RMT Offensive Team - TalonMarill

[thym4n]

Hey guys long time no see. I'll be honest and say I wanted to quit pokemon cause i'm bad at team building, but i found it in me somewhere and tried again :). Here with a team, really the first stages of it. I'd love all the commenting and suggestions you'll give me, so lets get on with it! Bold is for changes. You know what? Lets me tell you a quick story.

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The History:
1. I knew I wanted to start off with Azumarill, as I have seen it run rampage and it is devastating. The only thing that bothered me was its bad speed. Secondly I paired it up with Talonflame, to take out Grass types and Steel types. Banded Azumarill and Leftover Talonflame.

2. Next I wanted to take a defensive core. I was really comfortable with Hippowdon + Latias. Hippowdon offered great bulk and guaranteed Stealth Rocks, and Latias was really in for tanking special hits. Also Dragon type which was pretty important. Both were leftovers.

3. I'll be honest I did not know what I wanted to put in the last 2 slots, so I threw in a Weavile and Galvantula just so that I could get straight to testing. Sash Galvantula and Orb Weavile.

4. After a bit of testing I saw Galvantula wasn't that great, and my Latias was lacking a bit as a special wall. I turned my Weavile into an Assault Vest Conkeldurr to help my Latias out, but keep the same coverage of Weavile. Then I introduced a Leftover Thundurus, pretty common and not much need for explanation.

5. Conkeldurr was great but lacked a lot of speed, and was really weak to psychic and flying. Though it was contradictory to both, I put Mega Venusaur cause I realized I needed the Poison and Grass coverage. I made Latias to Latios to hid harder with Life Orb, and Assault Vest Azumarill to tank hits better. Went back to leftover + Bulk Up on Talonflame for Aegislash to stop playing around with me.

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The Team:

Talonflame @

Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Bulk Up
- Roost

What can I say about talonflame... I got bored of Mega-Charizard-Y, so I decided to switch to him. I've loved talonflame other than its 4x weakness to SR. Handles steels and grass/poisons for Azumarill. Leftovers lets me gain residual health, helping with the sweep. These 2 really pack a punch. Gale Wings is an amazing ability. Brave Bird and Flare Blitz are the usual STAB. Bulk Up lets me play mind games with Aegislash, also so that I can switch through moves and Roost for free health. EV's are standard I think, but the Item may need some work.

Azumarill @

Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Superpower

Azumarill partners with Talonflame to really destroy some babies. Azumarill has always facinated me, but I've never gone past its medicore stats to try it out. But otherwise on the tier, few can stand to it. Assault Vest lets Azumarill tank a lot of special hits, especially ones that threaten it (Mega-Venusaur). Waterfall and Play Rough for STAB, Aqua Jet for Priority. Superpower hits steels on the switch, but sadly can't let me touch Aegislash. The EV's are fixed to tank special attacks. The only problem I am having is between Knock Off and Supepower.

Latios (M) @

Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power Fighting
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Defog

Latios... I seem to never be able to stay away from this mon. Handles Poisons that also threaten Azumarill, and work as defoger. Draws steels for me to switch into Talonflame. Life Orb lets me weaken the mons for the above 2 to clean up. The only problem is that Latias brings to the table Tyranitars, which means more work for Azumarill. I believe items and EV's are regular. Psyshock and Draco Meteor for STAB, and Defog for hazards. HP Fighting lets me 2HKO Tyranitar and OHKO Bisharp on switch, but not Aegislash. Nets me a lot of nice surprise kills, which really are needed.

Hippowdon @

Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 188 Def / 72 SDef
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Slack Off

Hippowdon is good. Handles the Electric Weakness to my pair. Defensive wall, not much more to say. Sand Stream for the nice residual damage. Earthquake for STAB. SR cause its SR, Roar for stall, and Slack Off for Health. Roar lets me phaze out a lot of set-up sweepers. I'll be honest I do not know what I'm doing with my EV's. Also, this guy's got problems on Balloon-Heatran switches. I may consider giving him Rock Slide, because otherwise I cannot counter to Talonflame and Mega Pinsir. Gotta make a few changes to this guy.

Venusaur @

Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll (Thick Fat)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Calm Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Leech Seed

I've seen this guy in action, and I'm disappointed I did not add him in before. This went from Weavile to Conkeldurr to M-Venusaur. I was missing a mega anyways, so decided to just put Venusar here. Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb for STAB (2 coverage I needed). HP Rock for Charizard-Y with Chlorophyll, also other wierd switch-ins. Leech Seed to help wear down my opponent's pokemon, as well as to pass off for health. EV's try to make it a special attacker, but give it some mixed bulk.

Thundurus (M) @

Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave

Thundurus is getting more popular by the second, and I can understand why. Nice electric/flying type, with great speed, special attack, ability, and movepool, this guy is versatile. Leftovers for residual HP gaining. Thunderbolt for STAB. HP Ice for surprise factor, which nets me a lot of surprise kills on Gliscor, Landorus-T, and Garchomp. Thunder Wave as more commonly and my personal choice, Substitute. Sub allows me to get free turns on switches, or slower set-up mons who try to status me (Skarmory and Gliscor).
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The Threats:
(I'll be putting that up soon)

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The "Missing":

• Dark Type for Psychic Immunity
• Second Rapid Spinner/Defogger
• Fighting Type coverage
• Second Special Tank
• Wish Passer

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So there is my (bad) team! Looking at my team now, I may switch in a AV Conkeldurr or my Weavile again, or introduce Wish Sylveon. We'll see how it goes. Again, I'd comments and suggestion, any of them. I see Talonflame and Azumarill being promising, and wanna take this team whatever direction it goes! Thanks!

 

[Darnell]

4 Atk Latias Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tyranitar: 112-132 (27.7 - 32.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 SpA Latias Surf vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 116-138 (28.7 - 34.1%) -- 1.9% chance to 3HKO

I see no reason why you would use Earthquake over Surf/Thunderbolt/Hidden Power Fire on Latias. Fair enough, you may have to deal with Tyranitar trapping you but Earthquake isn't going to be helping you in anyway as it does more damage. When Steel/Rock types that can't trap you come in, you shouldn't find it a problem.
Your best choice is to switch to Hippowdon and take whatever hit, then proceed to use the chance to get up your Stealth Rocks or Earthquake, even Toxic predicting the switch also.
The only Steel type I see this working with is Bisharp and the occasional Pursuit being run however it can predict you to stay in for whatever reason and proceed to Sucker Punch. The 4 EVs can also go into something more useful + Nature be switched to Timid

The EVs for Azumarill, could I ask where you got them from? They might be outdated, for Azumarill people tend to go for the Bulky Band which consists of 252 Att and HP, 4 SpD. Feel free to correct me but I don't see why the EVs would be mixed up like that, what Pokemon in the tier does it take hits from with it like that?

Your team weaknesses chart!

Honestly, it says Rock is the problem but you have Hippowdon, you just need to preserve it as long as possible if you happen to encounter them. If not, it may cause some issues to the point where none of your Pokemon can safely switch in.

 

[Timpsu]

Hey there! Gonna come by and see if we can optimize your movesets and EVs a bit.

While Talonflame's Brave Bird is strong, I do believe it needs some kind of boost in order to truly shine, be it from Choice Band, Swords Dance or Bulk Up. Judging from your EVs and movesets, I'd propably go with replacing U-turn with Swords Dance, and replacing Shell Bell with Life Orb. With Roost, you get all the healing you could ever want, so Shell Bell is not necessary. I'll simplify Azumarill's EVs for ya: 164 Hp / 252 Attack / 92 Speed. The Speed is there to outspeed uninvested Tyranitar, rest goes into bulk. Your moveset is optimal, although as Talonflame checks Ferrothorn quite reliably, I'd propably try using Knock Off in place of Superpower.

Latias is a bit of a tricky Pokemon to use, and it can sometimes be a bit hard to determine whether to use Latios or Latias. However, I'll give you a groundrule: If you intend to use Defog + 3 attacks, use Latios. If u intend to use Defog + 2 attacks, use Latias. In the last slot Latias can carry Roost for extra longevity or Healing Wish, which is actually an excellent choice for Talonflame and Azumarill. Latios can also use Roost, but as his niche lies in good offensive pressure, it's usually wise to leave Roosting for Latias. As for items, I'd strongly recommend always using Life Orb, whether it is Latias or Latios, as they both need that extra power to be truly scary. With the moveset you have there, I'd switch that Latias to Latios.

Hippowdon is a good physical wall, although you can just use 252 HP / 252 Defense / 4 SpD as your EVs. One thing I'd like you to consider is to switch Hippowdon's ability to Sand Force. As your Hippowdon is physically defensive, sandstorm doesn't boost his special defense all that much, and judging from your team sand does you more harm than good. Otherwise Hippo is solid. Although you don't give much credit to Weavile, I think he's really a scary thing to face. He has a unique speed tier, and couple that with a reasonably strong priority, you have a good physical attacker. One thing I'd propably change is Low Kick instead of Brick Break. Most things weak to fighting are very heavy, so Low Kick ends up doing more damage. And just as a nitpick, Weavile doesn't really resist Dragon, he just checks dragon Pokemon reasonably well.

Okey, this I will say, you need to get rid of Galvantula. First of all, Sticky Web is really the worst hazard there is in OU, and as you use Defog to clear hazards, they go together very poorly. Not even accounting for the fact that Galvantula is almost always a bad choice for a team. I don't even think that Sticky Web helps your team all that much, as Talonflame and Weavile are fast as they are, and Azumarill is slow even with -1 on opponent's side. If you are looking to find a Volt Switcher, I would suggest trying Raikou. Raikou has plenty of viable sets, most notable ones are Calm Mind, Assault Vest and Choice Specs. However, if you are looking for an Electric-type in general, I'd recommend Thundurus, as he has a myriad of options to choose from, and is just about the best Pokemon in every role he has to offer. He has priority Thunder Wave, Nasty plot, he can go mixed or physical, the options are endless. I suggest replacing Galvantula with Raikou or Thundurus.

I also like to encourage you in your teambuilding. No one's born ready, and we all need practice in order to hone our skills to become great at what we do. I think you have an effective pool of Pokemon on your hands, it only needs a bit of optimizing. Don't let your failures discourage you, as Pokemon is all about learning, and I think it's a big step that you brought your team here so that it can possibly be made better. I wish good luck with your teambuilding, and good luck also in your future battling!

 

[Bluwing]

Talonflame / Azumarill / Latias / Hippowdon / Weavile / Galvantula

Hello thym4n ! Nice team you got here, so ive been looking at it and noticed that Talonflame would mainly be the sweeper of choice on this team, I also found some stuff that might give this team problems. First off your lack of ways to deal with setup sweepers like Mega-Gyarados really runs through your team, also stuff like Unaware Calm Mind Clefable can really damage this team a lot, as well as Greninja can be quite a threath. There is also some sets that needs modification as they really don't do anything for your team.

Lets start of with the only pokemon change on the team which is Galvantula, the reason why I decided to remove Galvantula is because your team really don't need sticky web support as your attackers is fast (speed + priority) and you really need some kind off way too deal with Mega-Gyarados, as Galvantula mostly is a sash lead and will die early game. Therefore I changed it too Thundurus which basically will serve as a mid-game wallbreaker and way too stop setup sweepers with Thunder Wave, I also gave it Nasty Plot so it can wallbreak for Talonflame.

Now lets get to your main goal sweepiing with Talonflame, now that Galvantula is gone Unaware Quagsire really walls you therefore I changed your set abusing Liechi Berry + Natural Gift which makes Natural Gift a 100 BP grass move and will always ohko after one Brave Bird + Stealth Rock damage, and is also pretty neat to nab some surprise ko's on Rotom-W's that think they can just scare you out.

I also made some set changes on Latias, Azumarill, Hippowdon and Weavile, where the Azumarill change was probably the biggest one. As I said Greninja can sport as huge threath against your team, so I changed Azumarill from a Choice Band set too the Assault Vest set, the thing is Azumarill already hits incredibly hard without a Choice Band while walling a lot off huge special threaths namely Greninja & Lati@s which basically helps your team out alot, Azumarill also appreciates beeing able too switch between moves. Latias I only made some minor changes like it's ev spread gave it Life Orb so it can deal som more damage and Roost for recovery. I then gave Hippowdon Rock Slide over Toxic so you could deal with Mega-Pinsir easier so Thundurus doesn't need to be your only check, I also maxed it's defense to handle physical threaths as much as possible. The last change which is basically is the smallest change was Low Kick over Brick Break on Weavile, as this basically hits everything harder than Brick Break does other than Excadrill, but Knock Off hits for basically the same damage as Brick Break anyway. Note that your team is pretty weak too rocks so don't waste your Latias. So thats all, you've got a great team here, and I hope I helped have a nice day.

Final Product: Hippowdon / Talonflame / Azumarill / Latias / Weavile / Thundurus

Set(s)

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

Talonflame @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 60 Spd / 252 Atk / 194 HP
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Natural Gift
- Swords Dance

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Spd / 184 SAtk
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Roost

Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off
- Low Kick

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Nasty Plot
- Thunder Wave

 

[thym4n]

Hey guys I got anxious in testing this team and I have to say that I'm glad that the changes I've made are working out really well. I'm gonna go to bed like now so I'll post the changes here, But I'll edit the above tomorrow when I get time.

I really like my Talonflame the way it is, so I kept the moveset the same. Just put Leftovers over Shell Bell.
Turned Latias into a Latios, slapped on a Life Orb and now Surf over Earthquake
On Hippowdon I switched Toxic for Roar, because as some of you suggested I get wrecked by set-up sweepers. Lets me phaze.
Galvantula is gone! Hello Thundurus! Pretty much what Bluwing gave me, so you can just refer back up.
Finally, I sadly switching Latias to a Latios, I made my Weavile a Assault Vest Conkeldurr. It would let me keep the same coverate (Dark, Fighting, Ice), but I've seen Conkeldurr in action and lets me Mach Punch Greninja to weaken it (which i have troubles with).

So guys yeah the team is going great! Thanks for all your help in making this team successful. Just a few things I wanted to note at the end of this:
I really need a Dark and Steel/Poison type, as I need a Psychic immunity for Conkeldurr and the other 2 to check Fairies easier.
I know you guys have given me a lot of suggestions and its overwhelming me, but I haven't gotten the chance to test them yet. I promise as soon as I get the time tomorrow I will edit this team and see what more I can do. Again thanks everyone for the support :).

 

[thym4n]

Bump Pls. I really want to see how much feedback I can get, as the team is going great. Please don't be afraid to drop in a comment ^^.