SS NU Specs Mr. Rime [Peaked#2,Qualified for NULT]

[ToastedBunzzz02]

SPECS MR.RIME

Introduction​

Hello everyone!I am quite new to Smogon but have played on showdown years before in the ORAS era with my schoolmates, but with more free time in college and me getting back to mons for Sword and Shield, I decided to make a smogon account.This is mt 100th post on smogon so I decided to rate my most successful team in the tier I am most comfortable with. I generally don't consider myself to be a great builder but have definitely improved.My teams have started to yield good success in the ladder at least. This team was built for the NU ladder tournament in which I reached top3 in my cycle (should have topped the cycle if I had finished my last game 2 mins earlier) .At that time flareon was the only fire type used(silvally fire was just starting to get usage).I also realised that the bulky steels then (ferroseed and Stunifsk-galar) didn't resist ice.So I decided to build a team with Specs Mr. Rime as I figured it can 2hko every mon in the tier and can abuse the lack of ice resists. This team is a bit outdated(you get big metashifts every month and now coupled with DLC) but I have an updated version of the team for the currentmeta at the end if people want to use the team to get to know the meta or for tours.

Team at a Glance

Teambuilding Process

Like I said the metagame had very few ice resists and specs Abomasnow was already a very dominant wall breaker and specs Glaceon had some usage.However both can't get past clefairy which had a very high usage then, coz nothing else could reliably handle Drampa,Indedee-F and Abomasnow. When I searched I realised Mr.Rime had a good enough SpA(110) and can get past clefairy with psyshock and also I liked pure ice type than ice/grass as it gives me an ice resist as well.So I decided to use this mon.Also nobody expects Specs Mr. RIme(bulky spinner and scarf were the only sets used then, nobody uses it now and it has fallen to PU)

Then I added u-turn,defog Silvally-water as it was the most reliable hazard control option.In addition it can bring in Mr.rime against opposing water and grass types Pokemon which switch in against it.Then I added togedmaru because it gave me an electric and grass resist complementing silvally-water but honestly I just wanted to use it as it was the best scarfer in the tier due to its ability to outspeed +1 silvallys.Also it can u-turn on the bulky grounds like quagsire and sandaconda to bring in Mr.Rime.Then I added quagsire coz I felt it was the best mon in the entire tier.The sheer amount of Pokemon it can check includes every silvally form,Malamar,Alcremie,Body press Cofagrigus and Dubwool,all mons very tough to check individually.I then added wish teleport clefairy as I had loved the tech in OU.It helps Mr.Rime as it is prone to hazard damage.Alsp quagsire+clefairy was a very good core defensively.Finally I added Golurk to the team as I needed a rocker as well as a fighting and normal immunity(hyper voice Drampa).I decided on scarf so that I could lure and kill the pokemons that are problematic to the team like grass knot/seed bomb liepard, Specs Indeedee-F and Silvallys with grass pledge, band Gourgeist etc.

I was auto loosing to Sun teams and grass types in general were a big pain as I had 3 mons weak to grass types with no real switch in. Gourgeist in particular was very troublesome.CB Sawk was also very annoying. Silvally-water was being the least useful mon and so I changed it to silvally-bug only to change it again to silvally-flying as I realised it did the same thing but gives me a ground immunity and doesn't take spikes damage.Also Silvally-Flying gave me another wincon though many teams were running 2 electrics (rotom+togedmaru/lanturn) and made sure it rarely happened.However I had a decent sun matchup now and a playable matchup vs just about anything.

The Team

Mr. Rime @ Choice Specs
Ability: Screen Cleaner
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Freeze-Dry
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast​

The star of the team and the wallbreaker. It can 2HKO every single Pokemon in the tier at the very least.Ice Beam is the main STAB attack ohkoing offensive Pokemon like toxicroak and 2HKO the majority of the tier including resists like Togedmaru,Perrserker and Rapidash.Freeze dry is necessary as it allows it to knock out water types that might switch into ice beam knocking out Wishiwashi and max def variants of lantern after rocks while covering the natural type advantages that ice beam has. Psyshock allows it to get past clefairy,Flareon with a good chance to ohko max spdef flareon and Rapidash and is a nice STAB regardless.Focus Blast has a very high chance to OHKO piloswine the best ice resist in the tier. as well as other bulky steel types.Max SpA and modest nature is necessary for Mr.Rime to get most of the ohkos and 2hkos mentioned above.216 speed evs allow it to outspend +natured base 55s(golurk) and neutral natured base 60s like Abomasnow.The rest of the evs are invested in HP.

Calcs

252+ SpA Choice Specs Mr. Rime Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Rapidash: 129-152 (47.6 - 56%) -- 82.4% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mr. Rime Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash: 256-303 (94.4 - 111.8%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mr. Rime Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Piloswine: 384-454 (95 - 112.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mr. Rime Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Stunfisk-Galar: 174-205 (41.2 - 48.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mr. Rime Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Togedemaru: 140-165 (51.6 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mr. Rime Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Toxicroak: 304-358 (99 - 116.6%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mr. Rime Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Wishiwashi-School: 258-306 (87.7 - 104%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Mr. Rime Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Eviolite Clefairy: 228-268 (66.2 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Togedemaru @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 16 HP / 240 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Zing Zap
- Nuzzle​

Togedmaru provides speed control with its ability to outspeed +1silvally and good typing.u-turn allows me to pivot out of its counters like sandaconda, quagsire, eldegoss and bring in Mr.Rime giving it opportunities to break the opposing team.Iron Head and zing zap are the STABs with both having a 30% chance to flinch.I appreciate nuzzle a lot more than toxic coz I would rather pivot out and bring Mr.rime but also gives me emergency speed control with its paralysis If I need.Max speed to speed tie opposing togedmarus.the 16 Evs in Hp allowed it to take Specs Draco from drampa always though it could be placed in attacked again now.Iron barbs over lightning rod coz I already have 2 electric immunities and the chip on opposing togedmaru and perrserker allows Mr.rime to 2hko them with freeze-dry itself instead of ice beam.

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Recover
- Earthquake
- Protect​

Quagsire was the best mon in the tier imo.many people leave it out just because they use another ground type for rocker.It could take on so many threats in one slot like every silvally-form, malamar, alcremie, BP cofagrigus, Skuntank and pretty much every non banded physical attacker.Toxic is needed to make progress. Recover is mandatory. Earthquake is to hit the steel and poison types that can't be poisoned.Protect allows it to both toxic stall as well as scout for grass coverage and choice locked mons. I really liked protect on quagsire as it made sure the special attackers will never make progress against my time as I can scout and switch to the aprropiate immunity/wall. If drampa Hyper voiced I switch in to golurk if a dragon move I switched into clefairy.Similarly with other Pokemon like indedee-f and abomasnow and even banded physical attackers like sawk. Max Hp Max Def to take on the physical attackers as easily as possible.Leftovers for passive recovery.Unaware is necessary to take on most of the threats which can boost.

Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 27 Spe
- Wish
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Teleport​

Clefairy was a terrific mon then, complementing quasgire perfectly as it could take on any of the special attacks aimed at quagsire. Clefairy's viability has fallen off greatly now imo as most of the special attackers have been banned and mons like Body press cofagrigus have slightly fallen off.Wish+teleport is a nice combo to help the other mons stay healthy especially Mr.Rime and silvally-flying. Protect over soft-boiled as I like scouting.Moonblast is the necessary STAB attack.
27 ivs to underspeed opposing teleport clefairy while still being faster than stunfisk-galar. Unlike standard clefairies with max spdef I have 84 evs in defence.The evs
allow it to avoid the 2hko from band sawk close combat and shrive a +2 iron head from silvally-dark while still avoiding the 2hko from timid specs abomasnow and specs Cursola. Mr.Rime can help take on the specs blizzard from modest Abomasnow as Mr.Rime will be faster than it.I like the def evs on clefairy regardless as it allows me to take on liquidation wishiwashi and gives me a breathing room to teleport against opposing physical attackers.

Golurk @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch​

Golurk is the rocker in my team.I needed scarf to lure and ko some of the problematic threats to my team like liepard,arctovish,Indedee-F,special toxicroak .Golruk's types gives it 3 immunities and scarf allows it to abuse it as the mons usually have coverage to hit it and so it can't really switch in otherwise.In fact golurk is the best counterplay my team has against specs indeede-f as it can take one psychic move from indeedee-f and I can surprise him(as my opponent thinks I predicted hyper voice) with scarf earthquakes knocking it out.Also nobody expects scarf golurk when I have another scarfer in togedmaru. Earthquake is the main stab and can occasionaly clean up late game.Close combat is necessary to weaken/ko mons like liepard,arctovish,piloswine and rotom-frost which my team can have problems with.Ice punch allows it to 2hko switching like eldegoss and sandaconda if they are weakened.the last slot can actually be anything I usually interchange between ice punch and shadow punch depending on what I expect my opponent to bring but you can also use stonedge or heat crash.

Silvally-Flying @ Flying Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 72 HP / 192 Atk / 60 Def / 184 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Defog
- Multi-Attack
- Flame Charge
- Swords Dance​

I built this team when I and many people believed that a team without silvally was hurting itself and so I was only interested in running a silvally in the last slot. Silvally-flying gave me a defogger,Fighting and grass switch in which my team desperately needed. It also functions as an another way to break my opponents team with Swords Dance. It can also be used as a win condition against some teams.Honestly I don't think silvally-flying was the best fit but it still worked sufficiently.It is not a reliable hazard remover since it takes sr damage on switch in so you should try to prevent rocks being setup as much as possible even though with wish support u can expect to reasonably remove hazards as long as you play aggressively.The speed Evs allowed it to outspeed the rotom-forms and the rest of the evs while I don't remember exactly helps to avoid 2hko from opposing standard silvallys while 2hkoing them in return.

Threats

While not the most common threat it stops me from spamming icebeam from Mr.RIme and none of my Pokemon can switch in against it.Quagsire can handle the scarf variants if you don't allow it to get chipped but both band and mystic water variants can easily 2hko quagsire.

Piloswine is very annoying as it is the best ice type switch in and gets rocks up easily whereas other rockers like Sandaconda allow mr, rime to wall break while stunfisk galar and ferroseed switch into Mr.Rime and get 3 or 2 hkoed and so realistically get rocks up only once every match.The best play is to lead with mr.rime and obliterate it turn one with a focus blast.Till now I have never seen a player not lead with piloswine against this team so use it to your advantage.

Gourgeist is very annoying especially banded ones as I can switch into it with togedmaru or silvally-flying only once each while it can switch in to my other mons.Try to weaken it and then ko with scarf golurk if it is banded.Scarf variants can be handled reasonably well by the team.With the release of Poltergeist it is almost imposiible for this team to take it on.

Liepard usually has dark/posion/grass move coverage and the coverage can break down my team completely.You have to get the lure with scarf golurk correct either turn 1 or after switching in on a predicted gunk shot and then surprise kill it.

Scald verisons are easily walled by clefairy but the common toxic+liquidation variant is annoying.Quagsire hates toxic and clefairy hates liquidation.There is no way to punish it for getting protect+leftovers recovery. It also can hinder golurk and mr.rime from making progress on the its team. While the investment in defense allows Clefairy to avoid the 2hko from liquidation ,the need to keep clefairy at near full health and liquidation having a chance to drop defense makes it a pain in the ass to deal with.

Modest specs 2hkoes this clefairy so don't give it to many opportunities to come in.​

Proof of peak:


Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nu-1110884050-rj7swb11i8tasxo99nrd4pl266crkqxpw (NULT playoffs vs Xiri)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nu-1116257096(NULT playoffs vs Squash 17)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nu-1116257096
(NULT playoffs vs finchinator. I lost this game but it shows how I could have won the game despite a tough matchup if focus blast had hit on piloswine as I can just freeze dry with rime then and easily get a kill )

Conclusion:
This was one of the first team I built on my own that I was proud about.Starring a mon that isn't even NU by usage and inventing some sets that have worked terrifically makes this the team I am the most happiest and proudest about.For those of you who want the updated version of this team for the current meta here is it, https://pokepast.es/362da67269460294.(I will add replays later)
This team is still great if not better than the original with band sawk being the only difficult matchup.Have a nice day everyone.