NU Teambuilding 101

Introduction

The NU metagame has likely reached its final stage for BW, with Jynx firmly marking her place in the tier after not being banned. With Grand Slam underway, many people are asking for NU teams because they have very little experience with the tier and don't know what the biggest threats are. Many different playstyles are great right now, and there is such an amazing and diverse amount of viable Pokémon available that nearly anyone can build a team to fit their playstyle! The choice lies with the player: what do you want to use?

Identifying Major Threats

First Priority: Normal-types

Normal-types are the main threat that any team needs to be prepared for because of their sheer power and versatility. Normal-types have almost mandated that every team carries a bulky resistance such as Golem or Metang. They are almost exclusively offensive threats, as their lack of resistances makes them very hard to use defensively. Many of the top Normal-types are also part Flying, meaning that they can hit Ghost-types with Brave Bird to stop them from countering them. In fact, Ghost-types are terrible answers to the top Normal-types in NU, as the only one they can effectively wall is Tauros, as all of the others have ways of doing massive damage to them. Normal-types are the primary reason that hyper offensive teams don't run rampant on the ladder.

Second Priority: Water-types

Water-types are huge threats because of their very powerful STAB attacks as well as their great coverage. They are capable of both sweeping teams and walling teams with their amazing offensive and defensive typing. Many of the best sweepers in the tier are Water-types, as Samurott, Carracosta, Ludicolo, and Gorebyss. Each of these can threaten a team at a moment's notice and rip through a weakened defensive core. On the other hand, Seismitoad and Alomomola are able to use their typing and bulk to wall many threats in the tier. Alomomola has such sheer bulk that almost no physical attacker can get past her without a boosted STAB super effective attack! Due to the many differences, it is hard to check every Water-type at once, but it is vital that a team has a way to defeat all of them.

Third Priority: Psychic-types

Psychic-types are among the most versatile threats in Neverused, as both the biggest offensive threat (Jynx) and one of the biggest defensive threats (Musharna) in the tier are Psychic-type! The sheer diversity of Psychic-types are what makes them such huge threats. For almost any role you can think of, there is a Psychic-type that can fulfill it for you. Outside of Jynx and Musharna, there is Exeggutor, which is one of the best Sunny Day sweepers in the tier as well as a great wall and wallbreaker if needed. Gothorita, one of the few trappers in Neverused, can effortlessly remove nearly any defensive Pokémon from play. Finally, Gardevoir is a Pokémon that has fallen from grace lately, but is still an excellent "jack of all trades" Pokémon that can fulfill many roles on bulky offensive teams.

Fourth Priority: Fighting-types

Fighting-types are very simple: they have powerful STAB attacks and a Stealth Rock resistance. There are very few checks to Fighting-type Pokémon. Outside of the hard counters, most teams have no backup way to stop something like Sawk from devastating their team. Primeape even has U-turn to bypass the obvious counters like Musharna and go to a counter such as Skuntank. Gurdurr has amazing bulk after Eviolite is factored in, allowing it to wall many physical attackers easily. Because of Fighting-types, Psychic- and Ghost-types are far more popular than they would be otherwise. If you don't have a counter to Fighting-types, you're in big trouble.

Miscellaneous Common Dangerous Threats:

These are other major threats that aren't covered by the types already listed. It would be unfortunate if you prepared for Psychic-, Normal-, and Water-types, but lacked any way to defeat Scolipede! Many of these Pokémon are very difficult to check. Charizard and Eelektross, for example, are very powerful offensive Pokémon that steamroll teams that make no effort to prepare for them. A lot of support Pokémon also fall into this group, as it is often their unique typing that makes them big threats. A team that forgets about Mandibuzz will often find itself Toxic stalled to oblivion! However, a solid defensive core can handle most Pokémon on this list without forgetting about the more prominent threats as well.

Tips

Most of the time, using a spinner isn't worth it in Neverused. They offer little synergy to teams and are often setup fodder for big threats. Instead of using a spinner, consider using Choice Band Sawk, as it can defeat nearly every common lead and prevent Stealth Rock from going up. An exception to this is stall teams, which benefit from having a spinner because it is easier to stack entry hazards against them.
Nearly every style of play is viable in Neverused, from hyper offense to full stall. However, offensive teams are much easier to build in this metagame because of the prevalence of powerful threats like Jynx and Scolipede!
Every team should have some form of priority, as it is one of the easier ways to check many of the offensive threats in the tier. Priority from the likes of Kangaskhan is a great as it can let you recover from a misplay.
Choice Scarf users should have at least 95 base Speed in order to tie with Jynx and Primeape. Pokémon slower than 95 are generally better off using other sets. Users faster than 95 are amazing right now, as they can outspeed and often OHKO both Choice Scarf Primeape and Choice Scarf Jynx. An exception to this is Rotom-S and Rotom-F; they are both excellent Choice Scarf users due to their typing and stats, despite only having base 86 Speed.
Feel free to look outside the box! There are many excellent Pokémon that don't appear in the top 50 in usage stats. Examples include Shiftry, Mantine, Gothorita and Muk.
Every team essentially needs a hard counter to Sawk, as its sheer power means that nearly every check can be overwhelmed by one wrong switch-in. The best way to handle Sawk is with Musharna or Misdreavus, but a combination of Alomomola and any Fighting-type resist works just as well.
Make sure your team can handle weather! It isn't a particularly common strategy, but well-built Rain Dance or Sunny Day teams are very dangerous even at the top of the ladder.

Conclusion

If you follow the tips outlined here, your NU play can improve significantly! However, this is just the start, as there is far more to NU teambuilding than just the content of this article. The best part of NU is how creative you can get with teams because nearly everything is viable in some way! The NU subforum is also a great place to get advice, as well as the IRC channel #neverused. We are always willing to help someone interested in the tier!

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