Do you even Pokemon?

[Basileus]

Sup y'all? I have a 1550 rating with this team in NU. This is my first NU team I ever made and I have changed it very little since it was made, and it has worked out pretty well for the most part. I only have 2 NU teams, this one and a mono grass but this one is clearly the best as it has gotten me over 1500. IDK how I did it either, I see other peoples teams and mine is WAY different from most of what I see in NU. Did I just get lucky? Anyway, there is always room for improvement and I know nothing about NU except for these six Pokemon. Thank you for helping me with my first non-OU RMT. :D

--The team--

--A closer look--

Garbodor @ Black Sludge
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Gentle Nature
- Clear Smog
- Gunk Shot
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes

Garbodor is the most recent addition to my team. He is pretty bulky which I like (I love bulky Pokemon), and his typing makes him good against anything except ground. I was thinking of adding air balloon but decided that black sludge would be a better choice. I use him mainly to set up entry hazards while people are trying to stat boost then use clear smog to get rid of all boosts. (I know, trollish right?). I think he is a fine Pokemon and a good addition to the team.

Cacturne @ BlackGlasses
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance

Cacturne has always been one of my favorite Pokemon, his mysteriously evil look has always intrigued me. It is hard to determine when is the right time to use sword dance and when it is not (Cacturne is frail so he is often OHKO'd). Sometimes I can use water absorb to his advantage, but usually it doesn't work out all that great. Cacturne is great for my team for protection against bulky waters, and if I play my cards right then he will sweep with sucker punch. I was thinking about putting on life orb but I did not want to make him more frail then he already was, and I like to have a diverse range of item usage on my team so black glasses just gives me a bit more power under sucker punch (which is really the move I use the most).

Swoobat @ Leftovers
Trait: Simple
EVs: 240 SAtk / 16 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Air Slash
- Calm Mind
- Giga Drain
- Stored Power

I actually really dislike the design but that doesn't stop Swoobat from being the biggest and best sweeper in NU. I thought about giving it HP ice instead of Giga drain but there aren't many dragons in NU and I like healing. The biggest threat to Swoobat I have noticed is getting statused, and I like leftovers but I have considered running lum because of this. Anyway, Swoobat is definitely the biggest sweeper on my team with calm mind and simple it only needs 2 turns of set up. Most special attackers cant lay a finger on my bat after calm mind, so I give it a bit more special defense for extra security and then with a bit of set up a sweep is in order with stored power+coverage from air slash and g-drain.I have gone 6-0 several times, why is this guy not AT LEAST in RU!? The best part? Swoobat is fast, and on a team like this, I need someone fast...

Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP
- Transform

Ah ditto, he has saved me a few times believe it or not. Ditto was the first Pokemon I put on the team, but it appears to be the fourth for some reason. (I think I just switched the team around and got rid of ditto then put him back on.) Anyway, It is hard to explain what ditto does because it is fairly obvious. I decided that EVs in anything besides HP would be useless because of impostor, but scarf ensures I always attack first. Despite being looked down upon by most, the one reason ditto remains on my team is because of its glorious ability to copy stat changes. It has saved my life from tight situations with overly sword danced Armaldo, other CM Swoobat, and don't even get me started on baton pass teams.

Golurk @ air balloon
Trait: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- DynamicPunch
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Curse

Golurk is my main starter for this team. His massive bulk and air balloon almost guarantees he will live for at least a turn. So many Pokemon in NU are slow, and this is why I love Golurk because he is the fastest of the slowest. (makes perfect sense right?) Most people are expecting me to set up S-rocks but I always go for D-punch confusion hax first and foremost (god I love no guard). I have never swept with Golurk, but I have completely crippled teams with his pretty decent coverage. Now I know what you are thinking. "why curse?" Well guess what? I do not care what you suggest, curse STAYS. curse should be a viable move because it ALWAYS WORKS. It hits things behind subs, protect, setting up, anything! No guard is just so great because it ensures that accuracy loss won't stop curse from hitting. So why is it so useful? Well most of the time if I am at super low HP I can just curse suicide because after stealth rocks is up and air balloon is gone, Golurk just isn't going to be much help anymore except for a last laugh before it dies, and curse ensures that I will get a 25% damage and a switch out, or at least a stubborn trainer letting his/her Pokemon die because he refuses to switch. I have perfected my strategy with curse by studying and basically memorizing Golurk's defensive capabilities and it will stay no matter what so please don't even try to suggest I change it.

Flareon (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Flame Charge
- Facade

Last but not least (well actually sort of least) is Flareon! I say that it is a bit least (word of the day, least means forgotten) because I am always trying to change it or switch it for another Pokemon. It ends up always the same though, I need Flareon for it's fire power...literally. Flareon's fire attack (flame charge) helps me seriously damage anyone with a type disadvantage and boost speed to a point where it cannot be outspeed. After that all I gotta do is facade sweep then rest/sleep talk pray for lucky hits when toxic gets me to a low amount of HP. The biggest problem is that when Flare heals by means of sleep, it becomes vulnerable and it causes a huge problem when it comes to sleeping because I guess "sleep" does not work as a status condition. (I.e. when I use facade the doubled power is not accounted, however, maybe that is just because it uses facade through sleep talk?)


--Last look--

Welp, this is it. Probably my best team in Posho. Yet, I feel like something is missing...like my team yearns for improvement. This is where all you guys come in! :D Please help me make this team the best in NU, and when I reach the top of the ladder I will be sure to remember all of you that helped me along the way. I have used all my skills to make this team, there is nothing left in my knowledge I can add to make it better and yet I know it can be better. I know we got some really smart smogoners out there, so please guys. help me bring out the maximum potential of this team.

All suggestions (except taking curse off of golurk :P) are greatly appreciated. :3

 

[scorpdestroyer]

Why Air Balloon on Golurk? I recommend changing that to Leftovers, because Golurk doesnt need a ground immunity. And for Swoobat I would think putting Substitute over Giga Drain because in general the health recovery is minimal. Also to allow Swoobat to hit Steels I would say Hidden Power Ground or Heat Wave over Air Slash. And also, give Ditto 4 SDef EVs at least to prevent Porygon, though rare, from getting a Special Attack boost from Download, and give it the IV spread of 30/31/31/30/31/31 to get Hidden Power Grass, because the Pokemon that commonly runs Hidden Power is Gorebyss, and putting HP Grass allows you to revenge it.

 

[Basileus]

Air ballon because I like a diverse set of items on my Pokemon, and it sometimes
Pisses off golem who I see rather often. I do see, however, how leftovers could help me put on a couple curses and live so I will definitely test it. As for Swoobat, I like the idea of heat wave, but when it comes to healing I think that gaining 25% is better then losing 25% just to stall for leftovers HP. Especially if I wont have giga drain. However, you do remind me that a few HP EVs could make leftovers more efficient so thank you for that. My biggest issue with Swoobat right now isn't even healing but actually better type coverage then it currently has. Heat wave will help, but then I won't need air slash to protect against grass, any suggestions on that besides substitute? As for ditto, I thought that he copied EVs too, but I guess it couldn't hurt, right? The IV idea though, completely stellar! I never would thought of that, I will definitely take advantage of
It. :)

The team is improving but still not perfect, thank you scorpdestroyer for your suggestions, all suggestions are appreciated.

 

[scorpdestroyer]

Ditto does copy EVs, but if two Pokemon faint at once and Porygon and Ditto get sent in at the same time, Porygon will get a Download boost before Ditto transforms, so yeah. And you might want to invest EVs into Defense in case Imposter fails.

Substitute is actually a great move on Swoobat because it causes switches, protects against status and shields against KOs, it's just too frail. You don't really need to hit grass because Stored Power still hits them for greater damage most of the time, unless they are Cacturne or Shiftry. The Swoobat set I run is Stored Power / Sub / Calm Mind / Heat Wave, and Leftovers is usually enough recovery for Swoobat since it gets kills fast once it sets up.

And I forgot to mention this in my last post, but change Flareon's ability to Guts. Otherwise, Toxic Orb is pointless. That's only if you're keeping Flareon however. In my opinion Flareon isn't that great as an offensive mon. If you're needing a physical Fire-type attacker, change your Flareon to Rapidash because it has a greater speed stat and much more diverse movepool to work with.

Set:

Rapidash @ Life Orb
Trait: Flash Fire
252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
~Flare Blitz
~Wild Charge
~Drill Run
~Morning Sun

 

[Basileus]

Thank you for all the help, all the changes have been made except for Golurk who I decided to keep air balloon on. I will edit this post later after I do some testing.

 

[skylight]

Change Blackglasses on Cacturne to Dark Gem - in order to surprisingly OHKO a lot of Pokemon that won't expect it such as Ludi etc (or at least a chance of doing that), or Life Orb - sure recoil sucks but you have Drain Punch anyway and it allows your other two attacks to hit harder, rather than just boosting the dark attack a little, and it'll definitely be worth it.

You have somewhat of a weakness to Piloswine, given that it can OHKO Flareon where it can't do that much back, Golurk is OHKO'd if Icicle Spear hits 4-5 times, and even after hitting Dynamic Punch you'll die unless it misses, but even still - you need to significantly boost a few times to be surviving entirely against Piloswine. Ditto can't do barely anything back to it and it can switch out, Swoobat doesn't OHKO without bosting and dies to Icicle Spear, Cacturne dies to Icicle Spear and doesn't OHKO with Seed Bomb, Garbodor can do barely anything to it and is 2HKO'd, and ya. Pretty much there's nothing that can safely switch into Piloswine, and it isn't too uncommon in teams these days.

In terms of Flareon, Swoobat could somewhat pick up the slack, given that its typing allows it to hit grass types (and even so there are generally better Guts users in NU that are much more terrifying to face, such as Zangoose) and grass/poison types, while you have Golurk for the less-common steels. While I agree with removing the air balloon on Golurk (given that literally it does nothing and if you have Alomomola, you will be able to survive ground attacks much easier), I don't really think Rapidash is necessarily needed, because it again, is OHKO'd by Piloswine and can't OHKO back. Alomomola (to replace Flareon with) on the other hand will help you get useful burns on some of the stronger physical mons of NU, Wish pass to Swoobat and Cacturne, helping them (and Ditto + Golurk too) last longer, and just generally take the ground hits (and most physical mons - including CB Golurk who can also present you issues to a few of the Pokemon in your team if you are to remove Giga Drain on Swoobat) which you're afraid of on Golurk, allowing you to put leftovers in its place over Air Balloon.

Also, I'd suggest adding Golurk's second STAB on Golurk > Stone Edge because otherwise Musharna can set up all over you (Shadow Punch).

 

[Basileus]

I almost never see pilowswine. Could you give me a more specific response on what you suggest? Right now it is just kinda an all over the place rate. Maybe bold stuff, I am a very TL;DR kind of guy...