Hey everyone,
This is my first post and first fully realized competitive Pokemon team. With it, I've had the most success I've ever had. That said, of course, I could really use some outside opinions and insight in order to improve the team.
Backstory for the team:
1. I love bulky sweeping. In my opinion, what good is a sweeper if when the time comes, it can't take a hit? I don't like the idea of hyper offense, where each team just trades off defeating the other. I prefer the strategy of boosting and sweeping.
2. I love Scrafty. Oh my god, so awesome. I love his design, his stats, his type, and his movepool. So, naturally, this team is based around a Bulk Up Scrafty sweep.
3. I'm no good with EVs. Please help.
Rotom-W @ Choice Scarf
Levitate
-Volt Change-
-Hydro Pump-
-Hidden Power Fire-
-Trick-
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpAtk / 252 SpDef
Synergy
Grass: Sigilyph, Heatran
Ah, I’ve been using Wash Rotom for a long time now, before he grew to the prominence the little washing machine has now. But he’s become popular for good reason: great typing coupled with a great ability. Amazingly this thing has one weakness, and grass is an attack type that is easily predicted. Rotom-W serves as a utilitarian of sorts. Volt Change helps me maintain offensive pressure on the opponent. What’s so great about Volt Change on Rotom-W is that few opponents will put their Ground type in Rotom-W’s way, allowing me to Volt Change without fear. Hydro Pump is for powerful STAB, of course. Hidden Power Fire lets me threaten Ferrothorn and the Bug/Steels. I like to keep it hidden until the Ferrothorn has taken repeated Hydro Pumps and is in KO range. Trick is for crippling an incoming special sponge. My team tends to have a problem handling SkarmBliss (and Skarmory really walls Scrafty), so Trick serves as my answer to screw with the fat nurse, who frequently switches into Rotom-W. Similarly, Reuniclus is simply tough to deal with and often likes to switch into Rotom-W thinking it can boost only to be stuck with a Choice Scarf. Having a Trick user is a great boon to this team, allowing me to seriously cripple stall-type foes and set-up sweepers. Finally, I use Rotom-W as my lead. I either Trick right off the bat just to be annoying or I Volt Switch to something more appropriate.
Note: I used to use a Will-o-wisp leftovers type set, but I felt Sigilyph took care of the burning handily without Rotom’s help.
Sigilyph @ Flame Orb
Magic Guard
-Cosmic Power-
-Stored Power-
-Roost-
-Psycho Shift-
Nature: Timid
Evs: 252 HP / 200 SpDef / 56 Spe
Synergy
Electric: Rotom-W (not a resistance, but I do switch to him), Gliscor
Ice: Terrakion, Rotom-W
Rock: Scrafty, Gliscor (again, not a resistance, but easily handles Rock attacks), Terrakion
Dark: Terrakion (plus +1 Atk boost), Scrafty
Sigilyph is absolutely destructive. Sigilyph’s job is to spread burn like the plague, and that it does well. My Scrafty has maxed out Sp.Def. EVs, but relies upon Bulk Up to handle physical attacks. Burn allows Scrafty to easily shrug off physical attacks, which gives him more boosting time. Beyond that, Sigilyph easily handles incoming Fighting attacks with its 4x resistance and eats up predicted status and leech seeds. And its not even Stealth Rock weak! With Flame Orb, Magic Guard, and Psycho Shift, Sigilyph passes the burn around (he can also pass a predicted Toxic back to a bulky foe if switched in correctly!). Cosmic Power and Stored Power combine to create a defensive and offensive potency. Roost serves as recovery and allows Sigilyph to conveniently drop its Rock, Ice, and Electric weaknesses. Being weak to BoltBeam is frustrating, but these attacks go to Rotom-W. Rock, Ghost, and (especially) Dark attacks allow Scrafty the easy switch-in.
Despite his main function to just spread status, often Sigilyph ends up sweeping on his own – although it’s more of a sweep/stall combination that takes foes down. I send it out in the early game, usually against a Ferrothorn or an equally stallish foe, and start the boosting.
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
-Earthquake-
-Taunt-
-Ice Fang-
-Swords Dance-
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Atk / 128 Def
Synergy
Ice: Rotom-W, Heatran, Terrakion
Water: Rotom-W
Gliscor serves as a great physical stop to a lot of threats. He is mainly my answer to Excadrill, Terrakion, and Conkeldurr. I previously used an Acrobat-Fling combination, but after using this variant, I’ve determined Taunt is far superior. With Taunt I can easily shut down Ferrothorns and other hazarders and I can annoy Skarmory, who walls my Gliscor hard. Similarly, I can disallow Conkeldurr from boosting, allowing me time to kill the foe. Ice Fang and Earthquake are for constant damage. Ice Fang allows for good coverage against the omnipresent dragons, while Earthquake is always reliable. Swords Dance enables Gliscor to boost up on taunted foes. After a Swords Dance or two, foes that usually stop Gliscor cold become easy prey. Unfortunately, Gliscor can’t do much bulky waters. Of course, he’s not expected to, but it is frustrating to be forced out by an opposing Rotom-W.
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Flash Fire
-Fire Blast-
-Hidden Power Ice-
-Earth Power-
-Stealth Rock-
Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Fight: Sigilyph, Gliscor
Water: Rotom-W
Ground: Rotom-W, Gliscor, Sigilyph
Heatran is the most recent addition to this team. Garchomp kept stomping all over this team (honestly, I’m not entirely sure how to deal with this threat without using a specialized counter), so I thought Air Balloon Heatran would help out the team. With immunities to Fire and Ground (as long as balloon is intact), Heatran can easily switch in and immediately threaten with a blistering Fire Blast. For this same reason, Heatran helps me deal with Sun teams. If the opposing sun team lacks a Fire immunity, Sun-boosted Fire Blasts will take a serious toll. Hidden Power Ice is obviously there to deal with the dragons running around. Earth Power allows me to deal with opposing Heatran and Stealth Rock give me hazard support. Overall, Heatran really helps in adding more Special Attacking potency to the team.
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Justified
-Close Combat-
-Stone Edge-
-Earthquake-
-X-Scissor-
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Fight: Gliscor, Sigilyph
Ground: Gliscor, Rotom-W
Water: Rotom-W
Grass: Sigilyph, Heatran
Steel: Heatran, Rotom-W
Psychic: Sigilyph, Scrafty
Terrakion is on the team in order to immediately threaten the opposing team. With the Choice Scarf, Terrakion becomes my revenge killer. Close Combat and Stone Edge are obvious dual STAB. Earthquake and X-Scissor provide coverage. Terrakion was included as a means to handle the genie twins, Thunderus and Tornadus. With the Scarf, Terrakion can outrun both threats (provided they aren’t scarfed, but when are they?) and Stone Edge them into oblivion. I’ve thought about using a set-up Terrakion with Swords Dance or Rock Polish (or both), but honestly Terrakions multiple weaknesses turn me off from that idea. Weaknesses to Aqua Jet, Bullet Punch, Mach Punch, and Vacuum Wave will quickly end any sweep. Honestly, Terrakion isn’t meant to stay in play for long. Simply switch in when necessary and let loose a powerful STAB (or coverage move with prediction).
Scrafty @ Leftovers
Shed Skin
-Drain Punch-
-Crunch-
-Ice Punch-
-Bulk Up-
Nature: Impish
Evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpDef
Flying: Rotom-W, Heatran
Fighting: Gliscor, Sigilyph
I love Scrafty. From his derpy expression to his hoodlum inspired design, Scrafty is awesome. Even his typing is awesome! Fighting/Dark STAB is amazing and unique to him. A lot of opponents underestimate Scrafty’s staying power. His 65/115/115 defenses are quite capable of absorbing hits. Once he gets one or two Bulk Ups under his belt, this thing will not die. Also, what makes Scrafty so frustrating for my foes is his ability: Shed Skin. Usually, status severely limits a set-up sweeper, but with Shed Skin I can boost without fear of status (although, sometimes Shed Skin seems to never activate when I need it – such is life). The moveset is pretty standard. Bulk Up in order to boost his mediocre attack and his beefy defense. I run maxed out Sp.Def. EVs, so once I nab a Bulk Up, Scrafty is quite the defensive player. Drain Punch received a great boon in that its base power was bumped up to 75. It provides recovery and STAB. Crunch is for great Dark/Fighting coverage. Some people like to run Rest in order to cram in more Bulk Ups, but I like to have Ice Punch for coverage. Once the opponent sees me Bulk Up, sometimes they don’t expect an Ice Punch, which lets me kill the inevitable Gliscor switch-in.
Issues:
These are the main issues that I am aware of (most likely, there are more):
1. Lack of priority: I had a Bullet Punching Scizor on the team for a while, but replaced him. Now that he’s gone, I’m really missing the priority. I would love suggestions on how to include a good priority using Pokémon.
2. Rotom-W: I use Rotom-W because I recognize how difficult it is to take out. Unfortunately, I have the same problem. Besides my own Rotom-W, no team member can reliably deal with opposing Rotom-W. Virizion might be the answer, and would complete a FWG core.
3. Latios: I honestly don’t know how to deal with this threat. Choiced variants are easier to deal with, since I can usually out-predict their move, but I lack a reliable way to stop this special attacking threat. Jirachi seems like the only sure-fire answer.
4. Garchomp: this is more of a question. How do you handle this monster? It comes in on a non-threat. Subs on the switch and then Swords Dances or goes for the kill. Heatran can only take so much and once the balloon is gone, Heatran is as good as gone as well.
5. Water resists: I need more Water resists plain and simple. Once Rotom-W is gone, Water wrecks me. Perhaps a Dragon?
Thanks in advance!
This is my first post and first fully realized competitive Pokemon team. With it, I've had the most success I've ever had. That said, of course, I could really use some outside opinions and insight in order to improve the team.
Backstory for the team:
1. I love bulky sweeping. In my opinion, what good is a sweeper if when the time comes, it can't take a hit? I don't like the idea of hyper offense, where each team just trades off defeating the other. I prefer the strategy of boosting and sweeping.
2. I love Scrafty. Oh my god, so awesome. I love his design, his stats, his type, and his movepool. So, naturally, this team is based around a Bulk Up Scrafty sweep.
3. I'm no good with EVs. Please help.
Rotom-W @ Choice Scarf
Levitate
-Volt Change-
-Hydro Pump-
-Hidden Power Fire-
-Trick-
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpAtk / 252 SpDef
Synergy
Grass: Sigilyph, Heatran
Ah, I’ve been using Wash Rotom for a long time now, before he grew to the prominence the little washing machine has now. But he’s become popular for good reason: great typing coupled with a great ability. Amazingly this thing has one weakness, and grass is an attack type that is easily predicted. Rotom-W serves as a utilitarian of sorts. Volt Change helps me maintain offensive pressure on the opponent. What’s so great about Volt Change on Rotom-W is that few opponents will put their Ground type in Rotom-W’s way, allowing me to Volt Change without fear. Hydro Pump is for powerful STAB, of course. Hidden Power Fire lets me threaten Ferrothorn and the Bug/Steels. I like to keep it hidden until the Ferrothorn has taken repeated Hydro Pumps and is in KO range. Trick is for crippling an incoming special sponge. My team tends to have a problem handling SkarmBliss (and Skarmory really walls Scrafty), so Trick serves as my answer to screw with the fat nurse, who frequently switches into Rotom-W. Similarly, Reuniclus is simply tough to deal with and often likes to switch into Rotom-W thinking it can boost only to be stuck with a Choice Scarf. Having a Trick user is a great boon to this team, allowing me to seriously cripple stall-type foes and set-up sweepers. Finally, I use Rotom-W as my lead. I either Trick right off the bat just to be annoying or I Volt Switch to something more appropriate.
Note: I used to use a Will-o-wisp leftovers type set, but I felt Sigilyph took care of the burning handily without Rotom’s help.
Sigilyph @ Flame Orb
Magic Guard
-Cosmic Power-
-Stored Power-
-Roost-
-Psycho Shift-
Nature: Timid
Evs: 252 HP / 200 SpDef / 56 Spe
Synergy
Electric: Rotom-W (not a resistance, but I do switch to him), Gliscor
Ice: Terrakion, Rotom-W
Rock: Scrafty, Gliscor (again, not a resistance, but easily handles Rock attacks), Terrakion
Dark: Terrakion (plus +1 Atk boost), Scrafty
Sigilyph is absolutely destructive. Sigilyph’s job is to spread burn like the plague, and that it does well. My Scrafty has maxed out Sp.Def. EVs, but relies upon Bulk Up to handle physical attacks. Burn allows Scrafty to easily shrug off physical attacks, which gives him more boosting time. Beyond that, Sigilyph easily handles incoming Fighting attacks with its 4x resistance and eats up predicted status and leech seeds. And its not even Stealth Rock weak! With Flame Orb, Magic Guard, and Psycho Shift, Sigilyph passes the burn around (he can also pass a predicted Toxic back to a bulky foe if switched in correctly!). Cosmic Power and Stored Power combine to create a defensive and offensive potency. Roost serves as recovery and allows Sigilyph to conveniently drop its Rock, Ice, and Electric weaknesses. Being weak to BoltBeam is frustrating, but these attacks go to Rotom-W. Rock, Ghost, and (especially) Dark attacks allow Scrafty the easy switch-in.
Despite his main function to just spread status, often Sigilyph ends up sweeping on his own – although it’s more of a sweep/stall combination that takes foes down. I send it out in the early game, usually against a Ferrothorn or an equally stallish foe, and start the boosting.
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
-Earthquake-
-Taunt-
-Ice Fang-
-Swords Dance-
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Atk / 128 Def
Synergy
Ice: Rotom-W, Heatran, Terrakion
Water: Rotom-W
Gliscor serves as a great physical stop to a lot of threats. He is mainly my answer to Excadrill, Terrakion, and Conkeldurr. I previously used an Acrobat-Fling combination, but after using this variant, I’ve determined Taunt is far superior. With Taunt I can easily shut down Ferrothorns and other hazarders and I can annoy Skarmory, who walls my Gliscor hard. Similarly, I can disallow Conkeldurr from boosting, allowing me time to kill the foe. Ice Fang and Earthquake are for constant damage. Ice Fang allows for good coverage against the omnipresent dragons, while Earthquake is always reliable. Swords Dance enables Gliscor to boost up on taunted foes. After a Swords Dance or two, foes that usually stop Gliscor cold become easy prey. Unfortunately, Gliscor can’t do much bulky waters. Of course, he’s not expected to, but it is frustrating to be forced out by an opposing Rotom-W.
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Flash Fire
-Fire Blast-
-Hidden Power Ice-
-Earth Power-
-Stealth Rock-
Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Fight: Sigilyph, Gliscor
Water: Rotom-W
Ground: Rotom-W, Gliscor, Sigilyph
Heatran is the most recent addition to this team. Garchomp kept stomping all over this team (honestly, I’m not entirely sure how to deal with this threat without using a specialized counter), so I thought Air Balloon Heatran would help out the team. With immunities to Fire and Ground (as long as balloon is intact), Heatran can easily switch in and immediately threaten with a blistering Fire Blast. For this same reason, Heatran helps me deal with Sun teams. If the opposing sun team lacks a Fire immunity, Sun-boosted Fire Blasts will take a serious toll. Hidden Power Ice is obviously there to deal with the dragons running around. Earth Power allows me to deal with opposing Heatran and Stealth Rock give me hazard support. Overall, Heatran really helps in adding more Special Attacking potency to the team.
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Justified
-Close Combat-
-Stone Edge-
-Earthquake-
-X-Scissor-
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Fight: Gliscor, Sigilyph
Ground: Gliscor, Rotom-W
Water: Rotom-W
Grass: Sigilyph, Heatran
Steel: Heatran, Rotom-W
Psychic: Sigilyph, Scrafty
Terrakion is on the team in order to immediately threaten the opposing team. With the Choice Scarf, Terrakion becomes my revenge killer. Close Combat and Stone Edge are obvious dual STAB. Earthquake and X-Scissor provide coverage. Terrakion was included as a means to handle the genie twins, Thunderus and Tornadus. With the Scarf, Terrakion can outrun both threats (provided they aren’t scarfed, but when are they?) and Stone Edge them into oblivion. I’ve thought about using a set-up Terrakion with Swords Dance or Rock Polish (or both), but honestly Terrakions multiple weaknesses turn me off from that idea. Weaknesses to Aqua Jet, Bullet Punch, Mach Punch, and Vacuum Wave will quickly end any sweep. Honestly, Terrakion isn’t meant to stay in play for long. Simply switch in when necessary and let loose a powerful STAB (or coverage move with prediction).
Scrafty @ Leftovers
Shed Skin
-Drain Punch-
-Crunch-
-Ice Punch-
-Bulk Up-
Nature: Impish
Evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpDef
Flying: Rotom-W, Heatran
Fighting: Gliscor, Sigilyph
I love Scrafty. From his derpy expression to his hoodlum inspired design, Scrafty is awesome. Even his typing is awesome! Fighting/Dark STAB is amazing and unique to him. A lot of opponents underestimate Scrafty’s staying power. His 65/115/115 defenses are quite capable of absorbing hits. Once he gets one or two Bulk Ups under his belt, this thing will not die. Also, what makes Scrafty so frustrating for my foes is his ability: Shed Skin. Usually, status severely limits a set-up sweeper, but with Shed Skin I can boost without fear of status (although, sometimes Shed Skin seems to never activate when I need it – such is life). The moveset is pretty standard. Bulk Up in order to boost his mediocre attack and his beefy defense. I run maxed out Sp.Def. EVs, so once I nab a Bulk Up, Scrafty is quite the defensive player. Drain Punch received a great boon in that its base power was bumped up to 75. It provides recovery and STAB. Crunch is for great Dark/Fighting coverage. Some people like to run Rest in order to cram in more Bulk Ups, but I like to have Ice Punch for coverage. Once the opponent sees me Bulk Up, sometimes they don’t expect an Ice Punch, which lets me kill the inevitable Gliscor switch-in.
Issues:
These are the main issues that I am aware of (most likely, there are more):
1. Lack of priority: I had a Bullet Punching Scizor on the team for a while, but replaced him. Now that he’s gone, I’m really missing the priority. I would love suggestions on how to include a good priority using Pokémon.
2. Rotom-W: I use Rotom-W because I recognize how difficult it is to take out. Unfortunately, I have the same problem. Besides my own Rotom-W, no team member can reliably deal with opposing Rotom-W. Virizion might be the answer, and would complete a FWG core.
3. Latios: I honestly don’t know how to deal with this threat. Choiced variants are easier to deal with, since I can usually out-predict their move, but I lack a reliable way to stop this special attacking threat. Jirachi seems like the only sure-fire answer.
4. Garchomp: this is more of a question. How do you handle this monster? It comes in on a non-threat. Subs on the switch and then Swords Dances or goes for the kill. Heatran can only take so much and once the balloon is gone, Heatran is as good as gone as well.
5. Water resists: I need more Water resists plain and simple. Once Rotom-W is gone, Water wrecks me. Perhaps a Dragon?
Thanks in advance!
