Team Red Rising

[FlapJack]

Team Red Rising
By: FlapJack​

This is my first uber team. I have done enough testing on Pokemon Showdown to find the teams weaknesses and attempt to fix them.

The Team at a Glance

A Closer Look

Shaymin-S @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Air Slash
- Seed Flare
- Hidden Power Ice
- Earth Power

Shaymin-S is my FAVORITE uber lead. With Choice Scarf, Shaymin-S outspeeds the entire tier. Air Slash is the primary STAB. Serene Grace makes Air Slash have a 60% chance to flinch the opponent so if Air Slash does not OHKO the opponent, Air Slash will flinch them to death. Seed Flare is the second STAB move. Serene Grace gives Seed Flare a 80% chance to reduce special defense to -2. Hidden Power Ice is for hitting dragons, specifically LeadQuaza. Earth Power is basically a filler move. It hits Dialga. Just Dialga.

Scizor @ Choice Band

Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Bug Bite

Max attack, Technician, Choice Band, STAB Bullet Punch is really powerful. It also gets priority making Scizor, in my opinion, the best revenge killer in the tier. U-turn is a hit and run move that barely sees use but can help if i need super-effective bug-type attacks and if I get caught in a sticky situation like a bad type match-up. Superpower hits hard on strong opponents like ExtremeKiller Arceus. Bug Bite is another STAB option but does not get priority and sees use even less than U-turn does.

Groudon @ Leftovers

Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge

Groudon is my physical tank. It hits hard while being able to take hits fairly well. Earthquake is just a strong STAB. Fire Punch is a strong physical attack that hits even harder in the endless sun that Drought brings. Many people do not seem to expect Dragon Claw. This allows me to suprise them and hit hard on their dragons. Groudons last move, Stone Edge is to hit Lugia, Ho-Oh and others that are immune to Earthquake.

Garchomp @ Life Orb

Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Garchomp is my physical sweeper. I did not want to use a Choice Band for Garchomp so I went for a Swords Dance set instead. Outrage hits insanely hard even without a Swords Dance boost. After Swords Dance, Garchomp can tear through unprepared teams. Earthquake hits steels who resist Outrage. Stone Edge hits basically the same stuff as Groudons Stone Edge does. If Garchomp got Dragon Dance I would use that over Swords Dance anyday. Sadly, Garchomp does not get Dragon Dance so I went for Jolly nature to get some extra speed.

Latias @ Soul Dew

Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Hp / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm nature (+SpD, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunder
- Roost
- Psyshock

My original intent with Latias was for it to be a wall. It does an incredible job of doing just that. But after Soul Dew boost, its special attack reaches almost 400 so it ended up being a hard hitting wall instead. Dragon Pulse is obvious. Its the primary STAB move of the set. I started with Surf where Thunder is but after a bit of testing a found I could not hit Kyogre very hard with anything but Seed Flare from Shaymin-S. Thunder will always have perfect accuracy against Kyogre thanks to Drizzle. Roost provides reliable recovery allowing Latias to stay alive longer and Psyshock is to hit special walls like Blissey and Chansey.

Kyurem-W @ Choice Specs

Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Fusion Flare
- Focus Blast
- Dragon Pulse

Kyurem-W has the strongest Draco Meteor in the game. Draco Meteor takes out strong and bulky threats to the team that other members of the team can not deal with. Fusion Flare hits steels that resist Draco Meteor and Dragon Pulse. Focus Blast hits steels as well as Chansey and Blissey although it rarely 2HKOes either of them. Dragon Pulse is another dragon STAB that supplies consistent damage. Kyurem usually comes out in the late game to clean up the final few Pokemon on the opponents team.

I hope you guys like the team and tell me how to improve!

Note: The team got its name because all of the Pokemon on my team have red incorporated into their design.

 

[Gates]

Your EV spread on Groudon is...interesting to say the least.

The biggest problem I can see with the team is that you have 5 pokemon weak to a single type - Ice. The other big problem is that you have no solid way of breaking through stall (you don't even have entry hazards). This means that Lugia is going to be a huge problem for your team, as it can set up easily thanks to Multiscale, phaze out Scizor whenever he tries to come in, Toxic stall Latias (who can do little in return), and Ice Beam everything else. Genesect can be a similar problem since the only pokemon on your team who have fire attacks are weak to Ice Beam, which means that Scarf builds can dominate after Scizor dies and Rock Polish Genesect with Flamethrower can beat your team outright (if anyone actually plays that). When Ho-Oh gets a sub up, it's very hard for your team to deal with and anything that's not killed outright by Brave Bird or sun-boosted Sacred Fire is going to struggle to break the sub and kill him. If Mewtwo is carrying Fire Blast and Ice Beam, all you can do is hope for Shaymin or Scizor to get a crit. I also worry about your ability to deal with Ghost Arceus since you have no entry hazards, phazers, or Dark/Ghost moves. And in general, having 3 choiced pokemon on a team is not typically a good idea.

The most immediate suggestions I have are as follows:

Stealth Rock over Dragon Claw on Groudon. Having hazards on your team will help immensely with a lot of major threats to it.

Extremekiller Arceus over Garchomp. Garchomp is a fine pokemon with STAB dragon attacks and immunity to Thunder Wave and all that jazz, but EKiller is just better overall. What you lose in STAB physical dragon attacks you gain in the removal of a dragon weakness and the strongest priority move in the game.

Defensive CM Sub Latias over Offensive Latias. Running a defensive Latias will help you fight Kyogre better than you can now. Substitute (or alternately Refresh) is extremely helpful in protecting Latias from status moves and the boosts from Calm Mind make Dragon Pulse powerful enough that the loss in coverage will be negligible.

Dialga over Kyurem-W. Specs Kyurem-W is great and it makes all of our dicks rock hard, but it's not worth running a third choice pokemon on your team who is weak to Stealth Rock as well as many other common weaknesses your team has that I harped on earlier in this post. Dialga provides a strong alternative to it. Dialga's Draco Meteor is no joke either and he can carry Fire Blast which is no Fusion Flare but it still kills Forry and Ferro in the rain after hazards. A Bulky Dialga can also be a good check to Kyogre since it resists a lot of key STAB moves and is too slow to care about status moves like Thunder Wave. I'd recommend a Bulky Thunder Wave Dialga but a Life Orb attacker can work well too.

 

[FlapJack]

Your EV spread on Groudon is...interesting to say the least.

Hehehe. Typo I will fix that.
Thanks for the input as well. I will change Dragon Claw to Stealth Rock. I do not want to us ExtremeKiller Arceus though because personally, I think Arceus is overpowered. I might change Kyurem-W to Dialga if he starts to fail me once I start doing some more laddering. I am fairly sure my Latias is not an offensive variant because I have max Hp and special defense with only 4 special attack EVs. Thanks again for trying to help improve my team.

The biggest problem I can see with the team is that you have 5 pokemon weak to a single type - Ice.

I think Kyurem-W takes neutral damage from Ice.

And in general, having 3 choiced pokemon on a team is not typically a good idea.

Thats why I did not give Garchomp a Choice Band.

 

[Present]

Just a little nitpick I noticed: Seed flare has 40% without, and 80% with serene grace to harshly drop special defence.

 

[FlapJack]

Just a little nitpick I noticed: Seed flare has 40% without, and 80% with serene grace to harshly drop special defence.

Oh ya. Guess I did not notice that when I read through it. Thanks. :)

 

[Gates]

I do not want to us ExtremeKiller Arceus though because personally, I think Arceus is overpowered.

It's Ubers. Everything is overpowered.

I am fairly sure my Latias is not an offensive variant because I have max Hp and special defense with only 4 special attack EVs.

Oh, I must not have looked at the spread and just looked at the moveset and assumed it was offensive. My bad. Still, your set and spread could be a lot better.

I think Kyurem-W takes neutral damage from Ice.

Yup, you were right, I was wrong. Still, most of your team is weak to Ice and that's a problem.

Thats why I did not give Garchomp a Choice Band.

...but you still gave three other pokemon on your team Choice items. Which is not a good idea. Which was my point.

 

[pwnage77]

first off, I'm gonna say that your EV spread are at most, of an average player.

If you really want to use Groudon as a physical tank, run 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def. I mean sure you buffed up the defense but then special attacks will break through you pretty fast if you don't increase HP. Here's the thing with EV spreads: Groudon's physical bulk is already high that you will actually increase overall bulk (meaning including the special side) by putting HP evs.


Next, I second on Gates with you having too many Choiced pokes. I mean sure it's fine to not use Choice Band on Garchomp but 3 is still way too many. That's basically half your team. But I mean hey having a lot of choiced pokes isn't really much of a problem if you can handle it but the thing is, you can't. Why you ask me? Because two of them are weak to Stealth Rock so the moment you're forced out (especially by the pink blobs), you are going to take 25% of damage from coming back in and what's worse is that you don't have a spinner.

I recommend switching Kyurem-W for a Steel Arceus. Why SteelCeus on a sun team? It takes Ice Beams all day long and Latias is a really good partner for it, making a really solid offensive core. It can check ExtremeKiller Arceus which says "Meh" on all of your team and mind you, a healthy Ek Arceus can take on Groudon all day long since you don't have a phazing move. SteelCeus also reduces your Ice weakness which could really help in the long run. A note, both physical and special variant of SteelCeus will work for you. But I personally recommend physical variant.

Like most teams, yours is weak to Blaziken and EK Arceus. Also, try answering this question: Why are you using a Sun team with basically no sun abusers? By sun abusers, I mean things like Ho-Oh, Reshiram and Venusaur.

I would like to suggest another core to you but this one is a defensive one (though on of the members can put huge dents on opposing teams). I suggest Forretress and Ho-Oh over Garchomp and Scizor. Scizor is a good Pokemon I admit but its main flaw is that if your purpose is revenge killing, why not just go for things like Scarf Palkia? I mean hey Bullet punch has priority but it leaves you less power. Why remove Garchomp? It's just out of place in this team. It can put huge dents, yes, but its typing leaves it very few chances to actually set up meaning you'll usually end up with unboosted moves. Scizor and Garchomp also happen to be absolutely walled by Skarmory. Ho-Oh however, says meh to Skarm and Sacred Fire in the sun makes all pokes bar 4x resist, Kyogre and Heatran, run for the hills. Kyogre and 4x resist pokes risk getting hit by Brave Bird, most of which are solid 2HKOes. Ho-Oh is also a good check to any Blaziken lacking a random Stone Edge. Forretress gives you a nifty Rapid Spin and the ability to check EK Arceus. You can also set up Spikes aiding your Pokemon in sweeps. Spikes and Stealth Rock are good tools for Shaymin-S since it forces a shit ton of switches.

Anyway that was a long rate. I'll post the sets after the tl;dr version of this.

tl;dr

Change Groudon's ev spread to 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Kyurem-W --> SteelCeus
Garchomp and Scizor --> Ho-Oh and Forretress

Sets

Special Variant

Arceus @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Judgment
- Roar / Thunder / Will-O-Wisp

Physical Variant

Arceus @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake / ExtremeSpeed
- Recover / ExtremeSpeed

Ho-Oh @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Whirlwind

mind you, even with no attack investment, both Brave Bird and Sacred Fire still deals a shit ton of damage.

Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Leftovers
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic
- Pain Split

Toxic EK Arceus then Pain Split till he dies.

 

[FlapJack]

Why are you using a Sun team with basically no sun abusers? By sun abusers, I mean things like Ho-Oh, Reshiram and Venusaur.

I appreciate the input and will consider using some of your suggested sets. Just one thing, this is not a sun team... thats why I have no sun abusers.

 

[pwnage77]

I appreciate the input and will consider using some of your suggested sets. Just one thing, this is not a sun team... thats why I have no sun abusers.

Well you do have a Groudon which makes the impression of a sun team thanks to Drought. But anyway it's all up to you mate.