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Feliburn

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Mega shoutout to Accelgor for always coming through with the dope banners

Hey so I decided to do at least one RMT now that the generation is ending to showcase a team I feel is really good overall. The idea of the team was created when lax asked me to make a team around Protect Raikou and Toxic Spikes for his Grand Slam Playoffs game in semis. I went through with the idea but the team was not really complete as I was working on a schedule so I decided to continue working on it until I felt somewhat satisfied with the result.

Building Process


As I mentioned earlier, the original idea behind the team was to make a core involving Protect Raikou and Toxic Spikes. I immediately started building with the Raikou - Passimian core as I feel like Passimian is a really good Defog abuser thanks to Defiant, being able to punish the Defog or just scare the opponents, preventing them from clicking it in the first place.


Next up I needed the Toxic Spikes setter, and Nidoqueen was the first mon I thought of since I like the offensive pressure it adds. Then I went with a Bronzong + Mandibuzz core as hazard control (I'm aware Defog on a Toxic Spikes team is p odd but trust me when I say Mandibuzz fits like a glove). I feel like Mandibuzz is able to check pretty much every physical attacker with ease and cripple them with Rocky Helmet, whereas Bronzong helps check the special attackers outside of the Fire Types.


Next up was adding some speed control so I went with Mega Sceptile, as it also helped beat ground types. It has Protect so it helps add on the Toxic Spikes pressure the team is built around for, which I think is pretty nice. However, this team was absurdly weak to fire types, so to temporarily handle them I decided to make Bronzong Heatproof with Earthquake to OHKO Salazzle and damage Ninetales. After that I sent it to lax since his game was supposed to happen the very next day.


So after a while I went back to the team to try and fix the glaring weakness. I reluctantly went with Dragalge because I have never built with it before, so I wasn't sure if it was a choice I'd be comfortable making. Turns out Dragalge worked amazingly in this team, being able to handle the fire types, set the Toxic Spikes, and also phaze out with Dragon Tail. I kept Dragalge and changed Bronzong back to Levitate and Protect instead of Earthquake, finishing the team and showing really positive results.



In Depht Analysis


Passimian (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
- Drain Punch

Band Passimian is in my opinion the best fighting type in the entire tier thanks to its already high base Attack, respectable Speed and a access to stuff like U-Turn, Knock Off, Earthquake and Rock Slide, all which are useful to beat certain threats in the tier. In this team I went with the odd combination of Drain Punch and Rock Slide since the recovery Drain Punch offers is always appreciated vs certain matchups, and Rock Slide was mainly for Golisopod which in theory isn't that much of a threat with Protect spam on Sceptile and Raikou. However, Golisopod has the capability of beating down the rest of the team fairly easy so I figured a way of making it switch out (abusing its ability) would be very appreciated.


Raikou @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Calm Mind

The main star of the team, Raikou is a pokemon I consider heavily underrated in the meta, which makes sense considering Registeel and Bronzong are everywhere, and Raikou is not a pokemon that appreciates getting hit with a Toxic so it's normally hard for it to start sweeping without these walls gone. This set basically abuses the Toxic Spikes with protect to cripple down pretty much every grounded pokemon that's immune to Toxic Spikes in the tier. With the added Leftovers it's able to outlast them too, or abuse them to set up Calm Mind and get a sweep going. Another use this pokemon has is the ability to Pressure stall PP with Protect, letting it play mindgames with the opponent. I legit love the utility Raikou brings to the team and I've had a blast playing with it.


Dragalge (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 160 HP / 176 SpA / 172 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Dragon Tail
- Draco Meteor
- Sludge Wave

This is the part where I get shamed for using wack EV spreads. Dragalge was the designated Toxic Spike setter thanks to the utility it has of checking fire types. The EV spread is basically a result of the ongoing Speed creep wars between pokemon such as Donphan, Abomasnow, Golisopod, letting me outspeed pretty much every one of them unless they are wielded by a certain top player which I won't mention. Black Sludge is there for recovery and Dragon Tail lets me phaze pokemon to either stop setup sweeps or force them to get hit with Toxic Spikes. Overall, Dragalge has been a pleasant surprise, I also believe this one is a bit underrated as well, again, due to how the meta is structured right now, but that does not mean it's a bad fit.


Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Psywave
- Toxic
- Protect

My Stealth Rock setter was Bronzong. Mainly picked due to how well it checks certaing fairies such as Florges and Gardevoir, but also it's a solid check to Nidoqueen (unless they are using Fire Blast rofl). Using the common Psywave + Toxic to try and cripple everything that can't kill it. I find it funny that the last slot was Protect, making it 3 Protect users on this team, which isn't a bad thing honestly, in fact it takes advantage of the Toxic Spikes even more. Running 0 Attack IVs to take less damage from Foul Play users if you were wondering. And the spread is just a kinda mixed spread I came up with a while ago, making it easier to check the underdogs like Mega Glalie. Plus it allows Bronzong to take less damage from moves like Pursuit from Band Drapion from full.


Mandibuzz (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Knock Off
- Roost
- Defog

My physical wall. People would call me crazy for having Dragalge + Mandibuzz as my only fighting checks in the team but hey, it's been working fine. Using slowish Mandibuzz with a lot of Defense to help check fighters, mainly Virizion and Toxicroak, which are quite annoying to the team if Dragalge and Mandibuzz are weakened. Knock Off is to cripple Registeel and Bronzong so Raikou has an easier time setting up and sweeping vs them. Brave Bird is to beat the already mentioned fighters, plus demons like Pangoro. Rocky Helmet is the item of choice because I like chipping Flygon to stop free U-Turns from it, also Metagross since my only move to hit it is Knock Off.


Sceptile-Mega (M) @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Now my personal mascot. Sceptile adds certain Speed control to the team, being able to outspeed the hard hitting scarfers like Passimian, Gardevoir and Tyrantrum since those can become quite annoying. Sceptile feels like such a natural fit because of Protect letting it abuse the Toxic Spikes as well, also not being KOd by Golisopod's First Impression, not to mention the ability to scout for choiced attacks or offensive switches, being able to kill momentum for the opponent. I am personally opting for Leech Seed + Protect on this team because I highly value Sceptile being able to recover HP on predicted switches, and I feel like people underestimate the utility you can gain from it. Another valid choice would be to use Aerial Ace to better handle Virizion, so feel free to swap between the two.

Threat List

Virizion
- Virizion is really annoying to face, however I have outs in mons that can take hits like Passimian, Bronzong, Dragalge and Mandibuzz and usually trade with it, or use Raikou and Sceptile to beat it once it is weakened.

Bewear
- I have no switchins to this demon, I have to heavily play around it to try and kill it with my offensive pokemon. The only good thing is Bewear is failry easy to chip down soyou just have to play it smart.

Toxicroak
- The annoying thing about Toxicroak is that once it gets a Swords Dance it has the potential of killing my entire team. Z Poison sets are fairly easy to handle if I only let them get one boost, Life Orb sets however are really scary because of the big damage output Raikou and Sceptile take from +2 Sucker Punch.


Snorlax
- Ok who isn't weak to Snorlax nowadays. Just try to get Passimian in vs it but not so recklessly, or try to Dragon Tail it out to get another chance at winning rofl.

I probably missed some pokemon but oh well. I don't really have any relevant replays since I didn't use this team in any tournament, only on ladder and friendlies. However I do have this:



Small little peak I did with the team, I had a blast laddering with it.

Importable



Shoutouts TUG and the RU community for always making this fun. Hope you enjoy the team as much as I did and thanks for taking your time reading it​
 
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