CAP Mixed Team

[drgnfyr552]

This is my first CAP team, which originally was based on protecting Syclant. I just built it up from there, eventually using a standard suicide lead Syclant. In the end, I ditched my first idea, and the team focused on Revenankh and Gyarados for setup, with Colossoil picking up the scraps. The rest of the team is focused on supporting them and taking down their counters, with Heatran tacked on for Stealth Rock, taking out Forretress, and Explosion, and Pyroak taking out any Steels, bulky waters, or bulky grounds that could pose a threat.

Syclant @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compoundeyes
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 6 Sp. Defence
Jolly Nature
-Ice Shard
-Megahorn
-Taunt
-Spikes

Syclant plays as a standard suicide lead, similar to Aerodactyl but with Spikes. While testing it , I noticed very few leads can threaten it, and if the opponent has no Tyranitar/Hippowdon lead, it can almost always get two layers of Spikes down. Taunt is for any case where I suspect opposing leads are planning to set up entry hazards right away, or also have Taunt. Syclant can outspeed them, and I've noticed they usually switch, lacking a good move to take it down. Ice Shard is for priority STAB, Megahorn is for power STAB.

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Sp. Attack, 252 Speed, 6 HP
Naive Nature
-Earth Power
-Fire Blast
-Explosion
-Stealth Rock

Heatran very often has an opportunity to switch in and Stealth Rock, preferably right after Syclant or into a fire move. Shuca Berry to keep it from dying on the switch, Fire Blast for STAB (pity about the accuracy) and Forretress, because I sure as hell don't want him to spin off my hazards, Earth Power for extra coverage, and it hits Magnezone harder. Explosion is for when it's just had enough, and even without EV investment usually KOs at least one guy. Between him and Syclant, I can get a good amount
of hazards up fairly quickly, and probably score a KO or two.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 6 Defense
Adamant Nature
-Dragon Dance
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Waterfall

Standard Dragon Dance Gyarados. Gets good coverage along with Revenankh and Collosoil. Went with Leftovers instead of Life Orb because Dragon Dance covers power, and I already have Life Orb on Colossoil, so I want the bulkiness. EdgeQuake+Waterfall is self explanatory. Not much to say about this guy.

Revenankh @ Leftovers
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 252 HP, 218 Sp. Defense, 40 Defense
Careful Nature
-Bulk Up
-Hammer Arm
-Shadow Sneak
-Rest

This guy is the crux of my team. Unresisted STAB, Bulk Up, and ShedRest make him incredibly hard to take down, while dishing out obscene amounts of damage. First of all, Bulk Up. This makes him an insane tank, and after one or two, he can function great on offense and defense. Hammer Arm is great STAB, with good PP, and awesome power able to 1HKO and 2HKO a wide variety of foes. Shadow Sneak makes Hammer Arm's speed drop negligible, and even with its bad power, makes for a great priority move. Rest is what really makes this guy shine. 30% extra chance to recover from Rest each turn (essentially a 30% chance for free full recovery) thanks to Shed Skin, plus status blocking, AND the defense boosts from Bulk Up, make it nigh impossible to KO Revenankh as he destroys your team.

Colossoil @ Life Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 6 Defense
Jolly Nature
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Sucker Punch
-Pursuit

Colossoil is a reliable sweeper that can help hold the team together, covering the others' weaknesses as they cover his. EdgeQuake is again useful, and has nice coverage and STAB on Earthquake. Sucker Punch is necessary for any fast Ghosts and Psychics who think they can KO it quickly. Pursuit can catch the slower ones as they switch. This produces a conundrum for opponents: If they attack, they could get hit by Sucker Punch. If they don't they could get hit by Stone Edge or Earthquake. And if they switch, they could get hit by Pursuit. They have to play Rock-Paper-Scissors, where if they lose, they die, and if they win, not much happens because of Colossoil's huge HP stat. That is his real power: constantly posing a psychological threat to the opponent.

Pyroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Attack, 192 Speed, 56 HP, 10 Defense
Jolly Nature
-Dragon Dance
-Wood Hammer
-Flare Blitz
-Stone Edge

Pyroak is especially helpful in taking out many counters to my team: namely, Steels, bulky Waters, and bulky Grounds. After one Dragon Dance, he outspeeds positive-natured Base 115s, and the attack boost makes him a beast. Wood Hammer and Flare Blitz are strong STAB with no recoil because of Rock Head. The only types that resist them both are Dragon and Fire, which is where Stone Edge comes in. It lets him take on other Fires and get the super-effective bonus on the many Dragon+Flying types, Salamence especially. The 56 HP EVs add to his bulk and let him switch in on four Stealth Rocks. Pyroak teams great with Heatran, who resists Poison and Flying in addtion to taking neutral damage from Rock, the three types being Pyroak's only weaknesses.

Thanks for reading this. I hope you found this useful, and would appreciate any comments or suggestions.

 

[haunter]

Moved to the CAP section.

 

[Zystral]

Your Revenankh EVs are incorrect.
You really should be running 252 HP / 216 SpDef / 40 Def

Your Gyarados needs Bounce in order to deal with other Revenankh and Arghonaut.

As well as this, a well played Stratagem or DDance Pyroak will give you very large headaches. I'm not entirely sure why you have Magnezone there since most of your sweepers aren't threatened by Kitsunoh or Scizor.
I would suggest changing it for something more offensive, to give you another back-up core to play with should Colossoil go down, and I would suggest Kitsunoh, actually, since it can reliably threaten the likes of other Colossoil and Revenankh, who you have some trouble with.
Max Attack/Speed with Taunt/Superpower/ShadowStrike/ThunderPunch will help you cover weaknesses to the likes of Rev, Colossoil and Arghonaut as well quite handily. Taunt will definitely stop your foes from setting up, which is the last thing you want their DDOak or Revenankh to do.

 

[drgnfyr552]

Revenankh needs the extra speed EVs for repeated Hammer Arms. Even with attack EVs, Shadow Sneak doesn't do much neutral damage, and most of my team can deal with special threats so he doesn't need the sp. defense. With the extra speed, he still outspeeds a lot of threats after one Hammer Arm.

As for Gyarados, Revenankh and Arghonaut aren't large threats to my team. Magnezone can get Arghonaut, and after a DD or two, Gyarados can 1HKO or 2HKO most Revenankh. Bounce, however, would be a bit of a waste, as a DD'd Waterfall on the switch, with entry hazards, would probably KO them.

Magnezone also deals with bulky waters and grounds, which are a big threat to Heatran and Colossoil. Skarmory's also a big threat to Colossoil and Revenankh, because Colossoil can't do much while Skarm stalls him out, and Revenankh can do even less, and easily get KOd by Brave Bird. Because of that, I've got to keep Magnezone.

I could throw in Kitsunoh, but who could he replace? My whole team's reliant on each other, so I'm a bit stuck. Good idea for countering Pyroak, though after a DD Gyarados could take Stratagem down.

 

[bubbly]

Yup, I love Magnezone, but it just doesn't fit on your team. Kitsunoh would go great, as ZystraL said.

 

[Zystral]

Revenankh needs the extra speed EVs for repeated Hammer Arms. Even with attack EVs, Shadow Sneak doesn't do much neutral damage, and most of my team can deal with special threats so he doesn't need the sp. defense. With the extra speed, he still outspeeds a lot of threats after one Hammer Arm.

Fuck Speed. Revenankh is as slow as shit anyway and you won't be doing yourself a favour trying to outrun anything. Hammer Arm really shouldn't be your main attacking option anyway, since nearly everything else will outspeed you first.
Right now you aren't making yourself look very intelligent. And the reason you invest in Revenankh's Special Defence is because he naturally has good Special Bulk, which you maximise so when you Bulk Up you will have equally good defences of both sides and thus will be unkillable. Just because most of your team is prepared to deal with Special threats (which it really isn't - Gyarados, Colossoil and Magnezone much rather take Physical hits), doesn't mean you can negate that on one of the premier tanks in CAP.

As for Gyarados, Revenankh and Arghonaut aren't large threats to my team. Magnezone can get Arghonaut, and after a DD or two, Gyarados can 1HKO or 2HKO most Revenankh. Bounce, however, would be a bit of a waste, as a DD'd Waterfall on the switch, with entry hazards, would probably KO them.

Saying Revenankh isn't a large threat to your team is stupid. If it sets up first it will bear your Rev, it will beat Colossoil and it will beat Magnezone. Arghonaut also has the ability to actually beat Magnezone with Mach Punch or Brick Break, or even the SubFocus Punch set. Having a single shaky check to Arghonaut is a bad idea. Gyarados at the least reduces Arghonaut's attack and can then threaten with STAB SE Bounce.
"After a DD or two" regardless, EQ and Waterfall will not being doing enough damage. I don't know what Revenankh you are facing, but it can definitely outpredict you and try to set-up and Rest while you are busy trying to kill it without Bounce. Nobody is actually switching Revenankh in on Gyarados anyway, so "+1 Waterfalling it on the switch" doesn't work. Especially considering you will be DDancing as they switch.

Magnezone also deals with bulky waters and grounds, which are a big threat to Heatran and Colossoil. Skarmory's also a big threat to Colossoil and Revenankh, because Colossoil can't do much while Skarm stalls him out, and Revenankh can do even less, and easily get KOd by Brave Bird. Because of that, I've got to keep Magnezone.

Uh I'm sorry where does it say Magnezone deals with Grounds again? Slapping Hidden Power Grass doesn't work like that. You'd have to hope for SubRise to work almost immediately, and even then, many Ground types can threaten you in other ways. Most Grounds bar Swampert are faster than you as well. You will find it very hard pressed to reliably get Magnezone to beat ground-types.

I could throw in Kitsunoh, but who could he replace? My whole team's reliant on each other, so I'm a bit stuck. Good idea for countering Pyroak, though after a DD Gyarados could take Stratagem down.

like I said... remove Magnezone since it is serving no purpose. Kitsunoh can Burn most Ground types as well as U-Turning before they can do any real damage. It also provides a much better synergy for your team and is a good way of dealing with other CAPmons such as Revenankh.


You claim the whole team relies on each other yet you only have one answer to most common threats. DDTar, DDPyroak, anything that can get in and start generally hurting anything gives your team problems since you only have one reliable option to take it down. And if your opponent knows it is coming they can work around it, destroy your one counter and that's it, you will get swept.

There is a serious problem in that Stall as well as extreme offense will tear you apart since your whole team cannot shift around and counter each other's checks fast enough or reliably enough.

 

[drgnfyr552]

Again, what about steels like Skarmory and Metagross? Magnezone's the only thing I've got on them.

 

[Shock Trooper]

Heatran can take down those steels for you, so its not too big of a deal. Speaking of which, with Magnezone not on the team you do struggle a bit with bulky waters. You could try a lure Heatran (just put Magma Storm>> Fire Blast) to trap said waters then explode on them next turn.

 

[Rising_Dusk]

Hello:

I see that you are trying out some stuff in your team and welcome to the CAP section of the website and so forth. Your team has a few issues, however, and I'll help you rectify them in the coming paragraphs with a few of my suggestions.

First of all, let's address things that give your team major problems. You have massive issues with Stallbreaker Kitsunoh, who with Superpower/Earthquake can give you massive trouble if you switch in on Shadow Strike or Substitute. You also have a bunch of issues with bulky waters, as they will wall and threaten many of your Pokemon. Dragon Dance Salamence also runs clean through your team like a hot knife through butter. Let's see what we can do about these things.

Magnezone does not fit on your team
​

Magnezone is excellent for getting rid of Steel-types, naturally, but has issues dealing with most variants of Kitsunoh unless scarfed even with Hidden Power Fire. Your team is very offensive, but doesn't suffer from Pokemon like Scizor with your Heatran and Gyarados. This slot on your team would greatly benefit from being replaced by something else.

Because you're running a Syclant lead, you should be going for fast, spikes abusing Pokemon, especially those that can deal with bulky waters. I recommend Pyroak, specifically the DD variant, as it will tear through every bulky water in the metagame - including Arghonaut. Pyroak will also scare the crap out of Skarmory. As if by fate, Pyroak will also beat Kitsunoh if you predict properly and don't try to setup on its Taunt. (Just attack it!)

Pyroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def / 192 Spe
Nature: Jolly
~ Dragon Dance
~ Flare Blitz
~ Wood Hammer
~ Stone Edge

This set benefits greatly from Spikes and SR and has good defensive synergy with Revenankh and Colossoil (Luring rock attacks that they resist) Revenankh can take on Stratagem with relative impunity.

Also, fix the EVs on your Revenankh! You shouldn't be running Speed. I recommend the following spread: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SpD

Lastly, Colossoil should be using Selfdestruct instead of Stone Edge. I suggest this for a few reasons. I know that Stone Edge covers Gyara and Mence, but it provides you with a great exit move that guarantees you take something down. It also deals respectable damage to Skarmory, able to take down slightly weakened variants of it. Meanwhile, a -1 Selfdestruct always OHKOs Salamence and Gyarados even without SR down, so it's very reliable in that sense.

Hopefully these suggestions help your team! Cheers and good luck when the CAP ladder starts back up. :)

 

[drgnfyr552]

Thanks RD, hadn't thought of Pyroak replacing Magnezone. Still not sure about SD on Soil, but I'll try it.

 

[Raj]

I don't see how your team can be all about protecting Syclant. For one, you've got its ability down as Compound Eyes, so say it does make it past turn 1 and takes no damage. Your open gets SR up and next time you come in you're already at 50% health and that's if you sustained no damage..

 

[familyguyman]

Why does Rev have Speed EVs? Doesn't Hammer Arm make them pointless?

 

[drgnfyr552]

Vietter, you can't just read the first sentence of the article/RMT/whatever this is. If you continued, you would have seen that it's nothing of the sort by now.

FGM, I switched the Speed to Sp. Defense, just haven't gotten around to changing the article/RMT/whatever this is yet. I'll do it now.

 

[Umbreon Dan]

what exactly are you hitting with stone edge on colossoil? selfdestruct is a better move choice here for reliably eliminating big threats to your team. note that steels, ghosts, and rockmons all get hit super effectively by colossoil's STAB moves, so selfdestruct is basically a guaranteed KO.

secondly: stone edge is not self-explanatory on gyarados. what exactly are you hitting with it? i believe bounce would be much more useful here for beating down arghonaut, celebi, shaymin and friends. in particular, it gives you a way to beat sub + focus punch arghonaut, who currently tramples through your whole team.

 

[Darkamber8828]

Why is Syclant Naive? You have no special attacks, making Jolly the better option.

If it's a suicide lead, why are you running Leftovers instead of Focus Sash? Without Sash, Aerodactyl, Azelf, and Pyroak can all OHKO you. Also, Leftovers is crap, because Syclant has terrible typing and horrible defensive stats.

...yeah.

 

[Rising_Dusk]

in particular, it gives you a way to beat sub + focus punch arghonaut, who currently tramples through your whole team.

Bounce is beaten by SubPunch Arghonaut pretty reliably.

Gyarados bounced up!
Arghonaut used Substitute.
It set up a substitute!
...
Arghonaut is tightening its focus.
Gyarados used Bounce!
The substitute took damage for Arghonaut!
Arghonaut's substitute faded!
Arghonaut used Focus Punch!
...

This is how it goes basically every time against SubPunch Argho, and you reliably lose. In general, I have found Stone Edge much more useful for hitting Salamence and opposing Gyarados (Zapdos too, but it's pretty rare), which are pretty common of checks to Gyarados in CAP. Stone Edge also still OHKOs Pyroak. SubPunch Arghonaut basically forces you out anyway, but Bounce does let it beat the standard Tank set. It really depends on what you run into more, I think, and for me that always seems to be Salamence.

Why is Syclant Naive? You have no special attacks, making Jolly the better option.

If it's a suicide lead, why are you running Leftovers instead of Focus Sash?

I absolutely agree with Darkamber. I hadn't noticed it earlier, but it definitely needs a Focus Sash and a Jolly nature.

 

[drgnfyr552]

I messed up on the nature, and the leftovers was a typo.

 

[drgnfyr552]

Why is Syclant Naive? You have no special attacks, making Jolly the better option.

If it's a suicide lead, why are you running Leftovers instead of Focus Sash? Without Sash, Aerodactyl, Azelf, and Pyroak can all OHKO you. Also, Leftovers is crap, because Syclant has terrible typing and horrible defensive stats.

...yeah.

I messed up on the nature, and the leftovers was a typo.