VGC 2010 Drought Team

Since the VGC is visiting my area, I figured I'd give it a shot at competing.

After much debate, I decided to go with a Drought team.

Here is what I have so far. Any criticism and comments are greatly appreciated. :D

------------------------------------

groudonsprite.png


Groudon with Life Orb
Ability: Drought
Nature: Brave
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SDef
- Earthquake
- Rock Polish
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Claw

Perma sunny day and stab EQ are the main appeals here. Rock polish then start blasting away. Dragon Claw is for Palkia and Giratina, Rock Slide is for Rayquaza and other flying types.

shiftrysprite.png


Shiftry with Focus Sash
Ability: Chlorophyll
Nature: Naive
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Fake Out
- Explosion
- Sucker Punch
- Grass Knot

Shiftry gets speed like no other with the sun shining down on him. Fake out can stop any powerful moves that threaten the team and their setup. Sucker punching and Grass knoting will be the major means of offense. Explosion will be packing when Shiftry is down to his final HP.

ho-ohsprite.png


Ho-oh with Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Nature: Adamant
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Protect
- Substitute

STAB'd, and boosted with the Sunlight, along with the sexy 50% burn, Sacred Fire is obviously the staple here. Throw up a Sub then start spamming it. Brave Bird for Pokemon that resist Fire, such as Kyogre. Protect is for Risky rock moves and my Shiftry's Explosion.


latiassprite.png


Latias with Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Nature: Timid
- Thunderbolt
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Trick

The purpose of Latias is to sweep with Dragon Pulse. Any threats that won't be cut with Dragon Pulse, a meteor will come raining in on them. Thunderbolt is for Pokemon that just can't take that kind of hit, such as some flying(Rayqauza) and water types(Kyogre). Tricking the Choice Specs on to an enemy after I'm done with them will seriously screw someone up.

------------------------------------

Where have I left gaps? Any threats I am forgetting?

How good is my team?

Any criticism and comments are greatly appreciated. :D

Thanks Again, Gremlin

NOTE: This team has been greatly edited since this thread was originally posted.
 
Groudon: Switch Nature to brave, and put the speed ev's on hp. This is because the slower pokemon gets the weather.

Ho-oh: good as is

Zapdos: Plates suck, so i suggest a lum berry or yache or sumthin. And i would use Light Screen over T-wave as well.

Exeggutor: Its item and moveset is great, but its the ev's that are the problem. If u have a sash, don't bother putting that much onto sp. def. Put some on speed to MAKE SURE you can outspeed everything.

One thing i have to say is that Lead abomasnows and especially lead kyogres will reck you. Another thing that might screw you is trick room teams. but heck, that screws everyone doesn't it ;)
 
If I were you, I would lower the Speed EVs on your Groudon. I tried a similar thing on my sandstorm team (T-Tar bred for speediness, jolly, choice scarf). The problem is that slowest weather effect goes first. Your EVs would be better put in HP to increase bulkiness. You also may want to consider throwing Thunder somewhere onto your team in case Drizzle takes priority. On Zapdos, I would give it Thunder Wave personally. Paralysis will help you more often than Light Screen will. Plus, your Zapdos may not be fast enough to throw out Light Screen before it gets hit by a Special Attack. In fact, you may want to consider something other than Zapdos, say Latias? Levitate would give you immunity to EQ, but then Rock Slide or Stone Edge wouldn't dominate your team. Hope some of this was useful.
 
Thanks very much for the fast replies! I will make the changes to Groudon's EVs and nature, as suggested. Didn't know the slower pokemon gets the weather effect. I was considering Latias, I'll come up with a moveset for it in a bit.

I will also make the changes to Exeggutor's Evs. I assume that means he is preferred over Ludicolo?

Thanks again, Gremlin
 
Thanks very much for the fast replies! I will make the changes to Groudon's EVs and nature, as suggested. Didn't know the slower pokemon gets the weather effect. I was considering Latias, I'll come up with a moveset for it in a bit.

I will also make the changes to Exeggutor's Evs. I assume that means he is preferred over Ludicolo?

Thanks again, Gremlin

If you do run Exeggutor (I say this because Shiftry is faster and arguably more useful with Fake Out and Sucker Punch), Grass Knot is infinitely better than Solarbeam in this format. Kyogre\Tyranitar\Abomasnow can switch in the turn you attack and turn Solarbeam into a two-turn, 60-power move. Most things in VGC '10 are heavy enough that Grass Knot is the same 120 power anyway.
 
Yeah, OmegaDonut makes a great point. Shiftry is a better option than Exeggutor. For Latias, here is a suggestion:

Modest
4 HP, 252 SpecAttack, 252 Speed
Grass Knot
Thunder Wave/ Light Screen/ Thunderbolt
Dragon Pulse
Draco Meteor

Grass Knot gives you another way to hit Kyogre/Tyranitar/Abomasnow.
Latias can learn Thunder Wave and Light Screen, but Thunderbolt or Thunder are options as well.
Dragon Pulse is just a STAB attack, and Draco Meteor is its more extreme variant.

Basically, Latias can do what Zapdos can and survive a Stone Edge.
 
I made some changes to the original post, take a look when you can :>


I was unsure what item to put on Latias. With item clause in play and Ho-oh already having Leftovers, what would you guys suggest?
 
I agree that Latias should be replaced over Zapdos, but make it a Scarfed/Specs variant. While this may seem like an anti-stall thing, and doubles is pretty much a no-stall environment, it allows you to get the jump (Possibly) on Rain Dance/Sunny Day abusers with Swift Swim/Chlorophyll and lay the smack down first. Besides, you can wreck Trick Room users by locking them onto said move (Or a move that precipitates the use of Trick Room itself) and from there destroy until Trick Room wears off (If you somehow lock your opponent onto Trick Room, the second use will correct the situation!! Though I doubt the intelligence of your opponents will stoop as low as that...). With Specs it's the same thing, except you may want to keep it longer to use Latias as a battering ram more.

Therefore, a set like that would be:

Latias @ Choice Scarf/Choice Specs

4 Hp/ 252 speed / 252 Special Attack

Modest/Timid

Surf
Draco Meteor/Thunderbolt
Dragon Pulse
Trick

The reason I offer both the Meteor and the Bolt is that if you choose Draco Meteor it means more massive burst damage at the cost of coverage; with Thunderbolt, less massive destruction but more coverage. It's your pick; Water/Dragon is still a very good offensive combination in any case, and you only need to be troubled by Empoleon, which Trick should cripple (Unless it's a LO variant) but you may want to kill it right off the bat.
 
Thanks for the input. I think that Choice Specs would prolly be best for the offensive manner of my team.

I am finding it risky that Ho-oh will be the only one who can be paired with Shiftry for his Explosion at this point. Am I worrying too much or is there a way that could remedy this?
 
You could always teach something else Protect, but in many ways you have other things to worry about when you use explosion. Ultimately, though, I don't think you need to worry about Explosion. Your Ho-Oh has great survivability, for one thing. And while that may mean that you lose substitute (if you don't use Protect for Explosion [if you are paranoid about there being survivors]), there isn't much you can do. Unless you want to add a Ghost-type, but your team is good as is. So, I don't think you need to worry about Explosion hitting Latias or Groudon, simply because you would probably have other problems to worry baput :)
 
Alright! Thanks for the advice. I'm gonna start implementing this team and getting some game time with it, hopefully within the week.

Criticism and comments are still greatly appreciated!

Anything that can be improved on, I'd love to know. :D
 
Back
Top