This team is the one I plan on using in my quest to reach 1500 rating to vote in the suspect tests. I was pretty close to 1400 last time, and I plan on grinding my way to 1500 this time. I figured I should shore up a solid, reliable team that counters both major weather types, so that’s what I came up with.
It started out as a variation of sand stall with Hippo and Tar, but gradually became more offensive, until it became what it is now.. some sort of balancy thing. This teams strategy is to counter the other team’s offense through its defensive core, while looking for opportunities to set up and sweep with Birijion or Terakion, and revenging with Azumarill. Let’s get started:
Tyranitar @ Expert Belt
252 HP 252 SpD 4 Def
Sandstream, Relaxed
Crunch
Fire Blast
Ice Beam
Superpower/EQ
This tar functions the same way the Lure set in the Smogon analysis works, with additional special bulk to survive powerful special attacks. Tar in sandstorm becomes amazingly specially bulky, and that bulk is important in supporting my team, since Tar gets many more opportunities to switch in and change the weather back.
Crunch is powerful stab. I chose it over Stone Edge because Stone Edge is unreliable and since I already have 2 pokemon with focus blast and stone edge, I wanted as little hax as possible. I avoid Stone Edge whenever possible. Fire Blast is for skarms and natts that give this team trouble and might switch in to absorb if they think I’m a choice variant (which they will at first, seeing no lefties or life orb). Ice beam is for gliscor. I can survive an EQ and OHKO back, or hit him on the switch, which is cool. If he protects, I’m sunk. Superpower is for annoying pokemon like Balloon Heatran and other Tars. It’s a little lame that I don’t have EQ, but I decided on Superpower because it hits balloon mons.
Obviously, Tar is key to supporting my team. None of my team really benefits that directly from sand support, (except terakion’s special defense, lol) but sandstorm is important to cancel out opposing sun, rain, and hail, all of which hurt this team’s effectiveness. That being said, I’ve had wild speculations of sticking Abomasnow here to screw over sand teams.
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
252 HP 252 Def 4 SpD
Poison Heal, Impish
Protect
Fling
Acrobat
EQ
Gliscor does amazing walling other sand teams. It immediately shuts down most Dory (I’m not sure what the calcs are on Return vs. gliscor, but I doubt it 2koes after swords dance [though I could be wrong] and Return on dory is pretty rare anyway.). It also shuts down Rando without HP ice, Tar without Ice beam, and most other physical attackers. It’s a pro at taking even SE physical hits with Poison Heal and Protect healing an insane amount each turn. I’ve had this guy even take non-stab Ice Punches for a 2KO, which is really cool. If I see a Dory on team preview, this guy gets saved for last as an emergency counter.
Protect is to activate Toxic Orb/stall out while accruing Poison Heal recover/scout for random ice coverage moves. Fling powers up Acrobat and poisons the opponent as a nice bonus, Acrobat is powerful stab (110 after Fling) with more PP than EQ for stalling, and EQ is more cool stab with good coverage to KO Dorys whose balloons have popped, Tars, etc.
Gliscor is key as a defensive pivot/wall because he shuts down so many key threats. He shines more vs. sand than rain, since he resists more on sand teams than rain teams, but hey, that’s what you get in a weather oriented metagame.
Nattorei @ Leftovers
252 HP 252 SpD 4 D
Relaxed, Iron Barbs
-Leech Seed
-Stealth Rock
-Power Whip
-Toxic
Specially bulky Nattorei is awesome. It functions well against Rain teams, resisting water, electric, and dragon, and being neutral to ice, which functions great against most common rain sweepers, which carry come combination of those attacking types. He folds to most powerful physical fighting attacks more readily than a physically bulky variant would, but I usually direct those to Gliscor anyway, who shuts down most Roobushin and Kojondo anyway. I chose special bulk over physical because of all the giant special threats associated with rain teams. Anyone who’s played someone using Specs Kingdra knows what a boss it is in the rain, and I don’t want to be weak to it.
Leech seed is for recovrs, Stealth Rock aids later sweeps, Power Whip hits waters SE and is nice stab, and Toxic lets me stall out non-steels with leech seed recovery, and cripples a lot of walls and tanks that would otherwise stay in and give me trouble. I have to be careful about poisoning Guts Roob on the switch, which can then Bulk Up and get +2/+1 Atk/Def, which is gonna make it harder for Gliscor to wall.
Nattorei rounds off the defensive core of the team, and combined with Tar and Gliscor, keeps up my team’s momentum agains most common threats.
Azumarill @ Choice Band
252 HP 252 Atk 4 Def
Adamant, Huge Power
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
-Superpower
-Ice Punch
Azumarill serves as a powerful revenger, priority user, and wallbreaker. He works best against sand teams, since Aqua Jet will reliably KO most dory, rando, and terakion, although a lot of rain teams run Nattorei, which gets destroyed by Superpower. (yeah yeah they just talked about it on the smogcast). I play him conservatively, since his really utility comes from his SE coverage on a lot of major threats. Most of his kills come from hitting surprise switchins for SE damage
Waterfall is for powerful stab, and hits really hard. Aqua jet is priority for revenge kills, Superpower hits incoming Nattorei switchins, and Ice Punch nails dragons who switch thinking they’ll resist his Water stab.
Azumarill provides a lot of utility, keeping a lot of major threats in check. Without him, wouldn’t have a reliable revenger to Dory, since I don’t carry any mach punchers.
Birijion @ Life Orb
252 SpA, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Timid, Justice Heart
-Giga Drain
-Focus Blast
-Hidden Power Ice/Fire
-Calm Mind
Calm Mind Birijion is amazing in its ability to set up on so many different playstyles. It sets up reliably on Tar and Hippo, barring switching in on a fire blast or ice beam from Tar, or a random ice fang hippo. It also sets up on a lot of Rain pokemon, especially non-hypnosis Politoed. Once it switches in, even Tar can’t really hurt it, since it gets up a CM and proceeds to not get scratched by unboosted non-stab usually uninvested ice beams and fire blasts. Giga drain makes it even more of a beast, since its higher base power makes it actually a viable attack after a CM boost, and it helps Birijion stay alive and nab more kills.
Giga Drain is for health regeneration and stab, Focus Blast is secondary stab (when it hits), hidden power is for coverage (I usually run Ice, but the rest of my team has problems with Skarm, so I’ve been experimenting with fire. I usually don’t like forfeiting the KOs on Rando and Chomp and other dragons, either). Calm mind is for boosting, duh.
Birijion is a great sweeper in the weather metagame, and loves blowing holes in unprepared teams.
Terakion @ Balloon
252 Atk 252 Spd 4 HP
Jolly, Justice Heart
Rock Polish
Swords Dance
Holy Sword
Stone Edge
Terakion is a really versatile sweeper. He’s fast enough and powerful enough to pull off either Rock Polish or Swords Dance, and the fantastic coverage of his stabs makes it possible to run both on a set. Setup is key to this set, which is why he rocks the Balloon. It lets me switch him in on his ground immunity, and let him set up either rock polish or swords dance. Depending on team preview, I’ll generally go swords dance vs.slower, stall-oriented teams, and rock polish against faster offensive teams. Rock polish is a unique choice against sand, since +2 speed Terakion just outspeeds Jolly Dory in the sand and KOs past balooon with Holy Sword. Not being revenged by Dory is huge, especially since sand is going to be up 100% of the time when I’m facing other sand teams.
Holy Sword is my stab choice over Close Combat, since I don’t miss the defense drops and defeating stat-uppers is nice.
Terakion used to be a Dory, but I found that so many teams higher up the ladder over prepared against him, making it actually pretty hard to pull off a sweep. I liked Terakion’s versatility and perfect type coverage, so I opted for him instead.
Anyway, rate away. Any input is welcome, and I hope I see you on the ladder.
Specifically, I’m looking for team changes that will increase this team’s ability to counter current trends in the metagame, especially higher up on the ladder, where there’s usually a slower pace. It’s been shut down by stall before, although that was stall that countered Dory hard, when I still used Dory as a primary sweeper.
In general, I have problems with physical walls, especially Nattorei and Skarm. HP fire from Birijion and Fire blast from Tar can hurt them both, but I need something more reliable. I've thought of replacing Nattorei with balloon stealth rock heatran, but that would really open my team up to rain sweeps. Any suggestions?
It started out as a variation of sand stall with Hippo and Tar, but gradually became more offensive, until it became what it is now.. some sort of balancy thing. This teams strategy is to counter the other team’s offense through its defensive core, while looking for opportunities to set up and sweep with Birijion or Terakion, and revenging with Azumarill. Let’s get started:
Tyranitar @ Expert Belt
252 HP 252 SpD 4 Def
Sandstream, Relaxed
Crunch
Fire Blast
Ice Beam
Superpower/EQ
This tar functions the same way the Lure set in the Smogon analysis works, with additional special bulk to survive powerful special attacks. Tar in sandstorm becomes amazingly specially bulky, and that bulk is important in supporting my team, since Tar gets many more opportunities to switch in and change the weather back.
Crunch is powerful stab. I chose it over Stone Edge because Stone Edge is unreliable and since I already have 2 pokemon with focus blast and stone edge, I wanted as little hax as possible. I avoid Stone Edge whenever possible. Fire Blast is for skarms and natts that give this team trouble and might switch in to absorb if they think I’m a choice variant (which they will at first, seeing no lefties or life orb). Ice beam is for gliscor. I can survive an EQ and OHKO back, or hit him on the switch, which is cool. If he protects, I’m sunk. Superpower is for annoying pokemon like Balloon Heatran and other Tars. It’s a little lame that I don’t have EQ, but I decided on Superpower because it hits balloon mons.
Obviously, Tar is key to supporting my team. None of my team really benefits that directly from sand support, (except terakion’s special defense, lol) but sandstorm is important to cancel out opposing sun, rain, and hail, all of which hurt this team’s effectiveness. That being said, I’ve had wild speculations of sticking Abomasnow here to screw over sand teams.
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
252 HP 252 Def 4 SpD
Poison Heal, Impish
Protect
Fling
Acrobat
EQ
Gliscor does amazing walling other sand teams. It immediately shuts down most Dory (I’m not sure what the calcs are on Return vs. gliscor, but I doubt it 2koes after swords dance [though I could be wrong] and Return on dory is pretty rare anyway.). It also shuts down Rando without HP ice, Tar without Ice beam, and most other physical attackers. It’s a pro at taking even SE physical hits with Poison Heal and Protect healing an insane amount each turn. I’ve had this guy even take non-stab Ice Punches for a 2KO, which is really cool. If I see a Dory on team preview, this guy gets saved for last as an emergency counter.
Protect is to activate Toxic Orb/stall out while accruing Poison Heal recover/scout for random ice coverage moves. Fling powers up Acrobat and poisons the opponent as a nice bonus, Acrobat is powerful stab (110 after Fling) with more PP than EQ for stalling, and EQ is more cool stab with good coverage to KO Dorys whose balloons have popped, Tars, etc.
Gliscor is key as a defensive pivot/wall because he shuts down so many key threats. He shines more vs. sand than rain, since he resists more on sand teams than rain teams, but hey, that’s what you get in a weather oriented metagame.
Nattorei @ Leftovers
252 HP 252 SpD 4 D
Relaxed, Iron Barbs
-Leech Seed
-Stealth Rock
-Power Whip
-Toxic
Specially bulky Nattorei is awesome. It functions well against Rain teams, resisting water, electric, and dragon, and being neutral to ice, which functions great against most common rain sweepers, which carry come combination of those attacking types. He folds to most powerful physical fighting attacks more readily than a physically bulky variant would, but I usually direct those to Gliscor anyway, who shuts down most Roobushin and Kojondo anyway. I chose special bulk over physical because of all the giant special threats associated with rain teams. Anyone who’s played someone using Specs Kingdra knows what a boss it is in the rain, and I don’t want to be weak to it.
Leech seed is for recovrs, Stealth Rock aids later sweeps, Power Whip hits waters SE and is nice stab, and Toxic lets me stall out non-steels with leech seed recovery, and cripples a lot of walls and tanks that would otherwise stay in and give me trouble. I have to be careful about poisoning Guts Roob on the switch, which can then Bulk Up and get +2/+1 Atk/Def, which is gonna make it harder for Gliscor to wall.
Nattorei rounds off the defensive core of the team, and combined with Tar and Gliscor, keeps up my team’s momentum agains most common threats.
Azumarill @ Choice Band
252 HP 252 Atk 4 Def
Adamant, Huge Power
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
-Superpower
-Ice Punch
Azumarill serves as a powerful revenger, priority user, and wallbreaker. He works best against sand teams, since Aqua Jet will reliably KO most dory, rando, and terakion, although a lot of rain teams run Nattorei, which gets destroyed by Superpower. (yeah yeah they just talked about it on the smogcast). I play him conservatively, since his really utility comes from his SE coverage on a lot of major threats. Most of his kills come from hitting surprise switchins for SE damage
Waterfall is for powerful stab, and hits really hard. Aqua jet is priority for revenge kills, Superpower hits incoming Nattorei switchins, and Ice Punch nails dragons who switch thinking they’ll resist his Water stab.
Azumarill provides a lot of utility, keeping a lot of major threats in check. Without him, wouldn’t have a reliable revenger to Dory, since I don’t carry any mach punchers.
Birijion @ Life Orb
252 SpA, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Timid, Justice Heart
-Giga Drain
-Focus Blast
-Hidden Power Ice/Fire
-Calm Mind
Calm Mind Birijion is amazing in its ability to set up on so many different playstyles. It sets up reliably on Tar and Hippo, barring switching in on a fire blast or ice beam from Tar, or a random ice fang hippo. It also sets up on a lot of Rain pokemon, especially non-hypnosis Politoed. Once it switches in, even Tar can’t really hurt it, since it gets up a CM and proceeds to not get scratched by unboosted non-stab usually uninvested ice beams and fire blasts. Giga drain makes it even more of a beast, since its higher base power makes it actually a viable attack after a CM boost, and it helps Birijion stay alive and nab more kills.
Giga Drain is for health regeneration and stab, Focus Blast is secondary stab (when it hits), hidden power is for coverage (I usually run Ice, but the rest of my team has problems with Skarm, so I’ve been experimenting with fire. I usually don’t like forfeiting the KOs on Rando and Chomp and other dragons, either). Calm mind is for boosting, duh.
Birijion is a great sweeper in the weather metagame, and loves blowing holes in unprepared teams.
Terakion @ Balloon
252 Atk 252 Spd 4 HP
Jolly, Justice Heart
Rock Polish
Swords Dance
Holy Sword
Stone Edge
Terakion is a really versatile sweeper. He’s fast enough and powerful enough to pull off either Rock Polish or Swords Dance, and the fantastic coverage of his stabs makes it possible to run both on a set. Setup is key to this set, which is why he rocks the Balloon. It lets me switch him in on his ground immunity, and let him set up either rock polish or swords dance. Depending on team preview, I’ll generally go swords dance vs.slower, stall-oriented teams, and rock polish against faster offensive teams. Rock polish is a unique choice against sand, since +2 speed Terakion just outspeeds Jolly Dory in the sand and KOs past balooon with Holy Sword. Not being revenged by Dory is huge, especially since sand is going to be up 100% of the time when I’m facing other sand teams.
Holy Sword is my stab choice over Close Combat, since I don’t miss the defense drops and defeating stat-uppers is nice.
Terakion used to be a Dory, but I found that so many teams higher up the ladder over prepared against him, making it actually pretty hard to pull off a sweep. I liked Terakion’s versatility and perfect type coverage, so I opted for him instead.
Anyway, rate away. Any input is welcome, and I hope I see you on the ladder.
Specifically, I’m looking for team changes that will increase this team’s ability to counter current trends in the metagame, especially higher up on the ladder, where there’s usually a slower pace. It’s been shut down by stall before, although that was stall that countered Dory hard, when I still used Dory as a primary sweeper.
In general, I have problems with physical walls, especially Nattorei and Skarm. HP fire from Birijion and Fire blast from Tar can hurt them both, but I need something more reliable. I've thought of replacing Nattorei with balloon stealth rock heatran, but that would really open my team up to rain sweeps. Any suggestions?
