SM LC Z-Mirror, Z-Mirror On the Wall

[Gummy]

This is my 4th RMT for LC. It's a team I've made recently and I've been having a good amount of success with it, but I'm also not the best teambuilder so here I am. Also please leave a cool rate I ditched my bio hw for this :^(

Teambuilding Process

I started to build around Gastly, because it was a mon I had never used before but seen destroy matches.

I figured I needed a Fighting-type, because every team does. I've used Mienfoo in literally all my teams so I decided to go for something different in Timburr, since it's so dominant right now.

Now I needed a Fighting check. Spritzee hasn't been doing hot lately and I'm bored of using it, so I went for Snubbull since it performs a similar role, but much more offensively oriented.

I wanted a reliable lead that could soften up mons for Gastly, and I remembered that Meowth is a mon that I've never used that has terrorized me before.

I decided to add Vullaby as a secondary fighting-check and also for the lulz. At first I used a Defog variant for hazard control, but using Vullaby and not using its Weak Armor set seemed almost criminal. In the end I went for Z-Mirror Move Vullaby, because the set seemed interesting. You can see why I'm not the world's greatest teambuilder by this logic.

Since I still didn't have hazard control, I went for Staryu since it's the most reliable and splashable spinner right now.

In a surprising twist of events, the mon I built my team around wasn't working all that great. Considering I didn't give it the best support in the world, it was understandable. I decided to switch my wincon to Vullaby and give it support by using Stealth Rock Pawniard.

In-Depth

Pawniard @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 156 Atk / 36 Def / 116 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Stealth Rock

Pawniard is my sole fairy control and rocker. This is like the most basic set of all time so I can't say much, but it puts pressure on fairies and hopefully kills them so Vullaby can get in more safely. Rocks are helpful for chipping into Sturdy foes, you know the drill.
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Timburr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 116 Atk / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Knock Off
- Bulk Up

Timburr is really good in the meta right now. Since Cutiefly and Gothita have been banned, a huge weight (log?) is off its shoulders and it's free to do as it has before. Timburr takes care of Rock- and Steel-types for Vullaby and is a dangerous partner with Meowth. Between them, they have triple priority that KOes basically everything except Ghosts, and three of my mons have Knock Off anyway.
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Snubbull @ Berry Juice
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 36 Atk / 196 Def / 116 SpD / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thief
- Play Rough
- Earthquake
- Thunder Wave

Snubbull completely walls Timburr and Mienfoo, unless they carry PJab (which they usually don't). It also has amazing utility, able to halt a strong physical sweeper on switch-in, stop fast threats with T-Wave, and steal an item once its BJ has been consumed. Play Rough is great (if a bit unreliable) STAB that also stops opposing Vullaby.
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Meowth @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 36 SpA / 36 SpD / 196 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Fake Out
- Feint
- Water Pulse
- Aerial Ace

Meowth is an underrated, anti-lead BEAST. STAB LO Technician-boosted double priority isn't something that's easily messed with. Able to outspeed and 2HKO most of the tier, Meowth is invaluable to softening threats. As long as Meowth is kept alive til the very end it can be an infuriating opponent.​

Vullaby @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Weak Armor
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 156 Atk / 156 Def / 76 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Knock Off
- Mirror Move
- U-turn

This set, while honestly strange, is underrated. The ability to only set up once knocks it a peg down from NP Vulla, but 1. Vullaby has a higher Atk stat, 2. BB is stronger stab than Air Slash, and 3. Z-Mirror Move doubles Atk AND attacks in the same turn (sometimes). If Vullaby simply never gets a chance to set-up, Supersonic Skystrike is a great last-resort, panic button sort of thing. At first I ran Rock Smash, but even at +2 it can't OHKO Pawn which is really pathetic, so I replaced it with U-Turn.
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Staryu @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 76 Def / 156 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin

Gen 7 has selective hearing, as it only answered some of our prayers. One it did not listen to was "please for the love of god let Litten stay on all fours". However, one it finally answered was "please make Analytic Hydro Pump Staryu legal". And thank God for that, because this is a beast. Hazard control and a fast sweeper tied into one nice star-shaped package, Staryu is able to force switches and hit back ridiculously hard. My only qualm is that Hydro Pump is really unreliable, but when it does hit, it almost always 2HKOes.​

Threats

Despite Fairy-types beating two of my team members, I don't have a very dedicated check to them. Pawniard can beat Spritzee, but it's usually near-dead after doing so, only able to take three Moonblasts. If Pawniard gets burned, winning against bulky Fairies is very difficult. Snubbull also carries Earthquake quite often.

Croagunk gets beaten by Meowth, but it has STAB Vacuum Wave, which renders Meowth too weak to fight. Snubbull can't beat it for obvious reasons.

Timburr is the only mon on my team that can take care of Ferroseed. If Timburr is low on health there's not much I can do but get paraspammed to hell and back.

Conclusion
Despite being a SMLC team, it's fairly ORAS-oriented. I've been holding my own but I'm fairly sure there's room for improvement that I'm not seeing, especially since this is the first time I've really made sets myself (there aren't official Z-Mirror Move or Analytic Staryu sets on the smogdex yet). Thanks for reading!​

 

[sam-testings]

Hey there Gummysaur! So the team itself is mostly fine, I'll mostly be fixing sets and such.

So first of all, a full out attacking Timburr would help this team out better. You probably find yourself not using Bulk Up that often and wishing you had that 4th coverage option. An all out attacking Timburr set would help this team immensly, punching holes into the enemy team for the rest of the team to clean up. Ice Punch helps deal with Vullaby better and bulky Grass-types that can annoy this team, while Poison Jab helps deal with Fairy-types that you mentioned that you had problems with. I'll let you choose on what you thing is more important.

Timburr set

Timburr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 116 Atk / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch/Poison Jab

I would consider running Naughty over Hasty on your Meowth. Meowth does not really have a need to outspeed anything off the top of my head, and you do a good chunk more of damage. It may also help your Vullaby matchup as Fake Out + Feint will do more damage to it which can be very useful.

Just run NP Vullaby, it helps with a ton of problems with this team. Heat Wave can KO Pawniard and Ferroseed, which you mentioned was annoying to handle. It also doesn't take recoil from Brave Bird which is really nice, and can use Berry Juice to recover health. NP Vull can also use Eviolite to boost its already impressive bulk higher to the point where it can live +2 Scraggy HJK. NP Vullaby is really a ton better and ZMM is pretty inferior to it IMO. If you are really set on running ZMM, you are using pretty weird EVs. It should be something like 116 HP / 236 Atk / 116 Spe, which uses more attack which should help you secure more kills.

Finally, I would change the Staryu EVs to 76 Def / 196 SpA / 236 Spe. This maximizes your Special Attack to help you do more damage and secure some KOs.

I hope this rate helped you!

 

[Gummy]

Thank you for the rate! I'll try out all the changes you mentioned ^^