Fearsome, huh? Well, probably not. But still the (imho) best move in the game – Substitute.
Intro:
When building this team, I had one goal in my mind, which was abusing Substitute to beat offensive teams while also defeating stall teams by setting up TSpikes. To support the Substitute users, I added some Wish-support. I threw in some fillers and went testing on a new alt…. which reached the leaderboard in 3 hours of laddering (I usually don’t ladder, but holidays are different :x). Pretty decent I thought, so with a few improvements here and there, I started using it on my PurpleWeezing account, which was at 1500 when I started playing. One day (and a half) later this team reached #5 with a rating of 1634 (which was also where I got tired of laddering). Also I reached the semis of Sunday's Smogon Tour. 'Nuff said.
At A Glance
A Closer Look
(F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Sleep Powder
- Toxic Spikes
- Hidden Power [Ground]
One of the most reliable leads in today’s metagame, while also being the most reliable Toxic Spiker for offensive teams. Most of the time, Roserade gives me a huge advantage from the start (75% accuracy still sucks). Only few people carry some kind of status taker, so sleep is like a pseudo-kill, something good to have. Let’s not forget about the opportunity to set up a Substitute against sleeping opponent. Leaf Storm just hurts anything not being a special wall or resisting it, while Hidden Power [Ground] provides decent coverage and catches random Heatrans, believing i pack HP Fire
Toxic Spikes is one of the reasons this team works. Against stallish teams it’s extremely easy to set up two layers of it, which is also pretty important, as those layers are needed to take out Blissey in the long run. Against offensive teams they aren't as useful, but it's still incredibly helpful to poison the likes of offensive Suicune.
The EVs aren’t too creative I guess. Max. Speed is simply needed to at least tie other Roserade (and outpace HP Fire ones). Max SAtk to pack quite a punch, 4 HP lol
@ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 64 HP/196 Spd/248 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
Easily my MVP in most games… Rotom is the teams spin block and my first abuser of Substitute. Usually I can set up a sub against some kinda of bulky water and begin my rape there. Most people are switching in some kind of electric resist into Rotom, such as Jolteon or Flygon. Against both I use Shadow Ball, as they use either Shadow Ball or their dragon move. Guess what, free substitute for Heatran. Other common switches into Rotom are Tyranitar, Swampert, Blissey and Snorlax. Tar takes like 50 % damage of Hydro Pump, and if necessary I can stall it with TSpikes up. Swampert is just lol. Blissey can’t break the sub and slowly goes down due to the poison. And Snorlax sucks, as it’s commonly packing rest. This Rotom basically counters its counters with Toxic Spikes on the field.
The set itself is pretty straight forward. Substitute is just great, period. Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt are the STABs, providing awesome coverage. Hydro Pump rounds the set up by hitting Magnezone, Tyranitar and Steelix (lol) hard. (Considering HP Fight)
The HP EVs are supposed to give the Substitutes enough bulk to take Blisseys special hits most of the time (yes, I’ve faced both SpecsBlissey and Blissey with Shadow Ball with this team). Speed outpaces adamant Luce, the leftovers went into SAtk.
(F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute
The second abuser of that move I’ve mentioned too often in this thread. Not as good as Rotom, it’s still a very dangerous force if it gets up a sub, which isn’t too hard… we’re talking about Heatran guys. From there on sweeping could begin, if there wouldn’t be so many annoying things taking Heatran’s moves like real men. (I’m looking at you, Latias) Heatran really shines when the opponent relies on bulky waters like Swampert or Vaporeon to remove it. Even if I can’t beat them 1 on 1, it just means a free Substitute for Rotom.
Substitute is the reason for this team. Fire Blast and Earth Power are on like every Heatran out there. I used to run Hidden Power Electric over Dragon Pulse, but Gyarados rarely came into Heatran and guess why I have Vaporeon (ResTalk Gyara on stall teams is a whore tbh)
Again, the EVs aren’t special at all. Max Speed + timid are just standard, Max SAtk to pack some punch.
(F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/6 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Electric]
Such a cute, great pokemon. MVP #2 in most matches somehow.
I really needed Vaporeon to pass wishes around, which is incredibly important when I’m planning to set up some more subs. Surprisingly enough, Vaporeon is the one who scores the most late game sweeps on this team. Most offensive teams don’t have much stuff to touch it, so after I got rid of those counters, Vaporeon can stall out the opponent with the combination of Wish, Protect, Toxic Spikes and the own attacking moves. What I really like about Vaporeon on this team is that it keeps up a shitload of offensive pressure, even without the ability to deal much damage, simply by threatening a Wish pass to another fearsome sweeper (or sub abuser lol).
The set is just your standard Vaporeon, meant to counter Gyarados and Infernape. Wish and Protect work great in conjunction with the Toxic Spikes, Surf is the main stab and HP Electric ruins Gyarados.
Nothing to explain, the spread is straight forward…
(F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower
How creative.
Scizor is an insurance against MixMence, Mamoswine and stuff like that. It's also probably the best scout in this game and scouting really helps when I’m not sure whether I should set up a Sub or attack. Also Scizor traps and removes Latias, another important asset, seeing how Latias is specially bulky and immune to TSpikes.
Eh, the moves are boring as hell. I used to run Quick Attack over Superpower until I got swept by Clefable and Curselax (on one team lol)… Bullet Punch is a great asset to revenge stuff, Pursuit traps annoying Gengar/Latias, U-Turn is the second-best move in the game.
EVs are bog standard again. I forewent the speed EVs to lose any speedtie against other Scizors, coming out on top of those situations.
@ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/244 Def/12 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Defensive Metagross is…. cool. I always wanted to try the tank set :s My third steel type and secondary Latias insurance (oh fuck you Hidden Power Fire). Metagross is an incredibly underestimated tank, easily capable of walling Tyranitar and switching into Salamence with nearly impunity, as nothing comes close to a KO, barring Dragon Dance’d Earthquake. Also I needed Stealth Rock, so I guess it filled the bill. If I don't know what to switch in, Metagross it is (commonly). Stops random Gyarados and other annoying stuff should something go wrong.
Meteor Mash is STAB, EQ gives the best possible coverage, Explosion stops annoying stuff from sweping me (Cune e.g.). Stealth Rocks are a must have on my teams, but often enough I don’t get them up and still win lol.
EVs are stolen out of the analysis lol.
I'm not done yet >:[
Team Building
I didn't start off with any sub user. I did start off with Roserade, due to her ability to set up Toxic Spikes and create free turns for our sub users.
My next choice was probably the easiest one. I wanted something that can a) defeat Lead Jirachi who annoys Roserade and b) cover it's weaks. Heatran anybody?
I knew I'd have to add a spin block. I also knew I wanted to use Rotom-a due to it's great ability of abusing Substitutes + TSpikes. Rotom-a also covers Heatrans weaks well, as does Heatran with Rotoms weaks. Major plus 8)
Another thing I knew was that I really really wanted Wish-Support. And really, who does that better than Vaporeon on this kind of team lol. I also needed Vaporeon to cover my huge Infernape and Gyarados weakness. And it gives me that handy Grass/Fire/Water core to work with.
The core stands. What immediately sprung to mind was my huge weakness to Dragon types, be it Salamence, Kingdra or Latias. Also I saw some problems with Gengar, so Choice Band Scizor seemed like a great fit.
Up to this point, building this team was really easy. Now the hard part came... I really have a solid core there, not really many weaknesses.... probably Lucario. Oh, and I lack SR. Gliscor w/ Taunt also really makes good use of the Toxic Spikes I guess =)
Time to playtest! I felt like having a really good team there. But then.......
Latias used Hidden Power. Scizor lost 100% of it's health.
6-0ed by something sucks. Hard. I really needed another check for Latias. Also I had less probs with Luce than I thought and Gliscor was dead weight most of the time. I don't know how long it took me, but it felt like ages, until I found Metagross to be good for this team... So we were done.
Outro
This is probably the team I enjoyed most in a long, long while. It's based on a decent strategy, works out well and still has some creative points. I feel that Metagross is the weak link, but I really don't know how to replace it, so help me there lol. Well, I'd really appreciate any constructive critique (constructive is the opposite of destructive btw) but not something like "cool team dude" or "this team sucks my blastoise would defeat it", I want suggestions to improve this team.
Credits
DarkLucario. He really helped me with the team so I'm gonna thank him first :x
Vashta, who inspired me to build this team by posting his.
aragornbird for the sprites.
pokedream for the smaller sprites.
eh, if i forgot someone, post it.
