Hey everybody. I've been using this team for over a year now and it's done me pretty well. I figured it was about time I got it rated, what with gen 5 already here.
I don't remember much about the building process. It was some time after Heart Gold and Soul Silver were released in japan. I was pretty stoked about Dragonite getting Extremespeed, and keep in mind this was when Salamence was still OU so anything it could get to distinguish itself was great... it's pretty obvious Dragonite is one of my favorite Pokemon. :p
Dragonite had gained fame as an anti-lead, so I figured I'd go with that. Of course, I did want something that could actually set up stealth rock and Heatran jumped out at me, having a quad resistance to ice. Everything else... well maybe typing the rest will jog my memory.
Norb (Dragonite) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
Norb is great. Very few leads can get the better of him, getting demolished by any one of his attacks as they attempt to set up or get rid of him. I still love it when people forget about Inner Focus or extremespeed, or the fact that he's an antilead and taunt him. He does have a major problem with trick leads however, but even then those can be easy to turn to my advantage later in the game.
Typically he dies shortly after the fight begins, but if I can keep him in longer he comes in pretty handy. My biggest problem with him is that I tend to overestimate his bulkiness, resulting in him getting OHKO'd by ice punches from Jirachi or ice beams from Suicune.
Brownie (Heatran) (F) @ Shuca Berry
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Explosion
If only she smelled like brownies. As I don't have any stat boosters on my team I really wanted stealth rock support and Heatran fulfills this nicely, effortlessly taking attacks that Dragonite can't handle and blowing up on anything bulky or otherwise threatening. I typically switch her in right after Dragonite unless my opponent has something that I absolutely need to eliminate right away, something Heatran doesn't do too well against, or I see a good opportunity to bring in Forretress.
Phoebe (Forretress) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Atk / 144 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Rapid Spin
- Reflect
If I don't switch in Heatran after Dragonite, I'll usually switch in Forretress--usually against Weavile, Mamoswine, Frosslass, or (sometimes)Scizor. It's a bit riskier though, as Forretress is prime set-up bait and if my opponent switches in Gyarados there's nothing she can do except reflect and pray, where as Heatran can at least blow up if switching would be dangerous. Scizor is also prone to set up on her too, so instead of switching her in right away I like to see what kind of Scizor my opponent has first. If I see no life orb recoil or leftovers recovery then I'm definitely switching Forry in.
I don't often get the chance to rapid spin, though I will if she lives long enough. My priority is to get up as many layers of spikes as I can and hopefully set up reflect to help the rest of the team out. Again, I have no stat boosters so the spikes support really helps, especially combined with stealth rock. Reflect has come in handy many times too, having saved my sweeper's asses more than a few times. I also like to gyro ball when I think my opponent least expects it, having demolished many a Frosslass and Tyranitar that way.
Trollgar (Gengar) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
I didn't just name him that for the grin. I've noticed he's quite prone to turning the game around when my opponent seems to have the upper hand, especially if I get a sub up. If I have both Spikes and SR up, he becomes virtually unstoppable, with only Blissey able to stand against him. (And hopefully I'll have dealt with her already...) Of course, sometimes the Random Number Troll feels like knocking him down a peg when he has to use Focus Blast...
Jaime (Heracross) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Toxic
This guy is tragically underrated. He's a great revenge killer, and just like Gengar he's prone to turning the game around and outright sweeping under the right circumstances. Every now and then I'll also switch him in after Dragonite, possibly getting in a crucial KO.
However, stone edge tends to bite me in the ass and tends not to do as much as I'd like to rotom. I don't often have the chance to use toxic, but when I do it's proven quite valuable, mainly against Calm Minders or Cursers. Still, I may replace it with night slash sometime.
Also, he's the only member of my team that isn't immune to Toxic Spikes... and he benefits from it. If I spot my opponent setting up Tspikes I switch him in right away to get him poisoned, which makes him a LOT deadlier.
Del (Rotom-C) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Leaf Storm
- Trick
Specs Latias used to take this spot, but after being banished to ubers Rotom-C seemed like a good replacement.
While not as devastating as Specs Latias, it's still a decent gyarados counter, and overall a good follow-up for Heatran or Forretress. Two advantages it has over Latias is that it can serve as a second spinblocker(actually now my primary spinblocker, as I prefer to save Gengar for late in the game) and tricking a scarf instead of specs makes the victim get hit harder by Forretress' Gyro Ball. He also puts a nice stop to opponents' Gengars and enemy Rotom, who otherwise give me some trouble. It also does quite nicely as a secondary revenge killer if Heracross goes down.
THREATS:
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Zapdos isn't too troublesome, but still deserves mention. It's a huge threat to Forretress and Dragonite(if it has HP ice), and is bulky enough that it gives the rest of my team trouble too. Fortunately I do have stealth rock to chip it down and Heatran can just explode on it if things are looking bad.
Scarf Rotom is a pretty big pain in the ass, mainly Rotom-H. Its bulkiness, speed, and power are all just enough to give my team a collective headache. Heatran is usually my best bet dealing with him, otherwise I have to hope he switches in when my Gengar substitutes or I get a crit with Heracross' stone edge. Night slash on heracross could help though. ... fortunately, after a long break from competitive battling I've found that Scarf Rotom is a lot less prominent than it was. Also he was more of a problem when I had Latias... My own Scarf Rotom is surprisingly helpful against them.
Gyarados. Oh man. This is why I originally had Latias... most of my team really can't deal with Gyarados too well, especially if he's dragon danced. If Rotom can't get rid of him I'll often have Heatran blow up on him or revenge kill him with Heracross or Dragonite if his HP is suitably chipped away. If he's got two dragon dances up, I can pretty much say gg unless Dragonite happens to be alive and Gyarados is in Extremespeed kill range.
Well there you go. I've used this team for so long, I feel stupid for not posting it here sooner. I do hope I can adapt it for the 5th generation when I decide to get into 5th gen competitive! But if not, oh well... this team's given me a great year of service.
