He will rise again...

[FerrariCUBU]

[FONT=&quot]I started competitive battling after the release of Pokemon DP. Ever since then one of my favorite Pokemon has been Snorlax. He was one of the first Pokemon that I EV trained and always did pretty well for me. However, it seems like people think that Snorlax, and in particular Curselax, is dead. It's like this beast of a Pokemon is never seen anymore. So I am trying to change that. This team is centered on Curselax. My team is meant to create an environment that Curselax can sweep in. So, check it out and tell me what you think of my team, the Pokemon on it, and the overall strategy. Enjoy!

At a glance:

Roserade @ Focus Sash
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Sleep Powder
- Toxic Spikes
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power (Fire)

Roserade is a lead that I see relatively frequently. However, I didn't just throw it onto my team. Roserade's purpose is to set up Toxic Spikes and hopefully get my team off to a good start. Toxic Spikes will help to weaken my opponent, giving Snorlax a better chance for a clean sweep at the end of the battle. Toxic Spikes also gives Snorlax the ability to stall out many Pokemon that would normally give him trouble. As for Roserade's other moves. Sleep Powder is just an overall great move for a lead to have as a lead. Leaf Storm and Hidden Power (Fire) offer good type coverage and allow Roserade to do some decent damage before it dies.

Rotom-F @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
Nature: Modest
- Thunderbolt
- Blizzard
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp

Rotom-F offers my team a great fighting type immunity that Snorlax really apprieciates. You may notice that my Rotom has Pain Split. For those of you who don't know, Rotom gets Pain Split in HGSS. The EVs are copied from the Rotom-H standard set. They offer decent speed and defensive capabilities. Modest nature allows Rotom to remain somewhat offensive. The moveset is fairly standard. T-Bolt and Blizzard give great type coverage. Pain Split is an annoyance to the opponent and acts as a decent recovery move. Will-O-Wisp cripples physical attackers and does some damage of its own. Other than that there's not much to say about the floating fridge.

Salamence @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Modest
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Hydro Pump

Aw yes, the classic SpecsMence. Right now you are probably wondering why I don't just go with Specs Latias. Well it's really a matter of personal choice and the fact that SpecsMence has a good bit more surprise factor. This is key because Mence's job is to take out as many Pokemon as it can in a short time. I would bet that Mence takes out at least one of my opponent's Pokemon before Snorlax goes in for a sweep. Draco Meteor can OHKO or severely damage just about anything that doesn't resist it. This means that unless my opponent has some great steel type Pokemon, which are dealt with by Magnezone. They're in for some big trouble. Another fighting type resist doesn't hurt either.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Naive
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power (Fire)
- Flash Cannon
- Explosion

Hmmm... a second electric type. Is that a good idea? I'm not really sure. But, Magnezone has a lot to offer my team. Running the standard Choice Scarf set he can trap and kill most of the steel type Pokemon out there, including the omnipresent Scizor who would otherwise be a problem for Snorlax. In fact, all steel types pose a problem for Snorlax during a sweep. The only thing I am unsure of is whether to stick with Scarf or use the Smogon steel trapper set. I feel like Magnezone definitely has a place on my team. A dragon type resist doesn't hurt either.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Def / 128 Spe
Nature: Calm
- Baton Pass
- Surf
- Substitute
- Aqua Ring

I hate to say it but Vaporeon is really just filler. I couldn't think of a good Pokemon for this spot so I just went with a Pokemon that could take fire and water hits. I thought that the Baton Pass set would be most affective since Vap can give Snorlax a nice substitute and Aqua Ring bonus. The EVs are standard for the Vaporeon Baton Pass set, as are the moves. I would really like some advice on what Pokemon I should be using here. Thanks.

Snorlax @ Chesto Berry/Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 168 HP / 120 Def / 220 SpD
Nature: Careful
- Curse
- Return
- Crunch
- Rest

And finally, the Pokemon we've all been waiting for, the mighty Curselax. Well, where do I begin? I guess I'll start with the item. I am undecided on which item to chose. Do I get in a free Rest or some free healing every time I take damage? I would definitely like some advice on this issue. The EVs are a Smogon standard. To tell you the truth they are very close to the EVs I used years ago before I had even heard of Smogon. As for the moves, Curse is a given. Return is for some extra damage over Body Slam and because my opponent may already have a status condition. Crunch is a great move against ghosts and psychics and offers good coverage with Return. Rest is for that great recovery and status healing. Well that's just about it. But, let me say this: Curselax may be old. But if you don't have any fighting types and Lax gets a few Curses up... well let's just say you're in some deep shit.

Closing words:

Thank you for reading my RMT. I would really appreciate any advice that could be given. In particular, is my overall strategy good? Does my team have any big weaknesses? Do you think any of my current Pokemon could be taken out in favor of a Pokemon that does its job better?

 

[Maid-]

i used to have a curselax team as well.

i noticed that fire punch is more preferable over crunch. being that snorlax is a special wall, and most ghost/dark/psychic types are special attackers, a one hit ko isn't always necessary.

your real threat will be someone like lucario, scizor, skarmorys trying to whirlwind you. you know, stuff like that.

basically, rest, return, and curse are mandatory.

your other options are crunch, fire punch, and earthquake.
crunch is good for ghosts/darks/psychics who you pretty much wall anyway.
earthquake is good against pretty much everything else, but then your set is COMPLETELY walled by skarmory, mismagius, gengar, and that can't be happening.

fire punch, on the other hand, has only one weakness in conjunction with return; heatran. but as most sets are special attackers, you shouldn't be taking more than 1/3 of your health from a hit from one of them, unless they're specsed and use earth power over fire blast, knowing you have thick fat.

i've tried the crunch and return combo, as well as the return and fire punch combo and i have to say that fire punch was superior to crunch. you can score OHKOs on most of the frail defensive ghosts/darks/psychics with fire punch and crunch doesn't really help with many of curselax's counters.

plus fire punch isn't the norm on curselaxes, i'm the only one i've seen use it in..a while. so people expect a body slam/crunch set and send in scizor to cb superpower it while he completely walls you.


meh, one more thing. i don't see any reflect on this team. i ran reflect on a rotom-h of mine and it really helped in setting up. once the reflect runs out, i have enough curses up to be able to take any hit except for a crit.

as for the item, what are you having more trouble with? setting up, or longevity? chesto is good for setting up, plus the occasional breloom that tries to spore you will be in for a surprise. but leftovers can really help keep your health up. honestly, i would go with the chesto berry, just for the satisfaction of getting spored, and then OHKOing a breloom with fire punch. so awesome. XD

 

[DanielG]

I think its an excellent strategy over all. I think it would be okay to keep the Vaporeon. What would be good also is if you could get your Vaporeon to baton pass its substitute to Snorlax and try to get off a belly drum and when the Substitute breaks use Rest/Lum Berry, but thats kind of hard to pull off. Be aware though that there is rarely a team that doesn't have a fighting type pokemon, or fighting type moves on the pokemon. You might want to have some more Physical Attackers though, you might encounter sponges like Blissy and as we all know, that thing has Sp. Def like no other. Other than that your team great.

 

[Ancien Régime]

First off, we're not allowing rates based on HGSS, as those moves have not been implemented on Shoddy. I can't rate for a metagame that doesn't exist.

With that said, if you're looking for a pokemon to soften the field for Snorlax, I would actually suggest CB Salamence. With proper prediction, you can 2hko or OHKO even the most threatening bulky pokemon, and even if you get revenge-killed, it's done its job. This is especially effective as you have Magnezone for steels.

I would prefer a Stealth Rock lead over Roserade - Toxic Spikes doesn't stay on the field as long in my view, and Stealth Rock hurts everything in the game. Aerodactyl is the best at both getting them up, and keeping leads from getting them up. I would invest some SAtk evs in it, and give it Fire Blast - Forretress likes to come in, Gyro Ball it to destroy Sash, then Rapid Spin a 1 HP Aerodactyl - Fire Blast ruins those plans.

Finally, you really have nothing for Tyranitar; DDTar gets a Dragon Dance and it's "gg". Machamp is the absolute best Tyranitar counter in the game, and I would sub that out over Vaporeon. Rotom deals well enough with Gyarados if you ev it for defense, let's say 252 HP, 200 Def, 58 SDef Bold. I would also replace Pain Split and Blizzard with Shadow Ball and Reflect.

 

[FerrariCUBU]

First off, thank you to all of you that rated my team. I'll start with what Maid said. The reason I went with Crunch over Fire Punch was because a lot of my other Pokemon already carry fire type moves. I didn't want too many on my team. You also noted some steels that give me trouble. For the most part they are all dealt with by Magnezone.

As for ShinyHitmonlee thank you for your opinion. I will take everything that you said into account when editing this team later on.

Now for Ancien Regime. Sorry about having a HGSS move. But, its only one and I don't really play on Shoddy much :) You are definitely right about my DDTar problem. I will probably take out Vaporeon in favor of Machamp. The Fire Blast Aero idea is definitly something I will check out as well. Thanks.

 

[xWOLFYx]

What's up,

Rotom is a great partner for Snorlax, but I think your set could be a little more helpful to him. First, I would give it a Bold nature. This will allow you to continually switch into Scizors that will inevitably switch in to your Curselax. Next, Rotom doesn't really needed Blizzard IMO. Not only is it innaccurate without Hail support, but Shadow Ball gives nearly unresisted coverage with Tbolt. I'm very excited to try Pain Split Rotom when HG/SS comes out. Will be sweet Pain Splitting those Blissey switch ins. xD

I suggest keeping Vaporeon as it the only thing that can switch into Infernape reliably. He can put a serious hurt on all of your other pokes and you'll need something to come in and kill him / stall him out with TSpikes. I think the standard defensive Wish Vaporeon would be more useful as he can replenish his health and others and also gives you another reliable counter to Gyarados with HP Electric.

Any team these days needs Stealth Rocks. Since you are looking for a TTar counter as well, Swampert would be a good fit for this team. I know you've used him quite a bit because I've watched alot of your YouTube vids, so you know the deal here. Standard MixPert with SR / Ice Beam / EQ / Roar is always a good mon.

Something else to consider is running a bulkier Roserade and leading with aforementioned Swampert. With Natural Cure, you can continue to come in and set up TSpikes and absorb them while being able to Rest up and switch out.

Roserade @ Lefties
Natural Cure
Calm: 252 HP / 136 SpD / 120 Spe

Grass Knot / Sleep Powder
HP Fire / Sleep Powder
Toxic Spikes
Rest

Good luck with the team and continue to put up YouTube vids (with narrations xD)!

 

[FerrariCUBU]

Those are all great suggestions. You're probably right about the Bold nature on Rotom and a good TTar counter is something my team really needs. The Roserade looks interesting as well. But to tell you the truth I'm not really expecting this team to do very well. I just really like Snorlax and wanted to see what I could come up with in terms of a team for him. Thanks and keep watching those vids ;) I'll try to get a new one up soon.