Balanced Weatherless Team

[Subject 18]

What's up Smogon? You guys may have seen me around the forum, I've posted a few teams here before, and now I'm back with another installment. I made this team a couple days ago to SD Lucario since I've heard people say its really good if you can play it right. I went a weatherless team this time around since weatherless is the one of the few teams I haven't built. Plus I got tired of using Weather in general. All right so without further ado, let's see the team.

Team Preview

In Depth​

Big Kat (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 244 HP / 64 Atk / 200 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

I chose Landorus-T for a few reasons. It gives me a way to check Terrakion, Scizor, Tyranitar with Intimidate and scare them out with the potential Earthquake. The second reason is Spikes and Toxic Spikes, I always seem to run into someone who sets up them up and it really put a damper on my teams. The last reason is have something to switch in to an EQ for Lucario. (Yes, I now realize that 5/6 of my team is unaffected by EQ.) This also allows me to have a little VoltTurn action of him and Rotom-W.

Wooosshhh (Latias) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Thunder Wave

I don't exactly remember my thought process for adding Latias besides for Support and baiting in Tyranitar so I can use Lucario to kill it set-up on it with an SD and deal some damage before switching out. T-Bolt is carried to hit Water types. Dragon Pulse for STAB. Thunder Wave to cripple a sweeper to ease thing for the team. I actually think I could use a different set for Latias to fit the team better.

Sly Cooper (Lucario) @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Swords Dance

The test subject of this team. Lucario thus far as been great for me. The only thing that has held it back for me has been Jellicent. I ran into a few of them last night and it really put pressure on me since it could just recover off any damage I dealt to it. So because of this I switched out Extreme Speed for Crunch. The decision of Bullet Punch and Extreme Speed was BP helps me kill Terrakion and Tyranitar and it is STAB.

MayTag (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 28 SAtk / 232 SDef
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Standard Rotom-Wash. I needed a Water resist and Rotom seemed to find fit and I wanted to make a VoltTurn pair with Landorus-T. The set is pretty straight forward even though I wish this had more a little more power. I would adjust the EVs but I doing that would my losing bulk and not being to tank a few hits.

Hephaestus (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SDef / 8 Spd
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume
- Protect
- Roar

Heatran was my choice to counter Sun teams and phaze set up sweepers and Baton Passing teams. So the only set that made since to me for that job was the Specially Defensive set. I set up SR, Lava Plume to hopefully burn something and Roar to phaze.

Hades (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Surf

Last spot on the team and I realized I didn't have a Scarfer. I didn't know what to choose but somehow settled on Hydreigon. To be honest, Hydreigon hasn't been that great for me. So if anything this guy can be replaced for a better Scarfer. I contemplated Salamence but the weakness to SR kinda turn me off it since I don't have a spinner or a way to prevent hazards.

Last words​

There you have it, that's my team. I've had decent success with it but I don't think it's quite there yet in terms of near great. I havent had to many issues with the team besides Dragonite, Salamence, Tentacruel, Jellicent and Ferrothorn. I really shouldn't have problems with Ferrothorn since I have Heatran but they just keep protecting over and over. I also need a better way to deal with Dragons, maybe Mamoswine over Hydreigon. Well that's it for the RMT. Any and all help is welcome.


Thank you.

 

[Tressed]

Just looking at Heatran and Landorus-T here, both of them have Stealth Rock, but only one really needs to have it. Take SR off of Heatran and try HP Ice instead. That'll let you switch in on Dragon moves and smack them with a super effective HP Ice. If that doesn't sound good, try Toxic instead, that'll let you get some more of that important residual damage.
Regarding Hydreigon, you may want to try out U-Turn instead of Focus Blast. U-Turn will let you keep pressure on your opponents as they try to switch out. Meanwhile, Fire Blast and Surf give perfect coverage with Draco Meteor, and you have at least one option to use in any weather.
With Lucario, its important to note that despite the STAB on Bullet Punch, Extremespeed is actually stronger. You do lose coverage on Terrakion, but Landorus-T can deal with him rather well.
Anyhow, good team all in all, I reckon. =)

 

[Jimbon]

Hi there,

Really interesting team, I've experimented with Lucario recently and have had mixed results with it, so it's nice to see someone else trying it. Anyway, if this team really is based around sweeping with it, I think you'll want to be able to eliminate Lucario's counters first. The main things that stop Lucario sweeping are generally faster and very common threats such as Keldeo, Thundurus-T and Landorus-I. I think you should consider running Rest over Pain Split on Rotom-W, as well as trying out Chesto Berry as the preferred item. If Rotom-W is your main water resist alongside Latias, then you'll definitely want to preserve Rotom-W and keep it healthy, which this allows you to do. It gives you a much better and more reliable answer for stuff like offensive Politoed who Rotom-W will always beat, while the defensive sets with Toxic are even less annoying now thanks to Rest.

Whilst looking over your team, I really don't understand your Latias set much. Dragon / Electric is pretty weird coverage, as the main benefit is hitting bulky waters harder, most of which aren't directly switching into Latias. I'd strongly consider trying out Psyshock or Calm Mind over Thunderbolt, it really is a waste of a moveslot and Psyshock eases your Terrakion problem to an extent, as you stop Sub Salac variants being able to setup on Latias as you switch in. On the topic of movesets, I'd also consider trying out Ice Punch over Crunch on Lucario, as you avoid being setup fodder for DD Dragonite, as well as being able to break through Gliscor who otherwise walls you. Crunch isn't nearly needed as much as Ice Punch in this scenario, and I think you'll sweep a lot more consistently if you go with this change. You might also want to try a Jolly Nature on Lucario too, mainly for Jolly Mamoswine who otherwise steamrolls through this team.

If you're looking for a replacement scarfer in Hydreigon's role that can patch up some of your weaknesses, I'd think about trying Scarf Terrakion in Hydreigon's slot. The moveset is Close Combat / Stone Edge / Rock Slide / Toxic, with an EV spread of 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe with a Jolly Nature. It patches up your Dragons + Ferro weakness, while you can run Toxic in that fourth slot to beat common switch-ins to Terrakion such as Jellicent, Landorus-T and Hippowdon. In general it's just a failsafe scarfer that works excellent alongside Lucario in breaking down physical walls. I think between Terrakion and Heatran you should be able to beat Ferrothorn pretty comfortably, while Landorus-T plus Terrakion solves your Dragons problem, as Terrakion is a much faster Scarfer than Hydreigon and does a better job at revenging the faster Dragons such as Salamence.

Good luck!