Introduction
Hi guys, first time poster here! I'm pretty new to the whole competitive Pokemon scene and I've been messing around on Shoddy for the past couple of weeks to see what all the hype is about. Played a lot of pogeymanz as a kid back when Red and Blue first came out, then it fell off my radar until I got a DS and picked up SoulSilver, and now I'm hooked again! Couldn't believe that Nintendo didn't have a system in place for battling random people, but then found Shoddy so everything's peachy.
I've made a bunch of teams, most of which were craptastic and failed miserably, but I've had a few that performed okay, and I thought I'd post one such team here for the experts at Smogon to critique and polish up. I've battled with it a bunch of times and am sitting at a CRE of ~1200ish, which isn't even close to spectacular, but hopefully it means the obvious flaws have been ironed out. My performance on the ladder varies a lot - sometimes I beat players in the 1400s, other times I lose against players in the 1000s, and I'm betting that the inconsistency is due to my own inexperience at battling. Anyway, without further ado...
The Team
It's basically a heavy offense team designed to attack exclusively from the physical spectrum. Almost all the sweepers are walled by bulky waters - collectively, they can usually break through the lone bulky water on the opposing team after saccing one or two of them and then proceed to sweep. The team originated from a single Pokemon, Bronzong, and the rest of the roster was built around her.
The Breakdown
Bronzong @ Light Clay [ N: Sassy, A: Levitate ]
( EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD )
~ Light Screen
~ Reflect
~ Gyro Ball
~ Explosion
Hey, what can I say, for some reason I just really like Bronzong. She's a very versatile Poke who excels at a number of roles, and she's easily the most dependable member of my team. I had originally had her on my trick room team, but then got bored of TR and decided to give heavy offense a whirl. With four setup sweepers on my team, her job is to lay down her screens and then explode, which she manages to do most of the time due to her natural buffness and plethora of resistances. It doesn't matter if my opponent switches to a physical wall to take the Explosion, it'll put a dent in whatever Pokemon it hits and open the way for the rest of my team to sweep. Sassy Bronzong maxed out on SpD can take a Fire Blast from some Heatran, Dragonite, etc, and totally walls most special attacking bulky waters, who are the prime nemeses of my team.
And yes, for some reason, I see Bronzong as female even though she's technically genderless. I think it's because I once saw a very cool picture of Bronzong personified as a girl and it stuck with me. Plus she's sassy.
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash [ N: Jolly ]
( EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe )
~ Stealth Rock
~ Taunt
~ Rock Slide
~ Earthquake
I had considered giving Bronzong Stealth Rock instead of Gyro Ball and having her serve as my lead, but I figured she already had enough on her plate as a dual screener, plus I didn't want to get stuck with Explosion as my only attack. For the purpose of this team, I was looking for a fast Poke with a high attack, which narrowed my choices in OU down to Aerodactyl, Azelf, and Infernape. I had already reserved a spot as a sweeper for Infernape, so he's out. I've actually experimented with both Aero and Azelf, and they both have their pros and cons. Aero is faster - in fact, the only Pokemon in OU who can outspeed him is Ninjask, and the ninja bug doesn't have Taunt so he can't stop me from laying down my rocks. Against opposing Aero, I usually go to Bronzong to absorb the Taunt, Gyro Ball to bring him down to sash, and repeat for the kill. Everyone else I will outspeed, and will either set up rocks or Taunt if I think they're up to something sneaky. However, Azelf has the invaluable Explosion, which is great for punching a hole in the opposing team. He's also less frail, though not by much, and not weak to Ice Shard or Aqua Jet, though U-turn does take a pretty big chunk out of him. In the end, I decided to go with Aero, since sometimes he can lure out a water Pokemon who he can then weaken for the rest of the team before he bites the dust.
Infernape @ Lum Berry [ N: Jolly ]
( EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe )
~ Swords Dance
~ Close Combat
~ Flare Blitz
~ Stone Edge
My premiere wall breaker. He's immune to Will-O-Wisp, which is a huge problem for the rest of my sweepers. I decided to go with a Lum Berry instead of the more popular Life Orb so he can absorb a sleep from Breloom and assorted grass types, and chose Flare Blitz instead of Fire Fang to make up for the lost in power. It doesn't matter who comes in on him, they're gonna be taking a powerful hit - bulky waters like Suicune and Vaporeon are nailed hard by a +2 Close Combat, and even though they usually survive to take out the ape with a Surf, they're sufficiently softened up for the rest of the team to pick off. Starmie is a problem, because she can outspeed 'nape and KO with Surf, which is where the next fighter tags in...
Kingdra @ Life Orb [ N: Jolly ]
( EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe )
~ Dragon Dance
~ Waterfall
~ Outrage
~ Draco Meteor
A 4x fire resist to take fire attacks aimed at Bronzong and Scizor, Kingdra also my main answer to Starmie, who 'nape usually brings out. He can set up right in her face, twice if protected by Light Screen, and hits back hard with STAB Outrage, which also incidentally clocks Vaporeon pretty hard when she switches in expecting a Waterfall. Draco Meteor in the last slot allows me to take down dedicated physical walls that would otherwise be a problem for the rest of my team, and does a heft amount of Dragon type damage without locking me into Outrage. If my opponent brings in scarfed Flygon to take out a +1 Kingdra with an Outrage, I go to...
Scizor @ Life Orb [ N: Adamant, A: Technician ]
( EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe )
~ Swords Dance
~ Bullet Punch
~ Brick Break
~ Bug Bite
What's not to like about one of the most powerful priority attacks in the game? Scizor is my fall back gal in case I screw up somewhere and let something set up on me, though if I played right that won't happen. I had originally had Scizor set up as the more popular Choice Band variant, but found that I wasn't using her all that much as a scout, since I'm usually bringing guys in, setting up, inflicting pain, and then saccing them to bring in the next Poke.
Gyarados @ Life Orb [ N: Jolly ]
( EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe )
~ Dragon Dance
~ Waterfall
~ Stone Edge
~ Earthquake
Ah, Gyarados. I remember once upon a time I read an article about Pokemon trolls and Gyara ranked up there as one of the best all-time trolls, what with having an utterly useless pre-evolution in Magikarp that evolves into this beastly engine of destruction. Her unique resistances serve as the glue to my team - she can take ground and water attacks aimed at Infernape and fire attacks aimed at Scizor, and Intimidate is just the icing on the cake that allows her to force a switch, giving her an opportunity to DD up. I love it when Starmie switches in and gets KOed by a +1 Earthquake, though I'm a sad panda when I run into a scarfed Starmie.
Here's the complete line up again:
Threat List
Threat Level RED
Rotom-A: The many variants of Rotom-A easily form the biggest threat to this team. The ghostly appliance is immune to Explosion, and I can't count how many times it has come in on Bronzong blowing herself up, which wouldn't be that big a deal if it weren't also capable of using Will-O-Wisp. For an all physical team like this one, burn is a death sentence. I have no Electric resists on the team and one very obvious 4x weakness to it, so Rotom-A is going to be doing some serious damage no matter which unfortunate bastard comes up against it. And if that isn't enough, it can trick a Choice Specs on me, which renders one of my bruisers useless. Big headache, this one is.
Breloom: I hate Breloom...I really really hate Breloom. My shining moment in my short career of competitive battling was squaring off against a Breloom manned by a near CRE 1500 player, switching to Aerodactyl to take the Spore after already laying down rocks, switching to Gyarados to get in an Intimidate right as he pops a Substitute, switching to Bronzong to take a Seed Bomb, reflect up as he Focus Punches my girl to oblivion, and then switch to 'nape to finish him off and sweep the rest of his team. It took four of my Pokemon working in unison to bring down one of his. Maybe it's just because I'm new to competitive battling, but I still haven't figured out a surefire way to handle Breloom and his pesky 100% accuracy sleep move. He walls every single attack Gyarados has, and if my opponent manages to bring him in, I'm almost guaranteed to lose a Pokemon. If Infernape is still alive and packing his Lum Berry, it means a free Flare Blitz for me, but that trick only works once.
Threat Level ORANGE
Heatran: Depends on what set he's running - if he has Fire Blast, Earth Power, HP Electric, and Dragon Pulse, he threatens five of the six Pokemon on my team, though his lackluster speed means he'll probably get outsped and killed unless he's packing a Choice Scarf or I get outpredicted. Regardless, if I'm facing a Heatran, I can't afford to set up regardless of who's facing him. No problem if handled correctly, huge problem if mishandled. Somehow managed to outspeed my Kingdra one time without a Scarf, and I still don't know how that happened to this day.
Lucario: Mainly a problem if he's behind a screen and gets in on Kingdra locked into Outrage. None of my Pokes particularly enjoy a +2 ExtremeSpeed, and my only priority move is resisted by him.
Gyarados: Extremely dangerous if he gets off a DD, and with Intimidate against an all-physical team, his chances of doing so are pretty good. Like Lucario, he resists my only priority move, and outspeeds everyone on my team who's unboosted.
Magnezone: Traps steel types, of which I have two on my team, Thunderbolts Gyarados into oblivion, and can revenge Infernape if running a Scarf. I'm considering going with a Jolly nature for Scizor just to take on this guy.
Vaporeon, Suicune: Bulky waters that wall almost every single individual member of my team. Can stack sweepers one on top of another to take them out, and they're usually not a problem unless combined with one or more members from this threat list.
Swampert: Another bulky water, though this one is particularly problematic because he can Roar away my boosts.
Starmie: Neither Gyarados nor Infernape can come onto the field if she's out, though Gyarados can take her on after a DD. Usually handled by Kingdra or Bronzong, or in a pinch, Scizor with Bug Buzz.
In Closing
And that's the team! I usually don't run into serious problems with any single Pokemon, besides bloody Rotom-A, but combinations of several of the above Pokemon can give me trouble. No doubt there are Pokemon I haven't encountered yet that pose a credible threat to this team - after all, I'm still new to competitive battling! Any suggestions/advice/feedback from the community would be greatly appreciated - I've learned a lot from reading the articles and stuff, and I hope to learn more still from everyone here! Speaking of which, I should totally sign up for the Battling 101 program. Anyways, THANK YOU! :)
Hi guys, first time poster here! I'm pretty new to the whole competitive Pokemon scene and I've been messing around on Shoddy for the past couple of weeks to see what all the hype is about. Played a lot of pogeymanz as a kid back when Red and Blue first came out, then it fell off my radar until I got a DS and picked up SoulSilver, and now I'm hooked again! Couldn't believe that Nintendo didn't have a system in place for battling random people, but then found Shoddy so everything's peachy.
I've made a bunch of teams, most of which were craptastic and failed miserably, but I've had a few that performed okay, and I thought I'd post one such team here for the experts at Smogon to critique and polish up. I've battled with it a bunch of times and am sitting at a CRE of ~1200ish, which isn't even close to spectacular, but hopefully it means the obvious flaws have been ironed out. My performance on the ladder varies a lot - sometimes I beat players in the 1400s, other times I lose against players in the 1000s, and I'm betting that the inconsistency is due to my own inexperience at battling. Anyway, without further ado...
The Team
It's basically a heavy offense team designed to attack exclusively from the physical spectrum. Almost all the sweepers are walled by bulky waters - collectively, they can usually break through the lone bulky water on the opposing team after saccing one or two of them and then proceed to sweep. The team originated from a single Pokemon, Bronzong, and the rest of the roster was built around her.
The Breakdown
Bronzong @ Light Clay [ N: Sassy, A: Levitate ]
( EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD )
~ Light Screen
~ Reflect
~ Gyro Ball
~ Explosion
Hey, what can I say, for some reason I just really like Bronzong. She's a very versatile Poke who excels at a number of roles, and she's easily the most dependable member of my team. I had originally had her on my trick room team, but then got bored of TR and decided to give heavy offense a whirl. With four setup sweepers on my team, her job is to lay down her screens and then explode, which she manages to do most of the time due to her natural buffness and plethora of resistances. It doesn't matter if my opponent switches to a physical wall to take the Explosion, it'll put a dent in whatever Pokemon it hits and open the way for the rest of my team to sweep. Sassy Bronzong maxed out on SpD can take a Fire Blast from some Heatran, Dragonite, etc, and totally walls most special attacking bulky waters, who are the prime nemeses of my team.
And yes, for some reason, I see Bronzong as female even though she's technically genderless. I think it's because I once saw a very cool picture of Bronzong personified as a girl and it stuck with me. Plus she's sassy.
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash [ N: Jolly ]
( EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe )
~ Stealth Rock
~ Taunt
~ Rock Slide
~ Earthquake
I had considered giving Bronzong Stealth Rock instead of Gyro Ball and having her serve as my lead, but I figured she already had enough on her plate as a dual screener, plus I didn't want to get stuck with Explosion as my only attack. For the purpose of this team, I was looking for a fast Poke with a high attack, which narrowed my choices in OU down to Aerodactyl, Azelf, and Infernape. I had already reserved a spot as a sweeper for Infernape, so he's out. I've actually experimented with both Aero and Azelf, and they both have their pros and cons. Aero is faster - in fact, the only Pokemon in OU who can outspeed him is Ninjask, and the ninja bug doesn't have Taunt so he can't stop me from laying down my rocks. Against opposing Aero, I usually go to Bronzong to absorb the Taunt, Gyro Ball to bring him down to sash, and repeat for the kill. Everyone else I will outspeed, and will either set up rocks or Taunt if I think they're up to something sneaky. However, Azelf has the invaluable Explosion, which is great for punching a hole in the opposing team. He's also less frail, though not by much, and not weak to Ice Shard or Aqua Jet, though U-turn does take a pretty big chunk out of him. In the end, I decided to go with Aero, since sometimes he can lure out a water Pokemon who he can then weaken for the rest of the team before he bites the dust.
Infernape @ Lum Berry [ N: Jolly ]
( EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe )
~ Swords Dance
~ Close Combat
~ Flare Blitz
~ Stone Edge
My premiere wall breaker. He's immune to Will-O-Wisp, which is a huge problem for the rest of my sweepers. I decided to go with a Lum Berry instead of the more popular Life Orb so he can absorb a sleep from Breloom and assorted grass types, and chose Flare Blitz instead of Fire Fang to make up for the lost in power. It doesn't matter who comes in on him, they're gonna be taking a powerful hit - bulky waters like Suicune and Vaporeon are nailed hard by a +2 Close Combat, and even though they usually survive to take out the ape with a Surf, they're sufficiently softened up for the rest of the team to pick off. Starmie is a problem, because she can outspeed 'nape and KO with Surf, which is where the next fighter tags in...
Kingdra @ Life Orb [ N: Jolly ]
( EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe )
~ Dragon Dance
~ Waterfall
~ Outrage
~ Draco Meteor
A 4x fire resist to take fire attacks aimed at Bronzong and Scizor, Kingdra also my main answer to Starmie, who 'nape usually brings out. He can set up right in her face, twice if protected by Light Screen, and hits back hard with STAB Outrage, which also incidentally clocks Vaporeon pretty hard when she switches in expecting a Waterfall. Draco Meteor in the last slot allows me to take down dedicated physical walls that would otherwise be a problem for the rest of my team, and does a heft amount of Dragon type damage without locking me into Outrage. If my opponent brings in scarfed Flygon to take out a +1 Kingdra with an Outrage, I go to...
Scizor @ Life Orb [ N: Adamant, A: Technician ]
( EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe )
~ Swords Dance
~ Bullet Punch
~ Brick Break
~ Bug Bite
What's not to like about one of the most powerful priority attacks in the game? Scizor is my fall back gal in case I screw up somewhere and let something set up on me, though if I played right that won't happen. I had originally had Scizor set up as the more popular Choice Band variant, but found that I wasn't using her all that much as a scout, since I'm usually bringing guys in, setting up, inflicting pain, and then saccing them to bring in the next Poke.
Gyarados @ Life Orb [ N: Jolly ]
( EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe )
~ Dragon Dance
~ Waterfall
~ Stone Edge
~ Earthquake
Ah, Gyarados. I remember once upon a time I read an article about Pokemon trolls and Gyara ranked up there as one of the best all-time trolls, what with having an utterly useless pre-evolution in Magikarp that evolves into this beastly engine of destruction. Her unique resistances serve as the glue to my team - she can take ground and water attacks aimed at Infernape and fire attacks aimed at Scizor, and Intimidate is just the icing on the cake that allows her to force a switch, giving her an opportunity to DD up. I love it when Starmie switches in and gets KOed by a +1 Earthquake, though I'm a sad panda when I run into a scarfed Starmie.
Here's the complete line up again:
Threat List
Threat Level RED
Rotom-A: The many variants of Rotom-A easily form the biggest threat to this team. The ghostly appliance is immune to Explosion, and I can't count how many times it has come in on Bronzong blowing herself up, which wouldn't be that big a deal if it weren't also capable of using Will-O-Wisp. For an all physical team like this one, burn is a death sentence. I have no Electric resists on the team and one very obvious 4x weakness to it, so Rotom-A is going to be doing some serious damage no matter which unfortunate bastard comes up against it. And if that isn't enough, it can trick a Choice Specs on me, which renders one of my bruisers useless. Big headache, this one is.
Breloom: I hate Breloom...I really really hate Breloom. My shining moment in my short career of competitive battling was squaring off against a Breloom manned by a near CRE 1500 player, switching to Aerodactyl to take the Spore after already laying down rocks, switching to Gyarados to get in an Intimidate right as he pops a Substitute, switching to Bronzong to take a Seed Bomb, reflect up as he Focus Punches my girl to oblivion, and then switch to 'nape to finish him off and sweep the rest of his team. It took four of my Pokemon working in unison to bring down one of his. Maybe it's just because I'm new to competitive battling, but I still haven't figured out a surefire way to handle Breloom and his pesky 100% accuracy sleep move. He walls every single attack Gyarados has, and if my opponent manages to bring him in, I'm almost guaranteed to lose a Pokemon. If Infernape is still alive and packing his Lum Berry, it means a free Flare Blitz for me, but that trick only works once.
Threat Level ORANGE
Heatran: Depends on what set he's running - if he has Fire Blast, Earth Power, HP Electric, and Dragon Pulse, he threatens five of the six Pokemon on my team, though his lackluster speed means he'll probably get outsped and killed unless he's packing a Choice Scarf or I get outpredicted. Regardless, if I'm facing a Heatran, I can't afford to set up regardless of who's facing him. No problem if handled correctly, huge problem if mishandled. Somehow managed to outspeed my Kingdra one time without a Scarf, and I still don't know how that happened to this day.
Lucario: Mainly a problem if he's behind a screen and gets in on Kingdra locked into Outrage. None of my Pokes particularly enjoy a +2 ExtremeSpeed, and my only priority move is resisted by him.
Gyarados: Extremely dangerous if he gets off a DD, and with Intimidate against an all-physical team, his chances of doing so are pretty good. Like Lucario, he resists my only priority move, and outspeeds everyone on my team who's unboosted.
Magnezone: Traps steel types, of which I have two on my team, Thunderbolts Gyarados into oblivion, and can revenge Infernape if running a Scarf. I'm considering going with a Jolly nature for Scizor just to take on this guy.
Vaporeon, Suicune: Bulky waters that wall almost every single individual member of my team. Can stack sweepers one on top of another to take them out, and they're usually not a problem unless combined with one or more members from this threat list.
Swampert: Another bulky water, though this one is particularly problematic because he can Roar away my boosts.
Starmie: Neither Gyarados nor Infernape can come onto the field if she's out, though Gyarados can take her on after a DD. Usually handled by Kingdra or Bronzong, or in a pinch, Scizor with Bug Buzz.
In Closing
And that's the team! I usually don't run into serious problems with any single Pokemon, besides bloody Rotom-A, but combinations of several of the above Pokemon can give me trouble. No doubt there are Pokemon I haven't encountered yet that pose a credible threat to this team - after all, I'm still new to competitive battling! Any suggestions/advice/feedback from the community would be greatly appreciated - I've learned a lot from reading the articles and stuff, and I hope to learn more still from everyone here! Speaking of which, I should totally sign up for the Battling 101 program. Anyways, THANK YOU! :)
