Gen 1 RBY OU RMT: Withdraw Slowbro.

[magic9mushroom]

Well, I realised I've never actually posted this team on here, so I figured I might as well do it.

Starmie
- Blizzard
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Recover

My anti-lead. Chosen over Alakazam because it dishes out the hurt better against an Exeggutor switch-in. No Thunderbolt because I don't need it to stop Slowbro; more on that later.

Exeggutor
- Sleep Powder
- Stun Spore
- Psychic
- Explosion

Fairly standard aggressive Exeggutor. Stun Spore is there to paralyse opposing Starmie, and also to stop Agility Dragonite from setting up.

Chansey
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Softboiled

Thunderbolt Chansey, not so much for stopping Slowbro as for stopping Lapras and actually killing Starmie. I prefer to paralyse opposing Chansey so that Slowbro can beat it more easily, so Ice Beam isn't necessary.

Snorlax
- Body Slam
- Hyper Beam
- Earthquake
- Selfdestruct

It's Lax. Great at paralysing and blowing up random stuff, and checking basically everything. EQ over Surf because I'd prefer to get rid of Gengar with its fast, powerful Thunderbolt.

Rhydon
- Body Slam
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Substitute

Originally, I had Tauros here, but I kept getting destroyed by Zapdos. So here we have Rhydon, bane of all thunderbirds. I've already got two Exploders, so I took Rhydon for the power over Golem.

Slowbro
- Psychic
- Withdraw
- Amnesia
- Rest

Withdraw Slowbro, the cornerstone of the team. First and foremost, this thing is the team's hard wall for opposing Slowbro; Withdraw's 64 PP means it will always win in a Slowbro/Slowbro PP stall (Ice Beam Slowbro is scary but rare). Withdraw also allows it to beat a number of other Rube Goldberg contraptions like Body Slam Tanklax and reverse their attempted sweeps into total routs, as well as making Slowbro much less vulnerable to being Exploded on. Psychic stops Victreebel from hard-walling Slowbro and helps against Gengar; it's also nice for the Special falls if Slowbro ends up facing down Chansey/Starmie.


The idea with this team is to feel out and destroy the various counters to Withdraw Slowbro and then go for the clean sweep. Thunder Wave Starmie can paralyse Chansey easily, EQ Snorlax can maim Gengar, and Stun Spore Exeggutor can paralyse Starmie and Alakazam. The major issues I still have with this team are with opposing Starmie, Zapdos, and Victreebel; although the team has hard counters to the first two, they can still create serious issues for Slowbro if I don't manage to snag them with paralysis early, and the latter requires prediction with Psychic for Slowbro to wear it down and threatens to 2HKO Slowbro while asleep. If Victreebel gets more common, I might end up replacing Snorlax with Tauros or Starmie with Alakazam to better deal with it; the former would also help against Dragonite by adding more speed to the team.

Anyway, there you have it.

 

[Jorgen]

I thought you used a Rest Egg on this team. Or maybe that's a different team. Anyway, this is a pretty good team, and certainly different from the standard in a subtle sort of way. The first thing anyone is going to say is "needs more Tauros" and it probably would be a good idea to use it over Snorlax for more Speed (although paralysis + slow and steady seems to be the point here, so I dunno, you're probably fine without the bull in all honesty). Rhydon/Golem is probably more necessary here than on other teams because of the number of mons otherwise weak to Zapdos. Also Psychic Slowbro annoyingly struggles against Alakazam, how do you deal with that? Explode with Egg? Paralyze and hope for FPs? Just stall it out? I dunno, I never liked the notion that you could end up wasting a good chunk of your attacking PP on trying to kill Alakzam, who you're supposed to be setting up on and beating handily, but at the end of the day I suppose there are workarounds and Psychic does give a nice boost against Gengar and Lapras and the odd Victreebel.

Also, your lack of Speed makes it easier than normal for Wrappers to mess with you. Cloyster, Dnite, and despite your efforts to deal with it, Victreebel all seem to have good time here. Tauros/Zam/Gengar would be nice additions to the family, although ironically Slowbro, the focus of your team, would probably be the one to go given its type redundancy with the faster Starmie.

 

[magic9mushroom]

I thought you used a Rest Egg on this team. Or maybe that's a different team.

Yeah, it is.

Rhydon/Golem is probably more necessary here than on other teams because of the number of mons otherwise weak to Zapdos.

As I said, I learned this one the hard way.

Also Psychic Slowbro annoyingly struggles against Alakazam, how do you deal with that? Explode with Egg? Paralyze and hope for FPs? Just stall it out? I dunno, I never liked the notion that you could end up wasting a good chunk of your attacking PP on trying to kill Alakzam, who you're supposed to be setting up on and beating handily, but at the end of the day I suppose there are workarounds and Psychic does give a nice boost against Gengar and Lapras and the odd Victreebel.

Generally, paralysis. Egg, Mie, and Chansey all tend to be able to land para on Zam. Usually if paralysed Zam stays in I'm content to let it do so as I slowly set up three Amnesias and five Withdraws while Resting off the damage. Whether I throw a few Psychics at it after that to try and get a specfall or stall it out with Withdraw basically depends on how many Psychics I think I'll need to kill the rest of the team - if they don't have any other Recover users left I can throw half my PP at Zam with few worries since basically everything else dies in 1 or 2 Psychics.

Kinesis Zam is a major obstacle, though, and I usually try to Hyper Beam or Explode on it.

Also, your lack of Speed makes it easier than normal for Wrappers to mess with you. Cloyster, Dnite, and despite your efforts to deal with it, Victreebel all seem to have good time here. Tauros/Zam/Gengar would be nice additions to the family, although ironically Slowbro, the focus of your team, would probably be the one to go given its type redundancy with the faster Starmie.

Well, strangely enough, I have actually run this team using Zapdos instead of Slowbro and Surf on Lax, and it did kinda work, so make of that what you will. Dragonite's kinda a pain, but having Rhydon means I can PP-stall Nite if I have to.

 

[Mr.E]

Funny I was thinking the same thing about Psychic Slowbro. What is Psychic beating for you that Surf isn't? Sure, you can 1v1 Starmie/Chansey a little easier but they're still plenty walltastic, especially if left unparalyzed (although Chansey is a near certainty). Adding Zam to that list and cutting your attacking PP by 1/3 isn't helping either. (Opposing Withdraw/Surf Slowbro will wall you!) Gengar can't switch into conventional Slowbro anyway and Victreebel will slice you up with Razor Leaf regardless, packing Psychic just means forcing Rest first to ensure a safe switch.

Also, as much as I hate Golem it does work pretty well for baiting and exploding on Starmie. Then again, when you're packing 'em specifically for their originally intended purpose (walling Zapdos) it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to sacrifice it early to open up Slowbro only to run into last-mon Zapdos and get reamed. If you want to be really ambitious you could run both, with the implication that Golem is there almost solely to blow up on Starmie. On that note, bigger reason to pack Tbolt on your own Starmie than other Slowbro. :P

 

[magic9mushroom]

Gengar's not a good counter to Slowbro, but it can switch in and get three Thunderbolts off before dying to two +4 Surfs; a 52% chance of a crit. Packing Psychic cuts that down to two Thunderbolts; a 38% chance of a crit.

Starmie dittos are rare and extremely luck-based, and I'd prefer to paralyse an opposing Starmie than have a <50% chance of killing it (I'm assuming here that Blizzard and Psychic are both a given on lead Starmie, not much point in it otherwise).