Hi Everyone,
I have been in the world of competitive battling for almost a year and it has been a long road to get to the point where I am even decent at this game. I have always loved Pokemon but it wasn't until recently that I got exposed to WiFi battling through the new "Random Match-up" feature on the Black & White games. I was instantly hooked, but I was also horrible. To make a long story short after much trial and error and lurking on this site I have gone from using in game pokes on random match-up, to pokesaving random teams together for WiFi battles, to the point where I am now. Now I feel like I still have a lot to learn, but I also feel like I'm turning another corner on the way to being good at this.
This is the team I have been working on of late on PO. It is what I would consider a Bulky Offense or Balanced team. It doesn't have any frail sweepers nor does it have a bunch of stall oriented pokes. That was my goal for building this team. I wanted Pokemon that could take hits and deal decent damage as well.
TEAM BUILDING PROCESS:
I started with Scizor and Rotom-W with the idea that I would build a Volt-Turn team like the ones I had seen and heard of a lot of late. So I went with the Standard Defensive Rotom with Volt Switch and Choice Banded Scizor.
Next I decided that I would go with a standard FWG core to go along with Rotom so I added two pokes that I thought provided the synergy I needed to form what would end up being my defensive core. So I went with Specially Defensive Heatran and Bulk Up Breloom. Heatran to take Fire, Ice, and Flying attacks aimed at Scizor or Breloom. Breloom to absorb status as well as take Water, Grass and Electric attacks aimed at Heatran or Rotom. Rotom to take Ground, Fire, Flying and Water attacks aimed at Heatran, Scizor or Breloom.
So with these four pokes I had a pretty good core both on offense and defense, but my team was still pretty weak to strong physical attacks particularly Fighting and Ground type attacks so I decided to add Swords Dance Gliscor to fill that hole. Another great Pokemon for Bulky Offense. He can take pretty much any Physical attack that isn't Water or Ice and has immunity to Ground and Electric attacks. On top of his great defensive attributes, after a swords dance or two he can sweep weakened or unprepared teams with ease. Oh, and then there is his ability Poison Heal, Gliscor is definitely the glue that holds my team together.
To further solidify the synergy of this team I wanted a Pokemon that fit the theme of Bulky Offense, but could also take hits no one else of my team could take well for example a Focus Blast. I also wanted this last poke to be a special attacker with good speed so it could revenge kill, break through certain physical walls Rotom could not, as well as sweep late game. Expert Belt Latios w/ HP Fire seemed to be the obvious choice to me as it has good bulk on the special side and great speed and special attack as well.
After testing the team for a while on PO I decided that I wanted a Pokemon that could take the strong physical attacks that Gliscor could not so I desided to forgo the Volt-Turn combo. Instead changing Rotom the a physically defensive spread from D/P and replacing Volt-Switch with Thunderbolt. I also found myself wanting more from Scizor. I know that may sound silly since he is #1 in usage for the OU tier and Choice band may be his most popular set on top of that but I just wasn't getting much out of him on this team with my style of play so I tried some of his other sets. The last one I tried was the Choice Scared set which I love and I feel It fits this team as well as my style of play.
EDIT: After taking all your suggestions into account and testing Calm Mind Latias, Specially Defensive Jirachi, Parashuffler Dragonite and Trick Room Reuniclus in that sixth spot I have decided on Reuncilus for now. He seems to work best for me out of those options, but I will continue to try and refine this team to the best of my ability. I also made the change back to Choice Banded Scizor as many of you suggested and the more I play the more I see how much better it is than the Scarfed set I was running. The powerful priority you get with bullet punch goes without saying, but the ability to come in and trap ghosts and psychic types with pursuit is amazing. Not to mention a much stronger U-turn and Superpower. Thanks you all for pointing me back in that direction. Lastly, I made some minor changes to Rotom's and Heatran's sets. I went ahead and switched out Thunderbolt for Volt-Switch and moved the 48 EVs from Speed to SpAttack to give it some added punch. On Heatran I changed the EVs to the standard defensive set as you all had suggested. I will post all the changes below in RED.
IN DEPTH:
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 SpA
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
Volt-Switch
Hydro Pump
Wil-O-Wisp
Pain Split
This set is much more defensive than most Rotom-W you will encounter in BW OU. It is an EV spread that I borrowed from a D/P set and it works well as a defensive pivot. What this set lacks in power it makes up for in survive-ability. With Wil-O-Wisp and Pain Split Rotom can burn and were down Pokes that stay in with its stab attacks Thunder and Hydro Pump. This team really needed another defensive pivot to help fill in where Gliscor can't. Rotom fills that role nicely with resistances to Water, Fire and Ice attacks.
Scizor @ Choice Banded
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spd
Adament Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
U-Turn
Bullet Punch
Pursuit
Superpower
I love Choice Scarfed Scizor. He is often my lead and he frequently spends the early part of the match spamming U-turn, weakening the opponents Pokemon and scoring surprise kills on unsuspecting Pokemon when he out speeds them with a U-turn, Iron Head, Aerial Ace, or Superpower for the knockout. The element of surprise along with coverage moves you can use without having to take a hit first is why I prefer this set to the choice banded set. You do lose some physical bulk with this set but Scizor's natural bulk allow him to still be able to take a hit or two even without any investment. EDIT: Changed to Banded set for reasons stated above.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SpD / 160 Spd
Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
Lava Plume
Stealth Rocks
Toxic
Roar
Heatran is my main Specially Defensive pivot. Flash Fire gives him immunity to Fire type attacks which really helps out Scizor and Breloom. Aside from being a pivot Heatran has some other important jobs on this team. He sets up Stealth Rocks to wear down fires and fliers. He is great at stopping things from setting up with Roar especially Dragons and Baton-Pass which is so annoying. If I see any Baton-Passers in the preview you best believe Heatran is my lead and he does well in that roll. He can also make good use of Toxic and Lava Plume with a little prediction.
Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
Spore
Seed Bomb
Focus Punch
Substitute
Breloom is a Beast! Spore frequently puts the opponent in a bind while allowing for a Bulk Up or two and then if Breloom's counters have been dispatched its off to the races. Otherwise his ability Poison Heal coupled with the investment in Special Defensive Bulk allow him to help carry the load where Heatran cannot as a pivot when necessary. Drain Punch isn't even fair with Poison Heal after a Bulk Up of two and anything that doesn't resist that and Seed Bomb look out! EDIT: Changed to SubPunch set as recommended after testing. I get so many more kills with this set! Thanks guys!
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Swords Dance
Protect
Shit! I'm getting tired and I really want to finish this I hope it doesn't show to much in the quality of my work. Gliscor like I said before is the glue to this team. He does Bulky Offense so well its stupid. This set is pretty standard stuff. I went with Protect and Swords Dance over Toxic, Taunt, or Substitute because I wanted to be able to hit hard and Poison Heal is amazing with Protect.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs:192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
Trick Room
Psyshock
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Nice Pokemon for cleaning up late if you can manage to take out or weaken its counters beforehand. Trick Room makes you the fastest Pokemon on the battle field in most cases although you still can't outrun a Sucker Punch so be mindful of that. Psyshock allows me to still hit special walls like Blissey and Chansey for decent damage. Shadow Ball to hit Gengar, Latios and Latias and Focus Blast for perfect coverage.
Former Members:
Latios @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 SpA / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
Dragon Pulse
Surf
Hidden Power (Fire)
Recover
Latios just seems like a good fit with these other Pokemon. He Gives me a third Pokemon with some special bulk. He is my only specially oriented sweeper and wall buster. He also has great speed for revenge killing. I'm thinking of changing to a choice scarfed set just to deal with other Latios but I really prefer to stay away from choiced sets for the most part. This is probably the one set I'm not entirely sold on yet.
Anyways, That's the team that I'm working on...I look forward to your suggestions and constructive criticism! Thanks!
I have been in the world of competitive battling for almost a year and it has been a long road to get to the point where I am even decent at this game. I have always loved Pokemon but it wasn't until recently that I got exposed to WiFi battling through the new "Random Match-up" feature on the Black & White games. I was instantly hooked, but I was also horrible. To make a long story short after much trial and error and lurking on this site I have gone from using in game pokes on random match-up, to pokesaving random teams together for WiFi battles, to the point where I am now. Now I feel like I still have a lot to learn, but I also feel like I'm turning another corner on the way to being good at this.
This is the team I have been working on of late on PO. It is what I would consider a Bulky Offense or Balanced team. It doesn't have any frail sweepers nor does it have a bunch of stall oriented pokes. That was my goal for building this team. I wanted Pokemon that could take hits and deal decent damage as well.
TEAM BUILDING PROCESS:
I started with Scizor and Rotom-W with the idea that I would build a Volt-Turn team like the ones I had seen and heard of a lot of late. So I went with the Standard Defensive Rotom with Volt Switch and Choice Banded Scizor.
Next I decided that I would go with a standard FWG core to go along with Rotom so I added two pokes that I thought provided the synergy I needed to form what would end up being my defensive core. So I went with Specially Defensive Heatran and Bulk Up Breloom. Heatran to take Fire, Ice, and Flying attacks aimed at Scizor or Breloom. Breloom to absorb status as well as take Water, Grass and Electric attacks aimed at Heatran or Rotom. Rotom to take Ground, Fire, Flying and Water attacks aimed at Heatran, Scizor or Breloom.
So with these four pokes I had a pretty good core both on offense and defense, but my team was still pretty weak to strong physical attacks particularly Fighting and Ground type attacks so I decided to add Swords Dance Gliscor to fill that hole. Another great Pokemon for Bulky Offense. He can take pretty much any Physical attack that isn't Water or Ice and has immunity to Ground and Electric attacks. On top of his great defensive attributes, after a swords dance or two he can sweep weakened or unprepared teams with ease. Oh, and then there is his ability Poison Heal, Gliscor is definitely the glue that holds my team together.
To further solidify the synergy of this team I wanted a Pokemon that fit the theme of Bulky Offense, but could also take hits no one else of my team could take well for example a Focus Blast. I also wanted this last poke to be a special attacker with good speed so it could revenge kill, break through certain physical walls Rotom could not, as well as sweep late game. Expert Belt Latios w/ HP Fire seemed to be the obvious choice to me as it has good bulk on the special side and great speed and special attack as well.
After testing the team for a while on PO I decided that I wanted a Pokemon that could take the strong physical attacks that Gliscor could not so I desided to forgo the Volt-Turn combo. Instead changing Rotom the a physically defensive spread from D/P and replacing Volt-Switch with Thunderbolt. I also found myself wanting more from Scizor. I know that may sound silly since he is #1 in usage for the OU tier and Choice band may be his most popular set on top of that but I just wasn't getting much out of him on this team with my style of play so I tried some of his other sets. The last one I tried was the Choice Scared set which I love and I feel It fits this team as well as my style of play.
EDIT: After taking all your suggestions into account and testing Calm Mind Latias, Specially Defensive Jirachi, Parashuffler Dragonite and Trick Room Reuniclus in that sixth spot I have decided on Reuncilus for now. He seems to work best for me out of those options, but I will continue to try and refine this team to the best of my ability. I also made the change back to Choice Banded Scizor as many of you suggested and the more I play the more I see how much better it is than the Scarfed set I was running. The powerful priority you get with bullet punch goes without saying, but the ability to come in and trap ghosts and psychic types with pursuit is amazing. Not to mention a much stronger U-turn and Superpower. Thanks you all for pointing me back in that direction. Lastly, I made some minor changes to Rotom's and Heatran's sets. I went ahead and switched out Thunderbolt for Volt-Switch and moved the 48 EVs from Speed to SpAttack to give it some added punch. On Heatran I changed the EVs to the standard defensive set as you all had suggested. I will post all the changes below in RED.
IN DEPTH:
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 SpA
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
Volt-Switch
Hydro Pump
Wil-O-Wisp
Pain Split
This set is much more defensive than most Rotom-W you will encounter in BW OU. It is an EV spread that I borrowed from a D/P set and it works well as a defensive pivot. What this set lacks in power it makes up for in survive-ability. With Wil-O-Wisp and Pain Split Rotom can burn and were down Pokes that stay in with its stab attacks Thunder and Hydro Pump. This team really needed another defensive pivot to help fill in where Gliscor can't. Rotom fills that role nicely with resistances to Water, Fire and Ice attacks.
Scizor @ Choice Banded
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spd
Adament Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
U-Turn
Bullet Punch
Pursuit
Superpower
I love Choice Scarfed Scizor. He is often my lead and he frequently spends the early part of the match spamming U-turn, weakening the opponents Pokemon and scoring surprise kills on unsuspecting Pokemon when he out speeds them with a U-turn, Iron Head, Aerial Ace, or Superpower for the knockout. The element of surprise along with coverage moves you can use without having to take a hit first is why I prefer this set to the choice banded set. You do lose some physical bulk with this set but Scizor's natural bulk allow him to still be able to take a hit or two even without any investment. EDIT: Changed to Banded set for reasons stated above.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SpD / 160 Spd
Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
Lava Plume
Stealth Rocks
Toxic
Roar
Heatran is my main Specially Defensive pivot. Flash Fire gives him immunity to Fire type attacks which really helps out Scizor and Breloom. Aside from being a pivot Heatran has some other important jobs on this team. He sets up Stealth Rocks to wear down fires and fliers. He is great at stopping things from setting up with Roar especially Dragons and Baton-Pass which is so annoying. If I see any Baton-Passers in the preview you best believe Heatran is my lead and he does well in that roll. He can also make good use of Toxic and Lava Plume with a little prediction.
Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
Spore
Seed Bomb
Focus Punch
Substitute
Breloom is a Beast! Spore frequently puts the opponent in a bind while allowing for a Bulk Up or two and then if Breloom's counters have been dispatched its off to the races. Otherwise his ability Poison Heal coupled with the investment in Special Defensive Bulk allow him to help carry the load where Heatran cannot as a pivot when necessary. Drain Punch isn't even fair with Poison Heal after a Bulk Up of two and anything that doesn't resist that and Seed Bomb look out! EDIT: Changed to SubPunch set as recommended after testing. I get so many more kills with this set! Thanks guys!
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Swords Dance
Protect
Shit! I'm getting tired and I really want to finish this I hope it doesn't show to much in the quality of my work. Gliscor like I said before is the glue to this team. He does Bulky Offense so well its stupid. This set is pretty standard stuff. I went with Protect and Swords Dance over Toxic, Taunt, or Substitute because I wanted to be able to hit hard and Poison Heal is amazing with Protect.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs:192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
Trick Room
Psyshock
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Nice Pokemon for cleaning up late if you can manage to take out or weaken its counters beforehand. Trick Room makes you the fastest Pokemon on the battle field in most cases although you still can't outrun a Sucker Punch so be mindful of that. Psyshock allows me to still hit special walls like Blissey and Chansey for decent damage. Shadow Ball to hit Gengar, Latios and Latias and Focus Blast for perfect coverage.
Former Members:
Latios @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 SpA / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
Dragon Pulse
Surf
Hidden Power (Fire)
Recover
Latios just seems like a good fit with these other Pokemon. He Gives me a third Pokemon with some special bulk. He is my only specially oriented sweeper and wall buster. He also has great speed for revenge killing. I'm thinking of changing to a choice scarfed set just to deal with other Latios but I really prefer to stay away from choiced sets for the most part. This is probably the one set I'm not entirely sold on yet.
Anyways, That's the team that I'm working on...I look forward to your suggestions and constructive criticism! Thanks!
