ORAS NU The Lord Squad

[fssong]

The Lord Squad
Introduction​

Hello fellow Smogoners! Welcome to my first RMT. For those of you who don't know me, I'm just your average player that almost exclusively plays NU; other tiers never seemed to interest me much. I've played so many games and made so many teams for the NU tier that I finally have got one that peaked at 16th on the ladder and decided to share it with you guys.

I know what you guys are all thinking; no, this isn't a LC team, or even a PU team. I have exclusively used this team in the NU tier. Once ORAS had settled in, I was sick of all the overpowered mons that were in the tier, so I decided to build an all NFE team based around mixed pikachu for fun. Perhaps unfortunately, it turned out to be pretty good and it's probably the best team I have right now. Even though it has a lot of issues, this team is a lot of fun and catches people way off guard at how good it really is. Let's get to the team building!

Teambuilding Process​

As I said, I wanted to build a team around mixed pikachu. This team has undergone so many changes, and has ultimately shaped up to be an extreme HO team with spike stacking and priority to sweep. It also has a bit of dark spam action going on, so that's always fun. While it may look like just a bunch of NFE mons thrown onto a team, I've played so many games with this team that each member definitely pulls their weight.

The Squad

Venipede @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 8 HP / 248 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Endeavor
​

I almost always lead with Venipede, who plays the crucial spike stacking role on the team. Venipede is really quite a good lead, always managing to get spikes and an endeavor off to weaken a mon for its teamates. Its speed tier is great because at plus 1, it hits 351, allowing it to outspeed and dodge a taunt from lead archeops and other base 110s and below. This is why it is used over whirlipede; however it is less bulky so watch out for rock blasters. Protect is pretty essential to gain the plus 1 speed boost to guarantee getting spikes off.

Pikachu @ Light Ball​

Ability: Static
EVs: 252 Atk / 152 SpA / 104 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Grass Knot
- Thunderbolt
- Knock Off​

Ah, the lord of the team. I know everyone gives pikachu shit for not being able to run even two out of three of the things it wants to run (volt tackle, espeed, and costume) but I have found that this set is able to have a lot of success in the tier. The mixed set catches people off guard and with lots of attack and special attack investment, many mons don't enjoy switching into this thing. Extreme speed is disgustingly strong, 2HKOing stuff like Lilligant, Magmortar, and can even KO stuff like non-eviolite sneasel after rocks. Speed evs outspeed neutral natured base 70s like Samurott and Ludicolo. Lonely nature is used to have a better chance of surviving rotom's shadow ball while a naughty nature can be used to guarantee survival of kanga's fake out after hazards(sad I know). Overall, Pikachu is a fantastic late game cleaner or can weaken walls so its teammates can win.

Carvanha @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Aqua Jet/Zen Headbutt
- Crunch
- Waterfall
​

The next win condition on the team, I found Carvanha to be surprisingly powerful. With hazards, Carvanha can easily pick off mons and sweep. Protect is pretty crucial, as it doesn't outspeed much without the speed boost, and at +1 it outspeeds base 105s and 106s like liepard, pyroar, mismagius, and scyther. Zen headbutt can be run over aj to hit fighting types and vileplume but aqua jet is useful to pick up important kills without speed boost. Carvanha wins a lot late game with the speed boost and opposing mons getting weakened.

Haunter @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond/Will-O-Wisp/Thunderbolt
​

Haunter plays a crucial role on this team, it being the only thing that prevents the opponent from spamming close combat. It also has great typing and ability that allow it to be a decent spinblocker and check stuff like lilligant and mega-audino. Taunt is great to prevent hazards and defog. A focus sash is used to survive stuff like knock off and also fake the choice item. Colbur berry can be used but haunter is so frail that dark type moves often kill it anyway. 4th move slot is up for user preference.

Pawniard @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch​

Part 2 of keeping hazards up, with defiant, Pawniard discourage defog because it gets a plus 2 attack boost. Eviolite gives it enough bulk to take enough hits to set up. Speed Evs allow it to outspeed stuff like adamant Cacturne, somewhat standard 96 speed Garbodor. Not much else to say, try to bring it in on defogs, not scalds :(.

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Def / 176 Spe
Bold Nature
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
​

This mon is extremely underated. In a meta where knock off is everywhere, Monferno can reliably set up rocks and spread burns. It also has reliable recovery in slack off, which is something that is not common at all. Will-o-Wisp is useful for weakening stuff like Hariyama or bulky mons in general. Monferno is also a hard counter to a very common mon in the tier being sneasel and most other offensive dark types. It also checks klinklang, which will rise in usage. Speed EVs creep mons creeping neutral natured base 70s.

Threatlist​

• bulky grass types, like Vileplume, are really difficult to break
• fighting types like hariyama with access to knock off; play around them by wearing them down and switching between monferno and haunter
• priority users like gurdurr, kangaskhan

Conclusion​

I hope you enjoyed this RMT and will try it out, it really is an awesome team to play with whenever I go on tilt or just want to have some fun. Remember, these mons are NFE for a reason; you have to play aggressively and do whatever it takes to keep hazards on the field, such as doubling to Pikachu predicting Mantine to come in and defog. Even with these disadvantages, this team can still hold its own in the NU tier.

Thanks to everyone who I've played and made me better, and to the friends that are always fun to chat with :). Also the NU community is the best :)

Replay Proving Peak
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/nu-229426278

Importable

Venipede @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 8 HP / 248 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Endeavor

Pikachu @ Light Ball
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 Atk / 152 SpA / 104 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Grass Knot
- Thunderbolt
- Knock Off

Carvanha @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Aqua Jet
- Crunch
- Waterfall

Haunter @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond

Pawniard @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Def / 176 Spe
Bold Nature
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock

 

[The Goomy]

I love you. Will do full rate later

 

[Evan.]

yo ik this team looks gimmicky as fuck but having played it i know that it synergizes extremely well and works together great. there isnt much changing one can do without messing up the whole structure of the team without messing up the theme and the synergy but i'll do my best.

pretty much the one major change I see is to change that sash haunter. Sash Haunter isnt very good, especially with no reliable way to remove hazards. I'd suggest putting on Eviolite > Focus Sash on Haunter as it makes haunter half decently bulky which can help you check stuff like (vileplume that you said was problematic) and other stuff like Garbodor.

Haunter @ Eviolite | Levitate
4 Def / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe | Timid
Sludge Bomb | Shadow Ball | Taunt | Destiny Bond / Will-O-Wisp / Thunderbolt

If you're willing to test a more drastic change, i'd suggest trying Lead Dwebble > Venipede (to keep with the theme of the team) as it can still beat archeops with a 3 hit rock blast and also provide both rocks and spikes which venipede can't do. This allows you to free up a slot to run Swords Dance Monferno which can work well with spikes and help clean games. You can also opt to run Slack Off on it if you want to keep reliably checking sneasel. Again, just a suggestion to test as it's difficult to change this team without ruining the entire synergy that it has. Cool Team!

Dwebble @ Custap Berry | Sturdy
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe | Jolly
Stealth Rock | Spikes | Rock Blast | X-Scissor / Knock Off

Monferno @ Eviolite | Blaze
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe (or some other ev spread) | Adamant
Flare Blitz | Close Combat | Swords Dance | Mach Punch / Slack Off

 

[Lilligant for OU]

This team made my laugh too much when I first saw that damn venipede

All I can really say is use Physical Monferno, as this may make your Vileplume issue a little less problematic, since a lot for them are specially defensive

 

[ryan]

I agree with all of Can-eh-dian's changes barring the Monferno one. Your current Monferno set checks things that are really problematic for your team, and SD Monferno just gives you yet another frail offensive Pokemon, which is already like half your team anyways.

Dwebble is worth testing however. Losing out on Toxic Spikes sucks because you miss out on free damage while you Protect with Carvanha, but having Stealth Rock can be pretty huge.

As long as you're using a full NFE team, I'm not sure there's any way to make your team not weak to Kangaskhan and Gurdurr without adding a Tangela, but that doesn't really fit on this team. You could also try Ferroseed over Venipede, but again, doesn't really fit your team.

You rock. Keep doing what you do.

 

[HJAD]

Hey Bro!
I really really really really like the look of this team, its really solid, and finding mons you are a bit weak to and changing before ruining the entire synergy of the team.
I have found an "improvement" if you could call it that, but tbh, you could easily just continue using your team the way it is, its absolutely, built like a god, and plays like one too.
I am going to suggest Life Orb Sheer Force Croconaw > Carvanha. Carvanha I've always found to be relatively underwhelming offensively, and doesn't provide much defensive use apart from a psychic immunity since its defensices are so damn low. Croconaw I feel is a fantastic cleaner AND wall breaker, thanks to its settup move Dragon Dance. You can choose to run sub 2 attacks or 3 attacks or even Eviolite over life orb should you need to.

set

Croconaw @ Life Orb / Eviolite
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute / Crunch
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch

this team is amazing,
gl with future endeavours
~HJAD

 

[Ares]

I'm always amazed at how you are able to make what seem like terrible Pokemon do really well.

The first time I faced one of your squads I underestimated and lost, after that I gave all of your teams a healthy respect.

I think that testing out Can-eh-dians changes could be good for your team, although the monferno set really weakens an important defensive backbone.

--

To add a little backbone the one thing I could see trying out, keeping with the spirit of the team, is to try out Honedge. This would alleviate your weakness to things like Kangaskhan a bit. I've seen Oshony use it occasionally and it seems alright. It plays a bit differently than Haunter, but its really hard to suggest anything but minor tweaks without totally changing the team. Just something to test out, (I'm also basing the set off of Doublade so it could warrant some changing).

Honedge @ Eviolite | No Guard
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe | Adamant
Swords Dance | Iron Head | Shadow Sneak | Shadow Claw / Sacred Sword


Good luck with all future gimmicky teams!

 

[fssong]

I love you. Will do full rate later

:)

yo ik this team looks gimmicky as fuck but having played it i know that it synergizes extremely well and works together great. there isnt much changing one can do without messing up the whole structure of the team without messing up the theme and the synergy but i'll do my best.

Thanks for the rate, I'll try out the changes and see how they do, and edit in some replays :)

All I can really say is use Physical Monferno, as this may make your Vileplume issue a little less problematic, since a lot for them are specially defensive

Thanks for the rate, from what I know most Vileplumes are physically defensive but maybe its changed since the gatr meta.

You rock. Keep doing what you do.

:)

I am going to suggest Life Orb Sheer Force Croconaw > Carvanha.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely try out croconaw over carvanha to see if there's difference, and edit in replays :)

To add a little backbone the one thing I could see trying out, keeping with the spirit of the team, is to try out Honedge.

Thanks for the suggestion, honedge definitely will help with priority and be a great pivot, I just fear losing offensive momentum and not fitting with team structure, but I will definitely try it out.