Introduction
For those who know me, the RMT forums are probably the least likely place to find me on Smogon, which may or may not be because nothing here needs to be grammar checked. Little do they know that I've made a couple of RMTs back in the day, but I don't like to talk about it. Anyways, to make my 2,000th post special, I've decided to make one of these posts again, except I'm pretty confident that this team won't be as bad as the others. I also wanted to make this RMT themed around what's currently my favorite game at the moment, VALORANT. Cheesy, sure, but hopefully I'll make up for it with the tunes I provide. No promises, though.
Team Building Process
In all honestly, the main reason I decided to start building a team beginning with Primarina was because curiosity answered with it when I asked what OU Pokemon that should be used more often should I build around. It was definitely a good choice, though, as Primarina is definitely an underrated threat in OU at the moment, taking care of a good majority of the metagame. But what about the ones that it can't? Hmm...
As a Pokemon on the rise in OU, Salazzle was also a Pokemon I wanted to experiment with. Surely enough, I find it pairing well with Primarina, not only taking care of Pokemon it can't alone like Ferrothorn but also inflicting Toxic on them. I'd like to also add that inflicting Toxic on Toxapex and Corviknight is the best feeling in the entire world, right after closing all of your tabs you had opened after finishing a school assignment. And sex, I think.
For the defensive backbones of my team, I began with Ferrothorn, as I believe its ability to wear down so many Pokemon with Spikes, Leech Seed, Iron Barbs, Rock Helmet, and just attacking in general are appreciated by both Primarina and Salazzle. You can say that for just about any Pokemon, honestly, but the fact that both of them love taking advantage of foes under a lot of pressure make Ferrothorn a stellar pick
I would love to throw Clefable into a meat grinder for how annoying it is to face, but I chose to put it on my team due to how valuable the Wish support is for Primarina and Salazzle. It's safe, for now.
Choosing the last two Pokemon for this team was incredibly hard, considering that I still needed to fill in a good amount of roles I didn't have yet, specifically a solid Zeraora check. I chose Hippowdon for not only doing that, but also providing even more chip damage to help the team out with Stealth Rock, Whirlwind, and Sand Stream.
The last slot of my team still needed to both give me a form of hazard removal and a way to circumvent the slowness of my team, not to mention a Ground-type immunity. Thanks to Rekeri, I found out that Hydreigon can cover all of these for my team. It can be hard to Defog when you're running Choice Scarf, though it can be simple when you bluffing another set.
If I told you that I made this team in one go, it would probably would be the worst lie you've ever heard. Just because of how hard it was to fill in the last two slots, I've probably made close to 10 variations of this team, all of which had different variations of the last two slots. Some highlights are Hippowdon / Excadrill making my team too weak to Ground-types, Seismitoad / Corviknight for being too passive, and Hippowdon / Galarian Weezing because Galarian Weezing unfortunately was having trouble doing its job efficiently. Ah well.
The Team in Depth
(click on their sprite or name for some tunes you may or may not like)
Jett (Primarina) (F) @
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 80 Def / 44 SpD / 136 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Substitute
Calm Mind
Scald
Moonblast
"Wind, show me where to go"
Primarina easily takes advantage of passive Pokemon like that can't break its Substitute in one shot. Seismitoad is a big example of this, as Primarina can come in on a predicted Stealth Rock, which grants me a free Substitute, as it will either try to use Toxic on it or attack it, not even breaking its Substitute. Afterwards, Primarina can absolutely destroy teams when setting up with Calm Mind, KOing a huge amount of the metagame after even a couple of boosts. The EV spread and the whole set in general was provided by Ruft (good user) in this post I read, but just to sum up what he said, 136 Speed EVs is enough to always outspeed Conkeldurr, and 44 Special Defense EVs makes it so Primarina's Substitute isn't one-shot by Clefable's Moonblast. Additionally, though, I found out that 80 Defense EVs allows Primarina to live at least one Fishious Rend from Dracovish from full. Situational? Yeah, but it has definitely helped me in some battles.
Viper (Salazzle) @
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Toxic
Sludge Wave
Flamethrower
Nasty Plot
"No one can hold their breath forever"
Salazzle, again, felt like a really good partner for Primarina, as it can take care of the Pokemon Primarina can't set up on so easily, such as Ferrothorn. In fact, Salazzle can very easily just switch in on Ferrothorn and do whatever I want. Usually the safest play is to just use Toxic, since Corrosion makes it free almost a majority of the time. Being able to just Toxic whatever I want is just so good for this team, since a prominent theme of it is to do as much chip damage as possible. Most notably, getting Toxic on the common Toxapex switch-in also helps Primarina a lot, especially if it's running Haze. I opted for Nasty Plot over Knock Off because oftentimes, when I force a switch with Salazzle, a Nasty Plot boost can occasionally confirm the win for me as long as Salazzle's still faster than everything and the opponent doesn't have anything that resists Sludge Wave and Flamethrower. Either way, they're also risking getting inflicted by Toxic.
Cypher (Ferrothorn) (M) @
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
Spikes
Body Press
Knock Off
Leech Seed
"Nothing stays hidden from me...nothing"
Ferrothorn is overall a great defensive backbone to have, and the utility it provides supports Primarina and Salazzle so much. Specifically, Spikes discourages switching a lot, which is definitely what must opponents will need to do versus the offensive duo on this team. While the Rocky Helmet isn't as great as Leftovers, it helps a lot versus Dracovish, chipping it down fast while Ferrothorn can potentially cripple it with Knock Off. Knock Off alongside Leech Seed is just great support for Primarina and Salazzle, crippling a lot of a Pokemon to make their job easier while still pressuring the opponent to switch for free chip via Spikes.
Sage (Clefable) (F) @
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
Teleport
Moonblast
Wish
Protect
"I am not just your healer"
Clefable is a pretty self explanatory pick for this team. Primarina and Salazzle can suffer some chip consistently pressuring and forcing the opponent to switch, so Wish support is extremely helpful. Ferrothorn also appreciates the Wish support more than it would normally, considering it's giving up passive recovery via Leftovers. Clefable is also great to help either of them in safely with Teleport, avoiding potentially getting inflicted by status or taking too much damage, especially in Salazzle's case, considering how frail it is.
Breach (Hippowdon) (M) @
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
Earthquake
Slack Off
Stealth Rock
Whirlwind
"If you're not getting shot at, you're doing something wrong"
Hippowdon I feel takes care of what Ferrothorn and Clefable can't. Specifically, Hippowdon is really helpful when facing Bisharp and Zeraora, though Grass Knot Zeraora can be trouble some at times. Once again, chip damage is always appreciated by Primarina and Salazzle, and Hippowdon can provide that with Stealth Rock and Whirlwind alongside Sand Stream. I suppose Seismitoad might also be able to take up this spot instead of Hippowdon in order to give me a better matchup versus Rotom-H, but for now I feel like I really need something for Bisharp and a better matchup versus Zeraora. I do need to dance around Rotom-H a lot, though.
Omen (Hydreigon) (M) @
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Dark Pulse
Draco Meteor
U-turn
Defog
"Watch them run"
Running your hazard removal on your Choice Scarf user can sometimes be very constraining, but oftentimes, Hydreigon can scare off whatever's on the field when it comes in, granting me a free Defog while still concealing the fact that it has Choice Scarf. It overall helps the team a lot being Choice Scarf anyways, putting pressure on Pokemon that can outspeed the rest of the team, such as Zeraora and Dragapult. The problem with hazards isn't even really that big of a deal, besides maybe the one situation where Primarina can take a hit from Dracovish from full, but otherwise Hydreigon is mostly used to deter fast Pokemon from taking advantage of the team.
Threats
While it can be worked around, Togekiss is probably the biggest threat to the team. Its Choice Scarf set outspeeds my entire team but Hydreigon, which can't even dent it anyways, and Air Slash flinches usually block me from my win condition. Its Nasty Plot is just as annoying, since I usually need to sacrifice a Pokemon just to break its Substitute, and it'll probably just switch out and do it all over again when it has the chance.
While Rotom-H doesn't absolutely destroy my team outright, it can definitely be an annoyance all game. Even then, it could easily secure my opponent's win if I play it even slightly incorrectly. My most reliable way to catch it is to KO it with Hydreigon, but I would just reveal that it's running Choice Scarf. Of course, Seismitoad can easily solve this problem, but I feel like Hippowdon is just as important to cover the bigger weakness in Bisharp.
Grass Knot Zeraora is pretty annoying for the team. If it is running the move, then I feel more pressured to keep switching out and rely on chip damage to wear it down. Regardless, the amount of resources I usually put into KOing it can leave me pretty weak for the opponent to clean up.
Weather is really difficult to work around in general. It pressures me to switch into Hippowdon to change the weather, but my opponent can easily take advantage. Common rain and sun sweepers, specifically Dracovish and Venusaur, respectively, put so much pressure on my team under weather and can easily overwhelm it by doing more than it can handle, especially in Dracovish's case.
Importables
Click here to get a PokePaste of the showcased team. Since I did talk about how Hippowdon could potentially be alternated with Seismitoad, click here to get one with Seismitoad instead. If you're really interested in the previous versions of this team, feel free to ask, and I'll be more than happy to share.
Shoutouts
Can't be a milestone RMT post without shoutouts I suppose. It'll be relatively short, since my Smogon circle is relatively small.
Jordy lyd maroon Panther-T Splash Jho Decem Stoward curiosity Rabia Diophantine
Straight up HOMIES. Always enjoy talking to y'all. Special shoutout to Diophantine for keeping it together when you tutored me in USUM OU way back when. It certainly helped keep my spark for competitive Pokemon alive.
GP Team
The GP homies are dope as hell, and while I only pop into the Discord to chat casually, it's always really enjoyable to chat with them. Special shoutout to lotiasite and martha for tutoring me to make better amchecks and eventually work my way up to becoming an official one. I definitely would've slowly lost interest if you two didn't help me do better.
There's so many other people that I've interacted on Smogon, but the list would be simply too long. To wrap it all though, I'd just like to thank those people for making Smogon a very enjoyable community. To those that have never even interacted with me, I still thank you for all you do on Smogon.
Straight up HOMIES. Always enjoy talking to y'all. Special shoutout to Diophantine for keeping it together when you tutored me in USUM OU way back when. It certainly helped keep my spark for competitive Pokemon alive.
GP Team
The GP homies are dope as hell, and while I only pop into the Discord to chat casually, it's always really enjoyable to chat with them. Special shoutout to lotiasite and martha for tutoring me to make better amchecks and eventually work my way up to becoming an official one. I definitely would've slowly lost interest if you two didn't help me do better.
There's so many other people that I've interacted on Smogon, but the list would be simply too long. To wrap it all though, I'd just like to thank those people for making Smogon a very enjoyable community. To those that have never even interacted with me, I still thank you for all you do on Smogon.
So yeah, that was pretty much the whole RMT. I'd love suggestions that anyone can make that would help make this team better, since I definitely won't call myself the best teambuilder. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed my RMT! I hope I'll have enough sanity to make it to 3,000 posts.
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(am I doing it right?)
