ORAS NU Under Pressure (1k RMT)

[Shadestep]

huge shoutout to Accelgor for the banner

Introduction
hello friends, shadestep here. i want to share my most succesful oras nu team here, and this being my 1k post on Smogon makes the perfect opportunity for it. this team is pretty old, as i've made it almost 6 months ago. it has consistently proven to be effective throughout different metas, although i feel it hasn't been performing as well as it did a couple of months ago. because of this, i thought this would be the perfect occasion to put away the team and share it with everybody.​

this team has shown success in multiple important tournaments such as nu league finals, the nu open, pspl, and has been my go-to team for suspect ladders from sawk suspect all the way through the latest suspect test, tauros.

the title of this RMT is the title of probably one of my favourites album ever, by Logic. all the pokemon nicknames are songs from the album.

Teambuilding Process​

i started this team off with the intention of making it a normal-spam team, with Pyroar and Kangaskhan as my Normal-types, obviously. they both wear down eachothers checks and while sharing the same weaknesses, they can take care of a lot of similar checks.

i needed a sturdy fighting resist as well as a check to a plethora of other threats such as shiftry and malamar. garbodor came to mind as kangaskhan and pyroar could pressure most of the tiers defoggers and spinners. it was overall a very solid pick.

i added the infamous ferro-lanturn core as my team needed a lot of things that these could check; normal resist, water resist, fire resist, ice resist, a heal beller, a rotom answer, an archeops check, stealth rock, slow volt switch. FerroLanturn is overall a very good core that can fit on a plethora of teams without opening the team up to many threats.

since garbodor is easily overthrown and i have 3 pokemon weak to fighting, xatu fit perfectly here. i tried out musharna here for a while too but xatu's ability to almost always prevent rocks from mesprit and steelix, as well as spikes from opposing garbodor and ferroseed, was very useful and helped my team immensely. it also has the ability to generate momentum via u-turn and can annoy pokemon like kangaskhan with rocky helmet + roost.

In-Depth Look
​

** i can feel you in my lungs, feel you in my veins
NIKKI (Pyroar) (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Fire Blast
- Hyper Voice
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Overheat

pyroar undoubtedly is the mvp of this team. specs pyroar is such an incredibly strong wallbreaker, being able to plow through pokemon like lanturn, rhydon, and other fire resist, just with its sheer power. it doesn't really have any cool coverage options and hp grass is definitely the best third moveslot, hitting rhydon, regirock, and other fire resist. overheat is more accurate than fire blast and is used to pick off weakened malamar for example. its very important as it can pick malamar off from around 70%, which it will mostly be at after it kills garbodor. pyroar is my only way to revenge kill it pretty much, so be sure to keep it around when there's a non-weakened malamar on the opposing team.

** life like this is so crazy, this world is amazing
IM GONE (Ferroseed) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Seed Bomb / Bullet Seed
- Gyro Ball
man, do i love this pokemon. it offers great role compression being able to check almost every normal-type pokemon, shell smashers, a lot of water-types, and is a great rocker in general. it works pretty well with the defensive core of garbodor - lanturn - xatu - ferroseed thats on my team. this is my special samurott answer, as well as being able to check things like shell smash barbaracle, opposing kangaskhan, etc.

** tell me how you feel
BURIED ALIVE (Garbodor) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Seed Bomb / Drain Punch
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
garbodor is a great check to a plethora of things and is overall one of the tier's best spike-users. it also checks stuff like hitmonchan, shiftry, and gurdurr, and has the added bonus of being able to set up hazards vs some of the most popular hazard removers, beign chan and shiftry. the spread is standard and so are the moves. you can run focus blast > seed bomb but seeing as my team is pretty weak to dd rhydon, seed bomb makes garbodor not complete set-up fodder for it as it does decent damage.

** welfare, food stamps, and stealing from the store
SOUL FOOD (Lanturn) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 40 HP / 156 Def / 204 SpD / 108 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Toxic / Protect
- Volt Switch
- Heal Bell
lanturn is one of the best pivots and clerics in the tier, although it is a bit passive. its my premier fire check, and is able to check other mons that were annoying like pivot xatu, magmortar, combusken, and rotom. it blanket-checks a lot of other stuff like Swellow although it is known to being overwhelmed quite fast, so be careful of that. it can't check everything at once. the evs are pretty much standard. im not sure what it does again but the speed lets it outpace jolly rhydon and the defense / hp / spdef investment is probably a bit customizable.

** 'cause my mind is going crazy, this shit is never enough
NEVER ENOUGH (Xatu) (F) @ Rocky Helmet

Ability: Magic Bounce​

EVs: 248 HP / 180 Def / 80 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave / Grass Knot
- Psychic
- Roost
- U-turn
xatu is my main hazard deterrent on the team. while it struggles keeping them off the field vs offensive rhydon, offensive mesprit, and piloswine, it can effectively keep them off from ferroseed, steelix, mesprit, etc. rocky helmet is the item of choice since it wears down steelix and can basically roost on it forever. its another fighting resist and the speed is to outpace any adamant hitmonchan ever, as well as surprise adamant / modest shiftry with a nice u-turn or heat wave. you can probably run less speed if you wanted to but i like it like this.

** buy it, break it, roll it, light it, smoke it, inhale it, i'm gone
METROPOLIS (Kangaskhan) @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch
kangaskhan is the second part of my normal-spam core. fake out + sucker punch is so incredibly helpful with toxic spikes support from garbodor, especially vs offense. it messes with poisoned musharna for example being able to pressure it incredibly hard with fake out + repeated double-edges, as well as wearing down rhydon, regirock, and other normal-resists with poison damage. this thing is also my tauros check lol.. fake out + toxic + sucker punch / double edge since it can live any hit from tauros when at high hp. tauros is an insanely huge threat to this team nontheless but atleast im not 6-0d by it.

Threatlist
​

--> tauros is the biggest threat to this team, being able to 2HKO every single mon on this team. when it gets a free switch i normally go ferroseed on the rock climb > garbodor / lanturn on the fire blast > xatu on the earthquake, then roost a couple of times and wear it down with rocky helmet, then sack xatu when going for psychic on it. kangaskhan can also live any hit from tauros and ko back with double edge, but then again you have to sacrifice your kanga to it. its tough but with fake out + sucker + hazard damage its checkable.

--> dd rhydon is another huge threat as it sets up on kangaskhan, pyroar, and xatu. ferroseed checks it but doesnt resist ground and takes a fuckton from +2 earthquake. defensive variants are way easier to deal with.

--> malamar can sweep my entire team once garbodor dies. garbodor should always be your primary switch-in to malamar. when switched in, keep setting up spikes and toxic spikes until the turn it's about to kill you, then gunk shot. after that, it should be at about 70% which means it's in range of pyroar's overheat. if it decides to switch out, it will come in at less than 50% and without any boosts meaning its way easier to deal with.

Conclusion
​

all in all this has probably been one of my favourite teams ive built in oras nu and definitely the team im most comfortable using. it has been performing a bit less well recently due to new drops and this is why i decided to drop it here for everybody to use. its a very easy to use team and is a good team to pick up the meta with if youre unfamiliar with it.

Importable & Replays

import

NIKKI (Pyroar) (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Fire Blast
- Hyper Voice
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Overheat

IM GONE (Ferroseed) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Bullet Seed
- Gyro Ball

BURIED ALIVE (Garbodor) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes

SOUL FOOD (Lanturn) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 40 HP / 156 Def / 204 SpD / 108 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Volt Switch
- Heal Bell

NEVER ENOUGH (Xatu) (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 180 Def / 80 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Psychic
- Roost
- U-turn

METROPOLIS (Kangaskhan) @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch

​

 

[Shadestep]

got a whole bunch of them so i decided to put them up in a different post.
i gotta start off with my favourite people ive met here, you guys are all extremely funny and smart people and we form a hella cool squad together. thanks for constantly telling me im an idiot and letting me do the same thing to you guys. Shadowtags NotNova HJAD Jarii Winter's Howl


some of the people i talk to almost every day, on ps, discord, skype, snapchat, w/e.
Bouff we became good friends in such a short time and your music taste is horrific. keep it up dude and dont let the past get to you, move on brah
ium i know youre not on the forums anymore but youre a silly goose and i like how you always ask me stupid shit i have no idea of!! thanks for explaining me obvious things like the rules of olympic volleyball in calls etc <3
Evan. i know how extremely annoyed you always get by my shitty teams and especially this one, i dedicate this rmt to you LOL. for real though thanks for picking me up in nupl and giving me one of the most fun and entertaining experiences ive had here, youre a great manager and friend
Sir Kay thanks for helping me improve as an user and giving me a second chance. besides the occasional fuck-up talks we have, i enjoy our chats on ps and youre a great friend
boltsandbombers while most of our chats have been about forum or ps related things i enjoy chatting with you about music, other users, or other random stuff. thanks for being a funny guy and keep doing what youre doing
Syncrasy you have like basically the same music taste as me and a great preference for asian chicks. keep doing what youre doing and win the open boi

other nu people: Tricking youre a great nu player and a terrible gartic player lolol. gl making playoffs in grand slam and winning it, youre one of the best candidates for it in my opinion
Orphic i hope everythings going well with you bud. spend some more time on here if you get the chance to
Blast what the fr*ck man.
TTFTW sup as AF. ur teams are fire and keep improving dude, you'll be competing with the bigboys soon if you keep this up.
Silver Aurum ~Eternally Hootie erisia Quite Quiet ryan Advantage Kiyo Realistic Waters Shaneghoul Earth PrinceLucian Aladyyn Allstar GyRro

s/o fpoa:
ceraa uu iz da shizzle Michielleus p2 Chakra Sonired SmashBrosBrawl fbc choolio Josh Entei Meteordash

nupl:
-Davon Aurosis 49 FlamingVictini atomicllamas Heysup idiotfrommars MetalGro$$ and all the other people ive tagged here before, you all are amazing <3

the uu skype group that's existed for literally more thant 6 years or so: Killintime Thisbemyalt r0ady Lixx Donphantastic GrilledClawitzer Amaroq Pak Accelgor Eyan DrReuniclus Kreme Ice Tea Pearl ~Volbeatdown~ Shiba Wanka YABO

lastly but certainly not least, the monotype community: all falls down Balto iVid Balor Paleo 1 True Lycan Lax Zarif ily

and Sacri' you too <3

 

[YABO]

Kangaskhan and spikes on the same team??? Never seen that one before. Also, ingenius move making your shoutouts in the second post to double your like count. Anyways, congrats on the success with the team man and if you need a suggestion you could run Bronzor over Xatu because NU players are obsessed with that thing.

 

[Abejas]

Pyroar/Ferroseed/Garbodor/Lanturn/Xatu/Kangaskhan
Hey Shadestep this team looks like a great one in this current meta and its also very solid, tho you did mentioned that you're weak to stuff like dual dance rhydon and malamar and also tauros so I recommend switching

for

since weezing counters 2 of the 3 mentioned before, being able to fully shut down malamar with taunt+wisp, being able to take one +2 stone edge from rhydon and wisp it, and can also be a soft check to tauros if needed.

set

Weezing @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 144 Def / 116 Spe
Bold Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Sludge Bomb
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt

Also another thing that could help out the team a bit is switching

for

on

since you really need something for shiftry and it can also help check malamar if it gets a bit out of control.
Resume:

>

Optional:

>

on xatu

Hope I helped you out and good luck with the team :]

 

[ManOfMany]

hi shadestep,

I agree with Allstar's rate since Weezing provides a check to the pokemon you are weak to like Malamar and Cro Mega Audino. I also I think it is always good for a team to have a setup sweeper, so they can have a solid win condition for blowing past bulkier balance and stall. Therefore, may I suggest running CM on Xatu over U-turn? CM Xatu of course can just sweep slower teams once its checks, like Skuntank are removed. Another option for you could be running Taunt Flame Plate Pyroar, or Power-Up Punch on Kanghaskhan.