A bit about me. I have only been playing the newfound joy that is Pokemon for a very short while (the last couple of months or so - before this, I guess GSC was the last thing I'd played back when I was a kid :oops:), so if anything here is raw, obvious or repeated, please bear with me. I did scour for an identical/similar team on the current RMTs, but didn't find anything quite the same, so here I am.
I've been using this team for a short while, and it's been relatively successful, although I have identified things it does particularly poorly, which is why I am here today.
So...let's get to it I guess:
In terms of decisions on moves for this set, I went for Toxic over Hypnosis despite the overlap with 'Cruel because if I miss 99% of my Stone Edges, then why would I even bother with a 60% accurate move, and Encore is great to prevent setup sweepers and also to give windows for something like Jirachi and Toxicroak to get themselves behind subs/set up.
I've really found that the biggest use for this Poke is to be the lead against a Sand team and slap non scarfed Tyranitar with a Superpower, winning the weather war before it's even started. Besides that, it seems to be a relatively poor check to the Ground weakness and doesn't tend to do as much work as I'd expect. Does go ham occasionally (it's quite versatile and therefore unpredictable), but it's pretty easily revenge killed too if Multiscale is down and it's in when it perhaps shouldn't be. One thing's for sure, I'm definitely not using it right - it's one of those Pokes that I have no idea how to deal with, but have no idea how to use properly (like I said, I'm pretty new :oops:).
Messed around with T-Wave over Gyro Ball, but generally prefer the damage over the paralysis, although the general sluggishness of the team is a concern. Might be worth a T-Wave, but that doesn't help the rest of the team deal with the Ground type problem (immunity).
Horribly frail prior to setting up, but a number of handy resistances make it relatively easy to get yourself a free Bulk Up/Sub to mitigate any mispredictions you may have made (like forgetting you left Bronzong alive forgetting its access to EQ :rolleyes:).
Been really unsure whether to switch Sucker Punch to Ice Punch given the Ground weakness, but in saying that, when your Sub is broken by a faster threat like Starmie/Latios/Alakazam, it's always nice to nail them with a screw-you punch below the belt.
People say it's useless outside of rain, and while I agree that it's death fodder in any other weather, in a weatherless battle (say your opponent has a Kingdra), it can more than keep itself alive and put some work in if you play it properly and aggressively.
Does a job of spinning and taking hits pretty nicely. Burns, Poison and Protect is nice and can really stay in untroubled on a number of things. Something like Jellicent or Vaporeon might be more useful team players, but I felt I needed a spinner, so lobbed 'Cruel on. His resistance to Fighting is great (although Jelly's is better), and I've found him to do his job.
Not sure how to remedy this besides maybe switching Tentacruel out for something else, but removing the spinner, I'd probably rather not use Dragonite at all. Not really sure).
Rotom-W. It hasn't really done a great deal of work on the team, but it's certainly a pest with boosted Hydro Pumps and Volt Switches denting my team every now and then and I don't really have much to reliably take it down. Celebi and Jirachi can also be a bit tricky to wear down, although they don't really put the hurt on me from their offensive standpoint.
I've generally been able to whittle away at these though - just thought they might be worthy of a mention. No U-Turning or Volt Switching gives this lot a free turn that they can often use to put me on the defensive.
Also fast Pokes. With no scarfer and generally slow Pokemon, this team really struggles to get momentum at times, and its often essential to leave something in as fodder to give a clean switch to something appropriate, rather than let it take two hits before it can respond. So speed is certainly an issue.
So I guess that's it. A bit more impetus in the way of speed and a better counter to Ground-types (Scarf...Celebi? Don't fancy the bug weakness. Gengar? Already got a couple of Psychic weak pokes. Lando-T? Mamoswine. Latios? Mamoswine. I'm not really sure where to add it either. Jirachi? Dragonite?)
Thanks guys. Hope this was formatted properly and wasn't too irritating to read. Any advice?
NP ;)
A Long and Fruitful Rain
Now, as you can tell from the title (and glorious pun), this is a rain team (I can already hear you grumbling at me!). I do tend try to avoid using weather, but the plethora of sun/rain/sand teams I'm constantly trying to combat has led me to try and win a weather war, rather than deal with all three at once.
I've been using this team for a short while, and it's been relatively successful, although I have identified things it does particularly poorly, which is why I am here today.
So...let's get to it I guess:
Rain-setter - Pseudo-Defence
Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Encore
I don't really suppose there's much to say here. Standard defensive Toed to get Drizzle up. I did experiment around with an offensive set with Hydro Pump/Ice Beam/Focus Blast, but I found the coverage a bit redundant (although it was handy to nip out a unwitting Tyranitar, it didn't really have the survivability it really needed), and I needed something to cover taking EQs a little better than pretty much the rest of my team (you'll notice that Gliscor/Lando-T/Garchomp/Mamoswine can absolutely rip a lot of this team to shreds despite the weather disadvantage - hence why I'm here :p).
Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Encore
In terms of decisions on moves for this set, I went for Toxic over Hypnosis despite the overlap with 'Cruel because if I miss 99% of my Stone Edges, then why would I even bother with a 60% accurate move, and Encore is great to prevent setup sweepers and also to give windows for something like Jirachi and Toxicroak to get themselves behind subs/set up.
Mixed Rain Attacker
Dragonite @ Expert Belt
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 84 Atk / 244 SAtk / 180 Spd
Mild Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- Thunder
- Earthquake
Again a pretty standard set (you'll notice that a lot in this team ;)). Everything hits reasonably hard with reasonable coverage and it covers the Ground weakness that the rest of the team really struggles with (although this isn't the most reliable I'll admit with Garchomp/Gliscor/Mamoswine all being more than capable of taking D-Nite out with 4xSE hits - especially if I haven't managed to get rid of any Stealth Rocks that may be floating around. Messed around with Lum Berry, but since a burn isn't absolutely the end, it seems to be happy bluffing a band for a couple of turns.
Dragonite @ Expert Belt
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 84 Atk / 244 SAtk / 180 Spd
Mild Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- Thunder
- Earthquake
I've really found that the biggest use for this Poke is to be the lead against a Sand team and slap non scarfed Tyranitar with a Superpower, winning the weather war before it's even started. Besides that, it seems to be a relatively poor check to the Ground weakness and doesn't tend to do as much work as I'd expect. Does go ham occasionally (it's quite versatile and therefore unpredictable), but it's pretty easily revenge killed too if Multiscale is down and it's in when it perhaps shouldn't be. One thing's for sure, I'm definitely not using it right - it's one of those Pokes that I have no idea how to deal with, but have no idea how to use properly (like I said, I'm pretty new :oops:).
Rain Sub CM - Special Attacker
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 Spd
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Thunder
- Psyshock
Another wonderfully Standard set. Tends to be pretty easy to switch in and can get behind a sub and proceed to nibble away at the opponents team. Walled quite easily but tends to be able to boost up in front of said walls who struggle to do much in return. Proven quite valuable in the late game once it can get behind a sub. Not much else to say really.
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 Spd
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Thunder
- Psyshock
Wall - Hazard Setter
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SDef
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
Yup. It's another pretty standard set and it's Ferrothorn. There to take whatever is thrown at it and its weaknesses are either mitigated by rain or dealt with by other Pokes. Gives Dragons a Gyro Ball or a Leech seed and can take most of the rest. Becomes more difficult to manage in other weathers (obviously) but it's a pretty standard defensive poke with a pretty standard role.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SDef
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
Messed around with T-Wave over Gyro Ball, but generally prefer the damage over the paralysis, although the general sluggishness of the team is a concern. Might be worth a T-Wave, but that doesn't help the rest of the team deal with the Ground type problem (immunity).
Physical Sweeper - Death Fodder?
Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 132 Atk / 120 Def / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Substitute
- Sucker Punch
I simply adore this thing. It's so damn easy to use and very troublesome to counter once its checks are down. Switches in without fear into most common hazard setters/wall (besides Skarmory and Grounds) and starts to set itself up. The fact that the rest of my team struggles with Ground types doesn't help it, but once you've worked around that, it's quite safe behind it's Sub and recovery in Dry Skin, Black Sludge, Drain Punch.
Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 132 Atk / 120 Def / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Substitute
- Sucker Punch
Horribly frail prior to setting up, but a number of handy resistances make it relatively easy to get yourself a free Bulk Up/Sub to mitigate any mispredictions you may have made (like forgetting you left Bronzong alive forgetting its access to EQ :rolleyes:).
Been really unsure whether to switch Sucker Punch to Ice Punch given the Ground weakness, but in saying that, when your Sub is broken by a faster threat like Starmie/Latios/Alakazam, it's always nice to nail them with a screw-you punch below the belt.
People say it's useless outside of rain, and while I agree that it's death fodder in any other weather, in a weatherless battle (say your opponent has a Kingdra), it can more than keep itself alive and put some work in if you play it properly and aggressively.
Spinner - Pseudo-Special Defence
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spd
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Protect
- Toxic
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spd
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Protect
- Toxic
Does a job of spinning and taking hits pretty nicely. Burns, Poison and Protect is nice and can really stay in untroubled on a number of things. Something like Jellicent or Vaporeon might be more useful team players, but I felt I needed a spinner, so lobbed 'Cruel on. His resistance to Fighting is great (although Jelly's is better), and I've found him to do his job.
Noted Threats
Offensively, anything remotely Ground. Mamoswine, Landorus-T, Hippopotamapowdon (not so much in rain), Gliscor, Garchomp. Nothing fancies an EQ barring Dragonite and Ferrothorn, and I don't really plan on bringing Dragonite into either Mamoswine, Gliscor or Garchomp a great deal, even if Multiscale is still intact, and Ferrothorn doesn't want to take 5 EQs per game.
Rotom-W. It hasn't really done a great deal of work on the team, but it's certainly a pest with boosted Hydro Pumps and Volt Switches denting my team every now and then and I don't really have much to reliably take it down. Celebi and Jirachi can also be a bit tricky to wear down, although they don't really put the hurt on me from their offensive standpoint.
Also fast Pokes. With no scarfer and generally slow Pokemon, this team really struggles to get momentum at times, and its often essential to leave something in as fodder to give a clean switch to something appropriate, rather than let it take two hits before it can respond. So speed is certainly an issue.
So I guess that's it. A bit more impetus in the way of speed and a better counter to Ground-types (Scarf...Celebi? Don't fancy the bug weakness. Gengar? Already got a couple of Psychic weak pokes. Lando-T? Mamoswine. Latios? Mamoswine. I'm not really sure where to add it either. Jirachi? Dragonite?)
Thanks guys. Hope this was formatted properly and wasn't too irritating to read. Any advice?
NP ;)
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