Hello! This is Steven Stone in his first RMT in quite a while. This time, I'm not going to cover a VGC team like I normally do, but I'll show you a BSD team instead that could potentially help me next year if VGC goes with its natural path. Without further ado, let's see what I brought you this time.
Teambuilding
I've been a big fan of Nihilego since the beggining of SM and I've tried my hardest to make a team with it in this year's format. Sadly, Nihilego has everything against it this year, from the prominence of Ground-types to the existence of Celesteela. Everything seems to survive at least 1 hit from Nihilego and break through Nihilego's crystal-like defenses, which hurts its viability. However, thanks to the addition of PokeBank in BSD, I saw a certain niche Nihilego had in this new metagame, and I decided to try it out.
When teambuilding with Nihilego for VGC, I saw multiple weaknesses that could be exploited. Its Defense is terrible, and has a pretty bad time against Pokemon that are bulky on the special side. When exploring for options to cover Nihilego's bad MUs, a Pokemon I used on VGC'15 came to my mind: Rotom-H.
An inmunity to Ground-type moves together with a handful of resistances like Steel, Electric, Fairy, Grass and Fire made it a really solid glue that could help when making the rest of the team.
Then I saw that I could fit Mega Salamence inmediatly. The nuke of Double-Edge with the chip damage of Hyper Voice could help Nihilego breaking through the rest of the opposing's team. Plus, it would add another Ground inmunity and Intimidate, valuable assets for supporting Nihilego.
I saw Tyranitar and Tapu Lele as potentially dangerous Pokemon. Tapu Fini helps with Tyranitar while removing Tapu Lele's Psychic Terrain, allowing Nihilego to tank a hit from Choice Scarf Tapu Lele and OHKO back with Sludge Bomb. Plus, the Water-typing helps with Ground-types like Landorus-T as well.
Rain checks are always something I want to keep close by, specially when the 4 Pokemon on my party struggle against Ludicolo. Ferrothorn also provides solid switch-ins to all of the Tapus which is always appreciated.
Last member was pretty difficult to choose, but Tyranitar took the slot because of its amazing synergy with Salamence, access to Assurance to deal with Psychic-types like Cresselia and Oranguru and as answer to Trick Room teams. Tyranitar also helps vs the aforementioned rain teams, while beating Aegislash as well.
The team
Nihilego @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Sludge Bomb
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
Nihilego is simple yet effective. Power Gem and Sludge Bomb as dual STABs deal huge damage which is Nihilego's best selling point. I'm not fully convinced on Thunder Wave, out of all the matches I've played it has never been used. I'm considering Grass Knot to deal with Gastrodon, but I'm up to any suggestions.
Rotom-Heat @ Firium Z
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 92 SpA / 4 SpD / 140 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
Opposed to the normal standards, I decided to go with Firium-Z, bulky Rotom-H. One of Rotom-H's main flaws is Overheat as its only Fire-type STAB, which halves its SpA and forces it out. This is solved thanks to Firium-Z, launching a stronger nuke than Overheat while leaving Rotom-H at neutral. Inferno Overdrive is capable of OHKOing 4 HP Landorus-T which I think is pretty cool. Thunderbolt as secondary STAB, HP Ice for Salamence / Garchomp.
The EV spread is a tweak to an older one, it should let Rotom-H live 2 Rock Slides from 252+ Landorus-T most of the time, while outspeeding base 70s by 2 points.
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Tailwind
- Protect
Nothing special here. I decided to not run a Dragon-type STAB since with Fini as partner, it'd be quite ineffective. Tailwind lets the slower Pokemon in my party outspeed most of the metagame and hit hard.
Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 164 SpA / 44 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast
- Muddy Water
- Hydro Pump
Brought straight from VGC'17, Specs Tapu Fini 2HKOs a lot of potential threats, and most importantly, it lets Tapu Fini beat Tyranitar more consistently. Ice Beam is there to hit some Grass-type Pokemon like Venusaur before Mega Evolution. Muddy Water is a spread move, Hydro Pump is the nuke and Moonblast is the secondary STAB. The EVs are from Trainer Tower and it lets Fini... uhh... eat hits up.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect
Generic Ferrothorn. Leftovers for passive recovery, the rest of the moves should be self-explanatory. The EVs have been around since 2014 (and probably from before) so I suppose any rater should know what it does. I sort of forgot.
Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Ice Beam
- Assurance
- Protect
WP Tyranitar is pretty good in a metagame where there are MANY super effective attacks that fail to OHKO Tyranitar. The interesting catch here is probably Assurance, which is a better option than Crunch in a team where almost everything outspeeds Tyranitar and can hit the opposing Pokemon before Tyranitar does, which is useful against Trick Room setters like Oranguru and Cresselia.
Well, hope you liked it! I sort of made this on the run and I may be weak to something I can't see. Any feedback is always appreciated, and thank you for reading this!
Teambuilding
I've been a big fan of Nihilego since the beggining of SM and I've tried my hardest to make a team with it in this year's format. Sadly, Nihilego has everything against it this year, from the prominence of Ground-types to the existence of Celesteela. Everything seems to survive at least 1 hit from Nihilego and break through Nihilego's crystal-like defenses, which hurts its viability. However, thanks to the addition of PokeBank in BSD, I saw a certain niche Nihilego had in this new metagame, and I decided to try it out.
When teambuilding with Nihilego for VGC, I saw multiple weaknesses that could be exploited. Its Defense is terrible, and has a pretty bad time against Pokemon that are bulky on the special side. When exploring for options to cover Nihilego's bad MUs, a Pokemon I used on VGC'15 came to my mind: Rotom-H.
An inmunity to Ground-type moves together with a handful of resistances like Steel, Electric, Fairy, Grass and Fire made it a really solid glue that could help when making the rest of the team.
Then I saw that I could fit Mega Salamence inmediatly. The nuke of Double-Edge with the chip damage of Hyper Voice could help Nihilego breaking through the rest of the opposing's team. Plus, it would add another Ground inmunity and Intimidate, valuable assets for supporting Nihilego.
I saw Tyranitar and Tapu Lele as potentially dangerous Pokemon. Tapu Fini helps with Tyranitar while removing Tapu Lele's Psychic Terrain, allowing Nihilego to tank a hit from Choice Scarf Tapu Lele and OHKO back with Sludge Bomb. Plus, the Water-typing helps with Ground-types like Landorus-T as well.
Rain checks are always something I want to keep close by, specially when the 4 Pokemon on my party struggle against Ludicolo. Ferrothorn also provides solid switch-ins to all of the Tapus which is always appreciated.
Last member was pretty difficult to choose, but Tyranitar took the slot because of its amazing synergy with Salamence, access to Assurance to deal with Psychic-types like Cresselia and Oranguru and as answer to Trick Room teams. Tyranitar also helps vs the aforementioned rain teams, while beating Aegislash as well.
The team
Nihilego @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Sludge Bomb
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
Nihilego is simple yet effective. Power Gem and Sludge Bomb as dual STABs deal huge damage which is Nihilego's best selling point. I'm not fully convinced on Thunder Wave, out of all the matches I've played it has never been used. I'm considering Grass Knot to deal with Gastrodon, but I'm up to any suggestions.
Rotom-Heat @ Firium Z
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 92 SpA / 4 SpD / 140 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
Opposed to the normal standards, I decided to go with Firium-Z, bulky Rotom-H. One of Rotom-H's main flaws is Overheat as its only Fire-type STAB, which halves its SpA and forces it out. This is solved thanks to Firium-Z, launching a stronger nuke than Overheat while leaving Rotom-H at neutral. Inferno Overdrive is capable of OHKOing 4 HP Landorus-T which I think is pretty cool. Thunderbolt as secondary STAB, HP Ice for Salamence / Garchomp.
The EV spread is a tweak to an older one, it should let Rotom-H live 2 Rock Slides from 252+ Landorus-T most of the time, while outspeeding base 70s by 2 points.
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Tailwind
- Protect
Nothing special here. I decided to not run a Dragon-type STAB since with Fini as partner, it'd be quite ineffective. Tailwind lets the slower Pokemon in my party outspeed most of the metagame and hit hard.
Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 164 SpA / 44 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast
- Muddy Water
- Hydro Pump
Brought straight from VGC'17, Specs Tapu Fini 2HKOs a lot of potential threats, and most importantly, it lets Tapu Fini beat Tyranitar more consistently. Ice Beam is there to hit some Grass-type Pokemon like Venusaur before Mega Evolution. Muddy Water is a spread move, Hydro Pump is the nuke and Moonblast is the secondary STAB. The EVs are from Trainer Tower and it lets Fini... uhh... eat hits up.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect
Generic Ferrothorn. Leftovers for passive recovery, the rest of the moves should be self-explanatory. The EVs have been around since 2014 (and probably from before) so I suppose any rater should know what it does. I sort of forgot.
Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Ice Beam
- Assurance
- Protect
WP Tyranitar is pretty good in a metagame where there are MANY super effective attacks that fail to OHKO Tyranitar. The interesting catch here is probably Assurance, which is a better option than Crunch in a team where almost everything outspeeds Tyranitar and can hit the opposing Pokemon before Tyranitar does, which is useful against Trick Room setters like Oranguru and Cresselia.
Well, hope you liked it! I sort of made this on the run and I may be weak to something I can't see. Any feedback is always appreciated, and thank you for reading this!
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