Welcome to the newest round of rating 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, provide you with experience rating teams that have been specifically made to be as tough to rate as possible, and make you think creatively in order to find the best changes for the team. Any rates we receive will be replied to with personalized feedback by an official Team Rater. 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 ShootingStarmie no later than Tuesday, September 2nd. Do not post rates in this thread.
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This team is based around Mega Charizard X's fantastic wallbreaking capabilities. I wanted to use Swords Dance + Tailwind because I feel as if it's much more effective than the traditional Dragon Dancer in the current metagame. Enjoy!
Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Outrage
- Swords Dance
- Tailwind
Charizard is my team's Mega and also its main focus. It's very easy for it to break down defensive teams with a Swords Dance boost, even those who carry Quagsire because Outrage will 2HKO it. +2 Outrage also does an absolute truckload to Heatran so there is no need for Earthquake. Against offense, Tailwind is very useful because Charizard doesn't need an attack boost to OHKO frail offensive Pokemon, and it can outspeed even their Choice Scarf user. It also provides great team support. Getting both boosts is a rare occurrence which is generally not needed, but when it gets them, nothing can really stop this beast.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
Charizard's effectiveness is heavily boosted by Stealth Rock, and it doesn't like Thundurus at all so Hippowdon seemed to be a perfect fit. Not only that, but it can provide a reliable check to stuff like Mega Tyranitar that can be big trouble to Charizard. I chose to go with Sand Force because the team doesn't need Sand Stream and it helps checking Mega Tyranitar, because it will otherwise take an Earthquake easily. I decided to go with a lot of SpDef because Thundurus is very powerful and the coverage moves will still hurt.
Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Recover
While Charizard loves the help of Stealth Rock, it also hates it when the opponent has it and would much rather play with no hazards at all. Latias helps with that by providing Defog support. I also noticed that both Pokemon I had on the team didn't really like Water attacks, and Hippowdon is kind of a free switch in for offensive Waters so I needed something to switch into them, which made Latias a perfect fit. I chose Recover over Healing Wish because Latias is my team's main way to deal with Special Water types and I want to keep it healthy for most of the game to be able to check them. That is also the reason why I decided to use Latias over Latios.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
Clefable takes advantage of Charizard's wallbreaking because it loves it when Heatran is dead, which is something that will probably happen if the opponent lets me set up. Many defensive teams will just fall to this Clefable once their Heatran is gone which makes it a great follow up to Charizard. I decided to opt for Flamethrower over Stored Power because I feel like my team can't really lure in Fire weak Pokemon well so my sweep isn't interrupted by them. Clefable is also my main way of dealing with Dragon types which as everyone probably knows, are extremely dangerous.
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Rotom takes on many of the team's weaknesses, mainly against strong Flying type Pokemon, like Mega Pinsir, while also serving as the team's Water type. I decided to go with Rotom because I needed something that could tank a hit while still maintaining offensive momentum, and its Volt Switch is just perfect for that as very little that's immune to it like to switch into a Hydro Pump or a Will-O-Wisp. A secondary Water resist is also something that's always nice to have in this tier which is dominated by offensive Waters.
Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Stone Edge
I noticed that my team was fairly slow and also had no Fairy resist which is why I decided to add Choice Scarf Heatran to the mix. Not only does it resist Fairy, but it can also outspeed the fastest relevant non-Mega threat in the tier, Greninja, by 1 point. Moveset is pretty standard and I decided to go for Fire Blast over Overheat because Heatran can act as a game ender when everything has been weakened, and Overheat's side effect is rather inconvenient for late game sweeping purposes.
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 ShootingStarmie no later than Tuesday, September 2nd. Do not post rates in this thread.
---------
This team is based around Mega Charizard X's fantastic wallbreaking capabilities. I wanted to use Swords Dance + Tailwind because I feel as if it's much more effective than the traditional Dragon Dancer in the current metagame. Enjoy!
Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Outrage
- Swords Dance
- Tailwind
Charizard is my team's Mega and also its main focus. It's very easy for it to break down defensive teams with a Swords Dance boost, even those who carry Quagsire because Outrage will 2HKO it. +2 Outrage also does an absolute truckload to Heatran so there is no need for Earthquake. Against offense, Tailwind is very useful because Charizard doesn't need an attack boost to OHKO frail offensive Pokemon, and it can outspeed even their Choice Scarf user. It also provides great team support. Getting both boosts is a rare occurrence which is generally not needed, but when it gets them, nothing can really stop this beast.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
Charizard's effectiveness is heavily boosted by Stealth Rock, and it doesn't like Thundurus at all so Hippowdon seemed to be a perfect fit. Not only that, but it can provide a reliable check to stuff like Mega Tyranitar that can be big trouble to Charizard. I chose to go with Sand Force because the team doesn't need Sand Stream and it helps checking Mega Tyranitar, because it will otherwise take an Earthquake easily. I decided to go with a lot of SpDef because Thundurus is very powerful and the coverage moves will still hurt.
Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Recover
While Charizard loves the help of Stealth Rock, it also hates it when the opponent has it and would much rather play with no hazards at all. Latias helps with that by providing Defog support. I also noticed that both Pokemon I had on the team didn't really like Water attacks, and Hippowdon is kind of a free switch in for offensive Waters so I needed something to switch into them, which made Latias a perfect fit. I chose Recover over Healing Wish because Latias is my team's main way to deal with Special Water types and I want to keep it healthy for most of the game to be able to check them. That is also the reason why I decided to use Latias over Latios.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
Clefable takes advantage of Charizard's wallbreaking because it loves it when Heatran is dead, which is something that will probably happen if the opponent lets me set up. Many defensive teams will just fall to this Clefable once their Heatran is gone which makes it a great follow up to Charizard. I decided to opt for Flamethrower over Stored Power because I feel like my team can't really lure in Fire weak Pokemon well so my sweep isn't interrupted by them. Clefable is also my main way of dealing with Dragon types which as everyone probably knows, are extremely dangerous.
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Rotom takes on many of the team's weaknesses, mainly against strong Flying type Pokemon, like Mega Pinsir, while also serving as the team's Water type. I decided to go with Rotom because I needed something that could tank a hit while still maintaining offensive momentum, and its Volt Switch is just perfect for that as very little that's immune to it like to switch into a Hydro Pump or a Will-O-Wisp. A secondary Water resist is also something that's always nice to have in this tier which is dominated by offensive Waters.
Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Stone Edge
I noticed that my team was fairly slow and also had no Fairy resist which is why I decided to add Choice Scarf Heatran to the mix. Not only does it resist Fairy, but it can also outspeed the fastest relevant non-Mega threat in the tier, Greninja, by 1 point. Moveset is pretty standard and I decided to go for Fire Blast over Overheat because Heatran can act as a game ender when everything has been weakened, and Overheat's side effect is rather inconvenient for late game sweeping purposes.
