Gen 2 a newb's spikes team

[Princess Bubblegum]

Im new to gen 2 and have wanted to play it a lot after reading Borat's guides. I wanted to make a spikes team from the start, as I love me some entry hazards. The teams ended out a bit more offensive than I thought I would be, but that is never a bad thing I suppose. You kind of need that offense to actually wear your opponent down, with only one layers of spikes with everything having leftovers and all.

The main goal of this team is to lay spikes down AND keep them off the field with the help of a Pursuiter to get rid of ghosts and Starmie. Also, tying in with this Pursuiter, I wanted to run a mono-attacking Snorlax, which could get rid of ghost and set up a sweep later down the line with Snorlax.

Overall for not knowing what I am doing at times, this team has been pretty successful, although not a lot can be said since curselax Snorlax basically insta-wins vs a lot of bad noob teams, but whatever. I am looking for some help to make this team more successful, I some of the synergy doesn't match up too well at times.

Shelly (Cloyster) (F) @ Leftovers
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Toxic

Basically this is my spikes Pokemon, so yeah. I choose to use the "defensive" version with Rapid Spin because I was going to use a Pursuiter. I choose Cloyster over Forretress because Forretress pretty much did nothing for this team synergy wise once I started making and playing with it, while Cloyster can at least check like Marowak and stuff. Also, in part this team is based around this Cloyster from the get go. Toxic is meh, its useful to wear down some Pokemon, I plan on testing Ice Beam and Rest in the future.

Brokeback (Tyranitar) (M) @ Leftovers
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Rock Slide
- Fire Blast / Curse

Tyranitar is my Puruiter, because Houndoom just ain't up the the job defensively in doing other things, Snorlax in particular. I didn't really like the Tyranitar sets on site, so I made my own. I find Crunch very useful to actually combat Gengar and Misdrevous more effectively, although that could be gen 4/5 influencing me, but whatever. Rock Slide is of course mandatory STAB. I am currently testing between Curse and Fire Blast to see which is more effective, I haven't used much of either honestly to decide what is better. In theory I probably should be running Curse to check Snorlax better, but whatever.

Chubbykins (Snorlax) (F) @ Leftovers
- Body Slam
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Pretty much your standard Curselax set, so nothing special here. As mentioned I wanted to use a mono-attacking Snorlax to tie in to me Pursuiting Ghosts. I originally had Belly Drum over Sleep Talk, but I didn't find it to effective on this team really, passively healing in one's sleep is great.

Diego (Raikou) @ Leftovers
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest
- Roar

I have always kind of gotten the impression that all good gen 2 teams have an Electric-type, so here it is. Raikou check a variety of things to like Vaporeon, as well as putting solid offensive pressure to wear down the opponent in tandem with Spikes. I choose it over Zapdos because of its increased speed and lack of an Ice weakness, allowing to to check Zapdos and opposing Raikou better, so I have to rely less on Snorlax. I am not a fan of inaccurate moves at all, so I have Thunderbolt here, also because of spikes, in my mind I can afford the power loss. Roar allows me to phase out threats and wrack up spikes damage, although sometimes I wish I had Sleep Talk so Raikou could heal more effectively.

Birdy (Skarmory) (M) @ Leftovers
- Drill Peck
- Curse
- Rest
- Whirlwind

Skarmory checks a good chunk of Snorlaxs as well as a large variety of physical threats and phasing them out for spikes damage. There really isn't much else to add here, Skarm is just a great Pokemon to check a ton of threats.

Tropicana (Exeggutor) (F) @ Leftovers
- Sleep Powder
- Explosion
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Exeggutor was pretty much a niche choice for this team, as I needed something to more effectively check the likes of Machamp, it also checks a lot of other potential threats, taking Thunders from Electric if I need it to, posing a bit of a problem for Vaporeon, ect, overall just being a good emergency check. The ability to put threats to sleep or just go BOOM helps a lot of those problems. Hidden Power Fire is preferred to fry Skarmory and Forretress which can be very helpful at times. For a little bit I actually used both HP-Fire and Giga Drain with no Psychic to troll people. :P

The synergy of this team comes a lot down to the last 2 Pokemon, as Spiker / Pursuiter / Snorlax / Electric is pretty much a given. I wish I could either have a beller or a ghost type at times, but the synergy demands of the last 2 Pokemon for real threats prevents that a bit. If someone could figure out a way for either of them on the team, especially a beller, that would be great.

 

[Omanyte]

I'm pretty new to GSC too, but I'll throw a couple of points in.

The team seems relatively balanced. Do you have a switch in for Tyranitar? Eggy will be useless, Skarmory is dodgey, your own Tar can't touch it, Raikou does okay (assuming the Tar doesn't have EQ) but will take a chuck on the switch, Snorlax will have a tough time with only BS and Cloyster will take a huge chunk from Rock Slide on the switch. In depends on what set it's running of course, as Skarmory may be a decent check, but it's something to consider. Giga Drain Eggy would obviously help here, but then you don't want to switch into a Crunch (or Fire Blast).

On the specific moves you've chosen:
Pursuit and Crunch seems like overkill. I appreciate their uses are slightly different, but it's a shame to miss out on a random attack (EQ, Dynamic Punch). I'd also say Roar is an option instead of Curse if you want to tackle Lax (forcing switches on a Spikes team obviously has its uses too).

I can imagine Rest is quite hard to pull off on Raikou without Sleep Talk or a Heal Bell user (or a helpful Reflect). Maybe experiment with Roar Tyranitar and Sleep Talk Raikou?

Along with Giga Drain, I'd consider Leech Seed for Eggy. It's great at forcing switches for Spikes damage and it's a good move to use when you're not sure what they will switch in. Giving up any of the moves already there will be tough, although if pushed I'd ditch Sleep Powder (as everyone will be expecting it and send in their Sleep Talkers anyway).

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I like Roar on Tyranitar, definitely trying that out, thanks. I am unsure if that really warrants Riakou not running Roar, but I will test it.

Tyranitar hasn't been too much of a problem, but I suppose I am getting pretty lucky with it, I am going to test Giga Drain on Exeggutor again.

As for Crunch, idk in practice it has been working out pretty good so far, Earthquake is probably overall a better option for Gengar, Tyranitar, and Raikou, the problem is damn Misdrevious though and her tricky ways. I will try out though.

I think Earthqauke and Giga Drain would be good enough as insurance against Tyranitar now that I am thinking about it.

Eh, Sleep Powder is too useful in emergency situations to stop threats, it has saved my butt too much to give up.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Yeah, Ttar kinda needs Roar to do anything about CurseLax - even with Curse, it'll eventually fall to +5 DE unless it also has Rest, and Rock Slide isn't powerful enough to kill Lax if Lax is Cursing alongside Ttar.

As far as Misdreavus goes, the idea is that you switch in a phazer to push it out, and then the next time it comes in, double-switch to PursuitTar.

Rest on Cloyster is a bad idea without a beller, because Cloyster's enough of a sitting duck for Electrics without being asleep. You have enough Sleep Talk-less Resters as-is.

I'd be tempted to swap out Skarmory for Steelix, as Steelix/Exeggutor is a classic offensive duo.

 

[Jorgen]

Me on phone now so me rate like caveman.

First of all this very standard looking team. Is good, mostly.

Keep cloy set. Toxic is meh but is less meh than other 4ths. Do not lead though, most people use lead elec to stop early spike.

Ttar no should use curse without roar 90% of time. Do not let raikou roar stop you, his roar offense while Ttar roar defense.

Me like de on lax. More power for kill thing. Bslam weak.

Raikou good. Me know you no like miss, but with egg you have other look for vap, so can afford thunder to kill lax easier.

Speaking of egg me tend to find him underperform on team like this. Maybe just me but me think he get worn down too fast.

This team need better Ttar answer. Also Nido scary with just slower stlax to switch in. Maybe use Suicune instead Egg and rely on Ttar be your #3 look for electric.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Just to be clear, the current Tyranitar set I am testing is Pursuit / Rock Slide / Earthquake / Roar, seeing how it goes.

I'd be tempted to swap out Skarmory for Steelix, as Steelix/Exeggutor is a classic offensive duo.

Doesn't this leave me with a huge Heracross weakness, only having Raikou to sort of check?

Idk about Double Edge, I often find Snorlax to need all the health it can get to rest loop some times, I might try it out thought, as usually I am OK with my health thanks to sleep-rest.

I might try Suicune or something over Eggy once I have these other suggestions hammered out. (its going to take a bit because you have to idle for like like 1 hour+ on showdown to get a battle... and I hate playing on PO)

 

[magic9mushroom]

Doesn't this leave me with a huge Heracross weakness, only having Raikou to sort of check?

Meh, I suppose.

 

[Crystal_]

I second Double Edge on Snorlax and Thunder on Raikou as well. With Body Slam you will usually miss the extra power and with ST you can afford the recoil against electrics most of the times. Plus your team wouldn't really benefit that much from snorlax's para anyway. About Raikou I suppose it's mostly a personal thing but I've always liked thunder more on spikesroarkou. About ttar you want it to double up as a firelax counter and pursuitter, so Curse / Rock Slide / Pursuit / Roar is a possible set, but Crunch, Fire Blast and EQ are options over Curse too. Curse makes it a better check to cursefirelax, crunch helps in its pursuitting duties against ghosts and eggy, while EQ and FB have generally better coverage and get Gengar and Eggy respectively (eggy is just a bonus, i know you aren't specifically looking for eggy pursuit coverage). Either way you pretty much have to forget about doing anything to Starmie. If you want a pursuitter that does better against Starmie, Umbreon is the pokemon to go (Toxic / Pursuit / Charm / Rest), but doesn't do so well against Misdreavus.

As for the ttar problems, suicune is an option, plus it doubles as a vap counter with a roar set. Another option is miltank, but then Machamp and Vap could get annoying. There is Meganium too, but it doesn't help much against Nidoking. Explosion Exeggutor is an offensive team player, it usually opens holes on a few pokemon here and there but for me at least works better with offensively oriented pokemon to capitalize off what egg does. I don't think it synergizes well with this team tbh, so that's the mon to remove imo. P.S.: You gotta be careful with spikes Steelix, Cloyster won't live forever.

 

[Mr.E]

On Misdreavus, I was surprised to not see it on this team. ;[ Not that it's necessary to keep Spikes up at all costs but I dunno, "I wanted to make a spikes team" and the whole Rapid Spin Cloyster thing just makes me think like it's what you originally wanted to do and then ended up with something that doesn't.

Leech Seed over HP Fire on Eggy all day. Forretress is a nonthreat (and everything else on your team beats it anyway) and Leech Seed is better against everything else, including Skarmory oftentimes because you can afford to indiscriminately Leech Seed every switch-in where HP Fire kinda sucks against all but a couple targets. Giga Drain could go there too, or do what I do sometimes and drop Explosion for both. :p If you want more T-tar protection, Raikou could also drop Roar for Reflect or Sleep Talk and probably outduel it at worst. It's not like you really need Roar since you have Skarmory and aren't fully on the passive damage plan (with no Ghost to spinblock). Earthquake on your own T-Tar would probably work too since most opposing ones won't pack it.

Steelix/Exeggutor is a classic offensive duo.

huh

 

[magic9mushroom]

huh

The idea is that if they're using HP Ice you use Steelix to force Electrics out, and if they're using HP Water you use Egg. They also both Explode.

Works a treat against Raikou, not so much against Zapdos.

 

[Jorgen]

Yeah Misdreavus over Ttar and Suicune over Exeggutor gives this a much more natural-looking, standard spikes stall feel. Of course that more "natural" team is also super-weak to Electrics.

I also like Leech Seed on Egg. I've also been entertaining tossing Synthesis over Explosion on Egg for teams like this, so that instead of an offensive second look that seems a bit out of place on this team, you instead have a longer-lasting support Pokemon that can stick around with the rest of its mates.