Gen 3 Leeching Psyche: Pursuit Tyranitar Balance

[Lukee]

Introduction: Hello everyone, This is my first rmt and I am writing because I recently broke 1500 for the first time using a self built team! (second time breaking 1500, first time was with tss). I have found this team to be quite fun to use and pretty good on ladder in my experience so I would like to share it with all of you. Team Building process:

The original idea for this team was a sp def breloom with toxic, as, in my experience, I have only seen offensive variations of breloom on ladder. The next addition to the team was pursuit tyranitar to trap gengar and moltres for breloom, as well as provide team support for later members.

The next two members added were Rachi and Skarm. Having used and enjoyed using this archetype with pursuit tyranitar+wish rachi+skarm in the past, I thought the sp def toxic leech breloom would add to the passive damage that this skarmrachi core already spreads so consistently.

Gardevoir was the next member on the team. I was debating adding a p2 onto the team for dug/magneton because the team so far was going to have trouble with mag offense/dug/jolt spikes teams, but p2 was a little too passive and I needed a pokemon that put out damage output to make up for the passiveness of skarmrachi and breloom. Gardevoir fit this role perfectly as it has damage output, checks the mons I needed it to, and resists fighting.

Starmie was the final member of the team. I put on starmie because I needed speed control, a secondary fire check, and spin.

Breloom @ Leftovers
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Atk / 236 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Spore
- Leech Seed
- Toxic
- Sky Uppercut
So Breloom is the lead of this team. This breloom set has heavy sp def to be a strong zapdos and secondary special wall check. Leech seed provides recovery for breloom and its teammates and adds to the passive damage that this team is very strong at spreading while toxic cripples most of brelooms checks/counters like zapdos and further adds to the passive damage.
Defensive calcs:
252+ SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 236 SpD Breloom: 90-107 (27.7 - 33%) -- 85.7% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 236 SpD Breloom: 90-107 (27.7 - 33%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after sandstorm damage and Leftovers recovery

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 188 HP / 240 SpA / 80 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Crunch
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Pursuit tyranitar is my favorite pokemon to use in adv. The amount of mons it supports and the number of teams it can fit on is incredible. On this team it is crucial for checking moltres and pursuiting gengar. Ttar’s hp grass is also one of the ways this team deals with swampert if need be. It is also worth noting the damage pursuit racks up when paired with toxic/leech seed/wisp on opposing pokemon.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 140 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Fire Punch
- Toxic
Wish rachi is a very fun pokemon to use. The combination of fire punch+toxic+protect adds more passive damage that this team can spread, but on different targets then the other pokemon, such as swampert. Wish rachi is crucial in matchups vs opposing bulkier teams as well, as wish is very helpful for breloom and starmie when it needs to spin more than once.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Toxic
- Protect
Standard prot-tox skarm. Skarmory is on this team because of its access to spikes, its tremendous physical walling ability, and its ground immunity. Skarmory's synergy with wish rachi makes a very strong walling duo that can win games by themself because of their ability to stay healthy to the endgame while the opponent’s team gets worn down.

Gardevoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 196 SpA / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Punch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Fire Punch
- Psychic
Now Gardevoir is probably the most unique member of this team as it would seem to be a strange fit. However Gardevoir is potentially the most important member on the team in otherwise troublesome matchups. Gardevoir’s ability to reverse trap dugtrio and magneton, both of which would otherwise hinder this team greatly as well as being a secondary check to flygon, and being a strong switch into jolteon. Gardevoir is also on the team because of its access to will-o-wisp, which burns its common switch-ins such as metagross and tyranitar, further adding on to the passive damage. The special attack evs ohko bulky dugtrio with one layer of spikes.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
Starmie was the last member added to the team, because I needed a spinner and speed control, with starmie being the only mon in the game that provides both of these at once. Without starmie’s spinning support, this team does not work, and it is a strong wincon in the late game after the opponent has been worn down by the passive damage this team spreads.

Challenges
Medicham:this team’s fighting resists aren't very bulky and medicham can exploit the slow nature of this team incredibly well. A well played medicham can be a huge problem for this team.
Zapdos: Zapdos locks rachi into wish protect spam which can be exploited if zapdos has not been toxic’ed and breloom is in bad shape.
Refresh dol+magneton teams can prove to be an issue but with good play is a doable matchup.

I peaked at 1506 but didn't take a screenshot.

Shoutouts-
A lot of people have helped me get this far but I would like to shout out a few in particular
SH0YU: SH0YU has been my mentor and my practice partner since the very start, without him I would not be anywhere near where I am now.
Everything Is Something (SEA): SEA has helped me with evs upon many occasions and is a very enjoyable person to discuss the game with and play versus.
vapicuno: Without Vapicuno’s guide to team building, I would probably be stuck in the 1300s still, Vapicuno is also a blast to play versus on ladder or in friendlies
nchmax: grammar checked this rmt and gave helpful suggestions
Mushi Musha’s Advanced league discord server: This server has entertained my stupid ideas and helped me build teams from the very start. I joined this server after Mushi dmed me on pokemon showdown inviting me while I was using an all bl team on ladder and I have grown so much as a player since then, so thanks to all of you.

Thank you for reading.

 

[thelinearcurve]

Hi Lukee, nice writeup; I really like your very synergies.

One thing you seem to have totally overlooked is CM Jirachi, which easily rips through your team.
Do consider making some sort of adjustment to account for this fairly common threat. things you might want to toy with: (1) stun spore on loom? potentially cripple a greedy switch (2) EQ or roar Tar? These aren't total solutions ...

SubCM Celebi, and CMPass Cele are also terrifying.

I'm really not sure, there are no obvious fixes without making huge changes to the flavour of your team.

Good luck, looking forward to future versions of this idea

 

[Lukee]

I have found that fire grass superachi in particular is a problem for the team, so I think I'm going to try roar over crunch on tyranitar to handle that as well as provide a way for pursuit tyranitar to keep momentum vs Blissey. Celebi usually has a hard time finding entry without being statused/hit super effectively so I haven't found it to be too big of a problem for the team but roar tyranitar helps vs cm bi in scenarios where it could be a problem as well. Thank you for the advice.

 

[100 Hoes Kaido]

Hey, nice team, just some quick notes.
Your idea on Gardevoir is interesting, but I feel you could have a better shot by running Porygon-2 over it, Gardevoir is very frail, so much so, that you need to have spikes out of the field with Starmie, otherwise you're in danger of Dugtrio outspeeding and ohkoing your Gardevoir before you can kill it, Pory2 has access to moves like Ice Beam and HP Fire, which offer the same niches your moveset on Garde has, except for Wow, you can run Thunder Wave on Porygon2, to nerf stuff like TTar and Metagross as you mentioned Wow does, but you already have three toxic users, two of which can't do anything outside of Toxic against Tyra, so the chances of Tyra getting poisoned, instead of burned are much higher, as such, I'm not entirely sold, Thunder Wave also helps you against cmrest+roar Suicune, since your phazers are slower than it, Zapdos also tends to prefer Thunder Wave over Toxic, so you can also use it as a "pivot" for it.

And yeah, cmpass Celebi and CMCune are still a problem, especially since your team spams status moves and guys like Skarmory and Jirachi are basically jobbers for them to setup on, and jeez, I don't want to destroy the base of your team, so I'll just propose an emergency button in case you may find these situations during a match (Roar on TTar is also good), consider running Psych Up Starmie over Ice Beam, a +0 tbolt will always 3hko a +0 Suicune, so after you psych up, the opponent is forced to Roar you away, the optimal situation would be to paralyze Suicune with Porygon2, sending it to sleep using your Breloom as a temporary counter, and then away for the duration of the match, and late game, when 'cune is the last 'mon standing, while trying to preserve health on Starmie during early and midgame thanks to Wishrachi, you use it either again, or for the first time, so that you finally put an end to it, not taking any responsibilities in case it crits you, though, you may even opt to drop Suicune's HP at the 38% range and sac something, so that you can psych up, as the Suicune uses Surf on you, and then watch, as the opponent is scared to face a +6 Starmie, regarding Celebi, try not to spam the move early on, at least before it decides who gets the boost, most of the cmpass sets are leech, cm bp psychic, so you have several ways to make Celebi's job difficult. Finally give some Speed on Jirachi you mentioned Medicham being a problem and well, I guess? If you really think it's important to have some more choices against it, you can opt to run more speed to outspeed Adamant Medicham, so that you can Toxic it before it hits you, beware though, your ev spread is 2hkoed by cb brick break even with Protect and no spikes on the field.

sets

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 248 HP / 24 Def / 140 SpD / 96 Spe
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Punch
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf/Hydro Pump
- Psych Up
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt

Porygon2 @ Leftovers
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Recover
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]


Take care.

 

[Lukee]

Hey, nice team, just some quick notes.
Your idea on Gardevoir is interesting, but I feel you could have a better shot by running Porygon-2 over it, Gardevoir is very frail, so much so, that you need to have spikes out of the field with Starmie, otherwise you're in danger of Dugtrio outspeeding and ohkoing your Gardevoir before you can kill it, Pory2 has access to moves like Ice Beam and HP Fire, which offer the same niches your moveset on Garde has, except for Wow, you can run Thunder Wave on Porygon2, to nerf stuff like TTar and Metagross as you mentioned Wow does, but you already have three toxic users, two of which can't do anything outside of Toxic against Tyra, so the chances of Tyra getting poisoned, instead of burned are much higher, as such, I'm not entirely sold, Thunder Wave also helps you against cmrest+roar Suicune, since your phazers are slower than it, Zapdos also tends to prefer Thunder Wave over Toxic, so you can also use it as a "pivot" for it.

And yeah, cmpass Celebi and CMCune are still a problem, especially since your team spams status moves and guys like Skarmory and Jirachi are basically jobbers for them to setup on, and jeez, I don't want to destroy the base of your team, so I'll just propose an emergency button in case you may find these situations during a match (Roar on TTar is also good), consider running Psych Up Starmie over Ice Beam, a +0 tbolt will always 3hko a +0 Suicune, so after you psych up, the opponent is forced to Roar you away, the optimal situation would be to paralyze Suicune with Porygon2, sending it to sleep using your Breloom as a temporary counter, and then away for the duration of the match, and late game, when 'cune is the last 'mon standing, while trying to preserve health on Starmie during early and midgame thanks to Wishrachi, you use it either again, or for the first time, so that you finally put an end to it, not taking any responsibilities in case it crits you, though, you may even opt to drop Suicune's HP at the 38% range and sac something, so that you can psych up, as the Suicune uses Surf on you, and then watch, as the opponent is scared to face a +6 Starmie, regarding Celebi, try not to spam the move early on, at least before it decides who gets the boost, most of the cmpass sets are leech, cm bp psychic, so you have several ways to make Celebi's job difficult. Finally give some Speed on Jirachi you mentioned Medicham being a problem and well, I guess? If you really think it's important to have some more choices against it, you can opt to run more speed to outspeed Adamant Medicham, so that you can Toxic it before it hits you, beware though, your ev spread is 2hkoed by cb brick break even with Protect and no spikes on the field.

sets

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 248 HP / 24 Def / 140 SpD / 96 Spe
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Punch
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf/Hydro Pump
- Psych Up
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt

Porygon2 @ Leftovers
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Recover
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]


Take care.

while the idea of more speed on rachi is nice, I need defense to take eqs from a variety of mons but I do think it would be worth a shot.
Running psych up on starmie without ice beam would make the team lose to mix mence hard when the team already beats suicune as toxic's force rests and breloom is a strong crocune check as well.
Porygon 2 over gardevoir wouldn't help here as gardevoir provides a crucial fighting resist and will o wisp, which provides passive damage instead of preventing it like porygon 2 thunder wave. Gardevoir also gives the team much needed offensive prescence. Gardevoirs ability to hard wall claydol bar boom is also crucial for dealing with it on this team.
252 Atk Choice Band Dugtrio Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Gardevoir: 234-276 (68.8 - 81.1%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after 3 layers of Spikes
Gardevoir takes a dugtrio eq 50 percent of the time in the worst case scenario, and often it is revenge killing after dugtrio kills breloom or in scenarios where spikes aren't up. This team isn't totally reliant on reverse trapping dugtrio which is another reason why I opted for gardevoir over dugtrio. Thank you for the advice.