A simple standard team

[spooky96]

So what's up Smogon University? Here's another one of my team which I'm posting on RMT. I hope you guys find it decent. So lets just see my team...

Team at a glance:

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave

The standard Ferrothorn set. Main aim to set up as many entry hazards as possible. While at this, being a mixed wall as well. Leech Seed is for ensuring that enemy isn't staying in for very long, and Thunder Wave is for crippling those fast Pokemon who dared to try to set up of Ferrothorn. Just simple set which all you know basically, though I have some doubts and need opinion about this, with Leech Seed, Protect is rather much more useful. So was just wondering if I should keep Thunder Wave or replace with Protect. I've paired it up with Jellicent, who can take Fire and Fighting moves with no problem.

Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Shadow Ball

The special wall of my team. Scald is just for general STAB move, chose Will-O-Wisp over Toxic so that Jellicent can take on Physical moves as well, Recover is so that it can stall after after it has burned the foe. Shadow Ball is for Latios, Latias, Gengar, Alakazam and the opposing Jellicent. Electric moves creates problems for Jellicent, so paired it up with Donphan, then there's Ferrothorn, to take on Grass moves. I've thrown those 4 speed EVs just to ensure that I can out speed opposing Jellicent, because investing in it's defense gets you no where, but rather lowers the capacity to special hits.

Donphan (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang

A physical-tank-wall-Rapid Spinner of the team. A completely defensive Donphan is able to defend itself easily from physical moves, but it can't do anything much in return. So that's why I chose an offensive variant of Donphan, so that it can attack too. Rapid Spin for obvious reasons, Salamance doesn't like Stealth Rock. Ice Shard is mainly for flying types, Earthquake is a powerful STAB hitting many things hard, and Fire Fang is for destroying things like Scizor, Ferrothorn and some other Steel types. I've paired it up with Jellicent which can take Water and Ice moves, and Ferrothorn who can take Grass moves.

Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

I don't understand why so many people hate the high/increasing usage of Infernape, seriously, it deserves what it's getting and possibly more. Only 25% of the team are rain, so its not like Flare Blitz is nearly useless. So anyways, Flare Blitz and Close Combat together provides great coverage, plus its STAB, and Life Orb'ed, it usually OHKO'es (Or at the worst brings it down to red) things which doesn't resist any of the moves Infernape does. All these 4 moves together has great coverage. Even though it has tons of checks and counters, its still very useful as this Infernape's purpose is not to sweep, but to hit hard, faint the foe, and then switch out, much like what every Band/Specs Pokemon does. Ground moves destroys Infernape, so Landorus is there to help, and Water too, so Jellicent is there.

Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 64 Atk / 192 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake

In my opinion, the best set out there for Salamance, MixMance. People often expect it to be a Physical hard hitter, but yes, Draco Meteor and Fire Blast are amazing, it allows to kill the opposing Dragon, without you letting to get locked into Outrage. Fire Blast offensively is a great move, so this set easily takes care of Steel types which otherwise never other Salamances can find it struggling to OHKO - take out Scizor, Ferrothorn and Foretress in one blow. Earthquake once again, a great offensive moves, allowing you to hit super effective hits on many Pokemon. Paired up with Jellicent, which doesn't fear Ice moves. Ferrothorn is there too, to take Dragon moves (Usually Outrage) and laugh for a few turns.

Landorus (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

The Revenge Killer of the team. Pretty straight forward moves and EVs. Depending on your enemy, all Landorus has to do is click on the appropriate move. Earthquake (great coverage+STAB) hits very hard and takes care of Terrakion, Heatran, Jirachi etc. Stone Edge is for flying types and Volcarona, U-Turn as we all know is awesome, dealing damage plus taking care of things like Celebi at the same time. Hidden Power Ice is for taking care of the Dragons. All of them die in one move after Stealth Rock damage.

Now some flaws are...
1) Thundurus-T is an issue.
2) Half of the team is weak to Ice.
3) Scarfer is actually slow, many Keldo, Terrakion and Latios run a Scarf set.
4) Venusaur under the sun can create problems.
5) No immediate power/wall breaking power (Band/Specs)

So that's my team. What are you comments? What are your suggestion for my team? I really appreciate your help. Thanks!

 

[ganj4lF]

Hi, the team is very cool in my opinion, it remembers one of mines of the BW1 era but has the potential to work OK even in the current metagame IMHO. There are a couple of quick modifications you can do to obtain a more efficient team without changing too much of it.

First of all, you need an attacking move on Ferrothorn. Without an attacking move, you are complete Taunt bait, and every Substitute user on the planet will use you as a set up bait. I'd suggest removing Stealth Rock to give it either Power Whip or Gyro Ball (your choice, depending on what you want to hit harder); Donphan can easily set up Rocks for you anyway, modifying its moveset to Stealth Rock | Rapid Spin | Earthquake | Ice Shard (don't worry, you won't miss Fire Fang much, since every single Steel type in the tier not named Skarmory doesn't like a 252+ Atk Earthquake, and Skarmory is only losing its time trying to lay hazards on you).

I don't like your Infernape set. While I won't properly encourage trying to use Infernape nowadays (I love it very much, but as a matter of fact, its effectiveness is not that great), I can see why you want to use one, however I'd suggest changing a bit its moveset. You absolutely want U-Turn, since it's the move that sets it apart from Keldeo, Terrakion & co, allows it to handily escape from its counters while dealing respectable damage, and hits Latias, that otherwise can come in relatively unharmed and OHKO easily. Furthermore, Earthquake only hits Tentacruel, everything else is already covered by Close Combat, so I won't use a moveslot only for that (with U-Turn, you can easily go to Salamence and OHKO with its EQ). I frankly would utilize a more standard moveset of Overheat | Close Combat | U-Turn | Stone Edge; Overheat hits harder almost any single target you'd want to cripple, maybe except SpD Jirachi (which is handled by Donphan anyway), and doesn't cause large amounts of recoil, and U-Turn is very useful as mentioned previously.

The last suggestion is to substitute Salamence with Specs Latios as your wallbreaker of choice. I'm kinda sad to have to do this suggestion since I love MixMence, however Latios does a couple of nice things for your team that are just too good to pass up. Latios can switch into Thundurus-T regardless of what it does and kill it (maybe after having taken an attack). Latios boasts a sorta similar mixed attacking capability compared to Salamence, since it can use Psyshock, and can cripple things with Trick or outright kill even Steels with HP Fire. It can 2HKO the more common TTar set with Surf, making it think twice before switching in. Finally, it sits on a much more comfortable 110 Speed tier, that lets it effectively check Keldeo and the rest of those base 108 pokemon. While this does not solve your Venusaur issues (Latias maybe could help, but +2 Sludge Bomb kills anyway most of the times after SR), it lessens a bit your Ice weakness (thanks to both the single weakness and the better special bulk), it grants maybe even superior firepower compared to MixMence (although at the price of smaller coverage), and can somewhat check things like Keldeo and Sheer Force Landorus. Overall I think it's much more useful over Salamence for your team.

Latios

Latios @ Choice Specs | Levitate
Timid | 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Trick / HP Fire

I unfortunately cannot think of a good and reliable way to handle Venusaur for your team; if your Donphan has Sturdy active, it can actually switch into Growth, EQ after being taken down to 1 HP, and kill with Ice Shard even with minimum damage rolls. This solution is obviously very unreliable, so even after my modifications you'd probably have to rely on clever double switches and generally outsmarting your opponent, unfortunately.

Anyway, I hope my suggestions are at least a bit useful. Good luck for your team!

 

[spooky96]

@ganj4lF

I agree with all your major 3 points. Just finished a battle and Ferrothorn faced Tentacruel (Substitute variant), which created a lot of problem, plus a Tornadus in the same battle Taunted me. I might as well switch to Power Whip, to hit the mighty water types hard.

Your Infernape suggestions sound excellent as well, though still confused if I should still Keep Flare Blitz or not. U-Turn I'll change it right away as my Landorus and Donphan already has Earthquake anyways. Really thanks for this suggestions.

This is tough for me too. Your points are right and Specs Latios will be a lot more useful than Salamance (No SR weakness YAY!). I'll put the specified Latios set on my team and see how it does, though its obvious that Latios will do better.

Thanks once again, you really seem to have a good understand of the metagame and your suggestions were excellent!

 

[deadflame]

I don't have much to add, but I am here to answer a question. Give 4 EV's to Infernape (Naive), stick with the maxed out speed and attack, and give it Overheat, Close Combat, U-Turn, and Stone Edge/Mach Punch. Each move in the last slot has it's merits. Stone Edge takes care of Dragonite, Salamence, Volcarona, Zapdos, Gyarados, etc, which resist or are neutral to your STAB attacks. Mach Punch, on the other hand, is useful to stop things like Terrakion, especially Double Boosting and Rock Polish versions which could sweep your team if it should manage to set up. If you opt to use Mach Punch, then change Infernape's ability to Iron Fist. This will make it more effective.