SM PU Mountain Peak

[MZ]

Introduction

Raiza-Today at 4:44 PM
cool team

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Hi guys, I'm here to share a cool team just for the sake of sharing it. This was the second team I built after the new drops, and it ended up being a really fun showcase for the two better ones without me needing to fiddle with it for several test games, so that was cool. Aurorus offense and Spiritomb offense have both become really interesting trends since the tier shifts and this kind of ended up predating both of those trends in an interesting way, even if the sets aren't entirely standard. It also saw exhibition use, something that I didn't really expect but Raiza ended up taking to it so yeah, Italian approved . That's it I guess, the team is fun, PU is really fun, enjoy a fun PU team.
Also I legit couldn't think of a name/theme for this because it's just "fun team to show off", so random PMD music that I like is gonna have to do.

Teambuilding Process

The original concept wasn't actually around Aurorus. It was as simple as "Spiritomb seems like a good spinblocker, let's try this out". Plus it messes with Fighting-types so that's a plus. It's not really as much of a core as I hoped, but still works as a place to start.

Ferroseed had the Fighting weakness covered, but I wanted to get a Fire check in there as soon as possible and Miltank seemed like a fun mon because I knew that everyone would be spamming Aurorus since it had just dropped. This meant the hazard game and a lot of the defensive stuff would be taken care of, and I could start looking at what offensive mons could fit in.

Finally cool team gets its chill. Aurorus with Spikes support is just awesome, it threatens a ton of Defoggers like Altaria and the Oricorios and it generally just punishes the hell out of teams. Defensively it doesn't really do all that much for the team, but it's there and can tank random hits and that always helps. Its place is really just nuking things as much as possible before going down and getting really whittled by hazards since I didn't want to fit a Spinner.

This is where the building gets a little weird admittedly. The thought process was that Choice Scarf Primeape would make a solid cleaner with all this residual damage and Swanna pressures a lot of the same stuff as Aurorus (things like Eelektross) so they'd work well as a wallbreaking duo while I also had some hazard removal just in case. Defensively this also isn't doing a ton, but extra Dark and Fighting checks can't hurt. After like two battles I realized that Scarf Primeape just wasn't fun because everyone was using Spiritomb at the moment, so I just flipped the roles which ended up being surprisingly great. Primeape and Aurorus both hit each others' checks hard which is great when you have U-Turn and Spikes, and Choice Scarf Swanna is practically as good of a cleaner. And that's pretty much it, the synergy doesn't look quite as solid on paper as it feels when you actually get into a match, but this team really delivers on the promise of some wholesome Spikes goodness.

In-Depth

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Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Brave Nature
- Pursuit / Foul Play
- Sucker Punch
- Psychic
- Will-O-Wisp

Spiritomb wasn't fun until I discovered Aguav Tomb. Now it might be my most used mon post-shifts because it's just so useful and enjoyable, so easy to just switch into random things and trap or wisp or whatever. So this is almost standard Spiritomb, it spinblocks and checks Fighting-types and can trap things, and it's really just a glue mon. In fact the only reason it's up first here is that this is where I started, it might've been more cohesive to swap places with this and Aurorus but that's not how the team went so whatever. The big deviation here is Psychic, and I admit it's not my favorite thing. However, it is really necessary for Gurdurr, which otherwise basically just wins unless they play really bad with it. Gurdurr still isn't an especially fun matchup, but Psychic is the only thing that makes it doable and I should thank Raiza for figuring that out during our exhibition testing. Whether you drop Pursuit or Foul Play doesn't matter that much imo, I mostly played without Foul Play but Pursuit isn't something this needs to click all that much (Sensu isn't that scary anyway and all the Mesprits run Colbur Gleam now) so either way really.

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Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 128 Def / 132 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect

Standard boring Ferroseed sets up Spikes, switches into things that can't hit it that well, and ends up getting abused kinda hard by the other half of the tier. Honestly after 1-2 Spikes this mostly just gets played as death fodder that gets to have annoying chip damage with Iron Barbs, this team is offensive enough where you have to sack often and Ferroseed is often the least useful for late-game. It also gets doubled out of a lot, most of the team really really likes coming in on things that come in on Ferroseed (see: getting Primeape in on Eelektross, getting Swanna or Spiritomb in on a Fighting-type, etc.). That's not really that useful info but like, it's standard Ferroseed. There's really nothing to say about this, just Spike, check a couple of things, and die because it's not a super bulky team that can afford to keep this around for a while. If we had Qwilfish, that's what would be here.

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Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 84 SpD / 72 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Double-Edge
- Milk Drink

Okay, so this one gets weird. Miltank works as a faster rocker that keeps Fire-types in check and is generally fat for loads of annoying things, but I couldn't make it too offensive or things like Aurorus and Alolan Raticate would get too annoying. The result is a weird hybrid of defensive and moofensive, with Z-Double Edge and some decent Speed investment but no secondary attack or Scrappy and one of the weirder EV spreads I've made recently. It's faster than Adamant Alolan Raticate and Hitmonchan and the relevant calcs for the defense split are down below. Ultimately it's mildly arbitrary, but the idea was to keep Aurorus and Pyroar in check while having some solid physical bulk and that generally works. The Z-move has fun utility against Knock Off user and also gives this just enough offensive presence to stop certain things from totally abusing you, and in general is something that I think more defensive Miltank could benefit from even though Seismic Toss is still solid. It won't OHKO things, never expect that, but the extra pressure this adds rarely fails to nab surprise KOs. This also isn't a perfect check to a lot of things, Magmortar/Abomasnow have Focus Blast and Pyroar can 2HKO with Specs Hyper Voice, but it gets the job done and the team is offensive enough to work around those things (for example, Focus Blast isn't super free here and Pyroar has to worry about Spiritomb coming in).

252+ Atk Life Orb Hustle Raticate-Alola Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 104+ Def Miltank: 121-144 (30.7 - 36.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Archeops Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 104+ Def Miltank: 151-178 (38.3 - 45.1%) -- 9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ SpA Choice Specs Aurorus Blizzard vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Thick Fat Miltank: 147-174 (37.3 - 44.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after hail damage (slower if Modest)
252 SpA Choice Specs Pyroar Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Thick Fat Miltank: 144-169 (36.5 - 42.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Oricorio-Sensu Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Miltank: 178-210 (45.1 - 53.2%) -- 32.8% chance to 2HKO (spam Milk Drink vs Scarf)

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Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Rock]

It's so weird having Aurorus back, even weirder when the tier doesn't have Piloswine to keep this thing in check. Strong wallbreaker, spams Hyper Voice 99% of the time, no regrets from using this. It used to be Snow Warning Blizzard, and I should note that that is mildly stronger with Hail chip damage taken into account, but Raiza pointed out that the rest of the team doesn't really like getting chipped by Hail so there really wasn't much purpose in keeping Snow Warning. Also it makes facing the random Alolan Sandslash much more painful. This is the primary wallbreaker, the thing you're pivoting/doubling into, and it often goes down pretty early thanks to this team having no removal, but it rarely feels like it dies too early. Oh and I should say that Flash Cannon is wholly useless and could be something else but there isn't really anything else so what're you gonna do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hidden Power Rock is the new move because it beats Articuno without getting Pressure stalled like Ancientpower.

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Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Gunk Shot

This is probably the weirdest pick just because Passimian is broken so why not that. The answer is pretty much just Speed, Primeape is crucial for being the fast non-scarfed member even if 95 doesn't really seem like that much on paper. As for the set itself, Fist Plate is pretty great. Choiced Fighting-types really took a hit recently but the ability to not be totally screwed if Spiritomb comes in on a Close Combat is huge, and you really can chip it and other Ghosts quite fast with Spikes and U-Turning into something else. The surprise factor is definitely going to take a hit because, well, people are reading this, but that's not all that defines this set. Fist Plate Close Combat is also surprisingly strong, like it's favorable to 2HKO Gastrodon on the switchin with 1 Spike and almost guaranteed if you also have Stealth Rock up, and that's nothing to sneeze at. It hits everything hard, it pivots out of pretty much any bad matchup without too much trouble, and it goes really well with Aurorus which abuses pretty much all of this thing's counters. This is another thing I feel like people would really take to if it saw more usage along with Aguav Tomb and defensive Z-Miltank.
I should also mention that Encore is totally worth considering but Gunk Shot is really nice for Clefairy and I don't want to drop that. It would help a decent bit versus CroTomb though so that's something.

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Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Brave Bird
- Hurricane
- Liquidation
- Defog

Spiritomb might be the technical glue, but Swanna is really what keeps the team together. It can be the cleaner, it can be the revenge killer, it can switch into a decent amount of problems, and it can even break versus certain teams just due to how annoying a strong Brave Bird can be. And please, if you're reading this and plan to use the team, don't make it special Scarf Swanna. That set is bad and you should feel bad. Hurricane just misses too much, the only reason it's here is because it's useful for revenge killing random physically bulky things like Gurdurr. Liquidation could probably be Surf, but this thing is mostly physical and it does more vs Eelektross and is more spammable than Surf when you're physically invested so I think it works. Defog isn't going to be needed in most matchups, but if you really need to get rid of Stealth Rock for Aurorus or remove some Toxic Spikes you might end up clicking it. Besides, there's nothing else you really want to consider. USUM tutors really made this thing awesome, and never underestimate the random power that Choice Scarf Swanna can pull out.

Replays

Unfortunately I just really didn't save a lot of them because exhibition stuff, but these ones are fairly interesting at least
Raiza vs ict for exhibition - Raiza admits he kinda ended up choking the end of this away but this was still a really solid match. The core of Altaria+Lanturn is not fun for the team to face and ict played well at preventing strong pivoting between Primeape and Aurorus. I'm a little sad that this team is 0-1 in tournaments, but it's still amazing so w/e.
vs Twix - Not as much to say about this one, just a fun game that shows off how awesome Aguav Spiritomb is.
vs Rwby - A good example of "sometime this team just ends up working for no reason". Also Psychic Spiritomb puts in that work.

Threatlist

Every threat is one that you have the potential to play around. This is a team without a perfect defensive backbone, plenty of things will break you, don't expect to be walling everything out. That being said, I think there are a few things that are ultimately just more annoying to have to deal with or at least worth nothing "you should play extra well vs these things". Personally, the only ones I consider to be really major, problematic annoyances are CroTomb and OTR Alolan Exeggutor.

- This is going to volt on you, you can't stop that. Miltank or making sure Ferroseed isn't getting Flamethrower'd is all you can really do about that. Fortunately, Aurorus wears it down, Swanna wears it down, Primeape annihilates it if you can double out of Ferroseed, and Z-Double Edge chips it nicely. Annoying, but not quite devastating.

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- Yeah when Miltank is the main Fire switchin they're just going to be a pain. Limit their switchins with hazards and abuse the fact that Swanna or Primeape get to get off a real good hit after they kill something. Spiritomb can also trap choiced Pyroar if it Hyper Voices Miltank so that's a plus.

- CroTomb kinda just fucks it up :/ you can handle it if you play really well with Swanna, Aurorus, and Spikes but yikes.

- Merely solid vs this rather than ridiculous now that Spiritomb has Psychic, but I feel like it's worth a mention simply because it made me put Psychic on Spiritomb which is just gross.

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- These are the two totally random low usage mons that coincidentally end up screwing this team because PU just has too many threats to keep track of. With an Agility or Trick Room up they outspeed everything and you can kinda play around their attacking moves but not super well.

Importable

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Spiritomb @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Brave Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Psychic
- Will-O-Wisp

Ferroseed @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 128 Def / 132 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect

Miltank @ Normalium Z
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 84 SpD / 72 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Double-Edge
- Milk Drink

Aurorus @ Choice Specs
Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon

Primeape @ Fist Plate
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Gunk Shot

Swanna @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Brave Bird
- Hurricane
- Liquidation
- Defog

Shoutouts

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I like a ton of people on this site, but not enough to want to tag all of them. That's what comes of having over 4 years and over 4500 messages under your belt, and I'm in too many communities to want to go through the people from all of them. If I didn't tag you I still probably like you but this really doesn't need to get super overblown and being part of like 5 separate communities would make this an absolute nightmare. If you're in the PU/AG/OM/RMT/BS/Chess group, I probably like you. If you're on a team tour with me, I probably like you. If your username isn't Dundies, I probably like you. But I'm just going to tag a few extra people who I have more to say about than "I like being around you".
HJAD if some people make me wanna close discord and pretend I'm not around, you incite the opposite reaction
Racool you're way too harsh on yourself and deserve something nice, even if the best I can do is give your brain an extra infusion of dopamine from seeing an alert from a shoutout
Magnemite you smell
Moosical didn't really expect to get drafted for WPL but this has been a seriously fun tour so thanks for getting me into that
Raseri same as above but for NUPL. Getting into two random team tours with nice managers, fun teams, and picking up totally new metas that ended up being highly enjoyable has been a real treat
false. I know how much annoyance you have to deal with on a daily basis, so here's another pointless alert on something you won't read
IronBullet you know where to move this ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ e: damn i think Sun did it