Hi! I've been playing Pokemon semi-competitively for quite a while now, but never bothered to take the step into actual competitive battling. However, I've become much more interested in the game lately and am really looking to improve. This is my newest, and probably best team, having peaked at 1686 on the ladder. Since I'm still really new in the competitive battling scene, I was hoping some experienced players could help me point out the flaws in this team and perhaps help me improve it.
The team composition is pretty simple, with two powerful attackers punching holes in defensive cores that the other one can exploit, a priority revenge killer to clean things up, a special and physical wall to absorb hits and finally a cleric/secondary wall to help my attackers kill more stuff. Here is the team at the moment:
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Taunt/Ice Fang
Mega Gyarados is the primary physical attacker on the team, having his standard Dragon Dance set. STAB Waterfall at +1 hits most things quite hard, and Earthquake is there for additional coverage. I used to run Ice Fang in the last slot, but a supereffective Ice Fang barely does more damage than STAB Waterfall, so I replaced it with Taunt to try to shut down walls that rely on status moves. Ice fang hits a few things, such as Dragonite, for 4x damage though, so I'm not quite sure. Speed EVs are enough to outrun Mega-Manectric after a Dragon Dance. Since it's the last slightly relevant unboosted thing Gyarados can hope to outspeed I just put the extra EVs into bulk. I prefer Intimidate over Moxie because it seems to come into play much more often in my experience, even though the Moxie boost is great if you actually manage to get it.
Volcarona @ Chesto Berry /Currently testing Life Orb
Ability: Swarm
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Rest / Currently testing Roost
Volcarona is the special counterpart to Gyarados on the team, easily taking down most defensive counters to Gyarados. Even though Volcarona has some new counters this generation, it still performs really well in most situations. It's great against any form of Deoxys lead, and can also stop Baton Pass chains early on by hitting trough substitutes. I opted for max speed nature and EVs, since there's a lot of things in the 100 speed bracket, then maxing out attack, relying only on the Sp. Def boost of Quiver Dance to get the Rest off. Volcarona also has two great abilities, but ultimately I choose to go with swarm over Flame Body as this set isn't really designed to take physical hits. While natural bulk and typing allows it to take just a few hits from some strong attackers such as Scizor, it's not something to rely on, and Swarm seems to activate more often both before and after Rest.
Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Spore
- Rock Tomb
- Bullet Seed
Breloom's job is mostly to abuse priority to take out opponents at low health, as well as providing utility in spore. The focus sash/ rock tomb combination allows him to take out Talonflame, Charizard and Pinsir 1 vs. 1 as long as his Sash is kept intact, as well as catching things on the switch in to help with his speed issues. Bullet Seed is secondary STAB and allows him to quickly take out Azumarill, who both of the other attackers on the team have trouble with. I simply maxed out Attack and Speed, as it lets him just barely outspeed base 115 after a speed drop.
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Toxic
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Discharge
Porygon2 is the dedicated special wall on the team, and the Eviolite makes him a fairly decent physical wall as well. Trace is a great ability that gives him many switch-in opportunities as well as potentially being incredibly useful long after he has switched in in some cases. Ice Beam and Discharge are chosen over STAB because of their good coverage and Discharge's high chance to paralyze. Toxic and Recover makes him able to stalls out attackers not powerful enough to take him down, and weakens them for his Offensive team members to take out.
Mandibuzz (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Impish Nature
- Toxic / Currently testing Whirlwind
- Foul Play
- Defog
- Roost
With both Gyarados and Volcarona weak to stealth rocks, as well as Breloom carrying a Focus Sash, a defogger or Rapid Spinner was an absolute must. Mandibuzz doubles as a great physical wall and was therefore chosen for the team. Like Porygon2, she has toxic to wear down the opposing team, as well as Foul Play to deal with physical attackers in general and particularly set-up sweepers. Roost is obviously for recovery, unfortunately it can't be safely used against slow Fighting-type attackers, who are Porygon's biggest problem as well. Rocky Helmet helps her damage physical attackers on the switch, at the cost of relying solely on Roost for healing, which I'm not sure if is a great idea.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Heal Bell
Clefable is the most recent addition to the Team, and I feel she does a good job of binding things together. She makes up for the fighting weakness of Porygon and roosting Mandibuzz and can pass wishes to let attackers switch into Stealth Rocks without taking permanent damage in a bind. Gyarados is extremely suspectible to Burn and Paralysis, so Heal Bell was an important move for the team to carry. It can even let Volcarona rest twice in certain situations then not having to stay in to wake up. Unaware was chosen over Magic Guard because Heal Bell and Wish takes care of most residual damage anyway. I originally wanted to make her a mixed wall, but felt her bulk really wasn't good enough to divide when I tried it out, so I made her a mostly physical one. She can use Calm Mind and Moonblast to take care of special attackers as well, but this doesn't come into play very often as her role as a cleric generally takes priority. She can set up and sweep in certain matches where the opponent burns out their firepower early though.
This team has a few issues that I've recognized, but I'm not sure how to fix, such as the Stealth Rock weakness, and probably quite a few I just don't have enough experience to see yet. I would appreciate and do my best to test out any suggested changes in team members or movesets, as well as general feedback. I've change team members several times already, and will likely do so again.
Thanks for having a look at my team :)
The team composition is pretty simple, with two powerful attackers punching holes in defensive cores that the other one can exploit, a priority revenge killer to clean things up, a special and physical wall to absorb hits and finally a cleric/secondary wall to help my attackers kill more stuff. Here is the team at the moment:
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Taunt/Ice Fang
Mega Gyarados is the primary physical attacker on the team, having his standard Dragon Dance set. STAB Waterfall at +1 hits most things quite hard, and Earthquake is there for additional coverage. I used to run Ice Fang in the last slot, but a supereffective Ice Fang barely does more damage than STAB Waterfall, so I replaced it with Taunt to try to shut down walls that rely on status moves. Ice fang hits a few things, such as Dragonite, for 4x damage though, so I'm not quite sure. Speed EVs are enough to outrun Mega-Manectric after a Dragon Dance. Since it's the last slightly relevant unboosted thing Gyarados can hope to outspeed I just put the extra EVs into bulk. I prefer Intimidate over Moxie because it seems to come into play much more often in my experience, even though the Moxie boost is great if you actually manage to get it.
Volcarona @ Chesto Berry /Currently testing Life Orb
Ability: Swarm
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Rest / Currently testing Roost
Volcarona is the special counterpart to Gyarados on the team, easily taking down most defensive counters to Gyarados. Even though Volcarona has some new counters this generation, it still performs really well in most situations. It's great against any form of Deoxys lead, and can also stop Baton Pass chains early on by hitting trough substitutes. I opted for max speed nature and EVs, since there's a lot of things in the 100 speed bracket, then maxing out attack, relying only on the Sp. Def boost of Quiver Dance to get the Rest off. Volcarona also has two great abilities, but ultimately I choose to go with swarm over Flame Body as this set isn't really designed to take physical hits. While natural bulk and typing allows it to take just a few hits from some strong attackers such as Scizor, it's not something to rely on, and Swarm seems to activate more often both before and after Rest.
Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Spore
- Rock Tomb
- Bullet Seed
Breloom's job is mostly to abuse priority to take out opponents at low health, as well as providing utility in spore. The focus sash/ rock tomb combination allows him to take out Talonflame, Charizard and Pinsir 1 vs. 1 as long as his Sash is kept intact, as well as catching things on the switch in to help with his speed issues. Bullet Seed is secondary STAB and allows him to quickly take out Azumarill, who both of the other attackers on the team have trouble with. I simply maxed out Attack and Speed, as it lets him just barely outspeed base 115 after a speed drop.
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Toxic
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Discharge
Porygon2 is the dedicated special wall on the team, and the Eviolite makes him a fairly decent physical wall as well. Trace is a great ability that gives him many switch-in opportunities as well as potentially being incredibly useful long after he has switched in in some cases. Ice Beam and Discharge are chosen over STAB because of their good coverage and Discharge's high chance to paralyze. Toxic and Recover makes him able to stalls out attackers not powerful enough to take him down, and weakens them for his Offensive team members to take out.
Mandibuzz (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Impish Nature
- Toxic / Currently testing Whirlwind
- Foul Play
- Defog
- Roost
With both Gyarados and Volcarona weak to stealth rocks, as well as Breloom carrying a Focus Sash, a defogger or Rapid Spinner was an absolute must. Mandibuzz doubles as a great physical wall and was therefore chosen for the team. Like Porygon2, she has toxic to wear down the opposing team, as well as Foul Play to deal with physical attackers in general and particularly set-up sweepers. Roost is obviously for recovery, unfortunately it can't be safely used against slow Fighting-type attackers, who are Porygon's biggest problem as well. Rocky Helmet helps her damage physical attackers on the switch, at the cost of relying solely on Roost for healing, which I'm not sure if is a great idea.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Heal Bell
Clefable is the most recent addition to the Team, and I feel she does a good job of binding things together. She makes up for the fighting weakness of Porygon and roosting Mandibuzz and can pass wishes to let attackers switch into Stealth Rocks without taking permanent damage in a bind. Gyarados is extremely suspectible to Burn and Paralysis, so Heal Bell was an important move for the team to carry. It can even let Volcarona rest twice in certain situations then not having to stay in to wake up. Unaware was chosen over Magic Guard because Heal Bell and Wish takes care of most residual damage anyway. I originally wanted to make her a mixed wall, but felt her bulk really wasn't good enough to divide when I tried it out, so I made her a mostly physical one. She can use Calm Mind and Moonblast to take care of special attackers as well, but this doesn't come into play very often as her role as a cleric generally takes priority. She can set up and sweep in certain matches where the opponent burns out their firepower early though.
This team has a few issues that I've recognized, but I'm not sure how to fix, such as the Stealth Rock weakness, and probably quite a few I just don't have enough experience to see yet. I would appreciate and do my best to test out any suggested changes in team members or movesets, as well as general feedback. I've change team members several times already, and will likely do so again.
Thanks for having a look at my team :)
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