Battle Spot Kanto x Alola Competition Nidosweep Team

Hey all, first time posting in the RMT thread.

As most of you know, there will be an Online Competition next week, and I put some time together to build and test the team I'd like to play in it.

So it will be a Battle Spot Singles team with no Megastones and Alolan+Kanto pokemon only, on cartridge.

As I usually do in my Team threads, I'll just write down the thought process that lead me to the team, so it will be easier for you raters to see if there are flaws in my thinking and such.

Introduction

It all started with Sheer Force ability (casually looking for cool abilities): +30% Power and removes secondary effects from moves. That was good, I was toying with Nidoking at the time (with Choice items, meh).
Then I learned that Life Orb recoil is negated by Sheer Force, so I really wanted to use a team that abuses LO+Sheer Force on Nidoking.

The first thing that comes to mind is that Nidoking is not very fast, so I thought a Tailwind user could be a cool addition to an aggressive team (as being relatively new to the game, I like playing aggressive teams).
Firstly the choice went to Aerodactyl with Focus Sash, that way I could always setup TWind and eventually use some other supportive moves like Taunt.
The problem is that usually Aerodactyl outspeeds most threats, so with Focus Sash I'm losing 2 turns of TWind. And both pokemons are weak to Ice moves.

Talonflame was a better choice for Tailwind, thanks to Gale Wings I have priority on Tailwind (even under Psychic Terrain), and it can still use Taunt or U-Turn to gain momentum on setups or on switches. Not running Focus Sash helps in case of OHKOs on it, so Nidoking or another attacker has one more turn of Tailwind, even against faster pokemons.
So Aerodactyl was rejected and Talonflame was promoted for the team!

After choosing these two pokemons, I decided to bring Dragonite in the team too, as it is pretty bulky thanks to Multiscale, and has access to Extreme Speed to revenge kill weakened pokemons. Thanks to its vast movepool I had many options to choose from, and ultimately went with a Flynium-Z variant, to have a strong STAB Z-Move.

The next pokemon I chose was Tapu Fini as a bulky option that can take well some Ice hits (as Dragonite and Nidoking are weak to those) and as a check to fire and dragon types. Eventually it can help out with Misty Terrain to neuter some status moves, and it's a solid counter to Cloyster.

To complete the Dragon-Fairy-Steel core I went with Kartana, as it has good coverage moves against tapus, normal type pokemons, and ice types. A classic Sash Kartana gives many troubles to opponents.

For the last slot, I noticed that I didn't have many answers to Gyarados (which is a pokemon I'd hate to see setting up and destroying my team), so I went with a Special Attacking Tapu Koko, with both U-Turn and Volt Switch to use as lead against slower teams (where TWind isn't really needed).

The Team

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Earth Power
-Sludge Wave
-Ice Beam
-Flamethrower

Thanks to LO+Sheer Force, all of Nidoking's moves will do a lot of damage. Under TWind he's able to OHKO every Tapu (except Fini which is a 62% OHKO), and his moves let him cover most of the team's weaknesses.
The problem is that he's pretty slow without TW, even with a Timid Nature, so I'm considering changing this to Modest, to do more damage.

Dragonite @ Flynium-Z
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Fly
-Fire Punch
-Extreme Speed
-Dragon Dance

I chose Flynium-Z instead of Outrage version because I think there will be many Fairy types, and the Z-Crystal is still a STAB that hits hard most pokemons. Dragonite's role on the team is to revenge kill opposing pokemons with Extreme Speed, or setup a DD to dish out lots of damage.
Fire Punch over Thunder Punch as a clean answer to Steel types that threaten my fairies.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
-Hydro Pump
-Moonblast
-Calm Mind
-Taunt

Pretty classic spread and set, I chose to go with Hydro Pump instead of Surf for extra damage, and Taunt helps against pokemons that need some setup to kill Tapu Fini. Other than that, I always choose this in the team selection when I see a Cloyster on the opposing side (I lost the count of how many times I lost to a Cloyster lead).

Tapu Koko @ Assault Vest
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Thunderbolt
-Dazzling Gleam
-U-Turn
-Volt Switch

Probably the EVs are not good for an AV set, but this is my Life Orb Koko and had to find a new item for it (so AV was more of a "replacement". Didn't try Magnet yet).
The cool thing is the double switch moves, this way I can play around Ground Pokemon switch-ins if needed.
Tapu Koko functions as a lead, being able to hit hard many pokemons under electric terrain, and in case just Switch out while doing damage with U-Turn/Volt Switch (to break sashes etc, mostly).

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-Tailwind
-Taunt

This is my 6th gen Talonflame, so the spread is still "experimental" in the new gen. Like Tapu Koko, this mon should use Life Orb (that's why 44 HP, to give an extra attack), but Gale Wings got nerfed.
I had U-Turn instead of Taunt, but after some games where people started setupping in front of Talonflame, I switched the moves.
This is the most used lead during games involving Nidoking, and if they don't immediately kill TFlame, he's able to do big damage with his STAB moves anyway.

Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Ultraboost (Attack)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Detect
-Leaf Blade
-Smart Strike
-Sacred Sword

This is mostly a late-game sweeper. Being very fast, it doesn't need Tailwind support, and it can finish off weakened teams. I'm using Detect even in singles to scout for opposing moves (in case I have 2+ pokemons left), and to stop non-supereffective Z-Moves (if Sash is not usable somehow, like a weak opposing attack and such).
The other moves are pretty standard, they just help covering many types.

Considerations after testing the team

First of all, I played like 20 games with this team, doing minor changes, on Battle Spot Singles ladder (which isn't exactly the same format as the Online Competition, but it's the closest thing to it on cartridge).

In most of my games, I brought both Talonflame and Nidoking plus a third pokemon that covered the opposing pokemon types that Nidoking couldn't kill.
The thing I noticed about this is that Talonflame is often dead weight: it uses Tailwind and if it doesn't die outright, it won't do enough damage to kill the opposing pokemon and damage the next one. Many opposing leads had Stealth Rock which I didn't expect (even a Garchomp had it), but they were mostly useful to break Kartana's Sash (I never brought Dragonite against SR, and Talonflame was my lead so it wasn't concerned by that).

In the other games where I didn't need to start with Talonflame I used Tapu Koko as a Lead, with usually Dragonite on the back plus an extra pokemon that single handedly checks some threats from the opposing team.

Other than that, I found some problems with Nidoking when it wasn't under Tailwind: his low speed (even with Timid+252Spe EVs) limits his big potential to be a threat. Being susceptible to Ground moves was a liability in some cases (where I didn't see the move coming, like Groundium-Z Dragonite or Electivire with EQ).

AV on that Koko is pretty useless, probably it could be wiser to run a Choice item, like Choice Specs, as Koko is Timid.


I really like the team, but I think it has some flaws. Nidoking looks so great on paper (atleast for the Online Competition), so I would like to continue on this road.
Is there any other way to "abuse" that huge power?

Thanks for reading :)
 
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please edit your RMT and add the set and the description for your 6th slot. We know it is lead Aero with Tailwind, but we need the full set and a description with three lines minimum. Add these asap, otherwise I have to lock your thread.
Whoops sorry, I was pretty sure I wrote it!

It was Kartana. As I said in the description of the team, Aero was the first choice, but seeing how it wasn't very useful with the plan, I went with Talonflame in its place (has the same moves I need, but different weaknesses plus one priority move at full HP).
Edited that too to be a bit more clear.
 

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