The Team that has Me Ranked #22 on Shoddy(And Rising!)

[BlueCookies]

I can Change the Pictures if you don't like them.So I climbed a lot of my way up the ladder with this team, although I know improvements can be made. I've won a lot more than I lost, but I feel I lose some matches I shouldn't lose(luck factors aside) against players of lesser skill. So I would like to ask for some help from my fellow Smogonites to help me climb up higher on the ladder.

Team at a Glance:

In Depth Look:




Mesprit @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EV's: 252 HP/ 176 Def/ 80 Sp.Atk
Bold nature (+ Def, - Atk)
~Thunderbolt
~Ice Beam
~Stealth Rock
~U-Turn

Mesprit's a pretty cool lead, considdering not many people use her. Stealth Rock is always welcome and U-Turn to help scout. BoltBeam for coverage and allows her to take out Gyarados, Garchomp(Non-Yache), Hippowdon, and others weak to the BoltBeam combo. Mesprit is however, A Pokemon I really wouldn't mind replacing. Choice Band Tyranitar is a pretty common lead and it screws over my poor Pixie. I was thinking about changing the Sp.Atk to Def or Sp.Def only because most Garchomps nowadays are Yache variants which makes reaching the magic number irrelivent.

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Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Ability: Sand Veil
EV's: 252 Atk/ 6 Sp.Def/252 Speed
Jolly nature (+ Speed, Sp.Atk)
~Swords Dance
~Earthquake
~Dragon Claw
~Fire Fang

Garchomp provides the ability to completely sweep unprepared teams. I am thinking about changing him to a Scarfer, only because my Team lacks real Speed and he can help me with any Infernape and Azelf Problems, which my team has trouble handling. Not much else to say about him really, he's on almost every team.

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Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EV's: 66 HP/ 252 Atk/ 192 Speed
Adamant nature (+ Atk, - Sp.Atk)
~Dragon Dance
~Waterfall
~Ice Fang
~Earthquake

I chose an Offensive oriented Gyarados for my Team mainly because it needed some offense and after a dragon dance it becomes speedy, which my team lacks. Gyarados punishes unprepared teams, and can even defeat walls that normally stop BulkyDos, such as Hippowdon, Celebi, and others. Even though he isn't bulky, he can still take many hits well due to Intimidate and his typing, which allows him to Dragon Dance up. 192 Speed Ev's were chosen in order to outspeed the Offensive Gyarados' that ran 188 Ev's in order to outspeed the standard 184 Speed Ev'd Gyarados.

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Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EV's: 240 HP/ 252 Atk/ 8 Sp.Def/ 8 Speed
Adamant nature (+ Atk, - Sp.Atk)
~Crunch
~Earthquake
~Pursuit
~Stone Edge

Choice Band Tyranitar is imo the best version, unless you need him to lure something out and get a surprise kill in order to set up another Pokemon. He hits extremely hard, even on physical walls such as Bronzong. Pursuit is a great move and helps me with anything stuck on a choice move that can't damage me, along with other things. 240 HP to take 4 of Blissey's Seismic Tosses, not like that is too necesarry, and to help me take hits better in general, and 8 Speed EV's to outspeed any Choice Band Tyranitars that choose not to run any Speed EV's or only use 4. I know outspeeding Skarmory is meh, but I would have to use too many EV's to outspeed it and I like having the better durability.

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Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EV's: 252 HP/ 252 Def/ 6 Speed
Impish nature (+ Def, - Sp.Atk)
~Roost
~Brave Bird
~Spikes
~Whirlwind

Standard Spiking Skarm. Helps me punish Pokemon that are confused by Machamp's Dynamic Punch, and helps me take on physical sweepers. Brave Bird>Drill Peck because of the superior damage and allows me to take on Gyarados. I haven't faced a Magnezone yet, so I'm not going to let it scare me into using Shed Shell, when Leftovers is better in every other situation, although I have been reconsiddering due to Wobbuffet, but I think I may keep Lefties. What do you guys think?

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Machamp @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EV's: 252 HP/ 252 Atk/ 6 Speed
Adamant nature (+ Atk, - Sp.Atk)
~Dynamic Punch
~Ice Punch
~Rest
~Sleep Talk

My sleep absorber. He is also great at causing switches with the aid from Dynamic Punch's confusion. Ice Punch is for any Dragons, Gliscor, and Celebi. I might use Stone Edge for Gyarados, but I have been handling them ok so far. I think Machamp is extremely underated. He's bulky and can hit extremely hard. 6 Speed EV's to outspeed no-speed Blissey, even though Blissey never stays in on machamp.

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The main Pokemon I have been having trouble with are Azelf, Dexoys and Infernape(3 Faster Pokemon). Most of my few losses were from these Pokemon, and I'm surprised I didn't lose more matches than I did because I've seen Azelf everywhere, not to mention Deoxys and Infernape being common too. He's used on almost as many teams as Garchomp it seems. I have definitely been considdering putting Choice Scarf on Garchomp to help with these two, and maybe putting Thunder Wave on Mesprit. So Rate away my fellow Smogoners, I am going to bed in a few minutes and will check back tomorrow. This is my first Rate my Team and I hope to do more if this goes well(Hopefully I did alright) and maybe even include a threat list because I was too lazy to do one this time.

 

[Clash]

It's probably alright for you but I see the lack of a special sweeper besides Mesprit not too good. I'm probably completely wrong here but I'd add another Special sweeper to the team just incase Mesprit is gone.

 

[Clash]

It's probably alright for you but I see the lack of a special sweeper besides Mesprit not too good. I'm probably completely wrong here but I'd add another Special sweeper to the team just incase Mesprit is gone.

 

[Anti]

240 HP to take 5 of Blissey's Seismic Tosses

4, you survive 5 if you have Leftovers with that HP stat.

 

[BlueCookies]

It's probably alright for you but I see the lack of a special sweeper besides Mesprit not too good. I'm probably completely wrong here but I'd add another Special sweeper to the team just incase Mesprit is gone.

I know, but that isn't a huge problem, although I certainly wouldn't mind having a Pokemon who is a Special attacker. And Mesprit is more of a support Pokemon, not a special sweeper. Thanks for the advice though.

4, you survive 5 if you have Leftovers with that HP stat.

I meant it takes 5 Seismic tosses to kill it, even though it isn't too big of a deal x_x, I'll edit that in, thanks.

 

[RaikouLover]

Solid team, however, I strongly recommend using Shed Shell on Skarmory. Your team is highly weak to the Magnezone + physical sweeper combo. You really have no answer to SD Lucario, and since your Gyarados isn't bulky, Lucario can easily OHKO every one of your pokemon with a layer or two of spikes and stealth rock. Just something to look out for.

 

[Nas]

I'm seeing a CBtar weakness here. Nothing can switch in except for Skarmory and Machamp. Skarmory can only switch in on Crunche's and EQ's though, as Stone Edge is a 2HKO. Same goes for Machamp, as Stone Edge 2HKO's with rocks up. (I actually haven't done any calcs for machamp, but with past experience I can tell you my Stone Edges always 2HKO'd)

 

[Unreal Ice]

Fire fang on garchomp is very inferior to fire blast imo.

 

[BlueCookies]

I kind of forgot I made this, X_X lol.

Solid team, however, I strongly recommend using Shed Shell on Skarmory. Your team is highly weak to the Magnezone + physical sweeper combo. You really have no answer to SD Lucario, and since your Gyarados isn't bulky, Lucario can easily OHKO every one of your pokemon with a layer or two of spikes and stealth rock. Just something to look out for.

Thanks for the tip. Gyarados has been handling Lucario fine, due to intimidate, and Garchomp is faster than it so it can scare it out or kill it. I will definitely considder shed shell though.

I'm seeing a CBtar weakness here. Nothing can switch in except for Skarmory and Machamp. Skarmory can only switch in on Crunche's and EQ's though, as Stone Edge is a 2HKO. Same goes for Machamp, as Stone Edge 2HKO's with rocks up. (I actually haven't done any calcs for machamp, but with past experience I can tell you my Stone Edges always 2HKO'd)

Really, Machamp is a great counter, but CBTar is amazing, so it is hard to counter him completely without the use of Hariyama. And the fact that he is choice banded means if I can predict correctly, I can switch in something for as little damage as possible. He does cause trouble though. Garchomp, Gyarados, and TTar all outspeed and either kill or do serious damage to him, but I have been considdering shifting some EV's to Def for Machamp, though. Thanks for the advice

Fire fang on garchomp is very inferior to fire blast imo.

Only on the Choice Scarf set(And ChainChomp). On the SD Set, Fire Fang is indeed superior than Fire Blast.

And could you guys try to give me suggestions on how to fix the problems, as well as pointing out weaknesses, like in the Stickied thread Aldaron made. Thanks. Oh, and I decided to change the YacheChomp to a ScarfChomp, because I need a fast revenge killer for problems like Infernape, and Azelf, and other sweepers that my slowish team has trouble with.