What's on your mind?

[MrPLJ]

Hi everyone, this is my first Pokemon team! I've battled with it a couple of times and I had a decent w/l ratio with it so far and is now running on Random Wifi Matchs. My main concern is that I reckon my team has more frailties than the performance it has had suggests. I need a fresh set of eye to see these flaws. Please rate and comment:

Espeon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
Psyshock
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power [Fighting]
Calm Mind
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The Espeon build is a little unconventional but hell does it do wonders in the OU field as the EV spreads make it a lot more sustainable to hits while being able to secure a Calm Mind (unfortunately no Wish, since you can only get a Male Eevee). He has destroyed the likes of TTar, Blissey, Ferrothorn, etc. HP Fight deals mainly with spikers and TTar, especially since TTar loves to pop around after Espeon appears. Magic Bounce also makes him a suitable counter to spikers , plus his bulk means he can take a hit or two. Psyshock is also important, as it takes out special walls such as Blissey or Reuniclus. Shadow ball is mainly for dealing with ghosts. Calm mind increases Espeon’s SDef to deal with the special sweepers and take them out. However, due to his frailty against fast dark types (and Skarmory) and strong physical sweepers, I choose to add...

Conkeldurr @ Shell Bell
Trait: Guts
EVs: 180 HP / 192 Atk / 136 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
Drain Punch
Mach Punch
Stone Edge
Bulk Up
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Conkeldurr! My best revenger killer. The EVs are spread so he could reach 400Atk (600 after a Bulk Up) and then maximise his bulk, especially his special defence, since Bulk Up takes care of his defence. Drain Punch is used as a healing, yet powerful attack. This makes him go on until he can finishes off an opponent with Mach Punch. Stone Edge has two advantages, first, I no longer need to limit Conkeldurr’s speed so he can attack faster than most other variants of Conkeldurr, secondly, he has a better chance of taking on Skarmory, a usual counter. The unusual Shell bell is not quite as good as Leftovers and since this team is destined for WiFi Random Match, I cannot use two identical items.

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
Payback
Power Whip
Thunder Wave
Stealth Rock
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I use Ferrothorn to counter some of the special sweepers wearing a Choice Item (thus the SDef investment) or an Outrage locked Pokémon (as Iron Barbs+Rocky Helmet will ruin the poor dragon). Since Ferrorthorn is a pretty sturdy little thing, Stealth Rock tends to be relatively easy to set. I have set him up with Thunder Wave for two reasons, the first being the status affliction, reducing the sweeping capabilities of the opposing team but also, with prediction, Ferrothorn could potentially paralyse the fire using opponent! This has been really important to protect him and easily which him for Heatran or Gliscor. As for the two attacks, Power Whip deals with Waters, Rocks and Rotom as well as being an incredibly strong attack. Finally, since Gyro Ball won’t be as effective if the opponent is paralysed, I chose to give Ferrothorn Payback, as he stays slow enough to take a hit and get the x2 bonus.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
Overheat
Earth Power
Dragon Pulse
Hidden Power [Ice]
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Heatran has been battling for a spot in my team against Chandelure as a strong special sweeper who can defend Ferrothorn against his deadly fire weakness. Flash fire is therefore a great fire absorber and gives him a free switch. Now, I chose Heatran over Chandelure because of his bulk, diverse movepool and the fact his speed is sensibly the same as Chandelure’s (77 vs 80 respectively). Heatran has a Choice Scarf enabling him to outrun base 110 speed Pokemon, becoming a potent revenge killer. Overheat hits very hard, especially after a Flash Fire boost, and fits in very well as a hit and run avenger. Earth Power takes care of opposing Heatrans, Fire types and other earthbound Pokemon. HP Ice takes care of the common flying dragons and hits Gliscor very hard. Dragon Pulse takes care of other dragons who don’t have a x4 Ice weakness, as it will hit harder whilst covering Latios in case of potential retaliation.

Latios @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
Thunder
Ice Beam
Surf
Draco Meteor
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Latios is the second special sweeper of the team. Hits hard and has enough bulk to take a hit. He compliments Heatran quite well with Levitation. Bulky waters and especially Rain teams are taken care of with Thunder. It hits them hard with Expert Belt and compliments Ferrothorn if they are physically defensive. Ice beam takes care of Dragons whilst Draco Meteor will finish most Pokemons off, and then switched for a counter (this is where Heatran or Ferrothorn comes into play). Surf will dent most Rocks and Earth pokemon than think they may have a chance. Also works quite well when opposing Sand Storm teams. Which also works for my final Pokemon:

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SDef)
Earthquake
Acrobatics
Fling
Taunt
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Gliscor is the main physical wall of my team, thus the EV spread. His job, if Espeon fails, is to absorb status afflictions and render stallers useless with Taunt. Fling gives me the option of getting an opposing Pokemon with a Poison status (a one time thing) as well as bringing Acrobat to a base 110. Incidently, after toxic orb activated, fling can be useful if a Trick user comes into play (mostly Rotom variants). Earthquake is a powerful stab move, which works very nicely with Acrobatics for an overall great coverage. Impish gives him the edge against physical attack as Ferrothorn and Conkeldurr can absorb special attacks quite well. He can take on opposing Conkeldurrs and any, if not most, spikers with ease (especially if once again, Espeon fails).

pictures from www.serebii.net
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[New World Order]

This team is pretty solid, although there are a few problems.

On Conkeldurr, Shell Bell gives you nothing on turns where you Bulk Up, use the more reliable Leftovers. I'd also suggest transferring some Hp stats to max out attack, helps bring down weakened threats better with mach punch and heals more due to Drain Punch.

Thunder is a terrible move since its pretty much useless outside of rain. I suggest running Psyshock to deal with Blissey.

Gliscor, this is an outdated set. Fling is often a waste of a turn for Gliscor. I suggest running Swords Dance/ Toxic over it. SD means your not useless offensively, Toxic can be used more than once unlike fling. Then accordingly, replace Acrobatics with Ice Fang to deal with stuff like non HP Ice Landorus and dragons.

Payback on Ferrothorn is awkward, Ferro has no STAB on it and therefore has low damage output despite the x2. Yours also has no form of recovery. Run Leech Seed over Payback and Leftovers over Rocky Helmet, crucial to Ferro's survival.

 

[MrPLJ]

This team is pretty solid, although there are a few problems.

On Conkeldurr, Shell Bell gives you nothing on turns where you Bulk Up, use the more reliable Leftovers. I'd also suggest transferring some Hp stats to max out attack, helps bring down weakened threats better with mach punch and heals more due to Drain Punch.

Thunder is a terrible move since its pretty much useless outside of rain. I suggest running Psyshock to deal with Blissey.

Gliscor, this is an outdated set. Fling is often a waste of a turn for Gliscor. I suggest running Swords Dance/ Toxic over it. SD means your not useless offensively, Toxic can be used more than once unlike fling. Then accordingly, replace Acrobatics with Ice Fang to deal with stuff like non HP Ice Landorus and dragons.

Payback on Ferrothorn is awkward, Ferro has no STAB on it and therefore has low damage output despite the x2. Yours also has no form of recovery. Run Leech Seed over Payback and Leftovers over Rocky Helmet, crucial to Ferro's survival.

Cheers mate, I had a little look about what you said and changed a few things on my team (changes will be but on tomorrow). Ferrothorn is actually decent this way, I suggest you give it a try... however Thunder has been more useless (i.e. missing) than I hoped so switch for Thunderbolt. As for Gliscor, SD has been a bliss, cheers for that in particular. His build is therefore very different from the original but the changes is outstanding. I didn't make any other changes as I believe the rest was pretty solid.

Last note, this team was built for Wifi Battles (see first paragraph of the thread) and as such I cannot have two Leftovers, and Conkeldurr is a lot bulkier than Espeon, and has access to a pseudo recovery move (i.e. Drain Punch). I therefore believe Espeon has priority over him.

 

[Aboithagameboi]

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
Payback
Power Whip
Thunder Wave
Stealth Rock

I use Ferrothorn to counter some of the special sweepers wearing a Choice Item (thus the SDef investment) or an Outrage locked Pokémon (as Iron Barbs+Rocky Helmet will ruin the poor dragon). Since Ferrorthorn is a pretty sturdy little thing, Stealth Rock tends to be relatively easy to set. I have set him up with Thunder Wave for two reasons, the first being the status affliction, reducing the sweeping capabilities of the opposing team but also, with prediction, Ferrothorn could potentially paralyse the fire using opponent! This has been really important to protect him and easily which him for Heatran or Gliscor. As for the two attacks, Power Whip deals with Waters, Rocks and Rotom as well as being an incredibly strong attack. Finally, since Gyro Ball won’t be as effective if the opponent is paralysed, I chose to give Ferrothorn Payback, as he stays slow enough to take a hit and get the x2 bonus.

NWO is right, you need a healing move on Ferro. While I agree Leftovers is a good item to have, I prefer to keep Rocky Helmet over Leftovers and put in Ingrain.

Now someone will inevitably say, "Why not Leech Seed? It does damage to the opponent and refills your HP." I know that, but Ingrain can be used as an anti-phaze. If I can put an Ingrain in, Skarmory can't Whirlwind me away. Then I take the opportunity to fire off a few Curses before I go in with Gyro Ball. Here's the set:

Ferrothorn (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 188 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Gyro Ball
- Ingrain
- Curse
- Power Whip

 

[Smith]

Hey! This team isn't bad but I think you could change some things around. I'll keep in mind Item Clause for the following rates, but as I have no idea how the wifi metagame differs from standard OU I'll just treaet this as a standard OU team.

First off Calm Mind Espeon, while a fantastic stall breaker, is not going to be particularly helpful against the vast majority of teams. Not only does he take up your Leftovers slot, he's easily revenged by faster threats or trapped by the likes of Tyranitar or Scizor, as Hp Fighting is simply not strong enough. I think a much better option would be to run something like the following:

Espeon @ Light Clay
252 HP / 252 Spe / 4 SpDef, Timid
Reflect / Light Screen / Psychoshock / HP Fighting

This set acts as a brilliant team supporter- many of your mons, like Conkeldurr, Latios and SD Gliscor, really appreciate the dual screens. It also means you can use Leftovers on something that would appreciate it a lot more- namely Conkeldurr in this instance, as Shell Bell is lacking for reasons previously mentioned. You still wall Ferrothorn and the like, but instead you set up the rest of your team and not yourself for a sweep.

On Ferrothorn, instead of Payback you might try Leech Seed- this will help keep yourself alive when you lack Leftovers recovery, which is a huge deal for him. Payback isn't immensely useful as nobody is going to stay in and try to beat down a Ferrothorn with Latios or something. Also, use Impish over Sassy because you aren't using Gyro Ball and don't need low speed.

On Latios, try using a Life Orb over Expert Belt and Hidden Power (Fire) and Recover over Thunder and Ice Beam. Thunder (or thunderbolt) isn't at all useful because anything that this hits (namely water types) gets hit plenty hard by Draco Meteor. The same goes for Ice Beam, which is redundant with Dragon STAB. With Life Orb, you get plentiful power- enough to OHKO most non-steels with DM in any case. Recover lessens the worries of using a Life Orb and keeps you alive to deal with the things he needs to stop.

On Heatran, Hp Ice and Dragon Pulse together seems a tad redundant. Unfortunately Heatran doesn't have a lot of good options for that slot, but I think that running Flamethrower or Fire Blast might be good for when you need the power but don't want the special attack drop- ie in an end-game scenario where you might have a shot at cleaning the house.

Anyways good team, I hope this helps!

EDIT: Don't use Ingrain... after you use Ingrain you're getting less HP back than with Leech Seed and you can't switch out. It's highly unlikely that you'll be able to Curse sweep anybody considering that people are PLENTY prepared for Ferrothorn as he is #1 in usage.