Introduction
Hello and welcome to my first ADV RMT ever, a generation that has a special place in my heart. But that's enough rambling, let's get to business. I've been a degen randbats player since I usually had to play on my phone where teambuilding is a pain in the butt so I thought rather than start from scratch let's start with something that works. I stole this guy's team because it worked fairly well and I salivate at the thought of having a strong prio move (see: arcanine) especially in a generation that has next to none of them: og team. You can check out the original post if you think my take is a little too derivative, which I guess would make this a Rate Their Team instead. Playing the team seemed to automatically answer a lot of the questions I had about how to pilot it, except how to deal with skarmory and not get 6-0'd by starmie.Mandatory Music Video
Part of what drew me to this team is how the original name (Down in Flames) is very similar to a song by my favorite band. When I'm talking about anything music related I bring these guys up so I thought this was appropriate, since my remix of the OG team is similar too.
Proof of peak
I didn't have a particularly outstanding peak as far as I could tell but I got there in like 3 months of ADV OU after a decade plus of showdown experiences and a decade plus of Emerald/BF/ADV game mechanics (just got my gold Brave symbol).
Teambuilding Process
Here's what that other guy's team looked like before:
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I was having a hard time with skarmory so I think I switched out ttar for moltres. The team got shredded by rock/ground coverage so I ended up replacing that with Flygon. To deal with starmie, I would hope to get up spikes, bring in flygon, use endure salac to outspeed, do 40% with eq and try to finish with espeed from arcanine.
+ + + + + Needless to say this was a very hopeful attempt at a solution. Skarmory also totally walled flygon and caused major issues. From here, I decided to get ttar off the bench again, figuring it's the best guy in ADV for a reason, surely it can do something. Then it finally clicked in my head that the whole point of having two extremely similar setup sweepers in gross and tar allowed one to dent skarm enough that the other could break through. Milo is a super big issue though. Something that could deal with milo and starmie better while also keeping pressure on skarm was jolteon, so I changed my dog out.
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There's some moveset changes on top of the fact I changed one (1) pokemon on the team.
Team Pokepaste: WAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Smeargle @ Salac Berry
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 68 HP / 188 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Spore
- Whirlwind
- Explosion
I found out that this set is designed to take zapdos' tbolt, so you spike t1 and get the speed boost to spore t2. Just watch out if tbolt does enough that they can switch in tar and kill you with sand. Spikes is the whole reason the team works and spore is excellent as your opponent will either let you get many spikes up or switch out the sleeping mon which can be taken advantage of later. Explosion is very important with ADV mechanics as it stops your opponent from acting and can get you off the field without giving your opponent a turn to set up/heal/spin/etc. Whirlwind over sub has won me games because I'm a boss. As much as I love sub as a move (I like, REALLY like sub... like, a lot...) taking a mon that doesn't have any offensive presence and giving it more turns to continue to have 0 offensive presence was not highly productive. Instead, I let them CM twice, getting up more spikes, then kindly escort them off the field, allowing me to scout the opponent's team, spread chip damage, neutralize a threat and sometimes boom on something else for decent dammy.
Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Ttar aka Shohei Ohtani aka Sho Time aka the greatest ball player in modern history. If you're uneducated on who Shohei is, brush up here and come back to the RMT:
Metagross @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Agility
I found a super funny metagross meme from like 2012 that I wanted to use instead, but it wasn't the most tasteful and I didn't want to push the envelope so instead you're looking at Metagross SR by ElementalHeroShadow2 on DeviantArt. This version of metagross has rock slide from the og team which is fantastic for zapdos, fishing for flinches, and because your opponent expects boom so often you usually just get an extra kill when they try to bait you and get their gengar rock slid (slided?). EVs are to outspeed everything after agility. At least it really seems that way. Metagross has a super high defense so I made this one Liechi instead because you can't be toxic'd, para is bad but whatever, and anything that burns you will die first once you use agility and you can take EQ from non-STAB users and go to town after. That being said, feel free to google different variations of "[name of pokemon] funny memes" and witness what humor was like 15 years ago. It's a crazy time capsule.
Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 168 HP / 164 SpD / 176 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Giga Drain
- Fire Punch
- Explosion
Just a mf guy. I don't have the skill to use focus punch so I changed it to fire punch so I could still have a punching move that begins with F and deals with forretress (also begins with F). The previous RMT says this is a spinblocker, chip dealer, and has boom for momentum. Feels really important against skarmory to scare it out and sits at a nice speed tier. With giga drain, the recovery should make Claydol's Psychic not 2HKO you.
Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Earthquake
- Taunt
The ultimate noobkiller, would autowin 1300s game. Taunt makes skarm setup fodder. You get totally shut down by claydol but because you could carry coverage for it, it may boom on you because it's fearing something you don't have, or their only other attacking move is earthquake. There's a lot of mindgames with Salamence, but just know it dies when you are at plus 1, don't be afraid to DD again as they switch out and try to recycle their intimidate. Sometimes even a +1 HP Rock into zapdos is enough to let the rest of the team wreak havoc.
Jolteon @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Hidden Power [Grass]
This thing makes life simpler in a tier I'm still learning. It's faster than everything except for tying with itself and aero. STAB Tbolt is great for bulky waters, OHKO + outspeed on starmie, big damage into skarmory (often KOing when combined with a meteor mash or rock slide). I couldn't resist the thought of getting my grimy hands all over the combo of BP + Sub when almost any other metagame I have played BP is banned. I'm also chronically addicted to substitute. It's all I can think about sometimes. My wife told me she'd had enough and that if I couldn't spend more time paying attention to and providing for my family, she was going to divorce me and take the kids. You know what I did? I sacrificed 25% of my HP to create a decoy right there on the spot. I think about them sometimes and wonder how they're doing. Anyway, your opponent usually makes the mental connection once they see enough of the team that if you successfully sub, they get to play "guess the switch in" where they have to pick between different coverage moves and when they pick wrong, it creates free setup opportunities that can mean the end of the game. The one type that can chunk all of Gyara/Meta/Tar? Electric, in which case we just stay in doing chip damage while getting back the 25% we just sacrificed (also, like... dragon type I guess... you get the point). You can also use sub to condition your opponent into using the same move over and over to break the sub, like eq, and simply switch after two broken subs into gyara (or whoever) for free. Substitute is a really good move that allows for many, many levels of mindgames and strategies in what seems like a relatively simple mechanic and I hope I can explain some of those niche situations in the replays section. Not to mention you can't get around sub with sound moves or infiltrator in this generation. HP Grass is for more help with Swampert.
Tough Matchups
Starmie
Uh oh stinky. We have one water resist, which folds instantly to any set with tbolt. It can spin, and our spinblocker gets outsped and OHKO'd. Lead sets can sometimes just outspeed and KO smeargle, denying spikes while not allowing any setup opportunities. Of course, you can totally wall it depending on the set, but it's never safe and usually you want to trick your opponent into trading it early in the battle before they realize how well it does into your team.
Milotic
Making progress is super hard because unlike skarm, access to recover means we almost never do damage that lasts. I don't think double edge tar would even help that much. Usually you have to be aggressive with gengar and jolteon in this case, and hope they let it go down or save gengar for it when it's their last.
Other Offense (especially speed boosting ones)
I love fishing for hax, but as soon as the other guy does it, it's unfair, uncompetitive and should be removed from the game. Fast paced teams means fast paced games means less turns means each opportunity for a miss/full para is much more important. You have a good matchup into offense too, it's just that everything is balanced on knife's edge. Faster teams can be a huge problem since you don't have good defensive cores, so if they get enough dragon dances or pass an agility, that's probably curtains. Also, remember your ABCs (Always Be CSettingup). Every turn is scary for your opponent so you can leverage that to setup much more aggressive and the guys kinda need to be boosted to function.
Piloting Tips
One or two spikes can be enough. Smeargle can sometimes come back later in the game to troll. There's some mind games to be played against lead ttars (are they lum? just spike) or medichams (will they shadow ball? spore. focus punch? whirlwind them out) that can be outplayed. Whirlwind revealing guys early can be quite strong. If they switch into a nature cure user, you can sometimes spore again expecting them to switch, with not much downside. Absolutely do NOT let something pass speed or it may just be over. Once you set up with tar and metagross, just keep punching skarm until you go down, it sets up the next guy. Often they will roar you which can result in jolt or gengar coming in for free and threatening it. Lastly, I would highly recommend purchasing a good luck/gambling spell on Etsy before you play. I've found it's pretty effective and I had one day that I absolutely cheesed through 4 opponents in a row just off the backs of dodging their moves and critting or flinching mine. They can be kinda pricey, but it's well worth it. I bought this one when it was on sale for $150. Your mileage may vary.
Replays
Ok so I made have made a bit of an oopsie and only save the downloads of my replays instead of the uploads... so there's no links.
I added all the replays in a compressed folder which is mega annoying for you, the reader, so I have learned my lesson there. Instead I will describe what happens in each one and if you aren't so inclined to download a stranger's zip file, unzip it, and search for the corresponding replay, you can simply imagine what I am describing in your mind's eye instead and then think (or say, out loud, if you wish) "aw yeah".
5/7 against karik- got max layers, used sub to scout the snorlax's moveset without risking gengar, made a read on turn 15 he would go into something squishy and starmie comes out and dies. VERY good for me.
5/13 khina- should've spammed sub against zap... one flinch more or less locks up the game until a rock slide miss makes it spicy.
5/13 tomguy- could've gone gengar on boom, otherwise troll rain team drowns in sand.
5/17 notashk- got greedy against suicune. without a spinblocker, I use their spin to get a sub into gyara and he booms thinking I can touch him.
5/19 ethetf- NOTE: this is the day I bought the luck spell. Fishing for missed against hariyama proves fruitful. You should generally DD when salamence comes out since you should live a hit. hariyama chooses to stay in and die because he can't risk me getting another sub. HP Bug earns its lunch here.
5/19 Avg- meteor mash crit was very helpful. whirlwind here got me a dub.
5/19 low- was exploding after max laters into gar a good idea? no. but my opponent missed a will o wisp and I got +2/+2 so it's all fair in the end. Coudl've been more aggressive against skarm but jolt tbolt kills at 70%. keeping sub against tar was clutch.
5/19 mx- whirlwind comes in clutch again, instead of having to face starmie the spell makes pump miss and I double down us with boom. crit boom into tar was nuts.
5/20 jug- watch me almost get 6-0d by lead toxic sub protect flame flygon into a nice comeback
5/20 celdanami- what they don't tell you about the luck spell is there's a hangover period after where your luck is in the gutter. I lost to a clamperl team, a murkrow team, and in this one to a minun (also this player is also strong)
Closing Thoughts
Thanks to the guy who created the OG team, I've had a lot of fun evolving my own style and version of the team. I love some of the synergy that feels like autowins in some matchups and hopeless in others. I appreciate my ADV mentor helping me understand what the actual HECK is going on with EVs in this tier. And thanks to readers like you!!!!!!!!
