Battle Spot Hyper Offensive Mega-Salamence + Heatran Team

[Zorua101]

Klefki @ Light Clay
Bold nature
Prankster
252 HP/128 def/128 sp.def
-Foul Play
-Swagger
-Light Screen
-Reflect
Dual screener (with swagger + foul play as a backup option). Mostly support, but can also deal decent damage. Setting up dual screens allows Salamence to set up Dragon Dance without worrying about being KO'd, allows Heatran to set up Will-O-Wisp more safely, or provides safer opportunities for the sweepers with poor defenses to switch in. I use him over an Alolan Ninetales because A-Nintales has poor defensive typing, no access to Prankster, and the hail is more of a hindrance to the rest of the team than a benefit.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Jolly nature
Intimidate
4 HP/252 atk/252 spe
-Dragon Dance
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Double-Edge
Primary physical sweeper, with Dragon Dance as a set-up move. I'm considering replacing Dragon Claw with a better coverage move (particularly an unexpected one like Fire Fang, which would allow her to better counter Celesteela - one of the most major threats to this set). Double-Edge provides a good stab, and Earthquake is good for coverage.

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Modest nature
Flash Fire
252 HP/4 def/252 sp. atk
-Flash Cannon
-Flamethrower
-Will-O-Wisp
-Earth Power
Special tank, also meant to counter what Salamence can't take down. Shuca berry is to deal with the 4x ground weakness, though a life orb might be a better choice - I chose the berry because she already has decent attacking power. Will-O-Wisp makes up for her poor defense to some extent. The rest is for taking down as many opposing mons as possible.

Tapu Koko @ Electrium Z
Naive nature
Electric Surge
4 HP/252 sp. atk/252 spe
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Dazzling Gleam
-Grass Knot
Special sweeper + Z-move user for the team. Might change it to mixed sweeper (with Brave Bird + a physical stab move). Volt Switch is there to get out while still doing some damage. Grass Knot is unexpected (I think?) and deals with most ground-types. Dazzling Gleam and Thunderbolt are for good stab. Still considering replacing it with a different mon (Xurkitree, Mega-Manectric, or possibly a different one if anyone has any suggestions). Hidden Power would have been used, but it has Dark-type HP which isn't very good.

Bisharp @ Choice Scarf
Adamant nature
Defiant
4 HP/252 atk/252 spe
-Iron Head
-Night Slash
-Stone Edge/Rock Tomb?
-Brick Break
Physical sweeper #2. Still considering replacing her with a Breloom or something, especially since having three steel-types is a bad idea and leaves the team vulnerable to ground-types. Brick Break is to deal with opposing dual screens. Night Slash is used here because it is less situational than Sucker Punch, and the Choice Scarf helps to remedy her poor speed. Rock Tomb would be for speed control if used, while Stone Edge does more damage and still provides coverage.

Espeon @ Choice Specs
Timid nature
Magic Bounce
4 HP/252 sp. atk/252 spe
-Psychic
-Psyshock
-Dazzling Gleam
-Shadow Ball
Special sweeper #2. Magic Bounce lets her switch in on status moves that would harm the rest of the team (providing a good counter to Toxic stallers and Will-O-Wisp users). Choice Specs boosts the power of her attacks, but a scarf may be used instead if Bisharp is cut from the team/uses a different item (due to the Battle Spot's item clause). Psyshock also lets her deal with specially defensive Pokemon.


Overall notes:
The team's main purpose is to set up dual screens and then switch in a sweeper without risk of being OHKO'd, allowing them to either set up or just sweep the opposing team. It is built around the core of Salamence and Heatran, who check each other's type weaknesses fairly well while also doing great damage to the opposing Pokemon. However, Tapu Koko, Bisharp, and Espeon might be replaced with different mons that would suit the team better. Also, I've heard it might be best to have two megas in BS singles, since having 3 Pokemon per match might leave me without a mega at times. I'm also not sure that my item and move choices are the best.

 

[Solerme]

Have you posted this or a similar team already? I have the feeling that i did a rate to this..
Anyway your team has a huge weakness to Sand + MGyarados, and has some mons that are pretty redundant, such as Heatran and Bisharp.

If you want to keep the screens strategy imo you should consider another dual screener, since with the Prankster nerf there are pokemon that can setup on it, MGyara for istance, and force you to a hard switch into something that can eat a boosted attack.
Alolan Ninetales could replace it imo, with its signature Aurora Veil and the ability to break sashes (that is crucial for Hyper Offensive teams) and remove things such as Sand, or even Rain (both MMence and Heatran are weak to these weather).

ANinetales over Klefki

@ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Hail / Moonblast
- Freeze-Dry / Blizzard
- Icy Wind / Encore / Moonblast

Standard spread.
Hail is there since you are so weak to other weathers. Icy wind or Encore are to control setup sweepers. Freeze-Dry for Gyarados, that kinda kills your team if it goes +1.

On Mega Salamence i'd just change Dragon Claw with Roost or Substitute. Whereas, since you have an hyper offensive team, i'll turn Heatran into an offensive threat:

Heatran

@ Grassium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast / Overheat
- Earth Power
- Solar Beam
- Hidden Power Ice / Ancient Power / Toxic

Even here a standard spread, with Speed and SpA since you need to be fast and hit hard in these kind of teams. Fire Blast is the main STAB, EPower for mirrors and Fire- and Electric-types. Solar Beam is for pokemon that can be problematic for Mence such as Fini and Suicune, nuking them with the Z Move. The last slot is pretty open, you have to decide if you want to answer porygon2 with Toxic, CharY with Ancient Power or Dragons in general with HP Ice.
Even Flame Charge could be an option on it.

At this point i'd honestly remove Bisharp, it's role here is kinda redundant with Heatran's, but doing worse than it honestly. Shell Smash Cloyster instead works pretty well behind the screens and can switch into Ice-type attacks as well.

Cloyster over Bisharp

@ King's Rock / Focus Sash / Waterium Z / Lum Berry
Ability: Shell Armor
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast / Hydro Pump
- Razor Shell

There are games where if you manage to set a shell smash, cloyster can close them alone, specially if behind the screens.

Closing this rate i'd maybe keep Koko in the team, as for Espeon, i'm not really sure that it can fit the team. I'd rather add something that could give you a more solid answer to Sand teams, such as Mega Gyarados itself probably. I'd have added something like Ferrothorn, but since you are running an extremely offensive team, probably switching the mega when MMence has a bad matchup could be a better idea. If you decide to add Mega Gyarados, you could also try to replace Tapu Koko with Thundurus-T, helping both MGyara and Cloyster, and even Heatran to be fair.

Summary:

• Alolan Ninetales over Klefki as your Dual Screener
• Roost/Substitute over Dragon Claw on Mega Salamence
• Changed Heatran into a fast Z Solar Beam set
• Shell Smash Cloyster over Bisharp
• Mega Gyarados over Espeon
• Eventually add Thunduru-T over Tapu Koko, if using Mega Gyarados

Hope this will help, let me know

 

[Zorua101]

Thanks for the feedback!
I've noticed that using Alola-Ninetales and replacing Bisharp leaves the team with a huge weakness to rock-types, especially when using Cloyster. It also has only one Pokemon that resists ground-types. Do you have any suggestions for Pokemon that could remedy that?
I unfortunately only have one Heatran, but if I give her a choice scarf, I think it could potentially make up for what a modest Heatran lacks in speed. The set I was thinking of using is:

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Modest nature
Flash Fire
4 HP/252 sp. atk/252 spe
-Flamethrower
-Flash Cannon
-Earth Power
-Ancient Power

Apparently her HP type is Grass, and I'm not sure about Solar Beam since it takes an extra turn. I also prefer Flamethrower since it has no drawbacks while losing only a little bit of power.

 

[Zorua101]

Bump

 

[cant say]

I'd love to rate this team for you but in all honesty, there's a lot wrong with it and requires drastic changes to become competitive. From looking at some of the stuff on the team I think it just comes down to lack of experience in competitive Pokemon because a few things are a little "noob." It would just be easier to try and build a new one from scratch with the help of someone from our PS room or discord server. However I wanna try and help as much as I can here so this post isn't totally useless...

Klefki isn't a great dedicated lead, despite how good Prankster screens may seem. Too many things anti-lead it; Hippowdon gets its Stealth Rock up and can start trying to put your team to sleep with Yawn (which stalls out screens turns), Blaziken can just Swords Dance to negate Reflect and resists Foul Play (and negates the paralysis speed drop after two turns of speed boosts), Lele stops Prankster Thunder Wave from crippling something (and can Taunt to limit you into only one screen being set), and these are just a few off the top of my head. Looking at the usage stats there's a lot more that annoy Klefki more than it annoys them. Solerme already suggested Alolan Ninetales which certainly isn't bad, but you already have one of the best dual screeners in the game on your team; Espeon!

Dragon STAB is basically never used on Mega Salamence, it gets all the coverage it needs by using Flying/Ground moves. In fact, a lot of them simply use one Flying move with Dragon Dance, Substitute, and Roost. I think on your set simply using Substitute over Dragon Claw would be cool as it allows you to avoid annoying status moves like Yawn and Leech Seed, but I really like using Roost over Earthquake too...

Offensive Shuca Berry Heatran doesn't really make sense. Shuca Berry in general sucks because in singles, Earthquake is so strong that you just get KOed by it anyway if you switched in on any attack ever. Shuca Berry in doubles though is pretty handy because of the spread move damage reduction.

Anyway, the reason people use Heatran in BSS is because its bulky set can check things like Lele, Koko, Gengar, Porygon2, Aegislash, Volcarona, etc... An offensive set like this can neither switch into these Pokemon, nor KO them. The bulky set looks something like:

heatran

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Magmar Storm / Lava Plume
- Toxic / Will-O-Wisp
- Substitute / Protect
- Earth Power / Taunt

plenty of options which are mostly up to preference. Magmar Storm traps Pokemon that like to escape after being Toxiced so they continue to get worn down, but Lava Plume has much better accuracy and can burn things in a pinch. Toxic wears down walls, Wisp checks Physical attackers that switch into Heatran. Sub/Protect stalls out turns. Earth Power hits opposing Heatran, Koko, and Gengar, but Taunt can be used to stop Pokemon like Porygon2 or Chansey from recovering off the Toxic / Magmar Storm damage.

Your Tapu Koko set looks totally fine, so nice job there.

Bisharp isn't a good Pokemon in BSS. A lot of people who learned OU first often try and use Bisharp because it's great there, but that doesn't translate to BSS. There's a lot of reasons for that but it's too much to get into in an RMT post. There are plenty of replacements you could use, but replacing it with something similar but better at performing the role would be pointless because like you said, you have too many Steel-types on this team.

Finally, Specs Espeon. This is just a flat out bad idea. Firstly, Specs Tapu Lele completely outclasses it thanks to Psychic Terrain and STAB Moonblast. It may be a bit slower and lack Magic Bounce, but its damage output is immense. I would even prefer Specs Latios or Latias over Espeon due to their excellent coverage and ability to beat Blaziken in a 1v1 situation. You could even use Alolan Raichu to take advantage of your Koko's Electric Terrain.


I realise this is just a bunch of criticism and not heaps of help, but like I said at the beginning there's not heaps I can do for you... Coming to hang out in one of our chatrooms and getting some help with teambuilding, or even signing up for BSS tutoring (when it opens), would really help. I promise we're all friendly lol

 

[Zorua101]

I'd love to rate this team for you but in all honesty, there's a lot wrong with it and requires drastic changes to become competitive. From looking at some of the stuff on the team I think it just comes down to lack of experience in competitive Pokemon because a few things are a little "noob." It would just be easier to try and build a new one from scratch with the help of someone from our PS room or discord server. However I wanna try and help as much as I can here so this post isn't totally useless...

Klefki isn't a great dedicated lead, despite how good Prankster screens may seem. Too many things anti-lead it; Hippowdon gets its Stealth Rock up and can start trying to put your team to sleep with Yawn (which stalls out screens turns), Blaziken can just Swords Dance to negate Reflect and resists Foul Play (and negates the paralysis speed drop after two turns of speed boosts), Lele stops Prankster Thunder Wave from crippling something (and can Taunt to limit you into only one screen being set), and these are just a few off the top of my head. Looking at the usage stats there's a lot more that annoy Klefki more than it annoys them. Solerme already suggested Alolan Ninetales which certainly isn't bad, but you already have one of the best dual screeners in the game on your team; Espeon!

Dragon STAB is basically never used on Mega Salamence, it gets all the coverage it needs by using Flying/Ground moves. In fact, a lot of them simply use one Flying move with Dragon Dance, Substitute, and Roost. I think on your set simply using Substitute over Dragon Claw would be cool as it allows you to avoid annoying status moves like Yawn and Leech Seed, but I really like using Roost over Earthquake too...

Offensive Shuca Berry Heatran doesn't really make sense. Shuca Berry in general sucks because in singles, Earthquake is so strong that you just get KOed by it anyway if you switched in on any attack ever. Shuca Berry in doubles though is pretty handy because of the spread move damage reduction.

Anyway, the reason people use Heatran in BSS is because its bulky set can check things like Lele, Koko, Gengar, Porygon2, Aegislash, Volcarona, etc... An offensive set like this can neither switch into these Pokemon, nor KO them. The bulky set looks something like:

heatran

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Magmar Storm / Lava Plume
- Toxic / Will-O-Wisp
- Substitute / Protect
- Earth Power / Taunt

plenty of options which are mostly up to preference. Magmar Storm traps Pokemon that like to escape after being Toxiced so they continue to get worn down, but Lava Plume has much better accuracy and can burn things in a pinch. Toxic wears down walls, Wisp checks Physical attackers that switch into Heatran. Sub/Protect stalls out turns. Earth Power hits opposing Heatran, Koko, and Gengar, but Taunt can be used to stop Pokemon like Porygon2 or Chansey from recovering off the Toxic / Magmar Storm damage.

Your Tapu Koko set looks totally fine, so nice job there.

Bisharp isn't a good Pokemon in BSS. A lot of people who learned OU first often try and use Bisharp because it's great there, but that doesn't translate to BSS. There's a lot of reasons for that but it's too much to get into in an RMT post. There are plenty of replacements you could use, but replacing it with something similar but better at performing the role would be pointless because like you said, you have too many Steel-types on this team.

Finally, Specs Espeon. This is just a flat out bad idea. Firstly, Specs Tapu Lele completely outclasses it thanks to Psychic Terrain and STAB Moonblast. It may be a bit slower and lack Magic Bounce, but its damage output is immense. I would even prefer Specs Latios or Latias over Espeon due to their excellent coverage and ability to beat Blaziken in a 1v1 situation. You could even use Alolan Raichu to take advantage of your Koko's Electric Terrain.


I realise this is just a bunch of criticism and not heaps of help, but like I said at the beginning there's not heaps I can do for you... Coming to hang out in one of our chatrooms and getting some help with teambuilding, or even signing up for BSS tutoring (when it opens), would really help. I promise we're all friendly lol

Thanks for the feedback!
I'm definitely making some drastic changes to the team. At the moment, the only three I'm keeping are Salamence, Tapu Koko, and Heatran. I've bred an Alolan Vulpix as a lead (I like the hail + 1-turn setup better than dual screen Espeon), but I'm still not sure about the last two team members.

As a replacement for Bisharp, I'm considering this:

Breloom @ Life Orb
Jolly nature
Technician
4 HP/252 atk/252 spe
-Mach Punch
-Bullet Seed
-Spore
-Rock Tomb/Swords Dance

Spore puts the opponents to sleep, forcing them to switch out (or do nothing for a few turns) and allowing Breloom to get in a free attack. Forcing a switch-out also helps to scout which Pokemon the opponent is using, which isn't always easy to tell from the team preview. Alternatively, it could allow Breloom to set up swords dance, though I like rock tomb better for speed control.

For Salamence, would it be a viable option to replace dragon claw with a different offensive move? I like the roost suggestion, but I've seen other options such as fire fang, which would help her to deal with Celesteela and such. (The only problem is the low BP, so roost or substitute might still be a better choice.)

For Heatran, I decided to use a fast choice scarf set with ancient power instead of will-o-wisp.

However, I've noticed that this leaves the team somewhat vulnerable to rock and poison types. I'm not sure of any good Pokemon that could fix this (without using another steel-type and causing a huge vulnerability to ground-types), but water/ground seems to be the best type combo for this. Is Mega Swampert a possibility, or should I use a different Pokemon?

Thanks for suggesting the tutoring, by the way! I'll check it out at some point in the future.

 

[cant say]

Thanks for the feedback!
I'm definitely making some drastic changes to the team. At the moment, the only three I'm keeping are Salamence, Tapu Koko, and Heatran. I've bred an Alolan Vulpix as a lead (I like the hail + 1-turn setup better than dual screen Espeon), but I'm still not sure about the last two team members.

As a replacement for Bisharp, I'm considering this:

Breloom @ Life Orb
Jolly nature
Technician
4 HP/252 atk/252 spe
-Mach Punch
-Bullet Seed
-Spore
-Rock Tomb/Swords Dance

Spore puts the opponents to sleep, forcing them to switch out (or do nothing for a few turns) and allowing Breloom to get in a free attack. Forcing a switch-out also helps to scout which Pokemon the opponent is using, which isn't always easy to tell from the team preview. Alternatively, it could allow Breloom to set up swords dance, though I like rock tomb better for speed control.

For Salamence, would it be a viable option to replace dragon claw with a different offensive move? I like the roost suggestion, but I've seen other options such as fire fang, which would help her to deal with Celesteela and such. (The only problem is the low BP, so roost or substitute might still be a better choice.)

For Heatran, I decided to use a fast choice scarf set with ancient power instead of will-o-wisp.

However, I've noticed that this leaves the team somewhat vulnerable to rock and poison types. I'm not sure of any good Pokemon that could fix this (without using another steel-type and causing a huge vulnerability to ground-types), but water/ground seems to be the best type combo for this. Is Mega Swampert a possibility, or should I use a different Pokemon?

Thanks for suggesting the tutoring, by the way! I'll check it out at some point in the future.

If you haven't got a Focus Sash on something else, put it on Breloom!

 

[Zorua101]

If you haven't got a Focus Sash on something else, put it on Breloom!

I only have one concern about using a focus sash on Breloom: won't Ninetales's hail break the sash?