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So I decided to restart my whole team because without more mega evos for fifth gen I can't really make a good fifth gen team. Ideally I'd like a whole team just with all of one gen Pokemon, but I don't think I could make it work. I was hoping to go Starmie, Gengar, and Zapdos/Dragonite, but I think going that route would have left my team too weak.
Zard Y (special sweeper)
Ability: Drought
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA/252 Speed/4 Hp
IVs: 6 Max
-Solar Beam
-Heat Wave
-Over Heat
-Fire Pledge
Hi kantotrainer! I don't have a ton of time to make a detailed rate right now but I can help you with a couple of things:
Heatran wrecks this team. I know that Wide Guard can stave it off for a couple of turns and you have Rotom-W, but it walls Charizard, Clefable, Aegislash and Serperior perfectly while dealing heavy damage to Zoroark, which has to rely on Focus Blast to hit it hard enough to threaten. I feel like Zoroark really is the most dispensable on this team; it does have a niche in mind-gaming around lower tier players but as you mentioned, more observant opponents will recognise it right away. So, I think you should replace Zoroark with something that convincingly beats Heatran 1-on-1: a replacement that you could consider that's reasonably similar to Zoroark is Choice Scarfed Hydreigon with Earth Power. Hydreigon was the poster boy for special offense in VGC14, and it can lure and KO Heatran with Earth Power, threaten Pokémon that are scary for your team like Aegislash and Gengar and basically just fire off massively powerful Draco Meteors on everything else. The rest of the stuff I see with this team is small stuff:
If you want Clefable to have recovery support, use Heal Pulse > Wish. In order to pass a Wish to another team member you need to switch to it directly, and that's not only dangerous for the receiver but a massive waste of a turn in Doubles and Triples.
I reckon you should have Will-o-Wisp > Thunder Wave on Rotom-W. I get that the theme of the team is paralysis spam but you already have two instances of paralysis on Serperior and Clefable which is feel is more than enough. Will-o-Wisp allows Rotom-W to put a stop to a lot of scary physical attackers that may or may not care about paralysis; I'd definitely take half damage over a high chance to take full damage.
Try to get more perfect IVs on Serperior if you can. Losing out on Defense and HP forces it to forfeit a lot of it's bulk and Serperior needs every point it can get in a meta that isn't that friendly to it. Also, Serperior's speed tier is too good not to run 252 Spe Timid. Run 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def-SpD-HP. If you add Hydreigon to your team you might not be as worried about Dragons so feel free to run Protect as well.
That's all I got right now, I'll take a closer look at it probably when I get home~
@ Ethan, I like your avatar. Alright I will go with Hydreigon then over Zoroark, at least it's from gen 5 and I want 2 Pokemon from Gen 5 on this team. Doesn't Latios w/ choice scarf or choice specs counter Heatran too or are you saying go with Hydreigon because it's better?
Problem with Serperior is to get HP fire you can't have perfect IVs. i'm not sure wat the other iv stats are, but the iv guy just said those 2 were max. I thought I had one with 3 max ivs, but i guess i traded it or mis-saw. I'm sure the others can't be too low. I should note that it took me like 5 hrs staying up into the night to get hp fire.
@ Pyr, can't you have a team that is viable in both? I guess I'd want this team to be more geared towards doubles then. However I'd hope some of these Pokemon could transfer over to a triples team.
@ Pyr, can't you have a team that is viable in both? I guess I'd want this team to be more geared towards doubles then. However I'd hope some of these Pokemon could transfer over to a triples team.
Hello again kantotrainer90, glad you finally took my advice and came here instead of Wi-Fi, it would have been better to post in the RMT thread that Pyritie linked you to, at least you'll know for next time
Looking at Serp, there are no IV spreads that give Hidden Power Fire with perfect speed, so either the IV is wrong or the Hidden Power type is wrong. The possible spreads for HP Fire are:
Also, 5 hours just to get the Hidden Power type?? You must be doing something wrong. Go and get a Ditto that has a specific Hidden Power type spread and breed with that. Go here for them
Like ethan06 mentioned, you need max speed on Serp, or at least some, none is bad. He has such a good base speed (not to mention you bred it Timid) that you should use it. I would prefer Hidden Power Ground on him so you have some way of hitting Heatran and other Fire or Steel types, it also allows a perfect speed stat with 31/x/31/30/30/31.
Charizard should have Ancient Power on there somewhere to deal with Talonflame / other Flying types since they walk all over Serperior. A well timed Protect from Serp will allow for these threats to die since it will draw the attacks. You need some way of killing Fire types especially since the Sun you're providing makes then stronger (and Serp frailer)
Wish won't work on Clefable as it requires switching. Remember that most of the recommended sets in the Strategy Dex are for singles, so it's not always the best idea to use them in Doubles / Triples.
Protect + Choice Scarf won't work on Hydra so drop it for Earth Power.
Aegi's moveset is fine, just move the 4 speed EVs into a defensive stat
Rotom is strange. Calm is the right nature for a specially defensive set, but you're EVs are max attack and speed! They should be max HP and SpDef, or close to it with some EVs in SpAtk if you want. I would recommend Volt Switch as it's a great move on Rotom but since it's in your back line I'm not so sure (maybe you could test it out). And yeah, Will-O-Wisp over Thunder Wave I think.
Finally, go on Pokemon Showdown and practice! Don't go into Battle Spot blind, otherwise you'll end up being disappointed when your team doesn't work and you've spent all that time breeding
@ Ethan, I like your avatar. Alright I will go with Hydreigon then over Zoroark, at least it's from gen 5 and I want 2 Pokemon from Gen 5 on this team. Doesn't Latios w/ choice scarf or choice specs counter Heatran too or are you saying go with Hydreigon because it's better?
Problem with Serperior is to get HP fire you can't have perfect IVs. i'm not sure wat the other iv stats are, but the iv guy just said those 2 were max. I thought I had one with 3 max ivs, but i guess i traded it or mis-saw. I'm sure the others can't be too low. I should note that it took me like 5 hrs staying up into the night to get hp fire.
The reason I suggested Hydreigon over Latios is that it gets Earth Power, and that's basically the only reason. As cant say said, even past the fact that Protect and Choice Scarf go together like tomato ketchup and maple syrup, Hydreigon literally cannot touch Heatran without Earth Power. It's only move that hits it even neutrally otherwise is Dark Pulse, and even then:
252+ SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 70-84 (41.9 - 50.2%)
Whereas Earth Power does this:
252+ SpA Hydreigon Earth Power vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 208-248 (124.5 - 148.5%)
Latios doesn't get Earth Power so it has to rely on either Surf or Earthquake, which both hit it's teammates, or a Hidden Power, which is generally a waste of time. So definitely Earth Power > Protect. You need Earth Power.
A good place to check your Serperior's IVs is using this IV calculator - simply plug in your Serperior's stats, nature, level, and what the IV Judge tells you and click Calculate. You should get an EV spread. Everything else IV related has been covered by cant say.
Mega Charizard-Y is kind of my bread and butter (been my Mega of choice since the day XY came out), so maybe I can help out here.
Mega Charizard-Y:
The EVs and Nature are fine. I run a bulkier Timid spread, but nothing is wrong with maxing speed and power.
For the moveset, Heat Wave is an absolutely brutal move to stomach, but Wide Guard is increasingly popular thanks to Sylveon shouting everything to death Skyrim style. I'd still keep it though.
Protect and Solarbeam are vital to Megazard and should be kept.
Focus Blast is a no-no. Its accuracy will throw your chances of winning straight out of the window, and its main targets (Tyranitar, Heatran, Hydreigon, Terrakion) should all be handled by teamates. TTar will tank it and stone you to death, Heatran is walled by Charizard so is of very minor threat (Ancientpower/Stone Edge sets are rather rare) and is crushed by Hydreigon. Opposing Hydreigon are often Scarfed, and will at the very least blast you with Draco Meteor for a minimum of 70% of your HP. Terrakion outspeeds and smashes you with a rock (and Solarbeam vaporizes it on a predicted switchin, which is your only hope of hitting one).
Because of this, I'd put Ancientpower over Focus Miss. Ancientpower lets you hit Talonflame, Charizard-Y, and other Fire or Flying types such as Rotom-H and Gyarados for heavy damage, and there's a 10% chance of a +1 to all stats; and a +1 to everything MegaZard-Y is... well, it'll cause a massive brickshit. And then run circles around everything and leave nothing behind but a smoldering crater where your foe once stood. I run it on mine, and its been fabulous. The +1 to all stats only happened once: and it was an instant "FuckThisIQuit".
Serperior:
Dear god no. The IVs are terrible, and even with max stats Serperior is effortlessly walled and is of minimal threat until it hits +6. And even then, there's still things that stomp it. This is further amplified in Doubles, a fast-paced battle that will simply pummel it to death before it gets any hope of setting up. Grass types, however, are good to pair with MegaZard. I run a double-Mega core with Chlorophyll Venusaur holding its Mega Stone: depending upon what I see in Team Preview, it allows me to flexibly pick which they are more vulnerable to: MegaZard-Y + Chlorosaur spamming powerful heatwaves and a lightning fast Sleep Powder, or Mega Venusaur + Aegislash to tank the shit out of them. MegaSaur does have issues with new ORAS Megas like Gallade, Metagross, and Salamence, but Aegislash does wonders against these three.
Other Grass options for smashing Sand/Rain are Shiftry (Leaf Blade + Knock Off, Low Kick for TTar/Heatran/Bisharp), Ludicolo (I'm quite serious here), Sceptile (Double Mega core again), Amoonguss, Exeggutor, Tangrowth, Chesnaught, and perhaps Virizion. I can expand upon any of those.
Clefable:
Nature and EVs are fine. Wish+Protect is very bad in Doubles. It takes two turns to heal, and makes Clefable incredibly useless while your opponents gangbang your partner with 2-4 free attacks. I would put a TON of reccomendation behind Moonlight over Wish for healing (MegaZard can be very dominating in a weather war), restoring an instant 66% HP in a single turn, as opposed to 50% in two turns. You'll have to get another Clefairy though, Clefable retardedly does not get it by Heart Scale or level up.
Moonblast and Protect are fine.
I would put Icy Wind over Thunder Wave on it, personally. The chip damage picks off Sash and Sturdy mons, and the Speed drops to two foes at once are solid. It also allows MegaZard-Y to maim things it should not be able to touch, such as Terrakion, Aerodactyl (if you run Ancientpower), Mega Lucario, Scarf Landorus-T, etc. Just Protect with Megazard, Icy Wind, and obliterate next turn. Don't be too over zealous though, this team's Icy Wind + Solarbeam combo does not KO Garchomp (87%-100%, needs a bit of chip damage). It also keeps Mega Salamence from keeping too much pressure: it breaks Substitute, and if Mence attacks, its Speed is lowered + loses 40-47% of its HP.
Hydreigon:
Perfectly fine, people have already told you about Earth Power.
Aegislash:
Perfectly fine. Just move the 4 Speed to Sp. Def.
Rotom-W:
I'd actually reccomend a Physically Defensive Rotom-W here. Here's what we get:
Reasoning for this is simple: its a cold stop to Metagross, Bisharp, Kangashkan, Gallade, Landorus-T, Garchomp, and many other physical attackers. Combine this with Clefable, and you've got a headache for pretty much every physical mon out there. Hydreigon + Aegislash is the only two-mon core to resist every type in the game (I believe?) and is pretty good on the specially defensive side, so that helps against Special mons. Plus, we eliminate potential status redundancy with Thunder Wave. Might be a better spread for Rotom-W, I haven't used it much, unlike the other Pokémon on your team. Hydro Pump in the Sun is, well, unless its a Ground type I'd suggest using Thunderbolt.
Mega Charizard-Y is kind of my bread and butter (been my Mega of choice since the day XY came out), so maybe I can help out here.
Mega Charizard-Y:
The EVs and Nature are fine. I run a bulkier Timid spread, but nothing is wrong with maxing speed and power.
For the moveset, Heat Wave is an absolutely brutal move to stomach, but Wide Guard is increasingly popular thanks to Sylveon shouting everything to death Skyrim style. I'd still keep it though.
Protect and Solarbeam are vital to Megazard and should be kept.
Focus Blast is a no-no. Its accuracy will throw your chances of winning straight out of the window, and its main targets (Tyranitar, Heatran, Hydreigon, Terrakion) should all be handled by teamates. TTar will tank it and stone you to death, Heatran is walled by Charizard so is of very minor threat (Ancientpower/Stone Edge sets are rather rare) and is crushed by Hydreigon. Opposing Hydreigon are often Scarfed, and will at the very least blast you with Draco Meteor for a minimum of 70% of your HP. Terrakion outspeeds and smashes you with a rock (and Solarbeam vaporizes it on a predicted switchin, which is your only hope of hitting one).
Because of this, I'd put Ancientpower over Focus Miss. Ancientpower lets you hit Talonflame, Charizard-Y, and other Fire or Flying types such as Rotom-H and Gyarados for heavy damage, and there's a 10% chance of a +1 to all stats; and a +1 to everything MegaZard-Y is... well, it'll cause a massive brickshit. And then run circles around everything and leave nothing behind but a smoldering crater where your foe once stood. I run it on mine, and its been fabulous. The +1 to all stats only happened once: and it was an instant "FuckThisIQuit".
Serperior:
Dear god no. The IVs are terrible, and even with max stats Serperior is effortlessly walled and is of minimal threat until it hits +6. And even then, there's still things that stomp it. This is further amplified in Doubles, a fast-paced battle that will simply pummel it to death before it gets any hope of setting up. Grass types, however, are good to pair with MegaZard. I run a double-Mega core with Chlorophyll Venusaur holding its Mega Stone: depending upon what I see in Team Preview, it allows me to flexibly pick which they are more vulnerable to: MegaZard-Y + Chlorosaur spamming powerful heatwaves and a lightning fast Sleep Powder, or Mega Venusaur + Aegislash to tank the shit out of them. MegaSaur does have issues with new ORAS Megas like Gallade, Metagross, and Salamence, but Aegislash does wonders against these three.
Other Grass options for smashing Sand/Rain are Shiftry (Leaf Blade + Knock Off, Low Kick for TTar/Heatran/Bisharp), Ludicolo (I'm quite serious here), Sceptile (Double Mega core again), Amoonguss, Exeggutor, Tangrowth, Chesnaught, and perhaps Virizion. I can expand upon any of those.
Clefable:
Nature and EVs are fine. Wish+Protect is very bad in Doubles. It takes two turns to heal, and makes Clefable incredibly useless while your opponents gangbang your partner with 2-4 free attacks. I would put a TON of reccomendation behind Moonlight over Wish for healing (MegaZard can be very dominating in a weather war), restoring an instant 66% HP in a single turn, as opposed to 50% in two turns. You'll have to get another Clefairy though, Clefable retardedly does not get it by Heart Scale or level up.
Moonblast and Protect are fine.
I would put Icy Wind over Thunder Wave on it, personally. The chip damage picks off Sash and Sturdy mons, and the Speed drops to two foes at once are solid. It also allows MegaZard-Y to maim things it should not be able to touch, such as Terrakion, Aerodactyl (if you run Ancientpower), Mega Lucario, Scarf Landorus-T, etc. Just Protect with Megazard, Icy Wind, and obliterate next turn. Don't be too over zealous though, this team's Icy Wind + Solarbeam combo does not KO Garchomp (87%-100%, needs a bit of chip damage). It also keeps Mega Salamence from keeping too much pressure: it breaks Substitute, and if Mence attacks, its Speed is lowered + loses 40-47% of its HP.
Hydreigon:
Perfectly fine, people have already told you about Earth Power.
Aegislash:
Perfectly fine. Just move the 4 Speed to Sp. Def.
Rotom-W:
I'd actually reccomend a Physically Defensive Rotom-W here. Here's what we get:
Reasoning for this is simple: its a cold stop to Metagross, Bisharp, Kangashkan, Gallade, Landorus-T, Garchomp, and many other physical attackers. Combine this with Clefable, and you've got a headache for pretty much every physical mon out there. Hydreigon + Aegislash is the only two-mon core to resist every type in the game (I believe?) and is pretty good on the specially defensive side, so that helps against Special mons. Plus, we eliminate potential status redundancy with Thunder Wave. Might be a better spread for Rotom-W, I haven't used it much, unlike the other Pokémon on your team. Hydro Pump in the Sun is, well, unless its a Ground type I'd suggest using Thunderbolt.
Unfortunately my zard can't learn ancient power, but I think that Rock Slide is an okay substitute. My zard is shiny, so I don't want to go for a new one.
A bit harsh on Serperior, since I designed this team around Serperior. I even put zard y on this team to help Serperior and for drought to boost HP fire.
I can try and get a better stat Serperior once and if I get a HP fire ditto from Buckert's give away. Since I hear if you have two parents with HP fire, then it's easier to get another with HP fire.
Ok here it is, you need a reality check. This breed is poo. You need to aim for 31/x/31/30/31/30 if you're at all serious about using Serperior in this team. Its speed stat is so important that it needs to be as close to 30/31 as possible, and it's special attack stat is so low to start with that the IV needs to be as high as possible to give it the most power. You should not ever settle just because you have the right Hidden Power. And even still, with Zard's Heat Wave I don't think Fire is the best type to run. If the opponent has a Fire type of their own you have nothing to hit it with, which is why I suggested Ground in my last post.
Cool you have a shiny Pokemon, no one cares about that. If you need to breed a new one for Ancient Power then so be it, Rock Slide is not a viable alternative on yours because it is Timid. This is why I keep saying to practice with the team on PS! before you breed.
tl;dr: it may not seem important to you but I cannot stress enough how important breeding is. Everyone else that you'll play against aims for perfect Pokemon, and if you're not then you're putting yourself at a disadvantage from the start. If you need help breeding then PM me. Breeding is so easy this generation and you have all the resources available on this site, there's no excuse to be lazy about it.
Unfortunately my zard can't learn ancient power, but I think that Rock Slide is an okay substitute. My zard is shiny, so I don't want to go for a new one.
A bit harsh on Serperior, since I designed this team around Serperior. I even put zard y on this team to help Serperior and for drought to boost HP fire.
I can try and get a better stat Serperior once and if I get a HP fire ditto from Buckert's give away. Since I hear if you have two parents with HP fire, then it's easier to get another with HP fire.
Yeah, I went through a lot of Charizards getting to a set I liked. That's ok though: Overheat, Fire Blast, Fire Pledge, and perhaps Tailwind can go over it. Overheat for an utterly horrifying nuclear bomb that isn't blocked by Wide Guard (notice that Wide Guard Aegislash walls Charizard with just Heat Wave). Fire Blast is a tad weaker, but doesn't have that nasty Sp. Atk drop.
Yeah, sorry. I'm blunt like that :P
We can work around it, definetly. For example, we could fill two gaps here:
This is a combo I tried with my own team (just with a Chlorosaur instead of Serperior). The way Pledge moves interact is dependant on Speed, and which two are combined. With Serperior + Charizard, what happens is:
1) Serperior uses Grass Pledge. It awaits Charizard to move, effectively doing nothing.
2) Charizard uses Fire Pledge. Assuming no move interuption (Flinch, Attract, Paralyze, Sleep) or KOs, Charizard will unleash an absolutely stupidly powerful Fire pledge. As in: ((80*2*STAB)*Sun = 360 base power. Overheat sits at 292 for comparison. It uses Charizard's Sp. Atk, so even if Serperior is at +0 it still hits like dropping the Titanic on your head. Plus, all your opponent's non-Fire types lose 1/8th max HP every turn for 5 turns for extra chip damage, that can only be cured with Rain Dance.
Because of the utterly absurd Fire power (pun!), HP Ground helps hit Heatran / other Flash Fire mons. Don't need Dragon Pulse: Scarf Hydreigon and Clefable are adequate Dragon smashers.
Yeah, I went through a lot of Charizards getting to a set I liked. That's ok though: Overheat, Fire Blast, Fire Pledge, and perhaps Tailwind can go over it. Overheat for an utterly horrifying nuclear bomb that isn't blocked by Wide Guard (notice that Wide Guard Aegislash walls Charizard with just Heat Wave). Fire Blast is a tad weaker, but doesn't have that nasty Sp. Atk drop.
Yeah, sorry. I'm blunt like that :P
We can work around it, definetly. For example, we could fill two gaps here:
This is a combo I tried with my own team (just with a Chlorosaur instead of Serperior). The way Pledge moves interact is dependant on Speed, and which two are combined. With Serperior + Charizard, what happens is:
1) Serperior uses Grass Pledge. It awaits Charizard to move, effectively doing nothing.
2) Charizard uses Fire Pledge. Assuming no move interuption (Flinch, Attract, Paralyze, Sleep) or KOs, Charizard will unleash an absolutely stupidly powerful Fire pledge. As in: ((80*2*STAB)*Sun = 360 base power. Overheat sits at 292 for comparison. It uses Charizard's Sp. Atk, so even if Serperior is at +0 it still hits like dropping the Titanic on your head. Plus, all your opponent's non-Fire types lose 1/8th max HP every turn for 5 turns for extra chip damage, that can only be cured with Rain Dance.
Because of the utterly absurd Fire power (pun!), HP Ground helps hit Heatran / other Flash Fire mons. Don't need Dragon Pulse: Scarf Hydreigon and Clefable are adequate Dragon smashers.
Ok thats works, I can make those changes.. Except I really like Glare, so I am going to run that over Protect. It's a priority move and it's 100% hit. And if i don't like it, I can always go back to protect.
Ok thats works, I can make those changes.. Except I really like Glare, so I am going to run that over Protect. It's a priority move and it's 100% hit. And if i don't like it, I can always go back to protect.
Ok thats works, I can make those changes.. Except I really like Glare, so I am going to run that over Protect. It's a priority move and it's 100% hit. And if i don't like it, I can always go back to protect.
I wouldn't bother with Glare to be honest, your front line is pretty fast as is, and Serp really needs Protect so you can clear its counters (especially Talonflame). If you run Icy Wind on Clefable you will be able to slow down 2 of the opponents Pokemon in one turn anyway.
ProjectTitan313, finally another person who sees the potential in the Pledge moves :p I thought about running Serp myself alongside Greninja so it can Mat Block turn 1 for an easy Leaf Storm boost, then you can get in a Water+Grass Pledge combo to slow the opposing team down.
ProjectTitan313, finally another person who sees the potential in the Pledge moves :p I thought about running Serp myself alongside Greninja so it can Mat Block turn 1 for an easy Leaf Storm boost, then you can get in a Water+Grass Pledge combo to slow the opposing team down.
I thought putting zard y helps serperior but im hearing drought makes it frail and isn't helping. was zard y the best choice to accompany serperior? do they only mesh well if it has hp ground and leaf pledge?
Edit: I have an hp rock parent snivy, unsure of ditto. i got an hp fire ditto from buckert and i told him i was gonna put it on the gts to swap it and then it got sniped. so i dont know if i will be able to get hp ground ditto.
i hope it doesn't take long for me to get a good hp ground. i know when i originally was hp breeding ground was common.
I'm thinking it's going to take too much time to get an HP ground Snivy with IVs that works. So I was thinking of going with Emboar and Venusaur instead maybe? Instead of having a special sweeping charizard, I have a physical attacking Emboar instead. Instead of a fast special attacking Serperior, I have a bulky Venusaur for a wall. Down below is another option. Amoongus as a strong defense that pretty much gives the other team lots of status problems. And for my mega I could give it to mega audino, who is a more bulky and stronger version of defensive support clefairy.
Emboar @ Life Orb
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Flame Charge / Fire Pledge
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Stone Edge/ Earthquake
)
