I've always wanted to make a fairly balanced team. Like stall without the BlissSkarm and sweeping with defenses. My balanced teams always seemed to get shut out by the more specialized teams though. Stall out stalled me and Aggressive just ripped through my walls. However I was able to make a decent balanced team after stealing the Torment Heatran set off of other balanced/Stall teams. Here is the team I've created at a glance.
To start off this team, I had to find a pokemon that could just hurt a major part of the metagame. With the ever so popular choicers around to wreck stall, I decided use a torment Tran specifically to checkmate anything with a scarf. The team still sucked and I only won about 50% of my battles with it. The fact that I really suck at playing stall also may be something to do with it. However when I did win it was because I used TormentTran to outstall pokemon. I decided to use TormentTran since it destroy's anything that is choiced and can hold it's own in a stall against something not choiced. TormentTran is the most effective he can be when your opponent is taking damage every turn. That's why he has lavaplume. However since burn leaves a bit to be desired against anything with a recovering move, I decided I needed toxic spikes on the feild at all times.
Foretress is to stally for me. I never liked the guy in GSC and I don't like him now. Sorry but a wall with a 4x weakness and no recovery besides rest? Tentacruel is pretty good, but in my opinion a waste of a slot for this team, since it's signiture benifit rapid spin doesn't help with a team based on a pokemon (heatran) that won't particularily mind entry hazards. So for toxic spikers that leaves me with Roserade for me to consider. Well good, Roserade is a pretty fast Sleeper with 75% accuracy, and a very good special attakcer. So if he's alive he can sleep pokemon late game or sweep. Roserade is a decent lead on his own right, and lets me poison everthing not flying or steel sent out.
With my team being based so strongly to entry hazards I wanted a Rapid Spin blocker. Typically I use a Rotom since he is bulky enough to take a hit from some of the more overpowered spinners (Starmie cough cough) and threaten a OHKO on almost all of them. I decided to put 2 into one and make Rotom also my revenge killer to stop those ever annoying threats of Gyarados and Salamence. He doesn't take hits quite as well as a normal blocker, but in return he stops some pretty nasty threats, can screw up walls with trick and as a bonus, anything choiced into a bad move through trick is death fodder for tormentTran.
I don't like fighting Latias or Rotom very much because most of my teams have what I believe to be great synergy... but then get destroyed by one of these pretty easily. Therefore to help eliminate these pains I decided on Tyranitar to trap them with Pursuit/Crunch. With Latias gone I don't have to worry about Tran getting calm minded on, or Rotom tricking burning something. Also Ttar just packs a wallop on the physical side and will punch holes in Blissey, and even many physical walls.
Heatran is weak against Earth, Water and Fire. Since many of my battles will involve me or my opponent switching I want something to resist some of these weaknesses and to be able to recover some of his damage to be used again. I initially chose a sleep talking Gyarados, but I switched it over to a Glisgor once I realised that I neglected to put Stealth rock anywhere on my team. Stealth rock is a neccessity for any team that like mine will cause switches and be switching a lot. Glisgor puts the opponent in a huge checkmate position. With toxic spikes they will continue to take increasing damage every turn. With Stealth rock switching out to reset hurts too. Even worse.... I have U-turn on this set so after seeing me use that opponents have even more pressure on whether to switch.
Lastly I wanted a sweeper, in case Tran dies or I need to break stall with more than a trick. Also my team is good defensively only through synergy. Nothing can take repeated attacks save glisgor, and Rotom can only check so much. I want a sweeper that can also save me with a priority to take out any pokemon that managed to just survive and get there stats to a ridiculous level. Lucario fits this perfectly. Without a Swords Dance he OHKO's Blissey, and Heatran nicely. With a SD Extremespeed becomes lethal to those oh so common frail sweepers. Just look at the guys analysis on Smogon, he dominates most of the metagame with a Swords Dance and can single handedly sweep teams if they are not prepared for him.
Now here is my team in depth.
Edit: Changes in bold
Roserade @ Focus Sash
4 HP/252 S.Atk/252 Speed
Nature: Timid
Abillity: Natural Cure
~Sleep Powder
~Leafstorm
~Hidden Power [Earth]
~Toxic Spikes
The staple of my team. Roserade's job is specifically to get down 2 layers of toxic spikes any way possible. If the lead is slower I just sleep it or it's switch in then set up my two layers on whatever got hit by the sleep. If the lead is faster then it's a bit more interesting. I really have to predict my opponent and either switch out, attack or sleep depending on the opponents lead. I always like to keep him around at low HP for a late game sleep or leafstorm. Usually it's late game death fodder though.
Lead's faster than mine
Jirachi: Send in Rotom-H since Jirachi doesn't threaten and he resists U-turn. Rotom-H also scares it away because it thinks I have overheat. I'll Shadow Ball if it stays in for Stab Neutral Damage.
Azelf: Taunt leads are not fun at all. Fortunately Azelf has one weakness. Tyranitar :).1. Send in Tyranitar 2. Pursuit 3. Watch opponent become checkmated.
Infernape: If I didn't have Rotom then Tentacruel would be my spiker just because of this lead. Switch in Rotom in the inevitable Fake-out, T-Bolt for the 2HKO (Sash)
Glisgor: Prediction game. Can attempt a sleep powder if you think he won't taunt. However standard thing to do is taunt, so Leafstorm for some damage is usually better. Once weakened switch in one of the two levitators to not get hurt by earthquake and finish it off (If it didn't faint yet).
Smeargle: Take the spore and then wait for him to switch out since Natural cure makes the sleep not useful. Use sleep Powder just in case it doesn't have a choice scarf.
Aerodactyl: Rotom for the 2HKO
honorable mention: Metagross: Has bullet punch, so therefore sleep then switch out if it didn't work.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
4 HP/252 atk/ 252 spd
Nature: Jolly
Abillity: Sandstream
~Stone Edge
~Pursuit
~Earthquake
~Crunch
I'm currently testing a much faster Tyranitar against Choice Banded scizor to see which trapper I find more effective. Tyranitar has the main advantage of being able to outrun and OHKO Infernape with EQ. Scizor has the advantage of being a great DD salamence check as they can run over this team.
Glisgor @ Leftovers
252 HP/ 40 def/ 220 Spd
Nature: Jolly
Abillity: Sandveil
~Stealth Rock
~Roost
~Earthquake
~U-turn
Gliscor should be outrunning Lucario no matter what. I'm going to keep him without taunt simply because stall is not hard to beat with Heatran. Only Cleric Blissey and sleep talk stat uppers give him trouble since they get rid of the toxic spikes effect. I also really like U-turn for keeping momentum in game.
Glisgor sets up rocks early game and switches in to repeated fighting, bug, or and weak physical attack. He is quite quick and can usually pull off a roost before U-turning out on the counter. Glisgor is the scout, the Stealth Rocker and above all he can chip away at opponents health without taking any permanent damage. Glisgor works really well with Heatran despite sharing the water weakness. Most water types use Ice Beam when they see Glisgor, and so Heatran gets in, torments, survives the surf and stalls. If a strong earth or fighter comes in, then it's back to Glisgor. Do not let Glisgor die until the endgame as his resistances to earth and fighting make him great cover for both Lucario and Heatran. Besides, you never know when your opponent's last pokemon is a Lucario.
Lucario @ Life Orb
252 atk/ 252 spd/ 4 hp
Nature: Adamant
Abillity: Inner Focus
~Extremespeed
~Close Combat
~Crunch
~Swords Dance
Testing using BP instead of crunch since ghost types are defeated by Ttar.
Lucario is at least tied with Metagross for the game's best late game sweeper. The both have there pros and cons, and since this team lacks any real offensive power I decided something as scary as swords dance Lucario can not be ignored to get rid of pesky stallers. Lucario works to break Skarmory and Blissey easily as well as sweeping the remainder of an oponents team after Tran, Glisgor and Ttar have taken out most of his counters. Lucario also has the strongest priority move in the game. This allows him to get my team out of nasty places, like +2 DD Kingdra, Salamence and Gyarados by taking out the remainder of their HP. Lucario sweeps and sweeps well but he can not take repeated hits. He is basically duct taped to a wall with the words "Use in the case of emergency" on him. Oh ya, he sets up on choiced pursuits too. Use Gliscor to take earth and fighting hits directed at Lucario.
Heatran @ Leftovers
244 HP/ 32 S Atk/ 12 S def/ 220 Spd
Nature: Calm
Ability: Flash Fire
~Torment
~Protect
~Substitute
~Lava Plume
Am not messing around with TormentTran, it is single handedly the most effective member on my team.
Heatran, the stalling part of my core along with Glisgor. Either of then can just waste turns to let Toxic do its work. However where tormentTran excels is when he runs into a Choice Scarfer. Initially protect to see the move they use and react accordingly. If it won't OHKO you, just torment and watch it hit you with a resisted struggle. Better yet as your opponent switches out instead of struggling you can set up a substitute to ease protect prediction even more. A torment Tran is virtually unbeatable behind a sub. In fact without even pseudo hazing doesn't work perfectly if the opponent is tormented. This set forces switches, Stalls pokemon and can even still get a couple of key kills on pokemon like Scizor and Foretress as he has my only fire attack. He actually can outstall Bulky water pokemon too. Vaporeon will die from toxic since the initial surf still allows me to put up torment. Suicune gets the same treatment, though I usually switch in fear of Crocune. In fact the only thing that can outstall this once it is set up is a pokemon that can cure status as well as heal off damage. So ya... Crocune and Curselax are this sets biggest worry. However they both get crippled from Rotom's trick anyways
Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
220 HP/32 S. atk/252 spd
Nature: Timid
Abillity: Levitate
~Thunderbolt
~Shadowball
~OverHeat
~Trick
Will test with a defensive spread and no trick.
I use him for many purposes considering he is scarfed. He can counter DD Gyarados, and revenge Salamence. The Timid nature is so that he outruns even the fastest Gyarados after a Dragon Dance as not to be flinch "haxed"
His trick is the best support that tormentTran could ask for. Anything that has a scarf is fodder for Tran later. Also this guy is fairly bulky, even among the special side. He can take water attacks that my team generally has problems with and threaten the water user with STAB Thunderbolt right back at them. Rotom-H is also a spin blocker. Starmie can not hope to OHKO and withou a choice scarf itself it is OHKO'd by thunderbolt and can't rapid spin. Synergy wise, he can take fighting and normal moves all night long as well as sporting a nice U-turn resistance as well as a electric resistance. Lastly this little guy is the H variety but has no Overheat. This means that Scizor, who would normally be the best counter to this set will not switch in for fear of Overheat.
This is my team, it fared quite well in the smogon ladder and I hope to continue it's success for a bit longer before the metagame shifts again. Feedback would be appreciated, as I've gotten to the point where I feel that there has to be a glaring flaw in this team that I am not seeing. Still, it works well my record tonight was 10-2 with one of the loses being a loss in connectivity.
Other changes I will think about:
Scarf Latias for Rotom/ Ttar
Calm Mind Latias if I could find a good fit for it
Skarmory for Glisgor (Spikes would make for an even more devestating torment Tran, but doesn't matter as much for Lucario)
To start off this team, I had to find a pokemon that could just hurt a major part of the metagame. With the ever so popular choicers around to wreck stall, I decided use a torment Tran specifically to checkmate anything with a scarf. The team still sucked and I only won about 50% of my battles with it. The fact that I really suck at playing stall also may be something to do with it. However when I did win it was because I used TormentTran to outstall pokemon. I decided to use TormentTran since it destroy's anything that is choiced and can hold it's own in a stall against something not choiced. TormentTran is the most effective he can be when your opponent is taking damage every turn. That's why he has lavaplume. However since burn leaves a bit to be desired against anything with a recovering move, I decided I needed toxic spikes on the feild at all times.
Foretress is to stally for me. I never liked the guy in GSC and I don't like him now. Sorry but a wall with a 4x weakness and no recovery besides rest? Tentacruel is pretty good, but in my opinion a waste of a slot for this team, since it's signiture benifit rapid spin doesn't help with a team based on a pokemon (heatran) that won't particularily mind entry hazards. So for toxic spikers that leaves me with Roserade for me to consider. Well good, Roserade is a pretty fast Sleeper with 75% accuracy, and a very good special attakcer. So if he's alive he can sleep pokemon late game or sweep. Roserade is a decent lead on his own right, and lets me poison everthing not flying or steel sent out.
With my team being based so strongly to entry hazards I wanted a Rapid Spin blocker. Typically I use a Rotom since he is bulky enough to take a hit from some of the more overpowered spinners (Starmie cough cough) and threaten a OHKO on almost all of them. I decided to put 2 into one and make Rotom also my revenge killer to stop those ever annoying threats of Gyarados and Salamence. He doesn't take hits quite as well as a normal blocker, but in return he stops some pretty nasty threats, can screw up walls with trick and as a bonus, anything choiced into a bad move through trick is death fodder for tormentTran.
I don't like fighting Latias or Rotom very much because most of my teams have what I believe to be great synergy... but then get destroyed by one of these pretty easily. Therefore to help eliminate these pains I decided on Tyranitar to trap them with Pursuit/Crunch. With Latias gone I don't have to worry about Tran getting calm minded on, or Rotom tricking burning something. Also Ttar just packs a wallop on the physical side and will punch holes in Blissey, and even many physical walls.
Heatran is weak against Earth, Water and Fire. Since many of my battles will involve me or my opponent switching I want something to resist some of these weaknesses and to be able to recover some of his damage to be used again. I initially chose a sleep talking Gyarados, but I switched it over to a Glisgor once I realised that I neglected to put Stealth rock anywhere on my team. Stealth rock is a neccessity for any team that like mine will cause switches and be switching a lot. Glisgor puts the opponent in a huge checkmate position. With toxic spikes they will continue to take increasing damage every turn. With Stealth rock switching out to reset hurts too. Even worse.... I have U-turn on this set so after seeing me use that opponents have even more pressure on whether to switch.
Lastly I wanted a sweeper, in case Tran dies or I need to break stall with more than a trick. Also my team is good defensively only through synergy. Nothing can take repeated attacks save glisgor, and Rotom can only check so much. I want a sweeper that can also save me with a priority to take out any pokemon that managed to just survive and get there stats to a ridiculous level. Lucario fits this perfectly. Without a Swords Dance he OHKO's Blissey, and Heatran nicely. With a SD Extremespeed becomes lethal to those oh so common frail sweepers. Just look at the guys analysis on Smogon, he dominates most of the metagame with a Swords Dance and can single handedly sweep teams if they are not prepared for him.
Now here is my team in depth.
Edit: Changes in bold
Roserade @ Focus Sash
4 HP/252 S.Atk/252 Speed
Nature: Timid
Abillity: Natural Cure
~Sleep Powder
~Leafstorm
~Hidden Power [Earth]
~Toxic Spikes
The staple of my team. Roserade's job is specifically to get down 2 layers of toxic spikes any way possible. If the lead is slower I just sleep it or it's switch in then set up my two layers on whatever got hit by the sleep. If the lead is faster then it's a bit more interesting. I really have to predict my opponent and either switch out, attack or sleep depending on the opponents lead. I always like to keep him around at low HP for a late game sleep or leafstorm. Usually it's late game death fodder though.
Lead's faster than mine
Jirachi: Send in Rotom-H since Jirachi doesn't threaten and he resists U-turn. Rotom-H also scares it away because it thinks I have overheat. I'll Shadow Ball if it stays in for Stab Neutral Damage.
Azelf: Taunt leads are not fun at all. Fortunately Azelf has one weakness. Tyranitar :).1. Send in Tyranitar 2. Pursuit 3. Watch opponent become checkmated.
Infernape: If I didn't have Rotom then Tentacruel would be my spiker just because of this lead. Switch in Rotom in the inevitable Fake-out, T-Bolt for the 2HKO (Sash)
Glisgor: Prediction game. Can attempt a sleep powder if you think he won't taunt. However standard thing to do is taunt, so Leafstorm for some damage is usually better. Once weakened switch in one of the two levitators to not get hurt by earthquake and finish it off (If it didn't faint yet).
Smeargle: Take the spore and then wait for him to switch out since Natural cure makes the sleep not useful. Use sleep Powder just in case it doesn't have a choice scarf.
Aerodactyl: Rotom for the 2HKO
honorable mention: Metagross: Has bullet punch, so therefore sleep then switch out if it didn't work.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
4 HP/252 atk/ 252 spd
Nature: Jolly
Abillity: Sandstream
~Stone Edge
~Pursuit
~Earthquake
~Crunch
I'm currently testing a much faster Tyranitar against Choice Banded scizor to see which trapper I find more effective. Tyranitar has the main advantage of being able to outrun and OHKO Infernape with EQ. Scizor has the advantage of being a great DD salamence check as they can run over this team.
Glisgor @ Leftovers
252 HP/ 40 def/ 220 Spd
Nature: Jolly
Abillity: Sandveil
~Stealth Rock
~Roost
~Earthquake
~U-turn
Gliscor should be outrunning Lucario no matter what. I'm going to keep him without taunt simply because stall is not hard to beat with Heatran. Only Cleric Blissey and sleep talk stat uppers give him trouble since they get rid of the toxic spikes effect. I also really like U-turn for keeping momentum in game.
Glisgor sets up rocks early game and switches in to repeated fighting, bug, or and weak physical attack. He is quite quick and can usually pull off a roost before U-turning out on the counter. Glisgor is the scout, the Stealth Rocker and above all he can chip away at opponents health without taking any permanent damage. Glisgor works really well with Heatran despite sharing the water weakness. Most water types use Ice Beam when they see Glisgor, and so Heatran gets in, torments, survives the surf and stalls. If a strong earth or fighter comes in, then it's back to Glisgor. Do not let Glisgor die until the endgame as his resistances to earth and fighting make him great cover for both Lucario and Heatran. Besides, you never know when your opponent's last pokemon is a Lucario.
Lucario @ Life Orb
252 atk/ 252 spd/ 4 hp
Nature: Adamant
Abillity: Inner Focus
~Extremespeed
~Close Combat
~Crunch
~Swords Dance
Testing using BP instead of crunch since ghost types are defeated by Ttar.
Lucario is at least tied with Metagross for the game's best late game sweeper. The both have there pros and cons, and since this team lacks any real offensive power I decided something as scary as swords dance Lucario can not be ignored to get rid of pesky stallers. Lucario works to break Skarmory and Blissey easily as well as sweeping the remainder of an oponents team after Tran, Glisgor and Ttar have taken out most of his counters. Lucario also has the strongest priority move in the game. This allows him to get my team out of nasty places, like +2 DD Kingdra, Salamence and Gyarados by taking out the remainder of their HP. Lucario sweeps and sweeps well but he can not take repeated hits. He is basically duct taped to a wall with the words "Use in the case of emergency" on him. Oh ya, he sets up on choiced pursuits too. Use Gliscor to take earth and fighting hits directed at Lucario.
Heatran @ Leftovers
244 HP/ 32 S Atk/ 12 S def/ 220 Spd
Nature: Calm
Ability: Flash Fire
~Torment
~Protect
~Substitute
~Lava Plume
Am not messing around with TormentTran, it is single handedly the most effective member on my team.
Heatran, the stalling part of my core along with Glisgor. Either of then can just waste turns to let Toxic do its work. However where tormentTran excels is when he runs into a Choice Scarfer. Initially protect to see the move they use and react accordingly. If it won't OHKO you, just torment and watch it hit you with a resisted struggle. Better yet as your opponent switches out instead of struggling you can set up a substitute to ease protect prediction even more. A torment Tran is virtually unbeatable behind a sub. In fact without even pseudo hazing doesn't work perfectly if the opponent is tormented. This set forces switches, Stalls pokemon and can even still get a couple of key kills on pokemon like Scizor and Foretress as he has my only fire attack. He actually can outstall Bulky water pokemon too. Vaporeon will die from toxic since the initial surf still allows me to put up torment. Suicune gets the same treatment, though I usually switch in fear of Crocune. In fact the only thing that can outstall this once it is set up is a pokemon that can cure status as well as heal off damage. So ya... Crocune and Curselax are this sets biggest worry. However they both get crippled from Rotom's trick anyways
Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
220 HP/32 S. atk/252 spd
Nature: Timid
Abillity: Levitate
~Thunderbolt
~Shadowball
~OverHeat
~Trick
Will test with a defensive spread and no trick.
I use him for many purposes considering he is scarfed. He can counter DD Gyarados, and revenge Salamence. The Timid nature is so that he outruns even the fastest Gyarados after a Dragon Dance as not to be flinch "haxed"
His trick is the best support that tormentTran could ask for. Anything that has a scarf is fodder for Tran later. Also this guy is fairly bulky, even among the special side. He can take water attacks that my team generally has problems with and threaten the water user with STAB Thunderbolt right back at them. Rotom-H is also a spin blocker. Starmie can not hope to OHKO and withou a choice scarf itself it is OHKO'd by thunderbolt and can't rapid spin. Synergy wise, he can take fighting and normal moves all night long as well as sporting a nice U-turn resistance as well as a electric resistance. Lastly this little guy is the H variety but has no Overheat. This means that Scizor, who would normally be the best counter to this set will not switch in for fear of Overheat.
This is my team, it fared quite well in the smogon ladder and I hope to continue it's success for a bit longer before the metagame shifts again. Feedback would be appreciated, as I've gotten to the point where I feel that there has to be a glaring flaw in this team that I am not seeing. Still, it works well my record tonight was 10-2 with one of the loses being a loss in connectivity.
Other changes I will think about:
Scarf Latias for Rotom/ Ttar
Calm Mind Latias if I could find a good fit for it
Skarmory for Glisgor (Spikes would make for an even more devestating torment Tran, but doesn't matter as much for Lucario)
