"Sigh," well, here it is; the gen five team is nearly absolute. Some apparent tweaking needed here and there, but generally complete. As the title suggests, positive criticism is much appreciated; I'll do my best to take suggestions into account and make improvements when I see fit.
The team (at a rather broad glance):
- Scizor
- Alakazam
- Garchomp
- Conkledurr
- Dusknoir
- Volcarona
INB4: I know, I know, I know, I know, I know that Garchomp is uber. For this entire team, please don't take tiering systems into account. Think of this team as a "free battling/pseudotournament" sort of team, and rate it from that alternative perspective.
As you may have already guessed by looking at my team in advance, I'm not a huge fan of support or entry hazards. Sure, they're obviously useful, but I honestly don't see them as very efficient in a fast paced OU metagame. That being said, I'm more of a fan of versatility and offense. If you see this as hindering, feel free to leave a comment, as I am open to all opinions.
That being said, let's take a look at "the team" a bit closer in depth:
Scizor @ Choice Band
Technician
252 Attack, 252 HP, 4 Speed
Adamant/Naughty Nature
-Bullet Punch
-Superpower
-Pursuit/Double Hit
-U-Turn
Pretty self explanatory Bandzor set.*Bullet Punch is the crux of its set. After STAB and the Technician boost, it sports 90 Base Power, which allows it to pick off many a weakened opposing sweeper. Bullet Punch 2HKOes 4/0 Dragonite, and can OHKO Gengar after SR as well. U-Turn hits incredibly hard after STAB and allows Scizor to scout for its counters and bring in a counter of your own. Superpower allows Scizor to OHKO two of its most common "counters", Magnezone and Heatran, as they switch in. It is also Scizor's most powerful option versus opposing Scizor. For the final slot, Pursuit can allow Scizor to pick off opposing Choiced Rotom-A and Gengar locked into resisted moves. On the other hand, Quick Attack provides Scizor with the ability to revenge weakened Zapdos, Gyarados, or Kingdra more effectively. Night Slash is also acceptable to hit Rotom-A on the switch, but U-turning to a suitable counter is often just as effective.
Alakazam @ Choice Specs
Inner Focus
252 Sp. Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Modest Nature
-Psychic
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-Signal Beam
Standard Speczam set, etc.**Alakazam will seriously dent a number of things with a stat of 607 or 553, depending on the nature of choice, but its type coverage allows a number of Pokemon to switch in through immunity. The worst possible scenario would be getting trapped by Spiritomb since it is immune to a good portion of this set. All in all, this set attempts to play riskily while dishing out a good amount of damage. This set holds the best possible coverage Alakazam can have.
Garchomp @ (Undecided)
Sand Veil
252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Adamant Nature
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Swords Dance
And here lies the primary reason my team is incomplete. Sure, Garchomp is simply godly, but I hold a big problem: what should he hold? I am undecided between Life Orb, Leftovers, Haban Berry, or Scarfing him (in which case I would swap SD for Fire Fang, for Skarmory leads etc.) Any help with this is beyond appreciated.
Dusknoir @ Choice Band
Pressure
252 Defense, 252 Sp. Defense, 4 Attack
Adamant Nature
-Shadow Sneak
-Trick
-Will O Wisp
-Pain Split/Destiny Bond
Dusknoir may or may not be one of the most gimmicky Pokemon I have used in my 12 years of playing Pokemon. With god-like defense stats, a solid attack stat, and pitiful Sp. Attack/Speed, I immediately saw a potential Bandnoir set. Shadow sneak works perfectly, on the grounds that it completely ignores his pathetic pseudo stats. Trick is for obvious reasons; opponent switches in a normal type (Togekiss, Snorlax, etc," also rendering your opponent's special sweepers useless. Will O wisp is for crippling sweeps, and last slot is still undecided between PS and DB. Again, not much else to add; I haven't done many calcs, and I would love to hear what you folks have to say about the set(s).
Conkledurr @ Toxic Orb
Guts
252 Attack, 252 HP, 4 Defense
Adamant/Brave Nature
-Mach Punch
-Protect/Bulk Up
-Payback
-Facade
Guts*+ Mach Punch's priority*+ Bulk Up*+ Base 140 attack*+ Base 105 Health*+ Base 95 Defense*+ PILLARS??!? = one BAMF. I saw this thing on serebii in 2010 and thought Nintendo was trolling. But no. This thing is like a broken version of Machamp. No no no... It IS a broken version of Machamp. I am however, once again, undecided on the moveset: I can't decide between Protect or Bulk up. Protect ensures that guts takes effect w/ toxic orb safely, however, bulk up would increase his attack/defense even more but also set him up for a OHKO from practically any special psychic or flying type moved. So let me know what you guys think. Facade for obvious reasons, and payback makes up for his bad speed stats. It also takes care of ghosts, which facade/MP couldn't otherwise handle. I don't see this set changing too much anytime soon.
Volcanora @ Life Orb
Flame Body
252 Sp. Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Sp. Defense
Timid Nature
-Quiver Dance
-Fire Dance
-Tornado
-Bug Buzz
One of my new favorites from Gen V, perhaps ever. Though he may not be a legitimate pseudolegendary, his stat distribution is just fantastic, and strikes me as much more practical than both that of Hydreigon and even Metagross (that's right... I went there.) In any case, his base 135 Sp. Attack, 105 Sp. Defense, and 100 Speed are basically inverse to Conkledurrs, which leads me to believe that he plays a significant role on this team. He possesses excellent type coverage, beautiful STAB moves, and, of course, access to Quiver Dance. It's almost as if Nintendo couldn't decide between DD and CM, and said "screw it, let's combined the two." So they did. *In any case, I'm not too big on calcs, so sadly this is all I can really provide.
And that's that, folks. As it has been said, I know there are a bunch of problems with all of this, especially by Smogon standards. But if you do take the time to read, rate, and critique all of this, I just want to say "thanks" and "best of luck."
Cheers.
Mixedsweeper989.
The team (at a rather broad glance):
- Scizor
- Alakazam
- Garchomp
- Conkledurr
- Dusknoir
- Volcarona
INB4: I know, I know, I know, I know, I know that Garchomp is uber. For this entire team, please don't take tiering systems into account. Think of this team as a "free battling/pseudotournament" sort of team, and rate it from that alternative perspective.
As you may have already guessed by looking at my team in advance, I'm not a huge fan of support or entry hazards. Sure, they're obviously useful, but I honestly don't see them as very efficient in a fast paced OU metagame. That being said, I'm more of a fan of versatility and offense. If you see this as hindering, feel free to leave a comment, as I am open to all opinions.
That being said, let's take a look at "the team" a bit closer in depth:
Scizor @ Choice Band
Technician
252 Attack, 252 HP, 4 Speed
Adamant/Naughty Nature
-Bullet Punch
-Superpower
-Pursuit/Double Hit
-U-Turn
Pretty self explanatory Bandzor set.*Bullet Punch is the crux of its set. After STAB and the Technician boost, it sports 90 Base Power, which allows it to pick off many a weakened opposing sweeper. Bullet Punch 2HKOes 4/0 Dragonite, and can OHKO Gengar after SR as well. U-Turn hits incredibly hard after STAB and allows Scizor to scout for its counters and bring in a counter of your own. Superpower allows Scizor to OHKO two of its most common "counters", Magnezone and Heatran, as they switch in. It is also Scizor's most powerful option versus opposing Scizor. For the final slot, Pursuit can allow Scizor to pick off opposing Choiced Rotom-A and Gengar locked into resisted moves. On the other hand, Quick Attack provides Scizor with the ability to revenge weakened Zapdos, Gyarados, or Kingdra more effectively. Night Slash is also acceptable to hit Rotom-A on the switch, but U-turning to a suitable counter is often just as effective.
Alakazam @ Choice Specs
Inner Focus
252 Sp. Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Modest Nature
-Psychic
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-Signal Beam
Standard Speczam set, etc.**Alakazam will seriously dent a number of things with a stat of 607 or 553, depending on the nature of choice, but its type coverage allows a number of Pokemon to switch in through immunity. The worst possible scenario would be getting trapped by Spiritomb since it is immune to a good portion of this set. All in all, this set attempts to play riskily while dishing out a good amount of damage. This set holds the best possible coverage Alakazam can have.
Garchomp @ (Undecided)
Sand Veil
252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Adamant Nature
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Swords Dance
And here lies the primary reason my team is incomplete. Sure, Garchomp is simply godly, but I hold a big problem: what should he hold? I am undecided between Life Orb, Leftovers, Haban Berry, or Scarfing him (in which case I would swap SD for Fire Fang, for Skarmory leads etc.) Any help with this is beyond appreciated.
Dusknoir @ Choice Band
Pressure
252 Defense, 252 Sp. Defense, 4 Attack
Adamant Nature
-Shadow Sneak
-Trick
-Will O Wisp
-Pain Split/Destiny Bond
Dusknoir may or may not be one of the most gimmicky Pokemon I have used in my 12 years of playing Pokemon. With god-like defense stats, a solid attack stat, and pitiful Sp. Attack/Speed, I immediately saw a potential Bandnoir set. Shadow sneak works perfectly, on the grounds that it completely ignores his pathetic pseudo stats. Trick is for obvious reasons; opponent switches in a normal type (Togekiss, Snorlax, etc," also rendering your opponent's special sweepers useless. Will O wisp is for crippling sweeps, and last slot is still undecided between PS and DB. Again, not much else to add; I haven't done many calcs, and I would love to hear what you folks have to say about the set(s).
Conkledurr @ Toxic Orb
Guts
252 Attack, 252 HP, 4 Defense
Adamant/Brave Nature
-Mach Punch
-Protect/Bulk Up
-Payback
-Facade
Guts*+ Mach Punch's priority*+ Bulk Up*+ Base 140 attack*+ Base 105 Health*+ Base 95 Defense*+ PILLARS??!? = one BAMF. I saw this thing on serebii in 2010 and thought Nintendo was trolling. But no. This thing is like a broken version of Machamp. No no no... It IS a broken version of Machamp. I am however, once again, undecided on the moveset: I can't decide between Protect or Bulk up. Protect ensures that guts takes effect w/ toxic orb safely, however, bulk up would increase his attack/defense even more but also set him up for a OHKO from practically any special psychic or flying type moved. So let me know what you guys think. Facade for obvious reasons, and payback makes up for his bad speed stats. It also takes care of ghosts, which facade/MP couldn't otherwise handle. I don't see this set changing too much anytime soon.
Volcanora @ Life Orb
Flame Body
252 Sp. Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Sp. Defense
Timid Nature
-Quiver Dance
-Fire Dance
-Tornado
-Bug Buzz
One of my new favorites from Gen V, perhaps ever. Though he may not be a legitimate pseudolegendary, his stat distribution is just fantastic, and strikes me as much more practical than both that of Hydreigon and even Metagross (that's right... I went there.) In any case, his base 135 Sp. Attack, 105 Sp. Defense, and 100 Speed are basically inverse to Conkledurrs, which leads me to believe that he plays a significant role on this team. He possesses excellent type coverage, beautiful STAB moves, and, of course, access to Quiver Dance. It's almost as if Nintendo couldn't decide between DD and CM, and said "screw it, let's combined the two." So they did. *In any case, I'm not too big on calcs, so sadly this is all I can really provide.
And that's that, folks. As it has been said, I know there are a bunch of problems with all of this, especially by Smogon standards. But if you do take the time to read, rate, and critique all of this, I just want to say "thanks" and "best of luck."
Cheers.
Mixedsweeper989.