Neon Heart, OU Showcase
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I am proud to present my most successful team, surpassing even Legendary Wind. The team in its majority is defensive, yet they are hard hitters. This team is based of around getting a Latias sweep; this can be accomplished by using lures, Pursuit, Toxic Spikes and general synergy. Before getting deeper, I want to say that this is a “showcase”, since the team is basically “done”, I am not looking for rates; I want to share my masterpiece with the community. Most of the team is specially based, meaning that if Blissey falls to a well-timed Explosion or Pursuit, the rest of the team will have a great chance to sweep. As far as ladder ranking goes, I peaked 10th under my alt “-legendary 07-“, with a current rating estimate of 1609. Even though the team itself is good, I won´t take away any credit away from myself. Even though I am just 13 years old, I am proud to say I can rival great battlers.
Before presenting the team, I want to give thanks to Fu Wind Destiny; he helped me with my two most successful teams and I owe so much to him, thanks buddy.
Well, enough introduction, here comes the team!!
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El Blecko (Roserade) (F) @ Focus Sash /
Natural Cure, Timid
4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
- Sleep Powder
- Toxic Spikes
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power
El Blecko, such a vital member of this team. Roserade is irreplaceable because of his unique ability to set up Toxic Spikes as well as having a sleep-inducing move (Smeargle sucks). I love her 125 base Special Attack, combined with a very decent 90 Speed makes Roserade a top-tier lead. Toxic Spikes really help my team; against offensive teams, I usually lay one layer, because I like the instant 12% HP drain on Tyranitar and Infernape. Sleep Powder is the key to the door of setting up (lol, what a physiological.) The accuracy is annoying at times, but hitting 75% of the time is worth missing 25%. Toxic Spikes is the core of my team, since every member can abuse them at least in one way, also, it helps to wear down walls and since my team shares counters, allows a late game sweep. Toxic Spikes is the only reason to use Roserade, she can set them up and absorb them. Leaf Storm is an overpowered Stab moves that deals great amounts of damage to anything that doesn´t resists it (a lot of things). I try to retain from using it because I become set up bait for things like SD Lucario and DD Gyarados. At the early stages of the team, I had a Spiritomb for spin-blocking and beating Blissey, but Salamence late game was a real problem, that made me decide to use Hidden Power Ice. Aside from that, it wins in terms of speed opposing Roserade who chose to run Hidden Power Fire for Scizor. Even though she has 252 Spe / 252 SpA and a Focus Sash, she is NOT a suicide lead. I like to keep her alive later to absorb possible Toxic Spikes and to beat Crocune if Celebi ever goes down. Roserade has proven to be an excellent member of the team.
Here is a short list of what I do against the most common leads:
Azelf: Leaf Storm, then use Hidden Power; they always Taunt. If they use Psychic I go to Weavile turn 2 and Pursuit him. If they use Stealth Rock turn one, I use Toxic Spikes on turn two, because they lack Taunt and are likely to Explode.
Aerodactyl: Hidden Power first turn as they Taunt, then attack again on the Stealth Rock. If they use Stealth Rock on turn one, they will use Taunt on turn two so it´s the same.
Swampert: Sleep Powder, then proceed to set up T-Spikes.
Smeargle: I show him who the fastest sleeper is (The Rise of Darkrai.)
Jirachi: Go to Heatran on the Iron Head, and then set up Stealth Rock.
Metagross: This one is tricky; I use Sleep Powder first, if he has Lum Berry, I go to Heatran on the Bullet Punch and OHKO him with Fire Blast. Otherwise, just Sleep Powder and then set up.
Infernape: I go to Latias on the Fake Out, then, I send back to Roserade on the Stealth Rock.
Tyranitar: I use Toxic Spikes, if I survive, I use Sleep Powder.
Roserade: I hate this match-up more than any other; since I have Hidden Power Ice, I likely win in terms of Speed.
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Metal Burst (Heatran) (M) Shuca Berry /
Flash Fire, Naive
252 SpAtk / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Explosion
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Metal Burst has gained a solid position in Neon Heart; his ability to set up Stealth Rock, beat Scizor, weaken Tyranitar, lure and kill Blissey are things that made me chose him. Usually, he is my second switch-in after Roserade faints; I like to have Stealth Rock since early in the game for cutting down Salamence´s surprises and Gyarados´ attacks. Most of the time, he is my main switch-in to Blissey; I love the free turn to set up Stealth Rock on the Protect / switch-in to Rotom-A. He has great synergy with the rest of the team; this is very useful for beating most leads. He is a great switch-in for steel-type Pokémon that are very troublesome for Latias. Heatran is an excellent member of the team; especially by luring and weakening Tyranitar.
What I love the most from him is his balance; I like this principle practiced by Infinity: “One of my philosophies of battling is that it is as vital to maintain a solid defense as a solid offense.” Heatran is a great example for this, sporting excellent resistances, typing, base stats and movepool. When building the team, I had problems deciding what to use on my lead, Toxic Spikes or Stealth Rock. I knew Roserade would fit the best for this team (Smeargle sucks and Forretress is too slow-paced for this team). Even though she makes a great lead, in my opinion she sucks so badly outside of that spot, meaning that she needed to be my lead obligatory. After reading some RMT´s on Smogon, I saw one that made me realize what I could not see. It was nothing more and nothing less than the standard lead Heatran, but outside of the lead spot. I fell in love with it immediately; Heatran´s bulk and offense makes setting up Stealth Rock in any stage of the game very easy. Just switch-in a choiced resisted attack like Bullet Punch or Fire Blast and proceed to set up Stealth Rock, this makes me scout for their counter, and is way better than firing a random Fire Blast to a random switch-in. Even If my opponent isn’t choiced, Heatran is great at causing switches because of his base 130 Special Attack coupled with a 120 base power Stab move, Fire Blast. The Evs are very standard, yet they serve they role perfectly. Max speed allows me to al least tie with opposing Heatran and to outspeed most variations of Gyarados (he is my top threat). When I am against opposing Heatran, I usually win; because most people try to over predict against me, using Fire Blast or Stealth Rock in my beautiful face. If we both have Shuca, I don’t risk the speed tie, I go to Suicune because he takes less than 25% from Earth Power from a Shuca Heatran, and Life Orb Heatran falls to my own, which is what the Speed Evs help me to accomplish. Max Special Attack 2HKO´s Salamence and Gyarados with Stealth Rock (the offensive ones) and helps me deal more damage in general. I need it to OHKO bulky steels like Bronzong, Jirachi and Metagross, which is one of his main roles, aside of setting up Stealth Rock, luring and beating Bliss, luring and weakening Tyranitar, and beating Latias with a well-timed Explosion. The Shuca Berry gives me extra insurance against Salamence most Steel types. With it, I don´t need to over predict against Salamence, because he is 2HKO´d with Stealth Rock, while he can´t OHKO Heatran. Fire Blast´s 120 base power and Stab made it the obvious choice over Flamethrower and Ember, and it is very useful in the long wrong for hitting switch-ins like Swampert, Suicune and Gyarados harder. Earth Power gives me perfect coverage in tandem with my other two moves, Fire Blast and Explosion.
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Strawberry (Celebi) @ Leftovers /
Natural Cure, Modest
180 HP / 180 Spe / 150 SpAtk
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
This is the set Fu Wind Destiny and I built. I´ve never regretted the use of this build. Celebi´s role is to paralyze and beat dangerous threads for the team. Gyarados, Scizor, Salamence, Latias, they all fill in the list. He is one of the best partners for Latias ever, since he lures and kills Scizor, and lures and weakens Tyranitar.
At the early stages on the team, when I was approximately 1500 current rating estimate on Shoddy, I was laddering with my friend from CAL, Delta2777.
He was using his Tinker bell Celebi, and asked me to pm my set to him to test it. He suggested me to run a Modest nature (using Timid at the moment) because I am already using Thunder Wave. With that suggestion, I was free to run more HP to take better on things like Salamence and Gyarados. When I was Timid, I had Earth Power over Leech Seed; that made beating Suicune extremely hard, sometimes impossible. With my current move set, I can stall out last Pokémon stat-upper like Snorlax, Suicune, Miltank and Umbreon, my Pokémon have the defenses to stall out someone under the effects of Leech Seed. The Evs gives me a clean OHKO on Scizor, (iirc, lol), and a 2HKO on Tyranitar with Grass Knot. My policy with this team is “What if I am 6-0´d a threat after he gets set up, if he has no chance to get it?” That means that every poke on my team has at least one chance to prevent set up. Thunder Wave slows down sweepers for the rest of the team; my team has problems with flyers like Zapdos, Gyarados, Salamence and Latias, making Thunder Wave an excellent option. Once a Pokémon is paralyzed, he is much easier to beat with Suicune and Latias (>< spoilers). Leftovers was chosen over Life Orb because it doesn´t auto-signal Hidden Power Fire. Celebi makes a great switch-in to Blissey and Cresselia, and if they dare to stay in, then I have a full powered Pursuit waiting in Weavile´s claws, especially with Toxic Spikes (kick me if I give more spoilers). Grass Knot is my main form of offense; it was chosen over Energy Ball and Leaf Storm because of its reliability and because it has 120 base power plus Stab against Tyranitar and Gyarados, and a 100 base power plus Stab against Suicune. I don´t mind if it don’t do any damage to Uxie and Azelf, because Uxie can stand Energy Ball anyways and most people waste Azelf as a lead. Hidden Power Fire fulfills Celebi´s role of luring and beating Scizor, and also makes him a decent check to Lucario.
It slowly beats most Steel types like Metagross and Bronzong if I predict an Earthquake fired at Heatran. Thunder Wave is already explained, but whatever, it prevents set up from sweepers, because I don’t want them to sweep me and helps me to wear down levitators / flying types. Leech Seed is what makes me a great switch-in to Blissey and Suicune, comfortably walling both of them, and in Blissey´s case, a switch-in to Weavile. Strawberry is a solid Pokémon that deserves to be used more; I encourage the use of this set, unless you really need the extra bulk.
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North Wind (Suicune) @ Leftovers /
Pressure, Timid
252 HP / 216 Spe / 40 SpAtk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Surf
- Ice Beam
Suicune is an excellent Pokémon, especially on this one with Toxic Spikes support. I took this set right away from legendary_07´s Legendary North Wind (such a great team and person). I will quote the description found in there.
North Wind walling capabilities are really appreciated for my team. The substitute set may seem rather unorthodox, but it is very useful and I have proven its usefulness. I really need to outspeed Adamant Lucario (Jolly won´t OHKO after a Swords Dance), because this team really hates it. This set is very good for beating Blissey, allowing a sweep from Latias later, even though if Suicune beats Blissey, it means I got enough Calm Minds to sweep the rest of the stall. Calm Mind is my boosting move, which makes Suicune Latias ´sweeping partner. It is very nice to have 2 layers of Toxic Spikes while my opponent cannot break my Subsitute; this is easy when using Calm Mind. It gives me something to “do” while Vaporeon and Blissey struggle to attempt to break my Substitutes. Substitute was chosen to check Adamant Lucario; Surf deals huge amounts of damage after a Defense drop. It also helps to ease prediction and blocks Trick, Leech Seed, and Switcheroo. What I like the most of this set is its surprise value; it is very nice to Sub in front of a Breloom or in front of a choiced Pokémon in the wrong move, from there, sweeping is way easier. Ice Beam gives me somewhat of “coverage”, it is nice against stall-wars with Blissey and Vaporeon. Keeping Salamence, Dragonite and Breloom is very nice too. I was considering using Hidden Power Electric over Ice Beam, but that would make me lose against Celebi and most Dragons, so I decided not to change it. Surf is my most reliable Stab move and 3HKO´s Blissey and 2HKO´s Cresselia after 6 boosts. It keeps Tyranitar in check (3HKO unboosted and 2HKO after a Calm Mind). I don´t know why, but Scizor loves to come into Suicune, just to take massive damage from my Stabbed attack. Aside from that, Surf is my main offensive move, it is very reliable and has 100% accuracy, nothing much to say. North Wind can sweep with just a little chance, it usually gets it with his “surprise” set.
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Coldplay (Weavile) (M) @ Life Orb /
Pressure, Jolly
40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
- Pursuit
- Low Kick
- Ice Shard
- Night Slash
Coldplay is a very important member of the team. His invaluable Pursuits have earned his slot on this team. When I was building my team, I was missing one Pokémon, I had synergy problems, so I didn’t know what to use. Spiritomb used to be in this place for his ability to counter Lucario, beat Blissey, and dent Tyranitar. But then, I started to have serious problems with Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Dragon Dance Salamence and stall in general. Opposing Latias and Gengar were very troublesome as well, I thought myself, what the hello can keep all those in check?
I was listening to Viva la Vida by Coldplay, and it made me remember a great Pokémon from Diamond and Pearl (when I ruled the world), this Pokémon is Weavile. His biggest selling points are his 125 base Speed and STAB Pursuit. His blinding-fast speed allows me to revenge kill Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and if I feel ballsy enough, switch-in on the Dragon Dance. Pursuit is my favorite move in the game. It is really useful against Blissey and Cresselia (just ask infinity, lol joke) Blissey can´t beat me if I have Toxic Spikes up. Blissey can´t out stall me with Toxic / Wish / Protect, because the intensifying poison damage roll increases each turn, forcing her to switch out, unleashing a powerful Pursuit. Pursuit´s usefulness doesn’t stop here; it OHKOs Gengar despite he stays in or not, as long as I have Stealth Rock. If I manage to switch Weavile on an Ice Beam, I am very happy because I don´t need to keep trying to prevent Rapid Spin. Flygon takes approximately 80% from Pursuit when he switches out (I Pursuit if he is locked on Earthquake, Stone Edge, Fire Blast, or whatever non-Outrage move he has, and taking out Flygon for Latias is excellent for a sweep. Low Kick is an excellent addition from HGSS. I chose it over Brick Break because it OHKO´s Heatran and deals more damage to the major part of OU. Scizor takes 45% on average from Low Kick, meaning he won´t set up more than one Swords Dance against me. I use it against Scizor when I am unsure if my opponent is going to U-turn, Superpower or Bullet Punch (some people even try to Pursuit me, lol). It deals horrible amounts of damage to Empoleon, although I don’t KO with Low Kick, Ice Shard and Stealth Rock (he survives with 2 or 3 %), but I can´t do anything about it, and it is better than Brick Break´s mediocre 75% average. Despite it hitting steel types very hard, what I love the most is the clean OHKO on Tyranitar, and the team´s top priority is to remove Latias´ counters while beating the rest of the metagame by working together. Ice Shard allows me to revenge kill Flygon locked in Outrage and revenge kill Dragonite and Salamence even if they have 38 boosts. Night Slash was chosen over Ice Punch because of its perfect coverage alongside Low Kick. And most dark-weak pokes switch out because they fear a more powerful Night Slash, meaning that if they acknowledge that I don´t have a reliable move to attack them, they might use me as set-up bait, burn me (in Rotom-A´s case) or just KO me as a fail to do it first (Azelf). If Latias gets too many Calm Minds, I don´t hesitate to Night Slash that dragon. Basically, it was chosen to play mind-games with my opponent. Life Orb is my item of choice because I need to hit as hard as possible with my four moves, and I really hate Choice items on things that are weak to Stealth Rock. Weavile is capable of sweeping in a pinch, so Life Orb is without any doubt, my favorite item for Coldplay. I used to have a simple spread consisting on max attack and max speed, but switching-in to Blissey was getting harder and harder every time. Despite I am very weak to Weavile myself; I consider that opposing Weavile are very uncommon to attempt a speed tie, and I have Ice Shard for Swellow anyway. Jolly is present to outspeed Timid Starmie, Choice Scarf Tyranitar and Azelf, despite their nature.
I think Coldplay is my favorite to use in the team, because I like it both competitively and as a Pokémon.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]
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Silver (Latias) (F) @ Leftovers /
Levitate, Timid
252 Spe / 252 SpAtk / 4 HP
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power
- Roost
Silver is the Pokémon I built my team around; her amazing defenses, offense, typing, movepool, and recovery is what captivated me.
I can´t count how many sweeps this beautiful, yet powerful dragon has made by herself. I chose to run offensive Latias with Leftovers for a lot of reasons. I used to run this same Latias in a stall team; I noticed that with a bulky spread / supporting moveset like Reflect, Refresh, or Safeguard, she isn´t able to sweep. With an offensive set, without Recover and with Life Orb, she dies too easily and is more prompt to get revenge killed by priority.
She keeps my team together, by being its nucleus. If I lose Latias early, winning the game will be much harder than it is already. I chose Leftovers, aside from creating a “mix”, is used to have an easier time while setting up, and I prefer to set up two Calm Mind with Leftovers than one with Life Orb. One of the benefits of using Leftovers is that it lures Scizor, making my opponent think I am some supportive, defensive Latias without any raw power. I decided to use a Timid nature because I don´t want to risk being outspeed by Infernape and positive base 100 Pokémon like Salamence and Jirachi. Calm Mind boosts my already crazy, amazing Special Defense and my Special Attack. It is my method for sweeping. Setting up is relatively easy, considering Latias´110 base Speed and 80 / 90 / 130 defenses. Since I am not using Life Orb, some way of boosting my offensive moves is needed; Calm Mind complements this role. Dragon Pulse is my most reliable Stab attack, and has perfect accuracy and a nice 90 base power. There are several reasons that made me chose Hidden Power Fire over Surf, Roar, Refresh or whatever else a Latias might use. Initially, I was opting for Surf, since I already have Scizor covered, and I would hit Tyranitar super-effectively. But my twisted logic told me the inverse. If I were to use Surf, I would lose anyways to Tyranitar and to Scizor as well; meaning that I had two choices. One was reliably beating one of my counters and inmediatly lose to the other one, the other was to lose against both while taking over 50% to them. My choice was obvious.
There´s not much to say about an immediate recovery of one half of your max health, but Roost is definitely needed to keep switching into Infernape, Heatran and most special attackers. I can prove Latias has a huge potential. The “strongest” and mvp of my team; with her, I finish Neon Heart.
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I enjoyed a lot to build and to play with this team. It made a good run; although, it has reached its end. This is my "goodbye" to my best team up to date.
I took a lot of effort writing this RMT, and building the team, but it is the less I could do to "share" my masterpiece to you. Thanks for reading; I know that reading 4000 words is hard, thanks.
Edit: I want to give thanks to all the CAL members that helped me with this team: Delta 2777, Astrith, Ultimalink and panamaxis.
I am proud to present my most successful team, surpassing even Legendary Wind. The team in its majority is defensive, yet they are hard hitters. This team is based of around getting a Latias sweep; this can be accomplished by using lures, Pursuit, Toxic Spikes and general synergy. Before getting deeper, I want to say that this is a “showcase”, since the team is basically “done”, I am not looking for rates; I want to share my masterpiece with the community. Most of the team is specially based, meaning that if Blissey falls to a well-timed Explosion or Pursuit, the rest of the team will have a great chance to sweep. As far as ladder ranking goes, I peaked 10th under my alt “-legendary 07-“, with a current rating estimate of 1609. Even though the team itself is good, I won´t take away any credit away from myself. Even though I am just 13 years old, I am proud to say I can rival great battlers.
Before presenting the team, I want to give thanks to Fu Wind Destiny; he helped me with my two most successful teams and I owe so much to him, thanks buddy.
Well, enough introduction, here comes the team!!
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El Blecko (Roserade) (F) @ Focus Sash /
Natural Cure, Timid
4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
El Blecko, such a vital member of this team. Roserade is irreplaceable because of his unique ability to set up Toxic Spikes as well as having a sleep-inducing move (Smeargle sucks). I love her 125 base Special Attack, combined with a very decent 90 Speed makes Roserade a top-tier lead. Toxic Spikes really help my team; against offensive teams, I usually lay one layer, because I like the instant 12% HP drain on Tyranitar and Infernape. Sleep Powder is the key to the door of setting up (lol, what a physiological.) The accuracy is annoying at times, but hitting 75% of the time is worth missing 25%. Toxic Spikes is the core of my team, since every member can abuse them at least in one way, also, it helps to wear down walls and since my team shares counters, allows a late game sweep. Toxic Spikes is the only reason to use Roserade, she can set them up and absorb them. Leaf Storm is an overpowered Stab moves that deals great amounts of damage to anything that doesn´t resists it (a lot of things). I try to retain from using it because I become set up bait for things like SD Lucario and DD Gyarados. At the early stages of the team, I had a Spiritomb for spin-blocking and beating Blissey, but Salamence late game was a real problem, that made me decide to use Hidden Power Ice. Aside from that, it wins in terms of speed opposing Roserade who chose to run Hidden Power Fire for Scizor. Even though she has 252 Spe / 252 SpA and a Focus Sash, she is NOT a suicide lead. I like to keep her alive later to absorb possible Toxic Spikes and to beat Crocune if Celebi ever goes down. Roserade has proven to be an excellent member of the team.
Here is a short list of what I do against the most common leads:
Azelf: Leaf Storm, then use Hidden Power; they always Taunt. If they use Psychic I go to Weavile turn 2 and Pursuit him. If they use Stealth Rock turn one, I use Toxic Spikes on turn two, because they lack Taunt and are likely to Explode.
Aerodactyl: Hidden Power first turn as they Taunt, then attack again on the Stealth Rock. If they use Stealth Rock on turn one, they will use Taunt on turn two so it´s the same.
Swampert: Sleep Powder, then proceed to set up T-Spikes.
Smeargle: I show him who the fastest sleeper is (The Rise of Darkrai.)
Jirachi: Go to Heatran on the Iron Head, and then set up Stealth Rock.
Metagross: This one is tricky; I use Sleep Powder first, if he has Lum Berry, I go to Heatran on the Bullet Punch and OHKO him with Fire Blast. Otherwise, just Sleep Powder and then set up.
Infernape: I go to Latias on the Fake Out, then, I send back to Roserade on the Stealth Rock.
Tyranitar: I use Toxic Spikes, if I survive, I use Sleep Powder.
Roserade: I hate this match-up more than any other; since I have Hidden Power Ice, I likely win in terms of Speed.
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Metal Burst (Heatran) (M) Shuca Berry /
Flash Fire, Naive
252 SpAtk / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
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Metal Burst has gained a solid position in Neon Heart; his ability to set up Stealth Rock, beat Scizor, weaken Tyranitar, lure and kill Blissey are things that made me chose him. Usually, he is my second switch-in after Roserade faints; I like to have Stealth Rock since early in the game for cutting down Salamence´s surprises and Gyarados´ attacks. Most of the time, he is my main switch-in to Blissey; I love the free turn to set up Stealth Rock on the Protect / switch-in to Rotom-A. He has great synergy with the rest of the team; this is very useful for beating most leads. He is a great switch-in for steel-type Pokémon that are very troublesome for Latias. Heatran is an excellent member of the team; especially by luring and weakening Tyranitar.
What I love the most from him is his balance; I like this principle practiced by Infinity: “One of my philosophies of battling is that it is as vital to maintain a solid defense as a solid offense.” Heatran is a great example for this, sporting excellent resistances, typing, base stats and movepool. When building the team, I had problems deciding what to use on my lead, Toxic Spikes or Stealth Rock. I knew Roserade would fit the best for this team (Smeargle sucks and Forretress is too slow-paced for this team). Even though she makes a great lead, in my opinion she sucks so badly outside of that spot, meaning that she needed to be my lead obligatory. After reading some RMT´s on Smogon, I saw one that made me realize what I could not see. It was nothing more and nothing less than the standard lead Heatran, but outside of the lead spot. I fell in love with it immediately; Heatran´s bulk and offense makes setting up Stealth Rock in any stage of the game very easy. Just switch-in a choiced resisted attack like Bullet Punch or Fire Blast and proceed to set up Stealth Rock, this makes me scout for their counter, and is way better than firing a random Fire Blast to a random switch-in. Even If my opponent isn’t choiced, Heatran is great at causing switches because of his base 130 Special Attack coupled with a 120 base power Stab move, Fire Blast. The Evs are very standard, yet they serve they role perfectly. Max speed allows me to al least tie with opposing Heatran and to outspeed most variations of Gyarados (he is my top threat). When I am against opposing Heatran, I usually win; because most people try to over predict against me, using Fire Blast or Stealth Rock in my beautiful face. If we both have Shuca, I don’t risk the speed tie, I go to Suicune because he takes less than 25% from Earth Power from a Shuca Heatran, and Life Orb Heatran falls to my own, which is what the Speed Evs help me to accomplish. Max Special Attack 2HKO´s Salamence and Gyarados with Stealth Rock (the offensive ones) and helps me deal more damage in general. I need it to OHKO bulky steels like Bronzong, Jirachi and Metagross, which is one of his main roles, aside of setting up Stealth Rock, luring and beating Bliss, luring and weakening Tyranitar, and beating Latias with a well-timed Explosion. The Shuca Berry gives me extra insurance against Salamence most Steel types. With it, I don´t need to over predict against Salamence, because he is 2HKO´d with Stealth Rock, while he can´t OHKO Heatran. Fire Blast´s 120 base power and Stab made it the obvious choice over Flamethrower and Ember, and it is very useful in the long wrong for hitting switch-ins like Swampert, Suicune and Gyarados harder. Earth Power gives me perfect coverage in tandem with my other two moves, Fire Blast and Explosion.
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Strawberry (Celebi) @ Leftovers /
Natural Cure, Modest
180 HP / 180 Spe / 150 SpAtk
This is the set Fu Wind Destiny and I built. I´ve never regretted the use of this build. Celebi´s role is to paralyze and beat dangerous threads for the team. Gyarados, Scizor, Salamence, Latias, they all fill in the list. He is one of the best partners for Latias ever, since he lures and kills Scizor, and lures and weakens Tyranitar.
At the early stages on the team, when I was approximately 1500 current rating estimate on Shoddy, I was laddering with my friend from CAL, Delta2777.
He was using his Tinker bell Celebi, and asked me to pm my set to him to test it. He suggested me to run a Modest nature (using Timid at the moment) because I am already using Thunder Wave. With that suggestion, I was free to run more HP to take better on things like Salamence and Gyarados. When I was Timid, I had Earth Power over Leech Seed; that made beating Suicune extremely hard, sometimes impossible. With my current move set, I can stall out last Pokémon stat-upper like Snorlax, Suicune, Miltank and Umbreon, my Pokémon have the defenses to stall out someone under the effects of Leech Seed. The Evs gives me a clean OHKO on Scizor, (iirc, lol), and a 2HKO on Tyranitar with Grass Knot. My policy with this team is “What if I am 6-0´d a threat after he gets set up, if he has no chance to get it?” That means that every poke on my team has at least one chance to prevent set up. Thunder Wave slows down sweepers for the rest of the team; my team has problems with flyers like Zapdos, Gyarados, Salamence and Latias, making Thunder Wave an excellent option. Once a Pokémon is paralyzed, he is much easier to beat with Suicune and Latias (>< spoilers). Leftovers was chosen over Life Orb because it doesn´t auto-signal Hidden Power Fire. Celebi makes a great switch-in to Blissey and Cresselia, and if they dare to stay in, then I have a full powered Pursuit waiting in Weavile´s claws, especially with Toxic Spikes (kick me if I give more spoilers). Grass Knot is my main form of offense; it was chosen over Energy Ball and Leaf Storm because of its reliability and because it has 120 base power plus Stab against Tyranitar and Gyarados, and a 100 base power plus Stab against Suicune. I don´t mind if it don’t do any damage to Uxie and Azelf, because Uxie can stand Energy Ball anyways and most people waste Azelf as a lead. Hidden Power Fire fulfills Celebi´s role of luring and beating Scizor, and also makes him a decent check to Lucario.
It slowly beats most Steel types like Metagross and Bronzong if I predict an Earthquake fired at Heatran. Thunder Wave is already explained, but whatever, it prevents set up from sweepers, because I don’t want them to sweep me and helps me to wear down levitators / flying types. Leech Seed is what makes me a great switch-in to Blissey and Suicune, comfortably walling both of them, and in Blissey´s case, a switch-in to Weavile. Strawberry is a solid Pokémon that deserves to be used more; I encourage the use of this set, unless you really need the extra bulk.
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North Wind (Suicune) @ Leftovers /
Pressure, Timid
252 HP / 216 Spe / 40 SpAtk
Suicune is an excellent Pokémon, especially on this one with Toxic Spikes support. I took this set right away from legendary_07´s Legendary North Wind (such a great team and person). I will quote the description found in there.
legendary_07 said:
North Wind walling capabilities are really appreciated for my team. The substitute set may seem rather unorthodox, but it is very useful and I have proven its usefulness. I really need to outspeed Adamant Lucario (Jolly won´t OHKO after a Swords Dance), because this team really hates it. This set is very good for beating Blissey, allowing a sweep from Latias later, even though if Suicune beats Blissey, it means I got enough Calm Minds to sweep the rest of the stall. Calm Mind is my boosting move, which makes Suicune Latias ´sweeping partner. It is very nice to have 2 layers of Toxic Spikes while my opponent cannot break my Subsitute; this is easy when using Calm Mind. It gives me something to “do” while Vaporeon and Blissey struggle to attempt to break my Substitutes. Substitute was chosen to check Adamant Lucario; Surf deals huge amounts of damage after a Defense drop. It also helps to ease prediction and blocks Trick, Leech Seed, and Switcheroo. What I like the most of this set is its surprise value; it is very nice to Sub in front of a Breloom or in front of a choiced Pokémon in the wrong move, from there, sweeping is way easier. Ice Beam gives me somewhat of “coverage”, it is nice against stall-wars with Blissey and Vaporeon. Keeping Salamence, Dragonite and Breloom is very nice too. I was considering using Hidden Power Electric over Ice Beam, but that would make me lose against Celebi and most Dragons, so I decided not to change it. Surf is my most reliable Stab move and 3HKO´s Blissey and 2HKO´s Cresselia after 6 boosts. It keeps Tyranitar in check (3HKO unboosted and 2HKO after a Calm Mind). I don´t know why, but Scizor loves to come into Suicune, just to take massive damage from my Stabbed attack. Aside from that, Surf is my main offensive move, it is very reliable and has 100% accuracy, nothing much to say. North Wind can sweep with just a little chance, it usually gets it with his “surprise” set.
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Coldplay (Weavile) (M) @ Life Orb /
Pressure, Jolly
40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Coldplay is a very important member of the team. His invaluable Pursuits have earned his slot on this team. When I was building my team, I was missing one Pokémon, I had synergy problems, so I didn’t know what to use. Spiritomb used to be in this place for his ability to counter Lucario, beat Blissey, and dent Tyranitar. But then, I started to have serious problems with Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Dragon Dance Salamence and stall in general. Opposing Latias and Gengar were very troublesome as well, I thought myself, what the hello can keep all those in check?
I was listening to Viva la Vida by Coldplay, and it made me remember a great Pokémon from Diamond and Pearl (when I ruled the world), this Pokémon is Weavile. His biggest selling points are his 125 base Speed and STAB Pursuit. His blinding-fast speed allows me to revenge kill Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and if I feel ballsy enough, switch-in on the Dragon Dance. Pursuit is my favorite move in the game. It is really useful against Blissey and Cresselia (just ask infinity, lol joke) Blissey can´t beat me if I have Toxic Spikes up. Blissey can´t out stall me with Toxic / Wish / Protect, because the intensifying poison damage roll increases each turn, forcing her to switch out, unleashing a powerful Pursuit. Pursuit´s usefulness doesn’t stop here; it OHKOs Gengar despite he stays in or not, as long as I have Stealth Rock. If I manage to switch Weavile on an Ice Beam, I am very happy because I don´t need to keep trying to prevent Rapid Spin. Flygon takes approximately 80% from Pursuit when he switches out (I Pursuit if he is locked on Earthquake, Stone Edge, Fire Blast, or whatever non-Outrage move he has, and taking out Flygon for Latias is excellent for a sweep. Low Kick is an excellent addition from HGSS. I chose it over Brick Break because it OHKO´s Heatran and deals more damage to the major part of OU. Scizor takes 45% on average from Low Kick, meaning he won´t set up more than one Swords Dance against me. I use it against Scizor when I am unsure if my opponent is going to U-turn, Superpower or Bullet Punch (some people even try to Pursuit me, lol). It deals horrible amounts of damage to Empoleon, although I don’t KO with Low Kick, Ice Shard and Stealth Rock (he survives with 2 or 3 %), but I can´t do anything about it, and it is better than Brick Break´s mediocre 75% average. Despite it hitting steel types very hard, what I love the most is the clean OHKO on Tyranitar, and the team´s top priority is to remove Latias´ counters while beating the rest of the metagame by working together. Ice Shard allows me to revenge kill Flygon locked in Outrage and revenge kill Dragonite and Salamence even if they have 38 boosts. Night Slash was chosen over Ice Punch because of its perfect coverage alongside Low Kick. And most dark-weak pokes switch out because they fear a more powerful Night Slash, meaning that if they acknowledge that I don´t have a reliable move to attack them, they might use me as set-up bait, burn me (in Rotom-A´s case) or just KO me as a fail to do it first (Azelf). If Latias gets too many Calm Minds, I don´t hesitate to Night Slash that dragon. Basically, it was chosen to play mind-games with my opponent. Life Orb is my item of choice because I need to hit as hard as possible with my four moves, and I really hate Choice items on things that are weak to Stealth Rock. Weavile is capable of sweeping in a pinch, so Life Orb is without any doubt, my favorite item for Coldplay. I used to have a simple spread consisting on max attack and max speed, but switching-in to Blissey was getting harder and harder every time. Despite I am very weak to Weavile myself; I consider that opposing Weavile are very uncommon to attempt a speed tie, and I have Ice Shard for Swellow anyway. Jolly is present to outspeed Timid Starmie, Choice Scarf Tyranitar and Azelf, despite their nature.
I think Coldplay is my favorite to use in the team, because I like it both competitively and as a Pokémon.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]
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Silver (Latias) (F) @ Leftovers /
Levitate, Timid
252 Spe / 252 SpAtk / 4 HP
Silver is the Pokémon I built my team around; her amazing defenses, offense, typing, movepool, and recovery is what captivated me.
I can´t count how many sweeps this beautiful, yet powerful dragon has made by herself. I chose to run offensive Latias with Leftovers for a lot of reasons. I used to run this same Latias in a stall team; I noticed that with a bulky spread / supporting moveset like Reflect, Refresh, or Safeguard, she isn´t able to sweep. With an offensive set, without Recover and with Life Orb, she dies too easily and is more prompt to get revenge killed by priority.
She keeps my team together, by being its nucleus. If I lose Latias early, winning the game will be much harder than it is already. I chose Leftovers, aside from creating a “mix”, is used to have an easier time while setting up, and I prefer to set up two Calm Mind with Leftovers than one with Life Orb. One of the benefits of using Leftovers is that it lures Scizor, making my opponent think I am some supportive, defensive Latias without any raw power. I decided to use a Timid nature because I don´t want to risk being outspeed by Infernape and positive base 100 Pokémon like Salamence and Jirachi. Calm Mind boosts my already crazy, amazing Special Defense and my Special Attack. It is my method for sweeping. Setting up is relatively easy, considering Latias´110 base Speed and 80 / 90 / 130 defenses. Since I am not using Life Orb, some way of boosting my offensive moves is needed; Calm Mind complements this role. Dragon Pulse is my most reliable Stab attack, and has perfect accuracy and a nice 90 base power. There are several reasons that made me chose Hidden Power Fire over Surf, Roar, Refresh or whatever else a Latias might use. Initially, I was opting for Surf, since I already have Scizor covered, and I would hit Tyranitar super-effectively. But my twisted logic told me the inverse. If I were to use Surf, I would lose anyways to Tyranitar and to Scizor as well; meaning that I had two choices. One was reliably beating one of my counters and inmediatly lose to the other one, the other was to lose against both while taking over 50% to them. My choice was obvious.
There´s not much to say about an immediate recovery of one half of your max health, but Roost is definitely needed to keep switching into Infernape, Heatran and most special attackers. I can prove Latias has a huge potential. The “strongest” and mvp of my team; with her, I finish Neon Heart.
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I enjoyed a lot to build and to play with this team. It made a good run; although, it has reached its end. This is my "goodbye" to my best team up to date.
I took a lot of effort writing this RMT, and building the team, but it is the less I could do to "share" my masterpiece to you. Thanks for reading; I know that reading 4000 words is hard, thanks.
Edit: I want to give thanks to all the CAL members that helped me with this team: Delta 2777, Astrith, Ultimalink and panamaxis.
