Hey guys this is my 5th ou RMT post and I wanted to share this team with everyone and hopefully get some feedback. To be honest this team has not done very well peaking at a maximum of 1254 on the PO server and it is either because the team sucks or i have had a really bad losing streak. Now some of you may remember an earlier post by me called "Ghetto lizard Meets Sun Cat" post which was fairly successful and this is really just an attempted improvement on that one so I don't believe the team sucks it just needs well your help.
At A Glance
anyway lets get stuck into it
Team Building Process<== a little boring but worth reading for a proper perspective
Espeon and Scrafty make up the core of the team, calm mind lets espeon boost its special stats while bulk up boots scrafty's physical stats forming a nice balance between the two. They also compliment each other nicely covering most weaknesses and threats between the two.
Next i wanted someone that could support the two to maximise their potential. the kind of support i was after was to cripple, paralyse, and wish, the perfect candidate seemed to be jirachi. Jirachi can give decent wishes to their pitiful HP stats as well as spread paralysis with body slam. Jirachi also takes some pressure off espeon being the main special attacking check.
Jirachi's best friends are levitating dragons and while gyarados isn't quite a dragon he still can perform a similar role. Gyarados can switch in on earthquakes and fire moves aimed at Jirachi and Jirachi can take rock and thunder moves with impunity. Gyarados also takes some pressure off scrafty being the only physical attacker.
After this i was in a bit of a dilemma in that i could not think of anyone else so i whacked on two random pokemons form my box, namely Starmie and i thought a bit of rain never hurt anyone so a Politoed.
After some playtime using this team i found that it lacked a reliable revenge killer so i tried Landorus and Rotom-W but that didnt really work out for me.
So i went back to Starmie and replaced Landorus with Weavile purely for ice shard and because it outspeeds a banded terrakion and OHKO's it 100% of the time with low kick. Starmie spin away entry hazards as with as pull off decent revenge kills.
I replaced Weavile with Mamoswine even though Weavile was performing nicely because my team tends to cause a lot of switch outs and Mamoswine can capitalize on that with stealth rocks. Mamoswine can also ice shard and its access to STAB earthquake and electric immunity fills a small hole in my team.
I replaced Mamoswine with Deoxys-D to get more entry hazards up. After these changes my team was quite successful and i retired it happily for another endeavor which can be viewed at http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3466243
So after starting it up again I decided to replace Starmie with Tentacruel to patch up my Scizor weakness and give me some special bulk and it has worked fine as a replacement spinner.
The next to go was Jirachi because i found it's wishes were not being used a great deal and besides spreading paralysis it was fairly useless. Heatran seemed like a great option because of its bulk, its walling of Scizor and while maintaining a similar synergy that Jirachi had.
Now with a Heatran carrying Stealth Rock and Tentacruel carrying Toxic Spikes I had very little need for Deoxys-D so its spot could be used for more a more useful member. So i decided to replace it with Skamory because of its incredible walling capabilities and its synergy with Heatran and Tentacruel and its access to spikes which gives me full entry hazards, a great advantage for any team.
Now although I loved my Espeon set I thought a Calm Mind Virizion would give me a better synergy with the water, fire, grass combo of Gyarados and Tentacruel, Heatran and Virizion although either I'm not using it right or it is really underperforming. With all these changes i did some laddering and in all honesty i plummeted down to about 1120 but I feel as though i just had a really bad unlucky streak because on paper the team sounds quite good.
I have made a couple of changes, Skarmory went for Gliscor to patch up some weaknesses as well as toxicstall, it has a similar function except without access to spikes. Virizion also went for Choice Scarf Latios for its revenge killing capabilities as well as its supersonic speed.
EDITED
Scrafty (M) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Hi Jump Kick
- Crunch
- Rest
Role: After always looking at Scrafty with disgust one day I tried it out and now it has become one of my favourite Pokemon. It has 3 amazing abilities in Shed Skin, Intimidate and Moxie and access to some of the best boosting moves in Dragon Dance and Bulk Up stand aside Conkeldurr the Harlem boy is taking his place as boss. I used to use the Bulk Up set which served me wonderfully before and now I am using a Dragon Dance set which is equally good but it has a far more offensive pivot and cannot absorb status like the Shed Skin + Rest combo but don't get me wrong this set works wonders when used correctly. It functions as a mid-late game sweeper and can pull it off magnificently thanks to Moxie.
Moveset: The moveset is a minor spin-off the standard Dragon Dance set where I forgo the 3rd coverage move in favour of a ChestoRest combo which allows for a 1 turn complete status + HP healing. Between Hi Jump Kick and Crunch there is very little that resists it and moxie makes it that much harder to revenge kill. After 1 Dragon Dance it reaches a speed stat of 354 which can outspeed max speed base 110's such as Gengar and Lati@s and OHKO with Crunch. After 3 it can outspeed Scarfed threats such as Terrakion and Latios and OHKO with Hi Jump Kick and Crunch Respectively. Chesto Rest also makes a great burn absorber, tricking your opponent into believing your Scrafty to be useless and then simply healing off damage and burn and proceeding to sweep. Hi Jump Kick and Crunch have amazing coverage only resisted by Bugs such as Volcarona and Heracross while dealing super effective damage to a great deal of commonly used Pokemon. Chesto Rest also makes it harder to revenge kill by Scizor, Choice Banded Bullet Punch dealing 53-62% damage which would normally easily pick off a weakened Dragon Dance Scrafty however with the instant recovery provided by ChestoRest you can simply shrug off the damage and OHKO 75% of the time (100% after SR of 1 layer of Spikes) with a +2 Hi Jump Kick +3 alway OHKOing it. ChestoRest Scrafty is a great Scrafty moveset that should definitely be considered next time someone decides to use Scrafty/Conkeldurr. Scrafty is great for cleaning up weakened teams and is very hard to stop once it gets going.
EV's: The EV's are to maximise Speed and Attack while the remaining 4 goes into defense for the occasional Download Porygon etc.
Possible Replacements: Bulk Up Scrafty, Conkeldurr, Breloom
Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 100 SDef / 160 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
Role: Heatran performs a vital utility role in my team providing its great special bulk and typing to synergise well with my team. Its ability and typing finds an invaluable place amongst my team. It can spread around burn, check threats such as Scizor as well as absorb Fire moves thanks to its Flash Fire ability. It also makes up a significant portion of my defensive core: Heatran, Tentacruel and Skamory. Together they form a more creative but similar psuedo Skarmbliss. Heatran forms a greatly defensive Fire, Water, Grass core with Tentacruel, Gyarados and Virizion. It can recieve a Flash Fire boost from Fire Blasts aimed at Skarmory and Virizion while its Ground, Water and Fighting weaknesses are covered by Gyarados and Tentacruel. Heatran is the glue of this team that helps patch up cores as well as synergise well.
Moveset: Fire Blast is Heatrans only STAB capable of dealing huge damage to unresisted threats but, more importantly, it can check Scizor and Ferrothorn who otherwise wreak havoc on my team in the former's case by firing off incredibly powerful Bullet Punches while in the latter's spreading paralysis and wearing down key sweepers like Virizion and Gyarados. Stealth Rock is a great asset on any team and Heatran is a great user of it. It means that Volcarona will think twice about switching in while Dragons such as Salamence and Dragonite are not going to want to switch in too many times. It also weakens my opponent which late-game sweepers like Scrafty can pick off. Protect is just a great move in general scouting out a move, stalling out a Toxic etc. Will-O-Wisp is a great way to cripple banded Outragers etc although with the amount of Lum Berries around lately it has really seemed useless however combined with Toxic Spikes it can generally pull off a burn. I chose Leftovers over Air Balloons because Gyarados can take any ground moves aimed at Heatran and Air Balloons are quick to break whereas the recovery from Leftovers are far more useful later on in the game.
EV's: The given EV's are to maximise special bulk while still being able to outspeed Scizors attempting to SuperPower.
Possible Replacements: Earth Power over Protect. Better coverage, unable to scout out or stall.
Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Role: Latios is my main special sweeper and it has a lot of pressure on it to perform. Luckily it is an absolute beast with insane stats (gamefreak, please dont release soul dew) which can revenge kill, a big problem before and can clean up nicely after one of Gyarados' rampages. It is my only way of touching Chlorophyl abusers such as Venusaur and blowing BIG holes in stuff from its Draconic Comets.
Moveset: The moveset is really just about coverage + Draco Meteor. Surf lets me hit Air Balloons Heatran which otherwise has a field day with my team while giving great coverage in general. Hidden Power Fire, with good prediction can nail bulky steels like Ferrothorn, Jirachi and Forretress hoping to sponge off a Draco Meteor and fore a switch out. After the revenge killing is done and key threats are removed Latios can simply trick off its Choice Scarf and and get a late-game sweep going. People may remember Latios' predecessor Calm Mind Virizion carried Hidden Power Ice to nail Dragons like Salamence and Dragonite which brought me much grief but Latios performs the role much better unleashing its wrath in the form of Draco Meteor outspeeding all of them scarfed or at +1 and OHKOing (in Dragonites case when Multiscale has been removed) all of them. Latios is also my only check to Rotom and Scizor in the formers case dealing 79-93% damage to a Standard Rotom and 89-105% damage to a choiced while in the latters case OHKOing all forms save the very rare Occa Berry Scizor.
EV's: The EV's are to maximise sweeping potential.
Possible Replacements: Espeon see http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4186811
Tentacruel (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Rain Dance
- Rapid Spin
Role: Tentacruel... Where do I start? It is, in my opinion one of the best Rapid Spinners in the game. It can sponge off Special hits, absorb Toxic Spike, lay Toxic Spikes and fire off decently powered STABS. And that is precisely what it does on my team. It can spin my troubles away and has works amazingly well with Heatran, Scrafty and Skamory shrugging off fighting STABS such as Focus Blast from a +1 Virizion taking 18-21% damage healing off the damage in the rain and setting up on it. It makes a great rain check hurt only by Thunder (a big problem for my whole team) and between Skamory, Tentacruel and Heatran they can wall a great deal of the OU metagame. Its Scald burns are very helpful giving Scrafty and Gyarados even more opportunity to set up.
Moveset: This Moveset is a very commonly found in rain teams due to the reliable recovery however I find that it works nicely on a weatherless team because it can wall many rain abusers and recover off damage against rain teams while still maintaining considerable bulk and reliablity outside of rain. Toxic Spikes are a great asset making any switch-in take crippling residual damage combined with Spikes and Stealth Rock leaving opponents severely crippled and limiting the time they can stay in forcing more Spikes + Stealth Rock damage. Scald is a moderately powerful STAB which can deal out useful burns as well as gaining a considerable power boost in the rain. Rain Dance is kinda hard to explain but because my team is anti-weather it has a big weakness to weather abusers and weather strategies. Chlorophyl abusers are very overpowered (but shouldn't be banned coz i use them in my sun team) and give a a big headache. Most people apon seeing my team tend to rashly sack their weather inducer because they have no use for pokemon tailored for a long and arduous weather war. Once there weather inducer is gone they go to the appropriate abuser. This is where Rain Dance comes into play. It is also helpful against Sand and Hail stall **looking at you SPdude** hoping to rack up residual damage. It can change the tide of the match very quickly by negating there advantage. I chose rain because the main reason for its existence is to counter Chlorophyl. Rapid Spin is a very important move on any team eliminating the dreaded entry hazards.
EV's: The EV's are to maximise Physical bulk to even out the defenses while the 16 Speed EV's allow it to outspeed Breloom and hope for a Scald burn.
Possible Replacements: None.
Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Taunt
- Protect
Role: Gliscor has excellent synergy with Heatran, Scrafy and Tentacruel. It fits in neatly absorbing status due to its amazing ability while shrugging off physical hits thanks to it amazing physical bulk. Defensive Gliscor is rarely seen nowadays facing stiff competion from Skarmory and its other more offensively oriented sets. It can check all forms of Terrakion which otherwise give me considerable grief while posing a great threat to sandstorm team. Although its predecessor Skarmory carried Spikes to rack up residual damage its Toxic can do the same nailing steel switch ins not carrying Air Balloons hoping to absorb a toxic. While it can't phaze like Skarmory it can force switch outs with its evil glare.
Moveset: The moveset like I said before is fairly rare but very effective. While Gliscors above average Speed it can Taunt to prevent set ups and prevent status for a few turns clearing some room for Gyarados to sweep. It can also force enemies to target its behemoth defense while he simply ToxicStalls them out. Protect allow Gliscor to capitalize on its ability healing off a considerable chunk of health while stalling out one turn of Toxic, induced by Toxic Spike or his own Toxic to nail leviatators and Flying types. Toxic is an obvious choice crippling and forcing switch outs from stallers such as Blissey and set-up sweepers. Gliscor has a fairly simple moveset but it is effective none the less. To be honest he is not hear for his moves as much as hits stats and typing walling a lot of threats to my team and patching up a few holes.
EV's: The EV's are to maximise physical bulk while 72 speed ev's lets me oustpeed Tyranitar and other Stealth Rock users and Taunt them.
Possible Replacements: None.
Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 176 HP / 128 Atk / 204 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Substitute
- Stone Edge
Role: Gyarados is my main sweeper who does most of the dirty work. It has great synergy with Heatran, switching on Earthquakes and Focus Blasts etc while Heatran somewhat covers its Rock and Electric weaknesses due to its amazing Special bulk. It also forms a Fire, Water, Grass core which makes for a great defensive core and it can tear holes in things thanks to its base 125 Attack and its access to Dragon Dance.
Moveset: This is a fairly standard Bulky Dragon Dance Gyarados but it still works wonders. After 1 Dragon Dance it reaches a Speed stat of 366, enough to ouspeed all max speed base 110's and below as well as outspeeding ScarfNite etc. After 2 Dragon Dances it can outspeed Scarf Haxorus', Scarf Landorus' and after 3 it can outspeed Scarfed max Speed base 110's like Latios and Salamence and OHKO with Stone Edge. Waterfall and Stone Edge have great coverage resisted by a handful such as Ferrothorn, Breloom and Virizion which are generally taken care of by Heatran. I run Subtitute because it can perform a similar role as Tuant albeit at the cost of 25% health but first of all it can block Scald making Jellicent set up fodder plus with Gyrados' bulk its Substitutes are actually fairly strong which can present more opportunities to Dragon Dance and the only downside to it is that you can be phazed by Roar, Whirlwind etc. I run Intimidate over Moxie because although they are both amazing abilities i prefer the straight up bulk given by Intimidate. Gyarados is my main sweeper which can not only tear BIG holes in things with Waterfall and Stone Edge it also has decent bulk and great synergy amongst my team.
EV's: The EV's are to balance power and bulk. 204 Spe lets it outspeed max speed base 115s like Starmie and after 2 outspeeding the like of Scarfed Landorus. 176 in Health is to add to its impressive bulk making it very difficult to kill with out a super effective move while 128 Attack is to give a little more kick to its Stone Edge and Waterfall.
Possible Replacements: Dragon Dance Dragonite, Bulky ParaShuffler Dragonite.
Importable:
Closing Notes
The original version of this team "Ghetto Lizard meets Sun Cat" worked extremely This team has great synergy between Pokemon although it can fall quickly to fast paced sweeps due to its lack of reliable revenge killing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
At A Glance
anyway lets get stuck into it
Team Building Process<== a little boring but worth reading for a proper perspective
Espeon and Scrafty make up the core of the team, calm mind lets espeon boost its special stats while bulk up boots scrafty's physical stats forming a nice balance between the two. They also compliment each other nicely covering most weaknesses and threats between the two.
Next i wanted someone that could support the two to maximise their potential. the kind of support i was after was to cripple, paralyse, and wish, the perfect candidate seemed to be jirachi. Jirachi can give decent wishes to their pitiful HP stats as well as spread paralysis with body slam. Jirachi also takes some pressure off espeon being the main special attacking check.
Jirachi's best friends are levitating dragons and while gyarados isn't quite a dragon he still can perform a similar role. Gyarados can switch in on earthquakes and fire moves aimed at Jirachi and Jirachi can take rock and thunder moves with impunity. Gyarados also takes some pressure off scrafty being the only physical attacker.
After this i was in a bit of a dilemma in that i could not think of anyone else so i whacked on two random pokemons form my box, namely Starmie and i thought a bit of rain never hurt anyone so a Politoed.
After some playtime using this team i found that it lacked a reliable revenge killer so i tried Landorus and Rotom-W but that didnt really work out for me.
So i went back to Starmie and replaced Landorus with Weavile purely for ice shard and because it outspeeds a banded terrakion and OHKO's it 100% of the time with low kick. Starmie spin away entry hazards as with as pull off decent revenge kills.
I replaced Weavile with Mamoswine even though Weavile was performing nicely because my team tends to cause a lot of switch outs and Mamoswine can capitalize on that with stealth rocks. Mamoswine can also ice shard and its access to STAB earthquake and electric immunity fills a small hole in my team.
I replaced Mamoswine with Deoxys-D to get more entry hazards up. After these changes my team was quite successful and i retired it happily for another endeavor which can be viewed at http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3466243
So after starting it up again I decided to replace Starmie with Tentacruel to patch up my Scizor weakness and give me some special bulk and it has worked fine as a replacement spinner.
The next to go was Jirachi because i found it's wishes were not being used a great deal and besides spreading paralysis it was fairly useless. Heatran seemed like a great option because of its bulk, its walling of Scizor and while maintaining a similar synergy that Jirachi had.
Now with a Heatran carrying Stealth Rock and Tentacruel carrying Toxic Spikes I had very little need for Deoxys-D so its spot could be used for more a more useful member. So i decided to replace it with Skamory because of its incredible walling capabilities and its synergy with Heatran and Tentacruel and its access to spikes which gives me full entry hazards, a great advantage for any team.
Now although I loved my Espeon set I thought a Calm Mind Virizion would give me a better synergy with the water, fire, grass combo of Gyarados and Tentacruel, Heatran and Virizion although either I'm not using it right or it is really underperforming. With all these changes i did some laddering and in all honesty i plummeted down to about 1120 but I feel as though i just had a really bad unlucky streak because on paper the team sounds quite good.
I have made a couple of changes, Skarmory went for Gliscor to patch up some weaknesses as well as toxicstall, it has a similar function except without access to spikes. Virizion also went for Choice Scarf Latios for its revenge killing capabilities as well as its supersonic speed.
In Depth
EDITED
Scrafty (M) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Hi Jump Kick
- Crunch
- Rest
Role: After always looking at Scrafty with disgust one day I tried it out and now it has become one of my favourite Pokemon. It has 3 amazing abilities in Shed Skin, Intimidate and Moxie and access to some of the best boosting moves in Dragon Dance and Bulk Up stand aside Conkeldurr the Harlem boy is taking his place as boss. I used to use the Bulk Up set which served me wonderfully before and now I am using a Dragon Dance set which is equally good but it has a far more offensive pivot and cannot absorb status like the Shed Skin + Rest combo but don't get me wrong this set works wonders when used correctly. It functions as a mid-late game sweeper and can pull it off magnificently thanks to Moxie.
Moveset: The moveset is a minor spin-off the standard Dragon Dance set where I forgo the 3rd coverage move in favour of a ChestoRest combo which allows for a 1 turn complete status + HP healing. Between Hi Jump Kick and Crunch there is very little that resists it and moxie makes it that much harder to revenge kill. After 1 Dragon Dance it reaches a speed stat of 354 which can outspeed max speed base 110's such as Gengar and Lati@s and OHKO with Crunch. After 3 it can outspeed Scarfed threats such as Terrakion and Latios and OHKO with Hi Jump Kick and Crunch Respectively. Chesto Rest also makes a great burn absorber, tricking your opponent into believing your Scrafty to be useless and then simply healing off damage and burn and proceeding to sweep. Hi Jump Kick and Crunch have amazing coverage only resisted by Bugs such as Volcarona and Heracross while dealing super effective damage to a great deal of commonly used Pokemon. Chesto Rest also makes it harder to revenge kill by Scizor, Choice Banded Bullet Punch dealing 53-62% damage which would normally easily pick off a weakened Dragon Dance Scrafty however with the instant recovery provided by ChestoRest you can simply shrug off the damage and OHKO 75% of the time (100% after SR of 1 layer of Spikes) with a +2 Hi Jump Kick +3 alway OHKOing it. ChestoRest Scrafty is a great Scrafty moveset that should definitely be considered next time someone decides to use Scrafty/Conkeldurr. Scrafty is great for cleaning up weakened teams and is very hard to stop once it gets going.
EV's: The EV's are to maximise Speed and Attack while the remaining 4 goes into defense for the occasional Download Porygon etc.
Possible Replacements: Bulk Up Scrafty, Conkeldurr, Breloom
Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 100 SDef / 160 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
Role: Heatran performs a vital utility role in my team providing its great special bulk and typing to synergise well with my team. Its ability and typing finds an invaluable place amongst my team. It can spread around burn, check threats such as Scizor as well as absorb Fire moves thanks to its Flash Fire ability. It also makes up a significant portion of my defensive core: Heatran, Tentacruel and Skamory. Together they form a more creative but similar psuedo Skarmbliss. Heatran forms a greatly defensive Fire, Water, Grass core with Tentacruel, Gyarados and Virizion. It can recieve a Flash Fire boost from Fire Blasts aimed at Skarmory and Virizion while its Ground, Water and Fighting weaknesses are covered by Gyarados and Tentacruel. Heatran is the glue of this team that helps patch up cores as well as synergise well.
Moveset: Fire Blast is Heatrans only STAB capable of dealing huge damage to unresisted threats but, more importantly, it can check Scizor and Ferrothorn who otherwise wreak havoc on my team in the former's case by firing off incredibly powerful Bullet Punches while in the latter's spreading paralysis and wearing down key sweepers like Virizion and Gyarados. Stealth Rock is a great asset on any team and Heatran is a great user of it. It means that Volcarona will think twice about switching in while Dragons such as Salamence and Dragonite are not going to want to switch in too many times. It also weakens my opponent which late-game sweepers like Scrafty can pick off. Protect is just a great move in general scouting out a move, stalling out a Toxic etc. Will-O-Wisp is a great way to cripple banded Outragers etc although with the amount of Lum Berries around lately it has really seemed useless however combined with Toxic Spikes it can generally pull off a burn. I chose Leftovers over Air Balloons because Gyarados can take any ground moves aimed at Heatran and Air Balloons are quick to break whereas the recovery from Leftovers are far more useful later on in the game.
EV's: The given EV's are to maximise special bulk while still being able to outspeed Scizors attempting to SuperPower.
Possible Replacements: Earth Power over Protect. Better coverage, unable to scout out or stall.
Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Role: Latios is my main special sweeper and it has a lot of pressure on it to perform. Luckily it is an absolute beast with insane stats (gamefreak, please dont release soul dew) which can revenge kill, a big problem before and can clean up nicely after one of Gyarados' rampages. It is my only way of touching Chlorophyl abusers such as Venusaur and blowing BIG holes in stuff from its Draconic Comets.
Moveset: The moveset is really just about coverage + Draco Meteor. Surf lets me hit Air Balloons Heatran which otherwise has a field day with my team while giving great coverage in general. Hidden Power Fire, with good prediction can nail bulky steels like Ferrothorn, Jirachi and Forretress hoping to sponge off a Draco Meteor and fore a switch out. After the revenge killing is done and key threats are removed Latios can simply trick off its Choice Scarf and and get a late-game sweep going. People may remember Latios' predecessor Calm Mind Virizion carried Hidden Power Ice to nail Dragons like Salamence and Dragonite which brought me much grief but Latios performs the role much better unleashing its wrath in the form of Draco Meteor outspeeding all of them scarfed or at +1 and OHKOing (in Dragonites case when Multiscale has been removed) all of them. Latios is also my only check to Rotom and Scizor in the formers case dealing 79-93% damage to a Standard Rotom and 89-105% damage to a choiced while in the latters case OHKOing all forms save the very rare Occa Berry Scizor.
EV's: The EV's are to maximise sweeping potential.
Possible Replacements: Espeon see http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4186811
Tentacruel (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Rain Dance
- Rapid Spin
Role: Tentacruel... Where do I start? It is, in my opinion one of the best Rapid Spinners in the game. It can sponge off Special hits, absorb Toxic Spike, lay Toxic Spikes and fire off decently powered STABS. And that is precisely what it does on my team. It can spin my troubles away and has works amazingly well with Heatran, Scrafty and Skamory shrugging off fighting STABS such as Focus Blast from a +1 Virizion taking 18-21% damage healing off the damage in the rain and setting up on it. It makes a great rain check hurt only by Thunder (a big problem for my whole team) and between Skamory, Tentacruel and Heatran they can wall a great deal of the OU metagame. Its Scald burns are very helpful giving Scrafty and Gyarados even more opportunity to set up.
Moveset: This Moveset is a very commonly found in rain teams due to the reliable recovery however I find that it works nicely on a weatherless team because it can wall many rain abusers and recover off damage against rain teams while still maintaining considerable bulk and reliablity outside of rain. Toxic Spikes are a great asset making any switch-in take crippling residual damage combined with Spikes and Stealth Rock leaving opponents severely crippled and limiting the time they can stay in forcing more Spikes + Stealth Rock damage. Scald is a moderately powerful STAB which can deal out useful burns as well as gaining a considerable power boost in the rain. Rain Dance is kinda hard to explain but because my team is anti-weather it has a big weakness to weather abusers and weather strategies. Chlorophyl abusers are very overpowered (but shouldn't be banned coz i use them in my sun team) and give a a big headache. Most people apon seeing my team tend to rashly sack their weather inducer because they have no use for pokemon tailored for a long and arduous weather war. Once there weather inducer is gone they go to the appropriate abuser. This is where Rain Dance comes into play. It is also helpful against Sand and Hail stall **looking at you SPdude** hoping to rack up residual damage. It can change the tide of the match very quickly by negating there advantage. I chose rain because the main reason for its existence is to counter Chlorophyl. Rapid Spin is a very important move on any team eliminating the dreaded entry hazards.
EV's: The EV's are to maximise Physical bulk to even out the defenses while the 16 Speed EV's allow it to outspeed Breloom and hope for a Scald burn.
Possible Replacements: None.
Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Taunt
- Protect
Role: Gliscor has excellent synergy with Heatran, Scrafy and Tentacruel. It fits in neatly absorbing status due to its amazing ability while shrugging off physical hits thanks to it amazing physical bulk. Defensive Gliscor is rarely seen nowadays facing stiff competion from Skarmory and its other more offensively oriented sets. It can check all forms of Terrakion which otherwise give me considerable grief while posing a great threat to sandstorm team. Although its predecessor Skarmory carried Spikes to rack up residual damage its Toxic can do the same nailing steel switch ins not carrying Air Balloons hoping to absorb a toxic. While it can't phaze like Skarmory it can force switch outs with its evil glare.
Moveset: The moveset like I said before is fairly rare but very effective. While Gliscors above average Speed it can Taunt to prevent set ups and prevent status for a few turns clearing some room for Gyarados to sweep. It can also force enemies to target its behemoth defense while he simply ToxicStalls them out. Protect allow Gliscor to capitalize on its ability healing off a considerable chunk of health while stalling out one turn of Toxic, induced by Toxic Spike or his own Toxic to nail leviatators and Flying types. Toxic is an obvious choice crippling and forcing switch outs from stallers such as Blissey and set-up sweepers. Gliscor has a fairly simple moveset but it is effective none the less. To be honest he is not hear for his moves as much as hits stats and typing walling a lot of threats to my team and patching up a few holes.
EV's: The EV's are to maximise physical bulk while 72 speed ev's lets me oustpeed Tyranitar and other Stealth Rock users and Taunt them.
Possible Replacements: None.
Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 176 HP / 128 Atk / 204 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Substitute
- Stone Edge
Role: Gyarados is my main sweeper who does most of the dirty work. It has great synergy with Heatran, switching on Earthquakes and Focus Blasts etc while Heatran somewhat covers its Rock and Electric weaknesses due to its amazing Special bulk. It also forms a Fire, Water, Grass core which makes for a great defensive core and it can tear holes in things thanks to its base 125 Attack and its access to Dragon Dance.
Moveset: This is a fairly standard Bulky Dragon Dance Gyarados but it still works wonders. After 1 Dragon Dance it reaches a Speed stat of 366, enough to ouspeed all max speed base 110's and below as well as outspeeding ScarfNite etc. After 2 Dragon Dances it can outspeed Scarf Haxorus', Scarf Landorus' and after 3 it can outspeed Scarfed max Speed base 110's like Latios and Salamence and OHKO with Stone Edge. Waterfall and Stone Edge have great coverage resisted by a handful such as Ferrothorn, Breloom and Virizion which are generally taken care of by Heatran. I run Subtitute because it can perform a similar role as Tuant albeit at the cost of 25% health but first of all it can block Scald making Jellicent set up fodder plus with Gyrados' bulk its Substitutes are actually fairly strong which can present more opportunities to Dragon Dance and the only downside to it is that you can be phazed by Roar, Whirlwind etc. I run Intimidate over Moxie because although they are both amazing abilities i prefer the straight up bulk given by Intimidate. Gyarados is my main sweeper which can not only tear BIG holes in things with Waterfall and Stone Edge it also has decent bulk and great synergy amongst my team.
EV's: The EV's are to balance power and bulk. 204 Spe lets it outspeed max speed base 115s like Starmie and after 2 outspeeding the like of Scarfed Landorus. 176 in Health is to add to its impressive bulk making it very difficult to kill with out a super effective move while 128 Attack is to give a little more kick to its Stone Edge and Waterfall.
Possible Replacements: Dragon Dance Dragonite, Bulky ParaShuffler Dragonite.
Importable:
Skarmory (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird
Scrafty (M) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Hi Jump Kick
- Crunch
- Rest
Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 100 SDef / 160 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
Virizion @ Leftovers
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Giga Drain
Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Protect
- Rapid Spin
Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 176 HP / 128 Atk / 204 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Substitute
- Stone Edge
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird
Scrafty (M) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Hi Jump Kick
- Crunch
- Rest
Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 100 SDef / 160 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
Virizion @ Leftovers
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Giga Drain
Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Protect
- Rapid Spin
Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 176 HP / 128 Atk / 204 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Substitute
- Stone Edge
Closing Notes
The original version of this team "Ghetto Lizard meets Sun Cat" worked extremely This team has great synergy between Pokemon although it can fall quickly to fast paced sweeps due to its lack of reliable revenge killing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
