The Revolving Door (Defensive pivots opening up doors of opportunity)

[CSmith1]

The Revolving Door

TEAM AT A GLANCE

The General Explanation of What the Team Does/How it Works
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This is a team that uses defensive typing and EVs as a pivot while laying down Spikes and Stealth Rocks as needed. It lays this down so that Mega Gyarados has a good chance to sweep, and so that damage may be racked up with hits from other Pokemon on the team. Four Pokemon increase the livability of the team by using moves that heal other members and moves that heal themselves. Status, phasing, and Taunt are thrown in to increase survival a little more.

ALL RIGHT, HERE IT IS!
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Gyarados - Mega @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate -> Mold Breaker
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe
Moves= Dragon Dance || Waterfall || Earthquake || Ice Fang

The main sweeper. His role is to come in on something he can set up on and sweep. 200 Speed allows Jolly Gyarados-Mega to outspeed Modest Rotom-W w/max speed, and to hit it with a Mold Breaker EQ. This allows it to outspeed choice scarfed variants of the same nature after a Dragon Dance, too. He may come in on Fighting and Ground types while he is unevolved, and Intimidate them while threatening them. This is great for Terrakion, Donphan, Hippowdon, Tyranitar, etc, and can warrant a free Dragon Dance or hit. It's, usually, good to save this guy for later after the opponent's team has been worn down where he can prove to be nearly impossible to stop!

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
Moves= Lava Plume || Earth Power || Stealth Rocks || Roar

Heatran is a specially defensive tank. He works as a pivot, a Stealth Rocks setter, and a phazer. Not only that, but he can force Pokemon like Ferrothorn and Skarmory out while possibly dishing out a Burn with Lava Plume on the switch. IVs are set to 0 Atk for anyone wanting to use Foul Play on this guy. He is an excellent match for Ferrothorn as a team member because he can take the Fire attacks Ferro can not.

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
Nature: Modest
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
Moves= Psychic || Focus Blast || Hidden Power Ice || Signal Beam

Alakazam is, mainly, a revenge killer. He provides a means to take out threats that have gotten set up or too powerful. He is, also, the best way to take down Conkeldur in this team. Fast and frail sweepers are, also, able to lose against him with. After taking out a Pokemon, he is able to come in later and deal damage to something else even when being taken to 1 HP thanks to Magic Guard. He remains a threat throughout the game to almost any team, and the best thing is that even when some opponents know what he can do, sometimes they can't stop him from coming out and doing exactly what he can do ;) [revenge kill or do significant damage]

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252Def
Moves= Spikes || Power Whip || Leech Seed || Thunder Wave

Ferrothorn works much like the way Heatran works in setting up hazards and forcing out Pokemon. Spikes compliment Stealth Rocks to rack up even more damage, and he is able to set up on things Heatran could not such as Water types, Ground types, and Rock types. Another perk to having Ferrothorn is finishing off physical attackers with Iron Barbs with a switch-in as well as having a means to heal team members with leech seed.

Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
IVs: 0 Atk
Moves= Volt Switch || Hydro Pump || Rest || Will-O-Wisp

Rotom-Wash is a devil of momentum and makes an excellent lead. He can deal damage and switch while healing to full at the last of himself for a new "hoo rah!" Zero IVs are used for Foul Play users, and max defense was given to him to have him be able to destroy physical threats with power moves and Will-O-Wisp. He is, also, one of the better answers for Water types and Flying types on the team.

Mandibuzz @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
Moves= Foul Play || Defog || Taunt || Roost

Mandibuzz is incredibly bulky with max HP and max Defense so it can reliably remove hazards again and again. It may even take the Attack stat of powerful Pokemon and destroy them while healing later. 0 IVs make it better in a battle against another Pokemon with Foul Play. Mandibuzz was chosen for the final slot to have another Pokemon to avoid Ground type moves,and not take as much from Fighting moves. And, also, it was chosen to remove hazards while being able to heal itself well.

TEAM THREATS
Threats include the following:

-Breloom - able to put my pokemon to sleep. able to set up swords dance and hit extremely hard

-Conkeldur - can be serious problem if let set up bulk ups. assault vest variant is also problem

-Azumarill - it is very good at dealing significant damage to, at least, one of my Pokemon

-Clefable - if heatran is gone, it can be a pain with enough cosmic powers set up

-others - I'm sure there are others, but these above ones are the ones I can think of off the top of my head that have given me trouble in the past

Well, guys, thanks for checking out my team, and tell me what you think! Any and all advice is appreciated!

A few battles done one after the other to give a better idea of how it works. :)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-111776733
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-111777508
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-111778505

 

[Idyll]

Hey CSmith1 :] This is a nice team you got here. As I can see, this is a team that focuses on damaging foes rather passively, then land the finishing blows with M-Gyarados. However, this team has quite a few problems, notably the ones in your threatlist and Kyurem-B. Kyurem-B's Substitute set* kinda steamrolls over this team after getting a sub. Another thing is your Alakazam just literally came out of nowhere; it is very situational to the team's play and thus wouldn't help in the long run. I have a few suggestions and hopefully these come and help your team in the future.

My first order of business concerns your biggest weakness to Fighting-type, and to a lesser extent Kyu-B and Dragon-types. As can be seen from your threatlist, the team loathes facing Conkeldurr and Breloom as you currently lack the proper option to deal with them; using Alakazam quickly puts you in a bad spot as it loses its niche as a possible revenge-killer for no good reason at all than trying to kill what the other members can't. In addtion, the weakness to Substitute Kyurem-B is unnerving for the fact that it can attempt to block all attempts to status it and hit most of your mons hard or super-effectively. In order to handle this problem, I suggest you use Unaware Clefable over Alakazam. This Clefable handles everything I talked about in this paragraph while doing the same thing Alakazam does: check boosted threats. In addtion, Clefable can also function as the team's cleric, removing any status that may plague the team and heal with Wish. As a bonus, he he can also check mons such as Manaphy and Keldeo.

Now, I feel that the team is good as it is, but I have a few minor tweaks in order to make your games run smoother so to speak. First is changing your Rotom-W's spread to 44 Spd / 252 HP / 212 Def in order to outspeed max Speed Azumarill. These variants can often take people by surprise and damage people catastrophically. Running the spread I have given you allows you to safely Volt-Switch or Will-o-Wisp out said variants of Azumarill. For the most part, the difference in investment would hardly matter. My second suggestion is to use Gyro Ball over Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn in order to sufficiently hit Fairies such as Sylveon and Clefable and just nuke things. Thunder Wave would admittedly see minimal use as you would rather want to cripple mons with Willo in order to rack up passive damage. Also consider that your sweeper boosts Speed so Twave is non-essential. My last suggestion is to use Adamant over Jolly on M-Gyarados. It already outspeeds a lot at +1 Adamant so the power would help more in this case.

That is all of my suggestions. Good luck with your team :]

*This Kyu-B, in case you don't know, runs Fusion Bolt, Ice Beam, and Earth Power. This paired with Teravolt hits most of the original team super-effectively.

sets

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Def
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell

 

[CSmith1]

I'm going to apologize ahead of time that this reply might be messed up because I'm using my iPhone, and I'm too lazy to turn off auto correct. Thank you, memoric, for the clefable set. I've been trying to find a replacement for alakazam for two days because I wanted something to deal with conkeldur and others better, and clef able sounds great to me especially because of the new cleric member :) . I'll definitely use the spread for rotom wash and replace thunder wave with gyro ball on ferrothorn while setting speed IVs to 0 and giving him a relaxed nature. Gyarados is the only thing I won't change out of your suggestions because I need a jolly nature with that speed to outrun a scarfed modest rotom after dragon dance, and I like the security in that. Other than that, I'm going to run what you put. If you could run some numbers for KOs where an adamant nature would come in handy to change my mind about gyarados, that'd be pretty cool. I'm not sure what I should look for when he kills a whole lot of everything anyway. Anyways, I appreciate you taking the time to help me, and thank you for your suggestions :)

 

[Timpsu]

Hey! Gonna drop in some thoughts. First of all, my personal opinion is that you could cut down on the colors a bit, they kinda hurt my eyes, and disturb the clarity of the text. But overall, quite a solid team, although I wasn't really impressed by the replays.

I think Earth Power on Heatran is overall sub-optimal as literally the only reason ro run it is other Heatran. Also, you don't even try to speed creep other Heatran, so it becomes even less optimal. There are two options to consider: Protect for extra recovery + possible burn damage + scouting, or put a status mvoe, such as Toxic or W-o-W, to cripple switch-ins. Also, 248 HPs for hazard damage. I do think Spikes is a sub-optimal choice for your team, as you offer no real offensive pressure, and you can't punish Defog in any way. Also, your own method of hazard removal is Defog, which definitely contradicts with Spikes. In addition to replacing Thunder Wave with Gyro Ball, I definitely suggest replacing Spikes with Protect, or Toxic, to additionally cripple switch-ins. Also, Mandibuzz needs 248 HP EVs as to take less damage from SR. You can put 8 EVs to Special Defense. I also second Clefable, make the addition to the team and see how the team works out after that. Good luck in your battles!

 

[TheInsanity]

Dude, your alakam is so gen 5.

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Psychic/Pyshock
- Focus Blast
- Energy Ball / HP Fire
- Dazzling Gleam

U should run timid for extra speed. Is easy for u hit x2, the power isn't a problem. Dazzling Gleam hit dragons AND dark tipes and yes, fighting. Fight mons has a shitty SDef but a strong Def. U can think to run psyshock over psychic. For landobros u have Rotom/Gyarados, i don't think u need it. Energy Ball is for hit bulky water and quagsire. HP Fire is for doing some damages if aegislash try to trap u, and yes, ferrothorn and scizor. Red or grass pill?

 

[CSmith1]

Hey! Gonna drop in some thoughts. First of all, my personal opinion is that you could cut down on the colors a bit, they kinda hurt my eyes, and disturb the clarity of the text. But overall, quite a solid team, although I wasn't really impressed by the replays.

I think Earth Power on Heatran is overall sub-optimal as literally the only reason ro run it is other Heatran. Also, you don't even try to speed creep other Heatran, so it becomes even less optimal. There are two options to consider: Protect for extra recovery + possible burn damage + scouting, or put a status mvoe, such as Toxic or W-o-W, to cripple switch-ins. Also, 248 HPs for hazard damage. I do think Spikes is a sub-optimal choice for your team, as you offer no real offensive pressure, and you can't punish Defog in any way. Also, your own method of hazard removal is Defog, which definitely contradicts with Spikes. In addition to replacing Thunder Wave with Gyro Ball, I definitely suggest replacing Spikes with Protect, or Toxic, to additionally cripple switch-ins. Also, Mandibuzz needs 248 HP EVs as to take less damage from SR. You can put 8 EVs to Special Defense. I also second Clefable, make the addition to the team and see how the team works out after that. Good luck in your battles!

I'm going to take your advice for effort value spreads. Spikes is staying and earth power is staying , though.

 

[CSmith1]

Dude, your alakam is so gen 5.

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Psychic/Pyshock
- Focus Blast
- Energy Ball / HP Fire
- Dazzling Gleam

U should run timid for extra speed. Is easy for u hit x2, the power isn't a problem. Dazzling Gleam hit dragons AND dark tipes and yes, fighting. Fight mons has a shitty SDef but a strong Def. U can think to run psyshock over psychic. For landobros u have Rotom/Gyarados, i don't think u need it. Energy Ball is for hit bulky water and quagsire. HP Fire is for doing some damages if aegislash try to trap u, and yes, ferrothorn and scizor. Red or grass pill?

I'll use this set in the future on other teams. Thx :) however, clefable's going to replace it for now.

 

[Idyll]

I'm going to apologize ahead of time that this reply might be messed up because I'm using my iPhone, and I'm too lazy to turn off auto correct. Thank you, memoric, for the clefable set. I've been trying to find a replacement for alakazam for two days because I wanted something to deal with conkeldur and others better, and clef able sounds great to me especially because of the new cleric member :) . I'll definitely use the spread for rotom wash and replace thunder wave with gyro ball on ferrothorn while setting speed IVs to 0 and giving him a relaxed nature. Gyarados is the only thing I won't change out of your suggestions because I need a jolly nature with that speed to outrun a scarfed modest rotom after dragon dance, and I like the security in that. Other than that, I'm going to run what you put. If you could run some numbers for KOs where an adamant nature would come in handy to change my mind about gyarados, that'd be pretty cool. I'm not sure what I should look for when he kills a whole lot of everything anyway. Anyways, I appreciate you taking the time to help me, and thank you for your suggestions :)

No problem. As for your thoughts on Gyarados, people use Adamant not only to secure kills but also because running Jolly doesn't yield anything. When running Adamant, Gyarados already outspeeds a lot of the unboosted meta at +1, meaning the additional speed is very much unnecessary. In this case the power is preferred in order to secure more kills while sweeping. Scarfers can be seen a mile away; also if in any case there's no such thing as Modest Scarf really and most run Timid, but Scarf variants are uncommon.

Good luck :]

 

[CSmith1]

No problem. As for your thoughts on Gyarados, people use Adamant not only to secure kills but also because running Jolly doesn't yield anything. When running Adamant, Gyarados already outspeeds a lot of the unboosted meta at +1, meaning the additional speed is very much unnecessary. In this case the power is preferred in order to secure more kills while sweeping. Scarfers can be seen a mile away; also if in any case there's no such thing as Modest Scarf really and most run Timid, but Scarf variants are uncommon.

Good luck :]

Ok, I'll change it. Thank you :)