Other Metagames RMT - Triples Team - Brave Bird Brothers

[Hereloss]

This is my first Rate My Team I've done, though I've made a load of teams in the past and been testing a few of these guys for a long time, but I'm pretty sure there's some dead meat in the team somewhere. I tend to be mainly on the attack in battles, so not much of the team is very bulky and is more made for speed and power Bear in mind this is for Triples, so I'll mention positions in the descriptions:

Kangaskhan@ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy --> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 248 HP / 8 Spe
- Fake Out
- Return
- Earthquake
- Sucker Punch

Mainly used as the Core of the team, I tend to use it in the middle as a lead. Fake-out is used on the most dangerous member of the other team (hitting almost always due to Scrappy), freeing up the other two to do their bit. Also used as the wall of the main Trio, as due to the HP bulk it can take a good few hits once protected from fighting-types (by the BB Brothers). The rest of team is partially built around allowing it to use it's Earthquake freely, as it's my main Electric-Counter, against major threats such as Magnezone. The Sucker-Punch priority allows for easy killing of Psychics , which threaten one of the main elements of the team, plus it gives a good revenge kill, especially since it's almost always center. The slight extra speed EV gives a slight better chance of outspeeding others, and the high Attack allows for a nice chunk to be dealt first-turn by Fake-Out, allowing Sucker Punch to deal with anything fairly fragile eg. Gredinja.

Talonflame@ Life Orb
Ability: Brave Bird
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Spe / 252 Attack / 4 Sp. Def
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-Turn
- Quick Guard

One of the Brave Bird Brothers, I tend to lead with this on one of the sides. A classically set up Talonflame, it provides the much needed Fighting-Type coverage for Kanghaskhan, as Brave Bird hits all sides of the field, with the Fake-Out from Kanghaskhan stopping anything too dangerous to it, eg. Vaporeon, Garchomp for a turn. The Flare-Blitz is simply a cover-all move, to just damage everything on the field nicely. The U-Turn allows damaging switch out if the field is too dangerous for Talonflame to consider battling, as coming back in is usually safe due to a lack of Stealth Rocks. The Quick-Guard is a move i found out about by competitive battling - It stops the other side from using the Fake-Out against me and stops their Talonflame's Brave Bird (Which is very good for the other BB Brother), although i do use this move rarely. The Life Orb makes Talonflame powerful but fragile, as it tends to die in most battles, but allows for 1-hit KO's on lots of fragile but powerful Mons, such as Gredinja. The flying typing also allows it to miss Kangaskhan's Earthquake, covering a bit for its Electric Weakness.

Blaziken@ Expert Belt
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Sp. Def
- Brave Bird
- High-Jump Kick
- Flare Blitz
- Protect

The second Brave Bird Brother and similar, I tend to lead with this on the other side. Carrying the same-ish moves as Talonflame, the main difference is the High-Jump kick, mainly used to deal with Rock types or Bulky Normal or Steel Types which are hard for Talonflame and Kangaskhan to hurt, Rock types being the most important one to take down. The Brave Bird and Flare Blitz work in the same way to Talonflame's, taking out whatever is required, with the protect allowing the speed boost to work properly. The Expert Belt allows for a slight power increase without a real downside, and the small extra bulk can allow another turn of life, although this rarely happens in honesty.

Magnezone@ Assault Vest
Ability: Sturdy
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk / 248 HP / 8 Sp. Def
- Thunderbolt
- Discharge
- Volt-Switch
- Flash Cannon

This is mainly a switch in 'Mon, and acts as both a Special attacker and a slight wall, in a similar (but special) way to Kangaskhan. Mainly used as a Water-Type wall to help the BB Brothers, Thunderbolt is the main move it uses, normally swapping in on one side due to the fragility of the BB Brothers. Discharge does come out if its next to one of the 'Mons who carry either King's Shield or Protect, and the Volt-Switch allows for a easy swap out if a bad type comes in for it. It also acts as the Fairy wall of the team, helping out Gredinja and Blaziken with this, also acting as a general wall in some ways due to its high HP, although this is not its primary purpose. Sturdy allows for a guaranteed live for one turn, needed due to the prevalence of Earthquake in the Metagame. Due to only carrying attacking moves, the Assault Vest was a natural choice to help to prevent any special moves from being too damaging and helping it specially wall better, stopping threats such as M-Manetric's Overheat.

Gredinja@ Focus Sash
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Spe / 252 Sp. Atk / 8 Sp. Def
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Extrasensory
- Dark Pulse

The main special attacker of the team, and a very varied one. Scald is carried to take care of mainly Rock and Ground types, which have no real counters on the rest of the team, scald chosen partially due to the burn chance, also used to take care of Fire type threats such as Talonflame. Ice beam also takes care of the Ground types and provides coverage against Flying types too, a burden for Blaziken, and gives the type change in case of a predicted Electric type move. Extrasensory provides extra cover against fighting types for Kanghaskhan and Magnezone, and the Dark Pulse can hit the whole field if played right, along with stopping Psychics for Blaziken. The Focus Sash guarantees a turn and so is a mainly late game player, the EV's backing up its natural talents.

Aegislash@Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 248 HP / 8 Sp. Def
- King's Shield
- Iron Head
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword

The main wall, made to be a late-game 'Mon to take out anything left behind. The King's Shield allows it to weaken anything nasty eg. Talonflame before going in for the kill, and the Shadow Sneak builds on this and stops the other team taking advantage of its weakened form. The Iron head provides good solid coverage on most, and the Sacred Sword takes care of any left over Rock, Steel or Normal types Blaziken failed to deal with. Mainly used to try to keep the others in as best shape as possible and to help them take out weakened foes. The Air balloon allows for Earthquake to not affect it, to both allow us to use it and to stop them from going for it instantly. Also in use as a Fighting Wall since it cannot be hit by most, allowing it to be a good swap-in.

As i said, they're a Triples Team, so when rating please bear that in mind, although a few OU ideas are still very much applicable in Triples - Thanks!

 

[PumpedAaron]

Might want to consider certain valuable utility moves and abilities, such as Fake Out, Wide Guard, Feint, Intimidate. Blaziken gets Feint as an Egg move, and Aegislash gets Wide Guard as an Egg move. A Naive Greninja with Gunk Shot would be really valuable in knocking out Sylveon, as well as the usual Ice Beam for Landorus. I'll add some more info.

But seriously, welcome to Triples, by the way! We are a too-far-spread-apart lot, huh?

 

[Hereloss]

Yeah, we seem to be a pretty wide-spread lot, it's quite hard to find many others. I agree with the Gunk Shot, not sure which to get rid of though out of which ones it's got. Kangaskhan already has Fake-Out and Talonflame's got the Quick-Guard, so not sure what sorta use Wide-Guard would be - I've already accounted for Earthquake in most of them. Intimidate sounds good to add in there though, and thanks for the feedback!

 

[PumpedAaron]

So you don't use Wide Guard but you still think you've taken care of Earthquake? I suppose that means you plan to KO the Pokemon that would use Earthquake before they pull of that move. But in Triples, it might be positioned away from your reach. And one of the most prominent users of Earthquake, Landorus-T, usually carries Choice Scarf. That's why Wide Guard is still a good move. Just give it some thought, OK? As for Rock Slide, Talonflame is clearly super frail against that, and Greninja can become vulnerable when it turns into an Ice type.

As for fitting in Gunk Shot, I suppose I'd replace either Extrasensory or Scald. More likely replace Extrasensory, since Psychic doesn't have many vulnerable targets to hit, and 30% burn chance is better than 10% flinch.

 

[Hereloss]

I more meant that the whole team avoid it if it comes out - Talonflame won't get hit, Blaziken carries the protect and is only slow for the first turn or two, Aegislash carries the Air Balloon so needs to get hit beforehand plus it's got the Kings Shield for after that, and, although it would almost kill Magnezone, the sturdy would stop a 1-hit KO. Plus, Kangaskhan is kinda bulky, although i will admit it might get knocked out by it, and Gredinja carries the focus sash, so again a 1-hit KO can't happen with it. Rock Slide is a pain, but considering the two bulky steel types so long as i can predict it it should be Ok.

Not too sure about the Gunk Shot - Poison's good against Faries and Grass types, but the team's already got them covered really well, what with the two steel types and two fire types, plus both of them only really have super-effective moves against Gredinja anyway, but Khangaskhan's fighting-type weakness seems worse to me, maybe just my opinion there.

I was considering changing Aegislash out for something else though, since currently it doesn't seem to do too much in the battles - not quite sure what though, any thoughts? I'm going to test a Gardevoir out and see if it works, then just try a couple of other ones i think might work.

 

[LagAvenger]

I think this team is a pretty solid high offense team, but you should be able to add some nifty utility without negatively impacting your success. 4 of your 6 pokemon are physical, which is not ideal when intimidate is so popular. If you switched Aegislash to special, (Sacred Sword to Shadow Ball, Iron Head to Flash Cannon) and switched Shadow Sneak with Wide Guard, you'd not only add one of the best triples utility moves but also be able to handle other Aegislash, since Shadow Sneak will leave them vulnerable to getting OHKO'ed by a Shadow Ball. Without a second fighting move, if you're still concerned about beating normal types, (It's pretty much just Kangaskhan and the occasional Custap Berry/Belly Drum Snorlax) Low Kick for Extrasensory on Greninja will help against that. Alternatively, since you apparently aren't planning to send it in first, Mat Block could be a good pick up. Most people see Greninja and instantly send out their various Mat Block evading/countering utility Pokemon immediately, but in later rounds that utility is often dead or off the field, so it's much more likely to work. I also suggest Snatch in exchange of U-Turn, as even if you risk Talonflame, being able to steal predictable screens, Tailwinds, or various other types of utility moves is an invaluable tool, while the high speed nature of most Triples teams means that U-Turn is often unlikely to move first before Talonflame gets hit, or move at all due to the prevalence of Fake Out.

Like all high offense single target teams, you're quite vulnerable to redirection. Snatch won't work so you can't use it on Talonflame to get around it, but there's no reason you can't play the same game, and I think I have a suggestion about what you perceive to be possible dead weight. I don't know much about Magnezone's power in doubles, but it isn't exactly an incredible threat in Triples, and it can't really wall properly since it can't force people to target it. I also can't remember the last time I saw a M-Manectric, there's so many far more useful Megas for triples. I suggest removing it in favor of a Follow Me user of your own, Togekiss would be great to go along with your theme of dodging your own Earthquake's, but Jirachi would maintain the steel typing you want to wall with and is very tough to kill quickly. Another handy attribute of Jirachi is that your team also seems a bit vulnerable to Trick Room and would only be further vulnerable if you got rid of Shadow Sneak, and Jirachi can re-use Trick Room to give you back the advantage. If you remove the speed EV's from Aegislash and Magnezone if you keep it, together with Talonflame and M-Kanga's Sucker Punch, you could actually win the speed game against many TR teams without having to use a slot and waste a turn on your own Trick Room. Helping Hand would also let you get unexpected K.O.'s if you think you'll be fast enough to not need Follow Me on certain turns, or if it looks like the opponent is just spamming spread moves.