First RMT Ever (offensive SS)

hello smogon. first post and all that good stuff. lurked for about a year, gaining knowledge and such. bout a year and change ago i was digging through storage and found my gameboy color and gold cartridge. found some batteries and i was off and running. decided i would pick up a ds and platinum and finished that. but, i wasn't satisfied so i looked for something else. stumbled upon smogon one day and decided competitive battling was something id be interested in, but, i had absolutely zero knowledge of it. gen 4 was coming to a close so i decided id wait till gen 5 came out. gen 5 came a few months back and what little knowledge id gained became obsolete. i finally had the time and started messing around on PO server. with a little time, frustration, and patience i finally developed a team. enough of me rambling though lets get to it.


back playing gen 4 once i got to the elite 4, bertha's hippowdon frustrated the hell out of me(makes sense seeing as how i basically overlevel'd my infernape and still couldnt do much to it once that earthquake came out). i instantly fell in love with it. i knew whenever i got into competitive battling it had to be on the team. so i added him.



once again playing gen 4, i absolutely hated playing against cynthia's garchomp. it was like facing lance's dragonite all over again. plus, i knew in 5th gen he was back to OU so i figured if he was so infuriating for me why not make him so for everyone else.



when the full list, plus move list for gen 5 came out, i instantly fell in love with the pony, kerudio. massive special attack, huge speed, and fighting version of pyscho shock? sign me up.



at this point i was going for full sandstorm team, except tyranitar(good as he is) didnt really fit with my idea of where i wanted to take the team. i went through guite a few pokes as my revenge killer before i settled on terakion, stab CC and stone edge were perfect, plus, x-scissor coming off his massive attack meant lots of things dead. as in D.E.A.D.



i realized that i wanted to maximize passive damage, meaning i wanted 25 percent health gone when someone switched in EVERY TIME, so i brought in skarmory.



after that, i had a huge problem with special sweepers coming in and running through the pony and hippo, leaving garchomp all alone with terakion, neither of which take special hits very well even with sand up. in came the perfect special wall, the big blog blissey.



so thats my team. lets get to the nuts and bolts.

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Def / 12 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
- Roost

THEE wall of the previous 3 gens, this guy is also just a fantastic hazards starter. stealth rock always goes up first. if he has over half health i go for spikes. ive yet to be 2hkoed. if i see a flamethrower/fire blast coming i simply switch to blissey. whirlwind is great to help the sweepers later on and the hippo if he gets to set up. roost is just kind of there and im more than willing to change it to brave bird. the 12 spd is to get the jump on other skarmory(ive seen a few) for the whirlwind.

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Heal Bell
- Wish
- Toxic
- Softboiled
The special wall. The cleric. The blob. This thing absolutely is the glue to this team. heal bell lets the hippo go out and come back in atleast twice. wish lets the sweepers come in and come back up to full health. lets skarmory come back in to set up SR/spikes. softboiled is obvious. toxic really frustrates the hell out of drought ninetales.

Terakion @ Balloon
Trait: Justice Heart
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance
the revenger. the killer. this thing is a BEAST. he loves to come in on dory, or any EQ for that matter, slap a CC or stone edge on something and smile. Even better is getting a free SD if they have the thought to switch. he has enough natural bulk to survive most priority(with the exception of bullet punch from scizor.) he just absolutely murders things.

Kerudio @ Leftovers
Trait: Justice Heart
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Mystery Sword
- Calm Mind
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Dark]
the pony. the blissey killer. the sazandora killer. he comes in, kills or calm minds and sweeps. end of story. especially with entry hazards and SS up he just absolutely wrecks things. once i have a calm mind up, i havent met anything besides the psychic puppet that ohko's this thing without entry hazards being up.

Garchomp (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Outrage
- Shadow Claw
scarfchomp. what do i say? hes mean, hes nasty, hes the total package. with sand up this guy is a nightmare. shadow claw is for revenging ghosts, specifically the jellyfish. he generally is my late game cleaner, coming in when things are weakened or when the other dragons are gone. ive found that most other teams with a dragon, i let them get the KO, typically on skarm or the pony, bring him in and go for the suicide outrage. after that i stall out with hippowdon and blissey since the other team is mostly built around said dragon.

Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Ice Fang
- Stockpile
- Slack Off
- Roar
what an animal. i typically bring him in against some sort of fighter. with the help of a wish from blissey, and he comes in at full health. i grab a stockpile and smile. grab a second or slack off depending on the health. after 3 stockpiles, this thing CAN NOT, repeat, CAN NOT, be 3hkoed unless a crit comes along. once im set up i spam roar and slack off. ice fang is for gliscor who, if the pony is gone, walls the hell out of this thing. it turns into a stall war that i win only if i have enough slack offs left.

Threats-I have a huge problem with hazards on my own side. i simply am not sure how to get a rapid spinner in on my side of the field. I also struggle with rain teams. not so much the actual sweepers but taking down politoed. he is a bitch to take out. gliscor is also a nightmare. id love to throw an ice beam somewhere but i cant figure it out. i typically stall him out with hippo. chlorophyl sweepers are generally not a big issue. terakion can get the jump on them most of the time. if not blissey loves to throw toxic around and skarm and the hippo like to move things around. also, status absolutely ruins this team as blissey is my cleric but she gets hard to keep alive if shes constantly switching in to save the hippo and such. any help and rates is much appreciated. Cheers.
 
Ok the first thing I would like to say is that this has potential to be a fairly decent team. I would suggest that you take off rocks on Skarmory and replace it with Brave Bird. Your Skarmory is also easy bait for Shandera so I would suggest putting on Shed Shell if needed Skarmory can switch out and Roost later on in the game or Blissey can pass a wish to it late game if need be. I would suggest taking off stockpile as it's not really needed Hippowdon already has decent bulk and is able to slack off any damage that comes his way and replace it with rocks. I would like to point out that on your Keldeo/Kerudio that it has Hidden Power Dark you may want that to be hidden power Ice because of it's great speed its able to outspeed Garchomp, Salamence and Dragonite and Generally get a 1 to 2 hit KO with Hidden Power Ice. I also wanted to point out that your Garchomp has Shadow claw which isn't really needed either. with at least 1 SD up you are able to OHKO most opposing Ghost threats with an Outrage and Burungeru/Jellicent is usually a 1 to 2 Hit KO with Garchomp's power. I would suggest replacing Shadow Claw with Fire fang making Garchomp able to OHKO a Nattorei after 1 SD and take care of any other grass Pokemon like Breloom. In my own personal opinion I would say running Doryuzuu/Excadrill over Terrakion with Sand Rush on a Jolly Dory it increases his speed to 604 being able to out speed any blaziken that doesn't have more than 3 Speed Boosts. also having Dory with SD X-Scissor Rock Slide and Earthquake with his 252 ATK and 252 speed with a balloon makes him a very huge threat with his ATK hitting 369 with no Swords Dance Boost. I also wanted to mention that Ice Fang on your Hippo is decent but it doesn't benefit your team as much. I would suggest Earthquake as he is able to take physical his and hit back with an Earthquake on Tyranitar, Blaziken and Doryuzuu quite effectively. Aslo I wanted to mention it would be better to have Swords Dance over Stone Edge on your Garchomp in my opinion it's misses can be game changing. I would also say that if you have problems with rain teams you can switch Skarmory for a DEF Bulky Nattorei with spikes as it walls most rain teams and soaks up electric attacks. You also could run HP electric on Kerudio/Pony to somewhat deal with Rain threats and it still is able to OHKO Gliscor with a Surf/Hydro Pump and If you run into dragons you have Garchomp. I also want to say that you should give Garchomp a Yache Berry over scarf he already have great speed and sand.

I think this concludes my RMT for your team if you have any questions or disagree with anything I have said in this rate let me know. I hope I could help and welcome to Smogon!

Edit: I would also recommend you run a Bold Blissey 252 HP and 252 DEF since it already has amazing special Defense.
 
thanks for the rate. much obliged.

first-your point on the pony is taken, ill be switching that to HP ice. i was looking for a hp to drop in that slot and HP dark really helped with the ghosts, mostly the jelly fish. but it will be nice not to have to sacrifice chomp just to kill latios/sazandora.

second-skarmory. if i was going to take anything off it would probably be roost...ive tried rocks on hippo and it just doesnt seem to work. as for shandera bait...having brave bird will solve my problem of getting taunted and forced to switch...but if they are going to switch they either taunt(giving me the switch to bring in hippo or blissey) or bring shandera strait in which still gives me rocks. that is skarms entire purpose on this team, to bring up rocks and if possible spikes.

third-as for garchomp, ill try fire fang, but honestly if i bring terakion in on nattorei i get a free sd and sweep. at +2 nothing really stops him. switch choice scarf for yache berry isnt really something i plan on. ill give it a shot, but i like being able to outspeed everything including blaziken at +1. he has enough raw power that outrage will 2ko just about everything except nattorei who really cant do anything back.

4th-hippowdon, the whole point of the set is stockpile, after 2 stockpiles not even latios surf or a grass knot from celebi 2hkos. long as skarm gets rocks up, i spam roar and slack off while i laugh. it forces more rage quits than i can imagine. ive tried both earthquake and ice fang. earthquake has a lot more raw power plus stab, but, ice fang hits gliscor(gonna try HP ice on kerudio so ill switch it back to earthquake for a bit and see.)

5th-terakion. ive been told a couple times to switch to dory, but terakion on a baloon ohkos dory with close combat on the switch. nothing much catches him besides dory who even if he nets a rock slide with a predicted switch, he cant 2hko whereas terakion gets the one hitter every time.

6th-blissey. ill switch the evs. i never looked up a set for her, just slapped it on the team to keep the hippo healthy. wasnt until a couple matches in that i started sponging fire blasts/flamethrowers meant for skarmory with it.

thanks again for the rate. ill try the suggestions and get back to you. cheers
 
So, testing this team out today, im gonna opt for Fire Blast on Garchomp. Even going to a Yache Berry and Swords Dance, it takes away from the guaranteed OHKO on Lati@s and other Garchomp. I don't like leaving things up to a speed tie.

I put HP Ice on Kerudio, and it is definitely superior. Guaranteed OHKO on Gliscor, which leaves me to stick EQ on the hippo.

I tried both taking off Roost and Stealk Rock on Skarm. So far, it seems as if roost is the better option. Either he eats a Fire Blast/Flamethrower and gets one layer of spikes up, or he gets to wall and PHaze all game.

I realized today, my biggest problems are Magic Mirror Espeon, and priority Taunt. Anyone have any ideas on how to handle that? Also, yes I know Dory is an answer, but any ideas on a rapid spinner besides him?

EDIT-also through Ice Beam on Blissey. I've had it happen a few times where she's all thats left against a Gliscor or something similar and I need to do more than Toxic and Softboiled.
 

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