NFE (For use in NU and UU Battles)

[Canada]

This is a team full of basically, mini ou pokemon. Before I get some rule thumpers quoting the rule that says my team has to be competitive, it is meant for ONLY NU/UU PLAY. Therefore, none of these pokemon can be outclassed by their evolved forms. Now on to the team:

Metang @ Occa Berry
Clear Body
Nature- Adamant
EV Spread: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 20 Def
-Stealth Rock
-Bullet Punch
-Meteor Mash
-Explosion

Look Familiar? This is the Oh-So-Famous lead metagross. Just like daddy, this guy is very sturdy by UU/NU standards and can always get up rocks and then attack accordingly. Meteor mash is to just deal good, neutral damage. Bullet punch is for the priority (although sash/suicide leads aren't quite as common in the lower tiers). Explosion is ideal when metang sets up rocks, KOs the opposing lead, and then is able to take out another to go up 5-4. Overall, like Metagross, Metang is a solid lead who does exactly what a lead needs to: Set up hazards, take a few hits, and dish out some major pain.

Dragonair @ Life Orb
Shed Skin
Nature- Jolly
EV Spread: 4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spe
-Dragon Dance
-Outrage
-Waterfall
-Protect

After just one DD, Dragonair can become a surprisingly powerful sweeper with the above moveset. With a combination of dragon's ridiculous amount of resists and his shed skin trait, dragonair has many opportunities to switch in and cause some havoc. Dragon and Water combine for fantastic coverage. Outrage becomes a 180 base power move coming off of a roughly 400 attack stat and a speed stat of 393 after just one dragon dance will hurt anything that is not a steel type. Waterfall is here to fix that pesky steel problem. I know, I know, water isn't super effective against steel, but in NU/UU, every common steel is part rock or ground and there is no asshole water/steel in UU (Empoleon, that's you). Protect is mainly a filler move because dragonair doesn't get many other useful physical moves, and this lets me scout out for random ice moves. It also lets me buy another turn for shed skin to kick in if i happen to be paralyzed or burned

Dusclops @ Leftovers
Pressure
Nature- Relaxed
EV Spread: 252 HP/ 200 Def/ 58 SpD
-Night Shade
-Will O Wisp
-Protect
-Pain Split

This is my wall of sorts on this team. He is actually more of an annoyer than a wall, really. He comes in on any attack that he is immune to or one that he can take with relative ease (a large amount, actually). He functions similarly to the tank variant of Dusknoir, just without the attack investment and Night Shade to remedy that. Protect is for burn stalling when necessary or just scouting an attack. Pain split is for recovery (unreliable, but recovery nonetheless). Will O Wisp makes his physical tanking duties even easier. The icing on the cake is pressure, which makes his endless stalling potential all the more damaging the the opponent.

Machoke @ Choice Scarf
No Guard
Nature- Jolly
EV Spread: 6 HP/ 252 AtK/ 252 Spe
-Rock Slide
-Ice Punch
-Thunderpunch
-Cross Chop

This is my backup physical attacker (behind dragonair). While the scarf only nets him around 310 speed, it is enough to surprise a lot of people and it is also backed by machoke's respectable 100 base attack stat. We have decent speed, good attack, but what's missing? How about an ability that lets me abuse low accuracy stab moves! Cross chop is the move that I tend to lean towards, but close combat does have that little extra power. The reason I lean toward Cross chop is because it gets some timely crits, it only has 20 less base power, and the entire "mach" family is able to take at least a couple hits. Close combat can potentially make a hit that machoke could normally take a KO and in turn, do less damage than cross chop in the end. The punches are for type coverage and rock slide is a nice fit with no guard and choice scarf for some flinch haxin'.

Kadabra @ Choice Specs
Synchronize
Nature- Timid
EV Spread: 6 HP/ 252 SpA/ 252 Spe
-Psychic
-Signal Beam
-Shadow Ball
-Trick

This is my special powerhouse. He does everything that alakazam can do except for one HUGE thing: Outspeed the whole tier. That is why I am willing to switch to choice scarf and modest nature if you wonderful raters think that would be more viable. Psychic is the main form of destruction while shadow ball hits opposing psychics for heavy damage. Signal Beam is surprisingly useless to be honest. I really can't think of any other move to put in this slot, though. Trick is obviously for predicted switches into something like chansey or uxie, who would not like choice specs.

Pikachu@ Light Ball
Static
Nature- Hasty
EV Spread: 152 Atk / 104 SpA / 252 Spe
-Volt Tackle
-Grass Knot
-Brick Break
-Substitute

This is my mixed sweeper pikachu. He is able to hit hard from both sides of the spectrum with a light ball equiped. Volt tackle is a 120 base power STAB moves coming off of his higher attacking stat and hits surprisingly hard. Grass knot is to hurt things such as hippopotas and donphan who think they can come in and wall you completely. And of course, brick break is here to open a can on any chansey who thinks you are a completely special sweeper. Substitute is the ABSOLUTE, most important move on this set. With dugtrio in UU now, it is very importand that Pikachu has a buffer between him and anything that can revenge kill him. And just so all of you raters know, if any slot on my team needs a-fixin', this is the one that you can replace with any other helpful suggestion.

EDIT: If your suggestions could add some speed to my team, that would be greatly appreciated.

Well this is my team and I really do respect your opinions and appreciate the time you take to rate my team, so I assure you, this is not me trying to jerk your chain with a crappy, gimmick team. This is very competitive as long as it is played in the lowest of tiers such as NU. Good day.

 

[Canada]

Bump?

 

[Shizzle]

First thing, the EV spread on Metang was Metagross's one, perhaps tinkering it would be better. With that in mind, i would change Occa Berry to perhaps Lum Berry, to stop Roserade's Sleep Powder. Although Arcanine then be a threat, changing the EVs to beat Arcanine could also work.

Machamp is a bit slow, perhaps Meditite who also can have elemental punches will work better, it can reach 240 Speed without scarf, and with 179 Attk x 2 thanks to pure power, its certainly more powerful, however its defenses are way lower. Also Monferno could work.

I dont like Volt Tackle and Substitute on Pikachu, he will die wayy to quickly, perhaps Thunderbolt will work better.'

I have seen Dragonair at work in OU before, it definitely works, however try out Yache berry, sometimes allows an extra DD.

Good Luck!

 

[Canada]

Thanks for the input! And yeah I know what you mean about volt tackle. Pika dies in just a few strikes so i may go with either t bolt or thunderpunch. I'm skeptical of meditite (mainly because medicham is already UU and using meditite would just be redundant), but i will give him a spin in shoddy. Who knows? He may pwn.

EDIT: Oh and dragonair is the mvp of this team for sure.

 

[hysteria90]

While Metang has quite decent defenses, he's just too slow and doesn't hit hard enough. At best he's going to either KO an opponent by exploding, or set up rocks, but I don't see both happening against any of the top ten UU leads(except maybe Ambipom). The same with NU, they either shut him down fast or have little to fear from his attacks(outside explosion of course). If you want to give up NU viability, then Registeel makes a better lead, hitting just as hard with Explosion, but has much better defenses meaning he sticks around long enough to set up rocks and explode against leads that don't just shut him down. In NU Sandslash works quite well, you lose out on Explosion, but gain a bit more bulk and power, and some spin support to take out opponents entry hazards. If you want to stick to NFE, Gligar makes an awesome NU lead also, having the bulk, speed and power to threaten from the get go.

As Dragondancers go, I think Feraligatr out classes Dragonair, although it does lack Shed Skin. It hits harder, and faster if not hit by status. If status is a major problem then you might want to consider Altaria over Feraligatr. With Natural Cure and heal bell, in addition to its bulk it can act as a status absorber and cleric, whilst still being able to act as an effective dragon dancer. It also has a strong dragon STAB without getting locked into Outrage. In general though Dragonair makes a poor Dragon Dancer for UU. It lacks a decent Physical move pool limited to Dragon and Water, which despite not being resisted, Registeel takes hardly any damage from even a boosted Waterfall(I've seen most of them take a boosted hit from a Feraligatr and only lose about 30%) Feraligatr and Altaria lack this problem with access to Earthquake.
In NU I'm not sure how this would work. I've seen a couple of Gabites about, but they get hit far too hard in the highly offensive NU environment. Pretty much any physical stat-upper does a better job in NU due to Dragonair's lack of move-pool. In either enviroment the use of Outrage STAB means the opponent can potentially get a free switch in with a steel type and begin to set up. Swords Dancing Sneasel could work, having a brilliant speed and better attack. Heck, even if you want to stick to the same typing Dragon Dancing Shellgon works better here. I see Dragonair being dead weight.

Dusclops is ok, his stats are pretty decent, though his low base HP brings him down. In UU again a Registeel may be better, boasting higher defenses and HP, albeit fewers resistances and he plays differently. I've never seen one around in UU, so I can't really comment on this. He works fine in NU however.

I personally think Machoke is outclassed by either Primeape(who hits harder and faster, but doesn't have quite as much bulk) or Medicham(who when scarfed hits both alot harder and faster, but is a supremely Fragile). In UU, minus the additional weakness to ground and water and the neutrality to SR, Blaziken makes a good replacement, being slightly Bulkier, whilst hitting much harder, and also oppening up for a decent wallbreaker(over Pikachu, who I'll discuss below).

Whilst Kadabra works brilliantly in NU, you have redundancy in Signal beam and Shadow ball. While Shadow ball hits fellow Psychic types for more, Signal beam overall is a better choice, also hitting Dark and Grass types for super effective. Instead drop Shadow ball for Hidden Power Fighting, which stops you from being walled by Steel types. In UU if you want the same playstyle as you Kadabra in UU, switch it for a Specs Espeon with the same changes to moveset described above. Its both faster and hits harder, whilst being able to actually take a hit, the main weakness of your Kadabra being it'll fall to pieces if the opponent can so much as sneeze at it neutrally.

Pikachu I'm not too sure about. Its far too fragile for my liking and not really all that fast. Sure if you can get behind a Sub then it can be hard to deal with, but as with Kadabra a violent sneeze can end it's sweep(in fact with Pikachu it's OWN sneeze could take it out!) Especially with Volt Tackle re-coil. Again as above for Machoke, Blaziken makes quite a good replacement for UU, being sturdier and faster(and not having to give up it's item slot in order to do so). It's evolved form in Raichu may not hit as hard, but it's faster and a bit sturdier overall. If given a Choice Item or Life Orb it can even hit harder. In my opinion I'd try to find a tougher mixed sweeper that doesn't need to give up it's item in order slot to be decent. Pikachu can be outclassed by Raichu in every tier as their both NU, so If you want to keep it in the family then I'd recommend a Raichu upgrade with the same moves.

I know alot of my suggested replacements aren't NFEs but thats because in most cases they may not be outclassed by their own evolved form at these tiers, their still outclassed. Also I apologise for the wall of text :O

 

[Canada]

Thank you for the input and i will probably replace pika with blaziken. he seems like a good fit with a scarf and mixed set.

 

[zero_gundam]

for alakazam you could run energy ball in place of signal beam to take on bulky waters and rock types

 

[Deccy]

Give machoke dynamich punch instead of cross chop as it guarantees confusion

 

[Squirrel]

I agree with Deccy, Dynamic Punch or Close Combat are much better options for machoke (as close combat's defence drop(s) won't matter if you're 1HKOing or stopped by a ghost anyway since you're scarfed).

 

[Snorlaxe]

I agree, you should give Machoke dynamicpunch over cross chop. I'm not really sure if this team is a good idea (even in NU), as it really seems like a big-ass gimmick to me. But hey, if you want to use it, be my guest.

 

[Canada]

This team isn't really a gimmick if you really look into it. Pikachu can have around 400 in either of his offensive stats and a base speed of 90, kadabra has 120 spA and 105 spe which would be good even by fully evolved standards (in NU), and dusclops was one of the most ou pokemon in ADV days so it's not like he was ever a bad choice

EDIT: I'll use dynamic punch on machoke and how did I overlook energy ball for kadabra? Great idea for replacing shadow ball. Thanks for the suggestions everyone!