Some introduction, I've been playing pokemon since the days of RBY, which is 10 odd years ago, but I have only very recently discovered competitive battling somewhat a week ago(BTW, this has replaced my WoW gaming time, which is getting boring after full T9) After getting myself decimated for 2 days straight I've finally come up with a team that at least gives me a 60%+ win rate, but still there are some major problems that I need to fix. So please pardon my inexperience and give any constructive opinions.
The team at a glance :
How it works: This is an extremely offensive team with every pokemon aside from Bronzong playing the role of late game sweeper. It plays extremely heavily on predicting switches and moves, and most of my losses come from inexperience leading to bad predicts.
The Lead:
Weaville@Focus Sash - Pressure
Hasty 252Atk/252Spe/4Hp
-Fake Out
-Taunt
-Ice Punch(Thunder Punch)
-Night Slash(Counter)
The anti-SR lead, opens with fake out to cheat focus sash, taunt the SR and proceed to hit with 2 STABed moves of 339 Atk. Ice punch takes out Aerodactyl while Night slash hits Azelf HARD. Counter works well in theory with Focus Sash but the most problematic threat I face is Hippowdon, who's sandstorm invalidates focus sash. Against Bronzong/Jirachi lead I'll fake out to check the item and taunt his SR and immediately switch into my own Bronzong.
One of the most common switch-ins I get is Gyarados. Often the right thing to do is to taunt, 90% of the time my opponent will dance hoping for a switch, and walk right into a taunt followed by night slash that hits for 40-44%. They will counter with a Stone edge that leaves me at 1 HP and I'll hit back, which means they'll die to life orb recoil in order to kill me. A missed stone's edge should mean he's dead and I'm at full HP.
I've considered switching to Thunder punch since it's just slightly less effective against Aerodactyl(loses STAB) but lets me slaughter Gyarados. I usually try my best to keep my Weaville at full HP, to take advantage of my focus sash and crazy attack later in the game. Often using him to weaken ghost types and kill zapdos. Since he can hit them all for STAB SE before they can sub, and hopefully with SR will invalidate the sub.
The Annoying
Bronzong@Leftovers - Levitate
Sassy 252Hp/86Atk/80Def/92SpDef
1 speed ev to outspeed 0 speed bronzongs
-Stealth Rock
-Gyro Ball
-Earthquake
-Explosion
He comes in after Weaville taunts an opposing SRer, sets up his own SR and try to get some damage in. Gyro ball hits for surprising amounts of damage against speedy physical attackers. I will normally use earthquake even if the opponent is weak to gyro ball or immune to it(eg. opposing bronzongs) will often hit a very bad switch in for SE, like metagross or magnezone or infernape(this is especially common).
Explosion is my catch all solution to things I can't deal with, Kingdra, DDed Gyarados, Flygon, Blissey, Celebi, Starmie etc. This is also my grass knot/ earthquake/bullet punch soak so I try to keep it alive for as long as possible to until I know my opponent's team.
I hate missing, so I don't have hypnosis.
The Scout
Flygon@Choice Scarf - Levitate
Adament 80Hp/252Atk/176Spe
-U-turn
-Outrage
-Crunch
-Earthquake
Most of the time I'll send this guy out after a faint. Scarfed crunch hits bulky ghosts for quite alot before the substitute, which will leave them only able to sub once. U-turn is often used to wear down targets or if the opponent will die to an earthquake and you anticipate a switch.
Outrage is mainly to hit dragons with high special def like Latias, and will also hit almost anything for neutral damage. It's typing also allows it to take fighting hits.
This is my most unsure spot, mostly is there as a concession to fast ghosts and psychics(Rotom forms especially)
The Tank
Swampert@leftovers - Torrent
Relaxed 240Hp/216Def/52SpA
-Ice Beam
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Roar
Swampert is the most overworked poke on my team. Walling overheats and fireblasts and earthquakes from every direction. The ev spread lets it survive Draco meteor from salamence and OHKO with Ice beam. Swampert complements Bronzong well, since the most common switch-ins to bronzong are rotom-oven, infernape and heatran. Both overheat and fireblast does about 15% and flare blitz even less.
He can proceed to wear rotom down with surfs. Against infernape I will immediately switch into jirachi if he used fireblast, grass knot will do about 10% to jirachi. If infernape uses flare blitz than it may be safe to surf. If not I will alternate between jirachi and swampert all the while wearing down the ape with life orb. Either that or I'll swap in Flygon on the knot, and outrage, I don't earthquake because anyone with sense will swap into someone immune.
Roar is my main phazing tool, taking dancers(of swords and dragons alike) who think they all the time in the world to set up by surprise. The same idea applies to CM Cresselia.
The Sweepers
Jirachi@Expert Belt - Serene grace
Hasty 252Atk/252Spe/4Hp
-Iron Head
-Fire Punch
-Ice Punch
-Thunder Wave
No one sees it coming, ever. I've had Gliscors try to taunt it and die to ice punch, dragons who dance and die to Ice punch. I used to have thunder punch on the last slot, which was mainly for gyarados. But is very weak against other bulky waters, milotic, vaporean, suicune etc. Hence I'd rather just thunderwave and flinch my opponent to death.
He makes an awesome counter to Scizor and Lucario, OHKOing with fire punch while only taking 30% bullet punch after 1 SD. Blisseys are 3 shotted by Iron head, so you only need to hit the flinch twice in a row to get it down. Tyranitar takes 70% from iron head, and jirachi survives non-danced earthquake from any tar.
One thing I often do is use Ice punch to finish off weak poke even if they're weak to fire, as heatran switch-ins are a bi#ch. Not to mention most earthquake users are weak to ice, and the 20% freeze chance can be amazing on a counter switch in.
Infernape@Life orb - Blaze
Naive 64Atk/252SpA/192Spe
-Close Combat
-Flamethrower(I DONT LIKE TO MISS!!)
-Grass Knot
-HP Ice
This is my most common route to victory. Naive allows me to outspeed opposing Infernapes and often OHKO with Close Combat, since most of the time they're worn out with their own life orb. I usually try to save this for last and sweep everything my opponent has left. Nothing much to say, except I sometimes use him to lure out an earthquake user, switch to bronzong and SR+explosion.
Problems:
Rain dance teams : Kingdra with surf and ice beam is a beast. My only chance is explosion. Either that or try to stall the rain and kill the dancer with flygon/weaville. Repeated fake-outs are very very good. Fake out + night slash kills ludicolo while ice punch cleanly kills zapdos after SR. But if the opposing kingdra itself has access to rain dance than I'm dead.
Flygon : Annoys the absolute hell out of me.
More than 1 fire type : With Swampert and Flygon I can often take out 1 heatran or infernape, but if both are present on opposing teams I'm usually screwed.
Water tanks : Vaporean, Suicune, Milotic etc.. They have access to rest, resist iron head, surf hits my entire team for neutral. Even expert belted thunder punch hit for only 30+%.
Choice Scarfed Jolteon - Outspeeds flygon and easily kills it with HP ice. Good chance of killing my infernape before I even make a move. All in all a very hard to kill last guy.
Thanks for reading guys. I appreciate all the help.
The team at a glance :
How it works: This is an extremely offensive team with every pokemon aside from Bronzong playing the role of late game sweeper. It plays extremely heavily on predicting switches and moves, and most of my losses come from inexperience leading to bad predicts.
The Lead:
Weaville@Focus Sash - Pressure
Hasty 252Atk/252Spe/4Hp
-Fake Out
-Taunt
-Ice Punch(Thunder Punch)
-Night Slash(Counter)
The anti-SR lead, opens with fake out to cheat focus sash, taunt the SR and proceed to hit with 2 STABed moves of 339 Atk. Ice punch takes out Aerodactyl while Night slash hits Azelf HARD. Counter works well in theory with Focus Sash but the most problematic threat I face is Hippowdon, who's sandstorm invalidates focus sash. Against Bronzong/Jirachi lead I'll fake out to check the item and taunt his SR and immediately switch into my own Bronzong.
One of the most common switch-ins I get is Gyarados. Often the right thing to do is to taunt, 90% of the time my opponent will dance hoping for a switch, and walk right into a taunt followed by night slash that hits for 40-44%. They will counter with a Stone edge that leaves me at 1 HP and I'll hit back, which means they'll die to life orb recoil in order to kill me. A missed stone's edge should mean he's dead and I'm at full HP.
I've considered switching to Thunder punch since it's just slightly less effective against Aerodactyl(loses STAB) but lets me slaughter Gyarados. I usually try my best to keep my Weaville at full HP, to take advantage of my focus sash and crazy attack later in the game. Often using him to weaken ghost types and kill zapdos. Since he can hit them all for STAB SE before they can sub, and hopefully with SR will invalidate the sub.
The Annoying
Bronzong@Leftovers - Levitate
Sassy 252Hp/86Atk/80Def/92SpDef
1 speed ev to outspeed 0 speed bronzongs
-Stealth Rock
-Gyro Ball
-Earthquake
-Explosion
He comes in after Weaville taunts an opposing SRer, sets up his own SR and try to get some damage in. Gyro ball hits for surprising amounts of damage against speedy physical attackers. I will normally use earthquake even if the opponent is weak to gyro ball or immune to it(eg. opposing bronzongs) will often hit a very bad switch in for SE, like metagross or magnezone or infernape(this is especially common).
Explosion is my catch all solution to things I can't deal with, Kingdra, DDed Gyarados, Flygon, Blissey, Celebi, Starmie etc. This is also my grass knot/ earthquake/bullet punch soak so I try to keep it alive for as long as possible to until I know my opponent's team.
I hate missing, so I don't have hypnosis.
The Scout
Flygon@Choice Scarf - Levitate
Adament 80Hp/252Atk/176Spe
-U-turn
-Outrage
-Crunch
-Earthquake
Most of the time I'll send this guy out after a faint. Scarfed crunch hits bulky ghosts for quite alot before the substitute, which will leave them only able to sub once. U-turn is often used to wear down targets or if the opponent will die to an earthquake and you anticipate a switch.
Outrage is mainly to hit dragons with high special def like Latias, and will also hit almost anything for neutral damage. It's typing also allows it to take fighting hits.
This is my most unsure spot, mostly is there as a concession to fast ghosts and psychics(Rotom forms especially)
The Tank
Swampert@leftovers - Torrent
Relaxed 240Hp/216Def/52SpA
-Ice Beam
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Roar
Swampert is the most overworked poke on my team. Walling overheats and fireblasts and earthquakes from every direction. The ev spread lets it survive Draco meteor from salamence and OHKO with Ice beam. Swampert complements Bronzong well, since the most common switch-ins to bronzong are rotom-oven, infernape and heatran. Both overheat and fireblast does about 15% and flare blitz even less.
He can proceed to wear rotom down with surfs. Against infernape I will immediately switch into jirachi if he used fireblast, grass knot will do about 10% to jirachi. If infernape uses flare blitz than it may be safe to surf. If not I will alternate between jirachi and swampert all the while wearing down the ape with life orb. Either that or I'll swap in Flygon on the knot, and outrage, I don't earthquake because anyone with sense will swap into someone immune.
Roar is my main phazing tool, taking dancers(of swords and dragons alike) who think they all the time in the world to set up by surprise. The same idea applies to CM Cresselia.
The Sweepers
Jirachi@Expert Belt - Serene grace
Hasty 252Atk/252Spe/4Hp
-Iron Head
-Fire Punch
-Ice Punch
-Thunder Wave
No one sees it coming, ever. I've had Gliscors try to taunt it and die to ice punch, dragons who dance and die to Ice punch. I used to have thunder punch on the last slot, which was mainly for gyarados. But is very weak against other bulky waters, milotic, vaporean, suicune etc. Hence I'd rather just thunderwave and flinch my opponent to death.
He makes an awesome counter to Scizor and Lucario, OHKOing with fire punch while only taking 30% bullet punch after 1 SD. Blisseys are 3 shotted by Iron head, so you only need to hit the flinch twice in a row to get it down. Tyranitar takes 70% from iron head, and jirachi survives non-danced earthquake from any tar.
One thing I often do is use Ice punch to finish off weak poke even if they're weak to fire, as heatran switch-ins are a bi#ch. Not to mention most earthquake users are weak to ice, and the 20% freeze chance can be amazing on a counter switch in.
Infernape@Life orb - Blaze
Naive 64Atk/252SpA/192Spe
-Close Combat
-Flamethrower(I DONT LIKE TO MISS!!)
-Grass Knot
-HP Ice
This is my most common route to victory. Naive allows me to outspeed opposing Infernapes and often OHKO with Close Combat, since most of the time they're worn out with their own life orb. I usually try to save this for last and sweep everything my opponent has left. Nothing much to say, except I sometimes use him to lure out an earthquake user, switch to bronzong and SR+explosion.
Problems:
Rain dance teams : Kingdra with surf and ice beam is a beast. My only chance is explosion. Either that or try to stall the rain and kill the dancer with flygon/weaville. Repeated fake-outs are very very good. Fake out + night slash kills ludicolo while ice punch cleanly kills zapdos after SR. But if the opposing kingdra itself has access to rain dance than I'm dead.
Flygon : Annoys the absolute hell out of me.
More than 1 fire type : With Swampert and Flygon I can often take out 1 heatran or infernape, but if both are present on opposing teams I'm usually screwed.
Water tanks : Vaporean, Suicune, Milotic etc.. They have access to rest, resist iron head, surf hits my entire team for neutral. Even expert belted thunder punch hit for only 30+%.
Choice Scarfed Jolteon - Outspeeds flygon and easily kills it with HP ice. Good chance of killing my infernape before I even make a move. All in all a very hard to kill last guy.
Thanks for reading guys. I appreciate all the help.