100% Pokémon, 0% Weather

[Bruhaverde]

Hey, I am Bruhaverde, otherwise known as Gravy Mike, on the Pokémon Showdown servers. Over the past year or so, I've been in and out of involving myself in the metagame side of Pokémon and I just recently decided to get back into it. I formulated a team -- the one I will present to you -- and have done fairly well with it thus far, reaching a rank of about 1500 in a couple of hours. The only thing is, I need the brains of the metagame community to help me fill in the cracks my team has, so if you wouldn't mind reading or skimming through this thread and posting some comments, it would be much appreciated! First things first, here is my team:


> The Team <

For me, these suckers get the job done fairly well!
Key word being "fairly." But that's where you guys come in!
Here's more information on how my team functions:


In-Depth Analysis

Landorus-T (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 200 HP / 64 Atk / 244 Def
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

This Pokémon makes a decent lead for my team. With a good amount of natural Speed, Landorus-T hardly fails in putting up Stealth Rocks, the staple to any metagame battle. His EdgeQuake combination provides good coverage against multiple types of leads, such as Tyranitar, Ninjask, and Ninetales, but also provides other popular leads such as Politoed and Abomasnow an advantage over him. U-turn is excellent in keeping momentum throughout the game and making a mid-term switch to a more effective member of my team. I chose a bulkier nature on Landorus-T because his offensive capabilities as is are pretty impressive, and added bulk helps with fending off even the strongest of physical sweepers like Salamence and Scizor.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 236 HP / 176 SDef / 96 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Body Slam
- Wish
- Iron Head
- U-turn

This sucker comes in handy with stalling and even denting a few serious offensive threats. I'm a big of fan of Jirachi's ever-famous ParaFlinch combination especially with an added Speed bonus through EVs and a Jolly nature. It quickly cripples speedy Pokémon, bringing them down past Jirachi's Speed, and edges my opponent towards a ragequit as I get some nice flinch-hax in there. Wish proves helpful in late-game situations where one of my predominant sweepers is critically injured, and U-turn makes it easier to pass that Wish along while also causing quite a bit of damage to unsuspecting Celebis and Espeons. A Specially-Defensive EV set on Jirachi allows him to last longer against strong Special sweepers and into the all-important, late-game period of a battle.

Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SDef
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

As highly overused as he may be these days, I LOVE Scizor. His massive Attack stat grouped with Technician and priority moves gives him a surefire reason for being a part of the OU tier. His moves provide excellent coverage to most Pokémon that frequent the OU tier. U-turn is a great STAB move and is excellent for scouting. Bullet Punch with its boosted priority and power packs quite a punch (pun) on all neutrally-affected Pokémon, and is his move-of-choice. Superpower whittles down Blissey walls and Pursuit locks Pokémon like Alakazam, Lati@s, and Gengar in battle in fear of being OHKOed on an attempted withdrawal.

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Secret Sword
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Icy Wind

With the fairly-recent legal addition of Keldeo into the metagame side of Pokémon, he has created quite the buzz in battling. As for the set, I think this set is pretty tight butthole (Workaholics fans, anyone?). Secret Sword is phenomenal for STAB and for taking down Blisseys and Tyranitars in the blink of an eye. Surf is the obvious choice for Water STAB, considering Hydro Pump's unreliable accuracy, and the fact that Surf can still pack a punch on neutrally-affected Pokémon. Now here is where the controversy comes in: Most people employ HP Ice on Keldeo. But I figure, the more coverage the better, hence HP Electric. It quickly eliminates Starmies and Cloysters, while also heavily damaging Skarmorys and Walreins. And for Ice moves, I prefer Icy Wind because of its added Speed-lowering effect. It significantly slows down sweeping Dragons and hits Celebi right where it hurts.

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Being a fan of the third generation Dragon twins, I've grown to love the sister of the duo. With a large Special Defence stat, Latias can tank many hits without any EV investments on that stat, and it's even greatened by a heightened Hitpoints investment. Latias's presence usually causes my opponent to switch in to something else, allowing me to get off at least one Calm Mind, which still brings her Special Attack and Defence to crazy levels. Dragon Pulse is pretty obvious, providing STAB for other Dragons and just any other non-bulky Pokémon. I chose HP Fire to provide coverage against Ferrothorn and Forretress, and so far it is proving quite well. Roost is helpful when someone tries to pull a fast one and poison poor old Latias; it keeps Latias in the game despite a status-ailment. Latias is one of my favorite sweepers on my team, but could use some help, too.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

Unlike many people, I use my Starmie to spin away my opponent's entry hazards. With its Speed, Starmie almost always attacks first and spins away those hazards like they were never there. I personally love Scald as Starmie's STAB move of choice as it cripples physical sweepers and still does quite a bit of damage, especially to opposing Heatrans and Tyranitars. Ice Beam works wonders for eliminating Dragons like Garchomp, Salamence and Dragonite. And Recover helps with stalling as well as any Starmie can. Despite a significant investment in Hitpoints, Starmie is still pretty frail and falls fairly quickly against threats like Magnezone.


Well that's it for the team! I'll include a major threat list soon, but the major bulk of this thread took long enough so I'll leave it for another time soon. So please, consider my weaknesses and don't be shy in letting me know what needs to be fixed. Thank you, Smogon community!​

 

[Electrolyte]

Hey there,

This team is definitely off to a nice start! You cover a lot of offensive threats well, and other than some shaky pseudo weaknesses to Sun and Volcarona, the team is quite solid. I do, however, so a small lack of power and coverage on your team. Although you don't lack a setup sweeper or a power hitter, you might still have some issues handling opposing walls because your pokemon lack offensive coverage. Water types for one are extremely problematic for this team. Jellicent walls every single pokemon and can hit Starmie / Latias with Shadow Ball. It can also burn Scizor, crippling it for the rest of the match. Politoed is a tough nut to crack too; it can force Latias out with Encore and burn Lando / Scizor with Scald. Slowbro is a lesser threat that could still be annoying; it walls Keldeo and Starmie, and can handle Jirachi easily as well. Although not a Water-type, Skarmory can give this team problems because it can wall your physical attackers and phaze out Latias. SpDef TTar is a big threat that can trap and KO Latias and Starmie, making physical walls even harder to deal with.

A quick and simple change that could potentially help you handle all of the above threats would be to make Starmie offensive. That way, it can provide the team with quick, powerful attacks that can also hit past walls with coverage.

Starmie @ Leftovers
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe / Timid
Rapid Spin / Hydro Pump / Thunderbolt / Psyshock

Your current Starmie is really really redundant with the rest of your team. All it seems to do is spin, because its attacks are relatively weak and don't actually hit anything important. Since your team needs something that can hit hard and fast with good coverage, Starmie can step up to the plate and fulfill that role while still being able to support the team with Rapid Spin. Starmie ditches what little bulk it had with a lot of extra power. It hadn't been covering much anyway, since Lando / Latias checked fighting types and Keldeo could act as a pseudo bulky water. Instead, Starmie should go offensive. Thunderbolt and max Special Attack lets it hit bulky Water types and Skarmory for a lot of damage, letting you solidly check or counter them all. Hydro Pump also hits like a truck, smashing Tyranitar, Ground types, and Rock types for a lot of damage. HPump's sheer power lets you use Starmie to muscle past or at least heavily dent many walls. In the last slot, Psyshock lets Starmie hit Poison types and Fighting types for a lot of damage, letting you defeat Breloom, Keldeo, Conkeldurr, Ice Punch Toxicroak, Gengar, Amoonguss, or Tentacruel easily. Rapid Spin is there for obvious reasons; it whisks away hazards that hinder your pokemon. Ice Beam can also be used in the last slot to hit Dragons, but it's up to you. Leftocers can also be swapped with Life Orb for added power, but that makes Starmie extremely frail, and since spinning for your U-Turners is quite important, this may not be a wise idea.

Also, I'm slightly confused at your Jirachi's EV spread. I don't think that much speed is necessary, as your team has little to fear from the 70-80's speed tier. Starmie checks Mamo, Heatran, and Loom, while Lando+Keldeo can handle Lucario. Kyurem can be handled by Scizor, or even uninvested Jirachi. I would run a spread of 252 HP / 236 SpDef / 20 Spe Calm for as much special bulk as possible, so you can not only last longer but also cover for the loss of bulk in Starmie.

Good luck!

 

[Bruhaverde]

Thanks @Electrolyte, I'll give those changes a try! I knew Starmie was missing something.

 

[PDC]

Hi, solid team you got here!

Overall this team is pretty solid and does not have that many major problems, and I really like the way it is built. It can focus and counter most individual weathers without too many problems. For the most part, it is a good team overall, so congrats on that! But like Electrolyte said, you have problems breaking through stuff like Jellicent and other stall teams. Stall can dismember you easily, even though you have Starmie, you have no real way to win against stall successfully. My first suggestion is changing up Latias a bit, adding Substitute over Hidden Power Fire would allow you too escape Pursuits more easily from stuff like Tyranitar and Scizor in rain or sand. Overall, this also allows Latias to evade status more easily. This helps him break stall much easier and give it the power to break stall with correct prediction. Hidden Power Fire is a perfectly fine option, but I think this is a much better option, especially for a more balanced team like this. After making this change, I suggest shaking up roles a bit, Jirachi and Landorus-T should both have slightly different roles. To do this I suggest adding Stealth Rock to Jirachi's set over U-Turn. The reason for this, is because we're going to test out a different approach to Landorus-T than the current bulky pivot you are currently using.

The Landorus-T I propose you use is a more offensive variant which instead of using the typical bulky pivot set-up that you currently have, I suggest running a Swords Dance + Rock Polish variant to help break stall. The set-up I suggest you use is: Landorus-T @ Leftovers Swords Dance / Earthquake / Rock Polish / Stone Edge Adamant 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spe. This set-up gives you the ability to power through many threats that can trouble you like bulky physical walls and stall teams, at a +2 you can decimate many physical walls with ease thanks to a STAB Earthquake.

Good luck!

 

[Bruhaverde]

@PDC,

Thanks so much for you advice! Should I use these changes in conjuction with what Electrolyte suggested for my Starmie? Also, should I then begin to lead with Jirachi to lay down Stealth Rocks early? Otherwise, thank you for the tips!