Birds... Birds everywhere

[ScarfGren]

El Equipo:

Welcome to my 1st RMT on Smogon! I present to you a team based around the sheer power of Mega Pinsir and its sweeping capabilities. That's it really. I realize this team can be more offensively oriented, but I feel a lot more comfortable with a more balanced team. I also understand the lack of creativity this team has and I'm open to suggestions ( duh, RMT? ).
​

One by one
Changes in Black and Bolded!​

Pinsir @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Happiness: 0
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake

The center of the team. Mega Pinsir has all it needs to sweep. A boosting move, priority, coverage and an absolutely terrifying Flying STAB backed by 155 Base Attack. The moveset and EV's are nothing special and are quite predictable, but that's irrelevant due to how threatening Pinsir is.

Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp

If Flying is such a tremendous force to be reckoned with, why not spam it? Here's where Smogonflame Talonflame comes to play. Choice Band boosted Brave Bird at +1 Priority is nothing to laugh at and it's Talonflame's greatest selling point. Will-O-Wisp is there to cripple things like Tyranitar. U-Turn is helpful in stealing momentum as well as dealing heavy damage to Tyranitar and other thingys.

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SDef
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Protect

In order to support a Mega Pinsir to sweep, obviously Stealth Rock come's to mind. Ferrothorn not only provides Stealth Rock but also some defensive aspect to this team. Leech Seed + Protect in order to regain health and Rocky Helmet punishes contact moves that don't come close to KO'ing Ferro. I might consider giving him Leftovers instead but overall I haven't had much problems without it.

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

Because my two offensive Poke's are Stealth Rock weak I needed a Defog/Rapid Spinner. A Defogger seemed counterproductive with Ferrothorn's Stealth Rock so I chose Excadrill, the best Spinner in today's Meta. Choice Scarf Excadrill is a great response to fast things that bother my team such as Thundurus Incarnate with Thunder Wave, Scarfed Tyranitar, and even opposing Tallonflames, and it does all this without forgoing the Rapid Spin support for my own Talonflame and Mega Pinsir.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Moonlight
- Calm Mind
- Aromatherapy

Because I feel more comfortable with some sort of defensive core ( usually consisting of 3 Poke's ), I needed something solid that had some synergy with Ferrothorn. Clefable was my result. With Unaware, I have a fail safe against dangerous set up sweepers while having one myself. Moonblast on it's own is really only hard walled by Heatran, but that's what teammates are for. Clefable also gives me cleric support with Aromatherapy should Talonflame and/or Pinsir get hit by status.

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power Flying

Feast your eyes on the best Specs user and one of the best wallbreakers in todays game. Specs Keldeo helps my team against Bisharp and can destroy unprepared teams. With the holes Talonflame opens in conjunction with the holes Keldeo opens, Mega Pinsir's sweep becomes easier. Hidden Power Flying is there to hit MegaSaur hard as HP Ghost isn't as useful anymore due to the lack of Celebi and Jellicent.

Any suggestions on how to better improve this team would be grateful :)

Hide

Talonflame (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp

Ferrothorn (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SDef
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Protect

Excadrill (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Moonlight
- Calm Mind
- Aromatherapy

Pinsir (M) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Happiness: 0
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Flying]

 

[Eddie2013]

Excadrill should have air balloon as its choice of item, since excadrill is quite fragile having that one time ground immunity with earthquake being such a common move in the metagame. Your team is quite talonflame weak keldeo ferrothorn excadrill pinsir all fear one or the other of talonflame stab moves. I think landorus therian could work as a better stealth rocker on your team because it checks talonflame quite well. It also has the synergy with u-turn to help you gain switch advantage. Another option you can do is have a defogger in place such as latias/latios or mandibuzz. The fear of running into bisharp can be a problem. I actually run on different spread on talonflame of 48 hp 252 attack and 208 speed having the added extra hp ev allow for talonflame to take recoil much better and gives you 2 switchs into stealth rock if need be. Hope this helps and good luck with your team.

 

[Kangaaroo]

Hey there

Hydro Pump and Scald on Keldeo? I suggest replacing Scald with Icy wind.

On Excadrill, replace Shadow Claw with Iron Head. (It gets STAB.)

Other then that, a very well built team indeed!

 

[Eddie2013]

Hey there

Hydro Pump and Scald on Keldeo? I suggest replacing Scald with Icy wind.

On Excadrill, replace Shadow Claw with Iron Head. (It gets STAB.)

Other then that, a very well built team indeed!

Scald is actually preferred over hydro pump in some cases because better accuracy and chance to burn physical pokemon threats. So if anything ice wind over hydro pump. Yea iron head over shadow claw if you do decide to keep excadrill as clefable doesn't appreciate taking one or any fairy for that matter.

 

[Kangaaroo]

Scald is actually preferred over hydro pump in some cases because better accuracy and chance to burn physical pokemon threats. So if anything ice wind over hydro pump. Yea iron head over shadow claw if you do decide to keep excadrill as clefable doesn't appreciate taking one or any fairy for that matter.

Wouldn't you run something more powerful if it's a Specs set? I don't know, this is all just in my opinion.

 

[Eddie2013]

Wouldn't you run something more powerful if it's a Specs set? I don't know, this is all just in my opinion.

Yea actually it varies I seen people with scald and hydro pump on the same specs set but it comes to player preference.

 

[Kangaaroo]

Yea actually it varies I seen people with scald and hydro pump on the same specs set but it comes to player preference.

I guess it's almost paradoxical: People run Scald because they feel they already have the extra power from specs; other people run Hydro Pump so that you can get the max use out of the power.
As you said, it's player preference.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

Hi there, I'm here to rate your team

So by the looks of it, this is a pretty balanced team which is based around the very powerful Pinsir + Talonflame core, which is actually more seen on offensive teams, so it's pretty cool to see it used on a balanced team. Excadrill provides you with very important Rapid Spin support, while Ferrothorn and Clefable offers you a great defensive back bone for the team. Finally, Specs Keldeo wall breaks really nicely for either Talonflame or Pinsir to clean up late game.

However, there are a few weaknesses that I see to your team. Thundurus-I is a big one, as it checks Pinsir, Talonflame, and Keldeo, while it can also really hurt Ferrothorn and Excadrill with Focus Blast. You're also using some inferior sets, so I'll be trying to change those as well.

Here are my suggestions.

1) Make Excadrill a Choice Scarf set. Choice Scarf Excadrill is really great for it's ability to revenge kill a lot of dangerous threats, like +1 Tyranitar, Thundurus-I, and a bunch of other threats. While most stuff is revenge killed by Talonflame, you can't get past certain threats with Talonflame alone. The great thing about this set is that it provides you with a revenge killer, while still providing you with Rapid Spin support.

2) Change Moxie to Hyper Cutter on Pinsir. It's very rare that you actually find the time to kill sometihng with non evolved Pinsir, just because it's attack is lower, it's speed is lower, and it doesn't get STAB on any of it's moves until it Mega Evolves. Hyper Cutter is generally much better, as Intimidate users like Gyarados and Landorus-T are everywhere, so not having your attack lowered I feel is much more important.

Here are just a few minor suggestions

3) Use Iron Head over Shadow Claw on Excadrill. It's overall better than Shadow Claw, as you already hit the most common Rapid Spinners (Aegislash and Gengar) with Earthquake.

4) Change Return to Frustration on Pinsir, and lower your happiness to 0. If Ditto ever tries to copy Pinsir, it's Frustration will be a lot weaker due to their max happiness, making it easier to switch into.

That's all I really have to say. Good luck with the team, and I hope I helped you out in some way n_n

 

[Timpsu]

Hey! Double-Flying is a good offensive strategy, just a few notions about the team.

In contrary to what you said, Defog does not contradict with your own hazards, most of the time. Rather than being able to set up hazards on Turn 1, this generation is more about smart hazard-placing, and thus, Defog + Sr is an option on the same team. I would maybe consider switching Ferrothorn to some other hazard setter, since Ferrothorn offers near risk-free switches to both Charizard-formes and M-Pinsir. Granted, you can revengekill them with Talonflame, but you need to sack something first. Looking at the team-composition, sacking might not be such a big deal, but just so you know what kind of risks you have while using Ferrothorn. Also switch Shadow Claw to Iron head on Excadrill, as mentioned above, I honestly don't know what Shadow Claw hits hardest. Also, as mentioned above, Choice Scarf Excadrill works as a great revenge-killer in the team, while also giving RS support.

Nice team overall!

 

[ScarfGren]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions!

Will definitely switch to Scarf Excadrill + Iron Head > Shadow Claw, after a couple battles I've realized it does help a lot more than I thought it would. Will also change Pinsir's ability to Hyper Cutter, I'm wondering why I hadn't done that before .-. also changing Return to Frustration.

Any suggestions on Ferrothorn's EV spread? I didn't really customize them for anything specific, I kinda just gave it overall bulk in Defense and Special Defense.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

I generally just run 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpDef Relaxed nature n_n

 

[ouchalargerock]

While I'm not 100% sure what you are doing with this team, I would like to make a suggestion to help fit with the title.

When I saw the title 'Birds... Birds everywhere', I'll be honest, I was looking for a dual-bird core rather than pure Smogon. While I understand why this team is the way it is, I don't particularly enjoy the originality (I should probably say the lack there-of). Honestly, it looks like you took 6 random Pokémon from the S and A tier listings. I'm done ripping on you now, so I will explain my suggestion.

Choice Scarf Staraptor. To be honest, I have no idea why you didn't use the dual-bird core. If birds were the basis of your team, by god live up to the challenge.

Snazzy Sets

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Brave Bird
- Double Edge
- U-Turn

You could run a Banded Set, or possibly a Lefties or Life Orb set too with Lefties and Life Orb, you could run Roost over U-Turn or Double Edge

You could replace either your Mega-Pinsir or Clefable with this, both of which would require a bit of team-reworking, so you obviously don't need to do this, but by varying your team up a little bit, you are doing the meta, and yourself, a big favor.

In other news, I think replacing something on your team with a defogger is not counterproductive, in any way. As someone has already said, hazard placement in 6th Gen is not so much spewing them out as fast as possible, it's more using them in an intelligent way. For instance, after taking out your opponents hazards, you immediately put in your own, or drawing out their defogger and taking it out, only to put up your own hazards. Either way, using something like Latias/Latios (allowing you to fit your theme, too) may be beneficial. I'm not saying Excadrill is bad in any way, but I do think he is replaceable.

Other than that, not too much, sorry for being an ass, and good luck.