[RMT] Defensive Team

[Gates]

I made a defensive team before this and it flat out sucked. Not only was it poorly designed but I didn't enjoy playing it at all. So for a long time I wouldn't even go near a defensive team. Then I heard about the core defensive engine of Blissey/Forretress/Rotom-A and I was very intrigued by its potential. I started from there and built a team around it with other very defensive pokemon.

OMG MUDKIPZ (Swampert) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP/170 Def/88 SDef
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Roar

Overall I've had mixed results with Mudkip. Sometimes he can take out their lead AND set up Stealth Rock AND survive to phase them later on. Other times it's only the first two. At the very least he takes out their lead since EQ/Ice Beam covers most of the common leads in OU, and even the ones they hit for neutral damage it usually does a lot to. Roar is much better late game and it it probably my best phazer because of it. The EV spread is also nice. The investment in SDef allows him to survive some things it shouldn't like Dragonite Draco Meteor. Obviously no amount of SDef will let it survive Grass Knot or HP Grass, but as it is right now, Mudkip is plenty Bulky.

Weakness Coverage:
Grass - Forretress, Dragonite, Heatran

Skank Ho (Blissey) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Softboiled
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

Nobody likes Blissey so I won't spend much time on her. Generally, this particular build of Blissey lets it perform as an excellent special wall while also making it a pseudo-sweeper. Even after only 1 or two Calm Minds it can take hits from the best special attackers in the metagame while still being able to kill threats like Gyarados and Salamence. If you're able to get off a Calm Mind before they switch into a Tricker and predict when they Trick you you can still do well as a Specs/Scarf Bliss due to the fact that it doesn't suffer from 1-attack syndrome like other Blisseys. The EV spread is also beneficial since it lets her survive most non-STAB fighting attacks and other stuff like Earthquake.

Weakness Coverage:
Fighting - Rotom, Dragonite

Koopa (Forretress) (M) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
- Explosion

Pretty Standard, not much to say. Sassy nature is to resist random stuff that comes in on it and tries to use non-fire special attacks on it.

Weakness Coverage:
Fire - Swampert, Dragonite, Heatran

Blow Me (Rotom-s) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Spd/4 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Confuse Ray
- Air Slash
- Shadow Ball

Rotom-S in particular serves as a great annoyer which is excellent for a stall team like this. ParaFusion is still a great way to piss people off and it does fantastically against most of the bigger threats in the metagame, especially dragons and Lucario. Discharge also takes care of Gyarados well and is a good threat against water pokemon in general. Air Slash is what really sold me on Rotom-S though, as it is not only the most accurate of all the moves the Rotom-A forms get but it also helps against Fighting and Grass types to further cover the backs of Swampert and Blissey. The EV spread is standard.

Weakness Coverage:
Dark - Forretress, Heatran
Ghost - Blissey, Forretress, Heatran

Alby (Dragonite) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 248 HP/44 Spd/216 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Dragon Claw
- Light Screen
- Roost
- Toxic

In the marmalade forest (forest)
Beneath the make-believe trees
In a cottage cheese cottage
Lives Alby (Alby)
Alby (Alby)
Alby the Racist Dragon

Dragonite is also a good annoyer on this team. He's been very useful as a phazer, a screener, and a poison spreader, and Dragon Claw hits every non-steel in the meta for at least neutral damage. This guy does get walled by steels, but in those situations I can switch out to another pokemon depending on what exactly it is.

Weakness Coverage:
Ice - Forretress, Heatran
Rock - Swampert
Dragon - Forretress, Heatran

Iron Spider (Heatran) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Atk/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Grass]

You've all seen this build before so I'm not even going to talk about it. The only thing I want to say is that HP Grass has had mixed results and I might think about changing it to Ice to deal with dragons better.

Weakness Coverage:
Ground - Rotom, Dragonite
Fighting - Rotom, Dragonite
Water - Dragonite

My biggest immediate concern about this team is type coverage. There are times where I wish I had a fighting attack or something and I have gotten screwed because I didn't have it. Other than that there's not too much I have to worry about.

UPDATED TEAM: 12/22/09

Iron Man (Heatran) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earth Power
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
- Stealth Rock
---
Skank Ho (Blissey) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 244 HP/252 Def/12 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Softboiled
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
---
War Machine (Forretress) (M) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
- Explosion
---
Blow Me (Rotom-s) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Spd/4 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Confuse Ray
- Air Slash
- Shadow Ball
---
Alby (Flygon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/144 Def/112 Spd
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earthquake
- Flamethrower
- Roost
- Toxic
---
CURLEH MUSTACHE (Gyarados) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Stone Edge
---

Same basic idea - Bliss/Fort/Rotom/2 supporters/Sweeper.

I'm iffy on the Gyarados build and not sure if I should use what I have now or go with Waterfall/EQ/Ice Fang.

Thoughts?

 

[UltiMario]

Once Swampert is weakened or gone, got any peticular way to deal with Agiligross?
It was the first thing that popped in my mind.

 

[kirbyraeg]

imo defensive dragonite is good, but doesn't fit in your team very well. I think actually having a scarf Flygon in its place would do much better, stab eq+resistance to SR+u-turn to force switches. Plus, since your team is largely focused around phazing for damage and great defensive switching, it would be a great late game cleaner and also an early scouter, and will help deal with any steels in the late-game (you could run fire blast for skarm if you so chose). Flygon has most of dragonite's resistances (shame it's not quite as defensive) but the speed advantage is something to consider.

also, on bliss, does investing all of that into hp really do much good? IMO you should shift at least some of it into spatk just so it can hit harder against neutral threats, boltbeam gives great coverage but unstabbed off of 75 base spatk, it just won't be hitting hard with only +1 and no extra ev investment.

 

[Gates]

UltiMario, Agiligross is so uncommon that I don't really think I need to prepare for it. As far as dealing with Metagross in general, I can handle that.

kirbyraeg, I switched to a more defensive Flygon since I was hesitant to just use Scarf and it has been working very well for me. Aside from random teams with Cleric Blissey/Celebi, the Toxic spreading has worked great and the type coverage is very good.

The HP on Bliss does help. She's mainly there as a staller, not a sweeper, so defensive EVs are far more important. Still, I'll take what you said into consideration and put a little bit more into SpA.

Updated list in OP.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

If Celebi annoys you that much use Ice Fang on Gyarados.

-Terywj

 

[Gates]

Bounce is a STAB, Celebi isn't too much of a concern with it. She's really more of a minor setback than anything else. As long as I still have Stealth Rocks, Parafusion, and other stuff, Celebi's nothing much to worry about.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

Bounce is more gimmicky than Ice Fang though. Although I guess you could

-Terywj

 

[supermarth64]

UltiMario, Agiligross is so uncommon that I don't really think I need to prepare for it. As far as dealing with Metagross in general, I can handle that.

Just saying, but the reason it's so uncommon is that everyone has Rotom-A on their team, which perfectly counters Metagross unless it has a SD or so and Zen Headbutt.

 

[ss118]

Bounce is a superb option on Gyarados: if your opponent rely's on Celebi to check gyarados, they'll be in one hell of trouble to beat it when you get in a DD. You go up, they miss, and then they sac celebi(unlikely), or go to something else. It's likely that whatever came in will die to a Bounce + Waterfall, so feel free to do that.

Then when Celebi comes back in, feel free to randomly waterfall(or dragon dance) as they switch to something to take the bounce. Feel free to bounce away. =)
-------------

 

[Wave⁂]

Bounce is free Leftovers recovery, too.

If you use Leftovers.

 

[Terrador14]

Either change Earthquake to Earth Power or change its nature to Naive on Flygon. I'm assuming this isn't meant to take special hits, no?

Also, ScarfTran is going to play mindgames with you all day long. Just a little reminder to be extra careful around that thing.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

Good point there.

Timid Flygon works better if you have Earth Power. But no Draco Meteor?

-Terywj

 

[Gates]

I've done the calculations and even with Timid Nature Earthquake does more damage on average and has more opportunities to OHKO with and without Stealth Rock.

And Draco Meteor is garbage on anything you expect to live for more than 2 turns.

Expect another team build up sometime soon.