Man, has it been a long time since I last came here.
I got tired of comp Pokémon around the end of 4th gen, but a little while ago I rediscovered my Emerald copy and am currently trying to get all the Gold medals. The team that I've been using so far isn't EV trained and bred, so I decided to get into that grind yet again and finish my what might be final bred and EVed team ever (seeing as, let's face it, breeding is a pain). If I'm going to do that however, I don't want to have any regrets later on forcing me to do it all over again, so I decided to rev up my old Smogon account again and see if I could get some help.
Note: This team will not be used for comp battling, only for Battle Frontier, and therefore the rules of Battle Frontier will apply (no clauses, all legendaries banned, Wobbufett allowed, et cetera).
This team will be used for all of Battle Frontier's game modes, with the exception of Battle Palace (and Battle Factory obviously). It is mainly focussed on Tower, Dome, and Arena.
Salamence @ Petaya berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 6 Atk
Nature: Rash / Naive
- Brick Break
- Dragon Claw
- Flamethrower
- Crunch
I found that in pretty much all gamemodes, it's good to start off with a fast heavy hitter, followed by two more bulky hitters; this gives for fast sweeping at the start and enough switching possibilities if something goes wrong. Brick Break is used to dent specially defensive pokemon who can't harm me much, Dragon Claw for STAB and Flamethrower and Crunch for good coverage. While in comp Dragonite would've pulled this set off better, I decided on using Mence for this because of the lack of switching cpus use; Focus Punch won't be of much use because of that, and Intimidate becomes an even more devastating ability. On top of that, the extra speed is rather nice; I'm still not sure if I should go full speed or use a SAtk boosting nature, which is rather hard to decide without a speed tier list. I refrained from using Hydro Pump and Fire Blast because I don't really feel like losing my 100th battle to a random miss.
Swampert @ Lum Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpA
Nature: Relaxed
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Rest
Swampert is the backbone of the team, being nice and bulky with good coverage. LumRest actually works really well in BF, although I am considering using another attack over Rest. Another issue is the EVs because there isn't much use in aiming for specific KO's; right now I'm just using the standard spread
Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SAtk
Nature: Brave
- Thunderpunch
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- Sludge Bomb / Rock Slide / Explosion
Metagross can switch in to all the weaknesses of the other teammembers, and vice versa. Thunderpunch is because Bulky waters give me lots of issues, and still leaves a big dent even without investment. I'm still contemplating the final move; I've been using Sludge Bomb from the start when Tyranitar still was in the team over Salamence, which made me weak to Grass pokémon, but with Mence it becomes a little redundant. Rock Slide probably has the best coverage, but acc is a bit of an issue and it doesn't add too much extra coverage. Explosion is always a good move, but Metagross often ends up being the last pokémon left, rendering it useless.
All in all the biggest issue this team has are bulky waters, and I'm not very keen on my EVs and Natures yet; it would be nice to make my two bulkers a bit faster, but I don't want to sacrifice defense. Any suggestions to fix these issues would be appreciated.
I got tired of comp Pokémon around the end of 4th gen, but a little while ago I rediscovered my Emerald copy and am currently trying to get all the Gold medals. The team that I've been using so far isn't EV trained and bred, so I decided to get into that grind yet again and finish my what might be final bred and EVed team ever (seeing as, let's face it, breeding is a pain). If I'm going to do that however, I don't want to have any regrets later on forcing me to do it all over again, so I decided to rev up my old Smogon account again and see if I could get some help.
Note: This team will not be used for comp battling, only for Battle Frontier, and therefore the rules of Battle Frontier will apply (no clauses, all legendaries banned, Wobbufett allowed, et cetera).
This team will be used for all of Battle Frontier's game modes, with the exception of Battle Palace (and Battle Factory obviously). It is mainly focussed on Tower, Dome, and Arena.
Salamence @ Petaya berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 6 Atk
Nature: Rash / Naive
- Brick Break
- Dragon Claw
- Flamethrower
- Crunch
I found that in pretty much all gamemodes, it's good to start off with a fast heavy hitter, followed by two more bulky hitters; this gives for fast sweeping at the start and enough switching possibilities if something goes wrong. Brick Break is used to dent specially defensive pokemon who can't harm me much, Dragon Claw for STAB and Flamethrower and Crunch for good coverage. While in comp Dragonite would've pulled this set off better, I decided on using Mence for this because of the lack of switching cpus use; Focus Punch won't be of much use because of that, and Intimidate becomes an even more devastating ability. On top of that, the extra speed is rather nice; I'm still not sure if I should go full speed or use a SAtk boosting nature, which is rather hard to decide without a speed tier list. I refrained from using Hydro Pump and Fire Blast because I don't really feel like losing my 100th battle to a random miss.
Swampert @ Lum Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpA
Nature: Relaxed
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Rest
Swampert is the backbone of the team, being nice and bulky with good coverage. LumRest actually works really well in BF, although I am considering using another attack over Rest. Another issue is the EVs because there isn't much use in aiming for specific KO's; right now I'm just using the standard spread
Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SAtk
Nature: Brave
- Thunderpunch
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- Sludge Bomb / Rock Slide / Explosion
Metagross can switch in to all the weaknesses of the other teammembers, and vice versa. Thunderpunch is because Bulky waters give me lots of issues, and still leaves a big dent even without investment. I'm still contemplating the final move; I've been using Sludge Bomb from the start when Tyranitar still was in the team over Salamence, which made me weak to Grass pokémon, but with Mence it becomes a little redundant. Rock Slide probably has the best coverage, but acc is a bit of an issue and it doesn't add too much extra coverage. Explosion is always a good move, but Metagross often ends up being the last pokémon left, rendering it useless.
All in all the biggest issue this team has are bulky waters, and I'm not very keen on my EVs and Natures yet; it would be nice to make my two bulkers a bit faster, but I don't want to sacrifice defense. Any suggestions to fix these issues would be appreciated.