Follow Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) Jelly was doing one of these... but he stopped, oh well, I'll take the opportunity. After the tier changes the NU tier is getting really interesting, if you don't play NU you're losing so much fun. Anyways, it is my favourite tier, and I like to think that I know a lot of things about it. So, this thread is to help players that want to enter the NU tier. And we all know that when we are entering a new tier, we must know some basic things: - What are the biggest threats - How to counter/check them So if you're new to the NU tier I'll recommend two threads from smogon. Viability Ranking Thread Teambuilding Role Compendium Anyways, I'm talking too much, let's get to what really matters. Welcome to: Follow's NeverUsed Pokemon Showcase Today I'm gonna be showcasing Tauros Smogon Viability Ranking - S Rank Tauros jumped from BL3 to NU and already have a S Rank, the reason is: Tauros is something that has everything a pokemon needs to be considered a big threat, great speed, great attack, nice coverage, and good abilites. Its defense stats aren't too bad for an offensive pokemon, and it really doesn't have any real counters, because with the correct coverage, nothing in the tier can come in safely against this monster. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anyways, this is the most common set for tauros. Tauros (M) @ Life Orb Ability: Sheer Force EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe Naive Nature - Rock Climb - Earthquake - Fire Blast - Zen Headbutt/Rock Slide As you know, sheer force is an ability that increases the power of a move with another effects, but for the extra power you have to trade the change of getting the secondary effect. But the thing is, sheer force also negates life orb recoil without negating the 1.3x increase in power, so then you have a pokemon with 100 Base attack with an ability that enables you to spam STAB moves. A +speed nature is necessary if you want outspeed things like non-scarf rotom, mismagius, haunter, adamant carracosta at +2, and also speed tie with others base 110 in the tier, like archeops and maybe a rare jumpluff. About the moves, rock climb is a powerful STAB move that you are going to spam, after Sheer Force and LO you your rock climb will be stronger than a non-stab hyper beam from anything else. There's basically no reason to not spam rock climb, the other moves are just to hit other things in the switch-in or to help you late game once your opponent's team has been weakened. Earthquake is for rock/steel tpyes such as rhydon and magneton that can resist your powerful rock climb. And now you're asking me "Why Fire blast in a pokemon with 40 base Spatt", well, Fire blast is there for only one reason: Ferroseed, without fire blast eviolite ferroseed walls you, and fire blast also is a solid 2HKO against defensive eviolite tangela. For the last move you have two options, rock slide enables you to hit rotom and mismagius, and also to OHKO schyter and 2HKO defensive pelipper. And zen headbutt is helpful against physically defensive vileplume and weezing, being a solid 2HKO on them after stealth rocks. Now here I have an uncommon set, but it's still really strong. Tauros (M) @ Choice Scarf Ability: Intimidate EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Retaliate - Earthquake - Double-Edge - Pursuit/Stone Edge Choice Scarf is an item that increases your speed 1.5x times. Which means that, with a jolly nature and a choice scarf, tauros is able to outspeed the entire NU tier with ease. Remember that I said tauros has some really useful abilities? Intimidate is one of my favourite abilities ever. It helps you against physical attackers and against set up sweepers like mawile. And the amazing thing is that you don't need to worry about getting outsped by something, because there aren't any others relevant scarfers with base 110 in NU, but make sure to do some calcs in the damage calculator when you're facing some form of priority like sucker punch pawniard or aqua jet carracosta. Scarf Tauros is an awesome revenge killer, it has 140BP STAB retaliate, it has 120BP STAB double-edge, it has coverage, and it has pursuit, which helps you when any of your opponent's pokemon is at low health and you get the change to get put tauros in the battle field to pursuit trap it. Just remember that retaliate is a move that you only want to click when one of your pokemon fainted in the last turn, otherwise just spam double-edge and earthquake when needed, with an occasional pursuit if a levitate ghost is coming in. Another option would be stone edge if you want to hit levitate ghost types with more power, but that's up to you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A competitive team is made of 6 pokemon, if one of your members is tauros, I have some suggestions for you. A good partner for tauros is colbur berry mesprit, who helps you against fighting types that can OHKO tauros from full health such as hariyama, gurdurr and sawk, and that can also give you stealth rock support to make some guaranteed OHKO's with rock climb. Normal Spam core is also a thing, specs swellow is a really solid option to use with tauros, since it deals with some tauros' switch-ins like rhydon with hp grass and steel types with heat wave. And swellow can also spam boomburst, and boomburst from specs swellow does A LOT. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How do you play against tauros? Status is something that destroys tauros, since poison it's able to put it in range of your priority, and burn and paralysis render tauros useless. Rhydon, Regirock and Carracosta are the best checks to tauros, but you need to play correctly, you can't switch in against a life orb earthquake without taking some decent amount of damage. Rembemer that those three pokemon don't get a recovery move, so try to preserve them for tauros if it is a threat to your team. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's it, a NU showcase thread. If you have any suggestions or if you think that I can do something to make this thread better, just tell. Ah, and if you have your own sets (with explanation) for the showcased pokemon, post and I'll maybe add it to the moveset list. Edited May 19, 2015 by Follow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follow Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) Daily updates are nice. The number of the beast, Vivillon Smogon Viability Ranking - A- Rank Due to the new tier changes, vivillon is A-, with priority flying type attacks and magnetons everywhere, vivillon is limited in this meta. But it's still a good sweeper since it has an ability that enables it to spam +1/+2 hurricanes with 90% accuracy once the rock/steel/electric types are gone. It also gets spore... but you have to know that vivillon is limited against a lot of match-ups, because stunfisk and lanturn are getting really common with magneton everywhere, and magnets itself walls vivillon if you're not packing the correct coverage. In my opinion it should be B+ or B, it's just can't show all its power in the current meta. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is what you'll normally see when you're fighting vivillons. Vivillon @ Leftovers/Sharp Beak/Life Orb Ability: Compound Eyes EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature - Hurricane - Sleep Powder - Quiver Dance - Hidden Power [Ground]/Energy Ball Compound Eyes is an ability that increases your accuracy, which means that sleep powder is basically a spore (97,5% accurate, if you miss a sleep powder with vivillon, you're so unlucky), and hurricane is a 90% accurate move that you are going to spam once the counters are gone. The item depends on your personal preference, I honestly like life orb for hitting like a truck, but sharp beak also enables you to hit a like a smaller truck but without any recoil. And lefties is there if you want longevity over power. The EV Spread is really basic for a special attacker, and with a timid nature you can outspeed every relevant scarfer that isn't called tauros at +1, and at +2 you basically win the game if your opponent doesn't have a flying resistance. Sleep powder, quiver dance and hurricane are vivillon's main moves, vivi NEEDS sleep powder since 80/50/50 are really bad for an offensive threat, with sleep powder you can set up safely. And you don't have to worry about bug STAB, hurricane does the job better on hitting everything that is not called rest talk malamar. When we think about counters to vivillon, I personally think about rhydon and magneton, without hidden power ground you get hardly walled by magneton, and HP ground isn't a 2HKO on rhydon at full health even at +2, so without energy ball rhydon is a problem for vivi. If malamar is a threat you COULD run STAB bug buzz, but it's only for malamar and maybe uxie, hurricane spam is your best bet 99% of the times. +2 252 SpA Vivillon Hidden Power Ground vs. 252 HP / 240 SpD Eviolite Rhydon: 172-204 (41.5 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO The quiver dance set is really famous, but in my opinion this one here is actually better. Vivillon @ Focus Sash Ability: Compound Eyes EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature - Hurricane - Sleep Powder - Energy Ball - Endeavor In my opinion this set is better in the current meta, focus sash is an item that enables you to survive with 1HP when you take a hit from full that would normally knock you out. Sleep powder is a really nice move with compound eyes, you can put your opponent's lead to sleep and start spamming powerful attacks. Is your opponent faster than you? Does he have a musharna with +6 in almost every stat spamming stored power? Does he have an annoying ferroseed? Endeavor. That's the best part of sash vivillon, you can always save your vivillon for bringing down walls late game with endeavor. It can outspeed things like weezing, mantine, granbull, sandslash, rhydon, regirock, and bring them down. It really helps when you're facing something like stall or bulky ass teams to let your opponent bring you down to 1 HP just to spam endeavor. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Let's make it better with nice teammates. Vivillon appreciates hazard control, sandslash has great synergy with vivillon and can also get up rocks to help vivillon to sweep. Claydol does the same job and also hits really hard if you're using the LO set. A volt-turn core is helpful so vivillon can come in safely, because it can't really come in to take hits, unless you predict a ground/fighting/grass type move. Schyter and Lanturn, Mesprit and magneton, just some examples of volt-turn action. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How do you play against vivillon? Try to keep your hazards in the field, vivillon is 4x weak to rock, so it will take a lot from hazards, putting it in range of common priority. Scarfers like rotom, e-vire and jynx can OHKO vivillon, you can also run vital spirit for sleep powder on e-vire since scarf is already raising your speed to a point where you won't need to use motor drive unless you're weak to volt-turn. Magneton walls vivillon without HP ground, rhydon walls vivillon without energy ball (SpDef Rhydon, not double dance). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'll try do update this every day, thanks for reading. Edited May 19, 2015 by Follow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickCrash Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Keep up with the good work Jon Snow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follow Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 Keep up with the good work Jon Snow I finally know something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follow Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 (edited) Time to show you what the word "wallbreaker" truly means. Scaring your crows, Cacturne Smogon Viability Ranking - A- Rank Cacturne is the definition of wallbreaking, with 115 base stats in SpA and Att , packed with a life orb cacturne is able to break through special and physical walls, and it also gets priority, which is really important for a pokemon with "low" speed. In the current meta cacturne does really well against the tier, since nothing in NU resists its two STAB moves aside from mawile (offensive mawile is 2HKO'd by dark pulse anyways) and a not common pawniard. Because of this, I rank cacturne as an A+ pokemon, because being able to 2HKO/OHKO almost the entire tier isn't for everyone. And the fact that it has water absorb means that you don't have to worry about scald burns, which makes the scarecrow almost unstoppable. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is in my opinion the best set for it. Cacturne @ Life Orb Ability: Water Absorb EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Mild Nature - Dark Pulse - Giga Drain - Sucker Punch - Spikes/Destiny Bond Life Orb increases your attacking power by 1.3, and trading 1/10 of your health everytime you hit your opponent for that power is fine if you have a move that lets you recover that health back. And predicting water moves is also amazing for recovery, it also means that cacturne has great synergy with things that are weak to water type attacks, like golurk. A mild nature lets you hit really hard, but a hasty nature is just as fine (let me explain why hasty and mild over naive and rash, generally people run naive to take priority moves better, but let's look at some priority moves here, aqua jet, shadow sneak, sucker punch, cacturne already resists them all, that's why I prefer hasty, you're taking those priorities really well anyways, but that also means you're OHKO'd by a banded ice shard from sneasel). Also, if you fight me in the future, you'll probably discover that I love spike stacking, another reason to love cacturne. Cacturne is the only relevant offensive spiker in the tier, when you predict a switch you can set up spikes to help your team early/late game. Or you can just nuke your opponent until they're dead, in the past I thought cacturne was bad because it didn't have the speed, but when I get swept by one I decided that speed isn't a problem when you have a LO STAB sucker punch. And as I already said, giga drain is amazing since it can recover life orb damage. And dark pulse is your nuke, there's no safe switch-in, I don't care if you have a fighting/fairy/dark type, this is a LO dark pulse coming from a 115 base SpA with a +SpA nature, if they don't resist it, they're dying (Unless your opponent has max SpD mantine, because max SpD mantine is bulky as fuck). Another option if you don't like spike stacking is destiny bond, it will force your opponent to not attack you, and then you'll be able to fire off your powerful attacks. 252+ SpA Life Orb Cacturne Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Mantine: 99-117 (29.6 - 35%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery Scarecrows can dance too. Cacturne @ Life Orb/Focus Sash/Dread Plate Ability: Water Absorb EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Swords Dance - Seed Bomb - Sucker Punch - Superpower/Thunder Punch/Drain Punch or Cacturne @ Life Orb/Focus Sash Ability: Water Absorb EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature - Nasty Plot - Dark Pulse - Giga Drain - Focus Blast/Hidden power (ground/fire) Cacturne gets two fantastic set up moves, swords dance and nasty plot, SD boosts your physical attack by 2 stages, and NP does the same to your SpA. With that your attacking power will be insane, it will usually force your opponent to attack you, and that's where +2 sucker punch will come in handy. In the physical set, life orb is really common since it makes your +2 sucker punch extremely overpowered, but dread plate works too, since you don't have any recovery (unless you're using drain punch) with the common physical set, and not taking damage from LO is generally decent, even though you'll have less raw power, anyways, focus sash is my favourite one for lead cacturne, actually, I only like focus sash for leads, anyways, it enables you to survive any hit from full and set up an SD or attack your opponent, doing insane damage to the opposing team. And the special set doesn't have the dread plate option, since life orb damage is nulled by giga drain, which makes dread plate kinda outclassed by LO. And you want to run timid max in the special set, because you don't have priority, which means that you need as much speed as possible. Two STAB moves are needed in both sets, as well as a dancing move(call it set up move if you want), but the last move depends. Superpower and Drain punch in the physical set enables you to hit things like ferroseed. Thunder punch lets you against flying types coming in when your opponent predict a grass type attack or a set up. In the special set, I honestly think focus blast is your best option by far, but if you are someone who hates bad accuracy, some hidden power, like fire or ground can work too. If you want an all-out attacker cacturne, just replace your dancing move with another attack, it also gets poison jab, energy ball, and some other nice moves. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How to help your wallbreaking power? I honestly see golurk as a really good partner for cacturne, even though they share an ice weakness, their synergy is fantastic, cacturne can come in against water type attacks directed to golurk, and golurk checks bug/fighting moves that cacturne hates, lurk can also give you rocks support to help cacturne. Lanturn takes fire and ice type attacks that threaten cacturne, while cacturne deals with grass and ground type attacks that lanturn can't take. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How do you play against cacturne? Cacturne has a problem, it can't take many hits, with SR support ice shard from life orb sneasel 2HKO/OHKO's, and icicle crash will always kill cacturne, and if you survive something like ice shard, the scarecrow can't OHKO back eviolite sneasel unless it's running drain punch/focus miss. Fletchinder is faster than cacturne, which means that acrobatics strikes first. The scarecrow will die. Bug type attacks, cacturne ain't taking a u-turn from anything. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Question of the day: What's your favourite wallbreaker in the NU tier? Mine is cacturne/sawk, I can't decide between them. Edited May 23, 2015 by Follow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Bagel Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Another big problem with the cactus I'm surprised you didn't mention. Every pokemon with access to u-turn can obliterate this thing. Always be careful on switch with this thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follow Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 (edited) Another big problem with the cactus I'm surprised you didn't mention. Every pokemon with access to u-turn can obliterate this thing. Always be careful on switch with this thing. I talked about it in the last line of the How do you play against cacturne "Bug types, cacturne ain't taking a u-turn from anything.", and when I mentioned bug types, I was talking about bug type attacks, I'm going to change it so people can understand better, and yeah, cacturne can't take a u-turn from anything. Anyways, moving on. Today I'm covering Nicki MinaJynx Smogon Viability Ranking - A+ Rank Due to the new changes, and all those new threats, I'm honestly surprised Jynx is still A+, but anyways, I love jynx, the fact that it can put things to sleep is amazing, because it kinda negates part of its horrible physical defense. When your target is asleep, jynx will shine, with access to a fantastic set up move and decent coverage it can start weakening your opponent's team for later on. It also has an awesome ability, that can give it one key immunity that enables it to switch in to water type attacks without any problem. I want to make Jynx S rank just because I love using it, but seeing all those faster/priority users in the tier makes it less good, so I give it an A Rank, a little bit less than smogon, if we are considerating that some threats can avoid lovely kiss with the correct ability. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Imagine jynx wearing a scarf? Jynx (F) @ Choice Scarf Ability: Dry Skin EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature - Psyshock/Psychic - Ice Beam - Trick - Lovely Kiss/Focus Blast The scarf set can be really deadly when used correctly. it's generally a really good check to set up sweepers since you can normally outspeed them with a scarf and trick/put them to sleep. A timid nature enables jynx to outspeed almost every relevant scarfer when packing its own choice scarf, and also speed ties with scarf primeape. Scarf Jynx can help you late game, when your opponent's team has been weakened you come and clean up by clicking psyshock or ice beam, and maybe focus blast, though relying in a move with 70% accuracy is not a good idea. And the fact that dry skin gives jynx an immunity is amazing when we think about team synergy. It also makes it 4x weak to fire, but fire types in NU are relatively easy to wear down, which means that scarf jynx is going to be a key members in many teams. You literally feel like a god when you predict a wall coming in to trick it, when I do this, I decide to be an annoying person and type "get destroyed" in the chat, but that's what jynx really does, when your opponent has shown his initial switch-in to jynx, you can trick it if it is a wall. Moving on, two stabs are needed, unfortunately Jynx's two main STABs are stopped in steel types, but fortunately those aren't really common, I haven't seen a pawniard in years, so if you want to run focus blast to hit those annoying steels, do it, but I think lovely kiss is just better, because it lets you deal with threats just putting them to sleep and switching to the appropriate counter. And if you want to run psyshock over psychic, that's up for you, psychic OHKO's weezing and garbodor, while psyshock OHKO's hariyama, 2HKO's, hariyama is so bulky And the most common set. Jynx (F) @ Focus Sash Ability: Dry Skin EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature - Psyshock/Psychic - Focus Blast/Nasty Plot - Ice Beam - Lovely Kiss As I mentioned in the cacturne analysis, focus sash enables you to always take a hit from full HP. That's a fantastic item for Jynx, since it isn't taking a physical hit from anything, and it also means that you can get at least one kill. Of course, jynx's speed isn't that fantastic, so base 110+ like tauros, sneasel, archeops and scarfers can threaten jynx, but the good thing is: they can't OHKO you because of the focus sash, and you can put them to sleep, which is going to help you dealing with them. Lovely kiss is necessary, as is ice beam, without the, you're removing the purpose of lead jynx, which is put to sleep and attack. Anyways, jynx gets nasty plot, which is fantastic since it enables you to set up while your opponent is asleep, then you can eventually get a jynx sweep. But if you don't want to run nasty plot, focus blast is an option, though I don't think it will be as effective as NP. And again, the psyshock/psychic thing is up for you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How to sing with Nicki? Jynx appreciates hazard control, specially the focus sash variant, so it can come in without losing a lot of health. I won't recommend cryogonal, since it's another ice type, and ice isn't the best defensive type. I'd recommend claydol, because it can also get rid of fire types that jynx hates with STAB earth power. Something like banded sawk can get rid of steel types that can resist your dual STAB, which makes nasty plot way better than focus miss. Again, you can't take hits, so maybe voltturn to come in safely. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How do you play against Jynx? With its 35 base defense Jynx doesn't appreciate a shadow sneak/bullet punch from anything. Things like kangaskhan and pawniard can easily deal with Jynx, just make sure jynx has already put one your mons to sleep before you decide to go for sucker punch, or it will probably put you to sleep. Jynx is weak to hazards, keeping your rocks in the field is important to wear it down and break a potential sash. Steel types can wall Jynx if it's not packing focus blast. Vital spirit users like magmortar and primeape can avoid lovely kiss and OHKO jynx if it isn't sash. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's it for today, thanks for reading. Edited May 23, 2015 by Follow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follow Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 School is finally over, I'm back Let's proceed to the next analysis, Rotom Smogon Viability Ranking - A- Rank Rotom is a nice pokemon in the tier due to its ability to spam volt switch if your opponent doesn't have a ground type or an electivire, but I think it should be A instead. The fact that it forces your opponent to predict correctly and also having support moves such as will-o-wisp and t-wave makes your opponent head blow. The only things that can switch-in against it doesn't like volt switch, or if it's immune to it like rhydon, it can be tricked or burned. It also has an amazing ability in levitate which negates its ground weaknesses which is nice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How can a ghost wear a scarf? Rotom @ Choice Scarf/Choice Specs Ability: Levitate EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature - Volt Switch - Thunderbolt - Shadow Ball - Trick Scarf rotom is my favourite scarfer in NU, volt switch is an amazing move that gives you momentum and also hits hard, and as I mentioned, nothing in the tier can come in or it will just volt switch, remembering that it can also trick your walls which makes everything harder for your oppoenet. Rotom has a 91 base speed while its other forms have only 86, that means you can still outspeed some threats even if they are at +1 speed such as lilligant, then you can just trick it, depending on the move it locks itself in to you can switch to the appropriate check/counter. Shadow ball is kinda obligatory unless you're running the set I will be showing after this one. Another option will be the choice specs set, honestly if you want power over speed that's your choice, but that doesn't mean the specs is bad, it's really fun to use. With a choice scarf you miss some KO's that choice specs guarantees. And here's this really cool set Rotom @ Leftovers/Colbur berry Ability: Levitate EVs: 212 HP / 40 SpA/ 252 Spe Timid Nature - Pain Split - Hex - Will-O-Wisp - Volt Switch I really liked using this set in the magneton meta to provide a nice magnets check, but it's still really cool anyways. Volt switch is needed in every rotom no matter what, because momentum is important and you will want it unless you're running some kind of stall, but you won't be running rotom in a stall team anyways. Will-o + hex is a really cool combo because your opponent always expect a scarf set when they go to their rhydon/electivire/something that can take a volt switch and then you wisp them and start hexing. Pain split is good because it enables you to Recover a lot of health when you come in against a bulky thing like regirock or audino and gain all that health. Leftovers is generally the best item though colbur berry has its uses. It enables you to survive a banded knock off from sneasel and sawk from full assuming no hazards (actually, it can take a banded knock off from sawk after hazards, but not from sneasel.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good partners For the hex set, toxic spikes can be really useful, for some good toxic spikes setters I recommend garbodor, weezing and maybe venipede/whirlipede if you're running hyper offense. Remember that rotom is also a spinblocker so your hazards will be there to stay. You can form a nice volt turn core with scyther or archeops if you're using a choice scarf. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How do you play against Jynx? Rotom is annoying, I like having one pursuit user like pawniard or sneasels in my team to deal with them. Though predicting is the best way to deal with it, scout what move it wants to lock itself in to and go to your check Mega audino completely shuts down rotom btw, but volt switch is annoying. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's it for today, thanks for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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