Howdy, smogon! So since most of you don't know me, I hope you don't mind if I take a few sentences here to introduce myself before I get on to introducing my team. As you can see, the name's Kennisiou, but you can call me Kenn or Kenni, too, if you like. It's my first post, but I've lurked here a while and am an established member of a number of other competitive communities, so I'm far from a newbie. That said, recently the rates in those other communities have been... lacking in quality, so I figured I'd submit my newest retired team here for critiques and comments so that I can hopefully do it better next time.
Now, on to the team. This team came from my latest team-building spree, and was far and away the most successful of all of them. The main reason was that this team was constantly made and re-made until it reached the state you see here. I tried for about three days and went through twice as many teams centered around this theme before actually making and sticking to this one.
The theme, you ask? I was trying to make a bulky offense team centered around resistance switching, with a two-pokémon finishing sweeper core whose resistances complimented eachother's weaknesses perfectly. The idea here was that when one was revenge-killed or threatened by a revenge killer/counter, the other could switch in and buy a turn to set up before trying to sweep themselves. Originally I tried this with the famous Celetran combo, however, this didn't work well since Celebi and Heatran's best sweeping sets were both walled by Blissey. Swapping to SD Celebi just meant that instead of being walled by Bliss, Celebi was walled by everything else. It was when I discovered the defensive combo of Gliscor and Empoleon that I finally realized I had something that could work like I wanted. Each was walled by different threats and each could set-up on the moves that killed or threatened the other, so if one's sweep was stopped the other's could usually start right up.
This was where the team started. I knew I wanted to have at least two pokémon to cover each weakness that one of my pokémon showed (three if two shared the weakness, although that didn't work out as well), and at least one pokémon to resist or be immune to each type. These qualities on the team would make it much easier for me to switch, since as long as I predicted correctly I'd take minimal damage. It would also make it harder for the opponent to predict who I switch to, since I'd always have at least two options to take the most likely hit, usually options that didn't share a weakness. Since this was my philosophy building it, I'm going to list my resistances and weaknesses after adding and removing each team member. Here's the starting resistance/weakness palette.
Weaknesses:
1x Ice (x4)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
Resistances:
1x Ice (x1/4)
1x Water (x1/2)
1x Electric (Immune)
1x Ground (Immune)
1x Fighting (x1/2)
2x Poison (x1/2, Immune)
2x Bug (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Normal (x1/2)
1x Rock (x1/2)
1x Dragon (x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
1x Psychic (x1/2)
1x Ghost (x1/2)
1x Dark (x1/2)
1x Steel (x1/4)
So from here, I wasn't quite certain where to expand until I realized Latias complimented Empoleon's weaknesses as well. This was an offensive/defensive combo I didn't want to try, since they were both walled by Bliss, but since they're not the core of the team and since there are a few threats that love threatening both Gliscor and Empoleon (like Infernape), I threw Latias on to take the hits Gliscor couldn't.
Weaknesses:
2x Ice (x4, x2)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
1x Ghost (x2)
1x Dark (x2)
1x Dragon (x2)
1x Bug (x2)
Resistances:
1x Ice (x1/4)
2x Water (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Electric (Immune, x1/2)
2x Ground (Immune, Immune)
2x Fighting (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Poison (x1/2, Immune)
2x Bug (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Normal (x1/2)
1x Rock (x1/2)
1x Dragon (x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
2x Psychic (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Ghost (x1/2)
1x Dark (x1/2)
1x Steel (x1/4)
1x Fire (x1/2)
1x Grass (x1/2)
So from here, I realized I'd added some ghost and dark weaknesses that I wasn't too happy about, and also that I had two ice weaks that weren't covered, so adding another steel type was the way to go. I decided on Scizor, since he added the resistances I needed without giving me more fighting, electric, or ground weaknesses.
Weaknesses:
2x Ice (x4, x2)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
1x Ghost (x2)
1x Dark (x2)
1x Dragon (x2)
1x Bug (x2)
1x Fire (x4)
Resistances:
2x Ice (x1/4, x1/2)
2x Water (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Electric (Immune, x1/2)
2x Ground (Immune, Immune)
2x Fighting (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Poison (x1/2, Immune, Immune)
3x Bug (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Normal (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Rock (x1/2)
2x Dragon (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
3x Psychic (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Ghost (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Dark (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Steel (x1/4, x1/2)
1x Fire (x1/2)
2x Grass (x1/2, x1/4)
From here I realized I needed another fire resist, and also that I had been pretty proactive about grass resists. Pert seemed like it complimented my weakness/resistance palette perfectly, so in the team it went.
Weaknesses:
2x Ice (x4, x2)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
1x Ghost (x2)
1x Dark (x2)
1x Dragon (x2)
1x Bug (x2)
1x Fire (x4)
1x Grass (x4)
Resistances:
2x Ice (x1/4, x1/2)
2x Water (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Electric (Immune, x1/2, Immune)
2x Ground (Immune, Immune)
2x Fighting (x1/2, x1/2)
4x Poison (x1/2, Immune, Immune, x1/2)
3x Bug (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Normal (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Rock (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Dragon (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
3x Psychic (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Ghost (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Dark (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Steel (x1/4, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Fire (x1/2, 1/2)
2x Grass (x1/2, x1/4)
From here, I looked at my pokémon and began to realize that I had some roles that needed filling that my team currently didn't hold. I also realized it would be very, very hard for me to add anything at all that wouldn't end up with me not meeting my goals by either adding a weakness to something my team didn't have two resistances for, or by adding another weakness to something my team did resist. I also realized there was no good way for me to add another ice resist without also gaining more grass, ground, fire, or fighting weaks. I didn't want to see more weaknesses in any of those fields. So I figured I'd add in resttalk Machamp to file the role I needed filled, and also because the weakness he added that I didn't have "properly covered" was flying, so it wouldn't come up too often.
Final resistances tally:
Weaknesses:
2x Ice (x4, x2)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
1x Ghost (x2)
1x Dark (x2)
1x Dragon (x2)
1x Bug (x2)
1x Fire (x4)
1x Grass (x4)
1x Flying (x2)
1x Psychic (x2)
Resistances:
2x Ice (x1/4, x1/2)
2x Water (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Electric (Immune, x1/2, Immune)
2x Ground (Immune, Immune)
2x Fighting (x1/2, x1/2)
4x Poison (x1/2, Immune, Immune, x1/2)
4x Bug (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Normal (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Rock (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Dragon (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
3x Psychic (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Ghost (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Dark (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
3x Steel (x1/4, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Fire (x1/2, 1/2)
2x Grass (x1/2, x1/4)
Pretty basic lead Physpert. The EV's are there to hit 400 HP (OLRP) and hit the highest defense jump point. I gain one speed to outspeed other physpert and the rest go to attack to hit harder. I'm not sure if I want waterfall or roar more. Waterfall gives me a good answer to leadZelf, who will usually taunt me turn one only to lose about half of its HP. Roar gives me a way to deal with Gyara, who I'm otherwise kind of weak to. I may actually ditch ice punch, since I've found I rarely use it since I tend not to stay in on most Dragons. They kind of kill me, and it always feels like a waste of a good resistance-based team when I lose a member to a move that I know I can resist.
The themesong is from one of my favorite bands. Dirty Water because Pert's a water/ground type, and The Heavy Heavy as a nickname for the band Heavy Mojo. Also, Pert is bulky.
Theme Song: Champion by Kanye West
The Champion (Machamp) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Payback
---
Resttalk Machamp... Absorbs status, takes hits, dishes them out. What more is there to say about this guy? He works as a "last resort" check to a lot of sweepers, since dynamic punch confusion can save a team. I'm a tad reckless with him, though, and tend to use him early. He also tends to die early, which is fine since he doesn't add any necessary resistances, but harmful since he absorbs status so well. He's probably the first pokémon I'd replace on this team, but even then I'd be hesitant to unless it were for a clearly better resttalker with good resistances. I've been advised that resttalk Thick Fat Hariyama may help by giving me another ice resist, but it's also a much weaker offensive threat, so I feel like a good enough case hasn't been made for it yet. If anyone cares to, I'm all ears.
The theme song is one of the few Kanye West songs I actually like, chosen because he's Machamp, and he wants everyone to know it, baby.
Theme Song: 20 Nothing by Skankin' Pickle
Lynette (Latias)(F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 80 HP/176 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Recover
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Pulse
---
LO Latias's job is simple: it keeps fast sweepers like Infernape in check, has great coverage in its three attacks, and gets good survivability out of recover. Its only issue is, well, when it hits neutral it just doesn't deal enough damage, and it can't take strong physical hits that well. It's probably the least powerful Latias set around. Still, it does what I need it to do, and it does it pretty well. It's just one of the members of this team that has issues with recovery-heavy teams, since it can't score many one-hit or two-hit-kills.
Latias's nickname is the name of the (now deceased) female vocalist for the band who did her themesong. The themesong, 20 Nothing, fits Latias because, well, LO Latias is kind of an underachiever. It just doesn't hit that hard, and other sets can hit harder. CMLatias is out sweeping teams and SpecsLatias is killing switch-ins, but LO Latias is just sort of damaging stuff and slacking off with recover.
Theme Song: Sinister Rouge by Bad Religion
The Empire (Scizor) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 180 HP/252 Atk/76 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
---
It's a CB Scizor. It can take hits like nobody's business, dishes them out well, and is great for picking off the sort of fast sweepers that otherwise will give me a bit of trouble. EV's are something Rhys29 on Marriland posted. The speed outspeeds the (now standard) Vaporeon, which I've found useful for U-turning to a Latias from Scizor, then killing it with Thunderbolt, which most don't expect. I really want to keep this speed, because it means I can make sure Latias takes the surf which it resists. Any slower and Scizor will lose a lot of HP when I try this. Otherwise, this is completely standard and self-explanatory.
The themesong is Bad Religion's Sinister Rouge. Yeah, I know they're really not singing about an evil Scizor revenge-killing stuff with Bullet Punch when they say "Sinister rouge, coming back for more/to even the score" but that's the first song I think of when I think of Scizor.
Theme Song: 13.4 Miles by The Homecoming Queens
Batgirl (Gliscor) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 36 HP/252 Atk/220 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Roost
- Swords Dance
---
So this is pretty different from the smogon-standard "Dancing Tank" set, and that's for a reason. It's not counting on taking multiple hits like that one, but rather on dealing as much damage as possible post swords-dance to sweep a team. It's a "dancing sweeper" Gliscor instead. The speed is to outspeed other Gliscor so that I can roost off damage against them and hit them with stone edge before they roost to take less damage from it. Attack maxed for more damage. The rest is in HP for the best survivability.
The theme song is 13.4 Miles by The Homecoming Queens, because Gliscor likes good music.
Theme Song: Goodbye Sky Harbor by Jimmy Eat World
The Emo Penguin (Empoleon) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 24 HP/232 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Agility
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
---
Agility LO Empoleon is the team's other sweeper. People keep asking me why I don't use sub-petaya, and the main reason is I can't use sub-petaya as a midgame sweeper. I can only try to sweep once with it, and then all of Empoleon's amazing resistances and synergies with Gliscor are spent. This way I can use Empoleon to sweep whenever I need to, letting it pull off sweeps with Gliscor much more easily and more often. Moves and EV's are smogon standard.
The themesong and nickname are not, in fact, a joke about Empoleon holding life orb. Mostly, it has to do with me listening to the song "Goodbye Sky Harbor" during most of the time I spent making this team. It's a 15-minute long song. Empoleon wears the name "emo" with pride, because it knows it's not a reference to the modern fashion, but to the music of the early to mid nineties, some of punk's poppiest and smartest songs ever. It knows it's about the musical trends towards complex sounds with simple lyrical themes started in the early nineties by bands like Jimmy Eat World instead of the trend of punk-rock boybands started in the mid nineties by bands like... uh... Jimmy Eat World... >_> Oh JEW. With one hand you giveth, and with the other you taketh away.
Why not? Well, because this team doesn't counter threats like most teams. Instead, it repeatedly checks them using prediction and resistance switching until they're not a problem. As such, there aren't many threats I'm weak to, since I have the tools to properly predict around even most LO Mixed sweepers. The team is all about prediction and heads-up play, so I don't think about things in terms of being counters, since it's not constructive to the way the team is meant to be played. Still, I do have a number of threats that can be issues. Gyara and DDMence can both set up and kill a lot of my team. My only workarounds are to try to kill Gyara with Latias's T-Bolt (she dies to critical stone edge as well as ice fang, however) or try to phaze DDGyara with Pert. Since few carry both taunt and stone edge/ice fang, one of these strategies usually works. For Mence, I need to try to trick it into Outraging, then let something die, then ice beam it to death with Empoleon, who is hopefully not too injured to take the Outrage.
And that's really all I can say about this team. Rates, comments, suggestions and questions are appreciated.
Now, on to the team. This team came from my latest team-building spree, and was far and away the most successful of all of them. The main reason was that this team was constantly made and re-made until it reached the state you see here. I tried for about three days and went through twice as many teams centered around this theme before actually making and sticking to this one.
The theme, you ask? I was trying to make a bulky offense team centered around resistance switching, with a two-pokémon finishing sweeper core whose resistances complimented eachother's weaknesses perfectly. The idea here was that when one was revenge-killed or threatened by a revenge killer/counter, the other could switch in and buy a turn to set up before trying to sweep themselves. Originally I tried this with the famous Celetran combo, however, this didn't work well since Celebi and Heatran's best sweeping sets were both walled by Blissey. Swapping to SD Celebi just meant that instead of being walled by Bliss, Celebi was walled by everything else. It was when I discovered the defensive combo of Gliscor and Empoleon that I finally realized I had something that could work like I wanted. Each was walled by different threats and each could set-up on the moves that killed or threatened the other, so if one's sweep was stopped the other's could usually start right up.
Team Construction
This was where the team started. I knew I wanted to have at least two pokémon to cover each weakness that one of my pokémon showed (three if two shared the weakness, although that didn't work out as well), and at least one pokémon to resist or be immune to each type. These qualities on the team would make it much easier for me to switch, since as long as I predicted correctly I'd take minimal damage. It would also make it harder for the opponent to predict who I switch to, since I'd always have at least two options to take the most likely hit, usually options that didn't share a weakness. Since this was my philosophy building it, I'm going to list my resistances and weaknesses after adding and removing each team member. Here's the starting resistance/weakness palette.
Weaknesses:
1x Ice (x4)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
Resistances:
1x Ice (x1/4)
1x Water (x1/2)
1x Electric (Immune)
1x Ground (Immune)
1x Fighting (x1/2)
2x Poison (x1/2, Immune)
2x Bug (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Normal (x1/2)
1x Rock (x1/2)
1x Dragon (x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
1x Psychic (x1/2)
1x Ghost (x1/2)
1x Dark (x1/2)
1x Steel (x1/4)
So from here, I wasn't quite certain where to expand until I realized Latias complimented Empoleon's weaknesses as well. This was an offensive/defensive combo I didn't want to try, since they were both walled by Bliss, but since they're not the core of the team and since there are a few threats that love threatening both Gliscor and Empoleon (like Infernape), I threw Latias on to take the hits Gliscor couldn't.
Weaknesses:
2x Ice (x4, x2)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
1x Ghost (x2)
1x Dark (x2)
1x Dragon (x2)
1x Bug (x2)
Resistances:
1x Ice (x1/4)
2x Water (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Electric (Immune, x1/2)
2x Ground (Immune, Immune)
2x Fighting (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Poison (x1/2, Immune)
2x Bug (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Normal (x1/2)
1x Rock (x1/2)
1x Dragon (x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
2x Psychic (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Ghost (x1/2)
1x Dark (x1/2)
1x Steel (x1/4)
1x Fire (x1/2)
1x Grass (x1/2)
So from here, I realized I'd added some ghost and dark weaknesses that I wasn't too happy about, and also that I had two ice weaks that weren't covered, so adding another steel type was the way to go. I decided on Scizor, since he added the resistances I needed without giving me more fighting, electric, or ground weaknesses.
Weaknesses:
2x Ice (x4, x2)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
1x Ghost (x2)
1x Dark (x2)
1x Dragon (x2)
1x Bug (x2)
1x Fire (x4)
Resistances:
2x Ice (x1/4, x1/2)
2x Water (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Electric (Immune, x1/2)
2x Ground (Immune, Immune)
2x Fighting (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Poison (x1/2, Immune, Immune)
3x Bug (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Normal (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Rock (x1/2)
2x Dragon (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
3x Psychic (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Ghost (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Dark (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Steel (x1/4, x1/2)
1x Fire (x1/2)
2x Grass (x1/2, x1/4)
From here I realized I needed another fire resist, and also that I had been pretty proactive about grass resists. Pert seemed like it complimented my weakness/resistance palette perfectly, so in the team it went.
Weaknesses:
2x Ice (x4, x2)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
1x Ghost (x2)
1x Dark (x2)
1x Dragon (x2)
1x Bug (x2)
1x Fire (x4)
1x Grass (x4)
Resistances:
2x Ice (x1/4, x1/2)
2x Water (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Electric (Immune, x1/2, Immune)
2x Ground (Immune, Immune)
2x Fighting (x1/2, x1/2)
4x Poison (x1/2, Immune, Immune, x1/2)
3x Bug (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Normal (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Rock (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Dragon (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
3x Psychic (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Ghost (x1/2, x1/2)
2x Dark (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Steel (x1/4, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Fire (x1/2, 1/2)
2x Grass (x1/2, x1/4)
From here, I looked at my pokémon and began to realize that I had some roles that needed filling that my team currently didn't hold. I also realized it would be very, very hard for me to add anything at all that wouldn't end up with me not meeting my goals by either adding a weakness to something my team didn't have two resistances for, or by adding another weakness to something my team did resist. I also realized there was no good way for me to add another ice resist without also gaining more grass, ground, fire, or fighting weaks. I didn't want to see more weaknesses in any of those fields. So I figured I'd add in resttalk Machamp to file the role I needed filled, and also because the weakness he added that I didn't have "properly covered" was flying, so it wouldn't come up too often.
Final resistances tally:
Weaknesses:
2x Ice (x4, x2)
1x Water (x2)
1x Electric (x2)
1x Fighting (x2)
1x Ground (x2)
1x Ghost (x2)
1x Dark (x2)
1x Dragon (x2)
1x Bug (x2)
1x Fire (x4)
1x Grass (x4)
1x Flying (x2)
1x Psychic (x2)
Resistances:
2x Ice (x1/4, x1/2)
2x Water (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Electric (Immune, x1/2, Immune)
2x Ground (Immune, Immune)
2x Fighting (x1/2, x1/2)
4x Poison (x1/2, Immune, Immune, x1/2)
4x Bug (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Normal (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Rock (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Dragon (x1/2, x1/2)
1x Flying (x1/2)
3x Psychic (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Ghost (x1/2, x1/2)
3x Dark (x1/2, x1/2, x1/2)
3x Steel (x1/4, x1/2, x1/2)
2x Fire (x1/2, 1/2)
2x Grass (x1/2, x1/4)
The Team
Theme Song: Dirty Water by Heavy Mojo
The Heavy Heavy (Swampert) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 236 HP/52 Atk/216 Def/4 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Roar/Waterfall
---
Theme Song: Dirty Water by Heavy Mojo
The Heavy Heavy (Swampert) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 236 HP/52 Atk/216 Def/4 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Roar/Waterfall
---
Pretty basic lead Physpert. The EV's are there to hit 400 HP (OLRP) and hit the highest defense jump point. I gain one speed to outspeed other physpert and the rest go to attack to hit harder. I'm not sure if I want waterfall or roar more. Waterfall gives me a good answer to leadZelf, who will usually taunt me turn one only to lose about half of its HP. Roar gives me a way to deal with Gyara, who I'm otherwise kind of weak to. I may actually ditch ice punch, since I've found I rarely use it since I tend not to stay in on most Dragons. They kind of kill me, and it always feels like a waste of a good resistance-based team when I lose a member to a move that I know I can resist.
The themesong is from one of my favorite bands. Dirty Water because Pert's a water/ground type, and The Heavy Heavy as a nickname for the band Heavy Mojo. Also, Pert is bulky.
Theme Song: Champion by Kanye West
The Champion (Machamp) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Payback
---
Resttalk Machamp... Absorbs status, takes hits, dishes them out. What more is there to say about this guy? He works as a "last resort" check to a lot of sweepers, since dynamic punch confusion can save a team. I'm a tad reckless with him, though, and tend to use him early. He also tends to die early, which is fine since he doesn't add any necessary resistances, but harmful since he absorbs status so well. He's probably the first pokémon I'd replace on this team, but even then I'd be hesitant to unless it were for a clearly better resttalker with good resistances. I've been advised that resttalk Thick Fat Hariyama may help by giving me another ice resist, but it's also a much weaker offensive threat, so I feel like a good enough case hasn't been made for it yet. If anyone cares to, I'm all ears.
The theme song is one of the few Kanye West songs I actually like, chosen because he's Machamp, and he wants everyone to know it, baby.
Theme Song: 20 Nothing by Skankin' Pickle
Lynette (Latias)(F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 80 HP/176 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Recover
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Pulse
---
LO Latias's job is simple: it keeps fast sweepers like Infernape in check, has great coverage in its three attacks, and gets good survivability out of recover. Its only issue is, well, when it hits neutral it just doesn't deal enough damage, and it can't take strong physical hits that well. It's probably the least powerful Latias set around. Still, it does what I need it to do, and it does it pretty well. It's just one of the members of this team that has issues with recovery-heavy teams, since it can't score many one-hit or two-hit-kills.
Latias's nickname is the name of the (now deceased) female vocalist for the band who did her themesong. The themesong, 20 Nothing, fits Latias because, well, LO Latias is kind of an underachiever. It just doesn't hit that hard, and other sets can hit harder. CMLatias is out sweeping teams and SpecsLatias is killing switch-ins, but LO Latias is just sort of damaging stuff and slacking off with recover.
Theme Song: Sinister Rouge by Bad Religion
The Empire (Scizor) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 180 HP/252 Atk/76 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
---
It's a CB Scizor. It can take hits like nobody's business, dishes them out well, and is great for picking off the sort of fast sweepers that otherwise will give me a bit of trouble. EV's are something Rhys29 on Marriland posted. The speed outspeeds the (now standard) Vaporeon, which I've found useful for U-turning to a Latias from Scizor, then killing it with Thunderbolt, which most don't expect. I really want to keep this speed, because it means I can make sure Latias takes the surf which it resists. Any slower and Scizor will lose a lot of HP when I try this. Otherwise, this is completely standard and self-explanatory.
The themesong is Bad Religion's Sinister Rouge. Yeah, I know they're really not singing about an evil Scizor revenge-killing stuff with Bullet Punch when they say "Sinister rouge, coming back for more/to even the score" but that's the first song I think of when I think of Scizor.
Theme Song: 13.4 Miles by The Homecoming Queens
Batgirl (Gliscor) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 36 HP/252 Atk/220 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Roost
- Swords Dance
---
So this is pretty different from the smogon-standard "Dancing Tank" set, and that's for a reason. It's not counting on taking multiple hits like that one, but rather on dealing as much damage as possible post swords-dance to sweep a team. It's a "dancing sweeper" Gliscor instead. The speed is to outspeed other Gliscor so that I can roost off damage against them and hit them with stone edge before they roost to take less damage from it. Attack maxed for more damage. The rest is in HP for the best survivability.
The theme song is 13.4 Miles by The Homecoming Queens, because Gliscor likes good music.
Theme Song: Goodbye Sky Harbor by Jimmy Eat World
The Emo Penguin (Empoleon) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 24 HP/232 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Agility
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
---
Agility LO Empoleon is the team's other sweeper. People keep asking me why I don't use sub-petaya, and the main reason is I can't use sub-petaya as a midgame sweeper. I can only try to sweep once with it, and then all of Empoleon's amazing resistances and synergies with Gliscor are spent. This way I can use Empoleon to sweep whenever I need to, letting it pull off sweeps with Gliscor much more easily and more often. Moves and EV's are smogon standard.
The themesong and nickname are not, in fact, a joke about Empoleon holding life orb. Mostly, it has to do with me listening to the song "Goodbye Sky Harbor" during most of the time I spent making this team. It's a 15-minute long song. Empoleon wears the name "emo" with pride, because it knows it's not a reference to the modern fashion, but to the music of the early to mid nineties, some of punk's poppiest and smartest songs ever. It knows it's about the musical trends towards complex sounds with simple lyrical themes started in the early nineties by bands like Jimmy Eat World instead of the trend of punk-rock boybands started in the mid nineties by bands like... uh... Jimmy Eat World... >_> Oh JEW. With one hand you giveth, and with the other you taketh away.
No Threat List!
Why not? Well, because this team doesn't counter threats like most teams. Instead, it repeatedly checks them using prediction and resistance switching until they're not a problem. As such, there aren't many threats I'm weak to, since I have the tools to properly predict around even most LO Mixed sweepers. The team is all about prediction and heads-up play, so I don't think about things in terms of being counters, since it's not constructive to the way the team is meant to be played. Still, I do have a number of threats that can be issues. Gyara and DDMence can both set up and kill a lot of my team. My only workarounds are to try to kill Gyara with Latias's T-Bolt (she dies to critical stone edge as well as ice fang, however) or try to phaze DDGyara with Pert. Since few carry both taunt and stone edge/ice fang, one of these strategies usually works. For Mence, I need to try to trick it into Outraging, then let something die, then ice beam it to death with Empoleon, who is hopefully not too injured to take the Outrage.
And that's really all I can say about this team. Rates, comments, suggestions and questions are appreciated.
