so I'm not the best at team names. anyways I've been working on this team for a bit, normally I'm not one for laddering because of rating decay but it's slowly creeping up to my highest point in the 1400s again. Now before I bore you with idle chatter lets move to the team as seen here:
To create the team I started it with the idea of abusing specs latias, so I added in pokes as I thought of things that counter her. I had one spot left after that and I picked togekiss because I've never used it before.
Analysis:
Azelf @ light clay
timid
252 hp
4 def
252 spe
light screen
reflect
taunt
stealth rock
I've used dual screen azelf before, and I picked it again to give latias some extra survivability and I think it's an all around excellent lead. Most of the time it involves playing mind games against leads who expect the incredibly standard 2 attack/sr/explode azelf. With the correct screen up, azelf cannot be ko'd by any lead, or even close to being ko'd. This usually causes them to realize that attacking further will do nothing, and I taunt their stealth rock attempt. Then I get my rocks up and the second screen, prepping me to start attacking.
Problem leads:
aerodactyl beats no attack azelf every time. I switch out and ko it.
tyranitar leads are problematic because they are very random. It's a guessing game as to whether it's a DDtar, or a scarftar, or something totally different. Don't like them.
I can imagine weavile leads would cause me trouble, but I never see them.
Latias @ choice specs
modest
4 hp
252 spa
252 spe
draco meteor
surf
thunderbolt
trick
So here's where the team comes from. Specs latias is a complete monster offensively. Very little can stand up to her draco meteors, and those that can cannot stand up to her surfs. Because so many people have a steel as their latias go to I always lead with surf. With this strategy I almost always get a ko off before she faints. Trick is there for walls naturally, though I don't find myself needed it because I have an exceptional wall breaker. Modest is for maximum offense, can cause occasional problems but I don't use her to counter things- she is there to bring the pain.
Breloom @ toxic orb
adamant
48 hp
252 attk
208 spe
substitute
spore
focus punch
seed bomb
As many people have been noticing the metagame is very breloom weak lately. This guy is really difficult to root out, and with the toxic orb status immunity makes it exceptional against stall. Attacking is business as usual: sub and punch. If it's rotom seed bomb for ~60%. I try to save spore for something useful, but sometimes I lose track and actually lost a game because I tried to spore something paralyzed and got tricked a scarf.
Lucario @ life orb
modest
80 hp
170 spe
252 spa
agility
aura sphere
hidden power: ice
dark pulse
With scarftar on the rise, and latias being weak to it I wanted something that could take tyranitar on. By going for a special based agility instead of sword dance I gain numerous advantages by being able to hit things that counter the normal SD set for clean OHKOs(gliscor most notably) Overall this set has worked extremely well as a scarftar counter, and still has decent sweeping potential since breloom can destroy blissey. It still can't beat gyrados without dark pulse flinches. The EVs probably look strange, because I figured agility would reduce my need for speed so I could bulk up a bit and put a random amount in hp. I'm no number cruncher when it comes to EVs.
SUPERachi @ leftovers
timid
36 hp
222 spe
252 spa
leftovers
calm mind
psychic
thunderbolt
hidden power:ground
This is a poke I enjoy using, and it's probably the deadliest on my team. I can bring it in on all sorts of stuff thanks to jirachi's excellent typing and base bulk, and get off at least 1 calm mind. The superachi abilities recommended are grass knot and hp:fire, but I see absolutely no reason to use those unless you are terrified of swampert and scizor(who poses no threat to jirachi). Thunderbolt/hp ground give better coverage, and let you trounce two big threats to jirachi:magnetzon and heatran. Swampert can still be taken care of with a +1 psychic, but I have plenty of other swampert counters anyway(notably breloom). His speed value is set to just barely outpace +nature 95s, notably gliscor. Metagross and cb tyranitar are big pains for jirachi, but often he can come out on top against both of them with hp:ground.
Togekiss @ leftovers
calm
252 hp
4 def
252 spd
leftovers
air slash
aura sphere
thunder wave
roost
I had no idea what to expect on togekiss, and overall it's been a formidable addition to my team. The huge bulk offered by a max spd spread lets me switch into plenty of things, and cripple them with thunder wave. As long as I play smart with togekiss I can paralyze multiple pokes on an opponents team, and beat a fair number with the good coverage from air slash+aura sphere.
I'm not going to give a big threat list of "x is covered by x" because frankly that's boring and says very little. What I find says a lot more is saying what you have trouble with, which is:
a better ev spread for lucario. I know there is one, mine is probably horrible
DDtar ruins me. It's a rare set, but that is what makes it so devastating. I have a tough time dealing with it once the ttar is revealed to be a ddtar. My best option is status with breloom or togekiss.
mammoswine is probably not on too many threat lists, but it's on mine. It has just the right combination of stabs to hit everything on my team, and many leads carry endeavor so it can take out at least one thing since azelf can't break it's sash. Never goes down easily.
Latias is of course never easy to stop. Togekiss can combat her quite well, as long as I can get a thunder wave off.
Choice scarf heatran has given me problems. If togekiss/latias are out my last 3 pokes have no chance against it, and even togekiss can take fairly big hits from the fire blasts.
Scarfachi has flinched a bunch of my stuff to death, nothing I can really do about that.
Agiligross can be a threat, I had one critical my togekiss before I would twave it and that spelled doom after it ohko'd my jirachi.
It wouldn't be a threat list without myself, sometimes I'm my team's own worst enemy. I'll work on it. I'll add more as I run into them.
(suspect)I'm also using this team for suspect and manaphy doesn't even get a chance to switch in. I'm on the leaderboard right now, but I'm pacing myself on how many suspect games I play.
One thing I can say positively about this team is it seems to do very well against stall.
To create the team I started it with the idea of abusing specs latias, so I added in pokes as I thought of things that counter her. I had one spot left after that and I picked togekiss because I've never used it before.
Analysis:
Azelf @ light clay
timid
252 hp
4 def
252 spe
light screen
reflect
taunt
stealth rock
I've used dual screen azelf before, and I picked it again to give latias some extra survivability and I think it's an all around excellent lead. Most of the time it involves playing mind games against leads who expect the incredibly standard 2 attack/sr/explode azelf. With the correct screen up, azelf cannot be ko'd by any lead, or even close to being ko'd. This usually causes them to realize that attacking further will do nothing, and I taunt their stealth rock attempt. Then I get my rocks up and the second screen, prepping me to start attacking.
Problem leads:
aerodactyl beats no attack azelf every time. I switch out and ko it.
tyranitar leads are problematic because they are very random. It's a guessing game as to whether it's a DDtar, or a scarftar, or something totally different. Don't like them.
I can imagine weavile leads would cause me trouble, but I never see them.
Latias @ choice specs
modest
4 hp
252 spa
252 spe
draco meteor
surf
thunderbolt
trick
So here's where the team comes from. Specs latias is a complete monster offensively. Very little can stand up to her draco meteors, and those that can cannot stand up to her surfs. Because so many people have a steel as their latias go to I always lead with surf. With this strategy I almost always get a ko off before she faints. Trick is there for walls naturally, though I don't find myself needed it because I have an exceptional wall breaker. Modest is for maximum offense, can cause occasional problems but I don't use her to counter things- she is there to bring the pain.
Breloom @ toxic orb
adamant
48 hp
252 attk
208 spe
substitute
spore
focus punch
seed bomb
As many people have been noticing the metagame is very breloom weak lately. This guy is really difficult to root out, and with the toxic orb status immunity makes it exceptional against stall. Attacking is business as usual: sub and punch. If it's rotom seed bomb for ~60%. I try to save spore for something useful, but sometimes I lose track and actually lost a game because I tried to spore something paralyzed and got tricked a scarf.
Lucario @ life orb
modest
80 hp
170 spe
252 spa
agility
aura sphere
hidden power: ice
dark pulse
With scarftar on the rise, and latias being weak to it I wanted something that could take tyranitar on. By going for a special based agility instead of sword dance I gain numerous advantages by being able to hit things that counter the normal SD set for clean OHKOs(gliscor most notably) Overall this set has worked extremely well as a scarftar counter, and still has decent sweeping potential since breloom can destroy blissey. It still can't beat gyrados without dark pulse flinches. The EVs probably look strange, because I figured agility would reduce my need for speed so I could bulk up a bit and put a random amount in hp. I'm no number cruncher when it comes to EVs.
SUPERachi @ leftovers
timid
36 hp
222 spe
252 spa
leftovers
calm mind
psychic
thunderbolt
hidden power:ground
This is a poke I enjoy using, and it's probably the deadliest on my team. I can bring it in on all sorts of stuff thanks to jirachi's excellent typing and base bulk, and get off at least 1 calm mind. The superachi abilities recommended are grass knot and hp:fire, but I see absolutely no reason to use those unless you are terrified of swampert and scizor(who poses no threat to jirachi). Thunderbolt/hp ground give better coverage, and let you trounce two big threats to jirachi:magnetzon and heatran. Swampert can still be taken care of with a +1 psychic, but I have plenty of other swampert counters anyway(notably breloom). His speed value is set to just barely outpace +nature 95s, notably gliscor. Metagross and cb tyranitar are big pains for jirachi, but often he can come out on top against both of them with hp:ground.
Togekiss @ leftovers
calm
252 hp
4 def
252 spd
leftovers
air slash
aura sphere
thunder wave
roost
I had no idea what to expect on togekiss, and overall it's been a formidable addition to my team. The huge bulk offered by a max spd spread lets me switch into plenty of things, and cripple them with thunder wave. As long as I play smart with togekiss I can paralyze multiple pokes on an opponents team, and beat a fair number with the good coverage from air slash+aura sphere.
I'm not going to give a big threat list of "x is covered by x" because frankly that's boring and says very little. What I find says a lot more is saying what you have trouble with, which is:
a better ev spread for lucario. I know there is one, mine is probably horrible
DDtar ruins me. It's a rare set, but that is what makes it so devastating. I have a tough time dealing with it once the ttar is revealed to be a ddtar. My best option is status with breloom or togekiss.
mammoswine is probably not on too many threat lists, but it's on mine. It has just the right combination of stabs to hit everything on my team, and many leads carry endeavor so it can take out at least one thing since azelf can't break it's sash. Never goes down easily.
Latias is of course never easy to stop. Togekiss can combat her quite well, as long as I can get a thunder wave off.
Choice scarf heatran has given me problems. If togekiss/latias are out my last 3 pokes have no chance against it, and even togekiss can take fairly big hits from the fire blasts.
Scarfachi has flinched a bunch of my stuff to death, nothing I can really do about that.
Agiligross can be a threat, I had one critical my togekiss before I would twave it and that spelled doom after it ohko'd my jirachi.
It wouldn't be a threat list without myself, sometimes I'm my team's own worst enemy. I'll work on it. I'll add more as I run into them.
(suspect)I'm also using this team for suspect and manaphy doesn't even get a chance to switch in. I'm on the leaderboard right now, but I'm pacing myself on how many suspect games I play.
One thing I can say positively about this team is it seems to do very well against stall.
