they're not possible to use. Swellow is a great alternative to Ursaring because it is naturally fast, carries Guts and can also fire off STAB Facades.

Swellow

@Toxic Orb
Jolly Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
~Facade
~Brave Bird
~U-Turn
~Quick Attack

While Swellow will be fast, you're going to want to hurt Scarfed revenge killers with Quick Attack or Swellow will be easily forced out. Since you don't have rapid spin support, it will be best to save Swellow for late-game sweeping, because it absolutely cannot handle switching in and out constantly. While using swellow, you would have to switch out constantly early-game because Golem is immune to electric attacks that are aimed at Swellow, while Registeel resists ice attacks aimed at Golem, Leafeon AND Swellow.

While, yes, Swellow lacks a certain surprise factor, realistaclly, many UU players have tried out or played against Ursaring just as you have. Ursaring can punch holes in teams because he's good, but he's bringing your team down, and it's best not to rely on being unique and surprising when it comes to laddering, where you'll be playing the same people over and over again.

Hope this helps, have fun on shoddy! :)

 

[Aqueos]

Swellow has about as much durability as a paper airplane and can't even take leaf storms. It will not help much against sceptile, it can force it out but sr and burn just does so much damage to it, it will only be able to switch in twice at most which is jut meh. However it is good at sweeping and could be considered in place of urasaring. In general your team is just very slow and could really benefit from a scarfer. The only thing that makes golem not TOTALLY outclassed by cloyster is the fact people may taunt it so you don't get the sr that will never come up. Your team is extremely physical and could use a special attacker. Moltres would totally wall sceptile and be a good fit, except you don't have a spinner. Np mismagius has a field day once azumarill and golem are down, or if it has substitute and manages to get it up before the sweep. Once azumarill is down, np houndoom also has a lot of fun with this team sweeping through all of it. Without a pretty serious remodel which leaves the whole team not looking even remotely the same, I have no idea what to really do. In general this team REALLY needs you to keep azumarill alive. You could try a cloyster lead though as it works basically the same and can smack sceptile with ice shard in a pinch. Ice punch has a lot more versatility than shadow claw so you could try using it on registeel.

 

[koipen]

Against Sceptile and Fighting, Venusaur is brilliant choice. The LO version works IMO great because it can hit tremendeosly hard with Leaf storms.

Ofcourse, if you want to replace Leafeon, you should run SD set. It is very much like LEafeon, except weaker against psychics, lower defense, no baton pass, better resistances thanks to poison, and higher speed, special attack and special defense and Hp.

 

[Alchemator]

Ursaring gets a good few chances to set up Swords Dance anyway, so I'd second the suggestion of Venusaur over Leafeon to handle Sceptile better if you don't like it. The set is up to you.

Another option is Earthquake over Close Combat on Ursaring. This hits Spiritomb harder than Crunch, which is in my experiences Ursaring's biggest problem.

Minor stuff, but it should help I hope :)