5 Minute Offense (peaked #4)

[Purple Grind]

Hey guys! This is a team I threw together in 5 minutes without much thinking that did pretty well. I have yet to make any changes since its initial inception so I'm sure there are some changes that could be made to improve it.

Team building process:

I started with zoroark because I really thought he was a cool pokemon that I hadn't used in forever. I gave him choice specs because I think that's probably his best set and the power from specs is really nice.

Next I threw in heracross because I know from experience and common sense that heracross pairs well with zoroark.

So now I needed a third pokemon, and I knew I'd need a poke with some sort of staying power. After scrolling through the UU pokes for a few seconds I saw slowbro and thought that he was definitely an awesome dude so I threw him on.

Now I was like "ok, I need someone to take down annoying bulky waters" and I chose roserade.

Now I needed something to stop zapdos from shitting on my team. I went with a nice hard hitting rhyperior who could also set up rocks. HP grass electrics still wreck me though.

Now I wasn't sure what to put on as my 6th. I chose kingdra for no real reason. It has good bulk and offensive presence.

Individual sets:

Zoroark @ Choice Specs
Trait: Illusion
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
- Trick
Zoroark definitely gets the cool factor, and specs lets him dent stuff. The three main drawbacks of using zoroark are his frailty, the low base power of dark pulse, and having to select the order of your entire team at the start of every match (that gets seriously annoying). I don't usually end up using trick since he really needs all the power he can get, but it's there if I need it. As I said it pairs well with heracross but in reality I can have him masquerade as any team member I want.

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Stone Edge
- Aerial Ace
Scarfcross huzzah! Originally I had earthquake as his 4th move but after I chose slowbro as my main fighting counter I changed it to aerial ace, turning heracross into my main heracross counter. I resist dual stab and am neutral vs stone edge, and I can ohko with my flying type move. Heracross is nice because he has the bulk to take a neutral hit or two when I need him to. I can switch in on any fighting attack from stuff like heracross or scrafty and ko or force a switch. Not to mention I can go on a moxie rampage if I take out his counters. He also takes on most of the walls that bother zoroark, while zoroark kills the stuff that bothers heracross.

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
Slowbro is really awesome. I like him a lot. I gave him calm mind because I wanted him to have an offensive presence but in reality calm mind is very rarely useful. Since regenerator is such a stupid ability slowbro is incredibly hard to kill and he has the bulk to even take super effective hits if required. I use him as a pivot and general attack absorber and he does that job very well.

Roserade @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Sleep Powder
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
Offensive roserade. Leaf storm and sludge bomb hurt a lot of stuff really bad, and it has decent speed. sleep powder hits things I want dead. I went with synthesis over rest because I REALLY hate being forced to switch after recovering hp. This is much more versatile. The great thing about offensive roserade is that her attacks are strong enough to do massive damage to anything that doesn't resist.

Rhyperior @ Leftovers
Trait: Solid Rock
EVs: 208 HP / 252 Atk / 48 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Punch
I kinda felt like putting standard defensive rhyperior on my team might be too much of a momentum killer so I maxed his attack and taught him ice punch. Ice punch is for hitting grass types/ground types. This can let me put the hurt on stuff like flygon and gligar that might feel like switching in. The trade off is that now I have a harder time dealing with raikou and zapdos, which is annoying but I like the attack boost. I've always thought rock blast > stone edge on rhyperior, but looking at it now for this kind of set stone edge is probably better. Lemme know what you think.

Kingdra @ Lum Berry
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Waterfall
- Rest
Chesto rest kingdra without the chesto. I tried fiddling with lum vs chesto berries but I think I like lum better, not that it makes much of a difference. Kingdra gives me a way to win if I'm doing bad and need some fast stuff killed. Setting up 1 dragon dance is no problem with kingdra's bulk, but getting the +2 speed is really hard and vs good players almost never happens. Oh well.


Thanks for reading my RMT! This is an offensive team and can only win through aggressive play. Even though it has done pretty well, I'm sure there is loads of room for improvement. Teambuilding isn't really my strong suit, so any advice is appreciated!

 

[Moose V]

I remember playing you. I'm pretty sure we went 1-1 but I can't remember if you yelled at me when I won or if that was another guy lol.

Anyway, on to the rate:

1) It's not worth running ice punch on Rhyperior. Gligar can just roost in your face and most grass/ground types take more or an equal amount from your other moves in the first place. Since you have no phazing move on the team, I'd swap it out for dragon tail or roar. Dragon tail could be nice to maintain a move to hit flygon with.

2) Rest > Synthesis on Roserade. This Roserade really can't take any kind of hits so it won't have many opportunities to keep spamming synthesis. Rest, however, can potentially keep it going indefinitely.

3) You really may want something for heracross. I remember I lost the first game because you surprised me with aerial ace on the very first turn, but the second match I got a kill pretty much every time I sent my own hera in and all I needed to do was spam megahorn/cc. Although slowbro's pretty good, I'd replace it with spikes defensive qwilfish. The offensive pressure coupled with the great hazards support will be almost too much to bear plus qwil will also help out with other threats like weavile.

4) I still would run chesto over lum on kingdra. You're right, the difference isn't huge, but there isn't a lot of merit in having rest when you already have lum to get rid of a status, it kinda just takes up a moveslot. I'd either replace rest w/ sub or stay with chesto.

Hope this helps!

 

[Purple Grind]

Thanks for rate! I think I remember those games. I really doubt I yelled at you, I never do that lol.

Ice punch on rhyperior also gives me a 100% accurate move to hit flying types with for what it's worth. I didn't really feel like a phazing move would be necessary on rhyperior since I maxed his attack, and he'd almost always rather just hit something but I can think of some spots where dragon tail could be nice. Especially if I end up swapping slowbro for qwilfish as you suggested. I'll switch it to dragon tail.

Thing about rest over synthesis: you're right that I'll mostly switch out afterwards, but rest means that I HAVE to switch out and it's like a giant sign to the opponent that says "please exploit me". I like having the option of going for sleep powder or attack after recovering hp, even though that may just be a mental thing from me not wanting to give up momentum.

I really like the qwilfish suggestion. Qwilfish is awesome and annoying as hell. It also seems like qwilfish would have some nice synergy. I'll definitely try this out, thanks.

Lum vs Chesto is trivial but I still think I prefer lum.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Psychotic]

Sup Purple Grind, pretty interesting team. I have a few suggestions to help you patch up your weaknesses, especially to Heracross.

Teammate Suggestions:
As Moose stated you are extremely weak to opposing Heracross, nothing but your own Heracross resists Megahorn. You also handle fire types well enough between Slowbro and Kingdra that you can afford to get rid of Rhyperior, and replace it with Nidoqueen. This change would allow you to keep a semi-solid electric type check, weak to HP Ice instead of HP Grass, which has gotten more common, as well as a very solid Heracross check. Nidoqueen also happens to have a ton more offensive presence than Rhyperior, taking the pressure of you and putting it onto the opponent. You should run Fire Blast over Focus Blast on Nidoqueen if you make this change, it allows you to deal with Bronzong, which is a hassle for Roserade and Zoroark.

Moveset Suggestions:
The movest on your Slowbro seems pretty out of place on this team. Your team needs to keep up offensive pressure, but with a defensive Slowbro set you give the opponent the advantage, even with Calm Mind it is super weak and gives mons like Raikou, Shaymin and Zapdos free switch ins. I would recommend replacing this Slowbro set with a Trick Room version, giving your team a powerful, bulky pivot that generates offensive pressure without handing it to the opponent whenever Slowbro comes in. It is still able to tank the fire attacks it needs to, even though most people wont be using them against your team when they see a Kingdra. Trick Room adds surprise value and acts as another option to sweep lategame, when it's checks have been significantly weakened.

Suggested Changes:

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Nidoqueen (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SAtk / 100 HP / 156 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd / 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Trick Room

Hope this helps.

 

[Purple Grind]

Hey psychotic thanks for the suggestions. Nidoqueen over rhyperior makes a lot of sense, I'll try it. The slowbro set also looks dope, I'll try that too. Calm mind was pretty useless on this team anyway.

 

[rachet67]

This is really quick, but I agree that slapping on trick room to slowbro could turn roserade and rhyperior into last minute sweepers, as well as screwing over opposing speed boost pokemon. However, your own team is a little fast paced for this, outside of rhyperior. Another option is thunder wave which would also slow down opposing threats without the risk of hurting your own fast sweepers such as kingdra, herracross, and zoroak.