Rate My Team!

Hey guys, I could use some advice/tips/suggestions on how to improve my UU team! So far its been doing me well, but Im looking to improve it further!
Thanks!

1. Honchkrow
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
Moves: Brave Bird, Superpower, Sucker Punch, Roost
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4SpD

I start with Honchkrow, as it has a decent base attack and speed. I feel like at times it can be a good beginning sweeper. The only drawback with Honchkrow is its lacking Def and SpD. Whenever its faced with the situation of not being able to 1HKO, it usually suffers. Any suggestions on how to improve Honchkrow's attacking or bulking it up would be appreciated!

2. Blastoise
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Moves: Rapid Spin, Toxic, Ice Beam, Scald
Bold Nature
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 SpD

The reason I have Blastoise on is for a counter against a rock type that is used against honchkrow. It is also my spinner/tank. Having toxic is a huge help as the battle progresses, but other than rapid spin and toxic its not much of a help. I'd like to keep the two moves as theyre essential in maximizing vitality, but is there a way to make Blastoise offensive and defensive?

3. Darmanitan
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Moves: Flare Blitz, Rock Slide, Superpower, U-turn
Jolly Nature
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 SpD

Mainly an attacker/sweeper. I prefer to use Darmanitan mid game, or when it has a type advantage. Whenever the opponent switches out Illl use U-turn to switch to something that has an advantage to the other switched pokemon. However, Darmanitan cannot withstand an attack that much. Is there a way to keep Darmanitan's vitality up? I was thinking leftovers, but then it loses attack...

4. Zapdos
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Moves: Thunderbolt, Hidden Power (Grass), Volt Switch, Roost
Calm Nature
EVs: 248 HP, 252 SpD, 8 Speed

Zapdos is a useful pokemon that is essential for me to deal with water and even rock type pokemon. When a water type goes against Darmanitan, I use U-turn to Zapdos, and its high defense holds up pretty well. Hidden power grass is a benefit when the opponent switches to a rock type. Id like Zapdos to counter dragon types better, so I wanted to have Hidden Power Ice but Im not sure.

5. Rhyperior
Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
Moves: Earthquake, Stone Edge, Ice Punch, Rock Polish
Jolly Nature
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 SpD

Im not so sure about Rhyperior. Its been helpful at times, and at times it just does me no good. When a successful rock polish is pulled off, at most I can sweep 2 pokemon before it goes down. Otherwise, one water/grass type move on it, and its finished. Is there another move set that maximizes Rhyperiors enormous attack? Or is the rock polish set okay?

6. Heracross
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
Moves: Earthquake, Megahorn, Stone Edge, Close Combat
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed

This is my last minute sweeper. Heracross is always my last resort, and hope for a win. However, when faced with Fake out, its where Heracross crumbles. It always goes first, and leaves me flinched. Since heracross's defense isnt that great, with 2 fake outs, its finished. I want to bulk him up so he'd be the perfect sweeper, but Im not sure how to.

Let me know if anything should change, or what would work better!

Thank you!
 
you need 3 lines of description for every Pokemon talking about why you chose them for your team and what you have on them. this thread will be locked soon
 
Your team desperately needs at least SR support. Change Rock Polish Rhyperior to SR 3 Attacks Rhyperior. You can retain your Lum and EVs if you want, but I'd change Ice Punch to Megahorn. I'd normally suggest Lefties or LO on an offensive Rhyperior, but you don't have anything on your team to absorb status, so Lum might be okay.
Also change HP Grass to HP Ice on Zapdos. Now that you have some semblance of hazard support, I'd suggest changing Ice Beam on Blastoise into Roar. Between Phazing with stoise and Volt-turning with Zapdos/Darmanitan, you'll be able to wrack up some nice hazard damage as well as not losing as much momentum and being set-up fodder.

I'd also suggest Sleep Talk over EQ on Heracross. EQ only gives it coverage against a couple of things, and it isn't enough to OHKO any major threats anyway. Sleep Talk, on the other hand, makes your team not as crippled by Roserade/Amoonguss/Venomoth by giving you something to bring in to a Sleep Powder/Spore and score some surprise kills.

You could also run Heat Wave over Volt Switch on Zapdos, but you do have a nice little Volt-turn thing going on so that's a matter of personal preference.

Overall it's a great start, and with a little tweaking it could be a great team. Best of luck! :)
 
Hey pretty nice looking team. In general it's nice to add sprites to RMTs, just to break up the wall of text and make it look nicer. You can find animated sprites of every pokemon here: http://sprites.pokecheck.org/
Once there right click and copy the image URL of a sprite, then go back and click the 'Insert Image' button at the top of the text editor and paste the image URL in the box that appears.

I don't think Rock Polish Rhyperior is very good, a bulkier set would benefit your team a lot more:
Rhyperior
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
Moves: Earthquake, Stone Edge, Dragon Tail, Stealth Rock
Adamant Nature
EVs: 248 HP, 16 Atk, 244 SDef
Firstly this set gives your team a Stealth Rock user, which is always important. The given EVs make Rhyperior quite bulky while retaining a lot of power (with only 16 Atk EVs and Adamant nature, Rhyperior is more powerful than a max Atk Snorlax). As you said Rock Polish Rhyperior is just too easy to take down, and even after a Rock Polish Rhyperior is still fairly slow.

Even though you have a rapid spinner, a team with half of it's members weak to Stealth Rock is never a good thing. It's not hard to stop Blastoise rapid spinning and Stealth Rocks on the field will seriously mess your sweepers up, especially considering how frail Honchkrow and Darmanitan are. Your team really needs another special attacker, as you have no special attackers with any offensive investment. There are a lot of good special attackers for you to use, I'll list some of the best ones not weak to Stealth Rocks:
  • Raikou-extremely fast and powerful, most common sets are Choice Specs and Sub-Calm Mind
  • Kingdra-versatile attacker with well rounded stats, most common sets are Choice Spes and Rain Dance (one of my personal favorites)
  • Roserade-very powerful special attacker with nice typing and special bulk, most common set is Life Orb (another nice thing about Roserade is it's access to Spikes and Synthesis)
  • Slowbro-good bulk, typing, and special attack, most common set is Choice Specs
  • Nidoqueen-good bulk, typing, high special attack, and great move coverage
 
Oh I completely missed the SR weakness, derp. Just going off of what PTJon7 has said (all of which is amazing advice), I think that the poke to replace would be Zapdos and the best options for your team for replacing it would be Offensive Roserade or Choiced Raikou. Raikou would retain your Volt-Turn theme and make it massively stronger, whereas Roserade would ease up the effect of status on your team with Natural Cure and provide for some extra hazards as well. All of the suggested pokes are great options, but I think those two jump out at me the most.

Sets:
Raikou @ Choice Specs/Choice Scarf
Pressure
252 SpA/252 Spe/4 Def
Timid Nature/Rash Nature
- T-bolt
- Volt Switch
- HP Ice
- Extrasensory/Aura Sphere

Roserade @ Life Orb/Black Sludge
Natural Cure
252 SpA/252 Spe/4 HP
Modest/Timid
-Leaf Storm/Giga Drain
-Sludge Bomb
-Spikes
-Synthesis
 
You've gotten some great advice so far but I'd like to throw in my 2 cents as well.

First off, if you want Honchcrow to be OHKOing more things, then I recommend you Add Pursuit to Honchcrow. More likely than not, if you switch to Honchcrow on an opposing Pokemon that's in KO range, it's very likely that he'll switch out to avoid you getting the Moxie boost. Pursuit nullifies this problem, insuring you get that important Moxie boost so you can successfully OHKO a lot more things.

You seem to have a lot of options for taking physical hits but not a lot of options for taking special hits. I would recommend a replacement for Blastoise such as Milotic, but since you need Rapid Spin to support this team it looks like that's not an option. It's not a necessary change, but you may want to try Claydol, who not only is a great special wall, but it also has rapid spin, an immunity to both kinds of spikes, and a stealth rock resistance. Try experimenting with him and see how well he does!
 
Back
Top