ORAS PU I Have Terrible Team Names

[Gegowyy]

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4. Introduction
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6. 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.
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8. The Team
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    Osum II (Basculin) (M) @ Choice Band
    Ability: Adaptability
    EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
    Jolly Nature
    - Aqua Jet
    - Waterfall
    - Crunch
    - Superpower
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12. 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.
13. Calcs:
14. 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.
    
15. 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.
    
16. 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.

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   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
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3. 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.
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   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
   
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7. 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.
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   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
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11. 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.
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    Shelly (Armaldo) (F) @ Leftovers
    Ability: Battle Armor
    EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
    Impish Nature
    - Stealth Rock
    - Rapid Spin
    - Aqua Jet
    - X-Scissor
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15. 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.
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    Wotfisk (Stunfisk) (M) @ Leftovers
    Ability: Static
    Shiny: Yes
    EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
    Modest Nature
    - Discharge
    - Earth Power
    - Sludge Wave
    - Surf
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19. 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.
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21. Conclusion
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23. 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!

 

[Raiza]

Hi Gegowyy
I don't want to look rude but I think you should either remove Leavanny, or most of your team, as most of Leavanny's teammates here don't synergyze at all with Sticky Webs support, such as special wall Ninetales and bulky Armaldo. I suppose you want to build around Leavanny + Basculin so I won't suggest you to remove Leavanny, instead to replace some team members and change sets too. First of all, as you wanted to build around Basculin in particular, give Life Orb to Basculin, and make it a classic All-Out Attacker Set. This set will actually allow Basculin to sweep through teams by itself with the support of Sticky Webs, instead of working as a wallbreaker that isnt even going to support a sweeper, as you in fact lack one at the moment.

Now, you don't really need a Rapid Spin user in Armaldo, with Sticky Webs and Stealth Rock, your opponent should be the one to be forced to Defog them away most of the time, and if that happens, even his entry hazards will be gone from your field and you'll be fine, also I don't see what a set like that would accomplish in an offensive playstyle such as Sticky Webs, the only way Armaldo would put in work with that set is on specific balanced or stall teams, or on offensive teams but with an offensive spread and running Stone Edge, so yeah I think Armaldo is one of the weak links here and I would replace it with Pawniard. Pawniard, while still being efficient against Flying-, Normal-, and Psychic-types, it also provides you with something that can deter the use of Defog by the opponent, which is key to Sticky Web teams, and one of the main reasons the playstyle is used. Pawniard also provides your team another priority which can be useful in case Sticky Webs aren't up along with Basculin's Aqua Jet. Pawniard also is a good set up user, and can take advantage of Basculin's wallbreaking capabilities to put in work.
By replacing Armaldo, you now lack a Stealth Rock user, so make Stunfisk defensive and give it Stealth Rock. You don't need to keep using offensive Stunfisk, now that you have Pawniard, which brings more offensivity to the table. You can still run Sludge Wave to bait Exeggutor in, but tbh with the addition of Pawniard you can revengekill it pretty easily or use it as a set up fodder if locked in Psychic / Psyshock, if you are that scared of Exeggutor just run Pursuit on Pawniard and you'll be fine. Defensive Stunfisk will also be a more reliable Electric-type check and you will also have an answer to Pawniard, which is threatening to most Sticky Web teams.

To be honest, to fix this team completely, you would have to make even more changes, such as replacing Gourgeist - Ninetales core, which is still decent I guess, with a more offensive duo, but I think these suggestions I posted are enough to make it decent at least, so I hope I helped you, have fun with your team!

 

[Gegowyy]

Hi Gegowyy
I don't want to be rude but I think you should either remove Leavanny, or most of your team, as most of Leavanny's teammates here don't synergyze at all with Sticky Webs support, such as special wall Ninetales and bulky Armaldo. I suppose you want to build around Leavanny + Basculin so I won't suggest you to remove Leavanny, instead to replace some team members and change sets too. First of all, as you wanted to build around Basculin in particular, give Life Orb to Basculin, and make it a classic All-Out Attacker Set. This set will actually allow Basculin to sweep through teams by itself with the support of Sticky Webs, instead of working as a wallbreaker that isnt even going to support a sweeper, as you in fact lack one at the moment.

Now, you don't really need a Rapid Spin user in Armaldo, with Sticky Webs and Stealth Rock, your opponent should be the one to be forced to Defog them away most of the time, and if that happens, even his entry hazards will be gone from your field and you'll be fine, also I don't see what a set like that would accomplish in an offensive playstyle such as Sticky Webs, the only way Armaldo would put in work with that set is on specific balanced or stall teams, or on offensive teams but with an offensive spread and running Stone Edge, so yeah I think Armaldo one of the weak links here and I would replace it with Pawniard. Pawniard, while still being efficient against Flying-, Normal-, and Psychic-types, it also provides you with something that can deter the use of Defog by the opponent, which is key to Sticky Web teams, and one of the main reasons the playstyle is used. Pawniard also provides your team another priority which can be useful in case Sticky Webs aren't up along with Basculin's Aqua Jet. Pawniard also is a good set up user, and can take advantage of Basculin's wallbreaking capabilities to put in work.
By replacing Armaldo, you now lack a Stealth Rock user, so make Stunfisk defensive and give it Stealth Rock. You don't need to keep using offensive Stunfisk, now that you have Pawniard, which brings more offensivity to the table. You can still run Sludge Wave to bait Exeggutor in, but tbh with the addition of Pawniard you can revengekill it pretty easily or use it as a set up fodder if locked in Psychic / Psyshock, if you are that scared of Exeggutor just run Pursuit on Pawniard and you'll be fine. Defensive Stunfisk will also be a more reliable Electric-type check and you will also have an answer to Pawniard, which is threatening to most Sticky Web teams.

To be honest, to fix this team completely, you would have to make even more changes, such as replacing Gourgeist - Ninetales core, which is still decent I guess, with a more offensive duo, but I think these suggestions I posted are enough to make it decent at least, so I hope I helped you, have fun with your team!

Alright, yea, thanks a lot. The team isn't all that great, and I knew that before but I've managed to make it work somehow and I do like it. I'll definitely think of the changes you mentioned and probably will. Thanks for a lot of the feedback, it really means a lot. I thought about making it the All-Out Attacker set for Basculin a few times, but I will probably do it thanks to your feedback. Thanks a ton, once again!

 

[Dundies]

Hi Gegowyy, and welcome to Smogon! I'm going to leave a few suggestions to help you with your team.

I agree with what Raiza said, as your team really doesn't make much sense at this point. You have Sticky Web to promote offense, yet you have physically defensive Gourgeist-XL and specially defensive Ninetales. I'm going to take the offensive route here in helping you with your team, since offense is the best playstyle in the tier.

First off, I think you should change X-Scissor --> Electroweb on Leavanny, which allows you to hit common defoggers such as Pelipper, Swanna, and Vullaby, possibly preventing a Defog, which gives you a better chance to keep webs up.

Secondly, I'm going to have to agree with Raiza in the sense that you should change Armaldo --> Pawniard. There's really not much of a reason to not use Pawnaird on webs at this point, as it's a great Defog deterrent as well as a strong Flying resist, one of the biggest threats to webs.

Next, as Raiza said, I think you should make Stunfisk defensive and add Stealth Rock. I also think you should change Leftovers --> Passho Berry. Life Orb Floatzel is a big threat to your team, and this is a cool sort of lure for it, allowing you to live a Hydro Pump and get up rocks or get off about 80-90% with Discharge.

Next, I think you should change Gourgeist-XL --> Misdreavus, which is much less of a momentum sponge. It also provides you with Arbok check, which is extremely annoying to your team, especially if Gourgeist-XL is weakened after a Coil. Taunt is also really helpful in preventing Defog when it's less desirable to switch into a Defogger such as Pelipper.

I don't think keeping Ninetales is too big of a problem tbh, but I think you should change it from Specially Defensive --> Nasty Plot Ninetales. This at least gives you a better Fire resist than Basculin, and it also gives you a nice wincon.

tl;dr

X-Scissor --> Electroweb

Pawniard @ Eviolite | Defiant
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe | Adamant
Swords Dance / Knock Off / Sucker Punch / Iron Head

Stunfisk @ Passho Berry | Static
248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA | Bold
Stealth Rock / Earth Power / Discharge / Toxic

Misdreavus @ Eviolite | Levitate
248 HP / 136 Def / 124 Spe | Timid
Foul Play / Will-O-Wisp / Taunt / Pain Split

Ninetales @ Life Orb | Flash Fire
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe | Timid
Nasty Plot / Fire Blast / Energy Ball / Hypnosis

Hope I helped

 

[Anty]

Hi gegowyy, glad you are enjoying the tier n_n

As others have pointed out, Sticky Web should really be hyper offensive in nature, as passive mons lose momentum and provide opening to mons that threaten webs teams. Also sticky web teams shouldn't be too slow, as if the opponent has a flying type or prevents sticky web from being set up, you will be in trouble.

Firstly, I agree with others that changing Armaldo to Pawniard and giving stunfisk Stealth Rock will benefit your team. Armaldo and Stunfisk don't work well on this team as they just provide options for faster pokemon, particularly water-types to switch in and KO something due to their low speed. Pawniard provides a check to Defog, Psychic-types while also providing more priority and a mon which resists both flying and normal, strengthening your matchup vs dodrio. Giving stunfisk a defensive EV spread will also help you against Pawniard and Dodrio, both of which are big threats to you.

Like I said earlier, Gourgeist is a momentum killer. I think replacing it with a faster Pokemon will benefit your team as you lack solid ways to revenge kill choice scarf users such as Simipour (if at high health, most can take hits from pawniard). Raichu would fit well here as it threatens every Defog user as well as water-types, and also a guaranteed KO on bulky normal normal types like stoutland.

Like Gourgeist, defensive ninetales doesn't do much for your team, so I recommend you use Swords Dance Monferno. This puts pressure off stunfisk to check opposing pawniard, it provides you with a more solid option to revenge kill Rock Polish Regice, and also gives you a late game nice cleaner. It also works well with Raichu and Basculin as they can bait in Grass-types which monferno sets up on.

Lastly, I think replacing Crunch on Basculin to Zen Headbutt may help bait Roselia for Raichu and Stunfisk, whereas crunch doesn't hit much which your team struggles with.

Summary

Pawniard and Stunfisk changes Dundies/Raiza suggested

Raichu @ Life Orb
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Flare Blitz

Basculin
Crunch ---> Zen Heabutt

 

[Gegowyy]

Thanks, everyone, sorry, I'm just checking the forum now, I'm not necessarily new to Smogon, I've been playing Smogon for over a year but I forgot my other account, which I might not have even posted with, but thanks a lot for the suggestions, I'll definitely test them and see how the changes fare. I'm not all that great when it comes to making teams, I know, so thanks a lot for the suggestions. I almost always throw Sticky Web on teams even if it might not fit because I like it a lot, which is definitely problematic I can see. I won't be testing the changes until like Friday though because I've been on tilt for a bit so I'm trying to take a small break from the game for a bit and see if I can play again when I come back. Once again, thanks everyone for the suggestions, it means a lot!