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This team has a shit ton of trouble with strong special attackers weak to dark like Lati@s (with eq or if tran is dead), alakazam, and Gengar, all of whom ttar traps, and he also ohkos them with crunch if they stay in. Additionally, ttar really helps with the electric weakness that the team possesses, ohkoking thundy with edge, getting solid damage on mane/raikou with pursuit, and murdering most of them with eq along with its ability to switch into them because of the spdef boost that it gets from sand. Additionally, scarf ttar can lure in diancie, a common dark switch in, and proceed to smack it with eq. It also can wear down alt with stone edge if you predict the switch and click edge after you've revealed scarf. Lastly, scarftar really helps a lot vs talonflame and zardx, pursuit trapping talon and smacking around both with SE STAB stone edge even if it gets burnt upon switch in. This does stack a weakness to sand rush driller, but you can't have everything on a team. (i would make a few changes to the other five member to make the team less drill weak if i could, but this isn't the RMT forum lol)
The basic Sandstorm core, bulky Zard X was added to help weakening troublesome mons like Mega Scizor and whatnot, Slowking checks threathening Fighthing types and helps to soften walls like Chansey with Nasty Plot, Tornadus-T was added because a special pivot was needed tha could also gain momentum and serves as a secondary switch in the Latis.
Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
I understand that this is a very passive choice for a Pokemon, but the team desperately needs a water check, as well as something to help with sand (Excadrill is Adamant, and loses to Jolly variants). Spikes helps wear down fat teams for Excadrill to clean up, which is always helpful. Running max def because all the targets I'd use it for are physical. Rocky Helmet helps bring Azumarill into Flare Blitz range for Charizard-X, which is always helpful (and a huge threat to sand teams). I can actually only think of one other Pokemon for this role but I already reserved before I typed it out so eh.
Breloom checks a whole bunch of things for this team, mainly sand and waters, which the team is currently weak to. Fist plate technician mach punch destroys opposing Excadrill plus brings powerful priority for a late game clean or revenge kill, especially useful as the team has no other form of priority. Also helps vs other threats such as Sharpedo, M-Gyarados etc. Bullet seed mandatory for waters such as Suicune, Azumarill, Rotom-W. Loom synergises especially well with CharX to take out the likes of Slowbro, Quagsire, Heatran and Hippowdon while CharX takes care of Scizor, Celebi, Volcarona etc., while Exca takes on Talonflame, Torn-T and Tyranitar pursuit traps Latis. With swords dance and priority he makes another solid wincon for this offensive team to alleviate pressure on the other sweepers. Finally spore works great here, Loom can use spore to cripple a problem mon.
The team atm gets works on by mons dat say "Hey I can set up and do damage". Keldeo prevents mons like sd exca, mega gdos, weavile, and lando-t from being a pain. It also checks zard x at +1,kyurem-black, and mega manectric which also works on dis squad. It also checks mons like Mega Lopunny which can be fatal after slowking dies.
Amoonguss @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 SpD
Calm Nature
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Clear Smog
Currently, this teams way of dealing with powerful wall-breakers & sweepers such as Azumarill consist of statusing them with Thunder Wave or Will-O-Wisp and pound away at them with powerful attacks. Amoonguss can check or counter Azumarill along with other wall-breakers or sweepers, most notably Serperior, so that Tornadus-T doesn't have to rely on Hurricane to KO it. Amoonguss also provides a more sturdy Fairy resist while forming a nice, annoying Regenerator core with Slowking.
When I first look at the team, I think of something that can get out there and dish out some damage, or maybe a set up sweeper that's fully capable even before setting up. The mon I picked is sorta bulky, and it can be a serious monster after setting up. Manaphy also checks a bunch of threats to the team, such as the previously mentioned M-Gyarados, Azumarill, and others. Manaphy also provides the team with another win condition, and another water check. It also helps as a more offensively inclined mon, as the rest of the team is more bulkily built.
This team is quite clearly very weak to Azumarill, particularly the BD variant. While Toxicroak isn't exactly an Azumarill counter, it is a solid check to it, as well as a check to Bisharp which is also hugely threatening for this team. It also helps a lot against Water-types like Suicune and Mega Gyarados, acts as a secondary Breloom check, and handles Fairies in general pretty well for the most part. It also benefits from XZard and Excadrill being able to weaken bulky grounds like Lando-T and Hippowdon, since it gives it more opportunities to sweep.
Skarmory may be a very passive pick but it prevents you from saccing a Pokemon each time you see opposing Excadrill, Breloom and Weavile. Counter also allows you to deal with some troublesome physical threats such as Mega Gyarados and the aforementioned physical attackers. It also forms a nice core with Mega Charizard-X as both of its weaknesses are resisted while it can come in on Ground, Fairy and Rock attacks aimed at Charizard. Lack of Iron Head makes this prone to Mega Diancie although the team has a few checks to it. Spikes allows you to wear down Chesnaught, FatChomp and Hippowdon while Whirlwind prevents opponents from setting up on you.
Thank you, Erai. First off, I'm impressed with the nominations everyone made. However, nobody guessed what it really was. Here's my last pokemon:
Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
Before you yell at me and say "LOL he has two spinners what a n00b!!!!1!!", the only reason I used this was because it was ranked one of the top 3 partners for my Mega Heracross + Thundurus core. I played with the team and realized I needed to revamp it, so I tried to find a replacement for Excadrill.
Thanks for helping me out with this, guys. Let's see the nominees:
Ferrothorn @ Chople Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
Ferrothorn works great on this team since it brings a handful of really useful things to the table. The most notable of these are Spikes, turning this into a full hazard-stacking team. This team also appreciates Leech Seed a ton since, as mentioned, the defensive backbone of the team lacks reliable recovery.
But it also handles Fairies with Ground coverage (particularly Diancie as well as Altaria which Clefable needs to be very healthy to switch into), and complete the FWG core by giving the team an important Electric resist, preventing stuff like Raikou from wearing the team down with repeated Volt Switches.
Chople Berry is given here in order to let Ferrothorn beat MZam and MGarde and also helps vs Thundurus, all 3 of which the team is very weak to, and Max SpD is because it's only really supposed to take special hits within the context of this team.
Hazard-stacking teams aren't my thing, but I suppose this could work. The problem is, it doesn't really work with Thundurus's T-Wave support, which is really beneficial to the rest of my team. It also doesn't help that it has a 4x weakness to Fire; once Heatran and Tentacruel are down, I'm screwed. I don't think this thing is that good a fit for my team, but I'll give it a try sometime.
Imo the best round so far, as you've left the mega, rocks setter and hazard remover there, meaning there's a lot of variety in the options for the last slot :]
Bisharp @ BlackGlasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 52 SpD / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
1. For a balanced team defensive synergy is really important. Bisharp brings vital rock, psychic and ghost resists.
2. The next thing every balance team benefits from is knock off for removing pesky leftovers, choice items, etc.
3. Bisharp brings powerful priority to help vs faster threats & weather, as the team lacks priority or a scarfer otherwise bar Thundurus's T-wave and can really struggle vs rain or sand.
4. Bisharp provides pursuit trapping support to remove annoying mons such as Alakazam which are a pain for the team.
5. Additional security vs fairies is needed as Tentacruel is kinda weak and the Heatran set doesn't really beat them.
Thanks, Bendiving! You're right, I really appreciate the Pursuit trapping support and priority that Bisharp brings, and I do have trouble with faries. The added resistances are good, too. I already have Knock Off, though, and that 4x Fighting weakness is brutal. Still, I'll put Bisharp under consideration.
provides a check to fast mons like megazam and elecs, and gives a revenge killer for many mons. also helps with tflame since heatran doesnt have a rock move. mega heracross also likes volt-turn support to come in safely.
This isn't it, but it does fit well with my team. Mega Manectric is a pain in the ass, and so is Talonflame, so it'd be good to have a Pokémon that can deal with them. I also like the U-Turn support it brings. However, the 4x Ice weakness is still an issue, as it means Weavile and shit will wreck it easily and then go on to take out Thundurus. Landorus-T is nice, but there's one pokemon that I think is better with the whole VoltTurn deal.
Scizor @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 SpD
Impish Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Roost
Bulky Scizor allows you to have a secondary check to threats such as Latios, Weavile, Mega Diancie and Mega Altaria. It can also revenge kill faster sweepers such as Mega Aerodactyl and Mega Alakazam. It's unfortunate that this stacks a weakness to Taunt Talonflame, Earthquake Zard-X and Thundurus but you can't have everything in life.
I recently replaced Excadrill with this, but with U-turn instead of Swords Dance so it can be more of a pivot. Like I said, I appreciate the ability to bring Heracross in with a slow U-Turn, and the ability to beat pesky Fairy types as well. As for Taunt Talonflame, Thundurus can handle it fairly well, and Earthquake Zard-X is annoying but still manageable. Opposing Thundurus can just take an HP Ice to the face.
The Team has literally 0 for electric resist so Kyurem-Black can take that and use it to make free subs. It appreciates the rapid spin from tentacruel and can check mons like scarf land-t, manaphy,Mega Diancie, etc. It also beats starmie which sorta runs house thru the team and hippo which really annoy dis team.
Hmm... you're right. Electric types are a problem for my team, so this could work out well. But as for the rest, Thundurus can handle all of them except Diancie with T-Bolt and HP Ice. Diancie also gets crippled by Scald from Tentacruel, so there's that. Kyurem-B is a decent addition for its Electric resist, but that's it.
If its not standard then im gonna go with the bringer of doom: Bronzong
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Hidden Power Rock
Team has issues with diancie, earthquake altaria, sandy excadrill, megakazam, and gardevoir. Zong can manfight every single one easily (and really should only be needed for a single one because most of the big threats to the team are megas). Toxic is to annoy things like hippo which could try to take advantage of his passiveness to set up hazards. HP rock is to hit tflame, zards, and kinda volc who all may want to switch in if you havent revealed your rocker. It also helps keep him from getting too easily stalled out by sdef tflame, depending on the circumstances. I just spitballed the moveset though idk.
HP Rock... really? Just use Rock Slide lol. Aside from the whole HP Rock shit, Bronzong could work pretty well with my team. However, the main reason I 'd want to use this is for its Steel and Rock moves, and Thundurus can already handle Altaria. It's not a bad choice, but there are better options out there.
Krookodile traps Gengar, Alakazam, Latios, and Latias. These Pokemon are all issues for the goal of a Heracross sweep, so Krookodile supports the team well in this way. Trapping Starmie is very nice bonus because the team uses Toxic Spikes. Also, like mentioned by other people, the team really needs an electric immunity. Krookodile provides this, making the team safer against Thundurus-I, Mega Manectric, and Raikou.
Like I said, most of the Pokémon here get wrecked by other team members. The immunity to Electric and the ability to beat Alakazam is nice, though. Still, I think Scizor does all this better except for the Electric resist.
This team has a shit ton of trouble with strong special attackers weak to dark like Lati@s (with eq or if tran is dead), alakazam, and Gengar, all of whom ttar traps, and he also ohkos them with crunch if they stay in. Additionally, ttar really helps with the electric weakness that the team possesses, ohkoking thundy with edge, getting solid damage on mane/raikou with pursuit, and murdering most of them with eq along with its ability to switch into them because of the spdef boost that it gets from sand. Additionally, scarf ttar can lure in diancie, a common dark switch in, and proceed to smack it with eq. It also can wear down alt with stone edge if you predict the switch and click edge after you've revealed scarf. Lastly, scarftar really helps a lot vs talonflame and zardx, pursuit trapping talon and smacking around both with SE STAB stone edge even if it gets burnt upon switch in. This does stack a weakness to sand rush driller, but you can't have everything on a team. (i would make a few changes to the other five member to make the team less drill weak if i could, but this isn't the RMT forum lol)
Don't know if voting will start any time soon but yeah, this team is 6-0ed by gyarados and crawduawt, the azu switch-in is WoW ZardX, and the team also struggles a lot vs gatr (basically you need a water resist if it wasn't obvious enough). To top it off, this team absolutely hates fighting lando-ts, even tho ur lure is WoW Zard it just walls 2 mons, u-turns vs your only thing to damage it heavily, and you have a bird that needs to hit a 70% accurate move in order to damage it. You're gonna want some sort of back-up to continually widdle lando down to the point excadrill just snacks it or torn-t just needing to hit Heat Wave. Opposing LO Excadrill is a bitch also since you can only really check it w/ balloon driller and
252+ Atk Life Orb Excadrill Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 176+ Def Slowking: 214-253 (54.3 - 64.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Skarmory may be a very passive pick but it prevents you from saccing a Pokemon each time you see opposing Excadrill, Breloom and Weavile. Counter also allows you to deal with some troublesome physical threats such as Mega Gyarados and the aforementioned physical attackers. It also forms a nice core with Mega Charizard-X as both of its weaknesses are resisted while it can come in on Ground, Fairy and Rock attacks aimed at Charizard. Lack of Iron Head makes this prone to Mega Diancie although the team has a few checks to it. Spikes allows you to wear down Chesnaught, FatChomp and Hippowdon while Whirlwind prevents opponents from setting up on you.
Not the best idea considering you are only using counter to fight back the water threats, you're way of beating them would just be to WW, which only postpones the sweep since you don't carry taunt and the water types just sets-up in your face all day long. Gyarados-Mega just taunts you or just get enough boosts to ignore your sturdy making you useless. Also, if chosen this as your only opposing sand check if drillers balloon happens to break, relying this as your water check is even worse cuz even if you happen to get a counter off, you're weak to the point where opposing LO drill just finished you off or just SDing while you roost and cleaning the team. Don't think this is the right choice.
This team is quite clearly very weak to Azumarill, particularly the BD variant. While Toxicroak isn't exactly an Azumarill counter, it is a solid check to it, as well as a check to Bisharp which is also hugely threatening for this team. It also helps a lot against Water-types like Suicune and Mega Gyarados, acts as a secondary Breloom check, and handles Fairies in general pretty well for the most part. It also benefits from XZard and Excadrill being able to weaken bulky grounds like Lando-T and Hippowdon, since it gives it more opportunities to sweep.
This might be good to come in vs BD azu and vs an unboosted gyarados, but not the case if gyarados sets-up before hand and carried EQ nor is the best thing to come in vs opposing excadrill. Adding this also makes you weaker to lando-t as i don't know why you would mention "weaken bulky grounds" when it can't do anything to lando-t unless u wanna throw in Ice Punch somewhere, which helps driller out a lot more.
When I first look at the team, I think of something that can get out there and dish out some damage, or maybe a set up sweeper that's fully capable even before setting up. The mon I picked is sorta bulky, and it can be a serious monster after setting up. Manaphy also checks a bunch of threats to the team, such as the previously mentioned M-Gyarados, Azumarill, and others. Manaphy also provides the team with another win condition, and another water check. It also helps as a more offensively inclined mon, as the rest of the team is more bulkily built.
Manaphy is kind of cool. It's great vs things like Crocune (another threat to the team), kills chompers, eats a hit from driller to weaken it w/ scald or possibly burn it, as well as eating a hit from other boosted water types. The only bummer about this is that if a water mon happens to get a set-up and isn't weakened enough, eball isn't killing and it's worn down too easily. An option, however is it worth choosing this?
Amoonguss @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 SpD
Calm Nature
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Clear Smog
Currently, this teams way of dealing with powerful wall-breakers & sweepers such as Azumarill consist of statusing them with Thunder Wave or Will-O-Wisp and pound away at them with powerful attacks. Amoonguss can check or counter Azumarill along with other wall-breakers or sweepers, most notably Serperior, so that Tornadus-T doesn't have to rely on Hurricane to KO it. Amoonguss also provides a more sturdy Fairy resist while forming a nice, annoying Regenerator core with Slowking.
This would have been perfect if +6 knock off azu didn't destroy the team, and also this dies to +2 knock off from crawdaunt which 6-0s, dont think you would want this.
The team atm gets works on by mons dat say "Hey I can set up and do damage". Keldeo prevents mons like sd exca, mega gdos, weavile, and lando-t from being a pain. It also checks zard x at +1,kyurem-black, and mega manectric which also works on dis squad. It also checks mons like Mega Lopunny which can be fatal after slowking dies.
I rather not have NP Slowking as my only roar crocune check. Also if a healthy Azu BD, you're hoping for a 30% that u won't lose the game w/ scald cuz HP electric doesn't even finish it off as: 252 SpA Keldeo Hidden Power Electric vs. 92 HP / 0 SpD Azumarill: 158-186 (43.4 - 51%) -- 5.9% chance to 2HKO, probably not the best choice.
Breloom checks a whole bunch of things for this team, mainly sand and waters, which the team is currently weak to. Fist plate technician mach punch destroys opposing Excadrill plus brings powerful priority for a late game clean or revenge kill, especially useful as the team has no other form of priority. Also helps vs other threats such as Sharpedo, M-Gyarados etc. Bullet seed mandatory for waters such as Suicune, Azumarill, Rotom-W. Loom synergises especially well with CharX to take out the likes of Slowbro, Quagsire, Heatran and Hippowdon while CharX takes care of Scizor, Celebi, Volcarona etc., while Exca takes on Talonflame, Torn-T and Tyranitar pursuit traps Latis. With swords dance and priority he makes another solid wincon for this offensive team to alleviate pressure on the other sweepers. Finally spore works great here, Loom can use spore to cripple a problem mon.
This is one of the golden ones I feel would help the team the most. Yes, Azu still destroys, but breloom provides viable momentum for the team by revenge killing BD Azus, crawduants, and mega gyara. not losing any momemtum vs opposing sand drill, sporing the suicunes and SDing up vs it, weakening or sleeping the landos or fat chomps. This is also great against bisharps. I like this choice.
Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
I understand that this is a very passive choice for a Pokemon, but the team desperately needs a water check, as well as something to help with sand (Excadrill is Adamant, and loses to Jolly variants). Spikes helps wear down fat teams for Excadrill to clean up, which is always helpful. Running max def because all the targets I'd use it for are physical. Rocky Helmet helps bring Azumarill into Flare Blitz range for Charizard-X, which is always helpful (and a huge threat to sand teams). I can actually only think of one other Pokemon for this role but I already reserved before I typed it out so eh.
See, i like this choice too, as it can beat away shit like normal bounce gyarados, gatr w/ no SP, help catch the u-turns from landos and widdling it, and still "fight away" crawduants. However, you're gonna rely on this not to get burned by crocune, BD azu still 6-0s even with your recoil. This is going to be your excadrill switch, and since you're helmet, your recovery is only leech seed and you'll be lucky enough to be alive to even do something back to it. But, this is an extra side-check to Altaria which is good in-case driller dies. You "wear down" lopunnies (haha predicted the fake out, lemme go to ferro on the lop ecks dee ecks dee), even tho u have a slowking. I don't know, to be honest I like this choice too as it can do thing breloom can't.
With all of that being said, I rather keep momentum going for this kind of team as it is sand and sand loves to continually pressure the opponent. I feel like the best fit is Breloom so imma vote Bendiving. I do still like yuruuu's ferro tho. This does still make gatr kind of an issue however the good news is that it's hard for it to get a +2 up vs this team where driller in sand can revenge, twave ttar to make sure it can't get too dangerous, and if need-be and weakened enough, loom revenges. If this is too early to vote, you dont have to count it, just figured I drop by with some knowledge.
