Now, the advice I was given was to start with one or two Pokemon I really like, so I started with Mawile as I've always quite liked that mon and in this Gen it definitely seems strong. Then again, what do I know? Finally got someone a bit better than me to give me a hand making a team, but I'm obviously gonna be bad at it for now.
The general goal of this team is pretty simplistic: Remove threats that will stop one of my sweepers from sweeping then sweep with the first mon that has it's way cleared. I'm hoping this team will help teach me more about what mon checks what, and will rely a lot on playing the prediction game and hopefully forcing my opponent to do the same, I think this team does that, but I honestly don't know.
Pokemon one:
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate/Huge Power
EVs: 172 HP/252 Atk/84 Speed
Nature: Adamant
-Swords Dance
-Sucker Punch
-Play Rough
-Thunder Fang
Honestly, this is where I started, with my single favourite mon, I will make more and better teams as my experience grows, but I want to get the one with my Mawile built at least once so it's not sitting there tempting me on every single team I make. Heck, Mawile being competitively viable is almost one quarter of the reason I actually took a serious look at competitive battling.
Anyway, moving on with more important mechanical stuff.
Fairly solid set with coverage, the last move seems to be a lot more choice, the 84 in speed is because bugger a bulky Ageislash outspeeding my sucker punch with it's shadow sneak. I was going to go with fire fang or Iron Head for the forth move, but in the end most things I need to fire I don't really want Mawile in against. Bulky water elimination instead.
Mawile hits HARD, very hard, it has sucker punch but otherwise it gets outsped a lot, still, if it can get set up, it can OHKO a lot of walls even without SE moves.
Now I was looking at a partner sweeper and the flying dragons looked really appealing with resisting fire and immune to ground, the I looked at sets on a lot of dragons and noted most of the dragon dancers carried a Fire or Ground move for coverage, so if one got set up with a dragon dance it could counter both my sweepers hard.
Therefore I picked the next best thing that doesn't turn it into a dragon brawl, Sorry Salamance.
Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252Atk/252Def/4Speed
Nature: Impish
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Ice Fang
-Earthquake
A somewhat bulky Gyrados, a strong response to Talonflame and a lot of other threats to Mawile, and between the two they resist everything except ghost and electric. A lot of remaining threats can get sucker punched from Mawile. Seems like a pretty good sweeper duo and at least one of them can get a good sweep in in most situations, I think. Except there seems to be one 'mon I can't really touch with this: Justified Arcanine with Flare Blitz and Wild Charge. There's a few other annoying counters like Magnezone, but at least I can kinda deal with them.
So let's see if we can check a few things that are hard to sweep and directly respond to an Arcanine or similar issue.
Rhyperior @ Assault Vest
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 HP/104 Def/152 SpD
Nature: Careful
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Crunch
-Megahorn
Rhyperior with the addition of assault vest does not go down easily, even hitting him with an earthquake on his ground weakness will take awhile to bring him down, I considered a Zygarde in this slot(it brings a paralyse and a slightly stronger typing, but weaker stats) but went with this lovely wall that hits back hard. Doesn't really care about ground as much as I expected and nicely deals with some of my other threats like Fire, Electric and rock. It's move set should allow it to remove a lot of my sweepers threats. Helps deal with Arcainine, Deals with Magezone, talonflame, lots of other popular fire types, what's not to love? I mean, other than getting hit with a scald or energy ball.
Jolteon @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Speed
Nature: Timid
-Thunderbolt
-Shadow Ball
-Agility
-Baton Pass
Volt Absorb easily lets me swap into the wild charge(Or other electric threat) and it can hit pretty dang hard on a lot of my threats with just electric/ghost, quite likely forcing a swap in several situations. Furthermore, I don't think either of my fairly slow sweepers would object at all to getting baton passed an agility or two if Volt finds some downtime against a staller or can force a swap. Jolt has the potential to sweep a fair bit all on it's own.
Okay, there's four mons, now let's round out the group some. I need a fairly reliable lead, and I seem to be playing a game where I'm looking to force a lot of swaps. Something bulky that's water/ground is also a bit of a problem for me, Let's see here... How about:
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP/48 Def/208 SpD
Nature: Relaxed
-Stealth Rock
-Leech Seed
-Power Whip
-Gyro Ball(Spikes? Curse?)
Grass move to deal with any pesky water/grounds, Entry Hazard set-up, a bit of walling, nothing too amazing but I think it rounds out the party, might also be able to scout for some surprise fire moves(Hidden Power or just something I didn't realize was buried on that mons movelist) without risking a sweeper. Good wall, good stats, and some entry hazards to play with what is probably going to be a game with more swaps than usual, I think?
Finally, I need something that can lead/scout for me.
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk/252 SpA/252 Speed
Nature: Hasty
-Scald
-Dark Pulse
-Ice Beam
-U-turn
Hit something hard, get out, or expendable fodder to set up a swap. It can lead in a lot of situations my existing choices cannot, rounds out a bit of coverage, again, nothing too special here, but it seems to be a popular pick for this role and serve my purpose. I think it'll work well for me and it carries ice-beam which helps a bit more with ground removal.
The general goal of this team is pretty simplistic: Remove threats that will stop one of my sweepers from sweeping then sweep with the first mon that has it's way cleared. I'm hoping this team will help teach me more about what mon checks what, and will rely a lot on playing the prediction game and hopefully forcing my opponent to do the same, I think this team does that, but I honestly don't know.
Pokemon one:
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate/Huge Power
EVs: 172 HP/252 Atk/84 Speed
Nature: Adamant
-Swords Dance
-Sucker Punch
-Play Rough
-Thunder Fang
Honestly, this is where I started, with my single favourite mon, I will make more and better teams as my experience grows, but I want to get the one with my Mawile built at least once so it's not sitting there tempting me on every single team I make. Heck, Mawile being competitively viable is almost one quarter of the reason I actually took a serious look at competitive battling.
Anyway, moving on with more important mechanical stuff.
Fairly solid set with coverage, the last move seems to be a lot more choice, the 84 in speed is because bugger a bulky Ageislash outspeeding my sucker punch with it's shadow sneak. I was going to go with fire fang or Iron Head for the forth move, but in the end most things I need to fire I don't really want Mawile in against. Bulky water elimination instead.
Mawile hits HARD, very hard, it has sucker punch but otherwise it gets outsped a lot, still, if it can get set up, it can OHKO a lot of walls even without SE moves.
Now I was looking at a partner sweeper and the flying dragons looked really appealing with resisting fire and immune to ground, the I looked at sets on a lot of dragons and noted most of the dragon dancers carried a Fire or Ground move for coverage, so if one got set up with a dragon dance it could counter both my sweepers hard.
Therefore I picked the next best thing that doesn't turn it into a dragon brawl, Sorry Salamance.
Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252Atk/252Def/4Speed
Nature: Impish
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Ice Fang
-Earthquake
A somewhat bulky Gyrados, a strong response to Talonflame and a lot of other threats to Mawile, and between the two they resist everything except ghost and electric. A lot of remaining threats can get sucker punched from Mawile. Seems like a pretty good sweeper duo and at least one of them can get a good sweep in in most situations, I think. Except there seems to be one 'mon I can't really touch with this: Justified Arcanine with Flare Blitz and Wild Charge. There's a few other annoying counters like Magnezone, but at least I can kinda deal with them.
So let's see if we can check a few things that are hard to sweep and directly respond to an Arcanine or similar issue.
Rhyperior @ Assault Vest
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 HP/104 Def/152 SpD
Nature: Careful
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Crunch
-Megahorn
Rhyperior with the addition of assault vest does not go down easily, even hitting him with an earthquake on his ground weakness will take awhile to bring him down, I considered a Zygarde in this slot(it brings a paralyse and a slightly stronger typing, but weaker stats) but went with this lovely wall that hits back hard. Doesn't really care about ground as much as I expected and nicely deals with some of my other threats like Fire, Electric and rock. It's move set should allow it to remove a lot of my sweepers threats. Helps deal with Arcainine, Deals with Magezone, talonflame, lots of other popular fire types, what's not to love? I mean, other than getting hit with a scald or energy ball.
Jolteon @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Speed
Nature: Timid
-Thunderbolt
-Shadow Ball
-Agility
-Baton Pass
Volt Absorb easily lets me swap into the wild charge(Or other electric threat) and it can hit pretty dang hard on a lot of my threats with just electric/ghost, quite likely forcing a swap in several situations. Furthermore, I don't think either of my fairly slow sweepers would object at all to getting baton passed an agility or two if Volt finds some downtime against a staller or can force a swap. Jolt has the potential to sweep a fair bit all on it's own.
Okay, there's four mons, now let's round out the group some. I need a fairly reliable lead, and I seem to be playing a game where I'm looking to force a lot of swaps. Something bulky that's water/ground is also a bit of a problem for me, Let's see here... How about:
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP/48 Def/208 SpD
Nature: Relaxed
-Stealth Rock
-Leech Seed
-Power Whip
-Gyro Ball(Spikes? Curse?)
Grass move to deal with any pesky water/grounds, Entry Hazard set-up, a bit of walling, nothing too amazing but I think it rounds out the party, might also be able to scout for some surprise fire moves(Hidden Power or just something I didn't realize was buried on that mons movelist) without risking a sweeper. Good wall, good stats, and some entry hazards to play with what is probably going to be a game with more swaps than usual, I think?
Finally, I need something that can lead/scout for me.
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk/252 SpA/252 Speed
Nature: Hasty
-Scald
-Dark Pulse
-Ice Beam
-U-turn
Hit something hard, get out, or expendable fodder to set up a swap. It can lead in a lot of situations my existing choices cannot, rounds out a bit of coverage, again, nothing too special here, but it seems to be a popular pick for this role and serve my purpose. I think it'll work well for me and it carries ice-beam which helps a bit more with ground removal.
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