VGC Explosive Sunny Day RMT

clarinetist87

clarinetist87

This VGC is going to be my first experience with competitive pokemon battling, so any helpful tips would be wonderful.


The team is divided into two overlapping halves. Azelf/Giratina and Groudon/Heatran, with the Giratina/Groudon combo taking out my opponent midgame.



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Azelf@Light Clay
Levitate: Naive
8 HP/248 Atk/248 Spe
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Taunt
- Explosion

Azelf sets up barriers and taunts some of the more dangerous openers.

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Giratina-O@Griseous Orb
Levitate: Modest
160 Def/184 SpA/160 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

Giratina performs a Calm Mind or two and hits the enemies with strong STAB attacks which are resisted by very few pokemon.


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Groudon@Life Orb
Drought:Adamant
112 HP/248 Atk/8 SpD/136 Spe
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fire Punch

Groudon activates his weather effect via Drought and then sets up with Rock Polish. Hopefully, Azelf’s Explosion has taken out any Rain Dance/Sandstorm/Hail threats by this point, crippling any non-Sunny Day based Weather teams. Rock Slide and Earthquake both attack all opponents, and Fire Punch can be used during a surprise switch in against Ice Types to:

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Heatran@Shuca Berry
Flash Fire: Modest
248 HP/56 SpA/204 SpD
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Solar Beam
- Protect

Heatran should come out after Groudon has worked his Sunny Day Magic. If an ice type is encountered, Groudon will Fire Punch Giratina’s slot while Giratina switches to Heatran, bringing the base power of Heat Wave up to a massive 337.5 base power against both opponents.
 
ok the first problem is what happens when someone protects. Protect is just about as common as fake out as a first turn move. It is ideal for scouting. Also when they see an azelf lead they will probably protect because of the fact it can learn explosion. Then you are down pokemon by 1.

Next there is a huge problem with giratina also. Rest. You cant afford to be asleep at all in the vgc's. yeah you have sleep talk but there is only a 1 in 3 chance of actually using an attack. If i were you I would teach it protect instead of rest. I would also make it a physical attacker and give it protect, dragon claw, shadow force, and shadow sneak.

Groudon is pretty good except for the fact he cant protect. And you are screwed against a kyogre with water spout. Of course so is your heatran. And water spout hits both enemies. So they would both die... BUT there is something you can do. You can take advantage of the sunny day and give heatran solar beam. Now you just have to pray that that kyogre is not scarfed.

For heatran, like I said he needs solar beam. You could easily take out rest and sleep talk with protect and solar beam. Your biggest weakness is a kyogre. The best way I that i can think of to avoid him is give heatran a focus sash and target him with both groudon and heatran. Or pick a different pokemon for one of the last two, one that can take out kyogre.
 
Azelf dont explode on the first turn or you will be way sorry since most oponents are protecting at the first turn for scouting next but the set is ok

Giratina is good at VGC but not with rest/sleep talk keep the sleep talk and seeing that its giratina not giratina-o it is better when it is a physical attacker use the set which werecario told

next up put protect on that groundon since hail team will outspeed and OHKO it even without hail, protect is a must the rest of the set is ok

ok heatran again kick the rest and also sleep talk isnt usualy usefull at that stage of the game since sleep leads are usualy down so replace sleep talk and rest with Hidden power grass (if available) or solarbeam remember there is always a posibility that sun wont stay up and for the last move use protect trust me you wont be sorry
 
I can tell already by that giratina that you really haven't thought about trying this out on NBS or anywhere vs people. Giratina looks in my opinion like you've played a lot of single battling, which to be fair, will make you poor at VGC, my biggest advice is get that experience in with a team and then you can think a better one through.

A little tip, I used to run a Giratina that had chesto berry and rest. It worked a charm and the reason it did is because I would have a 252 in Def and 252 HP and nothing physical could cane me in, not even groudon (that was doing about 1/3 damage to me) and think about a will o wisp on it, yeah, groudon is very useful now vs giratina eh? ;)

Honestly never faced a heatran, on theorymon that thing is good as dead. You're looking at the following being able to OHKO that thing:

Groudon WITH NO ITEM (now let's remind ourselves MOST give a life orb or an enhancer or just a berry) - 98.7% - 116.9% with Earthquake, yes I have added your shuca berry...

Kyogre WITH NO ITEM (most choice scarf) does 123.1% - 144.9% with water spout IN NO RAIN. To put this into perspective, even in the rain and you took a 1/3 out of that beasts HP hindering water spout it would still OHKO.


As for the rest I cannot be arsed and this is your job rather then mine. Dialga's earth power in theory should make you cry a bit inside as many use it over aura sphere. Palkia also has surf at it's disposal and just imagine that in the rain.

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If you actually cannot get over you Azelf idea then I suggest you choice scarf it. Let's face the fact that fake out is going to happen and let's counter it with a tactical switch so like if ludicolo and kyogre vs you then switch to groudon to hinder the ludicolo and kyogres water power, obviously next turn watch out for ludicolos insane grass knot.


In honesty, my friend went to VGC last year and played a team I just thought (crap crap crap) but then again, I wasn't as experienced as I am this year to say aka unlike last year I think I've accumulated about 100 matches now in the VGC10 format whilst with VGC09 I accumulated about 7 before nationals. What I can say is that originality CAN win tournaments and if you play like this then you will catch the noobs out with explosion, you won't catch the experienced players out with azelf (I used a scarfzelf last year) but you WILL screw them over with predictions when they see what moves you use but remember you have to counter everything everyone else throws at you, like dark voiding trick roomers, like good stuffs, like zapdon.

Anyways, if you want my advice, you have areas there with it. Anything else means swapping out heatran for my approval and placing in shiftry perhaps with fake out explosion. In fact this is starting to sound like my vgc09 team even more xD
 
After spending a some time testing it on NBS (thank you for that, by the way. I didn't know there was a double battle simulator), I replaced Giratina with

Giratina-O@Griseous Orb
Levitate: Modest
160 Def/184 SpA/160 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

Heatran was given Solarbeam/Protect over Rest/Sleeptalk. It seemed to do pretty well overall, and has taken a Palkia's Earth Power and a Groudon's Earthquake (the second one with the help of Azelf's Reflect).

Azelf was given Taunt over Zen Headbutt, but seems to be my weakest link of the bunch. It hasn't had any issues with fainting on the first turn, so I opted for a Light Clay over Focus Sash.

Any further advice would be welcome. ^_^
 
Well for one, if your going to use an azelf and notice there are no fake outters. Most likely the opponent will predict the explosion and just protect like crazy. Setting up screens is a viable option.

Thing is with Origin Form is as though you do miss a strong pelting EQ, you're still open to crazy damage from dragon claw groudons, but to be fair, they're not so popular.

It's early morning but I will say you have given sufficient editing to this team that is needed, now it needs to play in a Smogon Live Tournament or something to test it's worth.

As long as you've worked out your threats, you now just need to get familiar with the team in the means of battling with it lots!

Good luck. :)
 
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