RBY OU Withdraw Slowbro

[magic9mushroom]

So this is a team I built ages back because I was sick of running into TobyBros and Body Slam TankLaxes and wanted to laugh maniacally in their faces. I topped the PO ladder with it once and more importantly got the real supervillain feeling from having an unstoppable juggernaut mow down unprepared teams while they tried in vain to kill it.

Starmie
- Blizzard
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Recover

I'm a fan of Starmie leads in general; Starmie forces Gengar out with Psychic while not allowing Egg in easily like Zam leads (fun fact: critical Psychic plus critical Blizzard can 2HKO Egg!). When I started running it, most of the players on PO left Gengar in on it because they didn't realise it had Psychic. I originally had Thunderbolt on here over Thunder Wave, but I realised quickly that I was never using it - the main point of Thunderbolt on a Starmie that already has Psychic is to stop Slowbro, and this team doesn't give a rat's arse about Slowbro. Thunder Wave helps in endgame Starmie vs. Tauros matchups and also can screw Jynx leads over since paraJynx is a sitting duck for Rhydon and Snorlax. Also very good for paralysing Chansey and Zam - my lack of Thunder Wave on Slowbro means that I want them pre-paralysed.

Exeggutor
- Sleep Powder
- Stun Spore
- Psychic
- Explosion

Egg is Egg. Egg does everything. All hail Egg. Etcetera. Only thing I really need to explain here is Stun Spore - it's really good to catch Starmie with and also screws over Wrappers (which I have serious issues with due to the lack of speed on this team). Also stops Rhydon and Golem, not that I have many issues with them to begin with thanks to dual aquatics.

Chansey
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Softboiled

Pink blob. Starmie is a massive pain for this team, so I have full Bolt+Wave Chansey to stop it. Also paralyses opposing Chansey and Zam pretty easily.

Snorlax
- Body Slam
- Hyper Beam
- Earthquake
- Selfdestruct

There is basically no reason not to run Snorlax in RBY, because STAB Selfdestruct with coverage means that it almost always goes at least 1-1. Earthquake makes Gengar cry, which is good because it's a fast Thunderbolt user, and I don't need Surf because dual aquatics + Egg laughs hard at Rocks anyway.

Rhydon
- Body Slam
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Substitute

Originally I had Tauros here, but running Starmie, Slowbro and Egg made me hilariously vulnerable to Zapdos and so I threw in Rhydon. I picked Tauros over Snorlax to replace because Snorlax is more reliable thanks to Selfdestruct. Picked Rhydon over Golem for all the standard KOs but in particular for the guaranteed OHKO on Jynx, which if it's paralysed (and Starmie ensures it will be) can allow some nasty pushes.

Slowbro
- Psychic
- Withdraw
- Amnesia
- Rest

The star of the team, Withdraw Slowbro. The entire team was built around this; my thinking was "okay, I'm sick of having to use several bad moves as half-arsed counters to TobyBro; I'm going to stick in a HARD WALL so I can forget about it when I'm building the rest of my team". TobyBro simply can't touch this Slowbro; it sets up alongside, brushes off Surfs, and Withdraw's 64 PP allows an easy PP stall - Body Slam Tanklax similarly has its sweep hard-walled and returned in spades. Psychic is the best attacking move to use alongside Withdraw - with a boosted Defense, Slowbro does not care a whit about Rocks, and the special falls are handy if your opponent's managed to keep Chansey unparalysed (super-effective hits on Gengar and Victreebel are really nice too, and Jynx and Zam suck against Slowbro anyway). Compared to TobyBro, this Bro doesn't support its teammates and needs a lot of support itself - but it makes up for it with its incredible sweeping potential. Half of OU simply cannot touch it - even Explosion's brushed off after a couple of Withdraws, and Tauros needs 2 crits in 3 attacks to break Rest after just one Withdraw. If you can get its counters out of the way (which the entire rest of the team is built to do) Slowbro takes over games with contemptuous ease.


The biggest hole this team has is to Victreebel (with no Zam, no Tauros, no Zapdos, and no Gar), but Bel's rare (though you could swap out Snorlax for Tauros or Starmie for Zam if you're worried). Starmie and Zapdos can be hard to deal with as well despite the hard counters to both - they're slippery fish to catch with paralysis even with Stun Spore Egg. Still a fun team, though - a decent number of teams are simply walled and destroyed by this Slowbro thanks to its reduced Explosion vulnerability, and any opponent dumb enough to leave TobyBro in while you set up alongside is going to get his butt handed to him.

Importable

Spoiler

Starmie
- Blizzard
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Recover

Exeggutor
- Sleep Powder
- Stun Spore
- Psychic
- Explosion

Chansey
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled

Snorlax
- Body Slam
- Hyper Beam
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct

Rhydon
- Body Slam
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Substitute

Slowbro
- Psychic
- Withdraw
- Amnesia
- Rest

 

[marcoasd]

Nice Slowbro team. As you said, the team is vulnerable to wrap and slow (Snorlax, Slowbro and Rhydon is slow motion). I feel I'd go with Zam+Tauros over Starmie+Rhydon, but the rock lures well Egg and is good at taking Hyper Beams, as this Slowbro is a finisher and not a team player with TWave.
IMHO, if Zam allows Egg in, that's very good for you, as it is a counter for both Slowbro and Rhydon.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Nice Slowbro team. As you said, the team is vulnerable to wrap and slow (Snorlax, Slowbro and Rhydon is slow motion). I feel I'd go with Zam+Tauros over Starmie+Rhydon, but the rock lures well Egg and is good at taking Hyper Beams, as this Slowbro is a finisher and not a team player with TWave.
IMHO, if Zam allows Egg in, that's very good for you, as it is a counter for both Slowbro and Rhydon.

Egg doesn't counter Slowbro very well. Mega Drain hurts unboosted, but not through Amnesia. Explosion won't do much to a Slowbro with a Withdraw or two.

 

[marcoasd]

An unparalyzed Egg can use a number of Mega Drains for some damage (and CH is very good), and then explode for some more; something else can revenge kill (maybe explode again depending on the situation). It's not Bell, but of course it takes a lot of time for Slowbro to damage it without Blizzard: it's good to take it out before going to Slowbro.

 

[magic9mushroom]

(and CH is very good)

Egg's CH is awful. It's what, 10.7%?

Paralysing it is good, though. That way you can get both an Amnesia and a Withdraw up before it can do anything.

Also, revenge-killing +1 Def Slowbro is really hard for non-Starmie teams (ie, the kind that are relying on Explosion in the first place) since the most common revenge-killer is Tauros, which only does 26-31% with Hyper Beam (and every Explosion save Snorlax's is guaranteed to do less than 50%). Paralysing Chansey is easy as pie, and Zam does even less than Tauros (18-21%).

 

[marcoasd]

CH Mega Drain... 58.7 - 69.2%, not bad... again, unparalyzed Mega Drain Egg is gonna ruin your day

 

[magic9mushroom]

CH Mega Drain... 58.7 - 69.2%, not bad... again, unparalyzed Mega Drain Egg is gonna ruin your day

But Egg's crit rate is awful. There's a considerable chance it'll run out of PP before getting a crit.

But yes, paralysing it is good. It's also not that hard.

 

[Dre89]

Interesting concept, but I'd probably drop snorlax or rhydon for tauros. Bro is similar to lax in that its slow wall-sweeper hybrid, and is a decent switch in to other lax and tauros. Lax is obviously better than rhydon, the only reason why I'd even consider dropping snorlax over rhydon is because you're scared of zapdos. Honestly you can probably contain zapdos with snorlax and chansey, a zam would help too. Speaking of zam, I don't really see what lead starmie offers this team over a lead zam. Zam is better sleep absorber, counters bel and manages zapdos better, and still handles stuff that starmie is supposed to, like cloyster. Starmie also can't switch into tbolt, and considering that a bro is the core of the team, you want to minimise the desire for the enemy to throw tbolts out because it'll make it harder for bro to get in.

The main problem I see with the team is that bro offers no status, so it's kind of forced to be saved as an end-game sweeper. I guess that's why you dropped tauros.