im using riolu plz ban me [];

ryan

stream equus asinus
is a Tutor Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Top Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Metagame Resource Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
4mULj.jpg


oh god what am i doing plz stop me
Usually I only make RMTs once every few months, but I really wanted to make this one today because this team is just so fun. I made this team about a week and a half ago while I was drunk, primarily as a joke, and I didn't expect to do much more than maybe hit the ladder with it. However, what started as a drunken journey has turned into a fairly decent team, and I'm honestly kind of proud of how I've done with it. I've beaten a lot of people on the ladder with this team, but I've also actually beaten some decent NU players with it (which kind of surprised me but also verifies to me that the team isn't total trash). I'd never used Riolu before, and after finally giving it a chance, I can understand why people hate it enough to beg for it to be suspected—even though it shouldn't. When teambuilding in NU, a lot of top threats come to mind. Do I have something to handle Jynx? Does Carracosta have an easy time setting up against most of my team? Rarely does Riolu cross your mind until it you've faced one with your team.

los mons
tumblr_mapz5mUmnl1rcwf0xo1_500.gif


Riolu @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Roar
- Copycat
- Drain Punch
- Substitute

Riolu is super cute, and it can be super harmful to a lot of teams. I'm not going to act like it's the God of NU because frankly it's far from it. However, Riolu is actually really effective. There's not much to say about Riolu itself; only the support that I bring for it is really significant. I will say this though. I've considered using Protect over either Drain Punch or Substitute but ultimately decided that this was probably the better moveset for this team. Protect can save Riolu from Kangaskhan's Fake Out, but it doesn't keep it from being hit with Double-Edge the following turn. Drain Punch is nice so that I can get a little bit of recovery and get some chip damage off against Skutank. Mono-attacking Skuntank also fails to break Riolu's Substitute, so I can at least try to whittle it down with Drain Punch if it disturbs Copycat with Sucker Punch and proceeds to Taunt. Substitute is also really helpful against Alomomola, as neither Scald nor Waterfall can break it, and I can do something while it uses Protect when it comes in.

tumblr_m6uz0ibacS1rpn9eno1_500.gif


Golem @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sturdy
164 HP / 252 Atk / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Sucker Punch

Golem is a really cool Stealth Rock user for this team, and it's also one of my favorite Stealth Rock users in general for offensive teams. I could go on and on about Golem's great qualities, but I'll just talk about its relevance to the team. Stealth Rock is obviously important for Copycat Roar chains, as it hits everything that Spikes hits and more. Golem sets it up reliably, as the combination of Lum Berry and Sturdy basically means that the only Pokemon that can really prevent me from setting up are Taunt users, Choice Band Sawk, and the rare Fake Out + Aqua Tail Kangaskhan (or even Fake Out + Surf Ludicolo ,':[]). Speed EVs are mainly for creeping, and I'm sure they help me outspeed something or another that I can't remember right now. I also chose Sucker Punch + Lum Berry over Custap Berry + Explosion mainly because of Kangaskhan and Swellow, which are really big threats to my team. Having a couple of solid Pokemon to switch into them was important, and Golem is one of two Pokemon to do that.

tumblr_mguq9etJeJ1qd87hlo1_500.gif


Scolipede @ Focus Sash
Ability: Swarm
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Megahorn
- Aqua Tail
- Rock Slide

Scolipede is definitely the best offensive Spiker in NU, and it was a really easy choice for this team. Spikes help end Riolu's phazing much more quickly, and achieving this helps keep me from getting bored and eventually misclicking with Riolu and keeps my friends who I play with this team from murdering me. Again, there's not too much to say about this set. Some people really like either Toxic Spikes or Swords Dance on this set over Rock Slide, but neither of them really work here. Toxic Spikes are fantastic in NU, but they don't accomplish much with constant phazing. On other teams, I would have considered running it though. Similarly, Swords Dance is a good move for the last slot, but the focus here is to get up as many layers of Spikes as possible. Swords Dance sort of deters from that, so I ran a general coverage move instead. Rock Slide hits Flying-types hard and has a cool flinch chance that I can try to make use of in a pinch.

tumblr_meoexoIsmX1rzsfkvo1_500.gif


Misdreavus @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Perish Song
- Memento

This Misdreavus set is really stupid and absolutely would not work on any team outside of this one. But here, it actually does accomplish a lot for my team. It fills in a lot of roles all in one teamslot that nothing else could accomplish, so it was a really necessary member for the team. First off, on a hazards-based team, having a spinblocker was absolutely necessary. I've recreated this team without Riolu because of my success with it offensively, and missing out on a spinblocker was just awful. Second, I needed some kind of win condition once the opponent was down to his last Pokemon. Perish Song is my way of beating the things that the two offensive Pokemon on my team can't accomplish. I also wanted some way to make sure that Riolu could set up against most Pokemon in the tier. There aren't many ways to do this, but Memento manages this quite nicely. An opponent with -2 Atk and SpA isn't very threatening for Riolu at all, and Memento sets this up and gives Riolu a free switch. It also prevent a Rapid Spin from Wartortle when it uses Foresight on the switch. Taunt was also really nice to make sure that an opponent that I use Memento against can't just Taunt or Whirlwind Riolu before it gets started. Finally, I had to choose one of Shadow Ball, Foul Play, or Will-O-Wisp. While I often miss not having a way of hitting the opponent, Will-O-Wisp gives me a few things that Foul Play and Shadow Ball cannot. First off, it makes Skuntank's overall usefulness and survivability plummet. It does the same for Kangaskhan. Having a way of crippling two of the biggest threats to my team was ultimately much more necessary, and I don't see myself ever wanting to change this set.

tumblr_m3202217VE1qckwxco1_500.gif


Zangoose @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Toxic Boost
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Facade
- Quick Attack
- Close Combat
- Night Slash

Zangoose is on the team simply because of its amazing power. There have been a lot of times where messing up with Riolu and losing it early on didn't lead to a loss because Zangoose works so well with a lot of hazards on the opponent's side of the field and allows it to secure OHKOs with Quick Attack against a lot of faster Pokemon. I chose Zangoose over the myriad of other physical attackers in the tier mainly because of its combination of power, Speed, and access to priority. The only other Pokemon that shares so many of these same qualities is Swellow, which—unlike Zangoose—has no way of breaking through Rock- or Steel-type Pokemon. The set itself is standard outside of the choice in Adamant nature over Jolly. I used this mainly to try it out, and there have undoubtedly been times when I've wished I ran a Jolly nature. But overall, most of the things that outspeed Zangoose can be taken out with Quick Attack after some hazard damage, and most of the things that it can't KO either cannot OHKO it in return or are easily worn down by Misdreavus's Will-O-Wisp.

tumblr_mlm0dmwykQ1qlh7rxo1_500.gif


Jynx @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dry Skin
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Lovely Kiss / Trick
- Perish Song / Focus Blast

What's an offensive Treecko team without Scarf Jynx? There's not a lot to say about Scarf Jynx in general. It's a superb Pokemon that works so well on so many teams. I chose it for this team in particular because it's a great glue and "oh shit" Pokemon that handles so many different Pokemon so efficiently. Some of the odd choices for this particular set are in the last slot: Lovely Kiss and Focus Blast. Most Scarf Jynx run Ice Beam / Psychic / Lovely Kiss / Trick or some variant close to that. The only other set I'd run up to this point was Ice Beam / Psyshock / Energy Ball / Trick, and that was on a team where I had another sleep inducer and wanted to try out Psyshock instead of Psychic without losing to Shell Smash Carracosta. Perish Song is used on Jynx for the exact same reason why it was used on Misdreavus; when I can't kill the opponent's last Pokemon, I can always force it to kill itself. However, I rarely found myself using it, so I tried out Focus Blast instead. The problem with this was that I once again found myself rarely using it because of its unreliability, so I used Trick instead of Lovely Kiss so that once I had the freedom to switch moves, I could also wallbreak with Focus Blast. I will recommend to anyone who is crazy enough to use this team to use the slashed moves together—Lovely Kiss / Perish Song or Trick / Focus Blast. Overall, I found the comfort of Perish Song more helpful than Focus Blast, but both work fine.

¿dafuq did i just read?
So uh... yeah. That's my team. It's got a lot of gimmicks, but frankly they work more often than not. Obviously surprising your opponent is a good strategy if you can do it successfully, and I'd like to think I've sort of done that here. The team is still a bit consistent and has some obvious exploitable weaknesses, but I like to think that my team isn't 100% reliant upon team match-up, unlike some other Riolu teams I've encountered. It puts on a lot of pressure against the opponent really fast with offensive hazard setters and has a couple ways of luring the opponent into a position where I can set up with Riolu pretty easily. I'm not really sure if there's even a whole lot that can be done to improve the team without disrupting it really. Even so, I encourage you guys to try the team out and see if there are any improvements you can come up with for it. I built this team to have a lot of fun with it, and I've certainly accomplished that. But I've also made a fun team that does well consistently enough for me to post it.

oh god whatre you doing
Golem @ Lum Berry
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 92 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Sucker Punch

Scolipede @ Focus Sash
Trait: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Megahorn
- Spikes
- Rock Slide
- Aqua Tail

Riolu @ Eviolite
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
- Copycat
- Roar
- Drain Punch
- Substitute

Zangoose @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Toxic Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Facade
- Close Combat
- Night Slash
- Quick Attack

Misdreavus @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Memento
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Perish Song

Jynx (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Lovely Kiss
- Perish Song
- Psychic
 
Last edited:
omg riolu iz 4 nubs wat r u doin stahp

You should probably do Toxic Spikes > Rock Slide on Scolipede, because it allows you to beat Regenerator cores late-game that your team can't beat otherwise apart from maybe Trick it a Scarf (unless I'm missing something). Also, it might be just me but maybe you can try Protect > Substitute on Riolu, because then you aren't completely screwed over by Ditto, and it also allows you to Protect+Copycat Taunt back at opponents who try and disrupt your Roars. Not sure if this is better than the utility of Sub though

Edit: also perhaps make your Riolu Lax Nature, so that it can come in and Prankster Copycat to revenge kill Ghost types that just used Shadow Ball. Otherwise, Impish is definitely better over Bold because you don't weaken Drain Punch which is useful vs Audino

Idk these are pretty minor changes, bad cool team
 
Last edited:
4-0 so far lets keep it going

<&chaos> felix
<&chaos> your team
<&chaos> yooLoo: get skill pls
<&chaos> chaos: im trying
<&chaos> chaos: i am new
<&chaos> yooLoo: lol
<&chaos> yooLoo has 120 seconds left.
<&chaos> yooLoo: doing a capycat?
<&chaos> yooLoo: l2p
<&chaos> chaos: can you teach me
 
scorpdestroyer said:
omg riolu iz 4 nubs wat r u doin stahp
chaos said:
4-0 so far lets keep it going
<& chaos> felix
<& chaos> your team
<& chaos> yooLoo: get skill pls
<& chaos> chaos: im trying
<& chaos> chaos: i am new
<& chaos> yooLoo: lol
<& chaos> yooLoo has 120 seconds left.
<& chaos> yooLoo: doing a capycat?
<& chaos> yooLoo: l2p
<& chaos> chaos: can you teach me
Just a quick rate since I have to go to school in like 5 mins, so yeah.

Kanga kinda shits on your team because it revenges like everything and even Golem can't switch in repeatedly because it's got no Lefties. Probably replace it with Regirock.
 
I really don't like Regirock outside of bulkier/stall teams. :( It would definitely help against Kangaskhan, but it also ruins my team momentum along the way. It's definitely an option though.

Also I'm not screwed over at all by Ditto because I have 1. priority of my own and 2. Substitute. I listed why Substitute was better for my team, but it's really primarily because of Alomomola which can't break my Sub and can Toxic me if I mispredict against it. If I Roar while it Protects and Copycat as it Protects again, I'm boned. If I Roar against it while it Toxics, I'm screwed. If I Copycat against it while it Protects, I'm screwed. Substitute solves all of the problems with prediction. Toxic Spikes also aren't really going to help me much in beating Regenerator cores; if the opponent has a Regenerator core, Toxic Spikes aren't staying up because they're probably playing stall which means they'll have one of Scolipede, Garbodor, or Roselia. They'll also probably have Heal Bell on Audino. Finally, Lax Nature on Riolu makes no sense, but it actually is Impish. I just typed it up wrong. x)

It's shocking to see how much thought I actually did put into this without even realizing it.
 
Hello Treecko, nice and pretty interesting team that pulls things through for Riolu especially well! =^.^=

First thing that I'll start off by saying is that I don't find the added power of an Adamant nature on Zangoose to be particularly worthwhile for this team. The reason why I would just stick to a Jolly nature is so that you won't put yourself in a situation in which you'll be forced out by +Speed Sawk, Braviary, or Gardevoir, which will make things a lot easier for the rest of the team as nothing likes taking really strong hits (even Misdreavus won't help of much matters against Sawk with a lack of any defensive EVs/nature, leaving it 2HKO'd by a Choice Band Earthquake). With the advent of hazards on the team, the slightly reduced damage output won't much matter in the grand scheme of situations.

As far as major threats on this team go, one thing that I've noticed right off the bat is Gurdurr, who beats almost every one of your Pokemon 1v1 (and is even more of a problem if it's a Guts variant, which is becoming more common as late). Your team will also be very hard-pressed to revenge kill it overall due to their frailty (making Zangoose and Jynx pretty prone to being picked off by Mach Punch) and lack of a presence that can really force it to reasonably react (Scolipede). Unfortunately there's not much to change that really settles things out while maintains the aspect of the team, but for what I have I feel will certainly be an interesting pick! I would suggest giving Focus Sash Kadabra a try over Jynx, who can revenge kill Gurdurr much efficiently thanks to its guaranteed survival. Magic Guard, Encore, and the ability to switch moves also gives Kadabra some really worthwhile utility that comes in handy against the aforementioned Regenerator core, while Focus Sash still serves as an emergency check against all sorts of other fast threats. Encore is something that I feel can really carve its way out for this team, allowing you to deter set up sweepers or utility Pokemon which can give you opportunities to force switches often, thus building up hazard damage, and perhaps even find Riolu a safe switch in various situations.

Hope I helped!

Zangoose: Jolly > Adamant
Kadabra > Jynx (First set on the analysis)
 
My Riolu team is better SMH.

In all seriousness, pretty cool team. I would suggest running Max Speed on Riolu in order to beat a lot of the priority users in the tier. That misdreavus set seems somewhat underwhelming in my opinion, and while memento IS cool and all, Memento-ing on a spinner is kind of useless, since it can just Spin next turn (in the foresight case). I've always liked Haunter because it provides offensive pressure as well as being able to Destiny Bond, but that's just a preference.
 
From using it:

- Golem is excellent
- Sawk can be a problem
- Subbing ghosts like Haunter are a huge problem, because as a last Pokemon Riolu cannot do anything against them.
- Max speed Riolu would be helpful against other Riolu

I don't play NU enough to give suggestions, but I'll try Kadabra over Jynx per @Ranger Dell's suggestion
 
@Treecko , you never told me anything about this!!!?? This is a much more offensive take on a Riolu team and I like it, considering defense is pretty much all I got going for me :P
It's shocking to see how much thought I actually did put into this without even realizing it.
Hey, that's what Riolu does to you~

In any case, I don't suggest running max speed on Riolu, the only priority user it should worry about outspeeding is Jolly Carracosta, though the Speed EVs are a bit of a waste against Adamant Costa so it's fine if you don't want to go through with it (though Adamant Costa still outspeeds min speed Riolu).

Gurdurr isn't really that huge of a problem if you can get Riolu in before too many Bulk Ups or via Misdreavus's Memento. In fact, Gurdurr is one of those few nigh guaranteed opportunities for Riolu to Roar against (others being Piloswine and Scolipede) so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Jynx however can save the team from the aforementioned Carracosta and various other threats like Ludicolo and Taunt Serperior.

The Rocks and Steels that Swellow lures in can be taken advantage of with U-turn + Riolu, so there isn't much reason to be using Zangoose over Swellow, who can kill Haunters and Serperiors and stuff, unless you want to clean up with Close Combat and whatnot (there's usually no need to after a good phazing though).

If Kanga still shits on the team (which it probably can since it 2HKOes Golem with EQ on the switch), then perhaps you could consider Carracosta for the team. With Solid Rock, Carracosta takes like jacksh*t from EQ, or it can use Sturdy + Lum Berry like how you're doing with your Golem now, while still taking Earthquake (barely) better than Golem, and doesn't have to play Sucker Punch mindgames with Kanga either. The downside of course is that it misses out on Jynx, so take this with a grain of salt~

Good luck chap, and may Riolu lead us to vykteri!
 
Back
Top