Fencing

[anti404]

hi guys, I read a post by Thund about using a 6x Stat Up sweeper team, and so I decided to make my own heavy stat up offensive sweeper team; I've since replaced a few of the members with those having more utility, but that was the idea.


Mesprit: Mild, @Leftovers
Grass Knot, Psychic, Thunderwave, Stealth Rock
252HP/252SpA/4SPD
I originally had Uxie here, but she seemingly lacked much in the way of being able to do much, so I switched her out for the similarly versatile and useful Mesprit. being that I run a few statup sweepers, TWave proves invaluable. SR is pretty much necessary for every team, and 'sprit's bulk helps her to set it up well. GK beats the snot out of 'star, Leadperior, Claydol, Sharpedo, etc. Psychic is STAB and just provides a lot of necessary coverage, hitting Nidoking, Venusaur, etc.

Rotom:Timid, @ Leftovers
Discharge, Will-o-Wisp, Toxic, Shadow Ball
4HP/252SpA/252SPD
Rotom... uh... well Rotom was supposed to provide a lot of status support, hurting bulky waters, paralyzing more things, and shutting down opposing physical sweepers. honestly, Rotom doesn't seem right for this team, and mostly just ends up being sacrificial bait and doing nothing... its lack of bulk is its most glaring problem. this is easily my most replaceable spot.

Arcanine:Jolly, @ Life Orb[Flash Fire]
Extremespeed, Will-o-Wisp, Flare Blitz, Morning Sun
4HP/252ATK/252SPD
I love Arcanine, but he also proves very useful for this team. he acts firstly as a revenge killer, with Espeed hurting whatever I can hit. he also functions to absorb possible fire attacks and Will-o-Wisps aimed at my other sweepers. and then he can break walls down with sheer power, allowing for my sweepers to have an easier time. Morning Sun doesn't get much use, seeing as Arcanine functions primarily to break down things for my other sleepers, but his movepool is so limited that I don't really see much else that can be useful.

Drapion: Jolly, @Scope Lens[Sniper]
Swords Dance, Ice Fang, Earthquake, Night Slash
4HP/252ATK/252SPD
the first of my primary sweepers, and many times the star of the show. he has such good typing and decent bulk that he can set up on a lot of threats, and once he does he's hard to stop with his good coverage and high base speed. I kind of would like to stick Pursuit somewhere, but I don't think it is necessary for my team.

Feraligatr: Jolly, @Lum Berry
Swords Dance, Ice Punch, Earthquake, Waterfall
4HP/252ATK/252SPD
this guy is often my last Poke' to make a necessary appearance, and has swept countless Pokes for me; again, decent bulk allows for relatively consistent set up opportunities, and he's nearly guaranteed at least one kill once he grabs a SD boost. I almost want to throw Aqua Jet over Ice Punch, because I hate being revenged by something mediocre[I friggin' wish this alligatormon got Ice Shard], but Ice Punch is my only way to stop opposing Venus from beating my balls in.

Sceptile: Jolly, @ Life Orb
Swords Dance, Rock Slide, Earthquake, Leaf Blade
4HP/252ATK/252SPD
honestly, he was supposed to be my speedy revenge killer and often my sweeper; however, his ridiculous lack of bulk often finds him getting beat up by the 'mons he's supposed to counter.

ah, so that's my so far most "successful" team, netting me about a 50-65% record. I feel that Rotom/Sceptile provide the least to this team, with their complete lack of bulk limiting their general usefulness, and Feraligatr and Drapion are the MVPs. Mesprit is a solid lead here, providing support+instant offense, but I'm up for a change. Arcanine, though not a MVP here, often breaks teams, and I'm not going to fully replace him. basically, I feel that Sceppy and Rotom likely need replaced, Mesprit is a solid lead who I'm willing to change up, and that the other three, though I will not replace them, will be acceptable for EV/Item/Move changes.

any criticisms or advice would be much accepted, and thanks for looking!

 

[Cuiv]

Most significantly, I would switch SD for Dragon Dance on Feraligatr (it got DD in HGSS). Having three SDers makes you very vulnerable to fast things in general; DD on Gatr helps to alleviate that. (Alternatively, run Aqua Jet over Waterfall on the SD set. In fact, you might want to run Aqua Jet over Ice Punch on the DD set as well to beat opposing priority.)

You could try Miltank as a defensive pivot to replace Rotom, who isn't defensive enough to be usable on this team.

You also might want to try a Dual-Screens strategy to help your sweepers set up. There are a huge variety of DSers to choose from, but TrickScarf Uxie probably does it best.

Also, Sniper sucks. Use Battle Armor and run a Life Orb on Drapion.

 

[anti404]

is there any reason you recommend DD over SD? Swellow is the main one I would see, as he can provide a lot of problems for my team.

Miltank is the option I'd been thinking of using, with a Heal Bell/Milk Drink/Thunderwave/Body Slam moveset. I've also thought that a Spiritomb using something like Pursuit/Sucker Punch/Shadow Sneak/Will-o-Wisp would be a sound replacement to Rotom. a bulky Mismagius, with something like Shadow Ball/Thunderwave/Will-o-Wisp/Pain Split was another idea.

Sniper actually has proved its worth all the times I've used Drapion, and I generally don't like using Life Orb on him.

a Dual Screener is an option I hadn't really considered, but I could see its merits on an offensive team similar to this one; however, a TrickScarf version doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, as you'd be losing out on a primary component of a DS, Light Clay. I'm also not really sure what team member I would replace for it, either.

thanks!

 

[Ethanftw]

is there any reason you recommend DD over SD?

What he means is that while the point of your team is to raise atk to sky rocket levels, your team may be too slow to do it very effectively. DD raises speed as well as atk where as SD just raises atk.

Also, I agree with the comment about you incorporating a dual screener into your team. With a team like this, a dual screener is almost somewhat of a necessity. Ensuring you get SD's and DD's off is the key point of this team, and therefore a good screener would help a lot. Without going into a big list of screeners, my favorite ones are Uxie, and Clefable. Both are good screeners and are damn near guarnteed to get you set up. Uxie can also use U-turn so you can set up and then U-turn into something that will take your opponets hit and force a switch, allowing you to get another SD/DD in.

 

[anti404]

Uxie just always feels like such dead-weight on any team onto which I place her.
with my current Mesprit lead, I may not get to set up Screen support, but Thunder Wave as well as beating down a large majority of leads with my two attack options seems simply better at this point.
I understand what the differences between a DD and SD set entail, but I was asking for a more precise reason as to why DD Gator > SD Gator for MY team specifically. I can think of Swellow revenging being the biggest problem, as it's happened before. but would that outweigh the benefits of the more quickly damaging SD set? I dunno', but I'll possibly give it a test.

phew. okay, now onto what no one has thought to address: Swordstile. I just cannot seem to use this Poke' well. I try and switch him in on a resisted attack, and he STILL takes a truckload of damage. I'm thinking that maybe SD Leafeon would work better here?
Rotom is also just effing worthless on my team, namely for the reasons that Sceptile has: it takes to much damage on neutral/resisted attacks from Pokes I try to switch in on. so although it must be replaced, I am not sure what would do well. I would really like this spot to be primarily for status support, primarily in the form of Thunder Wave and/or Will-o-Wisp. I am not really sure what would be a good user of this for my team, however.

 

[The Mighty Wurmple]

I don't see why Mesprit has a Mild nature when it only has Special Attacks, it should be Modest.

 

[anti404]

yeah... I was using a U-Turn/Zen Headbutt Mesprit, hence why it said Mild rather than Modest... oops!
I've been trying to think of someone to put in for Sceptile, because he was just getting the eff beat out of his green leafy self; I put in Leafeon(BP/SD/Leaf Blade/Roar) for a bit, and she was alright, but still got the crap beat out of her by SpAttacks.
I was trying to avoid using Venusaur, as his poison typing rids him of an always useful ground resist(and because he's ever so common), but I think a SD/SP/Eq/PW Jolly Venusaur(Lum or Life Orb or Leftovers..?) would have enough bulk to set up at least one Swords Dance.
Rotom is still proving basically worthless on this particular team, but I'm not sure what to put there.

 

[Shnoogle]

Rotom himself makes a good dual screener... Taken right from the analysis:

Rotom @ Light Clay
Timid Nature... +Speed, -Attack
252 HP / 4 Special Attack / 252 Speed
~Reflect
~Light Screen
~Thunderbolt
~Pain Split

Yeah, so this Rotom can switch in on its many resistances/immunities and start setting up. Pain Split helps cover for the lack of leftovers and can help you set up more screens. The analysis also suggests Will-O-Wisp as an option in the 4th slot, but since you already have Reflect and being able to repeatedly set up screens with pain split, I recommend not using it. You could also use Shadow Ball in the 3rd slot, but thunderbolt has overall more coverage and power.