Pokemon Fortress 2 (5th Gen Wifi)

[MofoAmbulance]

Okay, second 5th Gen RMT! My first team was doing pretty great, then the metagame evolved and it got owned. Yeah. Been having trouble making a decent team lately, and suddenly this team was made and by god, it worked! Egad! It's won every battle I've played using it so far, after testing it against another player extensively for ideas and tweaking. Before I start PROPERLY laddering I'd like some outside opinions from you fellows. Anyway, onto the RMT! Meet the team!

Engineer (Skarmory)
@Leftovers
Sturdy
Adamant (+atk, -spa)
252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Spd

-Roost
-Stealth Rock
-Roar
-Brave Bird

The Engineer, tends to camp and restore health next to his dispenser (Roost) while waiting for unsuspecting foes to come into the line of his sentry fire (Stealth Rock/Brave Bird) and helps stave off offensive pushes (Roar).

Pretty standard Skarm set, except for the Adamant nature to put some wham into the Brave Bird once he's done doing his job of setting up rocks. Very simple EVs, capitalising on his amazing defensive capabilities. Switch into a physical attacker, use Stealth Rock, and depending on what comes in either switch or phase or attack. Roost for recovery, but needs to be used carefully in the face of Conkeldurr, as Skarmory is faster and a badly timed Roost means that he hits met with supereffective damage, and I do not like supereffective damage. Need some help with this guy, though, because after he sets up rocks he feels sort of like a liability, like he's got nothing else to do other than phase. Tempted to replace either Rocks or Roar with Spikes, would like some advice on this.

Pyro (Volcarona)
@Expert Belt
Flame Body
Timid (+spe, -atk)
4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe

-Quiver Dance
-Fiery Dance
-Bug Buzz
-Hidden Power (Ground)

The Pyro. Sets things on fire, dances over their corpse (Fiery Dance/Quiver Dance). Can also use an airblast to blow opponents away (Bug Buzz). Also contains the element of surprise because no-one knows what gender it is (Hidden Power (IS IT GROUND OR ROCK?????)).

Pretty standard Volcarona. Been using this thing on my other teams, it is BEASTLY. I made 2 small changes with this variant, however, and those being the item held and the nature. Originally I ran Modest and Life Orb - while it had been turned into a monstrous powerhouse, I found it was dying too quickly and getting outsped and murdered before I could start Quivering in excitement. To satisfy this bug's devilish pyromaniac tendencies, I gave it two safer options - the Expert Belt for annihilation of anything unfortunate enough to be supereffectowned by Mothra and a Timid nature so it can set things on fire at a a blazing speed. Not much necessary to be changed here, really, but debating utilizing LO again.

Scout (Whimsicott)
@Leftovers
Prankster
Impish (+def, -spa)
252 HP, 44 Def, 208 Spd, 4 Spe

-Leech Seed
-Sunny Day
-Encore
-U-Turn

This guy... kind of a big deal. Grass grows (Leech Seed), birds fly, sun shines (Sunny Day) and brother... he hurts people (U-Turn). BONK

An odd Whimsicott set, I know, but trust me when I say it works wonders. It forces switches like an absolute boss like the brilliant scout he is. Leech Seed capitalises on HP gain for the other team-mates and is a great support move, Sunny Day forces the opponent's weather starter to switch back in (Even better if I've killed it already because they saw that I have no weather starters myself and let it die, as is the usual mindset) and breaks their momentum (Unless it's a sunny day team, but I have no problem with those). Encore is pro for breaking stat uppers and U-Turn is incase I get taunted by the odd Thundurus or if I'm needing to do some more scouting to get a grip on the opponent's play-style. The EVs are styled to make Whimsicott as bulky as possible. Defenses are equal with the spread and nature and takes hits from both sides of the spectrum like a champ. Still though, could do with some suggestions, like whether to run Taunt over Encore or not.

Heavy (Conkeldurr)
@Leftovers
Guts
Adamant (+atk, -spa)
252 HP, 16 Atk, 240 SpD

-Bulk Up
-Drain Punch
-Mach Punch
-Payback

He is Heavy Weapons Guy, and these... are his weapons (Bulk Up, Drain Punch, gym's that way). Some people think they can outsmart him, but he has yet to see baby who outsmarts boolet (Mach Punch, Payback (for babies thinking they are smarter than Heavy).

Defensively based standard Conk set. Has massive HP, like the Heavy himself, and takes hits from both sides of the spectrum brilliantly. EV'd to even out defenses with the rest poured into Atk. Has ALMOST perfect coverage with this, only resisted by Toxicroak and Heracross, to my knowledge, and nowadays only Toxicroak is really common due to the abundance of rain. Pretty simple procedure - Set up on something that switches out, Drain Punch that mofo to death and Mach Punch picks off the stragglers. I used to run 252 HP/Atk which allowed me to always OHKO Excadrill with a Mach Punch, but now I need a Bulk Up to do so. The extra SpD EVs are very worth it, though. His only problem is that he is incredibly vital to the team as he is my only real physical attacker.

Medic (Vaporeon)
@Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold (+def, -atk)
188 HP, 252 Def, 68 SpA

-Wish
-Heal Bell
-Scald
-Ice Beam

The Medic, heals up the rest of the team (Wish/Heal Bell) but also has offensive capability in the medigun (Scald/Ice Beam).

Not much I need to say here. Vappy is my very literal medic; Heals up the rest of the team with his massive HP and cures status. This guy is absolutely vital, as medics usually are. Tempted to focus EVs on the specially defensive side, as the majority of my team is either very physically bulky or completely even. Also not sure whether to keep Water Absorb or switch to Hydration: both help against Rain teams a great deal.

Spy (Gengar)
@Leftovers
Levitate
Timid (+spe, -atk)
4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe

-Substitute
-Disable
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast

The Spy. He can fake death using the Dead Ringer (Substitute) and sap sentries with his Sapper, rendering them useless (Disable). It can use a knife to STAB things (Shadow Ball), and focus a blast of his revolver at foes while running away (Focus Blast).

This thing is my favourite Gengar ever. It completely destroys Choicers and severely cripples whatever comes into its path, and while they flail about it cackles behind its sub as it recovers health with lefties. It gets perfect coverage with Shadow Ball and Focus Miss and is an absolute force when I play it right.

And that's the team! I only have had problems with Blissey/Chansey so far; once Conkeldurr is down, they wall my team pretty well so long as they have the ability to switch. In any case, C+C please!

 

[Smith]

Hello, excellent team you have here! It seems well-balanced and you're exploiting some rather powerful and unexpected sets so kudos. That said there are some problems this team will inevitably find hard to manage. The first would be generally powerful special attackers. Things like Specs Latios, NP Thundurus, or Specs Tornadus really charge through this team- you lack anything to really take these guys down and nothing can switch into them safely, especially specs Tornadus who can nearly 6-0 your team if you play Skarmory like an ass or if he gets some lucky confusion. You also don't have a weather changer ( save Whimsicott) so facing these powerful weather sweepers (the genies mostly) will be rather difficult. You're also dealing with some sets that could easily be optimized and tweaked to get the most out of them.

The first change I suggest would be over Whimsicott. As much as I enjoy it (and if you've ever used a Cotton Guard set in the sun, it's actually pretty hard to take down), it doesn't help in covering the threats you need to cover and as a weather changer, it's rather mediocre. Vaporeon already helps with the problematic water types you have to deal with. Instead you might try a Special Defensive Tyranitar (who can also function as a lead).

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
252 HP / 168 SpDef / 88 SpAtk Sassy
Stealth Rock / Stone Edge / Fire Blast / Pursuit

Tyranitar fits this team well in many ways. First, you mentioned that you wanted to fit Stealth Rock somewhere on Skarmory- with Tyranitar serving this purpose, you won't need to. You'll enjoy the ability to beat all afore-mentioned threats (and can survive annoying Focus Blasts thanks to the Chople Berry). You'll get a better weather changer so that rain teams don't have a field day (sand sweepers are mostly covered so they aren't as pressing).

You also need to change Skarmory's set. Roar is simply inferior to Whirlwind- they're exactly the same but Roar doesn't work on Soundproof Pokemon, and you never know when you might see one of those guys (well never really but there's literally no downside). Also that's an inefficient EV spread- because Impish increases my defense way more than Adamant increases my attack, I could run 252 HP / 76 Atk / 180 Def and have exactly as much attack with about 20 more defense. You could use that if it hits a specific number or if you just like a general punch- otherwise, you might want to cater to a specific number, like maybe enough to always 2HKO a +1 Conkeldurr 252/252.

And as for a couple of minour changes, I'm not sure if Expert Belt is best on Volcorona. If it's packing a super-effective hit, at +1 it's doing plenty, and I'm certain that Volcorona would prefer some Leftovers recovery considering the immense damage it takes from entry hazards and the SS weakness. I'd also rather you run Protect on Vaporeon over Ice Beam- Wish + Protect gives you much needed recovery, and many of the things Vaporeon ran Ice Beam for in gen 4 (dragons mostly) are covered by your Skarmory.

That's all I got, I hope this helps!

 

[MofoAmbulance]

I am super awesome

Yes, yes I agree with you on that. Thanks a lot for the incredibly helpful crit! Honestly can't thank you enough, especially on Skarm! I'll see how Tyranitar rolls later, just had a match with the dude and he was pretty pro. The thing is though, Whimsicott's role as a weather changer is priority changing and relying on the idea that the opponent will let their weather changer die quickly, having seen that my team is non-weather. Sunny Day also promotes a Volcarona sweep, so it's incredibly beneficial. In any case, I'll give SS a go on your reccomendation and change the OP in the morning, it's currently 3 AM and yeah. BED. Thank you again!