5th Gen Rebuild

[SSJDennis]

Introduction

Hello everyone,

after I did build (with the help of Smogon community) a pretty decent team in the 4th Gen, I decided I also wanted a good one for the 5th Gen.

Again, I want a theme based team and am not a big fan of Cookie Cutter. I had the same feeling when I was playing Dual Monsters, where Dark Necrofear was my favorite card.

This time around, I will pick some other Pokémon. Mainly due that I have a feeling that some are outdated, while others lose some nasty abilities.

My old team was; http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3450094

But this time it will be slightly different.

Let us start.

Team v1

Team v2

My team does consist out of the following pokemon right now:

Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Type: Grass / Steel
Ability: Iron Barbs
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 252 HP / 202 Def / 56 SpD
-Leech Seed
-Power Whip
-Spikes
-Substitute

Spiker

With Ferrothorn I am hoping to decrease my water weakness. Plan is to Sub right away, or whenever I get a chance. Leech Seed after to start regaining my health. Spikes will give extra damage, to bad this Pokémon can't learn Roar, it would've really helped him out. Power Whip to hurt water, ground and rock types, whom think to have a nice day versus my opening.

Landorus (M) @ Choice Scarf / Choice Band / Life Orb ??
Type: Ground / Flying
Ability: Sand Force
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spe
-Earthquake
-Hammer Arm
-Hidden Power: Ice
-U-Turn / Swords Dance ??

Powerhouse

Every team needs sheer power, Landorus will provide it for my team. I'm actually not sure if I want Choice Scarf, or a Choice Band of him. I might also want to change his nature to fit his held item.

Right now I made it Hasty, so his Sp.Atk stays rather high, that way I can kill most Gliscor with a single hit. Hammer Arm to take care of the likes of Tyranitar. U-Turn will hurt Grass and Psychic types when I switch out. Earthquake for superb STAB.

Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers
Type: Ground
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
-Earthquake
-Roar
-Slack Off
-Stealth Rock

Sandstorm

Hippowdon will start up my Sandstorm. Actually, I think he does better in this team than Tyranitar, mainly because Gliscor is gone and Landorus is more offensive.

I need to keep some sort of balance, so he should do nicely. Not to sure about his EV spread and nature right now. Earthquake will provide some damage as his STAB move. Stealth Rock to provide extra damage from switching.

Roar is for more spike damage. Slack Off to regain my health. He is the main factor in my team, seeing he IS the Sandstorm.

Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Type: Fire / Steel
Ability: Flash Fire
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 6 SpA ??
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power: Grass / Electric / Water ??
-Lava Plume
-Roar

Special Wall

I actually think I want to use the Torment version of Heatran, anyone thinks that will work in this team? I have a big Starmie/Rotom-W weakness, but Torment will surely help. I lost Stealth Rock, gave it to Hippowdon, seeing Ice Fang won't help me as much, as I hoped. Hidden Power: Grass can help me a bit against Water types. Maybe replace it with Electric?

Thoughts about an other set to use?

Jellicent (F) @ Leftovers
Type: Water / Ghost
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
-Night Shade
-Recover
-Scald
-Taunt

Spinblocker

Becaue of Spikes and Stealth Rock, I really want someone to keep the Spikes and Rocks up. I used to have the superb Rotom-W for this, but his type changed (unfortunatly).

I still am rather weak to water, but this thing will help out. I absorb water and spam Energy Ball for super effective damage. Even Swampert and the likes won't like this.

Hydro Pump for the much needed power. Scald could do nicely, but I think I need the raw power. Wll-o-Wisp to hurt enemies on the switch, might replace with Toxic.

Pain Split to keep my own HP up, while also lowering that of my opponent. I think I like this better than Recover. Again, somoene should look after my EV spread.

Excadrill (M) @ Air Balloon
Type: Ground / Steel
Ability: Sand Rush
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spe
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Swords Dance
-X-Scissors

Sweeper

Every team with Sandstorm needs Excadrill more or less. Yet, I am willing to replace him. Though his speed in a storm is superb and his attack power after a Swords Dance is even worse.

Earthquake for STAB. Stone Edge to hit things that don't mind Earthquake. Rapid Spin to clear other Spikes/Stealth Rock. I could go for a last attack move, maybe Brick Break for annoying Blissey/other Excadrill?

Weaknesses

I did fill in a chart and now its like this;

As you see, I am really weak against a Rain Dance team. Thunder and Hydro Pump will obliberate me. Fire, Grass and Fighting moves are also bad to take, but they will hurt me a less than Water/Electric.

Like mentioned before, Starmie, Rotom-W and the likes are my worst enemies. Probably a Flygon with Thunderpunch, or Gyarados are also bad news.

I maybe need a Electric move on one or multiply of my pokemon. Maybe also some more Fire. You could offcourse always help me out on this.

In the mean time I will look through other topics, to see what other trainers did with their pokemon. It was a big help on the 4th Gen, hoping to receive much input here aswell :)

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jirachee]

Hey there,

Pretty solid team you have. However, like a lot of sand teams, you are defenseless against Rain. Thundurus and Rotom-W will have no problem spamming Thunder, HP Ice and Hydro Pump around your team. Rotom-W is the biggest problem here. It can hit your whole team for Super Effective damage, and this, only with its STAB moves. The change you have to do is swapping Skarmory for Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn can be a pretty good Spiker, and it stops most Rain teams pretty easily in their tracks. It beats most Water types too, which is something you need. Here is what you should use :

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers / Relaxed / Iron Barbs / 252 HP - 252 Def - 4 SpD
Power Whip - Gyro Ball - Leech Seed -Spikes/Stealth Rock

Another thing you should be aware of is that you can't handle Gliscor. You simply can't. Jellicent and Hippowdon are the only thing that can beat it, while Hippowdon can't OHKO it. This is really not a good situation to have if you want to win, since Gliscor is top 10. You should start by giving Hidden Power Ice to Landorus. It has pretty good Special Attack, and HP Ice allows it to OHKO careless Gliscor that think they can wall you all day and night.

Hippowdon should be Careful natured, since Calm lowers Attack
Surf is superior than Hydro Pump on Jellicent, since Jelly is weak, it will end up wasting its PP.
Excadrill can't learn Stone Edge. It learns Rock Slide though.

 

[XcRunner]

rock slide and x-scissor is better for coverage on Excadrill instead of rapid spin and stone edge since he can't learn stone edge.
Landorus seems good, but I'd recommend changing it's set to this:
Landorus@leftovers
jolly
-knock down
-earthquake
-swords dance
-substitute
252 spe/252 att/4 hp
simply sub, knock down any flyer, then spam eq's and sd if u ever get the chance

 

[SSJDennis]

I made a small update.

Gave Landorus an other nature, so HP Ice will be stronger, so it should kill Gliscor with a single hit? I'm not good with damage calculations, but it should be OK.

Landorus with Knock Down seems good, but I still need that HP Ice, how useful it U-Turn anyway? I might go with Swords Dance and three attacks. But still Hammer Arm stays in effect, HP Ice also hits everything that doesn't like Knock Down/Stone Edge, isn't it?

I lost my Steel Bird, now its a giant ball, lol. Can it learn Rapid Spin? Do I even want Rapid Spin? Toxic also seems sexy on it, but I believe less status move are used nowadays?

In Gen 2 it was a big hype, but I guess its more offensive based nowadays?

I still need some help with Heatran, which seems rather "weak" to me. I also want to give Terrakion a try, but no clue how to switch out for it...

Your thoughts? Thank for the help received already :) It was really helpful as you can see.

 

[Rofellos]

I think heatran should get hp ice and lava plume. Coverage for dragons and lava plume just because lol

edit: no energy ball on jellicent!

 

[Atimix]

your weakness chart is pretty bad. i'd either switch up some pokemon by adding someone who can resist that or alter the move pool around.

 

[Giorgosss]

Very good team here are what i think you can change:
You can run a Rest+ Sleep talk Heatran.I think it will give heatran longer life in the game.
Also Lava plume over Fire blast because you will need the Accuracy and a better burn rate than more power cause you run a Sp.D set.
For Landorus you can run a Scarf set and use it as a revenge killer and a very good counter to Thundurus which in rain is a very big threat in your team
Landorus@ Choise Scarf
Hasty 252 Atk/4Sp.A/252Spe
Earthquake
Stone edge(For thundurus)
HP Ice
U-turn
I hope i have helped you :D

 

[SSJDennis]

I agree that I have a large weakness against Water and Fightning. To be honest, I feel like I should get rid of Heatran... He does worst in the Sandstorm, because Excadrill and Landorus are real powerhouses.

Any idea of another Sp.Wall or even a Sp.Attacker? I was considering Magnezone, but he is also not fond of Fire, without Heatran that could be a smal problem.

Maybe Quagsire? Swampert? Even Rotom-W or Rotom-H could do nicely I guess. Opinions?