UPDATE: Using the suggested Scizor set and Heatran over Celebi right now. It has been more consistent than Starmie so far. I don't really need to utilize spin very often as my team does not particularly mind rocks on the field. I'll miss Bug Bite, but U-turn and Roost provide utility that Bug Bite will never do.
No nonsense here, I'm just going to go straight to the history of this team and the members themselves.
Mid 2010 when I enlisted into the army, Gen 5 started and things kicked off with DW being the normal ladder witheveryone hyping about shadow tag Chandelure, Excadrill's potential ubers status and Whimsicott being the 'best pokemon ever'. Fresh into Gen5, I tried many things, but I couldn't figure out what to use for a proper, competitive team. I knew it wouldn't work as well, but I ported over my successful Gen4 Bulky Offense team into Gen5, which was as follows;
The most glaring problems were, well, lack of power and balance to do much to the new threats like Conk, Thundurus, etc. and friends. I tried changing their sets and modified my team slightly around. I enjoyed a bit of success with defensive Rest talk Gyara for a good amount of time, but the inconsistency was very clear after a few bouts of laddering with decent people with proper teams. I wanted to preserve my defensive core, however, so I said sorry to Gyara, Rotom-H and Pert, bringing in Landorus, Ferrothorn and Rotom-W in their stead.
While I enjoyed more success with this team, there were huge gaping flaws that, once exploited, could beat me very easily; Volcarona and the omnipresent Terrakion could muscle through me relatively easily with little setup. I needed Ferrothorn to deal with rain, however, but I eventually settled down with changing Landorus for the more defensive Gliscor and Ferrothorn for Celebi, who still resists Water and Electric.
After posting this RMT, I finally decided to use Heatran over Celebi;
~NOT A DREAM~
TEAM AS IT STANDS NOW:
Cannon (Rotom-W) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Trick
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
ROLE: Revenge Killer, Scout
The member that I lead with most of the time, with amazing effect. Rotom-W fails to disappoint except when Hydro Pump misses, but even then the ability to scout, revenge kill and later on cripple on a defensive Pokemon by tricking the Scarf onto it brings everythign that my team needs to the table. 'Cannon' here might seem pretty standard, but he gets the job done very well.
I must only be careful of not giving away the Scarf too early into the match lest I lose my revenge killing ability. Hidden Power Ice is for the dragons that roam the tier; he is the only way I can reliably deal with them after they have a DD up.
Rotom-W takes the water attacks from the omnipresent rain teams, but he can only take so many repeated hits before I have to play more conservatively with him. This is what Celebi and Latias are for, but more on them later.
Veckorial (Tyranitar) (F) @ Leftovers
Veckorial (Tyranitar) (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Stone Edge
ROLE: Special Tank, Trapper
Suggested by ThePillsburyDoughBoy. She cant' take special hits as well as she used to, but she definitely generates much more of an offensive presence with CB equipped. Takes more prediciton to use properly and makes me predict more, but I'm enjoying this set so far.
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Atk / 164 SDef / 68 Spd
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge[/B]
ROLE: Special Tank
The best I could ask for in the Special Defense department. She soaks up even SE Special Attacks with relative ease, only getting 2HKOed by the likes of Focus Blast coming off Hydreigon or LO Starmie's Hydro Pump... as long as sand is up. Regardless, Tyranitar is part of the integral core for my team, providing sand which wears down my opponents. You might think I am silly for not using any Pokemon that directly benefit from sand, but Tyranitar is much more than just for sand. Fire Blast roasts Steels like Skarm and Ferro who try to set up on me, Crunch is for a solid STAB option to use when the situation calls for it and Stone "WORST MOVE IN THE GAME" Edge is for the ubiquitous Ninetales, Volcarona and friends who love to switch in to take advantage of their sun.
I used to use Pursuit, and then Ice Beam, then Pursuit again over Stone Edge for coverage and to deal with varied threats, but that job is better left to my other team members, I felt. Like Rotom, I need to keep Tyranitar alive for as long as I can, as she lacks proper recovery and I find myself switching her in a lot, both to keep their weather out of play if there is one and to soak up special attacks aimed at my others, especially Gliscor. Last, but absolutely not the least, she provides Stealth Rock to the team.
I gave her that amount of speed to get the jump on Skarmory and Scizor, roasting them with Fire Blast before they can touch me. If Scizor somehow outspeeds her and KOs her with Superpower or something, well, at least that gives me lots of information on what kind of Scizor it is and I can play accordingly from there.
Mack (Gliscor) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Taunt
ROLE: Physical Tank, Stallbreaker
I don't think I can count the amount of times Gliscor has saved me from being swept. He takes almost all physical hits like they were nothing, especially fighting-type moves from the likes of Terrakion. He can't stand up to repeated assaults from them, but Latias and Celebi can enter the fray in stead of him if the situation calls for it.
Toxic is the main way of taking on Bulky Water switch-ins. Gliscor can handle a single SE attack from the likes of Jellicent before having to switch out, but getting the Toxic on one of those Pokemon is crucial. I opted to have Taunt instead of SD/Protect so I can beat stall in general other Gliscor who think they can set up SD... the multitude of things my Gliscor can take on simply with Taunt is too good to pass up for one of the other moves.
Obviously he can't take special hits coming from any special attacker worth their salt, but that's what Tyranitar, Celebi to a certain extent and Latias are around for.
Maglev (Heatran) (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
ROLE: Pivot
So I finally decided on using Heatran over Celebi. He fufills the same role as she used to, except with the extra duty of getting up the rocks that my team needs to score those crucial 2HKOs. He also helps me revenge kill dragons with HP Ice in case Rotom-W goes down one way or another. Air Balloon gives me free switch-ins and helps me deal with opposing Heatran who want to jump me with Earth Power; I just can't let Heatran die so easily.
Dicentra (Celebi) @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 176 HP / 160 SAtk / 172 Spe
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power
- Recover
ROLE: Pivot
Like Gliscor, I wouldn't be able to take on as many things as I would without her around. Celebi provides me the support I need in case my team falls behind in momentum. The coverage here is mainly for hitting rain teams hard, but HP Fire is for hitting Scizor and Ferrothorn immediately.
Earth Power deals a number to them too, 2HKOing Scizor after rocks, but I can't risk the opposing Steel-type doing something terrible and causing me to lose more momentum by taking that extra turn. Recover rounds off this set nicely and I am using it instead of U-turn because of the amount of damage she will take; 16% a turn with LO and Sandstorm will bring her down very quickly.
To be very honest, I am still finicky about using Celebi or Heatran; both of them performed as well as each other, but I am not sure which to use. The Heatran that used to occupy this slot, fufilling the same role, is as follows;
Nocosta (Latias) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Refresh
ROLE: Boosting Special Sweeper
The other Special Tank of my team, taking everything that Tyranitar can and threatening a sweep with Calm Minds. Alongside Scizor, Latias is one of the main Pokemon on my team that goes on to completely destroy the enemy team once they are weakened enough. Being naturally fast, she can outspeed all other dragons in the tier as long as they haven't got a DD boost yet and KO with a +1 Dragon Pulse most of the time. Dragonite is a little trickier to deal with, but that's why I try to keep rocks on the field when I see him in the Team Preview.
Hidden Power Fire, again, roasts the omnipresent Scizor. I'm not sure why, but most of them switch into Latias expecting to go first, only to get OHKOed promptly by HP Fire and earning me a free kill. Recover is self-explainatory. Refresh helps me deal with Stall and Toxictoed more, allowing me to CM up alongside it and hit it with Dragon Pulse. I lose the ability to get the jump on Scizor, Forry and Ferro, but that I can hit them hard enough with my other team members.
I went for 252HP to take as many hits as possible from both spectrums before going down. Keep in mind that she is my secondary switch into things like Terrakion and co. that can threaten to sweep as easily as Latias can. Definitely a keeper and one of the core members of my team.
Thannie (Scizor) (F) @ Iron Plate
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 100 Atk / 160 SpD
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-Turn
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Roost
ROLE: Boosting Physical Sweeper
Scizor. That name alone describes alot, but mine is a little different from the rest. After much playtesting, I have found that this set fits my team much better than the run-of-the-mill Choice Band set does. Iron Plate boosts the power of Bullet Punch to strangely high heights, even though the boost is meager; I can muscle my way through rain teams with even only 2 boosts as long as they are weakened enough.
I put Roost and U-Turn over Superpower and Bug Bite as suggested by Harsha, and I'm quite fond of how it's been performing so far.
I have chosen to use Superpower instead of Brick Break to hit the inevitable Magnezone/Heatran on the switch as I bring in Scizor. She's a little tricky to handle as her bulk only goes so far, but once I get even as little as a single SD up, things are going down very quickly.
I might not have mentioned this earlier, but she is also my secondary switch into Latios/Dragon-types in general. I can fake a Choice Band set from there by hitting with Bullet Punch, but I must really tread lightly to utilize her well. However, once she gets going (no lewd pls), she can tear through the enemy team very easily.
Well, that's my team. I hope you had the patience to read the entire thing, and I'd appreciate your help with it!
No nonsense here, I'm just going to go straight to the history of this team and the members themselves.
Mid 2010 when I enlisted into the army, Gen 5 started and things kicked off with DW being the normal ladder witheveryone hyping about shadow tag Chandelure, Excadrill's potential ubers status and Whimsicott being the 'best pokemon ever'. Fresh into Gen5, I tried many things, but I couldn't figure out what to use for a proper, competitive team. I knew it wouldn't work as well, but I ported over my successful Gen4 Bulky Offense team into Gen5, which was as follows;
The most glaring problems were, well, lack of power and balance to do much to the new threats like Conk, Thundurus, etc. and friends. I tried changing their sets and modified my team slightly around. I enjoyed a bit of success with defensive Rest talk Gyara for a good amount of time, but the inconsistency was very clear after a few bouts of laddering with decent people with proper teams. I wanted to preserve my defensive core, however, so I said sorry to Gyara, Rotom-H and Pert, bringing in Landorus, Ferrothorn and Rotom-W in their stead.
While I enjoyed more success with this team, there were huge gaping flaws that, once exploited, could beat me very easily; Volcarona and the omnipresent Terrakion could muscle through me relatively easily with little setup. I needed Ferrothorn to deal with rain, however, but I eventually settled down with changing Landorus for the more defensive Gliscor and Ferrothorn for Celebi, who still resists Water and Electric.
After posting this RMT, I finally decided to use Heatran over Celebi;
~NOT A DREAM~
TEAM AS IT STANDS NOW:
Cannon (Rotom-W) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Trick
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
ROLE: Revenge Killer, Scout
The member that I lead with most of the time, with amazing effect. Rotom-W fails to disappoint except when Hydro Pump misses, but even then the ability to scout, revenge kill and later on cripple on a defensive Pokemon by tricking the Scarf onto it brings everythign that my team needs to the table. 'Cannon' here might seem pretty standard, but he gets the job done very well.
I must only be careful of not giving away the Scarf too early into the match lest I lose my revenge killing ability. Hidden Power Ice is for the dragons that roam the tier; he is the only way I can reliably deal with them after they have a DD up.
Rotom-W takes the water attacks from the omnipresent rain teams, but he can only take so many repeated hits before I have to play more conservatively with him. This is what Celebi and Latias are for, but more on them later.
Veckorial (Tyranitar) (F) @ Leftovers
Veckorial (Tyranitar) (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Stone Edge
ROLE: Special Tank, Trapper
Suggested by ThePillsburyDoughBoy. She cant' take special hits as well as she used to, but she definitely generates much more of an offensive presence with CB equipped. Takes more prediciton to use properly and makes me predict more, but I'm enjoying this set so far.
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Atk / 164 SDef / 68 Spd
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge[/B]
ROLE: Special Tank
The best I could ask for in the Special Defense department. She soaks up even SE Special Attacks with relative ease, only getting 2HKOed by the likes of Focus Blast coming off Hydreigon or LO Starmie's Hydro Pump... as long as sand is up. Regardless, Tyranitar is part of the integral core for my team, providing sand which wears down my opponents. You might think I am silly for not using any Pokemon that directly benefit from sand, but Tyranitar is much more than just for sand. Fire Blast roasts Steels like Skarm and Ferro who try to set up on me, Crunch is for a solid STAB option to use when the situation calls for it and Stone "WORST MOVE IN THE GAME" Edge is for the ubiquitous Ninetales, Volcarona and friends who love to switch in to take advantage of their sun.
I used to use Pursuit, and then Ice Beam, then Pursuit again over Stone Edge for coverage and to deal with varied threats, but that job is better left to my other team members, I felt. Like Rotom, I need to keep Tyranitar alive for as long as I can, as she lacks proper recovery and I find myself switching her in a lot, both to keep their weather out of play if there is one and to soak up special attacks aimed at my others, especially Gliscor. Last, but absolutely not the least, she provides Stealth Rock to the team.
I gave her that amount of speed to get the jump on Skarmory and Scizor, roasting them with Fire Blast before they can touch me. If Scizor somehow outspeeds her and KOs her with Superpower or something, well, at least that gives me lots of information on what kind of Scizor it is and I can play accordingly from there.
Mack (Gliscor) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Taunt
ROLE: Physical Tank, Stallbreaker
I don't think I can count the amount of times Gliscor has saved me from being swept. He takes almost all physical hits like they were nothing, especially fighting-type moves from the likes of Terrakion. He can't stand up to repeated assaults from them, but Latias and Celebi can enter the fray in stead of him if the situation calls for it.
Toxic is the main way of taking on Bulky Water switch-ins. Gliscor can handle a single SE attack from the likes of Jellicent before having to switch out, but getting the Toxic on one of those Pokemon is crucial. I opted to have Taunt instead of SD/Protect so I can beat stall in general other Gliscor who think they can set up SD... the multitude of things my Gliscor can take on simply with Taunt is too good to pass up for one of the other moves.
Obviously he can't take special hits coming from any special attacker worth their salt, but that's what Tyranitar, Celebi to a certain extent and Latias are around for.
Maglev (Heatran) (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
ROLE: Pivot
So I finally decided on using Heatran over Celebi. He fufills the same role as she used to, except with the extra duty of getting up the rocks that my team needs to score those crucial 2HKOs. He also helps me revenge kill dragons with HP Ice in case Rotom-W goes down one way or another. Air Balloon gives me free switch-ins and helps me deal with opposing Heatran who want to jump me with Earth Power; I just can't let Heatran die so easily.
Dicentra (Celebi) @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 176 HP / 160 SAtk / 172 Spe
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power
- Recover
ROLE: Pivot
Like Gliscor, I wouldn't be able to take on as many things as I would without her around. Celebi provides me the support I need in case my team falls behind in momentum. The coverage here is mainly for hitting rain teams hard, but HP Fire is for hitting Scizor and Ferrothorn immediately.
Earth Power deals a number to them too, 2HKOing Scizor after rocks, but I can't risk the opposing Steel-type doing something terrible and causing me to lose more momentum by taking that extra turn. Recover rounds off this set nicely and I am using it instead of U-turn because of the amount of damage she will take; 16% a turn with LO and Sandstorm will bring her down very quickly.
To be very honest, I am still finicky about using Celebi or Heatran; both of them performed as well as each other, but I am not sure which to use. The Heatran that used to occupy this slot, fufilling the same role, is as follows;
Nocosta (Latias) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Refresh
ROLE: Boosting Special Sweeper
The other Special Tank of my team, taking everything that Tyranitar can and threatening a sweep with Calm Minds. Alongside Scizor, Latias is one of the main Pokemon on my team that goes on to completely destroy the enemy team once they are weakened enough. Being naturally fast, she can outspeed all other dragons in the tier as long as they haven't got a DD boost yet and KO with a +1 Dragon Pulse most of the time. Dragonite is a little trickier to deal with, but that's why I try to keep rocks on the field when I see him in the Team Preview.
Hidden Power Fire, again, roasts the omnipresent Scizor. I'm not sure why, but most of them switch into Latias expecting to go first, only to get OHKOed promptly by HP Fire and earning me a free kill. Recover is self-explainatory. Refresh helps me deal with Stall and Toxictoed more, allowing me to CM up alongside it and hit it with Dragon Pulse. I lose the ability to get the jump on Scizor, Forry and Ferro, but that I can hit them hard enough with my other team members.
I went for 252HP to take as many hits as possible from both spectrums before going down. Keep in mind that she is my secondary switch into things like Terrakion and co. that can threaten to sweep as easily as Latias can. Definitely a keeper and one of the core members of my team.
Thannie (Scizor) (F) @ Iron Plate
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 100 Atk / 160 SpD
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-Turn
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Roost
ROLE: Boosting Physical Sweeper
Scizor. That name alone describes alot, but mine is a little different from the rest. After much playtesting, I have found that this set fits my team much better than the run-of-the-mill Choice Band set does. Iron Plate boosts the power of Bullet Punch to strangely high heights, even though the boost is meager; I can muscle my way through rain teams with even only 2 boosts as long as they are weakened enough.
I put Roost and U-Turn over Superpower and Bug Bite as suggested by Harsha, and I'm quite fond of how it's been performing so far.
I have chosen to use Superpower instead of Brick Break to hit the inevitable Magnezone/Heatran on the switch as I bring in Scizor. She's a little tricky to handle as her bulk only goes so far, but once I get even as little as a single SD up, things are going down very quickly.
I might not have mentioned this earlier, but she is also my secondary switch into Latios/Dragon-types in general. I can fake a Choice Band set from there by hitting with Bullet Punch, but I must really tread lightly to utilize her well. However, once she gets going (no lewd pls), she can tear through the enemy team very easily.
Well, that's my team. I hope you had the patience to read the entire thing, and I'd appreciate your help with it!
