We may have a new king of NU - Part 2

So, instead of studying for the math exam tomorrow, I'm here finishing the write-up for my NU team. Its onto my three 'mainstays' now, entitled that because their efficiency has shown to beyond question. Admittedly, they get countered easily if my mindgames fail and I switch in baddly and such, but the only Pokemon who can switch in without question is Arceus, and last I checked, Arceus is banned in NU.

So, first of all, let's talk about the true god of NU. Ubers has Arceus (or will, when he's made legal), OU has Scizor and Salamence, UU had Yanmega and still has Registeel. By 'god', I mean the pokemon with the amazing movepool and the amazing stats to back it. I use the title god because the best example of it is Arceus, with the best stats, best movepool and best STAB. You can keep it normal with a LOrb and run STAB ExtremeSpeed and fill it with bulky EVs. You can make it Ice and run Calm Mind to counter all the Dragon Types with Judgment and Ice Beam. You can run a Draco Plate and Swords Dance your way to a STAB Dragon Claw sweep. Clearly, its impossible to predict what Arceus will do, and you can't just throw a meaty STAB at it because it still has the stats to beat you.

Now, we get to NU's god. Obviously, NU pokemon don't have stats entirely upto par with Arceus, but relative to the format, this guy has great stats. In other formats, Charizard is destroyed by SR, but NU's SR users are unreliable at best. Plus, with Rapid Spin usage having gone down, Pokemon who were efficient at spinning but not much else have slowly gone down, allowing quite useful spinner/spikers to be run, like Cloyster. Also, with Toxic Spikes and Spikes being more possible due to spinner/spikers being run, Charizard's ability to fly right out over them is useful.

Next, we get to his movesets. The most famous is probably BellyZard, using the might Belly Drum to trigger a Salac Berry and Blaze to get a +6 2x STAB Fire Punch at +1 speed. Its a rather daunting prospect, but if they do get SR up, Zard's already down to half health and can't afford to Belly Drum in my opinion. So, I discarded that one because, despite its power, it wasn't reliable enough with my rather poor switch in guesses. Sunny Day went out the picture next straight away, due to me not wanting to use weather that wouldn't help the rest of my team and potentially help them.

SpecsZard would be the next-most hard hitting, as Zard's SAttack is higher than his physical Attack, and at 109, certainly is a nice prospect for Speccing. However, at this point, Primeape wasn't on the team, and with Gligar being a huge glass cannon, I didn't like resting my physical prospects on something without much sweep ability. So, I slammed a LOrb on him and ran a MixZard, with this set:

Charizard (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 60 Atk/196 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Brick Break
- Air Slash
- Rock Slide

Fire Blast is obvious huge STAB, especially since its off Zard's Sattack, rather than Fire Punch off his lesser Attack. Brick Break covers potential normal/dark types (although there aren't many worrying dark types in NU) like Munchlax. Air Slash is again, massive STAB damage, since people often forget Charizard does actually get flying STAB. Rock Slide covers other Charizards well, hitting for 4x effective damage.

Next we get to my spikes/spinner to defend Charizard. I'm not paticularly fond of the time it takes to set up spikes, even in a relatively slow format like NU, so I decided to just make it a generic support rather than a spiker. Cloyster's typing isn't something I really like in a format without Dragons, as STAB Ice only really has that as a use. Plus, taking 25% from SR defeats the purpose of spinning with such a poor SDef, leaving it liable to get OHKO'd on switch from a Fire Blast causing neutral damage to Cloyster's measily 45 SDef. I'd always liked the two fossils in D/P, although they aren't really as effective as Aerodactyl. While Cradily can't spin (it did used to be my lead initially, though), Armaldo can, and also learns the mighty Stealth Rock itself, reducing the three turns setup to a measly one. Multi-hit STAB moves are also effective against the multitude of effective sub users in the format (including hitting sub Zard sets for 4x), so I went with this set:

Armaldo (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP/8 Atk/252 Def
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Rock Blast
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin

Toxic is used for the great stalling ability, as well as for very useful draining in the late game.

Lastly, we get to the last slot. I was feeling a bit low on my sweeping possibilities on both special and physical, so I decided for another mixed attacker, leaving either it or Zard for the late-game and using the other to get early game damage in as an effective switcheroo (not the move, Switcheroo). I limited the list down to Cacturne, Camerupt, Octillery and Seviper. Cacturne went first of the four, due to being too slow and fragile for me to be really able to hit with it. I could've rebuilt my team to start with a Hippo, but decided it wasn't worth it for a 30% chance to evade and possibly do some damage. Camerupt was relatively bulky compared to Cacturne, but its typing was alot worse, weaknesses to EQ and Waterfall is never good when you've got a speed of 40. Both Octillery and Seviper had good abilities, but Octillery had a good typing while Seviper had a better speed and only slightly worse defences. While it was a hard choice, in the end I went for Seviper, with this set:

Seviper (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 56 HP/220 Atk/135 Spd/96 SAtk
Naughty nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Giga Drain
- Flamethrower
- Poison Jab

Poison Jab is the obligatory STAB on every non-Uber sweeper, with a fairly nice poison chance as well. Earthquake is also obligatory on physical sweepers, while the remaining two moves are interesting choices. Giga Drain is a nice grass moves to use on the switch to Gastrodon or Quagsire, and heals nicely against just other EQ users not named Zard. Flamethrower is mostly there just for coverage, although since it doesn't actually add much, I think I may drop it soon and try out either Sucker Punch or Aqua Tail.

If they manage to set up Toxic Spikes on the lead, I'd like to be able to just switch in and sweep on the second turn and Seviper can do that while also absorbing the Toxic Spikes, leaving Charizard hidden away in the ranks to pull a late game sweep. With Seviper looking more and more early game sweep, I may change Charizard to a SD or a DD Charizard for a late-game smash without the unreliability of Belly Drum. Still, all will be done in further testing.

Thanks for reading through this post and I hope to keep you upto date with my NU team and, once the tournament ends, you'll get to see my mighty tournament team.