Well after getting back into competitive Pokemon after getting tired of "allies" in certain team based games I've decided to take a more forward route than usual. In light of the new defog I made a more offensive team instead of the old spike stacking passive ones that I was partial to.
Although I am pleased at how it turned out there are still some flaws such as a lack of hazard removal or a better way of dealing with things like the mega charizards, gliscor, mega venusaur etc other than maintaining momentum.
Now without further adieu the team
Miniatures:
Sets:
Talonflame @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Roost
- Bulk Up
- Brave Bird
- Will-O-Wisp
First up is Talonflame. He provides useful resistances to grass, fighting, steel, and fairy along with an immunity to burns and ground. His priority Brave Bird is useful to take out threats with a sliver of health remaining and the bulk up set provides him with longevity. I have found that he is amazing at gluing the team together by revenging, checking threats, and spreading burns.
However he is the only thing that can really handle Mega-Venusaur and is vulnerable to sleep powder and being worn down as he is the first of my stealth rock weak pokemon.
Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
Although I originally had Deoxys-D as my hazard spreader I decided that he was far too passive and his role was too obvious. Garchomp is an amazing replacement, bringing a powerful stab earthquake in addition to speed and dragon stab. Although sharing an immunity to electric with excadrill, his resistances to water and fire are a crucial difference. Rocky Helmet along with Rough Skin allows him to sacrifice himself to deal the last bit of chip damage I need to ko a threat or wear it down sufficiently.
Fireblast, although useful for random steels like skarmory or ferrothorn has been a move that I haven't actually used in the last 10 battles or so and is something that could be replaced.
Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
Thundurus provides an useful immunity to thunderwave and ground attacks in addition to his resistances to fighting, steel, grass, and flying. He is my first special attacker to help me threaten out physical walls weak to his electric stab. He is generally used to help me keep momentum with double switches against physical walls in addition to sacrificing himself to wear down annoyances like Rotom-W and random bulky threats or paralyzing a threatening setup sweeper.
On the other hand he is another pokemon vulnerable to stealth rocks. I would like to be able to fit taunt on him to stop random setup attempts but his coverage is so useful and being forced to switch out against things like mega-tyrannitar, subtoxic gliscor, or garchomp can be devestating.
Bisharp @ Dread Plate
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Pursuit
Bisharp has always been cool and now hes not just good but absurdly so. He provides a ton of power and utility, trapping annoying things like psychics and ghosts, especially aegislash and the lati@s, knocking off items and providing me with a second form of utility. His steel typing lets me abuse random toxic attempts and defiant makes sticky web a risky affair. I am using dread plate instead of life orb since I am pretty much always using dark attacks and I find that often the only reason bisharp dies is because of too much recoil.
I am very happy with what Bisharp brings to the table and I doubt anything could replace/outclass him but feel free to give suggestions.
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dark Pulse
Greninja serves as a versatile special threat with wide coverage who is just fast on his own. He can handle alot of annoying walls like Heatran or bulky grounds and grass walls. In addition his initial water typing allows him to come in on some resisted attacks.
Unfortunately he suffers alot from 4mss. Scald, ice beam, and hp fire are mandatory and dark pulse is really nice but so is u-turn and the ubiquity of mega venusaur and the occassional random av conkeldurr or random fighter makes extrasensory really attempting. Scald is nice to fish for burns but if a stronger water move could provide the necessary power to break some threats than I would be willing to swap them out. As it is Ice beam is my strongest neutral attack.
Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
- Earthquake
Finally Dragonite is an amazing cleaner. He has an enormous amount of power and can set up on so many things as long as rocks arent up or merely alot of stuff if they are. Extreme speed acts as much priority for insurance against threats and earthquake can also be used without boosts if necessary to cleanup steels or other things vulnerable to ground.
Dragonite does his job very well, offering alot of utility along with being quite a reliable setup sweeper. He is the 3rd stealth rock weak member though and sometimes it feels like I am playing with 5 pokemon as it is best to save him until mid-late game so he can come in after a ko. Dragonite can be replaced with another strong finisher if they can fill his role better especially as I don't currently have a Mega Pokemon yet.
Comments
Overall I feel that I made an aggressive team where each member offers alot of utility, allowing me to get some switches in instead of straight up saccing member. It has its flaws but I am somewhat satisfied with the result.
For one, it is still very stealth rock weak though with no ways to remove them or prevent their set up, especially with more dedicated users like focus sash suicide leads which leads to short games where I am forced to sacrifice stuff to deal as much damage as possible. Certain defensive threats can be very difficult to handle, especially if they spam their recovery move while I die to recoil, leaving them healthy and me a potentially crucial member down or crippled. Notable among them are Mega-Venusaur and Gliscor in my experience. Finally I am not using a Mega Pokemon which is potentially a large sacrifice in power or bulk and definitely makes knock off harder to deal with.
That said I am left with the feeling that there are ways to improve.
Threats
I will cover how I handle threats/specific pokemon here if necessary.
Although I am pleased at how it turned out there are still some flaws such as a lack of hazard removal or a better way of dealing with things like the mega charizards, gliscor, mega venusaur etc other than maintaining momentum.
Now without further adieu the team
Miniatures:
Sets:
Talonflame @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Roost
- Bulk Up
- Brave Bird
- Will-O-Wisp
First up is Talonflame. He provides useful resistances to grass, fighting, steel, and fairy along with an immunity to burns and ground. His priority Brave Bird is useful to take out threats with a sliver of health remaining and the bulk up set provides him with longevity. I have found that he is amazing at gluing the team together by revenging, checking threats, and spreading burns.
However he is the only thing that can really handle Mega-Venusaur and is vulnerable to sleep powder and being worn down as he is the first of my stealth rock weak pokemon.
Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
Although I originally had Deoxys-D as my hazard spreader I decided that he was far too passive and his role was too obvious. Garchomp is an amazing replacement, bringing a powerful stab earthquake in addition to speed and dragon stab. Although sharing an immunity to electric with excadrill, his resistances to water and fire are a crucial difference. Rocky Helmet along with Rough Skin allows him to sacrifice himself to deal the last bit of chip damage I need to ko a threat or wear it down sufficiently.
Fireblast, although useful for random steels like skarmory or ferrothorn has been a move that I haven't actually used in the last 10 battles or so and is something that could be replaced.
Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
Thundurus provides an useful immunity to thunderwave and ground attacks in addition to his resistances to fighting, steel, grass, and flying. He is my first special attacker to help me threaten out physical walls weak to his electric stab. He is generally used to help me keep momentum with double switches against physical walls in addition to sacrificing himself to wear down annoyances like Rotom-W and random bulky threats or paralyzing a threatening setup sweeper.
On the other hand he is another pokemon vulnerable to stealth rocks. I would like to be able to fit taunt on him to stop random setup attempts but his coverage is so useful and being forced to switch out against things like mega-tyrannitar, subtoxic gliscor, or garchomp can be devestating.
Bisharp @ Dread Plate
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Pursuit
Bisharp has always been cool and now hes not just good but absurdly so. He provides a ton of power and utility, trapping annoying things like psychics and ghosts, especially aegislash and the lati@s, knocking off items and providing me with a second form of utility. His steel typing lets me abuse random toxic attempts and defiant makes sticky web a risky affair. I am using dread plate instead of life orb since I am pretty much always using dark attacks and I find that often the only reason bisharp dies is because of too much recoil.
I am very happy with what Bisharp brings to the table and I doubt anything could replace/outclass him but feel free to give suggestions.
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dark Pulse
Greninja serves as a versatile special threat with wide coverage who is just fast on his own. He can handle alot of annoying walls like Heatran or bulky grounds and grass walls. In addition his initial water typing allows him to come in on some resisted attacks.
Unfortunately he suffers alot from 4mss. Scald, ice beam, and hp fire are mandatory and dark pulse is really nice but so is u-turn and the ubiquity of mega venusaur and the occassional random av conkeldurr or random fighter makes extrasensory really attempting. Scald is nice to fish for burns but if a stronger water move could provide the necessary power to break some threats than I would be willing to swap them out. As it is Ice beam is my strongest neutral attack.
Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
- Earthquake
Finally Dragonite is an amazing cleaner. He has an enormous amount of power and can set up on so many things as long as rocks arent up or merely alot of stuff if they are. Extreme speed acts as much priority for insurance against threats and earthquake can also be used without boosts if necessary to cleanup steels or other things vulnerable to ground.
Dragonite does his job very well, offering alot of utility along with being quite a reliable setup sweeper. He is the 3rd stealth rock weak member though and sometimes it feels like I am playing with 5 pokemon as it is best to save him until mid-late game so he can come in after a ko. Dragonite can be replaced with another strong finisher if they can fill his role better especially as I don't currently have a Mega Pokemon yet.
Comments
Overall I feel that I made an aggressive team where each member offers alot of utility, allowing me to get some switches in instead of straight up saccing member. It has its flaws but I am somewhat satisfied with the result.
For one, it is still very stealth rock weak though with no ways to remove them or prevent their set up, especially with more dedicated users like focus sash suicide leads which leads to short games where I am forced to sacrifice stuff to deal as much damage as possible. Certain defensive threats can be very difficult to handle, especially if they spam their recovery move while I die to recoil, leaving them healthy and me a potentially crucial member down or crippled. Notable among them are Mega-Venusaur and Gliscor in my experience. Finally I am not using a Mega Pokemon which is potentially a large sacrifice in power or bulk and definitely makes knock off harder to deal with.
That said I am left with the feeling that there are ways to improve.
Threats
I will cover how I handle threats/specific pokemon here if necessary.
