Pressure Prevention

[Lord Liam]

Hello everyone. Since my last highly successful team, Lordlioffense, I have not been able to build anything half decent. Me and reachzero were going to joint a team and I thought maybe that would help out, and the frame of the team came from that. Eventually, I transformed it into this highly aggressive team that rarely gives the opponent a chance to setup, using a combination of U-Turn and pure power. This team has performed very well against some exceptional players and has done consistently well on the ladder but it's missing something and I can't find it, so hopefully someone can here. Before I present the team, I'd like to show my teambuilding process.​

Team Building Process

The team began with the shell of the team that me and reachzero made, and I started remaking it from here.​

Salamence is an exceptional pokemon, but for some reason was not pulling his weight on this team as a mixed attacker and stallbreaker, so I tried Jirachi and it worked wonders. It also supplied me with another steel type.​

Much like Salamence, Heatran was not pulling his weight. He is used as a revenge killer and Scizor has similar typing and can perform the same job, but for this team he's done it better. Scizor is so useful.​

I struggled direly against Gyarados and wanted a good check and secondary scarfer to make things easier, and Flygon seemed to share many resistances with Suicune so he seemed like a good choice. Flygon is a powerful attacker and performs much better than Suicune.​

Now, onto the team itself....​

Celebi @ Occa Berry
Nature: Modest
EVs: 176 Speed / 252 Sp.Atk / 80 HP
Ability: Natural Cure​

- Earth Power
- Leaf Storm
- Stealth Rock
- U-Turn​

Celebi is an excellent, underrated team. It provides a reliable rocks and can beat many of the common leads, including Azelf, Metagross and Swampert.
Earth Power allows for a 2HKO against Tyranitar, Leaf Storm is a near KO on Gliscor and a OHKO on Swampert. U-Turn lets me escape anything with a sash and kill Tyranitar after a Leaf Storm. Reachzero made me use this thing, I wanted to use pert, but it's performed very well.​

Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Nature: Naive
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Sp.Atk
Ability: Serene Grace

- Iron Head
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Thunderbolt / Grass Knot

Jirachi is an excellent stallbreaker and works well against offensive teams. The combination of her attacks does good damage to everything except for Heatran who is a pest to this team. She also acts as a check to Lucario if Tyranitar happens to be dead. In the start of the match I try to bluff a scarf as it generally leads to me getting a surprise kill and putting me in the lead.

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Ability: Levitate

- Earthquake
- U-Turn
- Outrage
- ThunderPunch

Flygon checks a shitload of things, including DD Salamence and Gyarados who otherwise do alot of damage to my team. His typing also provides my team with needed synergy and an electric immunity and a rock resistance. Flygon has definately worked alot better than Suicune in this spot.

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Ability: Sand Stream

- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

My god Scarftar is outstanding, he is my all purpose check to Latias and Azelf while being able to pursuit trap Jolteon and other frail sweepers. Superpower was chosen over Earthquake as I like to decimate Blissey and 2HKO Snorlax while hitting Lucario and Shuca Heatran harder. I tend to crunch Latias and Starmie as they can hit me hard and most of the time they don't switch to avoid the pursuit. All in all this is a great pokemon and my 2nd scarfer.

Latias @ Life Orb
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Sp.Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Ability: Levitate

- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power[Fire]
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover

Latias acts as my glue and primary special sweeper. Thunderbolt and Dragon Pulse provide good coverage and Hidden Power Fire lets me get a surprise hit on pesky scizor, something that hurts my team. The electric, water and fighting resistances Latias provides are so great that she's placed on most teams. If Latias is to get banned Jolteon will take this spot.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Speed
Ability: Technician

- Bullet Punch
- U-Turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Scizor is an outstanding all purpose pokemon. It acts as a scout, revenge killer and trapper all in one and is my primary switch-in to Blissey. Honestly there isn't too much to say about Scizor since everything has been said and everyone has already said that everything has been said about Scizor. I'll leave it at that.

That is my team. As said it is designed to never give the opponent a chance to setup and destroy them with absolute offensive pressure and trapping. I hoped you enjoyed reading, send your rates this way.



​

 

[Lord Liam]

I beat it with Celebi it's very easy and not a threat.

If it has taunt it's a bit annoying but otherwise I set up rocks and beat it.

Annoying little bugger, but if the opponent isn't smart Scizor and Tar beat it.

He gets sleep but pretty much my entire team can beat it.

He's bulky but Scizor's U-Turn and Latias's Hidden Power Fire kill it pretty quick.

Scizor and Tyranitar weeee.

Harder than Salamence thanks to Extremespeed but managable by my revenge killers.

Everything

Why are you in this tier?

He might get a kill off but Flygon easily picks it off.

It doesn't really hurt any of my dudes and most of them can hit it super effectively.

Scizor and Tyranitar

Okay this thing is really annoying but Jirachi and Latias really hurt it.

I don't let it get setup, if it does and flygon is dead I lose.

God I hate Heatran Flygon and Tar can come in but if it's paired with SkarmBliss I lose.

Just gotta outpredict it to beat it.

Latias mainly.

Latias and Jirachi

Latias

CM loses to my MixRaichi and Jirachi in general loses to Flygon.

Flygon and Tyranitar

I don't let it setup but after a DD Flygon can.

Tyranitar and Scizor

Jirachi and Tyranitar

He's a pain to everything requires a sacrafice.

Flygon

Scizor

Flygon mainly.

Why are you in this tier?

I usually beat these with Celebi

Tyranitar and Scizor

Easy, Scizor and Flygon.

My absolute BIGGEST threat, not much switches into a U-Turn and if Raichi dies and it has a SD I lose.

Annoying little bugger, Latias and Jirachi mostly.

It's annoying but Scizor revenges it after Celebi is slept.

Scizor and Tyranitar, not a threat.

Tyranitar

Jirachi and Latias as well as Celebi, CroCune is annoying though.

Latias 2HKOes.

Everything.

Why are you in this tier?

Scizor and Jirachi.

Jirachi Celebi Latias

Why are you in this tier?

Tyranitar mainly.

 

[KnightoftheWind]

Your team has trouble in taking hits from Choice Band Scizor. I know you have Latias with Hidden Power Fire to wipe out any Scizor that attempts to wipe it, but what if Scizor switches into your Celebi, Flygon locked into Outrage or Thunderbolt, or Tyranitar locked into Crunch or Pursuit? Half of your team is weak to Bug, and your only Bug resist is your own Scizor, who gets a third of its health shaved off of it every time it switches into U-turn. Your Scizor will also not like a Superpower. This means that Scizor will be doing a fair bit of damage to your if it manages to get in on anything but Latias or Jirachi on your team, and it'll be an immense help if you had another Bug resist.

I suggest you run a Gliscor over Celebi.

Gliscor @ Leftovers | Jolly
252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spe
Earthquake / Stealth Rock / U-turn / Roost

Now, I know you like your Celebi lead, but I really feel Gliscor would work much better for your team. Your Celebi provides an excellent oppurtunity for Scizor to switch-in, since you lack Hidden Power Fire. Gliscor makes for a nice switch-in to Scizor, resisting U-turn and Superpower and being able to take a Bullet Punch or Pursuit. Like your Celebi, it can U-turn against leads against leads, and go to Tyranitar to kill them off. Gliscor also provides a good counter to Bullet Punch Lucario, who can also be troublesome.

Now then, I think you can use something a bit more productive than Scizor. You say it gives you a scout, revenge killer and trapper. However, you already have those in your team in the form in your Scarfers. Flygon can scout with U-turn (so can Gliscor), Tyranitar can easily trap stuff, and both of them make good revenge killers. Therefore, you can use something that provides more to the team than Scizor. You'll want extra resists to Water, Ice, Bug, Ghost, Dragon, Dark and Steel. You'll also want something that can sweep in the late game. I'm going to be a bit unorthodox here and recommend an Empoleon over your Scizor.

Empoleon @ Life Orb | Modest
24 HP / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Surf / Ice Beam / Grass Knot / Agility

Empoleon provides some excellent resistances to the aforementioned types, and is very capable of sweeping in the late game, using Agility and excellent type coverage to blast through a weakened team. The reason I'm suggesting an Agility + 3 Attacks Empoleon as opposed to an Agility SubPetaya Empoleon is that your team isn't exactly tailored to get a SubPetaya Empoleon sweeping, so it's safer to use a sweeper with better type coverage. The extra type coverage also goes with your team's policy of not letting anything set-up, as Empoleon with only two attacks can pose as set-up bait for Waters or Dragons, depending on the move you give up.

Good luck with your team.

 

[Lord Liam]

Heh, yeah U-Turn kills me, it's the one major flaw of the team. Regardless I'll try your suggestions and get back to you.

 

[The SPrinkLer]

hey. really cool team, but as you know with your battle with me ;), it gets raped by stall in general. subrotom can just shit over it, and heatran can come in on any attempts for tar crunching or whatever, and shit on your team some more. i believe two changes would help deal with some potent threats of your team, while dealing with stall. first off, running a choice scarf on jirachi would allow you to provide a trick user to fuck with stall, as well as a way to get rid of things like gyarados more effectively. the next change is mixmence>flygon. salamence's intimidate would provide a great way to abuse it in beating things like machamp and gyarados, while its better bulk will provide a better switchin to heatran and the like. it is easily one of the most potent breakers of stall to, so it should definitely be considered.

also don't replace celebi since it would still be equally sd scizor weak, while opening up water types...

definitely run like hp fire on celebi to help with scizor more.

yea if you need any more reasons (there are some i must have forgotten about while typing it up) just vm me or whatever. good luck!

 

[Lord Liam]

In my testing, Gliscor is working quite well and empoleon isn't doing that badly but definately not excellent.

sprinkles that doesn't seem like a bad suggestion except imo Salamence is way too frail, especially with a SR weak and the fact that even a Scarf Heatran's FB can 2hko it after rocks. I'll try it anyways though. Thanks for the rate.

 

[Phantom_IV]

Your team also seems to have issues with Swampert. Yes, Latias can 2hko, but who keeps their swampert in on that?

Also, you should consider different sets that pokemon can run in your threatlist, instead of simply dismissing them or naming a general counter. For example, Trick Room Offensive Bronzong, something that's rising in usage, gives your team loads of problems. It can nearly OHKO Latias, Ttar, Flygon, and Jirachi. Another example is that you dismiss Weavile, but if Scizor falls to a predicted fire attack or Magnezone, Weavile could 2HKO most of your team, including OHKOing Ttar, Flygon, and Latias (Low kick does a number to Scizor as well).

 

[Cooltrainer]

It is ironic that the focal point of your team, U-turn, is also your biggest weakness.

As mentioned in plenty of other posts, Banded Scizor is a problem. I like the Gliscor change, and because of that I suggest a permanent GRASS KNOT on your Jirachi.



If there is a Swampert lead, you can UTurn out, take the ice beam with Rachi, Iron head incase they switch, if they stay in, GKNOT next turn. Easy peazy.

Tyranitar and Scizor

Another thing you breifly mention in your "counter" list is Rotom. You state that any Scizor and tyranitar can switch in and take it out.

I find this to be false. Your Jirachi/Flygon/Tyranitar/Scizor will never want to switch into a Wil-o-wisp, Latias never wants a STAB super effective Shadow ball, and neither Celebi nor Gliscor can deal effectively with Rotom (ESPECIALLY SUB)

To deal better with SCIZOR AND ROTOM, I suggest you return back to Heatran.
I have no idea what the EVs for speed are [I think its 228], but if you run Modest with enough EVS to outpace TTar,Defensive Celebi, Zapdos, and Adamant Breloom, you can run a Sub/Toxic set. I prefer Shuca berry, because it allows you to fake the scarf. I suggest running Celebi, if you choose to take TTar, because that way you csn deal with Suicune more easily. Leaf storm does a lot.

Heatran @ Shuca Berry, Modest
252SpAtk ~ 228 Speed? ~ 28 HP?
Fire Blast, Earth power, Substitute, Toxic

This will leave you slightly more open to Lucario, however the advantages it will prove you seem like they would outweigh the risks. If you do opt for CeleTran combo, you can put Tbolt w\ 28 SpAtk EVS, which I think guarentees an OHKO on any Gyarados after SR [With Expert Belt]

Hope this helped!

 

[Lord Liam]

Thanks for the rates. Over the Empoleon KnightoftheWind suggested, I'm going to try that Shuca Heatran set and see how it works. It gives me a bit of a water weak but hopefully Latias can stay around long enough.

 

[Lord Liam]

bump.
The Heatran working over Scizor is offering good results.