Golurk Support

This team's main objective is to get Golurk out and start sweeping. The only problem was Focus Sash users, Priority users (considering Golurk is weak to most priority moves) and Weezing; but, I think I've found a good balance.


Cacturne (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 28 HP / 252 SAtk / 228 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Dark Pulse
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast

Cacturne is my check for most of the pokemon that would otherwise counter my team. As the opponent switches out form an unfavorable matchup I can set up a substitute. Dark Pulse and Giga Drain are the main stabs here and Focus Blast is for Coverage. These 3 attacking moves take care of most of Golurk's checks (dark sucker punchers, water aqua jets and ghost shadow sneakers).

Weaknesses/Coverage:
Golurk, Gardevoir, Baltoy
Miltank
Miltank
Zebstrika
Golurk
Golurk, Baltoy


Golurk @ Life Orb
Trait: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Rock Polish
- DynamicPunch
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Golurk is the titan of this team. He comes in, sets up Rock Polish, and starts wrecking everything with 100% accuracy moves. I use the EdgeQuake Combo here for coverage and DynamicPunch as a sort of utility (confusing opponents that are an unfavorable matchup).

Weaknesses/Coverage:
Miltank, Cacturne
Cacturne
Zebstrika, Cacturne
Miltank
Cacturne


Miltank (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Heal Bell
- Milk Drink
- Body Slam
- Toxic

Welcome the standard cleric. With the combo of Milk Drink, Heal Bell and Toxic; I'm ready to stall out most threats. Finally, Body Slam so it's not complete Taunt-bait and for some nice Parahax.

Weaknesses/Coverage:
Golurk, Gardevoir


Zebstrika (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sap Sipper
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 248 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Flame Charge
- Wild Charge
- Return
- Pursuit

Here is my status absorber and secondary attacker. Thanks to Sap Sipper, I can safely switch into Spore, Stun Spore and any other Grass move to neutralize it and get a lovely attack boost. Wild Charge is my STAB here while Return gives some coverage. Finally, Flame Charge and Pursuit are for stat boosting and trapping utility and some damage.

Weaknesses/Coverage:
Cacturne, Baltoy


Gardevoir (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Trace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Trick

Gardevoir is my main counter to Weezing (which is a fairly big threat to this team). I gave it Trick to cripple walls and Eviolite users and Psychic for STAB. Finally, Shadow Ball and Focus Blast are for some nice coverage.

Weaknesses/Coverage:
Cacturne
Cacturne, Miltank
Golurk


Baltoy @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam

The final and MOST important member of my team. This team NEEDS Stealth Rock support in order to have Golurk come in and sweep and I need Rapid Spin considering I'll be doing a bit of switching to protect my Golurk, I can't really afford the residual damage. Baltoy wasn't my first choice considering Armaldo does the same thing but also has Kock Off; however, with its ground typing and levitiate it has immunity to all Spikes and resistance to Stealth Rocks. Finally, so it's not completely useless offensively, I gave it Earth Power and Ice Beam.

Weaknesses/Coverage:
Cacturne, Miltank
Golurk
Cacturne
Cacturne
Cacturne, Zebstrika
Miltank

Hey, nice team. Some things that you should do to make it better are switch around your Golurk set for starters. No Guard DynamicPunch isn't very good. A set with Iron Fist is alot better. Also, Golurk enjoys Spikes support, so by switching around your Cacturne set, you can support Golurk by providing hazards, while being able to hit things with Sucker Punch, which allows you to revenge frail sweepers. Miltank should be replaced with Lickilicky. It provides Wish support while still acting as a cleric, and it can phaze out other setup sweepers with Dragon Tail.

tl;dr:

Sets:

This team is extremely weak to birds right now, especially Swellow and Braviary, both of which can net kills everytime they come in safely. To fix this, I would suggest replacing Baltoy with Regirock, which is one of the most reliable switch-ins to Flying-types available. Your team doesn't require Rapid Spin support since none of your Pokemon are weak to Stealth Rocks. Spike stacking teams usually carry a Spin-Blocker, and Baltoy loses to all of them (Ice Beam is a 4HKO at best on 0 HP Golurk). Although this switch may make your a bit weaker to Fighting-type attacks, Golurk and Gardevoir are usually enough to handle them.

Summary of changes:

Baltoy —> Regirock


I also agree with Audiosurfer's suggestions; they make this team a lot better without changing the play-style much.

Good luck with the team!

It wouldn't hurt to increase your descriptions, but its not that big of a deal to me right now. It would also be nice to understand your thought process for choosing the specific team members, but I believe the raters can guess some of it (though I still am baffled by your choice of Special Cacturne).

Without investment, Baltoy has a terrifying Sp. Atk stat of 116. Its Ice Beam will 2HKO 4HP Rock Polish Torterra if it has taken either Life Orb or Stealth Rock damage. But in all seriousness, what reason do you really have to use Baltoy? So it can repeatedly come in and attempt to spin, but so many teams carry a Ghost type nowadays. Even Haunter laughs at your attempts to Ice Beam it, and it can easily set up on you without trying. Armaldo may be weak to hazards, but if you can manage to beat hit an opposing spinblocker and Rapid Spin once, then you have a large advantage. If you are still adamant about keeping Baltoy, then I HIGHLY recommened replacing Ice Beam with Toxic. FLCL's idea of Regirock is also viable, since your team isn't weak to Rocks, though Spikes will still take a toll.

I completely agree with Audiosurfers comments about Cacturne, Golurk, and Miltank/Lickilicky. Miltank can still be useful for setting up Stealth Rocks though, at least if you change Baltoy. You can also use a Defensive Armaldo, who can survive even a Banded Earthquake from Golurk (though it can't really do enough back either).

The only additional thing I feel I should mention is that you may want to reconsider Pursuit on Zebstrika. Musharna is one of the most common Psychic-types of the tier, and even if it switches out (not likely) Pursuit wouldn't really hurt it that badly. Kadabra tends to carry Focus Sash and can just KO you with Psychic. Goulurk is one of the most common Ghost-types in the tier, and it laughs at Zebstrika. Of course, in all honesty, there really isn't much else for Zebstrika to use, though Double Kick may be more useful for taking out Cinccino without too much recoil (after a Flame Charge unless you also give it a Jolly nature). It's not much, but you really don't have the power or typing to use Pursuit as well as you want.

Here are the changes:


Seeing as most of this was a repeat of what Audiosurfer and FLCL already mentioned, its fine if you don't make these minor changes, since the bulk of what was important has already been covered. Good luck! :)

Cool team! :) I agree with FLCL about birds. You don't really have anything that can come in safely on Swellow. Zebstrika is not that bulky and Swellow can potentially OHKO with Quick Attack. Changing Baltoy to Regirock will help.

Your team also has a big weakness to Ice. Half your team is weak to it! Water-types with Ice Beam will also give you problems. I suggest replacing Gardevoir with Scarfed Rotom-S. It gives you a way to check Fightings (to an extent) and outspeed +2 Gorebyss. Here is the set:

Rotom-S @Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
-Thunderbolt
-Air Slash
-Volt Switch
-Trick

Making this change will make you more vulnerable to Ice, though. I recommend replacing Zebstrika with Banded Emboar. Not very many things will be able to come in safely on STAB Flare Blitz! Emboar easily scares away Ice-types and allows you to check Normal-types as well. This is what you want:

Emboar @Choice Band
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 128 HP/252 Atk/128 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
-Flare Blitz
-Superpower
-Wild Charge
-Head Smash

Pretty straightforward. Max attack and an Adamant Nature let's you do as much damage as possible with the Choice Band. STAB Flare Bliz and Superpower do ridiculous amounts of damage! Wild Charge and Head Smash are for coverage.

Hope this helps! :)

I REALLY don't want to change my Golurk. If I switch to Iron Fist then I have to take off Stone Edge ('cause I don't trust the accuracy) and then I lose my coverage so I might as well go back to my sub-punch idea and go with substitute, focus punch, shadow punch and earthquake.

My reasoning with a special cacturne was that I had access to more recovery with giga drain as opposed to leftovers and trying to switch into a water type attack, but I guess I can switch it over to a spiker set.

Finally, I'll try regirock but I still don't feel comfortable without a spinner

[Check back later for changes above]

EDIT: Just tried these changes on pokemon showdown and it SUCKED! But the Regirock went over well so I'll keep that.