PreBank M-Ampharos Bulky Offense Peak ~1800 Advice Needed

[Darkhound]

Hey guys this is my Second Gen 6 RMT it's a little different than some of the standard teams out there utilizing rarely seen pokemon as well as some new favorites

MAJOR PROBLEMS I SEE:

1. Weak to Talonflame
2. Weak to entry Hazards
3. Minor Heatran weakness

THE TEAM AT A GLANCE!!

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DEFENSIVE CORE!!

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This core has tons of defensive synergy via typing. Gourgeist and Florges are there to support Ampharos because Ampharos is the most offensive of the 3 he lacks team support moves in order for me to maintain some pressure while surviving as long as possible.
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Gourgeist@Leftovers
Frisk
Impish
252hp 252Def 6Att
-Leech Seed
-Will-o-Wisp
-Pain Split
-Shadow Sneak

Gourgeist is my bulky Ghost and spin blocker, My team is extremely vulnerable to Earthquake with Florges abysmal defense and Tyrantrum, Ampharos, and Excadrils ground weakness I need someone who can take Earthquakes repeatedly and that is this guy!! Further more will-o-wisp lets some of my bulkier mons eat a future earthquake if need be. Leech Seed provides excellent stall capability's when coupled with leftovers. Shadow sneak does enough damage to make this priority nearly unresisted stab the mono attacking move that rounds out this set.

Problems I encounter: I find that I use pain split very limitedly I am pondering changing it for protect to get extra recovery and help out with stall. Gourgeists HP just seems to be TOO high for pain split to help more than hurt

Thoughts??

Florges@Leftovers
Flower Veil(like it fuckin matters)
Calm
252hp 252SpD 6SpAtt
-Aromatherapy
-Wish
-Protect
-Moon Blast

Florges is my Special Wall and covers the fighting weakness that 3 of my other team members have. Florges takes special hits like a champ even super effective ones! with Wish+Protect+Leftovers its hard to bring this guy down especially if the opponents gets a SpAtt drop from moon blast. My team lacks recovery and It is of the utmost importance that Gourgeist is kept healthy because he is my switch in for damn near every physical attacker. While Florges Hp leaves much to be desired the wish heals passed from this guy generally heal at least 50% of the the rest of my team so that aspect seems to be working well =D

Problems I encounter: Going up against calm mind sweepers ruins my day and it is extremely hard to gain momentum against them baring sacrificing talonflam to priority kill them on their weaker physical side, I am not sure how to combat this

Thoughts??

Ampharos@Ampharosite
Static => Mold Breaker
Modest
252Hp 44SpAtt 192SpD 20Spe
-Volt Switch
-Dragon Pulse
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

The Mega on my team and this guy does more than show off that boss hair!! Because Ampharos is so slow volt switch will almost always move last and it puts a huge dent in my opponent while allowing me to grab momentum by switching in a counter that takes 0 dmg thus forcing a switch death or free set up turn for me. Ampharos lacks any reliable recovery moves and I can't solely rely on wish to keep him healthy so I went the rest talk set in order to get a sleep/status absorber for my team to minimize the need for me to use Aromatherapy. Ampharos is bulky enough to switch in time and time again provided he doesn't eat nasty SE hits and has changed games in my favor multiple times. What I love most about this guy is how hard he hits with nearly uninvested power and Mold Breaker lets me laugh in the face of Lightningrod, Volt Absorb, Motor Drive users and still lets me switch out and keep momentum going! The mold breaker and sheer power of ampharos is what makes him a nice niche over the ever present Rotom-W

Problems I have encountered: Surprisingly NONE with this guy he does his job well and barring terrible prediction on my part I don't find myself lacking anything from him


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THE FORCE!!

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Tyrantrum@Life Orb
Strong Jaw
Adamant
252Att 252Spe 6Def
-Head Smash
-Ice Fang
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock

HOLY HELL DOES HEAD SMASH HIT FUCKIN HARD!!!!! Tyrantrum is my offensive hazard setter and wall breaker blasting pass defensive gliscor with a Sjaw boosted Ice fang and tearing chunks out of damn near everything else with Head Smash, Honestly this guy hits so damn hard he usually dies to his own recoil effects and I have no problem with that because he opened holes doing so

Problems I have encountered: Generally no problems with this guy its just HULK SMASH all day, however it does get frustrating VS enemy defog/rapid spin users because of Tyrantrum's frailty he generally only gets the one chance to put the rocks up and is extremely hard for me to get them up again if they go bye bye. This bothers me because SR is my answer to enemy talonflame so that I can tank a hit and kill it, but if one comes in at full health it is much harder for me to counter.

Thoughts??

Excadrill@Assault Vest
Mold Breaker
Adamant
252Att 252Spe 6SpD
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Rapid Spin
-Shadow Claw

Excadrill is my spinner and is on the team to ensure that Talonflame gets in safely. I chose to run with assault vest and Mold Breaker in order to counter spin blockers. EQ hitting gengar on the switch in is just so lovely and shadow claw takes huge chunks out of trevenant and enemy gourgeist. Its great not having to fear will-o-wisp so much due to Florges cleric ability and bringing in a full HP Talonflame damn near gaurantees a KO or 2 or 6 lol!!

Problems I have encountered: I am not sure that having a single entry hazard remover on my team is sufficient enough to keep rocks off of the field for Talonflame. I find myself switching Talonflame into rocks about 20% of the time and having to rely on wish passing to heal him up

Thoughts??

Talonflame@Choice Band
Gale Wings
Adamant
92Hp 252Att 164Spe
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-U-turn
-Will-o-Wisp

Finally to finish my team I have my late game sweeper Talonflame. a +1 Brave Bird hits everything hard and 2hkos pretty much anything that doesn't resist it, especially with SR damage. One of the biggest benefits of Talonflame is being able to come in and IMMEDIATELY threaten Mega Lucario whom the rest of my team has a problem with assuming he is running Crunch/Dark Pulse. Surprizingly enough I have used will-o-wisp fairly often on this choice set as an emergency stop to bulky dragon dancers Dnite/Mence/Gdos/MTyranitar. U-turn forms a pseudo volt-turn core with Ampharos and can grab some decent damage while he runs out

Problems I have encountered: I tried running a Swords Dance set but I found very little opportunity to set up and sweep and after switching to Choice Band Talonflame has significantly increased the ammount of KOs hes been getting per match. Still not sure if this is the best late game sweeper for my team but that priority is just too good to pass up. I am considering running full 252Spe EVs in order to outspeed the rare vacuum wave Lucarios as well as other talonflame

Thoughts?

Hey guys thanks alot for taking the time to read my RMT I would really appreciate as much advice as possible from you pros out there. I want to make this team in game and want to try and get it as strong as possible before investing the time in breeding/leveling these poks!!

Thanks alot guys and if you are interested be sure to check out my Trade Thread in my Sig!!​

 

[Darkhound]

guys please help me out with a rate, you were so helpful on my last RMT help me out here please!! =D I'll throw in a free 5iv pokemon to whoever gives me a worthwhile rate and helps my team improve!!

 

[@quarius]

Well its a solid team, but I think we could change a few things.
on how
First of all, Florges is an incredible special wall, but if you have trouble with calm mind sweepers, Unaware clefable does the job better. She has about the same bulk as Florges, access to wish a heal bell, but ignores boosts from calm mind.

Excadrill is a strong pokemon, but the set you have lacks bulk. I would recommend 252 hp/236 attack/20 speed to outpace uninvested base 90s. You might want to consider replacing shadow claw with swords dance.

Gourgeist seems to be outclassed by trevenant,
Trevenant @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Curse/Will-o-Wisp
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Protect

The 0 atk for lack of foul play damage, you can burn with Will-o-Wisp if you want, but curse seems to be better in my opinion. An impish set could also be run with horn leech, as to not be taunt bait, but I find this set works just fine. If you find yourself ever lacking a berry, just use protect for a chance at it to come back.

Tyrantrum could be a bit bulkier. A frail stealth rock layer is not favorable. You could either drop the rocks, and add dragon dance, and replace excadrill with something that can spin and lay rocks, like a volt switch fortress (even more momentum) or add more bulk. I would recommend either of these sets.

Tyrantrum @ Life Orb
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 192 Spd / 252 Atk / 64 HP
Adamant Nature
- Head Smash
- Fire Fang
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

The speed investment allows him to outspeed timid Gengar, while still retaining bulk. Fire fang deals with steel types.

Tyrantrum @ Assault Vest
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang

I choose stone edge over head smash to minimize the recoil. Once the HA is released, feel free to run head smash. Fire fang again to get past steel types, and the edgequake combo needs no introduction. This will probably solve your Talonflame weakness and Heatran weakness.

Also in my personal experience, Talonflame is an excellent swords dance user, but depends on the team you are facing. He's a fantastic late game sweeper who should almost never see the field until all his checks are removed. Then again, it depends on your opponent's team.

 

[Darkhound]

Well its a solid team, but I think we could change a few things.
on how
First of all, Florges is an incredible special wall, but if you have trouble with calm mind sweepers, Unaware clefable does the job better. She has about the same bulk as Florges, access to wish a heal bell, but ignores boosts from calm mind.

Excadrill is a strong pokemon, but the set you have lacks bulk. I would recommend 252 hp/236 attack/20 speed to outpace uninvested base 90s. You might want to consider replacing shadow claw with swords dance.

Gourgeist seems to be outclassed by trevenant,
Trevenant @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Curse/Will-o-Wisp
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Protect

The 0 atk for lack of foul play damage, you can burn with Will-o-Wisp if you want, but curse seems to be better in my opinion. An impish set could also be run with horn leech, as to not be taunt bait, but I find this set works just fine. If you find yourself ever lacking a berry, just use protect for a chance at it to come back.

Tyrantrum could be a bit bulkier. A frail stealth rock layer is not favorable. You could either drop the rocks, and add dragon dance, and replace excadrill with something that can spin and lay rocks, like a volt switch fortress (even more momentum) or add more bulk. I would recommend either of these sets.

Tyrantrum @ Life Orb
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 192 Spd / 252 Atk / 64 HP
Adamant Nature
- Head Smash
- Fire Fang
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

The speed investment allows him to outspeed timid Gengar, while still retaining bulk. Fire fang deals with steel types.

Tyrantrum @ Assault Vest
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang

I choose stone edge over head smash to minimize the recoil. Once the HA is released, feel free to run head smash. Fire fang again to get past steel types, and the edgequake combo needs no introduction. This will probably solve your Talonflame weakness and Heatran weakness.

Also in my personal experience, Talonflame is an excellent swords dance user, but depends on the team you are facing. He's a fantastic late game sweeper who should almost never see the field until all his checks are removed. Then again, it depends on your opponent's team.

Hey @quarious thank you so much for taking the time to RMT if we could go into a conversation about the points you made i would really appreciate it!

First off I find Trevenant to be an amazing pkmn on my current IGN competetive team I run him as a special wall with an extremely similar set, been thinking about replacing toxic with curse, gonna have to play around with that. However on the physical side the pumpkins bulk seemed to be a bit better option with 85/122/75 defensive stats VS. Trevs 85/76/82 but I might play around with the harvest monster once more.

Addressing your comment about Florges Unaware Clefable seems incredibly interesting but are the benefits of that ability enough to outweigh the universal Magic Gaurd?? Also just looking at clefable's stats (as I have not yet used her competetively) she seems a bit squishy, is that not the case?

Addressing both Excadrill and Tyrantum, you seem to think that Bulk outweighs Speed in the current metagame, any reason for that? It just seems fairly different than the last metagame and I am not disagreeing with you just hoping for and explanation why =D

Thanks again for the rate it truly is much appreciated

 

[@quarius]

Hey @quarious thank you so much for taking the time to RMT if we could go into a conversation about the points you made i would really appreciate it!

First off I find Trevenant to be an amazing pkmn on my current IGN competetive team I run him as a special wall with an extremely similar set, been thinking about replacing toxic with curse, gonna have to play around with that. However on the physical side the pumpkins bulk seemed to be a bit better option with 85/122/75 defensive stats VS. Trevs 85/76/82 but I might play around with the harvest monster once more.

Addressing your comment about Florges Unaware Clefable seems incredibly interesting but are the benefits of that ability enough to outweigh the universal Magic Gaurd?? Also just looking at clefable's stats (as I have not yet used her competetively) she seems a bit squishy, is that not the case?

Addressing both Excadrill and Tyrantum, you seem to think that Bulk outweighs Speed in the current metagame, any reason for that? It just seems fairly different than the last metagame and I am not disagreeing with you just hoping for and explanation why =D

Thanks again for the rate it truly is much appreciated

I think you underestimate the power of EV investment. Clefable has slightly less special bulk than Florges, but with investment its not that much of a problem. Unaware is an extremely under rated ability in my opinion, as its the only reason Quagsire counters about half the threats it does, but magic guard also works if you are relying on her to be more of a cleric who is going to be switched in than a wall. Just don't expect her to tank +6 attacks from calm mind users. I choose the bulk in Excadrill because of 2 reasons. 1) Because losing a rapid spinner while having so many pokemon vulnerable to spikes+SR damage could be incredibly detrimental, and 2) Because his speed is horrible anyway, so you are not going to be outpacing much. Don't expect him to tank many super effective hits, but he has a nice range of resistances that he can utilize. Tyrantrum has a reasonable amount of bulk, SR, can dragon dance (T tar might be able to do this better perhaps), but his speed is low, so investing in speed would still leave him outpaced by faster threats that could OHKO him given his low sdef. Also investing in bulk would give Talonflame a harder time in OHKOing him, while allowing him to OHKO back, and outright countering heatran.