Rate my Field Affecting Team

[galaceuriel]

My team at a glance:

Stealth Rock Support (Lead)

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SDef
IVs: 0 Spd
Nature: Sassy (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Hypnosis
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake

Bronzong is the lead of my team. In the first turn, if the opponent is a threat to Bronzong, it will put it to sleep with Hypnosis. Otherwise, it'll just set up Stealth Rock. If need be, Bronzong can attack with both Gyro Ball and Earthquake.

Physical Wall / Spiker / Rapid Spinner

Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Atk
IVs: 0 Spd
Nature: Relaxed (+Def, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes

After Bronzong has set up Stealth Rock, it will switch. If the opponent on the field is a physical attacker, Bronzong will switch to Forretress. Forretress' primary task is to set up 3 layers of Spikes and 2 layers of Toxic Spikes while soaking up physical hits with his massive defense. If need be, he will attack with Gyro Ball or Rapid Spin away the opponent's Spikes / Toxic Spikes / Stealth Rock.

Special Wall / Wisher

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Calm (+SDef, -Atk)
EVs: 188 HP / 252 SDef / 68 SAtk
- Wish
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Protect

As mentioned above, Bronzong will switch depending on the opponent. If it's a special attacker, it will switch with Vaporeon. He will try to beat the opponent one on one or make it switch with a physical attacker so he can switch with Forretress. His primary task however is to provide team support. Wish will heal the damage taken by his teammates while Protect will allow Vaporeon to heal itself. Vaporeon can then proceed to attack with Surf or Ice Beam.

Anti-Spin

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 SDef
Nature: Careful (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Fire Punch
- Thunderpunch

Since setting up layers of Spikes, Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock are a vital part of my team's strategy, it's essential that my team has an Anti-Spinner. Thunderpunch and Fire Punch will deal with the common Rapid Spinners in the game. Rest is there to heal damage when needed and Sleep Talk is there so that I'm not completely vulnerable while asleep.

Shuffler

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 136 SDef / 32 Spd
Nature: Bold (+Def, -Atk)
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Ice
- Roar

After the Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Stealth Rock have been fully set up, Zapdos will shuffle through the opponent's team with Roar, with each Pokemon taking damage as they switch. Roost will add to Zapdos' survivability while Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Ice are Zapdos' main means of offense.

Late Game Sweeper (Cleaner)

Deoxys-S @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 160 Atk / 252 SAtk / 96 Spd
Nature: Hasty (+Spd, -Def)
- Psychic
- Superpower
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball

If Zapdos goes down late game, then Deoxys-S will take over. Since just about the entire opponent's team at this point has taken major damage, then Deoxys-S can take advantage of it's excellent speed, great movepool and decent attacking power to finish off its opponents. Psychic is Deoxys-S's main attacking move since it gets STAB while Ice Beam and Shadow Ball are for type coverage. Superpower helps to take out Blissey.

General Strategy: Bronzong will set up Stealth Rock while Forretress will set up 3 layers of Spikes and 2 layers of Toxic Spikes. Dusknoir will stop Rapid Spinners while Vaporeon will provide the team with Wish support. Zapdos will shuffle through the opponent's team while they take damage each time they switch in. Deoxys-S will clean up what remains of the opponent's team.

Side note: Bronzong, Dusknoir, and Zapdos are all EVd to have equal defenses so that they can take hits from both sides of the attacking spectrum while retaining optimum defenses. That way, they can take hits better so they can do their task more effectively. Also, the changes made to the team so far are in bold.

 

[Zack_of_Steel]

Hmm... It looks pretty good to me. I was actually thinking of making a team much like this when I got my Gamestop Deoxys. The only thing I can think of is that I am inclined to suggest Thunderbolt over either Psychic or Shadow Ball on your Deoxys for fear of facing a Bulky Water or Gyarados.

 

[Zephiel]

SD Lucario weak? It hurts everything in your team badly, and Deoxys can't super effective it. You can give Forretress Earthquake over Gyro Ball to help deal with it.

Zapdos with TBolt / Roost / Roar / HP Ice is a very very good shuffler, so you might want to try that over Suicune. (Probably better than Suicune). And it also helps with SD Lucario.

Since you have Toxic Spikes I suggest giving Dusknoir Rest and Sleep Talk, WoW probably won't come in very handy.

I also think that your Deoxys-S should have Life Orb to help deal with Lucario and in my opinion it is generally more useful.

Note that if this team is for Shoddy then you cannot use Wish on Blissey.

Other than that it's good.

 

[galaceuriel]

Hmm... It looks pretty good to me. I was actually thinking of making a team much like this when I got my Gamestop Deoxys. The only thing I can think of is that I am inclined to suggest Thunderbolt over either Psychic or Shadow Ball on your Deoxys for fear of facing a Bulky Water or Gyarados.

Yeah, my Deoxys-S initially had Thunderbolt but I decided to drop it for Shadow Ball since my Dusknoir already had an electric type move in Thunderpunch and that would therefore be redudndant. Also, I feared the likes of Cresselia would be harder to take down than Gyarados with the Spikes, Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock lying around.

SD Lucario weak? It hurts everything in your team badly, and Deoxys can't super effective it. You can give Forretress Earthquake over Gyro Ball to help deal with it.

Zapdos with TBolt / Roost / Roar / HP Ice is a very very good shuffler, so you might want to try that over Suicune. (Probably better than Suicune). And it also helps with SD Lucario.

Since you have Toxic Spikes I suggest giving Dusknoir Rest and Sleep Talk, WoW probably won't come in very handy.

I also think that your Deoxys-S should have Life Orb to help deal with Lucario and in my opinion it is generally more useful.

Note that if this team is for Shoddy then you cannot use Wish on Blissey.

Other than that it's good.

Sure, I'll put in Life Orb instead to help with the SD Lucario weak. Though, I can't really put in Earthquake over Gyro Ball for Forretress since I'll lose plenty of power. Although, Bronzong has Earthaquake so that should help.

As for the Will-O-Wisp for Dusknoir, thanks for telling me that. I hadn't thought about that prior to me reading this. I'll definitely use the RestTalk set instead.

Unfortunately, that would make having 2 RestTalkers redundant and I've often sacrificed team strategy for balance and symmetry.

Having said that, a Zapdos shuffler would now be put into serious consideration for this team. Since it's not in the Smogon analysis for Zapdos though, I'd like you to explain that set a little more please.

Also, I'm still welcoming more suggestions.

 

[User 12783]

SD Lucario weak? It hurts everything in your team badly, and Deoxys can't super effective it. You can give Forretress Earthquake over Gyro Ball to help deal with it.

Zapdos with TBolt / Roost / Roar / HP Ice is a very very good shuffler, so you might want to try that over Suicune. (Probably better than Suicune). And it also helps with SD Lucario.

Since you have Toxic Spikes I suggest giving Dusknoir Rest and Sleep Talk, WoW probably won't come in very handy.

I also think that your Deoxys-S should have Life Orb to help deal with Lucario and in my opinion it is generally more useful.

Note that if this team is for Shoddy then you cannot use Wish on Blissey.

Other than that it's good.

There are a lot of things wrong with this post.

You should in fact keep Expert Belt on Deoxys-S since Superpower does hit Lucario super effective and will most likely OHKO. Also if you are still worried about your Lucario weakness (even though you shouldn't be) WoW will help with that and Pain Split is actually useful since if you switch it in on a Recover user or a move that heals the opponent you can just Pain Split and they will lose what they gained and you will be healed instead. You can try Zapdos since it will counter Heracross without Stone Edge but other than that Suicune fills that niche. Also Wish is not allowed on Shoddy anymore, so if this is a Shoddy Battle team you could either change the Blissey Set or change Suicune to Zapdos and Blissey to Vaporeon who also has Wish at its disposal. You should use the above poster's Zapdos set with the EVs of 252 HP / 220 Defense / 36 Speed and a Bold Nature, and you should run the following set for Vaporeon:

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Bold - 188 HP / 252 Defense / 68 Sp. Attack
- Wish
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Yawn / Protect / Baton Pass

 

[galaceuriel]

There are a lot of things wrong with this post.

You should in fact keep Expert Belt on Deoxys-S since Superpower does hit Lucario super effective and will most likely OHKO. Also if you are still worried about your Lucario weakness (even though you shouldn't be) WoW will help with that and Pain Split is actually useful since if you switch it in on a Recover user or a move that heals the opponent you can just Pain Split and they will lose what they gained and you will be healed instead. You can try Zapdos since it will counter Heracross without Stone Edge but other than that Suicune fills that niche. Also Wish is not allowed on Shoddy anymore, so if this is a Shoddy Battle team you could either change the Blissey Set or change Suicune to Zapdos and Blissey to Vaporeon who also has Wish at its disposal. You should use the above poster's Zapdos set with the EVs of 252 HP / 220 Defense / 36 Speed and a Bold Nature, and you should run the following set for Vaporeon:

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Bold - 188 HP / 252 Defense / 68 Sp. Attack
- Wish
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Yawn / Protect / Baton Pass

There, I put back Expert Belt.

Anyway, this team is for Shoddy, although, I don't want to make any changes too drastic.

First, please explain why WishBliss is now banned on Shoddy.

Second, please explain the Zapdos and Vaporeon sets and why they're more effective than the Pokemon already there.

 

[Zephiel]

There are a lot of things wrong with this post.

A lot of things wrong yet you only mentioned one and you agreed with some of them?

Yeah I forgot Superpower was super effective on Lucario.. I always forget the steel type. But that was probably the only thing wrong in my post.

I still think Life Orb is more useful on Deoxys-S, because you probably won't let it take hits and with Expert Belt Superpower can't OHKO Lucario all the time (although that's not very important since it nearly always does). It's a bad example but my point is Life Orb does more damage even when it's super effective. Not only that but Life Orb will also help it revenge kill pokemon which it usually can't (Swampert, Azelf without Shadow Ball) since Expert Belt does less damage without SE.

Psychic on Swampert with Expert Belt:

33-39% damage.

Psychic on Swampert with Life Orb:

43-50% damage.

It can help for situations like these.. so I suggest Life Orb.

Also if you are still worried about your Lucario weakness (even though you shouldn't be) WoW will help with that and Pain Split is actually useful since if you switch it in on a Recover user or a move that heals the opponent you can just Pain Split and they will lose what they gained and you will be healed instead.

I am unsure about this. SD Lucario will OHKO Dusknoir with Crunch and Stealth Rock support, so WoWing won't really help. And currently he has the RestTalker set.

I also think that you should use Vaporeon. He is useful.

Second, please explain the Zapdos and Vaporeon sets and why they're more effective than the Pokemon already there.

You have a very slight Infernape weak, but Suicune might have troubles taking a Grass Knot and you might have to predict to get Deoxys-S in. So Vaporeon can help that and he can Wish support your pokemon, ESPECIALLY Forretress since he's very important to your team. And also you won't have two RestTalkers which can get annoying sometimes out of experience.

Zapdos counters Lucario and Heracross to some extent, and with HP Ice can help counter Garchomp too. Roost is a more efficient way of healing too. Phazing with Sleep Talk is also not very reliable.

If you add these then we will both have the exact same team, Phazer Zapdos / Deoxys-S / Forretress / Blissey / Vaporeon. But I have Spiritomb with Calm Mind, Dark Pulse, Rest and Sleep Talk over Dusknoir. Spiritomb actually sweeped some teams for me and was incredibly useful. I just wanted to suggest this but Dusknoir over Spiritomb might work well too.

And also if you replace Bronzong then you will lack a Stealth Rocker. You could probably give Stealth Rock to Blissey since nothing else in your team can use it.

 

[forbidden]

I think this team lacks offense outside deoxy and having forretress as your main spiker is not a smart idea. Especially since it will be trapped by Magnezone and can't do anything back. At that point your team can't do much and is dead.

I suggest Tentacruel as your toxic spiker to counter your ape problem as well and have defensive zapdos with roar.(Sleeptalker?) Those can replace suicune and fortress. However, you won't have spikes but I think deoxy can learn it if you really want it. Also, its better to stick boltbeam punches on dusknoir because forretress is the only spinner in OU that's weak to fire and can't do much to dusknoir. You'll hit bulky grounds(donphan) and dragons with ice punch which helps more.

 

[Zephiel]

I think this team lacks offense outside deoxy and having forretress as your main spiker is not a smart idea. Especially since it will be trapped by Magnezone and can't do anything back. At that point your team can't do much and is dead.

No. Stall teams aren't supposed to have offense. They're supposed to defend and beat the opponent by stalling them. You really don't know much do you?

I suggest giving Forretress Shed Shell only if Magnezone becomes troubling.

 

[galaceuriel]

A lot of things wrong yet you only mentioned one and you agreed with some of them?

Yeah I forgot Superpower was super effective on Lucario.. I always forget the steel type. But that was probably the only thing wrong in my post.

I still think Life Orb is more useful on Deoxys-S, because you probably won't let it take hits and with Expert Belt Superpower can't OHKO Lucario all the time (although that's not very important since it nearly always does). It's a bad example but my point is Life Orb does more damage even when it's super effective. Not only that but Life Orb will also help it revenge kill pokemon which it usually can't (Swampert, Azelf without Shadow Ball) since Expert Belt does less damage without SE.

Psychic on Swampert with Expert Belt:

33-39% damage.

Psychic on Swampert with Life Orb:

43-50% damage.

It can help for situations like these.. so I suggest Life Orb.

I am unsure about this. SD Lucario will OHKO Dusknoir with Crunch and Stealth Rock support, so WoWing won't really help. And currently he has the RestTalker set.

I also think that you should use Vaporeon. He is useful.

You have a very slight Infernape weak, but Suicune might have troubles taking a Grass Knot and you might have to predict to get Deoxys-S in. So Vaporeon can help that and he can Wish support your pokemon, ESPECIALLY Forretress since he's very important to your team. And also you won't have two RestTalkers which can get annoying sometimes out of experience.

Zapdos counters Lucario and Heracross to some extent, and with HP Ice can help counter Garchomp too. Roost is a more efficient way of healing too. Phazing with Sleep Talk is also not very reliable.

If you add these then we will both have the exact same team, Phazer Zapdos / Deoxys-S / Forretress / Blissey / Vaporeon. But I have Spiritomb with Calm Mind, Dark Pulse, Rest and Sleep Talk over Dusknoir. Spiritomb actually sweeped some teams for me and was incredibly useful. I just wanted to suggest this but Dusknoir over Spiritomb might work well too.

And also if you replace Bronzong then you will lack a Stealth Rocker. You could probably give Stealth Rock to Blissey since nothing else in your team can use it.

Expert Belt has been replaced with Life Orb.

As for Vaporeon, the only reason why it's being suggested is because of Wish being banned. To be honest, despite what it says up there, the real reason why Blissey is in this team is to wall special threats, not to provide team support. I just decided to make Blissey a supporter as well since it would otherwise serve no purpose other than incapacitate special threats.

Having said that, I'll keep Blissey and make this a WiFi team. After all, Vaporeon doesn't have the stats to wall special threats.

As for MixApe, my Suicune, unlike the standard, invests in special defense so it won't fear Grass Knot especially given that most MixApe nowadays don't use Nasty Plot.

However, since Zapdos is repeatedly being suggested, I guess I'll put some serious consideration for it. Please give the exact set I should use with Zapdos given the format I used in my team with the set and a detailed explanation.

 

[Zephiel]

Having said that, I'll keep Blissey and make this a WiFi team. After all, Vaporeon doesn't have the stats to wall special threats.

!

I thought the plan was to keep Blissey and replace Suicune and Bronzong with Zapdos and Vaporeon. So you would keep your phasing skills and Wish, but this would be on Shoddy. And then give Stealth Rock to Blissey.

How do you plan on getting Wish on WiFi? If you do hack, just watch out for people who will complain about it.

As for MixApe, my Suicune, unlike the standard, invests in special defense so it won't fear Grass Knot especially given that most MixApe nowadays don't use Nasty Plot.

They don't?

Well if they don't no problem but isn't it a bit risky? Nasty Plot is still standard. I think it's too risky depending on ones without Nasty Plot, since if you let it get one Nasty Plot then there is a chance Suicune will die, which is 100% with Stealth Rock.

However, since Zapdos is repeatedly being suggested, I guess I'll put some serious consideration for it. Please give the exact set I should use with Zapdos given the format I used in my team with the set and a detailed explanation.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roar

Zapdos is a reliable phazer and a good physical wall since it can Roost and it's only weaks are Rock and Ice. Since you don't have use Rest and Sleep Talk to get the option to use another attack, Hidden Power Ice. With this, it can also help counter Garchomp since it is 3HKOed by an unboosted Outrage and 2HKOed by a SD Outrage, and as your Suicune is lacking Ice Beam it would prove to me more effective in this. Also, it can counter Lucario and Heracross to some extent, as it can easily and effortlessly take boosted Close Combats, but watch out for Stone Edge. It can stall PP with Pressure. And it's a better Lucario counter than Suicune, and probably a better counter for Infernape.

That's all I can think of for now.

 

[Wayff]

This team looks like a Stall team, so I wouldn't say this team dosen't have enough offense.

Standard Infernape is the HP Ice version. I suggest Tentacruel and Gliscor over Suicune and Foretress. Suicune and Foretress are really asking Magnzone to murder to your team. Tentacruel can outspeed Magnzone and use Toxic Spikes, or if you really fear it, Hidden Power Ground. (Though it really won't hit anything else) Gliscor covers Heracross, Lucario etc. It also gives you good Garchomp coverage.

You may want to try Spiritomb over Dusknoir. Spiritomb can really abuse Stall with high defenses and no weaknesses.

Once you do remove Suicune, you'll have a small Gyarados weak, so try putting Hidden Power Electric on Bronzong if you're using this team on Shoddy.

On the side note, you can try Jirachi over Bronzong if you think you'll need Wish support.

Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP/176 Def/80 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Roost
- Taunt

The EVs provide you outspeed Jolly Tyranitar by 2 points, and standard Jirachi, and standard Celebi by 1 point. The rest of the evs are in HP and Def for maximum survival.

Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 204 HP/72 Spd/232 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Electric] / Ice Beam
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin

Standard Tentacruel. Ice Beam hits dragons on the switch, while Hidden Power Electric hits Gyarados hard. If you really hate Magnzone, you can try Hidden Power Ground, but that's the only Pokemon Tentacruel will hit with Hidden Power Ground.

Spiritomb (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind / Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Dark Pulse / Shadow Ball
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

ResTalk Spiriotmb. The Calm Mind version often sets up, but is doomed against Tyranitar. The Shadow Ball + Hidden Power Fighting version provides good all around coverage, but it can't set up and you may find may not have enough offense.

 

[Zephiel]

No.. I'm not sure about this.

First of all, if he gets rid of Forretress, he will lack normal Spikes support which makes his stalling less efficient. Can't he just put Shed Shell? He has Blissey, Magnezone should be no problem at all if Forretress has Shed Shell. And if he does add Vaporeon then Wish support to Forretress will be very useful.

 

[Wayff]

Why do you try to prove everyone wrong? The only kind of Spikes a real Stall team needs to have is Toxic Spikes IMO. (And Stealth Rock since it's on every team and can grab a Moltres) Stall teams can stall other Pokemon out, so only Toxic Spikes, and Stealth Rock to grab anything that resists Toxic Spikes on the switch. I said he can try Jirachi for Wish support. Shed Shell can give Blissey a switch, but it provides Foretress with no way of recoverey while it's in the field. And anyways, in this metagame, it's not too easy to switch Pokemon in.

 

[Zephiel]

It's not about proving people wrong.. I'm trying to show the OP the advantages and disadvantages of taking what kind of action, to help him.

I was just saying that with Spikes Roaring would be even more painful which could be more helpful.

 

[User 12783]

There, I put back Expert Belt.

Anyway, this team is for Shoddy, although, I don't want to make any changes too drastic.

First, please explain why WishBliss is now banned on Shoddy.

Second, please explain the Zapdos and Vaporeon sets and why they're more effective than the Pokemon already there.

WishBliss is banned because Event Moves are banned and without Wish, it isn't WishBliss. Zapdos and Vaporeon are only mentioned if you still need Wish Support.

 

[forbidden]

No. Stall teams aren't supposed to have offense. They're supposed to defend and beat the opponent by stalling them. You really don't know much do you?

I suggest giving Forretress Shed Shell only if Magnezone becomes troubling.

What did you expect? It was 2 am for me and you seem to have totally dismissed the rest of my post at first glance. Guess you're not much of a reader are you?

@galaceuriel: Use the standard Vaporeon set with protect/wish because Bronzong+Vaporeon+Dusknoir makes a solid team of walls. Zapdos is just insurance vs SD luke. You should have 280 speed(1 above Adamant Luke) and possibly subroost so you can outstall it.

I'm highly against Forretress as your T-Spiker because his 4x weakness to a common offensive type makes him proned to die with a single misprediction. IMO Tentacruel or even roserade does a better job at it.

No.. I'm not sure about this.

First of all, if he gets rid of Forretress, he will lack normal Spikes support which makes his stalling less efficient. Can't he just put Shed Shell? He has Blissey, Magnezone should be no problem at all if Forretress has Shed Shell. And if he does add Vaporeon then Wish support to Forretress will be very useful.

You don't need normal spikes to outstall efficiently. With no wish Forretress isn't going to live 5 turns to set up all those spikes.

 

[galaceuriel]

I take back my previous statement. This is a Shoddy team. Sorry about the confusion.

Anyway, a lot of the suggestions have been taken into account. That's not true for all of them though so please explain why you suggested what you did further.

 

[Warthog]

this team needs an out to Magnezone, so I suggest Dugtrio over Deoxys-E. I suggest trying to scout for it by randomly switching in Dugtrio sometimes if its obvious they will make a switch. Even though its not as common is quite possible they will take a peek and grab both your Zong and Forretress.