Legendary North Wind, OU RMT
Hi Smogon, after playing and mastering each style, I loved the fast tempo of offense, but I also liked the reliability and sense of security of stall. How am I able to keep both feelings in one team?
This team answers the question.
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This team uses Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock; it has bulky Pokémon that can abuse both of the hazards perfectly and has very hard hitters as well. The clearest example of this is my favorite Pokémon, Suicune, which is the center of the team.
I use one choice item in the form of Choice Scarf, meaning I don´t rely too much on prediction, making winning battles easier.
*On a side note, please read the whole descriptions before posting, thank you. ^_^
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Here we go!
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Blecko (Roserade) (F) @ Focus Sash /
Natural Cure, Timid
4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
- Sleep Powder
- Toxic Spikes
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power
Why I am using Roserade as my lead?
Rosey can cripple various Pokémon early in the game and has the ability tosuse Toxic Spikes. Obviously she has dropped in effectiveness due to the increase of Lum Berry leads, but she is a great lead nonetheless. Toxic Spikes is the core of my team, since every member can abuse them at least in one way, also, it helps to wear down walls and since my team shares counters, allows a late game sweep. Sleep Powder is a very nice move, crippling slower leads such as Swampert, Smeargle, Heatran, and Metagross (although some run Lum). It also makes getting Toxic Spikes set up easier. Leaf Storm is my overpowered Stab move that OHKOs Suicune after a Calm Mind, activates Azelf´s Focus Sash, and fits nicely for her typing and Speed.
“Ok, ok, but why Hidden Power Fire?” you may ask, well, since Heatran is set up bait for most of my team, Ground isn´t needed, and Scizor can stop Salamence´s sweep, but most importantly, I can beat opposing Roserade leads. Supporting the team is Blecko´s priority, so that answers the question.
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DoomDesire (Jirachi) @ Choice Scarf /
Serene Grace, Jolly
40 HP / 216 Atk / 252 Spe
- Iron Head
- Trick
- ThunderPunch
- Fire Punch
Jirachi is a very important member of my team, since he is my sole revenge killer. If someone asks me the following: “What does Jirachi do for your team”, my answer would be, “He can stop DD Salamence, DD Gyarados, Calm Mind Latias, badly poisoned Crocune, DD Tyranitar, SD Scizor Agility Empoleon from sweeping and checks others pokes as well. The Choice Scarf is present to outspeed all the mentioned pokes and a lot more. I need max Speed to at least tie with Flygon, Jolly Salamence and Modest Gengar (when scarfed). I have enough Attack to OHKO Scizor, Mence, Gyara, and Empoleon at 25%, and to 2HKO Latias with Ice Punch. The rest went to HP to take Bullet Punch and Extreme Speed better.
I am considering switching Ice Punch for Trick, to beat stall easier, maybe you can help me with this.
Overall Jirachi is a great Pokémon and is very important to me, he earned his spot as a revenge killer over Latias due to his typing. I don´t want to depend on something Pursuit weak something of the magnitude of being swept by a powerful Dragon Dancer.
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Swampert (M) @ Leftovers /
Torrent, Relaxed
236 HP / 248 Def / 22 SpAtk / 4 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Roar
He is my Salamence and Tyranitar counter, but my priority is to set up Stealth Rock. I love the fact that he can have perfect coverage with the combination of Ice-Ground. With Stealth Rock, Mixmence won´t have a field day launching Draco Meteors, and I counter DD versions so he is my Salamence counter. Since most of my Pokémon cause switches, Stealth Rock in invaluable for my team. Earthquake is my Stab move that frustrates Tyranitar´s attempt to sweep. In tandem with Ice Beam, I am only walled by Bronzong. Roar is a nice move for scouting if I already laid SR, for example, on a Scizor locked in Bullet Punch.
The evs in HP gives him the Leftovers number of 25, max Defense is for Salamence and Tyranitar and helps to some extent vs. Scizor and Lucario. The special attack evs gives me an OHKO on Salamence and Flygon as long as they switch into Stealth Rock. The Speed evs let me win the Roar vs. other Swampert and to finish them off when sufficiently weakened. Swampert is a very nice addition to my team, he is changeable though.
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Falzar (Salamence) @ Leftovers /
Intimidate, Adamant
212 HP / 176 Spe / 80 Atk / 40 SpDef
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Roost
Salamence is my main Lucario switch-in. With that natural bulk, attack, speed and reliable recovery, he makes a very effective tank. The evs may seem complicated but, yes they are complicated, 236 HP evs gives me a Leftovers number, 25 in this case. The attack evs gives me a KO on Heatran with earthquake and Lucario too, I OHKO defensive Latias after a boost as well. The speed evs lets me outspeed Adamant Lucario and Timid Heatran, and anything unscarfed in OU after a Dragon Dance. The Special Defense evs makes me able to survive a Dragon Pulse from Timid Leftovers Latias with as long as Roserade prevented the use of Stealth Rock. Dragon Dance boosts my not so heavily invested Attack stat, same with my Speed. It helps me to outstall Scarf Rotom-A or Magnezone locked in Thunderbolt too. Earthquake gives me pretty nice coverage on everything but Bronzong and Skarmory, but I lose to Bronzong anyway and Skarmory can be out stalled if I am the last Pokémon. Roost is a very important factor in Salamence´s sweep. Roost pairs nice with Dragon Dance and Toxic Spikes, I can recover the damage I receive while dancing while they get more damaged, so I can get set up and damage them while keeping my health very high.
Salamence is my physical tank and sweeper, with this spread he makes a very good switch-in to Scarf Heatran. My second favorite Pokémon of the team, go mence!!
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Rotom-C @ Leftovers /
Levitate, Timid
64 HP / 216 Spe / 230 SpAtk
- Charge Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
Appart from Spin Blocking, he leaves the game wide open for Suicune to finish it. I chose the lawn mower appliance because I want to cause as much switches as possible. He is a very good switch-in to Swampert and defensive Celebi when I know he isnt going to use T.wave, since Grass Knot doesn´t breaks my sub. Charge Beam is a good move, I only use it vs. Pokemon that can´t break my sub, since it is very weak even with Stab. Thunderbolt was chosen over any Hidden Power because I really need the KO on Gyarados, and it hits Lucario, Heatran and Salamence harder than Hidden Power Fighting or Shadow Ball respectively. Nothing in OU resists both Ghost and Electric other than Magnezone,(but he isnt common). With it I can try to beat Latias, Celebi and Donphan. Finally, Substitute protects me from status and eases prediction, If I get a sub in a status move or a move that doesnt breaks my it, I get an extra move. The evs makes my subs bulky enough so that blissey dont break them. I took one point from Special Attack because I want to outspeed opposing Rotom-A with the common spread for Sub Charge Beam Rotom.
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North Wind (Suicune) @ Leftovers /
Pressure, Timid
252 HP / 216 Spe / 40 SpAtk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Surf
- Ice Beam
Definitely, Suicune is the best Pokémon in my team. Calm Mind is the most important move of the set, because it allows me to slowly beat Blissey and make my Subs harder to break. Substitute is there to outlast every Blissey, protect me from status, blocks Trick and eases prediction. Surf is my STAB move of choice, because Hydro Pump doesn´t fits in this spread, which is more stalling oriented. Ice Beam gives me something to hit Vaporeon, which is stalled in the long run, (unless he has Roar). It allows me to check Mixmence, and prevents Breloom, Celebi, Zapdos, Latias and Dragonite from walling me. The 252 HP evs gives me 404 Subs, that is very helpful vs. Seismic Toss Blissey and Night Shade Dusknoir, and maximizes durability overall, the 40 SpA evs always OHKOs Salamence with Sr and 3HKOs Gyarados after Sr, after two Calm Mind boosts it OHKOs both Scizor and Lucario on average (93.24% - 109.96% vs. Lucario and 69.10% - 81.34% vs. Scizor). Not even the great special tank of Tyranitar can stop this, being 2HKOed by a boosted Surf.
In conclusion this is most threatening sweeper in my team, ignore Suicune as a threat at your own peril.
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Conclusion:
This team effectiveness´ relies heavily on Toxic Spikes, so if Roserade don’t get set up, winning the game will become a lot harder. Other big problems are teams with a lot of scarves, like Salamence and Magnezone. Even with 3 set up sweepers, this team is bulky but keeps the offensive touch I love, I am posting this team because I know you can improve it, RMT!!!
Team Building:
Before starting this section, I want to give thanks to Gabo (CAL-Ciaran here) and El Blecko, alas Roserade. We worked in different versions for the team, but then I took a bit of each and added a bit of my offensive touch and this is the result, again, thanks!
For my team, I wanted Toxic Spikes and bulky Pokémon able to abuse them. There were very few good options.
Tentacruel
Roserade
Forretress
Nidoking
Nidoqueen
Drapion
Out of those, the only pokes that were able to cripple opposing Pokes with a move other than Toxic Spikes were Tentacruel, Roserade, Drapion and Forretress. Tentacruel through Knock Off and Rapid Spin, Roserade through Sleep Powder, Drapion with Knock Off, Taunt and Whirlwind and Forretress with every form of hazard and Rapid Spin. I wanted to keep pressure right from the beginning, and Roserade´s ability to prevent Stealth Rock from some leads by sleeping them won.
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Originally, my Pokémon to abuse T-Spikes was going to be Jirachi with Calm Mind and Substitute, but there was one thing, he lacked the surprise factor. Keeping this mind, I thought of Raikou, Suicune and Rotom-A. Each one of them has hard to break Substitutes and some form of set up. In the early stages of the team I tried every combo. When I paired Raikou with Suicune that means an immediate lost vs. Toxic Spikes coupled with Sandstorm. I needed at least one immunity to Toxic Spikes, so Rotom was added.
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After play testing both, I noticed that Raikou is much easier to wall than Suicune, and that Suicune actually checks some offensive threats like Salamence and Breloom. He added even more surprise factor (Subcune) for my team, also, he can check Lucario and Scizor much better and they are very common. Apart from that, he is my favorite Pokémon and I thought it would be cool to build a team for him near the release of Heart Gold / Soul Silver. His effectiveness has earned his spot in this team, he is my MVP.
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Next, I needed a revenge killer, preferably a scarfer. This brings back the argument of whether Latias or Jirachi, it ended up being Pursuit weak vs. Magnezone bait. Of course, Magnezone is by far less common than Pursuit, which influenced a lot my decision. At this point, bulky Swords Dancer Scizor with Roost was able to set up and eventually beat my main core, that was an extra motivation for running Jirachi over Latias, and that added my only Dragon resist as well.
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Since I already had enough special attackers, I wanted physical offense. While I was searching for bulky physical attackers, the pokes that caught my attention were Machamp, Gyarados, Salamence, and Tyranitar.
They forms of recovery are Rest and Roost respectively, I don´t want the slow tempo of the “Restalk Combo” and Roost will help me stall some weak SE moves. This added another check to Lucario and Heracross. After Breloom puts Swampert to sleep, he is set up bait for me, bulky Salamence counters so perfectly the metagame, and it is almost unstoppable if he is the last of my Pokémon vs. stall.
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I knew I was lacking something, that missing thing on my team was Stealth Rock. Having 2 Pokémon weak to Fire is never good, so I need viable switching to Heatran too. As most special teams do, I have problems with Tyranitar, Swampert is able to check both of those pokes and set up Stealth Rock too. And with him, it doesn’t means I lost a game every time Jirachi fainted because of Salamence. He is my only phazer in the team, so I at least hold a chance vs. Baton Pass teams. He can attain perfect coverage and still have 2 spots left for moves, this is a great addition to my team in general.
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Now I need an uber awesome Pokemon that can sweep and stall every kind of team and pokemon made and to be made, there is only one pokemon made for that...
... well, I never said that Pokemon was Pikachu but, there is a pix of him.
Thank you very much if you are still reading, I know 2322 words are hard to read, but please, RMT!!!
Go Honduras, WC waits for you!
__________________
Hi Smogon, after playing and mastering each style, I loved the fast tempo of offense, but I also liked the reliability and sense of security of stall. How am I able to keep both feelings in one team?
This team answers the question.
This team uses Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock; it has bulky Pokémon that can abuse both of the hazards perfectly and has very hard hitters as well. The clearest example of this is my favorite Pokémon, Suicune, which is the center of the team.
I use one choice item in the form of Choice Scarf, meaning I don´t rely too much on prediction, making winning battles easier.
*On a side note, please read the whole descriptions before posting, thank you. ^_^
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Here we go!
---
Blecko (Roserade) (F) @ Focus Sash /
Natural Cure, Timid
4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Why I am using Roserade as my lead?
Rosey can cripple various Pokémon early in the game and has the ability tosuse Toxic Spikes. Obviously she has dropped in effectiveness due to the increase of Lum Berry leads, but she is a great lead nonetheless. Toxic Spikes is the core of my team, since every member can abuse them at least in one way, also, it helps to wear down walls and since my team shares counters, allows a late game sweep. Sleep Powder is a very nice move, crippling slower leads such as Swampert, Smeargle, Heatran, and Metagross (although some run Lum). It also makes getting Toxic Spikes set up easier. Leaf Storm is my overpowered Stab move that OHKOs Suicune after a Calm Mind, activates Azelf´s Focus Sash, and fits nicely for her typing and Speed.
“Ok, ok, but why Hidden Power Fire?” you may ask, well, since Heatran is set up bait for most of my team, Ground isn´t needed, and Scizor can stop Salamence´s sweep, but most importantly, I can beat opposing Roserade leads. Supporting the team is Blecko´s priority, so that answers the question.
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DoomDesire (Jirachi) @ Choice Scarf /
Serene Grace, Jolly
40 HP / 216 Atk / 252 Spe
Jirachi is a very important member of my team, since he is my sole revenge killer. If someone asks me the following: “What does Jirachi do for your team”, my answer would be, “He can stop DD Salamence, DD Gyarados, Calm Mind Latias, badly poisoned Crocune, DD Tyranitar, SD Scizor Agility Empoleon from sweeping and checks others pokes as well. The Choice Scarf is present to outspeed all the mentioned pokes and a lot more. I need max Speed to at least tie with Flygon, Jolly Salamence and Modest Gengar (when scarfed). I have enough Attack to OHKO Scizor, Mence, Gyara, and Empoleon at 25%, and to 2HKO Latias with Ice Punch. The rest went to HP to take Bullet Punch and Extreme Speed better.
I am considering switching Ice Punch for Trick, to beat stall easier, maybe you can help me with this.
Overall Jirachi is a great Pokémon and is very important to me, he earned his spot as a revenge killer over Latias due to his typing. I don´t want to depend on something Pursuit weak something of the magnitude of being swept by a powerful Dragon Dancer.
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Swampert (M) @ Leftovers /
Torrent, Relaxed
236 HP / 248 Def / 22 SpAtk / 4 Spe
He is my Salamence and Tyranitar counter, but my priority is to set up Stealth Rock. I love the fact that he can have perfect coverage with the combination of Ice-Ground. With Stealth Rock, Mixmence won´t have a field day launching Draco Meteors, and I counter DD versions so he is my Salamence counter. Since most of my Pokémon cause switches, Stealth Rock in invaluable for my team. Earthquake is my Stab move that frustrates Tyranitar´s attempt to sweep. In tandem with Ice Beam, I am only walled by Bronzong. Roar is a nice move for scouting if I already laid SR, for example, on a Scizor locked in Bullet Punch.
The evs in HP gives him the Leftovers number of 25, max Defense is for Salamence and Tyranitar and helps to some extent vs. Scizor and Lucario. The special attack evs gives me an OHKO on Salamence and Flygon as long as they switch into Stealth Rock. The Speed evs let me win the Roar vs. other Swampert and to finish them off when sufficiently weakened. Swampert is a very nice addition to my team, he is changeable though.
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Falzar (Salamence) @ Leftovers /
Intimidate, Adamant
212 HP / 176 Spe / 80 Atk / 40 SpDef
Salamence is my main Lucario switch-in. With that natural bulk, attack, speed and reliable recovery, he makes a very effective tank. The evs may seem complicated but, yes they are complicated, 236 HP evs gives me a Leftovers number, 25 in this case. The attack evs gives me a KO on Heatran with earthquake and Lucario too, I OHKO defensive Latias after a boost as well. The speed evs lets me outspeed Adamant Lucario and Timid Heatran, and anything unscarfed in OU after a Dragon Dance. The Special Defense evs makes me able to survive a Dragon Pulse from Timid Leftovers Latias with as long as Roserade prevented the use of Stealth Rock. Dragon Dance boosts my not so heavily invested Attack stat, same with my Speed. It helps me to outstall Scarf Rotom-A or Magnezone locked in Thunderbolt too. Earthquake gives me pretty nice coverage on everything but Bronzong and Skarmory, but I lose to Bronzong anyway and Skarmory can be out stalled if I am the last Pokémon. Roost is a very important factor in Salamence´s sweep. Roost pairs nice with Dragon Dance and Toxic Spikes, I can recover the damage I receive while dancing while they get more damaged, so I can get set up and damage them while keeping my health very high.
Salamence is my physical tank and sweeper, with this spread he makes a very good switch-in to Scarf Heatran. My second favorite Pokémon of the team, go mence!!
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Rotom-C @ Leftovers /
Levitate, Timid
64 HP / 216 Spe / 230 SpAtk
Appart from Spin Blocking, he leaves the game wide open for Suicune to finish it. I chose the lawn mower appliance because I want to cause as much switches as possible. He is a very good switch-in to Swampert and defensive Celebi when I know he isnt going to use T.wave, since Grass Knot doesn´t breaks my sub. Charge Beam is a good move, I only use it vs. Pokemon that can´t break my sub, since it is very weak even with Stab. Thunderbolt was chosen over any Hidden Power because I really need the KO on Gyarados, and it hits Lucario, Heatran and Salamence harder than Hidden Power Fighting or Shadow Ball respectively. Nothing in OU resists both Ghost and Electric other than Magnezone,(but he isnt common). With it I can try to beat Latias, Celebi and Donphan. Finally, Substitute protects me from status and eases prediction, If I get a sub in a status move or a move that doesnt breaks my it, I get an extra move. The evs makes my subs bulky enough so that blissey dont break them. I took one point from Special Attack because I want to outspeed opposing Rotom-A with the common spread for Sub Charge Beam Rotom.
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North Wind (Suicune) @ Leftovers /
Pressure, Timid
252 HP / 216 Spe / 40 SpAtk
Definitely, Suicune is the best Pokémon in my team. Calm Mind is the most important move of the set, because it allows me to slowly beat Blissey and make my Subs harder to break. Substitute is there to outlast every Blissey, protect me from status, blocks Trick and eases prediction. Surf is my STAB move of choice, because Hydro Pump doesn´t fits in this spread, which is more stalling oriented. Ice Beam gives me something to hit Vaporeon, which is stalled in the long run, (unless he has Roar). It allows me to check Mixmence, and prevents Breloom, Celebi, Zapdos, Latias and Dragonite from walling me. The 252 HP evs gives me 404 Subs, that is very helpful vs. Seismic Toss Blissey and Night Shade Dusknoir, and maximizes durability overall, the 40 SpA evs always OHKOs Salamence with Sr and 3HKOs Gyarados after Sr, after two Calm Mind boosts it OHKOs both Scizor and Lucario on average (93.24% - 109.96% vs. Lucario and 69.10% - 81.34% vs. Scizor). Not even the great special tank of Tyranitar can stop this, being 2HKOed by a boosted Surf.
In conclusion this is most threatening sweeper in my team, ignore Suicune as a threat at your own peril.
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Conclusion:
This team effectiveness´ relies heavily on Toxic Spikes, so if Roserade don’t get set up, winning the game will become a lot harder. Other big problems are teams with a lot of scarves, like Salamence and Magnezone. Even with 3 set up sweepers, this team is bulky but keeps the offensive touch I love, I am posting this team because I know you can improve it, RMT!!!
Team Building:
Before starting this section, I want to give thanks to Gabo (CAL-Ciaran here) and El Blecko, alas Roserade. We worked in different versions for the team, but then I took a bit of each and added a bit of my offensive touch and this is the result, again, thanks!
For my team, I wanted Toxic Spikes and bulky Pokémon able to abuse them. There were very few good options.
Tentacruel
Roserade
Forretress
Nidoking
Nidoqueen
Drapion
Out of those, the only pokes that were able to cripple opposing Pokes with a move other than Toxic Spikes were Tentacruel, Roserade, Drapion and Forretress. Tentacruel through Knock Off and Rapid Spin, Roserade through Sleep Powder, Drapion with Knock Off, Taunt and Whirlwind and Forretress with every form of hazard and Rapid Spin. I wanted to keep pressure right from the beginning, and Roserade´s ability to prevent Stealth Rock from some leads by sleeping them won.
---
Originally, my Pokémon to abuse T-Spikes was going to be Jirachi with Calm Mind and Substitute, but there was one thing, he lacked the surprise factor. Keeping this mind, I thought of Raikou, Suicune and Rotom-A. Each one of them has hard to break Substitutes and some form of set up. In the early stages of the team I tried every combo. When I paired Raikou with Suicune that means an immediate lost vs. Toxic Spikes coupled with Sandstorm. I needed at least one immunity to Toxic Spikes, so Rotom was added.
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After play testing both, I noticed that Raikou is much easier to wall than Suicune, and that Suicune actually checks some offensive threats like Salamence and Breloom. He added even more surprise factor (Subcune) for my team, also, he can check Lucario and Scizor much better and they are very common. Apart from that, he is my favorite Pokémon and I thought it would be cool to build a team for him near the release of Heart Gold / Soul Silver. His effectiveness has earned his spot in this team, he is my MVP.
---
Next, I needed a revenge killer, preferably a scarfer. This brings back the argument of whether Latias or Jirachi, it ended up being Pursuit weak vs. Magnezone bait. Of course, Magnezone is by far less common than Pursuit, which influenced a lot my decision. At this point, bulky Swords Dancer Scizor with Roost was able to set up and eventually beat my main core, that was an extra motivation for running Jirachi over Latias, and that added my only Dragon resist as well.
---
Since I already had enough special attackers, I wanted physical offense. While I was searching for bulky physical attackers, the pokes that caught my attention were Machamp, Gyarados, Salamence, and Tyranitar.
They forms of recovery are Rest and Roost respectively, I don´t want the slow tempo of the “Restalk Combo” and Roost will help me stall some weak SE moves. This added another check to Lucario and Heracross. After Breloom puts Swampert to sleep, he is set up bait for me, bulky Salamence counters so perfectly the metagame, and it is almost unstoppable if he is the last of my Pokémon vs. stall.
---
I knew I was lacking something, that missing thing on my team was Stealth Rock. Having 2 Pokémon weak to Fire is never good, so I need viable switching to Heatran too. As most special teams do, I have problems with Tyranitar, Swampert is able to check both of those pokes and set up Stealth Rock too. And with him, it doesn’t means I lost a game every time Jirachi fainted because of Salamence. He is my only phazer in the team, so I at least hold a chance vs. Baton Pass teams. He can attain perfect coverage and still have 2 spots left for moves, this is a great addition to my team in general.
---
Now I need an uber awesome Pokemon that can sweep and stall every kind of team and pokemon made and to be made, there is only one pokemon made for that...
... well, I never said that Pokemon was Pikachu but, there is a pix of him.
Thank you very much if you are still reading, I know 2322 words are hard to read, but please, RMT!!!
Go Honduras, WC waits for you!
__________________
