Introduction
I've made two past terrible RMT's and hopefully this one makes amends for it. I've been using this team and going between Smogon and other servers to test my threats and such. I haven't actually achieved a high rating because I play around so much but when I do seriously play this team does very well in most cases. This is of course a drought team and I've found them to be more difficult than the rain teams yet still being pretty decent. I've had multiple versions of this team using Dugtrio, Jirachi, Metagross, Salamence and some others. The way I set this team up was that I in no way wanted to be walled by Blissey or Gastrodon who with my rain team walled me extremely hard. I feel I am still very new to this game and because many told me non weather and drought teams were the most difficult to play I chose a drought team because shiny Ninetales looks so cool.
Ninetales
Leftovers|Drought|Timid
104 HP|52 SpAt|240 SpDef|112 Spe
Flamethrower - Main attack when necesary
Nasty Plot (Calm Mind was my previous) - If I don't have to set or get walled
Will o Wisp - For more damage or when I know I'm going to lose her
Safeguard - To avoid confusion|status issues|toxic spikes
How I use Ninetales is that she is normally my lead unless I see another weather starter or someone that could sweep her before setting up. If faced by anything but those two previous issues I'll either burn or safeguard first depending on how I feel the opponent is going to act. An example being when I see a ParaShuffle waiting to happen I Safeguard then Will-o-Wisp and switch in to something else or try to kill the opponent. Normally I get the easiest kills with Ninetales when a Jirachi comes in to set up on me or a Forretress. I'll use Nasty Plot in situations where the opponent doesn't actually have a counter or someone is sleep than I can get in a free KO. Occasionally I do get up to +6 Flamethrowers which do some really nice damage even with Ninetales' low SpAt. I don't let Ninetales just come in and set up drought|WoW, I also have her come in to finish off slow|sleep opponents and sometimes as a mid to late game killer. I suicide with her often, sometimes due to me having a small knowledge of new moves|resistances|no forethought.
Common threats I face when leading with Ninetales are Politoed|Terrakion|Heatran|Choice Darmanitan|Infernape
Generally they cause the most issues for me like with Terrakion I get swept and Heatran basically walls me. Politoed kills either before or after i set up Safeguard.
Volcarona
Life orb|Bold|Flame Body
80 HP|216 Def|212 Spe
Morning Sun - Heal through spikes|damage in general|life orb
Hidden Power Ice - for many threats to my team i.e. dragons|gliscor
Fiery Dance - For the possible SpAt boost and great to sweep with in the sun
Quiver Dance - To boost stats
I use Volcarona for late game and early game sweeping depending the situations. I generally set up or heal first then proceed to sweep. I switch in with Volcarona when faced with dragons, no other team mates, gliscor and walls who love to annoy me. I've this a lot with Blissey - I bring out Ninetales for the sun and safeguard then switch to Volcarona and get 6 Quiver Dances in then use Fiery Dance to kill Blissey. I can easily heal through walls with drought and morning sun up. Unless the opponent has me at my last pokemon and is using taunt, I more often than naught don't die to a ice beam or seismic toss Blissey or most unless they out speed me|priority moves|hit too hard for me to set up and heal through. I have to watch out for taunts, pokemon with my weaknesses, pokemon that just resist my two main attacks and anyone who can hit hard without setting up first. I run into major problems when it comes to Terrakion|Infernape|Choice Darmanitans|Dragons with Draco Meteor because they either OHKO me or get me so close I can't take another hit even while using morning sun. If someone actually gets 1-3 layers of spikes and or stealth rock down I'm pretty much done if I have to switch in to Volcarona. Occasionally I get a pokemon that roars|whirlwind|dragon tail and can mess me up but it doesn't happen often enough for me to call it an issue.
Scizor
Choice Scarf|Technician|Adamant
4 HP|252 Att|252 Spe
Bullet Punch - Revenge!
Pursuit - For spin blockers and the gengar than haunts my dreams
U Turn - For Lati@s|Psychics|Scouting
Superpower - For dear Tyranitar|Heatran
If I'm bringing in Scizor it's because I'm revenge killing|down to my last mon|taking out my team's weaknesses. The weakness to fire is a big issue but i deal with it nicely in most situations. I can't say much for what I do with Scizor beyond what's been said but I do have prevalent issues with mons that out speed him while he's scarfed|Infernapes|Darmanitans|Blissey|Heatran|Terrakion because they either wall me hard as hell or sweep me before I can even kill them. I do a mix of revenge killing and sweeping when possible but not too much scouting when I can see the opponents team already. I feel the explanation of this mon is fairly brief versus the others since I don't set up with her.
Donphan
Impish|Sturdy|Leftovers
240 HP|216 Def|52 Att
Rapid Spin - Down with the spikes and rocks!
Earthquake - Down with Heatran|Jirachi|Metagross|Ninetales
Ice Shard - Down with the Dragons|Gliscor|Air Ballons
Stealth Rock - Entry Hazard damage
Donphan takes entry hazard so well I feel I had to employ him as my rapid spinner|stealth rock and I've yet to be disapointed with him. He can do a lot of damage to non walls with earthquake and even more to mons with a ground weakness. Ice shard is a beautiful priority move as I generally kill all Gliscor and if a dragonite or salamence switches in on stealth rock I can kill them with Ice Shard before they kill me. I generally use him to lay down stealth rock and rapid spin other hazards away before I get ready to sweep. He takes care of Ninetales|Tentacruel|Jirachi very well but suffers at the hands of mons like Deoxys or when I'm not thinking - Magic Coat. He can get in one to two kills, revenge kill at times but his primary goal always being to get rid of entry hazards and lay down my own. Since ice shard just works so well I tend to knock most off their balloons and either kill them or switch in to one of my sweepers and finish them off that way. I obviously have issues with rapid spin blockers and when it comes to rain teams, more often than not I don't get to set up or even kill anything. Rain Teams|Celebi|Darmanitan|Terrakion are my biggest issues so far but I use him for hazards and when I'm concerned about dragons|gliscor who may try and destroy my team.
Hydreigon
Levitate|Expert Belt|Modest
64 HP|196 SpAt|248 Spe
Dragon Pulse - nothing really resist it and good for dragons
Dark Pulse - Gengar WON'T leave me alone
Focus Blast - For Tyranitar and Heatran|Terrakion
Flamethrower - Boosted by sun might as well lol
I replaced dragonite with him because he was faster and I preferred his moves over Dragonite's. Some might feel it's a loss to not have extreme speed but because I used Dnite so late in the game it rarely mattered and especially when walls were present so even outrage didn't always work and that would mess me up bad but what was even worse was getting OHKOed during an outrage because someone out sped me. The low speed was crippling for me and a movepool I wasn't too fond of led me to Hydreigon. She is usually the first offensive threat I bring out on teams when I see an opening because she is fast and with expert belt I can hit a lot of weaknesses for more damage. I felt had I choiced Hydreigon he would be good but also crippling as if I'm not using dragon pulse and a dragon switches in - more than likely I'm dead or forced to switch out and possibly not have the mon available to win the game or incapacitate the opponent for me. So this came out to be my best choice even thought the fighting|bug weakness slightly bothers me I can still make do with this dragon. Only real issues are once AGAIN Terrakion|Infernape and a lot of the fighting pokemon aren't as fast but another issue is a scarfed Scizor that can OHKO sadly but I'm quick to switch out Hydreigon when threats are imminent.
Venusaur
Chlorophyll|Black Sludge|Calm
252 HP|80 SpAt|176 SpDef
Growth - set up to sweep
Hidden Power Fire - This can take out common threats and a great back up
Sleep Powder - Accuracy fails but very good for shutting down sweepers|walls
Solarbeam - STAB and only grass really resist it
Besides the super awesome fact that he absorbs toxic spikes and Donphan doesn't with SB and HPFire there is really no pokemon that stands in my away except for maybe Heatran. This is of course after I set up with Growth getting +2 per use in the sunlight he quickly becomes a monster. With chlorophyll I outspeed many of the threats I would be faced with and not even a Blissey can survive two hits if I'm at +6. His threats become more imminent and make his potential as my sweeper vary due to a lot of fire|ice attacks and that unless I'm set up an ice|fire attack will OHKO in a flash or put me so close I can be revenged killed. Extreme Speed can be quite the problem and if I don't get an OHKO on a cloyster I'm done. Other threats mainly include Infernape|Terrakion|Darmanitan who can OHKO him so fast. But fear not for when the good graces of the metagame are bestowed upon me I can shut down my biggest weaknesses with a quick Sleep Powder - growth>sweep/switch out because more often than not mons don't stay sleep longer than 1-2 turns under my powder. And I've learned that being greedy cost me the win because when that mon wakes up - game over. I've also learned that a +2 solarbeam or HPFire can be extremely effective. I can switch him in on rain teams but the issue becomes handling ice|flying moves because they are more common. Flying|fire|ice more than psychic are the biggest hinderances there are to me. At one time I was using Shiftry but eventually changed him because his weaknesses were worse than Venusaur's AND he couldn't do anything about toxic spikes.
Threats
Darmanitan
Terrakion
Breloom (kinda)
Infernape
Rain Teams
Politoed
Landorus
Blissey
Heatran
Tyranitar
Lati@s
Dragonite
I don't really know how to completely assemble a threats list but yeah those are the most imminent ones off the top of my head.
*Questions
1) How long is sleep supposed to last through Sleep Powder
2) Terrakion|Infernape|Rain Team counters?
3) Ways to reduce my weakness to flying?
4) How bad is this team for someone two or so weeks into competitive battling?
5) Anyone EV|Pokemon|Move changes that could be made?
I've made two past terrible RMT's and hopefully this one makes amends for it. I've been using this team and going between Smogon and other servers to test my threats and such. I haven't actually achieved a high rating because I play around so much but when I do seriously play this team does very well in most cases. This is of course a drought team and I've found them to be more difficult than the rain teams yet still being pretty decent. I've had multiple versions of this team using Dugtrio, Jirachi, Metagross, Salamence and some others. The way I set this team up was that I in no way wanted to be walled by Blissey or Gastrodon who with my rain team walled me extremely hard. I feel I am still very new to this game and because many told me non weather and drought teams were the most difficult to play I chose a drought team because shiny Ninetales looks so cool.
Ninetales
Leftovers|Drought|Timid
104 HP|52 SpAt|240 SpDef|112 Spe
Flamethrower - Main attack when necesary
Nasty Plot (Calm Mind was my previous) - If I don't have to set or get walled
Will o Wisp - For more damage or when I know I'm going to lose her
Safeguard - To avoid confusion|status issues|toxic spikes
How I use Ninetales is that she is normally my lead unless I see another weather starter or someone that could sweep her before setting up. If faced by anything but those two previous issues I'll either burn or safeguard first depending on how I feel the opponent is going to act. An example being when I see a ParaShuffle waiting to happen I Safeguard then Will-o-Wisp and switch in to something else or try to kill the opponent. Normally I get the easiest kills with Ninetales when a Jirachi comes in to set up on me or a Forretress. I'll use Nasty Plot in situations where the opponent doesn't actually have a counter or someone is sleep than I can get in a free KO. Occasionally I do get up to +6 Flamethrowers which do some really nice damage even with Ninetales' low SpAt. I don't let Ninetales just come in and set up drought|WoW, I also have her come in to finish off slow|sleep opponents and sometimes as a mid to late game killer. I suicide with her often, sometimes due to me having a small knowledge of new moves|resistances|no forethought.
Common threats I face when leading with Ninetales are Politoed|Terrakion|Heatran|Choice Darmanitan|Infernape
Generally they cause the most issues for me like with Terrakion I get swept and Heatran basically walls me. Politoed kills either before or after i set up Safeguard.
Volcarona
Life orb|Bold|Flame Body
80 HP|216 Def|212 Spe
Morning Sun - Heal through spikes|damage in general|life orb
Hidden Power Ice - for many threats to my team i.e. dragons|gliscor
Fiery Dance - For the possible SpAt boost and great to sweep with in the sun
Quiver Dance - To boost stats
I use Volcarona for late game and early game sweeping depending the situations. I generally set up or heal first then proceed to sweep. I switch in with Volcarona when faced with dragons, no other team mates, gliscor and walls who love to annoy me. I've this a lot with Blissey - I bring out Ninetales for the sun and safeguard then switch to Volcarona and get 6 Quiver Dances in then use Fiery Dance to kill Blissey. I can easily heal through walls with drought and morning sun up. Unless the opponent has me at my last pokemon and is using taunt, I more often than naught don't die to a ice beam or seismic toss Blissey or most unless they out speed me|priority moves|hit too hard for me to set up and heal through. I have to watch out for taunts, pokemon with my weaknesses, pokemon that just resist my two main attacks and anyone who can hit hard without setting up first. I run into major problems when it comes to Terrakion|Infernape|Choice Darmanitans|Dragons with Draco Meteor because they either OHKO me or get me so close I can't take another hit even while using morning sun. If someone actually gets 1-3 layers of spikes and or stealth rock down I'm pretty much done if I have to switch in to Volcarona. Occasionally I get a pokemon that roars|whirlwind|dragon tail and can mess me up but it doesn't happen often enough for me to call it an issue.
Scizor
Choice Scarf|Technician|Adamant
4 HP|252 Att|252 Spe
Bullet Punch - Revenge!
Pursuit - For spin blockers and the gengar than haunts my dreams
U Turn - For Lati@s|Psychics|Scouting
Superpower - For dear Tyranitar|Heatran
If I'm bringing in Scizor it's because I'm revenge killing|down to my last mon|taking out my team's weaknesses. The weakness to fire is a big issue but i deal with it nicely in most situations. I can't say much for what I do with Scizor beyond what's been said but I do have prevalent issues with mons that out speed him while he's scarfed|Infernapes|Darmanitans|Blissey|Heatran|Terrakion because they either wall me hard as hell or sweep me before I can even kill them. I do a mix of revenge killing and sweeping when possible but not too much scouting when I can see the opponents team already. I feel the explanation of this mon is fairly brief versus the others since I don't set up with her.
Donphan
Impish|Sturdy|Leftovers
240 HP|216 Def|52 Att
Rapid Spin - Down with the spikes and rocks!
Earthquake - Down with Heatran|Jirachi|Metagross|Ninetales
Ice Shard - Down with the Dragons|Gliscor|Air Ballons
Stealth Rock - Entry Hazard damage
Donphan takes entry hazard so well I feel I had to employ him as my rapid spinner|stealth rock and I've yet to be disapointed with him. He can do a lot of damage to non walls with earthquake and even more to mons with a ground weakness. Ice shard is a beautiful priority move as I generally kill all Gliscor and if a dragonite or salamence switches in on stealth rock I can kill them with Ice Shard before they kill me. I generally use him to lay down stealth rock and rapid spin other hazards away before I get ready to sweep. He takes care of Ninetales|Tentacruel|Jirachi very well but suffers at the hands of mons like Deoxys or when I'm not thinking - Magic Coat. He can get in one to two kills, revenge kill at times but his primary goal always being to get rid of entry hazards and lay down my own. Since ice shard just works so well I tend to knock most off their balloons and either kill them or switch in to one of my sweepers and finish them off that way. I obviously have issues with rapid spin blockers and when it comes to rain teams, more often than not I don't get to set up or even kill anything. Rain Teams|Celebi|Darmanitan|Terrakion are my biggest issues so far but I use him for hazards and when I'm concerned about dragons|gliscor who may try and destroy my team.
Hydreigon
Levitate|Expert Belt|Modest
64 HP|196 SpAt|248 Spe
Dragon Pulse - nothing really resist it and good for dragons
Dark Pulse - Gengar WON'T leave me alone
Focus Blast - For Tyranitar and Heatran|Terrakion
Flamethrower - Boosted by sun might as well lol
I replaced dragonite with him because he was faster and I preferred his moves over Dragonite's. Some might feel it's a loss to not have extreme speed but because I used Dnite so late in the game it rarely mattered and especially when walls were present so even outrage didn't always work and that would mess me up bad but what was even worse was getting OHKOed during an outrage because someone out sped me. The low speed was crippling for me and a movepool I wasn't too fond of led me to Hydreigon. She is usually the first offensive threat I bring out on teams when I see an opening because she is fast and with expert belt I can hit a lot of weaknesses for more damage. I felt had I choiced Hydreigon he would be good but also crippling as if I'm not using dragon pulse and a dragon switches in - more than likely I'm dead or forced to switch out and possibly not have the mon available to win the game or incapacitate the opponent for me. So this came out to be my best choice even thought the fighting|bug weakness slightly bothers me I can still make do with this dragon. Only real issues are once AGAIN Terrakion|Infernape and a lot of the fighting pokemon aren't as fast but another issue is a scarfed Scizor that can OHKO sadly but I'm quick to switch out Hydreigon when threats are imminent.
Venusaur
Chlorophyll|Black Sludge|Calm
252 HP|80 SpAt|176 SpDef
Growth - set up to sweep
Hidden Power Fire - This can take out common threats and a great back up
Sleep Powder - Accuracy fails but very good for shutting down sweepers|walls
Solarbeam - STAB and only grass really resist it
Besides the super awesome fact that he absorbs toxic spikes and Donphan doesn't with SB and HPFire there is really no pokemon that stands in my away except for maybe Heatran. This is of course after I set up with Growth getting +2 per use in the sunlight he quickly becomes a monster. With chlorophyll I outspeed many of the threats I would be faced with and not even a Blissey can survive two hits if I'm at +6. His threats become more imminent and make his potential as my sweeper vary due to a lot of fire|ice attacks and that unless I'm set up an ice|fire attack will OHKO in a flash or put me so close I can be revenged killed. Extreme Speed can be quite the problem and if I don't get an OHKO on a cloyster I'm done. Other threats mainly include Infernape|Terrakion|Darmanitan who can OHKO him so fast. But fear not for when the good graces of the metagame are bestowed upon me I can shut down my biggest weaknesses with a quick Sleep Powder - growth>sweep/switch out because more often than not mons don't stay sleep longer than 1-2 turns under my powder. And I've learned that being greedy cost me the win because when that mon wakes up - game over. I've also learned that a +2 solarbeam or HPFire can be extremely effective. I can switch him in on rain teams but the issue becomes handling ice|flying moves because they are more common. Flying|fire|ice more than psychic are the biggest hinderances there are to me. At one time I was using Shiftry but eventually changed him because his weaknesses were worse than Venusaur's AND he couldn't do anything about toxic spikes.
Threats
Darmanitan
Terrakion
Breloom (kinda)
Infernape
Rain Teams
Politoed
Landorus
Blissey
Heatran
Tyranitar
Lati@s
Dragonite
I don't really know how to completely assemble a threats list but yeah those are the most imminent ones off the top of my head.
*Questions
1) How long is sleep supposed to last through Sleep Powder
2) Terrakion|Infernape|Rain Team counters?
3) Ways to reduce my weakness to flying?
4) How bad is this team for someone two or so weeks into competitive battling?
5) Anyone EV|Pokemon|Move changes that could be made?
