Hydreigon + Heatran Offense
https://pokepast.es/e10957c11f62b88d
Team Blurb:
Hydreigon and Heatran are 2 Pokemon that struggle with their physical-weak typings (Dragon/Fighting in Hydra's case and Fighting/Ground in Tran's) in tandem with mediocre speed tiers, but they bring interesting offensive and indirect defensive utility to teams that can fit them. Because their issues are similar, a Dual Psy + Spikes build is a novel option for fitting both at once at the cost of defensive oddities, Latios counterplay in particular for this team.
Hydreigon
Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn
- Earth Power
The goal was to make a team that could fit this set. Hydra is a Pokemon that's bad at everything but killing stuff: nothing switches into it, but it's outrun and deleted by most other offensive Pokemon (Garchomp, Keldeo, Terrakion, Volcarona, Breloom, Latios to name a specific bunch), which made a Latios + Alakazam build immediately tempting since those two outrun and beat most of the Pokemon that Hydra exacerbates weakness to.
In return, STAB Dark makes Hydra a good bulky Psychic (Reuniclus, Slow twins, Jellicent, Celebi) punish, and better yet, U-turn on a predicted Fighting type swap in can get Latios/Zam in on e.g., Keld/Terrak, which is nice.
Heatran
Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 60 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Lava Plume
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt
- Toxic
This Tran set is a weird hybrid of offensive balloon sets and more utility-based sets that are more common in DPP/ORAS than BW (from what I can tell at least). It's because for this team, I wanted Tran to be more of a defensive presence that can check various offensive threats and also minimize opposing spikes. Hence, the set needed to do the following:
- Outrun Lead Skarm to Taunt it
- Toxic for Latios and Bulky Waters (besides Tenta)
- Lava Plume to beat Scizor and Cloyster guaranteed
- Smash Outrage locked dragons/Gliscor with HP Ice
In an ideal world, one packs Earth Power as well for opposing Tran, but these 4 moves were all more crucial alongside the 2 dragons + Hippo securing the team against the occasional Tran already.
Just like Hydra, Heatran struggles because of its mediocre speed, so it appreciates Zam + Latios as well. In return, it's all-around good against irritating offensive mons like Volcarona (unless HP Ground . . .), Scizor, and Cloyster.
These two need no introduction. Running and gunning with the flagship sets is the obvious choice. It's nice to run double Specs dragon to slightly reduce the importance of spikes here by bashing most Steel types every time they come in, and Alakazam is the ultimate cleaner in any game thanks to its speed and Magic Guard, so it's also right at home here.
Sand felt intuitive here with Heatran (want to dispel Rain and added chip on waters is nice), but the first 4 have a clear weakness to physicals and haven't provided Stealth Rock, so Hippowdon over Tyranitar makes sense. Hippo soft-checks Excadrill, Garchomp, Dragonite, and other scary physical threats, but it's not perfect, meaning playing for a Psychic type endgame is key.
The first 5 members of the team were lacking a plethora of boxes to check:
Spikes (Zam demands these)
Rapid Spin (Hippo/Tran would prefer spin support if they can help it)
Mamoswine soft check (Mamo bashes in half the team)
Forre is far from the best choice for any of these things, but it's the only mon that can do all three alone. It also brings a slow Volt Switch as another pivot move, which is nice when all of its partners aren't particularly fond of swapping in, especially Zam.