Rocking the Houndoom

Merqury

Hello everyone. Long time lurker that finally got up the courage to post on the forums. Anyway, I was hoping you guys could help me fine tune my team here. I've been using it in showdown and I'll either sweep everything no problem or get my butt handed to me within a few rounds. My team is based around my favorite poke of all time, Houndoom. Love his mega, and when it works I can crush everything I see....and when it doesn't he dies in one round. Anyway here's the team, and any input would be greatly appreciated.


Houndoom @ Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Destiny Bond
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam

My favorite and the core of my team. This thing decimates anything it comes across. Went timid since I feel like solar power + 140 SAtk are more than enough to kill pretty much anything. Also, the extra speed lets it pull off destiny bond in a pinch. I did pick flamethrower over fire blast for accuracy, and I haven't noticed that much of a power drop. As long as I can keep him alive, Houndoom slaughters everything...but he is a delicate little flower.


Venusaur @ Heat Rock
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Sunny Day

Venusaur is pretty much the perfect partner to Houndoom. He resists and/or kills all the types that are super effective against Houndoom, and vice versa (except for Venusaur's flying weakness). Giga drain gives it healing, and sludge bomb has some great neutral coverage. Sunny day is a great set up move for the both of them, and sleep powder lets it knock out a counter.


Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Fling

My lead and a bit of a gimmick I admit. Stealth rocks is a great hazard, and Gliscor has the speed to get them out quickly. Fling + Acrobatics induces poison and gives him access to a very powerful stab move (also very few players are expecting that from Gliscor). EQ is a given. My main problem with gliscor is that he tends to be the crux of my win hard/lose hard problem. Rotom-w walks all over him, and even things like manectric will score a OHKO. But once the water types are gone, he tends to walk over a lot of teams.


Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Ice Beam / Dragon Tail
- Toxic

Originally brought on as a defensive partner for gliscor, Milotic has proven to be the rock star of my team. This thing tanks EVERYTHING. The only thing that brings him down easily is Toxic. Haven't 100% decided on Ice Beam or Dragon Tail, but the rest of the moveset has served me very well.


Conkeldurr @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SDef / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off

Normally I don't dig fighting types, but this guy has been a surprisingly good addition. The biggest surprise was how easily he can OHKO ghost and psychic types with knock off (starmie, treveant, and gengar are a few that he's taken down). Not 100% on the EVs here, but I really love the moveset. Also, it lets him knock out steel types that threaten...


Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball

Initially I put her on because I really wanted a fairy type, and none of the others had quite the offensive punch I was looking for. No one expects a scarf from Gardevoir. This set has been a great revenge killer, particularly if the opponent switches and I predict correctly (with psyshock or shadow ball). Thunderbolt is in the set mostly because I lack an electric type and I need something to kill flying pokes.


Team Problems:
Rotom Wash
Genesect
Entry Hazards


Thank you everyone for reading this and for any input you can give me.
 
Your team seems fairly dependent on sunny day being up, so I'd recommend using drought ninetales, so it doesn't take a turn just to set up. I'm unsure of conkeldurr's place/usefulness on the team, you should try switching him out for a bit
 
While the sun is helpful, only Venusaur and Houndoom himself really "depend" on it. Also, ninetales doesn't really help me with any of the problems my team faces.
 
I like this team because it addresses the drought/drizzle nerf pretty effectively by making it only half of the team's gimmick. The only odd thing about it though is obviously the lack of Drought but... That can certainly be looked around. If you feel like you can make Sunny Day work, then make Sunny Day work.

Yeah run 252 HP/252 Atk on your Conkeldurr. There's really no need to take special hits like a complete god and you really need the extra defense to help with Psyshock abusers and physical attackers overall. I'm gonna bring this up now though; If your favorite thing about Conkeldurr is his ability to hit Psychics and Ghosts, then why not just run a straight up Dark type like Weavile? Just a thought.

Although I really love the Gardevoir set, I'm gonna go ahead and say Replace Gardevoir with Special Scarf Genesect. It has a somewhat similar movepool, an arguably better typing, and overall just better...ness. I'm all for crazy gimmicks like that, but when something's outclassed, it just is.

That Gliscor on the other hand? Now that's what I call an awesome set. I don't know if you conjured that one up, but if you did, I give you some serious props xD

That's it from me! Good luck.
 
Thanks for the advice. Yeah, as much as I love conkeldurr tanking like a beast, having that mach punch hit harder does have some appeal. Changing the evs now.

My hesitation about switching gardevoir to genesect is that I really wanted a fairy to take down dragons. Also I don't have a genesect in the real game. But I see where you're going with that and I'll see if I can find a happy medium.

Yeah, the Gliscor is my idea. I wanted SR but I also really love acrobatics so I had to find a way to use both in same set. Fling is kind of a wasted moveslot after one use, but it spreads toxic and with acro+EQ you really don't care after that.

Thanks for the imput!
 
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