My First RMT - Mixed Tier Team 1

[kaos78414]

So some friends and I decided to make some teams comprised of exactly 2 NU, 2 UU and 2 OU pokemon, just to have a broader range of options. We almost immediately figured out that this was much harder than it seemed at first, especially for us as we're beginners to competitive battling.

Team Building Process
Note: This part is kinda long, as I've been messing with this team privately for a while, and it still needs a lot of work.

After a little bit of looking around, I decided on two poke's I wanted for sure: Baton Pass Vaporeon with Aqua Ring (1 OU down), who would pass Acid Armor and Aqua Ring to Bastiodon (1 NU down). My inexperience shows already doesn't it? :P

I absolutely love Alakazam, so I knew I wanted to throw him in the mix somewhere. I decided on Sub+3 attacks because of his frailty. (1 UU down)

After that I wanted someone to cover Vaporeon's butt, and could come in strong on electric moves. The obvious choice was Electrivire. I decided on the physical attacker build, as I already had a decent special sweeper. (so far 2 OU, 1 UU and 1 NU)

At this point, I was at a loss. I needed a UU and an NU, and ultimately decided on RestTalk Spiritomb and Phys Attacker Pinsir, as I needed something with the earthquake stone edge combo, and his X-Scissor really comes in handy as well.

I know this part is dragging on, so to save you some reading, at this point I did some testing, and noticed that I really couldn't counter earthquakes very well, so I needed something that could take an EQ. At the same time, I noticed that my Vaporeon as a lead idea wasn't working very well, so I decided to replace him with Gyarados. And I switched Bastiodon to lead position as he can set up stealth rock, and then toxic and roar, or switch out once threatened.

So onto the sets:

Bastiodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EV Spread: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpD
Impish Nature
~ Rock Blast
~ Roar
~ Toxic
~ Stealth Rock

It turns out he's decent at what he does. If I'm scared he might not be able to take an incoming Earthquake, I switch to Gyarados. For potentially dangerous fighting type moves, I switch into Spritiomb. Originally, I was running Metal Burst instead of Rock Blast, but it ended up being unreliable.

Gyarados@Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EV Spread: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
~ Waterfall
~ Dragon Dance
~ Stone Edge
~ Earthquake

One thing I think I'm wide open to is grass. But I'm not too sure as I've been lucky enough to dispose of most grass types early with Electrivire. Gyarados is pretty self explanatory, and has so far been a great addition to the team over Vaporeon.

Spiritomb@Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EV Spread: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 Sp
Calm Nature
~ Rest
~ Sleep Talk
~ Will-O-Wisp
~ Dark Pulse

The biggest problem I've seen here is this: Infernape lead vs Bastiodon. I predict Close Combat, so I switch into Spiritomb. I can't cut his attack, so he can easily ruin my Spiritomb. But so far, that's the only problem I've run into. This set is a great annoyer.

Alakazam@Life Orb
Ability: Synchronize
EV Spread: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
~ Substitute
~ Shadow Ball
~ Psychic
~ Focus Blast

As stated in "Team Building Process", I really wanted to use Alakazam, and so far he has done his part in helping this team out. I am considering changing his moveset however as he seems to have trouble finding the opportunities to set up Substitute.

Electrivire@Expert Belt
Ability: Motor Drive
EV Spread: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
~ Fire Punch
~ Ice Punch
~ Thunderpunch
~ Cross Chop

With this I opted for Fire Punch over Earthquake as I had two Earthquake users, though I haven't seen any difference from that change. He's a decent sweeper, unless I predict incorrectly.

Pinsir@Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker
EV Spread: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
~ X-Scissor
~ Earthquake
~ Stone Edge
~ Close Combat

Pinsir has actually been a valuable asset to this team. He's usually my late game sweeper, and he does his job decently enough.


I was going to include a threat list, but I'm still not sure what all poses a huge threat and can ruin the team. So far its played fairly balanced. A surprise Marowak posed a problem until I replaced Vaporeon with Gyarados. I think I may have a major problem with special sweeping grass types like Sceptile.

Final Thoughts: Well... Once again I'm new to competitive battling, and am well aware that this team isn't perfect, which is why I'm looking for suggestions and ideas. And keep in mind when making suggestions that I am following a specific pattern of 2 NU, 2 UU and 2 OU for this team. Thanks for reading! :D

 

[Lucien Lachance]

If your going to use an NU pokemon, use something that makes people die when they see it, Shuckle.

Heracross >> Pinsir. He's BL while Pinsir is NU...

Don't use Bastidon as a lead, use something semi-decent like Hippowdon. Helps shuckle too.

Use CM >> WoW on Spiritomb. Lets you sweep.

Honesnty, I know I killed your theme, but this is a competetive battling site. Unless you want the NU and UU for a specific reason other than being mixed tier, this thread probably will get locked.

 

[RampancyVI]

I like your creativity, and I admire your use of UU pokemon, sadly Mixed tier is only a match you both agree on and if you plan on laddering, this team will not meet up to any standards you might set for it.

First Bastiodon is a horrible wall outside of , even with its monstrous defense its 4x weak to some of the two most common types, (fighting and ground, commonly used by physical sweepers will kill it, despite his defense, and lacking the ability to do real damage, its massive defenses (special and physical) will fail to make an impact outside of pure NU.

E-vire and Vaporeon may seem promising, but taking electric moves directed at Vaporeon will grant you a speed boost, but will often be wasted, versus things like Rotom-a and if you meet a grass type attack, , out of a rotom-C, or Roserade, or other grass users, and your only good switch in is something like your Pinsir, which can be out predicted and countered.
These are some of the things I thought I should mention.

Sorry if I sound too hypocritical, I don't mean to be, I understand this is a mixed tier team, which I am unfamiliar with, but many popular OU threats, (three on each mixed tier team) can mess you up bad, so thank you for reading my opinions and good luck.

EDIT: @Lucien Lachance as of yet Heracross is Ou still so yeah

 

[kaos78414]

@Lucien: I definitely would pick Heracross over Pinsir (in most cases) on an OU team, but as I stated early in the post, this is Mixed tier, and as such will be used sparingly, or for pre-agreed mixed tier battles. In response to locking my thread, aside from picking those NU's and UU's to fit the theme, I also picked them to fill a role. It's not like I just picked a few random pokemon. I thought they would support the team decently. I posted a question about being able to post this RMT in the other teams forum, and was told to post this here. I don't see why it would be locked. It is specifically noted that this is a mixed tier team, and was/is just a fun project.

@Rampancy: Thanks for looking it over! I did replace Vaporeon with Gyarados, but to the same effect I see what your saying about Rotom-a and C. I do have a severe weakness to grass, though I've found that if Bastiodon is still alive by late game, he can take grass extremely well (He took Wood Hammer from Torterra for 28%, which isn't horrible). The thing that I love about Bastiodon is that, yes he is an NU, but he's just so incredibly defensive. He's taken EQ's from some OU pokemon and survived. Maybe if I switch Rock Blast to Metal Burst and predict the moves he can take he will be more useful?

Also, what do you think about replacing Shadow Ball with Signal Beam on Alakazam, and then replacing Pinsir completely?

 

[haunter]

We require that your team must be as competitive as possible, wanting to use UU\NU Pokemon just for the sake of it is not acceptable in standard play. I'll move this thread in the "other teams" section so we can all assume that you're playing under a custom ruleset.