Alright, so I recently completed my PU campaign and I figured that since NU was the only tier I have yet to play, I may as well give it a shot, and see how far I could go with a day of laddering. Relatively speaking, I found NU and PU to be extremely similar, which made it quite easy to adapt to the tier. I was a bit lazy, so some of the mons I just used from my PU team.
Anyways, I figured early on that a regular stall might be a bit tricky on the NU ladder, given the pervasiveness of Xatu and other bulky Pokemon that would take a while to break. Hence, I needed something that could deal with major stall threats as well as break down opposing Bulky Teams. Slaking was always one of the Pokemons that I wanted to try to build around, and I figured it would be fun to OHKO the entire metagame. I generally try to give Slaking openings through Wish-Passing.
This team itself has reached #8 on the NU ladder. It isn't that high and I think I could have pushed further, especially since I just started earlier today, but the lengthy search times are a bit frustrating, and due to time constraints, I figured I'd just stop here.
Proof of Peak:
*Character name is Hungraylow. I decided to borrow someone else's account lol. GXE is a bit low due to testing and very limited number of games..
Team at a Glance
Team-Building Process
So I started my team off with the remnants of my PU Stall. Sadly, my Bastiodon had to go, but Articuno + Audino provide an extremely strong specially defensive pair that can pretty much take any hits with ease, and Audino acts as the Volt-Switch soaker of the team. Articuno also fulfills the role of the Cleric and Pressure Defogger, while Audino also provides the team with Wish Support.
When building Stall in NU, I quickly realised that unless I had a breaker of my own, my match-up vs other bulky teams would be far too long and arduous for my liking. Furthermore, it would also increase the risks of mistakes in my gameplay. After some deliberation and soul-searching, I found my solution in Slaking. Slaking is able to pretty much OHKO most of the entire metagame. I also use it as a pursuit trapper, for Xatu, because it's something incredibly annoying for Stall to deal with.
Next, I needed some physical walls. I was using Vullaby and Pyukumuku for a while (borrowed from my PU team), but Vullaby had some difficulty defogging against some threats and I desperately needed a fighting resistance, so I opted for Golbat instead. I opted not to run the regular Golbat but a Heat Wave version, so that Golbat was capable of adequately defogging against Steelix, which would otherwise gain a free switch-in. I also elected to go Quagsire over Pyukumuku after my Pyukumuku got 2HKO'd by Z-Wild Charge Klinklang.
Now, I was almost done, but I still had some trouble with powerful Fire attackers such as Eruption Typhlosion and Taunt Houndoom. Hence, I decided to close off my team with Specially Defensive Diancie, which was able to solve those issues, as well as providing my team with Stealth Rocks support. Through Wish and Heal Bell support, I can ensure that my Diancie can remain relatively healthy throughout the match.
The Team
Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Pursuit
- Shadow Claw
- Hammer Arm
The king himself. Slaking provides the team with much-needed trapping and wall-breaking, as well as being an excellent revenge killer to boot. I'm not too concerned with Slaking giving the opponent free turns for set-up, as I have unaware Pokemon and ample defense to address those issues. Anyways, Banded Slaking will do a lot of damage to most Pokemon in the tier. I run Max Speed so that I can defeat or pursuit annoying mons like Decidueye and Medicham if necessary. The moveset provides me with perfect coverage, but prediction is essential with Slaking.
Articuno @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Freeze-Dry
- Heal Bell
Articuno also acts as a specially defensive check to a large portion of the NU meta-game. With access to Defog + Pressure, Articuno is able to safely Defog against some of the common hazard setters such as Philoswine, Garbodor, Palossand etc. Heal Bell provides additional sustainability and support to team members, while also ensuring that Articuno is always in a health condition. Maximum Special Defense in combination with its stellar 90/100/125 defenses allows it to soak a very heavy amount of punishment. Unfortunately, Articuno does come with a 4x Weakness to SR, but since I run sufficient Hazard Removal on this team, this didn't prove to be an issue. Freeze Dry provides Articuno with some great coverage by itself, as well as a nifty freeze chance.
Audino @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Knock Off
- Toxic
Audino provides the team with some much needed Wish Support. Knock Off and Toxic add great utility to the team, and its ability Regenerator allows Audino to act as a soak for Volt Switch, without actually taking any damage. Overall, it act as a great pivot and a few tactical switches and it can be bumped back to Full HP. Max Special Defense so that it can take the most punishment from Special Attackers.
Golbat @ Eviolite
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Toxic
- Defog
- Heat Wave
Golbat fulfills the role of the main physical damage taker, as well as Defogger against mons such as Garbodor, Rhydon, Steelix, Torterra etc. Now while these mons can still be quite annoying if they run SD or Curse, careful and tactical plays can mitigate that issue. I run Heat Wave because I need to ensure that Steelix is not able to get a free switch-in on Golbat. I run Toxic for additional coverage, it is also nifty because it never misses since Golbat is Poison Type. Infiltrator also comes in very handy against SubSeed mons, and I can Toxic them behind their Substitute.
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Recover
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Curse
Quagsire acts as the Unaware user for this team, I was previously using Pyukumuku, but realised that it wasn't really necessary for NU Stall, as prevalent Shell-Smashers such as Turtonator / Omastar are pretty much non-existent here. Also Quagsire allows me to appropriately counter KlinKlang, which can actually 2HKO Pyukumuku with Electrium Z. I opted to go for Curse, because it allows me to set up alongside other set-up attackers such as Scrafty, so that the battle doesn't get too drawn out. Quagsire also acts as a good check for Incineroar and other offensive Fire Types.
Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
Diancie fulfills the role of the Stealth Rock User on this team. It also acts as a great counter for Specially Offensive Fire Types like Typhlosion or Houndoom. I run Max SpD, so that it can fulfill it's role as a Special Wall adequately. I run Protect to gain additional recovery from Leftovers, as well as scout for opposing moves. Diamond Storm and Moonblast provide Diancie with great mixed coverage for dealing with a lot of threats on the ladder.
Conclusions
Overall I kinda enjoyed playing this team, although I'm not the biggest fan of the NU tier, due to the lengthy search times. Slaking is a Pokemon with some utility in the NU tier, if played to its strengths, and was overall refreshing to play and build around.
Since I have very little experience with this tier, I am open to any suggestions or feedback from other players on areas of improvement. I probably have yet to encounter all the threats in the NU Metagame, so the team itself is not fully developed. I'll be going on hiatus now, so apologies if I respond to messages a bit late.
I have provided some Replays and the Importable below. Again, due to very limited number of games, I don't have a lot of quality replays to share unfortunately.
Anyways, I figured early on that a regular stall might be a bit tricky on the NU ladder, given the pervasiveness of Xatu and other bulky Pokemon that would take a while to break. Hence, I needed something that could deal with major stall threats as well as break down opposing Bulky Teams. Slaking was always one of the Pokemons that I wanted to try to build around, and I figured it would be fun to OHKO the entire metagame. I generally try to give Slaking openings through Wish-Passing.
This team itself has reached #8 on the NU ladder. It isn't that high and I think I could have pushed further, especially since I just started earlier today, but the lengthy search times are a bit frustrating, and due to time constraints, I figured I'd just stop here.
Proof of Peak:
*Character name is Hungraylow. I decided to borrow someone else's account lol. GXE is a bit low due to testing and very limited number of games..
Team at a Glance
Team-Building Process
So I started my team off with the remnants of my PU Stall. Sadly, my Bastiodon had to go, but Articuno + Audino provide an extremely strong specially defensive pair that can pretty much take any hits with ease, and Audino acts as the Volt-Switch soaker of the team. Articuno also fulfills the role of the Cleric and Pressure Defogger, while Audino also provides the team with Wish Support.
When building Stall in NU, I quickly realised that unless I had a breaker of my own, my match-up vs other bulky teams would be far too long and arduous for my liking. Furthermore, it would also increase the risks of mistakes in my gameplay. After some deliberation and soul-searching, I found my solution in Slaking. Slaking is able to pretty much OHKO most of the entire metagame. I also use it as a pursuit trapper, for Xatu, because it's something incredibly annoying for Stall to deal with.
Next, I needed some physical walls. I was using Vullaby and Pyukumuku for a while (borrowed from my PU team), but Vullaby had some difficulty defogging against some threats and I desperately needed a fighting resistance, so I opted for Golbat instead. I opted not to run the regular Golbat but a Heat Wave version, so that Golbat was capable of adequately defogging against Steelix, which would otherwise gain a free switch-in. I also elected to go Quagsire over Pyukumuku after my Pyukumuku got 2HKO'd by Z-Wild Charge Klinklang.
Now, I was almost done, but I still had some trouble with powerful Fire attackers such as Eruption Typhlosion and Taunt Houndoom. Hence, I decided to close off my team with Specially Defensive Diancie, which was able to solve those issues, as well as providing my team with Stealth Rocks support. Through Wish and Heal Bell support, I can ensure that my Diancie can remain relatively healthy throughout the match.
The Team
Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Pursuit
- Shadow Claw
- Hammer Arm
The king himself. Slaking provides the team with much-needed trapping and wall-breaking, as well as being an excellent revenge killer to boot. I'm not too concerned with Slaking giving the opponent free turns for set-up, as I have unaware Pokemon and ample defense to address those issues. Anyways, Banded Slaking will do a lot of damage to most Pokemon in the tier. I run Max Speed so that I can defeat or pursuit annoying mons like Decidueye and Medicham if necessary. The moveset provides me with perfect coverage, but prediction is essential with Slaking.
Articuno @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Freeze-Dry
- Heal Bell
Articuno also acts as a specially defensive check to a large portion of the NU meta-game. With access to Defog + Pressure, Articuno is able to safely Defog against some of the common hazard setters such as Philoswine, Garbodor, Palossand etc. Heal Bell provides additional sustainability and support to team members, while also ensuring that Articuno is always in a health condition. Maximum Special Defense in combination with its stellar 90/100/125 defenses allows it to soak a very heavy amount of punishment. Unfortunately, Articuno does come with a 4x Weakness to SR, but since I run sufficient Hazard Removal on this team, this didn't prove to be an issue. Freeze Dry provides Articuno with some great coverage by itself, as well as a nifty freeze chance.
Audino @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Knock Off
- Toxic
Audino provides the team with some much needed Wish Support. Knock Off and Toxic add great utility to the team, and its ability Regenerator allows Audino to act as a soak for Volt Switch, without actually taking any damage. Overall, it act as a great pivot and a few tactical switches and it can be bumped back to Full HP. Max Special Defense so that it can take the most punishment from Special Attackers.
Golbat @ Eviolite
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Toxic
- Defog
- Heat Wave
Golbat fulfills the role of the main physical damage taker, as well as Defogger against mons such as Garbodor, Rhydon, Steelix, Torterra etc. Now while these mons can still be quite annoying if they run SD or Curse, careful and tactical plays can mitigate that issue. I run Heat Wave because I need to ensure that Steelix is not able to get a free switch-in on Golbat. I run Toxic for additional coverage, it is also nifty because it never misses since Golbat is Poison Type. Infiltrator also comes in very handy against SubSeed mons, and I can Toxic them behind their Substitute.
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Recover
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Curse
Quagsire acts as the Unaware user for this team, I was previously using Pyukumuku, but realised that it wasn't really necessary for NU Stall, as prevalent Shell-Smashers such as Turtonator / Omastar are pretty much non-existent here. Also Quagsire allows me to appropriately counter KlinKlang, which can actually 2HKO Pyukumuku with Electrium Z. I opted to go for Curse, because it allows me to set up alongside other set-up attackers such as Scrafty, so that the battle doesn't get too drawn out. Quagsire also acts as a good check for Incineroar and other offensive Fire Types.
Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
Diancie fulfills the role of the Stealth Rock User on this team. It also acts as a great counter for Specially Offensive Fire Types like Typhlosion or Houndoom. I run Max SpD, so that it can fulfill it's role as a Special Wall adequately. I run Protect to gain additional recovery from Leftovers, as well as scout for opposing moves. Diamond Storm and Moonblast provide Diancie with great mixed coverage for dealing with a lot of threats on the ladder.
Conclusions
Overall I kinda enjoyed playing this team, although I'm not the biggest fan of the NU tier, due to the lengthy search times. Slaking is a Pokemon with some utility in the NU tier, if played to its strengths, and was overall refreshing to play and build around.
Since I have very little experience with this tier, I am open to any suggestions or feedback from other players on areas of improvement. I probably have yet to encounter all the threats in the NU Metagame, so the team itself is not fully developed. I'll be going on hiatus now, so apologies if I respond to messages a bit late.
I have provided some Replays and the Importable below. Again, due to very limited number of games, I don't have a lot of quality replays to share unfortunately.
Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
Articuno @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Freeze-Dry
- Heal Bell
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Recover
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Curse
Golbat @ Eviolite
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Toxic
- Defog
- Heat Wave
Audino @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Knock Off
- Toxic
Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Pursuit
- Shadow Claw
- Hammer Arm
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
Articuno @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Freeze-Dry
- Heal Bell
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Recover
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Curse
Golbat @ Eviolite
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Toxic
- Defog
- Heat Wave
Audino @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Knock Off
- Toxic
Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Pursuit
- Shadow Claw
- Hammer Arm
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