Ok so ive built this team around mega scizor quite a while ago and I'm familiar with it as ive laddered up high with it quite a lot. However sometimes I think I lose games because I think I'm lacking a counter to a specific pokemon. Some threats to this team are mega gallade (being the major one as this team gets mauled by it after an SD) and mega pinsir (sometimes can be scary if put in the correct time, but I mostly deal with it. Also magnezone kind of messes up the team since scizor always contributes a lot in the match p, but magnezone leaves me hesitant to switch in scizor into weavile and others as I may get predicted. I would love to hear your thoughts on my team and provide me with some improvement tips because I want to reach the top this time and not 6. Here is my team:
Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
Mega scizor is very good in this team as it can set up on many mons with the given EV spread which I took from smogon. It can set up on many physical attackers such as landorus, weavile, non life orb excadrill, and offensive garchomp. It can set up on most walls, and also on special attackers such as raikou, kyurem-B (no HP fire), thundurus (no life orb), and some others too. However it can struggle with other mons which the next pokemon can counter quite well.
Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Substitute
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt
I think kyurem-B is a nice partner since It can destroy many of scizor's counters. It counters mega manectric, rotom-w, heatran, skarmory, zapdos, choice specs magnezone, etc. It just synergizes pretty well. However this set is not a wall breaker as it does get walled out by ferro, clefable, and chansey. But sciozr can counter those barring fire coverage on clefable. the reason I run full speed and not a bit of hp is that I want to outspeed adamant excadrill, dragonite, gyarados and Mega Altaria as it does get OHKO'd by this monster with Ice beam.
Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Hyperspace Fury
- Drain Punch
- Gunk Shot
- Thunderbolt
There I a lot to be explained about this set for hoopa as it may be unique. I have full attack investment with lonely boosting my attack further and lessening the useless defense. The reason I went with power over speed in the nature is that drain punch is a guaranteed over 50% on chansey and that extra attack does matter against ferrothorn too as it may be a role without the attack boost. The reason this pokemon is on my team, is that without it, my team falls against stall teams even with the rest of my pokemon included. I needed a way to stop it so I thought hoopa would do the job. hyperspacefury is there to just destroy things in one hit. drain punch is obvious as well as gunk shot for fairies. However I chose thunderbolt as my last move because I wanted to one shot skarmory with him after rocks to break sturdy. But most importantly, this allows me to beat stall with mandibuzz is them as mandibuzz is quite the problem to hoopa. The only thing which walls this beast is hippowdon which I why I had grass knot to OHKO it along with quagsire and seismitoad. Another move which can be considered however is energy ball as some light pokemon like manaphy don't take much from grass knot as they do from this move.
Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Healing Wish
not much to say about latias. Its the teams defogger as well as a semi-keldeo counter since roost is not included. However this pokemon saved me from loss many times with healing wish as the three pokemon I target with move are usually hoopa, scizor, and kyurem-B. latias usually doesn't do as much and really wins me the game by giving a second chance for these pokemon. Against stall, I recommend healing wish to be preserved for hoopa unbound as it most likely will contribute the most after all the life orb recoil and rough skin, iron barbs and rocky helmet damage it might take.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Roar
- Lava Plume
heatran is the teams stealth rocker and is the specially defensive wall in the team. it synergises pretty well with scizor and counters many pokemon like latios (no EQ), mega manectric, thundurus, tornadus-T (no fighting coverage which most don't have), and some others. When people put toxic on heatran, they usually run protect, but I thought that roar was a much much much smarter move to put. sometimes, I may lose to a DD mega altarias or DD gyarados, or swords mega gallade as I mentioned before or Tail glow manaphy, but the unexpected roar saves my life and keeps me in the battle. Roar has to be chosen very wisely as the time it is used in is quite strict. You need to look at the costs of losing heatran if they chose to hit it instead of setting up and see how it may affect the battle. however if letting the pokemon set up cant be afforded roar is always the correct choice. Yes this heatran gets walled out by other heatrans which is sad.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
This thing is a beast. This the pokemon that most of the times helps keep the team living. Unfortunately, a +2 knock off from mega gallade OHKOs it which really got me surprised when I saw its health go down the first time I played against one. However it does counter pokemon like excadrill, garchomp, keldeo, and mega zard X. it can thunder wave any physical attacker who is committed to setting up in general which will leave it for my other members to kill most likely being either hoopa or kyurem. this thing can live a +2 return from mega pinsir and can scald/ thunder wave it in return. Something that I figured out with slowbro which I find very hilarious is that it can live a latios life orb draco meteor from full health even without any spdef investment! You can thunder wave them back the turn they do that then just slack off next turn XD
Anyway, I hope you understood the whole thought process behind my team. Also notice i put 0 Ivs in some pokemon's natures to reduce foul play damage since the extra atrtack is not needed; make sure you do that too. Some diificult pokemon to switch into in this team are life orb kyurem-B as you don't know what to expect to throw out as they predict switches which can screw you over. Another is mega heracross... doesn't every team struggle with that? So in the end, I hope that you would reply and provide me with useful improvement tips to help ladder up even higher. Thank you all so much as I am excited to hear your opinions about my team. Please excuse any spelling or grammatical mistakes.
Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
Mega scizor is very good in this team as it can set up on many mons with the given EV spread which I took from smogon. It can set up on many physical attackers such as landorus, weavile, non life orb excadrill, and offensive garchomp. It can set up on most walls, and also on special attackers such as raikou, kyurem-B (no HP fire), thundurus (no life orb), and some others too. However it can struggle with other mons which the next pokemon can counter quite well.
Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Substitute
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt
I think kyurem-B is a nice partner since It can destroy many of scizor's counters. It counters mega manectric, rotom-w, heatran, skarmory, zapdos, choice specs magnezone, etc. It just synergizes pretty well. However this set is not a wall breaker as it does get walled out by ferro, clefable, and chansey. But sciozr can counter those barring fire coverage on clefable. the reason I run full speed and not a bit of hp is that I want to outspeed adamant excadrill, dragonite, gyarados and Mega Altaria as it does get OHKO'd by this monster with Ice beam.
Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Hyperspace Fury
- Drain Punch
- Gunk Shot
- Thunderbolt
There I a lot to be explained about this set for hoopa as it may be unique. I have full attack investment with lonely boosting my attack further and lessening the useless defense. The reason I went with power over speed in the nature is that drain punch is a guaranteed over 50% on chansey and that extra attack does matter against ferrothorn too as it may be a role without the attack boost. The reason this pokemon is on my team, is that without it, my team falls against stall teams even with the rest of my pokemon included. I needed a way to stop it so I thought hoopa would do the job. hyperspacefury is there to just destroy things in one hit. drain punch is obvious as well as gunk shot for fairies. However I chose thunderbolt as my last move because I wanted to one shot skarmory with him after rocks to break sturdy. But most importantly, this allows me to beat stall with mandibuzz is them as mandibuzz is quite the problem to hoopa. The only thing which walls this beast is hippowdon which I why I had grass knot to OHKO it along with quagsire and seismitoad. Another move which can be considered however is energy ball as some light pokemon like manaphy don't take much from grass knot as they do from this move.
Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Healing Wish
not much to say about latias. Its the teams defogger as well as a semi-keldeo counter since roost is not included. However this pokemon saved me from loss many times with healing wish as the three pokemon I target with move are usually hoopa, scizor, and kyurem-B. latias usually doesn't do as much and really wins me the game by giving a second chance for these pokemon. Against stall, I recommend healing wish to be preserved for hoopa unbound as it most likely will contribute the most after all the life orb recoil and rough skin, iron barbs and rocky helmet damage it might take.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Roar
- Lava Plume
heatran is the teams stealth rocker and is the specially defensive wall in the team. it synergises pretty well with scizor and counters many pokemon like latios (no EQ), mega manectric, thundurus, tornadus-T (no fighting coverage which most don't have), and some others. When people put toxic on heatran, they usually run protect, but I thought that roar was a much much much smarter move to put. sometimes, I may lose to a DD mega altarias or DD gyarados, or swords mega gallade as I mentioned before or Tail glow manaphy, but the unexpected roar saves my life and keeps me in the battle. Roar has to be chosen very wisely as the time it is used in is quite strict. You need to look at the costs of losing heatran if they chose to hit it instead of setting up and see how it may affect the battle. however if letting the pokemon set up cant be afforded roar is always the correct choice. Yes this heatran gets walled out by other heatrans which is sad.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
This thing is a beast. This the pokemon that most of the times helps keep the team living. Unfortunately, a +2 knock off from mega gallade OHKOs it which really got me surprised when I saw its health go down the first time I played against one. However it does counter pokemon like excadrill, garchomp, keldeo, and mega zard X. it can thunder wave any physical attacker who is committed to setting up in general which will leave it for my other members to kill most likely being either hoopa or kyurem. this thing can live a +2 return from mega pinsir and can scald/ thunder wave it in return. Something that I figured out with slowbro which I find very hilarious is that it can live a latios life orb draco meteor from full health even without any spdef investment! You can thunder wave them back the turn they do that then just slack off next turn XD
Anyway, I hope you understood the whole thought process behind my team. Also notice i put 0 Ivs in some pokemon's natures to reduce foul play damage since the extra atrtack is not needed; make sure you do that too. Some diificult pokemon to switch into in this team are life orb kyurem-B as you don't know what to expect to throw out as they predict switches which can screw you over. Another is mega heracross... doesn't every team struggle with that? So in the end, I hope that you would reply and provide me with useful improvement tips to help ladder up even higher. Thank you all so much as I am excited to hear your opinions about my team. Please excuse any spelling or grammatical mistakes.