5th Gen RMT - The wrath of Terakion-peaked 8 on PBC server

[Dark Paladin7]

Hi, this is my first 5th gen rmt, and although I have been fairly inactive here on smogon, I have been playing competitive pokemon for quite a while. This team is my most successful 5th gen team, peaking at number 8 the PokeBattleCenter server before I got bored/haxed and ragequit. I believe that this team can do better than it has been thus far, so I am posting it here. It is a sand team that abuses the devastating core of Terakion and Doryuzuu, so without further ado, I present my team.

Teambuilding
When I started this team, I wanted to use an underrated threat, choice band Terakion, and I wanted to abuse him with a strong sand sweeper like Randorosu. I chose Tyranitar as my sand streamer.

I saw a huge water weakness, and I wanted to have spikes support as well, so I threw in Nattorei.

I knew I needed assurance against opposing sand, so I put in one of my favorites in, Gliscor.

The last slot was the hardest to fill. Originally I had in Latias to have a fast check to many special threats and to check Reinculus and it worked decently, but I wanted something better. I tried my own Reinculus and, like Latias, worked decently. I decided to try one of my favorite sets, Calm mind Jirachi who worked the best of the three, but still not great. It is this slot I need the most help on.

After testing some more, I decided to replace Randorosu with Doryuuzu.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Evs: 252 Hp/88 SAtk/168 SDef
Quiet Nature
- Crunch
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
Tyranitar is usually my lead, so it can set up rocks and the sand early in the game. Fire Blast and Ice Beam are amazing moves to have on it as it is a great lure to Gliscor, Nattorei, and Skarmory, thus making it a great support for a Dory sweep. I could use a little help on the Evs though. I believe I got them from an early analysis for Tar, but I would greatly appreciate a spread with more special attack on it while keeping good bulk.

Latias @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 96 HP/160 SAtk/252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Trick
- Thunderbolt
I decided to ditch Jirachi and put in a specs Latias. I prefer Latias for this job because her job is not to demolish teams, but act as a check to powerful special threats and kill them it one hit. The reason I ditched her originally was because I was using a bulkier Calm Mind set that did not fit the team. She helps patch up water and grass weaknesses that my team has. I forgot what the 96 Hp Evs do, but they have saved me, the spread is just temporary until I can find a better one. The favorite thing about this set is trick. Nothing makes me happier than tricking specs onto incoming Nattorei (except maybe fire blasting them lol), and it is overall annoying to opposing walls, although I must be careful who I trick the specs to.

Terakion @ Choice Band
Ability: Justice Heart
Evs: 4 Hp/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Quick Attack
This thing is a beast. No other way to say it. With a choice band it demolishes through pokes. Terakion is amazing in conjunction with Dory, as Terakion weakens pokes such as Gliscor and Hippowdon so that Dory can later plow threw them. Because of the special defense boost, it is easy to find an opportunity to switch in. The Evs give it maximum attack and speed, and because of its speed it can revenge kill sweepers such as Swords dance Garchomp. X-Scissor and Quick attack are mostly fillers, but both have proven to be useful. The best thing about this monster is that priority is not much of a concern since its main job is to be wall breaking and not sweeping.

Nattorei @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Thorns
Evs: 252 Hp/48 Def/208 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Protect
Nattorei sets up Spikes and just an overall annoyance to your opponent with Leech seed. It has resistances that are crucial to this team’s success and its Spikes makes it easier to wear the opponent’s team down to the point where Dory can sweep. Power whip is a very powerful attack and with Nattorei can do some real damage. Protect is there for leftovers and Leech seed shenanigans. The spread is specially defensive to take Draco meteors and Hydro pumps better. Overall pretty standard, not much else to say.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Evs: 252 Hp/184 Def/72 Spd
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Acrobat
- Fling
- Taunt
Again, a fairly standard set, but very effective. Gliscor is my main check to many of the powerful physical attackers like Dory and Roobushin (I refuse to refer to it as Conkader or whatever it’s called now). I run Taunt instead of Protect now purely out of habit. I used to run Gliscor on rain and it was one of my Nattorei checks because it could Taunt the Leech seed and any Spikes it wanted to set up. However I found that Gliscor made a better Roobushin check with it then Protect, since they couldn’t predict the Protects and Bulk up during them. The speed Evs on it ensure that it will always outrun jolly Tyranitar and adamant Breloom. Poison heal on this thing is a gift and allows it to be a nuisance the whole battle and to be basically immune to status. Fling allows it to poison a switch in and to double the power of Acrobat. This thing just covers up so many weaknesses on my team it’s insane.

Doryuuzu @ Balloon
Ability: Sand Throw
Evs: 4 Hp/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance
The star of the show. What can I say? This thing sweeps teams. I won’t go into too much detail here as I’m sure you all know what it does. Bring it in on something that can’t do anything to it, set up Swords dance and sweep. Balloon helps a lot with this as it gives set up opportunites and means Gliscor and Hippowdon can’t Earthquake right off the bat, giving me a free turn. Ideally this comes out after their team has been weakened enough to be one hit killed, which is surprisingly easy because of Terakion and entry hazards.

Edit: Why don't half my pictures work?

So that is my team, I hope you enjoyed seeing it and I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to rate it.

 

[Dark Paladin7]

Bump, a rate would be appreciated.

 

[Ryuuk201]

hmm okay maybe switch glyscor out for hippowdown? they do the same thing just hippowdown gives the team and extra sandstorm set up and lets doryuuzu go to work. but hats just a suggestion, the team looks realy good in my opinion good job

 

[RyanTcone]

I'd switch Jirachi to something that'll combat your weakness to water/grass, Thunduru perhaps

 

[Dark Paladin7]

If I switch out gliscor then fighting types will be some trouble and I find gliscor to be overall better then hippowdon so I'll keep gliscor, but the thunduru suggestion is interesting, never even considered him.

 

[RyanTcone]

Give this set a shot, he can take down both your water and grass opposition.

move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Hidden Power Ice
move 4: Focus Blast / Taunt
item: Life Orb
ability: Mischievous Heart
nature: Timid
EV's: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

 

[Shnoogle]

I don't know about the team synergy. The only resistance to water you have is Nattorei who cannot take repeated beatings. Standard Specs Kingdra 3HKOs with Hydro Pump
in the rain, and after that, any Starmie or scarfed rain sweeper cleans house easily.
I'd actually suggest Lati@s over Jirachi. This also patches up your pretty big Heatran weakness (well, sp. Fire weakness in general) and allows you to check Mence and Sazandora so much easier than your current way of dealing with it (lure it into outrage and pray Nat has enough HP to survive a LO +1 Outrage).

I'd recommend the scarfer. I don't think I have to post a set because I assume you know what scarf lati@s is lol

Another option is to support Terakion. What I did on one team that was pretty successful was use Specs Luke with HP [Ice] to lure in Terakion's counters. In this case, you use team preview to your advantage. Scout the opponent's Tera counter (which are mostly the same as the standard SD Luke's counters) and when you can bring Luke in safely, mindlessly click HP [Ice] and watch the Hippo/Vampire Bat die :)
It also provides great assurance against Dory with Vacuum Wave (does about 80% average in my experience)

Good luck :)

 

[Dezza Laa]

are you sure you peaked #8 on the ladder??

TBH I don't believe you. There is no way you can handle common threats with the gaping weaknesses in you team as well as the lack of resistance against common attacking types.

For example:
Fighting
Resists : 1 x2 resist (gliscor)
Weaknesses : 1 x4 weakness, 3 2x weakness

Ground
Resists : 1 x Immune (gliscor)
Weaknesses : 4 x2 weakness

Water
R : 1 x2 resist (Nattorei)
W : 4 x2 weak

That means a Kerudio could practically sweep your entire team, and they aren't really rare to see on a team.

For that reason I recommend a Vappy over Jirachi. With Wish / Protect / Boil Over / Toxic or something. Becuase your team seems really frail and unable to take hits TBH.

Up to you whether you take my advice or not, I'm just statin what I see.

 

[SmileZ]

Regarding the above post. Having Gliscor on your team with those defenses is pretty much a cold stop to most fighting types. Watch out for Machamp though who can still have fun with your team. that toxic orb needs to be gone before the fighting type comes in otherwise you could be in for a fun day.

I've been running a similar team to this which experienced good success boosting me from rank ~ 3500 on the Smogon PO server to about rank ~ 400 in one night. Just a warning though, when you get to those ranks on PO, you are going to be shat all over with this team. A common core of Espeon (4th gen lol), Quagsire (4th Gen LOLWTF) and Skarmory can dance around your team all day. I'm gonna post my RMT later today, I'll PM you and forward any help I get because I'm not sure how to help myself at the moment..

 

[YAYtears]

Once jirachi is down (or even if it isn't), CM birijiron sweepps your team. You rely on gliscor for a fighting resist, yet you forget the possility of ice punch or hp ice. At least add a lati@s somewhere!

 

[Dark Paladin7]

About the synergy issues I have, although I don't have multiple resistances to things such as water and fighting type attacks, the ones I have are very good. Water types are on a decline with many teams having nattorei and lati@s, and, from my experiance, offensive ones are even rarer. To dkfoo, I have seen a kerudio maybe three times and I have never had any trouble. Changing jirachi to vaporeon further increases my grass weakness and just slows down my team and doesn't really do anything, just gives me wish support I don't need and gets set up on like no other. Ironically, you suggest replacing it with jirachi, who is a decent kerudio check, while vaporeon doesn't do much against it. And what common threats am I weak to? Like smileZ said, gliscor is pretty much a full stop to fighting types, and Jirachi also makes a great secondary check because of his great defense and stab psychic. I am not over looking ice puch when using gliscor as the only two fighting types that really carry it are champ, where I send out jirachi, and the dark fighting guy. I won't be putting specs luke in to support terakion when the whole point of terakion is to support doryuuzu. Yeah, cm birijiron is pretty lethal against my team, but jirachi is a good check, fortunately they are not that common. I will give latias another try over jirachi since everyone seems to be suggesting it, after I test out the Thundurus suggestion.

Thank you to all those who have rated so far