Dual Screen Team

Blasphemophager

First time posting here but this is far from my first team. I really like this team because on paper, it's kinda ridiculous, but so far it's been working pretty damn well. There are, however, some major drawbacks that could be fixed.

Team building process:

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First I needed to chose a dual screener, and I figured Cresselia would fit the job quite nicely.

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Next I needed some sweepers, so I figured that one of my favorite pokemon of all time, Scizor, would do quite well under screens, specifically the Swords Dance variant.

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Next I needed something that could take fire hits like a champ and eliminate bulky waters that Scizor cannot handle, so Chesto Rest Kingdra was added to the team.

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I was hearing great things about SubSplit Gengar and I decided "why the hell not?" and slapped it on to the team.

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I saw that my team would be unable to rid of a DD Gyarados and Scarffed Pokes, so I figured Choice Scarf Starmie would do the trick.

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Lastly, I needed a lead. never used Infernape as a lead and it looked pretty cool, so decided to use it.

Infernape (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 64 Atk/192 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

Infernape is pretty damn useful lead. It scares off other frail leads because of Fake Out, which lets me get up Stealth Rock early. it also scares off things like Roserade and Metagross because they don't like to be Fire Blasted. usually if I'm facing something that I can't handle, I switch out with the appropriate counter or severely dent it with either Fire Blast or Close Combat and revenge kill afterward.

Cresselia (F) @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/148 Def/68 Spd/40 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Lunar Dance
- Thunder Wave

The star of my team. Cresselia can pretty much switch into anything and take minimal damage and then set up screens from there. Thunder Wave is there to spread paralysis support and Lunar Dance to bring back a weakened sweeper to full health.

Scizor (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Brick Break
- Roost

Under screens, Scizor pretty much isn't afraid of anything that doesn't have a fire attack. After a Swords Dance, Bullet Punch tears holes in things that don't resist it, and Brick Break provides good coverage and sometimes nails the predicted Heatran switch. Opted for Roost over Bug Bite so Scizor can last a bit longer on the field.

Gengar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Pain Split
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

I read that this thing is good and.. it turned out to be true. Shadow Ball and Focus Blast provide near perfect coverage, and the combination of Pain Split and Substitute allows me to switch out Pursuits and stall out/beat Billsey

Kingdra (M) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 144 HP/160 Atk/164 Spd/40 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Rest
- Waterfall

Easily one of my favorite sets for any pokemon ever. I can usually get in about 2-3 if not more Dragon Dances in safely thanks to screen support. It tears through teams, especially when their steel type has been eliminated.

Starmie @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

Choice Scar Starmie is a pretty interesting idea considering how fats it is already. It can pretty much revenge kill anything and cripple threats with trick. It also has a nice suprise factor because most people expect Starmie to Rapid Spin, so their Rotom-A's end up getting destroyed by Starmie's Hydro Pump.

This has been my most successful team thus far, netting me a 1350ish rank on the ladder. I have, however, been destroyed by one thing so far: stall teams. I really can't do too much them, so I'm looking for someway to better combat them. Plus my team doesn't have the greatest synergy among other things, so any suggestions to better these issues are welcome.
 
Why not actually run a Dual Screening Lead? That way you can actually start with the momentum straight off the bat rather than having to bring Cresselia in at some point. I'd still keep Cresselia, but to my mind your pattern of play should go like this: 1.Screens from lead, Explode 2.Sweep for a bit, weaken some counters, until your sweepers are close to death 3.Bring in Cresselia, Screens, Lunar Dance to revive appropriate sweeper.

With that in mind I'd like to suggest a custom set I made myself for Dual Screens Azelf. The difference to the standard set is that it also allows you to get down SR against almost everything as well as Screens.

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@Light Clay, Jolly nature, 252 HP / 4 SpDef / 252 Spe

-Stealth Rock
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Explosion

Basically, if you're against a lead which might KO you, use the appropriate Screen. For instance, Azelf vs ShucaTran, you Light Screen, he Fire Blasts. You SR, he SR's, etc etc. You can do this against virtually every lead except for Aerodactyl and Metagross, who may 2HKO even with Reflect. Then just Explode regardless of who you're in against and bring in your next sweeper.

You mentioned you have problems with stall, so this change also allows you to run Infernape outside of the lead role (who is one of the best stall breakers in the game).

Also, since you only have a limited amount of time under screens, I'd question running things like SubSplit Gengar, who, while an amazing pokemon, often takes a long time to stall its way through things like Blissey.

I'm not really good at all with really offensive teams like this one, so I'll leave the choice of sweepers down to you. Good luck though!
 
Thanks for the suggestion bubbly. I was considering running something similar to what you mentioned already and it sounds a bit better than what I already have going, so I'll give it a try.
 
Hey Blasphemophager

I'm actually running a dual screen cresselia. I would suggest adding moonlight as an instant recovery for longevity as opposed to thunderwave. It works well but with that set you have to take the good with the bad but luckily there isn't too much of the "bad". Moonlight is weather dependent as sandstorm limits its effectiveness. But other than that it works great for my team.

I would also kindly disagree with the previous post as cresselia is the supreme dual screener with access to moonlight to greatly increase it longevity so it can actually set the screens more than once in a battle and lunar dance for when its lived long enough provides instant recovery to battle stricken sweepers on your team in late battle situations. It proves to be very valuable.
 
The one thing that strikes me right off the bat looking at this team is that Cresselia is completely out of place. You have a solid offensive core with Kingdra/Scizor/Gengar, and all that Cresselia is doing is slowing down the offensive pace of your team, and opening opportunities for the opponent to set up with Spikers and such that are highly damaging to your team.

The first way to fix this is to replace Cresselia with a Dual Screen Uxie lead, who offers enough bulk to safely set screens later on in the game if necessary to aid Scizor and Kingdra in setting up, and has U-Turn to help with the offensive pace of the team. Continuing, I recommend trying something like Life Orb Heatran or Nasty Plot Infernape, both of which would fit onto the team fine as a replacement for your current Ape set (moved out of the lead spot).

Anyways, otherwise, pretty solid team!
 
As you've mentioned, stall is definitely this team's biggest problem. Although Kingdra is certainly effective, it is easily walled or phazed away by RestTalk Gyarados, and can be replaced with something that will increase your odds against stall. Kingdra commonly sets up on Suicune, Vaporeon, and Starmie. Therefore, I would encourage you to try out SubCharge Lanturn as a possible replacement; it does an even better job of setting up against the aforementioned Pokemon, and performs admirably as an unexpected sweeper.

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 52 HP / 252 SAtk / 148 SDef / 56 Spd
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
-Substitute
-Charge Beam
-Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam

The main advantage this set has over Kingdra is how well it does against stall. Lanturn reaches 404 HP with the given EVs, so it can actually set up on Blissey switch-ins with a combination of Substitute and Charge Beam. Nothing on typical stall teams has an easy time dealing with Lanturn, as any phazers will be hit hard by its excellent coverage. This set also does pretty well against offense, as the Water / Ice / Electric tears apart FWG cores. Dual screens only serve to bolster Lanturn's already reasonable bulk, allowing it to set up more over the long run.

Good luck!
 
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