SS LC Rob Grookowski and the H&M Berkaneers

Berks · Sep 1, 2020

a

Rob Grookowski and the H&M Berkaneers

IT'S BEEN A MINUTE
I'm back to Little Cup (with a new name!) after a two-year hiatus, and things are looking up! In truth, I've been back since last November (wild) but I've noticed something strange recently: I'm not as bad at this game as I used to be! Now, I've been around Smogon for several years. It's to be expected that I've improved my game since the H&MBerkeley days, right? Well, one thing I was never able to do before is ladder for suspect reqs. I just got too frustrated with bad luck or didn't have a good team or was bad at laddering or any combination of the previous factors. But guess what?! The unbelievable happened: I got reqs for the Rufflet retest! This is the team I built to do it. It's probably not amazing in a tournament setting, but it's the most successful ladder team I've ever built. I'm a big fan of the team and a bigger fan of the pun (but not that big a fan of the football team) and I will not apologize for any of it!

DAYS GONE BY
:grookey:

The inspiration for the team was actually me being all wistful for the good ol' days of ORAS LC when you could send in a Fletchling at 40% HP, click Swords Dance, and win with Gale Wings Acrobatics. Grookey seemed to me to be the closest spiritual successor to ORAS Fletchling, so I made a hybrid SD/Pivot set akin to the old Acro/U-turn Fletch set. Come to find out, Grookey's Terrain-boosted Grassy Glide and Fletchling's itemless Acrobatics have the exact same rolls against neutral targets after a Swords Dance, so I was more on the money than I thought! Then, à la Fletchling, I paired it with Diglett. That might not seem like a great idea, what with Grassy Terrain making Diglett's Earthquake hit as hard as a wet paper towel, but in practice it's not typically an issue, because:

:grookey:

Yeah, how are you gonna build a good team without Mienfoo and Vullaby nowadays? How can you pass up free momentum from Weak Armor, consistent checking power from Regenerator, and those obnoxiously useful Knock Offs and U-turns? Here's what's great about these two, aside from them being the two best mons in the meta: they either beat the things that check Grookey, like Ferroseed and Foongus, or they U-turn on them into Diglett, like with Ponyta and Mareanie. Both of the sets err on the side of defensive capacity because of how often they need to come in on stuff, but they pack plenty of punch and are never dead weights.

:grookey:

After adding the two best mons in the meta, I still had no entry hazards, glaring weaknesses to Spritzee and Flying-types, and nothing to switch into Mareanie. Pawniard and Foongus are my tried-and-true defensive backbone of choice all the way back to those good old ORAS days, and they met my needs yet again. Pawniard brings rocks, an actual check to Flying-types, and nearly free pressure on Spritzee with the added bonus of making my matchup better against Sticky Web teams. Foongus, on the other hand, brings actually free pressure on Spritzee, gives me free double switches into Mienfoo when Ferroseed switches in, puts Mareanie to sleep, and generally does good defensive Foongus things. This Foongus set also has a surprise on it that I should probably change, but you'll see that in a minute.

Rob Grookowski and the H&M Berkaneers
a
:ss/grookey:

Although Grookey was the focus behind the creation of the team, it's not typically the star of the show! It is, however, an absolutely fantastic cleaner. I designed the set to play in the same way that you would play ORAS Fletchling, as you've already surely understood. Grassy Glide is obviously my Acrobatics, and it's a dang good move! Drain Punch is the Grookey version of Overheat or HP Grass, and makes cleaning against Steels a breeze; one other great thing about Drain Punch is that few see it coming due to Grookey's more standard sets running Wood Hammer, Acrobatics, or Knock Off, so you can bring it in on standard rocks Pawniard and they'll just leave it in to die like 99% of the time! U-turn helps you against things like late-game opposing Grookey and gives you good momentum in the mid-game. Unfortunately, it's not as effective as the Fletchling U-turn because you can't go to Diglett as easily due to the whole Grassy Terrain / EQ thing. It generally doesn't end up being too bad due to the fact that the team structure usually has Diglett done with its job before Grookey touches the field. As a result, you can usually get by in a match with just Grassy Glide and Swords Dance, which is still plenty potent. I use Eviolite to do a better job setting up and benefitting from Drain Punch and the passive terrain recovery. It's a fun set!

So, yeah, here's your classic ORAS Diglett. There's nothing special about this set outside of the reasons behind using three of its four attacks, so we'll go over that here. No need to explain EQ, of course, so first we'll talk about Rock Slide. Two factors play into this call: first is that -- if you can't tell -- I have a massive bird problem on this team. All I've got for Vullaby is Pawniard! The second factor behind a Rock Slide decision is that it is an 81% shot to OHKO Juice Vullaby after rocks. So, you take out the Abra, or the Onix, or whatever, and they send in their Vullaby. You click Rock Slide, and either the Vullaby is gone or you have a Vullaby in SR + Glide range, and sometimes that's the last check they have to Grookey! It's also great against random stuff like Band Rufflet and Wingull alongside the random ladder Noibats and so on. Sucker Punch exists to back up the team against any number of sweepers. In fact, you could say that the true defensive backbone of the team is the fact that there are four priority users (you'll see Fake Out Mienfoo here soon) and not even NP Vullaby can beat out two Sucker Punches, a Fake Out, and a Grassy Glide. Sucker Punch also helps me against the Scorbunny that every ladder team seems to have, because that lil snitch scares me every time it comes in. Last but not least, Beat Up is the Abra catcher that we all know and love. The best and most common sequence is that you brought Pawniard in on Mareanie to set rocks and hit it with a Knock earlier in the game, it got burned and chipped, so you switch it in to sack it to Abra, Diglett comes in to hit it with Beat Up, then they bring in their Vullaby expecting free set up only to get a Rock Slide to the face. It's not uncommon!

Because I already had another 17 Speed Drain Puncher on the team, I didn't feel worried about Pawniard, and that left me free to run bulky Mienfoo. Outside of the Reckless variants of Mienfoo that you find Banded on Webs teams or Scarfed on regular offense squads, my personal hot take is that this is the most threatening Mienfoo set. Between Regen, Drain Punch, and a 23/14/14 defensive spread, Mienfoo just never goes away. It's always around to U-turn out of Spritzee after you double into it from Foongus on the obvious Ferroseed switch! Mienfoo is your most common lead along with Vullaby. It scouts sets via Fake Out damage and gains early momentum by Knocking and U-turning around everywhere. Mienfoo is also your defensive blanket check to everything. I can't really explain to you why Mienfoo is so good in so many situations; it lives the most random things, KOs random setup mons; it's just the best. Try building an optimal team without a Mienfoo, I dare you.

Ahh, the LC ladder. Of the 40 games I played, I'd estimate that I won eight of them from turn two, when the Vullaby lead mirror ended with me up 6-5 after a Knock Off and a Brave Bird and the opponent without one of their most important Grookey checks. To be honest, I don't think I lost a single one of those Vullaby mirrors the whole time I was laddering! Anyways, if bulky Mienfoo is the ultimate defensive blanket check, Weak Armor Vullaby is the ultimate offensive blanket check. It's also the true beneficiary of Diglett's presence on the team, as it is the truest and most effective successor to the old ORAS FletchDig core. This Vullaby runs Eviolite and I'm not 100% I remember why, but I think it has to do with some Scorbunny and ScarfFoo calcs I may or may not have made and/or that Vullaby always gets Knocked anyways, so what's the point in losing BJ? Roost lets me beat non-Iron Defense Mareanie in a pinch, seeing as how Brave Bird does 50% to a standard Knocked Off Mareanie. Vullaby is also a solid player in the Webs matchup, especially based on how this team fights against Webs, which I'll get into later. It's Vullaby! What more do you need?

"My man, why are you running 15 Def Eviolite Pawniard??"

"IDK, doesn't it do something against Vullaby or something? lol"

If you haven't guessed it yet, the theme of the team really is to just be slightly bulky enough to get away with not running checks to all of the everything that can beat you in Little Cup. Pawniard does this quite well. It is your first switch-in to Mareanie every single game you meet one, because A) that is free Stealth Rocks if I've ever seen them, and B) most Mareanie teams aren't built to where you need a non-burned Pawniard to win but are built to where you need a Knocked-Off Mareanie to win. We sure do spend a lot of time thinking about Mareanie in this thread, don't we? Anyways, Pawniard pressures every single Grookey check either indirectly with rocks or directly by threatening it. I'm running out of things to say about the team, but basically use Pawniard early in the game to get hazards up, Knock Off some crucial Grookey checks, and then it's usually gonna be your first sack to bring in Grookey or Vullaby. It and Diglett are basically the only team members that ever die, so don't be afraid to let it do that to get a Diglett KO or bring in Grookey!

Alrighty, it's been about three weeks since I started this RMT and this was where I left off. Things are gonna be a lil fuzzy from here on out but here we go! This is your standard Foongus with exactly one exception, and it does standard Foongus things. The Mienfoo/Foongus core is ridiculously good at getting rid of opposing Ferroseed because they'll almost always bring Ferro in on Foong and you can double to Foo every single time! Now, you might be wondering why I use Rain Dance here. Basically, Ponyta is a lil snitch. I have no good switch-in for Pony, and my gameplan against it is usually to sack my weakened Pawniard and trap with Diglett. Something interesting I found out, however, is that if you Rain Dance with Foongus on the Pony switch-in you can then directly switch Diglett into Ponyta, tank the Flare Blitz, and EQ for the KO. Rain Dance is pretty niche but I found it more useful than I ever would've found Synthesis, I think. It's hype!

TEAM RIVALS
:wingull:

Fast Flying-types - Priority can only get you so far, and any combo of Wingull + Scarf Flying-type is gonna be rough to handle. The only existing replay of this team is actually me losing to that exact combo when I was surprised by a Scarf Vullaby. It's a rough matchup. Nasty Plot Vull isn't usually too bad, though, cause it usually comes in on Foongus and doesn't get a Weak Armor boost.

:dewpider:

Ponyta Webs - Any Webs matchup is annoying when Diglett is your secondary bird check, but Ponyta Webs is literally unwinnable unless you execute this hazard removal-less team's only exit strategy: lead Diglett against the Dewpider and get a Rock Slide flinch. It worked twice!

:snover:

Hail - Snover has a lot of chances to come in on this team and shoot off some Blizzards, and the only good stop to AlolaShrew is a full health Mienfoo. It's not an unwinnable matchup, but AlolaShrew resisting Grassy Glide does this team no favors.

RISE AND SHOUT
So here it is! The team I somehow managed to get reqs with for the first time ever! I always do shoutouts, so:

Holiday - his Instagram is fire and now we're both on the namechange train

Fiend - simply the best rater out there

Joltage - the most excellent assistant manager in the world and the pride of LCUU

Laroxyl - Scrubunnies GOAT #1

Crashy - Scrubunnies GOAT #2

As always, here's an importable if you like the team:

Rob Grookowski (Grookey) @ Eviolite
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 156 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Drain Punch
- U-turn
- Swords Dance

Ndigmukong Suh (Diglett) @ Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Sucker Punch
- Beat Up

Mien Evans (Mienfoo) @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 156 HP / 196 Def / 116 SpD
Careful Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Fake Out

VulSean McCoy (Vullaby) (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Weak Armor
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Atk / 156 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Roost

Pawn Brady (Pawniard) @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Atk / 116 Def / 116 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Stealth Rock

John Foonglin III (Foongus) @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 124 HP / 156 Def / 156 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Spore
- Rain Dance

Thanks! :D

Fiend · Sep 1, 2020

Double Grass is super painful in the current metagame and a few things are solved with Mini Pex > Foongus. You do become greater Diglett bait, but generally it is worth the issues. You will likely get better mileage out of 22 HP / 15 Def / 14 Sp Def over your current spread, as you hate birds even with the Mini Pex change. That's really all that jumps out at me as worth changing, unless you want to overhaul the team.

The Avalanches · Sep 2, 2020

you telling me oras fletch is back? shiiiiieet, I might have to make a comeback.

i have no advice because i’ve been retired for five years, but having 0-ish flying switch ins has GOT to suck. great names btw

PyProd · Sep 2, 2020

I really like the team, especially the names, and I find Grookey to be an interesting pick in the meta. But I've found striking that this team doesn't have any hazard control. A quick answer to this would be to put Defog to Vullaby and swap to a BJ set, maybe with some defense investment if you want to tank Reckless Foo HJK, but I'm not really sure if, aside from the eviolite vullaby (that has to pass up recovery from BJ and momentum by roosting), you really struggle vs hazards.

Fiend's rate should be taken into account, Mareanie gives you an actual chance against Ponyta (I see Ponyta Webs as one of this team's weaknesses), can soft-check Vullaby & Wingull in tandem with Pawniard, and can give you some Knock Offs on things like Ferroseed for Grookey or Toxic Spikes to add pressure on the opposing side (I'd personally pick Knock Off). Totally a mon to choose. Plus, Grookey's Grassy Terrain makes an opposing Earthquake less strong, which means Mareanie is not as Diglett food as it should be normally, and actually can tank and OHKO non-eviolite variants with Scald. And all of this while keeping the usually needed Fightcheck!

EDIT: Diglett also seems off, you could try something like Scarved High Horsepower Mudbray (as Earthquake's power is reduced by grassy terrain) I guess, if you still want a Ground type capable of punishing Vullaby. You can also add another fast offensive mon such as Abra on the slot as well.

SS LC Rob Grookowski and the H&M Berkaneers

Berks

has a Calm Mind

Fiend

someguy

The Avalanches

pokemon tcg

PyProd

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