I was able to use this team to get to 16th on the leaderboard, which is pretty good for me. Unfortunately the team is weak to a couple Pokemon, and so I decided to seek advice here, since I don't think I'll be able to get much higher with the current version of the team. I don't remember how I made the team very well, but I think I started with Lead Machamp and SubDD Kingdra, two Pokemon who were some of my favorites and who I had used successfully before. I remembered how vashta and Bloo had used a fire/grass/water core for their Kingdra team (the one they posted in the Team Rating Workshop), and decided that would be a good place to start. I added Shucatran, because he had good synergy with lead Machamp and was able to set up rocks. Now I needed a grass type. I don't like either of the two grass types in OU very much, but decided I'd use Celebi anyways. Then I thought of Shaymin, and how it had actually been pretty good on my 50/50 team (which I played like 5 games with). So I added LOShaymin next. I was looking weak to Salamence and some other stuff I forgot so I added Scizor. Finally I added Mixmence. I don't really remember why, but he has worked very well.
The name comes from the song Pink Bullets by The Shins, because my alt I laddered on was "over the ramparts," and in the same verse it says "the scent of her skin and some foreign flowers." Also the team has Shaymin.
Machamp (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP/248 Atk/4 Spd/16 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Dynamicpunch
- Ice Punch
- Payback
Machamp is an excellent lead who can often give me momentum early game by taking out two or three of the opponents Pokemon. The opponent generally has to play around it until it is weakened enough to revenge kill, and confusion doesn't help. Lum Berry is nice, because Dynamic Punch or Ice Punch + Bullet Punch will take out Smeargle or Roserade respectively. It also makes it harder for Rotom-a to beat me. Usually when they switch in they will WoW while I Payback, which does around 65% to defensive versions. I then switch to Heatran to get the Flash Fire boost and scare them out while I set up my rocks. Machamp matches up favorably with almost every popular lead, and I rarely find myself forced to switch out. The SpD EVs let me survive the standard Azelf lead's Psychic 100% of the time, unless they crit, and then KO back with Payback and Bullet Punch (or they set up rocks and I am up 6-5 with a completely healthy team). 4 Spe EVs let me beat or tie with most other Machamp. Ice Punch was chosen over Stone Edge because it hits Mence harder and does a ton of damage to Gliscor, like 85-95%, which means I can often KO with Bullet Punch. Machamp gets me important momentum early game, and is my only pokemon who can really take a stone edge from Tyranitar, a somewhat problematic pokemon for the team to handle. He can also scare out Blissey, who can trouble me as well if well-played. Because of this I like to keep him alive for as long as possible.
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Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Roost
- Earthquake
Salamence is an excellent sweeper/mid-game damage dealer. He can pretty much just switch in and do at least 50% to almost anything with Draco Meteor (bar like Blissey and specially defensive steels). Fire Blast and Earthquake give perfect coverage. I have thought about Brick Break over Earthquake since it hits Blissey, and I am kind of Blissey weak (although they haven't really given me trouble). I just like the extra power Earthquake allows for, and the ability to OHKO Heatran, something that Brick Break lacks which always annoyed me. Roost is very useful, since a lot of teams rely on defeating Salamence by switching around and letting Life Orb damage take its toll, while Roost allows me to just Roost when they switch (Salamence forces a LOT of switches). LO provides for important extra power and grants many KOes which can not be gotten without it. I run max speed + naive to tie with other Salamences and base 100s, and it comes in extremely handy. I will not change the EV spread if it involves lowering speed at all. Salamence is also probably my closest thing to a Lucario check. Stealth Rock is annoying, but I have found that Machamp will often actually keep it off the field, since sometimes Azelf just Psychics me, or Smeargle stays in, etc.
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Heatran (M) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Will-o-Wisp/Explosion
Heatran has fantastic synergy since the two leads that Machamp does not like to stay in on, Jirachi and Metagross, which are forced out by Heatran, letting me set up my rocks at the very beginning of the match, which can be extremely helpful. It is also a useful check to steels in general, including other Heatran if necessary since I can take their Earth Power because of the Shuca Berry (assuming they win the speed tie/are scarfed. if not i dont even take any damage), and KO back with my own Earth Power. Timid + max speed to tie with other Heatran. I'm not really sure whether I should run Will-o-Wisp or Explosion, since both are viable options. I have been using WoW which is nice because it lets me cripple physical switch-ins such as Gyarados (who is a HUGE problem for this team btw) and Salamence. Explosion on the other hand gives me something to do against bulky waters and means HP Fire Latias won't 6-0 me. I think I will go with Explosion though, as it helps more with Pokemon who are threatening to this team such as Latias and Blissey (and I can explode on gyarados). Help please?? Heatran also has good synergy with the rest of the team, taking fire type attacks for Shaymin and Scizor, as well as being the fire type in my fire/water/grass core.
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Kingdra (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Substitute
- Outrage
Kingdra is a cool sweeper who works well in this metagame. Waterfall + Outrage give excellent coverage and are only resisted by Shedinja, Empoleon and I think something else I have forgotten. Substitute and Lum Berry together may sound redundant, but it's actually really useful. First of all it means if toxic spikes are up I just have to wait until I see an opening to sweep and make sure I don't switch in Kingdra before then, sine Lum Berry will only cure the poison once. Also against stuff like Blissey one example of what often happens is Blissey uses Toxic on me, Lum Berry heals me as I DD. Then I set up a sub as Blissey Toxics again, thinking I am now vulnerable to it. I then get another DD/free attack as Blissey breaks my sub (assuming it has seismic toss). The same thing happens with Cresselia. Also Kingdra can kind of help with Gyarados since Outrage takes off a huge chunk of its health, and a +1 Outrage KOes. Kingdra is also a HUGE help vs Rain Dance and can often sweep against them. Further more he is an okay switch in to Heatran. The EVs are pretty basic, but work nicely making him quick and powerful. Kingdra is also the second part of my fire/water/grass core.
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Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 160 HP/176 Atk/4 Spd/168 SpD
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Scizor is important on this team because he is my primary check to dragons, Latias and Salamence in particular. I run the specially defensive EV spread because I like to be able to live two consecutive Draco Meteors and actually have some health left. With U-turn Scizor makes an excellent scout, and he has good synergy with Shaymin as well- Scizor can U-turn out of Blissey who often comes in on Shaymin, doing heavy damage or taking a chunk out of a counter, and then in most cases head back to Shaymin (common Scizor switch ins include stuff like Heatran, Rotom-a, Gyarados, etc who do not like taking a Seed Flare/Earth Power), giving them no time to recover. Bullet Punch is the ever important revenge killing move which allows me to do have damage to Salamence, often KOing after a turn of LO recoil and SR, as well as do a similar amount of damage to Latias if I don't have enought health left to take another hit. It is also my best defense against Mamoswine. Pursuit is also important since it prevents SpecsLatias from coming in again and again and spamming Draco Meteors, and it can also hit stuff like fleeing Gengars. Superpower I don't use that much but it is nice for hitting Magnezone and Heatran switch ins, as well as KOing Blissey if it is the last pokemon
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Shaymin @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 32 HP/224 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Seed Flare
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power
- Rest
Shaymin is often the MVP, and I honestly do not know why this pokemon is not OU. I run three attacks since it's either get walled by Skarmory and not be able to KO Scizor, or get walled by Heatran. I figured Leech Seed was the most expandable and I have not yet missed it. Rest is an excellent move on Shaymin since with natural cure I can just switch out then back in again and be no longer asleep. Shaymin is also able to force plenty of switches vs bulky waters and grounds giving it ample time to rest up. I'm not sure what the HP EVs are for and have considered dropping them and just maxing speed. Thoughts? Life Orb is important for maximizing damage, and causing Seed Flare to hit extremely hard, especially if I get a special defense drop. The bane of this set is dragons, particularly Salamence, Dragonite and Latias, who are able to resist all of it's attacks and hit it back hard or use the opportunity to set up on it. Like I mentioned earlier Shaymin has good synergy with Heatran and Scizor, and is also the third part of my grass/water/fire core.
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This has been an excellent team for me, and although it is somewhat weak to quite a few pokemon (the biggest threats are DDGyara and DDnite), I think it is a pretty good team. I am hoping to turn to the team raters here in order to get help patching up my weaknesses, and maybe helping this team get a little higher on the leaderboard, although I doubt I will play with it much anymore. Thanks!
The name comes from the song Pink Bullets by The Shins, because my alt I laddered on was "over the ramparts," and in the same verse it says "the scent of her skin and some foreign flowers." Also the team has Shaymin.
Machamp (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP/248 Atk/4 Spd/16 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Dynamicpunch
- Ice Punch
- Payback
Machamp is an excellent lead who can often give me momentum early game by taking out two or three of the opponents Pokemon. The opponent generally has to play around it until it is weakened enough to revenge kill, and confusion doesn't help. Lum Berry is nice, because Dynamic Punch or Ice Punch + Bullet Punch will take out Smeargle or Roserade respectively. It also makes it harder for Rotom-a to beat me. Usually when they switch in they will WoW while I Payback, which does around 65% to defensive versions. I then switch to Heatran to get the Flash Fire boost and scare them out while I set up my rocks. Machamp matches up favorably with almost every popular lead, and I rarely find myself forced to switch out. The SpD EVs let me survive the standard Azelf lead's Psychic 100% of the time, unless they crit, and then KO back with Payback and Bullet Punch (or they set up rocks and I am up 6-5 with a completely healthy team). 4 Spe EVs let me beat or tie with most other Machamp. Ice Punch was chosen over Stone Edge because it hits Mence harder and does a ton of damage to Gliscor, like 85-95%, which means I can often KO with Bullet Punch. Machamp gets me important momentum early game, and is my only pokemon who can really take a stone edge from Tyranitar, a somewhat problematic pokemon for the team to handle. He can also scare out Blissey, who can trouble me as well if well-played. Because of this I like to keep him alive for as long as possible.
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Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Roost
- Earthquake
Salamence is an excellent sweeper/mid-game damage dealer. He can pretty much just switch in and do at least 50% to almost anything with Draco Meteor (bar like Blissey and specially defensive steels). Fire Blast and Earthquake give perfect coverage. I have thought about Brick Break over Earthquake since it hits Blissey, and I am kind of Blissey weak (although they haven't really given me trouble). I just like the extra power Earthquake allows for, and the ability to OHKO Heatran, something that Brick Break lacks which always annoyed me. Roost is very useful, since a lot of teams rely on defeating Salamence by switching around and letting Life Orb damage take its toll, while Roost allows me to just Roost when they switch (Salamence forces a LOT of switches). LO provides for important extra power and grants many KOes which can not be gotten without it. I run max speed + naive to tie with other Salamences and base 100s, and it comes in extremely handy. I will not change the EV spread if it involves lowering speed at all. Salamence is also probably my closest thing to a Lucario check. Stealth Rock is annoying, but I have found that Machamp will often actually keep it off the field, since sometimes Azelf just Psychics me, or Smeargle stays in, etc.
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Heatran (M) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Will-o-Wisp/Explosion
Heatran has fantastic synergy since the two leads that Machamp does not like to stay in on, Jirachi and Metagross, which are forced out by Heatran, letting me set up my rocks at the very beginning of the match, which can be extremely helpful. It is also a useful check to steels in general, including other Heatran if necessary since I can take their Earth Power because of the Shuca Berry (assuming they win the speed tie/are scarfed. if not i dont even take any damage), and KO back with my own Earth Power. Timid + max speed to tie with other Heatran. I'm not really sure whether I should run Will-o-Wisp or Explosion, since both are viable options. I have been using WoW which is nice because it lets me cripple physical switch-ins such as Gyarados (who is a HUGE problem for this team btw) and Salamence. Explosion on the other hand gives me something to do against bulky waters and means HP Fire Latias won't 6-0 me. I think I will go with Explosion though, as it helps more with Pokemon who are threatening to this team such as Latias and Blissey (and I can explode on gyarados). Help please?? Heatran also has good synergy with the rest of the team, taking fire type attacks for Shaymin and Scizor, as well as being the fire type in my fire/water/grass core.
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Kingdra (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Substitute
- Outrage
Kingdra is a cool sweeper who works well in this metagame. Waterfall + Outrage give excellent coverage and are only resisted by Shedinja, Empoleon and I think something else I have forgotten. Substitute and Lum Berry together may sound redundant, but it's actually really useful. First of all it means if toxic spikes are up I just have to wait until I see an opening to sweep and make sure I don't switch in Kingdra before then, sine Lum Berry will only cure the poison once. Also against stuff like Blissey one example of what often happens is Blissey uses Toxic on me, Lum Berry heals me as I DD. Then I set up a sub as Blissey Toxics again, thinking I am now vulnerable to it. I then get another DD/free attack as Blissey breaks my sub (assuming it has seismic toss). The same thing happens with Cresselia. Also Kingdra can kind of help with Gyarados since Outrage takes off a huge chunk of its health, and a +1 Outrage KOes. Kingdra is also a HUGE help vs Rain Dance and can often sweep against them. Further more he is an okay switch in to Heatran. The EVs are pretty basic, but work nicely making him quick and powerful. Kingdra is also the second part of my fire/water/grass core.
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Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 160 HP/176 Atk/4 Spd/168 SpD
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Scizor is important on this team because he is my primary check to dragons, Latias and Salamence in particular. I run the specially defensive EV spread because I like to be able to live two consecutive Draco Meteors and actually have some health left. With U-turn Scizor makes an excellent scout, and he has good synergy with Shaymin as well- Scizor can U-turn out of Blissey who often comes in on Shaymin, doing heavy damage or taking a chunk out of a counter, and then in most cases head back to Shaymin (common Scizor switch ins include stuff like Heatran, Rotom-a, Gyarados, etc who do not like taking a Seed Flare/Earth Power), giving them no time to recover. Bullet Punch is the ever important revenge killing move which allows me to do have damage to Salamence, often KOing after a turn of LO recoil and SR, as well as do a similar amount of damage to Latias if I don't have enought health left to take another hit. It is also my best defense against Mamoswine. Pursuit is also important since it prevents SpecsLatias from coming in again and again and spamming Draco Meteors, and it can also hit stuff like fleeing Gengars. Superpower I don't use that much but it is nice for hitting Magnezone and Heatran switch ins, as well as KOing Blissey if it is the last pokemon
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Shaymin @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 32 HP/224 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Seed Flare
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power
- Rest
Shaymin is often the MVP, and I honestly do not know why this pokemon is not OU. I run three attacks since it's either get walled by Skarmory and not be able to KO Scizor, or get walled by Heatran. I figured Leech Seed was the most expandable and I have not yet missed it. Rest is an excellent move on Shaymin since with natural cure I can just switch out then back in again and be no longer asleep. Shaymin is also able to force plenty of switches vs bulky waters and grounds giving it ample time to rest up. I'm not sure what the HP EVs are for and have considered dropping them and just maxing speed. Thoughts? Life Orb is important for maximizing damage, and causing Seed Flare to hit extremely hard, especially if I get a special defense drop. The bane of this set is dragons, particularly Salamence, Dragonite and Latias, who are able to resist all of it's attacks and hit it back hard or use the opportunity to set up on it. Like I mentioned earlier Shaymin has good synergy with Heatran and Scizor, and is also the third part of my grass/water/fire core.
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This has been an excellent team for me, and although it is somewhat weak to quite a few pokemon (the biggest threats are DDGyara and DDnite), I think it is a pretty good team. I am hoping to turn to the team raters here in order to get help patching up my weaknesses, and maybe helping this team get a little higher on the leaderboard, although I doubt I will play with it much anymore. Thanks!
