My NU Team (First Post on Smogon)

[Abra used Teleport]

My entire History with competitive pokemon is with my friend where fight each other with the normal rules in the NU tier. Its loads of fun and I want to expand into Smogons community. We use all sorts of pokemon and in the end heres the team that has given me all around good results and I want to know if it has any gaping holes or weaknesses I have overlooked before I join a tourny or something. So wish me luck.


My Team:

Stats/Movesets:

Sableye (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
Nature: Careful (SpD+, SpA-)
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD
-Will-O-Wisp
-Knock Off
-Seismic Toss
-Recover

Sableye is my starter and all-around bulky pokemon. He can take a hit from just about every pokemon in the NU metagame and dish out solid damage back. Sableye in my experience has completely countered most other tanks by recovering through damage and slowly eating away at the opponent’s health. His typing is of course great and the resistances make him a good pokemon against fake-outs and other normal starters. They also give him a lot of opportunities to switch in. He also with Will-O-Wisp can cripple physical sweeper and burn stall. Knock Off is very annoying to any pokemon most notably starters using Heat Rock, Light Clay, ext. It’s also really nice to have a pokemon to switch into to resist fighting type moves on Porygon2.

Porygon2 @ Leftovers
Ability: Trace
Nature: Modest (SpA+, Att-)
EVs: 252 HP / 120 SpD / 136 SpA
-Charge Beam
-Ice Beam
-Tri Attack
-Recover

Porygon2 is my favorite pokemon. His ability is amazing and against some pokemon just absolutely counters them with their own ability the most notable and hilarious being Shedinja. Its Normal typing is really good and makes him only weak to fighting which is what Sableye is for. Tri Attack and Ice Beam are good coverage and Charge Beam makes it so the longer Porygon2 survives the more of a threat he becomes and being as bulky as porygon2 is he lasts quite a while.

Quagsire (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Impish (Def+, SpA-)
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Amnesia
-Recover

Quagsire is just an awesome pokemon. He is a very good defensive wall and has amazing typing being only weak against grass. Earthquake and Stone Edge have great coverage. Recover is a given. Amnesia I choose because I felt my team was lacking in the SpD area. I don’t know if Amnesia is really a good idea but I do have a Toxic TM just in case it doesn’t work out.

Venomoth (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Tinted Lens
Nature: Timid (Spe+, Att-)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Bug Buzz
-Sludge Bomb
-Psychic
-Sleep Powder

Venomoth has got one of the best Abilities EVER. Venomoth is a beast Choice Specs pokemon and a force to be reckoned with. A lot of people who don’t like using Venomoth is because he can be kind of fragile in some fields, though on my team he gets lots of opportunities to switch in. Venomoth is 4x resistance to fighting AND grass which is the main weakness of Poryong2 and Quagsire. Bug Buzz and Sludge bomb have STAB and couple with Psychic the coverage is….meh….but with tinted lens it all works it in the end. Also if venomoth is ever in a situation in which it won’t 1HKO Sleep Powder is always a great alternative.

Pinsir (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
Nature: Adament (Att+, SpA-)
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
-X-Scissor
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Close Combat

Pinsir pretty much is what he is, a good physical sweeper. I choose him because of his resistance to ground which is Manectrics only weakness. The Choice Scarf makes him an excellent revenge killer and outspeed a lot of pokemon most notably to me in my experience, my friends Espeon and Nasty Plot Persian. The moves are good coverage and all in all Pinsir is just a good physical sweeper and revenge killer.

Manectric (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Static
Nature: Timid (Spe+, Att-)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Thunderbolt
-Charge Beam
-Flamethrower
-Hidden Power (Grass)

Manectric really is more or less the same as Pinsir. Manectric is a good special sweeper and revenge killer. His moves have good coverage. Charge Beam is a great move to use on the off chance to finish off a pokemon or to use on a pokemon switching in. Manectric’s +1 Thunderbolts are extremely great and can KO a lot of pokemon in the NU metagame.

 

[Griffard]

I really like your team a lot, and I don't have TOO many alterations to suggest. I've recently switched that exact Venomoth set with a focus sash to my starter position on my NU/UU team however and it's worked wonders, so I would recommend at least giving that a shot as your lead, since Sableye sort of works better at crippling pokémon late game rather than at the beginning. Your sweepers look good, and Porygon 2 and Quagsire allow for lots of mindgames. Another suggestion might be to add a pokémon to bait some water type attacks though, because right now Quagsire's Water Absorb will sort of be going to waste. All in all, good team, and I wish you luck with it.

 

[Abra used Teleport]

oooo I never actually thought of a Venomoth as a starter. Honestly I only use Sableye as a starter because he does really well against purugly and persian resisting their STAB and Fake-Out which my friend really likes. That sound very interesting and i might as well test it, just an item switch away, ntm sleep powder would be more viable.

as for drawing water types, I have always wanted a Sandslash but I have never had the heart to replace one of my pokemon lol. Though he would bring a Rapid Spinner and Stealth Rocker to my team, also massive EQs. I'll probably begin considering him again and test him out a bit.

Thanks :D

 

[Ice-eyes]

Really, I don't think Sableye excels as a lead because it doesn't hit hard enough and can't really set up. Leads like Qwilfish will laugh in your face, throw up free layers of Spikes, and then explode on something. What I would suggest is using Pinsir as a lead, using Stealth Rock, X-Scissor, and EdgeQuake (Focus Sash or Occa Berry are the optimal items to use). This would allow you to get Rocks up early, as well as hitting hard. However, with this change made you lack a revenge-killer - I would use Primeape, as it's fantastic at filling the role with a Close Combat/Ice Punch/U-Turn/Stone Edge or Earthquake set.

Consider investing some more SpA in Porygon2, as well, to take advantage of Charge Beam better. The additional EVs in SpD seem unnecessary.

Quagsire should use Encore over Amnesia - this would stop things setting up on you. Alternatively, you could use an Encore/Toxic/Protect/Surf Walrein with 240 HP/36 Def/76 SpA/156 SpD/4 Spe. This allows you to take on Fire-types like Magmortar much better, while still giving you a very bulky water-type and fixing your lack of special bulk.

Finally, you have a bit of an Espeon weakness (read: you have a huge Espeon weakness). I'm not sure exactly what you could do to remedy this, but I would consider fitting Skuntank in somewhere.

 

[I Abuse Smeargles]

Really, I don't think Sableye excels as a lead because it doesn't hit hard enough and can't really set up. Leads like Qwilfish will laugh in your face, throw up free layers of Spikes, and then explode on something. What I would suggest is using Pinsir as a lead, using Stealth Rock, X-Scissor, and EdgeQuake (Focus Sash or Occa Berry are the optimal items to use). This would allow you to get Rocks up early, as well as hitting hard. However, with this change made you lack a revenge-killer - I would use Primeape, as it's fantastic at filling the role with a Close Combat/Ice Punch/U-Turn/Stone Edge or Earthquake set.

Consider investing some more SpA in Porygon2, as well, to take advantage of Charge Beam better. The additional EVs in SpD seem unnecessary.

Quagsire should use Encore over Amnesia - this would stop things setting up on you. Alternatively, you could use an Encore/Toxic/Protect/Surf Walrein with 240 HP/36 Def/76 SpA/156 SpD/4 Spe. This allows you to take on Fire-types like Magmortar much better, while still giving you a very bulky water-type and fixing your lack of special bulk.

Finally, you have a bit of an Espeon weakness (read: you have a huge Espeon weakness). I'm not sure exactly what you could do to remedy this, but I would consider fitting Skuntank in somewhere.

If he wanted to keep his Sableye somewhere on the team, I'd recommend he run the Choice Band set, and that would cover his Espeon problem quite well. ^^

Sucker Punch, Shadow Sneak, Pursuit; Sableye has them all. However, I 2nd the Skuntank. Best Espeon counter out there, no doubt.

 

[Abra used Teleport]

My current Sableye seems like it could counter a Espeon pretty easily. Sableye could get free switch ins on psychic and if it is choiced it will be forced to switch getting me a free knock off or if it has a life orb it would most likely hit my sableye with a Signal Beam which would do well under half of sableye's hp (i think it was like 45% - 6% from Leftys). and during that turn Sableye would knock off the lifeorb and then Espeon cant even 3HKO Sableye (disregarding recover) which puts Espeon in quite the pickle.

Thats all hypothetical and I cant really see someone staying in for that but it would force the switch.

Also none of that would happen if Sableye was knocked out because he was being a bad starter, im currently looking into using pinsir for stealth rocks, that sounds really appealing.


________

EDIT: so some changes I'm working on. Gonna transfer some of Pinsir's speed EVs to Defence. I realised that at his current speed with choice scarf he out speeds everything else without choice scarfs except Electrode So im going to transfer enough speed EVs to Defence so that he is ust barely above the speed of persian and floatzel by like 1 giving him more defensive capabilities and making him a better starter. So yeah hes going to be a starter whose only role is to throw out some stealth rocks and run away, tell me if this is a bad idea lol.

Also I'm gonna keep Amnesia for a while and I do have a TM - Toxic as a back up just in case it doesnt work properly. Can you even have a legit Quagsire with Recover and Encore? They are both breeding moves.

 

[Ice-eyes]

Sableye is just generally mediocre, and there are far better options.

Skuntank, incidentally, is a dreadful Espeon counter. Substitute sets beat it and it has to play mind games with Calm Minders even if it manages to come in without being OHKOd by Hidden Power Ground. However, it's used because it's a versatile check to almost everything and actually fits well on offensive teams - unlike Grumpig, Hypno or Sableye.