SUBperiority Complex (Peaked Approx. 1550 CRE)

[Midniiight]

Introduction: This is my second most successful team to date, but I no longer use it, so I figured I may as well publish it. If it can be drastically improved I may bring it out of retirement, but until then, enjoy.

Goal and Team History: The general idea behind this team is to beat down the opposition while minimizing the need to predict by utilizing debateably the most useful move in the game: Substitute. Substitute more or less gives me a free turn on predicted switches, allows me to set up on weak attacks, and possibly most importantly, block status on my sweepers.

This team actually came into existance as a joke. Originally it was a mono-color team (yellow) and looked like this:

After playing for a bit this team was more successful than I first thought it would be, but I was having problems with Milotic. So I exchanged Ampharos for Sceptile, and dumped the mono-color theme for a functioning team that looked like this:

The Sets and Spreads:

Cid (Pinsir) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- X-Scissor
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
At the time, lead Pinsir was nearly unheard of, in the process of being popularilized by FlareBlitz. Pinsir is pretty destructive, even without LO or SD boosting its already impressive 125 Atk stat. Lum Berry is for status leads such as the pixies, some Spiritomb, Jumpluff, lead Venusaur, etc. allowing me to get rocks up or 2HKO some of them. It can also act as a one time status absorber mid-game. Moldbreaker is the superior ability option in my opinion. Teams that rely on Levitators over actual flying types have actually been swept by this lead Pinsir. The EV spread is pretty straight forward, with Adamant nature used for the boost to Atk. The 3 attack options option perfect neutral coverage I believe because of Moldbreaker. I mostly use Pinsir as full out attacker, throwing Stealth Rock in whenever I feel I can slip it in. Overall Pinsir is a dangerous and effective lead.

Sephiroth (Altaria) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 232 HP/24 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Pulse
- Rest
Choice Specs Altaria. STAB Draco Meteor boosted by Specs is powerful even coming off a mediocre Special Attack stat. Max Special Attack with a Modest nature for maximum power. 24 Speed EVs for other neutral natured base 80s that don't care about speed, with the rest dumped into HP for extra survivability. Fire Blast is used for Steels and Venusaur. Dragon Pulse is for late game sweeps or when I'm afraid to get set up on by using Draco Meteor. Rest rarely gets use but works well with Natural Cure. Draco Meteor can seriously maim some of Altaria's usual switch ins like Donphan and standard Rhyperior both of which have a high chance of being OHKO'ed without SR up, Rhyperior is guaranteed with rocks iirc. Specs Altaria has a huge suprise factor.

Yuffie (Sceptile) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 216 HP/252 Spd/40 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
This is where the team gets annoying. SubSeed Sceptile can really bother unprepared teams, and cause a lot of switches. Especially when the primary switch in is a pure fire who loses 25% to SR then realizes it needs to switch back out when the Substitute goes up. The HP EVs make Sceptile deceptively bulky. Timid max Speed so I dont have to risk a tie with positive natured 105s. Honestly dont know why the 40 Special Attack EVs but it was in the analysis. HP Ice for Grass Type switch-ins like Leafeon, Tangrowth, and Venusaur. Energy Ball for reliable STAB and chance to drop Special Defense on things like Chansey.

Barrett (Rhyperior) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 136 HP/240 Atk/132 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Megahorn
Substitute abuser #2. With its immunity to Electric attacks and huge Defense stat Rhyperior doesnt have problems causing switches and setting up Substitute. The EVs allow me to make 101 Substitutes and outrun Clefable iirc. Adamant nature to abuse Rhyperior's high attack to its max. Earthquake is the mandatory STAB. Rock Blast is for fear of SubRoost legendary birds, and can hurt Mismagius in a pinch. Megahorn is for Tangrowth, Leafeon, and Slowbro that switch in as I Substitute.

Tifa (Azumarill) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP/240 Atk/16 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
Standard SubPunch Azumarill. 252 HP EVs allow for the making of 101 Substitutes, which in turn allows me to set up very easily on things like Registeel and Chansey. It also blocks status from those threats. Substitute and Focus Punch are the main two moves of the set with incredible power coming from Focus Punch. Waterfall is for STAB and hits most things that Focus Punch doesn't for atleast neutral. Aqua Jet is chosen over Ice Punch because Ice Punch only hits Venusaur and Toxicroak for better damage than the other 2 moves, and Toxicroak is 2HKO'ed by Focus Punch anyway. Priority helps against things like Rock Polish Aggron that sets up on Altaria. It also helps against Alakazam, one of the reasons this team fell into disuse.

Red XIII (Arcanine) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 180 Atk/252 Spd/76 SAtk
Naughty nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Flare Blitz
- Extremespeed
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Morning Sun
My own (albiet not really original) Arcanine. Life Orb for the boost that can be healed off by Morning Sun. Flare Blitz can be devastating if I can secure a boost from Flash Fire off of things like Weezing, Spiritomb, and Blaziken. Max Speed to just barely outrun positive natured base 80s (and Milotic at 81). With SR up, if standard Rhyperior switches into any move it is OHKO'ed by the following HP Grass with 76 Special Attack EVs. The rest is dumped into Attack to increase the power of physical attacks. Kabutops and Omastar are OHKO'ed as well. Naughty nature to prevent dropping Special Attack while still boosting Attack.

Conclusion: And thats my team. It worked pretty well for the most part but prediction had to be on point. Alakazam could be a huge problem if it got behind a Sub, but luckily it can't really switch in. This team completely rolls over and dies against Rain Dance as well. Happy Rating.

 

[Midniiight]

Reserved for Threat List

 

[FlareBlitz]

Well, I heard you bitching about how no one was rating your RMT so I'm going to give it a shot :)

The first thing I'm noticing about your team is that you have rather significant Milotic problems. It literally walls your whole team except Sceptile, which is easily dealt with my a specially defensive Venusaur. This means that a simple stall core of Milotic/Venusaur/Arcanine is going to give you fairly major issues, which isn't conducive to the success of this team. In addition, as I'm sure you know from your matches with me, SD Toxicroak decimates this team, especially since Arcanine is not running Intimidate and is slower. There are a few ways you can go about fixing this, but the best way is to add a quick stallbreaker. Stallbreaker Missy is a favorite of mine:

Mismagius @ Leftovers
252 HP/80 SpA/176 Spe
-Taunt
-Will o Wisp
-Shadow Ball
-Pain Split

This is Swellow and Houndoom bait, but given that you already have Arcanine, Azumarill, and Rhyperior, I wouldn't worry about it, just make sure you preserve those at good enough health.

You should replace Altaria with this, as it seems the least valuable member of your team.

Also, a couple of minor changes:

Sceptile should use Leaf Storm, not Energy Ball.

Pinsir should not have Stone Edge, as it doesn't hit anything that you should be staying in against (Scyther, Moltres, and Swellow wreck you). Instead, you might want to give it Quick Attack for taking out Qwilfish while only giving it one layer, Close Combat for the guaranteed 2hko on Omastar and Cloyster, or Swords Dance for being a general dick.
You might also consider Jolly for more midgame utility, but if you're going to keep running Adamant there's no reason for you to max Spe. Drop it down to 216 and put the rest into HP. Among other things, this helps your chances of taking Silk Scarf Fake Out -> Return from Ambipom.

That's all I have to say for now. Good luck with the team.

 

[franky]

Hi your objective is to easen predictions with sub. I see a huge Milo problem at hand here and can easily rack up sub damage (25 percent) and recover every hit dished at it. One way I see you working around this without hurting the team is adding a CB Altaria over specs. The reason being is that draco meteor doesn't 2hko Milotic with the drop and most Milotic can heal off it. A simple CB tweak will achieve that high chance of 2HKOing defensive Milotic with a little previous residual damage and SR damage. Go for max attack and max speed with outrage / eq / rest / dragon claw. Spam outrage for the most part, score a milotic kill and proceed to break down your opponent's team with sub users.

As for other options try out another method to circle around Milotic. a CB Altaria is sometimes not enough to put it out of commission so try out the deadly adamant arcanine over your current one with Thunder fang over Hp Grass. I don't think Rhyperior nor Omastar are concerns, while Thunder fang has a high chance of 2hkoing Milotic on the predicted switch. go for a simple spread of 252/252 on arcanine -- still outpaces base 80+s. overall gl.

 

[Midniiight]

Firstly, thanks for the rates. Guess bitching does have some utility in life :).

On to business though. Seeing as both of you seem to take issue with my Specs Altaria I'll try this team again, replacing it with both that Missy and CB Altaria.

I'll definately change Pinsir's EVs because Qwilfish is always Jolly so might as well bulk up. Stone Edge is helpful for stopping Cloyster from laying Spikes all over me. I do want to try Quick Attack though. I'll use Leaf Storm over Energy Ball too I suppose.
(Edit) As soon as I took SE off, i played lead Golbat, Lead Butterfree, Lead Scyther... SE stays...)

As for Arcanine. Using Thunder Fang would allow me to max Attack out, but the thought of Rhyperior being able to come in scotch free and Sub/RP is slightly discerning. Can't help to try though. Iirc Adamant LO Thunder Fang still doesnt 2HKO Milotic. (Nor does anything else in UU *cough*) But anyway, I'll test some things out move some stuff around and get back for the follow up.