Other Metagames Triple Battle Team

[Superlucario603]

So I want to get into triple battles because I honestly think they're even more techy and innovative than doubles.. judge me or not, I have a team that I wanted to get some feedback on and possibly approve upon. I found some of these pokemon elsewhere, made some of my own, and edited some sets to build this. Any further criticism would be greatly appreciated! This team is based around grass types and bulky symbiosis between everyone. The only huge red flag is Talonflame, and I still don't know how to deal with stupid priority Brave Bird. Anyway, here it is. I lead with the first three Pokemon, Venusaur in the middle.

Florges @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
- Grassy Terrain
- Flower Shield
- Giga Drain
- Moonblast

Florges is meant to be a Bulky supportive Pokemon in this team. Leftovers just for recovery, don't know what else would help. Flower Veil is just a more OP version of Leaf Guard, and prevents pokemon from receiving status conditions. EVs made for bulk. Grassy Terrain is a standard support move, and boosts grass moves. Flower Shield for additional bulk, especially helpful for Gogoat. Giga Drain for health recovery, boosted by Grassy Terrain, and Moonblast for Dragon types plus stab.


Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Giga Drain
- Growth
- Sunny Day
- Synthesis

Just Bulky EVs, he's meant to be a huge tank but scary as well. Giga Drain heals and can deal massive damage combined with Grassy Terrain and Growth. Growth to power up Giga Drain. Sunny Day.. I throw it out first turn, but I was debating on replacing it with something, just not sure where to go with that, as it boosts Growth. Synthesis just for healing when Giga Drain won't be of much use, and boosted by sun. I think it may be necessary to put on sludge bomb, but all of these attacks seem to useful to take off. Venusaur setting the sunny day is essential. Maybe just give Gogoat a coverage move instead of protect?

Gogoat @ Leftovers
Ability: Grass Pelt
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SpD
Careful Nature
- Horn Leech
- Bulk Up
- Synthesis
- Protect

Huge defensive wall. Leftovers for healing, and Grass Pelt to work with Grassy Terrain for extra bulk. Then using Bulk up on turn one just increases that defense even further. EV spread is to split the defenses evenly, as he can take physical attacks no problem, but special attacks do a bit more. Synthesis just to heal when horn leech isn't an option due to opponents, boosted further under sun. Horn Leech for healing, boosted by bulk up and Grassy Terrain. Protect just to stall for a turn and heal with leftovers, debating on replacing, I just don't know with what.

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Superpower

Meant to be a speedy sweeper to take care of threats, like if Charizard is on the same side as Tyranitar. Rock slide for the dumb birds, especially Zard and Talon. Crunch for Psychic types that threaten Venusaur, EQ is debatable, just for fire types, may replace, totally open for suggestions. Same for superpower, just meant for coverage. Currently by best option for Talonflame. If someone has a better Talonflame counter, I will gladly take it, although Tyranitar has been very useful for coverage.

Alomomola @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 124 Spe
Bold Nature
- Protect
- Wish
- Soak
- Helping Hand

This Alomomola is meant to be a huge part of the team, I just have a tricky job incorporating him sometimes. He's meant to be as bulky as possible, with Regenerator for healing purposes, rocky helmet for retaliation but may take a sitrus berry or leftovers..? Protect is just to stall out any threats to him. Wish is to heal obviously, and be safe while doing so through protect on the next turn. Soak is a huge part of this pokemon. Making any pokemon a water type practically cripples them with all of the dangerous grass moves the others possess. Helping Hand is just to further boost the output damage.

Ninetales @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Def
Calm Nature
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp

A sun setter, not sure if I want to throw her out at the beginning though. The Florges/Saur/Goat works really well together. Regardless, Heat Rock to prolong sun set by Drought obviously. Attempting to be bulky with the EVs.. Flamethrower for stab and sun boost. Solarbeam for coverage and just as another powerful grass move. Protect because protect, and she's not that bulky. Will-O-Wisp for crippling physical attackers.

Let me know what you guys think! I've debated on a lot with this team, I just don't know what to do from here. Harvest Trevanant sounds really good in theory, and he would probably fill Tyranitar's spot if not for Talon and Zard... Any feedback or further questions would be greatly appreciated, as stated before. Thank you!

I just finished making the team tonight, and not many people play triple battles, so this is all I have:
Replay #1: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogontriples-315303928 Really couldn't be more satisfied. Obviously Gogoat is a tank, but Venusaur took an overheat during sunlight and only took 14.8%, then a flare blitz and only took 13.2%. I get the Flare Blitz because defense boost, but is thick fat really THAT good?

 

[LagAvenger]

Your opponent in your replay set his whole team to level 50, which is why you took almost no damage, and swept the team so quickly. Triples is a pretty small ladder, but there's still enough room for the people at the very beginning to not understand how the team builder works. It looks like you've played quite a few games, so i'm guessing you've faced some actual opponents by now. The easiest upgrade I can spot for your team is to replace Protect on Alomomola with Light screen, as you don't have any screen support, and the added bulk will negate the loss from not being able to use Protect. Additionally, Sitrus Berry is much more likely to allow Florges to survive to set Grassy Terrain.

Defensive teams are difficult to pull off in Triples because many teams have 3 potential high speed threats on round 1, or present a super high speed and power spread move combination on turn one. In general, it's much easier to set up boosts if you manipulate or block the enemy team at the same time that you're boosting yourself. You've probably seen moves like Fake Out interrupt your attempts to set up or people protect themselves from you on turn 2 with moves like Follow Me, and there's quite a wide collection of popular moves like that to contend with that you can use to your own advantage.

Except for Ninetails, your whole team has base speeds well below 100, and while the scarf Tyranitar is unusual enough that you'll probably surprise a few people, most of your team would benefit from Trick Room support. Since you're intending to wait out the first turn anyway, adding Trick Room to your team would at least make it very likely you'll be able to use whatever boosts that have survived the first turn before the opponent can move on turn two. Unfortunately, nothing on your team can learn Trick Room. I don't know how much you really want the team to be mostly grass type centric, but the setter which would follow your theme most closely would be Gourgeist due to its high defense. Trevenant, who you already identified, can also learn Trick Room, and neither of them can be blocked by Fake Out unless it's by a non-mega Kangaskhan or M-Lopunny, which are quite unusual. Other candidates would be Celebi and Whimsicott. Removing Celebi's speed EV's will outspeed most triples offensive pokemon, since triples is normally quite high speed. You could even keep Tyranitar and have it use Assault Vest instead, while moving the speed IV's to a more defensive spread. Whoever you choose, if you choose Trick Room at all, would probably replace Gogoat or M-venusaur as your lead, (But you can keep both on your team) since Grassy Terrain is pretty central to your strategy.

Besides adding in Trick Room support, another big change that would probably make things easier for your team is to add in something with Rototiller in place of Tyranitar. Raising the attack and special attack of all grass types by one stage goes great with your theme, and many Rototiller users such as Excadrill and Diggersby can use similar move coverage to Tyranitar, while also being very fast in Trick Room. Only a Steelix could survive a Talonflame attack + something else easily while threatening a Rock Slide OHKO, however. If you can set up Trick Room and Rototiller on the first turn while your third Pokemon does another boost, you won't have to wait an additional turn before having all you need to start attacking. If you choose Trevenant for your Trick Room support, you can bring it back in later to use Forest's Curse on your Rototiller user or another non-grass type, and it will be able to accept the boost.

Even with those suggestions though, nothing on your team or any of the Pokemon I've mentioned have critical Triples utility moves like Wide Guard, Fake Out, Follow Me/Rage Powder, or much of anything that will interrupt your opponent from doing almost whatever they want on turn one, which could include their own round of boosting. For example, despite your type advantage, this team will have a difficult time dealing with Terracott. Fake out will block M-Venusaur from using sludge bomb on an enemy Whimsicott if you decide to switch to that, and you can't outspeed the +6 rock slide that will crush Florges. Rock Slide has more than a 90% chance to OHKO Venusaur with only 4 defense, even if it isn't Life Orb boosted. Gogoat will easily live thanks to Grass Pelt, especially if it has +1 defense, but if your boost is blocked it can't OHKO Terrakion on turn two, so you'll lose two more team members on turn 3. Even in the best case scenario, you've lost two pokemon while the Terracott user still has tailwind up and another center position sweeper waiting to come out and finish off Gogoat with something super effective. Your team is also vulnerable to gimmicks because of all the free set up time your opponent has. Your only countering move against Shedinja teams is a Will-o-wisp from Ninetails, and if it boosts up X-Scissor will end your team.

Adding in a Parasect for Tyranitar or Alomomola would fix many of these problems the most efficiently while still following your team's theme, as it has Wide Guard, Rototiller, and Rage Powder. Leech Seed would also stop Shedinja in its tracks, and against other teams you can change Parasect's position to redirect the recovery as you please. It also stops the increasingly popular Belly Drum/Explosion + Custap Berry Snorlax gimmick that's been going around if you make Damp its ability, since Feint won't be enough to allow Snorlax to wipe you out. But, then you're missing type coverage if you change out Tyranitar, and you'll be even more vulnerable to fire. You can gain additional momentum that will let you attack without having to re-boost in later turns by adding in Cherrim for Alomomola, who not only knows Helping Hand and Heal Pulse, but will raise the Attack and Special Defense of your whole team just by being out there, grass type or not. This would bias your team towards having to use physical attacks though, so only Gogoat and Tyranitar would benefit offensively, and you'll be vulnerable to intimidate if you go too heavily towards physical moves.

In summary, your team needs multiple pokemon changed out if you want to have a consistent chance of victory against most teams higher up on the ladder. Additionally, you can't stop Talonflame if you lead with Gogoat-Venusaur-Florges every game, so consider switching up your leads based on the situation. Tyranitar or one of its replacements that I suggest has got to be out on turn one in the middle position if you want to be sure you can target Talonflame, and then it will need some redirection or Fake Out support from somewhere if you want to guarantee Talonflame dies before your counter does. Plus, you'll need redirection or Wide Guard support in general out there on turn one to buy time for your boosts when facing high speed turn 1 spread move combination teams. If you don't want to replace more than one pokemon to get utility, Hitmontop or Mienshao can pretty much fix any low utility team instantly, and Hitmontop in particular would slow down Talonflame with Intimidate and Fake Out. As a final interesting observation, Manaphy can learn all the moves of your Alomomola except for Soak, though you'll miss out on the gigantic Wish passes and some defense. Scald would help you out against fire types, and if you replace something else with Tail Glow, you can get your opponent stuck between choosing to stop Manaphy or trying to stop your defensive boosts from making you very difficult to beat. If you really want that slot to be pure utility though, Water Sport will cut all fire type damage in half while it's up, so that would replace Soak and Alomomola can also learn that in place of something else. Manaphy can also learn both Reflect and Light Screen, and its mere presence will lure people into wasting attacks trying to wipe it out while you boost up with your actual threats.