Balanced team that's laddering pretty well

[angrycuban]

Hey so this is a team i started making probably 4 days ago. Its come a long way from then and im only going to talk about the current build. I've been laddering moderately well with it, i think i peaked around high 1600's the other day and i could have gotten a lot higher but i had to go to class and i haven't really had a chance to play today. Anyway here's the squad in its current form, which is obviously subject to change.

Zapdos @ Leftovers

Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spd
Bold Nature
- U-turn
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Ice]

So i used to have rotom-w here, because rotom is arguably the best or one of the best pokemon in the meta right now so i usually slap him on every team, but i needed defog support and my team was weak to excadril and somewhat to pinsir so i switched it out for a zapdos with defog and heat wave. I changed it to this set when i decided i needed u turn support and i have defog on a different mon. also i have HP cause my team is lacking in Ice type attacks, which is actually a bit of an issue. Zapdos is working well for me but he is by no means necessary and i might even go back to rotom now that i don't need him for defog

Heatran (F) @ Air Balloon

Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Roar
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
Heatran is one of those pokes that works and a lot of teams for a lot of different reasons. He works pretty well with zapdos as a defensive core, he gets rocks up, and i NEED roar because baton pass is everywhere it seems like. At least as soon as i make a team without roar or dragon tail i fight like 5 baton pass teams in a row so now i always use it. Heatran is a great mon but he isn't a lock in either, if someone has a better suggestion I'm all ears.

Latias (F) @ Leftovers

Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Draco Meteor
- Recover
- Psyshock
I usually run either latias or latios on almost every team because they are just so awesome but i never tried a defog set before. Not sure if this is an ideal set but its working for me pretty well. I've tried HP fire over defog as well as a calm mind set with max HP instead of SpAtk but this one seems to benefit the team the most. I'm considering replacing recover cause I almost never use it. I also might switch her out for Latios cause i have a lotta bulk on all my other pokes except for terrakion so i might put latios's power to better use

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
Another guy who is a staple on almost all my teams. My favorite set is banded but scarfed seemed to benefit the team the most cause were pretty slow with out it and we have no priority outside of sucker punch (another issue I think I need to address). Yeah not much to say about terrak, he stone edges things that fly and close combats things that don't. Thats about it.

Celebi @ Leftovers

Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SDef / 20 Spd
Calm Nature
- Giga Drain
- Heal Bell
- U-turn
- Recover
My favorite pokemon of all time and in my opinion, one of the most underrated pokes in the meta I almost never run a team with out celebi and when I do I wish I had her. She beats a lot of stuff that is tough to deal with with out her and is just really useful in a lot of situations against things like latios rotom breloom etc. I usually run psychic over heal bell but ive been running into a lot of status abuse lately and getting really angry at that so i slapped heal bell on. It's probably not optimal but whatever. If i get rid of heatran i can always put rocks on celebi which is something i do pretty often.

Mawile @ Mawilite

Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 248 HP / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Substitute
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
I used to have a mega venusaur and a bisharp instead of celebi and mawile but this pair has been working a little better for me. Not sure which mawile set i should use, I really like sub but swords dance seems really good and I'm considering fire fang over iron head but then i don't have any steel attacks on the team so its a toss up. Anyway mawile is a solid poke but i might go back to bisharp and put a different mega somewhere else. Maybe I should replace tran with mega zard cause that thing is broken as hell haha.

So theres the squad. Lemme know what you think and leave some constructive criticism please, I've been having fun with this team lately and i wanna make it better.

 

[angrycuban]

Actually just switched out zapdos for defensive rotom with wilo wisp and pain spilt. Will try it on the ladder later but i think its a much better choice for the team.

 

[myusernamesucks]

I suggest switching Iron Head on Terrakion for X-Scissor. Odds are, there'll be a Psychic type ready to KO it and not a Fairy, and its speed allows Terrakion to outrun it with ease.

 

[AM]

Seems like a good team I would consider putting fire fang on M-Mawile since most fairy mons anyways will fall to the sheer power of play rough anyways. Fire Fang also helps with things like Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Skarmory.

 

[angrycuban]

Alright i like both the suggestions, Im gonna ladder with them now. I also took off defog on latias cause noones even weak to rocks on my team, not sure what move to replace it with but right now im running surf now, not sure if theres a better option. Might switch to specs latios later

 

[AM]

Alright i like both the suggestions, Im gonna ladder with them now. I also took off defog on latias cause noones even weak to rocks on my team, not sure what move to replace it with but right now im running surf now, not sure if theres a better option. Might switch to specs latios later

I would keep surf on latias so you aren't completely walled by things such as Heatran. For now keep latias since it's bulk can help compared to latios which is generally just a full attacker for the most part.

 

[angrycuban]

I would keep surf on latias so you aren't completely walled by things such as Heatran. For now keep latias since it's bulk can help compared to latios which is generally just a full attacker for the most part.

Fair enough. thanks :)

 

[angrycuban]

changed terrakion to banded and latias to life orb cause i needed more muscle

 

[angrycuban]

gave terrakion quick attack over iron head too just for picking off dumb stuff like sash zam

 

[xJownage]

I think mega mawile for all its power is slow and seemingly frail. I used it for a long time and it was.decent, but bisharp and replacing for zard x over heatran, which really isint all that good right now (on showdown at least)

 

[angrycuban]

also gave celebi earth power again cause heal beal really isnt useful and now i dont lose to mawile as easily

 

[angrycuban]

I think mega mawile for all its power is slow and seemingly frail. I used it for a long time and it was.decent, but bisharp and replacing for zard x over heatran, which really isint all that good right now (on showdown at least)

you think i should use zard x over y? ive always found y to be better but im open to suggestions haha I do agree that heatran and mawile the weakest links here. I need to put defog back on latias if i run zard though

 

[angrycuban]

I think mega mawile for all its power is slow and seemingly frail. I used it for a long time and it was.decent, but bisharp and replacing for zard x over heatran, which really isint all that good right now (on showdown at least)

Also do you recommend the bulky zard x set or the dragon dance one? I put bisharp on, I always run black glasses bisharp with knock off iron head sucker punch and sub or SD, i think im gonna go SD this time.

 

[xJownage]

1. You really need to stop posting so repetitively its kind of annoying

2. X is the best DD sweeper in the game, maybe better than WP Dnite. So yeah run that. And idk if you want to do this, but i dont like latias as a defogger, i personally prefer scarf excadrill for speed and then raw power

3. I personally like this bisharp set:
Bisharp @ lum berry
Nature: adamant
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 172 HP, 252 ATK, 84 SPE
-Sucker Punch
-Iron Head
-Knock off
-Swords Dance

4. If you use exca over latias which i recommend, youll want to switch terrakion for specs keldeo or somebody of the like.

 

[angrycuban]

1. You really need to stop posting so repetitively its kind of annoying

2. X is the best DD sweeper in the game, maybe better than WP Dnite. So yeah run that. And idk if you want to do this, but i dont like latias as a defogger, i personally prefer scarf excadrill for speed and then raw power

3. I personally like this bisharp set:
Bisharp @ lum berry
Nature: adamant
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 172 HP, 252 ATK, 84 SPE
-Sucker Punch
-Iron Head
-Knock off
-Swords Dance

4. If you use exca over latias which i recommend, youll want to switch terrakion for specs keldeo or somebody of the like.

you run scarf exca with spin? I dunno if i like the idea of being locked into spin but ill give it a shot

 

[xJownage]

Youll need to switch but its well worth it it works incredibly well. If you rely on its spin always it wont be the best but its EQ is just amazingly powerful

 

[angrycuban]

Youll need to switch but its well worth it it works incredibly well. If you rely on its spin always it wont be the best but its EQ is just amazingly powerful

sounds good, im gonna try it with greninja over terrakion (picked greninja mostly because of stab ice beam and the speed) and if that doesn't work ill try specs keldeo and see how it works, thanks!

 

[xJownage]

For your team i could see greninja over keldeo but itll all depend on synergy and what happens. Get a strong sample for each it will really depend on who you are battling

 

[TheManlyLadybug]

I recommend replacing Latias with Latios. Latios offers much more power than Latias, and your team is better off with the firepower, as Latias isn't adding much to your team at the moment(unless I'm missing something).