Introduction
Hi guys, for a while now I've been trying to build a relatively solid team that is able to easily cope with the majority of the standard metagame, and I believe I have found just that. The team itself has undergone a few changes since it was originally created, and I'm sure it will be subject to quite a lot more change with your thoughts and feedback. Alright lets get into the team building.
Team Building
Throughout the majority of my first few teams it became clear that these two Pokes worked quite well against a large majority of things, a lot of the time I was able to win matchs using just these two. Jelly was a standard set and Latias was a CM set, but not a standard one.
Looking at those two straight away I noticed multiple weaknesses to ghost and dark, so Hitmontop was added to give me a fighting type which would compliment the other two nicely. Hitmontop also have me two other very useful functions in the shape of Rapid spin and a large arsenal of priority moves.
I then added a support Heatran to give me rocks and some very useful type resists, she also completed the Hazard/Spinner/Spin blocker combo. Heatran was the most used Poke in Gen 4 and for good reason, its typing and stats are incredibly useful and are a great asset to any team. It also helps immensely in dealing with sun teams.
Jirachi was added as I had always loved using it due to the large array of sets that it was capable of and the fact that with a bit of luck it was able to cripple an entire team thanks to it's ability. While this did mean I doubled up on a weakness to ground it didn't worry me as Latias resisted ground entirely and Jelly did a pretty good job of it as well.
Finally I noticed I was slightly weak on the defensive side so I added Tangrowth to complete the Fire/Water/Grass core, and to give me a very useful wall. I figured that because I knew Latias was able to sweep entire teams by herself, the main focus of the rest of the team should be walling and support.
After using the team for a while I did notice a winning trend, however it was only sort of a 2:1 win:loss ratio, which really isn't particularly good in my opinion. I realised that as good as Latias was, a single special sweeper that isn't even that offensively oriented probably wasn't the greatest idea. I then finally got a chance to add my favourite Poke to the team, enter Dragonite.
At this point I realised that Tangrowth was effectively dead weight as I already had more than enough walls and support on the team, I then swapped him out for a specially offensive Celebi. I found that now having a physical and a special sweeper was working a lot better. This team brought the ratio up to 3:1, so I was still aiming for higher.
The team was still doing well, however I wanted something more. I changed around a few of the movesets of most of the Pokes and a few of the natures and EV spreads. One of the changes was making Heatran a specially offensive version which worked in some ways, but it really wasn't enough for what I wanted. I then decided that I wanted to replace it with another Fire type specially offensive Poke, and what better to do so than Volcarona?
Type Analysis
Weakness | Resistance
Normal: 1, 1, 0.5, 1, 1, 1
Fire: 0.5, 1, 2, 2, 1, 0.5
Water: 0, 1, 1, 0.5, 2, 0.5
Electric: 2, 1, 1, 0.5, 1, 1
Grass: 2, 1, 0.5, 0.5, 0.25, 0.25
Ice: 0.5, 1, 0.5, 2, 0.5, 4
Fight: 1, 1, 1, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5
Poison: 1, 1, 0, 2, 1, 1
Ground: 1, 1, 2, 0.5, 1, 0
Flying:1, 2, 0.5, 2, 2, 1
Psychic: 1, 2, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1
Bug: 1, 0.5, 1, 4, 0.5, 0.5
Rock: 1, 0.5, 0.5, 1, 4, 2
Ghost: 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1
Dragon: 1, 1, 0.5, 1, 1, 2
Dark: 1, 0.5, 1, 2, 1, 1
Steel:0.5, 1, 0.5, 1, 0.5, 1
The team in depth
Dat Support
Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
252 HP/220 Def/36 SDef
Scald
Wish
Protect
Heal Bell
Now this Vaporeon used to be a Jellicent, however after testing I decided that Jellicent wasn't the best option for the way this team was shaping up. As far as choosing a replacement for it I knew it had to be a bulky water that was capable of taking hits well from both special and physical attackers, and I also wanted to be able to burn things still. I narrowed my options down to Tentacruel, Gastrodon and Vaporeon. I then remembered that Vaporeon got Heal Bell, which made me pick it right away. The main reason I was running the Celebi set I was, was that it got Heal Bell which I found particularly valuable to the team, and as such I was reluctant to change Celebi back to my original NP set. So far this Vaporeon has prooved to be even better than I could have hopped for, I didn't really factor in it being able to pass 232 HP wishes, which means that if I feel the need I will be able to swap around my Rachi set as well. While I do lose a spin blocker in Jelly, it doesn't bother me all that much as keeping rocks up isn't my highest priority. Besides in most games I tend to kill off their spinner and then just re-set up my rocks. Using Vaporeon over Jelly has also decreased my rather problematic weaknesses to Dark and Ghost, although I have now lost a fighting immunity. I believe that this switch was definitely one of the best for the team, I am happy to change around the move set as you guys see fit, but Wish and Heal Bell must stay.
Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Will-o-Wisp
Taunt
Recover
Surf
Ah Jelly, one of the best bulky waters in todays metagame. This thing can be a great pain to deal with, but when you're using it you kinda just fall in love with it if used properly. This is the newest Jelly I've used, I used to run a max SDef variant with scald over surf, however after testing I have decided that its more useful to run the defensive side rather than special, and scald was only ever more useful than surf in the instance of potentially burning a Gliscor on a switch in before it's toxic orb activated, but how often does a Gliscor switch in on a Jellicent.. This Jellicent is ridiculously useful in conjunction with Celebi, Jirachi and Volcarona. Once Celebi have paralysed anything that I don't want to burn that isn't an all out sweeper, I can switch into Jelly, taunt them and proceed to kill them off with surfs. I have killed all kinds of things that people would not expect Jellicent to such as Latios, Starmie and Scizor.
The second function of Jellicent is that it has Water absorb as it's ability, which like Levitate, Flash fire and Volt absorb is an invaluable ability in terms of rendering one attacking type completely useless if I am able to predict when the attacks will come, and if it's a safe switch in or not. The third and finally function of this sexy blob is to act as my spin blocker, and while my team does not heavily really on entry hazards, it's always nice to have rocks down to break any sashes or to break through a Dragonite's multiscale.
Hitmontop (M) @ Life Orb
Technician
Adamant (+Atk, -SAtk)
252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spe
Earthquake
Mach Punch
Sucker Punch
Rapid Spin
Ahh Toppy, how I love you. It greatly surprises me that this thing is still in UU, I can understand that as a go to offensive fighting type it is easily outclassed by things such as Terrakion, Lucario and Conkeldurr. However Hitmontop really isn't designed to be an offensive powerhouse. Think of him as 'doing the little things well'. With the ability to learn more priority moves than anything bar Smeargle, as well as access to rapid spin, AND an ability that powers most of those moves up, this thing is just way to good to pass up. When I was originally building the team I was tossing up between Toppy and Starmie, but seeing as I already had Jelly I went with Top and I'm glad I did. I guess if I had to have one Top would be my 'designated lead' although we all know those don't really exist anymore outside of Deoxys-s and weather inducers. I used to run Fake Out on Top as well, however after I noticed I was rather Heatran weak I decided to add Earthquake instead. However as most Heatrans want to swap out of Top anyway I tend to score some nice surprise damage on the switch in, I've killed quite a few Rachis to this. The second role of Top is to obviously spin away any entry hazards on my side of the field, and seeing as I run both Dragonite and Volcarona it is pretty essential that I keep rocks away as much as possible. Unless I feel like making things interesting :D
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Serene Grace
Careful (+SDef, -SAtk)
252 HP/24 Spe/232 SDef
Body Slam
Stealth Rock
Wish
U-Turn
Just like Celebi this set has only just recently changed, and may well change back. The previous set was a purely offensive shock variant, which gave me many surprise KO's. However upon the restructure of this team is seemed that a specially defensive variant would proove to be more useful. The main role of this Rachi is pretty similar to that of a normal one, set up rocks and pass the occasional wish while annoying the shit out of your opponent with those Body slam parahax. Rather than just going for the very conventional Iron Head in the 4th slot I decided to go for U-Turn. The main idea behind this is to use it as a safe wish passing chain to either Dragonite or Volcarona if somehow there are rocks up and Top is dead. That way I can opt to not paralyse my opponent right away, so that it will usually outspeed. Wish, then proceed to take the next hit, U-Turn to my sweeper take damage from rocks and then get resorted to full HP or near to it. This set has been very useful so far, and I am quite enjoying what it brings to the team.
Fun Time
Celebi @ Meadow Plate
Natural Cure
Modest (+SAtk, -Atk)
56 HP/244 Spe/208 SAtk
HP Fire
Giga Drain
Water Pulse
Nasty Plot
Okay so this is the set that made me fall in love with Celebi. Because of this set I had to keep Celebi on my team regardless of what set it was running, but that variation on Tinkerbell just really wasn't doing much for the team other than killing off Grass types and paralysing switch ins. While the Tinkerbell set was very bulky and could live a huge amount of threats from both sides, this Celebi is obviously somewhat more frail. However that doesn't matter as this thing will probably kill off whatever is threatening it bar a few scarfers with Bug moves, looking at you Landorus/Terrakion. I choose to run Water pulse alongside Giga Drain and HP Fire just to give me amazing coverage, however I am thinking about changing this out to Earth Power as I wouldn't lose any coverage and would be hitting those Fire types harder. The next major oddity on this set is the Meadow plate. Using a Meadow Plate allows me to fake being choiced, and to also just boost up the power of Giga Drain. Thanks to the added power I am able to recover more than I would with lefties on anything that doesn't 4x resist Grass alongside having high SDef investment. Celebi is also rather good at singly handedly demolishing rain teams. The only member of a rain team I will generally switch out on is Tornadus which I can easily handle with other members of the team. Rain stall teams were a bit of an issue before I brought this Celebi back in, however now they are once again a thing of the past.
Volcarona (M) @ Leftovers
Flame Body
Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
64 HP/196 Spe/248 SAtk
Quiver Dance
Fiery Dance
Bug Buzz
HP Ground
Now I know that As far as sweepers go Volcarona and Dragonite don't have the best synergy, however I think I have been able to work around that rather easily. Through out the meta game you are generally able to group certain Pokes together for whatever reason. One of those groups in my opinion is Heatran, Volcarona and Dragonite. In this trio Heatran will happily wall the other two better than anything else in the meta game, unless they carry moves specifically for Heatran. Dragonite will wall Volcarona for days on end and Volcarona sort of just loses out. So by using both Volcarona and Dragonite I do put myself at risk of being walled by Heatran, so I have changed up Volcarona to be my designated Heatran counter. I used to run a ChestoRest Volcarona, however after noticing how many times people switch in Heatran to counter it, and how far fewer people are running air balloons now, that I would just put HP Ground on there for an easy OHKO after a QD or two. I was debating putting HP Rock on for the Dragonite problem, but really Dragonite is no threat to my team. I have my own, and it will win. HP Ground has also helped quite a lot against Terrakions, as after 2 Quiver Dances I will outspeed a Jolly 252 EV scarfed Terrakion, and getting to +2 is ridiculously easy as I usually come in on a switch anyway through good prediction so getting one up is basically something you must take for granted. While many people will think that Volcarona is rendered useless by Rain teams, I would disagree. It still has access to Stab Bug Buzz and HP Ground, which will be doing a lot to most members on a rain team bar Gastrodon and Tornadus. In that case I can just switch in to Celebi for the former, or take my pick for the latter.
Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers
Multiscale
Jolly (+Spe, -SAtk)
60 HP/196 Atk/252 Spe
Dragon Dance
Dragon Claw
Fire Punch
Roost
WTF this kid knows nothing, yes I run Jolly on Dragonite, no I'm not trolling. While a lot of you will believe that it is stupid and ineffective at best to be running not only a Jolly nature, but then on top of that max speed EV's, I accept your point of view but I don't have to agree with it. As you will instantly notice I run barely any HP investment on this monster, but when your a Dragonite with multiscale, you don't need HP. This is the MVP of the team in so many ways I don't even know where to begin. The main idea behind running max speed, and higher than normal attack investment is simple. I want this Dragonite to be a sweeper, but I don't want it to be a 252/252/4 sweeper, as I honestly don't believe that that sort of set brings out the full potential of this beast. Obviously the idea is to DD as much as possible and then just wreck shit, clean factory or whatever else you want to call it. At the end of the day this guy does work. The moves provide me with great coverage to fuck up anything not named Heatran, and even then after a few DD's (3-4+) I'll happily deal with any that don't run Roar, or some trollin' ass Heatran running max Def. Roost is there simply to deal with Gliscors, as often they think that I'll lose the match up seeing as Gliscor is a physical wall that knows Ice Fang, you want to put money on that? Another reason I run the speed/attack that I do is that this Dragonite will win against any other Dragonite that isn't scarfed, and even then it would have to be physical to win. When was the last time anyone saw a scarfed Dragonite anyway? The beauty of Dragonite is that it can set up on so many things, Ferrothorn wants to leech seed me? Let it, I'll DD a few times and fire punch the fuck out of it. While Dragonite serves as my janitor, it can also just help me get some good switch ins going if I feel that another member of my team will be more effective in the particular situation.
Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
252 HP/220 Def/36 SDef
Scald
Wish
Protect
Heal Bell
Now this Vaporeon used to be a Jellicent, however after testing I decided that Jellicent wasn't the best option for the way this team was shaping up. As far as choosing a replacement for it I knew it had to be a bulky water that was capable of taking hits well from both special and physical attackers, and I also wanted to be able to burn things still. I narrowed my options down to Tentacruel, Gastrodon and Vaporeon. I then remembered that Vaporeon got Heal Bell, which made me pick it right away. The main reason I was running the Celebi set I was, was that it got Heal Bell which I found particularly valuable to the team, and as such I was reluctant to change Celebi back to my original NP set. So far this Vaporeon has prooved to be even better than I could have hopped for, I didn't really factor in it being able to pass 232 HP wishes, which means that if I feel the need I will be able to swap around my Rachi set as well. While I do lose a spin blocker in Jelly, it doesn't bother me all that much as keeping rocks up isn't my highest priority. Besides in most games I tend to kill off their spinner and then just re-set up my rocks. Using Vaporeon over Jelly has also decreased my rather problematic weaknesses to Dark and Ghost, although I have now lost a fighting immunity. I believe that this switch was definitely one of the best for the team, I am happy to change around the move set as you guys see fit, but Wish and Heal Bell must stay.
Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Will-o-Wisp
Taunt
Recover
Surf
Ah Jelly, one of the best bulky waters in todays metagame. This thing can be a great pain to deal with, but when you're using it you kinda just fall in love with it if used properly. This is the newest Jelly I've used, I used to run a max SDef variant with scald over surf, however after testing I have decided that its more useful to run the defensive side rather than special, and scald was only ever more useful than surf in the instance of potentially burning a Gliscor on a switch in before it's toxic orb activated, but how often does a Gliscor switch in on a Jellicent.. This Jellicent is ridiculously useful in conjunction with Celebi, Jirachi and Volcarona. Once Celebi have paralysed anything that I don't want to burn that isn't an all out sweeper, I can switch into Jelly, taunt them and proceed to kill them off with surfs. I have killed all kinds of things that people would not expect Jellicent to such as Latios, Starmie and Scizor.
The second function of Jellicent is that it has Water absorb as it's ability, which like Levitate, Flash fire and Volt absorb is an invaluable ability in terms of rendering one attacking type completely useless if I am able to predict when the attacks will come, and if it's a safe switch in or not. The third and finally function of this sexy blob is to act as my spin blocker, and while my team does not heavily really on entry hazards, it's always nice to have rocks down to break any sashes or to break through a Dragonite's multiscale.
Hitmontop (M) @ Life Orb
Technician
Adamant (+Atk, -SAtk)
252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spe
Earthquake
Mach Punch
Sucker Punch
Rapid Spin
Ahh Toppy, how I love you. It greatly surprises me that this thing is still in UU, I can understand that as a go to offensive fighting type it is easily outclassed by things such as Terrakion, Lucario and Conkeldurr. However Hitmontop really isn't designed to be an offensive powerhouse. Think of him as 'doing the little things well'. With the ability to learn more priority moves than anything bar Smeargle, as well as access to rapid spin, AND an ability that powers most of those moves up, this thing is just way to good to pass up. When I was originally building the team I was tossing up between Toppy and Starmie, but seeing as I already had Jelly I went with Top and I'm glad I did. I guess if I had to have one Top would be my 'designated lead' although we all know those don't really exist anymore outside of Deoxys-s and weather inducers. I used to run Fake Out on Top as well, however after I noticed I was rather Heatran weak I decided to add Earthquake instead. However as most Heatrans want to swap out of Top anyway I tend to score some nice surprise damage on the switch in, I've killed quite a few Rachis to this. The second role of Top is to obviously spin away any entry hazards on my side of the field, and seeing as I run both Dragonite and Volcarona it is pretty essential that I keep rocks away as much as possible. Unless I feel like making things interesting :D
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Serene Grace
Careful (+SDef, -SAtk)
252 HP/24 Spe/232 SDef
Body Slam
Stealth Rock
Wish
U-Turn
Just like Celebi this set has only just recently changed, and may well change back. The previous set was a purely offensive shock variant, which gave me many surprise KO's. However upon the restructure of this team is seemed that a specially defensive variant would proove to be more useful. The main role of this Rachi is pretty similar to that of a normal one, set up rocks and pass the occasional wish while annoying the shit out of your opponent with those Body slam parahax. Rather than just going for the very conventional Iron Head in the 4th slot I decided to go for U-Turn. The main idea behind this is to use it as a safe wish passing chain to either Dragonite or Volcarona if somehow there are rocks up and Top is dead. That way I can opt to not paralyse my opponent right away, so that it will usually outspeed. Wish, then proceed to take the next hit, U-Turn to my sweeper take damage from rocks and then get resorted to full HP or near to it. This set has been very useful so far, and I am quite enjoying what it brings to the team.
Fun Time
Celebi @ Meadow Plate
Natural Cure
Modest (+SAtk, -Atk)
56 HP/244 Spe/208 SAtk
HP Fire
Giga Drain
Water Pulse
Nasty Plot
Okay so this is the set that made me fall in love with Celebi. Because of this set I had to keep Celebi on my team regardless of what set it was running, but that variation on Tinkerbell just really wasn't doing much for the team other than killing off Grass types and paralysing switch ins. While the Tinkerbell set was very bulky and could live a huge amount of threats from both sides, this Celebi is obviously somewhat more frail. However that doesn't matter as this thing will probably kill off whatever is threatening it bar a few scarfers with Bug moves, looking at you Landorus/Terrakion. I choose to run Water pulse alongside Giga Drain and HP Fire just to give me amazing coverage, however I am thinking about changing this out to Earth Power as I wouldn't lose any coverage and would be hitting those Fire types harder. The next major oddity on this set is the Meadow plate. Using a Meadow Plate allows me to fake being choiced, and to also just boost up the power of Giga Drain. Thanks to the added power I am able to recover more than I would with lefties on anything that doesn't 4x resist Grass alongside having high SDef investment. Celebi is also rather good at singly handedly demolishing rain teams. The only member of a rain team I will generally switch out on is Tornadus which I can easily handle with other members of the team. Rain stall teams were a bit of an issue before I brought this Celebi back in, however now they are once again a thing of the past.
Volcarona (M) @ Leftovers
Flame Body
Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
64 HP/196 Spe/248 SAtk
Quiver Dance
Fiery Dance
Bug Buzz
HP Ground
Now I know that As far as sweepers go Volcarona and Dragonite don't have the best synergy, however I think I have been able to work around that rather easily. Through out the meta game you are generally able to group certain Pokes together for whatever reason. One of those groups in my opinion is Heatran, Volcarona and Dragonite. In this trio Heatran will happily wall the other two better than anything else in the meta game, unless they carry moves specifically for Heatran. Dragonite will wall Volcarona for days on end and Volcarona sort of just loses out. So by using both Volcarona and Dragonite I do put myself at risk of being walled by Heatran, so I have changed up Volcarona to be my designated Heatran counter. I used to run a ChestoRest Volcarona, however after noticing how many times people switch in Heatran to counter it, and how far fewer people are running air balloons now, that I would just put HP Ground on there for an easy OHKO after a QD or two. I was debating putting HP Rock on for the Dragonite problem, but really Dragonite is no threat to my team. I have my own, and it will win. HP Ground has also helped quite a lot against Terrakions, as after 2 Quiver Dances I will outspeed a Jolly 252 EV scarfed Terrakion, and getting to +2 is ridiculously easy as I usually come in on a switch anyway through good prediction so getting one up is basically something you must take for granted. While many people will think that Volcarona is rendered useless by Rain teams, I would disagree. It still has access to Stab Bug Buzz and HP Ground, which will be doing a lot to most members on a rain team bar Gastrodon and Tornadus. In that case I can just switch in to Celebi for the former, or take my pick for the latter.
Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers
Multiscale
Jolly (+Spe, -SAtk)
60 HP/196 Atk/252 Spe
Dragon Dance
Dragon Claw
Fire Punch
Roost
WTF this kid knows nothing, yes I run Jolly on Dragonite, no I'm not trolling. While a lot of you will believe that it is stupid and ineffective at best to be running not only a Jolly nature, but then on top of that max speed EV's, I accept your point of view but I don't have to agree with it. As you will instantly notice I run barely any HP investment on this monster, but when your a Dragonite with multiscale, you don't need HP. This is the MVP of the team in so many ways I don't even know where to begin. The main idea behind running max speed, and higher than normal attack investment is simple. I want this Dragonite to be a sweeper, but I don't want it to be a 252/252/4 sweeper, as I honestly don't believe that that sort of set brings out the full potential of this beast. Obviously the idea is to DD as much as possible and then just wreck shit, clean factory or whatever else you want to call it. At the end of the day this guy does work. The moves provide me with great coverage to fuck up anything not named Heatran, and even then after a few DD's (3-4+) I'll happily deal with any that don't run Roar, or some trollin' ass Heatran running max Def. Roost is there simply to deal with Gliscors, as often they think that I'll lose the match up seeing as Gliscor is a physical wall that knows Ice Fang, you want to put money on that? Another reason I run the speed/attack that I do is that this Dragonite will win against any other Dragonite that isn't scarfed, and even then it would have to be physical to win. When was the last time anyone saw a scarfed Dragonite anyway? The beauty of Dragonite is that it can set up on so many things, Ferrothorn wants to leech seed me? Let it, I'll DD a few times and fire punch the fuck out of it. While Dragonite serves as my janitor, it can also just help me get some good switch ins going if I feel that another member of my team will be more effective in the particular situation.
Threats
Because this team does such a good job of dealing with a large majority of the metagame, in my experience, I don't believe that it is necessary for me to post that long ass list of offensive and defensive threats, rather I think I'll just point of the specific threats that I have identified up till now. I'm sure there may be some other things to worry about, and that's what I'm hopping you guys can help me with.
Offensive
This used to be a much bigger threat, before I re-added my NP Celebi and gave Volcarona HP ground. Now it doesn't pose much of a threat at all, unless its scarfed and I am unable to get to +2 with Volcarona. Then I just kill it off with a combination of Vaporeon and Hitmontop, rather easy really. Or I can just sack Celebi to an X-Scissor, and then get some free boosts going with Volcarona and kill it.
Forgot about this guy when I first wrote this. On a rain team this guy can be a bit of a pain depending on what set its running. Specs is probably the worst set for me to go up against, as I kind of need my rocks up and Rachi at upwards of 70% HP. If I have both of those things its really kind of a joke, however if not I need to be able to bring in Dnite without rocks up, DD on the HP Ice and then KO with Dragon Claw. Probably the biggest offensive threat to my team, but still handled relatively easily.
Forgot about this guy when I first wrote this. On a rain team this guy can be a bit of a pain depending on what set its running. Specs is probably the worst set for me to go up against, as I kind of need my rocks up and Rachi at upwards of 70% HP. If I have both of those things its really kind of a joke, however if not I need to be able to bring in Dnite without rocks up, DD on the HP Ice and then KO with Dragon Claw. Probably the biggest offensive threat to my team, but still handled relatively easily.
Defensive
This guy used to be the biggest problem for my team, although with a few changes I get to laugh at him now. I used to have to rely on a team effort to whittle it down and eventually KO, however after adding EQ to Toppy and HP Ground to Volcarona it really doesn't worry me any more. The worst it can do is Toxic Volcarona/Top and then die, at which point I switch out Top, and Volcarona if they have 4 or more Pokes left, bring in Vaporeon, Heal Bell and go from there. Used to be the biggest threat, now not so much.
Whenever I see this thing in the team preview I automatically want to smack it, you know how theres always that one kid/colleague that you just want to smack because they're so annoying and don't realise it? Yeah thats Blissey, any arguments? While it is a pain in the ass it isn't all that hard to deal with. A combination of Top and Dragonite can easily deal with the overweight fairy wannabe without much difficulty at all. While some may argue Chansey should be here if Blissey is I would tend to disagree. While Chansey does have extra defences thanks to Evo, she then loses the ability to have lefties and move sets also tend to vary a lot between the two. Due to this I would not really class Chansey as a threat seeing as the large majority of them run toxic as their main way of dealing with opponents, and thanks to Celebi that isn't an issue.
Weather
Oh weather, how you make things so predictable and monotonous. Still I don't really mind weather. The only real weather threats in my opinion are Drizzle+Swift swim, Sand steam+ Sand rush and Drought + Chlorophyll, and the only one of those still running around is the latter. Sun teams are easily the hardest to deal with for this team, but hard really isn't the right word. Dragonite + Volcarona will happily deal with any Sun team, any sun team not packing 3+ Chlorophyll users anyway. Venusaur is arguably the biggest threat, but it really doesn't threaten Dragonite at all, and depending on EV spreads an un boosted Fire punch in the sun is enough to OHKO it. Volcarona also has a pretty easy time dealing with it. Rain teams also used to be a bit of a problem, but with my NP Celebi back on the team they really don't worry me at all. Tornadus on a rain team as I mentioned early is the biggest offensive threat to this team. However that is covered relatively easily.
Conclusion
So thats the team, props if you could be bothered to read everything I wrote, I know it was a lot. While this team is far from perfect, it is quite fun to play with and it does bring about a lot of success, granted you have some decent prediction skills. I have yet to play with this team on the ladder, but feel free to do that if anyone wishes. There are areas I know can be improved, along the lines of Natures/EV's and movesets. Cheers for reading, and please leave as much feedback as you feel like :)
