Tom's Offense

[TomX159]

Quick Intro:
Hey guys! I’ve made plenty of offensive teams in the past by just throwing together random pokes that I love to use, but lately I have tried to make a good effort to put together a well built offensive team. Like with most offensive teams I wanted a nice balance between super offensive potential along with a nice synergy flowing throughout the team. Another good thing that I love about this team is the fact that it hardly has any problems with weather teams aside from sun (which I hardly see nowadays, which is a shame). What I spawned was one of the most fun offensive team I’ve ever played with.

At A Glance:

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Now I know that synergy charts don’t tell the whole story but here it is:

In Depth:

Rotom-W @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Timid Nature (+Speed, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Scizor, Latios, Heatran

I’ll use Rotom-W as my lead the majority of the time. Slow leads that like to set up such as Ferrothorn/Forretress/Deoxys-D will take a scarf and I can Volt Switch into the appropriate counter the next turn. Tricking is usually a safe bet because if they do predict it and switch into a Scarfed poke themselves, it’ll give me that valuable information that I can use later in the match. As for the weather inducers, I always Volt Switch on Politoed for the super-effective damage and go to Starmie if it stays in. I can usually guess what kind of Politoed variant they’re running right off the bat by seeing if their team is offensive or stall based. For Tyranitar, I like to stay in and go straight for a Hydro Pump. It’ll 2HKO any Tyranitar aside from a SpDef one and has a chance to 2HKO TyraniBoah. It pays off extremely well too if they happen to set up Stealth Rocks first turn as they have to make the decision of whether to lose their Tyranitar right there or keep a crippled one and have to face another Hydro Pump on one of their other guys (unfortunately Gastrodon is common on sand teams :/). For Ninetails I’ll usually just lead with Latios which I’ll explain in Latios’ description. I have HP Ice for nice coverage against things like Gliscor and lead Dragonite and Landorus (I’m faster after a DD anyway and I’m seeing more and more Expert Belt Landorus leads).

Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bug Bite
- Bullet Punch

Rotom-W, Starmie, Latios, Heatran

This Scizor is absolute boss. It reminds me of the specially defensive set that bred in Generation 4 :3 If brought in as a check from Rotom-W’s Volt Switch it almost guarantees a free Swords Dance. One wrong move by the other player and I could have 2 Sword Dances under my belt which could lead to a Bullet Punch Sweep. Roost is nice for some recovery on a free turn on set-up fodder such as Ferrothorn to keep Scizor in tip-top shape throughout the match. Bug Bite is my other STAB move that will hits like a truck on anything that doesn’t resist it. That all being said, Scizor is almost essential to keep alive as once his counters are taken care of he only needs a free turn to signal the end of the game.

Gliscor (M) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake

Rotom-W, Starmie, Latios

Rotom-W, Scizor, Starmie, Heatran

To tell you the truth, I’ve never used the Acrobatics set on Gliscor before despite the fact that I love using him (my Toxic Orb Gliscor is on a lot of my balance/stall teams). I had to give Acrobat Gliscor a try because every time I face one they always roll over something. All I can say is that this set is pretty damn effective. Just like Scizor and Starmie, I can usually set up the turn after I bring him in. In most cases it’s a substitute unless I know I’m faster than everything else on the opponent’s team. Oh, and did I say that Scizor’s Bug Bite hits like a truck? Pfft, that hardly holds a candle to a Flying Gem boosted Acrobatics. I love it because it acts as a pseudo stall breaker to most pokes besides physical walls that resist it like Skarmory. After their wall takes the hit (if it takes the hit) from the boosted Acrobatics, it’ll most likely die to another non-boosted one or an Earthquake. Some good prediction at this point could yield another free sub, which is always fantastic.

Starmie @ Expert Belt
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Timid Nature (+Speed, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt

Scizor, Gliscor, Heatran

Scizor, Heatran

Scizor, Latios, Heatran

Glicsor, Latios

Scizor, Heatran

I used to use Surf over Hydro Pump because of the superior accuracy but I've found that Hydro Pump is just necessary to nail some things hard on switches as well as throwing out as much power as possible on Starmie's last turn alive. Thunderbolt rounds out nice coverage and will 2HKO Jellicents that like to block the expected Rapid Spin. Rapid Spin is essential to this team because while Toxic Spikes won't hurt anyone, Stealth Rock and Spikes will. The hit-and-run strategy gets worn down a lot by those entry hazards so having a spinner to clear the path is very important. Most of the pokes that set up entry hazards get taken out pretty easily by this team (aside from Ferrothorn, and Skarmory can be a slight nuisance) so spinning everything away by mid or even early game helps this team dearly. Another thing to note is that I'm running Expert Belt over Life Orb. This is so that Starmie doesn't Entry Hazard > Sandstorm > Rapid Spin > Life Orb kill itself. Because this is an offensive team, I've put on Ice Beam over Recover. Ice Beam completes the great Bolt-Beam combo.

Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Timid Nature (+Speed, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Surf
- Psyshock

Scizor, Gliscor, Heatran

Scizor, Heatran

Rotom-W, Scizor, Starmie, Heatran

Scizor, Heatran

Scizor, Heatran


This is usually my go-to poke for double-downs. Very good coverage overall mixed with high SpAtk and Speed make for a great poke on an offensive team. Draco Meteor is there as the main STAB move that packs one hell of a punch. Hidden Power Fire is mainly for Ferrothorns and Scizors but is pretty weak in the rain, which is why I usually like to leave Ferrothorn for Heatran. Surf is just solid coverage that enjoys a rain boost against the poke or two neutral to water on opposing rain teams and can also catch a steel type wanting to switch into a Draco Meteor. Psyshock helps a ton with Blissey and Chansey and provides a nice powerful secondary STAB option. As I mentioned before, I like to lead with Latios against Ninetail leads. For Ninetails I’ll Psyshock since I never see any with HP Ice, which isn’t close to a OHKO anyways. Even though Psychock won’t kill, it'll 2HKO every offensive set and has a chance to 2HKO the 252/0/120 specially defensive set even after leftovers recovery. They usually stay in because I don’t have another weather inducer. I like to run Psyshock over Trick mainly because it’s more beneficial for Latios to wield a Choice Scarf than giving it away and risk being outsped by a random scarfed poke.

Heatran (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed
Modest Nature (+SpAtk, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]

Gliscor, Starmie, Latios

Rotom-W, Gliscor, Latios

Rotom-W, Starmie, Latios

And finally, here’s my Air Balloon Heatran. Just like Gliscor, I’ve seen many of these alternate item sets and never really used them. I’ve just been way more comfortable using Leftovers or Toxic Orb in Gliscor’s case. And just like the Gliscor set, I actually like this Air Balloon set-up. It usually gets me at least one free hit off of a counter or Stealth Rocks on a predicted switch. I’ve opted for Flamethrower over Fire Blast for reliability. Even though I have Hydro Pump over Surf on Starmie for the power, I can't really afford to miss a Fire Blast since Heatran tends to have more time out on the field than Starmie. Earth Power and Hidden Power Grass are great against rain teams and can hit Heatrans and Gastrodons on the sand teams. I like to call this Heatran the “glue” of the team as it has great coverage to help out the other members of the team.


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So this concludes my second Generation 5 RMT. Keep in mind that this is an offensively based team so it’s not designed to take a lot of hits. It does however have very decent synergy to make up for it and I believe that’s the most it can ever ask for. But that doesn’t mean I’m shying away from any constructive criticism. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed writing it ;)

 

[TomX159]

Bump from yesterday.
200+ views and no suggestions at all? ._.
I guess people like to rate the balanced/stall teams more ;)

 

[Ninetale3]

Hey there, Nice offensive team.

I notice this team lacks a true physical tank to absorb physical attacks. Scizor and gliscor could do that but not for very long when compared to others. That's why I suggest rhyperior in place of gliscor or scizor as two swords dancers is suceptible to taunt abuse and ruin momentum.
Here is the set:
Rhyperior@leftovers
Nature: adamant
Trait: solid rock
Evs: 208 hp, 252 atk, 48 def
Moves:
earthquake
Rock blast/Stone edge
Megahorn
Stealth rock/substitute

This is a standard tank for rhyperior. You might want to look it up as the site would say it better than I could.

Also you could change heatran to serve as more of a special tank so your not as vulnerable to a special sweep in the rain.

 

[King of Blades]

Hello.

This is a very standard team, but there are some minor changes to make to it. First of all, I would not recommend using a rhyperior on your team. if he replaces scizor, he opens up a key weakness to scarf terrakion that you really don't want, as well as compounding water and grass weaknesses. If you replace gliscor with him, you open up a slight weakness to a well-played banded terrakion, as he will be able to punch holes in your team while switching out on revenge killings. In short, the opponent should quickly realize that banded terrakion is the key to breaking your team open to prepare for a sweep, and will wisely conserve it waiting for opportunities to fire off powerful stab moves, as you have nothing that actually likes taking them except gliscor and maybe full health scizor.

One thing I would do is either change latios's nature to modest or change his item to choice specs. Latios really appreciates the power of a modest nature on his scarf sets, and rotom is already good at revenge killing. Most scarfed pokemon that are over 100 speed generally don't run +speed natures either. If you decide to change his item to choice specs, it will greatly improve the power to punch holes in the opposing team as well as outspeeding most unboosted pokemon with a timid nature.

 

[Sayonara]

Hello.

This is a very standard team, but there are some minor changes to make to it. First of all, I would not recommend using a rhyperior on your team. if he replaces scizor, he opens up a key weakness to scarf terrakion that you really don't want, as well as compounding water and grass weaknesses. If you replace gliscor with him, you open up a slight weakness to a well-played banded terrakion, as he will be able to punch holes in your team while switching out on revenge killings. In short, the opponent should quickly realize that banded terrakion is the key to breaking your team open to prepare for a sweep, and will wisely conserve it waiting for opportunities to fire off powerful stab moves, as you have nothing that actually likes taking them except gliscor and maybe full health scizor.

One thing I would do is either change latios's nature to modest or change his item to choice specs. Latios really appreciates the power of a modest nature on his scarf sets, and rotom is already good at revenge killing. Most scarfed pokemon that are over 100 speed generally don't run +speed natures either. If you decide to change his item to choice specs, it will greatly improve the power to punch holes in the opposing team as well as outspeeding most unboosted pokemon with a timid nature.

Actually a Timid Nature is preferred on Latios, since it lets it outspeed Jolly Scarf Terrakion, which is a fairly common Pokemon. And all Scarf Terrakion run a Jolly Nature. Besides, Scarf Latios isn't a sweeper, it's just sent in to revenge-kill Pokemon with a powerful Draco Meteor. To revenge-kill, it needs to outspeed as many threats as it can.

 

[Jirachee]

Hi

Your team has somewhat of a weakness to VoltTurns teams (U-Turn and Volt-Switch spammers!), because most of your team members are either beaten by Scizor or Rotom-W. While you have HP Fire Latios that could beat both, as it lures Scizor in fairly well, choiced pokemon usually fare pretty bad against VoltTurn. The scarfed version of Rotom-W easily beats Heatran, Starmie, Gliscor and your own Scizor while you have to rely on a mirror match with your own Rotom-W to defeat it, and Scizor is able to deal with choiced Latios (especially the Scarf variant) fairly easily. To be fair, I don't see why you are using Choice Scarf Latios while you also have Choice Scarf Rotom-W. If anything two scarfers on the same team can be pretty bad especially if you're playing an offensive style and need to use momentum as much as you can. Since Latios having a Scarf is quite redundant, I'd suggest you swap it for an Expert Belt variant. It's easy for Expert Belt Latios to lure in Scizor and then kill it with HP Fire, as it will probably expect you'd switch out because Expert Belt can be easily mistaken for a choice item. If anything this will help you out with a lot more than VoltTurn, as Latios is able to dismantle a lot of offensive teams with its great power and somewhat good coverage.

Another thing that could threaten your team is Jolly Swords Dance Lucario. Since your Gliscor is Adamant, Lucario (only Jolly though) is able to outspeed it and OHKO with Ice Punch, and late game once your team is weakened your frailer pokémon will be taken out by ExtremeSpeed while Heatran and Scizor will lose a huge amount of hp from Close Combat. I guess you could try to Bullet Punch it with Scizor once its defenses drop, but it could wise up or be at very good health, so I wouldn't count on this. In my opinion you should tweak your Gliscor set a bit, because Acrobatics Gliscor doesn't work that well outside of Sandstorm where it gains that useful Evasion boost which allows it to set up. I'd go for a bulkier set, while as you said your team is offensive, fast defensive Gliscor is probably the best Lucario check there is, and it could actually help you take a lot of physical hits better, exemple from the likes of Scizor etc. A bulkier Swords Dance set would be optimal, as it also gives you an useful too against stall teams which could be a problem considering you have no real stallbreaker on this team.

sets

Latios @ Expert Belt
Levitate
Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Draco Meteor
-Surf
-Hidden Power Fire
-Recover

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Jolly
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spe
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang
-Swords Dance
-Taunt

Good luck!

 

[Davaro]

Nice team but I think you shouldn't use two choice scarfs. Maybe instead of Choice Scarf-Latios, you can use Expert Belt-Latios, but I think you also change Psyshock with Recover. Choice Scarf-RotomW is pretty good but very predictable. Your opponent will see what you are trying to do, but Hidden Power Ice may be good at this point.

 

[Harsha]

Hey,

Cool team. In my opinion, sand teams seem to be hard to take down, as they can take out your main revenge killer, Latios, with one simple switch -- especially because you run a Choice Scarf. Additionally, Tyranitar can take out your spinner, and if you're facing sand stall or just bulky sand, it'll be really problematic to have to keep switching in to clear the field. I find that Expert Belt and Life Orb Starmie are pretty redundant on offensive teams, as you have plenty of offensive power, and one of the most important members of your team will be taking lots of damage every turn. For this reason, I recommend using a bulkier variant of Starmie. Something like 252 HP / 20 Def / 12 SpA / 224 Spe with a Timid nature as the spread and the moves Scald, Psyshock, Rapid Spin, and Recover should suffice, with Leftovers of course, and while you no longer 2HKO Tyranitar, you can always fish for a burn (64% chance of happening, assuming Tyranitar switches in!) or spin hazards away efficiently while still tanking many hits. This also gives you a better switch-in versus Terrakion. While you lose offense, your team packs plenty, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Now, even with Hidden Power Grass on Heatran, that seems like an inefficient way to deal with Gastrodon. I'd rather give Heatran Hidden Power Ice to take down Dragons, especially speedy ones such as Salamence, and use a Bulk Up Breloom over your Gliscor. Gliscor seems to be thrown on, as you have no sand to abuse, and you don't have too much immediate power. Bulk Up Breloom, on the other hand, has the ability to tank hits and absorb status -- something your team would really appreciate. A set with Toxic Orb and a spread of 236 HP / 216 SpD / 60 Spe should suffice, along with a moveset of Spore, Bulk Up, Drain Punch, and Seed Bomb. With this, you have most stall teams covered pretty well, as you have a bulky spinner and a good sweeper to rip through them. Additionally, you give rain teams a hassle, and they can't really switch in their checks (Tornadus and Dragonite) for fear of Spore.

Finally, as a minor change, I'd recommend switching the 4 HP EVs on Rotom-W and Latios to Defense or Special Defense in order to minimize hazard damage. Overall, this is a pretty cool team. Good luck; I hope I helped!

 

[TomX159]

Thanks to all that commented! I'll be sure to test out all of the suggestions.

 

[TomX159]

sets

Latios @ Expert Belt
Levitate
Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Draco Meteor
-Surf
-Hidden Power Fire
-Recover

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Jolly
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spe
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang
-Swords Dance
-Taunt

Good luck!

Thanks to all the people that said to use Expert Belt Latios with Recover > Psyshock. Although I can't kill Tentacruel as easily I did like the ability to change moves and Recover my health. It helped a lot.

I also prefer this Gliscor over my Acrobatics one. It's all kind of circumstantial but I believe the one you mentioned works the best. It seems like I face a sand team 5/10 matches so half the time I would be taking advantage with Sand Veil, but Toxic Orb does give it a lot of survivability. I've used this Gliscor set many times so it was very easy for me to add it into the team.

For this reason, I recommend using a bulkier variant of Starmie. Something like 252 HP / 20 Def / 12 SpA / 224 Spe with a Timid nature as the spread and the moves Scald, Psyshock, Rapid Spin, and Recover should suffice, with Leftovers of course, and while you no longer 2HKO Tyranitar, you can always fish for a burn (64% chance of happening, assuming Tyranitar switches in!) or spin hazards away efficiently while still tanking many hits. This also gives you a better switch-in versus Terrakion. While you lose offense, your team packs plenty, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Now, even with Hidden Power Grass on Heatran, that seems like an inefficient way to deal with Gastrodon. I'd rather give Heatran Hidden Power Ice to take down Dragons, especially speedy ones such as Salamence, and use a Bulk Up Breloom over your Gliscor. Gliscor seems to be thrown on, as you have no sand to abuse, and you don't have too much immediate power. Bulk Up Breloom, on the other hand, has the ability to tank hits and absorb status -- something your team would really appreciate. A set with Toxic Orb and a spread of 236 HP / 216 SpD / 60 Spe should suffice, along with a moveset of Spore, Bulk Up, Drain Punch, and Seed Bomb. With this, you have most stall teams covered pretty well, as you have a bulky spinner and a good sweeper to rip through them. Additionally, you give rain teams a hassle, and they can't really switch in their checks (Tornadus and Dragonite) for fear of Spore.

Finally, as a minor change, I'd recommend switching the 4 HP EVs on Rotom-W and Latios to Defense or Special Defense in order to minimize hazard damage. Overall, this is a pretty cool team. Good luck; I hope I helped!

A few things...I used the bulkier Starmie spread a lot but the trade of power for bulk really didn't pay off. I get chances to Recover just about every game which is nice, but the power output was just dismal. Even when I would get a burn on something, I felt like I could just flat out kill the thing if I hit it twice. I never really took hits while I spun away the hazards unless they stay in as death fodder expecting me to kill them or it was absolutely crucial that I Rapid Spin as soon as possible. Psyshock was interesting but I'd prefer having T-Bolt during a lot of situations. What I've been working with is this set:

Hide

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunderbolt

It keeps the hits strong but also gives a bit of Leftovers recovery. I took off Ice Beam from my original spread and added HP Grass in its place. While I can't hit the Dragons as hard I now have a reliable counter to Gastrodon with a move that's not usually seen on Starmie. I have HP Ice on both Rotom-W and Heatran and well as Draco Meteor from Latios for revenge killing/Outrage trap with Heatran so dealing with the dragons aren't too much of a hassle. But let me know if this isn't an efficient set for this team.

Like I said earlier, I did change Heatran's HP to Ice. It does help with the Dragons trapped in Outrage (Dragonite walled my HP Grass Heatran pretty hard). The only thing I miss is taking out weak Politoeds that come in to wall me, but I still think HP Ice is the better option with the Rotom-W Volt-Switch into Starmie combo handling the Politoeds.

Ugh, when I read the Breloom set I wanted to use it soooo bad. I freaking love Breloom and used him a lot with on this team. However, Breloom just wasn't the right member for this team. Sure he could sleep something, but outside of that he really just didn't pull through as well I wanted him to. I think that Toxic Orb Gliscor is the superior option because I didn't have a safe switch in on Scizor. It also makes me weaker to Terrakion. Even though most of my team can take out Terrakion, if it's Scarfed I needed something to wall whatever it threw at me. Reminds me of the Terrakion I liked to run with HP Ice to nail Gliscors on the switch in ;)

And lastly I did shift those EVs from HP over to my defenses, thanks.