Fear The Turtle!

[Nabeshima]

Fear The Turtle!

You see, I left the competitive scene around 6 months ago, while the metagame was still in what I'd consider to be its infancy, to focus on schoolwork. I finally come back and I decide to make a sand team, the best kind of weather in my opinion. Imagine my surprise when I find out Excadrill is an Uber now and I end up in the Ubers tier without knowing it. So I went back to the drawing board. I decided that I would soldier on with my sand team-making endeavors but this time not focus solely on Pokemon's abilities to abuse weather. I soon discovered that Shell Smash Carracosta is a terrific sand abuser and centered a team around the turtle.

This team was made to be an offensive team with bulk. Not one member will get swept easily unless the opponent is given the opportunity to set up. And, after earning 76 wins out of my first 100 battles on the Pokemon Online server, I can say with confidence that this team works. (Hey, a C average is a passing grade you know!) So without further ado, let me introduce you to the turtley terror of Carracosta!

THE FOCUS

NinjaWhat?(Carracosta)@White Herb
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs:52 Atk, 204 SpA, 252 Speed
Nature: Naive
Moves:
-Hydro Pump
-Hidden Power (Fire)
-Stone Edge
-Shell Smash

Carracosta. Put first because he is the most deadly member of my team and the sole focus of my strategy. After a Shell Smash, Carracosta can outspeed everything under base 125 speed thanks to jis Naive nature and 252 speed EVs. His moves give him near perfect coverage against most threats, and the mixed stats make sure that he won't be walled by Blissey, Skarmory, or any other dedicated walls. Solid Rock is an amazing ability that allows him to survive pretty much any supereffective hits outside CB Scizor's Superpowers and any grass type move. His naturally high defense combined with his great Special Defense in a sandstorm makes him tough to take out with neutral hits after his defenses are recovered by the White Herb he holds.

Unfortunately, like I said before, there are some things that Carracosta just can't outspeed after a Shell Smash. Also, if he gets phazed out after a Shell Smash, I'll have to smash again, but my defenses stay low. So he has to go all or nothing whenever he comes onto the field.

Synergy
Grass: Celebi
Fighting: Celebi, Jellicent, Landorus
Ground:Landorus, Rotom-W, Celebi,
Electric: Landorus, Celebi


THE DEFENSE

Dubya(Rotom-W)@Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs:252 HP, 216 Def, 40 SpA
Nature: Bold
Moves:
-Hydro Pump
-Volt Switch
-Will-O-Wisp
-Pain Split

This Rotom-W serves the same exact purpose as every other Rotom-W ever used in the simulator: To eat all physical attacks and abuse his amazing amount of resistances to benefit the entire team. His EVs are designed to tank physical hits and a couple of special hits, as well as dish out decent damage. His moveset is based around annoyance and survival. With a bit of patience and some good predictions, Rotom-W has survived onslaughts that lesser Pokemon could only dream of.

On the other hand, Rotom-W is yet another Pokemon weak to Grass on my team. This weakness means he can't help Carracosts get a sweep by eating Power Whips/ Giga Drains, but he can Will-O-Wisp attackers that would threaten my turtle and make it easier to set up. And that is why he is on this team.

Synergy
Grass: Celebi

DUBYA'S OTHER HALF

TehStache(Jellicent-Male)@Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs:248 HP, 216 Def, 44 Speed
Nature: Bold
Moves:
-Scald
-Toxic
-Recover
-Taunt

Yep, the obligatory ghost. Every team needs a bulky ghost, and I chose Jellicent to pick up Rotom's slack on the special side of things. The Pringles Man can also take physical hits and absorb water type attacks intended for Landorus and sometimes Tyranitar. His moves means I can inflict both types of damaging statuses and taunt slower setters like Foretress. In addition, Recover affords Jellicent the ability to stall out or simply survive until the next opponent switches in.

This is, however, the third Pokemon that has a Grass type weakness. Also, even though I picked it over Spiritomb, It can be trapped by Pursuit. This means until I get rid of enemy Scizors and Tyranitars, among other things, I have to be careful, lest he gets OHKO'd.

Synergy
Grass: Celebi
Dark: Tyranitar
Ghost: Tyranitar
Electric: Landorus

THE GLUE

HelloByeBye(Celebi)@Choice Scarf
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Speed
Nature: Timid
Moves:
-Leaf Storm
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-U-Turn
-Trick

Why do I call Celebi the glue? She resists Grass-type attacks. I got this set from the (genius) team "When In Doubt, U-Turn Out", and it is incredibly useful. People don't seem to expect Scarfed Celebi, and that catches her opponents off-guard, especially when they get Tricked a Scarf onto their Blissey. Celebi is an effective scout, its seven weaknesses (ick) draws out many counters and allows me to, with great prediction, U-Turn out to a counter. Celebi is no slouch offensively either, her Leaf Storm and even her HP Ice put the hurt down on opponents.

Unfortunately, Celebi has seven weaknesses and isn't terribly bulky. Even though she resists grass, she has no way to recover from these hits and that leads to her dying easily, leaving me with no Grass counters. You can see why I'm looking for a good bulky and offensive Steel type to replace her.

Synergy
Dark: Tyranitar
Ghost: Tyranitar
Fire: Carracosta, Tyranitar, Jellicent, Rotom-W
Bug: Jellicent
Flying: Tyranitar, Carracosta
Poison: Jellicent
Ice: Carracosta, Rotom-W

THE WEATHERMAN

T-Time(Tyranitar)@Leftovers
Ability: Sandstream
EVs: 252 HP, 4 Atk, 252 SpD
Nature: Adamant
Moves:
-Stealth Rock
-Crunch
-Pursuit
-Superpower

Without Sandstorm, Carracosta just could not sweep efficiently because he needs the Special Defense boost in order to survive. Tyranitar also serves a purpose in sponging special hits, but Stealth Rocks is of utmost importance. It allows Carracosta to OHKO Multiscale Dragonite as well as any Pokemon with Sturdy, such as Skarmory and Foretress. Tyranitar also Pursuit traps Psychic types such as Alakazam that would otherwise ruin my fun.

But hey, did ya notice the Grass weakness? Total count is now 4. Other than that, Tyranitar is flawless.

Synergy
Fighting: Jellicent, Landorus, Celebi,
Ground: Landorus, Rotom-W, Celebi
Grass: Celebi
Water: Jellicent, Rotom-W, Carracosta
Bug: Jellicent
Steel: Rotom-W, Jellicent

THE BACK-UP

StacheTwo(Landorus)@Life Orb
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 SpA, 252 Speed
Nature: Naive
Moves:
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-Rock Polish

Why is Landorus the back-up? If Carracosta gets wiped out, or he just can't come out, Landorus is my go-to guy. As long as he is in a Sandstorm, his Earthquake and Rock Slide hit like a truck and if I get a Rock Polish off a switch, The other team is doomed. Hidden Power Ice is for coverage. Oh, and I know I have Rock Slide instead of Stone Edge, I just absolutely hate Stone Edge's accuracy. If you suggest changing Rock Slide to Stone Edge, I will kill you in your face.

Hey! No Grass weakness! However, his defenses leave much to be desired, and many Ice type attacks fly around the tier. Landorus is a valuable teammate despite a few small flaws.

Synergy
Ice: Jellicent, Rotom-W
Water: Jellicent, Rotom-W

So, there you have it. This is a team that has done well despite its many flaws. I am aware of these flaws (No priority, A MASSIVE Grass weakness, and an over reliance on prediction to cover for said weakness) and I wish for assistance in fixing them. Just one thing: Carracosta and Tyranitar stay where they are. Seriously. Carracosta is the focus of my team, and unless you can give me a cogent argument on why to use Hippowdon for sand instead, don't even suggest it. I appreciate your suggestions!

 

[Nabeshima]

Threat list coming in tomorrow

 

[mklo14]

Hi there! I like the team, and the use of carracosta (I've always thought he should be used more!) And I have some suggestions that will hopefully help :).

First off I really think that you should get higher accuacy moves on carracosta. Your already gonna be super powerful with the shell smash so you don't need the extra power in hyrdro pump and stone edge. So I would say switch those two to waterfall and rock slide! I wanna reiterate that you don't need the extra power/ higher crit ratio (stone edge) , but that the accuracy is more needed, it will make sure he stays in longer and really destroys the other team :D.

Secondly, you may consider HP fire over taunt on jellicent to help with your grass problem. This would be personal prefference to you. If you really want to keep the taunt to stop setups, and walls and such, keep the taunt, but if your reaaaallly having trouble with grass (especially ferrothorn) then HP fire should help!

Thirdly, you may consider fire blast, over superpower on tyranitar. This, once again, really helps your grass problem out. Thats the only reason to have it, but it's a good reason i believe! And I don't think you need superpower because your team, with celebi, and jelli, don't really worry about walls (chansey, blissey, clefable) that would be killed by superpower!

Fourth off, you may consider putting the spe evs, in celebi into hp evs. This makes him bulky (like your theme) and lets him stay longer! Making him much more useful to you throughout a battle. And you don't exactly need the speed thanks to 100 base speed, and a choice scarf!

And thats all I have for you! Hope these suggestions are useful for you!

 

[Nabeshima]

I would use waterfall, but Carracosta is going for a mixed set. Rock Slide is a good suggestion and I think that I'll take that into consideration. As for the other suggestions, I'll take those into consideration. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[forthwright]

Carracosta is one of my favorite 5th gen Pokemon due to his awesome design and insane ability to run a mixed set effectively. I'm glad to see someone other than me who appreciates his somewhat unique playstyle.

With item choice you could always try Wide Lens for the slight accuracy boost and keep Stone Edge. As for Hydro Pump, I'd say stick with it no matter what item you have, but if you experience accuracy issue then try Surf.

The set I played around with before was this:

@Wise Glasses
Sturdy
4HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Naive

~Shell Smash
~Hydro Pump
~Focus Blast / Ice Beam
~Earthquake / Ice Beam

This set was an early attempt, so it itself needs work, but I think it gives a better idea of what I would recommend to you. Since you're going for a slightly defensive set with SS and all I can see White Herb being a decent item choice, but only somewhat so. Carracosta's Defense is naturally high, so a -1 drop will only hurt it so much, and it's Special Defense is so naturally low that I'm not sure what special hits it can really tank outside of resisted types (though I suppose Solid Rock helps in this regard quite a bit). I recommend Sturdy because you can play Carracosta a bit more carelessly and still come out on top.

Basically, if you're looking to run the turtle as mixed primary sweeper then go for an item better suited for an offensive Pokemon. I do, however, warn against Life Orb if you choose to opt for Sturdy since it'll break your psuedo-sash. Try the Sturdy variant and see if you like it, it did wonders for me late-game. Just be sure to take out priority users (you could always go for Aqua Jet, but the drop in Base Power is quite apparent). I can tell you that with Sturdy I'm usually able to get up a lot more than one SS in. Once I get to around +3 or +4 then it's 'gg' for the most part. I do like HP Fire on your set as it takes care of Ferrothorn (who can a major pain to Carra -_-) and Scizor.

tl;dr Opt for a more offensive item and maybe drop Stone Edge for Rock Slide (flinching with this thing is awesome :P), or even try Focus Blast as it hits Heatran pretty hard at +1 (even though you do have other counters to him it would be great to hit one on the switch that thinks they can take your HP Fire or whatever it is that they're expecting.

I'm sorry about not evaluating the rest of your team but I've been up all night and the turtle was the most interesting thing on your team and I had to add my two cents in for it :)

Hope I helped :-)

 

[CedOmega]

As Forthwright said, Carracosta has an "awesome design and insane ability," however, Sturdy+Shellsmash is a much better combo when running a mixed set. Your best threat to it is Conkeldurr, whom, with MachPunch, can 2HKO the amazing turtle after a couple Bulkup when running a Careful nature. Also, beware of Prankster with this team, as it can severely cripple slightly more than half your team: Carracosta, Rotom-W, Jellicent & Landorus.

 

[Iconic]

Hm I don't think I've ever seen a team get torn apart so damn badly by NP Celebi or CM Virizion. The two of them, Virizion especially, have so many opportunities to come in, whether it be on one of your three Waters, or in Virizion's case, Tyranitar. You just flat out have nothing to hurt them outside of U-turning with your Celebi on opposing Celebi, while Virizion will force you to Trick it. Essentially, if your Celebi is dead and your opponent is packing a Virizion / Celebi, you're screwed.

Another problem I see is your lack of a Steel type, meaning you're going to lose _something_ to a Dragonite CB Outrage, Latios Specs Draco Meteor if Tyranitar's dead, etc etc.

But fear not, there's lots you can do to fix this up! To address the two most pressing issues, you're going to have to look for a Steel type that can deal with Grasses pretty well. Unfortunately, the fact that most NP Celebi run HP Fire makes this difficult. If you're only willing to make one change to your team, Jirachi might be your best bet over Jellicent, since it's one of the best Virizion counters, and it can tank a +2 HP Fire from Celebi and paralyze is back. Unfortunately, intelligent playing by your opponent will mean that Jirachi can be worn down easily, so I wouldn't count on Jirachi as a surefire counter to Celebi.

However, if you're willing to part ways with two of your team members, you could probably make even more use of Scizor over Jellicent and Latios over Celebi. CB Scizor can help you complete a nice Scizor/Rotom-W core to wear down stall, and it'll beat Virizion pretty handily. Latios, on the other hand, is an excellent answer to Celebi since they very seldom have HP Ice. You can run any number of sets, Specs with Trick, CM with Dragon Pulse, whatever you feel like, since they all have a good way of beating Celebi. The way I see it, Jellicent isn't needed at all as long as you're packing Rotom-W, while Celebi occupies a similar niche as Latios, but the latter can actually beat opposing Celebi without having to resort to Trick.

Just some things to considerrrrrrrrrrrrrr