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Building a Team of Explosives

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futuresuperstar

I have long since had a desire to make what many would deem a "joke" team, made strictly for fun and kicks -- an team built solely on explosives, on the move "Explosion." In other words, a team where probably four out of six Pokemon's sole purpose on the team was to simply Explode in the enemy's face. The idea behind the team is that many of the enemy's walls and tanks would be taken out by the explosions, and in the late game, potent sweepers could come out and hopefully have little resistance.

So, I ask you, how would we go about creating this "Explosive" team. First, we need to know who can explode, things like Heatran, Metagross, Azelf, etc. Things that would almost undoubtedly take out any Pokemon with the exception of four-times resisted and ghost-pokemon. Meanwhile, there would need to be a countermeasure against ghosts, and finally, a reliable stud or two after all of the explosions that could sweep away a withered team of likely only two Pokemon.

Anybody have any ideas? I've tested the concept with next to no thought and got quite surprisingly good results, and it's hella fun.
 
My "boomjoke" team uses:

Shiftry
Licklicky
Metagross
Golem....lol
Skuntank
Suicine...late game sweeper when I've failed in my suicide missions.
 
Yes, I've also tried a team like this. Here's what I remember I had:

Gengar lead @ Sash - Counter / Hypnosis / Explosion / Shadow Ball

Azelf @ Lefties - Stealth Rock / Taunt / U-turn / Explosion

Regirock @ Lefties - Rock Polish / Counter / Explosion / Stone Edge

Magnezone @ Sash - Thunderbolt / Hidden Power [Ice] / Mirror Coat / Explosion

Tyranitar @ Lefties - Substitute / Focus Punch / Crunch / Fire Blast

I can't remember the sixth Pokemon (Salamence, maybe?), but that was the idea. On paper, most of the team would have the ability to kill at least two Pokemon via Counter/Coat and Explosion. Tyranitar would hit the things that Explosion can't deal with so well.

I believe I focused too much on the exploding, though, because the team wasn't consistent. That somewhat gimmicky Magnezone didn't work so well either, but I wanted a Pokemon that knew Mirror Coat and Explosion--it was either him, Smeargle, Corsola, or Electrode. XD
 
I once had a team of 3 exploders, worked very well. I went with metagross, heatran, azelf. And then I used lucario to clean up in the late game.
 
I think that boom-themed teams aren't gimmicky at all. To me, they seem extremely effective from what I have seen and used. Let's face it, we oftenly see two-to-three Pokemon on one team, all whom are capable of using and are commonly known to use Explosion. For instance, Metagross, Heatran, Azelf, Gengar and Bronzong are all consistantly-used Pokemon that we use on a daily basis. Would you be suprised to see a Gengar, Heatran and a Metagross on one team, all using Explosion? I would not.

I suppose that including Explosion on every member of the team is ridiculous, so try to keep the number of exploders to a reasonable ammount, like three or four. Then, exploit the weaknesses of the team and fix them. Clearly Ghost-types, Steel-types and Rock-types are either immune or resist Explosion, with it being a Normal-type move. So like COTH has presented, ensure that you have the correct response to those problems that may occur, like Tyranitar and Magnezone's ability to remedy both Ghost and Steel-types with their capabilities of both Pursuit and Magnet Pull. Rock-types still remain an aspect that we haven't directly attended to, but we can be sure that our exploders have a super effective move waiting in the wings, like Gengar's Focus Blast and Metagross' Earthquake.

I think that this team-building is, to an extent, common sense.
 
I think what makes the most sense in putting one these teams together is a maximum of four exploders, backed up by two heavy sweepers.

For those sweepers, something with good priority (maybe the new Bullet Punch Scizor) and a strong choice scarfer. That way after the explosions are done, you know you will have to advantage over the opponents other pokemon.
 
I use explosion pair with trick room, so everyone(even special attackers can have a very powerful explosion since I don't have to invest speed evs.
 
That reminds me: could a Curselax with Selfdestruct / Earthquake / Crunch work? Not the punch of Lickilicky by any stretch, but SE moves against Ghosts AND grounded Steels as well as a +1 STAB Selfdestruct that can still OHKO anything that doesn't resist it (95% sure of that) doesn't look THAT bad, does it?
 
Kefka you are wrong. The strongest move in the game is Lickilicky Explosion. I don't know why it's not used in OU, when it does a great job for me with support (Body Slam and Knock Off), and exploding on things which hurts badly my team. Furthermore, most people think that it only uses Swords Dance set, so I Knock Off their Wall's items, which is really funny.
 
It is not. I have actually performed tests to determine what the most powerful attack is and Snorlax won by a large margin. Of course, if Lickilicky does Swords Dance before Explosion it will be more powerful, but without setting up Snorlax wins. I don't have the exact results here in my laptop, but I'll try to get them later. I think the most powerful non-exploding attack was a tie between Rhyperior's Rock Wrecker and Rampardos' Head Smash. (Sunflora's Leaf Storm wins only in Sunny Day, which counts as setting up).
 
Calcs against Celebi +Defense nature 252 HP / 252 Def EVs

Snorlax +Attack nature 252 Atk EVs Selfdestruct: Damage: 114.36% - 134.65%

Lickilicky +Attack nature 252 Atk EVs Explosion: Damage: 120.54% - 141.83%

To sum up: Lickilicky Explosion is stronger than Snorlax Selfdestruct.
 
well, I didn't use a damage calculator, so the damage variation might have influenced the tests I did, but I remember it was something like Snorlax - 180% and Lickilicky 150%. I guess I was wrong then :P
 
(I know Trust posted his thing, but I'm posting this, anyway.)

What tests did you do???

Let me see. I'll compare a 0 EV, neutral-natured Snorlax Selfdestruct to a Lickilicky Explosion when used on the standard ResTalk Cresselia:

0 EV, neutral-nature Snorlax Selfdestruct against Bold 252 HP 108 Def Cress:
331 - 391 damage

0 EV, neutral-nature Lickilicky Explosion against Bold 252 HP 108 Def Cress:
333 - 393 damage

The more I apply additional EVs, natures, and items to the situation, the greater the margin in terms of sheer damage for Lickilicky.

Also, I've worked this out with Dragontamer's Attack Tiers. Again, same situation as above:

0 EV, neutral-nature Snorlax Selfdestruct - 125.30

0 EV, neutral-nature Lickilicky Explosion - 125.36

Lickilicky's Explosion is stronger.
 
I don't remember exactly, I think the target was a max HP Cresselia with 300 Def and Sp.Def. I didn't really take damage variation into account (it wasn't really a serious test), so I got inaccurate results such as Snorlax > Lickitung and Rhyperior = Rampardos (Rampardos is obviously stronger). However, the margin was so big that I really thought Snorlax was stronger.

edit: I found the data.

snorlax - selfdestruct - 193%

lickilicky - explosion - 180%

rhyperior - rock wrecker - 86%

slaking - giga impact - 94%

rampardos - head smash - 86%

sunflora - leaf storm - 87%

It's not such a large margin, oh well... now I know better ;)
 
I can say from personal experience that Explosion teams are very powerful in D/P (though really having more than 3-4 explosion users is a bit limiting). It isn't too tough to take out gengar with a pursuit metagross @ lum berry (who also explodes), and from there it's happy hunting. Let's keep in mind that Explosion does more damage to rocks/steels than a super-effective Earthquake (don't forget that Selfdestruct and Explosion cut the target's DEF in half upon use), so pokemon that resist explosion honestly aren't a huge problem, except for Rock/Steel types which shouldn't be seeing any use to begin with.

Also why is everyone talking about lickilicky? The idea behind a boom team should be to use pokemon which are useful (gengar, heatran, metagross, etc) and have explosion as a bonus. Lickilicky is slow and pretty much useless outside of explosion.
 
The reason I love Explosion teams is that you can narrow down exactly what you need to kill to make one of your threats even more deadly. I like the thought of 5 exploders and a sweeper for the exact same reason - have the exploders lure out certain counters and take them out.

I also got destroyed by MoP when he was running an explosion team. Explosions teams work - they're not just a gimmick - because you can play them in a way to make a threat of yours unstoppable
 
I agree with Tangerine- 5 exploders, 1 Sweeper. I tend to make Trick 'Splosion teams. Start off with something like Bronzong to start off TR then Explode. Then bring in something like Exeggcutor (damn, how do you spell it? : ( ) to sweep, keep TR up and Explode when low on health. Azelf is always a good one since it can do other shit, too. Camerupt works well in Exploding TR because you can use Eruption for massive damage, Explode when need be. Qwilfish is another good one if you want to start off a rain team. Skuntank is absolutely fabulous as well because no one know what it can do. Another think to consider is Destiny Bond. Some times it can help out where Explosion fails (I use a Scarf Gallage: Destiny Bond, CC, Ice Punch, Thunderpunch). Hope that helps someone...
 
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