Team Ambipom Power
Introduction:
After the banning of Crobat and Shaymin, I lost some valuable members of my old team, what with Crobat having so many useful resistances and being such a great team player and such. Needing to reconstruct my team because of this, I originally sought to only replace Crobat and Shaymin, but soon discovered that this was not entirely possible. And so, I set out to create an entirely new team, functioning in a similar manner as my old one did. And so, Team Ambipom Power was crafted. The goal of this team is to function primarily as an offensive team with Ambipom as the main focus (kind of). The team ended up being more defensively oriented than I originally planned it to be, but I feel like the offensive style of the team is still fully in tact. Overall, it's ending up functioning fairly well, with some obvious issues (which I'll address later). So, with further adieu, Team Ambipom Power.
Changes in bold italics.
Closer Look:
Ambipom (F) @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Fake Out
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Return
Why This Pokemon?
With Crobat out as a potential lead for my team, I wanted to search for something that functioned in a similar manner as Crobat - fast and able to use both Taunt and U-Turn. The use of these moves means Ambipom is able to easily combat a ton of other common leads, which is exactly what a good lead needs to be able to do. Here's how Ambipom matches up towards other common leads:
Uxie: Fake Out, followed by directly by Taunt shuts down almost all Uxie, after which I can try to finish it with Return, or U-Turn out and scout.
Ambipom: I will lose the speed tie since I'm running Adamant, so I always directly switch to Registeel, upon which I usually use Iron Head to ensure I'm not screwed if they Taunt me.
Roserade: Fake Out takes a chunk of HP, upon which Return will KO, if they're a non-Scarfed variant. If they're scarfed, they can beat me and use Sleep Powder, but will have to switch out afterwards.
Yanmega: I always switch directly to Registeel, since Protect negates Fake Out, upon which I Stealth Rock to make sure Yanmega will die upon switching in next.
Moltres: Fake Out followed by Return KOs all non-Scarfed variants, though Fire Blast can KO if it's scarfed.
Electrode: Fake Out and Return is a KO, but I usually switch to Registeel after the Fake Out just in case they decide to Explode before using Rain Dance.
Arcanine: Fake Out and Return is a KO, while Extremespeed can't OHKO back.
Ambipom beats most of the common leads in the metagame right now, unless they're other Ambipom or Yanmega, both of which Registeel can handle, making Ambipom an excellent lead for my team. U-Turn means that Ambipom can not only function as a lead, but also as a late game sweeper, going in and out and racking up damage on the way, while taking little to none itself. With its respectable base attack and great speed, Ambipom can fire off fast, powerful Returns once I've removed the opponent's Registeel, outspeeding and KOing a lot of the slower threats in the metagame - an extremely useful feature of Ambipom that aids this team greatly.
Additionally, Ambipom acts as a sort of steel lure of sorts for me, letting me locate the opponent's Registeel early in the game. Since steels are effectively the only thing stopping Ambipom from sweeping (also ghosts, but those to a lesser extent), it's important that I locate them early so that Blaziken can kill them later in the match, especially since Venusaur also suffers from being walled by steels.
Why This Set?
Silk Scarf over Life Orb because Ambipom doesn't like to take 10% Life Orb damage on a Registeel Switch in. Using an Adamant over Jolly nature means that I'll lose the speed tie against other Ambipom leads, which is insignificant, since most Ambipom will switch out upon seeing another Ambipom lead since they don't like to be left with 50% or less health after a Fake Out. But it also means that my STABed Returns have more sweeping power later in the match. I don't think I'm losing out against anything else important by not running Jolly, and I've been satisfied with the extra power greatly so far. EVs obviously help me outspeed what I can and do the most damage with my Fake Outs and Returns.
Using Return over Assurance means that I'm walled by ghosts if they switch into me. However, I've found that the most common ghost (Mismagius) is pretty easily taken care of by Registeel MOST of the time. Return is a lot more useful to use in every situation not concerning a ghost, since it's boosted by Silk Scarf too, and using it over Assurance has helped quite a few late game sweeps with Ambipom. Fake Out is possibly the most useful move on this set, ensuring that the other Pokemon either has to stay in, take the hit, and flinch, or switch out to a resist. Taunt stops lead Uxie dead in its tracks and also stops Mismagius from subbing and Calm Minding up, which is fairly important to not let happen. Taunt also helps Ambipom handle more things 1 on 1 later in the match thanks to stopping recovery (and Sleep Talk!), which has been important on several occasions.
U-Turn also makes a good contestant for the best move on this set, scouting the opponent's team and letting me know a little bit about them, allowing me to pass to a counter if they switch, and racking up a little residual damage along the way. It's really a fantastic move that allows Ambipom to do damage whenever it's out with very little risk to itself (sans priority, really).
Overall, I've fiddled with things in this set and found this one to be the most effective, and it hasn't let me down.
Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/100 Atk/156 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
Why This Pokemon?
Registeel is basically needed on this team due to the presence of Mismagius in the metagame. Before I added Registeel to the team, I was having all kinds of trouble with Mismagius if it got a Sub up before Ambipom could come in and Taunt. Registeel basically solves this problem, being able to easily break the sub and 2HKO after that with Iron Head. Additionally, Registeel serves as a nice damage absorber for opposing Ambipom's Fake Outs, as well as other normal type attacks (see: Miltank, Kangaskhan), while also being awesome as a special sponge. Registeel isn't really one of those Pokemon I needed because of any attack it could provide me, but it's monstrous defenses and set of useful resistances have proven useful on several occasions. Originally, I tried a Curse/RestTalk variant of Registeel, and actually had some nice success with it, but the loss of Stealth Rock from the team was so noticeable, that I had to resort to using a variant with Stealth Rock, which is pretty important to have on offensive type teams.
Why This Set?
This whole set is standard except for Substitute, which I maintain is a fabulous move on Registeel. Usually, the alternative as the last moveslot is either Earthquake or Explosion, both of which I didn't find myself using much (just about the only occasion for using Earthquake was to hit Blaziken, Houndoom, and Arcanine on the switch in, which is actually fairly difficult considering that Stealth Rock needs to be up; and Thunder Wave also cripples those fairly well so other Pokemon can handle them). Substitute, however, has been great ever since I started using it. Protecting Regirock from status, as well as things that try to use Earthquake/fighting attacks on it while it's setting up rocks/Thunder Waving is pretty nice, not to mention that a lot of Pokemon can't break the subs in one hit, meaning that I've got more of a chance in a 1 on 1 situation, should it come down to that.
The rest of the set is very conventional. Iron Head provides good STAB to break Missy's Subs, which is very important for me, as well as providing flinching chances to go along with Thunder Wave's paralysis, which is very nice when also coupled with Substitute. Thunder Wave basically cripples a lot of Registeel's common switch in's (most notably Blaziken, which is a monster otherwise), except for Donphan. Stealth Rock rounds out the set by providing my team with extra damage to make more things OHKO, 2HKO, and so on.
Milotic (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 152 HP / 80 Def / 220 SpA / 56 Spe
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Hydro Pump
Why This Pokemon?
Every team needs a good fire resist to make sure that Moltres, Blaziken, Houndoom, and Arcanine don't ruin your fun. Milotic does this excellently, not taking more than 50% from any of those Pokemon's fire attacks, and being able to Recover the damage on the switch. Milotic's purpose on this team isn't as a defensive force, but it does help cover where Registeel falls short pretty nicely.
Milotic has the very unique characteristic of making opposing stall teams think that they're safe switching in their Clefable, not knowing that Milotic is an offensive variant carrying Hydro Pump with the ability to 2HKO it easily. Breaking holes in stall like this is very important for the team, since it's one of the main areas where I have trouble in otherwise.
The last reason to use offensive Milotic is because of it's awesome sweeping ability, along with the surprise factor. Most people expect Milotic to be defensive, carrying (usually) Toxic, Surf, Ice Beam, and Recover OR RestTalk. I needed a good special sweeper like Milotic on my team to take out some threats so that Yanmega can try for a sweep late game. Hydro Pump hurts pretty much ANYTHING that switches in on it, short of Roserade (which is 2HKO'd by Ice Beam), so it's not typically very hard to kill a lot with it, making it a very useful addition to the team.
Why This Set?
Life Orb does wonders for offensive Milotic. The extra damage (otherwise not seen with the typical Leftovers Milotics) is extremely helpful in ripping holes in things. The recoil damage doesn't really matter because of Recover, so it's a perfect choice for an item.
Ice Beam is especially essential to this set for me since it's one of my only answers to Altaria. Altaria was giving my team all sorts of troubles (especially against Blaziken, who it essentially gets a free switch in on), so Ice Beam is one of the only answers to that, despite not having as much coverage in UU as it does in OU, although it does also allow me to hit incoming grass Pokemon on the switch, which is always useful. Hydro Pump has let me down a few times with the low accuracy, but the 2HKO on Clefable is SO useful, I would never even consider switching to the more accurate Surf.
HP Grass was chosen over HP Electric for the sole fact that Quagsire and Gastrodon both wall the crap out of this set with HP Electric, which is never good. In addition, HP Grass really helps against opposing Kabutops and Omastar since it gets x4 instead of x2 damage against them. The beautiful thing about running HP Grass is that it allows me to combat other water Pokemon short of SOME variants of Milotic REALLY easily. Slowbro? Beat it 1 on 1. Feraligatr that try to make me switch on the DD? Beaten. Blastoise? Beaten. Azumarill? Beaten. It's really invaluable, since it kills off some threats that the rest of my team would have trouble dealing with, most notably DD Feraligatr, who after a single DD has the ability to outspeed all of my team. Ambipom could hope for a kill via Fake Out, but other than that, I'd be done for.
I believe these EVs allow it to outspeed HeYsUp's Blaziken, while maxing out special attack for maximum damage and pouring the rest into HP for as much bulk as I can get (which obviously isn't as much as normal Milotic, so every little bit counts).
Venusaur (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Seed Bomb
- Return
Why This Pokemon?
In order to complete the solid core of the team of grass/water/fire, I needed a grass Pokemon that had a fair bit of bulk, able to absorb Thunderbolts aimed at Milotic, as well as Leaf Storms from Roserade, while being able to sweep itself, to a certain extent. After trying out several different grass types (including Roserade and Jumpluff), Venusaur was the Pokemon that stood out. Roserade providing me with sleep support, but lacked the ability to set up itself for a sweep, simply offering Leaf Storm and Sludge Bomb for coverage. I was especially unhappy with Roserade since Leaf Storm basically meant I had to switch out after using it due to the SpD drop. Jumpluff worked better, proving me with speedy Sleep Powder and Encore, making it fairly easy to help set a teammate up, but lacked any sort of contribution to the team beyond that. Venusaur, while a little slower than both of those two, has quite of a bit of bulk to take hits (and it can usually take quite a few), Sleep Support, AND can use Swords Dance, which is obscenely easy to use once or twice after a Sleep Powder.
Beyond the ability to Sleep and set itself up really easily, Venusaur provided several things I desperately needed for my team: a secondary way to beat Altaria, and a way to force out opposing Milotic. While my Milotic can handle most Milotic variants with HP Grass, ones with Toxic and a lot of SpD and HP investment and Recover could stall me out. Venusaur is immune to this Toxic, while threatening to KO with it's attacks. Venusaur also isn't OHKO'd by it's Ice Beam, if I remember correctly, which is also extremely useful.
Beyond forcing other Milotic out, Venusaur aids my own Milotic in one very useful way: the absorbtion of Toxic Spikes (which some people still use, for some reason). Milotic really hates being poisoned, and it REALLY limits its sweeping potential if it is, so Venusaur's aid of absorbing them, should the opponent try to lay them is pretty invaluable.
Why This Set?
Leftovers over Life Orb support longevity, and works well with the attack boosts from Swords Dance. Swords Dance and Sleep Powder are pretty self explanatory. Sleep Powder forces them to either switch or die, and either way, I get at LEAST one turn of free Swords Dancing, which is obscenely useful.
Return and Seed Bomb mean that I'm walled against steels like Registeel, but the alternate option of Seed Bomb and Earthquake would leave me even more open to Altaria, which I'm unwilling to do. Since Blaziken already handles the steel problem so well (and even Milotic can Hydro Pump them to death if need be), Return was chosen over Earthquake, although I do take caution to locate their steel with Ambipom first and destroy it before even attempting a Swords Dance sweep (which is usually not that difficult with both Milotic and Blaziken able to handle them).
Jolly is used since the Swords Dances take care of all the power I need, and EVs are for general bulk, helping Venusaur switch in and survive when he needs to.
Blaziken (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 232 Atk/24 Spd/252 SAtk
Rash nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Vacuum Wave
- Hidden Power [Electric]
Why This Pokemon?
Blaziken is the single most capable Pokemon of breaking stall in the metagame right now. And with having such a problem to stall (which is truthfully probably more me predicting against them poorly more than the team being incapable of handling them), Blaziken is an ideal choice as a Pokemon for this team. The specific Pokemon I need Blaziken to beat are Chansey, Registeel, Regirock, and Slowbro, all of which it's capable of doing.
With Blaziken, the water/grass/fire core of the team is complete, which provides some great synergy and switching capabilities. While Blaziken doesn't carry the very useful Flash Fire skill like Houndoom does, and is slower than him, Blaziken does get something pretty invaluable than Houndoom does not: guaranteed priority. Vacuum Wave doesn't depend on the other Pokemon attacking or not, which is always a prediction war when Pokemon with Sucker Punch are encountered. Blaziken can also run a much more powerful and threatening mixed sweeper set than Houndoom does, and with his ability to be a stallbreaker, Blaziken had to be chosen as the fire type for this team.
Why This Set?
Fire Blast provides all the power I need in order to scare Registeel away, and Superpower OHKOs Chansey. Fire Blast also nets a pretty handy KO on Mismagius who, when combined with Chansey and Registeel, makes for some difficult guessing games for who they're going to switch to. HP Electric is chosen over HP Grass here primarily for things like Honchkrow, which will try to come in and Drill Peck me to oblivion, as well as Moltres, who would otherwise wall this set if I chose HP Grass.
The priority I get with Vacuum Wave is key to this set, since it allows me to pick off stat boosters that have gotten a boost, but are low on HP. It's also good for opposing Ambipom who have already used their free Fake Out. Basically, priority is really important here, since so much of my team is moderately slow, save Ambipom, and priority allows me to combat this somewhat.
Life Orb gives Blaziken the extra boost it needs to be effective, while not caring too much about the loss of HP, since Blaziken is fairly fragile anyway. The EVs allow me to outspeed other Blaziken's of the same variety (HeYsUp's Blaziken with 20 speed, outspeeding a standard Milotic) with 24 speed instead, with the rest poured into the two attack stats.
Mismagius (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/42 Def/220 Spe
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Will-o-Wisp
- Taunt
- Pain Split
Why This Pokemon?
Mismagius is replacing Yanmega as the last member of my team, thanks to franky's suggestion. Yanmega without Stealth Rock support was pretty risky, seeing as how it was my only resistance to fighting.
Before, I was all kinds of of susceptible to fighting Pokemon, particularly Hitmontop and Hariyama. Mismagius gets rid of this weakness entirely by having immunity to their attacks, plus two other useful immunities to normal and ground type attacks, which is also extremely useful.
Mismagius also serves as one of the few Pokemon that can break stall with very little effort, which is something I REALLY needed, since Chansey and other typical stall Pokemon were giving me a lot of trouble before. Additionally, a goal of this team is to elliminate steel type Pokemon so that Ambipom can sweep, and Mismagius does this pretty well since Registeel is a really common switch in to Missy. Upon switch-in, Missy can cripple it with Will-o-Wisp and not be threatened, then watch it die. This makes it a lot easier to sweep later for Ambipom. This is kind of a bonus of using Missy, since I wasn't even expecting it before.
Why This Set?
This is basically the only set Mismagius can use to serve the purposes of this team, and it works amazing. I need Mismagius to do two things to me: cripple fighting types, and shut down stall. Taunt ensures that it can shut down Chansey, as well as many other Pokemon, while they can do very little to harm me in return. Will-o-Wisp ensures that any Pokemon that gave me trouble before will have their attack stat halved and never bother me again, as well as having the awesome affect of rendering most of Missy's common switch-ins useful (see: Registeel, Drapion, and Honchkrow).
Pain Split makes sure that Missy can stay around to kill stall for the whole match, which is really useful, PARTICULARLY when I'm down on health, they switch to something full on health, and I can recover a chunk at once.
Shadow Ball rounds out the set, making sure that I can threaten a lot of things that switch it to harm me once they're burned with Will-o-Wisp. While I don't hit normal or dark types this way, I really don't need to considering the usefulness of the other things on this set.
Conclusion:
Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how this team has turned out. It seems like I'm able to handle a majority of the threats that people are throwing at me, with some obvious issues (see: threat list below). I'm posting it here because I'd like a little bit of help trying to fix the issues that are left after much research and testing and retesting, but I'd like some advice specifically about my 6th slot. While I'm moderately pleased with Tinted Lens Specs Yanmega, I'm always looking for ways that I could better beat stall with, since that's the one strategy that I consistently have a rough time beating with this team, so I am open to suggestions for replacement moves, Pokemon, and so on for this. Thanks to franky for suggesting Stall Breaker Missy as the last slot. This has worked out awesomely and has handled a lot of the former issues of this team. I even beat a couple of people in the top 10 with it, and ended today at about 1430, which is a pretty good score. So thanks!
Another issue I’m concerned about for this team is my lack of insurance against status. While I can shut down status if Ambipom is out, things like Swords Dance Venusaur can get a Sleep Powder in on me pretty easily if Ambipom isn’t, meaning I just have to kind of choose which one of my Pokemon should take the sleep based on how the match it going. This is concerning, so I’d like to fix that if possible.
My other main concerns are all (or most of them) in the threat list, which I should have MOST Pokemon covered for, except for some more commonly used NU, maybe.
If you've gotten to the end of this long post, I applaud you. Thanks for reading and commenting! I hope you enjoyed this RMT.
Introduction:
After the banning of Crobat and Shaymin, I lost some valuable members of my old team, what with Crobat having so many useful resistances and being such a great team player and such. Needing to reconstruct my team because of this, I originally sought to only replace Crobat and Shaymin, but soon discovered that this was not entirely possible. And so, I set out to create an entirely new team, functioning in a similar manner as my old one did. And so, Team Ambipom Power was crafted. The goal of this team is to function primarily as an offensive team with Ambipom as the main focus (kind of). The team ended up being more defensively oriented than I originally planned it to be, but I feel like the offensive style of the team is still fully in tact. Overall, it's ending up functioning fairly well, with some obvious issues (which I'll address later). So, with further adieu, Team Ambipom Power.
Changes in bold italics.
Closer Look:
Ambipom (F) @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Fake Out
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Return
Why This Pokemon?
With Crobat out as a potential lead for my team, I wanted to search for something that functioned in a similar manner as Crobat - fast and able to use both Taunt and U-Turn. The use of these moves means Ambipom is able to easily combat a ton of other common leads, which is exactly what a good lead needs to be able to do. Here's how Ambipom matches up towards other common leads:
Uxie: Fake Out, followed by directly by Taunt shuts down almost all Uxie, after which I can try to finish it with Return, or U-Turn out and scout.
Ambipom: I will lose the speed tie since I'm running Adamant, so I always directly switch to Registeel, upon which I usually use Iron Head to ensure I'm not screwed if they Taunt me.
Roserade: Fake Out takes a chunk of HP, upon which Return will KO, if they're a non-Scarfed variant. If they're scarfed, they can beat me and use Sleep Powder, but will have to switch out afterwards.
Yanmega: I always switch directly to Registeel, since Protect negates Fake Out, upon which I Stealth Rock to make sure Yanmega will die upon switching in next.
Moltres: Fake Out followed by Return KOs all non-Scarfed variants, though Fire Blast can KO if it's scarfed.
Electrode: Fake Out and Return is a KO, but I usually switch to Registeel after the Fake Out just in case they decide to Explode before using Rain Dance.
Arcanine: Fake Out and Return is a KO, while Extremespeed can't OHKO back.
Ambipom beats most of the common leads in the metagame right now, unless they're other Ambipom or Yanmega, both of which Registeel can handle, making Ambipom an excellent lead for my team. U-Turn means that Ambipom can not only function as a lead, but also as a late game sweeper, going in and out and racking up damage on the way, while taking little to none itself. With its respectable base attack and great speed, Ambipom can fire off fast, powerful Returns once I've removed the opponent's Registeel, outspeeding and KOing a lot of the slower threats in the metagame - an extremely useful feature of Ambipom that aids this team greatly.
Additionally, Ambipom acts as a sort of steel lure of sorts for me, letting me locate the opponent's Registeel early in the game. Since steels are effectively the only thing stopping Ambipom from sweeping (also ghosts, but those to a lesser extent), it's important that I locate them early so that Blaziken can kill them later in the match, especially since Venusaur also suffers from being walled by steels.
Why This Set?
Silk Scarf over Life Orb because Ambipom doesn't like to take 10% Life Orb damage on a Registeel Switch in. Using an Adamant over Jolly nature means that I'll lose the speed tie against other Ambipom leads, which is insignificant, since most Ambipom will switch out upon seeing another Ambipom lead since they don't like to be left with 50% or less health after a Fake Out. But it also means that my STABed Returns have more sweeping power later in the match. I don't think I'm losing out against anything else important by not running Jolly, and I've been satisfied with the extra power greatly so far. EVs obviously help me outspeed what I can and do the most damage with my Fake Outs and Returns.
Using Return over Assurance means that I'm walled by ghosts if they switch into me. However, I've found that the most common ghost (Mismagius) is pretty easily taken care of by Registeel MOST of the time. Return is a lot more useful to use in every situation not concerning a ghost, since it's boosted by Silk Scarf too, and using it over Assurance has helped quite a few late game sweeps with Ambipom. Fake Out is possibly the most useful move on this set, ensuring that the other Pokemon either has to stay in, take the hit, and flinch, or switch out to a resist. Taunt stops lead Uxie dead in its tracks and also stops Mismagius from subbing and Calm Minding up, which is fairly important to not let happen. Taunt also helps Ambipom handle more things 1 on 1 later in the match thanks to stopping recovery (and Sleep Talk!), which has been important on several occasions.
U-Turn also makes a good contestant for the best move on this set, scouting the opponent's team and letting me know a little bit about them, allowing me to pass to a counter if they switch, and racking up a little residual damage along the way. It's really a fantastic move that allows Ambipom to do damage whenever it's out with very little risk to itself (sans priority, really).
Overall, I've fiddled with things in this set and found this one to be the most effective, and it hasn't let me down.
Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/100 Atk/156 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
Why This Pokemon?
Registeel is basically needed on this team due to the presence of Mismagius in the metagame. Before I added Registeel to the team, I was having all kinds of trouble with Mismagius if it got a Sub up before Ambipom could come in and Taunt. Registeel basically solves this problem, being able to easily break the sub and 2HKO after that with Iron Head. Additionally, Registeel serves as a nice damage absorber for opposing Ambipom's Fake Outs, as well as other normal type attacks (see: Miltank, Kangaskhan), while also being awesome as a special sponge. Registeel isn't really one of those Pokemon I needed because of any attack it could provide me, but it's monstrous defenses and set of useful resistances have proven useful on several occasions. Originally, I tried a Curse/RestTalk variant of Registeel, and actually had some nice success with it, but the loss of Stealth Rock from the team was so noticeable, that I had to resort to using a variant with Stealth Rock, which is pretty important to have on offensive type teams.
Why This Set?
This whole set is standard except for Substitute, which I maintain is a fabulous move on Registeel. Usually, the alternative as the last moveslot is either Earthquake or Explosion, both of which I didn't find myself using much (just about the only occasion for using Earthquake was to hit Blaziken, Houndoom, and Arcanine on the switch in, which is actually fairly difficult considering that Stealth Rock needs to be up; and Thunder Wave also cripples those fairly well so other Pokemon can handle them). Substitute, however, has been great ever since I started using it. Protecting Regirock from status, as well as things that try to use Earthquake/fighting attacks on it while it's setting up rocks/Thunder Waving is pretty nice, not to mention that a lot of Pokemon can't break the subs in one hit, meaning that I've got more of a chance in a 1 on 1 situation, should it come down to that.
The rest of the set is very conventional. Iron Head provides good STAB to break Missy's Subs, which is very important for me, as well as providing flinching chances to go along with Thunder Wave's paralysis, which is very nice when also coupled with Substitute. Thunder Wave basically cripples a lot of Registeel's common switch in's (most notably Blaziken, which is a monster otherwise), except for Donphan. Stealth Rock rounds out the set by providing my team with extra damage to make more things OHKO, 2HKO, and so on.
Milotic (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 152 HP / 80 Def / 220 SpA / 56 Spe
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Hydro Pump
Why This Pokemon?
Every team needs a good fire resist to make sure that Moltres, Blaziken, Houndoom, and Arcanine don't ruin your fun. Milotic does this excellently, not taking more than 50% from any of those Pokemon's fire attacks, and being able to Recover the damage on the switch. Milotic's purpose on this team isn't as a defensive force, but it does help cover where Registeel falls short pretty nicely.
Milotic has the very unique characteristic of making opposing stall teams think that they're safe switching in their Clefable, not knowing that Milotic is an offensive variant carrying Hydro Pump with the ability to 2HKO it easily. Breaking holes in stall like this is very important for the team, since it's one of the main areas where I have trouble in otherwise.
The last reason to use offensive Milotic is because of it's awesome sweeping ability, along with the surprise factor. Most people expect Milotic to be defensive, carrying (usually) Toxic, Surf, Ice Beam, and Recover OR RestTalk. I needed a good special sweeper like Milotic on my team to take out some threats so that Yanmega can try for a sweep late game. Hydro Pump hurts pretty much ANYTHING that switches in on it, short of Roserade (which is 2HKO'd by Ice Beam), so it's not typically very hard to kill a lot with it, making it a very useful addition to the team.
Why This Set?
Life Orb does wonders for offensive Milotic. The extra damage (otherwise not seen with the typical Leftovers Milotics) is extremely helpful in ripping holes in things. The recoil damage doesn't really matter because of Recover, so it's a perfect choice for an item.
Ice Beam is especially essential to this set for me since it's one of my only answers to Altaria. Altaria was giving my team all sorts of troubles (especially against Blaziken, who it essentially gets a free switch in on), so Ice Beam is one of the only answers to that, despite not having as much coverage in UU as it does in OU, although it does also allow me to hit incoming grass Pokemon on the switch, which is always useful. Hydro Pump has let me down a few times with the low accuracy, but the 2HKO on Clefable is SO useful, I would never even consider switching to the more accurate Surf.
HP Grass was chosen over HP Electric for the sole fact that Quagsire and Gastrodon both wall the crap out of this set with HP Electric, which is never good. In addition, HP Grass really helps against opposing Kabutops and Omastar since it gets x4 instead of x2 damage against them. The beautiful thing about running HP Grass is that it allows me to combat other water Pokemon short of SOME variants of Milotic REALLY easily. Slowbro? Beat it 1 on 1. Feraligatr that try to make me switch on the DD? Beaten. Blastoise? Beaten. Azumarill? Beaten. It's really invaluable, since it kills off some threats that the rest of my team would have trouble dealing with, most notably DD Feraligatr, who after a single DD has the ability to outspeed all of my team. Ambipom could hope for a kill via Fake Out, but other than that, I'd be done for.
I believe these EVs allow it to outspeed HeYsUp's Blaziken, while maxing out special attack for maximum damage and pouring the rest into HP for as much bulk as I can get (which obviously isn't as much as normal Milotic, so every little bit counts).
Venusaur (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Seed Bomb
- Return
Why This Pokemon?
In order to complete the solid core of the team of grass/water/fire, I needed a grass Pokemon that had a fair bit of bulk, able to absorb Thunderbolts aimed at Milotic, as well as Leaf Storms from Roserade, while being able to sweep itself, to a certain extent. After trying out several different grass types (including Roserade and Jumpluff), Venusaur was the Pokemon that stood out. Roserade providing me with sleep support, but lacked the ability to set up itself for a sweep, simply offering Leaf Storm and Sludge Bomb for coverage. I was especially unhappy with Roserade since Leaf Storm basically meant I had to switch out after using it due to the SpD drop. Jumpluff worked better, proving me with speedy Sleep Powder and Encore, making it fairly easy to help set a teammate up, but lacked any sort of contribution to the team beyond that. Venusaur, while a little slower than both of those two, has quite of a bit of bulk to take hits (and it can usually take quite a few), Sleep Support, AND can use Swords Dance, which is obscenely easy to use once or twice after a Sleep Powder.
Beyond the ability to Sleep and set itself up really easily, Venusaur provided several things I desperately needed for my team: a secondary way to beat Altaria, and a way to force out opposing Milotic. While my Milotic can handle most Milotic variants with HP Grass, ones with Toxic and a lot of SpD and HP investment and Recover could stall me out. Venusaur is immune to this Toxic, while threatening to KO with it's attacks. Venusaur also isn't OHKO'd by it's Ice Beam, if I remember correctly, which is also extremely useful.
Beyond forcing other Milotic out, Venusaur aids my own Milotic in one very useful way: the absorbtion of Toxic Spikes (which some people still use, for some reason). Milotic really hates being poisoned, and it REALLY limits its sweeping potential if it is, so Venusaur's aid of absorbing them, should the opponent try to lay them is pretty invaluable.
Why This Set?
Leftovers over Life Orb support longevity, and works well with the attack boosts from Swords Dance. Swords Dance and Sleep Powder are pretty self explanatory. Sleep Powder forces them to either switch or die, and either way, I get at LEAST one turn of free Swords Dancing, which is obscenely useful.
Return and Seed Bomb mean that I'm walled against steels like Registeel, but the alternate option of Seed Bomb and Earthquake would leave me even more open to Altaria, which I'm unwilling to do. Since Blaziken already handles the steel problem so well (and even Milotic can Hydro Pump them to death if need be), Return was chosen over Earthquake, although I do take caution to locate their steel with Ambipom first and destroy it before even attempting a Swords Dance sweep (which is usually not that difficult with both Milotic and Blaziken able to handle them).
Jolly is used since the Swords Dances take care of all the power I need, and EVs are for general bulk, helping Venusaur switch in and survive when he needs to.
Blaziken (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 232 Atk/24 Spd/252 SAtk
Rash nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Vacuum Wave
- Hidden Power [Electric]
Why This Pokemon?
Blaziken is the single most capable Pokemon of breaking stall in the metagame right now. And with having such a problem to stall (which is truthfully probably more me predicting against them poorly more than the team being incapable of handling them), Blaziken is an ideal choice as a Pokemon for this team. The specific Pokemon I need Blaziken to beat are Chansey, Registeel, Regirock, and Slowbro, all of which it's capable of doing.
With Blaziken, the water/grass/fire core of the team is complete, which provides some great synergy and switching capabilities. While Blaziken doesn't carry the very useful Flash Fire skill like Houndoom does, and is slower than him, Blaziken does get something pretty invaluable than Houndoom does not: guaranteed priority. Vacuum Wave doesn't depend on the other Pokemon attacking or not, which is always a prediction war when Pokemon with Sucker Punch are encountered. Blaziken can also run a much more powerful and threatening mixed sweeper set than Houndoom does, and with his ability to be a stallbreaker, Blaziken had to be chosen as the fire type for this team.
Why This Set?
Fire Blast provides all the power I need in order to scare Registeel away, and Superpower OHKOs Chansey. Fire Blast also nets a pretty handy KO on Mismagius who, when combined with Chansey and Registeel, makes for some difficult guessing games for who they're going to switch to. HP Electric is chosen over HP Grass here primarily for things like Honchkrow, which will try to come in and Drill Peck me to oblivion, as well as Moltres, who would otherwise wall this set if I chose HP Grass.
The priority I get with Vacuum Wave is key to this set, since it allows me to pick off stat boosters that have gotten a boost, but are low on HP. It's also good for opposing Ambipom who have already used their free Fake Out. Basically, priority is really important here, since so much of my team is moderately slow, save Ambipom, and priority allows me to combat this somewhat.
Life Orb gives Blaziken the extra boost it needs to be effective, while not caring too much about the loss of HP, since Blaziken is fairly fragile anyway. The EVs allow me to outspeed other Blaziken's of the same variety (HeYsUp's Blaziken with 20 speed, outspeeding a standard Milotic) with 24 speed instead, with the rest poured into the two attack stats.
Mismagius (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/42 Def/220 Spe
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Will-o-Wisp
- Taunt
- Pain Split
Why This Pokemon?
Mismagius is replacing Yanmega as the last member of my team, thanks to franky's suggestion. Yanmega without Stealth Rock support was pretty risky, seeing as how it was my only resistance to fighting.
Before, I was all kinds of of susceptible to fighting Pokemon, particularly Hitmontop and Hariyama. Mismagius gets rid of this weakness entirely by having immunity to their attacks, plus two other useful immunities to normal and ground type attacks, which is also extremely useful.
Mismagius also serves as one of the few Pokemon that can break stall with very little effort, which is something I REALLY needed, since Chansey and other typical stall Pokemon were giving me a lot of trouble before. Additionally, a goal of this team is to elliminate steel type Pokemon so that Ambipom can sweep, and Mismagius does this pretty well since Registeel is a really common switch in to Missy. Upon switch-in, Missy can cripple it with Will-o-Wisp and not be threatened, then watch it die. This makes it a lot easier to sweep later for Ambipom. This is kind of a bonus of using Missy, since I wasn't even expecting it before.
Why This Set?
This is basically the only set Mismagius can use to serve the purposes of this team, and it works amazing. I need Mismagius to do two things to me: cripple fighting types, and shut down stall. Taunt ensures that it can shut down Chansey, as well as many other Pokemon, while they can do very little to harm me in return. Will-o-Wisp ensures that any Pokemon that gave me trouble before will have their attack stat halved and never bother me again, as well as having the awesome affect of rendering most of Missy's common switch-ins useful (see: Registeel, Drapion, and Honchkrow).
Pain Split makes sure that Missy can stay around to kill stall for the whole match, which is really useful, PARTICULARLY when I'm down on health, they switch to something full on health, and I can recover a chunk at once.
Shadow Ball rounds out the set, making sure that I can threaten a lot of things that switch it to harm me once they're burned with Will-o-Wisp. While I don't hit normal or dark types this way, I really don't need to considering the usefulness of the other things on this set.
Conclusion:
Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how this team has turned out. It seems like I'm able to handle a majority of the threats that people are throwing at me, with some obvious issues (see: threat list below). I'm posting it here because I'd like a little bit of help trying to fix the issues that are left after much research and testing and retesting, but I'd like some advice specifically about my 6th slot. While I'm moderately pleased with Tinted Lens Specs Yanmega, I'm always looking for ways that I could better beat stall with, since that's the one strategy that I consistently have a rough time beating with this team, so I am open to suggestions for replacement moves, Pokemon, and so on for this. Thanks to franky for suggesting Stall Breaker Missy as the last slot. This has worked out awesomely and has handled a lot of the former issues of this team. I even beat a couple of people in the top 10 with it, and ended today at about 1430, which is a pretty good score. So thanks!
Another issue I’m concerned about for this team is my lack of insurance against status. While I can shut down status if Ambipom is out, things like Swords Dance Venusaur can get a Sleep Powder in on me pretty easily if Ambipom isn’t, meaning I just have to kind of choose which one of my Pokemon should take the sleep based on how the match it going. This is concerning, so I’d like to fix that if possible.
My other main concerns are all (or most of them) in the threat list, which I should have MOST Pokemon covered for, except for some more commonly used NU, maybe.
If you've gotten to the end of this long post, I applaud you. Thanks for reading and commenting! I hope you enjoyed this RMT.
