GO MEGAHORN!

[Purple Grind]

Hey guys, this is a team I made and I’d like your thoughts on it. It has done pretty well I guess, peaking on page 1 at like 30th or something. Considering I’ve made under 8 teams in my pokemon career that’s good for me. The team was built around a banded escavalier and a scarfed heracross. It’s not new, it’s not creative, and it’s obvious and fuck in the team preview. Regardless, I’ve done ok with it and I’d like any suggestions you guys have. Here’s my team:

At a glance:

Now the individual sets:

Nidoqueen (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 240 HP / 216 SAtk / 52 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
Offensive nidoqueen. It has great coverage and hits hard with the sheer force boost. I chose nidoqueen over her brother nidoking for her ability to take hits better. She makes a great “kill that thing” pokemon I can use if they have a pokemon I know I’ll have trouble with because she can usually take a neutral hit and fire back a powerful stab and/or super effective hit to bring them down to revenge kill range. She is a great switch-in to fighting types such as cobalion and hitmontop as she resists their common moves. She also has a nice electric immunity. Also, not everyone expects a nidoqueen to be offensive. A solid pokemon for sure, but nevertheless replaceable. Still I do like using her a lot.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP / 80 Atk / 176 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
Standard bronzing bs. He makes great stealth rock user and answer to many of the physical threats in the tier. I’m not sure if I really need the attack ev’s, although they do let me 2hko empoleon with eq I’m not sure if they’re worth the drop in def. Let me know what you think about that. Toxic is in the last slot to cripple stuff like the bulky waters my team has a hard time with.

Rotom-H @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 172 SDef / 44 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Trick
Ehh, this is a bit of a weird one. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was doing when I made this guy but he seems to cover most of my teams weaknesses well. I wanted to use him like a special tank to abuse his resistances, but I liked the power of the choice specs set so I gave him max+ SpA and choice specs to make a hard hitting special tank. He actually wouldn’t outspeed much even with a lot of investment so I just gave him a few to outspeed a few things like max def roserade. He hits really hard with his stab moves, which is great. I gave him HP ground mainly for subcm raikou because I hate the SpA drop on overheat after I break a sub and he does a cm. I lose coverage on quagsire and swampert by not running hp grass but I don’t think that’s a big deal. He does pretty well in this team at the moment. Let me know about this guy, I am willing to change stuff if you make suggestions.

Escavalier (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Swarm
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Frustration
- Knock Off
Escavalier, this guy hits like a motherfucker. Basically you bring him in on something that can’t do much to it and fire off a megahorn. This guys purpose is to punch holes in the other team for heracross to take advantage of later, since they share so many of their counters. Megahorn is usually the move I’ll use, but iron head and knock off do see some use. I use knock off for 2 annoying eviolite users: gligar and dusclops. It is so easy to predict their switch in on this guy too. Without eviolite, gligar cannot wall escavalier as he is 2hko’d by megahorn or ohko’d if he tries to roost. A dusclops without eviolite is much easier to deal with as well, making knock off an incredibly valuable move to cripple the two biggest heracross counters in the tier. He makes a great wallbreaker and addition to the team, although sometimes megahorn’s accuracy makes you want to pull your hair out.

Milotic (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Haze
With 3 fire weaknesses on the same team a bulky water is imperative. I decided to go with milotic, because she has recover and a naturally high special defense to help me deal with chandelure. Marvel scale is great too. The set is pretty standard. Milotic is great and without her my team wouldn’t function.

Heracross (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Stone Edge
- Night Slash
Scarfcross is a champ. No seriously. I love him. He packs a punch with high powered stab moves and outspeeds a ton of stuff. He makes a great revenge killer and lategame wrecking ball. CC and megahorn are the main attacks, stone edge is to hit flying types and night slash is to power through ghost types. This is usually my team’s star player, he’s a great pokemon.

So that’s my team. I’m looking for suggestions for improvement. If you have a suggestion instead of just telling me what to change please tell me why and give your reasoning behind it. I want to learn to build teams better not just to make this specific team better. Thanks guys!

 

[destinyunknown]

Interesting team Purple Grind! It seems pretty solid, but there's something that concerns me, what do you switch on bulky waters? I mean, you don't really have a nice switch in, heracross somewhat enjoys scalds and etc but heh. I think Rotom is the most expendable member of your team, so you might want to switch him for some solid switch in for water types, maybe a Shaymin can do the trick I guess.

Oh, and probably Milotic wants a few SDef evs to take on chandelure a bit better, I'm not very sure about what spread though so idk.

GL with the team !

 

[FPlease]

The problem with your team is your three choice users. If you get locked into overheat, megahorn or close combat. Chandelure can stomp your team to the ground. After a sub, your are going to have to sack either your milotic, rotom or heracross to break the sub. I suggest you change your escavilier or heracross to something difference. I know it takes away the essence of magahorn everything but they both get walled to countered by the same thing causing bad synergy. Try a banded flygon over escavilier it checks some things they are a threat to your team and u-turn gives you switch initiative and give more tempo to MEGAHORN everything.

 

[FruitSeller]

Interesting concept!

You really do have issues with Chandelure, in my opinion specs being most problematic. I second the suggestion to invest in special defense for Milotic. The Milotic set that seems to have become the standard in order to be able to survive against Chandelure is 248 HP / 196 Def / 56 SpD / 8 Sp.

I also suggest changing Nidoqueen and Bronzong to Rhyperior and Shaymin. This would help with your problems against physical fire types and would add a reliable switch-in to water types. Rhyperior also brings in grass types that your bugs (especially escavalier) can use to get a good hit off. These changes seem like they would make you a bit weak to flygon (CB mostly), but I think overall they would help with the team synergy.

Good luck!

 

[Purple Grind]

Thanks for the suggestions! Yes, chandelure is hands down the biggest problem for my team. Bulky waters can be a pain too, but die eventually as most of my pokes can take a big chunk out of them even if they don't like switching in.

@Fruitseller I will try the new milotic spread and teamates. What do the 8 speed ev's allow it to outrun? Also, if I put rhyperior in my roster would investing some more in the spd of milotic be warrented?

 

[FruitSeller]

The 8 speed EVs are to outspeed adamant aggron. I think it's sort of just an EV spread that has stayed because of it was traditional in gen IV, but I have faced an aggron or two in UU and the ability to outspeed could be pretty important... I guess its not necessary since they really aren't common, but I would keep them to be safe. I don't think rhyperior wouldn't affect the question of a need for speed EVs considering that Aggron can be subpunch.

tl;dr: I would just keep the speed EVs - it's only 2 points in a stat and it could help in a match against an aggron.