durant and friends

[siep]

i am very glad that so many people took the time to rate my team the last time.
i took everyone's adive and tried everything you guys recommended out.
so it was inevitable to keep my entire team the way it was.
i made a whole new team, with a lot of different pokémon and a new strategy, so i ask for further advice on my new team.

durant is my main man in this team so...

you came to the wrong neighborhood..

rotom-mow ( mowhawk ) @ choice scarf
trait: levitate
EV's: 252 speed / 252 spAtt / 4 HP
modest nature
- volt switch
- HP fire
- leaf storm
- trick

okay, rotom was recommended because my old team had a lot of threats rotom can easily handle. rotom is my leading pokemon, i use him quiet simple in the beginning. first: when i'm up against an entry hazard using pokémon, i check if leaf storm kills it, and if not, i use vswitch or trick. i use vswitch when medicham can kill the opponent with bullet punch after the switch, and i trick if the opponent is besides a spiking/stealth rocking/toxic spiking pokémon, also an offensive treat. pokémon like shell smash crustle obtain my choice scarf, so they can't set up anymore. HP fire is for bug or ice or steel types that otherwise bug :) rotom. if rotom can't handle an opponent ( eviolite scyther, nidoqueen ) switch ( or vswitch ) out, rotom is needed in the later game. rotom is fast, so he can be used to clean up, and after he loses the scarf, he can even sweep if the opponent is crippled. watch out for nidoqueen, as it completely walls rotom, and queen can hit hard with life orb ice beam/fire blast. clefable takes those hits and can knock off the orb.

pulchritudo ( uxie ) @ leftovers
trait: levitate
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 att
impish nature
- u turn
- stealth rock
- heal bell
- toxic

uxie is my wall, uxie is used in heat of the battle. clefable is a special wall, so uxie is my physical wall. i use uxie to poison as many opponents as possible, and to create 'free' switches with u turn. 0 IV's in speed might be an option and a hindering nature, but sometimes it's quiet nice if uxie outspeeds an opponent, so let me know what the best option is. heal bell is for nasty burns on durant, sceptie and medicham, or to wake up sleeping pokémon. stealth rock is handy, but i don't find them all that necessary. uxie isn't OHKOd by a lot of pokémon, i have never had uxie OHKOd actually ( by unboosted pokémon ), but watch out for hard special attackers like accelgor and galvantula with super effective Bug Buzzes.

Medichumbucket (Medicham) @ Choice Band
Trait: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 speed / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- bullet punch
- Hi Jump Kick
- Ice Punch
- zen headbutt

medicham is no loger my main man, but whenever i get a free switch and medicham outspeeds the opponent, he is the man for the job. medichams high jump kick even 3HKO's sygiliph, and OHKO's most opponent not resisting it. medicham isn't often used as a sweeper, because he isn't that fast and quiet fail. medicham is supported by clefable's wishes, so keep him alive as long as possible, because medicham is a very good wall breaker and often helps out if you're stuck on pokémon like sigilyph ( ice punch 2HKO's ).

Clefabulous (Clefable) @ leftovers
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Def
Calm Nature
- Wish
- protect
- Knock Off
- toxic

clefable and uxie have the same life purpose, poison as much and provide support for the sweepers. protect is usefull, as it lets clefable live longer and knock off is funny for choice item users ( especially scarf ) because it fuckes up their entire purpose and strategy. medicham just loves to get HP from clefables wishes, and durant enjoyes a little HP too. watch out for close combat, drain punch etc, uxie takes those. clefable doesn't enjoy earthquakes as well, but uxie and rotom don't seem to be bothered by eq, so switch them in when expecting an earthquake.

kevin ( Durant ) @ life orb
trait: hustle
EV's 252 att / 252 speed / 4 HP
jolly nature
- hone claws
- stone edge
- x scizor
- iron head

durant is without any question my main man. hustle+hone claws+life orb is sooooo powerfull. durant outspeeds a lot, and OHKO's a lot. if i can get one hone claws up i usually start the sweep, and if there is opportunity for 2 hone claws, a sweep is almost guaranteed. the reason for not having superpower is because of one pokémon: nidoqueen. nido without defense EV's is OHKOd by +1 iron head and not nearly OHKOd by x scizor or stone edge or superpower. durant however is easily OHKOd by flamethrower/fire blast so OHKOing nido is needed. x scizor is for grass types like HP fire liligant, or specs sceptile or whatever doesn;t resist it. stone edge is quiet accurate at +1 accuracy, but to have almost perfect accuracy +2 is required. i don't use rock slide because stone edge is more powerfull and i'm willing to take a risk. the only thing that is able to stop a boosted durant is magneton, or accelgor ( because he outspeeds, and OHKOs durant with focus blast ). watch out for nothing, durant kills everyone. even magneton falls at a certain point, but don't try that. durant is killed by tbolt, durant is killed by any faster special attacker with a move that he doesn't resist.

Lizzie ( sceptile ) @ liechi berry
trait: unburden
EV's: 252 att / 252 speed / 4 HP
adamant nature
- swords dance
- leaf blade
- drain punch
- substitute

another physical attacker. i don't have any special attackers but i dont feel lik e i need one. most people expect special specptie, so i often have the upper hand. sub up first and try to get a SD up as well. the only thing i can't seem to achieve is to activate the liechi at 25% ( after 3 subs ). maybe you guy's know how? stealth rock actually helps sceptie as it lets it's liechi berry activate after 3 subs. unburden is awesome: after you lose the liechi, speed is doubled! so you don't have to worry about scarfed pokemon anymore. sceptie is my late game sweeper. i try to set up, but even without boosts sceptile is able to sweep crippled pokémon. the best scenario is this: set up a sub-63% after rocks, set up a SD ( because sceptile often causes a switch, if not, don't SD ). opponent breaks sub, sub again-38%, opponent breaks sub, sub again-13%. liechi activates, unburden activates. opponent breaks sub, drain punch if you can OHKO, to regain some of the lost HP, otherwise use leaf blade. clean up the field like a sceptile. this set is allready awesome i think, but maybe you guy's know a way to activate the liechi after 3 subs? i've tried giving some HP EV's, didn't work. anyway, watch out for priority moves cause sceptile can't take a lot of Extreme Speeds from entei or fake outs form normal gem medicham.

i know my team lacks a special attacker, (par rotom, but he isn't that powerfull, rotom is actually quiet supportive ) but i can live without. if anyone knows a good special attacker that would fit in my team, let me know.
i think the biggest threats are sigi and very fast special attackers like scarf galvantula and accelgor ( for durant mostly ).
this was my team, i hope you guys have some helpfull advice!

 

[col49]

Hey siep, nice team ^_^ However, if it's ok I'd like to make a few suggestions.

Looking at threats to your team, strong Fire-types such as Entei and Moltres look to be really problematic, being able to switch in relatively easily on almost your team barring Medicham, and can proceed to 2HKO everything with their attacks, with your only reliable method of taking them out being the iffy Stone Edge from Durant (which rounds off at about 64% accuracy without a boost o_O). Rock Polish Aggron also looks to be problematic, finding opportunities to set up on your defensive core+Durant and proceeding to run through your team with powerful Head Smashes.

With this in mind, I feel as though Uxie would appreciate Psychic and Thunder Wave over Heal Bell and Toxic. With the offensive pacing of your team, attempting to Toxic stall teams doesn't seem very effective, and it makes Uxie much more susceptible to becoming set up upon. Thunder Wave and Psychic allow Uxie to be much less passive in its walling, allowing it to cripple a variety of faster Pokemon and more concretely take on Fighting-types that it should be checking. With this change I would also recommend a Bold nature, as preserving Uxie's STAB is more important than maintaing better U-Turn damage.

In order to provide your team a response to Fire-types, I would suggest replacing Clefable with Lanturn. Clefable seems very out of place on your team, and aside from offering decent synergy with Uxie it really steals away the offensive momentum of the team. Lanturn is capable of comfortably taking Fire-type attacks as well as generalized special attacks to an extent, while also providing momentum with Volt Switch. While you do lose Wish support from this change, it makes your team much less vulnerable to dangerous set-up sweepers such as Swords Dance Gallade. Here is my proposed set:

Lanturn

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam / Protect

I would definitely suggest running Thunderpunch over Ice Punch on Medicham. Thunderpunch provides very similar coverage to Ice Punch, but it hits Pokemon such as Slowking (one of the most common Pokemon in the tier) significantly harder than anything else in Medicham's arsenal, while also safely procuring the OHKO on Moltres, who even with Lanturn you don't want to be letting in for free if you can avoid it. Normally Thunderpunch is ill-advised as a coverage move on Fighting-types due to the presence of Pokemon such as Nidoqueen and to an extent Amoonguss, but due to Medicham's Psychic STAB it doesn't have to worry about this =)

As it stands, Durant would appreciate Superpower much more than Stone Edge. After Stealth Rock damage a +1 Superpower is capable of OHKOing all noteworthy Fire-types in the tier, making Stone Edge somewhat unneeded, while also allowing it to more effectively take on opposing Steel-types and weakened Poliwrath. Though the stat drops that come with it are somewhat annoying, the pay-off is much more significant overall.

Personally, I don't think that Sceptile is the best choice for your team, offering very little in terms of synergy and not combatting any particularly outstanding threats to your team. Choice Band Entei would provide a solid check to most Bug-types as well as Cosmic Power Sigilyph (being immune to burn and threatening to 2HKO even if it's at +1), as well as a solid check to a variety of frailer Pokemon as well as a Sleep absorber courtesy of Sleep Talk. While this change makes you somewhat more vulnerable to bulky Water-types, namely Poliwrath and Qwilfish, these Pokemon can easily be taken on by your first 4 team members. Here's the set for reference:

Entei

Entei @ Choice Band
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 4 SDef / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- ExtremeSpeed
- Stone Edge
- Sleep Talk

tl;dr

• Heal Bell ---> Psychic
• Toxic ---> Thunder Wave

• Ice Punch ---> Thunderpunch

--->

• Stone Edge ---> Superpower

--->

I hope my suggestions have been of use to you, good luck in the future ^_^

 

[PTJon7]

First of there's a glaring weakness to fire. Half of your team is weak to it and nothing resists it. Any scarfed fire type could basically revenge kill all your sweepers, you'll only be able to tank neutral hits with your walls for so long.

Having both Sceptile and Rotom-M is pretty unnecessary, especially since Sceptile gives your team basically no extra coverage. All in all, just based off your current set, Sceptile should go. It really doesn't aid your team that much and you already have Durant as your physical set up sweeper. I think you need to replace it with something to take on Fire types. There are plenty of options, I'll list a few:

Hide

1. Kabutops: 4x resists Fire, hits back with super effective STAB Attacks.
2. Slowking: Specs and Trick Room are both quite powerful, and Slowking is also very bulky.
3. Rhydon: Very phsycially bulky with Eviolite, can also hit hard with its dual STAB Attacks.
4. Omastar: Can sweep entire teams if it gets a Shell Smash, also 4x resists fire.
5. Druddigon: Resists fire and Rough Skin is useful against physical attacker. Also is the only dragon type in the tier, and has a very powerful Outrage.

 

[siep]

thank you guys for the advise, i'll try it all out. lanturn is indeed a good option, but no max HP? and i'll change uxie, durant and medicham, thank you for that advice!! allthough, i've tried entei and he doesn't seem to have any addition to my team, i think i'll go with one of the options PTJon7 gave me, i'll try a few out!

thank you vey much for all the effort!!

 

[col49]

Well the way Lanturn's base stats are spread out (having a very high HP stat and only moderate defenses), investing in its defenses before its HP makes it bulkier overall n_n

 

[spuds4ever]

Hey there. This is a pretty good team but I think there are definitely improvements to he made. I'll start with major changes first. Cal's suggestion of replacing clefable with lanturn is quite a good way to deal with fire types, but threats like CB entei and emboar still break through lanturn with little issue so here is my suggestion. Replace clefable and uxie with slowking and aerodactyl. This core will give you much more offensive presence and a much sturdier pivot while significantly patching up your fire weakness and still retaining two decent nidoqueen checks and offering you status support and a smeargle counter.

Here are the sets:
Slowking @leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 116 SpD
Calm Nature
-Scald
-Fire Blast
-Thunderwave
-Slack Off

Aerodactyl @life orb
Pressure
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Doe
Jolly Nature
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock
-Taunt

I dissagree with the sceptile change, I think it and rotom complement each other well with rotom being able to weaken sceptiles counters. I would keep that as it is.

As for smaller changes, as you are aiming to clean with sceptile I presume, I would change the Durant set to a choice band set with rock slide, x scissor, iron head, and superpower which functions much better as a wall breaker in my view. I would also change the sceptile set slightly as grass and fighting coverage is rather redundant. Instead, try the SD set with leaf blade, acrobatics, and earthquake with a flying gem.

Summary of changes:

aerodactyl and slowking > uxie and clefable
Sceptile moveset change
Durant moveset change

If you made those changes, I don't think I can spot any large weaknesses.

Hope I helped and good luck with the team :)

 

[siep]

okay, so i have to make a choice now?? haha i'll just try it all out i guess

 

[siep]

but you guys know anything about scpetie's liechie not activating after 3 subs?

 

[siep]

so i've tried a couple of the changes you guys made for me: medicham runs tpunch now, uxie has transformed into aerodactyl ( thanks spuds4ever, great pokémon and takes fire hits nicely ) clefable is slowking now ( again thanks spuds4ever ), and i run durant with superpower instead of stone edge. i've kept my sceptile but changed the liechi into a flying gem and sub to acrobatics. i've kept the drain punch though, i like the recovery. the reason i took the advice from spuds is because i want to have my sceptile, it's a great late game sweeper!

thank you guys for all the great advice!

 

[Exbo]

but you guys know anything about scpetie's liechie not activating after 3 subs?

Probably because you have 4 HP evs, so your hp is 282 (probably, I'm assuming you have 31 HP ivs) which is not divisible by 4.

282/4=70.5 --> 70 hp lost per sub

70x3=210 hp lost total

282-210=72 hp remaining after 3 subs

72>70.5 => the pinch berry will not activate.

Try giving 12 hp evs, so that your hp will be at 284 (now divisible by 4) so that 3 subs will bring you at exactly 25% health.
OR
Try taking a tiny bit of damage before the subs (1 layer of spikes/SR for example) so that 3 subs will bring you below 25% health.