Sap sipper, water absorb, lightening rod... the resistance squad.
Hey guys, as the thread title suggests I am currently rank 1 on the PU showdown ladder. In order to celebrate I thought I'd give thanks to the mons that got me here and share this team with you. Furthermore, despite success I'm confident that this team has plenty of room for improvement and tweaking, so hopefully you guys can make this team even better.
Whirlipede @ Eviolite
Ability: Speed Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Substitute
- Endeavor
This is my most common lead, and it fulfils the role of hazard setter perfectly. If I see a spinner such as avalugg or wartortle I will immediately lay a layer of toxic spikes down in order to get them poisoned before they switch in so that they will be warn down if they attempt to repeatedly rapid spin. Furthermore low HP substitute endeavours can cause many poisoned pokes to die. Finally, since my team is very weak to set up mons if I perceive a threat I will use substitute and endeavour to ensure they are not behind a sub of their own or at very high HP levels, hoping another team member can revenge kill. However since my team lacks any priority, this can be problematic.
Barbaracle @ White Herb
Ability: Tough Claws
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Razor Shell
- Stone Edge
- Aerial Ace
- Shell Smash
when my whirlipede faces opposing marowak/camerupt/piloswine leads barbaracle is always my second choice. OHKOing both marowak and camerupt with razor shell and threatening all the common defoggers in the tier. Barbaracle helps to keep my hazards on the field because they cannot be removed for fear of him setting up, as there are very few barbaracle counters in the tier especially when factoring hazard support. Aerial ace is run for poliwrath as it is the most common counter to barbaracle, whilst also doing slightly more to tangela without the chance of missing. Barbaracle services my team even more, because it is such a threat it attracts grass and electric moves in abundance, which is perfect for my sap sipper bouffalant and lightening rod raichu.
Bouffalant @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Return
- Earthquake
Having both poliwrath and barbaracle on my team attracts many grass attacks, common suspects including serperior, tangela, gourgeist and butterfree. Switching into these gives Bouffalant incredible power, and since most grass types will try to follow up with status, we can often get a free sub as bouffalant outspeeds the two common gourgeists variants and tangela. even without a sub bouf smacks annoying walls and is the teams main musharna counter. Bouffalant will almost always survive a non fighting attack and hits back the glass cannons in the PU tier with force. Earthquake is used in order to hit bastiodon, barbaracle and golem.However this leaves us hard walled by haunter and mismagius, meaning bouf can only be used as a bulky pivot until these are gone. Furthermore, since this is the only member of my team which could have the soundproof ability, it is often possible to bluff chatot into switching.
Raichu @ Choice Specs
Ability: Lightningrod
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
- Encore
Raichu naturally lends itself to a hazard stacking play style as it can volt switch out into counters putting pressure on the opposing mons to switch and stay alive. Furthermore, since surf static raichu is increasing in popularity, rotom F, electrode and other raichu no longer fear the lightening rod as much and are far more likely to try and hit poliwrath and barbaracle with electric attacks. Since almost all of the electric types in the tier are choiced they are forced to switch out and raichu can pick any of the 3 attacking moves and do serious work depending on which pokemon the other player has. focus blast hits golem, bastiodon, and piloswine and rotom f harder than surf would anyway, and raichu creates many free turns meaning it often gets two chances to hit and get a kill. Encore is very seldom used, but it is nice to stop opposing CM musharna and sub punch poliwrath
Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Rest
- Circle Throw
- Sleep Talk
There are a ton of interesting poliwrath sets out there and I am still not certain which I favour most! This poliwrath serves as a good bulky phazer that can rack up a lot of damage if hazards have been placed on the field. scald serves to try and burn flying types on the switch and also can try to ohko study golem. Rest helps to stall other pokes out whilst they suffer poison damage, and works well with heal bell musharna in the back, as these have good synergy. special defence investment is less common on poliwrath, but since musharna serves as my main physical wall poliwrath can cover the bug and dark weaknesses with its natural physical bulk and resistance. Finally, common physical attackers include choiced basculin, floatzel, kingler, all of which are negated completely by water absorb.
Musharna @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heal Bell
- Psyshock
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight
Musharna is commonly regarded as one of the biggest threats in the tier, and for good reason. it has the physical bulk to take only 37-43% from a life orbed tauros, and even 78-90% from an adamant choice banded scythers bug bite. This, combined with special bulk after 1 turn of set up (30% from AV beheeyem dark pulse, 40% haunter shadow ball) shows why musharna is so dangerous if given a chance. syncronize and heal bell mean that statusing musharna can be useless or even detrimental, and also provides support for bouffalant incase a gourgeist manages to catch it with a will o wisp. I run psyshock because I lost 3 games to opposing musharna struggle wars.
Threat list:
Sneasel - If I see this mon I treat my hazards like gold dust, as this is my main method for wearing sneasel down, along with switching and predicting knock off and low kick attacks with poliwrath and musharna. Thankfully very few people run eviolite swords dance sneasel because that causes big problems.
Scyther/ninjask - somehow on a hazards team I didnt find manage to pick a stealth rock user, which makes me very weak to the bug/flying combo that both my wall pokemon are weak to.
barbaracle - musharna/bouffalant/poliwrath can mostly take 1 hit from a boosted barbaracle depending on the set, but not comfortably and toxic spikes support is usually needed to avoid a sweep, due to my lack of priority.
throh - throh is not so dangerous if musharna is healthy, as after a knock off it can usually do very little unless it is bulk up and is threatened by a SE physhock in return. However late game sleep talk throh can pose serious problems if the team is already weakened.
Thanks for reading, apologies if you feel that it is TL;DR, I consider this a competitive team and it was difficult to keep my thoughts concise. I am really looking forward to reading suggestions for improvements. garbodor>whirlipede perhaps?
edit. apparantly i am too stupid to insert images correctly.
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