SV OU RMT Raging Bolt Balance

[mikeyk]

Hi everyone! I built a team around Raging Bolt and could use some feedback/suggestions/improvement. Overall the team has performed pretty well but I feel like it might need to be tweaked a little to reach high ladder. The basic plan is to abuse passive healing from grassy terrain to set-up a calm-mind sweep.

This Raging Bolt set is pretty standard with just enough speed investment to out speed most Gliscor sets. Leftovers is chosen for additional healing alongside grassy terrain. The passive healing support + calm mind enable Raging Bolt to become a powerful sweeper very quickly. Tera fairy is useful for immunity to incoming attacks such as draco meteor/dragon darts from Dragapult or Kyurem who otherwise threaten it.

Raging Bolt @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 64 HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 164 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Thunderclap
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Pulse

Corviknight is a great slow pivot and physical wall that is mainly here for it's ability to switch into ground types which threaten Raging Bolt. Namely Great Tusk, Landorus, and Gliscor who are all common. Corviknight allows easy entry of other teammates such as choice band Rillaboom while also forcing opponents to respect the threat of iron defense + body press.

Corviknight @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Roost
- U-turn

Rillaboom is the physical wallbreaker of the team and provides utility in setting grassy terrain. This team has a ton of pivoting moves to easily allow safe entry to Rilllaboom to set terrain and do massive damage. Grassy terrain is appreciated by set-up mons like Raging Bolt while Rillaboom benefits from Raging Bolts ability to remove Pokemon such as opposing Corviknight and Skarmory.

Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Slowking is on the team as a switch in to fairy types such as iron valiant and strong special attackers like Kyurem who both threaten Raging Bolt immensely. Slowking is also a poison type meaning it has the ability to absorb toxic spikes and incoming poison status moves that our sweepers do not like to take. I decided to run ice beam on Slowking because it has the potential to OHKO pokemon such as Gliscor and Landorus who might not expect it and are otherwise threatening.

Slowking-Galar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Future Sight
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Chilly Reception

Bulky Great Tusk is important to this team as a form of hazard removal. Raging Bolt is very hazard weak and great tusk alleviates this issue entirely by reliably removing hazards with rapid spin. Great Tusk also doubles as a win condition with the move bulk-up. Similarly to Raging Bolt, this Pokemon has an easy time setting up bulk-ups and rapid-spins while receiving passive terrain healing + leftovers. I ran 8 attack EVs for the chance to KO opposing Raging Bolt with one headlong rush

Great Tusk @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Ice Spinner
- Bulk Up
- Rapid Spin

Lastly Primarina is on the team mainly to answer heatran, dragapult, and kyurem who I found myself struggling with. Primarina easily takes moves such as shadow ball and hits hard back with moonblast or surf. Flip turn allows even more pivoting and psychic noise is nice to slow opposing momentum and healing. Primarina also appreciates the passive healing from grassy terrain as a bulkier special attacker.

Primarina @ Assault Vest
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 80 HP / 252 SpA / 176 Spe
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Moonblast
- Flip Turn
- Psychic Noise

Overall the team feels very well rounded. Any improvements or suggestions for the team are greatly appreciated. One thing I dislike is that this team does not set hazards. I considered stealth rocks on Tusk but I'd lose bulk-up which is a nice alternative win condition. I also don't know if this team really needs hazards because of how much the sweepers can snowball in power. Thank you very much for taking the time to check out my team :)

 

[GummyRowlets]

I love the idea you are cooking up here. G-terrain with bolt has some cool synergy with eq weakened and annoying recovery. I do notice some things though.
1. Mainly against hazard stack teams. Yes, you do have a tusk but with Gholdengo and even Sinistacha around you will still be forced to switch here and there, and you are running only one boot mon. This means more than half the team is taking hazard damage every time you switch out or try to reposition. It would be best if you had more boots spam ideas like on Great Tusk or Prim or go more offensive with this team so hazard chips isn;t nearly as an issue for this team.
2. You lack speed. This typically is an issue just because so many fast threats like Zama or Ogerpon even can't be easily revenge killed. You do have double priority which does help but is still and issue to consider for the team.
3. You are still pretty weak to a lot of common threats which I will list here
(bolt is iffy)

How would I go moving forward? In all, I think this team is cool but I would try thinking more offensively is how I would go. Getting rid of your more bulky balance team and using more temporary checks could be a way to go forward. Just my thoughts and hope I helped at least a bit.
--> Give you speed and a way to check lots of zamas with roar and gouging fire
--> utility with rocks and helps with the zama match up

 

[Srn]

I am a fan of the raging bolt+rilla core, as rillaboom can switch into ting-lu nearly forever for bolt and generate momentum for it, being able to bring in bolt on fire and flying types. However, there's a few overlapping weaknesses that the core suffers from, most notably the ice weakness. While corviknight is a great answer to ice spinner from mons like tusk and triple axel from weavile/meowscarada, the main ice move you need to resist is freeze dry, and nobody on the team resists it.

Another issue is the lack of overall speed on the team. Two strong priority moves are great, especially when one of them doesn't rely on the opponent attacking, but it doesn't make up for the fact that the whole team is under 301 speed. To give some speed and a freeze dry resist, I'd suggest Weavile > Primarina. This will make the matchup against dragapult and kyurem a little worse but weavile still does well against both. The standard set is boots, but I think we can afford to go Choice Banded with hazard removal from Tusk. Heatran does become more of a concern, which is why I would suggest Surf > Ice Beam on Slowking-G to help alleviate that while also improving the matchup against Iron Moth now that Primarina is gone. I also think Thunder Wave > Toxic is needed to help against Darkrai. Honestly I was close to just suggesting Johto Slowking but you really want a Tspike absorber for this team.

I know it's nice to fit Bulk Up on Great Tusk, but the team definitely needs rocks somewhere, and unfortunately, Tusk is gonna be the one stuck setting it up. Stealth Rock > Bulk Up. The standard rocks set also goes max attack and helmet, so I'll stick with that for now.

On a side-note, I'd also consider going Grassy Seed > Leftovers on Raging Bolt. It makes bolt less consistent, but the defense boost combined with tera fairy and a calm mind can be very difficult to stop for a lot of offense teams.

Here's the updated pokepaste with my edits. Enjoy!