5/6 RBY team, stuck at 40# Leaderboard, need help. =)

[Guthrie_Govan]

Hello everyone!!

This is my (not so) offensive team.

Lets take a quick look before i explain it.

Ok, it doesn't have Frozenass or Milotic or Registeel.. I really wanted a RBY only team, but i ended up with manectric. There is no reliable electric special sweeper in RBY.

But it performs really good, at a quick tempo, without relying that much on entry hazards while keeping the oponent from setting theirs.
I am gona explain the sets and the main threats and i would like you to help me fix that.

Ok, the lead, a creation of mine, altough totally based on Scarf Powder Saur.

Scarfbel @ Choice Scarf
Modest
4Def/252Spd/252Spa
-Encore
-Sleep powder
-Sludge Bomb
-Leaf Storm

Ok, so the main idea is to sleep Fross or any other Spike/SR user. The Ev's and Nature allow me to outspeed any non scarfed Lass, while nailing a 1OHKO on most Milotic with Leaf Storm.
Sludge Bomb if i don't wanna switch right after one attack, and encore to when i switch on Missy predicting a sub.
I chose this one over Venusaur cause it packs more of a punch in attacking terms and it has access to encore.

SunnyBeamer @ Life Orb
Modest
Intimidate
4Def/252Spd/252SpA
-Fire Blast
-Solarbeam
-Sunny Day
-Morning Sun

Well, Arcanine is one of my fav pokes. I decided to go for a heavily special offensive team, and SunnyBeamer Arcanine is the shit. The most common switches are Toise, Milo or Slowbro. I always use Sunny Day while they are swiching, and unless they predict a Sunny set, they never switch on the right thing. With the sun up, Sbeam 2HKO's Toise, Slowbro and Milo while reducing surf damage to 40%-50% that can be recovered with morning sun.
Even Moltres or other Arcanines trying to resist this will totally fail if they aren't defensive variants. The standard offensive moltres takes 35%-40% from a fire blast when switching in, and Arcanine lacking Flash Fire will take around 50%.
Altaria totally ruins the fun for me tough.
Arcanine is revealed very early so i can know what my oponent's counter are. If it is altaria, i am really pissed...

Dung @ Choice Band
Jolly
Arena Trap
252Att/40Def/216Spd
-EQ
-Stone Edge
-Sucker Punch
-Stealth Rock

Ok, Dung is my Revenge Killer. Allows me to deal with Arcanine, Houndoom, Chansey!!!, Registeel, Drapion, and so much more. Its a really great asset to the team. The EV's allow me to outspeed Raikou, and still survive an Extreme speed from arcanine, assuming i am >85% health. Stealth rock is there over aerial ace, cause some battles i really need SR, and i usually switch in on something that isn't going to kill me, set up, and bail.

Theme Ruiner @ Choice Specs
Timid
Static
4Def/252Spd/252SpA
-Thunderbolt
-Overheat
-HP Ice
-Switcheroo

Ok, it ruined my team's theme, but i still like him. Straightforward EV's and Nature. Thunderbolt is obvious. I prefer overheat over flamethrower cause it deals more damage over 2 turns, and a lot more on the first. Plus, it isn't stabed so the fire attack really needs a kick in power. HP Ice is my only way to kill defensive/cleric Altaria. Switcheroo because i have three Choiced pokes and that becomes dangerous late game, plus switcheroo is awesome to just render useless a lot of pokemons, and is the main reason to use Manectric over Raikou.

The Hated Pink Blob @ Leftovers
Calm (Should i run Bold?)
Natural Cure
4Hp/252Def/252SpD
-Aromatherapy -Seismic Toss
-Toxic
-Softboiled

Pretty standard cleric Chansey. Its my most important pokemon. Can sponge 99% of the special attacks thrown at me (H8 you alakazam with Focus Blast), keep sweepers rid of paralyzis or burn in Dung's case, rids slowbro of toxic.. If it is killed early on, i'll most likely lose. I can beat oponent dugtrios if they switch in on Toxic.

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Bold
Own Tempo
252HP/4SpA/252Def
-Slack Off
-Thunder Wave
-Surf
-Ice beam (As of PowerWithin sugestion)

Ok, standard BulkyBro. Chansey already runs Toxic, so this Hermitcrab runs thunder wave. I can't decide between psychic or ice beam. ice beam would allow me to deal with Altaria my bigest nemesis, but psychic allows me to deal with Toxicroak, hitmontop, haryama, venusaur.....



Ok, my main problems:

Altaria : Geez.. I can sort of deal with the more ofensive ones, but the others.. i can only rely on Manectric with HP to OHKO it.


Venusaur : Every team has a venusaur -.-. Depending on the set, i can face some problems. If it switches on SLowbro's thunder wave, which happens a lot, i'll just 2HKO with psychic. If not, i let it sleep something less useful acording to my oponents team, and threaten it with arcanine, setting up the sun and spamming fire blasts.

Mismagius: I totally lack something to deal with it without fail. When she comes in on chansey i totally predict a sub/NasyPlot, and switch in Vic for an encore. But that only forces her to switch. I usually manage to kill the bitch with a little prediction, but if she sets up and has a sub i am screwed.

Swellow: I have to rely on slowbro to stall it with Slack off while it dies from poison/burn. I sometimes sacrifice Arcanine to Intimidate him.

Kabutops in the rain: If it lacks X-Scizor and my slowbro is in condition to fight i am fine. Otherwise its GG for me.

Physical Ludicolo : Haven't faced many, but they just blow chansey up and beat up slowbro to death. If i manage to last till the rain stops, my team is already to damaged.

Dugtrio : Able to kill Arcanine, Manectric and Chansey. After he kills one of them, i jsut have to go with my Dug and Sucker punch him, otherwise.. GG again.

Thats pretty much it. Would love some comments and hints to improve the team.

 

[SlottedPig]

Uh, for one tactical hint, change Victreebel's and Arcanine's names! An observant opponent can look at them and determine things. Second, I hate to be nitpickerish, but please, please clean up your post. For example, you spelled "gonna" and "just" wrong. That's ... just wrong. I'd say - from my experience - people tend more to comment on teams with thought put into the post. Not that the team doesn't have thought.

Second, the thing that catches my eye is this: your Arcanine is absolutely defenseless to Altaria, as you have noted. "That's fine," I think, because I saw you had a Slowbro, so I scroll down to it ...

...and meet an Ice Beam-less Bulky Water in an already Altaria-weak team! Do yourself a favor and switch Psychic to Ice Beam; the things you list that would even think about switch into Slowbro (Venusaur) gets absolutely screwed over by Thunder Wave. The others - especially Hariyama - wouldn't even think about switching in, except perhaps Substitute Toxicroak. Worry not; Dugtrio handles them worriedlessly.

Welcome to Smogon, and good luck with your team (did I put that in the right place?...)

EDIT: You got #40 on Leaderboard?! Grats; for a newbie to Smogon that's fantastic~

 

[Guthrie_Govan]

I don's use nicks in battling =). I am gona give slowbro the ice beam then.

Sorry for the typos, I am portuguese!!

Thank you.

 

[Delko]

Hello

Since you asked so kindly, here's a rate. ^^
I faced your team myself and I was quite impressed by it to be honest. Yet I think there is always room for improvement.

Victreebel is rathter an unuasual lead but it did great in our match, it is highly underated but still you put it to good use. Only one nitpick here: Leaf Storm does about 87.5% - 103.8% damage to the standard Bulky Water Milotic so make sure you have Stealth Rock up to be almost certain it is a OHKO.

Since most of your team is special, it might not be a bad choice for Arcanine to be a Physical attacker/ sweeper. He has more accurate moves on the physical side if the spectrum and access to the great revenge kille move Extreme Speed. Besides it is a waste to let that 110 base attack stat go to wast. you also said that Solar Beam is a 2HKO on Milotic, Blastoise and Slowbro but since you need to get up the sun first (the turn your opponent switches in) you only have 1 turn to attack with Solar Beam before being KO'ed by Surf (and as you noticed in our battle that is still a OHKO despite the drop in power due to Sun. The standard physical set is a great option here:

Arcanine @ leftovers/ adamant nature/ intimidate/ EV's: 120 HP, 152 Atk, 236 Spe / Moves: Flare Blitz, Extreme Speed, Morning Sun, Sunny Day

--> Sunny Day is choosen as a forth move to power up Flare Blitz and to increase the amount of health being restored by Morning Sun. Of course this move can be replaced by Toxic or Will-o-wisp but since you already have Chansey to spread around Toxic and Will-o-wisp only lures in opposing Fire types Sunny Day is a nice option instead. The EV's spread might be a bit different from the analysis but it allows Arcanine to outspeed Venusaur (who could put you to sleep before you could KO it with Flare Blitz) and other base 80's. If you still want to outspeed Bulky Froslass you could take another 24 EV's from HP and put them in speed.

You are using Dugrio as you Stealth Rock setter but since he is carrying a Choice Band this will not be efficient. So I suggest a Life Orb on him instead of this Choice Band as it will allow him to set up Stealth Rock with more ease and those Rocks are important (see to damage calculation above conserning Milotic). Also I think an EV spread of 252 Atk, 216 Spe, 40 SDef might be more helpful here as it still allows you to outspeed Ambipom and Raikou (the main reason he is used) but with this little bulkier spread you could survive a +2 Vaccuum Wave from Toxicroak after Stealth Rock so you could OHKO back with Earthquake. I don't see much else on your team dealing with Toxicroak so this suggestion could be helpfull.

I know you are happy about Manectric but the sweeping potential of Raikou is just plain better. You already have Dugtrio to take out Raikou's biggest nemesis, Chansey so I don't know why you should try him instead. Besides Raikou has Substitute in his standard moveset which not only protects it from status but it is also a great way of countering Dugtrio (who could come in on Thunderbolt from Manectric and easily KOing with Earthhquake). This is the moveset I had in mind:

Raikou @ leftovers/ timid nature/ pressure/ EV's: 68 HP, 116 SpA, 72 SDef, 252 Spe/ Moves: Substitute, Thunderbolt, Calm Mind, Hidden power (ice)

--> This is the best set Raikou could have imo. The strategy is very simple as well, you sub up the first turn and start Calm Binding up untill you can start a sweep. Thunderbolt and Hidden Power (ice) give it the boltbeam combo but if you feel like Hidden Power (grass) will benefit you better, then that is an option as well. Of course there are other options as well: Extrasensory could help you with these annoying Venusaur and special walls like Muk. If you feel lucky you could even try to flinch Chansey to death. Hidden Power (water) could be used as well to hit another counter of Raikou, Steelix, very hard while still being able to hit Ground/ Rock types like Rhyperiour for super effective damage.

Since you asked, Calm is the best nature for Chansey. In UU it's full with powerful special attackers and all bits help.

On Slowbro, Ice Beam is indeed the best option. You don't need to fear those mentioned threats like Hitmontop, Toxicroak and Venusaur as they will not be as dangerous anymore after they have been paralysed.

This is all I could help you with.
Hope this suggestions helped and good luck with the rest of the team!

 

[Guthrie_Govan]

wow, thank you a lot Delko =D. Gona try your sugestions.

 

[franky]

Hi Guth,

I've played this a couple of times and I have a few suggestions. Firstly, there is no reason why you should use Victreebel over Venusaur. You say that it has access to Encore, but it really isn't a fair trade for the extra bulk. Victree sports 80/65/65 while Venusaur sports 80/83/100 along with 80 base Speed in comparison with Victreebel. I don't think Encore is such a fair trade for the extra bulk you'll get to frequently switch into stuff. I like where you're headed though, Scarf Sleep leads are always good. Basically, go for Timid Venusaur with Sleep Powder / Leaf Storm / Sludge Bomb / Earthquake. Earthquake is there for beating enemy Raikou in-case Chansey is dead.

My instincts tell me that you can use Rhyperior over Dugtrio for defensive purposes, while still maintaing good offensive momentum you strive for. Rhyperior makes a fantastic Swellow check - physical flyers in general. Additionally, you can have your secondary Altaria check if the need arises. Lastly, you can finally have a reliable Stealth Rock user without getting yourself locked in. The set is Stealth Rock / Earthquake / Stone Edge / Megahorn with the EVs 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spe at an Adamant nature. Its straightforward: QuakeEdge to provide the best possible coverage, bar Claydol. Megahorn is there to smack Claydol and enemy Grass types.

As for other options, I'd try my hands on Psychic again for Slowbro since it adds a nice STAB move to pair with Surf. I don't think Altaria will be that problematic at all if you take my Rhyperior suggestion. Just my two cents. overall gl.