Simply the Best
After buying myself a nice shiny new laptop, I realised all my pokemon teams were saved on my old laptop. So I decide it was a good time to forget all my old teams and start building myself some new ones and I had a lot of trouble deciding which was my favorite play style. I was stuck with the age old battle of Stall vs Offense. I found that a mixture of the two was quite strong against offensive teams, as it was very adaptable at dealing with threats, but had a hard time breaking stall as it struggled to maintain momentum. This wasn't the style I wanted, I wanted something which would do all right against anything and I started using a lot of stall as this seemed the best style for combating everything. However after using all different kinds of stall I found it was always hard to gain control of match and I felt like every move I made had to be a really solid choice. If I made a mistake or a bad play it became much harder than it normally would to win, I found that loosing a pokemon makes a stall team much weaker than it would for other teams.
In the end I found what I all I already knew, that offense is my favourite play style and this team is the best one that I have been using. It's full of standard pokemon and standard combinations of pokemon such as FWG, Dragon/Steel, Starmie/Metagross, so it's a little boring, but it does the job. The basic idea of the team is to use good defensive synergy to keep up offensive pressure beating opponents down so that they can be swept. As a bonus it can handle entry hazards, status and phazers etc, which means I can afford to make a mistake because you can't always "maintain momentum" and your opponent will gain free turns against you. For what I was looking for, this team is "Simply the Best".
Item: Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Nature: Timid
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
Offensive Starmie has become my favourite lead, it's just such a powerful sweeper with amazing type coverage from its attacks. Starmie isn't just a threat to offensive teams, but can also pose a threat to defensive teams due to rapid spin and the ability to destroy Rotom-A. In the lead position Starmie normally has the advantage and can prevent stealth rocks from going up. Starmie works well on the team keeping Stealth rocks and Toxic spikes off the field, making my sweepers more effective. I can afford to be aggressive with Starmie because I have Gyarados who has a simular typing, which makes it easier for me to rapid spin.
Item: Lum Berry
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 216 HP / 252 Atk / 40 speed
Nature: Adamant
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
The Starmie/Metagross combination has a great lead matchup allowing me to get an advantage early on. Metagross is a great stealth rock user because its so bulky and very few things can OHKO it. For the ev's I just maxed out attack for more power, 40 speed is to beat Brelooms and Skarmorys so I can explode of them before they do anything annoying. 216 hp is the leftover ev's put into Hp to maximise Metagross' bulk. I'm using Bullet punch because its a really useful move, especially against things like Gengar. Explosion is also really useful and it allows me to use Metagross as a back up check to things like Suicune. I'm using Zen Headbutt over the more standard Meteor Mash like Conflict suggested as it helps Metagross out against Rotom, Swampert and Zapdos etc.
Item: Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Nature: Jolly
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- ThunderPunch
- U-turn
I'm using Flygon because it just looks so cool, it's also useful for checking so many sweepers. Flygon is blessed with a great typing, loads of useful resistances and a great duel stab makes it a really useful pokemon. Flygon has a really good type synergy with my team, making it easy for Flygon to switch in. It's also handy to have a ground type pokemon so I can absorb T-waves. Flygon also makes a surprisingly good sweeper, although its main purpose is just to keep a load of sweepers in check. I prefer Jolly Flygon because it outspeeds things like +2 Tyranitar and it allows me to speed tie everyone else who uses Jolly. I also like Flygon because he can use U-turn, abusing the fact he forces loads of switches.
Item: Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Nature: Calm
- Flamethrower
- Earthpower
- Substitute
- Wil-O-Wisp
Heatran is the first member of my Fire/Water/Grass core. I chose special defensive Heatran because its a great check to those pesky electric special attackers and is also useful against stall teams. I've tried loads of sets on this team from Tormentran, restalk and even taunt roar, however this set is my favourite. Abusing the fact that Heatran can easily get a substitute up and with a simple moveset Heatran finds it surprisingly easy to punish teams. The ev's are very simple, max hp and sp.def to tank hits and the 4 spare ev's go into speed to beat other Heatrans. Despite not having any special attack ev's Heatran still has almost 300 special attack, so it still does a tone of damage. This set has good synergy with Gyarados, crippling pokemon such as water types with Wil-O-Wisp, something that Gyarados can abuse with the use of Bounce. I chose Wil-O-Wisp over the more common choice of Toxic as I prefer the constant 1/8th damage as this is an offensive team and it forces a lot of switches. The halving of physical attack is also really useful for crippling common Heatran counters such as Gyarados, Swampert, Tyranitar and Flygon.
Item: Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spd
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Dance
- Taunt
- Waterfall
- Bounce
Gyarados is my favourite sweeper at the moment because it is the easiest to set up, once set up it's really effective and it can sweep through Fire/Water/Grass core teams. Gyarados has great synergy with my team, his weaknesses and resistances fit in well with my other pokemon. He compliments the team defensively checking threats like Lucario, Brelloom and Infernape and he also works well offensively. I'm using Bounce because it is such an effective move on Gyarados allowing him to OHKO pokemon like Starmie (97.7% - 114.9%) and Shaymin (130.2% - 153.7%). It also works well with leftovers allowing me to recover more Hp. It compliments waterfall nicely with great neutral coverage and it gets the STAB bonus. For the ev's I'm using max attack so its easier for me to sweep through pokemon like Rotom and Starmie. I'm using taunt because it's a really useful move against phazers, status users and restalkers such as Rotom. The speed ev's allow me to beat +1 positive nature base 100's after 2 dragon dances, which is very handy for beating scarfed Flygons.
Item: Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 76 SAtk / 180 Spd
Nature: Timid
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Seed Flare
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Shaymin is a really underused considering how useful it is, it can be very hard for a lot of teams to handle. Shaymin is also very useful defensively checking pokemon like Suicune, Lucario and Gyarados. I'm using the set recommended by Raikiri as the extra bulk is extremely useful along with protect and leech seed to keep Shaymin healthy. Leech seed is great for sapping away at Shaymin counters and makes it easier for me to respond to their counter. Hiden power fire is chosen to hit grass types that are immune to leech seed and it also hits Skarmory, Forretress and Scizor who also like to switch into Shaymin. Also I have little use for Hp ice and Earthpower as I have Heatran and Dragonite quite well covered. Protect is also very useful for keeping bounce Gyarados' at bay.