Hi to all you Smogoners, Somgonis, and Smogontarians. I'm new here my name is PurpleGecko and I'd like some help with making my first team the very best it can be. :D
This is team rainy days, a UU weather team based around rain dance. It's fairly balanced and has been doing Alright on the ladder but I'm starting to hit a wall with it and could use some advice and criticism to improve it.
It started out with me browsing the forums looking for good water pokemon for the bread and butter of a rain dance team, and also looking for my central dancer to act as the delicious filling in my rain dance sandwich, it started out with three pokemon all of which still are in the team.
Now a days, Ludicolo has gone back to where ever she came from and this is no longer a rain dance team. :O
The idea was Slowbro and Empoleon walled while Ludicolo rain supported, the observant amongst you may notice my Ludicolo is a sweeper, it was a sweeper from day one too. This was a pretty silly mistake in the early team, Ludicolo was not a support pokemon and
was not going to pretend to be one for my sake, but I digress.
Then there were Flygons
I needed one other pokemon and some ground support for switching against electric types, which left unaccounted for would break this team over it's knee and pee on the corpse, since then he has been a valuable team member, especially for crushing some common weaknesses.
Bisharp was the new member
as my Physical sweeper, he served me excellently, sucker punching and sword dancing his way though anything that gave him the chance, I do have concerns he isn't much of a team player though and may be a little isolated just like our former team-mate Zapdos...
Zapdos was a special sweeper with a glaring weakness, Ludicolo was for this team at least a far superior sweeper, (when I realised she was a sweeper) he while having power was hard to switch in, but not my favourite lead so he was in effect obsolete so he got dropped in favour of...
Bronzong was recommended to me by an opponent online, said opponent also crushed me, this made me reconsider my team, I got Bronzong as a new support rain dancer and for his ablity to toss statuses around, he's my new favourite lead followed by a switch into Ludicolo and rampage though the enemy team. The team has been working well for me and I have done a lot of testing online to make sure I understand it. However I find myself at a conundrum
I've started losing quite a few more matches, and things like Snorlax and Machamp crush my team under their heel and laugh at the broken remains, so I've decided to get some advice from more experienced Smogoners on how to improve my team and get my self, a some wins.
Edit: Dropped: Ludicolo and Bronzong
Replacments: Zapdos and Machamp!
Empoleon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Roar
My special wall, stealth rock support and roarer, not so good at walling but very handy against stat boosters and substitute users, Struggles on the defensive front, and while he has a raft of resistances a strong physical neutral hit will break it's back, It can do decent damage with scald and the burn definitely helps it's physical frailness.
Strengths: Good Roarer, Great for setting up Rocks, Decent Special wall
Weaknesses: Goes down quite quick for a wall.
Slowbro (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
My physical wall and main tank, has helped me come back from behind multiple times, great for tossing paralysis around and switching into painful attacks. Between Psyshock and scald it has great coverage both type-wise and enemy stats-wise, thunder wave is a huge boon and often works well with Slack Off to keep Slowbro rolling along, and onto the opponent. But is very vulnerable to toxic and other walls.
Strengths: Awesome wall, Can heal, Can Paralize, Great Coverage
Weakness: Slow, bad against walls and status
Ludicolo (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Rain Dance
- Surf
- Ice Beam
My special sweeper and a monster in the rain, can rain dance with out Bronzongs help but that isn't usually an option, which is because of Ludicolos weak defence and flaky special defence. Ludicolo has great coverage and can 1 or 2ko most neutral match ups using surf, life orb is a big bulk killer but I don't want to ruin Ludicolos versibility and ability to heal with Giga Drain, just well enough to keep him fighting a bit longer.
Strengths: Good typing, Swift swim, Strong dual STABS and Neck breaking Surf
Weakness: All the durability of a paper mache model made by an over infusastic five year old.
Bisharp (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spd
Hardy Nature
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
My physical sweeper and a pretty fierce one at that, hits like a truck normally and if given a chance to use Swords Dance, a murderous sweeper who can break teams in two. But takes a lot of set up and is quite squishy. But thats more of a problem on the special side of things, physically his defence isn't half bad! Dark, Steel works quite well coverage wise and who needs speed when we have priority! However one thing also bothers me, Substitute it never seems to work for me and feels like an empty move slot.
Strengths: Very able without boosts, A bulldozer with boosts, Priority covers for bad speed, Decent Defence
Weaknesses: Suffers from low Special Defence, bad speed
Flygon (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Hardy Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Fire Punch
My Revenge Killer, rocks two STAB moves and tough offence but she is predictable and has low defence which makes him pretty suicidal. Fire punch gives some nice coverage and along with her stats and STABS she works as a revenge killer and as a very good Choice Scarf sweeper in a pinch, I do sometimes feel uncomfortable switching her into Bulky attackers as she can't seem to do enough damage and gets smashed in exchange, so I only feel confident switching into a frail sweeper or something with a type disadvantage.
Strengths: With Choice Scarf very fast only stuff like Crobat goes faster, Great coverage, Great STABS
Weaknesses: Frail, Predicable, Lacks just a little bit of force
Bronzong @ Damp Rock
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Rain Dance
- Gyro Ball
- Toxic
- Earthquake
My main rain dance support, and backup physical wall, doesn't hit very hard but takes hits like a champ, also a good wall breaker in the dying stages of a match. Has poor offense and is useless against other walls. Bronzong is a good user of toxic his only problem is the other players seem to love using Steel types to fight him, Levitate covers a bad weakness and with rain dance and earthquake Bronzong is actually a bit of trap for Fire types. Crobats laugh at Bronzong and just U-Turn around him and a sweeper with high enough special attacks breaks a whole in Bronzong, without much resistance from the poor guy.
Strengths: Bulky, Rain dancer, Good with Toxic, Laughs at Fire types
Weaknesses: Meek attack, Actually fairly bad Special defence
I may make a new RMT in a while for the new team. Stay tuned for then folks. :D
This is team rainy days, a UU weather team based around rain dance. It's fairly balanced and has been doing Alright on the ladder but I'm starting to hit a wall with it and could use some advice and criticism to improve it.
It started out with me browsing the forums looking for good water pokemon for the bread and butter of a rain dance team, and also looking for my central dancer to act as the delicious filling in my rain dance sandwich, it started out with three pokemon all of which still are in the team.
Now a days, Ludicolo has gone back to where ever she came from and this is no longer a rain dance team. :O
The idea was Slowbro and Empoleon walled while Ludicolo rain supported, the observant amongst you may notice my Ludicolo is a sweeper, it was a sweeper from day one too. This was a pretty silly mistake in the early team, Ludicolo was not a support pokemon and
was not going to pretend to be one for my sake, but I digress.
Then there were Flygons
Bisharp was the new member
I've started losing quite a few more matches, and things like Snorlax and Machamp crush my team under their heel and laugh at the broken remains, so I've decided to get some advice from more experienced Smogoners on how to improve my team and get my self, a some wins.
Edit: Dropped: Ludicolo and Bronzong
Replacments: Zapdos and Machamp!
Empoleon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Roar
My special wall, stealth rock support and roarer, not so good at walling but very handy against stat boosters and substitute users, Struggles on the defensive front, and while he has a raft of resistances a strong physical neutral hit will break it's back, It can do decent damage with scald and the burn definitely helps it's physical frailness.
Strengths: Good Roarer, Great for setting up Rocks, Decent Special wall
Weaknesses: Goes down quite quick for a wall.
Slowbro (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
My physical wall and main tank, has helped me come back from behind multiple times, great for tossing paralysis around and switching into painful attacks. Between Psyshock and scald it has great coverage both type-wise and enemy stats-wise, thunder wave is a huge boon and often works well with Slack Off to keep Slowbro rolling along, and onto the opponent. But is very vulnerable to toxic and other walls.
Strengths: Awesome wall, Can heal, Can Paralize, Great Coverage
Weakness: Slow, bad against walls and status
Ludicolo (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Rain Dance
- Surf
- Ice Beam
My special sweeper and a monster in the rain, can rain dance with out Bronzongs help but that isn't usually an option, which is because of Ludicolos weak defence and flaky special defence. Ludicolo has great coverage and can 1 or 2ko most neutral match ups using surf, life orb is a big bulk killer but I don't want to ruin Ludicolos versibility and ability to heal with Giga Drain, just well enough to keep him fighting a bit longer.
Strengths: Good typing, Swift swim, Strong dual STABS and Neck breaking Surf
Weakness: All the durability of a paper mache model made by an over infusastic five year old.
Bisharp (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spd
Hardy Nature
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
My physical sweeper and a pretty fierce one at that, hits like a truck normally and if given a chance to use Swords Dance, a murderous sweeper who can break teams in two. But takes a lot of set up and is quite squishy. But thats more of a problem on the special side of things, physically his defence isn't half bad! Dark, Steel works quite well coverage wise and who needs speed when we have priority! However one thing also bothers me, Substitute it never seems to work for me and feels like an empty move slot.
Strengths: Very able without boosts, A bulldozer with boosts, Priority covers for bad speed, Decent Defence
Weaknesses: Suffers from low Special Defence, bad speed
Flygon (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Hardy Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Fire Punch
My Revenge Killer, rocks two STAB moves and tough offence but she is predictable and has low defence which makes him pretty suicidal. Fire punch gives some nice coverage and along with her stats and STABS she works as a revenge killer and as a very good Choice Scarf sweeper in a pinch, I do sometimes feel uncomfortable switching her into Bulky attackers as she can't seem to do enough damage and gets smashed in exchange, so I only feel confident switching into a frail sweeper or something with a type disadvantage.
Strengths: With Choice Scarf very fast only stuff like Crobat goes faster, Great coverage, Great STABS
Weaknesses: Frail, Predicable, Lacks just a little bit of force
Bronzong @ Damp Rock
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Rain Dance
- Gyro Ball
- Toxic
- Earthquake
My main rain dance support, and backup physical wall, doesn't hit very hard but takes hits like a champ, also a good wall breaker in the dying stages of a match. Has poor offense and is useless against other walls. Bronzong is a good user of toxic his only problem is the other players seem to love using Steel types to fight him, Levitate covers a bad weakness and with rain dance and earthquake Bronzong is actually a bit of trap for Fire types. Crobats laugh at Bronzong and just U-Turn around him and a sweeper with high enough special attacks breaks a whole in Bronzong, without much resistance from the poor guy.
Strengths: Bulky, Rain dancer, Good with Toxic, Laughs at Fire types
Weaknesses: Meek attack, Actually fairly bad Special defence
I may make a new RMT in a while for the new team. Stay tuned for then folks. :D
