this is my most successful team and has netted me the most wins. it has no weather, and no old ubers that are unbanned but clearly still broken, such as latios and several forms of deoxys. this team mostly shys away from the trends that have settled in gen 5 and probably will seem weird to you guys that are even familiar with gen 4 trends.
azelf @ focus sash
Levitate
Timid
4 hp 252 spatk 252 spd
-stealth rock
-taunt
-psychic
-u-turn
ok so here we go, my lead of choice is azelf. you'll see why later but this team pretty heavily relies on entry hazards not being up and taunt azelf is my first step to seeing to that. psychic is for a stab move to do decent damage to most things. u-turn is to scout a switch or spam on erufuun leads trying to leech stall early. u-turn isnt meant to do much of damage so no atk evs and a - nature im fine with.
starmie @ life orb
Natural Cure
Timid
4 hp 252 spatk 252 spd
-hydro pump
-thunderbolt
-ice beam
-rapid spin
my second step to making sure hazards are off the field. hydro pump is for a very powerful stab as base 100 with a neutral nature is a rather modest stat (no pun intended). although its coverage and the power in hydro pump can mainly make up for it. starmie can take care of alot of threats although is walled by nattorei and can only hit neutrally with ice beam which is laughable to nattorei. fortunately with about everything else i have nattorei covered so i dont care much. although i theory some starmie will start carrying hp fire for it and i wouldnt blame them lol.
sazandora @ life orb
Levitate
Timid
4 hp 252 spatk 252 spd
-dragon pulse
-fire blast
-dark pulse
-focus blast
coverage really doesnt get much better than that. 2 very well known combinations of type attacks in one set, 1 of each combo coming from stab, then others being base 120 off the bat. not only does this have impeccable coverage but is had good enough defenses do survive nearly any non-stab super effective move. 92/90/90 is pretty good and can last it quite a while. unfortunately its speed just barely misses out on being quite good and is set at base 98. this guy can do away with alot of common walls not named blissey with a SE move, such as nattorei, burungeru, and skarmory. and things like gliscor and hippowdown can be taken care of with dragon pulse.
hihidaruma @ choice scarf
Encourage
Jolly
252 atk 4 def 252 spd
-flare blitz
-earthquake
-rockslide
-u-turn
for those that dont know what encourage does yet, its own, and hihidaruma is one of its greatest benefactors. it boosts the power of moves with a chance of a secondary effect by 1.3, but nullifies the secondary effect. such as flare blitz's burn, rock slides flinch, or something like icepunches freeze. mostly special moves benefit from this and an absolutely huge benefactor on that spectrum is nidoking but thats for another time. also if an encourage user is holding life orb, and you use a move that benefits from encourage, you do not get life orb recoil. a pretty great ability and maybe one of the best this gen. anyway, that being said, hihidarumas flare blitz is insanely powerful. coming of base 140 attack and 97 speed this guy begs for a choice item. choice scarf benefits my team more than anything else and hihidaruma himself as well. earthquake is mainly for heatrans and tyranitars looking to eat my flare blitz. rock slide is now more powerful and more accurate than stone edge, hitting at 112.5 power and 90 accuracy. anyway u-turn is there because things like nattorei, scizor, forretress skarmory and the like will flee for their lives when this guy comes out, so i can switch for free and go to an appropriate counter for what comes out. i really like this pokemon and his ability to hit like a truck and outspeed alot of things is pretty fantastic.
he's also my first reason why hazards cant be up. a scarfer weak to rocks is pretty bad, especially when its main move is a recoil move.
Staraptor @ choice scarf
Reckless
Jolly
4hp 252 atk 252 spd
-brave bird
-return
-close combat
-u-turn
reckless staraptor, BOOM! this guy, can kill so many things with reckless brave bird. Latias is 1hkod by it with stealth rocks up, and i dont even know if it wouldnt without it up. nattorei is 2hkod on the switch in. as is jolteon obviously who might try to come in and survive 1, and kill with thunderbolt, only to die to my second one because im scarfed. most steels and rocks will hesistate to switch into this knowing i more than likely carry close combat as well. defensive zapdos is a real bitch to this set because rarely do i lock myself into return. what with shandera running around i dont want to lock myself into return really ever. as i will be trapped and killed while putting no damage onto something im faster than and could ohko with the right move, i dont like taking the risk. hihidaruma and staraptor are invaluable to my team and i really cant afford to let them die early on. staraptor is my second reason rocks cannot be up being another scarfer weak to it with a heavy recoil move (reckless doesnt really up the recoil that much to where its incredibly noticeable so dont think youll take yourself out very easily).
Dageki @ salac berry
Sturdy
Adamant
4 hp 252 atk 252 spd
-close combat
-payback
-stone edge
-revearsal
sturdy is now a built in focus sash. acting as most people thought it would at first when first reading its description. most revearsal sweepers had to waste a spot on endure, and be faster than whoever it was setting up on in order to get set up. close combat and sturdy have great synch together as after 1 close combat dageki will be brought down to sturdy by mostly any nonresisted and ready to thrown around revearsals from 383 attack and 403 speed. it is a problem that payback is almost useless after a salac boost but is useful against something that can take it down to sturdy such as shandera or alakazam or the latis. my 3rd reason hazards cant be up on the field as it will be hard to execute my main strategy if this guy cant come in at full health. this is my one shot at a dory counter because i can be brought down to sturdy, kill dory, and die from sandstorm. i havent really picked out counters for weather teams and such because i really didnt feel like building a team to counter other teams, and i really just wanted to make my own team.
so rate, tell me what u think, any suggestions as far as anything goes i can take and might use so its all welcome.
azelf @ focus sash
Levitate
Timid
4 hp 252 spatk 252 spd
-stealth rock
-taunt
-psychic
-u-turn
ok so here we go, my lead of choice is azelf. you'll see why later but this team pretty heavily relies on entry hazards not being up and taunt azelf is my first step to seeing to that. psychic is for a stab move to do decent damage to most things. u-turn is to scout a switch or spam on erufuun leads trying to leech stall early. u-turn isnt meant to do much of damage so no atk evs and a - nature im fine with.
starmie @ life orb
Natural Cure
Timid
4 hp 252 spatk 252 spd
-hydro pump
-thunderbolt
-ice beam
-rapid spin
my second step to making sure hazards are off the field. hydro pump is for a very powerful stab as base 100 with a neutral nature is a rather modest stat (no pun intended). although its coverage and the power in hydro pump can mainly make up for it. starmie can take care of alot of threats although is walled by nattorei and can only hit neutrally with ice beam which is laughable to nattorei. fortunately with about everything else i have nattorei covered so i dont care much. although i theory some starmie will start carrying hp fire for it and i wouldnt blame them lol.
sazandora @ life orb
Levitate
Timid
4 hp 252 spatk 252 spd
-dragon pulse
-fire blast
-dark pulse
-focus blast
coverage really doesnt get much better than that. 2 very well known combinations of type attacks in one set, 1 of each combo coming from stab, then others being base 120 off the bat. not only does this have impeccable coverage but is had good enough defenses do survive nearly any non-stab super effective move. 92/90/90 is pretty good and can last it quite a while. unfortunately its speed just barely misses out on being quite good and is set at base 98. this guy can do away with alot of common walls not named blissey with a SE move, such as nattorei, burungeru, and skarmory. and things like gliscor and hippowdown can be taken care of with dragon pulse.
hihidaruma @ choice scarf
Encourage
Jolly
252 atk 4 def 252 spd
-flare blitz
-earthquake
-rockslide
-u-turn
for those that dont know what encourage does yet, its own, and hihidaruma is one of its greatest benefactors. it boosts the power of moves with a chance of a secondary effect by 1.3, but nullifies the secondary effect. such as flare blitz's burn, rock slides flinch, or something like icepunches freeze. mostly special moves benefit from this and an absolutely huge benefactor on that spectrum is nidoking but thats for another time. also if an encourage user is holding life orb, and you use a move that benefits from encourage, you do not get life orb recoil. a pretty great ability and maybe one of the best this gen. anyway, that being said, hihidarumas flare blitz is insanely powerful. coming of base 140 attack and 97 speed this guy begs for a choice item. choice scarf benefits my team more than anything else and hihidaruma himself as well. earthquake is mainly for heatrans and tyranitars looking to eat my flare blitz. rock slide is now more powerful and more accurate than stone edge, hitting at 112.5 power and 90 accuracy. anyway u-turn is there because things like nattorei, scizor, forretress skarmory and the like will flee for their lives when this guy comes out, so i can switch for free and go to an appropriate counter for what comes out. i really like this pokemon and his ability to hit like a truck and outspeed alot of things is pretty fantastic.
he's also my first reason why hazards cant be up. a scarfer weak to rocks is pretty bad, especially when its main move is a recoil move.
Staraptor @ choice scarf
Reckless
Jolly
4hp 252 atk 252 spd
-brave bird
-return
-close combat
-u-turn
reckless staraptor, BOOM! this guy, can kill so many things with reckless brave bird. Latias is 1hkod by it with stealth rocks up, and i dont even know if it wouldnt without it up. nattorei is 2hkod on the switch in. as is jolteon obviously who might try to come in and survive 1, and kill with thunderbolt, only to die to my second one because im scarfed. most steels and rocks will hesistate to switch into this knowing i more than likely carry close combat as well. defensive zapdos is a real bitch to this set because rarely do i lock myself into return. what with shandera running around i dont want to lock myself into return really ever. as i will be trapped and killed while putting no damage onto something im faster than and could ohko with the right move, i dont like taking the risk. hihidaruma and staraptor are invaluable to my team and i really cant afford to let them die early on. staraptor is my second reason rocks cannot be up being another scarfer weak to it with a heavy recoil move (reckless doesnt really up the recoil that much to where its incredibly noticeable so dont think youll take yourself out very easily).
Dageki @ salac berry
Sturdy
Adamant
4 hp 252 atk 252 spd
-close combat
-payback
-stone edge
-revearsal
sturdy is now a built in focus sash. acting as most people thought it would at first when first reading its description. most revearsal sweepers had to waste a spot on endure, and be faster than whoever it was setting up on in order to get set up. close combat and sturdy have great synch together as after 1 close combat dageki will be brought down to sturdy by mostly any nonresisted and ready to thrown around revearsals from 383 attack and 403 speed. it is a problem that payback is almost useless after a salac boost but is useful against something that can take it down to sturdy such as shandera or alakazam or the latis. my 3rd reason hazards cant be up on the field as it will be hard to execute my main strategy if this guy cant come in at full health. this is my one shot at a dory counter because i can be brought down to sturdy, kill dory, and die from sandstorm. i havent really picked out counters for weather teams and such because i really didnt feel like building a team to counter other teams, and i really just wanted to make my own team.
so rate, tell me what u think, any suggestions as far as anything goes i can take and might use so its all welcome.
