https://pokepast.es/a62ba863edd48fec
This is an older team of mine that I had a decent amount of success with in the last year. I think there are a number of common threats that limit its consistency, but I had a lot of people on ladder tell me the set up was cool and I wanted to share it here. There is also a lot of versatility with this six so maybe someone can figure something out.
Latias @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 252 SpA / 116 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunderbolt
Latias is the lead mainly to lure in Tyranitar as early as possible so you can set hail for the rest of the game. Grass knot is unfortunately needed here to get the 2hko on most tyranitar, where surf does not. Colbur berry lets you scout the first hit from tyranitar and either switch or catch it by surprise and KO with a second grass knot, and bluffs the item for choice. HP ground is for dealing healthy damage to Heatran, which also commonly comes in in Latias. Unlike hitmontop (later) Tyranitar is pretty incentivized to stay in on Latias, especially if it thinks you're locked into something like thunderbolt. In my experience Latias has done its job as a lure pretty well but it does have some awkward lead match ups (azelf) and sometimes you find yourself wishing you had a different Latias later in the game for defensive utility against stuff like infernape.
The EV spread is modest to maximize damage, 116 speed to outrun the freaks running timid dragonite (not much more from the 280 benchmark I was at before), and the rest into bulk.
Other options: You could reconfigure the starting moveset to run Surf/HP Fire instead. Scizor is a huge problem for this team and this would help with that but you then give up checking tar. You could also change the item to EBelt if you wanted to get more milage on things like metagross but you are sacrificing the resilience to tyranitar.
---------------------------------
Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 136 HP / 252 Atk / 24 SpA / 96 Spe
Naughty Nature
IVs: 29 HP
Shiny: Yes
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Protect
- Blizzard
Abomasnow helps set the hail, and ideally you've already cleared Tyranitar or done a lot of damage before bringing him in. The spread maximizes attack, then hits the 180 speed benchmark for skarmory, hits an HP benchmark for something like leftovers/stealth rock and then pours the rest into special attack for blizzard. Blizzard does more than ice punch and does a decent amount of damage to skarmory thinking they're coming in for free. Protect is a crucial move that allows abomasnow to recover health and chip offensive threats closer into ice shard range. Ice shard is one of three priority moves on this team, which generally runs on the slower side. Protect stalling out gyarados and dragonite has saved me a lot of endgames. Wood hammer is necessary for slower TTar and Clef.
Other options: I think I used to run max speed and it was more reliable against tyranitar. HP fire is also an option for the scizor problem but you lose a lot of power there obviously.
--------------------------------
Rotom-Frost @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 220 SpD / 48 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Shiny: Yes
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
Despite not really prioritizing hazards on this team, it does appreciate having stealth rocks up to pile on the passive damage with hail to offensive threats. Specially defensive rotom can be a good starmie answer as well as something to handle infernape. You can't really switch into ape super reliably but if you can get it in safely you're going to be able to take a fire blast and retaliate with thunderbolt. This thing also terrorizes zapdos of all variety. Running the frost variant can also bluff blizzard which is common on a lot of hail teams. Really, you don't get many excuses to run the refrigerator over the other versions.
The EV spread outspeeds Tyranitar to get off the wisp and still eats a specs Draco meteor. Rotom's recovery (pain split) kind of sucks here and you'd rather be able to shake off status with rest. Unfortunately that means you have to run sleep talk, otherwise you're playing too passive. Rotom can really be a monster if Latias successfully removed Tyranitar, but I think one of the weaknesses of this team is that you're asking a mon that can be pursuit trapped to do a bit too much. Wisp is also unreliable and I've struggled with consistency on ladder because of it.
Other options: Run pain split + shadow ball, you can't really drop this thing without making significant changes to the rest of the roster because otherwise starmie gets in for free.
--------------------------------
Lucario @ Lum Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
Shiny: Yes
- Calm Mind
- Aura Sphere
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Vacuum Wave
Initially this was infernape but the team really struggled with Clefable stall (infernape was too easy to play around). I don't know if lucario is that much better, but calm mind at least puts some pressure, we get priority, and Lucario can get through flinching Jirachi. Lum berry is there to bait the thunder wave from the defensive mons + mag to either KO or get up an extra calm mind. This team also appreciates the extra steel type for specs Latias (as a punish for -2 after draco, you can't switch in directly with Lucario lol).
The issue with Lucario is that he's always just a little too slow or a little too weak given the lower base power moveset. I don't think he's great here but I did have some more success after swapping out infernape.
Other options: the purpose of this role is really 1) have priority 2) pressure opponents playing tougher stall -- I think there are other things you could run here, maybe a metagross.
--------------------------------
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 100 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Roar
- Surf
Empoleon was initially full spdef but I think that was overkill to pair with spdef rotom. Max bulk empoleon under this spread is still plenty bulky on the special side, so I shifted some EVs on defense to serve as a mixed wall-- I think the benchmark here is living +1 gyarados earthquake. The speed EVs are for the uninvested scizor variety. Empoleon is unfortunately saddled with setting stealth rock here -- it used to be infernape but I struggled to get him in and set rocks, moving it to empoleon made it way more consistent. I did have to drop knock off, which was a bit disappointing considering the synergy with hail and the ability to make progress on breaking clefable. Roar helps break up set up sweepers and reveal the opposing team. Protect pairs well with hail and can help grind down Jirachi.
Empoleon is also your primary answer to Latias on this team. Unfortunately, if the opponent is playing drag mag with specs Latias the odds of winning that match up falls dramatically if Empoleon gets trapped. I think you can live a thunderbolt but you'll be eating 70%+ of damage off of that, severely reducing the utility against Latias.
Other options: Because rotom is defensive you could run a resistance berry and make this set a bit more offensive while still having utility against Latias. I think I'd rather have the longevity at the end of the day but shuca empoleon could potentially make a lot of progress and give less room for scizor to set up.
--------------------------------
Hitmontop @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Def / 52 SpD / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
Shiny: Yes
- Close Combat
- Protect
- Rapid Spin
- Sucker Punch
I wanted to role compress spin with a secondary tyranitar answer. Hitmontop is an elite check to dragon dance tyranitar, but he's pretty limited in just about everything else. The HP is a leftovers benchmark I think, the 12 speed put you at 180 for skarmory, and the rest goes into the defenses. Hitmontop has pretty solid special bulk, and intimidate + max defense makes him a pretty formidable physical wall. You can really hinder dragon dance spam teams with intimidate protect pivot play if you're not dealing with excessive hazards. Sucker punch is a really neat option that, paired with protect, let you scout common choice users Latias and rotom, and then hit back with priority. This also gives Hitmontop a lot of utility against starmie because you can set up for the counter spin or play mind games with protect.
Other options: Hitmontop unfortunately lacks the power to stop dragonite and scizor from setting up again. You can kind of play around dragonite if you have abomasnow alive but scizor is a huge huge problem. Same deal goes for gyarados -- you can delay a lot with intimidate, which is an excellent ability, but hitmontop is almost never the answer. You could drop protect for something more offensive, or just run something else. Unfortunately this team needs the spin so there aren't a ton of great options that don't shred the rest of the defensive profile here.
Key Threats
- Bulky SD Scizor: pretty much the reason I stopped playing this team. I think there has been a surge in scizor lately and this team really just has nothing to stop him.
- Specs Latias: With magnezone it's almost always an instant loss. Without magnezone, the modest versions (also popular recently) can shred this team to pieces. I don't have a lot in terms of reliable recovery so a lot of damage is permanent.
- Lead azelf: Not an unwinnable match-up but definitely awkward early. You don't want to give up Latias so you're forced to switch into either rotom (who doesn't want to be paralyzed and is too important to be pursuit trapped early) or hitmontop (again, doesn't want to be paralyzed, and you're really just hoping they boom into protect).
-Clefable: A little bit less of a problem since running Lum Lucario but it gets in free on a lot of this team and you need to be aggressive about playing around it. Roar in particular helps empoleon keep clefable out, but then you have to pivot aggressively into Lucario or Abomasnow to claw back momentum. This can be really risky.
-Infernape: Another mon that has surged in popularity lately. You really kind of wish that Latias is alive for this one but in most cases it's not. Hitmontop can kind of slow it down, especially with hail up, but you can't be repeatedly switching in.
-Subsplit ghosts: Gengar is a problem, but he can be handled by empoleon + rotom (who can take one LO shadow ball if he needs). Sub-split rotom, while uncommon offensively, is really just not to be trifled with. You have to involve abomasnow and it just gets really messy.
-Toxic spikes: all hazards in particular aren't great for this match up but toxic spikes annihilates hitmontop's sticking power.
I've been pretty critical but I did hit 1600 mainly playing this team. Here are some replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2632744269-hkuqvi572h010e48a1l9a4lr0i4otu8pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2631897895
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2616333701-xw9n4vds7366sf2qdek7dibr3de3g9bpw (here is one where it doesn't really work)
This is an older team of mine that I had a decent amount of success with in the last year. I think there are a number of common threats that limit its consistency, but I had a lot of people on ladder tell me the set up was cool and I wanted to share it here. There is also a lot of versatility with this six so maybe someone can figure something out.
Latias @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 252 SpA / 116 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunderbolt
Latias is the lead mainly to lure in Tyranitar as early as possible so you can set hail for the rest of the game. Grass knot is unfortunately needed here to get the 2hko on most tyranitar, where surf does not. Colbur berry lets you scout the first hit from tyranitar and either switch or catch it by surprise and KO with a second grass knot, and bluffs the item for choice. HP ground is for dealing healthy damage to Heatran, which also commonly comes in in Latias. Unlike hitmontop (later) Tyranitar is pretty incentivized to stay in on Latias, especially if it thinks you're locked into something like thunderbolt. In my experience Latias has done its job as a lure pretty well but it does have some awkward lead match ups (azelf) and sometimes you find yourself wishing you had a different Latias later in the game for defensive utility against stuff like infernape.
The EV spread is modest to maximize damage, 116 speed to outrun the freaks running timid dragonite (not much more from the 280 benchmark I was at before), and the rest into bulk.
Other options: You could reconfigure the starting moveset to run Surf/HP Fire instead. Scizor is a huge problem for this team and this would help with that but you then give up checking tar. You could also change the item to EBelt if you wanted to get more milage on things like metagross but you are sacrificing the resilience to tyranitar.
---------------------------------
Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 136 HP / 252 Atk / 24 SpA / 96 Spe
Naughty Nature
IVs: 29 HP
Shiny: Yes
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Protect
- Blizzard
Abomasnow helps set the hail, and ideally you've already cleared Tyranitar or done a lot of damage before bringing him in. The spread maximizes attack, then hits the 180 speed benchmark for skarmory, hits an HP benchmark for something like leftovers/stealth rock and then pours the rest into special attack for blizzard. Blizzard does more than ice punch and does a decent amount of damage to skarmory thinking they're coming in for free. Protect is a crucial move that allows abomasnow to recover health and chip offensive threats closer into ice shard range. Ice shard is one of three priority moves on this team, which generally runs on the slower side. Protect stalling out gyarados and dragonite has saved me a lot of endgames. Wood hammer is necessary for slower TTar and Clef.
Other options: I think I used to run max speed and it was more reliable against tyranitar. HP fire is also an option for the scizor problem but you lose a lot of power there obviously.
--------------------------------
Rotom-Frost @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 220 SpD / 48 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Shiny: Yes
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
Despite not really prioritizing hazards on this team, it does appreciate having stealth rocks up to pile on the passive damage with hail to offensive threats. Specially defensive rotom can be a good starmie answer as well as something to handle infernape. You can't really switch into ape super reliably but if you can get it in safely you're going to be able to take a fire blast and retaliate with thunderbolt. This thing also terrorizes zapdos of all variety. Running the frost variant can also bluff blizzard which is common on a lot of hail teams. Really, you don't get many excuses to run the refrigerator over the other versions.
The EV spread outspeeds Tyranitar to get off the wisp and still eats a specs Draco meteor. Rotom's recovery (pain split) kind of sucks here and you'd rather be able to shake off status with rest. Unfortunately that means you have to run sleep talk, otherwise you're playing too passive. Rotom can really be a monster if Latias successfully removed Tyranitar, but I think one of the weaknesses of this team is that you're asking a mon that can be pursuit trapped to do a bit too much. Wisp is also unreliable and I've struggled with consistency on ladder because of it.
Other options: Run pain split + shadow ball, you can't really drop this thing without making significant changes to the rest of the roster because otherwise starmie gets in for free.
--------------------------------
Lucario @ Lum Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
Shiny: Yes
- Calm Mind
- Aura Sphere
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Vacuum Wave
Initially this was infernape but the team really struggled with Clefable stall (infernape was too easy to play around). I don't know if lucario is that much better, but calm mind at least puts some pressure, we get priority, and Lucario can get through flinching Jirachi. Lum berry is there to bait the thunder wave from the defensive mons + mag to either KO or get up an extra calm mind. This team also appreciates the extra steel type for specs Latias (as a punish for -2 after draco, you can't switch in directly with Lucario lol).
The issue with Lucario is that he's always just a little too slow or a little too weak given the lower base power moveset. I don't think he's great here but I did have some more success after swapping out infernape.
Other options: the purpose of this role is really 1) have priority 2) pressure opponents playing tougher stall -- I think there are other things you could run here, maybe a metagross.
--------------------------------
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 100 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Roar
- Surf
Empoleon was initially full spdef but I think that was overkill to pair with spdef rotom. Max bulk empoleon under this spread is still plenty bulky on the special side, so I shifted some EVs on defense to serve as a mixed wall-- I think the benchmark here is living +1 gyarados earthquake. The speed EVs are for the uninvested scizor variety. Empoleon is unfortunately saddled with setting stealth rock here -- it used to be infernape but I struggled to get him in and set rocks, moving it to empoleon made it way more consistent. I did have to drop knock off, which was a bit disappointing considering the synergy with hail and the ability to make progress on breaking clefable. Roar helps break up set up sweepers and reveal the opposing team. Protect pairs well with hail and can help grind down Jirachi.
Empoleon is also your primary answer to Latias on this team. Unfortunately, if the opponent is playing drag mag with specs Latias the odds of winning that match up falls dramatically if Empoleon gets trapped. I think you can live a thunderbolt but you'll be eating 70%+ of damage off of that, severely reducing the utility against Latias.
Other options: Because rotom is defensive you could run a resistance berry and make this set a bit more offensive while still having utility against Latias. I think I'd rather have the longevity at the end of the day but shuca empoleon could potentially make a lot of progress and give less room for scizor to set up.
--------------------------------
Hitmontop @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Def / 52 SpD / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
Shiny: Yes
- Close Combat
- Protect
- Rapid Spin
- Sucker Punch
I wanted to role compress spin with a secondary tyranitar answer. Hitmontop is an elite check to dragon dance tyranitar, but he's pretty limited in just about everything else. The HP is a leftovers benchmark I think, the 12 speed put you at 180 for skarmory, and the rest goes into the defenses. Hitmontop has pretty solid special bulk, and intimidate + max defense makes him a pretty formidable physical wall. You can really hinder dragon dance spam teams with intimidate protect pivot play if you're not dealing with excessive hazards. Sucker punch is a really neat option that, paired with protect, let you scout common choice users Latias and rotom, and then hit back with priority. This also gives Hitmontop a lot of utility against starmie because you can set up for the counter spin or play mind games with protect.
Other options: Hitmontop unfortunately lacks the power to stop dragonite and scizor from setting up again. You can kind of play around dragonite if you have abomasnow alive but scizor is a huge huge problem. Same deal goes for gyarados -- you can delay a lot with intimidate, which is an excellent ability, but hitmontop is almost never the answer. You could drop protect for something more offensive, or just run something else. Unfortunately this team needs the spin so there aren't a ton of great options that don't shred the rest of the defensive profile here.
Key Threats
- Bulky SD Scizor: pretty much the reason I stopped playing this team. I think there has been a surge in scizor lately and this team really just has nothing to stop him.
- Specs Latias: With magnezone it's almost always an instant loss. Without magnezone, the modest versions (also popular recently) can shred this team to pieces. I don't have a lot in terms of reliable recovery so a lot of damage is permanent.
- Lead azelf: Not an unwinnable match-up but definitely awkward early. You don't want to give up Latias so you're forced to switch into either rotom (who doesn't want to be paralyzed and is too important to be pursuit trapped early) or hitmontop (again, doesn't want to be paralyzed, and you're really just hoping they boom into protect).
-Clefable: A little bit less of a problem since running Lum Lucario but it gets in free on a lot of this team and you need to be aggressive about playing around it. Roar in particular helps empoleon keep clefable out, but then you have to pivot aggressively into Lucario or Abomasnow to claw back momentum. This can be really risky.
-Infernape: Another mon that has surged in popularity lately. You really kind of wish that Latias is alive for this one but in most cases it's not. Hitmontop can kind of slow it down, especially with hail up, but you can't be repeatedly switching in.
-Subsplit ghosts: Gengar is a problem, but he can be handled by empoleon + rotom (who can take one LO shadow ball if he needs). Sub-split rotom, while uncommon offensively, is really just not to be trifled with. You have to involve abomasnow and it just gets really messy.
-Toxic spikes: all hazards in particular aren't great for this match up but toxic spikes annihilates hitmontop's sticking power.
I've been pretty critical but I did hit 1600 mainly playing this team. Here are some replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2632744269-hkuqvi572h010e48a1l9a4lr0i4otu8pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2631897895
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2616333701-xw9n4vds7366sf2qdek7dibr3de3g9bpw (here is one where it doesn't really work)