Soft Steel: A Monotype Team by Redenstien (Bysshe)
Pre-Introduction:
Before I begin, I have a few caveats to mention. First, this is my first RMT ever and I'm nervous to post it, but I want to get feedback because I'm proud of this team. Second, if I format anything incorrectly, I apologize beforehand. I have read the pinned "how-to" for RMT, so I think I know what I'm doing. (Emphasis on "think.") Finally, I would have loved to have taken a photo of my rank with this team, but I'm writing this post-DDoS and Showdown having no ladder so that idea is out the window. When I last knew, this team had gotten me to about #500 on the ladder, so barely on at all, haha.Actual Introduction:
Welcome to my first RMT ever! I've always loved steel types, with Scizor being my favorite Pokemon ever (who brings little to any steel team I ever made, unfortunately). That aside, I hope that this RMT is interesting for you and opens your mind to a new world of possibilities when it comes to steel types.Teambuilding Process:
The Team:
WAIFUCKYOU (Mawile) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate / Huge Power
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Def / 24 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
WAIFUCKYOU (Mawile) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate / Huge Power
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Def / 24 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
This is the key member of the team, the star lord and leader of the squad, the goddess of the group, the... you get the picture here. I built the entire team around her. This is a pretty standard Sub/Focus Punch set, I believe. Adamant and max attack EVs ensures that she hits EVERYTHING hard. I often wind up using Doublade with her to whittle down my opponents with Shadow Sneak and then finish them with Sucker Punch. Substitute allows me to avoid slow status users (like Shuckle) and also allows me set up Focus Punch. I've caught so many Scizors off guard when they switch in to take the F. Punch hit and get a OHKO instead. It's the best. Play Rough gives me obvious STAB and a huge freaking wrecking ball. Sucker Punch gives this slow baby much need priority. Her EVs are kind of everywhere. I knew her biggest threat would probably be Earthquakes, so I gave most of her EVs to Defense and HP. The SpDef is just to help with the odd special attacks. These could probably be better.
The name comes from my hatred of people calling Mawile "waifu." No, WaifuckYOU, weird ass.
The name comes from my hatred of people calling Mawile "waifu." No, WaifuckYOU, weird ass.
Mort (Heatran) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 20 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD / 232 Spe
Calm Nature
- Roar
- Lava Plume
- Will-O-Wisp
- Earth Power
Weekend at Mort's! We're gonna have a weekend at Mort's!
Much like the furniture in Mort's (of Bob's Burgers) house, don't touch it. Heatran is my obvious Fire switch in. I have included a Heatran in every team I've made for OU for at least 8 months. He can just do sooooo much. A friend suggested that I use Magma Storm and Will-O-Wisp to both trap and double hurt. Also, my team is (obviously) weak to primarily physical moves: Ground and Fighting. Getting a burn off on a Garchomp or Excadrill can mean me living with something else long enough to win. Roar is obvious as it helps me get rid of set up sweepers easily or wear down bulky opponents with Rocks. Finally, I have Earth Power to predict other Heatrans and prevent a stall off. I can usually catch them on the switch.
His EVs give me a speed advantage on purely SpDef Heatrans, a lot of power for Magma Storm, and still substantial bulk to take many special hits that aren't 4x weak.
His name comes from an episode of Bob's Burgers where the family stays with the mortician next door, Mort. Heatran is kind of a mortician. No? Oh well, he looks like a mort.
Much like the furniture in Mort's (of Bob's Burgers) house, don't touch it. Heatran is my obvious Fire switch in. I have included a Heatran in every team I've made for OU for at least 8 months. He can just do sooooo much. A friend suggested that I use Magma Storm and Will-O-Wisp to both trap and double hurt. Also, my team is (obviously) weak to primarily physical moves: Ground and Fighting. Getting a burn off on a Garchomp or Excadrill can mean me living with something else long enough to win. Roar is obvious as it helps me get rid of set up sweepers easily or wear down bulky opponents with Rocks. Finally, I have Earth Power to predict other Heatrans and prevent a stall off. I can usually catch them on the switch.
His EVs give me a speed advantage on purely SpDef Heatrans, a lot of power for Magma Storm, and still substantial bulk to take many special hits that aren't 4x weak.
His name comes from an episode of Bob's Burgers where the family stays with the mortician next door, Mort. Heatran is kind of a mortician. No? Oh well, he looks like a mort.
Iron Turkey (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 192 HP / 204 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Brave Bird
My next add to the team has to be something with a total immunity to Earthquakes and all ground moves. Skarmory was the obvious choice. In addition to Skarmory's spectacular typing for this team, he (she?) comes with an added bonus: a fighting immunity. Skarm's ability also gives it a ton of utility to destroy pesky set-up sweepers and other things that threaten my team. The moves were obvious. Defog gives me hazard control. Roost allows me to heal up after I take rocks or switch-in damage. Stealth Rock is important because, well... it is. It's just important to have hazards, and Sturdy ensures that I can usually get them off. Finally, I hate taunt fodder, so Brave Bird is important. It also gives me an easy way to DEMOLISH fighting monos. The EV spread is kind of hit and miss, tbh. When I team build and test, I start with a random spread that literally looks good in Showdown and then adjust as I play. Skarmory is given some SpDef to help with electric types, Greninja, etc.
The name should be obvious I think. It's an Iron Turkey. A student of mine told me that he named his the Iron Eagle. I thought was funny because America's national bird was almost the turkey (it was the suggestion of good ol' perv Ben Franklin).
ANDY&OLLIE (Doublade) @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 224 HP / 32 Atk / 252 SpD
- Gyro Ball
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Sneak
- Rest
Is it getting obvious I was binge watching Bob's Burgers when I was naming? Doublade is my obligatory switch in pests with scarves (looking at you Heracross and Machamp). I wanted Aegislash, but with him being deemed too good for steel monos (BUT NOT GHOST MONOS WHAT), I had to pick his younger form, which isn't all that bad honestly. Eviolite is an incredible item, making Pokemon like Golbat and Chansey totally viable, and this guy. Doublade's stats are nothing to worship, except for his amazing 110Atk and 150Def. THAT'S SO HIGH for him to still have another evolution. With Eviolite, Doublade can take crap load of attacks it is even weak to and keep going. I would love to show you the damagecalc, but it's down because, you know, asshat DDoS. Trust me when I tell you that I was able to beat a Garchomp 1v1 with Gyro Ball while he had to use at least three Earthquakes to try and drop me. I lived. The EVs should be obvious. With Eviolite and that 150 Defense, I don't need any EVs to make this guy more livable, but his SpDef is TOTALLY ass, so I maxed out those EVs, and sprinkled a bit in attack so that my Shadow Sneak can actually do damage, and the rest HP to make A&O as tough as possible. Finally, the moves are standard, except maybe rest. Rest is my only recovery option, as lack of access to King's Shield + Lefties cripples Doublade. With Rest, though, I can heal up and actually survive any oncoming physical damage (for the most part).
If you don't know how big of goobers Andy and Ollie are:
Sexcadrill (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 88 Def / 164 SpD
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
So, I debated with myself on using Ferrothorn. It has 2/3 of the common steel weaknesses shared by the type, with the benefit of being able to counter Earthquakes pretty easy. The fact that it was 4x weak to fire though really made me... hesitant, to say the least. I must admit though, using Ferrothorn wasn't a bad idea. I often trick people into switching around or taunting me with this because expect spikes or rocks, but I already have Skarmory with Stealth Rocks and I'm not a huge user of Spikes (although I probably should be). Power Whip is my main go-to move against water types, which can really hurt this team. Knock Off is my favorite move for obvious reasons. It demolishes Eviolite users (sorry Doublade), it gets rid of scarves or bands, and can usually give me the one-up when people try to switch-in on Ferrothorn. Leech Seed, in addition to just being a really good move, almost always forces out switches, leading to the last move: Thunder Wave. Twave is why I don't run Gyro Ball on this guy. Making things slower is important for me because my main sweeper, M. Mawile, is slooooow. In fact, most of this team is slow, and slowing everything else down with Thunder Wave makes sweeping so much easier. EVs are mostly standard, I think. Mostly in SpD and HP to help it take attacks from resisted special attackers, and a good hunk in Defense means I'm not relying solely on nature or base stats.
I wanted to pay homage to one of my favorite steel types, Excadrill (who totally sucks on steel-mono, being weak to all three common weaknesses and more), I gave this bad boy a very sexy name. I laughed forever when I typed it in.
Steel Squirtle (Empoleon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Flash Cannon
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam
In case you didn't notice, there aren't many special attacking Steel types. In the general game, it's Dialga, Heatran, Genesect, Aegislash, Magnezone, and that's about it. Oh, AND THIS BEAST MODE RIGHT HURR. By far, this Empoleon is totally my favorite member because he sweeps whole teams on accident. I never meant for this Pokemon to be so useful, but it is. Here's why. Consider yourself playing monotype and you see an Empoleon come out from your opponent. What is your first thought? "Defogger, Stealth Rocks, probably Aqua Jet or Waterfall. Definitely on this team to help check the fire weakness." You'd be right, usually. For this guy, he is around to help me check fire types, but Empoleon actually has very good SpAtk, and putting Specs on it with Hydro Pump means that I can pretty much OHKO anything that A) Doesn't resist or B) Has decent to lower SpDef. The moves are obvious for a special sweeper. Hydro Pump and Flash Cannon are my most powerful STAB, especially with Specs. Grass Knot helps me pick off other water types (go to Hell Wash Rotom), and Ice Beam checks Dragon spam. The nature and EVs are also obvious.
My first starter way back in '99 was Squirtle. With this guy, I pay my respects to the humble beginnings.
Threats:
Yeah, Mega Yzard does an assload of damage against every member of my team bar Heatran, but if it's carrying Focus Blast (which they usually do just for Heatran), I have to sacrifice a ton of stuff to get rid of this monster. My normal method of getting rid of it is to either sack Sturdy Skarmory or Doublade to get off enough damage to KO with Sucker Punch from Mawile. Other than that, I'm generally just struggling to get any damage on it.
Scrafty gets beat against Mawile, for sure, but my normal switch in on Fighting mono is Doublade, which this thing totally eats for dinner. Add in the fact that Scrafty has very good bulk and I'm screwed in Mawile is gone.
Those two are really my big threats, that I can remember and have personally encountered. The obvious threats to this team really are Fire, Fighting, and Ground.
Importable
WAIFUCKYOU (Mawile) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Def / 24 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
Mort (Heatran) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 20 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD / 232 Spe
Calm Nature
- Roar
- Magma Storm
- Will-O-Wisp
- Earth Power
Iron Turkey (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 192 HP / 204 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Brave Bird
ANDY&OLLIE (Doublade) @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 224 HP / 32 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Sneak
- Rest
Steel Squirtle (Empoleon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Flash Cannon
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam
Sexcadrill (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 88 Def / 164 SpD
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Def / 24 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
Mort (Heatran) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 20 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD / 232 Spe
Calm Nature
- Roar
- Magma Storm
- Will-O-Wisp
- Earth Power
Iron Turkey (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 192 HP / 204 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Brave Bird
ANDY&OLLIE (Doublade) @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 224 HP / 32 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Sneak
- Rest
Steel Squirtle (Empoleon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Flash Cannon
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam
Sexcadrill (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 88 Def / 164 SpD
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
Conclusion
There's my team! I hope you enjoyed this RMT as much as I actually really enjoyed writing it. This is the first team I've ever made myself that has laddered successfully. I look forward to the good people of the forums totally ripping me to pieces on this and making me better. Oh, and happy ORAS release day everyone! Thanks for reading!
-Redenstien/Bysshe
Update Post M. Mawile Ban
So, since WAIFUCKYOU was banned for some unfathomable reason, and Mega Metagross was horrifically sent to nether regions, the next best offensive steel mega is Scizor, my favorite Pokemon behind Volcarona. Here's what I'm using right now as I try to ladder a little with this team.
Razoring Clits (Scizor) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
I'm just using the standard bulky sweeper from the Strategy Dex. I choose Superpower because it's giving me the best coverage and only other move I'd choose is Knock Off, which is on Ferrothorn.
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