Terry Crews and Friends

[AdamL00001]

Changes denoted in bold black.

Meet Terry. He has ridiculous biceps and abdominals and smells faintly like a popular deodorant.

Thing is, he's kinda lonely. So he went out and made friends with a special starfish. The starfish brought along a bird buddy that may or may not have been on Sesame Street during the early years.

As the three of them sat and discussed battle strategy, they discovered a common hatred for ghosts, big pink and white dragons, and...well, anything pink, really. Terry called in a favor from a familiar face.

"We need someone to lead the charge," Terry said. "Someone who can take hits like a champ and has some POWER!" It took weeks, but finally, a beast (of sorts) fit the bill.

Many blocks, building kicks, and explosions later, Terry and Friends decided they *technically* didn't need a sixth member to their team. However, there's nothing wrong with a little Double Sun Power. And so, after much weeping and gnashing of teeth, Terry broke down and called in The Man of The Hour.

And so, the team was assembled. And so it stands.

And now, a closer look at both the team and some odd resemblances that you may or may not have seen before.



The Leader:

"Super C" @ Shuca Berry
Clear Body
252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Adamant

-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake (over Pursuit)
-Bullet Punch
-Meteor Mash

It's funny because Super Contra was probably the greatest NES game of all time. Anyway, for the longest time, I used to run Swampert as a lead, but in trying to build an offensive juggernaut team, he just didn't hit hard at all. So I looked for something that could take a serious beating, still get up Stealth Rock, and hit like a truck. Metagross is great for that.

I thought long and hard about putting Explosion on him, but I can't bring myself to do it. The defensive typing and natural bulk just lend itself to swinging at the fences until he breaks down (plus Bullet Punch says FU to speed). Pursuit beats on Azelf/Uxie leads, and BP stops me from eating an Explosion (or I can just Meteor Mash/BP for the same effect and have EQ waiting in the wings, as per suggestions). Swampert and Hippowdon leads usually lead to me just setting up rocks and switching. Infernape is an auto-switch.

I chose Shuca over Occa for two reasons: one, Metagross just doesn't need to be eating fire attacks. I switch out on anything that packs Fire Blast or HP Fire. Two, and perhaps more importantly, most players will abuse EQ to get the Super Effective damage off. I can eat it and strike back with Meteor Mash, and follow up with BP. Sure, it leads to some typing problems, especially when I run into some Water-types, but that's why I have 5 other pokes, right?


The "Star" of the Show

"Algalon" @ Choice Scarf
Natural Cure
252 SpA/4 SpD/252 Speed
Timid

-Surf
-Grass Knot
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam

Starmie has fed on the tears of so many people over Wi-Fi. It's my answer to DD Gyara/Mence, and just pretty much walks all over anything that's a speedy threat to my team. Originally, I was rocking Hydro Pump over Surf, but I whiffed SO MANY critical Hydro Pumps (where any damage would do, not even asking for a KO) that I had to switch.

The funny thing is, Starmie has "Come Kill Me, Scizor" written all over it. Which is just perfect, if you ask me. I've had Scizors come in, wreck me with a Pursuit, and leave me in perfect position for...


The Team Captain

"TerryCrews" @ Leftovers
No Guard
248 HP/252 Atk/8 Speed
Adamant

-Substitute
-DynamicPunch
-Payback
-Stone Edge

Seriously, if you haven't used a Sub Machamp before, you need to. This is the most fun I've ever had using a Pokemon, I think. It feels like you get an answer to everything that can hit you. Oh, and did I mention the free setups for Sub?

Generally, it works best if you can get an idea of what your opponent is packing (i.e. looking for a Ghost-type) so you can know if you need to use Payback over DynamicPunch. But in any case, given enough time, TerryCrews can just sit back and pick apart a team for 16 hours.


The Wild Card

"Antonio" @ Leftovers
Pressure
252 SpA/4 SpD/252 Speed
Timid

-Discharge
-Heat Wave
-Hidden Power Ice
-Roost

For the longest time, I looked for a Pokemon that could deal out Electric attacks. I also looked for a Pokemon that was rather bulky, yet offensive. I used to have two spots on my team to cover that, until I remembered Zapdos, my favorite of the three birds. Discharge's 30% Paralysis rate is very welcome, Heat Wave is for dealing with random pesky Steel types (and as we all know, there are a LOT of them), HP Ice is just kinda there, and Roost is to increase Zappy's longevity.

Oh, and yes, I'm a bit of a speed freak.


"Tonight I dine on Lati soup!"

"Shredder" @ Choice Band
Technician
248 HP/252 Atk/8 Speed
Adamant

-Bullet Punch
-U-Turn
-Superpower
-Pursuit

Is this really a surprise? Honestly, if I didn't hate Latias as much as I did, I probably wouldn't run Scizor. But he's the best there is at what he does. Unfortunately, what he does isn't very nice (a cookie to anyone who gets that reference).

Only thing is, I'm still trying to get the hang of actually, you know, USING Scizor. I tend to just bring him in and spam Bullet Punch or Pursuit, depending on the situation. I assume the knowledge will come in time, but until then, I'm going to keep bopping Latias in the face until it dies.


"Hey look, it's Bobby Jenks, before he started to suck."

"Krang" @ Life Orb
Intimidate
16 Atk/240 SpA/252 Speed
Naive

-Draco Meteor
-Fire Blast
-Outrage
-Earthquake

I was looking at a Salamence the other day, and I said, "Man, those wings look really familiar...where have I seen them before?" And then it struck. Krang is a beast.

Anyway, I feel dirty for using MixMence. Like, really, really dirty. The problem is, he plugs the last holes on my team. Originally, this spot belonged to Infernape (fast, strong Fire-type moves), until I realized that Salamence just does it better (resists Fire-type moves and strikes back with the wrath of God). Furthermore, I didn't have any EQ users on the team (sure I *could* put it on Metagross, but I couldn't find a Pokemon that I'd be facing that would justify EQ's usage over any of the other moves I have).

So yeah, I had to call in the best closer in the game. Oh well.


Thanks for reading, and please feel free to pick this team apart. Honestly, this is my first foray into a real solid competitive team, so I need all the knowledge and help I can get.

 

[ginganinja]

Well I will give you some help. Firstly Earthquake is very usefull on Metagross. It may not help you so much against heaps or leads (infernape and heatran mostly but both run fire attacsk) but you really appreciate the late game coverage. Since you do not run Explosion on Metagross I assume hat you want to keep Meta alive for as long as possiable. Steel and Dark have poor coverage and being walled by Heatran/ and water type/ a flying type/other steel types/ any Fighting type leave you open to so many threats. Pursuit should be dropped for Earthquake as Pursuit is only usefull for lead azelfs and Uxies and Meteor Mash hits them just as hard. On azelf a Meteor Mash and a Bullet Punch should KO it giving it 1 turn to do something.

You are very weak to a scarf Heatran whith Starmie being your only check and it does not like switching into repeated fire blasts. I suggest a Scarf Latias if you still want to bait Pursuit as it can deal with Heatran relativly well and can KO it with surf.

I think that a Specs Jolt could also fuction over Zapdos when used in conjuction with Mixmence. After Mixmence has broken up your opponients team Jolteon makes for the perfect late game cleaner and yes it is very speedy.

Not much else, the team is pretty good anyway.

Have a Nice Day!

 

[mc2094]

Just wanting to say that I agree with the suggestion of EQuake over Pursuit on Gross, you already have Scizor running it. Also, try Trick over Grass Knot on Starmie, should work much better.gl

 

[AdamL00001]

Thanks for the rates, guys.

I've decided to go ahead and use EQ over Pursuit. Things are going smoother already.

About the other things:

-There's really gotta be a better way to deal with Scarf Heatran other than Specs Latias, although I have to admit it is the easiest way out. I'll think about this some more.

-Specs Jolteon might be good, but it presents two problems: it can't switch into an EQ, and I lose the precious Fire coverage that Heat Wave provides. Regardless, I'll test it as well.

-Trick over Grass Knot might actually make more sense than I was originally willing to admit. It still cripples Swampert, but it opens up a whole new list of sweeping opportunities as well with the BoltBeam/Water combination. I'll have to test that too.

Thanks again.

 

[ginganinja]

Well if you don't like latias then Kingdra can take fire attacks all day long with his X4 resist or Suicune or Vaporeon can also do this. Suicune can also run a bulky Offensive Suicune set which lets it switch into Heatrans Fire Blasts and still be able to set up and sweep.

 

[KnightoftheWind]

The lack of an Electric resistance means that you'll have a difficult time dealing with powerful Electric Pokemon such as Jolteon and Magnezone, as well as most Choiced Pokemon with Thunderbolt, seeing as they can just spam Thunderbolt and wear down your team. Jolteon is a gigantic pain for you to deal with, having high Special Attack and excellent Speed to outspeed everything on your team aside from Starmie, who is incapable of switching into the common Life Orb Jolteon (Charge Beam / Thunderbolt / Shadow Ball / HP Grass). Magnezone will also have a great time against your team, getting a free switch-in into your Scizor's Bullet Punch and Pursuit, leaving you helpless against it while Magnezone sets up a Substitute and kills off Scizor with Thunderbolt. Overall, an Electric resistance is needed in general, because Thunderbolt is such a common attack that not having a resistance to it is almost mandatory.

I think you should try out a Latias over Salamence.

Latias @ Choice Specs | Timid
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Draco Meteor / Dragon Pulse / Surf / Trick

Like you have acknowledged, Salamence is only just thrown because you didn't really have anything else you can think of. Don't get me wrong, Salamence is an excellent Pokemon, but I do feel that Latias is a worthwhile replacement. For one thing, Latias resists Electric unlike Salamence, and has the Special Defense to take hits multiple times. This guarantees no Choiced Pokemon with an Electric attack is able to just steamroll through your team. This Latias makes a fearsome user of Draco Meteor much like Salamence, and with the boost Choice Specs provides, not even Steel-types are capable of taking multiple Meteors from Latias. Latias also provides another way of attracting Pursuit so Machamp can get an easy switch-in.

You could do much better than Grass Knot on Starmie. The only real reason why you'll want to attack with Grass Knot as opposed to Thunderbolt is if you are facing a Swampert, but even then Swampert isn't going to be taking many Surfs from Starmie. I recommend Trick over Grass Knot. Starmie has the unfortunate circumstance of being rather ineffective against stall teams, so locking a Blissey that would switch in without much worry into one move will definitely help in dealing with stall teams.

I'd also suggest that you use HP Grass as opposed to HP Ice on your Zapdos. Between Metagross, Starmie and Scizor, you're already checking all of the OU Dragons, so HP Ice wouldn't exactly be the most helpful coverage out there. Latias' high Special Defense means HP Ice won't heavily harm it, and you can catch Salamence with a Discharge and paralyse, rendering it useless. HP Grass, on the other hand, allows Zapdos to hurt Swampert, a common switch-in for Zapdos, as well as hitting most Ground-types out there.

Good luck with your team.