So this is a PU team. I've made a few legitimately good PU teams in the past (none that I've posted), but overall I just play PU to have fun and meme around with fun stuff. So basically, ever since megas got separated from their stones in the tierings, I've wanted to try non-mega banette for fun. It's kinda funny that whenever you talk about banette, if you don't specify "non-mega" it's implied it's the mega evolution you're talking about.... just because regular banette is stereotyped to be just so freaking bad. I'm not arguing one way or the other lol, I'm just trying to have a bit of fun. The original team I made was more of a balance team with a sturdier defensive core, but after testing for I while I think banette performs better on a more offensive team. So I changed up the team to this. I'm not the "best" when it comes to offence, I generally prefer balance/bulky offence, so that's the reason I'm posting here. That and I just like the team, it's been a lot of fun to meme around with, so even if I don't get advice on the team it's nice for the memories I guess.
Few disclaimers: lapras counter is the X button. Relicanth counter is pivoting between golem and leafeon, and if that fails the X button. Rotom-frost counter is dodging blizzard. Plus several other things the team loses to lol.
Anyways, here's the team:
Banette @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Insomnia
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Gunk Shot
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
First pokemon being Banette, the one I wanted to build around. I have a long description for this one as it's the centerpiece of the team, so bear with me they won't all be this long. It's kind of meant to be a stallbreaker for the team. Base 45 speed is a very pivotal speed tier in PU, so I wanted to run enough speed to outspeed max speed base 45 pokemon without a speed boosting nature like golem and marowak. This also lets me outspeed base 70's... which isn't really very relevent. I considered running speed for jolly base 45's which also would let me outspeed stuff like grumpig without investment, but I decided in the end I wanted the hp ev's to actually make use of my item a bit better. This item (colbur berry) lets Banette serve as a very nice machoke answer for the team as well as lets me burn pawniard and marowak, or kill off leafeon after living their respective knock off's, as well as lets me live sucker punches from stuff like arbok or golem. Gunk shot is the coverage move of choice because it's banette's hardest hitting move (it hits harder than STAB shadow claw because shadow claw is a garbage+weak move) and knock off because dark+poison has great offensive coverage in the tier. That and knock off is amazing in PU because it removes eviolite which is always a huge bonus, I'd happily run zero STAB for that bonus. Wisp is for stuff like machoke or relicanth who I can't guarenteed 2hko and just physical attackers in general, of just bulky walls who can sponge my hits anyways. Taunt is to prevent most defensive mons in the tier from healing, and prevents rocks from stuff like golem/camerupt/etc turn 1. And finally, insomnia is kinda decent for sleep powder stuff like tangela or butterfree or whatever.
Leafeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
The next mon is leafeon. Leafeon is nice as a ground and water check for the team. Sub+SD lets me deal with defensive team matchups a bit better, and knock off is the coverage of choice because it's the greatest move in the game (if tangela wants to wall me then it's losing it's eviolite... so who really came out on top here?). Speed for max speed plus speed nature base 91's, because anything higher is generally irrelevent and winning a speed tie vs other leafeon's doesnt really do me anything because I can't hit it back with anything other than knock off.
Swanna @ Life Orb
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Defog
- Roost
Swanna is my offensive defogger. It's a nice monferno answer, a water resist that doesn't mind scald burns, an EQ immunity and because this team is really bad it's my fastest mon on the team. Dual STAB hits the tier considerably well after the boost from life orb (assuming hurricane hits, which doesn't actually happen in real life, it's just myth). Roost+defog for a little bit of team support.
Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Vacuum Wave
- Nasty Plot
- Grass Knot
My next mon is monferno. Monferno is a great pawniard, leafeon, and ice type (barring lapras) answer. I originally ran slack off over grass knot because this is technically my rotom-frost "counter" too, but I changed it just to post it because I didn't want people to think I'm too garbage at this game XD. Special is inferior to physical generally, I'm aware. But if I run physical monferno I'd literally have 5/6 physical attackers. So I don't want to run "mono-walled by phys def mons" the team.
Golem @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Atk / 188 Def / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch
Golem is the stealth rocker for the team, and gives the team a small defensive backbone while maintaining offensive pressure. I'm not running the reccomended spdef evs on golem because I personally think that's dumb. That does that even do? Still get 2hkod by HP grass zebstrika? Spdef on rRhydon actually makes sense in NU, but on golem? It feels like theyre just trying to copy a rhydon set. Dank. Anyways, speed outspeeds no speed investment base 50's, which is a fairly important speed tier for defensive walls in the tier. Sucker punch works with vacuum wave to try and patch up the fact that the team is so darn slow. And 20 att evs with an adamant nature hits a jump in the EVs, if I remember correctly.
Zweilous @ Eviolite
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Crunch
- Dragon Tail
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
Last pokemon compliments the shaky "defensive" backbone of the team. I was considering running adamant because it dosent change any important 3hkos into 2hkos, but meh. Zweilous is great for floatzel, which is amazing in the tier. It's also nice for stuff like kadabra or misdreavus (dazzling gleam from kadabra doesn't kill Zweilous, and gleam isn't very common anyways) and the sheer lack or fairies and steels makes Zweilous's STAB's amazing. Hustle is a garbage ability, but like it's also pretty good.... if that makes sense. When it hits, it HITS (for a defensive mon... I mean) and with rest+talk missing a few times isn't the end of the world. Dragon tail is crazy innacurate, but even when it misses it's better than outrage (fun fact, Zweilous has the hardest hitting outrage in the game) and being able to phase things like gogoat/leafeon who try to set up is really nice, plus just phasing things around in general is really nice not only for hazard and residual dammage, but it generally helps burn sleep turns very easily because often you can phase into a mon you wall anyways. Zweilous is great for the majority of water, fire, electric, grass, ghost and psycic types in the tier barring monferno, lapras and rotom.
So this is the team :P sorry if it's too long, I kinda just assume nowadays that I won't get replies because I always post really ackward to fix teams. But I like posting because it gives me a personal archive of a few teams I enjoy :) so hopefully nobody hates me for the length of the team. Here are a few replays of the team or something. Not many of them are exceptionally good, PU ladder is a weird blend of low ladder+high ladder no matter what your rank is.
Special Monferno does a thing:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-364936194
When Ass vest Lapras decides to ruin your day, but you still pull out the W:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-364892779
Ground resist Swanna coming in hot:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-364884372
Man tried to outmeme me, got hit with the work:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-364913290
Not a good battle really, but banette does stuff :O?
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-364941809
And here are my replays when I ran banette on balance:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-364693298
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-364674396 (best of the balance replays IIRC)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-364669679 (banette sweep, ey lmao)
