SM LC Is it hot in here or is it just me - Firespam!

[Gummy]

Introduction

Hi, I'm Gummy and I play LC! This is my 5th LC RMT, for a team that I think is not only competitively solid but also really fun to play. It's a very offensive team, and there are some fun sets (kind of) strewn throughout. Hope you enjoy :3

Teambuilding Process

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I wanted to start with a typical typespam core. However, I was tired of the standard dark, fighting, and birdspam archetypes, and while waterspam is fun, it's not great in the SM meta. So I decided to try two underrated threats: Houndour and Bloom Doom Ponyta! These two form a potent, offensive, firespam core. Ponyta can lure and KO Water-types to allow Houndour to clean up with Life Orb boosted attacks that only three Pokemon in the entire LC metagame resist!

LC is absolutely overrun with Fighting-types, and since my main cleaners/wallbreakers are very frail (Pony misses its Eviolite somewhat), I absolutely needed a way to counter Fighting-types. Snubbull would have been a good enough fit, since it is also very offensive, but I didn't want to put all of the team's defensive backbone on Snubbull, which isn't terribly bulky in the first place. So I went for an even bulkier approach in CM Spritzee, which would give me a secondary wincon and an excellent Fighting-type check.

Mienfoo is basically such a good mon that slapping it on a team because it's "just foo" is a decent enough reason, but I specifically wanted a U-turn to get my frail wincons in easily. I opted for a fast Eviolite set with Acrobatics to have another check to Fighting-types in case Spritzee got overwhelmed.

While Houndour and Ponyta are considerable offensive threats, they aren't quite powerful enough to have no hazard support. Onix is the most solid SR setter in the meta, and I appreciated its Ground typing to take on Alolan Grimer. I opted to run SturdyJuice over Weak Armor because, similar to Spritzee, I didn't want to make the team TOO offensive, and SturdyJuice is generally safer.

Finally, I just needed hazard removal, since my main two wincons are weak to SR. Staryu is also an incredibly reliable spinner. However, I was done with playing safe for the previous three mons, so I decided to run a Life Orb set. Life Orb BoltBeam Staryu is a sort of blanket check to a lot of Pokemon that still gave me trouble; namely, opposing Water- and Flying-types.

So I use the team for a few weeks, and it's working well. There's just one problem: Bloom Doom Ponyta isn't underrated anymore. In fact, it's standard. This means that instead of being a lure, Pony really just forces 50/50s, like "will they stay in on Chinchou or switch to Ferroseed, then switch back to Chinchou to grab the kill?" and I am a person who is shit at guessing 50/50s, so I decided to change my set from Bloom Doom to Z-Sunny Day! Z-Sunny Day Ponyta is very underrated: it can set up on pretty much any Water-type, while they switch expecting a Bloom Doom, you put yourself in a great position. You then have 3 turns where you have the momentum, and they basically just have to pick what dies to the terror of a sun-boosted Fire Blast. The only reason the order of the Pokemon is changed is because I didn't want people guessing my exact teambuilding process, but I guess now that I'm making this RMT that's irrelevant.

The Team

Onix @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 236 Atk / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt

Onix is a really good Stealth Rock setter. Stealth Rock improves Houndour and Ponyta's chances of getting KOs. It's also a check to Alolan Grimer, which is stupidly common nowadays, as well as Flying-types that are everywhere. Taunt is helpful to stop opposing hazard setters and set-up sweepers.

Houndour @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Atk / 36 Def / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Naive Nature
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Sucker Punch
- Flame Charge

Houndour is an underrated threat in SM. Only Carvanha and other Houndour resist its STAB combo (and Deino I guess), and combining its good SpA and Life Orb, nothing comfortably switches in. It can even sweep once it gets a Flame Charge up. Sucker Punch is helpful priority, since this is the only mon on my team with it.

Spritzee @ Eviolite
Ability: Aroma Veil
Level: 5
EVs: 212 HP / 196 Def / 12 SpA / 76 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind

Spritzee holds up the team in many ways: it is one of the most solid Fighting-type answers in the meta, it's stupidly bulky, and it can even pass along Wish boosts. Since I don't have to really worry about burns (except on Mienfoo), I opted for Calm Mind over Aromatherapy. This gives Spritzee some offensive presence and makes it a secondary wincon if the Fire-types have a poor matchup.

Ponyta @ Firium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Def / 236 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
- Sunny Day
- Hypnosis

The star of the team, Z-Sunny Day Ponyta is an incredibly fun wincon. Since any high-level player can guess I'm Bloom Doom from team preview, a situation that sounds niche but actually happens a lot will be that they send in something like Carvanha or Chinchou in on Ponyta. You can then safely set up, while they go to a Grass resist like Pumpkaboo or Ferroseed, and then they basically just have to choose what dies. If they stay in, then their Water-type attack is doing zero thanks to the sun, and they have to switch due to the threat of a Solar Beam. Hypnosis is very helpful for grabbing set-up opportunities as well. Once in the sun, not much stops Ponyta bar a Fire Blast miss.

Mienfoo @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Def / 196 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Acrobatics

Mienfoo is such a stupidly good Pokemon. Leading with it is the move you're going to go with 90% of the time, and it can deal relatively well with opposing Mienfoo leads unless they are the same set and you lose the tie. Knock Off is really helpful to soften up foes for Houndour or Ponyta. U-turn helps to get other Pokemon in and so on. Acrobatics is a secondary check to Fighting- and Grass-types in case anything goes wrong with my Fire-types or Spritzee.

Staryu @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Def / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

Life Orb Analytic Staryu is a mon I think is underrated. Staryu tends to have an only decent offensive presence, since the Eviolite Scald set doesn't do much, so you can surprise the opponent with a stupidly strong attack, especially if it's on the switch. Since I already have Mienfoo and Spritzee to take care of Fighting-types, I opted for Thunderbolt over Psychic to beat bulky Water-types, since Ponyta's Solar Beam sometimes can't come into play before the sun runs out. Staryu is also the team's spinner, which is incredibly important since both Houndour and Ponyta are weak to Stealth Rock.


Conclusion

This team is pretty matchup reliant, but again, it's very fun to play! I think it's a good team to use on ladder or in smaller tournaments, since a lot of the ideas in the team rely on bluffing or taking advantage of what the opponent thinks you're carrying. I've been working on this for over an hour already and I don't feel like doing a threatlist, but the team tends to struggle with Carvanha, Shellder, and Scarf Drilbur. If you have any ideas on how to improve it, let me know!

Importable

Onix @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 236 Atk / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt

Houndour @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Atk / 36 Def / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Naive Nature
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Sucker Punch
- Flame Charge

Spritzee @ Eviolite
Ability: Aroma Veil
Level: 5
EVs: 212 HP / 196 Def / 12 SpA / 76 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind

Ponyta @ Firium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Def / 236 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
- Sunny Day
- Hypnosis

Mienfoo @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Def / 196 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Acrobatics

Staryu @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Def / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

 

[Fiend]

i already told you but i'm very happy with your usage of houndour. however, the team is obviously not the greatest at handling most of the metagame from a defensive standpoint, and offensively it struggles to regain momentum against some of the the scariest things in the tier--namely webs teams, life orb gastly, and the viable normal types.

i feel like much of this comes from mienfoo and spritzee being the entire backup plan that your team has for much of this, though houndour certainly is capable of providing some last ditch protection against faster foes via sucker punch. this leads me to think that your team is lacking in a few ways, mostly in the department of priority. because of this, i really do believe that timburr would make a vastly superior addition over mienfoo, however only with a bulkier spread than normal. i would still run iron fist ice punch as well, however you only 2hko with knock off into ice punch 100% of the time after sr. however, the additional bulk makes timburr a viable check to abra and gastly, while mach punch helps fend off offensive normals with apt coverage against onix. this change does make the team a bit less brainless, however i would argue that simply not having the option to mindlessly click u-turn with mienfoo makes the team stronger in you are more likely to click an appropriate move instead of chipping something for 12% and then sacking a pokemon accidentally when you win a speed tie. timburr is also harder to set up on, and makes up for the loss of brainless momentum with its mach punch doing 30% to half the tier and ohkoing carv and shellder after it took a million when setting up.

initially i was thinking that the most viable way to make use of spritzee on this team would have been to use something else in the 4th slot, yet cm seems far better with timburr present, as you actively remove foongus at all points during the match and better check gastly if you preserve timburr who isn't trying to get itself knocked off to circumvent some traditional checks. instead now, i'm thinking that ponyta simply doesn't cut it without an accurate move as truthfully hypno shouldn't be a crutch since it is a coin flip and really only crucial if they're pivoting around you, allowing you several chances to go for it and eventually get it. i do think that morning sun, substitute, or even flamethrower can get more meaningful mileage depending on how you play with ponyta. seeing as it has certain things it simply cannot break past, houndour ends up breaking for it, which delegates it to a revenge killing or merely sweeping / cleaning role. this makes flamethrower pretty appealing to me personally, though i do think this can be a contentious suggestion. it is worth noting that z-fire blast will not miss, but it would be awful to have to burn ponyta's potency up like that just to not risk losing to a miss against something like a gastly or irksome mienfoo. you also don't have this option when you're at +1 under the sen, and often i've always longed for flamethrower since pokemon hates me. use your best judgement here, i'll trust you to make the comfortable choice for yourself.

i believe that you're going to want to forgot taunt on onix for endure. this is primarily to give you a tertiary answer to the absurd things that walked all over your team. this also makes staryu spinning a bit less important, allowing you to theoretically avoid this and still allow yourself another pokemon to pivot into when you're on the back foot. it's a simple suggestion, and has the potential to swing games if you can use it at the correct time.

lastly, fix your houndour's hp ivs. just run 0 ivs and i'll forgive you. it is also redundant to have flash fire on two pokemon; i would naturally just run early bird houndour since you lack a great foongus switch in and spore is busted.

after all this, you can still lose to the ungodly substitute psychic gastly and water-spam or simply just dd jolly corphish plus a mienfoo. of note, generally your best play versus webs and hazard stack is just do not let them get up hazards. lead staryu vs hazard oriented teams and hit hydros, and generally make sure ferroseed doesn't get the best of you in a balance matchup.

Timburr @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
Level: 5
EVs: 116 Atk / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Mach Punch
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Drain Punch

 

[Gummy]

i already told you but i'm very happy with your usage of houndour. however, the team is obviously not the greatest at handling most of the metagame from a defensive standpoint, and offensively it struggles to regain momentum against some of the the scariest things in the tier--namely webs teams, life orb gastly, and the viable normal types.

i feel like much of this comes from mienfoo and spritzee being the entire backup plan that your team has for much of this, though houndour certainly is capable of providing some last ditch protection against faster foes via sucker punch. this leads me to think that your team is lacking in a few ways, mostly in the department of priority. because of this, i really do believe that timburr would make a vastly superior addition over mienfoo, however only with a bulkier spread than normal. i would still run iron fist ice punch as well, however you only 2hko with knock off into ice punch 100% of the time after sr. however, the additional bulk makes timburr a viable check to abra and gastly, while mach punch helps fend off offensive normals with apt coverage against onix. this change does make the team a bit less brainless, however i would argue that simply not having the option to mindlessly click u-turn with mienfoo makes the team stronger in you are more likely to click an appropriate move instead of chipping something for 12% and then sacking a pokemon accidentally when you win a speed tie. timburr is also harder to set up on, and makes up for the loss of brainless momentum with its mach punch doing 30% to half the tier and ohkoing carv and shellder after it took a million when setting up.

initially i was thinking that the most viable way to make use of spritzee on this team would have been to use something else in the 4th slot, yet cm seems far better with timburr present, as you actively remove foongus at all points during the match and better check gastly if you preserve timburr who isn't trying to get itself knocked off to circumvent some traditional checks. instead now, i'm thinking that ponyta simply doesn't cut it without an accurate move as truthfully hypno shouldn't be a crutch since it is a coin flip and really only crucial if they're pivoting around you, allowing you several chances to go for it and eventually get it. i do think that morning sun, substitute, or even flamethrower can get more meaningful mileage depending on how you play with ponyta. seeing as it has certain things it simply cannot break past, houndour ends up breaking for it, which delegates it to a revenge killing or merely sweeping / cleaning role. this makes flamethrower pretty appealing to me personally, though i do think this can be a contentious suggestion. it is worth noting that z-fire blast will not miss, but it would be awful to have to burn ponyta's potency up like that just to not risk losing to a miss against something like a gastly or irksome mienfoo. you also don't have this option when you're at +1 under the sen, and often i've always longed for flamethrower since pokemon hates me. use your best judgement here, i'll trust you to make the comfortable choice for yourself.

i believe that you're going to want to forgot taunt on onix for endure. this is primarily to give you a tertiary answer to the absurd things that walked all over your team. this also makes staryu spinning a bit less important, allowing you to theoretically avoid this and still allow yourself another pokemon to pivot into when you're on the back foot. it's a simple suggestion, and has the potential to swing games if you can use it at the correct time.

lastly, fix your houndour's hp ivs. just run 0 ivs and i'll forgive you. it is also redundant to have flash fire on two pokemon; i would naturally just run early bird houndour since you lack a great foongus switch in and spore is busted.

after all this, you can still lose to the ungodly substitute psychic gastly and water-spam or simply just dd jolly corphish plus a mienfoo. of note, generally your best play versus webs and hazard stack is just do not let them get up hazards. lead staryu vs hazard oriented teams and hit hydros, and generally make sure ferroseed doesn't get the best of you in a balance matchup.

Thanks for the rate, Fiend! Your suggestions all make sense, I'll try them out :D