It's Surprisingly Effective!

[raiderrpg]

It's raider again! With my second-ever RMT!

So I wanted to do a Toxic Spikes team, but not just any Toxic Spikes team- I wanted to do one with Tentacruel.

But an UNUSUAL Tentacruel.

We all know he's faster than you think; so I went for a max-speed build, and decided on Balloon to avoid all those nasty EQ's you see around. Went from there to a T-Spikes lead that could take out Espeon, to my good friend Nidoking to break down walls that have Rest or the like.

I still needed an endgame sweeper; Jarooda seemed a fine choice, able to come in on Politoed when facing rain teams, which you see a lot these days; and set up while KOing for a sweep.

Needed a wall and a go-to counter, though...

So I got to work, and made this in five minutes- it did rather well on PO!

Pendoraa (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- X-Scissor
- Toxic Spikes
- Earthquake
- Spikes

A personal favorite, able to smack Non-Bulky Espeons in the face for a usual OHKO. Attack if I can net a 2HKO, lay hazards if I think I'd be better off taking on their lead with something else. Usually did the latter! >:D

Jarooda (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Perversity
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Tail

Oh, how I love this guy- able to sweep entire teams and handle a lot of unusual situations. I rarely ever use Giga Drain, but needed SOMETHING to fill that fourth slot. :\ Dragon Tail is a once-in-a-blue-moon, but it's won me at least one match. He's great, but his movepool is waaaay too shallow...

Porygon2 @ Evolution Stone
Trait: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Recover
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Protect

My go-to for a lot of things. I'm not -quite- yet happy with him, as he is a lot of set-up fodder for some things, but he helps by Toxic-ing flyers and if I get a good ability on him, tanking out some silly Doryuzu and Walling Swift Swimmers.

Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Encourage
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Thunderbolt

Helps by absorbing T.Spikes when I see'em (Especially when I get Mirror'd a bit) and as a good strong sweeper, taking a good hit and KOing right back. Shatters walls easily ;3

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Brave Bird

Second layer of spikes, classic Specially Defensive Skarmory still works wonders in this day and age. Tanking amazing hits and Roosting it off with style~ While making life for them heck. >:3

Tentacruel (M) @ Balloon
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Boil Over
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Evil Eye

The STAR of the show! Able to outspeed quite a bit at a fantastic 328 speed, he comes in on a free switch to take out hazards by spinning, and to smack'em up a bit. Acts as my second layer (Ha! Punny!) of T-Spikes, too!

Boil Over doesn't do a lot of damage, but can Burn steels; and Evil Eye is a good back-up move. He's not great on damage, but can wall for a bit with that huge Special Defence; and makes anything bent on EQing him cry.

So far the team has won over half of it's matches through sheer stalling power and Nidoking's extreme power; of course, anything with a lot of toxic immunities causes trouble, but it is kind of a gimmick team.

I wouldn't mind replacing Nidoking or Pendoraa, but it'd have to be something good. And Tentacruel? Oh, he's staying. >:3 Though I could do with a couple move advisements...

 

[Neonian]

Personally, I'd run Timid LO Jaroda over scarf, just to take advantage of the massive hits you can dish out with a +2 giga drain. I'd also change Tentacruels ability to Liquid Ooze, to better deal with nattorei.

 

[Click]

A pretty solid team, but you tend to make the mistake most people do. There is absolutely no reason to have two pokemon running the same entry hazard. Yes, you're thinking that this way, you'll be absolutely sure that you'll get them up. Well on paper this is a good idea, but the cold truth is that by doing this, you're wasting a slot on the team that could otherwise be used to abuse the hazards. You've got to be able to play out your pokemon in a way that you are able to get out as many hazards as possible, without giving them to each of your pokemon. I don't see your Jaroda set doing much since the Scarf won't do much to help Dragon Tail's negative priority, and being locked into the wrong move can leave the opponent a big chance to get rid of your hazards. If you're looking to further abuse your hazards, here's a pokemon set that was recommended to me (and worked amazingly well).

Garchomp
Item-Leftovers
Nature-Jolly
EV's-252Hp 60Def 136SpDef 60 Spe
Moves-Stealth Rock, Substitute, Dragon Tail, Earthquake

Garchomp forces switch after switch, leaving you a chance to get up a Sub, put up Stealth Rocks, or make your opponent double switch with Dragon Tail. Plus, Garchomp's Attack -despite the lack of EVs- is still more than Jaroda's Spc. Attack, not to mention the incredible bulk that you're given even once you Sub is broken down.
Now last but certainly (or hopefully...) least, is Pendoraa. Tentacruel is more than capable of getting out his Toxic Spikes, and Skarmory is designed to set up and abuse spikes, leaving Pendoraa's job on the team null and dead. I'd perhaps recommend a Scarfed Genosect lead which counters a vast majority of the leads out there, and can easily get rid of any pokemon who counter the goal of your team.
Genosect
Item- Choice Scarf
EVs- 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Nature- Timid
Bug Buzz
Flamethrower
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt / U-turn / Hidden Power Ground

Otherwise a pretty solid team! *This is one of my first REAL rates, so let me know if anything i said helped*

Oh and this is more of a matter of opinion, but you may want to get rid Boiling Water/Evil Eye for Hail on Tentacruel, as it really forces switches in weather teams, or can screw them up all together if the weather inducer is gone.

 

[(makeup)]

Just a few things; first, pendra want megahorn over xscissor to take out max hp espeon a and rankorosu. Hp ice is works with grass to hit grass, flying and dragon harder, but since you have dragon tail, hp fire might be more useful to hit grass, ice, steel and bugs harder (on jarooda). P2 wants tbolt over protect as dd gyarados rapes your team and boltbeam coverage is always nice. On nidoking, fire blast > flamethrower. First, 25 bp doesnt seem like much but when factoring in encourage, it becomes 180 vs 142. Why the hell does tentecruel have evil eye, at least use venom shock (poison 65 bp which doubles when the opponent is poisoned.)

 

[raiderrpg]

I've seen three DD Gyarados go down to this team, and never encountered an Espeon not running a Sash that didn't get destroyed by Pendoraa. ^^;; And Porygon2 is keeping protect, that and Recover are what make it useful for walling out odd pokes.

The dual spikes is a good point, Click, but I haven't used a 'chomp on a team yet and I prefer to avoid using it.

I've seen that Scarfed Genosect a few times; it might actually work on this team, I'll have to try it out. But getting Hazards down quick is kinda helpful...

Neonian- Good call on the Liquid Ooze, didn't think of that.

And I've only ever used anything besides Leaf Storm or Hidden Power on Jarooda maybe three or four times; I can't actually remember USING Giga Drain. Normally he comes in and sweeps a huge hole in the other guy. I'll give it a try, though.

 

[Shnoogle]

You know, 0/252 Tentacruel is less specially bulky and physically bulky than 252/0.
So run 252 HP / 252 Speed / 4 whatever