Hi! I wanted to see if you guys could tell me if I need to fix/change anything on my team to make it the best it can be.
This is a team I made to support A-Raichu to sweep, however, I added in some other sweepers to clean late-game if raichu can't do it
I've already played some matches that took me from the typical low ladder position (around 1200) to around 1400
The team
Pancake (Raichu-Alola) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Psychic
- Volt Switch
The main reason I wanted to use A-Raichu was because I love him, but aside from that, specs modest tbolt under electric terrain is TERRIFYING and can OHKO/2HKO a lot of the common threats in the metagame.
The reason why I use specs instead of aloraichunium + np is because I needed inmediate power to OHKO scarf lando from full with hp ice after the electric terrain is up, which otherwise could be a huge problem for this team, tbolt is to do some big damage and potentially give an OHKO to anything that doesn't resist it or isn't a ground type, psychic is to hit a hard stab move to fighting type mons or potential switch-ins and volt switch is to pivot out
Overall I think A-Raichu is a really good sweeper and way better now that zygarde is gone thanks to some mons being way less common.
Tapu Koko @ Terrain Extender
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
Of course, as in any team that has alolan raichu in it, koko NEEDS to be in the team for raichu to do good, however, it is really good stand-alone.
Terrain extender is prefered over other items since it helps for E-Terrain to be in a bunch of time even after koko is knocked out
Tbolt is to hit a nice hard chip for one of our sweepers to kill them off, defog is to support volcarona to not be 50% after switching in, roost is to keep koko alive just in case we need E-Terrain for some more turns and U-turn is to pivot out as usual.
Ev spread is taken out from the defogging set in smogon dex so I don't know too much about what it can do, but it has helped me live some hits that standar offensive koko wouldn't live so I left it like that.
Volcarona @ Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance
- Hidden Power [Ground]
As I mentioned before, volca is here, it was chosen to demolish SG magearna and to use AV magearna and z-magma heatran as setup fodder
It's an standard fast sweeping set with buginium z to give big af damage to common mons (even if they resist it) and then kill them off with fiery dance to boost SpA even more after QD, fiery dance can also help for a reliable stab moves for things that don't resist it but resist bug buzz, and finally, hp ground is to help with the heatran matchup to even use it as setup fodder, overall a really good mon.
Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Surf
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes
When I was teambuilding, I noticed that some psychic mons such as mega alakazam and mega latios could really exploit the team and were some of the best threats against this team, so when I realized I needed a dark type, I inmediatly thought of this beast.
It's the typical specs ash set as always, even if it continues to be as predictable as ever, it does it work REALLY well, I use surf over hydro pump because I already had a bad experience with missing it when using past teams and I realized this wouldn't be so different, so I ran surf, everything else is the standard smogon set.
There's a reason why this boi is #1 in viability rankings
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Knock Off
- Smart Strike
You may have already noticed that, without A-raichu, this team gets absolutely DUNKED ON by common gren variants, such as ash gren and gunk shot protean gren, so I decided to add one more revenge killer that helped against gren and completed a type core, and well, you can see who it is, kart fills the role so well, and it helps a bunch for late game cleaning, really, this mon is amazing.
(note: I wanted to use psycho cut for pex, but calcs soon helped me realize that it wasn't worth and that leaf blade was enough to help against pex, along electric spam, so I kept smart strike)
Landorus-Therian @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Defog
And last but not least (and ironically the lead) the smogon cat/bird/cloud/thingy
Sash lead with rocks and explosion will always be good (? and it is inmune to eq so it's the switch-in for that
Defog helps support volcarona and earthquake is the standard move to attack things if you don't wanna blow up just yet.
Ev spreads are the standard 252/252/6(or 4 lol) spread and it always helps a bunch, jolly nature also helps to outspeed other mons.
Welp, what do you think about it? should I change a move/spread/mon? Are there any notable threats I don't know about yet that I need to cover?
Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you have an awesome day n.n
Bye
This is a team I made to support A-Raichu to sweep, however, I added in some other sweepers to clean late-game if raichu can't do it
I've already played some matches that took me from the typical low ladder position (around 1200) to around 1400
The team
Pancake (Raichu-Alola) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Psychic
- Volt Switch
The main reason I wanted to use A-Raichu was because I love him, but aside from that, specs modest tbolt under electric terrain is TERRIFYING and can OHKO/2HKO a lot of the common threats in the metagame.
The reason why I use specs instead of aloraichunium + np is because I needed inmediate power to OHKO scarf lando from full with hp ice after the electric terrain is up, which otherwise could be a huge problem for this team, tbolt is to do some big damage and potentially give an OHKO to anything that doesn't resist it or isn't a ground type, psychic is to hit a hard stab move to fighting type mons or potential switch-ins and volt switch is to pivot out
Overall I think A-Raichu is a really good sweeper and way better now that zygarde is gone thanks to some mons being way less common.
Tapu Koko @ Terrain Extender
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
Of course, as in any team that has alolan raichu in it, koko NEEDS to be in the team for raichu to do good, however, it is really good stand-alone.
Terrain extender is prefered over other items since it helps for E-Terrain to be in a bunch of time even after koko is knocked out
Tbolt is to hit a nice hard chip for one of our sweepers to kill them off, defog is to support volcarona to not be 50% after switching in, roost is to keep koko alive just in case we need E-Terrain for some more turns and U-turn is to pivot out as usual.
Ev spread is taken out from the defogging set in smogon dex so I don't know too much about what it can do, but it has helped me live some hits that standar offensive koko wouldn't live so I left it like that.
Volcarona @ Buginium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance
- Hidden Power [Ground]
As I mentioned before, volca is here, it was chosen to demolish SG magearna and to use AV magearna and z-magma heatran as setup fodder
It's an standard fast sweeping set with buginium z to give big af damage to common mons (even if they resist it) and then kill them off with fiery dance to boost SpA even more after QD, fiery dance can also help for a reliable stab moves for things that don't resist it but resist bug buzz, and finally, hp ground is to help with the heatran matchup to even use it as setup fodder, overall a really good mon.
Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Surf
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes
When I was teambuilding, I noticed that some psychic mons such as mega alakazam and mega latios could really exploit the team and were some of the best threats against this team, so when I realized I needed a dark type, I inmediatly thought of this beast.
It's the typical specs ash set as always, even if it continues to be as predictable as ever, it does it work REALLY well, I use surf over hydro pump because I already had a bad experience with missing it when using past teams and I realized this wouldn't be so different, so I ran surf, everything else is the standard smogon set.
There's a reason why this boi is #1 in viability rankings
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Knock Off
- Smart Strike
You may have already noticed that, without A-raichu, this team gets absolutely DUNKED ON by common gren variants, such as ash gren and gunk shot protean gren, so I decided to add one more revenge killer that helped against gren and completed a type core, and well, you can see who it is, kart fills the role so well, and it helps a bunch for late game cleaning, really, this mon is amazing.
(note: I wanted to use psycho cut for pex, but calcs soon helped me realize that it wasn't worth and that leaf blade was enough to help against pex, along electric spam, so I kept smart strike)
Landorus-Therian @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Defog
And last but not least (and ironically the lead) the smogon cat/bird/cloud/thingy
Sash lead with rocks and explosion will always be good (? and it is inmune to eq so it's the switch-in for that
Defog helps support volcarona and earthquake is the standard move to attack things if you don't wanna blow up just yet.
Ev spreads are the standard 252/252/6(or 4 lol) spread and it always helps a bunch, jolly nature also helps to outspeed other mons.
Welp, what do you think about it? should I change a move/spread/mon? Are there any notable threats I don't know about yet that I need to cover?
Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you have an awesome day n.n
Bye
Last edited: