Aggression

Charizard @
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk
Fire Blast / Air Slash / Hidden Power Grass / Roost
Win Condition: Is the opponent's Fire resist or special wall gone? Are the remaining pokemon slower than Charizard? If so, tear through everything in sight while preserving yourself with Roost if need be to abuse Blaze if possible. While risky, you can take advantage of Stealth Rock for a final powerful Blaze-boosted Fire Blast, which will wreck even many Fire-resists.

It all started with this guy, though his set has deviated from its original focus. However, Charizard is still a beast in that he rips apart most defensive cores by himself, and Roost serves to prolong his staying power, easily proving to be hell for many defensive pokemon unable to subdue Charizard quickly enough. Charizard's powerful attacks, especially Blaze LO Fire Blast is capable of shredding many pokemon, an example being a clean 2HKO on Musharna with no prior damage if it does not use Calm Mind (mainly due to direct switch-in/attack). Charizard can get free switch-ins into pokemon such as Tangela, Weezing and Misdreavus which trouble Sawk.


Sawk (M) @
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
Close Combat / Earthquake / Ice Punch / Knock Off
Win Condition: Use Mold Breaker to your advantage, destroying many pokemon such as Golem, Haunter, Weezing and Eelektross easily. If you are in no danger of being revenge killed, send in Sawk for a near guaranteed kill if the opponent lacks a Fighting resist. Choosing the move with best neutral coverage can be crucial.

Sawk serves as the anti-Stealth Rock pokemon for my team, swiftly removing pokemon such as Miltank, Golem and Seismitoad from play or scaring them out, aiding Charizard's survivabilty. The presence of a Ghost, Flying or Psychic can make life hard for Sawk, but with proper prediction or removal of these threats, Sawk is easily capable of blowing a gaping hole in your team. Even Alomomola is 2HKOed by CB STAB Close Combat. Sawk's other attacks are honestly pretty situational but can hit many switch-ins hard. Knock Off has proven useful for me from time to time, and is more reliable than Stone Edge in most cases. Neutering a Musharna, Alomomola or Misdreavus makes them that much easier to KO, and helps keep the team's momentum in place in that regard.


Samurott @
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 108 HP / 252 Atk / 148 Spd
Adamant Nature
Swords Dance / Waterfall / Megahorn / Aqua Jet
Win Condition: Can Samurott survive a hit from the opponent? Is it pitted against a pokemon that can only hope to damage/stop it via status? Have the opponent's faster priority users been eliminated? Are any faster pokemon that can survive Aqua Jet taken down/weakened? Grabbing the Swords Dance and Torrent boost at the right time allows Samurott to easily clean up the game without any hindrances.

Lum Samurott is pretty clutch in this metagame. Its priority, which threatens fast sweepers, and powerful Megahorn, which skewers Jynx and Musharna, are huge assets that give it a lot of utility, and can gear itself up for a sweep with the drop of a hat. The Lum Berry is also much appreciated to handle a lot of stuff. It can setup on pokemon like Yawn Torkoal, slower Will-o-Wisp Misdreavus and Toxic Wartortle with sheer impunity, tears apart Lovely Kiss Jynx and even beats Swagger Liepard and No Guard Dynamicpunch Golurk comfortably, possibly even preventing Stealth Rock from the latter due to Waterfall's flinch. The EVs maximize Attack since Samurott's speed is hardly important right now, but I still keep enough to outpace standard Misdreavus, which isn't really that common anymore as more and more are running a lot of speed. Outspeeding Adamant Torterra is still nifty though. The HP EVs are just kinda thrown in there, but what I find intriguing about Samurott is that gives him just enough bulk for the job. If Samurott takes a powerful STAB move like Close Combat, Megahorn, Earthquake or Psychic, it usually knocks Samurott right into Torrent range, so sweeping with +2 Torrent boosted attacks or just OHKOing right back can happen pretty often.


Roselia (F) @
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 184 SDef / 76 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Spikes / Giga Drain / Sludge Bomb / Synthesis
Win Condition: Are there pokemon on the opponent's team unable to harm Roselia much? Are her teammates able to handle any spinners bar Wartortle which Rosy will deal with herself? Set up Spikes as much as you can to punish your opponent's switches, making it harder for them to respond to your teammates' onslaughts.

Despite looking somewhat out of place in this offensive team, Roselia does not slow me down at all. In fact, she speeds up the pace in which my team manhandles theirs by laying down Spikes. So why am I not using Scolipede? Simple: Calm Mind Serperior. Roselia is pretty much a full stop to Serperior, and puts the snake in a lose-lose situation: Taunt can stop Spikes, but Serperior risks a Sludge Bomb to the face. Roselia also turns the opponent's Tangela and Alomomola into complete liabilities, easily threatening the KO while I set up layers of Spikes with no repurcussions, unless I have to predict their switch-in. Roselia is no offensive slouch, with her 100 base Special Attack actually being stronger than Scolipede's base 90, so she can certainly approach the monster centipede's level of power even with little investment. Synthesis is used over Rest so that I can heal more HP than Giga Drain without having to switch. After ~2 weeks of testing the team, I finally found what is closest to an optimal spread for Roselia. Just by having a Modest nature alleviates 92 EVs off my Special Attack if I were Calm natured, so I can drop the EVs into bulk while retaining strength (enough to break SubBU Braviary's Subs a majority of the time). The new Speed EVs are to outrun 0 Spe neutral natured Seismitoad, so that I can stop all varainst from setting up SR and Knocking Off my Eviolite before I attack, whereas max HP is divisable by 8 (Stealth Rock/Spikes) so I dropped them slightly to be less susceptible to hazards seeing as Roselia has no passive recovery.


Tauros (M) @
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
Double-Edge / Toxic / Earthquake / Pursuit
Win Condition: The opponent's team weakened? Are they aware of Tauros being Scarfed so I can net a surprise kill? Is there something that can be Pursuited? Tauros can also clean up late game and its immense speed makes for a good failsafe against fast/faster pokemon.

Holy cow:justin2:, this is by far one of the most fantastic Choice Scarfers I've used in the tier. He's so fast he revenges other Choice Scarfers, which really is f**king insane. He can even afford to run Adamant as he still outspeeds +1 base 95s anyway, though Jolly is worth considering for faster Scarf mons like Charizard or Modest Zebstrika, and not speedtying with +2 base 70s like Ludicolo and Victreebel. Adamant's power increase is notable however. To top it off, Tauros has Intimidate and Pursuit, so he does waaaay more than just outspeed stuff. He can weaken a rampaging physical attacker like Carracosta, Scolipede, Drifblim, Kangaskhan or Swellow just by switching in, and Pursuits Kadabra, Haunter and Jynx for easy kills. The lack of Sheer Force means I'll have to use Stone Edge to OHKO Scolipede though, but killing Flying-types is neat too. Scarf Tauros is a beast, don't you deny that. I barely touched Stone Edge at all since most Scolipede are within range of being KOed by Double-Edge anyway. Toxic is useful so Tauros isn't deadweight against stall, and poisoning Alomomola/Tangela is sweet.


Golem @
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 148 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Spd
Adamant Nature
Stealth Rock / Earthquake / Rock Blast / Roar
Win Condition: No spinner on the opposing team? Set up those Rocks! Keep those Flying-types as well as Skuntank at bay, and lure in Waters and Grasses for Roselia to set up on. Utilise Rock-Ground coverage to make switch-ins difficult, and Roar to stop set-up threats if need be.

For the "designated lead" of the team, Golem was my last choice for the team. Golurk used to occupy this spot to better handle Fighting-types since my two resists aren't taking many hits well at all. However, after having to play rope-a-dope against Swellow I realized that a Flying resist was much more crucial for my team. There isn't anything new to say about Golem that hasn't been said already, Rock-Ground coverage is very good, Stealth Rock blah blah. The extra speed is mainly for Wartortle who thinks it can just waltz in and do whatever it wants, only to be KOed by Earthquake if it has been weakened. More speed can be run for Carracosta who you can EQ/Sucker Punch before it kills you. Roar has proven to be very useful in testing, stopping set-up threats such as Bulk Up Braviary, Coil Eelektross, Calm Mind Murkrow, and of course Belly Drum Linoone behind Screens from denting my team, as well as neutering Unburden Drifblim as a threat without triggering Destiny Bond. This move is also very helpful for opponents predicting Sucker Punch as they usually use Substitute or boost, both of which are ineffective against Roar.​

Musharna @
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SDef
Bold Nature
Psychic / Thunder Wave / Moonlight / Heal Bell or Reflect
This is a possible addition to the team that I'm considering a good deal on. Its bulk is amazing and can act as my sponge to many neutral attacks. Musharna's greatest benefit to my team is that I will no longer be susceptible to Fighting and Psychic attacks, which my team despises. Musharna would be my offensive pivot, soaking up hits which it easily heals off, paralyzes the opponent or just hits them with STAB Psychic, which is pretty strong against walls like Torkoal and Alomomola and frail dudes. The last move would depend on whether I want status insurance (especially helpful since Mushys without Heal Bell are massive Toxic bait), or if I want Reflect to ease Samurott and especially Roselia's setup while beefing up my team as well.

If I'm going to use Musharna, I'd likely replace Sawk. I know I know, Charizard has a Stealth Rock problem, but oftentimes I find Charizard still able to function well even when Stealth Rock is gimping up its style, usually taking advantage of Stealth Rock to launch Blaze boosted Fire Blasts, and Roosting whenever my opponent attempts to stall out Life Orb. Not having Sawk to break specially defensive pokes would suck though. The other option would be to replace Charizard itself, since Sawk is still a very independant wallbreaker (sans bulky Psychics or Ghosts), but I lose a Will-o-Wisp absorber. Either way, Musharna would synergize fantastically with its teammates, taking attacks Mushy cannot handle while Mushy does the same for the rest of the team and supports even more.​