Dragon's Dogma (The Wind is Pushing Me!)

[Shuckler]

Hey guys, so this is my first gen 6 rmt. Dragon's Dogma is one of my favorite games, and the title theme of it inspired me to name this team. It's based off a combination of passive damage and wallbreakers, finished off with a final tailwind-boosted sweep. Thanks for reading through it, and I'd really appreciate it if you added any suggestions in the comment section below, constructive criticism is very welcome!

Dragon's Dogma (The Wind Is Pushing Me!)

Team at a glance

Team Building Process:​

​

So I started out with my favorite pokemon from the new generation, the ultimate revenge killer and late game sweeper, Talonflame. I really like Talonflame, and trained one in game all the way from level 2 <3, so it was a fitting place to start out in my team.

Talonflame has a crippling 4x stealth rock weakness. To solve this, I added in both a xatu for magic bounce support, and a mandibuzz, for defog support. Both of these 2 combine to keep rocks off my field. Forever. And then I thought about what else to add in to my team. And then it hit me. I've always wanted to try out a tailwind team. And both xatu and Mandibuzz get tailwind. WHOAAAAA. So I proceeded to add in...

Mega Heracross! Mega heracross has a base 185 attack stat, skill link, and the attacks to abuse it. Whoa. That is absolutely insane. However, its paper defenses, mediocre defensive typing, and very meh speed leave it easily outsped and killed. But with tailwind support, m-heracross' meh 269 speed is suddenly doubled to 538 with a neutral nature and max investment. So what do we have? An attacker that might as well have a choice scarf, goes right through substitutes, and has an insane attack stat. Heracross smashes through teams like nothing else.

I decided that mandibuzz with a rocky helmet just wasn't enough. I also currently have a crippling weakness to electric attacks. And the dreaded rotom-w (OH GOD). So I added in ferrothorn. Oh yes. No more problems with physical attackers and fairies, thank you. With a defensive core of mandibuzz and ferrothorn, every single physical attacker in the game kills themself.

So, here to fix my fire weakness and lack of a special defender is vaporeon! Vaporeon takes special hits fantastically and hits back hard with scald. It also serves as my team's cleric, passing wishes to everybody to keep them healthy. Now, this slot is contested between latias and vaporeon. Latias takes fighting type attack better than vaporeon, but xatu already takes them fairly well, while latias would get rid of my electric weakness. They both serve a very similar role either way, I'm just indecisive.

Ashe (Talonflame) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 Spd / 252 Atk / 252 HP
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost
This is where the team started. Talonflame is a phenomenal late game sweeper, and it does a shocking amount of damage with its low base attack stat. I used to run U-Turn on talon, but the momentum it made was really not very useful on my team, which revolves around throwing things out and letting them sit there, So yes, this is a bulky Talonflame, which I used to frown upon. But once I tried it out, the results were amazing. Suddenly with priority roosts and max hp investment it's easy to survive that bulky Rotom-W's volt turn. Talonflame can serve the role of primary sweeper or wallbreaker, depending on the enemy's team. It creates my offensive core along with heracross, and though they're both physical attackers, they have nearly perfect coverage.

Airborne (Xatu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Tailwind
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave
- Heat Wave
Xatu is my supportive anti-lead, and my main tailwind setter. Xatu is actually shockingly bulky, and has taken many hits I never expected (mega-chomp's outrage did 56% or something O.o). I usually will lead with ferrothorn or mandibuzz, then immediately switch to Xatu if they sent out their hazard setter. Magic Bounce is such a good ability. However, bad predictions with status moves can definitely lead to some bad situations.

Wind Wall (Mandibuzz) (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Tailwind
- Knock Off
- Roost
Mandibuzz appears as the premier defensive dark type of the 6th generation. Now that steels can't wall ghost and dark types like they used to, a defensive dark type is extremely valuable. Sadly, only two exist. Mandibuzz is the better one. Mandibuzz is my second tailwind setter, and my secondary hazard control. It is also my backup rocky helmet staller in the event that ferrothorn dies. With Knock Off's buff, mandibuzz can actually do some serious damage without any investment, and nobody likes to lose their item. Roost is there for obvious reasons.

Hamurabi (Ferrothorn) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Bulldoze
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
Ferrothorn. Rocky Helmet and Iron Barbs is just plain cruel. I run him with max investment in health and attack. Ferrothron is a pretty unexpected offensive threat, and yet another physical attacker on my team. It adds in much-needed ground type coverage. Its Power Whip mashes Azumarill in a 2hko, bulldoze hits heatran and excadrill hard, and gyro ball smacks fairies, which otherwise would give my team a good deal of trouble. Running gyro ball and tailwind together is a bit counterproductive, but 80 speed with tailwind still isn't much. Leech Seed keeps ferro alive and stalling. Ferrothorn is my main physical wall, and is also one of my sources of passive damage. A couple attacks, and these spikes kill everything.

Arisen (Heracross) @ Heracronite
Ability: Moxie -> Skill Link
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Pin Missile
- Bullet Seed
- Close Combat
- Rock Blast
A very standard Mega-Heracross set. Mega-Heracross is my primary sweeper and wallbreaker. Sitting at a sweet base 185 attack stat, heracross only comes in after it receives a tailwind boost from xatu or mandibuzz. Mega Heracross ohkos half the meta, and probably 2hkos the other half. The few things he can't hit with his fantastic coverage are covered by talonflame. I saw the scol n' cross bones team posted a while ago and just had to try this guy out. However I hate scolipede. Like, a lot. So here's to tailwind sweeps! Mega-Heracross almost always gets at least 2 kills every single game, and on multiple occasions has taken out the entire enemy team with support. This is the damage of the team right here.

Dragon (Vaporeon) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Protect
- Wish
- Scald
Now, Vaporeon is the least steady member of my team. It pulls its weight very well, and performs without any issues. However, there are many things that could go into this slot, including blissey, latias, and rotom-w. Hidden power ghost is there to hit pesky ghost types in the event that mandibuzz goes down (I do have a tendency to use ferrothorn and mandibuzz as suicide bombs). The rest of the set is a standard wish passing vaporeon. It brings welcome water coverage to hit heatran, the bane of my existence. Scald's burns are also quite useful, adding more stally damage. The wishes that vaporeon gives are invaluable support for my team, and if vaporeon manages to heal Mega-heracross back to full health after it has already taken out a mon or two, it's basically gg.

Possible Replacements:
Talonflame: Nothing could replace this beast.
Heracross: Same as Talonflame.
Ferrothorn: Excadrill, Gliscor, Tangrowth
Mandibuzz: Skarmory
Vaporeon: Rotom-W, Blissey, Latias
Xatu: Tornadus, Whimsicott

Vaporeon replacement analysis: Rotom-w brings surefire burns, pain split, high damage, and momentum, but no recovery for the team. Blissey has much higher health bombs and the potential to stall, but can't threaten heatran, who otherwise would be a large issue. Latias can bring more special damage to the table and dragon coverage along with checking heatran, but it can't face ghost types if mandibuzz falls.

Threat List:

Mega-Luke: A special nasty plot version with vacuum wave is an instant gg for me if I allow it to get to a 3x boost. Otherwise, talonflame, ferrothorn, and mega heracross can beat it out.
Heatran: Vaporeon checks it, but without vaporeon I have nothing to hit it except for forretress' bulldoze which requires a bait switch. It's impossible to switch in ferro.
Alakazam: With tailwind out, heracross can kill it on a sash set, but if it has a choice scarf talonflame can. If I guess wrong, one of my key sweepers is gone. If it's mega alakazam, it's easy, but again, I have to scout it out and play carefully.
Mega-Manectric: My team is electric weak anyways, and this guy brings signal beam and flamethrower to the table as well. He's killable as he's squishy, but it's usually at the sacrifice of xatu.
Sableye and mega-bannette: Priority burns fuck me up.

So thank you for looking over my team everyone, and if you have any comments or suggestions they would be really helpful! With the end of the semester coming up, I don't have much time to play, so I don't believe that this team has been tested entirely, so please help me out!​

*DISCLAIMER: Pictures are all off of deviantart, and sprites are from serebii. The video is off of youtube, and all credit for the song goes to Capcom.

 

[Arcanine is Regal]

Interesting team I havent seen tailwind used successfully this gen, so its nice to this this unique team. That being said I have a few quick move suggestions and then some potenital poke switches.

For moves I think you should try bulk up on talonflame instead of SD especially with a bulkier set. I personally have run a bulky bulk up talon and it has swept whole teams because after the first few even rock moves can be managed by being smart with priority roosts.

The other move change is I think heracross gets arm thrust which is the fighting equivalent of the other moves( I could be wrong but if it does I think that is worth using.

The last thing is I think you need to ditch vaporeon because your team is SUPER weak to electric and having your special wall also be weak to that is just not very good. Let me preface this by saying rotom-w is hands down my least favorite poke right now, but he just vits vaporeons role better, run a restochesto rotom-w and as for the loss of recovery it doesnt really matter because including rotom your team has 4 pokes that can recover health someway. If heracross is coming in he will be off a tailwind boost anyway and shouldnt be getting hit.

 

[Chronic Smash]

Hello.

Nice team you have here,Ilike that someone finally uses Mega Cross so props to you on that.But when I first looked at the team,I saw an extremely high weakness to Rotom-Wash as he kills 2/3 of your team.So to help remedy that I recommend you try out Gastrodon over Vaporeon as Gastrodon completely stops Rotom in it's tracks and the only thing he can do to you is Will-O-Wisp but with Gastrodon you can just use recover.And is also a decent answer to Jellicent which he can stop by using Toxic on it.

I think Xatu is completely unneccesary as you have Mandibuzz with Defog to get rid of hazards and Xatu really can't switch into most attack,I recommend you try out Life Orb Gengar over Xatu as that also provides a solid Special Attacker which your team really needs.And it hits just as hard as Mega Gengar.

You also lack a way to set up hazards,so I recommend you run Stealth Rock on Ferrothorn over Bulldoze as Bulldoze is completely weak and useless and has redundant coverage.

On Talonflame you don't need to max out Speed. I recommend you try an EV Spread of 252 Atk / 168 Spe / 88 HP with a Jolly Nature with that you can outspeed Timid Starmie,Mega Lucario,Starmie, and all base 115's.

Also I'll correct your Ferrothorn EV spread. Run 252 hp / 88 Def / 168 SDef with an Impish Nature so you can reach a solid base 352 Defense and a solid base 310 SDef which is really,really solid.

Sets:

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EV's: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Def or 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
IV's: 0 Atk
Calm Nature
-Scald
-Toxic
-Recover
-Earth Power/Ice Beam/Clear Smog

Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EV's: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Timid Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Wave
-Focus Miss Blast
-HP Fire/Thunderbolt

So those are my suggestions,hope they were helful or at least thought-provoking.

Good Luck with the team!

 

[Shuckler]

MegaScizor: I will definitely try out bulky talonflame, but I like the quicker power of swords dance. Usually talon doesn't say out that long, as I try to keep him alive as long as possible. Arm thrust vs. close combat on heracross is a big question. Arm thrust has less power, sitting at 105, but can break subs, whereas CC has power but lowers defenses. In this case, I prefer CC due to the fact that the defense drop doesn't bother me much since I'm going all out offensive, and I don't especially need fighting coverage to hit common substitute users. Vaporeon needs to be changed, and I know that, the thing I can't decide is what to replace it with haha. I really dislike rotom-w, but I gotta admit it would help me a lot. I'll try it out, thank you for rating!

XenoBlade911: I know vaporeons gotta go, and gastrodon seems like a good choice to fill the hole. Thank you for that suggestion. On talonflames set, I'm not running any speed. I have tailwind support and priority BB, so why bother. Xavier is my main way of getting up a tailwind with the pivoting power it has through bounce, t-wave, and u-turn. A glengarry would be nice I guess, but I would run subdued able glengarry for pure enjoyment haha. However, xatu's pretty much here to stay. I'm using ferro as a bulky offensive pivot as well, meaning the attack Evs are pretty helpful. Bulldoze lowers sweeper's speeds, allowing mega hera to come in and force a switch. I would like rocks though, and if I switch anything out, it'll be power whip which I never use as much.

 

[banditking15]

Actually i think that your Talonflame needs to sacrifice a little HP speed just to out speed jolly Excadrill, thats the only thing you need to it with Flare Blitz that you can't already out speed and kill, or kill with a priority Brave Bird. So 184hp /252 attack/ 60 speed/ 4 def works with Adamant.