Hey guys! This is my first time ever using the forums. I have been using this team for a while now and so far it's been suiting me fairly well in battles. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on it in regards to its weaknesses and how to fix them, opinions on its strengths, and just your rating on it in general. Also, even though I'm in Ubers, I'm not a big fan of using legendaries as you'll see in my team. I wanted to prove that with this team you could still do well without using the same old legendaries in Ubers and as I've already said, it's been doing pretty good, not beating every single team, but maybe like a 4 win-2 loss ratio. My rating is pretty much staying in the mid 1100s and I want to move it up too, especially for tourneys. Well, here it is below. Also, I know that it really takes time to evaluate a team so THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LOOKING OVER MY TEAM FOR ME! I really appreciate it!
Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Cute Charm
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SpD
Bold Nature
- Heal Bell
- Wish
- Dazzling Gleam
- Protect
Sylveon’s main role in my team is to serve as the team’s special wall. Although Sylvoen’s the special wall, it also makes a pretty good defensive wall too, which is especially useful for removing the team’s other members from harm through switching Sylvoen in. Leftover’s of course helps in this pokemon’s function as a wall. Beyond its defensive and special defensive purposes, this pokemon acts as a support in the sense that it heals the rest of the team from status conditions (heal bell) and sometimes hp loss (wish). It’s protect serves to buy my team time when I need it (such as stalling to recover hp through leftovers). Protect is also very useful in testing the waters in battle by using it to figure out what move the opponent’s pokemon has and based on that, predicting what strategy they may be using that pokemon for. Dazzling gleam is of course used for a strong STAB special attack that usually takes a decent enough amount of hp from most opponents and especially serves as a dragon slayer. The ev’s are to support Sylvoen’s function as a wall.
Greninja @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 236 Atk / 232 SpA / 40 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Extrasensory
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- U-turn
And now we arrive at the first major attacker of this team, Greninja. Greninja’s major purpose is to serve as a fast special type coverage sweeper for both special attack and attack. The reason why it has more special attacks than physical attacks is because that’s just how the type coverage played out. I mainly planned my team to cover all of the types and was able to cover all except for three. Now it’s been a while so I forget which ones aren’t covered, but one of them is ghost. The expert belt combined with protean, as well as the ev spread and nature support Greninja’s type coverage sweeping role.
I do want to mention though that although Greninja’s type spreading has been designed for coverage of most types, I’ve often had Greninja in situations where it’s only moderately useful in covering types. Half the time it’s either really useful in its type coverage while the other half its only neutral in its usefulness when I’m searching through my team for type moves to cover specific pokemons based on the opponent’s team and what pokemon he’s using. If I could find a more beneficial type coverage set for Greninja in the context of my team, that would be awesome.
Beyond that, its U-turn is good for switching out quickly. Also, I used to have shadow sneak in place of scald for a first priority move but decided to get rid of this in favor of scald to make greninja’s type coverage more useful since before I had an issue with fire types. The scald is also good for getting rid of steel type stallers and trump cards like my probopass that can only really be taken out by secondary damage, but not poison.
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Solar Beam
- Flamethrower
- Earthquake
- Air Slash
While Greninja is the first type coverage sweeper of my team, Charizard is the second. Although it’s speed isn’t as high as Greninja’s, Charizard’s ev spread, nature, and moveset allow it to cover a lot of types. Beyond type coverage, Charizard’s moveset serves other useful purposes. For example, solar beam is used to surprise and take out water types that opponent’s are inclined to send out against Charizard (which is why it needs to be mega y for its drought ability, which also gives its flamethrower a major STAB). Earthquake fulfills the same purpose as solar beam, but instead being focused on taking out electric types. Some drawbacks though in the context of the rest of my team are my Charizard, a flying type, being the only team member to get super-effective hits against water and electric types.
Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Brick Break
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Defog
Scizor serves as the technician of my team, being used to clear my side of the field from entry hazards through its defog. Aiding Scizor in this duty are its ev spread and nature to help increase its defense, as well as its steel typing which significantly reduces the damage it takes from entry hazards, opponents when it switches in, and poison damage through nullifying it. It’s brick break is used to remove barriers on the opponent’s side of the field. Its roost serves to give it more longevity when clearing the field from entry hazards and barriers.
Beyond being used as a technician, Scizor serves as a good physical sweeper when usedin conjunction with Ninjask who baton passes to it increases in speed and attack stats. Also supporting Scizor as a physical sweeper are its techinician ability, bullet punch allowing it to get the first move in if needed, STAB attack on bullet punch, ev spread, and life orb. The damage lost through life orb can be recovered through roost if Scizor has enough time to accomplish this witout taking any high-damage hits.
Ninjask @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hardy Nature
- Protect
- Baton Pass
- Swords Dance
- Aerial Ace
Ninjask’s main purpose on this team is to be a baton passer. More specifically, Ninjask focus sash, hardy nature, and protect give it at least two solid turns to stay in battle to raise its speed and if able, attack. These stat boosts have been used to form a good combo with my Scizor to make Sciozor an effective physical sweeper. Beyond Scizor, no other team members really work well in having their stats boosted by Ninjask since they do not have enough physical attacks or the right physical attacks needed to be sweepers or to have significant effects on the opponent’s pokemon through their received stat increases.
Beyond its use as a baton passer, Ninjask can also be used to effectively take out types weak against its STAB aerial ace through its using its own stat increases on itself. Sometimes, but rarely, Ninjask’s stat increases allow it be a fast physical sweeper in its own right, but this is limited by its only attack being aerial ace. This isn’t a problem though since its one of its main purposes is to be a baton passer.
Ninjask’s other purposes include being a staller, such as when I begin a battle where I cannot gage what pokemon I should send out first in accordance with what strategy the opponent attempt to use or what pokemon he will send out first. Ninjask also serves a minor purpose of being able to get quick, small hits in I do happen to be desperate in a battle, although I do not aim nor enjoy being in this state of desperation.
Probopass @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 2
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Magic Coat
- Pain Split
Finally, we have come to the trump card of my team. Honestly, I love this little guy since with its setup it has proven in battle to be capable of taking out almost any pokemon I need it to take out, with sometimes taking out two and sometimes most of the opponent’s team if they don’t know how to deal with it and it psyches them out.
Now onto the exact strategy for probopass. It’s sturdy, being only lv 2, berry juice, and pain split allow it to take and fully recover from any damage from any opposing pokemon except when its ability is nullified in cases such as turbo blaze or mold breaker, a status condition, flinching, mega khangkaskan, or weather conditions. It’s steel typing takes care of poison status conditions like toxic.
It’s stealth rock serves the purpose of placing an entry hazard on the opponent’s side of the field, which is very successful in dealing with fire/flying types with which my team often struggles. Magic coat is very useful to when predictable ubers setters and status condition setters, such as groudon or dakrai, face my team.
Now I also do want to mention that some weaknesses I have noticed about my team that I would like to rectify if possible are major weaknesses to pokemon like Mega Khangkaskhan, Groudon, Kyogre, Ho-oh, and pokemon that can bypass my probopass trump card. My team can also be weak to extreme speeders at times, such as Arceus.
Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Cute Charm
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SpD
Bold Nature
- Heal Bell
- Wish
- Dazzling Gleam
- Protect
Sylveon’s main role in my team is to serve as the team’s special wall. Although Sylvoen’s the special wall, it also makes a pretty good defensive wall too, which is especially useful for removing the team’s other members from harm through switching Sylvoen in. Leftover’s of course helps in this pokemon’s function as a wall. Beyond its defensive and special defensive purposes, this pokemon acts as a support in the sense that it heals the rest of the team from status conditions (heal bell) and sometimes hp loss (wish). It’s protect serves to buy my team time when I need it (such as stalling to recover hp through leftovers). Protect is also very useful in testing the waters in battle by using it to figure out what move the opponent’s pokemon has and based on that, predicting what strategy they may be using that pokemon for. Dazzling gleam is of course used for a strong STAB special attack that usually takes a decent enough amount of hp from most opponents and especially serves as a dragon slayer. The ev’s are to support Sylvoen’s function as a wall.
Greninja @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 236 Atk / 232 SpA / 40 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Extrasensory
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- U-turn
And now we arrive at the first major attacker of this team, Greninja. Greninja’s major purpose is to serve as a fast special type coverage sweeper for both special attack and attack. The reason why it has more special attacks than physical attacks is because that’s just how the type coverage played out. I mainly planned my team to cover all of the types and was able to cover all except for three. Now it’s been a while so I forget which ones aren’t covered, but one of them is ghost. The expert belt combined with protean, as well as the ev spread and nature support Greninja’s type coverage sweeping role.
I do want to mention though that although Greninja’s type spreading has been designed for coverage of most types, I’ve often had Greninja in situations where it’s only moderately useful in covering types. Half the time it’s either really useful in its type coverage while the other half its only neutral in its usefulness when I’m searching through my team for type moves to cover specific pokemons based on the opponent’s team and what pokemon he’s using. If I could find a more beneficial type coverage set for Greninja in the context of my team, that would be awesome.
Beyond that, its U-turn is good for switching out quickly. Also, I used to have shadow sneak in place of scald for a first priority move but decided to get rid of this in favor of scald to make greninja’s type coverage more useful since before I had an issue with fire types. The scald is also good for getting rid of steel type stallers and trump cards like my probopass that can only really be taken out by secondary damage, but not poison.
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Solar Beam
- Flamethrower
- Earthquake
- Air Slash
While Greninja is the first type coverage sweeper of my team, Charizard is the second. Although it’s speed isn’t as high as Greninja’s, Charizard’s ev spread, nature, and moveset allow it to cover a lot of types. Beyond type coverage, Charizard’s moveset serves other useful purposes. For example, solar beam is used to surprise and take out water types that opponent’s are inclined to send out against Charizard (which is why it needs to be mega y for its drought ability, which also gives its flamethrower a major STAB). Earthquake fulfills the same purpose as solar beam, but instead being focused on taking out electric types. Some drawbacks though in the context of the rest of my team are my Charizard, a flying type, being the only team member to get super-effective hits against water and electric types.
Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Brick Break
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Defog
Scizor serves as the technician of my team, being used to clear my side of the field from entry hazards through its defog. Aiding Scizor in this duty are its ev spread and nature to help increase its defense, as well as its steel typing which significantly reduces the damage it takes from entry hazards, opponents when it switches in, and poison damage through nullifying it. It’s brick break is used to remove barriers on the opponent’s side of the field. Its roost serves to give it more longevity when clearing the field from entry hazards and barriers.
Beyond being used as a technician, Scizor serves as a good physical sweeper when usedin conjunction with Ninjask who baton passes to it increases in speed and attack stats. Also supporting Scizor as a physical sweeper are its techinician ability, bullet punch allowing it to get the first move in if needed, STAB attack on bullet punch, ev spread, and life orb. The damage lost through life orb can be recovered through roost if Scizor has enough time to accomplish this witout taking any high-damage hits.
Ninjask @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hardy Nature
- Protect
- Baton Pass
- Swords Dance
- Aerial Ace
Ninjask’s main purpose on this team is to be a baton passer. More specifically, Ninjask focus sash, hardy nature, and protect give it at least two solid turns to stay in battle to raise its speed and if able, attack. These stat boosts have been used to form a good combo with my Scizor to make Sciozor an effective physical sweeper. Beyond Scizor, no other team members really work well in having their stats boosted by Ninjask since they do not have enough physical attacks or the right physical attacks needed to be sweepers or to have significant effects on the opponent’s pokemon through their received stat increases.
Beyond its use as a baton passer, Ninjask can also be used to effectively take out types weak against its STAB aerial ace through its using its own stat increases on itself. Sometimes, but rarely, Ninjask’s stat increases allow it be a fast physical sweeper in its own right, but this is limited by its only attack being aerial ace. This isn’t a problem though since its one of its main purposes is to be a baton passer.
Ninjask’s other purposes include being a staller, such as when I begin a battle where I cannot gage what pokemon I should send out first in accordance with what strategy the opponent attempt to use or what pokemon he will send out first. Ninjask also serves a minor purpose of being able to get quick, small hits in I do happen to be desperate in a battle, although I do not aim nor enjoy being in this state of desperation.
Probopass @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 2
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Magic Coat
- Pain Split
Finally, we have come to the trump card of my team. Honestly, I love this little guy since with its setup it has proven in battle to be capable of taking out almost any pokemon I need it to take out, with sometimes taking out two and sometimes most of the opponent’s team if they don’t know how to deal with it and it psyches them out.
Now onto the exact strategy for probopass. It’s sturdy, being only lv 2, berry juice, and pain split allow it to take and fully recover from any damage from any opposing pokemon except when its ability is nullified in cases such as turbo blaze or mold breaker, a status condition, flinching, mega khangkaskan, or weather conditions. It’s steel typing takes care of poison status conditions like toxic.
It’s stealth rock serves the purpose of placing an entry hazard on the opponent’s side of the field, which is very successful in dealing with fire/flying types with which my team often struggles. Magic coat is very useful to when predictable ubers setters and status condition setters, such as groudon or dakrai, face my team.
Now I also do want to mention that some weaknesses I have noticed about my team that I would like to rectify if possible are major weaknesses to pokemon like Mega Khangkaskhan, Groudon, Kyogre, Ho-oh, and pokemon that can bypass my probopass trump card. My team can also be weak to extreme speeders at times, such as Arceus.
