Fast and Furious

[Black Lotus]

I have had a lot of success with this team, as I would hope it took me forever to make a team after Salamence was banned. I don't have any complaints about it, but usually when I make a team there is some huge gaping hole in it that I seem to never find. So I decided to show it off and possibly find that hole.

Overview

How It Came To Be
I am a very fast paced person as it is so stall and even semi stall were completely out of the question. So I wanted a team that could fulfill my need for speed.

I started with Infernape because he is just an amazing mix sweeper, wallbreaker, and I have always had a thing for fire and monkeys. Next I needed something that can come in on Water attacks and be fast and furious.

That's where Starmie came in. Its fast, powerful on the special side, and comes in on Water attacks that scare the crap out of Infernape. I decided against Gyarados because of the next Pokemon that I decided on.

Metagross is kind of slow, but he doesn't disrupt the actual speed of the team. Plus I needed something that could use Stealth Rock and Metagross has awesome synergy with Starmie so its perfect. Now most of Infernape's biggest counters are bulky waters so I needed something that could take them out with relative ease.

I decided on Zapdos because it is more bulky and has access to Roost while Jolteon did not and Zapdos is fast and has more umpf than Jolteon. In addition Zapdos has an immunity to Ground, which Infernape approves of. Now other counters/checks to Infernape are basically scarfers of almost any sort. Therefore I needed a fast power house of my own to take care of them.

Scarf Flygon is a great revenge killer/scout so it fits easily onto the team. Though it doesn't take care of all of the things that Infernape fears, but another fast and furious member is not an awful idea at all.

Anyone who as been around for the past couple months knows how great Scizor is so I don't think I need to explain. He hits hard with priority and lures Fire attacks, which Infernape likes to have happen.

Down Deeper

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
Starmie lead with Rapid Spin has become my absolute favorite lead and as stated above it has amazing synergy with Metagross being able to take out most of the common leads of today. Other than Rapid Spin, it is basically a standard Life Orb Starmie. Hydro Pump over Surf to get 2HKOs on the likes of Swampert and other Metagross leads. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt together create the infamous BoltBeam combo, which is staple on offensive Starmies

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/240 Atk/16 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- Stealth Rock
A lead Metagross set along with a Rapid Spin Life Orb Stamie takes out many of the common leads of today. Standard set is pretty standard. Lum Berry is used to come in and make sleep inducing leads useless. Bullet Punch for priority, Earthquake to take care of Jirachi leads and such, Meteor Mash for Tyranitar and Machamp leads, and Stealth Rock because it's Stealth Rock and every offensive teams does better with floating rocks.

Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 SAtk
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
Scarf Flygon is Scarf Flygon. It outspeeds stuff and kills stuff and with immunities to Electric and Ground attacks it finds the chance to come in quite often. It also makes a wonderful scout with U-Turn.

Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn
Another standard offensive threat. Scizor lures in Fire attacks so Infernape can come in sooner and takes care of things that threaten to outpace my monkey such as Gengar and Starmie.

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
Woah! Offensive Zapdos!? It's still a standard set, but standard can be different. I like Life Orb Zapdos because Zapdos is naturally bulky and Roost just adds to that so Offensive Zapdos seemed like the way to go for this team. It acts as my catch all bulky water killer. It has HP Grass to deal with Swampert and it STAB Thunderbolts that rest of the crowd. Then Heat Wave is Heat Wave for Scizor, Grass types, etc.

Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 64 Atk/192 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Close Combat
- Flamethrower
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Then finally the star of the show, Specially Based MixApe! I feel that Infernape is a big threat now that Salamence is gone as most players rely on trying to get it to kill itself from Life Orb recoil and it can be hard to counter if you don't have a bulky water or such. Standard set is standard and not much else to say about it.

Final Look

 

[Black Lotus]

24 Hour Bump

Please any and all criticism is appreciated.

 

[soonerorlater]

Your Infernape-Scizor synergy doesn't work that well. Choice Scarf Heatran's Fire Blast does:
49.1% - 58.4% to Infernape, 42.5% - 50.6% to Starmie, and 38.9% - 45.8% to Flygon.
Any inopportune prediction is what makes this team hard to use. Everyone can hit hard with type coverage (bar Metagross on type coverage), but lack of recovery lets this team down.

You have multiple counters for dangerous pokemon: that's good. But your counters are mostly very fragile. Only one who has a form of recovery on this team is Zapdos, and with Stealth Rock taking 25% and Life Orb recoil, it becomes very easy to KO even with neutral STAB attacks. Not to mention Stealth Rock discourages you from switching.

If you fall for a trap (Flash Fire, the most common example), you will take hefty damage. Again, if Scarf Heatran gets Flash Fire and you have 1 Life Orb recoil or Stealth Rock, all your pokemon are 2HKO, if not OHKO, and no one outspeeds him except for Flygon, who's easily killed by Scizor, Heatran's best friend.

I suggest you run a TrickScarf Starmie, Tricking leads, spinning away, and start your offense, or keeping the Scarf for later revenging.

Another weakness is Gengar, especially Sub+Explosion varieties, as Scizor can't kill it outright with Sub out, and Gengar can switch out (as you'd probably Bullet Punch, not Pursuit: if you Pursuit, you get 2HKO 50-ish% of the time) and something else can weaken it.

Magnet Rise Magnezone + Chesto Rest Kingdra could do the same, trapping your Steels and burning with HP Fire while taking 4x resist moves (Scizor Bullet Punch or Metagross Meteor Mash). Then Kingdra can come in, DD twice (once in switch, and one Outrage from Flygon won't kill it), Rest, and sweep.

Also, if you aren't using Metagross in lead position (not working as a lead, but actual lead position), you don't need Lum Berry most of the time, or Bullet Punch. Even Occa/Shuca would do better. If you seriously fear Magnezone, use Shed Shell (not recommended), and for general purposes, use Leftovers since it buys you time, while possibly taking down Kingdra by switching into Outrage and KO with Explosion.

 

[FalknerLevel7Pidgey]

Great team, one suggestion. Have you tried pure attacking (not SpA) Infernape? Sure he goes down with Flare Blitz + Life Orb recoil rather quickly, but will take down at least 1-2 Pokemon with him too. I know you have a Zapdos, Starmie, etc to deal with Gyarados, but you also need to have that SURPRISE factor in your team if you want to win more. Which BULKY Gyarados (on stall teams) will expect to be OHKO'd by Infernape?

Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Jolly (-SpA, +Spe)
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Thunder Punch
- Mach Punch/Close Combat (CC if ScarfTar is NOT a problem for you)

This is not a moveset you will find on the Smogon page!

 

[cosmicexplorer]

Great team, one suggestion. Have you tried pure attacking (not SpA) Infernape? Sure he goes down with Flare Blitz + Life Orb recoil rather quickly, but will take down at least 1-2 Pokemon with him too. I know you have a Zapdos, Starmie, etc to deal with Gyarados, but you also need to have that SURPRISE factor in your team if you want to win more. Which BULKY Gyarados (on stall teams) will expect to be OHKO'd by Infernape?

Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Jolly (-SpA, +Spe)
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Thunder Punch
- Mach Punch/Close Combat (CC if ScarfTar is NOT a problem for you)

This is not a moveset you will find on the Smogon page!

That set is on Smogon, just with Flare Blitz slashed in, so stop using those annoying CAPITAL LETTERS and provide some concrete backing for the use of SD Infernape on this team! For my rate, I think it's good to note that all of your pokemon but Zapdos, and to an extent, Metagross and Scizor, are pretty frail and can be OHKOed without much effort. I would suggest at least one more bulky attacker, like Machamp, on your team, perhaps in place of Scizor or Flygon, as they noth really serve the same purpose on a team. But the team looks pretty solid overall.

 

[MetaNite]

Hi. Stall will probably be your worst nightmare. Blissey walls Starmie and Zapdos, while Gyarados alone walls the rest of your team. This can be easily fixed however; just give Infernape hidden power electric over HP ice or ThunderPunch over Grass Knot. It should be noted that HP electric hits Gyara a whole lot harder, as opposed to TPunch doing around 70% after intimidate. I will try to edit this post later with more (am on my itouch). Sorry if I forget lol.

 

[Piccolo]

I always like Thunderpunch over Stone Edge on my Flygons. Having a sure way to hit Gyarados is comforting. Other Flying-types like Dragonite and Zapdos can be dealt with by Starmie and Infernape.

An offensive Zapdos is redundant with Starmie on the team. This team is better off with a MixPert, which gives the team the bulk it needs. Swampert is an actual check towards Scarfed Tyranitar, something that hits over half of this team super effectively. You'll also have a good way to stop Metagross, especially if it has managed to get in an Agility. A Roar shuffle is always a bonus. ;)