Other Metagames [SS ZU] Vroum Vroum

Tuthur

formerly 0-7 in FCL
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This is laevin favorite song, don't tell him it sucks.
Hello, I've never written an RMT before this one, but I wanted to make something memorable for my 1000th post. SSZU is a very meaningful tier for me and it saddens me that I only receives few RMT. Therefore, it seemed me logical to celebrate this event by writing an SSZU RMT. So here, I'm sharing you a fun team built arround an underrated mon.

Team and Teambuilding process
:ss/lapras:
Lapras @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 220 SpD / 40 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Whirlpool
- Perish Song
- Rest
Lapras is a Pokémon I wanted to build a serious team arround for a while. Ice-types are currently very potent breaker in ZU due to the lack of sturdy Ice-resists. Indeed most teams either rely on special walls not resisting Ice like Audino, Clefairy, and Articuno, or on Fire-types like Coalossal and Rapidash. Lapras is able to take advantage of both of these archetypes. Thanks to Perish Song + Whirlpool it can trap and remove special walls since most of them don't pack pivot moves, and due to its Water-typing, even without Surf, most Fire-types can't switch into it. Lapras' insane bulk let it trap a lot of things and abuses most of the bulky Pokemon in ZU, and let it defeat popular defensive sweepers like Galarian Rapidash, Uxie, and Alcremie.

:ss/alcremie:
Alcremie (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sweet Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dazzling Gleam
- Recover
- Aromatherapy
- Calm Mind
Alcremie seems like the perfect partner for Lapras for its ability to wall Fighting-types and cure Lapras from Rest with Aromatherapy. In return, Lapras is able to trap and defeat special walls and other Calm Mind users, freeing the way for an Alcremie sweep. Alcremie is also able to take advantage of Cofagrigus which is one of the biggest threat to this Lapras set due to extremely powerful super effective Body Press and trapping immunity. Alcremie's ability was decided at the very end of the teambuilding since I wanted something that was able to take advantage of Tangela. This is a very standard Alcremie set, so no need to elaborate more on it.

:ss/tangela:
Tangela @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Knock Off
- Giga Drain
- Synthesis
- Toxic​

Tangela is the best physical wall in the tier and I really needed it to support Alcremie. It is required to defeat the most common physical wallbreakers such as Kangaskhan, Silvally-Ground, and Cinccino. Giga Drain is my favorite STAB move on Tangela, as Leaf Storm's Special Attack drop are way too abusable in my opinion. Knock Off is just an amazing tool and I wanted to have at least one user of it in my team. A lot of Tangela have been forgoing Synthesis recently, but in my experience, Tangela needs to stay very healthy in this team a lot of the time and Synthesis felt like necessary. Finally the last slot is Toxic because it is always useful to have a Toxic user in a defensive core and it can be very useful to get a Toxic on Pokemon like U-turn Articuno that can be a pain to handle with Alcremie + Lapras. Sludge Bomb also didn't feel necessary with Alcremie being able to check most Sludge Bomb targets including Shiftry and Appletun.

:ss/coalossal:
Coalossal @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Blast
- Flamethrower​

Coalossal is the final member of the defensive core, forming a sturdy Fire-Water-Grass core with Tangela and Lapras. However, that's not the main reason it was added. The team cruelly needed entry hazard control and Coalossal could bring both Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin to the team. Moreover, relying on Lapras to handle every special threats is impossible and Coalossal helps with the likes of Rotom, Ivysaur, and Frosmoth. Coalossal also is a somewhat great switch-in to Centiskorch that kinda murdered the rest of the team. Flame Body also meant that teams would be less suspectible to try to break the defensive core just by spaming U-turn on Tangela after it got crippled by Toxic or Knock Off.

:ss/silvally-ground:
Silvally-Ground @ Ground Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- U-turn
- Rock Slide​

Now that the defensive core is done, it is time to get some attackers that can grab some momentum while helping with some specific threats. Silvally-Ground is one of the best Pokémon in the tier being an amazing wallbreaker and offensive pivot. The Ground-typing also provides an Electric immunity that is enjoyable due to Coalossal being the primary Electric switch-in and not having any recovery. It also helps with the annoying Poison-types like Garbodor, Skuntank, and Silvally-Poison that can take advantage of Tangela and Alcremie.

:ss/kangaskhan:
Kangaskhan (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Toxic​

Eventually, Kangaskhan was added for its an amazing anti-offense capabilities, especially versus sun since it is the main stop to Shiftry. It also provides a great Ghost immunity, easing the Choice Specs Rotom matchup as Silvally-Ground doesn't enjoy switching into Shadow Ball while the defensive core gets quickly overwhelmed by Volt Switch. The moveset is pretty standard outside of Toxic which is used to cripple Ghost-types like Jellicent and Cofagrigus that are problematic for Lapras. The combination of Adamant and Heavy-Duty Boots over Jolly + Silk Scarf is due to the team hazard control not being great as it gets compressed with Coalossal and also due to Silvally-Ground already covering a better Speed tier than Jolly Kangaskhan would.

Threat list
There are more threats, but these are the main ones I have faced when testing the team in room tours, friendly battles, and ladder games.

:golbat: :jellicent:
The team doesn't have any Toxic immunity and relies on Lapras' Rest and Alcremie's Aromatherapy to remove status. Therefore Pokémon like Golbat and Jellicent that pack Taunt + Toxic can easily cripple most of the team and they also are Pokemon that are hard to take out for the offensive core and bulky enough to wall the defensive core despite their weakness to Lapras, Tangela, and Coalossal. Hopefully, Specially Defensive Jellicent and this Golbat set are rather scarce in the current metagame.

:runerigus::garbodor::cofagrigus:
For the same reason as the previous point, Toxic Spikes can be annoying, especially since most teams making use of them have a spinblocker able to handle Coalossal and Knock Off support to remove Kangaskhan and Lapras's Heavy-Duty Boots. However, the team has tool to pressure every Toxic Spikes setter so it's far from an unwinnable matchup.

:centiskorch:
The main switch-in to Centiskorch in this team is specially defensive Coalossal that hates getting its item removed by Knock Off and deals massive damage with Grassy-terrain boosted Power Whip. So if Centiskorch is paired with an hazard setter that does well versus Coalossal such as Rhydon or Piloswine, Centiskorch will have an insane matchup versus the defensive core and needs to be pressured by Kangaskhan, Coalossal, and Silvally-Ground.

Some winning replays because I don't share replays where I lose
vs kay :clefairy::rotom::skuntank::tangela::cramorant::sawk:, showcases how good Lapras can be versus teams that aren't prepared for it.
vs czim :thwackey::trevenant::coalossal::rapidash-galar::thievul::silvally:, a missplay from czim side and a missclick from my side, but still a replay versus offense.
vs PandaDoux :rhydon::garbodor::cramorant::thievul::tangela::sawk:, tough matchup with Toxic Spikes Garbodor and Panda taking Lapras out early.
vs ServingSuggestion :cofagrigus::marowak::lurantis::beheeyem::bouffalant::audino:, fun game versus Trick Room on the ladder during ZULT.

Conclusion
:alcremie::coalossal::kangaskhan::lapras::silvally-ground::tangela:
Thank you for reading. I had never been as much involved as I have been for the past year ; I am really glad to have met lots of friendly users on different sections of PS! and Smogon. I hope that I will stay as motivate by this community as I am now, even after the pandemics ends.

 

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