How The Liepard Got Its Spots

[Myriad]

Introduction:

This team is one of my first successful attempts at 5th gen NU stall. I have run a stall team in NU since the 3rd generation, and the 5th gen has been the most difficult so far. Mind you, I have made quite a number of attempts to get a working stall team going this gen, but due to the massive number of powerful attackers in the tier and relatively low number of usable walls, spikers and rapid spinners, the process has been difficult. However, I think I've finally made a good combination, and I'd like some feedback on it.

The Teambuilding Process

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I needed a toxic spiker mainly, but the additional bonus of regular spikes was excellent. Whirlipede is the only other mon I know of that can do that, but garbodor is faster, and also has useful support in clear smog.

The famed regenerator core was an obvious next step, both boasting excellent defensive stats and HP, as well as the massive hype surrounding them.

I needed a spinblocker, and conveniently enough, Golurk just dropped down. CB golurk does massive damage to every pokemon in the tier, including rapid spinners (armaldo and torkoal are both destroyed by earthquake and wartortle gets damaged very heavily as well, preventing these mons from spinning repeatibly.

In my opinion the best rapid spinner in the tier, torkoal also sets stealth rock and tanks physical hits like no tomorrow. imho, much better than armaldo.

Having always liked the prankster ability, I sort of added Liepard on a whim (tossing up between that and perish song murkrow) and all I am going to say is that encore and prankster together on Liepard is insanely good. This mon added on a whim has been my MVP in most games I play, handling setup sweeps pretty handly, locking pokemon into sucker punch or a boosting move and either killing it itself or leaving something else to it. Easily the best addition to this team (apart from garbodor).

Amoongous wasn't doing it for me, because even as a special wall it couldn't really tank most special hits in the tier (particularly not exeggutor or gardevoir), so I used Audino instead with dual screens and heal bell to help with status, and am yet to regret that decision.

Final Team:

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In depth:
Attacks that were previously tried on a mon are listed with a slash, with the current attack in bold.

Golurk @ Choice Band
Trait: Iron Fist/No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Hammer Arm/DynamicPunch
- Shadow Punch
- Stone Edge

Choice band Golurk is very good, and absolutely destroys most walls in the tier. I decided to go for no guard instead of Iron fist because dynamicpunch is an incredibly useful move (scoring confusion on any switchin) making it a safe move to use at almost any time. EQ is my main move of choice, barring any flying types that have yet to be eliminated.

Liepard @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SDef / 4 HP
Impish Nature
- Encore
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out
- Knock Off/Torment/Pursuit

MVP for most games, Liepard is incredible. Forces switches anytime it switches in on a non-damaging move (barring toxic) and allows it to pursuit on the way out (which normally does decent damage). Fake out/Sucker Punch also does pretty hefty damage between the two against defensively weak threats such as gardevoir. Unless gardevoir uses focus blast on the switch in, Liepard wins. Also helps me deal with shell smash gorebyss, SD absol, etc etc. Cannot recommend it highly enough. Switched Knock off after using it on alom instead, torment was a good idea but due to a bug on PS it doesn't force an encored opponent to struggle every second turn.

Garbodor @ Leftovers
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 156 Def / 156 SDef / 196 HP
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Clear Smog
- Gunk Shot

Pretty simple, lays spikes like no tomorrow. Excellent spike layer, and pretty bulky with this spread.

Torkoal @ Leftovers
Trait: Shell Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume
- Rest

Excellent physical wall, excellent spinner, and can do something against golurk (if i predict the switch and plume instead of rapid spin, 30% chance golurk is made useless everytime). Good for swellow and other normal type physical attackers.

Audino @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 100 HP / 252 SDef / 158 Def
Careful Nature
- Heal Bell
- Return
- Reflect
- Light Screen

A replacement for Mr. Fungus. Useful as a cleric and screens support, but has no resistances and i've found it about as unimpressive as a special wall as the fungus itself. it's still gotten me out of a number of tight spots, so I'm not sure whether to replace it.

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SDef / 156 Def
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Refresh/Knock Off
- Protect
- Scald
Knock off Alomomola is very good in my experience, cripples everything it walls/the counters that get switched in. The previous set, with refresh instead of knock off was mainly used to beat other alom 1v1, however after adding audino with heal bell it felt like a waste of a moveslot, so i changed it to clear up an extra slot for liepard. Passes massive wishes and heals my team.
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Threat List:

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(NOTE: in absence of an actual threatlist, I just pulled the top 30 from the June stats and included anything that my team in particular found difficult)

VERY THREATENING (No counters, 0-1 Checks)
SOMEWHAT THREATENING (0-1 Counters, 1-2 Checks)
NOT THREATENING (1-2 Counters, 2+ Checks)

Golem Hard countered by Alo, Golurk damages heavily, Audino can setup on it, never been threatened by it.
Samurott Never had a problem with Samurott, if it tries to stat-up garbodor or liepard stops it, otherwise alo pretty handly stop physical versions. special versions are troublesome i guess, but i've never seen one.
Emboar Alo beats it, golurk can switch in on a fighting move and destroy it with EQ, torkoal doesn't take much but can't do much back, not really an issue.
Absol Never had an absol problem. Liepard, Garbodor and Torkoal all quite happily switchin on it (liepard has to be careful of superpower though)
Sawk Only ever really see bulkup/rest version, which is handled with encore or with golurk (if it doesn't pack a way to hit ghosts). Torkoal can easily take hits from non bulk up versions.
Gardevoir Checked by Liepard, if it uses psychic. unfortunately focus blast really, really hurts. golurk can damage gardevoir, but can't take too many hits. Heal bell gardevoir has been a decent inconvenience to this team, since i can't rely on toxic spikes.
Haunter Decimates my team. Audino can't hit it, nothing else is really bulky enough to take a hit. Liepard is my only real method of dealing with it, and even then, it takes pretty heavy prediction. If I can get a knock off in by alo I'm normally ok.
Garbodor not frightening, torkoal can take anything it dishes out and can spin hazards off all day. Garbodor absorbs and toxic spikes and Audino clears status. Swellow Easily handled by protect/Wish alo and torkoal. Simply let it kill itself with toxic.
Exeggutor Audino and Liepard combined can deal with it. If toxic spikes is up, exeggutor is not a problem.
Musharna usually only packs stored power, and as such Liepard has a field day.
Skuntank Torkoal and alo can hold out on it until it is burnt by scald/lava plume respectively.
Serperior Garbodor hard counters pretty much every Serperior set.
Rotom-S Audino can set screens, Golurk can take it if it switches into an electric attack, but trick variants fuck my team over.
Altaria Torkoal/Alo can burn it and force it out to heal itself, Liepard can encore it into support, golurk hits it hard with stone edge, not a major threat. Braviary Torkoal/Alo take care of it pretty handily.
Misdreavus Can't do shit to Misdreavus. Only real hope is to predict very well with Liepard.
Tangela Setup toxic spikes on it with Garbodor, once they're up tangela is useless. Audino deals with status.
Probopass even torkoal can stay in and spin on it, with those attacking stats. alo also counters really easily.
Miltank torkoal/alo (must be sick of hearing that, but between the two of them no physical attackers are safe)
Regirock alo can hit it until it's burnt, golurk damages it a lot with earthquake, not that threatening.
Gurdurr Guts variants kill themselves really quickly, and versions without payback (and if they don't have any bulk ups, versions with it) are taken down by golurk usually.
Zebstrika Never faced it.
Torterra Torkoal can lava plume it (doesn't take too much from EQ), can take a bit of playing around though. Audino can reflect to defend the team too.
Drifblim Like most ghosts, this is somewhat threatening, but torkoal stops physical versions.
Wartortle If it gets toxiced, it's spinning won't last very long. Golurk also does a shit ton of damage and doesn't take that much.

Closing Thoughts:

1. Golurk is unimpressive as a spinblocker, thinking of replacing him with perish song/pain split misdreavus.
2. Audino is not that useful outside of not dying before setting up screens, would Meganium still setup with the same efficiency? Or a new special wall (with heal bell/aromatherapy) of some sort.
3. Thinking of adding a fast cleaner in there, but still unsure, if you have a good idea please recommend it.

Importable:

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Golurk @ Choice Band
Trait: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- DynamicPunch
- Shadow Punch
- Stone Edge

Liepard @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SDef / 4 HP
Impish Nature
- Encore
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out
- Pursuit

Garbodor @ Leftovers
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 156 Def / 156 SDef / 196 HP
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Clear Smog
- Gunk Shot

Torkoal @ Leftovers
Trait: Shell Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume
- Rest

Audino @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 100 HP / 252 SDef / 158 Def
Careful Nature
- Heal Bell
- Return
- Reflect
- Light Screen

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SDef / 156 Def
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Knock Off
- Protect
- Scald

 

[Majestic Electric]

Hi there! This is an interesting team you have here, but there are a few things I'd like to address.

For Torkoal, its ability should be changed to White Smoke, as Stealth Rock is illegal with Shell Armor. Its DW ability hasn't been released yet.

On Golurk, the general ability to use is Iron Fist. No Guard is mostly used when utilizing the SubPunch combo. Since you're using Choice Band, it would be a better idea to choose Golurk's other ability to make moves, like Shadow Punch, stronger. Also, Golurk's set and EVs look like they need some work. Regarding it's EVs, Golurk will want an Adamant Nature and 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe as its spread. This will let you do as much damage as possible with the Choice Band. For its attacks, change Hammer Arm to Drain Punch. Hammer Arm is useless on a poke specifically used to break walls. Even with priority, a faster poke will be able to outspeed you. With Drain Punch, you won't have to sacrifice Golurk's speed.

Both Alomomola and Garbodor should be Impish Nature with an EV spread of 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpD. This will allow Garbodor to take Fighting attacks better. Alomomola will also benefit from this spread because it can wall Jolly SD Samurott, who poses a real threat to your team. In addition, Alomomola's special defense is mediocre, so focusing on its special bulk is pointless.

Finally, Audino's spread should be 252 HP/4 Def/252 SDef. Since you are focusing on Audino's special bulk, it would be wise to max it out in order to take special hits better.

Hope I helped and good luck with the team! :)

 

[WhiteDMist]

Nice team! First thing I have to say is that you need to increase the amount of description for a few of your Pokemon, especially Garbodor. The raters would like to know why you chose that speciafic Pokemon over something else, why you chose that EV spread and moveset, and how it benefits your team. Other than that, I agree with everything Majestic Electric has mentioned.

What I'll add is the fact that Golurk is pretty common as a spinblocker for offensive teams. Golurk easily 2HKOs Torkoal with EQ, and you have to rely on a lucky Burn with Lava Plume to even have a chance to cripple it (though you still will lose Torkoal if hazards are up, which they will be if you bring Torkoal in at all). The reason Armaldo is better than Torkoal is because it has offensive presence, and can hit Golurk on the switch with Aqua Tail. Torkoal must be able to burn with Lava Plume, or hit with a Yawn/Will-O-Wisp that you don't have.

Also, you are pretty vulnerable to being swept by set-up sweepers if you fail to come in with Liepard and Encore a set up move (or if it gets KOed beforehand). Most teams are if their revenge killer or Phazer/hazer is gone, so I don't think it is that big of a cause for concern though. Finally, you are still vulnerable to getting swept by Cinccino, since even Alomomola is 2HKOed with hazards up. There really is no way to handle every threat I mentioned without a large overhaul of the team, but the changes recommended by Majestic will help.

If you want to replace Golurk, then Misdreavus would be pretty useful, especially the physically defensive variant. Your team is mostly defensive in any case, so this would be the most appropriate for you. It'll also help against Cinccino and Golurk if you manage to Will-O-Wisp them. Here's the set:

Misdreavus @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Pain Split
- Taunt/Heal Bell

Good luck with the team! :)