TeamZuru

[.Aero]

TeamZuru Introduction

I suck at naming teams, and for this new generation I've been naming my teams by using "Team" and then placing the first four or so letters of the core pokemon's name. If you're unfamiliar with 5th Gen pokemon, Zuru is short for Zuruzukin, one of the most unique pokemon to come around. It looks rather stupid at first glance, but it definitely has potential with its useful bulk and great typing. So I decided to work on basing a team around it, hoping that it'll land some tasty late-game sweeps. It definitely seemed to work as when I decided to stop laddering I had made it to 24th on the ladder. I could have gone higher I think, but after not playing for a day, I dropped...fast, and I wasn't bothered to try to get up to that again. So here we go with a bulky offense featuring Zuruzukin!

TeamZuru Overview

TeamZuru In-Depth

Machamp@Lum Berry
Trait: No Guard
Nature: Adamant (+Atk; -SpA)
EVs: 240 HP / 248 Atk / 16 SpD / 4 Spe
- DynamicPunch
- Payback
- Ice Punch
- Bullet Punch

This is the first time I've ever run an anti-lead, and I figured I would go ahead and so so because Machamp seems to demolish all the common Gen 5 leads, such as Tyranitar, Mew, Erufuun, ect. He takes care of focus sash leads easily as well and even if I can't OHKO, DynamicPunch always has that 50% chance of causing them to not attack (which means no setup, amiright?). I was surprised at how well he handles this metagame as well. I've always killed the opponents lead, provided that they do not switch, and about half the time he'll land another kill due to the opponent making a bad switch-in. Definitely useful for messing with the opponent's team just as the game begins.

Zuruzukin@Leftovers
Trait: Shed Skin
Nature: Careful (+SpD; -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpD
- Bulk Up
- Crunch
- Drain Punch
- Rest

Zuruzukin is the core of the team, and an excellent one at that. Most underrated pokemon I've seen as he has access to two powerful STAB moves that are only resists by Toxicroak and Heracross. Essentially I bulk up once his main threats are out of the way (mostly Roobushin). His ability, Shed Skin, makes Rest a pretty reliable healing move as well seeing as how he has a 30% chance of healing off the sleep that very turn. Also, Desukan loves switching in on him in hopes of burning with WoW, and Rest/Shed Skin make it so easy to just shrug off and hit with a +1 Crunch. Once this thing is set up, not much can stop it. :x I mostly have to watch out for Gyarados with Dragon Tail/Roar and Roobushin with that scary Mach Punch and Bulk Up.

Desukan@Leftovers
Trait: Mummy
Nature: Bold (+Def; -Atk)
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 SpD
- Haze
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rest
- Evil Eye

My main Roobushin counter in hopes of setting up a Zuruzukin sweep. Immune to Mach Punch, eats Paybacks like they're cake, and heck burning him isn't all that scary as he can still withstand the payback and rest of the damage as Roobushin loses his lovely Guts ability to the mummification. Evil Eye is a new tool in the box that doubles in power (up to 100BP) when hitting a foe with a status ailment. Certainly this move can take the place of Shadow Ball on such a set.

Slowbro@Leftovers
Trait: Regeneration
Nature: Bold (+Def; -Atk)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
- Surf
- Psychic
- Slack Off
- Yawn

Slowbro just got a big upgrade this generation with his new ability, Regeneration. Upon switching out, Slowbro will heal 1/3 of his health. Not only is this great in general, it makes Scizor's Pursuit laughable. Now he's found his place on this team as a general fighting resist/killer. He's my backup Roobushin counter as he can phaze with Yawn, or 2HKO with Psychic. He's also a great Dory check as well for the same reasons, except with Surf.

Randorosu@Leftovers
Trait: Sand Power
Nature: Jolly (+Spe; -SpA)
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-Turn / Substitute
- Swords Dance

One word: broken. I realize it seems stupid that I don't have a Sand Stream pokemon on this team to get him the Sand Power boost, but rarely ever has that killed me. Tyranitar is so common that the opponent himself generally saves me a slot. After a Swords Dance in SS, Randorosu can OHKO Nattorei with an EQ. Heck, I can hide behind a Substitute and go to +4 in some cases and OHKO anything. U-Turn is occasionally used if I want to play Randorosu conservatively, which is generally the case as he's mostly meant to take down pokemon like Gyarados who don't stand a chance against a boosted Stone Edge even after Intimidate.

Skarmory@Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
Nature: Impish (+Def; -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP / 164 SpD / 92 Spe
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird

Basically a filler slot and I wanted Spikes. :/ Does his job well and helps phaze along with Desukan and Slowbro. He's also my only dragon resist. Therefore...Skarmory. Not much to say.

TeamZuru Difficulties

- Now one thing that can cause problems is the lack of a spinner. I was thinking of putting in Forry in place of Skarmory, which could do wonders for my team. However I don't even have that many problems with entry hazards. The only one who suffers from them is Slowbro (and that's only really with T-Spikes which isn't common anyway). However, entry hazards ARE annoying, and it seems as though Forry can do the same job as Skarmory, minus the phazing and reliable healing method.



ZOMG IT'S MIDNIGHT. I will update with more information in the problems section tomorrow. Rate anyway. ;D

 

[PlatinumDude]

Evil Eye is too iffy on Desukan. If your opponent isn't statused, it isn't going to do a lot of damage. I'd replace it with the more reliable Shadow Ball.

 

[Dark Azelf]

I actually like this team. However you are lacking Stealth Rock and Machamp just seems kinda well eh.

Id replace him with a SR lead. Tyranitar might work because stupid Magic Coat Xatu and Espeon dont DARE switch in to stop hazards who are very common atm. That and it can Pursuit them lol. This also helps Landlos for obv reasons.

Kinda Mixape weak, scarf might be nice on Landlos to give you a little insurance but meh.

Dragon Tail is also fun on Zuruzukin over Crunch to give you a secondary PHazer and to rack up hazards vs counters then you can run something cool like CM on Slowbro over Yawn and Psycho Shock over Psychic and give it 4 Speed evs. This lets it beat CM, Recover + 2 Rankurusu 100% of the time by hitting its lower defense which you dont really have a check to atm.

Just some cool stuff to try here, good luck. ^^

 

[Opposite Day]

One thing that I can see is that you have no *real* answer to dory if it gets in a swords dance, unless you kinda predict an X-scissor vs Slowbro and switch in Desukaan, in order to remove that lovely +2 speed in sand, upon which you can revenge with landlos. It can't really set up on much barring perhaps skarm with its spikes or slowbro, but after that it can actually flinch skarm to death (and considering how you are using a sdef spread, a +2 lo rock slide is a 2hko w/ sr lol :/ (48.99% - 57.64%))

Other than that I can't see that you have any real answer to rain as well, stuff like kingdra, ludicolo, gorebyss (especially gorebyss) can be troublesome as nothing likes taking a +2 hydro pump in rain, not even slowbro.
So yeah, you are weather weak kinda. Perhaps you could try using nattorei over skarm in order to kill off rain dance? That way, dory can't set up on you either since power whip 2hkos, and it has quite nice synergy with slowbro as well.


Terrakion can actually be quite threatening in sand since that means that slowbro barely 2hko's it, meaning that it can SD up on a switch (from Zuruzukin for instance) I guess and 2hko (possibly ohko if it has some wear n' tear) bro w/ a lo se (72.34% - 85.28%), and continue to possibly ohko desukan w/ sr (78.75% - 92.81%), and by then it can just pick its poison and kill your remaining members, especially if champ is dead so that you can't revenge it with bullet punch. Scarfing Landlos would fix this issue, but idk for sure.

sorry if this is kinda lacking, but I don't have too much experience with gen V yet. I'll get better!