~Talon Squadron~

Introduction

This is a completely updated version of my old team, and I've had a very high win rate with it on Shoddy. I've tweaked EVs, Natures, Movesets and more. The newer version is much more effective than the old version ever was. My win rate is about 85% on Shoddy.
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First Glance


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Analysis


Swampert @ Leftovers
Torrent
Impish Nature
252 HP/252 Defense/6 HP
-Earthquake
-Avalanche
-Roar
-Stealth Rock


Swampert is my leading Pokemon. I am running the purely physical set in order to be able to wall Tyranitar better, as Swampert is my main counter for him. Coincidentally, it also allows him to take hits from Garchomp, Salamence and Gliscor better, OHKOing them with a vengeful Avalanche. Not content with being solely my secondary Physical Wall, Swampert functions as my much needed phazer to stop anything not using Taunt to set up (The three most common Taunters are Heatran which is OHKO'd by Earthquake, Tyranitar which is hit hard by Earthquake, and Gyarados who is handled by Swampert's companion). Swampert also functions as my Spiker (errr...Rocker) and does a great job with it at that. My Swampert is not made to be a Hippowdon counter, but can Roar it away or mildly threaten it with Avalanche. I'm not sure if the Mixed set would work better on my team or not. I've tried both out and both are equal. I'm open to suggestions here.


Weezing @ Black Sludge
Levitate
Bold Nature
252 HP/252 Defense/6 Special Attack
-Thunderbolt
-Flamethrower
-Will-o-wisp
-Pain Split


Weezing is my primary physical wall, and the counter to physical fighting types and Gyarados. Thunderbolt 2HKO's Gyarados, and hits Skarmory and other flying types pretty hard. Flamethrower is a must to get rid of Heracross and hit Ice types such as Weavile and Abomasnow. Will-o-wisp cripples physical attackers and gives some nice residual damage to other Pokemon. I'm thinking of replacing it with Toxic to cripple Hippowdon and Swampert, but I'm not sure it is worth losing the attack drop over this.






Blissey @ Leftovers
Natural Cure
Calm Nature
252 Defense/40 Special Attack/216 Special Defense
-Seismic Toss
-Softboiled
-Thunder Wave
-Flamethrower

Obi's Blissey set is the one that has become the most useful for me. Calm nature allows me to soak up more Lucario Aura Sphere hits and helps with Special Walling in general. With all the potent Special Attacking threats out there, Blissey needs all the Special Defense she can get. Personally, I think the only reason to run Bold on Blissey would be if you are running Ice Beam so you can stand up to Dugtrio, Garchomp and Salamence, or if you are running the Counter set. Seismic Toss is my primary attack to hit everything for 100 damage. Softboiled is there for recovery. Thunder Wave cripples fast threats like Gengar, Azelf and ScarfTran. Flamethrower allows me to hit Skarmory very hard, and hit the ghosts that Seismic Toss misses. It can also hurt any Weavile who switches in.


Salamence @ Leftovers
Intimidate
Adamant Nature
252 Attack/136 Speed/120 HP
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Substitute
-Dragon Dance


This is my very effective version of the Dragon Dancing Salamence. Dragon Claw and Earthquake are it's two best Physical attacks with great coverage between them and are always standard on Physical Salamence. Dragon Dance is the key to this set, letting Salamence become faster and stronger than many other Pokemon. Substitute is the best thing that ever happened to Salamence. There are many, MANY Pokemon out there who's only way to deal with Salamence is a status move. Substitute completely negates their advantages. It works great against SubSeeders who can only sit there with their Leech Seed failing to hit Mence while safe behind a Subsitute, Salamence Dragon Dances for the sweep. Substitute also gives me an insurance policy against Ice Sharders, so I can hit them while they only break my Substitute.


Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Levitate
Modest Nature
252 Special Attack/252 Speed/6 HP
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-Thunderbolt
-Hidden Power {Ice}


ScarfGar saves my whole team. It OHKOs Alakazam, Azelf, Tyranitar, Gyarados, Salamence, Garchomp, Weavile, Mamoswine, Gliscor, and other non-scarf Gengars. It also has a slight chance of 2HKOing Hippowdon. ScarfGar's role is to clear the way for Salamence and Lucario to obtain a clean sweep.


Lucario @ Life Orb
Inner Focus
252 Speed/252 Attack/6 HP
-Close Combat
-Crunch
-Extremespeed
-Swords Dance


SD Luke is the heaviest hitter on my team, and also functions as a revenge killer against weakened fragile Pokemon. It is my answer to everything that Salamence and Gengar can't hit incredibly hard. This means Blissey, Regice, SpecsTrio, Dusknor with Ice Punch (if I have a SD up when it comes in), and many others. Since this is a completely standard set, I don't really have to explain it much.

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Conclusion


My three walls and three sweepers work together very well, covering each other from their various threats. My main problems are Hippowdon and TrickSpecs Alakazam (which, if I'm not careful, can cripple a few members of my team). Any suggestions or judgment would be greatly appreciated.
 

cim

happiness is such hard work
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Pretty decent, though Swampert lead is vulnerable to be Taunted, set up on, and stuff.

Thunder Wave on Bliss isn't really all that needed, stuff on this team's really fast already... maybe Ice Beam would be better for the hax and usefulness in killing stuff. Or Sing. Sing is for true ballas. I really don't think your Blissey needs more than 176 SDef.

Tyranitar is just as walled by MixPert as by Physical Pert; they both have Earthquake... Who's Roar for? I'd replace it with something else, maybe Curse or something. I dunno.

Otherwise, a pretty solid, standard team. I suck at weakness analyzing, so I can't help you there. Medicham comes to mind though.
 
Like Chris is me said, you don't need that much special defense on that Blissey. This is not a stall team, so why use Obi Bliss? You should be aiming for a simple 350 Special Defense, much like Snorlax used to. You can then dump 252 into defense, with the rest for HP or special attack. You need 40 Special Attack EVs for 2HKOs on important pokes with Flamethrower, so keep that. I would then say put 4-8 Speed EVs and then maybe the rest into HP.

No major threats I can see, overall pretty boring, yet effective.
 
Thanks guys.

So, I'll try swapping out some of the EVs on Blissey, and maybe put in Sing. The only thing that I really dislike about sing is the 55% accuracy. Would Toxic be better on Blissey than Thunder Wave?

Edit: Roar is for Ninjask and other Baton Passers/Set-uppers. It works pretty well, and I'm not going to replace it.
 

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