np: RU Stage 3 - Like a Boss

[marilli]

Lol 30 minute ninja.

Well I was thinking MixKrow should go along with it as well. Mixkrow works wonderfully with anything that appreciates Aggron and Steelix gone. I've even ran Belly Drum Linoone alongside MixKrow rather successfully. Durant's basically a sweeper with similar checks except that it can actually attack on its own. Though, if you try to overload on the Steelix front too much, it might be too obvious on the team preview.

On the matter of Munchlax: I've always had a penchant for Clefable with her wishpassing capability (and I really don't like the new Rest) so I rarely had a teamslot for Munchie. Though, Munchlax is one of the most sound answers to a Sunny Day team / Hail team, and I'm pretty sure it's significantly bulkier than a 252/252 Clefable. Lilligant was unanimously declared balanced, but she can still be a menace: Munchie is another solid stop to that regardless of her hidden power. He can actually take odd physical hits as a bonus. I wouldn't expect Munchlax to become unviable anytime soon. Talking about something good but declining in usage, why is Entei usage dropping so hard?

 

[Honus]

Lol 30 minute ninja.

Well I was thinking MixKrow should go along with it as well. Mixkrow works wonderfully with anything that appreciates Aggron and Steelix gone. I've even ran Belly Drum Linoone alongside MixKrow rather successfully. Durant's basically a sweeper with similar checks except that it can actually attack on its own. Though, if you try to overload on the Steelix front too much, it might be too obvious on the team preview.

On the matter of Munchlax: I've always had a penchant for Clefable with her wishpassing capability (and I really don't like the new Rest) so I rarely had a teamslot for Munchie. Though, Munchlax is one of the most sound answers to a Sunny Day team / Hail team, and I'm pretty sure it's significantly bulkier than a 252/252 Clefable. Lilligant was unanimously declared balanced, but she can still be a menace: Munchie is another solid stop to that regardless of her hidden power. He can actually take odd physical hits as a bonus. I wouldn't expect Munchlax to become unviable anytime soon. Talking about something good but declining in usage, why is Entei usage dropping so hard?

I've always liked Lickilicky over Clefable, mainly due to the fact that it has higher Special Bulk, although Magic Guard is obviously a superior ability to whatever Lickilicky has, albeit Cloud Nine has the potential to be very useful if Lickilicky can ever get Wish and Seismic Toss with it.

On the subject of Durant, it's just a beast. I've played with it some in the higher tiers, and it's still managed to perform. I'll definitely throw together some teams with Durant when I find the time.

 

[alexwolf]

Qwilfish/Uxie/Gligar is pretty much the standard core atm, and it's quite effective. The tier is pretty much all physical attackers, and those three can set up all three hazards while walling basically everything physically based.

So let's talk about what breaks this core. Spinners are a good place to start; though sandslash and the hitmons are beaten by all three, they can at least spin. cryogonal can beat all three but is manhandled by all the physical attackers and the sr weakness. Other stuff can power through it, like strong special attackers. sceptile, moltres, and blizzspammers can overpower the core as ru doesn't have any dominant special walls. whats some other stuff to beat this core?

How can Cryogonal beat Qwilfish???

 

[kniteowl]

Lol 30 minute ninja.

I forgot to hit the "post" button, I had the post typed up already, but I got distract and when I returned i decided to post it lol... well doesn't matter...

Yeah I also noticed a decrease in Entei, probably because people want to try out different tactics/team, especially weather and such. i've been playing around with hail recently

 

[shnen]

Gotta love Durant and its amazing Attack with Hustle. I have no idea how many Hone Claws sweeps I've pulled off so far, but that number isn't small. Pity Durant can't get around Steelix or Aggron.

I use power herb dig just for the lulz, but it's actually surprisingly ok-ish, he hasn't missed LO too much from what I've seen, and it is great for aggron! Too bad he does t get eq...

 

[lars]

I thought the fairly obvious reason for the decline in Entei usage was because Sableye was banned...

not as great of need for physical attackers to be immune to burn now.

He's still good, but (at least in my eyes) his predictability held him back. I know there were other sets, but when I saw Entei, I thought CB, and it was 9.5 times out of ten.

The discussion about Durant is kind of mirroring the discussion of Entei. Durant no longer fears priority WoW and his usage has risen. His access to Hone Claws makes him more appealing.

I fear Durant > Entei any day.

 

[Nails]

How can Cryogonal beat Qwilfish???

I misspoke, I meant that it could spin its hazards. Though an offensive set could probably 2hko qwilfish with hp electric, qwilfish wins that matchup.

 

[Pombo]

Not backing it up with calcs right now, but I'm pretty sure that Qwils 0 Atk Waterfall OHKOes... i never saw Cryo survive ANY physical move...

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

A maximum HP set can survive weaker physical attacks. Once.

 

[marilli]

^it does like 70~80 according to my memory, and should ko with SR. That's pretty sad really =( Don't know what spread he was running, though...

The thing is, Cryo will never switch in on qwilfish against that core. The thing i really hate spinblocking vs. cryo is that it forces you to use one of the offensively incapable ghosts in Duscknoir or Cofagrigus (as in not Rotom). That being said, would an offensive rapid spin cryogonal work? Dies to physical hits especially with 0 hp investment, but stlil probably takes special hits and forces the opponent to switch in cofag or something (mind you, who will still lose unless it's a setup variant with calm mind or nasty plot or something). Only thing that should spinblock comfortably against that should be dusknoir.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

I'm using offensive Rapid Spin Cryogonal right now, and in my opinion its the only viable set in this meta with all the offensive presence. Ice Beam/Rapid Spin/Recover/Toxic with max SpAtk/Spe has worked quite well, Rotom-N being 2HKOd most of the time while managing only 50% max in return, hence you can Recover stall until it gets a lower roll. The other Ghosts get Toxic'd and hit fairly hard by Cryo, which people forget has a very nice 95 base Special Attack stat.

 

[DTC]

I'm really surprised no one is mentioning Gallade. It actually does have counters (Cofagrigus+Misdreavus. Alomomola if it is lucky with Scald.) but it is just insane. It sets up on so many Pokemon and is extremely hard to stop once it starts setting up. It basically runs right through stall and even gives offense trouble. It pairs up really well with Honchkrow since both of them can get rid of each others counters, and Gallade can use Honchkrow's counters as set up bait. (Other then Alomomola) Honestly, Gallade is worse then Honchkrow and Lilligant.

Sharpedo is also really threatening, early game it can't really do much but once the opposing team is weakened a little, it just runs right through it, I've gotten many wins just because of it.

 

[Molk]

you know what is underrated in RU? throh, its the bulkiest fighting type, and pairs well with qwilfish other than the psychic weakness. It has guts to abuse status, and with circle throw+ a lot of hazards, throh can wreck an entire team, most spinners become set up bait as well, it sets up on claydol and non-haze cryogonal,(who it OHKOEs anyway.

 

[Rakan]

Going off what MK has said, there are plenty of underrated Fighting-types in the tier. Gallade, as previously mentioned, can be an absolute monster with Bulk Up, or have an immediate offensive presence with either Swords Dance or a Choiced set. Throh is ridiculously bulky, and has Circle Throw to phaze (too bad it doesn't get Sleep Talk...). However, the Fighting-type I've found to be most useful on my hail team is Poliwrath. Poliwrath has a nice Fire and Rock resistance, which means it has excellent synergy with most hail teams. In addition, it has Rest, Sleep Talk, AND Circle Throw, making it an excellent status absorber and phazer. Not to mention it's quite bulky with some investment. I <3 Poliwrath

 

[Megapants]

i find that fighting types are actually somewhat of a liability in this tier. with stuff like gligar, uxie, slowking, duosion, and rotom being such big threats, i've actually noticed that they give more free switches than they deal damage. i find gallade to be an exception, because bulk up sets are ridiculously sturdy and swords dance sets can be devastating as well. however, with the qwilfish/uxie/gligar core being discussed before, there are just too many opportunities for your opponent to take serious advantage of a resisted fighting move.

another anti-fighting core i've found is gligar/rotom/slowking. it keeps all the same resistances/immunity of the last core, while also gaining the ability to burn, pHaze, and hit hard with a STAB electric attack.

rotom acts has resistances to normal and flying, making it a great check for swellow, honchkrow, cincinno and bouffalant, which gligar and slowking have issues with. slowking has access to dragon tail, so a set of slack off / scald / psychic / dragon tail allows him to get rid of gallade and other set up sweepers. this core is not able to set up hazards, though, so that role must be allocated to a different mon. slowking is also vulnerable to toxic spikes, whereas qwilfish is not, so scolipede makes a great addition to this core, absorbing those spikes while setting up its own.

 

[Rakan]

Rotom-N is so frail it gets 2HKOed by a lot of the aforementioned's auxiliary attacks... or by sheer force (think a guts-boosted Brave Bird from Swellow). But yea, Slowking is a major pain in the ass to most hail teams and fighting-types in general.

 

[Megapants]

Rotom-N is so frail it gets 2HKOed by a lot of the aforementioned's auxiliary attacks... or by sheer force (think a guts-boosted Brave Bird from Swellow). But yea, Slowking is a major pain in the ass to most hail teams and fighting-types in general.

i run a RestTalk set with 252 hp / 196 def / 60 spe (to out run defensive drapion) with will-o-wisp, but yeah STAB brave birds still hit pretty hard. gligar is sturdy enough to act as a general physical wall against those as well, so rotom can be used as a secondary check, if you will.

 

[EonADS]

That's when you use Dugtrio or Wynaut lol

It's called Magneton :P trap those steels and eliminate them. Give Magneton Magnet rise because you out speed them and they can't hit you back with Earthquake.

Y'know, I've been playing Pokemon for odds-on fourteen years now. I think I know how to take down a Steel-type :P I was just saying, it's a pity Durant can't take down Steelix or Aggron, because then it would be even better than it already is.

To continue the Rotom discussion, has anyone else used Specs Rotom-M? STAB Leaf Storm hits like a ton of bricks and it gets excellent coverage. Great set of resistences/immunities too, plenty of opportunities for a good switch-in.

 

[waterwarrior]

I've never actually used it, but it can cause hell with a Scarf like it did in the old days of RU (what caused them to die out in the first place...?). STAB Leaf Storm and Volt Switch while outspeeding almost everything? Not bad.

EDIT: -looks at the # post this is-
LOLOLOL

Hooray for being completely immature!

 

[EonADS]

^ Yeah, Scarf works, but I've had much more success using Specs. As a revenge killer and general scarfer, it is rather unique though.

 

[kniteowl]

Has anyone tried Vanilluxe on a hail team yet?

He seems to be stuck somewhere inbetween Glaceon and Rotom-F.

Not as fast as Rotom-F but hits harder then Rotom-F
Faster then Glaceon but does not hit as hard as Glaceon

With base 79 speed and base 110 SpA

I was wondering where it could fit when Rotom-F and Glaceon has superior stats in one department or the other.

Looking at it's Movepool it got a couple of things.

Autotomize, a Steel version of Agility/Rock Polish allows it to boost it's speed and blizzspam anything that could out speed it before, it also allows it to take those "low kicks" a bit better but I've never see n a pokemon use it in RU yet...

Taunt, any special wall thinking it can out stall it will have major problems

Ice Shard, a reasonable base 95 attack stat to take advantage of priority on the likes of Honchkrow who think it can revenge you with suckerpunch.

Sadly Iceshard and Automize are not legal together :(

Its default ability Ice body (weak armour not released and you still wouldn't use if even if it was), allows it to run Life-orb and only suffer 4% Recoil damage, it won't be using choice items because Glaceon and Rotom-F do it better, Leftovers is an ok item but it doesn't look like it can stall very well compared to Wallrein, in which case you're better off using Wallrein.

His 79/85/95 bulk isn't bad either.

I was thinking of a set something like

[SET]
name: Life Orb
move 1: Autotomize / Ice Shard
move 2: Blizzard
move 3: HP-electric
move 4: Flash Canon / Substitute / Taunt
item: Life Orb
ability: Ice Body
nature: Timid / Modest (use a different nature if using Ice shard)
evs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP

I have a tough time finding a place for him on my team... ah well.. .time to test him out.

 

[RotatingAtom]

Guys, RU is the best tier ever. Seriously, there's so many Pokémon in the tier
that are actually viable, they all, along with the different playstyles, balance
each other out so well, I love it.

I remember fighting you, MoltenKyurem, a few days ago, you were testing out
Kangaskhan, which was just another thing that I had never seen before and I
had trouble with regardless.

Another thing I'd like to draw your attention to is SubSplit Rotom-n. Shadow
Ball and Thunderbolt offer coverage, and even if you're up against a special
wall, you can beat them eventually with well-timed Pain Splits and
SpDef-Drops from Shadow Ball.

What I'm surprised about is how I don't see many Wynauts. I recently used
one myself, and my god, this things an annoying mofo. Easy to use, a one-
trick pony, but it always does exactly what it is supposed to do. Pair it with
Wish Clefable, and you've got yourself one of the most annoying combinations
to face.

 

[hamiltonion]

Guys, RU is the best tier ever. Seriously, there's so many Pokémon in the tier
that are actually viable, they all, along with the different playstyles, balance
each other out so well, I love it.

I remember fighting you, MoltenKyurem, a few days ago, you were testing out
Kangaskhan, which was just another thing that I had never seen before and I
had trouble with regardless.

Another thing I'd like to draw your attention to is SubSplit Rotom-n. Shadow
Ball and Thunderbolt offer coverage, and even if you're up against a special
wall, you can beat them eventually with well-timed Pain Splits and
SpDef-Drops from Shadow Ball.

I've been looking for a new tier to play after falling on my face in OU and UU, so I thought lets try RU. Almost immediately I liked the tier. So, I'm just going to post my thoughts about the pokemon in the tier in short.

The thing about RU is that it is diverse but yet not too diverse (see BW OU). This is what makes its so fun to play. Every playstyle is viable and can win a match. Of all the Pokemon (and I havent used that many) Subsplit Rotom is my absolute favourite. Its fast, has that incredible Ghost / Electric typing, Levitate, says fuck you to most spinners and is an excellent stallbreaker. Its bailed me out of trouble so many times and I've seen teams just crumble in front of it. I dunno why its the last set in the analysis, its so much better than SubCharge imo. They serve different purposes but still. Another awesome pokemon is Sharpedo. Comes in like a boss lategame and 2HKO nearly everything.

All in all, RU is a really fun tier.

 

[lars]

i find that fighting types are actually somewhat of a liability in this tier. with stuff like gligar, uxie, slowking, duosion, and rotom being such big threats, i've actually noticed that they give more free switches than they deal damage. i find gallade to be an exception, because bulk up sets are ridiculously sturdy and swords dance sets can be devastating as well. however, with the qwilfish/uxie/gligar core being discussed before, there are just too many opportunities for your opponent to take serious advantage of a resisted fighting move.

another anti-fighting core i've found is gligar/rotom/slowking. it keeps all the same resistances/immunity of the last core, while also gaining the ability to burn, pHaze, and hit hard with a STAB electric attack.

rotom acts has resistances to normal and flying, making it a great check for swellow, honchkrow, cincinno and bouffalant, which gligar and slowking have issues with. slowking has access to dragon tail, so a set of slack off / scald / psychic / dragon tail allows him to get rid of gallade and other set up sweepers. this core is not able to set up hazards, though, so that role must be allocated to a different mon. slowking is also vulnerable to toxic spikes, whereas qwilfish is not, so scolipede makes a great addition to this core, absorbing those spikes while setting up its own.

I agree that Fighting types are somewhat of a liability; I consider Gallade (I think we all know why), Primeape (scarf outspeeds Krook and Bravery and U-turn and vital spirit), Medicham (trick and the sheer power it wields) and to some extent Hariyama (good WoW switch in) to be the most viable ones.

I've heard good things about Poliwrath and Throh, but I don't usually have trouble with them. The Hitmons are nice to spin, but I just can't remember the last time I had any difficulty in taking them down. (Granted this is my team and everybody has different weaknesses, weather being my biggest)

-I've been thinking about trying about trying Durant and Honchkrow as a physical offensive core with a Steel trapper to help them out.

-And yes! RU is awesome! I went back to do some OU for a little while and I just missed RU so much.

 

[Rakan]

Poliwrath is best used on a hail team imo, as it can take all those Fire-type attacks with ease, and has RestTalk + Circle Throw. Circle Throw is pretty awesome for phazing, expecially with spikes stacking and the presence of Stealth Rock. However, what Poliwrath lacks in comparison to the other Fighting-types is its lack of power. Poliwrath has a below average Attack stat, and sometimes that causes difficulties for me, especially when the opponent has a substitute up :/ The thing is, you really shouldn't be comparing Gallade, Primeape, and Medicham with Poliwrath and Throh, since they are very different. The former are usually more offensively oriented, while the latter are usually defensively oriented. That being said, Throh sucks imo, all it does is Bulk Up aimlessly in order to get it's attack stat up to a decent level before it can even do anything. Not to mention it's so slow it takes a hit from basically everything before it can hit back. Also, the lack of Sleep Talk really hurts it as well.

Also, the WyTrio combo is incredibly underrated. Once you get rid of scarfers and the like, set up sweepers can reign free and dominate your opponent.