SS OU Nidoking Bulky Offense

[Duckslikerain]

Introduction

Hello! I'm Duckslikerain and this is a team I'd like to share and get some suggestions for.

The team came out of me noticing how powerful Nidoking is in the current metagame and my desire to see what a team would look like that supported Nidoking to it's fullest potential. While I don't think my current place in the low 1700's on the ladder is a particularly good indicator of success, I do think this team has a lot of potential.

The things that I identified that Nidoking needed to dominate games were: Support it's ability to sweep by eliminating or crippling faster threats, provide hazard support to give it the ability to nab key KO's and punish switching that Nidoking encourages, and provide it with proper pivot support. This team aims to provide this.

This team more than any other I've played with really needs you to take some time before the match starts to evaluate which pokemon you need to keep healthy to deal with their main threats, and which ones you can make riskier plays with. Take a couple of minutes to really think through what your strategy for dealing with those big threats should be. Also be cautious of which of their leads would put you in the worst spot so you can try and counter that worst case scenario.

The Team

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Sludge Wave - Earth Power - Thunderbolt - Ice Beam
As mentioned in the introduction, this is the star of the show. Nidoking is already a high quality pokemon in the current metagame. With the lack of blissey and the proliferation of slow bulky offense, Nidoking will punch holes in unprepared teams. All the moves are important, the targets that flamethrower are important for aren't dangerous to the team.

It is quite important to note that to find success with Nidoking, you really need to use your calcs. Prediction are also very important for using Nidoking. Nidoking lives and dies by his ability to get KO's.

Also note, this team can have trouble with setup sweepers. Often times, it is completely the correct play to for example, stay in on a suspected SD Weavile or Garchomp and go for the KO. This team has trouble with setup sweepers and letting them get the SD is usually game over, while getting the free switch to Clefable or KO will allow you to not lose right on the spot. This is important to keep in mind when playing too, as to not let them have that opportunity.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Impish Nature
Spikes - Leech Seed - Knock Off - Power Whip
Ferrothorn is just such a high quality pokemon, I feel like much of the time I need to justify not having it. Even when being a passive pokemon, its still applies offensive pressure. At one point, it had thunder wave but I realized later on that it was just not as good of a move on Ferrothorn as it is on the other pokemon on the team. Power whip is mostly there for Tapu Fini as this team can have trouble with it, and other pokemon that body press is good for like Weavile can be maneuvered around.

Often, you want to bring this in against other Ferrothorn to stack spikes. Hazards are usually much more valuable to you than that are to your opponent, so you come out much better in that exchange than they do.

Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
Slack Off - Scald - Future Sight - Teleport
Slowking over Slowbro because I needed a special wall and not a physical one. Pivot support and wallbreaking support provide yet more offensive pressure on a defensive pokemon. It pairs well with both Zapdos-G and Nidoking, giving plenty of opportunities to come in unharmed and additional wallbreaking pressure. Its a simple pokemon and there's not much to say

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Stealth Rock - Moonblast - Soft-Boiled - Thunder Wave
I have tried many things in this slot as I often had trouble using Clefable when I first started using this team, but time and time again I have come back to it. Clefable really isn't that bulky and you can't expect to play it as a traditional wall, and therefore knowing how much damage you expect to take is important. SR and Para support are very good for the team as outlined above.

I've considered moving some of the Def investment to SpD to do better against ghost spam, but that would leave me more vulnerable to Weavile, and regardless a shadow ball SpD drop still beats Clefable 1v1.

Clefable is often the lead, as it beats things I have trouble switching into safely like Weavile and Dragapult. Getting stealth rocks or an early para is also valuable.

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Relaxed Nature
Thunder Wave - Ice Beam - Earthquake - Roost
Dragonite provides a ton of useful resists and is an important counter to some particularly threatening mons like Kartana and Hawlucha. Surviving most attacks and then being able to provide speed control helps in many situations where set up sweepers seems to have gotten out of hand.

Be careful with pokemon trying to toxic, you have many good and safe switch ins to pokemon commonly trying to toxic you.

Knowing what threats need a thunder wave, and which ones need to be attacked can take some practice. Don't just assume you will outspeed a paralyzed pokemon as this is quite a slow Dragonite. A shortlist of pokemon that you need to just attack (or predict) are Hawlucha, Blacephalon, and Kartana.

Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Jolly Nature
Close Combat - Brave Bird - Stomping Tantrum - U-turn
Zapdos-G is likely the weakest link on the team. The good things about it are that its good at punishing defog and that Close combat+future sight or U-turn+ future sight can be devastating to common switch ins. Zapdos-G has many problems, like that it gets chipped very easily, its dreadful against the ghost types this team has trouble against already, and it doesn't have a ton of good switch ins. Thinking through this team more from the RMT process, I think Weavile might be a good fit on this slot but it is still untested. I'd love to hear any suggestions people have for this slot.

Threats

+ : Hard to play around, winning often involves bad play from the opponent and good use of Clefable, Dragonite, and Ferrothorn. Likely not to win.
+ You need to eliminate Ninetales ASAP. If your opponent plays even a little well and values their ability to maintain hail you cannot win. Make risky but rewarding plays to have a shot.
Boosting Sweepers: Bulky, speed boosting, or fast sweepers that can't be paralyzed can be problems for this team if you give them the opportunity to boost. examples are roost DD Dragonite, max speed SD Garchomp, roost QD Volcarona, among a few others. They aren't super common, and the ones that are can be played around sometimes, so I've decided taking the loss there is acceptable.
Powerful Ice attacks or Ice spam: Dragonite is useless here, and Ferrothorn and Slowking usually can't hold off multiple powerful ice type attackers. + can be particularly troublesome.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading! I appreciate any and all constructive comments and suggestions. If you want to try out this team, give it a few games before you dismiss it. There are plenty of situations that require tight play to navigate with slim margins of error. But once you learn how to navigate those situations the team is quite effective.

Importable

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Power Whip

Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Future Sight
- Teleport

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunder Wave

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Roost

Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Brave Bird
- Stomping Tantrum
- U-turn

 

[agentkeval]

Hi, this team seems pretty cool. Just a comment, as you said your team doesn't have the best matchup against weavile. Band variants with beat up do a lotta damage to ferrothorn while not getting punished, and then clean with ice move. A change I would make is probably making the dnite urshifu and outplaying kartana with ferro + zap?

 

[Duckslikerain]

Hi, this team seems pretty cool. Just a comment, as you said your team doesn't have the best matchup against weavile. Band variants with beat up do a lotta damage to ferrothorn while not getting punished, and then clean with ice move. A change I would make is probably making the dnite urshifu and outplaying kartana with ferro + zap?

Thanks for your comment, urshifu being a pretty good check for weavile was a reason why it was one of the first pokemon I tried to replace zapdos-g with. I did find unfortunately that it was fairy easy to wall and chip down in the current metagame.

I probably should have expanded on this further in the thread, but dragonite checks and walls a wide variety of pokemon that other pokemon can have problems with. It gives a lot of insurance against "spam cores" that contain multiple powerful wallbreakers of one type. I don't think I could change dragonite to an offensive pokemon without a big change to the teams strategy.

In general, weavile doesn't destroy the team all by itself. It can cause problems with some of the weak checks on the team giving less wiggle room for mispredicting the set or move. But I do not personally think making the team less soft to weavile is currently needed.

 

[Gibus]

Maybe mandibuzz instead of dragonite to check ghost types ? This would also ease the macthup against sd chomp, because atm if clef is weakened it breaks through quite easily