CHANGES IN BLUE!
-1st and foremost, props to DA_Cradily for giving me the idea.-
-2nd I understand you may think this team is crap, but so far the record is respectable after nearly 24 hours of play and about 20+ games under my belt, and its for casual more than anything, but I still want to get some critiques
-SKIP THIS PART IF YOU WANT THE CONDENSED VERSION OF THE RMT
So, its dead week at my college and I'm miserable bored... I was ladder matching with 2 different stall teams (I like stall) and trying to figure out what was working and what wasn't... Then I came across DA-Cradily, I didn't realize it until after he left the room, but he was using an all bug team. I shadowed him and watched a couple matches and noticed the 2 big problems that bug teams have:
1) Stealth Rock HURTS!
2) since the team is mono type you cant really switch into a hit and resist like a normal team.
I also noticed he ran a pinsir with a choice band... and I thought "why not run a scarf set for surprise". The mono type makes pinsir look like some random sacrifice I'm throwing away, but then he can score some surprise ko's. Basically hes a crobat killer who can really hurt this team by taunting my entry hazrd users and my "wall", but he can revenge kill arcanin, ninetails, and basically anything as he boasts 400+ speeed with a scarf.
Anyway, lets have a look at the team that I cranked out to amazing results today. (I finished 16/17 and 3/4) This team has some issues but that will be discussed at the bottom, because on my other rmt's no one seems to read the stuff before the team itself. Also, this team has some stellar synergies for sharing the same weaknesses.... Anyway:
THE TEAM
Venomoth @ Leftovers
Timid
252 Sp. Atk./ 252 Sp./ 4 Sp. Def.
Sleep powder
Toxic Spikes
Bug Buzz
Psychic
- Okay this lead for the team is phenominal. I wanted several things in the team and he brings all of them into one poke.
1) a poison type to soak up toxic spikes
2) a status move
3) some other entry hazard beyond stealth rock
4) a decent attacking stat with decent coverage
I didnt necessarily plan for venomoth to be all of these things but she sure is. With tinted lens it really doesnt matter that bug may be not very effective, she gets perfect coverage with just one move which is too helpful late game if I need to finish off several pokes. I chose toxic spikes and psychic as an entry hazard and a way to kill poison types that think they can soak up my spikes and get away with it, this also helps kill fighting types that pack stone edge, but she isn't generally used for that. Venomoth generates the momentum I need to keep an advantage over my opponent for the rest of the match.
Okay so some common leads I have to deal with:
-Nidoqueen- Psychic, twice if necessary. taking care of the stealth rocks then becomes my priority #1, but then they dont get them for the rest of the match (HUGE for me)
-Steelix- Sleep powder, and then toxic spikes until forced out. Their stealth rocks are essentially out of the match for a while.
-Crobat- I QUICKLY switch to Armaldo to take the brave bird (about 20 percent after lefties) then rock blast they either taunt and die or u-turn
-Uxie-Sleep powder to shut down their stealth rocks, then toxic spikes, if I get stuck with a choice scarf, then I'm just that much fatser late game if I need to atempt a sweep with the unresisted bugg buzz
-Electrode-I've only fough one. I bugg buzzed and he taunted, then went to shuckle and he blew up
-Moltres- I;ve not come across this before, I'd likely go to shuckle and force him out by accupressuring
Okay this is a basic summation of what I'd do:
If they are a slow stealth rocking lead, I sleep powder to eliminate stealth rock(I prefer this type of lead). If they are crobat I switch, its basically that simple.
Armaldo @ Leftovers
Impish
252 Hp/ 252 Def./ 4 Atk.
Stealth Rock
Rapid Spin
Rock Blast
Rest
-This guy is my rapid spinner, and is basically the only option in UU. Hes actually quite a nice way to kill crobat early if they try to taunt. His job is simple, rapid spin liberally if I need it. I gave him rest because I needed recovery since stealth rock can do so much by itself, and he needs to be a physical tank... I dont like it, but it's the best hes got. I used to run sleep talk in place of rock blast, but when I thought about it rapid spin is lol damage and stealth rock twice is a wasted turn anyway so rock blast was added so he can do something resembling damage. each hit of rock blast does about 25 percent to crobat just for reference, while his brave bird does about 20-25 percent before lefties. I would add more atk. ev's but then he cant take physical hits as well.
Shuckle @ Leftovers
careful
252 HP/ 40 Def./ 216 Sp. Def.
Encore
Rest
Knock Off
Toxic
-This set is a little more useful... However, 90 percent of encores in conjunction with a switch to shedinja is free stealth rock damage and a turn of toxic. Hes more Sp. Def. oriented because Armaldo can help take hits on the physical side. If anyone can suggest a better set, that would be great. Steelix roars this away every time and I cant stop him laying those darn stealth rocks. Encore is a must, and rest REALLY helps the stalling nature of the team, but I open to suggestions on the last 2 slots. If he learned taunt and rapid spin I would tatoo the thing on my chest. Surf can hurt him even with the mega Sp. Def., but he can encore and go to shedinja so he acts as a pivot more than an actuall wall in that case.
Pinsir @ Choice Scarf
Mold Breaker
Adamant
252 Atk./ 252 Sp./ 4 Hp.
Earthquake
Close Combat
X-Scissor
Stone Edge
-I need this guy. He can save the team from seeps with no effort at all.
He can hit most of the sweepers in UU for super effective AND outpace them... what more is there to explain Mismagius can come in on this and set up if I close combat (and weezing), but mold breaker softens the pressure on prediction in her(and his) case : ).
Note: he will easily outspeed a scarfed blaziken without a + speed nature
who could be a real pain otherwise
Yanmega @ Leftovers
252 Sp. Atk./ 252 Spd./ 4 Hp
Protect
Bugg Buzz
Air Slash
Hidden Power Ground/ Grass
- The king bug in UU. He is such a threat to teams, and he is a solid plan b for this team. The ground immunity isn't much of a perk because I dont have a ground weak poke... oh well *sigh* I dont need to explain this really, it's not ground breaking or new, he can easily outspeed the threats to this team after a protect and seriously dent almost all of them.
Shedinja @ Choice Band
Adamant
252 Atk./ 252 Sp./ 4 Hp(lolz)
Trick
Protect
X-Scissor
Shadow Sneak
- Shedinja makes it so that the team need only worry about five types in the whole game(plus status and entry hazards). The cool thing about having a team full of bugs is that if you hold back shedinja they throw his counters at your other bug types and you can ko them before they can think about taking shedinja out. I opted for choice band because shuckle makes for a good transition into him. He forces a switch and cripples something that can kill him. I then see the move they use by using protect and switch to a poke that can take the hit (usually back to shuckle). Focus sash isnt as supportive to the team as choice band tricking, because a threat to shedinja is probably able to kill several other pokes as well. Trust me I havent had a problem with him dying early. Also, protect on him and yanmega helps rack up toxic damage on the pokes that can kill him. Shadow sneak is to get a ko on a potential threat that is nearly finished off. X scissor spamming half a team to death because they cant hurt you since they threw their shedinja killers at pinsir, yanmega, or venomoth is pleasing
So their is the team. the general strategy would be this: set up entry hazards and abuse shuckles immense defenses and shedinjas resistances to force switches with stealth rock out, and pick off the weakend team with either yanmega or venomoth, or by simply killing everything that can hurt shedinja all the while eliminating major threats to the team with pinsir. Most of my pokes have leftovers in case I need to switch with stealth rock up (yanmega can gain decent chunks of hp through alternating protect).
Some things I was wanting to ask you guys what you thought:
1) Parasect can provide aromatherapy for the team as well as spore/ stun spore... He could help against stall, but venomoth plus armaldo rapid spinning helps with toxic spikes and I can predict status attacks and switch to shuckle or armaldo. The main reason for adding it would be to wake up armaldo and shuckle from rest immediatly. Nice as this sounds, I cant immagine taking anything out and putting him in...
2) Pure stall SUCKS for this team. I've only beaten one or two good stall teams, all my loses come from stall. Even though I've dodged the bullet those times, I know stall is very difficult for this team. Steelix could potentially roar in shedinja and kill him early w/ stealth rock. and If they carry a ghost and I cant rapid spin I'm in trouble. however, since armaldo is a lackluster spinner, they never expect it and I can get it off with out them switching in their ghosts because they think he is a sweeper. Any ideas how to make this team a bit more capable with taking on steelix and to a lesser extent regirock, because currently the game plan is to put them to sleep with venomoth and hope I can kill them before they wake up.
Anything like Arcanine, Moltres, Houndoom, Shaymin (w/ air slash), and anyone else I'm sure I'm leaving out can be dealt with by pinsir, so please dont say that they tear me apart... because they dont (however a sacrifice usually must be made to get pinsir in T-T) Yanmega can cause problems, and I've considered toxic on shuckle. Toxic plus stealth rock damage takes care of him quickly.
This team is alot of fun to use, and very rewarding to win with, and it actually has a good record so far *Knock on wood*...
If I think of anything else, I'll post it.
Thanks for reading... I feel this team for sure puts Aaron to shame :P
-1st and foremost, props to DA_Cradily for giving me the idea.-
-2nd I understand you may think this team is crap, but so far the record is respectable after nearly 24 hours of play and about 20+ games under my belt, and its for casual more than anything, but I still want to get some critiques
-SKIP THIS PART IF YOU WANT THE CONDENSED VERSION OF THE RMT
So, its dead week at my college and I'm miserable bored... I was ladder matching with 2 different stall teams (I like stall) and trying to figure out what was working and what wasn't... Then I came across DA-Cradily, I didn't realize it until after he left the room, but he was using an all bug team. I shadowed him and watched a couple matches and noticed the 2 big problems that bug teams have:
1) Stealth Rock HURTS!
2) since the team is mono type you cant really switch into a hit and resist like a normal team.
I also noticed he ran a pinsir with a choice band... and I thought "why not run a scarf set for surprise". The mono type makes pinsir look like some random sacrifice I'm throwing away, but then he can score some surprise ko's. Basically hes a crobat killer who can really hurt this team by taunting my entry hazrd users and my "wall", but he can revenge kill arcanin, ninetails, and basically anything as he boasts 400+ speeed with a scarf.
Anyway, lets have a look at the team that I cranked out to amazing results today. (I finished 16/17 and 3/4) This team has some issues but that will be discussed at the bottom, because on my other rmt's no one seems to read the stuff before the team itself. Also, this team has some stellar synergies for sharing the same weaknesses.... Anyway:
THE TEAM
Venomoth @ Leftovers
Timid
252 Sp. Atk./ 252 Sp./ 4 Sp. Def.
Sleep powder
Toxic Spikes
Bug Buzz
Psychic
- Okay this lead for the team is phenominal. I wanted several things in the team and he brings all of them into one poke.
1) a poison type to soak up toxic spikes
2) a status move
3) some other entry hazard beyond stealth rock
4) a decent attacking stat with decent coverage
I didnt necessarily plan for venomoth to be all of these things but she sure is. With tinted lens it really doesnt matter that bug may be not very effective, she gets perfect coverage with just one move which is too helpful late game if I need to finish off several pokes. I chose toxic spikes and psychic as an entry hazard and a way to kill poison types that think they can soak up my spikes and get away with it, this also helps kill fighting types that pack stone edge, but she isn't generally used for that. Venomoth generates the momentum I need to keep an advantage over my opponent for the rest of the match.
Okay so some common leads I have to deal with:
-Nidoqueen- Psychic, twice if necessary. taking care of the stealth rocks then becomes my priority #1, but then they dont get them for the rest of the match (HUGE for me)
-Steelix- Sleep powder, and then toxic spikes until forced out. Their stealth rocks are essentially out of the match for a while.
-Crobat- I QUICKLY switch to Armaldo to take the brave bird (about 20 percent after lefties) then rock blast they either taunt and die or u-turn
-Uxie-Sleep powder to shut down their stealth rocks, then toxic spikes, if I get stuck with a choice scarf, then I'm just that much fatser late game if I need to atempt a sweep with the unresisted bugg buzz
-Electrode-I've only fough one. I bugg buzzed and he taunted, then went to shuckle and he blew up
-Moltres- I;ve not come across this before, I'd likely go to shuckle and force him out by accupressuring
Okay this is a basic summation of what I'd do:
If they are a slow stealth rocking lead, I sleep powder to eliminate stealth rock(I prefer this type of lead). If they are crobat I switch, its basically that simple.
Armaldo @ Leftovers
Impish
252 Hp/ 252 Def./ 4 Atk.
Stealth Rock
Rapid Spin
Rock Blast
Rest
-This guy is my rapid spinner, and is basically the only option in UU. Hes actually quite a nice way to kill crobat early if they try to taunt. His job is simple, rapid spin liberally if I need it. I gave him rest because I needed recovery since stealth rock can do so much by itself, and he needs to be a physical tank... I dont like it, but it's the best hes got. I used to run sleep talk in place of rock blast, but when I thought about it rapid spin is lol damage and stealth rock twice is a wasted turn anyway so rock blast was added so he can do something resembling damage. each hit of rock blast does about 25 percent to crobat just for reference, while his brave bird does about 20-25 percent before lefties. I would add more atk. ev's but then he cant take physical hits as well.
Shuckle @ Leftovers
careful
252 HP/ 40 Def./ 216 Sp. Def.
Encore
Rest
Knock Off
Toxic
-This set is a little more useful... However, 90 percent of encores in conjunction with a switch to shedinja is free stealth rock damage and a turn of toxic. Hes more Sp. Def. oriented because Armaldo can help take hits on the physical side. If anyone can suggest a better set, that would be great. Steelix roars this away every time and I cant stop him laying those darn stealth rocks. Encore is a must, and rest REALLY helps the stalling nature of the team, but I open to suggestions on the last 2 slots. If he learned taunt and rapid spin I would tatoo the thing on my chest. Surf can hurt him even with the mega Sp. Def., but he can encore and go to shedinja so he acts as a pivot more than an actuall wall in that case.
Pinsir @ Choice Scarf
Mold Breaker
Adamant
252 Atk./ 252 Sp./ 4 Hp.
Earthquake
Close Combat
X-Scissor
Stone Edge
-I need this guy. He can save the team from seeps with no effort at all.
He can hit most of the sweepers in UU for super effective AND outpace them... what more is there to explain Mismagius can come in on this and set up if I close combat (and weezing), but mold breaker softens the pressure on prediction in her(and his) case : ).
Note: he will easily outspeed a scarfed blaziken without a + speed nature
who could be a real pain otherwise
Yanmega @ Leftovers
252 Sp. Atk./ 252 Spd./ 4 Hp
Protect
Bugg Buzz
Air Slash
Hidden Power Ground/ Grass
- The king bug in UU. He is such a threat to teams, and he is a solid plan b for this team. The ground immunity isn't much of a perk because I dont have a ground weak poke... oh well *sigh* I dont need to explain this really, it's not ground breaking or new, he can easily outspeed the threats to this team after a protect and seriously dent almost all of them.
Shedinja @ Choice Band
Adamant
252 Atk./ 252 Sp./ 4 Hp(lolz)
Trick
Protect
X-Scissor
Shadow Sneak
- Shedinja makes it so that the team need only worry about five types in the whole game(plus status and entry hazards). The cool thing about having a team full of bugs is that if you hold back shedinja they throw his counters at your other bug types and you can ko them before they can think about taking shedinja out. I opted for choice band because shuckle makes for a good transition into him. He forces a switch and cripples something that can kill him. I then see the move they use by using protect and switch to a poke that can take the hit (usually back to shuckle). Focus sash isnt as supportive to the team as choice band tricking, because a threat to shedinja is probably able to kill several other pokes as well. Trust me I havent had a problem with him dying early. Also, protect on him and yanmega helps rack up toxic damage on the pokes that can kill him. Shadow sneak is to get a ko on a potential threat that is nearly finished off. X scissor spamming half a team to death because they cant hurt you since they threw their shedinja killers at pinsir, yanmega, or venomoth is pleasing
So their is the team. the general strategy would be this: set up entry hazards and abuse shuckles immense defenses and shedinjas resistances to force switches with stealth rock out, and pick off the weakend team with either yanmega or venomoth, or by simply killing everything that can hurt shedinja all the while eliminating major threats to the team with pinsir. Most of my pokes have leftovers in case I need to switch with stealth rock up (yanmega can gain decent chunks of hp through alternating protect).
Some things I was wanting to ask you guys what you thought:
1) Parasect can provide aromatherapy for the team as well as spore/ stun spore... He could help against stall, but venomoth plus armaldo rapid spinning helps with toxic spikes and I can predict status attacks and switch to shuckle or armaldo. The main reason for adding it would be to wake up armaldo and shuckle from rest immediatly. Nice as this sounds, I cant immagine taking anything out and putting him in...
2) Pure stall SUCKS for this team. I've only beaten one or two good stall teams, all my loses come from stall. Even though I've dodged the bullet those times, I know stall is very difficult for this team. Steelix could potentially roar in shedinja and kill him early w/ stealth rock. and If they carry a ghost and I cant rapid spin I'm in trouble. however, since armaldo is a lackluster spinner, they never expect it and I can get it off with out them switching in their ghosts because they think he is a sweeper. Any ideas how to make this team a bit more capable with taking on steelix and to a lesser extent regirock, because currently the game plan is to put them to sleep with venomoth and hope I can kill them before they wake up.
Anything like Arcanine, Moltres, Houndoom, Shaymin (w/ air slash), and anyone else I'm sure I'm leaving out can be dealt with by pinsir, so please dont say that they tear me apart... because they dont (however a sacrifice usually must be made to get pinsir in T-T) Yanmega can cause problems, and I've considered toxic on shuckle. Toxic plus stealth rock damage takes care of him quickly.
This team is alot of fun to use, and very rewarding to win with, and it actually has a good record so far *Knock on wood*...
If I think of anything else, I'll post it.
Thanks for reading... I feel this team for sure puts Aaron to shame :P
