The Wrath Of Drifblim [1st RMT]

[Kanwe]

Hey Smogon! After lurking on the forums for a while, and battling lots of people on Showdown, I decided to post my first RMT. This team is centered around Calm Mind Drifblim, which is uncommon and can throw off some unprepared teams, and I enjoy using it a lot. Comments/Feedback is greatly appreciated!

The team:

Air Head (Drifblim) (M) @ Ghost Gem
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt

I began with my Calm Mind Drifblim, Air Head. Due to it's many resistances and immunities, it can find many opportunities to set up with Calm Mind and proceed to sweep, able to easily take out almost anything not named Regice or Skuntank. Shadow Ball is the preferred STAB move, while Thunderbolt adds coverage needed to hit Braviary and Alomomola for super effective damage. Drifblim can set up on most walls with ease, barring one player who was running a Hustle Corsola with Blizzard, but that's beside the point.

Shoe (Sawk) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge

I added Shoe in order to get past the two main threats to Drifblim: Skuntank and Regice. Sawk's amazing attack power coupled with a Choice Band allows it to scare out Regice with it's STAB Close Combat. Skuntank is taken out by EQ or Close Combat and can't do much in return. Mold Breaker is chosen to negate any Levitaters (mainly Misdreavus) and put a nice dent in it. Shoe functions as a nice wallbreaker, able to soften up the opponents team in order to let Drifblim sweep with greater ease.

Frozen Bacon (Piloswine) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Spear
- Stealth Rock

Piloswine is a welcome addition to the team, as it provides bulk and more importantly, Stealth Rock. With Stealth Rock, Drifblim's Shadow Ball turns from a 3HKO into a solid 2HKO on Regice. Piloswine's reliability is what attracted me; it's a solid lead, with Icicle Spear to break substitutes of Ninjask. It's ability to tank hits from hard hitters such as Scarf Primeape is a plus as well. Ice shard is nice for priority, allowing it to pick off low-health Pokemon and KO frailer Pokes that outspeed it.

Samara (Misdreavus) (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 Spd
Bold Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Pain Split
- Taunt

Samara the Misdreavus stops the fighting types Frozen Bacon can't (mainly Sawk). I chose it mainly for its ability to burn Drifblim's threats, and because of its bulkiness. Taunt allows Drifblim even more setup opportunities. Samara's immunities and resistances make it a reliable switch-in to many attacks as well. Will-O-Wisp can cripple Skuntank as well as any other physical attacker and thus makes it less of a tremendous threat to both Drifblim and the rest of the team.

Madame (Gardevoir) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
- Focus Blast
- Destiny Bond

Gardevoir provides some offensive presence on the special side and can further soften up or even KO much of the tier and letting Drifblim's sweeping job that much easier. Signal Beam can take out Dark types if Sawk goes down. Destiny Bond can be used to take out any threats the rest of the team can't handle after Madame has extended it's usefulness, and then bring in the appropriate counter against the opponent's Poke.

Mr. Fluffy (Persian) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Return

Persian is an extremely cool Poke, as it gets a useful Fake Out/U-Turn combo to scout, coupled with high speed and Technician to give Fake Out some extra oomph. Mr. Fluffy's role on this team is to scout out movesets, Taunt anything that tries to set up with it's massive base 115 speed, and U-Turn out to give the team some offensive momentum with U-Turn. With Mr. Fluffy, I can come in, Fake Out, and U-Turn out to a check to anything the opponent tries to bring in.


And that's my team! I'm fairly new to the metagame, having only played for a couple months, so comments would greatly help. Thanks for taking the time for reading this, and feel free to try out the team yourself! I'll leave the pastebin below if you'd like to try it out:

TEAM PASTEBIN

-Kanwe

 

[jamil66]

I like it a lot. You know precisely what your talking about exactly where other people are coming from on this issue.

 

[noobcubed]

Great team, which uses some underrated Pokemon and sets. I don't know where you got the idea that Drifblim can 2HKO Regice though, it's an absolute brick wall an the physical side - it's a 5HKO, or a 3HKO after one Calm Mind boost (remember, only your first attack is gem-boosted). The real solid counters are things like Bastiodon, who takes nothing from Thunderbolt and Roars you out (not like you can;t deal with that threat though).

I notice you have no Choice Scarf user. You do have a couple of priority moves, but not enough that you don't leave yourself vulnerable to opposing Choice Scarf users. In addition, offensive Misdreavus really hurts this team - it can outrun and do super-effective STAB damage to Drifblm, Gardevoir and your own Misdreavus; it burns Sawk, Persian and Piloswine, rendering them blunt, and on top of that it is immune to Sawk's most spammable attack and doesn't take anything from Persian. Kangaskhan would be good for its ability Scrappy, but without Taunt it will just get burnt.

So I might pick the underrated Nasty Plot Liepard (Smogon's onsite set), probably over Misdreavus as a second Ghost type seems unnecessary and stacks weaknesses big time. While ostensibly providing redundant offensive coverage with Drifblim, the two can be used to wear down each other's checks. It also provides a nice switch-in to Musharna, who will invariably come in on Sawk (provided you have eliminated Signal Beam of course), and is a really nice weapon to stop you being run over by set-up sweepers as you can just switch in and Encore them into set-up moves, getting a guaranteed boost of your own.

This still leaves a speed issue, so you can optionally slap a Scarf on Gardevoir. Memento is also a really cool option over Destiny Bond as it allows you to set up more easily with Drifblim.

That's all I got, hope it was helpful.

 

[scorpdestroyer]

Hi Kanwe. The first thing I notice about this team is that it's really weak to offensive Water-types. Special Samurott in particular can take down every single one of your team members and the only thing you can do is revenge with Gardevoir or Persian but nothing can switch in. Therefore, I suggest replacing Misdreavus with Roselia. Roselia has no trouble taking Water-type attacks at all, and also soaks up Toxic Spikes, which your team quickly falls to. Meanwhile like noobcubed said it's a little redundant to have Misdreavus, especially when it doesn't actually beat Skuntank due to the latter's access to Taunt. Secondly, there's also a huge weakness to Charizard, or anything Fire-type really, because the only thing you have is Persian to revenge kill it and nothing to take it. There's also a rather large weakness to opposing Drifblim. To help with this problem, I suggest running Kangaskhan over Persian. Unlike Persian, Kangaskhan has two forms of priority, which means that you aren't completely run over by Choice Scarf Charizard (Fake Out doesn't KO after Stealth Rock). Unlike Persian, Kangaskhan can also revenge kill Drifblim after Unburden. I know this doesn't solve the problem completely but it's the best solution I can think of without changing the team too much. Lastly, if you're still worried about Skuntank stopping your Drifblim sweep, you can consider using Destiny Bond over Substitute on Drifblim. This gives you a nice way to quickly take down Skunk or any other troublesome threat so that Gardevoir (or anything else on your team I guess!) can sweep. This is optional of course, as you might find the utility of Sub too good to pass up.

Hope I helped!

tl;dr

Misdreavus --> Roselia
Persian --> Kangaskhan
Optional: Substitute --> Destiny Bond on Drifblim

Sets:

Roselia @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Spikes / Toxic Spikes

Kangaskhan @ Silk Scarf
Trait: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake

Optional:

Drifblim @ Ghost Gem
Trait: Unburden
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Destiny Bond

 

[Brawlfest]

Hello! I agree with scorpdestroyer on both the Kangaskhan and Roselia issue, as they help not only alleviate a weakness to Special Samurott, but helps with a bulkier, harder hitting, and overall more reliable revenge killer. However, I would suggest removing Piloswine for Defensive Probopass as your team is undeniably weak to the almighty charizard, and thus needs something to contain it. I however do feel that you should keep substitute, as Drifblim really does need the extra cushion to help it set up. Destiny bond however is great move, and should not be overlooked, but I may also suggest Baton Pass as a quick help to Gardevoir, whom appreciates the massive boost. Looking over the team, I can also identify a major CB Golurk weakness, who literally tears through your team with the correct predictions like a hot knife through butter. While Kangaskhan can help revenge it, you really have nothing to solidly switch into it, which is why I suggest Mandibuzz as an option over Misdreavus, as it can still take one hit from samurott reasonably and solidly dent it before taking it out with Kangaskhan, but it really helps you deal with Golurk. Mandibuzz and Roselia are both great candidates in this spot imo. Mandibuzz + Probopass is also an amazing core I might add, defeating a large majority of NU's threats.

Probopass @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 56 SAtk / 200 SDef
Calm Nature
- Power Gem
- Stealth Rock
- Volt Switch
- Toxic

Mandibuzz (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Big Pecks
EVs: 148 Def / 248 HP / 112 Spd
- Foul Play
- Taunt
- Roost
- Toxic

 

[Kanwe]

Thanks to all of you for the awesome suggestions! I took all of your opinions to heart and made some changes to the team that I feel very good about. Persian was replaced by Kangaskhan, as scorpdestroyer suggested, and I'm very happy with the change. Kangaskhan's access to double priority helps to take out many threats to the team. I replaced Misdreavus and Piloswine with the Mandibuzz/Probopass core that Brawlfest suggested, and needless to say, it's VERY effective. Roselia I used for a couple battles, and it sponged water attacks easily; however, the core that Mandi and Probopass is very tight, and Taunt and Toxic from Mandibuzz is very appreciated. As suggested by noobcubed, I put a Choice Scarf on Gardevoir, and the speed given to the team is a godsend. Destiny Bond was replaced with Memento, as it's set up opportunities that Gardevoir provides to Drifblim are much appreciated. Although not without it's flaws, I enjoy the new team much more, and it's a lot more efficient! Thanks again to everyone for taking the time for reading my RMT, and I've provided the new and improved team in a pastebin below for anyone interested.

PASTEBIN

-Kanwe