Battle tower RTM and help

[ashez]

i was unsure where to put this so 4t here would be the best place, sorry if in wrong place.

i am currently starting a battle tower campaign and this is my team at the moment, at the moment i'm on a battle between 40-49 but so i have done a fair bit with this team just want some problems ironed out.

the question is about my last poke so i'l start by showing you my first 2...

lead

Lopunny (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Cute Charm
EVs: 252HP / 172Def / 84Spd
Nature: Timid
~ Switcheroo
~ Thunder Wave
~ Charm
~ Sweet Kiss

great lead created by jumpman16, really impressive, general plan is to switcheroo 1st turn followed by a thunderwave, then if its locked in an attacking move i sweet kiss then charm 3 times and hope for the oppountent to fall in love with me :)...or if its locked in a special attack or boosting move i sweet kiss and switch out. really good lead i try to save her and not let her be taken out if posible due to fact she can pop back in and thunderwave etc. only problem poke i encounted so far as a lead was a weavil due to it being locked in brick break. but generally happy with lopunny.

Scizor(M) @ Life orb or metal coat, ideas wanted.
Ability: techinan
EVs: 252A/252speed (i think done him ages ago)
Nature: Adamant
~ Substitute
~ Swords dance
~ roost
~ Bullet Punch

come in on a pokemon lopunny has disabled and sub on his first entry turn, follwed by roost if opponent is locked in a weakend attacking move or boosting move, then get 3 sword dances in and sweep. again currently doing amazing, once the 3 dances are in its game over hardly anything survives and when it does it'l attack my sub so i can kill it next turn. onlp problem poke really encounted was a fire fang donphan due to having to dance up unprotected due to lopunny fell to first poke.

this is where the question is which poke would be best, i'm currently using...

Garchomp(M) @ choice brand
Ability: sand vail
EVs: 252A/252speed
Nature: jolly
~ Dragon Claw
~ Earthquake
~ Fire Fang
~ Stone Edge

i realise i'm very physical based and unsure if this is a weakness or not due to being walled? i've hardly used garchomp in truth only on rara ocation i opt to send him in over scizor or if scizor faints. moves are for coverage but i hate being locked into one move, another reason why lopunny is kept to be a shield to unlock chomp. but i duno for somereason i'm just generally not impressed by him, used him on over runs and he impressed but this time i duno just doesnt seem to be clicking. is it just me or should i replace him?

one replacement i've thought about. is (open to any better ideas)

Salamance (F) @ (life orb maybe depends on scizors situation)
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: naive
~ Dragon Claw or outrage
~ Earthquake
~ Flamethrower or heatwave
~ aqau tail or substitute

unsure which way to go with a mixmence never used one before, used different salamance sets and been impressed though, dragon claw and outrage i'm unsure on the power outrage gives and is amazing but i duno if i like the fact of being confused i can see the AI haxing me at the wrong time lol. earthquake is just for general covers, flamethrower to give me an attack to hit steels and grass/bug etc, another thing about salamance is i've currently locked a few leads in fissue which is a huge problem so salamance could be the answer to avoid and sweep, this is one reason aqua tail is an idea so it can hit ground types hard, although i do like having the benifit of a safety blanket in substitute. if i go for metal coat on scizor salamence will be given life orb. salamance would also work well with scizor resisting ground,fire and fight moves aimed at him.

like i said i am open to other ideas over salamance, just want to get that 100 win streak lol

all ideas welcome...thank you for your time.

 

[PieFlinger]

It seems like Scizor has to do too much, and doesn't have enough room for coverage. It really helps him to have Pursuit and BugBite to rely on along with BulletPunch, which can be easily walled by Gyarados.

One thing you might consider is replacing Buneary with Togekiss:

Togekiss @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
Nature: Timid/Jolly (depending)
EVs: 252 Spe / 258 Defenses
Moves:
- Trick
- Baton Pass
- Swords Dance / Nasty Plot
- Substitute / Thunderwave / Agility

This way, you can disable the opponent and then Batonpass all the boosts Scizor would have to do on its own, without having to waste a turn on the switch.

For Togekiss's last move, you can either choose to batonpass a sub or Agility boost (so scizor can have more defensive EVs) or use Thunderwave to keep Togekiss useful after its first run. Alternatively, you could put an attacking move in the last slot to take advantage of togekiss's boosting moves. I'd suggest thunderwave, because Scizor can handle Agility on its own.

Also, as you were concerned about lacking a special sweeper, you might choose Nasty Plot over Swords Dance to batonpass to a Gengar or Latios (which is 100% allowed in battle frontier, including SouldDew!) or something else, and then rely on Garchomp as your physical sweeper.

Speaking of Garchomp, I'd recommend changing Dragon Claw to Outrage and Stone Edge to Brick Break, because Outrage's move-lock is a moot point with the Choice Band. Stone Edge's poor accuracy makes it less reliable when reliability is what you need in the late game (plus, DoubleTeam is allowed in BattleTower and you don't want to lose to that with Stone Edge's already low accuracy.)

All in all, good concept, and I hope I've helped.

 

[Trebs]

I recommend using fire blast on salamence because of the raw power, but if you are worried about the accuracy or amount of pp, go with flamethrower. If your Lopunny usually pulls off a sweet kiss and a thunderwave on most of the opposing pokemon, SAlance would have less need of substitute as it wouldn't have to take as many hits.

Also a note to PieFlinger and the Togekiss he suggested. Togekiss can not learn Swords Dance or Agility, making nasty plot its only baton passing option on that set. The only move which would benefit from this is the fire type move on Salamence..

 

[PieFlinger]

Togekiss can not learn Swords Dance or Agility, making nasty plot its only baton passing option on that set. The only move which would benefit from this is the fire type move on Salamence..

*double-checks Bulbapedia*

My apologies; I stand corrected. I could've sworn I'd seen otherwise... but nevermind that, it's irrelevant now.

However, as Ashez was pondering whether or not going all physical was a good idea, you can still take that as a suggestion if you want to use Gengar in place of Scizor and add some special-attacking power to your team.

 

[ashez]

after another failed atempt with this team due to garchomp i have decided to drop him and going to try out the salamance idea, have a little play and see whats working and whats not lol. i no scizor is only a one move poke but hes been takin out magnezones with 1 or 2 punches so i dnt really see the coverage as a problem. not much can handle a +6 attack lol