First Competitive Team: The Floor is Made of Spikes (and Sand)

[DeadCake]

Alright since my first thread was locked and my team was looking pretty all over the place, here's a proper team I've come up with this time.

The Floor is Made of Spikes (and Sand)
A Tyranitar + Skarmory + Aegislash Love Story

and also the story of how much I hate Defog​

Rotom-Heat @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 176 Spd / 80 HP
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Trick
- Thunder Wave

The usual starter in this party of monsters. Volt Switch allows Rotom-H to deal with frail flying types in addition to dealing a bit of damage to the opposition before switching into my Tyranitar, Skarmory, or any other appropriate Pokemon. Overheat deals with Steel walls such as Forretress, Skarmory, and Ferrothorn. Trick cripples Walls/Stallers forcing them to switch out and rendering them almost useless for the rest of the game depending on the moveset. Thunder Wave allows me to deal with any big threats to my party. Choice Scarf is the choice of item as it lets me do a bit of Volt Switch damage every time a Pokemon dies if necessary and allows it to act as a revenge killer.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 HP / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Pursuit / Crunch / Roar

Although I didn't really want to use Ttar, he is undoubtedly such a great tank. In addition, Tyranitar pairs up with my Skarmory allowing me to devastate the enemy team with Stealth Rocks + Spikes + Whirlwind if a Spinner or Hazer is not present. Stone Edge deals with more tanky flying types that my Volt Switch-ing Rotom-H cannot kill in one shot. Earthquake acts as coverage for Tyranitar allowing it to potentially OHKO a wide typing of Pokemon. For now, Tyranitar currently knows Pursuit allowing it to prevent certain Pokemon from switching out. (Potentially to be swapped with Crunch).

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spd
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Whirlwind

Tyranitar's fellow bro. If a Spinner or Hazer is not present, Skarmory with Spikes + Whirlwind (and potentially Stealth Rocks AND Sandstorm) can devastate the enemy team. I have found this very effective against teams that are simply missing Fire type Pokemon as Skarmory, as the beasty Defense tank it is), can just spam Whirlwind leading to death by Spikes. Brave Bird serves as a way to finish off weak Pokemon and to potentially KO any fighting or Grass type Pokemon. Roost allows Skarmory to stay in battle, pretty self-explanatory.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware (Currently testing Magic Guard to avoid Sandstorm damage)
EVs: 240 Def / 252 HP / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Calm Mind / Aromatherapy

The typical RPG Cleric on my team. Clefable allows for Tyranitar and Skarmory to keep up their antics with Wish and sustains Blastoise who acts as the Spinner on the team. Also allows Aegislash to heal up after tanking a Super Effective hit procing the Weakness Policy and getting a nice heal while it's at it. Moonblast serves to deal with Dragon type Pokemon and free Calm Mind(s) make Clefable an excellent tank and a decent sweeper. Lastly, Protect allows Clefable to sustain itself longer especially with Leftovers and Wish. I chose Unaware over Magic Guard as it allows Clefable to get free Calm Mind(s) off while the enemy boosts their Pokemon.

Mega-Blastoise @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Mega Launcher
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Water Pulse
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam / Aura Sphere / Dragon Pulse

The special sweeper in the party. Rapid Spin allows Blastoise to clear any possible Entry Hazards that may currently impede my team. Coupled with Mega Launcher, Water Pulse lets Blastoise deal with bulky Fire and Rock types. Dark Pulse is a huge threat to Ghost Type Pokemon as a boosted Dark Pulse absolutely destroys Ghost types. Lastly, Ice Beam is there to cover some extra typings such as Dragon types and Ground types.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
- King's Shield
- Shadow Sneak
- Iron Head / Shadow Ball
- Sacred Sword

The physical attacker and anti-spinner in the party and another bro of Tyranitar. I originally had Shadow Ball on Aegislash but since Mega Gengar won't be too much of a threat anymore, it has been taken off (in addition to the fact that Blastoise knows Dark Pulse). King's Shield, while obvious, allows Aegislash to stall enemy Pokemon in Sandstorms in addition to tanking any Super Effective hits from Pokemon allowing it to proc Weakness Policy for a nice Shadow Sneak to the face with Spinners such as Starmie and. Iron Head acts as the main weapon against Fairy types allowing Aegislash to deal a big amount of damage against Fairies. Sacred Sword acts as the last move letting Aegislash to deal with fellow Steel/Dark types. Sacred Sword and Shadow Sneak also both deal with popular spinners such as Starmie, Claydol, and Excadrill.

Honestly the main problem I think is that I don't have anything to really deal with Choice Banded Azumarills and Rotom-W.

Possible Pokemon

• Mandibuzz w/ Overcoat
• Trevenant w/ Harvest

 

[ouchalargerock]

Skarmory: Seems like a pretty great set, apart from holding a Shed Shell. Not sure why you are using this. Is he getting constantly nailed by Infestation
Clefable: While I do see what you are trying to do here, I have a preposition.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Bold Nature
- Moonlight
- Stored Power
- Charge Beam/Moonblast
- Cosmic Power

Think about this for a second. Cosmic Power raises both defenses by one stage each turn. If you can get something to switch out in fear of Fairy-Type, you are at +2 after the first turn it attacks. When you couple that with the fact that Pokémon are trying to bust through a defense of roughly 150, and a Special Defense of roughly 180, without the ability to boost, she becomes scary. Not only that, with both active and passive Recovery, she can restore 5/8 of her health, and then raise her defenses again. Then you have Stored Power. After both Defenses are at +6 (that means they are quadrupled) she can hit with a base 260 power move. If you decide to run Charge Beam with this, you are looking at a +6 Defence, Special Attack, and Special Defense, and a move that hits with 380 base power, coming from a Special Attack of 1268. That is insane. If you want to run Moonblast instead, that is fine, giving you a coverage move to spam, allowing you to hit every type but Steel for Neutral Damage, and running Charge Beam takes care of that. If you are worried about Taunt or 'not being feasible', you are completely wrong. Even on the switch, getting +2 in each of your defenses will leave you with a Clefable that is not easy to take down.

Mega-Blastoise: Give this guy Dragon Pulse. He can easily take down Ground-Types with the boosted Water Pulse, and this allows you to hit more for neutral damage.

Aegislash: You may want to work Swords Dance in there rather than one of the other moves.

 

[DeadCake]

Skarmory: My friend usually keeps my Skarmory trapped with Magnet Pull so that's why I use Shed Shell. Will probably give Leftovers to Skarmory and a Rocky Helmet to Ttar.

Clefable: Will have to try out that set on PS but looks promising!

Mega-Blastoise: Would prefer Ice Beam for the extra coverage but Dragon Pulse doesn't sound that bad.

Aegislash: Will possibly swap Iron Head with Swords Dance. Problem is that I have nothing super effective against Fairy types if I do switch it.

 

[Mulligan]

You've got a promising team here, especially since this is your first attempt. There are some issues though, but hopefully my suggestions will help against the threats you mentioned.

First off, we gotta deal with that EV spread on Skarmory since it's taking more damage from physical attacks in general than it should be. The current spread does absolutely nothing for the bird because the Attack EVs aren't worth it on something with a middling base 80 Attack. Also you have max SAtk....with no special attacks...on a 'mon with Base 40 Special Attack :(. Use an EV spread of 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spd. This gives you much needed physical bulk, allows you to come in and Spike or Whirlwind more often, and takes pressure off of Clefable. It also gives you a switch into Choice Band Azumarill. The other thing that has to be addressed is Aegislash. Swap Iron Head back to Shadow Ball and change the EV spread to 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SAtk. Shadow Ball will help you against Rotom-W and doesn't make Aegislash completely useless if it gets burned. That and you get to use that sexy +2 SAtk boost from Weakness Policy again ;). You don't really need Iron Head because Aegislash does decently against Azumarill. Mega Mawile can be played around between Aegislash, Skarmory, Tyranitar and Rotom-H. The rest of the Fairy types are setup bait for Skarmory or picked off by Aegislash's Shadow Sneak(Gardevoir). Also, I would try out dropping your Speed IV to 0 since you are running Quiet nature and Aegislash can benefit from being slower in certain matchups, especially considering you have King's Shield.

The rest are just nitpicks (so they won't be bolded). I'd keep Ice Beam on Mega Blastoise since Aura Sphere and Dragon Pulse aren't necessarily better IMO. I would also keep the set that you have for Clefable. Nearly everything on your team synergizes very well with Clefable, making Wish passing fairly easy. It also helps Mega Blastoise immensly since it lacks recovery of it's own and makes spinning away hazards/attacking easier. Rotom-H also has an easier time coming since Wish mitigates the SR weakness in case you can't get a spin off with Blastoise. CM Wish just gives the whole team a more defensive backbone as opposed to Cosmic/Stored Power Clefable, who can sweep teams potentially but isn't a team player at all. I would also try Crunch over Pursuit on Tyranitar. Pursuit does allow you to trap Defog users in a catch 22 since most are Flying-types and they have to either risk staying in and catching a Stone Edge or switching out and catching a Pursuit. The problem is you are running a specially defensive EV spread, so Pursuit isn't going to do as much damage as you'd like.

Hope I helped and good luck.

 

[ouchalargerock]

Skarmory: My friend usually keeps my Skarmory trapped with Magnet Pull so that's why I use Shed Shell. Will probably give Leftovers to Skarmory and a Rocky Helmet to Ttar.

If you are going to a Specially-Defensive Tyranitar, giving it the Rocky Helmet may not be the best choice. You could run a Assault Vest set to take advantage of the already huge Sp. Atk stat, but this doesn't allow you to use Stealth Rocks.

Clefable: Will have to try out that set on PS but looks promising!

JackieChun is right, this may not be the best choice for your team, unless you are trying to use Clefable as your main sweeper, stick with your current set so you can support.

Mega-Blastoise: Would prefer Ice Beam for the extra coverage but Dragon Pulse doesn't sound that bad.

Ice Beam only hits prominent Ground and Dragon Types. Water Pulse should cover almost all Ground-Types, and Dragon Pulse hits most Dragons Harder with the Mega Launcher Boost, which allows you to hit other things for a stronger Neutral Damage.

Aegislash: Will possibly swap Iron Head with Swords Dance. Problem is that I have nothing super effective against Fairy types if I do switch it.

There are no really prominent Fairy-Types defensively, except for something like Mega Mawile, which is hit neutrally by Iron Head anyways. Sticking with Swords Dance and Shadow Sneak (or adding in Shadow Ball, like Jackie suggested) will be a lot more reliable.

 

[DeadCake]

Use an EV spread of 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spd.

Yeah, forgot to change the EVs since I accidentally pressed auto assign EVs on Pokemon Showdown. Of course I'm not running attacker Skarmory.

Swap Iron Head back to Shadow Ball and change the EV spread to 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SAtk

So would a set of King's Shield, Shadow Sneak, Shadow Ball, and Sacred Sword work or should I just drop Shadow Sneak? I like using SS since it lets me get a small attack off before dying.

I'd keep Ice Beam on Mega Blastoise since Aura Sphere and Dragon Pulse aren't necessarily better IMO. I would also keep the set that you have for Clefable. Nearly everything on your team synergizes very well with Clefable, making Wish passing fairly easy

Will have to experiment around with this but I've found that Ice Beam on Blastoise can't OHKO bulky Pokemon who are weak against Ice while Dragon Pulse lets Blastoise OHKO some prominent Dragon types. Also, will keep the support Clefable.

I would also try Crunch over Pursuit on Tyranitar

Yeah, I've found that Pursuit doesn't do much to help but to damage some U-turn'ers and Volt Switchers. Will try out Crunch.

 

[Mulligan]

So would a set of King's Shield, Shadow Sneak, Shadow Ball, and Sacred Sword work or should I just drop Shadow Sneak? I like using SS since it lets me get a small attack off before dying.

Yeah. that exact moveset is what I would go for. SS gives you some form of priority. I don't think you need Iron Head at all.

 

[DeadCake]

Thoughts on replacing Crunch for Roar and giving Tyranitar the Leftovers and Skarmory the Rocky Helmet?

 

[Mulligan]

I'd give it a shot and test it out since that Tyranitar is specially defensive. SkarmTar can potentially throw a lot of guys around, especially if you can get SR and a layer of Spikes down. I don't think people will expect Roar on Tyranitar. I'd test out the item switch too.