Gen 2 Sweeper RMT


Introduction

My take on a sweeper team; i've been testing it on & off for a while in slightly different formats. This is the most recent iteration which i'm most happy with. Tried some of the other sweeper teams out there, couldn't really get on with them for one reason or another, decided to try and make one that could actually work with my terrible playing abilty. Designed to be all out attacker which doesn't really focus on the spikes game/phazing/defense; intended to be able to lose team members and regain tempo with revenge kill/hits if the sweep setup cannot be successful. Primary objective is to get agility setup on Lax and drum, that loosely speaking, should put you in a position to take anything & everything. Just looking for opinions / criticisms / suggestions for improvement:


Exeggutor @ Leftovers
Ability: N/A
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe

- Sleep Powder
- Stun Spore
- Psychic
- Explosion
1. Lead status'er. Really important to get status's on the opponent quickly as this team doesn't favor long drawn out games. Sleep powder & Explosion to halt any setup the opponent might be working on, explosion is also really useful for taking down Roar Raikous as they're a real pain for the agility pass. Stun Spore because paralysis is your contingency plan if you can't execute the agility setup, also gives you an option to paralyze those elec sleep talkers rather than wasting your sleep move right away. Balances the team a little for defense against ground & water.


Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: N/A
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 26 Def

- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
2. Probably the most versatile "do all" in gen 2. Team needs zappy for doing all the "in between" work, absorbing status, providing a check for Nidoking, Heracross, Machamp, Vaporeon etc. Its longevity also makes it an effective tool for spamming paralysis.


Jolteon @ Leftovers
Ability: N/A
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 14 HP / 28 Atk / 26 Def

- Agility
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Baton Pass
3. The agility passer: Thunder & HP Water seem like the best moves for targeting the phazers it lures in; water hits Steelix, Rhydon & Golem hard. You lose out to grass types with water so its usually best to Baton Pass out from exeggutor. I think it works awesome as an Baton passer because it checks so many of the common phazers and can be switched in on Raikou & Zapdos. Roar Raikou is a real problem for this setup; I find the best way to deal with it is to agility up to force it to Roar, then hit it with Thunders as it Roars to try and fish for that para. A paralyzed roarkou isn't gonna appreciate anything on this team getting roared into him except Zapdos so it will have a good chance of being forced out paralyzed, which is nice. Also happens to be a not bad check for Gengar & secondary for Vaporeon.


Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: N/A
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe

- Lovely Kiss
- Belly Drum
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
4. This is the big guns, the kingpin, and the end game of the team. Should be the #1 choice for the agility pass if you haven't scouted out their roster. Once its setup with agility & drum there's only a handfull of things that can stop it; Skarm, Forretress & Steelix all need 2 hits respectively to kill, thankfully Lovely Kiss takes care of that if you use it accurately. With 2x speed its only slightly slower than Gengar so he can mess with your game with explosion/destiny bond. That also means Raikou, Jolteon, Starmie etc. outspeed him and can get the finishing hit in when the Double-Edge recoil starts to wear him down. Its a good idea to try and use Lovely Kiss & Earthquake to minimize that recoil damage & maximize leftovers recovery (when possible).


Machamp @ Leftovers
Ability: N/A
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe

- Cross Chop
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fire Blast
5. Machamp is probably the most flexible slot; Growth Acid Armour Vaporeon is ok here too but Machamp just suits the team better imo, it just makes you have to play around Snorlax less. The move set isn't really a hard n fast either. I tried Meditate but it seemed there were few situations it was actually useable in, also Snorlax & Marowak are just better boosters. This is set i've got on best with; the awkward broad coverage messes with those solid skarm teams and often forces the opponent to reveal their physical defense structure as they switch around trying to figure out your moveset. Just provides a nicely rounded wildcard to the team to prevent switch stagnation. And fire blast is really really useful on a physical attacker team.


Marowak @ Thick Club
Ability: N/A
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 14 HP / 24 Atk / 26 Def

- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Flying]
6. This was a no brainer for an agility pass team; pretty much the most feared sweeper since the inception of GSC. Switches into electric attacks for free, synergises well with Machamp, works well late game. Hp flying has better coverage for Heracross than Exeggutor. The 16hp you drop over HP Bug does really suck though; that makes the difference between a 0.2% and 40% chance of 2hko from Zapdos hidden power. Pick ya poison I guess; whichever you cater for out of Eggy or Hera are guaranteed to be the one you dont get lol.

Conclusion

I think the team now just about works for what its designed to do, it makes some fun games when it all comes together, but like any sweeper you do just need the planets to align for you sometimes. It leans on sleep moves & thunders hitting for defense (especially against setups), when they miss when you really don't need them to sh#t can go south real fast. Bad predictions punish you pretty bad too, either way its fun for some unboring games if you want a change from the stall monotony.

Exeggutor @ Leftovers
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Sleep Powder
- Stun Spore
- Psychic
- Explosion

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Bashful Nature
IVs: 26 Def
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Jolteon @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Bashful Nature
IVs: 14 HP / 28 Atk / 26 Def
- Agility
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Baton Pass

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Lovely Kiss
- Belly Drum
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake

Machamp @ Leftovers
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Cross Chop
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fire Blast

Marowak @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 14 HP / 24 Atk / 26 Def
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Flying]
 
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Jorgen

World's Strongest Fairy
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Considering how quickly you want games to end, might it be better to run Twave on Zapdos? Having the added reliable para spread (especially against Raikou) seems like it'd be super helpful.

Also HP Bug on Wak is a must on a team like this imo. The reason is that Wak vs. Egg is much more likely to end poorly for you than Wak vs. Hera. Egg is way more common and having HP Bug to play for the 50-50 SD/HP mindgame (you need to threaten OHKO or Egg can just blow up) is super handy, whereas against Heracross you can always just set up on it & bank on more likely than not living 2 Megahorns.

most of what makes BP teams tick is the abundance of 1-turn threats and the accompanying potential to provoke bad plays / legitimately steamroll in a particularly favorable matchup. It's not great, just something you need to be able to think about is all. If you're going to cut back on the 1-turn threats and pad your team with paralysis as a "backup", you may as well toss what remnants of AgiPass you have altogether and just lean entirely on para spread (the way more reliable and therefore good strategy).
 
I played (you using (?)) this team recently and I gotta disagree with twave. being unkillable with restalk is so important for (continuously) stuffing offensive threats like machamp and nidoking because sometimes you'll have to play a longer game (vs raikou) and zap does just fine at paralyzing kou w thunder anyway (especially because it doubles up with jolteon and there's egg too for good measure). I do agree with hp bug wak though.

excellent team overall, it is terrifying (and exciting!) to play. it's so good at denying cloy spikes and keeping up an absurd amount of pressure. obviously most of the success will come from how its user plays it but it is a seriously fine set of tools.
 
Haha yeah that was probably me, i've been up against really tough players with this lately. Was that you asking if I was Dan Ansome? Dont remember you using the BKC name though, I think I would have remembered it?

I think you guys might be absolutely on the money with the HP bug point actually; I've found myself in that exact scenario a lot being faced with an Eggy and having nothing to switch into the explosion, it's a sucky position to be in as they know they can pull the trigger and something of mine is going down no matter what I play. There's a really good Heracross team running the rings at the moment but its true, Marowak isn't much use when its dead no matter what the HP.

With regards to t.wave on Zapdos; its definitely a solid point, can't rest off the paralysis when it doesn't come from a Thunder too, but Zappys role is to be the one thing in the team that has some legs on it. One of its roles is to stop the other members, who are supposed to be the big, decisive hitters from taking damage & status in the less "decisive" scuffles. Being able to shoot, reload, repeat almost instantly is what allowes it to fill that role as a solo performer. If you were going to run Thunder Wave over Sleep Talk Jorgen, what would be your play with this team when you see a Nidoking / Exeggutor, something which you know is going to status you, most likely with sleep?

Thanks for taking the time to give me some feedback guys, comments are much appreciated.
 
And yes, sorry thats absolutely right, the 3 turn setup just seems to be 2 turns your opponent simply wont give to you sometimes. I've found it really hard keeping paralysis on as many pokes as I need to most the time; a good player with sleep talkers seems to know to do everything in their power to have those pokemon sleeping rather than paralyzed. A lot of roar talk cunes about these days and they just stay in the rest loop using it as a safeguard. What would you propose? Losing Jolteon for something that can land 100% paralysis moves? The one other problem I see with using only paralysis as the setup is against Skarm & Steelix putting them to sleep once lax has the agility almost always guaruntees the end of the game for the opponent; i've been in the position many times where I was wishing the opponents skarm wasn't paralyzed so I can snooze it to initiate the sweep.
 
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