As you probably gathered from the title, this team is entirely untested. Before I rush out there recklessly and lose horribly, it's probably a good idea to see if anything needs fixing first. Be aware that this team is more likely to be used on wi-fi than Shoddy, so don't recommend the Rotom Formes if you can help it.
AT A GLANCE
Now, you'll probably want to know how this team ended up the way it is...
Surprisingly, the team was based around Infernape. I've always wanted to use this guy, but just never found any room in my teams for him, so I thought "Why not just build the team around him?" I needed a way to cover his main weaknesses of Ground and Water (psychic's not really a biggie since hardly anybody actually uses it). For that, I had the perfect solution...
Dragonite resists both, and can dish out some severe damage to boot. Originally I wanted to run the Heal Bell set, but to be honest it works much better as an all-out attacker. I was considering making it an anti-lead too, but then I realised just how important Stealth Rock is in the current metagame.
Swampert's bulky enough to pretty much guarantee free SR, and since it's so difficult to spin rocks away these days (us Brits and our Gliscors, eh?), they'll probably stay up for the rest of the match. Now, I really wanted that Heal Bell there, just because I've never really used it before and thought, in the style of Will Smith, "might as well kick it!"
Now I had the four core members of the team, but for some reason I thought the team might just be lacking in something... Now, I could hit hard on both ends of the spectrum, but I needed just a little bit of extra coverage, and something that could counter all Scizor's attacks. Sure, Swampert's good for that, but I've always had a soft spot for the next member of the team...
Zapdos is probably one of my favourite Scizor counters, but it gets walled by Latias, big style. That, combined with 3 Ice-weak Pokemon, meant there was still a niche needed to be filled here. Luckily, I had just the thing...
Snorlax is pretty much the most amazing Special wall out there (not counting that pink bitch Blissey). Plus it has access to an attack that's super-effective on Latias, while it acts as a sponge for the red dragon's almost exclusively special attacks. (Have you ever seen a Physical Latias? Actually, I have, but that was a gimmicky set.)
So that's the general overview out of the way, now let's get down to business...
Meet the team (Cue music from Team Fortress 2 videos)!
Stan (Swampert) @ Leftovers
Torrent
Relaxed
252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
-Stealth Rock
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Roar/Protect?
Typical Smogon set here, nothing exciting. It's good to have as much bulk on him as possible, just because he can survive most leads that way. Sure, Grass-types cause problems, but I've got stuff to deal with that. EQ's obviously just to dish out some Ground-based damage. Surf deals damage to physical walls that aren't resistant to water, but then I've got stuff to take those too. SR is the most common move for any lead, and the trend continues here. At the moment, I'm still deciding whether it's better to roar stuff out if it tries to set up or scout it out with protect. Might be a good idea to actually test this one out actually.
Let's see how well it measures up against the top 10 (with both movesets)
Azelf - Good idea to Surf, since he could taunt if I SR or Roar, or SR if I protect, and since none of those scenarios are ideal, I just Surf and deal a ton of damage, then see what happens.
Aerodactyl - Not much I can do here. Let him Taunt me and get SR up is the only way.
Swampert - Both get SR up, then switch to Celebi and pray he doesn't roar.
Metagross - Both get SR up, then EQ. If he switches, then I'll still have my rocks.
Jirachi - Now this is one case where protect could be a better move. If he's a trickscarf lead, then I can simply let Dragonite take the scarf. Otherwise, just get rocks up and hope I don't get flinched to death before it goes down to a few EQs, although if they're clever they'll predict and get it out of there.
Infernape - Another time Proect could be better... Absorb the fake out, get him to the sash while he SRs and take him out while he CCs, or deal some damage to the switch-in if they're really confident.
Machamp - Since this crafty bugger's leapt up 5 places, it's a good idea to have some way past him. I can try and PP stall him, but he'll soon catch on and start unleashing Paybacks and the like. A bit of a tricky one, this, although if I can avoid Celebi getting confused I can catch him out and Psychic it to death.
Ninjask - People still use Ninjask? Anyway, SR on turn 1. Roar would be the better option for this one, but since I hardly ever come across it I think protect could be the superior move. Just take advantage and get those rocks up. Just hope that it doesn't all go towards a Salamence...
Roserade - OK, this one's easy. Snorlax becomes sleep-bait, then get Celebi in there to take the leaf storm. Either Psychic it hoping it stays in to set up toxic spikes, or heal bell on the switch to wake up Snorlax, although then I'll have to go through the whole process again later on.
Tyranitar- Oh, I hate this guy so much! He's guaranteed to get SR up as I take him out, and could potentially cripple Swampert and stop me getting rocks up. Best bet is to get rocks up nice and early, let Swampert take the damage and then bring in Infernape to clean up.
Sun Wukong (Infernape) @ Life Orb
Blaze
Naive
64 Atk/252 Sp.Atk/192 Spe
-Nasty Plot
-Fire Blast
-Grass Knot
-Close Combat
Started off as a pure NP Nape, but then slowly ended up as this when I realised that I could bluff people into thinking it was Special, then CC their Blissey for a nice, clean OHKO (with SR damage). 64 attack EVs is all I need to pull this off, and since Infernape's gonna be ridiculously fast with a +speed nature anyway, it doesn't need a full 252 EVs to outrun most major threats. 252 Special Attack EVs are obvious.
Fire Blast lets me get some OHKOs that would be impossible with Flamethrower, although the miss might be worse than a lack of power. Grass Knot was also obvious, and a personal favourite move of mine. Back in the days of D/P, I used my Grass Knot TM on my starter and bred the move onto all my other Infernapes. Close Combat and Nasty Plot are the sole reasons for this set existing, as I said before, it lets me fool the opposition, then wipe them out with a CC.
WONGA! (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
Thick Fat
Adamant
168 HP/100 Att/120 Def/120 Sp.D (Random EVs ftw!)
-Curse
-Crunch
-Body Slam
-Rest
Yeah, random Evs are random. I suppose I could move some around at some point if I find there's somethign specific I need to survive, but for now they stay as they are. Also, Adamant nature lets Snorlax dish out more damage with those attacks.
Curselax is one of those sets that's just amazingly versatile. Sure, rest without Chesto Berry or Sleep Talk might seem stupid, but with Celebi on the team, it can be woken up relatively quickly, although it'll lose its boosts that way. Crunch means it's not completely walled by Ghosts, so I can actually keep him in on Rotom and Gengar! I've used this guy so many times, catching people out by switching in on a Shadow Ball, taking the Focus Blast and CRUNCH! I add those guys to the heap! (TWEWY fans should get that reference). Body Slam's purely for the hax. It's saved me countless times, in various Wi-fi tournaments.
Thick Fat's obvious as an ability. Sure, Immunity means you don't have to worry about poison, but with a cleric on the team it's hardly necessary. Plus it means that I don't have to worry about the massive Ice weakness half my team has, since Snorlax can take pretty much any Ice attack head-on and force a switch.
Bryn (Dragonite) @ Life Orb
Inner Focus
Quiet
252 Atk/252 Sp.A/4 Spe
-Extremespeed
-Fire Blast
-Earthquake
-Draco Meteor
Based on the anti-lead set. Sure, it functions well in that role, but the best bit is that it can get in 10 massively powerful hits (potentially) at any time. It'd be good if there was a slot for Roost, but since this is meant to be an all-out attacker as opposed to a wall it's fine without it.
This set is obviously supposed to get as much coverage as possible, with bulky Steels taking tons from EQ and Fire Blast, the latter of which deals with Skarm particularly well. Draco Meteor can dent anything that isn't steel, although it means Bryn's restricted to his physical attacks until he switches out, and taking 25% per switch might not actually be ideal. But hey, it's Dragonite, so it's awesome! Also, extremespeed give it an edge over Mixmence, since it can take out weakened Pokemon before they get the chance to unleash one final attack.
Rooster (Zapdos) @ Life Orb
Pressure
Timid
252 Sp.Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
-Thunderbolt
-Heat Wave
-Hidden Power Ice
-Roost
An all-out sweeper I've been using since I started battling, originally modest, but I eventually replaced him with the timid version you see today, since I kept getting outsped at crucial moments and the power gained from being Modest wasn't really noticeable.
Thunderbolt is the obligatory STAB move, which can sometimes get some nice parahax, but that hardly ever happens. Heat Wave is the Scizor-killing move, but I have to be careful and make sure there aren't any Heatran waiting in the wings ready to absorb it (and that's happened to me countless times in the past). HP Ice is the best way for me to deal with Gliscor, Flygon and Mence, all of which have been switched in on Rooster only to take a super-effective attack to the face. Everyone seems to expect HP Grass these days...
Roost means that Zapdos can do what Dragonite can't on this team, recovering 50% of its HP instantly, but at the cost of making Ground moves super-effective, so it must be used with caution.
Piccolo (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Natural Cure
Calm
252 HP/220 Def/36 Spe
-Heal Bell
-Leech Seed
-Psychic
-Recover
I stole the Smogon set, sue me! As a member of the 'Youtube Wi-Fi' community, people often criticise me for using Smogon sets, claiming that originality is better. Of course, sometimes it is, but ususally the Smogon sets are a lot more effective than their gimmicky Choice Band Latias and their Curse Vaporeons. Just take one look at Xenon3120's channel and you'll probably be foaming at the mouth instantly at the stupidity of his 'Super Original' sets. But this is an RMT, not a rant, so let's get back on track.
As I said before, I always wanted a Cleric on this team, and Celebi works perfectly. It's got great defenses, high HP, instant recovery and can also plant leech seeds. Psychic's simply just for a bit extra coverage, and as I mentioned in the leads section, it deal with Roserade quite well. I could have gone for Hidden Power, but then it wouldn't have got a STAB boost, and anyway there's already 3 fire moves and an ice move on this team.
So there you go, that's my first ever RMT finished. Once the threat list's up and running (purely theoretical at the moment), it'll be ready for the outside world!
AT A GLANCE
Now, you'll probably want to know how this team ended up the way it is...
Surprisingly, the team was based around Infernape. I've always wanted to use this guy, but just never found any room in my teams for him, so I thought "Why not just build the team around him?" I needed a way to cover his main weaknesses of Ground and Water (psychic's not really a biggie since hardly anybody actually uses it). For that, I had the perfect solution...
Dragonite resists both, and can dish out some severe damage to boot. Originally I wanted to run the Heal Bell set, but to be honest it works much better as an all-out attacker. I was considering making it an anti-lead too, but then I realised just how important Stealth Rock is in the current metagame.
Swampert's bulky enough to pretty much guarantee free SR, and since it's so difficult to spin rocks away these days (us Brits and our Gliscors, eh?), they'll probably stay up for the rest of the match. Now, I really wanted that Heal Bell there, just because I've never really used it before and thought, in the style of Will Smith, "might as well kick it!"
Now I had the four core members of the team, but for some reason I thought the team might just be lacking in something... Now, I could hit hard on both ends of the spectrum, but I needed just a little bit of extra coverage, and something that could counter all Scizor's attacks. Sure, Swampert's good for that, but I've always had a soft spot for the next member of the team...
Zapdos is probably one of my favourite Scizor counters, but it gets walled by Latias, big style. That, combined with 3 Ice-weak Pokemon, meant there was still a niche needed to be filled here. Luckily, I had just the thing...
Snorlax is pretty much the most amazing Special wall out there (not counting that pink bitch Blissey). Plus it has access to an attack that's super-effective on Latias, while it acts as a sponge for the red dragon's almost exclusively special attacks. (Have you ever seen a Physical Latias? Actually, I have, but that was a gimmicky set.)
So that's the general overview out of the way, now let's get down to business...
Meet the team (Cue music from Team Fortress 2 videos)!
Stan (Swampert) @ Leftovers
Torrent
Relaxed
252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
-Stealth Rock
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Roar/Protect?
Typical Smogon set here, nothing exciting. It's good to have as much bulk on him as possible, just because he can survive most leads that way. Sure, Grass-types cause problems, but I've got stuff to deal with that. EQ's obviously just to dish out some Ground-based damage. Surf deals damage to physical walls that aren't resistant to water, but then I've got stuff to take those too. SR is the most common move for any lead, and the trend continues here. At the moment, I'm still deciding whether it's better to roar stuff out if it tries to set up or scout it out with protect. Might be a good idea to actually test this one out actually.
Let's see how well it measures up against the top 10 (with both movesets)
Azelf - Good idea to Surf, since he could taunt if I SR or Roar, or SR if I protect, and since none of those scenarios are ideal, I just Surf and deal a ton of damage, then see what happens.
Aerodactyl - Not much I can do here. Let him Taunt me and get SR up is the only way.
Swampert - Both get SR up, then switch to Celebi and pray he doesn't roar.
Metagross - Both get SR up, then EQ. If he switches, then I'll still have my rocks.
Jirachi - Now this is one case where protect could be a better move. If he's a trickscarf lead, then I can simply let Dragonite take the scarf. Otherwise, just get rocks up and hope I don't get flinched to death before it goes down to a few EQs, although if they're clever they'll predict and get it out of there.
Infernape - Another time Proect could be better... Absorb the fake out, get him to the sash while he SRs and take him out while he CCs, or deal some damage to the switch-in if they're really confident.
Machamp - Since this crafty bugger's leapt up 5 places, it's a good idea to have some way past him. I can try and PP stall him, but he'll soon catch on and start unleashing Paybacks and the like. A bit of a tricky one, this, although if I can avoid Celebi getting confused I can catch him out and Psychic it to death.
Ninjask - People still use Ninjask? Anyway, SR on turn 1. Roar would be the better option for this one, but since I hardly ever come across it I think protect could be the superior move. Just take advantage and get those rocks up. Just hope that it doesn't all go towards a Salamence...
Roserade - OK, this one's easy. Snorlax becomes sleep-bait, then get Celebi in there to take the leaf storm. Either Psychic it hoping it stays in to set up toxic spikes, or heal bell on the switch to wake up Snorlax, although then I'll have to go through the whole process again later on.
Tyranitar- Oh, I hate this guy so much! He's guaranteed to get SR up as I take him out, and could potentially cripple Swampert and stop me getting rocks up. Best bet is to get rocks up nice and early, let Swampert take the damage and then bring in Infernape to clean up.
Sun Wukong (Infernape) @ Life Orb
Blaze
Naive
64 Atk/252 Sp.Atk/192 Spe
-Nasty Plot
-Fire Blast
-Grass Knot
-Close Combat
Started off as a pure NP Nape, but then slowly ended up as this when I realised that I could bluff people into thinking it was Special, then CC their Blissey for a nice, clean OHKO (with SR damage). 64 attack EVs is all I need to pull this off, and since Infernape's gonna be ridiculously fast with a +speed nature anyway, it doesn't need a full 252 EVs to outrun most major threats. 252 Special Attack EVs are obvious.
Fire Blast lets me get some OHKOs that would be impossible with Flamethrower, although the miss might be worse than a lack of power. Grass Knot was also obvious, and a personal favourite move of mine. Back in the days of D/P, I used my Grass Knot TM on my starter and bred the move onto all my other Infernapes. Close Combat and Nasty Plot are the sole reasons for this set existing, as I said before, it lets me fool the opposition, then wipe them out with a CC.
WONGA! (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
Thick Fat
Adamant
168 HP/100 Att/120 Def/120 Sp.D (Random EVs ftw!)
-Curse
-Crunch
-Body Slam
-Rest
Yeah, random Evs are random. I suppose I could move some around at some point if I find there's somethign specific I need to survive, but for now they stay as they are. Also, Adamant nature lets Snorlax dish out more damage with those attacks.
Curselax is one of those sets that's just amazingly versatile. Sure, rest without Chesto Berry or Sleep Talk might seem stupid, but with Celebi on the team, it can be woken up relatively quickly, although it'll lose its boosts that way. Crunch means it's not completely walled by Ghosts, so I can actually keep him in on Rotom and Gengar! I've used this guy so many times, catching people out by switching in on a Shadow Ball, taking the Focus Blast and CRUNCH! I add those guys to the heap! (TWEWY fans should get that reference). Body Slam's purely for the hax. It's saved me countless times, in various Wi-fi tournaments.
Thick Fat's obvious as an ability. Sure, Immunity means you don't have to worry about poison, but with a cleric on the team it's hardly necessary. Plus it means that I don't have to worry about the massive Ice weakness half my team has, since Snorlax can take pretty much any Ice attack head-on and force a switch.
Bryn (Dragonite) @ Life Orb
Inner Focus
Quiet
252 Atk/252 Sp.A/4 Spe
-Extremespeed
-Fire Blast
-Earthquake
-Draco Meteor
Based on the anti-lead set. Sure, it functions well in that role, but the best bit is that it can get in 10 massively powerful hits (potentially) at any time. It'd be good if there was a slot for Roost, but since this is meant to be an all-out attacker as opposed to a wall it's fine without it.
This set is obviously supposed to get as much coverage as possible, with bulky Steels taking tons from EQ and Fire Blast, the latter of which deals with Skarm particularly well. Draco Meteor can dent anything that isn't steel, although it means Bryn's restricted to his physical attacks until he switches out, and taking 25% per switch might not actually be ideal. But hey, it's Dragonite, so it's awesome! Also, extremespeed give it an edge over Mixmence, since it can take out weakened Pokemon before they get the chance to unleash one final attack.
Rooster (Zapdos) @ Life Orb
Pressure
Timid
252 Sp.Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
-Thunderbolt
-Heat Wave
-Hidden Power Ice
-Roost
An all-out sweeper I've been using since I started battling, originally modest, but I eventually replaced him with the timid version you see today, since I kept getting outsped at crucial moments and the power gained from being Modest wasn't really noticeable.
Thunderbolt is the obligatory STAB move, which can sometimes get some nice parahax, but that hardly ever happens. Heat Wave is the Scizor-killing move, but I have to be careful and make sure there aren't any Heatran waiting in the wings ready to absorb it (and that's happened to me countless times in the past). HP Ice is the best way for me to deal with Gliscor, Flygon and Mence, all of which have been switched in on Rooster only to take a super-effective attack to the face. Everyone seems to expect HP Grass these days...
Roost means that Zapdos can do what Dragonite can't on this team, recovering 50% of its HP instantly, but at the cost of making Ground moves super-effective, so it must be used with caution.
Piccolo (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Natural Cure
Calm
252 HP/220 Def/36 Spe
-Heal Bell
-Leech Seed
-Psychic
-Recover
I stole the Smogon set, sue me! As a member of the 'Youtube Wi-Fi' community, people often criticise me for using Smogon sets, claiming that originality is better. Of course, sometimes it is, but ususally the Smogon sets are a lot more effective than their gimmicky Choice Band Latias and their Curse Vaporeons. Just take one look at Xenon3120's channel and you'll probably be foaming at the mouth instantly at the stupidity of his 'Super Original' sets. But this is an RMT, not a rant, so let's get back on track.
As I said before, I always wanted a Cleric on this team, and Celebi works perfectly. It's got great defenses, high HP, instant recovery and can also plant leech seeds. Psychic's simply just for a bit extra coverage, and as I mentioned in the leads section, it deal with Roserade quite well. I could have gone for Hidden Power, but then it wouldn't have got a STAB boost, and anyway there's already 3 fire moves and an ice move on this team.
So there you go, that's my first ever RMT finished. Once the threat list's up and running (purely theoretical at the moment), it'll be ready for the outside world!
