rmt archive description

shnen’s ‘Iron Maiden Can’t Be Fought’ brought a new playstyle into the NU limelight for a short while: Dual Screens Offense. NU contains numerous strong set up sweepers such as Gorebyss and Linoone, and shnen’s team aimed to take full advantage of this by utilising Dual Screens to set up and quickly sweep the opponent’s team. Two Pokemon are used to set up Reflect and Light Screen: Mesprit and Ampharos. Mesprit sets up Stealth Rock, which was/is extremely important in NU, while Ampharos covers a number of threats for the team, such as Drifblim and Rotom-S. Both of these Pokemon also have a ‘getaway move’ i.e. one of the volturn combination, allowing them to take a hit and bring one of shnen’s sweepers in unscathed. Shnen uses Gorebyss, Linoone, and Substitute + Swords Dance Leafeon, (which was popularised by this team), as his set up sweepers to dismantle the opposing team. This team was used at the time that Gorebyss was a suspect, so it was pretty much the de facto set up sweeper at the time. Belly Drum Linoone has been known as a ferocious one turn set up sweeper since its inception, increasing pressure on the opponent vastly, and it also allows shnen to revenge low health Pokemon with Extremespeed. Sub SD Leafeon was first popularised in this team, as the NU metagame at the time lacked Grass-types such as Tangela, making it a very potent set at the time. Finally, shnen used Cinccino to clean the opponent late game if needed. Cinccino was not particularly common at the time, as Skill Link’s tier-shaking release had not yet occurred, and so counters to it such as Tangela were not as wide spread. Shnen’s team was an innovative and successful team in NU, and as such it deserves its place in the RMT archive.