Team Torment

[pokefan0]

At a glance:

In Depth:

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
Ev's: 80 HP/ 252 Atk/ 176 Spe
Jolly Nature
--Iron Head
--Trick
--Stealth Rock
--U-turn

Explanation: I chose the traditional lead Jirachi set because of it's use of trick- something vital I considered when making this team. Trick can upset the use of stealth rock( while not always preventing it) but often allows for a free stealth rock myself, a view of the next pokemon myself, or a free switch-in because of Jirachi's nearly unparalled speed when using U-turn. Iron Head and Stealth Rock are pretty self explanatory, who doesn't love a little hax?

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
Ev's: 252 HP/ 4 Def/ 252 SpD
Impish Nature
--Whirlwind
--Spikes
--Roost
--Brave Bird

Explanation: Building off of stealth rock support and jirachi's trick, skarmory is usually my next move in the game. While still remaining physically bulky, the added special defense gives it more flexibility on otherwise immediately threating pokemon and can result in some unwelcome surprises for the opponent. It's main use is as a pseudo-phazer and spiker, allowing me to layer the field with several entry hazards.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Ev's: 136 HP/ 156 Def/ 216 Speed
Timid Nature
--Surf
--Thunderbolt
--Rapid Spin
--Recover

Explanation: Starmie has always had mutliple uses in the matagame but I found this one most beneficial to me. When considering my team, I knew I had very little resistance to entry hazards, and a rapid spinner was necessary- no pokemon generally fits that role better than starmie with it's very high level of speed, recover abilities, and possible life saver in natural cure. Starmie also brings a small element of offense to the team as it can still hit relatively hard out of its defensive set.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Ev's: 252 HP/ 220 DEf/ 36 Spe
Bold Nature
--Recover
--Thunder Wave
--Grass Knot
--HP Fire

Explanation: Celebi starts off the core of my team that is my "Cele-tran-tar" Combo. The defensive set accomplishes many of the goals I need it to especially in being a very effective counter to Gyrados, which otherwise can present a formidable force against my team when starmie goes, while also providing thunder wave support which can cripple an offensive assault once the speed boosts are eleminated. HP Fire can often catch teams by surprise, especially against unsuspecting scizors and gives celebi a little more flexibility versus earth power given fire attacks are already covered. Much like Starmie, Celebi can self-heal and self refresh thanks to natural cure, adding to the survivability.

Tyranitar @ Life Orb
Ability: Sandstorm
Ev's: 164 HP/ 252 Atk/ 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
--Crunch
--Pursuit
--Earthquake
--Stone Edge

Explanation: Ttar brings to the table a very strong physical attacker and a much needed resistance to pursuit which is commonly effective against two of my core players while utilizing pursuit himself. Ttar also does a great job of effectively countering heatran completely with earthquake and zapdos with stone edge. The choice to use Life Orb over Choice Band was predominately decided by the need for flexibility and ultimately surprise from the occasional non-attentive player who may not notice the life orb damage. Sandstream also provides incredible support for my main player; Heatran, dwindling the opponents health while keeping his intact and also countering opponents weather effects.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Ev's: 244 HP/ 220 Spe/ 32 Spa/ 12 SP.Def
Calm Nature
--Lava PLume
--Torment
--Substitute
--Protect

Explanation: The inspiration behind my team, Heatran finishes out the combo with celebi and tyranitar and is the ultimate player in my strategy. Heatran benefits highly from stealth rock and spikes support, and is backed up heavily by starmie's rapid spinning, preventing any damage on entry provided I do get a rapid spin in. Celebi also provides great bait for flash fires which in turn increase his already powerful Lava Plume that is known to burn and cause even more trouble for the opposing team especially on many of his common switch-ins such as gyrados who really hate being burned. The idea is to get a substitute out as quick as possible, which once down can be impossible to break, and use protect to scout out possible explosions and choiced moves that only serve to make the use of torment easier- the move of which absolutely destroys choice users, hence the ultimate benefit of jirachi's trick.

 

[KnightoftheWind]

One issue I see is the lack of Toxic Spikes. Torment Heatran is only deadly when there are two layers of Toxic Spikes bothering all grounded non-Steel types, especially Swampert with both Earthquake and Surf, who can break Heatran's Substitute without being hindered by Torment. Without the residual from Toxic Spikes, Heatran will just end up sitting there, not doing major damage to the opponent. This can be easily be taken care of by replacing Skarmory with Forretress.

Forretress @ Shed Shell | Careful
252 HP / 44 Atk / 212 SpD
Spikes / Toxic Spikes / Payback / Rapid Spin

Forretress fills the role of setting up Spikes that Skarmory did, but it can also set-up Toxic Spikes, a great asset to Heatran. Not only that, it also fills Starmie's role of Rapid Spinning, and can deal with Ghosts by using Payback, 3HKOing Rotom-A while it can't do much back if it doesn't have Will-O-Wisp or Overheat.

Now with Forretress covering Starmie's job, you can use something else in its place. You are weak to opposing Heatran, every offensive variety can outspeed everything on your team except Jirachi, who can't do much back, and strike them for super-effective damage. You could also do well with an extra Fire and Ground resist. This is why I recommend a RestTalk Gyarados over Starmie.

Gyarados @ Leftovers | Adamant
248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Rest / Sleep Talk / Waterfall / Roar

Gyarados is very nice glue for your team, providing valuable resistances to Fire, Ground, Fighting and Bug, types that are quite annoying for the rest of your team. It also counters Lucario, Infernape and Heatran, thanks to its nice defenses and Intimidate. Roar works well too, dealing a ton of residual damage when Forretress has set up entry hazards.

Good luck with your team.

 

[jc104]

I love Torment Heatran, and this is a generally well constructed team. KnightoftheWind has really hit the nail on the head with his suggestions, so I'm just going to say a few things:

-Jirachi is really quite unreliable as a Stealth Rocker. I suggest you put Stealth Rock on your Tyranitar EDIT: or Celebi (I forgot that it even learnt the move). Jirachi can then run Ice Punch to help deal with DDmence, to whom you have a weakness. It also helps with some leads such as Dragonite and Gliscor

-A Gyarados as suggested above is a really good idea - RestTalk Roar Gyarados should run an Impish nature though in my opinion. You may also want to run more speed than that, because if you get Roar through sleep talk, you can remove the opponent before they have a chance to move.

-Generally the reason for 92 speed on Tyranitar is to be able to 2HKO Skarm with Stone Edge before it Roosts. However, you will likely miss the 2HKO mark due to Life Orb over Choice Band, and you have the option to EQ as it Roosts for the KO. Many Skarmory are faster than this these days anyway. Therefore I suggest you put some EVs into Special Defence to help deal with Latias. You will almost always ourun the (non taunt) SpDef Skarmory with 76 or 80 speed, but you may run none or close to none, since your team has no real problems with Skarmory.

EDIT - as Megan_Fox stated below, you will rarely surprise anyone with a life orb (obviously I didn't even read that bit he quoted.) I don't think, however, that you are likely to surprise that many people by running lum berry or Expert Belt either unless you are very careful about how you use it. Most attentive players are likely to notice the power drop from Choice Band or the speed drop from the Choice scarf, so you need to be careful either to only use it when it KOs or does very minimal damage, or when against very slow walls. This is one reason why the "bait tar" set from the analysis runs quite a lot of speed. In reality, you do not need a Tyranitar that takes on its counters, but a Tyranitar who counters what it always counters well - i.e CM Latias and non-choice Heatran because they beat TormentTran, and Rotom-A because it blocks Rapid Spin. I would still recommend Lum Berry, partly for the increased durability, and to help against Will-o-wisp Rotom. I also realised that you probably ought to put the Evs that were in speed into HP before spDef. If you use it to set up Stealth Rock as I suggested above, you could use leftovers as well.

 

[Megan_Fox]

I agree with the suggestions above but i also feel ttar should be changed around a little.

"The choice to use Life Orb over Choice Band was predominately decided by the need for flexibility and ultimately surprise from the occasional non-attentive player who may not notice the life orb damage."

First of all, no good player would miss the life orb recoil that t-tar has therefore making your element of surprise go away. Furthermore, ttar normally needs as much hp as he can get in order to pursuit the likes of latias, rotom-a etc. I recommend changing life orb to either expert belt or lum berry for this reason. Expert belt will still help u retain more power in your hits while lum berry can be used to take the inevitable will-o-wisps from rotom-a. Can also help with other status's as well.

As Jc101 stated above, you will likely miss the 2HKO on skarmory due the loss of power from Choice band so the speed evs are unnessesary.

 

[pokefan0]

Haha yeah I didn't generally think the life orb would work too well, just something out there for fun.
As far as gyrados and forretress go, I had orignally considered putting both in the places that are occupied by starmie and skarm, so that's a real relief and i'll definitely give that a try. My only real concern would be with toxic spikes being relatively ineffective currently but that is a debate to some extent and your point about swampert brought up a horrific one-on-one between torment tran and a mixpert so i'll definitely give that a shot.

 

[The SPrinkLer]

Hi. The first thing I notice with this team is the lack of a spin-blocker. You're utilizing many entry hazards, yet you are very susceptible to getting them all blown away in one turn. I think Celebi can be replaced with Rotom for a few reasons. Rotom still counters Gyarados. Rotom also makes a better answer to Lucario and Scizor, the former being quite a potent threat to your team. I want you to run a RestTalk set with enough speed to beat Adamant Luke. Rotom also beats bulky waters as well as Celebi, barring Swampert, which Skarmory takes care of just fine, since it can set up Spikes on it then WW it away. If you are missing Celebi's Thunder Wave, you can run Discharge on Rotom to have a solid 30% paralysis chance, something important when a Heatran comes in.

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Timid l 252 HP/ 68 Def/ 188 Spd
-Discharge/Thunderbolt
-Will-o-Wisp
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

The reason for running a Washer form is simply to bluff Hydro Pump, so Heatran and Tyranitar are more wary when switching in. Ok I honestly don't know why you are running that Tyranitar set. You aren't running enough SpD to be able to take Latias' hits any better, or Gengar's Focus Blasts. I want you to run a Choice Scarf Tyranitar to be able to revenge kill aforementioned threats very effectively, while adding a check to MixMence and Lucario. Tyranitar makes a fine answer to most heavy offense teams as well, since it makes one of the best initial switch-ins to Azelf, and you can just Crunch for the OHKO.

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Jolly l 4 HP/ 252 Att/ 252 Spd
Stone Edge/ Crunch/ Pursuit/ Earthquake or Superpower

Earthquake or Superpower is basically hitting Jirachi, Metagross, and other Steel types harder, or hitting Tyranitar harder. Your team seems to handle both well, so it's up to you. I hope this helps, and good luck with the team!

 

[pokefan0]

Thank you for the excellent rate sprinkles, im playing around with alot of these changes right now but the rotom one seems to make the most sense as I had a disastrous run-in with a rapid spin to ruin the endgame strategy for me.

 

[Enygma]

Hiya!

Great team! But one glance at this team and I noticed a HUGE MixApe/NPApe problem. MixApe absolutely tears through this team. The only thing that might stand a chance is Starmie (who might be too weak/dead once NPApe shows up late-game) and ScarfRachi (who might not have its Scarf anymore, but still has nothing threatening against Ape anyways).

I see that Starmie is absolutely useless on this team. You can opt for Tentacruel if you feel like keeping Rapid Spin, but I prefer a Scarf Latias.

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Modest, 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
• Trick
• Surf
• Draco Meteor
• Hidden Power Fire

Scarf Latias can do wonders for your team. It can take care of your Ape weakness, Luke weakness (don't worry about Crunch since only Adamant ones carry it, and they are dented by HP Fire or Surf). Trick also helps TormentTran by giving the opponent an unwanted Choice item, and having as many Choiced foes as possible is vital for TormentTran to sweep.

Jirachi is also dragging this team down as well. You can always use LeadTar over this, but I don't want to make this team too similar to Philip's. TormentTran needs Toxic Spikes, so I will recommend a Tentacruel somewhere on this team, since Forretress will only add to the Fire weakness, and the UU Spikers suck with helping your team.

And what exactly does Celebi contribute to this team? IMO, you need a spin-blocker more than you need a CeleTran, since TormentTran thrives on entry hazards. IMO a bulky RhysTalker is needed over Celebi.

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Calm, 252 HP / 134 Def / 120 SpD
• Rest
• Sleep Talk
• Thunderbolt / Discharge
• Hydro Pump / Will-O-Wisp

I chose Rotom-W for you so that you could deal with enemy non-choiced Heatran (which TormentTran hates) and most notably Swampert. You can always opt for Rotom-C, since it can scare Swampert, but make sure you have Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball if opting for Rotom-C, so you can still have something to handle Heatran that switches in thinking you used/have Leaf Storm. IMO Tyranitar and Skarmory have great synergy with Rotom-W, beasting Fighting moves aimed at Tyranitar (coff Ape) and Electrics at Skarmory (coff Rotom coff Zapdos).

(EDIT: damn iPhone ><" i was too busy typing and when I was done, someone already mentioned what I suggested. fml.)
I REALLY wanted to add more, but by doing more than 1/3 of the team's suggestions really takes away the fun from other team raters who like to rip teams apart. Good luck!

 

[george182]

On t-tar, I would suggest expert belt. Use a semi-bait set like
T-tar @ expert belt
Brave
164 hp, 112 atk, 232 sp.atk
- Pursuit/ crunch
- Superpower/crunch
- Fire blast/thunderbolt
- Ice beam

Still retains the bulk, hides away life orb recoil, can use pursuit to fake a choice band, then ice beam/fireblast a skarmroy/hippowdon planning to wall you, or a sweeper like salamence/Lucario, or superpower which can OHKO blissey, lucario etc and works off his higher atk stat.

Thunderbolt hurts skarmory/gyrados/suicune, while fireblast OHKO's skarmory and hits scizor and forretress hard, and gyrados will fear stone edge.

A mixed tyranitar will cause more pain than a pure life orb physical one and can make use of an expert belt more. So I would suggest mixed.