Hi guys,
This is my third or fourth RMT and I decided to do something a little different. Instead of picking a team that I felt would do really well I wanted to make a team using some pokemon that I have never really had the chance to try out on other teams, or pokemon I have had great fun using. The resulting team has been very fun to play with and it has been working fairly well for me. I am only hitting ~1800 mark but I am still rising with this team and figured I would share it because my win rate with this team is about 80% or higher. So without further ado, here is the team.
Conkeldurr @ Leftovers
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 HP
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Mach Punch
The central focus of the team. I have been wanting to use conkeldurr on a team now for a long time but have always found him too slow for the team. I definitely regret never using him before because he takes a hell of a beating and always manages to KO at least one pokemon on my opponent's team. I've found him to be very hard for the opponent to deal with because not a lot can OHKO him, and because of his huge attack he will always do some damage back. Guts was chosen as his ability to take advantage of all the status spamming this gen, in particular Rotom-W spamming Will-O-Wisp. Once he has been afflicted with status it becomes very hard for my opponent to deal with him short of waiting for the burn or toxic poison to kill me after a few turns. I initially used a bulk up set but found it very hard to set up with (even with the dual screens) because his primary life-recovery is drain punch. And if my opponent chooses to attack me then I may not be able to get that hit off for the recovery because I am almost always slower. The buff to Knock Off was also a huge boost to this guy as you can easily destroy any ghost that tries to switch in (Fully defensive gourgeist-super is still 2HKO'd, and it 2HKO's offensive aegislash in defensive form). Most common pokemon struggle against him and have to revenge kill him after he has been weakened. His biggest counter is definitely talonflame as it does manage to get the OHKO on him, and charizard-y definitely ruins his day. Other common checks include rotom-w which still only manages to 3HKO with Hydro Pump, and fast psychic types that manage to get the OHKO or revenge him when he is weakened. Overall a great poke and I definitely regret not using him on other teams.
Crawdaunt @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Aqua Jet
- Crabhammer
- Knock Off
Another pokemon I definitely wanted to put on my team, as I saw his immense power when Dun Deal tried it out, and then shortly after BlameTruth tried one out as well. I wanted to use one a long time ago when I saw it had adaptability but I always assumed it wasn't bulky enough and was too slow to do anything. I was surprised when he turned out to be an amazing revenge killer due to his new toy in aqua jet, and he can often take a neutral hit and survive as well. He still isn't all that common so a lot of people misplay when they see him, such as trying to setup in his face only to be OHKO'd or hurt very badly. This set does behave very similarly to the common azumarill but has 2 advantages over it: It's immunity to psychic, and access to STAB knock off. Azumarill is probably the better pokemon of the two, but like I said this is a team to test out some fun pokemon, so this guy was chosen instead of azumarill. His moveset is pretty self-explanatory, but I decided to use swords dance instead of dragon dance because I find even after a DD he is still slower than a lot of threats. And because of his below-average bulk it is very rarely you will get 2 or more turns to set up. So swords dance gives him a huge power boost with one turn of set up which he can abuse quite readily with aqua jet. He does still have quite a few counters even with his incredible attack, such as the aforementioned azumarill, or any bulky pokemon that is faster than him. Due to the fact that speed is such an issue for him (and conkeldurr) I run paralysis support on 2 other pokemon on my team to help them get a sweep going. Another awesome pokemon, however he is definitely overshadowed by azumarill. Still a blast to use and you should give him a try.
Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic
Support excadrill. What a weird concept. I was struggling when I was designing the team because at this point I had 2 pokemon weak to stealth rock and no pokemon to abuse ground moves. I figured I would give defensive excadrill a try because he does narrowly avoid the OHKO from rotom-w's hydro pump, and can hit back with his powerful earthquake, get a rapid spin off or toxic something on the switch. He is also the rocker of the team, and he can usually get the rocks up although it isn't a priority on this team. I have tried a substitute excadrill in the past and had lots of success with it so I figured I would try another set to see if it was worthwhile. So far he has worked fairly well but any pokemon packing a STAB move he is weak to almost always gets the OHKO on him. He is definitely the most expendable member of the team after klefki, but he almost always gets the job done. I would definitely consider another pokemon however, or even a different set (I have been considering a choice scarf set) to see how it fares, but I have always considered it and just left it because of his reliability. I have also considered the new defensive krookodile set that I've seen on Shofu's channel, but the loss of rapid spin would really hurt this team (and defog removes screens). I have also considered starmie but thought it left me too many electric weaknesses. Although the extra ice coverage and reliable recovery would be very nice to have on the team.
Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Dark Pulse
Another pokemon I have been wanting to use for a long time. I have been destroyed by this guy a lot so I wanted to use him for sure. The main thing that I liked about him is that he is a scary nasty plot sweeper, but he can also provide support for the team thanks to pranster thunderwave. Thunderwave is great for this team because it lowers my opponent's pokemon's speed so I have a better chance to sweep with conkeldurr or crawdaunt. For sweeping I decided to use thunderbolt for the necessary STAB, and dark pulse. I chose dark pulse over hidden power ice because it is unexpected and still hits really hard, plus the 20% chance to flinch is very nice. I have chosen leftovers because I want him to stick around a bit longer to help the team with paralysis support, but life orb is definitely an option. I also need him to deal with Azumarill, so keeping as much HP on him as possible is definitely good for when azumarills get a belly drum boost. Upon consideration it does look like my team could use HP ice instead but I'm curious what you guys think would be better. Because of his versatility I find it doesn't have many counters, if I'm in a very obvious losing situation I can just sacrifice him to get a T-wave on something. The threat of focus blast also deters a lot of switch ins because it can do serious damage to a lot of the pokemon that carry rock or ice moves that threaten it. Overall because of the moves I picked scarfchomp is a pretty good counter to this because it can outspeed and KO with stone edge. Mega-garchomp is another huge threat because it survives even a HP ice and can easily OHKO back. I also cannot paralyze him for the rest of the team to deal with which makes him even more of a pain.
Klefki @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Foul Play
- Light Screen
- Reflect
I have never really tried using a pokemon that sets up screens before, but because I am kind of reliant on setting up or tanking hits to win I figured this would be a great chance to try one. I eventually settled on klefki because of his typing, access to prankster and he is a new pokemon I have never used before. He always gets his job done, avoids 2HKO's with the respective screen up and provides more paralysis support for the team. I have often just gotten dual screens up and sacrificed him to get a better switch into another pokemon, but sometimes he can last for a while throughout the match. However if he does last awhile I generally through him under the bus so I can get a safe switch into another pokemon when I can't risk a wrong prediction. I have chosen foul play as the last move so that I can do some damage back to my opponent after I get screens up. It generally doesn't do that much work however if I were to change it up I'm not sure what I would pick instead. I considered toxic to get some residual damage going on but have never tried it because I have always been worried about excadrill or other pokemon setting up in my face. I'm definitely curious what you guys think about this set on my team, but I have found him to be very useful and he provides tremendous support to the team while often getting me safe switches for other pokemon.
Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Roost
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Flare Blitz
The final member of my team and another pokemon I have really been wanting to use since X&Y came out. Unfortunately I bought Y and cannot use him in wifi battles, and same with conkeldurr I have never found a team I truly felt he fit in to. However I found his resistances and powerful attacks provided some great assets to the team, while getting some reliable recovery as well. Honestly once I get a DD or two under my belt with him it's very hard to stop him. The best counters are ones that are usually intended for talonflame, such as rotom-w or bulky rock types. However when he starts boosting he can usually smash through those walls without taking too much damage due to his great typing. He is a pain to bring in before he mega-evolves however, and that has essentially made excadrill a very valuable member to this team for his rapid spin support. I have considered replacing roost with earthquake to give him some help with his sweeps, but have found roost to be useful due to his lack of priority and getting rid of damage from rocks. I was also tinkering with a belly drum set but again, due to his lack of priority it would be very difficult to pull off.
Alright so that is the team. Feel free to leave some critique because I am looking for ways to improve it. It is a fun team I put together, so I feel like it has some large weaknesses (azumarill) that I am forced to play around but overall I think it is a fairly solid team that I have gotten a good win rate with. Thanks for reading
This is my third or fourth RMT and I decided to do something a little different. Instead of picking a team that I felt would do really well I wanted to make a team using some pokemon that I have never really had the chance to try out on other teams, or pokemon I have had great fun using. The resulting team has been very fun to play with and it has been working fairly well for me. I am only hitting ~1800 mark but I am still rising with this team and figured I would share it because my win rate with this team is about 80% or higher. So without further ado, here is the team.
Conkeldurr @ Leftovers
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 HP
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Mach Punch
The central focus of the team. I have been wanting to use conkeldurr on a team now for a long time but have always found him too slow for the team. I definitely regret never using him before because he takes a hell of a beating and always manages to KO at least one pokemon on my opponent's team. I've found him to be very hard for the opponent to deal with because not a lot can OHKO him, and because of his huge attack he will always do some damage back. Guts was chosen as his ability to take advantage of all the status spamming this gen, in particular Rotom-W spamming Will-O-Wisp. Once he has been afflicted with status it becomes very hard for my opponent to deal with him short of waiting for the burn or toxic poison to kill me after a few turns. I initially used a bulk up set but found it very hard to set up with (even with the dual screens) because his primary life-recovery is drain punch. And if my opponent chooses to attack me then I may not be able to get that hit off for the recovery because I am almost always slower. The buff to Knock Off was also a huge boost to this guy as you can easily destroy any ghost that tries to switch in (Fully defensive gourgeist-super is still 2HKO'd, and it 2HKO's offensive aegislash in defensive form). Most common pokemon struggle against him and have to revenge kill him after he has been weakened. His biggest counter is definitely talonflame as it does manage to get the OHKO on him, and charizard-y definitely ruins his day. Other common checks include rotom-w which still only manages to 3HKO with Hydro Pump, and fast psychic types that manage to get the OHKO or revenge him when he is weakened. Overall a great poke and I definitely regret not using him on other teams.
Crawdaunt @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Aqua Jet
- Crabhammer
- Knock Off
Another pokemon I definitely wanted to put on my team, as I saw his immense power when Dun Deal tried it out, and then shortly after BlameTruth tried one out as well. I wanted to use one a long time ago when I saw it had adaptability but I always assumed it wasn't bulky enough and was too slow to do anything. I was surprised when he turned out to be an amazing revenge killer due to his new toy in aqua jet, and he can often take a neutral hit and survive as well. He still isn't all that common so a lot of people misplay when they see him, such as trying to setup in his face only to be OHKO'd or hurt very badly. This set does behave very similarly to the common azumarill but has 2 advantages over it: It's immunity to psychic, and access to STAB knock off. Azumarill is probably the better pokemon of the two, but like I said this is a team to test out some fun pokemon, so this guy was chosen instead of azumarill. His moveset is pretty self-explanatory, but I decided to use swords dance instead of dragon dance because I find even after a DD he is still slower than a lot of threats. And because of his below-average bulk it is very rarely you will get 2 or more turns to set up. So swords dance gives him a huge power boost with one turn of set up which he can abuse quite readily with aqua jet. He does still have quite a few counters even with his incredible attack, such as the aforementioned azumarill, or any bulky pokemon that is faster than him. Due to the fact that speed is such an issue for him (and conkeldurr) I run paralysis support on 2 other pokemon on my team to help them get a sweep going. Another awesome pokemon, however he is definitely overshadowed by azumarill. Still a blast to use and you should give him a try.
Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic
Support excadrill. What a weird concept. I was struggling when I was designing the team because at this point I had 2 pokemon weak to stealth rock and no pokemon to abuse ground moves. I figured I would give defensive excadrill a try because he does narrowly avoid the OHKO from rotom-w's hydro pump, and can hit back with his powerful earthquake, get a rapid spin off or toxic something on the switch. He is also the rocker of the team, and he can usually get the rocks up although it isn't a priority on this team. I have tried a substitute excadrill in the past and had lots of success with it so I figured I would try another set to see if it was worthwhile. So far he has worked fairly well but any pokemon packing a STAB move he is weak to almost always gets the OHKO on him. He is definitely the most expendable member of the team after klefki, but he almost always gets the job done. I would definitely consider another pokemon however, or even a different set (I have been considering a choice scarf set) to see how it fares, but I have always considered it and just left it because of his reliability. I have also considered the new defensive krookodile set that I've seen on Shofu's channel, but the loss of rapid spin would really hurt this team (and defog removes screens). I have also considered starmie but thought it left me too many electric weaknesses. Although the extra ice coverage and reliable recovery would be very nice to have on the team.
Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Dark Pulse
Another pokemon I have been wanting to use for a long time. I have been destroyed by this guy a lot so I wanted to use him for sure. The main thing that I liked about him is that he is a scary nasty plot sweeper, but he can also provide support for the team thanks to pranster thunderwave. Thunderwave is great for this team because it lowers my opponent's pokemon's speed so I have a better chance to sweep with conkeldurr or crawdaunt. For sweeping I decided to use thunderbolt for the necessary STAB, and dark pulse. I chose dark pulse over hidden power ice because it is unexpected and still hits really hard, plus the 20% chance to flinch is very nice. I have chosen leftovers because I want him to stick around a bit longer to help the team with paralysis support, but life orb is definitely an option. I also need him to deal with Azumarill, so keeping as much HP on him as possible is definitely good for when azumarills get a belly drum boost. Upon consideration it does look like my team could use HP ice instead but I'm curious what you guys think would be better. Because of his versatility I find it doesn't have many counters, if I'm in a very obvious losing situation I can just sacrifice him to get a T-wave on something. The threat of focus blast also deters a lot of switch ins because it can do serious damage to a lot of the pokemon that carry rock or ice moves that threaten it. Overall because of the moves I picked scarfchomp is a pretty good counter to this because it can outspeed and KO with stone edge. Mega-garchomp is another huge threat because it survives even a HP ice and can easily OHKO back. I also cannot paralyze him for the rest of the team to deal with which makes him even more of a pain.
Klefki @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Foul Play
- Light Screen
- Reflect
I have never really tried using a pokemon that sets up screens before, but because I am kind of reliant on setting up or tanking hits to win I figured this would be a great chance to try one. I eventually settled on klefki because of his typing, access to prankster and he is a new pokemon I have never used before. He always gets his job done, avoids 2HKO's with the respective screen up and provides more paralysis support for the team. I have often just gotten dual screens up and sacrificed him to get a better switch into another pokemon, but sometimes he can last for a while throughout the match. However if he does last awhile I generally through him under the bus so I can get a safe switch into another pokemon when I can't risk a wrong prediction. I have chosen foul play as the last move so that I can do some damage back to my opponent after I get screens up. It generally doesn't do that much work however if I were to change it up I'm not sure what I would pick instead. I considered toxic to get some residual damage going on but have never tried it because I have always been worried about excadrill or other pokemon setting up in my face. I'm definitely curious what you guys think about this set on my team, but I have found him to be very useful and he provides tremendous support to the team while often getting me safe switches for other pokemon.
Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Roost
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Flare Blitz
The final member of my team and another pokemon I have really been wanting to use since X&Y came out. Unfortunately I bought Y and cannot use him in wifi battles, and same with conkeldurr I have never found a team I truly felt he fit in to. However I found his resistances and powerful attacks provided some great assets to the team, while getting some reliable recovery as well. Honestly once I get a DD or two under my belt with him it's very hard to stop him. The best counters are ones that are usually intended for talonflame, such as rotom-w or bulky rock types. However when he starts boosting he can usually smash through those walls without taking too much damage due to his great typing. He is a pain to bring in before he mega-evolves however, and that has essentially made excadrill a very valuable member to this team for his rapid spin support. I have considered replacing roost with earthquake to give him some help with his sweeps, but have found roost to be useful due to his lack of priority and getting rid of damage from rocks. I was also tinkering with a belly drum set but again, due to his lack of priority it would be very difficult to pull off.
Alright so that is the team. Feel free to leave some critique because I am looking for ways to improve it. It is a fun team I put together, so I feel like it has some large weaknesses (azumarill) that I am forced to play around but overall I think it is a fairly solid team that I have gotten a good win rate with. Thanks for reading
