Check out this video by the wonderful Jimothy Cool covering my team. Thank you Jimothy.
love flew away
Hey all, it's leng loi back with another RMT. I know I just posted earlier this week but I peaked rank 1 with a really cool team on my suspect alt and I've gotten permission to post a second one. So anyway, here's the team.
The Team:
Teambuilding Process:
This one went through a lot of iterating with different ideas so I don't exactly remember all the choices that led to the final structure, but I can share a little bit about the overall philosophy of the team. To start, I really wanted to use Jugulis because it has a unique combination of traits that make it really good into Gliscor-based bulky teams: Ground immunity, Knock Off, Taunt, and strong special attacks with good coverage. I wanted to pair it with Spikes and U-Turn to make use of the Knock Off spam, and potentially add another Knock Off user. I ended up on Ogerpon-Wellspring after trying out Ogerpon-Cornerstone and being unhappy with the lack of defensive utility that it brought to the team. Wellspring meant that I had fewer holes to patch up with other teammates. Another problem I was running into with other versions of the team was fitting Stealth Rock and a Fairy resist. Coincidentally, Tinkaton offered both of these roles along with item removal/disruption, fast encore, and twave. Moth and Tusk were added as a holdover from earlier versions but form a great offensive core. And finally, Dragapult was added with Clear Body and Specs to give insurance against Webs teams and offer a Fire, Water, and Grass resist.
Iron Jugulis
Iron Jugulis @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Earth Power
- Taunt
Jugulis is a mon I developed a love/hate relationship with early in this generation and my mons career. On one hand, missing Hurricanes feels incredibly consequential when you have no regenerator and your item only works once a game. On the other, you can milk insane value out of this mon in a variety of matchups. I already mentioned the combination of attributes that make this a great choice into bulky teams, but being a booster mon that resists Grassy Glide and Sucker and has coverage to hit both back is incredibly valuable. Definitely a sleeper mon. The evs are very simple but I don't think there's much to be optimized there, though I could be wrong, and tera steel is for Fairies.
Ogerpon-Wellspring
Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- Horn Leech
- Spikes
- U-turn
I'm actually not a huge fan of this mon. I think it's tremendously overhyped and the SD set ends up not doing a whole lot from what I've seen. I decided to use this as my spiker, which seems a little unorthodox, but the one thing that this mon is very good at is coming in on passive mons or resistances and forcing switches. For example, most of the top balance teams are running one of Alomomola, Milotic, or Toxapex, each of which you 'threaten' an SD on. Toxapex can exploit Ogerpon better than the others, which simply have no answers, and force you to play very aggressively if you run into Waterpon + anything that you need your water to check. Like I said, I think this mon is massively overhyped but it definitely fills the role this team needs it to. U-turn gives you momentum after you've gotten up your one spike (don't get greedy) and an option to hit other Ogerpons and Rillaboom that switch in.
TWINKATON
TWINKATON (Tinkaton) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Pickpocket
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 24 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Play Rough
- Thunder Wave
- Encore
She is beauty, she is grace, she will twave you in the face. I mostly wanted this mon for her typing and Stealth Rocks, but I have gotten insane Pickpocket value on things like Boots from Weavile/fliers, Assault Vests, Choice Items, you name it I probably have a replay in <100 games of me stealing it. Now admittedly, Tink doesn't make the best use out of CB, but even if you're stealing a Specs from a Dragapult on the U-turn, it's usually worth it. The speed is honestly probably way too much. It hits 311 which is for things creeping Lando. You can run far less and be fine, but that's what I ran my whole run up to #1. I lost one game because I undersped a Manaphy which I didn't expect to be max speed because it was on a webs team, and consequently encore didn't work. Thunder Wave prevents a lot of sweeps where you otherwise wouldn't have many outs. Play Rough is our stab of choice because you can click it repeatedly and it hits what we want it to hit, including Dragons and Valiant. Encore is a huge plus to this mon and gives you outs against a lot of bulky set-up sweepers. Another sleeper mon that will get so much better if Gliscor leaves the tier.
Iron Moth
Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 124 Def / 132 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
This is more or less the most standard Moth you can run. It helps the team by offering an additional Fairy resist (one that can actually threaten defensive fairies) and an additional fast win condition. Booster spam is a pretty established offense archetype by this point in the generation that relies on multiple (usually) speed booster Pokemon to handle speed control and sweeping. The role that each of your booster mons is going to play, breaking or cleaning, depends on the matchup and should be something you plan out at team preview but reevaluate constantly. I know this is supposed to be about Iron Moth but general playing advice for this kind of structure is helpful I think. Psychic is chosen over other coverage options for opposing Iron Moths and Toxapex, while Substitute is forgone because Tera Fairy supplies Sucker Punch resistance.
Great Tusk
Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Ice Spinner
- Bulk Up
- Rapid Spin
Poison BU tusk in all its forms is one of the best win conditions in the game right now. I chose Speed Booster to fit the goal of the team, which is to overwhelm offense with speed and defense with hazard control. 4 Def EVs are chosen over Atk to give the Def boost under webs. Webs is a tricky matchup because Balloon Gholdengo is very effective at keeping webs up and webs nullify 2/3 of your Speed Boosters. I suggest burning tera early to spin on Ribombee, leading Jugulis to taunt and then either tera or switch, and overall playing aggressively to keep their hazards off.
Dragapult
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Clear Body
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- U-turn
Speaking of webs, we make a bold choice in favoring the webs matchup over the screens matchup on this Dragapult because the rest of the team threatens prominent screeners quite well with Taunt, Knock Off, and STABs. Obviously you miss infiltrator sometimes, but Clear Body Specs Pult is half of what makes the webs matchup playable in some games. I chose to run Thunderbolt as our coverage option mostly for the common Stresh balance/semistall and its derivatives, where most of the special walls/Ghost resists are weak to Electric. Otherwise, this is a standard Pult.
Usage Tips:
Coming Soon
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1983789075-z5ow47ntip3g3ea6vib0pctoklgcxqtpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1983821177-q7bo9trzfmxp0v5wfkjgqtz3iaagmsjpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1983823951-amprc1oa6jb2sjwhb2pujyjych7ufmypw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1983917798-tk41s6uvovijnkvxwbebubolcelazy5pw
Importable:
https://pokepast.es/8b9b00e8ed191547
A Shoutout:
I mod for a great community here on Smogon called the TrainerAid discord. It's run by njnp and it's a great place to talk about high-level mons and get better by talking with great players. We'd love it if you took the time to join and see if you like the vibe. We're holding a money tour at 1000 members which we are <100 members away from. Here's the link.
Thanks for reading, or skipping and stealing, I hope to see a lot more Jugs and Tinks on ladder :]
And finally, a word from our dear TL, Finchinator
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