Greetings Smogon, and welcome to my first RMT. I've been hovering around the thread debating on making one for a while now, hoping I wouldn't come up with something too common or too worthless for people to waste their time on. Anyway, this team started off with a rather naive idea that I could utilize Milotic in OU. Don't ask me why, I just was so determined to try and make it work (with a Coil set no less). After a while I deemed it too unviable as anyone else would and decided to work from what I had while subtracting the UU Water serpent. I tested for about 1-2 weeks now and although I haven't been too dedicated, this team is stuck hovering around 1450-1500 often (now declined to 1400).
Brief thing about me, I've only been playing Pokemon competitively since the release of XY which was my introduction to Showdown so I in no way will claim to know close to everything there is in the game and I am always seeking anyway to improve or learn further. Anyway, I think that's enough. Onto the team.
Serperior @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
Originally when I decided to use Milotic, I automatically wanted to go for this dual-snake theme unfortunately like a lot of people probably have somewhere in the game. With the introduction of Contrary, Serperior became real appealing to me despite my preference being Mega Sceptile. Nothing too out of the ordinary with him. I opted for HP Fire because Scizor, Ferrothorn and Metagross were constant switch-ins and worries of mine. While HP Ground is usually my preference, I have two other Pokemon who nicely deal with Heatran who is the obvious wall of this set. Giga Drain is also present because I am commonly seen suffering from Life Orb recoil.
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
To take up Milotic's sad role, I had the best next thing to a Water serpent. Being the Mega of my team, Gyarados wasn't hard to pick for the team as I love his offensive capabilities after just one Dragon Dance. I try to play carefully with him, keeping him out of Mega form to dodge the common Earthquakes and and Play Roughs/Drain Punches from people expecting him to go into Mega and then evolving after a Dragon Dance or two depending. After two, its pretty hard to stop him and people are forced to sacrifice a Pokemon to revenge kill with the best priority they have. He also fits in well with Serperior, as part 2 of the F/W/G core to come.
Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- Swords Dance
- Roost
This is one set I'm kinda iffy about but not the Pokemon in anyway. Although I did consider Heatran for the final piece of the core, I've grown quite accustomed to Talonflame and his priority which Heatran lacks. I have been quite attracted to his SpDef set but I didn't see that kind of role fitting in well with the amount of Landorus' I keep encountering. I also have a strong hate for M-Venusaur's when I run this team as well as Scizor who can dent a lot of my Pokemon. Willing to take ideas nevertheless though.
Gastrodon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Recover
Gastrodon might be one of the few oddballs in place here but he's done quite a lot for me despite not originating in OU. His one weakness is patched up by Talonflame and Serperior and he is a great switch-in to neutral physical threats as well as being the plague of Rotom-W. I love predicting the switch into Wash and hitting them with Toxic and crippling the annoying wall while he's stuck forcing himself to burn me. Once again however, I start to frustrate myself if I see opposing Serperior or Venusaur waiting to destroy him and I have to try and save Talonflame.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Moonlight
- Heal Bell
- Stealth Rock
I'm not really one for having a cleric. However I figured I needed one for the occasional Scald burns hitting my Gyarados, the WoW on Gastrodon and sometimes Toxic from whatever other threats I have. Thunder Wave Ferrothorn is another hate of mine despite two of my Pokemon being immune to it (ill get to the second one). While Wish/Protect is the usual preference, I opted for some hazards and quicker healing as I feel uncomfortable with the two-turn process. I have been thinking about utilizing the Calm Mind set but its still in the air at the moment unless someone can provide a clearer answer about that.
Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 32 SpD / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Extrasensory
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch
As I said before, I thought about Heatran in the Talonflame slot. Originally I planned to use this team on-cart so I didn't want to be forced to abuse legendaries for the obvious reasons of IVs and etc. Raikou is one of my few decent legends on-cart and I soon realized he fit into my team wonderfully. With Clefable being weak to Steel, I found AV Raikou was a good answer to common priority Bullet Punches and some special attackers. He's also a good answer to some Talonflames. Extrasensory is mostly for Conkeldurr and Venusaur however its been looking quite inferior to Venusaur regardless with his ability to just Synthesis the damage off with his bulk.
Defensive Coverages
So I think I saw this in another RMT, which I have been using many to sponge ideas of how to format mine so I wanted to discuss how my team operates defensively. The FWG core speaks for itself as after learning about it, I decided to try it out as compared to my usual Hyper Offense style themes. It's a rather inferior FWG core since I have two Pokemon weak to Rock and after mega evolution that changes to two Pokemon weak to Bug but it's worked out well most of the time if I'm not half asleep at the screen.
As said above, Gastrodon and Raikou have their weaknesses covered by Talonflame and Serperior nicely with Serperior getting less switch-ins to Earthquakes for his obvious potential of being worn down by Life Orb recoil and the fear of getting hit with something neutral or super-effective if the foe survives. Talonflames works well with Raikou in particular as well as Clefable since both resist Steel decently. Clefable also patches up Bug for Serperior but Poison oftens becomes an issue which forces Gastrodon's hand who can surprisingly tank some special attacks with no investment. All in all, there's a lot of Steel resists in the team which I didn't plan and even if i swap Excadrill for Gastrodon, that's another one.
Threat List
Mega-Venusaur
In my recent testing, he has become quite a thorn, mainly if Talonflame is down for the count. Unlike Serperior, this thing laughs at majority of my team, even his weaknesses as mentioned above. Gyarados has potential to kill him off with Crunch but only if he hits +2 or rarely +3 which has only been allowed once or twice.
Tyranitar and Excadrill
Not a common threat YET but one I noticed last night for the first time although it probably was a mistake on my playing. Mis-predicting a Earthquake, I lost Gyarados to a critical Stone Edge and it was pretty much good game after that. The SpDef boost enabled him to tank a Leaf Storm from Serperior and it probably would've been the same with Raikou who fears the Earthquake. Clefable is often bullied by its sheer power and worn down with the sand damage with Moonlight being hindered, further raising the idea for a Magic Guard set. He's also commonly paired with Excadrill who can spin my rocks away and run through with faster hits to ruin my team.
Mega-Altaria
I can deal with it if I'm careful with Gyarados and Talonflame. If not, it walls Serperior, beats Gyarados if I dont have a Dragon Dance, and can hit Raikou back harder then HP Ice can most of the time. Clefable is my only clear answer to it most of the time but it still tends to dislike switching in on anything except Dragon Dance.
Zapdos
I have YET to see a Zapdos surprisingly but I deduced immediately after making the team it would pose a problem. Defog rids me of my Rocks and nothing except Raikou can safely be a threat to it besides trying to Toxic him with Gastrodon.
Concerns and Ideas
This is a pretty unusual style team for me to use honestly. I lack a Steel-type which is pretty much a mandatory for me most of the time when making a team. That Steel-type is usually Bisharp or Heatran (or both) with the first discouraging use of Defog. I am in dire need of a rapid spinner so Excadrill actually fills both roles and counters the threat of Tyranitar nicely. The problem was finding a spot for him without hindering the rest of the team as unlike Gastrodon (who is the first idea to replace), he doesn't take Fire or Ground moves quite as well and cannot stop Lopunny most of the time which Gastrodon has done quite a bit with my lucky Scald burns.
There are clear weaknesses but once I saw the potential it could have, I decided to stick with what I had so far and see what other people thought could help it improve. Coverage-wise, I like how the team operates along with the cores. So please give some constructive criticism as I see I get a lot of rage from opponents saying I get lucky with Scald burns or crucial criticals sometimes. And if that is the only reason this team can operate, let me know please lol. I think I got anything so please go on with any questions, comments, ideas, rates or concerns.
Brief thing about me, I've only been playing Pokemon competitively since the release of XY which was my introduction to Showdown so I in no way will claim to know close to everything there is in the game and I am always seeking anyway to improve or learn further. Anyway, I think that's enough. Onto the team.
Serperior @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
Originally when I decided to use Milotic, I automatically wanted to go for this dual-snake theme unfortunately like a lot of people probably have somewhere in the game. With the introduction of Contrary, Serperior became real appealing to me despite my preference being Mega Sceptile. Nothing too out of the ordinary with him. I opted for HP Fire because Scizor, Ferrothorn and Metagross were constant switch-ins and worries of mine. While HP Ground is usually my preference, I have two other Pokemon who nicely deal with Heatran who is the obvious wall of this set. Giga Drain is also present because I am commonly seen suffering from Life Orb recoil.
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
To take up Milotic's sad role, I had the best next thing to a Water serpent. Being the Mega of my team, Gyarados wasn't hard to pick for the team as I love his offensive capabilities after just one Dragon Dance. I try to play carefully with him, keeping him out of Mega form to dodge the common Earthquakes and and Play Roughs/Drain Punches from people expecting him to go into Mega and then evolving after a Dragon Dance or two depending. After two, its pretty hard to stop him and people are forced to sacrifice a Pokemon to revenge kill with the best priority they have. He also fits in well with Serperior, as part 2 of the F/W/G core to come.
Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- Swords Dance
- Roost
This is one set I'm kinda iffy about but not the Pokemon in anyway. Although I did consider Heatran for the final piece of the core, I've grown quite accustomed to Talonflame and his priority which Heatran lacks. I have been quite attracted to his SpDef set but I didn't see that kind of role fitting in well with the amount of Landorus' I keep encountering. I also have a strong hate for M-Venusaur's when I run this team as well as Scizor who can dent a lot of my Pokemon. Willing to take ideas nevertheless though.
Gastrodon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Recover
Gastrodon might be one of the few oddballs in place here but he's done quite a lot for me despite not originating in OU. His one weakness is patched up by Talonflame and Serperior and he is a great switch-in to neutral physical threats as well as being the plague of Rotom-W. I love predicting the switch into Wash and hitting them with Toxic and crippling the annoying wall while he's stuck forcing himself to burn me. Once again however, I start to frustrate myself if I see opposing Serperior or Venusaur waiting to destroy him and I have to try and save Talonflame.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Moonlight
- Heal Bell
- Stealth Rock
I'm not really one for having a cleric. However I figured I needed one for the occasional Scald burns hitting my Gyarados, the WoW on Gastrodon and sometimes Toxic from whatever other threats I have. Thunder Wave Ferrothorn is another hate of mine despite two of my Pokemon being immune to it (ill get to the second one). While Wish/Protect is the usual preference, I opted for some hazards and quicker healing as I feel uncomfortable with the two-turn process. I have been thinking about utilizing the Calm Mind set but its still in the air at the moment unless someone can provide a clearer answer about that.
Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 32 SpD / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Extrasensory
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch
As I said before, I thought about Heatran in the Talonflame slot. Originally I planned to use this team on-cart so I didn't want to be forced to abuse legendaries for the obvious reasons of IVs and etc. Raikou is one of my few decent legends on-cart and I soon realized he fit into my team wonderfully. With Clefable being weak to Steel, I found AV Raikou was a good answer to common priority Bullet Punches and some special attackers. He's also a good answer to some Talonflames. Extrasensory is mostly for Conkeldurr and Venusaur however its been looking quite inferior to Venusaur regardless with his ability to just Synthesis the damage off with his bulk.
Defensive Coverages
So I think I saw this in another RMT, which I have been using many to sponge ideas of how to format mine so I wanted to discuss how my team operates defensively. The FWG core speaks for itself as after learning about it, I decided to try it out as compared to my usual Hyper Offense style themes. It's a rather inferior FWG core since I have two Pokemon weak to Rock and after mega evolution that changes to two Pokemon weak to Bug but it's worked out well most of the time if I'm not half asleep at the screen.
As said above, Gastrodon and Raikou have their weaknesses covered by Talonflame and Serperior nicely with Serperior getting less switch-ins to Earthquakes for his obvious potential of being worn down by Life Orb recoil and the fear of getting hit with something neutral or super-effective if the foe survives. Talonflames works well with Raikou in particular as well as Clefable since both resist Steel decently. Clefable also patches up Bug for Serperior but Poison oftens becomes an issue which forces Gastrodon's hand who can surprisingly tank some special attacks with no investment. All in all, there's a lot of Steel resists in the team which I didn't plan and even if i swap Excadrill for Gastrodon, that's another one.
Threat List
Mega-Venusaur
In my recent testing, he has become quite a thorn, mainly if Talonflame is down for the count. Unlike Serperior, this thing laughs at majority of my team, even his weaknesses as mentioned above. Gyarados has potential to kill him off with Crunch but only if he hits +2 or rarely +3 which has only been allowed once or twice.
Tyranitar and Excadrill
Not a common threat YET but one I noticed last night for the first time although it probably was a mistake on my playing. Mis-predicting a Earthquake, I lost Gyarados to a critical Stone Edge and it was pretty much good game after that. The SpDef boost enabled him to tank a Leaf Storm from Serperior and it probably would've been the same with Raikou who fears the Earthquake. Clefable is often bullied by its sheer power and worn down with the sand damage with Moonlight being hindered, further raising the idea for a Magic Guard set. He's also commonly paired with Excadrill who can spin my rocks away and run through with faster hits to ruin my team.
Mega-Altaria
I can deal with it if I'm careful with Gyarados and Talonflame. If not, it walls Serperior, beats Gyarados if I dont have a Dragon Dance, and can hit Raikou back harder then HP Ice can most of the time. Clefable is my only clear answer to it most of the time but it still tends to dislike switching in on anything except Dragon Dance.
Zapdos
I have YET to see a Zapdos surprisingly but I deduced immediately after making the team it would pose a problem. Defog rids me of my Rocks and nothing except Raikou can safely be a threat to it besides trying to Toxic him with Gastrodon.
Concerns and Ideas
This is a pretty unusual style team for me to use honestly. I lack a Steel-type which is pretty much a mandatory for me most of the time when making a team. That Steel-type is usually Bisharp or Heatran (or both) with the first discouraging use of Defog. I am in dire need of a rapid spinner so Excadrill actually fills both roles and counters the threat of Tyranitar nicely. The problem was finding a spot for him without hindering the rest of the team as unlike Gastrodon (who is the first idea to replace), he doesn't take Fire or Ground moves quite as well and cannot stop Lopunny most of the time which Gastrodon has done quite a bit with my lucky Scald burns.
There are clear weaknesses but once I saw the potential it could have, I decided to stick with what I had so far and see what other people thought could help it improve. Coverage-wise, I like how the team operates along with the cores. So please give some constructive criticism as I see I get a lot of rage from opponents saying I get lucky with Scald burns or crucial criticals sometimes. And if that is the only reason this team can operate, let me know please lol. I think I got anything so please go on with any questions, comments, ideas, rates or concerns.
