A VGC 2012 RMT in late July? What’s with that, right? Well, long story short, I missed out on the regionals due to this thing called school, but I love double battles and still want a good team to use on the GBU and at my local Play! Pokemon league. So I tested this team on PO…the only place left with people to play really is the SkarmBliss server, which sees minimal traffic (understandable, since worlds is around the corner, and it was offline for nats for a bit). So I haven’t tested this team as much as I’d like, but still want to post it for critique. I mean, I went to the effort to type this all, so a few rates would be cool. So without further ado, here’s the team (Importable text at the end):
Team Building Process sorry, no pics, wanted to get this done
THE TEAM
"Mega Man" @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Substitute
- Protect
Standard Latios, kills anything that doesn’t outspeed him. All Garchomps and Rotom-Ws are swiftly OHKOd and crushed under the weight of dozens of flaming, blue meteors. Latios is literally the perfect Special Attacker: one of the fasted things allowed, and a super-powered STAB that severely dents anything that resists it or isn’t outright ko’d. Because of his frailty and essentially 1-time-use-STAB, I prefer not to lead with him, although if he has super-effective coverage or any other advantage over the majority of the opponent’s team, I feel that my chances of success are better if he does lead.
The moveset is made with efficiency in mind. HP Fire was ditched (and put on Rotom-W instead) to cut his vulnerablility against opposing base 110 Spe Pokemon (aside from that fact the only Latios I have don't have the IVs for it, lol). Instead, he now has Psychic, which OHKOs most standard 252 HP Hitmontop and Conkledurr, and is his most spammable STAB. Substitute is a new addition, useful for scouting. It protects him from Sucker Punch and allows him to escape opposing Cresselia's Thunder Wave, as well as avoid the negative effects of Icy Wind.
"Proto Man" @ Flying Gem
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 244 HP/252 Atk/12 Spe
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Acrobatics
- Protect
Holy shit. Seriously, this thing is a monster. What really won him a spot on my team, above all else, is the ability to 2HKO Cresselia AND simultaneously remove it’s Chesto or Sitrus Berry recovery. His other STAB, Bullet Punch, 2HKOs Ttar and Abomasnow, 2 weather starters who give Latios (and other members on my team) serious trouble. Like Latios, Scizor functions significantly better as a late-game sweeper. This is because Bullet Punch doesn’t really get any OHKOs on Pokemon that aren’t weak to it or really frail, but is much more useful for picking off weakened foes. Also, he likes coming in after Cresselia has paralyzed most of the opponent’s team, that way he can use Bug Bite or Acrobatics much more safely.
The set is pretty standard, with 12 EVs put into Spe so that he outspeeds opposing Scizor (although he can’t do much to it, unless it’s weakened, in which case he can go for the KO with Superpower). Some might think to outspeed opposing Scizor by putting in 4 more EVs into Spe than the standard Smogon on-site analysis calls for (which is 0), which is what I initially did, so just in case, I gave him one more extra speed point than that to beat those dopes to the punch, AHA! He works better alongside Latios than Metagross did because he doesn’t have to rely on Meteor Miss. The two take out Pokemon that give each other trouble, and they can safely switch in on each other’s weakness. But they can’t handle everything together, so that’s what the other four are for.
"Roll" @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP/28 SpA/216 SpD/12 Spe
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Rest
- Trick Room
The first pokemon I thought of, before I even had my core in place. After watching enough battles, I saw what a total prick this thing can be, and I would be a fool not to arm myself with one. Cresselia is a great pokemon that can fit onto pretty much any team, and mine is no exception. She offers great support via paralysis, can shut down Trick Room, allow Landorus to spam EQ, and with ChestoRest, this thing just doesn’t die.
The EVs are made so that Cresselia can outspeed opposing Cresselia and paralyze them (which she does 100% of the time), 2HKO 252 HP Hitmontop and Hariyama, and still have plenty of special bulk to take repeated assaults from Heat Waves, Surfs, and Blizzards. The Speed part of the EVs follow the same philosophy as Scizor’s set. Psychic and rest were necessary; ChestoRest gives it much better longevity than just a Sitrus Berry. The rest of the set may seem kind of weird: “why run both Twave and TR?”, you may ask. Cress is the best I have in the way of countering TR, so it was there from the last team. Twave used to be Helping Hand; with a lack of spread moves, however, it seemed useless most of the time. Dedicated TR teams are a rare sight, so with TWave, at least it does something each turn. Having both moves have proven to work extremely well. Most of the pokemon in my team have middling speed, so they all greatly appreciate PAR support; it’s not hard to put down most of the opponent’s team, especially if they decide to switch in and out. BUT, when TR does arrive, I have no problem shutting it off. I can even use it myself if most of the opponent’s pokemon are faster than mine; that way, I ruin their speed within only one turn (as opposed to trying to paralyze each mon one-by-one)! Having only one move with mediocre power can get annoying sometimes, though.
"Auto" @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpA/4 Spe
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power (Fire)
- Trick
At first, he was added just to counter Heatran. However, I quickly realized that this little washing machine is more than meets the eye. He also has excellent offensive and defensive synergy with Scizor, and can be sent to aid the metal-clad mantis when I feel it isn’t safe to bring Latios. They switch into each other’s weaknesses, and he takes out troublesome Pokemon to Scizor, mostly rain pokemon (Politoed, Kindgra, etc.), other Steel-types, and Garchomp. He functions well as a lead with Cresselia, due to his type coverage, the benefits gained from Cresselia’s Thunder Waving the opponent, and ability to ruin some Pokemon with Trick (although he often prefers to keep the raw power the specs bring him. I don’t use Trick for scouting, mostly just to cripple defensive pokemon or physical attackers that he can’t OHKO). He also enjoys having Landorus around, as one can bring great tremors as the other enjoys smiting what is left!
I opted for a Modest nature, for max power and so I can OHKO Swift Swim Kingdra and any Politoed that doesn’t have a Wacan Berry. The EVs maximize power and HP, since there isn't really any important competition near his speed tier that he needs to outrun. HP Fire gives him coverage against Steels, and is an easy OHKO on Abomasnow. Yes, Ferrothorn can survive and strike back with a Power Whip, but it's not hard to knock it into KO range for a Choiced HP Fire. It also allows Auto to fare better against sun teams.
"Treble" @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Brave
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 SpD/ (IVS = 31/31/31/31/31/2)
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Protect
My weather changer, the infamous Ttar himself. His main purpose is to switch in to rain or sun teams, take away their precious weather, and cause as much carnage as possible. At first I was skeptical about using him, because I didn’t have Hitmontop to provide him with support from Fake Out, Intimidate, and Wide Guard. However, after recalling The Mantyke’s VGC team, I realized that he could do just fine without any of those things. He manages to survive rather well since I have pokemon on my team able to easily KO Steel-types, Abomasnow, Fighting-types, and Intimidate abusers such as Salamence and Arcanine.
I recently gave him the Focus Sash, because I feel like that aids his survivability better. The Chople Berry was okay, but only shielded him against one type of move. The moves and EVs are fairly standard. With his IVs, he outspeeds the standard Ttar by 1 point, which is pretty good, since he’s still slow enough to work in Trick Room and no one else really runs Spe on him. This way he gets the jump on the opposition and can shit on weakened Ttars with Low Kick.
"Bass" @ Yache Berry
Ability: Sand Force
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Protect
I’ve been playing VGC 2012 for a month, but only been using this version of the team for a little less than two weeks. So, in that respect, Landorus is still a fairly new member. Needless to say, he fit in almost right away. Treble’s sandstorm boosts his powers to crazy levels, and with support from Cresselia, he can outspeed faster mons or tailwind teams and wreck their shit with Rock Slide (or EQ, depending who’s out). It doesn’t matter if Treble can’t make it to the party, because if the opponent also has a Tyranitar, Landorus can still muscle his way through. Even without sandstorm, he’s still a very usable pokemon with a good base 125 attack score. I have sandstorm, a team full of levitators, paralysis support, and pokemon that threaten Ice-types and rain teams; needless to say, Landorus fits right in.
This set is 100% standard and unoriginal, but fuck, it works! Yache Berry is the item of choice, and considering that he survives every stray ice attack that has ever hit him, I see absolutely no reason to use Normal Gem. I haven’t done damage calcs (or even used the move, since RS or EQ always seems to be more practical), but I’m pretty sure Explosion is still strong enough without Normal Gem.
Now that you’ve met each individual member, on to how I actually put them in use (NOTE: at this point in the metagame, dedicated theme teams are less common, but if I plan to climb the ranks on the GBU, I expect to see a lot of these when I start):
Rain: Rotom-W/Cresselia/Tyranitar/Landorus OR Scizor OR Latios
- As a heads-up, Cresselia always scores a lead position due to having Twave. In this case, Swift Swimmers are crippled. Rotom has a field day here, since dedicated Rain teams rarely run electric resists. Ttar changes the weather, and the rest is easy picking. I leave Scizor out of this because of his poor SpD, but may bring him if I see Cresselia or Ludicolo in the team preview (or both, which has thankfully never happened). Latios stays away because of the prevalence of Ice Beam (but he is needed of I see Gastrodon in Team Preview). I’ve only fought one, and it turned out in a nice win.
Sun: Latios/Cresselia/Tyranitar/Landorus
- I’ve fought at least three of these. They stand no chance at all, quite frankly. Even Gastrodon has to watch his back! Cresselia is good for absorbing sleep powder, and Latios or Landorus can switch into the occasional Grass move aimed at Ttar. Basically, once their weather has been taken away, I just hammer away at them with super-effective attacks, no big deal.
Sandstorm: Latios/Cresselia/Rotom-W/Landorus OR Ttar OR Scizor
- SS teams are surprisingly varied, and aren’t as easy as the other two weathers. With mostly levitators, Earthquake is rendered useless, so the opponent resorts to single-target attacks. I usually lead with Latios, because the opposition almost always leads with Garchomp. The sooner I remove him, the better, because once he gets a sub up, things turn pretty dire. If I’m wrong, I switch out, because he’s so frail and I can’t afford to waste him, he needs to kill Chomp. The back slot is often a tough choice: do I need Scizor to switch into Latios’s weaknesses if I start of wrong, or pick the one that has the most super-effective attacks against the opponent? I see this team type a lot. My win ration against them is about 50:50; I lost some to stupid misplays, one to Sand Veil hax, and the others due to the fact that the player is genuinely better than me.
Tailwind: Cresselia/x/x/x
- Easy picking. Just have Cresselia to paralyze everything, then pick the other three based on what the opponent has.
Trick Room: Tyranitar OR Scizor/Cresselia/Scizor/Rotom-W OR Landorus OR Tyranitar
- Unlike the other team archetypes, I’ve never run into this one yet. But from my own experience with using the effect, I know that if you dismantle the initial Turn 1 setup, the rest of the team will proceed to crumble. There are only two types of leads: Hariyama + Dusclops or Follow Me/Rage Powder + TR user (ex. Amoonguss + Reuniclus). With the former, Ttar Crunches Clops and Cress uses Psychic on Hari; if one gets faked out, at least the other makes progress. This is a form of scouting to see if they will set up on turn 1 or if they are too threatened to do so by slow mons OR if they expect the following: I predict them to use TR, so I use TR on the first turn to turn it off, and they take advantage of that and don’t set up so I overpredict and actually set it up for them. No sense in over predicting. If they do set up on turn 1, Tar protects next turn while Cress shuts it off, then I proceed to go for KOs. With ReuniGuss, I do Scizor + Cresselia. We team up on Amoonguss with Bug Bite and Psychic to go for the kill while Reuniclus sets up TR. Scizor protects on the next turn while Cress shuts it off. Then I bug bite reuniclus and play things from there.
Goodstuffs: x/Cresselia/Tyranitar/Landorus or whatever idk
- Lol are any of us prepared for Goodstuffs? My lead usually consists of Cresselia + whichever mon I have that has advantages over most of the opponent’s pokemon (at least half, and this can be in the form of resistances or immunities or super-effective matchups). Ideally I have sandstorm as a backup strategy (and both like to come in on paralyzed pokemon; heck, my Ttar outspeeds a Timid max speed Accelgor if it’s paralyzed!), but not may not be possible, because I wouldn’t like having Latios AND Landorus if there are Ice attacks. I just have to pick who I think is best and try to play well from there, although it’s pretty hard to recover from a bad lead matchup if one happens.
THREAT LIST
-
+
leads: more specifically, Thundurus. Twave can’t slow him down, because even Prankster Twave can plague my team. Quoted from The Mantyke's Post: "If you're looking for possible leads to answer, consider trying Tyranitar + Cresselia. A first turn double protect can shut down their Thunder Waving Shenanigans, then on your next turn, you can whallop Hitmontop with Psychic and Thundurus with Rock Slide. If Hitmontop Close Combats on the first turn, Tyranitar has the sash to live for another turn and still get the hit off on Thundurus (unless he's double targeted). If Hitmontop Wide Guards, you still have a sashed Ttar at your disposal versus a half dead Hitmontop."
- Substitute: any bulky pokemon that sets up a well-timed substitute can give me a lot of trouble, especially if it’s
or
. I have the means to OHKO either one right away, but it’s not always that easy. Their counters might have to switch in, and by then they may already have their subs up.
-
: If Auto is dead by the time he comes out, he can be pretty tough to handle, although I'm not overly concerned.
CLOSING COMMENTS
There isn’t one specific Pokemon that gives my team trouble, because of the wide array of type coverage I have, as well as paralysis support. My biggest weakness, honestly, is deciding what to pick when I see Goodstuffs in Team Preview. I usually do pretty well, but it’s frustrating to play a metagame where almost no single lead pair can do it all (In the Spring Friendly/VGC 2011 I led with Mienshao + Sturdy Shell Smash Carracosta @ Mental Herb all the time, had few problems, unlike this year). If the opponent has no fake out user, it’s tough to get an estimate of what they’ll lead with, and I might get a bad matchup. Even still, I feel like this team is pretty solid, and would like to know how it can be improved. I haven’t gotten a lot of time to test it because of work and lack of competition, so I feel like I’m missing something. Thanks for reading, hope it wasn’t too long a read! :)
Importable
Team Building Process sorry, no pics, wanted to get this done
• So I started with a DragMag core: Latios and Metagross, both standards.
• Next I added Cresselia who offered support with Helping Hand and Trick Room so that she could reverse the effect. This thing is a beast, I promised myself that I would use one no matter what the team looked like.
• Specs Rotom-W was added right away, since I saw that Heatran was a threat to my core, and Rotom handles the lava monster beautifully (he also has good offensive and defensive synergy with Metagross).
• Now an anti-weather pokemon: Hail disrupts a lot of teams, but Abomasnow adds too many weaknesses. So I got a Suicune and put hail on it; without their weather, rain and sun and sand are much easier to handle, and the cune has good bulk. Weavile then became my Fake Out user; he’s the fastest, handles Cresselia, and does not get his sash broken by Hail.
• Eventually I replaced Metagross with Scizor; Scizor still works with Latios, takes care of all the same pokemon Meta does, has overall better type coverage, and a much more reliable, high-powered steel-type STAB (with priority to boot!) Cune wasn’t too useful and lacked power, so I swapped it for a Tyranitar. I put Landorus in the last slot because he takes advantage of the sand and I have a team full of levitators :P
• Next I added Cresselia who offered support with Helping Hand and Trick Room so that she could reverse the effect. This thing is a beast, I promised myself that I would use one no matter what the team looked like.
• Specs Rotom-W was added right away, since I saw that Heatran was a threat to my core, and Rotom handles the lava monster beautifully (he also has good offensive and defensive synergy with Metagross).
• Now an anti-weather pokemon: Hail disrupts a lot of teams, but Abomasnow adds too many weaknesses. So I got a Suicune and put hail on it; without their weather, rain and sun and sand are much easier to handle, and the cune has good bulk. Weavile then became my Fake Out user; he’s the fastest, handles Cresselia, and does not get his sash broken by Hail.
• Eventually I replaced Metagross with Scizor; Scizor still works with Latios, takes care of all the same pokemon Meta does, has overall better type coverage, and a much more reliable, high-powered steel-type STAB (with priority to boot!) Cune wasn’t too useful and lacked power, so I swapped it for a Tyranitar. I put Landorus in the last slot because he takes advantage of the sand and I have a team full of levitators :P
THE TEAM
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Substitute
- Protect
Standard Latios, kills anything that doesn’t outspeed him. All Garchomps and Rotom-Ws are swiftly OHKOd and crushed under the weight of dozens of flaming, blue meteors. Latios is literally the perfect Special Attacker: one of the fasted things allowed, and a super-powered STAB that severely dents anything that resists it or isn’t outright ko’d. Because of his frailty and essentially 1-time-use-STAB, I prefer not to lead with him, although if he has super-effective coverage or any other advantage over the majority of the opponent’s team, I feel that my chances of success are better if he does lead.
The moveset is made with efficiency in mind. HP Fire was ditched (and put on Rotom-W instead) to cut his vulnerablility against opposing base 110 Spe Pokemon (aside from that fact the only Latios I have don't have the IVs for it, lol). Instead, he now has Psychic, which OHKOs most standard 252 HP Hitmontop and Conkledurr, and is his most spammable STAB. Substitute is a new addition, useful for scouting. It protects him from Sucker Punch and allows him to escape opposing Cresselia's Thunder Wave, as well as avoid the negative effects of Icy Wind.
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 244 HP/252 Atk/12 Spe
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Acrobatics
- Protect
Holy shit. Seriously, this thing is a monster. What really won him a spot on my team, above all else, is the ability to 2HKO Cresselia AND simultaneously remove it’s Chesto or Sitrus Berry recovery. His other STAB, Bullet Punch, 2HKOs Ttar and Abomasnow, 2 weather starters who give Latios (and other members on my team) serious trouble. Like Latios, Scizor functions significantly better as a late-game sweeper. This is because Bullet Punch doesn’t really get any OHKOs on Pokemon that aren’t weak to it or really frail, but is much more useful for picking off weakened foes. Also, he likes coming in after Cresselia has paralyzed most of the opponent’s team, that way he can use Bug Bite or Acrobatics much more safely.
The set is pretty standard, with 12 EVs put into Spe so that he outspeeds opposing Scizor (although he can’t do much to it, unless it’s weakened, in which case he can go for the KO with Superpower). Some might think to outspeed opposing Scizor by putting in 4 more EVs into Spe than the standard Smogon on-site analysis calls for (which is 0), which is what I initially did, so just in case, I gave him one more extra speed point than that to beat those dopes to the punch, AHA! He works better alongside Latios than Metagross did because he doesn’t have to rely on Meteor Miss. The two take out Pokemon that give each other trouble, and they can safely switch in on each other’s weakness. But they can’t handle everything together, so that’s what the other four are for.
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP/28 SpA/216 SpD/12 Spe
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Rest
- Trick Room
The first pokemon I thought of, before I even had my core in place. After watching enough battles, I saw what a total prick this thing can be, and I would be a fool not to arm myself with one. Cresselia is a great pokemon that can fit onto pretty much any team, and mine is no exception. She offers great support via paralysis, can shut down Trick Room, allow Landorus to spam EQ, and with ChestoRest, this thing just doesn’t die.
The EVs are made so that Cresselia can outspeed opposing Cresselia and paralyze them (which she does 100% of the time), 2HKO 252 HP Hitmontop and Hariyama, and still have plenty of special bulk to take repeated assaults from Heat Waves, Surfs, and Blizzards. The Speed part of the EVs follow the same philosophy as Scizor’s set. Psychic and rest were necessary; ChestoRest gives it much better longevity than just a Sitrus Berry. The rest of the set may seem kind of weird: “why run both Twave and TR?”, you may ask. Cress is the best I have in the way of countering TR, so it was there from the last team. Twave used to be Helping Hand; with a lack of spread moves, however, it seemed useless most of the time. Dedicated TR teams are a rare sight, so with TWave, at least it does something each turn. Having both moves have proven to work extremely well. Most of the pokemon in my team have middling speed, so they all greatly appreciate PAR support; it’s not hard to put down most of the opponent’s team, especially if they decide to switch in and out. BUT, when TR does arrive, I have no problem shutting it off. I can even use it myself if most of the opponent’s pokemon are faster than mine; that way, I ruin their speed within only one turn (as opposed to trying to paralyze each mon one-by-one)! Having only one move with mediocre power can get annoying sometimes, though.
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpA/4 Spe
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power (Fire)
- Trick
At first, he was added just to counter Heatran. However, I quickly realized that this little washing machine is more than meets the eye. He also has excellent offensive and defensive synergy with Scizor, and can be sent to aid the metal-clad mantis when I feel it isn’t safe to bring Latios. They switch into each other’s weaknesses, and he takes out troublesome Pokemon to Scizor, mostly rain pokemon (Politoed, Kindgra, etc.), other Steel-types, and Garchomp. He functions well as a lead with Cresselia, due to his type coverage, the benefits gained from Cresselia’s Thunder Waving the opponent, and ability to ruin some Pokemon with Trick (although he often prefers to keep the raw power the specs bring him. I don’t use Trick for scouting, mostly just to cripple defensive pokemon or physical attackers that he can’t OHKO). He also enjoys having Landorus around, as one can bring great tremors as the other enjoys smiting what is left!
I opted for a Modest nature, for max power and so I can OHKO Swift Swim Kingdra and any Politoed that doesn’t have a Wacan Berry. The EVs maximize power and HP, since there isn't really any important competition near his speed tier that he needs to outrun. HP Fire gives him coverage against Steels, and is an easy OHKO on Abomasnow. Yes, Ferrothorn can survive and strike back with a Power Whip, but it's not hard to knock it into KO range for a Choiced HP Fire. It also allows Auto to fare better against sun teams.
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Brave
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 SpD/ (IVS = 31/31/31/31/31/2)
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Protect
My weather changer, the infamous Ttar himself. His main purpose is to switch in to rain or sun teams, take away their precious weather, and cause as much carnage as possible. At first I was skeptical about using him, because I didn’t have Hitmontop to provide him with support from Fake Out, Intimidate, and Wide Guard. However, after recalling The Mantyke’s VGC team, I realized that he could do just fine without any of those things. He manages to survive rather well since I have pokemon on my team able to easily KO Steel-types, Abomasnow, Fighting-types, and Intimidate abusers such as Salamence and Arcanine.
I recently gave him the Focus Sash, because I feel like that aids his survivability better. The Chople Berry was okay, but only shielded him against one type of move. The moves and EVs are fairly standard. With his IVs, he outspeeds the standard Ttar by 1 point, which is pretty good, since he’s still slow enough to work in Trick Room and no one else really runs Spe on him. This way he gets the jump on the opposition and can shit on weakened Ttars with Low Kick.
Ability: Sand Force
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Protect
I’ve been playing VGC 2012 for a month, but only been using this version of the team for a little less than two weeks. So, in that respect, Landorus is still a fairly new member. Needless to say, he fit in almost right away. Treble’s sandstorm boosts his powers to crazy levels, and with support from Cresselia, he can outspeed faster mons or tailwind teams and wreck their shit with Rock Slide (or EQ, depending who’s out). It doesn’t matter if Treble can’t make it to the party, because if the opponent also has a Tyranitar, Landorus can still muscle his way through. Even without sandstorm, he’s still a very usable pokemon with a good base 125 attack score. I have sandstorm, a team full of levitators, paralysis support, and pokemon that threaten Ice-types and rain teams; needless to say, Landorus fits right in.
This set is 100% standard and unoriginal, but fuck, it works! Yache Berry is the item of choice, and considering that he survives every stray ice attack that has ever hit him, I see absolutely no reason to use Normal Gem. I haven’t done damage calcs (or even used the move, since RS or EQ always seems to be more practical), but I’m pretty sure Explosion is still strong enough without Normal Gem.
Now that you’ve met each individual member, on to how I actually put them in use (NOTE: at this point in the metagame, dedicated theme teams are less common, but if I plan to climb the ranks on the GBU, I expect to see a lot of these when I start):
Rain: Rotom-W/Cresselia/Tyranitar/Landorus OR Scizor OR Latios
- As a heads-up, Cresselia always scores a lead position due to having Twave. In this case, Swift Swimmers are crippled. Rotom has a field day here, since dedicated Rain teams rarely run electric resists. Ttar changes the weather, and the rest is easy picking. I leave Scizor out of this because of his poor SpD, but may bring him if I see Cresselia or Ludicolo in the team preview (or both, which has thankfully never happened). Latios stays away because of the prevalence of Ice Beam (but he is needed of I see Gastrodon in Team Preview). I’ve only fought one, and it turned out in a nice win.
Sun: Latios/Cresselia/Tyranitar/Landorus
- I’ve fought at least three of these. They stand no chance at all, quite frankly. Even Gastrodon has to watch his back! Cresselia is good for absorbing sleep powder, and Latios or Landorus can switch into the occasional Grass move aimed at Ttar. Basically, once their weather has been taken away, I just hammer away at them with super-effective attacks, no big deal.
Sandstorm: Latios/Cresselia/Rotom-W/Landorus OR Ttar OR Scizor
- SS teams are surprisingly varied, and aren’t as easy as the other two weathers. With mostly levitators, Earthquake is rendered useless, so the opponent resorts to single-target attacks. I usually lead with Latios, because the opposition almost always leads with Garchomp. The sooner I remove him, the better, because once he gets a sub up, things turn pretty dire. If I’m wrong, I switch out, because he’s so frail and I can’t afford to waste him, he needs to kill Chomp. The back slot is often a tough choice: do I need Scizor to switch into Latios’s weaknesses if I start of wrong, or pick the one that has the most super-effective attacks against the opponent? I see this team type a lot. My win ration against them is about 50:50; I lost some to stupid misplays, one to Sand Veil hax, and the others due to the fact that the player is genuinely better than me.
Tailwind: Cresselia/x/x/x
- Easy picking. Just have Cresselia to paralyze everything, then pick the other three based on what the opponent has.
Trick Room: Tyranitar OR Scizor/Cresselia/Scizor/Rotom-W OR Landorus OR Tyranitar
- Unlike the other team archetypes, I’ve never run into this one yet. But from my own experience with using the effect, I know that if you dismantle the initial Turn 1 setup, the rest of the team will proceed to crumble. There are only two types of leads: Hariyama + Dusclops or Follow Me/Rage Powder + TR user (ex. Amoonguss + Reuniclus). With the former, Ttar Crunches Clops and Cress uses Psychic on Hari; if one gets faked out, at least the other makes progress. This is a form of scouting to see if they will set up on turn 1 or if they are too threatened to do so by slow mons OR if they expect the following: I predict them to use TR, so I use TR on the first turn to turn it off, and they take advantage of that and don’t set up so I overpredict and actually set it up for them. No sense in over predicting. If they do set up on turn 1, Tar protects next turn while Cress shuts it off, then I proceed to go for KOs. With ReuniGuss, I do Scizor + Cresselia. We team up on Amoonguss with Bug Bite and Psychic to go for the kill while Reuniclus sets up TR. Scizor protects on the next turn while Cress shuts it off. Then I bug bite reuniclus and play things from there.
Goodstuffs: x/Cresselia/Tyranitar/Landorus or whatever idk
- Lol are any of us prepared for Goodstuffs? My lead usually consists of Cresselia + whichever mon I have that has advantages over most of the opponent’s pokemon (at least half, and this can be in the form of resistances or immunities or super-effective matchups). Ideally I have sandstorm as a backup strategy (and both like to come in on paralyzed pokemon; heck, my Ttar outspeeds a Timid max speed Accelgor if it’s paralyzed!), but not may not be possible, because I wouldn’t like having Latios AND Landorus if there are Ice attacks. I just have to pick who I think is best and try to play well from there, although it’s pretty hard to recover from a bad lead matchup if one happens.
THREAT LIST
-
- Substitute: any bulky pokemon that sets up a well-timed substitute can give me a lot of trouble, especially if it’s
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CLOSING COMMENTS
There isn’t one specific Pokemon that gives my team trouble, because of the wide array of type coverage I have, as well as paralysis support. My biggest weakness, honestly, is deciding what to pick when I see Goodstuffs in Team Preview. I usually do pretty well, but it’s frustrating to play a metagame where almost no single lead pair can do it all (In the Spring Friendly/VGC 2011 I led with Mienshao + Sturdy Shell Smash Carracosta @ Mental Herb all the time, had few problems, unlike this year). If the opponent has no fake out user, it’s tough to get an estimate of what they’ll lead with, and I might get a bad matchup. Even still, I feel like this team is pretty solid, and would like to know how it can be improved. I haven’t gotten a lot of time to test it because of work and lack of competition, so I feel like I’m missing something. Thanks for reading, hope it wasn’t too long a read! :)
Importable
Mega Man (Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Substitute
- Protect
Proto Man (Scizor) (M) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Acrobatics
- Protect
Roll (Cresselia) (F) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 28 SAtk / 216 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Rest
- Thunder Wave
Auto (Rotom-W) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Trick
Treble (Tyranitar) (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Protect
Bass (Landorus) (M) @ Yache Berry
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Protect
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Substitute
- Protect
Proto Man (Scizor) (M) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Acrobatics
- Protect
Roll (Cresselia) (F) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 28 SAtk / 216 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Rest
- Thunder Wave
Auto (Rotom-W) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Trick
Treble (Tyranitar) (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Protect
Bass (Landorus) (M) @ Yache Berry
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Protect
