ORAS NU There’s Something In The Sea… (Peaked #4)

[Rapture]

There’s Something In The Sea…

Hi frens, yung Rapture back with another RMT, this time showcasing a team with a rather interesting take on hazard stacking. The team itself has been relatively successful on ladder getting me to #4 on it and has proved itself just as well when battling with friends.

Team overview/Building Process

Like mentioned before, I made this squad after looking at ways that I could most efficiently get up a ton of hazards by forcing a bunch of switches. I found that by having three different types of hazards on three separate Pokemon, it would allow me to do just that.

I started off with Cacturne since it’s pretty overlooked as a dark type due to how prevalent Sneasel is in the tier, and it also gave me a good start to my hazards stacking core.

Archeops was good for the second slot because of how well the burd pairs well with Cacturne and I needed something fast that can hit hard.

At this point I was looking rather weak to sneasel and strong physical attackers in general, so I decided to slap Mawile on the team since it checks all those and also gives me a reliable pokemon to get rocks up with

Lanturn is my obligatory fire resist and second water resist since Cacturne is frail af. It also pairs pretty well with Mawile aside from the ugly ground weakness, but that's what the other 4 slots are for!

At this point I wanted a wallbreaker that paired well with Cacturne and Gallade seemed like a natural choice.

To finish things off I went with Weezing since it helps tie up the core with Mawile and Lanturn rather nicely, Toxic Spikes is appreciated as well.

Team Analysis

Arcadia (Cacturne) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Sucker Punch
- Giga Drain
- Spikes

A powerful wallbreaker with its own spike support, what more could you ask for? Cacturne can wreak havoc all on its own just because of how hard it is to switch into once it's inside. I decided to go with a specially based set since it's more effective in this meta and its main stabs both have some useful side effects to take advantage of with Dark Pulse’s flinch chance and Giga Drain’s recovery respectively. Sucker Punch helps beat all the things that outspeed Cacturne and still hits surprisingly hard even with minimal attack investment, Spikes are Spikes and help to weaken the opponent's mons for when Cacturne comes back in. Mild Nature with max sp atk and speed to maximize attacking power on both sides. Black Glasses for style points and because Life Orb on something so frail is undesirable..

Archeops
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 248 HP / 84 SpD / 176 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Taunt / Rock Slide
- Roost
- Earthquake

Archeops is the team’s answer to more offensive squads while just being a pretty useful attacker overall because of that yumE 140 base attack. Most of the time, the best strat with this savage is to save it for late game where it can clean up whatever Cacturne or Gallade may have left behind. Acro + edgequake is impressive coverage that reduces its switch ins to rock types that Cacturne can handle easy. Roost is for staying power while the ev spread is standard dot standard.

Fort Frolic (Mawile) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Play Rough
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Baton Pass

ahh this thing is so good right now I love it. Mawile is a sturdy answer to most of the physical attackers in the tier including Sneasel, Tauros, Malamar, and can also act as a check to Gallade if healthy enough. Max Hp and Defense + Intimidate to maximize defensive bulk. Play Rough and Iron Head for some decent powered stab moves, Stealth Rocks for moar hazards and Baton Pass is really good for maintaining momentum should that be that appropriate course of action. Overall just a reliable rocker and wall that I always enjoy using.

Lighthouse (Lanturn) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 104 HP / 164 Def / 240 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Scald
- Heal Bell
- Thunder Wave


Even in a post magnets meta, Lanturn is still really good at what it does, being a bulky water that spreads burns and can pivot out. Lanturn pairs up really well with the rest of the team, helping to cover Mawile and Cacturne’s fire weakness, Archeops water and electric weakness, etc. A calm nature with the spread above gives it a really solid mix of defense and special defense that lets it take on Magmortar, Pyroar, and Fletchinder. All of which are problematic in one way or another. Volt Switch lets Lanturn get out of a bad situation and bring in a reliable answer. Scald is the best move in the game and the burn chance can be handy to wear opposing mons down. Finally Heal Bell and Toxic are great support options for Lanturn and help out the rest of the team, it's a true team player imo.

Delta (Gallade) @ Life Orb
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Psycho Cut
- Close Combat
- Knock Off

Enter the savage, this thing is so good and can really sweep most of the tier with one Swords Dance and its great coverage. Stab + Knock Off allow it to put a big dent in teams that don’t have a complete counter, and even they don't like having their item knocked off. I typically like to bring this thing in on a Baton Pass from Mawile since it can take advantage of mons that like to switch in on Mawile like Xatu, opposing steel types, and just bulky things in general. I have Close Combat and Psycho Cut for reliable stab moves with Psycho Cut being used over Zen Headbutt because it doesn't make contact which is useful for dealing with poison types like Garbodor and Rocky Helmet Weezing. Knock Off for an easy way to cover bulky psychics and Swords Dance for even easier attack boosting.

Persephone (Weezing) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Def / 124 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic Spikes
- Taunt

Last but not least, Weezing is also something I enjoy using a lot at the moment mainly because of its handy ground immunity and access to Toxic Spikes which helps to complete my hazard stack trio and my defensive core respectively. Prior to this I was running max Hp and Def as the ev spread, but I found myself having a lot of trouble with Mega Audino since it pretty much 6-0’d me if it got one or two boosts. This spread lets me outspeed and taunt it before it can heal up and boost, so that's why I decided to stick with this spread instead. Sludge Bomb is Weezing’s best stab, Will-O-Wisp lets me burn more things to stop physical attackers in their tracks, Toxic Spikes let me weaken the opponent's team over time so Cacturne or Archeops can come through late game, and finally taunt is to beat Maudino like mentioned before while also being handy to stop hazards from being set up.
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Importable

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Hide

Arcadia (Cacturne) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Sucker Punch
- Giga Drain
- Spikes

Siren Alley (Archeops) (F)
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 248 HP / 84 SpD / 176 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Taunt / Rock Slide
- Roost
- Earthquake
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Fort Frolic (Mawile) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Play Rough
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Baton Pass

Lighthouse (Lanturn) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 104 HP / 164 Def / 240 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Scald
- Heal Bell
- Thunder Wave

Delta (Gallade) @ Life Orb
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Psycho Cut
- Close Combat
- Knock Off

Persephone (Weezing) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Def / 124 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic Spikes
- Taunt

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Proof of Peak

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http://prntscr.com/7hvzsv

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[leremyju]

Wow couldn't even get #1. Nice job bro keep killing NU. Maybe you could try Taunt on Gallade over Psycho Cut.

 

[Rapture]

haha nice to hear from you friend. I already have taunt on weezing and psychic coverage is worth to much imo. If anything I could try taunt on Archeops since I'm too much of a pussy to click stone edge.

 

[HJAD]

Hey bro,

Nice team you have here. Its really cool having 3 mons settup hazards, so there is less reliance on that mon to do pretty much all the work. Onto the team, and you seem quite Tauros weak. Fire Blast Mixed Tauros basically gets rid of your main normal check mawile, and eq also still does a tonne to it. Also, with you not running flamethrower on weezing you are a tad Klinklang weak as well, since Lanturn doesnt enjoy taking +1 returns and can only reply with scald. In general, weezing looks an extremely pressured member as well, having to deal with all fighting types, fairies, malamar, grasses like lilli, the list goes on. So, what im going to suggest will maybe help you mitigate your tauros weakness as well as relieve some pressure on Weezing.

We can start by replacing Cacturne. Cacturne, in this team, is your main check to CM Psychics and your spikes setter. This is quite risky, especially when pretty much all Psychics are now running Colbur Berry so that they can check Gallade, and Signal Beam so that they can hit Malamar (and Cacturne). So, im going to suggest Ferroseed > Cacturne. Whilst Ferroseed is a much more defensively inclined hazards setter, it still performs the main functions that Cacturne did, in checking calm mind psychics, relieving pressure from Weezing (M-Audino), providing a crucial Grass resist (non hp fire lilligants). The main CM Psychic that gets past Ferroseed is most notably Xatu, but since you have an Archeops with stone edge, it shouldnt be too big of an issue. You also run Lanturn and a combination of Scald + Volt Switch puts immense pressure on it.

Apart from this, i suggest running Justified > Steadfast on Gallade, because it will come into play more often than Steadfast. But this just personal preference, you may think differently.
anyway, good luck on this team, hope you have every success with it in the future.

sets

Ferroseed @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect / Knock Off / whatever
- Spikes

yours in mons,
~HJAD

 

[Blast]

Mixed Cacturne / Archeops / Defensive Mawile / Defensive Lanturn / SD Gallade / Weezing

Heavily disagree with Ferroseed for a couple reasons. For one, it's replacing an actually strong offensive Spiker with priority (not to mention your only form of priority currently) for a passive as hell defensive Spiker, which I don't think is a good idea at all. Also, HJAD's reasoning doesn't really make any sense anyway: it doesn't help with any of the threats mentioned (CM Psychics very often run HP Fire, Tauros almost always runs Fire Blast, and Sub Klinklang just sets up on you). Really don't see how Ferroseed would help in any way.

Generally I'll agree that the team looks a bit weaker to faster threats with good coverage, but having a lot of hazards and especially Toxic Spikes up can help put way more pressure on them, so I don't think any big changes are necessary anyway. Gallade's the only Pokemon I see as somewhat expendable since looking at the rest of your team, you probably don't require a slowish dedicated wallbreaker, but it's still pretty useful for being your only booster / best way of forcing out Ferroseed. That's the only 'mon I'd give up if you're feeling experimental though.

If you want a little more insurance against Klinklang, your best bet would be to just use Thunder Wave > Toxic on Lanturn. Puts a lot more pressure on them you now have two moves that can cripple it in Scald and Thunder Wave. I might also replace either Play Rough or Iron Head on Mawile with Toxic too; defensive Mawile's weak as piss, so you're rarely going to be attacking, and Toxic can be nice to actually do something to bulkier threats when you need to. Life Orb's also worth trying on Cacturne since the boost to Giga Drain helps a lot with both recovering from recoil, so it doesn't mind it as much and it's nice to do a bit more to bulkier Waters like Lanturn when they're low so they don't status you or whatever.

Nice team, hope I helped!

 

[shiloh]

Mixed Cacturne / Archeops / Defensive Mawile / Defensive Lanturn / SD Gallade / Weezing

I agree with mostly everything that Blast said, but your team also seems incredibly weak to Specs Swellow, as it is able to come in 2HKO anything on your team with rocks and a layer of spikes up. My main suggestion would be Offensive 3 Attacks Archeops to a more Defensive set, as it takes a lot of pressure off of Mawile being the only check to Normal Spam, as it is easily worn down only having leftovers to rely on for recovery. The set I am recommending outspeeds Timid Base 100s and below, and allows it to not be 2HKO'd by boomburst from Swellow. Overall this is a really solid team, and hopefully this change helps you out.

set

Archeops
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 248 HP / 84 SpD / 176 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Taunt / Rock Slide
- Roost
- Earthquake

 

[Rapture]

Hey guys, appreciate the rates and have taken all of them into consideration. To start off I don't think I'll be replacing Cacturne with Ferroseed since the two just don't fill the same role imo, however I definitely am somewhat weak to Klinklang so I think I'll make the change to T-wave Lanturn since that'll help the match up against it. Toxic on Mawile I'll definitely try as well since I rarely find myself using Mawile to K.O something, same goes for LO Cacturne since giga drain recovery tends to make up for recoil. Defensive archeops is quite interesting and I think it'll be useful in taking some pressure from physical attackers and normal types in general. I'll be sure to update the team accordingly. Thanks again!