My First NU team

Mr.Mime

This is my first NU team. I came to NU because there are lots of my favorite pokemon down here that are useless in OU and some even in UU. Quite a few of these are my favs, but I am willing to replace pokemon to make this team better. I'm not very familiar with NU and picked pokemon mostly for a combo of speed and power (excluding Marowak). I always prefer faster pokemon, but am willing to sarifice some speed for power. Don't hold back on comments, I'll take everything. Thanks!

Charizard (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Charizard has always been one of my favorite Fire types, and I simply can't use him in OU. I use him as a lead to avoid Stealth Rock damage. I run max Speed to outrun most leads. I use him as an Anti-Lead. Fire Blast is STAB, Dragon Pulse is purely for type coverage because there are no Dragon types in NU, Focus Blast is for Rock who give me trouble, and HP Grass is for Water types. Is there a better HP I can use? So far, he's been pretty good for me.

Manectric (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Static
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Signal Beam
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Grass]
He isn't one of my favorite, but he's my only pokemon with an Electric attack, which I view as a necessity. THunderbolt is STAB, Signal Beam and Flamethrower are for type coverage, and HP Grass takes out Ground and Rock types for me. Is there anyone better to use? They will need an electric attack, or somebody else will need one because I refuse to have a team without an Electric attack.

Floatzel (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Crunch
- Brick Break/Bulk Up
One of my favorite Water types. He is fast, and powerful. He is a sweet revenge killer, even though he isn't my main one (Zangoose is). He is also nice if my opponent runs a Rain Dance Team, it's just a bonus for him. Waterfall is STAB, Ice Punch combined with Waterfall gives near perfect type coverage neutrally, Crunch and Brick Break are fillers but give me more super effective hits. Bulk Up is nice for raising attack and I like it so far. I'm still testing to see if I like it more than Brick Break, which lets me take down Steels if Camerupt goes down.

Espeon (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
- Shadow Ball/Trick?
- Hidden Power [Fire]
My favorite Psychic type. Nothing in NU wants to get hit by a Specs Psychic attack. Expeon is fast enough to run a Specs without much fear of being outsped with the exception of Scarfs. Psychic is STAB, Signal Beam is for Dark types, Shadow Ball is for Ghosts, and HP Fire is a filler. I don't really want to run Batton Pass because it's only for scouting, and I'd rather just switch out and not waste a move slot, unless there is something I'm missing with Batton Pass. I'm testing Trick over Shadow Ball to see if I like it.

Camerupt @ Life Orb
Mild / Solid Rock
8 Attack / 252 Sp. Attack / 248 Speed
-Rock Polish
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Explosion
I'm loving Camerupt so far. The only questionable thing is taking a turn to set up the Rock Polish, but Solid Rock really helps me out by not takign so much damage. Because I use Charizard as a suicide lead, this gives me a later game Fire move, while retaining a ground move. Fire Blast and Earth Power are STAB, and Explosion is for taking out walls.

Zangoose (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Return
- Close Combat
- Shadow Claw
- Fire Punch
Zangoose is my revenge killer. He's fast, and powerful, and works well with a Scarf. I love Zangoose cause he's just plain cool and fits my fighting style. Return is STAB, Close Combat is for Slaking, Shadow Claw and Fire Punch are for type coverage.

So far Scarf Slaking has given me trouble and I'm not sure how to fix it. I mistly fight in UU cause it's not always easy to find NU battles. As I already said, I'm willing to change pokemon on this team. The two I want to keep most are Espeon and Floatzel, because they have been my MVPs, but I am still open to suggestions. Thanks so much for rating the team!
 
Hey there!

Cool offensive team you have going here! NU is one of the best places more offense to flourish, so I think this team could definitely be very good. I have a few suggestions that I think could take this team a long way. Lets get into the rate.

First off, I think Espeon can be a great sweeper for your team. Espeon is a great NU sweeper with its high special attack and speed. However, Skuntank, perhaps the best Espeon counter, is rampant in NU solely to stop Espeon and Pokemon like Espeon, making launching Specs attacks (especially Psychics) extremely risky. I think we can still make the Specs set work, just with a bit of a tweak in the moveset. Stick with the same EV spread, but run Psychic / Signal Beam / Trick / Baton Pass as your moves. This may look odd, but there is a method behind the madness. In NU, Psychic + Bug is pretty tough to resist. In fact, only Steel types resist this combination. There are only a few Steel types in NU, so once these Pokemon Espeon should be able to really go to town on entire teams. Trick is important on Espeon because much of NU relies on setting up to do damage (another thing that makes Specs Espeon so good is that it doesnt have to set up), so Trick will immediatly screw with your opponents plans. Baton Pass rounds out the set by allowing you to scout Espeon switch ins and deal with them appropriately. The switch ins will almost always be Skuntank and Steels, which you can exploit with your ground type, which brings me to....

Marowak - Ok, for an offensive mon, Marowak is just a little bit too slow. You will be quite easily revenge killed by faster Pokemon that will hinder your sweep. Outside of Trick Room or a Baton Pass, Marowak is not fast enough to complete a sweep. However, a ground type is an excellent choice in this slot because ground types can deal with Skuntank and Steel types very easily. Another Ground type is much more dangerous in NU and has the ability to boost its speed: RP Camerupt. Camerupt's excellent STAB moves hit much of the NU tier for neutral or super effective damage. My own team in fact had a ton of trouble with just Camerupt's STAB moves until someone exploited it against me. Camerupt will be a great early game sweeper for you and will be able to exploit Espeon's counters reliably every game. Undoubtedly you will run into a Bulky Water type when Camerupt is one its rampage, but Camerupt can just Explode on them. While this may seem counter intuitive, booming away a Bulky Water actually helps your team a lot because Floatzel will be much more open for a breakaway sweep, or it will at least weaken things for Espeon. Here is the set I had in mind:

Camerupt @ Life Orb
Mild / Solid Rock
8 Attack / 252 Sp. Attack / 248 Speed
-Rock Polish
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Explosion

EVs put you ahead of base 112s (Purugly) after a Rock Polish, so you definitely outspeed most of the NU tier. This guy can also Explode on special walls for Espeon, helping your team even more.

Brick Break does not offer a lot of additional coverage in NU for Floatzel that your other attacks cannot hit harder or with enough power. For this reason, adding Bulk Up in that slot is a great idea, This makes Floatzel a much bigger threat because he can boost his attack to higher levels and buffer himself against priority.

Ok I'm back!(2nd Part)

On Manectric, I recommend dropping Signal Beam for Charge Beam. Much like LO Jolteon in OU, Charge Beam gives the very similar Manectric a great shot at a sweep, especially after Espeon and Camerupt have killed and crippled your opponents special walls. Signal Beam does not give Manectric much it didnt already have, because the prime target (Espeon) is actually faster than Manectric and can shoot it down with Psychic. Charge Beam, best used on a switch or to KO a weak Pokemon, allows Manectric to hit harder than it could with Life Orb alone if you grab the Special Attack boost, making Manectric more dangerous than it was before.

Finally, I think a different Scarfer will help you out a lot. Zangoose does not provide much for your team in terms of immunities and resistances, which is something I would like to add. At the moment, a fast Normal type user such as Dodrio threatens your team because you lack a reliable switch in. In addition, your team lacks Stealth Rock. I believe Stealth Rock is a MUST on every NU team because much of the metagame is at least 25% weak to Stealth Rock. In addition, Stealth Rock will help knock a precious few percentage points off more sturdy Pokemon so your powerfouses can role through. A great scarfer with all this in one package is Relicanth. Relicanth threatens much of the NU metagame with its ridiculously powerful Head Smash. Luckily, many Pokemon that wish to switch into Relicanth's Rock STAB, such as Steel and Ground types, can be dealt with through Waterfall and Earthquake, the other two attacking moves on the set. Because Relicanth packs so much power, it causes a lot of switches, which when anticipated allow you to throw down the all important Stealth Rock. With a Jolly Nature, Relicanth outspeeds Pokemon even with base 105 speed, making it a durable, powerful, and pretty quick scarfer. Here is the set I had in mind:

Relicanth @ Choice Scarf
Jolly / Rock Head
4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
-Head Smash
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock

Thats all I have, good luck with your team!
 
I think instead of being so insistent on specs espeon, you should go for a more support-oriented espeon, that being a CMpass espy. Your team is primarily full of special attackers, and in particular Camerupt is a great defensive switch-in vs. skuntank and other stuff that will come in to try to deal with espeon. Giving any of your special sweepers +1 and an advantageous switch to work with is a great thing, particularly because camerupt is immune to the primary status that espeon lures out, thunder wave.

Espeon @ Leftovers/Life Orb
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
252 SpAtk/252 Spe/4 Def

Calm Mind
Baton Pass
Psychic
Signal Beam

The big thing about this set is how it works, instead of launching a specs-boosted attack, you can generally CM vs. their first switch and BP out of them unless you suspect that they're scarfed. LO is a solid item choice to let you hammer their switch-in if you so choose, and psychic/bug gives great coverage like Friar mentions. Camerupt in particular is a solid defensive switch for espeon, especially with that +1 to spdef cushioning a lot of hits against him that would otherwise ruin his RP setup.

Scarf Relicanth is a great option, particularly because he's a nice defensive switch vs. NU fire types, but I think going with another RP set would suit this team's style of setup offense better. Same moves, go with a lum berry to keep status from ruining your sweep. Passing him a CM is also a nice idea to beef up his defenses to keep him from being OHKO'ed by most hp grass hits from NU attackers.

edit: i kinda think that forgoing Earthquake for rock polish on relicanth is a good option since he will definitely be a late-game cleanup pokemon that can still sweep and also provide support via rocks. I always forget how important SR is, particularly in NU, so keep the rocks on him but try out that rock polish set since his STABs are all you'll need to sweep in the late-game anyway, particularly with lum giving you the opportunity to 2hko whatever bulky poke they use to status you.
 
Definitely use Brick Break on Floatzel, so you can actually dent the Miltanks which will switch in as you attempt to Crunch Slowking. The MilKing defensive core is really big in NU at the moment.

You should also definitely use Trick on Espeon, as SE Shadow Ball doesn't hit Ghosts meaningfully harder than STAB Psychic. Hidden Power Ground should be used over Fire, as it is important to hit Skuntank, and it's so common nowadays that in many situations it's a good idea to fire off HP Ground straight away as soon as Espy comes in.

Hidden Power Grass is definitely the best option on Charizard, because Quagsire and Gastrodon are good switch-ins otherwise.

I would shift your Choice Scarf to Manetric, seeing as it learns Switcheroo and outspeeds common Scarfers like Typhlosion, Primeape and Haunter. Zangoose could then be used as a set-up sweeper with Swords Dance, or another similar sweeper such as Pinsir could be used.

You might want a bulkier pokemon able to set up Rocks, such as Miltank or Sandslash, over that Camerupt. Both, particularly Sandslash, can also work in an offensive capacity.

If you're looking for NU battles, there's a ladder on the Shoddy Battle CAP server.
 
Thanks for letting me know about the NU ladder Ice-eyes! Thanks everyone for rating the team. I appreciate it very much. I'm not going to post for a while because I want to sufficiently test the ideas that you guys gave me, and mix and match them also. I'm not sure how long it will take to do so but I think I got more than enough meat to chew on for a while. Thanks again, and hopefully I'll get around to reposting an update after I'm done testing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top