Team: Dynamic Action
A RMT: By Yours Truly
A RMT: By Yours Truly
Why is this team so DYNAMIC you say? Allow me to explain;
Machoke, formally Machop, has a unique ability called No Gaurd which grants him 100% accuracy moves; notable moves being Dynamic Punch and Rock Slide. Now there are three things Machoke greatly disapproves of Ghosts (doesn't believe in them), Psychics (bunch of hocus pocus), and Flying-types. So in order to cover that long list of annoyances I needed 2 Pokemon, a SR user and a Pursuit abuser.
Enter, Uxie and Skuntank. Both of which have synergy with each other, Uxie hoovers above ground attacks targeted at Skuntank and Skuntank eats them ghosties, as well as synergy with Machoke in their own respective ways. Uxie sets up SR which hampers Flying-types ability to 'freely' switch into Machoke however, switching into a CB Dynamic Punch that has 100% confusion rate ain't exactly a walk in the park. Skuntank eliminates Ghosts and Psychics with impunity and then effectively says FU as he explodes on Milotic or w/e. With just Machoke, Uxie, and Skuntank I essentially have my core. I force my opponent to play by my rules and effectively forcing them switch as I need them to.
I don't want to say that the rest of my team is 'filler'. They each have a unique role that allows me to uphold my winning record. By looking at the threats I do and don't have covered I came to the conclusion that I need the three following Pokemon.
I will begin with Venusaur. Venusaur is my lone special attacker as well as my special attack absorber, if need be. As you can all-ready see, Milotic could really be a thorn in ones side if she is not dispatched ASAP. I also try to make uses of Venusuars ability to force switches by using not only
Sleep Powder but Roar. While Sleep Powder is straight forward, Roar is two fold. I weaken switch-ins, namely Arcanine and Moltres, and scout the opponents team. Roar also makes for a good temporary check to pokemon such as CM Spiritomb and CM Raikou.
Rhyperior was chosen because, 1: Its fucking Rhyperior and 2: its fucking Rhyperior. Whimsical jokes aside, Rhyperior is indeed on the team for two reasons, check Swellow, very specific but needed, and secondly, his ability to rip off 50%(+) of anything's HP. I already have a SR user so I opted for Roar to, again, phase and scout. Nothing brings me greater satisfaction than a Swellow U-turning out and getting Roared back in.
Because I fucking hate Spikes a Rapid Spinner is a must. I really wasn't limited to my Rapid Spinner choice because of my teams decent synergy. Hitmontop and Blastoise are decent Rapid Spinners, however, Hitmontop hasn't exactly been effective for me in the past few metas. Blastoise lacks an offensive presence and if I did use him I would be sticking a third sleep move, yawn, on my team because of his lack of being able to shell out damage. So I choose Donphan.
Aside from Spinning Donphan has his merits. He is my second and last user of priority in the form of Ice Shard and along with it carries a respectable attack stat and good STAB. Donphan really doesn't see to much action but he is nice to have around to soak up hits when other team members cannot.
The full team:
I went into great detail in my opening which basically covers everything important, I will refrain from being 'redundant' and post, what I consider to be, the essentials.
@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/44 Def/212 Spd
Impish nature
- Trick
- Yawn
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
---
Uxie has been Ev'd to outspeed Electrode by 1 point allowing me to Trick him while he is setting up SR or as he attempts to Taunt me. He he setups up Rain I'll begin to spam Yawn attempting to stall out Rain turns. Or if he Taunt's I will obviously U-turn into the best possible match-up.
Ambipom is 50-50, I may stay in and Trick or I may switch-out to Donphan or Rhyperior. Depends on how I feel and if I have played the opponent previously.
Any other lead, again depends on how I feel. SR or Trick.
@ Choice Band
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 128 HP/252 Atk/128 Spd
Adamant nature
- Payback
- Rock Slide
- Dynamicpunch
- Sleep Talk
---
I'm pretty linear when it comes to Machoke. How un-Dynamic would this team be if I didn't fire off DynamicPunch at my hearts content? Ev's allow me to outrun Clefable by 2 points.
@ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP/12 Spd/244 SAtk
Modest nature
- Leaf Storm
- Sludge Bomb
- Roar
- Sleep Powder
---
I opted for a special-attacker bulky Venusaur because it is somewhat rare now-a-days. STAB moves hit a pretty broad spectrum of Pokemon. Roar and Sleep Powder help to phase and scout my opponents team. Evs allow Venusaur to outrun Min Speed Milotic and the rest were dumped into Hp and SAtk for bulk and damage purposes.
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 116 HP/228 Atk/32 Def/132 Spd
Adamant nature
- Megahorn
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Roar
---
Rhyperior is my check to Normal, Flying, and Fire physical attacks. As well as my switch-in to shit like Registeel and Steelix. Those kinds of switch-ins are very important, at least from the offensive perspective. No one is willing to up-and-leave their precious walls to be devoured by this rock monster... which means they will inevitably switch allowing me to OHKO the switch-in, given proper prediction, or at least put the switch into KO range. I dunno what the EVs specifically do as I have just ripped them off an old analysis.
@ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 52 HP/244 Atk/204 Def/8 Spd
Adamant nature
- Ice Shard
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
---
Second Priority user and Rapid Spinner. Honestly, there isn't much to say about Donphan. He soaks up hits well and can dish out a hit while maintaining his resourcefulness through Rapid Spin. Since I went with 3 attacks I decided that I would opt for the offensive-defensive spread instead of my standard 252/248/8. 8 Spe EVs to outrun Chansey, Registeel, and the like.
@ BlackGlasses
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant nature
- Roar
- Pursuit
- Explosion
- Sucker Punch
---
Skuntank is the end all to Ghosts and Psychics alike. Spam Pursuit until they die. Unless it is Spiritomb who I will instead send in Venusaur to check which set that bastardtomb is running. If I'm lucky and can pick off an opponent without resorting to Sucker Punch then I can continue to bluff a choice set, which occasionally comes in handy. More often than not, I will just explode on shit like Milotic or Moltres who think they can recover on my Pursuit/ SuckerPunchs. 8 Evs to out run no speed base 85's (if such a thing exists; Cress is gone so yeah).
Team Strategy:
Omastar over Rhyperior: Why? While untested, I can safely say that the added Fire Resist and Special attacker could benefit this team just as much as Rhyperior's sheer might. Omastar would also give me 2/3's of the beloved Fire/Grass/Water core. Nevertherlee, he doesn't rid this team of it's Blaziken weakness.
Blastoise over Donphan: Blastoise would also be a welcomed addition to the team. Again giving me a good Fire resist Pokemon that can check Blaziken. Blastoise can also phaze with Roar. However, Blastoise lacks an offensive presence and easy previously mentioned I would have to opt for Yawn in order to maintain Blastoise's effectiveness. Having 2 Yawn users as well as a Sleep Powder user isn't so great if you ask me.
Team Weaknesses:
- Get SR up ASAP
- Get Machoke in ASAP, proceed to DynamicPunch
- Scout
- Pick-off weakened enemies
- Rinse and Repeat
Omastar over Rhyperior: Why? While untested, I can safely say that the added Fire Resist and Special attacker could benefit this team just as much as Rhyperior's sheer might. Omastar would also give me 2/3's of the beloved Fire/Grass/Water core. Nevertherlee, he doesn't rid this team of it's Blaziken weakness.
Blastoise over Donphan: Blastoise would also be a welcomed addition to the team. Again giving me a good Fire resist Pokemon that can check Blaziken. Blastoise can also phaze with Roar. However, Blastoise lacks an offensive presence and easy previously mentioned I would have to opt for Yawn in order to maintain Blastoise's effectiveness. Having 2 Yawn users as well as a Sleep Powder user isn't so great if you ask me.
Team Weaknesses:
- Blaziken: Ever since Cressalias departure more and more of these guys have been popping up and have been giving my team trouble. Luckily, he doesn't exactly get a free switch-in on any of my team members but when he does... ~.~
- Lack of speed: I'm not terribly concerned with this. Generally speaking, when a meta-game is focused on speed... I focus on bulky, when it is focused on bulk... I go to spike stacking, etc... In most cases, bulk > speed, IMHO.
