The Crazies

NidokingKing

NidokingKing

THE CRAZIES

(Because I couldn’t come up with a name, and I think I ripped this off from something)

This is the team I used for the Pleasonton Regionals back in the 2012 Spring Regionals. It placed 40th, which was pretty good for my first full regionals in the Masters Division. I also used it in the recent Autumn Friendly, in which I gotten an amazing 1533 points [/sarcasm]. Without further ado, here is the team: The Crazies.

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Tornadus-I @ Flying Gem
Nature: Jolly
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Acrobatics
-Hammer Arm
-Taunt
-Tailwind

This guy has saved me more times than I can count. With flying gem acrobatics, he is able to 2HKO nearly every non-resist. Anything that either resists acrobatics or doesn’t take very much after the flying gem is used up usually can’t take a hammer arm. Taunt is there for when stuff like Zapdos and anything I suspect to be a TR pokemon, such as Cresselia and Jellicent. Tailwind is for making sure I keep the pressure on my opponent offensively while allowing me to worry less about speed ties and worry more about stupid hax.

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Chandelure @ Grass Gem
Nature: Timid
Ability: Flash Fire
HP Fighting 70
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Shadow Ball
-Fire Blast
-Energy Ball
-Protect

Chandelure is one of my favorite 5th gen pokemon. This guy can bluff an imprison set, but sadly it has rarely ever come in handy, so I’m usually stuck making her a counter to fake out leads, forcing the opponent to choose the other pokemon I’ve sent out. Shadow Ball is the obligatory STAB that seems to hit everything I want it to. Fire Blast is the hard hitting move for steel and normal types that resist shadow ball. Solarbeam is pretty fun to use simply because I don’t have to rely on sun to fire off a powerful coverage move that threatens a large number of water types that expect to come in on Chandy and wall him. Protect is protect, nothing is new.

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Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Nature: Modest
4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
-Dark Pulse
-Draco Meteor
-Fire Blast
-Protect

I honestly don’t even want to write about this as this isn’t even the correct set. The only reason I chose to leave it as is is because I’m too lazy to change it back and I actually want to hear what everyone says on what his moveset should be. The only thing currently set in stone is dark pulse and draco meteor. Everything else is up for changes. P.S. This guy is easily the most replaceable (IMO) on this team.

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Weavile @ Black Belt
Nature: Jolly
8 HP / 248 Atk / 252 Spe
-Ice Shard
-Night Slash
-Low Kick
-Protect

This Weavile is something that I came up with on the fly. Ice shard is the priority attack that I’ve relied on for non-bulky ground and grass types. I occasionally use it on dragons, but most of the dragons used are the Lati twins and the occasional Hydreigon. It hits the other dragons just as hard as, if not harder than, Night Slash. Night Slash is the move of choice when going for the most dragons against the non-steels. Anything that the other two moves can’t hit for good damage will cause me to fall back onto low kick. This is the whole reason for the black belt. I’m currently having trouble deciding between expert belt and black belt. The black belt allows me to secure a 2HKO on non-defensive metagross and almost all TTar’s. Protect is still protect.

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Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Sand Stream
8 HP / 248 Atk / 128 Def / 124 SpDef
-Crunch
-Protect
-Rock Slide
-Thunder Wave

First off, thunder wave was not the original intended move. That was meant to be protect. When I saw that I registered TTar with thunder wave I worried that he wouldn’t be able to perform the bulky offense that he was intended for. Thunder wave gave him a new utility that made it easier for me to lower the usefulness of Latios, one of my biggest threats when I don’t lead with weavile. Dark gem crunch is incredibly powerful. I forget what I was going for, but now I’m thinking that expert belt might be the way to go. Earthquake was useful because everything on my team that gets hit by it has protect. Rock slide is the STAB move that trolls everyone with double crit flinches. It also does pretty decent damage considering that it is a spread move and gets a power reduction.

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Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Sand Veil (sometimes I wish you were rough skin)
8 HP / 252 Atk / 248 Spe
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Substitute
-Protect

The hax master herself, Garchomp! Always a threatening pokemon as it has perfect STABs. Dragon Rush is for a powerful move that doesn’t lock me for 2 or 3 turns. Sadly it has pretty bad accuracy, so the tradeoff isn’t too nice. Earthquake hits every steel that resists dragon rush, other than skarmory of course, for super effective damage. Rock Slide is because you can never have too much hax abuse (well you can, but I digress). Originally I used Fire Fang, but then I realized how much it overlaps in coverage with earthquake, only hitting the non-existent skarmory harder and losing coverage on the much more common heatran, so I switched to rock slide for no real reason. Protect is still freaking protect, nothing will ever change that! I need help deciding on yache berry vs. rocky helmet. Each has there own obvious uses, but I'm not very sure about which one I should use.

Well that was my RMT. Thanks for reading. I will accept any constructive criticism so please, nothing too harsh. And remember, you can’t read sarcasm!!!

Changes in this color.
 
Hey,

I don't really play VGC but I recommend giving Garchomp Focus Sash. This will prevent stray ice beams from taking him down, and residual sand cannot kill him at 1 HP. Also, I would give him 252 Speed evs, you wouldn't want to lose a Speed Tie.

Iirc SolarBeam has 60 BP in rain, so just run Grass Gem and Energy Ball on Chandelure for more reliable way to get a 120 BP grass attack.
 
Thanks for the rate! Sadly, sash doesn't prevent residual sand from KOing, not that he can take that damage anyway. Ice beams are a problem but I remember mentioning yache berry vs. rocky helmet. The speed tie isn't as important in VGC when the only thing tieing with Chomp that would be threatening is another Chomp, but that's why I have tailwind and weavile.

EDIT: yeah, I forgot to mention yache, woops
 
Good team, looks pretty solid but in my opinion there are a few things to fix.

First of all you are running 3 Dark-Types, two of them have a double weakness to fighting types which are very popular today. I think you could try changing your Weavile for this:

Hitmontop @ Fighting Gem
Intimidate
Some sort of Defensive EVs
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch/Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Detect

This gives you also the possibility to set up much easier thanks to Fake Out and a way to get rid of Dark-Types.

Secondly, the moves. You have a Tyranitar without any protection, it can only switch out if it's in danger. I'd recommend this set:

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Sand Stream
More investment into HP instead of Def and SDef, a bit less in Attack.
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Rock Slide
- Protect

I think switching Hydreigon's Focus Blast for Protect and Fire Blast for Flamethrower is also a good idea because these moves just lack accuracy, which is VERY important. Also - a bit less Speed EVs, a bit more HP. Hydreigon's base Speed is weird, not many Pokemon have share it, so you don't need to max out the Speed.

Moreover, you need more speed control, that's why you could change Chandelure's Solarbeam for Trick Room and Power Herb for Ghost/Fire Gem. Also Heat Wave is a great option for it because it's a spread move. From my experience HP EVs are always a good investment in Chandelure and with less Speed EVs you're more sure to outspeed in TR.

Finally - Garchomp. This dragon is often used not because its power but because of its bulk. I'd rather try to give more EVs to SDef, Def and of course HP. Moreover Substitute is a good move to replace Rock Slide since you already have it on your T-tar. Dragon Rush lacks accuracy what makes it not reliable in crucial moments. I'd suggest you to use Dragon Claw or Dual Chop (helps breaking Subs) and as a little defensive investment that helps a lot - Yache or Haban Berry. Btw - don't change Sand Veil for Rough Skin - it's not worth it. Sand Veil is great, helps survive dangerous attacks, once I won thanks to it, cos my opponent's Blizzard missed in a crucial moment.

So I hope this helps, let us know if it does/doesn't.
 
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but this team is kind of a mess. There's no clear focus or synergy, and it's got some pretty glaring weaknesses, particularly Trick Room and Rock/Fighting attacks, along with a lot of redundancy (two Dragons and three Dark-types?). Looking at your descriptions, it seems like you mostly considered each Pokémon in a vacuum, without really paying attention to what the teammates can offer or how they can work together. I think that the problem is not the team itself but rather how you built it - the last round of VGC Battling 101 before regionals starts today, so you may want to sign up for that to get a better idea of how to build teams. There are also some problems with the sets themselves too though, so I'll give a few comments on those:

Unless Garchomp's Speed IV is even for some reason, there is absolutely no point in taking out 4 EVs. It doesn't even give it another point of HP, so you're losing the speed tie for literally no gain. I would also recommend against Dragon Rush, since Dragon Claw is far more reliable, and in a format where you're only playing 6-8 games, a bit of bad luck can really mess things up. If you have no reason for Rock Slide, you may want to consider Substitute instead - while I haven't used it myself, I've heard very good things from those who have. Definitely go for Yache, most of the stuff aimed at Garchomp is going to be non-contact moves anyway.

Tyranitar's EVs are completely inefficient, give it 252 HP instead of the defenses. It also really needs Protect, especially if you're not using Chople Berry, with Hitmontop and Metagross all over the place. I'd drop Earthquake since you already have Garchomp for that, and half of the rest of your team really doesn't like having to deal with it. While I do think Thunder Wave is a pretty good move for it, I'm not sure I follow your reasoning for choosing it - why paralyze Latios when you can just OHKO it with Crunch?

Weavile would probably make better use of the Life Orb than Hydreigon since it really can't take a hit anyway. If you find you're using Low Kick so much more than the other moves that an item to boost just that is worth it, you should probably be using a Fighting-type instead. I also think you should try to fit Fake Out on there somewhere, since one of Weavile's greatest assets is being the fastest Fake Outer in the game.

Hydreigon doesn't really need Focus Blast, you already have plenty of the coverage it provides and the accuracy is really undesirable. Protect is always a good choice, or you could try Dragon Pulse for reliability.

Chandelure really, really, really should not be using SolarBeam. For one, your own sand cuts its power in half, along with the hordes of rain teams and Abomasnow you're going to be facing. And even in clear skies, it's exactly as powerful as a Grass Gem Energy Ball on the first use, which has the advantage of not leaving you with a dead move slot for the rest of the game. Alternately, since your team except Tyranitar is really weak to Trick Room, using the Imprison set rather than bluffing it might be a good idea. Heat Wave > Fire Blast is also an option, and if you're not using HP Fighting you should look for one without it so that you don't automatically lose the speed tie with other Chandelure.
 
Szymoninho said:
Good team, looks pretty solid but in my opinion there are a few things to fix.

First of all you are running 3 Dark-Types, two of them have a double weakness to fighting types which are very popular today. I think you could try changing your Weavile for this:

Hitmontop @ Fighting Gem
Intimidate
Some sort of Defensive EVs
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch/Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Detect

This gives you also the possibility to set up much easier thanks to Fake Out and a way to get rid of Dark-Types.

Secondly, the moves. You have a Tyranitar without any protection, it can only switch out if it's in danger. I'd recommend this set:

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Sand Stream
More investment into HP instead of Def and SDef, a bit less in Attack.
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Rock Slide
- Protect

I think switching Hydreigon's Focus Blast for Protect and Fire Blast for Flamethrower is also a good idea because these moves just lack accuracy, which is VERY important. Also - a bit less Speed EVs, a bit more HP. Hydreigon's base Speed is weird, not many Pokemon have share it, so you don't need to max out the Speed.

Moreover, you need more speed control, that's why you could change Chandelure's Solarbeam for Trick Room and Power Herb for Ghost/Fire Gem. Also Heat Wave is a great option for it because it's a spread move. From my experience HP EVs are always a good investment in Chandelure and with less Speed EVs you're more sure to outspeed in TR.

Finally - Garchomp. This dragon is often used not because its power but because of its bulk. I'd rather try to give more EVs to SDef, Def and of course HP. Moreover Substitute is a good move to replace Rock Slide since you already have it on your T-tar. Dragon Rush lacks accuracy what makes it not reliable in crucial moments. I'd suggest you to use Dragon Claw or Dual Chop (helps breaking Subs) and as a little defensive investment that helps a lot - Yache or Haban Berry. Btw - don't change Sand Veil for Rough Skin - it's not worth it. Sand Veil is great, helps survive dangerous attacks, once I won thanks to it, cos my opponent's Blizzard missed in a crucial moment.

So I hope this helps, let us know if it does/doesn't.
Click to expand...

While I do find the idea of a fake outer to be great, I think I'll stick with Weavile. I will change the set at least so that I have fake out. Maybe over low kick, I'm not sure.
Focus Blast is probably the best move to change to protect on Hydreigon, so I agree with you there. The whole fire blast versus flamethrower thing is more or less about preference and I would honestly prefer the power. I agree that his base speed is weird, but I need actual EVs if I'm going to attempt to change that up.
I actually didn't realize how bad solarbeam was, for reasons I'll explain in the response below me. The only thing I won't do change that to trick room. I just don't think my team would benefit from it when I have weavile, tornadus, and garchomp all on the same team. I also don't think gems are the way to go for Chandelure, but I'll see what I accomplish.
Finally is Garchomp. I have never heard of people using chomp for his bulk. I'll think about that but right now it's probably going to be a no. Honestly I don't know when in a double battle I would have time to set up a sub without something like amoonguss or anything else with a follow me-esque move. I think I'll go with dragon claw, dual chop has power and accuracy issues if I remember correct. I've actually never thought of using haban, but yache is my go to item for chomp usually.

Thanks for the rate!

I'll do Voodoo Pimp's rate later.

voodoo pimp said:
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but this team is kind of a mess. There's no clear focus or synergy, and it's got some pretty glaring weaknesses, particularly Trick Room and Rock/Fighting attacks, along with a lot of redundancy (two Dragons and three Dark-types?). Looking at your descriptions, it seems like you mostly considered each Pokémon in a vacuum, without really paying attention to what the teammates can offer or how they can work together. I think that the problem is not the team itself but rather how you built it - the last round of VGC Battling 101 before regionals starts today, so you may want to sign up for that to get a better idea of how to build teams. There are also some problems with the sets themselves too though, so I'll give a few comments on those:

Unless Garchomp's Speed IV is even for some reason, there is absolutely no point in taking out 4 EVs. It doesn't even give it another point of HP, so you're losing the speed tie for literally no gain. I would also recommend against Dragon Rush, since Dragon Claw is far more reliable, and in a format where you're only playing 6-8 games, a bit of bad luck can really mess things up. If you have no reason for Rock Slide, you may want to consider Substitute instead - while I haven't used it myself, I've heard very good things from those who have. Definitely go for Yache, most of the stuff aimed at Garchomp is going to be non-contact moves anyway.

Tyranitar's EVs are completely inefficient, give it 252 HP instead of the defenses. It also really needs Protect, especially if you're not using Chople Berry, with Hitmontop and Metagross all over the place. I'd drop Earthquake since you already have Garchomp for that, and half of the rest of your team really doesn't like having to deal with it. While I do think Thunder Wave is a pretty good move for it, I'm not sure I follow your reasoning for choosing it - why paralyze Latios when you can just OHKO it with Crunch?

Weavile would probably make better use of the Life Orb than Hydreigon since it really can't take a hit anyway. If you find you're using Low Kick so much more than the other moves that an item to boost just that is worth it, you should probably be using a Fighting-type instead. I also think you should try to fit Fake Out on there somewhere, since one of Weavile's greatest assets is being the fastest Fake Outer in the game.

Hydreigon doesn't really need Focus Blast, you already have plenty of the coverage it provides and the accuracy is really undesirable. Protect is always a good choice, or you could try Dragon Pulse for reliability.

Chandelure really, really, really should not be using SolarBeam. For one, your own sand cuts its power in half, along with the hordes of rain teams and Abomasnow you're going to be facing. And even in clear skies, it's exactly as powerful as a Grass Gem Energy Ball on the first use, which has the advantage of not leaving you with a dead move slot for the rest of the game. Alternately, since your team except Tyranitar is really weak to Trick Room, using the Imprison set rather than bluffing it might be a good idea. Heat Wave > Fire Blast is also an option, and if you're not using HP Fighting you should look for one without it so that you don't automatically lose the speed tie with other Chandelure.
Click to expand...

Ok, I do acknowledge the redundancy, I've always had issues with preventing myself from doing that. I actually rarely have trouble with TR, mostly because it is easy to play around unless it the TR setter is one of the left field mons that you wouldn't expect. I was actually thinking about doing VGC Battling 101 earlier, but this just made me want to sign up even more.
Yeah, Chomp's speed IV is 30, but I just recently got a new gible with perfect IV's, so I will change the set. I'm not sure about dragon rush, the only time I've ever been screwed using it was against another garchomp in the sand. I'll give Sub a try considering I've gotten two recommendations for it, but I'm still skeptical. Rocky helmet -> Yache berry.
I would run Chople berry but I'm not in a position to get one. I would rather use that than anything else on TTar, especially when most of the fighting moves are either (not so) random low kicks or hitmontops close combat. When I finished writing the TTar description, I didn't look over it very carefully and basically made it sound more like I was using it strictly for Latios. I use Thunder Wave more or less for stuff that I can outspeed in tailwind, but can't KO and need a few turns to accomplish that. The only other time is during a weather war where the opponent has a speed boost from the current weather and it's too risky to switch out to bring me control of said weather.
Yeah, I was wondering about Weavile. He has had more variety in his items than the rest of the team has in the last two tournaments. I'm actually not using Low Kick as much as you would think. I'm only using the black belt becuase I couldn't think of any other item to use other than expert belt. I do want to fit fake out in there, but I'm not sure what I should get rid of.
Yeah, focus blast -> protect. I'm also thinking of Fire Blast -> Surf. Yes, no?
I actually didn't know that other weathers cut the power of solarbeam. There goes that idea. I've never actually thought of trying the imprison set, mostly because I'm afraid that it might backfire on me somewhere down the rode. I might also try HP Fighting again, I forget why I stopped using it in the first place.

Thanks for the rate!
 
Ok, so changes.

Chandelure:
Solarbeam -> Energy Ball
Power Herb -> Grass Gem

Hydreigon:
Focus Blast -> Protect

Tyranitar:
Earthquake -> Protect
Dark Gem -> Chople Berry
EVs to 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def

Garchomp:
Rocky Helmet -> Yache Berry
Rock Slide -> Substitute
Dragon Rush -> Dragon Claw
 
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