RMT screen abuse

guitarerdood

Hey all, I've been wandering around in the background of smogon for years now and just finally starting to get into battling on shoddy battle and gettin good poke's for battling friend's on wifi etc. So, naturally, I want to come to YOU, the experienced players for input on my team. That being said, here is what I've come up with:


LEAD:

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Metagross @ Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/236 Atk/12 Def/8 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Explosion
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Metagross is a good lead who can set up stealth rock and deal with a lot of other popular leads. Depending on how much damage I can do to the opposing lead with MM/EQ, I might opt to try to KO their lead before setting up my own SR. Explosion is a nice way to go out and is a good way of neutralizing threats that come up mid to late game that I need to get rid of. I go with Life Orb here as its essentially giving me the boosted power without the move restriction of Choice Band, giving me the choice surprise opponents occasionally.





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Bronzong @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/152 Atk/96 Def/8 SDef
Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Gyro Ball
- Explosion


This guy is a beast. I set up screens to set up for other sweepers, and to be honest I've found myself in a couple situations where I can actually sweep with Bronzong because he takes so little damage with both screens up and Gyro Ball deals a LOT of damage to faster threats.



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Kingdra (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 108 HP/200 Atk/200 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Waterfall


I've had mixed results with Kingdra, to be honest. In my head before I created this team, I thought of Kingdra hiding behind screens and a Sub Dragon dancing would be nasty, but a lot of the times even with screens up I take too much damage to get enough DD's to sweep (hence the 108 HP EV's, trying to make him a little sturdier, and I know thats not a standard spread but thats why I'm posting here, trying to find a solution to how originally the standard spread of 252atk/252spd wasnt working for me). However, when I have gotten the chance to get 2-3+ DD's, Kingdra controls the game for me.
Lum Berry is so I can outrage more than once without worrying about confusion, also to prevent a burn on an otherwise easy switch in to fire attacks.


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Starmie @ Focus Sash
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Surf

Basically, this starmie serves two purposes of team support. One, the obvious, I use him to rapid spin away nasty entry hazards. Secondly, and this only works if there are no entry hazards obviously, is basically a counter set. I don't care how many DD's your Gyarados, Dragonite, or Salamence might have, so long as I don't take damage from entry I can survive any attack you throw at me (cause of Focus Sash) and OHKO back with the corresponding move. also being as fast and powerful as starmie is, I surprisingly almost always net a KO or two from someone not expecting me to have boltbeam AND surf.


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Espeon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP/156 Spd/100 SAtk
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Reflect
- Psychic
- Calm Mind
- Baton Pass


Espeon is my other screener. I come in on something thats not going to decimate Espeon, setup reflect and get a calm mind or two going. Normally teams have a designated special wall, and stack the rest of their defenses on the phsyical side, so once I get Blissey or whoever it may be out of the way (usually as a counter to my Starmie, then switch to something like Metagross or Bronzong) getting a calm mind or two up on Espeon can reak havok. Even better, I can pass a boost or two (and still have reflect going) to Empoleon, who almost welcomes stronger attacks to help me get down to 25% faster, where a +3 torrent surf is no joke.


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Empoleon (M) @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs:
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Agility
- Substitute

Lastly, Empoleon is essentially my finisher. As I described in Espeon's description, if I can pass a calm mind or two preferably with reflect up to Empoleon, its all over. If not, thats okay, because subpetaya Empoleon is devastating as it is, and many times I come in late game after eliminating any special walls that get sent in on starmie or even espeon, and sweep freely through my opponents team.



I've seen mild success with this team, winning about twice as much as I lose. I feel like there is a lot of potential in this team and I want to round it out, so any and all suggestions/critiques will be approached thoughtfully and constructively.
 
You are Rotom weak. A bulky could stall out most of your team, and seeing as you have no counter, it could ruin you. Vaporeon could also cause you some trouble. I would recommend some things but I really can't tell you much. Having two screeners is excessive, especially if your Kingdra can't handle it.
 
decent concept, but the execution is not good. im going to rate this without changing anything (though id suggest you do change some things, especially espeon)

first comment goes to starmie. first, ditch the sash. most likely your opponent will have rocks up (metagross wont stop anything) and the sash will be negated. second, you dont need a spinner on this team. the way i see it, you will be doing next to no swtiching at all and you dont need a spinner. this should be the scarf set:
Starmie@Choice Scarf
4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe Timid
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Rapid Spin


Second goes to espeon, whom i think should be changed but ill stick with.
If your objective is to baton pass, id try something like this:
Espeon@Colbur Berry
252 HP/4 SpA/252 Spe Timid
-Reflect
-Calm Mind
-Baton Pass
-Hidden Power [Fire]

Everything is changed, except for minimal special attack, which you shouldnt need, and hidden power fire > psychic. it will ohko scizor after stealth rock, one of the main two switchins. the colbur berry will help against tyranitar, the other probable switchin. otherwise you can change it back to psychic for infernape.
 
what would you suggest in place of espeon? I liked using espeon cause of the synergy of either using the calm mind boosts itself or passing them off to empoleon, but I'd like to hear what you'd have to say.

and I'll probably do that with starmie, I went with focus sash more of because there wasnt an item that to me looked like it was definitly the way to go, and only once out of the matches I've played did I actually get an advantage from having the focus sash.
 
If you want to stick with the general set up, my suggestion is to replace Metagross and use Bronzong as your lead. Non-Taunt leads give you time to set up screens while Taunt leads can be Gyro Balled. This frees up your slot for something else to round the team out... preferably something to make use of the screens. Due to your otherwise overwhelming resistance to Ice I'm going to suggest Salamence. With screens and intimidate Mence can come in on a lot, DD up and sweep effectively. I suggest standard mixmence but using leftovers for added survivability while you DD. I suggest this over LO/Roost because once screens fall you don't want to be losing HP to anything.
Salamence@Leftovers
24 Sp Attack/232 Attack/252 Speed Naughty
Dragon Dance
Outrage
Earthquake
Fire Blast

With that in place Kingdra might be the next option to replace. CM Raikou would do very well here, dealing with your Rotom and Vaporeon weaknesses discussed above.

Raikou @ Leftovers
4 HP / 252 Sp.Att / 252 Speed Timid
Calm Mind
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
HP Grass

(Note: EV's you might consider changing a bit to be a bit more bulky)
 
I don't give too much advice on teams, so take this with a grain of salt, but here's what I've got.

Instead of Kingdra you could try the Tyraniboah set on Tyranitar. The rest of your team handles his weaknesses fairly well, three of your pokes are sandstorm immune and I think it could benefit from the screens. He also can handle Rotom and the like.

For metagross, try:

@Lum Berry
-Bullet Punch
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock
-Explosion

The combo of bullet punch and EQ not only messes up focus sashes, but the lum berry comes in handy more than you think it would.

I'm also just not feeling Espeon and Starmie on this team, but can't think of any other suggestions atm.

If you run with Tyraniboah I'd try to cover his weaknesses a little more.
 
i have an idea for your kingdra (it is what i use on mine and it generally gets a couple kills each time
kingdra@ life orb
modest
4HP/252 SPA/ 252 SPD

rain dance
Draco Meteor
Hydro pump
signal beam

this gives you general type coverage and allows you to OHKO many pokemon your team might find dangerous, including salamence and, to my knowledge, celebi, which will give your team a pain in the ass. you should note that draco meteor and hydro pump don't have perfect accuracy, so luck can screw you over.. nonetheless, it should work fairly well for you. if you want to see how i used my kingdra, go to this link http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70164
hopefully that helped
 
Well you have real issues with stall. A Blissey walls the f**k out of 1/2 your team. Most smart players wil know that meta and Bronzong commonly carry Explosion and will prepare for this. Like what others have said, Rotom also causes issues and Skarmory walls most of this team as well.

Metgross can run duel screens as well as Bronzong so you can have 2 screen replenishers.

Something such as a DD salamence is very dangerous under screen support so i would consider this on your team.

i still think that you need scizor on your team as well to check T-tar and such like.

latias or Celebi can both run a CM set better than espeon can as well.
 
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