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used meru's and it's really cool so voting for his. only thing to say is that barbaracle gets liquidation now which is better in every way than razor shell :)
Since the beginning of SM RU Cloyster has been a threatening cleaner, though one rarely seen on the more common archetypes. Cloyster's movepool allows it to vary its set to better clean against what a team is weakened to, though often it is lacking the space for all the options it needs, and thus needs team support to set up as well as position itself to sweep. With the advent of USM, Cloyster gained access to liquidation, a more reliable and powerful physical water STAB, further varying its options. How can this weeks builders incorporate Cloyster into their team to allow it to shine?
Salazzle @ Poisonium Z
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Tyrantrum @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Head Smash
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Superpower
Tsareena @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Queenly Majesty
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Trop Kick
- High Jump Kick
- Play Rough
- U-turn
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
Overview
This is a balanced Team around shell smash cloyster which is a great cleaner late game in the battle. Since cloyster is hamepred by hazards such as stealth Rock which may hinder its ability to set up,I chose to run defog gligar to remove Hazards and act as physical defensive pivot for the team. As sweepers/cleaners appreciate their own entry hazard support I decided to run Bronzong as stealth Rock setter for team that has good synergy with gligar.
As the team was looking weak to fire types and I needed a wall breaker to open up teams for a cloyster sweep/clean,I decided to run choice Banded Tyrantrum on the team that is very hard to switch into. Next I added Salazzle as it weakens or takes out checks to cloyster such as doublade or porygon2 and it's a good set up mon in general with nasty plot set. Lastly I added tsareena as speed control and U-turn pivot to bring in wall breaker like Tyrantrum safely in. Tsareena also patches the weakness to water types which cloyster needs out of the way.
I've tested the team a little on ladder. As always open for suggestions to improve the team!
I decided to go for a pretty offensive build utilising a fire/water/grass core of sorts. The cloyster set I decided on was the hydro pump waterium-z set as I felt that it paired fantastically with virizion. This cloyster can blast through the two major defensive checks to virizion: doublade and chesnaught. virizion on the other hand does great at eliminating some of the better checks to cloyster such as registeel and milotic. Their respective high defensive stats really compliment eachother as well, for example if a scarf flygon kills virizion, cloyster will find it easy to set up thanks to its high defense.
Rotom heat is a really underrated defogger at the moment as it avoids spikes and tspikes while providing nice offensive support, momentum and decent defensive typing. Taunt, stealth rock Kommoo is one of my favourite sets at the moment as it allows you to prevent opposing rocks and recovery from mons such as milotic which threaten cloyster's sweep. I decided to give my scarf gardevoir memento as that it can allow cloyster to set up on mons such as florges that would normally wreck it with a moonblast. Doublade in the last slot provides some much needed bulk to the team and covers a bunch of threats that offence finds difficult to deal with.
Standard LO Cloyster to break stuff for the teammates, especially CM Virizion cause why not. Grassium on that set helps deal with Cress/Gligar as Grass is suprisingly the more useful stab for it to stand out. Glalie and Necrozma provide hazards and ability to threaten almost all removers by themselves, Aero checks Salazzle/Moltres/Linoone and help with webs I guess. Garde is general utility and can bring back one of the sweepers.
Team tailored to allow Cloyster to have a better chance at sweeping. Band Snorlax makes for an excellent partner since it can pursuit trap some stuff like Bronzong that can stop Cloyster cold on its tracks and lure bulky water types like Quagsire with banded double-edges or returns, it retains the surprise factor unlike Bewear and the pursuit utility. Nidoqueen is no brainer as a SR user for offensive teams, effective as always, the weird deal is Thunder which is necessary in order to circumvent the milotic issue since the 2 water resists I choose for this team can easily lose to it in the endgame.
Banded Durant is ridiculous, some people would call it broken! Crazy effective wallbreaker that punches holes so Cloyster can clean more effectively later in the game. Noivern may look like an odd choice here but it is important over something like Sigilyph since the speed tier let me circumvent with opposing Durants and Salazzle, which makes the team more comfortable to use. Last, Scarf Shaymin which is still a pretty decent scarfer to revenge kill dragon dance gatr and kommo-o, and has healing wish for cloyster and to play the snorlax more aggresively.
Have fun!
Voting Stage should be extended imo, sorry if Im not on time but I really wanted to post this and the team ended better than expected.
The voting stage is now over! Thanks to Harpp , The Leprechaun , MrAldo , and EviGaro for their submissions. This week's winner is The Leprechaun, congratulations. Next week's challenge will be up shortly!
USM gave Tsareena a new opportunity to shine with several new tutor and egg moves, including Power Whip and Knock Off. Tsareena can provide rapid spin support, cleric support, and utility via its ability to dodge priority moves allowing it to provide valuable offensive support on a team. Tsareena still struggles to hit fire types in the tier, however, and has trouble fitting everything it wants into four moveslots. As such, Tsareena must be carefully placed on a team which can make the most of the options it's utilizing. What teams can this week's builders come up with to show off Tsareena?
Edit: Forum updates have this a little off schedule, but this building cycle will conclude by the end of next Saturday the 23rd EST.