This is going to be my first showdown team and i'm really excited to go up more on the ladder and i've already got quite a number of wins with this team and my elo went from 1200 to 1300+. I'm here for advice as I do feel there is a need for improvement if I want to go further up the ladder as I lost to a guy whose rating was close to 1500. He kinda swept my team with talonflame so I believe this is the problem here. Anyways let's talk about my team.
Manectric-Mega @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
I'm building my team around mega manectric because usually i tend to choose my sweeper/mega based on physical strength so this time i chose a pokemon with respectable special attack stat. It has very good speed sitting at 135 only losing out to mega alakazam, mega sceptile, which I don't see commonly on the ladder and lastly scarfed mons. So pretty neat. I chose lightning rod before mega evolving so that I can get a good switch in for my water types as well as an special attack boost, but this is also the reason why I lost to the guy aforementioned as he predicted my switch and he went for gardevoir, traced my lightning rod as I went for the t-bolt hahaha. Pretty much at that point I got to sack my manectric while I get some chip damage on the gardevoir for my other teammates. Anyway this set is pretty standard from smogon, volt switch for momemtum, t-bolt for the extra damage so that I can go for the kill, flamethrower for ferrothorn and scizor, hidden power ice for coverage.
Landorus-Therian @ Earth Plate
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
So my second pokemon is landorus-therian. I choose him to cover for manectric's ground weakness and to set up rocks to aid in manectric's sweep. He also have intimidate which means that I have 2 intimidaters on the team and it could really help when I face threatening physical attackers such as the aforementioned talonflame. Chose an offensive spread as my team is pretty offensive so might as well. Earthquake with earth plate is just massive damage, stone edge for volcarona and talonflame and u turn just for switching out on a bad matchup. I did think of changing this set into a choice scarf set after I nearly lost to a sub sword dance hawlaucha as If i was able to outsped it he couldn't have set up so many subs and I could've just gone in for the kill with stone edge (and fortunately it hits, thank god). But if I do so then I would have lost my stealth rock setter and i couldn't really find a good replacement...
Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
So we know manectric is weak to ground and he cannot do anything to ground type pokemons. So I have another pokemon to support manectric alongside landorus-therian, and that is keldeo. Specs keldeo is just really good. It just smashes things and in particular a team which I faced that has 4 ice type pokemons, it's awesome. Focus blast can be really good but I don't see the point in it when we have secret sword which doesnt miss. Icy wind for gliscor and garchomp. This is also my answer to chansey which can wall my entire team pretty easily if my physical attackers are down.
Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit
Speaking of physical attackers, I have weavile. So the latios and latias and fairly common on the ladder and they can easily eat up any attacks from mega manectric and hp ice doesnt even do over half. With that in mind, I chose weavile as it can easily pursuit trap them or outright KO with icicle crash, that is, if it hits. However the problem I see with me using a pursuit set is that, sometimes low kick seems to be the play in certain battles... And life orb for the extra damage. Also, weavile can come in on predicted psychic moves that attempt to hit keldeo, which is pretty neat and from there and I can start knocking off things. I did think of changing weavile to tyranitar as this team doesnt have a spinner or defogger and weavile is the only pokemon that get hurt the most from rocks so I've been thinking about that. Scarf ttar seems to be a good trapper but the 4x weakness to fighting is still there, and AV metagross is another option...
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
Reaching the end of the list soon, now we have ferrothorn, which literally is overused but eh. So when i was looking for manectric teammates on smogon, it says that spikes stacking can be deadly in tandem with volt switch, which I don't really get what it means but I'll go with it. No harm with stacking more hazards right? Decided to stick with the recommended evs and not tweak it to max def or spdef but I may change it you guys say it's needed. Leftovers over rocky helmet for the longevity and together with leech seed i'm getting back a good amount of health.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Calm Mind
Last spot on my team is going to be slowbro. To be honest this spot is not confirmed yet as I've experimenting around with stealth rocks omastar (if lando was the scarf set) and belly drum azumarill (who was on this spot previosuly). Anyway, I decided to go with slowbro because I really needed something that can deal with talonflame if manectric is gone for whatever reasons. Another reason is that this team has a glaring weakness to fighting when I look at weavile and ferrothorn together and I need a pokemon that can tank fighting moves. I believe slowbro does these jobs pretty well and this time I tweaked the smogons evs to max hp and def just so I can take brave birds better (if not choice banded ones too) and calm mind over thunder wave as I feel this team is pretty fast and I see no point playing hex so I went for the calm mind sweeping set. Who knows, this pokemon might kill one or two mons.
That's it and hope you liked my team! Please feel free to give some advice and rate this team and I look forward to the replies :)
Manectric-Mega @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
I'm building my team around mega manectric because usually i tend to choose my sweeper/mega based on physical strength so this time i chose a pokemon with respectable special attack stat. It has very good speed sitting at 135 only losing out to mega alakazam, mega sceptile, which I don't see commonly on the ladder and lastly scarfed mons. So pretty neat. I chose lightning rod before mega evolving so that I can get a good switch in for my water types as well as an special attack boost, but this is also the reason why I lost to the guy aforementioned as he predicted my switch and he went for gardevoir, traced my lightning rod as I went for the t-bolt hahaha. Pretty much at that point I got to sack my manectric while I get some chip damage on the gardevoir for my other teammates. Anyway this set is pretty standard from smogon, volt switch for momemtum, t-bolt for the extra damage so that I can go for the kill, flamethrower for ferrothorn and scizor, hidden power ice for coverage.
Landorus-Therian @ Earth Plate
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
So my second pokemon is landorus-therian. I choose him to cover for manectric's ground weakness and to set up rocks to aid in manectric's sweep. He also have intimidate which means that I have 2 intimidaters on the team and it could really help when I face threatening physical attackers such as the aforementioned talonflame. Chose an offensive spread as my team is pretty offensive so might as well. Earthquake with earth plate is just massive damage, stone edge for volcarona and talonflame and u turn just for switching out on a bad matchup. I did think of changing this set into a choice scarf set after I nearly lost to a sub sword dance hawlaucha as If i was able to outsped it he couldn't have set up so many subs and I could've just gone in for the kill with stone edge (and fortunately it hits, thank god). But if I do so then I would have lost my stealth rock setter and i couldn't really find a good replacement...
Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
So we know manectric is weak to ground and he cannot do anything to ground type pokemons. So I have another pokemon to support manectric alongside landorus-therian, and that is keldeo. Specs keldeo is just really good. It just smashes things and in particular a team which I faced that has 4 ice type pokemons, it's awesome. Focus blast can be really good but I don't see the point in it when we have secret sword which doesnt miss. Icy wind for gliscor and garchomp. This is also my answer to chansey which can wall my entire team pretty easily if my physical attackers are down.
Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit
Speaking of physical attackers, I have weavile. So the latios and latias and fairly common on the ladder and they can easily eat up any attacks from mega manectric and hp ice doesnt even do over half. With that in mind, I chose weavile as it can easily pursuit trap them or outright KO with icicle crash, that is, if it hits. However the problem I see with me using a pursuit set is that, sometimes low kick seems to be the play in certain battles... And life orb for the extra damage. Also, weavile can come in on predicted psychic moves that attempt to hit keldeo, which is pretty neat and from there and I can start knocking off things. I did think of changing weavile to tyranitar as this team doesnt have a spinner or defogger and weavile is the only pokemon that get hurt the most from rocks so I've been thinking about that. Scarf ttar seems to be a good trapper but the 4x weakness to fighting is still there, and AV metagross is another option...
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
Reaching the end of the list soon, now we have ferrothorn, which literally is overused but eh. So when i was looking for manectric teammates on smogon, it says that spikes stacking can be deadly in tandem with volt switch, which I don't really get what it means but I'll go with it. No harm with stacking more hazards right? Decided to stick with the recommended evs and not tweak it to max def or spdef but I may change it you guys say it's needed. Leftovers over rocky helmet for the longevity and together with leech seed i'm getting back a good amount of health.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Calm Mind
Last spot on my team is going to be slowbro. To be honest this spot is not confirmed yet as I've experimenting around with stealth rocks omastar (if lando was the scarf set) and belly drum azumarill (who was on this spot previosuly). Anyway, I decided to go with slowbro because I really needed something that can deal with talonflame if manectric is gone for whatever reasons. Another reason is that this team has a glaring weakness to fighting when I look at weavile and ferrothorn together and I need a pokemon that can tank fighting moves. I believe slowbro does these jobs pretty well and this time I tweaked the smogons evs to max hp and def just so I can take brave birds better (if not choice banded ones too) and calm mind over thunder wave as I feel this team is pretty fast and I see no point playing hex so I went for the calm mind sweeping set. Who knows, this pokemon might kill one or two mons.
That's it and hope you liked my team! Please feel free to give some advice and rate this team and I look forward to the replies :)
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