Bloods Making Waves (Peaked at #2)

[Lady Shinki]

Hello everybody. This team was based around me thinking "Hey, the research week pokemon this week are kind of uninteresting" and then picking a different pokemon to build a team around. Since I wanted to make a highly offensive, priority-based team, there were a lot of things that were perfectly threatening that I could've built a team around. Swellow, Samurott, Absol, Gurdurr, Zangoose, etc. are all extremely good and are tried-and-true offensive sweepers that have the priority to clean up all opponents.

However, this wouldn't be quite as fun if I didn't have a different centerpiece pokemon.

At the forefront is...Basculin.

Yeah. This dumb-ass fish that nobody talked about. Small movepool. Outclassed in almost every way. An absolute zero in competitive NU, even though you can just imagine two gangs of red and blue-striped fish fighting it out and Waterfalling the shit out of each other. He had a dream. To ride the wave to the top, and show he was more badass than all the bigger fish in HIS pond.

This is his story. These are his partners.

(peaked #2)

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Based on combining good coverage with the powerful spammability of Waterfall and Aqua Jet, this team is almost completely offensive. It has a bit of synergistic building, but it's mostly focused on forcing switches and hitting with strong attacks and having the powerful 1-2 punch of CB Aqua Jets to clean up. Gothitelle is the only reason why this works, as it can remove key walls that would stop this team. Amoonguss, Tangela, and Alomomola make these sweepers cry but they're honestly no problem with goth around. It's too easy to build a spam team and just rely on her to take it to the top.

Golem @ Lum Berry
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
Adamant / Sturdy

Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Rock Blast
Sucker Punch

The big, strong guy. He's still pretty fast for his size, but he's got the power to back up his position. He's Sturdy enough to guarantee that Rocks will go up on the other side. Max Speed to catch opponents off guard and 2hko a lot of opposing bulky leads first. He lays down the hurt quick with perfect coverage (Rock Blast keeps em honest) and can still sucker punch any bitch who tries to put him down first. (Speedy Lum golem is an atypical stealth rock lead. Golem in general was very popular a while back, much less so now, but with the extra speed he's a perfect fit for this team.)

Rotom-S @ Choice Scarf
252 SpAtk/252 Spe/4 SpDef
Timid / Levitate

Volt Switch
Air Slash
Hidden Power [Ice]
Thunderbolt

Revenger and speedy guy. He's the scout, the intel gatherer, the dirty guy. He does the jobs nobody else will take cuz he knows he can get the job done faster than anybody else. Speed is his mantra, and he has all the right tools for the job. Volt Switch for a speedy escape, Thunderbolt and Air Slash as strong STAB attacks, and HP Ice for that cold-blooded finish on Altaria and Torterra. No Tricks here, just straight-up killing.

Miltank @ Life Orb
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
Jolly / Sap Sipper

Double Edge
Punishment
Earthquake
Milk Drink

Miltank is a very unusual offensive pokemon, but she comes in on all the fast grass-types and sends them packing with surprising power and just good enough offensive moves. LO gives the necessary power to her moves, enabling Punishment to 1hko Haunter and 2hko Musharna at +1/+1, as well as 2hkoing most bulky grass-types at +1. It also covers Cincinno's Bullet Seed quite nicely.

Floatzel @ Choice Band
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 Def
Jolly / Swift Swim

Waterfall
Aqua Jet
Crunch
Ice Punch

The #2. His word is law, except for the head honcho himself. He's fast, strong, and people expecting a different set quickly realize the Choice Band on his sleeve isn't just for show. Crunching down on all the psychics, slamming all the punk Raichus and Haunters with blinding-fast Aqua Jets, he wastes no time putting the hurt on his enemies for defying the leader. CB is a perfect mix of speed and power on him, and he knows it. Water/Ice/Dark is pretty good coverage in NU, and the Goth can clean out physical walls who don't care what he throws at them. (Considering Switcheroo with Flame Orb over Crunch to help mess up full stall teams and those pokemon that run Shed Shell over Leftovers, but those are extremely uncommon so it's not a great choice at the moment)

Gothitelle @ Choice Specs
80 HP/252 SpAtk/176 Spe
Modest / Shadow Tag

Psychic
Shadow Ball
Signal Beam
Trick

The Goth. She ties up their walls and slow powerhouses and keeps them out of the way for #1 and #2 to finish the hit. Alomomola, Amoonguss, and Tangela can't resist her charms and get drawn in only to get smacked by Psychic. Shadow Ball and Signal Beam give almost-perfect coverage, and the EV spread outspeeds max speed neutral 55s. I thought about just going max speed/max spatk timid but it's not really necessary as the bulky offense trend generally means she outspeeds what she needs to. Trick is a godsend for those few times where she takes out a wall and then can come in and mess up an Eviolite pokemon by tricking her Specs away.

Basculin @ Choice Band
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 Def
Adamant / Adaptability

Waterfall
Aqua Jet
Crunch
Superpower

The man. The #1. He comes out, ready to roll and ride the wave straight up. Usually by the time he comes in, he's just cleaning up the wreckage left behind by #2, but he's perfectly capable of coming in and making his own waves. CB Adaptability Waterfall WILL 2hko any non-resist. Even things like Eviolite Gurdurr. He just doesn't give a fuck. Aqua Jet is his trusty "secret" weapon when people think he's outgunned and backed up to the wall, and Crunch/Superpower are mostly there because he doesn't have many other tools. You know why he doesn't have other tools? HE DOESN'T FUCKIN NEED THEM. He leaves that to his partners.

rate, comment, etc. please. I had a lot of fun playing this team, and I had a lot of fun writing this RMT. I know that once people run Shed Shell on their Amoonguss and Alomomola this team will have more than a bit of trouble, but Floatzel can 2hko Amoonguss as it comes in with Ice Punch after SR and Rotom-S can clean that core up if the rest of its team is eliminated around it. There are a couple other choices I could make, such as giving Rampardos CB and running Head Smash which cleanly 1hko's Amoonguss and does 3/4ths of 252/252+ alo's health, while relying on my other team members to pick up the speed slack and giving Floatzel Switcheroo, but those choices kinda suck unless those item choices become popular enough to merit it. I literally have only one loss (due to parahax) so this team has had a fantastic run, but I don't really know what exactly this team is weak to, so help me out and throw me a comment. THANKS FOR READING.​

Old pokemon:

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Rampardos @ Choice Scarf
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
Jolly / Sheer Force

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Crunch
Superpower

edit: also 400th post. go me!

 

[WhiteDMist]

Hi Lady Shinki! This is a great team focusing on lesser seen threats like Floatzel and Basculin. Everyone loves priority, and you've packed your team with so much of it.

The main problem with your team is that most of the members are Choiced. I'm sure you have the prediction skills to back it up, but it does leave you open to problems like SubCM Serperior (who can outspeed most of your team and take them out). Hazards are another problem for you, since you have to switch around A LOT. Opposing Water-types will also be a problem, especially the likes of Offensive Ludicolo (who can handle even Floatzel) and Seismitoad (either ability). Other than that, your strong priority does make up for your weakness to Dark and Ghost types.

Rampardos should have Mold Breaker as the main ability, so that you can take out some of the opposing hazard users before they set up. Head Smash doesn't really matter, but the KO on Amoonguss that don't fully invest in Defense is nice (and it's more accurate than Stone Miss). If you are willing to decrease your overall Speed and depends more on priority, changing the set to a Life Orb set with an Adamant nature would give you more nuking power so you can reliably KO things like Golem. Again, this is depending on how threatening you feel hazards in general are to your team.

Another option is to replace Rampardos with Swords Dance Absol. It gives your team another powerful priority move that can hit the weather sweepers considerably harder, even without a boost. While it doesn't give you a better option against Serperior, Rotom-S can still threaten it (watch out for HP Rock of course). Lastly, a smaller change would be replacing Crunch on Floatzel with Switcheroo to cripple walls and special attackers.

Changes:

Rampardos: Mold Breaker>Sheer Force
Optional:Life Orb>Choice Scarf; Head Smash>Rock Slide

Floatzel: Switcheroo>Crunch

Optional:
Absol>Rampardos

Absol

Absol @ Life Orb
Trait: Super Luck
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Swords Dance
-Sucker Punch
-Superpower
-Night Slash/Psycho Cut

Congrats on the peak, and I hope I helped increase this team's potential!

 

[Lady Shinki]

Thanks very much for the rate!

I'm not super worried about hazards, as Rotom-S is the only thing that's weak to SR, and most Spikers can be outsped and 2hko'ed by Golem since keeping their hazards off is usually more of a priority than getting my own SR up.

Grass-types in general are difficult for this team to get around if they run Shed Shell or Gothitelle is gone. SubCM Serp is actually a really big problem because he can 1hko or set up on everything on this team, Goth included. The problem with it being a strong counter is that it has to get the Sub up first before it can actually become threatening, since Rotom-S can always come in and murder an unprotected Serp. I actually rely on Golem to help get rid of SubCM Serp, as it will always switch in on SR or Earthquake and attempt to set up in the face of Golem. Rock Blast DOES keep the opponent honest and prevents them from getting the Sub up and helps it to be manageable, as if it's forced to just attack rather than set up a Calm Mind it's a lot easier to handle with Rotom-S or Goth.

Rampardos does tend to be dead weight against bulky, slow teams so I might go ahead and make it an adamant LO set (so much nuke potential, even with Regenerator cores being so common <3). However, vs. a lot of offensive teams, he has both the speed and coverage to easily 1hko any one thing on the opposing team in a 1-on-1 matchup, which is tempting to keep as is. Sheer-force Rock Slide is great on a fast scarf set to have a more reliable STAB move than Stone Edge and to give a stronger Crunch vs. Musharna, but with Head Smash Mold Breaker becomes the better ability.

The only reason Floatzel has Crunch is to have a decent shot at 2hko'ing greedy Musharna and having a move with better neutral coverage when I can't predict their switch, but Switcheroo would be much better as an option there.

I'll test your suggestions! Thanks again!

 

[jake]

heya,

basculin is an awesome mon and i'm glad a good team built around it has finally surfaced. plus, mono-choice (or near mono-choice) teams are always cool. :P

i'd definitely agree with switcheroo on floatzel, especially since it can help you against shed shell cores that you mentioned you would struggle with (and they do exist on ladder and against good players; i've fought a few good defensive teams revolving around them). you can lure in amoonguss + alomomola and switcheroo away your choice band (or your flame orb if you prefer that, but seeing the "floatzel's flame orb activated!" at the beginning of every turn is really a surefire giveaway that you have switcheroo) and get rid of their shed shell, letting gothi set up on them and get rid of them later which is awesome.

as you already pointed out, fast grass-types ream your team, notably sawsbuck and serperior. right now you sort of rely on rotom-s to come back and revenge them, but every time they get in they're basically guaranteed a KO. same with rain dance ludicolo - given the opportunity, it can simply 6-0 this team if they predict correctly. i'd like to replace rampardos with something more... team-oriented, since honestly right now it just fulfills the role of 'generic hard hitter' and i think it'd be best if you took that slot and replaced it with something that better covers the weaknesses of the rest of your team. i have two options in mind, and each really depends on your playstyle or which you'd rather cover most since nothing really can switch into the fast grass-types and beat weather sweepers at the same time. life orb miltank with sap sipper is a possibility, as it basically guarantees that you beat every single grass-type in the meta which is awesome for floatzel and basculin. it outspeeds and ohkoes sawsbuck with a +1 double-edge (comes very close even without the +1) and serperior can't do anything to it. it also can be a last-ditch check to a boosted musharna with punishment, which can otherwise be troubling if you don't get it out of the way quickly. the other option i was thinking of was choice scarf cinccino, which basically lets you revenge kill every weather sweeper (aside from floatzel / sawsbuck / jumpluff in their respective weathers, all of whom are rather rare on weather teams). it also deals with both sawsbuck and serperior relatively well, able to revenge kill either with tail slap. either option would be better over rampardos, imo.

lastly, you can also run a jolly nature if you want to catch sawsbuck off-guard with basculin, although you do lose a bit of power without adamant. it does also allow basculin become a secondary check to some faster threats like kangaskhan and zangoose, but it's up to personal preference.

summary

switcheroo > crunch on floatzel

either life orb miltank or choice scarf cinccino > rampardos

miltank @ life orb | sap sipper
jolly nature (+spe, -spa) | 4 hp / 252 atk / 252 spe
double-edge / earthquake / punishment or heal bell / milk drink

or

cinccino @ choice scarf | skill link
adamant nature (+atk, -spa) | 4 hp / 252 atk / 252 spe
tail slap / bullet seed / rock blast / u-turn​

optional

jolly > adamant on basculin​

hope i helped a little bit. really cool, fun team!

 

[Lady Shinki]

Thanks much for your suggestions as well. I tested Miltank and found that it covered holes a lot better and that the Grass immunity helped out in a ton of situations. There were times where I enjoyed Ramp's extreme power, but Miltank has a lot more overall utility.

Also, there were times where I honestly missed Crunch and Switcheroo hasn't actually been useful thus far, since the one or two times where I faced down a Shed Shell Amoonguss it wasn't really as difficult to deal with as I thought as hazards would enable me to repeatedly force it out and make difficult choices.

(I'll update the OP with the changes)

 

[watashi]

I worry about how this team relies heavily on Gothitelle to deal with walls such as Alomomola and Amoonguss. If the opponent manages to lure in and trap Gothitelle a Pursuit user then you're going to have a lot of trouble breaking through physical walls. I second WhiteDMist's suggestion of Life Orb Rampardos with Head Smash because it breaks through Alomomola and Amoonguss quite nicely and has the potential to prevent Stealth Rocks from being set up. This makes your team even weaker to Serperior and other Grass-types, so an option would be to replace Floatzel with Choice Scarf Emboar. Emboar fills in Rampardos' spot as a powerful yet fast attacker that can deal with Pokemon such as Tauros, Cinccino, and Zangoose. It can switch easily into any common Serperior set and OHKO it with Flare Blitz.

Summary of changes:

Life Orb and Head Smash on Rampardos
Floatzel —> Scarf Emboar

Set(s)

Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 SAtk / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Head Smash
- Superpower
- Grass Knot

Rampardos @ Life Orb
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Head Smash
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Stone Edge / Rock Slide