My Standard Team

[Gelo]

Hello Smogon. This is my first post on the forums. I've been into WiFi battles since this last may and have been playing on Pokemon online and Pokemon showdown. This is my most used team and my favorite team that I have. I'm posting in this thread because my friends aren't into competitive battles and they wouldn't know how to rate my team. So here's the team,

Infernape @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk/ 252 Sp Atk/ 4 Spe
Hasty (+Spe, - Def)
-Fire Blast
-Close Combat
-U-Turn
-Hidden Power (Grass)

Infernape is my favorite Pokemon on this team for this reason he is my lead. Infernape makes a great lead he has great attack stats and speed so he can OHKO most leads. He also makes a great revenge killer, but watch out for other scarfed Pokemon which can out speed and kill the ape due to his frailness.

Blissey @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Sp Def/ 4 Spe
Calm (+ Sp Def, - Atk)
-Toxic
-Softboiled
-Seismic Toss
-Aromatherapy

Its Blissey. What do you expect she walls the hell out of every Special Attacker. It can even take a Focus Blast from Max Special Attack, Alakazam and still have a lot of HP to spare. Blissey is the only poke on the team with toxic so it is sent in dire situations when something needs to be poisoned. It also has aromatheraphy to get rid of status

Foretress @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 Atk
Relaxed (+Def, -Spe)
-Rapid Spin
-Spikes
-Gyro Ball
-Earthquake

Forestress, the defensive wall. He also sets up spikes and rapid spins. Most people don't expect Forestress to have attacks but he makes good use of his low speed with Gyro Ball and Earthquake because of its coverage and high power.

Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk/ 252 Spe/ 4 HP
Jolly (+Spe, - Sp Atk)
-Fire Punch
-Ice Punch
-Thunder Punch
-Iron Head

Jirachi, is a very versatile Pokemon. It can be a utility, wall, or a sweeper. This Jirachi is offensive and it bluffs a scarf, the expert belt makes its super effective hits do more damage and the elemental punches offer plenty of coverage. It also has Iron Head if you have to flinch hax things to death. This Pokemon acts as a backup physical attacker if Infernape dies.

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Sp Atk/ 128 Def/ 128 Sp Def
Modest (+Sp Atk, - Atk)
-Volt Switch
-Hydro Punch
-Hidden Power (Fire)
-Signal Beam

This guy isn't bulky but he does have defensive EVs invested. I put defense EVs to take advantage of Rotom-W good defensive base stats. His move pool is diverse and can handle almost any situation. The best thing about this Rotom is that it has Signal Beam to OHKO when your opponet mindlessly switches into Celebi. This is the main special sweeper due to it having a more diverse move pool then Celebi.

Celebi @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 225 HP/ 252 Sp Atk/ 31 Def
Modest (+Sp Atk, -Atk)
-Stealth Rock
-Recover
-Leaf Storm
-Psychic

A bulky Celebi is useful for setting up Stealth Rocks, but my Celebi not only sets up Rocks it also has dual stab. The Dual Stab can cause massive damage due to the moves being high power and accuracy. The Celebi also recover to heal off any Life Orb Damage.

I used to have Virizion on my team but I decided I needed another special attacker. If there are Pokemon you think I should switch or move sets I should change please tell me.

 

[Nova]

Hi Gelo

First off, welcome to Smogon and solid team you have here. I especially like your use of Expert Belt Jirachi to bluff a Choice Scarf set. Now looking at your team, Dragon Dance Dragonite is a major threat. After a Dragon Dance boost, he outspeeds your entire team except for Infernape and hits everything hard with Outrage and Fire Punch. Quiver Dance Volcarona is also a major threat to your team. Despite the fact that you are using Blissey, one of the premier special walls in the game, she is actually 2HKO'd by +1 Volcarona's Fire Blast in the sun with a bit of prior damage from entry hazards. For these threats, I suggest replacing Scarf Infernape with a Choice Scarf Terrakion with a moveset of Close Combat / Stone Edge / Earthquake / X-Scissor. Terrakion is one of the best revenge killers in the metagame, being able to outspeed Dragonite and Volcarona even after they boost and dispatch of them with a STAB super effective Stone Edge, the former with Multiscale broken. Close Combat provides great coverage alongside Stone Edge and provides a spammable move to clean up late game. X-Scissor is used for 4x Super Effective damage on Celebi and Earthquake, albeit providing largely redundant coverage, lets you hit Toxicroak and Tentacruel harder. Losing Infernape does cause you to lose his scouting abilities of U-Turn but the revenge killing skills of Terrakion are more useful for your balanced team and Terrakion still makes for a strong lead, being able to handle the weather starters.

Now for some smaller changes. I recommend replacing Earthquake on Forretress with Volt Switch. Volt Switch not only allows you to escape from Magnezone and Wobbuffet but also build switch advantage as most players will switch in their spinblockers when they see Forretress. Next, I would change Rotom-W's EV spread to 112 HP / 252 SAtk / 144 Spd with a Modest nature. This spread sacrifices some bulk for speed investment that is crucial in allowing you to outspeed max speed Adamant Breloom and Scizor and take them out with HP Fire before they can Bullet Seed/Superpower you. The spread also outspeeds most variants of Gliscor so you can take them out before they cripple you with Toxic.

Hope I helped and good luck with your team!


Set:

Hide

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-X-Scissor

tl;dr

Hide

Choice Scarf Infernape ----> Choice Scarf Terrakion
Earthquake on Forretress ----> Volt Switch
Rotom-W's EV spread ----> 112 HP / 252 SAtk / 144 Spd with Modest nature

 

[Gelo]

I agree with you on everything except Terrakion's nature and putting HP EVs on Rotom. If Terrakion has a scarf on I rather just give him an Adamant nature. Rotom has a pathetic base HP stat which is why I put EVs in Defense instead. I do agree with you about making him more speedy do I will make the EV spread, 252 Sp Atk/ 144 Spe/ 112 Sp Def.

 

[Latiax]

Running jolly on scarf terrakion is very important because it allows you to outspeed volcarona at +2 and salamance at +1. I would also recommend making your blissey bold with max def rather than spdef since it's base HP and spdef are already off the charts and having max def allows you to take a fair bit of physical damage aswell as special damage. You might also want to try running painsplit on your Rotom for a bit of extra health regen. Finally, I think you might want to run 36 speed EVs on your celebi to outspeed things like gliscor and gyarados.
P.S. your celebi has 225 hp EVs and 31 Def Evs when it should be 224 and 32 :]
Very nice team

 

[Gelo]

I agree on everything except physical defensive Blissey, and painsplit Rotom. When you put max defense and bold she still has terrible defense. She works best as special defensive wall. About Rotom I understand why you would put painsplit on it but it needs the coverage that it gets from each of its move.

 

[Jimbon]

Hi there!

This is a neat team, with a cool use of Scarf Infernape, a really underrated set. One thing I do see about this team is the weakness to DragMag types of teams, as Magnezone / Magneton traps your main check to Dragons in Forretress, and opposing Dragons proceed to cause havoc for your team. Your only thing to really hurt them is with Jirachi's Ice Punch, and when you are running an Offensive Jirachi you cannot repeatedly switch in to the likes of Haxorus, Dragonite and Salamence. To help with this weakness, I would recommend you modify your Forretress set slightly. A set of 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SAtk with a moveset of Spikes, Volt Switch, Rapid Spin and Hidden Power [Ice] would help you a lot against opposing DragMag teams. Volt Switch allows you to escape from Magnezone / Magneton as they switch in, combined with Forretress's very low speed stat, you can guarantee free switches into other members of your team who do not sport the similar bulk that Forretress does. With this set, you also gain the ability to 2HKO Salamence and Dragonite, who are common members of DragMag teams. Additionally, you also gain the ability to beat variants of Sub Toxic Gliscor, who can easily wear down other members of your team such as Rotom, Blissey and Infernape.

Like Novaray has pointed out, you do seem a little weak to Volcarona, especially the bulky Quiver Dance set in Sun. You seem like you need Stealth Rock up to beat it, which can be hard getting Blissey in safely as it draws in so many physical attackers. While Terrakion is a fine scarfer, I do think you should keep Infernape. Infernape has the speed stat as Terrakion, while having other great moves such as U-Turn and Overheat, which are great on Scarf Pokemon as they have the intention of hitting and running. As for your Infernape set, I would recommend you try out Flare Blitz > Fire Blast, and Stone Edge > Hidden Power [Grass]. It might also be beneficial to run a set of 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe with a Jolly Nature. With this set, you make the most of Infernape's offensive power. With the max speed investment with a Jolly Nature, you outspeed the same things as Scarf Terrakion, as well as having the ability to nail Volcarona with Stone Edge. With Rapid Spin support from Forretress, entry hazards will become less of a problem for your team to deal with. Running Flare Blitz over Fire Blast gives you a lot more offensive power, and can mean the difference between some of Infernape's OHKOs and 2HKOs.

Cool team, hope I helped!

 

[Gelo]

Thanks i may or may make Infernape pure physical because mixed ape tends to catch people off guard and I can hit both sides of the spectrum. And I haven't thought about using Foretress speed for switch initiative just power for gyro ball. Thanks.