Team Von

[Ride The Lightning]

Ok, my last team didn't go too well. But after a long time of playtesting and working around my new team, I think I got a good offensive team. I was able to rack up a large amount of wins with this team. Before I start I would like to highlight 3 things this team acomplishes:

1) No one is weak to stealth rock.
2) 4 team members are immune to Toxic Spikes.
3) This team has 2 wall cripplers.

These three qualities are HUGE when facing stall teams. And it is very important, so keep that in mind when you're gonna suggest changing team members.

Without further ado, I introduce you to... TEAM VON!

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Changes in BOLD

Flame Head (Infernape) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Stealth Rock
- Endeavor
- Vacuum Wave
- Overheat

Most players would assume that Infernape is a fake outer. Some would switch out to protect their suicide lead, but that just gives me the chance to get rocks up. If the opponent DOESN’T switch out, it’s likely we both have our rocks up, or I’m taunted. What’s effective about Infernape is that later in the game, or in the beginning of the match, I can endeavor a wall or a lead, and KO it with Vacuum Wave. So, to top it all off, Against Bulky Leads, Stealth Rock, wait until at 1 HP, endeavor. Against suicide leads, Stealth rock (not predicting taunt), overheat or vacuum wave (predicting taunt), then endeavor when predicting an attack.

Prototype (Lucario) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Swords Dance
- Extremespeed

An amazing Late Game sweeper. I try not to reveal him too early, because opposing gengar or other faster things that can take out lucario will appear. But lucario best works when I get support from latias and rotom through trick, switch into a resisted choice attack, swords dance, and sweep from there.

Aquaria (Vaporeon) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 188 HP/252 Def/68 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Vaporeon has high defenses and supports my team with wish. With wish, my team members can stay around much longer than normally. Not only does vaporeon support my team with wish, but she’s also great for walling some threats and KOing them, like Gyarados, Tyranitar, etc.

Eon (Latias) (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Trick

I used to have a Choice Scarf, but I found out that Specs lets me do more damage to the opponent, and become more cautious of latias instead of setting up on a resisted attack. Draco Meteor does huge ammounts of damage to anything that doesnt have high Sp. Defense or is Steel type. Trick also works nicely with a choice item because I can cripple walls, most importantly, a certain fat pink blob, you know who.

Toasta (Rotom-h) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Trick
- Shadow Ball

Rotom is very reliable on this team (as with most teams). He absorbs fake out, explosion, rapid spin, normal moves, fighting moves, ground moves, walls and kills most threats (like Scizor and Lucario), revenge kills (thanks to scarf), and can even cripple other walls with trick. This thing is amazing. Although, revealing it to early and letting it die will be horrible for my team. I try not too reveal it, but he needs to absorb fake out, explosion, rapid spin and whatever else =/

Emerald Scizor (Scizor) (M) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Another Revenge killer/sweeper. You might be asking, “Why the hell does Scizor have an Iron Plate instead of choice band?”, the answer is simple, to bluff a choice item. Scizor is epic as a revenge killer. My opponent usually thinks I’m banded when he sees my moveset. But I almost always get a surprise kill in, thanks to the freedom Iron Plate offers. However, one flaw is in Scizor. Iron Plate only powers up Bullet Punch, and offers no boosts to the other moves, nessesary to give me KO’s on certain Pokémon. I can always change Iron Plate to something like Expertbelt or Muscle band, then again, I can change it back to Choice Band, but that defeats the purpose of getting surprise kills in.


Any and all Constructive criticism is appreciated!

 

[StealthX]

Nice team,

pretty stardard but stardard is good. I also don't see any weaknesses to. The only thing I have is an idea for scizor's item. here it is.... Lum Berry!!!

You might say "what on earth for!" But it isn't that bad: With lum berry you can still trick people into thinking you have a CB but also gives you a good answer to breloom, roserade, and smeargle. Your team already covers these things of course but it would be a better item than IP IMO. Its your choice though so do what you want!

 

[Ride The Lightning]

Nice team,

pretty stardard but stardard is good. I also don't see any weaknesses to. The only thing I have is an idea for scizor's item. here it is.... Lum Berry!!!

You might say "what on earth for!" But it isn't that bad: With lum berry you can still trick people into thinking you have a CB but also gives you a good answer to breloom, roserade, and smeargle. Your team already covers these things of course but it would be a better item than IP IMO. Its your choice though so do what you want!

WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?! It is way better than iron plate. But iron plate offers extra damage to give the opponent more of a reason to think it's choice band. I'll try both items and see what works best.

 

[Plus]

Hello.

Your team is very solid, and really piles up on the revenge killers. Despite this, Rotom-h is still losing to Jolly Gyarados at +1 DD, and Latias is still losing to DD Mence at +1 DD. A simple fix -- change both to Timid so they can outspeed whatever they are meant to check. Additionally, Infernape can run a Timid nature as there is no physical attack whatsoever that Infernape uses apart from Endeavor, which deals set damage.

Apart from the minor changes, dealing with threats alone is one thing, however being more effective in threatening is probably more important at this point for your team. Essentially, I'm suggesting that you run Choice Specs Latias over your current Scarf set, as you have Rotom-h for Gyarados and Lucario, while you have Scizor for Salamence, though admittedly you're going to want to play around that a tad bit. Choice Specs Latias hurts steels very hard, most notably something like CB Scizor that absolutely loves to switch into Latias. To give you an idea of how hard this will hit, Specs Latias does 53.4% - 63% to CB Scizor, and 26.5% - 31.5% after the drop. When factoring in Stealth Rock, CB Scizor isn't going to make it out alive all the time, and will most likely faint if it has been switched in once for the duration of the game.

Choice Specs Latias puts more pressure on the opponent than Scarf does, and the good thing about your team is that it can afford to lose a revenge killer, when all the big threats are taken care of in your team. Nothing much can switch into Choice Specs Latias absolutely safely and come back with much of a retort. The best thing Specs Latias switch ins can do is just beat it -- Scizor, Tyranitar will simply beat it out with Pursuit, and then they give you fodder for Lucario to set up. With something like Choice Scarf, it allows an easier time for pokemon like SD Scizor to set up, whereas with Specs, they need to be a bit more cautious on switching in. It should help you a tad bit seeing as how many players like to exploit revenge killers.

Briefly summarizing my suggestions, I suggest changing Infernape to Timid, Rotom-h to Timid, Latias to Timid as well as running Specs over Scarf. You can keep the EVS the same.

Don't be TIMID to try my changes out, I hope I helped. :)

 

[Setsuna]

Like suggested above, Infernape, Latias and Rotom should be Timid. But not only that, I'm going to point out a couple of things regarding two of them. The first detail to consider is changing Rotom's spread to a less offensive one in order to take Water-, Steel- and Electric-types hits better, as well as other moves that Rotom could receive on a switch-in. This is what I recommend: 200 HP / 56 SpA / 252 Spd. This way, Pokémon such as DD Gyarados, SD Scizor, and Metagross will deal smaller amounts of damage, hence permitting Rotom to switch in more times. The drop of offensive power isn't importantly notable, since Rotom will still be able to OHKO (or 2HKO in the case of Metagross) the Pokémon he has to counter (i.e.: Gyarados, Lucario, Scizor...)
On Latias, a set that could propitiate a very comfortable versatility is the Life Orb + Three Attacks. By using Life Orb and a Timid nature instead of Scarf and Modest, Latias will have more opportunities as a wall breaker, versatility, and less chances of being trapped by any of the common users of Pursuit. The set is the following: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spd and the moves Draco Meteor / Surf / Thunderbolt / Recover. On this team, Latias doesn't need a Choice Scarf to accomplish her goals, she becomes a more dangerous threat by holding a Life Orb, which allows her to cause havoc to the opponent's team in a more pronounced way.

On the other hand, in reference to Scizor, I would say "use Choice Band" rather than Iron Plate or the other items you mentioned in the description. The reason is that the 'surprise factor' won't always be worth comparing to the power that CB adds to each one of Scizor's movements. In terms of surprise Iron Plate or another item won't too be bad, but generally, the option of boosting not only one move is the most appropriated one.

Good team overall, gl.

 

[Ride The Lightning]

Hello.

Your team is very solid, and really piles up on the revenge killers...

You know, I actually tried choice specs latias before I saw your post, and it really does work better than scarfed variants. I just did it for testing, and now I'm going to change the real team.

I will change latias and rotom to timid, but not infernape. Because with naive nature, 0 IVs in HP, Defense, and Sp. Defense, it will be easier to get at one HP. If I didn't have endeavor and all special attacks, I would have gone with Timid in the first place.

 

[Ride The Lightning]

Like suggested above, Infernape, Latias and Rotom should be Timid. But not only that, I'm going to point out a couple of things regarding two of them. The first detail to consider is changing Rotom's spread to a less offensive one in order to take Water-, Steel- and Electric-types hits better, as well as other moves that Rotom could receive on a switch-in. This is what I recommend: 200 HP / 56 SpA / 252 Spd. This way, Pokémon such as DD Gyarados, SD Scizor, and Metagross will deal smaller amounts of damage, hence permitting Rotom to switch in more times. The drop of offensive power isn't importantly notable, since Rotom will still be able to OHKO (or 2HKO in the case of Metagross) the Pokémon he has to counter (i.e.: Gyarados, Lucario, Scizor...)
On Latias, a set that could propitiate a very comfortable versatility is the Life Orb + Three Attacks. By using Life Orb and a Timid nature instead of Scarf and Modest, Latias will have more opportunities as a wall breaker, versatility, and less chances of being trapped by any of the common users of Pursuit. The set is the following: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spd and the moves Draco Meteor / Surf / Thunderbolt / Recover. On this team, Latias doesn't need a Choice Scarf to accomplish her goals, she becomes a more dangerous threat by holding a Life Orb, which allows her to cause havoc to the opponent's team in a more pronounced way.

On the other hand, in reference to Scizor, I would say "use Choice Band" rather than Iron Plate or the other items you mentioned in the description. The reason is that the 'surprise factor' won't always be worth comparing to the power that CB adds to each one of Scizor's movements. In terms of surprise Iron Plate or another item won't too be bad, but generally, the option of boosting not only one move is the most appropriated one.

Good team overall, gl.

Looks like I missed your post. (you were about 20 seconds before I posted my previous post LOL)

I always hate saying "i guess ill try to see what works best", but sadly that is exactly what I need to say right now.

I guess I'll try which movesets work best and fix up my team.