Well, I dont actually play Standard anymore ( just some occasional battles ), as I am more oriented to the UU metagame. ( some may know me, may it be through my pretty weird nature >.< ). This team looks pretty "normal" consisting of supporters to enable a sweep to my two sweepers, namely Armaldo and Dodrio. I wasnt going to use these boring Pokés like Claydol and Steelix >.<, but if they cover the weaknesses my team offers pretty well, I guess its okey then. And btw, like skiddle, I am more amazed by the Ken Sugimori Art =).
Camerupt (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 228 HP/72 SAtk/208 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
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Well, to determine my lead, I went through some testings >.< ( not playtesting though). I took every Pokémon in UU, then looked at the most used sets ( thanks to X-Act ) used by the TOP 35 ( dunno why 35 though ) leads ( thanks Doug ). I added a point to the Pokémon if it was weak to the move, added two points if it was 4x weak to a move and removed one point if it was immune to any of its attacks. Every Pokémon with more than 10 points got removed from my list of potential leads. I know, its awkward >.<. In the end, around 8-9 Pokémon left, and I continued removing Pokémon by determining bulkiness, amount of support moves and the ability to beat the most of the top leads. After all these, just Rotom ( Screener ), Drapion ( Defensive ) and Camerupt ( Support ) left and I decided to go for the latter since I liked it the most out of the three.
But now onto the set. Camerupt is great because thanks to Solid Rock, it doesnt take that much damage from Ground attacks ( well, Water does still hurt hard ), so it wins against Screen-less Claydol, Electrode ( immune to Thunder yay ) and the likes. Lava Plume is my main way to deal damage, having the ability to give me an essential burn that could win me the match ( like hitting the hitmons or any other physical sweeper O= ). Earth Power gives Camerupt nice coverage alongside Lava Plume, just leaving a bunch of Pokémon to resist both moves, though the burn will most likely cripple the most of them. Stealth Rock is a nice move for a starter since severly weakening the likes of Scyther can be important for my team to take the win. Taunt doesnt screw it up, since the most common Taunt users are Nidoqueen, Drapion and Dodrio. Nidoqueen, although faster and being able to use Earthquake, is used as a physical tank, enabling Earth Power to deal a big chunk of damage. Drapion is even less bulky on the special side, although EQ from the offensive sets will hurt Camerupt a bit. Dodrio isnt used that much, but I think no matter if it uses Return or Brave Bird ( it will hurt Camerupt ). At last, Toxic allows me to cripple special walls and bulky Waters, Pokémon that Camerupt will most likely attract.
Leafeon (M) @ Salac Berry
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Att, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Flail
- Leaf Blade
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To be honest, I havent used Leafeon very often and I am very unexperienced with it. I decided to give the SubSalac Sweeper a try. With its good 95 base speed, Leafeon will be able to outspeed a good part of UU, allowing it to use Substitute before getting attacked. If I can get a Sub up while my opponent switches out, I have the possibility to use Swords Dance, lengthening the sweep possibly. Leaf Blade is a reliable STAB. Grass may not be a good type in OU, but in UU alongside Flail, it hits everything but Shedinja, Wormadan-S, Mawile and Drifblim for at least neutral damage. Packed with a Swords Dance and the Speed Boost, Flail will most likely "destroy" an unprepared team >.<.
Lanturn (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 40 HP/80 Spd/136 SAtk/252 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Thunder Wave
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I am using Lanturn in most of my teams, since it seems to be reliable in all regards. It bounces back special attacks aimed at any other of my Pokémon and it my only way to stop Glaceon. Surf, Thunderbolt and Ice Beam are all great moves on such a Pokémon. While the former two are STABs, Ice Beam provides it with further coverage ( like hitting Grass-types). Since Lanturn is used more defensively, I needed something to support the team abit. I chose Thunder Wave over for example Toxic, as I really like to slow down my opponent, so that e.g. Armaldo can set up Rock Polish much easier. All in all, Lanturn is as great as ever.
Weezing (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
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My team was really weak to Primeape, which could hit everyone on my team with SE-moves and I needed something to stop it. I looked upon the Poison-types ( since they most likely resist Close Combat ) and saw Weezing, being the one with the highest Defense out of them. And another advantage was that it wasnt weak to Earthquake, something his fellow Poison-types cant show off with. Thunderbolt and Flamethrower would be much cooler, if they would have STAB but w.e, they still offer nice coverage, hitting lots of thing for neutral damage ( well, Rock / Ground and Water / Ground resist these combo but I have other Pokémon that can take care of them ). WoW is used due to the Weezing having no time to use Haze after all, since Altaria will beat me with and without it. WoW provides me to Pain Split much easier since threats like Altaria will switch out, allowing me to gain more HP =C
Armaldo (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 14 HP/252 Atk/244 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Rock Polish
- X-Scissor
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
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My first sweeper. I read Caelum's ( of LonelyNess' ) post about the UU metagame at the moment and decided to try Armaldo out. I've used it in one of my other teams and it worked nice as a late game sweeper. Rock Polish boosts its mediocre Speed to high stats, enabling him to fire off strong attacks from its fearsome base Attack. X-Scissor and Stone Edge both get STAB and wreck havoc in the UnderUsed tier. Earthquake deals with the rest of the Pokémon that would resist Bug and / or Rock. Overall, its a good Pokémon but due to both of my sweepers being weak to Stealth Rock, its hard to get one of these in, which causes a sacrifice of one of my Pokémon ( *snief* ). I like Dodrio a little more, thats why I would rather switch this one.
Dodrio (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Early Bird
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Return
- Faint Attack
- Quick Attack
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CBDrio is pretty good in UU, while, like most of the physical-based Flying-types, its so walled by Steel-types its not even funny. But the other Pokémon take care of these. Brave Bird and Return both gets STAB, while damaging every Pokémon not resistent and some which are for massive amounts, although I gotta be careful that Brave Bird wont "kill" my bird. Now using Faint Attack, because I completely forgot about it. It allows me to hit in-coming Rotoms and the likes to 2KO them =). Although Dodrio has a really nice base stat ( yeeeas ! ), lots of Pokémon are running Scarf or packing a priority move, so Quick Attack can take care of both of them. I like Dodrio alot ( Dodrio > Swellow > Staraptor > rest ), but I guess if it HAS to go, it will =/.
My teams lacks a solid Normal resist, since due to Armaldos weakness to SR, it wont be able to switch in that often ( no Rapid Spinner here ). Thats why Swellow would cause a big problem, if its not low on hp ( as I can Quick Attack him if it is ).
I hope I can get good / bad critism which will make my team ways better.
Thanks in advance ( btw, this is Shoddy =C )
