Xeno Bird's Vengance

[Usatoday]

Hello all I am Usatoday and here is a team focused around some pokemon i personally haven't seen in quite a while in the overused metagame mainly being Hydreigon, Vaporeon, and Xatu, so lets get into it.

Team Preview

Xatu @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 40 SAtk / 56 Spd
Timid Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
Oh Xatu we love you so, not in the current metagame people think that Xatu has no purpose as best described in the smogon article on it, "Xatu gained nothing in the transition to BW2 other than more threats." However Xatu is something that is often mocked however being able to switch into many common day walls such as amoonguss, hippowdon, ferrothorn, and blissey it can accomplish it's task extremely well being able to bounce back hazards and taunt it can be a nuisance. Now the main reason i wanted to run Xatu was the fact of that I see breloom running around everywhere it can bounce back spore as well as quadresisting mach punch I run enough special attack evs to ohko it without any trouble while I run enough speed evs to always outspeed a jolly breloom. Next off I have heat wave to nail genesect upon switch in ohko scizor and kill skarmory. Psychic is there obviously as a stab move that will demolish breloom and conkeldurr. Roost is there to help heal Xatu up when stalling out deoxys defense while it attempts to night shade me to death. Finally there is U-Turn to allow for scouting and help with the voltturn shenanigans this team is filled with.

Rotom-Heat @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Next off after Xatu i wanted a counter to genesect and with the occasional genesect running hidden power ground I thought that heatran was a little unwanted especially on a voltturn team, so rotom heat might work a little bit better carry the coveted colt switch allowing me to scout out the movesets as well as taking nearly no damage from genesect bar a douse drive variant which I have never come across. Volt switch allows rotom heat to hit politoed, tornadus therian, and jellicent. Overheat allows rotom heat to demolish venusaur, celebi, and ferrothorn. Trick allows me to cripple nuisances to this team such as blissey or tentacruel. Finally i carry hidden power Ice to nail salamence haxorus garchomp assuming they are not scarfed and plus 1 dragonite.

Hydreigon @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Sunny Day
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
Now who in today's offensively built metagame doesn't have a dragon type? So i decided to go with one of the few dragon types with a scouting move this one came in the form of U-Turn allowing it to scare out ferrothorn with just the idea that most of them carry fire blast. Draco meteor is there to demolish most pokemon namely being politoed, ninetales, and hippowdon. Next off I have dark pulse to nail jellicent and gengar something that gives my team some difficulty as I have to rely on getting an attack boost on Genesect or rely on volt switch without hydreigon. Finally there's something I personally am fond of is sunny day now with the lavos sun teams finally dying down it I can run this after I kill their weather starter after they see I don't run any weather and bam Hydreigon removes the sand or rain. This also gives rotom heat a nice double powered Overheat to fry something.

Genesect @ Choice Band
Trait: Download
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw
Next off we have my personally favorite genesect set being a choice banded genesect it has the potential to do a ton of damage to anything it will outspeed if it gets the attack boost from download U Turn is there hurt Celebi, jirachi, ferrothorn, and Latias while also giving me a switch initiative hurting just about anything. Next off I have iron head to hit landorus therian who switch in thinking they can take a hit after I get my attack boost while also giving me the ability to two hit ko lucario and offensive gliscor. Next off I carry ice beam to nail any dragon that is locked into outrage as well as two hit ko skarmory when I get a special attack boost as well as nail defensive landorus therian and hippowdon. Finally I have shadow as explained earlier to hit pokemon named jellicent and gengar who think they can wall me assuming I can pull the attack boost off and two hit ko him when they switch in.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
Say hello to perhaps my favorite physical wall in today's common metagame it has the ability to take two outrages from a choice banded garchomp while maintaining the unique ability to completely counter terrakion living a plus 1 stone edge with ease while also helping check breloom to an extent incase I lose xatu early game. Next off there is earthquake to help demolish special walls such as gastrodon when they have been weakened to below 40% and having a base 145 attack stat isn't too shabby either. Next I have U Turn yet again for scouting initiative so i can come in to sponge a hit from something like tyranitar and then U Turn out predicting them to switch out as well as hurting defensive celebi fairly hard. Next off I have perhaps the best move in the game mainly named stealth rock which allows me to help hurt pokemon by forcing switches hence the function of a VoltTurn team. Finally since I find landorus forces a lot of switches into specially defensive pokemon such as jellicent I found that toxic served this team very well since it helps ware down the walls that come in to sponge a hit.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell / Baton Pass
The last member and probably the most expendable is my specially defensive vaporeon meant to troll the common rain teams that ones sees nowadays albeit not as much now as it was as common Vaporeon in my opinion is the premier counter to the common rain team being able to troll defensive politoed and tornadus not even taking half of its health from its stab hurricane. Scald gets a boost from being stab coupled with the very nice chance to burn the opponent. Then there is wish and protect to help heal up vaporeon and other team mates while also allowing me to scout out the opponents move choice. Finally I have heal bell to get rid of the burns that may plague genesect or the poison from landorus and vaporeon itsel if i'm facing a team outside of rain. Next off is my final option to finish off the true Volt Turn team playstyle with baton pass allowing me to scout what my opponents initial switch in is to my vaporeon.

Importable

Hide

Xatu @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 40 SAtk / 56 Spd
Timid Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Psychic
- Heat Wave

Rotom-Heat @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Hydreigon @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Sunny Day
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse

Genesect @ Choice Band
Trait: Download
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Wish
- Protect
- Baton Pass

 

[tehy]

Hey, just a quick rate.

Firstly, it seems weird that you're running sunny day, but not running any fire-type moves, especially on stuff that can fit it. I get that it's for weather disruption, and it powers up rotom-h, but it would be kind of silly not to take advantage. You state that iron head is for landorus-therian, as well as to 2hitko lucario and offensive gliscor. To be fair, it's also for terrakion, and it's true that you can't crush him on the switch-in any more, but switching it out for flamethrower would accomplish a lot of what iron head does currently. Iron head's a nice hedge move that also hits landorus-T and gliscor, but you can always ice beam those two on the switch-in. You can also replace shadow claw instead.

Next, you can probably replace dark pulse with flamethrower. Draco meteor already destroys gengar, and you can u-turn to something like rotom-H for the volt switch/trick if you want to deal with it. I get that you've got problems with jellicent, but it seems like you're devoting a lot of moveslots to it, which you might need.

Landorus-T really needs stone edge to check salamence and dragonite. Toxic is cool, but again, i'd remove it.

I understand you're trying to deal with jellicent, so i'd urge you to instead make one or two of these changes instead, so you can still carry one or two of them, but your team will really suffer otherwise.

Also, you've said yourself that Spd vaporeon is the most expendable pokemon on your team, and you ARE running a volt-turn team. I hate to give you this idea, because it's so ******** overly used and recommended these days, but why not try Specially Defensive rotom-w? If you want some of the same ability to deal with status as heal bell vaporeon affords you, you can run chestorest, or if you want the ability to heal more than once, run pain split. Hydro pump, volt switch, and will-o-wisp are generally standard. If you're doing this, you can replace rotom-H with some variant of heatran. I know you didn't want to do this, but you really do need another dragon resist. You can even run the sunny day trapper set, thus giving you another source of sunny day. I don't believe you can run two versions of rotom without violating sleep clause, so it's important to replace rotom-H if you want to use rotom-W. Another interesting idea would be to run a bulky QD volcarona with roost. If you can keep SR off the field, you can use that to check genesect beautifully, since it takes most of its special hits well and threatens to flame body burn him if he uses u-turn. This also provides you with a nice boosting sweeper. Theoretically, it could also run u-turn for more volt-turning goodness, but even with xatu support, that seems iffy.

Finally, you have almost no way to deal with gastrodon. Anything that switches in easily does little to it, and everything that can really do damage to it has trouble switching in. Rotom-H can trick, but first it's got to switch in, get hit by a probable scald or toxic, then hope the gastrodon doesn't realise what it switching in means.This won't totally remedy it, but i'd recommend switching HP grass on rotom-H over HP ice. After all, you can always volt-switch on dragons, and overheat on landorus-T/gliscor. With this, you can at least lure it in, and dish out the damage to it on the switch-in. It's true you can do this with trick, but with HP grass, even if you whiff on the trick, you still have a way to lure gastrodon in, then pound him.

Edit: Just had a great brainwave. Why not replace vaporeon with Spd Lanturn? It maintains volt switch momentum, helps deal with electric-types and rotom-w (You're medium weak to them if they can change moves), while also checking/countering tornadus-T and still providing heal bell support. If you want to go bulky, there's rest/sleep talk/heal bell/volt switch, but if you actually want a water attack on it, just run scald/volt switch/heal bell/filler move. This also gives you a nice way to deal with jellicent-switch in, don't care what it does, volt switch on it. You can even make the fourth move toxic if you really want to lay the smack-down on jellicent, although it'll probably run from volt switch.

 

[Usatoday]

Hey, just a quick rate.

Firstly, it seems weird that you're running sunny day, but not running any fire-type moves, especially on stuff that can fit it. I get that it's for weather disruption, and it powers up rotom-h, but it would be kind of silly not to take advantage. You state that iron head is for landorus-therian, as well as to 2hitko lucario and offensive gliscor. To be fair, it's also for terrakion, and it's true that you can't crush him on the switch-in any more, but switching it out for flamethrower would accomplish a lot of what iron head does currently. Iron head's a nice hedge move that also hits landorus-T and gliscor, but you can always ice beam those two on the switch-in. You can also replace shadow claw instead.

Next, you can probably replace dark pulse with flamethrower. Draco meteor already destroys gengar, and you can u-turn to something like rotom-H for the volt switch/trick if you want to deal with it. I get that you've got problems with jellicent, but it seems like you're devoting a lot of moveslots to it, which you might need.

Landorus-T really needs stone edge to check salamence and dragonite. Toxic is cool, but again, i'd remove it.

I understand you're trying to deal with jellicent, so i'd urge you to instead make one or two of these changes instead, so you can still carry one or two of them, but your team will really suffer otherwise.

Also, you've said yourself that Spd vaporeon is the most expendable pokemon on your team, and you ARE running a volt-turn team. I hate to give you this idea, because it's so ******** overly used and recommended these days, but why not try Specially Defensive rotom-w? If you want some of the same ability to deal with status as heal bell vaporeon affords you, you can run chestorest, or if you want the ability to heal more than once, run pain split. Hydro pump, volt switch, and will-o-wisp are generally standard. If you're doing this, you can replace rotom-H with some variant of heatran. I know you didn't want to do this, but you really do need another dragon resist. You can even run the sunny day trapper set, thus giving you another source of sunny day. I don't believe you can run two versions of rotom without violating sleep clause, so it's important to replace rotom-H if you want to use rotom-W. Another interesting idea would be to run a bulky QD volcarona with roost. If you can keep SR off the field, you can use that to check genesect beautifully, since it takes most of its special hits well and threatens to flame body burn him if he uses u-turn. This also provides you with a nice boosting sweeper. Theoretically, it could also run u-turn for more volt-turning goodness, but even with xatu support, that seems iffy.

Finally, you have almost no way to deal with gastrodon. Anything that switches in easily does little to it, and everything that can really do damage to it has trouble switching in. Rotom-H can trick, but first it's got to switch in, get hit by a probable scald or toxic, then hope the gastrodon doesn't realise what it switching in means.This won't totally remedy it, but i'd recommend switching HP grass on rotom-H over HP ice. After all, you can always volt-switch on dragons, and overheat on landorus-T/gliscor. With this, you can at least lure it in, and dish out the damage to it on the switch-in. It's true you can do this with trick, but with HP grass, even if you whiff on the trick, you still have a way to lure gastrodon in, then pound him.

Edit: Just had a great brainwave. Why not replace vaporeon with Spd Lanturn? It maintains volt switch momentum, helps deal with electric-types and rotom-w (You're medium weak to them if they can change moves), while also checking/countering tornadus-T and still providing heal bell support. If you want to go bulky, there's rest/sleep talk/heal bell/volt switch, but if you actually want a water attack on it, just run scald/volt switch/heal bell/filler move. This also gives you a nice way to deal with jellicent-switch in, don't care what it does, volt switch on it. You can even make the fourth move toxic if you really want to lay the smack-down on jellicent, although it'll probably run from volt switch.

Ok these are extremely helpful comments thanks smogon is such a better place than serebii to find competitive help well your argument for flamethrower is tempting however I really dont see the need as xatu and rotom heat both carry fire moves, your argument for stone edge is very true and i will mostly likely give toxic to lanturn when I swap it into this team with probably toxic rest scald volt switch however I will miss heal bell maybe swap out iron head for toxic predicting a switch? but generally i will deal with gastrodon by switching into genesect
252Atk Choice Band +1 Genesect (Neutral) U-turn vs 252HP/0Def Storm Drain Gastrodon (Neutral): 78% - 92% (333 - 393 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.
and finally hydreigonis really just there for the dragon dark coverage ive been thinking of switching it for a scarf set what are your thoughts on this?