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So I saw an interesting team recently in the SS OU forums that I thought I would like, a rain team involving Thunderus-T (Heavy-Duty Boots), Ferrothorn (Rocky Helm), Urshifu (LO), Aegislash (Specs), Pelilpper (Specs, Drizzle), and Barraskewda (Choice Band). I liked the team, however, I ran into a few issues. The team had trouble with pivoting and dealing with other sand teams and sun teams, and I was often forced to sack certain mons to go back to my attackers so my opponents couldn't knock out an essential mon like Pelipper, which I needed in order to keep the momentum of the team. There was also a distinct lack of immunity to electric, as only one mon could absorb the hits and the rest faced high damage from electric types and moves which is quite a shutdown as almost every team has at least 1 electric type, and a major issues with ground types, which run rampant in OU (I.E. Garchomp, Swampert, Excadrill, and Nidoking. I haven't run into Nidoking quite yet, but it's stats, movepool, and typing still make it difficult to beat, especially as it is commonly run with LO and Sheer Force, a heavy attack combo, and most of the team has nearly no resistance to threats like these).
TL;DR: I saw a team I like and ran into some issues with the mons in it, specifically typing and frailness.
Down to the specific performance issues with each mon, I found that Ferrothorn, Urshifu, Thundurus-T, and Specs Drizzle Pelipper did quite nicely (I was very surprised with Specs Pelipper's uses), however Aegislash and Barraswekda were very flawed. As previously mentioned, most mons were weak either by typing or stats to basically every single team I faced, with a rare 1 or 2 I faced in every 10 matches that weren't. Pelipper was fine by itself, however when it came to switching out Pelipper and its fellow mons were absolutely shredded almost every single time. There are not many, if any, safe switch-ins off of Pelipper (which is needed to setup drizzle relatively often to make Barraskewda work), as you will run into strong pivots like Regieleki and Tapu Koko (which also have a huge typing advange) or more HP and SP DEF bulkier mons that act as walls on the rainy duo and the other members of the team. Aegislash is specs as mentioned, that means one nuclear bomb of a move that an easily be avoided, and one switch to sword stance until it needs to be switched out again if it is really needed, and if not you are just sacking your only stand-alone response to Pheromosa, a strong pivot that isn't an electric type but whos movepool and speed with insane SP ATTACK and ATTACK stats make it difficult to beat. It makes this mon heavily situational and almost unusable until the endgame (or when all of your mons are knocked out because of the lack of coverage on major types, bad setup, etc.). One of the things I liked about it is that the set involved a speed spread (to out-speed what I can assume would otherwise be OHKO's when boosted on Aegislash like Tyranitar Choice Band and Heatran Utility).
Also TL;DR: Speaking on the performances of each mon in the team. Ferrothorn, Urshifu, Thundurus-T, and Spec Drizzle Pelipper did well, Aegislash and Barraskewda did not do nearly as well, if at all, at least by how I found myself using them. Many fragile parts of the team and weak type coverage make it unstable and difficult to win most matches. I liked the speed set on Aegislash.
So far, I have found some changes that can be made, and I would like some thoughts on it.
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Aegislash Rework:
Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 60HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 180 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Close Combat
- King's Shield
- Flash Cannon
I found that the speed on Aegislash worked, but the specs did not. I was often switching into super effective hits or bad situations because of the awkward switch-ins and SPEED + Specs, so I figured as long as I was doing so I might as well have the weakness policy, but I also thought that so long as I have Max EV SP ATTACK I could run less EVs on speed if I went timid nature, so I made the change. I also found a proper amount of speed to be slower or faster than certain Aegislash counters so that Aegislash could have a chance at the best situation possible to get off a good Shadow Ball or Flash cannon on SP DEF or type (possibly both) weak units, and Close Combat for annoying pivots/walls like Blissey. Although Aegislash has the timid nature, it's high ATTACK stat makes close combat an option, especially with the weakness policy, and Kings Shield makes waiting out a turn easy, plus you can test the waters some. I wasn't too sure of why the original set had a 40hp base outside of tanking hits, so when I got 32 leftover EVs after I used 252 in the SP ATTACK and 180 in SPEED I put 20 more into its HP and 8 into both SP DEF and DEF so it could tank more hits from mons it is weak to so it can get that one last nasty shot off to stall or win the game.
P.S.
I am not sure if I should take away the 20 EVs on the HP and give 10 more to SP DEF and DEF, what do you think?
Barraskewda < Seismitoad replacement:
Seismitoad @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 72 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Liquidation
As previously stated, I found that Barraskewda was weak and did not prove to be a good switch-in off of Pelipper into Drizzle most of the time, which is ironic considering that they are the team's main duo. I decided I would make some changes after several matches as I could see the fragility of Barraskewda and how it simply wouldn't work in this team, and went looking for a now Swift Swim mon. Searching the Smogon library, I found two (nearly three) mons that could fix exactly what I was looking for. The first mon I saw was Kingdra, who has great pairing with Swift Swim mons. After deep thinking and testing, I still found my electric and ground type issues prevailant, so I decided to look for bulkier mons and found the other two, Mega Swampert (the almost three mon I found) and Seismitoad (my new go-to. If mega Swampert still existed it would have been a very solid sub, however it is no longer a thing, and Swampert does no have access to Swift Swim outside of Mega. I went to the last mon, Seismitoad, and found that its stats and movepool suited the team very well. It's access to Poison Jab and Ice Punch make it quite strong against Flying, Fairy, Ground, and Dragon types, and it had a decent DEF and SP DEF to pair with a higher HP than Kingdra. It also gets a decent bit of stab with its Ground and Water typing on Earthquake and Liquidation. Although it doesn't have access to Flip Turn, it is still fairly useful when it comes to pivoting and the large movepool makes it a big threat to counters against the entire team.
As far as the stats went I didn't know what to put in many of the slots, I went around and tested in the Damage Calculator how effective Seismitoad would be against much of the meta and it proved its worth, being able to make great trades even with the other EVs set to 0 and having little weaknesses outside of Gross Knot (which is not commonly run by anything whatsoever right now) and Rillaboam, a definite hardcounter to Seismidtoad with a x4 weakness. The reasoning for the Assault Vest and 72 SPEED tie into the meta and Seismitoad's stats. As Seismitoad's typing and stats help with alleviating electric, ground, and rock type threats, it can also cover for Aegislash. The Ground and Water typing give it major resistance to fire threats, but should a situation come up where a ghost or dark type is a threat to it, I can set into Urshifu to counter it (this includes another Urshifu as it is the best counter to Aegislash in the meta, and Urshifu V Urshifu matchups can be common).
It is also meant to be able to be used away from just Drizzle, the level of tankiness I want this set to have stats should satisfy countering just about every major meta mon right now you can think of, so a balance of HP, ATTACK, SP DEF, and DEF. I wanted your opinions on Aegislash and Seismitoad, but mainly on what I should use for Seismitoad's stats. I am unfamiliar with the sets and stats of what Seismitoad is weak to, so it would be greatly appreciated if someone more experienced with custom mon sets and calculating could help.
Another P.S.
The 72 EVs in speed ensures that Seismitoad also outs-speeds or under-speeds Aegislash's counters so it can also get the best situation without Drizzle, plus the 72 EVs with SPEED and Swift Swim in Drizzle ensures that Seismitoad is still faster than Pheromosa, Regieleki is not a concern for Seismitoad so more EVs in speed are unnecessary.
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So I saw an interesting team recently in the SS OU forums that I thought I would like, a rain team involving Thunderus-T (Heavy-Duty Boots), Ferrothorn (Rocky Helm), Urshifu (LO), Aegislash (Specs), Pelilpper (Specs, Drizzle), and Barraskewda (Choice Band). I liked the team, however, I ran into a few issues. The team had trouble with pivoting and dealing with other sand teams and sun teams, and I was often forced to sack certain mons to go back to my attackers so my opponents couldn't knock out an essential mon like Pelipper, which I needed in order to keep the momentum of the team. There was also a distinct lack of immunity to electric, as only one mon could absorb the hits and the rest faced high damage from electric types and moves which is quite a shutdown as almost every team has at least 1 electric type, and a major issues with ground types, which run rampant in OU (I.E. Garchomp, Swampert, Excadrill, and Nidoking. I haven't run into Nidoking quite yet, but it's stats, movepool, and typing still make it difficult to beat, especially as it is commonly run with LO and Sheer Force, a heavy attack combo, and most of the team has nearly no resistance to threats like these).
TL;DR: I saw a team I like and ran into some issues with the mons in it, specifically typing and frailness.
Down to the specific performance issues with each mon, I found that Ferrothorn, Urshifu, Thundurus-T, and Specs Drizzle Pelipper did quite nicely (I was very surprised with Specs Pelipper's uses), however Aegislash and Barraswekda were very flawed. As previously mentioned, most mons were weak either by typing or stats to basically every single team I faced, with a rare 1 or 2 I faced in every 10 matches that weren't. Pelipper was fine by itself, however when it came to switching out Pelipper and its fellow mons were absolutely shredded almost every single time. There are not many, if any, safe switch-ins off of Pelipper (which is needed to setup drizzle relatively often to make Barraskewda work), as you will run into strong pivots like Regieleki and Tapu Koko (which also have a huge typing advange) or more HP and SP DEF bulkier mons that act as walls on the rainy duo and the other members of the team. Aegislash is specs as mentioned, that means one nuclear bomb of a move that an easily be avoided, and one switch to sword stance until it needs to be switched out again if it is really needed, and if not you are just sacking your only stand-alone response to Pheromosa, a strong pivot that isn't an electric type but whos movepool and speed with insane SP ATTACK and ATTACK stats make it difficult to beat. It makes this mon heavily situational and almost unusable until the endgame (or when all of your mons are knocked out because of the lack of coverage on major types, bad setup, etc.). One of the things I liked about it is that the set involved a speed spread (to out-speed what I can assume would otherwise be OHKO's when boosted on Aegislash like Tyranitar Choice Band and Heatran Utility).
Also TL;DR: Speaking on the performances of each mon in the team. Ferrothorn, Urshifu, Thundurus-T, and Spec Drizzle Pelipper did well, Aegislash and Barraskewda did not do nearly as well, if at all, at least by how I found myself using them. Many fragile parts of the team and weak type coverage make it unstable and difficult to win most matches. I liked the speed set on Aegislash.
So far, I have found some changes that can be made, and I would like some thoughts on it.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Aegislash Rework:
Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 60HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 180 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Close Combat
- King's Shield
- Flash Cannon
I found that the speed on Aegislash worked, but the specs did not. I was often switching into super effective hits or bad situations because of the awkward switch-ins and SPEED + Specs, so I figured as long as I was doing so I might as well have the weakness policy, but I also thought that so long as I have Max EV SP ATTACK I could run less EVs on speed if I went timid nature, so I made the change. I also found a proper amount of speed to be slower or faster than certain Aegislash counters so that Aegislash could have a chance at the best situation possible to get off a good Shadow Ball or Flash cannon on SP DEF or type (possibly both) weak units, and Close Combat for annoying pivots/walls like Blissey. Although Aegislash has the timid nature, it's high ATTACK stat makes close combat an option, especially with the weakness policy, and Kings Shield makes waiting out a turn easy, plus you can test the waters some. I wasn't too sure of why the original set had a 40hp base outside of tanking hits, so when I got 32 leftover EVs after I used 252 in the SP ATTACK and 180 in SPEED I put 20 more into its HP and 8 into both SP DEF and DEF so it could tank more hits from mons it is weak to so it can get that one last nasty shot off to stall or win the game.
P.S.
I am not sure if I should take away the 20 EVs on the HP and give 10 more to SP DEF and DEF, what do you think?
Barraskewda < Seismitoad replacement:
Seismitoad @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 72 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Liquidation
As previously stated, I found that Barraskewda was weak and did not prove to be a good switch-in off of Pelipper into Drizzle most of the time, which is ironic considering that they are the team's main duo. I decided I would make some changes after several matches as I could see the fragility of Barraskewda and how it simply wouldn't work in this team, and went looking for a now Swift Swim mon. Searching the Smogon library, I found two (nearly three) mons that could fix exactly what I was looking for. The first mon I saw was Kingdra, who has great pairing with Swift Swim mons. After deep thinking and testing, I still found my electric and ground type issues prevailant, so I decided to look for bulkier mons and found the other two, Mega Swampert (the almost three mon I found) and Seismitoad (my new go-to. If mega Swampert still existed it would have been a very solid sub, however it is no longer a thing, and Swampert does no have access to Swift Swim outside of Mega. I went to the last mon, Seismitoad, and found that its stats and movepool suited the team very well. It's access to Poison Jab and Ice Punch make it quite strong against Flying, Fairy, Ground, and Dragon types, and it had a decent DEF and SP DEF to pair with a higher HP than Kingdra. It also gets a decent bit of stab with its Ground and Water typing on Earthquake and Liquidation. Although it doesn't have access to Flip Turn, it is still fairly useful when it comes to pivoting and the large movepool makes it a big threat to counters against the entire team.
As far as the stats went I didn't know what to put in many of the slots, I went around and tested in the Damage Calculator how effective Seismitoad would be against much of the meta and it proved its worth, being able to make great trades even with the other EVs set to 0 and having little weaknesses outside of Gross Knot (which is not commonly run by anything whatsoever right now) and Rillaboam, a definite hardcounter to Seismidtoad with a x4 weakness. The reasoning for the Assault Vest and 72 SPEED tie into the meta and Seismitoad's stats. As Seismitoad's typing and stats help with alleviating electric, ground, and rock type threats, it can also cover for Aegislash. The Ground and Water typing give it major resistance to fire threats, but should a situation come up where a ghost or dark type is a threat to it, I can set into Urshifu to counter it (this includes another Urshifu as it is the best counter to Aegislash in the meta, and Urshifu V Urshifu matchups can be common).
It is also meant to be able to be used away from just Drizzle, the level of tankiness I want this set to have stats should satisfy countering just about every major meta mon right now you can think of, so a balance of HP, ATTACK, SP DEF, and DEF. I wanted your opinions on Aegislash and Seismitoad, but mainly on what I should use for Seismitoad's stats. I am unfamiliar with the sets and stats of what Seismitoad is weak to, so it would be greatly appreciated if someone more experienced with custom mon sets and calculating could help.
Another P.S.
The 72 EVs in speed ensures that Seismitoad also outs-speeds or under-speeds Aegislash's counters so it can also get the best situation without Drizzle, plus the 72 EVs with SPEED and Swift Swim in Drizzle ensures that Seismitoad is still faster than Pheromosa, Regieleki is not a concern for Seismitoad so more EVs in speed are unnecessary.
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