(taken from the 10th issue of The Smog, made by Cartoons!)
Introduction:
Well, it’s been a while since I made a topic here. A long, long while. Since then I like to think I’ve gotten a lot better at team building and just playing in general. I’m doing better than I’ve ever done on the ladder (though many would claim that’s due to shittier players) and I’ve finally advanced my teambuilding past the “try to counter as many threats and fill as many roles as possible” phase I was stuck in for so long. So here we have the first team I’ve probably ever made that is actually built to win instead of just survive!
As you can see, this team is seemingly standard rain offense. The goal of this team is to wear down the opponent’s checks and counters through pure offensive pressure until any one of my 4 potential sweepers (Hydreigon is a wallbreaker) can sweep through my opponent’s weakened team. Despite appearances, Politoed is there almost as an afterthought. Politoed just happened to both fill in as a check to many of the threats my team was weak to while also happening to boost the power of most of the team. However since abusing that rain meant switching to Thunder for a couple members, keeping up rain is still important for team success. I’ve had pretty good success with this team, only losing twice over the course of many games on showdown. Still it has weaknesses that I’m not completely sure how to remedy, so I’m hoping you guys here can help out!
I decided to build a team around Jolteon because I wanted to use a sweeper I haven’t used before. There really wasn’t any other motivation behind this decision.
A quick check of Jolteon’s analysis reminded me that Gyarados makes a potent duo with Jolteon, due to them being immune to each other’s most prominent weaknesses. I made Gyarados a bulky DD variant with Intimidate and substitute to make it a better check to many of the things that threaten Jolteon that don’t just use Ground moves as well.
I then decided that these two were going to have trouble busting through most walls themselves, so I decided to add a wallbreaker to make sure they got their opportunities to sweep. It was a hard pick between Latios, Hydreigon and Salamence, but I picked Hydreigon because it has a good balance of survivability and power, while still being able to take out the walls I need removed most – Ferrothorn, Blissey and Skarmory.
Mamoswine and Politoed came next as answers to boosting sweepers, with Mamo checking the speed boosting ones and Politoed checking more defensive boosters with Perish Song. Politoed also came with the added benefit of boosting Jolteon and Gyarados’ power.
I decided that with a bunch of Pokemon that are going to be doing a lot of switching and Gyarados being SR weak, that I’d be needing a spinner just in case. I eventually settled on Starmie for its ability to sweep as well as spin.
Strike (Jolteon) @ Life Orb
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Signal Beam
I’ll admit it, I was picking pretty much randomly when I decided to start a team focused around Jolteon. Jolteon isn’t typically the type of Pokemon you build a team around, being somewhat of a niche Pokemon. Still, it’s worked out quite well. Jolteon is all about offensive pressure and momentum. It comes in and fires off an attack before volt-switching out to whatever I chose, wearing down the opponent and occasionally spreading paralysis thanks to Thunder. Despite its poor coverage, Jolteon has few safe switch-ins in the rain, meaning every wrong prediction by the opponent is punished harshly. And if I mispredict, I still usually get out scott-free due to that blistering fast volt-switch, allowing Jolteon to live to harass my opponent another day without letting them set up for free. It’s rare that it does get to stay in though, as there are some persistent threats that wall it and Jolteon doesn’t take hits very well. Thankfully, it usually doesn’t have to stay in for long thanks to its teammates synergizing with it so well.
Unstoppable (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 88 HP / 248 Atk / 168 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Substitute
- Bounce
Gyarados is Jolteon’s best friend, and easily one of the most consistently useful Pokemon on the team. It performs both of its roles as a check and as a sweeper very well. Intimidate and Substitute allows it easy switch-ins and easy set-up, while Leftovers ensures it gets to stick around for a long while. It’s probably the Pokemon that gets the most sweeps on my team too thanks that substitute and its great STABs. Let’s just say it earned its nickname. It’s great to know that even when your opponent still has a check in stock, that Substitute will all Gyarados’ sweep to continue uninterrupted.
Apocalypse (Hydreigon) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Mild Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Roost
Perhaps the hardest Pokemon to wall that isn’t in Ubers, Hydreigon is here for one primary purpose; to destroy. Hydreigon doesn’t care that people have dragon resists. Hydreigon doesn’t care that rain weakens its Fire Blast. It STILL 2HKOs everything in the game except Chansey, who’s not getting away scott free either. Jirachi can be annoying in the rain though as I carry Roost instead of Earthquake, but that’s not usually a big deal with Mamoswine in the wings. And being able to keep the destruction going is very useful at times... especially since Hydreigon is my only grass resist and only water resist that isn’t electric weak, making it vital to keep it healthy sometimes.
Grasp (Mamoswine) @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Stealth Rock
Don’t let the presence of Stealth Rock fool you, Mamoswine is all about smashing things into the ground and revenge killing. Combined with Hydreigon there’s not a wall in the game that can hold me back, and Mamoswine also keeps all those pesky Ice-weak threats from sweeping me too. Stealth Rock is there only because I can’t fit it anywhere else on my team and I thought I would need it. It turns out that I almost never have the need to use it though and it’s almost always more beneficial to keep up the pressure with an attack instead. Still, it can be the difference between winning and losing in some cases. I’ve considered using Superpower instead but I’m nervous about dropping a move that’s such a staple of competitive battling.
Scrappy (Politoed) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Protect
- Perish Song
- Toxic
It’s not very often Politoed gets selected to be on a team for some reason OTHER than rain, but that’s the case here. The primary reason I picked Politoed was because of its ability to use Perish Song to prevent Calm Mind users from setting up on and sweeping my team, a role it has filled well beyond my expectations. It might seem odd to have a defensive Pokemon on an offensive team, but Perish song ensures that no game ending set-up ever occurs in its presence and having a bulky Pokemon to switch to is very useful at times. This is, of course, still saying nothing of its contributions to the sheer power of 3 of its teammates, which is considerable. The extra oomph has made a huge difference at times. Really, Politoed’s only downsides are those grass and electric type weaknesses, which I could really do without. It also has a tendency to get worn down when I need it to absorb hits, so I’ve considered switching to a Chesto-Eest set over Toxic (which is largely unnecessary with my Hydreigon around), though I question whether I’ll get many opportunities to use it do to the high pace nature of the team.
Omen (Starmie) @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Rain Dance
Starmie was probably the choice I was least sure of when teambuilding, but it’s performed well despite it. Its offensive similarity to Jolteon has proved a boon rather than a burden, as it’s rare that a team can take both of them in succession once a few key players (mostly Ferrothorn and scarfers) have been weakened or eliminated. Rapid spin was the reason I chose Starmie, but it has rarely had the opportunity to use it when it actually does become useful. Most of the time Starmie is instead used to keep that offensive pressure up, which means that not a lot of hazards end up being set against me anyway. Rain dance is used here because with Jolteon’s HP Ice and Mamoswine’s Ice Shard I have little need for another Ice-type attack, and Rain Dance theoretically gives me an edge against other types of weather. Again though, I’ve rarely found the need or opportunity to use it, making its inclusion on the set somewhat questionable.
General threats I’ve indentified:
-Bulky offensive grass types (esp. Shaymin but Celebi can be problematic too)
-Scarf Keldeo (It uses my own rain against me, and my resists have trouble threatening it and/or are prone to being worn down. CM version is not as bad due to Politoed preventing it from setting up and Jolteon and Starmie outspeeding it.)
-CB Dragonite (Powerful Extreme Speed and Multiscale mean it takes at least two hits to KO but can out-prioritize and KO most of my Pokemon. SR is hard for me to get up without sacrificing Mamo, so Multiscale frequently remains intact)
-Opposing Starmie (Jolteon is the only Pokemon that can check reliably it and it can’t switch in safely. Last encounter came down to a speed tie with my own Starmie)
-Choice Scarf Kyurem-B and Haxorus (No dragon resist means these two tear through my team with outrage)
-Lati@s (especially Latios. Again, no steel means no resist for Draco Meteor, meaning if it gets in safely something is going down)
-Terrakion (Nothing to switch into Stone Edge means I can only check it, and only shakily at best)
-Over-reliance on Hydreigon for defeating Ferrothorn. (nothing else can take it on 1 v 1, meaning if Hydreigon goes down it requires gradual, sacrificial weakening to get past).
Potential changes under consideration:
-Earthquake over Roost on Hydreigon
-Superpower over Stealth Rock on Mamoswine
-Celebi instead of Politoed (obvious changes to movesets to go with this as well)
-Chesto-rest instead of Toxic for Politoed
-Recover or Ice Beam over Rain Dance on Starmie
-Replacing Starmie with SOMETHING else...
As you can see, I’m putting seriously consideration towards removing the rain element of the team altogether by replacing Politoed with Celebi and Starmie with a different attacker, in order to solve the issue of fast Pokemon with the right coverage moves threatening me due to my lack of type diversity. I fear that the loss of power in Gyarados and Jolteon will be very noticeable though, and that it’ll open me up to sun teams which currently aren’t much of a threat.
Conclusion:
So that’s my team and what I’m thinking to do with it. I really want your opinions on the potential changes I’ve listed. I’m also open to suggestions for changes outside of the ones I’ve listed, but please don’t try to change the core of the team. I intended for this to be a Gyara-jolt team and it’s going to stay that way. Note that if you suggest a change I probably will ask you to explain your reasoning if you don’t do so to my satisfaction initially, and if I see problems with your suggestion I will point them out and ask you to address them. It’s nothing personal, I just want to figure out what the best solutions are and you can’t find that out without examining the suggestions people make properly. Anyway, I thank you all for your help in advance!
