Bi-Reginald spikes balance

[Strawberry_Lynn]

I'd like some feedback on this team, because it feels like it has all the components, but I still lose a lot, so I'm wondering whether I'm bad or whether my team is bad (for reference I'm floating around 1200 so it's actually not even a question whether I'm bad; but it's still a question whether the team is bad). The idea is that I like the Reginalds, so I tried to make a team with it. It's a sandless spikes balance team. I'll go over the ideas one mon at a time.


Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 28 SpA / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Dragon Breath
- Protect
- Wish


Reginalds appreciate wish support. Physdef mence provides wish support and a super fighting switch-in. I lead with it because it pretends to be a more offensive mence. I like dbreath over dclaw to use into unrevealeds and try to get a para on gar in particular. 16 speed is to outspeed all adamant metas; 28 spa is to guarantee a 2-shot on 128 hp cb meta with flamethrower. On this team I like to protect turn one against meta lead, and then flamethrower it - chunking cb meta really helps starmie take care of it later.


Regi N. Rockyfella (Regirock) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Explosion


Reginald I. 252 atk impish still 1-shots all tars with superpower, so I prefer impish for extra bulk. I'm finding that this is not as good as a charizard switch-in as I'd like it to be, since it can just hp grass for 40% and then switch. Still super reliable into many tars and lax.


Regi N. Icenhower (Regice) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 20 HP / 212 Atk / 176 SpA / 100 Spe
Gentle Nature
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Superpower
- Explosion


Reginald II. I might have overcooked with this set. 100 speed EVs put it at 161 speed, outspeeding slow tars, perts, and many blisseys. 212 atk gives boom a 87.8 - 103.5 roll on modest bliss, always killing after a spike in sand. 176 spa means that superpower kills all tars that switch into an ice beam and 1 spike. 20 hp and +spdef nature is for special bulk. This set has no physical bulk at all since it uses a gentle nature, which makes it bad into pert. Into tar I almost always superpower to chunk it iff not kill it outright; they almost never actually slide into this thing.


Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
- Drill Peck
- Spikes
- Roar
- Protect


It makes spikes.


Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 64 Def / 40 SpA / 120 SpD / 32 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Leech Seed
- Recover


Secondary switch-in to waters and electrics. Also helps against gar. I run spd on it since I already have physdef mence, skarm, and Reginald Rock.


Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin


Spinner and cleaner. I hate pump and will not use it. Modest helps with surf.


I seem (from a small sample size of games) to run into the issue of not being able to nail gar - starmie doesn't quite 2-shot def gar, and off gar outspeeds and threatens bolt. I tend to switch the two nat cure mons around to try and nail it with something, but I haven't really been able to nail it with dbreath mence for instance. I also have problems into blissey if I can't get Reginald Ice to kill it; I don't want to switch Reginald Rock into it due to status.


I'm wondering if there's something fundamental wrong with this team, or if I'm just playing it incorrectly. I suspect not wanting timid pump starmie is creating some issues for me, but I cannot use pump on anything without wanting to tear my hair out.

 

[isnialan]

A few observations, first of all I'll say that I think Regirock and Regice is a cool pairing. They have some synergy, Regirock can be seen as a rock breaker like Tyranitar, but it doesn't set sand which is a nice synergy with Regice. Secondly Regirock is also a very good insurance to physical attackers, better than Tyranitar, especially into dragon dancers that like to abuse Regice being lured in by special threats.

With these things in mind this team would currently want Regirock to both come in on things like blissey to force a switch and get chip from attack and spikes while also having it be our only real check to rock types. I would suggest replacing one of your mons with a rock resist that can take some of the weight of Regirocks shoulders.

I think with a regice and a defensive celebi you could be fine trading one of them into gengar since you have a backup special check.

 

[Strawberry_Lynn]

I got a nice replay of the team doing its thing.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-2678220131-qrkdhgry5q0wflwp7q6cu7e9xufdebjpw


I agree that I'd ideally want another rock resist - and something that can switch into Blissey and threaten it physically. I've felt like the offensive Starmie isn't doing me that many favours. It doesn't seem to do the cleaning that I intended it to when I designed the team, and it feels like a bit of a pace mis-match. I'm wondering if perhaps Claydol would be a better fit, to have something that actually resists rock and still have a spinner. That would make the team weaker into Charizard, but I've been theorising that the physdef Mence might actually be a good switch into that - since it doesn't care about fire/grass/fpunch and it can scout for hpice/dclaw with protect.

 

[Rainy]

Regirock and Regice both do a great job at scaring the fliers/levitators of the tier, so I think pairing them with skarmory is a really idea! With that sort of framework in mind I think they would work best on an offensive team, and for that reason I don’t think wish mence is a great fit. Both Regis appreciate receiving wishes sure, but slowing the game down to the point where a wish pass is attainable is more than likely disadvantageous for a team like this. Celebi + Regice seems like a good enough plan into electric types, but the team definitely struggles into blissey. I think you could do a few things to remedy this. The option that seems the most obvious to me is adding a gengar as it does a lot of things. It makes keeping spikes up easier, provides offensive overlap with regice (meaning that one booming on a counter enables the other) and provides flexibility in boom to pressure problematic pokemon and claw your way though tougher matchups. Some other potential mons to consider may be punch swampert to further mess with blissey, metagross (either agility or cb make sense) who gives a secondary tar answer as well as offensively overlapping with regirock, and dugtrio to ensure that your booms = kos. A lot of the comps above feel like they may struggle into suicune as you really have to boom to dent it, so something like an electric type may be nice, or if you really wanted curse rest registeel may be a cool last given how many booms this team has

 

[isnialan]

Yeah I didn't suggest a specific rock resist but if I were to suggest something it would be to replace Salamence with Agility Metagross