Rating Practice Team 24

[Reymedy]

Welcome to the newest round of practice teams. If you're an aspiring rater, then these will hopefully allow you to pick up on and address any problems with your rating, as well as providing you with experience rating teams that have been specifically made to be as tough to rate as possible, and to make you think creatively in order to find the best changes. Any rates we receive will be replied to with personalized feedback by one of Remedy, dragonuser, ShootingStarmie, Plus and MCBarrett. Then, at the end of the round, we'll give some general hints and feedback on how things went, and post the best rate that we received as an example of how to rate the team.

Anyone is welcome to participate and send in their rate, and everyone will be guaranteed to receive feedback appropriate to the effort they put into their rate, regardless of their ability. However, to keep things fair we won't be considering rates sent in by official team raters as winners of the best rate.

If you would like to participate in this round, PM your rate to Remedy no later than Sunday 30 March.

Hello, my team is a attempt to build a Gyarados-Mega offense. I think this pokemon has a lot of potential in the current metagame, and so, I built my team aiming to get rid of its counters by luring or overloading them. Here is the team :

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 176 Spd / 112 HP / 220 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Taunt

My Gyarados-M is my main sweeper. It loves to set-up on Bisharps for instance, and this is why I can use so caressly pokemons like Latios and Aegislash in my team. I chose Taunt over Ice Fang because I value more the ability to stop my opponent from phazing me or using a status.

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SAtk / 8 SDef
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield

I'm a fan of Aegislash ! It is always useful ! And the synergy it shares with Gyarados is really good. This pokemon is usually my go-to-go choice when I need to eat some damage. Shadow Ball hurts a ton, and does a nice job at weakening the Physical walls for the rest of my team.

Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Atk
Naive Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Superpower
- Thunder Wave

This pokemon is another OU powerhouse. You find it everywhere and for good reason ! ThunderWave helps a lot in a pinch, because my team doesn't always have the defensive backbone to withstand the sweepers. I opted for a mixed set to never lose the tempo and to revenge kill a lot of threats.

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Defog

Since Thundurus, and the normal form of Gyarados are weak to Stealth Rocks, and because Aegislash and Diggersby don't really like Spikes, I felt like I needed a Defog somewhere. Latios lures Bisharp, and thanks to Thunderbolt I can often weaken Azumarill enough for my Gyarados to sweep. I chose Dragon Pulse because the power drop of Draco Meteor would be difficult to play around if I have to use Thunderbolt.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 100 SAtk / 148 SDef / 12 Spd
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled

This pokemon is the glue of my team. A fairy is always nice to have, and this one has Stealth Rock !
I chose an offensive version to fit my team better. Fire Blast, with these EVs, 2HKO any version of Skarmory after SR.

Diggersby @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 208 Spd / 252 Atk / 48 HP
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Return
- Wild Charge
- U-turn

Every single team needs a Scarfer right ?!
Well Diggersby fits the bill perfectly, and is a good candidate to overload physical walls. His attack is simply too big to be dealt with. His speed is always a bit disapointing, and that's why I gave him a Choice Scarf. Adamant Nature and Wild Charge allow him to 2HKO Skarmory ! What a beast !




EDIT: DON'T REPLY TO THIS THREAD. If you want to rate this team, then please read the first paragraph and send your rate to Remedy.

 

[Reymedy]

So, many of you noticed the MVenu issue.
However, I'm really surprised that nobody did point out the Azumarill weakness ! Not only he does stop cold any Gyarados attempt to sweep, but he also check Diggersby nicely and put Latios against the wall. Sadly, even with Thunderbolt, that's an issue for the team ! Aegislash could eat a Knock off and be crippled for the rest of the game.
Thundurus being the only one able to check it, you can call it a weakness.

For this round, I was torn between choosing Srn9130 and Moonclawz's rates.
Srn did a nice job at picking the weaknesses, and an ok change by changing Digger for Talon. However Tyranitar becomes then a big issue, and Azumarill is still not checked decently.
Moonclawz's choice of Garchomp over Diggersby is more "shy", but gets the job done. He pairs him with a Heatran which does not work that well but has some merits.

Congratz to every aspiring rater, we're keeping tabs on you so keep up with the work :)