SM RU Pls rate my gigalith team

[PsyducksChili]

So I wanted to use a gigalith team in ru and i thought “hey is av gigalith viable?”. Well, im not sure, but it takes a ton of hits.

Darude (Gigalith) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Explosion
- Rock Blast
This is the first pokemon to come out. Some ppl usually expect sr first turn but then just die to stone edge. This thing lives tons of sp atks. It reminds me of av ttar in ou. I also put 16 def investment so a close combat from virizion wouldn’t 1hko. This is usually my favorite pokemon of this team. People will swap in blastoise and then use aura sphere and be surprised when it does nothing. Explosion if im at low health and need to kill things. Rock blast and stone edge for stab, and earthquake for coverage against steal types.

Free Hugs (Bewear) (M) @ Normalium Z
Ability: Fluffy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Giga Impact
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Claw
- Drain Punch
People ask my why i run giga impact on bewear, but it kills alot of stuff, and has a really powerful z move. a 2+ zmove is super powerful. Drain punch is for recovery and shadow claw for ghost types. I wanted to run adamanr because it’s really powerful with adamanr, but jolly is probably better. And fluffy lets me set up on most phys attackers like Rhyperior or snorlax

Ur Mum (Nidoqueen) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Ice Beam
This is part of the core with snorlax. This core is sorta commonly used, but it’s good. I use it alot. Nidoqueen is also my sr user, along with donphan. This pokemon can do some damage with sheer force, and sheer force life orb is great. Not much to say about this pokemon. It can tank hits then attack with some pretty powerful moves. It can also get hazards up, which is useful.

T H I C C (Snorlax) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 144 HP / 188 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Double-Edge
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
This pokemon is great late game. It is part of the core with nidoqueen and when rock/steel/ghosts are gone, snorlax can clean up the opposing team. Rest for recovery, sleep talk so snorlax can do things when its asleep, and double edge for a strong stab attack.

Kushy Bushy (Sceptile) (M) @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect
- Leech Seed
I wanted a pokemon that pairs well with gigalith, and sceptile is a nice pokemon. Gigalith baits most ground/water types and sceptile kills em. Its mostly a wallbreaker/revenge killer due to its great attack stats, leech seed, and amazing speed. I also wanted a powerful mega that could work well with the team.

Roll Up (Donphan) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
Donphan is my second sr user and rapid spinner. Ice shard is useful to kill things at low hp, earthquake for stab, rapid spin for hazard control, and stealth rock to cripple the opponents pokemon

 

[esche]

Hi!

This looks like a fun squad. Gigalith hasn't been seeing much usage lately so I was intrigued to check this team out. Below you'll find my thoughts and suggestions:

Major changes:

RE:

Unfortunately, Assault Vest is borderline unviable on Gigalith and it overall makes for a bad Tyranitar clone because it lacks the power of a secondary STAB and the utility of Pursuit. You described the surprise scenario of Mega Blastoise being unable to kill Gigalith with its moves but what exactly does Gigalith do back? It lacks attack investment and therefore cannot punish Blastoise reliably enough to warrant giving up the recovery from Leftovers. However, I do recognise that this team is specifically build around a Gigalith set that subverts the expectation of the regular bulky Stealth Rock set so let me hook you up with something else instead:

Gigalith @ Rockium Z
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Throat Chop
- Stealth Rock / Toxic / Protect / Explosion

That's right, your eyes do not deceive you. This set is designed specifically to snipe Mega Blastoise. Z-Stone Edge obliterates the overgrown turtle 100% of the time after Sandstorm damage. Rock Blast sports higher accuracy but is the inferior choice on this set because of the much lower Z-power. You won't miss it versus dedicated leads either because Sandstorm chip will break Focus Sash on everything relevant anyway (Froslass, Ribombee, Galvantula). I put Throat Chop in the third slot because it gives you the option of 2HKOing Bronzong. The last slot is pretty flexible but the set works best with Stealth Rock, Toxic or Protect here because these have the added benefit of keeping up the disguise of a regular specially defensive Gigalith. Protect may seem odd here because you won't get any recovery from Leftovers but it's still useful to bait the Z-move from Salazzle and to rack up some Sandstorm damage. You'll likely get away with Explosion too though if you don't want to give that up. 68 Speed EVs are just enough to put Gigalith above Bronzong that don't carry Gyro Ball so that you can smack them with Throat Chop before they hit you with a Toxic. You'll also get the jump on the likes of Snorlax and Slowbro. Later on I suggest Body Slam on Snorlax and if you decide to go with that option you can raise the speed EVs to 140 to outspeed paralyzed Adamant Metagross and paralyzed Jolly Bewear, as well as 0 speed Golisopod and Rhyperior. 8 SpDef ensure that Gigalith's SpDef is higher than its Def when Sandstorm is up and prevents Porygon2 from nabbing a Download boost (seems negligible but this actually came into play while testing).


RE:

-->

Your team is lacking a solid switch-in to Mega Blastoise (despite now featuring a lure), Golisopod is an overall annoyance (especially in light of the upcoming change replacing Bewear), and some form of counterplay to Ground type attacks other than a questionable resistance provided by Mega Sceptile would also be appreciated here. Mantine over Donphan fixes all of these issues, takes some pressure away from Snorlax being the sole dedicated special wall, and still leaves you with hazard control. Admittedly, you'll lose your coveted 2nd Stealth Rock user but there's no need to pack two of those.

Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 232 HP / 80 Def / 12 SpD / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Defog

Because of this teams usage of Gigalith and Snorlax, which both invite Fighting types such as Machamp and Bewear, I suggest you make use of an exceptionally fast Mantine on this team so that you can punish them with a super effective Air Slash. You could even make use of Flyinium Z to get an outright surprise kill on the fighting types that stand in the way of Snorlax sweeping. If you do decide to go with the Z-move on Mantine instead, I recommend using Explosion in the last slot on Gigalith with a Custap Berry replacing the Rockium Z. Remember however that losing Leftovers cuts into Mantine's bulk quite significantly.


RE:

-->

Unfortunately, Mantine as the sole Fighting type answer is not sufficient on this team seeing how Fighting is one of the best - if not the best offensive typing in RU. As much as I would have liked to keep the double Normal type core (Bewear and Snorlax actually perform quite well together, I find) I do think that replacing Bewear with Gardevoir is the right choice here. Speaking of choice, the item of choice for Gardevoir will be - you guessed it - a Choice Scarf. I tried two alternatives (Choice Specs and Calm Mind Z-Move) but Choice Scarf has been performing the best and I believe that you'll appreciate another member capable of outspeeding the likes of Virizion, Salazzle, Noivern and Roserade.

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Trick
- Calm Mind

This set is nothing out of the ordinary except it has a cool trick up its sleeve featuring both Trick and Calm Mind. I felt this set might be of particular worth on this team as it lacks a designated breaker. Optimally, Gardevoir cripples a wall with Trick and manages to put some more pressure later on with Calm Mind boosted STABs - ideally when the opposing team has been whittled by both Gigalith and Mega Sceptile. Keep in mind though that in some match-ups you don't want to sacrifice the speed Choice Scarf grants you. If you find that a third coverage option has better application than Calm Mind, go ahead and change it but I find that additional coverage is overrated on Choice Scarf variants. Trace allows Gardevoir to function as a potent check to Bewear in particular but also allows it to pivot into Flygon on a predicted Ground or Dragon type attack.


Minor adjustments:

RE:

I recommend looking into the possibility of opting for a different coverage option over Sludge Wave on Nidoqueen. Toxic is a prominent choice and let's you punish a plethora of special walls such Cresselia, Porygon2, Mantine and Milotic. The latter two in particular stand in the way of Snorlax sweeping because they can nullify all boosts with Haze. Don't worry too much about Refresh + Haze Milotic - this set isn't commonly seen right now because Milotic is hard pressed to fit either Ice Beam or Toxic on its moveset. Thunderbolt pressures the two previously mentioned Water types with the added benefit of killing Golisopod after 1 round of Stealth Rock damage which may just be the deciding factor here (Sheer Force cancels out Emergency Exit so Sludge Wave won't do) considering what an incredible force Golisopod is in the current metagame. However, Thunderbolt doesn't target much else that Ground + Ice coverage doesn't already deal with. Another option that I think is worth mentioning here is Fire Blast. Nidoqueen (and Gigalith too, despite Throat Chop) has some trouble dealing with Metagross which commonly come with a Shuca Berry equipped but the strong fire coverage move allows you to circumvent the Shuca Berry and kill it outright. Fire Blast also provides you with a means of hitting Bronzong for a hefty chunk of damage which Mega Sceptile certainly will appreciate. Anyway, try these out for yourself and see which one you like best. If you decide to put Stealth Rock on Gigalith instead of Nidoqueen you'll free up an additional moveslot which it can make good use of (Taunt comes to mind alongside Toxic but I digress). As I stated before, there's no need to run two SR users. Oh, and while personally I'm a fan of Modest Nidoqueen (I'm not going for ties anyway and appreciate the extra power) you will find people that insist Timid is necessary and that's a valid position. If you find it useful to outpace Jolly Metagross, Cloyster and Tyrantrum as well as Modest Mega Blastoise, then Timid is the way to go.

RE:

- Try Body Slam or Frustration over Double-Edge on Snorlax. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about that power but on a slow late game set up sweeper you want as much security as possible which a recoil move doesn't exactly provide. GSC was a different time because you were able to pull Rest via Sleep Talk and the power creep wasn't as insane as it is now. The 30% paralysis chance from Body Slam in particular fits nicely on this team that outside of Mega Sceptile and Gardevoir is quite slow overall. Now you might be thinking that it makes no sense to pair Body Slam on Snorlax with Toxic on Nidoqueen because if Milotic gets paralyzed you'll have an harder time breaking through it as well as being unable to Toxic it. This is why, if you do indeed choose both Toxic and Body Slam on Nidoqueen and Snorlax respectively, you will have to play the match-up versus Milotic carefully so that you get intel on its moveset as soon as possible without wasting your chances by paralyzing it. Thistranslates into playing aggresively with Nidoqueen and using Toxic first. If it doesn't carry Refresh you're good to go with Snorlax after it has been badly poisoned and if it does carry Refresh but no Haze Snorlax gets +6 on it anyway. You can still use Snorlax as the designated pivot into Scald early game but be wary of using Sleep Talk because you might just pull Body Slam and paralyze. If all of this isn't your cup of tea then Frustration is a perfectly valid alternative.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's all I got. Overally, two pretty significant team member changes in Mantine > Donphan and Gardevoir > Bewear but I feel these were necessary to further the teams ability to deal with RU's most prominent threats. I suggested a fuego Gigalith set that will play very much differently but that I'm convinced that it will yield you better results than AV. On the other hand, Mega Sceptile got away unscathed and I made sure to keep the Snorlax + Nidoqueen core intact too because you seemed to be quite fond of that one judging from your description. Let me know what you think of these changes and have fun with the edited team!

https://pokepast.es/f3ce9d3b8f627f0f

 

[PsyducksChili]

Hi!

This looks like a fun squad. Gigalith hasn't been seeing much usage lately so I was intrigued to check this team out. Below you'll find my thoughts and suggestions:

Major changes:

RE:

Unfortunately, Assault Vest is borderline unviable on Gigalith and it overall makes for a bad Tyranitar clone because it lacks the power of a secondary STAB and the utility of Pursuit. You described the surprise scenario of Mega Blastoise being unable to kill Gigalith with its moves but what exactly does Gigalith do back? It lacks attack investment and therefore cannot punish Blastoise reliably enough to warrant giving up the recovery from Leftovers. However, I do recognise that this team is specifically build around a Gigalith set that subverts the expectation of the regular bulky Stealth Rock set so let me hook you up with something else instead:

Gigalith @ Rockium Z
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Throat Chop
- Stealth Rock / Toxic / Protect / Explosion

That's right, your eyes do not deceive you. This set is designed specifically to snipe Mega Blastoise. Z-Stone Edge obliterates the overgrown turtle 100% of the time after Sandstorm damage. Rock Blast sports higher accuracy but is the inferior choice on this set because of the much lower Z-power. You won't miss it versus dedicated leads either because Sandstorm chip will break Focus Sash on everything relevant anyway (Froslass, Ribombee, Galvantula). I put Throat Chop in the third slot because it gives you the option of 2HKOing Bronzong. The last slot is pretty flexible but the set works best with Stealth Rock, Toxic or Protect here because these have the added benefit of keeping up the disguise of a regular specially defensive Gigalith. Protect may seem odd here because you won't get any recovery from Leftovers but it's still useful to bait the Z-move from Salazze and to rack up some Sandstorm damage. You'll likely get away with Explosion too though if you don't want to give that up. 68 Speed EVs are just enough to put Gigalith above Bronzong that don't carry Gyro Ball so that you can smack them with Throat Chop before they hit you with a Toxic. You'll also get the jump on the likes of Snorlax and Slowbro. Later on I suggest Body Slam on Snorlax and if you decide to go with that option you can raise the speed EVs to 140 to outspeed paralyzed Adamant Metagross and paralyzed Jolly Bewear, as well as 0 speed Golisopod and Rhyperior. 8 SpDef ensure that Gigalith's SpDef is higher than its Def when Sandstorm is up and prevents Porygon2 from nabbing a Download boost (seems negligible but this actually came into play while testing).


RE:

-->

Your team is lacking a solid switch-in to Mega Blastoise (despite now featuring a lure), Golisopod is an overall annoyance (especially in light of the upcoming change replacing Bewear), and some form of counterplay to Ground type attacks other than a questionable resistance provided by Mega Sceptile would also be appreciated here. Mantine over Donphan fixes all of these issues, takes some pressure away from Snorlax being the sole dedicated special wall, and still leaves you with hazard control. Admittedly, you'll lose your coveted 2nd Stealth Rock user but there's no need to pack two of those.

Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 232 HP / 80 Def / 12 SpD / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Defog

Because of this teams usage of Gigalith and Snorlax, which both invite Fighting types such as Machamp and Bewear, I suggest you make use of an exceptionally fast Mantine on this team so that you can punish them with a super effective Air Slash. You could even make use of Flyinium Z to get an outright surprise kill on the fighting types that stand in the way of Snorlax sweeping. If you do decide to go with the Z-move on Mantine instead, I recommend using Explosion in the last slot on Gigalith with a Custap Berry replacing the Rockium Z. Remember however that losing Leftovers cuts into Mantine's bulk quite significantly.


RE:

-->

Unfortunately, Mantine as the sole Fighting type answer is not sufficient on this team seeing how Fighting is one of the best - if not the best offensive typing in RU. As much as I would have liked to keep the double Normal type core (Bewear and Snorlax actually perform quite well together, I find) I do think that replacing Bewear with Gardevoir is the right choice here. Speaking of choice, the item of choice for Gardevoir will be - you guessed it - a Choice Scarf. I tried two alternatives (Choice Specs and Calm Mind Z-Move) but Choice Scarf has been performing the best and I believe that you'll appreciate another member capable of outspeeding the likes of Virizion, Salazzle, Noivern and Roserade.

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Trick
- Calm Mind

This set is nothing out of the ordinary except it has a cool trick up its sleeve featuring both Trick and Calm Mind. I felt this set might be of particular worth on this team as it lacks a designated breaker. Optimally, Gardevoir cripples a wall with Trick and manages to put some more pressure later on with Calm Mind boosted STABs - ideally when the opposing team has been whittled by both Gigalith and Mega Sceptile. Keep in mind though that in some match-ups you don't want to sacrifice the speed Choice Scarf grants you. If you find that a third coverage option has better application than Calm Mind, go ahead and change it but I find that additional coverage is overrated on Choice Scarf variants. Trace allows Gardevoir to function as a potent check to Bewear in particular but also allows it to pivot into Flygon on a predicted Ground or Dragon type attack.


Minor adjustments:

RE:

I recommend looking into the possibility of opting for a different coverage option over Sludge Wave on Nidoqueen. Toxic is a prominent choice and let's you punish a plethora of special walls such Cresselia, Porygon2, Mantine and Milotic. The latter two in particular stand in the way of Snorlax sweeping because they can nullify all boosts with Haze. Don't worry too much about Refresh + Haze Milotic - this set isn't commonly seen right now because Milotic is hard pressed to fit either Ice Beam or Toxic on its moveset. Thunderbolt pressures the two previously mentioned Water types with the added benefit of killing Golisopod after 1 round of Stealth Rock damage which may just be the deciding factor here (Sheer Force cancels out Emergency Exit so Sludge Wave won't do) considering what an incredible force Golisopod is in the current metagame. However, Thunderbolt doesn't target much else that Ground + Ice coverage doesn't already deal with. Another option that I think is worth mentioning here is Fire Blast. Nidoqueen (and Gigalith too, despite Throat Chop) has some trouble dealing with Metagross which commonly come with a Shuca Berry equipped but the strong fire coverage move allows you to circumvent the Shuca Berry and kill it outright. Fire Blast also provides you with a means of hitting Bronzong for a hefty chunk of damage which Mega Sceptile certainly will appreciate. Anyway, try these out for yourself and see which one you like best. If you decide to put Stealth Rock on Gigalith instead of Nidoqueen you'll free up an additional moveslot which it can make good use of (Taunt comes to mind alongside Toxic but I digress). As I stated before, there's no need to run two SR users. Oh, and while personally I'm a fan of Modest Nidoqueen (I'm not going for ties anyway and appreciate the extra power) you will find people that insist Timid is necessary and that's a valid position. If you find it useful to outpace Jolly Metagross, Cloyster and Tyrantrum as well as Modest Mega Blastoise, then Timid is the way to go.

RE:

- Try Body Slam or Frustration over Double-Edge on Snorlax. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about that power but on a slow late game set up sweeper you want as much security as possible which a recoil move doesn't exactly provide. GSC was a different time because you were able to pull Rest via Sleep Talk and the power creep wasn't as insane as it is now. The 30% paralysis chance from Body Slam in particular fits nicely on this team that outside of Mega Sceptile and Gardevoir is quite slow overall. Now you might be thinking that it makes no sense to pair Body Slam on Snorlax with Toxic on Nidoqueen because if Milotic gets paralyzed you'll have an harder time breaking through it as well as being unable to Toxic it. This is why, if you do indeed choose both Toxic and Body Slam on Nidoqueen and Snorlax respectively, you will have to play the match-up versus Milotic carefully so that you get intel on its moveset as soon as possible without wasting your chances by paralyzing it. Thistranslates into playing aggresively with Nidoqueen and using Toxic first. If it doesn't carry Refresh you're good to go with Snorlax after it has been badly poisoned and if it does carry Refresh but no Haze Snorlax gets +6 on it anyway. You can still use Snorlax as the designated pivot into Scald early game but be wary of using Sleep Talk because you might just pull Body Slam and paralyze. If all of this isn't your cup of tea then Frustration is a perfectly valid alternative.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's all I got. Overally, two pretty significant team member changes in Mantine > Donphan and Gardevoir > Bewear but I feel these were necessary to further the teams ability to deal with RU's most prominent threats. I suggested a fuego Gigalith set that will play very much differently but that I'm convinced that it will yield you better results than AV. On the other hand, Mega Sceptile got away unscathed and I made sure to keep the Snorlax + Nidoqueen core intact too because you seemed to be quite fond of that one judging from your description. Let me know what you think of these changes and have fun with the edited team!

https://pokepast.es/f3ce9d3b8f627f0f

Thanks, dude this actually helped alot. Really appreciate it! I wanted to use the Gigalith with AV as sort of a meme, but I prefer winning with your set, lol. Thanks again, I see you put tons of work into this and I’m looking forward to using this new and improved team!