Okay, so we have 3 Pokemon slots left and we still need to try and fit in the following:
- Stealth Rock
- a Choice Scarfer
- preferably 2 Steels
- a Sun check
- a Rain offense check (this is v important at this stage since we are weak to nearly all the rain sweepers!)
I really want to nom SDef Zapdos because it absolutely dicks on rain, but looking at the list of stuff we still need to check I think we'd be leaving ourselves with far to much to fit in the remaining 2 teamslots. This is especially the case given that we'd need to add a spinner to that list too if we use Zapdos. The same is largely true of Rotom-W in that we'd still need a scarfer, at least 1 steel, a sun check, and stealth rock in the last 2 slots.
I'll nominate something in a bit, I'm just trying to plan this out in advance so we aren't leaving ourselves with too much to beat later. Honestly the best option seems to be adding SDef Rotom-W now and then adding some kind of Heatran next round, leaving us with a free slot for a scarfer to patch-up the weaknesses to physical dragons etc. CBTar / SubPass Glisc / CM Keldeo / SDef Rotom-W / Shed Shell SR Heatran / Scarf Jirachi looks okay in my head bar the nasty Garchomp weakness, but I'll think it over for a bit. Another route we could go down is Bronzong / Skarm in slot 4 (preferably with SDef spreads so they can take on Torn-T decently) and then having Latias as our back-up water resist and Sun check, then round the team off with a scarfer like Genesect, Terrakion, Jirachi etc.
Sorry just gonna plan this through some more
Sun Offense:
Latias and Heatran are arguably the best additions to help deal with this. We do have Tyranitar who can checkmate a weakened Ninetales with Pursuit and I see a lot of Ninetales running Toxic > Will-O there too so Tyranitar is decent vs those variants. Obviously still need to be careful about Dugtrio with Tyranitar. If we go with Rotom-W here then some kind of Shed Shell Heatran w/ Stealth Rock is likely our best option for the next slot. If we go with some specially defensive steel like Bronzong / Skarmory (or Jirachi I guess but then we still lose to Torn-T + Duggy and Chomp is a bigger issue) then something like Calm Mind or LO Latias fits in nicely to handle Venusaur.
Rain Offense:
SDef Rotom-W obviously checks this pretty nicely. Its an excellent Torn-T check, burns Ferrothorn and just annoys everything else with STAB Volt Switch. The other option would be to use SDef Skarmory / Bronzong as our Torn-T check, and then having Latias who patches up our weakness to opposing Keldeo and checks Thundurus-T. This pathway is a bit more messy than the Rotom-W one since if Torn-t U-Turns out of our steel as we switch in then they have a bunch of options to go to that Skarmory can't really do anything to. However as long as we get Stealth Rock down relatively early and make the most of the few chances we have to get sand up, rain offense is still handleable if we go with SDef Steel + Latias.
Sand Offense 1:
We already match-up pretty well against this. Keldeo runs through it if we can trap Latias and Gliscor gets lots of opportunities to SubPass against their Hippowdon or choice-locked Magnezone. Rotom-W is still nice here since its an excellent Mamoswine check and also annoys the team a lot if we trap and KO Latias. The SDef Steel + Latias route is still nice, as Bronzong is still a hard Mamoswine counter even with a more specially defensive EV spread although Skarmory struggles a bit more.
Sand Offense 2:
Trap Latios and go to town with Keldeo? We are CB and Rock Gem Terrakion weak no matter what we add at this point, I think we are better off just making sure we at least have something to switch-in on a Stone Edge (i.e. Bronzong) and we have Gliscor to take Close Combats, so we can at least play around it with prediction which is the best you can really do anyway lol. RP Landorus is annoying but again, Bronzong is an excellent counter. Rotom-W isn't as good in this match-up as Bronzong would be, but its still not a bad match-up by any means if we do choose the washing machine.
DragMag:
Nghhh I really want Hidden Power [Ice] Keldeo so that it can actually do something in this match-up! Rotom-W is okay here since it can check Mamoswine and Starmie but ultimately it loses to all the dragons. Earthquake Bronzong can come close to an OHKO on Magnezone whilst its only getting 2HKOd by Specs in return, but still isn't that good an answer to haxorus because of Mold Breaker Earthquake. Shed Shell Skarmory would be cool but without Leftovers or physical defensive investment it ultimately can't ward off all these massive physical threats.
Heavy Offense:
These teams vary far too much to even comment on our match-up against them atm. Ultimately these games will be won and lost depending on how the team is played and what scarfer we choose imo.
Baton Pass:
CBTar is decent here. Taunt Gliscor is also pretty rare so can mess them up and get off free SubPasses. We basically just have to take advantage with Taunt Gliscor early and don't let go of the momentum we gain from that.
edit: Yeah, okay I'm nominating
Bronzong.
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SDef
IVs: 2 Spd
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball / Toxic
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Toxic
- Earthquake / Toxic
EV spread is pretty open at the moment, I'll do some calcs and talk to some people to see if they have anything better than this. Pretty much everything you need to know about why Bronzong is decent for this team is above. Its a SDef Jirachi that doesn't get donked by Dugtrio but loses out on Wish. Note that I'm pretty much nominating this on the assumption that if we choose it we'll almost have to choose some kind of Latias / Latios in the next round to patch-up the sun weakness whilst still being decent vs offensive rain.
edit 500: also can we actually have a vote on some of the specific movesets for the Pokemon we've already chosen? I'm talking specifically about changing Keldeo's Hidden Power because [Electric] doesn't really help with anything notable whereas [Ice] is pretty much necessary to stand any chance vs the omnipresent dragons. Other choices that it would be nice to solidify before we go further are if we want Taunt / Toxic on Gliscor (assuming Taunt), Jolly on Gliscor to outspeed Deo-D, and a faster Ttar so we can actually beat Jellicent.