What Do They Know About That?
Right - my first ever RMT.
Here goes...
Oh, the name.
I'm listening to Mindless Self Indulgence, I guess. That's all.
..................
Oh wow, an introduction.
Oh yeah, so it is.
Right - my first ever RMT.
Here goes...
Oh, the name.
I'm listening to Mindless Self Indulgence, I guess. That's all.
..................
Oh wow, an introduction.
Oh yeah, so it is.
The last generation was good to me. I made a few good teams, won battles, and generally had a good time. But then, the next generation came, and threw me completely off. Months went by with me losing battles, embarrassing myself, and not being able to put together a good team at all, and I stopped battling for a month. Being bored one day, I go back on Pokémon Online, and throw together a quick team, trying something out that I never did before - a Sun team. It went well - it won a healthy number of battles - and I built on it, making it stronger, but eventually I gave it up. The biggest problem I had wasn't the way I played, it was the fact that I never got the synergy inside a team correct, and never bothered with looking at counters to the most used Pokémon. I made this team with the aim of having synergy of some sort within, and who better to come to for help but Smogon members?
I don't enter tournaments or ladder or anything like that - I mostly just drift around the quieter PO servers battling whoever challenges me. Due to this, I wouldn't say the team has a massive amount of testing under its collective belt. Having signed up on these forums, though, I might start using your server.
..................
What's this? A team building process?
In hidey tags, too.
What's this? A team building process?
In hidey tags, too.
I struggle with deciding how to start a team off - always trying to think of a theme, or what I want to achieve when it's made. I had used the (not-so) newly re-typed Rotom formes before, usually Rotom-W, and started looking over the others. I had tried using Frost Rotom in a Hail team, and decided that that was where it should stay, and Spin Rotom's redundant ability put me off the idea of using it. Mow Rotom has the demented smile of a serial killer, which I've always liked, but I'd never really liked Grass-type attacks, so that was also out. I'd used Wash Rotom very often before, but, although impressed with it, I decided against using it. This left me with Rotom-H, my personal favourite of the five formes. Just look at it.
Having taken care of choosing my starting Pokémon, I went back to my aim of this team being able to work with one another to overcome their weaknesses. Rotom-H has only two weaknesses - to Water and Rock - and, after some searching, I decided to go with Dry Skin Toxicroak. It resists Rock-type attacks, and is immune to Water, with Rotom-H providing resistance to Fire and Flying, with an added immunity to Ground-types.
At this point I was sure absolutely positive that neither of those two would be leading my team to any victories, so I started thinking about that. Usually, I would have gone for a Stealth Rock user, or any other Pokémon able to lay down entry hazards, but what with this being an offensive team, I wasn't really bothered with that. My mind wandered across the idea of having a Prankster Lead, but, even though I had used them well before, I still didn't like that idea of that. I looked through my teams for inspiration, and saw that I had only used Jirachi as a Lead once before. Seeing as I didn't have any covering of weaknesses to worry about at the time, I decided to use it, and ended up throwing Stealth Rocks on it anyway, for good measure.
I had now developed a slight Fire-type weakness, and, despite having a Pokémon with Levitate on the team, I still wanted to counter the weakness to Ground-types. I looked through the options in this generation of Pokémon, wanting to use something new, and I realised that, although I knew how much Hydreigon was being used and hyped up at the moment, I had never used one. It had resistances to Fire and a Ground-type immunity, as I wanted, so in it went.
The team seemed to be balanced by then, and I played around with a few Pokémon before deciding on the next. I remembered how much fun it was to use Infernape in the generation previous, and, going by how the team was looking then, I didn't see why I shouldn't add one in.
Again, a couple of weaknesses were obvious. I had three weaknesses to Ground, with two immunities, and two Pokémon weak to Water, with one resist. I decided that Salamence would be ideal to cover them up, at the cost of my weakness to Dragon-types outweighing the resists. I wasn't especially bothered by that, however. The team now had two Special attackers, two Physical attackers, and what would become a Mixed attacker. Seems okay.
Having taken care of choosing my starting Pokémon, I went back to my aim of this team being able to work with one another to overcome their weaknesses. Rotom-H has only two weaknesses - to Water and Rock - and, after some searching, I decided to go with Dry Skin Toxicroak. It resists Rock-type attacks, and is immune to Water, with Rotom-H providing resistance to Fire and Flying, with an added immunity to Ground-types.
At this point I was sure absolutely positive that neither of those two would be leading my team to any victories, so I started thinking about that. Usually, I would have gone for a Stealth Rock user, or any other Pokémon able to lay down entry hazards, but what with this being an offensive team, I wasn't really bothered with that. My mind wandered across the idea of having a Prankster Lead, but, even though I had used them well before, I still didn't like that idea of that. I looked through my teams for inspiration, and saw that I had only used Jirachi as a Lead once before. Seeing as I didn't have any covering of weaknesses to worry about at the time, I decided to use it, and ended up throwing Stealth Rocks on it anyway, for good measure.
I had now developed a slight Fire-type weakness, and, despite having a Pokémon with Levitate on the team, I still wanted to counter the weakness to Ground-types. I looked through the options in this generation of Pokémon, wanting to use something new, and I realised that, although I knew how much Hydreigon was being used and hyped up at the moment, I had never used one. It had resistances to Fire and a Ground-type immunity, as I wanted, so in it went.
The team seemed to be balanced by then, and I played around with a few Pokémon before deciding on the next. I remembered how much fun it was to use Infernape in the generation previous, and, going by how the team was looking then, I didn't see why I shouldn't add one in.
Again, a couple of weaknesses were obvious. I had three weaknesses to Ground, with two immunities, and two Pokémon weak to Water, with one resist. I decided that Salamence would be ideal to cover them up, at the cost of my weakness to Dragon-types outweighing the resists. I wasn't especially bothered by that, however. The team now had two Special attackers, two Physical attackers, and what would become a Mixed attacker. Seems okay.
..................
Final team, at a glance.
Watch it fail.
..................
In depth.
...I've changed my mind.
Final team, at a glance.
Watch it fail.
..................
In depth.
...I've changed my mind.
I'm not going to say any of the sets here are amazingly original - most of them are standard, boring, predictable sets. I struggle with making sets of my own, especially with the EVs, though, but it seems to be doing well with just these.
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 40 SDef / 16 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Wish
- Zen Headbutt
- Body Slam
Although I was looking forward to the idea of having an anti-Lead, I have to say, this little guy does well. The set isn't very adventurous - sticking to the basics of Jirachi as a Pokémon. I hadn't seen many Leads that were based on Special attacks, so I thought that piling a good number of EVs into its Defense was a good idea, which it was. Obligatory HP EVs are obligatory - raising it over 400 HP, giving Wish the ability to restore up to 202 HP to whoever it hits. Despite not being very bothered about having Stealth Rock on my team, it's there anyway, and what usually happens is that I set up on the first turn, and then immediately switch out, and bring it back in later on in the battle, when I can outspeed whatever my opponent has in play, and spam Body Slam and Zen Headbutt until they switch out or faint.
Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 40 HP / 216 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Trick
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
The Pokémon that started my team off. With its Sp. Attack and Speed, it's able to KO threats that would have completely ripped apart my past teams. Simple plan, which everybody would be used to - switch in, Trick the Choice Scarf onto the opponent, and proceed to rape with attacks. Well, that's what it's supposed to do, anyway - most battles, I don't bother Tricking and just use the Choice Scarf for myself. If I do Trick the Scarf away, then Rotom really gets to do some damage - gaining a STAB advantage for Overheat this generation really helped things along. I'm considering changing the nature from Timid to Modest, but I'm still not entirely sure if I should.
Hydreigon (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 64 HP / 252 SAtk / 192 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Surf
Here is the first half of my Dragon-type weakness. Able to come in mid-game and proceed to sweep the entirety of the opponent's remaining team, Hydreigon is a Pokémon that I'll never switch, and will be including it on every team I make from now on (hopefully). It took me a few battles to realise that using Draco Meteor as if it's the only move in the set wasn't the best option (yet it still succeeded in KO'ing Pokémon with a -4 Sp. Attack drop), and that Dragon Pulse is actually a good move, which I'd never really used much before. Flamethrower and Surf are there for general... move-age, but I haven't had much of a reason to use the former yet. Surf's had its uses, but my usual first choice now is Dragon Pulse, with Draco Meteor the second choice - first if faced with a Dragon-typed opponent.
Toxicroak (M) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Substitute
I really never thought I would be using this thing, but it's helped me out a lot. With two of my most used Pokémon on the team having Water-type weaknesses, this guy laughs, and absorbs the hits like a weird purple sponge. My old teams used to get their own asses handed to them by weather teams - especially Rain teams - but with Toxicroak, Rain teams aren't a problem any more. Switch into a Water-type attack, Sub up as they either switch out or try something else, then start to set up with a Swords Dance or two. Once that happens, either Drain Punch for big HP gain, or Sucker Punch for slightly unreliable priority. After two Swords Dances, it reaches 1000 Attack, giving Drain Punch the ability to do a ton of damage, and fully heal the Pokémon.
Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 24 Atk / 252 SAtk / 232 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Close Combat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Fire Blast
- Grass Knot
I don't see Infernape used often, and I don't really see why. I remember seeing it all the time in the previous generation, and it's not like it's suddenly gotten worse - it can still do a good job, fine. I'm really not sure what to say about this Pokémon, at all - the only reason there are a few Attack EVs in there is for Close Combat, with the rest thrown between its other attacking stat and Speed for powerful Fire Blasts and a fast Pokémon. I'm not sure about the Hidden Power's typing, though - I'm not even sure what I'd change it to, though. Water, maybe?
Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 76 Atk / 252 SAtk / 180 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Brick Break
- Roost
The final Pokémon I chose, and the other half of my Dragon-type weakness. The main problem this team had was Garchomp - it gave me real problems - but Salamence is able to take a Dragon Rush from one (if one ever carries it), and is able to OHKO back with Draco Meteor. Again, there's not a lot to say about this Pokémon, but that's most likely because I haven't used it much since it was released from Ubers.
..................
Done.
I hope this was okay for a first thread.
Braced for insults.
Oh, and sorry for the lack of Threat List. I had typed a load of it up, then something went wrong with my computer, and I was all "There is no way I'm typing all of that out again."
