Ravagers of Chaos

[klusps]

Hey, everyone!

I always find myself drawn back to Pokemon no matter how many good games come out. A few months back, I made a team and got a lot of useful advice from the people here and elsewhere online. This new team that I'm posting right now is (hopefully) an improvement of my old team. Overall, I think it has a better sense of focus and direction compared to my old team. I tested it out on Shoddy and was surprised at all the wins I was able to accumulate O_o

Ok, enough with the talking. I'm sure most of you want to get to the good stuff anyway ^_^

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/86 Atk/80 Def/92 SDef
Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
​

​

Here is my lead. Bronzong has tons of resistances, making it a strong lead for my team and allowing me to SR with ease. I found on several occasions that I was able to hit lead Azelfs pretty hard. Gyro Ball packs a punch, and I'm usually able to get a free turn in while Azelf is setting up SR (though that means I'll have to wait on SRing the opponent's side). It also works wonders on TTar. Explosion is there as a last resort, usually when a Pokemon begins setting up in front of me and I find it way too dangerous to keep it alive.

Machamp (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dynamic Punch
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Payback
​

No Guard and Dynamic Punch are a godsend for Machamp. It has saved me many times. Even though most sweepers are faster than Machamp, the confusion has often allowed me to attack a second time. I found that even though Dynamic Punch is sometimes not very effective, it still manages to take out a huge chunk of hp. The confusion aspect forces the opponent to become uncomfortable. Stay in and risk hurting himself, and suffer another crippling Dynamic Punch, or send out another Pokemon only to have them confused? And the ironic part is that most switch in a ghost (often Gengar) hoping to be safe, but I have Payback waiting as a nasty surprise. Rest also plays a crucial role in making Machamp bulky and absorbing nasty statuses.

Flygon (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
- Outrage
​

Here's another hard hitter. I decided to give my Flygon Fire Blast because my other Pokemon lacks a fire move, and this could spell trouble against Scizor and even Forretress. The other moves are kind of self-explanatory. Flygon also serves as a secondary role on my team. I have two Pokemon weak against lightning, specifically Gyarados. Flygon attempts to rectify that by allowing me to switch in to keep my aqueous members safe.

Jolteon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
​

Jolteon is mainly for support. Throughout my battling experience, I often found it hard to send out weakened Pokemon, fearing that they might get KOed. And because of that, Jolteon became a welcomed addition to my team. His high speed is perfect for passing Substitutes. For my two slow Pokemon (Machamp and Brongzong), they are often pelted with attacks when I switch them in. Substitute is there to cushion some of that damage. Jolteon also works really well in conjunction with Gyarados. Jolteon is there to absorb moves that would probably OHKO Gyarados. In the process, he is recovered, and with the newfound HP, he's able to make more Substitutes, thereby supporting the team for a little longer.

Starmie @ Expert Belt
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
​

This guy is here to cover a variety of types that my team have not already covered. As usual, the BoltBeam combo is praised for it's diversity. Hydro Pump is there as a deadly STAB move, and to counter Heatran. Rapid Spin to protect my Gyarados from SR. Because of Starmie's huge type coverage, I decided to give it an Expert Belt to further help the super effectives. And as said above, the glaring weakness that Starmie has against electricity will attract many TBs, which will fall bait into refueling my Jolteon's HP. Of course, no one does a better job at attracting thunderbolts from the heavens than....

Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Bounce
- Dragon Dance
​

Here is the star of my team! Out of all my other Pokemon, I think Gyarados has scored the most KOs so far. Nothing's more satisfying than watching one Pokemon sweep more than half of my opponent's team in a matter of seconds! I'll mention it again. Jolteon and Gyarados are almost symbiotic to each other. Before sending out my Gyarados, I usually have my Jolteon BP a Substitute over. This will ensure that I get a few DDs. If all goes well, I'll be set to wreak havoc! If for some reason there's a TB risk, I'll lean back on my Jolteon.



And there goes my team. What do you guys think so far? Comments/advice? My team is not perfect, and I'd appreciate any help I can get to expand it. And if you're interested, here's my old team so you can compare the two.


Roserade (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Toxic Spikes
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sleep Powder
---
Gengar (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Trick
---
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/86 Atk/80 Def/92 SDef
Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Explosion
---
Flygon (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
- Outrage
---
Machamp (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Ice Punch
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
---
Starmie @ Expert Belt
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
---



I hope you guys had fun reading this, and thank you in advance for anyone who might offer useful insight ^_^


*Pictures courtesy of aragornbird from Arkeis.com

 

[ginganinja]

Well to start with you need some form of insurace from DD or scarfed pokemon as they outspeed most of your team. I quick fix is giving Flygon Choice Scarf as it allows you to revenge kill pokemon that have Dragon Danced. Next you may want Ice Fang over Stone Edge and Earthquake over Bounce as this is an offensive gyarados. Bounce on this gyarados is not a great thing as your opponient can switch to a resist while it it charging and wear down your life orb.

 

[klusps]

Thanks, I'll consider giving Flygon a Scarf. Also, what are the advantages of giving my Gyarados Ice Fang instead of Stone Edge? I'll definitely switch out Bounce for Earthquake though, since now that I think about it, I don't use it as much as the other moves.

 

[ginganinja]

Well Ice Fang has a better chance to hit and has more PP so i suppose its up to you.
Its the old arguement power vs Accuricy but Stone edge just misses at critical times for me. Anyway is personal choice I supose, authough you do get that small chance of Freeze or Flinch if you use Ice Fang though

 

[yond]

Hi, i like the idea of your team, but i think it needs some minor tweaks for major improvements. To start, ill talk about a few set changes i want to present to you. The first thing i highly recommend is that you replace your choice band on Flygon with a Choice Scarf.This can help you with your Calm Mind Latias problem greatly. Seeing how you said you came back from a hiatus recently, you might not know but the Choice Band set is rather outdated and beaten easily by man common threats in the OU metagame. On the other hand, Choice Scarf Flygon makes an awesome scouter with U-turn and revenge killer. My next minor tweak would be to replace Bounce with Earthquake. Another metagame check as to why i say you should replace Bounce. I suggest you make the switch because of all the bulky steels running rampant namely, metagross and magnezone who may laugh at your waterfalls and hit back with Thunderbolt or Thunderpunch. (Assuming you aren't behind a sub).

I would also highly suggest that you replace Bronzong. He isn't as good of a lead as he used to be, in fact it's rather dreadful to see how many common leads Bronzong loses to. Bronzong also disrupts the offensive pace of this team. I am going to recommend that you replace Bronzong with Metagross.

Metagross @ Occa Berry / Lum Berry
Adamant / Clear Body
252 hp / 236 atk / 12 def / 8 spe
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake / Meteor Mash
-Bullet Punch
-Explosion

Metagross does not take away from your synergy while being able to set up Stealth Rocks and hit enemy pokemon in early and (possibly) late game situations. Metagross explosion is also much more devastating than Bronzong so that is a bonus.
Hope i helped!
Cheers!

 

[Pollux-Castor]

Ice Fang is good here because then he can do more to Salamence, Dragonite, Flygon, and Gliscor. Stone Edge would be used for Zapdos, Togekiss, and other Gyarados, but those 3 are covered by team members anyway.

The team looks pretty solid overall and it doesn't look like any major changes have to be made at this point. Though you may want to contemplate the usefullness of Hydro Pump, because the 80% accuracy is bad news. Surf has 142.5 base power compared to Hydro Pump's 180, but missing 1 out of 5 times makes Surf do about the same damage in the long run. Notice that most of the time Smogon recommends Surf.

 

[reyscarface]

Hello, pretty good team man.

First of all, Bronzong isnt as good of a lead as it was before in the Garchomp and Shaymin eras respectively, specially without Hypnosis (which your Bronzong lacks). The reason of this is that now theres another lead that does basically the same as bronzong, but way better due to packing a better punch with every move and it fares better than bronzong vs a good amount of leads.

Metagross @ Lum Berry / Occa Berry | Adamant
200 HP / 232 Atk / 32 Spd / 44 SDef
Stealth Rock | Meteor Mash | Bullet Punch | Earthquake

Metagross is an excellent lead in this metagame for its reliability on getting the job done. With Lum Berry Smeargle and Roserade are destroyed, meaning you dont have to care about layers on your side of the field. Another option is Occa Berry, since you have a Spinner, Occa is a nice option to have a nice chance versus Heatran and it also lets you beat Infernape. The EVs work so you are never OHKOd by a Timid 252 Azelf Fire Blast while you always win with Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch. Speed is to beat other Metagross leads. Stealth Rock is a no brainer. Instead of one of your attacking moves you could use Explosion, although you will lose to some leads if you decide to remove either Meteor Mash (Azelf) or Earthquake (Other Metagross, Infernape, etc.).

Now here comes the fun part. There are a group of changes that I think may benefit you a lot, but I cannot decide which one is more convenient since both have their pros and their cons, therefore if you are free with time and stuff, you could try out both to check out which you are more comfortable with.

Theres a set of pokemons that can all work correctly in your team, the ones im mainly thinking of are the following: Heatran, Salamence, Latias and Scizor.

The first would be something like this:

You keep Machamp on your team as your status absorber here, no biggie. You would then remove Flygon, adding a Latias in his place, considerably Specs Latias or Life Orb Latias, to add power in your team, and lastly removing Jolteon to add a Trapper or Choice Band Scizor, which will aid you seriously against things like Scarf Latias, Scarf Gengar and Scarf Rotom, in order for a more fluid and destructive LO Gyarados sweep, which is what your team seems based in.

Second idea would be adding the mentioned Heatran (you know, Substitute and Taunt Heatran work very well in this idea due to the offensive nature of the team which will make you able to put so much pressure on the opponent's team to give them very few space, if any, to get status on you) and keep Flygon. By keeping Flygon you will change its set to a scarf variant, in order to make revenge killing duties for your team (in idea 1, you had scizor with bullet punch to take care of stuff like DD Mence and DD Tyranitar). Lastly, Jolteon has to go, because even though it seems very appealing on paper to take electric attacks directed at Gyarados, on practice isnt nearly as useful and will not help you a whole lot. Instead of Jolteon, for this idea a Salamence fits your team very nicely, adding a big punch to your team, and more importantly another dragon. I was reluctant to add 2 dragons on this team with only 1 steel (Metagross, which is why Heatran is needed over Machamp for this) because other dragons will overwhelm you at one point and it will really cause you problems. With 2 steels this is more balanced, and you have also rapid spin with Starmie letting Salamence complement your team very well, adding double intimidate and making your life vs Lucarios for example way easier.

Going even more indepth here:

For the first idea, you will have to remove Flygon, therefore I will show you the considered Latias sets.

Latias @ Choice Specs | Timid
4 HP | 252 SpA | 252 Spe
Draco Meteor | Dragon Pulse | Trick | Surf

Pretty destructive set here. Not a lot can come in on Draco Meteor, much less a Specs one. It will be your main form of attack and it will tear a hole in a lot of things. Be careful though, because you may want to know what your opponent has to take them before spamming it, since using it against a very bulky Scizor can kill your Latias, for example. Dragon Pulse is less risky to spam considering you dont drop your power, but you still have to be careful about steels. Dragon Pulse is more for things that dont resist it, like Salamence, and very frail sweepers, like Infernape. Surf hits Tyranitar harder than Draco Meteor after 2 turns, and it also puts a good dent on Scizor and Metagross. Trick is mainly if you suspect Blissey or other defensive pokemon that you would love to have locked, another example would be a Forretress or a Skarmory.

Second option is Life Orb Latias, which is basically the same in EVs and Nature, but you use a Life Orb over Specs, and the moveset changes to Draco Meteor / Recover / Surf / Thunderbolt. You need thunderbolt here since you now dont have enough power to beat the waters with Draco Meteor, although Life Orb gives you massive liberty and makes your opponent think more when switching in. Draco Meteor and Recover are obvious, and so is Surf. There are a couple of interesting choices instead of Thunderbolt, those being HP Fire, which OHKOs Scizor and Forretress, and hurts most other steels as well, and Grass Knot, which 2HKOs every Tyranitar and also does more to most waters than Thunderbolt, again this is up to personal preference.

You may have noted that in both suggestions I have replaced Jolteon. As explained in Second Idea, Jolteon may seem appealing to take electric attacks, but it really isnt that good in a battle. Passing with Jolteon is insanely hard to pull off due to his pathetic defenses, and even then most things arent afraid of a Substitute. also another thing is Jolteon may have good switch in capabilities with Gyarados, but it does nothing to help it sweep, aka removing troublesome scarfers and defensive pokemons. Scizor does accomplish this, by Pursuiting the most common scarfers and hitting things like Celebi terribly hard with a U-Turn, plus it gives you another Steel to take on Dragon assaults, which is fundamental in the metagame.

Scizor @ Choice Band | Adamant
248 HP / 248 Atk / 12 Spe
U-Turn | Bullet Punch | Pursuit | Superpower

Good ol' Scizor. This thing will not only become a revenge killer for your team, but will also greatly help Gyarados with his trapping with Pursuit. OHKOing Rotom, Gengar, Latias, Starmie, and hurting other scarfers massively is a something you have to take account when making a team based on Gyarados, which your team lacks. Bullet Punch is the revenge killing weapon, while U-Turn is the momentum move which will let you bring in something to beat whatever your opponent uses to try to beat Scizor. Superpower is mostly a filler but can prove very effective against Blissey, other Scizors and even Heatrans. The EVs are very basic, you are able to remove a good amount of Attack to add in Special Defense, making the trapping task way easier since Shadow Balls, Draco Meteors and Ice Beams will do considerably less now.

Thats only for the first idea, here comes the second one:

As you may have read already, Machamp needs to go for this one, allowing Heatran to come in and say hi. The Heatran on your team will be chosen by you, I will tell you their cons and their pros:

Rest Talk Heatran - This one will work very similarly as your Machamp by being the player on your team that takes status and doesnt care about it, while still packing power to hurt most things. It will offer you big odds of beating a good amount of stall team pokes and will also help you thanks to the amount of resists it has. The main con of this one is that not only it doesnt have BIG power (it has pretty decent power though) due to boosting defensive proweness and the lack of diversity in attacks, but it will also probably slow you down, mainly you can lose momentum won, causing something like Salamence to become a threat because it may set up on you.

Substitute / Taunt Heatran - These two give you massive offensive power to work with, which your team loves since it puts so many pressure on the opponent to not let them do a whole lot, and Heatran is pretty bulky already, meaning you also have power to switch in and pose a threat to other mons. The main con would be that you now dont have a Status Absorber, so you will have to work around with switches to beat those, also the bulky is significantly less, so you will have to be careful to not switch in into something like a Surf from Latias.

This being said, ill show you the sets so you can check out which one goes more with your style.

Heatran @ Leftovers | Calm
248 HP / 40 Def / 96 Spe / 124 SpD
Rest | Sleep Talk | Lava Plume / Flamethrower | Toxic / Roar

Ok, this is the rest talk heatran. As you can see, it packs a lot of bulk in the special side, and good enough bulk on the physical side. The Speed is to beat most of those annoying Taunt Skarms who run a lot of speed, and it also lets you beat common stuff like Stall Gyarados and Suicunes. The moveset is (lol again) up to preference. Rest and Sleep Talk are a must, but the last 2 spots can be picked from 4 moves that all work nicely on Heatran. Lava Plume and Flamethrower is a competition on whether you want the Burn chance on something like Gyarados or you want a little boost in power. Toxic and Roar are a harder decision, though. Toxic lets you hit things that dont expect it like Swampert, Vaporeon and even Gyarados, Latias, Salamence, etc. crippling them for the whole match, something that can prove REALLY useful. Roar is another useful move, but its more useful in spike stacking teams to abuse the layer damage, although it can help you stop something like a CM Jirachi and other things that dont threaten Heatran much (please dont try to Roar a +2 Lucario lol!). Remember though, this Heatran can slow you down sometimes, therefore you must play very intelligently with it.

Heatran @ Life Orb | Timid
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Fire Blast | HP Grass | Earth Power | Substitute / Taunt

The other side of the coin, this Heatran takes the complete opposite approach as the other one. Fire Blast is the STAB move that never should be disregarded, and again I tell you, you can use Flamethrower here if you think missing is a big deal. HP Grass OHKOs Swampert, 2HKOs Vaporeon, Suicune, and Starmie. Earth Power is for Tyranitar, whom you hurt badly and other Heatrans, not forgetting its reliable vs Lucario and Jirachi. You can use Dragon Pulse to OHKO Salamence and Latias instead of HP Grass, but this is more recommended with Substitute since its easier than "predicting" the switch in. Substitute is more to beat Offensive teams, since you get a "free" hit on something switching in, while Taunt is more for Defensive ones, letting you be status free and you dont cut your HP while doing it either, plus it helps you beat Blissey by not letting her Recover.

Lastly, Jolteon is out, and Salamence is in! The Salamence pick is much easier to do, since the ones to consider are either Mixmence and DD Mence. Mixmence packs an insanely powerful punch that is always well received, specially when used in conjunction with U-Turn from Flygon to get in with relative safety. Classic Mixmence (the one with Roost) is the one that works better here since it lets you keep bulk to keep hitting hard for a longer amount of time. On the other side you can use DD Mence even when you already have DD Gyarados. The reason of this is that 2 DDers, and strong ones like Gyarados + Mence, let you take advantage of your opponent's team by overwhelming their defense. For example, lets say they bring in Swampert to try and hurt Gyarados, then Swampert faints, now DD Mence will have a party by doing what Gyarados didnt accomplish, and vice versa. DD Mence is the standard one as well, which is Outrage, DD, EQ, and Fire Blast.

With this idea youre forced to change Flygon to a Scarf Set, which is exactly the one you are using right now, but with a Scarf, and probably Stone Edge instead of Fire Blast for Gyarados, since Fire Blast isnt as needed now that you have Heatran and Salamence with a Fire Attack.

To finish it, this change isnt exclusive of an idea so you can do it with whichever, change Starmie's item to Life Orb, since Life Orb is much more threatening than Expert Belt.

Your Gyarados set seems fine as it is, and btw Bounce helps against Celebi if everything else failed.


That was the tl;dr part, so if you were lazy and didnt want to read all of it, here are the changes summarized:

Summarized Rate

1- Change Bronzong to Metagross.
2.1- Remove Flygon and add a Latias, either Specs or LO, remove Jolteon and add a CB Scizor, either offensive one or bulkier one.
2.2- Remove Machamp, add either Rest Talk Heatran or Sub/Taunt Heatran, change Flygon to Scarf, remove Jolteon, add Mixmence or DD Mence.
3- Change Expert Belt to Life Orb on Starmie.

Thats all I can think of, sorry for the huge rate, I just didnt want to put one idea here and neglect another one because they work both as well (in my eyes at least) so I wanted you to see which one you liked more. Hope I helped, good luck with your team man!

Edit: Whoa glad you actually read it, a lot of people told me they wouldnt read this ever lol

 

[klusps]

Thank you for all the information, guys! I'll try my best to digest it all =P

Right now, I'm really liking the Metagross idea. Most of the moves that Bronzong can learn, Metagross can also, so I can live with the change. Plus, Bullet Punch looks like it'll be fun.


@ reyscarface

Dude, that's a lot of useful information. I really appreciate all that! So far, I'm liking the second option. I'll try out both suggestions and see which one fits.