Team Super Special Awesome

Hello all! This is my first RMT, so please be nice. After using this team for the majority of SPL, Regionals, and the latest WiFi Tournament, I don't feel like keeping in my little circle anymore. This team was built a little differently than most VGC teams I've built before. For one, this is one of the very few whole teams that I've made that has gone through many different iterations. Every week in SPL I would make a tweak or two there in order to fit it more to my opponent's playstyle. The final product was a little bit less specific and probably could have used a little bit more tweaking, but it was what I was most comfortable using. Keep in mind, that while this team performs admirably in a single game format, it excels in a best of three situation.

The team at a glance:


Team overview:
The best way to describe this team would be as TPCi puts it, a read and react team. The team focuses on disrupting your opponent's game plan and forcing them to play your game. Offensively, the team may lack the firepower that a majority of VGC teams carry nowdays, but it makes up for that with some pretty good offensive typing. Defensively, I've stolen from the singles crowd and pretty much built around a Fire/Water/Grass core that makes it generally very easy to switch in and out to gain the upperhand.


Sableye (M) @ Lagging Tail
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Fake Out
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Trick

The star of the show. Sableye is 100% there to mess with the opponent. I almost always go with Sableye because his support ability is second to none. Sableye can neuter any physical attacker with WoW, stop a majority of setup with priorty Taunt, and start messing with speed and items with Trick.


Heatran (M) @ Shuca Berry
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 228 SAtk / 28 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Protect
- Dragon Pulse

Heatran is EV'ed defensively in order to deal with certain twin Dragon Pokemon, thanks to Cassie. Heatran loves the Sableye support, with WoW stopping many Groudon/Fighting Pokemon as well as boosting Heatrans already monstrous Heat Waves. I opted for Dragon Pulse over a Hidden Power simply because I wanted to dispatch the Latis and hit Kingdra.


Shedinja @ Focus Sash
Trait: Wonder Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Shadow Sneak
- X-Scissor
- Sunny Day
- Protect

No one expects Shedinja anymore. Shedinja is bar-none the best straight rain counter in the game. Alot of people don't expect me to bring him, but many of the most used Pokemon don't carry much to counter Shedinja. With Sableye and the rest of the team, you can force some switches to bait out the common Shedinja counters and just let Shedinja wreck the end game. He also loves Cresselia <3


Virizion @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Justified
EVs: 228 HP / 80 Atk / 56 Def / 112 SDef / 32 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Protect
- Light Screen

Virizion is one of my favorite Pokemon from Gen5 so I was desperately seeking a way to fit it on the team. Turns out that being able to destroy Acrobatics with Sableye by WoWing them or stealing their Flying Gem, Virizion turns into quite the boss. I feel like alot of people forget how bulky Virizion is and just kind of throw a Heat Wave at it and expect it to keel over. Between WoW and Light Screen, Virizion becomes kind of a pain to take down and both STABs are very useful again the 3 common weather starters.


Cloyster (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Skill Link
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Explosion
- Razor Shell

CS Cloyster is all sorts of amazing. Originally, I was using Abomasnow in this slot, but Yache Berries were stopping me cold (pun intended) Muffinhead and Duy came to me with this and I instantly fell in love. It runs through absolutely anything that is weak to Ice and leaves no prisoners. While it is not as specially bulky as I would like, Cloyster was a cool enough Pokemon to make the cut. In a best of 3 environment, having CS Cloyster makes your oppenent think twice about bringing anything weak to Cloyster.


Drifblim (M) @ Flight Gem
Trait: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Acrobatics
- Destiny Bond
- Protect

Drifblim <3 Sableye's favorite partner. Drifblim boasts decent attack and an ability that almost no one remembers. After firing off a STAB Acrobatics, Drifblim reaches 202 speed and outspeeds up to base 130 Pokemon. After that it starts hitting anything it can with Acrobatics and Sucker Punch until its on its last legs. If it feels threatened, it lets out a Destiny Bond and takes down at least another Pokemon (usually, but I'll get into that after this).

How it all comes together:

This team pretty much revolves around Sableye. Everything else goes around it and greatly appreciates the support it brings, but it isn't exactly necessary. Usually, the Drifblim/Sableye lead is what I go with and Virizion/Heatran come in the back. With a Double Ghost lead, the opponent is unable to Fake Out anything which already grants me an advantage. From here, if the matchup if advantageous, I can Fake Out the minor threat and Acrobatics the other Pokemon or switch in for a better type advantage. This lead loves Hitmontop/Anything leads and Politoed/Ludicolo. Both leads are usually unsure of what to do with the loss of Fake Out and tend to just try to attack. Acrobatics one shots both of these Pokemon and grants it the Unburden boost. Barring a crit, Drifblim will remain on the field with its monstrous speed and access to Destiny Bond to maybe take down another Pokemon. I've gotten into the habit of scouting to see what they will do with Protect so that I can decide if they know it has Destiny Bond. In a best of 3 situation, Destiny Bond scares away potential attackers and lets Drifblim fire off more attacks of allows you a free switch because they will be afraid to attack that slot. Virizion and Heatran exist for potential switchins. Virizion can switch into many special attackers and get a Light Screen up for the rest of the team. Heatran, as stated before can switch into Cresselia, Latios, Scizor, or Abomasnow and not have to worry about anything they are throwing out. Since Drifblim is Ghost/Flying, there won't be very many Earthquakes/Close Combats coming in towards Heatran. From here, the back Pokemon just do their thing with some Sableye support.

How it deals with some common teams:

Trick Room:
Sableye. Between priority Taunt and Wow, the inability for the opponent to Fake Out, and the Lagging Tail to trick onto strong Trick Room sweepers, Sableye sets the stage for the rest of the team quite nicely. In the case of Rage Powder and Follow Me for Trick Room, Cloyster or Drifblim will take out the respect Pokemon. The team doesn't really care about Trick Room as a majority of it is already used to being slow and going second.

Rain:
I described the usual Drifblim/Sableye lead there, but Virizion and Shedinja are also great at coming in on rain. Neither Pokemon care too much about most of the attacks that rain throws around, and if it happens that they are running Scizor, I can drop one for Heatran.

Sand:
Sableye and Virizion do their thing here. Between WoW and Virizions Typing, Earthquakes and Rock Slides arent really going to be touching these two. Cloyster can deal with Landorus and Garchomp if needed and with it's amazing Defense can usually take a hit or two if it misses because of Sand Veil.

THE SKARMBLISS SPECIAL:
These matches are usually very predictable and any of these Pokemon will work depending on what variation of it they are running. Rotom-W/T-Tar/ gets eaten by Virizion, Chand/Volc/Latios/Metagross/Scizor are Heatran Bait, and Garchomp/Zapdos/Latios can get Cloystered pretty easily. With the offensive teams, Sableye tends to mess with their Gems, Scarfs, Bright Powders and what not and makes them hit for less than they were intending too which messes up a surprising amount of people.

Thank you for taking a journey with me to see a little bit of what this team is all about. If you feel like you have some suggestions, feel free to chime in. Keep in mind, that I am kind of picky about my Pokemon because of the way I liked to play. I don't like playing the same game as other people. The more different my team is from other people's the harder it will be for them to figure out. If I can force them to play my game, the game will be that much easier for me. Being able to read your opponent while they're still trying to figure you out gains you a great advantage for your match. (Also alot of the common Pokemon are boring and ugly.)

Huy said:

(Also alot of the common Pokemon are boring and ugly.)

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Agreed. I have no real suggestions since I've used a different variant of this, so I just wanted to post and say I love it. ^_^

Beautiful team Huy <3
But it seems like you'd have a hard time against Fighting-types with Guts if Drifblim goes down; how else do you deal with them?

Yeah, it is sort of an issue and the only real thing I can do is conserve Drifblim, which isn't too big of an issue with Heatran/Virizion to switch Drifblim out of. Like I said, it was primarily a best of 3 team, so that gives me a little bit of room to work with. If anything, I'd probably drop Shedinja for something to help with that.

Gorgeous team you've got going here, very unique, and I'm loving such underrated Pokes to get some time in the limelight <3

Only big thing that gets me is that Sableye will become absolutely massive priority Taunt bait from either Tornadus, Thundurus, Whimsicott, or any other faster Prankster Pokemon, and with the right prediction from opponents, Sableye can become some dead water fast.

Your team looks like it'll also hate other Sableye too, everything besides Heatran will be crippled after being burned by priority WoW. That also leads me into my other point that maybe you could possibly find room for another special attacker in somewhere? Idk I just like keeping the balance with my attackers, as a physically bulky Pokemon could come in and wall a good amount of your team.

Otherwise, again, beautiful team.

All of the other Prankster Pokemon pretty much get eaten up by Cloyster so all it takes is one a switch and an Icicle Spear in order to make Sableye useful again. I will agree that opposing Sableye have been kind of annoying which is why I am looking at switching out Shedinja for something more useful like a Rotom or a Gastrodon that would give it a little but of special edge. My other option would be to switch Virizion to a special variant would could be neat with Giga Drain keeping it alive even more.

A great team huy! I just don't have anything to say, but one thing, I'm wondering why do you have explosion on cloyster?

I have 3 ghosts and a steel. Last ditch effort, I can explode if I really want to.

Epic Team! BTW, how did Shedninja do? I remember testing him but realized that most of my games would have come to a loss because of the time limit. Did that happen to you?

i feel like shedinja could be a different utility pokemon but not sure what it should be, exactly. otherwise this team is pretty cool. cloyster is a monster :)

4.4/5, would rate again

Really neat team! I saw these humorous old sprites somewhere else and recognized them immediately. I can't think of any real improvements in terms of movesets, I would have to have used the team to nderstand what could really help there. The only real thing that came to mind was what seems like a sizable weakness to Zapdos and Thundurus, especially with Hidden Power Flying. Outside of Cloyster and Heatran, the team has huge trouble doing significant damage to them. Sableye can cripple them pretty hard with Lagging Tail, I would actually use Iron Ball instead on him. Not decreasing your own priority is good, and Iron Ball should have about the same effect on them going after your Pokemon because most of your stuff is semi-fast. Zapdos and Thundurus can OHKO or 2HKO everything on the team if they have HP Flying. Virizion won't go down right away unless they have a Gem, but is walled by them. Heatran can't do particularly significant damage in return without HP Ice, and Thunderbolt will 2HKO him without Light Screen up. So Cloyster is key to dealing with them.

I use Lagging Tail so that it helps in Trick Room, too. As for the Zapdos/Thundurus issue, people almost carry it as a lead. Some trickery with Drifblim/Sableye allows me to get Drifblim ahead of them and Destiny Bond them if I really need to. But you are correct, that Cloyster is my main out. On the Regional version of this team, I had a Garchomp for those, but I didn't really feel like it helped so I switched it out for Shedinja for fun. More than likely, if I'm going to use this team again, I would probably use something like Gastrodon over Shedinja.

I would actually use Iron Ball instead on him. Not decreasing your own priority is good, and Iron Ball should have about the same effect on them going after your Pokemon because most of your stuff is semi-fast.

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There's no reason to use Iron Ball over Lagging Tail. Iron Ball just makes the opponent faster under Trick Room. The only thing i could see from Tricking Iron Ball is getting rid of enemy Rotom-W's Levitate so Tran could hit it with EP...which is really not a good idea at all lol.

Huy said:

More than likely, if I'm going to use this team again, I would probably use something like Gastrodon over Shedinja.

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So much for retiring.

The team is genius as always, Huy. Tremendous work, keep it up!

Huy, my man. You team is sensational. Interesting to see how you use Sableye a lot different to me though. I do honestly envy your ability to build a cool team like this that actually works so well.

Say what you like, I better see you playing something this fun at Nats.

I love this team. Seriously, I wish I could Trace your team-building ability and be able to use uncommon Pokémon so successfully.

Well done, man!

The fact that you use Shedinja is baller enough for me to love this team. And Sunny Day Shedinja is actually pretty anti-weather, you just need to play it pretty carefully against Sandstorm teams, since Shedinja seems to be one of your main ways on taking down Cresselia.

Scarfed Cloyster has been something that I have been seeing pretty often recently. It buttfucks a lot of the metagame ;-;

Awesome team man, if I can think of a good rate, I'll post one. Definitely worth a Luvdisc

Now this is what good and unusual looks like. Definitely worth a Luvdisc. One thing I should ask though, is what happens when Cloyster gets paralysed? It happens to be a great check, but should it get paralysed, there's a good chance what it usually checks will check it back :p
Great team, keep it up!

That's what lagging tail is there for! Switch Cloyster out, get the Lagging Tail on the other Pokemon and continue to Icicle Spear later.