Regular RMT- Second Team

[papainfernape95]

MY TEAM

To start off with some background, this team was born out of my recently born love for Crocune. I'd used it on other teams, and it worked well enough, but I couldn't help thinking it would fit better elsewhere. Well, this is elsewhere. I started using the Smogon "Team Options" section available on some of the pages, and used some of my own knowledge, and before I knew it this team was born. So without further ado, here's my team in depth.

Roserade- The handy support lead

Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spd
Nature: Timid (+Spd, -Atk)

-Sleep Powder
-Toxic Spikes
-Grass Knot
-Hidden Power Fire

This Roserade works quite well as a lead, despite being slightly slow. First turn, I always use Sleep Powder, incapacitating something, whether it be a huge threat or not. This gives me a free turn to get my first layer of Toxic Spikes down, and unless I can OHKO whatever comes in, I lay down Toxic Spikes again, which Crocune greatly appreciates. Grass Knot is simply there for reliable STAB, and Hidden Power Fire helps deal with any Scizor or other Steel-typed switch-ins. Surprisingly it's 2HKOed a Bronzong before.

One change I've been considering is the item. Most of the leads I've encountered so far haven't been able to (or tried to) OHKO Roserade. However, I've had Sleep Powder miss an obnoxious number of times, resulting in the death of Roserade by the counter sent in, and by extension not getting Toxic Spikes up on the opponent's field. Therefore, I am considering an item change to Wide Lens.

Scizor- The Banded sweeper/threat check

Item: Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 8 HP/252 Atk/248 Spd
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SAtk)

-U-turn
-Bullet Punch
-Brick Break
-Pursuit

Scizor is absolutely marvelous. Being nice and sturdy with an amazing typing, I get plenty of opportunities to switch this guy in on a predicted attack that won't hurt much, often on Ice attacks aimed at Latias or Gliscor. Then my course of action varies. It makes a great Psychic counter. If the Psychic is frail (Azelf, Alakazam, etc.), I Pursuit, probably netting an OHKO whether or not they switch. If it's a bulky Psychic (Cresselia, Starmie, etc.), then I U-turn to get a heavy hit and pull in something that can keep smashin' away. If it's probably packing a fire move, I U-turn to Suicune, the star of the show, so he can come in unscathed and get to setting up. Bullet Punch is power-packed (thanks Technician!) and is great for revenge killing. Just to give an idea of the power behind it, it once did 33% to a Gyarados (not having been Intimidated). Brick Break hasn't really found much use, other than if Blissey is the last poke I need to take out. Pursuit is absolutely wonderful for frail Psychics, as well as Gengar and Blissey (Blissey often switches, fearing Brick Break or Bullet Punch).

Metagross- The unexpected mixed sweeper and wall-breaker

Item: Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk/124 SAtk/132 Spd
Nature: Naughty (+Atk, -SDef)

-Meteor Mash
-Earthquake
-Hidden Power Fire
-Grass Knot

This thing is so unexpected, it can usually get two KOs if it ever comes into battle. Play is simple really. I come in and use Meteor Mash or Earthquake on a physically frail opponent. Should they not switch, I've probably gotten an easy KO. If they do switch to a so-called counter, hit it hard with one of my special attacks. Hidden Power Fire does great with Scizor, Skarmory, and Forretress, common switch-ins. Grass Knot hits the Bulky Waters that come to absorb Meteor Mash. Swampert in particular is a very common switch in. After that, just keep sweeping with whatever works.

Latias- The boosting special sweeper

Item: Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spd
Nature: Timid (+Spd, -Atk)

-Calm Mind
-Dragon Pulse
-Surf
-Recover

This works really well. Latias becomes specially infallible, as well as a great sweeping force off a solid (and often overlooked) Base 110 Special Attack stat, after a Calm Mind or two. Recover has great synergy with Life Orb and Latias' special bulk as well. Dragon Pulse for STAB and Surf for coverage means that only Empoleon and Shedinja (easily dealt with by other team members) aren't hurt by this set. A sweeper I've had no trouble with.

Suicune- The invincible boosting wall

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 Spd
Nature: Bold

-Calm Mind
-Surf
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

Ahhhhh, Crocune. One of my very favorites. Remove Vaporeon and Kingdra, and this becomes boss of the battlefield. The EVs and Bold nature help to keep it physically sturdy, being able to absorb Explosion with a third of its health left, most notably (not sure if that's true for Metagross, that's about the only thing that I haven't had Explode on Crocune). Suicune comes in, CMs up, and before you know it, its defenses are impenetrable, and it's firing preposterously powerful Surfs at anything that dares to stand in the way. Perhaps the best thing about Crocune is its ability to beat Blissey one on one. After six Calm Minds, a 2HKO becomes possible. Pressure helps to stall in general, and of course the classic Rest + Sleep Talk method mimics a reliable recovery move.

Gliscor- The physical wall and Stealth Rock Supporter

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 Spd
Nature: Impish (+Def, -SAtk)

-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Roost

One of the great things about getting Toxic Spikes set up is that Stealth Rock can wait just a tad. Gliscor can come in mid-battle on a physical attacker and set up Stealth Rock on a team that likely wasn't expecting it to come up midgame. Roost is, of course, for recovery. Earthquake is for STAB and has great type coverage alongside Stone Edge.

I'm considering a second supporting move like Knock Off or something in place of Stone Edge, simply because usually after laying down SR, I'm met with another physical wall and we get into a stall war, which I hate because this Gliscor loses most stall wars. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE:

SUB-PUNCH BRELOOM.

This thing is truly evil. I don't have any sleep absorbers except Suicune, with whom I don't want to risk death by Seed Bomb. If it gets a Sub up, then the Focus Punches start flying. The only way I've ever been able to deal with it is to have Scizor break the Sub after something else has already hit it with Bullet Punch (dying to Focus Punch, ugh) and then bringing in Latias to Dragon Pulse. It absolutely ruins my team. Any ways to get around it would be great.

Thanks for reading!! Don't forget to rate!!

 

[haunter]

Hi,

nice team here, just a few notes:

1) you have absolutely no counters for Gyarados: it has plenty of opportunities to set up and you can't really touch it. To solve this problem you may give Suicune hidden power [electric] over sleep talk, this way you'll earn a reliable Gyarados counter while still being able to set up late game, when Suicune's counters have been eliminated. This way you would also keep your team unchanged. Hidden power [electric] would also give you the chance to beat Vaporeon 1 vs 1;

2) I'd make your Gliscor jolly, keeping the EV spread: a jolly Lucario with ice punch may pose a massive threat to your team, so being sure to outspeed it is an insurance against this pokemon.

3) I'd make your Scizor a little more bulky: it's your best counter/revenge killer for things like Latias and Gengar, so it's better that it can take some special hits - read: specs dragon pulse from Latias or a thunderbolt from Gengar. You may try the standard EV spread of: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe, which doesn't compromise your attack, or even a SpD oriented one.

GL!

 

[Shizzle]

QuakEdge > Aerial Ace anyday, and as suggested, make gliscor jolly so he can be counter to SDluke

 

[xWOLFYx]

For Breloom, instead of Bullet Punching the sub, you can U-Turn it with Scizor, which will break it, switch in Gliscor to take the Focus Punch, outspeed it and KO with Aerial Ace. WIN

You could also give Gliscor Taunt in place of Stone Edge which will shut down stall attempts.

 

[papainfernape95]

To Haunter: Thanks a lot for pointing out my Gyarados weakness. While a lot of my Pokemon can deal heavy damage with Grass Knot to take care of it (as well as Scizor's ridiculously powerful Bullet Punch), one Dragon Dance could wreck the team and almost did once. I'm about to try an Uxie with the following set to completely replace Gliscor:

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4SDef
Nature: Relaxed (+Def, -Spd)

-Stealth Rock
-U-turn
-Yawn
-Thunderbolt

This can still set up the SR support that I need, does a great job of physical walling in general, and can 2HKO Gyarados (I'm assuming, it's quite likely even with the lack of EVs) while withstanding even Dragon Danced assaults.

Also, I'll definitely move those EVs on Scizor.

To xWOLFYx, the Uxie set I've provided can obviously withstand Focus Punch and scare off Breloom with Yawn once Scizor breaks the Sub with U-turn. Thanks for the game plan.

 

[iKitsune]

I keep trying to RMT your team but press backspace and then go back and lose all my efforts. In short ill explain what i wanted to do (hopefully i will be succesful on this occasion).

I also feel that the team although fairly bulky/balanced would be more effective if more of the Pokemon were inclined this way so throughout the rate this will be my emphasis.

First change Scizor's evs. 244hp 252atk 12spe
that is the optimal spread.

Secondly make sure you fully take advantage of toxic spikes.

This means use a scarf Rotom H over gliscor. This provides spin blocking, which any team with spikes should be using, and a Gyarados check which this team desperately needs. Against stall you can just use trick. Put SR on Metagross over EQ thats not very useful tbh. You may want to consider using shadow ball and explosion too. So you nail Rotom on stall with shadow ball then explode taking something out, just a thought. Rotom H also revenges infernape and Lucario.

My other change would be to make Latias into a CM Celebi it functions superbly with toxic spikes support. This is the spread the only problem with this is that you lose your other Fire resist. Celebi will however, easily with toxic spikes support, beat a lot of Suicune's gerenally relied on counters. Celebi should run 252hp/220def/36spe. It needs the bulk.
Moves hp fire/grass knot/cm/Recover. Celebi is completely walled by Heatran but you have the perfect counter in Suicune, in short the two have amazing synergy together.

In fact, if you choose to accept these changes i suggest you scrap metagross altogether.
With these changes the team has a huge weakness to fire-type attacks so i suggest you use a Swampert. This would give you not only a reliable SR but a reliable counter to Tyranitar but also another solution to dragon-types. I would run:

252hp/252def/4spa
Leftovers
Impish

Protect
SR
EQ
Ice Beam

Protect works excellently with Toxic Spikes due to lefties gain and mounting toxic damage, its a match made in heaven. I would not suggest you run surf simply because the coverage is not that useful.

SO this is what your new and improved team looks like.

Roserade/Swampert/Scizor/CM Celebi/Rotom H Scarf

So this is your new bulky team.

I hope i helped.

 

[papainfernape95]

I keep trying to RMT your team but press backspace and then go back and lose all my efforts. In short ill explain what i wanted to do (hopefully i will be succesful on this occasion).

I also feel that the team although fairly bulky/balanced would be more effective if more of the Pokemon were inclined this way so throughout the rate this will be my emphasis.

First change Scizor's evs. 244hp 252atk 12spe
that is the optimal spread.

Secondly make sure you fully take advantage of toxic spikes.

This means use a scarf Rotom H over gliscor. This provides spin blocking, which any team with spikes should be using, and a Gyarados check which this team desperately needs. Against stall you can just use trick. Put SR on Metagross over EQ thats not very useful tbh. You may want to consider using shadow ball and explosion too. So you nail Rotom on stall with shadow ball then explode taking something out, just a thought. Rotom H also revenges infernape and Lucario.

My other change would be to make Latias into a CM Celebi it functions superbly with toxic spikes support. This is the spread the only problem with this is that you lose your other Fire resist. Celebi will however, easily with toxic spikes support, beat a lot of Suicune's gerenally relied on counters. Celebi should run 252hp/220def/36spe. It needs the bulk.
Moves hp fire/grass knot/cm/Recover. Celebi is completely walled by Heatran but you have the perfect counter in Suicune, in short the two have amazing synergy together.

In fact, if you choose to accept these changes i suggest you scrap metagross altogether.
With these changes the team has a huge weakness to fire-type attacks so i suggest you use a Swampert. This would give you not only a reliable SR but a reliable counter to Tyranitar but also another solution to dragon-types. I would run:

252hp/252def/4spa
Leftovers
Impish

Protect
SR
EQ
Ice Beam

Protect works excellently with Toxic Spikes due to lefties gain and mounting toxic damage, its a match made in heaven. I would not suggest you run surf simply because the coverage is not that useful.

SO this is what your new and improved team looks like.

Roserade/Swampert/Scizor/CM Celebi/Rotom H Scarf

So this is your new bulky team.

I hope i helped.

This did help, although most of the later changes I'd really prefer not to use, because I want a balanced (and leaning toward offensive) team. This means I need a Pokemon that can both check Gyarados and use SR. Is there some sort of happy median between Swampert and Rotom? (Uxie was my attempt at that, look at my first reply to the thread.)

 

[iKitsune]

Basically what i think your saying is that you want to keep Metagross. The Celebi i suggested over Latias is also an excellent wallbreaker so you arent losing out in terms of offense there.

Both Celebi and Swampert take advantage of Toxic Spikes. Currently you have one sweeper that takes advantage of them. You have no sweeper that lures in Suicune counters and beats them Celebi does. You need Rotom simply because of spin-blocking.

With these changes in place you no longer have an SR and the team is extremely susceptible to fire type attacks. So this is why i suggested Swampy over Gliscor who is often dead weight on teams.

The problem with this set of changes is that they are, kind of all or nothing in that they wont be nearly as effective if only some are implemented.