Yoshi
IT'S FINK DUMBASS
What Does The Phox Say?
an RMT by Yoshizilla315
an RMT by Yoshizilla315
Introduction:
Hey all, it's Yoshizilla315, back with this SM NU team I made around Delphox. This team was inspired by Abejas after seeing him use the set, so I'm shouting him out now since in a way he helped me make the team. I would also like to take a moment to thank Stan Soojung for being a great tester and friend, and has really helped me improve as a player to get to this point. Also shout outs to Stan Soojung for making me wait until the end of NUPL to post replays lmao. Without further ado, let's get into the team!
Building Process:
First, I started off with Calm Mind Grassium Z Delphox, since I saw my friend Abejas using it, and it looked like a very fun Pokemon to play with. The reason Grassium Z is the best set for those who don't know, is that the main switch in to Delphox in 2018 are the bulky waters of the tier, such as Assault Vest Slowbro and Vaporeon, as well as ground types such as Rhydon that may want to check. The idea is to lure them in, click z-Grass Knot, and send them packing. For the first partner, I decided that Diancie was the best choice, as it covers the Fire-types like other Delphox and Houndoom which can check Delphox, as well as being a decent check to Sneasel. I also chose Diancie since Delphox can lure in Water-types that Diancie doesn't like such as Slowbro.
Next, I decided to add Whimsicott. The main reason why is that I didn't really have a switch-in to Water-types, and while Delphox can lure them in, isn't going to want to take an attack from any of them. Whimsicott also provided the team with a consistent answer to the Water-types and Ground-types, which if Delphox fails to lure properly, could pose threatening. I also liked Whimsicott since I already had a good Flying resist in Diancie.
At this point, while I did have some fast Pokemon in Delphox and Whimsicott, I realized I needed some speed control. I also realized a had a full team of special attackers. With that in mind, I decided to add the obvious Pokemon of choice in Passimian. For those who don't play NU, Passimian is arguably the most splashable Pokemon in the tier along with Slowbro, and most good teams are running it, which is why the choice is obvious. Passimian was just overall nice because having a fast, powerful, Fighting-type Pokemon with a powerful Fighting-type STAB was good for the team in order to deal with faster Normal-types like Heliolisk and the uncommon Cinccino.
After adding a Fighting-type of my own, I realized that I was quite weak to Fighting-types myself. While I had Diancie for Hariyama, Bullet Punch still does a decent chunck, and if weakened, could prove bad. The same can be said about Whimsicott. Passimian was also super hard to deal with if I had lost the speed tie with my own, as moves like Knock Off, Gunk Shot, and the Diancie-luring Iron Head, are very troublesome for my team. So, with that in mind, I decided to add everyone's favorite Fighting-type check, Slowbro. Slowbro basically eats hits from all the Fighting-types, not much else to say here.
Lastly, with a Delphox on the team, I knew I absolutely needed some hazard control. As you'll see later, the Whimsicott is a Choice Specs set, so running Defog on it isn't an option. I felt that the best defogger to fit on the team was Golbat. Honestly at the time of writing this I can't remember much other reason as to why I added Golbat on the team, other than it can Taunt stuff if necessary.
The Pokémon:
WIth that out of the way, let's look at each individual Pokemon.
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Fire Blast
- Grass Knot
- Dazzling Gleam
The reason I've bolded Grass Knot here is because it's really the Grass-type move of choice. Solar Beam is unreliable because you can't use it outside of the z-move, and there's really no other Grass-type move Delphox should be using. The only thing I don't like about Grass Knot is it does very little damage to the lighter weight Pokemon, such as Diancie, where it's only 20bp. However, the z-move has one consistent base power of 160, making Z-Grass Knot a decently powerful move to use. The item is Grassium Z is so I can use Z-Grass Knot, obviously. The spread used here it to basically just make Delphox as fast as possible, while also making it as powerful as possible. Calm Mind is the first move so Delphox can clean teams, as well as allowing it to OHKO Pokemon like Assault Vest Slowbro at +1 special attack. Fire Blast is used because it's a powerful Fire STAB, being able to hit the likes of Steelix which would switch into Delphox with ease without it. Finally, I use Dazzling Gleam in order to hit Dark-types such as Houndoom and Guzzlord for some damage. Lastly, Blaze is the ability so when Delphox is at the appropriate health, Delphox does more damage with Fire Blast.
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Stealth Rock
- Heal Bell
Next up is Diancie. The first thing you'll notice is that my Diancie is holding a Shuca Berry. The Shuca Berry is mainly there to help deal with Incineroar, as this team is quite weak to it. The obvious play with a +2 Incineroar vs a Diancie is to click Earthquake, which does kill after some minor chip, so having a Shuca Berry helps eat the hit, then to KO back with Diamond Storm. The spread is used to be as bulky as possible so Diancie can soak hits and get up Stealth Rocks. Moonblast and Diamond Storm are just there for STAB, and Stealth Rock is run because basically every team needs it and it helps chip down some Pokemon for Delphox. Finally, I decided to run Heal Bell to provide extra support for the team, mainly in case Passimian gets burned and Slowbro gets toxicd.
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Energy Ball
- Psychic
- Switcheroo
Here we have Whimsicott. The item I wanted to run here is Choice Specs, just so I could deal as much damage to those pesky Water-types as possible, also for just a lot of damage in general. The spread I run is fairly standard, just to make it fast and powerful. Moonblast and Energy Ball are for STABs, fairly powerful too. Psychic is the coverage move of choice since it hits things such as Golbat and Garbodor, both of which switch into both of Whimsicott's STABs. Lastly, I have Switcheroo in order to nullify the likes of Golbat and other sort of passive Pokemon to prevent them from stalling out / annoying the team overall. I think you could potentially run Memento over Switcheroo for Delphox, but I find that there's not a lot of opportunities to do that with Delphox. Also, Prankster gives a fast Switcheroo.
Ability: Receiver
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
The 4th Pokemon is Passimian. I decided to run Choice Scarf because like I explained in my building process, I needed some speed control. Passimian has great speed for a Scarfer, being base 80, out speeding every NU non-scarfer with the exception of Passimian. The spread, like previous Pokemon, is to make Passimian as fast and as powerful as possible. I would run Defiant as the ability, however it's not released yet. Close Combat is run for a high power STAB attack, and is fairly spammable. U-Turn is run to give momentum, and Knock Off is able to chip things like Slowbro and other Fighting checks. Lastly, I chose Earthquake as the last move because Gunk Shot didn't really stand out as something this team needed, so Gunk Shot is always great for the Poison-type Pokemon that want to switch in to Passimian's attacks such as Garbodor and Toxicroak.
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Psyshock
- Toxic
Next on the list we have Slowbro. I decided to make Colbur Berry the item because it helps Slowbro eat attacks like Knock Off from Passimian and Sneasel, and just overall helps Slowbro deal with Sneasel better. The spread used just makes Slowbro as physically bulky as possible, and I'm using broken ability Regenerator since it heals 33% every time I switch (please ban). For moves, I first have Scald since Scald is a pretty spammable move, getting off burns and such, which is quite useful in any match up. The second move is Slack Off for easy recovery, and the third move is Psyshock for another STAB move. Lastly, I have Toxic, since I don't really feel the need to run Calm Mind here when I already have Delphox, and if Delphox fails to lure the Water-types properly, it would be nice to be able to chip them down, or any Pokemon for that matter, which is what Toxic does.
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 240 HP / 172 Def / 96 Spe
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Defog
- Taunt
Now here is where I feel a bit reluctant, this is a pretty standard Golbat set. but there's a few things that worry me. For one, I don't believe the spread is updated to what it should be, and I'm not sure where to find the spread people are using now. Secondly, I'm not sure if making Golbat my defogger is the best idea. Many people get the impression on this team that Whimsicott is the defogger, and I really don't blame them. I don't necessarily believe that Golbat isn't the right choice for the team, however I do believe I'm not running the right set. I'm open to many different recommendations here for changing the Golbat set for sure. I would even be open to changing it to a different Pokemon if someone finds something else that fits better.
Threat List
Exhibit A: Electric-types
On the offensive side, Electric-type Pokemon don't seem too threatening to deal with. However, on the defensive side, Electric-types pretty much run through my team. I first recognized that this was an issue in a recent battle I had (replay included below), where Rotom pretty easily pivoted around my team. It then became apparent to me that other Electric-types, such as Heliolisk and Vikavolt, are just as threatening to my team. The reason for this is my lack of a Ground-type. Now I could run a Ground-type like Rhydon or Steelix over Diancie, but I felt like it just put me at a huge risk of being swept by Incineroar. As the team stands, the best way to deal with Electric-types defensively is the Diancie, making Electric-types some of the most threatening Pokemon to my team.
Exhibit B: Klinklang
Another Pokemon I've found to be troublesome for the team is Klinklang, specifically, the Electrium-Z variant. While you could argue that Slowbro sort of works as a check, if I manage to get the 50/50 wrong and they click Shift Gear on my switch instead of Z-Wild Charge, I lost the game instantly. To be fair, there's not many answers to Klinklang other than Steelix, so I believe it's kind of natural that I'm weak to Klinklang, and not every variant even beats my team. So, all in all, Klinklang can be a threat depending on it's set, but it's definitely not as big as the Electric-types that I previously mentioned.
Exhibit C: Vanilluxe
Finally, one last thing I've noticed is threatening to the team is Vanilluxe. Unfortunately, the Vanilluxe resist is Delphox, which takes a million from specs HP Ground, so any time I face Vanilluxe on this team I auto-lose, which thankfully has not been that often. The best way to solve this problem would be to put Silvally-Steel or Cryogonal > Golbat, but I just feel like that's not the right decision to make.
There are quite a few other threats to this team, but they are pretty small and were not worth mentioning.
Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7nu-769955697
This is the first replay I wanted to share today. Looking at it from team preview, I knew Delphox was my win condition. However, as you'll see in the replay, I kind of disregarded that and sacked my Delphox. Now, obviously you might think I lost this game, but the reason I'm sharing this replay is because there's more to winning with this team with just Delphox. I noticed from that point that I needed both my Passimian, Slowbro, and Golbat to win this game. Passimian was for Sneasel, Xatu, Ferroseed, and Miltank, I needed Slowbro for Passimian, and I needed Golbat for Comfey. By carefully utilizing the three, and a little bit of luck on my side (although in the end I don't think it would've mattered), I was able to come out with the win in this game. Shout outs to neomon for testing with me.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7nu-769764766
This is the replay I had mentioned before about Rotom. Now as you can see, we both kind of recognized that Rotom was pretty threatening for my team, however I did manage to deal with it accordingly. You'll also see that once Diancie got weakened, Passimian kind of ran through my team, which shows that I should've kept my Diancie healthy. The reason I chose this replay is that you kind of need to have a solid game plan in order to use it, and while you should have that anyway, it's pretty crucial with this team here, as the win condition isn't always obvious, even with the Calm Mind Delphox. Shout outs to Plas for testing this team with me (even though it was during my podcast lmao).
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7nu-767008576
Next, we have this replay. This game was in an NU room tour so it's not as relevant as the other two, but it's the best I can give without leaking several precious Grand Slam and NUPL teams. At team preview, I made it clear to myself that Passimian was going to be the thing that won the game. As you can see in the replay, through out the game, this was true. Passimian was proven to be very effective. However, in order for it to win, I needed to at least keep Diancie alive for Braviary, or kill Braviary in some manner, as it was a Choice Scarf set, which ties with Scarf Passimian. In the end, I put these ideas to use in practice, and I ended up winning the game. Thanks Elias PSY for not forfeiting at any point haha.
Shout-outs:
Firstly, I'd like to give a shout out to the NU community, thank you all for supporting me and my sometimes absurd antics. In particular, I'd like to thank Stan Soojung, Eternally, neomon, Abejas, quziel, and Chokepic.
Next, I'd like to thank the cool guys over on GS for giving me somewhere to be an idiot like I normally am, and for (in advance ;) haha) letting me manage for GSPL II. Specifically, thanks Espeonage., TheGreatSplurge, Aawin, and TheGreninjaWarrior21.
Finally, I'd like to thank some random people that I like, such as ancient user Failures, MegaStarUniverse, and Adaire for putting up with all the bullshit.
Edit: ALSO SHOUT OUTS TO Earth THE GREATEST
Conclusion:
All in all, this was a very fun team to build and use, and I definitely think it's one of my best teams that I've built for NU, with the exception of the glaring Electric-type weakness. I'm very interested in seeing what rates people can come up with to help improve this team, because it definitely has room for improvement. The reason I decided to "retire" this team now is because we have the drops coming up in a few days, and this team will probably be bad an unviable, especially if Diancie ends up rising lmao. Thank you again to all the people I've shouted out here, you've all been great supporters and have helped me grow and improve as a player. Also, thank you to the testers mentioned above, as well as the other ones that weren't mentioned here, Stan Soojung in particular :). See you next time RMT with another team.
