Not Entirely Standard Team

Phuquoph

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Team Strategy

I wanted to make a team that used some of the less popular Pokemon such as Gallade, Houndoom, Weezing and Empoleon to see how they might fare against some of the more standard threats. I do have a couple of the more over exposed Pokemon, in form of Gyarados and Donphan though.

I also tried to go with more offensive counters to some of the main sweeping threats, such as using Houndoom to take on Azelf.

Countering was a secondary concern as it usually is with my teams. I decided on a few Pokemon I wanted to use and went through the "threat down" afterwards, which is how Donphan and Gyarados made the final two slots.

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 236 HP / 136 SDef / 132 SAtk / 4 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Yawn

The extra point in Speed is to beat Impish Swampert, who 2HKOs with Earthquake. Survives a Magnezone Thunderbolt, so I've got a chance of beating it if I Yawn it on the switch. I may drop some Special Attack EVs in favour of more Special Defense.

Gallade @ Leftovers
Trait: Steadfast
EVs: 108 HP / 164 Atk / 236 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Psycho Cut
- Stone Edge

Primary physical sweeper.

Some HP to help takes special hits, which he does reasonably well. Speed EVs to beat Adamant Heracross and Adamant Drapion, for whatever that's worth.

I'm tempted to drop Close Combat for Brick Break to avoid dropping that quite impressive Special Defense, but the difference in power is too significant really.

Can survive an Air Slash from Togekiss to activate Steadfast, which could aid his sweeping potential. This came up in another RMT thread, which is part of the reason I wanted to try Gallade.

Houndoom @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 52 HP / 204 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Taunt
- Nasty Plot
- Flamethrower
- Dark Pulse

This just looks like a lot of fun to use. Taunt to stop the inevitable Blissey switch-in paralyzing Gallade or whatever else comes in and tries to set up. I should probably replace it with Hidden Power, but Taunt seems like a good option to me.

Dark Pulse does 32 - 38% to a 401 HP/216 Special Defense Swampert and 64 - 75% after a Plot boost, so it's not like it can keep switching in all day. It also falls just short of a OHKO on CB/CS Salamence (85 - 99% after a boost).

Weezing @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 196 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd / 56 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
- Flamethrower

Burn support for the team and the first half of the team's physical defense.

The cool thing about Weezing is he can take on the Gyarados/Electivire combo reasonably well. Switching into a Thunderbolt screws him as it will 2HKO, but if I send Weezing in on Gyarados he can burn any incoming Electivires.

I'm torn on using Flamethrower or Fire Blast. I like the reliability of Flamethrower, but I can't 2HKO Heracross unless I use Fire Blast and it's CB Stone Edge can 2HKO. At least I've got three Rock resists on the team though.

Donphan @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin

Physical walling and support with Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin. Houndoom needs spin support or Stealth Rock can screw him over quite badly.

Can take on Electivire quite well too as a Life Orb Ice Punch does a mere 38 - 44% and Life Orb Hidden Power Grass is a 2HKO.

I'm lacking a phazer, so I may have to drop Stealth Rock in favour of Roar. I can probably get around Ninjask with Empoleon's Yawn (which I believe goes through Subs now) and Houndoom's Taunt. Ice Shard is a 2-3HKO on Ninjask too.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 212 HP / 112 Atk / 184 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Fang
- Earthquake
- Waterfall

Gyarados again. I tried to keep really standard Pokemon off the team, but after I added the first four this seemed like best thing to cover some of my weaknesses.

Makes a good partner for Houndoom and covers his Water and Ground weaknesses. Works well with Donphan to cover his Rock weakness and providing spin support to remove Stealth Rock.

I tried to get a good balance of defense and attack with the EV spread. 384 HP and enough Speed to get past Starmie (if it's slightly weakened) and Raikou, plus a decent 345 Attack.



Threat Analysis

I think I covered most threats reasonably well. Raikou and Zapdos (Drill Peck variants especially) can give me a headache as can Manaphy although Empoleon can Yawn the non-Rain Dance sets.

Medicham also causes problems, so I'll just to have to outpredict it since I have resists for all it's attacks. Starmie is a pain too, so I may end up with Leaf Blade on Gallade.

A few afterthoughts...

Spikes, Stealth Rock and Sandstorm

Donphan can spin. Two immunities to Spikes, three Stealth Rock resists and two 2x weaks and three Poison Spikes immunties.

Only two members immune to Sandstorm, although everyone has Leftovers (boring isn't it?) and Weezing has Pain Split for recovery.

Status

Empoleon and Weezing are immune to poison. Donphan can absorb Thunder Waves and Weezing and Empoleon don't suffer too much when paralyzed. Houndoom loves attempts to burn my team. Nothing to absorb sleep.

Dugtrio

Gyarados and Weezing can't be trapped. Houndoom and Empoleon can be revenge killed by him, so I may consider a Shed Shell on Houndoom. Gallade survives an Earthquake, but only if Dugtrio is Jolly, as Adamant does 92 - 100% so even then I have a slim chance of survival. Donphan needs to be severly weakened for Earthquake to kill him.

Pursuit

Most of the team don't care too much about Pursuit. Oddly enough Gallade fears it the most and you'd have to be insane to send Heracross, Weavile or Tyranitar in on him. Weavile can revenge kill him though.



As always comments are most welcome. Any ideas on what I can use in place of Gyarados without throwing off the team's balance would be good.

Pelliper? Ok, maybe not.
 
I really like the Pokémon that make up your team. There's a lot of variety there. Your team has serious Leftovers syndrome, though. None of your Pokémon are really stallers, and I know it's nice to have some HP recovery, but I think most of them could really benefit from some other items. My suggestions would be:

Houndoom: Shed Shell, as your said earlier.

Weezing: Black Sludge. Really no reason not to have this in case it gets stolen.

Gyarados: Muscle Band. 10% more damage on one type of move? Lame. 10% higher attack power across the board? Worth it.

Gallade: White Herb. Prevents the Close Combat drop or an Intimidate drop once. One-time items can be useful if you don't turn the battle into a stall-fest.
 
Azelf with HP Fighting can be a headache. And Gallade doesn't particularly fear Pursuit until it's at very low health.
 
I keep forgetting to put Black Sludge on Poisons. Edited.

Gyarados needs Leftovers since he'll be taking Fighting hits for me.

I'll be trying to wear stuff down with Gallade before attempting a sweep, so White Herb isn't worth it really. If I changed his item I'd probably go with Liechi Berry or possibly Life Orb.

Everything ended up with Leftovers because this is the first team I've planned for DP that doesn't have Wish support.
 
Weezing could just have its Black Sludge tricked off, and then tricked on to another one of the Pokemon on the team, as Surgo brought up on IRC. Leftovers does seem like the better option still.

Type boosting items are 20%, and Gyarados really likes its Leftovers recovery with all of the Stealth Rock around. Donphan isn't superman and can't keep them off 100%.

One time use items aren't so good compared to Leftovers' steady recovery, either.

As far as the team goes, it has big trouble with things such as Alakazam and Raikou, really special attackers in general. If Alakazam comes in on any of Weezing's attacks, it can Calm Mind and just sweep everything if it has Focus Blast. Raikou can catch Donphan with a Hidden Power, Starmie can potentially hit everything besides Gallade and maybe Weezing for super effective damage.

Which brings up another point: while the team does seem rather "sturdy" in that it can handle switches to most of the big threats, it's a little on the slow side. A lot of the big threats are fast, and without anything to outspeed them to turn the tables, it feels as if they will just whittle the team down until one of your defenses cracks, since they will always have the speed advantage. Having really fast attackers (in raw stats or CScarf) would help this team end the game before its weaknesses to things like Alakazam become apparent. I don't see Gallade doing much with Swords Dance with its speed, since it can be forced out by the plethora of faster, strong attackers. Perhaps a Choice Scarf on it would help to catch some things by surprise?
 
Good point about Black Sludge/Leftovers, I hadn't thought of that. Changing back to Leftovers again.

Choice Scarf on Gallade would solve a few problems since it'll give me room for another attack. Leaf Blade would help against Starmie, but I'd probably go with Night Slash since it'll hit both Starmie and Azelf. Gyarados and Houndoom should be enough for setup sweeping.

I could stick Thunder Wave on Gyarados to help out with my speed issues.
 
OK, help me out here. I know that it's possible for an opponent to Trick Black Sludge off Weezing and onto another Pokémon on this team, but can you ever see this happening? Ever? Your metagame is so switch-happy and stally (thanks in no small part to no Item Clause and Leftovers on everything) that I honestly cannot see an opponent taking the time to do this. For one thing, the opponent is depending on you to keep the right Pokémon in at the right time for this Trick-scheme to work. Additionally, this means that until they pull it off, whatever is temorarily holding the Black Sludge will be taking damage. That's two turns and some guaranteed damage for a plan that has a good chance of failure. Honestly, I'd keep the Black Sludge on just in case somebody does try this. It's bound to screw them up more than you.
 
You did a very good job in your threat anaylsis, as usual. However, this is the first team I've seen with an actual severe Boah weakness, but don't mind me, it's kind of my thing to find pokemon that a distinct threats to teams (and I kind of have a thing for Boah too) and probably no one will use it. You can actually burn it on the switch as far as Weezing is concerned, and one would have to be crazy to actually send Tyranitar in on Houndoom on Competitor, where HP Fighting and WoW are basically standard.

Anyway, this team really hates electrics in general, though I'm not quite sure what you want to do about that, since removing Gyarados for any decent Electric counter leaves you wide open for Garchomp. Probably something you're going to have to work around, unless you want to go Ice Beam Starmie as a Spinner over Donphan, which would get Garchomp and let you go with I guess Steelix with a fair bit of SpD EVs to beat Electrics and still give you a reasonable defense that Donphan previously offered...
 
Dark Pulse is a 3HKO on Gallade, possible 2HKO after a Special Defense drop from Close Combat but I should still beat it. Tyranitar comes in and Subs on Houndoom or Weezing, Gallade switches in and uses Close Combat, Tyranitar hits Gallade with Dark Pulse for 51 - 60%. If it stays in, it dies. Donphan doesn't have to worry about possible special downs either, although a Dark Pulse flinch would be annoying if Tyranitar decides to stay in after I break it's Sub.

I guess I could go with Steelix over Donphan and Starmie over Gyarados, but I'll be left with only one physical sweeper then. The only other alternative I can think of is using Steelix and Vaporeon and trying to make up Stealth Rock damage with Wish passing, but that seems a bit shaky. The only other Rapid Spinner that can handle Garchomp is Cloyster and that'll give the team three Fighting weaknesses (four if I use Steelix), which isn't good at all.

I'll probably make a few changes after I run some more damage calcs and such.
 
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