Battle Spot Salazzle Battle Spot Team

[ratred77]

Hey Guys! I am very new to competitive battling and I have created my first team for battle spot. Please tell me if i did anything wrong or where I need to improve upon. Thanks!

Salazzle @ Life Orb
Ability- Corrosion
EVs- 252 SpA/ 252 Spe/ 4 HP
Nature- Timid
-Sludge wave
- flamethrower
-nasty plot
-toxic

Salazzle is the pokemon that I wanted to build this team around. I fell in love with it when it was released. I have decided to make a nasty plot set with dual stab moves and toxic. I chose toxic over dragon pulse because dragon pulse is only going to do good damage to dragon types. Toxic deals with toxapex and other bulky water types if needed. I don't use toxic much, but it is useful in some situations. I just found it to be more useful than D Pulse.


Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability- Intimidate
EVs- 88 Hp/ 220 Atk/ 4 Def/ 196 Spe
Jolly nature
-Waterfall
-dragon dance
-ice fang
-substitute

I chose a bulky Gyarados to deal with the ground types that Salazzle has trouble with. Substitute can be useful if the opponent is trying to status me or I need the extra toxic damage. Ice fang on this pokemon will get rid of Garchomp/salamance easily as well. This pokemon also cripples a lot of physical pokemon that try and come in with intimidate. I often chose this pokemon as a lead.


Garchomp @ Lum berry
Ability- Rough Skin
Evs- 252 Atk/ 252 Spe/ 4 SpD
Jolly nature
-Earthquake
-Outrage
-swords dance
-Stone Edge

Garchomp covers Gyarados's electric weakness and it is a very solid pokemon overall in battle spot. Garchomp also gives me ground coverage and it can set up a swords dance with no fear of being statused. The combination of earthquake and stone edge give me tremendous coverage against most types of pokemon. I was also trying a rocky helmet set. Which one is better?


Metagross @ metagrossite
Ability- Clear Body
Evs- 252 Atk/ 252 Spe/ 4 HP
Jolly Nature
-Bullet punch
-Meteor Mash
-Zen Headbutt
-Earthquake

This is the Mega evolution that I chose for this team. A bullet punch OHKOS alolan ninetails, which I have found to be very common right now. The speed boost that it acquires by mega evolving is extremely useful as well. This pokemon is also a great counter to any poison types or fairy types. I was not sure what to put in the last move slot so I chose earthquake. Let me know if there are better options.


Porygon-Z @ Normalium-z
Ability- Adaptability
Evs- 252 SpA/ 252 Spe/ 4 HP
Timid Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Conversion

This Pokemon serves as my coverage special sweeper. Not many pokemon want to take a +1 STAB Shadow ball. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam provide great coverage for anything that wants to switch in on this pokemon. Conversion with the Z-move is one of my favorite moves as it gives porygon-z good wall-breaking potential and a ghost typing. This can catch people off guard sometimes and it gives porygon-z a normal immunity.


Tapu-Bulu @ Choice Band
Ability-Grassy Surge
Evs- 252 Atk/ 252 Spe/ 4 HP
Adamant Nature
-Wood Hammer
-Horn Leech
-Megahorn
-Superpower

I have found this team to be weak to bulky water types, and this is the reason that I put Tapu-Bulu on the team. Wood Hammer OHKOs pretty much anything that doesn't resist it, and if I don't want to take recoil I can go for Horn Leech. Superpower covers any steel or dark type that wants to come in, as I had little coverage to deal with dark type pokemon before.


Please let me know how my team is and what I can improve upon! Thanks!

 

[Solerme]

Hello ratred77, your team is pretty good already and has great synergy overall.

To try improving it a little i would just recommend minor changes. For example i would use a Focus Sash or a Choice Scarf on Garchomp, since otherwise you could be a little threatened by Tapu Koko: it taunts P-z, it kills gyara, and offensive variants can ohko sala easily and has chances to ohko chomp too.

252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Salazzle in Electric Terrain: 183-216 (127 - 150%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp: 164-195 (89.6 - 106.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
Even metagross is not that check vs Koko:

252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko: 124-147 (84.9 - 100.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
while taking a lot of damage
252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Metagross in Electric Terrain: 113-134 (72.4 - 85.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

and being 2hko'ed even by a non Life Orb variant (you can take it out with bullet punch, but you won't be able to switch in safely)
252 SpA Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Metagross in Electric Terrain: 87-103 (55.7 - 66%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
You do have a good answer to Koko with Tapu Bulu, but with a Scarfed Chomp things get easier (even considering burns aren't as common as in gen6), and it would also help vs Mega Salamence that is often Koko's partner, and Mega Gengar that can take on Metagross and Bulu.

--

Another change i would consider is to run Substitute on Metagross over Zen Headbutt, since Metagross forces a lot of switch outs in this meta (Lele, Ninetales, Nihilego, are just three fast examples that came to my mind).

And also, Bulu and Gyarados feels a little redundant to me in the team, since both can cover the weakness you need to cover (water/ground) pretty well, so maybe you could consider another mon over one of them. Maybe Mamoswine (over Gyarados imo), to help even further vs Koko/MegaMence cores and vs Mega Gengar and Porygon2 that could both be problematic for your team.

This is an example:

@ Assault Vest
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: 44 HP, 156 Atk, 4 Def, 252 SpD, 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Earthquake
-Icicle Spear
-Ice Shard
-Fissure