Hey, this is my first ever RMT so I apologize if this turns out terrible. Triples is something that's relatively new to PS, once showdown put up some ladders for triples I got pretty interested in it. I've been playing for about a month I think, maybe less. This is the first ever team i've made for triples and it's the one i've been playing with the most. I originally started using this for battle spot, and actually ended up winning a small ladder tourney in the battle spot forums with this team. It wasn't an amazing feat but it was pretty fun. Battle spot is cool and all but I got a little frustrated occasionally, playing against Dark Void and Perish Song teams.( i'm such a scrub, i know ) So I decided to try out smogon triples as well and I changed some of the EVs around to fit level 100 and for more relevant things in smogon's format. I'm currently 27/4 on the smogon triples ladder using this team, sitting at about #10. But that's enough backstory, i'll get to the actual team now.
The very first mon I put on this team was Sylveon. I chose not to use the standard Specs set because I wanted to try out something else that I had seen some japanese players use.
Sylveon @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Quick Attack
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
So right away, I'm gonna assume you might think this set is pretty garbage so I'll explain now. Yes, I have quick attack on Sylveon. It might not seem like a great idea because of sylveon's low attack but when you're getting a boost from Pixie Plate and Pixilate, it's really not that bad. Having the extra priority on sylv can be really handy for picking off mons at low health which happens often enough to be useful. Fairy is a pretty good offensive type as well and you can hit a decent amount of mons SE with quick attack and finish them off when they're at 20 - 30%, depending on the mon. The reason I like pixie plate as well is the option to have protect. Because specs sylveon is so common your opponent might just assume that's what you're using and think they're free to attack it. HP Ground is my last move of choice to hit Heatran and other steel and fire types for decent damage but it's mainly just for tran. Hyper Voice is a really great move in triples and Sylveon usually puts in a lot of work. The EVs I used are for living Jolly Return from Mega Kan and the rest was dumped into SpA.
Landorus-T was the next mon I decided to use on this team. I wanted to use Lando because not only did it provide good Intimdate support but it could hit Steel types and Fire types really hard, mons that Sylveon has trouble with.
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Superpower
I don't have too much to say about Lando but I'll try to explain as thoroughly as I can. This set is extremely standard. Probably as standard as you can get. Intimidate is really amazing in triples, and so are spread moves imo. So lando obviously performs incredibly well in the metagame. EQ and Rock Slide hit pretty much anything that Sylveon can't. Choice Scarf just gives lando an even better matchup against threats I need it to handle like Mega Zard, kan, etc. Superpower is for picking up OHKOs on things like Kan and Tyranitar. EVs are enough speed to outspeed m-manectric, and then the rest dumped into HP and attack. When I used lando on battle spot I gave it enough EVs to outspeed max speed scarf smeargle, that's really unnecessary in smogon triples though obviously. But if you were to ever use lando in battle spot triples, it's something that I'd recommend!
Next, I wanted a mon or two that wouldn't be affected by Lando's EQ. I ended up using Hydreigon and Zard-Y. I really liked these two because they also filled a similar role to Lando in that they could deal with steel types that resisted Sylveon's Hyper Voice.
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 60 HP / 12 Def / 248 SpA / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
Hitmontop @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 96 SpD / 60 Spe
Careful Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Wide Guard
- Feint
Holy shit this thing is really good. So feint was a really big necessity for this team. I have 3 mons that utilize spread moves and nearly rely on them so stopping Wide Guard was huge. Fake Out and Intimidate was also incredibly useful for obvious reasons. Wide Guard is fantastic in triples and I'd actually say that every triples team needs at least one wide guard user. Close Combat was my only offensive move on Hitmontop and I hardly used it tbh, but it was nice against bisharp, ttar and getting chip damage once in a while. I decided to use Sitrus over Eject Button because I valued hitmontop staying on the field as long as possible to keep using feint or wide guard more than I valued reusing it's intimidate and fake out with eject button, which I often did by hard switching anyway. Although I did use eject button when playing battle spot solely for perish trap teams but it isn't necessary in smogon triples because they've banned perish trap thankfully. :] My EV spread is very defensive. On the physical side I have enough to survive a +1 Adamant LO Iron Head from Bisharp. On the special side I have enough to where Modest LO Shadow Ball from aegi is a guranteed 3HKO factoring sitrus berry in. The remaining EVs conveniently are enough to outspeed neutral nature 0 speed heatran.
For the last slot I wanted a filler that would cover up some weaknesses to certain types like Ice and Fairy. Aegislash's typing complimented the team pretty well and it's generally a really great mon too.
Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SpA / 72 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
Aegislash was my second fairy resist and my second wide guard user. Having two mons available to use wide guard was really helpful and I wouldn't even give a second thought about using sub or sneak over it. I chose to use life orb over a more defensive item like sitrus or lefties because LO Aegi hits so hard and being able to weaken shit as much as possible is what I need Aegislash to do. There isn't too much else to say about aegi, like lando it's pretty self explanatory. The EVs were to survive a timid heat wave from zard y. I put 4 evs in speed because I prefer to go faster than other aegislash. With a life orb I can take out opposing aegislash reliably once I get a bit of chip damage on it.
And that's the team! The strategy when using the team is clearly really simple minded. It's just to kill shit and use hitmontop's support to the fullest to ensure that you kill shit.
Here are a few things that threaten the team. I couldn't think of many pokemon specifically that threaten the team but more so certain playstyles.
Here's some replays against players who were fairly high on the ladder. If you want you can check these out to see how I play and point out some common mistakes if necessary.
Well that's all I've got to say. Hope you enjoyed my RMT and I hope you don't think the team's shit! Any kind of criticism and/or changes you'd think would be beneficial are very appreciated. Thanks for reading!
The very first mon I put on this team was Sylveon. I chose not to use the standard Specs set because I wanted to try out something else that I had seen some japanese players use.
Sylveon @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Quick Attack
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
So right away, I'm gonna assume you might think this set is pretty garbage so I'll explain now. Yes, I have quick attack on Sylveon. It might not seem like a great idea because of sylveon's low attack but when you're getting a boost from Pixie Plate and Pixilate, it's really not that bad. Having the extra priority on sylv can be really handy for picking off mons at low health which happens often enough to be useful. Fairy is a pretty good offensive type as well and you can hit a decent amount of mons SE with quick attack and finish them off when they're at 20 - 30%, depending on the mon. The reason I like pixie plate as well is the option to have protect. Because specs sylveon is so common your opponent might just assume that's what you're using and think they're free to attack it. HP Ground is my last move of choice to hit Heatran and other steel and fire types for decent damage but it's mainly just for tran. Hyper Voice is a really great move in triples and Sylveon usually puts in a lot of work. The EVs I used are for living Jolly Return from Mega Kan and the rest was dumped into SpA.
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Superpower
I don't have too much to say about Lando but I'll try to explain as thoroughly as I can. This set is extremely standard. Probably as standard as you can get. Intimidate is really amazing in triples, and so are spread moves imo. So lando obviously performs incredibly well in the metagame. EQ and Rock Slide hit pretty much anything that Sylveon can't. Choice Scarf just gives lando an even better matchup against threats I need it to handle like Mega Zard, kan, etc. Superpower is for picking up OHKOs on things like Kan and Tyranitar. EVs are enough speed to outspeed m-manectric, and then the rest dumped into HP and attack. When I used lando on battle spot I gave it enough EVs to outspeed max speed scarf smeargle, that's really unnecessary in smogon triples though obviously. But if you were to ever use lando in battle spot triples, it's something that I'd recommend!
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 60 HP / 12 Def / 248 SpA / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
Ahh, Modest Specs Draco. This was so much fun to use. Hydreigon was essentially a kill button against certain teams. Flamethrower hits steels, Earth Power hits steels in the rain and heatran. I chose flamethrower over fire blast because I had sun support and didn't think I needed to risk the low accuracy. What's really cool about Hydreigon is that he can hit any pokemon on the field no matter what side they're on, thanks to Dark Pulse. This is another big reason why I used Hydreigon, it's one of the best if not the best mon that can do that. And Dark Pulse was often really useful against TR teams since a lot of TR setters are weak to dark and I didn't have to worry about what side the setter was going to be on. Going back to Draco Meteor, it was incredibly useful for quickly taking out big threats that didn't resist Dragon. The list of things that are straight up OHKO'd by it is very long and that's why I love Hydreigon. I ran enough speed to outspeed Timid Heatran. 60/12 was enough to bulk an Adamant Return from kan.
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 64 HP / 192 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Overheat/Tailwind (still deciding between these)
- Solar Beam
- Protect
So this ended up being my mega of choice. Zard is my first necessary fairy resist and the third mon that had a powerful STAB spread move, which I really like. Strong spread moves really help to take out the opponent's team as fast as possible. Zard was my second mon that was immune to lando's EQ and my third mon that could deal with shit that sylveon can't. Zard is really fast and really strong so it's a pretty good mon on the team. Moveset is fairly standard so I'm not gonna go into the moves too much. I originally had Overheat on Zard Y and I've liked it a lot. Overheat filled a role similar to Hydreigon's Draco in that it's basically a kill button. Overheat was really useful for Amoonguss too and it could help take out opposing Wide Guard users so I could use Heat Wave & other spread moves later on. Recently I've been testing out Tailwind over Overheat because I had lost to teams that used tailwind more than anything else and wanted to use tailwind myself to have a better matchup against tailwind teams. After playing with it, it hasn't been too useful and I might switch it back to Overheat. If I could get some opinions on what I should use in that slot then that'd be great as well. EVs are pretty simple. I ran enough HP to survive a LO chomp's rock slide at -1.
At this point, I have 3 mons that rely fairly heavily on spread moves and one of them is a Zard Y. Hitmontop was an easy fit.
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 64 HP / 192 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Overheat/Tailwind (still deciding between these)
- Solar Beam
- Protect
So this ended up being my mega of choice. Zard is my first necessary fairy resist and the third mon that had a powerful STAB spread move, which I really like. Strong spread moves really help to take out the opponent's team as fast as possible. Zard was my second mon that was immune to lando's EQ and my third mon that could deal with shit that sylveon can't. Zard is really fast and really strong so it's a pretty good mon on the team. Moveset is fairly standard so I'm not gonna go into the moves too much. I originally had Overheat on Zard Y and I've liked it a lot. Overheat filled a role similar to Hydreigon's Draco in that it's basically a kill button. Overheat was really useful for Amoonguss too and it could help take out opposing Wide Guard users so I could use Heat Wave & other spread moves later on. Recently I've been testing out Tailwind over Overheat because I had lost to teams that used tailwind more than anything else and wanted to use tailwind myself to have a better matchup against tailwind teams. After playing with it, it hasn't been too useful and I might switch it back to Overheat. If I could get some opinions on what I should use in that slot then that'd be great as well. EVs are pretty simple. I ran enough HP to survive a LO chomp's rock slide at -1.
Hitmontop @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 96 SpD / 60 Spe
Careful Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Wide Guard
- Feint
Holy shit this thing is really good. So feint was a really big necessity for this team. I have 3 mons that utilize spread moves and nearly rely on them so stopping Wide Guard was huge. Fake Out and Intimidate was also incredibly useful for obvious reasons. Wide Guard is fantastic in triples and I'd actually say that every triples team needs at least one wide guard user. Close Combat was my only offensive move on Hitmontop and I hardly used it tbh, but it was nice against bisharp, ttar and getting chip damage once in a while. I decided to use Sitrus over Eject Button because I valued hitmontop staying on the field as long as possible to keep using feint or wide guard more than I valued reusing it's intimidate and fake out with eject button, which I often did by hard switching anyway. Although I did use eject button when playing battle spot solely for perish trap teams but it isn't necessary in smogon triples because they've banned perish trap thankfully. :] My EV spread is very defensive. On the physical side I have enough to survive a +1 Adamant LO Iron Head from Bisharp. On the special side I have enough to where Modest LO Shadow Ball from aegi is a guranteed 3HKO factoring sitrus berry in. The remaining EVs conveniently are enough to outspeed neutral nature 0 speed heatran.
Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SpA / 72 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
Aegislash was my second fairy resist and my second wide guard user. Having two mons available to use wide guard was really helpful and I wouldn't even give a second thought about using sub or sneak over it. I chose to use life orb over a more defensive item like sitrus or lefties because LO Aegi hits so hard and being able to weaken shit as much as possible is what I need Aegislash to do. There isn't too much else to say about aegi, like lando it's pretty self explanatory. The EVs were to survive a timid heat wave from zard y. I put 4 evs in speed because I prefer to go faster than other aegislash. With a life orb I can take out opposing aegislash reliably once I get a bit of chip damage on it.
And that's the team! The strategy when using the team is clearly really simple minded. It's just to kill shit and use hitmontop's support to the fullest to ensure that you kill shit.
Here are a few things that threaten the team. I couldn't think of many pokemon specifically that threaten the team but more so certain playstyles.
Tailwind: These teams can be a bitch sometimes. My team doesn't have any taunter so my only way to stop tailwind from coming up is my using fake out & hoping that I have a mon out that can KO it. What makes it most difficult to stop tailwind is that the usual tailwind users have prankster or priority with gale wings so I can't rely on outspeeding them before they set up. I can play around these teams and I often do successfully but they're by far the most difficult teams to play.
Trick Room: Trick room is only a problem if I let them set it up. Trick room is a lot easier to stop compared to tailwind because I have Hydreigon, Aegislash and Fake Out support but if I lead my mons in the wrong position and they get the oppurtunity to set up TR, it's a real pain to play around.
Rain: I only have one water resist on the team so playing against rain is really annoying. I have to make sure I play really safe with Zard and keep it around as long as possible.
For the most part it's teams with speed control that I struggle with.
Trick Room: Trick room is only a problem if I let them set it up. Trick room is a lot easier to stop compared to tailwind because I have Hydreigon, Aegislash and Fake Out support but if I lead my mons in the wrong position and they get the oppurtunity to set up TR, it's a real pain to play around.
Rain: I only have one water resist on the team so playing against rain is really annoying. I have to make sure I play really safe with Zard and keep it around as long as possible.
For the most part it's teams with speed control that I struggle with.
Here's some replays against players who were fairly high on the ladder. If you want you can check these out to see how I play and point out some common mistakes if necessary.
Wins
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-167474941
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-167693576
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-167697490
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-168183505
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-168191532
Loses
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-168204516
I will try to post more loses later on :]
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-167474941
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-167693576
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-167697490
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-168183505
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-168191532
Loses
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-168204516
I will try to post more loses later on :]
Well that's all I've got to say. Hope you enjoyed my RMT and I hope you don't think the team's shit! Any kind of criticism and/or changes you'd think would be beneficial are very appreciated. Thanks for reading!
Sylveon @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Quick Attack
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Superpower
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 60 HP / 12 Def / 248 SpA / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 64 HP / 192 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Tailwind
- Solar Beam
- Protect
Hitmontop @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 96 SpD / 60 Spe
Careful Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Wide Guard
- Feint
Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SpA / 72 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Quick Attack
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Superpower
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 60 HP / 12 Def / 248 SpA / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 64 HP / 192 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Tailwind
- Solar Beam
- Protect
Hitmontop @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 96 SpD / 60 Spe
Careful Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Wide Guard
- Feint
Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SpA / 72 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
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