ferrocentdos

[mrfelco]

i won't get too elaborate with my teambuilding process, but basically i wanted to use the ferrocent core. this core loves rain support so i threw in politoed. i also chose to include zapdos in the core and i will explain why later.




Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball

standard support ferrothorn. it needs to run stealth rock as none of the other pokes on this team do. it can wall all the dark, ghost, grass and electric type attacks jellicent can't.


Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spd
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

eats up all the fighting and fire attacks ferrothorn can't take. scald is great for the burn chance. will-o-wisp is great against physical attackers and also for stalling alongside recover and protect.


Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 SDef
Calm Nature
- Roar
- Thunder
- Roost
- Thunder Wave

zapdos is an invaluable component of my defensive core as with its great typing and movepool, it is able to counter the pokemon that threaten both ferrothorn and jellicent, namely tornadus-t and breloom. timid LO tornadus-t's hurricane does about half to my ferrothorn, which means it doesn't really counter it. however, with this EV spread and nature a hurricane only does about 30%, which means zapdos can switch into it even if rocks are on the field. not only that but it can OHKO with thunder(which hits like a truck even uninvested) or catch a switch in with thunder wave or roar. also, zapdos cannot be trapped by dugtrio, while jirachi can. zapdos can also take on breloom if something has been sleep foddered, as it resists its dual STABs and bullet punch. it also works decently as a parashuffler


Politoed (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Perish Song
- Encore

besides the rain it provides, politoed can screw up a baton pass chain with perish song, stop setup sweepers with encore, and poison or burn with toxic or scald respectively.



Tornadus (Tornadus-T) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- U-turn
- Taunt

STAB 100% accurate LO hurricane wrecks a lot of pokemon. superpower's great for cleaning up weakend steel and rock types. u-turn's for scouting and extra damage, while taunt is for stall breaking. regenerator keeps tornadus healthy, though rocks still hurt.


Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

has good offensive synergy with tornadus by taking out the rock, steel and electric pokemon tornadus-t can't take out with hurricane. also outspeeds a lot of threats like opposing scarfers and setup sweepers.

And that's my team. i've been playing with it for a while and it does quite well. i have noticed a couple of flaws though. rocks really hurt this team, specifically zapdos, as it loses a quarter of its health on switch in, which greatly undermines its walling capabilities. also, if i lose even a single member of the core due to a misplay, etc. it can cost me the game as my cores are slightly overly dependent on each other. running stealth rocks on ferrothorn wastes a useful moveslot. a solution to this is replacing zapdos with bronzong, as with levitate it doesn't fear dugtrio while also being able to take on tornadus-t and breloom and also sporting a resistance to rocks. however zapdos has access to roost, a powerful thunder and phazing support. so pls help me improve my team with your suggestions.
Thnx!

[Honus]

Hey cool team, I like Zapdos and Ferrothorn a lot.

One thing I noticed is that SubCM Jirachi can really do a number on this team. +1 Psychic from the standard version is doing 40% at +1 Psychic to Zapdos and does 61.1% - 67.89% after SR with +1 Psychic, so Zapdos is p much dead at that point. SubCM Rachi is able to hold off Tornadus and set up on Ferrothorn every time. After that it just proceeds to take out the team with Psychic/Electric Move, which nothing on the team can really take too well. I feel like you're kind of in a bind between a defensive team and an offensive one here and that you really ought to try for a more defensive one with a balanced attack. I feel like you can achieve this by doing a few things. First I'd get rid of Zapdos and put a SubCM Jirachi of your own. It still beats Tornadus and shits on a lot of other rain teams without having an SR Weak to worry about, as well as setting up on Ferrothorn, which could be a nuisance to this team if played correctly. Also has Psychic to hurt Breloom which is something that Zapdos couldn't really do. Obviously you don't want to switch Jirachi in on Breloom but its an easy way to get rid of him.


Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder
- Psychic
- Substitute
- Calm Mind

Another problem for this team is Rotom-W, it can pretty much Volt Switch anything except Terrakion which dies to Hydro Pump [and can't switch in because of this] and Ferrothorn which is burn prone, and you don't want to let it get burned if you need it later in game. I think that if you really want to check all the threats this team has issues with, you could opt for a full defensive team and swap out Tornadus-T out with SpDef Celebi, especially since Jirachi and Terrakion still retain some offensive presence. I feel like Tornadus is a lot more manageable with rocks up and it's sort of bad for this team that one of its biggest threats is a Pokemon that stops Tornadus cold. It's just sort of iffy to stick a frail sweeper such as Tornadus on a team that looks like its going to be countering Pokemon during a match rather than straight up attacking the ones that are in Tornadus's way. SpDef Celebi basically wrecks a ton of issues this team would have, Rotom-W, Breloom, and SubCM Jirachi. Breloom and Jirachi can't touch its defenses and just die to Perish Song, while Rotom-W obviously loses. You don't really have to worry about Volt Switches to something like a Tornadus-T because you have Jirachi In addition to that it beats the very annoying Rock Polish Landorus, which is gaining a lot of popularity as of late and the set is decent against Keldeo as well. As a final thing, I'd throw 16 Speed EVs on Politoed so that you outspeed standard Skarmory. Sort of big if you want to stop it from Spiking.


Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 212 SDef / 44 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Perish Song
- U-turn
- Recover
- Giga Drain

Change Summary:
Politoed: 12 Def EVs->Speed

[mrfelco]

thnx for the rate. i'll implement the changes and see how well they work.

[Shokwav]

Hello

Zapdos is a good mon in this meta to counter Tornadus-t, Breloom, etc. However, the reason Zapdos doesn't see more use is due to its SR weakness. Because you'll find yourself wanting to switch into Zapdos to handle these threats, you might want to consider a spinner on your team. I feel that the best spinner for your team, due to your use of rain, would be Bulky Tentacruel, who can spin for your Zapdos and Tornadus-t. While Tentacruel may not have access to reliable recovery, he sure as hell can take a beating and recover it off with Rain Dish + Leftovers + Protect. Tentacruel also has pairs well with Zapdos defensively, and can set up Toxic Spikes if you so wish.


Black Sludge
Rain Dish
Bold
252 HP/236 Def/20 Spd

Scald
Protect
Rapid Spin
Toxic Spikes

over .