Paralysis Team

[Daphoa]

So back when Ditto's new ability was found and everyone was imagining it with a choice scarf, I was trying to think of alternatives to allow Ditto to go first. The main idea I had was paralysis (the other being Tailwind... might try it if I feel ambitious later). So I built a team around paralysis.

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Volt Switch
- Taunt
- HP [Ice]

I really like Thundurus. Electric/Flying give it very few weaknesses and Prankster allows it to sneak in and Paralyze/ Taunt anyone not using their own priority moves. Thundurus' base stats are oriented towards offense, but along with Prankster, he can manage defensively. Volt Switch is great to get out once the opponent has been taunted / paralyzed. HP [Ice] is for coverage.

At the moment I'm considering a bulky replacement for Thundurus that can paralyze and phase (Rational down a few posts). I think I'll use Dragonite on a trial run, but his double Ice weakness makes me kind of nervious. If anyone knows a good alternative, I'd really like the suggestions.

Togekiss (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 136 HP / 120 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Aura Sphere

Togekiss was one of the first Pokemon I thought of that enjoy having their opponents paralyzed. Of course, Togekiss can do the paralyzing on his own too. This set focuses on flinch-hax with Aura Sphere for coverage and Roost for recovery.

Jirachi @ Air Balloon
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Atk / 116 Def / 116 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Body Slam
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Healing Wish

Ya, another flinch-hax user. The main reason I went for Jirachi was a 60% paralysis Body Slam. Very useful for Electric-Immune Abilities, Espeon and Ground type (I know it shouldn't be, but I don't think Pokemon Online has Thunder Wave's type immunity thing properly working). Then we've got Iron Head for flinching and U-turn to get out of play. Healing Wish is partially filler, but it really comes in handy for restoring one of my Poke who may have been burned or paralyzed themselves. I'm considering Wish as a replacement for Healing Wish.
Balloon is because of Earthquake. I'm using it over Leftovers because I find that when facing ground types, since Thunder Wave isn't working through type-immunities, Jirachi is usually on of the best bets.

Machamp @ Lum Berry / Leftovers
Nature: Adamant
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 248 Atk / 16 SpD / 4 Spe

- DynamicPunch
- Payback
- Bullet Punch
- Ice Punch / Stone Edge

Standard Machamp - Replaced Gallade at the advice of Mooo. Takes advantage of the slow speed of the enemy to allow it to hit first hard. It also has natural bulk, allowing it to take some hits and Dynamic Punch's confusion makes the opponents have an even harder time attacking it.

Espeon (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Psychic
- Morning Sun
- Calm Mind

One of the best things about Espeon is obviously Magic Bounce. The ability to
switch in and not just nullify, but reflect Spikes, Stealth Rock, Toxic Spikes, Taunt, status (especially sleep), etc is incredibly useful. Ignoring it's switch-in usefulness, Espeon is running a Calm Mind set, letting it hit enemies on the special side instead.

Ditto @ Leftovers
Trait: Imposter
EVs: 255 HP / 255 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Transform

Ah Ditto. It's new ability removes the risky one turn wait period for transformation and allows to transform right away (assuming no sub is up). Ditto is a very situational pokemon, but the general strategy is simply to switch in on a paralyzed opponent and adapt to the situation. There are a few tricks that have come up with Ditto - a common one is to allow opponents to stat up massively, so long as they are paralyzed, then come in with Ditto and steal their sweep (it's great being able to sweep the enemy with their own Pokemon). For some more examples, switching into a Rapid Spinner lets me get rid of anything I might have accidentally let slip through, switching into a Baton Passer lets me Baton Pass to either Machamp or Espeon depending on whether it's special or physical and finally switching into any Pokemon lets me know what set they're running - which can be rather useful if it comes up.

The basic strategy of my team is to paralyze the enemy and attack. It's a very vague strategy, but Ditto requires that you be incredibly adaptable, so I built my team with that in mind.

Any suggestions would be great. Note that I've considered replacing Thundurus with Zapdos (with Roar and Thunder Wave) but rejected it for Prankster. I've also previously used Ramparados with Sheer Power and Life Orb instead of Gallade (which has been replaced by Machamp), but rejected it because it's slow speed requires the enemy to be paralyzed before being able to do anything - while that is the point of my team, getting the entire enemy team paralyzed is very difficult.

 

[Moo]

Hmm, building a team around parahax is pretty lame, but alright. I have a few suggestions.

Keep Thundurus. It gets priority on Thunder Wave, meaning it can paralyze anything without being KO'd first (and you have a 25% chance to get the hax on that turn too.) It also gets Rain Dance up with priority, which is useful. Although, consider using Damp Rock over leftovers to increase the amount of turns for rain.

Don't use Air Balloon on Jirachi. Use Leftovers for recovery, which really adds up while employing the paraflinch strategy. Togekiss is immune to Ground-type attacks anyway, so you can just switch to that.

Use Machamp over Gallade:

Machamp @ Lum Berry / Leftovers
Nature: Adamant
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 248 Atk / 16 SpD / 4 Spe

- DynamicPunch
- Payback
- Bullet Punch
- Ice Punch / Stone Edge

Ok, standard Machamp. Here's why you should use it over Gallade:

It's going with the haxy nature of the team. DynamicPunch guarantees confusion, and when combined with Paralysis, it will be very difficult for the opponent to attack, and allows you to get more free damage.

Machamp takes advantage of parilysed opponents, because it can outspeed and attack them. Machamp's low Speed stat, which was a disadvantage when compared to Gallade, is now remedied. You also have it's extra bulk which Gallade does not.

Machamp does not need to set up to be immediately threatening. It can therefore use more spaces, for more coverage and chances for super effective damage.

Use Wish instead of Morning Sun on Espeon. Morning Sun's recovery is 1/4 instead of 1/2 in the rain, which isn't that great. With Wish, you can also heal other team members, notably Machamp (providing you make the change.)

Seeing as you are using Rain Dance, and paralysis, I suggest using a Rain Sweeper instead of Ditto. Ditto is unecessary on the team in my opinion, as it isnt actually all that good, barring a few situations. Rain Sweepers are very threatening, and thanks to the paralysis that your team makes use of, the may have an easy opportunity to set up. Here are some examples:

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Nature: Rash / Mild
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 208 Atk / 136 SpA / 164 Spe

- Rain Dance
- Waterfall
- Hydro Pump
- Draco Meteor

Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Nature: Modest
Ability: Swift Dwim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

- Hydro Pump / Surf
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance

Kabutops @ Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Swift Dwim
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe

- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Low Kick / Aqua Jet

Good Luck with the team. Hope I helped!
(And hopefully people wont curse you for haxing them.)

 

[Battler3797]

first off how is parahax lame. it not only isnt a clause that people use but it also lowers their speed immensely and has a chance of your oppnent not being able to move.

As for the other stuff i agree with everything except your ditto one. Why should he take out ditto it is useful in breaking opponents strategies and as a scout because you get your opponents moveset. Second off if he is going to switch ditto to a raindance user why on earth would he use swift swim. he does not need a speed boost if the opponents team is all paralyzed.



So i do reccommend machamp over gallade. same set as the guy said but i do not think you should change ditto. in generation v ditto is now a much stronger pokemon.

 

[Daphoa]

Alright, I'll try Machamp. The arguments seem good, and I've used Dynamic Punch effectively before. Leftovers on Jirachi is also a good point. However, I find that when facing ground types since Thunder Wave isn't working through type-immunities, Jirachi is usually on of the best bets.

The other thing is that I probably wasn't clear about my intentions for Rain Dance. It's mostly there as filler, with the intention to use it occasionally to get rid of another weather effect. Therefore I want it to stop after 5 turns. I realize that it's not a great move with this intention, but as of now it's the best I could find.

If I wanted to use rain, I'd probably put Politoed in my team, perma-rain is definitely worth the team slot if I was going to take advantage of rain.

I'll add some of these explanations to the main post.

 

[Moo]

first off how is parahax lame. it not only isnt a clause that people use but it also lowers their speed immensely and has a chance of your oppnent not being able to move.

As for the other stuff i agree with everything except your ditto one. Why should he take out ditto it is useful in breaking opponents strategies and as a scout because you get your opponents moveset. Second off if he is going to switch ditto to a raindance user why on earth would he use swift swim. he does not need a speed boost if the opponents team is all paralyzed.



So i do reccommend machamp over gallade. same set as the guy said but i do not think you should change ditto. in generation v ditto is now a much stronger pokemon.

Trying to win with luck rather than trying to win with skill makes it lame, in my opinion. And why does the team need such a dedicated revenge killer if it's full of Pokemon hell-bent on paralysing everything?

 

[Eos]

Hi there
HP Ice should be put over Rain Dance on Thundurus because Electric/Ice-types make a very nice coverage. Another reason you should get rid of RD is because nobody on your team really gains anything from it besides just for the sake of weather (which can easily be beaten by a switch-in from an auto-weather-maker (e.g. Ttar). Also, put up some damage calcs to prove that Thundurus can take some significant attacks with these EVs, because otherwise I see no point in the effort to be defensive. Thanks.
You may want to change Gallade for Scrafty or Conkeldurr. Scrafty to cover up the Gallade-Espeon dark/ghost weakness and then Conkeldurr for the Excadrill extreme weakness.
Of coures on Rachi, you always should run Wish if you want a recovery move.
On Espeon, run Hidden Power Fighting over Morning Sun or Shadow Ball. Whichever one you find you are having less success with, as to hit Ferrothorn and other pokes that wall you otherwise.
Ditto is always better to run a mix attacking nature (in case of a physical wall you'll be able to hit it with a special attack, while on the opposite spectrum you'll be able to hit physically if need be). Either Hasty or Naive will work fine. Scarf is also great; so as to switch in after a KO and then revenge that poke.
Good Luck, hope this helped!~

 

[(makeup)]

@Moo Wish is illegal with Magic Bounce.

 

[Daphoa]

Trying to win with luck rather than trying to win with skill makes it lame, in my opinion. And why does the team need such a dedicated revenge killer if it's full of Pokemon hell-bent on paralysing everything?

First of all, my original intentions were to take advantage of the speed reduction of paralysis way more than the 30% chance of being fully paralyzed. That being said, luck is inevitably part of Pokemon. Taking advantage of this and working probability in my favor isn't lame. For example, Focus Blast is a common attack. Given Flinch-Hax set-up, the probability of them not being able to attack is the same as the probability of Focus Blast hitting. People rely (not so heavily though) on Focus Blast. Besides, except with Togakiss and Jirachi, I'm really not relying on their ability to not move, just the slower state. Any time that happens is just fortunate.

Addressing Ditto: Ditto is only a revenge killer with a choice scarf. Without one he can adapt whatever purpose the opponent had or just be a flat out scout, letting you know the moveset of the opponent. The main point of the team was to allow Ditto to out speed the opponent without using a choice scarf so it could preform other functions. If you can see a way other than paralysis, let me know, but the only one I can think of is Tailwind, which, well... meh. I might try my luck with it later, but I'm not too hopeful.

@Eos:
I might try Wish on Jirachi
Gallade doesn't have a Dark weakness (due to it's fighting type), but it does have a Ghost weakness. I've already replaced it with Machamp for now anyway, but I'll look at Scrafty or Conkeldurr if Machamp doesn't work too well.
I'll look at HP Fighting for Espeon. Morning Sun is always nice as a, albeit a bit unreliable, recovery move and Shadow Ball is nice for coverage, but HP Fighting might be better.
When Ditto transforms, it copies the opponent's stats exactly except for HP. The only thing that really matters is the IVs for Hidden Power and obviously HP. Speed may or may not matter, but mostly when up against an enemy Ditto.

 

[aussieman000]

I like this Ditto idea. Might I suggest Leppa Berry as the item? Could help complete a sweep, especially if you have to use him to take out a wall.

Also, the typing of Thundurus/Togekiss seems rather redundant, how does that work? Seems like the ideal paralysis spreading partner for Jirachi would be a Dragonite.

 

[Daphoa]

@aussieman000: I find it slightly ironic that as a remedy to redundant typing between Togikiss and Thudurus (which share Rock and Ice weaknesses), you suggest Dragonite which has Rock and double Ice weaknesses (and Dragon). :D

That being said, I like Dragonite for his general bulk (compared to Togakiss - slightly less on the special side and slightly more on the physical; compared to Thudurus, noticeably more on both sides) and more importantly his ability to learn both Thunder Wave and Dragon Tail. This combination was what I liked about Zapdos (though it was Roar instead of Dragon Tail) because it could force switches and just paralyze everything more deliberately than any of the others, because they had to wait for the enemy to switch. Also, having a phaser on the team is never bad.

While I like Thundurus' Prankster, I could do without it. It really doesn't have much bulk - the EV spread mostly turns OHKOs into 2HKOs - though that's great, I'd rather a bulky Pokemon who could take a bunch of hits. Also, in theory, careful playing of Espeon works instead of Taunt - though that is difficult.

Therefore at the moment I'm considering a bulky replacement for Thundurus that can phase and paralyze. I think I'll try out Dragonite for now, but his double Ice weakness makes me kind of nervious. If anyone knows a good candidates, I'd really like the suggestions. Don't worry - I'm looking for myself too.

 

[Battler3797]

i do not suggest replacing thunderous because most leads are not meant to be bulky. they are just ment to achieve a purpose. take aoerodatyl. it is not bulky at all. however with focus sash aerodactyl can successfully get ff stealth rocks and most of the time get off another attack. that is why most people run speed over bulk.

As for espeon i do reccomend taking out morning sun because unless it has used calm mind or somethin to raise its defence it will usually be able to get 2hkod.


As for saying that its lame based on luck you are forgetting that paralysis doesnt just have a chance at preventing them from moving it also cuts their speed down (i think but am not sure) 75%. That is why it is so good. it also can occasionally make your opponent so annoyed they forfeit

 

[aussieman000]

Ah, I see how my suggestion could have come across that way. I meant that Dragonite should replace either Thundurus/Togekiss, and the other should be replaced by a poke with better defensive synergy and maybe the ability to phaze/setup hazards etc.

When playing a team like this I found it a tad bit vulnerable to 2 things:

- Trick Users: Only Ditto can take advantage of all 3 Choice items, and you really don't want to switch him in... Machamp can use a Band, but without maxed speed or SpA nothing can really use the more common tricked Specs/Scarf. I suggest a Choiced Trick user of your own, or at least a mixed wallbreaker with decent speed who can take advantage of any choice item.

- Toxic Spikes: Espeon isn't going to last the whole game even with Morning Sun, and there are some Toxic Spikers that you just can't switch Espeon into. Rather than waste a slot on a Rapid Spinner or Poison type, you could give a Lum Berry to Ditto. This also makes him immune to the inevitable Trickster poke trying to inflict status on him.

As for bulky parashufflers? Well there's quite a few pokemon who have Thunder Wave/Stun Spore and can phaze using Leech Seed/Yawn etc. Assuming you want to phaze through substitutes though, here's a few of your options:

- Mew
- Tyranitar
- Aggron
- Latias
- Eelektross

Didn't really have a look at Whirlwind users though, you might find something better there. The first 4 may share weaknesses with the rest of your team, but Mew and Latias make up for it with their natural speed and Roost/Recover respectively. Elektross doesn't have any shared weaknesses, but has to rely on Leftovers/Rest/Wish support for healing.

 

[Daphoa]

Thanks

@aussieman Thanks for all your suggestions. For a trial team, I'm going to run Eelektross and Dragonite instead of Thundurus and Togakiss. I'm switching to a choice specs Espeon (max Sp Atk & high Spd) to accept a trick. It just means I'll have to be that much more careful with predictions.