VGC Mega Volcano goes BOOM BOOM

[hotcoldyay7]

Hey everyone. I plan on using this team in the upcoming VGC and I'm not wholly sure it's at it's best. I've tried it on the ladder, and it's fared okay, but I feel like it can do so much better. I've managed to reach around 1300-1350, but I'm pretty sure that's me getting lucky and playing against lower skilled players. I'm going to be blunt in my opinion about the team: my team definitely needs work, as it seems like, from how I've fared, it wouldn't stand a chance with higher ranked teams. The problem is, given my lack of full experience in VGC, I don't know how to take it to the next step :/

Moving on, before I start, I'd like to give a general overview of my team. This is a Trick Room team meant to take advantage of the low speed of most of my pokemon, and the high power provided by some of them (such as Mega Camerupt). Each pokemon plays a specific role that can be flexed a little, but is otherwise an assigned role. The team was built around Mega Cam and providing him support, but in order to avoid an over reliance, the team is also built so should Mega Cam fail, the rest of the team can still pick up from there and march forward. Or, you know, that's what I tried and it may not look like that.

Edit 1/3/15: After some consideration, I've made some edits to my team. My team has actually been doing a lot better now thanks to these changes!

Still, feel free to critique my team and point out any threats or possible changes I can still make. I'm sure there's still a lot to work out with it.

Also, sorry if there seems to be something wrong with the hide tag and Gastrodon's missing picture- I've tried correcting it several times and it appears there might be a glitch or something.

Now with that said... let's begin!

Aromatisse (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Heal Pulse
- Skill Swap
​

The replacement for Cresselia, my original TR setter. I opted for only one TR user now in order to remove my team's dependency on it. I want my team to use it as an advantage, but I don't want everyone to be a dead weigh when it isn't available for set-up.
Aroma Veil is useful to ensure TR is set up. Moonblast is there just as an attacking option. Heal Pulse is extraordinarily useful for healing Camerupt, Conkeldurr, and others when they get low on HP, particularly Camerupt since he can't heal himself at all. Finally, Skill Swap is a great tool to take away the great abilities of other Pokemon. Mega Sableye's Magic Bounce? Bye-bye. Heatran walling Heat Wave? No more Flash Fire for you! Gliscor's Poison Heal? Start taking some toxic damage. The list goes on and on, but this move is excellent for its utility. It might seem gimmicky, but it truly is wonderful.

Replaced

Replaced

Cresselia @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Skill Swap
- Psychic
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room​

My primary Trick Room setter. Cresselia has a defensive spread as opposed to the more offensive one on-site. Holding a mental herb, she can avoid taunt once before getting shut down. Trick Room is there to set it up for my team. Psychic is there to not become complete taunt bait and strike fighting types that want to cause trouble. Helping hand will help boost the power of teammates such as Mega Camerupt, who will enjoy blasting out a scorching Heat Wave. Finally, Skill Swap, though it may seem strange, is there as a counter move. Should Mega Sableye come in, ready to Will-O-Wisp one of my pokemon, I can skill swap for Magic Bounce and hopefully reflect it right back (although, under Trick Room, the swap of speeds lets Sableye go first :/). It also works with Intimidators, which is always helpful as well.

Camerupt (M) @ Cameruptite
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 1 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect​

My team's Mega, and the ultimate trick room sweeper... well at least in my opinion,haha. Camerupt, with it's horribly low speed and pretty high special attack can do some heavy damage in trick room. The IVs are to allow for the lowest possible IVs in order to get HP Ice. Heat Wave is the ultimate spam move, striking both opponents with a fiery wave of burning air. Earth Power is a secondary STAB move that is useful for pokemon like Empoleon, who are okay with taking a Heat Wave to the face. HP Ice is there to strike threats such as Mega Salamence and Landorus-T. Finally, Protect is there in order to avoid attacks, wait out weather, and grant a free chance at Mega Evolution.

Conkeldurr @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
EVs: 212 HP / 28 Atk / 30 Def / 240 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
​

Conkeldurr has proven himself to be quite a powerhouse, and he hasn't failed me thus far. Assault Vest forces him to forgo protect, but he now has a boost to his mediocre SDef. Guts allows him to absorb status and punish status users. I've been considering Iron Fist to increase my punch power, but the risk of getting burned and truly becoming useless is just too big, despite the mind games I can play with people. The evs are placed in order to defend him from specific attacks. 0 spe is for TR.
Knock Off removes items and smacks psychic and ghost types pretty hard. I've been considering Rock Slide over it, but Knock Off seems to have more utility. Mach Punch is for priority, and Drain Punch hits hard and allows for HP restoration. Finally, Ice Punch smacks around flying types and provides coverage for Landorus-T and Salamence (Norm and Mega).

Replaced

Slowbro (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 HP / 20 SpA / 232 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Protect
​

My adorable second Trick Room Starter. By having her on my team (though most experienced players won't fall for it), I can have foes second guessing as to whether Slowbro or Camerupt is my mega, providing some pressure for the opposing team. Leftovers provides for some recovery, and the horrible speed is excellent for Trick Room. Slowbro has Oblivious in order to disappoint Taunt users, and with it's already high physical bulk, the evs give it a chance to boost it's rather low special bulk. Trick Room is there to set up the situation for my slow pokemon. Slack Off is there for recovery purposes. Scald allows me to strike opponents and grab a possible burn. Protect, finally, is an absolute necessity for VGC.

Gastrodon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Protect
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Scald​

Gastrodon is here to save the day! She's my rain counter (though Ludicolo makes things iffy) and helps Camerupt by drawing away water moves that will OHKO him. Sitrus Berry is there to restore health, and the evs allow Gastrodon to always OHKO Landorus-T and Salamence Mega. Scald is there for coverage, Protect is a necessity to stall, and Recover is there for healing.
I've been considering Cradily, but I'm not sure if he would be better or if he'd be any good at all.

Replaced

Amoonguss (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
- Clear Smog​

My distractor. With his relatively good bulk, he can take a few hits, and then switch out for a Regenerator healing. Low speed is also lovely for TR. Sitrus Berry is to get some healing at lower health. Rage Powder is to distract the opponent from attacking my other pokemon, who will either attack heavily or provide trick room. Spore is awesome for putting everyone to sleep, and is a MUST on Amoonguss... unless of course this was AV, where we'd have a different story. Protect goes without saying now, and Clear Smog is there to make stat boosters cry.

Bisharp (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Protect​

My multi-utility anti-game pokemon. Bisharp is a great check against those that want to lower my team's stats in any way. Life Orb STAB Knock Off is annoying and deals a ton of damage, and this move in particular is great because losing an item in VGC is aggravating. Sucker Punch is there simply to get ahead, and Iron Head is for annoying fairies and anything that resists Dark. Iron Head's flinch chance is also really nice. Protect is there because it's an absolute necessity on VGC. Also, I shifted the speed evs to hp evs in order to give bulk and allow for good speed under trick room.

I've been thinking of playing around with his defensive evs. Are there any attacks I should give him evs for to survive?

Talonflame (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Quick Guard
- Protect​

Finally, we have the ever helpful fail-safe of my team, BirdSpam :3 Talonflame, with Gale Wings, bypasses TR speed reverses by using flying moves. Brave Bird, with a boost from Sharp Beak, is monstrously strong, and helps me attack fighting types and anything annoying that my team can't quite hit. Brave Bird also helps revenge kill, which is helpful against scarfers. It also helps to have a strong physical attacker on the team, amidst all the special attackers. Flare Blitz won't get priority, but outside of TR, it's useful secondary STAB should Brave Bird prove fruitless. Roost is for healing, and Protect is there, for most of the reasons I mentioned for all my other pokes.

I opted for Quick Guard in order to block priority moves. Talonflame is pretty awesome, overall, and has really contributed with Brave Bird.

As an end result, I do have a few problems with my team. Cresselia and Mega Camerupt have done all right. Slowbro has done very well, to be honest, as she's very reliable and dependable, as far as my battling has gone. However, I've noticed my team struggles against Waters (especially Mega Blastoise) and Fairies, and I'm really not sure how to fix that. Also, I've been thinking of replacing Bisharp with a fighting type like Conkeldurr, being he has great utility and works great in TR, but I'm not sure how to integrate or whether it would detract from my team already.

I also feel like I don't have enough TR sweepers and that Amoonguss, though useful for removing stat boosters and sleeping things, acts more or less like a dead weight, especially when countering something an not being able to do anything back... or I might not be using it right, which I'll also need help in.

Finally, I'm a veteran of doubles and of singles TR, but I've never done TR VGC, so I'm still acclimating to the new environment and am very unsure how to traverse. Any and all help will truly be appreciated. Thank you to anyone who can help me improve my team! :-)

Here's my redone team! Please pick on it as much as possible, as I'd really like to improve it greatly.

I tried Gothitelle, and while she worked well, for the most part, she was redundant and sort of weighed the team down. Maybe I just wasn't using her right, but the experience wasn't too great.

In terms of problems, there really haven't been any besides getting unlucky, starting at a disadvantage, or just bad play. However, if there's one pokemon who has been getting on me, it's Ludicolo. I can usually play around with Gastrodon, but once the opponent has caught on and I don't have Talonflame on me, it's very hard to deal with.

Fake out is annoying, too, but I'm sure that's a problem with everyone.

Also, here's an amusing strategy I was able to outsmart, just for funs: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2015-199333273

PS- Yes, I did forget to put Shadow Tag on Gothitelle, sorry

Importable

Camerupt (M) @ Cameruptite
Ability: Solid Rock
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 1 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

Aromatisse (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Aroma Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Heal Pulse
- Skill Swap

Bisharp (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Protect

Talonflame (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Conkeldurr @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 28 Atk / 30 Def / 240 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch

Gastrodon (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Protect
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Scald

 

[hotcoldyay7]

Been thinking of maybr adding pokes like Meowstic (Prankster TR), or Aegislash (Slow Unpredictable Sweeper), or HyperSpam Sylveon (just powerful and slow), or Gothitelle (Shadow Tag), or Gengar (Quick TR), or Greninja (Mat Block), or Conkeldurr (Fighting with Status Absorb)... Would these be good ideas?

 

[gasquakee]

I am no expert in vgc nor will I make myself out to be. Though what I do know is you can't have a quick trick room or priority trick room. Due to it being a minus priority move.

 

[hotcoldyay7]

I am no expert in vgc nor will I make myself out to be. Though what I do know is you can't have a quick trick room or priority trick room. Due to it being a minus priority move.

Oh wow, I can't believe I missed that! >.< Thanks for pointing that out.

Scratch out the idea of a quick TR from Meowstic, though Prankster might still come in handy.

 

[hotcoldyay7]

my one-time bump!

I really do need help, so even if you have the smallest comment, any will do. Thank you!

 

[Fadeslayer]

On your idea about Gothitelle... It can be a game-changer. Shadow Tag is absolutely brutal and unforgiving, and can force your opponent into doing something they wouldn't normally do. Furthermore, Cresselia doesn't get touched. By anything. I hate it with all my heart and I hope that every day, theres gonna be SOMETHING that can OHKO it... but there isn't. In the end, it's your choice... Run Gothitelle that can also use helping hand and that can force your opponent into a fatal position, or use Cresselia, where you are nearly guaranteed a TR setup, as well as knowing there's absolutely nothing in the game that can kill you unboosted.

 

[hotcoldyay7]

On your idea about Gothitelle... It can be a game-changer. Shadow Tag is absolutely brutal and unforgiving, and can force your opponent into doing something they wouldn't normally do. Furthermore, Cresselia doesn't get touched. By anything. I hate it with all my heart and I hope that every day, theres gonna be SOMETHING that can OHKO it... but there isn't. In the end, it's your choice... Run Gothitelle that can also use helping hand and that can force your opponent into a fatal position, or use Cresselia, where you are nearly guaranteed a TR setup, as well as knowing there's absolutely nothing in the game that can kill you unboosted.

I've definitely considering her, and I think I'm going to really add her with this in mind.

Do you have an idea for who I should remove from my team to keep Gothitelle?

 

[Fadeslayer]

I would take out the Slowbro... Lose water, keep psychic. It's a "what needs to go" kind of trade off, but if you truly want gothitelle, thats the way to go.

 

[abhawk]

I also like to play trick room teams, so here are a few things you may not have considered. But first I'd like to say that I like your team, especially because of your Mega-Camerupt focus. Just from looking at the pokemon listed, it seems like you have a pretty considerable bug weakness on your team (Slowbro/Cresselia/Amoongus). You do a pretty good job of covering this, however, because of Talonflame's priority flying attacks. You might want to consider using Aromatisse because of Aroma Veil, as well as its fairy typing, which your team could probably benefit from. The good thing about Aroma Veil is that it makes Taunt invalid not only for Aromatisse, but for any other team mates on the field, making it an ideal trick room setter, or at least trick room support pokemon. The set my Aromatisse uses is this:

Aromatisse @ Focus Sash / Leftovers / Sitrus Berry
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt / Psychic / Psyshock
- Protect / Heal Bell / Aromatherapy
- Trick Room

Sometimes when I use this pokemon I use a focus sash because of the possibility of a heavy steel or poison move right at the beginning before trick room is up; but if you feel that is a waste then leftovers or a sitrus berry works fine. Also, like I said, Aromatisse doesn't even have to be your trick room setter if you don't want it to be. For instance, you could pair it up with Cresselia at the beginning to give it the Aroma Veil protection, freeing it up also to have an item besides a mental herb.

A couple of more things you might want to consider....Porygon2 is an incredibly useful trick room pokemon, especially when paired with Aromatisse like I mentioned above. Eviolite Porygon2 (Modest, 252 hp/ 252 SpA) with trick room/thunderbolt/ice beam/ recover can be a surprisingly large offensive presence for a TR team, compared to Bold 252 Hp/Def variants. My last suggestion would be switching out Slowbro for Gastrodon. Gastrodon (with Storm Drain of course) is literally a perfect partner for Mega Camerupt. I've even just done non-trick room doubles with Camerupt and Gastrodon, and they work so well together that trick room wasn't even needed. I'm not saying you should give up trick room, but my point is that having Gastrodon on the team increases Camerupt's survivability a great deal, because you take away the chance of having to take a 4x super-effective water attack.

I hope you find these things helpful- hopefully if you choose not to use them they will at least give you some ideas to tweak your team more to your liking. Good Luck.

 

[hotcoldyay7]

Fadeslayer and abhawk

Thank you guys so much for the advice! I really appreciate it and will take it all into consideration. This will definitely be helpful.

I'm going to post an update to my team soon, so two more questions before I do so:

1) How do I do those hide tabs that let people have the choice of seeing part of a page or not seeing it?

2) Would Sylveon, Aegislash, and/or Conkeldurr add to my team in a very substantial way, or is their role already mostly covered by others or the alternatives given? If so, who should they theoretically replace?

 

[leremyju]

Yo sup this can be potentially a solid team but I think it relies a lot on Mega Camerupt and Bisharp to do stuff offensively. This is definitely a problem trick room teams may have of keeping offensive pressure, so first I'd like to suggest Sunny Day on Cresselia to boost them Heat Waves instead of spamming helping Hand. And to add some offensive pressure you might want to run psychic and ice beam or replace psychic with ice beam. I also changed the spread which gives more offensive pressure by OHKO 4/0 Landorus and some normal Salamence. The 220 HP minimizes damage from weather

Cresselia @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 220 HP / 56 Def / 160 SpA / 72 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Skill Swap
- Psychic / Ice Beam
- Helping Hand / Sunny Day
- Trick Room

I also think you might not want 2 trick room setters and may opt to replace it with either Conkeldurr or Hariyama which Aaron Zheng has popularized.

Bolin (Conkeldurr) @ Lum Berry/Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 212 HP / 28 Atk / 30 Def / 240 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Detect / Rock Slide / Knock Off
- Hammer Arm / Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch

Not sure about hariyama but you can read Aaron Zhengs worlds report on nugget bridge

 

[Fadeslayer]

Alright man! I'll be by occasionally to check if you've updated the team up there. When you have, I will re-critique it, if that even needs to be done!

 

[hotcoldyay7]

Made some edits!

Any changes and new comments are in bold.

Thank you to everyone who gave me critique and advice! I really appreciate it! :)

PS- I'm also considering Aegislash or Milotic, although I'm not sure how redundant they'd would be with Bisharp.

 

[abhawk]

I'm glad you used my suggestions, and I hope they end up being worth the trouble to change them