Mono Steel Team

Xephyr

Fairly interesting team. I like mono teams and wanted to try one, so I thought, "why not steel?"




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Metagross @ Occa Berry
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 20 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Meteor Mash
- Stealth Rock

Standard Metagross lead. Occa Berry lets him live through Infernape's Overheat with enough to OHKO back with Earthquake. I've never liked Metagross much but he works well enough and can get Stealth Rock up. Explosion just deals ridiculous damage on anything that's not a major physical wall.

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Bronzong @ Light Clay
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Atk / 68 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Gyro Ball
- Hypnosis
- Light Screen
- Reflect

Screen Zong. It's hard to do any damage to this guy after one of the screens are up. Hypnosis to cripple something. Gyro Ball rapes anything that doesn't resist steel. Ordinary Zong, he just supports the team with extra defense.


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Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn

You knew this guy was gonna be here, right? Bullet Punch just hurts. Even stuff that resists steel gets hurt, due to stab, technician, and choice band. Pursuit traps Gengars and Starmies for the easy kill. Superpower just for immense strength. U-turn easily kills Azelf or Alakazam. He basically just hurts things for a living.


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Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Dragon Pulse
- Earth Power
- Explosion
- Lava Plume

Another obvious pick. An all-steel team has a glaring fire weakness, right? Well, Heatran doesn't think so! Bring him in on the imminent fire attacks that are gonna be thrown at me and then kill something. I've never really used explosion mostly because I need to keep this guy in here as long as possible, because fire attacks are dangerous. I usually don't even keep him out for more than an attack or two.


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Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Extremespeed
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

I was kind of iffy on having another just basic physical rapist, but what the heck, Lucario rocks! He easily sets up under screens, and then just attacks and kills. I've swept entire teams a few times with this guy.


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Magnezone @ Leftovers
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 136 HP / 120 Spd / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Magnet Rise
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt

Kills those annoying Swampert that run rampant over the rest of my team and Gyarados. He's especially good at trapping other steels and slowly killing them. Scizor usually don't have much of a chance against this guy. He's the only special attacker on the team, which I don't like much, but I couldn't think of any other steel types that are decent special attackers. Jirachi, I guess, but that would be a third Psy/Steel type on my team. That's no good, and what would I replace?
 
I don't really have time for a full rate, but I would consider explosion over hypnosis on Bronzong. It has several advantages. Firstly, it will for your other Pokemon to take advantage of the screens. Secondly, you already have five other steel types (and one other psychic/steel type) so typing-wise you wouldn't be that far down after exploding Bronzong. Third, Bronzong has a reputation for luring out fire types which are not good for this team. Exploding in their face after setting up screens should allow your team to run much more successfuly. Fourth, the accuracy of Hypnosis dropped to 60% which isn't that great at all. The only real downside is that you lose your only ground immunity after he explodes, but you can try not to explode him until you have scouted the opponent's team.

This might seem kind of obvious, but you have a huge ground weakness. You have 2 4x weaknesses, 2 weaknesses and 1 immunity. I highly recommend something to help you out with that. Skarmory adds a phazer to your team which can help you handle DD Graya and also gives you the ability to set up spikes which is always a plus. Most importantly, it has a ground immunity and a fighting neutrality.

You also have a huge Infernape weakness, but that can't really be fixed outside of scarfing Magnezone for a revenge kill if you want to remain as a mono-steel team. Mispredicting with switching in Heatran can be deadly and he is very high risk to switch in so you might want to scarf somebody else in case if he goes out.
 
if your keeping adamant on your lucario change ice punch to crunch as with adamant your not outspeeding the dragons you need to kill. So, if you want ice punch change the nature to jolly and if you want adamant change ice punch to crunch so you can kill cresselia and forms of rotom
 
To start off, this looks pretty good, especially as a mono-type team. But, there are a few changes that should be addressed.

First off, Choice Scarf on Heatran should probably go. Because you're using Heatran as a Fire-type absorber and "tank", you should probably go with Rest Talk. It will give you a status absorber, as well, which will bode well with your team. For reference, here is the set.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 56 SpA / 204 SpD
Nature: Modest
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Another option to consider is running Choice Scarf Magnezone. With the added Speed, it can function as a good revenge-killer. You can keep Hidden Power Grass to damage Swampert, though, as Bronzong can set up on most Scizor, or your Heatran can come in.

Lastly, add Crunch over Ice Punch on Lucario. Crunch will let you handle Cresselia, a common Lucario switch-in these days, as well as taking out Celebi. Ice Punch is not needed when you have Bronzong to take on Gliscor, as well as most Gliscor fearing Ice Punch anyways.
 
I like skarm on my mono steel teams, walls all the physical hits, and can set up spikes which hurts after 2-3 layers. It also gives you another poke which resists ground moves.

I don't see why you want 168atk evs on bronzong, he is meant to set up screens, i suggest a much more defensive set, as his only attack is gyro ball, which has low PP and coverage. With the skarm mention before, you can move most of the attack evs into SpD so you have more walls.

Lucario to jolly, adamant SDluke is for ubers. Run the standard extremespeed/crunch/CC/SD set.
 
One word: Gyarados.

It can set up on Lucario, Scizor, or Heatran (half your team) and can OHKO all your Pokemon bar Bronzong. There are a few ways to solve this, first of all you can give Heatran HP Electric so you can revenge kill it. Also, although Lava Plume has a high burn rate you are going to want the boost in power to 2HKO Pokmeon like Zapdos, so use Fire Blast.

Another thing you could do is give Lucario ThunderPunch instead of Ice Punch. It is a nice surpise (or not so nice) to Gyarados who think they can set up on you. You also get something to hit other Flying-types without lowering your defenses.
 
Yeah I am bit of a novice at this, but liking mono-teams myself I have done steel before. Probably the poke I used least that was on my team was Metagross. He mainly served to go 'boom' on something I was having issues with.

I had an issue finding steel special sweepers(as it sounds like you did). For that I decided to use Lucario as a special attacker rather than a physical attacker. It worked rather well. Particularly since most people were expecting the physical sets and switched accordingly. Blissey walls it(unless you are touting close combat), but a steel mono team generally has plenty of physical might. Blissey was never a real problem for me. If memory serves if they switch to Hippo or Swampy to try and stop you you kill them with Aura Sphere before they get to attack(hit them with Aura sphere on the switch and it is a sure 2hko for the most part). Conversely, if memory serves, both the hippo and swampert can survive a swords danced close combat(and aren't two hit ko'ed by it without swords dance). Of course I don't know what people normally switch to against you. But against me it is usually ghosts or a physical wall. Both of which choice specs deals well with.

Another goodie is the Physical Skarm sets. Helps against the ground weakness and can be surprisingly dangerous. In addition most steels already have a fair bit of bulk, so a pure walling Skarm likely isn't 100% needed(and it is pretty fun taking people by surprise).


Before I retired the team I thought of trying Empoleon or Magnezone(I opted out of Magnezone because I didn't want 2 4x weaknesses to ground). Sadly I never got around to doing so. I just couldn't figure who I wanted to switch out for him. Partly why I wanted Emp so bad was due to Kingra. Rain dance Kingra scares my team. Plus I figured another poke that can at least stand fire attacks would be handy.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. I'm going to test out going with a special set for Lucario, making Heatran a rest-talker, and getting Skarmory in here somewhere, most likely over Scizor, who's been by far the least effective on the team.

I'm also thinking of making Bronzong a bit more defensive. I like the hypnosis, regardless of the low accuracy. If it hits, it's extremely helpful as it allows me to switch over the Lucario or something knowing I'm not going to get hit with anything.
 
Specs Lucario would be a nice change, adding a powerful special sweeper to your team. It is especially dangerous when the opponent sends in a phys wall and you OHKO it with a super effective choice boosted move of choice, allowing your Phys sweepers free reign over the field. This is the best choice for a steel Special sweeper you dont have already. Heres the set:


Lucario @ Choice Specs
Timid, 252 SpA, 252 Spd, 6 HP
Inner Focus

Aura Sphere
HP Electric
Shadow Ball
Vaccum Wave

Electric deals with your Gyarados weakness quite well, and vaccum makes a nice revenge killer and weavile counter. Vaccum could be replaced for another move for coverage if you wanted to, though.

Psychic over Gyro on Zong, to deal heavy damge to those fighting types that sweep your team otherwise.

Flamethrower over Lavaplume on Heatran, while ur in you want as much damage (while being reliable) as possible. Speaking of which, give Tran Life Orb or leftovers because the team dislikes fire soooo much, when you switch in (as you will be a lot from every poke) you need to wear down the incoming counter as much as possible while retaining freedom of moves. This is a biggie, Tran needs to be able to hit his counter hard immidately so he will last through the game, giving you a strong Special sweeper.

Hope this helped, good luck!
 
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