Chomping Through the Competition

[MCRandom]

Chomping Through the Competition

Introduction:​

Hello smogon. Its been a long time since I last posted an rmt, mainly because of college among other things. However lately I Have taken up an interest in competitive pokemon once again and thus began teambuilding. While it was slightly dificult to get back into the swing of this due to metagame shifts and the introduction of new threats such as the Therian bro's and Keldeo, I was eventually able to get a handle on the metagame and construct what I believe to be my best B2/W2 team.

Since all the teams I saw on the ladder were either hyper-offensive or some variant of rather standardized weather teams, I decided to try my hand at building a balanced team. After much trial an error I was able create a solid defensive core that I believed could take on most "standard" teams reasonably well. However, finishing off the rest of the team posed much more of a challenge then I first anticipated because my core had slight weaknesses that needed to be covered by the remaining members who needed to provide a strong offensive presence at the same time. With the unbanning of Garchomp, I got exactly what I needed. Garchomp helps me threaten all weathers while also being bulky enough to take the hits that I needed to. With garchomp chosen, the rest of the team fell into place nicely and peaked at #8 on Pokemon Showdown.​

*Possible changes in RED

Quick Look:​

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In Depth:​

Genesect @ Expert Belt
Trait: Download
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
-U-Turn
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Flamethrower
Genesect is simply the most effective pokemon in the metagame right now. Due to its typing and coverage, it does its job flawlessly every time. Genesect is here for 2 reasons. First, to provide a strong offensive presence with its fantastic coverage and ability. And second, to serve as the team's "pivot" or "scout". In an earlier version of the team this Genesect was banded, however I have found that the utility and overall effectiveness of Expert Belt Genesect is exactly what this team needed. He does a great job at scouting the opponents team; often times even forcing out faster threats such as Latios by feigning a scarf set early in the game. U-Turn is for general scouting and is a great move on a pokemon that forces as many switches as Genesect does. The last 3 moves are standard coverage moves that almost all Genesect run in order to score Download boosted Super-Effective hits on most of the tier, and a Naive nature is preferred in order to not have to constantly take Download boosted U-Turns from opposing Genesect(s?). By using an Expert Belt instead of say Life Orb Genesect becomes a great lure for walls that Garchomp has a hard time getting through (such as Ferrothorn) and in tandem with Latios, often paves the way for a sweep.

*EVs: 80 Atk / 252 SAtk / 176 Spd
*Giga Drain > Thunderbolt

Heatran @ Shed Shell
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power [Ice]
-Stealth Rock

Heatran is the first part of my "Anti-Weather" core. It is my main check to sun teams as well as my primary Genesect switch-in. Originally Heatran was holding an Air Balloon, but I found that it was really kind of gimicky and as soon as it got popped Dugtrio was free to come in and trap me. I decided to switch to Shed Shell since it allows Heatran to stay around long enough to reliable check Genesect and Sun, and allow's me to feign a Choice Scarf during matches where Dugtrio isn't present often resulting in a surprise KO. A Modest Nature and maximum Special Attack / Speed are used to allow Heatran to pose a significant offensive threat to the opponent as well, often catching opponents off guard with it's high powered attacks. Fire Blast is my STAB of choice dealing loads of damage to pokemon who don't resist it, and decent damage to those who do. Earth Power is used mainly to hit opposing Fire and Rock Types who resist Fire Blast, and Dragon Pulse is here for Dragons and good neutral coverage. Stealth Rock allow's Heatran to support the team and prevent mindless Volt-Turning, and help's Garchomp by weakening the opponents pokemon little by little.

*Bulkier EV Spread to tank hits a little better
4 EVs moved from HP to SDef to give Genesect an Atk boost, and Dragon Pulse replaced by HP Ice (credit to The Great Mighty Doom)

Amoonguss @ Black Sludge
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
-Spore
-Giga Drain
-Hidden Power [Ice]
-Stun Spore

Amoonguss is here to serve as an all-around check to Sand and Rain teams. I chose Physically Defensive Amoonguss so that I could check Sand a little better with threats like Sandslash and Terrakion running around. Bold Nature and max HP / Def are used to provide max physical bulk and 4 Spd EVs allow me to speed creep other Amoonguss and Calm Mind Reuniclus, while Black Sludge is used over leftovers in case someone gets Tricky (get it? like...Trick). Spore is awesome on a pokemon like Amoonguss that forces switches frequently, and allow's me to basically play 6 vs 5 most games. When used right, Stun Spore is a great move on Amoonguss. Simply sleep their first switch in, then use Stun Spore as they switch into something that can take Ice/Grass moves and threaten Amoonguss (99% of the time resulting in a paralyzed Scarf Genesect <3). Giga Drain is used for STAB and recovery, and HP Ice is for Dragon Types and Flying Types that love to switch into Amoonguss, as well as opposing Grass types.

EVs tweaked to allow me to always break +2 Sub CM Keldeo's subs with Giga Drain (credit to The Great Mighty Doom)

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
-Hydro Pump
-Volt Switch
-Thunder Wave
-Pain Split

Rotom-W completes my "Anti-Weather" core by checking both Sand and Rain nicely. It's unique typing allows it to effectively combat Tornadus-T, one of the biggest Rain threats, as well as take repeated punishment from rain-boosted Surfs / Hydro Pumps. Max Hp / SDef and a Calm Nature are used to best counter Tornadus-T as well as serve as my primary switch in to powerful rain-boosted attacks. Hydro Pump is the obligatory STAB move here, and Volt Switch is used for secondary STAB and scouting as well as getting my more frail attackers into the battle safely. Thunder Wave is used to slow down fast threats that annoy my team such as Lati@s, and allows Genesect to do work on the opponents team without being revenged, while Pain Split is used for longevity and works well with Rotom's low base HP.

*Will-O-Wisp > Thunder Wave

Latios @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
-Draco Meteor
-Surf
-Psyshock
-Trick

Latios is here for one simple reason: Punching Holes. His main job is the job that he does best, firing off incredibly powerful Draco Meteors / Surfs until the opponent's Steel Types are weak enough for a Garchomp Sweep. Choice Specs, a Timid Nature, and maximum SAtk / Spd are used so Latios can fire off fast, powerful attacks and break down the opponent's defenses. Draco Meteor is usually the go-to move, straight up OHKOing a large portion of the metagame. Surf is here to provide neutral coverage on ALMOST all pokemon that resist Draco Meteor (Damn you, Ferro...) and also 2HKOs all Tyranitar variants that love to switch in on Draco Meteor / Psyshock. Psyshock is used for fighting types, tentacruel, and the pink blobs, while Trick is used when I feel Latios no longer needs the power of Specs and allows me to potentially cripple a member of the opponent's team. Latios also acts as a Pseudo-Check to sun teams which often lack a reliable switch in to him, and can even pull off sweeps in Rain with Surf / Psyshock once I trick away my Specs.

*Thunderbolt > Psyshock

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Dual Chop

The star of the show, man did I miss you Garchomp. Garchomp has forever been and will always be my favorite pokemon to build teams with. His great Typing, Stats, and Movepool allow him to effectively run a multitude of sets, threatening a wide spectrum of pokemon. For this team, I decided that I wanted to use Scarf Chomp. Scarf Chomp fits perfectly on this team because it patches up some issues that I have with Speed as well as provides a THREATENING offensive presence. If the rest of my team members due their job, all I need to do late game is click Outrage. Jolly Nature and max Speed / Attack are used in order to outspeed +1 base 100's such as ScarfMence and Volcarona, and Rough Skin is used because Sand Veil is illegal :P. Outrage is only used late game once the opponent's Steel Types have been removed, but usually once used it means the game is over. Earthquake is a great secondary STAB move and is used to hit Steel types that love switching in on predicted Outrages. Stone Edge is here to hit Flying types hard without locking myself into Outrage, as well as revenging +1 Volcaronas. Dual Chop rounds off the set with a reliable 80 Base Power Dragon Stab that I can throw around without fear of being trapped and revenged, while having the added bonus of breaking Substitutes which can be handy at times. Garchomp cleans up late game as well as revenges mid-game, and is a great asset against Sun Teams.

*Dragon Claw > Dual Chop (90% Accuracy my @$$)

Importable:​

Hide

Heatran @ Shed Shell
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Dragon Pulse
- Stealth Rock

Amoonguss @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spd
Bold Nature
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stun Spore

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Bold Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Pain Split

Latios @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Trick

Genesect @ Expert Belt
Trait: Download
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Dual Chop

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it :]. Feel free to leave constructive criticism in the comments below and steal/use the team as you see fit.
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[Lord Moet]

Hey Good great team you have here and nice title too xd. First off what Im going to tell you is all preference so take it at your own discretion. First off on heatran you might want to try a bulky spread of 248 HP / 160Spd / and 112 SAtck. With this set you can outspeed Jolly scizor plus keep all the bulk you need to tank hits from pretty much anything and still hit pretty hard.. If you prefer to keep your set you might want to move your 4 extra evs to Sdef to round out your hp to an odd number lowering the stealth rock damage. Also twave on Sdef Rotom-W is very effective so I would keep that over will-o-wisp also. Thats all I got gl with the team man. Luvdisc'd. =]

 

[Kidogo]

Hey, I think I remember facing this team on Showdown (pretty sure I remember your username at least). Solid team, nice to see a weatherless team, and even more one with a defensive core!

The core of heatran + amoonguss + rotom is very nice, FGW is a cool base and it does a good job of, as you said, countering the different weathers, with heatran covering sun and rotom and amoonguss covering rain and sand. The dual dragons idea is really solid too, and you use a pretty unorthodox garchomp set, which is good to see. Finally, genesect, one of the most overused pokemon atm...but you use an ebelt set, which again makes this team non-standard. I really like the build here, as you do a good job of addressing the problems faced by weatherless teams while using some less popular sets. On to set notes:

I'm not a huge fan of offensive heatran in this metagame; it really isn't able to sweep much, and there are too many pokemon that can OHKO it. That said, if you want to stick with offensive heatran, I'd definitely suggest using air balloon. You said that it often ended up getting popped, but given that tran is offensive, it shouldn't be switching in on too much, making balloon a good option. The alternative in my mind is to use a more defensive tran--this does a better job of reliably countering sun teams and has much better staying power. You also don't really have something to sponge dragon-type attacks, as two frail steels won't be able to take many hits, which bulkytran fixes. Instead of the set above, the bulkier set I'd suggest is something like:

Hide

Heatran @ Shed Shell
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spd
Calm (+SAtk, -Atk)
-Stealth Rock
-Lava Plume
-Earth Power
-Protect / Roar

You could also go Def if you find yourself needing that more, SpD tends to be more useful though. This set also gives you a much more reliable SRer.

Just so you know in terms of mechanics, clear smog doesn't reset stats through a substitute, so that wouldn't help vs. subDDnite with amoonguss. Have you ever tried toxic on amoonguss? I find that I never use stun spore, as once the spore is used stuff like celebi comes in, and toxic helps if you're trying to stall out CM 3 attacks keldeo (giga drain doesn't do much once it gets a couple boosts) or techniloom. Stun spore is a good option though, toxic is just for if you want to try something else.

I would definitely go for WoW > twave for rotom, especially if you use a bulkier tran, since stuff like lati@s will be less of a problem. Crippling ttar and the like is really nice, and being able to actually hurt gastrodon and amoonguss is nice too.

I find trick really useful on scarftios, but how much do you actually use it on specstios? Generally, trick is useful for stuff like blissey or jellicent that latios can't hurt enough, but specstios is so powerful it 2HKOs both with psyshock IIRC. Perhaps you might want to try using another move in the 4th slot--some good options are dpulse for end-game sweeping, hp fire for obvious coverage, tbolt for gyara and jelly, and hp fighting for ttar (does a ton with specs, preventing it from being pursuit-trapped). Trick has undeniable use though, so PP mostly.

Chomp looks nice, I do wonder if you really need SE--eq hits volc pretty hard already, and tran can wall volc well enough, especially with the bulkier spread or air balloon. Adding fire blast or fang would be cool, since you so niftily outspeed the ever-popular scarfsect.

Overall, the team looks good, not seeing many weaknesses and very creative and unusual in the meta atm.

 

[MCRandom]

First off on heatran you might want to try a bulky spread of 248 HP / 160Spd / and 112 SAtck. With this set you can outspeed Jolly scizor plus keep all the bulk you need to tank hits from pretty much anything and still hit pretty hard.. If you prefer to keep your set you might want to move your 4 extra evs to Sdef to round out your hp to an odd number lowering the stealth rock damage. Luvdisc'd. =]

Hey Moet thanks for the rate (and luvdisc :]). Im definitely considering making Heatran bulkier but I believe there is something wrong with you EVs there...Im assuming 248 Hp / 100 SAtk / 160 Spd is what you were aiming for, which I will test out.

...Use a more defensive tran--this does a better job of reliably countering sun teams and has much better staying power. You also don't really have something to sponge dragon-type attacks, as two frail steels won't be able to take many hits, which bulkytran fixes.
Heatran @ Shed Shell
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spd
Calm (+SAtk, -Atk)
-Stealth Rock
-Lava Plume
-Earth Power
-Protect / Roar

Hi Kidogo thanks for the rate. Yeah I have been considering making this change for a while now. Will test more thoroughly and edit with results.

I would definitely go for WoW > twave for rotom, especially if you use a bulkier tran, since stuff like lati@s will be less of a problem. Crippling ttar and the like is really nice, and being able to actually hurt gastrodon and amoonguss is nice too.

While I recognize the usefulness of WoW on rotom, in my opinion Thunder Wave supports my team in a much better way since outside of Latios/Garchomp everyone is relatively slow. Because of Rotom's typing, Ground Types that usually love to come in and Absorb TWave are wary of switching in which gives Rotom plenty of opportunities to spam it and paralyze whatever switches in. (sidenote: Paralyzing a SubPunching Breloom as it switches in before Toxic Orb can activate is also very satisfying :])

I find trick really useful on scarftios, but how much do you actually use it on specstios? Generally, trick is useful for stuff like blissey or jellicent ... but specstios is so powerful it 2HKOs both with psyshock IIRC. Perhaps you might want to try using another move in the 4th slot... [like] dpulse, hp fire, tbolt, hp fighting for ttar.

Trick is mainly on the set for Chansey, while it also helps to have multiple weapons against Blissey and Jellicent as well. Sadly Chansey only takes around 38-40% from Psyshock (just from memory, but I know its not a 2hko), so Trick was added because my team severely struggles to get past a well played Chansey. If anything was going to be replaced for a coverage move, it would most likely be Psyshock because Specs Draco meteor / Trick usually do the job against anything that I would Psyshock (Trick for the blobs/jelly), but it is nice to have a secondary stab to throw around. Will definitely test.

Chomp looks nice, I do wonder if you really need SE--eq hits volc pretty hard already, and tran can wall volc well enough, especially with the bulkier spread or air balloon. Adding fire blast or fang would be cool, since you so niftily outspeed the ever-popular scarfsect.

Interesting idea, never really gave it much though TBH. I'll for sure test this out as well since being able to catch a Skarmory or Ferrothorn on the switch would be really handy.

Overall, the team looks good, not seeing many weaknesses and very creative and unusual in the meta atm.

Why thank you :]

 

[TGMD]

Hey MCRandom, nice team!

First of all, I recommend changing Amoonguss' spread to: 252 HP / 28 SAtk / 228 Def. The extra Special Attack EVs allow you to always break +2 Keldeo's subs with Giga Drain, this could very easily save you from a Keldeo ripping holes in your team late-game.

You may want to try shifting the 4 HP EVs to Special Defense on Heatran. This will give Genesect an Attack boost rather than a Special attack boost, which lets Heatran tank moves like Thunderbolt much easier, which could be helpful if you're within +1 Thunderbolt KO range, but not unboosted Thunderbolt KO range.

I recommend Hidden Power [Ice] over Dragon Pulse on Heatran. I don't really see the reason for Dragon Pulse on Heatran in this team, it misses out on OHKOing Garchomp, OHKOing Salamence, OHKOing Gliscor (especially under rain), OHKOing Dragonite most of the time after Stealth Rock damage, etc. Hidden Power [Ice] is still a guarenteed 2HKO on Latios, so that only really leaves Haxorus (Dragon Pulse isn't even a guarenteed OHKO anyway) and Latias (Dragon Pulse really won't make too much of a difference against most variants anyway), almost your entire team checks most Latias variants, and Haxorus is revenge killed by half your team. Overall, although alot of those OHKOs / 2HKOs you miss out on are are only situationally relevant; Hidden Power [Ice] is simply better than Dragon Pulse.

I love that you're using Specially Defensive Rotom-W, it's an amazing set. However, I propose a spread change, a spread of: 248 HP / 32 Def / 228 SDef guarentees you live a max damage Specs Draco Meteor from Hydreigon, which is pretty much the strongest Specially based neutral attack Rotom-W is going to be taking in ou. But it gives you a bit of extra physical bulk to help take on the likes of Mamoswine (easily one of the biggest threats to your team.)

Anyway, I hope this rate helped and GL with the team! Luvdisc'd :)