Core 2013

.: Core 2013 Mission Statement :.

A team built with a back to basics mentality focusing on two individual cores. The first core being heavily defensive with emphasis on wearing down the opponent’s team, hard to counter bulk, good type coverage, and relative independence from the rest of the team. The second half was to be a three mon sweeper squad that was fast and reliable in the end game; while remaining capable in the early to mid game when needed. I wanted these offensive mons to mostly sit back waiting until the final turns of the game where they could clean up the weakened opponent's team.

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.: Core 2013 V1.2 :.
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Team Building

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The defensive core was my first priority. I wanted a lot out of these mons and needed them to be durable while still threatening. I started with Tentacruel thanks to her access to toxic spikes, poison typing for absorbing enemy toxic spikes, rapid spin for every other entry hazard, and her natural bulk. All of these things meant that I could clean up entry for the other ⅔ of the core; keeping them happy and healthy. Her typing was also easy to complement when picking her teammates.

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Ferrothorn was the second mon selected for the team. His typing matched very well with Tentacruel’s and his natural bulk is legendary. Knowing Tentacruel lacks any recovery of her own I wanted the second mon to be able to support her with a heal, and Leech Seed was a great way to do just that. It complements the pace of the team better than wish passing, and also drains out opponents who would otherwise be too bulky for the late game sweepers. Ferrothorn also has access to t-wave for paralysis which helps to slow down opponents who like to speed boost with D-dance or Agility and reduces the chance for speed ties later in the game.

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Hippowdon quickly filled the 3rd defensive spot on the team. This is a mon who never ceases to amaze me, her bulk is second to none and her type is a solid match for the rest of the core. Paired with Ferrothorn and Tentacruel she rounds out hazard set up, throwing out Stealth Rocks as well as Sandstorm. She also filled the role of phazer with roar support meaning not to many mons will get to boost against this otherwise slow core.

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Next it was time to pick the offensive core. This core needed to be fast, strong, and able to hit against almost any type in the game. Alakazam was the first choice for this role as he needs no time to setup and is immediately a threat to almost everything. His type coverage is astounding and his speed is blistering. He also can absorb burn and poison for the other ⅔ of the core thanks to Magic Guard.

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After selecting Alakazam as my no setup special sweeper I needed to find the same kind of power for the physical end of the spectrum. Infernape complimented the team nicely and also allowed me to fill a role as a pseudo lead. Thanks to U-turn I can run infernape against a lot of mons on turn one that would otherwise threaten him, hit them with U-turn (often for super effective damage) and switch in the appropriate wall to start the game off with positive health difference. It is also amazing for turning momentum back in your favor mid to late game when you need to get safe switches. His other moves are standard but complement the rest of the team’s typing very well.

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Finally the last mon on the team to be selected was Salamence. I wanted something that could jump in on advantage, setup, and hold momentum after getting a kill. Moxie makes all the difference for Salamence and allows her to net a KO then keep on growing. The longer you wait to try and take her out of the game the stronger she gets; after awhile she will be able to KO anything even mons that would normally resist her.

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The Team

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The Goo (Tentacruel) (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Liquid Ooze
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Protect

Purpose: A wall who sets up Poison with T-Spikes, Burn with Scald, and Rapid Spin to keep the field free of entry hazards so that my defensive core doesn’t get worn down too early. Her typing also fares well against most water and fire threats allowing for easy switch and set up of her own entry hazards.

Threats: With the core designed the way it is there aren’t too many threats that aren’t managed well by switching, however Earthquake is always a common attack on almost any physical sweeper in the meta and can easily OHKO Tentacruel.

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The Mine (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

Purpose: Stall, Support, and Coverage. I wanted Ferrothorn to be able to jump in against common threats, stun them, seed them, and swap out to another core member when he couldn’t stay in himself.

Threats: Fire and Fighting attacks from any number of common metagame threats will OHKO him if you mispredict. Once again the core is designed to handle this very well with switches, but sometimes switching just isn’t an option and Ferrothorn will be OHKO’ed.

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The Wall (Hippowdon) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Roar

Purpose: The final piece in my defensive core. Hippo is one of the bulkiest mons in the game and with Slack Off she can wall almost everything that Tentacruel and Ferrothorn don’t. She also covers Stealth Rocks setup, weather control, and phasing very well.

Threats: Very little is immediately threatening other than Ice/water based special attacks, but Ice Beam and Hydro Pump are not uncommon for dragon and ground coverage on a plethora of pokes in the current metagame. However, Tentacruel and Ferrothorn wall both attack threats very well.

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The Mental (Alakazam) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Purpose: Fast and efficient late game sweeper. Alakazam can clear entire teams with his phenomenal coverage and more often than not does. Shadow Ball + Psychic + Focus Blast is super effective against a large majority of the metagame and HP Ice covers dragons.

Threats: Speed Boosters, special walls, and anything bulky that isn’t hit for super effective damage by one of his 4 attacks. There are also a select few Suckerpunch users that will OHKO if you don’t predict the attack. Beyond any of those he can sweep most teams with his timid nature, raw power, and superb coverage.

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The Imperial (Infernape) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Stone Edge
- U-turn

Purpose: Unboosted offensive sweeping and a pseudo Lead. With U-Turn I can easily get my walls in on opposing pokes without worrying about choosing the right wall for the job. He also allows for great coverage in U-Turn + Close Combat and stab Flare Blitz is intimidating for mons like Fortress, Ferrothorn, Skarmory, Jirachi, and Scizor.

Threats: Being outpaced or bad prediction on my part. Infernape takes a lot of prediction to play well because if you call U-Turn wrong you might miss a crucial KO or get yourself killed. However, while he is a frail mon his damage is top notch and his coverage complements Alakazam very well.

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The Guillotine (Salamence) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

Purpose: The team’s set up sweeper. If given the chance I can Dragon Dance and OHKO most of the metagame. Earthquake for steels trying to absorb Dragon Claw, and Stone Edge for bulky flying types that might resist Everything else. My reasoning for Dragon Claw > Outrage is that I used to run a Dragon Dance Dragonite, and Dragon Claw swept Most of the metagame fine only falling short of a few KO’s. The same build on Mence gets to boost from moxy on KO’s making him much more threatening. It also allows for a Jolly Nature without sacrificing power so I can win against mirror matches.

Threats: Ice Shard and, Ditto. Ditto is probably the scariest thing to see on a team with Moximence. If I am forced to get Salamence out early, and a ditto is able to switch in he will KO and sweep the team with no problem bar Ferrothorn. This makes KO’ing Ditto a top priority when he shows up on the enemy roster.

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*At risk of being dropped.

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Currently I'm trying to find weak points and then revamp the team as necessary. I'm definitely not going to object to switching out Pokemon, and if you think a different Pokemon will benefit the team more please reply, rate, and help me out with building it.

The biggest issues I have faced so far have been mostly RNG related, or just bad game play on my part. However, It is hard to judge every aspect of the metagame and I would love to hear any comments or possible improvements you might make to this team.I really feel Core 2013 is quite a strong team at the moment, and don't think there are too many major flaws. Once again I would love to hear any suggestions as they can only benefit the team in the long run. Thanks for giving this a read and thanks for your time.

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SPECIAL THANKS TO

dbzmariogeno
Moonclawz

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Ferro should be using Spikes over Protect, and fix his EVs. Change Mence's Stone Edge to Fire Blast. Also explain Hippowdon and Tentacruels EVs and nature then I can actually rate.
 
I don't particularly like the spikes over protect on Ferrothorn since Protect lets him get 1 extra turn of healing off of his leftys and leach seed, as well as allowing him to scout moves on opponents so I can get safer switches. I already have SR and TS on the other 2 and he is providing LS for damage over time and stall. The EV's on the other 2 walls let them take a few unboosted moves that would otherwise OHKO although to be honest I can't remember what they are off the top of my head right now, I am wanting to say unboosted EQ on Tentacruel and aquatail/energy ball on Hippo but I would be lying if I told you I knew without rechecking the threat list and running a few numbers again.
 
Outrage over claw on Mence for the extra power. Other than that the team has nice synergy. So good to see someone using Tentacruel other than me!
 
Outrage over claw on Mence for the extra power. Other than that the team has nice synergy. So good to see someone using Tentacruel other than me!

I may switch over to outrage from claw but in my experience I prefer not being locked into the move and risking the confusion. It always seems to be my luck I hurt my self in confusion, and you never know when Mence might be your last hope leaving you with 2 options; KOing your self from confusion or a clean sweep that nets the win. Also Tentacruel is a pokebro, I caught a shiney back in FR:LG and ran her on any team I could!

Thanks for the quick rate.
 
Hi TheOSC,

I think you have a really interesting balanced team.

On Tentacruel, I think a Bold Nature would allow it to tank more physical hits such as Close Combat and Flare Blitz, as it is primarily a defensive Pokemon. Although, a Modest Nature would give it more power, it only has one attacking move to use.

The EVs on your Hippodown are pretty strange. Unless you specifically tailored the EVs to tank some specific hit, I would dump your your defense EVs into HP to help it take specially-based hits, as it looks like Hippodown is a mixed wall. With an Impish Nature and full HP investment, Hippodown is already pretty physically bulky.

Since you lack a Scarfer, I would give Alakazam a Focus Sash so that it can be your revenge killer. With Magic Guard and Focus Sash, Alakazam can switch in after one of your Pokemon has fainted, and KO many common threats like Breloom, Sword of Justice, Salamence, and Landorus-T. Although Alakazam would normally outspeed and KO these Pokemon, they are commonly scarfed so being able to tank a hit is really useful, especially if your defensive core is weakened.

On Infernape, you could try using Mach Punch over Stone Edge, which would give you priority to help revenge weakened Pokemon. It also prevents you from risking a Speed tie against Terrakion and weakened Keldeo.

On Salamence, I think Stone Edge doesn't really give any extra coverage, besides hitting Gyradoes super-effectively. I agree with dbzmariogeno that Fire Blast will be more useful as it allows you to hit Ferrothorn, Forretress, and Scizor on the switch, which would otherwise end your sweep. If you do use Fire Blast, you should switch to a Hasty (to tank Hydro pumps) or Naive Nature (to tank fighting-type moves), to not lower Mence's special attack and put the four HP EVs into special attack.

Hope this helps!

Salamence set:
The Guillotine (Salamence) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty/Naive Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
 
Hey thanks for all the suggestions Moonclawz, I am playtesting a few right now and will update the team after twenty or so matches.

On Tentacruel, I think a Bold Nature would allow it to tank more physical hits such as Close Combat and Flare Blitz, as it is primarily a defensive Pokemon. Although, a Modest Nature would give it more power, it
only has one attacking move to use.

I think you are probably right on this guy, there is no reason to have any attack investment on this set for Tentacruel and I am going to move all EV investments into more bulk as well as changing the nature over to Bold Nature.

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The Goo (Tentacruel) (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Liquid Ooze
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Protect

The EVs on your Hippodown are pretty strange. Unless you specifically tailored the EVs to tank some specific hit, I would dump your your defense EVs into HP to help it take specially-based hits, as it looks like Hippodown is a mixed wall. With an Impish Nature and full HP investment, Hippodown is already pretty physically bulky.

Like I said before the EV investment was originally for some specific attack. However, seeing as how I can't remember what it was, and can't seem to figure out what it was after checking the threat list and damage calculator; I am going to try the default EV spread on Hippo.

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The Wall (Hippowdon) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Roar

Since you lack a Scarfer, I would give Alakazam a Focus Sash so that it can be your revenge killer. With Magic Guard and Focus Sash, Alakazam can switch in after one of your Pokemon has fainted, and KO many common threats like Breloom, Sword of Justice, Salamence, and Landorus-T. Although Alakazam would normally outspeed and KO these Pokemon, they are commonly scarfed so being able to tank a hit is really useful, especially if your defensive core is weakened.

This change I am on the fence about. I can see the benefit of a RK on the team and allowing Alakazam to soak up a hit with sash, but I am worried about the 30% damage loss from dropping LO. Right now there is almost nothing that Alakazam doesn't OHKO and I feel like that dramatic drop in damage would cost him his late game sweep. I also know that most mons can't OHKO him with out a super effective attack any way, and as you stated he out speeds most common threats that aren't choiced. For now I am going to leave him as is and try the other team changes first. If I notice that he is getting OHKOed too often though I may come back to the Focus Sash.

On Infernape, you could try using Mach Punch over Stone Edge, which would give you priority to help revenge weakened Pokemon. It also prevents you from risking a Speed tie against Terrakion and weakened Keldeo.

This one I am also a little worried about, Stone Edge is Infernape's only answer to some of the common dragons running around. It also lets him hit Gyradoes for a strong Neutral hit. However, once again, I can see benefit in the guarenteed priority move which my team does currently lack. I think I will be leaving him as is for now and trying this after making some other tweeks to the rest of the team.

On Salamence, I think Stone Edge doesn't really give any extra coverage, besides hitting Gyradoes super-effectively. I agree with dbzmariogeno that Fire Blast will be more useful as it allows you to hit Ferrothorn, Forretress, and Scizor on the switch, which would otherwise end your sweep. If you do use Fire Blast, you should switch to a Hasty (to tank Hydro pumps) or Naive Nature (to tank fighting-type moves), to not lower Mence's special attack and put the four HP EVs into special attack.

I agree with this change 100% and will be swapping her Nature and dropping Stone Edge for Fire Blast.

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The Guillotine (Salamence) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
 
Hey OSC, thanks for the request!

So looking at this team your Defensive Core is pretty solid. However, your Offensive mons are rather underwhelming, having a hard time breaking through balanced Rain Teams, and you have a ton of trouble against many common Offensive Threats since you cannot revenge KO them reliably.

I think your Alakazam can stay since with Focus Sash over Life Orb he is easily one of the best Revenge Killers in the entire game. He really isn't meant to be a wallbreaker so you shouldn't worry about the loss of damage. Also, many times you can do more damage with Sash because you get two hits off instead of just one.

Next, Salamence is pretty underwhelming in this meta and your team doesn't support it too well. I think replacing it with SD Garchomp would be a good option. Garchomp gets similar coverage to Salamence but his secondary STAB boosts EQ which is much better. Also, with SD Chomp becomes a much more powerful wallbreaker, especially against Steel Types who aren't effected by your Tentacruel's Toxic Spikes.

Lastly, Infernape doesn't really provide much for your team outside of U-Turn. I think you could use an Offensive Threat that does great against Rain Teams since Sash Alakazam and Chomp have Sun covered pretty nicely already. I think Keldeo would be a great fit since he has really nice Offensive Synergy with Garchomp and can punish Rain Teams with its STAB Hydro Pump and Secret Sword combo. You could use a Choice Scarf set for some added speed against opposing Scarfers or you could use an Expert Belt set to bluff the Scarf and keep the ability to switch up moves.

Hopefully my suggestions helped! Let me know how it works and good luck with the team!
 
On Salamence I recommend changing the Life Orb to a Lum Berry and giving it Outrage over Dragon Claw. With Life Orb, you will die quite quickly from residual damage, due to you also having Hippowdon with Sand Stream. Salamence is fairly frail as well, so trying to keep it alive is important to get a sweep. You probably won't miss the extra damage from LO too much as EQ and Fire Blast will OHKO/2HKO anything you are using it on anyway (Heatran, Ferrothorn, Skarmory etc.) Lum Berry helps Outrage last longer and also lets you set up a Dragon Dance on things like Spore from a Breloom etc, meaning they will be easier to counter.

This is fairly irrelevant but Whirlwind over Roar on Hippowdown just in case anything has Soundproof.

Also I do recommend Spikes over Protect on Ferrothorn. An extra move slot just for a little extra healing isn't really worth it, and Spikes win many games, especially with Hippowdon's Whirlwind/Roar that helps you do extra residual damage.

Other than that its a fairly solid team, and other possible changes have already been explained.
 
Hey OSC, thanks for the request!

I think your Alakazam can stay since with Focus Sash over Life Orb he is easily one of the best Revenge Killers in the entire game. He really isn't meant to be a wallbreaker so you shouldn't worry about the loss of damage. Also, many times you can do more damage with Sash because you get two hits off instead of just one.

I keep getting this suggestion, and I can see a lot of validity to it, but I don't really feel that it fits in line with this team to well. As it stands I try and hold my Alakazam until the last moment and put him out as a end game sweeper, not just a revenge killer. I have also notice that Zam is not likely to be OHKO'ed unless he is hit with a super effective attack. I will probably give it a try later tonight any way just to test it but I feel LO is superior on this particular team.

Next, Salamence is pretty underwhelming in this meta and your team doesn't support it too well. I think replacing it with SD Garchomp would be a good option. Garchomp gets similar coverage to Salamence but his secondary STAB boosts EQ which is much better. Also, with SD Chomp becomes a much more powerful wallbreaker, especially against Steel Types who aren't effected by your Tentacruel's Toxic Spikes.

This is an interesting recommendation. I will defiantly be trying this out later tonight although I do have concerns about missing out on Fire-blast. Fire fang is available, but is it as damaging? Also Mence tends to work well because Moxie boosts her damage every time she KO's something which lets her use Dragon Claw more reliably than Chomp, and not have to use Outrage to offset damage. I personally hate Outrage since you get locked in to it (can't even switch Pokemon) and can easily be hard countered by physical walls.

Lastly, Infernape doesn't really provide much for your team outside of U-Turn. I think you could use an Offensive Threat that does great against Rain Teams since Sash Alakazam and Chomp have Sun covered pretty nicely already. I think Keldeo would be a great fit since he has really nice Offensive Synergy with Garchomp and can punish Rain Teams with its STAB Hydro Pump and Secret Sword combo. You could use a Choice Scarf set for some added speed against opposing Scarfers or you could use an Expert Belt set to bluff the Scarf and keep the ability to switch up moves.

This is another interesting suggestion that I will be trying later, my one concern is you are disregarding U-turn's importance. It allows me to play all sorts of mind games and net critical KO's when people mispredict it. It is also necessary for maintaining momentum since it lets me make safe switches and select the right counter for any situation. Psychics tend to like coming in on Infernape and are often hit hard by U-Turn either KOing them or weakening them enough for even a wall to finish them off.
 
On Salamence I recommend changing the Life Orb to a Lum Berry and giving it Outrage over Dragon Claw. With Life Orb, you will die quite quickly from residual damage, due to you also having Hippowdon with Sand Stream. Salamence is fairly frail as well, so trying to keep it alive is important to get a sweep. You probably won't miss the extra damage from LO too much as EQ and Fire Blast will OHKO/2HKO anything you are using it on anyway (Heatran, Ferrothorn, Skarmory etc.) Lum Berry helps Outrage last longer and also lets you set up a Dragon Dance on things like Spore from a Breloom etc, meaning they will be easier to counter.

I may try the lum over the Life Orb for status recovery but I am not a fan of outrage for more than just the confusion at the end. The big thing for me is you are LOCKED into that move and can't switch moves or pokemon. This just screams at your opponent to counter you. When someone starts using outrage on me I just throw in my Ferrothorn and Leach Seed then Para them. There is nothing stopping someone from doing the same to me and I don't like that feeling.

This is fairly irrelevant but Whirlwind over Roar on Hippowdown just in case anything has Soundproof.

Change noted and made, thanks for pointing it out.

Also I do recommend Spikes over Protect on Ferrothorn. An extra move slot just for a little extra healing isn't really worth it, and Spikes win many games, especially with Hippowdon's Whirlwind/Roar that helps you do extra residual damage.

I might try this but Protect isn't JUST healing it is scouting as well. It helps take a lot of prediction out of a match since I can see what the opponent plans on using. Also with seeds and leftys up that 1 extra turn of healing every time he switches out is amazing over time.
 
Since Fire Blast is meant to hit physically defensive steels, plus the higher power, Fire Blast/ Flamethrower is always better than Fire Fang. I also second SashKazam, as it is a yeat revenge killer, something your team desperately needs.

Tentacruel FTW!
 
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