PINSIR got WINGS (Currently 1825 and running..)

[-Marcel-]

PINSIR got WINGS, in case you haven't noticed yet
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After not playing (competitive) Pokemon for several years, I decided to start playing again when I heard a whole new Pokemon generation came out with several new gimmicks such as mega evolutions. Mega Pinsir attracted me from the first moment, so I decided to build a team around it. I battled a lot with this team since last weak on Pokemon Showdown with the name MARCELLL, and it does really well. However, due to my lack of experience, I think theres a lot of improving possible to the movesets, natures and EVs. Really appreciating all the help to improve my team. Considering I am Dutch, and German is my second language, I would like to apologise for my really bad English grammar.. Thank you and enjoy reading this thread.
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Galvantula @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Sticky Web
- Volt Switch
- Bug Buzz

Cool Pokemon. Sticky Web opens ways for my slow team. Thunder is my best shot at Pokemon like Rotom Wash. For some reason, this Galvantula stays alive for most of the battle, so no need to sacrifice this. Spamming Thunders and sponging Thunder Waves is a welcome thing. It's often used as a revengekiller late game. Compound Eyes boosts Thunder's accuracy with 30%, which is a nice bonus!
*****

Togekiss @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Aura Sphere
- Dazzling Gleam
- Flamethrower

My alltime favorite, now with a nice Dragon resist. This Pokemon is a huge lead in times when most people lead with Smeargle, Breloom, Galvantula, Ferrothorn. Flamethrower is here to OHKO (lead) Ferrothorn. I love it to Air Slash complete teams down with the 60% flinch rate. Its typing combined with his naturally bulk is a big plus. Shuts down most dragon and fragile Pokemon like Mega Gengar, Alakazam, Pinsir, Everything else. I dont think I have used Aura Sphere once, so that move might be replaced?
*****

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge

Weather check, always good to have the possibility to control the weather. Stealh Rock is really important for me to handle for instance Talonflame. Crunch/Stone Edge is a good attacking combo. Counters Pokemon such as Goodra. Pursuit helps in some situations to trap weakened Pokemon or for instance to wear down Talonflame ASAP. The sand helps me a lot to prevent Focus Sash from working effectivly, and to add up extra damage to my opponents.
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Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance

Standard set. Iron Head suprisingly scores a lot of OHKOs on the new Fairy types, without a Swords Dance boost! Adamant and no max speed, because I rely on Galvantula's Sticky Web. I dont think I needed the higher speed Jolly gives once.. This Garchomp is capable of smashing holes in a team without any Swords Dance. Its typing and natural bulk are a weclome given thing.
*****

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 HP / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
- Facade

I have not thought deeply about the EVspread and nature. I mainly keep this as my spinner, and to scare Aegislash and his brother. Its a great late game cleaner, when his brother TTar caused a Sandstorm, giving Excadrill a speedstat of over 400, enough to outspeed most Pokemon. The max HP and defense EVs allow me to tank hits really well. It survives most SE physical hits, and is always capable of doing massive damage back. I could not find the chance to set up a Swords Dance often, and since Rotom's always burned me with Will-O-Wisp on the switching when I predicted a Volt Switch, I changed the last move to Facade. Facade has a nice suprise factor.
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Pinsir @ Pinsirite
Ability: Aerialate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Return
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack

Mega Pinsir, the star of the show. Believe me, Mega Pinsir is really good. Its so fun to use, and it hits like a truck. Not much Pokemon like to take a STAB Return coming from a base 155 attack. Aerialate is a godsend, changing normal moves into flying moves. Quick Attack is a monstermove on itself, now its a base 60 STAB priority move. It has a suprisingly good bulk. Its typing is actually really decent and the Flying/Ground attacking combo hits the most common Pokemon for SE damage. Late game, when the opponents team is weakened and slowed down by the sticky web, it can score a lot of KOs. Pinsir does really like Stealth Rock, Sticky Web and Rapid Spin support! Its base speed of 105 is enough to outspeed a lot of Pokemon. That said, there is a large number of Pokemon that are even able to touch Pinsir, think of Ferrothorn for instance. It is bulky enough to get a Swords Dance boost in most of the battles I've played.
A situation that really much occurs is the Aegislash using King Shield when I Swords Dance, thats mostly resulting in a fast GG..
The main revenge killer for Pinsir is Talonflame, outspeeding and hitting with a STAB SE Brave Bird. Therefore, I never setup before Talonflame is down.

Where it all has started with... This is a quote from Alex Wolf, with a lot of interesting facts and damage calcs, which inspired me a lot to use Mega Pinsir. I would like to thank you for providing this information.

There is no need for Close Combat. This should be Mega Pinsir's main set:

Pinsir @ Pinsirite
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Ability: Hyper Cutter (to prevent Intimidate users to lower you Attack on the turn you MEvolve)
Nature: Adamant / Jolly
- Swords Dance
- Return / Double Edge
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake

Close Combat or not, Pinsir is not getting past Skarmory so there is that. Also, Zapdos is not really relevant atm, or at least wasn't by the end of 5th gen. Meanwhile, Earthquake is a must to get past Aegislash, which would totally counter you otherwise, while keeping your defenses intact is very nice as well because Mega Pinsir has good physical bulk. Other than this, this Pokemon is a nuke, and +2 Quick Attack is really awesome against offensive teams, letting Mega Pinsir be very useful against both defensive and offensive teams. Some calcs:

• +2 252+ Atk Pinsir Return vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Hippowdon: 360-424 (85.71 - 100.95%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock. Can't do much back, unless phaze, which is admiteddly a problem for a 4x SR weak Pokemon.
  
• +1 252+ Atk Pinsir Return vs. 248 HP / 172 Def Landorus-T: 285-336 (74.8 - 88.18%) -- 6.25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
• +2 252+ Atk Pinsir Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 313-370 (74.52 - 88.09%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• +2 252+ Atk Pinsir Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Aegislash: 294-348 (90.74 - 107.4%) -- 81.25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
• +2 252+ Atk Pinsir Return vs. 252 HP / 48+ Def Ferrothorn: 288-340 (81.81 - 96.59%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
• +2 252+ Atk Pinsir Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 48+ Def Ferrothorn: 339-400 (96.3 - 113.63%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
• +2 252+ Atk Pinsir Quick Attack vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 178-211 (54.93 - 65.12%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
• +2 252+ Atk Pinsir Quick Attack vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Keldeo: 356-422 (110.21 - 130.65%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Also, here are some common priority attacks against Mega Pinsir (except from Breloom, which is outsped and OHKOed by Quick Attack)

• 252+ Atk Choice Band Technician Scizor Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Pinsir: 138-163 (50.92 - 60.14%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
• 252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite ExtremeSpeed vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Pinsir: 125-148 (46.12 - 54.61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Pinsir: 159-190 (58.67 - 70.11%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Aegislash Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Pinsir: 90-107 (33.21 - 39.48%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
• 252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Pinsir: 141-166 (52.02 - 61.25%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Mega Pinsir avoids the OHKO from all of those, even after SR, assuming it only switched in once, which is how it should be played anyway. Pretty strong sweeper, but as most Stealth Rock weak Pokemon will need a lot of support to work and faces heavy competition from other MEvos. At least it has useful priority to help with revenge kills.

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Overview of the team

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MAIN PAIN LIST (from large to small)
I want to save you guys the entire threatlist.. Therefore I decided to pick the Pokemon that caused me the most problems.

| The combination of her good movepool and huge natural bulk, is really causing troubles for me and my team. Luckily the most are leads, where I can wear her down by switching around between TTar/Excadrill and Togekiss. Once weakened, or without boosts, most of my pokes can handle her. Really big threat to my team when a +2 speed(/attack) boost is baton passed to her. I have no good counter for Kangaskhan.

| Really common as, and unless my Galvantula can weaken it, it causes big problems to my Pokemon, since neither of them likes to get hit bij a SE hit or Will-O-Wisp.

| The Coil and DDance versions are really annoying. My team can't handle them well, because it's so bulky. Luckily I dont see them often, because it's a really strong Pokemon.

| Offensive Gliscors are no threat, but his defensive brothers are. Toxic/Sub/Protect/Aerthquake versions can wear my entire team down in a couple of turns..

| Can stop 4 of my Pokemon COLD. Not a big threat, try to kill it ASAP.

| The priority flying moves are the best revengekiller for Pinsir. Set up Stealth Rock ASAP when the opponent has this thing.

| Most of my Pokemon can take a hit and do massive damage back. However if played correctly, it could be a big pain.

| Scores big damage on most of my team. Lay down a spider web to make it slower then my entire team helps.

| Big threat in general. Can do massive damage to my team when it is at +2 speed/+2attack. Pinsir can revengekill it.

| When it gets a hit in, it does massive damage. I have a pretty big ground weakness..

| Really dangerous. Spider web slows it down in the sand. Try to break the balloon ASAP.

| Its fast, and spider web is no good for me. Most are leads, Togekiss flinches and kills or brings it down at HP where it cant do any worse to my team.

| Fast, bulky and powerfull. Mega Pinsir and Togekiss do wonders, otherwise it could wreck my team.

| Especially the Mega Dos is a big pain.. With 2 DD's, nothing can stop it. Have to prevent it from setting up.

| FlinchKiss is bulky and strong. Can do good damage to most of my team.

| Scores SE hits on most of my Pokemon. Mega TTar is bulky enough to take hits from Pinsir all day long.

| His priority ability is annoying. Ive been swept few times by the swagger/sub/foul play variants:$

 

[Ballofire]

You should consider mold breaker over sand rush for excadrill. Sand is limited now and late game this renders your sand rush useless, and if it is not your goal to sweep with excadrill I would drop it. Also excadrills #1 item of choice is a air balloon.

 

[radica]

Doesn't Return do base 102x1.3(Aerialate)x1.5(STAB)=199. This team uses Web a lot better than other teams.

 

[for54years]

Hi there, I enjoyed you're write up. Might I suggest Trick in place of Aura Sphere on Togekiss, since you noted that this move is never used? Also, you have a major SR weakness here. Since this is pokebank, perhaps Defog on Scizor or even a Skarmory would be better in place of Excadrill? Skarm also has access to taunt, which would help deal with klefki, along with the aforementioned trick.

 

[iliekmudkipz123456789]

I think you should change your Excadrill to this:

Excadrill@ Air Balloon
Mold breaker
Jolly/Adamant
252spe/252atk/4hp
Rapid Spin
Earthquake
Swords Dance
Rock Slide/Iron Head

First of all, please don't run Facade lol. With Mold Breaker STAB Earthquake, Rotom-Wash gets DESTROYED. The EV spread allows you to get off a rapid spin as fast as possible, which is why I like Jolly instead of Adamant. Swords dance is there if you ever get the opportunity to sweep. Rock Slide is there for coverage against Flying types, but if you really have a problem with Fairy types then run Iron Head. You could also run max attack max speed, but in my opinion this EV spread is better.

Also, scarf Togekiss is not a counter to Mega Gengar btw lol. Might I suggest changing Garchomp to Bulletproof Chesnaught? Bulletproof makes Chesnaught immune to Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, and Focus Blast. To top it off, Chesnaught has access to Earthquake to smack Mega Gengar in the face lol. Plus Chesnaught can deal with that Ground weakness you got. You could also consider a Greninja instead of Togekiss so that Gliscor and Zygarde die, but Greninja is frail so Starmie is also an option.

 

[radica]

I highly agree with using a mold breaker Excadrill, with sticky web your able to beat base 130s and whenever you use a stickyweb team you want to be more offensive.

 

[Shurtugal]

Hello there!

There are a few changes I think you can make to improve this team on an overall scale.

For starters, that Excadrill set is pretty lackluster; I'd change it to Chople Berry (to lure Lucario / Gengar/ PO's Blaziken / Alakazam, etc.) and use the move set Stealth Rock | Rapid Spin | Earthquake | Iron Head with the ability Mold Breaker since Sand Rush is pretty much inconsistent and unreliable atm. Spin support is needed for the obvious reasons, but the SR is also pretty important in this metagame and I'd hate to see you not use it for a crappier move like Rock Slide or Swords Dance.

Garchomp + Excadrill are redundant partners IMO, and I feel you can switch Garchomp out for something a tad more useful: DD Dragonite. Dragonite appreciates the spin support provided from Excadrill, and I must say, that it's still a pretty amazing Pokemon this metagame. It has more set up opp. and is a pretty reliable sweeper and much more efficient than Chomp is, I'd say.

Finally, Tyranitar is something that should be switched out for Physically Defensive Rotom-W. Rotom-W covers more of your threat list as well as checking and countering mot of what Tyranitar itself was doing before. It's utility in beating Landorus-T and Skarmory are huge pluses for this team as well.

Lastly, I'd like to say you are a bit dragon weak. I'd personally switch Scarf Togekiss for something else like Genesect or some kind of steel type since I find them more reliable, but since you clearly like Togekiss, you can disregard this last bit of info. because it's completely biased on my part. I personally think Faiys are a bit overrated. (Do you even need a Scarfer when you have Sticky Web?)

Anyway, Good Luck!

 

[sidakarya]

I think Togekiss is fine here for the dragons, but I agree Scarf is kind of redundant, when you have Sticky Web. You might want to try a bulkier set; I've had success with the 3 attacks set which is a nice offensive pivot. (You could replace Aura Sphere with Roost or even Wish) Something like Modest 248 HP / 84 SAtk / 164 Spe (the speed outruns base 130s while the silly strings are up) is a good build, or even Bold 248 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spe if you prefer bulkier.