BREAKING NEWS: BeardedDrakon 's CHRISTMAS GIFT HAS ARRIVED
Brief: Nymble Bulky Offense
Pros: Resilient, able to find wins even when down. Strong in to ladder metagame.
Cons: Spikes weak, has trouble with Sub/Set Up Sweepers
The Team: TEAM
I started with what can only be described as the standard Nymble set. As it was part of the brief it was non negotiable, but I wanted to try and build upon some of the draws of Nymble. I tossed around and played with multiple ideas. My initial team design was to work around slow turns with pokes such as Magnemite, Varoom, or Larvesta. The problem with designing a team around that is the fact that it really needs to be slow turning otherwise Nymble can and will die. The second through was offensive pressure turning, things like Mankey and Rufflet came to mind. I ultimately decided that going for a volt/turn team would be against brief as it didn't really play in to a bulky offense build, so I scrapped it but kept individual pokes in mind.
Something that I did decide to follow was working out strong switch ins to things that can abuse Nymble being on the field after an Impression or switch in to an impression. With things such as Tink, Magnemite, and WoW Ghosts really enjoying seeing a Nymble on the opposing team I looked for a blanket check to begin with that could help with pivoting around. I ultimately settled on a tank Numel build for Drakon here, as it is something that generally is fine in to Magnemite, stopping the Volt pressure, while also being generally strong in to things like WoW, Larvesta, and Tink. I found room for Rocks. Final build which changed recently took off Simple as it was being abused by Parting Shots mid game, or when used as a lead.
After this, in, keeping with the theme, and due to it's strength in the metagame, I settled on utilising a Wish/3 Attacks Giraf set. This switched from a special to physical set part way through testing, as the Paralysis, and Screens destructing ultimately proved more important than some of the coverage from a special set.
Building on this, the team was considerably weak in to Pawn and Rufflet as this stage of the build. I went with the typical BU Crab set to allow for a late game win con, and all around great pick in to threats to my team and the metagame at large. This becomes especially useful as the team does feature a rough match up in to Flying in general and being able to Tera and patch the team against that archetype matchup was very useful.
At this point, the team was fitting the brief, but needed an IT factor. It was solid but not winning anything except by grinding. Rufflet seemed the obvious choice. Able to build momentum through the game a scarf Rufflet set would help with cleaning, especially considering I had already decided on what I wanted from the last slot, and a scarf Rufflet would take advantage of that.
Spikes. I wanted this team to have spikes. Drakon asked for a Nymble team and Nymble loves spikes. I popped in a Toed set designed to both hazard clear and get a layer or two down to really help apply pressure.
The team was going well, but I found I really hated it in to some matchups and especially was getting manhandled by well played Glimmet/Ghost/Toed cores during testing. Nymble Bulky Offense speaks to me as a serious request, and so ok, wasn't cutting it. The team needed a change. I mulled it over for a while, and finally while bored at work after my subconscious had been wrestling with it in between teaching periods, I decided that if played aggressively, the team both doesn't really 'hate' rocks, has trouble finding time to play spikes, and is hurt a lot by Tspikes and Ghosts in tandem.
I ultimately settled on an Tank Foongus set to absorb Tspikes, not be setup bait for Giraf, and have a strong matchup in to Toed as it can't be slept. This would replace the Toed as a form of hazard control, spore absorber, and general beefy boy throughout the game. Regen has always been a good ability, and this little dude fits in really well. The change away facilitated the need for some more methodical play, and made Nymble more of a reset card for matches rather than a highlight for the team. As a result, the decision was made to move away from Scarf Rufflet to a AgiliBU set.
The team has been feeling really good to play with. I don't have enough hours in the day to really get high on the ladder so I'll let you know it has a pretty decent win rate, racked up wins against some solid teams, and has a lot of skill expression in Tera decisions, and overlapping ways to deal with threats that gives the opportunity to play it differently in to whatever your opponent has build.
I truly hope you love this team as much as I now do. The team has some weaknesses, but finding that webs doesn't really hurt it much because you are running tank sets everywhere anyway was the final step that ultimately led me to release this team for you now.