Hello there,
this is actually my first time trying to make a team of my own (althoug I heavily took inspiration from Huy's Worlds 2014 team) and also the first time I post a RMT, so, hopefully both this post and this team is not noob-material, but I apologies if my inexperience leads to that.
As a premise I want to say that I usually like "unconventional-ish" teams, which is why I purposefully chose a not so common hail-based concept for building this. It is also important to understand that none of those pokemon are able to do a good job without their companions: as you can see there are three X4 weaknesses to quite common Max moves (namely electric, fire and grass) and both fighting and rock are prominent weaknesses in it, meaning you need a lot of baiting and switching. However the various mons cover each others' problems, which means the switching system is quite well rounded and works, as long as your opponent falls for the bait and doesn't outsmart you.
So, lets begin...
Abomasnow (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 140 HP / 116 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Blizzard
- Protect
- Leaf Storm
- Ice Shard
this is actually my first time trying to make a team of my own (althoug I heavily took inspiration from Huy's Worlds 2014 team) and also the first time I post a RMT, so, hopefully both this post and this team is not noob-material, but I apologies if my inexperience leads to that.
As a premise I want to say that I usually like "unconventional-ish" teams, which is why I purposefully chose a not so common hail-based concept for building this. It is also important to understand that none of those pokemon are able to do a good job without their companions: as you can see there are three X4 weaknesses to quite common Max moves (namely electric, fire and grass) and both fighting and rock are prominent weaknesses in it, meaning you need a lot of baiting and switching. However the various mons cover each others' problems, which means the switching system is quite well rounded and works, as long as your opponent falls for the bait and doesn't outsmart you.
So, lets begin...
Abomasnow (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 140 HP / 116 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Blizzard
- Protect
- Leaf Storm
- Ice Shard
In many ways this guy is the key of the team. It of course enables blizzard which is present in three out of six members, but that isn't his main utility to be honest. When he has not a good match up, it acts as a really good bait as well as a weather setter :it can face steel/fighting/fire types, set the weather and switch to Lapras or Gastrodoon in order to lure in and resist attacks of those types while letting the beasts you usually send him in with (mainly gyarados) deal a strategic amount of damage. His second utility comes from sash: since he is usually paired with a much more menacing mon, rarely will people double target him, letting him deal a quite good amount of damage with either blizzard (usually spammed on pair with the pokemon he leads with) or leafstorm (which melts away rotom wash and in general is a strong answer to water); then in the turn with the 1 PS remaining he can either ice shard for cheap damage (which is usually a finisher with hail and the other spread moves on this team) or switch out/protect in order to being used later. It is in general good to keep him alive as long as possible since hail hits almost every pokemon in the meta and is really important for resetting weather against sun/sand teams; plus, a priority user is always useful in the late game.
Gyarados (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 60 HP / 204 Def / 244 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Hurricane
- Blizzard
- Thunder
He's the main attacker of the team and sinergises pretty well with it. He almost always finds himself as a lead since it is only really scared of electric and rock moves, while he has many different options, making him quite unpredictable. Blizzard obviously serves as part of the spam strategy with Abomasnow. Surf is such a useful move when paired with Gastrodoon and Lapras, which means that against Tytar-Excadrill/Charizard-Torkoal leads it is always a good strategy to lead with Abomasnow, then switch him for one of the two aforementioned water types and surf in order to get cheap damage and a buffed(stormdrain)/cured(water absorb) mon ready to Dynamax and change the weather on the next turn. Hurricane is my main way of dealing with fighting types (Conkeldurr mainly) when it becomes Max-airstream. Thunder is the one move I was thinking of changing since it is not good to lock into and does not that much as a Max-lightning, no idea of what to change it for though.
Ah, and of course, the specs set is always a good surprise (when damn frisk isn't around) and intimidate is always good expecially paired with resonance's aurora veil.
The Hydra (Lapras-Gmax) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 102 Def / 156 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
I was also thinking to Rotom Frost as the second stab blizzard spammer as electric moves and volt switch would have been a great addition, but Lapras is just so versatile and fat, it seemed a really good choiche over a much frailer mon. Resonance is the go-to move against a lead without any particular match up with mine and just a good way to snipe grass (expecially Whimsicott whose sash is always made useless by hail or spread moves, so I don't have to worry about that annoying support later), dragon and flying (which are all also dealth with by blizzard spam). Hydropump and protect are just generic strong moves that don't need Dynamax to work. Thunderbolt is just a way to deal with opposing water types, usually kept to set up electric terrain in the last Dynamax turn. Weakness policy is self-explanatory in conjunction with his longevity and nigh-impossibility to one shot (Dracozolt is a frightening exception thoug it usually gets blasted off by blizzard). To be honest his combination with surf isn't that great since it only makes a difference after a pair of turn with low/no damage received, which means you're already winning by this time.
Despite beeing so good, this guy is also quite generic and doesn't bring variety to the team, so I would like to find something as valuable as Resonance in order to substitute him.
Gastrodon-East (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 28 SpA / 120 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Hydro Pump
- Protect
- Clear Smog
Despite being arguably a key mon along with the other tree above listed, Gastrodoon is a problematic member. On the one side he's always useful for switching in place of Abomasnow, and he tanks pretty much anything, plus storm drain totally shuts down water and can make his combo with surf form Gyarados a real threat. He is particularly good against Tytar-Excadrill lead toghether with Gyarados, expecially when dynamaxed. On the other hand it is just one-shotted by grass which means you often switch him out thus rendering both his Dynamax and his surf combo unreliable with how many mons carry Max-overgrowth. His other big problem is that you always have to remember that storm drain makes both Lapras' and Gyarados' max-geysers useless and that can distrupt your plays quite often.
Clear smog is just a neat option against all those mons who use to gain absurde stats, which is really common in this metagame.
He's, toghether with Lapras, the water type which I don't know whether to keep or not, since it has both pros and cons and it makes the typing redundant.
Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Close Combat
- Meteor Mash
- Protect
This guy is quite amaizing. It can be a big miss when you don't keep his speed in mind since he is so frail, but it has many pros. He's the fairy killer of the team and bullet punch is his main move for that purpose since it usually assures a KO when paired with the spread moves/hail damage this team usually deals and assures some damage.
Other than that I usually send him in when the environment is relatively safe so that it can either meteor mash or close combat in order to melt common mons which are weak to that (which are quite a lot, like Excadrill, Tytar, Duraludon and all those which are slower than or weak to him).
My most common composition is Abomasnow-Gyarados lead, than one between Lapras and Gastrodoon and finally 90% of times there is him; he's just really splashable. Dynamax is also an option, but that usually goes in the rare occasions I lead with him (usually against a team with many weaknesses to him) and that means I usually need a good starting position.
Dragapult @ Expert Belt
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 84 HP / 172 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Psychic Fangs
- Phantom Force
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
This guy is the most problematic of the team. There are three reasons for keeping him in: he is a good check against psychic, fighting and ghost, he is a physical attacker and he is fast (those last two characters are completely lacking in the team). Hower, in practice I never use him and there are two reasons for that: he's frail, so I don't use him in neutral matchups since the team already has good coverage and then I already have fighting covered by Gyarados, so there are really not that many good matchups for him.
I thought of replacing him with Tytar in order to both have another weather setter and keeping the ghost coverage and the physical attacker, however that would make me too weak to fighting types.
The other option was Chandelure which may resolve just everything: fire is needed against Durant, ghost would still be covered and than I would also have a trickroom setter and/or anti-trickroom option (imprison). However that would also make that a 5/6 special attack team, plus trickroom isn't really ideal for such a middling speed team.
So at last I see the option of making him a fast support (with screens) but I don't really know how to sinergise that well with the team.
And well, that was it...
As I said in the intro, this is a team which is heavily based on luring in and surprising opponents via intentionally leaving defensive holes and using "uncommon" tactics. However the baits are quite obvious so somebody reading the game I'm playing can tear the team apart within few well directed moves. That said I don't dislike such a style of play, since that was the initial idea and I think it to be quite fun. So, my aim with this RMT is undestanding how to make this strategy the most solid possible, covering up the holes the team has, making it more flexible.
Thank you all for reading this.
As I said in the intro, this is a team which is heavily based on luring in and surprising opponents via intentionally leaving defensive holes and using "uncommon" tactics. However the baits are quite obvious so somebody reading the game I'm playing can tear the team apart within few well directed moves. That said I don't dislike such a style of play, since that was the initial idea and I think it to be quite fun. So, my aim with this RMT is undestanding how to make this strategy the most solid possible, covering up the holes the team has, making it more flexible.
Thank you all for reading this.
