So this is a team I made with my favorite pokemon. Charizard, Gengar, Dragonite, and Starmie. They will always be in every competitive team or variant I ever make. Fortunately for me, all my favorites have been buffed since I last played DPP.
This team creates a balanced playstyle. Sometimes it'll be on the offensive and sometimes it'll be on the defensive. I've been doing well with it but I feel like I hit a wall. This team doesn't really have a weakness to a single pokemon, but it does have problems with certain teams. I have problems with baton pass teams, bulky stall teams that use special defenders beyond just blissey, and Choice Scarf physical pokemon(terrakion, garchomp). I rarely lose against any other type of teams, but these 3 threats will consistently give me trouble. Any help or advice would be useful, but the 4 favorites of charizard, gengar, starmie, and dragonite cannot be replaced.
So with much further ado here is the team and the explanation:
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- SolarBeam
- Earthquake
- Defog
I think Charizard Y is one of the best anti-leads in the game right now. Common leads like Rotom-W, Greninja, Skarmory, Gliscor, Forrestress, Heatran, will fall pretty quickly. Charizard Y has decent speed, enough over the other leads, to fire a shot while rocks go up, defog, and then finish up the pokemon.
Charizard won't always lead, for example against smeargle, but I have several games where my opponent's lead is dead, no rocks are up, and charizard is sitting strong at 60%. This charizard can bluff x because of Earthquake.
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Pain Split
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
This guy answers kangaskhan and blissey. He provides great scouting with substitute and invaluable immunities for pivoting. When i need a miracle, it's almost always gengar who pulls through with it. The ghost stab is great and when gengar gets a sub up, he's almost always guaranteed a kill.
Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
Dragonite is a great revenge killer, late game finisher, and all around bulky with absolutely no defensive investments. He hits hard out the gate, and a lot times he comes in, goes on a rampage, then switches and mops up with extreme speed. I do wonder if he'll do better as a set-up sweeper sometimes, or as a paralysis tank.
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 228 Spd / 252 SAtk / 28 HP
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
Offensive Rapid Spin starmie. I run psyshock over a water attack because of Charizard's sun, and it works out great. Although, sometimes i wonder if it would be better using psychic instead of Psyshock. The EVs are to outspeed all 111, but not 115s. Starmie can go on a tear, but she's usually there to rapid spin, which is extremely important/
Krookodile @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Atk
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
This guy has been a break out star on my team. He is an incredible pivot for all my pokemon. Charizard Y only loses to rock and electric, which krookodile handles very well. Krookodile has a lot of weaknesses as well, but all my other pokemon resist them. He comes in, intimidates, does something useful, then lets my other pokemon do their work. He's as bulky as swampert with intimidate on the physical side, and impressively bulky on the special side.
Wobbuffet @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 28 HP / 248 SDef / 232 Def
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
- Safeguard
The team has a major weakness to physical scarf pokemon, as well as bulky special walls. With wobbuffet, I get a guaranteed kill on the scarfers (and free setup or pp stall on special walls and their heal move.) Now I have a major weakness to dragon attacks unfortunately. Lose one weakness, gain another I guess
Former members:
Magnezone @ Eject Button
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 172 HP / 84 Spd / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
Now a lot of people see this and wonder why eject button? It's because it gives me a quick pivot to get a pokemon in, without taking any damage. This is very important for dragonite in keeping multiscale in tact, as well as changing the attacks dragonite is locked into. After eject button is used up, Magnezone still functions as a good steel trapper. While magnezone has eject button, he provides an electric/steel typing to any pokemon for a quick switch. It's important to know when to use it, as its quite easy to mess up magnet pull with it.
Here is a textbook example of my team doing a lot of things I described. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokebankoubeta-68528414
Anti-lead charizard, note that if Deoxys put up rocks instead, I would've defogged the next turn and then killed Deoxys, Magnezone's eject in action, and dealing with kangaskhan.
As mentioned before, this team I feel never really has any problems except against Physical Choice Scarf pokemon, Bulky Special Tanks/Walls not named Blissey, and baton pass teams. I'm not too worried about bp teams because it's not too common, but it would be nice to find a place to fit taunt or encore, or a phase move. My team is fairly fast unboosted, but it cant compete with boosted speed.
I've tried a variety of pokemon before settling on magnezone, because i desperately need a dragon resist. However, I'm keeping an open mind, and would be willing to change out krookodile or magnezone to help my team.
Pokemon I've tried in magnezone's place: Choice Scarf Zapdos, Belly Drum Azumarill, Calm Mind Slurpuff, Belly Drum Slurpuff, Venusaur. I've throught about running static stunfisk against physical scarfers, but I dont think that's going to work. I've gotten to 2100 with Choice ScarfZapdos and Azumarill. Got to around 2000s with Slurpuff and Venusaur. Any input, advice or changes suggested would be greatly appreciated.
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