My first NU team

[Aasgier]

This is my first NU team, used for past month in NU. I mostly started playing Pokémon to know what the hell others were talking about, as I completely lost track of the little Pocket Monsters after the 3rd generation and in the games and chats I'm around many talked just too often about Pokémon. And besides, the game is pretty fun.

Teambuilding Process:

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Well, what does a team need? It was the first question I asked myself, and then I went quickly with this pair of Pokémon. I had read some Warstories and a large brunt of the NU analysis considering my experience with Pokémon games (zero), and went with this pair.

Regirock sets up hazards, is a physical tank with that monstrous defence and Rocky Helmet. It could support my team with Stealth Rock and with a decent attack still deal a lot of damage against other leads, and with huge bulk, return later in the game to wall something. However, it's lack of recovery outside of Drain Punch could be a problem, but Rocky Helmet usually deals more damage than Leftovers can recover. Still, I'm considering Leftovers again since Cinccino went to RU.
Gardevoir was a moderately fast, powerful attacker with many options and possibilities. I just decided to run three attacks and support my team with another move, though it later became four attacks.

Now, I initially added Noctowl. It could take those annoying Spores from Amoongus and whatnot with impunity, aside from having a huge special bulk and a grass resist - pretty useful if you are playing on Pokémon online where Contrary Serperior appeared to run rampant. It could also Toxic the opposing team well enough.

Then, after a bit of messing around and playing a few games with semi-random additions, like trying to Baton Pass Flame Charges with Flareon to my relatively slow team, I added Gurdurr to become a permanent addition. A secondary physical tank, and creating a win condition by setting up a few Bulk Up's.
　

Misdreavus was a bulky spinblocker, which could act as a cleric and it did so for a very long time, until Musharna annoyed me too much, and then I replaced Will-O-Wisp and Heal Bell with Taunt and Pain Split.

Then, I looked at this team, messed around with a variety of Pokémon. I realized that I really needed a powerful Grass attack on this team, preferably physical. I needed something which needed to fill the countless small gaps in my team (and a few bigger ones) and be capable of carrying Magic Coat because of Prankster abusers like Liepard which could annoy this team to death. All this combined, led to Leavanny taking in the last spot. STAB Leaf Blade, STAB X-Scissor hit many threats for SE damage and allow it to rape Sun Teams as well as OHKO'ing Ludicolo. Magic Coat would help me dealing with other annoying threats, like Spike users (though all Spike users not named Cacturn can hit Leavanny for SE damage), and the ever-annoying Prankster, and Knock Off has its own merits, especially knocking off Eviolite which is always useful, and it hits switch-ins which it could normally not harm normally, like Torkoal, Swellow and Braviary, by removing their items, which is something they all don't like. Screwing over walls like Alomomola, Bastiodon and Probopass with the combination of Magic Coat and Knock Off before closing in for the kill, is also pretty helpful at times.

Then, I joined Pokémon Showdown. Here, it became clear that Noctowl wasn't cutting it in NU, even moreso with Contrary Serperior being appearantly unreleased and therefore not used at all, and I replaced it with SubBU Braviary, which also created a second win condition for my team.

Regirock @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Atk / 40 Def
Impish Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge
- Drain Punch
Hazard setter and physical wall. Checks annoying fast things like Cinccino and other fast physical sweepers, and is the only Poké with a Rock type attack in my team. But that’s all it does, and he tends to do his job nicely. It’s even bulky enough to set up Stealth Rock for a second time if necessary. Stone Edge is stab, Drain Punch is there for healing and Earthquake is there for coverage considering the lack of Ground attacks on my team, except for the only recently added Hidden Power [Ground] on Gardevoir.

Gardevoir (F) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Trace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Signal Beam
- Hidden Power [Ground]

General combatant. Great coverage, and she’s doing pretty well on my team, probably one of the strongest.
She’s quite useful and breaks down stuff, but she isn’t that fast which can be pretty annoying. She also revenges most non-scarfed weather sweepers with her Trace ability, and I use her to switch in on Flash Fire/Volt Absorb/Water Aborb/Regenerator/whatever pokes as well. Her lack of speed is a downside, but I like to switch moves while not having to switch (as I don’t have a spinner!) which is why I don’t have a Scarf. Expert Belt is used because Life orb recoil hurts a lot and Gardevoir doesn't have reliable recovery, and she can hit 11 types for SE damage anyway.

Gurdurr (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Mach Punch
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
An awesome physical sweeper I chose rather blindly as I didn’t even know what a Gurdurr actually was for quite a while, even while using it. But the builder proved his worth, which is what counts.
He completely rips down most walls and other stuff and it’s incredibly useful. I don’t know what to write about him, as he doesn’t need much explanation otherwise. Mach Punch is the only priority on my team, Drain Punch is his recovery, Ice Punch is the only Ice move my team has access to, which is very useful to kill dragons and stuff. Bulk Up is there to boost against non-threatening things. Guts is there to absorb burns and stuff. I thought about Iron Fist, but switching in a predicted Thunder Wave or Will-O-Wisp is always a good ability to have.

Misdreavus (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Def / 24 Spd
Bold Nature
- Pain Split
- Taunt
- Shadow Ball
- Power Gem
Spin Blocker, bulky, whatever. Shadow Ball as STAB, Power Gem to hit anything that needs to get hit, like Charizard, Torkoal and Articuno. I considered Thunderbolt (to hit Wartortle as well as still KO'ing Charizard after Rocks) and Hidden Power Fighting (for unresisted coverage) in this slot, but the existance of Articuno and the temporary presence of Hail teams, which takes both with ease, did not permit it. Pain Split for a form of recovery, which is quite necessary, and Taunt to deal with those annoying Musharna's as well as other set-up sweepers.
I'm not so sure about the EV's here though, I buffed both defences and especially SDef because of Eviolite and Musharna, and dumped the remainder in SAtk.

Leavanny (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Leaf Blade
- X-Scissor
- Magic Coat
- Knock Off
Used for support and checking several dangerous threats, either by damaging them to the point Gurdurr can kill them with priority, either by killing them herself. Taking a random Ground- or Grass move with her ×4 resists, bouncing back status moves (and hazards to a lesser extent) with Magic Coat, knocking off Eviolite and other items, and being capable of OHKO'ing or very heavily damaging Golurk and a variety of other threats roaming in the tier.
With Hail in the tier, I thought about Overcoat over Chlorophyll, but since Snover is pushed to RU, I'll keep Chlorophyll for anti-sun team purposes to check an additional batch of threats. Swarm won't be that useful since Leavanny is rarely below 33% HP. Either she walls because of resisted moves, taking barely any damage, or she gets outright KO'd by a SE-move.

Regice @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SAtk / 8 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Former members

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Braviary (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 192 SDef / 64 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Bulk Up
- Roost
- Substitute
SubBU set. She replaced Noctowl, and I'm satisfied with Braviary's performance outside of being uncapable of taking a Spore. But with Amoongus gone, this is less of an issue.
Braviary can set up on many threats around and packs a lot of power. She is also very bulky, being easily capable of tanking hits left and right, even many super-effective hits won't take her down, which is always good.
On the other hand, sometimes I overestimate the bulk of this bird, which leads to a fainted Braviary at times.
　

Threats:
Several fast sweepers, like Charizard or Sawsbuck, can bust through my team with relative ease unless they switched in on the wrong moves or don't run maximum speed. Rain teams can also pose a problem especially as Gardevoir can't OHKO Ludicolo if it did not take significant prior damage. On the other hand, Ludicolo can only safely come in on Misdreavus and Regirock (though it doesn't really like to take a Stone Edge) because others can hit it for a lot of damage.

Anyway, considering the win rate of about 50-65% I achieve with this team, it isn't that good, so I'm pretty sure there are things I can improve.

EDIT: Fixes in post, and finally updated Regirock's moveset since I swapped Thunder Wave for Ice Punch a week ago.

 

[jmorris]

Hey there Aasgier that's not a bad team you've got there, hopefully I can help you out a bit.

For starters, changing Regirock's Rocky Helmet for Leftovers will help it out a lot more, as it will add to its bulk and will make it last much longer than Rocky Helmet would. As most of your team is quite slow and a few rely on setting up to deal significant damage choosing Thunder Wave over Drain Punch would be a big help, allowing Regirock to cripple any switch-ins after it has set up Stealth Rock. This will make it a lot easier for the rest of your team to do their job while your opponent deal with the paralysis.

As for the EV spread, Regirock doesn't really need investment in Defense as it is already huge so try something like: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

This would be much more worth your while as it can take some neutral special attacks better while still having decent bulk thanks to max HP and Special Defense.

In essence:
Rocky Helmet -> Leftovers
Drain Punch -> Thunder Wave
252 HP / 4 Def/ 252 SpD

 

[Punchshroom]

Yo Aasgier, this team has potential. I'll just be making some nitpicks on your team choices.

First off, Regirock. I won't question the use of Rocky Helmet even with the departure of Cincinno, since it can come in handy against recoil attackers and at least you've some recovery in Drain Punch. What I will question though is Earthquake. What are you gonna use that for? Garbodor? It's gonna set up hazards regardless. Electric-types? Stone Edge hits most just as hard (EQ can't hit Rotoms and Eelektross!), while Regirock doesn't do well against E-Buzz's Focus Blast, Raichu's Grass Knot and Eel's Giga Drain anyway. I recommend Ice Punch in that slot. It nails Grass and Ground type (notably Golurk) switch-ins reliably while still scoring a blow against the Normal/Flying types that you easily wall. If that's not your cup of tea, support moves like Thunder Wave or Psych Up can be useful. Thunder Wave allows Regirock to slow down opponents and greatly benefits Gardevoir, Gurdurr and Braviary. Not to be that guy, but this team can fall to opposing subBU Braviary as well. Psych Up allows you to match their boosts so you will not be overwhelmed and can also stand up to Musharna TO SOME EXTENT.

The EV spread on your Eviolite pokes are also downright weird. The lack of HP investment means they'll be taking hits as well(read: not) as Shuckle. Eviolite is already boosting your defenses, so the first thing to do is NOT neglect HP investment, or it will heavily detract your ability to take hits.
Your Gurdurr also has no investment in Attack. Being able to hit hard right off the bat and being able to boost is a great advantage to using Gurdurr over, say Throh while taking full advantage of max attack Drain Punch for extra recovery and max attack Mach Punch for actual revenge killing potential.
Misdreavus's typing is better for taking physical hits than special ones contrary to what its stats might show you. I also don't know why you are using Missy to combat Musharna when you have a Leavanny with Knock Off to deprive it of Leftovers or get right down to shredding it with STAB X-Scissor.

Finally, Shell Smash Gorebyss. You have a Regirock that cannot T-Wave, a Gurdurr that doesn't hit hard enough, and a Misdreavus that can't hit hard enough even WITH investment (you shouldn't). If you cannot address one of the most terrifying threats with HALF your team, it will not end well. Something that can outspeed or defend against a boosted Gorebyss would help your team a lot. Actually now that I look at it, your team seems to have trouble against boosters in general...

Good luck with your team and discover what can really make your team work. :)

 

[ium]

regirock / gardevoir / gurdurr / misdreavus / leavanny / substitute + bulk up braviary

your team has no reliable way to deal with water-types like gorebyss and ludicolo once they boost their speed and damage output with shell smash and rain dance, respectively. from there, they pretty much land clean kills on a good portion of your team. gardevoir can only revenge kill ludicolo (and other swift swimmers aside from gorebyss) and only at a certain hp range which makes gardevoir quite a shaky check. your other problem is the fact that almost nothing on your team can take repeated hits from ice-types like regice and offensive articuno.

right now, it looks like braviary is the most expendable team member that you have at the moment. however, it does carry the important aspect of taking advantage of slower, defensive pokemon. regice is a pokemon that can do the same while also patching up many of the weaknesses aforementioned. regice's special bulk is unmatched in NU; it takes only 50% from a ludicolo under rain or a +2 gorebyss. in return, regice can 2HKO ludicolo with ice beam and OHKO gorebyss with thunderbolt. utilizing rest + sleep talk means that regice won't care what defensive pokemon like alomomola can do to it; regice can just shrug off status and keep doing huge damage backed by a great special attack stat. the resistance to ice is also very handy, which means that articuno cannot do much while opposing regice can only win if they carry focus blast.

now, the other thing i also want to focus on are the EV spreads and sets on your pokemon. you should never be doing mixed defensive spreads at all unless it's for a specific case; maxing out hp is always preferred for giving better overall bulk. the prime examples here would be gurdurr and misdreavus. gurdurr should be running a spread of 252 hp / 252 atk since it's already fairly bulky with just the hp investment and would appreciate the attack to give it better damage output since it's not always easy to set up. misdreavus should use a spread of 232 hp / 252 def / 24 spe to capitalize on physical bulk while running enough speed to avoid being outsped by adamant offensive torterra. misdreavus absolutely needs maximum physical bulk since nothing else can take choice banded sawk's close combat; misdreavus wants to be able to switch into sawk's coverage moves many times throughout the match. in addition, will-o-wisp should be used over power gem to cripple certain threats. next, regirock does not need a defensive spread; it does just fine with 252 hp / 252 atk with an adamant nature since it's already way bulky and could use some better damage output. earthquake is also a little redundant since you already have drain punch; you can use toxic or ice punch instead. toxic, which i recommend, is so that you have a way to handle substitute + bulk up braviary more reliably while ice punch helps regirock combat golurk. i also think that rocky helmet is unnecessary on regirock since you also have misdreavus as an additional defensive check to normal-types; using leftovers on regirock is fine as is. lastly, leavanny's set is way too gimmicky and doesn't really bring out too much potential from it. trying out swords dance and baton pass over magic coat and knock off can make leavanny very threatening since it could either boost to +2 and start sweeping, or baton pass to something like gurdurr to start picking off stuff with powerful mach punches. it's rather risky to utilize something like magic coat anyway since a lot of stealth rock or spikes users also carry a super-effective move that leavanny won't appreciate taking if they decide to attack first instead.

finally, the following are only just optional suggestions since you brought them up, but the only charizard set that is very threatening is the sunny day set since it carries solarbeam. you could try just going for a full specially defensive spread on regirock if you wish, but i don't think it's entirely necessary. sticking a scarf on a gardevoir can also give you a fast revenge killer that can OHKO and outspeed charizard if needed. it may also be useful in some cases so that you don't have to rely on gurdurr's priority so much.

summary:
adamant 252 hp / 252 atk, leftovers, toxic or ice punch careful, rocky helmet, earthquake regirock / choice scarf* gardevoir / 252 hp / 252 atk gurdurr / 232 hp / 252 def / 24 spe, will-o-wisp power gem misdreavus / swords dance & baton pass knock off & magic coat leavanny / regice braviary
* optional

Regice @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

 

[Aasgier]

I made a few changes, which I marked in red.

I actually considered RestTalk Regice when I replaced Noctowl, so I'm gonna give it a try now.
The changes suggested for Regirock are also worth a try, so are the EV spreads for both Gurdurr and Misdreavus.

 

[Raseri]

Hey Aasgier, this is a pretty cool team. I've always been a fan of Leavanny, but its been a long time since I've used it effectively.


regirock / gardevoir / gurdurr / misdreavus / leavanny / Regice


Now you seem pretty attached to your Leavanny set, even though I'm not sure if its the best possible one. It's pretty clear that its working for you and has become a focal point for your team. So I won't touch that at all.

When I look for weaknesses on your team, a lack of an answer to Charizard is what stands out the most. Regirock is your best answer, but without Leftovers it will fall pretty quickly. You can revenge kill with Gardy if you run a Choice Scarf, but thats really your only answer to it.

This isn't a really easy fix, as most of your mons play an important role. I believe that Gardevoir is the least useful member of your team, it just seems out of place. A "general combatant" isn't what you really need. I believe that a Simipour would be a good choice over Gardevoir. Upon the release of Torrent, Simipour got a lot more viable. She is able to outspeed Charizard and OHKO with Hydro Pump, and packs quite a bit of power right off the bat as well.

Advantages of Simipour over Gardevoir:

• An answer to Fire-types that your team really lacks
• More speed, Simipour is also a better late game cleaner due to more Speed, has room for substitute and can scout quite well
• arguably better synergy, as Leavanny and Simipour would work great together

the set I believe would be best is:

Simipour (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass


other than that I agree with ium's suggestion for lefties on Regirock, and the rest of his changes are really good. Best of luck with your team!

tl;dr

Simipour > Gardevoir

 

[Aasgier]

Thanks for the advice, Raseri.

E-Belt Gardevoir is there as it can wreck teams completely. It is also the only member on my team that can OHKO a variety of NU walls with the extra power E-belt provides, like Alomomola, and I don't want to lose out on OHKO'ing those walls.

The lack of speed is annoying tho, and I'm thinking of ways to remedy it, but losing out on vital kills, I don't think I replace either of the two members that get the kills

Simipour has a decent typing to synergize with Leavanny, but it's so frail it doesn't matter, and Gardevoir complements Leavanny much better offensively.

I've also been thinking about changing Leavanny's movepool, like Agility + Baton Pass (which would also solve all speed issues since Gardevoir at +2 outspeeds the entire metagame and is pretty much a win condition by itself) but Liepard's rise in usage prevents me from doing so.


And, Regice is definately staying on the team. It saved my arse more than once already.

 

[Annoyer]

Hey broski.

In order to make Regirock more efficient, I'd suggest a spread of 252 HP / 216 Atk / 40 Def with an Impish nature so Regirock can live a +2 Samurott LO Waterfall, and it helps Regirock's bulk overall against physical attackers; I'd also put Ice Punch over Thunder Wave since otherwise you give a free switch-in to Golurk which can easily destroy your team with a CB Shadow Punch. On Gardevoir, I would use Focus Blast over Hidden Power Ground since it still 2HKOs Skuntank and allows you to do more damage to the likes of Lickilicky, Regice, or Regirock. In my opinion, Life Orb is a better option than Expert Belt since the power boost helps a ton against bulkier threats, but you did state that you don't like the recoil so its up to you. I would put Thunderbolt over Power Gem on Misdreavus because Hail is out of the tier and does more damage to mons such as Samurott or Braviary. Finally, I suggest SubRoost Swanna over Leavanny because it helps against your Golurk weakness, has a great speed stat to outspeed threats such as Sawk, Zangoose, and Haunter, and gives you a great check to Samurott/Ludicolo. The set is 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD with Substitute / Roost / Hurricane / Surf with a Life Orb. Any damage lost with Substitute or Roost can be gained with Roost. Anyways, cool team and I hope I helped.

Good Luck Champ. :)

Changes in Importable

Regirock @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Atk / 40 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch

Gardevoir @ Expert Belt
Trait: Trace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Signal Beam
- Focus Blast

Gurdurr @ Eviolite
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 HP
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch

Misdreavus @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spd
Bold Nature
- Pain Split
- Taunt
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt

Swanna @ Life Orb
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Roost
- Surf
- Hurricane

Regice @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SAtk / 8 SDef
Modest Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

 

[Aasgier]

I don't think my team really suffers from a Golurk weakness. Yes, it is powerful, but many members of my team outspeed and my entire team can at least 2HKO it, and Leavanny OHKO's after Rocks.
My team isn't as afraid of a CB Shadow Punch as one might think since 2 members survive it for sure. Gurdurr and Regirock just have too much bulk, whereas Misdreavus and Leavanny probably survive as well with a sliver of their health left (and both threaten to deal ~70% and ~95% damage respectively once they got in safely.


I did consider Focus Blast on Gardevoir when building this team, but I refused. If Gardevoir had Aura Sphere, I would've tried, but not Focus Blast with that awful accuracy. Stone Edge and its frequent misses are frustrating enough.

The very same goes for Swanna. It adds an awful electric weakness as well, and I lose out on my only electric resist. My team is already somewhat weak to Elektross and Raichu, I don't want to make that any worse (though it doesn't really matter against special variants of them as they tend to carry Flamethrower in Eelektross' case, and Raichu carries HP Ice (but takes a truckload of damage from Leaf Blade as well). Besides, Leavanny already outspeeds Sawk and Zangoose and does a lot of damage to them with Leaf Blade, whereas Haunter cannot match head-to-head against Gardevoir, since two of Gardevoir's moves flat out OHKO it (Shadow Ball does not OHKO back). Misdreavus is in the same boat and threatens to OHKO Haunter with Shadow Ball, and can taunt it to prevent SubDisable shenanigans.

Your EV-spread for Regirock is interesting though, and I will give it a try.