Battle Spot The "A" Team

[DitzyDrunk]

Hello!

So, I've been lurking around here for forever but I finally made an account. About a year ago, I entered the mystical, magical world of competitive Pokemon battling on the Battle Spot with a team that wasn't my in-game one. However, this team could use some improvements. I know there's something missing from it, but I'm just not sure what.

The Team:

Talonflame (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Flame Body ***Fiarria
Adamant | 4 HP | 252 Atk | 252 Spe
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Roost
- Tailwind
This is my fast lead, usually sure to set up a Tailwind that comes in handy with some of the slower members of this team. If she doesn't die, Talonflame can usually come in and kill whatever's still standing. I'm giving power to Brave Bird because it's sort of a trade-off; Brave Bird gets the extra power but no side effect, while Flare Blitz has a chance to burn. Roost is so it can takes hits later easier.

Clefable (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard ***Ariala
Modest | 4 Def | 252 Sp. Atk | 252 Sp. Def
- Moonblast
- Moonlight
- Calm Mind
- Flamethrower
Clefable's a powerful beast when awoken, laying waste to teams with it's LO-boosted Moonblast, and when it's tired, a Moonlight will take all the pain away. Calm Mind makes it even harder to dent while making its attacks stronger, and Flamethrower is thrown in for when only a Steel- or Bug-Type stands in her way. This is also why I needed that Tailwind boost, because she's pretty slow on her own.

Golem (F) @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Sturdy
Jolly | 252 Atk | 4 Sp. Def | 252 Spe
-Rock Polish
-Thunder Punch
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
Wait, wait, wait, before you yell at me for trying to make this thing fast, it's a lot faster than it looks. The strategy here is, send it into an attack it's weak too, or don't switch out of one that's coming. Activate Sturdy and get the Attack boost, and a Rock Polish if possible, and feel free to kill. Thunder Punch kills Water-Types, and a typical EdgeQuake for maximum range of attack.

Chesnaught (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof ***Cuddles
Jolly | 252 Atk | 252 Def | 4 Spe. Def
-Spiky Shield
-Drain Punch
-Leech Seed
-Substitute
I really wanted this to be a tank, even if that double weakness to Flying wasn't very appealing. Spiky Shield is useful for scouting, and + Rocky Helmet deals some damage. Drain Punch heals nicely, and Leech Seed is nice for that as well. Bulletproof seemed like a more useful ability than Overgrow, especially when I'm getting some of my health back every turn.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure ***Misty
Timid | 172 HP | 80 Sp. Atk | 252 Spe
-Rapid Spin
-Ice Beam
-Scald
-Psychic
So I got the luckiest Wonder Trade of all time, with perfect IVs across the board, neat nature, good ability, cool nickname, a Dive Ball, holding Leftovers, and of course, the shininess. Rapid Spin gets rid of annoying Spikes and SR, Ice Beam's good coverage and Scald gives me STAB and burns. For the last slot, I couldn't really think of anything, so I just stuck Psychic on there. It rarely gets used, thought. 172 HP gives me a magic Leftovers number for optimal recovery and 252 Speed makes it tough to outspeed.

Azumarill (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power *** Macaroon
Adamant | 92 HP | 252 Atk | 162 Def
-Belly Drum
-Aqua Jet
-Play Rough
-Knock Off
He's the standard fare when it comes to Azumarill movesets, but there is a reason! Typical even HP stat to ensure activation of Sitrus Berry. Aqua Jet for priority, Play Rough for the coverage, and Knock Off gets rid of pesky items while dealing more damage.

And there you have it! Thank you so much for taking time to read through and rate it.

Also, if anyone could tell me how to use the yellow 'expand' tabs, that would be great.

 

[a0161613]

DitzyDrunk you've got Flame Body on Talonflame. That's not correct right?

Im also pretty sure that those EV spreads on Clef & Chesnaught are far from optimal. You can't always invest in defence with HP investment.

Your Starmie is almost certainly a hack if it's pentagon.

 

[DitzyDrunk]

At the time of pulling together this team, I did't have access to Gale Wings Talonflame, though it seems like a long-overdue upgrade.

Thanks, I think I'll switch the Def. and Sp. Def. for HP.

The Starmie does have a pentagon, but when else am I going to get the chance to use something so awesome?

 

[Omastar68]

Well, like mentioned(I think, a0161613 worded that weird,) HP investment tends to go further than just maxing a defense. The exception is stuff with HP way higher than defensive stat you wanna improve, like Chansey, Blissey, and Drifblim. Stuff like Clefable that has a higher HP stat than its SpD by only a little prefers SpD investment, cuz that also helps physical bulk a lot.

I really doubt Talon needs all that Spe, especially cuz it has Tailwind and Roost. Cutting back on that is prolly a good idea. There's a Mega Resources Thread with BSS Spe tiers among other stuff, that'd help find a benchmark.

Golem looks neat. I don't think I have any real complaints, but maybe Rock Blast over Stone Edge for more accuracy band sub breaking. Explosion over T-Punch is also a consideration. It'll do more than a 2x SE T-Punch, and is nice when Golem is about to die anyways.

Chesnaught seems good. I'm curious how you were able to get it HA but you didn't have access to HA Talon. Personally I got HA Talon a while before HA Chesnaught. I'm a bit wary of mono fighting coverage tho. Has Sub really been that helpful? I mean considering Naught is on the slow side.

Starmie is almost assuredly a hack. I could breed you one with perfect IVs and the same nature-could even make Atk 0 if you have anything good enough-if you wantes and has anything I might b interested in. Otherwise it's not to hard to DexNav an HA Staryu in ORAS, tho it's rare so make sure you get Staryu in your Pokedex so you don't have to spend a few hrs looking for it in Lilycove. Then you just breed with a flawless Ditto and you kno the drill.

Other than that you REALLY don't want Rapid Spin in this meta. It's almost always a wasted move slot. Starmie has a really good movepool, so it's not hard to find something better to use.

Azu looks perfectly normal except the weird EVs. I don't kno how you decided on those. You're also missing a few, SpD should be 164 to use all your EVs.

 

[cant say]

This team has got some glaring issues. Apart from not using a Mega Pokemon at all, you have no answers for the top threats in the metagame, namely Mega Kangaskhan, Thundurus and Mega Gengar. You also have some overlap, collectively you have 2 Fairy-types and 2 Water-types, which just compounds your weakness to Thundurus, Aegislash, Ferrothorn and Serperior.

Talonflame is absolutely not worth using without Gale Wings, if you can't get one then replace it, but you really don't have any excuse with our Wi-Fi forum existing and how friendly everyone there is. If you get one with Gale Wings and wanna use it then I would recommend using the good old Choice Band set straight from our dex as it's really easy for beginners to use, or you could try the specially defensive spread, which will help you a lot against Sylveon and Mega Venusaur:

Talonflame @ Lum Berry / Maranga Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Atk / 44 Def / 188 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird / Acrobatics
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost

I think you'll get a lot more out of Clefable if you use Unaware and a Bold nature with a physically defensive spread. Thunder Wave over Flamethrower is another good option as it makes setting up Calm Minds easier. The set should look like:

Clefable @ Kee Berry
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nautre
- Thunder Wave
- Moonblast
- Moonlight / Rest
- Calm Mind

Golem is the oddball of this team, he isn't a good Pokemon in Battle Spot and he isn't providing anything useful to your team. I think you should instead try out Dragon Dance Mega Tyranitar instead. A much better sweeper than Golem, and helps with your Mega Gengar situation if you use a Jolly Nature. This is the set I would use:

Tyranitar @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Stone Edge / Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Ice Punch / Earthquake

If you do keep Golem (you shouldn't) then why not use a Weakness Policy rather than Leichi Berry?

Chesnaught is a weird Pokemon, it's almost totally outclassed by Ferrothorn so I don't see much use in it. Bulletproof is cool for (Mega) Gengar I guess, but your only way of doing damage to it is Leech Seed, which gets stopped totally by Substitute / Taunt. Either Assault Vest Conkeldurr or Ferrothorn would be a good replacement, but I'll say Ferrothorn due to it being able to check Mega Kangaskhan which you can't do yet.

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet / Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed / Impish Nature
- Gyro Ball / Iron Head
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip / Thunder Wave / Knock Off

Starmie, yet another Pokemon in your team that is downright outclassed by another in the meta. There is absolutely no reason to use this thing over Greninja (yes, even shininess). Also, Rapid Spin (and a bulky spread) serves no purpose here. Greninja is much better, and Protean means that running dual Waters in the team won't matter so much, since Greninja rarely uses Water-STAB. I recommend using this:

Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 20 Atk / 236 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Gunk Shot
- Low Kick / Extrasensory / Grass Knot

Finally, Azumarill. He actually looks fine. I don't know where you got the spread from but physically defensive is pretty popular recently, probably because it turns Garchomp into setup fodder. Consider using Superpower over Knock Off as a way to beat opposing Ferrothorn, since you don't have anything for that so it's likely your opponent will bring it. You also have SpD Talon, Mega Ttar and Greninja for Aegislash if you take my advice so Knock Off doesn't do much.

Since you're new, I'm gonna leave some links for you to check out; we hope to see you around the Battle Spot forum and chat room on Pokemon Showdown! If you ever need stuff to breed in-game, ask one of us regulars, or visit the Wi-Fi section, there's no excuses for not having something to use anymore!

---

Summary:

• Get Gale Wings, use either Choice Band or SpD
• Use Unaware Clef. Consider T-wave
• Use Mega Tyranitar over Golem
• Use Ferrothorn over Chesnaught
• Use Greninja over Starmie
• Consider Superpower over Knock Off on Azu

edit: grammar