Choices and Kingdra RMT

[Hey Oh]

Okay so i havent been d/ping for all that long when i made this team, probably about 3 weeks. I am a very experienced battler in the rse generation so i know the game very well. I had mainly been using a very standard team with DDers/bliss basically, very boring to me. So i decided i wanted to make a choice scarf team, and it ended up being this. After a few weeks of using the team and really enjoying and liking it I decided to post it here. Here is my train of thought picking my pokes

Started with Choice Scarf Infernape:

Reasons: Wanted to have a scarf infernape, mostly just to try it out some more, it looked fun. The first poke doesnt need much of a reason now does it?

Next i added Choice Scarf Azelf:

Reasons: At the time i still wanted it to be a choice scarf team, and i liked the idea of having scarf azelf to bail me out of random dangerous circumstances.

Next was Choice Band Metagross:

Reasons: I added metagross because i realized here that the team really lacked physical attacking. Choice band metagross seemed to fit well with scarf azelf, letting pokes like +1 ddmence vs meta use eq as i switch to azelf, which is unexpectedly faster then their mence.

Next i added Choice Band Flygon:

Reasons: I still was trying to keep it at least a choice team at this point, and i liked the resistances flygon brough to the table, especially with metagross countering each others weaknesses. Not being weak to rock also impacted my decision to use flygon over salamence due to stealth rocks and other rock moves.

After this i added Kingdra:

I wanted to try the rest/sleep talk/dragon dance/outrage set, mostly cause i had not used it yet, and lookin at the team i decided it was a very nice fit, and decided to try it. It counters swampert/heatran very well, as well as many other things. It really is tough to kill this thing, and allows a better and safer blissey switch in then the rest of my team. Really gives a bunch of stability.

Last, i added Choice Specs Gengar:

Thought a fight/normal immunity would be nice in order to help vs pokes like lucario. Put choice specs on the gengar because i wanted to abuse trick, as well as put a major dent in alot of pokes, such as cresselia or celebi with my shadow ball. At the moment i am trying to test other gengar sets, and help would be appreciated on him.

Infernape (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 24 Atk / 232 Spd / 252 SAtk
Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def)
- Close Combat
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Overheat

Set: Close combat/overheat for the obvious stab with major damage. The main move i use is overheat, until i feel comfortable predicting what they switch too. Close combat for the pokes that dont mind getting hit with these special attacks. Evs are for 309 speed before choice scarf. Chose mild, but seriously considering changing it to +satk, -sdef to help vs pokes like scizor with its 4x bug resist. Grass Knot for those starting swamperts who expect it to be a sash rocker ape. Hidden power ice for gliscor/flygon/mence.

Metagross @ Choice Band
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Meteor Mash

Set: With the speed this team has, bullet punch fit very well finishing off low hp pokes. If its safe to meteor mash i generally do, unless i have reason to think earthquake is the right choice, or I am about to die so i explode. Evs are so it can take some hits, it doesnt really need the speed for what i use it for, which is to take hits and hit back, hard.

Azelf @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 36 Atk / 252 Spd / 220 SAtk
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Stealth Rock

Set: 329 speed to beat all ddmences after +1 dance, which also lets me have max satk with boosting nature, which is very nice. Psychic does a hell of alot to salamences, about 60%, almost a ko after stealth rocks. This thing is honestly here more just to bail me out of tough situations mainly due to dragon dancers. It is easy to switch into vs gyara/mence since i can get my opponent to use earthquake vs metagross, my usual switch in vs mence. Flamethrower to hurt celebi/jirachi/meta/scizor. Explosion is always nice when your this fast as well. Originally had grass knot over stealth rocks, but found i was barely using it, so i decided to put stealth rock over it, and risk scizor/ttars switching in. Trick might be an option in that slot as well as grass knot.

Kingdra (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sniper
EVs: 244 HP / 56 Atk / 136 Def / 72 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Set: The evs are set to give it an extra stat in defense with maximum leftovers recover, and they work very effectively. This kingdra regularly survives heatran explosions when 100%. The set adds alot of stability to the team, but i find as if the team almost relies on kingdra too much. I like the set for it threatens sweep forcing my opponent to do something drastic quite often, very often resulting to use explosion, which i can hopefully predict and switch to gengar. The set never leaves me completely vulnerable, making my opponent think twice, which is very nice too. I'd also like to add this threat often beats gyarados 1v1. Sniper is because i lack rain on this team, so might as well go for the crazy chs instead.

Flygon (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Outrage
- U-turn

Set: Standard cb flygon set. Its jolly 328 max speed to beat out all other 100ers such as threatening salamences, as well as be faster then most +1 ddtars. I chose fire blast to hurt skarmory more mostly, to be honest i dont use it often. Generally start with uturn, then eq effectively, then outrage lategame to finish it up.

Gengar (M) @ Choice Specs / Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Trick / ?(something else with life orb)

Set: Have been using choice specs set up to this time, and kind of want a change from it. Its nice to trick some pokes such as breloom/blissey/snorlax etc. but other then that i feel a life orb set would be better. If i keep specs, its timid 350 speed to at least speed tie all 110 base unboosted pokes. Shadow ball/focus blast for stab and hitting the counters, having no common resist. Thunderbolt to scare off waters mainly. If i switch to life orb im not quite sure yet which attack i like best in that final slot, advise would be appreciated.

Comments:
Type Coverage: I find the team has very good type coverage for most things. The biggest threats such as scizor/heatran/salamence/gyarados etc. The three levitators with a bulky water make up for the 2 earthquake weak pokes i have. Basically i like the type combination of this team, with the exception of whats in the next paragraph.

Weaknesses:The only big weakness i've found are water pokes. Rain dance kingdra is the probably the biggest threat to the team, no clue how to fix this problem. Agility Empoleon can be tough, but kingdra can usually stop it, might add more sdef to kingdra to help this cause. Another weakness is the lack of a ghost resist, which can be tough vs gengar. Gengar i often have to revenge kill in order to beat.

Revenge kills: As you probably noticed, this team is very fast, and specializes in utilizing its speed to ko the enemy before they ko me. I try to switch as much as i can to to evade ko's and keep pokes alive strengthening my type coverage, but if i lose or decide to sac a poke, i always have the strong option to revenge kill. One of my 5 choiced pokes will most likely be able to revenge kill whatever ko'd one of my pokes.


Spikes: The team doesnt really mind any form of spikes all that badly. Stealth rock there is 2 resists, 4 neutral, so not too bad. Toxic spikes only 2 pokes are effected, and one of them rest, so only infernape is really hurt by toxic spikes. Spikes are probably the worst, but with 3 levitators and no spinner, its probably as good as i can be. Spikes are also much harder to set up, so its not too bad.

Overall an offensive team with type coverage, and bail out pokemon in case things go wrong.

 

[skizoo]

Okay I know where your going with this, but here's what I needa tell you..

First, item clause is usually said.

Second, it's really not that good if all your pokes are stuck into one move except for kingdra. That with be very crutial to your team. Also your team wouldn't like a mixmence. 1 draco meteor + life orb will rape your team if your predictions are Wrong. Even if you just switch into your metagross.. It will do lots of damage, then finish it off with like an EQ or fire blast.

That's one weakness you lack.

Another thing is. You will lack pursuit if making wrong prediction..
Your pokemon will die faster like that.

I like what your doing with kingdra but not the rest of the team. You can leave flygon how it is to scout out teams.

Also if your gonna stick with this team, put u-turn on azelf and infernape so you can scout out teams if there switching..

Anyways good luck. No offense if I'm being harsh. I'm just trying to help out xD

 

[Hey Oh]

item clause is not a rule for competitive play outside official tournaments with the handheld games.

Im sorry if i interpreted your post wrong skizoo, but you seemed to say that it requires a lot of prediction, and is too difficult to use. At least predicting makes the game fun, and fortunately im pretty good at it too.

I have considered uturn on infernape, but its difficult to figure out what to take off, with all the starter perts out there grass knot is very useful. HP ice i use a lot since mences always think they can switch in, also helps vs gliscor. Overheat/Close combat i cant take off for the power stab moves. Im not really sure what i would take off, but i do kinda like the idea of having uturn on ape.

thanks for the help

 

[The_Fallen]

I'm going to have to agree with skizoo in that you have too many Choice users on your team. You also really don't have much of a lead; you just use Nape to try and get rid of other leads. I also recommend you use Swift Swim over Sniper, just to be able to benefit if you're ever up against a Rain Dance team. For Gengar's last move, I recommend Hidden Power Ice if you decide to opt for Life Orb. Also, with the exception of Flygon and Kingdra, your team gets raped by CB Tyranitar. Just some things to think about.

 

[Hey Oh]

I am currently testing life orb gengar with various attacks such as hypnosis, wisp, hp ice, hp fire, sub in place of trick.

Team is working well, the rain dance kingdra weak is a rather big problem though

 

[Ishamael]

I feel like entry hazards would kill your team. Any choice pokemon will be switching, and picking up passive damage will murder you when you change pokes every turn. They're really common and with no rapid spinner you're done if your opponent gets enough out.

 

[remlabmez]

Choice teams can work really well, providing the right synergy and hard hitting attacks to make the opposition switch out is the key. Since I am kind of known to run all item teams and do good with them (win smogon tours). I would have to disagree with all the rates above.

As for the team, when making a choice team you cant have so many fragile sweepers like azelf and infernape, you need bulky swepers because you are forced to make a lot of switches.

So I would go with rotom over gengar, remove azelf and put SR on metagross. Il edit this post with more info later, I just love choice teams so I will be able to help

 

[Hey Oh]

Choice teams can work really well, providing the right synergy and hard hitting attacks to make the opposition switch out is the key. Since I am kind of known to run all item teams and do good with them (win smogon tours). I would have to disagree with all the rates above.

As for the team, when making a choice team you cant have so many fragile sweepers like azelf and infernape, you need bulky swepers because you are forced to make a lot of switches.

So I would go with rotom over gengar, remove azelf and put SR on metagross. Il edit this post with more info later, I just love choice teams so I will be able to help

I like the gengar/rotom swap, i'll definitely try that out. I'm not sure what i would take out on meta's moveset to add stealth rock, i use all 4 moves a decent amount, i use earthquake the least, and that is needed at times to beat jirachis/metagrosses/magnezones. I always meteor mash if i can get a free attack off, bullet punch is probably the most used move though. As for replacing azelf i'll try to think of things that can take its place.