Battle Spot All Hail To The Thief (XY Battle Spot Singles)

[ethan06]

--ALL HAIL TO THE THIEF--

(Hey, here's an original idea. How about I name my team after my favourite album? I'm sure that's never been done before)​

Game Freak's only official singles metagame, 3v3 Battle Spot, is an unpredictable and aggressive environment where momentum is never a guarantee and games can turn on a dime. A single turn of badly timed hax could quickly and easily snowball into a short and humiliating loss, for either side. It may seem impossible to adequately cover all of the varied and powerful threats that roam in the Battle Spot. My mission with this team was to attempt to disprove that, to build a balance team that would be able to answer anything the cartridge ladder could throw at me and come out on top, in a unique but surprisingly effective way.

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TEAMBUILDING PROCESS
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This team has been through many, many, many revisions and rebuilds since I started playing Battle Spot at pretty much the beginning of XY, so I've forgotten a lot of the steps I took to reach this point. Therefore, I'm going to skip forward to the point where I took it to Showdown and started to take it seriously. My first iteration of the team looked like this:

Landorus-T and Rotom-H formed a slow VoltTurn core that I used to bring Pokémon like Greninja in safely to dish out hits. Medicham, Ferrothorn and Aegislash all answered Kangaskhan, with Medicham also providing a check to Mega Venusaur and Blaziken. Sash Greninja checked Garchomp and Talonflame to an extent while throwing out decently strong Protean hits. These Pokémon worked okay together, but I was already finding problems with them: While I had Kangaskhan well covered, Ferrothorn was altogether far too obvious as a switch-in and I found myself often taking far too much from repeated Earthquakes while doing little in return. Furthermore, it gave me a ridiculous weakness to Heatran despite the presence of Landorus and Greninja: Landorus was stopped cold by a Balloon and Greninja could never switch in for fear of losing it's Sash or just outright dying. I used a bulky Substitute set on Medicham as a way of getting around Venusaur and Porygon2; however, lack of coverage and overall slowness meant that I didn't bring it to many games for fear of being stopped cold by an Aegislash or a Cresselia or something similar.

I played round with a bunch of different megas, making sure that all of them had a way to beat Mega Venusaur, which I respected as a threat from my days of using Mega Manectric. Mega Pinsir didn't really work out for me, as I found that while it was powerful, it missed a lot of OHKOs and was just far too frail to work effectively within my team. Azumarill, on the other hand, worked marvelously as a replacement for Greninja - the Fairy typing and added bulk granted me far more switch-ins and generally hit a lot harder on the things that I needed to hit. I had some difficulty choosing a set for it: my Assault Vest was already taken up by Landorus and a Belly Drum set forfeited a lot of Azumarill's utility as a switch-in. Eventually I landed on an all-out attacker set with Lum Berry, which is what I stuck with.

Ferrothorn was way too passive for my liking and I found that Balloon Aegislash did a fantastic job of checking most Kangaskhan by itself, so I dropped it for an offensive Grass-type that could answer Azumarill far more effectively: Amoonguss. I later decided that that was also far too defensive for the team and replaced it with Life Orb Roserade.

After a lot of testing and discarding, I decided to try Mega Alakazam. I was sceptical about it's usefulness: Alakazam is so frail at the best of times and has a horrendous weakness to Talonflame. I tried it, and it surprised me - Trace was fantastic, and dug me out of many situations in which I should have lost. It's frailty didn't matter when it could outspeed and OHKO most of the meta, while still avoiding OHKOs itself from most non-nuke hits. I knew I was onto a winner, and made it a permanent member of my team.

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THE TEAM​

"Walk into the jaws of hell"

Snakes & Ladders (Landorus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-turn
​

Landorus earns a place on the team as a switch-in to Earthquakes and Electric attacks, as a general all-purpose sponge, as a pivot and as a Knock Off abuser. It has value against practically any physical attacker that isn't named Mamoswine or Weavile and hits very hard with invested Earthquakes. It's my primary answer to Zapdos and Thundurus, as the Assault Vest allows it to easily survive a Hidden Power [Ice] from either and retaliate with Stone Edge. Landorus has been on my team since almost the beginning and, despite the unusual item choice, does fantastically in the Battle Spot environment.

"Bully in a china shop"

No No No No No No (Rotom-Heat) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt​

My dedicated Talonflame/Flying-type counter, as well as my primary answer to Ferrothorn and Scizor. Burns are ridiculously useful in a meta so infested with physical attackers and Rotom-H's unique set of resistances makes it very useful against Pokémon like Charizard Y, Thundurus, Porygon2 and Mega Mawile, and makes a great switch-in for Pokémon that are choiced into Earthquake, like Garchomp and opposing Landorus.

"Go and tell the king that the sky is falling in when it's not"

The Lukewarm (Alakazam) @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyshock
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt
​

Alakazam is one of the MVPs of this team for sure. Despite it's apparent frailty, Trace grants it incredible opportunities to deal with Pokémon that it would otherwise have no right to beat, such as Greninja, all forms of Blaziken, non-Sucker Punch Mega Kangaskhan and weather sweepers like Kingdra and Excadrill. A Modest nature maximises Alakazam's power while still allowing it to outpace 252+ base 130s after Mega evolving, catching Pokémon such as Mega Gengar completely off guard and KOing them with breaking a sweat. I use Psyshock over Psychic to allow myself to bypass Pokémon like Chansey and Mega Gardevoir that otherwise stop Alakazam far more effectively. Hidden Power [Ice] affords me the opportunity to OHKO non-Scarfed Garchomp as well as getting the jump on other random dragons and Ground-types. Protect is mandatory in order to guarantee a safe Mega Evolution against opponents that outpace Modest Alakazam - it also has utility in scouting for dangerous moves and easing prediction. Taunt is by far the best option for the last slot as it allows Alakazam to play mindgames with Sucker Punchers like Mega Kangaskhan, shut down opposing Pranksters after Mega Evolving and also giving the middle finger to Minimize spammers (everyone hates you). However, you can dedicate this last slot to a third attack if you need to hit something - Focus Blast gives you the widest breadth of coverage and allows you to bypass problem Pokémon like Heatran and Hydreigon with little issue; Energy Ball does over 90% to most forms of Rotom-W and damages Azumarill but has little other utility; and Shadow Ball is your only viable option against Cresselia and Aegislash, but as neither are OHKOed and can take you out or cripple you, this isn't the most ideal choice.
​

"Yesterday's headlines blown by the wind"

As Dead As Leaves (Roserade) @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder​

The most recent addition to the team. In my opinion, every team on the Battle Spot can benefit from a Grass-type to switch in on the random Leech Seeds, Spores and Stun Spores that litter the Battle Spot. Roserade's primary function is as an Azumarill check: the EVs allow it to comfortably take a +6 Aqua Jet and KO in return with either STAB after Belly Drum and Sitrus Berry, while still outpacing Jolly max speed Azumarill (what?). Even without Technician - I found Natural Cure to be simply more useful for switching in on random status moves - Hidden Power [Fire] takes a hefty enough chunk out of SpD Mega Scizor and Ferrothorn (OHKOing all other Scizor variants easily). Sleep Powder has some use for shutting down slower offensive threats but the shaky accuracy makes it more of a filler than anything else.

"We are accidents waiting to happen"

The Boney King (Aegislash) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- King's Shield​

Using a VGC set in singles may seem like a stupid idea but it's surprisingly effective on this team. Aegislash with Air Balloon completely walls any Kangaskhan that lacks Ice Punch or Crunch until it's balloon is popped, and so with some clever early-game play I can bait out the Mega Evolved Fake Out with another member of my team (commonly Alakazam) and switch it in, thereby conserving my item and setting up a Substitute as I force it out. Aegislash also does some serious work against Fairies such as Mega Gardevoir and Mega Mawile and can take pretty much any hit that nothing else wants to come in on. Clever Substitute play can win matches.

"You fell into our arms"

Honeymoon Is Over (Azumarill) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Superpower​

The final member of my squad acts as a defensive cornerstone to the team, switching in on threats such as Greninja, Hydreigon, Weavile, Tyranitar, Blaziken and Outrage-locked Dragons such as Garchomp and hitting back hard. While Lum Berry + 4 attacks may seem out of the ordinary, having a status absorber that simply doesn't care about 90% of the attacks in the format makes for a straightforward method of getting lots of easy damage on most of the format. Azumarill is a Pokémon that ties up a lot of loose ends in many teams and this one is no exception.

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IMPORTABLE

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No No No No No No (Rotom-Heat) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt

Snakes & Ladders (Landorus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-turn

The Lukewarm (Alakazam) @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyshock
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Ball

As Dead As Leaves (Roserade) @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder

The Boney King (Aegislash) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- King's Shield

Honeymoon Is Over (Azumarill) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Superpower

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REPLAYS

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/battlespotsingles-175482883 - Alakazam cleaning up after removing the enemy Aegislash
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-176153568 - Roserade and Azumarill take down a defensive team with Azumarill's speed creep helping it win a mirror match
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/battlespotsingles-177324909 - Rotom and Aegislash wear down a Garchomp​

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/battlespotsingles-177581956 - I beat Minimize by Tracing Clefable's Unaware :) (language warning)

(I will post more if I get any good ones)
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UNIMPRESSIVE LADDER PEAK

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THREATLIST
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Against the Top 20 in usage (August stats)

1.

My main bet against this is Alakazam, which can Protect the first turn out and then outspeed and OHKO with Psyshock. Landorus can tank a Shadow Ball with it's Assault Vest and Knock Off, which OHKOs unless it's a Mega (it normally is). Who has the balls to go straight for the Earthquake on a base Gengar? In a pinch, Aegislash can take a hit and KO back but that's not ideal.

2.

If it's not Scarfed, Alakazam outspeeds and OHKOs with Hidden Power [Ice]. Azumarill can sit in front of an Outrage and kill it with Play Rough, and both Landorus and Rotom can switch in on an Earthquake and Intimidate/burn it. If Aegislash's balloon is intact, it can set up a Substitute on a choiced Garchomp. Scary, but quite straightforward to play around.

3.

Aegislash is my go-to for Kangaskhan. Unless they're packing Ice Punch or Crunch, Aegi can easily set up a Sub on it and stall it out of Sucker Punches. It's still scary though: Rotom can tank a single Double-Edge if it's in good health and it's Sitrus Berry is intact and then burn it. Landorus can come in on a predicted Earthquake and Intimidate it, as well as getting off a few hits before dying. Azumarill has Superpower if I'm really in a jam. Alakazam can tear chunks out of it with Focus Blast/Psyshock if it doesn't carry Sucker Punch. Kangaskhan is easily one of the spookiest mons in Battle Spot for any team, and it can beat this team if it isn't played around properly.

4.

Hard-countered by Rotom-Heat. Landorus and Azumarill can take a Brave Bird and KO back with Stone Edge or Waterfall. Keep Alakazam and Roserade far away from this thing, and only answer it with Aegislash if you're in an extreme pinch as Aegi does not like Flare Blitz at all.

5.

My best answers to this are Landorus and Rotom-Heat. Landorus can Earthquake or Knock Off depending on the likelihood of King's Shield, and Rotom can Will-o-Wisp through the King's Shield and wail on Aegislash with Thunderbolt or straight-up KO with Overheat. Azumarill beats non-KS variants with Aqua Jet. Roserade can Sleep Powder it and dent it with HP [Fire] but it's not ideal.

6.

This is basically what Roserade is for. Roserade naturally outspeeds and can take even a +6 Aqua Jet, retaliating with Giga Drain or Sludge Bomb. My own Azumarill can make use of it's speed creep and tear away big chunks of it's health with Play Rough, but mine comes out the other end with similarly heavy damage. Aegislash can play with Banded Azumarill with King's Shield but is scared of the Belly Drum. Everything else hates Aqua Jet :(

7.

Opposing Landorus are possible to play around but slightly harder to OHKO than it's cousin, Garchomp. Alakazam can Trace Intimidate onto it and deal heavy damage with HP [Ice] but is OHKOed by most of Landorus' moves even at -1. A mirror match can work with Knock removing the possible Assault Vest or Scarf, but usually the opposing Lando-T user has the same idea. Azumarill can hurt it with Water STAB but doesn't like Earthquake very much. Aegislash with it's balloon intact King's Shields and laughs, but doesn't like Earthquakes after it's item is gone. Rotom avoids EQs and burns it in a pinch.

8.

Cresselia is a massive pain in the butt to deal with. I have to constantly be on the lookout for Lunar Dance, especially if there's an injured Kang in the back. Aegislash uses it to get up a Sub but normally loses it's Balloon in the process. Landorus Knocks Off it's item while tanking Ice Beam and can U-Turn out for decent damage but never does enough to 2HKO. Rotom can burn it but can't do much else. Nothing else can really touch it, so I usually rely on Aegislash to wear it down.

9.

/

My usual answer to these two is Landorus, who can take a HP [Ice] and retaliate with Stone Edge. If Stone Edge misses, I normally have to fall back on Alakazam who can Hidden Power [Ice], normally copping a Thunder Wave from Thundurus in the process if it's a Prankster variant. Rotom-H resists their attacks and can burn and wail on them with Thunderbolt but isn't very clean. Azumarill can take one Electric attack and hit them with Waterfall, but this is also not ideal. These two are probably the biggest problem this team has presently...

10.

Roserade resists both STABs, absorbs Spore and OHKOs with Sludge Bomb, making it a decent counter. Azumarill can beat it 1v1 in a lead situation, taking the Spore with it's Lum Berry and defeating it with Play Rough+Aqua Jet. Alakazam breezes through it if it's Sash is broken. Aegislash walls it flat but doesn't like sleeping or losing it's Balloon. Overall, not a threat.

11.

Heatran can be pretty scary to face, especially if it has a Balloon. Azumarill is by far my best bet, smacking it hard with Waterfall without fear of burns thanks to it's Lum Berry and taking little from Heatran's attacks. Alakazam Traces Flash Fire and hurts it a lot with Focus Blast but is obviously unreliable. Landorus has STAB EQ to OHKO it but is really afraid of burns and Balloon Heatran. Not too much of a problem, but don't put Aegislash or Roserade anywhere near it unless you have no other option.

12.

Tyranitar is not really a threat to this team. Landorus, Alakazam, Roserade, Aegislash and Azumarill all have super-effective attacks for it and can damage it heavily. If it gets a Dragon Dance up it can be problematic but Azumarill can normally stop a sweep with Aqua Jet if it's taken enough damage. Rotom doesn't like taking Stone Edges but can get a burn on it.

13.

Charizard is a tricky one. Landorus beats Charizard X and Rotom beats Zard-Y; however, Zard-X walls Rotom completely and forces it out. Landorus is my best blanket check for Charizard but doesn't like taking sun-boosted Fire moves even with the Assault Vest, so I normally have to bring both to win outright. As always, Alakazam can beat down weakened Charizard with Psyshock and Azumarill has a positive matchup against both, but Landorus is the main answer here.

14.

Roserade beats Suicune, but the rest of my team struggles with it. Landorus can Knock Off it's item but can only take one attack before being forced out, and Rotom can hit it super-effectively but does less damage than you'd expect and gets forced out by Scald. Azumarill would be a good check but Play Rough does disappointingly little. Despite it's sheer physical bulk, Suicune lacks recovery most of the time and so it can be worn down.

15.

Alakazam can Trace Speed Boost and beat lead Blaziken 1-on-1. If I can't get Alakazam to mega-evolve on it then it's a bit of an issue unless it isn't mega: Mega Alakazam still outspeed +1 base Blaziken. Backup checks are Azumarill and Landorus, but they really struggle with taking hits from Mega Blaziken, which is almost unstoppable if it gets the Swords Dance up. I have ways to beat it that normally work, but it's still incredibly dangerous.

16.

Ferrothorn is a support Pokémon first and foremost so it isn't too threatening to this team. Roserade and Rotom-H are my best answers to it. Landorus and Alakazam lacking Focus Blast don't like it too much, but Azumarill can bust it's way through it with two Superpowers if I can afford the drops and the recoil from Iron Barbs+potentially Rocky Helmet.

17.

Similar deal to Ferrothorn, but more threatening due to it's access to priority and higher offensive presence. Rotom-H forces it out and punishes the switch with it's status moves and finishes it late-game with Overheat, and I can surprise OHKO with Roserade HP [Fire] given a little prior damage. Landorus Intimidates and can Earthquake through it with a bit of luck, and Aegislash King's Shields it and sets a Sub in it's face. Keep Azumarill and Alakazam away from that Bullet Punch though.

18.

[See Thundurus^]

19.

Eww, Rotom Wash. Roserade deals with this nicely, and Alakazam with Energy Ball can deal over 90% to most variants (and OHKO offensive ones). Landorus can take a Hydro Pump and Knock it off, and can also switch in on a predicted Volt Switch. A bit of a bitch to deal with (as usal) but not overbearingly threatening.

20.

This thing is gross too. It can be a bit difficult thanks to Multiscale and ExtremeSpeed but not impossible. Landorus is probably my best bet as I can Intimidate, Knock Off it's Weakness Policy/Choice Band and brek Multiscale before Stone Edging for the OHKO. If it's scale is broken, Alakazam OHKOs with HP [Ice]. Azumarill has a positive matchup, Aegislash with Balloon takes attacks, King's Shields and sets up Subs as usual. Not a big deal.

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(300th post :D shoutouts to EnGarde, haban012, Age of Kings and cant say, all awesome Battle Spot people)​

 

[cant say]

Great stuff ethan06, great to see some non-standard sets / Pokemon (can't remember the last time I saw a M-Alakazam) doing work for you. It's a shame you don't have any replays of Lando, I was wondering if you ever bring both it and Rotom to Volt-Turn all over people. For Alakazam, I would be rolling with Focus Blast over the other options for its ability to take out M-Kang, Hydreigon, P2, Ferro etc. Shadow Ball has its merits in hitting Aegi and Cres hard but Aegi is more likely to just Shadow Sneak you and Cres is usually 3hko'd by it anyway.. I also like that you've gone for bulk > speed to allow switch in opportunities in a meta that basically discourages switches, Roserade is interesting though as it seems to be built purely for stopping Azu, do you bring it often? And does it do much else outside that?

Do you only play this team on PS! or do you have it on-cart as well? I'd love to see a good ladder attempt before ORAS comes out and the metagame gets split!

Maybe consider posting this in the new BS Sample Teams Thread to get some direct Battle Spot feedback (was going to suggest the BS RMT thread but you're the OP lol)

 

[ethan06]

Great stuff ethan06, great to see some non-standard sets / Pokemon (can't remember the last time I saw a M-Alakazam) doing work for you. It's a shame you don't have any replays of Lando, I was wondering if you ever bring both it and Rotom to Volt-Turn all over people.

Thanks ^.^ I've found that while I can do this to a certain extent, neither of them can take hits forever and the slow nature of both pivots means that they can't really take hits for each other without hard-switching. Thinking about it, I may swap out Volt Switch on Rotom for Thunder Wave or HP [Ice] or something similar. Landorus forces more switches and therefore finds U-Turn more useful.

I also like that you've gone for bulk > speed to allow switch in opportunities in a meta that basically discourages switches, Roserade is interesting though as it seems to be built purely for stopping Azu, do you bring it often? And does it do much else outside that?

Well, it has some utility against Water-types in general as well as Fairies, and LO Sludge Bomb hits surprisingly hard on frailer things but despite the bulk investment it's quite frail itself and things like Heatran and Talonflame scare the crap out of it in Team Preview. Sleep Powder helps but I guess it's just something that comes with the territory as far as Grass-types go...

Do you only play this team on PS! or do you have it on-cart as well? I'd love to see a good ladder attempt before ORAS comes out and the metagame gets split!

I have half this team on cart, lol. Azu, Rotom and Aegi are good to go and I'm about 70% of the way toward getting a HP [Ice] Abra, but Adamant Landorus eludes me (I believe EnGarde has one in her giveaway so I may need to hit that up) and Roserade is a completely new addition. So that's something I need to sit down and do at some point...

 

[EnGarde]

(I believe EnGarde has one in her giveaway so I may need to hit that up)

Yep! I've got one all lined up, please post on my distribution thread (link in sig) if you need it. That applies to anyone who needs stuff for battle spot, btw. They're free to all members who need pokemon for competitive use. Please make sure you post your request on the thread there, though, otherwise I might not see it. ^_^

EDIT: Some thoughts on your team: the only pokemon that provides any speed pressure is alakazam (and aqua jet on azumarill). You could bluff a scarf set with landorus-t, maybe, but it might be worth investigating putting a scarf on roserade and seeing what a more offensive set there could do. Another pokemon worth looking into is virizion, which has a wonderful base 108 speed, though it is a lot more talonflame weak.

 

[cant say]

Thanks ^.^ I've found that while I can do this to a certain extent, neither of them can take hits forever and the slow nature of both pivots means that they can't really take hits for each other without hard-switching. Thinking about it, I may swap out Volt Switch on Rotom for Thunder Wave or HP [Ice] or something similar. Landorus forces more switches and therefore finds U-Turn more useful.

I've used Rotom-H in a lot of my battle spot teams as a lead, however mine is modest with max HP/SpA with Overheat, Volt Switch, Will-o-wisp / Thunder Wave and Trick and holds a Choice Specs. I either use it to dish out some good damage and get in something for free or cripple their lead and go from there. It works really nice with a set up sweeper as they can normally get in without a scratch and get a free turn of set up as the opponent switches out, so maybe your team would benefit from some sort of stat booster since you have no boosting moves on the whole team. Landorus would probably make the better lead out of the two because like you said it forces more switches and U-turn has no immunities unlike Volt Switch and ground types. I would consider what are popular switch ins for Lando and/or Rotom and pair them with a set up sweeper that can deal with those.

ORAS spoiler

I've been wanting to use Landorus myself so have been meaning to grab one from EnGarde too, so I can't really make any comments on how to use it or anything (actually that's why I wanted to know how well it works lol). I think I'm going to wait until ORAS is out and I can catch my own and teach it all the tutors I need there. I was thinking of maybe Scarf Lando paired with Mega Manectric to form a Volt-Turn core

Well, it has some utility against Water-types in general as well as Fairies, and LO Sludge Bomb hits surprisingly hard on frailer things but despite the bulk investment it's quite frail itself and things like Heatran and Talonflame scare the crap out of it in Team Preview. Sleep Powder helps but I guess it's just something that comes with the territory as far as Grass-types go...

Yeah that Sludge Bomb on Thundurus in the replay was nice, I didn't expect it to OHKO..

The only thing I'm concerned about with Roserade is that it's built to be a mini Venusaur, have you considered just using Venusaur instead? Trades power for bulk though so I guess Roserade has that over it.. One thing Venu can do though is take the attention from Alakazam in team preview, making people wonder which is the mega evolution (or both) so that's something

I have half this team on cart, lol. Azu, Rotom and Aegi are good to go and I'm about 70% of the way toward getting a HP [Ice] Abra, but Adamant Landorus eludes me (I believe EnGarde has one in her giveaway so I may need to hit that up) and Roserade is a completely new addition. So that's something I need to sit down and do at some point...

I may be able to help with the Roserade, I have a modest HP fire one already bred so I can breed off that for you, except mine is Technician so I'd have to hope that a non-HA one pops up for you. Only thing preventing me is that I'm in the middle of a couple breeding projects already and kinda busy irl, I'll let you know if I can :)

 

[ethan06]

I've used Rotom-H in a lot of my battle spot teams as a lead, however mine is modest with max HP/SpA with Overheat, Volt Switch, Will-o-wisp / Thunder Wave and Trick and holds a Choice Specs. I either use it to dish out some good damage and get in something for free or cripple their lead and go from there. It works really nice with a set up sweeper as they can normally get in without a scratch and get a free turn of set up as the opponent switches out, so maybe your team would benefit from some sort of stat booster since you have no boosting moves on the whole team. Landorus would probably make the better lead out of the two because like you said it forces more switches and U-turn has no immunities unlike Volt Switch and ground types. I would consider what are popular switch ins for Lando and/or Rotom and pair them with a set up sweeper that can deal with those.

I like running full defense on Rotom-H because only running 252 HP tends to make it too frail to reliably check CB Talonflame and Charizard Y... I find that, even uninvested, it's STABs are enough to take out what they need to. Thunderbolt does good enough chip damage to things that can't really hurt it back so there's that.

Yeah that Sludge Bomb on Thundurus in the replay was nice, I didn't expect it to OHKO..

The only thing I'm concerned about with Roserade is that it's built to be a mini Venusaur, have you considered just using Venusaur instead? Trades power for bulk though so I guess Roserade has that over it.. One thing Venu can do though is take the attention from Alakazam in team preview, making people wonder which is the mega evolution (or both) so that's something

Me neither :o

Venusaur would be fairly ideal, except that I'm not that keen on running more than one mega evolution for synergy reasons. It can be far too easy for me to accidentally bring both and essentially shoot myself in the foot... I'd like a more offensive approach now that I have most defensive bases covered so Roserade has that (i.e. being able to OHKO Scizor etc.). So many options ugh

I may be able to help with the Roserade, I have a modest HP fire one already bred so I can breed off that for you, except mine is Technician so I'd have to hope that a non-HA one pops up for you. Only thing preventing me is that I'm in the middle of a couple breeding projects already and kinda busy irl, I'll let you know if I can :)

Wow, I would really appreciate that :o I'm going to try my hand at RNGing a Virizion in Black 2 and I'll also try out a few other Grass-types (I already have an Amoonguss left over from VGC this year so I'll just redesign it and use that as a placeholder for now) so take your time. I'm away for the next week with uncertain Internet so :)

edit

Some thoughts on your team: the only pokemon that provides any speed pressure is alakazam (and aqua jet on azumarill). You could bluff a scarf set with landorus-t, maybe, but it might be worth investigating putting a scarf on roserade and seeing what a more offensive set there could do. Another pokemon worth looking into is virizion, which has a wonderful base 108 speed, though it is a lot more talonflame weak.

Scarf Roserade sounds interesting but it pretty much mandates Technician if I don't want to lose to Scizor most of the time. It also makes Sleep Powder much less viable... I might change the spread over to a fully offensive one though, as bulk investment and Life Orb don't really go hand in hand. I'll add that in and test it~

Made some other changes too:
Focus Blast > Shadow Ball on Alakazam
Thunder Wave > Volt Switch on Rotom
252/252/4 spread on Roserade

edit: added most of the threatlist c:

 

[ethan06]

Bumping this to make a quick update - I put Volt Switch back over T-Wave on Rotom-H because it wasn't seeing as much use as I anticipated and being unable to pivot out of things like Heatran was annoying. I'm also testing Taunt+WoW Gengar over Aegislash as it gives me access to Taunt without losing a lot of the things that makes Aegislash great: still beats non-Crunch MKang, still beats down Fairies with it's STAB, still laughs at physical Ground-types. Has a little more trouble with Cresselia but at least I can block Lunar Dance. More later~

Edit: Oh yeah, I finally got a HP [Ice] Abra on cart ^_^

 

[EnGarde]

Are you going to take this team into the new ORAS era, or continue to use it on XY battle spot when the maintenance period is done?

 

[ethan06]

This is definitely an XY meta team. While this team is probably solid enough to deal with a lot of the new megas (Rotom-H can sort of deal with Mega Salamence, for example), it would take quite some retrofitting and I'd rather make a new team for the OR/AS meta and experiment with some of the new Mega Pokémon.

 

[ethan06]

Yay, bump because I decided that Taunt is the best option for Alakazam's last moveslot (fuck Minimize). Because of that, replacing Aegislash is kind of unnecessary; Gengar is kinda frail and the only other Levitating Ghosts are Giratina-O, Mismagius and Rotom. Trevenant may be an option over Roserade to condense Aegislash and Roserade into one so that I have a spare moveslot to cover something else but it's a bit of a shake-up; I'll play with it and see how useful it would be.