Enter the Dragon - PK Gaming and JabbaTheGriffin     
IntroductionNote: this team was built by PK Gaming and JabbaTheGriffin. PK Gaming's comments will be in standard text, while JabbaTheGriffin's will be in italics. In the middle of April I made successful rain team with SevenDeadlySins that achieved a high enough rating to achieving voting reqs. Satisfied, I was willing to sit back and wait until the suspect period ended until something terrible happened. I wasn't too fond of the current metagame, every team was practically a carbon copy of each other and the few people who did use creative Pokemon/sets were usually terrible. But suddenly, I got this spontaneous idea to make a 5 Drag / 1 Mag to mess with the ladder a bit. It also coincided with my desire to get the best use out of Haxorus and thus the team was born. initially the team was awful, but then I had Jabba helped me turn it into something. The amount of surprise wins I got was astonishing! I loved wrecking Steel types with Haxorus and cleaning up late game with Garchomp. I loved destroying entire teams with Mamoswine when Skarmory/Bronzong was gone. But the best part about that the team was that it wasn't generic in the slightest. Bloo managed to get a 1500 rating with 2 accounts and Franky peaked #2 with it. I was super proud that I managed to actually accomplished in the team building world.The team has gotten progressively worse now this is mainly due to the fact that many other individuals have used the team too and the surprise factor is gone(Before I even got to post the team too ;_;). Still, its a solid team that takes guts, intelligence, skill and a lot of balls to use. I had a ton of fun making it with Jabba and before anyone goes calls me out on the forums/IRC/PO by saying "this team isn't that good" I don't care. This has been my most successful team on Smogon to date and i'm mighty proud of it. Its true what they say, every man has his day... Once upon a time, there was a totally superstrong dragon who could kill everything. His name was Mamoswine the Dragon of Strength. He didn't look like a dragon, but he totally was. He was best pals with another dragon, Haxorus the Dragon of Rivals. Together they roamed the land fighting evil and partaking in several filler episodes where they discovered people that were not useful to the plot and would learn about these people and then never see them again. One day a flying metal bird approached them. Neither could take the flying metal bird down no matter what they tried. Another dragon showed up. His name was Magnezone the Dragon of FUKSkarm. He attached himself to this metal bird and destroyed it with bolts of lightning summoned forth from the sky. They knew it was a match made in heaven. After several weeks of more filler episodes, the dragons faced one of the strongest dragons who also happened to have had psychic powers. They were too slow to take this dragon down. Just then Garchomp the Dragon of Cool Scarfs showed up to outspeed the psychic dragon and destroy him with his anger. The four then took a 3 month summer break and then returned in the fall for all new episodes. In the season premiere they were pitted against the Washing Machine of Power, which burned the entire crew with its threatening wisps of fire. Just when all hope was lost, the psychic dragon they had defeated just months earlier saved the day. His name was Latios the Dragon of Special Mind Powers. He shrugged off the burns and summoned massive meteors from um. The sky. The Washing Machine of Power was easily *unplugged*. They were almost a complete team, just one thing was missing. They realized what it was when they faced another of the fabled Garchomps and could not land an attack through the thick sandstorm of the desert or something. A frog dragon hopped into action and summoned a very light rain that you didn't really need an umbrella for but no one would judge if you had one out. Politoed the Dragon of Occasional Sprinkles was his name. And he was the fabled 6th member. The team was complete. And so is this introduction. The Team
Haxorus @ Choice Band The one and only, the big kahuna himself, and the reason this team was created in the first place. Choice Band Haxorus is an absolute monster and it deserves way more use than it currently has right now. Choice Band Haxorus has exactly [1] Solid counter in the entire game (Skarmory) and if you can remove it, you're looking at a OHKO or a 2HKO every time Haxorus switches in. Outrage hits like a hooker who just got scammed out of her money, that is to say extremely hard. It hits so hard that many common steel types are 2HKOed. Even though Outrage is amazing, and 9 times out of 10 I use Outrage, Haxorus' coverage moves are pretty decent. Earthquake hits steel types (obvious) and cocky levitate users (not so obvious) while Brick Break "kinda" deters Ferrothorn from switching in. Dual Chop is a nifty move, it has imperfect accuracy, but it hits twice so you can wreck substitute users. Haxorus is by far my favorite member on the team and although my aggressive play causes him to be KOed far too often, I almost never regret it because CB Outrage hits so hard. I experimented with Rilvary, because the power boost is huge (and I mean OHKOing Excadrill in one shot huge) but people are starting to use female Pokemon(cool we just started a trend). Thats okay, i'll troll right back with Female Rilvary Haxorus. I think I have the right to say that Haxorus is the best Choice Bander in the entire OU metagame. I definitely thought Haxorus was a piece of shit before I even used it once. Using CB Haxxy, though, I was immediately sold on the pure raw power that such a manly dragon could bring to the table. PK discusses Mold Breaker vs. Rivalry, and I just have to say I've stuck with Rivalry since day one. The extra 25% damage is huge sometimes and pushes a lot of near OHKOS over the hump. The biggest problem dropping mold breaker though is of course Zong, but I play around it other ways just so I can keep the awesome power of my Rivalrous Haxxy. I love just finding an opportunity to get this thing in for free and spam Outrage like it's 1999. It shines against defensive teams though, where if you can trap their steel, you're just going to go to town on the rest of their slow defensive mons that can't take a hit from big baller over here. P.S. PKGaming stop using the word "troll" all the time.
Garchomp @ Choice Scarf If Haxorus is the best Choice Band then Garchomp is easily the best Choice Scarfer in the OU metagame. Choice Scarf Garchomp is capable of checking just about everything. From the annoying Thundurus to the almost as equally as annoying Volcorona, Garchomp is the ultimate revenge killer. Its extremely good at cleaning up lategame too, when pokemon are weakened and stuff. Garchomp relies on Haxorus to weaken opposing teams while he cleans up lategame. They're like the ultimate partners. Outrage and EQ are strong (especially considering its a choiced mon) and they have near perfect coverage together. Stone Edge is pretty much required for taking out Thundurus / Volcorona in one shot without locking yourself into Outrage. Sometimes I Outrage anyway because Stone Edge is the worst move in the entire game. Dragon Claw lets me get good damage without leaving Garchomp completely vulnerable and I don't feel like running Dual Chop because of the imperfect accuracy / thats Haxorus' thing. Great cleaner obviously. Benefits a lot from having Haxxy/Zone clearing out the mons that can take an Outrage which PK talked about. Not really much more to add.
Magnezone @ Leftovers Magnezone and Dragon-types go together like peanut butter and jelly. If you want a Steel-type eliminated Magnezone is your machine. (Unless said steel type is running Shed Shell like a little bitch) Oftentimes the game is decided if I can trap Skarm because of the rest of the team has an easy time overwhelming teams that rely on Skarm to check physical sweepers. Did I mention that Skarm is a huge bitch to this team? Players do everything in their power prevent Skarm from ever getting trapped. Double switches are key for Magnezone, just don't be too obvious with them. What else do I need to say about Magnezone? T-bolt hits electric weaks / steel types that aren't quad weak to fire, HP fire wrecks Scizor and Ferrothorn, and I can use Substitute to screw over certain Steel-types AND get a cheap shot at the opponents team. Its a simple and easy to use Pokemon thats extremely effective in this metagame. Magnezone actually hits surprisingly hard without a boosting item and oftentimes teams struggle to check him once their ground resists are gone. Otherwise he's complete fodder after the opponents steel types are removed and he's the first Pokemon i'll sac (unless the opponent has a Skarmory.) Great for clearing out steels but if you're going to be one of the assholes stealing this team just be careful. Magnezone is definitely the mon you have to play the most cautiously because if you lose it before clearing out Scizor/Natt/Skarmory, the rest of the team is really going to suffer. It doesn't mean you still can't pull the win out of your ass, but it makes it that much more difficult. Also, it's now my turn to do the more rambley discussions.
Mamoswine @ Life Orb I've always loved Mamoswine. He's so strong and fierce and Gen 5 finally gave him some solid Ice Stab to work with in Icicle Crash. So of course when PK told me about this team I jumped at the chance to recommend the strongest mon in the frozen tundra. The thing about a team that whores out dragons is that they tend to be dragon weak (whoa another protip). Your two options are generally either to fill the back-end with Steel mons or to rock either Mamoswine or Weavile I guess. Me and PK went with the much more badass option of taking the pimp train to Mamoswine town. This thing both revenges dragons and just cleans ass when certain pokemon are removed, mostly steel types and rotom-w (which it can do for itself if you nail the switch with stone edge and it's not a bulkier spread). It's really the heart <3 of the team after Haxorus and you better hope you don't run into this guy in a dark alley because he has the rape eyes. A badass tusked mammoth that could rape face at any given time. Whats not to like? Honestly though I never found the opportunity to use him until Jabba recommended him to me. To say that he's reached my expectations would be a complete lie. Mamoswine went above and beyond that because its an absolute ANIMAL in gen V. Not only does hit incredibly hard with Earthquake it even has STAB priority to pick off weakened targets. Ice Shard wrecks top threats like Garchomp, Thundurus and Tornadus. Flinching a Skarmory with Icicle Crash is the best feeling in the world.
Latios @ Choice Specs Talked about this up in the teambuilding process section. He delivers the hard hits that the dragon clan is famous for while being able to switch in on things like Jellicent and Rotom-W that are going to throw Wisps around all willy-nilly. Me and PK run different sets, he'll discuss what he runs a bit down, but I think it's life orb 4 attack with hp fire or something lame. I went with straight up specs because I prefer the raw power without the LO recoil that makes it harder to switch in consistently. I don't mind having to predict a bit more, as it comes with the territory in the first place when running dragon spam. I just usually stick to Draco Meteor or double switching to Haxxy/Zone depending on what's coming in to take the hit anyway. Trick could be useful in the last slot over Psyshock, but I like the late game consistency of a secondary stab that can also get by Blissey if it needs to. It can really ease some end games, where trick could be a problem if you mispredict and trick the wrong mon. While Jabba uses the simple and EASY TO PLAY AROUND Specs set, I prefer finesse and a use Life Orb set with Draco Meteor / HP Fire / Psychock / Surf. The ability to switch moves is godsend because you don't have to deal with dumb things like bulky Pokemon switching into your resisted coverage moves. I'll admit that Specs Psycho Shock is very sexy though and the ability to 2HKO Blissey is awesome. Not much else to say, I appreciate Latios' ability to switch into annoying pokemon like Rotom-W and Jellicent.
Politoed @ Choice Scarf Definitely a huge help to the team when dealing with Sand teams. Also helps against Sun teams occasionally, but really dragons don't have much of a problem having fun in the sun anyway. PK runs a much different set, but I went with simplicity with this since that's all I really needed. I don't need to get fancy with it. I just need to come in and use surf a couple times and get sand off the field. Surf/Ice Beam are therefore no-brainers. The last two are where me and PK differ. I'm not sure what he runs so I'll just talk about what I run. I went with HP grass mainly so I can hit Rotom-W for moderate damage if I need to. I haven't used it yet, but I guarantee the second I take it off I'm going to lose to a 40% Rotom-W so no thanks I'll just keep it on. The last slot is really weird. I didn't really thing Toed even needed a 4th move, so I just stuck on a defensive measure against SmashPassing teams. Definitely more useful than I think any other move would be in that slot, but feel free to run whatever PK thinks is best since I'm just an odd fellow. Scarf Politoed fixes up a lot issues with the team and I appreciate its ability to check annoying threats like Excadrill and Garchomp. Hits like a bitch with Hydro Pump considering its low SpA stat. The thing I like the most about Politoed is that people are so desperate to preserve Tyranitar when they see Politoed they sack other Pokemon just to keep him alive but thing is ee don't even run any rain sweepers. The set I use isn't much different from Jabba, I'm running Hydro Pump / Ice Beam / Hypnosis / Surf, but 90% of the time i'm spamming rain boosted Hydro Pumps. Importable |