My first Rate My Team. I’ve always been a lurker on the Smogon Forums and have built teams based on the info within. Aside from that, I have never posted my team to be rated for improvement/criticism. So here it goes!
Gardevoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpDef / 252 HP / 4 SpAtk
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
- Destiny Bond
Golurk @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Speed / 4 SpDef
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Punch
- Rock Slide
- Hammer Arm
- Earthquake
Noivern @ Life Orb
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 HP / 252 Speed
Modest Nature
- Boomburst
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
- Hurricane
Part two of the BoomQuake comes in the form of Noivern. The fastest Dragon-type of all, slams down Boomburst to deal massive damage while dealing no Damage to its partner Golurk. Noivern is intended to be the speed-demon of the team, providing suicidal but destructive power. Frisk allows her to be an amazing scout when your opponent wants to play the game called "Who's that Mega Pokemon?" .She's very capable of taking out enemy Dragons and most other threats with Hurricane, especially in the rain. But the idea of a suicidal force is literal, considering her Special Defenses are low and virtually anything she's weak against will take her out, if the opponent was not quickly KO'd or happens to be faster than her.
Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SpDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Protect
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor
Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpDef
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Protect
- Encore
- Ice Beam
Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Speed / 252 Atk / 4 SpDef
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Substitute
Known Counters/Checks:
Gyarados – Very fast and Special Defensive. Drops Intimidate to cripple Golurk and Scizor. As shown when fighting the Elite Four, one Dragon Dance is all it takes for this Pokemon to sweep the entire team with Waterfall/Earthquake attacks. The only way to shut it down is Gardevoir, who can Trace the Intimidate back at Gyrados, making him far easier to deal with over time. Mega Gyrados has even higher Attack and Special Defense, but it's Water/Dark typing is a bit easier to overcome with Mega Scizor's X-Scissor or Gardevoir's Moonblast. In my personal experience, I've had a far easier time killing the Mega Evolution than the actual Pokemon itself.
Scrafty – A reasonable combination of HP, Attack, Defense, and Special Defense. Often seen with Intimidate just like Gyarados. An overall annoying Pokemon to fight against. It can quickly fall to Gardevoir's Moonblast or Noivern's Hurricane, but it often runs with Assault Vest to prevent such easy kills. He also can come out with Fake Out, which even with so much Protect on a VGC team, can catch you off-guard if it's a Pokemon you're not expecting it from.
Trevenant – Another all-around combination of good HP and defensive stats. He destroys Politoed and Golurk with Horn Leech, and often is running Hex in tandem with Will-O-Wisp to deal decent damage across the rest of the team.
Gourgeist - Just like Trevenant, though somewhat more dangerous with Trick-or-Treat. While it doesn't have Horn Leech to stall, it does have decent Special Attack to run Energy Ball or other attacks to do just as much damage.
Rotom-W and Rotom-F – The washing machine/toaster oven is immune to Earthquake, burns with Will-O-Wisp, paralyzes with Thunder Wave, and resists a lot of the offensive potential of the team. What it doesn't resist, it's really durable against. Politoed can tank at least 2 or 3 Thunderbolts and heavily damage the toaster oven variant with Scald. Otherwise, the team doesn't have a solid answer against it. Noivern can suicide Draco Meteor to some success and an overall strategy of wearing it down works well, but takes too long and I'm often in a position where winning is no longer possible at that point.
Mawille – Drops Intimidate and heavily defensive all around. Resists Noivern’s entire arsenal and can easily kill it off with Play Rough. Mega Evolution is harder to deal with as it becomes far more destructive and resilient than its original form. Golurk's Earthquake can deal great damage, setting up a reasonable revenge kill opportunity by Mega Scizor afterward. Politoed can also take some of the hits and counter back with Scald.
Aegislash - Like Mawille, he resists Noivern's entire arsenal, provided he remains in Shield Forme. Blade Forme provides it sufficient ability to kill Golurk very easily. A lot of this team does have attacks that do not cause physical contact, negating King's Shield to some extent. If caught out in Blade Forme, it can be very easily killed off and even in Shield Forme, it takes considerable damage from Golurk's Earthquake or Politoed's Scald.
Mega Kangaskhan - What was once a Pokemon hardly used competively is now the #1 Pokemon used in all forms of Battle (according to Global Link), the #1 Pokemon that manages to defeat so many others, and the #1 Pokemon who defeats it, is itself. Another solidly defensive Pokemon. On her own, she doesn't seem to do a lot of actual damage against this team, but the Parental Bond hits do stack up quickly. Considering her lack of play in prior Generations, she's another Fake Out user you don't expect to see. Parental Bond boosted Sucker Punch makes her a very reliable revenge killer and overall, Parental Bond converts the excitement of surviving on Low HP into immediate anger at the sight of your Pokemon fainting. A gradual beating is often necessary, though Golurk can shut her down with Hammer Arm reasonably well.
Gardevoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpDef / 252 HP / 4 SpAtk
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
- Destiny Bond
This beauty is designed to be the Special Defender of the team, though she doesn’t seem to get much use lately. She's on the team to provide solid Special Defense and her Psychic/Fairy typing makes her much stronger than in previous Generations. Trace is amazing for copying Abilities while Will-O-Wisp and Destiny Bond can cripple or unexpectedly take down a strong foe respectively. As stated before, she sadly doesn't get much use, primarily due to the fact that Gardevoir can't handle Physical attacks very well and she often dies too easily.
Golurk @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Speed / 4 SpDef
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Punch
- Rock Slide
- Hammer Arm
- Earthquake
Part one of the BoomQuake combination comes in the form of a Golurk, who is a little bit faster than most would expect. It's often thrown out first with Noivern, allowing the two of them to sweep opening threats off the board with a one-two punch of Boomburst and Earthquake, without worrying about damaging each other. All of its other moves provide great coverage and Assault Vest is near mandatory, considering its low Special Defense overall. Even with the Assault Vest, Special Attacks hit very hard, but Golurk reasonably hits hard in its own right.
Noivern @ Life Orb
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 HP / 252 Speed
Modest Nature
- Boomburst
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
- Hurricane
Part two of the BoomQuake comes in the form of Noivern. The fastest Dragon-type of all, slams down Boomburst to deal massive damage while dealing no Damage to its partner Golurk. Noivern is intended to be the speed-demon of the team, providing suicidal but destructive power. Frisk allows her to be an amazing scout when your opponent wants to play the game called "Who's that Mega Pokemon?" .She's very capable of taking out enemy Dragons and most other threats with Hurricane, especially in the rain. But the idea of a suicidal force is literal, considering her Special Defenses are low and virtually anything she's weak against will take her out, if the opponent was not quickly KO'd or happens to be faster than her.
Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SpDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Protect
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor
This bug is my Mega Evolution and with such high Atk and Technician Boosted Bullet Punch, he is an impressive revenge killer and Fairy hunter. With reasonable defense and Rain support from Politoed, Fire-attacks aren’t so scary and Swords Dance is merely a natural reflex when making things hit even harder than before. Swords Dance is amazing for boosting his Attack as high as a kite and striking down as hard as a missle. Pokemon with Bug and/or Steel resistances are all too common and this guy has problems cracking through those with high Defense or resistant typing combination.
Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpDef
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Protect
- Encore
- Ice Beam
The frog from the swamp and my favorite Pokemon of all time. She provides an amazing support role in the form of changing the weather, burning opponents with Scald, and being quite durable despite short stature. Scald is very powerful, burn or no burn, especially in the rain. It proves to be a solid Special Attack to throw at people, even if they have decent defenses against it. Otherwise, opposing Water-types or Rain-team Pokemon have nothing to fear and everything to gain.
Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Speed / 252 Atk / 4 SpDef
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Substitute
Politoed’s closest friend from the swamp proves to be an effective Substitute user, providing lots of self-healing from Rain and Black Sludge. Water-immunity also helps counter opposing Rain-teams and he holds some useful attacks to slowly break down opponents overtime. This Pokemon doesn't get a whole lot of use either, primarily because he's too slow to get Substitute up reliably and the Substitute often breaks too easily to let him regain his health or use another attack.
Known Counters/Checks:
Gyarados – Very fast and Special Defensive. Drops Intimidate to cripple Golurk and Scizor. As shown when fighting the Elite Four, one Dragon Dance is all it takes for this Pokemon to sweep the entire team with Waterfall/Earthquake attacks. The only way to shut it down is Gardevoir, who can Trace the Intimidate back at Gyrados, making him far easier to deal with over time. Mega Gyrados has even higher Attack and Special Defense, but it's Water/Dark typing is a bit easier to overcome with Mega Scizor's X-Scissor or Gardevoir's Moonblast. In my personal experience, I've had a far easier time killing the Mega Evolution than the actual Pokemon itself.
Scrafty – A reasonable combination of HP, Attack, Defense, and Special Defense. Often seen with Intimidate just like Gyarados. An overall annoying Pokemon to fight against. It can quickly fall to Gardevoir's Moonblast or Noivern's Hurricane, but it often runs with Assault Vest to prevent such easy kills. He also can come out with Fake Out, which even with so much Protect on a VGC team, can catch you off-guard if it's a Pokemon you're not expecting it from.
Trevenant – Another all-around combination of good HP and defensive stats. He destroys Politoed and Golurk with Horn Leech, and often is running Hex in tandem with Will-O-Wisp to deal decent damage across the rest of the team.
Gourgeist - Just like Trevenant, though somewhat more dangerous with Trick-or-Treat. While it doesn't have Horn Leech to stall, it does have decent Special Attack to run Energy Ball or other attacks to do just as much damage.
Rotom-W and Rotom-F – The washing machine/toaster oven is immune to Earthquake, burns with Will-O-Wisp, paralyzes with Thunder Wave, and resists a lot of the offensive potential of the team. What it doesn't resist, it's really durable against. Politoed can tank at least 2 or 3 Thunderbolts and heavily damage the toaster oven variant with Scald. Otherwise, the team doesn't have a solid answer against it. Noivern can suicide Draco Meteor to some success and an overall strategy of wearing it down works well, but takes too long and I'm often in a position where winning is no longer possible at that point.
Mawille – Drops Intimidate and heavily defensive all around. Resists Noivern’s entire arsenal and can easily kill it off with Play Rough. Mega Evolution is harder to deal with as it becomes far more destructive and resilient than its original form. Golurk's Earthquake can deal great damage, setting up a reasonable revenge kill opportunity by Mega Scizor afterward. Politoed can also take some of the hits and counter back with Scald.
Aegislash - Like Mawille, he resists Noivern's entire arsenal, provided he remains in Shield Forme. Blade Forme provides it sufficient ability to kill Golurk very easily. A lot of this team does have attacks that do not cause physical contact, negating King's Shield to some extent. If caught out in Blade Forme, it can be very easily killed off and even in Shield Forme, it takes considerable damage from Golurk's Earthquake or Politoed's Scald.
Mega Kangaskhan - What was once a Pokemon hardly used competively is now the #1 Pokemon used in all forms of Battle (according to Global Link), the #1 Pokemon that manages to defeat so many others, and the #1 Pokemon who defeats it, is itself. Another solidly defensive Pokemon. On her own, she doesn't seem to do a lot of actual damage against this team, but the Parental Bond hits do stack up quickly. Considering her lack of play in prior Generations, she's another Fake Out user you don't expect to see. Parental Bond boosted Sucker Punch makes her a very reliable revenge killer and overall, Parental Bond converts the excitement of surviving on Low HP into immediate anger at the sight of your Pokemon fainting. A gradual beating is often necessary, though Golurk can shut her down with Hammer Arm reasonably well.
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