Team Mezmer

[MrMuffinzzz]

Alright, this is my first go at RMT so lets get started.

Team Mezmer

At a Glance

Team Building Process

Now first off I wanted to delve into world of competitive training with something a bit unexpected, well at least to my friends.

Next, I wanted a nice wall to help out my now weakened defenses, you know in the case that I may have taken out their lead but the next pokemon might be deadly.

Following that up I wanted a nice attacker, something that can hit hard in today's Metagame. Using Choice Band was a weird choice at first but I've used it to great effect before to save myself.

Now I needed a sweeper, something that would take out pesky pokemon that just wont die, something with a hidden boost. Ah...I've got just the thing for that.......

I love Cacturnes, and this tactic just infuriates opponents so I just had to use an Evasion moveset! :D

I needed a last pokemon to finish this team. I needed a counterpart pokemon. Something reliable with a good moveset. Now Drapion wasn't my first choice for pokemon but It did suprise me. It's expendable but it also works.

Well there you have it folks. Thats how I built my team, now off to the details.

In Detail...
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Lead

Aquina (F) @ Focus Sash
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Ability: Snow Cloak
EV's: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Spikes
-Taunt
-Destiny Bond
-Ice Beam

Refer back to the team building process to get a deeper explanation on my strategy for this pokemon. Basically, I chose Froslass because I thought that a suicide lead was a good combatant to the pesky set up leads that my buddies always pull out. Destiny Bond usually works on enemy's ice beam has taken some flying pokemon leads out before.

Wall

Grog (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
-Flamethrower
-Thunderbolt
-Will-O-Wisp
-Memento

This was an odd choice, again, further detail is in the TBP section. I picked this for its outstanding Defense stats. Not much to say now except for strategy.

Sweeper

Emperador (M) @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Torrent
EV's: 12 HP / 12 Def / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Hardy Nature
-Agility
-Substitute
-Surf
-Ice Beam

Here we go, a nice sweeper with an awesome hidden boost (Petaya Berry). You know the drill with this moveset, sub till the berry activates then surf it all away.

Choice

Aurora (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Ev's: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Relaxed Nature
-Spark
-Ice Fang
-Return
-Quick Attack

Ah, my pride and joy, this is one is a life saver in battles with its intimidate and the choice band boost isn't too shabby either. This one's saved my ass multiple times.
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Quickster

Wretch (F) @ BrightPowder
Ability: Sand Veil
EV's: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Sucker Punch
-Substitute
-Swords Dance
-Focus Punch

Im a fan of Cacturne and his stats, very evasive and flows nice. Not much to say here, I've been using him for a while in my teams all the way from Ruby and Sapphire, next...

Special Defense

ThexderNeo (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EV's: 252 HP / 12 Atk / 244 SpD
Jolly Nature
-Crunch
-Toxic Spikes
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

I heard that this was a nice counterpart to Weezing so I decided to add this guy to the mix. But as of late he's been very expendable. Any switch out suggestions?

The Wrap Up

There's my team, rate it, comment on it, change it, learn it, live it, love it. Any help is appreciated but I want to make one thing clear, please be courteous and no Ubers! I dont want a mewtwo or a darkrai or w/e Uber on my team so please suggest OU's UU's or even NU's

Cya Around
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[DarkSlay]

Hey there, and welcome to Smogon!

Before I try and help this team, your descriptions are lacking. Descriptions for each Pokemon should be more that just one or two sentences. The minimum should be a short paragraph, around five or six sentences. It's important to let raters know what each Pokemon does for your team, and how your team benefits from said Pokemon. We like to help, and we can better help you if you can tell us how your strategy works with these six Pokemon! Also, you're missing a nature for Drapion. I will assume it is Careful. Now, on to the rate!

It's very hard for me to pinpoint threats, as it seems to me that this is kind of an open type of metagame, where everything (bar Ubers) is allowed. To be frank, since this is an open metagame...there are a lot of threats to this team. However, one that seems extremely dangerous to me immediately is Infernape. More specifically, Specially Based Infernape, which includes MixApe and NPApe. After one Nasty Plot, your team is 6-0'd. I can go into calculations (and I have personally), but it just seems that this team does not like its Fire Blast, and everything on your team is just plain too slow to deal with it. The only Pokemon that can outspeed it is Froslass, and any good player will know that you will Destiny Bond and continue to Nasty Plot until they get to +6. Destiny Bond only has a max PP of 8, after all.

There's about a hundred possible threats to this whole team, though. Everything from Dragon Dance users to Stall. To be honest...this team needs serious revamping, and quite possibly an enitre make over. However, since this is "rate my team" and not "make my team", I'm limiting myself to two Pokemon changes so that the team itself can stay intact. Let's begin:

Drapion just so happens to be my favorite Pokemon, so I'm happy you're using it! What's making me sad, though, is that you're using it for a Special Defender, when it has a piss poor Special Defense stat. Even with the Special Defense EV's and a Careful nature, it hits around the 270's: that's terrible for a Special Wall. Looking at the team, I also see that you're using Cacturne. While its evasion potential may seem tempting, Cacturne is actually an extremely slow and frail Pokemon, and anything with priority (or just anything faster than it, which is...everything) is going to kill it instantly. Plus, you're not running Sandstorm, which makes its ability useless. What I would like to see is you firing Cacturne from its job as a sweeper, and giving Drapion a promotion! :D

Drapion @ Scope Lens
Ability: Sniper
EV's: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Moveset:
- Swords Dance
- Night Slash
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang/Cross Poison

I've written this moveset down so many times for UU play, it's not even funny anymore. Drapion is an absolute monster when played right. While it may not have the immediate power Cacturne has, it has 128 more Speed, 103 more Defense, the same HP, and about 36 more Special Defense. And after one Swords Dance, the power difference will be nonexistant. It's all about speed in today's metagame, and Drapion's Base 95 Speed is top-notch. Combined with its 110 Defense and 90 Attack, this thing was born to be a bulky sweeper. Sniper is an amazing ability, turning Critical Hits into three times the damage instead of two times. With a Scope Lens and Night Slash, you will have plenty of opportunities for Crits. Earthquake is to hit Steel types hard who resist Night Slash, and since this is for OU, Ice Fang hits the Dragons for usually 4x the damage. Cross Poison is a decent alternative if you feel that Ice Fang is uneeded, as you get STAB from it and an increased Crit rate. It's a great Pokemon, and one not to take lightly.

So, now that Drapion is now your sweeper, we need someone to replace Cacturne. This is where we can afford to patch up your Infernape weakness. Latias is by far the best counter to Infernape, but since this seems to be a Wi-Fi she's hard to come by (unless you have PokeSAV), I won't reccomend her. Instead, let's call upon a nice sea creature instead:

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EV's: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
Moveset:
- Hydro Pump/Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

This is kind of like a band-aid for this team, as Starmie counters a lot of things that can potentially harm this team. It outspeeds and OHKO's Infernape 100% of the time. Life Orb Starmie outspeeds a lot of things and KO's them, making it an invaluable asset to any team. Hydro Pump scores a lot of KO's on Pokes, but if you're one of those accuracy kind of guys, Surf is a decent alternative. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt give Starmie the infamous BoltBeam combo, being resisted by few, if any, Pokemon. Recover is the best recovery move in the game (shocker!) amd can make Starmie last for a long, long time.

Now for the second and last Pokemon change. Luxray is a cool Pokemon, but it suffers from poor Speed and a lack of a strong Physical Electric move. Its movepool is weak (Quick Attack does a max of 34% to Infernape with a Choice Band on, and that's your best Priority move). Now, looking at the team...you now have a large Electric weakness. You also need a Special Wall to complement Weezing, especially one who can draw in physical Ground and Grass attacks. And looking at the team, Thunder Wave support would be nice. If only there was a Pokemon for the job...

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EV's: 40 HP/216 Def/252 SpD
Nature: Calm
Moveset:
- Thunder Wave
- Confuse Ray
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam/Surf

...it's Lanturn! Not only is Lanturn unexpected, but it actually is practical for this team (and not to mention a whole lot of fun using!). Lanturn introduces something called "Parafusion Hax" to your opponent: when your opponent is both paralyzed AND confused, it has a 3/8 chance of actually attacking you. Saying that you will get a kick out of your opponent constantly hit themselves or fail to attack is a gross understatement. Volt Absorb swallows any Electric attacks and turns it into HP for Lanturn, and with Starmie and Empoleon on the team, it won't be too hard to find such an attack. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam, once again, get near perfect coverage, so Ice Beam is reccomended over Surf. If you don't have a lot of trouble with Grass types, Suf is okay over Ice Beam.

One final nitpick: How often do you find Memento usefull? Drapion already has a farily easy time of getting in a Swords Dance, and Empoleon is saved for late game. While it's nice for Empoleon, if you find that it doesn't do well enough, replace Memento with Pain Split, as now Weezing has access to a recovery move, and can survive somewhat head-to-head with Blissey and Chansey.

So, let's recap the changes in tl;dr format:

Replace Cacturne's spot with SD Drapion.
Replace Cacturne with LO Starmie.
Replace Luxray with Parafusion Lanturn.
Consider Pain Split over Memento on Weezing.

Hope these changes help, and good luck with the team!

 

[MrMuffinzzz]

Wow, thanks alot man ^_^ I'm pretty tired so I skipped over the details alot, I'm gonna edit all that later but your comment was well thought out. Thanks!

 

[MrMuffinzzz]

Yo mods, I got all the info I need. Close this thread please.