Manifestation!!
He's coming for you...
He's coming for you...
Some of you may or may have noticed that I haven't posted a RMT in quite some time. Well, this is because I have been using this team the entire time, and to some ridiculous success. The purpose of this team is to help set up a sweep with one of the best Pokemon in the entire metagame; Heatran. For starters, Heatran has the second highest special attack in the OU tier, only behind Alakazam and Porygon-Z, both of which are too frail to base a team around of. Heatran also sports brilliant typing that nets him only three weaknesses (fighting, ground, and water). Let's also not forget the fact that his ability, Flash Fire, gives him an immunity to one of the most commonly used attack types in the game, fire, and his steel typing gives him resistances to normal, steel, and even dragon type attacks. All of these things combined make Heatran a very difficult monster to take down, and an even more difficult monster of defeat. So, to start with my team, I knew I wanted Heatran in here.
Doesn't he look so fearsome?
After I had picked my main sweeper, I knew I needed a lead that could help support him. I began to think for a moment; what can counter, or at least wall, Heatran? The most obvious choice was Blissey. I figured one of the best ways to shorten Blissey's walling abilities was to lay toxic spikes on the field. I wanted to get spikes and toxic spikes on the field as soon as possible. I considered a few options:
A rose, a spinny metal thing, an iron bird, and a frozen ghost?
I looked over each of my choices. Froslass was out pretty quickly simply due to the fact that it can't do much, and it's killed way too easily by a decent Scizor player. Skarmory seemed like a decent choice but it really has never seemed like it does much other than lay spikes and whirlwind. Roserade can be a great lead with it's good attacking power and ability to use sleep powder and toxic spikes. Forretress can also be great however, being able to lay both types of spikes, spin them away, and beat Rotoms one-on-one with Payback. I went with Roserade because the Sleep Powder seemed pretty appealing to me.
Also, can you say perfect synergy?
After that, I knew any team that tried to lay a lot of entry hazards down needed a spin blocker. There are only three ghost types available for OU that are very bulky at all, and these are Dusknoir, Spiritomb, and Rotom-A. Of these three, Dusknoir just isn't a very good Pokemon at all, and the pursuit weakness without any decent resistances knocked him out pretty fast. Spiritomb can be pretty good with its typing that leaves him weakness-less, but he can't really counter anything outside of that. In the end, like pretty much everybody else nowadays, I chose Rotom.
A flower, an oven, and a volcanic god of death,
At this point I began rethinking. I started looking at my three team members and kind of thought, "do I really want to use another team slot for a member that only lays spikes?" While Roserade seemed like a fantastic lead, I started to second guess myself. I eventually switched Roserade around with Forretress.
Sorry Roserade. :'(
This seemed like a pretty good line-up to base my team off of. I knew I didn't want Forretress setting up all three entry hazards up all by himself, so I wanted someone else to be putting of the rocks. I didn't want to waste a moveslot on Heatran with Stealth Rock because I want him to have as many attacks to use in sweeping as possible. I weighed my options here. There were a couple Pokemon in particular that seemed good choices for laying Stealth Rock:
Ohmigawd, the evolution of Mudkipz D=
Frankly, these two both seemed like excellent choices for my team. Swampert could lay rocks and is one of the best counters for Tyranitar in existence, and he can phaze pretty well to boot. Metagross, however, can be an tanking god and can explode when he's done. I knew I wanted someone on my team to be able to explode; it's simply a good thing to have on a team. I still wanted something that could wall a lot of attacks though, so I was leaning towards Swampert. However, I figured Metagross could run a fairly defensive set, right? I picked Metagross, not only because he can explode, but he's yet another option against those pesky Outraging Salamences and Draco Meteoring Latiases.
Damn girl, you is lookin' fiiiine.
I immediately noticed a pretty big weakness to annoying Pokemon such as Mixed Infernape, MixMence, Specs/Scarf Latias, and especially Dragon Dance Gyarados. Rotom can cover a few of these threats, but even with all that defense he's still quite fragile due to his very poor HP. I needed something that could cover as many of these threats as possible. I picked my favorite Pokemon with basically my favorite set ever. Her name is Latias.
The spiker, the blocker, the tank, the stopper, the sweeper.
I really wasn't entirely sure where to go from here. I couldn't see very many glaring weaknesses in my team...I honestly thought I had covered a lot of the metagame. I knew I wanted a phazer and a status absorber, but how could I mix both of those things into one Pokemon? Oh wait, RestTalk Gyarados.
Oh yeah.
And with that, team Manifestation was born. I still remember a long time ago when I went out with this team for the first time and absolutely demolished twenty one battlers in a row. I've grown to love this team to death, but it's about time I retire it. I will admit, one of my goals on Smogon is to get a RMT thread 5-starred and archived. Maybe this could be the one to do it?
Now, my friends, let's go a little in-depth:
Forretress
Forretress
- Item: Leftovers
- Nature: Careful
- Ability: Sturdy
- EVs: 252 HP | 4 Atk | 252 Sp. Def
- Moveset:
- Spikes -- A fantastic move. While it only hits Pokemon that are on the ground, it can severely dent them. With three layers of spikes, Pokemon like Scizor have a very hard time coming in repeatedly on my team.
- Toxic Spikes -- Another very good move. This hits even less than Spikes hits, with steel Pokemon being completely immune. However, it makes Pokemon like Infernape and Blissey extremely less threatening.
- Rapid Spin -- Forretress is one of the best spinners in my opinion. He's bulky enough to take a few hits while he spins, and he has access to the move I'm about to present next that lets him take on the most common spin blocker with relative ease.
- Payback -- Oh, Forretress. Once we all realized you could use Payback, you became so much better to us. When you come in and try to spin away those nasty Stealth Rocks and Rotom comes in, you can simply let him hit you and then get complete revenge on it. That Rotom will think again after it's demolished by this spinny balls' payback.
- Description: Forretress is one of the best leads in this metagame, in my opinion. He's extremely bulky, making it very hard to kill him. Let's take a quick glance at how he fares against the most commonly used leads:
- Azelf - I lose usually, as lead Azelf often carry either Fire Blast or Taunt, both of which are not good for Forretress.
- Metagross - Win very easily. The worst he can do to me is explode, and even that isn't going to do much. Usually I got two or three layers of spikes down AND I get to spin away his rocks.
- Jirachi - Just stay in and use spikes. If he tricks a scarf onto me, who cares? It's not like I had plans of using Forretress for anything else anyway, and that's good for me because that means he can't trick the scarf onto a different member like Gyarados.
- Swampert - Oh I win easily. Three layers of spikes and his rocks gone.
- Aerodactyl - This thing sucks. I'll usually just switch to Latias as he taunts and I'll just work with what I got from there.
- Infernape - Make a quick escape to Latias.
- Hippowdon - I get lots of spikes, he gets nothing but sand. All he can do is use Roar.
- Ninjask - I'll usually throw down a layer and let him think he's getting a lot of boosts. Then I switch to Gyarados and laugh in his face.
- Bronzong - Switch to Gyarados to see what I'm up against. I don't want Forretress to be taking a sleep here. If he's Hypnosis-less, I get lots of spikes.
- Roserade - Let Gyarados take the sleep. Switch back to Forry and set up as many spikes as I can while he wastes two turns throwing up Toxic Spikes that everybody on my team is immune to.
As you can see, Forretress wins against most common leads, making him an excellent choice for my team.
Rotom-H
Rotom-H
- Item: Leftovers
- Nature: Bold
- Ability: Levitate
- EVs: 252 HP | 168 Def | 88 Spe
- Moveset:
- Thunderbolt -- A basic STAB move on Rotom. It deals pretty good damage against anything that doesn't resist it, and, of course, it maims Gyarados.
- Overheat -- Rotom-H's signature move. This move absolutely demolishes stupid Scizor and Lucario. While Rotom doesn't have the highest special attack, this still does massive damage against anything that is weak to fire.
- Substitute -- The interesting part of this set. I don't see many non-Charge Beam Rotom's using Substitute, and I'm not sure why. Substitute gives Rotom an excellent opportunity to be safe from pursuiting Tyranitars and it gives me an excellent shield to hide behind so Blissey's don't poison me.
- Shadow Ball -- Another basic STAB. It's lovely to be under a sub and get Gengar's with these. Very lovely.
- Description: Rotom-A is the best spin blocker in OU, period. It's typing gives it crazy awesome resistences and immunities that allow it to counter all kinds of things, and it's bulky as a god, making it near impossible to defeat. My particular set makes it a good way to stall out Blissey and to get more spike damage on things as it causes a lot of switches.
Metagross
- Item: Leftovers
- Nature: Careful
- Ability: Clear Body
- EVs: 252 HP | 40 Def | 216 Sp. Def
- Moveset:
- Meteor Mash -- A great STAB move on Metagross. Even though this set is defensive, if I get a lucky attack boost with this I can even sweep my opponent, which is pretty delicious.
- Earthquake -- At full health, this Metagross survives a +2 Close Combat from Lucario and OHKO's with Earthquake. This guy isn't my answer to Lucario, but I'm just saying. Earthquake is simply a good coverage move to have.
- Stealth Rock -- Metagross's main mission is to lay these babies down. With all my hazards down, the opponent is going to have an extremely difficult time beating me.
- Explosion -- I'm sure we all know what this does. Even without attack EVs, Explosion from this guy absolutely tears through pretty much anything that's not rock or steel typed.
- Description: I designed this Metagross set to lay down rocks and take as many hits as possible. The moves allow Metagross to dish out some pain on anything that deserves it, too. Even without attack EVs, Metagross still sits at a very respectable 306 attack, and with an attack boost from Meteor Mash, I can even sweep teams. Explosion is the ultimate move that let's me go out with a bang.
Latias
- Item: Choice Scarf
- Nature: Timid
- Ability: Levitate
- EVs: 4 HP | 252 Sp. Atk | 252 Spe
- Moveset:
- Draco Meteor -- Um, ouch. A 210 base power move coming off of 319 special attack with a type that is only resisted by steels. Someone is going to get hurt here. This also allows me to destroy Dragon Dance Salamence or Dragonite, if anyone uses those anymore.
- Surf -- This is my go-to move when I'm up against an Infernape or Heatran.
- Thunderbolt -- Gyarados can't sweep my anymore. Vaporeon is no longer a nuisance. Must I continue?
- Trick -- The fun part of this set. Any form of wall is basically ruined, and I could possible get leftovers or some other useful item in the process.
- Description: Without Scarf Latias, my team would have major problems with things like Salamence, Gyarados, and Infernape. Scarf Latias is an amazing revenge killer, and once it's done killing things, it can trick it's scarf and permanently cripple something else.
Gyarados
- Item: Leftovers
- Nature: Impish
- Ability: Intimidate
- EVs: 252 HP | 252 Def | 4 Sp. Def
- Moveset:
- Waterfall -- Gyarados's main form of attacking. Even without any attack EVs, Gyarados can hit a lot of things pretty hard with this.
- Rest -- This move allows Gyarados to recover any loss health and rid itself of any status effects.
- Sleep Talk -- While Gyarados is an dreamland, he can continue to pound things with waterfalls and make these run away with his roaring.
- Roar -- My phazing move on the team, and Gyarados utilizes it very well.
- Description: The best status absorber and phazer in the game, in my opinion. This guy is such a defensive beast. He is the ultimate stopper of Lucario and can take Scizor Bullet Punches and U-turns like no other. He can phaze pretty much any stat upper and heal all his health away when he's done.
Heatran
- Item: Leftovers
- Nature: Timid
- Ability: Flash Fire
- EVs: 4 HP | 252 Sp. Atk | 252 Spe
- Moveset:
- Fire Blast -- Heatran's main STAB move and an extremely powerful one at that.
- Earth Power -- Mostly a coverage move; it hits nearly everything Fire Blast can't.
- Substitute -- My favorite part of this set. Heatran causes so many switches, it allows him to set up a substitute that really helps him with sweeping and to avoid paralyze that can seriously dent my sweeping abilities.
- Hidden Power Grass -- This is a very important move to this set. Without it, Heatran would be walled to death and destroyed by the likes of Starmie and Swampert and Vaporeon. With this, all of them are either killed in either one or two shots.
- Description: This bad boy is what inspired this team. This guy can sweep a lot better than you may be thinking. He boasts massive special attack and enough speed to outpace various slow threats. He can beat Blissey easily with Toxic Spikes up, especially if Earth Power nets a lucky special defense drop. His moveset hits pretty much everything but the flying dragons for neutral, and those are taken care of by the rest of my team.
And that's my team in a nutshell. Rate it, everyone!
