Awakening (NU)

Professor Palutena

Professor Palutena

The Queen
Member
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Introduction
Howdy PokeBeach, it’s been a long time since I’ve made one of these. Truth be told that making this was a royal pain, and that I really lacked the motivation to really make the team in the first place. I guess that’s where the team’s name came from. I had to awaken a desire in myself to actually work on this.

An NU team is a rarity on PokeBeach, so I really hope you like it. This is easily my favorite tier to play in, and I suggest it to anyone that wants to avoid the stupid stuff in OU (Terrakion and perma-weather, among other things). Despite the vastness of the tier, nothing is centralizing and it’s easily the most balanced tier that I’ve played in. So there’s some propaganda for you.

Teambuilding Process
I have a lot of experience with rain teams from OU (as much as I hate playing with them, I cannot deny their viability, so I went with a rain team. Without a Politoed in the tier, Damp Rock became a must. Prankster Volbeat is one of the best users of Rain Dance in the tier as it can get it going, and it can either function as a suicide lead or a pure supportive Pokemon with Baton Pass. Regice is my other dancer, and it focuses on more of a long term play. With its solid special bulk it is awesome for the mirror match and for Pokemon like Rotom-S that can greatly annoy Rain teams. Then I chose my sweepers. I really wanted to try Swanna so I did, and I used a pure Special set with Roost. Seismitoad is my second sweeper and my sole Swift Swimmer. Swanna and Seismitoed have solid offensive synergy as one eliminates the weaknesses of the other. For my closer, I went with Swords Dance Samurott. The most important thing it did was give my team some priority, but it isn’t an offensive slouch either. I closed the team with Scarf Sawk who is a revenge killer if the rain isn’t up, although there are lots of options for this last spot that it isn’t even funny (Gardevoir, Haunter, Cinccino, etc). While Sawk was still awesome, Scarf Gardevoir was essential for battling opposing Weather teams, and was also useful in the mirror match, though the trade off was a larger Absol weakness.

The Team

[sprite]313[/sprite]Volbeat @ Damp Rock[sprite]313[/sprite]
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Nature: Impish / Trait: Prankster
Rain Dance / Tail Glow / Baton Pass / Encore​

Like I said above, Volbeat is pure support. Its only objective is to set up Rain for the Water trio. It does that obviously through Rain Dance. With Damp Rock, the rain is guaranteed to last 8 turns or until the weather is changed. From there, Volbeat has lots of options. The first one, and my favorite one, is to set up a Tail Glow and pass it off to Seismitoad or Swanna, preferably Seismitoad. At +3 SAtk, those are both really hard to handle and makes winning so easy. The second option is to Encore the opponent into something like Stealth Rock or Fake Out, and then set up even more. The team relies so much on Volbeat, and it is really hard to replace.

[sprite]378[/sprite]Regice @ Damp Rock[sprite]378[/sprite]
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SAtk
Nature: Bold / Trait: Clear Body
Rain Dance / Ice Beam / Thunder / Thunder Wave​

Due to Volbeat’s frailty, a second dancer is required. Regice fits that role perfectly, and can even take advantage of the rain itself. By this point, it is obvious why I have Rain Dance on Regice. Ice Beam is STAB and forms BoltBeam with Thunder, which has perfect accuracy under Rain. Thunder Wave support is absolutely incredible on an offensive team like this. Due to Regice’s awesome special defense, investing it is mostly futile, so expanding its physical bulk makes the most sense.

[sprite]282[/sprite]Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf[sprite]282[/sprite]
EVs: 252 SAtk/252 Spe/4SDef
Nature: Timid / Trait: Trace
Psychic / Thunderbolt / Hidden Power Ice / Trick​

Regardless of the weather used, most weather teams employ a similar strategy to mine, with two summoners and three sweepers, leaving one spot as my wild card. Gardevoir is my wild card, but it is an incredible wild card. When it isn’t raining, Gardevoir is still fast. It is fast enough that it outspeeds Swellow and its flying friends, a trait that you can’t have too many of. Psychic is the obvious STAB move. Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Ice form BoltBeam, and also give Gardevoir options for taking on fliers. By adding Gardevoir, I increased by weakness to Lickilicky and Cryogonal. However, Trick works very well against them, and a Tricked wall makes winning so much easier. Trace is an awesome niche for Gardevoir, and it’s something that made Gardevoir unique in the Mesprit era. It still works wonders given how common weather sweepers are in NU. Against Sun teams, I can Trace Leafeon’s Chlorophyl, outspeed it and hit it with HP Ice. Against opposing rain teams, I do the same via tracing Swift Swim and using Thunderbolt.

[sprite]537[/sprite]Seismitoad @ Life Orb[sprite]537[/sprite]
EVs: 252 SAtk/252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Modest / Trait: Swift Swim
Surf / Sludge Wave / Earth Power / Hidden Power Ice​

Seismitoad is so rare that people don’t really know what it does. Most people think that it’s like Swampert Jr., so they send out their physical walls to take an attack. Truth be told, Seismitoad’s special movepool is so much better than its physical movepool. These four moves hit everything that I could ever want. With Swift Swim, it outspeeds most of the tier. Surf and Earth Power are for STABs. Sludge Wave is for Grass-types, and Hidden Power Ice is mostly for Altaria. Seismitoad is the glue of this team. It’s typing, ability and moves make it awesome at taking out both Electric- and Grass-type Pokemon. With those out of the way, Swanna and Samurott have the opportunity for a sweep. Synergy with Volbeat is awesome, and a Tail Glow turns Seismitoad into a massive special attacker that is difficult to stop while the rain is pouring.


[sprite]581[/sprite]Swanna @ Leftovers[sprite]581[/sprite]
EVs: 252 SAtk/252 Spe/4 Def
Nature: Timid / Trait: Keen Eye
Surf / Ice Beam / Hurricane / Roost​

The second of the offensive trio is Swanna. While it may seem lacklustre due to none of its stats being over base 100, Swanna benefits so much from rain that it is foolish in my eyes not to run it. Being the best of the three users of Hurricane in NU (the other two being Pidgeot and Pelliper) alone is an awesome reason to run it. Throw in STAB Surf and a solid Speed stat and you’ve got a pretty solid Pokemon. Ice Beam gives more coverage and further enhances Swanna’s ability to take down Grass-type Pokemon. Roost ties the moveset together by healing off Stealth Rock damage and also letting Swanna heal off damage from Scarf Sawk’s Close Combat. Like Seismitoad, Swanna can be a great recipient for a Tail Glow pass.

[sprite]503[/sprite]Samurott @ Lum Berry[sprite]503[/sprite]
EVs: 112 HP/252 Atk/144 Spe
Nature: Adamant / Trait: Torrent
Swords Dance / Aqua Jet / Megahorn / Waterfall​

The star of the show is Mr. Samurai Otter. He’s pretty solid as a cleaner. He’s reasonably bulky, and has priority, making him difficult to stop once he gets a boost going. Aqua Jet is an absolute blessing on this team, as a +2 rain-boosted Aqua Jet dents a lot of things hard, especially frail Pokemon like Swellow and Absol. Megahorn stops the Grass-types that would otherwise wall Samurott, and Waterfall is the staple STAB attack for Samurott when Aqua Jet isn’t needed. Lum Berry lets Samurott take a status move while it sets up, which can be critical late in the game. Probably due to the sheer force of Swanna and Seismitoad, Samurott isn’t really needed. But the priority makes replacing it hard.

Closing
Even though I probably sounded really experienced in NU in my intro, I’m still learning a whole lot about the tier. But I can only go upwards from here. I wanted something different than the standard OU stuff as my final RMT before BW2 comes out, and knowing this place’s VG forum, a NU team is rare. So I hope you enjoyed this team of mine, and maybe learned something about a tier you have yet to try.
 
I don't really have any experience in NU but it looks like a solid team. I think gorebyss could be more usefull than Semistoad as a rain attacker. Also maybe Hydro Pump over Surf on Swanna.
 
Thanks SS.

Gorebyss is really good. However, I'd rather avoid having to waste one of my 8 turns of rain setting up a Shell Smash. Seismitoad is naturally faster than Gorebyss, and it hits hard right off the bat. The Ground-type is really good against Electric-types like Rotom-S and Zebstrika who have lots of fun against a Rain team.
 
YOU USED GARDEVOIR. I LOVE YOU FOREVER.

I don't know if Gardevoir can use Thunder or not. If it can, it might be worth trying over Thunderbolt. I would also take the opportunity to abuse Hydro Pump over Surf whenever possible, in rain it's going to hit like a truck, and I think the increase in power outweighs the accuracy. (Which isn't even that terrible. I mean, come on. 85.) Yeah I don't have much experience in NU so I can't help much more :x. i think Samurott can learn Superpower (or maybe I'm just high). IDK how many Pokémon would be threatened by that in NU, but just thought I'd throw that out there.
 
Gardevoir can unfortunately not learn Thunder. Samurott can know Superpower in BW2, which was after this team was done. I've always used Surf over Hydro Pump because it's so reliable, and after a Tail Glow pass, the power doesn't matter.
 
Personally I would suggest Ludicolo over Regice. The one problem this team might have is Quagsire, and Ludicolo can not only set up Rain Dance, but also kills off bulky water types (and benefits from Tail Glow). I know Ludicolo can lose out if you don't opt for Damp Rock, but personally with proper prediction and pivoting with BP, Volbeat should be able to stay alive for most of the match.

I don't see much else wrong with the team, though both Gardy and Seismitoad use HP Ice. If one of them switched to HP Grass, Ludicolo actually wouldn't be needed. Good luck with this team! My Dance team is very similar to yours.
 
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