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The Team
The Details
Latios@Dragon Gem
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Substitute
- Protect
One of the biggest offensive threats of every metagame in which it's allowed, all but the mightiest of special walls live in fear of Latios's Draco Meteor. Psychic beats the many popular Fighting-types and lets it do major damage without hurting its Special Attack, and Substitute lets it set up against Sucker Punch and the double Protects that Infernape's Fake Out often causes.
Infernape@Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 236 Atk/60 SpA/212 Spe
Nature: Naive
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Heat Wave
- Rock Slide
Deals with most of the things that scare Latios, and takes care of the Steel-types it can't really hurt. Fake Out is of course a metagame-defining move, and its twin STABs have amazing super effective coverage. Rock Slide is mainly so it isn't totally helpless against Chandelure, but is also nice for other Pokémon that resist its other attacks. 212 Speed beats Garchomp, and the Attack EVs let it always OHKO 252/4 Chople Tyranitar, with the rest dumped into boosting its Heat Wave.
Breloom@Focus Sash
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Protect
A Pokémon who needs no introduction, as virtually everyone knows well the rage-inducing pain of Spore. Mach Punch over a stronger Fighting move because most of the time it's too busy curing everyone's insomnia to actually attack, so it's usually better to be able to finish off a weakened threat, while Seed Bomb deals with the omnipresent bulky Waters.
Heatran@Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpA/4 SpD
Nature: Modest
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power Ice
- Protect
An excellent partner for Breloom, as they cover many of each other's weaknesses. Heat Wave over Eruption for consistency and so I don't have to use Quiet, while the other moves cover everything except Rotom and hit many of the top Pokémon super effectively. Due to its mediocre Speed, it's also a major threat against fast teams in Jellicent's Trick Room, and is a perfect switch-in for Escavalier in either case.
Escavalier@Bug Gem
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 SpD
Nature: Brave
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Toxic
- Protect
Unless I missed something, there are only two Pokémon capable of OHKOing any Cresselia (barring Tanga Berry or a sash, neither of which I've ever seen) without a crit or partner support. The other is Heracross, which suffers from a lower Attack stat and worse bulk and defensive typing. If there's no Cresselia to deal with, it can still punch through even many resistant opponents. Iron Head is a decent secondary stab and can get flinch hax if TR is up (since it underspeeds everything that matters except for a tie with Ferrothorn). But its move pool beyond that is pretty much nonexistent, so I really don't know what is worth using for the third attack, because nothing I've put there has proven terribly useful. Update: After several dozen more battles, I still have yet to use any attack I've put there even a single time, so I'm still open for suggestions. Update 2: I was trolled by Minimize Chansey a few too many times, so I'm just gonna put Toxic there and hope to outstall it.
Jellicent@Sitrus Berry
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 236 HP/20 Def/252 SpA
Nature: Modest
- Hydro Pump
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room
- Protect
Escavalier obviously does not like Fire-types, so Jellicent is there to protect it. Water/Ghost coverage only misses out on Hydreigon and Ferrothorn (and some irrelevant stuff) - most of the teammates can handle Hydreigon and none of its other moves can really hurt Ferrothorn anyway. Trick Room is both to counter other TR teams if they manage to set up and to use it to my own advantage against Swift Swimmers and such. The EVs guarantee it will always survive a Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Latios (barring any prior damage), with the rest to shore up its physical bulk a bit.
Threats and Problems
I have yet to see a Rotom-H, but I think it might give me some trouble if one ever shows up, since most of my team either can't touch it or dies to one of its STABs. Update: I finally saw one, but I got such an obscene amount of paralysis hax in that battle that there's no way of telling how I would have done under more reasonable circumstances.
No single team style or Pokémon is really giving me more difficulty than the others. All of my losses have been to misprediction, hax, or a bad overall matchup. Since y'all obviously can't help me with the first two, I guess I'm just looking for suggestions for better overall matchups.
I was originally trying to make a Spinda + Role Play Latias team, but decided to scrap the gimmick and turn it into a legitimate team. With no need for Role Play, I swapped Latias for her more attractive brother.
Spinda was no longer around making things complicated, so Latios brought in one of his best friends, Infernape.
Now that my core pair was set up, I figured I'd look for something cool. And what is the coolest Pokémon? Regice, of course.
At this point, I started to take things more seriously. I realized that my team would have some issues dealing with fast opponents, so I brought back the star of my VGC11 team.
At the other end of the speed spectrum, Trick Room teams were trolling me hard, especially Cresselia. So I added something to really bug her, and then a partner to keep the fire away.
After some more testing, I decided that neither Regice nor Tornadus were really pulling their weight - I rarely found use for Tailwind, and despite having awesome coverage, Regice's attacks just didn't hit hard enough to justify its defensive issues. So I dropped both of them. After falling ill to a nasty case of Spore in one of my battles, I was inspired to try out Breloom instead, and added in Heatran more or less on a whim while browsing through the possible bulky special sweepers to replace Regice.
Spinda was no longer around making things complicated, so Latios brought in one of his best friends, Infernape.
Now that my core pair was set up, I figured I'd look for something cool. And what is the coolest Pokémon? Regice, of course.
At this point, I started to take things more seriously. I realized that my team would have some issues dealing with fast opponents, so I brought back the star of my VGC11 team.
At the other end of the speed spectrum, Trick Room teams were trolling me hard, especially Cresselia. So I added something to really bug her, and then a partner to keep the fire away.
After some more testing, I decided that neither Regice nor Tornadus were really pulling their weight - I rarely found use for Tailwind, and despite having awesome coverage, Regice's attacks just didn't hit hard enough to justify its defensive issues. So I dropped both of them. After falling ill to a nasty case of Spore in one of my battles, I was inspired to try out Breloom instead, and added in Heatran more or less on a whim while browsing through the possible bulky special sweepers to replace Regice.
The Details
Latios@Dragon Gem
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Substitute
- Protect
One of the biggest offensive threats of every metagame in which it's allowed, all but the mightiest of special walls live in fear of Latios's Draco Meteor. Psychic beats the many popular Fighting-types and lets it do major damage without hurting its Special Attack, and Substitute lets it set up against Sucker Punch and the double Protects that Infernape's Fake Out often causes.
Infernape@Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 236 Atk/60 SpA/212 Spe
Nature: Naive
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Heat Wave
- Rock Slide
Deals with most of the things that scare Latios, and takes care of the Steel-types it can't really hurt. Fake Out is of course a metagame-defining move, and its twin STABs have amazing super effective coverage. Rock Slide is mainly so it isn't totally helpless against Chandelure, but is also nice for other Pokémon that resist its other attacks. 212 Speed beats Garchomp, and the Attack EVs let it always OHKO 252/4 Chople Tyranitar, with the rest dumped into boosting its Heat Wave.
Breloom@Focus Sash
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Protect
A Pokémon who needs no introduction, as virtually everyone knows well the rage-inducing pain of Spore. Mach Punch over a stronger Fighting move because most of the time it's too busy curing everyone's insomnia to actually attack, so it's usually better to be able to finish off a weakened threat, while Seed Bomb deals with the omnipresent bulky Waters.
Heatran@Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpA/4 SpD
Nature: Modest
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power Ice
- Protect
An excellent partner for Breloom, as they cover many of each other's weaknesses. Heat Wave over Eruption for consistency and so I don't have to use Quiet, while the other moves cover everything except Rotom and hit many of the top Pokémon super effectively. Due to its mediocre Speed, it's also a major threat against fast teams in Jellicent's Trick Room, and is a perfect switch-in for Escavalier in either case.
Escavalier@Bug Gem
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 SpD
Nature: Brave
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Toxic
- Protect
Unless I missed something, there are only two Pokémon capable of OHKOing any Cresselia (barring Tanga Berry or a sash, neither of which I've ever seen) without a crit or partner support. The other is Heracross, which suffers from a lower Attack stat and worse bulk and defensive typing. If there's no Cresselia to deal with, it can still punch through even many resistant opponents. Iron Head is a decent secondary stab and can get flinch hax if TR is up (since it underspeeds everything that matters except for a tie with Ferrothorn). But its move pool beyond that is pretty much nonexistent, so I really don't know what is worth using for the third attack, because nothing I've put there has proven terribly useful. Update: After several dozen more battles, I still have yet to use any attack I've put there even a single time, so I'm still open for suggestions. Update 2: I was trolled by Minimize Chansey a few too many times, so I'm just gonna put Toxic there and hope to outstall it.
Jellicent@Sitrus Berry
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 236 HP/20 Def/252 SpA
Nature: Modest
- Hydro Pump
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room
- Protect
Escavalier obviously does not like Fire-types, so Jellicent is there to protect it. Water/Ghost coverage only misses out on Hydreigon and Ferrothorn (and some irrelevant stuff) - most of the teammates can handle Hydreigon and none of its other moves can really hurt Ferrothorn anyway. Trick Room is both to counter other TR teams if they manage to set up and to use it to my own advantage against Swift Swimmers and such. The EVs guarantee it will always survive a Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Latios (barring any prior damage), with the rest to shore up its physical bulk a bit.
Threats and Problems
I have yet to see a Rotom-H, but I think it might give me some trouble if one ever shows up, since most of my team either can't touch it or dies to one of its STABs. Update: I finally saw one, but I got such an obscene amount of paralysis hax in that battle that there's no way of telling how I would have done under more reasonable circumstances.
No single team style or Pokémon is really giving me more difficulty than the others. All of my losses have been to misprediction, hax, or a bad overall matchup. Since y'all obviously can't help me with the first two, I guess I'm just looking for suggestions for better overall matchups.