First Smogon RMT

[FlygonRuler]

Well, as the title says, this is my first Smogon RMT and Smogon has a great history of the best team raters so I'm looking forward to it.​

At a Glance

There's no real theme or goal aside from winning. I just picked the pokemon that worked well together and covered each others weaknesses. The record on shoddy is currently 26-15 which isn't godly, but definatly good.


In Depth

@Black Sludge/Lum Berry
204 HP / 36 Spd / 96 SpA / 172 SpDef
Calm
~Surf
~Toxic Spikes
~Rapid Spin
~Sludge Bomb

Tentacruel is a beast. He has all-a-round good stats which makes him the perfect lead. His main goal is to set up toxic spikes and then get out. Rapid spin hasn't done me too much but its good to have anyways. Surf gets STAB and can hit things pretty hard. Sludge bomb covers waters that tentacruel can't get with surf. He also covers alot of Gliscor's weaknesses and can hit back fairly fast and hard. I'm considering Lum berry over Black Sludge to deal with the ever so popular sleep leads.

@Leftovers
64 HP / 252 Spd / 96 SpA / 96 SpDef
Timid
~Thunderbolt
~Calm Mind
~Substitute
~HP Ice

No matter what anyone says, Raikou owns, and is by far, the best pokemon on my team. With toxic spikes, Blissey isn't too much of a problem. HP Ice gets alot of people off guard and Thunderbolt, after two calm Minds will 2HKO Bronzong. Nothing much else to say really.

@Choice Scarf
Timid
6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Speed
~Hidden Power Ice/Filler
~Shadow Ball
~Thunderbolt
~Focus Blast

Alakazam didn't work out so well, so here comes Gengar. I chose scarfgar for no particular reason, so if you find another set that fits my team better, please tell me. I chose Timid to outrun other choice scarf pokemon like garchomp, but Gliscor covers him nicely, so I may switch it. Hidden Power Ice is a filler and IMO, its not needed thanks to Infernape and Raikou, so I'd like some opinions on that too. Yah, I'm just spit balling on this one, so pleasehelp me. I need it. Thanks.

@Leftovers
252 HP / 6 Att / 252 Def
Impish
~Ice Fang
~Stealth Rock
~Earthquake
~Roost

Pretty standard Gliscor. He's a great phsyical wall and goes really well with Tentacruel. Tentacruel easily draws thunderbolt, which gliscor takes in. He also gets a free switch in from Raikou when something like garchomp comes in to attack it. Ice fang could be swapped with aerial ace to take care of heracross and breloom, but I'm not entirely sure.

@Leftovers
188 HP / 252 Defense / 68 SpA
Bold
~Surf
~Protect
~Hidden Power Electric
~Wish

Wish stall vaporeon. Nothing much to say. I don't really like it, but apperantly its a better set.

@Expert Belt/Life Orb
24 Att / 232 Spd / 252 SpA
Naive
~HP Ice
~Close Combat
~Flamethrower
~Grass Knot

Mixnape wraps this team up. He covers any major threats that stick out gets rid of those stupid water pokemon that are hanging around. HP Ice is over Nasty Plot, because aside from Raikou, I have no way of dealing with dragons. Expert belt gives him ample survival time and keeps him from getting in a stuck situation. I'm shakey to use Life Orb over Expert belt but its been mentioned.



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Yes, I think my team is good. No, I don't think my team is perfect and that's where you come in. Please help as much as you can and I would like constructive critisism instead of bullcrap. If you read this far, thanks for doind so and in acknowledgement please write "I DID" so where in your post. Thanks in advance!

Oh, and sorry for any akward wording. I not so great at typing yet.

Major Threats/Problems

~Cressalia sweeps through this team with Calm Mind
~I have a Mamoswine problem
~Dusknoir is very hard to kill.

 

[azntrumpet]

Ok this seems like a pretty fast paced, offensive team, but you do have some holes as you picked some pretty fragile Pokemon.

First of all, should opposing Raikous get in without getting hit by Toxic Spikes, you lose barring some luck or bad plays. Furthermore, 3 of your Pokemon are easily set up on.

Secondly, Dugtrio annhilates 4/6 of this team, without you being able to do anything about it.

Third, a Gyrados with Taunt (common with the addition of Wobbuffet) and enought speed to outrun Raikou after a DD (pretty common considering Starmie is VERY common), will 6-0 you if it can get in on Tentacruel, Gliscor, or Vaporeon.

Also you seem very Mamoswine weak as it easily OHKO's everyone but Vaporeon who can't come in repeatedly w/o Wish.

The lack of a Ghost resist makes me worry about ScarfGengar too.

The weakest link seems to be Alakazam. Its not bringing much to the table and is VERY, VERY fragile. I'd like to run some sort of Azelf or Gengar here, to give you an additional Ground immunity and better type coverage. Picking Azelf can allow for a free Nasty Plot on Dugtrio or you could use Gengar for a sort of an "anti-spin" because, Blissey walls your entire team with Spin support. Alternatively you could use a bulky CBer.

Vaporeon needs to change its set. I'd just drop BP/Sub/Toxic as this team easily deals with Cress/Togekiss with Raikou as a solid counter provided it avoids Thunder Wave, which you have Gliscor to absorb. I'd like HP Electric to give you a solid Gyrados counter and Wish/Protect to give you some recovery.

Infernape really needs a Life Orb to guarantee some kills (Blissey most notably). If Vappy has time to Sub up, you could just as easily switch in Infernape.

You don't really need a phazer, CM Raikou easily beats most everything Haze Tentacruel beats. Try out Sludge Bomb here, as you Water/Poison is actually pretty good coverage or Ice Beam to help you deal with Salamences.

 

[FlygonRuler]

Ok this seems like a pretty fast paced, offensive team, but you do have some holes as you picked some pretty fragile Pokemon.

First of all, should opposing Raikous get in without getting hit by Toxic Spikes, you lose barring some luck or bad plays. Furthermore, 3 of your Pokemon are easily set up on.

Secondly, Dugtrio annhilates 4/6 of this team, without you being able to do anything about it.

Third, a Gyrados with Taunt (common with the addition of Wobbuffet) and enought speed to outrun Raikou after a DD (pretty common considering Starmie is VERY common), will 6-0 you if it can get in on Tentacruel, Gliscor, or Vaporeon.

Also you seem very Mamoswine weak as it easily OHKO's everyone but Vaporeon who can't come in repeatedly w/o Wish.

The lack of a Ghost resist makes me worry about ScarfGengar too.

The weakest link seems to be Alakazam. Its not bringing much to the table and is VERY, VERY fragile. I'd like to run some sort of Azelf or Gengar here, to give you an additional Ground immunity and better type coverage. Picking Azelf can allow for a free Nasty Plot on Dugtrio or you could use Gengar for a sort of an "anti-spin" because, Blissey walls your entire team with Spin support. Alternatively you could use a bulky CBer.

Vaporeon needs to change its set. I'd just drop BP/Sub/Toxic as this team easily deals with Cress/Togekiss with Raikou as a solid counter provided it avoids Thunder Wave, which you have Gliscor to absorb. I'd like HP Electric to give you a solid Gyrados counter and Wish/Protect to give you some recovery.

Infernape really needs a Life Orb to guarantee some kills (Blissey most notably). If Vappy has time to Sub up, you could just as easily switch in Infernape.

You don't really need a phazer, CM Raikou easily beats most everything Haze Tentacruel beats. Try out Sludge Bomb here, as you Water/Poison is actually pretty good coverage or Ice Beam to help you deal with Salamences.

1. Yes, Rakiou completely sweeps my team. I've noticed. I'm not completely sure what to do though.

2. I didn't notice, so thanks for bring that up.

3. mmk...What do i do?

4. Yes, I need to get rid of Alakazam. Gengar will help, especially with gyarados and such.

5. I really like Vaporeon's set right now, but I might try it. What moveset do you want me to try, Its really vauge. Can you just write it out.

6. Life Orb is great and all, but the damage can seriously hurt me. I'll try it out.

7. Ok, I'll change his moves.


Thanks for your help. Please post again after I update.

 

[azntrumpet]

For Vappy I was suggesting Surf/HP Electric/Wish/Protect which is a very solid Gyrados counter.

For Gengar you could try Energy Ball to surprise some Swamperts that the team has trouble with.

 

[FlygonRuler]

I'm pretty disappointed...Two replies and from the same people...

Come on, there is no way my team is perfect.

 

[Venom]

I'm not sure who you lead with, but I'm gonna say if you are leading with Tentacruel, lead with Gengar instead. Gengar is better lead for keeping pokemon like Gyarados sweeping early game. You could always try Modest on Gengar if you want to hit harder, but you can stay Tmid if you want to speed.

 

[FlygonRuler]

I'm not sure who you lead with, but I'm gonna say if you are leading with Tentacruel, lead with Gengar instead. Gengar is better lead for keeping pokemon like Gyarados sweeping early game. You could always try Modest on Gengar if you want to hit harder, but you can stay Tmid if you want to speed.

Well...Gengar outspeeds gyarados after a dragon dance anyways, so even if gyarados manages to get a dragon dance in, I can still switch in on the earthquake that it gets on tentacruel.

 

[Bourbon]

Totally Gyarados weak. Totally. Nothing can switch in. No smart Gyarados user DDs first, they usually attack because people like you think that Scarfgar "counters" it. Waterfall does like 80% or something, so you get to try that once and once only. The omnipresent Stealth Rock would probably kill you the next time you switch in.

Gengar doesn't really counter Garchomp either. Yeah, I mean with Sandstorm and Stealth Rocks, you're gonna get killed by Outrage or something. If Garchomp is stupid enough to Swords Dance first turn, all you've done is delayed it. It will sweep you eventually. You have three pokemon with HP Ice but none of them can come in on Garchomp.

DDmence weak too, while I'm at it. Gengar is once again, your one and only answer, and if he mispredicts and comes in on a Dragon Claw or something, he's screwed. One dragon dance and everyone gets OHKOed except Vaporeon, and what's he gonna do? Toxic?

I think that Riakou is the weak link here. Sure, it kicks butt, but you have no rapid spinner, weather changer or wish passer. It also can't switch into anything. Get Starmie or Porygon2 to handle Gyarados and Salamence. You'll need a steel type pokemon to handle Garchomp, but I'll leave that to you.

If you go for Porygon2 get it > Riakou, if you go for Starmie, get rid of Vaporeon. I personally reccomend Porygon2 because it makes a nice switch into Heatran and Jolteon too, thanks to Trace. Also Discharge is nice, because your team looks like it could use the status support.

 

[junior]

I think you have the definition of 'counter' wrong. A counter has to be able to switch into an attack and then threaten to KO it ontop of that without being KO'd first.

As mentioned before, you have quite a Gyarados weakness. Vaporeon is probably more or less your only reliable 'counter' but it definitely doesn't threaten Gyarados with a mere surf or Toxic. Sure you can bluff your way out but in middle to later game, they'll notice your moveset and proceed to set up and sweep. I recommend you to slap Hidden Power: Electric over Baton Pass and Wish over Substitute and finally, protect over Toxic. Both will benefit greatly for your team as it provides you with a semi-solid Gyarados counter, a Wishpasser for your team who would just slowly die to entry hazards as well as letting your special sponge survive for longer and protect lets you scout. Toxic isn't viable in your team imo as it doesn't have enough potential to stall.

Azelf also has no problem taking down your entire team. The NP variant will surely give you trouble but scarf Azelf doesn't let you off much better, in fact, it'll threaten your team a lot more.

I'd probably replace Tentacruel as your team isn't really a stall type of team and would have trouble doing so anyway. Replace it for something like Blissey or Tomb imo, or maybe even Empoleon.

I don't really like your inability to take Blissey down. It walls pretty much everything except for Infernape who gets injured in the switch-in and then assumably gets walled by an incoming switch. You need more than 1 threat to Blissey. At this rate, you can't even try to stall it out without Wish on Vaporeon. I suggest replacing Raikou, who is rather useless in this metagame, for something like Calm Mind Spiritomb as it can outstall Blissey easily and can counter Azelf and its silly STAB Psychic.

It also pretty much does the same thing as Raikou except that its tank enough to Rest and take hits, although it loses coverage.

 

[FlygonRuler]

Yah, I tend to stretch what counter means.

But half my team (Vaporeon, Rakiou, and Tentacruel) draw in earthquake from gyarados. I almost always get a free switch in to gengar. He's a counter...he can freely switch in and then use thunderbolt.

As for Garchomp, same story, except for instead of Vaporeon, its Infernape. Plus its more of a scarfchomp counter, not a total garchomp counter. And I have gliscor...

Yes, I'm pretty DDMence weak because gengar can't switch in.

But, I laugh when you say that Raikou can't switch in. That's totally wrong. rakiou can switch into almost every sp. sweeper. Thunderbot and grass knot aren't very effective, so celebii and starmie are easy to switch into and so on.

I'll probably change Vaporeon's moveset since its been mentioned twice.


SO, if I switch Tentacruel, which I'm very unlikely to do, what would be my lead? Tentacruel starts my team off with Toxic Spikes, and although my team isn't a stall team, the damage still adds up and turns the game around. Vaporeon, Gliscor, and Raikou can stall. I've done it alot.


Anyways, thanks for your comments. Sorry if I sound defensive, I really do appriciate it.