SM RU whos your favourite dragon ball character?

aVocado

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Introduction:

I've been wanting to write an RMT for a long time now especially since the last RMT I did was a bit more than 3 years ago, but I never really built a team that I both really liked and did good with. I'd usually either do well with a team but end up not liking it enough to try and fix some flaws I found in it, or it'd end up being a team that was quickly built and just crumbled to some common or strong Pokemon or team archetypes. It's been this way pretty much since SM RU started. Last gen, and specifically before ORAS, I was used to building new teams and having one team stick with me for a while, and more specifically I would build teams at the beginning of suspect tests to use them there, and then if I like them enough I'd write an RMT about them. I liked doing that a lot and I found it fun, but I haven't done that this generation because instead of building my own teams I'd use friends' teams mainly because I was lazy to build teams and go through trial and error until I find the one team that I actually really liked and did well with, like I did last gen.

Anyway, fast forward to about a month or two back and I've finally decided to build a team centred around Ninetales. In my opinion Ninetales is one of the most fun Pokemon to use because of its elegant design that I've always liked since I was a kid, and because firing off a (z-)Fire Blast in the sun just feels so fucking good. It also beats most of its traditional checks of Water- and Rock-types because it's in the sun and Water moves are weakened, and because of its access to Solar Beam. I never got to use the team much when I built it though mostly because I slightly lost interest in RU due to a lot of factors and because I've been more interested in AG, but I finally got to extensively use it slightly before the suspect test, and during it, and it's really fun and I found that it's actually decent despite me thinking it'll turn out shitty.


At a Glance:



In-Depth:


whos (Ninetales) @ Firium Z
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Solar Beam
- Psyshock​

Ninetales is easily one of the scariest wallbreakers to ever grace the RU tier, because +2 Inferno Overdrive does a lot to literally everything, including resists. I built the team around Ninetales to specifically let me able to use it very aggressively and almost suicidally, setting up in front of Toxic and Pokemon like Milotic in order to break through them and either let other members of the team sweep, or use Lunar Dance and Healing Wish to give it another breath of life to continue breaking or sweeping. Solar Beam can be replaced with Energy Ball specifically to hit Gigalith in sand and Grassium can be used over Firium, but I like Firium much better because of the sheer amount of OHKOs it gets. Psyshock lets Ninetales hurt Kommo-o and break past Dragalge, which is very nice and something Salazzle fails to do. In addition to that, a lot of people wonder why Ninetales over Salazzle, and the answer is simply sun makes it a more formidable breaker, it has a better z-move, and the fact that it has strong coverage that can bypass its traditional checks such as Dragalge, Rhyperior, Cresselia, and Diancie.

Here are some calcs to show how stupidly powerful z-Fire Blast is:

  • +2 252 SpA Ninetales Inferno Overdrive (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Cresselia in Sun: 517-609 (116.4 - 137.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • +2 252 SpA Ninetales Inferno Overdrive (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Umbreon in Sun: 394-465 (100 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • 252 SpA Ninetales Inferno Overdrive (185 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Nidoqueen in Sun: 375-442 (116.8 - 137.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO




your (Roserade) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Sludge Bomb
- Spikes
- Hidden Power [Fire]​

Roserade is a stupidly good Pokemon. It fills the role of a wallbreaker, a spikes setter, and a check to a plethora of Pokemon all in one spot. Life Orb-boosted Leaf Storm hits incredibly strong, and so does Sludge Bomb. Its job is mainly to set up a layer of Spikes, since that's enough most of the time, but it also functions as a Grass-type that checks the likes of Milotic (to make Ninetales' job a bit easier), Shaymin, and Decidueye. I used to have Sleep Powder and Natural Cure over Technician HP Fire, but that leaves me walled by Chesnaught which isn't nice. With HP Fire Roserade is able to check Chesnaught as well, but in general it's not that big of a problem to the team anyway, although it being able to get multiple layers of Spikes can be annoying.



favourite (Cresselia) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Def / 144 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonlight
- Moonblast
- Lunar Dance​

Cresselia was added to the team basically just for its ability to use Lunar Dance to give a Pokemon another chance to fight, but its also a very useful glue to have for the team. It gives me a guaranteed switch in to a lot of Pokemon, specifically Machamp, Bewear, Honchkrow, Cloyster, Kommo-o, Dragalge, and the list goes on. It can also benefit from Ninetales' sun through Moonlight which is nice. The Speed EVs allow it to always outspeed Adamant Honchkrow as well as Jolly Bewear and anything under that. Moonblast gives it a way to heavily damage Dark-types, with Psychic being the primary STAB. There's not much else to say about this Pokemon honestly, it's very straightforward and simple to use.


dragon (Zygarde-10%) @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic
Zydog is a Pokemon that heavily appreciates hazards support and since this is a team that has that, I decided it'd be a good fit. It's also nice because its speed tier allows it to outspeed threats like Durant. More importantly though is its access to Extreme Speed. Coupled with Choice Band, espeed is a very important asset because it lets me revenge kill things like a weakened +1 Flygon, Scarf Gardevoir, Swellow, +2 Cloyster, and Salazzle. I'd often rely on Zydog to clean up after Ninetales broke past fat mons like Porygon2, Cresselia, Umbreon, etc. Outrage is also decently strong so it can do a bit of wallbreaking itself, but it'll never break past the likes of Gligar without chip damage. Toxic is just filler but its nice to get Gligar and Chesnaught on the switch.



ball (Nidoqueen) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Ice Beam​

Nidoqueen is the quintessential Stealth Rock user that I think is never useless on practically any team ever. Its basically walking a very thin line where she's almost there but not quite broken yet, and instead seemingly balanced. Its access to Stealth Rock + insane amounts of coverage options is super nice, and its also the universal check to any Fairy-type not called Gardevoir in this metagame. Sure, they're rare, but occasionally you'd get the Calm Mind Comfey or Florges that would be really scary, and Queen will be right there to stop them in their tracks. It also serves as a check to things like Gigalith and Doublade, which can be very annoying at times.



character? (Gardevoir) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Healing Wish​

Gardevoir was chosen as my scarfer for two reasons: one is to revenge +1 Feraligatr, and the other for its access to Healing Wish. Many times I would play super aggressively with some of my team members, and Gardevoir will be right there to patch them back up with Healing Wish. This Pokemon is also nice because it's also a good check for things like Specs Kommo-o which can overwhelm Cresselia sometimes. Moonblast and Psychic are both fairly strong STABs and Thunderbolt KOs Feraligatr after it traces Sheer Force and with Stealth Rock damage.


Threats:

: Focus Sash Galvantula literally beats this team in team preview. If they lead and click Sticky Web its as good as over. This team has no hazard control whatsoever which can sometimes be tricky to play around but Stealth Rock/Spikes/Tspikes aren't that big of a problem. Sticky web, on the other hand, is impossible to deal with, especially given how the entire team is grounded except for Cresselia which doesn't really do anything to Sticky Webs teams. My best bet at beating this is hoping Galvantula isn't sash and leading with zydog because it has a 94% chance of OHKOing with Thousand Arrows, or that they decide to click HP Ice instead of Sticky Web turn 1. This also obviously applies to other sticky web setters but Galvantula is the most common one.

: Dragon Dance Flygon is also a huge threat because it outspeeds the entire team at +1. If its Fire Punch, then Gardevoir can live (unless its in the sun) and OHKO. If its Iron Tail, then Gardevoir has to hope it can dodge it. My best bet at beating this is going to Cresselia and clicking Moonblast, then going Gardevoir predicting the z-move, sack a Pokemon and hope Cresselia can live another hit to Moonblast for the KO or revenge it with espeed afterwards. However, if it Dragon Dances again on the double to Gardevoir, it's all over.

: This team has little to deal with CurseLax, but I was lucky enough to never run into it while laddering. Still, it's a huge threat that's super hard to deal with, and it's making me consider putting Trick over something on Gardevoir, or Superpower on zydog, or even replace Roserade with Chesnaught.

whos (Ninetales) @ Firium Z
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Solar Beam
- Psyshock

your (Roserade) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Sludge Bomb
- Spikes
- Hidden Power [Fire]

favourite (Cresselia) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Def / 144 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonlight
- Moonblast
- Lunar Dance

dragon (Zygarde-10%) @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic

ball (Nidoqueen) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Ice Beam

character? (Gardevoir) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Healing Wish



Shoutouts:
This is my 4006th post but I didn't make a 4k cuz I'm a lazy son of a bitch and I think they're basic as fuck, but thanks to all my friends and people I interact with who make my stay in smogon as enjoyable as it is ^.^ they all know who they are. and if you think I hate you I probably don't unless you're slurmz.
 
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