So I recently got back into Pokemon. I was an avid 4th gen player. I downloaded Pokemon Online about half a year ago, and I didn't understand the metagame. I made one single shitty team and I convinced myself that the metagame was bad. Well, I decided to come back with a better understanding of the competitive elements of this game. CSB and all, but I really have gone through a huge change in my life over the past few months.
So, I downloaded Pokemon Online again after furiously watching some battles of my favorite youtubers. "What is this Ferrothing?" I said. "Why is Politoed good?" I said. "I am a virgin, so go slowbro" I said.
Eventually I started brainstorming. I was always an aggressive player before, but now I see the benefits of being patient. I want a new team. I want a team that hasn't been made by everyone and their mother. I don't want rain. I don't want stall. I don't want sandstorm. I don't want monotype. I WANT PARALYSIS. So, I made this team and took it for a test drive. It has been tweaked, certainly, and the current state of this team is good. I have done reasonably well with it, but I am open to any ideas, for sure.
So far, there hasn't been a single Pokemon that has ravaged my team. Landorus and his brothers always surprise me, but I have found that I have successfully dealt with them more than they have trumped me. Phazers sometimes give me trouble. I have had a few run-ins with Hippowdon, with a reasonably low success rate. I also sometimes have trouble with bulky water pokemon. However, this may be because of the abundance of rain teams. I'd say 25% of bulky water encounters cripple my team as a whole. Does anyone else see any inherent weaknesses in this team?
Jirachi @ Leftovers Serene Grace | Jolly
80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spd (YEAH I STOLE THIS SET FROM SMOGON. GO BE A (BAN ME PLEASE) SOMEWHERE ELSE. FEGET.)
- Substitute
- Body Slam
- Iron Head
- Fire Punch
Back in the day, I always used a scarf Togekiss. This strategy was reasonably successful since Togekiss's natural bulk allowed it to take at least one attack from almost any pokemon, so abusing the luck factor from air slash became more of a strategy than a dependence on luck. I wanted to get back to this, but I wanted the strategy to be more consistent, and I wanted a Pokemon with better coverage. Jirachi fit the role. I knew that I needed a way to hit ground pokemon, because they would be the biggest threat to a team whose goal is to paralyze. A fast ground type could potentially cripple my team, especially considering I only have 2 moves that are super effective against this type.
Body Slam seems to cure this issue. The goal of this Jirachi is to achieve paralysis via body slam. Jirachi's natural bulk allows it to take hits, and the HP EV investments seem to help. The great thing about the other investments though is that a speedy Jirachi catches people off guard often. 90% of the time, I can get a Body Slam before the other Pokemon's lead. That is why Jirachi is my lead. A lead Pokemon should prepare for the battle ahead, right? That's why most people use Stealth Rocks on a lead Pokemon. Others look to cripple or annoy the team to create openings for early game sweeps. Jirachi is the second kind, and Jirachi does it well.
Sometimes substitute is a better option for my first attack. I don't want my Jirachi to be crippled early in the game. Jirachi's base 100 speed and the investments allow me to outspeed most leads. I have found that I outspeed the seemingly most common lead in the game, Politoed, most of the time. With the average investments, Politoed does an average of 76% to my Jirachi with a Hydro Pump. If the Politoed manages to land one, leftovers puts me back in sub health range. I have two fears when fighting Politoed: Choice Specs and being outsped, and then not achieving paralysis. While the 60% on Body Slam is in my favor, it is not a high enough % to be dependable. However, you will see later in my team that I have a solution to this.
So, back to the moves. I have Iron Head for the flinch%. The combination of paralysis and flinch achieves what I believe to be a reasonable success rate. I do not fully understand the mechanics of Pokemon, but I believe that my math makes sense. When you are paralyzed, the game rolls a dice that says 1/4 times, you will be immobilized, correct? Well, it would make sense to me that the game would register flinch and paralysis as independent factors, so the game would, using a certain priority, roll 2 dice based on the chances of each function independently. Flinch is a 60% chance, so assuming that my theory is correct (please someone tell me if I'm right or wrong), the game would roll the flinch dice and then the paralysis dice and if flinch achieved its 60% chance, it will make the other pokemon flinch, and if it does not, Paralysis will roll its dice for another 25% chance. So, the chances of either flinch or paralysis working is [(3/5)*(1/4)] which would be 3/20, AKA 85%. I dunno if I'm right, but I think Pokemon Online needs some factor tweaking if this is not the case considering my success rate with this strategy. I sometimes stall a Pokemon for 4-5 turns before they can actually use a move.
The goal when keeping this strategy in mind is to paralyze and then to set up a safe substitute. After being paralyzed, the Pokemon has 2 options: Attack or switch. If the Pokemon switches, I get a free substitute as well as a free Body Slam. If the Pokemon attacks, it takes the risk of being affected by paralysis and giving me a free substitute. The most common opening scenarios are a Politoed hitting me with a water attack or a Pokemon setting up Stealth Rocks. When a Pokemon sets up stealth rocks, I am overjoyed. None of my Pokemon have a weakness to Stealth rocks. After I achieve substitute, I body slam the Pokemon. I can try again if it doesn't work because I have a substitute. Assuming I get paralysis on the other pokemon, I am able to substitute 4 or so times. According to the law of averages, one of those turns should probably be a turn of immobility for the other Pokemon, giving me a free sub. This allows me to use Iron Head in combination with paralysis to achieve a perceptibly consistent strategy. Fire punch is for those stupid Scizor and Ferrothorn switch ins. THEY'RE LIKE IMA WALL YOU AND I'M LIKE NEGRO
Cresselia @ Leftovers
Levitate | Bold
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
- Moonlight
- Charge Beam
- Ice Beam
- Thunder Wave
In coordination with my Blissey down below, I knew I needed a physical wall that could paralyze. I also knew that I needed one with a dark and bug weakness because of my emphasis on the Heatran. Cresselia fit the role perfectly.
Moonlight is a great recovery move, but I HAVE had some trouble with the commonness of weather teams, especially Tyranitar. I even considered HP Fighting just for him. Originally, this set had Psychic instead of Charge Beam, but I was getting sick of getting walled by steels. Another thing I was sick of was Cresselia's lack of damaging capabilities and her ability to attract Pokemon who want to set up. I like the coverage that ice/electric achieves. I'm only walled by a few pokemon (fuckin' Ferrothorn (BAN ME PLEASE)). Charge Beam also allows Cresselia to establish herself as a threat to health and not just status. Ice Beam gives me the much needed ice coverage, and Thunder Wave gives me a 100% chance to paralyze non-ground Pokemon, whether or not they switch.
Cresselia's natural ability to switch in on 2 of the most common offensive types (ground and fighting) gives her a free opportunity to paralyze. Her investments make her a wall which can take any hit from any Pokemon. I don't believe this Cresselia has ever been OHKO'd, or anything close to that. I believe I took a large amount of damage from a banded Heracross Megahorn, but even that failed to take my Cress below 25%.
Probably the most useful of all of Cresselia's features is her ability to safely switch in on set up Outrages. Dragonite and friends can often force a switch. If I'm switching on something that could have Dragon Dance/Outrage, I'm switching to Cresselia. If the Pokemon can be paralyzed, Cresselia can 100% of the time switch in, take damage, and either force a switch or the other Pokemon will uselessly use Outrage, be crippled, and leave the battlefield with more shame than Cloud at an anti homosexual convention. cloud is gey btw. not me cloud. Cloud cloud. :cloud: (JKJK just trying some humor, mods)
Machamp @ Leftovers
No Guard | Adamant
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spd
- Substitute
- DynamicPunch
- Stone Edge
- ThunderPunch
When making this team, I knew I needed a Pokemon who could hit anything hard and also make effective use of a substitute for the aforementioned reasons. Machamp came to mind.
Machamp's -NATURAL BULK- and his HP investments allows him to safely switch in on decent predictions. His fighting type allows him to safely switch in on dark attacks, which are commonly attempted on Cresselia. With the other Pokemon hopefully paralyzed, Machamp is free to attempt to set up a sub. When he achieves this substitute, he has access to 130 base attack and a base 100 STAB attack which always hits and always causes confusion. I knew confusion would go great in combination with paralysis, so I had to use Machamp.
Stone edge allows me to hit ghosts and Thunder Punch allows me to kill bulky water Pokemon who sometimes give me trouble. I find Thunder Punch especially useful on this set since it is unusually unanticipated. Machamp also gives me the fighting coverage that I need to scare that stupid bitch Pokemon.
Blissey @ Leftovers
Natural Cure | Careful
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SDef / 6 HP
- Heal Bell
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic
Yeah. This one. God I hate using her. I feel like such a chode.
Anyways, I knew I needed support for the rest of the team. The team's reliance on other Pokemon being present meant that I COULD NOT stand to have crippled or near death Pokemon often. Blissey is undeniably the perfect solution to this.
Standard EVs give Blissey the ability to last unusually long. Her weakness to fighting also is a great bait for Cresselia. Switching to Cresselia is one of the most important parts of this team, so having a Pokemon with ONE weakness which happens to be a resistance of my other Pokemon makes me love Cress over Skarm. Cress/Bliss is a beautiful combination.
Heal Bell allows me to save my Pokemon from crippling burns, poisons, sleeps, and paralyses. Cresselia is often subjected to the high burn percent of Scald, crippling her ability to safely set up Charge Beams without fear of death from the burn damage in combination with the damage from the Scald, Stealth Rocks, Spikes, and other attacks.
The reliance on synergy of my team means I NEEEEEEEED wish support. Blissey does a fine job with her ridiculous amounts of health. I also knew that Paralysis isn't necessarily always the best option. I knew I'd need to pack Toxic in case I ran into a wall that didn't care about Paralysis. This comes in handy when Jirachi is dead, because Jirachi is often my solution to bulky walls, as I can hide behind subs and chip down the other Pokemon's HP. Toxic provides an alternative solution to this strategy, allowing me to cripple bulky walls without having to rely on Jirachi's slow methods. Protect is there to either see what the other Pokemon is going to do or to stall for Poison damage and a leftover boost.
Dugtrio @ Choice Scarf
Arena Trap | Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 6 HP
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Sucker Punch
- Stone Edge
Dugtrio is the only Pokemon that I wouldn't mind changing. While he functions well, his frailness doesn't belong on this team. He acts as a revenge killer, which often isn't necessary, as my team INTENDS to stay alive. However, Dugtrio has saved me in many instances. His ground typing allows him to safely switch in on once feared electric Pokemon. Choice Scarf ensures that I always outspeed other Pokemon when revenge killing. The moves provide adequate coverage. Aerial Ace is on there just because how does Dugtrio even do it man @_@
I'd love some suggestions as I think another Pokemon could serve a greater purpose. Dugtrio is too conditional.
Heatran @ Choice Specs
Flash Fire | Modest
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
While a lot of the team functions together, I knew I needed a Pokemon who could do a guaranteed large amount of damage. I went with my old bud, Heatran. Fire is a common offensive typing, and while I do only have Jirachi who is weak to fire, I am able to predict a fire move almost every game. Predicting a fire move allows Heatran to hit anything he wants with a Flash Fire boosted, Max investment, 140 base STAB move. It doesn't matter what switches in. It is going to get its shit pushed in.
Now, the unusual thing about this set is STEALTH ROCK. Heatran is Spec'd, yes, but I don't want the opponent to learn that. Jirachi often baits a fire attack, and Heatran often forces a switch. I knew I could take advantage of this, so I put Stealth Rocks on Heatran. This achieves 2 things. One, Stealth Rocks is da bes, and 2, it makes the opponent think that I don't have a choice item, meaning they will fear switching in on him. By achieving this mindset, I achieve a much more competitively viable Heatran. He almost seemed useless before. He would switch in on a fire attack, use a fire attack, and get walled by a water/rock/etc Pokemon. Now, Pokemon fear Earth Power, a move that this set is lacking. They also fear the other moves he may have, such as Dragon Pulse or Hidden Power.
Speaking of Hidden Power. Hidden Power Ice gives me the MUCH MUCH needed ice coverage. Lava Plume allows for safe late game sweeps, without a reliance on Overheat, a move which could very well depreciate my SAtk and end up not being strong enough to sweep a second or third Pokemon.
Anyways, thats the team. Tell me what you think. I'd love a replacement for Dugtrio.
