Kingdra Is the King of Sweep

[Seiryou]

Team BigBlue
BTW, I know I suck at names so don't bother posting a change to the name >_<

Ok so I re-started competitive battling by finding a team that works (on smogon) and using it to get a better grasp on today's metagame. I then decided to try and make my own team... Needless to say my first teams failed miserably. I decided I needed a game plan (should've done this before IMO). What game plan? Hmmm... Well I had many run through my head, but I really like a kindra who sweeps, so I said "Hey! Let's make a kingdra based team!" So I started making my team. In the beginning I had trouble with status for kingdra and the flinch Jirachi that was running around, so I switched Gyarados to my last slot over Weavile (Good move IMO). This then gave me 3 water types and only one semi-frail ground type so I switch my wish support vappy for a support/flinch/para Jirachi. This turned out good. However I'm still getting mixed results, so I post it before you humbly, knowing that this was my first salvagable team.

Kingdra is my main sweeper, while all the other teamates support it in one way or another.

Changes in This Color

At a Glance:

-h

Marriland Team Review:

The Inner Workings:

Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP/216 Spd/40 Def
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Roost
- Earthquake

Thanks Tab for giving me this awesome Gliscor.
Gliscor, Gliscor, Gliscor... Very useful lead. With the ever helpful taunt, I can simple stop most Baton Pass leads, and slow stealth Rock leads. The rest get a knock off to keep their team off balance. After that it's just the simple take hits/give hits/roost Gliscor that we all know and love/hate.
I added knock off over stealth Rock due to help from KD24 :D. Thank you for your help.
Kingdra Support: Hit Taker/Taunter

Kingdra (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk/16 Spd/240 SAtk
Lonely nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Rain Dance
- Waterfall
- Hydro Pump
- Draco Meteor

Ah Kingdra. The star of my team (except for Jirachi...). This is "Kingdra's most deadly set" taken directly from the analysis. I'm serious, this thing rips through walls like there's no tomorrow. My largest issue usually is getting a wish passed to it, but by the time it dies, it normally does it's duty. With this as is, in rain, it out-speeds Latias and OHKO's with Draco Meteor so don't ask me to switch to it... Because I won't. Because most of us are too lazy to look at the smogon analysis, here are the damage statistics that are used in the analysis:

[B][SIZE=1]Damage Calculations[/SIZE][/B]

 [SIZE=1][SIZE=2]Waterfall vs. Max HP Bronzong: 54-64%
Hydro Pump vs. Max HP / 98 SpD: Bronzong 72-85%
Hydro Pump vs. Max HP Celebi: 38-45%
Draco Meteor vs. Max HP Celebi: 59-69%
Hydro Pump vs. Max HP / Max SpD + Forretress: 85-100%
Draco Meteor vs. 216 HP Gyarados: 62-73%
Hydro Pump vs. Max HP Jirachi: 76-89%
Hydro Pump vs. Max HP Metagross: 91-100%
Hydro Pump vs. Max HP Skarmory: 100%
Waterfall vs. 160 HP / 136 Def Snorlax: 60-71%
Hydro Pump vs. Max HP Suicune: 34-39%
Draco Meteor vs. Max HP Suicune: 52-62%
Hydro Pump vs. 240 HP Swampert: 82-98%
Hydro Pump vs. Max HP Scizor: 100%[/SIZE]
[/SIZE]

This thing does it's job well...
I kept the mixed Kingdra over DDKingdra since this keeps the main focus of the team on a late sweep from kingdra to finish off their team on Kingdra. With the DDKingdra it pulls alot of focus off of Kingdra and makes him just a simple sweeper. Plus I find that this set works better with my play style.
Kingdra Support: Er... All?

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 HP/216 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Magnet Rise
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Ah yes... Good ol' Maggie. Went out of style when people stopped commonly using true walls that often, but it's back and fills a crucial gap on this team. THIS IS THE ULTIMATE WAY TO COUNTER METAGROSS AND SCIZOR. And certain Jirachi too. No really it does, I mean, HP Fire does it's job every time. For metagross, just Magnet Rise and sub, then HP Fire to your heart's content. Same as that for Jirachi and Scizor (only minus the magnet rise). The 216 Speed EV's allow it to outspeed Adamant Max Speed Scizor and the Gross' Meteor Mash still fails to break the sub. It is simply my steel counter for my Kindra. Please note that this does not deal with the flinch Jirachi that is so evil I placed one on my team ^_^. Cheers.
Kingdra Support: Kingdra's Counter's Counter/Steel Killer

Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Stone Edge
- U-turn

Thanks tab for giving me this awesome Flygon idea.
Ok Flygon... Simple version: revenge killer. Non-simple version: I use this beast to come in after a death with scarf for a KO. It has awesome coverage and with todays speedy metagame, this is what is needed to keep up with it. It comes in on an unexpecting target, but if it's obvious they're goona switch, a simple U-turn puts me out of harm's way. I find much usefullness for this pokemon.
Stone Edge > Thunderpunch was pointed out to me by FalconPunch.
Kingdra Support: Kingdra's Counter's Counter/Sweep/Immunities

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 240 HP/160 Def/32 Spd/76 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Wish
- Stealth Rock
- Body Slam
- Iron Head

The other star of this team! (Bad pun intended). Wish support for Kingdra to heal it from LO Damage. Not much to say... Just a simple haxRachi that gave me so much trouble on ver. 1.0. Used to be Vaporeon until I put Gyrados down below and had 3 water types.
I added Stealth Rock due to input from KD24, allowing Gliscor to work stronger.
Kingdra Support: I explained in the above, but (*sigh*) Wish support and overall bulkiness.

Rotom-h (N) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/120 Def/136 SDef
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

This is a beast... It rarely dies and owns when it needs too. I've found that thanks to KD24, this team rarely loses when played right. It rounds off this team nicely with a really bulky attacker. And most people expect the standard set/specs set, giving this pokemon even more usefulness.
Kingdra Support: Status-Taker.

Problems:

~ I'd like to have a scarfed pokemon... Solved
~ I still occasionally have problems with scarfed Jirachi Solved
~ Frail ground type means I might need a better one Solved
~ My battling skills Un-solved D:

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I'd appreciate it if you'd help me out making my first team, a good oneit'snotthatcorny.
​

 

[bloo_of_aco]

i like this team here the wide coverage with your pokemon is very good.
have you ever considered scarfrachi for this team? seeing as how you kingdra can sweep a majority of pokemon your jirachi wouldn't have much of a need for wish. putting choice scarf and trick on your jirachi screws up alot of teams that try to switch in on your kingdra and mamoswine cuz the usual you get back are occa berry, leftovers, or life orb

 

[tab]

Hi. This looks like a pretty interesting team, I like how you've managed to think outside of the box to come up with something unusual, however there's a few pretty big issues that I have with it.

Crobat isn't really a great choice of lead for this team imo. Crobat's typing isn't really great for OU, and outside of Taunting and sleeping something early on, I don't see it doing too much for you. I think you'd be better off going with an Impish Gliscor with 252 HP/40 Def/216 Spe and Taunt/U-turn/Earthquake/Roost, which does more or less the same thing as Crobat, although the loss of speed admittedly isn't ideal. Gliscor offers you a sturdier ground type, as well as a better check to physical attackers in general when combined with Gyarados.

As it is, I don't really like Mamoswine on the team...it seems to be more or less a filler Pokemon to cover a Salamence weakness and give you a SR user (somewhat ironically, this means that you're still weak to Kingdra). With Gliscor and Jirachi on the team, both of which are very capable leads, I think Mamoswine should definately be replaced, which would be a good opportunity to add the Choice Scarfer that you wanted. Currently, your team is weak to Gyarados, Salamence, Kingdra and DD Tyranitar to name a few, so an excellent addition would be Choice Scarf Flygon with Earthquake/Outrage/Thunderpunch/U-turn, which covers all of those threats well, while also benefitting from a lot of the same support as Kingdra does, as well as being a potential sweeper once Kingdra is done weakening a team.
If you go with a Jolly nature and 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe, Flygon should be a fairly reliable check to all of them if necesarry.

Without Mamoswine, you're going to need a Stealth Rock user. Both Jirachi and Gliscor are good users of it, and both make pretty good leads, so you might as well choose one of them as your new lead and give it Stealth Rock. Gliscor could replace Taunt or U-turn with it, and Jirachi could replace U-turn.

On Gyarados, you should use Dragon Dance over Stone Edge. I don't see SE being useful very often, and Dragon Dance gives you a fantastic late game sweeper once Kingdra is done weakening a team, which is something this team really needs. RestTalk DD Gyarados also gives you a fantastic pokemon to fall back on against stall as long as you can take out Rotom (and Celebi/Starmie if they have it).
Another option to consider for your bulky RestTalking water would be Suicune, which has better defenses than Gyarados and no Stealth Rock weakness, as well as no 4x weakness for your opponent to capitalise on. With Gliscor already providing a good check to fighting types, Suicune might work better than Gyarados does here.

Let me know how it goes if you try out any of my suggestions, and I'll have another look at what you have after some updates. I don't want to make any more changes right now, as the rate could end up becoming pretty confused.

I hope I helped out, and good luck with the team!

 

[Seiryou]

Suggestions made permanent...
/
Bump...

 

[kd24]

Hi there, seems like a decent team, but I feel we could fix a few things to make this team truly great.

First of all, Gliscor and Gyarados cover most of the same Pokemon, and have the role of stopping big physical attackers, as well as absorbing some status. I feel Gyarados's role on this team is somewhat useless when you have Kingdra and Gliscor both here. If you need a much more reliable answer to status as well as Metagross and Jirachi, I would suggest Rotom-H. A set of Rest / Sleep Talk / Thunderbolt / Shadow Ball will be able to take on everything Gyarados is currently taking on, but without the Stealth Rock weakness and the fear of Explosion.

Your Kingdra itself, while plenty powerful, already seems to be able to handle all of the Steel-types Magnezone has been created to handle. I think using the much more effective DD Kingdra would be the smartest plan. Flygon already creates a threat of a physical Dragon, and in this fast paced metagame, a double physical Dragon assault would be a great way to get the upperhand over most opponents. Using DD Kingdra is a pretty safe move with Magnezone backing him up, (as well as Rotom-H hopefully ^_^).

Now while Magnezone would be able to handle most Steel-types, Shed Shell Skarmory seems to absolutely take your team out. Rotom-H does help against Skarmory, but he still has plenty of set up time against Jirachi, Kingdra, and Flygon. What I might suggest is Knock Off over Stealth Rock on Gliscor. This allows you to take off a Skarmory's Shed Shell, as well as Choice Scarf of other Pokemon, as this team is lacking a bit in Speed. You can then switch to Magnezone to hopefully finish most of those off.

With Stealth Rock off of Gliscor, you need to find a new slot for it, and I feel Jirachi could use that slot very well. A Jirachi with Stealth Rock / Iron Head or U-Turn / Body Slam / Wish or U-Turn still provides plenty of support and Stealth Rock. You may switch the slots of Gliscor and Jirachi if you want, as both have their benefits as leads, (even when Gliscor doesn't have Stealth Rock). If you end up fighting a Metagross lead, you can just switch to Rotom-H and deal with it from there.

With these easy changes, this team could be a real contender. I hope you consider most of these to attempt to improve your team. Good luck and have fun!

 

[FalconPunch]

Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP/216 Spd/40 Def
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Roost
- Earthquake

I really don't feel like this needs any comments. It's pretty simple.
Kingdra Support: Stealth Rock/Hit Taker/Taunter

Gliscor should only be used as a lead if one wants SR up early and a Lucario counter. Gyara can already counter Lucario very efficiently and so I suggest that you swap Gliscor out for Swampert. Swampert has more bulk then Gliscor and can also set up SR. Yes Swampert can't taunt but why would you need taunt? If it is to stop SR from littering the field it isn't a problem anyway since the only pokemon weak to SR is Gyara who has access to a recovery move. And if it is to stop stat-uppers then you shouldn't worry since Swampert can Roar them away. Here is the set that I suggest:

Swampert @ Leftovers | Torrent
Relaxed ( +Def -Spe )
240 HP / 216 Def / 52 SpA
•Stealth Rock
•Ice Beam
•Earthquake
•Roar

This thing is one of the most popular leads for a reason. STAB EQ sends the ever so common Metagross and Heatran to hell. Ice Beam hits Aerodactyl and helps mid-game as it gives you near perfect coverage with Earthquake. Roar lets you phaze stat-uppers as mentioned before but its usefulness doesn't stop there, Roar also let's you scout your opponents team and weaken them (assuming you set up SR) enough to make Kingdra sweep that much easier.

Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Thunderpunch
- U-turn

RAWR! Simple 'nuff...
Kingdra Support: Kingdra's Counter's Counter/Sweep/Immunities


Thunderpunch? What is that hitting Gyara? Switch it to Stone Edge as Stone Edge also OHKO's Gyara but hits more pokes harder.

Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Biggest reason that I pulled out Weavile and put in this bad boy? Weavile sucks... Second reason? I NEEDED A SCARFED FLINCHAX JIRACHI COUNTER. And this is as close as it gets. A simple Bulkydos. This thing can take a good deal of jirachi hits while using intimidate over and over again to own. It also takes Kingdra's biggest counter: status. Considering switching to a scarfnite (mixed revenge sweeper with FB for Jirachi counter) or scarftrio (revenge killer).
Kingdra Support: Jirachi Counter/Status taker.

Why Stone Edge? I don't see it doing much so I suggest you swap it out for Dragon Dance so that you can have another late-game threat up your sleeves.

Also plz write more in your descriptions our else your thread will be locked.

 

[Seiryou]

Edits made permanent above.
/
Bump

 

[boredomisbliss]

this team is nice, i like it a lot

the first thing is i question the role of magnezone on this team. scizor and metagross cant really hurt kingra as it resists their stab moves, and both lack a dragon ability for the super effective and kingdra can punish with hydro pump. dont get me wrong, magnezone is nice ive swept through like 5 times at points, id run HP grass over HP fire for swampert though, after a magnet rise swampert is setup bait. swampert can threaten or stand in the way of every single member of your team as well, so having something that can clear swampert is a must. scizor can be handled very easily if it is locked onto anything other than superpower (and what on the team would make it use superpower anyways?) on the case of metagross, do you know your STAB neutral thunderbolt hits harder than super effective HPfire? just saying

jirachi... i dunno i think you should either forego stealth rock or put it back on gliscor, normal+steel doesnt really provide good coverage

 

[Seiryou]

I'll consider running HP grass over fire... I just don't see many swampert, and I can usually take care of it when I get kingdra up in the rain.

Jirachi: The body slam/iron head isn't for coverage. Jirachi has serene grace so those two moves combined make for 60% paralysis and 60% flinch. So I paralyze first turn then flinch until they die.