Welcome to the Jungle (Peaked around 1870)

[ss234]

Hey guys, Silvershadow here with my 3rd RMT. This is a team I've been using to great success over the last few weeks, and I think I've found my favourite playstyle with this team as well(semi-stall/stall, if you care). it peaked at 1872 under the alt 'Wish you were here'(yah, I like rock songs). I want to say a big thank-you to Molk as well, for being an awesome tutor and for helping me build this team. Now, onto the team:

Nidoqueen (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SAtk / 168 HP / 88 Spd
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Thunderbolt

Nidoqueen is one of my favourite bulky stealth rock leads at the moment. It can easily get up Stealth Rock thanks to its great bulk, as well as smash through opposing stealth rock leads, such as Crustle and Aerodactyl and Sandslash. It also absorbs Toxic Spikes by virtue of its typing, and is my main counter to things like Accelgor and Galvantula, and is also a nice backup check to things like Escavalier and Manectric, if I predict a trick.

The set is fairly standard for a bulky queen. Earth Power for STAB, Fire Blast and Tbolt for coverage. The ev's outpace maximum base 55's like bouffolant, which can be a major pain, and the rest is put in bulk and special attack to tank hits from bugs / electrics better. Life Orb and sheer force is obviously to hit things as hard as possible, and because queen is still best when she's smashing through defensive teams when cress has been taken out by the next member...

Spiritomb @ Choice Band
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Shadow Sneak
- Sucker Punch
- Trick

CB Spiritomb is really good at the moment, being able to take out Cresselia with ease thanks to an insanely powerful Pursuit. Tomb does more than just counter cress though. He is also my spinblocker and a backup check to dangerous mons that have somehow managed to set-up on me. He also counters Slowking easily(I bait a psyshock by going out to wrath on the scald, and then switching out to tomb and 2HKO with Pursuit), as well as Gallade, which is normally a very dangerous threat to stall teams.

I really like CB on this set, as it allows me to deal 70% to Cresselia as it switches out-therefore, it can't counter queen later on. Trick is also ever so useful-tricking a CB onto opposing cresselia or clefable has often won me the game. Although I do sometimes not like being locked into a move, the majority of stat-uppers are stopped cold by either cresselia or poliwrath. The set is once again fairly straight forward-speed ev's outspeed mighty as fuck dusknoir, the rest is put into attack and HP.

Overall, Spiritomb is a really useful team member, that fills lots of roles all in one team slot, and does them all really well.

Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Circle Throw
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Poliwrath is such a great mon to use in the current metagame, since it really takes advantage of all the mons being used to counter cresselia, such as Drapion and Escavalier. Thanks to it's excellent typing, Poliwrath can come in on many mons basically for free, and using circle throw to rack up hazard damage. Scald is my secondary STAB move, and is for when I think a ghost might be coming in, and to outright weaken mons or attempt to burn mons such as rhydon. The set is pretty self-explanatory-max bulk and leftovers and RestTalk allow for maximum survivability. Water Absorb is a really useful ability on wrath, and really comes in handy when up against rain teams, as well as Slowking and other water types such as feraligatr and kabutops.

Cresselia (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SDef
Calm Nature
- Moonlight
- Thunder Wave
- Psychic
- Calm Mind

The mon that makes stall possible in RU-cresselia. Cresselia walls so many threats it's almost unreal-sceptile, moltres, nidoqueen, magmortar-all are easily countered by Cresselia. CM Cresselia is also an excellent boosting sweeper against offensive teams, as when their cress counter has been worn down through residual damage cress has an easy time boosting up to +6 and then winning the game. It also allows cress to sponge hits from special attackers more easily-for example against Galvantula. Thunder Wave is such an excellent move on Cresselia, and really helps along with Nidoqueen, who has an easy time smashing through offensive teams once paralyzed.

I normally bring out cress early on to try and paralyze as many things as possible, and boost up late game when potential checks have been weakened and counter eliminated via poliwrath and residual hazard damage. I'm not all that sure who made the ev spread, but it allows Cresselia to survive 2 max damage roll LO Moltres Fire Blast's after SR, and the rest is put into physical bulk to spongs hits from physical attacker such as Kabutops and Entei better.

Kabutops @ Lum Berry
Trait: Weak Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Jet

Kabutops is the spinner of the team, and also my smeargle counter thanks to Lum Berry. Cryogonal isn't all that good in the current metagame, as it is easily pursuit trapped by all the cress counter running around at the moment, and because Sandslash and Hitmonchan are laughable on a serious team, I was left with Kabutops. I also has a major issue with Smeargle though, and I'd hears about Lum Berry Kabutops from someone, and it seemed to fit nicely on this team.

Although I do miss LO's power sometimes, Lum Berry has come in very handy sometimes. Smeargle has already been mentioned, but Lum Berry also allows me to stay in on Jynx hoping to set-up on me, as well as Sigilyph among others. Apart from Lum Berry, the set is very standard. Adamant for maximum attacking power, Rapid Spin because he's the spinner of the team, Swords Dance is there to ensure I don't lose against things like Clefable, as outside of Kabutops I don't have much of a way around it. Tbh, Kabutops doesn't see a lot of usage on my team, but spikes can be a real pain for my team if fully set-up, and really helps against defensive teams.

Ferroseed @ Eviolite
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Thunder Wave
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed

Finally, we come to ferroseed-one of the most under-rated spikers in the tier. Ferroseed is able to set-up Spikes against so many mons such as Spiritomb and Dusknoir, and it's spikes are often crucial in winning a match. By getting down spikes quickly with ferroseed, I can wear down offensive teams through their own LO recoil and hazard damage.

Ferroseed isn't only there to set-up Spikes though. Ferroseed is a great supporting mon in general, Thunder Wave especially. It never gets old when people think they can switch their Magmortar / Moltres in on Ferroseed and get hit with a Thunder Wave and are then easy pickings for queen. TWave ferroseed is also an excellent weapon against rain teams-as between Cress, Poliwrath and Ferroseed I have most of the rain abusers covered. Leech Seed is ferroseed's only method of recovery, but is still very useful for causing even more residual damage, for example against sandslash. Finally, Gyro Ball is Ferro's STAB move of choice, and allows it to counter things like Archeops and Aerodactyl with ease. It hits roughly twice as hard as Seed Bomb thanks to ferroseed's abysmal speed stat, which means it still deals out pretty good damage to things like Kabutops.

So, that's the team. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I also hope that you play RU more-seriously, it's a really fun and balanced tier to play at the moment, as anything can work and so can any playstyle, from Trick Room to full out stall and dual screens Hyper Offense. Once again, major thanks to Molk for being such an awesome tutor, and another thanks for reading.

 

[Celever]

Wow, this seems like an incredibly solid team. I'm wondering though, you chose Cresselia over Slowking, but you gave it a set you could easily give Slowking (switching moonlight with slack off, which is more useful most of the time anyway), as well as Slowking having some good all around stats as well. Plus, you kept on talking about all of the Cresselia checks and counters throughout the OP, while having a Cresselia yourself. Could you validate you choosing Cresselia over Slowking please? Also, you said in your Kabutops description that Hitmonchan and Sandslash are laughable on a serious team. For your information, the team I'm using to ladder right now has an extremely useful Hitmonchan on it! *Celever is mad. I also want to question your Spiritomb set with a choice band. Sucker punch!? That is the easier to set up on than splash! (actually it's equal to) but still, say you do use sucker punch 3 times in a row or something, and you KO a previous pokemon, I'd would then switch into a pokemon that wants to set up, in my case Crawdaunt, then I'd most likely use substitute, or if I'm certain you're locked a dragon dance straight away, giving me at least 2 dragon dances either way, since you may not realize that I was going to set up with a different pokemon like... Your kabutops! I'd say trick is fine, as long as you use it first (and don't do what I did once and tricked a choice band for a choice band, then he tricked it back XD) but then you have shadow sneak as well. That is 2 priority moves on a choice band set, with the only other damaging one pursuit, which you should keep. I'd say get rid of sucker punch and put in dark pulse, that keeps the STAB dark typing but actually hits! You might want to consider getting rid of trick and choice band for a different move, although Spirtomb's movepool is rather restricted... I think nasty plot would work, if yo invest 252 EV's into atk to keep shadow sneak effective, and your main sweeping attack dark pulse then I think it'll improve him.

Luvdisc'd!

 

[ss234]

Hi there celever, thanks for rating my team.

Cresselia is definitely here to stay on this team, as it counter Moltres and Nidoqueen much more reliably than Slowking, and also beats sceptile. Also, all of spiritomb's moves serve a different purpose, Pursuit to take out psychics and weaken cress for queen, Sucker Punch is my strongest priority move for when I'm sure my opponent will attack, and shadow sneak is the move I use against stuff like dusknoir and is my most reliable move on the set. Although tomb does give out a lot of set-up opportunities, Poliwrath can deal with almost all of the mons that will set-up, such as klinklang, aggron and crawdaunt. Without a CB, I have difficulty doing enough damage to Cresselia, and I also lose the power to 1HKO cryogonal.

But thanks for the rate celever. :)

 

[Celever]

What about a life orb on Spiritomb? It could work, and although it's not quite as effective power wise as CB, it lets you switch between attacks! If you play your cards right with Slowking, then you can beat even Sceptile (at least I can XD), just something to consider. Another thing I forgot to add though, was that I think you should replace fire blast with ice beam. Ice still combats flying and grass types, and although it isn't super-effective on bug (which is the opposite of common) and steel, it is a combat to the fairly common zweilous and the not so common but still used Altaria in terms of dragon (and a couple of others) as well as being super effective on ground, like the water types, but it also gives better coverage as a whole. Besides, fire blast misses a lot!

 

[Alfalfa]

But Choice Band allows you to cripple things like Ferroseed and Clefable by using Trick; why forego it?

 

[col49]

Hey Silvershadow, cool team! I've been using some very similar teams this round, and I can attest to their effectiveness (if that means anything lol). Since this team is pretty air-tight as is, I can only really make minor suggestions. That being said, have you ever played around with Clefable>Kabutops? Having Heal Bell and Wish support can be incredibly useful when playing against more stall-based and balanced teams, especially when Pokemon like Lanturn and Slowking start fishing for Scald burns (you say that you bait a Psyshock and go to 'Tomb, but I feel like a stronger player would predict that and either switch accordingly or Scad again anticipating the switch). Wish support also somewhat mitigates the hazards that 'Tops could otherwise spin. This obviously would put you at a bit of a disadvantage against Smeargle offense teams, though that's only about 5% of teams if my math is correct, and you can still force them to sleep Poliwrath and force them to limit hazards with decent Sleep Talk pulls. Just a little something to think about, though as I mentioned, the team has most stuff covered.

Luvdisc'd btw :]