Marigold
formerly KuraiTenshi26
Hello, rmt! I'm looking for advice on how to improve a team that is not only can be super hard to deal with, but also really fun to play! The idea is that pheromosa and beedrill-mega can weaken/kill each other's threats, with pheromosa handling 4x ice weakness pokemon such as garchomp and lando-t that give the bee trouble, while beedrill severely cripples or kills the ghosts that force pheromosa to u-turn out. Without further ado, here's the team!
Teambuilding Process
We start with the core that applies tremendous offensive pressure to a ton of teams. Pheromosa and Beedrill-mega can lure and handle most grounds/ghosts for each other, paving the way for a whole world of bugspam hurt.
I originally tried av magnezone here, but quickly realized this piled up a crippling weakness to the likes of mega pinsir, mega scizor, kartana, and bisharp. I decided to try out zapdos instead, which can handle all of these AND all of the threats that zone specifically handles, at the cost of not trapping them. To make up for the precious momentum that would be lost though, I do go for a somewhat different set as you'll see later on.
It was clear that my core does not appreciate taking priority at all and doesn't abuse it either, and I also had no way to deal with stall. Tapu lele currently seems like a premier answer to both of these, and gives me a way to better way to deal with the likes of amoonguss, mega venusaur, and toxapex.
A pretty standard rule of thumb in gen 7 seems to be that when you add one tapu waifu, you should probably add another. Tapu fini excels at defogging, often given the title of the "most reliable defogger," and it isn't hard to see why with the perfect blend of speed, bulk, and typing. It can also take half the health of switch-ins for the rest of my team to prey on, and gives me a second stallbreaker.
I didn't have a rocker yet or any other form of setup aside from calm mind lele, and I also didn't have a basically obligatory ground type. I decided to add garchomp to the mix which can provides me SD, rocks, useful typing as well as a way to punish u-turns and handle some volt-turn threats such as marowak-a.
The Team
Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stealth Rock
*gasp* a focus sash?? This set may seem a little unconventional at first, but it allows me to act as an emergency check to a multitude of setup sweepers, or ice punch megagross, and this has come in handy as it is unexpected and often stops an enemy sweep/wallbreaking rampage short. It also lets me set up rocks, or go for some wallbreaking with swords dance. Earthquake and dragon claw are some nice STABS. I don't really care about bulu as my core honestly just shreds it.goodbye turn 1 ice beam pheromosas oh wait turn 1 freeze... f**k
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Nature's Madness
- Taunt
- Defog
The standard stallbreaker fini. Defog along with spectacular bulk and speed are what this is primarily here for, as the EV spread ensures that meteor mash from megagross is a 3hko after leftovers (unless they get a +1... >:( ), and that I outspeed defensive lando-t's that only add 8 EV's to speed. Nature's madness + taunt + misty terrain gives stall nightmares. I opted for scald over moonblast to hit megagross and marowak-a for more damage, and to get some burns on things that change terrain or don't touch it at all.
Pheromosa @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Poison Jab
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- High Jump Kick
Scarfomosa! Weather sweepers would normally have a field day against my team, or anything that got to +1 or even +2 in some cases, but not on this bug's watch! I'm sure we all know what phero's standard moves are for, with poison jab hitting tapus, ice beam hitting 4x weaknesses, u-turn for STAB momentum. The ev's and nature ensure that attack increases with each ko, allowing for some STAB hjk sweeps, given a little luck of course. I opted for naughty nature because a non-ash greninja water shuriken has a pretty low chance of ohko'ing from full anyway, and I get a little more cushion from priority like sucker punch.
Beedrill-Mega @ Beedrillite
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Poison Jab
- U-turn
- Drill Run
- Knock Off
Who knew that one more moveslot and a plethora of new fairies would be all that's needed to make beedrill a top anti-meta threat? The poison jab makes for a fantastic finisher that hits deceptively hard, and having the strongest u-turn in the game only makes for a highly pressuring addition to any volt-turn squad. Drill run gives the flooding of steels the finger, and knock off can demolish ghosts that phero just baited in, ohko'ing marowak-a after rocks and giving phero a lot more breathing room in a game. These two bugs combined form a potent bugspam core that can be very frustrating to take down.
Tapu Lele @ Shed Shell
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
I figured I already had some absurdly high speed on this team, so I opted for the stallbreaker lele set that gives dugtrio stall the delicious whooping it deserves. Calm mind punishes passive play and provides setup opportunities in general, psyshock hits like a meteor after psychic terrain and can shred chansey, moonblast is for a particular gem-holding, poop-eating, grinning little... erm, is a fantastic STAB. And hp fire is to turn lele into a backup scizor and ferrothorn answer that my team needs. Psychic terrain protects my core from priority and lets it fully abuse the high speed my core has.
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Roost
- Heat Wave
- Volt Switch
A quick and dirty answer to pinsir answer my team sorely needed, and a great defensive pivot that any voltturn team would greatly appreciate. With the static set, I decided to forgo defog on this as I already have fini, and opted to paralyze the threats that would give offense trouble. Discharge complements the paralysis-heavy nature of this zapdos, roost is obligatory recovery and can set up some typing mindgames to fish for paralysis, heat wave hits those 4x weaknesses against ferrothorn, kartana, and scizor, and volt switch gives some surprise momentum. EV's ripped shamelessly from the smogon page, as it fills all of the roles I needed.
Threatlist
Before it sets up, I often have to fish for paralysis. After it sets up, I'd better have sashchomp ready or I kiss my team goodbye.
I often have to resort to sacrificing fini to wear it down to ko range and then finish it off with phero, bee, or sashchomp. If it runs agility, then praying for a para or sashchomp becomes my only answer. I hear that clicking x does a pretty good job of stopping an agility sweep though.
The struggle of any team without a dragon or way to change the weather. I often have to sack something to bring in an answer.
And there you have it, my attempt at a pherobee team! The team is missing something... I feel like there's some element of glue I need. I've contemplated lando-t as it adds another pivot to complete a 4-way voltturn, but I'm unsure of where to put it. I also seem to have a weakness to some of the few fire pokemon in the meta. All recommendations are greatly appreciated, and while a selfish part of me would stubbornly prefer to keep pheromosa and beedrill on the team, I will change them out if the core simply doesn't seem effective. I see potential in this core and team, and I will ask for your help with it. Thank you for reading and even more for your hard work, rmt!
Until next time~
KuraiTenshi26
Teambuilding Process
We start with the core that applies tremendous offensive pressure to a ton of teams. Pheromosa and Beedrill-mega can lure and handle most grounds/ghosts for each other, paving the way for a whole world of bugspam hurt.
I originally tried av magnezone here, but quickly realized this piled up a crippling weakness to the likes of mega pinsir, mega scizor, kartana, and bisharp. I decided to try out zapdos instead, which can handle all of these AND all of the threats that zone specifically handles, at the cost of not trapping them. To make up for the precious momentum that would be lost though, I do go for a somewhat different set as you'll see later on.
It was clear that my core does not appreciate taking priority at all and doesn't abuse it either, and I also had no way to deal with stall. Tapu lele currently seems like a premier answer to both of these, and gives me a way to better way to deal with the likes of amoonguss, mega venusaur, and toxapex.
A pretty standard rule of thumb in gen 7 seems to be that when you add one tapu waifu, you should probably add another. Tapu fini excels at defogging, often given the title of the "most reliable defogger," and it isn't hard to see why with the perfect blend of speed, bulk, and typing. It can also take half the health of switch-ins for the rest of my team to prey on, and gives me a second stallbreaker.
I didn't have a rocker yet or any other form of setup aside from calm mind lele, and I also didn't have a basically obligatory ground type. I decided to add garchomp to the mix which can provides me SD, rocks, useful typing as well as a way to punish u-turns and handle some volt-turn threats such as marowak-a.
The Team
Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stealth Rock
*gasp* a focus sash?? This set may seem a little unconventional at first, but it allows me to act as an emergency check to a multitude of setup sweepers, or ice punch megagross, and this has come in handy as it is unexpected and often stops an enemy sweep/wallbreaking rampage short. It also lets me set up rocks, or go for some wallbreaking with swords dance. Earthquake and dragon claw are some nice STABS. I don't really care about bulu as my core honestly just shreds it.
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Nature's Madness
- Taunt
- Defog
The standard stallbreaker fini. Defog along with spectacular bulk and speed are what this is primarily here for, as the EV spread ensures that meteor mash from megagross is a 3hko after leftovers (unless they get a +1... >:( ), and that I outspeed defensive lando-t's that only add 8 EV's to speed. Nature's madness + taunt + misty terrain gives stall nightmares. I opted for scald over moonblast to hit megagross and marowak-a for more damage, and to get some burns on things that change terrain or don't touch it at all.
Pheromosa @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Poison Jab
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- High Jump Kick
Scarfomosa! Weather sweepers would normally have a field day against my team, or anything that got to +1 or even +2 in some cases, but not on this bug's watch! I'm sure we all know what phero's standard moves are for, with poison jab hitting tapus, ice beam hitting 4x weaknesses, u-turn for STAB momentum. The ev's and nature ensure that attack increases with each ko, allowing for some STAB hjk sweeps, given a little luck of course. I opted for naughty nature because a non-ash greninja water shuriken has a pretty low chance of ohko'ing from full anyway, and I get a little more cushion from priority like sucker punch.
Beedrill-Mega @ Beedrillite
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Poison Jab
- U-turn
- Drill Run
- Knock Off
Who knew that one more moveslot and a plethora of new fairies would be all that's needed to make beedrill a top anti-meta threat? The poison jab makes for a fantastic finisher that hits deceptively hard, and having the strongest u-turn in the game only makes for a highly pressuring addition to any volt-turn squad. Drill run gives the flooding of steels the finger, and knock off can demolish ghosts that phero just baited in, ohko'ing marowak-a after rocks and giving phero a lot more breathing room in a game. These two bugs combined form a potent bugspam core that can be very frustrating to take down.
Tapu Lele @ Shed Shell
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
I figured I already had some absurdly high speed on this team, so I opted for the stallbreaker lele set that gives dugtrio stall the delicious whooping it deserves. Calm mind punishes passive play and provides setup opportunities in general, psyshock hits like a meteor after psychic terrain and can shred chansey, moonblast is for a particular gem-holding, poop-eating, grinning little... erm, is a fantastic STAB. And hp fire is to turn lele into a backup scizor and ferrothorn answer that my team needs. Psychic terrain protects my core from priority and lets it fully abuse the high speed my core has.
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Roost
- Heat Wave
- Volt Switch
A quick and dirty answer to pinsir answer my team sorely needed, and a great defensive pivot that any voltturn team would greatly appreciate. With the static set, I decided to forgo defog on this as I already have fini, and opted to paralyze the threats that would give offense trouble. Discharge complements the paralysis-heavy nature of this zapdos, roost is obligatory recovery and can set up some typing mindgames to fish for paralysis, heat wave hits those 4x weaknesses against ferrothorn, kartana, and scizor, and volt switch gives some surprise momentum. EV's ripped shamelessly from the smogon page, as it fills all of the roles I needed.
Threatlist
And there you have it, my attempt at a pherobee team! The team is missing something... I feel like there's some element of glue I need. I've contemplated lando-t as it adds another pivot to complete a 4-way voltturn, but I'm unsure of where to put it. I also seem to have a weakness to some of the few fire pokemon in the meta. All recommendations are greatly appreciated, and while a selfish part of me would stubbornly prefer to keep pheromosa and beedrill on the team, I will change them out if the core simply doesn't seem effective. I see potential in this core and team, and I will ask for your help with it. Thank you for reading and even more for your hard work, rmt!
Until next time~
KuraiTenshi26
