I love my Tentacruel lead

EastonRogue

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The team at a glance + weakness chart.

Hopefully the weakness chart shows no massive weakness. The main concern for me is Heracross, on paper it seems like it could be bad, but so far it hasn't been too bad. I have Considered a Swords Dancing Gliscor > Leafeon to add stealth rocks and a pure Heracross counter, but I am unsure.






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Tentacruel (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 204 HP/96 SAtk/36 Spd/172 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Surf
- Rapid Spin
- Safeguard

If the opponent's lead is one such as Gengar which commonly uses a status inflicting move like hypnosis, the lum berry absorbs the status and safeguard guards my team from further sleep so that I can counter or beat the opponent down. Tentacruel can take special hits no problem, lay down toxic spikes which helps my physical sweepers and stops non-flying focus sashers from getting that 2nd hit. Surf over Ice beam for damage when necessary/needed mainly due to STAB. Rapid spin to support team, and the liquid ooze ability means I can safely switch into leech seeders such as Breloom and Celebi.

I am considering surf < ice beam, changes welcome.
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Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 120 Atk/136 Spd/252 SAtk
Rash nature (+SAtk, -Def)
- Brick Break
- Draco Meteor
- Roost
- Fire Blast

Wow I love mixmence, Roost has saved me more times than I would ever have expected when initially trying the set. Fire Blast was chosen for the power advantage, the other moves provide coverage, blissey killing and Draco Meteor rocks. Life orb recoil is less damaging with roost, but I have to use it when I know Sala won't be killed.
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Cresselia (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 96 HP/160 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight
- Psychic

Counters infernape, an omnipresent threat. Moonlight to shrug off damage when available, or when a switch is likely. Psychic for STAB and killing any Fighting types or Poisons, Ice Beam for dragons/coverage and CM to aid a possible sweep, or to become more bulky. A good overall mixed wall. Along with 'Lax, he is great at stalling whilst the opponent dies from poison.
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Leafeon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 132 HP/160 Atk/216 Spd
Jolly nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Baton Pass
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
- Wish

I don't see many Leafeons on shoddy. Well, he has nice defence and attack and ok speed. His main aim is to come in and take a hit with moderate ease, Swords Dance when possible, and then Baton Pass to Metagross. I know synthesis is often frowned upon, but when sandstorm is not in play (hey, it happens.) 50% recovery on this guy can really help. However, I would be willing to consider X-scissor > Synthesis, if not only for celebi's. He is a good Gyarados counter I find and Leaf Blade generally makes short work of Gyara, and Leaf's respectable defence ensures he won't die fast.
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Snorlax (M) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 168 HP/142 Def/200 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Body Slam
- Curse
- Fire Punch
- Rest

Chesto Berry > Lum as I only want to wake up from (ideally) my rest. Whenever possible, curse, and if I am predicting a switch, body slam is ready to spread a possible paralysis. Fire punch covers ghosts to an ok extent, but also allows me to kill steels easier. Good for status absorbing and can mostly switch in to quite a few things. The usual precedure is to curse until I need to rest, rest+wake up, get a more cursing, then let loose and heal when needed, and if the opponent has no phazer, it works well.
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Metagross @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 152 HP/252 Atk/104 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Agility
- Earthquake
- Thunderpunch
- Meteor Mash

Standard Smogon Agiligross setup. Earthquake seems to be the most common counter to this guy and the shuca berry works great. A Metagross with 1+ swords dances and an agility on him is an absolute beast, he is resistant to stealth rocks, immune to toxic spikes, and is versatile even without swords dance. The attack modifier on Meteor mash is always welcome. I miss having a stealth rocker/priority mover, which Metagross can do both of, but this set is so good for ruining teams.
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I have never tried constructing a counter/threat list before and I do not think I would be very good at it. Anyway, RMT! rip it apart if you want, it's on shoddy so I can easily change/adapt the team.
 
Hmm...this is kinda nitpicky, but why are there attack Evs on Cruel?


Also, this team has trouble with baton passing leads since you have no phazer. You may want Drapion>Cruel to deal with Ninjask and such...and Drapion has decent speed to lay down Tspikes as well (although it cant spin).
 
I would go crunch > Fire Punch on lax, and like said above, get rid of tente OR better yet leafeon, and add a good phazer.
 
I think you forgot to change Leafeon's nature; Jolly is appropriate for your EVs. Synthesis and Moonlight are extremely unreliable in an environment with Tyranitar and Hippowdon everywhere. Consider using Wish on Leafeon; not only does it heal a consistent 50%, but it can also provide support for the team. There is no reason to invest Attack on Tentacruel; you probably meant Special Attack. Rash is probably a better nature on Salamence to coincide with Intimidate, so it can take physical attacks to some degree.
 
snorlax owns to the max said:
Hmm...this is kinda nitpicky, but why are there attack Evs on Cruel?


Also, this team has trouble with baton passing leads since you have no phazer. You may want Drapion>Cruel to deal with Ninjask and such...and Drapion has decent speed to lay down Tspikes as well (although it cant spin).
Click to expand...

Heh that was indeed a mistake on Cruel and it is now changed.

No idea why Leafeon was not on Jolly, I think when changing and editing the team I must have forgotton to make some of the appropriate alterations before I pasted it in, thanks for noticing ;)
 
From my observations you did a very nice job covering weaknesses, I looked this team over for at least 10 minutes and saw nothing huge and gaping. You may get beaten by the occasional fast Magnezone, but they're pretty rare or at least uncommon.

Great Sage said a lot, but I will say that considering Wish isn't a consideration, more of a must. You can easily revive things that would be KOed or severely damaged with a Baton Pass and correct prediction. i.e. You have a weakened Snorlax and your opponent sends in his Gengar to finish you off, but can only do so with Shadow Ball. You Wish on the switch and the opponent now has the dilemna of not KOing Leafeon, Snorlax, or another member of the team! Prediction wars are always better when your opponent has to make the tougher decision.

If you want to furthur increase your team's potential threat and defend better against Heracross, there's not much you can do other than to make Salamence a DDMence with Roost. It takes on everything not named Skarmory/Bronzong well, but the team would probably work better with MixMence. Just be careful against CB Hera.
 
Another idea for leafeon would be aerial ace over the healing move...i prefer wish, but aerial ace would let it counter heracross...sorta...

overall though, go wish, or switch it to a gliscor.
 
I've gone wish now and am generally finding it to be a significantly better move, not just for team support but helping myself setup also. Thanks for that help. I agree that Gliscor would be quite useful on this team, but I prefer - and want to use - Leafeon.
 
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