Bright Energy

[BlackLight]

Hey Smogon, this is BlackLight. I've been meaning to write an RMT for a long time, to introduce myself, but I was having problems making a team that was worth your time to rate. Now that I've finally put something decent together, let's get right to it.


This team works by setting up a sweeper as quickly as possible, and not giving then opponent time to put their strategy to use. By having three set up sweepers, I can decide ahead of time which sweeper would be the best to finish off the team, and use the other members of the team to soften up the opponent.

Teambuilding in hide tags, just in case you care.

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I decided on using Volcarona first. Volcarona is way underrated, because it needs support to really work well.


Obviously, part of that support is Rapid Spin, seeing as Volcarona loses half its health when it switches into Stealth Rock. Starmie makes for a great spinner, and has decent synergy with Volcarona, so I added Starmie to the list.


Next up, someone on the team needs to be able to break through Blissey and Chansey, as well as be able to deal with stuff that Volcarona can't, such as Gyarados, Dragonite, and Salamence. Terrakion could do all of this, and was a great sweeper as well.


Now I needed to patch up some holes in the team. First off, no one on my team could take a Ground move, so I threw Dragonite in the team.


I then realized that I almost had a FWG core going, so I added Ferrothorn to complete it. Ferrothorn also would give me hazards and a Dragon resistance, which is always nice.


Finally, I decided that I would use Jirachi, as a Psychic or Ghost type with STAB and a coverage move or two would run through my team.

Species: Volcarona
Role: Special Sweeper
Nature: Timid (+Speed, -Attack)
Ability: Flame Body
IVs: 31 HP, 31 Attack, 31 Defence, 30 Sp. Attack, 30 Sp. Defence, 31 Speed
EVs: 252 Sp. Attack, 4 Sp. Defence, 252 Speed
Item: Leftovers







Moves

• Fiery Dance
• Bug Buzz
• Hidden Power (Ground)
• Quiver Dance

Information: Volcarona is a fantastic sweeper, capable of using its unique typing and stats to set up and wreck havoc. This is a fairly standard set, with a couple things I've tuned to my preference. Leftovers gives Volcarona a little bit more breathing room while trying to set up, and can occasionally cause my opponent to think I might be running a more defensive set with Morning Sun instead of Hidden Power. Speaking of Hidden Power, it allows me to crush Heatran and Terrakion without a balloon, and also lets me keep a perfect Speed IV, so I will be able to outrun any Latios or Latias with Hidden Power Fire, and also speed tie with any other base 110s.





Positives

• Stats, typing, and movepool create a fantastic sweeper.
• Can switch into any of Scizor's moves, provided it isn't running an odd choice like Aerial Ace.
• Chance to burn opponents that strike its lower Defence. This could possibly cripple any revenge killer that tries to finish it off.
• Insanely specially bulky after a couple of Quiver Dances.
• Resists common priority attacks.

Negatives

• Doubly weak to Stealth Rock, needs Rapid Spin or Wish support to switch in without losing a lot of HP.

Possible changes: Leftovers for Life Orb. Life Orb would be great for the power boost, but I don't want Volcarona's sweep to be cut short because of Life Orb damage stacking up. Unless I lose a notable KO on something, Leftovers will stay.


Species: Starmie
Role: Rapid Spin Support, Revenge Killer, Clean Up.
Nature: Timid (+Speed, -Attack)
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: 31 HP, 30 Attack, 31 Defence, 30 Sp. Attack, 31 Sp. Defence, 30 Speed
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Sp. Attack, 252 Speed
Item: Leftovers





Moves

• Rapid Spin
• Hydro Pump
• Thunderbolt
• Hidden Power (Fire)

Information: Starmie supports this team by blowing away hazards with Rapid Spin, while threatening its opponents with its great coverage. Starmie must be played very carefully, because if it dies and Stealth Rock is still up, Volcarona and Dragonite will take a lot of damage while switching in. The moves on this set are all standard, except for Hidden Power Fire. I found that having a Fire attack on Starmie would be very useful, especially in killing off Ferrothorn and Forretress, two Pokemon notorious for setting up hazards, as well as Scizor, who could eliminate Starmie with Pursuit. On top of this, I would be able to run through Sun and Rain teams with relative ease. In rain, Starmie can shred through Ferrothorn with HP Fire, and then smash the rest of the team with rain boosted Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt. In the sun, HP Fire becomes very powerful, and Starmie can still nail Fire types with Hydro Pump, despite the damage reduction. The only notable thing I would lose on Starmie is coverage on Dragons, but that loss is enough that I'm still on the fence about HP Fire.




Possitives

• Rapid Spin support is extremely helpful on this team.
• Natural Cure allows Starmie to take status moves and heal on the way out of battle.
• Extremely quick.
• Powerful STAB.

Negatives

• Pursuit bait, but this would allow me a free switch in with the sweeper of my choice, so it's a mixed blessing.

Possible Changes: Ice Beam for Hidden Power Fire. The lack of coverage on Dragons is rather irritating.


Species: Terrakion
Role:Physical Sweeper, Wallbreaker
Nature: Jolly (+Speed, -Sp. Attack)
Ability: Justified
IVs: Perfect.
EVs:4 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed.
Item: Choice Scarf





Moves

• X Scissor
• Earthquake
• Stone Edge
• Close Combat

Information: Motagua and Smilodon offered up Choice Scarf Terrakion to replace Double Dance Terrakion, and I think this is a good idea. Seeing as DD Terrakion could never set up properly, Choice Scarf will allow me to do all of the same things that Terrakion could before, with extra speed and more attacking options, but at the cost of being able to switch moves. This will allow me to revenge DD Dragonite, while gaining coverage on a variety of targets.


Positive

• Destroys Volcarona's checks.
• Can revenge many different threats.

Negative

• Can't swich moves.
• Can't directly switch in on Volcarona checks, or it will either be hammered by a powerful attack, or struck with status.

Possible Changes: None ATM

Species: Dragonite
Role: Physical Sweeper, Tank, Bulky Pivot
Nature: Adamant (+Attack, -Sp. Attack)
Ability: Multiscale
IVs: Perfect.
EVs: 252 HP, 44 Attack, 212 Speed.


Item: Lum Berry





Moves

• Roost
• Dragon Dance
• Dragon Claw
• Earthquake

Information: Dragonite. You either hate him or you love him, and that all depends on what side of the field he's on. Dragonite seemed like a great choice on this team, since Steel types don't get there way with Volcarona and Terrakion around. Since both Volcarona and Terrakion are massively offensive, I decided that Dragonite should take full advantage of his huge bulk with Multiscale, and so he is running a bulky Dragon Dance set. Roost and Dragon Dance are neccesary to make this set work, as they keep Dragonite alive and give him huge power and speed, respectively. Lum Berry gives Dragonite an easy way to avoid status, so he won't be harmed by a badly timed burn or paralysis.





Positives

• Capitalizes on Volcarona and Terrakion's presences.
• Huge bulk for easy set up.

Negatives

• Not a massive source of damage right off the bat.

Possible Changes: I don't have anything to add here.


Species: Ferrothorn
Role: Hazards, Status Spreader, Wall.
Nature: Impish.
Ability: Iron Barbs.
IVs: Perfect.
EVs: 252 HP, 88 Defence, 168 Sp. Defence. Thanks to Mupa97 for fixing the EVs!
Item: Leftovers





Moves

• Stealth Rock
• Leech Seed
• Thunderwave
• Power Whip

Information: Ferrothorn brings Stealth Rock, Leech Seed, and Thunderwave to the table, and can thus support the team by setting up hazards, paralysing opponents, and generally being a nuisance. It also provides solid defences and useful resistances. I wanted Ferrothorn to be more physically based, so that it wouldn't overlap Jirachi's role, as Jirachi is a lot more specially bulky. I prefer Ferrothorn to most other walls, because it doesn't feel like set up fodder.





Positives

• Stealth Rock.
• Solid defences and resistances.

Negatives: Very common, many opponents carry Fire moves because of Ferro and Scizor.
Possible Changes: None ATM.



Species: Jirachi
Role: Wish Support, Wall, Status Spreader, Irritation.
Nature: Jolly.
Ability: Serene Grace.
IVs: Perfect.
EVs: 164 HP, 168 Attack, 176 Speed.
Item: Leftovers.





Moves

• Iron Head
• Fire Punch
• Thunderwave
• Wish

Information: Jirachi helps out by passing Wishes out to other members of the team, healing a lot of damage from my sweepers and giving them a second chance at sweeping. It also spreads about paralysis, and causes ragequits with Iron Head, with Fire Punch dealing with opposing Steel types who like to switch in and wall Jirachi. The editted EV spread, suggested by Motagua, sacrifices a bit of bulk for the ability to throw out Thunder Waves quicker, and the Attack EVs land an 0HKO on Lucario with Fire Punch, after a Close Combat defence drop.



Positives

• Wish support allows the members of my team without healing to recover from previous assults.
• Paralysing opponents is always good. Stopping them from attacking at all with Iron Head is even better.

Negatives: Not much offensive pressure.
Possible Changes: Possibly Body Slam over Thunder Wave. A less reliable method of paralysis, but it would allow me to paralyse Groung types that might switch in.

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to rate my team.

[Motagua]

Hey there! Nice team you got there but it is pretty hard to rate without pictures. I loved the text format because it summarizes and briefly describes by itself the team, however I think that some pictures would make it more attractive for other people to rate it.

For now, I am going to help you with the RMT editing and I will promise a full rate afterwards. You don´t have to necesarily use pokemon pictures from all the internet. Sprites are cool too and they are really dynamic to use on an RMT.

Here is a link to every 5th gen animated sprite from any position, shiny, forms, etc: http://sprites.pokecheck.org/

When using pictures from other websites, unfortunately the forum has no support to modify their size and this can make the page too big and distract the raters. However the following link directs you to a page called tinypic, where you can easily resize any picture to a more moderate size and it even provides an [IMG] code straight to copy it to this forum: http://tinypic.com/index.php. (I always use resized pictures as "Website/Email format "320x240," but feel free to use any).

[BlackLight]

Originally Posted by Fat Motagua

Hey there! Nice team you got there but it is pretty hard to rate without pictures. I loved the text format because it summarizes and briefly describes by itself the team, however I think that some pictures would make it more attractive for other people to rate it.

For now, I am going to help you with the RMT editing and I will promise a full rate afterwards. You don´t have to necesarily use pokemon pictures from all the internet. Sprites are cool too and they are really dynamic to use on an RMT.

Here is a link to every 5th gen animated sprite from any position, shiny, forms, etc: http://sprites.pokecheck.org/

When using pictures from other websites, unfortunately the forum has no support to modify their size and this can make the page too big and distract the raters. However the following link directs you to a page called tinypic, where you can easily resize any picture to a more moderate size and it even provides an [IMG] code straight to copy it to this forum: http://tinypic.com/index.php. (I always use resized pictures as "Website/Email format "320x240," but feel free to use any).

Thanks Motagua, this worked out pretty well. For some reason my computer wasn't putting up the images before, but this worked. :)

Also, I might get around to doing a threatlist, provided I can find the time to do so.

[Motagua]

Glad to hear it helped out! And now as promised, here is my rate. Your team is very solid and I barely see any possible weakness on it, however Double Priority Lucario rips you easily. At +2, Lucario will easily OHKO Volcarona, Dragonite after SR and Starmie with Extremespeed, while Terrakion is murdered by Bullet Punch. Lucario can grab the boost on Ferrothorn and easily dismantle your team, unless Volcarona gets a lucky Flame Body burn. You might want to consider a more offensive spread of 164 HP / 168 Atk / 176 Spd with a Jolly nature on Jirachi. Ferrothorn is already bulky enough to take any Draco Meteors or Outrage, so Jirachi is not really missing the loss. You will be surprised that CB Close Combat still fails to OHKO as well as Specs Hydro Pump from Politoed; Timid Magnezone only achieves a 3HKO on this Jirachi. With the given EVs, Jirachi reaches 308 Speed which could be advantageous as you can spread faster paralysis on pokemons like Gyarados, before they do a Sub. Fire Punch will be able to OHKO Lucario after a CC drop, so it makes him a decent check to him. However, if you want to lure him more safely to a CC drop you can replace Wish for Substitute although this leaves Terrakion and Ferrothorn without recovery.

Very solid team and I hope my rate helps you out :).

[BlackLight]

Originally Posted by Fat Motagua

Glad to hear it helped out! And now as promised, here is my rate. Your team is very solid and I barely see any possible weakness on it, however Double Priority Lucario rips you easily. At +2, Lucario will easily OHKO Volcarona, Dragonite after SR and Starmie with Extremespeed, while Terrakion is murdered by Bullet Punch. Lucario can grab the boost on Ferrothorn and easily dismantle your team, unless Volcarona gets a lucky Flame Body burn. You might want to consider a more offensive spread of 164 HP / 168 Atk / 176 Spd with a Jolly nature on Jirachi. Ferrothorn is already bulky enough to take any Draco Meteors or Outrage, so Jirachi is not really missing the loss. You will be surprised that CB Close Combat still fails to OHKO as well as Specs Hydro Pump from Politoed; Timid Magnezone only achieves a 3HKO on this Jirachi. With the given EVs, Jirachi reaches 308 Speed which could be advantageous as you can spread faster paralysis on pokemons like Gyarados, before they do a Sub. Fire Punch will be able to OHKO Lucario after a CC drop, so it makes him a decent check to him. However, if you want to lure him more safely to a CC drop you can replace Wish for Substitute although this leaves Terrakion and Ferrothorn without recovery.

Very solid team and I hope my rate helps you out :).

Alrighty, this seems like a solid idea, so I will have to try this out. I haven't met a Lucario yet, so I'm glad you suggested this before it happened:)

Something I have noticed while playing is that Terrakion is serving a very limited purpose. Volcarona can sweep every so often, and will usually get in a KO or two. Dragonite has surpassed my expectations. He's easy to set up, and once it is set up, my opponent has some problems. Jirachi and Ferrothorn work the way they should, although I'll try Motuaga's EV spread on Jirachi, and test that out. Starmie does its job, which is all I can ask of it. Terrakion, however, is hard to get in and set up, although once that happens, it wrecks. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to improve this problem?

[Smilodon]

As you already have two powerfull set uppers, you could use a choice scarf Terrakion (or maybe choice band) which immeditaly threatens the opponent when he comes in. He would also be able to use coverage move such as X-Scizors.
I would also use body slam on Jirachi. It doesn't work all the time, but as you already have T-Wave on Ferrothorn, being able to spread paralysis against ground types or volt-absorb users is nice. And the little amount of dammage is not always negligible.

[Motagua]

@BlackLight: Although you are now abusing a paralysis theme, I think that Scarf Terrakion will suit best your team´s purpose. Let´s not forget that Dragonite has a Lum Berry to avoid status and he can set-up DD becoming a threat to your team. Scarf Terrakion will be even able to revenge kill +2 Dragonite with Stone Edge or Rock Slide! Terrakion also outspeeds Chlorophyll Venusaur and lands a KO on offensive variants. Close Combat and Stone Edge still does a lot of damage to most of the OU metagame. X-Scissor revenge kills Latios, Starmie, Azelf and friends. For the last move slot, Earthquake is handy to revenge kill Toxicroak while Rock Slide provides a more consistent STAB for Terrakion considering how much an Stone Edge miss can cost a game.

Scarf Terrakion

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Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake / Rock Slide
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat

[BlackLight]

Originally Posted by Fat Motagua

Scarf Terrakion

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Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake / Rock Slide
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat

Since both Motagua and Smilodon reccomended this, I might try it out, but I was maybe considering another 'mon. Terrakion just seemed like it didnn't have room to get in the battle, so I was thinking some sort of tankish 'mon, maybe some kind of priority user. I will try this out, though.

Terrakion was added for the purpose of wrecking checks to Volcarona. With Volcarona's current set, its checks boil down to Chan/Blissey, Gyarados, Salamence, Dragonite, and Gastrodon. A Pokémon that I noticed to deal with these guys was Porygon2. P2 can copy their abilities, cutting Gyarados' and Salamence's Attack while copying Storm Drain and MULTISCALE off of Gastrodon and Dragonite, respectively. Any thoughts on adding Porygon2 over Terrakion?

[Motagua]

@BlackLight: Porygon2 sounds interesting but how you will be dealing with Chansey & Blissey? Ferrothorn has no Atk EVs while Jirachi´s investment is moderate. Dragonite has to avoid status like poison or paralysis that can be brought by Blissey or Chansey, not forgetting that Dragon Claw due to the lack of offensive investment will not 2HKO Chansey even at +1. If you go with Porygon2, be warned though that Blissey, but mostly Chansey, will become really annoying to face.

[BlackLight]

Originally Posted by Fat Motagua

@BlackLight: Porygon2 sounds interesting but how you will be dealing with Chansey & Blissey? Ferrothorn has no Atk EVs while Jirachi´s investment is moderate. Dragonite has to avoid status like poison or paralysis that can be brought by Blissey or Chansey, not forgetting that Dragon Claw due to the lack of offensive investment will not 2HKO Chansey even at +1. If you go with Porygon2, be warned though that Blissey, but mostly Chansey, will become really annoying to face.

Fair enough, just a thought. There's also the fact that P2 wouldn't keep pressure on the opponent like Terrakion, so that might leave some room to set up.

Also, 555 people have viewed this thread, atm. 2 people have left rates. If you guys have anything constructive to say, say it. It would really help me out.

[Mupa97]

You're not maximizing your defenses with the Ferrothorn spread you have right now. I recommend a spread of 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 Sp Relaxed.This spread gives overall better defenses and 252 HP, 128 Def, 128 SpDef does not spread out defenses evenly like some would believe.

[BlackLight]

Originally Posted by Fat Mupa97

You're not maximizing your defenses with the Ferrothorn spread you have right now. I recommend a spread of 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 Sp Relaxed.This spread gives overall better defenses and 252 HP, 128 Def, 128 SpDef does not spread out defenses evenly like some would believe.

Thanks for the pointer, Mupa. I had originally put that spread up because I had Sp. Defence Jirachi, so I figured a more defensive set could be used, but I had no idea what to do with the EVs. Now that Jirachi will be running a less bulky spread, I'll change Ferro's spread to yours.

[BlackLight]

Bump.