Last competitive team of Generation IV. Sadly.
Team-Building Process
The finished product turned into something that I was very comfortable using, and something I was very proud of and confident in.
Team-Building Process
- I didn't really have anything in mind for this team when I started it. I just knew I wanted to build a team. So I dug through all of my boxes and came to my favorite lead ever and threw it on a team. Pretty weak, I know, but it's working out. Metagross does terrible things to any Pokemon that stand in it's way, and that's how I like it. :]
- Next, I thought to myself; I know I like bulky offense, what pokemon are excellent bulky sweepers, and which of those am I comfortable using? Gyarados, Kingdra and Dragonite immediately came to mind. Gyarados and Dragonite were my initial picks because I had used them both on teams before with my lead Metagross to great success. Gyarados covers Dragonite's weakness to Ice and Metagross' weakness to Fire and Ground. Metagross covers Gyarados' weakness to Electric and Rock and Dragonite's weakness' to Dragon and Ice, and Dragonite handles Fire and Ground attacks for Metagross as well. I enjoy the synergy as well as the devastation these Pokemon can bring to the table.
- With the presence of Stealth Rock in the metagame being as significant as it is, I knew I either needed a A) Rapid Spinner, or B) a Wish Passer. Being the bulky offense player that I am, I immediately thought Starmie! Buuuut, I wanted something that could come in on relatively anything with ease, so I decided that Blissey was my solution to all of these problems. Her bulk is unrivaled, and her utility is as well. Seeing that she can pass Wish, cure status, wall everything and stall Trick Room and PP with Protect while healing off damage is pretty nuts.
- For the next Pokemon, originality struck. I had been playing Shoddy at a friend's house about a week or two before I decided to build this team and I was using a Weezing in UU to great success. I knew I wanted something else besides Gyarados to come in on Fighting types as well as...well, everything else physical. I felt like I was relying on Gyara too much. So Weezing it was. Turns out Blissey and Weezing are absolutely crazy in tandem. I really don't know why Weezy isn't more popular.
- Last Poke I threw on here was Forretress because it's my favorite. Lol. I really have no excuses. I kept thinking "Hmm, Skarmbliss is good. Why not?" and just threw Forrey in the mix in place of Skarm and figured it would work. I was wrong, and soon changed the team. I'll get to that in a minute.
- First change I made to the team was removing Forretress for Skarmory. Retains the Fire weakness and even picks up an Electric weakness, but Electric and Fire aren't anything that Weezing and Blissey (And everything else, for that matter.) can't handle. Skarmory does a lot more for the team both Offensively and Defensively. Comes in safely on Spikes and sets up Stealth Rock so Metagross doesn't have to do it. Takes weak Fire hits a lot better than Forretress and the immunity to Earthquake comes in handy a lot, too. Also has pretty good synergy with the other Pokemon I subbed in maybe a day or two down the road.
- Gyarados just wasn't doing it for me, so back to the drawing board I went and decided that Weezing, Skarmory and Dragonite could handle my Fighting type problems and I chose to add Kingdra to the team. Again, I have had immense success with this Pokemon. I feel that Kingdra is severly underrated, having been overshadowed by Salamence and Dragonite, and even Flygon. It's bulkyness gets it through enough Dragon Dances to absolutely tear through teams, and with the Chestorest set, this thing is nearly unkillable, taking neutral damage from Extremespeed and Mach Punch, and having a 4x resistance to Bullet Punch. It also did defensively what I wanted Gyarados to do, barring covering Fighting types, but with Kingdra I got a Water typed sweeper that could also take hits from Grass and Electric type Pokemon, and eat a Stone Edge or two along with it.
The finished product turned into something that I was very comfortable using, and something I was very proud of and confident in.
A Closer Look
@
(Occa Berry)
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd,-SpAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Meteor Mash
I've been using this lead for quite some time. It's usefulness is pretty ridiculous, honestly. The set is very simple, kill kill kill, and it does it very well. Metagross has enough bulk and the stats to outspeed and kill quite a few of the most popular Pokemon in OU right now, namely Breloom and Dragonite. Also outspeeds most unscarved Heatran and OHKO's with Earthquake. I think that maybe the simplicity of this beast is what makes it so good.
This is what he does to the top 10 leads;
- Meteor Mash it down to 1 HP as it Stealth Rocks and then Bullet Punch it to death. If it Reflects instead, keep Meteor Mashing it, hope for an attack boost, and sweep anyway.
- Either I Explode right away, or switch to Weezing. This is the only Fighting Pokemon I don't like to see because of the Confusion Dynamicpunch causes.
- Meteor Mash it down to 1 HP as it Stealth Rocks or Taunts or EQ's, and then Bullet Punch it to death.
- Outspeed them and Earthquake to death.
- Switch to Weezing or Kingdra.
- Earthquake just in case it doesn't Fake Out for some reason, Earthquake on the Fire move and then Bullet Punch it to death.
- Earthquake it's Shuca berry as it Rocks and then Earthquake again. Most of the time I outspeed these, though.
- Spam Earthquake.
- Meteor Mash first, then Bullet Punch it to death.
- Bullet Punch to break the Sash, take the sleep and then switch to Weezing, Skarmory or Dragonite and proceed to set up or spread Burns.
As you can see, I have these handled.
(M) @
(Lum Berry)
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP/52 Atk/204 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk,-SpAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Roost
I see a lot more Mixnite than I do this guy, and I'm not quite sure why. Dragonite is no Mixmence, and I don't look at it to fill the role of Salamence. I've always seen Dragonite as the bulky older brother of Salamence that likes to come in, take his time to set up, and then curbstomp some Cresselias that think their Ice Beams will actually do something. That's what this Dragonite is here for. It can come in on a multitude of attacks with it's awesome defensive typing (and stats!), set up a few Dragon Dances and absolutely wreck face. Simple enough. Early game sweeper, after Metagross has it's way with the opposing team first.
(M) @
(Chesto Berry)
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 144 HP/160 Atk/40 SpD/164 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk,-SpAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Rest
- Waterfall
Kingdra is a prime example of a very, very good sweeper. It's got the stats and the movepool to be a very dangerous Pokemon. It's really a shame that it took Salamence getting Uber'd for the light to be shone on this beast. Like Dragonite, it serves an entirely different use than Salamence did, and it serves it very well. Kingdra gets Dragon STAB, arguably the most useful STAB to have in the game, as well as Water STAB, another incredibly useful attacking type, and the bulk it's been given allows it to take enough hits to set up, Rest, and then set up some more with little to no concern. Kingdra's only weakness is Dragon, and realistically, Flygon is going to be the only thing outspeeding Kingdra after a Dragon Dance. Flygon is covered by Skarmory, Blissey, Weezing and Metagross. Once I can get Flygon (And to a lesser extent, Dragonite, who is outsped and OHKO'd by Kingdra and Metagross), Kingdra is free to destroy teams. Status is irrelevant to this guy, thanks to his berry. It also ensures that Kingdra WILL get a Dragon Dance, and it WILL hurt something. The coverage these two STAB moves give is pretty confounding and it really contributes a lot to the team by doing so little.
(M) @
(Leftovers)
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpAtk
Bold nature (+Def,-Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Pain Split
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
Now we come to the defensive core, and my favorite part of it. The immaculate Weezing. This thing does so much, I feel I may rely on it a little bit too much. This is my main Physical sponge, able to take hits that even Skarmory can't take with ease. He's killing Scizor, Tyranitar, Gliscor, Flygon, Gyarados, Dragonite, Kingdra, name something, Weezing is putting it down. Pain Split itself does a ton of work for this team. Weezing's low HP means that after 3-4 hits, he's going to A) be restoring a ton of health, and B) making the opposing Pokemon wish it was dead. Fire Blast and Thunderbolt also give Weezing a very wide range of Pokemon that it can hit for considerable damage. Even coming off of it's somewhat low Special Attack stat, either of it's moves are probably going to hurt something. And if not, he can just Burn them, which is really the beauty of the set.
(F) @
(Leftovers)
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpDef
Bold nature (+Def,-Atk)
- Heal Bell
- Protect
- Seismic Toss
- Wish
The second I discovered I could finally use Heal Bell with Wish, I had to use Blissey, so oddly enough I built a team that used it and Weezing, and it really worked out well. Err, Weezing and Blissey did as a pair, not the team. On this team however, they support a lot more than just themselves and Blissey is proving to be a very beneficial add to the party. I've always enjoyed using Blissey and this team loves to exploit her fatass Wishes. She doesn't really afraid of anything, either, which I'm very happy about. Her abysmal Defense stat is definitely compensated for by her 2.8 million HP, so much so that with max Defense EVs, max HP EVs and a Bold Nature, there's almost nothing that can 2HKO Blissey on either side of the spectrum without quite a bit of stat-upping.
And that's my team, thanks for looking. Threat list will be posted soon. Any and all criticism, praise, suggestions are welcome.(M) @
(Leftovers)
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 Spd
Impish nature (+Def,-SpAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
Finally we come to the third member of the Defensive core of the team, Skarmory. What would Skarmbliss be without Skarmory? -_- Well, he's not nearly as important as he would seem, but Skarmory still does a shit ton of work. Brave Bird is an insanely strong move, even coming from Skarmory, and I exploit that as much as possible during my matches simply because people don't expect to switch in on Skarmory and take a hit. I chose to go with Stealth Rock over Spikes simply because it hits everything, including Levitators. Whirlwind and Roost are pretty obvious. I didn't put any EVs into Special Defense because I have the rest of the team to take Electric an Fire type hits for him. This is probably the only member of the team I would consider changing. I was thinking either Crobat or a very bulky Staraptor with Featherdance.
