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[kokoloko]

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The Smog

Issue 19 | Featured UU RMT
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Issue 20 | UU Metagame Trends
.............| Featured UU RMT
.............| Featured UU Pokemon
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Issue 21 | ???
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[Thorn_bloodscale]

Just a nitpick and personal preference, id change infernapes Uturn to hidden power ice, simply because other than flygons outrage i dont immediately see any way to take on any of the dragons. It will also help against gliscor who cud potentially be an annoyance to ur scizor.

 

[StealthFire12]

About Lucario...............

In the team building process, you said Lucario was a pure atker, but may I remind all of the people that have forgotten, Lucarios sp.atk is higher than it's attack. Try a MixLuke, just because you are not a very well-known battler does not mean that you cannot make sets. I suggest this:

Lucario@Life Orb
252atk/128spd/128sp.atk
-Swords Dance
-Extremespeed
-Close Combat
-Dragon Pulse

 

[kokoloko]

In the team building process, you said Lucario was a pure atker, but may I remind all of the people that have forgotten, Lucarios sp.atk is higher than it's attack. Try a MixLuke, just because you are not a very well-known battler does not mean that you cannot make sets. I suggest this:

Lucario@Life Orb
252atk/128spd/128sp.atk
-Swords Dance
-Extremespeed
-Close Combat
-Dragon Pulse

Thanks for the suggestion, but Lucario's lower speed and inability to scout out its own counters makes it an inferior choice overall. By the way you forgot a nature for the Lucario you suggested. Also, about making my own sets, I know this, which is why the only standard set on this team is Flygon, all the others have at least one variation from standard.

 

[DarkCyberElf]

On Rotom-H, I would use Will-O-Wisp over Overheat, allowing you some survivability against Pursuiters and otherwise just a great status move despite the horrible accuracy. Second, use either Substitute or Pain Split over Toxic. Substitute lets you essentially have a maximum of two turns to attack or WoW the target, while Pain Split does something along the lines of recovery.

Vaporeon should have the standard set, as the 70 Speed EVs are relatively important especially as you are using Roar.

Smeargle lead is interesting, but he isn't reliable enough to set both entry hazards down, or even do much damage for that matter, as his only useful stat is Speed (which is still subpar). If you want both entry hazards on one lead, I suggest either Skarmory or Forretress. Both have unique resistances, one has recovery, the other Rapid Spin. Here is a set for both:

Skarmory @ Shed Shell - Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Spe / 236 SpD
Ability: Keen Eye
- Spikes / Brave Bird
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind / Taunt
- Roost

20 Spe EVs lets you outspeed Standard Skarmory sets and beat them to the Whirlwind or Taunt, while Shed Shell is to escape Magnezone, who otherwise easily switches in and kills you off even with a specially bulky spread. The specially defensive spread helps survive special attacks in general, and you will be surprised at Skarmory's all around defensive qualities.

Forretress @ Shed Shell - Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD
Ability: Sturdy
- Payback / Explosion
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes

Very similar to Skarmory, only slower, and more vulnerable to Fire attacks (even weak HP Fires). Payback makes it so you aren't completely hopeless against Azelf who Taunts you and shuts you down otherwise. Rapid Spin makes your opponent's SR set up useless, while you set your own up in their face. Explosion can be used as your only attack option if you want to go out with a bang on your opponent's unfortunate sweeper.

Both of these Pokemon can be used in another team slot, with similar sets, and perform the niche done by Smeargle much better (with the exception of access to Spore).


The rest of your team looks solid, I can't think of much else to change except to keep making nitpicks. Nice team, good luck!

 

[kokoloko]

On Rotom-H, I would use Will-O-Wisp over Overheat, allowing you some survivability against Pursuiters and otherwise just a great status move despite the horrible accuracy. Second, use either Substitute or Pain Split over Toxic. Substitute lets you essentially have a maximum of two turns to attack or WoW the target, while Pain Split does something along the lines of recovery.

Rotom-H needs Overheat in order to effectively threaten the stuff that checks. Toxic is not nearly as important so I could easily change that. Then again, I have tried out Will-o-Wisp and Pain Split before and neither of them were satisfactory. Substitute is a move I didn't consider before, i'll have to test that out. If anything I think I might just go back to WoW, even though it misses more than it hits when I use it. lol.

Vaporeon should have the standard set, as the 70 Speed EVs are relatively important especially as you are using Roar.

Someone needs to explain to me why they're important because I just don't see it. Roar has decreased priority so I'll be going second anyways right? So why is increased speed important? Am I missing something?

Smeargle lead is interesting, but he isn't reliable enough to set both entry hazards down, or even do much damage for that matter, as his only useful stat is Speed (which is still subpar). If you want both entry hazards on one lead, I suggest either Skarmory or Forretress. Both have unique resistances, one has recovery, the other Rapid Spin. Here is a set for both:

Skarmory @ Shed Shell - Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Spe / 236 SpD
Ability: Keen Eye
- Spikes / Brave Bird
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind / Taunt
- Roost

20 Spe EVs lets you outspeed Standard Skarmory sets and beat them to the Whirlwind or Taunt, while Shed Shell is to escape Magnezone, who otherwise easily switches in and kills you off even with a specially bulky spread. The specially defensive spread helps survive special attacks in general, and you will be surprised at Skarmory's all around defensive qualities.

Forretress @ Shed Shell - Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD
Ability: Sturdy
- Payback / Explosion
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes

Very similar to Skarmory, only slower, and more vulnerable to Fire attacks (even weak HP Fires). Payback makes it so you aren't completely hopeless against Azelf who Taunts you and shuts you down otherwise. Rapid Spin makes your opponent's SR set up useless, while you set your own up in their face. Explosion can be used as your only attack option if you want to go out with a bang on your opponent's unfortunate sweeper.

Both of these Pokemon can be used in another team slot, with similar sets, and perform the niche done by Smeargle much better (with the exception of access to Spore).

I never thought of using Skarm as a lead with both Rocks and Spikes before, that might prove useful. I'll have to test that out. However the thought of compounding a fire and Electric weakness on my team makes me wary (especially sine two of my fire resists are super-frail and I only have 1 electric resist) but I'll see how it goes.

The rest of your team looks solid, I can't think of much else to change except to keep making nitpicks. Nice team, good luck!

Thanks for the advice, I'll be testing out some of the stuff tomorrow.

 

[iliketurkeybacon]

I can see a big problem with Taunt Gyarados. It can come in on Vaporeon (you may even switch Vaporeon into it if you don't know that it has Taunt), and get a free DD after Taunting your Roar. While I think it's more common for Vaporeon to carry HP Electric and most Gyarados will avoid it early in the game for that reason, once you use Roar once, it's not a stretch to know your entire moveset. So let's see what you have that can take care of Gyarados after one DD. If your Rotom has less than 60% of its health, it will get outsped and OHKOed. This leaves Flygon, who can't OHKO with Stone Edge, which is also unreliable against weakened Gyarados. Scizor can revenge kill it from when it's at 30-40%, but your team lacks a reliable way to get it into that range. Giving Flygon ThunderPunch instead of Stone Edge would help a lot with Gyarados. While it can't OHKO bulkier Gyarados without previous damage, it will do more than Stone Edge, while boasting perfect accuracy. Also, I recommend moving 28 EVs on Rotom from Special Attack into Speed so you can outspeed Jolly Gyarados before a Dragon Dance, since you're already investing so heavily to beat Adamant Lucario.

I think Explosion would be much more useful than ExtremeSpeed on Smeargle. Extremespeed barely scratches many of the common Taunt leads in UU, such as Aerodactyl, Gliscor, and Skarmory- I think the only Focus Sashed lead carrying Taunt that would mind ExtremeSpeed is Azelf. Explosion allows you to use Smeargle to take out slower threats if it manages to survive past the beginning of the game, or maybe even speed-boosted Pokemon if you can manage to keep Stealth Rock off of the field. Also, I agree with Thorn_bloodscale in suggesting HP Ice over U-turn on Infernape, since pretty much every Pokemon you want to hit with U-turn is faster, and Infernape taking 10% from Life Orb plus 12% the next time it comes in just to hopefully catch a Psychic-type for 35% isn't worth giving up OHKOs on Salamence and Gliscor in my opinion. Good luck!

Edit: Switching Discharge and Reflect for Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave on Rotom might be helpful. The paralysis can annoy faster things that may not mind Thunderbolt, and Reflect is pretty much a more reliable, less permanent Will-o-Wisp, which doesn't conflict with Discharge's paralysis.

Vaporeon should have the standard set, as the 70 Speed EVs are relatively important especially as you are using Roar.

Someone needs to explain to me why they're important because I just don't see it. Roar has decreased priority so I'll be going second anyways right? So why is increased speed important? Am I missing something?

68 Speed EVs allow Vaporeon to outspeed most Choice Band Metagross and Skarmory. 64 Speed EVs usually will also suffice, but 68 Speed EVs provide extra insurance against base 65s and 70s. You can allocate some of these EVs into Special Attack or Special Defense if you are confident that Metagross and Skarmory will not invest in much Speed.

In terms of the Speed EVs and Roar, the only benefit I see is outspeeding Skarmory that try to Whirlwind you. You might think that Surf does enough damage to Skarmory for it to flee, but with no Special Attack investment and the increase in Special Defensive Skarmory, that generally won't be the case. Roaring it out before it drags another Pokemon onto its Spikes with Whirlwind might be a good enough reason to use the Speed EVs.

 

[nihilist]

i think you should highly consider switching out smeargle for forrestress.
sure smeargle is cool with spore and stuff, but forretress will give you a more sturdy pokemon, he can actually receive wishes from vaporeon due to his bulk, he can rapid spin away enemy entry hazards which allows for more U-turn abuse, and finally he adds a second dragon resist so that you dont have to rely on scizor as much. I think he would be a much better fit.
you rotom should use will-o-wisp as you were saying you don't use trick that often. alternatively, you could use HP fight to take out t-tar who thinks he can come in and pursuit you, but wisp has more uses overall it think. But, Over even that, i suggest you switch back to choice scarf rotom. he provides better protection against faster pokes that will screw over your team, and he can trick bliss, which is a plus. I really think you should, as you dont have much protection against stat uppers or high speed tier pokes.
additionally, you should switch out roar on vappy for either ice beam or hp electric. Do you have trouble with mence or latias or do you have worse trouble with gyara?
these are important threats to think about when making EVERY single team because they are so common and they WILL run you over if you do not consider them.

 

[kokoloko]

I can see a big problem with Taunt Gyarados. It can come in on Vaporeon (you may even switch Vaporeon into it if you don't know that it has Taunt), and get a free DD after Taunting your Roar. While I think it's more common for Vaporeon to carry HP Electric and most Gyarados will avoid it early in the game for that reason, once you use Roar once, it's not a stretch to know your entire moveset. So let's see what you have that can take care of Gyarados after one DD. If your Rotom has less than 60% of its health, it will get outsped and OHKOed. This leaves Flygon, who can't OHKO with Stone Edge, which is also unreliable against weakened Gyarados. Scizor can revenge kill it from when it's at 30-40%, but your team lacks a reliable way to get it into that range. Giving Flygon ThunderPunch instead of Stone Edge would help a lot with Gyarados. While it can't OHKO bulkier Gyarados without previous damage, it will do more than Stone Edge, while boasting perfect accuracy. Also, I recommend moving 28 EVs on Rotom from Special Attack into Speed so you can outspeed Jolly Gyarados before a Dragon Dance, since you're already investing so heavily to beat Adamant Lucario.

You're definitely correct, Taunt Gyarados does sorta run over my team if Rotom-H is too weak to stop him. To take care of this, I'll test out ThunderPunch and also switching back to a Choice Scarf set on Rotom-H. Also, moving those 28 EV's makes sense, I guess losing 7 SpA points in order to outspeed Jolly Gyarados is a fair tradeoff.

I think Explosion would be much more useful than ExtremeSpeed on Smeargle. Extremespeed barely scratches many of the common Taunt leads in UU, such as Aerodactyl, Gliscor, and Skarmory- I think the only Focus Sashed lead carrying Taunt that would mind ExtremeSpeed is Azelf. Explosion allows you to use Smeargle to take out slower threats if it manages to survive past the beginning of the game, or maybe even speed-boosted Pokemon if you can manage to keep Stealth Rock off of the field. Also, I agree with Thorn_bloodscale in suggesting HP Ice over U-turn on Infernape, since pretty much every Pokemon you want to hit with U-turn is faster, and Infernape taking 10% from Life Orb plus 12% the next time it comes in just to hopefully catch a Psychic-type for 35% isn't worth giving up OHKOs on Salamence and Gliscor in my opinion. Good luck!

Actually I used Explosion on Smeargle for a while, but to be honest, he almost never got the chance to explode, and the couple times he did, it did absolute shit. Extremespeed is more of a utility move on him. Its not for damage, persay, its simply to break opposing Focus Sashes before going down. The thing about U-turn on Infernape is that its very useful to scout out his initial counter and play accordingly. However, I do want to do more extensive testing with Hidden Power [Ice] since several, more experienced, battlers have recommended it already.

Edit: Switching Discharge and Reflect for Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave on Rotom might be helpful. The paralysis can annoy faster things that may not mind Thunderbolt, and Reflect is pretty much a more reliable, less permanent Will-o-Wisp, which doesn't conflict with Discharge's paralysis.

The loss of power that comes with changing T-bolt to Discharge seems a little too much since I'm already investing very little in SpA. However, I guess it cant hurt to try this out.

In terms of the Speed EVs and Roar, the only benefit I see is outspeeding Skarmory that try to Whirlwind you. You might think that Surf does enough damage to Skarmory for it to flee, but with no Special Attack investment and the increase in Special Defensive Skarmory, that generally won't be the case. Roaring it out before it drags another Pokemon onto its Spikes with Whirlwind might be a good enough reason to use the Speed EVs.

Meh, this seems kind of redundant. Seeing as how Skarmory usually switches into Scizor's and Flygon's U-turns I can immediately send out Rotom-H to scare him off without setting up Spikes. Thanks for clearing that up though, it makes a lot more sense now. lol.

i think you should highly consider switching out smeargle for forrestress.
sure smeargle is cool with spore and stuff, but forretress will give you a more sturdy pokemon, he can actually receive wishes from vaporeon due to his bulk, he can rapid spin away enemy entry hazards which allows for more U-turn abuse, and finally he adds a second dragon resist so that you dont have to rely on scizor as much. I think he would be a much better fit.
you rotom should use will-o-wisp as you were saying you don't use trick that often. alternatively, you could use HP fight to take out t-tar who thinks he can come in and pursuit you, but wisp has more uses overall it think. But, Over even that, i suggest you switch back to choice scarf rotom. he provides better protection against faster pokes that will screw over your team, and he can trick bliss, which is a plus. I really think you should, as you dont have much protection against stat uppers or high speed tier pokes.
additionally, you should switch out roar on vappy for either ice beam or hp electric. Do you have trouble with mence or latias or do you have worse trouble with gyara?
these are important threats to think about when making EVERY single team because they are so common and they WILL run you over if you do not consider them.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll test out Forretress as a lead, and Choice Scarf Rotom-H. However, Roar is staying on Vaporeon, its far too useful.

Responses in quote.

 

[DarkCyberElf]

Full emphasis toward using ThunderPunch on Flygon.

I don't understand why none of your team mates has any way of setting up, with the exception of Smeargle. Vaporeon is your only answer to stall, and you have nothing else besides Infernape (who goes down to Life Orb, Sandstorm, entry hazards, and other residual damage pretty fast on well built teams)that is going to provide mixed coverage. Scarf Rotom might not be a bad choice, as now you have a full blown check to Lucario, Gyarados, and numerous other threats, and with Trick, you can effectively halt Stall pretty well too. This also lets you keep Roar on Vaporeon so you have an answer to Crocune.

On Scizor, if you decide to change your item, use Bug Bite over U-Turn, as Bug Bite is a whopping 135 BP move on Scizor, easily wrecking your usual switch-ins, even doing quite a bit to the ones that resist (like Rotom formes). Over Pursuit can go Quick Attack or Night Slash if you keep the CB set. Pursuit, though, is very useful to take Starmie and Latias, etc. out of the game. Though, Latias and Starmie's powerful STAB attacks and secondary attacks can seriously mess up your team, and both wall Infernape, so Scizor's Pursuit is more useful than you suggest.

Can't think of much else.

 

[kokoloko]

Full emphasis toward using ThunderPunch on Flygon.

I don't understand why none of your team mates has any way of setting up, with the exception of Smeargle. Vaporeon is your only answer to stall, and you have nothing else besides Infernape (who goes down to Life Orb, Sandstorm, entry hazards, and other residual damage pretty fast on well built teams)that is going to provide mixed coverage. Scarf Rotom might not be a bad choice, as now you have a full blown check to Lucario, Gyarados, and numerous other threats, and with Trick, you can effectively halt Stall pretty well too. This also lets you keep Roar on Vaporeon so you have an answer to Crocune.

On Scizor, if you decide to change your item, use Bug Bite over U-Turn, as Bug Bite is a whopping 135 BP move on Scizor, easily wrecking your usual switch-ins, even doing quite a bit to the ones that resist (like Rotom formes). Over Pursuit can go Quick Attack or Night Slash if you keep the CB set. Pursuit, though, is very useful to take Starmie and Latias, etc. out of the game. Though, Latias and Starmie's powerful STAB attacks and secondary attacks can seriously mess up your team, and both wall Infernape, so Scizor's Pursuit is more useful than you suggest.

Can't think of much else.

Thanks again DarkCyberElf. I have been testing out Scarf Rotom-H today and it actually has improved my win/loss ratio. Not only that, but because of it I don't have to switch Stone Edge out for Thunderpunch on Flygon anymore. Instead, I think I'll try out Fire Blast to try to catch those common Steel-type switch-ins. This could also prove useful vs. Stall. Any by setting up, do you mean stat-uppers? What do you suggest I do aboiut that?

About Scizor, even if I decide to change the item, I want to retain the ability to scout my opponent's team with U-turn. Even if the damage dealt is far less. And about Pursuit, the reason I tend to avoid using it is because it gave Lucario a free set-up, which could pretty much kill me if it was Jolly with Crunch (taking out my Rotom). However, if I decide to keep Scarf on Rotom then I'll be free to use Pursuit more freely so it might be worth keeping.

Oh and btw, I'll be testing the Forretress and Skarmory leads you suggested before, tomorrow after I come back from traffic court for a speeding ticket =/ lol

 

[-FUCK-]

I never got the point in scarfing something that is pursuit weak to be your check to DDgyrados and SD lukes. Once the cats out of the bag, your basicaly inviting Scizors and Tyranitars with a big warm hug to come in and remove him. It should also be noted that any good team that centers around DDgyra WILL have a way of luring and taking out his number one counter, and scarf-rotom has no chance against their methods with Tyranitar and Scizor, so I recomend sticking with your old rotom set and replace Toxic with Subsitute.


By subbing on the switch you'll have a nice barrior that protects you from pursuit, so if ttar comes in you can switch out to scizor without taking the pursuit. If they don't have a ttar then it still protects you from WoWing an incoming heatran, or a Latias who thought they were coming in on a resisted thunderbolt, thinking they could take you out with Draco Meteor. This works even better because you have great wish support thanks to vaporeon, so you can replenish the health you lost from subbing later.

 

[Yoshi500x8]

Smeargle @ Focus Sash

• Ability: Own Tempo
• Nature: Jolly
• EV's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
• Moveset:
  • Spore - One of Smeargle's main selling points, the ability to put an opposing Pokemon to sleep 100% of the time is way too good to pass up.
  • Stealth Rock - A necessity, not only for this team either.
  • Spikes - A secondary form of entry hazard which allows me to rack up indirect damage through my core Pokemon's U-turns in order to allow an easy MixApe sweep.
  • ExtremeSpeed - The wild-card of this set. ExtremeSpeed is used when I predict a faster lead holding a Focus Sash is going to Taunt in order to break said Focus Sash.

Why Smeargle?

Smeargle is the only Pokemon that allows me to lay down both my entry hazards really in the game. Although he doesn't perform admirably against every single lead, he does okay most of the time. Laying down Stealth Rock and a single layer of Spikes is enough to make me happy. Occasionally he'll also put an opposing Pokemon to sleep and this makes me really happy. A Jolly Nature with 252 EV's are a given to outspeed as much as possible. 252 EV's in Attack are simply to allow ExtremeSpeed to do as much damage as possible to Focus Sashed leads. Now my choice of ExtremeSpeed over the generally preferred Taunt is simple, Spore puts the enemy to sleep, why would I taunt a sleeping Pokemon? Not only that, but Taunt leaves Smeargle at the complete mercy of Aerodactyl, Azelf and Roserade.

Smeargles are very predictable leads which to me drastically ruins their potential. Spore first turn, set up entry hazards or attack to prevent it from being taunted first turn. Jirachi leads will be a problem with this set because of the flinch hax. 60% chance to 2HKO you and if its packing a lum berry, its certain that it will 2HKO you. Besides, if you want to set up entry hazards, Foretress would be a better way to go because it has access to all 3 entry hazards and nice defense and type combo. Only 3 things that will keep it in check at the start of matches is Infernape, Dragonite(rare though), and Magnezone switch ins. As a result giving it a shed shell will help stay away from magnezone allowing you to switch in to a counter which you have. Also if someone is packing toxic spikes foretress will help counter that with rapid spin, or if you don't fear toxic spikes then you can put gyro ball on him. I highly suggest using gyro ball because at lowest speed, anything above 310 speed (which is most sweeps and leads) will eat a 225 power steel move. Guarenteed 2HKO on Azelf, Weavile, Areodactyl, Ninjask, Tyranitar & Dragonite(assuming no def evs invested on last two). In a netshell I would personally change the lead to Foretress because it has your enrty hazards that you want, can spin away entry hazards to allow U-turn to be used without requiring a lot of wish support from vaporeon, and can hit a few of taunting leads hard which is nice because of the poularity of taunt now.

Scizor @ Choice Band

• Ability: Technician
• Nature: Adamant
• EV's: 248 HP / 100 Atk / 160 SpD
• Moveset:
  • U-turn - Scizor's best move, it severely dents anything that switches in, doing at least 15% on top of whatever they take from entry hazards. Truly this Pokemon's main selling point.
  • Bullet Punch - Allows me to negate the higher speed of certain threats and hit them before they can move. Used a lot against Gengar and weakened Salamence.
  • Superpower - Used to take out stuff that resists the first two moves, I only use it after I have scouted with U-turn a bit.
  • Pursuit - Blah, not so great, I'm not a fan of allowing other Scizor, Lucario and Tyranitar a free switch-in, but I guess it has its uses in taking out opposing Latias and Starmie for good.

Why Scizor?

Scizor is half of my team's core. His main purpose is to weaken my opponent's team through U-turn and to create switches in order to rack up entry hazard damage. The odd EV spread is to balance his defenses, which allows him a little more breathing room when switching into random Dragon attacks. This is very important since he is my one and only Dragon resist. Bullet Punch allows Scizor to serve as a secondary revenge killer in case Flygon can't do the job for whatever reason. Superpower is a move I seldom use. However it is useful for killing Blissey, and predicting Steel-types switching in to take Bullet Punch, such as Magnezone who happens to be the biggest prick in the world. Now, Pursuit I use even less than Superpower. At one point I actually got rid of it in favor of Roost and switched the item to Leftovers. The lack of power that Choice Band gives me was too disappointing though.


Considered Changes:

• Changing Choice Band to Leftovers (for added survivability) or Iron Plate (for surprise KO's) and Pursuit to Roost. Extensive testing needed.

Heres a nice sugestion that you can use for fooling you opponents, give this guy an expert belt(muscle band if you want power when ever you attack) so that you still have some power when comes to hits (obviously you are going to try for super effective hits). Added bonus is that if you are willing and are able to fool your opponent into thinking that you are equipped with a choice band so that they switch into a counter for the move they are locked in, and then you can unlease the move that you have avaliable to counter it. Assuming that you can outspeed magnezone you can superpower it to KO it. Also, Latias might come in on superpower to set up a couple of calm minds and then you use pursuit to go in for the kill. Keep in mind though that this will only work once unless opponent doesn't read the text. Sacrificing choice band on something that is expected to be banded will help you get some KOs on some pokes that think they can come in on Scizor to set up.

Flygon @ Choice Scarf

• Ability: Levitate
• Nature: Jolly
• EV's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
• Moveset:
  • U-turn - The most beautiful move in the game, it allows me to gain the upper-hand by denting the incoming Pokemon with the damage from entry hazards and U-turn. It will also allow me to send in someone who can better deal with the threat. I love this move oh so much.
  • Earthquake - Flygon's main offensive move, it allows me to revenge kill weakened Metagross, Heatran, Jirachi and a couple other steel-types.
  • Outrage - Outrage is pretty much a secondary form of sweeping. Once Steel-types have been taken out or sufficiently weakened, Outrage can be used with little fear. God I wish it didn't trap Flygon.
  • Stone Edge - The worse move in this set. I hate the stupid 80% accuracy, but sometimes I just have to risk it in order to revenge Gyarados. Otherwise, it can seriously damage my team if Rotom-H and Vaporeon are too weak.

Why Flygon?

Flygon, how I love you so. Choice Scarf Flygon is one of the best Pokemon in the metagame right now, despite what some people think. The guy is virtually immune to entry hazards, doesn't give a shit about Toxic, can switch in for free on Electric and Ground attacks... the list goes on and on. Seriously, what's not to love about this guy? I mean, yeah the lack of power sucks sometimes, but I deal with it. Besides, weakening stuff is this teams specialty so Flygon does just fine. Seriously though, Flygon's primary job is that of a revenge killer, his secondary job is to scout. Kind of like Scizor, but the opposite. Clear enough? okay lets move on. lol.


Considered Changes:

• Changing Stone Edge to ThunderPunch for extra insurange against Gyarados, as suggested by iliketurkeybacon.

Was never one for Flygon because the Dragon Ground combo adds more issues to it than resistances for me. However, if you like it go ahead. I would agree on changing stone edge to thunder punch because it would give you some KOs on bulky waters packing Ice beam.

Rotom-H @ Leftovers

• Ability: Levitate
• Nature: Timid
• EV's: 252 HP / 68 SpA / 188 Spe
• Moveset:
  • Thunderbolt - Usually the move I spam, since his two most common switch-ins, Tyranitar and Heatran, are only neutral to the move, as opposed to resistant.
  • Shadow Ball - Used mainly to take out slower Rotom-A and to hit Latias hard on the switch.
  • Overheat - My answer to non-Calm Mind Jirachi and Scizor. Also used to finish off Metagross and Skarmory.
  • Toxic - Honestly, I barely use this move. I had Trick here with a Choice Scarf, but I dislike being locked into a move. I also had Will-o-Wisp here, but the accuracy sucked way too much. I'm thinking I'll change this to Thunder Wave. Thoughts?

Why Rotom-H?

Rotom-H, my nice little Rapid Spin blocker. Remember how I said finding his moveset was the hardest part of making this team well yeah, I decided to just make my own. 252 HP EV's for maximum durability and balanced defenses. 188 Speed EV's with a Timid nature nets me 280 speed, enough to outspeed and KO Adamant Lucario with Overheat. Jolly ones usually carry Stone Edge or Ice Punch so they shouldn't be a problem either. However, the few who are Jolly AND carry Crunch are a real pain in the ass, I have to try a revenge kill with Flygon, if that doesn't work, I lose. Rotom-H also serves as my primary check to Metagross, Gyarados and Scizor as well as spreading status around.

Rotom appliances are ok for walls (prefer dusknoir though) but you need to have Will-o-Wisp on it to protect yourself from Tyranitar if it switches in and tries to pursuit you. I think a Rotom-C would help you a bit because it could lure out Heatrans so that you can wall with Vaporeon or you can hit Tyranitar if you predict him switching in correctly. Also any electric types that the opponent might have could possibly be countered by your Flygon. Only thing that you might worry about is Zapdos. Fortunatly you can use U-Turn spam to switch out your U-Turners and hopefully get a good counter on there. Suggest Infernape and Flygon alternation.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers

• Ability: Water Absorb
• Nature: Bold
• EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
• Moveset:
  • Wish - This is how I keep my team healthy. U-turn is fun, but eventually the entry hazard damage builds up on my Pokemon as well, so I need a way to keep them healthy and this is it.
  • Protect - Protect allows for general scouting of Choiced Pokemon and to keep Vaporeon himself healthy after a Wish.
  • Roar - I despise myself for never using this move before. Seriously, none of the teams I used before ever used phazing, I know, thats crazy right? Roar allows me to take care of Gyarados, scout my opponents team some more and build up entry hazard damage on it. What's not to love?
  • Surf - Obligatory STAB, not much else to say here. lol.

Why Vaporeon?

Vaporeon serves two purposes here: 1) Keeps my team healthy through Wish and 2) Phazes stuff to rack up entry hazard damage and get rid of stat uppers. You may have noticed that the EV spread is different from the standard, this is because I wanted to maximize Vaporeo's bulk. Besides, the 68 Speed EV's the standard set runs is to outspeed Skarmory and Metagross, which Rotom-H takes care of nicely, so there's no need for them. At one point I tried Toxic over Roar, but the phazing aspect of Vaporeon proved to be invaluable to this team. Vaporeon also acts as a secondary way of dealing with the ever-annoying Jirachi. Taking little damage from Iron Head and Wishing up or just phazing him away.

No complaints with this guy although, I would change Roar to HP or Ice Beam because Taunters can easily cripple this set after one Roar as turkey said and its nice to have another move so that you are not restricing yourself to only a specific type. Other Vaporeon that carry toxic will ruin this set assuming that you only have surf. Having HP Electric/Grass will solve this problem or if you encounter more dragons in your battles, then go Ice Beam. HP grass might serve you better because Rotom can possibly serve as a gyarados counter and HP grass can hit Swampert/Quagsire that might take a risk in assuming that you have HP electric and make them run in fear if it doesn't KO.

Infernape @ Life Orb

• Ability: Blaze
• Nature: Naive
• EV's: 64 Atk / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
• Moveset:
  • Fire Blast - Part one of the dual 120 Base Power STAB combination that Infernape Enjoys. Allows me to fry Physical walls and shit that resists Close Combat.
  • Close Combat - Part two of the dual 120 Base Power STAB combination. Allows me to decimate Blissey and other shit that takes Special moves.
  • Grass Knot - My answer to Swampert and other bulky waters. I can also occasionally catch Starmie on its second switch in and hit it hard.
  • U-turn - As much as I love U-turn I gotta say I only use Infernapes' once or twice a match. He pops his head in a single time before the end game to scout the initial switch-in and hit it with a U-turn. This is good because many of his counters are weak to the move and take upwards of 35% from it.

Why Infernape?

Here we have Infernape, my sweeper of choice. His fourth moveslot has been a matter of great debate for me. At first I has Nasty Plot to try to sweep earlier and I got walled by Salamence and Dragonite. Then, I switched to Hidden Power [Ice] and got killed by Vaporeon, Latias and Starmie. Finally, I settled on U-turn and never looked back. U-turn allows Infernape to come in early, scout his first switch-in, and bounce right back. In the case of Mence and Dragonite, I go to either Flygon or Scizor to kill it off. Against Vaporeon I go straight to Rotom-H and Toxic or T-bolt it it. If its Starmie, I go to Flygon and U-turn, which usually kills offensive versions and allows me to bring in Rotom-H against support versions. And finally, we have Tentacruel, whom I send in Flygon against and EQ it to death. All while Infernape is safe from any further damage. Later in the game, when his counters are weak enough Infernape is free to come in again, but this time he should be sweeping the rest of the team.

Since you plan on switching this out a lot to avoid its counters I would keep U-Turn on there. If you want to still add HP Ice for dragons, get rid of grass knot if you choose HP Grass over Roar on Vaporeon.

Not that bad of a team, I would Highly sugest changing the lead though because smeargles don't have much going for them because of their predictability. Lucario both special and physical is a problem with this team because the only possible counter would be Scizor and Infernape(assuming EQ isn't on the set) so try to keep Scizor alive to prevent that. I have read some of the other posts and saw that others believe that stall teams would be a problem which they might because you can't prevent the roars/whirlwinders. However, with Foretress spinning away entry stuff, they might not bother roaring at all.