RMT [DDGYara Setup]

[ARandomDude]

After getting sick and tired of just substituting stuff in and out of my team, I decided to just make a new one, around setting up for a final sweep for.... Thanks to help from a certain someone, this team is in testing.

Swampert@Leftovers (The Lead)
Torrent
Relaxed
252 HP, 216 Def, 44 Spa
-Roar
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Ice Beam

Non-suicide lead, standard from Smogon. In addition to setting up stealth rocks, he is an important check to the likes of Gyarados, Tyranitar, and Salamence, roaring away their dragon dances, earthquaking TTar, or ice beaming Salamence. This lead can handle other leads pretty well, as long as I don't try to set up SR first thing (e.g., kill Aerodactyl with ice beam as he taunts then SRs. Go to something else to counter his switchin or Tentacruel to Rapid Spin, then come back later). Twave immunity is a plus.

Magnezone@Leftovers (Steel Killer)
Magnet Pull
Timid
252 Spa, 4 Def, 252 Spe
-Substitute
-Magnet Rise
-Thunderbolt
-HP Grass

Counters to Gyarados include bulky waters, swampert, and Skarmory. This puppy makes sure I can do something to them. Thunderbolt hits waters not named Swampert hard, while HP Grass OHKOs swampert. Tbolt OHKOs Skarmory. Magnet Rise lets me come in on Metagross, Magnet Rise as he Earthquakes, Substitute as he Meteor Mashes/Explodes, and leaves me hopefully at an advantage.

Tentacruel@Leftovers (Utility)
Liquid Ooze
Calm
252 HP, 4 Def, 252 Spd
-Surf
-Toxic Spikes
-Rapid Spin
-Knock Off

My other bulky water counter, as well as good utility. If I can get this guy in early enough, into leadapes or something, who does avg 30% to me with 64 Atk EV investment even with no defense investment from me, I can get toxic spikes in, which do a good job at crippling bulky waters. Knock off takes away their precious leftovers. Rapid Spin clears the field for my somewhat SR weak team. I used max special defense because hopefully I won't be needing to absorb earthquakes. Also handles Heatran, usually timid, who does 37% avg to me with earth power, a 4HKO with Leftovers. Also subseeder counter.

Alakazam@Choice Specs (Bait…)
Synchronize/Inner Focus
Timid
4 Def, 252 Spa, 252 Spe
-Psychic
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-Trick

This guy hurts a lot of things, hard. Focus Blast+Shadow Ball get perfect coverage, while Psychic is there for stab that hits ridiculously hard. Trick screws over Blissey who decide to come in. Anyways scarf rotom/gengar are other threats to Gyarados, and they will obviously come in on Alakazam to revenge kill. Non-scarf is no problem, because this guy outruns and kills them. This is all part of the plan, because once they revenge kill Alakazam with their stab shadow balls, they will be dead for

VVV

Weavile@Choice Band (…and Switch)
Pressure
Jolly
252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
-Pursuit
-Ice Shard
-Brick Break
-Ice Punch

Standard Weavile, and the second part to my scarf ghost countering team. When Alakazam comes in as bait, this guy nails them with stab pursuit as they run or use their futile shadow balls. Ice Shard deals with Salamence very well, while Ice Punch destroys even the most defensive Gliscor (Ice Punch deals avg 132% to Impish 252 HP 252 Def Gliscor). Starmie, another Gyarados counter, is killed by Pursuit on the switch.

Gyarados@Life Orb
Intimidate
Jolly
24 HP, 252 Atk, 8 Def, 224 Spe
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang

The closer. My personal favorite of the dragon dancers. Jolly for those Jolteon who try to come in and ruin my fun, Life Orb for extra kick. Waterfall for Stab, Earthquake and Ice Fang for coverage only resisted by Bronzong, as well as checking dragons after I dragon dance.
EVS: Jolly for outrunning Jolteon. 192+Jolly reaches 279 Speed, outrunning Heatran. Max out attack, 24 HP gives 337, which is a stealth rock number. Rest is in defense.

 

[XxBlueCleric.xX]

Your team covers most of the threats well. Except possibly a Jolly SD Lucario with Stone Edge. I'm not running a calculation but I'm pretty sure it'll take a ton of damage since there is little defensive investment. Everything else is KO'd. Another issue is probably a Jolteon w/ HP Grass which KOs everything except Magnezone, who can't do much in return.

To fix these, I'd run Latias + Metagross over Alakazam + Weavile. CB Gross really hurts the majority of it's switch-ins very hard. The switch-ins (water types, rotom, skarmory) all happen to be Gyarados counters. Latias helps to cover all the aforementioned weaknesses and still gives you some speed. (It can survive a Lucario +2 Extremespeed and deal some massive damage back, but it's not really a surefire counter)

Other than that, everything seems fine. Nice team!

 

[ARandomDude]

Thanks, Cleric. Questions:
1. Which Latias would I run? Defensive/Offensive CM, etc...

2. I hesitate to take out Weavile because then I lose the ability to revenge kill scarf-ghosts, which are a big threat to Gyarados. Would the CBGross you recommended have Pursuit/look like this?

Metagross@Choice Band
Adamant+Clear Body
252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
-Meteor Mash
-Earthquake/Explosion
-Thunderpunch
-Pursuit

 

[SEO]

CBWeavile is honestly just set up fodder for lots of threats like AgiliGross, SDScizor (which has been popping up alot more lately), DDTar, SDLuke, SubPetaya Empoleon, and a few others that I probably missed. Giving CBScizor a free U-turn is also not very good, as your opponent can switch to a counter and you are forced to switch again. All in all, there is a reason weavile doesnt get much usage. Instead why not use a CBTar? It would make a pretty good asset to your team, eliminating those ScarfRotom and Gengar while still allowing you to hit other things incredibly hard with Stone Edge and Crunch. I dont think it was mentioned but an HPGrass Zapdos shits all over your team. HpGrass for Swampert, heatwave for magnezone, heatwave for weavile, thunderbolt for gyara and tentacruel, and alakazam cant take a hit anyways. A Careful Tyranitar could help alleviate this problem.

 

[XxBlueCleric.xX]

The Latias set can be figured out via testing. I'd use Calm Mind to have a backup sweeper.

Yeah, the CB Gross would look like that. Scarf-Ghosts are still going to take massive damage from CB Pursuit off 135 base attack. Explosion isn't necessary. In any case, bluffing Explosion can be very useful since the opponent will play very cautiously when bringing in things like Swampert.

The thing is, Weavile and Alakazam is an invitation for many of the common pokemon to switch in. Sacrificing Alakazam to bring in Weavile and Pursuit the Scarf-Rotom seems very situational since Alakazam is most likely to be destroyed by Metagross/Scizor.

AND as was said above, you have a massive Zapdos weak. But I stated Jolteon in my first post. In any case, Latias covers that up for you.

 

[ARandomDude]

Thanks Cleric. I'm going to try the defensive calm mind. One last question, since my team is not as SR weak with Weavile gone now, should I change Tentacruel in for something else? Right now I'm using Subpasser Jolteon:

Jolteon@Leftovers
Timid&Volt Absorb
-Substitute
-Baton Pass
-Thunderbolt
-HP Ice

Covers Gyarados' electric weakness and can pass to Gyarados when someone tries to take him down with Earthquake. Adds speed to my team too.