Welcome ...
to the inverted world
←↑ →↓
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╚═════════════════════════════§═════════════════════════════╝
{
}
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 80 Def / 92 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Stealth Rock
Gyro Ball
Earthquake
Trick Room
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
{
}
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 136 Def / 120 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Will-O-Wisp
Thunderbolt
Hydro Pump
Pain Split
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
{
}
Scizor (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Technician
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
U-turn
Pursuit
Superpower
Bullet Punch
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
{
}
Crawdaunt (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Crabhammer
Crunch
Superpower
Double-Edge
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
{
}
Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Psyshock
Dragon Pulse
Surf
Recover
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
Latios, IMO at least, is the biggest surprise of Gen V. Having moved right down from the Ubers metagame, Latios, over time, has become one of the most prominent, but, doubtlessly, manageable threats in OU. That being the case, Latios doesn't really need much of an introduction, so I'll get right to his purpose to this team. Latios is responsible for relieving his teammates of a lot of the pressure that they face, by checking fast and powerful, but marginally less defensively capable threats. Grass-types in general have a very tough time getting past Latios, Bronzong, and Scizor; Politoed has to tread carefully as to not give Rotom-W or Latios a free chance to switch in; Fighting-types, particularly Terrakion cannot mindless spam their STAB without the risk of giving Latios an opportunity to power through them. I honestly cannot go into depth about Latios's moveset, because it's exactly what anyone would expect. Latios's offensive utility is mostly delegated to placing Pokemon within Crawdaunt or Politoed's KO range, and more importantly, cleaning up.
{
}
Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Surf
Focus Blast
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
to the inverted world
←↑ →↓
Yep. Hey Smogon, I'm back with another successful (although fairly old) team that, long ago, hit my peak of criticism. This team was created during the Dory-durus era and, is without a doubt, the most fun team that I've played around with, mostly due to the abundance of uncommon sets.
B/W's metagame is based mostly around bulk -- it took me far too long to figure out such a simple explanation for what I'd theorized -- and, as usual, I wanted to take advantage of a common theme among a large portion OU teams. The first build of this team was centered around mixed Flygon, which, because of its typing, defenses, and movepool was very good in the Doryuzuu-infested metagame. Unfortunately, neither Doryuuzu or Thundurus were able to escape the fiery wrath of the BW community, so I'd made the choice to quit this game (...after a long string of bad luck). Before the existence and eventual retirement of that team, however, I'd created another team with a similar concept in mind. That team is the team featured in this thread; the team that I'd originally made to test Crawdaunt in OU. I'd dropped this team after doing a sufficient amount of testing, but several weeks after going "ape-shit-bad-troll mode" on the 'major' PO servers, I'd decided to retest this team's viability on the Brazil sever. To my surprise, it managed to do pretty well on both of my alts, "pןɹoʍ pǝʇɹǝʌuı" and "9K+1" -- I'd created two alts at separate points in time in order to experiment with the efficiency of this team, without luck being a significant problem, which turned out well. I made a few finishing touches and, with inspiration gained from my unfinished (now discarded) RMT, decided to post it here for some much needed critique. Anyway, enough of me rambling about, here's a (rather long) rundown of how this team came to be:
As I'd mentioned in the previous paragraph, this team is based around Crawdaunt in order to show off the crawfish's viability on OU. Crawdaunt is very powerful under rainy conditions; because Rain Dance's duration is limited and inconsistent, Politoed has always been Crawdaunt's main partner. Although, I completely ignored Politoed's existence until the final stages of this team, as its moveset depends solely on that this team needs most.
Though I'd postponed Politoed's moveset and by extent, method of being useful to this team, I couldn't ignore its typing. Type synergy helps a lot in the long run, no matter how defensive or offensive one's team is. For example, having a Pokemon that can sponge a moderately powerful Thunder is incredibly useful to even hyper-offensive teams, as Pokemon such as Starmie and Lati@s won't be able to easily net momentum on the off chance that the ongoing match-up tilts in their favor (think: +2 Gyarados's Bounce missing, or the infrequent Choice Scarf Starmie / Latios). I wanted to have as few electric weaknesses as possible, but did not want to resort to using Nattorei, Celebi or Virizion for the simple reason that the community has fully adapted to their shenanigans. Ironically, Starmie and Tornadus give many Drizzle-themed teams problems, so I wanted to check them (and anything with a very strong Water STAB attack or Hurricane) first. Then, 'it' dawned upon me.
Following the shattered remains of finding reliable checks to potent threats was an idea that would fix my problems, specially defensive Rotom-W. I'd created a pseudo check to VoltTurn cores, Starmie, Tornadus, and to an extent, the now common rain-based Volcarona, but I couldn't stop there. Placing all of a team's pressure on one Pokemon is, bluntly put, a dumb idea. Synergy has to exist somewhere, and that's what I'd aimed to create next -- and no, not defensive synergy, but rather just ensuring that no Pokemon becomes a standalone member.
This is where I usually fuck up in the teambuilding process. This is when I normally decide on what I'm going to be most weak to, and 90% of the time, I end up completely disregarding a very common threat (usually Brokenrona), eventually having to start back from this step or discard whatever team I'd working on. Rotom-W checks Tornadus, Scizor, Volcarona, Jirachi, Landorus, Mamoswine, and Starmie. In order to complement Rotom-W's defensive capabilities, I had to find a Pokemon with an Earthquake immunity, first. Pokemon that are immune to Earthquake would be able to keep powerful users of it on their toes, forcing them into using either a coverage attack or risk giving me a free turn. After grouping those Pokemon together, I began filtering them, based off of defensive capabilities; Pokemon that cannot keep Landorus and / or Mamoswine under control as well as Rotom can were immediately dropped from my considerations. After that, I singled out which Pokemon would be able to tank hits that Rotom simply cannot stomach, and ended up with Bronzong. Bronzong is a staple wall on most of my BW OU teams, so of course, I was biased when choosing it, but there was nothing else better that I could've chosen for this slot. With the main defensive pivots out of the way, it was time to buff my team's offenses.
This was the most fun part of the building process, because I was able to test out so many unorthodox Pokemon in these final two slots. In time (after using physical Latios
), I'd screwed my head on correctly, and went for checking late-game cleaners next. This is where I'd given up in the first iteration of this team, hoping to pressure any remaining threats to the point where wouldn't have a chance to sweep anything. After picking this team up again, I'd made quite a few changes. The first of these changes was adding mixed Dragonite and Choice Scarf Scizor in the final two slots for the extra (and much needed) resistances, power and checks to Celebi, Lucario, Reuniclus, Starmie, Gengar, Lati@s and the extremely dangerous Alakazam. Keeping to my own word, after creating a 'final' build of this team, I'd decided to make Politoed a Choice Specs variant, for the purpose of drastically weakening the opposition alongside Crawdaunt and Dragonite, as well as beating down Tyranitar ballsy enough to stay in.
Oh, but it just wasn't meant to be. Ironically, I'd completely forgotten about carrying an Electric resist, so along with several EV adjustments, I'd swapped Dragonite for LO + Recover Latios. With that change made, my team gained a much needed Electric resistance, much more threatening offensive threat, and secondary check to VoltTurn. For that time at least, this team felt solid and I'd decided to stop making changes. I.E, after dropping Dragonite for Latios and making the appropriate EV spread changes, this team was finished.
I wanted to create a theme for this team, but was stuck between Halo and Megadeth. I'm a huge fan of both, but ultimately decided disregard a particular theme and give a shoutout to my fellow Bleach fans, hence to title. Shinji Hirako is my favorite character in the series, and because this team features quite a few sporadic Pokemon (sets) as well as a bit of Trick Room, I named this RMT after Sakanade's (Shinji's Zanpakuto) Shikai ability.
I can't help being a quivering fanboy. Get @ me.
...and that's where babies come from.
Personal goals aside, this team hasn't set any real milestones, but I want to know what you sexy people think about it. Now, onto the team itself!
╔═════════════════════════════§═════════════════════════════╗B/W's metagame is based mostly around bulk -- it took me far too long to figure out such a simple explanation for what I'd theorized -- and, as usual, I wanted to take advantage of a common theme among a large portion OU teams. The first build of this team was centered around mixed Flygon, which, because of its typing, defenses, and movepool was very good in the Doryuzuu-infested metagame. Unfortunately, neither Doryuuzu or Thundurus were able to escape the fiery wrath of the BW community, so I'd made the choice to quit this game (...after a long string of bad luck). Before the existence and eventual retirement of that team, however, I'd created another team with a similar concept in mind. That team is the team featured in this thread; the team that I'd originally made to test Crawdaunt in OU. I'd dropped this team after doing a sufficient amount of testing, but several weeks after going "ape-shit-bad-troll mode" on the 'major' PO servers, I'd decided to retest this team's viability on the Brazil sever. To my surprise, it managed to do pretty well on both of my alts, "pןɹoʍ pǝʇɹǝʌuı" and "9K+1" -- I'd created two alts at separate points in time in order to experiment with the efficiency of this team, without luck being a significant problem, which turned out well. I made a few finishing touches and, with inspiration gained from my unfinished (now discarded) RMT, decided to post it here for some much needed critique. Anyway, enough of me rambling about, here's a (rather long) rundown of how this team came to be:
As I'd mentioned in the previous paragraph, this team is based around Crawdaunt in order to show off the crawfish's viability on OU. Crawdaunt is very powerful under rainy conditions; because Rain Dance's duration is limited and inconsistent, Politoed has always been Crawdaunt's main partner. Although, I completely ignored Politoed's existence until the final stages of this team, as its moveset depends solely on that this team needs most.
Though I'd postponed Politoed's moveset and by extent, method of being useful to this team, I couldn't ignore its typing. Type synergy helps a lot in the long run, no matter how defensive or offensive one's team is. For example, having a Pokemon that can sponge a moderately powerful Thunder is incredibly useful to even hyper-offensive teams, as Pokemon such as Starmie and Lati@s won't be able to easily net momentum on the off chance that the ongoing match-up tilts in their favor (think: +2 Gyarados's Bounce missing, or the infrequent Choice Scarf Starmie / Latios). I wanted to have as few electric weaknesses as possible, but did not want to resort to using Nattorei, Celebi or Virizion for the simple reason that the community has fully adapted to their shenanigans. Ironically, Starmie and Tornadus give many Drizzle-themed teams problems, so I wanted to check them (and anything with a very strong Water STAB attack or Hurricane) first. Then, 'it' dawned upon me.
Following the shattered remains of finding reliable checks to potent threats was an idea that would fix my problems, specially defensive Rotom-W. I'd created a pseudo check to VoltTurn cores, Starmie, Tornadus, and to an extent, the now common rain-based Volcarona, but I couldn't stop there. Placing all of a team's pressure on one Pokemon is, bluntly put, a dumb idea. Synergy has to exist somewhere, and that's what I'd aimed to create next -- and no, not defensive synergy, but rather just ensuring that no Pokemon becomes a standalone member.
This is where I usually fuck up in the teambuilding process. This is when I normally decide on what I'm going to be most weak to, and 90% of the time, I end up completely disregarding a very common threat (usually Brokenrona), eventually having to start back from this step or discard whatever team I'd working on. Rotom-W checks Tornadus, Scizor, Volcarona, Jirachi, Landorus, Mamoswine, and Starmie. In order to complement Rotom-W's defensive capabilities, I had to find a Pokemon with an Earthquake immunity, first. Pokemon that are immune to Earthquake would be able to keep powerful users of it on their toes, forcing them into using either a coverage attack or risk giving me a free turn. After grouping those Pokemon together, I began filtering them, based off of defensive capabilities; Pokemon that cannot keep Landorus and / or Mamoswine under control as well as Rotom can were immediately dropped from my considerations. After that, I singled out which Pokemon would be able to tank hits that Rotom simply cannot stomach, and ended up with Bronzong. Bronzong is a staple wall on most of my BW OU teams, so of course, I was biased when choosing it, but there was nothing else better that I could've chosen for this slot. With the main defensive pivots out of the way, it was time to buff my team's offenses.
This was the most fun part of the building process, because I was able to test out so many unorthodox Pokemon in these final two slots. In time (after using physical Latios
), I'd screwed my head on correctly, and went for checking late-game cleaners next. This is where I'd given up in the first iteration of this team, hoping to pressure any remaining threats to the point where wouldn't have a chance to sweep anything. After picking this team up again, I'd made quite a few changes. The first of these changes was adding mixed Dragonite and Choice Scarf Scizor in the final two slots for the extra (and much needed) resistances, power and checks to Celebi, Lucario, Reuniclus, Starmie, Gengar, Lati@s and the extremely dangerous Alakazam. Keeping to my own word, after creating a 'final' build of this team, I'd decided to make Politoed a Choice Specs variant, for the purpose of drastically weakening the opposition alongside Crawdaunt and Dragonite, as well as beating down Tyranitar ballsy enough to stay in.
Oh, but it just wasn't meant to be. Ironically, I'd completely forgotten about carrying an Electric resist, so along with several EV adjustments, I'd swapped Dragonite for LO + Recover Latios. With that change made, my team gained a much needed Electric resistance, much more threatening offensive threat, and secondary check to VoltTurn. For that time at least, this team felt solid and I'd decided to stop making changes. I.E, after dropping Dragonite for Latios and making the appropriate EV spread changes, this team was finished.
I wanted to create a theme for this team, but was stuck between Halo and Megadeth. I'm a huge fan of both, but ultimately decided disregard a particular theme and give a shoutout to my fellow Bleach fans, hence to title. Shinji Hirako is my favorite character in the series, and because this team features quite a few sporadic Pokemon (sets) as well as a bit of Trick Room, I named this RMT after Sakanade's (Shinji's Zanpakuto) Shikai ability.
I can't help being a quivering fanboy. Get @ me.
...and that's where babies come from.
Personal goals aside, this team hasn't set any real milestones, but I want to know what you sexy people think about it. Now, onto the team itself!
A quick glance before we begin...
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╚═════════════════════════════§═════════════════════════════╝
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 80 Def / 92 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Stealth Rock
Gyro Ball
Earthquake
Trick Room
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
This team kicks off with one of my favorite Pokemon, both in-game and competitively, Bronzong. Due to past paranoia of Doryuuzu, Skymin and Darkrai, I simply cannot make a team without including some variant of Bronzong. This time around, I'm using Bronzong as a check to a large amount of special and physical threats. Bronzong's Gyro Ball and Earthquake are abnormally powerful for a such defensive Steel-type, preventing bastards such as Dragonite, "ArcoBat" Gliscor, and Magenezone from making Bronzong yummy setup fodder. Unlike before however, Bronzong holds a very powerful weapon against offensive teams in its hands, Trick Room. Even without much Attack investment, Bronzong becomes a potent threat while Trick Room is active, slamming several Pokemon with its STAB Gyro Ball and cleaning up Pokemon that resist it with Earthquake; however, making Bronzong a threat is not the point of Trick Room in this slot. Offensive teams and Speed-boosting sweepers will have their way with this team if it loses too much momentum. Pokemon such as Volcarona and Scrafty have the defenses (and Flame Body) to set up on more than a single boost, making them very tough to revenge kill with (weak) priority attacks and Choice Scarf users that don't go by the name of Terrakion. Trick Room turns most of my team into pseudo revenge killers, which is endlessly useful when I'm pushed into a corner. Bronzong complements Rotom very well, defensively, and keeps my team safe from the bombardments of offensive teams. Overall, Bronzong is a valuable member of this team and will always be.
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 136 Def / 120 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Will-O-Wisp
Thunderbolt
Hydro Pump
Pain Split
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
Next, we have a creation of my own (...kinda), specially defensive Rotom-W. I honestly adore this set more than anything on my team, because it can do so damn much. From checking the ever-annoying Starmie to pressuring defensive teams, Rotom is insanely useful to this team. I'm legitimately baffled as to why it took me months to come up with something so obvious, and still to this day bash myself for not thinking *slightly* out of the box back then. Narcissism aside, Rotom has severed this team well, patching up numerous holes and serving as a very effective defensive pivot for most of that utterly dicks rain teams up and down. Starmie's Life Orb-boosted Hydro Pump, for example, will never 2HKO this Rotom (although, with SR, there's a slim chance), and any damage lost can be healed back with Pain Split. The extra Special Defense also gives Rotom the ability to tank powerful Draco Meteors and whatnot, albeit by a sliver of plasma. Volt Switch is terrible and I hate you guys for using it on every Rotom set (jk, but Volt Switch isn't all that good, IMHO). Thunderbolt gives Rotom a lot of extra power, while preventing stupid things like SubDD Gyarados from dancing (no pun intended) all around my team. To the curious, the spread was C&P'd from Rotom-W's Gen IV RestTalk spread with a few adjustments. Removing twelve HP EVs places Rotom at 301 HP, which just happens to be the burn / poison number iirc. The remaining EVs went into Speed because I'm scared of opposing Crawdaunt.
----------------------------------------
My defensive core, having been introduced, is only the beginning of this team. The next four slots make up this team's main offensive core. I don't really like giving spoilers, but I will say that none of my teams are able to function without some sort of strong offense. Even if I'm running a hardcore stall team, I'm going to find some way of squeezing in a powerhouse; I did that once before with a Hail stall team, using CB Victini as its main source of power. As cliche as the idea of 'balance' is, two Pokemon boast great Speed stats and the other two attack backed by incredible power. These Pokemon have more than enough utility to keep this team safe from many onslaughts.
My defensive core, having been introduced, is only the beginning of this team. The next four slots make up this team's main offensive core. I don't really like giving spoilers, but I will say that none of my teams are able to function without some sort of strong offense. Even if I'm running a hardcore stall team, I'm going to find some way of squeezing in a powerhouse; I did that once before with a Hail stall team, using CB Victini as its main source of power. As cliche as the idea of 'balance' is, two Pokemon boast great Speed stats and the other two attack backed by incredible power. These Pokemon have more than enough utility to keep this team safe from many onslaughts.
----------------------------------------
Scizor (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Technician
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
U-turn
Pursuit
Superpower
Bullet Punch
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
DPP is my favorite tier (fuck RSE) and I'm happy to have stuck around since early DP days. A lot of the aspects that defined the Gen IV metagame hugely changed in the generation shift. Swampert, Metagross, and Azelf, in particular, suffered heavy blows to their viability with the debut of not only team preview, but new walls, namely Nattorei and Burungeru. Some Pokemon however, managed to weather the large changes, and maintain a dominating hand in the metagame. Scizor, being one of those said Pokemon, is celebrated for its amazing utility on just about every team, which stems mostly from its powerful STAB attacks, Technican, and Pursuit. Not only that, but Scizor can handle itself well defensively with its typing, Roost, and acceptable bulk, making Sword Dance another option that Scizor can pull off marvelously. That said, if Scizor is playing a different role from what's mentioned above, then any player can be legitimately surprised, opening up multiple possibilities to gain momentum. Choice Scarf Scizor, unlike its dramatically more powerful counterparts, is geared more towards revenge killing slower threats that either have enough bulk to stomach a Bullet Punch, or can evade being KOed with a move or item. Lucario, Starmie, and Latios, for example, usually have a very good chance of beating (the normally slower) Scizor, but are easily dispatched by a fast Superpower, U-turn, and Pursuit, respectively. Despite the large power drop, Scizor's Bullet Punch retains its sting, making it useful for revenge killing much faster threats, particularly Terrakion. Scizor's Steel typing is what makes it a valuable member of this team. Lucario, Gengar, Latios, Haxorus, and lots more become so much easier to handle with Scizor in the wings. Not only that, but Scizor helps Bronzong deal with Draco Meteor and / or Outrage pressure, which is definitely a relief for this team.
Crawdaunt (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Crabhammer
Crunch
Superpower
Double-Edge
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
Here's the big boss himself, Crawdaunt. Crawdaunt had been the apple of my (Pokemon) eye for a short, but sweet while. After SJC posted about Crawdaunt's perks in the "Pokemon unfit for OU Analyses" thread, I just had to try it out for myself, and was not disappointed. Several days of testing -- combined total of a whopping eight hours -- revealed to me the best possible route to take Crawdaunt in. The primary version of this team lacked two very important things: dedication and effort. I'm lazy, indecisive, and inconsistent with my thoughts, but that hasn't yet stopped me from going that extra mile to create successful teams. That said, after gaining much better synergy with its team, Crawdaunt's viability began to show itself a lot more often, instead of being inconsistent and hilariously situational. Crawdaunt is certainly a force to be reckoned with, despite being somewhat reliant on prediction. It boasts the most power physical Dark- and Water-type STAB in the game, which gives him a very good niche on Drizzle teams. Crawdaunt is capable of blasting its way through many of the Water resists in OU, particularly Nattorei and Rotom-W, with only Crabhammer. Virizion, Latios, and even Dragonite must be careful about switching into Crawdaunt, as they risk being maimed by its Crabhammer as well. If the opposing team doesn't have a damn thing immune to Crabhammer, it's soooooo free for Crawdaunt. Crunch is what separates Crawdaunt from other Water-types, hitting Gastrodon, Jellicent, and many other Pokemon immune to Water for an OHKO. Even Toxicroak must be wary of switching into Crunch, as it, with or without max HP, can be 2HKOed very easily by it. The final two slots complete Crawdaunt's overall type coverage, giving it a bit of unpredictability. Crawdaunt's main purpose here is breaking down walls alongside Politoed, giving the rest of my team a much easier time cleaning up. More specifically, Nattorei, Gastrodon, Scizor, and Rotom-W are what Crawdaunt aims to lure out, which it does a very good job of doing.
----------------------------------------
Crawdaunt is the climax of this RMT, but I won't be going downhill from here. The last two slots are without a doubt, the most important Pokemon on this team. Without either of these Pokemon, this team is as good as useless. Although, their movesets are definitely subject to change if you guys deem it necessary.
----------------------------------------
Crawdaunt is the climax of this RMT, but I won't be going downhill from here. The last two slots are without a doubt, the most important Pokemon on this team. Without either of these Pokemon, this team is as good as useless. Although, their movesets are definitely subject to change if you guys deem it necessary.
----------------------------------------
Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Psyshock
Dragon Pulse
Surf
Recover
├┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┴┤
Latios, IMO at least, is the biggest surprise of Gen V. Having moved right down from the Ubers metagame, Latios, over time, has become one of the most prominent, but, doubtlessly, manageable threats in OU. That being the case, Latios doesn't really need much of an introduction, so I'll get right to his purpose to this team. Latios is responsible for relieving his teammates of a lot of the pressure that they face, by checking fast and powerful, but marginally less defensively capable threats. Grass-types in general have a very tough time getting past Latios, Bronzong, and Scizor; Politoed has to tread carefully as to not give Rotom-W or Latios a free chance to switch in; Fighting-types, particularly Terrakion cannot mindless spam their STAB without the risk of giving Latios an opportunity to power through them. I honestly cannot go into depth about Latios's moveset, because it's exactly what anyone would expect. Latios's offensive utility is mostly delegated to placing Pokemon within Crawdaunt or Politoed's KO range, and more importantly, cleaning up.
Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
├┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┬┤
Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Surf
Focus Blast
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I can vividly recall SpecsToed being one of my favorite Pokemon, but also one of the Pokemon that I'd feared the most, back in the earliest stages of BW. Politoed has herculean power when holding Choice Specs, mowing down a lot of Pokemon in OU without as much as breaking a sweat. Choosing between defensive Politoed and SpecsToed wasn't a problem at all. I honestly had no use for Politoed's support movepool and didn't want to give Nattorei too much leeway. Choosing Politoed's moveset however, was rather vexing, as I had to choose between better neutral coverage and centralizing one of Politoed's moves around covering any remaining weaknesses. Politoed absolutely needs Surf for both consistency and PP, as it simply cannot risk Hydro Pump missing on a predicted switch or while Trick Room is active. Ice Beam falls in a similar vein, but is extremely useful for preventing things such as Haxorus, Latias, Celebi, and Breloom from getting the better of me. Hidden Power Grass is far too weak, and is strongly telegraphed beforehand, making it less preferable to me. The idea of luring Jellicent, Rotom-W, and Gastrodon in was great, initially, but soon became this team's biggest liability, as HP Grass, even with boosted by Choice Specs, is laughably weak, allowing many, many Pokemon to set up on it. Finally, I became stuck between using Perish Song and Focus Blast. Focus Blast, while powerful and great coverage-wise, is limited by both its PP and accuracy. Having only eight opportunities to use an inconsistently good attack, is too much for me to tolerate. Similarly, Perish Song always hits its targets, and but its use is limited to conservative sweepers that normally pack an attack strong enough to greatly wound, or downright OHKO Politoed. In the end, I chose Focus Blast, finding almost no use for Perish Song outside of stopping the occasional SmashPass team (which usually finds a method of playing around Perish Song (e.g attacking for two turns, then baiting an opportunity to set up)). Politoed is a committed wallbreaker, working with Crawdaunt to ensure a sweep from Scizor, Bronzong, or Latios, as well as my only method of retaining weather control.
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Threat List:
I don't understand how this disgusting bastard spawn of Salamence and Heatran managed to get through every suspect test without a scratch, but it's always a threat to my teams. Once it sets up on Scizor locked into anything, a predicted switch, or Bronzong, I usually have to rely on Trick Room keep Volcarona in check. Bulkier sets are a lot easier handle, because Politoed can tank a +1 Bug Buzz and blast the fiery moth back to the depths of Hell, where it belongs. Seriously, every time someone says that SR "checks" Volcarona, I want slam my laptop into the nearest solid object and my face into the nearest wall. Anyway, enough of my ranting, onto the next threat!
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Well, this is depressing. Since Gen IV, I've always carried something that can give Jolteon the business, but this time around, I don't really have a reliable switch to it, let alone a check. All Jolteon really has to do spam Thunder, and something will die immediately after. Thankfully, Jolteon is usually accompanied by DrizzleToed, meaning that I can at least sacrifice my own Politoed if shit goes down.
In general, the threats to this team are commonly found on offensive teams. So, if push comes to shove, I'll try my hardest to get Trick Room up. While not the most reliable of ways to keep this team alive, it's certainly saved my ass from all of the aforementioned threats.
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Anywho, I hope that you people enjoyed reading this RMT, but you don't have to stop here! Below is the "Post Reply" button. Be sure to press it and give me advice on how to make this team better. I likely won't test any changes immediately, with this technically being my retirement team and all, but am definitely welcoming any and all criticism, so post away!
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Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 80 Def / 92 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Trick Room
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 136 Def / 120 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
Scizor (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Technician
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
Crawdaunt (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crabhammer
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Double-Edge
Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psyshock
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Recover
Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Surf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 80 Def / 92 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Trick Room
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 136 Def / 120 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
Scizor (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Technician
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
Crawdaunt (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crabhammer
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Double-Edge
Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psyshock
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Recover
Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Surf
