Battle Spot Physical Mega Lucario Team (I guess it's special now)

[thunderbolt73]

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and I was wondering if I could have some help with my Mega Lucario team for Battle Spot Singles. I have been using it quite a bit and it is working quite well. I have worked out a lot of the flaws, but I am sure that it could be better. It currently consists of Rotom-W, Volcarona, Dragonite, Porygon2, Hippowdon, and, of course, Lucario. I chose Dragonite, Hippowdon, and Lucario as my core because they cover each others weaknesses perfectly.

Whirlpool T-546 (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

I decided to add Rotom-W because I needed a way to get Volcarona in safely. Rotom-W is the best option because Volcarona is 4x resistant to Rotom-W's only weakness, grass. Rotom-W is also useful for spreading burns, and his amazing water/electric typing coupled with levitate is quite useful. Rotom-W can soak up the ground and the fire type weakness that Lucario has, and is also just good in general. I have won many a battle thanks to this little guy.

Kaitlyn (Volcarona) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain

Volcarona demolishes. With access to Quiver dance and its aforementioned synergy with Rotom-W, this Pokemon finds its place on my team as a powerful sweeper. Part of the reason I chose this is because I needed a fire type very much, as grass types were giving my core some troubles. I am aware of Volcarona's stealth rocks weakness, but that is where the team preview comes in. If their is something that could cause Volcarona problems, I don't send it in.

Alexander (Dragonite) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake

Dragonite is a very useful Pokemon that I use to cover Lucario's ground, fighting, and fire weaknesses. If I send in Lucario, I do my best to fit him on the 3 I choose. He also helps with A lot of other weaknesses on the team, including Hippowdon's Grass and Porygon2's fight weakness. He is generally a very reliable lead and I like to lead with him if I think they will lead with a ground type that Rotom-W could not volt switch on. I can pretty much always get at least one dragon dance set up thanks to multiscale, but I have to be careful with the Ice types.

Rover v2.7 (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Def / 12 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Foul Play
- Recover
- Thunder Wave

This little thing is a menace. With an eviolite, he can take a ton of hits. He provides speed control for my team, and can easily KO a sweeper with foul play. I dare you to try to knock his eviolite off Lucario solves that problem. Not only is Lucario unable to lose his megastone, his justified ability will increase his attack, that plus just one swords dance allows him to annihilate the other team with ease.

Jeff (Hippowdon) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Slack Off
- Yawn
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

Hippowdon is in this team specifically for Lucario, as Yawn gives him free swords dance setup. The rest of Hippowdon is pretty simple. He covers Lucario's fire weakness, and also breaks focus sashes for Lucario with stealth rocks and sand stream. I also really needed a ground type, so that is a bonus.

Xavier (Lucario) (M) @ Lucarionite
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Iron Tail
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance

Mega Lucario is the Pokemon that this team is centered on, so here it is. It is a fairly standard physical sweeper set, but it gets the job done nicely. If needed, Rotom-W can volt switch Lucario in, but it is more preferable to have hippowdon use yawn first. Yawn allows Lucario at least 1 swords dance, often even more. After setup, Lucario is able to sweep the opponents team. Both Dragonite and Hippowdon were selected to support and cover Lucario's weaknesses.

And there you have it! I like this team a lot and it has been able to take me to a mid-1300 rank. Yet, there is always more room for improvement. I appreciate any advice that can be given. Thanks in advance!

 

[Omastar68]

This is a good team, but I agree there's always room for improvement.

First it's important to kno how EVs work. If you have an odd IV, I.e. perfect, the EV should not be divisible by 8, otherwise it's a waste. So your Rotom-w should only have 4 Spe and then max HP. I also thinking having Reflect on Rotom-w could be nice with all the set up sweepers. I don't like dual screens tho, Reflect is usually the more important one and 5 turns is often enough.

One other thing that stands out to me is Thundurus is a big threat to your team if P2 is dead or you didn't bring it. My best advice if you don't want to make big changes is always bring P2 if you see a Thund(mainly normal, but I guess even Thund-T is trouble,) and try to keep it safe.

Not really much else I can think of, but I'm not that good, so...

I think one thing that's good is to always bring Rotom-W if you see Talonflame. It can beat Volc, Luc, and P2 and Hippo with Taunt. DNite does ok but it's not a counter or anything.

 

[NOVED]

HippoLucNite is a pretty good core. With Dnite, I think Special Lucario is usually a better option since you can use Dnite as a physical sweeper and Lucario as a special sweeper, and they dont stack counters as much. Physical isy decent if you want to really hammer on opposing physical walls with both Dnite and Luc and hopefully win that way, but I think Special Lucario makes the core more flexible and since so many defensive mons are physically bulky in this meta, Special can really do some work.

On Rotom-W, I really prefer Sitrus Berry since in 3v3 the meta is very offensive and Leftovers often won't have enough turns to be as impactful as Sitrus. Sitrus helps turn a lot of 2hko's into 3hko's that Leftovers sometimes doesnt do. I also like Tbolt over Pain Split, I think Pain Split in this meta isnt going to help you enough. Most of the offensive mons in the format are so strong that using Pain Split isnt going to help you enough imo, and you often may not even heal out of range of most of their attacks. Tbolt offers another electric STAB that can be used consistently which is nice for bulky waters like Suicune and Slowbro. And like Omastar said, you wanna make sure your EVs are all correct.

On Volc, you could consider running HP Ice or Rock over Giga Drain to hit Salamence with Ice, or Talonflame and Zard with Rock, this lets you take out mons that normally hard counter Volc. And I think those moves are especially nice with Focus Sash since you can use it to take a hit from Talonflame or Mence.

I don't really get why Porygon2 is on this team. It is a generally good mon itself, but you have two other physically defense pokemon on the team already. Hippo and Rotom-W set themselves apart pretty well. Rotom being able to deal with Water-types and Talonflame much better, Hippo being better at dealing with Kanga, Blaziken, and being able to set up rocks and give Lucario/Dnite great opportunities to setup. But p2 seems to beat most of the same mons those two already do. Since you already have good defensive mons I think something offensive and proactive could help your team more. Mega Gengar could be a good option in that slot as a backup mega in matchups where Lucario isnt too good(and there are a decent amount of matchups where this is true). Gengar is great with setup sweepers being able to trap and beat certain threats like Cresselia for Dnite, or Azu for Volcarona. Mega Lucario is one mega that I think really appreciates having a second mega on the team just cause it isn't always a good pick cause of some bad matchups vs common things like Garchomp, Talonflame, Mawile teams, Aegislash, etc. Alternatively, Greninja is another mon I think could work decently in that slot too, imo it works pretty nicely on Hippo teams. Its coverage is so good to take care of things like Kanga, Azu, Garchomp, Thundurus, and a lot more. Its very capable of tearing through offensive teams, weakening them a lot and paving the way for one of your sweepers to win. It can also work nicely vice versa, after one of your sweepers dents the opponents team really hard and greninja then cleans up. Dnite is especially good at that.

That's all that I'd change, overall the team looks solid. HippoLucNite is a core that's proven itself to be pretty good.

 

[a0161613]

I have experience of this core in my own RMT and I would heavily suggest trying special Mega Lucario. It really is very good and means you don't need to use a low accuracy move like Iron Tail and a risky low PP move like Close Combat whic has a big downside to anything that survives which can abuse the stat drops.

I'd also be inclined want to suggest either a mixed def or specially defensive Hippo spread and something (anything) over Pain Split.

 

[thunderbolt73]

This is a good team, but I agree there's always room for improvement.

First it's important to kno how EVs work. If you have an odd IV, I.e. perfect, the EV should not be divisible by 8, otherwise it's a waste. So your Rotom-w should only have 4 Spe and then max HP. I also thinking having Reflect on Rotom-w could be nice with all the set up sweepers. I don't like dual screens tho, Reflect is usually the more important one and 5 turns is often enough.

One other thing that stands out to me is Thundurus is a big threat to your team if P2 is dead or you didn't bring it. My best advice if you don't want to make big changes is always bring P2 if you see a Thund(mainly normal, but I guess even Thund-T is trouble,) and try to keep it safe.

Not really much else I can think of, but I'm not that good, so...

I think one thing that's good is to always bring Rotom-W if you see Talonflame. It can beat Volc, Luc, and P2 and Hippo with Taunt. DNite does ok but it's not a counter or anything.

I like your idea for having Reflect on Rotom-W. Which move should I replace? I was thinking Will-O-Wisp, as I need Volt Switch and Hydro Pump. Pain Split comes in handy, but so does Will-O-Wisp. What do you think? I will make sure to keep Porygon2 safe if I see Thundrus in the preview; this is something that had not occurred to me. Thanks!

Edit: I Have replaced Will-O-Wisp and Pain Split with Tbolt and Reflect.

 

[thunderbolt73]

HippoLucNite is a pretty good core. With Dnite, I think Special Lucario is usually a better option since you can use Dnite as a physical sweeper and Lucario as a special sweeper, and they dont stack counters as much. Physical isy decent if you want to really hammer on opposing physical walls with both Dnite and Luc and hopefully win that way, but I think Special Lucario makes the core more flexible and since so many defensive mons are physically bulky in this meta, Special can really do some work.

On Rotom-W, I really prefer Sitrus Berry since in 3v3 the meta is very offensive and Leftovers often won't have enough turns to be as impactful as Sitrus. Sitrus helps turn a lot of 2hko's into 3hko's that Leftovers sometimes doesnt do. I also like Tbolt over Pain Split, I think Pain Split in this meta isnt going to help you enough. Most of the offensive mons in the format are so strong that using Pain Split isnt going to help you enough imo, and you often may not even heal out of range of most of their attacks. Tbolt offers another electric STAB that can be used consistently which is nice for bulky waters like Suicune and Slowbro. And like Omastar said, you wanna make sure your EVs are all correct.

On Volc, you could consider running HP Ice or Rock over Giga Drain to hit Salamence with Ice, or Talonflame and Zard with Rock, this lets you take out mons that normally hard counter Volc. And I think those moves are especially nice with Focus Sash since you can use it to take a hit from Talonflame or Mence.

I don't really get why Porygon2 is on this team. It is a generally good mon itself, but you have two other physically defense pokemon on the team already. Hippo and Rotom-W set themselves apart pretty well. Rotom being able to deal with Water-types and Talonflame much better, Hippo being better at dealing with Kanga, Blaziken, and being able to set up rocks and give Lucario/Dnite great opportunities to setup. But p2 seems to beat most of the same mons those two already do. Since you already have good defensive mons I think something offensive and proactive could help your team more. Mega Gengar could be a good option in that slot as a backup mega in matchups where Lucario isnt too good(and there are a decent amount of matchups where this is true). Gengar is great with setup sweepers being able to trap and beat certain threats like Cresselia for Dnite, or Azu for Volcarona. Mega Lucario is one mega that I think really appreciates having a second mega on the team just cause it isn't always a good pick cause of some bad matchups vs common things like Garchomp, Talonflame, Mawile teams, Aegislash, etc. Alternatively, Greninja is another mon I think could work decently in that slot too, imo it works pretty nicely on Hippo teams. Its coverage is so good to take care of things like Kanga, Azu, Garchomp, Thundurus, and a lot more. Its very capable of tearing through offensive teams, weakening them a lot and paving the way for one of your sweepers to win. It can also work nicely vice versa, after one of your sweepers dents the opponents team really hard and greninja then cleans up. Dnite is especially good at that.

That's all that I'd change, overall the team looks solid. HippoLucNite is a core that's proven itself to be pretty good.

Sitrus Berry seems like a good Idea for Rotom, and will be implemented right away. I agree with having a special Lucario, so that, too, will be added. Tbolt seems like a good idea to replace pain split, what do you think of replacing Will-O-Wisp with Reflect? This would give my Pokemon more defense, and then I wouldnt have the problem of not being able to use yawn. I am a little bit confused about the Evs, I found them on the Smogon strategy pokedex site, as I assumed they would have good EVs. Should I change them to 252/252/4 sets instead? I think that a second mega is good, as I was having a bit of trouble fighting some of the threats you listed. I am considering Mega Gengar. He seems like a good option. Also, I will definitely add hidden power on volcarona. Thanks for the help.

 

[thunderbolt73]

I have experience of this core in my own RMT and I would heavily suggest trying special Mega Lucario. It really is very good and means you don't need to use a low accuracy move like Iron Tail and a risky low PP move like Close Combat whic has a big downside to anything that survives which can abuse the stat drops.

I'd also be inclined want to suggest either a mixed def or specially defensive Hippo spread and something (anything) over Pain Split.

Special Lucario is a good idea, and is being implemented at this very moment. I think that I will go with a special Hippo, and I am replacing Pain Split with Tbolt.

 

[NOVED]

Sitrus Berry seems like a good Idea for Rotom, and will be implemented right away. I agree with having a special Lucario, so that, too, will be added. Tbolt seems like a good idea to replace pain split, what do you think of replacing Will-O-Wisp with Reflect? This would give my Pokemon more defense, and then I wouldnt have the problem of not being able to use yawn. I am a little bit confused about the Evs, I found them on the Smogon strategy pokedex site, as I assumed they would have good EVs. Should I change them to 252/252/4 sets instead? I think that a second mega is good, as I was having a bit of trouble fighting some of the threats you listed. I am considering Mega Gengar. He seems like a good option. Also, I will definitely add hidden power on volcarona. Thanks for the help.

Well the set you saw on the smogdex was likely for a smogon format, as those are set to level 100. In battle spot all pokemon are set to level 50 and that makes EVs work a bit differently. At level 50, each stat only goes up one point every 8 EVs after the first 4. A good way to make sure your EVs are right is by setting pokemon to level 50 in the teambuilder on Pokemon Showdown, this will always make sure you put your EVs in right. But yes, 252/252/4 would be better.

 

[thunderbolt73]

Well the set you saw on the smogdex was likely for a smogon format, as those are set to level 100. In battle spot all pokemon are set to level 50 and that makes EVs work a bit differently. At level 50, each stat only goes up one point every 8 EVs after the first 4. A good way to make sure your EVs are right is by setting pokemon to level 50 in the teambuilder on Pokemon Showdown, this will always make sure you put your EVs in right. But yes, 252/252/4 would be better.

OK, that makes sense. Gengar seems good for a backup mega, but there are a lot of possible sets on Smogon. What would be the best? Bulky? Offensive? I know perish wouldn't be good because I dont have anyone else that has shadow tag. I have fixed the EVs by the way.

 

[NOVED]

OK, that makes sense. Gengar seems good for a backup mega, but there are a lot of possible sets on Smogon. What would be the best? Bulky? Offensive? I know perish wouldn't be good because I dont have anyone else that has shadow tag. I have fixed the EVs by the way.

The set I personally like the most is the bulkier one, and I think it would work well for you.

Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Destiny Bond
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex / Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb

 

[thunderbolt73]

The set I personally like the most is the bulkier one, and I think it would work well for you.

Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Destiny Bond
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex / Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb

Thanks a trillion! Excuse me, I have to go inactive for a while. It is way past my bedtime and my parents will get mad if I stay up any longer.

 

[cant say]

I like your idea for having Reflect on Rotom-W. Which move should I replace? I was thinking Will-O-Wisp, as I need Volt Switch and Hydro Pump. Pain Split comes in handy, but so does Will-O-Wisp. What do you think? I will make sure to keep Porygon2 safe if I see Thundrus in the preview; this is something that had not occurred to me. Thanks!

Edit: I Have replaced Will-O-Wisp and Pain Split with Tbolt and Reflect.

Sitrus Berry seems like a good Idea for Rotom, and will be implemented right away. I agree with having a special Lucario, so that, too, will be added. Tbolt seems like a good idea to replace pain split, what do you think of replacing Will-O-Wisp with Reflect? This would give my Pokemon more defense, and then I wouldnt have the problem of not being able to use yawn. I am a little bit confused about the Evs, I found them on the Smogon strategy pokedex site, as I assumed they would have good EVs. Should I change them to 252/252/4 sets instead? I think that a second mega is good, as I was having a bit of trouble fighting some of the threats you listed. I am considering Mega Gengar. He seems like a good option. Also, I will definitely add hidden power on volcarona. Thanks for the help.

Special Lucario is a good idea, and is being implemented at this very moment. I think that I will go with a special Hippo, and I am replacing Pain Split with Tbolt.

Hey there, and welcome to Smogon!

You can reply to more than one person in the same post by clicking reply on the post you want to reply to before clicking "post reply." Posting twice / three times in a row (aka double posting) is discouraged.

If you're using the StrategyDex I figured you might already know about our Battle Spot Singles Format Hub, but just in case you don't there it is. It has resources for everything you need. You should come hang out in our chatroom or post in the forum for more general help.

I haven't really got any suggestions for your team as NOVED covered them all already (Mega Gengar fits well over Porygon2). I'm just worried that Thundurus / Thundurus-T and Greninja might be a big problem for you, as well as Sylveon. Chansey would cover all those fantastically but certainly doesn't address the problems NOVED pointed out that Mega Lucario has such as Garchomp, Mega Mawile, and Aegislash. A lot of HippoLucNite teams use Mega Charizard X or Y as a second mega but you already have Volcarona and by the sounds of it you like Volc too much to replace it. So I think just sticking with NOVED's changes and reporting back with how they go is best!

 

[thunderbolt73]

Hey there, and welcome to Smogon!

You can reply to more than one person in the same post by clicking reply on the post you want to reply to before clicking "post reply." Posting twice / three times in a row (aka double posting) is discouraged.

If you're using the StrategyDex I figured you might already know about our Battle Spot Singles Format Hub, but just in case you don't there it is. It has resources for everything you need. You should come hang out in our chatroom or post in the forum for more general help.

I haven't really got any suggestions for your team as NOVED covered them all already (Mega Gengar fits well over Porygon2). I'm just worried that Thundurus / Thundurus-T and Greninja might be a big problem for you, as well as Sylveon. Chansey would cover all those fantastically but certainly doesn't address the problems NOVED pointed out that Mega Lucario has such as Garchomp, Mega Mawile, and Aegislash. A lot of HippoLucNite teams use Mega Charizard X or Y as a second mega but you already have Volcarona and by the sounds of it you like Volc too much to replace it. So I think just sticking with NOVED's changes and reporting back with how they go is best!

Alright, I'll do that when I reply from now on. I appreciate the help, and my team has been working very well with the changes above. Thanks for the help!