(VGC) Team Manly Pink

[SceneDiddy]

Team Manly Pink

Introduction
Hey guys! This is my very first RMT here on Smogon (Please be gentle!). I've tried out a lot of different VGC Teams and never had any luck. I then tried a sand team with a lot of commonly used Pokemon like Tyranitar, Garchomp, etc. and that seemed to fit my playstyle the best, however, I still wasn't getting the consistent wins that I wanted. I realized that the key to winning would be to use viable but uncommon Pokemon. Enter this team. The name comes from the fact that most of the Pokemon are Red and Pink. I've only been able to use this team on the GBU, Skarmbliss server and Spring Friendly and I've won a majority of my matches in each. Unfortunately, due to money/work, I won't be able to attend Nationals with this team, but I would have loved to see how far I could have gotten with it.

Team at a Glance

In-depth Analysis

Hippowdon (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Crunch
- Protect


I really love this thing now. I actually prefer it over Tyranitar because it doesn't have a glaring weakness to fighting. It can't take Draco Meteors or other monstrous Special Attacks, but it does shrug off multiple physical hits. The moves are kind of standard but they offer the best coverage.




Cresselia (F) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 84 SAtk / 172 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Rest


Ah, Restochesto Cresselia! Just when you think it's almost knocked out, she rests up and is ready for another 3-4 rounds of battle. The 84 Satk EVs allow me to 2HKO stuff like Hitmontop with Psychic and whatnot. Ice Beam is to help with Dragons. Trick Room greatly supports my team since a lot of them are naturally slow. Trick Room also helps me counter the goodstuffs teams with Tailwind support and other Trick Room teams.




Scizor (M) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Acrobatics
- Protect


I think Bug is such a rogue type in the VGCs. It hits so many common Pokemon for Super-effective damage. With Trick Room support, Scizor can wreck Latios and Ludicolo, both major threats to my team. Bullet Punch gives me some great priority to pick off weakened Pokes. Acrobatics with a flight gem wrecks most fighting types even if Scizor is hit with an intimidate. I opted for Flight Gem over Occa berry because Scizor has trouble taking most Fire moves even with the Occa berry so it seemed kind of pointless.




Heatran (M) @ Shuca Berry
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Protect


So this originally was a physically defensive Latias, but that gave me a weakness to Scizors/other Steels and Hail Teams and I rarely used her to begin with. I recently decided to drop Latias for Heatran and I haven't regretted the decision yet. Sure, I have three Pokemon weak to water in a tier where Rain teams are pretty common, but Heatran allows me to counter so much more than before. I think the only uncommon thing is Hidden Power Grass which helps me hit Gastrodon and Rotom-W for Super Effective damage.



p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; } Excadrill (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drill Run
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Protect


Such a cool looking Pokemon. One of the main reasons I wanted to make a sand team. He's the main sweeper of my team and does it pretty efficiently. Haha, I remember in one match my opponent annihilated my three other Pokemon and Excadrill came back and swept all four of his Pokemon by himself. I chose Drill Run over Earthquake because it technically has higher base power in doubles and Cresselia is my only Pokemon that is immune to Earthquake and she is normally dead by the time Excadrill comes out. Everything else on him seems pretty standard.



Gastrodon (F) @ Rindo Berry
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Muddy Water
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Recover


So, I have a lot of Pokemon that lure in water-type moves and Gastrodon loves to eat them up. With Trick Room support this thing is a monster special attacker. I really don't understand why this Pokemon isn't used more. I opted for Bold Nature over Calm just because I saw more physical pokes than special.


How it deals with common teams


Rain:
Rain, for the most part, is easily predictable. I normally go into Hippowdon, Gastrodon, Scizor and Cresselia. Hippowdon is normally slower than most Politoads so I can normally get my sand up if they decided to lead with it. Trick Room messes with Swift Swim if I lose the weather war and Gastrodon lures in the water attacks they like to spam. Ludicolo is probably the biggest threat to the team if Scizor fails to get rid of it.


Sun:
This matchup makes me a bit nervous. I haven't faced many of these and Volcarona scares the crap out of me. I would probably do Hippowdon, Heatran, Gastrodon/Cresselia and Excadrill.



Sand:
I think my team does pretty well in the mirror match. Hippowdon, Cresselia, Gastrodon and maybe Scizor can take on a majority of what they normally carry and Trick Room support eliminates their speed advantage.


Hail:
These aren't too common or really that great. I do have one thing to say: Screw you Mamoswine. Seriously, that thing is good in VGCs. Most things that resist EQ are weak to Ice and Mamoswine conveniently carries both of those as STABs. Heatran and Scizor wreck most of the things they carry though.


Trick Room:
There are so many viable pokemon that can be used on a dedicated Trick Room team that it is a bit difficult finding a sure-fire strategy. My Pokemon aren't as slow as Trick Room pokemon, so I'll be outsped. I don't really have too much trouble with the match up because Cresselia can always reverse it.


Goodstuffs:
Again, so many viable Pokemon can be used here. I would have to just use Pokemon that counter a majority of theirs. Trick Room support greatly aids me in this match up since most of the time they use Tail Wind.



Conclusion
Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the team so far. I really would like a 2nd pair of eyes to look over the team and search for any glaring weaknesses. Anyways, any and all feedback is accepted. Just be kind. :D

[voodoo pimp]

Great team, it's nice to see something that isn't rain or a slightly different combination of the same 10 goodstuff mons for once. I'm not too experienced with sand personally, but one thing I would suggest is trying a more offensive Gastrodon set, since it's kind of weak without a Storm Drain boost otherwise.

[SceneDiddy]

What kind of EVs would you recommend?

[voodoo pimp]

I'd just go 252 HP/252 SpA Modest unless you find it getting KO'd too much, simpler is usually better.

[SceneDiddy]

Okay, I will try that and see if I notice anything significant defensively. Thanks!

[LPFan]

This is a really solid team! Like voodoo has said, you might want to change the EVs, but otherwise this team is a really effective team! Good luck with it.

[labarith]

I thought the goal of Cressalia was to run Icy Wind?

Also surprised at no Garchomp.

[LPFan]

Originally Posted by Fat labarith

I thought the goal of Cressalia was to run Icy Wind?

Also surprised at no Garchomp.

I think Ice Beam / Trick Room is pretty viable.

And yeah, Garchomp...

[Lucifers Pride]

Sand is probably the only weather type that allows for a lot of versatility, which is why it is easily my favorite weather type. There is no set Pokemon for Sand except maybe Excadrill. I spent a lot of time playing with sand so hopefully I can give you a good rate.

Almost every sand team I've build has had a massively glaring Water-type weakness, and there are some small things you can do to change that.

I too used Heatran on a Sand Team and I found that overall he wasn't pulling his weight, or there were other Pokemon that could do what he was doing, and more. To alleviate your water-type weakness, I would suggest replace him with Zapdos.

Zapdos @ Sitrus Berry
Nature: Modest
EVs: 140 HP / 252 SpA / 116 Spe (I think that's standard...)
-Discharge / Thunderbolt
-Hidden Power Ice / Grass
-Heat Wave
-Detect

Discharge works well on Sand Teams. You have 3 Pokemon immune to it, and you'll be bringing 2 almost 100% of the time, but if you don't feel like having to protect on your other Pokemon, Thunderbolt makes a good substitute. The choice is mainly personal preference. Hidden Power Ice is preferred due to giving Zapdos near perfect SE coverage while HP Grass can be used if you think Gastrodon is really a threat, which I don't think it is.

Using Zapdos gives you another Levitate Pokemon so if you want you can use EQ on Excadrill.

@Labarith - Trick Room is much better because Icy Wind does nothing against Trick Room teams while Trick Room is good against Tailwind, weather, and Trick Room. It's more situational, but overall its much better.

Good luck with the team and I hope I helped!

[labarith]

Originally Posted by Fat LPFan

I think Ice Beam / Trick Room is pretty viable.

And yeah, Garchomp...

Why? Ice Beam's not about to kill much of anything by itself. I assumed TR was "reverse TR", to undo your opponent's TR.

And yeah, Garchomp. The best there is at what he does.

Originally Posted by Fat Lucifers Pride

@Labarith - Trick Room is much better because Icy Wind does nothing against Trick Room teams while Trick Room is good against Tailwind, weather, and Trick Room. It's more situational, but overall its much better.

I'm not suggesting taking off TR... I was suggesting replacing Ice Beam, which won't get any key KOs, with Icy Wind, support move. He's got Psychic he can use on the rare occasions when he's used TR and needs an offensive attack. Besides, using Icy Wind on the last turn of TR seems like tech.

[Lucifers Pride]

Ice Beam helps a lot if you have problems with common Pokemon like Garchomp, Zapdos, the Genies, and Latios to name a few. I know he can just spam rock slide for some but Chomp and Latios can be a huge problem if left unchecked. Cress can probably 2HKO Chomp with Ice Beam and with Sand I'm sure its a 3HKO on Latios.

Edit: Just calc'ed it and Ice Beam 3hkos standard Latios and 2HKOs chomp.

...

---

84 SpAtk Cresselia Ice Beam vs 4 HP/0 SpDef Latios: 38.46% - 46.15%
3 hits to KO

84 SpAtk Cresselia Ice Beam vs 4 HP/0 SpDef Yache Berry Garchomp: 40.22% - 47.83%
3 hits to KO
84 SpAtk Cresselia Ice Beam vs 4 HP/0 SpDef Garchomp: 80.43% - 95.65%
2 hits to KO

[SceneDiddy]

Whoa, so many useful replies. First off, I use Ice Beam over Icy Wind because most times I am using Trick Room to aid my relatively slow team. Icy Wind would only be helping my opponent under Trick Room. Ice beam is a clean 2hko on Chomp which can wreck my team while my plan against Latios involves setting up Trick Room and getting off a Crunch or Bug Bite with Hippowdon and Scizor. I definitely like the Zapdos idea and will try it out.