ORAS NU Assault Vest Magmortar

[TheBanker]

I've been playing around with this team for a few weeks now and while it's not bad, I think it still has room for improvement. The idea of this team is to clear a path for a Magmortar sweep.

(Magmortar) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 64 HP / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Flame Charge
- Focus Blast

Magmortar is the offensive core of this team. I gave it an Assault Vest to make it more resistant against any special attacks coming at it. I chose Flame Body over Vital Spirit since I don't have a problem with the opponent trying to put me to sleep, and because of the potential to burn physical attackers on contact. Fire Blast is the main STAB, Thunderbolt and Focus Blast are good for coverage, and Flame Charge is there to get Magmortar's Speed up (Even one Flame Charge lets it outspeed a ton of stuff).

Samurott (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off

Samurott forms the other half of the team's core. I decided to give this set a Lum Berry since I find that it really helps Samurott avoid getting burned or paralyzed while trying to get up a Swords Dance. EVs are straightforward, Jolly nature to get max. speed. Waterfall is the main STAB move, Aqua Jet is meant to revenge kill and get around potential Sucker Punches. Knock Off is there for the Pokemon who resist Water-types, and of course it's good for getting rid of their items.

Cradily (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Toxic
- Recover
- Stealth Rock
- Seed Bomb

Part of what I'm trying to improve is Cradily's performance potential. I run a Specially Defensive set with physically attacking moves and a Careful nature. Seed Bomb is the main Grass coverage move, and I used to have Stone Edge on it until more recently. The reason I switched from SE to Toxic was to get stuff like Calm Mind Audino, which is a major headache for me (I might switch back, not entirely sure yet.) Recover increases vitality and Stealth Rock is there to set up hazards while the opponent switches out whatever it is Cradily is walling.

Weezing (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 108 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flamethrower
- Pain Split
- Sludge Bomb

Weezing's role is to switch into physical attackers that Magmortar doesn't want to face. Will-O-Wisp is for neutering the likes of Hitmonchan and Malamar. Flamethrower is for Sub KlingKlang, so it doesn't get an easy set up. Pain Split and Black Sludge are all I've got for recovery, but they work. Sludge Bomb over Sludge Wave because of the poison chance, plus it still hits hard against Grass-types.

Mesprit @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
- Energy Ball
- Healing Wish

Mesprit is here to provide more coverage that I felt was really needed. This is a standard Offensive 3 Moves set. Psychic is for stuff like non-Scarfed Primeape and Weezing, Signal Beam is for taking out Malamar and Shiftry, and Energy Ball is for Lanturn and other Water-types Magmortar would have trouble with. Obviously I'm using a Life Orb over a Colbur Berry because I'm not setting up Calm Minds. Healing Wish is really useful in healing a teammate when Mesprit is about to go down.

Primeape (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Night Slash
- U-turn

This is what I usually lead with. Primeape serves more a pivot role here with U-Turn. The idea with him was to have a revenge killer, and I'm still trying to work out which moves to use since he's got a pretty good movepool. As of now I have Close Combat for STAB, U-Turn for pivoting, EQ for coverage against Manectric and Lanturn, and Night Slash so Primeape can hit Mismagius. It's Scarfed right now because it outspeeds a lot with it, but I'm considering a Band to see how much more damage it can do. I picked Vital Spirit over Defiant in the event I end up against a Smeargle lead.

And that's the team. Any help is appreciated, thank you for taking time to look at this.

 

[Pilo]

While your team boasts decent synergy I feel some of your choices were a bit substandard.

>

Cradily is a pretty mediocre mon in NU. It saps a lot of momentum from your team and despite its impressive role compression, it struggles as a wall an will fall quickly to most strong attackers. Lilligant on the other hand is one of the strongest offensive water resists in the tier. It sets up on common Pokemon such as Gastrodon, is a great sleep abuser, and shares great offensive synergy with both Magmortar and Samurott. This, combined with Cradily's previously mentioned lack of merit is why Lilligant over Cradily is a viable option in making your team more threatening.

>

While Weezing is an excellent Fighting resist, Garbodor seems like a much better fit on this team. It's arguably the best spike stacker in the tier and aids Magmortar in capitalizing off of the switches it forces and helping wear down mons that would otherwise check Samurott and Lilligant. On top of this, Tspike puts immense pressure on both offensive and defensive mons and hazard support in general can often sway the tide of a battle.

Since you've lost your rocker in Cradily, changing Mesprit's set to Physically Defensive. It provides Stealth Rock and is able to take some pressure off of Garbodor who is worn down easily by successive attacks. It can also keep up momentum with U-turn, Contribute speed control with T-wave, or Heal a teammate back to full with Hwish all of which are viable options. Running Colbur Berry makes Mesprit a good one time Knock Off switch in and Malamar check.

Samurott can definitely do a lot of work on this kind of team, but here are a few tweaks that will optimize the set you're running:

• Try running Megahorn over Knock Off. It hits bulky Psychic-types much harder (especially since a lot of them run Colbur nowadays) with the added benefit of covering Grass-types and OHKOing the ever so threatening Malamar.
• While it might not seem like it makes much of a difference, a Torrent boost can help Samurott tons in sweeping and definitely outclasses Shell Armor.

Not much to say about Primeape but I highly recommend you change Night Slash to Stone Edge. Night Slash does pretty negligible damage to most Psychic-types and Stone Edge hits Flying-types and deals more than enough damage to common Ghost-types like Mismag and Rotom.

I don't want to change Magmortar too much but HP Grass is a great coverage option and should be considered over Focus Blast. Earthquake over Flame Charge also lures Lanturn and is more useful in most situations but it's mostly personal preference. Vital Spirit also outclasses Flame Body since the former allows it to check things like Vileplume, Mono-attacking Sub Jynx with Ice beam, and Non-HP Rock Variants of Lilligant. The Chance to potentially burn contact attackers is not worth the risk of letting Mag get crippled or killed by a physical attack.

tl;dr

Lilligant > Cradily
Garbodor > Weezing
Defensive Mesprit > Offensive Mesprit
Torrent > Shell Armor and Megahorn > Knock Off on Samurott
Stone Edge > Night Slash on Primeape
HP Grass > Focus Blast on Magmortar

sets

Magmortar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 64 HP / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpAtk
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Earthquake / Flame Charge

Lilligant (F) @ Life Orb / Yache Berry
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Quiver Dance
- Hidden Power [Rock]

Garbodor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch

Mesprit @ Colbur Berry / Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Psyshock / Psychic
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Healing Wish / Thunder Wave

Stay sharp.

 

[HJAD]

Hey donno

Nice team here, i like its offensive nature and how one switch in leads to the next switchin for each pokemon. It also utilises rocker cradily, which is hardly ever seen, but i think is utilised well in this build considering you needed a water resist and stacked it on. A few threats from the outset are sd samurott (which dumps on cradily if thats ur sole check to waters) and hazards stack, considering you have several rocks weakness' such as magmortar, ur main wincondition.
What I suggest is running Hitmonchan > Primeape. What this does is maintain your fighting type, but also give it the utility of mach punch priority and rapid spin utility. This allows you to maintain your winconditions much easier.
This change as a result, leaves you without speed control, which is suggest leaving to Mesprit. Choice Scarf Mesprit with U-Turn > Signal allows you to have a fast healing wisher and create a 7th mon effect, whilst maintaining your speed control.
Finally, i suggest running an AoA Samurott > SD. What this allows you to do is have a Malamar check, and have a light Samurott check in one slot, with LO Naive Grass Knot putting SD Samurott in range of an easy revenge kill from anyone of your mons, but most likely hitmonchan.

sets

Hitmonchan @ Life Orb / Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch / Thunder Punch / Stone Edge
- Rapid Spin

Choice Scarf > Life Orb
U-Turn > Signal Beam

Samurott @ Life Orb
Ability: Torrent
EVs 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Grass Knot
- Megahorn
- Aqua Jet / Ice Beam / Knock Off / Hidden Power Electric

best of luck in the future
~HJAD