A BrianMcCann + HECTOR Suspect Offensive Team!

Alright, so I'm back with another RMT, a very sexy one at that :). So Blaze (a.k.a Brian McCann) IMs me about having this amazing suspect team which is pure offensively based. Being the fan I am of both offensive teams and tweaking teams, I give him a few suggestions here and there. I must admit, the team is 99% his idea, 1% mine. So far the team has done very well, but we both agree that its missing some extra pieces to make this team fit perfectly into the Latios metagame. So without further ado, here is the team.

Team At A Glance



In Depth



Infernape (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 64 Atk/192 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Fire Blast
- Close Combat
- Stealth Rock
- Fake Out

By far, and I think most of us can agree, that LeadApe is one of the greatest leads which fares extremely well in setting up a nice quick tempo to the game. Fake Out eliminates problematic sashes and helps for revenge kills later on. This guy generally sets up Stealth Rock for this team in every match with relative ease, and without rocks, playing with this team turns a lot harder.



Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/6 Def
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Explosion
- Pursuit

A forgotten threat to this metagame, but still powerful as hell. Revenge kills, traps Latios, Gengar, and a few other threats. Nothing can switch in safely into this guy, seeing as an Explosion from this guy OHKOs everything barring Ghosts and 4x resists.



Mamoswine (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Ice Shard
- Superpower

Another forgotten, yet extremely powerful threat. People are lately focusing on the same guys as offensive choices, but guys such as Mamoswine can pull sweeps easily in the late game because people are not prepared for it. Ice Shard helps to revenge kill those Salamence locked into Outrage or just anything else in the way. STAB Earthquake is just amazing on this guy, definetly underestimated.



Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Earthquake/Stone Edge

Life Orb Gyarados is on 100% of pure offensive teams, and for good reason. He's an excellent wall breaker in every aspect of the words. We're running Bounce on this set because personally, we're tired of the Reflect/Thunder Wave Celebis that think they can counter Gyara every time. Bounce may seem incrediblyy stupid for the same reasons as Fly, but it definetly deserves its merit. It also has the occassional bonus of landing a bit of Paralysis on opponnet, which is always welcomed. Stone Edge is sometimes preferred over Earthquake for those opposing Gyarados that switch in. Still testing that.



Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Fire Blast
- Explosion
- Dragon Pulse
- Earth Power

Regular ScarfTran that is basically here for Scizor and to revenge kill Kingdra. It also provides excellent resistances, which is always nice for any team. Other than that, its pretty standard. Comes in, and hits anything in way.



Gengar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 6 Atk/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Hypnosis
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Explosion

Ahh yes, LO Gengar. You may be wondering, why are these dumb@#$#s using Hypnosis in freaking Platinum. Well little naive team rater (:P), Hypnosis is mostly there as a bonus. The main purpose of this guy is to attack, but when you don't know whats coming in either first time, or later in game, Hypnosis is the way to go. 60% chance is still a pretty decent chance of hendering one of your opponnet's pokemon useless.


Blaze has told me that the team has hard time against Rain Dance teams, Vaporeron, Gyarados and Suicune at times, so help is very much appreciated. Thanks for reading. Please rate ^_^.

Heh, hey HEC. ^_^, thanks for posting the offensive team.


Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Earthquake/Stone Edge

Well, on Gyarados Stone Edge is another option over EQ, simply because other Gyarados tend to kill this one easily and it's just not good for the team in certain situations.

If you have trouble with bulky waters then Thunderpunch on Metagross is always an option, as is t-bolt on gengar, and to a lesser extent HP-Electric on Scarftran. Simple. Nice Team btw =)

I can see a bit of a DDGyara weak(bulky and LO) and against bulky waters which Metagross cannot always solve with explosion. I really do not see what Mamoswine is doing for this team except for revenging dragons, which Metagross does fine with BP. I think a 252 HP/ 80 Sp Atk/ 176 Spd Zapdos would work over Mamo.

Mind rating my RMT?

No doubt this is a great team, because obviously both of you are some of the best battlers around.

I have very few things to say:

If bulky waters trouble you, consider SubTran with Toxic. Lures those things in like nothing else, and you can just throw out the toxic and cripple them for the rest of the match. I don't really see Kingdra setting up on anything here that well. Just hit it hard with whatever is in there, and then you can use Ice Shard to finish it off, or get Metagross to take Outrage.

You could try Thunderbolt on Gengar, as it does hit bulky waters pretty hard and is also a pretty safe throw-some-attack-out there move because it will allow you to 2hko most Scizor that switch in, which means that once they see the first hit, they will be forced to BP, giving you a safe switch to Gyarados to set up.

I'm not a big fan of Gyara using Bounce without Leftovers. As nice as LO is (securing kills on Salamence after Intimdate, Celebi, and Starmie), the problem with it of course is that it is 2 turns, which means people are free to predict around quite a bit. This is especially bad if say, you are facing Celebi and are forced to Bounce into Magnezone, then Celebi switches back in to take the EQ or the Waterfall, you losing health all this time. And there really isn't much you can do when predicting them besides trying to stick in extra DDs, because Celebi shrugs off those EQs and Waterfalls.

So I recommend you run Stone Edge and Leftovers. This way, you get that extra Leftovers recovery while they are switching around. Stone Edge not only stops Zapdos, Salamence, and other fliers from getting into you (Bounce/Waterfall hit hard, but not enough), but it also hits Celebi neutral which is always quite cool. Also, it prevents DDGyara from setting up on you to a certain extent.

Still, I find the DDGyarados weak quite alarming. An Adamant one will get outsped by Heatran, so you can explode, but its likely Gyarados is going to be setting up on Heatran, so that spells trouble. A Jolly one with LO will outspeed and likely kill your whole team in 1 hit. Mamoswine certainly helps, since Ice Shard can KO him after two turns of LO recoil and SR. But that does mean 2 dead pokemon, which definitely sucks.

Obviously one of the main things you need to prevent is to stop him from setting up; right now, he can probably only set up on Heatran stuck on Earth Power. SubHeatran could certainly help; Fire Blast will 2hko most offensive Gyara after rocks.

In summary:
Run Subtran
Bolt on Gengar
Stone Edge on Gyarados, with Leftovers

Your teams are always awesome ._.

Ok well let me start by saying nice offensive team. I do see a few flaws though. I would go with the trapper set EV's on Metagross since he can't take many hits with that EV Spread. But that's up to you.

I like to run 196 Spe on LeadApes to get the jump on others. But that's just me.

Glad to see Mamoswine is getting some use.

------------------------------------------------------

Now for some major changes. Your team suffers a great weakness to stall. Especially WishBliss with Toxic as it can basically play around your entire team with Protect scouting explosions and pursuits. If it manages to get a toxic on Gyarados, he is taking 22% after attacking once. Then 28% after attacking twice+your oponents attack. Bulky Waters that are paired with Celebi can also give this team some problems. LO Gyarados is a 6-0 if your Gyarados lacks Stone Edge.

Ok now I'm really not going to change any members. But here is what I would do:

First I would make Heatran a SubTran with Toxic. This is great for crippling stall teams and bulky waters. Plus it beats up Celebi. Since you are descarfing Heatran you should probably scarf Gengar. This way you get a gyarados revenge killer and something to ruin stall even more.

Hope that helps ^_^.

DD Kingdra can help alleviate the bulky water, rain dance and Gyarados problems.

Kingdra @ Lum Berry/Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Outrage
-Substitute

Kingdra takes hits from Vaporeon and Suicune like a true king/queen if they dont have roar. After One DD, Gyarados never ohkos Kingdra w/o a crit. Substitutes you to block status, a scouting and barricading shell. Swift Swim is there to outspeed alot of shiet in the rain.

You can use the Mixed Kingdra set which rips hella shiet, but after a draco meteor, those waters you mentioned still can fuk you up.

I'm just wondering, but why are you running Superpower on Mamoswine? Bronzong's usae has declined a lot since platinum, and Stone Edge would help with some flyers, so go and put Stone edge.

LoveDestiny said:

DD Kingdra can help alleviate the bulky water, rain dance and Gyarados problems.

Kingdra @ Lum Berry/Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Outrage
-Substitute

Kingdra takes hits from Vaporeon and Suicune like a true king/queen if they dont have roar. After One DD, Gyarados never ohkos Kingdra w/o a crit. Substitutes you to block status, a scouting and barricading shell. Swift Swim is there to outspeed alot of shiet in the rain.

You can use the Mixed Kingdra set which rips hella shiet, but after a draco meteor, those waters you mentioned still can fuk you up.

Click to expand...

If you are going to run a SubKingdra meant to set up on bulky waters, you need to make sure those Ice Beams don't break the subs. I would recommend a spread of 248 HP/96 SpD/112 Spd/52 Atk. Even Vaporeon with 44 SpA EVs won't break these Subs with Ice Beam, allowing you to easily set up in their face. 112 Spd to outspeed Gengar and other base 110s (like Latios and Latias) and the rest into Atk. Adamant nature.

Dang thanks guys for all the rates.

To Urkman: Team is pretty good agaisnt stall believe it or not. Getting Blissey out of the way with Gengar is just amazing, and really opens the doors for my team. I will consider SubTran though.

To chenman: Thanks a lot for the rate. Will definetly consider your ideas.

As an important notice to you all, I really don't mind switching team members if it is for the best, so please, don't hesitate. I psoted this team for a reason didn't I? ^_^ Thanks everyone

Mamoswine wants Stone Edge over Ice Fang because it overpowers the latter despite lack of STAB in addition to hitting Gyarados, which you will outrun due to a Jolly nature.

Gengar wants 40 EVs in Atk to guarantee an OHKO on 252+ Blissey after Stealth Rock.

Otherwise, congratulations on a great team and good luck ^__^

Gah didn't see explosion on gengar. Pretty solid then though you are still DDLO Gyarados weak.

Did you try Blizzard instead of Ice Fang last time? I remember there was one game you (Brian) had trouble against hippowdon.

Ah mamoswine. Quite honestly, I find both superpower and stone edge pretty useless. Stone edge is just for gyara, superpower's just to put a dent in bronzong, and it's not super effective anyways. Personally, I'm weird enough to put toxic or even light screen in at the last slot to help against bulky waters (they often do switch in).

I too am shocked about the gyara weakness. This is one of the basic threats top battlers like yourselves need to address. I would definitely give gengar thunderbolt, over hypnosis of all moves with its now pitiful 60% accuracy. On such a frail poke? I don't think so. You don't have space for a 'bonus' when you don't have such a basic therat covered. Scarf it perhaps as long as you're willing to risk T-tar. Just focus blast the first time they switch into a gengar counter. Maybe even put thunder punch on gross over bullet punch as those bulky waters are gonna give you hell otherwise.

Hope I hoped, good luck.

bulky water > offensive team

I'd consider something like an offensive celebi/zapdos over gengar. At this point, I don't really see how it's pulling its weight for you, and you haven't really explained that either. Furthermore, zappy/celebi resist/immune ground/fight which are gengar's most useful immunities.

Ice Fang on mamo is useless you would rather use blizzard to take out defensive walls like skarm and blizzard does the trick good team.

LO Bounce is kinda a bad idea. I realize that you're going for the whole full offense thing, but Lefties is FAR superior on Bounce Gyara. Let's think about it:

Let's say your opponent's counter is Reflect Celebi. They switch in on the turn you DD. First turn, you Bounce, and they use Reflect. Now they can switch to a flying resister with reflect up, making your hit do almost nothing, and you take 10%. Then they switch back to Celebi on Stone Edge, or Waterfall, doing nothing. You Bounce, the same thing happens. You basically just end up killing yourself.

On the other hand, if you have Leftovers, your apply a LOT more pressure on your opponent, because every time you bounce, you recover a lot of health. They can't just switch around waiting for you to kill yourself.

Also, consider SS/Hail. If that's up (and it usually is on suspect, w/ all the TTars around), then you're losing nearly 25% per bounce, when counting Orb damage as well.

I say either go with Lefties, or go with a different move over Bounce.

Yeah thanks for the pointers guys... Been testing out different stuff for my Gyarados weakness, and Blaze will get to testing as well. We're also considering the change of Gyarados's Set... Thanks for pointers guys.

Stone Edge will replace Ice Fang on Mamo.

Leik dis team is so 1337 nubzorz.

Okay because I lose you both I had to reply. I second all the comments regarding your massive Gyarados weak. I really don't want to suggest anything that will change your team around too much. However, replacing your current Infernape set with the Endeavor set could actually help out alot with Gyarados. You pretty much keep the same idea of a suicide lead but it lets you beat things like Suicune and other bulky waters nearly 99% of the time. Not to mention you add a third sure fire priority move so you can be all "fuck no salac" and shit.

Thunderpunch on Metagross would be cool and all but I wouldn't recommend it like everyone else. It may be rare but shit like Dugtrio and Magnezone can just come in and rape the fuck out of you when your locked into it.

Minor change on Gengar but if you run 252 Spe / Enough SpA to hit 350 / and the rest in Atk you can OHKO Blissey 100% of the time. Sadly I'm too lazy to do the simple math required to do this, but I really would use it.

Anyways I can't really think of anything else to say, but really cool team and good job to the both of you.

^^^^ That would be 252 Spd/216 SpA/40 Atk Naive/Hasy.

I think I'd be a little scared of Agility SubPetaya Empoleon if I were you. The only thing stopping it is Gyarados, and if they get Stealth Rock up that's really iffy.

Ehhh thanks for the rates guys, yes I knew I had a those bulky water weaknesses and DD users, and I wanted to see how I could fix those issues with each opinion and it has helped alot so far.

I'm thinking about Ludicolo here and it totally destroys the entire team and resists your priority moves and is neutral to Ice Shard. A simple:

Ludicolo @ Leftovers
Modest
EV: 6 Hp / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Speed

Surf
Ice Beam
Grass Knot
HP [Electric] / Rain Dance

This set could be problematic. Sure you play around with the switches, but you take damage for a while. This set is almost the perfect coverage for your team. Rain Dance team in general could be quite the trouble. You might want to consider switching your lead to a taunt lead, to prevent rain dance leads.

Azelf @ Focus Sash
Naive
EV: 6 Atk / 252 sp. Atk / 252 Speed

Stealth Rock
Taunt
Flamethrower
Explosion / Flamethrower

Most are scared to use this guy when Metagross is around but, it gives you SR, Taunt and decent coverage not named Tyranitar. Explosion is my suggestion to explode on bulky waters and bulky pokemon in general. To handle Metagross, it's all about prediction. Switch on a bullet punch and meteor mash to Gyarados, and Explosion will most likely come next on standard gross lead, so that's when Gengar comes in.

Another weakness I spot is a simple SubPetaya Empoleon is also trouble some that's packing Surf / Knot but Surf / Ice Beam shouldn't be too much of a problem.

A way to hanlde Empoleon, Rain dance team is to add Kingdra in this team, I just think it fits in perfectly to provide x4 resistance to water, and most water types pack an ice attack or a grass attack which kingdra resists and shouldn't have too much a problem setting up DD. And if they manage to slip up a Rain Dance, this guy is your option.

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Swift Swim
Adamant
EV: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Speed

Dragon Dance
Waterfall
Outrage
Draco Meteor / Return

This could go in place of Mamoswime, it's a poor selection imo. I'm guessing it handles dragon types and keeps them in check. Gyarados' Intimidate and Heatran could handle dragon types. You might want to consider HP [Ice] on heatran to give you an absolute OHKO on these dragon types, it also gives you extrea coverage.

Hope this helped.

HECTORtu said:

Yeah thanks for the pointers guys... Been testing out different stuff for my Gyarados weakness, and Blaze will get to testing as well. We're also considering the change of Gyarados's Set... Thanks for pointers guys.

Stone Edge will replace Ice Fang on Mamo.

Click to expand...

Ugh. Not sure that's a good idea. I honestly believe that people are forgetting how much coverage a stab ice fang gets. Anything that stone edge can hit for SE, ice fang can. With stab, there's only a minimal difference in in damage anyways, but without the horrible accuracy drop. The only things that SE hits are the rare ice types (who really uses them anyways), flying fires (moltres, charizard) and gyara. I really don't advise you switching mamo into gyara anywas, either way, you'll need a better gyara counter.

But gyarados likes to switch into Mamoswine. It happens very often after mamoswine ko's something.