On the offensive

[Pharaoh]

A little introduction, This is my first 5th gen team that has gotten me a few wins. But I feel that I'm a bit clueless at times, I win mostly but I lost to easy stuff because I don't know what to do. I was decent at 4th gen, though far from great, and pretty darn good at 3rd gen. But I can barely grasp this gen, so many pokemon, so little time.

I built this team around offense because it is my preferred playstyle in any generation and I am too impatient for stall. I like to start things off with a bang and end them with an even bigger one. So without further ado...

Azelf @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Energy Ball

Azelf is my favourite lead, especially with this set. I know it is quite unorthodox, but this lead has the element of surprise as its main quality. Psychic is for STAB and any fighting or poison types I run into. Flamethrower gives it a move for steel pokemon and is a great move for things like Nattorei as well. Thunderbolt gets Water types and ESPECIALLY Gyarados when they don't expect it. Energy Ball is mainly for Swampert and Waruvial. This set has almost perfect coverage, with(I think) the only pokemon resisting all 4 moves being Sazandor. This can start battles off quite well and set the tempo for the rest of the team.

Kojondo (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regeneration
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Hi Jump Kick
- Fake Out
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

Kojondo is my scout and revenge killer and he is quite powerful as well. Fake Out gives him a great potential for revenge killing and just does some annoying damage anyway. U-turn for scouting purposes, and Celebi and co.. HJK is for Super powered STAB and Stone Edge for great coverage alongside it. It can sometimes disappoint, and on other times, be a hero for my team.

Sazandora (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SAtk / 236 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast

Sazandora is one of the best pokemon in this team. He is blessed with a wonderful typing and ability. the EVs are to make it outspeed things like Modest Gengar. It has great coverage and power along its life orb. Draco Meteor is incredibly powerful STAB and hurts anything that doesn't resist it that isn't named Blissey or Snorlax. Dark Pulse is great for Ghosts and Psychics and is consistent STAB which I can use over and over. Fire Blast is great to remove those steels, especially Scizor and Nattorei. Focus Blast kills other dark types, and other Sazandoras. This really does destroy teams on its own at times.

Enbuoo (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Reckless
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Wild bolt
- Flare Blitz
- Head Smash
- Hammer Arm

One of my less favourite pokemon in the team. sometimes absolutely useless, other times slightly useful. Flare Blitz is for very powerful STAB. Wild Bolt for coverage on Water types. Hammer Arm for Fighting STAB. I usually don't mind the speed drop either. Head Smash for a very powerful rock type move for opposing fire types. This is very welcome to change.

Jolteon (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Baton Pass
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Substitute

Jolteon is my favourite pokemon of all time, as you might have guessed. it's a life orb sweeper with baton pass to get out of tight spots. Substitute to prevent status and maybe to pass a sub to something else. Thunderbolt for powerful STAB and HP Ice for Dragons and Grasses. This pokemon is both powerful and quick, outspeeding almost everything without a scarf. I made the IVs so that it doesn't lose speed for HP Ice. Life Orb for some extra kick.

Hihidaruma (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Encourage
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

The star of the show, although he usually isn't deserving of that title. He's a sweeper with super powered choice banded moves. Flare Blitz for that incredible power. Earthquake for coverage as well as Superpower. Rock Slide's extra power from encourage is useful against the likes of that Electric Flying(voltlos?) thing whose name escapes me. It's made for power and it has just that. sometimes it doesn't do the job, and sometimes it does. but it's not consistent enough to be irreplaceable for my team.


Thank you in advance for your rates, I know this team will have many faults but I am excited to learn more and more about this new metagame.

Let the rates begin!

 

[Geezar10]

If I were you I would change Enbuoo who seems completely useless on this team to a Mamoswine which can deal with dragons and also is a very strong physical attacker. I would suggest a set like this:

Mamoswine @ Leftovers
Ability: Either
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adament Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
-Avalanche or Ice Shard
-Earthquake
-Superpower
-Stone Edge

This set is great for taking out all sorts of pokemon and deals quite well with the dragons that trouble your team.

 

[Stoker]

you know, you could suggest a counter instead of some information i can't use.

Have you thought about running Arcanine in Enbuoo's slot? I meant Arc can run bulky or heavily offensive nowadays, would have about the same coverage with Close Combat/Wild Bolt/Flare Blitz, plus priority in Extremespeed.

 

[Jaroda]

Four Life Orb's? You're not in it for the long haul are you? You're going to get worn down very quickly in conjunction with Sandstorm and SR.

First off, replace one Azelf attack for Stealth Rock as it's going to help you get a lot more OHKOs. Kill the Taunt users and save SR for everything else. Probably replace Energy Ball. Or at least use Grass Knot since if all it hits is Swampert and Hippo GK will hit both much harder.

Enboar is horrible. If you insist on a Fire/Fighting type Infernape and Blaziken are both far superior. However Fire is a pretty poor defensive type and you have Hihi already, ironically one of the few pokemon that don't receive LO recoil and yet that's the one you choose to band lol. Get something with some bulk that resists what your team is weak to. Something like Metagross.

Scarfchomp can wipe the floor with your team with unresisted Outrage or EQ outside of Sazy, who is weak to Outrage.

 

[min min]

Actually that Mamoswine should be LO with Ice Shard/Icicle Drop/Earthquake/Stone Edge. Icicle Drop is a very safe option to spam when you're forcing a switch, as it does a number on specially defensive Nattorei. Never EVER use a Mamoswine without Ice Shard.

 

[Colonel Darren]

I would have suggested dropping Emboar. Have you considered Vaporeon in it's place? It would provide a rather useful Water immunity to assist Hihidaruma and be bait for Jolteon. If you manage to use Ice Beam/Boil Over/Wish/Protect, you could get quite a bit of well-needed Wish Support for your Life Orb abusers and have a shaky, but better-than-nothing answer to Garchomp.

 

[KidX]

Ahh! Finally someone else who sees how awesome LO Azelf as a lead is, props to that. The only thing I will suggest is to tryout fire blast on Zelf for more power.

On to the team: As Geezar10 suggested, a Mamoswine or maybe a weavile will be really useful to your team because Scarf Flygon can do quite a bit of damage to your team.
Mamoswine @ Choice Band
EV's: 4 Hp 252 Atk 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant / Jolly
Ability: Snow Cloak
Moves:

Ice Shard
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Superpower

This set hits pretty damn hard with STAB ice shard and EQ, SE and Superpower are mainly for coverage.

Another set would be this:

Weavile @ Choice Band
EV's: 4 Hp 252 Atk 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Pressure
Moves:

Ice Shard
Ice Punch / Might Slash
Low Kick
Pursuit

This set can easily take care of ghosts and psychics as well as KO fliers like scarf gon easily. The choice for the second slot depends on if you want to have a solid STAB against fliers or ghosts and psychics.

Also another suggestion is as Colonel Darren said is to try out good old Vappy. The set he suggested is fine.

Good Luck!

 

[Pharaoh]

Testing Mamoswine and replaced Energy Ball on Azelf with Grass Knot. not too interested in SR on Azelf though. thank you to everyone for all the helpful comments.