Hi, first sorry for my bad english, it's not my native language, Im brazilian. Please, help make this team a little better, I've done good with it but I'm sure it can improve a lto with your help!!! It's my first RMT here and this will probably help me become a better player with the help of your experience too! ^^
My team:
I've been in competitive battles since the beggining of DPP and this gen 5 with a lot of weather teams pissed me off a little =p Not because I don't like weather teams(i've played with them myself before), but because its too many of them. So i decided to make a decent team that could counter weather teams but I didn't know where to start. After searching in these forums I found some useful pokemon to this task: Swampert and Heatran.
So, let's begin with the construction process:
the team started with:
Swampert is not affected by sandstorm, gets its scald boosted in rain and GREATLY helps against sand teams. Heatran also is not affected by sandstorm and is amazing against sun, and the tests proved that these 2 works. Starmie is good in rain too and has a great sinergy with metagross as lead(there's even a article with starmie and metagross and their synergy here http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue9/leads so i dont need to explain much). Its looking like a bulky offense(except for starmie) so i decided to go on with that idea and that also benefits from a weather or counters it.
I thougth of Gliscor, good attack, defense, benefits from sandstorm and can breaks stalls too. I still needed a good end game sweeper, so i took one of my favorite mons:
Great end game sweeper, but testing the team it was too obvious that it doesnt synergize well, many commum weakness between the team ¬¬ So i changed:
It also didnt worked that well. It was a bulky offense but i lacked a trapper/revenge killer(SO MANY TIMES I desired i had one in middle of a battle) and a little more synergy to cover weakness(both salamance and gliscor 4x weak to ice, really dont like it). So I decided to change Metagross for scizor(standart scizor set) because it has almost the same resistances as metagross, but only weak to fire and can revenge kill with bullet punch and trap with pursuit, and changed salamence for a poke i never used before, but if covers my weakness and has no true counters to it, HYDREIGON
It Worked in countering weather teams, but the team is veeeery slow compared to the metagame, so a friend came with the idea in using tailwind in Hydreigon, and i worked A LOT BETTER than expected, i will say more about it when i explaind the set of hydreigon.
Switched now Swampert for Gastrodon to have a more defensive pokemon against rain:
So lets begin with the sets:
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recorver
Weakness(who covers): eletric(swampert, gliscor, hydreigon), grass(Heatran, Hydreigon), bug(scizor, gliscor, heatran), ghost(scizor, heatran,hydreigon), dark(scizor, heatran, hydreigon)
Resistences: Fire, Water, Ice, Fighting, Psychic, Steel
Dont neet to explain much here, BoltBeam combo, hydro pump is amazing is rain and recover. One thing to notice, this team isnt weak to stealth rock, and actually a lot less teams use stealth rock compared to DPP, so i decided to use recover over rapid spin after some tests, when i know someone is gonna switch, i just recover, it works. =D
Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant(+Atk, -SpA)
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Weakness:fire(starmie, swampert, heatran, hydreigon)
Resistences: normal, grass, ice, poison(immunity), psychic, bug, ghost, dragon, dark, steel
Do I reeealy need to explain something here? o.O I needed priority, a pursuit trapper, a ralatively slow team so U-turn helps to mantain mommentum, and resistences that synergizes with the rest of the team, only one weakness that 4 team members resists(even 1 immunitie) and maaany resistances.
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power (grass)
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
Weakness: water(starmie, hydreigon), fighting(starmie, gliscor), ground(air balloon, gliscor, hydreigon)
Resistances: normal, fire(immunity), grass, ice, poison(immunity), groung(with air balloon), flying, psychic, bug, ghost, dragon, dark, steel
He is my stealth rock user, earth power for STAB, can burn things with lava plume, hidden power grass because no one in my team has a grass attack. This thing is a beast in or against the sun. I have 2 or 3 immunities depending or air balloon, and many resistances, so its easy to come into battle.
Gastrodon @ leftlovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 6 SpD / 252 Def
Calm (+SpD, -Atk)
- Recover
- Scald
- Ice beam
- Earth Power
Weakness: grass(scizor, heatran, hydreigon)
Resistances: fire, eletric(immunity), water(immunity), poison, rock, steel
Only one weakness that half my team cover(2 with 1/4 damage), good resistances, don't take passive damage in sandstorm and great in rain too being a immune to thunder and any water. Earth Power for STAB, ice beam for coverage, scald for STAB(double stab in rain) and to burn things(having 2 pokes that can burn while attacking helps a lot in the defensive part).
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe
Impish (+Def, -SpA)
- Substitute
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Toxic
weakness: water(starmie, hydreigon), ice(starmie, scizor, heatran)
resistance: eletric(immunity), fighting, poison, ground(immunity), bug
Simple set to toxic any special attaker or wall on the opposing team. Sometimes i use de Britscor set(ability:sand veil...moves: toxic, earthquake, taunt, roost) because its better against sandstorm and stall teams, haven't decided witch is better, but I tend to use more the substitute set.
Hydreigon @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild (+SpA, -Def)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Tailwind
weakness: ice(starmie, scizor, heatran), fighting(starmie gliscor), bug(scizor, gliscor, heatran), dragon(scizor, heatran)
resistances: fire, water, eletric, grass, ground(immunity), psychic(immunity), ghost, dark
This is the one who amazed me! o.o It complements my team in resistances, has 2 immunities, can 2HKO the entire metagame and forces A LOT of switches so i can use tailwind..and then all my team becomes a LOT faster.
As you may have realised, this team is not weak to stealth rock, is a little bulky and has many resistances, every weakness is covered by more the one team member, 2 of my team has only 1 weakness and 2 has 2 weakness....all of it means that i can come back many times with most of these pokemons and also means it's easy to get tailwind up multiple times. But I still feel there's something missing in this team, so, yout turn to tell me what is missing =p
Obs.: I also play with friends in person, not just online, so i made a team that followed both smogon rules and my friends rules. My friends rules are: no legendaries, no item or pokemon repeated(that's why hydreigon is with expert belt, not life orb). So when suggesting changes, please don't suggest any legendary or duplicate items as this will means i will just change my online team and not my real team, and i want them to be identycal.
My team:
I've been in competitive battles since the beggining of DPP and this gen 5 with a lot of weather teams pissed me off a little =p Not because I don't like weather teams(i've played with them myself before), but because its too many of them. So i decided to make a decent team that could counter weather teams but I didn't know where to start. After searching in these forums I found some useful pokemon to this task: Swampert and Heatran.
So, let's begin with the construction process:
the team started with:
Swampert is not affected by sandstorm, gets its scald boosted in rain and GREATLY helps against sand teams. Heatran also is not affected by sandstorm and is amazing against sun, and the tests proved that these 2 works. Starmie is good in rain too and has a great sinergy with metagross as lead(there's even a article with starmie and metagross and their synergy here http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue9/leads so i dont need to explain much). Its looking like a bulky offense(except for starmie) so i decided to go on with that idea and that also benefits from a weather or counters it.
I thougth of Gliscor, good attack, defense, benefits from sandstorm and can breaks stalls too. I still needed a good end game sweeper, so i took one of my favorite mons:
Great end game sweeper, but testing the team it was too obvious that it doesnt synergize well, many commum weakness between the team ¬¬ So i changed:
It also didnt worked that well. It was a bulky offense but i lacked a trapper/revenge killer(SO MANY TIMES I desired i had one in middle of a battle) and a little more synergy to cover weakness(both salamance and gliscor 4x weak to ice, really dont like it). So I decided to change Metagross for scizor(standart scizor set) because it has almost the same resistances as metagross, but only weak to fire and can revenge kill with bullet punch and trap with pursuit, and changed salamence for a poke i never used before, but if covers my weakness and has no true counters to it, HYDREIGON
It Worked in countering weather teams, but the team is veeeery slow compared to the metagame, so a friend came with the idea in using tailwind in Hydreigon, and i worked A LOT BETTER than expected, i will say more about it when i explaind the set of hydreigon.
Switched now Swampert for Gastrodon to have a more defensive pokemon against rain:
So lets begin with the sets:
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recorver
Weakness(who covers): eletric(swampert, gliscor, hydreigon), grass(Heatran, Hydreigon), bug(scizor, gliscor, heatran), ghost(scizor, heatran,hydreigon), dark(scizor, heatran, hydreigon)
Resistences: Fire, Water, Ice, Fighting, Psychic, Steel
Dont neet to explain much here, BoltBeam combo, hydro pump is amazing is rain and recover. One thing to notice, this team isnt weak to stealth rock, and actually a lot less teams use stealth rock compared to DPP, so i decided to use recover over rapid spin after some tests, when i know someone is gonna switch, i just recover, it works. =D
Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant(+Atk, -SpA)
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Weakness:fire(starmie, swampert, heatran, hydreigon)
Resistences: normal, grass, ice, poison(immunity), psychic, bug, ghost, dragon, dark, steel
Do I reeealy need to explain something here? o.O I needed priority, a pursuit trapper, a ralatively slow team so U-turn helps to mantain mommentum, and resistences that synergizes with the rest of the team, only one weakness that 4 team members resists(even 1 immunitie) and maaany resistances.
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power (grass)
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
Weakness: water(starmie, hydreigon), fighting(starmie, gliscor), ground(air balloon, gliscor, hydreigon)
Resistances: normal, fire(immunity), grass, ice, poison(immunity), groung(with air balloon), flying, psychic, bug, ghost, dragon, dark, steel
He is my stealth rock user, earth power for STAB, can burn things with lava plume, hidden power grass because no one in my team has a grass attack. This thing is a beast in or against the sun. I have 2 or 3 immunities depending or air balloon, and many resistances, so its easy to come into battle.
Gastrodon @ leftlovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 6 SpD / 252 Def
Calm (+SpD, -Atk)
- Recover
- Scald
- Ice beam
- Earth Power
Weakness: grass(scizor, heatran, hydreigon)
Resistances: fire, eletric(immunity), water(immunity), poison, rock, steel
Only one weakness that half my team cover(2 with 1/4 damage), good resistances, don't take passive damage in sandstorm and great in rain too being a immune to thunder and any water. Earth Power for STAB, ice beam for coverage, scald for STAB(double stab in rain) and to burn things(having 2 pokes that can burn while attacking helps a lot in the defensive part).
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe
Impish (+Def, -SpA)
- Substitute
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Toxic
weakness: water(starmie, hydreigon), ice(starmie, scizor, heatran)
resistance: eletric(immunity), fighting, poison, ground(immunity), bug
Simple set to toxic any special attaker or wall on the opposing team. Sometimes i use de Britscor set(ability:sand veil...moves: toxic, earthquake, taunt, roost) because its better against sandstorm and stall teams, haven't decided witch is better, but I tend to use more the substitute set.
Hydreigon @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild (+SpA, -Def)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Tailwind
weakness: ice(starmie, scizor, heatran), fighting(starmie gliscor), bug(scizor, gliscor, heatran), dragon(scizor, heatran)
resistances: fire, water, eletric, grass, ground(immunity), psychic(immunity), ghost, dark
This is the one who amazed me! o.o It complements my team in resistances, has 2 immunities, can 2HKO the entire metagame and forces A LOT of switches so i can use tailwind..and then all my team becomes a LOT faster.
As you may have realised, this team is not weak to stealth rock, is a little bulky and has many resistances, every weakness is covered by more the one team member, 2 of my team has only 1 weakness and 2 has 2 weakness....all of it means that i can come back many times with most of these pokemons and also means it's easy to get tailwind up multiple times. But I still feel there's something missing in this team, so, yout turn to tell me what is missing =p
Obs.: I also play with friends in person, not just online, so i made a team that followed both smogon rules and my friends rules. My friends rules are: no legendaries, no item or pokemon repeated(that's why hydreigon is with expert belt, not life orb). So when suggesting changes, please don't suggest any legendary or duplicate items as this will means i will just change my online team and not my real team, and i want them to be identycal.