slant Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Full Throttle Team At A Glance: Introduction: Sup dudes. Most of you may know me as a stall player but today I'm going to showcase my hyper offense team. My opinion is that stall is not a viable playstyle anymore (with the exception of Rin's stall team that has dominated the ladder). Even in BW there were too many offensive threats for a stall team to handle; with the arrival of the new generation it is even more so. My team is simply a group of the most threatening sweepers in the tier (some which are clearly overpowered). All these sweepers have some way of breaking through the premier walls through sheer muscle power (e.g. Skarmory vs physical sweepers and Chansey vs special sweepers). Since teams typically carry at most one physical and one special wall, once those walls are worn down by my sweepers, the rest of the team tends to crumble against my attack. The majority of my sweepers are physical, putting tremendous pressure on the lone physical wall that the opponent tends to have. Heavy offense teams are attractive in that there is not a lot of reliance on prediction, or hax. In fact, most games can simply be won on autopilot; the way heavy offense usually plays is to do as much damage as possible with one sweeper, sacrifice it, then rinse and repeat with the next one. Most teams can barely handle one or two sweepers - a team of five sweepers is overkill. That's pretty much the gameplan here: Step 1: Set up some hazards with Deoxys-S. Step 2: After previous team member is dead, bring in a sweeper that threatens the opposing pokemon and attempt to sweep. Step 3: Repeat step 2 until your opponent is dead. The Team: Deoxys-S @ Rocky Helmet Trait: Pressure EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Stealth Rock - Spikes - Taunt - Magic Coat Deoxys's ridiculous speed and movepool make it a prime candidate for a lead on an HO team. The main role for this guy is to set up as many hazards as possible; with its evs invested in HP it is suprisingly durable and frequently able to get down two layers of hazards. Taunt is obviously to stop other hazard setters from getting them up, this is crucial since the rest of my team does not like Stealth Rock that much, while magic coat is used in order to deal with pranksters and some other bullshit that I can't remember off the top of my head. You can probably also move some speed EVs into defense but honestly I'm not sure how much is needed to ensure I outspeed everything I need to. I want to point out two things before moving on: (1) the only chance my opponent has to set up hazards is in the beginning of the match against Deoxys. This team is so high-pressure that if my opponent wastes a turn setting up hazards later, that also gives me an opportunity to set up and sweep. (2) In the case that I get rocks and 3 layers of spikes up, at this point I have pretty much sealed my opponent's fate. HO teams tend to cause plenty of switches, and once everything is around 50% or 60%, any one of my sweepers can easily blow through a weakened team. Azumarill (F) @ Mystic Water Trait: Huge Power EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Aqua Jet - Belly Drum - Play Rough - Waterfall Next up is the weakest link on my team. Most of the time it is dead weight, but I like to keep it around just to deal with dragons. I remember back in BW I was terrified of shit like DD roost Dragonite and CM roost Latias, but not anymore! It also makes a decent revenge killer in a pinch but often misses the KO by like 1% or 2%, which is just so frustrating. Belly drum is a risky move to use, but if you manage to get it off then you've pretty much won the game (one trick I've learned is to switch it in on a dragon's outrage for a free belly drum). All in all, this is my team's only pivot, and only pokemon that is bulky enough to take a hit. Talonflame (M) @ Sharp Beak Trait: Gale Wings EVs: 192 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 60 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Swords Dance - Brave Bird - Flare Blitz - Roost Damn this bird is good. Priority brave bird is nothing to sneeze at, and can tear through teams like tissue paper, even with no swords dance boost. Flying type is such a great attacking type. The main counter to flying attacks are from steel types, which in turn get hit hard by a STAB flare blitz. The speed EVs used are to outspeed Excadrill, the fastest steel pokemon that threatens Talonflame, while the remainder of the EVs are used to max out attack and then add to bulk a little bit. Honestly I have never used roost before, but I guess the option is there just in case. I would also consider trying u-turn over roost just to nab some extra momentum, but again 99.9% of the time I either use brave bird or flare blitz. Off the top of my head there are like 3 counters to this thing: Tyranitar, Rotom-W, and Heatran. Tyranitar and Heatran are handled extremely well by Blaziken or Pinsir, while Rotom-W is hit hard by most of the team. Rotom's poor bulk means that even though it resists Talonflame's attacks, it gets worn down quite easily, taking around 50% damage from a +2 brave bird. Blaziken (F) @ Life Orb Trait: Speed Boost EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Swords Dance - Protect - High Jump Kick - Flare Blitz So what happens after your team has been softened up a little bit? That's right, Blaziken comes out and stomps your entire team in the face. Flare blitz and hi jump kick form an awesome attacking combo, hitting almost everything for neutral damage. The only exceptions I can think of are Latias and Dragonite, and those guys are handled nicely by Azumarill. The set itself is pretty standard, I chose to go with adamant nature over jolly since I need the extra juice for Blaziken to sweep outright without even needing a turn to set up. Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Prankster EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Substitute - Nasty Plot - Thunderbolt - Focus Blast This guy is my only special attacker, and also doubles as my anti-stall pokemon. Substitute keeps it safe from status, while it can easily set up on assholes that try to wall me like SubToxic Gliscor, Harvest Trevenant, Chansey, etc. I don't miss HP Ice at all since the only thing I would really need for it to hit is Gliscor, but most Gliscor I meet are the subtoxic variants that lack ice fang, giving me free rein to set up. Seriously this guy is broken, its typing gives it some key resistances, while still being able to set up and beat Chansey one-on-one. Pinsir (M) @ Pinsirite Trait: Mold Breaker EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Swords Dance - Return - Quick Attack - Earthquake Here's my obligatory mega pokemon. I pretty much added this guy on a lark but now I've changed my tune. Pinsir is an AMAZING late game cleaner, with just the right combination of bulk, speed, and power to pull out a win. Note that in its mega form, Return and Quick Attack become flying attacks, giving it STAB and superior coverage against my opponent's pokemon, while its speed is slightly higher than Garchomp's. For the steel types and rock types that resist return, Pinsir can hit them super effectively with earthquake. The only exceptions are Rotom-W and Skarmory (which are again handled by the rest of the team). I usually save this guy for the end, and by this time steel types should have been eliminated thanks to my team members, giving him a chance to go for a clean sweep. Quick attack does a surprising amount of damage after a swords dance, and also is my answer to opposing Blazikens. Conclusion: HO is a very powerful playstyle and with XY it got even better. With so many threats, no defensive team should be able to patch up all its weaknesses, and this team is just about finding and exploiting the weaknesses of your opponent until their team crumbles. Honestly like I said in the introduction, a player should be able to win matches on autopilot with this team, just keep sacrificing and sweeping. If you haven't tried out HO, I encourage you to give this team a whirl, and please rate/hate/steal. Importable: Deoxys-S @ Rocky Helmet Trait: Pressure EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Stealth Rock - Spikes - Taunt - Magic Coat Pinsir (M) @ Pinsirite Trait: Mold Breaker EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Swords Dance - Return - Quick Attack - Earthquake Talonflame (M) @ Sharp Beak Trait: Gale Wings EVs: 192 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 60 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Swords Dance - Brave Bird - Flare Blitz - Roost Blaziken (F) @ Life Orb Trait: Speed Boost EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Swords Dance - Protect - High Jump Kick - Flare Blitz Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Prankster EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Substitute - Nasty Plot - Thunderbolt - Focus Blast Azumarill (F) @ Mystic Water Trait: Huge Power EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Aqua Jet - Belly Drum - Play Rough - Waterfall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamina Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Off the top of my head i cannot really find much threats to your team except maybe opposing talonflames. As long as you keep thundorus and azumarill at a high hp it should not be much of a problem. As for walls this team counters almost all of them dx though quagsire might pose a slight problem since all of your pokemon rely on boost from sd/bd/np but if you get hazards up I'm sure you should be able to 2 hit ko it with all the pokemon you have. all in all nice team! Edit: give blazakin 4 def hp instead of hp in the unlikely event in which you miss 2 high jump kicks in a row. You will still survive with 1 hp (if no stealth rocks damage) and less stealth rock damage and better against prioirity moves which is generally physical in nature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magus Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Hyper offense teams are always fun, until you get walled by gliscor or skarmary. Personally, I like to run a sun hyper offense team, but this is something I would not like to face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomas Elliot Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 I am always doubtful about HO teams, specially when they rely on outright uber Pokemon that are banned in every universe where common sense has arrived, except Reborn. This being said, I would really recommend the Choice Band set on Azu over the Belly Drum one, simply because your only anti-hazard tactic is a shaky one (Magic Bounce on a Psychic Pokemon, a broken one but still a Psychic one, which you are using without attacking moves: Ttar can easily Crunch you to death and set up SR later...) and given that, as you said, Azu is the only Pokemon that can take a hit and thus is likely to be switched in (for example into opposing Talonflames which attempt to take on your Blaziken), having to rely on a move that takes away half of your HPs to attempt a sweep is not that wise of an idea imo. Also because after using Belly Drum once, specially if it previously took damage from hazards, it is left wide open to a revenge kill from the very Talonflame it is supposed to wall/revenge/take on... So yeah, run CB Azu over Belly Drum Azu. And hope that hostile common sense from space never lands on Reborn. These are my advices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJMistery Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Hyper offense teams are always fun, until you get walled by gliscor or skarmary. Personally, I like to run a sun hyper offense team, but this is something I would not like to face. if you hate bieng waled by these guys, run Mamoswine and Magnezone, respectively, that pair shares the M of Murder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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