Bronzong is back! (the new special sweeper)

[tayottt]

This team was originally made with the idea of bringing empoleon back to preeminence, however, as I went along in the team building process I realized that the team wasn’t catered to Empoleon. Eventually I ended up scrapping it entirely and opting for a unique bronzong set that hopefully (with the loss of Salamence and his hard hitting mixed sets) will become relatively popular. Forgive me for the somewhat uninspired EV settings on the Zong but I’m still tweaking it.


Team SpA Bronzong

Mr. Bulk
Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Stealth Rock

Swampert is still a lovely lead and can still accomplish the task of setting up Stealth Rock, albeit not always as quickly as other leads. Swamp is effective against Metagross, (non hp grass) Heatran, and can kill Aerodactyl. Things get a bit confusing when it has to deal with Azelf, Anti-lead Machamp, Heatran with Hp grass, or Anti-lead Dragonite. I deal with the Azelf by switching to Heatran, but Machamp is a bit trickier because I have to attempt to hit with EQ switch to Gengar(to force payback), and then kill with Heatran. Dragonite isn’t used as much but I suppose I would have to switch to Heatran.

Dr. Death
Gengar (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Pain Split
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute

Gengar makes his living ripping through stall teams and sweeping with little to no effort. Gengar helps me against Gliscor and gives me a much needed ground/fight/normal resistance.

Rip Van Winkle
Breloom (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Focus Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Substitute
- Spore

Breloom’s main function is to go 2 for 1. If it can kill something and put something else to sleep it has done its job. With Salamence out of the game Mr. Loom has become an even more potent threat. Fearing almost no one except Celebi. Within this team Loom is somewhat forced to function as a bulky water stopper with the goal of putting Vappy/Suicune to sleep.

Rookie of the Year
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 88 SAtk / 88 SDef
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Charge Beam
- Flash Cannon
- Grass Knot

This guy is a scary beast. The EVs are being worked out but the concept is extremely solid. Bronzong comes in on Flygon/Celebi/etc. and throws off the opposition by using CM. This isn’t heatproof because I feel I need another ground/spikes resist on this team. The type coverage Charge Beam/Flash Cannon/Grass knot provides is unbelievable. After a CM or two this can tear through anything not named Heatran/Blissey (then again I haven’t done the calculations on most steel types).

Boahgon
Flygon (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SAtk
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Fire Blast

I know this guy isn’t Boah, but he works pretty damn well. Essentially I come in on Choice’d Heatran or Ttar and fool my opponents into thinking I am Choice’d and then they switch to Skarm/Scizor/Forry and I hit with the Powaaa of FB for an OHKO or close to it. This set is generally ineffective against Gliscor and Certain Blissey’s however that’s where Gengar can pick up the slack.

Speedy
Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Explosion
Heatran is here purely for speed and typing purposes. His typing gives me the grass/steel/bug/fire/ghost/flying/poison resist that we all need (lol). And his speed is important to prevent late game sweeps by infernape/lucario.

Weaknesses:

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This main issue this team suffers from is an inability to deal with LO Heatran, Suicune, and Starmie. I’m really not sure how to deal with these issues because I am too in love with this team to want to change anything.

Thank you for reading and any help would be appreciated.

 

[Cuiv]

Why not use Psychic over Flash Cannon on Bronzong? Grass Knot still covers Tyranitar, you can set up on Weavile and Umbreon (lol), and Psychic has better neutral coverage and is overall stronger.

 

[tayottt]

Hmmm. I really like that idea. It is indeed better. I'm also thinking about changing charge beam to hp ground. Imagine heatran coming in and getting hit hard by hp ground after 1 cm. I need to do calcs on this but it will definitely hurt.

 

[tab]

Honestly, I don't see the point of your Bronzong. The only thing it's got going for it over a Wish/CM Jirachi is Levitate, which is nowhere near good enough to make up for the speed to either hit 280 or tie base 100s and Wish, especially your team looks like the kind that would really benefit from occasional Wish support. Going with Bold 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 Spe and Wsh/CM/Psychic/Thunderbolt should give you a much better pokemon for the role than Bronzong, with the only real disadvantage being that you lose the ability to hit Tyranitar, which shouldn't be an issue with Swampert (especially when Swampert can get Wish support from a TTar lure) and Flygon on the team.
It's also worth nothing that this immediately goes a long way towards solving two of the problems you highlighted in Suicune and Starmie, as with a bit of smart play, Jirachi is perfectly useable as a Starmie check, and it can do a pretty good job of setting up on Suicune too.

Other than that, there's no huge problems that I think of, although you should be using Life Orb on Flygon - you really need the reliable power boost to make that set effective in the majority of situations, and Roosting with it is easy enough that the recoil isn't a huge issue. You're also going to want Fire Blast instead of Flamethrower on Heatran, the power boost is pretty important in giving you the OHKOs/2HKOs that you need.