Okay so the first RMT posted here had some serious faults and so I went back into my cave and attempted to build my team up again with more thought into counters while still remaining effective offensively and more or less defensively (as I understand it, newer players such as myself often have a hard time with non-all offense teams and I can easily see myself falling under that category).
Anyway, these teams are mainly composed of offensive players, yes, and are also mainly for use in double battles so please keep that in mind. With that out of the way, here are my thoughts as to a potential team of mine:
Swampert Lead; Relaxed @ Leftovers
Earthquake
Ice Beam
Hydro Pump
Stealth Rock
240 HP / 216 Def / 56 SpA
My lead. In conjuction with the rest of my time it became increasingly apparent that I had no initial set up whatsoever, and that there is a serious lack of any sense of bulk, and more importantly, that any ground, rock or fire threats would be able to navigate freely because my offenses had absolutely no water moves involved. Thus I chose Swampert accordingly: set up stealth rock, take advantage of the stab on earthquake, nail them hard with hydro pump as opposed to surf because I’m often doing double battles, and of course having ice beam is always very useful against the plethora of dragons…never mind pesky ground types and flying types.
Gengar Partner; Timid @ Expert Belt
Shadow Ball
ThunderBolt
Focus Blast
Gigadrain
4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
As I mentioned, I often play double battles so gengar seemed like a viable buddie to put out with Swampert. Not only would he be immune to earthquake, but he’d be able to take care of common counters to swampert--which are often ghosts that laugh at standard-pert’s moves. Those immune to earthquake surely won’t be immune to thunderbolt, as they are often flying types. Gengar is also decently fast which may take care of swampert’s slowness in taking out the other pokemon as well as having a chance to do any sort of setup. Shadow ball gets STAB, focus blast can get rid of big threats despite its accuracy, and gigadrain--well, my team more options towards getting rid of rock and ground types, like hippowndown as well as water type like milotic. All around seems like a good initial set up between swampert and gengar, I’d essentially have fire, electric, poison, rock, steel, flying, dragon, ground, grass, psychic, ghost, water, normal, ice, and dark all covered between these two. That’s 15. And resistances to common attacks like fighting and ground with gengar, and swampert’s type coverage is only weak towards grass moves.
SpecsLucario, Modest
Aura Sphere
Dragon Pulse
Psychic
Vacuum Wave
Gengar already has shadow ball and benefits from stab, so ultimately choosing to replace dragon pulse with it seems logical: it hits everything for at the very least neutral damage, and can check dragons that are expecting the more common dragon dance set. Aura sphere is an excellent move w/ good accuracy by which Lucario can benefit from stab, and vacuum wave can take care of pokemon with low HP that simply need to go away. So, why psychic, that seems kinda useless doesn’t it? Well, to be perfectly honest, I know I can’t shoot for any of the hidden powers. I’m just barely getting into this competitive scene and while yeah,. HP is a godsend it unfortunately is too complex for me to even attempt to pursue just yet in the “real” game (ie, not shoddy). Plus psychic can take care of fighting types that might want to take advantage of lucario, and isn’t all that bad of a move even if it doesn’t have too great of a type coverage.
So where the heck are my powerhouses? Coming up!
Adamant Tyranitar with Choice Band
Stone Edge
Crunch
Aqua Tail
Pursuit
176 HP / 252 Atk / 80 Spe
Okay so where is the earthquake? Well, double battles. Unless gengar is out and about I don’t want to be hurting my teammates, and ideally I’d be taking out my powerhouses later in the game as attempts to sweep…hopefully by now anything that would need an earthquake to die has been dealth with, and if not, well, there’s always aqua tail to get rid of them. Stone edge+ crunch make this a monster because of the stab, and pursuit is to hit anyone that thinks they can get a better pokemon to take care of Ttar out of the field. Bulky grounds and ghosts can say goodbye. Sandstorm doesn’t affect gengar or swampert as far as I know, nor scizor which hasn’t come up yet but is down there. Threats like Bronzing ,bulky ground types are taken care of with either teammates or aqua tail.
Naughty Salamence @ Life Orb
Dragon Dance
Outrage
Fire Blast
Stone Edge
232 Atk / 24 SpA / 252 Spe
Still no earthquake, though I’m a bit shaky about my moveset here given the lack of earthquake…but, again, double battles. Dragon dance and outrage get stab+ life orb for monstrous blows, fire blast takes care of bulky steels, and stone edge…honestly, I couldn’t think of a better move to replace it but otherwise I don’t have a great analysis as to why it should be there. Ddance brings this set home. Hopefully dragon counters are taken care of with my team’s ice beams and lucario’s dragon pulse, but if not, well then, sally is going to have a day in the park. Common ice-attack users such as electivire, swampert, weavile, and so on are taken care of with the rest of my team, hopefully leaving space for Salamence come and reign some terror.
Adamant Scizor @ Life Orb; Technitian
Swords Dance
Bullet Punch
Superpower
Roost
48 HP / 252 Atk / 200 SpD
Even more monsters for this team. The typing, stats and availability of swords dance and roost allow szizor to come in later in the game and try to massacre everything that wasn’t already killed without getting too hurt, never mind the life orb+technitian boosts to bullet punch. The Evs give plenty of punch to the attacks and get enough defense to stay in the game even longer. Counters such as gyrados and heatran should be taken care of easily with the rest of my team.
Anyway, these teams are mainly composed of offensive players, yes, and are also mainly for use in double battles so please keep that in mind. With that out of the way, here are my thoughts as to a potential team of mine:
Swampert Lead; Relaxed @ Leftovers
Earthquake
Ice Beam
Hydro Pump
Stealth Rock
240 HP / 216 Def / 56 SpA
My lead. In conjuction with the rest of my time it became increasingly apparent that I had no initial set up whatsoever, and that there is a serious lack of any sense of bulk, and more importantly, that any ground, rock or fire threats would be able to navigate freely because my offenses had absolutely no water moves involved. Thus I chose Swampert accordingly: set up stealth rock, take advantage of the stab on earthquake, nail them hard with hydro pump as opposed to surf because I’m often doing double battles, and of course having ice beam is always very useful against the plethora of dragons…never mind pesky ground types and flying types.
Gengar Partner; Timid @ Expert Belt
Shadow Ball
ThunderBolt
Focus Blast
Gigadrain
4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
As I mentioned, I often play double battles so gengar seemed like a viable buddie to put out with Swampert. Not only would he be immune to earthquake, but he’d be able to take care of common counters to swampert--which are often ghosts that laugh at standard-pert’s moves. Those immune to earthquake surely won’t be immune to thunderbolt, as they are often flying types. Gengar is also decently fast which may take care of swampert’s slowness in taking out the other pokemon as well as having a chance to do any sort of setup. Shadow ball gets STAB, focus blast can get rid of big threats despite its accuracy, and gigadrain--well, my team more options towards getting rid of rock and ground types, like hippowndown as well as water type like milotic. All around seems like a good initial set up between swampert and gengar, I’d essentially have fire, electric, poison, rock, steel, flying, dragon, ground, grass, psychic, ghost, water, normal, ice, and dark all covered between these two. That’s 15. And resistances to common attacks like fighting and ground with gengar, and swampert’s type coverage is only weak towards grass moves.
SpecsLucario, Modest
Aura Sphere
Dragon Pulse
Psychic
Vacuum Wave
Gengar already has shadow ball and benefits from stab, so ultimately choosing to replace dragon pulse with it seems logical: it hits everything for at the very least neutral damage, and can check dragons that are expecting the more common dragon dance set. Aura sphere is an excellent move w/ good accuracy by which Lucario can benefit from stab, and vacuum wave can take care of pokemon with low HP that simply need to go away. So, why psychic, that seems kinda useless doesn’t it? Well, to be perfectly honest, I know I can’t shoot for any of the hidden powers. I’m just barely getting into this competitive scene and while yeah,. HP is a godsend it unfortunately is too complex for me to even attempt to pursue just yet in the “real” game (ie, not shoddy). Plus psychic can take care of fighting types that might want to take advantage of lucario, and isn’t all that bad of a move even if it doesn’t have too great of a type coverage.
So where the heck are my powerhouses? Coming up!
Adamant Tyranitar with Choice Band
Stone Edge
Crunch
Aqua Tail
Pursuit
176 HP / 252 Atk / 80 Spe
Okay so where is the earthquake? Well, double battles. Unless gengar is out and about I don’t want to be hurting my teammates, and ideally I’d be taking out my powerhouses later in the game as attempts to sweep…hopefully by now anything that would need an earthquake to die has been dealth with, and if not, well, there’s always aqua tail to get rid of them. Stone edge+ crunch make this a monster because of the stab, and pursuit is to hit anyone that thinks they can get a better pokemon to take care of Ttar out of the field. Bulky grounds and ghosts can say goodbye. Sandstorm doesn’t affect gengar or swampert as far as I know, nor scizor which hasn’t come up yet but is down there. Threats like Bronzing ,bulky ground types are taken care of with either teammates or aqua tail.
Naughty Salamence @ Life Orb
Dragon Dance
Outrage
Fire Blast
Stone Edge
232 Atk / 24 SpA / 252 Spe
Still no earthquake, though I’m a bit shaky about my moveset here given the lack of earthquake…but, again, double battles. Dragon dance and outrage get stab+ life orb for monstrous blows, fire blast takes care of bulky steels, and stone edge…honestly, I couldn’t think of a better move to replace it but otherwise I don’t have a great analysis as to why it should be there. Ddance brings this set home. Hopefully dragon counters are taken care of with my team’s ice beams and lucario’s dragon pulse, but if not, well then, sally is going to have a day in the park. Common ice-attack users such as electivire, swampert, weavile, and so on are taken care of with the rest of my team, hopefully leaving space for Salamence come and reign some terror.
Adamant Scizor @ Life Orb; Technitian
Swords Dance
Bullet Punch
Superpower
Roost
48 HP / 252 Atk / 200 SpD
Even more monsters for this team. The typing, stats and availability of swords dance and roost allow szizor to come in later in the game and try to massacre everything that wasn’t already killed without getting too hurt, never mind the life orb+technitian boosts to bullet punch. The Evs give plenty of punch to the attacks and get enough defense to stay in the game even longer. Counters such as gyrados and heatran should be taken care of easily with the rest of my team.