XY LC Gotta Go Fast, The Art of a Sweep

[Justintown11]

The process for the this to come unto fold happened about a month ago, people were discussing the on the LC Viability Thread about how the communities consensus how "good" carvanha is a whole withing the LC meta game and when pondering about this myself I had realized that I've never used carvahna, and so it started.

Building this team was a complete nightmare, I've gone back and forth with so many different mons just trying to get a reasonable equation. I actually gave up at one point and then started again, keeping in mind that, the team has never been at bad, it's just been always so close to having that "it" factor that it annoyed me to death. Over the course of the team I ran into the recurring problem of the core of carvanha + Foogus-tirtouga-ponyta functioned well, but filling in the details was the hard part.

This team works from much differently what most people would people expect when the term "speed boost sweeper" comes to their imagination, they think of Blaziken, they think of Yanmega, etc, these pokemon are almost always marked by hyper offensive traits of teams giving their opponent no room to play around me. However, this team plays differently as the goal of this team is to utilize a combination of using knock off, status, and entry hazards in order to ware my opponent down until carvanha can sweep.

Carvanha @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Aqua Jet
- Protect

Carvanha was the main inspiration for this team, with such a solid amount of power and an amazing ability in the form of speed boost, this thing is incredibly underrated IMO when looking at how little usage it actually gets.
Given this I decided to make a team around it, sweeping with carvanha is almost always my end game plan, and given the right support it can put in a lot of work.

Timburr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 36 Atk / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Bulk Up
Suggested by Corporal Levi, Timburr managed to stand out among the crowd of pokemon by offering a power fighting STAB, knock off support, priority, a status absorber, as well as a back up win condition.

Foongus @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 124 HP / 160 Def / 160 SpD
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Spore

Enter foongus who, in conjunction with the next two pokemon on the team, forms a WFG core, allowing me to play defensively. This was important to because i needed a different pokemon other than fletch to switch into fighting types, with an added bonus of being able to put something to sleep.

Tirtouga @ Eviolite
Ability: Solid Rock
Level: 5
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Def / 12 SpA / 156 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

Next up is defensive set tirtouga who functions as my stealth rocker, and a good one in that it's guaranteed to live any one hit that anything wants to throw at it as long as it isn't a STAB grass type attack.

This set is designed to be able to tank hits while also supporting the team with not only the aforementioned stealth rocks but also in knock off support and a hard stop to bird spam

Ponyta @ Eviolite
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Impish Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic
- Morning Sun
Next up is flame body eviolite Ponyta, who is here to take on all the grass type pokemon that can live any one hit carvanha wants to throw at it and potentially cripple it was a horrible paralysis. Ponyta also functions in being able to check strong physical attackers and opposing fire type pokemon by inflicting them with either will-o-wisp or toxic respectively

Vullaby @ Eviolite
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 236 Def / 76 SpD / 36 Spe
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog
Vullaby is the glue that holds the team together in patching up some of my weaknesses and of the things I was missing, another check to fighting pokemon, more knock off, it provides me a a way of removing entry hazards, and last but certainly not least an abra switch in.​

That's the last of it, feel free to rate however you like :D

Former teamates

Fletchling
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 5
EVs: 156 HP / 196 Atk / 92 Def / 56 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Acrobatics
- U-turn
- Swords Dance
- Roost
Fletchling was another pokemon I wanted to have on my offense, the strong priority flying type attacks that fletch provides me to not only allow me have control over the tempo of the match, especially in tandem with u-turn; however, fletch is also an amazing check to the plethora of fighting types that give carvanha trouble.

Given this though, it is important to keep in mind that fletchling promotes an important limitation to the team in that is has such an enormous switching into the pokemon I wanted it to check such as timburr and croagunk who turned out to be fairly large, but manageable, threats to the team.

Mienfoo @ Life Orb/ eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 36 Def / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick/ Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Taunt

I tend to roll back and forth between all out attacker and bulky mienfoo sets, but overall I find mienfoo's STAB HJK and knock off moves give great support to carvanha by not only removing Pawniard as a threat but also removing any eviolites, improving my ability to sweep.

In terms of choice for what fighting type I wanted to use, mienfoo stood out as something that was fast enough (speed 17 sucks IMO) to deliver damage to my opponent, while also throwing out disruptive taunts since I don't this team doesn't utilize a form of removing entry hazards

Importable

Carvanha @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Aqua Jet
- Protect

Timburr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 36 Atk / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Mach Punch
- Bulk Up

Vullaby (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 236 Def / 76 SpD / 36 Spe
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Knock Off
- Defog
- Roost

Foongus @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 128 HP / 160 Def / 160 SpD
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Spore

Tirtouga @ Eviolite
Ability: Solid Rock
Level: 5
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Def / 12 SpA / 156 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

Ponyta @ Eviolite
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Impish Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic
- Morning Sun

Edit: I made the thread much different than before, made a better intro, wrote and centered more appropriate text, experimented with the suggestion some of the people gave, gave rundowns of new teamates and a list of the former ones, and I actually put in the importable

 

[Eren Yeagar]

Hello Justintown, this looks like an amazing and well built team, but I do have some suggestions

First off, I think Ponyta should have an EV spread of 236 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe with an Impish Nature. With this spread, Ponyta's defense stats have Eviolite numbers. Even though you sacrifice one stat in speed, don't worry about it. The 19 speed tier is not that dominant anymore after Misdreavus' ban. With this in mind, defenses for Ponyta are more important in this metagame, and you can still have enough speed to still be a fast threat.

I do notice that you don't have a super reliable way to get rid of hazards, which can be really threatening to your team. Taunt Mienfoo does some work, but sometimes you end up with your opponent setting up hazards when Mienfoo's not on the field. I would suggest Vullaby over Fletchling. I know that Fletchling does a lot of work, but Vullaby can still be good for checking Timburr and Croagunk. The extra Knock Off support form Vullaby can still be helpful for your Carvanha sweep and can still do reliable damage with Brave Bird. The bulk is nice too.

Vullaby @ Eviolite
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 236 Def / 76 SpD / 36 Spe
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog

Anyway, awesome team! Good luck in your future battles!

 

[Corporal Levi]

Hi Justintown11
Your team is really great! It meshes together quite well, and using a mostly defensive team to support a Carvanha sweep is a pretty cool idea.
Firstly, I'm going to agree wtih both of Eren's suggestions; the Ponyta spread will greatly help to further check Pawniard, who will become a bigger problem if Vullaby is run. Vullaby is especially necessary because in addition to providing Defog support and checking fighting-types, will provide a switch-in to Gastly and Abra, as well as a back-up check to Sun sweepers.

Omanyte looks like it can pose as a serious threat to your team once set up, which is problematic because it can set up on any of Tirtouga, Vullaby/Fletchling or Ponyta. With the removal of Fletchling, you are now missing a back-up win condition in case the opposing team simply has too many Carvanha checks; this can be easily remedied if you replace Mienfoo with Bulk Up Timburr, who is additionally able to avoid the OHKO from +2 Omanyte's Surf and 2HKO with Mach Punch in return, and can still provide Knock Off support for Carvanha if necessary.
Timburr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 36 Atk / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Bulk Up
The given EVs allow Timburr to reach 25/14/14 defenses, thus avoiding the OHKOs from Sashbra's Psychic and +2 Omanyte's Surf; it also makes it easier for Timburr to set up Bulk Up. The moveset is quite straight-forward; Drain Punch is a reliable STAB move that also gives Timburr some sustainability, Knock Off provides good coverage with Timburr's STABs and cripples a variety of switch-ins, Mach Punch picks off weakened threats, and Bulk Up gives Timburr the opportunity to sweep.

It looks like opposing Ponyta spamming burns could be troublesome, so to combat this, you could replace Wild Charge with Toxic on your own Ponyta, allowing you to stall out any opposing Ponytas that do not have Toxic. Although this will leave you more vulnerable to Archen (Wild Charge won't be nearly enough to stop Omanyte), a combination of burns, Tirtouga and a lack of switch-in opportunities from most of your team will probably be enough to beat it.

That's it for now; your team is very solid. Good luck!