Project RarelyUsed Teambuilding Competition: week 37: Resist Berries

[fluff!!]

Fezan is S rank

https://pokepast.es/057b129b25156c75


Fezandipiti U-turns on stuff and brings in the biggest special breaker and biggest physical breaker on the field for free because Toxic Chain is broken and forces switches into Steels/Poisons. Calm Mind + Alluring Voice is just here for show because, as Sneaky rightfully mentioned on discord, if Fezan had only U-turn and Roost it would still be at least A rank because Toxic Chain is just that broken. It does allow you to dunk on Suicune though.


when I built this team a month ago I just wanted to try out Gastrodon. I think the pysdef sticky helm set is very funny :3 even though fatter Grounds are probably better here (thinking about Hippo here)


I need Defog and it pairs well with Hoodra. Also a Ground immunity for Scarf Krook shenanigans.


when I built this team I couldn't find a 6th, so I used /randpoke ru
Scarf Krook turned out to be a good mon in here after a bit of testing so it stayed :3 it can hit Tera Poison Slowbro and Psychics so that's nice.

The team can struggle against weather HO but that's if you forget about Fezan being S-tier and having a goated matchup against these archetypes. You can replace Krook for a Scarf Gardevoir and autowin these MUs.

Replays (some of them were with a version of the team that has an AV goodra)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2214983114 vs TR
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2214981269?p2 vs Webs HO
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2215013615 vs balance w/ tera fire bisharp

 

[Sneakyplanner]

Slugnaught Spike Balance

Gastrodon+Chesnaught as a defensive core came to me in a daydream when I was bored at work. One is a reliable catch-all phys wall, the other is a reliable catch-all spdef wall, both set hazards, they cover each other's weaknesses and so on. Both have fighting-resist teras since the team otherwise lacks more sturdy fighting resists. If you see a Gapdos, plan on teraing your Chesnaught, if you see a Fezandipiti then do the same for Gastrodon. Gastrodon's EV spread lets it live 2 earthquakes from Krookodile.
Noivern started as a Chesnaught, as all RU teams do. But I made the odd choice to make my hazard removal a defogger for a few reasons. It's got a much-needed typing, the team needed a fast and offensive mon to balance out the fatties, and the team can power through stealth rock with its rock resists and your own offensive pressure, so I felt safe using a more conditional form of hazard removal.
Grass and water core? Might as well add a fire, and the oven also doubles as a strong pivot with a ground immunity. I went with a more offensive EV spread since the team already has two reliable walls. Heattom is there for its resists, it doesn't need defense investment as much. And with recent shifts such as Okidogi leaving, I haven't really felt compelled to max out speed that much, meaning I dropped speed until I hit the Bisharp-Volcanion range. I might change it back after an Armarouge or timid Volcanion really owns me, but for now I feel invincible.
Needed an offensive fighting type, needed a mon that still has some meat, needed priority... Slither Wing is the answer. RU's sweetest boy makes the team again.
shoutout to Heatranator for introducing pain split Amuk to me. The team needed a knocker and progress maker as well as a psychic immune for the team's two fighters, so Muk fits the role. Pain split eases a lot of the issues I have with the protect Amuk sets. It makes you less bothered by hazards, it helps you vs CM psychics, and pairing Amuk with gastrodon makes slowbro a do-nothing mon into your team.

 

[Hoops]

Non-Scarf Choiced Hazard Stack



Speed control is overrrated and big damage is based, team is built around big hitters in specs hoodra and banddos taking advantage of a hazard stacking core in rachi gweezing and gastrodon. Vapo gives longevity to the big breakers and an emergency button if one of your other defensive mons gets chipped to much.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ru-800030 <- vs. Balance
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2230128643-9xv8daj66tmkcd55n1vcw9zkuk7xys0pw <- vs. Rain
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2230879272 <- More Balance

 

[Sneakyplanner]

It's time for voting. This week's entries are:
Glastrier spikes by Heatranator
Hazards for birds by haunted paper
NP alolatales +spikes by Forest Guardian
S-rank Fezan by fluff!!
Slugnaught spikes balance by Sneakyplanner
Specs Hoodra + band Gapdos spikes by HoopsspooH
My vote goes to Fluff. Team looks like something I would build and the VR take is hot in a good way.

 

[haunted paper]

HoopsspooH - I had a good match against that team

 

[MrAldo]

It is from Forest Guardian or fluff!! imo, feel those teams have the best designed route of winning, the others feel slow without designed means of solid speed control or go to far on the stacking but use defog with rock weak mons, and that kind of defeat the process to me.


I will go for Forest Guardian on this. Feel the structure is brave and functional, and while fluff!! is the most solid one imo, feel the fun factor is more notable, how effective NP Alolan-Tales truly is remains to be seen, but I feel it is well supported here so thats my vote

 

[Rarelyme]

As much as I'd like to vote for the Glastrier team, I have to go for Forest Guardian here since their team balances best originality and viability.

 

[THE_CHUNGLER]

Haunted paper, it went nuts vs someone in a test game

 

[Sneakyplanner]

Congratulations to Forest Guardian for winning this week and thank you to everyone who participated.

 

[Sneakyplanner]

Week 32: Gyarados

This week's spotlight mon is Gyarados. Former RUBL, currently in NUBL limbo. Gyarados is on potential-man watch, always allegedly a threat but never quite able to get it done. Gyarados has a great typing, great stats, and plenty of options, but just can't break through. Maybe you'll unlock the secret that brings it back to dominance. Sub DD, taunt DD, 3 attacks DD, intimidate, moxie, perhaps even choice band. There's so much for you to do, so many teams it can fit on.

Submission deadline: Teams should be submitted by 11:59 PM (GMT-7) on Friday, November 1st, voting will then go until 11:59 PM (GMT-7) on Sunday November 3rd.

 

[fluff!!]

Veil Offense ft. Gyarados

https://pokepast.es/6f4d8388aecbd30d


The soon-to-be-NU Veil dispenser. Encore is broken.


Our support mon. Rocky helm for mice, Roar phazes setup sweepers and you can tank stuff thanks to Veil, pivot with Flip Turn.


The best Veil Offense mon in my honest opinion truthfully desu ne. Reuniclus is already immune to hazards and passive damage, give it max HP investment and Veil and it just tanks stuff. Then, its coverage demolishes Veil's worst matchups like Slowbro and Amoonguss (seriously, this mushroom thing 1v6s Veil Offense if you aren't careful)


I wasn't sure about this pick but I felt like I needed a Knock absorber and it did pretty good so I kept it. Air Balloon gives spikes immunity and makes it even harder for Grounds to beat it behind Veil.


Another Veil offense staple imo. Absolutely needed for its priority, natural bulk, and typing. Tera can be anything, I wouldn't mind Tera Fire on it but I like KOing stuff I shouldn't with Tera Dark.


Gyarados enjoys the added bulk from Veil to run Moxie freely and setup that one more Dragon Dance you absolutely need to break something. You'd normally want to run Covert Cloak, but we don't run hazard removal and Gyarados absolutely needs the 25% HP it loses from Rocks so I'm a boots enjoyer for Gyara.

 

[haunted paper]

https://pokepast.es/4905236e82b78bf4 - Catch of the Day

- Rain team answer and due to its' solid bulk, Volcanion can trade.

- Priority abuser and surprisingly works great with Volcanion in spreading burns since different mons check both. So that's cool. Also, added this to the team to 2HKO opposing Volcanions on the switch-in with Stone Edges, which could annoy Gyarados with Steam Eruption burns.

- This Mew has caught so many people off guard. Solid at bringing momentum to each game, never a let down. CC is mainly for Cyclizar, but also great against Chansey thinking it can trade hazards, as well as, steel types.

- This mon is so hard to use. Tera Fire is mainly for will-o-wisp users like Weezing-G or Talonflame. Lot of burn moves too like Sacred Fire and Scald. Avalanche is for 100% accuracy over ice fang and a way to hit mons like Salamence.

- Main answer to Maushold and physical attackers in general. Works great with Mew at hazard stacking.

- Spinner, special tank, knock user, and U-Turner. Just really great at being the glue of the team.

Krookodile is probably the number #1 weakness for this team.

EDIT: Use ice fang over avalanche on Gyarados. I had no idea avalanche was -4 priority, no wonder I always went last using it lol.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2233176172-h3bcj60qtjqqe2mgl03i370651ue0nhpw - It's a sweep against webs.

 

[Heatranator]

T-wave Gyarados+Golurk Offense


Subject of this week's teambuilding comp, I decided to use a set that I've talked about before in the past on discord, t-wave gyara. This allows gyara to use its defensive qualities early on to spread para (every ground type besides swampert doesn't want to switch into it) very reliably, to either stop threats or cripple defensive mons. It can then use said para to sweep late game by using the classic para-flinch combo. This originally was tera ground with e-quake, but after discussing it with fluff!! a bit, we came to the conclusion that tera blast flying was necessary for DD gyara to truly work. So its now tera blast flying, which still works well as it can HEAVILY chunk some things that may be too bulky for the rest of the team (like umbreon).

A mon that has been rising up recently, golurk is a great mon on this team. Its able to set up stealth rocks while being a massive threat. The speed evs allow it to outspeed the normal conk spread, which is nice for getting off a hit on it (and makes it pretty good into conk in general). Colbur berry allows it to stay in on dark types and hit them for big damage. Tera normal means it becomes immune to ghost type moves, though tera dark is also a good option. Poltergeist and e-quake are good stab options, and ice punch hits the dragon/flying types and wo chien for good damage (ice punch 3hit ko's wo chien). Great mon, and it performs extremely well.

I wanted a fast mon for this team, so I decided to use raikou next. This is the standard pivot set, but with two key changes. I decided to swap out t-bolt for t-wave, which helps golurk a lot more and helps slow down fast threats (thundy cope), and I used tera fighting to increase the power of aura sphere, allowing it to do a lot better against umbreon, while resisting bisharp's sucker punch.

I wanted some hazard control for this team, and a little bit of defensive backbone as well, so cyclizar is up next. This is the standard set, but I swapped out draco meteor for double edge, which allows cyclizar to keep up the offensive pressure by doing solid damage into neutral targets.

I ofc, needed a steel type for the team, as any dragon would eviscerate the team, so I decided to add bisharp to the team. This is just a standard SD set, with tera fire in order to set up on geezing, though tera flying is also good.

Finally, I wanted another special attacking mon, and preferabbly something that could help with fighting types. Armarouge was the pick, as it does both of those things. Standard calm mind set, cause that's always good.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2233092502-isov8pvdpa1v7f5wp4j5nyja3pi3409pw Here's a replay with the team (though it is with the tera ground gyara variant).

 

[Sneakyplanner]

Dance Dance Revolution physical spikes HO

I had originally planned on building a BO team with gyarados as a late game sweeper, but those kept having a dead weight fish in slot 1. So I got angry and built an HO team as a form of venting. Halfway through, I realized that basically all my mons were physical, so I decided to lean into that. This team doesn't have the usual HO mainstays of Yanmega and Maushold for moral reasons. Instead I threw a bunch of dancers on the squad and called it a day.
Spikes lead, need I say more?
I think Gardevoir is a really underrated mon on HO, especially if you are a dumb idiot baby like me and not running Yanmega. Healing wish is busted, especially with Gyarados and Bisharp, trick helps break fat teams, and scarf provides some much-needed speed without needing to take a turn.
Spinblocker, I may not like Mimikyu but the team needs it.
All 3 of these guys have a fun synergy of beating all the tier's phys walls as a group. Hippowdon KOes Bisharp and then gets set up on by Gyarados in a way that can just win the game on the spot if you get the taunt turn right. Chesnaught also gets beaten by Gyarados' flying tera blast, also it just doesn't usually have the coverage moves to hit gyarados well. Slowbro can win vs one breaker, but it will never get the chance to regen back to full and loses vs all of these mons when it starts chipped.

 

[Hoops]

Specially Defensive Sub DD Gyara BO



Sub covers for random Will-O-Wisps from stuff like Gweezing, also made it super specially bulky to always tank a Strange Steam behind sub. Kind of slow for a DDer, but you still hit like an absolute truck after a couple of DDs. I think that Tera Flying Tera Blast is pretty explosive in the right matchups, and although it does mandate you don't use tera on other stuff, if you're using Tera Blast with Tera you're most likely already in a pretty comfortable position to win. Rest of the team is also pretty bulky, so losing tera on them isn't like the worst thing in the world. Additionally, you have enough speed to outrun Max Ada Bisharp and other things in the same speed tier, but with an Adamant nature you don't lose out on any attack from what you would have with max Attack on a Jolly Nature.

Standard bulky core, cover each other weaknesses well. and potentially opens up Gyarados through burns and toxics. Wish can heal up Gyara for another chance of sweeping as well.

Both provides another bulky mon in general and alternative set up sweeper. Cress can very easily 6-0 in some matchups, and while it doesn't do much before setting up, but can switch in if either Umbreon or Gweezing get to much damage on them.

Rocker of the team, and dominates some bulkier mons with Psychic Noise, which I can say from experience almost 1v1d a very bulkier CM Reuniclus. Not running the goob set of Scale Shot Loaded Dice, but we do desperately need our rocker to stay healthy throughout the game without total reliance on wish support from Umbreon.

I'm not really sure about this, but I needed a scarfer and Gengar seemed to do alright. Trick can once again cripple a defensive option to allow Gyarados to set up.

 

[Sneakyplanner]

It's time for voting. This week's entries are:
Veil offense featuring Gyarados by fluff!!
Catch of the day by haunted paper
twave Gyarados+golurk by Heatranator
Dance Dance Revoluiton by Sneakyplanner
Sub DD Gyarados by HoopsspooH
I like Haunted paper's team a lot for using Entei and Volc together, but Avalanche gyarados is just too spicy. Heatranator built a great team and shows off Golurk very very well, so I'll vote for him.

 

[Rarelyme]

hoops

 

[Dead by Daylight]

heatranator

 

[FastCarVroom!!!]

Fluff

 

[Catcus]

hoopsspooh

 

[Lyra]

Fluff

 

[haunted paper]

After playing each team (including my own) a whole bunch of times, I vote sneakyplanner.

But I'll say this, the over reliance on tera blast and tera flying on Gyarados is really bad. Not a single Gyarados set is good due to the fact that if you need Gyarados but you already used tera (or haven't but need it on another mon), well guess what, pray they don't have Volcanion, Gastrodon w/storm drain, Vaporeon, Cyclazar, or anything that resists or straight up immune to water. Oh wait, that's common and a lot of mons. That's not even including foul play mons or scarf mons with coverage like Umbreon and Jirachi respectively. There's also flame body Talonflame (hopefully their tera is burned), will-o-wisp Weezing-G, intimidate Salamence, and Scarf Stone Edge Krookodile w/moxie. It's hard to set Gyarados up in this meta, so it's good to rely on other moves (no, not t-wave or sub).

Each team is weak to sun, rain, and bulky offense w/hazard spam. Fluff's team is especially weak to every weather, including hippowdon balance w/o any kind of sand team mates, and opposing snow teams running Sandslash-A + Cetitan or just Cetitan (which is kinda funny). Hoopspooh's team wants to be HO but just...why Umbreon? Weezing-G + Umbreon don't open Gyarados up unless you outpredict your opponent but, if the game is evenly matched or you are outpredicted then...too bad? Either you're left with Gyarados running useless waterfall + special tera blast or getting outsped by common scarfers that Gengar cannot switch-in on.

At the end of the day, I had a lot of fun using these teams. Just, who cares if Gyarados can't run a flying STAB? Have a backup plan. If this seems like a hate post, it isn't. I love y'all.

It sucks that I ran avalanche on Gyarados, big mistake for sure. Sorry about that everyone.

 

[MrPioupiou]

Heatranator

 

[Sneakyplanner]

Congratulations to Heatranator for winning this week and thank you to everyone who voted.

 

[Sneakyplanner]

:Week 33: Basculegion

Seafood season continues. This time the catch of the week is Basculegion. The ghost fish known for its adaptability shenanigans, able to pump out scary amounts of damage off meager offensive stats and having a great defensive typing. She/hersculegion is the most common one, actually having access to ghost stab. Scarf, specs, weakness policy, swift swim, there are options galore. The male version shouldn't be ignored though. Wave crash hits hard, and strong flip turns will iwn the attrition game. Find the right fish for yourself and share the result here.

Submission deadline: Teams should be submitted by 11:59 PM (GMT-7) on Friday, November 8th voting will then go until 11:59 PM (GMT-7) on Sunday November 10th.