Sableye RUination

[Scoopapa]

Overview

I made this team to test out some newly available (and newly viable) pokemon in RU, and I've gotten some very good results. Half of these sets are things you would probably never have seen in the previous metagame for one reason or another. I'm currently at #3 on the ladder, though I don't intend to stop there! The team is admittedly pretty weird, though, so I'm sure it could be improved upon.

The playstyle of the team is essentially balance, with three support pokemon and 3 offensive pokemon, and all six playing a defensive role in one way or another. There is a lot of interplay between two-pokemon combos which either allow me to pivot around in battle or supply long-term synergy working towards the final goal of ending the game. I find the team does pretty well at breaking stall as well as holding up against offense. The team begins with the primary thing I wanted to test out in the wake of Cresselia's banishment: Sub CM Uxie.

Teambuilding

Yup, that's what he looks like. But he also looks lonely. Let's give him friends. We're still at the early stage of teambuilding where it's okay to throw in arbitrary monsters because you like using them. I messed around with CB Sawsbuck a bit (get your mind out of the gutter) and thought it had a lot of potential.

As much as I wanted to run offensive Uxie, I really really really wanted to run Giga Drain as a coverage move. It's not the best coverage move strictly speaking, but being able to recover health is just awesome for a Sub CM set. It leaves me vulnerable to Honchkrow and Durant in particular. Magneton patches those weaknesses very well.

Now I'm starting to think about Stealth Rock, but it occurred to me that Toxic Spikes would also work very well with Uxie. Basically that means Omastar. Omastar is also good because it lures Grass-type attacks for Sawsbuck to switch in to.

At this point I realized that I could incorporate another idea I had been wanting to try for a while: Toxic Spikes + Sableye. Block Rapid Spin while Taunting any attempt at Foresight, Recovery, or boosting, while everything you switch in gets poisoned? I'm sorry, I know you're speaking but all I hear is "GG".

Here's the point where you look at the team and you're like "oh shit I still need like 10 more things". I wanted a Choice Scarf user, but I also wanted Rapid Spin. Claydol is both of these things and yet none of these things. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but I'm not worried about it right now. Here's the team!

Team at a Glance

In Depth

Sableye (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 244 SDef / 12 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Payback
- Recover

I'll start with Sableye because that's most often what I lead with. This guy is overpowered, it really is. I don't care what some noobs in PO chat say :D. Every single physical attacker bar Entei gets priority Burned and priority Recover stalled all day. Moderately powered Special attackers can still be tanked (especially where he has a type advantage) and stalled out with Burn. walls get Taunted and become setup bait for a teammate. If a situation becomes my opponent spamming an attack and me spamming recover, it makes it fairly easy to just switch to something which will gain the upper hand. Payback because it's my only way of dealing with Zam, and I find it does more in general than Night Shade. You shouldn't really be trying to hit things on the switch with a direct attack, anyway. As mentioned before, this guy is really hard to deal with when Toxic Spikes are on the field. Fire-types pretty much wall this (without T-spikes) but that's what Omastar is for. Everyone's saying he'll be UU by next round, but that's a long way off. He'll be BL2 before that happens, methinks.

Omastar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Toxic Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam

Stellar defense, quad fire resist, and good support make Omastar a great fit here. It also has decent offensive presence courtesy of it's great SpA stat. Stealth Rock is a must on any team, and Toxic Spikes are quite good considering the overall bulk of the team. Grass attacks aimed at Omastar are deferred to Sawsbuck, who apparently eats them even if it doesn't make any damn sense. Ground- and Fighting-type attacks are easily dealt with by one of the levitating Psychic-types

Sawsbuck (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sap Sipper
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Megahorn

Sawsbuck is actually pretty good outside of sun. Base 100 Atk and Base 95 Speed are plenty for RU when you've got the sweet movepool to back it up. Double Edge is very powerful, Horn Leech is great to heal off damage taken from Double Edge and to hit defensive Ground, Rock, and Water-types. Jump Kick is to hit Steel-types (better that Nature Power because of Ferroseed), and Megahorn fucks up the Grass-types that Sawsbuck loves to switch in to. Once it gains a Sap Sipper boost it's attack reaches an enormous 672, at which point it opens up an aerosol can of whoop-ass. Supplying a Ghost immunity is nice considering that I have two psychic-types, and it works well with its Electric resist.

Claydol @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Magic Coat
- Rapid Spin
- Trick
- Earthquake

Ya, wtf. I agree. It's been working, though, so I haven't changed it. Trick-Scarf support is really really useful for this team, since I have the bulk and resistances to punish most choice-locked moves. Magic Coat is...I mean what the hell else do I put? I'm not really interested in weak sauce coverage moves, but maybe I should go Toxic to deal with Cofagrigus, especially if I can Trick a Scarf onto it. At least Magic Coat shuts down Sableye completely, which is always good these days. Claydol is just this bulky thing that spins and Tricks things, and performs Uxie's defensive role while still I'm not ready to unleash the pixie yet.

Magneton @ Eviolite
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SAtk / 8 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Magneton is needed to cover certain threats, and is all around pretty good. Durant, for instance, can be seriously threatening but with Magneton in decent health it's pretty much as simple as switch in fearlessly and OHKO. Honchkrow is another threat that Magnezone handles extremely well. Ferroseed isn't the biggest problem but it's nice to have an easy button for it, as well. Magnezone's other duty for the team is status absorption. It also deals with Sableye reasonably well with Paralysis and the fact that it can't afford to replenish Taunt against your repeated assaults. This EV spread makes for quite a good tank, hitting hard and absorbing a lot of damage as well.

Uxie @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 100 HP / 176 SAtk / 232 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Substitute

Saved the best for last (OK Sableye is probably the best but it's pretty much OP so w/e). The speed is enough to outpace Jolly Krookodile which may be rare but it's only two points faster than Rotom who is a significant threat to outspeed. With Sableye being one of the biggest threats around, many people are favoring Specially biased teams; Uxie absolutely excels at sweeping Specially biased teams. With great speed and bulk, Uxie has a fairly easy time setting up in late-game situations and breaking the last few members of a team. Psycho Shock covers special walls like Clefable and Muchlax better than Psychic would and allows you to win Calm Mind wars. Once you reach +2/+2, Uxie's stats resemble that of a Specially biased, stalled-out Regigigas with inflated Special Defense. Giga Drain is decent coverage but the healing can really be the clincher in late-game situations where you need to power through a few pokemon. I'm want to get this set in the analysis and part of why I posted this RMT was to draw attention to it. Honestly, this is an amazing sweeper with the right support (really magnezone is what you need to cover what Giga Drain doesn't).

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So that's the team. Most often it involves Sableye causing wreckage while supported by Omastar's hazards. Claydol gets his Trick off, while Maggy and Sawsbuck deal with the particular threats that they need to. I pivot around between Omastar, Sawsbuck, Magnezone, and Claydol, until I can find a good opportunity for Sableye to return. Once I've weakened the opponent's team enough, a well-timed Uxie sweep can finish the job.

Ok, I just typed a shitload so I'm just going to end this with another group photo:

Enjoy

 

[Benny in a Jet]

I noticed Serious nature on Sawsbuck. This should be changed to either Adamant (power) or Jolly (speed). I also noticed that Sawsbuck is pretty walled by any Ghost that can take a Horn Leech, so you might want to switch to Shadow Claw from Payback on Sableye.

 

[marilli]

Heh, nice team here. I also use that Sableye + defensive Omastar combination--it wrecks so much stuff.

While it's good and all that, how do you intend to face Sunny Day-based teams? Mag, Saws, and Sableye instantly die to a sun boosted anything, while Omastar can be handled easily with a swift Solarbeam. Claydol isn't much of a defensive measure anyways when its only attacking move is EQ. So you're almost forced to play recklessly with your Sableye and Omastar, trying to set up those Toxic Spikes early and Taunt the Sunny Day with good prediction. Not a crippling weakness, but struck me as quite odd to have such a weakness to a popular playstyle.

Well your team's synergy is peculiar to say the least, and as you can see you tried cramming way to much stuff in there, so I don't think I have a viable suggestion at the moment--good luck, though!

 

[Scoopapa]

Lol good catch...Jolly is what I need though (wait a sec it's already jolly in teambuilder..don't know how that happened). Rotom and Sableye don't wall Sawsbuck too badly and Cofagrigus isn't overly threatening to my team. Sableye should be Taunting and Burning Cofagrigus and Dusknior anyway - the 10 BP increase for Shadow Claw against slower ghosts doesn't make up for the 40 BP decrease against any faster enemy.

Yeah Sun can be tough to face. My only hope is really to set up Uxie while they are setting up Sunny Day and try to take down as much as possible, then use Sawsbuck to kill things out of sun. I'm certainly open to suggestions in that regard. Uxie has taken down some sun teams but it's hardly reliable.

 

[AlphA.]

Nice team here, I battled it two times, as my alt Nephasto, stall can be a problem but I see what you did there e.e on that claydol a good set to block sableye and avoid taunts e.e or WoWs, nothing much to say, maybe sun teams will crash this team but, I don't see too much sunny days teams in the actual RU metagame

 

[Oglemi]

Huh interesting team you got here Scoopapa. I'm not too experienced at rating teams nor do I think I'm very good at teambuilding, but I'll try to help out your sun problem.

The problem I think stems from the fact that you have almost no protection against Sunnybeamer Moltres/Charizard/Typhlosion nor a solid Lilligant check/counter. In order to remedy this, I'm going to suggest a pretty hard counter to all of the above.

Specially Defensive Altaria:

[SET]
name: Specially Defensive
move 1: Dragon Pulse
move 2: Fire Blast / Toxic
move 3: Roost
move 4: Haze
item: Leftovers
ability: Cloud Nine
nature: Calm (+SpD, -Atk)
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

Now, I'm going to suggest you put this over either Claydol or Uxie for a couple of reasons.

1. Like I said it gives you a relatively good counter to sun teams when used in conjunction with your sleep absorber Magneton. The idea when faced with a Lilligant would be to have Magneton take the incoming Sleep Powder and then switch to Altaria. From there you can Haze away its Quiver Dances, take piddly squat from Giga Drain/HP Fire, and whittle its health down with either Fire Blast or Toxic and heal with Roost. Against the SunnyBeamers, Cloud Nine negates their Fire boost and Altaria takes those hits like a fucking boss. Timid Specs Air Slash from Moltres also only does 40% with max SpD, so there's really very little to fear from them. Swords Dance Sawsbuck and Victreebel are a bit more troublesome, but Fire Blast gets close to OHKOing both, and they can't set up on Altaria thanks to Haze. Altaria just has to be careful about switching into them, which it probably shouldn't do.

2. Claydol and Uxie seem to be the weak links to your team. tbh Claydol seems like the biggest offender simply because it provides little in the way of team support outside of maybe crippling a defensive mon and spinning, which doesn't seem very crucial to your team (and isn't crucial if you have Altaria despite the SR weakness). Sableye also does a good job of keeping hazards off of your side of the field thanks to Taunt and its ability to just not give a fuck about most of the SR and Spikes users in the metagame atm. Uxie also doesn't seem to do much beside clean late-game, but it does seem to be more important than Claydol.

3. Over Claydol, Altaria also gives your team another nice Water-, Grass-, and Fire-type resistence, and keeps the Fighting resistence and Ground immunity that Claydol gave. You keep the Ice weakness unfortunately and lose the Rock resistence, but Altaria tends to stick around longer than Claydol on average thanks to Roost.

Keep up the work Scoopapa!

 

[marilli]

Hey, I know this is two posts in a rather short span--but with actual suggestions! I thought if I just edit the posts it might not be so obvious that it's there. Not the best rater out there, but I can try--and you can try as well and see if it works or not.

edit: just got on PO, saw you peaked the ladder already. congrats!

First has to do with combating the cramped-ness of the team. You did say that he's not exactly a scarfer, but you needed something to be scarfed in general--you exactly don't need a Trick user because Sableye shits on defensive mons already. So, I present a possible alternative to Scarf Claydol:

Krookodile

name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Crunch
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Pursuit
item: Choice Scarf
ability: Moxie
nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Your core is really adept at wearing down the opponent by forcing switches and residual damage. After the heaps of residual damage, it can really sweep teams with the Moxie boosts. This, in a way, combines the role of SubCM Uxie and Scarf Claydol. For opposing sun teams, the only thing that is faster than this when the sun is down is Choice Scarf Charizard--a mon that often forfeits hazards to Omastar. That means that you can just try to prevent his Sunny Days, get SR up and possibly Tspikes, and clean out their team.

Now, you have an empty teamslot to fill your needs: Sun Checker & Rapid Spinner. Technically Tentacool is the only thing there, and that's when you know you're being so desperate and shouldn't try to put both at the same team. (If you do, though, you can get rid of Tspikes on Omastar for Spikes for all 3 hazards). In fact, the only hazard I see that can really hurt you is opposing Tspikes, so a Grounded Poison type would more than suffice. Meh, Tentacool's really bad at spinning but absorbing Tspikes somewhat compensates I guess. You might try if want insurance on both Tspikes and Sun.

Or, more realistically, you can either just keep the Uxie or use the Sun-counter Altaria that Oglemi suggested above. Oh, btw, Lilligant is checked nicely by CB Sawsbuck, so it's mostly just Sunnybeaming Fire-types. I guess considering that you have to pick your weaknesses, I'd rather choose a more uncommon weakness like that than something like a weakness to Sableye or something. If you think about it that way, I guess your original version's pretty nice in that the Claydol goes a long way in handing the pesky Sableye. Heck, you already topped the ladder so your team must be already good.

In short:
Scarf Claydol -> Scarf Krook
very gimmicky theorymon in Tentacool
Replace Uxie with Altaria

 

[Scoopapa]

Ok, I haven't posted in a while, but I haven't been ignoring.

@ Oglemi:

I really liked the suggestion of Altaria, and it really seemed to make a lot of sense (especially alongside Omastar's set of weaknesses), but... I don't know what to say... I just started losing a bunch when I tried it. I think Stealth Rock was a huge problem for it, and it tended to put me on the back foot in terms of momentum without giving me much to show for it. I'll keep it in mind if the team undergoes further shifts though. And it did crap on sun really, really hard, which was cool.

@ Amarillo:

Scarf Krook seems cool, I hadn't realized you could outspeed so many sun users with a scarfer (no chance against Sawsbuck but he's burnable). I may try that or a similarly speedy scarfer, since Crunch might not cut it for destroying the various sun sweepers in one hit.

Also I must confess that I took the jump from #2 spot to #1 spot using a different team. Though iirc i'm back down to #2.

 

[VeilOfMaya]

Why does no one put Foul Play over Crunch? Or at least as an option over it.

 

[RisinDevil]

Why does no one put Foul Play over Crunch? Or at least as an option over it.

How often would you be hitting something with a dark move that you would want to use THEIR attack stat? I assume Most Ghosts and Psychics don't have higher then your atleast 333 ATK stat same with probably most of what you would be hitting for neutral damage especially if you have a Moxie or 2 under your belt. Probably could be useful on Sableye instead of Payback in more situations then replacing Crunch on Krook. Since it would be only a 5 BP drop on faster pokes then Sable but 45 BP better on slower pokes.