Well hi, this is my first RMT and first thread in these forums, but I've been playing for a while.
I decided to build this team because my other team had many flaws and I couldn't fix them with little changes, had to start from scratch, with the experience I'd gathered while playing. But even more importantly, I dediced to build it because I was sick of seeing weather teams, specially rain and sand, like most players who don't use these teams, and thought that going to weatherless was a bit... gay, and when asking about a way to counter weather, everyone said use your own weather, and I was clearly not going to do that. So instead, I decided to use pokemon that can use the opponent's weather to their advantage and counter their pokemon. Like using the opponent's strength against them.
So, I wrote down a list of things I could do to counter weather and also wrote down some stuff that I should be taking into account, such as threats or annoying tricks.
The first thing I tried is using abilities like Swift Swim, Sand Rush and so on. I didn't like any clorophyll or SS using-pokemon, so I just kept Excadrill.
Something that completely screwed my other team was rain teams. They resisted most of my attacks and then used that nasty water against me. Since Swift Swim users weren't really effective against rain teams, I went with Thunder, so I could hit really hard with a 100% accuracy move, most of the time with a super-effective blow. At first I thought of Galvantula, but I ended picking up Rotom-W, which also benefits from rain with it's water type attacks, resists water, levitates, and is bulky.
I chose not to care about sun teams too much, because I didn't find them too scary or annoying as the other teams.
Then I had to work on threats and annoying stuff. I picked Mienshao, Latios, Archeops, and Cloyster, whose purposes will be explained in a sec.
In-depth team look:
Cloyster (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Skill Link
EVs: 4 HP / 148 Atk / 252 SDef/ 104 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard
- Shell Break/Explosion/Spikes
I really, really hate substitute. So, despite I don't like cloyster too much, I chose him because of skill link to break subs. Since neither Spikes nor Explosion were used too much or too helpful, I just decided to use Shell Break. However, his main use is still as a sub-breaker and I still like to hit taunters directly when they expect Shell Break. He's also good for killing stuff that thinks can OHKO me, and don't notice the sash.
I decided to change the EV spread so that it works better with Shell Break: I dumped some attack EVs, which I used on speed, because even with the boost he wasn't that fast and could be outran by other pokemon.
Archeops (M) @ Flight Jewel
Trait: Weak-kneed
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Acrobat
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Protect
This guy isn't specifically meant to be a counter of anything, it's just raw power with overall good coverage. Its Flight Jewel, STAB and no-item boosted Acrobat, combined with that mighty 140 base attack, is a force to be reckoned with. It leaves ferrothorn with about 20% HP, so that I can finish him off with anything else. Since Weak-Kneed/Defeatist sucks, I have to watch out for moves that trigger it, so I use Protect for scouting. It successfully swept nearly entire teams more than once, proving that he can really make up for its ability when used properly.
Quagsire (M) @ Rindo Berry
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Stockpile
- Recover/Swallow?
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
Newest addition to the team. He works as a mega wall which ignores opponent's stat changes. Stockpile boosts my defenses greatly, Earthquake is used on any rock or steel I may find or in general, and Ice Beam hurts Gliscor. I'm not sure wether I should keep Recover or replace it for Swallow, as it gives me a better recovery when the count is high and also allows me to use more stockpiles, but I need to get the count to 2 before I can heal the 50% of HP Recover gives me, and I don't think I'll boost that much, mostly because its unnecessary at +3, but also because I tend to get phazed or statused or otherwise screwed by the time I boost that much. Also I thought of giving him Toxic in case I find another wall, but I don't know what move to take out.
Latios (M) @ Leftovers/Yache Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 200 SAtk / 52 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Pulse/Surf
- Psycho Shock
I used to hate Latios in PO. Then I was forced to use him on my other team (I don't like using legendaries, and facing a latios pretty much meant I lost), and I ended up liking him. Ice for Dragons, Thunderbolt for gyarados and rain abusers, psyco shock for special walls/tanks. I dumped Yache Berry over Leftovers, I'll see how it does and if it's not good enough I'll go back to yache.
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 16 HP / 100 Def / 216 SAtk / 172 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Evil Eye
- Thunder Wave
Here's my Thunder user. The first 2 moves are the most obvious ones, but instead of pain split, I chose Evil Eye which hits things that resist my other attacks, and has great synergy with Thunder Wave.
Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Mach Punch/Feint
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
Infernape takes benefit from sun with Flare Blitz against the team's non fire types, most notably Venusaur and other grass types, and when combined with Life Orb and Blaze, it's really devastating. I dumped Feint over Mach Punch since I really need priority for stat boosting sweepers or an Excadrill when I don't have my own mole, and since it wasn't really useful at all. There are better things I can do when I know my opponet is using Protect, such as switching.
Former members:
Excadrill (M) @ Balloon
Trait: Sand Throw
EVs: 160 HP / 96 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance/Brick Break
I took this one out because it was virtually useless outside of sand and its lack of versatility didn't help me alot really. Also he's always trolled by skarmory and Gliscor, and as such I keep getting into difficult situations. I replaced him for Quagsire, whcih works better overall, in a different way. It may not destroy sand teams, but neither does Excadrill anymore.
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This team got me to about rank 800-900, depending on the server. It seems like a solid team to me, and it really punishes most weather users. Once in a while some weather team does beat me, tough. *Now this is currently between 100 and 200.. I'm depressed now, as I dropped to 800 again like I fell to a bottomless pit D: It's impossible to climb, since each win gives you about +20 ranking but each loss means -100.
EDIT 1:
-Added Shell Break To Cloyster, and changed his EV spread.
-Replaced Feint with Mach Punch on Infernape.
-Replaced Yache Berry with Leftovers on Latios.
-Replaced Brick Break with Swords Dance on Excadrill.
I got over my weak points by adding priority and other changes to the team, so now I'm doing better than before, and I feel that I'm using this team more intelligently, and I'm starting to win more frequently, both against weather and normal teams, so like it more now (when I wrote the RMT, I was starting to dislike it since quite a few weather teams were starting to beat me).
EDIT 2:
-Replaced Surf with Dragon Pulse on Latios.
EDIT 3:
-Replaced Excadrill with Quagsire.
I decided to build this team because my other team had many flaws and I couldn't fix them with little changes, had to start from scratch, with the experience I'd gathered while playing. But even more importantly, I dediced to build it because I was sick of seeing weather teams, specially rain and sand, like most players who don't use these teams, and thought that going to weatherless was a bit... gay, and when asking about a way to counter weather, everyone said use your own weather, and I was clearly not going to do that. So instead, I decided to use pokemon that can use the opponent's weather to their advantage and counter their pokemon. Like using the opponent's strength against them.
So, I wrote down a list of things I could do to counter weather and also wrote down some stuff that I should be taking into account, such as threats or annoying tricks.
The first thing I tried is using abilities like Swift Swim, Sand Rush and so on. I didn't like any clorophyll or SS using-pokemon, so I just kept Excadrill.
Something that completely screwed my other team was rain teams. They resisted most of my attacks and then used that nasty water against me. Since Swift Swim users weren't really effective against rain teams, I went with Thunder, so I could hit really hard with a 100% accuracy move, most of the time with a super-effective blow. At first I thought of Galvantula, but I ended picking up Rotom-W, which also benefits from rain with it's water type attacks, resists water, levitates, and is bulky.
I chose not to care about sun teams too much, because I didn't find them too scary or annoying as the other teams.
Then I had to work on threats and annoying stuff. I picked Mienshao, Latios, Archeops, and Cloyster, whose purposes will be explained in a sec.
In-depth team look:
Cloyster (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Skill Link
EVs: 4 HP / 148 Atk / 252 SDef/ 104 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard
- Shell Break/
I really, really hate substitute. So, despite I don't like cloyster too much, I chose him because of skill link to break subs. Since neither Spikes nor Explosion were used too much or too helpful, I just decided to use Shell Break. However, his main use is still as a sub-breaker and I still like to hit taunters directly when they expect Shell Break. He's also good for killing stuff that thinks can OHKO me, and don't notice the sash.
I decided to change the EV spread so that it works better with Shell Break: I dumped some attack EVs, which I used on speed, because even with the boost he wasn't that fast and could be outran by other pokemon.
Archeops (M) @ Flight Jewel
Trait: Weak-kneed
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Acrobat
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Protect
This guy isn't specifically meant to be a counter of anything, it's just raw power with overall good coverage. Its Flight Jewel, STAB and no-item boosted Acrobat, combined with that mighty 140 base attack, is a force to be reckoned with. It leaves ferrothorn with about 20% HP, so that I can finish him off with anything else. Since Weak-Kneed/Defeatist sucks, I have to watch out for moves that trigger it, so I use Protect for scouting. It successfully swept nearly entire teams more than once, proving that he can really make up for its ability when used properly.
Quagsire (M) @ Rindo Berry
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Stockpile
- Recover/Swallow?
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
Newest addition to the team. He works as a mega wall which ignores opponent's stat changes. Stockpile boosts my defenses greatly, Earthquake is used on any rock or steel I may find or in general, and Ice Beam hurts Gliscor. I'm not sure wether I should keep Recover or replace it for Swallow, as it gives me a better recovery when the count is high and also allows me to use more stockpiles, but I need to get the count to 2 before I can heal the 50% of HP Recover gives me, and I don't think I'll boost that much, mostly because its unnecessary at +3, but also because I tend to get phazed or statused or otherwise screwed by the time I boost that much. Also I thought of giving him Toxic in case I find another wall, but I don't know what move to take out.
Latios (M) @ Leftovers/
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 200 SAtk / 52 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Pulse/
- Psycho Shock
I used to hate Latios in PO. Then I was forced to use him on my other team (I don't like using legendaries, and facing a latios pretty much meant I lost), and I ended up liking him. Ice for Dragons, Thunderbolt for gyarados and rain abusers, psyco shock for special walls/tanks. I dumped Yache Berry over Leftovers, I'll see how it does and if it's not good enough I'll go back to yache.
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 16 HP / 100 Def / 216 SAtk / 172 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Evil Eye
- Thunder Wave
Here's my Thunder user. The first 2 moves are the most obvious ones, but instead of pain split, I chose Evil Eye which hits things that resist my other attacks, and has great synergy with Thunder Wave.
Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Mach Punch/
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
Infernape takes benefit from sun with Flare Blitz against the team's non fire types, most notably Venusaur and other grass types, and when combined with Life Orb and Blaze, it's really devastating. I dumped Feint over Mach Punch since I really need priority for stat boosting sweepers or an Excadrill when I don't have my own mole, and since it wasn't really useful at all. There are better things I can do when I know my opponet is using Protect, such as switching.
Former members:
Excadrill (M) @ Balloon
Trait: Sand Throw
EVs: 160 HP / 96 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance/
I took this one out because it was virtually useless outside of sand and its lack of versatility didn't help me alot really. Also he's always trolled by skarmory and Gliscor, and as such I keep getting into difficult situations. I replaced him for Quagsire, whcih works better overall, in a different way. It may not destroy sand teams, but neither does Excadrill anymore.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This team got me to about rank 800-900, depending on the server. It seems like a solid team to me, and it really punishes most weather users. Once in a while some weather team does beat me, tough. *
EDIT 1:
-Added Shell Break To Cloyster, and changed his EV spread.
-Replaced Feint with Mach Punch on Infernape.
-Replaced Yache Berry with Leftovers on Latios.
-Replaced Brick Break with Swords Dance on Excadrill.
I got over my weak points by adding priority and other changes to the team, so now I'm doing better than before, and I feel that I'm using this team more intelligently, and I'm starting to win more frequently, both against weather and normal teams, so like it more now (when I wrote the RMT, I was starting to dislike it since quite a few weather teams were starting to beat me).
EDIT 2:
-Replaced Surf with Dragon Pulse on Latios.
EDIT 3:
-Replaced Excadrill with Quagsire.