RMT-Team Checkmate

[chenman333]

I couldn't think of a really good name, but I realized I often win matches by wittling down the oppostion to one, choiced pokemon, and forcing it into an impossible situation to win (ie heatran+salamence vs. choice mamo-Does it earthquake my heatran then lose to Salamence, or Ice Shard Salamence and lose to tran). I don't always win that way, because sometimes I do manage to pull off a big sweep.

The basic idea is based on setting up dual screens with Alakazam (similar to Justinawe's team), then gradually eliminate the opposition through mini-sweeps, and chipping away at people's health. The idea is to get Salamence a DD to late game sweep, but DD+Outrage is so vicious that he can often blow a whole early game anyway.

Let's start:
Alakazam @ Light Clay
Inner Focus
252 HP/216 Spd/40 SpD
Timid
-Taunt
-Light Screen
-Reflect
-Knock Off

Deoxys-S was probably the best dual screener, but Alakazam is pretty darn good too, mostly because of the surprise factor involved. Taunt is mainly for the SR leads slower than Zam. If they are more offensive leads, I usually choose between Light Screen and Reflect. Alakazam is pretty damn bulky with screens up and can even take dark hits from Tyranitar and Weavile. Knock Off is a really neat move that people don't expect. Getting rid of the Leftovers on walls, then using T-Tar's sandstream is sick.

Once one of the screens, or hopefully two are set up, I send in Suicune or T-Tar (preferably Suicune first to avoid the sandstorm damage).

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Sandstream
252 HP/28 Spd/228 SpA
Quiet
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Dark Pulse
-Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt

Generally, I send in Suicune first but sometimes I am forced to bring in Boah. My team is pretty awful at breaking stall, so T-Tar was pretty necessary to help out. He can tear some minor holes through a team so that Suicune and Salamence can have an easier time. Substitute with 101 Hp subs means Blissey is complete set up bait. Especially with dual screens, it is insanely hard to take out this Tyraniboah. Focus Punch is for Blissey and Snorlax, Dark Pulse for STAB, and Flamethrower for Scizor, Skarm, and Forretress. Its a shame that T-Tar can't run Thunderbolt and Ice Beam as well. Gliscor may not be as common, but Ice Beam would sure be really helpful against it. But Scizor is too big of a threat to Tyranitar to be allowed to live. Sometimes I wish I had thunderbolt too, to take care of Gyarados and bulky waters.

I hate deciding between those three moves.

I used to have Magmortar here, but he couldn't switch into anything. Otherwise, Magmortar would have been great at Subpunching his way through stall.

Sandstream is definitely detrimental to Suicune and Salamence, but I haven't found a pokemon nearly as good at breaking stall than Tyranitar.

Suicune @ Leftovers
Pressure
252 Hp/168 Spd/88 SpA
Modest
-Calm Mind
-Substitue
-Surf
-Ice Beam/HP Electric

Sandstorm+Substitute? Yeah, I wish I didn't have it either. But nevertheless, Sub Suicune is a complete beast under screens (took it from Justinawe's brilliant idea). With his natural bulk, 101 HP Subs, and great defenses, it is a true pain to take Suicune out. The only annoying decision is between Ice Beam and HP electric. Ice Beam is definitely really useful for certain pokes, but HP Electric is really good against bulky waters.

Sandstorm and Sub does suck, but I found status from pokemon like Celebi to be far too annoying to not have Substitute.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Pressure
216 HP/216 Def/76
Timid
-Roost
-Thunderbolt/Discharge
-HP Grass
-Heatwave

The moveset for this Zapdos is fairly standard, but I decided to remove a bit of bulk to outspeed Adamant Lucario and CB Heracross. Depending on what EV spread I run on Salamence, these EVs are subject to change as well. Still, Zapdos is a solid switch in to a lot of physical attackers, and can take on Skymin as well. I used to run a SpD set that took on Heatran, but with Suicune and Tyranitar, he wasn't as much of an issue. Sometimes I wonder whether I want HP Ice to cover Gliscor, since he is an uncommon, but very annoying pokemon for my team.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Flash Fire
4 hp/252 SpA/252 Spd
Naive
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-HP Ice
-Explosion/SR

Standard Heatran, for the typical revenge jobs, though he has swept a team every once in a while as well.

I rarely use Explode except for Blissey, so I'm considering putting SR in there.

Salamence @ Life Orb
Intimidate
252 Atk/252 Spd/4 SpA
or
72 Hp/252 Atk/176 Spd/8 SpA
Naughty
or
Hasty
-Dragon Dance
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Fire Blast

Salamence is supposed to be my late game sweeper and he's pretty standard.. However, LO+DD+STAB Outrage is absolutely devastating. Fire Blast dominates Skarmory, and Earthquake provides some impeccable coverage with the other two attacks.

I'm not so sure on the spread. Naughty+the first spread is clearly very powerful, but the second does manage to outspeed all Lucario and allow Salamence to cleanly kick his ass with an Earthquake. So I'm not sure which one to go with right now.

Sandstorm+LO hurts pretty badly too, but then again, Salamence is here for a late game sweep, or blasting away some pokes, so I don't think its too much of an issue. And LO's kick is too good to waste.



Anyway, I'm finding the lack of a status absorber rather annoying. I don't want to put rest talk onto any particular pokemon either, so I guess I'll just have to deal. I usually just let zapdos take the T-Wave or whatever, then I swap to one of my subbers and hopefully proceed to sweep from there.

DD Gyara can certainly be serious trouble when Zapdos dies to Stone Edge. But he rarely gets a really good time to set up (except against heatran) and Suicune is bulky enough to take his hits as well.

Still, the main thing is that most pokemon have a very difficult time to set up and are under a lot of pressure early game, so I can generally avoid any big sweeps.

WANTED: REPLACEMENT FOR TYRANIBOAH
I'm having difficulty finding something that can beat down stall teams as well as he does.

 

[Imran]

First of all I'd remove the stupid nicknames if I were you. You don't gain anything out of nicknaming your pokemon like that. A good player will not assumew anything from the nicknames of your Pokemon and ignore you. The only thing you will gain from it is shame, so you can thank me for fixing that one for you =D

I don't see why you aren't running sash on Alakazam, in fact I think in general Bronzong is a more reliable screener. For one thing it has the durability to set up more than one screen, and can explode at the end to get it out of the way and set up one of your sweepers. If it gets taunted it can simply try again later in the game. If you are Adamant about keeping the Zam, which I can understand due to the surprise factor, I would put a sash on and consider putting psychic over Knock off. Maybe even HP Fighting / Focus Blast for hitting the Pokemon you mentioned, obviously we all miss Deoxys SuperPower <3 You are easily OHKOing Weavile with the EVs you currently have, but for TTar unfortunately even if you go Modest 252 SpA you will only have an 80% chance to KO 252 / 4 versions, like the standard CBer lead these days.

I also dont see why you can run rest > Sub on Suicune, this will allow you to outstall Blissey if nessecary, and it will stop sandstorm from being such a bitch. I don't really see why Sub is better so just go with that. Go Naughty with Mence (That's + Att - Sp. Def right? lol) It gives you a better chance of surviving +1 bullet punches from Scizor i.e. CB without intimidate or SD with Intimidate, you can deal with Bulky waters with either Suicune (if carrying HP Electric) or Zapdos if nessecary, so i think Scizor is a slightly larger threat to you. The pokemon in the team seem to support each other wll, and I can really see anything that clearly runs right through you. Although Gyara will give it a go, so I would seriously suggest HP Electric + rest on Suicune for the ability to pseudo-counter him more effectively. I hope some of this helped. :D

 

[chenman333]

Alright, fine, I'll just remove he nicknames. But it definitely gets a lot of chuckles when some idiot goes "wtf, how did you change your attack?"

Its actually quite surprising how bulky alakazam is. After a reflect is down, CB pursuit from a Tyranitar fails to 1hko, as does a night slash from weavile. Usually, I only need 1 screen down for Suicune or Tyranitar to be effective anyway. Not to mention, with only 4 turns of screens, my pokes effective only get 2 turns of screens.

I used to use a heatproof bronzong (just to deal with infernape and azelf). But he was too easily taunted by the likes of azelf to get screens down. Alakazam can shut down the very common azelf leads as well.

I'll try rest on Suicune.

EDIT: I tried rest on Suicune, I didn't like it much since it allowed Celebi to leech seed me. which is very annoying.

 

[RaikouLover]

I would change Knock off to Encore on Alakazaam, that gives you two screens with full health usually. You set up Screen 1, Azelf Stealth Rocks, you encore him nd set up Screen 2 on the switch before switching out. Now you can do it again later. Recover could be used also if you want to bring him in later.

 

[chenman333]

I would change Knock off to Encore on Alakazaam, that gives you two screens with full health usually. You set up Screen 1, Azelf Stealth Rocks, you encore him nd set up Screen 2 on the switch before switching out. Now you can do it again later. Recover could be used also if you want to bring him in later.

Sounds good I guess. Though I am worried I would end up getting taunted by fast suicide leads like Aerodactyl.

I'll definitely try it out though.

 

[Fatal Edge]

I might steal that Alakazam =P. Nah j/k I'm not the biggest fan of Dual Screen.

The team looks fine but I would remove the TTar as it is really limiting the potential of this team since you can't use Life Orb without being severely hampered. How about a Mamoswine supporting set? It gives you some Stealth Rock and a revenge killer to DDMence and ScarfSkymin.

Just a suggestion. Hope that helps.

 

[chenman333]

I will definitely try out Mamoswine, but I am just deathly afraid of being unable to break stall without Tyraniboah.

I recently tried the new Mixnite and Subpunch nite as well, but the annoying weakness to ice was very annoying. Tyraniboah meanwhile, can net a lot of kills with few problems.

*sigh* I still can't find a good replacement for tyraniboah.

WANTED: REPLACEMENT FOR TYRANIBOAH

 

[Ryfle]

Looking at your team I don't really see how you benefit that much from the Screens, you have nice resistances with Heatran, Suicune and Zapdos. You did say you have trouble with Stall teams. I find that the best way to beat them is by tricking choice items on to them. Seeing as you have Alakazam as a lead, a perfect candidate for Trick I'd say slap a Scarf on him replace the screens with Psychic and Focus Blast and either keep Knock Off, knocking of items is always good, or replace it with with Encore, allowing a free switch. I see you made your own EV Spread so if you do want to make it a Trick set I suggest using the standard EV spread 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 252 Spe.

Now if Alakazam is your tricker you need a way for Suicune to handle Celebi. With this set you can do that and so much more.

Suicune @ Life Orb
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Hidden Power Electric

With this set you can 2HKO Celebi and Zapdos with Ice Beam with out having to Calm Mind and you can 2HKO Swampert with Surf with out the boost as well. Making Suicune a pretty good wall breaker. Just what you were looking for =). Timid lets you have 295 speed which lets you outspeed Adamant Lucario and Heracross.

Regarding your Boah problem. There's probably something I'm missing but if Tyranitar is doing a good job at wall breaking why replace it?

The rest of the team seems fine, so I think I'll finish my rate now. Hope I helped.

 

[chenman333]

Meh, another LO+Sandstorm thing is not my thing. Not to mention that Suicune is totally owned by Blissey, whereas the Sub version can concievably stall it out or beat it with a bit of predicting when it will softboil/seismic toss.

Even though I have nice resists, screens are there so that I can really set up (and by set up I mean really set up without any hitches). I'm still liking dual screen alakazam, since he can take almost any hit except a modest choice scarf gengar shadow ball, or scizor bullet punch.

Its mainly T-Tar's sandstream that, as many people have pointed out, hamper my team's full potential.