Stepping on Legos (peaked 1501 suspect ladder)

[Chill Shadow]

Stepping on Legos​

Hey everyone, I'm bringing you my first RMT, an ORAS RU team that I made 6 months ago for PO's ORAS LU tier. I had a lot of success with it there for several months. Fast forward a few months, and slowking dropped to ORAS RU a while ago and tyrantrum was being suspect tested. So i decided to attempt to save tyrantrum using this team, one of my favorite teams that I've built to try and get the reqs. With the new mega split drops, i decided 6 months is enough for this team so i decided to retire it.

Teambuilding Thoughts

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Slowking was an interesting pokemon that i used defensively a lot. Until i started seeing on the ladder Choice Specs variant using the move Future sight. It immediately caught my attention how strong this pokemon was, but i never actually had troubles beating it since i always managed to simply "dodge" the future sight by going to the appropriate pokemon on the appropriate time. So i decided the best way to remedy that is by using a very "obscure" move on offensive slowking, which is dragon tail in order to randomly select a mon to receive this full power future sight, and my mindset was, a team usually has at most 2 good future sight recipients, and one of them will always switch in on the FS turn, so if i dragon tail it, i have 4/5 chance to hit something that doesnt want to take it rather than 4/6. So i decided to build a team around that. Since this move forces a lot of switch ins PAIRED WITH dragon tail, i decided to make this team a hazard stack team.

Slowking (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Future Sight
- Dragon Tail
- Scald
- Fire Blast

The star of the team. I built this whole team around slowking, and its ability to force so many switches and phazing. Its bulk also allows it to take on many powerful mons in the tier, such as emboar, steelix, dragalge and nidoqueen and moltres (in PO LU), camerupt, alomomola, etc... Future sight + dragon tail is the purpose of this set, which is basically clicking future sight whenever i get the opportunity, click scald on the turn after to do some damage to whatever switched in (usually some fat mons like other slowkings, alomomola, aromatisse, meloetta) and try to burn them, then click dragon tail to catch something and heavily damage it. Dragon tail also has a good utility in not being set up fodder for opposing slowkings or sigilyphs, or preventing proper wish passing from alomomola. I picked fire blast because abomasnow was a threat to this team and slowking can take any hit and ohko, it also prevents escavalier from trying to pursuit me. it also prevents Durant and tangrowth from freely switching in.
Kinda standard evs for an offensive slowking, AV to make the set function and allow it to take on a lot more mons. 4 speed because i creep on all my mons.

Qwilfish (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Explosion

Since this team involves a lot of switching around, i decided to go with qwilfish as my main hazard setter for many reasons. First off: 2 kinds of hazards, very fast taunt (faster than smeargle), spin block and defog block with taunt and explosion, and the handy intimidate. This is almost always my lead unless i see archeops, then i lead with druddigon). Max speed to outspeed all potential qwilfishes and defoggers like golbat or some fat flygon variants, max attack to boost explosion power, and sash to get at least one hazard up.

Druddigon (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Yes, i know the set is weird as hell, but if it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid. Druddigon has so many roles in my team, mainly my rocker, my status absorber, secondary phazer, and switch in to emboar's flare blitz, ambipom, cincinno, steelix, and pretty much most physical attackers in the tier, yes sleep talk sr is weird but several times i sleep talk rocks when my opponent tries to defog, also it was crucial not to give the opponent free turns to set up. it's my go to fletch switch as well, and most fighting types of the tier since they dont always lock themselves into a fighting move due to the presence of a ghost in my team. this thing does NOT die.. It's here to make sure rocks are up, and people are being phazed with a lot of hazards on the field. rocky helmet + rough skin is really big vs many pokemons and it heavily punishes spinners.

Spiritomb (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Foul Play
- Pursuit
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sucker Punch

Since this team is about hazard stack, i decided that i should obviously have a spin blocker. I went through the whole tier and tried to see which ghost fits my team best. I ended up deciding that spiritomb's 1 weakness fits my team best. Also it's a very powerful trapper that takes care of things like meloetta, delphox that like being behind a sub sometimes, sigilyph and slowking. It's also one of my few mons with priority since the team itself is sort of slow. Adamant max attack for the best trapping potential, willowisp to cripple sub set up mons, foul play for hard hitting mons if u dont wanna risk wisp missing. 44 speed was pretty much to outspeed doublade (6 months old team like i mentioned), they can be removed if u want to try the team, but it's always nice to speed creep amirite?

Abomasnow (M) @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 92 HP / 84 Atk / 252 SpA / 80 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

I decided that my team lacked hard hitting mons, and abomasnow was exactly what i needed that hits water types and grass types extremely hard, also hail damage + all the hazards and phazing + spiritomb's wisp racks up so damn fast. EQ to make sure emboar delphox and houndoom never get a free switch, blizzard/giga to hit everything hard with stab (giga over woodhammer because this team lacks hazard control and it's my go-to alomomola switch in) and ice shard to prevent flygons from defogging. i dont really remember what the speed evs do for aboma, but it outsped something before mega evolving. I never mega evolve immediately to make use of soundproof to pivot from slowking to aboma whenever i face an exploud.

Tyrantrum (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw

For the last spot on my team, i figured i needed a very strong pokemon that can clean up, and which usually needs chip damage to clean up everything. So i decided scarf trex was the best fit for the team since it forces out togetic, golbat, and flygon and discourages them from going for defog.
head smash for obvious reasons, outrage to clean up if i dont wanna miss (trex usually only comes out in the end), earthquake in case i want to pick off a weakened fire type like emboar or houndoom or delphox, or to finish off a steelix. last move is dragon claw because i often find myself needing to pick off a pokemon like fletchinder, sigilyph or whatever, and i really dont want to lock myself into outrage or miss head smash. i almost never use this move but it DEFINITELY came in handy.

Conclusion:

click hazards, click future sight, click dragon tail, watch things drop, clean up with trex.
I had a lot of fun using this team, it does way better than it looks on paper, and most of the times i lost using this it was honestly due to me being average at best when it comes to battling, not because of the team's flaws.​

Threatlist:

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-Abomasnow: it's a bit tricky having to deal with this monster, i usually try to get my rocks up asap, and almost all of my mons kinda keep it out, then it's up to slowking most of the time to do the job, or my own aboma (which i try not to mega evolve too soon to outspeed mega)
-Granbull: most importantly, banded granbull, this thing is really hard for me to play around, because slowking can switch in defensive one, but not banded. usually with hazards and recoil from sacking drudd should take care of it + tyrantrum/slowking)
-Tangrowth: some offensive tangrowth variants sometimes give this team some troubles, aboma + slowking are usually the answers.

Shoutouts:

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Draciel RC for helping me fix the team a lot and being awesome in general n_n
snagaa , PrinceLucian , karki tho TraceofLife for being awesome friends and getting rekt by the team yn
EA zben ed lacus carl cas and all my friends in TR and frost cavern and PO/PS sorry i cant name all of u, u know who u are :v

Peak:

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Importable

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Slowking (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Future Sight
- Dragon Tail
- Scald
- Fire Blast

Qwilfish (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Explosion

Druddigon (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Spiritomb (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Foul Play
- Pursuit
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sucker Punch

Abomasnow (M) @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 92 HP / 84 Atk / 252 SpA / 80 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

Tyrantrum (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw

 

[PrinceLucian]

My favourite RU team, even tho I dont play the tier.Battled it many times and got rekt by hazards+phazing everytime i didnt have dedicated hazard control and even then sometimes xD,also really solid and hard to break thru, and looks very cool. And yes, i can confirm Druddigon set works like a boss!!!

 

[MrAldo]

Really lovely looking team, future sight slowking is some pretty neat set and even though Im not a huge fan of AV slowking future sight give it a really solid option to abuse its bulk and force switch-ins.

Not too much to fix here since the goal of the team is pretty clear but some stuff could be optimized to handle some of your threats a bit better and be up to date in this metagame

First, your abomasnow ev spread is not functional since it has pretty much the speed while wasting 80 valuable evs on speed so I would go with a spread of 84 atk / 252 spA / 172 speed mild nature instead of quiet. While mega abomasnow has really amazing all around bulk for an offensive pokemon, its typing doesnt let it make us of its defense stat sadly, racking too many common weaknesses on the physical sides, hence the mild nature. With this ev spread you can aim to outspeed standard band granbull and finish it off with blizzard after some prior damage, outspeeds any tangrowth variant prior mega evolving and can even outspeed 0 speed tangrowth in mega form. Fast mega abomasnow seems like the best for this team since many of the threats for this team are around the 50 speed tier. 84 atk always kills offensive flygon after rocks and mega aboma has enough raw bulk to check what it is supposed to check anyways.

Second, I would consider running glare and fire punch on druddigon over rest and sleep talk respectively. You compromise druddigon longevity but on this team trying to rest could cut off your momentum imo, and mega abomasnow absolutely loves the paralysis support while fire punch gives you something clutch for mega abomasnow. Dunno if you want to forfeit this set since it seems to do the best for you overall but with how the meta plays right now, I would take a riskier route.

Third and perhaps last, not sure if suicide lead qwilfish is the best for this team cause while it is a pretty decent suicide lead, the defensive utility it provides to the team is pretty important since no defense slowking isnt exactly a solid fighting check and spiritomb can be annoyed by losing its item. 248 hp / 84 def / 176 speed jolly nature, with waterfall over explosion. The speed evs will outspeed jolly smeargle and taunt it, finish off adamant lee with waterfall if necessary and still provides important defensive utility against things like durant which is pretty horrible to go against, and something to lower opposing tyrantrum attack cause it is always a threat.

Black Glasses over leftovers on spiritomb is something I could consider but thats optional.

Nice job on the suspect (but saving tyrantrum D:) and cheers, hope my recommendations help you if you want to revisit the team sometime

 

[Chill Shadow]

thanks MrAldo for the suggestions, your abomasnow spread is something i will look into further for this team and future teams, thanks for that!
i did mess around druddigon's moveset a lot, at the start i used to run hp/atk druddigon with a defensive tomb then i switched it up since druddigon became alongside slowking my fighting "checks", glare does seem like an interesting idea though.
Now the thing about qwilfish is, the number of times i taunted opposing qwilfish is so high that i learned never to run anything less than max speed if i want to run a qwilfish, that's at least one every five battles than my team without hazard control is dodging really annoying spikes. explosion was really just to spinblock but ill definitely consider waterfall, it's definitely a good idea.
i did have black glasses on spiritomb for like the first month, but i ended up opting for lefties since it came to play several times.
thanks for the rate i appreciate it! really good ideas

 

[Lord Death Man]

I disagree with changing the Druddigon set - right now it's really the only thing standing between this team and life orb Durant, plus Tangrowth. This team looks unorthodox but really solid overall.


I'd go with that MrAldo said and changing Qwilfish's spread and moves, and to not use it as a suicide lead. I'd consider dropping Toxic Spikes for Thunder Wave as well, but that's personal preference. This team would love T-Wave support, though, and I don't see toxic spikes stalling out too many things. You also have a Spiritomb to subCM mons aren't a threat that toxic spikes would be a big deal for.

However, you have no hazard removal and seem to rely heavily on Abomasnow to wallbreak - this team seems very weak to AV Escavalier (and to a lesser extent Bronzong, but Spiritomb exists) because of that, and because your only bug resist is a suicide lead. It can afford to pursuit Abomasnow every time it comes in as well, since it has nothing else to wall. Further, rival spikes stack really seems to give you hell, especially Accelgor teams. Your team is sort of passive for having a suicide lead, as well.

You're also a little weak to Exploud but that's just a balance problem in general. I think you might want to consider moving 96 special attack into special defense for emergencies. If you're playing on PO, this could also help you take on specs Dragalge spamming Sludge Wave, which you're also really weak to. You still lose to both if they have SR support, and the power drop IS noticable, but they both have an incredibly spammable move against you. Future Sight, despite being an incredibly cool move, is worse than Psychic if you're facing down a Drag, and has sort of iffy synergy on this team to me. It also helps reduce the chance of Houndoom 2hkoing you, which could be useful as this team is a little Houndoom weak.

I'd also consider trying to fit in a spinner. They all sort of suck but it's really where your team is weakest by far. If you keep toxic spikes, I think you could afford to drop Spiritomb or Druddigon for Hitmontop, which does make you a little more vulnerable to spin Lee and sucks momentum, but also helps keep you from having the mirror match from hell. Every spiker ever finds plenty of chances to set up on Druddigon and to a lesser extent Tomb, and everything on your team is vulnerable to spikes.

 

[PrinceLucian]

I think this team should already focus on what its main plan is, which is mostly setting up hazards+phazing, so therefore Druddigon here is a really helpful from my experience, while Spiritomb is important and very good Spinblocker for these kind of teams,while also being pursuit trapper,so no need for changes.

 

[lighthouses]

Colbur Berry > Assault vest on slowking
Av king was a thing during moltres meta but it's easily the weakest item to have on it at the moment, considering your dark resist is druddigon i think your team could really benefit from colbur offensive king.
Also everything else that Aldo said o-o