4th Gen Team, please advise

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snstrsrpnt

Hi everyone, first RMT. I've mainly played OU, and this team has gradual changes every once in a while, so I'd be happy to take team replacements as well. I started making this team just to practice move prediction, so the team is kind of centered around heatran/electivire due to their abilities and I would like to keep both.

(Smeargle) (M) @ Focus Sash
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Trait: Own Tempo
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp
- Spore
- Stealth Rock

Very unpredictable/annoying lead. Can survive to Spore and SR vs most leads (weak vs weather). U-Turn vs anything with Taunt (aerodactyl, gliscor, azelf), and wisp provides a nice unexpected secondary status later in the game or if they switch out the asleep pokemon. I'm considering spikes, but then I would need a ghost type as an anti-spinner.

(Electivire) (M) @ Expert Belt
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Trait: Motor Drive
EVs: 40 Atk / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flamethrower
- Brick Break

Mixed Attacker. Great for switching in using starmie/gyarados as bait. I've tried the physical moveset, but it was often stopped by will-o-wisp or a physical wall. After switching in to an electric attack I usually use ice to kill ground types that switch in such as scarfed Flygon. Flamethrower for Fortress/Skarm/and other steels. Brick break is able to 2KO Heatran and blissey. The coverage still isn't perfect though, doing especially poor vs Rotom.

(Heatran) (M) @ Shuca Berry
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Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Substitute

With great resistances, it can switch in and sub and get a free attack in. This usually isn't enough to kill bulky waters, so I then switch to Starmie/Gyarados after the sub breaks. This is kind of a soft counter for rotom.

(Starmie) @ Choice Scarf
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Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Trick

Great revenge killer and a much needed spinner. No surf since everyone expects it, so its kind of a bluff. Instead I have trick, which helps cripple stall teams and sweepers planning to setup.

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

Very standard CB Scizor, bait for Heatran.

(Gyarados) (M) @ Lum Berry
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Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Bounce
- Waterfall
- Taunt

General sweeper, taunt for countering skarmory and phasers. Waterfall and Bounce gives great coverage and with luck some flinch/para.

Major Threats: Rotom (especially fire), Suicine (with calm mind and HP electric). I also find Machamp leads with lum berry difficult to deal with. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
 
Hey :) This is an interesting team, but it suffers a lot from the lack of offensive synergy as well as being completely beaten by a few key threats:

-Rotom-A = You hit this one on the head, Rotom is currently the second most used pokemon in the game and it beats basically everything you have bar Heatran (and even that can't switch in haphazardly).
-Lucario = You do have Gyarados. However, your poor Gyara also has to take on Dragonite, Breloom, Machamp, and maybe Fire types if Starmie can't, and it can't KO Lucario before it SD's again.
-Metagross = Pretty simple, AgiliGross will always beat you.
-Starmie = Gyarados + Electivire can stall it once but after that you'll either need to bring Scizor in without being hit or it will go through your team.
-Zapdos = SubRoost especially.

Okay, so these are the main offensive threats to the team. Most of them result from using both Smeargle and Electivire, neither of which contribute anything defensively. When using Smeargle, you should almost always run Spikes because its just wasted on Stealth Rock. Some of the other sets are a bit dodgy but lets fix the pokemon first.

I'd like to keep your basic core of Heatran/Gyarados/Starmie/Scizor for now, since it synergises nicely and covers a lot of threats. However, I think a Rotom-W in place of Electivire is a good idea as it beats a lot of the existing threats.

As much as I like Smeargle, it really doesn't fit on this team (although if you like him there are some more drastic changes you can make which allow it to incorporate him). There are a couple of things which you can try in place of him to cover the few remaining problems (such as LO Shaymin). A standard Stallbreaker Crobat is a very underrated pokemon and takes a lot of the weight off Gyarados; however, this means that you'll need to put Stealth Rock on Heatran. Bronzong could work in the lead spot as well.

So basically, the individual pokemon changes I'd suggest are Choice Scarf Rotom-W in place of Electivire, and Stallbreaker Crobat over Smeargle. Then, put Stealth Rock over Substitute on Heatran, use Leftovers > Stealth Rock, and use this EV spread; 252 HP / 36 SpDef / 220 Spe with Calm nature. This helps a lot with Zapdos and Rotom-A in particular.
Take Choice Scarf off Starmie and use the standard Life Orb + Rapid Spin set. You could also change Gyarados' set; since Crobat handles Fighting and Grass types pretty well you don't need Bounce or the massive HP investment (or even Taunt); a standard Bulky Dragon Dance set with Waterfall / Stone Edge / Earthquake would probably work better.

Finally, even with the SpDef Heatran, you will still have some problems with Rotom-W; in particular, offensive variants with Life Orb and Substitute can hurt you extremely badly. This is offset quite a lot by Gyarados and Starmie, both of whom lure Rotom. However, if you find it still being a problem, I suggest this set, which is one of my favourites and works brilliantly in this metagame:
212.png

Scizor
@Life Orb, Adamant, 176 HP / 100 Atk / 232 SpDef
-Pursuit
-Bullet Punch
-Roost
-U-turn.
Click to expand...

Hope you give these changes a go, they should help a lot. Good luck!
 
Hey there. Bubbly gave a better summary than I ever could (nice job, Bubbly), but there's one thing I'd like to challenge. Personally, I don't see the reason for Crobat. I don't see the synergy it gives you, as its two main resists (Grass and Bug) are already pretty well covered by Heatran and Scizor. As a result, I'd recommend a lead Machamp. The only common lead that causes it serious problems is Azelf, and even he is waning in popularity. Machamp is almost always good for at least one or two KOs, and Dynamicpunch can stop slower leads like Swampert from getting rocks up, albeit unreliably. He also has access to priority in Bullet Punch, and can hit ghosts hard with Payback if you can predict the switch. I would consider him in you lead slot

Good luck!
 
Yeah, lead Machamp works decent too; or any other anti-lead you like such as Dragonite.

But 2sly4u missed Crobat's most important resistance, to Fighting, which makes it one of the best Breloom counters :) Its definitely not necessary, it just allows you to be less conservative with Gyarados and is a good revenge killer while hurting stall.
 
Rotom is currently the second most used pokemon in the game
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According to PO flyon is the second most used pokemon in the game with beening used on 24.97% of teams. The Rotom forms don't have a combined usage stat, but if you add all theirs up you get 23.73% which puts them in 4th place, just behind Gengar.
 
RMT Rules said:
3. Have some actual words in your post beyond your six Pokemon and their moves. Not following this makes your post quite boring to read and rate. All Pokemon should have a good reason for being in your team anyway, so why not post that reason? If you are having trouble with this one, start by giving an explanation for each team member. Why are they there? What role do they serve? How do you get them in? Then, give an explanation of how you would open with the team and how you would go about using it. All of these things help people rate your team and allow us to offer more helpful advice.
Click to expand...
Your descriptions are lacking, which puts you in violation of the rule above. Please elaborate more on each team member - about 3 or 4 solid sentences per member is a good goal to reach for. Also, please post only one team at a time. The RMT archive contains some examples of well-written RMTs. If you fix your descriptions, PM me with the updates and I'll be happy to unlock your thread.
 
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