Rating Practice Team 17

[Jirachee]

Welcome to the newest round of practice teams. If you're an aspiring rater, then these will hopefully allow you to pick up on and address any problems with your rating, as well as providing you with experience rating teams that have been specifically made to be as tough to rate as possible, and to make you think creatively in order to find the best changes. Any rates we receive will be replied to with personalized feedback by one of tab, Jirachi, harsha2014, Remedy, and Trinitrotoluene. Then, at the end of the round, we'll give some general hints and feedback on how things went, and post the best rate that we received as an example of how to rate the team.

Anyone is welcome to participate and send in their rate, and everyone will be guaranteed to receive feedback appropriate to the effort they put into their rate, regardless of their ability. However, to keep things fair we won't be considering rates sent in by official team raters as winners of the best rate.

If you would like to participate in this round, PM your rate to tab no later than Friday September 6th.
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I had no time to make a team (actually was too lazy) so I asked my good friend Shaun James Tysoe the second to give me a team for this post. He normally plays VGC so it's normal if there are issues with the team! It's based around a late game Kingdra sweep. He uses the very underrated Salamence to break down stuff that'd like to stop Kingdra's sweep.

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 248 SAtk / 228 Spd / 32 HP
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Dragon Pulse
- Rain Dance

Kingdra is the Pokemon the team is built around. It does very well against Rain teams since all they normally have that can stop Kingdra is Ferrothorn, which can't stand the team's repeated hits. If the opponent isn't using Rain himself, Kingdra can set it up itself no problem! It makes it very useful against Sun teams who would happen the win the weather war. The EV spread might seem a bit weird, but it hits a Life Orb number as well as making Kingdra faster than a Choice Scarf Latios in Rain, who'd otherwise revenge kill Kingdra pretty easily.

Salamence @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 176 Spd / 80 Atk
Rash Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Roost

Salamence's mixed set is very underrated and is the perfect partner for Kingdra. It can smash through bulkier Pokemon thanks to Draco Meteor, and also annihilates Steel types who'd be tempted to switch into its Dragon STAB. It's also the team's main counter to Breloom, which could be quite a huge threat otherwise! Thanks to Intimidate, if Breloom has already used Spore, it won't be able to do much to get past Salamence, especially since it can heal up any lost HP thanks to Roost.

Rotom-W (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 168 HP / 252 SAtk / 88 Spd
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Rotom-W is able to switch into Bulky Waters who would otherwise be pretty annoying to the team. It makes for a nice pivot against a lot of stuff the team has trouble with, like Mamoswine. An additional Water resist is never bad too, considering how powerful Rain is. All in all, Rotom-W fills in a ton of holes in the team and makes it more solid, but isn't exactly its most vital member.

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 148 Spd / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- U-turn
- Healing Wish

Every team needs its revenge killer, and Jirachi is this team's. It helps deal with otherwise threatening Pokemon like Latios, and also revenge kills Dragonite, who'd be quite an headache to deal with otherwise. Healing Wish is an interesting option for something like Kingdra, since it can come back late game and proceed to smash through the opposition. The EVs are for outspeeding +1 neutral base 100s, and the extra bulk is nice since Jirachi is the team's only Steel.

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Def / 248 HP / 8 SDef
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

Hippowdon is excellent at controlling weather and laying down Stealth Rock, which is the main reason it was chosen on this team. On top of that, it can handle possibly dangerous physical attackers like Terrakion or Lucario which are a threat to the team too. The Physically Defensive variant was chosen specifically for that. Hippowdon is also much cuter than any other weather starter (except maybe Politoed but it's illegal with Kingdra :'(), which was a deciding factor.

Terrakion @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Quick Attack

A Fighting type is a nice thing to have on a team that relies on a Water type sweeper because Ferrothorn can be annoying, and Terrakion is the perfect man for that. It hits stupidly hard and will obliterate pretty much every bulky checks that attempt to switch into it with good prediction, making it easier to Kingdra to come and sweep afterwards. It also checks Volcarona if sandstorm is up, which is a nice bonus.

 

[Jirachee]

My boy Shaun kind of lost interest in singles, he was too busy eating chicken nuggets, so I'll update this instead of him.

This edition's winning rate was submitted by user: Halcyon.. Here is the rate in question:

Hey, cool team you have here!

I'm not sure how good of a counter to Breloom Salamence is. For example, if the Focus Sash set doesn't put you to sleep, it can still set up a Swords Dance as you switch into it, and then it can 2HKO you with +1 Mach Punch or get lucky with Bullet Seed. Either way, having Life Orb on a Stealth Rock weak Pokémon and calling it a Breloom counter when your team is as weak to it as it is is probably not a good idea. I recommend using an Offensive Latias in its place. While Latias doesn't have mixed capabilities like Salamence does, it is a much better counter to Breloom, and won't have to continually Roost every time it switches in. In addition, Latias Can help your team better handle Keldeo, for which you have no real check. Rotom-W gets 2HKOed by Secret Sword, and most of your other other Pokémon get revenge killed by the Scarf set. Latias helps better guard your team against both Keldeo and Breloom. venusaur in the sun can also give your team trouble after a Growth boost, and Latias can handle it nicely. Finally, a well-timed Hidden power Fire can weaken Ferrothorn to a point where it can no longer wall Kingdra, which is a huge problem for any team focused on a Kingdra sweep.

Another thing you could do to better handle Ferrothorn is to change your Terrakion set. As it stands, having the Pokémon that is most capable of killing Ferrothorn lock itself into a move to kill it is not a good idea. I suggest changing Terrakion to a Sub Swords Dance set. With this, you can switch moves and bluff a choiced-set depending on the item you choose, and possibly sweep if Kingdra goes down early.

Hope I was able to help! Good luck with the team!

Hide

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 184 SAtk / 252 Spd / 72 HP
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Roost

Terrakion @ Salac Berry
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Substitute
- Swords Dance

He correctly identified the team's trouble with Breloom and Ferrothorn and attempted to fix it. While it did change the way the team works a bit, his changes improved the team.

Furthermore, I'd like to remind everyone that if you identify a weakness, do not hesitate to fix it. This is the worst thing you can do. A lot of you have just identified a weakness and haven't done anything about it. This is borderline pointless as most people already know their weaknesses and are looking for help fixing them so yeah... you're not helping if you just point out "hi, you're weak to subpetaya beedrill!"

So here's how I would have rated the team myself:

1) The team is pretty weak to Volcarona, Latios, and Fighting types in general since the only resist is a Salamence, and it's SR weak + it holds a Life Orb in Sand, so yeah... not a really good resist, although pdef Hippo can handle most of them.

2) The team doesn't really like hazards... Salamence is weak to rocks, Rotom-W + Jirachi with a mini volturn chain doesn't like them either. Hippo is just Spikes fodder, and so is Kingdra vs Ferrothorn.

3) With these issues in mind, you can change a few sets around. Giving Terrakion a Scarf isn't a bad idea; it gives it the ability to revenge kill Volcarona among other stuff. After that, you can make Jirachi a SpDef wall that tanks Latios nicely, and spreads paralysis around that makes it easier for Salamence wreck stuff.

4) Changing Rotom-W for a Starmie gives the team an additional Fighting resist and a Spinner to deal with hazards. The set can be changed around to fit preference I guess, bulky Starmie actually tanks moves and offensive breaks down bulky Waters and Ferrothorn in rain with Analytic Hydro Pumps.

Obviously this isn't the only way to rate the team, I think there are multiple ways to fix the issues!

Thanks to everyone for participating, and stay tuned for next round which will go up soon.