SHELLOS AKA BABY SUICUNE IS BROKEN IN LC
TABLE OF CONTENTS: (use ctrl + F to skip to a certain section!)
1. Introduction
2. Proof of Peak
3. Team + Description
4. Team Building Process
5. Team Usage Tips
6. Threat List
7. Replays
8. Shoutouts
9. Importable
10. Other Teams
11. Outro
1. INTRODUCTION
Like most casual showdown players I like watching freezai, and I saw Freezai's video about the biggest tourney ever and his team building video. I am not super involved in the LC community, and I really wanted to play in the tour, which meant I needed to make a team. I was exploring what to do when I came across a crit-me-not set for shellos on the smogon dex and really wanted to try it out, it did great in testing and I used it in several tourney matches (I don't have the time to make a new team for every round). I really do enjoy team building in LC and I hope this team can be a footing for something great, if you have improvements feel free to share them!!
2. PROOF OF PEAK
First Screenshot is Elo peak, second is Rankings peak.
3. TEAM + DESCRIPTION
Shellos @ Eviolite Ability: Sticky Hold
Level: 5
EVs: 228 HP / 132 Def / 100 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Facade
- Curse
- Amnesia
- Recover
With the lack of taunt, trick, encore, toxic, etc. in LC that stop bulky set up sweepers, shellos is an insanely broken pokemon in the current meta, I think much like zigzagoon was before it's freezai video, shellos is very underrated and I am surprised people aren't looking at it as a problem. Shellos is the main component of this team and it is a great late game sweeper, and acts as a check for ponyta and larvesta. It is insane how many pokemon it can beat 1v1 if allowed to set up a curse or amnesia. It can beat many of the pokemon that are designed to check or counter it if allowed prior set-up. I copied this set from the smogon dex so it is a pretty standard set. Facade is used to punish the placement of status conditions such as paralysis, burn, and posion. Sticky hold allows it to keep its eviolite which give shellos insanely high defensive stats when maxed out. Obviously shellos is a bit luck dependent but it can snowball out of control very easily if allowed to set up even taking out things like ferrothorn and eviolite grookey which you would think would check it. Make sure to stay out of crit range using recover and know your calcs. Shellos is very bulky so critical hits from many pokemon wont even kill.
Check calcs:
236 Atk Grookey Grassy Glide vs. +1 228 HP / 132+ Def Eviolite Shellos in Grassy Terrain: 12-14 (44.4 - 51.8%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
84 SpA Ferroseed Giga Drain vs. 228 HP / 100 SpD Eviolite Shellos: 8-12 (29.6 - 44.4%) -- 17.6% chance to 3HKO
236 Atk Ponyta Wild Charge vs. +1 228 HP / 132+ Def Eviolite Shellos: 10-12 (37 - 44.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Diglett Final Gambit vs. 228 HP Shellos: 18-18 (66.6 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
116 SpA Staryu Thunderbolt vs. +2 228 HP / 100 SpD Eviolite Shellos: 6-8 (22.2 - 29.6%) -- 2.2% chance to 4HKOCrit calcs:
0 Atk Mienfoo High Jump Kick vs. 228 HP / 132+ Def Eviolite Shellos on a critical hit: 16-19 (59.2 - 70.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 84 SpA Ferroseed Giga Drain vs. 228 HP / 100 SpD Eviolite Shellos on a critical hit: 14-18 (51.8 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
156 Atk Pawniard Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 228 HP / 132+ Def Eviolite Shellos on a critical hit: 15-18 (55.5 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKOAs you can see some very common threats cant ohko with a crit, but it is important to stay out of crit range and calc how much each mon can do with a crit to increase your odds at winning as your opponent is very unlikely. For things that Shellos struggles with, predict them coming in and use curse or amnesia accordingly to deal with those threats.
Natu @ Eviolite Ability: Magic Bounce
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Def / 36 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- U-turn
Natu is the hazard control of the team. It also acts as a ground immunity, a switch in for ferroseed, and a secondary switch in for mienfoo and grookey if koffing is getting overwhelmed. Heat wave is used to deal with steal types like ferroseed and pawniard better, and psychic is for stab damage and is good against common poison types in the tier. U-turn allows it to pivot around so you can bring in other pokemon. Natu's main weakness is it can invite in dragon dancers like tyrunt and onix to come in and set up, both of them are very hard to deal with for this team.
Mienfoo @ Eviolite Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
This mienfoo set is just the standard mienfoo set. The defensive utility it provides is especially crucial on this team, it can pivot on many things even if it takes a bit of chip it has great recovery in it's ability regenerator. Mienfoo is the most common lead for this team, if the opponent has a larvesta I usually still lead mienfoo and just click knock off into u-turn as getting burnt doesn't really matter too much. if the opponent has tyrunt or magby you should avoid letting it get statused as you will need the offensive pressure mienfoo provide to deal with both of them. If your opponent sends in their own mienfoo make sure to knock it off as this makes cleaning with sandile in the late game much easier.
Koffing @ Eviolite Ability: Neutralizing Gas
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Def / 196 SpA / 76 SpD / 156 Spe
Bold Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Pain Split
Koffing serves primarily as a check to mienfoo and grookey both of which can be a bit annoying, its ability can block grassy surge and regenerator from taking place which is very important. Pain split give it more longevity and helps it not get overwhelmed too badly by those threats, acrobatics grookey can be a bit scary but koffing can live one and fire of a sludge bomb and still have a decent amount of hp remaining. Usually if your opponent is grassy seed they wont pivot it around too much allowing for an easy kill. If your opponent has a grookey keep this thing as healthy as possible as it can sweep this team without too much trouble after koffing goes down. Thunderbolt allows koffing to check mareanie which can otherwise be a bit annoying to deal with.
Ferroseed @ Eviolite Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 5
EVs: 84 HP / 108 Def / 84 SpA / 228 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
Ferroseed is the steel type of the team which brings lots of resists with it. Ferroseed walls foongus and deals with diglett and onix which can all be annoying for shellos. Ferroseed also deals with frillish which is the most common ghost type in the tier. Stealth rock is also very important for this team to have up as it breaks sashes and allows you to deal with certain archetypes that can cause trouble such as sun or HO. Keep this mon healthy and dont let it get knocked off if you are playing against frillish, onix, or foongus as it deals with all three of them very nicely and can open up the game for shellos later. (Shellos can deal with onix as long as it hasn't dragon danced already.) The chip from iron barbs is also very important for dealing with magby as fake out+iron barbs+fake out usuallyhandles it
Sandile @ Choice Scarf Ability: Moxie
Level: 5
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 Def / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Fire Fang
- Rock Slide
Originally I had scarf diglett in this slot to give speed control and also for trapping capabilities, but I was having a lot of problems with natu and abra; they were posing a major threat so I swapped diglett for sandile instead. Sandile acts as a electric immunity, psychic immunity, speed control, and can be a late game sweeper if grookey/mach punch users are already dealt with. Moxie is a very threatening ability that can allow sandile to boost its attack off of taking out threats. Health doesn't matter too much on this pokemon so you can easily switch it in on natu once or twice and fire off an earthquake or crunch for big damage. fire fang and rockslide give coverage mostly for larvesta/grookey/ferroseed but are used very rarely as the other two moves do the job pretty nicely.
4. TEAM BUILDING PROCESS
I started out with shellos because of how threatening it is, I added ferroseed because it created a nice core with shellos, dealing with the few mons that threaten shellos. I then added mienfoo and koffing because freezai said to do that in his team building video. I added natu to give hazard control and help keep koffing from getting overwhelmed by threats. I had diglett as well but swapped it out for sandile because of its ability to deal with psychic types.
5. TEAM USAGE TIPS
vs. standard mienfoo core teams lead mienfoo, if they lead their own try to knock it off to help sandile out
vs. sun teams try to get rocks up as quick as possible and punish vulpix switch ins by sacking a mon and going into sandile, sandile will 2hko anything on most sun teams and shellos sweeps pretty easily once vulpix goes down.
vs. thunderwave spam try to punish with sandile where you can on expected thunder waves. Shellos doesn't mind thunder wave too much but hax are annoying so don't let it get too low.
vs. hyper offense switch between mienfoo and natu to try and shut down their hazards, get rocks up ASAP, and keep mienfoo healthy as it deals with a lot of HO mons.
6. THREAT LIST
Frillish walls shellos and deals with a large portion of the team defensively. Sandile can come revenge kill and ferroseed pretty much walls it. try to thunder wave it to prevent it from doing too much and knock it off. probably the biggest threat to the team, keep koffing as healthy as possible. If koffing is getting weak a uturn from mienfoo and natu can do pretty big damage while also giving you momentum. Many opponents will end up losing the game by trying to save their grookey for shellos which allows sandile to tear through their team. and the other mons to chip away as well.
both of these mons can be annoying to deal with, best counter play I have found is to switch in shellos and spam recover, they they dont switch out you can begin to set uo but shellos needs to be healthy to deal with them. Getting rocks set up also helps a ton.
This mon is mostly a threat because it can pretty much trap and kill whatever it wants to on the team, be careful switching in certain mons against it. 
if they get one boost this match is almost over. avoid playing natu and koffing too much against these as they allow them to set up. If they get the opportunity to dragon dance, ferroseed can check onix and sandile can outspeed tyrunt after one dragon dance. shellos can also check them if it starts setting up before they do, they can still win if they get a bit of luck with rock blast against shellos so be careful.7. REPLAYS
Game where I peaked: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8lc-1624563045-7uf8myre5s2dvt62mlfjpdczygy9htbpw
I have some other replays with dealing with common cores like prygon/trapinch, carvanha/larvesta, grookey/ponyta but I have the replays downloaded and I am just now realizing I can't share the link and I see this replay isn't super helpful. I will try to get some more but feel free to reach out to me on discord or via message if you want the files for the replays
8. SHOUTOUTS
Shoutout freezai for making his video. Shoutout pinkacross because I copied his format.
9. IMPORTABLE
The Team: https://pokepast.es/4607fe54ce1b7857
10. OTHER TEAMS
Freezai used this in the LC open and I just copied it, it works very well as well. It also uses shellos but adds cosmic power natu to the mix.
11. OUTRO
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy the team! :D
This is my first good RMT, I hope to make more in the future but I hope you all enjoy the squad.
