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Competitive NU Team

tajaros

Hi I'm dawg
855
Posts
12
Years
I want to get my team rated or have some help in deciding changes with my team.

Bellossom (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 85 HP / 82 Atk / 83 Def / 81 SAtk / 79 SDef / 100 Spd
Serious Nature
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Facade

Luxray (M) @ Flame Orb
Trait: Guts
EVs: 85 HP / 70 Atk / 85 Def / 84 SAtk / 84 SDef / 102 Spd
- Facade
- Fire Fang
- Discharge
- Volt Switch

Armaldo (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Battle Armor
EVs: 85 HP / 84 Atk / 85 Def / 84 SAtk / 84 SDef / 86 Spd
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Aqua Tail

Carracosta (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Solid Rock
EVs: 84 HP / 82 Atk / 83 Def / 84 SAtk / 86 SDef / 91 Spd
- Aqua Tail
- Ice Beam
- Substitute
- Stone Edge

Articuno @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 85 HP / 86 Atk / 83 Def / 83 SAtk / 83 SDef / 90 Spd
- Ice Beam
- Roost
- Substitute
- Hurricane

Gurdurr (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Guts
EVs: 90 HP / 83 Atk / 83 Def / 83 SAtk / 84 SDef / 87 Spd
- Drain Punch
- Poison Jab
- Mach Punch
- Stone Edge
 

Zeffy

g'day
6,402
Posts
15
Years
  • Age 27
  • Seen Feb 7, 2024
The EVs you show here are, well, wrong. iirc only 255 EV points can be used and yours total up to 430, give and take a few numbers. You might want to fix this.
 

tajaros

Hi I'm dawg
855
Posts
12
Years
The EVs you show here are, well, wrong. iirc only 255 EV points can be used and yours total up to 430, give and take a few numbers. You might want to fix this.

No, I think 503 EV's are available in Pokemon Showdown... :/
 

Ice Car

Banned
515
Posts
14
Years
Is there any particular reason your EVs are scattered all around and not in increments of 4? You might want to focus those EVs around certain stats that are most important to a particular set.

I can't really provide any criticisms on the team because I haven't battled online ever (though I do have a pretty large understanding of the metagame) but those EVs are the first thing I noticed when I looked at it.
 

tajaros

Hi I'm dawg
855
Posts
12
Years
Is there any particular reason your EVs are scattered all around and not in increments of 4? You might want to focus those EVs around certain stats that are most important to a particular set.

I can't really provide any criticisms on the team because I haven't battled online ever (though I do have a pretty large understanding of the metagame) but those EVs are the first thing I noticed when I looked at it.
Ok, I think a balanced EV Pokemon would be great thanks, I'll change those... :D
 

Zeffy

g'day
6,402
Posts
15
Years
  • Age 27
  • Seen Feb 7, 2024
Oh yes, my bad (255 was for 2 stats or something similar to that) but my point still stands. You still want to fix your EVs. EVs invested into a stat that a certain Pokemon won't be needing is hardly necessary. They should focus on the stats that they have to focus; ie attacking Pokemon should invest in atk/sp.atk/spd whilst defensive Pokemon should invest in hp/def/sp.def. Smogon's EV spreads are a nice start, they provide explanations for some as well. You might want to look into those unless you're pretty sure of what you're doing.
 

Ho-Oh

used Sacred Fire!
35,992
Posts
18
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Jul 1, 2023
sup?

So a few things other than just the EVs are off here, but okay! With Bellossom, Facade isn't necessary because you're not actually status'd and it only works when the status is on you, not on the opponent. However, Bellossom generally isn't that great and is outclassed by a lot of NU Pokemon for said role. Exeggutor is something that can do what you want there, and also works under sun too (in case you wanted it as a "just because" sun sweeper, however for what you have, Harvest on Exeggutor would be better because the item reappears after use, well, a 50% chance of it at least, meaning as long as the opponent isn't a Sap Sipper, you shouldn't have too much trouble gaining status back from Lum berry, or HP from Sitrus). Ludicolo is another option, and if you use it most people will generally assume it's a rain sweeper, rather than the stall-ish set and play differently around it, assuming it'll set up rain. It also has the added bonus of being a little less Skuntank weak than Exeggutor, which can easily be Taunted and Pursuited, while Ludicolo is less afraid of most Skuntank, except the ones with Poison Jab. Exeggutor has the added bonus of taking on Amoonguss (unless you're switching in), something that Bellossom cannot do. Nevertheless, Exeggutor will need Leech Seed/Substitute/Psychic/Protect with a Bold nature, Harvest and a Sitrus Berry with Harvest and 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 Spe. For Ludicolo, Scald/Leech Seed/Ice Beam/Giga Drain, with a Modest nature, Leftovers and 252 HP / 152 SpA / 104 SpD + Rain Dish.

Luxray isn't really used that much in NU, and it seems you're using it for a few different purposes, rather than opting for an actual mixed set. Do you wanna keep it? If so, Wild Charge > Discharge and Crunch/Hidden Power Grass too, while keeping Facade, with Naughty, Toxic Orb and 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe. Either way, why did you want it? Did you want something that can help give momentum with Volt Switch (if so, Eelektross is a good option, with a special-attacking set of Giga Drain/Volt Switch/Flamethrower/Thunderbolt, or something like Ampharos or Electrode), or something that can spread status with Discharge (if so, Stunfisk could be considered, however, with that in mind, your Pokemon do have an issue with ground attacks as it is already - and due to Golurk and Golem being common in NU, you might want to consider Eelektross instead, to provide immunity to ground attacks), but ya it depends on what you want really.

On Armaldo generally Aqua Tail and Earthquake do very little to the opponents you face - you're a lot better going with Stealth Rock, Rapid Spin - to help Articuno, X-Scissor and Stone Edge, or skip the Rapid Spin and go for Swords Dance and Rock Slide > Stone Edge, it's up to you on the role you want it to have but generally those two STABs do best. The first combination uses Adamant, Leftovers and 128 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 124 Spe. The second uses Leftovers, Impish and 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD.

Given that Armaldo has Stealth Rock, you could make Carracosta a Shell Smashing one with 3 STAB attacks. So if so you'd have Stone Edge / Waterfall / Aqua Jet / Shell Smash. If so you'll want either a Life Orb, or a White Herb, - so your defenses aren't lowered, or so your attack power is a lot stronger. This'd need Jolly and 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe.

Since two of your Pokemon benefit from the rain (and possible a third if you do choose Ludicolo), you could opt for Rain Dance > Substitute, giving Hurricane much-needed 100% accuracy, help Ludicolo recover some HP for a little while and make Carracosta's Waterfall's hit harder. This'd need Modest/Timid, Life Orb and 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe.

Gurdurr generally needs Eviolite in order to be able to take hits and hit back, as well as set up Bulk Up. With that said, most Gurdurr do choose to run Bulk Up > Poison Jab, because generally there's very little benefit to running it as grass types shouldn't pose that much of an issue to it if it carries Ice Punch. On that note, since B2W2 changes, rather than Stone Edge most Gurdurr run Ice Punch instead (or Payback to hit Musharna) for better accuracy and to hit grass types if necessary. This'd need 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD and Adamant.

Toxic Spikes can appear a bit in NU and while Armaldo may spin them, generally having a poison type can be beneficial to you to Absorb them and all. There's also really nothing that can easily take out Garbodor face to face and it could set up three levels of spikes+poison spikes leaving you with very little to do against it. While psychic types can be useful in NU due to the amount of poison types, another option you have for SR lead could be Golem. It can carry Earthquake, Rock Blast and Stealth Rock like you wanted, have pretty good defense+attack and can hit back on your opponents that are poison-typed (and Skuntank even if you choose Exeggutor). Another issue you face, however, is CB Sawk, which can do pretty heavy damage to most of your Pokemon. An option you have is to use Golurk for Stealth Rock, which has Earthquake, Shadow Punch (to hit Psychic types that are pretty common in NU) and Stone Edge if you wanted to hit flying types - with leftovers. However, Sawk carry Ice Punch, and that can become an issue if it's expected that you'll switch into Golurk, leaving you with not that much that can easily take Ice Punch (if SR is up, then Articuno isn't really the best option, and Gurdurr still would get some damage to it switching into it. The other alternative is going with a psychic type that can take out all that (such as Musharna), as well as provide heal bell to help your Pokemon with status, however that isn't that much of an issue to you. While it can't take out poison types as easily as the others, you could have a better chance if you go with the Life Orb set with Psychic/Signal Beam/HP Ground - to hit Skuntank and Moonlight to help with damage. However, that means you wouldn't have SR, so alternatively you could give Carracosta SR over Shell Smash and just give it leftovers instead. Sooo it depends on how you wanna cover that stuff, which is why I didn't state the extra EVs and such!

Either way, it is good that you like NU so much that you're willing to make an RMT about it, and hopefully we see you battling around the server a lot more with whatever you decide to do with it. :)
 

PlatinumDude

Nyeh?
12,964
Posts
13
Years
To add to what Zeffy said, sometimes balanced EV spreads aren't a good idea because while a balanced EV spread could make your Pokemon "jacks-of-all-stats" to an extent, it might end up making them "masters of none," meaning that they can't hit as hard as they need to, take more damage than necessary, or fail to outspeed the Pokemon they'd normally outspeed.

For instance, Bellossom is great at Special attacking, but isn't so good at physical attacking. As Nica already mentioned, Ludicolo is a better option because it can function inside and outside of rain teams; Bellossom is best in sun teams:
-Scald
-Giga Drain
-Ice Beam/Toxic
-Synthesis/Leech Seed
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP/152 SAtk/104 SDef
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Rain Dish

or
-Substitute
-Leech Seed
-Scald/Toxic
-Ice Beam
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 SDef
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Rain Dish

Luxray excels at physical attacking. It currently knows special moves, which wastes away its use of Guts:
-Wild Charge
-Facade
-Crunch
-Hidden Power (Grass)
Nature: Naughty
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Flame Orb
Ability: Guts

or
-Wild Charge
-Superpower/Crunch
-Hidden Power (Grass)
-Signal Beam
Nature: Lonely/Naughty
EVs: 252 Atk/120 SAtk/136 Spe
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate/Guts

As Nica said, Armaldo is better off setting up Stealth Rock, as well as spinning them away to make Articuno's time on the field easier:
-Stealth Rock
-Rapid Spin
-Rock Blast/Stone Edge
-X-Scissor/Earthquake
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 128 HP/252 Atk/4 Def/124 Spe
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor

And pretty much everyone above summed up what I was about to say next, so good luck with the team.
 

tajaros

Hi I'm dawg
855
Posts
12
Years
Thanks, guys this would make my team a lot better... :D

This put a lot more understanding on competitive battling... :D
 
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