So, I've been playing pokemon since RBY, but I've only recently been getting into competitive battling. Well, to be more specific, I've only recently begun participating in competitive battling. I would read about movesets and strategies constantly during Gen IV and with Gen V upon us I decided to take advantage of the new and unexplored world where everyone is on near equal footing. I beat my copy of White back in September and I've been playing on PO for two months. Here's my team at a glance:
Roopushin, Jirachi and Espeon have been on my team since the beginning. Everyone else is new and I've been doing a lot of switching and experimenting since October. My team is by no means finalized as there are one or two I want to replace. This is really just where I stand now. But let's take a look at what I'm currently using.
Scizor@Choice Band
Technician
Adamant 252 HP / 252 At / 4 Df
~Bullet Punch
~Pursuit
~Superpower
~U-Turn
Standard Scizor is standard. Having used a Kojondo for sometime as a scout I'm always impressed at the sheer difference in power in their U-Turns. Goes to show what STAB and Band can do. My Scizor is a lead because, frankly, I don't have much else that's better to use. I need the HP bulk for switch ins, but sometimes you can't U-Turn fast enough. Also, so many things carry HP Fire these days I keep getting KO'd from unexpected places. Effectiveness has been mixed, but the potential is there.
Roopushin@Leftovers
Guts
Adamant 68 HP / 192 At / 248 SpD
~Bulk Up
~Drain Punch
~Mach Punch
~Stone Edge
This is the wrecking ball of my team. I'm proud to be able to say I've been using this guy before he became so standard lol. He used to single handedly sweep teams back when A)people tried to burn you all the time, and B) people didn't have many good checks. Roopushin singlehandedly walks over the Nattorei/Burungeru combo unless they do something highly unorthdox like double Protect Toxic stall. The EVs seem strange but they have a purpose. Magic lefties number, 400 Attack, and enough SpD to survive Scarfdera Overheat. Stone Edge has much better coverage over Payback as most Ghosts are KO'd by it anyway and you shouldn't stay in on STAB Psychic anyway. Meanwhile you can now actually take on many flying type pokemon.
Espeon@Light Clay
Magic Mirror
Timid 80 HP / 176 Df / 252 Spd
~Reflect
~Calm Mind
~Psychic
~Baton Pass
You know, I've always liked Espeon since I evolved my Eevee way back in the original Silver. But now, thanks to one simple ability, it's entire role as well as the metagame is forever changed. Magic Mirror is godly. If Luvdisc alone had it I wouldn't be surprised if it became OU. Espeon's stats don't unfortunately compliment it's new supportive role. Such a shame that 130 SpA has to go to waste. I used to run dual screens and max SpA but I'm experimenting with a BP set and more bulk. Speed is still important to ensure you can get your support moves off.
Vaporeon@Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold 124 HP / 252 Df / 132 SpD
~Boil Over
~Toxic
~Hail
~Wish
Gliscor needed a good pokemon to take the water and ice attacks that it couldn't and Vaporeon is working out splendidly. Great bulk and Wish gets my Gliscor healthy again when they try to hit me with electricity. Boil Over is the perfect move for a bulky pokemon like Vaporeon, as the terrific burn chance really makes the enemy think twice before sending in their physical sweeper against me. Toxic is for the special pokemon that fear burn. And Hail? Well, that's my secret weapon against weather teams. You felt confidant letting your weather lead fall seeing I didn't have one of my own didn't you? Well, now your whole team has been neutered with one move. Vaporeon can very easily absorb water on the switch and get rid of rain, it resists fire, albeit not as much as normally. And sand? Well, not many pokemon that benefit from sand want to face a Vaporeon anyway.
Jirachi@Leftovers
Serene Grace
Bold 252 HP / 144 Df / 56 SpA / 56 SpD
~Wish
~Doom Desire
~Thunderbolt
~Calm Mind
Now this is an interesting creation of mine. Jirachi was my original Wish user because I wanted to test out the newly modified Doom Desire. DD now has 100% accuracy, 140 BP and is now backed by STAB. The coverage admittedly isn't great, but again it's supposed to be a supportive mon who can actually tank with Calm Mind and is good at breaking stall with a double Tbolt and DD assault. IT's helped me win quite a few stall wars, particularly because it can't be Toxiced. I tried Draco Meteor for fun too but it wasn't cutting it. BTW, double Wish is actually quite useful.
Gliscor@Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Impish 116 HP / 160 At / 68 Df / 164 SpD
~Earthquake
~Acrobat
~Fling
~Protect
Dear lord this thing is FAR more powerful than it looks. I was actually very surprised by its effectiveness that it became the #2 all star on my team. You thought Gliscor was annoying before? Wait until you fight one with Toxic immunity. Poison Heal gives you super Leftovers recovery in addition to status immunity, an amazing combination. Once you fling your Toxic Orb and poison an enemy, Acrobat will have 110 BP, even stronger than Earthquake! Ground and Flying is actually amazing coverage hitting eight types and both benefit from STAB. This thing is an amazing Breloom, Blaziken and Roopushin counter. Protect helps you get free healing (same amount as Roost in two turns, and you were immune to damage for one of them) and scout moves so I can make safe switches when I need to. Sword Dance was used instead for awhile but I never really got the chance to. Protect has been far more useful.
Of all my pokemon, I am most inclined to replace Espeon or Scizor. I love Espeon but it's usefulness has gone way down since team previews came to be, although I still love screening. Two pokemon that I've used before and might use again are:
Latios@Choice Specs
Levitate
Timid 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spd
~Dragon Pulse
~Surf
~Trick
~Psychic
The sheer power coupled with great speed and deceptive bulk made this an amazing mon. I think I had too many Ice weaknesses at the time so I decided to swap him. HP Fire makes me lose speed ties which I don't like but I might be willing to try something over Psychic. Maybe Shadow Ball?
Jaroda@Leftovers
Perversity
Timid 52 HP / 108 Df / 108 SpD / 252 Spd
~Leaf Storm
~Glare
~Substitute
~Dragon Tail
Shouldn't be too surprised given my name right? I tried to make a shuffle Glare set since most of my pokemon aren't really fast so if I had bulk, power AND speed I thought my team would be pretty much set. Thing is the negative priority of Dragon Tail combined with the imperfect accuracy of Glare and Dragon Tail proved to be ineffective. Grass doesn't have enough good resistances to pull this off. However I know how annoying this pokemon can be since 113 Speed is such a trollish number, I might try a new pure offensive set. Or maybe just try Zoom Lens?
Threats
Bulky Zapdos with HP Ice is just super tough to take down. Even +1 Stone Edge only does around half because it loses it's Rock weakness when it Roosts, and most have Substitute which I have to keep breaking. If I can Toxic it, great but again, Substitute.
In the rain, this thing is far worse than Kingdra for me. Water, Ice and Grass attacks are hard to resist from this beast and while I can switch into water attacks with Vaporeon, the damn thing has STAB Energy Ball, so I don't get to use Hail.
Other Gliscor, particularly the Poison Heal variety are, as I know too well, very hard to take down, especially when I don't have Ice attacks. The ones that use roost aren't as bad, but yeah, only Vaporeon can do great damage to it, or if I get lucky with Doom Desire.
Non choiced variants are actually the worst, as this thing has such great coverage with its moves and it resists Mach Punch. And if I am lucky to survive a hit, flinch hax.
So that's my team as it is right now. It isn't finished since it still has a few issues, mainly with Scizor and Espeon. Most likely I will be using Latios again and maybe something else. Remember, I love bulky tanks so if you can think of a pokemon that would benefit my team let me hear it.
Roopushin, Jirachi and Espeon have been on my team since the beginning. Everyone else is new and I've been doing a lot of switching and experimenting since October. My team is by no means finalized as there are one or two I want to replace. This is really just where I stand now. But let's take a look at what I'm currently using.
Scizor@Choice Band
Technician
Adamant 252 HP / 252 At / 4 Df
~Bullet Punch
~Pursuit
~Superpower
~U-Turn
Standard Scizor is standard. Having used a Kojondo for sometime as a scout I'm always impressed at the sheer difference in power in their U-Turns. Goes to show what STAB and Band can do. My Scizor is a lead because, frankly, I don't have much else that's better to use. I need the HP bulk for switch ins, but sometimes you can't U-Turn fast enough. Also, so many things carry HP Fire these days I keep getting KO'd from unexpected places. Effectiveness has been mixed, but the potential is there.
Roopushin@Leftovers
Guts
Adamant 68 HP / 192 At / 248 SpD
~Bulk Up
~Drain Punch
~Mach Punch
~Stone Edge
This is the wrecking ball of my team. I'm proud to be able to say I've been using this guy before he became so standard lol. He used to single handedly sweep teams back when A)people tried to burn you all the time, and B) people didn't have many good checks. Roopushin singlehandedly walks over the Nattorei/Burungeru combo unless they do something highly unorthdox like double Protect Toxic stall. The EVs seem strange but they have a purpose. Magic lefties number, 400 Attack, and enough SpD to survive Scarfdera Overheat. Stone Edge has much better coverage over Payback as most Ghosts are KO'd by it anyway and you shouldn't stay in on STAB Psychic anyway. Meanwhile you can now actually take on many flying type pokemon.
Espeon@Light Clay
Magic Mirror
Timid 80 HP / 176 Df / 252 Spd
~Reflect
~Calm Mind
~Psychic
~Baton Pass
You know, I've always liked Espeon since I evolved my Eevee way back in the original Silver. But now, thanks to one simple ability, it's entire role as well as the metagame is forever changed. Magic Mirror is godly. If Luvdisc alone had it I wouldn't be surprised if it became OU. Espeon's stats don't unfortunately compliment it's new supportive role. Such a shame that 130 SpA has to go to waste. I used to run dual screens and max SpA but I'm experimenting with a BP set and more bulk. Speed is still important to ensure you can get your support moves off.
Vaporeon@Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold 124 HP / 252 Df / 132 SpD
~Boil Over
~Toxic
~Hail
~Wish
Gliscor needed a good pokemon to take the water and ice attacks that it couldn't and Vaporeon is working out splendidly. Great bulk and Wish gets my Gliscor healthy again when they try to hit me with electricity. Boil Over is the perfect move for a bulky pokemon like Vaporeon, as the terrific burn chance really makes the enemy think twice before sending in their physical sweeper against me. Toxic is for the special pokemon that fear burn. And Hail? Well, that's my secret weapon against weather teams. You felt confidant letting your weather lead fall seeing I didn't have one of my own didn't you? Well, now your whole team has been neutered with one move. Vaporeon can very easily absorb water on the switch and get rid of rain, it resists fire, albeit not as much as normally. And sand? Well, not many pokemon that benefit from sand want to face a Vaporeon anyway.
Jirachi@Leftovers
Serene Grace
Bold 252 HP / 144 Df / 56 SpA / 56 SpD
~Wish
~Doom Desire
~Thunderbolt
~Calm Mind
Now this is an interesting creation of mine. Jirachi was my original Wish user because I wanted to test out the newly modified Doom Desire. DD now has 100% accuracy, 140 BP and is now backed by STAB. The coverage admittedly isn't great, but again it's supposed to be a supportive mon who can actually tank with Calm Mind and is good at breaking stall with a double Tbolt and DD assault. IT's helped me win quite a few stall wars, particularly because it can't be Toxiced. I tried Draco Meteor for fun too but it wasn't cutting it. BTW, double Wish is actually quite useful.
Gliscor@Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Impish 116 HP / 160 At / 68 Df / 164 SpD
~Earthquake
~Acrobat
~Fling
~Protect
Dear lord this thing is FAR more powerful than it looks. I was actually very surprised by its effectiveness that it became the #2 all star on my team. You thought Gliscor was annoying before? Wait until you fight one with Toxic immunity. Poison Heal gives you super Leftovers recovery in addition to status immunity, an amazing combination. Once you fling your Toxic Orb and poison an enemy, Acrobat will have 110 BP, even stronger than Earthquake! Ground and Flying is actually amazing coverage hitting eight types and both benefit from STAB. This thing is an amazing Breloom, Blaziken and Roopushin counter. Protect helps you get free healing (same amount as Roost in two turns, and you were immune to damage for one of them) and scout moves so I can make safe switches when I need to. Sword Dance was used instead for awhile but I never really got the chance to. Protect has been far more useful.
Of all my pokemon, I am most inclined to replace Espeon or Scizor. I love Espeon but it's usefulness has gone way down since team previews came to be, although I still love screening. Two pokemon that I've used before and might use again are:
Latios@Choice Specs
Levitate
Timid 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spd
~Dragon Pulse
~Surf
~Trick
~Psychic
The sheer power coupled with great speed and deceptive bulk made this an amazing mon. I think I had too many Ice weaknesses at the time so I decided to swap him. HP Fire makes me lose speed ties which I don't like but I might be willing to try something over Psychic. Maybe Shadow Ball?
Jaroda@Leftovers
Perversity
Timid 52 HP / 108 Df / 108 SpD / 252 Spd
~Leaf Storm
~Glare
~Substitute
~Dragon Tail
Shouldn't be too surprised given my name right? I tried to make a shuffle Glare set since most of my pokemon aren't really fast so if I had bulk, power AND speed I thought my team would be pretty much set. Thing is the negative priority of Dragon Tail combined with the imperfect accuracy of Glare and Dragon Tail proved to be ineffective. Grass doesn't have enough good resistances to pull this off. However I know how annoying this pokemon can be since 113 Speed is such a trollish number, I might try a new pure offensive set. Or maybe just try Zoom Lens?
Threats
Bulky Zapdos with HP Ice is just super tough to take down. Even +1 Stone Edge only does around half because it loses it's Rock weakness when it Roosts, and most have Substitute which I have to keep breaking. If I can Toxic it, great but again, Substitute.
In the rain, this thing is far worse than Kingdra for me. Water, Ice and Grass attacks are hard to resist from this beast and while I can switch into water attacks with Vaporeon, the damn thing has STAB Energy Ball, so I don't get to use Hail.
Other Gliscor, particularly the Poison Heal variety are, as I know too well, very hard to take down, especially when I don't have Ice attacks. The ones that use roost aren't as bad, but yeah, only Vaporeon can do great damage to it, or if I get lucky with Doom Desire.
Non choiced variants are actually the worst, as this thing has such great coverage with its moves and it resists Mach Punch. And if I am lucky to survive a hit, flinch hax.
So that's my team as it is right now. It isn't finished since it still has a few issues, mainly with Scizor and Espeon. Most likely I will be using Latios again and maybe something else. Remember, I love bulky tanks so if you can think of a pokemon that would benefit my team let me hear it.
