Hello, Smogon! This is hopefully the FINAL version of Team Blitzkrieg, a team that's come a long way since its humble origins (mentioned in my following post). I've peaked at around a 1550 rating on the Standard ladder, which is decent, but far from the best.
I suppose the most interesting thing about this team is that it is a team of partnerships. With some examination, you can find that Team Blitzkrieg is composed of three hyper-offensive duos that all manage to not complement only their partners, but the other duos in the team as well.
EVs: 100 HP, 252 Atk, 152 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Stealth Rock
-Meteor Mash
-Bullet Punch
-Earthquake
This used to be a TrickScarf Metagross, but I disliked the problems I had with Aerodactyl and my Trick getting Taunted. So I switched to a standard Metagross lead carrying Bullet Punch over Trick and it's been working very well. Fragile leads that tend to Taunt me are taken out rather easily. Rocks go up 90% of the time (Infernape and Heatran are problematic) and I Explode when I can. I've done some testing with the Occa Berry, but the Lum Berry has proven to be better against lead Machamp (and the increasingly frequent lead Roserade). Earthquake has been added over Explosion simply because the non-Scarfed version of Metagross isn't fast enough to pull off decent Explosions at low health.
The tag-team lead system of Starmie and Metagross has proven to be incredibly effective, with each switching on each others weaknesses. Starmie is a solid lead against almost anything nowadays, and I can switch Metagross in on pesky things like Roserade that go for the Leaf Storm/Energy Ball against Starmie. Metagross is my Rocks Pokemon, but I don't need SR to sweep entire teams.
Gyarados@Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 SpD, 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Bounce
After some testing, Bounce has proven to be superior to Stone Edge in coverage and usefulness. Bounce is great for Spore dodging, and I've heard that you can dodge Explosion with it if you're good enough (that last point is directed mainly towards Exploding Heatran).It has been extremely useful in dealing with Breloom and Machamp, and the two turns of Leftovers recovery helps as well. But two offensive moves just weren't cutting it, and Adamant BulkyGyara is just too slow to make decent use of Taunt. Thus I swapped Taunt out for Earthquake and switched my old spread to an offensive Jolly 252/252 set.
Breloom@Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 42 HP, 252 Atk, 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Spore
-Focus Punch
-Seed Bomb
-Substitute
For the most part, it's a regular Breloom that can carry out SporePunch. I run Seed Bomb for type coverage. Many players choose to run Leech Seed, but Seed Bomb has been a life-saver in so many scenarios, especially against Pokemon like Swampert or Milotic that try to come in. I've swept multiple teams with just Breloom numerous times; he's an absolute monster in this metagame, especially with the disappearance of Latias (and the Suspect nature of Salamence).
Breloom is one of the star players of this team; I have come back from 5-2 games with a Substitute+Focus Punch sweep. He also rounds out my resistances quite nicely; he absorbs Stone Edges and Earthquakes easily and heals off excess damage with Poison Heal.
Heatran@Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Atk, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
Naive Nature
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power Ice / Grass
-Explosion
ScarfTran. Quite frankly I'm still debating Shuca Berry over the Scarf. Fire Blast is great for power, although I have lost more than one battle because it missed. Flamethrower, however, just doesn't have the raw power that Fire Blast has. Earth Power to hit other Heatrans, although this does have some trouble against Shuca variants. HP Ice because this team tends to have a hard time with Dragons and Heatran can serve as a decent revenge killer, if not a sweeper. However, in the past, HP Grass has served me extremely well, stopping enemy Swamperts that switch in. Explosion is standard. The biggest problem here is choosing Shuca Berry or Choice Scarf; while Shuca Berry lets me survive enemy Earth Powers / Earthquakes occasionally, Choice Scarf helps me get the jump on many slower threats.
Rotom-H@Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Thunderbolt
-Shadow Ball
-Will-O-Wisp
-Trick
Rotom was introduced to the team over Jolteon. He's worked beautifully. While Jolteon is a great sweeper, he's much too frail, and can be OHKOed by even non-SE physical attacks. Scarf Rotom, on the other hand, has great defenses and absolutely amazing typing, while retaining that Electric resistance. My team also had a tendency to struggle with Stall, so a TrickScarf Rotom really helps against stall teams.
However, after seeing a SubSplit Rotom at work, I've been debating with switching out TrickScarf for SubSplit. Opinions are greatly appreciated.
I suppose the most interesting thing about this team is that it is a team of partnerships. With some examination, you can find that Team Blitzkrieg is composed of three hyper-offensive duos that all manage to not complement only their partners, but the other duos in the team as well.
At a glance:
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Metagross@Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Analysis
Starmie@Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA, 4 SpD, 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Hydro Pump
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Rapid Spin
I've lost horribly to stall teams in the past, and a spinner was essential. Starmie suffers from moveslot syndrome here, as I'd like to get Recover and Grass Knot as well, but there's little I can eliminate (except maybe Thunderbolt) that wouldn't hurt me too badly. Starmie is not only a great anti-lead (and even an anti-anti lead, dealing with enemy Machamp well) but she can spin. Starmie speed ties with Azelf and can do way more damage to it with Hydro Pump than it can with Fire Blast. In addition, if I lose Starmie to an Azelf's Explosion, I'm not too worried about losing my spinner since any team leading with Azelf is probably not a Stall team to begin with.
Starmie gives my team an Ice move coming off of respectable Special Attack, something that I sorely lacked with Celebi. Even though Salamence and Latias have both moved to Ubers, Flygon and Dragonite are still big threats. While Starmie can't exactly switch in on either of them, with the right prediction, I can handle both pretty easily.
Starmie@Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA, 4 SpD, 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Hydro Pump
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Rapid Spin
I've lost horribly to stall teams in the past, and a spinner was essential. Starmie suffers from moveslot syndrome here, as I'd like to get Recover and Grass Knot as well, but there's little I can eliminate (except maybe Thunderbolt) that wouldn't hurt me too badly. Starmie is not only a great anti-lead (and even an anti-anti lead, dealing with enemy Machamp well) but she can spin. Starmie speed ties with Azelf and can do way more damage to it with Hydro Pump than it can with Fire Blast. In addition, if I lose Starmie to an Azelf's Explosion, I'm not too worried about losing my spinner since any team leading with Azelf is probably not a Stall team to begin with.
Starmie gives my team an Ice move coming off of respectable Special Attack, something that I sorely lacked with Celebi. Even though Salamence and Latias have both moved to Ubers, Flygon and Dragonite are still big threats. While Starmie can't exactly switch in on either of them, with the right prediction, I can handle both pretty easily.
Metagross@Lum Berry
EVs: 100 HP, 252 Atk, 152 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Stealth Rock
-Meteor Mash
-Bullet Punch
-Earthquake
This used to be a TrickScarf Metagross, but I disliked the problems I had with Aerodactyl and my Trick getting Taunted. So I switched to a standard Metagross lead carrying Bullet Punch over Trick and it's been working very well. Fragile leads that tend to Taunt me are taken out rather easily. Rocks go up 90% of the time (Infernape and Heatran are problematic) and I Explode when I can. I've done some testing with the Occa Berry, but the Lum Berry has proven to be better against lead Machamp (and the increasingly frequent lead Roserade). Earthquake has been added over Explosion simply because the non-Scarfed version of Metagross isn't fast enough to pull off decent Explosions at low health.
The tag-team lead system of Starmie and Metagross has proven to be incredibly effective, with each switching on each others weaknesses. Starmie is a solid lead against almost anything nowadays, and I can switch Metagross in on pesky things like Roserade that go for the Leaf Storm/Energy Ball against Starmie. Metagross is my Rocks Pokemon, but I don't need SR to sweep entire teams.
Gyarados@Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 SpD, 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Bounce
After some testing, Bounce has proven to be superior to Stone Edge in coverage and usefulness. Bounce is great for Spore dodging, and I've heard that you can dodge Explosion with it if you're good enough (that last point is directed mainly towards Exploding Heatran).It has been extremely useful in dealing with Breloom and Machamp, and the two turns of Leftovers recovery helps as well. But two offensive moves just weren't cutting it, and Adamant BulkyGyara is just too slow to make decent use of Taunt. Thus I swapped Taunt out for Earthquake and switched my old spread to an offensive Jolly 252/252 set.
Breloom@Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 42 HP, 252 Atk, 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Spore
-Focus Punch
-Seed Bomb
-Substitute
For the most part, it's a regular Breloom that can carry out SporePunch. I run Seed Bomb for type coverage. Many players choose to run Leech Seed, but Seed Bomb has been a life-saver in so many scenarios, especially against Pokemon like Swampert or Milotic that try to come in. I've swept multiple teams with just Breloom numerous times; he's an absolute monster in this metagame, especially with the disappearance of Latias (and the Suspect nature of Salamence).
Breloom is one of the star players of this team; I have come back from 5-2 games with a Substitute+Focus Punch sweep. He also rounds out my resistances quite nicely; he absorbs Stone Edges and Earthquakes easily and heals off excess damage with Poison Heal.
Heatran@Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Atk, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
Naive Nature
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power Ice / Grass
-Explosion
ScarfTran. Quite frankly I'm still debating Shuca Berry over the Scarf. Fire Blast is great for power, although I have lost more than one battle because it missed. Flamethrower, however, just doesn't have the raw power that Fire Blast has. Earth Power to hit other Heatrans, although this does have some trouble against Shuca variants. HP Ice because this team tends to have a hard time with Dragons and Heatran can serve as a decent revenge killer, if not a sweeper. However, in the past, HP Grass has served me extremely well, stopping enemy Swamperts that switch in. Explosion is standard. The biggest problem here is choosing Shuca Berry or Choice Scarf; while Shuca Berry lets me survive enemy Earth Powers / Earthquakes occasionally, Choice Scarf helps me get the jump on many slower threats.
Rotom-H@Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Thunderbolt
-Shadow Ball
-Will-O-Wisp
-Trick
Rotom was introduced to the team over Jolteon. He's worked beautifully. While Jolteon is a great sweeper, he's much too frail, and can be OHKOed by even non-SE physical attacks. Scarf Rotom, on the other hand, has great defenses and absolutely amazing typing, while retaining that Electric resistance. My team also had a tendency to struggle with Stall, so a TrickScarf Rotom really helps against stall teams.
However, after seeing a SubSplit Rotom at work, I've been debating with switching out TrickScarf for SubSplit. Opinions are greatly appreciated.
Strategy
The first step to this team is synergy. If you recall in the opening of this RMT, I said that Blitzkrieg is about three powerful duos. The first is Starmie+Metagross. Starmie is amazing against just about every lead that Metagross has trouble with (notably Infernape and Heatran) while taking out many others. Metagross switches in on anything that Starmie can't handle (most importantly Roserade).
The second duo is the powerful combo of Gyarados and Rotom. Dragon Dance Gyarados, once it sets up, is nearly impossible to stop until you bring in something faster than it. The Pokemon in the past that were able to stop DDGyara were either physical walls, such as Skarmory, or fast sweepers, like Jolteon and enemy Rotom. My own Rotom can come in on Thunderbolts from Electric-types or Brave Birds from Skarmory and strike back with the attack of his choice. With a Scarf on my Rotom, I outspeed any non-Scarfed other Rotoms, and if they're Scarfed, they're stuck on Thunderbolt anyway. Rotom is also an extremely potent offensive threat on its own, much like Gyarados.
The third and final duo is HeatLoom. While many players run a Shuca Berry on Heatran to cover its Ground weakness, I have three team members that can take Earthquakes and just keep on coming. Breloom switches in on Heatran's biggest counter - bulky waters - and sets up on them with ease. The only real threat is CroCune at this point, and even it can be dealt with with repeated Seed Bombs.
It's a very simple team in that you can just all-out sweep. Compared to teams that center around something like Swords Dance Lucario to sweep, this team has 5 attackers that can just pile on the damage. Gyarados, Breloom, and Heatran are three of the most feared Pokemon in the OU metagame.
A general game plan is to set up Rocks with Metagross and swap out to something else, or to Explode if you can. With the hyper-offensive pace that this team packs, you can force a lot of switches and rack up a lot of residual damage. The switches also give you plenty of time to set up a Dragon Dance with Gyarados, especially after Exploding and getting a free switch-in.
If one was to try to compose a general overview or purpose of the team, it would be to use incredibly deadly Pokemon that all manage to cover each other's weaknesses. Rotom has got Gyarados's back when it comes to Electric attacks, while Rotom and Gyarados both switch in on Ground-type moves that hurt Heatran. Breloom can come in on the Rock moves that hurt quite a few members of this team. Knowing your counters and prediction are key elements of this team.
The second duo is the powerful combo of Gyarados and Rotom. Dragon Dance Gyarados, once it sets up, is nearly impossible to stop until you bring in something faster than it. The Pokemon in the past that were able to stop DDGyara were either physical walls, such as Skarmory, or fast sweepers, like Jolteon and enemy Rotom. My own Rotom can come in on Thunderbolts from Electric-types or Brave Birds from Skarmory and strike back with the attack of his choice. With a Scarf on my Rotom, I outspeed any non-Scarfed other Rotoms, and if they're Scarfed, they're stuck on Thunderbolt anyway. Rotom is also an extremely potent offensive threat on its own, much like Gyarados.
The third and final duo is HeatLoom. While many players run a Shuca Berry on Heatran to cover its Ground weakness, I have three team members that can take Earthquakes and just keep on coming. Breloom switches in on Heatran's biggest counter - bulky waters - and sets up on them with ease. The only real threat is CroCune at this point, and even it can be dealt with with repeated Seed Bombs.
It's a very simple team in that you can just all-out sweep. Compared to teams that center around something like Swords Dance Lucario to sweep, this team has 5 attackers that can just pile on the damage. Gyarados, Breloom, and Heatran are three of the most feared Pokemon in the OU metagame.
A general game plan is to set up Rocks with Metagross and swap out to something else, or to Explode if you can. With the hyper-offensive pace that this team packs, you can force a lot of switches and rack up a lot of residual damage. The switches also give you plenty of time to set up a Dragon Dance with Gyarados, especially after Exploding and getting a free switch-in.
If one was to try to compose a general overview or purpose of the team, it would be to use incredibly deadly Pokemon that all manage to cover each other's weaknesses. Rotom has got Gyarados's back when it comes to Electric attacks, while Rotom and Gyarados both switch in on Ground-type moves that hurt Heatran. Breloom can come in on the Rock moves that hurt quite a few members of this team. Knowing your counters and prediction are key elements of this team.
Questions
I have two main questions at this point. One is whether I should stick with my ScarfTran, or instead switch to a standard Heatran carrying Shuca Berry. My other question is whether I should run SubSplit (or even RestTalk) on my Rotom set. No matter what, this team has performed extremely well for me in the past, and it hasn't let me down yet.