Hi everyone, I'm an intermediate level player and I'm hoping to improve my teambuilding so that I get develop better standards at which to build teams at. I built this team during my recent re-entry into the competitive scene, but I feel like this team is missing some core elements that I may not be able to identify myself that could improve its performance in tournaments and on the ladder.
Latios @ Latiosite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Psychic
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Ever since Soul Dew's nerf and the introduction of the multitude of fairies present in USUM OU, Latios' usage had been dropping significantly; however, when I noticed that Mega Latios began to emerge as superior to its base forme, I wanted to try out this Pokemon and see what was so good about this thing for myself. I decided upon the Roost + 3 Attacks set since that is what seemed popular. Psychic is the main move that I click because it hits hard off the base 160 SpA with the STAB boost. Earthquake hits Heatran and Non-Shuca Tapu Koko and Ice Beam is for Lando-T, Garchomp, and Zygarde. Of course all three of these moves hit more than what I noted, but I wanted to highlight the main targets.
Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
I chose Volcarona after Latios because I wanted the team to have a sweeper to complement Latios-M's wallbreaking ability. Volcarona looked good because Mega-Latios is able to remove things that normally irritate Volcarona, notably Heatran and Toxapex especially because this Volcarona does not have HP-Ground. Volcarona also helps out Latios himself as it's capable of (Fire) blasting its way through fatter steels that bother Latios like Celesteela, Mega Scizor, and Ferrothorn; but overall, Volcarona serves to sweep once its counters are removed.
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Nature's Madness
- Moonblast
- Defog
Next, I chose Tapu Fini since it provides defog support which is completely necessary since I'm running Volcarona and I'm not about to take 50% from stealth rock. This is a pretty standard stall-breaker Tapu Fini with Taunt and Nature's Madness to shut down annoying pink blobs and Moonblast to finish them off. I don't think there's that much to say about this Tapu Fini other than the fact that it tries to shut down stall and defensive walls and defog. It's completely utility and that's pretty much it. Max HP lets me tank as many hits as possible and the Max Spe gives me the chance to outspeed faster stealth rockers like Lando-T
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Knock Off
- Defog
Then I wanted a safe cleaner once the opponent's team is weakened and for this I chose scarf Kartana as it snowballs after the first kill dealing more and more damage and reducing my opponent's chances to defend as I picked off members of their team. Kartana is also decently fast with a choice scarf making it even harder to stop once it's started its cleanup. Leaf blade is the main STAB move hitting extremely hard off Kartana's crazy 181 Atk stat. Sacred sword hits annoying steel types that resist leaf blade and knock off disrupts the opposing team by removing my opponent's items. The last slot I saved for another instance of defog just in case I needed to remove rocks for Volcarona's sweep in a pinch.
Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 224 SpD / 36 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Fleur Cannon
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
When I got to this point, I realized this team was super weak to one Pokemon in particular and this is the menace known as Greninja. There aren't many better answers to this threat than AV Magearna, so this was the main motivation for running this Magearna. Fleur Cannon blows up things and is the hardest hitting move that this Magearna has, iron head hits fairies like Clefable, Tapu Lele, and Tapu Bulu, HP-Fire is pretty much reserved for Ferrothorn since it doesn't hit much else particularly hard, and volt switch maintains momentum since Magearna is so slow with Sassy nature. Magearna also helps take care of Koko who is another major threat to this team.
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 28 SpD / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn
Landorus-T is the final pretty standard/predictable glue that holds this team together. It pairs well with Magearna as a volt-turn core with Magearna being able to tank strong special attacks that normally threaten Landorus while Landorus is able to return the favor by tanking the strong SE physical hits that threaten Magearna. Landorus-T is able to tank of physical sweepers like Zygarde before too many DDs, Tyranitar without ice beam, and Mega Lopunny. Landorus-T provides the stealth rock support that was lacking in this team and is pretty basic in its spread.
Current Threat Overview:
- Clefable is really annoying to deal with but I think this is a very general issue for most teams. Once Clefable starts setting up, it's really hard for me to deal with it. The best ways I can hit it are Magearna's iron head and Volcarona's Z-Fire Blast, but both are very inconsistent and varying in effectiveness depending on the Clefable set. Unaware sets stop Volcarona cold since I can't setup on it and Magearna gets stopped pretty quickly by cosmic power since Clefable's defense becomes so high after 1-2 cosmic powers and I don't have toxic support on this team to stop it. I've also found Fini's taunt capability followed by Nature's madness is not nearly effective enough either.
- this is SpD Ferrothorn which I believe is common recently (correct me please if I'm wrong). If Volcarona falls, there is very little I can do against this. Taunt Fini is a good idea but gets ruined by power whips and Magearna's non-soul-heart-boosted HP-Fire deals negligible damage to this. It's not a huge problem, but worth a mention.
/
- Oh boy, this nasty thing. There's a reason I have both Fini and Magearna. Fini can stop Ash-Greninja pretty well given they aren't running the rare Gunk shot and Magearna stops normal protean Greninja. I guess the main issue for me with this Pokemon is recognition since I'm always so unsure whether to predict a protean or transformation set. Obviously I can tell what set it is once it's used a move, but it's still a very unpredictable Pokemon given team preview alone. If Fini or Magearna go down before Protean or Ash-Greninja are gone respectively, I'm pretty much doomed since Latios-M can't do anything to either forme, Kartana gets ruined by Ash-Greninja after it's transformation (Water Shuriken), and Volcarona if not set-up cannot tank a pump to the face.
- I have no clue if I'm just bad or if this thing is just the cancer of the earth or what goes on when I play teams with this. If Latios-M dies, I'm basically finished. That's kinda it. If I don't have STAB Psychic, I straight up lose because this thing is so fat. I find that Tapu Fini's taunt helps very little in the face of this monster and my Volcarona is not Z-Psychic or HP-Ground which is why there are so many problems fighting this.
- Toxapex's partner in crime is Mega Venusaur. This Pokemon is bane of my existence #2 since it literally shuts down the entire team if Latios is gone. Magearna cannot be touched by this but Mega Venu doesn't get touched by Magearna either which gets me nowhere. Latios-M is the only thing capable of beating this thing with its massive Psychics but no Latios means I'm taking an L. Volcarona has a chance to deal with this with QD boosted Bug Buzzes, but this is still an issue nonetheless.
- No clue how I touch this thing either. I can try and blow it up with Volcarona, but if Volcarona is gone, RIP me. Kartana and Latios are both pretty much moot in the face of this Pokemon which leaves me with very little offensive pressure to deal with this.
- Torn-T is sorta annoying but it depends. It just does such a good of shutting down the offensive core which is why I'll note it here, but it isn't a huge problem all the time in my experience.
- You may notice that I rely on Latios-M to deal with a lot of the nasty poison types that get in the way of Kartana's hopeful endgame cleaning. Toxapex and Mega Venusaur with Tyranitar spell almost certain death for this team since I have to play around Tyranitar so carefully. Hasty nature is not kind to my Latios here and Tyranitar can almost always come in on Latios and just click pursuit for free. Ttar is absoutely nasty and undoubtly the biggest threat to this team since it targets Latios specifically.
I hope this team looks at least passable. Obviously this team is not perfect. It has a lot of issues with the Pokemon stated above. Like I said, I recently returned to Showdown competitive after a 6-7 month haitus so I'm a bit unfamiliar with the current popular metagame sets which lends itself to a lot of in-battle inexperience. With more tournament play over the summer I'm sure this will improve, but teambuilding is a skill developed with practice so I appreciate any criticism regarding this team in particular. I really don't mind even severe changes like changing team members entirely. The only thing I ask is that the Latios-M slot is maintained as he is the core of the team and the starting point of this team.
Importable: https://pastebin.com/WbRmqXge
Latios @ Latiosite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Psychic
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Ever since Soul Dew's nerf and the introduction of the multitude of fairies present in USUM OU, Latios' usage had been dropping significantly; however, when I noticed that Mega Latios began to emerge as superior to its base forme, I wanted to try out this Pokemon and see what was so good about this thing for myself. I decided upon the Roost + 3 Attacks set since that is what seemed popular. Psychic is the main move that I click because it hits hard off the base 160 SpA with the STAB boost. Earthquake hits Heatran and Non-Shuca Tapu Koko and Ice Beam is for Lando-T, Garchomp, and Zygarde. Of course all three of these moves hit more than what I noted, but I wanted to highlight the main targets.
Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
I chose Volcarona after Latios because I wanted the team to have a sweeper to complement Latios-M's wallbreaking ability. Volcarona looked good because Mega-Latios is able to remove things that normally irritate Volcarona, notably Heatran and Toxapex especially because this Volcarona does not have HP-Ground. Volcarona also helps out Latios himself as it's capable of (Fire) blasting its way through fatter steels that bother Latios like Celesteela, Mega Scizor, and Ferrothorn; but overall, Volcarona serves to sweep once its counters are removed.
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Nature's Madness
- Moonblast
- Defog
Next, I chose Tapu Fini since it provides defog support which is completely necessary since I'm running Volcarona and I'm not about to take 50% from stealth rock. This is a pretty standard stall-breaker Tapu Fini with Taunt and Nature's Madness to shut down annoying pink blobs and Moonblast to finish them off. I don't think there's that much to say about this Tapu Fini other than the fact that it tries to shut down stall and defensive walls and defog. It's completely utility and that's pretty much it. Max HP lets me tank as many hits as possible and the Max Spe gives me the chance to outspeed faster stealth rockers like Lando-T
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Knock Off
- Defog
Then I wanted a safe cleaner once the opponent's team is weakened and for this I chose scarf Kartana as it snowballs after the first kill dealing more and more damage and reducing my opponent's chances to defend as I picked off members of their team. Kartana is also decently fast with a choice scarf making it even harder to stop once it's started its cleanup. Leaf blade is the main STAB move hitting extremely hard off Kartana's crazy 181 Atk stat. Sacred sword hits annoying steel types that resist leaf blade and knock off disrupts the opposing team by removing my opponent's items. The last slot I saved for another instance of defog just in case I needed to remove rocks for Volcarona's sweep in a pinch.
Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 224 SpD / 36 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Fleur Cannon
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
When I got to this point, I realized this team was super weak to one Pokemon in particular and this is the menace known as Greninja. There aren't many better answers to this threat than AV Magearna, so this was the main motivation for running this Magearna. Fleur Cannon blows up things and is the hardest hitting move that this Magearna has, iron head hits fairies like Clefable, Tapu Lele, and Tapu Bulu, HP-Fire is pretty much reserved for Ferrothorn since it doesn't hit much else particularly hard, and volt switch maintains momentum since Magearna is so slow with Sassy nature. Magearna also helps take care of Koko who is another major threat to this team.
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 28 SpD / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn
Landorus-T is the final pretty standard/predictable glue that holds this team together. It pairs well with Magearna as a volt-turn core with Magearna being able to tank strong special attacks that normally threaten Landorus while Landorus is able to return the favor by tanking the strong SE physical hits that threaten Magearna. Landorus-T is able to tank of physical sweepers like Zygarde before too many DDs, Tyranitar without ice beam, and Mega Lopunny. Landorus-T provides the stealth rock support that was lacking in this team and is pretty basic in its spread.
Current Threat Overview:
I hope this team looks at least passable. Obviously this team is not perfect. It has a lot of issues with the Pokemon stated above. Like I said, I recently returned to Showdown competitive after a 6-7 month haitus so I'm a bit unfamiliar with the current popular metagame sets which lends itself to a lot of in-battle inexperience. With more tournament play over the summer I'm sure this will improve, but teambuilding is a skill developed with practice so I appreciate any criticism regarding this team in particular. I really don't mind even severe changes like changing team members entirely. The only thing I ask is that the Latios-M slot is maintained as he is the core of the team and the starting point of this team.
Importable: https://pastebin.com/WbRmqXge
