At a glance:
So, after recently getting back into Pokemon this is my first attempt at a gen 5 team. My first instincts was to attempt to abuse Garchomp in the same way I did in 4th gen, building a team around it designed to either soften up anything which would check it or bait it out and revenge kill it, then set up the sweep.
Because of how new 5th gen is in general, I have strived to include Pokemon which I could use to check a large number of threats and some which can be used as general, all purpose switch ins that I'm not afraid to lose (especially if it gets a sweeper in safely).
~*The Lead*~
TyraniRAWR (Tyranitar) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Crunch
- Earthquake
Because the team is centred around Garchomp I feel as if I'm starting in the middle when I begin by talking about the lead. Tyranitar has 3 main objectives.
1) Set up sand.
Tyranitar underspeeds the other weather leads, Ninetales and Politoed, giving me the initial weather advantage and forcing my opponents to need to preserve their lead if they want their weather in play. This gives me the flexibility to either sacrifice my Tyranitar to get rocks up, or predict a Focus Blast/Energy Ball/Whatever and trap them in with Shandera, cutting off their weather inducer and essentially putting their team onto life support.
2) Soften up Pokemon that could be used to check Garchomp.
Coming off 403 attack Stab Crunch and EQ deal a lot of damage. At this stage of the game I'm just aiming to begin wearing down the opponents team to set up for the sweep, so I'm not overly bothered if I'm forced to switch out after one attack.
Tyranitar's glaring 4x Fighting Weakness acts as huge bait, with many choices leads unable to resist firing off Fighting type moves giving Shandera a free switch in. These early picks prove invaluable at setting Garchomp up.
3) Set up SR and prevent slower leads from doing so.
The general consensus seems to be that setting up rocks isn't nearly as paramount this gen than it was last. However a large amount of my team relies on Earthquake and taking a good chunk out of flying types is always worth the effort.
I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with the EVs. There's probably some nice speed number I could reach to outspeed jolly X and adamant Y. I'll have to do some more research and optimise my EVs.
~*The Powerhouse*~
Garchamp (Garchomp) (F) @ Salac Berry
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
The stuff of nightmares. The plan is as elegant as it is haxxy. Sub against something slower until it misses. Dance and keep subbing until either another miss or the Salac activates, then proceed to sweep. I don't hold out on Garchomp until late in the game, any opportunity I find to start subing on a slower Pokemon I'll gladly take, and clean up with Doryuuzu, Shandera or Breloom if at all necessary
Only Skarmory ruins my fun :> With luck he'll whirlwind in Shandera but if he's running a shed shell he can cause real hassles.
Again, EVs aren't optimised for subs. I'll have to look into that. I'm wondering if I want to activate Salac berry with max or min health remaining? The former makes me more resilient to priority moves, but the latter buys me an extra turn in which they may miss.
~*The Cleaner*~
ThisGuyGood? (Doryuuzu) (F) @ Balloon
Trait: Sand Throw
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Shadow Claw
Doryuuzu primarily serves as a backup plan should something prevent the Garchomp sweep. Incredibly fast and incredibly painful, but rarely seems to see use as Garchomp is safer to stat up with and often sweeps unassisted. However she's makes a very good backup plan should something prevent Garchomp from sweeping.
~*All Purpose or No Purpose?*~
Jace 3.0 (Vaporeon) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 244 HP / 132 Def / 132 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Boil Over
- Substitute
- Wish
- Baton Pass
My "oh god I don't know what to switch in what is that ghastly gen5 pokemon I don't recognise staring down at me oh lord what do I do help me!?!?!?" pokemon. =/ Boil Over is a godsend, allowing me to spam an attack for a bit of damage but mainly for the chance of burn that could potentially cripple the switch in.
Its secondary purpose is to pass around Subs and Wishes, allowing Garchomp to come in either for free or with a Substitute and/or potentially healing it.
~*The Revenge Killer*~
Candelabra (Shandera) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Overheat
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Ball
The most amazing revenge killer. If there's every anything that one of my 4 huge physical threats can't take care of I'll often suicide them in for as much damage as possible before bringing out this baby for the revenge kill, exposing a huge weakness in my opponents team and allowing one of the other 3 to attempt a sweep. HP Ice deals with Dragons and Energy Ball with bulky waters.
~*Priority Puncher*~
ImOnShrooms! (Breloom) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
Breloom provides a set of much needed resistances (especially ground) that allow it to switch in and set up easily. Danced Mach Punch is just brutal but also allows it to pick off many weakened Pokemon. I feel almost naked when I'm not running at least one priority move and one way to sleep pokemon on a team and Breloom covers both bases spectacularly.
That about wraps it up. All help appreciated, especially with the dodgey EVs in a few spots! :S I'm always cautious about switching Pokemon around based on advice in RMTs, but if your aruments are airtight solid I'll be sure to test them all out. If there's any glaring weaknesses that I haven't seen (most certainly because I don't know all the new threats in gen5 yet) feel free to post hurpa durpa and preferably an explanation as well.
So, after recently getting back into Pokemon this is my first attempt at a gen 5 team. My first instincts was to attempt to abuse Garchomp in the same way I did in 4th gen, building a team around it designed to either soften up anything which would check it or bait it out and revenge kill it, then set up the sweep.
Because of how new 5th gen is in general, I have strived to include Pokemon which I could use to check a large number of threats and some which can be used as general, all purpose switch ins that I'm not afraid to lose (especially if it gets a sweeper in safely).
~*The Lead*~
TyraniRAWR (Tyranitar) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Crunch
- Earthquake
Because the team is centred around Garchomp I feel as if I'm starting in the middle when I begin by talking about the lead. Tyranitar has 3 main objectives.
1) Set up sand.
Tyranitar underspeeds the other weather leads, Ninetales and Politoed, giving me the initial weather advantage and forcing my opponents to need to preserve their lead if they want their weather in play. This gives me the flexibility to either sacrifice my Tyranitar to get rocks up, or predict a Focus Blast/Energy Ball/Whatever and trap them in with Shandera, cutting off their weather inducer and essentially putting their team onto life support.
2) Soften up Pokemon that could be used to check Garchomp.
Coming off 403 attack Stab Crunch and EQ deal a lot of damage. At this stage of the game I'm just aiming to begin wearing down the opponents team to set up for the sweep, so I'm not overly bothered if I'm forced to switch out after one attack.
Tyranitar's glaring 4x Fighting Weakness acts as huge bait, with many choices leads unable to resist firing off Fighting type moves giving Shandera a free switch in. These early picks prove invaluable at setting Garchomp up.
3) Set up SR and prevent slower leads from doing so.
The general consensus seems to be that setting up rocks isn't nearly as paramount this gen than it was last. However a large amount of my team relies on Earthquake and taking a good chunk out of flying types is always worth the effort.
I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with the EVs. There's probably some nice speed number I could reach to outspeed jolly X and adamant Y. I'll have to do some more research and optimise my EVs.
~*The Powerhouse*~
Garchamp (Garchomp) (F) @ Salac Berry
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
The stuff of nightmares. The plan is as elegant as it is haxxy. Sub against something slower until it misses. Dance and keep subbing until either another miss or the Salac activates, then proceed to sweep. I don't hold out on Garchomp until late in the game, any opportunity I find to start subing on a slower Pokemon I'll gladly take, and clean up with Doryuuzu, Shandera or Breloom if at all necessary
Only Skarmory ruins my fun :> With luck he'll whirlwind in Shandera but if he's running a shed shell he can cause real hassles.
Again, EVs aren't optimised for subs. I'll have to look into that. I'm wondering if I want to activate Salac berry with max or min health remaining? The former makes me more resilient to priority moves, but the latter buys me an extra turn in which they may miss.
~*The Cleaner*~
ThisGuyGood? (Doryuuzu) (F) @ Balloon
Trait: Sand Throw
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Shadow Claw
Doryuuzu primarily serves as a backup plan should something prevent the Garchomp sweep. Incredibly fast and incredibly painful, but rarely seems to see use as Garchomp is safer to stat up with and often sweeps unassisted. However she's makes a very good backup plan should something prevent Garchomp from sweeping.
~*All Purpose or No Purpose?*~
Jace 3.0 (Vaporeon) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 244 HP / 132 Def / 132 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Boil Over
- Substitute
- Wish
- Baton Pass
My "oh god I don't know what to switch in what is that ghastly gen5 pokemon I don't recognise staring down at me oh lord what do I do help me!?!?!?" pokemon. =/ Boil Over is a godsend, allowing me to spam an attack for a bit of damage but mainly for the chance of burn that could potentially cripple the switch in.
Its secondary purpose is to pass around Subs and Wishes, allowing Garchomp to come in either for free or with a Substitute and/or potentially healing it.
~*The Revenge Killer*~
Candelabra (Shandera) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Overheat
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Ball
The most amazing revenge killer. If there's every anything that one of my 4 huge physical threats can't take care of I'll often suicide them in for as much damage as possible before bringing out this baby for the revenge kill, exposing a huge weakness in my opponents team and allowing one of the other 3 to attempt a sweep. HP Ice deals with Dragons and Energy Ball with bulky waters.
~*Priority Puncher*~
ImOnShrooms! (Breloom) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
Breloom provides a set of much needed resistances (especially ground) that allow it to switch in and set up easily. Danced Mach Punch is just brutal but also allows it to pick off many weakened Pokemon. I feel almost naked when I'm not running at least one priority move and one way to sleep pokemon on a team and Breloom covers both bases spectacularly.
That about wraps it up. All help appreciated, especially with the dodgey EVs in a few spots! :S I'm always cautious about switching Pokemon around based on advice in RMTs, but if your aruments are airtight solid I'll be sure to test them all out. If there's any glaring weaknesses that I haven't seen (most certainly because I don't know all the new threats in gen5 yet) feel free to post hurpa durpa and preferably an explanation as well.
