National Dex ND OU Temple Run (Grassy/Electric Terrain Rain Team)

[Knockx XIII]

Hey all,

This is an early, but promising mixed mediums team created post Isle of Armor DLC release. The main function is to maintain electric terrain and rain to keep Mega Venu a reliable dump threat for anything it may need to chip in order for Rillaboom and Raichu-A to clean up later in the late game stages.


Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- U-turn
- Hammer Arm
- Knock Off

Rilla is the focus for countering Ash Gren, G Darm and any mon without a priority that can't withstand a Banded GSlide hit, and trust me. Almost everyone hates a hit from this guy. U-turn is present for momentum when your opponent looks fear in the eyes and decides to switch to something like Corv, Skar, or Mage. Hammer Arm is there for Ferror, Tran, TTar and anything you want to put a dent in in the interim. Knock off for all purpose setbacks to the opponent.

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Weather Ball
- Nature Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain

Venu is your friend. It surprises opponents and helps you predict switch-in's, especially when you drop it in on a Fini or Clef. Those that have an idea of what's coming have to dance like someone is shooting at their feet. And that's a lot of dancing with Damp Rock and Terrain Extender keeping the party going for much longer than what opponents are comfortable with. Synthesis is silly in the rain, therefore your means of recovery is by way of Giga Drain and Grassy Terrain.

Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlpool
- Perish Song
- Protect
- Scald

I still debate over Peli or Poli, but I decided Poli for a few points. Whirlpool + Perish Song can take out pesky Finis and Pexi your opponent may feel comfortable checking Poli with if say you threaten a Tran or Hippo or some other vulnerable to water mon. Taking advantage and using Whirlpool during those times can net you and advantage. Also, during building and testing, with Pelipper I had issues with stat-up mons, especially DD Pult. With it's manageable bulk, popping a perish gets you back to a level playing field. At least, as much as possible.

Tapu Koko @ Terrain Extender
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Spark
- Brave Bird

Physical Koko, like it's base stats have always told us to consider helps to balance out the team and take on things we don't like. Clef and Venu come to mind with Iron Head and BB. Spark instead of Wild to manage HP better and the keep consistency with the chance to Para like Discharge does. And Para is very, very helpful. U-Turn for momentum. Beware of Scarf (anything really, looking at you Cinder and Serp) Lando, it's gonna rise in usage with this DLC.

Raichu-Alola @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rising Voltage
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast

If you thought Terrain Rain Thunder Raichu was something, wait til you get a load of this. Rising Voltage takes huge amounts of damage. Psyshock is there for cleaning up Venus and mons with low def, Fight Z with Focus blast takes care or makes your opponent whimper when they keep Ferro in and bye-bye to TTar. Surf is there with rain support for when Tran or Lando thinks it's partytime.

Volcanion @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Flamethrower
- Steam Eruption
- Sludge Wave

I started experimenting with Volcanion shortly before the DLC release. I was tired of running Bro, Pex or Alo for G Darm and Vish. If you look at Volcs base stats, you'll see that this is great with the Def and HP up. Rilla assists with Terrain when G Darm and Lando consider EQ. HDB + Defog is clutch for rocks and makes it incredibly difficult to maintain Toxic Spikes with Venu on your side.

 

[theotherguytm]

Ok... This team is a mess. Is it a rain team? No because you have no rain abusers. Is it a Grassy Terrain team? No because you have Tapu Koko and Alolan Raichu. But it's not an Electric Terrain team either because you have Rillaboom to cancel it out. There's a few fundamental issues I want to go through here.

I think your team is built around the ideal circumstance of Alolachu under Rain AND E Terrain, which is pretty hard to get off consistently as it is, but you've made it a lot harder for yourself by including a lot of mons which don't help you achieve this goal. I think there's something I need to explain before I go any further. In Gen 7, terrains were easy to come by because the terrain setters were good by themselves-the Tapus functioned just fine on teams without a terrain focus. That is not the case in Gen 8. Tapu Koko is outclassed in almost every area by Dragapult and is only used on teams very Torn-T weak, while Bulu is struggling in UU. Rillaboom is better than Bulu with Grassy Glide and U-turn, but not to the extent that you can just throw it on a team. In short, to use Koko or a Grassy setter on a team, you have to extract as much from them as possible. And "this ain't it, chief." So Rillaboom needs to go just for starters, as it doesn't really achieve anything notable that any other Banded mon with priority would do.

Next, Mega Venu... In a metagame featuring Mega Metagross, you have to have a massive reason to not use it on your team. Especially on a team which powers up one of its mandatory coverage moves in Thunder Punch. Again, "this ain't it chief". You even have rain as well so you could be running Mega Swampert. And then there's buffed Mega Lop to consider with U-turn and Close Combat. With these three screaming to be let in, Mega Venu is just a waste of the Mega slot.

Another question which springs to mind is "wait, why are you running Rain?" You say it's to hit Lando and Heatran...
252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Rising Voltage vs. 252 HP / 176+ SpD Heatran in Electric Terrain: 193-228 (50 - 59%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Surf vs. 252 HP / 176+ SpD Heatran in Rain: 192-228 (49.7 - 59%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (so Rising Voltage outdamages it)
So you're giving up an entire teamslot to let it have a roll to OHKO defensive Lando-T after Rocks (that you don't have) rather than 2HKO?
252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Surf vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian in Rain: 316-372 (82.7 - 97.3%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
You could always just run Nasty Plot...
+2 252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Surf vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 418-492 (109.4 - 128.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
I'm actually very curious as to what you could possibly run Psyshock over Nasty Plot for, as Chansey is blown back by +2 Rising Voltage (or failing that, outright OHKOed by a +4 Z-move).
+2 252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Rising Voltage vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Eviolite Chansey in Electric Terrain: 333-393 (47.3 - 55.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Also, I just realised that you have no hazard setter. As you can see from the above calcs, the chip damage hazards generate is too valuable to pass up. So probably drop the Rain aspect for something that can help the team more and just have Nasty Plot on Alolachu. If you want Rain that badly, Pelipper's access to U-turn just makes it consistently better (Dragapult setting up on it? Just U-turn into Mega Swampert!), and combines very well with Tapu Koko to pivot your sweepers into play (instead of having to awkwardly "dance like someone is shooting at their feet", just click U-turn twice and Alolachu is in position!).

A few more observations: Physical Koko should be left until the second DLC (it's getting CC and Play Rough according to the HOME datamine), as Iron Head is just a waste of a moveslot. You could instead try a Screens set to help Alolachu set up (though it's very bad at that compared to Grimmsnarl and even Dragapult, especially with having to hold Terrain Extender) or you could try a utility set (though since Defog clears terrain, it would pretty much just be T-wave, Taunt or Roar a few things, probably Roost to heal up and U-turn+STAB). You can kinda see the issue with running Koko: anything it wants to do is outclassed. Finally, Volcanion does not check Dracovish unless it runs Hidden Power Dragon or Will-O-Wisp. It's also a pretty terrible Garm check because it lacks recovery, which Garm can exploit by just spamming U-turn until it gets into KO range.

I think there's a lot that needs fixing here, and thus I can't really do a formal rate because of the rule that states rates should change as little as possible about the team (including a maximum of 3 mons changed). Hopefully I've given you some ideas as to how you can fix your team. To summarise, you need:

• A Rock setter
• Nasty Plot on Alolachu
• Much more focus on Electric Terrain
• A better Mega
• To reconsider Rain.

Best of luck!