ORAS Battle Spot RMT

[SeawolfPride'17]

ORAS is the first pokemon game where I'm interested in battling somewhat competitively, and I'm thinking about starting in Battle Spot Singles. I'm going to start trying this team out on showdown soon, but I was hoping to get some feedback before I took it into the game.

Greninja
Ability: Protean
Item: Life orb
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Modest
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Extrasensory
- Ice Beam

I really wanted to use Greninja and he was the first one I added. I was originally going to use Grass Knot but decided Dark Pulse would be better against the current common pokemon (see: Aegislash). I'm not sure if I want to use Extrasensory, but I'm not sure what to potentially replace it with.

Kangaskhan
Ability: Scrappy
Item: Kangaskhanite
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Jolly
-Fake-Out
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Power-Up Punch

I don't think this requires too much explanation, this seems to be a standard set. My only question is whether an Adamant nature might be better than Jolly.

Blaziken
Ability: Speed Boost
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Jolly
- Flare Blitz
- High Jump Kick
- Protect
- Swords Dance

When I saw Blaziken's Speed Boost ability, I knew I had to have it. With Kangaskhan already taking up a Mega, i didn't want to use a second one here, but I think this is formidable enough without it. I decided to use Leftovers to help recover HP from Flare Blitz since Blaziken can't afford to lose too much HP with its weaker defenses. Again, I'm having a Jolly vs. Adamant debate, as I'm not sure if Jolly is needed thanks to the Speed Boost, and it would therefore be better to have Adamant in case I can't get off a Swords Dance.

Gardevoir
Ability: Synchronize
Item: Gardevoirite
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Modest
- Hyper Voice
- Psychic
- Focus Blast

I definitely wanted a Fairy type to help with dragons such as Garchomp and Mega Salamence, and decided on Gardevoir because of the high SpA. I haven't decided on a fourth move yet, but I'm thinking Moonblast so that it can still use a Fairy-Type move if I decide to take Mega Kangaskhan as well. Other options could be Calm Mind or Will-O-Wisp. I decided on synchronize over trace because I decided it would be better to get a status on an opponent rather than roll the dice with copying an ability.

Garchomp
Ability: Rough Skin
Item: Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 252 HP
Nature: Adamant
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Claw
- Swords Dance

An alternative to Dragon Claw could be Outrage for the added base power, but I don't feel comfortable locking into a 2-3 turn move. With Greninja using the Life Orb, I decided to give Garchomp the Choice Scarf for the boosted speed and subsequently and Adamant nature over Jolly.

Aegislash
Ability: Stance Change
Item: Weakness Policy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def
Nature: Modest / Quiet
- King's Shield
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Ball
- Sword's Dance

I decided to take Aegislash for its defense and ability to counter Fairy with Steel. I like this move set, and my main question is about the nature. I've seen that Aegislash likes to guarantee going second so that it doesn't get hit while in blade form, which is why I'm looking at quiet, but modest works if I don't want to take the hit to speed.

So, that's my team! Any feedback is greatly appreciated and I can't wait to get battling!

 

[BWong]

Sorry on my phone but the two things that stuck out to me were psyshock over psychic on Gardevior and rock tomb over rock slide on Garchomp.

 

[ethan06]

Hi SeawolfPride'17, it's always good to have new people joining Battle Spot and I hope you stick around. n_n While you're on the right track, I do see a few issues with what you have so far. As an overview, I can see that you have a significant weakness to a number of common users of priority moves, inparticular Talonflame and Azumarill. I'll address these as I go, but for now I'll appraise your team one by one.

Greninja is a solid offensive Pokémon to use. There isn't anything strictly wrong with your moveset as it is, but it can be improved: Try replacing Extrasensory with Gunk Shot, which is an OR/AS tutor move. Even though it's a physical Poison-type move, which would theoretically make it somewhat lackluster on Greninja, it's surprisingly almost a perfect fit for it; it allows Greninja to blow through the specially defensive Fairy-types that would otherwise wall Greninja and beat it soundly with their STAB Fairy-type attacks. It also allows Greninja to 2HKO Blissey and weakened Chansey, two Pokémon with a reputation for special near-invulnerability. To accommodate this change, I suggest changing Greninja's Modest nature with a Naïve one. The nature you had was slightly subpar for a couple of reasons: Modest may make sense as a boost to power, but Greninja's frailty means that it cannot afford to lose any potential stats in Speed. It's 122 base Speed puts it ahead of threats like Mega Salamence, Raikou, Thundurus, Gengar, Mega Metagross and Terrakion when run with fully invested Speed and a Naive nature; using a neutral Speed nature leaves it outspeed (and probably OHKOed) by anything that's faster than Pyroar and Liepard (which sit at 106 base Speed - a big sacrifice to make). Naïve nature also drops Greninja's Special Defense instead of it's Attack: the majority of priority moves are physical, so dropping Greninja's physical defense with a Hasty nature is inadvisable. Obviously, nerfing either of Greninja's attacking stats is a bad idea if you're hitting both physically and specially. Here are the changes:

Greninja
Ability: Protean
Item: Life orb
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
Nature: Naive
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Gunk Shot
- Ice Beam

The next Pokémon on the list is Kangaskhan; I'm only going to touch on this one because the build you're using is, as you mentioned, a tried and true standard in the Battle Spot format.

Kangaskhan
Ability: Scrappy
Item: Kangaskhanite
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Jolly
-Fake-Out
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Power-Up Punch

Only one thing I really need to say about Blaziken, which is another common offensive Pokémon in the Battle Spot: Don't use Leftovers on this Pokémon. While I can see the logic that led you to choose it, I think that it is far too frail to effectively take advantage of Leftovers. The best way to get around this is to remove Flare Blitz and replace it with a move that doesn't inflict recoil damage, and then give Blaziken a Focus Sash. This gives Blaze a guaranteed survival against any one attack (except for multi-hit attacks), making it far easier to set up and sweep. This Pokémon is very weak to both Azumarill and Talonflame, so keep it away from these two if you see them.

Blaziken
Ability: Speed Boost
Item: Focus Sash
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Jolly
- Blaze Kick
- High Jump Kick
- Protect
- Swords Dance

Gardevoir is a Pokémon that I feel may be a little redundant with your current lineup. There will be very few matches where you would expect Mega Gardevoir to outshine Mega Kangaskhan, and Garde's middling Speed stat and extreme physical frailty make it difficult to play effectively in this format. For this reason, I would suggest replacing Gardevoir with an Electric type. The reason I suggest this is because Electric types have an innate advantage over both Talonflame and Azumarill due to their superior speed and super-effective attacks. There are a number of Electric types that perform well in the Battle Spot; unfortunately, many of them are legendaries and therefore somewhat difficult to get a hold of - if the thought of soft-resetting doesn't put you off too much, Zapdos, Thundurus and Raikou are all very viable in the format. However, I'm going to suggest Rotom-Wash to begin with:

Rotom-Wash
Ability: Levitate
Item:Sitrus Berry
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spd
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-o-Wisp
- Thunderbolt/Pain Split

Rotom-W is a surprisingly bulky burn spreader that is more than capable of tanking a bunch of common hits. It's very difficult to take down in one hit and can be relied upon to shut down any physical attacker besides Guts abusers. Lastly, it solves a lot of problems with your team: your weakness to Azumarill, Talonflame and to a lesser extent Mamoswine has been solved. The EV spread is physically defensive with enough speed to outpace 0 Speed Landorus-T - it's the standard OU spread and it applies just as well here. This replacement does lose you your Fairy type, but Gardevoir seemed like the weakest link in your team so I feel that the benefits outweigh the negatives in this situation c:

Now for your fifth team member, Garchomp - Choice Scarf Garchomp is very strong and it's use here is definitely justified. A few things that you may have overlooked here, however - firstly, Garchomp always needs a +Speed nature, much like Greninja - otherwise, it forfeits all of it's ability to outspeed and revenge kill 100 base Speed attackers like Volcarona, Charizard (both megas), Staraptor, Mega Blaziken and Entei that otherwise threaten to but big holes in your team when boosted with Quiver Dance, Dragon Dance, Speed Boost or a Scarf of their own. For this reason, I suggest you replace Garchomp's Adamant nature with a Jolly nature. Secondly, a couple of things that you probably put in by mistake: Swords Dance on a Choice Scarf user isn't a great idea as you just get locked into Swords Dance and can't make use of the boosts. I'd suggest replacing this with either Outrage, which is more powerful than Dragon Claw should you need it but is more difficult to control, or Iron Head for Fairy-types, specifically Togekiss which is immune to both of your STABs. Lastly, you have far more EVs than you can legally give any Pokémon so bring the HP down to 4.

Garchomp
Ability: Rough Skin
Item: Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Adamant
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Claw
- Outrage/Iron Head

Lastly, Aegislash. This is a good and standard Pokémon that I personally enjoy using. To answer your question regarding the nature, go with Quiet as that allows you to go mixed and take full advantage of the Weakness Policy. It also makes you as slow as possible, ensuring that more things make their move before you switch out of Blade Forme and lose your defenses. Drop Swords Dance; outside of the fact that you have it with two special attacks, "Stance Dance" Aegislash (Swords Dance+King's Shield+two attacks) is a fairly ineffective set as it makes your King's Shielding very predictable. Instead, try using 3 attacks+King's Shield (CRUMBLER Aegislash): This set gives you priority, a number of strong attacks and allows you more freedom in when and how you choose to use King's Shield. It's more prediction-heavy than Stance Dance but that prediction goes both ways, and that's what makes it so good.

Aegislash
Ability: Stance Change
Item: Weakness Policy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def
Nature: Quiet
- King's Shield
- Flash Cannon/Sacred Sword/Iron Head
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Sneak

So, that's my team! Any feedback is greatly appreciated and I can't wait to get battling!

There are probably further improvements that could be made to this team so if you find yourself not doing so well let us know and we'll have another look at it. Good luck! n.n

 

[SeawolfPride'17]

Thanks ethan06 for all the feedback! I can definitely see where you're coming from with all of these and I'll definitely give them a shot. The best part is that I had already bred most of these pokemon for IVs so I'll only had to do some minor re-breeding for natures :). I'll have to go back into Y to get my hands on a rotom but that shouldn't be too bad either. Thanks again!

 

[SeawolfPride'17]

Hey ethan06 I just have two quick questions for you. The first is about Greninja. The one I have has 5 max IVs in everything but Atk, but by adding the physical Gunk Shot it would definitely help to have that IV. Breeding a 6 IV one would be rather difficult, so would you recommend trading the SpD IV for the Atk, considering most common pokemon are physical attackers? The second question is what nature would you recommend on Rotom-W, a + Spe, a + SpA, or a +Def?

 

[ethan06]

Hey ethan06 I just have two quick questions for you. The first is about Greninja. The one I have has 5 max IVs in everything but Atk, but by adding the physical Gunk Shot it would definitely help to have that IV. Breeding a 6 IV one would be rather difficult, so would you recommend trading the SpD IV for the Atk, considering most common pokemon are physical attackers? The second question is what nature would you recommend on Rotom-W, a + Spe, a + SpA, or a +Def?

Oops, I completely forgot to give you Rotom's nature :[ Definitely give it a Bold nature (+Def, -Atk). As for Greninja, a 6IV would be the most ideal if you can manage it but if that isn't an option then I'd agree with you that Sp. Def is probably the most dispensable. Look out for Vacuum Wave users though (mainly Nasty Plot Mega Lucario but sometimes Toxicroak carries it too...)