This is my first Rate My Team since mid 4th Gen I believe, and I'm hoping to present this team in a good enough fashion.
Basically this team was created as a starting point for the VGC 2011 ladder on the Smogon server of Pokemon Online, however after failing to get many battles I tried my hand at Singles with it under a new alt (Usually i'm Disasterpiece, but for this team I'm theDozBate). Since I started using it I have suffered only 5 defeats out of atleast 35 battles moving me up to rank 556/14000+.
The aim of the team is mainly a mix of hyper offense and bulky offense, which doesn't sound like much tactically but in practise it can tear apart teams expecting more diversity or teams that rely too much on stall or setting up (ironically mine relies alot on set up moves)
Here is the team building process:
First of all knowing only 5th gen Poke's could be used I figured I could use a Fake Out lead, alongside a Stealth Rock user, obviously as I was going for VGC originally, 2 'leads' is the norm. The first 2 Pokemon who came to mind were Mienshao as the Fake Out user, and Gigalith as the Rocks user. Both of them had there merits for use:
Mienshao - Fairly high speed and attack, alongside the Regeneration ability made it very useful early game. Also it has access to Baton Pass and Substitute allowing me to somewhat support a switch in later in game
Gigalith - High defence, high attack, decent HP, usable SP.Def and Sturdy make it a very reliable user of rocks.
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After selecting these 2 I started to think of offensive threats from the 5th gen. Many came to mind, eventually settling on 3 Pokemon to set up my attacking prowess. These are Terrakion, Reuniclus and Carracosta. Each one is a set up sweeper of sorts, and each one has a special role in the team. Terrakion was chosen for its ability to be 1 of 3 pokemon to be viable ate 'double dancing' being able to select the set up move for the current situation, also its stats speak for themselves with 129 base Attack, and 108 base Speed. Next up is Reuniclus, who needs no explaining,being bulky, powerful and has one the the finest abilities in the game, it was always going to make its way on the team. Finally is Carracosta, coupling Sturdy with Shell Break is a sure fire way to get to +2 Attack and Speed, allowing almost imiediate fire power. Also it has access to priority making it capable of a revenge kill if need be.
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So far my team has the 2 'leads' as it were along with 3 offensive threats. In my mind what I needed now was something to move away from the trend, to throw the opponent off. There is only one pokemon who is that succesful in that role: Zoroark. His ability coupled with a fairly shallow but effective movepool allows for many sets designed to disrupt, annoy and generally distract the opponent
I considered some changes due to obvious weaknesses (Grass, Water, Fighting amongst them) but kept the team as it is for now, only being beaten by 2 Drought Teams, 1 Rain Dance/Swift Swim team, 1 Drizzle team and 1 Sandstorm Team.
Now here is the Movesets of Each Pokemon and their role in the team:
Gigalith:
Nature: Careful
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EV's: 252 HP, 4 Def, 252 Sp.D
Moves:
*Rockslide
*Earthquake
*Stealth Rock
*Toxic
The EV's and nature allow it to take hits from both sides, even some unstabed super effective hits (standard Ninetales Energy Ball is barely hitting for 30%). Even stronger hits won't KO it due to Sturdy ensuring rocks are always up. In the event of an opposing Pokemon not attacking Toxic is the 2nd Turn move supplying valuable status support to make some pokemon easier to KO later in game. The attacking moves are purely to stob it being Taunt fodder whilst allowing it to somewhat deal with Ninetales and Tyranitar easier.
Meinshao:
Nature:Jolly
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Regeneration
EV's: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Moves:
*Fake Out
*Hi Jump Kick
*Substitute
*Baton Pass
Meinshao's job is to disrupt hazard using leads, such as Ferrothorn, or Focus Sash users. Following this Hi Jump Kick is used for general damage to all that don't resist/ are immune to it. The last 2 moves are the special ones for the set. They allow Meinshao to block potential status problems along with passing a sub to either keep the new pokemon immune to status or to let it switch in with no damage done. The EV's enable it to be fast and strong while it is on the field
Terrakion:
Nature: Adamant
Item: Air Balloon
Ability: Justified
EV's: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Moves:
*Rockslide
*Close Combat
*Swords Dance
*Rock Polish
This is usually the cleaner of the team. With the Balloon it can get many opputunities to switch in, and set up the appropriate move. Many of it 'Checks' can be beaten when the right move is selected (Excadrill with Brick Break will generally lose if Terrakion has balloon intact when setting up Rock polish, Gliscor is beaten if Swords Dance is set up(maybe 2 Dances))
The Ev's are standard and nature chosen for power over speed.
Reuniclus:
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EV's: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Sp.A
Moves:
*Psychic
*Shadow Ball
*Recover
*Calm Mind
Everyone knows about Reuniclus. MY version is a pretty standard Calm Minder, using Shadow Ball over Focus Blast to deal with opposing Psychic's better and to keep 100% accuracy on my attacking moves. Leftovers was chosen to improve survivability alongside recover, while the EV's make it extremely bulky on both sides after 1-2 Calm Minds
Carracosta:
Nature: Adamant
Item:White Herb
Ability: Sturdy
EV's: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Moves:
*Rockslide
*Aqua Jet
*Waterfall
*Shell Smash
Carracosta can 6-0 a team if allowed to set up 2 Shell Smashs. With its natural Physical bulk and Sturdy it is very easy for 2 to be set up. After that the moveset is self explanitory. Aqua Jet for priority, Waterfall and Rockslide as main STAB moves, which supply very nice coverage (Only Dialga and Empoleon resist off the top of my head). Adamant for max power, and White Herb to enable hits to still be taken after the first Shell Smash.
Zoroark:
Nature: Hasty
Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Illusion
EV's: 76 Atk, 252 Sp.A, 180 Speed
Moves:
*Sucker Punch
*U-Turn
*Flamethrower
*Taunt
Zoroark's job is to come in fairly early in game (or as a 3rd 'lead') and start messing with the opponent. As most of my team use set up moves a switch to a taunter is usually made by the opponent, allowing me under the illusion to use my own Taunt. Then U-turn allows me a free switch, sucker punch with the given EV's can OHKO standard LAtios ( exact percentage im unsure of, but I have done it 4 times so far after Stealth Rocks). Flamethrower is used against Ferrothron, Forretress, Skarmory and Scizor as it is an unexpected move due to none of my having the capability of Fire Type moves.
Will post a threat list later, can anyone suggest any changes which won't upset the current (and maybe lucky) position of the team. Also 5th gen only Pokemon as this may well end up as my VGC team in game aswell as on Pokemon online.
Thanks for viewing
Basically this team was created as a starting point for the VGC 2011 ladder on the Smogon server of Pokemon Online, however after failing to get many battles I tried my hand at Singles with it under a new alt (Usually i'm Disasterpiece, but for this team I'm theDozBate). Since I started using it I have suffered only 5 defeats out of atleast 35 battles moving me up to rank 556/14000+.
The aim of the team is mainly a mix of hyper offense and bulky offense, which doesn't sound like much tactically but in practise it can tear apart teams expecting more diversity or teams that rely too much on stall or setting up (ironically mine relies alot on set up moves)
Here is the team building process:
First of all knowing only 5th gen Poke's could be used I figured I could use a Fake Out lead, alongside a Stealth Rock user, obviously as I was going for VGC originally, 2 'leads' is the norm. The first 2 Pokemon who came to mind were Mienshao as the Fake Out user, and Gigalith as the Rocks user. Both of them had there merits for use:
Mienshao - Fairly high speed and attack, alongside the Regeneration ability made it very useful early game. Also it has access to Baton Pass and Substitute allowing me to somewhat support a switch in later in game
Gigalith - High defence, high attack, decent HP, usable SP.Def and Sturdy make it a very reliable user of rocks.
After selecting these 2 I started to think of offensive threats from the 5th gen. Many came to mind, eventually settling on 3 Pokemon to set up my attacking prowess. These are Terrakion, Reuniclus and Carracosta. Each one is a set up sweeper of sorts, and each one has a special role in the team. Terrakion was chosen for its ability to be 1 of 3 pokemon to be viable ate 'double dancing' being able to select the set up move for the current situation, also its stats speak for themselves with 129 base Attack, and 108 base Speed. Next up is Reuniclus, who needs no explaining,being bulky, powerful and has one the the finest abilities in the game, it was always going to make its way on the team. Finally is Carracosta, coupling Sturdy with Shell Break is a sure fire way to get to +2 Attack and Speed, allowing almost imiediate fire power. Also it has access to priority making it capable of a revenge kill if need be.
So far my team has the 2 'leads' as it were along with 3 offensive threats. In my mind what I needed now was something to move away from the trend, to throw the opponent off. There is only one pokemon who is that succesful in that role: Zoroark. His ability coupled with a fairly shallow but effective movepool allows for many sets designed to disrupt, annoy and generally distract the opponent
I considered some changes due to obvious weaknesses (Grass, Water, Fighting amongst them) but kept the team as it is for now, only being beaten by 2 Drought Teams, 1 Rain Dance/Swift Swim team, 1 Drizzle team and 1 Sandstorm Team.
Now here is the Movesets of Each Pokemon and their role in the team:
Gigalith:
Nature: Careful
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EV's: 252 HP, 4 Def, 252 Sp.D
Moves:
*Rockslide
*Earthquake
*Stealth Rock
*Toxic
The EV's and nature allow it to take hits from both sides, even some unstabed super effective hits (standard Ninetales Energy Ball is barely hitting for 30%). Even stronger hits won't KO it due to Sturdy ensuring rocks are always up. In the event of an opposing Pokemon not attacking Toxic is the 2nd Turn move supplying valuable status support to make some pokemon easier to KO later in game. The attacking moves are purely to stob it being Taunt fodder whilst allowing it to somewhat deal with Ninetales and Tyranitar easier.
Meinshao:
Nature:Jolly
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Regeneration
EV's: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Moves:
*Fake Out
*Hi Jump Kick
*Substitute
*Baton Pass
Meinshao's job is to disrupt hazard using leads, such as Ferrothorn, or Focus Sash users. Following this Hi Jump Kick is used for general damage to all that don't resist/ are immune to it. The last 2 moves are the special ones for the set. They allow Meinshao to block potential status problems along with passing a sub to either keep the new pokemon immune to status or to let it switch in with no damage done. The EV's enable it to be fast and strong while it is on the field
Terrakion:
Nature: Adamant
Item: Air Balloon
Ability: Justified
EV's: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Moves:
*Rockslide
*Close Combat
*Swords Dance
*Rock Polish
This is usually the cleaner of the team. With the Balloon it can get many opputunities to switch in, and set up the appropriate move. Many of it 'Checks' can be beaten when the right move is selected (Excadrill with Brick Break will generally lose if Terrakion has balloon intact when setting up Rock polish, Gliscor is beaten if Swords Dance is set up(maybe 2 Dances))
The Ev's are standard and nature chosen for power over speed.
Reuniclus:
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EV's: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Sp.A
Moves:
*Psychic
*Shadow Ball
*Recover
*Calm Mind
Everyone knows about Reuniclus. MY version is a pretty standard Calm Minder, using Shadow Ball over Focus Blast to deal with opposing Psychic's better and to keep 100% accuracy on my attacking moves. Leftovers was chosen to improve survivability alongside recover, while the EV's make it extremely bulky on both sides after 1-2 Calm Minds
Carracosta:
Nature: Adamant
Item:White Herb
Ability: Sturdy
EV's: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Moves:
*Rockslide
*Aqua Jet
*Waterfall
*Shell Smash
Carracosta can 6-0 a team if allowed to set up 2 Shell Smashs. With its natural Physical bulk and Sturdy it is very easy for 2 to be set up. After that the moveset is self explanitory. Aqua Jet for priority, Waterfall and Rockslide as main STAB moves, which supply very nice coverage (Only Dialga and Empoleon resist off the top of my head). Adamant for max power, and White Herb to enable hits to still be taken after the first Shell Smash.
Zoroark:
Nature: Hasty
Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Illusion
EV's: 76 Atk, 252 Sp.A, 180 Speed
Moves:
*Sucker Punch
*U-Turn
*Flamethrower
*Taunt
Zoroark's job is to come in fairly early in game (or as a 3rd 'lead') and start messing with the opponent. As most of my team use set up moves a switch to a taunter is usually made by the opponent, allowing me under the illusion to use my own Taunt. Then U-turn allows me a free switch, sucker punch with the given EV's can OHKO standard LAtios ( exact percentage im unsure of, but I have done it 4 times so far after Stealth Rocks). Flamethrower is used against Ferrothron, Forretress, Skarmory and Scizor as it is an unexpected move due to none of my having the capability of Fire Type moves.
Will post a threat list later, can anyone suggest any changes which won't upset the current (and maybe lucky) position of the team. Also 5th gen only Pokemon as this may well end up as my VGC team in game aswell as on Pokemon online.
Thanks for viewing
