Battle Spot First iteration of a mixed team

[Bram316]

Introduction

Hey everyone! After being a 28-year old veteran of PvE-ing the main series games, I am now trying to do my best on the Battle Spot. I only played 'Free' for now (3v3 singles) - I plan to tackle 'Rated' later on when I'm getting better.

1. Sorry to say, but I try to only use pokemon that I somewhat decently like. (Mods, feel free to lock this instantly if you don't like seing this kind of stuff) Maybe you fine fellas will help me change that.

2. My general goal was to balance out weakness and resistances. I didn't quite manage to do so, because I've got Rock, Ice, Fairy and Ground weaknesses two times each on this team - mainly because of Dragonite. Also, I really like to have the 50/50 split of physical and special attackers.

3. I'll talk about the problems I've encountered at the end. So now, the team:

The Team

Fluffy (Altaria-Mega) @ Altarianite
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Return
- Dragon Dance
- Cotton Guard
- Roost

Altaria is the core of my team and acts like a physical sweeper. I chose to run the tanky version with heavy setup, because playing defensive at first is totally my thing. Also the self sustain is pretty good. The Pixilated Return is enough to deal with most of what's left of the opponent's team (usually I send out Altaria as 2nd or 3rd mon) - especially after 2 DD's. So I have 3 slots left for setup and sustain.

Pendragon (Escavalier) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- X-Scissor
- Iron Head
- Drill Run
- Knock Off

So freaking tanky, I love this fella. Still hits like a truck. Most of the time, this is my opening mon. The bulk lets it survive many, many hits, so it can KO one opponent and decently damage the second. Assault Vest is a very good option if you like to run the offensive coverage, like I do.

Skyfire (Volcarona) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Quiver Dance
- Giga Drain

This is my special sweeper. I chose Lum > Leftovers/Sitrus because I think negating that first status (especially Para) is more important than (steady) recovery, so it is set after the first Quiver Dance. Giga Drain has proven useful if the opponent switches is Rock- or Water-Types trying to revenge-kill Volcarona.

Tidebringer (Empoleon) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Aqua Ring
- Scald
- Roar

Build as a special wall, which it does quite nicely. I run Rocky Helmet to punish physical attackers somewhat. That's why I have Aqua Ring on it, to get the missing Leftovers heal if the situation allows for it. (And because I didn't get my hands on one with Defog, hehe)

Solmyr (Dragonite) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Extreme Speed
- Thunder Punch
- Dragon Dance

Nothing to fancy here, just your standard physical sweeper. I can't remember why I chose Thunder Punch over something else tho, like EQ or Ice Punch. As said before, Dragonite is mainly here because I like it. I am very open to alternatives, although I use it araound 50% of the time.

Silverbolt (Zebstrika) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Dark]

This is my 6th slot syndrome. I chose it to get decent Electric type offense and only get one duplicate weakness in Ground. Initially I aimed for HP Ice, but I didn't have any luck ingame. Zeb's movepool isn't great by a long shot, so I'm constantly thinking of putting in something else. Also, in all my matches so far, I didn't use it once.

Conclusion

My main concern is offensive coverage, i.e. the lack of BoltBeam. I just don't find the opportunities to use Zebstrika, so maybe a mon with that would be better? Or should I add an alternative Mega?
Also, I don't think this team has much synergy between it? Sure, I tried with the resistances, but is the lack of a general strategy crucial?
Further, I'd guess I'm 60%-40% (even a bit more maybe) for wins/losses, but keep in mind that I only played Free Battle Spot. You don't usually see many threatening teams there. Most of the times similar teams like this, and the occasional misused legendaries.
Speaking of wins, the main match winners are Altaria and Volcarona *cough* very surprising, I know *cough* although there have been times where Escavalier wreaked havoc (and rarely even Empoleon) and the rest was just easy cleanup with the above mentioned two or Dragonite. I really like the trio Escavalier, Volcarona, Altaria. That is my go-to setup.
TL;DR: Escavalier/Empoleon to soften the opponent's up, and then setup and sweep with Altaria/Volcarona/Dragonite.

Anyway, thank you all for your time reading this. I'd appreciate any kind of comments.
Have a nice day!

 

[Omastar68]

This is a very interesting team. I suppose I'll start with Altaria.

Max special bulk is a rare sight due to SpD and Spe being not getting boosted by mega evolution, and the emphasis on physical attackers over special attackers in BSS-this is Singles right(I know this is Free Battle, but you'll want to graduate to regular Battle Spot at some point)? Otherwise there's a lot that needs to be changed.) I think it makes sense with Cotton Guard and, and mono fairy coverage is ok...though you'll find Altaria gets scared out easily by some things like Aegislash regardless of boosts. Clefable and the rare Quagsire also ignore all your boosts, and don't fear unboosted Return from a 4 Atk MAlt at all. I'd say spend some time running calcs to try to find a better spread. You can sometimes get away with 252/252/4 in BSS, but often times a more specialized EV spread is more helpful.

Escavailer seems mostly fine, though you probably want Megahorn over X-Scissor. 40 more BP makes up for 15 less accuracy. Also, AV is a 1.5x boost to your DpD so make sure you have an even SpD stat so you're not wasting EVs.

By your description of why you went Lum>Lefties it sounds like you're thinking of Sitrus Berry, is that what the item should be? You really shouldn't use Sitrus on Volcarona, Lum is better(usage stats reflect this.)

Empoleon is a very interesting pick. I'd say you want more physical bulk...though that again is more if you're gonna try to use this team in regular BSS. It's much harder to give advice for Free Battle since you could see anything...there's not a concrete threat list to prepare for. Anyways, BSS is more physically oriented, you're running Helmet, and Empoleon can't take most special attackers anyways, all of which are good reasons to focus on physical defense. Aqua Ring is pretty useless in general, just giving Lefties size recovery and taking a turn to set up. A better option would be Ice Beam for the common dragons like Garchomp and Megamence, or something like Toxic or Yawn.

DNite looks mostly ok. If you decide to not run Lum on Volc then you should give that to DNite, otherwise WP is fine. Thunderpunch definitely doesn't make any sense, so you should replace that with whatever coverage move most helps your team.

Zebstrika isn't something you see every day. I'd run a Rash/Naughty Nature with Wild Charge over T-bolt, and Sap Sipper for the ability. It's always good to have a Spore switch in...even if it isn't very bulky. Zebstrika has a lack of good moves, but I still wouldn't use HP Dark. Instead you should use HP Ice, Toxic, or even something weird like Swagger, Me First, or Flame Charge. Have you considered a Spe boosting nature instead, and then a different item?

I feel like Talonflame is pretty tough for you. It can easily OHKO Volcarona with BB and Escavalier with Flare Blitz. Mamoswine is likely to be able to hit everything super effectively except Escavalier, and Icicle Spear hits through DNite's Multiscale, and Thick Fat means Zebstrika won't OHKO with Overheat. It's also worth noting that MAlt, Zebstrika, and Volc are unlikely to be able to dent Heatran significantly, while your DNite can't do much to it currently. Escavalier is outspeed and OHKOd, and Empoleon fears Earth Power(most Heatran have this,) and won't OHKO and is outsped.

 

[Bram316]

Thank you for your awesome analysis.

Yeah, I always confuse Lum with Sitrus. Volc carries the Lum for status. I'll fix that in the OP.

These are all very nice suggestions. I will definitely craft a bit over the weekend.

 

[cant say]

This team overall needs a lot of work, to the point where it would probably benefit you more to come hang out on Pokemon Showdown with us so we can help you build it back up from scratch. Big problems include running double-dragons without great support for Fairies (namely Sylveon), and running flat out unviable Pokemon in Empoleon and Zebstrika. However, I'll try to focus on some specific changes that could make this team better.

You pretty much auto-lose to someone running Heatran. This is the easiest fix though as a couple of your mons can be tweaked. BSS is too fast-paced for such a bulky Altaria to be effective, it would be much better to use a more standard Adamant spread with Atk and Spe EVs. I'm a big fan of Altaria and have used the normal Dragon Dance / Return / Earthquake / [filler] set to good effect. The fourth moveslot has been Facade most of the time because Altaria gets burned and poisoned a lot, but Roost fine, as well as Fire Blast (yes even with an Adamant nature) to hit predicted Scizor / Ferrothorn / Skarmory switch-ins.

Empoleon should have a Sitrus Berry and use Yawn over Aqua Ring. Swamert runs the exact same set and it works for it, so it should also work for Empoleon... A physically defensive spread would probably be better than what you have though.

Dragonite is where your team starts to fall apart. Using it with Altaria is just redundant, you'd never bring both to a battle, and any battle that Altaria wouldn't get picked for is the same deal for Dragonite. I actually do use both these guys in one of my teams, but I use two megas. Mega Altaria usually gets paired with Suicune, whereas Dragonite pairs with Mega Metagross. Choosing which core to go with depends on team preview, it's a little hard to explain but I think you might get what I mean. The point is they are used differently, whereas in your team they do the same thing...

I think Choice Scarf Landorus-T would be a good fit for you here. He beats those Heatrans I mentioned earlier, and gives you something to beat Thundurus and Talonflame with, two things your team struggled against. If getting a good Landorus is too hard (understandable, however there are many free ones in our Wi-Fi forum's giveaway section), you could try Choice Scarf Mold Breaker Excadrill.

Zebstrika is so heavily outclassed by both Mega Manectric and Raikou that I think you need to run one of those instead. Zebstrika is already so fast that a Scarf doesn't really make sense, and Hidden Power Dark is a bad idea. There's a link to Ditto giveaways in the Battle Spot Resources thread in our Battle Spot forum, so look there to ease Hidden Power breeding.

Remember to come check out our forum (look in the competitive section) and our chatroom on Showdown. Links to both are in my signature.

 

[Bram316]

Wow, so much food for thought - awesome! And everything is very understadable and comprehensible what you wrote. Thank you for that.

So, long story short:
-> Volcarona seems ok.
Tweaks to:
M-Altaria -> standard Atk/Spe set, Return, DD, EQ/Facade/Roost (Do I really need EQ here when I have Lado/Exca?)
Empoleon -> physical def set, Sitrus, Scald, SR, Roar, Yawn
Escavalier -> Megahorn instead of X-Scissor

Swap out Dragonite and Zebstrika for
-> Landorus-T/Excadrill, whereupon Lando would be preferred (I already have Escavalier for fairies, kinda?)
-> Raikou/M-Manectric or even Rotom-W, because it deals with both Talonflame and Heatran?

 

[Omastar68]

Wow, so much food for thought - awesome! And everything is very understadable and comprehensible what you wrote. Thank you for that.

So, long story short:
-> Volcarona seems ok.
Tweaks to:
M-Altaria -> standard Atk/Spe set, Return, DD, EQ/Facade/Roost (Do I really need EQ here when I have Lado/Exca?)
Empoleon -> physical def set, Sitrus, Scald, SR, Roar, Yawn
Escavalier -> Megahorn instead of X-Scissor

Swap out Dragonite and Zebstrika for
-> Landorus-T/Excadrill, whereupon Lando would be preferred (I already have Escavalier for fairies, kinda?)
-> Raikou/M-Manectric or even Rotom-W, because it deals with both Talonflame and Heatran?

Special attacking MAlt is actually more common than physical ones, though both are fine. If you do go special you could forego EQ, but otherwise you should have it.

 

[Bram316]

Omastar68, yeah, I use a special M-Alt during the story mode of Y and OR as I played through them. Hyper Voice, Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Roost. It has decent coverage, although I find the physical set has more "boom" because of the higher BP moves and DD.

Edit
I just checked my game and I have these:

Rotom (Heat right now)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid
IVs: perfect

Landorus (ORAS ingame)
not EV trained yet
Jolly
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 1 Def / 23 SpA / 5 SpD / 31 Spe

Raikou (ORAS ingame)
not EV trained yet
Modest
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 19 Def / 31 SpA / 31 SpD / 15 Spe

 

[Omastar68]

Omastar68, yeah, I use a special M-Alt during the story mode of Y and OR as I played through them. Hyper Voice, Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Roost. It has decent coverage, although I find the physical set has more "boom" because of the higher BP moves and DD.

Edit
I just checked my game and I have these:

Rotom (Heat right now)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid
IVs: perfect

Landorus (ORAS ingame)
not EV trained yet
Jolly
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 1 Def / 23 SpA / 5 SpD / 31 Spe

Raikou (ORAS ingame)
not EV trained yet
Modest
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 19 Def / 31 SpA / 31 SpD / 15 Spe

That Landog and Raikou are not very good, but you can get flawless ones in giveaways for free. The Rotom looks nice. When you say flawless do you mean 30 Def for HP Ice, and what's your Atk IV? You want 0 on special attackers ideally, especially Rotoms since they can expect SwagPlay antics to be used on them by the likes of Thundurus and Klefki. If you don't have 0 Atk, I can trade you one of mine, either flawless HP Ice or 31/0/31/31/31/31.

I see your point on physical MAlt having more power. And since you have Volc to break special walls I think DD on MAlt is a good idea.

 

[a0161613]

Omastar68, yeah, I use a special M-Alt during the story mode of Y and OR as I played through them. Hyper Voice, Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Roost. It has decent coverage, although I find the physical set has more "boom" because of the higher BP moves and DD.

Edit
I just checked my game and I have these:

Rotom (Heat right now)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid
IVs: perfect

Landorus (ORAS ingame)
not EV trained yet
Jolly
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 1 Def / 23 SpA / 5 SpD / 31 Spe

Raikou (ORAS ingame)
not EV trained yet
Modest
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 19 Def / 31 SpA / 31 SpD / 15 Spe

The breedable should be perfect because that's easy and you can control the IVs. Don't worry about the attack IV but just ensure that you have the perfect IVs for the HP Ice (31/even/30/31/31/31)

Lando and Raikou need replacing. They are in no way good enough to use online - sorry to be harsh but you have to assume that you are facing someone with perfect IVs.

Both of them with perfect IV's are available in a giveaway in the Wifi section

 

[Bram316]

Yes, I bred the Rotom myself, so it has 6x 31 IVs. Would Timid still be ok if I use the Wash?

And I'll definitely have a deeper look into the giveaways. Thanks for the tip!
-> And what should I look for nature-wise? Adamant, jolly Lando? Timid Raikou?

 

[a0161613]

Yes, I bred the Rotom myself, so it has 6x 31 IVs. Would Timid still be ok if I use the Wash?

And I'll definitely have a deeper look into the giveaways. Thanks for the tip!
-> And what should I look for nature-wise? Adamant, jolly Lando? Timid Raikou?

Well you only need 5 IVs on the Rotom but although Timid isnt the best nature, I guess it could work. Maybe with Trick + Choice item.

Lando is a give or take on Adamant or Jolly as far as I know. Raikou almost always needs Timid.

 

[Omastar68]

Are you gonna replace Empoleon? It'd make sense to, tho it actually has pretty good stats(just the Spe is bad really.) Anyways, I just wanted to mention that Empoleon lives a max Atk Megamence's EQ if it hasn't used DD, and can OHKO standard 4/0 ones with Ice Beam even with a Bold Nature. Empoleon sadly doesnt learn Ice Punch, so a physical Defiant set sadly will not accomplish this. Ice Beam could go over Roar or Yawn.

 

[Bram316]

1. I got a Landorus and Raikou from Theorymon's giveaway thread. They're ready to go.
2. I need to breed a new adamant Altaria and bold Empoleon.
3. Omastar68, no, I plan to keep Empoleon. I think I'll go with bold, 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpD, and Scald, Ice Beam, Stealth Rocks, Roar, Sitrus Berry.