Gen 8 NEON BLADE - Nidoking + Aegislash BO / PEAK 2000 ELO TOP 7

[PedroGreg]

NEON BLADE

TEAM INTRODUCTION​

The team that I'm bringing this time consists of a very aggressive bulky offense with two Pokémon that I consider the soul of the team in Aegislash and Nidoking. I noticed that there are few switch-ins for these Pokémon in the current metagame, so their combination ends up being very destructive if used properly.

During the team presentation I will bring calcs showing the damage potential and the ease they have in destroying classic walls.
In order for the pressure of these two to be exerted more accurately, I made sure to choose partners that act effectively as pivots; we will go into more detail on this in the team development.

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TEAM DEVELOPMENT​

I will make the development of this team in two parts, because I consider one part the sword and the other the shield. Sorry for the lack of creativity, I based myself on Aegislash because I couldn't think of anything better ROFL.

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THE SWORD

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At first my idea was to build with Nidoking, because as I said it has great damage potential with the combination of sheer force + LO added to its excellent moveset, there are really few things that end up getting into it.
In relation to moveset I chose stabs for obvious reasons and the combination of ice beam + flamethrower because I believe it is the most effective especially because of Tapu Koko and Urshifu-R.

Realize that my idea is to make Nidoking benefit from the excellent pivoting that my team offers and weaken threats mainly for Tapu Koko and Urshifu-R, the former being a late-game monster and the latter having its main threats, such as Toxapex, KOed by Nidoking.

Here are some examples of walls that you can kill in just one hit or weaken a lot and make your team's general mobility much easier, especially in the mid game:

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 178+ SpD Ferrothorn: 380-447 (107.9 - 126.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 88 SpD Corviknight: 283-335 (70.7 - 83.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Landorus-Therian: 458-541 (119.8 - 141.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 248+ SpD Hippowdon: 242-286 (57.6 - 68%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tornadus-Therian: 299-354 (82.5 - 97.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Buzzwole: 455-536 (108.8 - 128.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Some examples of the stab damage Nidoking ends up dealing with walls that get in the way of Urshifu-R:

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 304-359 (100 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Sludge Wave vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro: 261-308 (66.4 - 78.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

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Since we talk so much about the synergy of this trio, how about we introduce Urshifu-R now?

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I think it's important to say before anything that I prefer to leave Urshifu-R holding Protective Pads because I don't like him locked by a choiced item, especially when I made a team that destroys everything, so a choiced item only makes your game more difficult since u can’t pivot very well. Not mentioning the advantages of not having to worry about the static of the Zapdos or the chip damage of Iron Barbs' Ferrothorn when they appears on screen.

In my humble opinion Urshifu-R is the best Pokémon this generation; it pivots very well, has excellent STAB moves, has a very good moveset, and is very safe to use, being functional throughout the game. With these synergies in particular, I can't see how I could leave Urshifu-R out, as it ended up being a great addition to the team, and these three together have great offensive potential and extreme mobility. All of the problems that Choice Specs Tapu Koko would have are mitigated with an Urshifu-R + Nidoking core.

Now let's close this incredible core with Tapu Koko, and it's not just any regular Tapu Koko, it's a SPECS Koko.

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I must say that Tapu Koko suffers more than others because it's locked into one move by Choice Specs, making it more complicated to use. It requires extra support, and it's not as functional and safe to use as Urshifu-R in the early game or Nidoking after getting a pivot. But trust me, by the moment you have KOed the ground-type pokémon from the other team Specs Tapu Koko has the game practically won for you, there are only a few pokémon faster than her on metagame and the pivot offered by Volt Switch exert a lot of pressure being able even used to KO opponent's pokémon.

Grass knot can be a master key, because when we get into the threats part, I will reveal some pokémons that can be the biggest obstacles to the team's functionality.
Note: And please, stop using Modest Dragapult, I don't know why it became a trend but I've won many games due to Tapu Koko overspeed against that Nature. XD

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We close the "sword" part now let's go to the "shield".


THE SHIELD
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Let's start by introducing Landorus-T in this part.

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Landorus-T is basically the most common pokémon of this tier, and it's no wonder, it has several essential things for a competitive team, making it almost indispensable.

As the sword part is focused on mobility, pressure and damage, simple things like hazards and electrical immunity are lacking, that’s why I put Landorus-T without regretting.
About his moveset I got Knock off instead of Toxic because I consider it more efficient in fast games, especially against regenerator users like Slowbro and Tornadus-T that tend not to be harmed that much with toxic.
23 IV in Speed allows you to slow U-turn most Landorus-T, giving you the benefit of switching after your opponent.

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Now I'm going to show by far my favorite defogger, and will focus on arguing his EVs that may be different from most other Zapdos.

Surely you must have been annoyed with Zapdos at least once, that's what my friends say, and it's no wonder either. Zapdos has a very functional ability to deal with threats that hurt unprepared teams and can deal with the most dangerous sweeper in my opinion, which is Dragonite. Zapdos ends up benefiting for the same reasons as Tapu Koko in that team, in addition to walling very dangerous pokémon such as Kartana in late game and mainly Choice Band Urshifu-R.

Now let me explain why I choose to simply enable max Def and HP without any investment in Speed. Look at this: 252 Atk Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Surging Strike (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos on a critical hit: 153-180 (39.9 - 46.9%) -- approx. 3HKO

As the team struggles against Urshifu this EV spread ends up being very relevant to assume that Zapdos will always be a switch against him. You will hardly need to worry about not holding a possible Surging Strikesfrom a Pads Urshifu-R.

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And let's close the team with the most complex part of all, it was the pokémon that took me the most time to decide and the one that made me the most satisfied.

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Tapu Lele, especially with Choice Scarf, is a very common and strong pokémon in this metagame, and my team was having a hard time dealing with it.
So I had the idea of adding Aegislash as the last slot of the team, but with a spread that is more tanky to be able to be indeed a switch to Tapu Lele and still having a very strong damage with Shadow Ball in practically everything that comes in front of him.

The rest of the moveset serves especially to catch Blissey who is a big threat to this team and has priority to deal with Blacephalon and Dragapult even though he is focused on SpA his Atk is still very high.

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THREATS

Unfortunately I have a habit of not saving replays, and more important than showing my victories is showing those things that make my team suffer.
However, two threats take a lot of my attention: Gastrodon and Blissey.

They have many ways to be nasty to my team, especially Gastrodon with Scald and Toxic. The only way to kill them is either by weakening them a lot or for some reason my opponent lets me do damage with Urshifu on them.
In general, anything that can wall Nidoking after it receives pivot makes the pressure of the team being lost.

F DMG:
252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Blissey: 168-199 (23.5 - 27.8%) -- 78.6% chance to 4HKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gastrodon: 168-199 (39.4 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Another consideration is regarding Ghost-types (even having ways to kill they). In general, Tapu Lele is the main threatening against offensives in MUs that carry Ghost-types plus Tapu Lele. Even without having a wall for Ghost wall breakers, such as Dragapult and Blacephalon, Aegi can work as a revenge killer or be bringened by pivoting. So it’s essential that this pokémon can be healthy during the game. But the MU with Tapu Lele kinda force the entry of Aegislash and that chipping by her hits can cost the game. Therefore it's essential to bring Aegislash wisely on board because u could be defeated not only by Ghost-types but also by Tapu Lele itself.
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CONCLUSION​

For those who like a fast team, and with a lot of damage in exchange of sacrificing a more "bulky" party, maybe it's an excellent team, I particularly found it very funny and functional to use, especially by the oppressive pressure that this great mobility offers,also by good results on the ladder:

Thank you very much for those who followed the whole process. I will be making the team available to everyone and I will be very happy to hear comments about the team, whether they are praise or constructive criticism!

THE TEAM
https://pokepast.es/2ea263f3f22c0559​

 

[Maxima]

Slk esse cara é muito brabo. Pena que tem fake news no texto dizendo que ele atingiu os 2k

 

[Yuipo]

Hey there, yui here! Because it is difficult to switch into lele if it revenges aegi in its frail blade form, and because blissey seems to pose issues while shifu is the only mon who can reliably pressure it, what do you think about spell tag aegislash? Blissey is never safe against it (whereas it can switch into a scouted specs-locked sball), and lele can never revenge a healthy aegi since you can use king’s shield freely to return to shield form. It gets beautiful chip against landorus and corviknight, which seems important for koko and shifu, respectively. I suggest sball / sneak / king’s shield / cc, which unfortunately means you are left without flash cannon to pressure clefable. Spell tag aegi does OHKO blacephalon with sneak though! Many players have seen success with protective pads taunt urshifu instead of aqua jet, and I believe it will do wonders putting unsuspecting clefable into awkward positions (clefable can’t switch into any of your mons once it’s taken a single surging strike, and you can taunt it anytime you like to keep it chipped). It may be worthwhile to test out taunt to additionally shut down corvi, stop opposing zapdos from defogging for a teammate, and probably most importantly prevent dragonite with ice punch and eq from DD'ig up after shifu gets a kill, which could spell the end of the match. However, I imagine aqua jet has been very useful to revenge kill boosted volcarona and sand excadrill, both of which can get dangerous quite easily. I’d like to hear your thoughts on just the small set change on aegi to begin with! Awesome team, I’m a fan of your work building this beast >:]

set and calcs

Aegislash @ Spell Tag
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat
- King's Shield

4 Atk Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Blacephalon: 234-276 (94.7 - 111.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
4 Atk Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 176-210 (55.5 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

4 Atk Aegislash-Blade Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 418-494 (58.5 - 69.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO best thing is, you can bluff specs! surprise them as they teleport out

252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 135-159 (44.4 - 52.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 64 SpD Clefable: 186-219 (47.2 - 55.5%) -- 74.2% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 88 SpD Corviknight: 189-223 (47.2 - 55.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 160-189 (45.4 - 53.6%) -- 38.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Landorus-Therian: 153-180 (40 - 47.1%)

 

[PedroGreg]

Hey there, yui here! Because it is difficult to switch into lele if it revenges aegi in its frail blade form, and because blissey seems to pose issues while shifu is the only mon who can reliably pressure it, what do you think about spell tag aegislash? Blissey is never safe against it (whereas it can switch into a scouted specs-locked sball), and lele can never revenge a healthy aegi since you can use king’s shield freely to return to shield form. It gets beautiful chip against landorus and corviknight, which seems important for koko and shifu, respectively. I suggest sball / sneak / king’s shield / cc, which unfortunately means you are left without flash cannon to pressure clefable. Spell tag aegi does OHKO blacephalon with sneak though! Many players have seen success with protective pads taunt urshifu instead of aqua jet, and I believe it will do wonders putting unsuspecting clefable into awkward positions (clefable can’t switch into any of your mons once it’s taken a single surging strike, and you can taunt it anytime you like to keep it chipped). It may be worthwhile to test out taunt to additionally shut down corvi, stop opposing zapdos from defogging for a teammate, and probably most importantly prevent dragonite with ice punch and eq from DD'ig up after shifu gets a kill, which could spell the end of the match. However, I imagine aqua jet has been very useful to revenge kill boosted volcarona and sand excadrill, both of which can get dangerous quite easily. I’d like to hear your thoughts on just the small set change on aegi to begin with! Awesome team, I’m a fan of your work building this beast >:]

set and calcs

Aegislash @ Spell Tag
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat
- King's Shield

4 Atk Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Blacephalon: 234-276 (94.7 - 111.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
4 Atk Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 176-210 (55.5 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

4 Atk Aegislash-Blade Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 418-494 (58.5 - 69.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO best thing is, you can bluff specs! surprise them as they teleport out

252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 135-159 (44.4 - 52.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 64 SpD Clefable: 186-219 (47.2 - 55.5%) -- 74.2% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 88 SpD Corviknight: 189-223 (47.2 - 55.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Ferrothorn: 160-189 (45.4 - 53.6%) -- 38.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Spell Tag Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Landorus-Therian: 153-180 (40 - 47.1%)

View attachment 464042

hello yui! thank you very much for the advice, in fact you gave me a very interesting set suggestion here at Aegi, at first I used it with spell tag, but without King Shield, because of that I ended up preferring SPECS>Spell Tag.
I noticed that Flash Cannon is a move that I rarely use, because of that suggestion can actually be very useful here, since my team doesn't suffer for Clefable, I'll test it for sure!

in relation to Taunt>Aqua Jet I understand that this is a really good change, but I really can't do without this move, I think it's very important especially in ladder, where matches tend to be faster and more aggressive and less worked in a general way. Maybe in more important matches this change is actually very good, but in general for spamming ladder matches I prefer to keep aqua jet.

 

[awyp]

Hello Pedro,

This is a very cool team, I do feel like in Gen 8 OU Aegislash is probably one of the most underrated Pokémon in the metagame. So on congrats on peaking at #7

So first I'm going to talk about some threats, first the damage calc you provided is I think for either Protective Pads / Choice Scarf Urshifu-Rapid Strike because the calculations I came up with on the banded variant shows:

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Surging Strikes on 252 / 252 Bold Zapdos

252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Surging Strikes (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos on a critical hit: 228-270 (59.3 - 70.3%) -- approx. 2HKO

The banded variant flushes Zapdos and based on usage Choice Banded Urshifu-Rapid-Strike is still the most common variant, so Zapdos cannot switch in on Urshifu a majority of the time. Also you touched on it above but Dragapult / Blacephalon can shadow ball (since nothing resists) anything on this team, so you would probably have to sack something (Depending on the variant) your best bet might be Landorus-Therian. Now having Aegislash on this team is needed because the revenge killing potential when it comes to Shadow Sneak. So this team leans on Aegislash (HEAVY) because some of the hard hitters in the tier (Dragapult / Blacephalon / and Tapu Lele) causes some concerns if not dealt with.

So my suggestions for this team:

Since this team has been extremely successful I don't want to change any of the Pokémon and of course you have threats but you know how to deal with them / control the damage as much as you can in order to get the win.

Nidoking looks good and I wouldn't change anything for the set

Protective Pads is a great idea and works well since everyone is assuming Urshifu to be choiced. My suggestion for this set is to go with Taunt > Aqua Jet the reason I'm recommending this is in order to stop defensive Pokémon from recovering or statusing (Such as Gastro, Pex, Blissey, Clefable etc). I feel like this is a better option since it's slightly unexpected and will definitely assist in breaking down stall. (I just saw the poster suggested the same thing and you prefer Aqua Jet but I'll still be recommending it because of course speed is important especially when your fastest is Tapu Koko but depending on your play style it can be the better move).

Tapu Koko looks good as well as Lando-Therian but I would suggest that Toxic would not be a bad option but since you said you prefer Knock off, I can respect that.

As I stated above Zapdos cannot switch in on banded Urshifu-Rapid-Strike. My suggestion and this is all based on a more offensive play style is to rock 252 HP / 252 Spe (Timid Nature) Zapdos which will allow you to outspeed (Choice Band / Protective Pads Urshifu-Rapid-Strike), also I did the calcs, Surging Strike will never OHKO Zapdos based on the spread I gave you. Like I said I understand your decision to go more bulky but it's only an idea to try out (potentially).

I would also go with what the poster said above on Aegislash following the (Spell Tag set), so Shadow Sneak can hit those faster ghost types I mentioned harder.

Great team, and I wish you more continued success.