gumnas
formerly .Maguss.
Well, the name has nothing to do with the team, but I needed one to baptize him, and decided to choose this. For those who don’t know, Paranoid Android is a song by Radiohead, and is probably my favorite song of all time. For a long time this community really needed a real RMT. This team really shows how things work in the current metagame of GSC. Fuck Stalls! fuck Curselax! This is a real team. Don’t get me wrong. I'm not saying that this team is perfect or the best I've ever seen. Far from it, this team is not simple to use, but at least it have a strategy, a strategy that really works. And every Pokémon has a merit to be part of it. Oh, and sorry for my bad english. It isn’t my main language.
@ Leftovers
Crunch
Rest
Roar
Thunder
"Raikou, I choose you!" So this is my lead. I really love this thing. Raikou is extremely resistant and durable, and therefore excellent for use Roar and scout the opponent's team, along with Skarmory, giving me a great advantage against him. Roar is also there to cover Jolteon Passer, which can completely nullify a strategy with Baton Pass the opponent has prepared. Roar also prevents any chance of Perish Trappers taken down any of my Pokémon, although not very necessary in this case, for this team, since my Tyranitar beat the three main Perish Trappers in the game - Misdreavus, Gengar and Jynx.
Many don’t like Thunder, but I like to live dangerously with this team. Thunder takes a considerable amount of Snorlax’s HP on the switch. Thunder also have a nice 30% chance of paralysis, which is great for my Snorlax, even though Raikou is only able to paralyse a Snorlax or another Raikou. My Snorlax uses Belly Drum and Double-Edge, and due to recoil, take an attack from one of those Pokemon before I attack is not a good thing.
Crunch isn’t there for any reason. With it, I can cause damage, although small, in some ground Pokemon that appear on the front, and possibly put it into KO range for the Counter I have in my Snorlax. This is great especially against Rhydon, since my Snorlax don’t have Earthquake. It is somewhat situational, but I believe is the best choice, the only other viable option would be Reflect, that in spite of giving Snorlax a chance to Drum more freely and protect the team against physical attacks for a while, could disrupt the Snorlax when I want to use Counter, while the Crunch can help.
Even without Sleep Talk, and no Beller, Raikou has sufficient durability for use Rest and stay alive to wake up. In fact, I really do not see another big advantage of using Sleep Talk Raikou in the current metagame. Besides being a total lack of creativity, it: gives no offensive advantage to the team, fails to absorb Lovely Kiss from Nidoking and Snorlax, and is less resistant than Reflect Raikou.
@ Leftovers
Psychic
Rapid Spin
Recover
Surf
The main Spinner in GSC. Starmie is and has always been my favorite water Pokemon. At this team, I need to be cautious when using this Pokémon, as paralysis practically nulifies its effectiveness. Take a Poison or get a Burn, oddly enough, is a great alternative to avoid paralysis. Neither of these two status will really mess up the life of Starmie ready to recover itself whenever it would be necessary. Of course you can mess up in some cases, but it is situational. And for obvious reasons, I'll get to scout the opposing team to see if it really can be capable of causing paralysis in my Starmie.
Raikou once again appears as a member extremely important for the team, since I always try to scout the opponent’s team before sending Starmie to the field, even if he lay donw Spikes. Spikes will not really mess up the strategy of my team at the beginning of the game. When necessary, I sent Starmie and remove it to the field with Rapid Spin. Spikes can mess up Snorlax and Raikou when they need to sleep. Mainly Snorlax, which is the main Pokémon in this team. He usually needs to sleep after the attack, and due to the recoil the Double-Edge causes, can have very little HP to get to sleep on time. Spikes can broke down my attempt to recover my Snorlax if necessary to remove him from the field with low HP, and that's the main reason I use Starmie this time. Starmie can hit hard in the two main Spikers - Cloyster and Forretress - using Psychic in the first and Surf in the second. Psychic is still great to screw up Gengar that try to block Rapid Spin and even against a possible Qwilfish Spiker. Psychic is also good to hit a CurseChamp, especially considering that the rest of the team does not have much quality to defend against Machamp.
@ No Item
Drill Peck
Rest
Thief
Whirlwind
Another Pokémon durable enough to sleep and wake up to stay alive. And along with Raikou, Skarmory helps me to scout the opposing team with Whirlwind, which, again, give me a big advantage over my opponent. Skarmory can easily get in front of most Physical Sweepers and do whatever it wants. Thief can literally wipe out the effectiveness of a Pokémon in GSC. The main targets are Marowak and Snorlax. As everyone knows, Marowak completely loses its effectiveness when it loses Thick Club. On this team, it could be very good to remove the item from it, as Marowak can force on my Skarmory with Swords Dance and Rock Slide, and I don’t have a Beller here to woke up Skarmory when he needs to sleep. Drumlax is another target that can have serious problems getting use Belly Drum without the Leftovers to recover, especially if its the version with Double-Edge. Curselax with Fire Blast is another good target for the Thief, as my only alternative to this is Tyranitar, and since it don’t have Roar, is necessary to attack him until he sleeps. If Snorlax don’t have Leftovers, Tyranitar will find it easier to force it.
@ Leftovers
Crunch
Dynamicpunch
Pursuit
Thunderbolt
Tyranitar is a key Pokémon here. It is essential for the strategy of the team work. This is because a ghost Pokémon can ruin it completely. That's where the Tyranitar and its Pursuit enters: to eliminate the ghost of the opponent, and then I can put my strategy into practice. Pursuit also helps weaken Skarmory, which has no reason to stay in front of a Tyranitar with Thunderbolt.
Some find strange use Crunch and Pursuit in the same moveset, only because they have the same type. It is important to know that Crunch and Pursuit hit different things. While one will hit the Pokémon going to the Poké Ball, the other will hit the Pokémon that is coming of it. Pursuit is there for strategic reasons, while Crunch is the main attack.
Dynamicpunch is another attack for those who like to live dangerously. He has a terrible accuracy, but it is important to have it on the moveset, as at least you can avoid Snorlax and Blissey come in front of him. The opponent usually avoids the risk against an attack that could benefit anyone of the two sides in the same percentage, which makes it difficult for him to choose the Pokemon to place in front of my Tyranitar.
@ Leftovers
Megahorn
Rest
Seismic Toss
Sleep Talk
I wonder why this monster isn’t used more often. A Pokemon with 348 Attack and a physical move with 180 Base Power (counting STAB) deserves respect. Of course, the opponent can place Skarmory in front of the Megahorn all day without suffering pratically any damage, you know that, which is probably why you don’t like to use Heracross. But unlike you, it is exactly why I use Heracross. I want the enemy placing it on the field, and every time he does that, I'll use Seismic Toss. Doing this several turns will be enough to weaken the Pokémon, and then my Snorlax will be able to break the Pokémon with the combo Belly Drum + Double-Edge. This Heracross is why Tyranitar is also included here If you are aware, realized that this moveset is completelly walled by Gengar and Misdreavus. Tyranitar comes there to shut down the ghosts, and then the opponent will have no choice but send his Skarmory to wall Heracross. Unfortunately, one Zapdos or Dragonite can be problematic here. Fortunately, many trainers don’t tend to use more than one flying Pokémon per team, and Raikou is much more common than Zapdos when using Skarmory.
@ Leftovers
Belly Drum
Counter
Double-Edge
Rest
"Skarmory used Whirlwind. But it failed! ". Ahh, how I love that. Snorlax is slower than Skarmory, and whenever you use Counter, Skarmory will be forced to attack before, and so the Whirlwind will always fail. And then, what Skarmory will do, use Drill Peck? If yes, take back the damage of the Counter. Skarmory has almost no alternatives against this. Cursekarm can be a problem, but Heracross is there for that. Ghosts? Tyranitar already shutted them down. What remains? Any Rock or Steel Pokémon, and all of they (except Omastar and Magneton, but who cares about them?) attack physically. That's why I love so much this Snorlax!
General threats
Snorlax: a Mixed Lax can ruin this team. He hit hard every Pokémon on my team with Double-Edge, Earthquake and Fire Blast. Skarmory is my alternative against most of the others variations of Snorlax, except a FB Curselax. Tyranitar is my only answer to that. LK Lax is always a threat, to any team, and here is no different, so I really don’t care about it.
Mixed Sweepers: I can see three problems: Nidoking, Dragonite and Tyranitar. Nidoking only poser a threat if it come with the Fire Blast variation instead of Ice Beam, otherwise I can wall it with Heracross with no problems. Tyranitar can be a problems if appear with something like ... Earthquake, Dynamicpunch, Fire Blast and Crunch, but is rare to see all these four moves in the same moveset. Dragonite is the most problematic and cause problems with Thunder, Dynamicpunch and Double-Edge, which is the most common variation. Moreover, Heracross is bait for Dragonite. Against them all, my team has alternatives, but relies on skill and predict. As I said before, this team is not as simple to use.
Spikes: no problem here. Starmie get rid of Spikes and hit hard on the major Spikers, as has been shown before. And if the opponent appear with a ghost to block Rapid Spin, I have a Tyranitar ready to screw up their lives.
JoltWak: Raikou can get in front of any Jolteon and use Roar all day.
Perish Trappers: Raikou completely nullifies all of them with his Roar. Tyranitar shut them down their with Crunch and Pursuit. No problem here.
Drumzard / Druidcruel: Starmie is the best alternative against both. Raikou is also a good alternative, especially against Tentacruel.
Cursers: maybe a Cursegon2 or Kangaskhan Curseroarer. Both are very rare to find nowadays, but can be problematic. As I have Beller, a frozen can disrupt much. And against this team, Cursegon2 have too much time to make use of Ice Beam to freeze someone - probably Tyranitar or Skarmory.
Possible variations
I believe that the main one would be a Suicune with Surf, Ice Beam, Roar and Rest / Sleep Talk instead of Starmie. I lose my advantage against Spikes and Machamp, but gain advantage against the Mixed Sweepers. In most cases, I prefer to play with Starmie here.
Another possible change would be in the Tyranitar moveset, putting Roar ther, and maybe changing some other moves as well. Thus, it would be easier to cancel things like Curselax with Fire Blast and Cursegon2.
A Machamp with Curse, Cross Chop, Rest and Sleep Talk instead of Heracross is also interesting. Machamp also takes advantage of Tyranitar on this team, and with this moveset the opponent usually has a hard time defending itself. I also gain advantage against threats like Snorlax, Tyranitar, Cursegon2 and even Nidoking, that even being resistant to Cross Chop, lost for this moveset. However, I would have less chance to force Skarmory to show up if the opponent come with a Starmie, which is something quite common in GSC.
I also like to use this Machamp instead of Raikou just for a change, or when I already know the team my opponent carries - and he knows the mine. Curse in the Counter on Snorlax also appears for the same reason. And usually, the opponent believes the team has changed, and the Snorlax moveset too - they normally don’t expect Curse and Belly Drum together on the same Pokémon.
Miltank is also a good place for the Raikou, when is no longer needed scout the opposing team. Miltank gives tremendous support with Heal Bell, waking up Snorlax, Skarmory and Raikou when necessary, and also healing any negative status on my Starmie, and even wall some things with Growl.
@ Leftovers
Crunch
Rest
Roar
Thunder
"Raikou, I choose you!" So this is my lead. I really love this thing. Raikou is extremely resistant and durable, and therefore excellent for use Roar and scout the opponent's team, along with Skarmory, giving me a great advantage against him. Roar is also there to cover Jolteon Passer, which can completely nullify a strategy with Baton Pass the opponent has prepared. Roar also prevents any chance of Perish Trappers taken down any of my Pokémon, although not very necessary in this case, for this team, since my Tyranitar beat the three main Perish Trappers in the game - Misdreavus, Gengar and Jynx.
Many don’t like Thunder, but I like to live dangerously with this team. Thunder takes a considerable amount of Snorlax’s HP on the switch. Thunder also have a nice 30% chance of paralysis, which is great for my Snorlax, even though Raikou is only able to paralyse a Snorlax or another Raikou. My Snorlax uses Belly Drum and Double-Edge, and due to recoil, take an attack from one of those Pokemon before I attack is not a good thing.
Crunch isn’t there for any reason. With it, I can cause damage, although small, in some ground Pokemon that appear on the front, and possibly put it into KO range for the Counter I have in my Snorlax. This is great especially against Rhydon, since my Snorlax don’t have Earthquake. It is somewhat situational, but I believe is the best choice, the only other viable option would be Reflect, that in spite of giving Snorlax a chance to Drum more freely and protect the team against physical attacks for a while, could disrupt the Snorlax when I want to use Counter, while the Crunch can help.
Even without Sleep Talk, and no Beller, Raikou has sufficient durability for use Rest and stay alive to wake up. In fact, I really do not see another big advantage of using Sleep Talk Raikou in the current metagame. Besides being a total lack of creativity, it: gives no offensive advantage to the team, fails to absorb Lovely Kiss from Nidoking and Snorlax, and is less resistant than Reflect Raikou.
@ Leftovers
Psychic
Rapid Spin
Recover
Surf
The main Spinner in GSC. Starmie is and has always been my favorite water Pokemon. At this team, I need to be cautious when using this Pokémon, as paralysis practically nulifies its effectiveness. Take a Poison or get a Burn, oddly enough, is a great alternative to avoid paralysis. Neither of these two status will really mess up the life of Starmie ready to recover itself whenever it would be necessary. Of course you can mess up in some cases, but it is situational. And for obvious reasons, I'll get to scout the opposing team to see if it really can be capable of causing paralysis in my Starmie.
Raikou once again appears as a member extremely important for the team, since I always try to scout the opponent’s team before sending Starmie to the field, even if he lay donw Spikes. Spikes will not really mess up the strategy of my team at the beginning of the game. When necessary, I sent Starmie and remove it to the field with Rapid Spin. Spikes can mess up Snorlax and Raikou when they need to sleep. Mainly Snorlax, which is the main Pokémon in this team. He usually needs to sleep after the attack, and due to the recoil the Double-Edge causes, can have very little HP to get to sleep on time. Spikes can broke down my attempt to recover my Snorlax if necessary to remove him from the field with low HP, and that's the main reason I use Starmie this time. Starmie can hit hard in the two main Spikers - Cloyster and Forretress - using Psychic in the first and Surf in the second. Psychic is still great to screw up Gengar that try to block Rapid Spin and even against a possible Qwilfish Spiker. Psychic is also good to hit a CurseChamp, especially considering that the rest of the team does not have much quality to defend against Machamp.
@ No Item
Drill Peck
Rest
Thief
Whirlwind
Another Pokémon durable enough to sleep and wake up to stay alive. And along with Raikou, Skarmory helps me to scout the opposing team with Whirlwind, which, again, give me a big advantage over my opponent. Skarmory can easily get in front of most Physical Sweepers and do whatever it wants. Thief can literally wipe out the effectiveness of a Pokémon in GSC. The main targets are Marowak and Snorlax. As everyone knows, Marowak completely loses its effectiveness when it loses Thick Club. On this team, it could be very good to remove the item from it, as Marowak can force on my Skarmory with Swords Dance and Rock Slide, and I don’t have a Beller here to woke up Skarmory when he needs to sleep. Drumlax is another target that can have serious problems getting use Belly Drum without the Leftovers to recover, especially if its the version with Double-Edge. Curselax with Fire Blast is another good target for the Thief, as my only alternative to this is Tyranitar, and since it don’t have Roar, is necessary to attack him until he sleeps. If Snorlax don’t have Leftovers, Tyranitar will find it easier to force it.
@ Leftovers
Crunch
Dynamicpunch
Pursuit
Thunderbolt
Tyranitar is a key Pokémon here. It is essential for the strategy of the team work. This is because a ghost Pokémon can ruin it completely. That's where the Tyranitar and its Pursuit enters: to eliminate the ghost of the opponent, and then I can put my strategy into practice. Pursuit also helps weaken Skarmory, which has no reason to stay in front of a Tyranitar with Thunderbolt.
Some find strange use Crunch and Pursuit in the same moveset, only because they have the same type. It is important to know that Crunch and Pursuit hit different things. While one will hit the Pokémon going to the Poké Ball, the other will hit the Pokémon that is coming of it. Pursuit is there for strategic reasons, while Crunch is the main attack.
Dynamicpunch is another attack for those who like to live dangerously. He has a terrible accuracy, but it is important to have it on the moveset, as at least you can avoid Snorlax and Blissey come in front of him. The opponent usually avoids the risk against an attack that could benefit anyone of the two sides in the same percentage, which makes it difficult for him to choose the Pokemon to place in front of my Tyranitar.
@ Leftovers
Megahorn
Rest
Seismic Toss
Sleep Talk
I wonder why this monster isn’t used more often. A Pokemon with 348 Attack and a physical move with 180 Base Power (counting STAB) deserves respect. Of course, the opponent can place Skarmory in front of the Megahorn all day without suffering pratically any damage, you know that, which is probably why you don’t like to use Heracross. But unlike you, it is exactly why I use Heracross. I want the enemy placing it on the field, and every time he does that, I'll use Seismic Toss. Doing this several turns will be enough to weaken the Pokémon, and then my Snorlax will be able to break the Pokémon with the combo Belly Drum + Double-Edge. This Heracross is why Tyranitar is also included here If you are aware, realized that this moveset is completelly walled by Gengar and Misdreavus. Tyranitar comes there to shut down the ghosts, and then the opponent will have no choice but send his Skarmory to wall Heracross. Unfortunately, one Zapdos or Dragonite can be problematic here. Fortunately, many trainers don’t tend to use more than one flying Pokémon per team, and Raikou is much more common than Zapdos when using Skarmory.
@ Leftovers
Belly Drum
Counter
Double-Edge
Rest
"Skarmory used Whirlwind. But it failed! ". Ahh, how I love that. Snorlax is slower than Skarmory, and whenever you use Counter, Skarmory will be forced to attack before, and so the Whirlwind will always fail. And then, what Skarmory will do, use Drill Peck? If yes, take back the damage of the Counter. Skarmory has almost no alternatives against this. Cursekarm can be a problem, but Heracross is there for that. Ghosts? Tyranitar already shutted them down. What remains? Any Rock or Steel Pokémon, and all of they (except Omastar and Magneton, but who cares about them?) attack physically. That's why I love so much this Snorlax!
General threats
Snorlax: a Mixed Lax can ruin this team. He hit hard every Pokémon on my team with Double-Edge, Earthquake and Fire Blast. Skarmory is my alternative against most of the others variations of Snorlax, except a FB Curselax. Tyranitar is my only answer to that. LK Lax is always a threat, to any team, and here is no different, so I really don’t care about it.
Mixed Sweepers: I can see three problems: Nidoking, Dragonite and Tyranitar. Nidoking only poser a threat if it come with the Fire Blast variation instead of Ice Beam, otherwise I can wall it with Heracross with no problems. Tyranitar can be a problems if appear with something like ... Earthquake, Dynamicpunch, Fire Blast and Crunch, but is rare to see all these four moves in the same moveset. Dragonite is the most problematic and cause problems with Thunder, Dynamicpunch and Double-Edge, which is the most common variation. Moreover, Heracross is bait for Dragonite. Against them all, my team has alternatives, but relies on skill and predict. As I said before, this team is not as simple to use.
Spikes: no problem here. Starmie get rid of Spikes and hit hard on the major Spikers, as has been shown before. And if the opponent appear with a ghost to block Rapid Spin, I have a Tyranitar ready to screw up their lives.
JoltWak: Raikou can get in front of any Jolteon and use Roar all day.
Perish Trappers: Raikou completely nullifies all of them with his Roar. Tyranitar shut them down their with Crunch and Pursuit. No problem here.
Drumzard / Druidcruel: Starmie is the best alternative against both. Raikou is also a good alternative, especially against Tentacruel.
Cursers: maybe a Cursegon2 or Kangaskhan Curseroarer. Both are very rare to find nowadays, but can be problematic. As I have Beller, a frozen can disrupt much. And against this team, Cursegon2 have too much time to make use of Ice Beam to freeze someone - probably Tyranitar or Skarmory.
Possible variations
I believe that the main one would be a Suicune with Surf, Ice Beam, Roar and Rest / Sleep Talk instead of Starmie. I lose my advantage against Spikes and Machamp, but gain advantage against the Mixed Sweepers. In most cases, I prefer to play with Starmie here.
Another possible change would be in the Tyranitar moveset, putting Roar ther, and maybe changing some other moves as well. Thus, it would be easier to cancel things like Curselax with Fire Blast and Cursegon2.
A Machamp with Curse, Cross Chop, Rest and Sleep Talk instead of Heracross is also interesting. Machamp also takes advantage of Tyranitar on this team, and with this moveset the opponent usually has a hard time defending itself. I also gain advantage against threats like Snorlax, Tyranitar, Cursegon2 and even Nidoking, that even being resistant to Cross Chop, lost for this moveset. However, I would have less chance to force Skarmory to show up if the opponent come with a Starmie, which is something quite common in GSC.
I also like to use this Machamp instead of Raikou just for a change, or when I already know the team my opponent carries - and he knows the mine. Curse in the Counter on Snorlax also appears for the same reason. And usually, the opponent believes the team has changed, and the Snorlax moveset too - they normally don’t expect Curse and Belly Drum together on the same Pokémon.
Miltank is also a good place for the Raikou, when is no longer needed scout the opposing team. Miltank gives tremendous support with Heal Bell, waking up Snorlax, Skarmory and Raikou when necessary, and also healing any negative status on my Starmie, and even wall some things with Growl.
