Boku no First Team

[imanoob1]

Hi, I just started battling on Showdown this week and any criticism would be valued! My main issues are lack of offensive power and dealing with Scizors (but I'm sure there are many more issues with this team, lol)

EDIT: Thanks Inferstrain, I added more lines. I thought the rules said ONLY 3 lines

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Toxic
- Recover

Much like Gliscor Gastrodon is a staller; it can take water and electric in and has HP Electric to fight water types and Scald to burn; toxic + recover for wall breaking. It is also intended as a rain counter; after a storm drain boost it can threaten the enemy with STAB rain 1.5x scald. Gastrodon is the most likely to be changed, as even with Storm Drain boosted HP Electric Gastrodon has trouble dealing with Politoed and I'm moving towards using Politoed as a Cloyster set-up anyways. Should I put on Ice beam? Or more importantly, switch Gastrodon out?

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 40 Def / 224 Spd
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Protect
- Earthquake

Typical Gliscor toxic stall; comes in on fire / fighting types, walls, metagross, and is a decent check for dragonite. Saved me many, many times for fighting resists, eating earthquakes and thunders and works well for almost any weather except hail. Should I swap EQ for stone edge, or maybe add spikes? Gliscor stall spam is great but I'm wondering if I should try Skarmory. I occasionally use Gliscor to bait dragonites into DD'ing or cloysters into shell smashing and then identity theft'ing them with ditto.

Cloyster @ Focus Sash
Trait: Skill Link
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Shell Smash
- Ice Shard

Shell Smash, then icicle spear. Cloyster can set up shell smash on politoed rain teams and sometimes even sun teams in my experience, and is great for getting rid of bulky waters. Focus Sash is great for 1st turn shell smash sweeping but all too often gets disrupted. Any better items? Kings Rock is out since Cloyster usually OHKOs after shell smashing so im not concerned with flinching. My main problem with Cloyster is its frailty and how situational it is. It is great for revenge killing but due to lack of rapid spin it is almost impossible to shell smash and survive if stealth rock is up. That said, it sweeps unprepared teams really well.

Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Transform

I'm never getting rid of Ditto. It is great for scouting, and has lead to many free switches since I know the opening moveset. My team's lack of offense has been compensated many times by ditto and its ability to literally steal many a sweep from moxie salamences, cloysters and chlorophyll venusaurs. People who lead with Breloom are forced to get one of their pokemon choice scarf-spored and this wrecks calm mind jirachis that dont run substitute. Sweepers that have set up are typically stalled/death foddered by either espeon or gliscor and then proceed to have their own team swept by revenge-kill ditto. The drawback is that Ditto is useless against stallers.

Espeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Reflect
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Espeon is great for predicting leech seed / spikes and bouncing back against ferrothorns / foretresses and then proceeding to HP fire them after a few calm minds. Espeon is a situtational, but good wallbreaker due to the ubiquity of ferrothorn and forretress but I'm wondering if I should swap for forretress as Espeon is good for troll magic bounces but not having rapid spin or any real entry hazards is becoming an issue. This is a variation on the dual screen set as I'm using calm mind instead of light screen, I'm wondering if I should switch reflect for substitute?

Volcarona @ Petaya Berry
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance
- Giga Drain

Originally added as a sun counter and an additional sweeper, Volcarona can set up on Ninetales and ferrothorns and covers some holes in offense. Volcarona more or less has to be played early because of its frailty and stealth rock weakness. Poorly played drought Ninetales fall to Volcarona and get swept, but otherwise Volcarona is kinda situtational and 50% stealth rock damage makes it unusable if I can't adequately predict with Espeon. Petaya berry was added due to Ninetales' flamethrower doing a threatening amount of damage in sun; is there a better item?

 

[Haaku.]

Hey, you need at least 3 lines of description for your Pokemon, otherwise this is against the rules.

 

[starwarsfan]

You have Volcarona but no rapid spin. I don't care if you have Espeon. One mis-predict, and Volcarona can't switch out. Get rid of Espeon for a spinner, or just put Rapid Spin over Ice Shard on Cloyster.

Anyway, put a Life Orb on Volcarona and give it Fire Blast over Fiery Dance.

 

[Lampent]

Hey there,

Adding on to what the previous poster said, Rapid Spin support is essential. Since you seem to have an offensive Espeon, I would reccomend Starmie. It can do Espeon's job to an extent with Natural Cure, while it can also revenge-kill unscarfed Base 110s and Rapid Spin. Here's the set;

Starmie @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 SpAtk, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

 

[Chronic Smash]

Hey immanob! :)

Nice team you got there,I like the originality and I agree that Ditto is a great scouter in my opinion,but I have a few suggestions.

1)I see you're running volcarona but you're not running a spinner,I recommend you replace Espeon with Starmie like Lampent suggested so you have a spinner and a pokemon that has good synergy with Volcarona.

2)For Volcarona I recommend you change the Petaya Berry to a Focus Sash csince Volcarona will most likely get OHKO'ed by some physical attackers,and I would also suggest you put Hidden Power Ground over Giga Drain to deal with the likes of Heatran which you can do nothing to it with your current volcarona set.

3)I suggest you replace Gastrodon with Choice Scarf Black Kyurem since you lack a scarfer and Kyurem Black is an excellent scarfer and it's pretty bulky

4)I also see you lack support of hazards in your team,for that I recommend you replace Cloyster with a Ferrothorn so you can support your Volcarona and you also remove a Stealth Rock weakness and provide hazard support.

Sets ;)



Starmie @ Expert Belt
Trait:Natural Cure
EV's 252 SAtk/252 Spd/4 Def
IV's:0 Atk
-Rapid Spin
-Surf
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait:Iron Barbs
EV's 252 HP/88 Def/168 SDef
-Stealth Rock
-Spikes
-Leech Seed
-Power Whip

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Trait:Fusion Bolt
EV's:252 Atk/252 Spd/4 SAtk
Lonely Nature
-Outrage
-Fusion Bolt
-Ice Beam
-Dragon Claw

Those are my suggestions,hope they were thought-provoking,hope I helped! :D

 

[imanoob1]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

XenoBlade911, Lampent and starwarsfan thanks for the suggestion, while troll magic bouncing has been fun it is hard to break 1500 with frequent mispredicts and subsequent pursuit kills on Espeon. Starmie will be added :)

I'm hesitant to remove Cloyster because without it my team really has no offense whatsoever besides revenge kill ditto which relies on the opponent setting up or being dragon type. In my experience Ditto and Gliscor pull their weight the most and Volcarona (in part due to lack of rapid spin, but still) pulls it the least, so if anything I'd like to get rid of volcarona.

What I really struggle with is checks for:
- Scizor. Gliscor can take all of its attacks (even after a single swords dance at full HP) but all too often EQ gets predicted and then I have fun shuffling to avoid ice shard / ice beam.
- Skarmory, Ferrothorn : Espeon has been my check for these so far since it takes minimal damage with reflect, magic bounces all hazards and then proceeds to set up calm mind and HP fire them to death. If I remove Espeon these will be unkillable :(
- Politoed and Ninetales : Ninetales can be oddly checked with Cloyster focus band-shell smash (as long as it doesn't run hypnosis) but politoed walls my entire team even with water absorb gastro. Rain teams in general are hard to deal with and I'm not quite sure how to counter them without running my own weather.

Any tips for countering the above pokes?

 

[starwarsfan]

Honestly Gliscor doesn't help your team much, but that's my opinion.

I would actually keep Volcarona, as it can check Scizor well; resisting bullet punch, superpower, bug bite, and u-turn; so it can come in and set up on pretty much any of Scizor's moves.

Magnezone is by far the best Skarmory and Ferrothorn counter in existence, as well as partially countering defensive Heatran and other steels. I would replace Gliscor with him.

As for Ninetales and Politoed, the first thing that comes to mine is a weather inducer, probably Tyranitar, but your team doesn't benefit from sand much. With that in mind, I would instead focus on countering their biggest abusers. Venusaur is beaten by Heatran, and Volcarona is beaten by rocks, which Heatran gets! Rain in general is beaten by Ferrothorn. I would replace Ditto, but since you like him someone else, idk who, with Heatran and go with XenoBlade's suggestion for Ferrothorn.

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 28 hp / 252 spa / 228 spe
IVs: 31/2/31/30/31/30
Modest Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Charge Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
(The hp is a Lefties number, giving 288 hp. The IVs minimize foul play and confusion damage while giving HP fire. Sadly, there is no way to get a 70bp hp fire with 31 spa IVs.)
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 hp / 252 spa / 252 spe
IVs: 31/2/30/31/31/31
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock
(The hp will take minimal damage from Entry Hazards. The IVs are by far the best for 70bp hp ice.)

If you have any questions on how/why I derived the EVs and IVs, or anything else, feel free to ask.

Alright, now it's time to get into your spreads. I'm gonna assume you are making the changes suggested here and above, so I won't be changing any of the ones that we suggested you should take out.

Volcarona should be running IVs of 30/2/30/31/30/30 for 70bp hp ground. It is the only spread that increases spa. Alternatively, it can run 31/2/31/30/30/31.

Starmie looks fine to me.

Ferrothorn should be running Thunder Wave or Protect over Stealth Rock, now that Heatran is there. Or you could put toxic over SR on Heatran.

KB looks fine.

Tell me if you want critiques on any of the other pokemon you originally had.