Undefeated Team, but that's not Important

[HECTORtu]

I've recently been on a streak ofnot being able to make a decen team against all the pure offensive teams. I think I finally made a team that has nice shot at getting to the top of leaderboard, but I feel the team DOES have some problems with certain pokemon. This is why I'm posting my team. Hope you like/rate my team!

Team Overview

In Depth

Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- U-turn
- Sleep Talk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Yes I did riup this guy from Irakx's team, but wow is it sweet... You'd impressed with the amount of Yanmegas, Aerodactyls, Ninjasks, Gengars, and Crobats that have just gotten beat by this guy. He provides a nice element of surprise for the beginning of the game while being able to revenge kill a lot of other threats throughout the game. Also it gives me a nice Steel, Fighting and Ground resist, which is needed for a lot of offensive-like teams.

Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power
- Explosion

Aaaah yes, Scarftran. This guy is like, on most of my teams, and with reason. He is able to defeat every steel pokemon out there while hitting other guys that switch in pretty hard. He provides a lot of resists and can also revenge kill when needed. He's also the guy that has to take the CBTtar's Crunches. =/

There are only really 2 different things from this set, then from the standard one on the site. One is the Naive nature, which is used for more power with Explosion and to outspeed other things that Modest Tran can't outspeed such as Weavile. The 2nd different thing is using Flamethrower over Fire Blast. Now yes, I had to think about this, but Fire Blast's accuracy and lack of PP was really starting to hurt me, so I opted for Flamethrower. If you have any thoughts on why I should put Fire Blast back, don't hesitate.

Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Waterfall

ResTalk CursePert forms part of one of my biggest regrets by not using him way earlier in my pokemon career. He sets up on a lot of things, while being able to turn into an unstoppable beast with a few curses. He's my Tyranitar and Metagross counter. He only packs one weakness (Grass), which if you look at my team, is resisted by every other member ^__^.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/220 Def/36 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Grass Knot
- Leech Seed/ Stealth Rock
- Reflect
- Recover

Tihs guy acts as my Gyarados counter, and a fine job it does. With Reflect, Celebi will be surviving whatever LO Gyara has to throw at him even with a DD. Reflect also helps against Tyranitar which could hurt my team a lot. Leech Seed forces switches and provides recovery if opponnet stays in. Grass Knot and Recover are there for obvious reasons.

Salamence (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP/180 Def/76 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake

First time I ever use Salamence as a bulky DD'er. I ripped this set from Aldaron in the peer edits section, so thanks Aldaron. Anyways, His main focus, is to take down Heracross and SDLucario while also being able to sweep with a few Dragon Dances. I opted for Leftovers over Life Orb because I need the survivability.

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 112 HP/184 Atk/212 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Pursuit

Metagross spread was taken from Taylor. This guy takes out Gengar and Deoxys-e without any problems. It can't switch into Gengar, only when one pokemon faints, but then, Gengar is guaranteed to go down. Deoxys-e is taken down with ease with the combination of Bullet Punch and Pursuit.


So yeah, that's my team. PLease rate away!! ^__^

 

[faint]

This looks like a solid team hector of teh smex. However, if I were you I would use Scizor over Metagross. This way if you explode after you've taken out your oppnents Gengar, only to find out later that they have a Deoxys-E then you may be pretty much screwed. Use the trapping set. I believe the EV's are 172 HP / 56 Spe / 100 Atk / 176 SpD. The moveset should be U-Turn / Roost / Pursuit / and either Light Screen or Quick Attack. Stealth Rock kinda hurts this team, since Zapdos will have to switch out alot. Salamence will also have to Roost more often with it on the field. Also, you have no real wall breaker. This means SkarmBliss can easily come into you and you would need to rely on alot of predicting.

I sort of wanna try this team out with the addition of Deoxys-E over Heatran and my suggestion above. But like I said I think it looks sexy and covers most threats. Good job. :D

Edit: I love the Swampert set. :D

 

[Taylor]

I'm not entirely sure which ladder this team was originally built for, considering there is no indication anywhere. There is no sense of Garchomp in your descriptions, which would lead me to believe you're competing on the Suspect ladder. However, you touch on the subject of how Metagross is capable of catching and successfully trapping Deoxys-S off-guard, who happens to be forbidden on the exact same ladder. So, which ladder was this team intended for?

Despite the confusion, I really like this team. If managed correctly, then you can be assured this team will continue to impress you with success.

I know I haven't found it within myself to rate anything, so I do apologise for that.

 

[HECTORtu]

Thank you Faint for all the advice. I wll test Scizor, and see how it goes. I do agree with you that II need a mixed sweeper. And on Deoxys-e ripping my team after Meta goes down, well its not true. Celebi is not KO'd by and Ice Beam or Shadow Ball, Heatran survives a Superpower, Swampert can take it easily.

To Taylor: Yeah the Garchomp part kinda slipped lol. I was planning on using this team for the suspect ladder, since I think it would do pretty well there as well, but right now, it is competing in the Standard Ladder. Garchomp is normally taken care of by Heatran and Zapdos with some revenge killing, or if its Scarfed, Pert laughs at it. Celebi also helps against Chomp given it has Reflect and Leech Seed.

But yeah, I am considering using this for suspect ladder really soon.

Thanks guys

 

[faint]

And on Deoxys-e ripping my team after Meta goes down, well its not true. Celebi is not KO'd by and Ice Beam or Shadow Ball, Heatran survives a Superpower, Swampert can take it easily.

Yea forget I said that. Your right.

 

[Stallion]

I really like the team structurally Hector, no major flaws. However, one gripe I have with the team is the fact that you have two Stealth Rock weak Pokemon. I believe that as much as that Mence is cool, that it is the weakest link in your team. I suggest a Baton Passing Gliscor, with either Agility or Swords Dance being the move of choice. Swords Dance would greatly assist Swampert and Metagross where as Agility helps pretty much everyone. This is just a suggestion though, you alone know how this team works in a Stealth Rock infested metagame, so don't feel compelled to take it.

 

[HECTORtu]

I really like the team structurally Hector, no major flaws. However, one gripe I have with the team is the fact that you have two Stealth Rock weak Pokemon. I believe that as much as that Mence is cool, that it is the weakest link in your team. I suggest a Baton Passing Gliscor, with either Agility or Swords Dance being the move of choice. Swords Dance would greatly assist Swampert and Metagross where as Agility helps pretty much everyone. This is just a suggestion though, you alone know how this team works in a Stealth Rock infested metagame, so don't feel compelled to take it.

Just what I wanted to hear ^___^. My team is very SR weak, and wasting a turn for Roost hurts, and Mence is probably the guy I use less in my team, so I will consider this Gliscor. Did you have any specific spread/set in mind?

 

[COCKBLOCK]

Name: Baton Pass
move 1: Rock Polish / Swords Dance
move 2: Baton Pass
move 3: Roost
move 4: Taunt / Earthquake
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Jolly
EV's: 252 HP/ 6 Atk / 252 Speed

Here you go Erector (teehee). Sorry I couldn't give you a more unique EV spread, maybe someone else will lol, but this is usually what people do. You do have the benefit of outspeeding even Max Speed Lucario, which is why Earthquake is an option.

 

[Eternal]

The Metagross isn't very viable to be a counter for Gengar, Deoxys, Starmie's etc. Why? It needs sp.def EVs so it can take sp.atks from Deoxys-E or Gengar or Starmie, so it can viably counter them while being able to have enough stamina to explode or do any other damage. It can easily get 2HKO'd by LO Gengar.

Your team does face some problems with Starmies, Mixapes, Heracross, etc. But those can be countered by predictions.

Overall its a nice team and it does counter the major Overused Pokemons of the metagame.

 

[HECTORtu]

As I said in Meta's description: It can only beat Gengar by switching in AFTER a pokemon of mine has fainted. Deoxys-e is handled with ease, being 4HKOd by a thunderbolt.

I really don't worry much about starmie, as Zapdos can outspeed it, and an Ice Beam from it does not KO Celebi unless its a Specs user, in which case, it will be pursuited by Meta. Heracross is beaten by Mence with ease.

 

[Pocket]

Very nice line up =d

Your team resists grass, but be wary of Grass Knot, HP Ice, and TWave on Celebi, as that would down Salamence, Heatran, Zapdos, while Metagross loses just a bit short from a quarter of its health when taking a Grass Knot (Metagross doesn't even have MMash / Ice Punch to threaten it). I mean, you can easily predict a Grass Knot and bring in Heatran, but it would only do 83% on average with Flamethrower (one reason why you should bump it up to Fire Blast for an average OHKO against a max HP / min SDef Celebi).

Stealth Rock > Leech Seed on Celebi doesn't seem like a bad idea to me; not having it just puts you at a disadvantage imo.

Also Salamence is a great bulky pokemon, the SR doesn't hurt it too much thanks to its defensive spread, Leftovers, Roost, and Intimidate. Without Salamence, you might run into tight situations against Infernape. Sure, HP Ice still owns the dragon, but it's not much of a staple on the monkey, so it'll at least ward off a handful of other Infernapes. Much better than relying on Swampert, Zapdos, and Heatran to absorb resisted hits while fearing an OHKO on the wrong switch.

Your team has awesome coverage, but as Faint shrewdly pointed out, it's pretty easily walled, and only a timely Explosion from Meta or Heatran could penetrate the opponent's team imo. Celebi, SkarmBliss, and Vaporeon w/ Ice Beam does a good job walling this team. SR would help punish these defensive pokemon whenever it comes in, so you could use that to your advantage. But then Leech Seed does that, too, (excluding enemy Celebi); I would weigh the importances between Leech Seed and SR. However, the best approach would be to diversify your offense a little more.

Do you really need a Gengar / Deo-E counter? The way I see is that your Swampert already counters both of them rather effectively. If Gengar is holding specs, Heatran, Swampert, and Zapdos would be enough to own it imo. Scarf is harder to revenge kill, but even easier for Swampert. Ditto for the popular Hypnosis-Sub Gengar with Leftovers / EB. The hardest ones are the Orbed ones, and even those could be screwed by Heatran and Zapdos without a Substitute. Would it be bad to specialize Swampert to a more Specially Defensive pokemon? With 212 SpDef EVs, it takes 36% from an Orbed Gengar's Shadow Ball, so it's a great counter, with Heatran and Zapdos as back up. You already have Reflect and a Defensive Celebi and Salamence to deal with most physical threats anyways. Covering for Tyranitar and Metagross may become a bit trickier, but Celebi's Reflect + Grass Knot already dents them already, and Salamence can further Intimidate TTar if need be.. Under their defensive cover, Swampert can easily boost its defense up to not be a problem imo.

Specializing Swampert more towards Special Defense would let you utilize a less centralized Metagross. Since you lack wall breakers, Thunderpunch, HP Fire, Meteor Mash, and EQ Expert Belt / LO / Lefties / Salac / Lum / EQ resist berry Metagross may work really well. The minimum aim should be to promptly 2HKO Skarmory with HP Fire, 2HKO Ice Beam Vaporeon with Thunderpunch (LO Grass Knot / EQ doesn't accomplish this, and even with Thunderpunch it needs SR and EB or LO for a clean 2HKO), and possibly even 2HKO Celebi with <80% health or something like that. With those three Pokemon gone, Salamence and Swampert would not be forced to switch out of their boosts.

Alternatively, you can go Choice Band. Metagross would pack more punch in many circumstances, but it will lose flexibility, and you would want Metagross to be flexible to dispatch the annoying walls. You already have two choicers to contend with, too. One advantage here is that Meta would have more EVs for defense while still hitting hard. Skarmory would still manage to wall it, though, which isn't good for your team.

Great coverage =]. The only thing I find troublesome is opposing DDmence / DDNite, since it can switch into Celebi, Swampert, or one of Choice Scarf moves and start DD. But it's a minor problem that this team is more than capable of handling imo. Irak's Suicune is growing in popularity now (at least it's not as obscure as it used to be), and this Pokemon, I believe, is a much bigger problem. It outspeeds all of your non-scarfers, and they can't really hold it back. Your non-scarfers would also find revenge-killing Suicune as a challenge due to CM boosts.

 

[Chileno4Live]

Wow this team looks so good and i think its solid enough. I like the Salamence set. i never actually used it but ive faced it a few times it can take Outrages from Chomp.

Stealth Rock ruins 2 pokemon's of your team which we dont want, so i suggest getting a rapid spinner. Donphan fits good in this team as you have alot of pokemons who resist its weaknesses. I would suggest using Donphan :) I'm not sure what kind of Donphan you would like so i wont suggest a set.

Thats only what i should suggest to your team. It looks solid in all others cases. ;)

If your not busy could you fix/rate my sandstorm team:
My Sandstorm Team!

 

[HECTORtu]

Very nice line up =d

Your team resists grass, but be wary of Grass Knot, HP Ice, and TWave on Celebi, as that would down Salamence, Heatran, Zapdos, while Metagross loses just a bit short from a quarter of its health when taking a Grass Knot (Metagross doesn't even have MMash / Ice Punch to threaten it). I mean, you can easily predict a Grass Knot and bring in Heatran, but it would only do 83% on average with Flamethrower (one reason why you should bump it up to Fire Blast for an average OHKO against a max HP / min SDef Celebi).

Yes that Celebi does in fact wreck havoc against my team, so I will change Heatran's Flamethrower to Fire Blast.

Rock > Leech Seed on Celebi doesn't seem like a bad idea to me; not having it just puts you at a disadvantage imo.


Salamence is a great bulky pokemon, the SR doesn't hurt it too much thanks to its defensive spread, Leftovers, Roost, and Intimidate. Without Salamence, you might run into tight situations against Infernape. Sure, HP Ice still owns the dragon, but it's not much of a staple on the monkey, so it'll at least ward off a handful of other Infernapes. Much better than relying on Swampert, Zapdos, and Heatran to absorb resisted hits while fearing an OHKO on the wrong switch.

Stealth Rock will be tested over Leech Seed, but I still am in love with it, so I'll have to see what help does Stealth Rock provide me with and if it has any advantage over Leech Seed. Mixape without Nasty Plot, really has been way easier to take down than I originally thought. I usually try to leave Mence out of Infernape's sight seeing as it may carry HP Ice and make Sally go bye bye :(. But yes, really careful switches must be issued.

team has awesome coverage, but as Faint shrewdly pointed out, it's pretty easily walled, and only a timely Explosion from Meta or Heatran could penetrate the opponent's team imo. Celebi, SkarmBliss, and Vaporeon w/ Ice Beam does a good job walling this team. SR would help punish these defensive pokemon whenever it comes in, so you could use that to your advantage. But then Leech Seed does that, too, (excluding enemy Celebi); I would weigh the importances between Leech Seed and SR. However, the best approach would be to diversify your offense a little more.

Yeah SkarmBliss and Vaporeon have been a huge problem for me. I lost one match because I just couldn't kill the dang Vaporeon, and SkarmBliss is only beaten by an awesome prediction with Heatran using Explosion, or by leaving CursePert to the end and Curse up.

you really need a Gengar / Deo-E counter? The way I see is that your Swampert already counters both of them rather effectively. If Gengar is holding specs, Heatran, Swampert, and Zapdos would be enough to own it imo. Scarf is harder to revenge kill, but even easier for Swampert. Ditto for the popular Hypnosis-Sub Gengar with Leftovers / EB. The hardest ones are the Orbed ones, and even those could be screwed by Heatran and Zapdos without a Substitute. Would it be bad to specialize Swampert to a more Specially Defensive pokemon? With 212 SpDef EVs, it takes 36% from an Orbed Gengar's Shadow Ball, so it's a great counter, with Heatran and Zapdos as back up. You already have Reflect and a Defensive Celebi and Salamence to deal with most physical threats anyways. Covering for Tyranitar and Metagross may become a bit trickier, but Celebi's Reflect + Grass Knot already dents them already, and Salamence can further Intimidate TTar if need be.. Under their defensive cover, Swampert can easily boost its defense up to not be a problem imo.

I like the idea of pumping up Swampert's Sp Def even more as it can in fact take down Gengar and Deoxys-e. So I will be changing the spread.

Swampert more towards Special Defense would let you utilize a less centralized Metagross. Since you lack wall breakers, Thunderpunch, HP Fire, Meteor Mash, and EQ Expert Belt / LO / Lefties / Salac / Lum / EQ resist berry Metagross may work really well. The minimum aim should be to promptly 2HKO Skarmory with HP Fire, 2HKO Ice Beam Vaporeon with Thunderpunch (LO Grass Knot / EQ doesn't accomplish this, and even with Thunderpunch it needs SR and EB or LO for a clean 2HKO), and possibly even 2HKO Celebi with <80% health or something like that. With those three Pokemon gone, Salamence and Swampert would not be forced to switch out of their boosts.

To be honest, as soon as you told me the whole Swampert with more Sp Def thing and the lesser need of a specific Deoxys-e/ Gengar counter, I was thinking on a pokemon such as SpecsCario who can easily break walls, because personally, I'm not a fan of MixMeta, although with SpecsCario, I do lack flexibility, so I'm gonna have to think a bit on that last slot. Thanks for the suggestion in any case.

, you can go Choice Band. Metagross would pack more punch in many circumstances, but it will lose flexibility, and you would want Metagross to be flexible to dispatch the annoying walls. You already have two choicers to contend with, too. One advantage here is that Meta would have more EVs for defense while still hitting hard. Skarmory would still manage to wall it, though, which isn't good for your team.

The fact that CBMeta will still get walled by Skarm, and walled hard, well makes me not wanna use it on this team. As I said before, I will have to think about what to place in that last slot.

coverage =]. The only thing I find troublesome is opposing DDmence / DDNite, since it can switch into Celebi, Swampert, or one of Choice Scarf moves and start DD. But it's a minor problem that this team is more than capable of handling imo. Irak's Suicune is growing in popularity now (at least it's not as obscure as it used to be), and this Pokemon, I believe, is a much bigger problem. It outspeeds all of your non-scarfers, and they can't really hold it back. Your non-scarfers would also find revenge-killing Suicune as a challenge due to CM boosts.

I already got swept once by DDMence (Damn its potential roles!!!), all because I expected some Draco Meteor lol. Later I just started switching Heatran in, if it Dragon Dances, I go to Zapdos which outspeeds and is immune to Earthquake. I faced Irak's Suicune once, and my Zapdos did approximately 70% to it, so it's really not a huge concern for me, but yes its VERY hard to switch something in to it.

Thanks for the rate Pocket, really appreciate it :D

 

[Heez]

Nice team. I love your Zapdos =P. I suggest you replace flamethrower with lava plume. You may lose 15 BP, but you get a 30% burn rate over the flamethrower and fire blast's 10%. It makes garchomp think twice before switching into a lava plume.

 

[Eternal]

Nice team. I love your Zapdos =P. I suggest you replace flamethrower with lava plume. You may lose 15 BP, but you get a 30% burn rate over the flamethrower and fire blast's 10%. It makes garchomp think twice before switching into a lava plume.

Yes, Lava Plume can be very useful like that, and knowing that none of your Pokemons induce status.

 

[HECTORtu]

The power is very much needed to be honest. The difference between Fire Blast and Lava Plume is pretty big (180 vs 120), so I'll just stick with Fire Blast. Thanks for suggestion though ^__^.

 

[HR.]

Team looks good. On Celebi, I think Stealth Rock is too good not to use. Also an option I have tested before on Zapdos instead of Sleep Talk is Extrasensory. Most people won't expect it, and it takes out many threats such as Infernape, Machamp, Hera, etc, who could all have Stone Edge.

 

[faint]

Team looks good. On Celebi, I think Stealth Rock is too good not to use. Also an option I have tested before on Zapdos instead of Sleep Talk is Extrasensory. Most people won't expect it, and it takes out many threats such as Infernape, Machamp, Hera, etc, who could all have Stone Edge.

If that was the case he'd be better of just running a mixed set with Drill Peck over Sleep Talk. Extransatory has bad typing anyway, and at least Drill Peck has the added benefit of hitting Celebi for super effective damage. Extransatory is also just asking for a Tyranitar/Weavile to switch in and Pursuit the fuck out of you.

 

[Evisu]

The Metagross isn't very viable to be a counter for Gengar, Deoxys, Starmie's etc. Why? It needs sp.def EVs so it can take sp.atks from Deoxys-E or Gengar or Starmie, so it can viably counter them while being able to have enough stamina to explode or do any other damage. It can easily get 2HKO'd by LO Gengar.

Metagross doesn't counter Deoxys-E? Ha that's totally going into my signature. Deoxys-E can't do shit to Metagross period.

Anyways this is a very well built team it seems to have all the needed resistances covered.