SM LC Bullit

Sken

feet of clay
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
bullit.


Shoutouts to my bro Zaos for such an amazing banner! Also, click on it for some c
hill alolan-ish music for background. The nicknames of the mons are songs too, make sure to click on them and check them out!
.....

introduction.
Hello, it's Sken and I'm back with another RMT two years later. Some of you may know me, for those who don't, I've been playing LC from around early 2014, and have been active here and there for a fair amount of time already. This RMT doesn't have a purpose, it hasn't won in any important tournaments and it hasn't peaked anything in ladder yet (mainly because I don't like laddering with the same team for much time, ironic right?), but it's still a solid one. Therefore, there is no reason why I'm sharing this, I just felt like it was about time and this is one of my favorite squads I've built in SM until now. Also, I just felt like the song fitted so well in the "welcome to Alola" topic so I didn't want time to go on and let this chance go. It uses some new SM toys like Grimer-A and Mudbray too so that's a bonus! Anyways, let's take a look at the team.
.....

teambuilding process.

First of all, I wanted to make a team with Alolan Grimer because it had been recently released and this is one of the most underrated new pokemon that Alola has given us. The first concept was using it with LO Staryu with analytic, since Grimer-A can beat grass-types like Snivy and it knocked off opposing eviolites for Staryu to deal a ton of damage on the opposing team. Grimer-A can also pursuit trap some threats for staryu just like Gothita, Abra and others. At the same time Staryu helped checking ground types, as you were able to double switch into incoming Drilburs or Mudbrays.


Ferroseed gave the team stealth rock support and brought great utility resisting opposing water types that Staryu couldn't handle too well with, like Chinchou, tbolt Staryu, and more. Ferroseed could also paralyze opposing threats such as non-electric scarfers to ease Staryu's work, and is another knock off user helping Staryu breaking the opposing team.


Vullaby was the next choice because it helped with its ground inmunity, the third knock off user of the team, momentum with u-turn and a good fighting check. It makes a great darkspam core with Grimer really difficult to stop by the opponent since they are both so bulky. It particularly helps against Mudbray, as it can knock off its eviolite and u-turn safely into Staryu.


At this point I felt very weak to electric-types in general and Ferroseed could often feel overwhelmed for its lack of recovery. Elekid and Magnemite for example will probably want to use flash cannon/hp grass instead of volt switching, so that gives me an oportunity to go Ferroseed and use stealth rock. This is my main check for Pawniard and Croagunk too, and it's great at dealing with most physical attackers as well.



This step was the most difficult one. I really wanted a fighting check and some more offensive presence. I first thought of Abra, but something didn't really convince me. Then I felt like bulky spin Staryu would be a better fit on the team for things like fire-types or Sandshrew-A, and Abra would be doing its role as a hard special hitter taking profit of knock off spam. Having Staryu and Abra together was good because both are Gothita bait, and pursuit Grimer really helps against those teams that rely on Gothita to beat both. Abra taking Staryu's place as the big offensive presence, being Staryu one of the two mons I built around felt weird, but the team continued being successful fortunately.
.....

in-depth sets.



BULLIT
Item: Eviolite
|
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 196 SpD | Adamant Nature
Moves: Knock Off / Gunk Shot / Pursuit / Shadow Sneak

Grimer-A is a great new mon from this generation and it fits perfectly into the definition of bulky offense. It lives a couple of hits and hits back really hard, and nothing takes its both stabs other than Pawniard, Mudbray and maybe some bulky poison-types such as Trubbish. It has niche resistances being able to switch into any move from Abra, Gastly and Gothita and then trapping them (well it can't switch into Gothita because of its ability but whatever), and it also resists attacks from Snivy, z-trick-or-treat Pumpkaboo and other key huge threats in the tier. Being only weak to ground-type is awesome too and will let you live at least one hit most of the times and fire back really hard. It has max attack for obvious reasons, and then its defenses are splitted into 12 and 14 to maximize the eviolite bulk as well as living some more special hits such as Abra's dazzling gleam or any of Gastly's and Snivy's attacks. Knock Off and Gunk Shot are its primary stab moves, and then it has pursuit to trap the former mentioned mons and shadow sneak to pick up some kos when the opponent is really weak, and it's also important to have since it's my only priority move in the team. Poison touch is great to get chip damage on opponents and a stab knock off being able to poison opponents is just huge. It has that cool chance to punish the opponent even more with shadow sneak as you sacrifice it too, which is always appreciated.



WAVE

Item:
| Ability: Analytic
EVs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 236 Spe | Timid Nature | IVs: 0 Atk
Moves: Scald / Thunderbolt / Recover / Rapid Spin

Bulky Staryu is one of the best mons in SM at the moment. It spins against most common sr users and burns stuff with stab scalds. Its 4th move is customizable depending on what your team needs. In this case I decided to run tbolt because it helped against bulky waters that were able to weaken Ferroseed enough to sweep later or scald burning them. It also 2HKOs np Vullaby so it can't set up on you, and if you aren't living the incoming hit you put it into Abra's dazzling gleam range. I chose analytic because it seems to be better in SM since it just hits harder, and burn taking 1 hp only is not a big deal as you don't care about attack drops, toxic is just bad in lc and you don't care about random freezes because of scald. Paralysis can still be annoying, so feel free to run natural cure if you feel better like that. Its EV spread is standard to take on physical attackers like ground-types, Corphish, Carvanha, Archen, Ponyta, Sandshrew-A and more, and the rest of the moveset is recover for longevity and rapid spin to remove hazards.


FEEL THE VOLUME
Item: Eviolite
|
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 84 HP / 36 Atk / 188 Def / 148 SpD / 36 Spe | Careful Nature

Moves: Bullet Seed / Knock Off / Thunder Wave / Stealth Rock
Ferroseed is my stealth rocker and has good utility in general. It's a very bulky pokemon that helps against shell smashers, fairies, electrics and some other special attackers. I always used it with leech seed to beat boltbeam z-conversion Porygon, and as it was banned I started running iron head for cutiefly. Now that cutie is gone i feel like knock off is more useful and helps with the purpose of the team of removing items for Abra to take souls in late-game. Thunder wave helps against setup sweepers and fast threats in general, bullet seed is the main stab move and stealth rock should be a staple on every team. Iron barbs helps with cheap damage and the EV spread is made to hit 18 defenses for eviolite to make it shine.


RDY2FLY
Item: Eviolite
|
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 196 HP / 156 Def / 156 SpD | Careful Nature

Moves: Knock Off / Brave Bird / U-turn / Roost
Defensive Vullaby gives me an important ground inmunity and helps with the knock off spam. Practically nothing in LC takes stab knock off and brave bird, and you just u-turn against the ones who do. This defensive set is fun because many opponents will do weird things trying to avoid a nasty plot or z-mirror move sweep since they are pretty common sets in SM. The u-turn momentum is highly appreciated by Abra to fire off a couple of strong hits and then leave the field. The EV spread makes it a pretty good mixed defensive wall with eviolite. Finally, roost gives longevity and lets you stall offensive threats. This acts like my pseudo fighting resist as it threatens them out with brave bird, and is useful against Mudbray, as it can knock off its eviolite and u-turn into staryu on the predicted rest (it beats any other set 1v1 if it's not resttalk so it shouldn't be a problem anyways). This is my main sun answer as well, and if you think that acid downpour is coming the way to beat it is just double switching, even if it's not the greatest strategy against it, because sun is ridiculous right now.


CRANK IT UP
Item: Eviolite
|
Ability: Stamina
EVs: 116 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 156 SpD | Adamant Nature

Moves: Earthquake / Heavy Slam / Rest / Sleep Talk

Mudbray is really bulky and it is my primary Pawniard answer. As a ground type, it forces electic-types to think twice before volt switching, and hits really hard in general. A great thing about Mudbray-Ferroseed is that one deals with cross chop Elekid and the other one deals with hp grass sets, which is huge for an abra-staryu-vullaby team. This is my switch into Ferroseed too, which would be threatening against any other ground type. Earthquake is the main stab move and hits like a truck, and heavy slam provides great coverage taking profit from Mudbray's insane weight in front of the rest of the tier, OHKOing things like Cottonee and Archen and other ground inmunities or resists for neutral damage. Rest, sleep talk and stamina makes a great combination, making most physical pokemon get walled by it, as well as any special attacker unable to 3HKO it. Be careful trying to take special moves after a knock off though, because the difference is really considerable. Mudbray overall is a great pokemon and can 1v1 a huge portion of the metagame and closes the defensive core so well.



THE MACK
Item: Focus Sash
| Ability: Magic Guard

EVs: 240 SpA / 200 Spe | Timid Nature | IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe

Moves: Psychic / Hidden Power [Fighting] / Dazzling Gleam / Energy Ball
Last but not least, we have Abra. Abra is being so underrated right now but it is actually really threatening against offense with its sash and also against bulkier teams with the adequate knock off support. I chose sash four attacks because each attack helps me deal with particular threats: hp fighting is always needed for pawn, steel and dark types, dazzling gleam helps a lot against Vullaby which is super threatening right now, and it also prevents Scraggy from sweeping the entire team, and energy ball is for shell smashers as well as the ability to 2HKO opposing Mudbrays. I used knock off in the last slot but I never really clicked it, so I tried shadow ball, but the same happened since I already have Staryu + Grimer-A to bait and trap Gothita, Honedge is rarely seen and Drifloon will very likely be gone soon. Life Orb is sometimes underwhelming because you miss having a focus sash a lot of times, and with the knock off support it isn't a really huge change in terms of sheer power. Protect can be run to scout Pawniard (if it pursuits you just stay in and kill it and if it uses sucker punch you switch out for free) and some fake out users, even though they aren't that common nowadays, and you can also see what are scarf users locking themselves into, like Magnemite (using volt switch or not), Mienfoo (going for the fighting move or the u-turn), Vullaby and more.

.....

threat list.


Choice Scarf Mienfoo
: with rocks up, high jump kick 2HKOs everything. You have to try tp keep them away with Staryu and keep Vullaby as healthy as possible. In case you couldn't you should try to double switch everytime you see it coming, and in the worst case scenario all the mons but Ferroseed live a hit and somehow hit it back, but still annoying as hell to face.


HP Fire Choice Scarf Magnemite: with hp fire, magnemite destroys Ferroseed and 3HKOs Mudbray. Anyways, Grimer can still put it work being able to pursuit it after it hp fires Ferroseed so it's easier to take down later after taking stealth rock damage twice with shadow sneak. It's a pretty uncommon set but I've already faced it a couple of times and it's worth to name here imo.

Life Orb Pawniard: LO Pawniard can overwhelm Mudbray to the point where the stamina and rest combination can't be enough to take it on. Emergency checks are knocking its LO off with Grimer or Vullaby after taking a huge hit and the proceed to counter it with Mudbray, or sacrifice Abra's focus sash to kill it.

Flying-types: birds can be played around, but are annoying since I lack a flying resist by itself. Abra and Mudbray are generally a decent answer to this, but it's still a bad matchup overall.

Sun: I actually fogot to add both of these, thanks mambo for reminding it, but sun is really difficult to stop right now and kinda broken in some aspects. Vullaby counters Bellsprout without sr damage, however its poison-type z move can destroy it and then proceed to sweep. You'll probably prefer to pivot first to scout for the acid downpour, but there is still no guarantee you will win that.
.....

conclusion.
I think this is a good team to use and it's definitely fun. If you want to use and want some advice, like how to act in certain situations, feel free to pm me whenever. As always I'm open to criticism, if there's a way the team could perform better I really would like to know it. I'm not putting any replay because I don't really have many, but I'll be editting if I get some good ones, and I'm not adding calcs either because it's boring and you can do it for yourself :(. I am sorry if I sometimes messed up with English, I'm still learning day after day! I don't want to do shoutouts because I don't want to spend all the time it would take me to mention all of my friends here, you guys already know who you are, but I just want to adress again to my friend Zaos for the great one-day art, love you buddy. Thanks for taking your time reading and I hope you liked it. I'm sure the music definitely helped doing it.

.....

importable.
BULLIT (Grimer-Alola) @ Eviolite
Ability: Poison Touch
Level: 5
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 196 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Gunk Shot
- Pursuit
- Shadow Sneak

WAVE (Staryu) @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

FEEL THE VOLUME (Ferroseed) @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 5
EVs: 84 HP / 36 Atk / 188 Def / 148 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Knock Off
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock

RDY2FLY (Vullaby) @ Eviolite
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 5
EVs: 196 HP / 156 Def / 156 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Roost

CRANK IT UP (Mudbray) @ Eviolite
Ability: Stamina
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 156 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Heavy Slam
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

THE MACK (Abra) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
Level: 5
EVs: 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball



see you around!
 
Last edited:

doomsday doink

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Obviously this is a solid build. I've been toying around with Alolan-Grimer (with minimal progress) so I commend you for crafting such a successful team around it. Nasty Plot Vullaby could prove problematic for the bulkier core of the team but you have decent means of dispatching it and, knowing your skill level, you're more than capable of playing around it. The only changes I'd make to your "threat list" would be the addition of the standard Sun core, which you already allude to in your Vullaby description, and the removal of HP Fire Scarf Magnemite and Life Orb Pawniard, as both are practically nonexistent on common builds.

Only notable change I'd make to the team itself is Energy Ball -> Protect on Abra. You already acknowledge this in your Abra description (thanks for rating your own team) but I think the merits of scouting Scarf Rufflet / Doduo / Vullaby and Scarf Mienfoo will prove to be quite beneficial, the latter of which you can also punish for locking itself into HJK. It also removes any concern regarding a potential Fake Out from Mienfoo, Meme Jr., etc. Though you lose the ability to 2HKO standard Mudbray, you have three Pokemon with Knock Off that lure Mudbray in; as for Shell Smash users, Abra's Psychic is still a near OHKO on -1 SpD Smashers and you have a Ferroseed and a Staryu with Thunderbolt to serve as further answers. Plus, I doubt you're letting a Smasher set up for free and Grimer can pick off anything significantly weakened.

Outside of that, there's not much to change. Sun absolutely terrifies me so I would much rather maintain a decent matchup there than be particularly concerned with Scarf Mienfoo; however, should you not share the same fear, you may consider bumping Vullaby's Def from 16 -> 18 and pulling from SpD a bit. It all but ensures that Vullaby survives two HJKs from both Jolly (100% chance) and Adamant (91% chance) Scarf Mienfoo without Stealth Rock up (which isn't particularly tough to achieve with Staryu).

Nice art, shit music, stick around in LC!
 

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