The Chomps

[Ignismare]

Hello. Like everybody and their mother, I kinda got excited about Garchomp, so I created this simple little team. I'm kinda new to competitive Pokemon (it's my first post on Smogon :) ), so I would love to get as much criticism as possible, but please, be gentle :P. The team isn't HEAVILY tested. I played like 10 or so games and got a 5/5. So...yeah, that's all there is to say beside the actual team introduction.

Team Building

Obvious base for the team. I decided to play a "play a safe defensive game until Garchomp is safe to come in and sweep" kind of game, nothing too innovative. To make that happen, the next logical choice was...

Heatran. He makes sure all the Ice Shards and Ice Beams connect onto something that doesn't care THAT much. Still, Heatran has a ton of Pokes he doesn't appreciate facing.

Here comes a brilliant partner for the fire...turtle...toad...thing. This stashed gentleman excels at handling all water and fighting type moves, while Heatran handles his problems with dark and grass types. A perfect pair for a strong defensive core.

And what's a good defensive core that can't get even better :)? The OU queen of handling special attacks fits in pretty nicely.

I realized most of my team doesn't take any Sandstorm damage (or heals it up with lefties), so why not add this guy? He serves as a weather counter against all those pesky Politoeds, while bringing in a few moves destroying the team's bigger problems.

I couldn't really decide what to put into my last slot. I kinda analyzed the layout a bit and decided to put in some EQ protection. I browsed through the list of OU Pokemon and decided to take a nice little bird home to make Tyranitar's and Heatran's job of dodging Earthquakes a tad bit easier. And then...BANG, Skarmory: Immune to both EQ AND Sandstorm, very durable, works as a great phaser and a physical wall (which I lacked for some reason).

Then I listened to all the advices given to me by everyone on this thread and swapped Skarmory for Gliscor, mostly to fix the glaring Fighting type problem. He does all the things old metal birdie did (well, maybe except phazing, but I get access to Taunt, and that's tons of fun too), but heals twice as much and is immune to all forms status, not just poison.
So yeah, that's how the team came to be. I didn't use any guides or anything, just used the information gathered from watching OU matches on showdown and reading a lot of Smogon.

Cho'Gath (Garchomp) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Stone Edge

When I designed this guy, I was pretty sure there will be lots of other 'chomps on the server. So how to better annihilate them if not by outspeeding them with a tasty Outrage to the face? I'm pretty sure there's not many max speed-jolly-scarf Garchomps running around, and even if so, getting at least a speed tie will be critical in dispatching them, as any competent OU dragon (including other 'chomps) can instant-kill him.

HoaB (Heatran) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Magma Storm
- Substitute
- Earth Power
- Toxic

I decided to go for something less obvious. Everybody expects the defensive variant, so a surprise max-Sp.Attk. Magma Storm can really put a dent in many pokes, especially if comboed with an unswitchable Toxic draining health like crazy. Earth Power comes in for coverage, Sub for protection, Baloon to avoid early EQs. He also protects Garchomp from all the Ice- and Dragon-type moves he might not appreciate.

ROAAAR (Tyranitar) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 42 SAtk / 216 SDef
Naughty Nature
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock

A steady counter to Reuniclus, Gliscor, Ferrothorn, Skarmory (the last two if Heatran is dead) and a lot more. I don't know if there are any other ways to remove as many common problems, but old ROAAAR seems to work just fine for now.

(insert egg joke here) (Chansey) (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature
- Protect
- Wish
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss

The standard Chansey build. Stalls Sp. attackers, heals with Wish, poisons, you know the drill.

Pringles (Jellicent) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt

I decided to make a little bit more of an experimental EV spread, mainly because it's ability, typing and access to Will-O-Wisp give it a huge advantage over all Physical sweepers while it's stats let him live all non-super effective special attacks. Plus, he blends in really well with Heatran.

Cutcutcut...CUT (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 40 Def / 252 HP / 216 Spd
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Taunt

A really good physical wall, fixing the glaring problem with Fighting attacks. Can outstall most things in existence, scout with Protect and annoy the hell out of anything with a pretty fast Taunt.


So...yeah, that's all of them. In advance, I thank you for all the help I can get to make this thing better. Also, if you find any errors, sorry for my bad English :).

 

[ganj4lF]

Hi. Your team, although nice, seems to have a quite glaring weakness to Fighting attacks. Jellicent is immune to them, of course, but once it's down your team is basically dismantled. Threats like Lucario and Conkeldurr, that can easily set up in Chansey's face, can then proceed to do major damage while tanking your hits (Conkeldurr) or just plain OHKOing everything (Lucario) after Garchomp takes some residual damage (25%ish). A reasonable solution could be to swap Skarmory for a Gliscor. With both Gliscor and Jellicent, you have an answer to every Lucario and Conkeldurr set out there. Gliscor is also immune to Sandstorm, and can stall out quite a bit of threats, or just Taunt them to uselessness if they are walls. It also comes with a resistance to Fighting, immunities to Ground and Electric, and a built-in regeneration tool in Poison Heal. Also, it's quite fast, allowing it to prevent certain pokemons from set-upping, thing that Skarmory / Jellicent can't do.

Gliscor

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb | Poison Heal
Impish | 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spe
- Substitute
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Toxic / Taunt

This set checks Lucario perfectly since it outspeeds 252 Spe Adamant, which is the most common variant, and isn't OHKOd by +2 Espeed, while KOing back with EQ. Conkeldurr is also easily handled by stalling him or preventing set-up if it's not statused and you opted for Taunt. As a bonus, you outspeed and OHKO all non-balloon, non-scarfed Heatrans.

Also, another thing, your Tyranitar set just doesn't make sense. You run two special attacks and max Attack, and that means 2 out of 3 of your attacks are incredibly weak, while the third has only decent coverage. Naughty nature is also terrible, since it cripples Tyranitar's special walling abilities. I suggest switching to a more classic MixTar, that still allows to 2HKO Reuniclus (your set fails to OHKO, too; MixTar can also run Chople if you want a failsafe way to kill Reuniclus) while sporting stronger Special attacks and an overall better Special Defense. You could think a bit more if you want to use Ice Beam, since many threats that hate Ice Beam can pummel Tyranitar before it can move (Garchomp, Lando, Dragons, they all carry a Ground SE move (if not Superpower)), while Superpower allows you to get a solid hit on blobs / Steel switch-ins, and Terrakion.

MixTar

Tyranitar @ Leftovers / Chople Berry | Sand Stream
Sassy | 252 HP / 64 SpA / 216 SpD
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Crunch
- Superpower / Ice Beam

Hope it helped! Good luck for your team.

 

[Ignismare]

Your team, although nice, seems to have a quite glaring weakness to Fighting attacks. Jellicent is immune to them, of course, but once it's down your team is basically dismantled. Threats like Lucario and Conkeldurr, that can easily set up in Chansey's face, can then proceed to do major damage while tanking your hits (Conkeldurr) or just plain OHKOing everything (Lucario) after Garchomp takes some residual damage (25%ish). A reasonable solution could be to swap Skarmory for a Gliscor. With both Gliscor and Jellicent, you have an answer to every Lucario and Conkeldurr set out there. Gliscor is also immune to Sandstorm, and can stall out quite a bit of threats, or just Taunt them to uselessness if they are walls. It also comes with a resistance to Fighting, immunities to Ground and Electric, and a built-in regeneration tool in Poison Heal. Also, it's quite fast, allowing it to prevent certain pokemons from set-upping, thing that Skarmory / Jellicent can't do.

I'll definitely give Gliscor a try.

Also, another thing, your Tyranitar set just doesn't make sense. You run two special attacks and max Attack, and that means 2 out of 3 of your attacks are incredibly weak, while the third has only decent coverage. Naughty nature is also terrible, since it cripples Tyranitar's special walling abilities. I suggest switching to a more classic MixTar, that still allows to 2HKO Reuniclus (your set fails to OHKO, too; MixTar can also run Chople if you want a failsafe way to kill Reuniclus) while sporting stronger Special attacks and an overall better Special Defense. You could think a bit more if you want to use Ice Beam, since many threats that hate Ice Beam can pummel Tyranitar before it can move (Garchomp, Lando, Dragons, they all carry a Ground SE move (if not Superpower)), while Superpower allows you to get a solid hit on blobs / Steel switch-ins, and Terrakion.

Aaand the automatic EV setter on showdown bites me in the tail. I guess it set EVs for a different set (dancing one maybe?). I was pretty sure it'll give me the standard mixtar set, so I clicked it without thinking. I'll definitely fix that. That's a honest mistake. But it does explain why did he get so damaged by attacks he should've soaked quite nicely.
But I'm not that fond of switching Ice Beam for Superpower. The first version of the team had it, but after a little struggle with an enemy Gliscor (which I couldn't harm in any way) I decided to add Ice Beam in. If you'd be able to suggest any other ways to counter this Poke, I would gladly put Superpower in (it's a really nice way of killing Chanseys and other TTars).
Ok, so thank you for all the advice. I'll try them out as soon as possible :).

 

[Yeezy D]

I've seen this team in action, I believe. If you play Showdown, then I think I've seen you play! I have to say, its quite a good team, despite its aforementioned weaknesses. My apologies that I don't have that much to say about the team, I just wanted to say I saw a very close and entertaining match from this team.

 

[Ignismare]

I do play Showdown, so it is quite possible that we played a match. The team seems to be fine, but I kinda lack the skills to run it as well as it deserves. But still, I'll train a bit and gain enough abilities to use its true potential :).

 

[Yeezy D]

Well I only barely beat you, so dare I ask if you could PM me the import code for the team? I'd love to try it out, and if I get any experience from it I'll know how to improve it.

 

[evillocke]

I really like this guy. Gliscor would help this team a lot. The problem is fighting attacks. Gliscor helps with those. I can't really reccomend anything that has not been reccomended. I'm new to smogon, sorry.

 

[Ignismare]

I updated the thread a bit: Skarmory was replaced with Gliscor and I fixed the EVs on TTar. If you have any other advice, I would gladly listen to them :).

 

[Oopa]

I have been playing with mixtar for a while now, and pursuit>icebeam, really helps in dealing with the lati twins, and various other ghost and psychic types. True you lose the ability to hit dragonite and gliscor on the switch in, but the rest of your team can handle them reasonably well.

 

[Ignismare]

True you lose the ability to hit dragonite and gliscor on the switch in, but the rest of your team can handle them reasonably well.

As in how (I mean Gliscor, Dragonite is not much of a problem)? The only thing that came even close to killing a Gliscor is Jellicent, but he can't hold his own against the Protect/Sub set. It can troll Jelli to infinity and beyond. Garchomp could potentially kill it with Stone Edge, but before I can do any decent switches, he'll already have a Sub up. It's not me ranting or anything, I'm just asking for any other solutions for the problem. It would be awesome to have something beside TTar, since he gets easily KOed by EQ.