Hey everyone, I've been a member here for a little bit and finally got Pokemon Online working on my computer so I've been able to test a team further than the circle of my friends normally would've allowed. Having played for about two weeks with this team, I've done everything I know how to do to make it better and thought it prudent to ask for help and criticism from here.
The planning for this team was kind of weird, normally I'll start with a sweeper or core that I would like and work the team around that Pokemon or combination of Pokemon and it works out pretty well, but this time was different; this time I started with my lead:
I had seen lead Dragonite used a lot by a YouTube commentator I follow, Kyprotonic, and I really liked the basic idea of it. So in goes Dragonite.
Well I kinda screwed myself into a corner because I had never built a team from the lead down before so I decided since the lead variation of Dragonite can perform a decent sweeper role to treat him as such and cover his weaknesses and add a "Lead Support" role. Enter Ferrothorn:
Yes, I know he's evil and pretty broke, but let's get past that and move on. Ferrothorn's typing and defenses were key in his slot on the team as they allow him to take Rock AND Dragon on a resistance and Ice on a neutral, and take all three of these very, very well. I originally had Skarmory in this slot, but the type combination on Ferrothorn will serve my team much better.
Well that was lengthy. Next I wanted a true Ice resist on my team so that Ferrothorn wouldn't have to take the brunt of all the attacks directed at Dragonite, or the rest of my team for that matter. Last gen I really wanted to use a Rotom form, but considering I played mainly on PBR the forms had eluded me. Taking into account the typing change as well Rotom - Wash was perfect for this slot:
Rotom-W's new type combo, as many know, gives him only one weakness which so far both my other team members 4x resist. Perfect. He also gives another Fire resist for Ferrothorn's sake and threatens back with a SE Water move.
Right, so apparently after choosing only three Pokes I'm back to square one on where to go from here, until I remembered that since the OU -> Uber bans hadn't finished, Latios is still available. Truthfully, I arrived too late last gen to even use his younger sister, so he was my next choice hands down:
Having covered his weaknesses pretty decently already I felt comfortable adding Latios in. Combining a non-Flying Dragon type with the ability Levitate gave me a third Ground immunity, which is always welcome. Furthered in status only by his Psychic sub-type, giving my team a nice combination of Fighting and Psychic resists all in one package.
Well shoot, all these Pokemon and not one weather inducer? Blasphemy! I figured pretty much all types of weather barring Hail would be OK for this team, but really residual damage is where it's at, so who better for the team than Godzilla himself:
I guess this choice was kinda natural since I already had two Fighting resists and three Ground immunities(I know he has more weaknesses than that, but those are the most common). He brings residual damage in the ever common form of Sand to the team, which helps with sweeps and the like, but also in stall wars. For a game or two I tried Scarf Terrakion here, but he just wasn't the same. I went through a couple different T-Tars before I found one I liked, but I'll get to that in a moment.
Now that all the other team slots had been occupied I had to include an obligatory set-up sweeper so I could turn a battle around with relative ease:
Honestly, I've never really used Lucario before, and the only one any of my friends used was a Choice Specs variant. Granted all that stuff is fine and fun, but I really just needed a physical threat as well as a decent revenge killer.
With all that team building process junk outta the way I guess it's time for some In-Depth stuff so you can actually see what's doing what and maybe even why. So here goes!
Dragonite@Life Orb - Multiscale
Mild/56Atk/252SpA/200Spe
~Draco Meteor
~Fire Blast
~Earthquake
~ExtremeSpeed
I'm pretty sure these are the standard EV's for a lead Dragonite, and even the standard moves, but they get the job done and it is what I wanted. My Dragonite often stays in and just goes for the obvious move, which is usually Draco Meteor, changing based on various information. Multiscale is nice for those fast leads like Weavile or something Scarfed, but it shatters if I go first. If I know I'm gonna take a Fake Out I'll switch to preserve my Scale and make them pay with Ferrothorns Iron Barbs. I'm actually pretty shocked at how often I get Taunted by the likes of Aerodactyl expecting what I can only assume is Thunder Wave.
Ferrothorn@Leftovers - Iron Barbs
Careful/252HP/56Def/200SpD
~Spikes/Stealth Rock
~Leech Seed
~Thunder Wave
~Power Whip
I'm not really up to date on Ferrothorn EV spreads, but this is one that I made after one or two battles on PO where a more physically defensive spread wasn't cutting it. This spread lets me stay in on Special Pokemon and even take HP Fire from some, and set up Leech Seed to alleviate some pressure switching to something else. The moves are pretty standard, but I really haven't decided between Spikes or Rocks. Nobody else on my team has Rocks, but Spikes can do a lot more damage to some different Pokemon *Coug*Excadrill*Cough* Thunder Wave is a beastly move that can set me up for some nasty sweeps later in a match, while Power Whip is there for something to do if taunted.
Rotom-W@Leftovers - Levitate
Modest/252HP/40Def/216SpA
~Hydro Pump
~Thunder
~Will-o-Wisp
~Pain Split
Now I know the EV's aren't exactly normal or whatever, but they've done really well so far. Originally I had Smogon's standard defensive Rotom from Gen IV, but it didn't pack enough punch at all. This spread caps me at max HP(obviously?), 260 Def and 330 SpA. Combine that with double 120 STAB and I can hit all but Ferrothorn for some wicked damage. Hydro Pump is a given on Rotom-W so why change tradition, but Thunder replaced Thunderbolt for sheer power and to punish rain teams. The last two moves provide me with the ability to stall war a lot of physical Pokemon, such as Garchomp and even Excadrill, to death if need be.
Latios@Choice Specs - Levitate
Timid/4Def/252SpA/252Spe
~Draco Meteor
~HP Fire
~Surf
~Psyshock
So this is a bit unoriginal and I've even taken some flak for using it, but until it goes it's gonna stay here. Standard EV's and a standard moveset provide me with the coverage I need to kill most things on the first try if not a follow up attack. I can usually bring Latios in on a Special based resist and wreck face, even Blissey isn't that safe with Psyshock. HP Fire is to deal with Ferrothorn mostly, but also other Steel types who think they're badass, but also a full half of Sun teams as well. Surf covers what HP Fire can't, and hits the other half of Sun teams and Heatran for loads of damage. You may notice I have no Trick on here, and that's because I generally don't like it.
Tyranitar@ExpertBelt - Sand Steam
Lax/184HP/8Atk/120Def/152SpA/44Spe
~Crunch
~Earthquake
~Ice Beam
~Fire Blast
This started out as a Tyraniboah, but has since moved on to being a straight Lure T-Tar, and though the Boah did nicely, this moveset has proven to be more versatile. I dug the EV's and moveset up from an old Smogon article on Lures and modified it a bit to be slightly more relevant to the possibility of new Adamant LO Gliscor with max Atk, and considering I did pair him unwittingly with my Lucario this works out quite nicely. Crunch is standard STAB, but also does a nice number on pesky Ghost type walls like Evio Dusclops and Cofagrigus on the switch. Earthquake is good in general and hits a lot of Pokemon for SE damage, while Ice Beam and Fire Blast round out coverage from the special side.
Lucario@Life Orb - Inner Focus
Adamant/4Def/252Atk/252Spe
~Swords Dance
~Close Combat/Hi Jump Kick
~Bullet Punch
~ExtremeSpeed
OMG! Luc Skywalker! Ok, that was lame, but bear with me. Again a standard EV spread, but really it's a sweeper, so what can I do. I usually switch in on a -2 Draco Meteor or something like that to get a free SD up(like you're supposed to?). Close Combat is the normal STAB move for Lucario, but I've been playing around with Hi Jump Kick on someone's advice. Bullet Punch will always kill min/min Gengar after Stealth Rock if I have Swords Dance up and it provides a prio STAB for use against Pokemon who I can't normally hit well. ExtremeSpeed is by far my most used move on this set and I'm loving it. He's almost always my MVP if Dragonite isn't and wish I had started using this last gen.
Threat list coming soon.
The planning for this team was kind of weird, normally I'll start with a sweeper or core that I would like and work the team around that Pokemon or combination of Pokemon and it works out pretty well, but this time was different; this time I started with my lead:
I had seen lead Dragonite used a lot by a YouTube commentator I follow, Kyprotonic, and I really liked the basic idea of it. So in goes Dragonite.
Well I kinda screwed myself into a corner because I had never built a team from the lead down before so I decided since the lead variation of Dragonite can perform a decent sweeper role to treat him as such and cover his weaknesses and add a "Lead Support" role. Enter Ferrothorn:
Yes, I know he's evil and pretty broke, but let's get past that and move on. Ferrothorn's typing and defenses were key in his slot on the team as they allow him to take Rock AND Dragon on a resistance and Ice on a neutral, and take all three of these very, very well. I originally had Skarmory in this slot, but the type combination on Ferrothorn will serve my team much better.
Well that was lengthy. Next I wanted a true Ice resist on my team so that Ferrothorn wouldn't have to take the brunt of all the attacks directed at Dragonite, or the rest of my team for that matter. Last gen I really wanted to use a Rotom form, but considering I played mainly on PBR the forms had eluded me. Taking into account the typing change as well Rotom - Wash was perfect for this slot:
Rotom-W's new type combo, as many know, gives him only one weakness which so far both my other team members 4x resist. Perfect. He also gives another Fire resist for Ferrothorn's sake and threatens back with a SE Water move.
Right, so apparently after choosing only three Pokes I'm back to square one on where to go from here, until I remembered that since the OU -> Uber bans hadn't finished, Latios is still available. Truthfully, I arrived too late last gen to even use his younger sister, so he was my next choice hands down:
Having covered his weaknesses pretty decently already I felt comfortable adding Latios in. Combining a non-Flying Dragon type with the ability Levitate gave me a third Ground immunity, which is always welcome. Furthered in status only by his Psychic sub-type, giving my team a nice combination of Fighting and Psychic resists all in one package.
Well shoot, all these Pokemon and not one weather inducer? Blasphemy! I figured pretty much all types of weather barring Hail would be OK for this team, but really residual damage is where it's at, so who better for the team than Godzilla himself:
I guess this choice was kinda natural since I already had two Fighting resists and three Ground immunities(I know he has more weaknesses than that, but those are the most common). He brings residual damage in the ever common form of Sand to the team, which helps with sweeps and the like, but also in stall wars. For a game or two I tried Scarf Terrakion here, but he just wasn't the same. I went through a couple different T-Tars before I found one I liked, but I'll get to that in a moment.
Now that all the other team slots had been occupied I had to include an obligatory set-up sweeper so I could turn a battle around with relative ease:
Honestly, I've never really used Lucario before, and the only one any of my friends used was a Choice Specs variant. Granted all that stuff is fine and fun, but I really just needed a physical threat as well as a decent revenge killer.
With all that team building process junk outta the way I guess it's time for some In-Depth stuff so you can actually see what's doing what and maybe even why. So here goes!
Dragonite@Life Orb - Multiscale
Mild/56Atk/252SpA/200Spe
~Draco Meteor
~Fire Blast
~Earthquake
~ExtremeSpeed
I'm pretty sure these are the standard EV's for a lead Dragonite, and even the standard moves, but they get the job done and it is what I wanted. My Dragonite often stays in and just goes for the obvious move, which is usually Draco Meteor, changing based on various information. Multiscale is nice for those fast leads like Weavile or something Scarfed, but it shatters if I go first. If I know I'm gonna take a Fake Out I'll switch to preserve my Scale and make them pay with Ferrothorns Iron Barbs. I'm actually pretty shocked at how often I get Taunted by the likes of Aerodactyl expecting what I can only assume is Thunder Wave.
Ferrothorn@Leftovers - Iron Barbs
Careful/252HP/56Def/200SpD
~Spikes/Stealth Rock
~Leech Seed
~Thunder Wave
~Power Whip
I'm not really up to date on Ferrothorn EV spreads, but this is one that I made after one or two battles on PO where a more physically defensive spread wasn't cutting it. This spread lets me stay in on Special Pokemon and even take HP Fire from some, and set up Leech Seed to alleviate some pressure switching to something else. The moves are pretty standard, but I really haven't decided between Spikes or Rocks. Nobody else on my team has Rocks, but Spikes can do a lot more damage to some different Pokemon *Coug*Excadrill*Cough* Thunder Wave is a beastly move that can set me up for some nasty sweeps later in a match, while Power Whip is there for something to do if taunted.
Rotom-W@Leftovers - Levitate
Modest/252HP/40Def/216SpA
~Hydro Pump
~Thunder
~Will-o-Wisp
~Pain Split
Now I know the EV's aren't exactly normal or whatever, but they've done really well so far. Originally I had Smogon's standard defensive Rotom from Gen IV, but it didn't pack enough punch at all. This spread caps me at max HP(obviously?), 260 Def and 330 SpA. Combine that with double 120 STAB and I can hit all but Ferrothorn for some wicked damage. Hydro Pump is a given on Rotom-W so why change tradition, but Thunder replaced Thunderbolt for sheer power and to punish rain teams. The last two moves provide me with the ability to stall war a lot of physical Pokemon, such as Garchomp and even Excadrill, to death if need be.
Latios@Choice Specs - Levitate
Timid/4Def/252SpA/252Spe
~Draco Meteor
~HP Fire
~Surf
~Psyshock
So this is a bit unoriginal and I've even taken some flak for using it, but until it goes it's gonna stay here. Standard EV's and a standard moveset provide me with the coverage I need to kill most things on the first try if not a follow up attack. I can usually bring Latios in on a Special based resist and wreck face, even Blissey isn't that safe with Psyshock. HP Fire is to deal with Ferrothorn mostly, but also other Steel types who think they're badass, but also a full half of Sun teams as well. Surf covers what HP Fire can't, and hits the other half of Sun teams and Heatran for loads of damage. You may notice I have no Trick on here, and that's because I generally don't like it.
Tyranitar@ExpertBelt - Sand Steam
Lax/184HP/8Atk/120Def/152SpA/44Spe
~Crunch
~Earthquake
~Ice Beam
~Fire Blast
This started out as a Tyraniboah, but has since moved on to being a straight Lure T-Tar, and though the Boah did nicely, this moveset has proven to be more versatile. I dug the EV's and moveset up from an old Smogon article on Lures and modified it a bit to be slightly more relevant to the possibility of new Adamant LO Gliscor with max Atk, and considering I did pair him unwittingly with my Lucario this works out quite nicely. Crunch is standard STAB, but also does a nice number on pesky Ghost type walls like Evio Dusclops and Cofagrigus on the switch. Earthquake is good in general and hits a lot of Pokemon for SE damage, while Ice Beam and Fire Blast round out coverage from the special side.
Lucario@Life Orb - Inner Focus
Adamant/4Def/252Atk/252Spe
~Swords Dance
~Close Combat/Hi Jump Kick
~Bullet Punch
~ExtremeSpeed
OMG! Luc Skywalker! Ok, that was lame, but bear with me. Again a standard EV spread, but really it's a sweeper, so what can I do. I usually switch in on a -2 Draco Meteor or something like that to get a free SD up(like you're supposed to?). Close Combat is the normal STAB move for Lucario, but I've been playing around with Hi Jump Kick on someone's advice. Bullet Punch will always kill min/min Gengar after Stealth Rock if I have Swords Dance up and it provides a prio STAB for use against Pokemon who I can't normally hit well. ExtremeSpeed is by far my most used move on this set and I'm loving it. He's almost always my MVP if Dragonite isn't and wish I had started using this last gen.
Threat list coming soon.