Sand + NU

[Summer]

Hey, it's Summer. One day I got issued a challenge: Make a weather team with at least one NU Pokemon.

Accepted. I'm going for a tanky-like approach since my choice of NU is bulky on its own.

At A Glance

@ Leftovers

Trait: Sand Stream

EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SDef

Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Earthquake

- Stealth Rock

- Slack Off

- Whirlwind

Hippodown here is my sand-bringer. He basically sets up SR and sand. I've chosen a defensive approach to this team, thus choosing Hippo over Tyranitar. Hippodown is a basic tank. Whirlwind will do some scouting on its own without me switching out when facing stuff like Ferrothorn or Skarmory. Slack Off is a stall method while Sand shaves off bit by bit. Earthquake is a great STAB move that covers up for its un-offensive set.

@ Leftovers

Trait: Storm Drain

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef

Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)

- Earth Power

- Ice Beam

- Scald

- Recover

Gastrodon is my first idea when thinking up of Politoed counters. Its signature Storm Drain takes in potential Scald and Surf, giving Gassy +1 in Special Attack. Its EV spread allows for it to sponge deadly Special-based moves like Draco Meteor. The moveset is meant to do serious STAB after soaking in Water-moves, whil Recover heals the um, HP.

@ Leftovers

Trait: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef / 0 Spe IV

Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)

- Trick Room

- Gyro Ball

- Hypnosis

- Explosion

Physical-based Bronzong. This set is very unique in the sense, it carries Explosion. You don't usually find it anywhere on Bronzongs. Trick Room does wonders for its crappy speed and Gyro Ball hits hard with STAB and 0 Speed IVs. Hypnosis helps to set up Trick Room. Now, Explosion. When Bronzong happens to take some serious damage when setting up TR, Leftovers does little to help its red zone. Explosion will surely go first with TR up unless piority happens. Most piority, though, can do little to Steel types and Explosion is sure to go.

@ Toxic Orb

Trait: Poison Heal

EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 SDef

Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)

- Drain Punch

- Seed Bomb

- Bulk Up

- Spore

Shiny Breloom looks good in sand. I went for the Poison Heal over Technician becuz sand. Life Orb and Sand will kill of Breloom quickly, so I went for the bulky Breloom. Spore is obvious; the opponent sleeps and I get a free Bulk Up whether the foe switches or not. Drain Punch will heal my Breloom when Poison Heal doesn't heal enough and Seed Bomb will do serious stuff with STAB and +1 Attack.

@ Black Sludge

Trait: Poison Touch

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def

Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Curse

- Shadow Sneak

- Poison Jab

- Brick Break

Ah, Muk. Muk was my choice for the NU challenge. I didn't think much of the sloppy garbage at first. I regret. Muk can easily reach 500+ Attack with one Curse up, ensuring serious damage right off the bat. It's drawback, however, was its speed. Curse also brings down its already crappy speed. Muk was one of the reasons I decided to run Bronzong. With Trick Room up, Muk can do deadly stuff. Poison Jab over Gunk Shot cuz I'm scared for accucary. Brick Break will cover up against Steel types and Shadow Sneak will quickly finish things. It also helps to avoid the Trick Room end problem.

@ Choice Scarf

Trait: Sheer Force

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Flare Blitz

- Earthquake

- U-turn

- Stone Edge

Darmanitian is my revenge killer. I didn't want him at first, but I desperately needed a Fire Type to cover my offensive core. Basic Scarf set, not much to say, I guess.

There you have it! My challenge done. I will say I was pleasantly surprised how it turned out. I lost only 3 times and won every other 10+ matches.

Cores:

Defensive :

Offensive:

[Unknown Guy]

Good Team Buddy

One Thing Use Sword Dance On Breeloom It Would Be Good

Rate = 10/10

[Summer]

Good Team Buddy

One Thing Use Sword Dance On Breeloom It Would Be Good

Rate = 10/10

I said I was going for the bulky Breloom, were you reading?

[Shanco]

It's Ryan C.

• You know Gastrodon is NU, right? Saves you resorting to Muk, who isn't NU anyway.
  
• I don't agree with Unknown Guy, you should keep Bulk Up. It allows you to survive a Brave Bird from Skarmory after +2 and do some heavy damage to it or KO it.
  
• Have you tried Gunk Shot on Muk? It will do a lot of damage, with the trade-off being accuracy, but it you might like it.
  
• Hippowdon is a very bulky Pokemon. Perhaps it could afford to have a Life Orb or more offensive EVs as it has Slack Off.
  
• Bronzong and Explosion don't go together well unless you have some more Attack EVs. It works for Gyro Ball, too,
  

I really like this team, though. 9/10

[Summer]

It's Ryan C.

• You know Gastrodon is NU, right? Saves you resorting to Muk, who isn't NU anyway.
  
• I don't agree with Unknown Guy, you should keep Bulk Up. It allows you to survive a Brave Bird from Skarmory after +2 and do some heavy damage to it or KO it.
  
• Have you tried Gunk Shot on Muk? It will do a lot of damage, with the trade-off being accuracy, but it you might like it.
  
• Hippowdon is a very bulky Pokemon. Perhaps it could afford to have a Life Orb or more offensive EVs as it has Slack Off.
  
• Bronzong and Explosion don't go together well unless you have some more Attack EVs. It works for Gyro Ball, too,
  

I really like this team, though. 9/10

Gastrodon is what?! Fuck. I will keep Muk though. It resists Brelooms and other fightning types. (I'm going by Smogon's tier, shoot me)

Gunk Shot is basically a Hydro Pump clone, and given my luck, I'm keeping Poison Jab.

I did try the Life Orb, but it was a waste considering it only had Earthquake and i'm not willing to. swap out any moves.

Working on. Bronzong's Attack EVs. Although, Explosion can take out a Landorus from my battles.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Summer

[Melody]

Never really figured as a Muk being good but it is NU & 500 attack is pretty decent & with TR you made it a good combination to OHKO even some special attackers. Just be careful against gliscor a SD ,Taunt, Gliscor w/ Spec Def EVs.

9.5/10

The Muk is extremely creative.

[Summer]

Never really figured as a Muk being good but it is NU & 500 attack is pretty decent & with TR you made it a good combination to OHKO even some special attackers. Just be careful against gliscor a SD ,Taunt, Gliscor w/ Spec Def EVs.

9.5/10

The Muk is extremely creative.

Why tank you c:

As far as I know, this is the only Muk moveset other then Choice so "creative" isn't the word.

Why the fuck am I using NU stuff unknownly?

[Melody]

Why tank you c:

As far as I know, this is the only Muk moveset other then Choice so "creative" isn't the word.

Why the fuck am I using NU stuff unknownly?

Lol honestly, I thought it was because I've never seen a Muk being used ever, Even in NU so I thought it was pretty interesting, Overall it looks like you got weaknesses covered pretty well though.

[Kiozo]

I can't tell why you're running certain aspects of your muk. I personally would go more tankier so I don't die as much, especially because you don't have that much of a Special Defensive stat. I've run CurseMuk before, so I can definitely approve of that. Not much to say on the subject, just thought I'd chime in while skimming threads.

Also be careful of Trick Room running out during potential set-ups with Muk.

[Summer]

The special defense is covered by sand. (Steel, Rock and Ground gets 1/3) Thus I didn't invest too much in spdef.

I'm not sure I understand your warning, Muk benefits from Trick Room more then anything, I've only to watch out for Spatkers. If I didn't run Muk, I'll be replacing it with Relencius or something. If TR happens to run out, I've usually set a Curse already, so Shadow Sneak + Poison Touch will soften the opponent before I revenge kill with Darmanitian.

[Moony]

Actually, Sandstorm only raises the Sp Def of Rock-Type Pokemon.

Source (Bulbapedia): Raises the Special Defense of all Rock-type Pokémon by 50% (Generation IV onwards).

Perhaps, you could run a Specially Defensive Hippo.

Run a special attacker, such as Scarfed Latios or RP Special Lando. Skarmory with Brave Bird walls 5/6 of your team, with Gastrodon's Scald doing only 32 to 38% with a 4% chance to 3HKO. Darmanitan can 'check it' but it won't be happy with switching in and out with hazards on the field. This team is also very weak to hazards, as you have no Rapid Spinners and 5/6 Pokemon are weak to Spikes and 4/6 are weak to Toxic Spikes. If you could fit it in, I would recommend a Specially Defensive Forre to set down Spikes and Toxic Spikes as well as Rapid Spinning hazards away.

252/244/12 to 252/4/252.

> 252 Sp Atk, 252 Speed, Modest Nature. Rock Polish, Earth Power, Focus Blast, Hidden Power Ice/Flying. IVs: 30 Atk, 30 Def (For Ice)

252 HP/252 Sp Def, Careful Nature. Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Rapid Spin, Toxic

[Neo]

I'm pretty sure you missed the title. "Sand + NU"

Hippodown runs best defensively, tbh. He's got that tank thing going on.

[Lil' Baby Rupe]

hey.

I agree with Moony to a certain extent, Special Lando > Muk, except if you use forretress run volt switch > tspikes, because in my opinion the switch out of the predicted chandelure is a lot more worthwhile than a toxic spike and imo physical hippo > spec hippo for excadrill and the such.

the team pretty much just gets wrecked by rain, tornadus t and specs kingdra just have fun with you and I'll come back to that later.

I really don't understand what you're trying to do with this team, trick room and set-up moves really doesn't have any synergy at all and with bronzong@explosion as your only TR'er you really aren't going to have any advantages with that gimmick either.

Specially Defensive Jirachi > Bronzong

Jirachi @ Leftovers

Trait: Serene Grace

EVs: 252 HP / 224 SDef / 32 Spd

Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)

- Protect / Stealth Rock

- Iron Head

- Thunderbolt / Body Slam

- Wish

Jirachi and Gastrodon (With the right prediction) can wall Tornadus-T and Kingdra/Ludicolo which are the biggest threats to your team right now.

Thunder Bolt and Body Slam have been slashed, Body slam for the 60% paralyse chance and Thunderbolt for hitting skarm for a little more damage and catching the toed on the switch in, whatever your preference is.

I have also slashed Protect with Stealth Rocks, so you can change hippowdowns moveset; Ice Fang > Stealth Rocks so you can break Excadrill Air Balloon(If carrying) and also counter acrobatics gliscor and garchomp.

I find Techniloom the best possible set for Breloom and it will also offer your team a reliable sweeper.

Techniloom > BU Breloom

Breloom (F) @ Leftovers / Shed Shell

Trait: Technician

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd

Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

- Spore

- Swords Dance

- Bullet Seed

- Mach Punch

Any way you look at it, Breloom is a glass cannon. Even at +2 Defence a strong fire move can kill it, as well as almost any unresisted special attack(Even Kingdra OHKO's with surf in rain), and in this highly offensive metagame, BU Breloom really isn't viable. Techniloom, on the other hand, can hold its own in this tier being one of the deadliest sweepers with technican boosted Mach Punch and Bullet seed.

Leftovers and Shed Shell have been slashed, lefties to negate sand damage or Shed Shell to run away from Chandelure / Gothitelle

I don't want to change too much of the team but a better, more reliable scarfer is recommended over Darmanitan (You don't run a spinner so he's gonna die pretty fast). Toxic is in most cases better than Earth Power / Ice Beam on Gastrodon.

good bye

Edited December 1, 2012 by Rupe

[Summer]

First off, I'm running Muk for my NU choice. If I happen to replace him, I'm probably going for Renicules.

Regarding TR. Bronzong is supposed to go solo, unless it happens to die while TR is still running. In this case, I'll bring out Muk and begin setting up/sweeping in place of Bronzong. My Pokemon also happen to be slow, thus if Muk dies as well, I have other options. Bronzong is the guy that turns my team from defense to offense.

Yes, Hazards. Accordingly this team is meant for friendly play, not competively. My circle of friends has a unwritten rule to only use SR as hazards, thus not it being a problem. However, if I do want to ladder (rarely) I'll take the usual; Excadrill, Skarmory and Tyranitar.

Now we come to Mushroom head. I did want to try out TechniLoom, but I realised it died too quickly. Sure, Spore and SD helps Breloom, but when facing a faster opponent, Breloom can hardly do a thing other then Mach Punch, which does nothing to Chandy. ToxicLoom, on the other hand, survives decent attacks and can boost itself defensively, my idea of a tank.

Darmanitan. Like I've said, I really didn't want this guy. But I desperately needed to have a fire type to have the FWG core. I've been trying Banded Infernape though. I might try it, it take neutrel from SR as well.

The Gerenal idea is to have tanks errywhere. Bronzong will convert these tanks into mighty cannons with Trick Room. Even without Trick Room, my team can do serious damage on their own. So there you have it.

On a sidenote, if Fortress runs TS, why does it need Toxic?

[Lil' Baby Rupe]

The point is there's no point to Trick Room if you're only going to have 5 turns of it. Lol?

Bronzong explodes and dies, you have 4 turns left.

1-4 of those turns are you setting up Curses, leaving 0-3 turns of "sweep" and no matter what way you look at it, almost every physical wall laughs in Muk's face while it can just set stealth rocks, spike stack or set up a sub

You say you're not using Techniloom because it dies too quickly. I made a point of saying no matter what set breloom runs, it can not take a hit reliably. It is considered a glass cannon for a reason. Please actually read this.

"ToxicLoom, on the other hand, survives decent attacks and can boost itself defensively, my idea of a tank."

No, no it doesn't.

FWG cores aren't necessarily good either, and Darmanitan is hardly a "tank that can turn into a mighty cannon" under Trick Room.

"Even without Trick Room, my team can do serious damage on their own. So there you have it."

I don't think you actually read what I was saying. Standard Rain and standard Sand kick your shit in.

Toxic is obviously used for levitating/flying pokemon.

Edited December 1, 2012 by Rupe

[Kiozo]

The special defense is covered by sand. (Steel, Rock and Ground gets 1/3) Thus I didn't invest too much in spdef.

Those mons really aren't that tanky anyway so every little bit helps.

I'm not sure I understand your warning, Muk benefits from Trick Room more then anything, I've only to watch out for Spatkers. If I didn't run Muk, I'll be replacing it with Relencius or something. If TR happens to run out, I've usually set a Curse already, so Shadow Sneak + Poison Touch will soften the opponent before I revenge kill with Darmanitian.

Basically I meant what Rupe elaborated on. You'll use turns to set up curses and the enemy will attack second most likely. Then, if TR wears off, you have to realize that you're taking two attacks in a row before responding with anything.

Like so;

Turn5

Muk used Curse!

Infernape used Flamethrower! (34% damage)

Muk has 40% hp left

Trick Room wore off!

Turn6

Infernape used Overheat!

Muk Fainted!

Random and most likely bad and incorrectly numbered example, but it still gets my point across. You can take massive damage from deciding to use Curse and TR wears off if you time it incorrectly. Even so, you'd want a set up sweep to sweep, not rely on a revenger to get a kill for you.

Also, Reuniclus. >>;

[Hedron]

So yeah RP Lando takes a dump all over this team, especially since hippo isn't specially defensive.

Also, Fight Gem Techniloom > all brelooms