Hey all, here with my first RMT here on the beach (anywhere, actually). I've only been in competitive battling for about a month, as I used to play TCG. However, after trying rain, sand, and another balanced team like this, I ended up here. I don't have any outstanding rankings on PO or the like, but I can throw out the stat of 26-1 in the Free mode of Wifi, and about 80% winning on PO. I hope I'm formatting this right, and here goes.
Teambuilding Process (a.k.a. my excuse for not going over past members)
Infernape @ Fire Gem
Hardy (Neutral Nature, this is on purpose)
252 Spe/252 SpA/4 HP
-Protect
-Taunt
-Fake Out
-Heat Wave
There's a little bit to explain behind this guy. While his typing doubles up Fighting With Terrakion and Flamethrower on the Dragons, he is pretty much the only member that I use every game. He comes to the team as a replacement Hitmontop, who I found to be generally useless (I couldn't get sucker punch) past the first turn. My original moveset was Protect/Fake Out/Close Combat/Heat Wave, but I found major issues with Trick Room teams so I swapped CC to Taunt. The nature was good in my mind at the time, but not after I ditched CC. I obviously couldn't go with the usual -non attacking stat nature due to the mix, and in my experience with Cloyster running a lonely/sassy nature would end up in OHKOs, so I went neutrally because it doesn't really affect his effectiveness. The given EVs were originally balanced between Atk and SpA with 252 Spe, but as Fake Out is now my only physical move I wiped and switched to SpA. The Fire Gem boosts heat wave enough to drop most pokemon with neutral resistance to the under 2/3 range, which is a good range for Scizor's bullet punch.
Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Timid Nature (-Atk, +Spe)
252 Spe/252 SpA/4 HP
-Protect
-Dragon Pulse
-Flamethrower
-Earth Power
Open Hydreigon, an absolute menace to oppose. Sporting incredible stats and a Life Orb, he pretty much demolishes anything that doesn't kill him first. The Life Orb is pretty obvious. Like Leftovers, the only thing stopping you from putting it on your entire team is the Item Clause. The given nature allows it to achieve near-max Speed for a base 98 (near because of IVs. I absolutely refuse to RNG. If you can't do it with the DS and the game cartridge, then it is cheating in my book). The EVs are straightforward attacker EVs, max speed investment with investment in the attacking stat of choice. Protect is a VGC staple for scouting, allowing your partner to KO, etc. Dragon Pulse is the spam move of choice when he can't hit supereffectively. Flamethrower takes care of steel types, grass types, and scizors, as well as KO'ing ice threats. Earth Power provides even more coverage, allowing kills on neutral steels (like Empoleon), OHKO'ing fire types, Electric Types, and allowing Hydreigon to kill Metagross, which is, ironically, a huge threat to my team when used with a Trick Room and/or swagger partner. If they show air Balloon, I'll 1-2 hit KO with Flamethrower. If they don't I can only assume they have an Occa Berry, and use Earth power. With the moveset provided, I can often lead Infernape and Hydriegon, using Fake Out on the non OHKOable pokemon, and OHKO'ing the one I can. Due to Hydreigon's attacking prowess, this strategy words 90% of the time, and I practically start the game 4-3.
Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Brave Nature (-Spe, +Atk --- This is the way I caught him before I was competitive)
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
-Quick Attack
-X-Scissor
-Rock Slide
-Close Combat
It's a bird! It's a plane! Actually, it's just the demise of anything it faces. The Focus Sash is what makes Terrakion really great. As his main role is to spam CC like crazy, he can sometimes end up at -2 before he's even hit. To give him another shot at killing stuff, the Sash virtually cancels out the -2, because he's going to get down to 1 either way. Again, I would have chosen Adamant over Brave, but I couldn't. The EVs are the usual attacking ones. Close Combat is my spam of choice, reaching 180 base power due to STAB, and coming off of 199 attack. Rock Slide has over 100 base power as well, and hits both opponents. Rock Slide has helped countless times with spreading damage and the occasional flinch. Its shining moment, however, was on the last turn of a battle against a rain team. All 4 pokes were in red, but my T-Tar was frozen. Terrakion went first, used rock slide, and won the game. X-scissor gives more coverage and allows him to hit psychics at respectable power, mainly 3HKO'ing Cresslia. That's obviously too slow as it usually 2HKOs me, but it is that much less damage the next pokemon has to worry about. Quick Attack is for those countless times a Dragon Pulse leaves the opponent in the red, or against other sash users to earn the KO on them.
Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature (-SpA, +Atk)
252 Atk/248 HP/8 Spe
-Pursuit
-Brick Break
-U-Turn
-Bullet Punch
I opt to go with the incredibly traditional Scizor set here. Choice Band is, of course, my item of choice, and Adamant nature is pretty obvious. I maxed the attack EVs, but seeing as Scizor is slow and usually uses priority, I gave it HP EVs instead to bulk it up a little. 248 with my scizor leaves it on a 3 instead of a 4 for all of those burns, etc. Bullet Punch and Pursuit are mandatory. My bug move of choice is U-Turn here. I know Bug Bite receives Technician boost, but I've played U-Turn for so long that I am used to it and the free switch it grants me. I play brick break over Superpower because I am not a fan of stat drops. I usually only use Brick Break when it means a supereffective attack on something that nothing else could hit supereffectively, like Dewgong (nobody uses it, but I mean that sort of typing), and I don't need the extra power.
Dragonite @ Expert Belt
Quiet Nature (-Spe, +SpA --- this guy was originally mixed)
252 SpA/252 HP/4 Spe
-Flamethrower
-Thunderbolt
-Blizzard
-Surf
Say hello to Dragonite, my Keckleon of sorts. The only dw Dratinis I could find were male, so I took one out and reset until I got a good nature. At the time, it meant Quiet, because he was a mixed rain attacker and his base 80 speed wasn't outrunning any dragons. I could, however, rework the EVs to become full SpA. For the same reason as Scizor, his 2nd set of EVs were put into HP to make him even bulkier. All four of his moves serve as coverage, which is why he holds an expert belt and not leftovers. He originally ran Focus Blast and Ice Beam instead of Surf and Blizzard, but Focus Blast has poor accuracy, and blizzard hits both opponents in doubles. Surf also gave him very useful coverage against fire-types. His role on the team has become dragon killer (he moves second, but carries multiscale) and all-around attacker, capable of defeating all weathers with his coverage.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Brave (-Spe, +Atk)
252 HP/172 Def/80 Atk
-Stealth Rock
-Rock Slide
-Thunder Wave
-Dragon Tail
Here's T-Tar, the last and most interesting member of the team. I gave him leftovers because of his sheer bulk in sand, only getting 3HKO'd by most Kingdra Surfs. The Brave nature ensures I win the weather war on a turn where both starters come onto the field, and gives me a Rock Slide capable of OHKO'ing Thundurus, etc. The EVs given give T-Tar the bulk it needs to play support, while giving it a little boost in attack so that it can OHKO with supereffective moves. Stealth Rock is rarely used because of the sheer pace of the meta, but it is viable nonetheless. Thunder Wave can slow down opposing dragons (particularly RNG'd Hydreigon) as well as anything I need to slow down. Rock Slide is my standard STAB, which I opted for over Payback because of its spread capabilities. Dragon Tail rounds off the moveset, hitting Kingdras harder than they can hit me, shuffling around and scouting, picking up passive damage, and even phazing boosts like Gastrodon on rain teams. I don't use him unless I need to win a weather war because I use a very offensive team, and he breaks Dragonite's multiscale.
Pokemon Soup
Teambuilding Process (a.k.a. my excuse for not going over past members)
When I set out to make the new team that would become this one, I looked at the pokemon I had and decided on my favorite pokemon, Scizor. I knew that this would be a balanced team, and what better than the hard-hitting Steel-type beast that is Scizor.
Next, after watching endless hours of VGC championship battles on YouTube, I decided on Hitmontop. Fake Out is good on any team, and so is Intimidate. He also carried Rapid Spin, though I am literally yet to see hazards in the fast-paced VGC of 2013.
The "no duh" moment of the teambuilding process is that you have to care about weather. If you just let a rain team run around being a rain team, you're going to lose to spread surfs and everything that rain teams do. After looking at the five weathers, I decided on the best pokemon that also fit the team. Politoed wouldn't help against rain, Ninetales did nothing but make Scizor 6x weak to fire, I couldn't find any good Cloud Nine pokemon (imo of course), Abomasnow is wimpy, and I am left with Tyranitar.
I love steel types. Like looooooooove them. They can switch into 3/4 of attacks pretty freely, ignore Toxic, and don't mind T-Tar. In my search for good Steel types, I found that Magnezone was too frail and Ferrothorn had no place on what was becoming an offensive team. So I went with the poor decision of Metagross, which I will explain later.
I was quickly realizing that my team was entirely physical. I had two options: I could run swords dance + hyper beam on scizor, or I could add some Special Attackers. Due to obvious reasons, I decided to add Special Attackers. I decided to go with a dragon, because they are dragons, which means base 130+ in their attack stat of choice and great stats elsewhere, not to mention an incredible movepool. After a brief glance at the stats, I decided on Hydreigon because of its base 98 speed and 125 special attack.
For the final slot on my team, I decided to go with another Special Attacker to balance out my 4/1 Atk/SpA team. I also wanted a bit of bulk and a bit of help with weather teams (mainly rain), so I went with Dragonite, who also happens to be one of my favorite pokemon. To make him a Special Attacker, I gave him four coverage moves and an Expert Belt (LO would break Multiscale, and besides, Hydreigon already had dibs) to give a little bit of pseudo-STAB.
And with that, I had my team! Or so I thought. But throughout testing, I found that Scizor and Metagross played the same role on the team, and I frequently used one of the two. In the same way, I frequently used Scizor over Metagross. Even though Metagross had better stats in literally every category, he didn't get Technician, which made Bullet Punch slightly less spammable at 60 power instead of 90. With the notion in mind that I had to take Metagross out, I began to scan my boxes. Though I could have just looked on Smogon, I had pretty expansive boxes, and my searching paid off- I found the Terrakion that I caught before I got competitive. However, it at least had a brave nature, and with base 108 Spe and full EV investment, it turned out all right. So I swapped in Terrakion for Metagross, and my team grew even more offensive.
I spent a lot of time battling with this team, thinking it was final. However, I grew more and more iffy about Hitmontop and his pathetic moveset. Finally, I came to one day where nothing went right for the top, as he got outsped by other Fake Out users countless times. I focused on this in particular, and remembered a member of another team I once wanted to make: Infernape. This guy really gave me trouble one game, outspeeding Hydreigon, and countering all of Hydreigon, Scizor, Terrakion, and Tyranitar. I trained him up and swapped him out for Hitmontop, and the team was finally complete.
Next, after watching endless hours of VGC championship battles on YouTube, I decided on Hitmontop. Fake Out is good on any team, and so is Intimidate. He also carried Rapid Spin, though I am literally yet to see hazards in the fast-paced VGC of 2013.
The "no duh" moment of the teambuilding process is that you have to care about weather. If you just let a rain team run around being a rain team, you're going to lose to spread surfs and everything that rain teams do. After looking at the five weathers, I decided on the best pokemon that also fit the team. Politoed wouldn't help against rain, Ninetales did nothing but make Scizor 6x weak to fire, I couldn't find any good Cloud Nine pokemon (imo of course), Abomasnow is wimpy, and I am left with Tyranitar.
I love steel types. Like looooooooove them. They can switch into 3/4 of attacks pretty freely, ignore Toxic, and don't mind T-Tar. In my search for good Steel types, I found that Magnezone was too frail and Ferrothorn had no place on what was becoming an offensive team. So I went with the poor decision of Metagross, which I will explain later.
I was quickly realizing that my team was entirely physical. I had two options: I could run swords dance + hyper beam on scizor, or I could add some Special Attackers. Due to obvious reasons, I decided to add Special Attackers. I decided to go with a dragon, because they are dragons, which means base 130+ in their attack stat of choice and great stats elsewhere, not to mention an incredible movepool. After a brief glance at the stats, I decided on Hydreigon because of its base 98 speed and 125 special attack.
For the final slot on my team, I decided to go with another Special Attacker to balance out my 4/1 Atk/SpA team. I also wanted a bit of bulk and a bit of help with weather teams (mainly rain), so I went with Dragonite, who also happens to be one of my favorite pokemon. To make him a Special Attacker, I gave him four coverage moves and an Expert Belt (LO would break Multiscale, and besides, Hydreigon already had dibs) to give a little bit of pseudo-STAB.
And with that, I had my team! Or so I thought. But throughout testing, I found that Scizor and Metagross played the same role on the team, and I frequently used one of the two. In the same way, I frequently used Scizor over Metagross. Even though Metagross had better stats in literally every category, he didn't get Technician, which made Bullet Punch slightly less spammable at 60 power instead of 90. With the notion in mind that I had to take Metagross out, I began to scan my boxes. Though I could have just looked on Smogon, I had pretty expansive boxes, and my searching paid off- I found the Terrakion that I caught before I got competitive. However, it at least had a brave nature, and with base 108 Spe and full EV investment, it turned out all right. So I swapped in Terrakion for Metagross, and my team grew even more offensive.
I spent a lot of time battling with this team, thinking it was final. However, I grew more and more iffy about Hitmontop and his pathetic moveset. Finally, I came to one day where nothing went right for the top, as he got outsped by other Fake Out users countless times. I focused on this in particular, and remembered a member of another team I once wanted to make: Infernape. This guy really gave me trouble one game, outspeeding Hydreigon, and countering all of Hydreigon, Scizor, Terrakion, and Tyranitar. I trained him up and swapped him out for Hitmontop, and the team was finally complete.
Infernape @ Fire Gem
Hardy (Neutral Nature, this is on purpose)
252 Spe/252 SpA/4 HP
-Protect
-Taunt
-Fake Out
-Heat Wave
There's a little bit to explain behind this guy. While his typing doubles up Fighting With Terrakion and Flamethrower on the Dragons, he is pretty much the only member that I use every game. He comes to the team as a replacement Hitmontop, who I found to be generally useless (I couldn't get sucker punch) past the first turn. My original moveset was Protect/Fake Out/Close Combat/Heat Wave, but I found major issues with Trick Room teams so I swapped CC to Taunt. The nature was good in my mind at the time, but not after I ditched CC. I obviously couldn't go with the usual -non attacking stat nature due to the mix, and in my experience with Cloyster running a lonely/sassy nature would end up in OHKOs, so I went neutrally because it doesn't really affect his effectiveness. The given EVs were originally balanced between Atk and SpA with 252 Spe, but as Fake Out is now my only physical move I wiped and switched to SpA. The Fire Gem boosts heat wave enough to drop most pokemon with neutral resistance to the under 2/3 range, which is a good range for Scizor's bullet punch.
Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Timid Nature (-Atk, +Spe)
252 Spe/252 SpA/4 HP
-Protect
-Dragon Pulse
-Flamethrower
-Earth Power
Open Hydreigon, an absolute menace to oppose. Sporting incredible stats and a Life Orb, he pretty much demolishes anything that doesn't kill him first. The Life Orb is pretty obvious. Like Leftovers, the only thing stopping you from putting it on your entire team is the Item Clause. The given nature allows it to achieve near-max Speed for a base 98 (near because of IVs. I absolutely refuse to RNG. If you can't do it with the DS and the game cartridge, then it is cheating in my book). The EVs are straightforward attacker EVs, max speed investment with investment in the attacking stat of choice. Protect is a VGC staple for scouting, allowing your partner to KO, etc. Dragon Pulse is the spam move of choice when he can't hit supereffectively. Flamethrower takes care of steel types, grass types, and scizors, as well as KO'ing ice threats. Earth Power provides even more coverage, allowing kills on neutral steels (like Empoleon), OHKO'ing fire types, Electric Types, and allowing Hydreigon to kill Metagross, which is, ironically, a huge threat to my team when used with a Trick Room and/or swagger partner. If they show air Balloon, I'll 1-2 hit KO with Flamethrower. If they don't I can only assume they have an Occa Berry, and use Earth power. With the moveset provided, I can often lead Infernape and Hydriegon, using Fake Out on the non OHKOable pokemon, and OHKO'ing the one I can. Due to Hydreigon's attacking prowess, this strategy words 90% of the time, and I practically start the game 4-3.
Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Brave Nature (-Spe, +Atk --- This is the way I caught him before I was competitive)
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
-Quick Attack
-X-Scissor
-Rock Slide
-Close Combat
It's a bird! It's a plane! Actually, it's just the demise of anything it faces. The Focus Sash is what makes Terrakion really great. As his main role is to spam CC like crazy, he can sometimes end up at -2 before he's even hit. To give him another shot at killing stuff, the Sash virtually cancels out the -2, because he's going to get down to 1 either way. Again, I would have chosen Adamant over Brave, but I couldn't. The EVs are the usual attacking ones. Close Combat is my spam of choice, reaching 180 base power due to STAB, and coming off of 199 attack. Rock Slide has over 100 base power as well, and hits both opponents. Rock Slide has helped countless times with spreading damage and the occasional flinch. Its shining moment, however, was on the last turn of a battle against a rain team. All 4 pokes were in red, but my T-Tar was frozen. Terrakion went first, used rock slide, and won the game. X-scissor gives more coverage and allows him to hit psychics at respectable power, mainly 3HKO'ing Cresslia. That's obviously too slow as it usually 2HKOs me, but it is that much less damage the next pokemon has to worry about. Quick Attack is for those countless times a Dragon Pulse leaves the opponent in the red, or against other sash users to earn the KO on them.
Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature (-SpA, +Atk)
252 Atk/248 HP/8 Spe
-Pursuit
-Brick Break
-U-Turn
-Bullet Punch
I opt to go with the incredibly traditional Scizor set here. Choice Band is, of course, my item of choice, and Adamant nature is pretty obvious. I maxed the attack EVs, but seeing as Scizor is slow and usually uses priority, I gave it HP EVs instead to bulk it up a little. 248 with my scizor leaves it on a 3 instead of a 4 for all of those burns, etc. Bullet Punch and Pursuit are mandatory. My bug move of choice is U-Turn here. I know Bug Bite receives Technician boost, but I've played U-Turn for so long that I am used to it and the free switch it grants me. I play brick break over Superpower because I am not a fan of stat drops. I usually only use Brick Break when it means a supereffective attack on something that nothing else could hit supereffectively, like Dewgong (nobody uses it, but I mean that sort of typing), and I don't need the extra power.
Dragonite @ Expert Belt
Quiet Nature (-Spe, +SpA --- this guy was originally mixed)
252 SpA/252 HP/4 Spe
-Flamethrower
-Thunderbolt
-Blizzard
-Surf
Say hello to Dragonite, my Keckleon of sorts. The only dw Dratinis I could find were male, so I took one out and reset until I got a good nature. At the time, it meant Quiet, because he was a mixed rain attacker and his base 80 speed wasn't outrunning any dragons. I could, however, rework the EVs to become full SpA. For the same reason as Scizor, his 2nd set of EVs were put into HP to make him even bulkier. All four of his moves serve as coverage, which is why he holds an expert belt and not leftovers. He originally ran Focus Blast and Ice Beam instead of Surf and Blizzard, but Focus Blast has poor accuracy, and blizzard hits both opponents in doubles. Surf also gave him very useful coverage against fire-types. His role on the team has become dragon killer (he moves second, but carries multiscale) and all-around attacker, capable of defeating all weathers with his coverage.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Brave (-Spe, +Atk)
252 HP/172 Def/80 Atk
-Stealth Rock
-Rock Slide
-Thunder Wave
-Dragon Tail
Here's T-Tar, the last and most interesting member of the team. I gave him leftovers because of his sheer bulk in sand, only getting 3HKO'd by most Kingdra Surfs. The Brave nature ensures I win the weather war on a turn where both starters come onto the field, and gives me a Rock Slide capable of OHKO'ing Thundurus, etc. The EVs given give T-Tar the bulk it needs to play support, while giving it a little boost in attack so that it can OHKO with supereffective moves. Stealth Rock is rarely used because of the sheer pace of the meta, but it is viable nonetheless. Thunder Wave can slow down opposing dragons (particularly RNG'd Hydreigon) as well as anything I need to slow down. Rock Slide is my standard STAB, which I opted for over Payback because of its spread capabilities. Dragon Tail rounds off the moveset, hitting Kingdras harder than they can hit me, shuffling around and scouting, picking up passive damage, and even phazing boosts like Gastrodon on rain teams. I don't use him unless I need to win a weather war because I use a very offensive team, and he breaks Dragonite's multiscale.
Threats
Rain
This goes for pretty much any rain. Rain is the one weather I just can't stand (well, the only weather I see). I can usually win the weather war early, but these games always go down to the wire. Sometimes I escape by a hair, others I am careless and attack Toed too much, and it just protects. My counter for rain is my one and only counter. I exclusively use Hydreigon and Scizor to start, and Terrakion and T-Tar for backup. If they're dumb, they'll start Toed and think they can spam Surf with Kingdra or whatever its partner is. I switch in T-Tar and take about 2/5 health because of sand boost. I switch with U-Turn if they don't have Toed out, but if they do, then I switch immediately for fear of getting hit by a boosted surf. My counters are to lock up the weather war early, then spam CC and Dragon Pulse at Politoed to kill it. Once I secure the weather, they feel the effects of using Kingdra and its moderate stats out of rain.
Trick Room
I didn't even realize this was a threat until I started to see Cresselias popping up everywhere. As my team is an offensive, fast, kill them before they kill me sort of team, trick room can give me problems. Whenever I see Cresselia in the Team Preview, I will always start Infernape. My only counter to Trick Room is Scizor's Priority Punch and Taunt on Infernape. If they run Leftovers or Sitrus Berry on Cresselia over Mental Herb, then taunting them shuts them down and assures the win. If they do get it up, however, I'm in trouble. If I can take an attack and live, I can usually return KO, but often times I cannot take the attack due to supereffectiveness. Metagross in trick room hurts, as it pretty exclusively uses 150-power Meteor Mash. I can, however, deal with Swagger Cresselia as Taunting it once either stops Trick Room or breaks the Herb, and Taunting it twice ensures it can't fire off a Swagger. Without Swagger, I can usually take Metagross out with a Terrakion CC and another attack before it kills its threats.
Other Mixed Teams
I am, of course, susceptible to other teams as well. Mixed teams are all about balance and tricks. If I miscall and use two attacks on a pokemon that protects, that could cost me the game due to my frailty. I've read through the bios of most OU pokemon in Smogon, but just today I learned about Speed Boost Yanmega (cool game there, went down 2-4 but came back to win). Other teams that try to balance, use boosting, use tailwind, and other things that I don't see coming can always beat me.
Thank you so much for reading and please leave a rate!
