Ferrothorn Nightmare

[Pokel]

Ferrothorn Nightmare​

Introduction

This is the first team I made that was actually successful. I made it based on Ferrothorn’s 21,64% usage. It basically uses Magnezone to set up on Ferrothorn with Charge Beam and a Substitute, for at least another KO after Ferrothorn is gone. The team got me to a rating of 1338 on the PO server, which is actually really good for me. It has done quite well so far, with a good synergy, and abusing hopeless Ferrothorn never ceases to amuse me. None of the sets I use were made up by me, they're just standard sets. After all, if they work well, why not use them ?

The Team

Latios @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor

I often lead with Latios simply become he hits so hard with Draco Meteor. He’s capable of OHKOing quite a few Pokémon, and capable of 2HKOing some common leads such as Heatran. Latios is fast, and is the main hard – hitting Pokémon of my team. He also resists a few weaknesses my team has, such as Ground, Fighting and Electric. He’s a great help against Mach Punch users that annoy Excadrill. I chose HP Fire over Trick as I preferred more coverage, and it's usefull for dealing with Scizor. Latios never lets me down, and I'd say he's great on this team.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SAtk / 76 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
- Pursuit ?
- Stealth Rock

Tyranitar’s main purpose is to get Sandstorm going for Excadrill. It can also set up Stealth Rock. Ice Beam OHKOes Gliscor most of the time, which is usefull, as Gliscor is a pain. It’s Special bulk means it can often switch in on Pokémon such as Latios and KO it with Pursuit.

Gengar @ Black Sludge
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Substitute
- Disable

Gengar works well on this team, although I have considered changing it. It pairs well with Tyranitar, resisting it’s Ground, Fighting and Bug weaknesses. It makes a nice sweeper, and as it’s fast, it can often Substitute and Disable, allowing for other Pokémon such as Excadrill to set up with less trouble. I've found it can be a real pain for other people, but it's so fragile it doesn't often do much KOing. Any suggestions for a replacement ?

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

Scizor is my physical attacker. He is really awesome on this team. He counters Reuniclus, who was previously a big problem. He can also switch into Ground and Ice type moves. He definitely works great. Magnezone also helps it, as it stops Skarmory, as well as Ferrothorn or Forretress, from switching in on U-Turn as Magnezone would own them completely. I find he goes extremely well with Latios, as many Pokémon that switch in on U-Turn it are countered one of Latios’ moves.
Excadrill was replaced by Scizor.

Excadrill

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Charge Beam
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon

This is where my team gets fun. According to Pokémon Online statistics, one in five players uses a Ferrothorn. And Magnezone abuses Ferrothorn, to almost guarantee another KO after Ferrothorn is wiped out. It does this by setting up a Substitute, and then Charge Beaming to +6. With a Substitute in place, not much can resist one of it’s moves. The only problem is switching in to Ferrothorn to set up. Magnezone risks taking a Leech Seed in it face, which basically ruins it. That’s what Tentacruel is for, as you'll see below.

Ferrothorn aside, Magnezone is also a great Scizor counter, capable of outspeeding it and KOing it with Hiden Power Fire, as well as a Forretress counter.

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Scald

Tentacruel is great. It’s bulky, it burns things, it can set up deadly Toxic Spikes and absorb them, or Rapid Spin. It’s ability and typing are good against the Fighting weakness my team has. Liquid Ooze also stops Ferrothorn from using Leech Seed on Magnezone’s switch in. In my opinion, Tentacruel and Magnezone go well together in this team, as while Magnezone sets up on poor Ferrothorn, the victim will probably be setting up Spikes and Stealth Rock, which Tentacruel can Rapidly Spin away.

Problems

There are a few things my team really has trouble dealing with.

Past problems

- Reuniclus : If Reuniclus sets up Trick Room, it successfully sweeps my entire team, with a Super Effective move for every one of my Pokémon, all of which are outsped by it.
- Gliscor : The only thing on my team that can effectively counter Gliscor is Tyranitar, who is still weak to Earthquake.

- Set up Pokémon such as Haxorus : Excadrill can’t OHKO Haxorus, and if it uses Dragon Dance, I get swept. Perhaps I lack at good wall.


Thankyou for taking the time to read this, and please don’t hesitate to make suggestions :)

 

[Shining_Latios]

You have 3 Pokemon weak to Ground.

I think changing Ttar to Hippowdon is better.

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SpA)
- Ice Fang
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Stealth Rock

You are still able to set up Sandstorm, Steath Rock, threaten Latios with Crunch, while taking away the huge ground weakness. You will be able to handle Gliscor much easier as well.

As for Gengar, you could change him to Dusnoir.

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- Fire Punch / Ice Punch / Thunder Punch

Hope I helped and good luck with your team.

 

[Tomahawk]

Trick Room Reuniclus sweeps your team with no effort. After it sets up Trick Room against Latios / Excadrill / Magnezone / Tentacruel, your whole team is outsped and OHKOed. Every single member of your team being weak to one of it's moves doesn't help either. Calm Mind Reuniclus also does a huge number, seeing that Tyranitar without Attack investment doesn't really do a lot, ~40% iirc. Latios and Gengar don't really come close to KOing after a Calm Mind or two either.
Dragon Dance Haxorus can set up a Dragon Dance and then outspeed your team and OHKO all of them with Outrage, Earthquake and maybe Brick Break. He's not that much of a threat, but a bulky Dragon-resist could be useful.
Nasty Plot Thundurus can give your some trouble when sand isn't up. Excadrill can revenge him when sand is up, but when it isn't up, you'll have to sacrifice Tyranitar to force him out, and the next time he'll just sweep your team.

To solve these problems, I recommend using a Jirachi (probably over Gengar). He takes almost nothing from any of Trick Room Reuniclus's moves and can Iron Head him while taking almost nothing from Reuniclus's attacks and Jirachi can paralyze Calm Mind Reuniclus and paraflinch him to death while taking near nothing unless Reuniclus is at like +4 or something. He also is a bulky Dragon-resist, something your team probably would really appreciate. Finally, with his great special bulk, he can survive any attack from a +2 Thundurus and paralyze him. The exact set is:

Jirachi @ Leftovers | Serene Grace
Careful | 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Body Slam / Iron Head / Wish / Protect

Good luck with your team!

EDIT: Excadrill has Air Balloon...

 

[Shining_Latios]

Trick Room Reuniclus sweeps your team with no effort. After it sets up Trick Room against Latios / Excadrill / Magnezone / Tentacruel, your whole team is outsped and OHKOed. Every single member of your team being weak to one of it's moves doesn't help either. Calm Mind Reuniclus also does a huge number, seeing that Tyranitar without Attack investment doesn't really do a lot, ~40% iirc. Latios and Gengar don't really come close to KOing after a Calm Mind or two either.
Dragon Dance Haxorus can set up a Dragon Dance and then outspeed your team and OHKO all of them with Outrage, Earthquake and maybe Brick Break. He's not that much of a threat, but a bulky Dragon-resist could be useful.
Nasty Plot Thundurus can give your some trouble when sand isn't up. Excadrill can revenge him when sand is up, but when it isn't up, you'll have to sacrifice Tyranitar to force him out, and the next time he'll just sweep your team.

To solve these problems, I recommend using a Jirachi (probably over Gengar). He takes almost nothing from any of Trick Room Reuniclus's moves and can Iron Head him while taking almost nothing from Reuniclus's attacks and Jirachi can paralyze Calm Mind Reuniclus and paraflinch him to death while taking near nothing unless Reuniclus is at like +4 or something. He also is a bulky Dragon-resist, something your team probably would really appreciate. Finally, with his great special bulk, he can survive any attack from a +2 Thundurus and paralyze him. The exact set is:

Jirachi @ Leftovers | Serene Grace
Careful | 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Body Slam / Iron Head / Wish / Protect

Good luck with your team!

Even though Jirachi is bulky, his 3 Pokemon ground weakness comes back and against a DD Mence it could be good game.

 

[Oblivion IX]

Hey Pokel, this is a nice team but it does have some problems. First of all, any Terrakion carrying an Air Balloon is just a death sentence for you as it can come in and set-up a Rock Polish against both Tyranitar and Excadrill and then proceed to decimate your entire team from there. Opposing Excadrill can also sweep you since your only check is your own Excadrill and that only works if its Air Balloon hasn't been popped. Obviously, this is not a reliable way of dealing with things so something has to be changed. I recommend using a Swords Dance Gliscor on your team (most likely in place of Excadrill) who can handle both of the aforementioend threats without any problems while also functioning well as a sweeper and stallbreaker. Here's the set:

Swords Dance Gliscor

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
Nature: Impish (+Def, -SAtk)
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 Spd
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Facade

 

[Pokel]

Thanks for your advice guys ! ^-^ If I were to use all the Pokémon you mentioned, i would be changing my entire team :/
I'll try them out.

As for replacing Excadrill ... he is my only fast physical attacker, and while Gliscor is a great staller, he can't really deal that much damage. Wouldn't it be better to replace Gengar ? What makes Gengar so useful are it's Ground and Fighting immunities. Gliscor resists them both, so wouldn't he be the perfect replacement ?

 

[SoT]

Drop the Magnezone for a CB Scizor. It's bulky enough to come in on a Reun setting up and can force it out with general ease. If you don't like the feeling of being trapped into a single attack, you could always just try and use a Sp.Def Trapping Scizor. Both of these could be of great use to your team without changing much.

Scizor @ Choice Band | Technician
Adamant | 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
U-Turn / Pursuit / Superpower / Bullet Punch

or you could use a

Scizor @ Leftovers | Technician
Careful | 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpD
Roost / Bullet Punch / Swords Dance / U-Turn or Bug Bite

The last move on this one if just personal preference. I have no problem using a boosted u-turn as getting that extra jump always is a good thing. Bug Bite is just for more power, and making the most of the Swords Dance. You could also run Adamant if you just want to go more offensive, but Careful is to just sponge more Sp.Def attacks.

Try it out, could work. That Jirachi suggested above might also work too, I'd recommend giving that a shot as well.



What's a DD Mence doing when Doryu is faster and can OHKO with Rock Slide? There are too many factors that'd have to make this scenario actually threatening.

 

[franky]

Hi,

looking at how your team functions, a lot of key members here seem to work great in tandem- particularly gengar + magnezone + specs latios. keep this offensive pace up.. so i think i think sot's suggestion with scizor is a fantastic idea to help you deal with reuinclus over the aforementioned jirachi; however, i'd replace it over excadrill at the moment because it doesn't seem to fit in that well. the cb set allows you ward off skarmory absorbing the u-turn because of your magnezone so some other would take the u-turn damage. it just works perfectly.. and magnezone benefits a lot of members. replace excadrill with scizor.

your magnezone set is really powerful.. but i'd highly suggest giving thunderbolt a chance over hp fire. once you get behind a substitute on ferrothorn, the plan is to garner +5 or +6 boosts, and kill two free pokemon. thunderbolt at +6 already clean 2hkoe's ferrothorn, so it shouldnt be a problem. the only thing worth using hp fire is for sd scizor but it isn't even that big of an issue. the benefits with thunderbolt is that you scare skarmory off the bat with a stab thunderbolt, and you can hit stuff like rotom for high damage. stuff like vaporeon, jellicent, azumarill need to be dealt with thunderbolt because charge beam deals so little.

as for other options.. pursuit > crunch on tyranitar is pretty much required otherwise latios will run circles on your team with specs draco meteor. scizor is already a good check for reuinclus so the need for crunch isn't that much. you can change tentacruel's ability to water dish to help you gain health against rain teams. its totally worth it. overall gl! ps. the gliscor problem is workable with smart switches.

 

[devilock]

poor ferrothorn

 

[Pokel]

Wow Franky, your advice was really great ! Scizor fits really perfectly. At first the idea of replacing Excadrill didn’t sound to good to me, but in practice, I haven’t lost a single battle since ! ^-^
My only problem is Dragon Dancers. How do I stop a boosted Haxorus ? Gyarados isn’t a problem, Latios is still faster, but Haxorus really sweeps my team …
As for Reuniclus and Gliscor, no problem with them anymore ^-^