Mrs. Dreavus-Licky

Hello Neverused! This is my first RMT and I feel my team is worthy of the judgement and critique of the masterminds behind the division :) You may have seen me around Showdown with the various Darth Leavanny Alts. This team has really intrigued me with its success in battling, but the majority of its battles have been against the joke teams of Showdown NU, so I want to see if it can really shine. I have been working on a Misdreavus/Lickilicky defensive core for some time now and the results from it are awesome. I will start officially laddering on a new alt after a few rates and improvements from this community, but with the team building/spot testing I hit 1765 (on my alt that has included several fail teams). In fact, this team only ever lost when extreme hax occured or it was just my stupidity - It was never the teams fault itself. Now enough rambling, let's get to the team!

The Core:



Misdreavus @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP /252 Def / 4 Speed
Nature: Bold
-Wil-O-Wisp
-Shadow Ball
-Taunt
-Pain Split

Behold, the MVP. Leading the team to victory almost every match - the perfect combination of beauty and bulk. A burned physical attacker is usually useless for the rest of the match, and as the rest of my team is more specially defensive, WoW provides invaluable support. Idk how many times Misdreavus has stayed in on Skuntank's pursuit and rendered it fodder. Shadow Ball is for faster taunt users and for finishing of opponents-but that's about all I use it for. Taunt is for stealth rock leads and screwing over Alomomola (LOL). Pain split is her only recovery and with all the switching Misdreavus causes, she gets it off quite frequently. Her mere presence in the team leaves the opponent wary of using normal, fighting, or ground type moves. Spin Blocking is also a plus. The EVs are for maximum physical bulk, and I like to avoid self-speed ties.The only neg about her is the shaky accuracy of Wow. Fairing excellent against the metagame, I hope to see her pop up more often.



Lickilicky @ Leftovers
Trait: Oblivious
EVs: 252 HP / 4 At / 252 SpD
Nature: Careful
-Protect
-Wish
-Heal Bell
-Dragon Tail

The mother of the team, Lickilicky has a pretty basic role, but fits in perfectly with the team. Wish heals itself and the team, which is essential since two of my Pokes use an eviolite. Protect allows itself to live and continue nurturing, and also helps scout for rogue special attackers with focus blast-its #1 enemy. As this team is more bulky than offensive heal, bell allows me to not fear toxic and also wakes up my Rester. Dragon Tail is for the thugs who think they can set up on mamma, and works nicely with stealth rocks. With two ghost types on my team, Lickilicky rarely dies by fighting move, due to paranoia alone. She also takes all the super effective ghost type moves aiming towards them - they got each other's backs. The only problem I face with her is when she is left in a one on one scenario at the end of the match, because then she is useless. I don't really know what to do about that, though.

Core Comments: Together Lickilicky and Misdreavus stop a gigantic portion of the tier and by the end of their fun, my sweepers have it easy. Some threats to the core are Rapidash because of it's immunity to Wow and any special attacker with focus blast or Hp fighting, because Misdreavus' spdef and Licky's Def just don't cut it in those situations. Both of these problems become solved with the next pokemon, thankfully :)

The Back-Up:



Mantine @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Nature: Modest
-Scald
-Air Slash
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

It deeply pains my heart to once have taken Mantine for granted. I thought its offensive stats and defensive stats were just too okay to excel in the tier, but boy was I dead wrong. Maintaining wonderful bulk with its marvelous SpDef and with its HP investment, and providing nice offensive capabilities with the current investment, Mantine flat out works the RestTalk stat. His stealth rock weakness is negated with a simple switch into a water type attack, his rock and electric weaknesses are stopped cold by his teamates, and his coverage offensively is almost flawless. The burn and flinch side affects are lovely as well. Like I mentioned, He also compliments my core's weaknesses greatly.The EVs are just standard bulky offensive. Why I never tried Mantine earlier I will never know.

The Offense:



Piloswine @ Eviolite
Trait: Oblivious
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Att / 4 Def
Nature: Adamant
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Ice Shard
-Toxic

Piloswine, on this team, is the best and most reliable stealth rocker. With two ghost types, mantine, and a sap sipper, the opponent fears to use any super effective attack on him, making stealth rocks happen very often. Its typing makes mantine usable, and offers another excellent dual STAB combo. Earthquake is to hit stuff, Ice shard is my back up revenge killing plan, and toxic is for the physical walls that escape Misdreavus. Lickilicky keeps it alive long enough to make late game (One of the reasons I don't use use Piloswine very much). It's main focus is to set up stealth rocks, so if there are any better suggestions I will gladly take them.



Haunter @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Speed
Nature: Modest
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb
-Thunderbolt
-Giga Drain

I like haunter as a scarfer; it outspeed all unboosted Pokemon and even most boosted Pokemon, and KOs. Its nice typing also adds paranoia to the opponent, and fear of the Sub-Disable set has caused some strange switches on their part. The STAB Combo and Thunderbolt get their fair usage, but recently I find Giga Drain to be kinda useless. All I use it against is seismitoad who Mantine can handle anyways. Im thinking trick or HP Ground in its spot but trick has bitten me in the butt before and I already have earthquake and Nature Power on other Pokes so It would be kinda overkill. I want to know what you guys think on my last slot. In fact, any other scarfer recommendations would be nice, as long as they get the job done like haunter.



Sawsbuck @ leftovers
Trait: Sap Sipper
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Speed
Nature: Jolly
-Substitute
-Horn Leech
-Return
-Nature Power

Sawsbuck is probably the least important and impactive member of the group. I basically just needed a pokemon to hit stuff, and after trying almost every pokemon in existence in this spot, I chose him! Sub Seeding pokemon were really annoying before I put him in, so the problem was solved. I like substitute because when he gains a sap sipper boost, it almost always means a switch on their part. Also any status avoiding can be game changing, and Sawsbuck fills that role perfectly. Horn Leech and Return are STAB and Nature Power hits dem Steels. Any suggestions for something that can hit stuff better will be appreciated.

Closing Comments:
Thanks for taking your time to read my RMT! Please comment and tell me if im doing this completely wrong. I realize my EV spreads are boring, but I am bad with fancify-ing them so suggestions on that part would be nice too. I think I will ladder high (I want top twenty) with this team so I would really like your help. credit for the pics goes to pokemon db :)
 
This team looks quite impressive and supports eachother well. I think that haunter loses it's potential alongside misdreavus, as they are both ghosts with levetitate. If you are going to stay with haunter, replce giga drain with trick. Giga drain is a bit weak, and haunter can't take hits to benefit from the heals. If you want a replacement, i'll list a few i have used:
Girafirig (no one expects it to have trick, plus immune to ghost, removing a big weakness)
Gardevoir (no explenation required)
Rotom (same as gardevoir)
Cacturne (Also very unnexpected, and breaks walls, but slow)

For this team, though, i would suggest Rotom-S because volt-switch could benefit the team well

If you want something that hits stuff out of the box, try sawk, pinsir, raichu, zebstrika,dodrio,braviary... (basically, just keep looking, sawsbuck seems weak to me)

Also, give your piloswine thick fat. immediately. It gives you a resistance to the bolt-beam combo, where oblivious gives you immunity to the least competetive move ever (next to splash of course)
 

WhiteDMist

Path>Goal
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The above user was pretty much on point with his suggestions. I think I'll base my rate off most of those suggestions, since they improve your team pretty well.

Scarf Haunter doesn't fit with this team because you already have a Ghost-type and stacking weaknesses to Skuntank is a big no-no. I won't even give you suggestions to make Haunter better (because you aren't using your moveslots to their fullest), but I will completely agree with chalenged's suggestion of Scarf Rotom-S in that slot. You still maintain a great check to Sawk and Gorebyss, but you gain a momentum engine with Volt Switch. More importantly, you gain another check to Flying types, since you basically rely on Piloswine to handle them effectively (Misdreavus lacks reliable recovery and is too slow to prevent itself from taking a Brave Bird/Hurricane).

Piloswine needs Thick Fat. No questions about it. Lickilicky would also prefer Body Slam instead of Dragon Tail for the increase in power and the ability to break more Subs. Dragon Tail simply invites Sub sweepers to set up on you and win pretty easily.

Now, your team is basically defensive in nature. However, you lack anything but Stealth Rocks for residual damage. Since you have no real win condition, you rely simply on pelting your opponent with average at best damage. Simply put, that means that Sawsbuck needs more power. If you want to keep Sub, then run Double Edge at the very least for the power increase. However, you can also afford to run Swords Dance instead of Substitute when you earn the same free turns from scaring out the opposing Poke. This gives you a dedicated sweeper for when you are done wearing down your opponent's team. Btw, your team is also quite vulnerable to Ice-types like Regice and Articuno. The power boost gives you a better chance to stop them before they take down too much of your team, though you will probably have to rely on both it and Piloswine to truly handle them.

Changes:

Rotom-S>Haunter
Piloswine: Thick Fat>Oblivious
Lickilicky: Body Slam>Dragon Tail
Sawsbuck: Swords Dance>Substitute; -OR- Double Edge>Return

Rotom-S @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Air Slash
- Trick
 

watashi

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World Defender
adding on to whitedmist's suggestions, another option is to run swords dance over nature power. return and horn leech already provide excellent coverage, and substitute already beats sucker punch users.

piloswine would benefit from running icicle spear over ice shard. although priority is nice, piloswine really needs a more powerful option against pokemon such as braviary and torterra in order to do adequate damage to them.

your mantine set doesn't really accomplish anything since it's attacks have really low base power and won't doing enough damage to most targets. i suggest moving the special attack evs to defense to take care of threats such as golurk and sawk better, in case misdreavus gets worn down throughout the match.
 
all the rates given before are good, but your team still wants a really good switch-in for flying-type pokemon. using rotom-s will provide a check, but it won't be coming in safely on an attack. misdreavus could take a hit, but it won't be doing much back and it is prone to getting worn down by intelligent players. using golem instead of piloswine can help you with switching into strong flying-type attacks better. it can afford to fit toxic in its last moveslot too if you liked having it on piloswine.

misdreavus could also use a spread of 232 hp / 252 def / 24 spe to outpace adamant max spe torterra.

Golem @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Toxic / Sucker Punch
 
Thanks very much guys I will test every change and see what works best. And my Piloswine does have thick fat..... idk why i put oblivious lol.
 

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