Introduction
This is the first team I have attempted to make for Competitive Pokemon, my experience with Pokemon until now mostly composing of casual cartridge play and random teams.
My philosophy making this team is make a team full of Pokemon of the highest offensive power, ignoring team roles, synergy, and setup in favour of having each Pokemon be as individually strong and Ultra Offensive as possible. The win condition is to trade Pokemon at a slightly advantageous rate, destroying your opponents Pokemon faster than they can destroy yours. Despite this simplistic concept I've been relatively successful with this team (~70% win rate although with a small sample size) albeit in low ranks (<2000).
All Pokemon on this team has high role compression, all of them being able to take on at least two traditional roles. Almost all Pokemon in this team is running three offensive moves with different types maximising chance of having the necessary coverage no matter who they try and switch in. This redundancy allows for more risky and sacrificial plays, as very rarely any one Pokemon is integral to the overall strategy.
Four of this teams Pokemon has abilities that trigger upon killing an opponent (Beast Bond, Soul-Heart, Battle Bond), this allows those Pokemon to quickly transition from Revenge Killer or Wall Breaker into Sweeper without needing a turn to use a setup move.
This team is extremely beginner friendly (of which I am one), since all members have high Attack/Special Attack stats making even neutral hits doing potentially critical damage and the win condition is the extremely linear deal damage there isn't much nuance in piloting this team. It's also a very low risk high reward as using a setup move or supereffective move on a predicted switch could easily win you the game outright while due to aforementioned high neutral damage and the multiple redundancies means that a wrong prediction rarely results in an instant loss.
Team Members
Diancie-Mega @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body (Magic Bounce upon evolving)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
Mega Diancie has the extremely important role of Dedicated Lead. Magic Bounce nullifies opposing hazard setters, this is especially critical since it allows for a Defog/Rapid Spin user to be forgone. Fairy/Ground/Rock coverage hits everyone for neutral, in combination with Stealth Rock and high Attack/Special Attack she can soften up the opposing team making way for on death ability users to sweep. Often using Magic Bounce to reflect a hazard or OHKO/2HKO the opposing lead automatically wins you the game as the entire team is built around slightly advantageous trades.
I personally like using Diamond Storm over Moonblast and Earth Power most of the time for the 50% chance for +2 Defence which greatly increases Diancie's bulk.
Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 224 Spe
Rash Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Roost
Kyurem-Black provides important coverage with Fusion Bolt. Fusion Bolt is able to OHKO Greninja and 2HKO Toxapex and Celesteela while Ice Beam and Hidden Power Fire provides coverage for Pokemon that resist Electric while Kyurem-B's natural bulk and Water resistance allows him to switch in on these Pokemon. I dislike having this Pokemon on the team as he's often lacklustre compared to the others but his ability to counter several Pokemon, especially Greninja, has saved me on multiple occasions.
Blacephalon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 232 HP / 4 Def / 20 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
This teams premier Revenge Killer, Blacephalon comes in to sweep with his powerful Fire and Ghost STABs. Focus Sash guarantees Blacephalon is able to survive one attack which often is the difference between a death and a sweep, especially if your opponent has a faster Pokemon. Calm Mind and Substitute is theoretically there to counter stall although I haven't found a situation where they were preferable to an extra attack, that being said Blacephalon's move pool is horrible so unless you want to run Choice Scarf/Specs + Trick (which is also a stall counter) there isn't much else you can put there.
Blacephalon's EVs are set up so that Speed is one stat higher than Special Attack so Beast Boost boosts it as Special Attack investment rarely crosses damage breakpoints even with Beast Boost, that being said I only tested this on a couple Pokemon so this may be incorrect. Health investment rarely matter since Blacephalon never takes three hits, although make sure his health isn't divisible by 4 as this makes Stealth Rock and Substitute deadlier.
Magearna @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shift Gear
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
High Special Attack, a move set full of good special moves, and access to Soul-Heart and Shift Gear, Magearna is a highly effective Wall Breaker and Sweeper.
I personally prefer Fightinium Z since Kyrumn-B can handle Electric coverage and Focus Blast has imperfect accuracy although I haven't encountered any situation where any Z-crystal, or item for that matter, would be useful. I passed on Fluer Cannon as it drops Special Attack which is generally bad for a potential Sweeper although Fluer Cannon with Fairium Z may be preferable due to this teams only having one Fairy move.
Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike
- Knock Off
An All-Out Attacker with large coverage and the ability to Sweep with Beast Boost. I often try and bluff Choice Band although I'm probably playing on too low of a tier for that to make a difference. There isn't much to say here, most of the time so long as your opponent doesn't have a faster Pokemon it's able to win outright. It originally used a Choice Band but I found that extremely restrictive as you normally want to Sweep after securing the kill.
Ash-Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
An extremely effective Pokemon once it activates Battle Bond, and there in lies the problem. Before Greninja activates Battle Bond it is often somewhat ineffective, unable to reliably take out the Pokemon that Blacephalon, Magearna, and Kartana can set up their sweep on making Greninja an uncharacteristically high maintenance Pokemon on this team. Choice Specs help mitigate this problem, increasing it's power against most threats, but comes at the cost of locking Greninja into his moves which is hard to mitigate on this team due to it's lack of pivots. Despite this Priority Water Shuriken is often worth it, especially if it could get a revenge kill as normal Greninja with it.
Diancie-Mega @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 224 Spe
Rash Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Roost
Blacephalon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 232 HP / 4 Def / 20 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
Magearna @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shift Gear
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike
- Knock Off
Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 224 Spe
Rash Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Roost
Blacephalon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 232 HP / 4 Def / 20 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
Magearna @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shift Gear
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike
- Knock Off
Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
Weaknesses
Setup: This team has no utility; no Spinners, Status, Clerics, P/Hazers, or Volt-turn as well as limited ability to switch in to counter. Most of the time if your opponent is able to setup any buffs, status, or hazards, victory becomes extremely difficult. Status is particularly threatening since they can be applied in one turn and can completely put that Pokemon out of commission, I often find sacrificing a statused Pokemon for the free switch in to be more effective than trying to protect them. That being said it's hard for your opponent to setup as Mega-Diance's Magic Bounce nullifies status and hazards and for most of the game you are throwing out too much damage for them to safely setup.
Offensive Leads: If your Mega-Diance dies first turn, especially if it's out-sped and unable to use Stealth Rocks, you are immediately put on the back foot. This is especially obvious as Mega-Diance is x4 weak to Steel.
Earthquake and other Ground moves: Mega-Diance, Blacephalon, and Magearna are all weak to Ground while no Pokemon resists it.
Pivots and other Momentum gainers: As this team is highly dependant on consistently getting favourable damage trades if your opponent is able to gain momentum it's extreme hard to regain momentum save for revenge killing.