Just to be fair, I'll tell ya up front that this is a fairly long read. I use this team for the battle tower, it's won 85 battles in a row and was haxed on battle 86. It works well the way it is, but I can't figure out how to fix the main weaknesses (thus the title)
Tyranitar @leftovers
bashful
252 HP / 188 SpA / 68 Speed
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Thunderbolt
-Earthquake/Crunch/Ice Beam
I lead with this to get the sandstorm up. It only actually stays in against things that it can set up a sub against without getting hurt. The idea is pretty simple, set up a sub and use focus punch. Thunderbolt is for waters. In the last slot earthquake plays off his massive attack stat, crunch would provide stab and help against the lati twins, ice beam would provide bolt-beam and give more coverage against dragons. I know using a rock to counter waters doesn't sound like a good idea, I'll explain it more at the end. The current set (with earthquake) is completely walled by grounds
Swampert @Lum berry
Quiet
252 HP/ 252 Def / 6 Satk
-Roar
-Toxic
-Earthquake
-Ice Beam
His job is to spread toxic to the dangerous pokes on the other team. He also provides offense if T-tar goes down with a stab earthquake. Ice beam is really all I have on this team to take care of dragons. He covers all of skarms weaknesses. The lum berry lets him serve as the team's status absorber
Skarmory @Chesto berry
Bold
252 HP / 252 Def/ 6 Att
-Spikes
-Roar
-Drill Peck
-Rest
This guy works perfectly with swampert, he 4x resists the grass attacks that swampert fears and swampert takes care of his weaknesses in return. Skarm comes in on one of his many resistances and sets up spikes and can also KO the fighting pokes that T-tar is 4X weak to. Rest gives him a way to restore his HP and stall out stuff
How it works:
The basic idea is to set up several layers of residual damage and then set up T-tar to focus punch stuff as it dies to sandstorm/toxic. T-tar leads to get the sandstorm going and unless the opposing lead isn't threatening I switch to swampert or skarm and begin to set up residual damage. After I do that I try to roar enough to see the entire other team so I can see if they have anything particularly threatening and try to find a safe poke for T-tar to switch back in on. After all the problem pokes are poisoned I bring it T-Tar to close the door.
Instead of doing a threads list this is how I counter any given pokemon.
1) Hit it with a super effective attack. While I'm setting up spikes/toxic swampert and skarm attack targets of opportunity
2) Poison it, roar it away and deal with it later. Roar until something that T-tar can sub up on comes out. Set up the sub and T-tar kills it from behind the sub. This is how I deal with waters
3) Stall it out with skarm/T-Tar while it dies from toxic and sandstorm
4) Take it on head on. This doesn't usually end well. If it hasn't been killed by the above methods this team is too slow to get the 1st move and usually loses to super effective attacks
Problems:
There are only 2 things this team has had trouble with: waters and dragons (mainly the lati twins). Nothing on this team resists water, so I have to use swampert to poison waters and roar them away. I bring in T-Tar on a non-water so he can sub up. After he has a sub up he can kill waters with T-bolt. This is risky b/c he can't switch into a water
As for dragons, swampert ohko's most of the non lati twins with ice beam. The strategy for dragons so far as been to first try to kill with ice beam if that doesn't work sacrifice swampert so I can poison it.
What I'm thinking:
-I need to counter waters better, I thought of replacing swampert with a special wall, but all the ones I could think of were weak to fighting, and I don't want 2 fighting weakness on this team. I don't have a free move slot for light screen, so how about maxing out swamperts special defense, skarm has the physical defense covered
-I know the natures are bad, but IV breeding was taking long enough so I stopped when I got natures that didn't hurt.
I know it was long, but I wanted to thoroughly explain myself, there it is. Rate away. Thank you for reading.
Tyranitar @leftovers
bashful
252 HP / 188 SpA / 68 Speed
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Thunderbolt
-Earthquake/Crunch/Ice Beam
I lead with this to get the sandstorm up. It only actually stays in against things that it can set up a sub against without getting hurt. The idea is pretty simple, set up a sub and use focus punch. Thunderbolt is for waters. In the last slot earthquake plays off his massive attack stat, crunch would provide stab and help against the lati twins, ice beam would provide bolt-beam and give more coverage against dragons. I know using a rock to counter waters doesn't sound like a good idea, I'll explain it more at the end. The current set (with earthquake) is completely walled by grounds
Swampert @Lum berry
Quiet
252 HP/ 252 Def / 6 Satk
-Roar
-Toxic
-Earthquake
-Ice Beam
His job is to spread toxic to the dangerous pokes on the other team. He also provides offense if T-tar goes down with a stab earthquake. Ice beam is really all I have on this team to take care of dragons. He covers all of skarms weaknesses. The lum berry lets him serve as the team's status absorber
Skarmory @Chesto berry
Bold
252 HP / 252 Def/ 6 Att
-Spikes
-Roar
-Drill Peck
-Rest
This guy works perfectly with swampert, he 4x resists the grass attacks that swampert fears and swampert takes care of his weaknesses in return. Skarm comes in on one of his many resistances and sets up spikes and can also KO the fighting pokes that T-tar is 4X weak to. Rest gives him a way to restore his HP and stall out stuff
How it works:
The basic idea is to set up several layers of residual damage and then set up T-tar to focus punch stuff as it dies to sandstorm/toxic. T-tar leads to get the sandstorm going and unless the opposing lead isn't threatening I switch to swampert or skarm and begin to set up residual damage. After I do that I try to roar enough to see the entire other team so I can see if they have anything particularly threatening and try to find a safe poke for T-tar to switch back in on. After all the problem pokes are poisoned I bring it T-Tar to close the door.
Instead of doing a threads list this is how I counter any given pokemon.
1) Hit it with a super effective attack. While I'm setting up spikes/toxic swampert and skarm attack targets of opportunity
2) Poison it, roar it away and deal with it later. Roar until something that T-tar can sub up on comes out. Set up the sub and T-tar kills it from behind the sub. This is how I deal with waters
3) Stall it out with skarm/T-Tar while it dies from toxic and sandstorm
4) Take it on head on. This doesn't usually end well. If it hasn't been killed by the above methods this team is too slow to get the 1st move and usually loses to super effective attacks
Problems:
There are only 2 things this team has had trouble with: waters and dragons (mainly the lati twins). Nothing on this team resists water, so I have to use swampert to poison waters and roar them away. I bring in T-Tar on a non-water so he can sub up. After he has a sub up he can kill waters with T-bolt. This is risky b/c he can't switch into a water
As for dragons, swampert ohko's most of the non lati twins with ice beam. The strategy for dragons so far as been to first try to kill with ice beam if that doesn't work sacrifice swampert so I can poison it.
What I'm thinking:
-I need to counter waters better, I thought of replacing swampert with a special wall, but all the ones I could think of were weak to fighting, and I don't want 2 fighting weakness on this team. I don't have a free move slot for light screen, so how about maxing out swamperts special defense, skarm has the physical defense covered
-I know the natures are bad, but IV breeding was taking long enough so I stopped when I got natures that didn't hurt.
I know it was long, but I wanted to thoroughly explain myself, there it is. Rate away. Thank you for reading.
