Rate my horrible team!

[Ugly Man]

Good morning Smogon. First post, and so forth.

I haven't really battled people since the grand old days, when I was eleven, and Red and Blue took over the lives of all of my friends. Of course, in those days getting a Dragonite with Hyper Beam was the shizzle, backed up by an Alakazam or three. I managed to get all 151 back then, before some bastard swapped my cartridge for theirs. They had eleven caught, and one badge. But, you don't care :)

I want in. The more Warstories I read, the better Pokemon seems to get, from a competitive standpoint. I went onto Shoddy last night, put together a team by grabbing things more-or-less at random and doing what Smogon told me to. I made several dumb-ass mistakes (switching things in, expecting them to outspeed the opponent, just to watch them die). I still came out with about a 50% win rate, from 20-odd battles. I then demolished a friend of mine several times, but that doesn't count. He's crap.

Lead:

Tin Chicken - Skarmory
Impish, Sturdy
Leftovers
252 HP, 252 DEF, 4 ATT

- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Drill Peck
- Whirlwind

When I first started reading this place a couple of years ago these things were everywhere. Don't hear about them much anymore, for some reason, and I don't know why. In almost every match, it would get the rocks up and usually a layer of spikes to boot. However, an opposing lead of one of the three elfs (I can never remember which one is which), or a Jirachi, is a bad thing. Also serves as a fix for most sorts of dancing dragon with whirlwind, provided they aren't packing flamethrower.

Tiny Ninja - Weavile
Jolly, Pressure
Choice Band
252 ATT, 252 SPE, 4 HP

- Night Slash
- Brick Break
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit

My favourite Pokemon, and the only one that will never be replaced by me. Cause I love it. Fast as buggery and hitting like a truck full of fat people, Weavile can revenge kill plenty, Brick Break takes out a large amount of Blissey (If not a OHKO, must check that) and also breaks Tyrannitar. Great for getting rid of ghosts with Night Slash too. Pursuit doesn't get as much use as I thought it would - no one seems to expect the thing to kill them, and they don't switch out. Hilariously fragile, and if I can't think of a use for him he usually Night Slashes someone for massive damage and gets beaten down horribly.

TwoSpoons - Alakazam
Modest, Synchronize
Choice Scarf
252 SpA, 252 SPE, 4 SpD

- Energy Ball
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power (electric)
- Psychic

I couldn't not have one, with the amount of ass the thing kicked back in my day. He is, unfortunately for him, not the Lord of Everything like he used to be. Still pretty awesome though. Moves were chosen for a good amount of type coverage, although Energy Ball and HP Electric might be overkill. HP Electric is the only thing I have to deal with a Gyarados, however. I also have a strong hatred of Focus Blast - 70% my ass.

FunkyTown - Gyarados
Jolly, Intimidate
Life Orb
252 ATT, 252 SPE, 4 HP

- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Waterfall

I have not had a match yet where this guy hasn't killed *someone*. The amount of times I got to Dance away in front of a Stealth Rocking Swampert was hilarious. He isn't there to kill anyone in particular - get a Dance off with a switch in to a Surf or an Earthquake and watch him murder something. I think Life Orb has killed him more often than the enemy.

Tinkerbell - Blissey
Calm, Natural Cure
Leftovers
252 DEF, 80 SpA, 172 SpD

- Wish
- Protect
- Flamethrower
- Toxic

Walls. Walls hard with Protect. While poisoning you. Flamethrower kills the steels who are immune to Toxic, and Wish provides some healing. With some crafty work I can get a second sweep out of Gyarados (okay, it only worked once). However, a counter-wall by someone who knows Substitute wins, and makes me look pretty silly.

MadeOfExplodium - Heatran
Rash, Flash Fire
Choice Scarf
4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 SPE

- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Explosion
- Hidden Power (Water)

I don't like this guy, however I can't think of something to replace it. No particular reason for me to hate it either, except I don't know how to use it properly. Went Kaboom on a couple of nasties to great effect last night, but for the most part it died on me over and over. Fire Blast gives some STAB, Explosion is always useful for nasty things, and HP (Water) gives me a kill on the predicted switch-in to the opponents Heatran. Having the Choice Scarf on him, however, makes him hard to use twice, and he can't even explode in the face of a counter.


Weaknesses I already know:

- Scizor eats me alive. Twice. I am far too weak to fighting moves. Only Gyarados has a good chance of killing him, and I'm fairly certain he needs a Dance under his belt to do it.

- An opposing Gyarados, for that matter. Alakazam can kill it, but if Alakazam is already dead I'mroyally screwed.

- Baton Pass teams. Only fought one, and it did horrible things to me. Things that should be illegal.

Now, I am horrible at this. I know that. So be gentle, please.

 

[Wolfie92]

The lack of skarm leads is likely due to the popularity of leads like Infernape, Heatran, and the elves. I'd recommend fitting Ice Shard over Ice Punch on Weavile to help take out scarfed Flygons or Salamence with dd boosts. I'd also recommend a sub/Hp fire gengar over Alakazam as its not completely useless against Scizor. And lastly, change Heatran's Hp to Grass to hit Swampert as you already have Earth Power for opposing Heatrans. If skarm works as a lead then fine but it might be best to find a replacement.

 

[Oddish On Fire]

Well, for starters, Scizor barely hurts your team (:

Skarmory absolutely rapes him, and if one of your pokemon dies, just switch in Heatran. Heatran's Fire Blast will destroy Scizor with ease.

On Baton Pass teams, just use Skarmory's whirlwind.

Regarding Heatran: HP Water=bad idea. Use Dragon Pulse instead. The Fire types that would be hit by HP Water will be destroyed by Earth Power.

In my opinion, using the subDD Gyarados is better in every way. You'll just be losing one attack, but you'll be gaining ridiculous Stat boosts.

On Weaville, I'd go for Life Orb over CB.

On Skarmory: The lack of roost is...just...wrong. Haha, if you really want SR and Spikes, then trade Drill Peck for Roost. Though it will be completely raped by Taunt, switching out can prevent that. You want Skar to stay alive on a team like yours.

Alakazam: Choice Scarf? Why? He's already crazy fast. Go for Life Orb, Expert Belt, or just something else. If you want a check for Stat-boosters, Skarmory can blow away boosts on Physical stat-boosters, and special stat boosters typically use Calm Mind and are easily revenge killed by Weaville.

Oh, and regarding Focus Blast. It's more like 5% Accuracy (:

Oh, and Shadow Ball > Energy Ball.

 

[tab]

While you say Weavile is your favourite...I strongly recommend that you use a Scizor instead. Weavile is sadly pretty bad at the moment, Scizor revenge kills just as well, while being able to stick around longer, as well as actually switch into attacks, and has U-turn for weakening teams.

Skarmory isn't really the best of ideas for a lead, specially based fire attacks are run on many of the most common leads. I would run Heatran as your lead, and change his set to Fire Blast, Earth Power, Stealth Rock and Explosion. Two Choice Scarfers on the same team is usually a bad idea anyway. Taking Stealth Rock on Heatran means you can take Roost on Skarmory, which is absolutely vital. Never run a defensive Skarmory without it.

I wouldn't recommend using Alakazam. Awesome as it used to be, it's actually pretty weak now, and is usually incredibly easy to take out. Instead of Alakazam, I would run a Latias with a moveset of Trick, Draco Meteor, Thunderbolt and Surf. This revenge kills the same things as Alakazam, but has better offensive STAB with Draco Meteor and is better at doing damage outside of revenge killing. Latias also gives you a reliable defensive check against many top threats.

I don't like Blissey on this team. Playing with your resistences means you can check most special threats anyway, so Blissey ends up being nothing more than a way to throw away the momentum you've gained up to that point. I would try a Suicune with Calm Mind, Surf, Rest and Sleep Talk instead, which gives you an lategame threat as well as something to sponge attacks in Blissey's place.

Good luck.

 

[Oddish On Fire]

What Tab said, I completely agree with.