Weather, uh?
Hi smogon!
This is my first post, and my first RMT here.
(Before starting, I want to specify that English is not my first language, so don' t be suprised of any blunder, and please feel free to correct my grammar ^^)
That said, I' ll talk about how this team was born.
Team Building
Looking at the current metagame, the most obvious characterization that you can think of is the absolute weather tyranny.
Then, i thought:
1) Once won a weather war, you have the victory in hand.
2) The easiest way to counteract a weather is with another weather.
3) However, the mere presence of Politoed, Tyranitar, Ninetales, among others, in the opposing team, will be an alarm bell for the opponent, and all this will emerge in a exhausting weather war, which will debilitate the defensive department of both teams and will inhibit the offensive (for example, in the case of a toxicroak who finds itself facing a sun team).
Even assuming the presence of a Dugtrio in a team, the opponent will be very cautious in deploying its weather inducer, and in most cases he will switchback.
In short, the weather inducer is the backbone of a team in a weather war, and only a careless battler will leave his hope to win to take hits to right and left: quite often, on the contrary, the last pokemon that will be defeated as a result of a weather war will be the opponent' s weather inducer.
Or your own.
The chances to win a weather war, although may seeming high in a situation, for example, of a rain vs. a sun team, are, in fact, anything but obvious: the weather war (assuming them conducted by experienced players) have equal possibility of being won and lost. Therefore, opportunities of defeat are worryingly high.
4) But what happens if a weather team finds itself facing a Weatherless?
5) Simple: the weather inducer, being in most cases a pokemon in itself not very useful (it is roughly the case for all the weather inducers, except offensive variants, or ttar) will be managed with less caution, and the poor Politoed / Ninetales will be often foddered in situations that require it, and in the case in which a check has to switch in a team weatherless threat, the weather inducer will be left to die, for fear of bringing the check to the wrong move.
Ultimately, you will often encounter in a weather-weatherless, the situation in which the wi will be removed without too much trouble.
6) Ultimately, there will often be the situation in which the weather inducer will be removed without too much trouble.
I wondered how to take advantage of this fact.
The answer was:
Heatran, with the Sunny Day moveset, succeeds magnificently, after the elimination of the weather inducer (and not before, unless you want to expire on a very frustrating war weather), to reverse the trend of the match.
Well, the final part of the work has been done; now I needed to go back into the antiweather process and eliminate the opponent' s weather inducer: As with Ninetales is useless, I had in mind Toed and Ttar, and they shared a couter in
Breloom, who finds no difficulty in eliminating the two mon. Also noticeable is the typing synergy between the two.
The next member has been inserted for reasons of synergy, excellent with Heatran and pleasant even with Breloom, and in general with the two, completing the WGF core, for reasons of Countering, especially Landorus, and to further weaken potential Toed/TTars.Furthermore, with Rain Dance, this Pokemon stands itself, with Heatran,at the head of the crusade against the Weather:
Rotom-w is the pokemon we're talking about.
This core is very efficient in the removal of bulky waters and steels, lured or countered by all three members. It is also rather slow, and susceptible to revenging. In addition, it finds difficult to deal with strong special sweepers. For these reasons, in addition to simple synergy reasons, (ex. checking ttar, wishing, spamming paralysis)
Jirachi joins the club.
Continuing to follow the reasoning of take advantage of the removal of bulky water, and having the necessity to absorb terrakion attacks, another check of ttar, another status absorber, another Pokemon with excellent synergy with the rest of the team (just look at famous defensive core, of which are part Jirachi and Rotom-w, that completes,
Gliscor, with a particular moveset, which aims to bring out the best from his teammates, joins the band.
The sixth mon gives the fundamental Stealth Rock support, and helps to cover a lot of weaknesses. Plus, if I manage to pass it a +2, it' s deadly.
Mamoswine completes the team!
The Team
Now, the movesets:
Barbeque °°
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- SolarBeam
In case of already explained movesets, or whose meaning has been understood from the description above, I won' t dwell much. Hidden Power Ice, along with the generous amount of EVs in speed, gives Heatran the ability to lure Gliscor,the removal of wich makes Jirachi and Breloom happy and free of spamming status. Thanks to Gliscor' s help Heatran also becomes an excellent sweeper, able to clean up entire teams by himself.
BrainWashing °°
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 76 Def / 136 SAtk / 156 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rain Dance
In this set Thunderbolt is preferred to Volt Switch because i don' t complete any turnfest and i sometimes just need to stay in tbolting. Rain Dance makes it, with Heatran, a true weather changer, able to surprise Sun team, my biggest gripe.
The EVs in HP and Def give it the highest physical bulk possible, bulk needed for the massive amount of hits that this mon must absorb; the speed EVs ensure that Rotom-w will (in the majority of cases) outspeed the large portion of mons that run 244-245 Spd, and the Spatk is sufficient to 2HKO Tentacruel with Rain Dish even after a Protect.
Murshroomer °°
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 36 Atk / 76 Def / 128 SDef / 32 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Focus Punch
- Spore
The chosen moveset is the subseeder one, because it enables me to produce frequent subs, and, switching, helping the switchin containing the attack targeted at the mushroom.
The Def investment ensures that Breloom won' t be 2HKOed by CBtar Stone Edge. The EVs in SDef provide Loom the special bulk needed to contain Rotom-w offensive. The Speed is a formal standard that I have chosen to ouspeed Ttar variants that add some EV speed for ouspeed Scizor who in turn invested some EV in speed because he has heard that goes out of style.
SadClown °°
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Fire Punch - Ice Punch
- Iron Head
- Trick
When Novaray had proposed this set, I really wanted to try it out, and I could only with mamo (for Stealth Rock support), and Scarfrachi turns out to be a very unexpected and powerful pokèmon. First, Trick is a phenomenal move on Jirachi, because it cripples many mons that can be easly choice locked by Gliscor, and can be used for setup. An example is Rotom-w: in most teams Rotom-w is the only safe check to Gliscor, but with protect, I can either stall out Hydro Pumps PPs and, If i tries to predict and Volt Switch, I can setup on it. Then, in general, This thing can be called a bait for Gengar, that tries to disable Iron Head, but finds itself wrecked before it can sub, and for Dragons, that expect to outspeed rachi and Eq it, and get killed by Ice Punch.
Seen that I never used Fire Punch, I was thinking if there was an alternative option, Ill test Thunder Punch and U-Turn.
The previous set was:
Seen that I never used Fire Punch, I was thinking if there was an alternative option, Ill test Thunder Punch and U-Turn.
The previous set was:
SadClown °°
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 184 SDef / 72 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Wish
- Body Slam
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
The moveset is the standard Sp.Defensive, and it' s really important because Rotom-W, Heatran and Haxorus love regain HP, and
Breloom really appreciates the removal of bulky psychic types (mainly reu) from the field. At +2, Jirachi can effectively perform Scarfrachi' s role, sometimes ending the match. With 72 Spd EVs Jirachi outspeeds Max speed modesTran, and that is pretty much a ''just in case'' measure.
CottonCandy °°
Trait: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
This thing is such a beast, thank you spuds4ever for the advice!
Well, Life Orb is chosen because I often cannot send it in earlgame, and, when it comes, in midgame, EH broke its sash, making it useless. Life Orb, on the other hand, is very useful, because it grants mamo some important OHKOs.
Furthermore, with a life orb equipped, mamoswine is an excellent choice for a recipient: during a test, I was losing 6-2 due to a nasty freeze when I bpassed a rock polish to this powerhouse, and won 0-2.
This beast replaces:
CottonCandy °°
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Dual Chop
ScarfHaxorus is a very versatile mon, able to manage at the same time SubTias and +1 Nite, and in short all the varieties of dragons. Interesting are the kill that it scores with Earthquake, as in the case of ScarfTomW, or with Dual Chop, in the case, for example, of SubKazam, or any dragon that makes use of a sub. Truly a handyman. The only flaw: the lack of synergy with the team, except Jirachi; From this point of view, the Dragonite I used previously was much more included in the team. In conclusion, however, the immediate offensive power that this Pokemon makes available whenever enters into the field is difficult to imitate.
Vladimir °°
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 148 HP / 148 Def / 212 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Baton Pass
I thought that Gliscor could fit into the mechanism of mutual team support. Indeed, Every Pokè on this team is trying to offer something to his teammates, this thing being a Sunny Day, a Rain Dance, a Leech Seed, a Wish. And since everything Gliscor has to do is absorb physical attacks, meaning that its role in the team is not tied to a moveset, I have 4 moveslots to vacate the imagination: Polish passing, given the team' s slowness and bulkyness, led by STAB EQ and Protect, to heal the HP (which are a Poison Heal number) that Baton Pass doesn' t allow to recover, with a spread that allows him to outspeed max speed Heatran, and to take physical hits as well as possible, this set, i was saying, was my ride of fantasy. Not so illogical, because a +2 Heatran sweeping or a Loom quickstalling are really annoying.
ETT:
Barbeque (Heatran) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- SolarBeam
BrainWashing (Rotom-W) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 76 Def / 136 SAtk / 156 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rain Dance
Murshroomer (Breloom) (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 36 Atk / 76 Def / 128 SDef / 32 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Focus Punch
- Spore
SadClown (Jirachi) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Iron Head
- Trick
CottonCandy (Mamoswine) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
Vladimir (Gliscor) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 148 HP / 148 Def / 212 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Baton Pass
I would like to thank you for reading (or trying to read I should say), and sorry for the ungrammatical English.
Mamo>Haxo and Scarfrachi>Spdefensive one helped me with Dugtrio, and i can Ice Shard/Punch the other threats; I noticed that powerful water attacks (I am talking about Specstoed, for example) can be problematic, but I usually find a way to deal with them. Of course, if there is a way to mitigate that weakness, Ill be happy to listen suggestions and eventually edit the team.
