The Attack of Shaymin

[Mithril]

With Mence possibly going Uber, I decided to make a team based around a sweeping Shaymin, since it has a much easier time without Mence. That being said, I am also using it in the current metagame, so considerations of both metagames would be much appreciated.

Team at a Glance:

Heatran (M) @ Shuca Berry
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Fire Blast
- Explosion
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
Heatran serves as a fairly consistent lead for this team. Stealth Rock is very important, as it helps Shaymin and Dragonite as they attempt to sweep lategame. Heatran is also my main Scizor counter, meaning it is important to keep it around. It also serves as a Metagross check. Also, the ability to Explode on threats is another important role that Heatran holds for the team.

Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Def / 68 Spd
Hardy Nature
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Wish
- Protect
Initially this spot on my team was held by an Offensive Suicune. However, I was not satisfied with the survivability of both Suicune and the team as a whole. Thus, a Wish passer seemed like it would fit the team best. Hence Vaporeon seemed to be destined for this spot. It serves as a Wish passer, as well as counter to Gyarados, Heatran, and Infernape. It also provides another water resist, which is always helpful.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Gyro Ball
- Payback
- Earthquake
This is by far the stragest set on the team. After filling the first five spots, I noticed that the team could have problems with special attackers suck as Jolteon and Gengar, as well as dragons such as mence and flygon. Thus, this set was created. With max special defense, Bronzong takes 47% max from Specs Jolteon, doing sizeable damage back with Earthquake. Bronzong also takes 39% max from Gengar, hitting back with Payback. HP Ice made the set in order to hit Salamence, as well as completely walling Gliscor and Flygon. Finally, this set also provides a check to Ttar as it resists the majority of its moves and can hit back with Gyro Ball.

Dragonite (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 112 Atk / 200 Spd / 196 SAtk
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Superpower
- Draco Meteor
- ExtremeSpeed
- Flamethrower
As I was building this team, I noticed it was lacking priority, as well as a strong physical attacker to deal with Blissey. Mixnite just seemed to fit the team nicely. With the given EVs, it is a OHKO on Blissey with Superpower. It also serve as a nice wall breaker with the ablility to hit both Skarmory and Blissey. Extremespeed provides the much needed prioirty to the team, and Draco Meteor is for obvious STAB. Unfortunately, Dragonite is the only fighting resist on the team, and that combined with SR has really hurt its survivability. Any suggestions to help this?

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 164 HP / 168 Atk / 176 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Fire Punch
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave
While building the team, it became obvious that it was not a very fast team in general. Thus it followed that I would either need a scarfer or something to spread T-Wave around the opponents team. I decided on the second, as I had been wanting to try out this set for a while. With T-Wave and Iron Head, the opponent has a 15% chance to move, and that combined with Sub, means Jirachi is staying around for a while. It provides a nice secondary dragon resist alongside Bronzong, as well as the ability to Revenge Lucario and Scizor. It also provides the team with a secondary check to Tyranitar.

Shaymin @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 32 HP / 224 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Seed Flare
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power
- Rest
The enitre premise of this team was around a sweeping Shaymin. Seed Flare is an obvious choice, serving as a very powerful STAB with a 40% chance of lowering Sp Def. From there, HP Fire was added in order to deal with Scizor swith-ins, as they were bound to come. Rest was then added over Synthesis, as Synthesis is hindered by SS, and Rest provides more reliable recovery. However, I am considering changing to Synthesis. Finally, I decided on Earth Power for the last move, as it could hit opposing switch-ins such as Infernape and Heatran.

Currently this team has a couple of issues. First off, Zapdos seems to be a major pain, as I do not have any safe switch-ins. Also, Cresselia can be a hassle to take down, leaving me having to resort to Paraflinch with Rachi. Another issue this team has it was lead Machamps, as I dont really have any safe switchins to Dynamic Punch. Any help with these issues would be much appreciated. A Threat list may be added depending on how much time I have later.

Well, there is the team. It has been fairly succesful so far, but I feel that it needs a little bit of help, any rates would be much appreciated.

 

[Scimjara]

Hello Dukefan5,

You state how you're team is zapdos weak and from the looks of it nothing can dent a physical defensive zapdos and just causes you to sacrifice to many pokemon. Anyway I'm not to sure on the bronzong you use only because you give it alot more credit then it actually deserves. It only kills salamence with hidden power ice if you have stealth rock up and if you get max damage which is not likely and you being two hko'd by fire blast in return. Using scizor instead of bronzong would actually be better since it deals with all the pokemon you state in your description even better.

For you're zapdos weak you should use life orb starmie over vaporeon because wish pass on the current team you are using isn't necessary and you should keep you're offensive pace tempo. Also solves you're problem with offensive zapdos because after sr it gets ko'd by ice beam unless you get minimum damage 72% - 85.1%!

Once vaporeon is gone you really have nothing to stop a +1 bounce gyarados or offensive gyara with ice fang from sweeping you're team. You should use a scarfer since you have no respond to dragon dancers especially salamence who might not go ubers!

I would even suggest you using scarf rachi with
iron head/thunder punch/ice punch/trick
which handles +1 gyarados and +1 salamence if it is 252 naive in a speed tie.

GL with the team!

 

[Mithril]

Sorry for the somewhat late reply here. After some testing, I have found that LO Starmie does fit the team must better than Vaporeon does. It also provides me with more speed, and the ability to simply out speed MixMence.

I'm still testing the Scarf Jirachi. It makes it more difficult for me to beat threats like Cresselia, who this team seems to have a lot of trouble taking down. However, I'll keep testing and see if it starts working any better.

As for CB Scizor, I'm just not sure if it fits this team. LO Starmie beats Scizor, most Gengar beat Scizor, and Scizor cant' even really touch Jolteon. Also, Bronzong tends to switch into the dragon move of some kind, meaning Mence is either locked in or already taken the Sp. Atk. drop. However, I will keep testing for a little while longer to see if it starts working better.

Thanks a lot for the rate, and any more would be much appreciated.

 

[ENZ0]

Hi dukefan5,

Cool team you got here. I have a few changes in sets that will hopefully help you.

I suggest using the following Bronzong that you might find more useful. This set will actually take care of bulky waters without rest, Hippowdon, Zapdos, Celebi (to an extent), Blissey, and catch countless pokemon off guard with Toxic. Just watch out with what you paralyze and poison. Also, note that this set is if you really want to keep Bronzong, since Bronzong is easily one of the most swappable pokemon in this team.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SDef OR Keep your EV Spread if you feel comfortable with
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Protect

Next, I want to suggest using Salamence while it is still here. The following set will do nearly all of Dragonite's jobs, but better imo. The only thing you will be missing of is ExtremeSpeed and it isn't absolutely necessary.

Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 16 Atk / 252 Spd / 240 SAtk
Naive Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Roost
- Brick Break
- Fire Blast

Your team checks everything nicely and looks like it works well, so no need to change anything drastically. I want to second using LOStarmie since it provides more power and speed to the team. Also, if you find Rapid Spin with LO being suicide like I do, I suggest using Recover instead or swich to the Rapid Spinner set from the analysis.

Hope these few changes help, and good luck!