Research Week ORAS Edition [Week 14] - Won by bsu

[Lord Wallace]

Am at 1305 currently, Water Absorb Specs Lanturn is pretty nice on aggressive VoltTurn teams.
Mienshao in particular is a fantastic partner because Lanturn can switch into Scald and therefore checks the bulky Water (as well as Flying types) that typically stop Mienshao, and can also check Chandelure and is a nifty Aero check if they lack EQ.
Offensive Whimsicott is also a good partner as a more solid check to Dragons, Ground types and to Encore Pokemon that try to use Lanturn as set up fodder, since even with Specs its not terrifyingly strong and balanced team can easily switch into it.
The weakness to Ground really does sting at times since bulky waters are usually supposed to check those, so another Water type not named Empoleon could actually pair really well with Lanturn.

Lanturn @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 188 HP / 252 SpA / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

The EVs outspeed min speed Florges

EDIT: Got to 1387 with Lanturn for a W/L of 19-3. I'll probably call it there since I'm late anyway, but overall nb, I really enjoyed using Lanturn.

 

[Hogg]

Damn, I quit early because I got distracted and didn't think my team was all that great, but even so it's doing better than most here...

Anyhow, I went with Mantine. Its typing/ability lets it serve as an excellent check to most waters (especially Suicune) and other threats like the Nidos. I decided to put it into a stall core of MAggron + Florges for its ability to switch into Nidoqueen, who otherwise pisses that core off. It worked alright, but I was using it on a sort of awkward team that was thrown together a little too recklessly.

Here's the set I used:

Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Haze
- Rest

Innovative, right?!

Nothing too crazy, just pure stally BS, with Haze and Toxic support. I used it on a team with offensive TSpikes Dragalge and SubCM Chandy as my main wallbreakers and offensive threats, using a defensive core of MAggron/Florges/Mantine and Hitmontop as my spinner, because why not? It worked alright, but frankly Dragalge and Chandy fit onto the team super awkwardly, and the team was only moderately effective. The basic defensive core worked quite well, though the team had some major trouble with Feraligatr (my biggest reason for abandoning it). If I were to redo the team, I'd probably add on AV Tangrowth as a defensive pivot that can help with Gatr while also giving me a second switch-in for stuff like Mega-Amph.

I didn't save many replays because, again, didn't stick with the team very long, but here are a couple:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-222594434
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-222599836

Current rank is 1428. I peaked a little higher than that (1450s IIRC) but I didn't save a screenshot because I didn't think it was worth it to stick with a team that I didn't even expect to take me into the 1500s.

In general Mantine is actually a fairly solid stallmon, with incredibly beefy SpDf and a pretty good defensive typing, but holy crap is it a momentum killer. I can't imagine using it on anything other than stall, because it has nothing even remotely resembling offensive presence, and there are better choices if you just need a Scald switch-in or whatever for your balance team.

 

[Lord Wallace]

The fact that we're being surprisingly impressed by Mantine and Water Aborb Lanturn should speak volumes about how dumb Scald is

 

[Lord Wallace]

I dunno, I think this is a silly way to think. Viability, and competitive Pokemon in general, is based on relativity. If, for whatever reason, Specs Roserade, Shaymin, and Raikou were all the most popular mons in UU, something like Suicune wouldn't be terribly great, scald or not. Because, however, scald is popular, it only makes sense to me that mons that deal with it without an issue can be viable in turn. I don't want this to be a proxy debate for the Scald issue, because that will come up when it will, but I've always understood the metagame to be, well, meta, in that what is "good" is based off of what other people are using. With that in mind, it makes sense that Mantine and Lanturn can have niches in the current atmosphere, because they perform that role well and can offer something else to the team (toxic stalling + defog Mantine, volt switching momentum for Lanturn).

Also, I doubt a single person used it, but remember that Poliwrath can get Water Absorb too :)

I simply meant Scald is annoying and that Lanturn and Mantine's success in this research week says a lot about it's presence, perhaps I worded that a bit more aggressively than how I really meant to come off but I'm actually against suspecting Scald or anything of that sort, it's just very annoying sometimes. I like using Rotom-C as my Water killer [: Heliolisk is also really cool.

 

[Lucipurrr]

I dunno, I think this is a silly way to think. Viability, and competitive Pokemon in general, is based on relativity. If, for whatever reason, Specs Roserade, Shaymin, and Raikou were all the most popular mons in UU, something like Suicune wouldn't be terribly great, scald or not. Because, however, scald is popular, it only makes sense to me that mons that deal with it without an issue can be viable in turn. I don't want this to be a proxy debate for the Scald issue, because that will come up when it will, but I've always understood the metagame to be, well, meta, in that what is "good" is based off of what other people are using. With that in mind, it makes sense that Mantine and Lanturn can have niches in the current atmosphere, because they perform that role well and can offer something else to the team (toxic stalling + defog Mantine, volt switching momentum for Lanturn).

Also, I doubt a single person used it, but remember that Poliwrath can get Water Absorb too :)

Volt Absorb is more viable on Lanturn, seeing as it gets Heal Bell and can just take care of scald on it's on. I don't think I found a time when Water absorb was more of a need then Volt absorb. It baffles me that people think Scald is used so much because it's OP. It's used so much because we keep banning the mons that poop on Scald spammers.

 

[DaSpoofy]

A lot of defensive water pokemon only have scald so having water absorb makes it really easy to set up on them. Its risky to switch into a scald because or burn but now you dont have to worry. I used both and found water absorb a better option for set up sweepers and volt absord for a pivot.

 

[Lord Wallace]

Volt Absorb is more viable on Lanturn, seeing as it gets Heal Bell and can just take care of scald on it's on. I don't think I found a time when Water absorb was more of a need then Volt absorb. It baffles me that people think Scald is used so much because it's OP. It's used so much because we keep banning the mons that poop on Scald spammers.

I used Specs Lanturn not defensive so no heal bell

 

[Lucipurrr]

I used Specs Lanturn not defensive so no heal bell

So in YOUR case, Water absorb would make a bit of sense, but in Defensive Lanturn's case, why run Water Absorb for scald when she gets Heal Bell and can Cleric the whole team....

 

[Lord Wallace]

So in YOUR case, Water absorb would make a bit of sense, but in Defensive Lanturn's case, why run Water Absorb for scald when she gets Heal Bell and can Cleric the whole team....

I never said defensive Lanturn should run Water Absorb. I actually tried both abilities on my Specs Lanturn and stuck with Water Absorb because I had something else on my team for VoltTurn.

 

[Lucipurrr]

I never said defensive Lanturn should run Water Absorb. I actually tried both abilities on my Specs Lanturn and stuck with Water Absorb because I had something else on my team for VoltTurn.

I never said you said it should, lmao. I'm just talking about the benefits of both abilities and when one stands above the other.

 

[Kink]

bsu wins this one with an impressive rank. Good job!

 

[bsu]

cool thanks :D