Well, this will be my 2nd RMT, and I've been pretty happy with it's success so far (possibly moreso because of how fun volt turn is to play, rather than it's win/loss ratio). I have wanted to make a volt/turning team for a while now and honestly I don't know why it has taken me this long to do it. As much as I would like to claim this team to be something unique or new it is a relatively generic volt/turn team with standard pokemon using standard sets, however with that in mind I feel that it could have a lot of room to improve.
Without further ado:
Kill Switch (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers ----> Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 184 HP / 176 Spd / 148 SAtk --------> 252 hp /4 def / 252 SpD
Modest Nature ------------------------------> Calm
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split ----------------------------------> Rest
This guy is usually my lead. He threatens a large number of pokes simply because of his typing alone. Rotom-W is a standard in almost any volt-turn team so, along with Scizor, he was a natural place to start. Rotom is also a very strong check to rain teams which can otherwise be very painful for my team to fight. He brilliantly takes many hits for the team such as fire attacks for scizor, ice attacks for xatu, sally, and landorus, and many other common attacks such as Tornadus's hurricane, scizor's BP, and a multitude of water attacks that flood the metagame. Volt Switch allows him to keep momentum for the team. Hydro Pump being the only water type attack (and lacking any ice type moves) is very essential for checking pokemon such as landorus and gliscor as well as hitting many other threats hard, especially if boosted by an opposing politoed. Will-O-Wisp helps to cripple physical attackers when it manages to not miss and Pain Split gives Rotom-W much needed recovery to keep doing it's job as long as possible. Without Rotom-W, this team wouldn't function.
Volke (Scizor) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef ----> 248 hp, 252 atk, 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Another standard to this playstyle and forming the second half of the volt/turn core is scizor. Aside from the sheer power behind scizor's attacks and utility, scizor also brings much needed resistances to ghost, dark, grass, ice, bug, and dragon, all of which threaten the other members of the team. Everyone should know what Scizor does, but just to elaborate, Bullet Punch checks many threats being the only priority move on team picking off many weakened or frail pokemon. U-Turn is obviously necessary to provide scouting and momentum and knock off large chunks of hp from anything that doesn't resist it. Superpower can destroy common switch ins like Heatran when predicted properly and can deal huge damage to many other things that it hits neutrally or super effectively providing great coverage with bug/steel/dark moves. Pursuit can sometimes be more of a novelty than anything else as many common pursuit targets such as alakazam, espeon, gengar, and latios need to be scouted for hidden power fire and as such usually eat a bullet punch anyways. It is still useful if it is revealed that they do not have HP Fire.
Twinkies (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 200 HP / 244 Def / 64 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Landorus-T is the third member of the voltturn team. Aside from being an amazing check to nearly every physical attacker in the tier (even if it means just coming in to intimidate then switching to scizor or Rotom to eat the ice punch), he also provides Stealth Rock which helps wear down the opposing team much faster with the number of switches that voltturning causes. Even without heavy investment, Earthquake hits insanely hard with STAB coming off 145 base attack. Stone Edge hits everything that EQ cannot hit and helps it check Dragonite and other airborne threats. U-Turn is what differentiates him from other physical walls/SR layers in that it allows him to keep momentum for the team.
Prophet (Xatu) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Spd / 204 Def
Bold Nature
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave
- Roost
- Reflect
Xatu is my antihazard, antistatus, and in general antistall poke. While he cannot do much offensively (often not being able to do more damage than leftovers recovers), he makes for a great pivot, bouncing back hazards and status, and crippling switch ins with thunder wave or setting up reflect. Paralysis support is highly appreciated on this team as Scizor (as well as the rest of the team) likes to be able to move first so that they may voltturn out of impending doom instead of having to actually switch out. Xatu stops cold many defensive pokemon and can cripple or set up on them before sending in Gothitelle to trap and kill them (minimizing the risk to gothitelle so that she may trap multiple foes).
Only one SR weakness (salamence), only one Toxic Spikes weakness (gothitelle), and only 2 spikes weaknesses (gothitelle, scizor) means that the team is generally very safe from getting worn down by hazards if for some reason Xatu isn't able to block them. This is important because of how much switching occurs and relieves stress from Xatu.
Lady (Gothitelle) (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Trick
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Probably the biggest reason this team has been successful at all, Gothitelle is a great trapper that breaks down and removes the walls that would otherwise give this team headaches. Ferrothorn and Forretress get destroyed by HP-Fire. Skarmory, Jellicent, Vaporeon, Tentacruel, Slowbro, and non-choiced politoeds get destroyed by thunderbolt (choiced varients get severely crippled, but gothitelle loses to them). Psychic, while less used, provides a consistant stab option, although her main purpose usually involves removing threats that are weak to thunderbolt or HP-Fire. Trick completes the set crippling walls that otherwise don't care about her attacks such as blissey and chansey.
Steve (Salamence) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 4 SAtk / 252 Atk
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Blast
This spot originally belonged to a scald/rapid spin/hail/recover Starmie. And while being able to remove weather after their inducers were foddered off or gothitrapped as well as remove hazards that got by Xatu, it left me often feeling that the team was running on only 4 actual pokemon (rotom, scizor, lando, and goth) and if any of those were killed off I'd be in an even worse position as starmie couldn't make up for the lost offense. Starmie also compounded my weaknesses (3 psychics on the same team wasn't good), so I first looked to Jirachi as a scarfer, giving me another U-Turner and some better resists, but it didn't really hit hard enough to be a real threat on it's own. I thought about using Hydreigon, using voltturn to get him safely and then destroying whatever tried to switch into him, but the spot ended up going to Scarf Salamence.
After Gothitelle removes the steel types (bar a few, like jirachi), cripples any walls, and the rest of the team has worn down everything else, Salamence is usually set to sweep and he cleans up very nicely. Salamence is sort of like inssurance... guaranteeing that even if they wear me down just as fast or faster than I can to them, I can still come back. He is also a great check/revenge killer to +1 dragonite and other threats that may have nabbed a boost.
*****
Some replays of the team in action, most were from before I added Salamence, some after.
Looking forward to hearing comments/suggestions/criticism!
Without further ado:
Kill Switch (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers ----> Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 184 HP / 176 Spd / 148 SAtk --------> 252 hp /4 def / 252 SpD
Modest Nature ------------------------------> Calm
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split ----------------------------------> Rest
This guy is usually my lead. He threatens a large number of pokes simply because of his typing alone. Rotom-W is a standard in almost any volt-turn team so, along with Scizor, he was a natural place to start. Rotom is also a very strong check to rain teams which can otherwise be very painful for my team to fight. He brilliantly takes many hits for the team such as fire attacks for scizor, ice attacks for xatu, sally, and landorus, and many other common attacks such as Tornadus's hurricane, scizor's BP, and a multitude of water attacks that flood the metagame. Volt Switch allows him to keep momentum for the team. Hydro Pump being the only water type attack (and lacking any ice type moves) is very essential for checking pokemon such as landorus and gliscor as well as hitting many other threats hard, especially if boosted by an opposing politoed. Will-O-Wisp helps to cripple physical attackers when it manages to not miss and Pain Split gives Rotom-W much needed recovery to keep doing it's job as long as possible. Without Rotom-W, this team wouldn't function.
Volke (Scizor) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef ----> 248 hp, 252 atk, 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Another standard to this playstyle and forming the second half of the volt/turn core is scizor. Aside from the sheer power behind scizor's attacks and utility, scizor also brings much needed resistances to ghost, dark, grass, ice, bug, and dragon, all of which threaten the other members of the team. Everyone should know what Scizor does, but just to elaborate, Bullet Punch checks many threats being the only priority move on team picking off many weakened or frail pokemon. U-Turn is obviously necessary to provide scouting and momentum and knock off large chunks of hp from anything that doesn't resist it. Superpower can destroy common switch ins like Heatran when predicted properly and can deal huge damage to many other things that it hits neutrally or super effectively providing great coverage with bug/steel/dark moves. Pursuit can sometimes be more of a novelty than anything else as many common pursuit targets such as alakazam, espeon, gengar, and latios need to be scouted for hidden power fire and as such usually eat a bullet punch anyways. It is still useful if it is revealed that they do not have HP Fire.
Twinkies (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 200 HP / 244 Def / 64 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Landorus-T is the third member of the voltturn team. Aside from being an amazing check to nearly every physical attacker in the tier (even if it means just coming in to intimidate then switching to scizor or Rotom to eat the ice punch), he also provides Stealth Rock which helps wear down the opposing team much faster with the number of switches that voltturning causes. Even without heavy investment, Earthquake hits insanely hard with STAB coming off 145 base attack. Stone Edge hits everything that EQ cannot hit and helps it check Dragonite and other airborne threats. U-Turn is what differentiates him from other physical walls/SR layers in that it allows him to keep momentum for the team.
Prophet (Xatu) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Spd / 204 Def
Bold Nature
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave
- Roost
- Reflect
Xatu is my antihazard, antistatus, and in general antistall poke. While he cannot do much offensively (often not being able to do more damage than leftovers recovers), he makes for a great pivot, bouncing back hazards and status, and crippling switch ins with thunder wave or setting up reflect. Paralysis support is highly appreciated on this team as Scizor (as well as the rest of the team) likes to be able to move first so that they may voltturn out of impending doom instead of having to actually switch out. Xatu stops cold many defensive pokemon and can cripple or set up on them before sending in Gothitelle to trap and kill them (minimizing the risk to gothitelle so that she may trap multiple foes).
Only one SR weakness (salamence), only one Toxic Spikes weakness (gothitelle), and only 2 spikes weaknesses (gothitelle, scizor) means that the team is generally very safe from getting worn down by hazards if for some reason Xatu isn't able to block them. This is important because of how much switching occurs and relieves stress from Xatu.
Lady (Gothitelle) (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Trick
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Probably the biggest reason this team has been successful at all, Gothitelle is a great trapper that breaks down and removes the walls that would otherwise give this team headaches. Ferrothorn and Forretress get destroyed by HP-Fire. Skarmory, Jellicent, Vaporeon, Tentacruel, Slowbro, and non-choiced politoeds get destroyed by thunderbolt (choiced varients get severely crippled, but gothitelle loses to them). Psychic, while less used, provides a consistant stab option, although her main purpose usually involves removing threats that are weak to thunderbolt or HP-Fire. Trick completes the set crippling walls that otherwise don't care about her attacks such as blissey and chansey.
Steve (Salamence) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 4 SAtk / 252 Atk
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Blast
This spot originally belonged to a scald/rapid spin/hail/recover Starmie. And while being able to remove weather after their inducers were foddered off or gothitrapped as well as remove hazards that got by Xatu, it left me often feeling that the team was running on only 4 actual pokemon (rotom, scizor, lando, and goth) and if any of those were killed off I'd be in an even worse position as starmie couldn't make up for the lost offense. Starmie also compounded my weaknesses (3 psychics on the same team wasn't good), so I first looked to Jirachi as a scarfer, giving me another U-Turner and some better resists, but it didn't really hit hard enough to be a real threat on it's own. I thought about using Hydreigon, using voltturn to get him safely and then destroying whatever tried to switch into him, but the spot ended up going to Scarf Salamence.
After Gothitelle removes the steel types (bar a few, like jirachi), cripples any walls, and the rest of the team has worn down everything else, Salamence is usually set to sweep and he cleans up very nicely. Salamence is sort of like inssurance... guaranteeing that even if they wear me down just as fast or faster than I can to them, I can still come back. He is also a great check/revenge killer to +1 dragonite and other threats that may have nabbed a boost.
*****
Some replays of the team in action, most were from before I added Salamence, some after.
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7156189 voltturn VS trick room
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7199877 voltturn vs Hippo Sand
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7278034 voltturn vs rain offense
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7337126 voltturn vs random / trapping
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7594308 voltturn vs rain dance (postsally)
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7598493 voltturn vs rain offense (postsally)
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7199877 voltturn vs Hippo Sand
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7278034 voltturn vs rain offense
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7337126 voltturn vs random / trapping
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7594308 voltturn vs rain dance (postsally)
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent7598493 voltturn vs rain offense (postsally)
Looking forward to hearing comments/suggestions/criticism!
