My future Platinum Team

[The Darkhorse Trainer]

Ok so with the news that the next game will be called (or probably will be called) Pokemon Platinum, I wanted to get a team ready for when the game is released. This is what I came up with.

Magmortar-choice scarf
Modest
EV spread: 252 special attack/252 speed/6 hp
Fire Blast
Psychic
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power Ice

My anti-lead Magmortar. The most common walls I face on shoddy are Gengar, Bronzong, Metegross, Salamence, Togekiss, Gyrados, Weavile, Forretress, Crobat and Azelf. This set hits each one for super-effective damage except for Azelf but that's what Snorlax is for. Fire blast beats Bronzong, Metegross, Weavile and Forretress, Psychic takes care of Gengar (and is also good for those fighters like Heracross and Machamp), Thunderbolt beats Gyrados and Crobat and Hidden Power Ice beats Salamence.

Snorlax (thick fat)-leftovers
Careful
EV spread: 168 hp/222 special defense/120 defense
Crunch
Curse
Rest
Return

My special tank and Azelf counter. Azelf is the only common lead that Magmortar can't beat (if only if got dark pulse!) so Snorlax is here to absorb it's hits and hurt it back with crunch. If they switch, I can predict it and use curse which will make Snorlax even harder to take down. Thick Fat enables Snorlax to switch in on ice and fire attacks even easier and can use the resulting switch to either rest or power up with curse. Return is there for causing massive damage after getting acouple curses down.

Tangrowth-big root
Impish
EV spread: 252 hp/228 defense/30 attack
Knock Off
Leech Seed
Power Whip
Sleep Powder

I love this guy. Not only does his typing make a great type for physical walling, this guy can be quite the annoyer with knock off and leech seed. Can serve as my Gyrados counter if Magmortar has been knocked out in the middle of the game. Big root is there instead of leftovers to take advantage of those pokemon with high hp stats (Blissey, Wobbuffett, Snorlax etc).

Gliscor-leftovers
Impish
EV spread: 252 hp/252 defense/6 attack
Earthquake
Stealth Rock
Aerial Ace
Roost

My Heracross and Lucario counter who would otherwise cause me trouble. Gliscor can easily switch in on anything Lucario or Heracross can throw at me and then aerial ace and earthquake respectively.

Gallade-leftovers
Adamant
EV spread: 236 hp/220 attack/54 special defense
Swords Dance
Close Combat
Night Slash
Thunder wave

This set is my sweeper/annoyer Gallade. Close combat is for the likes of Blissey and Tyranitar and Night Slash is to help deal with Gengar, Azelf, and Cresselia. Thunder wave is to cripple any sweepers who try to come in while Gallade is swords dancing up.

Tentacruel-leftovers
Calm
EV spread: 204 hp/96 special attack/172 special defense/38 speed
Surf
Ice Beam
Toxic Spikes
Rapid Spin

My spinner/spiker. Sets up spikes, rapid spins, hurts dragons, hurts bulky grounds and counters mixape all in one.



So there you have it. I think I've come up with something good here but I've said that before and come up with zero results.

 

[Lee]

Azelf is the only common lead that Magmortar can't beat (if only if got dark pulse!)

Fire Blast easily OHKO's Azelf. It's 180 BP against him compared to Dark Pulse's 160.

Your team seems to be walled hard by Skarmory who will almost -certainly- get three layers of Spikes down in the hands of any competent player. The only Poke who can scratch him is Magmortar, who he'll simply switch out from. He's also fucking with your main sweeping strategies by easily phazing Snorlax and Scizor. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that ALL of your team are affected by Spikes.

You're also massively MixApe weak as he is going to be dealing potentially fatal damage to Snorlax, Tangrowth, Scizor, Swampert and Magmortar/Medicham have got no chance of switching into Close Combat/Flamethrower respectively.

And most worryingly, SDLuke 6-0's this team with a single Swords Dance, which he can easily get in against Snorlax.

So obviously there's no way this team can function with such huge weaknesses to the Pokemon ranked 6th, 10th and 13th in usage over the past month, and that's without even going into detail on the obvious Hera weak (CBHera OHKO's everyone on this team except Scizor and Swampert who will be 2HKO'd without reply).

A standard spinner Starmie with Thunderbolt can efficiently solve your first two problems. Thunderbolt devestates Skarmory but it's his Rapid Spin ability that will really allow you to counter Skarm. He's also one of the best MixApe counters around, but be wary that LO Grass Knot can deal around 85% damage if your opponent predicts the switch. I'm not sure where to fit him in, so we'll move onto the other two big weaks for now.

And as for the SDLuke and Hera weak, it's obvious. Gliscor can do a similar job to Scizors (something like Rock Polish/Earthquake/Baton Pass/Roost) whilst also countering those two threats and helping out against Metagross, some Tyranitar and other physical threats. It's an obvious switch, although an irksome Weavile weakness appears. It's not too terrible, as Swampert is a decent counter and Magmortar can always revenge kill or switch in on an Ice Punch.

So we've got Magmortar/Snorlax/Tangrowth/Gliscor/Medicham/Swampert at the moment but we really need to fit in Starmie or even Tentacruel. My initial idea would be to put either of them in over Swampert, move Stealth Rock over to Gliscor and just whack Scarf or Band on Medicham but I'm becoming increasingly worried about Weavile. I'll think this over and reply if anything comes to me...it's not as severe a weak as you're currently weak to Skarmory, Infernape, Lucario or Heracross but it's still a little worrying. Discuss.

 

[The Darkhorse Trainer]

Fire Blast easily OHKO's Azelf. It's 180 BP against him compared to Dark Pulse's 160.

Your team seems to be walled hard by Skarmory who will almost -certainly- get three layers of Spikes down in the hands of any competent player. The only Poke who can scratch him is Magmortar, who he'll simply switch out from. He's also fucking with your main sweeping strategies by easily phazing Snorlax and Scizor. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that ALL of your team are affected by Spikes.

You're also massively MixApe weak as he is going to be dealing potentially fatal damage to Snorlax, Tangrowth, Scizor, Swampert and Magmortar/Medicham have got no chance of switching into Close Combat/Flamethrower respectively.

And most worryingly, SDLuke 6-0's this team with a single Swords Dance, which he can easily get in against Snorlax.

So obviously there's no way this team can function with such huge weaknesses to the Pokemon ranked 6th, 10th and 13th in usage over the past month, and that's without even going into detail on the obvious Hera weak (CBHera OHKO's everyone on this team except Scizor and Swampert who will be 2HKO'd without reply).

A standard spinner Starmie with Thunderbolt can efficiently solve your first two problems. Thunderbolt devestates Skarmory but it's his Rapid Spin ability that will really allow you to counter Skarm. He's also one of the best MixApe counters around, but be wary that LO Grass Knot can deal around 85% damage if your opponent predicts the switch. I'm not sure where to fit him in, so we'll move onto the other two big weaks for now.

And as for the SDLuke and Hera weak, it's obvious. Gliscor can do a similar job to Scizors (something like Rock Polish/Earthquake/Baton Pass/Roost) whilst also countering those two threats and helping out against Metagross, some Tyranitar and other physical threats. It's an obvious switch, although an irksome Weavile weakness appears. It's not too terrible, as Swampert is a decent counter and Magmortar can always revenge kill or switch in on an Ice Punch.

So we've got Magmortar/Snorlax/Tangrowth/Gliscor/Medicham/Swampert at the moment but we really need to fit in Starmie or even Tentacruel. My initial idea would be to put either of them in over Swampert, move Stealth Rock over to Gliscor and just whack Scarf or Band on Medicham but I'm becoming increasingly worried about Weavile. I'll think this over and reply if anything comes to me...it's not as severe a weak as you're currently weak to Skarmory, Infernape, Lucario or Heracross but it's still a little worrying. Discuss.

Wow i can't believe I missed my team's huge mixape weakness thanks for pointing that out. You also raise good points about Skarmory, Lucario and Heracross so precautions have to be taken against them.

In regards to Skarmory, I think the main problem I have is spikes. Magmortar can deal with Skarmory but the spikes will still remain. So I like Tentacruel better than Starmie because it can spin AND set up spikes on its own while also countering mixape. I think I'll replace Swamprt with Tentacruel.

You pointed out the obvious solution to dealing with Heracross: use Gliscor. So I think I will replace Scizor with Gliscor.

Now that I have replaced Scizor with Gliscor, I think I will replace Medicham with Gallade as Medicham's only purpose was to feed off of Scizor's baton passes. Gallade is a pokemon that can take a hit without being baton passed to so that allows Gliscor to focus on walling instead of trying to baton pass and wall.

And I'm not worried about Weavile because as you said, Magmortar can just revenge kill.