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- Introduction
- So this team is one I've actually been using for a bit, I got to top 125 on two different accounts at different times within like 2 days of each other, and I actually really like it. the team has a LOT of problems, though. I can tell some of them, I tried switching Stunfisk out for Kadabra to cover Throh since it is being retested, however, I felt it made the team worse than it was previously, not necessarily by much; maybe I just can't use it since it was my first time using it, so I decided not to keep it. I'm using my two favorite PU pokemon on the team, and I feel they work really well together, those being Leavanny and Basculin. Gourgeist-XL is a monster and tanks so many hits even if it is SE, while Ninetales can easily take almost any Special Attack, even some a Hydro-Pump from Simipour. Armaldo was put on so that way I could have something to spin rocks away as my Special wall is weak to SR. I'm also running offensive Stunfisk, which I've really liked a lot.
- The Team
Osum II (Basculin) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Superpower
- The first pokemon I wanted to add to the team was Basculin, my second favorite Water-Type and second favorite PU pokemon. Basculin hits extremely hard and is pretty fast. Adaptability and Superpower are the reasons why I use Basculin over Floatzel along with preference and it being my second favorite PU pokemon. Aqua Jet can deal with pretty much anything that's significantly faster or if I don't have Sticky Web up yet, or it got spun away. Waterfall is the main move selected, as even resisted it does as much as Crunch would do neutral. Crunch I have on over Zen Headbutt as I feel the Gourgeist and Misdreavus coverage is a lot better than Roselia, as it still deals significant damage anyways to Roselia. I'll post calcs of those under this. Superpower allows me to deal with many Ice-Types that I would otherwise generally have a lot of problems with, such as Regice, Lapras, and Rotom-F (this one isn't really that bad, as if scarf it's easy to play around and if it isn't my other pokemon can deal with it easy too. Overall, Basculin is a pokemon that I can't imagine not putting on a PU team as I subconsciously do it on nearly every PU team I make.
- Calcs:
- 252 Atk Choice Band Adaptability Basculin Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Eviolite Roselia: 128-151 (42.1 - 49.6%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock. This isn't normally a problem anyways as Ninetales perfectly deals with Roselia most of the time, if not Leavanny, but it still does a solid chunk of damage.
- 252 Atk Choice Band Basculin Crunch vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Gourgeist-Super: 130-154 (34.8 - 41.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery. This isn't much damage anyway, so why do I still run it when Zen Headbutt would do less but Crunch still isn't significant damage? Most of the other pokemon can cripple this thing before it becomes too much of a problem and help Basculin finish it off. Plus, this calc is saying they're running max defense unlike what the calc generally puts up, which I run max defense.
- 252 Atk Choice Band Basculin Crunch vs. 252 HP / 240 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 150-178 (46.2 - 54.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock. This is actually really nice, as I can completely destroy it without much concern, while it isn't an OHKO, this is a physically defensive set, and I normally tend to do more, so I'm not sure how popular this set is but I picked it in calcs because I felt like it overall helped my argument as it still does the same amount of damage as Waterfall but is not immune by some pokemon in the tier.
Gourgeist-OP (Gourgeist-Super) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Shadow Sneak
- Gourgeist is one of the most annoying pokemon I run into in the tier, and I decided to try it out for once. It has insane bulk, is faster than several other bulky pokemon in the tier, and has great move pool that spreads burns and leech seeds pokemon all over. I tend to use Sub so Gourg doesn't get toxic or a burn, and allows it to outstall several pokemon by Leech Seed + Burn damage, namely Regice. Shadow Sneak allows Gourgeist to do damage behind sub to several pokemon: Misdreavus, Kadabra, Exeggcute, and other Gourgeists. Burning other pokemon is something that is incredibly important to my team, as overall it isn't that bulky physically aside from Gourgeist, or at least it feels that way.
Kyubimon (Ninetales) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic
- Fire Blast
- Psyshock
- This was my choice for a Special wall that covered most of Gourgeist's problems and Gourgeist covered its. I'm running double status on it as toxic is always great and Will-O is something that can help Ninetales tank some physical attacks that would otherwise possibly KO. I run Fire Blast over Flamethrower, for no real reason other than it can dent some pokemon that could potentially give me problems, such as Exeggcute and Gourgeist. Psyshock I'm running so I can hit Monferno, Machoke, and Roselia really easily. Psyshock actually dents Roselia a lot more than I initially thought it would, plus it's faster and able to get off damage on whatever wants to come in after it or if the other player wants to sack Roselia, which is always great.
Too Late (Leavanny) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Sticky Web
- Leaf Storm
- X-Scissor
- Knock Off
- Earlier I talked about how Basculin was my second favorite pokemon in PU and how I was using my two favorite pokemon in the tier on this team, and Leavanny is my favorite Grass-Type and favorite PU pokemon, it's probably my third or fourth favorite Bug-Type though because Bug is my favorite type. What I love about Leavanny, is it's able to hurt a lot of pokemon throughout a game, even though that requires quite a bit of hazard control, sometimes a lack of hazard control can help it out more overall. I'm running Sticky Web as it allows my Armaldo to get Rapid Spins off easier along with Basculin outspeeding a lot of stuff it might not have before. Leaf Storm is the move that I tend to use against other leads that can deal significant damage to, even though it's uninvested. Most of the time, if it's a Golem I use Knock Off before setting SW to knock off any Custap or Weakness policy from the Golem so I can safely KO it without having to worry about too much damage, other than possible Sucker Punch damage. X-Scissor is the move I tend to use once I drop down to below 33% and it does massive damage to anything that comes in. The Swarm boosted X-Scissor has gotten a lot of KOs I didn't think it ever could. Knock Off is the final move I tend to use as it always has a great use, whether it's knocking off an eviolite, leftovers, practically anything, and it always can help Leavanny get down to the <33% mark for Swarm to kick in and finish anything off that brought it down that low. Certainly, getting below 33% isn't always possible, but with entry hazards on my side of the field, it tends to help it get to that mark, but sometimes it gets hurt too much by them. It certainly isn't a help to my team defensively in any way and actually hurts it, but I feel like overall it brings a lot more to the table than it hurts the team.
Shelly (Armaldo) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Aqua Jet
- X-Scissor
- Armaldo was the best choice I felt I had for a Rapid Spinner, as I feel all the Rapid Spinners in the tier are rather mediocre at best. I'm running a Specially Defensive set on this one, as I felt I needed more special bulk rather than physical bulk on the team, and Armaldo already has great Defense even uninvested, so it has a lot of bulk overall. I use Armaldo as my Stealth Rocker as I had to find a Rapid Spinner with Stealth Rock too for my team to overall be better. Aqua Jet helps Amaldo get off some damage before going down, which unfortunately is a lot. I run X-Scissor over Knock Off on Armaldo because of Exeggcutor, and that's the sole reason. It's extremely annoying to deal with and Armaldo can take a Psychic easily with this set. All of those positives being said, I feel like Armaldo is easily the weakest link. I've been trying to figure out a replacement for it but I haven't really come across one that fits well with the team, including Defoggers. This is the pokemon I would want to get replaced the most, if any, as it's not really a key player and is often the one that holds the team down.
Wotfisk (Stunfisk) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Discharge
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Surf
- The final pokemon on the team is Stunfisk, Stunfisk is actually a huge threat on this team. It helps deal with Pawniard easily, Exeggcutor on a predicted switch with Sludge Wave, dealing massive amounts of damage, and just overall a powerful pokemon. Most players don't run 4 attacks offensive Stunfisk, but I actually found it to be pretty solid. Stunfisk can spread Para to anything that might pose a threat from its speed, such as Floatzel, and can often OHKO or get near it on those pokemon. Even without other defensive stats than HP being invested in, it still has a lot of bulk. Stunfisk works well with most of my other pokemon, covering their weaknesses rather well. Discharge over Thunderbolt in this situation because I feel that para is generally always a good think to get, and when it isn't, most of the time I have other coverage to deal with them. Sludge Wave helps deal somewhat with Clefairy, Surf for Armaldo, and that should be about it for Stunfisk.
- Conclusion
- Thanks for reading, everyone, this is my first RMT ever, so I hope I followed everything well, I've been trying to fix the team up for a bit and I've thought about scrapping this team completely but I've gotten pretty high ladder with it and was 18-2 until I messed up by trying to make a new team and then I accidentally used it and then my mindset wasn't in it and I dropped from top 125 to off the leaderboard and ended up 19-9, which was a huge blow. Anyways, I would love any criticism from anyone along with any compliments that could possibly come from the team. I don't have a whole lot of confidence in my team building, so getting criticism and compliments from other, more experienced, players would definitely help me out overall, I feel. So I hope I followed the rules and such, I read them but I am never certain I follow them completely. Thanks again!