Timbers
check me out
I just started playing pokemon within the past few weeks. I originally started with a team very heavy on residual damage but found that there's really too many pokemon in the current metagame to just tear through walls, so I dropped the stalling act for a more balanced team in attack and speed.
I've been playing with this actual team for the past week, and I do like it. My only gripes with it currently is how generic it feels, and partially the reason I'm posting here, in hopes that someone could shed some light on what I'm doing wrong and open up more options.
Swampert @ Leftovers
Nature: Impish, EVs: 252Def/252HP/4Atk
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Stealth Rock
Protect
standard EVs
I'm not entirely crazy at using a slow lead as I'm vulnerable to several anti-leads, but Swampert as a whole meshes very well with my team I think. Being able to tank a good amount of hits and encouraging the opposing team to switch into more specially based pokes, racking up entry hazard damage.
Earthquake for STAB.
Stone Edge I think compliments Earthquake very well, as the majority who resist or immune ground take at least neutral damage to stone edge (netting quite a few super effectives as well) ice beam and surf (on a more specially mixed spread) were considering over stone edge, but I felt that stone edge complimented my team far more than surf and ice beam, and the +1 crit rate is a nice insurance on a pokemon with otherwise weak attack.
SR is pretty self explanatory.
Protect to scout all those nasty pokemon hiding grass knots and HP grass, as well as making that suicide lead think twice when up against my protect. Helps scout opponents pokemon for choice items or physical/special sets to help my decision in switching to a more appropriate wall if necessary. Also helps leftovers.
Skarmory @ Leftovers (considering shed shell but rest of my team tends to deal well with magnezone anyways..)
Nature: Impish, EVs: 252HP/200Def/40Atk/16Spe
Brave Bird
Roost
Spikes
Whirlwind
EVs pretty standard here as well. Invested in a bit more defense over attack due to low speed makes roost difficult to actually pull off against a good deal of these physical beasts who just barely 2HKO me (with SR) with Smogon's recommended EV spread, or if I need to get in long enough to whirlwind away SD or DD.
Skarms is the physical wall. Physical thunder and fire threats are easily handled when complimented with Swampert. He plays his role well I think, resisting nearly every physical hit that my somewhat paper team would have trouble with otherwise. Also full immunity to ground is gladly welcomed, as both nape and lucario take super effective to it (and Blissey for specially based earth damage) Also sets up entry hazards to help budge the priority moves on my team a little better for easy lategame sweeps.
Brave Bird for lack of attack for when I actually have to attack with Skarms, which is like never, but it's welcomed.
Roost self explanatory.
Spikes work with SR for entry hazards. Spinners are mad annoying, and I'm not entirely sure how to deal with them. Starmie with thunderbolt scares the crap out of skarms, which will force the switch to most likely Blissey, as choice specs starmie really would rather not get hit with a thunderbolt on the switch, or it simply gets a free rapid spin in which spikes (and SR) are removed. I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this without putting a Ttar or Scizor on this team, in which case I mine as well just build it around sandstorm (as 3 of 6 pokes already resist sandstorm)
Whirlwind is used more often than Brave Bird, lol. Steady damage against a lot of the OU threats that otherwise resist either flying or have heavy defense EVs if you can start dragging their helpless walls onto the field for a respectable chunk of damage. I think this works well as a lot of Skarms' switchins are very predictable and almost begging to be hit for free whirlwinds.
Blissey @ Leftovers
Nature: Calm, EVs: 252Def/120SpA/136SpD
Natural Cure
Seismic Toss
Thunder Wave
Ice Beam
Softboiled
EVs are generic. I'm pretty much running charmbliss spread with diversebliss set. It works well, as this Blissey is specifically here to absorb special hits and rack up entry hazard damage.
It's great to know I have something like this on my team to help stall and absorb hits for my otherwise specially-paper team, but if there was one pokemon on this team I felt didn't belong, it'd be Blissey. I'm not too concerned with her being seen as setup fodder with the help of thunderwave and Skarm's likelyhood of switching in to phaze the likely physical switchin to Blissey. I don't know, she doesn't seem to work with this team very well, and feels a bit too weak. I'm heavily considering switching a specially bulky Latias instead of Blissey, as she perfectly resists or immunes all of my pokemon's weaknesses sans Starmie (and flying on Infernape but who uses flying >_>) At the moment, the only thing really holding me back is that Latias and Starmie share the same near weaknesses, and as Starmie is currently my only real special sweeper on this team, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with having both my special wall and special sweeper weak to bug, ghost, and dark; all 3 types being used by either fast pokes or used in the form of priority or pursuit. I know this isn't really part of a RMT but I just thought I'd throw my thoughts out there.
Seismic Toss is straightforward. Guaranteed good damage. With spikes and stealth rock up it seems to really put both Jolteon or Electivire in a bind when they come in expecting t wave. Also nice, consistant damage is always welcomed.
Thunder Wave, while dangerous and somewhat too predictable on Blissey, I still think is effective later on in the game, when you get a more general feel of what your opponent's team looks like and whether or not using t wave will severely ruin your strategy or waste the turn altogether to electric immunities
Ice Beam is self explanatory
Softboiled is self explanatory
Infernape @ Life Orb (I feel like this is out of place for the purpose I'm running nape, but I like the damage output too much to change it)
Nature: Hasty, EVs 232Atk/84SpA/192Spe
U-turn
Overheat
Mach Punch
Close Combat
Again, EVs are fairly straightforward for this set. Invested in more SpA over Atk to help maximize Overheat damage on pokes who switch into this set expecting a physically based set.
I do like Nape on this team a lot. My only bane with him right now is that he's the only poke on my team that takes normal SR damage and doesn't harbor leftovers. Between life orb and SR damage I kind of feel like I'm not reaping the benefits as much as I should with him. Anyways, does a fairly good job at scouting with u-turn, and when used in conjunction with Swampert's protect, I feel like I'll get a good read on my team before I walk into the more subtle move counters my team has. High atk EVs and life orb make it a pain to deal with his hit and run nature as well, I've found. Has use in both early and late game; U-turn scouting early on and a priority move coupled with very heavy hitting STAB physical and special attacks for lategame.
U-turn, as stated above, is a great scout. Deals potent damage while allowing me to switch into one of my 3 respective walls.
Mach Punch, might look weird on a set with Close Combat as well, but I absolutely love the move. Priority STAB move on a heavy attack EV spread in a game where spikes and SR will be present in the majority of games, and a decent amount of people who do resist SR damage take super effective from mach punch. A very necessary revenge killer for my team I think against scarved pokes, while resisting or outspeeding most, if not all, priority moves as well.
Close Combat and Overheat are two incredibly powerful STAB moves, and being used lategame against spikes+stealth rock damaged opponents (speaking in a common scenario) has just been wrecking for me, especially with U-turn to deal consistant damage while refreshing any stat loss.
Starmie @ Choice Specs
Nature: Timid, EVs: 252SpA, 4HP, 252Spe
Natural Cure
Surf
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Grass Knot
EVs are super generic.
I honestly haven't been playing with choice specs starmie nearly as long as the rest of my team, so I'm not sure what I want to do with it. The games I have played I think I was wishing I had scarf over specs, as scarfed opponents shut down Starmie really well. Very versatile in it's movepool, I just think a modest nature with choice scarf would be a superior build for this team. Not sure though. Specs makes it quite the powerhouse and does terrifying damage to anything that can possibly switch into it.
Surf is basic STAB. Scares while dealing heavy damage to anything that doesn't resist it, pretty nice.
Thunderbolt is self explanatory
Ice Beam self explanatory
Grass Knot, lol swampert.
Lucario @ Life Orb
Nature: Jolly, EVs 252Atk/4Def/252Spe
Inner Focus
Swords Dance
Close Combat
Crunch
Extremespeed
EVs aren't anything special. If it hasn't been obvious by now, I'm much more concerned over speed than I am attack. Being outsped is a ***** and higher speed just means easier to set up SD from my experience. I'm not really sure if I like running two Life Orbs on a team that needs to at least stall in the beginning of the match, if there are ideas floating for either Lucario or Infernape I'm definitely all ears.
Swords dance is self explanatory
Close Combat is self explanatory
Crunch deals with especially Latias, Cresselia, and (rapid spinner) starmies.
Extremespeed is a neat little move. priority move; something I like to begin with, coupled with another priority move (Infernape mach punch) that hits everything ES is resisted against for (mostly) supereffective damage. At worst, neutral. Ghost seems to be the only problem with this, but then Blissey can easily roll in and just do her think. I think between these three, and maybe Starmie, I can stop any sweeping attempt on this team relatively easily.
That was longwinded and probably tl;dr. But yeah.
I've been playing with this actual team for the past week, and I do like it. My only gripes with it currently is how generic it feels, and partially the reason I'm posting here, in hopes that someone could shed some light on what I'm doing wrong and open up more options.
Swampert @ Leftovers
Nature: Impish, EVs: 252Def/252HP/4Atk
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Stealth Rock
Protect
standard EVs
I'm not entirely crazy at using a slow lead as I'm vulnerable to several anti-leads, but Swampert as a whole meshes very well with my team I think. Being able to tank a good amount of hits and encouraging the opposing team to switch into more specially based pokes, racking up entry hazard damage.
Earthquake for STAB.
Stone Edge I think compliments Earthquake very well, as the majority who resist or immune ground take at least neutral damage to stone edge (netting quite a few super effectives as well) ice beam and surf (on a more specially mixed spread) were considering over stone edge, but I felt that stone edge complimented my team far more than surf and ice beam, and the +1 crit rate is a nice insurance on a pokemon with otherwise weak attack.
SR is pretty self explanatory.
Protect to scout all those nasty pokemon hiding grass knots and HP grass, as well as making that suicide lead think twice when up against my protect. Helps scout opponents pokemon for choice items or physical/special sets to help my decision in switching to a more appropriate wall if necessary. Also helps leftovers.
Skarmory @ Leftovers (considering shed shell but rest of my team tends to deal well with magnezone anyways..)
Nature: Impish, EVs: 252HP/200Def/40Atk/16Spe
Brave Bird
Roost
Spikes
Whirlwind
EVs pretty standard here as well. Invested in a bit more defense over attack due to low speed makes roost difficult to actually pull off against a good deal of these physical beasts who just barely 2HKO me (with SR) with Smogon's recommended EV spread, or if I need to get in long enough to whirlwind away SD or DD.
Skarms is the physical wall. Physical thunder and fire threats are easily handled when complimented with Swampert. He plays his role well I think, resisting nearly every physical hit that my somewhat paper team would have trouble with otherwise. Also full immunity to ground is gladly welcomed, as both nape and lucario take super effective to it (and Blissey for specially based earth damage) Also sets up entry hazards to help budge the priority moves on my team a little better for easy lategame sweeps.
Brave Bird for lack of attack for when I actually have to attack with Skarms, which is like never, but it's welcomed.
Roost self explanatory.
Spikes work with SR for entry hazards. Spinners are mad annoying, and I'm not entirely sure how to deal with them. Starmie with thunderbolt scares the crap out of skarms, which will force the switch to most likely Blissey, as choice specs starmie really would rather not get hit with a thunderbolt on the switch, or it simply gets a free rapid spin in which spikes (and SR) are removed. I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this without putting a Ttar or Scizor on this team, in which case I mine as well just build it around sandstorm (as 3 of 6 pokes already resist sandstorm)
Whirlwind is used more often than Brave Bird, lol. Steady damage against a lot of the OU threats that otherwise resist either flying or have heavy defense EVs if you can start dragging their helpless walls onto the field for a respectable chunk of damage. I think this works well as a lot of Skarms' switchins are very predictable and almost begging to be hit for free whirlwinds.
Blissey @ Leftovers
Nature: Calm, EVs: 252Def/120SpA/136SpD
Natural Cure
Seismic Toss
Thunder Wave
Ice Beam
Softboiled
EVs are generic. I'm pretty much running charmbliss spread with diversebliss set. It works well, as this Blissey is specifically here to absorb special hits and rack up entry hazard damage.
It's great to know I have something like this on my team to help stall and absorb hits for my otherwise specially-paper team, but if there was one pokemon on this team I felt didn't belong, it'd be Blissey. I'm not too concerned with her being seen as setup fodder with the help of thunderwave and Skarm's likelyhood of switching in to phaze the likely physical switchin to Blissey. I don't know, she doesn't seem to work with this team very well, and feels a bit too weak. I'm heavily considering switching a specially bulky Latias instead of Blissey, as she perfectly resists or immunes all of my pokemon's weaknesses sans Starmie (and flying on Infernape but who uses flying >_>) At the moment, the only thing really holding me back is that Latias and Starmie share the same near weaknesses, and as Starmie is currently my only real special sweeper on this team, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with having both my special wall and special sweeper weak to bug, ghost, and dark; all 3 types being used by either fast pokes or used in the form of priority or pursuit. I know this isn't really part of a RMT but I just thought I'd throw my thoughts out there.
Seismic Toss is straightforward. Guaranteed good damage. With spikes and stealth rock up it seems to really put both Jolteon or Electivire in a bind when they come in expecting t wave. Also nice, consistant damage is always welcomed.
Thunder Wave, while dangerous and somewhat too predictable on Blissey, I still think is effective later on in the game, when you get a more general feel of what your opponent's team looks like and whether or not using t wave will severely ruin your strategy or waste the turn altogether to electric immunities
Ice Beam is self explanatory
Softboiled is self explanatory
Infernape @ Life Orb (I feel like this is out of place for the purpose I'm running nape, but I like the damage output too much to change it)
Nature: Hasty, EVs 232Atk/84SpA/192Spe
U-turn
Overheat
Mach Punch
Close Combat
Again, EVs are fairly straightforward for this set. Invested in more SpA over Atk to help maximize Overheat damage on pokes who switch into this set expecting a physically based set.
I do like Nape on this team a lot. My only bane with him right now is that he's the only poke on my team that takes normal SR damage and doesn't harbor leftovers. Between life orb and SR damage I kind of feel like I'm not reaping the benefits as much as I should with him. Anyways, does a fairly good job at scouting with u-turn, and when used in conjunction with Swampert's protect, I feel like I'll get a good read on my team before I walk into the more subtle move counters my team has. High atk EVs and life orb make it a pain to deal with his hit and run nature as well, I've found. Has use in both early and late game; U-turn scouting early on and a priority move coupled with very heavy hitting STAB physical and special attacks for lategame.
U-turn, as stated above, is a great scout. Deals potent damage while allowing me to switch into one of my 3 respective walls.
Mach Punch, might look weird on a set with Close Combat as well, but I absolutely love the move. Priority STAB move on a heavy attack EV spread in a game where spikes and SR will be present in the majority of games, and a decent amount of people who do resist SR damage take super effective from mach punch. A very necessary revenge killer for my team I think against scarved pokes, while resisting or outspeeding most, if not all, priority moves as well.
Close Combat and Overheat are two incredibly powerful STAB moves, and being used lategame against spikes+stealth rock damaged opponents (speaking in a common scenario) has just been wrecking for me, especially with U-turn to deal consistant damage while refreshing any stat loss.
Starmie @ Choice Specs
Nature: Timid, EVs: 252SpA, 4HP, 252Spe
Natural Cure
Surf
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Grass Knot
EVs are super generic.
I honestly haven't been playing with choice specs starmie nearly as long as the rest of my team, so I'm not sure what I want to do with it. The games I have played I think I was wishing I had scarf over specs, as scarfed opponents shut down Starmie really well. Very versatile in it's movepool, I just think a modest nature with choice scarf would be a superior build for this team. Not sure though. Specs makes it quite the powerhouse and does terrifying damage to anything that can possibly switch into it.
Surf is basic STAB. Scares while dealing heavy damage to anything that doesn't resist it, pretty nice.
Thunderbolt is self explanatory
Ice Beam self explanatory
Grass Knot, lol swampert.
Lucario @ Life Orb
Nature: Jolly, EVs 252Atk/4Def/252Spe
Inner Focus
Swords Dance
Close Combat
Crunch
Extremespeed
EVs aren't anything special. If it hasn't been obvious by now, I'm much more concerned over speed than I am attack. Being outsped is a ***** and higher speed just means easier to set up SD from my experience. I'm not really sure if I like running two Life Orbs on a team that needs to at least stall in the beginning of the match, if there are ideas floating for either Lucario or Infernape I'm definitely all ears.
Swords dance is self explanatory
Close Combat is self explanatory
Crunch deals with especially Latias, Cresselia, and (rapid spinner) starmies.
Extremespeed is a neat little move. priority move; something I like to begin with, coupled with another priority move (Infernape mach punch) that hits everything ES is resisted against for (mostly) supereffective damage. At worst, neutral. Ghost seems to be the only problem with this, but then Blissey can easily roll in and just do her think. I think between these three, and maybe Starmie, I can stop any sweeping attempt on this team relatively easily.
That was longwinded and probably tl;dr. But yeah.
) is a bit of a waste. Consider psychic instead of thunderbolt or grass knot. In fact, between your other moves, neither of those moves cover much.
