The Forbidden Woods
Intro:
I actually have no idea why I named the team that, it isn’t very thematic at all besides my inclusion of Venusaur and two Therians, but it all started out as a request from a friend to make a team with Trevenant in it, so I suppose it fits. It eventually became the balance/bulky offense hybrid team I always dreamed of using. I have done some laddering and I almost meet the voting reqs regarding Lucarionite with this team so I suppose that's noteworthy.Now typically in this section of the RMT one discusses the teambuilding process and previous members, but the team has undergone so much development it is virtually unrecognizable from its first incarnation and therefore I think it’s pretty pointless to discuss the structure, function and purpose of teams that really no longer exist.
Instead I’m just going to jump ahead and present the team and let the in-depth descriptions for each Pokémon explain my choices for the team.
In-Depth Look:
Venusaur (M) @ Venusaurite
Trait: Overgrow (Thick Fat)
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Nature: Relaxed (+Def, -Spd)
- Roar
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake
- Synthesis
Taking the suggestion of TCR and Shooting Starmie, I replaced Trevenant with Venusaur Mega, replacing my often unneeded spinblocker with a better bulky pivot for this team, acting as a safe switch in to regain momentum if the Volt-Turn core is disrupted. The set I'm using now comes straight off of the Daunting Dreadnaughts stall team and I think it is pretty fantastic. The EVs and Nature give Venusaur pretty excellent mixed bulk to halt a lot of the metagame, it also has fantastic defensive synergy with Rotom and provides a service this team sorely needed. reliable phazing, hence the inclusion of Roar on this set. Venusaur Mega is a bulky monster for sure but even it often cant stand up to wallbreaking set up mons like Garchomp and Excadrill, so Roar is a great move for him to keep from being set up on.
As for the rest of his moves, Synthesis is a must on Venusaur for reliable recovery, Giga Drain provides additional recovery to make up for the lack of Leftovers and a strong STAB move to hit Rotom-W, Tyranitar, and Keldeo. Earthquake is used pretty much specifically for Heatran, who is becoming more and more common, as well as to do some damage to things Giga Drain cannot touch or whenever Giga Drain is unfavorable to use (Liquid Ooze Tentacruel, for example).
Tornadus-T (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- U-turn
- Taunt
The closest this team has to a win condition and probably the most important member of the team is the devastating force of BW2 OU Tornadus-Therian.
Before adding Tornadus-T to the team I was extremely weak to stall like play due to lacking a spinner for Spikes and being unable to crack the most common stall cores without major over predictions. Tornadus-T’s ability to Taunt stallers and also break the Venusaur-Heatran core almost single-handedly was invaluable to the team. The team was also very slow with only one source of priority and Tornadus-T filled the role of speedy offensive pivot as well as revenge killer to an extent and just in general added lots of much needed offensive momentum, even creating the fabled Volt-Turn combo with Rotom-W. Regenerator is the icing on the cake to heal off Stealth Rock damage and Life Orb recoil.
Tornadus-T is often my lead to Taunt hazard setters (such as Smeargle) or U-turn out of an offensive threat to a check.
The accuracy of Hurricane without rain is often disappointing, but even with a Life Orb equipped the extra power over Air Slash is absolutely crucial to breaking Mega Venusaur and Amoonguss as well as ripping opposing AV Conkeldurr to shreds. And while Rain is no longer nearly as common on the ladder this Generation, Rain teams are still great for tournament play and taking advantage of the opponent’s own Rain is never a bad thing.
Superpower is the other key move of the set and smacks Heatran for about half of its health while OHKOing most Tyranitar and Lucario. The damage on Heatran may seem underwhelming at first but considering he has no reliable recovery and I have access to one of the best spinblockers in the game and two other solid checks on the team to pivot into, wearing it down becomes almost too easy.
Taunt shuts down hazard setters like Smeargle and Skarmory as well as Wish passers such as Clefable (who can also be a menace with the Cosmic Stored Power set) while U-turn provides momentum.
A Naive nature is preferred to tank physical priority better as well as U-turn and Fighting type attacks. Life Orb is the best item for it due to its great synergy with Regenerator and the boost it provides to Tornadus-T’s already decent mixed attacking stats. The EV spread maximizes Speed and Hurricane’s damage output because Superpower already hits its targets hard enough and U-turn is not used for damage.
Conkeldurr (M) @ Assault Vest
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off
Without a doubt the most valuable player on this team, AV Conkeldurr is a force to be feared, boasting obscene bulk with the Assault Vest while hitting hard off of a massive 416 Attack stat. Conkeldurr is the one winning the most games for me, sometimes almost by itself, and also an original member of the team, providing awesome synergy with Trevenant, Sylveon and Rotom-W because of Conkeldurr’s Guts trait, which allows it to switch into Status moves and boost his attack to a frightening degree. Conkeldurr also threatens Dark types such as Bisharp and Crawdaunt that can be nuisance to Trevenant while also scaring off Ferrothorn and Heatran while benefitting from Thunder Wave and Lava Plume’s burn chance.
Drain Punch is my main STAB that compensates with this set’s lack of Leftovers and works great with the SDef boost from Assault Vest to demolish frail special attacking threats such as Greninja while not being worn down as much or as quickly as other AV users. A resistance to Stealth Rock only adds to Conkeldurr’s durability. Mach Punch is a secondary STAB providing a source of priority on the team while helping finish off weakened threats. Knock Off is the most important coverage move on the set, providing perfect neutral coverage with Fighting STAB and crippling defensive Pokemon like Mandibuzz and Rotom-W or Pokemon that depend on their item to function effectively such as Choice users, Porygon2, other Harvest Trevenant or Weakness Policy Dragonite (who can then be hit with Rock Slide). Knock Off also deals massive damage to common Conkeldurr switch-ins such as Aegislash, the Lati twins and Xatu.
Ice Punch remains a great coverage option on Conkeldurr to hit Flying types that resist Drain Punch like Thundurus and to keep from being walled by Gliscor and opposing Landorus-T as well as doing decent damage to Hippowdon. Ice Punch also makes Conkeldurr a great Dragon check due to his good all around bulk while discouraging opposing Venusaur from switching in if they have not Mega-evolved.
I chose to maximize SDef instead of HP to better tank neutral special attacks and to provide more special bulk overall to the team. Not investing in HP also means that Drain Punch will heal a higher portion of my HP per hit. Otherwise this a pretty standard AV Conk set with Adamant to maximize Attack. The extra 4 Speed EVs are simply to Speed creep other Conkeldurr.
Rotom (Rotom-W) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hydro Pump
It isn’t very hard to see why Rotom-W is the most used Pokemon in the metagame, it is simply such a great glue Pokemon for this team, countering Pokemon that could otherwise severely threaten the team such as Mamoswine, Scizor and Talonflame, as well as being a solid check to Pinsir and Keldeo while providing extra insurance against Azumarril and Crawdaunt. Now initially this set seems a little weird because I am not running ChestoResto and because I’m running Thunder Wave.
Basically T-wave gives Rotom-W a greater amount of flexibility regarding what it can check. For example, Rotom-W ironically doesn’t match up too well against some of the tier’s most common Fire types such as both Mega Charizard X and Y, Volcarona, and to a smaller extent Infernape, all immune to Will O Wisp and able to either set up on it or hit it hard with a coverage move or secondary STAB. With Thunder Wave, Rotom-W can prevent a Pokemon like Volcarona or Zard-X from setting up on it and sweeping my team. And while Rotom-W isn’t uncomfortable around special attackers in general, it often struggles to do anything significant to Pokemon like Latios, Gengar, Greninja, Togekiss and Alakazam. Thunder Wave gives Rotom-W extra utility in slowing down fast special attackers that can be a huge nuisance otherwise, making Rotom-W even more useful than it already is and insuring it is never helpless against the most common threats in the metagame.
Hydro Pump is mandatory STAB on Rotom-W to hit threats like Heatran and Hippowdon hard while Volt Switch provides great momentum for the team in tandem with Tornadus-T’s U-turn and deals decent damage as well.
Will-o-Wisp is the secondary form of status Rotom-W can spread and can force a lot of switches into Pokemon crippled by Thunder Wave instead due to how common and expected it is on Rotom-W, despite this I still manage to get good use out of Will-o-Wisp due to the physical nature of the meta.
Rotom’s typing caters more towards tanking physical hits in the current metagame so I used the standard Bold Natured EV spread with some extra Speed EVs to outpace opposing Landorus-Therians. Leftovers provide passive recovery due to the lack of Rest and mitigates Stealth Rock damage.
Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic/Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Wish
- Heal Bell
Among some of the suggestions I received, one of them was to run a more physically defensive Sylveon. I thought it was a pretty good idea at first but looking at the team as a whole I realized I actually didnt have a whole lot to fear from Dark, Bug and Fighting STAB, so then why not just run Chansey?
Chansey has more bulk on both ends than Sylveon could ever dream of, at the cost of offensive capabilities (which the rest of the team has plenty of).
She also plays the Cleric role much better than Sylveon by providing huge 350+ HP Wishes while also having reliable recovery of her own in the form of Softboiled to become a stalling behemoth.
Despite clashing with Conkeldurr's Guts ability Heal Bell is a must for this team to deal with status-based stall and the omnipresence of Will-o-wisp and burn in the metagame.
Eviolite plus the EVs and Nature give Chansey a surprising amount of physical bulk (the equivalent of fully invested 100/100 if I'm not wrong) while still pulling together a massive amount of special bulk to wall Greninja, Zard Y, Landorus-I, and other threatening special attackers.
The choice between Toxic and Seismic Toss is a bit troubling, Seismic Toss lets me handle offensive threats much quicker and with less risk of a set up but leaves me helpless against anything with reliable recovery (like Zard X and Y). Toxic, on the other hand, allows me to wear down a wider variety of threats but at a much slower rate, opening an oppurtunity for a set up. Toxic also clashes with Rotom's status moves and leaves me completely helpless against Steel types like Heatran.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 180 Def
Nature: Impish (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
After testing the options given to me by the raters, I went with TCR's suggestion of running Landorus-Therian as my Stealth Rocker. The team already has a good amount of special bulk, so Landorus's great ability in Intimidate is of great service to Chansey and Conkeldurr. Landorus-T's immunity to Spikes and neutrality to Stealth Rocks also helps the team function without a Defogger or Rapid Spinner, with the ever so useful Leftovers mitigating the hazard damage. As well as setting up hazards for the team and providing physical bulk to the team, Landorus-T still provides great offensive presence off of a massive 145 Atk stat and STAB Earthquake to smack threats like Aegislash and Excadrill.
Stone Edge alongside Earthquake gives Landorus-T good neutral coverage as well as SE coverage, and is useful especially for hitting Dragonite, Charizard, Talonflame, and Volcarona.
Finally, U-turn adds on to the Volt-Turn core with Tornadus-T and Rotom-W, making it a great momentum snatcher when predicting a switch.
The EVs and Nature take advantage of Landorus-T's great defensive ability while giving him a little extra power behind its STAB Earthquakes.
Threats to the team:
Stall: Even with Tornadus-T and Chansey on the team, Stall can still be a sizeable problem for my team if it gets anything other than Stealth Rock up (my team is not really weak to Rocks at all, which is why I did not include Rapid Spin or Defog on it).
Dragon types: No longer having a Dragon resist really hurts, and I often have to rely on this team's offense to keep Dragons at bay/
Freeze Dry Mamoswine: I actually have not run into one, but once I do I get the sense this threat will move up to the top of my list -gulp-.
Can’t think of anything else off the top of my head but feel free to identify more weak spots because I’m sure there’s more.
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