RU CCAT (STEP 4 - PLAYTESTING)

[marilli]

If you're going to elect a bulky Psychic-type with SR as its primary job, you can never ever forget about Uxie. If has SR, and a combination of U-turn, Dual Screens, Memento, and Heal Bell ensures that Uxie's going to help out a set-up sweeper for sure. Uxie can take most neutral STAB and laugh at it, while Dark-types like Honchkrow tend to have trouble with Rhydon. (Of course, unless the Honchkrow is mixed with HP Grass, in which case uxie usually has it easier because they tend to run sucker punch / hp grass / superpower / heat wave or some variant of it)

Outside of Uxie and few others, It's really hard to think of a good SR user off the top of my head that has synergy with Rhydon. SR users are now mostly limited to Ground, Rock, and Steel-type Pokemon, and additional Rock or Ground Pokemon is not something we want to add at this early point of teambuilding. Steel-types in RU are either Rock / Ground-typed anyways on top (Steelix, Aggron, etc.), or doesn't get SR (Klingklang, Magneton). Only exception on top of my head is Eviolite Ferroseed, which is capable of providing both SR and Spikes; however, it should stick to only one as that makes Leech Seed incompatible, and recovery-less eviolite mons tend to suck a lot. Ferroseed has decent synergy with Rhydon as well (Ferro resists Grass and Water, and Rhydon resists Fire)

If we ever need to go with a Spinner, I suggest either Hitmons in this slot. Spike-stacking offense should be, by definition, offensive, and defensive spinners like Claydol (big momentum loser), and somewhat Cryogonal (yeah his ice beams actually somewhat hurt, I guess, but he needs to be Specially Defensive to actually work) is IMO defeating the purpose of the team. These are the best offensive spinners that don't have either a Ground or Rock typing. (e.i. I eliminated Armaldo, Sandshrew, and Kabutops off the bat. Kabutops is pretty cool spinner, though.) Hitmonlee hits harder, but Hitmonchan can also elect to run Ice Punch in order to lure out Gligar and hit it hard, scare it off next turn, etc.

Also, we need solid counters for both Claydol and Gligar as they're the No. 1 counter for offensive Rhydon.

 

[col49]

Well if we actually choose to use a spinner, Crygonal can pretty easily beat Non-Toxic Claydols/Gligars, maybe set screens as well if need be

 

[Vratix]

cryogonal sucks
a spinner that is weak to hazards? no thank you


As far as SR goes, Claydol seems okay. Uxie seems okay.
Clefable and mesprit seems... out of place.

We could always go with something that actually an offensive presence and just happens to know SR like Rampardos or Kabutops.
Kabutops seems viable, rampardos doesn't, not sure why I'm even leaving him in this post.

 

[Twannes]

Omastar beats both claydol and gligar, but adding another grass weak isn't good to use.
Sharpedo also beats those mons (mixed-pedo) with a combo of waterfall/crunch/ice beam.
some others also beat claydol and gligar. btw, you should try to beat gligar as claydol is like pfff

 

[Cherub Agent]

WTF Misdreavus? You do know that there's a little wonder in RU called Subsplit rotom?

Ugh can't believe we didn't go with CB Rhydon, IMO it's far more effective at punching holes through teams, and even with Rock Polish Rhydon is far too slow...

 

[moonbound]

Also, we need solid counters for both Claydol and Gligar as they're the No. 1 counter for offensive Rhydon.

Subroost articuno or moltres (which absolutely needs spin support) completely stops those two, and can switch in freely to the grass attacks that will be coming rhydon's way. Something like sub, roost, ice beam/flamethower, and toxic with bulky evs.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

cryogonal sucks
a spinner that is weak to hazards? no thank you

I take offense to this, I placed in the top 5 on the ladder with Cryogonal as my spinner.

However I do agree that it is not the best choice for this team.

 

[Cherub Agent]

Subroost articuno or moltres (which absolutely needs spin support) completely stops those two, and can switch in freely to the grass attacks that will be coming rhydon's way. Something like sub, roost, ice beam/flamethower, and toxic with bulky evs. Or you can replace toxic with calm mind and go offensive, but a bulky one supports rydon much better.

why do people think that the legendary birds can learn calm mind?

About Claydol and Gligar walling Rhydon, obviously the best answer to them is a Water- type. I'm all for giving Scoopapa's awesome Samurott a try, with a moveset of Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Grass Knot and Taunt. He knows the best EVs though

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

I'd like to hear some thoughts on the idea of using Sub+Bulk Up Gallade alongside Rhydon. Its able to set up on a remarkable amount of Pokemon and proceed to sweep or weaken teams for Rhydon afterwards. Additionally, they have the ability to complement each other offensively in terms of offensive checks. One of the bigger threats to Gallde is Honchkrow. Honchkrow happens to be huge set-up fodder for Rhydon. Rhydon has issues with things like Slowking that can tank a hit and threaten the OHKO. Gallade sets up on Slowking with its Substitute. Additionally, Gligar is the largets counter possible to Rhydon I believe, but if Gallade runs 44 Speed EV's it gains the ability to outspeed 0 Speed Gligar, Substitute in front of him and get free set ups.

tl;dr, Gallade could complement Rhydon well.

 

[Twannes]

why do people think that the legendary birds can learn calm mind?

About Claydol and Gligar walling Rhydon, obviously the best answer to them is a Water- type. I'm all for giving Scoopapa's awesome Samurott a try, with a moveset of Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Grass Knot and Taunt. He knows the best EVs though

Oh if he gave us the EV spread, eveyone would use it lol. But still, yea that works. Don't forget mixpedo either, who can break those walls with ease and maybe sweep on his own (he can even beat the optional ferroseed, even though Rhydons EQ can 2HKO)

 

[zdrup15]

Ok guys, I think we've had some great posts here and there was a very good discussion going on so we're ready to vote.

Now, according to what I've read here, the standard team structure is Rhydon + spiker + spinblocker + spinner + two offensive partners to break what Rhydon can't and to sweep in case Rhydon fails.

We'll first vote on the Pokemon that will set up entry hazards and make sure they are on the opponent's side of the field while not being present on our own. When voting, take into account that your choices should have good synergy between themselves and with Rhydon! This means you have to make sure they don't share several common weaknesses between themselves.

Spiker: Accelgor, Qwilfish, Roselia, Scolipede, or Ferroseed
Spinblocker: Rotom, Dusknoir, Misdreavus, or Cofagrigus
Spinner: Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Claydol, or Cryogonal

Finally, while choosing these Pokemon, think about offensive Pokemon that work well with them. This will be very important for the voting period for the last two slots.

This voting period will end on Monday 23:00 GMT. (Then the voting period for the last 2 slots will start)

 

[No Luck Involved]

The best choices in each category are Qwilfish, Rotom and Cryogonal for me. But the lack of SR really sucks, so I'd support Claydol instead of Cryo if it came down to it.

Rhydon, Qwilfish, Rotom and Cryogonal look good together :P
I'll just re-iterate what I said before that BU Gallade and Scarf Braviary could be good team members.

I'd love to see some Wish support on the team in the form of Clefable (who can also set SR) instead of Cryo. This leaves us with no spinner but maybe the team would be OK without it? Rhydon can completely shut down physical Flying types like Krow and it would be criminal not to capitalise on that with Gallade. Wish support would really help Rhydon keep Krow quiet.

 

[Axmaster68]

I have to say I agree, and I will vote for Quilfish, Rotom, and Cryogonal. If not Cryogonal, then I support either Hitmon.

 

[Ewil]

I like to vote for Qwilfish, Misdreavus and Claydol core, but in case that Misdreavus is not good for you, i like to hear some rotom defensive EV's spread (i've tried an offensive one and wasn't that good for me), 'coz i think that this team needs a bulky anti-spinner.

In this case, this core share a common weakness with Rhydon (most famous: Grass, Qw & misdre are only neutral but misdre can take special one and qw physical attacks pretty well) but, for a secure resistance i'd like to propose Lilligant as a sweeper, personally i don't like choice users like braviary, but this a personal preference, i found lilligant really useful, maybe we can put Gallade too, but with that, we have 3 setupper mons, maybe the last should be a tank/wall/choice (choice scarf i think is the way to go in this case).

 

[Honko]

Qwilfish, Rotom, Claydol. Qwilfish + Claydol are nice defensive pivots that complement each other well, and you get the bonus of Stealth Rock from Claydol and Toxic Spikes and/or Taunt from Qwilfish to help win the entry hazard war. Rotom beats most spinners pretty easily and is just an effective and versatile Pokemon in general.

 

[badabing]

Qwilfish, Rotom, Claydol.

 

[Vratix]

Qwilfish Misdreavus Hitmonchan

 

[Cherub Agent]

Qwilfish, Claydol, SUBSPLIT rotom

 

[Twannes]

Qwilfish, Rotom, Claydol

And Galalde as offensive partner and perhaps the possible scarf braviary.

 

[Furosuto]

Qwilfish, Rotom, and Hitmonchan.

Now as for partners...Hmmm.....We need something to stop set up sweepers. Something that can put them to a dead halt. Unaware Quagsire anyone? :D

now for a physical sweeper. Hitmonchan can run some physical moves, but I'm thinking we should add SD scolipede. This thing wrecks a lot of things, plus it outspeeds lilligant and durant, allowing easy kills. Entei dies to E-quake or rock slide after a SD.

Special Sweeper: Now lets see here....Is lilligant an option? It is quite good after all, plus it has pretty decent coverage. If lilligant is not an option then we can run maybe.. Galvantula or Gorebyss? Shell smash is always a good option, and Galvantula can launch STAB almost always hitting thunders with compoundeyes.

 

[Windsong]

Qwilfish, Rotom, and Claydol / Cryo (depending on how the remainder of the team turns out) would imo be the best option. As Honko mentioned, Qwilfish and Claydol both make excellent defensive pivots, and in general, pair well together, and are capable of switching in on some of the things that are hard for Rhydom to handle.

I'm strongly, strongly against having any ghost other than Rotom (and preferably I'd want to have some sort of SubSplit Rotom, if possible). The reason being that, from my experience, while stuff like Dusknoir and Cof are kind of ok, for the most part, neither of them really lures in stuff that Rhydon wants gone, and neither of them really provides any offensive presence for the team (I guess SubPunch Dusknoir and CM Cof, but neither is a particularly good set if we're looking for moderate survivability). Misdreavus, imo, would be totally useless on this team. It's good on hardcore stall that needs something capable of switching into every single spinner, but it doesn't really force switches all that well, and seems like it'd just be a dead weight to the team other than spinblocking.

 

[Furosuto]

why do people think that the legendary birds can learn calm mind?

About Claydol and Gligar walling Rhydon, obviously the best answer to them is a Water- type. I'm all for giving Scoopapa's awesome Samurott a try, with a moveset of Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Grass Knot and Taunt. He knows the best EVs though

Cherub Agent, Rhydon can learn aqua tail. Just put that on his move pool.

 

[jessifer]

Qwilfish, Rotom, Claydol

 

[BurningMan]

Roselia, Rotom, Claydol

I actually don't think we really need a spinner as it looks now, so i choose Claydol mainly because he can also set-up SR.

 

[marilli]

Qwilfish, Rotom, No Spinner.

I'm not exactly sure if I'm allowed to do this, but I don't really think the team needs a spinner. Not running a spinblocker like Rotom on a spike-stacking offense or Misdreavus on stall is a crime, and Claydol can't spin through any Ghost-type, maybe other than something like Lampent. Qwilfish absorbs T-spikes, and SR isn't such a big a deal. Teams running Spikes will have a spinblocker, which will completely deny Claydol from spinning anyways. We don't need a spinner that is unable to get rid of the only hazard the team has trouble with. Oh, and in case there's about to be a spiking competition, Qwilfish can use some speed EVs and taunt to shut down opposing spikes.

If we do use a spinner in Claydol, I think we should use Moltres and Lilligant as our teammates. Qwilfish & Claydol is a proper defensive core, and Rotom Spinblocks. Moltres + Lilligant + Rhydon mirrors Darmanitan + Roserade + Rhyperior of RU, and there are many people to attest to the latter core's effectiveness. Something like Moltres is really good with Spikes and Spin support, and it's there so that we can take advantage of it.

Without a spinner, Moltres becomes somewhat non-viable, leaving up 3 teamslots. Lilligant can stay there because she's borderline broken anyways, Bulk Up Gallade sounds fantastic as many have said before, and the last slot can be filled up with a glue to patch up remaining weaknesses, or just provide SR.