Hi Smogon, I'm Xing (showdown name: Bernkastar) and I recently made onto the 500 of the ladder with my Balanced Mega Diancie team. During my climb, I noticed several common Pokemon that my team has major issues with so I thought of coming here to ask for advice and insight on how to improve my team. With this being my most successive team, I'm very uncertain on what to change up to better deal with my threat list.
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body --> Magic Bounce
Nature: Naive
EVs: 4 Atk, 252 Sp.Atk, 252 Spe
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
- Protect (Hidden Power Fire / Calm Mind)
I wanted to have a team starring Diancie. She is the primary nuke of the team, dealing significant damage even with unboosted attacks to nearly the entire tier with her extremey high offensive stats, mixed attacking set, and perfect coverage. She also flat out counters Mega Sableye, one of the top threats of the current meta, with her own Magic Bounce, resistance to Dark moves, and ability to OHKO M-Sableye with Moonblast.
Moonblast is a very spammable STAB move that hits like a truck to all unresisted targets (save for certain pink blobs) coming from a massive 419 Sp.Atk. Diamond Storm is a physical, secondary STAB move that allows Diancie to check the likes of Talonflame and Volcarona and to wallbreak special walls that can absorb Moonblasts. Earth Power hits the Poison, Fire, and Steel types that resist Moonblast. Lastly, I have Protect to help me Mega Evolve safely since unevolved Diancie is very slow and lacks the utility of Magic Bounce in addition to the fact that Mega Diancie loses some bulk after evolving. I previously used HP Fire to deal with Ferrothorn who walls me otherwise but I feel Protect is more useful. HP Fire also causes me to lose speed ties with other base 110s. I'm thinking of using Calm Mind and an additional win condition since Scizor is the only member of my team with a boosting move.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 248 HP, 48 Def, 208 Sp.Def
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
Since I want to wear down the enemy team with Diancie's spam, I needed Rocks to make her job easier. I also needed someone who cover Diancie's weaknesses and Ferrothorn nicely absorb the Water and Steel moves that frequently target Diancie while taking mild damage from Ground moves as well. Since my team does not provide recovery support, Leech Seed is used to help Ferro stay in the game while providing some form of residual damage to foes otherwise can remain unscathed. Gyro Ball and Power Whip ensure that Ferro won't be setup bait against the likes of Gyarados, Keldeo, and Mega Altaria. Ferrothorn serves as a mixed tank that glues my team together.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Sp.Def
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Flamethrower
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
While Diancie can obliterate the opposing team with her powerful attacks, she is weak to faster offensive pokemon and revenge killers, so I immediately thought of the need of Thunder Wave support. Since Ferro is already burdened with Rocks, Slowbro fulfills the role of the main physical wall and T-Wave spammer/double statuser. T-Wave crippes the like of Lopunny, who can single-handedly pummel through my team without Slowbro, Mega Gyarados, and Mega Metagross, allowing Diancie to OHKO or 2HKO them. Scale is a nice STAB move with a 30% burn rate, providing some much needed residual damage while crippling physical attackers such as Garchomp and Landorus-T. Flamethrower is my team's only Fire move and it is needed to check Ferrothorn and Scizor, both of which give my team troubles.
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-Turn
Landorus-T is just too versatile and powerful to not include in this meta. My team is generally slow, so I need a fast revenge killer for the likes of Mega Zard X and Thundurus. Scarf Lando-T fulfills that role nicely with his huge base Atk and amazing coverage with EdgeQuake. Knock Off is much needed since my team is weak to stall and it can Knock Off key items such as Eviolite, Toxic Orb, and opposing Scarf users. U-Turn is used to maintain momentum on my team.
Tyranitar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Brave
EVs: 16 HP, 252 Atk, 240 Sp.Def
- Pursuit
- Crunch (Stone Edge?)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
Seeing how most of my team are immune to residual sandstorm damage, I decided to turn it into a sand team. AV TTar is ridiculously bulky in the sand, tanking even Focus Blasts from special sweepers while taking next to no damage from neutral special hits. Its main role is to be a special tank that kills the Latis, punishing them for trying to Defog my Rocks, and other Psychic/Ghost types such as Gothitelle and Gengar. Ice Beam is used to OHKO physical defensive Gliscor, who is a major threat to my team, on the switch and offensive Landorus-I/T. Having both Pursuit and Crunch sets up a prediction game in my favor and tends to end up in a lose-lose situation for the Psychic type I'm attempting to take down. Crunch is also a reliable STAB that hits for neutral damage, though I might consider Stone Edge in its place. Earthquake is there for some much needed coverage.
Scizor @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
- Sword Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Bug Bite?
I noticed that my team lacked a much needed win condition and priority move, so I added in Scizor as a backup should I find myself in the situation to rely on setup or priority to get rid of something, such as Ferrothorn, Clefable, Mega Gardevoir, and Terrakion. EVs are in HP and Atk to make Scizor hit as hard as possible while enabling him to take as many hits as possible. Sword Dance allows Scizor to clean up late game. Superpower allows Scizor to muscle past Ferrothorn and Chansey at +2. Bug Bite is a reliable STAB that gets the benefits of Technician, but it leaves Scizor to be completely walled by bulky Flying types so I might replace it with something more useful.
Threat List (please help improve my team so I can deal with these things easier!):
Gliscor with Protect: Without Taunt or any phazing moves, I can get completely walled by Gliscor if Tyranitar and Slowbro are unable to deal with it in time.
Clefable with Flamethrower: Scizor is my most reliable check for Clefable with its Bullet Punch, but a Clefable with a Fire move can just sweep my team in some circumstances, especially if its physically defensive with Calm Mind.
Keldeo (Sub CM): Slowbro is my check for Keldeo, but it can't do anything against one with Sub and CM. I would then likely have to sacrifice at least 1 mon to take down Keldeo.
Scizor (Mega) with a Bug move: With Slowbro being the only mon my team carrying a Fire move, a defensive Scizor especially one that carries U-Turn, can easily wall my team while doing significant damage to Slowbro.
Stall teams in general: I really want to fit in anti-stall strats such as Taunt and Sub on my team but I'm very uncertain on what to change up, since this is my most successful team so far.
Spikes: I don't have Defog/Rapid Spin/Wish/Healing Wish so multiple layers of entry hazards can easily rack up on Diancie, TTar, and Scizor.
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body --> Magic Bounce
Nature: Naive
EVs: 4 Atk, 252 Sp.Atk, 252 Spe
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
- Protect (Hidden Power Fire / Calm Mind)
I wanted to have a team starring Diancie. She is the primary nuke of the team, dealing significant damage even with unboosted attacks to nearly the entire tier with her extremey high offensive stats, mixed attacking set, and perfect coverage. She also flat out counters Mega Sableye, one of the top threats of the current meta, with her own Magic Bounce, resistance to Dark moves, and ability to OHKO M-Sableye with Moonblast.
Moonblast is a very spammable STAB move that hits like a truck to all unresisted targets (save for certain pink blobs) coming from a massive 419 Sp.Atk. Diamond Storm is a physical, secondary STAB move that allows Diancie to check the likes of Talonflame and Volcarona and to wallbreak special walls that can absorb Moonblasts. Earth Power hits the Poison, Fire, and Steel types that resist Moonblast. Lastly, I have Protect to help me Mega Evolve safely since unevolved Diancie is very slow and lacks the utility of Magic Bounce in addition to the fact that Mega Diancie loses some bulk after evolving. I previously used HP Fire to deal with Ferrothorn who walls me otherwise but I feel Protect is more useful. HP Fire also causes me to lose speed ties with other base 110s. I'm thinking of using Calm Mind and an additional win condition since Scizor is the only member of my team with a boosting move.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 248 HP, 48 Def, 208 Sp.Def
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
Since I want to wear down the enemy team with Diancie's spam, I needed Rocks to make her job easier. I also needed someone who cover Diancie's weaknesses and Ferrothorn nicely absorb the Water and Steel moves that frequently target Diancie while taking mild damage from Ground moves as well. Since my team does not provide recovery support, Leech Seed is used to help Ferro stay in the game while providing some form of residual damage to foes otherwise can remain unscathed. Gyro Ball and Power Whip ensure that Ferro won't be setup bait against the likes of Gyarados, Keldeo, and Mega Altaria. Ferrothorn serves as a mixed tank that glues my team together.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Sp.Def
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Flamethrower
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
While Diancie can obliterate the opposing team with her powerful attacks, she is weak to faster offensive pokemon and revenge killers, so I immediately thought of the need of Thunder Wave support. Since Ferro is already burdened with Rocks, Slowbro fulfills the role of the main physical wall and T-Wave spammer/double statuser. T-Wave crippes the like of Lopunny, who can single-handedly pummel through my team without Slowbro, Mega Gyarados, and Mega Metagross, allowing Diancie to OHKO or 2HKO them. Scale is a nice STAB move with a 30% burn rate, providing some much needed residual damage while crippling physical attackers such as Garchomp and Landorus-T. Flamethrower is my team's only Fire move and it is needed to check Ferrothorn and Scizor, both of which give my team troubles.
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-Turn
Landorus-T is just too versatile and powerful to not include in this meta. My team is generally slow, so I need a fast revenge killer for the likes of Mega Zard X and Thundurus. Scarf Lando-T fulfills that role nicely with his huge base Atk and amazing coverage with EdgeQuake. Knock Off is much needed since my team is weak to stall and it can Knock Off key items such as Eviolite, Toxic Orb, and opposing Scarf users. U-Turn is used to maintain momentum on my team.
Tyranitar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Brave
EVs: 16 HP, 252 Atk, 240 Sp.Def
- Pursuit
- Crunch (Stone Edge?)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
Seeing how most of my team are immune to residual sandstorm damage, I decided to turn it into a sand team. AV TTar is ridiculously bulky in the sand, tanking even Focus Blasts from special sweepers while taking next to no damage from neutral special hits. Its main role is to be a special tank that kills the Latis, punishing them for trying to Defog my Rocks, and other Psychic/Ghost types such as Gothitelle and Gengar. Ice Beam is used to OHKO physical defensive Gliscor, who is a major threat to my team, on the switch and offensive Landorus-I/T. Having both Pursuit and Crunch sets up a prediction game in my favor and tends to end up in a lose-lose situation for the Psychic type I'm attempting to take down. Crunch is also a reliable STAB that hits for neutral damage, though I might consider Stone Edge in its place. Earthquake is there for some much needed coverage.
Scizor @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
- Sword Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Bug Bite?
I noticed that my team lacked a much needed win condition and priority move, so I added in Scizor as a backup should I find myself in the situation to rely on setup or priority to get rid of something, such as Ferrothorn, Clefable, Mega Gardevoir, and Terrakion. EVs are in HP and Atk to make Scizor hit as hard as possible while enabling him to take as many hits as possible. Sword Dance allows Scizor to clean up late game. Superpower allows Scizor to muscle past Ferrothorn and Chansey at +2. Bug Bite is a reliable STAB that gets the benefits of Technician, but it leaves Scizor to be completely walled by bulky Flying types so I might replace it with something more useful.
Threat List (please help improve my team so I can deal with these things easier!):
Gliscor with Protect: Without Taunt or any phazing moves, I can get completely walled by Gliscor if Tyranitar and Slowbro are unable to deal with it in time.
Clefable with Flamethrower: Scizor is my most reliable check for Clefable with its Bullet Punch, but a Clefable with a Fire move can just sweep my team in some circumstances, especially if its physically defensive with Calm Mind.
Keldeo (Sub CM): Slowbro is my check for Keldeo, but it can't do anything against one with Sub and CM. I would then likely have to sacrifice at least 1 mon to take down Keldeo.
Scizor (Mega) with a Bug move: With Slowbro being the only mon my team carrying a Fire move, a defensive Scizor especially one that carries U-Turn, can easily wall my team while doing significant damage to Slowbro.
Stall teams in general: I really want to fit in anti-stall strats such as Taunt and Sub on my team but I'm very uncertain on what to change up, since this is my most successful team so far.
Spikes: I don't have Defog/Rapid Spin/Wish/Healing Wish so multiple layers of entry hazards can easily rack up on Diancie, TTar, and Scizor.
