I played this team on 3 different occasions so I'm going to give you a rate that's full of nitpicks all over the place Enjoy!
Kevin Garrett said:
DopplerEffect
Overview:
In Depth:
@ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 222 Def / 36 Spe
Nature: Bold (+Def, -Atk)
- Leech Seed
- Psychic
- Grass Knot
- Recover
I don't like Celebi as your lead at all. With Tyranitar, Weavile, and Scizor becoming increasingly popular leads as of late I don't feel comfortable with it. Especially that Anti-Lead T-Tar which kinda hurts this team a lot as it is. Lead with Zapdos instead. Granted Zapdos fails against T-Tar and Weavile much like Celebi but at least you can switch out without facing instant death from Pursuit.
@ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Nature: Bold (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Surf
It's fine. CM Talk Cune (Crocune as some people know it I suppose) is pretty nifty.
@ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe
Nature: Impish (+Def, -SpA)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Roost
I never understood how Gliscor was a Heracross counter. He's really only a counter to the Choice Band or Scarf sets. If Heracross pulls of an SD or if it's that amazing Facade Flame Orb Cross,. Gliscor can be 2HKOd (and likely be OHKOd with an SD Guts boosted Facade (53% chance you are OHKOd)) and you can't do anything to it. After that, it proceeds to just destroy your whole team. For this reason you need Aerial Ace > Ice Fang. You'll still lose to Flame Orb set but at least you attacking it and burn will kill that before it takes out all 6 Pokemon, it will just take out 5 maybe. You'll struggle more against Garchomp but I would prefer you to play around one common threat than instantly lose to one.
@ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 166 Atk / 252 SpA / 92 Spe
Nature: Naïve (+Spe, -SpD)
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Superpower
- Shadow Ball
I don't like Life Orb on D-E, particularly on this team. D-E is incredibly predictable and if he is designed to clean up, as he is your only real offensive force, you don't want him being stalled out. So, let's change Life Orb to Expert Belt. It maintains all of the important OHKOs and this will still allow you to 2HKO the most common Blissey outside of, Calm, 0 HP / 252 Def, which is Bold, 24 HP / 252 Def. I see no downside in using Expert Belt. Also, I'm not sure why you are running Shadow Ball. You are never going to speed tie with other D-E and it's really only useful for Gengar or Azelf. Consider this though you already outrun Gengar and Psychic OHKOs and if it's Scarfed you'll get hit with a Shadow Ball first anyway. In the case of Azelf, Heatran beats that already anyway. So, I don't see what Shadow Ball is for. The 20% special defense drop is nice but sometimes D-E just needs a STAB move and when that is the only reason backing it up I don't see it's purpose. Also, Psychic still has a 10% chance to cause a special defense drop. So replace Shadow Ball with Psychic. I personally like to run a bulkier EV spread (what bulky D-E?) but yours is fine for your teams purposes.
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 48 SpA / 208 SpD
Nature: Modest (+SpA, -Atk)
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Seems fine. I've seen a similar spread used before (I don't recall by who to be honest) but I remember it being 252 HP / 56 SpA / 200 SpD. It was apparently designed so that Lava Plume would OHKO 252 HP / 0 SpD Skarmory. It may not seem important since you'll 2HKO but I don't see what those 8 special defense EVs do for Heatran so I figure, why not? Unless there is something specific you live but I can't imagine what.
@ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SpD / 36 Spe
Nature: Calm (+SpD, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Ice
- Roost
- Sleep Talk
You have a lot of defensive guys, that said, these guys can't take on something with a lot of boosts. That's why I recommend Roar > Sleep Talk. You already have 2 sleep absorber to activate Sleep Clause, do you really need Sleep Talk on Zapdos as well? Roar would seriously help with your teams vulnerability to something like CM Cresselia.
I deleted your threat list since it was messy for me to type in responses next to them, so I'll just respond a bit right now.
Tyranitar: Celebi is your Tyranitar counter? It hardily handles Tyranitar with ease. Tyraniboah murders Celebi (it does 53% - 62% with Dark Pulse). Tyranitar has Sandstream so he isn't going to fall to your Grass Knot's any time soon. DD-Tar with Ice Beam basically says "good game" unless it happens to miss Gliscor due to S-Veil hax. Tyraniboah is this teams #1 problem, no question there. Really your only good with the CB set and the DD set if it lacks Ice Beam. Suicune fares okay but it doesn't like take repeated Thunderbolts.
Azelf: I run HP Ground Azelf
Heracross: I never understood why Gliscor is a Heracross "counter". I guess if it's Scarfed or Banded it is. But the SD set can 2HKO Gliscor and the Flame Orb Facade Cross just murders Gliscor. Non-choiced Heracross is another huge problem for this team.
Alakazam: Heatran takes a hell of a lot from a Specs Focus Blast.
Ninjask: I don't think the point is to counter it, I think the point it to stop it from passing +6 attack, +6 speed to something like Metagross. Roar > Sleep Talk on Zapdos seems to help a lot.
Jirachi: Usually CM Jirachi has Substitute up and carries Thunderbolt so you're going to lose that CM War.
Anyway, those were my nitpicks of your threat list.
Threats to This team:
The biggest problem I see is that you very well could get outstalled yourself. I played you with this team with one of my stall teams and it was an incredibly long match. We both just sat there and as our defensive Pokemon couldn't really do anything to one another. The difference is, while you were just sitting there I was setting up Toxic Spikes , Spikes, and Stealth Rock and even though you have 2 Rest-Talkers I stalled them out of Rest/Sleep Talk PP with Vaporeon and Celebi working together. After a long time of switching your team was just worn down and I came out on top. I know offensive teams are in style now but never under estimate a well built stall team. This is more of a stall-ish (or bulky offensive) team. I'd love to see you fit some kinda a spinner in here. Tentacruel might work over Zapdos here and as you already mentioned it brings somewhat of a Gengar problem. However, I feel you could play on resistances and beat it anyway. The problem is for Tentacruel to properly work you'll need Wish support and that's getting into a total revamping of your team then and considering your retiring it I feel just isn't worth it to fix. Tentacruel would also help with the bit of Infernape problem (although Zapdos does well enough) but as I said it's not worth it to fix the team since it's being retired anyway.
You are also vulnerable to the Wobbuffet + Dugtrio + Wish Vaporeon combination. Wobbs can Encore a Suicune on CM, bring in Duggy and kill it. Wobbs can Mirror Coat / Counter every one of them (even Shadow Ball doesn't hurt too much) and with Wish support from Vaporeon it can just rinse and repeat.
Threats:
1-Tyraniboah. The famed stall breaker does it's job perfectly here. You have nothing for it, literally nothing. It's growing rare though so it's question of whether or not you care about it. Suicune does okay against it but it's not reliable. It's not special defensively oriented and T-Boah will wear it down.
2-Sword Dance Heracross (4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe: SD, Megahorn, Close Combat, Stone Edge) basically destroys your team. It can come in on something like Zapdos and set up an SD as you go to Gliscor. Well, an SD Stone Edge 2HKOs Gliscor 100% of the time with your EVs and you can't do anything to it since you lack Aerial Ace. SD Heracross can then proceed to OHKO every Pokemon on your team and outrun all of them with the exception of Deoxys-S who cannot OHKO himself. Consider putting Psychic > Shadow Ball on D/-E or Aerial Ace > Ice Fang on Gliscor to resolve this. I already explained how the Flame Orb Facade Cross still destroys you. You could keep this in check by taking my suggestions of putting Psychic > Shadow Ball.
3. CM Cresselia. You have no sure fire way of beating this. You can set up with Suicune alongside it but then it's a CM War and 1 critical hit means you lose since CM Cresselia will almost always be faster than you and can kill you before you can Rest off the critical hit damage.
4. I see a Life Orb Gyarados weakness as well. Celebi is 2HKOd by DD Ice Fang with Stealth Rock damage and while it can't hurt Suicune yet it can DD up while you CM and kill you off before it does. Deoxys-S can come into a once DD Gyarados and obviously OHKO with T-Bolt, however, most good players with Waterfall first turn to scout rather than DD. Consider Reflect > Leech Seed on Celebi to help out with this.
5. Curselax. You won't be able to successfully Leech Seed away Lax forever while it gets +6 defense +6 attack. Once again, simple solution, Roar > Sleep Talk on Zapdos helps to patch this up.
6. Duel Screen Deoxys-S --> Baton Pass teams basically ruin this team, it's not a sure fire thing since the Passer will often have Taunt but Roar might help to some extent on Zapdos.
7. CM Jirachi kinda just sits there and CMs up and proceed to sweep. Jirachi will be faster than Suicune and will often have a substitute up so it will win that CM war. Roar > STalk again (I'm starting to repeat myself a lot).
8. Raikou. This is obvious and this one you mentioned youself is a massive problem and nearly unbeatable for you. While it doesn't solve it, once again, Roar > Sleep Talk on Zapdos helps a lot since you can wear it down since it doesn't have a reliable recovery move. Roar just seems to solve so many of your problems it's ridiculous, really consider it!
I would do more to help figure out to manage the Tyarniboah weakness and give you a more reliable solution to things like Raikou, Sub CM Rachi etc., but since you are retiring it I don't see the point of making huge changes to it. I guess Curse Snorlax beats those, but if you replace Zapdos you lose a lot of ability to take on Nasty Plot Togekiss, Gengar, Alakazam, etc, so it's a trade off. Lose to something a lot less common or lose to something more common. The choice should be obvious there.
Non-Existant Threat: Azelf @ Kasib Berry : NP / Psychic / Fire Blast / Hidden Power Ground. It completely dominated your team when I played you. But then again, what psycho runs that except me?
Even though I ripped apart your team and made note of every tiny weakness, this is a very good team. It's well designed and each Pokemon complements each other nicely. You seem to have a lot of threats covered and those you don't can often times be worked around. Very good team KG, good luck with your next one.
Edit: I still don't know what this is called Team Doppler Effect though.
