Hey this is Graceclaw and I've been around for a few months. During like the second voting round for UU, I was making this team, tweaking and messing with it until it finally just kinda lumped together. Keep in mind that this is my first true team that I've actually laddered with, and I created it with originality and (no broken pokes) in mind. I'm posting it now because I think it's almost time to retire it- it has a few holes that the metagame has changed to exploit. Also, Mamo is probably going to be moved up to OU, and I don't really want to find another reliable lead for this team XD. I think with all the experience I gained making and using this team, I can make a monstrously good team and guarantee voting rights for the next round (I went on vacation at rank like 78 with this team because I lost two battles back when I was topped out at 16). Without further ado, here is my unique and odd team that somehow works for me!
PolPot (Mamoswine) (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
Mamo's main job is to set up rocks and kill whatever stays in on him. He's not meant to switch back in at a later time. With this EV spread, he reaches 394 attack and 256 speed, enough to severely damage anything that switches in with either earthquake or ice shard (most often both). He is, however, my best Zapdos counter, so if I see Zapdos on a team, I try to save him for later (for some reason a lot of people send in Zapdos as their lead- maybe it's because I have Honch in my "lead" slot). I really like this lead set, and am very sad that he's getting enough usage in OU to leave UU.
Synergy: Not really an issue, since his main purpose is to start the party and set up rocks. I almost never switch him out.
Mao (Honchkrow) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Insomnia
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Pursuit
- Night Slash
- Superpower
Honch is my revenge killer. With 383 atk and 365 speed, he outspeeds most of the unboosted metagame and deals a lot of damage with the chosen attack. I gave him insomnia over Moxie because what use is a moxie boost on a revenge killer? Superpower is an amazingly useful attack, especially with Chanseys running around everywhere. It may not OHKO, but if the Chansey doesn't heal or switch it can 2HKO. It gives me a chance to switch out into Esca or Mamo if I kept him around and threaten it out with Knock Off or EQ, respectively. People think I'm crazy for using a Honch in UU, and crazy for scarfing him, but if I'm smart when I use him, he's a great addition to this team and can really clean up shop if his counters are gone (insta sweep). Superpower can take out Registeels with relative ease as well, if I predict correctly. Most of the time though, he comes in for a hit and switches out, which is why synergy is so important for him.
Synergy:
Electric- Escavalier, Mamoswine, Raikou.
Ice: Milotic, Escavalier, Arcanine.
Rock: Milotic
Ponyo (Milotic) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Recover
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
My physical wall and toxic staller. This EV spread gives her 282 in both Sp D and Defense, but I use her mainly for defense. She is also my status absorber- a lot of people try to burn or paralyze my Honch, and she eats both of those up. Toxic is also welcome early-game, so she can just absorb any physical hit thrown at her in the later stages of the game. Scald and Ice Beam coming off of a decent Sp Atk stat make her a viable option to take out weakened threats or even KO physical threats that don't see Ice Beam coming (Flygon, for example) If I don't want to let her be toxic'd, I can just switch out to Escavalier and then back to something else to finish the job, but usually I would rather toxic their wall and be toxic'd in return. With Marvel Scale boost, she's hard to stop for most pokemon out there, even special attackers (without electric or grass type attacks).
Synergy:
Grass: Escavalier, Arcanine, Honchkrow
Electric: Escavalier (doesn't resist, but can take special electric type attacks all day- if physical I'll just leave Milo in), Mamoswine, Raikou
Stalin (Raikou) @ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- ExtremeSpeed
- Aura Sphere
Every team needs a special attacker (or so I thought), and Raikou is one of the best (in my opinion). Most people who see him think he's a sub/CM'er, and aren't prepared to be hit in the face with whatever I choose to throw at them. One of my favorite things to do with him is switch him in on a water type (like Slowbro), and use Aura Sphere or Shadow Ball to hit whatever switches in. Both hit very well with Life Orb, and it's just a ton of fun to mess people up with my three attacking choices. Extremespeed is there because people don't expect it on a special attacking LO Raikou, and you can never have too much priority on one team. I've used it to finish off scarfed Pokemon who could OHKO him and just to clean up. With LO, it hits well enough to pick off extremely weakened/unexpecting Pokemon. Raikou is fast, powerful, and an undeniable threat with these three attacks and LO, and he does his job very well.
Synergy:
Ground: Honchkrow, Milotic (if physical- what ground attacks aren't?)
In case you didn't notice, this team is very ground weak (focus is on taking out the users instead of absorbing/resisting the hits)
Kruschev (Arcanine) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Morning Sun
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- ExtremeSpeed
I wanted a core fire-type Pokemon that could take hits and dish out loads of damage. I settled on giving my Arcanine max HP and Attack so that he could revenge/out-priority things with Extremespeed (and do tons of damage), while still having the liberty to switch between moves and durability (thanks to max hp and Morning Sun). Morning Sun was also a great sun-team counter, since he could dish out damage all day while healing most of it off. Arcanine provides a little bulk to take a hit when needed, and the ability to respond with crushing physical attacks. I must say, though, I've been a bit underwhelmed with Wild Charge. Despite his lack of speed, Arcanine is still a threat to many teams once his faster counters have been removed, and fills the niche created by Escavalier. I usually show Escavalier early and bluff a band, then switch to Arcanine on the obvious fire move and fire off extremely powerful boosted Flare Blitzes on whatever comes in. It works like a (less powerful) Banded Entei.
Synergy:
Water: Milotic, Escavalier (again because he can switch in on any special water move except scald).
Ground: Milotic to tank, Honchkrow
Rock: Milotic to tank
Lenin (Escavalier) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Shell Armor
EVs: 255 HP / 255 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Return
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Megahorn
I made this guy a long time ago and just realized that I've been running 255 in both places this entire time XD Oops! I'll put the extra EV on attack or defense. Escavalier was included in the team because I needed a reliable Kyurem counter, and he could tank hits from it all day barring HP Fire. He did that job well, but once Kyurem was banned, he still filled the spot of special tank. His speed leaves much to be desired, but he resists so many attacks and has the potential to knock off pesky Eviolite abusers like Chansey's item. Escavalier can also beat pesky walls like Registeel and Empoleon in 1v1 thanks to his beastly attack stat and powerful STAB in Megahorn- a lot of people let him set up a swords dance or two on their walls because they don't realize his power. Walls can't Toxic him, but he does fear the odd WoW, which Milotic greatly appreciates. He is easily replaceable in this metagame with something better, which is one of the reasons I'm going to start from scratch again and basically retire this team. I just can't bring myself to get rid of him off this team- too many holes to fill. Please give advice, though, because I will still use this team until I've fully tested whatever team I come up with later, and advice is never wasted on me.
Synergy:
Fire: ARCANINE. Need I say more? As mentioned in Arcanine's section, a FF boosted Flare Blitz is nothing to sneeze at, no matter who you are.
So there's the individual breakdown. Some threats are:
(well played) Chansey. With Eviolite, she is insanely hard to take down without a strong STAB fighting attack, something this team lacks. If I can somehow trick my opponent into leaving her in on Escavalier, I can Knock Off her eviolite and make mincemeat of her, but most people wouldn't leave her in on him anyways, so I'm a bit SOL in that case. She messes up almost everyone else, and who she doesn't (Honch, Mamo), a good opponent will eliminate. I have a very bad record against her.
(Agility) Empoleon. My team is a little water-weak, and when Empoleon gets an agility up, he can just tear through my team (barring Milotic). I can't even Toxic him if I get the chance, since he's Steel, and most of my team just crumbles before him.
Zapdos. The Toxic stalling variety drive me infinitely insane once Mamoswine is dead, because if they're played right, they're almost untouchable. Two weaknesses which, when roosted, are eliminated completely make prediction games much harder (and I only have one EQ'er on my team). StallDos can just laugh off all but Raikou's Thunderbolt and even that can be roosted off sometimes. Point is, this team has a big problem with it.
Scarf Heracross: Without a Marvel Scale boosted Milotic, there isn't much that my team can do about him. Honch is outsped by scarfed Hera's, and is easily KO'd by any hit. Raikou can't outspeed and KO him, and Arcanine rarely gets a hit in on him unless it's Extremespeed. My only hopes lie in Milotic and priority moves.
There are more, which you guys will undoubtedly point out, but I'm having a hard time remembering any.
So, please give advice/critique on the team, and give me suggestions as to how to make it better. I would really like to continue using a patched up version of this team, but I've done about all I care to do for it of my own volition. Don't hesitate to give advice because I might retire the team.
P.S. I do NOT support Communism.
P.P.S I know that I combined "Type synergy" and "switch-ins" into the "synergy" section, but that's pretty much what synergy is meant for anyways.
P.P.P.S: Raikou and Escavalier's Bulbapedia pictures are enormous, so I removed them. I will get a smaller version of them up and running when I return from my mission trip.
Thanks-
Graceclaw
PolPot (Mamoswine) (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
Mamo's main job is to set up rocks and kill whatever stays in on him. He's not meant to switch back in at a later time. With this EV spread, he reaches 394 attack and 256 speed, enough to severely damage anything that switches in with either earthquake or ice shard (most often both). He is, however, my best Zapdos counter, so if I see Zapdos on a team, I try to save him for later (for some reason a lot of people send in Zapdos as their lead- maybe it's because I have Honch in my "lead" slot). I really like this lead set, and am very sad that he's getting enough usage in OU to leave UU.
Synergy: Not really an issue, since his main purpose is to start the party and set up rocks. I almost never switch him out.
Mao (Honchkrow) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Insomnia
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Pursuit
- Night Slash
- Superpower
Honch is my revenge killer. With 383 atk and 365 speed, he outspeeds most of the unboosted metagame and deals a lot of damage with the chosen attack. I gave him insomnia over Moxie because what use is a moxie boost on a revenge killer? Superpower is an amazingly useful attack, especially with Chanseys running around everywhere. It may not OHKO, but if the Chansey doesn't heal or switch it can 2HKO. It gives me a chance to switch out into Esca or Mamo if I kept him around and threaten it out with Knock Off or EQ, respectively. People think I'm crazy for using a Honch in UU, and crazy for scarfing him, but if I'm smart when I use him, he's a great addition to this team and can really clean up shop if his counters are gone (insta sweep). Superpower can take out Registeels with relative ease as well, if I predict correctly. Most of the time though, he comes in for a hit and switches out, which is why synergy is so important for him.
Synergy:
Electric- Escavalier, Mamoswine, Raikou.
Ice: Milotic, Escavalier, Arcanine.
Rock: Milotic
Ponyo (Milotic) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Recover
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
My physical wall and toxic staller. This EV spread gives her 282 in both Sp D and Defense, but I use her mainly for defense. She is also my status absorber- a lot of people try to burn or paralyze my Honch, and she eats both of those up. Toxic is also welcome early-game, so she can just absorb any physical hit thrown at her in the later stages of the game. Scald and Ice Beam coming off of a decent Sp Atk stat make her a viable option to take out weakened threats or even KO physical threats that don't see Ice Beam coming (Flygon, for example) If I don't want to let her be toxic'd, I can just switch out to Escavalier and then back to something else to finish the job, but usually I would rather toxic their wall and be toxic'd in return. With Marvel Scale boost, she's hard to stop for most pokemon out there, even special attackers (without electric or grass type attacks).
Synergy:
Grass: Escavalier, Arcanine, Honchkrow
Electric: Escavalier (doesn't resist, but can take special electric type attacks all day- if physical I'll just leave Milo in), Mamoswine, Raikou
Stalin (Raikou) @ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- ExtremeSpeed
- Aura Sphere
Every team needs a special attacker (or so I thought), and Raikou is one of the best (in my opinion). Most people who see him think he's a sub/CM'er, and aren't prepared to be hit in the face with whatever I choose to throw at them. One of my favorite things to do with him is switch him in on a water type (like Slowbro), and use Aura Sphere or Shadow Ball to hit whatever switches in. Both hit very well with Life Orb, and it's just a ton of fun to mess people up with my three attacking choices. Extremespeed is there because people don't expect it on a special attacking LO Raikou, and you can never have too much priority on one team. I've used it to finish off scarfed Pokemon who could OHKO him and just to clean up. With LO, it hits well enough to pick off extremely weakened/unexpecting Pokemon. Raikou is fast, powerful, and an undeniable threat with these three attacks and LO, and he does his job very well.
Synergy:
Ground: Honchkrow, Milotic (if physical- what ground attacks aren't?)
In case you didn't notice, this team is very ground weak (focus is on taking out the users instead of absorbing/resisting the hits)
Kruschev (Arcanine) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Morning Sun
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- ExtremeSpeed
I wanted a core fire-type Pokemon that could take hits and dish out loads of damage. I settled on giving my Arcanine max HP and Attack so that he could revenge/out-priority things with Extremespeed (and do tons of damage), while still having the liberty to switch between moves and durability (thanks to max hp and Morning Sun). Morning Sun was also a great sun-team counter, since he could dish out damage all day while healing most of it off. Arcanine provides a little bulk to take a hit when needed, and the ability to respond with crushing physical attacks. I must say, though, I've been a bit underwhelmed with Wild Charge. Despite his lack of speed, Arcanine is still a threat to many teams once his faster counters have been removed, and fills the niche created by Escavalier. I usually show Escavalier early and bluff a band, then switch to Arcanine on the obvious fire move and fire off extremely powerful boosted Flare Blitzes on whatever comes in. It works like a (less powerful) Banded Entei.
Synergy:
Water: Milotic, Escavalier (again because he can switch in on any special water move except scald).
Ground: Milotic to tank, Honchkrow
Rock: Milotic to tank
Lenin (Escavalier) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Shell Armor
EVs: 255 HP / 255 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Return
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Megahorn
I made this guy a long time ago and just realized that I've been running 255 in both places this entire time XD Oops! I'll put the extra EV on attack or defense. Escavalier was included in the team because I needed a reliable Kyurem counter, and he could tank hits from it all day barring HP Fire. He did that job well, but once Kyurem was banned, he still filled the spot of special tank. His speed leaves much to be desired, but he resists so many attacks and has the potential to knock off pesky Eviolite abusers like Chansey's item. Escavalier can also beat pesky walls like Registeel and Empoleon in 1v1 thanks to his beastly attack stat and powerful STAB in Megahorn- a lot of people let him set up a swords dance or two on their walls because they don't realize his power. Walls can't Toxic him, but he does fear the odd WoW, which Milotic greatly appreciates. He is easily replaceable in this metagame with something better, which is one of the reasons I'm going to start from scratch again and basically retire this team. I just can't bring myself to get rid of him off this team- too many holes to fill. Please give advice, though, because I will still use this team until I've fully tested whatever team I come up with later, and advice is never wasted on me.
Synergy:
Fire: ARCANINE. Need I say more? As mentioned in Arcanine's section, a FF boosted Flare Blitz is nothing to sneeze at, no matter who you are.
So there's the individual breakdown. Some threats are:
(well played) Chansey. With Eviolite, she is insanely hard to take down without a strong STAB fighting attack, something this team lacks. If I can somehow trick my opponent into leaving her in on Escavalier, I can Knock Off her eviolite and make mincemeat of her, but most people wouldn't leave her in on him anyways, so I'm a bit SOL in that case. She messes up almost everyone else, and who she doesn't (Honch, Mamo), a good opponent will eliminate. I have a very bad record against her.
(Agility) Empoleon. My team is a little water-weak, and when Empoleon gets an agility up, he can just tear through my team (barring Milotic). I can't even Toxic him if I get the chance, since he's Steel, and most of my team just crumbles before him.
Zapdos. The Toxic stalling variety drive me infinitely insane once Mamoswine is dead, because if they're played right, they're almost untouchable. Two weaknesses which, when roosted, are eliminated completely make prediction games much harder (and I only have one EQ'er on my team). StallDos can just laugh off all but Raikou's Thunderbolt and even that can be roosted off sometimes. Point is, this team has a big problem with it.
Scarf Heracross: Without a Marvel Scale boosted Milotic, there isn't much that my team can do about him. Honch is outsped by scarfed Hera's, and is easily KO'd by any hit. Raikou can't outspeed and KO him, and Arcanine rarely gets a hit in on him unless it's Extremespeed. My only hopes lie in Milotic and priority moves.
There are more, which you guys will undoubtedly point out, but I'm having a hard time remembering any.
So, please give advice/critique on the team, and give me suggestions as to how to make it better. I would really like to continue using a patched up version of this team, but I've done about all I care to do for it of my own volition. Don't hesitate to give advice because I might retire the team.
P.S. I do NOT support Communism.
P.P.S I know that I combined "Type synergy" and "switch-ins" into the "synergy" section, but that's pretty much what synergy is meant for anyways.
P.P.P.S: Raikou and Escavalier's Bulbapedia pictures are enormous, so I removed them. I will get a smaller version of them up and running when I return from my mission trip.
Thanks-
Graceclaw
