[RATE MY TEAM] Low Ladder Smogon NU team

[RATE MY TEAM] Low Ladder Smogon NU team - Printable Version

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+---- Thread: [RATE MY TEAM] Low Ladder Smogon NU team (/Thread-RATE-MY-TEAM-Low-Ladder-Smogon-NU-team)

Low Ladder Smogon NU team - Marcusube - Dec 15, 2015

Today's team is based around balanced offense. What I wanted to achieve was a better understanding of the current NU Metagame. The highest ladder rating I have achieved with this team is approximately 1204 coming from 1000. Here is the team:

[Image: lanturn.png]

SETS:

I need Lanturn here as a means to: stop mons with Volt Switch from easily pivoting, heal the status conditions from my team, cripple walls with Toxic and physical attackers with Scald burns and pivot with Volt Switch.

Vileplume served as an answer to strong Pokemon in the tier such as Sceptile, Steelix, Hariyama, Sawk (without Zen Headbutt), Lanturn, Quagsire etc. Giga Drain does a number on Rhydon, Quagsire and picks up a 2HKO on Lanturn, Sludge Bomb does a good chunk to Mega Audino amongst other Pokemon such as Sceptile and Exeggutor, all 2HKOs as well, Sleep Powder punishes switch ins into mons that beat Vileplume, minus Grass types as well as stop Pokemon from setting up and Moonlight for HP recovery. Sludge Bomb in conjunction with Moonlight provides a miniature means of stall.

Choice Banded Scyther is noticeably more powerful than the Eviolite or Choice Scarf set, unless the Eviolite Set is running Swords Dance. This high damage makes it more ideal for revenge killing and pivoting with U-Turn. All of moves on this set are obviously for STAB and coverage so no need to go into any calcs here

Hitmonchan serves mainly as my Rapid Spinner. The moveset is pretty basic as it fully capitalizes on the Iron Fist ability

Mixed Skuntank is more ideal for my team as the previous mons have a serious problem with dealing with Grass types (mainly Ferroseed), Poison types, Mega Audino and bulky Water types (especially Lanturn and Quagsire). I have Sucker Punch over Defog because my team really needs the priority. The 212 EVs in Special Attack guarantee a 50% chance to OHKO Max HP, Max Defense Quagsire with Hidden Power Grass. The rest of EVs were dumped into its Physical Attack stat for more powerful Sucker Punches.

Originally I had Rhydon on this team but obviously that made my matchups with Grass and Water particularly difficult. Piloswine provides Stealth Rock support, better bulk, less weaknesses, Ice STAB and priority, all which Rhydon doesn't have.

THREATS AND PROBLEMS

Anything that outspeeds Scyther and threatens a majority of this team: opposing Scyther, Pyroar, Archeops, Toxic Orb Guts Swellow, Sceptile
Ferroseed: If Hitmonchan is crippled in any way and Skuntank is removed, it's a guaranteed loss to Ferroseed
Quagsire/Lanturn: Without Grass coverage, these mons are a nuisance; extremely bulk and have access to a form of recovery and stall
Status Moves: Without Lanturn, this team has a problem switching in on Vileplume, Lanturn, Exeggutor, and pretty much any other Pokemon that can spread status, whether it be sleep, paralysis, burn or poison

Once again, thanks for reading my post! If you have any comments or suggestions, please don't be afraid to speak up. I'm rusty at this metagame so criticism or questions are appreciated. See you in the next one :D

RE: Low Ladder Smogon NU team - AbruptFury - Dec 15, 2015

Nice team, Marc. Won my first NU match in a long time with it :D