Waylands Favorites

Waylands Favorites

[pimg]31[/pimg] [pimg]244[/pimg] [pimg]651[/pimg]
[pimg]485[/pimg] [pimg]199[/pimg] [pimg]641[/pimg]

New additions are colored (red usually).

Welcome to my rate my team. In case you're wondering 'Wayland' is my middle name which, before anyone snickers, is shared with my late grand father. Anyway, I've been playing around here in RU off and on for about 6 months and this is the team I've developed over that time, mainly using favorite pokemon of mine.

Any advice is welcomed.

This team came together fairly strait forward. I first started thinking about playing online while Mew, my favorite pokemon, was still in UU. After Mew got bumped up to OU I noticed that Nidoqueen, my second favorite pokemon, dropped to RU at the same time and lead to me researching the RU metagame. I was pleasantly suprised to see that Entei was in the tier as well as Druddigon. I figured I could make something work with these three as the core for my team.

After seeing what worked well for these guys I saw the three as my offensive back bone to the team and sought to add a strong defender to take some blows and support the team. As I browsed the defensive stats in the RU tier listing I noticed a pokemon with 130ish defense and special defense... and was again pleasantly surprised to find out that Uxie was in the tier and added him to my roster.

From there I've tried out many different pokemon with varying degrees of success: Haunter, Armaldo, Kabutops, Aerodactyl, and several others I can't remember. I finally tried out Spiritomb, a stout pokemon with no weaknesses. He has kind of stuck, though she's my least useful member.

After finding a neat combo with Uxie and Druddigon that has formed my best offensive weapon I sought to add another Trick Room user and face palmed when Slowking was being talked about in the RU viability thread. How did I miss this guy? Tried him out using an offensive trick room variant and found him to be an absolute beast.


Okay, here I'll be listing the teams 'revisions' as I go along, outside of what has been mentioned under 'Teams Formation' above.

Wayland Favorites Original:

Nidoqueen (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EV's: 100 HP / 252 SAtk / 156 Spd
Modest Nature
Earth Power
Fire Blast
Ice Beam
Thunder Bolt

Entei @ Choice Band
Trait: Pressure
EV's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
Flare Blitz
Extreme Speed
Iron Head
Stone Edge

Druddigon (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sheer Force
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IV's: 0 Spd
Outrage
Dragon Claw
Super Power
Crunch

Uxie @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EV's: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
Trick Room
U-Turn
Psychic
Stealth Rock

Slowking (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenarator
EV's: 252 HP / 4 def / 252 SAtk
IV's: 0 Spd
Quiet Nature
Trick Room
Nasty Plot
Surf
Psyshock

Spiritomb (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Infiltrator
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Atk/ 4 Def
Iv's: 0 Spd
Sucker Punch
Pursuit
Shadow Sneak
Will o' the Wisp

v1.1

Really only one change, dropping Spiritomb and adding prankster Whimsicott. Changed a few moves around but those aren't changing for 1.2 so I'll leave them there for now.

Whimsicott (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def/ 4 sDef
Bold Nature
Trick Room
Giga Drain
Leech Seed
U-Turn

My newest team mate, added by a suggestion from Yonko I believe. I figured Whimiscott would rock until I tried it out. In theory a +1 Trick Room rocks, right? Yeah, after Whimsicott got absolutely mauled before setting it up (OHKO) I looked up the move and saw that it had a -7 priority. I mean, really Gamefreak? Don't even give me an item to extend it like the weather moves but making me go last to get it up? Just not fair. Anyway, this guy is going to get ditched quick as I can figure out what to replace him with...


Team Members

[pimg]31[/pimg]

Nidoqueen (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EV's: 100 HP / 252 SAtk / 156 Spd
Modest Nature
Earth Power
Fire Blast
Thunder Bolt
Sludge Wave

When it comes to tactics I tend to favor sledgehammer tactics... here's sledgehammer number one on my team. I opted to go with 4 attack moves and let her support the team by laying a beating the best she can. Swapped in Sludge Wave and Yonko's suggestion, great to hit neutral targets hard as possible.

[pimg]244[/pimg]

Entei @ Choice Band
Trait: Pressure
EV's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
Flare Blitz
Extreme Speed
Sleep Talk
Stone Edge

Have tried several things with him and have found this to be the best way to use him. The power gained over by the Band over Life Orb I find worth not being able to swap attacks. Shouldn't have to explain this guy too much... Changing up Iron Head to sleep talk to become a sleep absorber if needed. Only use Iron Head once in a long while so this should help out.


[pimg]651[/pimg]

Druddigon (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sheer Force
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IV's: 0 Spd
Outrage
Sucker Punch
Fire Punch
Thunder Punch

Beast mode personified. Initially had in mind using a Sheer Force + Life Orb set but found myself clicking Outrage far too often. Really, outside of Outrage the move pool can change from session to session based on how I'm feeling but 95% of the time all I do is wait for any steel pokemon to get taken care of and then set up Trick Room and let him do his work. Since Cresselia has left the tier I switched up his coverage options. With the addition of Fraxure and a 'Double Dragon' approach one can usually clear the way for the other since both have the ability to maul Steal types which resist their main weapon.


[pimg]485[/pimg]

Uxie @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EV's: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
Trick Room
U-Turn
Psychic
Stealth Rock

Glue of my team. His versatility works well for my team because my opponents can never get a real read on what I'm trying to accomplish with it until it's too late. The main weapon here, if you can't tell at a glance, is the Trick Room/U-Turn combo. With Trick Room active Uxie has a rather slow U-Turn allowing me to get in Druddigon or Slowking safety and allow them to wreck things.

[pimg]199[/pimg]

Slowking (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenarator
EV's: 252 HP / 4 def / 252 SAtk
IV's: 0 Spd
Quiet Nature
Trick Room
Nasty Plot
Surf
Psyshock

I can not believe I forgot about this guy. He's always been a favorite of mine since Pokemon 2000 but I was really focused on fast, hard hitting pokemon when building my team initially so he slipped my notice. With 0 speed IVs and a -speed nature he reaches a blistering 58 speed. No, I'm not being sarcastic here, he really is one of the fastest pokemon in the game... when under Trick Room. If I manage to get a Nasty Plot it could well be curtains for whoever I'm facing, as this metagame seems to be teeming with fast pokemon. Surf over Scald for power but over Hydro Pump (if available) for reliability. Psyshock to be able to take on the special walls that tend to come out and try to wall him, and he'd like to thank all the voters for getting Cress out of the tier and allowing him to the wrecking that much easier.

[pimg]641[/pimg]

Fraxure (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Rivalry
EV's: 252 Atk / 60 SDef / 196 Spd
Jolly Nature
Dragon Dance
Swords Dance
Outrage
Super Power

Okay, here's my new partner: Fraxure. Am loosely basing this off Haxorus's double dance set up. He generally only gets one chance to set up: if I see a bunch of faster pokemon I'll Dragon Dance and hopefully use that extra burst of speed to outpace them and smash them with the appropriate move. If I see a slower team I'll Sword Dance and ensure the most slaughter per swing, so to speak. With those extra 15 points in SDef is is pretty bulky, having survived a few ice beams after rocks allowing him to set up and tear into the opponent.


General Strategy:

My main team busting force on this team is the Druddigon. His banded Outrage hits slightly harder than a +1 Jolly Salamence, since he can run a Brave nature. I pair him up with a max speed Uxie: set up Trick room on something I'm faster than and then U-turn the second turn to get Druddigon in safety and he has three turns in which to do his damage. If I see that the team lacks a strong steal type I'll lead off with it most of the time and let Druddigon punch holes in the opposing team.

With the addition of Fraxure this puts pressure on the opposing team, as very few have carried multiple defensive steal types (Durant is still 2HKO'd by Outrage most of the time). One generally can clear the way for the other.

I try to get Entei or Nidoqueen into a favorable match up early if I'm not seeing good match ups for my dragons, even things that resist them are taking a fair amount of damage and the attacks coming at them are usually fairly predictable for optimal switching. Slowking is there to take advantage of faster teams by himself, or to set up a trick room and switch on the predicted Electric/Grass move to Druddigon.

Honestly I see this team as kind of a 'good stuffs' team, I try to be as flexible with it as possible and not rely on one strategy. This has gotten easier as I've gained experience battling non-AI opponents and learned the tier so I can identify what I need to do to give my team a path to victory. Maybe I need to streamline it a bit but for now I like it.

Objectives moving forward:

I feel I have a good 5 pokemon core going on right now. Though I gave zero thought to synergy it seems my initial core of Druddigon, Entei and Nidoqueen have pretty good synergy together. Entei to take any predicted ice attacks for the other two, Druddigon to take water attacks. Add Uxie, my 4th, and he can switch in on ground attacks for Entei and Nidoqueen. Fairly nice without even trying, one of the few times in any strategy game I've thrown something together and had it work well.

There are several things that can give me problems: entry hazard teams, as I have no spinner, and fast pokemon that are strong (Durant comes to mind). Have been trying out different pokemon in that 6th slot and right now am liking the way Fraxure plays there. Only Entei is weak to Stealth Rock so spinning isn't a high priority and the offensive pressure can generally keep spikes off the field. With Dragon Drance Fraxure can help with most speedsters.

Any comments/advice welcomed!
 

Yonko7

Guns make you stupid. Duct tape makes you smart.
is a Contributor Alumnus
Hiya sfgiantsfanmike:

I like your team; it has a lot of potential to become really kick-ass! The suggestions I'm gonna make are going to make your team more efficient.

First, your current Nidoqueen set isn't as useful as it could be. Ice Beam's coverage is a bit lackluster in that it only hits Dragon-types, and there aren't that many in RU to justify using Ice Beam, unless on a Hail team, which then Blizzard will be used. I suggest Sludge Wave to replace Ice Beam. Sludge Wave is a great secondary STAB that has great secondary coverage, for example, it can 2KO Uxie, which is the primer counter to Nidoqueen.

Second, Iron Head on Entei has horrendous coverage and doesn't add anything for you to take advantage of, other than the odd Rock-type coverage, but with Slowking and Druddigon, they aren't too troublesome. I suggest Sleep Talk to replace Iron Head. At first Sleep Talk looks out of place, but sleep inducers like Smergle, Tangrowth, and Lilligant are troublesome for you to handle. Entei can switch in, take the sleep, and hit them hard with any other of your attacks.

Third, Druddigon is a great Pokemon that can shatter defensive Pokemon, and right now isn't as efficient as it could be. The ability needs to change to Rough Skin, as the extra residual damage can wear down your opponent. For example, switch into Entei as it uses Flare Blitz or ExtremeSpeed. Also, Sucker Punch has much more utility than Crunch. At first, Sucker Punch might look like an inferior Crunch, but it has great use. 90% of the time you are going to use Outrage or Dragon Claw thanks to STAB and great neutral coverage, and you the coverage attacks don't have too much use. Sucker Punch is great priority option when Druddigon is on its last legs and your facing a set-up sweeper and Trick Room is gone.

Fourth, Slowking is a great sweeper under Trick Room, but the coverage options aren't the most useful. I suggest replacing Nasty Plot with Fire Blast. Fire Blast is extremely helpful as it hits Grass-type Pokemon and Escavalier. Grass-type like Lilligant and Tangrowth are annoying for Tangrowth to handle, and Escavalier can pierce Slowking with Megahorn.

Lastly, your right that Spiritomb isn't pulling its weight. I suggest Whimsicott to replace Spiritomb. You do lose a great switch-in to Psychic- and Ghost-type Pokemon and really useful priority. The loss of priority isn't a big deal with Druddigon now using Sucker Punch. On the other hand, Whimsicott has priority Trick Room, which is the closest thing to auto-inducer you can get. Also, the support options granted by Whimsicott can be really helpful for your team.


Whimsicott @ Leftovers
Bold | Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
-Trick Room
- U-turn
- Encore
- Leech Seed / Giga Drain


Trick Room is to add another user so you can have the most of the field condition. U-turn is so you can get a sweeper in easily, Encore is to make switching easier, and Leech Seed gives your team more bulk and wears the opponent down. Giga Drain is an attack that hits Kabutops, Rhydon, and Lanturn and makes sure the Whimsicott an attack.

Hope I helped n.n

Good Luck~
 
Holy cow, that puff ball learns trick room?! Going to try that out ASAP.

Edit: Dang, TR has -7 priority, meaning whmsi has to take 2 hits to pull off TR/U-thrn. He was getting mauled left and right...

Also, have changed up my Druddigon but will try out Sucker Punch. As much as I hate it not activating when the oppenent does something else priority is rather predictable when he's in trick room, 90% of the time it's their only way of getting a hit in.

Thanks for the help. Will be streamlining my team after getting curbstomped... by a Ferroseed X( Realized mid stream I had a bunch of set ups I had left unchanged for a while and he made me pay big time.
 
Sorry for double post but it's a week later.

Updated my first post with some minor revisions taking place in the team. Sorry it's been a week but 'A Memory of Light' came out Tuesday and I've had my nose stuck in that book for most of my free time.

Anyway, tried out some of the suggestions Yonko made and... well, it didn't go well. Fire Blast on Slowking seems like a great idea until I need to break through a physical wall. Replaced Nasty Plot on him and he was back to normal.

So I spent some time mulling over what I could do with my Druddigon and decided to go more offensive with him. I added to elemental punches and left him with Sheer Force. It's great if I can get him set up into Trick Room a second time, as instead of mashing Outrage I can switch things up and potentially hit them with a move that hits harder than Outrage.

Anyway, still looking for a sixth team mate. I'll be trying out Kabutops and Fraxure this weekend. We'll see if adding more offensive pressure will help or if I need to think more support. I'll see how it goes this weekend.

Edit to avoid triple post: Haven't gotten to further try out Kabutops this past weekend; however, Fraxure is more than holding it's weight. It's bulkier than I thought it would be and can devastate teams after a Dragon Dance, woe to them if it gets two! Will update the first post tonight/tomorrow with Fraxure's addition and a few thoughts.

Oh, and the teams been doing really well. Combined on the three ladders (RU, RU current and RU suspect) I'm 51-26 including all the bumps and bruises of learning to pvp in Pokemon and playing around with movesets, ect. Will try to do a dedicated ladder run on an alt next weekend into next week. Will try for 50-75 matches but time is always short, though I do have an internet conection at the house to abuse after work now.
 
All right, the double dragon attempt has ended in failure. Fraxure is a very nice pokemon but isn't holding his wieght. Need a fast taunter as stall teams have been wrecking me lately, specifically Ferroseed and Whimsicott with it's subseed set. I lost to SUBSEED...

Well, I'm definitely looking for suggestions, maybe I'll look at Whinsicott like Yonko suggested and see what utility it can offer other than as another Trick Room/U-turn partner. Advice definitely would be appreciated as subtlety and countering such tactics are not my fortee, I prefer the Sledgehammer tactics...
 
Hey sfgiantsfanmike, you've got a really cool team going for you, but if it's ok I'd like to see if I can make a couple suggestions to improve upon it =)

What initially comes across to me as an issue for your team is how it appears split between a full Trick Room and Bulky Offense team, and while I would agree that Trick Room does appreciate somewhat speedier Pokemon to capitalize on opportunities out of TR, the only moderately fast Pokemon being used don't take full advantage of this. In terms of actual threats, Durant seems like a really prominent threat, being able to set up a Hone Claws on Uxie and locked-in Dragons and from there proceeding to burn through most of your team. Slowking also appears to be an issue, as it checks all but your Dragon-types to an extent, both of whom hate Scald burns. That being said, I'd like to offer a few possible suggestions to help out.

First and fore-mostly, I feel as though Entei is not getting the most use of your team-slot :[ While it is moderately fast and carries a good priority attack, it isn't really checking the bigger threats to your team with either way (Durant mostly). Moreover, it's prowess as a breaker is somewhat underwhelming in a Trick Room team, where the vast majority of attackers are hard-hitting breakers anyway. I would actually look into replacing it with Trick Room Lampent. As odd as it seems, Lampent is actually quite useful, sporting moderate bulk courtesy of Eviolite, a solid Special Attack stat to work with, and useful dual STAB (of which include the ability to 2HKO Slowking). Lampent would not only offer a strong switch-in to the standard Durant set (being Hone Claws ⎮ Iron Head ⎮ X-Scissor ⎮ Superpower), but also another user of Trick Room, allowing your heavy hitters to outpace opponents more easily. What's more, it has access to Memento, which is an awesome utility for allowing your team more leeway in switching in and either setting up or just outright smashing things. Here would be my proposed set:

Lampent @ Eviolite
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SAtk / 8 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Memento


That being said, I really do feel a Sleep absorber is really useful to a Trick Room team, especially for having a bartering chip for Smeargle, who can otherwise set up 2+ layers of hazards easily and put the team in a tough position. That being said, I would propose opting out Nidoqueen for Choice Band Escavalier. As it stands, I feel as though your team's match-up against stall and bulky offense teams (against which Nidoqueen excels more than anywhere else) is already quite good, with Pokemon such as TR+NP Slowking being incredibly difficult for them to handle, and the ability to "absorb" paralysis and poison being covered similarly by Escavalier. This change offers your team another Pokemon to take advantage of Trick Room, while retaining a good user of Sleep Talk, capable of switching into the common Sleep inducers of the tier quite well (predominantly Grass-types, Jynx, and Smeargle). Moreover, this changes offers you a user of Pursuit, allowing you the utility of being able to eliminate or wear down Pokemon such as Slowking that otherwise might trouble your own Slowking late-game. Here is what I would suggest:

Escavalier @ Choice Band
Trait: Overcoat / Swarm
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Pursuit
- Sleep Talk


As for your Druddigon, I would have to agree with Yonko in that Sucker Punch alongside the Rough Skin ability would probably be the best course of action. While I understand your concern with the move, Sucker Punch is invaluable outside of the Trick Room environment, and generally outweighs Thunderpunch's use of hitting bulk Water-types without locking into Outrage. Moreover, with Rough Skin Druddigon is very useful in passively wearing down Pokemon such as Entei and Kabutops, both of whom can trouble your team with their Trick Room-ignoring priority attacks.

Now as much as I love Fraxure, I really feel as though he isn't the best fit for your team in particular. A Pokemon that doesn't abuse Trick Room in a Trick Room team usually leans towards having high initial Speed, or at least the ability to ascertain high Speed fast. Fraxure, while finding some good opportunities to set up, isn't really hitting the sort of Speed desirable of such a Pokemon until it reaches about +2, at which points it's spent 2 turns dedicated to doing so. If I were to suggest an alternative, perhaps you could try replacing it with Choice Scarf Manectric. Manectric is a very solid Choice Scarf user and scout, being able to check an assortment of boosting sweepers (lacking priority) while also maintaining momentum well with its powerful Volt Switch. It also offers a solid deterrant of opposing Volt Switch users by merit of Lightningrod, making up for the loss of Nidoqueen. Here would be my proposal:

Manectric @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Switcheroo / Thunderbolt


That all being said, I understand that I've suggested a lot of changes, and while I'd like to think that it doesn't change the team as a whole too much, I would understand any hesitancy in trying them.

tl;dr:
--->


--->



  • Thunderpunch ---> Sucker Punch
  • Sheer Force ---> Rough Skin

--->


I hope my suggestions have been of use to you, good luck in the future =)
 
Thanks for the rate Col49.

I totally goofed on the Sucker Punch for Druddigon as I've been using it since right after I posted this a few weeks ago but forgot to put it in. SP has been very good for me and helped me get past a Durant that set up and was ready to wreck my whole team.

As for Rough Skin... well, right now I'm using him to sweep through people in 1 to 2 hits and most of the hits he takes are non-contact so the extra damage for Fire and Thunder Punch does more for me right now. I love to run RS but most people figure you have it on and play around it; therefore, they are set up for being surprised at the extra damage from Sheer Force on the Punches. Considering I plan to adapt this team as the metas come and go RS will definitely see it's fair share of playing time.

As for the rest I will try them out in the sixth slot and see how they perform on their own before seeing if the changes in the team structure is worth it (changing out Entei and Nidoqueen). Definitely been looking for an excuse to use Escavalier as nothing of note out speeds him in Trick Room and Eviolite Lampert seems like he may function well and Manectric is a good scarf user. I'll test this week and see how things go.

Thanks again for the rate!
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top