Hi, I'm Thursday. You probably don't know me. I've been using this team for a while after a rather long hiatus, and it's been working well enough, I guess. I'm not that great of a player, but this team has been easy enough for me to use. I haven't achieved any notable records with this team, but it's fun enough to the point where I'd like to improve it. To preface this, I guess I should say with three Water weaknesses I have a bit of difficulty with Rain teams, but they're easier to maneuver around than you'd think. Also, I lose a lot but that's mostly because I'm a poor player. No pictures because I'm a little too lazy to post them. Anyways, I'll present my team without any further ado.
Hippowdon / Latios / Landorus / Keldeo / Skarmory / Terrakion
new headgear (Hippowdon) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 236 HP / 236 Def / 36 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
I think this is a pretty generic “lead”. Hippowdon is mostly here because I’m paranoid about Tyranitar and Terrakion, and it deals with both of those well enough I guess! Hippowdon serves two primary functions on this team: to serve as the weather starter and to lay down Stealth Rock, which is my first entry hazard I use on this team. Sand is crucial in making sure that other weathers (Rain, Sun) don’t destroy me: even though I have several resists to Water- and Fire-type moves, none of them have reliable recovery and so they can’t sustain much damage. In my extensive time playing this game, I have not used a better lead than Hippowdon; though I think it has become a bit worse in BW, the reliability with which it can set up Stealth Rock is noteworthy.
I decided to use Hippowdon because I needed something that could set up Stealth Rock and Sandstorm reliably without carrying the horrible Fighting-type weakness that plagues Tyranitar. I don’t have much more of a justification than that. I think Earthquake and Stealth Rock are pretty self-explanatory on Hippo, but Toxic deserves to be explained: I never found Whirlwind to be of much use, and Toxic puts Landorus-T on a timer: at least more so than Stealth Rock does! In addition, a lot of the things that switch in on Hippowdon really don’t appreciate Poison. I can switch to Whirlwind, I guess, as I understand its theoretical merits, but praxis hasn’t shown it to be that useful. Thoughts?
new headgear (Latios) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 204 SAtk / 52 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
This is the first of my set-up sweepers. Latios is an extremely threatening Pokemon to virtually everything except Tyranitar and Jirachi, and it’s also my answer to most things in Rain. Surprisingly, the way I play this team, I can almost always snatch a boost from something. Latios was the reason why this team was created, but to be honest, it’s one of the least useful members. Its primary function is to deter Keldeo from staying in, which it does well enough, but beyond that it doesn’t really sweep that well. Maybe I don’t have adequate support against its counters, though. Anyways, Latios has a pretty unique Dragon/Psychic typing which, combined with Levitate, gives it a few handy resistances (like Fighting, Water, and Fire) and one great immunity (Ground). This is my generic special “check” against things like Keldeo and Sheer Force Landorus. They’ll usually trample me if I don’t have Latios healthy, and so I’m loath to send it in on an opponent with something like a Tyranitar waiting in the wings because then I’d feel like a terrible person if I ended up getting trapped.
Movepool works, I guess: HP [Fire] smashes Steels (again, other than Jirachi), while Psyshock lacerates Fighting-types and Blissey and Chansey if I get enough boosts up, but the pink nurses don’t trouble me much with this team. Dragon Pulse gives amazing neutral coverage with HP Fire, but it’s a shame that Heatran exists. Anyways, Calm Mind is for buffing my Special Attack stat so I can fire off meaty Dragon Pulses, but the Special Defense boost is actually somewhat helpful sometimes: I can survive random attacks with the investment that I have along with that initial 1.5x boost that Specs Latios would not have. It’s just unfortunate that Latios is so inconsistent on this team; it either works beautifully or not at all.
new headgear (Landorus) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Ice]
lol
I really do hate Gyarados and Amoonguss too, I guess. Instead of using a typical Rock Polish Landorus, I use an Explosion Landorus. I started using this alongside CB Tyranitar and CM Keldeo on a very old version of this team to lure in things like Special Defensive Celebi and render them weak enough to the point where practically anything could kill them. Landorus is, in my opinion, the premier offensive threat in the BW2 metagame. Sheer Force Earth Powers are absolutely ridiculous, and it gets solid coverage to boot. I think everyone knows how Landorus operates, and so an explanation is kind of unnecessary: spam Earth Power early game, every game. In the event that I’m weakened and/or don’t have anything to handle Gyarados or something equally as potent that can’t be handled well by my other moves, I’ll explode. It’s almost like a “get out of jail free” card, to use a cliché, and provides a solid opportunity for something else to come in.
Even though Explosion was definitely nerfed in BW, Life Orb along with Landorus’s solid 125 base Attack shouldn’t be ignored. A base 250 attack is going to hurt coming off of 286 Attack and a Life Orb, even with minimal investment. I’ve been thinking about using Rock Polish on this, but I’m hesitant to actually use it. Once again, I’d really like your thoughts on this. Perhaps another team member would be more viable in this slot?
new headgear (Keldeo-R) @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Calm Mind
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Keldeo is terrifying to face. It’s my primary defense against Rain teams that don’t carry anything faster than it. The prospect of LO rain-boosted Hydro Pumps will usually deter Rain teams from switching in too often. In rain, +1 Hydro Pumps coming from Keldeo’s ridiculous 129 base Special Attack stat will decimate even things that resist it (I somehow got up to +2 on a Tentacruel, and Hydro Pump did over 80% to it as a testament to Keldeo’s strength). The things that stop Keldeo are to a varying extent dealt with by the rest of the team, so I try to avoid throwing it out there early game until everything that could pose a threat to Keldeo is gone, but that’s obviously a lot more difficult than it sounds. Hidden Power [Bug] is because I hate SDef Celebi. That’s pretty much it. I’ve been considering either Leftovers or Expert Belt in place of Life Orb, as I find that Keldeo has a very short lifespan compared to the other members of my team. Then again, this is probably due to the aggressive manner in which I play Keldeo.
new headgear (Skarmory) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SDef / 36 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Whirlwind
I think most people are familiar with Special Defensive Skarmory. It really is my favorite Skarmory set, and I think it’s fitting on this team: I really do lack Special bulk, and Skarm supplies a bit of that. In addition, it provides Spikes support for the team, provided the other team lacks a Spinner. I’ve always found Skarmory with SDef investment to be more effective at laying down Spikes than a physically defensive Skarmory, but your mileage will obviously vary. I just like the special bulk, which really goes a long way in preserving the metal bird. I think everyone’s familiar with Skarmory’s moveset and how Skarmory functions, so I won’t keep you too long about it: Skarm is my designated Steel-type, and is designed to lay down hazards and to provide some sort of assurance against boosting, non-Taunting sweepers with Sturdy and Whirlwind. If I see that my opponent has set up, I can usually go to either Skarmory or Terrakion to revenge or pHaze out whatever’s on the opponent’s team.
new headgear (Terrakion) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt / Hidden Power [Ice]
Terrakion is glorious as a revenge killer. With its 108 base Speed, it can usually revenge most offensive threats with its excellent STABs and solid base Attack stat. It helps me not be totally helpless against +1 Gyarados, +1 Dragonite, and revenges non-Scarf Lati@s provided that they’ve been weakened a bit. Terrakion is the last (and arguably most clutch) member of my team because not only is it fast, but it’s really strong too. Stone Edge and Close Combat are stellar moves to have late-game, especially when my opponent’s team has been sufficiently weakened. X-Scissor does slightly more damage to Psychics than Stone Edge and doesn’t suffer from Stone Edge’s infamous 80% accuracy. The last move is something that I almost never need. I’ve used HP [Ice] to a moderate amount of success, amusingly enough, but Zen Headbutt would probably be more practical to kill Toxicroak, who could potentially be an imposing threat against this team. However, it hasn’t been a huge problem yet, so I don’t really know what to do.
.
Well, thanks for reading. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. Also, yes, this team is bad, apologies for that.
Hippowdon / Latios / Landorus / Keldeo / Skarmory / Terrakion
new headgear (Hippowdon) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 236 HP / 236 Def / 36 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
I think this is a pretty generic “lead”. Hippowdon is mostly here because I’m paranoid about Tyranitar and Terrakion, and it deals with both of those well enough I guess! Hippowdon serves two primary functions on this team: to serve as the weather starter and to lay down Stealth Rock, which is my first entry hazard I use on this team. Sand is crucial in making sure that other weathers (Rain, Sun) don’t destroy me: even though I have several resists to Water- and Fire-type moves, none of them have reliable recovery and so they can’t sustain much damage. In my extensive time playing this game, I have not used a better lead than Hippowdon; though I think it has become a bit worse in BW, the reliability with which it can set up Stealth Rock is noteworthy.
I decided to use Hippowdon because I needed something that could set up Stealth Rock and Sandstorm reliably without carrying the horrible Fighting-type weakness that plagues Tyranitar. I don’t have much more of a justification than that. I think Earthquake and Stealth Rock are pretty self-explanatory on Hippo, but Toxic deserves to be explained: I never found Whirlwind to be of much use, and Toxic puts Landorus-T on a timer: at least more so than Stealth Rock does! In addition, a lot of the things that switch in on Hippowdon really don’t appreciate Poison. I can switch to Whirlwind, I guess, as I understand its theoretical merits, but praxis hasn’t shown it to be that useful. Thoughts?
new headgear (Latios) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 204 SAtk / 52 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
This is the first of my set-up sweepers. Latios is an extremely threatening Pokemon to virtually everything except Tyranitar and Jirachi, and it’s also my answer to most things in Rain. Surprisingly, the way I play this team, I can almost always snatch a boost from something. Latios was the reason why this team was created, but to be honest, it’s one of the least useful members. Its primary function is to deter Keldeo from staying in, which it does well enough, but beyond that it doesn’t really sweep that well. Maybe I don’t have adequate support against its counters, though. Anyways, Latios has a pretty unique Dragon/Psychic typing which, combined with Levitate, gives it a few handy resistances (like Fighting, Water, and Fire) and one great immunity (Ground). This is my generic special “check” against things like Keldeo and Sheer Force Landorus. They’ll usually trample me if I don’t have Latios healthy, and so I’m loath to send it in on an opponent with something like a Tyranitar waiting in the wings because then I’d feel like a terrible person if I ended up getting trapped.
Movepool works, I guess: HP [Fire] smashes Steels (again, other than Jirachi), while Psyshock lacerates Fighting-types and Blissey and Chansey if I get enough boosts up, but the pink nurses don’t trouble me much with this team. Dragon Pulse gives amazing neutral coverage with HP Fire, but it’s a shame that Heatran exists. Anyways, Calm Mind is for buffing my Special Attack stat so I can fire off meaty Dragon Pulses, but the Special Defense boost is actually somewhat helpful sometimes: I can survive random attacks with the investment that I have along with that initial 1.5x boost that Specs Latios would not have. It’s just unfortunate that Latios is so inconsistent on this team; it either works beautifully or not at all.
new headgear (Landorus) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Ice]
lol
I really do hate Gyarados and Amoonguss too, I guess. Instead of using a typical Rock Polish Landorus, I use an Explosion Landorus. I started using this alongside CB Tyranitar and CM Keldeo on a very old version of this team to lure in things like Special Defensive Celebi and render them weak enough to the point where practically anything could kill them. Landorus is, in my opinion, the premier offensive threat in the BW2 metagame. Sheer Force Earth Powers are absolutely ridiculous, and it gets solid coverage to boot. I think everyone knows how Landorus operates, and so an explanation is kind of unnecessary: spam Earth Power early game, every game. In the event that I’m weakened and/or don’t have anything to handle Gyarados or something equally as potent that can’t be handled well by my other moves, I’ll explode. It’s almost like a “get out of jail free” card, to use a cliché, and provides a solid opportunity for something else to come in.
Even though Explosion was definitely nerfed in BW, Life Orb along with Landorus’s solid 125 base Attack shouldn’t be ignored. A base 250 attack is going to hurt coming off of 286 Attack and a Life Orb, even with minimal investment. I’ve been thinking about using Rock Polish on this, but I’m hesitant to actually use it. Once again, I’d really like your thoughts on this. Perhaps another team member would be more viable in this slot?
new headgear (Keldeo-R) @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Calm Mind
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Keldeo is terrifying to face. It’s my primary defense against Rain teams that don’t carry anything faster than it. The prospect of LO rain-boosted Hydro Pumps will usually deter Rain teams from switching in too often. In rain, +1 Hydro Pumps coming from Keldeo’s ridiculous 129 base Special Attack stat will decimate even things that resist it (I somehow got up to +2 on a Tentacruel, and Hydro Pump did over 80% to it as a testament to Keldeo’s strength). The things that stop Keldeo are to a varying extent dealt with by the rest of the team, so I try to avoid throwing it out there early game until everything that could pose a threat to Keldeo is gone, but that’s obviously a lot more difficult than it sounds. Hidden Power [Bug] is because I hate SDef Celebi. That’s pretty much it. I’ve been considering either Leftovers or Expert Belt in place of Life Orb, as I find that Keldeo has a very short lifespan compared to the other members of my team. Then again, this is probably due to the aggressive manner in which I play Keldeo.
new headgear (Skarmory) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SDef / 36 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Whirlwind
I think most people are familiar with Special Defensive Skarmory. It really is my favorite Skarmory set, and I think it’s fitting on this team: I really do lack Special bulk, and Skarm supplies a bit of that. In addition, it provides Spikes support for the team, provided the other team lacks a Spinner. I’ve always found Skarmory with SDef investment to be more effective at laying down Spikes than a physically defensive Skarmory, but your mileage will obviously vary. I just like the special bulk, which really goes a long way in preserving the metal bird. I think everyone’s familiar with Skarmory’s moveset and how Skarmory functions, so I won’t keep you too long about it: Skarm is my designated Steel-type, and is designed to lay down hazards and to provide some sort of assurance against boosting, non-Taunting sweepers with Sturdy and Whirlwind. If I see that my opponent has set up, I can usually go to either Skarmory or Terrakion to revenge or pHaze out whatever’s on the opponent’s team.
new headgear (Terrakion) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt / Hidden Power [Ice]
Terrakion is glorious as a revenge killer. With its 108 base Speed, it can usually revenge most offensive threats with its excellent STABs and solid base Attack stat. It helps me not be totally helpless against +1 Gyarados, +1 Dragonite, and revenges non-Scarf Lati@s provided that they’ve been weakened a bit. Terrakion is the last (and arguably most clutch) member of my team because not only is it fast, but it’s really strong too. Stone Edge and Close Combat are stellar moves to have late-game, especially when my opponent’s team has been sufficiently weakened. X-Scissor does slightly more damage to Psychics than Stone Edge and doesn’t suffer from Stone Edge’s infamous 80% accuracy. The last move is something that I almost never need. I’ve used HP [Ice] to a moderate amount of success, amusingly enough, but Zen Headbutt would probably be more practical to kill Toxicroak, who could potentially be an imposing threat against this team. However, it hasn’t been a huge problem yet, so I don’t really know what to do.
.
Well, thanks for reading. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. Also, yes, this team is bad, apologies for that.
