Greetings members of the NU community. This team has remained my favorite to play with ever since I made it, so for my first RMT I decided to share some of the logic behind it, since the team is rather strange with everything (hold Skuntank) being below A rank viability. That being said, I've had this team hold it's own against even the best battlers, and can handle a variety of play styles quite well.
Overview: Personally I've always felt many of the stronger NU pokes have a subtle weakness—they're predictable. This team attempts to take advantage of that, both by reversing the roles of two of the pokemon and running a few gimmicky (and more importantly uncommon) sets that counter common threats. This team makes up for it's lack of raw viability by being both difficult to predict, and by ensuring teams aren't consciously prepared for it's uncommon threats.
At A Glance
In Depth
Temptation
Temptation (Lopunny) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Klutz
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Baton Pass
- Copycat
- Switcheroo
First up is the always amusing Lopunny. A lot of people are afraid to use lopunny because she's rather unreliable, but I'd like to argue that she's hard to deal with. I lead with Lopunny if I believe my opponent's first poke will be a rock setter. Since almost all rock setters are physical on turn one I switcheroo the flame orb, This can instantly make such rock setters as Piloswine, Gabite, Metang, Golem and Golurk nearly useless for the rest of the match. After tricking, she can use copycat to either set rocks her self, or go on the offense while stealing attacks. Either way lopunny comes out on top in nearly every matchup, with few good ways out, as hardly anything in NU wants to take a flame orb.
Once lopunny has done it's task it can baton pass away, giving it the option to be a scout. It can also disrupt set up users with encore. Though inferior to other encore user such as Liepard, Vulbeat, and Jumpluff, it has sufficient speed to disrupt a wide variety of set ups, and can even steel them with copycat and baton pass the stolen boosts to a team member. In this regard Lopunny is essentially the anti-utility, as I have no problem switching it in and stealing any number of moves such as recovery, screens, volt/switches, toxic, rapid spin, ect. Lopunny rarely makes game changing plays, but annoys my opponent to the point where the rest of the team can handle the rest.
Murder
Murder (Mantine) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 128 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 124 Spd
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Air Slash
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
The concept of this choice spec'd MANtine was the reason I made the team. After noticing how hard the bulky variants hit, I got curious as to just how hard Mantine could hit. After running some calcs, I was shocked to find that it could 2HKO almost the entire tier, with enough bulk and speed to have no problem doing so. Because of it's strange typing mantine can switch in on quite a lot, and once it's in, all it takes is a good prediction to do massive damage. This set is similar to the rain dance set but is much more conspicuous as an attacker, and not having to set up is a huge plus which makes up for it's inability to sweep.
Moves: Hydro and Air Slash are the go to STABs, providing good coverage all on their own, meaning that a majority of the time I don't even need to predict to take out a poke. Ice Beam provides a bit of additional coverage, but is useful beyond that as ice been is frequently the safest play, as few of the things that resist it are willing to risk switching in on the water move. For the last move slot I originally tried Signal beam, allowing mantine to run 0 attack iv's which made it practically immune to foul play and easily able to OHKO liepard, but eventually decided that Seismitoad was a bigger threat and switch to HP grass, giving Mantine overall superb coverage and the ability to take out one of it's better checks.
EVs: Obviously I wanted to most power possible. The 124 speed allows it to outspeed 85 base uninvented, which is nearly every wall in the tier. This insures it can attack a second time and wallbreak anything that lives the first hit. The rest of the invest was put in HP (with 4 in def for odd hitpoints) to let Mantine switch in on as many things as possible. Even with the minimal bulk investment, Mantine can take hits rather well.
Sheepy
Sheepy (Ampharos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 29 Spd
- Discharge
- Heal Bell
- Toxic
- Volt Switch
Of course any team that has a MANtine wants some way to take electric attacks. My solution to this wasn't a ground type, but rather another electric, for the reason that pseudo bolt-beam coverage is so common and Mantine doesn't resist ice either. Ampharos has considerable base defenses and electric is one of the best defensive typing specially, seeing that earth power is almost non-existent in NU. Further, looking at the team preview, one would be very likely to assume that ampharos is my main Special attacker, because that'd make more sense next to Mantine, who possesses all that natural special bulk.
With this much invest, Ampharos can take pretty much any hit that is thrown at it, including a surf from life orb'd shell smash gorebyss, which it can OHKO in return. Though it's only recovery is leftovers, Ampharos hits hard enough even without invest that anything staying in on it won't live for long. Heal bell helps maintain momentum as my opponent tries to status me. Freezes and sleeps are pretty big problems for the team, since only lopunny can be sleep foddered without crippling the whole team. Toxic helps amphy take out other walls that might switch in on it, especially ground types who want to block the volt switch, and it can beat mushy with it under the assumption it's not carrying heal bell by curing it's own toxic after the synchronize. The combination of discharge and static help slow down the opposing team, letting Mantine plow though more easily.
The 29 Spd IVs insure that Sheepy will have the slower volt switch against an opposing offensive Ampharaos.
Cyanide
Cyanide (Weezing) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sludge Bomb
- Haze
- Flamethrower
Cyanide runs a fairly typical Weezing set, acting as a solid physical wall with the ability to burn and a decently powerful stab of sludge bomb. Flamethrower is my other choice of an attacking move to insure that it beats Scolopede, since Lopunny doesn't handle it well. Haze is placed over pain split so that in the event Lopunny locks a set up user into a boosting move such as calm mind or bulk up, I'm able to remove their boosts if I can't KO. It also insures that Gurdurr is never a problem, since unboosted Gurdurr does barely anything to Weezing.
1 Million Bucks
1 Million Bucks (Sawsbuck) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Nature Power
- Return
95 is the speed tier to be in if you want to run scarf, so why not Sawsbuck? Running completely different typing than other physical scarf users, sawsbuck can stand up to both ground and electric type attacks while putting out a lot of offensive pressure. It's two stabs are: horn leech, which gives it the navel ability to heal off damage taken from entry hazards, something no other scarf user can say; and return, which from base 100 attack is significant physical damage, that lets it revenge kill many offensive. While typically nature power and jump kick are redundant offensive abilities, I don't have either ground or fighting elsewhere on my team, so I felt the need for both rather than dropping one for baton pass. It's also worth noting that nature power allows Sawsbuck to dodge sucker punch, which is quite a plus for a scarf user, seeing as priority is typically one of their downfalls.
Sawsbuck is just short of OHKOing many faster pokes, meaning that after the battle has dragged on for a while, it can clean up any faster pokes that remain. If Sap Sipper catches a grass move at the right time in the game, it has the potential to sweep.
Greed
Greed (Skuntank) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 176 SDef / 80 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Poison Jab
- Taunt
Last but not least is Skuntank~ Standard set, but Jynx was enough of a problem for this team that I felt the need to have a trapper and never looked back. As the only A rank on the team, you'd expect it to be a solid poke, and it solves a lot of problems for my team. It traps Jynx and haunter, both of which the rest of my team doesn't want to deal with. Lum berry insures that whatever it's trapping can't status it in hopes of escaping. Further aftermath is quite helpful. Many physical pokes like Sawk and Primeape fall into KO rank of Sawsbuck if they activate aftermath, instantly making them quite a bit less of a threat. I run poison jab over crunch mostly to hit fighting types that might try to switch in.
Threatlist:
Sawk: As with a lot of NU teams, banded mold breaker sawk hits much harder than I want to take. But because of the nature of his choice-ing, and the the fact that I have two pokes that can burn him, it's not impossible to deal with, just costly. If I'm desperate, Lopunny can trick the flame orb to Sawk and take his band. I lose Lopunny in doing so but Sawk is not an issue after that.
Hazard Stacking: While Scolipede itself isn't much of a threat, a team set up to phase repeatedly over a bunch of hazards hurts this team a lot, as I don't have much in the form of recovery and scol can usually get up 2-3 layers of spikes before I can stop him. If I can identify such a team in team preview I can attempt to OHKO Scol lead with Mantine, but a Scolipede coming out later in the match is hard to stop.
Duel Regenerator cores: Regernerators are one of the few things that survive for long amounts of time with a flame orb. This team can wear down other aspects of a full stall team, but if the team has more than one regenerator, they can support the crippled one that picks up the flame orb.
Pasteable:
Overview: Personally I've always felt many of the stronger NU pokes have a subtle weakness—they're predictable. This team attempts to take advantage of that, both by reversing the roles of two of the pokemon and running a few gimmicky (and more importantly uncommon) sets that counter common threats. This team makes up for it's lack of raw viability by being both difficult to predict, and by ensuring teams aren't consciously prepared for it's uncommon threats.
At A Glance
In Depth
Temptation
Temptation (Lopunny) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Klutz
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Baton Pass
- Copycat
- Switcheroo
First up is the always amusing Lopunny. A lot of people are afraid to use lopunny because she's rather unreliable, but I'd like to argue that she's hard to deal with. I lead with Lopunny if I believe my opponent's first poke will be a rock setter. Since almost all rock setters are physical on turn one I switcheroo the flame orb, This can instantly make such rock setters as Piloswine, Gabite, Metang, Golem and Golurk nearly useless for the rest of the match. After tricking, she can use copycat to either set rocks her self, or go on the offense while stealing attacks. Either way lopunny comes out on top in nearly every matchup, with few good ways out, as hardly anything in NU wants to take a flame orb.
Once lopunny has done it's task it can baton pass away, giving it the option to be a scout. It can also disrupt set up users with encore. Though inferior to other encore user such as Liepard, Vulbeat, and Jumpluff, it has sufficient speed to disrupt a wide variety of set ups, and can even steel them with copycat and baton pass the stolen boosts to a team member. In this regard Lopunny is essentially the anti-utility, as I have no problem switching it in and stealing any number of moves such as recovery, screens, volt/switches, toxic, rapid spin, ect. Lopunny rarely makes game changing plays, but annoys my opponent to the point where the rest of the team can handle the rest.
Murder
Murder (Mantine) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 128 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 124 Spd
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Air Slash
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
The concept of this choice spec'd MANtine was the reason I made the team. After noticing how hard the bulky variants hit, I got curious as to just how hard Mantine could hit. After running some calcs, I was shocked to find that it could 2HKO almost the entire tier, with enough bulk and speed to have no problem doing so. Because of it's strange typing mantine can switch in on quite a lot, and once it's in, all it takes is a good prediction to do massive damage. This set is similar to the rain dance set but is much more conspicuous as an attacker, and not having to set up is a huge plus which makes up for it's inability to sweep.
Moves: Hydro and Air Slash are the go to STABs, providing good coverage all on their own, meaning that a majority of the time I don't even need to predict to take out a poke. Ice Beam provides a bit of additional coverage, but is useful beyond that as ice been is frequently the safest play, as few of the things that resist it are willing to risk switching in on the water move. For the last move slot I originally tried Signal beam, allowing mantine to run 0 attack iv's which made it practically immune to foul play and easily able to OHKO liepard, but eventually decided that Seismitoad was a bigger threat and switch to HP grass, giving Mantine overall superb coverage and the ability to take out one of it's better checks.
EVs: Obviously I wanted to most power possible. The 124 speed allows it to outspeed 85 base uninvented, which is nearly every wall in the tier. This insures it can attack a second time and wallbreak anything that lives the first hit. The rest of the invest was put in HP (with 4 in def for odd hitpoints) to let Mantine switch in on as many things as possible. Even with the minimal bulk investment, Mantine can take hits rather well.
Calcs:
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Ice Beam vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Golbat: 198-234 (56 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hidden Power Grass vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Seismitoad: 392-464 (94.6 - 112%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hydro Pump vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Musharna: 220-259 (50.8 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hidden Power Grass vs. 104 HP / 152 SpD Alomomola: 224-264 (45 - 53.1%) -- 88.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 4 SpD Ampharos: 232-274 (60.5 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hydro Pump vs. 172 HP / 0 SpD Eelektross: 256-303 (72.3 - 85.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Air Slash vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Eviolite Roselia: 164-194 (54.1 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Sawk Ice Punch vs. 128 HP / 4 Def Mantine: 175-206 (57.7 - 67.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Ice Beam vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Golbat: 198-234 (56 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hidden Power Grass vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Seismitoad: 392-464 (94.6 - 112%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hydro Pump vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Musharna: 220-259 (50.8 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hidden Power Grass vs. 104 HP / 152 SpD Alomomola: 224-264 (45 - 53.1%) -- 88.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 4 SpD Ampharos: 232-274 (60.5 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Hydro Pump vs. 172 HP / 0 SpD Eelektross: 256-303 (72.3 - 85.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mantine Air Slash vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Eviolite Roselia: 164-194 (54.1 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Sawk Ice Punch vs. 128 HP / 4 Def Mantine: 175-206 (57.7 - 67.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Sheepy
Sheepy (Ampharos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 29 Spd
- Discharge
- Heal Bell
- Toxic
- Volt Switch
Of course any team that has a MANtine wants some way to take electric attacks. My solution to this wasn't a ground type, but rather another electric, for the reason that pseudo bolt-beam coverage is so common and Mantine doesn't resist ice either. Ampharos has considerable base defenses and electric is one of the best defensive typing specially, seeing that earth power is almost non-existent in NU. Further, looking at the team preview, one would be very likely to assume that ampharos is my main Special attacker, because that'd make more sense next to Mantine, who possesses all that natural special bulk.
With this much invest, Ampharos can take pretty much any hit that is thrown at it, including a surf from life orb'd shell smash gorebyss, which it can OHKO in return. Though it's only recovery is leftovers, Ampharos hits hard enough even without invest that anything staying in on it won't live for long. Heal bell helps maintain momentum as my opponent tries to status me. Freezes and sleeps are pretty big problems for the team, since only lopunny can be sleep foddered without crippling the whole team. Toxic helps amphy take out other walls that might switch in on it, especially ground types who want to block the volt switch, and it can beat mushy with it under the assumption it's not carrying heal bell by curing it's own toxic after the synchronize. The combination of discharge and static help slow down the opposing team, letting Mantine plow though more easily.
The 29 Spd IVs insure that Sheepy will have the slower volt switch against an opposing offensive Ampharaos.
Cyanide
Cyanide (Weezing) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sludge Bomb
- Haze
- Flamethrower
Cyanide runs a fairly typical Weezing set, acting as a solid physical wall with the ability to burn and a decently powerful stab of sludge bomb. Flamethrower is my other choice of an attacking move to insure that it beats Scolopede, since Lopunny doesn't handle it well. Haze is placed over pain split so that in the event Lopunny locks a set up user into a boosting move such as calm mind or bulk up, I'm able to remove their boosts if I can't KO. It also insures that Gurdurr is never a problem, since unboosted Gurdurr does barely anything to Weezing.
1 Million Bucks
1 Million Bucks (Sawsbuck) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Nature Power
- Return
95 is the speed tier to be in if you want to run scarf, so why not Sawsbuck? Running completely different typing than other physical scarf users, sawsbuck can stand up to both ground and electric type attacks while putting out a lot of offensive pressure. It's two stabs are: horn leech, which gives it the navel ability to heal off damage taken from entry hazards, something no other scarf user can say; and return, which from base 100 attack is significant physical damage, that lets it revenge kill many offensive. While typically nature power and jump kick are redundant offensive abilities, I don't have either ground or fighting elsewhere on my team, so I felt the need for both rather than dropping one for baton pass. It's also worth noting that nature power allows Sawsbuck to dodge sucker punch, which is quite a plus for a scarf user, seeing as priority is typically one of their downfalls.
Sawsbuck is just short of OHKOing many faster pokes, meaning that after the battle has dragged on for a while, it can clean up any faster pokes that remain. If Sap Sipper catches a grass move at the right time in the game, it has the potential to sweep.
Greed
Greed (Skuntank) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 176 SDef / 80 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Poison Jab
- Taunt
Last but not least is Skuntank~ Standard set, but Jynx was enough of a problem for this team that I felt the need to have a trapper and never looked back. As the only A rank on the team, you'd expect it to be a solid poke, and it solves a lot of problems for my team. It traps Jynx and haunter, both of which the rest of my team doesn't want to deal with. Lum berry insures that whatever it's trapping can't status it in hopes of escaping. Further aftermath is quite helpful. Many physical pokes like Sawk and Primeape fall into KO rank of Sawsbuck if they activate aftermath, instantly making them quite a bit less of a threat. I run poison jab over crunch mostly to hit fighting types that might try to switch in.
Threatlist:
Sawk: As with a lot of NU teams, banded mold breaker sawk hits much harder than I want to take. But because of the nature of his choice-ing, and the the fact that I have two pokes that can burn him, it's not impossible to deal with, just costly. If I'm desperate, Lopunny can trick the flame orb to Sawk and take his band. I lose Lopunny in doing so but Sawk is not an issue after that.
Hazard Stacking: While Scolipede itself isn't much of a threat, a team set up to phase repeatedly over a bunch of hazards hurts this team a lot, as I don't have much in the form of recovery and scol can usually get up 2-3 layers of spikes before I can stop him. If I can identify such a team in team preview I can attempt to OHKO Scol lead with Mantine, but a Scolipede coming out later in the match is hard to stop.
Duel Regenerator cores: Regernerators are one of the few things that survive for long amounts of time with a flame orb. This team can wear down other aspects of a full stall team, but if the team has more than one regenerator, they can support the crippled one that picks up the flame orb.
Pasteable:
Murder (Mantine) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 128 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 124 Spd
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Air Slash
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Temptation (Lopunny) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Klutz
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Baton Pass
- Copycat
- Switcheroo
Sheepy (Ampharos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 29 Spd
- Discharge
- Heal Bell
- Toxic
- Volt Switch
Cyanide (Weezing) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sludge Bomb
- Haze
- Flamethrower
1 Million Bucks (Sawsbuck) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Nature Power
- Return
Greed (Skuntank) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 176 SDef / 80 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Poison Jab
- Taunt
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 128 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 124 Spd
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Air Slash
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Temptation (Lopunny) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Klutz
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Baton Pass
- Copycat
- Switcheroo
Sheepy (Ampharos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 29 Spd
- Discharge
- Heal Bell
- Toxic
- Volt Switch
Cyanide (Weezing) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sludge Bomb
- Haze
- Flamethrower
1 Million Bucks (Sawsbuck) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Nature Power
- Return
Greed (Skuntank) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 176 SDef / 80 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Poison Jab
- Taunt
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