Admiral Bobbery's Bob-omb Squad!

Admiral Bobbery · Aug 8th, 2012, 2:16:21 AM

ADMIRAL BOBBERY'S BOB-OMB SQUAD

Hello! Many of you don't know me as Admiral Bobbery! That would be because I am extremely knew to Smogon. Though I have been a lurker for over a year, I have only recently started posting. This is my very first Rate My Team.

In this past year of competitive battling, I have tried many teams. Dozens of poorly thrown together, messy, jumbled teams which just barely managed to get me by, and for a while, I was happy with that. But eventually I decided that instead of making a new team every time the one I was using wasn't working as well, I would create one team and craft it meticulously until it became as close as I could get to a GREAT team.

Then, Black 2 and White 2 came out and I had to put my project on hold. There were many new threats that I had to consider, and until the metagame stabilized, I would have to keep trying new things until I found what worked and until all the other trainers figured out the new things that were worth using and those that were not.

It was a few weeks ago that I decided it was time for me to begin forming my first well crafted team again. The metagame has almost completely stabilized, and I know what to look out for as well as what Pokémon I can use effectively. Though it did take a while to build, with many Pokémon coming and going, I believe this team is ready to be judged by the brilliant minds of the Smogon community (seriously, part of the reason I never made an account here is cause you guys scared me XD).

Without further adieu, here is my Bob-omb Squad!

The Team At A Glance

Team Building Process

...

Under the magnifying glass

Vivian/Roserade@Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
EV's: 252HP/120 SpA/136 SpD

~Spikes
~Giga Drain
~Hidden Power Fire
~Rest

Roserade is my lead. That is, she is the Pokémon I send out firs 90% of the time. She is actually pretty efficient at setting up spikes because so few people know how to deal with her because she is seen so infrequently. However, her purpose is not always to set up three layers of spikes because I usually need to keep the Grass STAB for Later in the battle. If she can only get up one or two layers before she is forced out, that is just fine by me. Hidden Power Fire is to hit the common Forretress people send out to rapid spin my spikes, which is a comfortable 2HKO. She might have a hard time against some of her common counters and her special attack isn't quite good enough for her to really threaten any other Pokémon, but she does what she does well.

Koops/Cloyster@White Herb
Ability: Skill Link
Nature: Jolly
EV's 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Def

~Shell Smash
~Icicle Spear
~Rock Blast
~Razor Shell

I know what most people think when they see this set, "WHY USE RAZOR SHELL OVER HYDRO PUMP?!?!" Well I actually have a good reason. Razor Shell is a more effective move because it takes out specially defensive Heatran more easily. Anyway, Cloyster is amazing. I had never used one before this, but he goes to WORK on teams that are unprepared for him. If he can switch in and set up before there are any hazards set, he can poke some very important holes in teams so that Landorus, Latios, and Conkeldurr can clean up. He can sometimes work as a late game sweeper, but because I have no spinner, he might not be able to get his boosts up in time. Jolly nature is so he can outspeed common Timid Scarfers like Latios after a boost.

Bowser/Heatran@Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
Nature: Timid
EV's 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe

~Fire Blast
~Earth Power
~Hidden Power Ice
~Stealth Rock

Heatran does what it needs to do. It sets up Stealth Rocks, gets the occasional KO on Dragon types, but mostly he's there to absorb Fire type moves. Don't get me wrong, Heatran is great on this team, but outside of those things, he doesn't do much. He certainly isn't sweeping anytime soon, but there's a reason this was the most used OU Pokémon last generation, and he suits his purpose in my team well.

Hooktail/Latios@Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
EV's 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe

~Draco Meteor
~Recover
~Hidden Power Fire
~Psyshock

Part of what I love about this game is surprise factor. If you can fool your opponent into thinking you have one set, but really you have another, it can net you a key KO and win yo the match. This Latios SCREAMS surprise factor! With Expert Belt equipped, most people expect the Specs set, only to switch their would be counter into a non-choiced Dragon of death who then proceeds to KO them with a super effective move. His above average coverage allows me to land a KO on many common switch ins to Latios such as Scizor. Latios also does well alongside Landorus and Conkeldurr at cleaning up late game.

Lakilester/Landorus@Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Force
Nature: Naive
EV's 252 Atk/4 SpA/252 Spe

~Earthquake
~Stone Edge
~Hidden Power Ice
~U-Turn

As his analysis says on site, Landorus just has everything he needs to succeed. Landorus was a great replacement for Terrakion. He is a good counter to sandstorm teams due to his ability Sand Force, and he allows me to keep momentum in my favor with U-Turn, something I had never had on this team previously. STAB Earthquake is great for cleaning up one all the Flying types/Levitate Pokémon are KO'd, and Hidden Power Ice allows me to kill Gliscor as well as get a x4 effective move on Dragonite and Salamence.

Grubba/Conkeldurr@Leftovers
Ability: Guts
Nature: Adamant
EV's 120 HP/252 Atk/136 SpD

~Drain Punch
~Mach Punch
~Payback
~Bulk Up

Ever since Black and White 2 came out, I have wanted to use Ice Punch on Conkeldurr simply because I love watching Gliscor fall after witching in on a Bulk Up and expecting me to switch out. there is no feeling like beating a Gliscor with a Conkeldurr. None. Scratch that, maybe KOing Thundurus-Therian is as good. Anyway, this set is pretty standard, he sets up, he heals, he absorbs statuses, he's Conkeldurr! His Mach Punch brings much needed priority to this team, and the fighting type STAB works wonders.

Threat List

Life Orb Starmie can hit 5/6 of my team super effectively and is a major problem, because, outside of Landorus, who isn't going to be switching into a Starmie anytime soon, no one on my team outspeeds it. Jirachi's suggested scizor does help with this problem as it gives me a way to KO it and takes away one Pokémon weak to it.

Like Starmie, it has great coverage, is immune to hazards, and can outspeed everything but Landorus on my team and KO. Also, Scizor helps KO this too.

If this can get more than one Quiver Dance, even my Landorus can't outspeed, and he is my only check to it outside of Heatran, who cant do anything back to Volcarona.

Calm Mind sets with physical bulk investment kind of wreck my team if they aren't taken care of quickly. Not really sure what can be done about that other than hop using repeated U-Turns from Landorus will be enough.

Outside of Roserade, I have nothing to do to Jellicent. Even then, the only chance I have of KOing it is to pray to God that it doesn't freeze me with Ice Beam or get a SpD drop with Shadowball.

Sun Teams in general cause trouble for me, but this bugger gets me good. It's not AS hard to counter ever since I got Ice Punch Conkeldurr, but that's only if I've sacrificed someone to sleep clause. Latios can also handle it pretty well, but only as a revenge killer.

Funny how these things happen. I use Conkeldurr, yet have nothing to beat it. I don't have much to do to Bulk Up sets with good Special Defense. Latios can try to Psyshock if they haven't set up any Bulk Ups yet but that's about it.

Again, I'll post a better threat list tomorrow, but these are the major ones I've seen.

In Conclusion

I gotta say, I really am very happy with this team. One of the reasons I've been so hesitant to post to RMT before is that I didn't want my teams to be ripped apart, but I really do think this one is good. it works well, I rarely lose, and when I do it's usually because of hax or if my opponent is using Smash Pass Toxicroak (damn that was a sad tournament...). If anyone sees anything that can be improved in the team, I would love to test out any suggestions you guys have for me. Thank you in advance for making my first RMT experience a good one!

Importable

...

Asek · Aug 8th, 2012, 6:08:06 AM

Hey,

Very nice team Admiral Bobbery, but I did see a few weaknesses other than the ones you listed. The Standard Life Orb Starmie in rain looks like a very big problem for your team, as nothing here can switch into its powerful water type attacks without dying the next turn from one of its coverage move. The only pokemon here who outspeeds it is your Landorus, and he can't switch in unless your opponent is silly and uses Thunderbolt for some reason. Also opposing Shell Smash Cloyster can be very troublesome for you as it can set up on Landorus locked into HP [ICE] or Earthquake and from there he will blow you to pieces. Also, Conk cannot revenge it as if it carries a White Herb, Mach Punch will be doing below 50% damage!

First, why do you run a Focus Sash on Cloyster when you don't pack a spinner? Since most people will try get their hazards up as quickly as possible to maimize damage caused by them, Focus Sash will very often be rendered usless on Cloyster when it switches in and takes 25% from Steal Rock anyway. If you try to get a Sweep going very early on in the game before hazards have been up, you won't be able to muscle through a lot of things that need to be weakened prior for Cloyster to be able to beat them. For these reasons try out Life Orb / White Herb > Focus Sash as one lets you raise your damage output to massive levels, while White Herb leaves you less prone to revenging from powerful priority such as Scizor's Bullet Punch. Both will serve you better than the inconsistent Focus Sash, which will often be doing nothing for you.

Although I can see in your writing that you were eageraly anticipating Ice Punch for Conkelldurr, it doesn't offer the best coverage for it. It leaves you hard walled by Jellicent, and besides Gliscor every other target is hit harder by either of its other 2 coverage moves. Gliscor is hit hard enough anyway if it dares to toxic Conk, and the only real issue is seeing Acrobatics and being stalled out by SubToxic. Definitly use Stone Edge / Payback > Ice Punch, as it lets you hit bulky psychics a lot harder, and they both give you a way to do solid damage to Jellicent. Ice Punch is fairly weak when it does not it SFE, and Stone Edge hits all of its targets besides Gliscor a lot harder, granted a bit less reliably. Payback on the other hand has more PP and hits with the same power with 100% accuracy most of the time.

Looking at 2 of your biggest threats in Conkelldurr and Reuniclus, I saw that handling them easier could be done by giving Roserade Sleep Powder > Rest. Between Giga Drain and Leftovers, Roserade will have large amounts of revoery availabe to it anyway, and Sleep powder lets you eliminate things you can't touch with your current set, including all of OU's dragons and Heatran. Also, Rest offers the opponent a chance to get a free switch in while Roserade switches out, while Sleep powder makes Roserade very hard to switch into and lets you get a free layer of spikes up, which is always great EDIT: Sleep Powder is illegal with spikes Lol sorry

GL with the team

Admiral Bobbery · Aug 8th, 2012, 8:20:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Asek

Hey,

Very nice team Admiral Bobbery, but I did see a few weaknesses other than the ones you listed. The Standard Life Orb Starmie in rain looks like a very big problem for your team, as nothing here can switch into its powerful water type attacks without dying the next turn from one of its coverage move. The only pokemon here who outspeeds it is your Landorus, and he can't switch in unless your opponent is silly and uses Thunderbolt for some reason. Also opposing Shell Smash Cloyster can be very troublesome for you as it can set up on Landorus locked into HP [ICE] or Earthquake and from there he will blow you to pieces. Also, Conk cannot revenge it as if it carries a White Herb, Mach Punch will be doing below 50% damage!

First, why do you run a Focus Sash on Cloyster when you don't pack a spinner? Since most people will try get their hazards up as quickly as possible to maimize damage caused by them, Focus Sash will very often be rendered usless on Cloyster when it switches in and takes 25% from Steal Rock anyway. If you try to get a Sweep going very early on in the game before hazards have been up, you won't be able to muscle through a lot of things that need to be weakened prior for Cloyster to be able to beat them. For these reasons try out Life Orb / White Herb > Focus Sash as one lets you raise your damage output to massive levels, while White Herb leaves you less prone to revenging from powerful priority such as Scizor's Bullet Punch. Both will serve you better than the inconsistent Focus Sash, which will often be doing nothing for you.

Although I can see in your writing that you were eageraly anticipating Ice Punch for Conkelldurr, it doesn't offer the best coverage for it. It leaves you hard walled by Jellicent, and besides Gliscor every other target is hit harder by either of its other 2 coverage moves. Gliscor is hit hard enough anyway if it dares to toxic Conk, and the only real issue is seeing Acrobatics and being stalled out by SubToxic. Definitly use Stone Edge / Payback > Ice Punch, as it lets you hit bulky psychics a lot harder, and they both give you a way to do solid damage to Jellicent. Ice Punch is fairly weak when it does not it SFE, and Stone Edge hits all of its targets besides Gliscor a lot harder, granted a bit less reliably. Payback on the other hand has more PP and hits with the same power with 100% accuracy most of the time.

Looking at 2 of your biggest threats in Conkelldurr and Reuniclus, I saw that handling them easier could be done by giving Roserade Sleep Powder > Rest. Between Giga Drain and Leftovers, Roserade will have large amounts of revoery availabe to it anyway, and Sleep powder lets you eliminate things you can't touch with your current set, including all of OU's dragons and Heatran. Also, Rest offers the opponent a chance to get a free switch in while Roserade switches out, while Sleep powder makes Roserade very hard to switch into and lets you get a free layer of spikes up, which is always great

GL with the team

Thank you very much for the advice! You are absolutely right, Starmie has given me some serious trouble and I totally forgot about it. Especially when it's in rain, there's not a whole lot I can do.

All of your points are good ones. I can't believe I never thought to put Sleep Powder on Roserade. That would make it infinitely more useful and, as you said, she's not exactly lacking recovery. EDIT: THERE WAS A REASON I NEVER USED SLEEP POWDER, I DON'T THINK IT'S AVAILABLE WITH SPIKES. I'll admit, I'll miss Focus Sash on Cloyster, but you're right, the lack of spinner+Focus Sash has occurred to me before and I'm willing to try other items instead. Which would you reccomend using? Obviously you suggested either, but which do you think would be more useful? And finally, yeah...I was pretty excited to use Ice Punch but using Paybak would help with my Reuniclus problem as well as give him better coverage so he isn't forced to switch by common threats like Jellicent.
Again, thank you for the advice, I'll test them out right away!

Shining Latios · Aug 8th, 2012, 9:00:39 AM

Hey man neat team you have here. First off, I agree with ditching Focus Sash for White Herb or Life Orb as you lack a spinner. Anyways, I suggest using Hydreigon > Latios to threaten sun teams both offensively and defensively. Hydreigon also behaves in a similar way to Latios. It also has a fantastic movepool to go along with it's good Special Attack stat and decent defenses.

Hydreigon

Admiral Bobbery · Aug 8th, 2012, 9:58:34 AM

When building the team initially, I considered using Hydreigon, but I thought the extra speed that Latios had would be better than the coverage that Hydreigon provided. Plus, that would make me even weaker to Fighting types. Not to mention I won't have any way of dealing with Conkeldurr. What would you suggest I use with Hydreigon to prevent this?

Sayonara · Aug 8th, 2012, 12:26:02 PM

Hey, cool team, Admiral Bobbery. First off, I'd go with a Timid Nature on Heatran over a Modest Nature. This change allows Heatran to outspeed Adamant Mamoswine and Adamant Dragonite, which is important in order to adequately revenge-kill these two threats. On Cloyster, I'd recommend White Herb over Focus Sash, since your lack of a Rapid Spin user means that once hazards are set on your field, they will never go away, rendering Focus Sash obsolete. With White Herb, you can reset your defense and special defense stat drops, allowing you to tank physical hits like CB Scizor's Bullet Punches with more ease, while being able to sweep. I don't have much else to add at the moment - cool team, and good luck! Hope I helped.

Shining Latios · Aug 8th, 2012, 12:57:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Admiral Bobbery

When building the team initially, I considered using Hydreigon, but I thought the extra speed that Latios had would be better than the coverage that Hydreigon provided. Plus, that would make me even weaker to Fighting types. Not to mention I won't have any way of dealing with Conkeldurr. What would you suggest I use with Hydreigon to prevent this?

Hm. Possibly try Intimidate Gyarados? It can nail Venusaur, Lilligant, and Shiftry, common Sun sweepers with STAB Bounce while also smacking Heatran, Ninetales, and other Fire-types under the sun with Earthquake. It also is able to lower Conkeldurr's Attack stat with Intimidate and proceed to take any of it's attacks fine due to it's fighting-type resistant. Only problem is it adds a bit to the Starmie weakness. Here's the set if you want to try it out.

Gyarados

Substitute helps block any status and is able to keep Gyarados safe for KO'ing Pokemon constantly. Hope this helps.

ThePillsburyDoughBoy · Aug 8th, 2012, 4:26:26 PM

Hello Admiral Bobbery! I'm a rusty on my rates and this is the first on I haven't done in a
while so go easy on me :p

Alright right now I have three problems with this team. First, even though it is a Spike-stacking team, you have no method of detering Rapid Spin (mostly a ghost-type, but could be a Rocky Helmet user). You also have little means of combating stall without a Poke that could hit hard enough to break it. Lastly, this team puts a lot of pressure on Roserade to take Rain-boosted water-attacks and to set up Spikes.

To fix this I recommend putting a (i hate this name so much) Utility Counter Jellicent over Cloyster. Jellicent does a couple of things for your team while still keeping that FWG core around. Most importantly, it prevents you hazards from being spun away by spinners who would be a complete stop to your strategy. Second, it gives you a great stallbreaker especially paired up with Roserade. Since Roserade is on your team, stall teams will be unable to deal with Jellicent through Toxic Spikes alone. Lastly Jellicent takes a lot of pressure off of Roserade to take all the Rain water attacks that are right now very popular. It also helps you a lot with Conkeldurr and Reuniclus (to an extent).

Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 240 HP / 160 Def / 108 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Night Shade

Alright this spread and Night Shade seem weird but let me explain. All that speed is used so you can beat Skarmory so as to prevent a layer of Spikes or Stealth Rock to be set upon you. That speed really contributes to how well it can stall break. Night Shade has numerous advantages to Scald. It allows you to touch and beat SubCM Keldeo, it prevents substitute Gyarados from setting up on you (which looks like your team might have trouble with), it beats Tentacruel quicker, and it stallbreaks better.

Now I understand that I sacrificed a large offensive presence on your team, so it may be a good idea to change Latios' moveset to OCM or maybe find another offensive candidate that doesn't mess synergy too much :\ . It is up to you and good luck!

**Jirachi** · Aug 8th, 2012, 7:57:35 PM

Hi

Cool team you've got there. However, like you said, Reuniclus might be quite a big issue. Reuniclus can set up rather easily on Conkeldurr and then proceed to curbstomp your entire team. Then you can't really do much; since most Calm Mind Reuniclus will have as much physical bulk as they can, Landorus' U-turn won't damage it that much (hell, even Choice Band Scizor's U-turn fails to OHKO), and you will just give it plenty of opportunities to Recover its health and just continue to beat down your team. While Latios resists both of its common moves, it won't be able to damage it that much with a weaker, unboosted Draco Meteor after a couple of Calm Minds so it will be very difficult for your team to stop it. Another thing that could end up really damaging this team a lot are Dragon types, especially Latios, but not limited to it. Latios switches in for free on Roserade and Landorus' Earthquake, while also bein able to switch in Conkeldurr fairly easily. From there, it can launch the powerful Choice Specs Draco Meteor which will usually OHKO everything on your team except for Heatran, your Dragon resist. Even though it takes around 50%, it will still be KO'd if Latios switches in again, meaning that after Heatran loses some HP Latios will always get a kill, every time it comes in. That's rather bad considering you have so much switch in opportunities for Latios. Dropping your Cloyster for a Specially Defensive Scizor would fix both problems. With some investment, Scizor is able to take Reuniclus' attacks quite nicely while being able to set up on it and beat it with Bug Bite. It can Roost off any damage taken from there. It's also an amazing Latios switch in, as it's able to tank Draco Meteor and Roost off the damage. Be aware that some run Hidden Power Fire though, so you have to be careful there. To be fair, I don't think you really need Cloyster all that much since you already have Latios which is more than capable of opening holes in the opponent's team, while having two great late game cleaners being Conkeldurr and Landorus. Scizor's popularity doesn't help Cloyster either, so it's more than likely that it won't be able to open as much holes as Latios.

If you have issues with Conkeldurr then perhaps you should change your Latios set a bit. Expert Belt Latios is great if you have troubles with a couple of threats, especially Scizor, but since you have Heatran and such you shouldn't need it that much. Using Life Orb instead of Expert Belt allows Latios to OHKO Conkeldurr with Draco Meteor, which hits on its Special Defense that it can't boost anyway. You can also use Recover on Latios to heal Life Orb recoil and any damage taken in battle, which is nice. Latios will still keep the freedom of switching moves which makes it much less likely that it gets trapped by Pursuit Scizor if that's what you fear. This should fix your Conkeldurr problem while also giving Latios much more firepower.

And yes use a Timid nature on Heatran otherwise stuff like Jolly SD Scizor can outspeed it and OHKO it with Superpower, while also getting the jump on Adamant unboosted Dragonite which is always nice.

Cool team, here are the sets you should use:

Latios and Scizor

Good luck!

Admiral Bobbery · Aug 8th, 2012, 10:09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Jirachi

Hi

Cool team you've got there. However, like you said, Reuniclus might be quite a big issue. Reuniclus can set up rather easily on Conkeldurr and then proceed to curbstomp your entire team. Then you can't really do much; since most Calm Mind Reuniclus will have as much physical bulk as they can, Landorus' U-turn won't damage it that much (hell, even Choice Band Scizor's U-turn fails to OHKO), and you will just give it plenty of opportunities to Recover its health and just continue to beat down your team. While Latios resists both of its common moves, it won't be able to damage it that much with a weaker, unboosted Draco Meteor after a couple of Calm Minds so it will be very difficult for your team to stop it. Another thing that could end up really damaging this team a lot are Dragon types, especially Latios, but not limited to it. Latios switches in for free on Roserade and Landorus' Earthquake, while also bein able to switch in Conkeldurr fairly easily. From there, it can launch the powerful Choice Specs Draco Meteor which will usually OHKO everything on your team except for Heatran, your Dragon resist. Even though it takes around 50%, it will still be KO'd if Latios switches in again, meaning that after Heatran loses some HP Latios will always get a kill, every time it comes in. That's rather bad considering you have so much switch in opportunities for Latios. Dropping your Cloyster for a Specially Defensive Scizor would fix both problems. With some investment, Scizor is able to take Reuniclus' attacks quite nicely while being able to set up on it and beat it with Bug Bite. It can Roost off any damage taken from there. It's also an amazing Latios switch in, as it's able to tank Draco Meteor and Roost off the damage. Be aware that some run Hidden Power Fire though, so you have to be careful there. To be fair, I don't think you really need Cloyster all that much since you already have Latios which is more than capable of opening holes in the opponent's team, while having two great late game cleaners being Conkeldurr and Landorus. Scizor's popularity doesn't help Cloyster either, so it's more than likely that it won't be able to open as much holes as Latios.

If you have issues with Conkeldurr then perhaps you should change your Latios set a bit. Expert Belt Latios is great if you have troubles with a couple of threats, especially Scizor, but since you have Heatran and such you shouldn't need it that much. Using Life Orb instead of Expert Belt allows Latios to OHKO Conkeldurr with Draco Meteor, which hits on its Special Defense that it can't boost anyway. You can also use Recover on Latios to heal Life Orb recoil and any damage taken in battle, which is nice. Latios will still keep the freedom of switching moves which makes it much less likely that it gets trapped by Pursuit Scizor if that's what you fear. This should fix your Conkeldurr problem while also giving Latios much more firepower.

And yes use a Timid nature on Heatran otherwise stuff like Jolly SD Scizor can outspeed it and OHKO it with Superpower, while also getting the jump on Adamant unboosted Dragonite which is always nice.

Cool team, here are the sets you should use:

Latios and Scizor

Good luck!

This seems like really good advice, I'll definitely try out those sets and see if they fix some of my problems. I'll also try out that Jellicent set, ThePilsburyDoughBoy, but on a separate save file of the team to see which of the two works better. Also, I have amde some permanent decisions. CONKELDURR HAS PAYBACK OVER ICE PUNCH NOW, AND IT HAS HELPED QUITE A BIT. MY HEATRAN IS NOW TIMID AS WELL. I'll show these changes in red on the OP.

Aug 8th, 2012, 2:16:21 AM	#1
Admiral Bobbery Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 53	Admiral Bobbery's Bob-omb Squad! ADMIRAL BOBBERY'S BOB-OMB SQUAD Hello! Many of you don't know me as Admiral Bobbery! That would be because I am extremely knew to Smogon. Though I have been a lurker for over a year, I have only recently started posting. This is my very first Rate My Team. In this past year of competitive battling, I have tried many teams. Dozens of poorly thrown together, messy, jumbled teams which just barely managed to get me by, and for a while, I was happy with that. But eventually I decided that instead of making a new team every time the one I was using wasn't working as well, I would create one team and craft it meticulously until it became as close as I could get to a GREAT team. Then, Black 2 and White 2 came out and I had to put my project on hold. There were many new threats that I had to consider, and until the metagame stabilized, I would have to keep trying new things until I found what worked and until all the other trainers figured out the new things that were worth using and those that were not. It was a few weeks ago that I decided it was time for me to begin forming my first well crafted team again. The metagame has almost completely stabilized, and I know what to look out for as well as what Pokémon I can use effectively. Though it did take a while to build, with many Pokémon coming and going, I believe this team is ready to be judged by the brilliant minds of the Smogon community (seriously, part of the reason I never made an account here is cause you guys scared me XD). Without further adieu, here is my Bob-omb Squad! The Team At A Glance Team Building Process ... This team started with Roserade. I wanted something that could set up spikes, while still having somewhat of an offensive presence on my team. It would also be good for countering some of the more offensive lead Politoed sets I've seen so frequently due to its respectable special bulk. then I tried to see what would create a good defensive core and the first thing that came to mind was If Amoongbro can work, why wouldn't Rosebro? Right? These two cover each other's weaknesses nicely and cover opposite ends of the defensive spectrum. I figured that Slowbro could also help to spread status with Scald and Thunder-Wave. At this point I thought, if Rosebro is where I'm taking this team, why not take it to the next logical step? These three seemed to have a good defensive core, but I decided to go with a more offensive Heatran set. I went for an Air Balloon set with Stealth Rock to increase my hazards. I thought the extra offensive coverage for the team would be useful. On that note, I decided to go for another offensive Pokémon with good coverage. Latios has been one of my favorite Pokémon since I was a kid, and it doesn't hurt that he is fantastic competitively. I chose him to add to the team because I wanted to have more coverage on a fast Pokémon. Uh oh, all physical Pokémon so far...that's not good. I decided to add one of my favorite physical guys too. I went for a double dance set because, in my experience, it has the ability to wreck teams. I also thought that it would be good to have some Fighting and Rock type moves as they are good against some common Pokémon like Thundurus-T and Tornadus-T and the many Steel types in OU. But one physical attacker wasn't enough. So I added another one! To be quite honest, I have no idea why I chose Virizion. I guess it was to help defeat Politoed and Tyranitar. Such a stupid move. and THAT is why I switched it out first. I changed Virizion to Kingdra to help me to beat rain teams. Kingdra has the ability to destroy them once Ferrothorn is out of the way. I chose a Sub DDance set. After a few battles, Kingdra was working wonders. Even on non-rain teams, he had an easy time setting up and sweeping. I also changed my Terrakion set to a Scarf set because in my first battle I was swept by Alakazam because he outsped everything on my team I really don't know why I make these decisions. I think I valued the offensive potential of Roserade more than Spikes and so I changed it to Celebi. And I didn't want to keep Slowbro after that because I knew Hydreigon would kill both my walls. But when I tried these two, it just didn't work at all. I wanted to change them, but I had actually been reading up on a knew Pokémon- and decided to try it out. This team worked pretty well. I won a large majority of my battles but there was one problem I had. I had no priority on this team! There was one match where I was swept by an Unburden Sceptile because I had no priority moves! Anyway I decided to go for my favorite priority user. There was nothing really wrong with Kingdra, but it was the most expendable member of the team. Conkeldurr is great and I decided to go with a Bulk Up set because I believe it is his most effective set and fit my team well, replacing one set-up sweeper with another. However, at this point, I had a severe weakness to fighting. i knew I had to get rid of at least one of my three Pokémon weak to one of the most common types in Black and White, but I wasn't sure who. Until it finally hit me. And that is how I came up with the team! Now for a more in depth look. Under the magnifying glass Vivian/Roserade@Leftovers Ability: Natural Cure Nature: Calm EV's: 252HP/120 SpA/136 SpD ~Spikes ~Giga Drain ~Hidden Power Fire ~Rest Roserade is my lead. That is, she is the Pokémon I send out firs 90% of the time. She is actually pretty efficient at setting up spikes because so few people know how to deal with her because she is seen so infrequently. However, her purpose is not always to set up three layers of spikes because I usually need to keep the Grass STAB for Later in the battle. If she can only get up one or two layers before she is forced out, that is just fine by me. Hidden Power Fire is to hit the common Forretress people send out to rapid spin my spikes, which is a comfortable 2HKO. She might have a hard time against some of her common counters and her special attack isn't quite good enough for her to really threaten any other Pokémon, but she does what she does well. Koops/Cloyster@White Herb Ability: Skill Link Nature: Jolly EV's 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Def ~Shell Smash ~Icicle Spear ~Rock Blast ~Razor Shell I know what most people think when they see this set, "WHY USE RAZOR SHELL OVER HYDRO PUMP?!?!" Well I actually have a good reason. Razor Shell is a more effective move because it takes out specially defensive Heatran more easily. Anyway, Cloyster is amazing. I had never used one before this, but he goes to WORK on teams that are unprepared for him. If he can switch in and set up before there are any hazards set, he can poke some very important holes in teams so that Landorus, Latios, and Conkeldurr can clean up. He can sometimes work as a late game sweeper, but because I have no spinner, he might not be able to get his boosts up in time. Jolly nature is so he can outspeed common Timid Scarfers like Latios after a boost. Bowser/Heatran@Air Balloon Ability: Flash Fire Nature: Timid EV's 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe ~Fire Blast ~Earth Power ~Hidden Power Ice ~Stealth Rock Heatran does what it needs to do. It sets up Stealth Rocks, gets the occasional KO on Dragon types, but mostly he's there to absorb Fire type moves. Don't get me wrong, Heatran is great on this team, but outside of those things, he doesn't do much. He certainly isn't sweeping anytime soon, but there's a reason this was the most used OU Pokémon last generation, and he suits his purpose in my team well. Hooktail/Latios@Life Orb Ability: Levitate Nature: Timid EV's 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe ~Draco Meteor ~Recover ~Hidden Power Fire ~Psyshock Part of what I love about this game is surprise factor. If you can fool your opponent into thinking you have one set, but really you have another, it can net you a key KO and win yo the match. This Latios SCREAMS surprise factor! With Expert Belt equipped, most people expect the Specs set, only to switch their would be counter into a non-choiced Dragon of death who then proceeds to KO them with a super effective move. His above average coverage allows me to land a KO on many common switch ins to Latios such as Scizor. Latios also does well alongside Landorus and Conkeldurr at cleaning up late game. Lakilester/Landorus@Choice Scarf Ability: Sand Force Nature: Naive EV's 252 Atk/4 SpA/252 Spe ~Earthquake ~Stone Edge ~Hidden Power Ice ~U-Turn As his analysis says on site, Landorus just has everything he needs to succeed. Landorus was a great replacement for Terrakion. He is a good counter to sandstorm teams due to his ability Sand Force, and he allows me to keep momentum in my favor with U-Turn, something I had never had on this team previously. STAB Earthquake is great for cleaning up one all the Flying types/Levitate Pokémon are KO'd, and Hidden Power Ice allows me to kill Gliscor as well as get a x4 effective move on Dragonite and Salamence. Grubba/Conkeldurr@Leftovers Ability: Guts Nature: Adamant EV's 120 HP/252 Atk/136 SpD ~Drain Punch ~Mach Punch ~Payback ~Bulk Up Ever since Black and White 2 came out, I have wanted to use Ice Punch on Conkeldurr simply because I love watching Gliscor fall after witching in on a Bulk Up and expecting me to switch out. there is no feeling like beating a Gliscor with a Conkeldurr. None. Scratch that, maybe KOing Thundurus-Therian is as good. Anyway, this set is pretty standard, he sets up, he heals, he absorbs statuses, he's Conkeldurr! His Mach Punch brings much needed priority to this team, and the fighting type STAB works wonders. Threat List Life Orb Starmie can hit 5/6 of my team super effectively and is a major problem, because, outside of Landorus, who isn't going to be switching into a Starmie anytime soon, no one on my team outspeeds it. Jirachi's suggested scizor does help with this problem as it gives me a way to KO it and takes away one Pokémon weak to it. Like Starmie, it has great coverage, is immune to hazards, and can outspeed everything but Landorus on my team and KO. Also, Scizor helps KO this too. If this can get more than one Quiver Dance, even my Landorus can't outspeed, and he is my only check to it outside of Heatran, who cant do anything back to Volcarona. Calm Mind sets with physical bulk investment kind of wreck my team if they aren't taken care of quickly. Not really sure what can be done about that other than hop using repeated U-Turns from Landorus will be enough. Outside of Roserade, I have nothing to do to Jellicent. Even then, the only chance I have of KOing it is to pray to God that it doesn't freeze me with Ice Beam or get a SpD drop with Shadowball. Sun Teams in general cause trouble for me, but this bugger gets me good. It's not AS hard to counter ever since I got Ice Punch Conkeldurr, but that's only if I've sacrificed someone to sleep clause. Latios can also handle it pretty well, but only as a revenge killer. Funny how these things happen. I use Conkeldurr, yet have nothing to beat it. I don't have much to do to Bulk Up sets with good Special Defense. Latios can try to Psyshock if they haven't set up any Bulk Ups yet but that's about it. Again, I'll post a better threat list tomorrow, but these are the major ones I've seen. In Conclusion I gotta say, I really am very happy with this team. One of the reasons I've been so hesitant to post to RMT before is that I didn't want my teams to be ripped apart, but I really do think this one is good. it works well, I rarely lose, and when I do it's usually because of hax or if my opponent is using Smash Pass Toxicroak (damn that was a sad tournament...). If anyone sees anything that can be improved in the team, I would love to test out any suggestions you guys have for me. Thank you in advance for making my first RMT experience a good one! Importable ... Roserade @ Leftovers Trait: Natural Cure EVs: 252 HP / 120 SAtk / 136 SDef Calm Nature - Giga Drain - Rest - Spikes - Hidden Power [Fire] Cloyster @ Focus Sash Trait: Skill Link EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP Jolly Nature - Icicle Spear - Razor Shell - Shell Smash - Rock Blast Heatran @ Air Balloon Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Modest Nature - Fire Blast - Earth Power - Hidden Power [Ice] - Stealth Rock Latios @ Expert Belt Trait: Levitate EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature - Draco Meteor - Psyshock - Surf - Hidden Power [Fire] Landorus @ Choice Scarf Trait: Sand Force EVs: 4 SAtk / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Naive Nature - Earthquake - Stone Edge - U-turn - Hidden Power [Ice] Conkeldurr @ Leftovers Trait: Guts EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 SDef Adamant Nature - Drain Punch - Mach Punch - Bulk Up - Ice Punch __________________ "Such Balderdash! It's quite obvious you are in for a stomping, so let's have at it." Last edited by Admiral Bobbery; Aug 9th, 2012 at 1:27:38 AM.

Aug 8th, 2012, 6:08:06 AM	#2
Asek Swell Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 407 VM for an OU rate	Hey, Very nice team Admiral Bobbery, but I did see a few weaknesses other than the ones you listed. The Standard Life Orb Starmie in rain looks like a very big problem for your team, as nothing here can switch into its powerful water type attacks without dying the next turn from one of its coverage move. The only pokemon here who outspeeds it is your Landorus, and he can't switch in unless your opponent is silly and uses Thunderbolt for some reason. Also opposing Shell Smash Cloyster can be very troublesome for you as it can set up on Landorus locked into HP [ICE] or Earthquake and from there he will blow you to pieces. Also, Conk cannot revenge it as if it carries a White Herb, Mach Punch will be doing below 50% damage! First, why do you run a Focus Sash on Cloyster when you don't pack a spinner? Since most people will try get their hazards up as quickly as possible to maimize damage caused by them, Focus Sash will very often be rendered usless on Cloyster when it switches in and takes 25% from Steal Rock anyway. If you try to get a Sweep going very early on in the game before hazards have been up, you won't be able to muscle through a lot of things that need to be weakened prior for Cloyster to be able to beat them. For these reasons try out Life Orb / White Herb > Focus Sash as one lets you raise your damage output to massive levels, while White Herb leaves you less prone to revenging from powerful priority such as Scizor's Bullet Punch. Both will serve you better than the inconsistent Focus Sash, which will often be doing nothing for you. Although I can see in your writing that you were eageraly anticipating Ice Punch for Conkelldurr, it doesn't offer the best coverage for it. It leaves you hard walled by Jellicent, and besides Gliscor every other target is hit harder by either of its other 2 coverage moves. Gliscor is hit hard enough anyway if it dares to toxic Conk, and the only real issue is seeing Acrobatics and being stalled out by SubToxic. Definitly use Stone Edge / Payback > Ice Punch, as it lets you hit bulky psychics a lot harder, and they both give you a way to do solid damage to Jellicent. Ice Punch is fairly weak when it does not it SFE, and Stone Edge hits all of its targets besides Gliscor a lot harder, granted a bit less reliably. Payback on the other hand has more PP and hits with the same power with 100% accuracy most of the time. Looking at 2 of your biggest threats in Conkelldurr and Reuniclus, I saw that handling them easier could be done by giving Roserade Sleep Powder > Rest. Between Giga Drain and Leftovers, Roserade will have large amounts of revoery availabe to it anyway, and Sleep powder lets you eliminate things you can't touch with your current set, including all of OU's dragons and Heatran. Also, Rest offers the opponent a chance to get a free switch in while Roserade switches out, while Sleep powder makes Roserade very hard to switch into and lets you get a free layer of spikes up, which is always great EDIT: Sleep Powder is illegal with spikes Lol sorry GL with the team __________________ Ocean Last edited by Asek; Aug 8th, 2012 at 9:49:17 AM.

Aug 8th, 2012, 9:00:39 AM	#4
Shining Latios Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 1,311	Hey man neat team you have here. First off, I agree with ditching Focus Sash for White Herb or Life Orb as you lack a spinner. Anyways, I suggest using Hydreigon > Latios to threaten sun teams both offensively and defensively. Hydreigon also behaves in a similar way to Latios. It also has a fantastic movepool to go along with it's good Special Attack stat and decent defenses. Hydreigon Hydreigon @ Expert Belt EVs: 4 HP / 252 Special Attack / 252 Speed Modest Nature - Draco Meteor - Dark Pulse - Fire Blast - Focus Blast

Aug 8th, 2012, 9:58:34 AM	#5
Admiral Bobbery Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 53	When building the team initially, I considered using Hydreigon, but I thought the extra speed that Latios had would be better than the coverage that Hydreigon provided. Plus, that would make me even weaker to Fighting types. Not to mention I won't have any way of dealing with Conkeldurr. What would you suggest I use with Hydreigon to prevent this? __________________ "Such Balderdash! It's quite obvious you are in for a stomping, so let's have at it."

Aug 8th, 2012, 4:26:26 PM	#8
ThePillsburyDoughBoy Ttar by Doughboy Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 956 Mentor	Hello Admiral Bobbery! I'm a rusty on my rates and this is the first on I haven't done in a while so go easy on me :p Alright right now I have three problems with this team. First, even though it is a Spike-stacking team, you have no method of detering Rapid Spin (mostly a ghost-type, but could be a Rocky Helmet user). You also have little means of combating stall without a Poke that could hit hard enough to break it. Lastly, this team puts a lot of pressure on Roserade to take Rain-boosted water-attacks and to set up Spikes. To fix this I recommend putting a (i hate this name so much) Utility Counter Jellicent over Cloyster. Jellicent does a couple of things for your team while still keeping that FWG core around. Most importantly, it prevents you hazards from being spun away by spinners who would be a complete stop to your strategy. Second, it gives you a great stallbreaker especially paired up with Roserade. Since Roserade is on your team, stall teams will be unable to deal with Jellicent through Toxic Spikes alone. Lastly Jellicent takes a lot of pressure off of Roserade to take all the Rain water attacks that are right now very popular. It also helps you a lot with Conkeldurr and Reuniclus (to an extent). Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Water Absorb EVs: 240 HP / 160 Def / 108 Spd Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Taunt - Will-O-Wisp - Recover - Night Shade Alright this spread and Night Shade seem weird but let me explain. All that speed is used so you can beat Skarmory so as to prevent a layer of Spikes or Stealth Rock to be set upon you. That speed really contributes to how well it can stall break. Night Shade has numerous advantages to Scald. It allows you to touch and beat SubCM Keldeo, it prevents substitute Gyarados from setting up on you (which looks like your team might have trouble with), it beats Tentacruel quicker, and it stallbreaks better. Now I understand that I sacrificed a large offensive presence on your team, so it may be a good idea to change Latios' moveset to OCM or maybe find another offensive candidate that doesn't mess synergy too much :\ . It is up to you and good luck! __________________ Check Out the 1 vs 1 Metagame: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3483807

Aug 8th, 2012, 12:26:02 PM	#6
Sayonara into the new world Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 718	Hey, cool team, Admiral Bobbery. First off, I'd go with a Timid Nature on Heatran over a Modest Nature. This change allows Heatran to outspeed Adamant Mamoswine and Adamant Dragonite, which is important in order to adequately revenge-kill these two threats. On Cloyster, I'd recommend White Herb over Focus Sash, since your lack of a Rapid Spin user means that once hazards are set on your field, they will never go away, rendering Focus Sash obsolete. With White Herb, you can reset your defense and special defense stat drops, allowing you to tank physical hits like CB Scizor's Bullet Punches with more ease, while being able to sweep. I don't have much else to add at the moment - cool team, and good luck! Hope I helped.

Aug 8th, 2012, 7:57:35 PM	#9
Jirachi No excuses. Moderator Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 975 #27 Galchenyuk Mentor	Hi Cool team you've got there. However, like you said, Reuniclus might be quite a big issue. Reuniclus can set up rather easily on Conkeldurr and then proceed to curbstomp your entire team. Then you can't really do much; since most Calm Mind Reuniclus will have as much physical bulk as they can, Landorus' U-turn won't damage it that much (hell, even Choice Band Scizor's U-turn fails to OHKO), and you will just give it plenty of opportunities to Recover its health and just continue to beat down your team. While Latios resists both of its common moves, it won't be able to damage it that much with a weaker, unboosted Draco Meteor after a couple of Calm Minds so it will be very difficult for your team to stop it. Another thing that could end up really damaging this team a lot are Dragon types, especially Latios, but not limited to it. Latios switches in for free on Roserade and Landorus' Earthquake, while also bein able to switch in Conkeldurr fairly easily. From there, it can launch the powerful Choice Specs Draco Meteor which will usually OHKO everything on your team except for Heatran, your Dragon resist. Even though it takes around 50%, it will still be KO'd if Latios switches in again, meaning that after Heatran loses some HP Latios will always get a kill, every time it comes in. That's rather bad considering you have so much switch in opportunities for Latios. Dropping your Cloyster for a Specially Defensive Scizor would fix both problems. With some investment, Scizor is able to take Reuniclus' attacks quite nicely while being able to set up on it and beat it with Bug Bite. It can Roost off any damage taken from there. It's also an amazing Latios switch in, as it's able to tank Draco Meteor and Roost off the damage. Be aware that some run Hidden Power Fire though, so you have to be careful there. To be fair, I don't think you really need Cloyster all that much since you already have Latios which is more than capable of opening holes in the opponent's team, while having two great late game cleaners being Conkeldurr and Landorus. Scizor's popularity doesn't help Cloyster either, so it's more than likely that it won't be able to open as much holes as Latios. If you have issues with Conkeldurr then perhaps you should change your Latios set a bit. Expert Belt Latios is great if you have troubles with a couple of threats, especially Scizor, but since you have Heatran and such you shouldn't need it that much. Using Life Orb instead of Expert Belt allows Latios to OHKO Conkeldurr with Draco Meteor, which hits on its Special Defense that it can't boost anyway. You can also use Recover on Latios to heal Life Orb recoil and any damage taken in battle, which is nice. Latios will still keep the freedom of switching moves which makes it much less likely that it gets trapped by Pursuit Scizor if that's what you fear. This should fix your Conkeldurr problem while also giving Latios much more firepower. And yes use a Timid nature on Heatran otherwise stuff like Jolly SD Scizor can outspeed it and OHKO it with Superpower, while also getting the jump on Adamant unboosted Dragonite which is always nice. Cool team, here are the sets you should use: Latios and Scizor Scizor @ Leftovers Technician Adamant EVs: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpD ~Bullet Punch ~Bug Bite ~Swords Dance ~Roost Latios @ Life Orb Levitate Timid EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe ~Draco Meteor ~Hidden Power Fire ~Psyshock ~Recover Good luck!