VGC Luke, Noi, and... Manta? My First VGC RMT

[lilbigman]

Whats up everyone?

I've always been the type of guy who wants to win with his favorite Pokemon. So, for this team I started with a core of my favorite pokemon (Lucario) and my favorite 6th gen pokemon (Noivern). I wanted to find something that could work between these two, and I ended up with this process:

When I thought about these two together I noticed a few things. I was frail, weak to fairies, and Salamence wrecked me.

Heatran seemed to check these weaknesses a bit more, but now I was weak to fighting, ground, and physical attacks.

With Lando, my core seemed complete (despite the 4X 1/4X Ice weakness split, I could play around that) Lando and Heatran also gave me valuable spread damage which was nice.



So I didn't know what I wanted for my last slots, I considered many ideas like Politoed and Ludicolo for a while. However, I knew that Wide Guard and Fake out support would be nicest for setting up Lucario and Protecting Noivern. I tried different combinations but I kept on being dissatisfied with the results. Also, I wanted some speed control. Eventually, I came across this dynamic duo:

I was hesitant at first, but I've been playing for a few days (50+ battles) with these two and Im pretty satisfied with their performance. Anyway, on to the individual analyses.

Spike (Lucario) (M) @ Lucarionite
Ability: Inner Focus / Adaptability
Level: 50
EVs: 60 HP / 108 Atk / 92 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Protect
Ahhh there he is! My favorite pokemon :-) Lucario is awesome, and when he plows through a team, I know I played well. Im sure You are all aware how powerful this thing is and how many things it can OHKO (especially after the big +2), so Ill talk more about the EV spread and move selection. The EVs are simple: outspeeds Terrakion, Gengar, Mega Metagross, Latio(a)s, Mega Gallade, Garchomp- and always survives an EQ from either Terrakion or Garchomp. The rest is dumped to attack except 4 In Spdef cause they were useless elsewhere. Works pretty well, I usually get a +2 fairly easily. It takes care of big threats rather quickly and gives me very valuable priority with BP. The attack investment is fairly low, but the Damage output is still high as ever, and I have SD help me out f needed. Inner focus to avoid flinches and kill Mega Kang obviously... Yup

Faye (Noivern) (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Frisk
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Hurricane (?)
- Switcheroo
- Taunt
Ok. Noivern is sick. Look at its design! I absolutely love this thing. Its not the most powerful dragon type in the game, but it is the fastest. Let me say that again FASTEST DRAGON EVER!!! Look at the things it can outspeed!!! Mega Salamence, Mega Manectric, Mega Lopunny, Adamant Talonflame, Timid Greninja, Scarf Smeargle, need I go on? This thing is a speed demon and with choice specs it still pack a helluva Meteor

Anyway, I had to find a way to make Noivern work with Lucario and I think this set works pretty well. Draco for fast, hard-hitting STAB that not many things can survive. Switcheroo is a pretty good move for choice attackers in general and It can shut down many threats. With Frisk its even better, because I get to pick my battles. What item do I want and what can I use it for? Many a time have I been up against a Sash pokemon, unexpecting and confident, only to get OHKOd by Noivern's partner. Same goes for assault vest, life orb, berries, and other items that I can benefit from. Heck sometimes ill just want to shut your physical attacker down and take your Choice Scarf. Taunt is there for fast, unsuspecting shut downs. In VGC, too many Pokemon rely on rage powder, Trick Room, Protect, etc. Taunt is always valuable. Also, it helps my partner deal with Aegislash fairly easily. Although I love using this thing, this is where you come in... I don't know if there are better Noivern spreads, other than outspeeding and hitting hard. There aren't many things Noi would like to tank over outspeed, and there are some moves that will just always KO it (Ice Beam), but regardless, Noivern is a bulkier dragon than others so thats cool. Any recommendations for different spreads? Also, the final move... Hurricane. I was running into some trouble with grass types, and with rain being so common I thought why not. But I feel like Ive lost many times to a Hurricane miss. What do you guys think of other options? Ive thought about Air Slash, Boomburst, or Heat Wave... To be honest, Im not sure. I don't like Air Slash's base 75 power...

Ein (Raichu) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fake Out
- Encore
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave (?)
My favorite teams are those that use pokemon you like, are diverse, and look diverse. Raichu does just that! It brings an awesome pokemon that I used in my first Red gameplay, awesome typing and coverage, and the cute element. Anyway aside from looks, Im pretty sure you know annoying Raichu is, Ive noticed many people have given the little guy more attention. He is one of the fastest Fake outers in the game, and if you Protect, he can Encore you into it. The combination of Fake out and Encore makes Lucario and Mantine have a relatively easy setup, and it keeps the opponents pressured. Thunderbolt for STAB against dem pesky water types. Lightningrod, amazing ability. It checks Thundurus to borderline uselessness and helps Mantine soooo much. I have encored many opponents into Thunderbolt or Wave before and proceeded to sweep the rest of his team. Now, I'm unsure about the last move... I've tried HP ICE, King's Rock Fling, HP Grass, and Protect before but honestly the speed control and paralysis chance has worked for me way better, especially since I don't have discharge spam to power my Raichu up. Let me know what you think about this move. Finally, I decided after lengthy testing of other items and spreads that a boring (252/252/4) with Sash would be best. What good is surviving a move with less speed if I can just Sash it? I tried Mittens's Raichu (look raichu up on Nugget Bridge) but honestly, it doesn't work as well as this. What do you guys think?

Julia (Mantine) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 204 HP / 152 Def / 148 SpA / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wide Guard
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- Tailwind
So this is the one that I'm probably going to get the most suggestions on, but honestly this Mantine is flawless in my experience. If you aren't familiar with Mantine's stats, go look them up! 140 SpD is amazing, Gyarados can confirm that its typing is decent, Water absorb is an amazing ability in general, and finally... Its movepool... I was looking trough what pokemon I could use for my 6th slot, and I saw that Mantine is one of the few Pokemon with both Wide Guard and Tailwind. I also wanted a water type, so I thought why not. I'm as impressed as any other player would be on how well this thing performs... Anyway, Wide Guard and tailwind are there for obvious reasons. Ice beam is to fight back especially against Rock Sliders such as Garchomp and Lando-T. The EV spread is set so that I only take around half from a Rock Slide from Lando and I have a chance to OHKO with Ice Beam. Terrakion also doesn't appreciate Scald. Speaking of, I've thought about changing Scald to Air Slash. I need more anti-Grass coverage and with how common Politoed and Ludicolo are, I don't think it would be a bad idea. However, Scald is too good of a move to pass up and more useful in general. I've been thinking... Maybe Eviolite Mantyke is better? I'm pretty sure not because the damage output would be significantly lower, and I don't like that in such an offensive based metagame. Also what do you guys think about the item? I think lefties are always a good item choice. But Ive also thought of other items like Expert Belt or Mystic Water for KOs, Brightpowder for Hax, Lum berry, Safety Goggles, Sitrus, etc. Im leaning towards an offensive item for a bulkier EV spread. General question: how viable do you think this Mantine build is?

Jet Black (Landorus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 124 SpD
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
So these last two are the ones I need help with the most. Im pretty sure you know what a 252 Adamant Lando with this moveset can do, so I'll move on. Intimidate is the best thing this thing brings, and we all know why. I used to run Scarf, but I kept on wishing for a bulkier Landorus more often than not. However, I didn't want to lose my offensive presence with that. Assault Vest seemed natural. Its a very nice item and it makes me bulky on both defenses thanks to intimidate. The spread, honestly, was just me half-assing a spread that was fairly balanced in bulk.

Feel free to help me out with moves and spread, I have no idea what an AV Landorus T is supposed to look like haha. They're not very common in singles

Vicious (Heatran) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 120 HP / 64 Def / 252 SpA / 72 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- Protect
So while I was looking for a solid team, I played against a SubTran and noticed how good it was. Heat Wave is an amazing STAB with spread that lets me destroy certain teams. Flash Cannon obliterates fairies. Flash Fire lets be absorb predictable WoW or Flamethrower. Its a hard counter to pokemon like Charizard Y. An awesome fairy counter. My rule of thumb is, if Lucario can't, Heatran will. For some reason it works. With all of these things, if you re weak to this and I go behind a sub. It's gg.. Thats about it.... The spread is again... a very lazy attempt at a bulky/offensive Heatran. Please help me with this spread, I like max Sp Atk but I don't know what I should be surviving other than EQ (which won't happen ever). But this spread tbh, works pretty well... Ive survived 2 Mach Punches from Conkeldurrs, Waterfalls from Azumarrills, and Low Kicks from Kang/Bisharp. Maybe Im just lucky haha, but seriously if you could at least point me towards a better direction it'd be greatly appreciated. Do you agree with the item choice? Its there for reliable recovery from sub.

General Concerns:
Bulky Grass types: M Venusaur, Amoongus, Ludicolo
Water/Ground types: namely Swampert
Some Rain teams
Shadow Taggers (sometimes)
Trick Room (Sometimes)
Gimmick teams (lack of experience I think)
Priority sometimes but not usually
Item choice on this team... Who should get the Sitrus Berry?
Other pokemon that could fit well... I don't like using legends, do you have any suggestions to change them? Maybe Arcanine idk... :S

Let me know about any questions, comments, or suggestions. I can also show you replays if you want. Thanks!!!

PS: All of my team is nicked after the characters of this amazing show

 

[DaAwesomeDude1]

Yo dude, that's a really cool and unique team you've got there :) i'll go through each pokemon individually and give you my opinions on them
Lucario: Moveset wise it looks fine and the EV spread is p nice lol. It only survives Garchomp EQ if it's doubles damage and if it doesn't have LO as the item which i guess can come in handy at times even though Garchomp's usage has decreased quite a bit. I wouldn't really worry about Terrakion's EQ TBH cause you can outrun and kill and Terrakion can kill with CC anyways lol. Regardless very creative spread and i like it a lot :)
Noivern: IMO switcheroo isn't really necessary considering the games are really fast paced and most of time, your opponent will have their mega as one of their 4. I would go with Flamethrower over that slot to give you a better answer to steel types tbh
Raichu: Although I'm a huge fan of speed control, T Wave isn't really too necessary considering you've got tailwind already. I would recommend using Helping Hand over that slot
Mantine: If you're having trouble with bulky Grass Types, i would go with air slash over ice beam tbh since scald is STAB and it hits lando T anyways. I would switch Sitrus to mantine since passive recovery is kinda ehh unless you're using something like sub. The instant recovery is really nice on a bulky support mon like Mantine.
Landorus: Haven't really tested AV Lando so i don't have a good EV spread but it looks fine. I like Superpower on mine but you've got enough coverage for pokemon like Ferrothorn lol
Heatran: looks fine lol, only thing i would do is switch sitrus to mantine and the lefties to it

Yeah your team looks good dude, nothing too much i would change. Good luck with it and hope i helped :]

 

[lilbigman]

Yo dude, that's a really cool and unique team you've got there :) i'll go through each pokemon individually and give you my opinions on them
Lucario: Moveset wise it looks fine and the EV spread is p nice lol. It only survives Garchomp EQ if it's doubles damage and if it doesn't have LO as the item which i guess can come in handy at times even though Garchomp's usage has decreased quite a bit. I wouldn't really worry about Terrakion's EQ TBH cause you can outrun and kill and Terrakion can kill with CC anyways lol. Regardless very creative spread and i like it a lot :)
Noivern: IMO switcheroo isn't really necessary considering the games are really fast paced and most of time, your opponent will have their mega as one of their 4. I would go with Flamethrower over that slot to give you a better answer to steel types tbh
Raichu: Although I'm a huge fan of speed control, T Wave isn't really too necessary considering you've got tailwind already. I would recommend using Helping Hand over that slot
Mantine: If you're having trouble with bulky Grass Types, i would go with air slash over ice beam tbh since scald is STAB and it hits lando T anyways. I would switch Sitrus to mantine since passive recovery is kinda ehh unless you're using something like sub. The instant recovery is really nice on a bulky support mon like Mantine.
Landorus: Haven't really tested AV Lando so i don't have a good EV spread but it looks fine. I like Superpower on mine but you've got enough coverage for pokemon like Ferrothorn lol
Heatran: looks fine lol, only thing i would do is switch sitrus to mantine and the lefties to it

Yeah your team looks good dude, nothing too much i would change. Good luck with it and hope i helped :]

Great advice! I'll try all of these recommendations and get back to you soon! Yeah I thought about Helping Hand on Raichu, I don't know why I haven't been using it. Another thing, how do you feel about Taunt on Noivern? Not too sure about taking out Switcheroo on Noivern because I run support as well on it, but I'll give it a go anyway. What about Icy Wind on Mantine over Tailwind? Just curious. Thanks!!! :-)

 

[DaAwesomeDude1]

Great advice! I'll try all of these recommendations and get back to you soon! Yeah I thought about Helping Hand on Raichu, I don't know why I haven't been using it. Another thing, how do you feel about Taunt on Noivern? Not too sure about taking out Switcheroo on Noivern because I run support as well on it, but I'll give it a go anyway. What about Icy Wind on Mantine over Tailwind? Just curious. Thanks!!! :-)

Mantine gets icy wind wut....??? But yeah that's pretty much up to preference tbh. Icy Wind won't be too bad if you want the ice coverage it gives. They're both great forms of speed control though so that's honestly up to you. Personally i like Tailwind cause it gives a blanket boost to your pokemon and your opponent won't be able to gain their speed back just by switching out. Icy Wind is great tho too since it gives Ice coverage (somewhat) and the speed drop is permanent plus it isn't stopped by taunt. Taunt on Noivern is alright tbh since it stops Trick Room somewhat but yeah using specs taunt might not be the best so switcheroo might have to stay lol. Also no prob dude :]

 

[Heliosan]

Hey man, pretty interesting team you got there! I have a very soft spot for Mega Lucario because it was the first mega that I used when I started playing Pokemon competitively in XY. Anyways, here are some of my thoughts regarding the team.

Lucario: Check if you OHKO bulky Sylveons with +2 Bullet Punch, because that is concerning. Other than that, I think it's a pretty solid EV spread for a Swords Dance Mega Lucario.

Noivern: Umm, I think you are better off using Scarf Hydreigon or even Latios on this slot. Latios can provide Tailwind, Helping Hand, or even Reflect utility for your team and it does appreciate Lucario's ability to check Bisharp, Heatran, and Mega Kangaskhan.

Raichu: Raichu is a cool Pokemon for the Fake Out + Swords Dance combo, but I do recommend Hidden Power Ice over Thunder Wave so that you can have an additional Landorus-T and Mega Salamence check. Also helps your team against Thundurus, so that's another plus.

Mantine: Very interesting idea and I honestly think it's pretty good on this team. However, you do wanna check if your EV spread is optimized because you are investing into 4 stats which is inefficient at Level 50. Set it to level 50 and move the stats up and down. If you see that your stat is the same but you lowered your stat by 4 EVs, that means you are wasting 4 EVs there so I would move that to another stat. Here's a guide to help if you want: http://nuggetbridge.com/articles/making-good-ev-spreads/

Landorus-T: I love AV Landorus-T on this team because it helps provide Intimidate support and you have Lucario to check Bisharp. You are also investing into 4 stats here, so you are wasting EVs here.

Heatran: Your EV spread is also inefficient here because you are investing into 4 stats instead of 3 stats or 5 stats. I don't know how I feel about having Heatran on this team simply because it increases the Landorus-T problems and Raichu won't be able to check Scarf Landorus-T which is unfortunately kinda common these days.

However, one thing that I really wanna know is...how do you deal with Trick Room, especially Fake Out / Follow Me + Trick Room leads? You don't have too many ways to hit Cresselia really hard which could be a huge problem.

Let me know if you have any questions :)