Seikend
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2007
- Messages
- 415
Introduction
Hey there, the name's Seikend. I've recently arrived in this sub-forum and I'll be presenting you guys with my first RMT.
I am, quite frankly, a newb when it comes to competitive Pokemon. I played around a little on PO a couple of years ago but I never really seriously played. With the arrival of the 5th Gen, I was inspired to get involved again. I set myself the goal to create a team with the following requirements:
While this might be an obvious list to any veteran, a lot of new players have issues with creating solid non-gimmick teams with Synergy. It's a barrier that a lot of people seem to face and one that I personally struggled with. This team, Development, was not intended to be a winning team. The primary intent was to teach myself to play Pokemon in a new environment.
Team Building
When I first began I was honestly directionless. My team consisted of mostly Pokemon I liked. However from this I developed ideas and I continued to work on my team. Through a lot of switching and thought, new more refined goals began to develop. My first observation was the prevalence of Drought, Drizzle and Sand Stream teams around. I decided very early on that I wanted a team that could deal effectively with opposing weathers.
The first step was to force weather changes. To me, Drizzle and Drought are the most threatening weathers and as a bonus Sand Stream doesn't force me to run a team based around it.
Hippowdon with his instant recovery seemed the obvious choice to me. With SR, Roar, EQ and Slack Off he took the lead position in my team.
As didn't want to heavily rely on one pokemon, I needed solid answers to Politoed and Ninetails.
With a bit of experimenting, I found a Calm Mind Suicune worked well. He solidly counters Politoed (really only decently-damaged by HP grass which seems to be rare). With Full HP he's capable of taking a solarbeam from Ninetails and to 1HKO it back with Surf.
The next on the list was covering the grass weakness both Suicine and Hippowdon have.
Zapdos was the answer. Running Heatwave and Thunderbolt, it's a solid answer to most grass and steel types.
The first 3 pokemon cover each other well in terms of elemental types, but I lacked resistances to Psychic, Ghost, Dragon and Dark. I also lacked strong physical attackers. Lucario was a welcome addition to the team.
To cover that Psychic weakness and to provide some much needed team support, I added Espeon. Magic Mirror and Calm Mind + Baton pass to support Suicine and Zapdos are a great help. It threatens any Psychic pokemon in with Shadow Ball.
And finally, the last pokemon. This team sorely needs a revenge killer and Garchomp is his name.
Team Resistances and Weaknesses
Team Changes
An In-Depth Look
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
The Physical wall of the team. I play very conservatively with him, only using SR if I'm sure I'll survive. Roar prevents him from being set-up bait, Slack off whenever the opportunity arises. He's also a potential switch in for Suicine and Zapdos, resisting both Electric and Rock attacks that might be aimed at them.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
The bulky water of the team. My answer to common raindance pokemon and fighting types.
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 228 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Roar
- Heat Wave
My Specially Defensive Zapdos works really well with Suicine. Grass is resisted by Zapdos, whilst Suicine covers the ice weakness. Zapdos threatens Grass types with Heatwave. I'll usually Roost if I need to and phaze them out.
Lucario @ Choice Band
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- ExtremeSpeed
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
He hits stuff hard. I'll bring him in to deal with Blissey/Chansey or to come in on attacks he resists. Ice Punch for dragons, Crunch for Psychic and Ghosts, Extreme Speed if I need priority, Close Combat otherwise. He can work against Gliscor, but Suicine generally does a better job.
Espeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Baton Pass
Is Baton Pass Espeon even legal on PO/Smogon? My home server is PBC (Don't ask why) and it's legal there so I'm not complaining. Switch in on a predicted mirror-able move or a psychic move. If I have the opportunity to Calm Mind I will. If Espeon can't deal with anything switched in on her I'll Baton Pass to either Suicune or Zapdos. Opponents switching in and using U-turn screws me over a lot though, need to be less greedy with CMs.
Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Aqua Tail
- Dragon Claw
The revenge killer. The main moves are Dragon Claw and Outrage, for early and late game respectively. EQ gives nice coverage and Aqua Tail deals with pesky Gliscors and works fairly well with EQ.
Conclusion
Ironically for coming back to start anew in 5th Gen, I ended up with a team that uses few of the new pokemon and abilities that came with a new generation. I'm happy overall with my team as no glaring weaknesses come out at me. Unfortunately I don't know all the common threats in Gen 5 and so can't provide a good commentary on threats to this team. I have been testing it for a couple of days and I've been slowly creeping up the ladder which is fine by me.
Detailing any threats and weaknesses to my team would greatly be appreciated, as well as suggested changes. While I definitely want to keep the core of Hippopotas, Suicune and Zapdos, the rest of the team is very open to change.
Thanks for reading.
Hey there, the name's Seikend. I've recently arrived in this sub-forum and I'll be presenting you guys with my first RMT.
I am, quite frankly, a newb when it comes to competitive Pokemon. I played around a little on PO a couple of years ago but I never really seriously played. With the arrival of the 5th Gen, I was inspired to get involved again. I set myself the goal to create a team with the following requirements:
- Avoid Gimmicks
- Avoid Reliance on Luck (flinchhax etc.)
- Avoid Reliance on one Pokemon or Weather
- Solidly deal with Opposing Weathers
While this might be an obvious list to any veteran, a lot of new players have issues with creating solid non-gimmick teams with Synergy. It's a barrier that a lot of people seem to face and one that I personally struggled with. This team, Development, was not intended to be a winning team. The primary intent was to teach myself to play Pokemon in a new environment.
Team Building
When I first began I was honestly directionless. My team consisted of mostly Pokemon I liked. However from this I developed ideas and I continued to work on my team. Through a lot of switching and thought, new more refined goals began to develop. My first observation was the prevalence of Drought, Drizzle and Sand Stream teams around. I decided very early on that I wanted a team that could deal effectively with opposing weathers.
The first step was to force weather changes. To me, Drizzle and Drought are the most threatening weathers and as a bonus Sand Stream doesn't force me to run a team based around it.
Hippowdon with his instant recovery seemed the obvious choice to me. With SR, Roar, EQ and Slack Off he took the lead position in my team.
As didn't want to heavily rely on one pokemon, I needed solid answers to Politoed and Ninetails.
With a bit of experimenting, I found a Calm Mind Suicune worked well. He solidly counters Politoed (really only decently-damaged by HP grass which seems to be rare). With Full HP he's capable of taking a solarbeam from Ninetails and to 1HKO it back with Surf.
The next on the list was covering the grass weakness both Suicine and Hippowdon have.
Zapdos was the answer. Running Heatwave and Thunderbolt, it's a solid answer to most grass and steel types.
The first 3 pokemon cover each other well in terms of elemental types, but I lacked resistances to Psychic, Ghost, Dragon and Dark. I also lacked strong physical attackers. Lucario was a welcome addition to the team.
To cover that Psychic weakness and to provide some much needed team support, I added Espeon. Magic Mirror and Calm Mind + Baton pass to support Suicine and Zapdos are a great help. It threatens any Psychic pokemon in with Shadow Ball.
And finally, the last pokemon. This team sorely needs a revenge killer and Garchomp is his name.
Team Resistances and Weaknesses
Team Changes
Suicune has been replaced by Slowbro
I will be replacing Garchomp's Outrage or Dragon Claw with Stone Edge. Need to experiment to decide.
An In-Depth Look
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
The Physical wall of the team. I play very conservatively with him, only using SR if I'm sure I'll survive. Roar prevents him from being set-up bait, Slack off whenever the opportunity arises. He's also a potential switch in for Suicine and Zapdos, resisting both Electric and Rock attacks that might be aimed at them.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
The bulky water of the team. My answer to common raindance pokemon and fighting types.
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 228 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Roar
- Heat Wave
My Specially Defensive Zapdos works really well with Suicine. Grass is resisted by Zapdos, whilst Suicine covers the ice weakness. Zapdos threatens Grass types with Heatwave. I'll usually Roost if I need to and phaze them out.
Lucario @ Choice Band
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- ExtremeSpeed
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
He hits stuff hard. I'll bring him in to deal with Blissey/Chansey or to come in on attacks he resists. Ice Punch for dragons, Crunch for Psychic and Ghosts, Extreme Speed if I need priority, Close Combat otherwise. He can work against Gliscor, but Suicine generally does a better job.
Espeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Baton Pass
Is Baton Pass Espeon even legal on PO/Smogon? My home server is PBC (Don't ask why) and it's legal there so I'm not complaining. Switch in on a predicted mirror-able move or a psychic move. If I have the opportunity to Calm Mind I will. If Espeon can't deal with anything switched in on her I'll Baton Pass to either Suicune or Zapdos. Opponents switching in and using U-turn screws me over a lot though, need to be less greedy with CMs.
Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Aqua Tail
- Dragon Claw
The revenge killer. The main moves are Dragon Claw and Outrage, for early and late game respectively. EQ gives nice coverage and Aqua Tail deals with pesky Gliscors and works fairly well with EQ.
Conclusion
Ironically for coming back to start anew in 5th Gen, I ended up with a team that uses few of the new pokemon and abilities that came with a new generation. I'm happy overall with my team as no glaring weaknesses come out at me. Unfortunately I don't know all the common threats in Gen 5 and so can't provide a good commentary on threats to this team. I have been testing it for a couple of days and I've been slowly creeping up the ladder which is fine by me.
Detailing any threats and weaknesses to my team would greatly be appreciated, as well as suggested changes. While I definitely want to keep the core of Hippopotas, Suicune and Zapdos, the rest of the team is very open to change.
Thanks for reading.
