Birds and Things
Hello! I haven't written an RMT in a long time (my old ones were awful) but I decided to do one for this team since I've been using it a lot lately and because this is my 100th post on smogon!
This team is a bit different from other teams, as I have a few item and move choices than the recommended ones, and I also have the never used Mega Pidgeot! While many popular Mega choices in the meta game are Kangaskhan, Charizard, Diancie, Metagross, and Gardevoir, and some of the less popular ones are Swampert, Gengar, Camerupt, or Venusaur, I like to try the even less popular options to see how they fit in the current meta game, and I came across a few that I liked, one of which being Mega Pidgeot.
Mega Pidgeot has a niche of its own in that it's basically a specially based Talonflame with a much weaker, non-STAB spread move as its Fire attack in Heat Wave, and a very powerful move in Hurricane. Able to set up Tailwind effectively in many cases, it seemed like something I could give a try. After initially building the team, I had a few flaws, but I was really liking Mega Pidgeot as a whole.
I'm going to go ahead into the team building process of this now, and afterward get on to my current team.
This version of the team was okay at the most. Keldeo ran a standard set, Pidgeot had Substitute over Tailwind (as I had Talonflame and Latias already on the team), and Latias having a very weird set. Rather than a fast Life Orb Latias, I had instead chosen a fast Expert Belt version with Dragon Pulse over Life Orb. I ran that set because I had seen somebody use it in VGC, and I wanted to try it (don't). A notable flaw it had was dealing damage, as all I really hit things with was Pidgeot (sometimes), Talonflame (sometimes), Sylveon (always sent out last), and Keldeo (easily redirected by Amoonguss). I also had a lot of trouble with Heatran, as I only had Keldeo to hit it with and I was fucked if it got a substitute up.
This version of the team, only slightly different from the current one, actually improved it a lot mainly because I had gotten rid of Talonflame and added Landorus-T, removing my difficulty with dealing damage and gave my team Intimidate support (I hadn't realized it at first, but it really helped a lot after I added it). A few other differences were that as I had no Talonflame to set Tailwind with, I had to use Tailwind on Pidgeot, and now I realize how awful Substitute was on it because it's getting broken anyway. Keldeo has Taunt for Amoonguss as well as for Subtran and Sub Kyurem-B, so that I wouldn't get walled completely by them. This also helped against Trick Room teams, which weren't a complete disaster to face with Sub Aegislash and Specs Sylveon, but it tended to be a win against Trick Room teams after adding Taunt. A final change is that I did make Latias a fast Life Orb set, because the damage output was so low, but I kept Dragon Pulse as it was meant to do things early in the game that weren't working with Draco Meteor (which I had tried for a bit).
There were a few things I changed from this version to the current version, as I had a few small issues. First, I was still having difficulty against Amoonguss because Pidgeot can't OHKO it, and second because Latias couldn't get close to a KO on it. I changed Latias to Latios because of that. I also kept either getting OHKOd by Talonflame with Keldeo or dying from Life Orb, so I gave Keldeo a Focus Sash to try. It wasn't missing any too important KOs with Focus Sash with the team I have now, so I ended up keeping it on there.
Keldeo-Resolute @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Taunt
- Protect
This Keldeo is meant to stop Subs from going up and pressuring opposing Heatran/Kyurem-B to switch after Taunting them, while also being a good lead against Trick Room. Rather than Life Orb, I use sash to ensure that I live Talonflame Brave Bird and because I kept dying of Life Orb recoil. The only big KOs that I was missing without Life Orb were on Mega Kangaskhan.
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Explosion
- U-turn
Lando-T can get a lot of momentum on my side, and works as a great lead with Mega Pidgeot a lot of the time. Intimidate/U-turn was very useful due to Sylveon and Pidgeot having little bulk (Sylveon has a lot of Special bulk however), and it beat Heatran, which my team had lots of issues with. A thing to note however is that rather than Superpower, I have Explosion because I prefer to deal the tons of spread damage and get the free switchin to something that can deal a lot of damage to opponents (like Sylveon), or something that can wall what they have out and finish those Pokemon off (like Aegislash).
Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 180 SpA / 72 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- King's Shield
Aegislash is great for switching into attacks that my teammates wouldn't like, such as Rock Slide from Lando-T, Hyper Voice from Sylveon, or Double-Edge/Return/Low Kick from Kangaskhan. Against these things, it can easily set up a Substitute and deal lots of significant damage behind it. The spread is a bit weird, but I made it so that Aegislash can live a Mega Charizard Y Modest Heat Wave in sun, 2HKO Calm Mind Cresselia (seemingly useless tbh), and have a Substitute HP number.
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 200 HP / 148 Def / 80 SpA / 80 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hyper Voice
- Hyper Beam
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Sylveon is able to hit things really, really hard, and works really well with Mega Pidgeot. It does 2/3 to quite a few things that Mega Pidgeot does 1/3 to, and benefits greatly from Tailwind. It outspeeds Mega Diancie and Latios (and I guess Mega Gallade too), which is something very great to outspeed. The rest of the EVs are much weirder. I live two Mega Diancie Diamond Storms and two Mega Charizard Y Modest Heat Waves in sun, with the rest in Special Attack. I found that after living the two Diamond Storms and dumping the right amount into speed, I could only live two Heat Waves with a Calm nature, and no investment in Special Defense was necessary.
I also preferred Choice Specs over something like Pixie Plate, because of the high damage output I get even with such a small amount of investment as 80 SpA.
Pidgeot-Mega @ Pidgeotite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 64 HP / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- Tailwind
- Protect
Mega Pidgeot was a particularly fun choice. It functioned similarly to Talonflame with a high speed stat and a Flying STAB+Tailwind, but Pidgeot plays slightly differently. As it uses its Special Attack stat, it hits things through the -1 from Intimidate with a really powerful Hurricane. Despite it not getting any KOs (lol), Hurricane is not resisted by anything except Aegislash, Mega Metagross, Heatran, Rhyperior/Rhydon, and Rotom forms (Lando-T hits all of those very hard except for the Rotom forms, while Pidgeot can actually hit the steels bar Heatran with Heat Wave), which is particularly useful in either chipping in towards getting a KO or just finishing things off.
Edit: Speed is for Serperior
Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Tailwind
- Protect
Latios is an alternate Tailwind setter for Sylveon, usually to set later in the game if there are too many things it can't hit with Lando-T helping, or to set earlier in the game if there are too many things Pidgeot can't hit with Lando-T helping. It also, unlike Pidgeot, has a decent chance to OHKO standard Amoonguss (after a slight bit of chip damage, at least). I have a very, very slight difference from the standard set, in that I run Dragon Pulse because the -2 from Draco Meteor was too much to handle.
Leads
+
Lando-T hits Heatran, Aegislash, Mega Metagross, and a few other things that Latios can't reach with Dragon+Psychic coverage, and does enough damage for Latios to get some KOs on things it wouldn't normally be able to. Latios can also set up Tailwind while Lando-T U-turns out to something that can damage the opposing team very, very much. There also aren't a lot of things that can easily hit Lando-T while Latios is on the field, as Keldeo gets outsped and OHKOd and Azumarill... well it can just die. This lead is something I will never use against rain because of Ludicolo and Kingdra lol.
I use this lead 99% of the time. Pidgeot actually seems somewhat bulky after Intimidate, and can set up Tailwind with few issues in many situations. Lando-T can bounce back to Sylveon and let Pidgeot and Sylveon have fun together, KOing so many important things on the enemy team. Few things can still function however, such as Follow Me users or Talonflame, but in the case that I do see them Sylveon+Pidgeot still deals high amounts of damage to them (aside from Jirachi, of course).
+
If they have Trick Room or Tailwind of their own, or Kyurem-B, I lead Keldeo to Taunt them. Keldeo also happens to have Secret Sword for Kyurem-B, which is nice if they decide to stay in against it.
s/o to Tokyo Tom for trying to get a free shoutout
s/o to Zeldamon Master519 for being a good friend all the time (even though you quit)
s/o to megacyber so that I can tag him and he'll read my RMT
s/o to Yoda2798 for being my second favorite follower on smogon n_n
That's really all I have for the team, I really like it but I will try any suggestions (I'm keeping Pidgeot though). Thanks for reading all of this if you did!
This team is a bit different from other teams, as I have a few item and move choices than the recommended ones, and I also have the never used Mega Pidgeot! While many popular Mega choices in the meta game are Kangaskhan, Charizard, Diancie, Metagross, and Gardevoir, and some of the less popular ones are Swampert, Gengar, Camerupt, or Venusaur, I like to try the even less popular options to see how they fit in the current meta game, and I came across a few that I liked, one of which being Mega Pidgeot.
Mega Pidgeot has a niche of its own in that it's basically a specially based Talonflame with a much weaker, non-STAB spread move as its Fire attack in Heat Wave, and a very powerful move in Hurricane. Able to set up Tailwind effectively in many cases, it seemed like something I could give a try. After initially building the team, I had a few flaws, but I was really liking Mega Pidgeot as a whole.
I'm going to go ahead into the team building process of this now, and afterward get on to my current team.
There were a few things I changed from this version to the current version, as I had a few small issues. First, I was still having difficulty against Amoonguss because Pidgeot can't OHKO it, and second because Latias couldn't get close to a KO on it. I changed Latias to Latios because of that. I also kept either getting OHKOd by Talonflame with Keldeo or dying from Life Orb, so I gave Keldeo a Focus Sash to try. It wasn't missing any too important KOs with Focus Sash with the team I have now, so I ended up keeping it on there.
Keldeo-Resolute @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Taunt
- Protect
This Keldeo is meant to stop Subs from going up and pressuring opposing Heatran/Kyurem-B to switch after Taunting them, while also being a good lead against Trick Room. Rather than Life Orb, I use sash to ensure that I live Talonflame Brave Bird and because I kept dying of Life Orb recoil. The only big KOs that I was missing without Life Orb were on Mega Kangaskhan.
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Explosion
- U-turn
Lando-T can get a lot of momentum on my side, and works as a great lead with Mega Pidgeot a lot of the time. Intimidate/U-turn was very useful due to Sylveon and Pidgeot having little bulk (Sylveon has a lot of Special bulk however), and it beat Heatran, which my team had lots of issues with. A thing to note however is that rather than Superpower, I have Explosion because I prefer to deal the tons of spread damage and get the free switchin to something that can deal a lot of damage to opponents (like Sylveon), or something that can wall what they have out and finish those Pokemon off (like Aegislash).
Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 180 SpA / 72 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- King's Shield
Aegislash is great for switching into attacks that my teammates wouldn't like, such as Rock Slide from Lando-T, Hyper Voice from Sylveon, or Double-Edge/Return/Low Kick from Kangaskhan. Against these things, it can easily set up a Substitute and deal lots of significant damage behind it. The spread is a bit weird, but I made it so that Aegislash can live a Mega Charizard Y Modest Heat Wave in sun, 2HKO Calm Mind Cresselia (seemingly useless tbh), and have a Substitute HP number.
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 200 HP / 148 Def / 80 SpA / 80 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hyper Voice
- Hyper Beam
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Sylveon is able to hit things really, really hard, and works really well with Mega Pidgeot. It does 2/3 to quite a few things that Mega Pidgeot does 1/3 to, and benefits greatly from Tailwind. It outspeeds Mega Diancie and Latios (and I guess Mega Gallade too), which is something very great to outspeed. The rest of the EVs are much weirder. I live two Mega Diancie Diamond Storms and two Mega Charizard Y Modest Heat Waves in sun, with the rest in Special Attack. I found that after living the two Diamond Storms and dumping the right amount into speed, I could only live two Heat Waves with a Calm nature, and no investment in Special Defense was necessary.
I also preferred Choice Specs over something like Pixie Plate, because of the high damage output I get even with such a small amount of investment as 80 SpA.
Pidgeot-Mega @ Pidgeotite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 64 HP / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- Tailwind
- Protect
Mega Pidgeot was a particularly fun choice. It functioned similarly to Talonflame with a high speed stat and a Flying STAB+Tailwind, but Pidgeot plays slightly differently. As it uses its Special Attack stat, it hits things through the -1 from Intimidate with a really powerful Hurricane. Despite it not getting any KOs (lol), Hurricane is not resisted by anything except Aegislash, Mega Metagross, Heatran, Rhyperior/Rhydon, and Rotom forms (Lando-T hits all of those very hard except for the Rotom forms, while Pidgeot can actually hit the steels bar Heatran with Heat Wave), which is particularly useful in either chipping in towards getting a KO or just finishing things off.
Edit: Speed is for Serperior
Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Tailwind
- Protect
Latios is an alternate Tailwind setter for Sylveon, usually to set later in the game if there are too many things it can't hit with Lando-T helping, or to set earlier in the game if there are too many things Pidgeot can't hit with Lando-T helping. It also, unlike Pidgeot, has a decent chance to OHKO standard Amoonguss (after a slight bit of chip damage, at least). I have a very, very slight difference from the standard set, in that I run Dragon Pulse because the -2 from Draco Meteor was too much to handle.
Leads
Lando-T hits Heatran, Aegislash, Mega Metagross, and a few other things that Latios can't reach with Dragon+Psychic coverage, and does enough damage for Latios to get some KOs on things it wouldn't normally be able to. Latios can also set up Tailwind while Lando-T U-turns out to something that can damage the opposing team very, very much. There also aren't a lot of things that can easily hit Lando-T while Latios is on the field, as Keldeo gets outsped and OHKOd and Azumarill... well it can just die. This lead is something I will never use against rain because of Ludicolo and Kingdra lol.
I use this lead 99% of the time. Pidgeot actually seems somewhat bulky after Intimidate, and can set up Tailwind with few issues in many situations. Lando-T can bounce back to Sylveon and let Pidgeot and Sylveon have fun together, KOing so many important things on the enemy team. Few things can still function however, such as Follow Me users or Talonflame, but in the case that I do see them Sylveon+Pidgeot still deals high amounts of damage to them (aside from Jirachi, of course).
If they have Trick Room or Tailwind of their own, or Kyurem-B, I lead Keldeo to Taunt them. Keldeo also happens to have Secret Sword for Kyurem-B, which is nice if they decide to stay in against it.
s/o to Tokyo Tom for trying to get a free shoutout
s/o to Zeldamon Master519 for being a good friend all the time (even though you quit)
s/o to megacyber so that I can tag him and he'll read my RMT
s/o to Yoda2798 for being my second favorite follower on smogon n_n
That's really all I have for the team, I really like it but I will try any suggestions (I'm keeping Pidgeot though). Thanks for reading all of this if you did!
Last edited:
