From Overhyped to Underrated!

I'm pretty sure you know I'm talking about Rhyperior.

HERE'S THE TEAM!

Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/240 Atk/16 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

Choice Band Tyranitar is a HUGE threat for any team. With it's awesome attack it can hurt even teams that are heavily prepared for it. I decided to go for Max HP and near Max Atk instead of pumping Speed or SDef because I want it to hit as hard as possible while being capable of taking some few hits.

Rhyperior (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 132 HP/16 Atk/136 Def/224 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

Without barely any Atk EV it hits 352 Attack, 704 after a Swords Dance.
101HP Substitutes are always nice, and even better with a Blissey or a Cresselia can't break them with an Ice Beam (yay for Sandstorm). It's really bulky from BOTH sides of the spectrum and can take some abuse from pretty much anything that isnt Grass/Water.
It doesn't really sweep, since it's really slow, but he always hurts something before being forced to switch out.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/184 Def/36 Spd/36 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Heal Bell
- Grass Knot
- Recover
- Thunder Wave

The definition of Support. Heal Bell + TWave helps this team A LOT. Seriously, this thing just doesn't die, but I'm sure you already know that :)

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/220 Def/36 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost
- Thunder Wave

Oh, Zapdos, Zapdos... It's so awesome that I always wish I could have two of those in my teams (one Bold and one Calm). More paralysis support and makes a decent switch on the likes of Heracross, Lucario and even Garchomp.

Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
EVs: 228 HP/16 Atk/68 Spd/196 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Roost
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Brick Break

SDefensive Scizor is oh so awesome :)
It switches on those Gengars without problem any Pursuit them to death, same goes for Starmie or Deoxys.

Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 188 HP/252 Def/68 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Wish
- Protect

Vaporeon is here to offer Wish support for Rhyperior and Tyranitar. I don't really need HP Electric with Gyarados and Celebi on the team so I opted for this moveset.

just quickly, im guessing you mean, with zapdos and celebi on the team that you dont need HP electric

i really like the offense and support you're using, but it looks like if your opponent gets some SR/spikes/Tspikes, and you get put on the back foot for a couple of moves that big fast hitters will cause a world of pain. CB chomp/variations looks ready to rip, with vaporeon in sand not very consistent (i find), and when push comes to shove, i wouldnt want to be relying on zapdos taking a possible CB 100bp SE hit. the team looks a bit slow, and i think there might be excess pressure on zapdos to counter all these fighters (esp under sand, like vappy), but i guess celebi helps.

i feel guilty in wanting to recommend pokes over your pokes since you obviously a rapport with each of them considering your comments, but i think you could consider some more general support over scizor. gengar can be pursuited by tar, despite focus blast, since so many are running scarfs anyway. stealth rocks or some residual damage would look nice, hurting those walls even more as they try to counter tar/rhyperior

rhyperior evokes my fond memories of rhydon in advanced, so i like this team a lot.

awesome sprites by the way, where are they from?

kind of surprised you're not opting for agility pass scizor since it has pretty good synergy with rhyperior (agility on the switch to heatran, pass to perior and sd +sweep)

t-tar and rhyperior are too similar imo. from their defensive typing to their offensive typing. i think heatran will fit in well as a substitute. they're real different i know, but it works with the team's typing.

Well, the thing is, Tyranitar is essential to Rhyperior's special resistance, while Rhyperior is obviously the pokemon that will not be switched.

Gormenghast has the right idea with an agility passing strategy. Thunder Wave is helpful, but if Rhyperior is absolutely needed against something Thunder Wave cannot deal with, the agility passes will help out.

You'd need +4 spd to get rhyperior anywhere and you'd still need to invest 144 evs to be sure you beat adamant scarf chomp (240 evs for timid scarfgar).

Even with max speed, jolly rhyperior only gets to 392 after one agility.

It's a great looking team, a little further down the road towards defensive than offensive it seems. On that note, high offense teams with 1-2 CB / Specs pokemon (Heracross, Garchomp and Lucario are all examples) look like they're about to tear through this team without a problem. Gyarados also gives you a really hard time once Celebi hits about 60% HP, especially with Taunt.

I would put Quick Attack on Scizor over Brick Break, and use a Life Orb.

As far as weaknesses to individual pokemon go, you've got a lot of stuff covered since all of your pokemon are defensive. Notable weakness's that I can see are Garchomp and Heracross. Using Reflect on Celebi or Zapdos would really help with this.

Nice team!

There's the possibilty of Lucario setting up on Tyranitar, with Swords Dance, and then progressing onto (with Stealth Rock support) OHKOing your entire team. However it's not as if any weakened team can handle Lucario well anyway.

Skarmory / Forretress will have a field of day setting up Toxic Spikes, Spikes, and Stealth Rock against you. More importantly, you haven't got an answer to them.

Life Orb Salamence will also cause you trouble, but it tends to cause problems for most teams. You just have to predict your away around it most of the time.

Heracross can be a pain to deal with - You have to rely on your prediction (once again) to cover it and then take it down yourself.

Garchomp's unpredictable. But it does look like it can cause some serious damage here. Swords Dance variants tear you apart.

I agree with Gorm on the "Agility / Baton Pass" idea. Vaporeon with Wish would be, in theory, benifical to the Zapdos passing +2s of speed to the chosen recepitant. With that in mind, it may give you motivation to try Life Orb Tyranitar. With an Agility under its belt, and Life Orb with moves that can obliterate teams from left to right, it's worth a mention and should be taken into consideration.

Great team though, Konks!

Minor nitpick: Since TTar gets a significant SpD boost from Sandstorm, I would take some EVs from HP and put them in Def. Otherwise, your special defence would be much higher than your physical defense (448 vs. 319).

Significant props for using Rhyperior, by the way. Now all you need is a Tangrowth to make this the coolest team in the world.

Hippowdon could make a decent substitute to TTar if one is worried about typing...

I have been waiting to say this for a VERY long time...I see a problem with the following guy:

Vileplume(or other sunnybeamer) @ some item
Some EV spread

Sunny day
G-knot
HP fire
Sludge bomb/stun spore/sleep powder

Anyways, it could grass attack the rock types, HP fire the others. If TTar or zapdos came in to ruin it's parade, they would get statused. It could cause the team serious thrill issues. I know it's unlikely to happen, but... it could happen.

Or, if TTar came in on a status to stop the weather, it could sunny day again and something would have to take the hit. I guess you have a trick or two to stop this threat, but... it could be a serious threat.

^ did you seriously just call his team vileplume weak?

eh... I'm noob... It's not get past zapdos any time soon...

@seds

Yeah, Zapdos counters it nicely, and also Celebi can take a hit and TWave to make any sunnybeamer useless. Tyranitar can also switch in once.

@Zombie Walrus

And can you tell me why exactly there is a problem on having a higher SDef then Def?

@Taylor

Oh hi :)
I can easily get around all the problems you said, I'm all aware of those. The only thing that will sweep me like 90% of the time is SD Yache Chomp, this team just can't handle it. I might be forced to slap HP Ice somewhere on Celebi too.
The agility passing thing you and gorm are saying is something I'll consider. Making TTar mixed would make it a great agility recipient and also a good surprise for Skarm/Forry, but doing those changes would make my team much less bulky.. I'll adapt it and see how it goes for some time.

@IggyBot

Of all this things you mentioned only Garchomp gives me really problems, like I told you on Shoddy. Gyarados is not a threat with both Celebi and Bold Zapdos.

Thanks for the replies everyone, more suggestions are welcome :)

Consider Toxic Spikes and Life Orb Salamence up-front against you - What do you do?

Hidden Power [Ice] Celebi much?