slant Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 Mostly Harmless Team at a Glance: Introduction: Wow, I haven't done an RMT in a while! Anyways thanks for stopping by, and bear with me as I try to shake the cobwebs. Today I'm presenting a team that I've been testing for a few days that seems pretty solid and a ton of fun to play. Basically I began by asking myself, 'which pokemon have pretty much no counters?' I came up with specs Latios and specs Heatran, and decided to build my team around that. The end result is a balanced weatherless team, with a defensive core of Skarmory and Chansey (and sometimes Latias), offensive pivots in Latios, Heatran, and Excadrill, and a late game sweeper in CM Latias. This team hasn't been 'stress tested' as much as my others, so I invite any and all critiques here. Team In Detail: Skarmory (M) @ Shed Shell Trait: Sturdy EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk) - Stealth Rock - Roost - Brave Bird - Whirlwind I guess I'll talk about the boring pokemon first. Kicking off the team is Skarmory. Everyone knows what this guy does, but for the sake of completeness I'll say something anyways. This guy is my physical wall and my sand counter, easily sponging physical moves that face the rest of the team. He is my lead and can easily get up rocks first turn against lead Tyranitar, as well as my main counter to dragon dancers etc. Yeah I know he's not the best lead, but he's the closest thing to it on this team. Against rain/sun teams I typically have to switch out first turn and lose the momentum, which isn't that great, but oh well. I chose to give it stealth rock instead of spikes, since there really was no need for spikes - this team is more offensive, so I can't waste the time laying three spikes layers. In addition, all I really need from my hazards is to break focus sashes, since the damage output from my other team members is pretty ridiculous. Roles: Physical wall, sand counter. Chansey (F) @ Eviolite Trait: Natural Cure EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Seismic Toss - Wish - Softboiled - Sunny Day Boring old Chansey is a special wall (durrrrr) but is also no slouch at taking physical attacks either, really being only afraid of strong fighting moves. Obviously the other half of the SkarmBliss core, Chansey easily sponges the special attacks that threaten my team otherwise. Chansey really is the backbone of my team; in addition to tanking, it also wishpasses, keeping my team healthy. Chansey is also critical in supporting Heatran: wishpasses allow Heatran to stay at full health, powering up overheat, while Sunny Day is used to power up Heatran some more. Without it, Heatran is next to useless against a rain team. Latios also appreciates wishpasses a lot, since I tend to switch it in midgame against resistances to fire off draco meteors. Even forgetting about Heatran, Sunny Day is a great move on Chansey. It kills the momentum of any team that throws away their weather inducer after scouting my team, and with Chansey's amazing bulk, it is so easy to get off. Roles: Wall, wishpasser. Latios (M) @ Choice Specs Trait: Levitate EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Draco Meteor - Trick - Surf - Psyshock Specs Latios is a beast. Almost everything succumbs to the sheer power of draco meteor. There are really only a handful of counters to this thing - some steel pokemon, and Chansey. To illustrate how destructive this thing is, it 2HKOs standard CB Scizor with draco meteor, and 2HKOs Blissey with Psyshock. If I predict correctly, Latios can cripple almost every single pokemon, and can trick the pokemon that really give it trouble in a pinch. Even without specs, Latios hits pretty hard so it's not a big loss. I use Latios as a mid-game offensive pivot. With all the resistances that its typing gives, I find it really easy to switch Latios in and wreck something with Draco Meteor. If it gets worn down, I use Chansey to heal it back up. Latios also has nice synergy with Heatran thanks to the dragon-steel typing. Latios can take the water/ground/fighting moves aimed at Heatran and retaliate with Draco Meteor, while Heatran can take ice/dark/ghost moves and retaliate with overheat or flamethrower. Roles: Wallbreaker, weather counter. Heatran (M) @ Choice Specs Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk) - Overheat - Flamethrower - Earth Power - Dragon Pulse Woo Heatran. It has the same destructive power as Latios, but different typing, so this entry will be basically repeating a lot of the stuff I just said for Latios. Overheat just kills everything that's not Heatran or Tyranitar. Period. Even Blissey takes upwards of 50% from a specs overheat, meaning that it is pretty feasible that Blissey can be beaten by Heatran if it is worn down a little. If my Chansey manages to set up the sun, then Heatran becomes even more destructive, even having the power to OHKO bulky dragons. Of course, if you are predicting that an effective counter to this Heatran is coming in, you can easily attack with a coverage move: earth power in particular will cripple or destroy any Tyranitar, Terrakion, or Heatran that are switching in to ruin your day. Finally as I said above, Heatran synergizes well with Latios, ensuring that I am constantly able to fire off a powerful choice-specs backed stab attack. One final note - most people tend to assume that Heatran is the specially defensive variant (since I guess that's what most people run these days) so there is a surprise factor that sometimes works to my advantage here. Roles: Wallbreaker, weather counter. Excadrill (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Mold Breaker EVs: 176 HP / 60 Atk / 252 SDef / 20 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Rapid Spin - Earthquake - Rock Slide - Swords Dance I'm on the fence about Excadrill. In some matches, it is the MVP, in other matches, it is close to useless. The evs are taken from Smogon and allow Excadrill to be a bulky special wall, taking hits that the standard Excadrill cannot. Against offensive teams, Excadrill tends to be dead weight, being hampered by crippling fighting, ground, and water weaknesses. However, it really shines against defensive teams. It loves to switch in freely on defensive spikes stackers such as Ferrothorn, Forretress, or Skarmory, and from there, get off a rapid spin. Late game, I always have the option of going for a sweep (don't forget that Mold Breaker Excadrill hits common levitators such as Rotom and Latias!). Overall, Excadrill brings some great resistances (including my only resistance to rock) and solid bulk to the table, in addition to rapid spinning capabilities and occasionally acts as a sweeper. Roles: Spinner, late game sweeper, ferrothorn/forretress/skarmory counter. Latias (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Levitate EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Calm Mind - Dragon Pulse - Substitute - Roost Once everything has been worn down by the rest of the team, Latias administers the coup de grace. Against unprepared teams, it easily can get six calm minds under its belt and proceed to sweep. A lot of people think that anything with ice beam can counter Latias, but honestly it is so bulky that against unstabbed ice moves, it just does not take enough damage to stop it. During midgame, I also bring out Latias quite often, since it is just such a fabulous counter to top-tier threats, such as (for example) Keldeo, Landorus, and Blaziken and just a great all-around weather counter. Roles: Weather counter, late game sweeper. Conclusion/Threatlist The game plan is simple: keep Latios and Heatran healthy with wish, and blast away with overheat and draco meteor, and finally during the late game sweep with Latias. Overall the team is designed to minimize prediction - the list of counters to specs Latios and Heatran are so small that usually I am just mindlessly clicking away at their stab moves. The typing in this team is great, boasting at least one resistance to each type, and in most cases I have three or more resistances. Since no single type gives me too much trouble, I'll just talk about how this team matches up versus different team archetypes. Overall the team fares well against rain and sun teams - the Lati twins and Chansey can easily sponge boosted attack from both weathers, while in addition Heatran easily wrecks sun teams. Sand teams are a bit harder to face though, since Tyranitar can pursuit trap the Lati twins and resists Heatran's overheat. However, with a bit of prediction and careful play it should not be too big of a problem. Stall teams are also a bit annoying to face but honestly no team enjoys facing stall. I think that Excadrill's rapid spin + swords dance combination is a great deterrent against spike stackers, and Latios can also cripple a wall with trick. Thanks for reading and any criticism is welcome! Importable Skarmory (M) @ Shed Shell Trait: Sturdy EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk) - Stealth Rock - Roost - Brave Bird - Whirlwind Latios (M) @ Choice Specs Trait: Levitate EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Draco Meteor - Trick - Surf - Psyshock Latias (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Levitate EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Calm Mind - Dragon Pulse - Substitute - Roost Chansey (F) @ Eviolite Trait: Natural Cure EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Seismic Toss - Wish - Softboiled - Sunny Day Excadrill (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Mold Breaker EVs: 176 HP / 60 Atk / 252 SDef / 20 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Rapid Spin - Earthquake - Rock Slide - Swords Dance Heatran (M) @ Choice Specs Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk) - Overheat - Flamethrower - Earth Power - Dragon Pulse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedron Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 You need a ghost type. Literally ANY ghost type. Skarm w/o leftovers get 2hkoed by banded terrakion and every time you go into chansey to wall a special attacker your opp can just throw out terrakion again and kill something else. Get a ghost pokemon, SE isn't a problem because excadrill, but you need something to take Banded CC 252 Atk Choice Band Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 166-196 (49.7 - 58.68%) -- 71.09% chance to 2HKO (166, 168, 169, 172, 174, 175, 178, 180, 181, 184, 186, 187, 190, 192, 193, 196)71.09% chance to lose the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.