Hi Smogon! I'm lurking around since quite a bit, but it's my first post here. I'm trying out this team, and it seems fairly good, so I'm asking your opinion on it.
I'm Italian, so please don't be too harsh on the grammar, there may be some mistakes here and there, I apologize for that. Thank you ;)
Let's begin!
Genesect @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Download
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- U-turn
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
I really like this pokemon a lot. It's an awesome lead and revenge killer. He can hurt a lot of common leads for super-effective damage, and U-turn out if I can't cause much pain to the opposing lead. With Choice Scarf, you'll almost always go first and either KO (or severely damage) the enemy pokemon, or flee with U-turn and switch to a counter. Also, having a very fast U-turn eases the prediction by scouting the enemy team on their switches.
The set is almost standard, the only difference is I pack Thunder to cripple Politoed leads (which I really hate) over Bug Buzz; I like the added coverage, and I can hurt Bug-weak pokes with U-turn anyway.
Conkeldurr (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Guts
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Mach Punch
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Payback
This is my boosting, bulky sweeper. It was the last addiction to the team, and I'm really happy with him. For the opponent, it's a pain to kill it (Psychic attacks are really easily predicted, and I see very few Brave Bird users out there). Its ability let me switch this into low-powered Scalds (like Quagsire's, or Jellicent's), get a nice boost, and maybe KO, or just switch out for a counter.
The moves are, again, pretty standard (I don't shine for creativity, I know). Mach punch is a check for all those Excadrills, Drain punch is its main attack, Payabck is preferred over Stone Edge because it lets me kill all those ghosts who try to wall me (it doesn't hit hard when you predict them switching in, so I usually Bulk up and proceed to kill the next turn...).
Scizor (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
This is the "glue" of my team. Excellent revenge killer, devastating in predict, can easily remove weakened pokes from battlefield with Bullet Punch and Pursuit. I chose this set over the SD sets because it's hard to play with 2 boosting sweepers, and I want to have powerful attacks readily available.
Superpower is nice to have, it hits super-effective or neutral almost all Steel resistant pokemons. U-turn is rarely used since I tend to revenge kill with Scizor, and keep it healthy as long as possible, and using a so slow U-turn exposes me to random HP Fire; otherwise, it's really helpful when I'm sure the opponent will switch.
Quagsire (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic
- Scald
- Stockpile
- Recover
I like to call this thing the Oh-Shit button of my team. An enemy sweeper went out of control and set-upped 2 swords dance? No problem, just switch Quagsire and force a switch or stall it to death. It really walls an incredible number of threats, Gyarados, Excadrill, Gliscor, almost everything that deals physical damage and cannot hit you with a surprise Grass attack.
Here using Toxic AND Scald may seem a waste; however they cover 2 different functions. Toxic allows me to stall things that can recover health, otherwise unkillable with low-powered water attacks, while Scald burn is to cripple physycal attackers who cannot recover health and then switch out to something that can set-up on a burned enemy.
Heatran (F) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Electric]
I really like the sinergy between Heatran and Genesect-Scizor. Every fire attack directed to the latter is absorbed by the former. This gives me free turns to set up Rocks, or hit back with a powerful Lava Plume and hope for a burn. I use Heatran more like an utility poke than like a real sweeper, since it can set up Rocks and absorb nasty Flamethrowers, Earthquakes and so on.
I'm running Lava Plume over Fire Blast because 1-I hate missing, and 2-most pokes that fear fire attacks are 4x-weak to them so I kill them anyway. Stealth Rock and Earth Power are standard. Hidden power Electric was a little gimmick I tried (against any Water-poke switching in), however it doesn't really satisfy me, so I'm looking for a replacement right now. Maybe a more useful HP Ice?
Haxorus (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Rivalry
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Dragon Claw
This is just pure power. It's not that hard to bring in, and once in it kills almost everything not resisting its attacks.
I usually bring it in when I expect a double switch. For example, an enemy Gliscor swords dances and I send Genesect in to kill it. He protects my Ice Beam. Now it's pretty obvious that there will be a switch on his side, so I switch to Haxorus. Now he's forced to switch again or let something die. Yeah, it's not that fast, but there are not many pokes that can outspeed AND OHKO him (it's not weak x4 to anything, and have a bunch of resistances, anyway).
This is the team. I didn't fully tested it, so I'm not providing a complete threat list, but just some impressions on what gives me problems:
Breloom: I just hate this pokemon, if the opponent bring him in on something like Quagsire or everything it can outspeed, I just lost a poke to Spore. Then I can easily revenge it with Genesect, but still, I lost something, and it's really annoying.
Reuniclus: he's so slow that I can't kill it with Payback, its ability prevents me to stalling to death with Toxic; the only savfe way to eliminate it is with Scizor's U-turn, and if I can't use it for any reason, it's a big problem.
Magnezone: with 2 of my pokes being Steel types with 4x weakness to fire, it's easy to guess that this guy is a problem. To somewhat mitigate, i can kill it on the switch with both of those pokes, but if I don't see it coming, it's a really big trouble.
Other Conkeldurrs: My best bet it to use my own Conkeldurr (but it often means giving them a free +1), or stall it to death with Quagsire, which is EXTREMELY dangerous cause of Guts. Quag can take Drain Puches with Guts on, but a crit will screw him badly, and if it dies, i have a Guts-ed Conkeldurr to deal with, and it's not a good thing. :/
Well that's it, I thank you in advance for your review and advices :naughty:
I'm Italian, so please don't be too harsh on the grammar, there may be some mistakes here and there, I apologize for that. Thank you ;)
Let's begin!
Genesect @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Download
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- U-turn
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
I really like this pokemon a lot. It's an awesome lead and revenge killer. He can hurt a lot of common leads for super-effective damage, and U-turn out if I can't cause much pain to the opposing lead. With Choice Scarf, you'll almost always go first and either KO (or severely damage) the enemy pokemon, or flee with U-turn and switch to a counter. Also, having a very fast U-turn eases the prediction by scouting the enemy team on their switches.
The set is almost standard, the only difference is I pack Thunder to cripple Politoed leads (which I really hate) over Bug Buzz; I like the added coverage, and I can hurt Bug-weak pokes with U-turn anyway.
Conkeldurr (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Guts
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Mach Punch
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Payback
This is my boosting, bulky sweeper. It was the last addiction to the team, and I'm really happy with him. For the opponent, it's a pain to kill it (Psychic attacks are really easily predicted, and I see very few Brave Bird users out there). Its ability let me switch this into low-powered Scalds (like Quagsire's, or Jellicent's), get a nice boost, and maybe KO, or just switch out for a counter.
The moves are, again, pretty standard (I don't shine for creativity, I know). Mach punch is a check for all those Excadrills, Drain punch is its main attack, Payabck is preferred over Stone Edge because it lets me kill all those ghosts who try to wall me (it doesn't hit hard when you predict them switching in, so I usually Bulk up and proceed to kill the next turn...).
Scizor (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
This is the "glue" of my team. Excellent revenge killer, devastating in predict, can easily remove weakened pokes from battlefield with Bullet Punch and Pursuit. I chose this set over the SD sets because it's hard to play with 2 boosting sweepers, and I want to have powerful attacks readily available.
Superpower is nice to have, it hits super-effective or neutral almost all Steel resistant pokemons. U-turn is rarely used since I tend to revenge kill with Scizor, and keep it healthy as long as possible, and using a so slow U-turn exposes me to random HP Fire; otherwise, it's really helpful when I'm sure the opponent will switch.
Quagsire (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic
- Scald
- Stockpile
- Recover
I like to call this thing the Oh-Shit button of my team. An enemy sweeper went out of control and set-upped 2 swords dance? No problem, just switch Quagsire and force a switch or stall it to death. It really walls an incredible number of threats, Gyarados, Excadrill, Gliscor, almost everything that deals physical damage and cannot hit you with a surprise Grass attack.
Here using Toxic AND Scald may seem a waste; however they cover 2 different functions. Toxic allows me to stall things that can recover health, otherwise unkillable with low-powered water attacks, while Scald burn is to cripple physycal attackers who cannot recover health and then switch out to something that can set-up on a burned enemy.
Heatran (F) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Electric]
I really like the sinergy between Heatran and Genesect-Scizor. Every fire attack directed to the latter is absorbed by the former. This gives me free turns to set up Rocks, or hit back with a powerful Lava Plume and hope for a burn. I use Heatran more like an utility poke than like a real sweeper, since it can set up Rocks and absorb nasty Flamethrowers, Earthquakes and so on.
I'm running Lava Plume over Fire Blast because 1-I hate missing, and 2-most pokes that fear fire attacks are 4x-weak to them so I kill them anyway. Stealth Rock and Earth Power are standard. Hidden power Electric was a little gimmick I tried (against any Water-poke switching in), however it doesn't really satisfy me, so I'm looking for a replacement right now. Maybe a more useful HP Ice?
Haxorus (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Rivalry
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Dragon Claw
This is just pure power. It's not that hard to bring in, and once in it kills almost everything not resisting its attacks.
I usually bring it in when I expect a double switch. For example, an enemy Gliscor swords dances and I send Genesect in to kill it. He protects my Ice Beam. Now it's pretty obvious that there will be a switch on his side, so I switch to Haxorus. Now he's forced to switch again or let something die. Yeah, it's not that fast, but there are not many pokes that can outspeed AND OHKO him (it's not weak x4 to anything, and have a bunch of resistances, anyway).
This is the team. I didn't fully tested it, so I'm not providing a complete threat list, but just some impressions on what gives me problems:
Breloom: I just hate this pokemon, if the opponent bring him in on something like Quagsire or everything it can outspeed, I just lost a poke to Spore. Then I can easily revenge it with Genesect, but still, I lost something, and it's really annoying.
Reuniclus: he's so slow that I can't kill it with Payback, its ability prevents me to stalling to death with Toxic; the only savfe way to eliminate it is with Scizor's U-turn, and if I can't use it for any reason, it's a big problem.
Magnezone: with 2 of my pokes being Steel types with 4x weakness to fire, it's easy to guess that this guy is a problem. To somewhat mitigate, i can kill it on the switch with both of those pokes, but if I don't see it coming, it's a really big trouble.
Other Conkeldurrs: My best bet it to use my own Conkeldurr (but it often means giving them a free +1), or stall it to death with Quagsire, which is EXTREMELY dangerous cause of Guts. Quag can take Drain Puches with Guts on, but a crit will screw him badly, and if it dies, i have a Guts-ed Conkeldurr to deal with, and it's not a good thing. :/
Well that's it, I thank you in advance for your review and advices :naughty:
