Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!
**Yes, I copied my thread from Serebii
**Yes, I know #2 isn't hard to get or anything, but considering I'm not very good I thought it was decent.
**My Serebii name is Reagan which explains the president stuff.
Hello America! Thank you all for coming out tonight, please, please, have a seat! Nation, as some of you know I have had the overwhelming fortune to play in the Serebii Premier League 2, specifically in the DPP OU Tier! Gripped by this exciting new challenge, I knew I needed several new teams to compete each week in this tournament. Now, I immediately knew I wanted to make an offensive team. Why you ask? Because gentlemen, at times like these our capacity to retaliate must be and has to be massive, to deter all forms of aggression! The best offense is the best defense so, on to how I made the team!
As I said, I wanted a team that could deter all forms of aggression, and then retaliate with a massive force. I decided upon a standard Fire-Grass-Water core of heatran, gyrados, and celebi.
I then added two of my favorite sweepers to compliment the above, Starmie and Jirachi.
Finally, I needed a lead. Being an offensive team, I /had/ to have a reliable stealth rocker. Also, since it is an offensive team, I wanted to immediately punch a whole in the enemy team. Azelf fit this role perfectly with its great speed and high attack and special attack, along with it's ability to explode on whatever I choose, almost always getting me a kill.
However, although this original version of the team played well, I quickly realized that although I could terrorize nearly every defensive pokemon in the game, special defensive walls such as blissy, snorlax, clefable and others gave me a hard time if gyrados was weak or dead. Therefore, I decided to replace celebi with breloom to deal with these threats. It fit this administration better than tax cuts, 'Nuff said.
Now, for the team analysis.
"Forgive your enemies, but remember their names." ~ John F. Kennedy
Azelf @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Zen Headbutt
- Explosion
This thing is frankly the best lead in the game. Originally I wanted to do duel screens, but I found I would then rarely get off SR like I desperately needed to due to nearly everyone and their grandmothers running tyranitar. I have stealth rock for obvious reasons, to help weaken incoming pokemon helping the other members sweep. Taunt is for slower leads who try to get off any entry hazards, status, or support. For the other 2 moves and for the EVs, I ran a physical set because a special version with psychic wasn't really that much better than the physical version with Zen Headbutt. Despite it's non-perfect accuracy, I have found the flinch hax very useful at times. Also, the entire reason why I WENT a physical set is because when I explode, I want it to KILL. This physical version guarantees me a kill against swampert, gliscor, and anything else that doesn't resist me.
"Speak Softly, and carry a big stick" ~Theodore Roosevelt
Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
Starmie has about 10 leg stick things sticking out of it so it's 10 times as good! Starmie is great at DENTING teams with a powerful hydro pump which 2HKO's nearly everything that doesn't resist it in the game with life orb. Along with the great coverage of Bolt-beam and Recover to continue my reign of terror after life orb wears me down, With its great speed and power, Starmie sweeps incredibly often.
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." ~John F. Kennedy
Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Seed Bomb
- Focus Punch
- Spore
The most annoying pokemon in the game is BACK. And this time with a special twist in the EV set and nature. What? NO ATTACK EV'S WTF ARE YOU CRAZY? Without attack EVs this thing still hits like a ton of bricks with its brilliant duel STAB moves. I got the EV spread from a friend and it has worked wonders. Shocked are poor players who realize how that fancy U-turn to a ghost didn't break my sub, or gyro ball from bronzong, and just so many other moves, allowing my to continue subbing and simply wreck havoc. It also allows me to survive so many other attacks and take so many hits. With the great recovery from poison heal and therefore immunity to status moves make breloom often an easy switch in, and immediate threat. It also synergizes amazingly offensively and defensively with my other team members. The fire-grass-water defensive core is just so strong. It also makes those crucial kills against blissy, snorlax, and others who normally wall starmie, heatran, and jirachi, clearing their way to sweep.
"Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt
Heatran (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Dragon Pulse
Scarftran. Standard, terrorizing, amazing. Basically the standard scarftran set, except for Hidden Power Electric where often HP Ice or Explosion takes its place. HP electric is simply to catch off guard gyrados and other bulky waters who think they have nothing to fear from me. Heatran synergizes great with breloom and gyrados, taking much needed fire attacks from breloom and dealing back incredible damage with fire blast, while being able to retreat behind gyra, breloom, starmie, and azelf to soak earth and fighting attacks that may come my way.
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax” ~Abraham Lincoln
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 80 SAtk / 176 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
And by sharpening my ax, I mean calm minding until I win. CM rachi late game is nearly unstoppable. After +1 most special attacks do next to nothing, and I almost always OHKO in return. Ev spread is for optimal bulk, speed and power, the most important aspect being 252 in HP, giving my 404 HP so blissy cannot break my sub with a seismic toss. Several games have been won when a blissy comes in thinking it can wall me. Thankfully this team specializes in taking them down. Thunderbolt is for suicune/gyra/starmie/other bulky waters/ Substitute has proven very useful on switches so I can scout my opponent's counters to me, as well as dodge status moves and then proceed to calm mind and WIN.
"Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!" ~ Ronald Reagan
Gyarados (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP / 152 Atk / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Taunt
- Bounce
The star of the team, and my personal favorite. When I think of bulky sweepers, I think of Gyarados. This thing sweeps nearly every game with impunity. I come in on some unsuspecting pokemon and DDance on the switch. I laugh at opposing skarms or swamperts when they attempt to roar me and I taunt in their face. Proceeding to get DDance after DDance securing the sweep. Waterfall because stab + flinch is amazing, taunt as I stated to keep people from phazing/statusing me, and bounce so that ever pesky breloom/celebi/grass type can't even hope to stop me. Ev spread is my own spread I've found to be a very good balance of bulk, attack, and speed.
Threats:
The biggest threats to my team are:
Jolteon - With HP Ice and Thunderbolt, it is very difficult for a safe switch in against it. It can 2HKO jirachi and heatran, and although heatran is faster and can OHKO, if it is weakened or dead jolteon is a very potent threat and I don't really have a reliable counter.
Tyranitar - Main problem with him is just trying to guess which kind of tyranitar it is. Some are banded pursuit, some are choice scarfed with crunch, others are dragon dance. I really don't have to much of a problem playing around the choice ones, but if a dragon dance ttar has either ice beam or fire blast to kill breloom them I don't really have a reliable check.
Thanks everyone SO much for reading/rating. I would love to hear any comments or suggestions anyone might have. Although this team didn't perform as well as I hoped it would in SP2 (Since it did lose) :( I did have a fun time making it, laddering with it,and qualifying for an SP2 team with it.
*Scyther Slashers*
*rawr*
