Offensive Team

[NOtoriousNAtexxx]

This team has been testing wonders so far. I read the Smog #9 and I was inspired to find perfect chemistry between an anti lead and a lead. Dragonite and Heatran both cover each others weaknesses quite well so I went from there. I wanted to lure in fire attacks for heatran so I threw in breloom (which is always good). Next I needed a water to fit the bill of the F/W/G core that has been popular. Starmie was the man and I fit him in and I just went off from there. I have won about twenty games on Shoddy in a row with this team. My loss that broke the streak came by being decimated by a Lucario. I was being reckless and mispredicted a bunch in the beginning. I'm looking for advice to make my team better, I'm willing to take out anyone as long as there is a good warrant. I haven't encountered a huge weakness to my team yet so I would also like feedback on what hurts me and how I can solve that problem. I have had great success with this team and I want even more. My first RMT :

LEAD :

DRAGONITE-

• Item- Life Orb
• Ability- Inner Focus
• Nature- Rash
• EV's- 252 ATK / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
• Move Set-

1. Draco Meteor
2. ExtremeSpeed
3. Fireblast
4. SuperPower

Why?
Hits Azelf, Metagross, Jirachi, Infernape, Roserade, Machamp and Heatran hard. Also no flinching is great especially when faced against Lead ScarfKiss which is gaining popularity. Great Synergy with Heatran. Ice and Dragon attacks are welcomed by a heatran switch which is then followed up with by Stealth Rocks to gain early tempo. Also can come in later and rape stall.

HEATRAN

• Item- Shucca Berry
• Ability- Flash Fire
• Nature- Naive
• Ev's- 252 SpA / 4 Spd/ 252 Spe
• Move Set

1. Stealth Rock
2. Fire Blast
3. Earth Power
4. Explosion

Why?
Quick Stealth Rocks because he forces so many switches. Scares off other Heatrans and makes people think twice before launching fire attacks at Breloom. Fakes Choice Item's before SR with no leftovers or life orb damage. Mind fucks opponents very well and hits hard. Broken Pokemon.

BRELOOM

• Item- Toxic Orb
• Ability- Toxic Heal
• Nature- Adamant
• Ev's- 12 Hp/ 248 Atk/ 248 Spe
• Move Set-

1. Spore
2. Subsitute
3. Stone Edge
4. Focus Punch

Why?
Breloom is amazing. I choose StoneEdg over seed bomb because Gyara love to come in on this set hoping to wall it. I really havent missed seed bomb because FP hits hard however bulky waters are a little harder to go against. I might need to change the Ev's around but I use these to outspeed other Breloom. I usually love to bring this in early game because people end up switching in and out to absorb sleep and then to the counter so it sort of acts as a scout in a way. Also I want to get Toxic Orb up as fast as possible to switch into other breloom on the spore or trick users once i already got toxic up. Breloom also works great in conjunction with Starmie.

STARMIE

• Item- Choice Scarf
• Ability- Natural Cure
• Nature- Tim
• Ev's 4 hp/ 252 SpA/ 252 Spe
• Move Set-

1. Hydro Pump
2. Ice Beam
3. ThunderBolt
4. Rapid Spin

Why?
Outspeeds the common Starmie. Gets many Ohko's on unsuspected poke. CS flygon expects it to out run starmie because who would put a scarf on something so fast? kills off Empoleon after two agilities and dd gyara. This thing has saved my life in so many battles. Kills Tyranitar also that hope to outspeed with CS or +2 DD. Definitely has been the MVP for my team. Considering Modest Nature to hit harder though.

Jirachi

• Item- Lefties
• Ability- Serene Grace
• Nature- Jolly
• Ev's- 44 hp/ 212 Atk/ 252 Spe
• Move Set-

1. Twave
2. Subsitute
3. Iron Head
4. Fire Punch

Why?
This thing has saved my life many times. Getting up Subs on the switch is always nice and then from there I switch to the obvious Counter because they feel pressured to break the sub. Or I spam Twave and have Dragonite comeback and out speed everything. Iron head provides great hax and fire punch gives me a great check to scizor and magnezone who come in. Scizor is hard to handle after tran is gone so Jirachi comes in. Has also done great against Breloom if i have the sub up. He's great support for my team.

Flygon

• Item- CS
• Ability- Levitate
• Nature- Adamant
• Ev's- 4 Hp/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spe
• Move Set-

1. EQ
2. StoneEdg
3. Outrage
4. U turn

Why?
This was really the weak link in my team in the buliding process. I really didn't know what to put, all i knew is i wanted levitate to alleviate some ground weaknesses. However once I started testing this provided great synergy. I usually end up spamming stone edge because most switch to stop the obv EQ or u turn. It does massive damage and once teams have dealt with dragonite, flygon is even harder to kill because my opponent has been severely weakened at this point. Eats Eq's thrown at jirachi and has great synergy with it and starmie. It also keeps up the fast tempo my team has and makes it more of a pure offense variant.

TOP 30 threats

Scizor: Heatran and jirachi easily handle

Heatran: flygon and heatran scares it off. Scarfed ones that think theyre sweet get owned by scarfmie

Tyranitar: My team handles this very well. Love going against this

Gyarados: Breloom with surprise stoneEdge, Flygon, starmie

Gengar: Flygon, starmie

Jirachi: heatran does work, my jrachi fairs well, flygon for revenge

Rotom-A: Heatrans a decent check but other than that he hurts pretty bad

Starmie: Scarfmie takes care along with flygon

:Infernape Starmie #1 counter. Flygon and ex speed dragonite

Metagross: flygon, and starmie hurt agiligross. Bulk ones are handled by tran and friends

Swampert: Breloom comes in on EQ and scares him away

Blissey: Breloom handles nicely

Machamp: Tricky, but prob draco meteor and revenge it if i die from ice punch

Lucario: Flygon needs to stay healthy. Starmie needs to hit Hydro Pump after Luke is weakened. Can be a problem

Azelf: Drag handles well

Breloom: My breloom after he gets his toxic orb up. play around his. not too bad

Gliscor: draco meteor hurts. shucca tran and starmie destroy this thing

Flygon: Scarfmie all day

Skarmory: Tran, starmie, dragonite

Vaporeon: I try to put it to sleep with breloom and hit it hard from there. can be annoying as hell but not too bad

Jolteon: flygon does a good job

Suicune: Hit it hard with breloom and starmie. Crocune i usually fp punch a bunch

Dragonite: flygon and scarfmie all day
​

Celebi: Flygon on the twave. Uturn, ice beam on scarmie, heatran, fire punch after a jirachi sub. not a problem

Magnezone: Heatran, Flygon, jirachi does good too

Zapdos: try to bait the heat wave to tran.I pack stone edge on flygon and breloom too

Kingdra: Flygon catches it and dragonite

Togekiss: dragonite likes this. so does flygon and most of my pokemon

Bronzong: Heatran

 

[macle]

Flygon really doesn't check lucario. Lucario does 88.4% - 104.3% damage with a +2 Extreme Speed and OHKOs with Close Combat without a boost. I would switch out Starmie for a Scarfed Rotom-w. It provides a better check to Lucario and to fighting types in general. Infernape is more dangerous without Starmie but Rotom-w and Flygon check it nicely still.

 

[Scimjara]

Hey NOtoriousNatexxx solid offensive team you have yourself I have a few suggestions that may help you out!

This is a solid team and there is not much to say about it seeing that you have most of the threats handled. Your team only has a potential lucario weakness and that is if they get up a swords dance during late game. Lucario after the swords dance can actually sweep straight up sweep you unless the opponent does not get up stealth rocks or you bring in starmie first before flygon to rapid spin. Beside that you have no chance against an adamant lucario who does 97.3% - 114.6% and like I said the only chance of you surviving is if you get minimum damage and if your opponent didn't set up stealth rocks yet. As for flygon extreme speed does 88.4% - 104.3% still having a chance to ohko you if it does maximum damage or 4% less. Lucario in fact is a potential threat and knowing that the smarter opponent would use it during late game when all of your pokemon have taken entry hazard damage and cleanly sweep this team. Lucario's main chance to set up swords dance is when starmie is locked on rapid spin or ice beam the slim chance of it setting up on you is against breloom if some pokemon is already asleep and the substitute is broken. I would suggest you use a different ev spread for jirachi to solve this problem.

EVs: 44 HP/212 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

The simple suggestion to fix this problem is if you use the current ev spread suggested up there. The nature and 252 speed evs allows you to outspeed every lucario including jolly lucario. With this you can revenge kill jirachi considering it has already killed something on your team.

Nice team you have yourself and good luck!

 

[NOtoriousNAtexxx]

Hey NOtoriousNatexxx solid offensive team you have yourself I have a few suggestions that may help you out!

This is a solid team and there is not much to say about it seeing that you have most of the threats handled. Your team only has a potential lucario weakness and that is if they get up a swords dance during late game. Lucario after the swords dance can actually sweep straight up sweep you unless the opponent does not get up stealth rocks or you bring in starmie first before flygon to rapid spin. Beside that you have no chance against an adamant lucario who does 97.3% - 114.6% and like I said the only chance of you surviving is if you get minimum damage and if your opponent didn't set up stealth rocks yet. As for flygon extreme speed does 88.4% - 104.3% still having a chance to ohko you if it does maximum damage or 4% less. Lucario in fact is a potential threat and knowing that the smarter opponent would use it during late game when all of your pokemon have taken entry hazard damage and cleanly sweep this team. Lucario's main chance to set up swords dance is when starmie is locked on rapid spin or ice beam the slim chance of it setting up on you is against breloom if some pokemon is already asleep and the substitute is broken. I would suggest you use a different ev spread for jirachi to solve this problem.

EVs: 44 HP/212 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

The simple suggestion to fix this problem is if you use the current ev spread suggested up there. The nature and 252 speed evs allows you to outspeed every lucario including jolly lucario. With this you can revenge kill jirachi considering it has already killed something on your team.

Nice team you have yourself and good luck!

Thanks! I'm definitely going to try those ev's they seem much better even though i sacrifice a little bulk.

Flygon really doesn't check lucario. Lucario does 88.4% - 104.3% damage with a +2 Extreme Speed and OHKOs with Close Combat without a boost. I would switch out Starmie for a Scarfed Rotom-w. It provides a better check to Lucario and to fighting types in general. Infernape is more dangerous without Starmie but Rotom-w and Flygon check it nicely still.

You're right. I am going to test scarf Rotom-W because Lucario hurts pretty bad. It also will give me another ground resist too so thank you very much!

 

[Snorlaxe]

Other team raters seem to have offered you solid solutions to your weakness to Swords Dance Lucario, who is obviously a huge threat to your team. I wanted to let you know that I agree 100% with Scimjara's suggestion to change up Jirachi's EV spread. By doing this, you will be able to check Lucario much more effeciently, as Jirachi can outspeed Lucario and smash him after a defense drop from Close Combat with Fire Punch. While this isnt the most solid gameplan, as Fire Punch doesnt OHKO unless Lucario has had a defense drop from Close Combat, it is probably the best way to fix your Lucario weakness without making any significant changes. Macle's Scarf Rotom suggestion also looks like it could work, but this makes you more vulnerable to Infernape, so the change is up to you. Either way, I strongly suggest that you make one of these two changes.

With that in mind, I dont entirely see the need for using Choice Scarf Flygon on your team. The Pokemon who Flygon aims to revenge kill, namely Dragon Dance Dragonite, Tyranitar, and Gyarados, are already handled by Jirachi and Scarf Starmie. This makes Flygon's use of a Choice Scarf somewhat redundant on your team, as he could be running another, more effective set. I think that you should consider changing your Flygon to a Choice Band Flygon set. Choice Band Flygon is a threat whom not many teams are prepared for, as people usually expect the weaker attacks of the Choice Scarf set. CBGon's STAB moves hit with insane power, and can help soften up the opposing team for your other Pokemon. You can use the exact same moveset youre currently using; just stack Choice Band over Choice Scarf.

I can see your team potentially stuggling to bring down bulky Water-type Pokemon, as a few of your key members, namely Heatran and Starmie, wont be able to significantly damage them. For this reason, I suggest using Seed Bomb in place of Stone Edge on Breloom. While Stone Edge does allow you to hit Dragonite and Gyarados, both of these Pokemon are easily revenge killed by Starmie, so hitting them isnt a huge concern. Seed Bomb allows you to hit Suicune, Vaporeon, and Starmie switch-ins much harder, as well as hitting Rotom-A for more damage than Stone Edge. You should also use a different EV spread on Breloom than the one youre currently using. You should use a spread of 12 HP / 248 Atk / 248 Spe; this allows you to obtain a Poison Heal number and recover more HP from Poison Heal every turn. By using 248 Speed EVs, you can also outspeed other Breloom (by one point!) and hit them with Spore before they hit you.

Good luck with your team, and I hope my suggestions helped!

 

[NOtoriousNAtexxx]

Other team raters seem to have offered you solid solutions to your weakness to Swords Dance Lucario, who is obviously a huge threat to your team. I wanted to let you know that I agree 100% with Scimjara's suggestion to change up Jirachi's EV spread. By doing this, you will be able to check Lucario much more effeciently, as Jirachi can outspeed Lucario and smash him after a defense drop from Close Combat with Fire Punch. While this isnt the most solid gameplan, as Fire Punch doesnt OHKO unless Lucario has had a defense drop from Close Combat, it is probably the best way to fix your Lucario weakness without making any significant changes. Macle's Scarf Rotom suggestion also looks like it could work, but this makes you more vulnerable to Infernape, so the change is up to you. Either way, I strongly suggest that you make one of these two changes.

With that in mind, I dont entirely see the need for using Choice Scarf Flygon on your team. The Pokemon who Flygon aims to revenge kill, namely Dragon Dance Dragonite, Tyranitar, and Gyarados, are already handled by Jirachi and Scarf Starmie. This makes Flygon's use of a Choice Scarf somewhat redundant on your team, as he could be running another, more effective set. I think that you should consider changing your Flygon to a Choice Band Flygon set. Choice Band Flygon is a threat whom not many teams are prepared for, as people usually expect the weaker attacks of the Choice Scarf set. CBGon's STAB moves hit with insane power, and can help soften up the opposing team for your other Pokemon. You can use the exact same moveset youre currently using; just stack Choice Band over Choice Scarf.

I can see your team potentially stuggling to bring down bulky Water-type Pokemon, as a few of your key members, namely Heatran and Starmie, wont be able to significantly damage them. For this reason, I suggest using Seed Bomb in place of Stone Edge on Breloom. While Stone Edge does allow you to hit Dragonite and Gyarados, both of these Pokemon are easily revenge killed by Starmie, so hitting them isnt a huge concern. Seed Bomb allows you to hit Suicune, Vaporeon, and Starmie switch-ins much harder, as well as hitting Rotom-A for more damage than Stone Edge. You should also use a different EV spread on Breloom than the one youre currently using. You should use a spread of 12 HP / 248 Atk / 248 Spe; this allows you to obtain a Poison Heal number and recover more HP from Poison Heal every turn. By using 248 Speed EVs, you can also outspeed other Breloom (by one point!) and hit them with Spore before they hit you.

Good luck with your team, and I hope my suggestions helped!

Thanks for the advice! I've changed the ev's on jirachi and lucario has not been a problem since. I will try the CBflygon. I just love the speed and if starmie goes down early I always have CSflygon. Speed in this metagame is very important but I can see the redundancy. I will test and switch the ev's on breloom for sure thanks!

 

[ParadoxFtw]

Overall it is a good team, you cover your weaknesses well and have synergy. I don't feel like doing a full rate but I second the idea of using Scarf Rotom-A over Starmie as being stuck on Scarf Rapid Spin is just asking to be set up on and with this being an offensive team Rapid Spin will just slow you down, especially on a choiced Poke and deduct from your tempo also being able to Trick a Scarf wrecks stall. Also this makes keeping Flygon on your team more viable in a way to keep DDTar from sweeping you if it has fire punch and Rachi has been weakend. I would do a more in depth rate but this is one of my first rates and you seem to have a decent grasp of the meta anyway.

 

[NOtoriousNAtexxx]

Definitely leaning toward scarfed rotom > starmie. But most people don't know starmie is scarfed so it doesn't get set up on as much if stuck in rapid spin. Rotom still seems better though

 

[Luphrous]

Going to have to agree with Scarf Rotom > Starmie, the reason being that LO Mamoswine can currently OHKO literally every member of your team(Starmie has a chance to survive EQ if it's at full health and no SR, but then Ice Shard anyways). Your only way of taking it out is to revenge with Starmie/Jirachi, or of course try and do some fancy switching to get them in on Ice Shard, but one mispredict and yeah..

Rotom would give you a pretty safe switch in to Mamoswine, and would still be able to revenge kill it. Even with this change I'm going to suggest you be careful with both Jirachi and Rotom as both can get worn down, and without them it's over.