Generation V Metagame Analysis

Generation V is practically defined by weather, with the majority of weather being Sand or Rain but Sun is still a releveant threat and should be considered as a valid threat while building a team. To withstand weather, it is generally best to use weather. You can find success in running an anti-weather team, with Pokemon like Heatran/ Skarmory/ Gastrodon but this generally loses to non-weather teams. So, weather is generally the smartest move. However, I feel that having an overreliance on your weather succeeding can be harmful to your success. I am attempting to create a team that succeed with or without weather.
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Dawsons very own core.
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Lovely team, just a few problems.

Your team does need SR up, but I think more importantly that it needs to take out Machamp leads that can threaten your team late-game as well as KO irritating sleep leads, and possibly preventing others from getting rocks up. A great lead for this role is LO Azelf:

Azelf @ Life Orb
6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Zen Headbutt
-Explosion
-U-turn/Stealth Rock
-Taunt

This destroys Roserade, Breloom, Machamp, etc. and prevents bulky, slower leads like Swampert and Hippowdon from getting down rocks, which is important for your team. You could include U-turn for scouting purposes over Stealth Rock, though I think you'll find Stealth Rock is the superior choice. You could also use a specially-based variant, with Psychic, etc., but I think Azelf's powerful Explosion is too useful to eliminate things that you won't be able to counter immediately, and some Machamp are EV'd to survive even LO Psychic (pessimistic, but it could mess you up).

I'm not so sure about Curselax's functionality in the current metagame: without Sleep Talk, Infernape and Lucario easily crush you with Close Combat. I know your goal is to have them eliminated before you reveal Snorlax, but in my experience Lucario is usually left as a late game sweeper, and you could always be surprised by a random fighting type. I think a better idea would be to use a Pokemon that'll lure out your opponent's Fighting type, and an excellent example of such a Pokemon is Blissey (an offensive team MUST reveal its Fighting-type to take out Blissey, while Stall will usually rely on Toxic).

I also think that Flygon is not a reliable way to revenge kill, as it's annihilated by +2 Extremespeed from SD Lucario, which is the single most dangerous Pokemon for this team to handle. Therefore, you should consider Scarf Rotom, who'll serve as another pivot for Fighting-type attacks as well as revenge kill Lucario.

Infernape should be taken out by Azelf, no problem, except for Sashed/Scarfed variants, the latter of which is highly uncommon and can be handled, with prediction, by Rotom/Heatran, and the former of which can be hit to its Sash and revenge killed by Rotom.

Heracross is murdered by Heatran, no problem.

You also need a way to get rid of Steel-types, like Scizor and Skarmory, so I'd recommend eliminating Celebi, since Azelf does its job, and put in LO Substitute + Magnet Rise Magnezone, who'll help you take out any unscarfed Steels bar Scizor not locked into Superpower.

Ghosts will be handled by Rotom; if you want, however, you could replace Gyarados with Tyranitar, which would give you a good way to lure out Fighting-types as well as Pursuit-trap Ghosts.

With Ghosts, Fighting-types, and Steels out of the way, you don't really have anything to stop Snorlax's sweep. I think this means that you should leave out Fire Punch on Snorlax and instead include a better coverage move, like Earthquake.
 
I haven't played gen. 4 for about two month but I doubt the metagame changed that much, so I'm going to give this team a rate.

Gyarados wants an Adamant nature. Jolly's main advantage is the ability to outspeed Jolteon after a DD but with Snorlax, Swampert and Scarf Flygon on your team, Jolteon won't be able to do anything. Adamant is definitely the superior choice here. With no max attack and a Jolly nature, Gyarados doesn't hard, even after a DD, so go with Adamant; I'm sure you'll appreciate the extra power.

This looks like a decent team at the moment but stall is your team's biggest problem right now. Currently, Skarmory or Forretress can easily set-up Spikes on a huge portion of your team and nothing has enough instant power or the ability to break through a well-built stall team. Another current issue is the DD Gyarados weakness that needs to be adressed.

With Flygon already acting as a revenge killer, I think your team would benefit from running a LO Taunt Heatran set . Go for: Fire Blast / Taunt / HP Grass / Earthpower with Life Orb, Timid and 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe. This set will provide a much more needed offense, and a way to get around stall teams. Taunt prevents stall from setting up and using healing moves while LO gives Heatran some extra raw power to be able to break through.

Now, I'm going to reccomend going with a more defensive Celebi to counter most Gyarados variants. Use: Grass Knot / HP Fire / Recover / Thunder Wave with Leftovers, Bold and 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe. Not only do you get a solid DD Gyarados counter, but Skarmory and Forretress can no longer come in and set-up in front of you thanks to HP Fire. Consider this change. Stone Edge can also be changed to Fire Blast on Flygon to get a bit of leverage against Skamory and Forretress to lower the opposing's stall team of setting up entry hazards, so test that as well.

As for minor changes, I think Protect would be better than Roar on Swampert. Protect allows you to dodge Explosions which is useful especially in the lead slot. It also allows you to scout against Choice users and to scout for a potential HP Grass against Heatran and get some extra Leftovers recovery as well.
 
Oh boy, a Gen 4 team! Seriously, I don't know Gen 5 that well yet so this is a gift. :P Anywhoooooo, This team looks pretty solid. Stall looks like it could be troublesome, since Skarmory / Forry can come in on multiple Pokes.

First thing I saw was Psychic on Celebi, which, while not necessarily (sp? its early) a bad thing, seems like said moveslot could be used for better things. I would advise running Thunder Wave or Hidden Power [Fire] in that slot. Reflect is also a decent option. Thunder Wave will provide incredible support value since currently Swords Dance Infernape causes you lots of trouble with a SD boost. Neither of your scarfers can safely switch in to Close Combat, and ThunderPunch is pretty common on it iirc. Hidden Power Fire will help against Skarmory, Breloom, Shaymin etc and provides excellent coverage with EP and GK. Reflect is cool for team support and helps your team as a whole take on Infernape better.

You also have nothing to take on Gyarados, -1 Flygon Stone Edge will not OHKO 4/0 Gyarados. Iirc neither will a not-reduced Stone Edge. I would suggest replacing it with ThunderPunch, this will OHKO Gyarados and kinda sorta takes on Skarmory, but not really.

I am also going to second Nosferalto's suggestion to run Adamant on Gyarados, for reasons he already covered.

Thats all I got, I hope my changes helped and good luck with you battling. :toast:

tl;dr list:
Flygon wants ThunderPunch
Adamant Gyara
HP Fire / Reflect / T-Wave on Celebi
 
Nice team man, good ideas.
My latest team recently made too:
Abomasnow: subseeder, substitute, leechseed, blizzard, protect
Walrein: tank, substitute, super fang, brine, protect
zapdos: counters scizor, metagross, roost substitute thunderbolt heat wave
tentacruel: PS set up: rapid spin, surf, poison spikes, giga drain
Glaceon: specs, blizzard, shadow ball, wish, toxic
Starmie: revenge killer: surf, blizzard, thunderbolt, psychic

Need some experienced to comment, literally just registered to smogon and look to go far with new teams
thanks
 
@Jdesia927 - Very good Azelf lead idea. Only problem is that it would give me x3 weakness to both Ghost and Dark. But if I replace Celebi with Magnezone I would have a x3 Fighting weakness. Currently, I'm testing out the Rotom (that was a simply brilliant idea). Thank your for the rate

@Nosferalto - Heatran set sounds odd, but I'll definatly try it. I'll will try the defensive Celebi as well, but I have consistantly noticed better results wih offensive Celebi. Thanks for the rate

@Alan - If I do keep Flygon, I will give it Thunderpunch. I'll try that Celebi ad thanks for the rate.
 
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