I Set My Friends On Fire

[iShedinja]

Hello people of Smogon, I bring you Team I Set My Friends On Fire! (ismfof) *Please excuse my horrible grammar and spelling as english isn't my first language.

Team History and some notes.

Team ismfof originated while listening to my favorite band, I set my friends on fire. I was playing around on my alt shoddy account with some heavy offense teams until I saw a dramatically increasing amount of semi stall and full stall. Obviously, I got my ass raped by them and was forced to make a new team. I have tried semi stall / stall before, and found it quite boring. After struggling through deciding which team to build, I decided to make a team that consists of bulky offensive pokemon that can try to break semi stall. This is how team ismfof was made.

This team is not done. And you could probably see that there is some issues in it. I'm hoping to stick with this team until there is some change in the meta game. I don't really care if people copy this team, as they probably would do it even if I didn't mention it. This team didn't peak very high, just a mere CRE of 1389.





At the glance

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 80 HP/252 Atk/176 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Thunder Wave
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Head



Jirachi has to be one of my all time favorite leads. It is probably tied with metagross on my fav list. It is one of the top ten leads, and rightfully so.
I have been using this set for months now, and still love it. It is both unpredictable and effective. All in all, it is a fantastic lead with some cool typing.

These attacks are stolen from the analysis. Well, most of them. I combined a Para flinch serene grace abuser with a stealth rocker. This guy is amazing, I once flinched Magnezone to death with this guy <3. Stealth rocks are just a generally good move to have on a lead. Iron head is my main attack, with a 60% chance of flinching, it is worth wild. It does about >40% to a standard azelf. Which is enough to 2hko.

Summery

Azelf: Iron head on either Trick or taunt. It is normally my first move as it 2hko's this guy. If he does trick, I switch to flygon, u-turn back to jirachi and set up rocks. A Scarf on it is actually useful late game
Metagross: Set up rocks, thunder wave. If it is lum berry gross, I should live the earthquake and thunder wave again. I flinch it to death, if I die.. I go to flygon and eq or u-turn depending on the remaining health.
Swampert: Ass holes. I just set up rocks, bring it to a good 75% health with iron head, go to Starmie, Hydro pump, and then rapid spin if he still lives.
Aerodactyl: Easy shit. Iron head for the win!
Jirachi: Flygon. It takes trick and Thunder wave.
Infernape: Starmie, hydro pump then rapid spin. Or wait for him to switch if he does.
Roserade: Iron head normally gets these. If not, starmie.
Heatran: I set up rocks, thunder wave if possible. If I die before that happens, Starmie KOs with hydro pump.
Smeargle: Iron head.
Hippowdon: BITCH. Rocks, Iron head, die, starmie

As you can see, Starmie and Jirachi are both of my leads in a way.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 96 HP/132 Atk/96 Def/184 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Taunt
- Bounce

Gyarados is my power house pokemon. After a Dragon dance, he reaches sky high attack, not to mention his speed. He has incredable typing and is one of the best Scizor counters Game Freak has to offer. He has made a solid addition to Team ismfof and always does what he has to do. I have swept numerous teams with this guy, so beware.

As Sprinkles once said " Only ~20% people use a Jolly Gyarados" I'm one of the 20%. After a Dragon dance, even a Jolteon is to slow for me. I basically took the bulky gyarados from the analysis and pimped it to my likings. With the speed EVs and nature, I reach a stat of 268. After a Dragon dance, I can out speed jolteon and starmie. Thjs guy is amazing when it comes to creating holes in the opponents team. Taunt is used to shut down the opponent from using status moves on me. The attack EVs bring me to a 319 attack stat. Which gives me some much needed KOs.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP/146 Def/216 Spd/12 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump

Starmie is probably the only spinner usable on offensive teams. With his fantastic special move pool, you shouldn't be surprised if this guy swept you. He makes a solid addition to any team, so if your looking for a rapid spinner.. Consider Starmie! He has the all so awesome water typing, which is complimented with a base 100 sp.atk and 115 speed stat.

This is actually taken from the analysis. I gave it 12 extra sp.atk EVs because I found my self losing a battle because the opponent lived with ~5% left. I don't want this to happen again. I then decided to take the EVs out of defense for more power. The attacks are mainly for coverage. Ice beam is to kill Gliscor, which give this team problems. Grass knot is for the common Swampert leads, whom destroy my Jirachi. Hydro pump, hydro pump, hydro pump. This attack is used so I can do the most damage possible to Rotom-A, which just like gliscor, give this team problems. Spinning away rocks isn't that much of a priority, but it is greatly appriciated.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Scizor isn't on 33% of teams because it is pretty ugly. No, no, no. It is one of the games best revenge killers. It can even kill those damned big ubers! He has a solid base 130 attack stat. Which is complimented with a base 100 def. Scizor is a true attacking force and you should always have one counter on any team.

Seriously, not much to say here. Scizor's main job to soften up the opposing team with Flygon. He is my main Blissey check, and he does a good job at it. Blissey, causes this team some slight issues. So yeah. Super power nails anything that doesn't resist it, Bullet punch is used for some priority and to kill some weakened fast pokemons. U-turn is for some scouting. Flygon and him are my scouter's. They both do a lovely job at it. His fantastic typing helps this team so, so much. Again, he is some what the glue to this team with his ridiculous typing.

Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 60 Atk/196 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Hidden Power Ice
- Fire Blast
- Close Combat
- Grass Knot

Infernape is a fast and powerful sweeper. He is the one who gave me the burning passion to set my friends on fire (pun intended)
Anyways, with his fast 108 base speed, only so much can out speed the chunky monkey. He compliments that speed stat with a base 104 atk and sp.atk stat. Infernape is a true mixed sweeper, and is a good example of a pokemon that can sweep through an entire team. If you look at the attacks on it, you can see amazing coverage.

Infernape's job is to sweep through the entire team, or severely own it. I normally use him once pokemon faster than him are taken cared by Flygon and Scizor. He can seriously cause trouble to the opponent.
I had a mixmence here at a time, but I just fell in love in this thing. And besides, mixmence is just to damn fragile e__e.

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Outrage
- Earthquake

He is what I like to call, the gate keeper. Without him, the entire team will get attacked by some giant bolts of lightning. He resists the popular thunder bolt and Thunder wave. Wave especially, can cripple every single mon I got. If he dies early, hopefully taunt gyarados can shut down statusers (I'M LOOKING AT YOU CELEBI BITCH.) Flygon has a respectable base 100 spe / atk stat. He is my main U-turner and my main check for Latias, whom can completely dominate this team. I was considering a Latias over him, but resistance to electricity made me resist the change =P

I normally switch him on a rotom-A and stone edge em to death. If they some how survive, I go to starmie for the kill. Scarfed ones are easier to kill as I can easily go to scizor on a shadow ball and pursuit. I sort of learned that if an opponent has a rotom-a, they are likely to not have a magnezone. The attacks and everything is all the normal Flygon. Outrage is an impressive attack that even gets me some wins late game, when all the pokemon are weakened. Earthquake is the secondary STAB attack that lets me kill weakened metagross, tyranitar, and Scizor (if I survive the BP, and normally I do)



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Conclusion

I hope to have a lot of fun with this team, as I put all the pokemon that I actually know how to use in it. Normally I use teams for a few hours and trash them, I hope that is not the case with this team. I put extra time into making this thread so I can get some good rates, and because I have a lot of faith in this team.

The good thing about this team is that it resists the common status moves bar sleep powder, which starmie can take respectively.





Changes being made:
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[iShedinja]

Stolen from Jabba's rmt

Defensive Threats:

Blissey - Scizor

Bronzong - Infernape can handle him

Celebi - Scizor

Cresselia - Scizor, lol. Flygon can u-turn on it as well

Forretress - Infernape, Starmie to an extent.

Gliscor - Starmie really is my only way

Gyarados - Starmie can live anything this guy has after a DD and counter back with t-bolt.

Hippowdon - Starmie, infernape

Jirachi - I normally just see what type of jirachi it is first, but infernape handles them well.

Rotom-A - Flygon can take the electric atk and hit this thing with stone edge

Skarmory - Ape, starmie

Snorlax - Scizor, infernape.

Suicune - Go to starmie and t-bolt it to death. These guys are extremely annoying.

Swampert - Infernape with the grass knot, starmie handles em to.

Tyranitar - Gyarados, Infernape, Flygon, Jirachi..

Vaporeon - These things are a bitch. Gyarados can taunt it, and scizor can 2hko with super power

Zapdos - Making it switch around is my only way of taking it down, when it is weakened enough.. Flygon and infernape can kill it
Offensive Threats:

Azelf - Noone really uses these guys late game, jirachi handles the lead well

Breloom -Infernape, scizor, starmie, flygon. It normally takes one of these to sacrifice though.

Gengar - Starmie and Scizor

Gyarados - Starmie

Heatran - Starmie, Flygon.

Infernape - Flygon, Starmie

Jolteon - Flygon

Latias - Scizor, Flygon

Kingdra - Rain dance ones are a pain. Normal ones are handled well by Gyarados, w/ intimidate and taunt.

Lucario - Scizor, Flygon to an extent. These guys are a nuisense.

Machamp - Lol, rarely see these. Starmie can hydro pump it, and Infernape's Fire blast does a lot of damage

Magnezone - Flygon, infernape

Mamoswine - Scizor and Infernape.

Metagross - Infernape handles banded ones, agility gross are a pain.

Salamence - Scizor, Flygon can handle him if I outspeed after a DD.

Scizor - Gyarados

Starmie - Scizor

Tyranitar - See defensive varient

Zapdos - I switch around so it can lose some damage with rocks. Then Flygon can kill it once it is weakened enough

 

[les gets]

Hey what's up

Not a bad team at all, I don't have much time to do a big rate so I'll just point out a few things. It looks like Jolteon with Hidden Power Ice could give your team a bit a bit of grief; Jirachi, Starmie, Scizor, and Infernape are all OHKOed with little effort, and even with a DD, waterfall fails to OHKO jolteon with Stealth Rock not on the field. Also, while not that common in OU, Lanturn wreaks havoc on your team. A +2 Grass knot doesn't even come close to a 2HKO and Superpower can't 2HKO most of the time with no stealth rock down. I would go ahead and give Gyarados max speed and attack as well as earthquake and ice fang / stone edge over taunt and bounce, as the extra power is really helpful on an offensive team like this (and fixes those small problem mons I mentioned eariler). Same thing goes for Starmie; I think maxing your Special Attack and Speed is really nice to have, especially against those semi-stall and full-stall teams that you say you keep seeing. Having max Special Attack 2HKOes the standard defensive Rotom-a as well swampert which gets in the way Gyarados, Flygon, and, as you mentioned in the op, Jirachi.

Might add more later, gl

 

[iShedinja]

Thanks for the rate, I won't hesitate to test those changes.

Though, I'd like to see what other people have to say before I do test them.

As for Ice fang and stone edge on gyarados..

I need at least one taunter, and besides.. Ice fang is a crappy attack. I find bounce to be more effective on gyara.

 

[Lady Shinki]

I like this team a lot :)

I think a few small things could be changed to work better for this team:

Your Lead Jirachi set is great but is pretty much an autoloss vs. swampert, metagross, and heatran leads. Infernape fills the niche of wallbreaking pretty well but I think your team doesn't really need it. In my opinion you need a solid answer to swampert in particular, and one of the best versatile answers to swampert is celebi!

Celebi @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
Modest
224 HP/248 SpAtk/36 Spe
Thunder Wave
Leaf Storm
HP Fire
Rest

You can easily scare off Swampert and choose to paralyze or fire off a leaf storm. HP Fire will 2hko the lead steels, and catching heatran with paralysis will greatly reduce its effectiveness: on top of everything else, celebi's defensive synergy with gyarados is amazing, and it gives gyara opportunities for safe switch-ins on enemies like Scizor and ttar.

For Gyarados, if your primary objective is just to outspeed Jolteon after 1 DD, go with 252 Atk/88 Def/168 Spe. Defense gives him a bit more bulk, but he really needs max attack to be better able to deal damage to his counters, especially with only water/flying stabs to work with. You can obviously make it more bulky if you want, but go with 168 speed EVs to hit that speed mark.

If you're going to use bulky starmie, I think you should run Recover over either tbolt or ice beam depending on what you have an easier time dealing with, but I think an offensive starmie works better for your team. 252 spe/spatk/4 HP, tbolt/ice beam/hydro pump/recover fits your team well and lets you tie vs. another starmie (frankly, it sucks to lose to a starmie) and also helps you better deal with suicune.

Scizor is bog standard but works, scizor/flygon work great together as well.

 

[iShedinja]

That is one odd celebi set. Though, Swampert isn't the biggest problem. I like the Gyarados EVs, I'll be sure to try them out. Also, the starmie suggestion is appealing to me.

Thanks again for the rate! :)

 

[iShedinja]

I'm sorry to double post.



Hello people, I'm highly considering removing Nasty plot in Infernape for HP ice. I found that I rarely ever get the time to set up, with things like scarfed latias walking around.

What are your views on this, and should I even keep infernape?
(Celebi was a cool suggestion, but rest just slowed down the tempo, also it just plain didn't work for me.)

Zapdos and crocune especially are giving me a lot of headaches, I would like suggestions on how to easily counter them.

Also, how would changing My lead to a Gliscor, and changing Flygon for something? I am considering that due to the amount of TTar / Metagross leads out there.


Thanks!

 

[Lady Shinki]

That is one odd celebi set. Though, Swampert isn't the biggest problem. I like the Gyarados EVs, I'll be sure to try them out. Also, the starmie suggestion is appealing to me.

Thanks again for the rate! :)

I stole it from smogon's analysis and altered the EVs to make up for the stat loss from using HP Fire. Recover might work better, but it's a big change in playstyle and wasn't a good suggestion on my part because it didn't suit the team.

If you want a way to deal with leadtar and metagross, I think you should try the anti-lead dragonite set: it's bulky enough to take hits and powerful enough to 2hko them with earthquake/fire blast. Plus it's got the combo of draco meteor+extremespeed to deal with faster leads and bulkier physical leads...it will still beat swampert that tries to set up rocks on you first too.

Dragonite @ Life Orb
252 Atk/252 SpAtk/4 Spe
Quiet / Inner Focus

Draco Meteor
Extremespeed
Fire Blast
Earthquake

Your lead jirachi set doesn't have to be changed at all, only the position needs to be changed since it's a great defensive switch for nite and they cover each other pretty well (I think you should replace scizor since flygon's ground immunity is too useful to this team to give up).

Beating zapdos is difficult, you can really only force it to run and use rocks to weaken it as it switches in. You could run stone edge over bounce on gyara to cover zapdos, and the coverage from it is pretty good, but then you lose your check to celebi. Crocune will get destroyed by taunt and trick more than anything else, it'll get worn down if it can be kept from resting and setting up. You could also try running a scarfed Rotom appliance over flygon for that purpose so that you can keep your ground immunity and gain some switch opportunities: it'll also help you to deal with vappy and still works as a great trick receiver.

 

[iShedinja]

Thanks again for the suggestion, though I actually love scizor on this team. I actually changed his set to the SD set, and I'm currently testing it out. So far so good. Dragonite a fantastic anti-lead, but I'd rather not waste a spot for it. I normally do find ways to work around zapdos. Usually threatening it with Flygon and weakening it with Infernape. I can usually kill it with scizor after a SD with quick attack. Vaporeon is still a major nuisance to this team. Once Gyarados is down, it is incredible difficult to take down. I'm currently considering changing Infernape. It may be the focus on the team, but it is my weakest link, for sure. I found that it really doesn't do much. I'm actually not sure what to change mixape to, probably a rotom-a, I don't know yet. Also, my lack of a phazer is somewhat troublesome. People with those baton passing chains just screw me over if I can't taunt it with Gyarados in time, and normally I don't.

 

[Enygma]

i cant see any glaring weaknesses, so i will just skip to the threats list :]

you say zapdos is a threat, but iirc your flygon threatens it. if you think zapdos is a serious threat, why not opt for CM Latias? or Tyranitar?

Seeing that you also have a problem with Lucario, why not opt for Gliscor as your lead? Or you can always get Rotom-H. Rotom-H can also help your Zapdos weakness, and can OHKO Lucario with Overheat.

You also say that this team is an offensive team, meaning that you probably wont have much time to spin away hazards, so you can always put Rotom over Starmie.

looking deeper into this team reveals that you are somewhat stall weak, with only gyara to phaze. but on most stall teams, you will see rotom that can deal heavily against gyara. This is why you might want to consider maybe something to threaten stall. the only thing viable is either tyraniboah or gliscor.

tyraniboah can go over Gyarados while gliscor can go over jirachi. with tyraniboah, you can fare much better against zapdos. with gliscor, you have something against lucario. so choosing one has its pros and cons.

So this what the team I suggested looks so far:
Gliscor/Jirachi, Tyranitar, Rotom, Scizor, Infernape, Flygon/Latias
Gliscor deals with stall as well as Lucario. But you already have Rotom to deal with Luke.
Tyranitar also deals with stall (Tyraniboah), and can deal with Zapdos.
Rotom is your second Lucario check.
You can opt for CM Latias to help with Zapdos as well.


hope i helped.

 

[iShedinja]

I loved using Tyraniboah back in the day, and I may just use it again. I know that I'm stall weak as things like umbreon just seemed to toxic stall me out. As for Zapdos, I'll be removing it from the list. I found ways of countering it. Mainly by using Flygon to threaten it, causing him to switch out. I like your suggestions, I'm guessing the Scarfed Rotom-h? I'll test them out, and starmie had rapid spin because this team had a bunch of switching going on.

Thanks!

 

[XxJohny2haixX]

Hi, got your VM <3

Well first off you have no glaring weakness'. However, it looks like Scizor does provide this team a slight problem, since your only practical counter / check would by Gyarados whom loses 25% per switch in. I do realize that you have a spinner, however dispite that, your Gyarados lacks recovery.

Threat​

@Choice Band
Adamant : Tech-
EV: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
~Bullet Punch
~U-Turn
~Superpower
~Pursuit / Quick Attack​

The reason as explained before is that your only practical swotch in to him is Gyarados, whom lacks a way to increase health other then leftovers, even then in SS it is canceled out. He can also easily revenge Starmie provided it's the bulky spread, and can come into resisted attacks. Such as Flygon's Outrage, and Jirachi's Iron Head. Therefore, without changing any of the pokes on the team I suggest the following set for Gyarados:

Remedy

@Leftovers
Impish : Intimadate
EV: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
~Rest
~Sleep Talk
~Waterfall
~Roar / Dragon Dance​

This set functions very well with spin support, and with a added effect adds further protection against Lucario whom also troubles you. Rest and Sleep Talk are obvious. Waterfall is for STAB, Roar and Dragon Dance and either work. Roar allows you to have a easier time with CroCune and roaring it out. Dragon Dance allows you to still have a offensive "threat". Your choice.​

I also find your Infernape set to be hard to set up, therefore I would recommend you to switch to the Speical-MixApe.

Hope that helped <3
Good luck​

 

[iShedinja]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I actually took illminded's advice. Using his changes, I was able to achieve more wins. I will make the change on infernape, as I never get the chance to get a nasty plot up. Thanks for the input though =)