The Team
Here's the breakdown
Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Grass Knot
Effectiveness as a lead
This Jirachi works perfectly as a lead due to it’s excellent type coverage and the fact that most people will assume it’s running a Choice Scarf, however, the illusion is broken if I’m up against an Aerodactyl, Scarf Azelf (who I always switch-out from due to Fire Blast), or anything else that it would usually be able to out-speed with a Scarf. A common switch-in to Jirachi is Swampert, which I can lure out by using Iron Head in the beginning, only to have it fall quickly to Grass Knot. Heatran, Infernape, and Gyarados can’t be countered with this set, so I usually just switch out, which is where Cresselia comes in. In the past, I would switch Heatran in on an opposing Heatran, but it seems that now most people use Earth Power against this Jirachi (probably to avoid giving another Heatran a free Flash Fire boost).
How Jirachi benefits from its teammates
Jirachi is weak to Fire-type attacks, but Heatran gets a boost from them and Kingdra has a 4x resistance. Jirachi is also weak to Ground-type attacks, which Zapdos and Cresselia both are immune to. Since Jirachi doesn’t have a Substitute, it can benefit greatly from Cresselia’s Lunar Dance, once it has been statused and weakened, so it can have a chance to put more dents in the opposing team, and because Jirachi isn’t Scarfed, it really enjoys getting an Agilipass courtesy of Zapdos. Scizor, although also weak to Fire-type attacks, covers Dark-, Ghost-, Psychic-, and Normal-type pokemon, which Jirachi can’t usually handle, so they work well together.
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Cresselia @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/60 Def/152 Spd/44 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Lunar Dance
- Thunder Wave
Effectiveness as a secondary lead/support martyr
I generally use this Cresselia as my secondary lead. Once a pokemon switches in on Jirachi that it cannot counter, I send out this fruity moonface to paralyze the opponent and cut the entire team’s attacking potential in half for eight turns, allowing for one of my own pokes to come in and set up (usually Kingdra) pretty safely. If Cresselia is too threatened, I’ll try to get at least one screen up (whichever is appropriate at the time) and get out of there so I’ll be able to repeat the process at least once more and finally commit Lunar Dance hara-kiri all over one of Cresselia’s wounded/statused teammates, but as with any strategy, this doesn’t work all the time and I sometimes get KO’d before I can do much.
How Cresselia benefits from her teammates
Technically, Cresselia doesn’t really benefit from any of the other pokemon, as she’s the one keeping everyone else alive. She’s always taking the bullet (punch?) for someone, and then killing herself. Weird.
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Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Dark Pulse
Effectiveness as a scary fire beast
Heatran has been on most of my teams, but I’ve only recently started using Dark Pulse so I can have some way to hit Starmie, the strategy being to bring Heatran in on something to scare it away and use Substitute; if the opponent switches in Starmie, I use Dark Pulse as it breaks my Sub, then I switch to a better counter (or Cresselia if I haven’t gotten a Light Screen up already). Heatran is also my main counter to Scizor and Skarmory, and it really doesn’t do a bad job against the Rotom appliances depending of course on how bulky they are.
How Heatran benefits from her teammates
As with Jirachi, Heatran is weak to Ground-type attacks, which is where Zapdos and Cresselia come in. Zapdos is also handy to get rid of pesky Surfers and to eventually Agilipass so Heatran will be able to out-speed its Scarfed brethren. Also, the type coverage provided by Zapdos’ pseudo-boltbeam and Heatran’s darkearththrower(?) can rip a hole in almost anything (besides Kingdra, Ludicolo, and maybe a few others I can’t think of right now without acknowledging pokes with insanely high SpD). Scizor can scare off Surfing Latias and Starmie with U-turn or Pursuit and Kingdra can take a Surf from Vaporeon, Substitute to avoid Toxic, and proceed to DD without much worry (barring Roar variants).
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Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
Effectiveness as a cutting utensil
This is for Blissey, the bane of my existence. She usually switches out when Scizor comes to town, so I always have to make the decision whether or not to Pursuit or Superpower, but Superpower seems to be the better option most of the time due to Blissey running Flamethrower a lot nowadays. This little scissor bug also does a great job against Latias and Gengar, both of whom I’ve had trouble with on past teams, and U-turn is a much needed attack to use against the likes of Ludicolo. I’m toying with the idea of getting rid of Choice Band in exchange for Life Orb, and maybe, just maybe, getting rid of Bullet Punch and replacing it with Swords Dance, but that would mean having to rely on an Agilipass from Zapdos to be very effective, so I’m still unsure.
How Scizor benefits from her teammates
Everything said for Jirachi’s Fire-type weakness applies to Scizor, as well as what’s been said for Zapdos’ Agilipassing and Cresselia’s Lunar Dancing, depending on the situation of course.
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Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 128 HP/252 Def/128 Spd
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Agility
- Baton Pass
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Effectiveness as an electrifying Agilipasser
Oh, Zapdos, with your ability to out-Agility an Empoleon and destroy it with Thunderbolt. Oh, Zapdos, with your ability to take an Outrage from Salamence and destroy it with HP Ice. Oh, Zapdos, with your ability to let any teammate out-speed the opponent. Besides the aforementioned pokes, Zapdos doesn’t really do a great job countering much, as the opponent usually switches out to something it can’t hurt, which in turn causes me to have to switch out, which means I’ll eventually be losing another 25% HP from Stealth Rock (the majority of the time). Zapdos definitely lasts the shortest amount of time in my matches, but if I can get one KO with it, or one Agilipass, it’s usually worth it. I don’t run Heat Wave on here since I have Heatran and I don’t have any other special Ice-type attack anywhere.
How Zapdos benefits from its teammates
Zapdos’ problems with Rock- and Ice-type attacks are pretty much solved when paired with Jirachi, Heatran, or Scizor. One problem with Zapdos is its lack of Substitute, which leaves it open to status, which means I’ll either have to Lunar Dance for it or try to deal as much damage before Toxic knocks me out (switching in and out is pointless when Stealth Rock is in play). Zapdos could really benefit from a Rapid Spinner, but I don’t know which poke I would replace. Gliscor could do the same job as an Agilipasser with a Ground-type immunity, but then I’d be without Thunderbolt and without a special Ice-type attack, so I’m not sure what I should do to resolve this.
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Kingdra @ Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Waterfall
- Substitute
Effectivess as a king dragon
This guy is the only thing that keeps me afloat against Rain Dance teams; if I can get Kingdra in before theirs, it’s basically over. Kingdra also does amazingly against Toxic/Flamethrower Blissey since it has Substitute and a 4x resistance to Fire-type attacks. The biggest problem is Kingdra’s poor base speed, which allows Latias or Salamence to come in and unleash its fury, which is why Cresselia is a Godsend for my little seahorse. Cresselia can take an Outrage and proceed to use Thunder Wave and then Light Screen or Reflect, and while I might not switch Kingdra back in right away, at least the opposing beast is debilitated for later. If I can get in a few Dragon Dances and maintain my Substitute, Kingdra will last a very long time since even Outrage can put a huge dent in Steel-types after some much needed attack boosts.
How Kingdra benefits from her teammates
Kingdra benefits from Cresselia and Zapdos in the same way as her other teammates do. Kingdra often relies on Heatran to get rid of Steel-types, and the combination of Jirachi’s Ice Punch, Zapdos’s HP Ice, and Scizor to get rid of Dragon-types (Scizor’s contribution being Pursuit/U-turn against Latias).
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Biggest threat
Gyarados
He likes to come in on Heatran, Scizor, and Jirachi, all of whom can’t touch it. It usually proceeds to DD as my Zapdos comes in, then switch out to something Zapdos can’t touch, which means Zapdos will eventually die to Stealth Rock.
Possible solutions
1) Replace Iron Head on Jirachi with ThunderPunch, which at first seems stupid because of the STAB loss, but I would hate to lose the ability to OHKO Scizor or Salamence and to 2HKO Swampert. However, do you think this would put me at too much of a disadvantage against Mamoswine?
2) Add Stealth Rock somewhere, but where?
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Any suggestions/solutions for my team would be greatly appreciated. Don’t worry about offending me: I’m posting this here to get critiqued. Thanks.
Here's the breakdown
Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Grass Knot
Effectiveness as a lead
This Jirachi works perfectly as a lead due to it’s excellent type coverage and the fact that most people will assume it’s running a Choice Scarf, however, the illusion is broken if I’m up against an Aerodactyl, Scarf Azelf (who I always switch-out from due to Fire Blast), or anything else that it would usually be able to out-speed with a Scarf. A common switch-in to Jirachi is Swampert, which I can lure out by using Iron Head in the beginning, only to have it fall quickly to Grass Knot. Heatran, Infernape, and Gyarados can’t be countered with this set, so I usually just switch out, which is where Cresselia comes in. In the past, I would switch Heatran in on an opposing Heatran, but it seems that now most people use Earth Power against this Jirachi (probably to avoid giving another Heatran a free Flash Fire boost).
How Jirachi benefits from its teammates
Jirachi is weak to Fire-type attacks, but Heatran gets a boost from them and Kingdra has a 4x resistance. Jirachi is also weak to Ground-type attacks, which Zapdos and Cresselia both are immune to. Since Jirachi doesn’t have a Substitute, it can benefit greatly from Cresselia’s Lunar Dance, once it has been statused and weakened, so it can have a chance to put more dents in the opposing team, and because Jirachi isn’t Scarfed, it really enjoys getting an Agilipass courtesy of Zapdos. Scizor, although also weak to Fire-type attacks, covers Dark-, Ghost-, Psychic-, and Normal-type pokemon, which Jirachi can’t usually handle, so they work well together.
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Cresselia @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/60 Def/152 Spd/44 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Lunar Dance
- Thunder Wave
Effectiveness as a secondary lead/support martyr
I generally use this Cresselia as my secondary lead. Once a pokemon switches in on Jirachi that it cannot counter, I send out this fruity moonface to paralyze the opponent and cut the entire team’s attacking potential in half for eight turns, allowing for one of my own pokes to come in and set up (usually Kingdra) pretty safely. If Cresselia is too threatened, I’ll try to get at least one screen up (whichever is appropriate at the time) and get out of there so I’ll be able to repeat the process at least once more and finally commit Lunar Dance hara-kiri all over one of Cresselia’s wounded/statused teammates, but as with any strategy, this doesn’t work all the time and I sometimes get KO’d before I can do much.
How Cresselia benefits from her teammates
Technically, Cresselia doesn’t really benefit from any of the other pokemon, as she’s the one keeping everyone else alive. She’s always taking the bullet (punch?) for someone, and then killing herself. Weird.
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Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Dark Pulse
Effectiveness as a scary fire beast
Heatran has been on most of my teams, but I’ve only recently started using Dark Pulse so I can have some way to hit Starmie, the strategy being to bring Heatran in on something to scare it away and use Substitute; if the opponent switches in Starmie, I use Dark Pulse as it breaks my Sub, then I switch to a better counter (or Cresselia if I haven’t gotten a Light Screen up already). Heatran is also my main counter to Scizor and Skarmory, and it really doesn’t do a bad job against the Rotom appliances depending of course on how bulky they are.
How Heatran benefits from her teammates
As with Jirachi, Heatran is weak to Ground-type attacks, which is where Zapdos and Cresselia come in. Zapdos is also handy to get rid of pesky Surfers and to eventually Agilipass so Heatran will be able to out-speed its Scarfed brethren. Also, the type coverage provided by Zapdos’ pseudo-boltbeam and Heatran’s darkearththrower(?) can rip a hole in almost anything (besides Kingdra, Ludicolo, and maybe a few others I can’t think of right now without acknowledging pokes with insanely high SpD). Scizor can scare off Surfing Latias and Starmie with U-turn or Pursuit and Kingdra can take a Surf from Vaporeon, Substitute to avoid Toxic, and proceed to DD without much worry (barring Roar variants).
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Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
Effectiveness as a cutting utensil
This is for Blissey, the bane of my existence. She usually switches out when Scizor comes to town, so I always have to make the decision whether or not to Pursuit or Superpower, but Superpower seems to be the better option most of the time due to Blissey running Flamethrower a lot nowadays. This little scissor bug also does a great job against Latias and Gengar, both of whom I’ve had trouble with on past teams, and U-turn is a much needed attack to use against the likes of Ludicolo. I’m toying with the idea of getting rid of Choice Band in exchange for Life Orb, and maybe, just maybe, getting rid of Bullet Punch and replacing it with Swords Dance, but that would mean having to rely on an Agilipass from Zapdos to be very effective, so I’m still unsure.
How Scizor benefits from her teammates
Everything said for Jirachi’s Fire-type weakness applies to Scizor, as well as what’s been said for Zapdos’ Agilipassing and Cresselia’s Lunar Dancing, depending on the situation of course.
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Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 128 HP/252 Def/128 Spd
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Agility
- Baton Pass
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Effectiveness as an electrifying Agilipasser
Oh, Zapdos, with your ability to out-Agility an Empoleon and destroy it with Thunderbolt. Oh, Zapdos, with your ability to take an Outrage from Salamence and destroy it with HP Ice. Oh, Zapdos, with your ability to let any teammate out-speed the opponent. Besides the aforementioned pokes, Zapdos doesn’t really do a great job countering much, as the opponent usually switches out to something it can’t hurt, which in turn causes me to have to switch out, which means I’ll eventually be losing another 25% HP from Stealth Rock (the majority of the time). Zapdos definitely lasts the shortest amount of time in my matches, but if I can get one KO with it, or one Agilipass, it’s usually worth it. I don’t run Heat Wave on here since I have Heatran and I don’t have any other special Ice-type attack anywhere.
How Zapdos benefits from its teammates
Zapdos’ problems with Rock- and Ice-type attacks are pretty much solved when paired with Jirachi, Heatran, or Scizor. One problem with Zapdos is its lack of Substitute, which leaves it open to status, which means I’ll either have to Lunar Dance for it or try to deal as much damage before Toxic knocks me out (switching in and out is pointless when Stealth Rock is in play). Zapdos could really benefit from a Rapid Spinner, but I don’t know which poke I would replace. Gliscor could do the same job as an Agilipasser with a Ground-type immunity, but then I’d be without Thunderbolt and without a special Ice-type attack, so I’m not sure what I should do to resolve this.
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Kingdra @ Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Waterfall
- Substitute
Effectivess as a king dragon
This guy is the only thing that keeps me afloat against Rain Dance teams; if I can get Kingdra in before theirs, it’s basically over. Kingdra also does amazingly against Toxic/Flamethrower Blissey since it has Substitute and a 4x resistance to Fire-type attacks. The biggest problem is Kingdra’s poor base speed, which allows Latias or Salamence to come in and unleash its fury, which is why Cresselia is a Godsend for my little seahorse. Cresselia can take an Outrage and proceed to use Thunder Wave and then Light Screen or Reflect, and while I might not switch Kingdra back in right away, at least the opposing beast is debilitated for later. If I can get in a few Dragon Dances and maintain my Substitute, Kingdra will last a very long time since even Outrage can put a huge dent in Steel-types after some much needed attack boosts.
How Kingdra benefits from her teammates
Kingdra benefits from Cresselia and Zapdos in the same way as her other teammates do. Kingdra often relies on Heatran to get rid of Steel-types, and the combination of Jirachi’s Ice Punch, Zapdos’s HP Ice, and Scizor to get rid of Dragon-types (Scizor’s contribution being Pursuit/U-turn against Latias).
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Biggest threat
Gyarados
He likes to come in on Heatran, Scizor, and Jirachi, all of whom can’t touch it. It usually proceeds to DD as my Zapdos comes in, then switch out to something Zapdos can’t touch, which means Zapdos will eventually die to Stealth Rock.
Possible solutions
1) Replace Iron Head on Jirachi with ThunderPunch, which at first seems stupid because of the STAB loss, but I would hate to lose the ability to OHKO Scizor or Salamence and to 2HKO Swampert. However, do you think this would put me at too much of a disadvantage against Mamoswine?
2) Add Stealth Rock somewhere, but where?
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Any suggestions/solutions for my team would be greatly appreciated. Don’t worry about offending me: I’m posting this here to get critiqued. Thanks.
