First team in over a year

[Finitevus]

So, I used to be pretty active over on serebii, but dropped off for the last few years. Figured I would rather hone my skills then collection if I'm coming back to pokemon, so I made an account here on smogom. This is the team I whipped up and have been testing on PO, so any advice or comments are welcome.

Gold Nut (Forretress) @ Red Card
Trait: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Relaxed
- Toxic Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Pain Split/bulldoze/hp fire

Gold is here to set up, and he does his job very well. Red card is to let obnoxious people with no prediction set up as much as they want, (three or four dragon dances usually) only to have it all wasted. I've been toying with the last move slot, but I think I'm leaning towards bulldoze for the speed reduction, not to mention being able to help out even the smallest bit in a stall war. Hp fire is just there for ferrothron really, I haven't tried it out yet.

Cartazes (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang/stone edge

Generic set up sweeper. Not much to say here, Zartakzes is pretty straight forward. The one thing he has problems with would be ferrothron, but I'm not sure what to do about that. Along with Sollux, he is the core of my team.

Sollux (Electivire) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Motor Drive
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Ice Punch
- Wild Charge
- Fire Punch/cross chop
- Earthquake/cross chop

I find Electivire is extremely underrated, with great stats around the board and an insane movepool. He works hand in hand with Cartazes, covering each other perfectly, and even getting speed boosts off it. He is usually a late game sweeper, and is so versatile I really have no complaints here.

Terezi (Gengar) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain/Focus blast
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]/Focus blast

From scizor to infernape to terrakion, and now this. Terezi is mostly here as a revenge sweeper, being fast enough to kill off weakened targets in a single hit. the coverage is great, and he 2HKO's ferro thorn from 100% with ease using HP fire. Giga drain seems to be the least used move so far, but since I have so much difficulty with swampert I'm leaving it in for now. Focus blast would allow him to take out all of those obnoxious heatran who keep walling my lovely Seraph, but I'm not sure if I want to risk the low accuracy on this more fragile pokemon.

Torment (Murkrow) @ Eviolite
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 125 SDef / 248 HP / 135 Def
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Thunder Wave
- Night Shade

Another space filler, but Torment is so lovely I couldn't replace her. I usually start out matches with either Torment or gold depending if the enemy has more pokemon that resist para/toxic spikes.

Seraph (Volcarona) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Hurricane
- Bug Buzz

Seraph gets my vote for most OP OU pokemon in the game. While it is fairly new to my team, and doesn't have particularly good synergy, its raw power and huge list of pluses makes it a sturdy piece of my team. Serapth out runs pretty much every thing in the game after just one dance, and can take out a huge chunk of any tank/wall with a single hit. Fiery dance lets it increase its sweeping potential almost as well as moxie, and hurricane means it can fight unsuspecting rains teams on equal ground. Bug buzz is just there for neutral coverage, and does pretty good.


My biggest threat list would be-

Rotom wash
Terrakion
Ferrothorn
Swampert
Most Pokemon that can run a fast and accurate stone edge.

Help me out here guys, is this good enough to try out some tourneys here on smogom with? I would really like some critiques.

 

[Electrolyte]

Hey

Nice team you have here. It's cool that you're testing GyaraVire. Your team, however, is weak to a couple things- primarily, Rain and Sand teams. Water / Electric, a combo commonly found on Rain teams, is resisted by none and hits 4 SE. Ground / Rock, a Sand combo, also goes unresisted. This will definitely hinder your team from success, as both types of teams are fairly common. One thing that's holding your team back is Infernape, I think. It's really weak to Sun/Rain, and as of now, it doesn't really do much for you. I also think Murkrow is out of place here. Sure, it can be annoying if played right, but on offensive teams such as yours, it doesn't really belong, and it adds another weakness to SR as well. Your Forretress can use a better set too.

To start off, I'm going to suggest a better spread for Forretress. Even if you disagree with everything else I say, I'd still urge you to at least give Forretress a spread of 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Relaxed. Your spread is a bit inefficient; Forretress needs max HP to tank as many hits as possible. Max Defense and HP also let you wall Sand teams- of which you would have trouble facing. It lets Forretress take Stone Edges and Earthquakes better, helping your team overall. I'd also use Gyro Ball over Pain Split / Bulldoze / HP Fire, as being able to hit faster foes hard is a lot more useful to Forretress than weaker coverage moves.

Next, I think you need a Specially Defensive Forrethorn instead of Murkrow. Ferrothorn can wall Rain- which is one of the main reasons why I think it fits your team. It also resists Rock type and is neutral to Ground- which is another bonus you'll get against Sand teams. Ferrothorn also has great synergy with the rest of your team. It can tank Dragon spam for you, and punish with its powerful Gyro Ball. Power Whip can get rid of bulky water types / ground types / Politoed / Ttar. It can set Spikes and Leech Seed, which can be used to heal your team. It's a great support pokemon that will benefit your team greatly, and in a sense, can be just as annoying for your team as Murkrow.

Now, I think you're right when saying that fighting type coverage is needed in Infernape's spot- but I think Choice Scarf Terrakion instead of Infernape. Terrakion does a few crucial things Infernape can't. For one, it can revenge kill- it outspeeds all DDance Dragon types at +1, and can deal a hefty chunk with Stone Edge / CCombat. It can also take a hit from Tornadus-T and OHKO with Stone Edge too. Its fighting type coverage will make sure that no Steel will be there to wall Gyarados when it comes in to set up. Terrakion can also clean up weakened teams- with its speed and power, leftover opponents will quickly fall to its attacks. Close Combat is your main STAB move; and can hit a vast majority of the metagame hard. Stone Edge is your secondary STAB- and can hit a lot of things that resist CC very hard (Flyers) Earthquake and XScissor are your STAB moves; one hits Jirachi hard and the other Psychic types.

Now for some touch ups. On Volcarona, Hurricane is not such a great move as you can't always guarantee that there's be Rain to boost your accuracy. For this reason, I's use Hidden Power Ground over Hurricane. HP Ground hits Rock / Fire types such as Heatran that can be problematic.

Good luck!

sets

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Relaxed nature / 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Spikes / Gyro Ball / Leech Seed / Power Whip

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Jolly nature / 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Close Combat / Stone Edge / XScissor / Earthquake

 

[Finitevus]

Hey

Hello, and thanks for taking the time to help me out!

Nice team you have here. It's cool that you're testing GyaraVire.

Eheheheh, thanks.

Your team, however, is weak to a couple things- primarily, Rain and Sand teams. Water / Electric, a combo commonly found on Rain teams, is resisted by none and hits 4 SE. Ground / Rock, a Sand combo, also goes unresisted. This will definitely hinder your team from success, as both types of teams are fairly common.

I actually have had very little no no problems with rain, gyra loves the boost to his waterfalls, and volcarona loves the 100% accuracy 120 power hit with 30% to confuse. Sand teams haven't been very common on PS, but I haven't had any problems with them to tell the truth.

One thing that's holding your team back is Infernape, I think. It's really weak to Sun/Rain, and as of now, it doesn't really do much for you.

Total agreement.

I also think Murkrow is out of place here. Sure, it can be annoying if played right, but on offensive teams such as yours, it doesn't really belong, and it adds another weakness to SR as well.

Humm, not sure here. I ran special defense ferrothron for a couple dozen matches, but he just felt a little redundant beside Forretress.

Your Forretress can use a better set too. To start off, I'm going to suggest a better spread for Forretress. Even if you disagree with everything else I say, I'd still urge you to at least give Forretress a spread of 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Relaxed. Your spread is a bit inefficient; Forretress needs max HP to tank as many hits as possible. Max Defense and HP also let you wall Sand teams- of which you would have trouble facing. It lets Forretress take Stone Edges and Earthquakes better, helping your team overall. I'd also use Gyro Ball over Pain Split / Bulldoze / HP Fire, as being able to hit faster foes hard is a lot more useful to Forretress than weaker coverage moves.

This helped tremendously! I didn't realize how frail he was compared to how resilient he could be just by moving a few Ev's around... Although I did keep bulldoze, being able to half a sweeper attempting to set up on hims speed just comes up far to often.

Next, I think you need a Specially Defensive Forrethorn instead of Murkrow. Ferrothorn can wall Rain- which is one of the main reasons why I think it fits your team. It also resists Rock type and is neutral to Ground- which is another bonus you'll get against Sand teams. Ferrothorn also has great synergy with the rest of your team. It can tank Dragon spam for you, and punish with its powerful Gyro Ball. Power Whip can get rid of bulky water types / ground types / Politoed / Ttar. It can set Spikes and Leech Seed, which can be used to heal your team. It's a great support pokemon that will benefit your team greatly, and in a sense, can be just as annoying for your team as Murkrow.

I tried running ferro for a few dozen matches, as I stated above. It just doesn't really work out for my play style. I think this is because it over centralizes the whole match towards its self, and for some reason this just throws me off.

Now, I think you're right when saying that fighting type coverage is needed in Infernape's spot- but I think Choice Scarf Terrakion instead of Infernape. Terrakion does a few crucial things Infernape can't. For one, it can revenge kill- it outspeeds all DDance Dragon types at +1, and can deal a hefty chunk with Stone Edge / CCombat. It can also take a hit from Tornadus-T and OHKO with Stone Edge too. Its fighting type coverage will make sure that no Steel will be there to wall Gyarados when it comes in to set up. Terrakion can also clean up weakened teams- with its speed and power, leftover opponents will quickly fall to its attacks. Close Combat is your main STAB move; and can hit a vast majority of the metagame hard. Stone Edge is your secondary STAB- and can hit a lot of things that resist CC very hard (Flyers) Earthquake and XScissor are your STAB moves; one hits Jirachi hard and the other Psychic types.

I ran terrakion along with ferrothron for those matches, and was actually pretty underwhelmed. While he was crazy fast, he felt incredibly frail and was being OHKO'd constantly... I was probably just playing him wrong or had terrible luck, but in the end I found that gengar was a better match. I'm not sure why exactly, but he seems to synergize much better with the team over all, and having a set of double immunity's to things that were tripping me up before is hugely useful.

Good luck!

Thanks again for the comments and advice!