Colossi in Cahoots (Gen. 5 Wi-Fi)

[Shimrit As]

COLOSSI in CAHOOTS

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INTRODUCTION​

Hi Smogon.

Welcome to my RMT, a simple one for a simple team. It’s a straightforward, primarily offensive line-up that relies more on synergy than brute force. I use the team preview function to identify the paramount threats to my team, and decide which members are key to winning that particular game. I also try to scout the members of the opposing team I need to weaken/kill off early if I intend to get a clean sweep. Offensive synergy is a rather different thing from defensive synergy. I tried to build this team such that each Pokémon can scare off or eliminate obstacles for another member’s benefit.

The chassis underpinning my strategy is the offensive synergy between MixMence, CB Tar and SD Scizor. The first two easily wreck the hard counters to Scizor (like Zapdos, Gliscor and Heatran) while Scizor’s typing lets it set-up on many of their common switch-ins. I don’t have a dedicated team building segment to explain how the other members fell into place, but hopefully their respective roles will become apparent later.

This team got me to ~70th on the Wi-Fi leaderboard, but it unfortunately is pretty unstable TBH and I often go on losing sprees spanning 3 games or more. Still, it’s a very straightforward and easy-to-use team and I really would like to bring it to a level where I can win more consistently and hopefully attempt to scale the leaderboard with it.

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BREAKDOWN
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Nattorei (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip

Role Overview: Dedicated leads have been made somewhat defunct, but since I have a reliable Pokémon to set-up Stealth Rock I figured he might as well occupy the first spot. Nattorei is an excellent supporter, countering a lot of bullshit like Latios and Starmie and taking care of bulky waters that stonewall half of my team. Without it I would have no answer for rain teams either. Thanks to that Grass/Steel typing it hard counters so many things, which makes it quite important for me to preserve it for as long as possible.

Set Comments: Nattorei has plenty of opportunities to come in and set-up Stealth Rock or spread Leech Seed damage, so the first two moves are quite intuitive. Spikes isn’t that important since I don’t want a dedicated spin blocker or to have to sacrifice an important tank to get more layers up. Gyro Ball and Power Whip are very powerful STAB moves with my decent base Atk and super low speed, and they allow me to retaliate against the bulky waters and other stuff I wall. EVs were ripped from the analysis; I’m not very sure what they accomplish specifically but they seem to work okay. Leftovers > Shed Shell because I need the recovery and nobody uses Magnezone anymore anyway.
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Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Role Overview: Primarily a wall, Rotom-W patches up any issues I might have with Doryuuzu or bulky waters. It also happens to share incredible defensive and offensive synergy with Scizor. It absorbs Fire attacks easily and, with its resistances to Fire, Flying, Ice, Water and immunity to Ground is a 100% counter to Gyarados, Heatran and Gliscor – all of which trouble Scizor. This alone is pretty big. Scizor reciprocates by resisting Rotom-W’s only weakness, and setting up all over Celebi, Nattorei and Latios. Rotom-W is a genuinely good Pokémon; it has great defensive stats and typing and ability, plus its STAB moves let it threaten a lot with their coverage and power. People might argue that going max/max with Rotom-W contradicts the niche in which it operates and thumb it down as an inferior Suicune or whatever but I really beg to differ – Suicune isn’t immune to Spikes and Ground attacks, it doesn’t resist Flying (something surprisingly important nowadays), it doesn’t have a STAB Thunderbolt for other bulky waters and is weak to Electric.

Set Comments: Though the Rest + Sleep Talk strategy finds itself somewhat nerfed this gen, it is my most reliable form of recovery and gives me useful insurance against status. It need no longer fear random Boiling Water burns or Fling/Toxic being thrown at it, plus I get a durable status absorber and bulky water. Bold with max HP and Def is typical for any bulky water, though anybody with a more efficient spread is welcome to share.
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Rankurusu (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Psychic
- Focus Blast

Role Overview: Rankurusu is basically my stall-breaker and answer to Fighting types like Roopushin and Toxicroak. Prior to its inclusion (I think it used to be a Sazandora) I was severely vulnerable to Fighting types, plus hazard-spamming teams that were all the rage easily wore me down. Actually it can be counted as my secondary sweeper, one that relies more on its bulk to slowly boost its stats than immediate pace and power. There are actually quite a few teams that have like one Hippowdon, one Gliscor, one Vaporeon, one Forretress and that kinda thing, making it difficult for Scizor to scratch anything at all. Rankurusu easily dismantles such teams by being immune to debilitating status and able to hit hard with its high base SpA. I actually play somewhat recklessly with it, since it really is quite bulky on both ends of the spectrum, so I tend to send him in even against neutral hits so I can start damaging stuff with LO-boosted Psychics.

Set Comments: This set has already been popularized quite a bit. The Bold nature with maxed HP and Def lends it decent physical bulk, and I’m able to compensate in the special side with Calm Mind anyway. Life Orb lets me KO Roopushin with Psychic immediately, plus being able to abuse it without recoil is more than worth the loss of Leftovers recovery since I’m immune to hazards and weather anyway.
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Tyranitar (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 92 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Aqua Tail
- Superpower

Role Overview: CB Tar is a beast. While deliberating over this slot I brainstormed for Pokémon that could lure in physical walls and dispose of them for Scizor, and this was the best fit. You would think that a purely physical attacker is countered pretty easily, but the sheer power and SE coverage behind Tyranitar means even dedicated walls get severely dented or KOed within a turn of switching in. Apparently CB Tar is hardly seen anymore, lulling all the Hippowdon and Nattorei into a false of security. I usually just spam my high-powered STAB moves unless the team preview tells me my opponent has some bulky Ground or Fighting type waiting in the wings, in which case I tend to open with Aqua Tail or Superpower. Otherwise I don’t really have to predict since a 150 base power attack coming off a 600+ Atk stat hurts just about everything. Other than its offensive prowess, CB Tar is a valuable team player – it takes care of my difficulty with Zapdos and Sun teams in general and its set of resistances coupled with high natural bulk make it easy for it to absorb hits for its team mates.

Set Comments: The EVs let me outrun base 70s comfortably, including any Skarmory or Metagross that invests a few points in speed. Max Atk is obvious and the rest went into HP to maximize bulk. 382 HP isn’t divisible for 4 or 8, so it’s quite safe.
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Salamence (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 80 Atk / 252 SAtk / 176 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Brick Break
- Roost

Role Overview: Mix Salamence has for whatever reason dropped severely in popularity. I knew from the start that I wanted to pair Mix Salamence with SD Lucario since they complement each other extremely well, and though Scizor has replaced Lucario, Salamence is still great at breaking stall and taking out the metagame’s premier physical walls. The reason I’m using this over Sazandora is Intimidate + Roost. I’m free to keep switching in against Blaziken, Forretress, Nattorei, Roopushin, Gliscor and a whole bunch of other stuff and mindlessly spam my high-powered moves. You can say that Salamence is an important part of my defensive strategy since without it I would actually be vulnerable to many offensive threats.

Set Comments: MixMence is a timeless classic. I opted for the set with Roost since Salamence wants to be able to keep coming in and setting things on fire. The most dubious thing is probably how I only hit 280 Spe with this spread, barely outspeeding Adamant Lucario and Timid Heatran, but I think maxing my speed isn’t really worth it. Sazandora and Ononokusu are less common than one would expect and I will never risk Salamence in a speed tie vs. Jirachi or Zapdos or whatever base 100 anyway. The idea is just to wreck stuff and that’s why a Rash nature with maxed SpA is used. Brick Break > Earthquake because Tyranitar is ubiquitous this gen and all the Heatran tend to be floating on Balloons anyway.
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Scizor (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 60 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Brick Break

Role Overview: To be perfectly honest this Scizor doesn’t sweep as much as I would like, but it’s still a versatile and powerful option for me late-game. Since my team naturally dismantles most of its counters, it becomes way easier for me to sweep after a single boost. The main problem is how this gen features so little choice attackers which somewhat limits the chances I get to sweep. When opponents see both Tyranitar and Scizor on this team they won’t go spamming Draco Meteor with their Latios or Outrage with their Garchomp and it becomes quite challenging to get that boost in most of the time. Still I intended this to be my star sweeper and it does the job best out of all the other members. It used to be a Lucario until I realized how horribly weak I was to LO Gengar so Scizor and its Bullet Punch does about everything Lucario did with the extra insurance of its STAB priority though Urugamosu became a much meaner bitch after the change. Scizor ends up checking stuff like DD Mence and DD Tar quite often and it’s usually my switch-in for Rankurusu in case they decide to open with Focus Blast for my Tyranitar so it’s quite an important team player in that sense.

Set Comments: This is your standard all-out offensive SD Scizor except Brick Break seemed to make more sense than Superpower since I have Skarmory covered quite well and I don’t want the Mach Punchers that are seriously everywhere to take advantage of my lowered Def. EVs hit 181 Spe for the same purposes as my CB Tar and the remaining points buff up my bulk and end in a nice Life Orb number. I think I want to try out a bulkier version with Roost instead of Brick Break, which sacrifices my revenge killing capabilities for an easier time setting up and more flexibility in absorbing hits (since Nattorei can’t take too many Dragon assaults). I would appreciate your take on this.

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CONCLUSION
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I hope you enjoyed reading this RMT. Please feel free to leave your comments because everybody has his/her own gamut of ideas and opinions and I will appreciate whatever anybody has to say. Thanks in advance :]

P.S. Don't steal my drawings!

 

[The Grand Babido]

Wow, before I begin my rate, I must say, those are really, really cool drawings.

As it stands, I think one huge issue is Calm Mind Birijion. Most Birijion will carry Hidden Power [Ice] meaning Salamence will be unable to check it as securely as it would without that Hidden Power. Scizor, while not being OHKOed by any of Birijion's attacks at +1, comes nowhere near to OHKOing Birijion and won't even come close to finishing it off unless it drops to approximately under 55%. Birijion is able to come in against Nattorei, Rotom-W and your Tyranitar quite comfortably, although it is hard to call it comfortable switching into Choice Band Tyranitar. From there it is easily able to grab a Calm Mind boost and potentially sweep your team cold. Voltolos is another rather annoying Pokemon for your team and the best option you have is to fodder something to bring Rankurusu in at full-health or hope Focus Blast misses Tyranitar. I think a Life Orb Latios would slot comfortably over Salamence and will take away any fears you had of Birijion and Voltolos while still providing that offensive pressure your team loves.

Latios @ Life Orb
Timid | Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Psycho Shock / Surf / Dragon Pulse or Draco Meteor / Recover

Due to a very handy new move in Psycho Shock, Latios is able to completely ignore any Calm Mind boosts Birijion receives and can threaten to OHKO it with a boosted super-effective STAB move coming off an impressive special attacker. While Latios may not lure in the Pokemon Salamence does, such as bulky-waters like Slowbro, it does have the ability to aide a Scizor sweep. Latios will lure in choiced Pursuits which Scizor can use to great effectiveness in order to grab a Swords Dance. Latios also lures in other Pokemon such as Nattorei and Tyranitar, who Scizor loves forcing out.

Good team and good luck!

 

[Shimrit As]

Thanks for rating. I agree with you that Borutorosu is a giant threat to my team, because all my members are actually rather slow. While Birijion has not been as big a problem thanks to Rankurusu, it does cause quite a bit of damage and it is impossible to tell whether it is a CM or SD sweeper (or even a motherfking dual screener which screwed me over) at first glance. Your suggestion is a good idea and I will test Latios over Salamence and then Rankurusu (because I am admittedly rather unwilling to lose my only Fire move) and report the results.

Thanks again!

 

[Aerrow]

First of all, before getting onto my suggestions, I just want to applaud you for the time and effort you have taken to build this RMT thread; I can say that visually, its the best one I've seen in quite a while. Moving on; I completely agree with Heist's suggestion of using a Life Orb Latios in the place of your Salamence due to your team's noticeable weakness to CM Birjion; Swords Dance Birijion, which also seems to be a slight problem is also handled easily by Latios.

Seeing as you're having a hard time getting Scizor to sweep, I do think running a slightly bulkier spread of 240 HP / 16 Atk / 252 SDef with Lum Berry would prove to be beneficial as with this, Scizor is free to set up on the like Burungeru as the Lum Berry will negate a burn by which time Scizor will have one Swords Dance under its belt, allowing it to freely sweep after the remainder of your team have weakened to opposing team's core. Also, if you find that this set isn't living up to your expectations, a more 'surprising' set could be used which uses an Iron Plate with the moves Swords Dance / Bullet Punch / U-Turn / Brick Break or Bug Bite. This set hopes to bluff a Choice Band for the majority of a battle and reveal Swords Dance at the end, in preparation of sweeping an unprepared opponent. Although the latter set is much harder to use (as you need an impeccable sense of timing and prediction), it tends to cause a larger amount of damage to an opponent's team due to the surprise factor associated with it.

Lastly, I suggest you try out the 'standard' defensive Rotom-W over your current Rest Talk variant as to be honest, the Rest Talk variant seems to be really slowing down your team's momentum. The defensive set is able to check many of the same threats your Rest Talk variant is supposed to, but it has more of an offensive nature, if you know what I mean; I recommend trying out the following moveset on the defensive set: Hydro Pump / Thunderbolt / Will-O-Wisp / Pain Split, I recommend Will-O-Wisp over Hidden power Fire, as Nattorei doesn't seem to be much of a problems seeing as it's more or less set-up bait for your Scizor. I hope this has helped, and good luck.

Suggestions in Short

• Life Orb Latios over Salamence
• Different Variant(s) of Swords Dance Scizor
• Different Rotom-W Variant

 

[Shimrit As]

School has started, so it took me some time to test out the suggestions. First of all, thanks a bunch to you to\wo, because LO Latios has fit right into the team. Actually, it replaced Rankurusu instead of Salamence since the team performed much better that way since Salamence is a very important part of my team synergy and it's my first switch-in to a lot of physical powerhouses.

I've also started using the bulkier spread on Scizor. It's 248 HP / 96 Atk / 104 SpD / 60 Spe, it was nicked from a locked QC thread I think, but I put enough speed for it to outspeed Skarmory and other base 70s which is a good benchmark I feel. I'm undecided between Roost and Brick Break though, since Steel + Bug coverage sucks but I somehow feel that the bulkier spread is less useful without a recovery move since I can't set-up all over stuff like Burungeru and Nattorei.

 

[Shimrit As]

One final bump

 

[His Eminence Lord Poppington II]

You may want to consider another SR user and having spikes on your nattorei (I always find it a waste to not have spikes on a pokemon who can use them, and is meant to, e.g. skarm, forry), then slashing protect over one of its offensive moves as protect + leech seed ensures its longevity in addtion to scouting for random fire moves, (HP FIRE STARMIE?!). Other than that solid team, love the drawings.