ORAS NU tactical loop switch

[astroboy]

hi i dont usually like to do rmt stuff cause im a perfectionist when it comes to building and get nervous sharing stuff like this but i really like this team and i have a couple hours to kill so whatever i figure id share it with you guys considering the lack of quality nu rmts. team revolves around total hazard control, keeping them off your side of the field and keeping them up on your side by punishing the use of defog/spin, all without sacrificing much momentum thanks to volt-turn shenanigans. special garb is a bitch to handle tho and thats like the biggest problem for this team so u should look out for it

Barbaracle @ White Herb
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Razor Shell
- Shell Smash
- Return
- Substitute

so i saw my dude Shaneghoul's rmt (which is really good and u should check out) and i know everyones been hyping up barb so i wanted to try out building with it. i chose the sub set cause its really good in this meta (creds to my dude Luck O' the Irish for inventing) for setting up on common shit like weezing and helps combat revenge killing from shit like hitmonchan. cool set that i like a lot for its ability to totally trash a lot of teams once you soften up its small pool of checks and counters.

Xatu @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 176 Def / 84 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Grass Knot
- Roost
- U-turn

pt.1 of hazard control, xatu handles rockers like mesprit, steelix, clefairy, yadayada and is usually just enough to singlehandedly keep hazards off the field or at least make them think twice before going for rocks. i mean it keeps spikes off the field too but lol who cares. ground immunity is also really cute to have and xatus presence is usually enough to stop sawk from spamming cc so thats cool. preserves momentum with uturn too :3
e: thanks to HJAD's suggestion ive changed xatus moveset to a grass knot varient to better handle rhydon n stuff

Hitmonchan @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Rapid Spin

pt2 of hazard control. i really like thunderpunch chan because it can keep hazards off of your side of the field and beat nearly all other hazard control mons barring claydol and sandslash (lol both are bad tho). but yeah it beats normals, revenges rhydon/omastar/opposing barbaracle too all while keeping hazards off the field for scyther incase xatu fucked up.

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 244 HP / 52 Atk / 128 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Toxic

lol what a surprise, is a pretty solid glue that provides a really strong defensive backbone with lanturn+xatu, checking musharna, audino, and providing a normal switch as well as a stealth rocker: best role compression mon in the tier doing what it does best. ive found lix to probably be the most expendable member of the team cause its a pretty big momentum sap so once you get rocks up and the opp doesnt have somethin like a tauros, this is usually my go-to fodder.

e: thanks to HJAD's suggestion ive made this a faster spread with taunt to mess with other rockers, particularly piloswine and opposing lix, while also catchin mantine and pelipper on the switch so they cant defog on u

Scyther @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Aerial Ace
- Knock Off
- Bug Bite

at this point i realized "o shit sceptile and sun kinda bone me" so i tried out scarf scyther: holy shit this thing is good. legit its the most consistent cleaner ive ever used in the tier. legit this thing is impossible to revenge without rocks+strong priority and is just so good at whittling shit down with u-turn early game and coming back later on and taking kills. scarf scyther is a criminally underrated set yall should try out, this thing needs to blow up (Hootie can vouch for how consistent this thing is)

Lanturn @ Assault Vest
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 96 Def / 252 SpA / 160 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]

at this point i needed a water resist that wasnt some fat shit like ferroseed or poliwrath that sacrifices momentum and slows down the pace of the team so i chose lanturn, specifically the av set cause pivot is ass and i dont like specs. lanturn is literally the best momentum grabber in the tier considering nothing can stop it from spamming volt switch that wants to switch into scald (aside from other lanturn lol.) evs let you outpace base 55s like cacturne and golurk with the rest dumped in special attack in hp. keep it healthy if u dont wanna get bonezoned by sd samu.

e: moved hp evs to defense to better handle megahorn samu a lil bit based on Can-Eh-Dian's suggestions

importable

Barbaracle @ White Herb
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Razor Shell
- Shell Smash
- Return
- Substitute

Xatu @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 176 Def / 84 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Grass Knot
- Roost
- U-turn

Hitmonchan @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Rapid Spin

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 244 HP / 52 Atk / 128 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Taunt

Scyther @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Aerial Ace
- Knock Off
- Bug Bite

Lanturn @ Assault Vest
Ability: Volt Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 96 Def / 252 SpA / 160 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]

something i noticed is that people tend to struggle with the concept of how, as this is considered offense, not everything has to have a designated switchin. so if you make a suggestion dont try and diminish the overall goal of the team with some shit like "hi astroboy, id like to suggest you run Specially Defensive Mega-Audino over Scyther." not trying to throw shade at anyone im js. im very open minded to well-thought-out constructive criticism or concern. this is my first rmt tho so (mm)​

 

[HJAD]

wassup astroboy,

Cool team, i especially like the offensive voltturn momentum thing you have going on with barb to abuse any stray switches with settup. Overall, i think its a really cool team for this meta since it does utilise momentum more so than most teams, which makes the team play nicely im sure. In terms of weakness', Dual Dance Rhydon would be the immediate threat to this team. No EdgeQuake resists and ability to settup on Scyther, Xatu and some others if you are prepared to sacrifice some HP make it quite threatening especially in the late game considering your main speed control has no way of killing it. SD Samurott is also a threat, after Lanturn is weakened a bit (which is quite easy) it does have a banging time vs your team. Ghosts such as Rotom and Mismagius provide excellent momentum to the opposing team, a pressured av lanturn is your main check. These are less threatening because Scyther can revenge kill them to an extent, but it will depend on bulk invests and whether they are running colbur berry.

Onto some suggested changes, and i feel like Life Orb Sceptile > Scarf Scyther is the main call here. What this does is give that same ability to outrun the entire meta, but also, less room for the likes of SD Samurott and Dual Dance Rhydon to move about and become a nuisance which they will if you give them enough room. Sceptile allows you to revenge kill a lot of the meta, especially with its high powered stabs and good coverage moveset. Sceptile also provides a key water resists that doesnt get outsped and murked by samurotts +2 megahorn. It means that mon is much, much more easy to manage. Special Sceptile is also an excellent check to the afformentioned ghosts unless Rotom happens to be choice scarf set, which Lanturn is much more capable in dealing with.

Onto some slightly less drastic changes, i feel like a coverage swap from Heat Wave --> Grass Knot maybe beneficial to bop those afformentioned threats, and vastly reduce their threat value to this team in particular. Grass Knot also hits Steelix for a solid amount of damage, and you can possibly U-Turn into your own Steelix, or Lanturn to prevent hazards going up in the short term. This leads me onto my next suggestion which is Toxic --> Taunt on Steelix. With speed investment (specifically 84 Speed EV's) you can outspeed and taunt common base 40 Rockers such as Tank Rhydon, the most Common Steelix sets and Piloswine, which can be a menace to a team like this where your initial hazards control is a Xatu, which Piloswine beats in 1v1 situations. It can also Taunt incoming Defoggers if you want guranteed Rocks. e.g. vs Pelipper, you can Taunt it immediately to prevent Defog or Taunt it, then settup SR. Lastly i wanted to mention Ice Punch. I get why you are running TPunch but i feel like it is less neccesary on this team considering you have an AV Lanturn to take on Mantines / Pelippers as well as pressure switchins with its coverage. Ice Punch also has the additional niche of taking on Sceptile with greater efficiency and pressuring spinblockers (specifically Rotom) to a much greater extent.

set

Sceptile @ Life Orb
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake / Rock Slide / Focus Blast
- Hidden Power Ice

best of luck in the future
~HJAD

 

[Evan.]

dont know if id go w/ sceptile over scyther since he loses p much his only way to offensively pressure opposing special scept (relying on a speed tie doesnt count D:) as well as opening him up a lot more to scarf sawk and malamar. Taunt lix and GK xatu are both good suggestions that should defs be implemented, you took them right out of my mouth haha.

Theres not a ton else to rate tbh, id move the hp evs into defense on lanturn since it has such a high hp stat that youd get more out of the EVs if you just invested them in a defense. Also mayb try out CC > Drain punch on chan cause non LO drain punch is weak af, but thats more personal preference and isnt rly required at all.

Fun team!

 

[astroboy]

i dont like special scep at all. like at all. i kinda lose to opposing scep and get 6-0d by sun then so lol

i like taunt lix and gk xatu tho im gonna edit that in. thanks for suggestion hjad but the bold was a lil excessive o3o

e: also yh @canehdian im gonna change lanturns evs up

 

[astroboy]

thank you xzern for this banner

 

[Rapture]

Hi astroboy, these two knuckleheads have already covered most options in terms of optimizing your build but like HJAD I share the sentiment that bulky ghosts like Rotom and Missy seem like a bitch to play around considering how much lanturn is expected to check. Because of that, one thing you could consider running is Lum Berry Hitmonchan with a moveset of Close Combat / Foresight / Mach Punch / Rapid Spin. While this set might seem a bit strange and it doesn't handle defoggers like Pelipper nearly as well like the set you posted, It does have the ability to punish ghosts that think they can either spinblock or wall you. Close Combat after a foresight is a near ohko on both Stallbreaker Mismagius and Rotom and puts them in range of mach punch the turn after. This particular set also manages to still dunk on things like Steelix and Rhydon with Close Combat which is nice so that Scyther can become a lot more threatening as a game goes on.

Hitmonchan (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Foresight

Nice work on the rmt fam, its good to see the nu rmts coming back to life