Team Support, and how we provide it.
Often when building teams you will hear the term "team support". But how do we provide team support? There are many ways of providing team support, under many different styles of play, which I shall delve into deeper.
Stealth Rock
Stealth Rock is on most teams nowadays, for good reason. Stealth Rock takes only one turn to set up, and almost all Pokémon take damage from it (read: Clefable). The amount of damage it does varies on the Pokémon’s taking the damage type. However, it will break Focus Sashes with ease, and often turns many 2HKOs into OHKOs, or 3HKOs into 2HKOs. It is vital to most offensive teams due to this, as well as stall teams as they often force switches, so this kind of residual damage supports the team. It also hits through Wonder Guard, eliminating Shedinja, which often causes switches itself. If your team is struggling to make damage Stealth Rock is useful to help make at least some (up to 50% in some cases).
Spikes
Spikes too causes damage upon entry, albeit not definitive damage. Any Pokémon which is immune to Ground-type moves (eg. Levitators / Flying-types) will not be hurt by Spikes. Spikes come in three layers, and each layer takes one turn to set up. One layer of Spikes causes 12.5% damage, two causes 18.75% damage, and three takes away a huge 25% chunk. Providing they are not immune to Ground-type moves, they will take this set amount of damage. Many stall teams use both Spikes and Stealth Rock to quickly rack up the damage, if a Pokémon takes neutral damage to Rock-type moves, and is susceptible to Ground-type moves (Stealth Rock and three layers of Spikes are down), the user will lose a huge 37.5% of it’s health - over one third. This really puts the strain on offensive teams whom often use Life Orbs and Choice items with no means of recovery.
Toxic Spikes
Another form of residual damage. There are two types of Poison damage - "regular" poison, and "Toxic" poison. Regular poison deals 12.5% damage to the victims HP per turn, whilst Toxic poison deals 6.25% on the first turn, 12.5% on the second turn, 18.75% on the third turn, continuously increasing by 6.25% per turn, capping at 93.75%. The Toxic damage per turn "resets" back to 6.25% if the victim switches out. One layer of Toxic Spikes means regular poison damage, two means toxic poison. Toxic poison seriously helps reduce many Pokémon’s ability to wall, especially when paired with other entry hazards. It also means sweepers have less turns to sweep. However Steel-types, Flying-types, and levitators will avoid Toxic Spikes. On top of this, they can be easily removed through bringing a "grounded" Poison-type into play, such as Drapion, which will absorb the Toxic Spikes until gone.
Rapid Spin
The move Rapid Spin allows users to "get rid of" any Spikes / Stealth Rock / Toxic Spikes on your side of the field. This means your Zapdos can come in more easier to meet Shaymin-S. Starmie, Claydol, Hitmontop and many more are common Rapid Spinners that are well suited to their job. However, Ghost-types can easily "Spin Block", because Rapid Spin is a Normal-type move with a base power, it means that the attack cannot be launched and therefore the additional effect of getting rid of the hazards cannot be done. However, it is still a rather common move, even if it has been less used in recent times due to more offensive styled teams.
Paralysis
Some teams are based on paralysis, and often utilize "ParaFlinch", a combination of both paralysis and flinch chance, reducing the opponents opportunity of movement. Common Pokémon such as Jirachi and Togekiss are used on these teams, paralysing opponents not just with Thunder Wave, but Body Slam too (thanks to Serene Grace), which can help open sweeps for slower, more powerful Pokémon.
Other status moves
Moves such as Hypnosis will often disable counters allowing sweeps to open. Sure, using Gengar and Alakazam on the same team isn’t the best idea ever made, but with their similar counters, Gengar can help stop Alakazam’s by severely weakening it or sleeping it, it becomes much easier to take out for the rest of the team (or Alakazam). If I slept Vaporeon, it would have a lot more difficulty against Gyarados, possibly meaning Gyarados opens a sweep. Alternatively, Aromatherapy will heal your teams status issues.
Reflect and Light Screen
I am sure you all know the famous “Deoxys-S Dual Screen” lead, that so many people didn’t like playing against. With Reflect and / or Light Screen up, it becomes much easier for set up sweepers such as Gyarados to come in and start setting up. With these moves lasting 7/8 moves long with Light Clay in play (and which is set up first), it severely increases the possibility of sweeps. It means Pokémon such as Life Orb Gyarados would only take a maximum of 42% from standard Vaporeon’s Hidden Power Electric, a daunting prospect when it is considered to be one of the biggest counters.
Trick and Switcheroo
The move Trick has shot to fame in Platinum, with it becoming a new tutor move and many more Pokémon learning it, and being able to conjure up a set for it successfully. Starmie can now cripple Blissey as it comes in, and Metagross Bronzong, just to name a few. Not only does it mean that the victim is crippled against this certain Pokémon; it means they are most likely for the remainder of the match. It cripples walls much, as well as helping beat certain sweepers, should you Trick Choice Band onto a special sweeper.
Trapping
Trapping is another great way to support the team. Using a Dugtrio to take out Blissey to open a Raikou sweep is a rather common way of allowing Raikou to sweep, as is using Tyranitar's Pursuit to take out Choice Scarf Gengar, promoting a Gyarados set up. "DugZone", a mixture of Dugtrio and Magnezone is often used to help take out Shed Shell-less SkarmBliss.
Wish
Wish is another common way to support the team. Common Wish "passers" such as Vaporeon are defensive enough to consistently pass Wish to opposing team members with no way of support, such as Electivire. This means they can heal up 50% of their health, often adding HP taken away from residual entry hazards. It works great with typing: such as Electivire grabbing a possible Motor Drive boost from an Electric-type attack aimed at Vaporeon.
Lures
Lures can effectively be classed as team support, and they do what it says on the tin. They lure in Pokémon and swiftly KO them, fainting counters to other, unrevealed Pokémon. A great example of this would be Ice Beam Tyranitar taking out Gliscor, to help open chance of damage for Heracross.
Using resistances
Combinations of resistances are often talked about, such as Salamence and Jirachi, or Magnezone and Gyarados. In offensive teams many teams need to use this in case they come across an unexpected problem, they can switch and quickly apply pressure onto this Pokémon, and they can rinse and repeat this. Defensive stall teams also need resistances, for if they are all weak to something their ability to actually stall is severely limited provided the opponent carries a move of your type weakness. This means X can take a hit Y is severely threatened by, supporting it.
Encore
Encore is a great move which means the opponent has to repeat their move for 4-8 turns. This could allow your SDLuke to set up and sweep, or you to freely heal up, or set up a Substitute. There are so many options you can use in conjunction with Encore with so many different possibilities leading from them. It means you can spend some turns safely healing up your Pokémon as team support (possibly via Wish), whilst also possibly waking up a RestTalker. Encore often causes switches because users do not want their Pokémon to be (possibly) idle for 4-8 turns, meaning that entry hazard damage can rack up quickly.
Baton Pass
Through Baton Pass you can pass Substitutes, stat boosts, and so many more effects. Even just passing an Acid Armour to your Blissey could be classed as support, allowing it to survive a possibly fatal hit. Baton Passing also moves depending on the users speed - meaning the switch-in may get a fully safe switch-into something. A full guide to Baton Passing can be found here!
Countering counters with counters
I'm sure you have all seen or heard of "SkarmBlissCress". This was well known as a rather good defensive core, walling many common Pokémon. However, there was TyraniBoah to deal with, a Pokémon that could be these three. By putting a Swampert on the team of SkarmBlissCress, the user could eliminate the TyraniBoah, allowing SkarmBlissCress to find it much easier to wall the opponents team. There were several people who felt this was incredibly annoying, but nevertheless it was used. You are effectively, countering a counter (in this case Tyranitar), with a counter (Swampert). It would provide team support by taking out the biggest threats to the current team.
These are some often used ways of using team support - even if we don't know we are using them, and do so incidently! So after looking at common ways of using team support, I ask you four questions:
-How far does the term team support actually stretch? When can we outright say “This is no longer supporting the team” (in which case you would probably change it)? The simple answer would be it stops when we look at the supported (which too may provide team support), but nevertheless, surely we should always be looking to support the team or a certain Pokémon, and therefore would we use the term team support uselessly, as its meaning is rather omnipresent?
-How do you personally provide team support? (eg. Stealth Rock) Clearly you would try to use as much of the team support which has a good effect on your team.
-Why do you provide team support in this manner? Do you use a certain type of team support because it suits your play style? Is it for stall for example?
-Can weather be classed as supporting the team? Sub + BrightPowder with Sandstream Garchomp was a good example of this, often causing the opponent to miss giving free stat boosts. Would you class weather as team support?
Thank you for reading.
Often when building teams you will hear the term "team support". But how do we provide team support? There are many ways of providing team support, under many different styles of play, which I shall delve into deeper.
Stealth Rock
Stealth Rock is on most teams nowadays, for good reason. Stealth Rock takes only one turn to set up, and almost all Pokémon take damage from it (read: Clefable). The amount of damage it does varies on the Pokémon’s taking the damage type. However, it will break Focus Sashes with ease, and often turns many 2HKOs into OHKOs, or 3HKOs into 2HKOs. It is vital to most offensive teams due to this, as well as stall teams as they often force switches, so this kind of residual damage supports the team. It also hits through Wonder Guard, eliminating Shedinja, which often causes switches itself. If your team is struggling to make damage Stealth Rock is useful to help make at least some (up to 50% in some cases).
Spikes
Spikes too causes damage upon entry, albeit not definitive damage. Any Pokémon which is immune to Ground-type moves (eg. Levitators / Flying-types) will not be hurt by Spikes. Spikes come in three layers, and each layer takes one turn to set up. One layer of Spikes causes 12.5% damage, two causes 18.75% damage, and three takes away a huge 25% chunk. Providing they are not immune to Ground-type moves, they will take this set amount of damage. Many stall teams use both Spikes and Stealth Rock to quickly rack up the damage, if a Pokémon takes neutral damage to Rock-type moves, and is susceptible to Ground-type moves (Stealth Rock and three layers of Spikes are down), the user will lose a huge 37.5% of it’s health - over one third. This really puts the strain on offensive teams whom often use Life Orbs and Choice items with no means of recovery.
Toxic Spikes
Another form of residual damage. There are two types of Poison damage - "regular" poison, and "Toxic" poison. Regular poison deals 12.5% damage to the victims HP per turn, whilst Toxic poison deals 6.25% on the first turn, 12.5% on the second turn, 18.75% on the third turn, continuously increasing by 6.25% per turn, capping at 93.75%. The Toxic damage per turn "resets" back to 6.25% if the victim switches out. One layer of Toxic Spikes means regular poison damage, two means toxic poison. Toxic poison seriously helps reduce many Pokémon’s ability to wall, especially when paired with other entry hazards. It also means sweepers have less turns to sweep. However Steel-types, Flying-types, and levitators will avoid Toxic Spikes. On top of this, they can be easily removed through bringing a "grounded" Poison-type into play, such as Drapion, which will absorb the Toxic Spikes until gone.
Rapid Spin
The move Rapid Spin allows users to "get rid of" any Spikes / Stealth Rock / Toxic Spikes on your side of the field. This means your Zapdos can come in more easier to meet Shaymin-S. Starmie, Claydol, Hitmontop and many more are common Rapid Spinners that are well suited to their job. However, Ghost-types can easily "Spin Block", because Rapid Spin is a Normal-type move with a base power, it means that the attack cannot be launched and therefore the additional effect of getting rid of the hazards cannot be done. However, it is still a rather common move, even if it has been less used in recent times due to more offensive styled teams.
Paralysis
Some teams are based on paralysis, and often utilize "ParaFlinch", a combination of both paralysis and flinch chance, reducing the opponents opportunity of movement. Common Pokémon such as Jirachi and Togekiss are used on these teams, paralysing opponents not just with Thunder Wave, but Body Slam too (thanks to Serene Grace), which can help open sweeps for slower, more powerful Pokémon.
Other status moves
Moves such as Hypnosis will often disable counters allowing sweeps to open. Sure, using Gengar and Alakazam on the same team isn’t the best idea ever made, but with their similar counters, Gengar can help stop Alakazam’s by severely weakening it or sleeping it, it becomes much easier to take out for the rest of the team (or Alakazam). If I slept Vaporeon, it would have a lot more difficulty against Gyarados, possibly meaning Gyarados opens a sweep. Alternatively, Aromatherapy will heal your teams status issues.
Reflect and Light Screen
I am sure you all know the famous “Deoxys-S Dual Screen” lead, that so many people didn’t like playing against. With Reflect and / or Light Screen up, it becomes much easier for set up sweepers such as Gyarados to come in and start setting up. With these moves lasting 7/8 moves long with Light Clay in play (and which is set up first), it severely increases the possibility of sweeps. It means Pokémon such as Life Orb Gyarados would only take a maximum of 42% from standard Vaporeon’s Hidden Power Electric, a daunting prospect when it is considered to be one of the biggest counters.
Trick and Switcheroo
The move Trick has shot to fame in Platinum, with it becoming a new tutor move and many more Pokémon learning it, and being able to conjure up a set for it successfully. Starmie can now cripple Blissey as it comes in, and Metagross Bronzong, just to name a few. Not only does it mean that the victim is crippled against this certain Pokémon; it means they are most likely for the remainder of the match. It cripples walls much, as well as helping beat certain sweepers, should you Trick Choice Band onto a special sweeper.
Trapping
Trapping is another great way to support the team. Using a Dugtrio to take out Blissey to open a Raikou sweep is a rather common way of allowing Raikou to sweep, as is using Tyranitar's Pursuit to take out Choice Scarf Gengar, promoting a Gyarados set up. "DugZone", a mixture of Dugtrio and Magnezone is often used to help take out Shed Shell-less SkarmBliss.
Wish
Wish is another common way to support the team. Common Wish "passers" such as Vaporeon are defensive enough to consistently pass Wish to opposing team members with no way of support, such as Electivire. This means they can heal up 50% of their health, often adding HP taken away from residual entry hazards. It works great with typing: such as Electivire grabbing a possible Motor Drive boost from an Electric-type attack aimed at Vaporeon.
Lures
Lures can effectively be classed as team support, and they do what it says on the tin. They lure in Pokémon and swiftly KO them, fainting counters to other, unrevealed Pokémon. A great example of this would be Ice Beam Tyranitar taking out Gliscor, to help open chance of damage for Heracross.
Using resistances
Combinations of resistances are often talked about, such as Salamence and Jirachi, or Magnezone and Gyarados. In offensive teams many teams need to use this in case they come across an unexpected problem, they can switch and quickly apply pressure onto this Pokémon, and they can rinse and repeat this. Defensive stall teams also need resistances, for if they are all weak to something their ability to actually stall is severely limited provided the opponent carries a move of your type weakness. This means X can take a hit Y is severely threatened by, supporting it.
Encore
Encore is a great move which means the opponent has to repeat their move for 4-8 turns. This could allow your SDLuke to set up and sweep, or you to freely heal up, or set up a Substitute. There are so many options you can use in conjunction with Encore with so many different possibilities leading from them. It means you can spend some turns safely healing up your Pokémon as team support (possibly via Wish), whilst also possibly waking up a RestTalker. Encore often causes switches because users do not want their Pokémon to be (possibly) idle for 4-8 turns, meaning that entry hazard damage can rack up quickly.
Baton Pass
Through Baton Pass you can pass Substitutes, stat boosts, and so many more effects. Even just passing an Acid Armour to your Blissey could be classed as support, allowing it to survive a possibly fatal hit. Baton Passing also moves depending on the users speed - meaning the switch-in may get a fully safe switch-into something. A full guide to Baton Passing can be found here!
Countering counters with counters
I'm sure you have all seen or heard of "SkarmBlissCress". This was well known as a rather good defensive core, walling many common Pokémon. However, there was TyraniBoah to deal with, a Pokémon that could be these three. By putting a Swampert on the team of SkarmBlissCress, the user could eliminate the TyraniBoah, allowing SkarmBlissCress to find it much easier to wall the opponents team. There were several people who felt this was incredibly annoying, but nevertheless it was used. You are effectively, countering a counter (in this case Tyranitar), with a counter (Swampert). It would provide team support by taking out the biggest threats to the current team.
These are some often used ways of using team support - even if we don't know we are using them, and do so incidently! So after looking at common ways of using team support, I ask you four questions:
-How far does the term team support actually stretch? When can we outright say “This is no longer supporting the team” (in which case you would probably change it)? The simple answer would be it stops when we look at the supported (which too may provide team support), but nevertheless, surely we should always be looking to support the team or a certain Pokémon, and therefore would we use the term team support uselessly, as its meaning is rather omnipresent?
-How do you personally provide team support? (eg. Stealth Rock) Clearly you would try to use as much of the team support which has a good effect on your team.
-Why do you provide team support in this manner? Do you use a certain type of team support because it suits your play style? Is it for stall for example?
-Can weather be classed as supporting the team? Sub + BrightPowder with Sandstream Garchomp was a good example of this, often causing the opponent to miss giving free stat boosts. Would you class weather as team support?
Thank you for reading.
