Hi guys,
This is my first RMT. I've been playing Pokemon competitively for quite a long time, but I've never got around to actually registering an account and making posts. Figured that'd change today, since I've got a pretty cool team to show.
I made the team yesterday, made a new Alt for it and started playing with it. Today, I'm on 1611 and rising - I think my win/loss ratio is something like 32/4. Got disconnected once and lost because of that, but I guess that's not much of an excuse.
The team is BirdSpam, though not quite all out BirdSpam, because there's no Mega Pinsir, etc.. I didn't want to make it full BirdSpam, because I don't think that's very competitive, but I digress.
So as to not ramble on pointlessly, I'll start with the team.
Step #1:
As stated, this is primarily a BirdSpam team, though not quite all out BirdSpam, because there's no Mega Pinsir. So the other two birds are Talonflame and Staraptor. Talonflame is arguably the best bird, so that was a clear choice. The reason why I decided to go with Staraptor over Mega Pinsir is twofold: one, I actually think it's better, and two, there was a different Mega that I wanted to use for this team that I think is much more important than Mega Pinsir, and I cannot have two Megas, so Mega Pinsir didn't make the cut. I decided to go with a Brave Bird, Flare Blitz, Roost, Swords Dance Talonflame, not the specially defensive one with Will-O-Wisp and Taunt. Primarily because I like to play Hyper Offence, and the latter version of Talonflame is clearly not Hyper Offensive, whereas the former version is. For Staraptor, I decided to go with a Choice Scarf version. The reason why I prefer Choice Scarf over Choice Band is because, in all honesty, things that a Choice Scarf Staraptor cannot break, are things I wouldn't want my Choice Band Staraptor dealing with anyway. In my opinion, a CS Staraptor can break through 99% of the things that a CB Staraptor can, and that 1% remaining is not worth losing all the speed that Choice Scarf gives (today we have a very speedy Meta, so a Pokemon like Staraptor that cannot take hits has to be able to outspeed and hit first). Also, fast Electric-type Pokemon like Mega Manetric wreck a CB Staraptor, whereas a CS Staraptor, handles it handily after some prior damage, which isn't really hard to get. For CS Staraptor, I decided to go with Brave Bird, Double-Edge, U-Turn and Close Combat. Volt Switching and U-Turning is very important for this team, it needs to keep the momentum, which is another reason why I prefer a CS U-turn Staraptor. The other moves are best STABs and Close Combat for Heatran.
Step #2:
Man, Mega Diancie puts in SO much work on this team. First of all, the three things BirdSpam hates the most are fully physically defensive Rocky Helmet Garchomp and fully physically defensive Rocky Helmet Landorus-Therian, as well as Tyranitar. This thing outspeeds all three, and none of them can switch into Mega Diancie. It OHKOs Garchomp with Moonblast and it 2HKOs Landorus-Therian with Moonblast, the two biggest pain in the asses for BirdSpam. Also wrecks Tyranitar. Furthermore, it OHKOs Heatran with Earth Power, which is another stop to a Talonflame, and it OHKOs Ferrothorn with Hidden Power Fire. In other words, all things that wall BirdSpam and abuse its recoil get wrecked by Mega Diancie. On top of that, Magic Bounce keeps rocks off the field, which is huge for BirdSpam. The moves I decided to go with are Moonblast, Protect, Hidden Power Fire and Earth Power. I don't think Diamond Storm is needed on this team - it only hits Talonflames and Tornadus-Therian, neither of which will turn out to be a problem for this team the further we go down our 6-man roster.
Step #3:
So, as I said before, BirdSpam, and Hyper Offence in general, need Volt Switching and U-turning. At the same time, BirdSpam and Hyper Offence need an answer to faster BirdSpam, faster Hyper Offence and priority users, because if my Pokemon get hit before they do the hitting, they die. The duo that best answers all of these problems are this version of Landorus-Therian and Rotom-W. Not only do they learn Volt Switch and U-turn, which allows my team to keep momentum and bring in Talonflame, Staraptor and Mega Diancie to do the killing, but they also counter opposing Talonflames and a lot of opposing Hyper Offence. For Landorus-Therian, I decided to go with 248 HP and 252 Defence for maximized bulk. My Landorus-Therian has Earthquake as its STAB, slow U-turn for momentum, Stealth Rocks and Stone Edge to kill Talonflames if they decided to stay in and Swords Dance up. My Rotom-W is the standard set with Hydro Pump, Pain Split, Will-O-Wisp and Volt Switch. It runs 44 speed to hit 219 speed and outspeed a Jolly Belly Drum Azumarill, which would otherwise be a huge problem for me. This is my stop to Mega Metagross, Talonflames and many other Hyper Offensive Pokemon, as well as to keep Volt Switching and U-turning momentum going.
Step #4:
This is a 248 HP 252 Special Defence Scizor with Leftovers. It runs U-turn and with U-turn CS Staraptor, U-turn Landorus-Therian and Volt Switch Rotom-W makes a very nice 4-man momentum core. It runs Roost for longevity, Defog to get rid of any hazards that might make it past Mega Diancie, and Bullet Punch for STAB priority. This is my answer to Latios, Latias and Mega Diancie that don't run Hidden Power Fire, to Mega Gardevoir, as well as a bunch of other threats. On paper, it feels like it's performing exceptionally well on this team, though sometimes I feel like it's the only Pokemon that I feel like replacing - but don't know with what.
All in all, the team, as evident by the win/loss ratio, has been performing exceptionally well, though is by no means perfect.
Threats that I can identify are Keldeo-R because I don't have good switch-ins for it, but at the same time this is BirdSpam, so I can revenge kill it any time, and if they want to save it something else will be taking huge amounts of damage. Not many people have proper switch-ins for BirdSpam.
Rain is also pretty annoying, because I don't have switch-ins for that, but for some reason I've never lost to rain, and I've played quite a few in the past day, so apparently I'm handling it fine. But on paper, it definitely can be considered an issue.
Ferrothorn used to be an issue when I ran Diamond Storm on Mega Diancie, as opposed to Hidden Power Fire, but even then I managed to always beat it. With Hidden Power Fire on Mega Diancie, it just gets wrecked. Dropping Diamond Storm was, in my opinion, a good move, because it doesn't really do much. Yes, it kills Talonflame, but seeing as how I've got a Landorus-Therian and Rotom-W to deal with it, that's not too important. Also kills Tornadus-Therian, but seeing as how I have Talonflame and CS Staraptor, as well as a Rotom-W, that is again not a problem.
Another thing I'd like to fix is a small weakness to Bisharp, though I'm not sure how. And a small weakness to Choice Scarf Tyranitar. Though Choice Scarf Staraptor revenges that, so it's not too big of s deal.
Mostly the thing I'd like to fix is the weakness to Keldeo-R.
Importable:
Talonflame (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Roost
- Swords Dance
Staraptor (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- Close Combat
- U-turn
Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Diancie-Mega @ Diancite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Earth Power
- Diamond Storm
Replays:
#1: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-288166512
This is an example of how momentum works with this team. Using Volt Switching and U-turning in conjunction with skilled double switches pretty much keeps the momentum with you always, and as long as you keep momentum, BirdSpam plus Mega Diancie can punch holes.
#2: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-288223278
Maybe I could've played that one better, though I stand by most of my plays. My Scizor took big damage in the beginning because the Empoleon decided to stay in on a Volt Switch for some reason, and I had no other switch-in than Scizor at that point. But I made the right play later on and healed it up. And my Rotom-W got haxxed by Empoleon. Other than that, I don't see any mistakes. The Stone Edge critical hit didn't matter in my opinion, because the one before it missed. If the first one hit, the Dragonite would have only been able to get one Dragon Dance up, which would leave it at +0 attack after the Intimidate, which means Extreme Speed + Brave Bird recoil wouldn't have killed Talonflame later on. I would've still gotten one Brave Bird off on Kyurem-Black, instead of two, but two were not needed for Mega Diancie to revenge kill it. In fact, the Mega Diancie would have revenge killed it even without prior damage from Brave Bird. Everything else was pretty straight-forward and self-explanatory.
#3: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-288232782
I have no luck with Will-O-Wisp. Missed it twice there, both important. But there was justice later on.
#4: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-288274780
I will be adding more replays as I go.
This is my first RMT. I've been playing Pokemon competitively for quite a long time, but I've never got around to actually registering an account and making posts. Figured that'd change today, since I've got a pretty cool team to show.
I made the team yesterday, made a new Alt for it and started playing with it. Today, I'm on 1611 and rising - I think my win/loss ratio is something like 32/4. Got disconnected once and lost because of that, but I guess that's not much of an excuse.
The team is BirdSpam, though not quite all out BirdSpam, because there's no Mega Pinsir, etc.. I didn't want to make it full BirdSpam, because I don't think that's very competitive, but I digress.
So as to not ramble on pointlessly, I'll start with the team.
Step #1:
As stated, this is primarily a BirdSpam team, though not quite all out BirdSpam, because there's no Mega Pinsir. So the other two birds are Talonflame and Staraptor. Talonflame is arguably the best bird, so that was a clear choice. The reason why I decided to go with Staraptor over Mega Pinsir is twofold: one, I actually think it's better, and two, there was a different Mega that I wanted to use for this team that I think is much more important than Mega Pinsir, and I cannot have two Megas, so Mega Pinsir didn't make the cut. I decided to go with a Brave Bird, Flare Blitz, Roost, Swords Dance Talonflame, not the specially defensive one with Will-O-Wisp and Taunt. Primarily because I like to play Hyper Offence, and the latter version of Talonflame is clearly not Hyper Offensive, whereas the former version is. For Staraptor, I decided to go with a Choice Scarf version. The reason why I prefer Choice Scarf over Choice Band is because, in all honesty, things that a Choice Scarf Staraptor cannot break, are things I wouldn't want my Choice Band Staraptor dealing with anyway. In my opinion, a CS Staraptor can break through 99% of the things that a CB Staraptor can, and that 1% remaining is not worth losing all the speed that Choice Scarf gives (today we have a very speedy Meta, so a Pokemon like Staraptor that cannot take hits has to be able to outspeed and hit first). Also, fast Electric-type Pokemon like Mega Manetric wreck a CB Staraptor, whereas a CS Staraptor, handles it handily after some prior damage, which isn't really hard to get. For CS Staraptor, I decided to go with Brave Bird, Double-Edge, U-Turn and Close Combat. Volt Switching and U-Turning is very important for this team, it needs to keep the momentum, which is another reason why I prefer a CS U-turn Staraptor. The other moves are best STABs and Close Combat for Heatran.
Step #2:
Man, Mega Diancie puts in SO much work on this team. First of all, the three things BirdSpam hates the most are fully physically defensive Rocky Helmet Garchomp and fully physically defensive Rocky Helmet Landorus-Therian, as well as Tyranitar. This thing outspeeds all three, and none of them can switch into Mega Diancie. It OHKOs Garchomp with Moonblast and it 2HKOs Landorus-Therian with Moonblast, the two biggest pain in the asses for BirdSpam. Also wrecks Tyranitar. Furthermore, it OHKOs Heatran with Earth Power, which is another stop to a Talonflame, and it OHKOs Ferrothorn with Hidden Power Fire. In other words, all things that wall BirdSpam and abuse its recoil get wrecked by Mega Diancie. On top of that, Magic Bounce keeps rocks off the field, which is huge for BirdSpam. The moves I decided to go with are Moonblast, Protect, Hidden Power Fire and Earth Power. I don't think Diamond Storm is needed on this team - it only hits Talonflames and Tornadus-Therian, neither of which will turn out to be a problem for this team the further we go down our 6-man roster.
Step #3:
So, as I said before, BirdSpam, and Hyper Offence in general, need Volt Switching and U-turning. At the same time, BirdSpam and Hyper Offence need an answer to faster BirdSpam, faster Hyper Offence and priority users, because if my Pokemon get hit before they do the hitting, they die. The duo that best answers all of these problems are this version of Landorus-Therian and Rotom-W. Not only do they learn Volt Switch and U-turn, which allows my team to keep momentum and bring in Talonflame, Staraptor and Mega Diancie to do the killing, but they also counter opposing Talonflames and a lot of opposing Hyper Offence. For Landorus-Therian, I decided to go with 248 HP and 252 Defence for maximized bulk. My Landorus-Therian has Earthquake as its STAB, slow U-turn for momentum, Stealth Rocks and Stone Edge to kill Talonflames if they decided to stay in and Swords Dance up. My Rotom-W is the standard set with Hydro Pump, Pain Split, Will-O-Wisp and Volt Switch. It runs 44 speed to hit 219 speed and outspeed a Jolly Belly Drum Azumarill, which would otherwise be a huge problem for me. This is my stop to Mega Metagross, Talonflames and many other Hyper Offensive Pokemon, as well as to keep Volt Switching and U-turning momentum going.
Step #4:
This is a 248 HP 252 Special Defence Scizor with Leftovers. It runs U-turn and with U-turn CS Staraptor, U-turn Landorus-Therian and Volt Switch Rotom-W makes a very nice 4-man momentum core. It runs Roost for longevity, Defog to get rid of any hazards that might make it past Mega Diancie, and Bullet Punch for STAB priority. This is my answer to Latios, Latias and Mega Diancie that don't run Hidden Power Fire, to Mega Gardevoir, as well as a bunch of other threats. On paper, it feels like it's performing exceptionally well on this team, though sometimes I feel like it's the only Pokemon that I feel like replacing - but don't know with what.
All in all, the team, as evident by the win/loss ratio, has been performing exceptionally well, though is by no means perfect.
Threats that I can identify are Keldeo-R because I don't have good switch-ins for it, but at the same time this is BirdSpam, so I can revenge kill it any time, and if they want to save it something else will be taking huge amounts of damage. Not many people have proper switch-ins for BirdSpam.
Rain is also pretty annoying, because I don't have switch-ins for that, but for some reason I've never lost to rain, and I've played quite a few in the past day, so apparently I'm handling it fine. But on paper, it definitely can be considered an issue.
Ferrothorn used to be an issue when I ran Diamond Storm on Mega Diancie, as opposed to Hidden Power Fire, but even then I managed to always beat it. With Hidden Power Fire on Mega Diancie, it just gets wrecked. Dropping Diamond Storm was, in my opinion, a good move, because it doesn't really do much. Yes, it kills Talonflame, but seeing as how I've got a Landorus-Therian and Rotom-W to deal with it, that's not too important. Also kills Tornadus-Therian, but seeing as how I have Talonflame and CS Staraptor, as well as a Rotom-W, that is again not a problem.
Another thing I'd like to fix is a small weakness to Bisharp, though I'm not sure how. And a small weakness to Choice Scarf Tyranitar. Though Choice Scarf Staraptor revenges that, so it's not too big of s deal.
Mostly the thing I'd like to fix is the weakness to Keldeo-R.
Importable:
Talonflame (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Roost
- Swords Dance
Staraptor (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- Close Combat
- U-turn
Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Diancie-Mega @ Diancite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Earth Power
- Diamond Storm
Replays:
#1: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-288166512
This is an example of how momentum works with this team. Using Volt Switching and U-turning in conjunction with skilled double switches pretty much keeps the momentum with you always, and as long as you keep momentum, BirdSpam plus Mega Diancie can punch holes.
#2: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-288223278
Maybe I could've played that one better, though I stand by most of my plays. My Scizor took big damage in the beginning because the Empoleon decided to stay in on a Volt Switch for some reason, and I had no other switch-in than Scizor at that point. But I made the right play later on and healed it up. And my Rotom-W got haxxed by Empoleon. Other than that, I don't see any mistakes. The Stone Edge critical hit didn't matter in my opinion, because the one before it missed. If the first one hit, the Dragonite would have only been able to get one Dragon Dance up, which would leave it at +0 attack after the Intimidate, which means Extreme Speed + Brave Bird recoil wouldn't have killed Talonflame later on. I would've still gotten one Brave Bird off on Kyurem-Black, instead of two, but two were not needed for Mega Diancie to revenge kill it. In fact, the Mega Diancie would have revenge killed it even without prior damage from Brave Bird. Everything else was pretty straight-forward and self-explanatory.
#3: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-288232782
I have no luck with Will-O-Wisp. Missed it twice there, both important. But there was justice later on.
#4: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-288274780
I will be adding more replays as I go.
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