Versatility

[Chaoswalker]

(Version as of Post#9)
Once upon a time this was a rain team. Then I realized I wasn't even using the rain for anything much, so now it's more of a balanced offense team and uh... it works better this way. Let's see the lineup, shall we?

Keldeo is my attacker of choice, having a decent stab combination and mixed attacking capabilities. Scizor covers a huge variety of roles, while Heatran and Amoonguss act as an extremely versatile defensive core. Landorus covers threats Heatran and Amoonguss can't, while Starmie is mostly for Hazard removal. The team goes through bouts of being very stall heavy and very fast, depending on which mons I'm relying on most in a match.

LATEST CHANGES: Thundurus and Latias are out for Landorus T and Starmie. Heatran swaps stealth rock for toxic. Amoonguss swaps toxic for stun spore.

IN DEPTH​

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Cascade (Keldeo-Resolute) @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Secret Sword
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
|Setup Sweeper|Wall Breaker|
The major offensive force of the team, Keldeo usually holds out of the match until either it's obvious he can sweep, or I see an opportunity for setting up a substitute. Since he's more setup based, I opted for Surf over Hydro Pump. Oh, and secret sword hitting physical defenses is diabolical, rending many teams in half once a single threat is removed. The amount of setup Keldeo gets can also determine how well it performs against even pokemon that would have otherwise forced it out.

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Red Angel (Scizor) (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Offensive Pivot|Trapper|Revenge Killer|
Scizor is included mostly for the sake of covering all the bases. She provides the team with strong priority, Pursuit trapping, and give momentum. She stands as an excellent answer to faeries, Gengar, Alakazam, or anything in need of revenge killing. Knock off replaced Superpower, an attack I hardly ever used. It's situationally useful, and has helped ruin a few pokemon.

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Forge (Heatran) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SDef / 30 Spd
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic
- Protect
|Wall|Status Spreader|
Charizard? Genesect? Volcarona? Talonflame? I DON'T THINK SO! This guy covers a LOT of threats. Will-O-Wisp is the grand screwer upper, for all the physical attackers that want to come in on him, while Toxic maims water types like Rotom-W. Protect is mostly for adding extra status damage and scouting random earthquakes.

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Sponge (Amoonguss) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Clear Smog
- Stun Spore
- Spore
|Defensive Pivot|Setup Breaker|Status Spreader|
Say hello to Heatran's partner. I don't know why this thing doesn't get more use, because it does fantastic work for me. Firstly, it lives a veeeeery long time throughout the match, doing a great job of simply staying alive and taking hits. Secondly, spore is rare and useful, and when saved for later in the match can create the opening Keldeo needs to setup a sub. Amoongus can also stop a variety of common threats, including Breloom, Mawile, M Lucario, Rotom W, and Azumarill.

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Gaia (Landorus-Therian) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Atk / 4 SDef / 200 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
|Offensive Pivot|Defensive Pivot|Hazards|
I needed something to cover strong physical attackers with earthquake, but I didn't want another dedicated defensive mon. Thus we have Landorus T, the perfect one for the job. Landorus fights off the likes of Garchomp, while providing hazards and dealing decent damage. Even without speed investment, U-Turn lets it nick walls and keep things going fast for the team.

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Galaxy (Starmie) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
- Rest
|Hazard Removal|Status Absorption|
Resident rapid spinner Starmie was chosen to remove hazards and not clash with team synergy too much. My 6th spot is always kinda shaky, and I'm open to suggestions for what might fill the role better. Still, Starmie lends the team a few interesting things: Firstly, status absorption thanks to Natural Cure. It also lets me have a strong water stab when I don't want to put Keldeo in danger. Thunderbolt makes it a nice answer to other water types, and Rest+Natural Cure let's it heal up and run away very cleanly.

If anyone's wondering why the random 0 attack ivs, it's to reduce foulplay and confusion damage by as much as possible.

 

[Chaoswalker]

This post was a bump. Thanks for the replies! ;D

 

[Creative]

This looks like a solid team, though I have a few thing's I'd change:

1. Lava Plume + Will-O-Wisp is a tad redundant, so I'd replace WoW with Toxic if you're going to keep Protect; however, dropping Wow + Protect for Earth Power + Roar could be good, as it gives you another answer to setup sweepers in addition to some coverage on Heatran.
2. I suggest replacing Thunder with Thunderbolt on Thundurus, because, as you said, you don't always have rain up, and T-bolt is definitely powerful enough.
3. If you're insistent on keeping Thunder Wave on Thundurus, I'd suggest going with Roartran and replacing Clear Smog on Amoonguss with Stun Spore to have a greater paralysis focus for your team; however, your team is pretty fast, despite not having a Scarfer (111, 110, 108 and a priority user? Damn), so I would actually place Focus Blast or Taunt above T-Wave on Thundy.
4. I think your Latias, with its seeming support role, should forgo some of its SpAtk EVs for some HP, but I'm not exactly sure how much.
5. Finally, it feels like a waste of a STAB to run an Ice move on Lati@s. Yes, Grass-types, but you already have a good number of answers to them, and the best Grass-type answers to your Keldeo, Celebi and Amoonguss, are hard-walled by Heatran and obliterated by Psyshock, respectively, so Dragon Pulse, with its superior neutral coverage and higher power due to STAB, seems better to me.

I hope that helped some. Good luck, and happy battling!

 

[Chaoswalker]

Thanks for the feedback! I've made some of the suggested changes, and the team has increased in efficiency. First thing I did was change Thundurus' moveset. Thunderbolt gives him a lot more offensive potential. I tried taunt, but never really found chances to use it. I opted for nasty plot over focusblast, mostly because focusmiss has failed me so very many times before. SO VERY MANY!
After that I said: "Screw it!" and dropped the rain from the team altogether. Amoongus now has toxic, Heatran as HP rock which I'd be happy to replace, and Latias gained Dragon Pulse over surf.

 

[cdiddyman911]

I like your team a lot but one thing that you should have is making a more strategic build for Latias (move pool and item wise).
I would have Light screen and reflect (since everybody loves less damage), use the move wish to gain health on any pokemon. Keep dragon pulse for the stab and put in light clay for your item. Hope it helped!

 

[tcr]

Hey man, pretty interesting team! I think i mightve seen this team early bw1 before the thindy ban but im not entirely sure. Anyway, pretty solid type synergy as well as overall synergy so thats a plus, and it makes my job a whole lot easier! The first thing i notice nonetheless are some subpar move choices on your team.

Pursuit is a huge momentum killer. It was excellent last generation but its complete garbage this generation due to fairy types and no need to trap things like latias or celebi. However, Knock Off got a huuuuge buff this generation. Quite honestly, making that switch can give you some clutch victories in stopping leftover recovery, or negating a scarf, or something else entirely.

Next, drop Ice Beam on Latias. Ice/Dragon is complete shit coverage, and putting in Surf allows you to gobble up excadrills and whatnot, as well as dragon/water offering relatively decent coverage.

I really dont get what you are trying to do with heatran, running a calm nature and def evs. If you are going to run it put Bold Nature with Lava Plume/Toxic/Roar/Earth Power. On Amoonguss, you should be running Black Sludge and Stun Spore. This messes with trick users and stun spore can be great early game, crippling switch ins like talonflame or mega lucario or something.

Lastly, something like mega lucario is a real problem to this team. It can come in on something like amoongus relatively easy and set up, gg from there. Running Thunder Wave helps alleviate this somewhat but quite honestly there isnt much i can do without shifting your whole team around. I suggest trying to cover that threat in any way possible.

 

[jg1198]

I like your team's defensive backbone, as amoonguss and heatran are very anti-metagame together, and there are very few things that can smash through the two of them, and the things that can are covered by the rest of your team very well. I definitely suggest running thunder wave on thundurus, as it works as a great cover-all fail-safe against offensive pokemon that you may find yourself having trouble with. For example, I can see two pokemon off the top of my head that really mess up this whole team, them being HP Ground Volcarona, once it gets a quiver dance under its belt, can destroy your whole team with just a little prior damage to Keldeo, and Hawlucha can really wreak havoc on this team as well, as it outspeeds the whole team and with its insanely powerful dual STAB's getting at least neutral damage on all the team except for frail thundy, and getting super effective damage on heatran and amoonguss. Prankster Thunder Wave stops both of these threatening sweepers, and many others like Megakazam and Mega Pinsir who can also threaten your defensive core with super effective attacks.

 

[Chaoswalker]

I like your team a lot but one thing that you should have is making a more strategic build for Latias (move pool and item wise).
I would have Light screen and reflect (since everybody loves less damage), use the move wish to gain health on any pokemon. Keep dragon pulse for the stab and put in light clay for your item. Hope it helped!

I really liked the sound of this, but as it turns out Defog removes all reflect/light screens. ;^;

Hey man, pretty interesting team! I think i mightve seen this team early bw1 before the thindy ban but im not entirely sure. Anyway, pretty solid type synergy as well as overall synergy so thats a plus, and it makes my job a whole lot easier! The first thing i notice nonetheless are some subpar move choices on your team.

Pursuit is a huge momentum killer. It was excellent last generation but its complete garbage this generation due to fairy types and no need to trap things like latias or celebi. However, Knock Off got a huuuuge buff this generation. Quite honestly, making that switch can give you some clutch victories in stopping leftover recovery, or negating a scarf, or something else entirely.

Next, drop Ice Beam on Latias. Ice/Dragon is complete shit coverage, and putting in Surf allows you to gobble up excadrills and whatnot, as well as dragon/water offering relatively decent coverage.

I really dont get what you are trying to do with heatran, running a calm nature and def evs. If you are going to run it put Bold Nature with Lava Plume/Toxic/Roar/Earth Power. On Amoonguss, you should be running Black Sludge and Stun Spore. This messes with trick users and stun spore can be great early game, crippling switch ins like talonflame or mega lucario or something.

Lastly, something like mega lucario is a real problem to this team. It can come in on something like amoongus relatively easy and set up, gg from there. Running Thunder Wave helps alleviate this somewhat but quite honestly there isnt much i can do without shifting your whole team around. I suggest trying to cover that threat in any way possible.

I am starting to notice pursuit feeling more and more risky, mostly because some things are carrying HP fire specifically for Scizor. I'm going to keep it around a while longer since it still has an interesting tactical purpose, but since I've never used superpower even once, Knockoff has taken it's place, and serves as a secondary tactical dark move.

Yeeep, surf is working better. It allows Latias to fight off a few choice certain mons that she normally would be stuck against.

Really, the weird nature and evs on Heatran is to make it more mixed. It has enough defense to do it's job as it is, and versatility is often more important than power in this game.

Black sludge... how did I miss... I have yet to try out stun spore though. I should get on that soon, as Alakazam is not an uncommon switch in for Amoonguss.

Thunderwave is added, and it has pulled me out of a few situations.

I like your team's defensive backbone, as amoonguss and heatran are very anti-metagame together, and there are very few things that can smash through the two of them, and the things that can are covered by the rest of your team very well. I definitely suggest running thunder wave on thundurus, as it works as a great cover-all fail-safe against offensive pokemon that you may find yourself having trouble with. For example, I can see two pokemon off the top of my head that really mess up this whole team, them being HP Ground Volcarona, once it gets a quiver dance under its belt, can destroy your whole team with just a little prior damage to Keldeo, and Hawlucha can really wreak havoc on this team as well, as it outspeeds the whole team and with its insanely powerful dual STAB's getting at least neutral damage on all the team except for frail thundy, and getting super effective damage on heatran and amoonguss. Prankster Thunder Wave stops both of these threatening sweepers, and many others like Megakazam and Mega Pinsir who can also threaten your defensive core with super effective attacks.

Yeah, I met Halucha once. it made me sad.

 

[Chaoswalker]

I was going to make a new topic, but that seems kind of dumb considering there's already this one for a very similar team. Rather than clutter up the Forum, I'll just update this RMT topic.

Thundurus I and Latias were ok, but weren't doing as great as I'd have liked. Keldeo, Heatran, Amoonguss, and Scizor were doing awesome though, So I stripped the fat from the team and tried filling the spots again. Thus entered Landorus Therian, and Starmie. I'm not sure about Starmie, but Landorus is an excellent addition to the team. I also took other's advice and gave Heatran toxic, and Amoonguss Stun Spore.

 

[Pdizzle]

i personally would replace starmie with the now a days common two life orb attacking, defog and healing wish latias. she is a lot bulkier than starmie, pretty much guarantees your team rapid spin support and she can pretty much revive one of your pokes with healing wish. here is the set i use:

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 112 HP / 156 SAtk / 240 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Healing Wish
- Defog

I run 240 spd to outspeed 108 spd pokemon like terrakion and keldeo. u can change it so that she can compete with 110 spd pokemon like gengar. i have checks for those pokemon and i'm never a fan of taking the risk.

I use nasty plot mega lucario to set up and she helps extremely well, especially when a tyranitar decides to come in and pursuit trap her. she can use healing wish, bring in the lucario safely with full hp( or at least in your case, a keldeo) and allow lucario a free nasty plot.