Black117's Team Showcase (May-Early August)
Black117's Team Showcase (May-Early August)
(TOTALLY UNFINISHED POST HERE)
INTRO
Hello everyone Black117 or Kevin here! Everyone reading this might be wondering "what kind of crazy stuff Kevin has in store for use" but this time....well I really don't have a team to present today... rather a list of team I've used throughout the entire VGC 2015 season. The reason why I'm doing this is basically accountability... showing my growth as a upstart Smogon player who now spend his time playing Battle Spot Doubles or the current VGC 2015 format. Though I'll eventually return to Singles soon, I'd thought it be fun to showcase these teams just to help out players who don't know where they're going in this format.
OK this is same copy and paste intro however I've encountered an issue where I cannot past 65535 character count so rather than bothering the mods I've decided to split up the post into two parts. Please understand from now on I'll try to release a set of ten teams once I'm done using team. For the time being I'm only going to update this post as I go but feel free to try out the teams if you like.
Notes:
- First off, I'm not going to change the EVs spreads, movesets, Pokemon, anything for that matter as I want to STRESS THIS ISN'T an RMT or Team Report. If I do plan on working on some RMTs very soon, then I'll write one up with the movesets, reasoning for EVs, and whatnot, which leads me to my next point...
- When I'm discussing an team I have with an RMT, don't expect me to say every detail again.
- I'm not taking any set suggestions unless there was something stupid I made on Showdown like having SpA EVs on Mega Kangaskhan or Atk on Sylveon. If there are some obvious mistakes on my end, I'd like to know so I can change these errors
- Anyone is welcome to use these teams, just please don't act like claiming these team were built by you, especially if it has exactly the same EVs, Pokemon, and stuff. Some of these teams were heavily influenced by Cybertron, Alex Ogloza, Angel Miranda, Braverius, Myan (Japanese Playey), Ray Rizzo, James Baek, and a bunch of uncredited Japanese players and VGC players who I don't know their names so its a disservice if anyone of us does so. Heck I'd admit a couple of teams where straight modifications or rips from theirs, but with my edits.
- UPDATE (Feb 2016): I won't work on RMT of all these teams rather this will be a team dump where players can freely use these teams. I don't care what anyone want to do with these teams since they are only playable on the Battle Spot Doubles Ladder. For the last few teams, I couldn't remember who exactly I've used like the Charizard Y- Choice Band Lando-T team, but I'll search for it and give credit.
- Lastly, don't expect to ladder high with these teams as each team were able to do moderately ok at the time I used them. Then again I am sorta retiring these teams.
11) 1st Serious Mega Mence Team
This team was probably my first attempt to build around Mega Salamence with a defensive core similar to how the first Mega Metagross team was founded. Here this is where I think I start testing out some, weird stuff for Mega Salamence such as using Reflect Rotom-W with Thunder Wave to 1) avoid using Will-O-Miss and 2) provide the team with the only form of speed control. Sylveon provided Light Screen support to cut the power of special attacks done to this team, though I eventually settled with Calm Mind so she can become a nuke in the early/late game. Surprisingly Banded Arcanine was a great answer to some of the common Megas such as Mega Kangaskhan and Charizard Y as it can easily OHKO these two with Close Combat and Wild Charge respectively. Ferrothorn was... the obligatory Grass/Steel type Pokemon that covers my FWG core and is a solid rain check fsince Rotom-W and Sylveon can't deal with rain by themselves. Terrakion was there... as the team's only real check to Dark Void aside from Mega Salamence and E-Speed Band Arcanine, while dealing with common threats like Kangaskhan, Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Thundurus.
Finally Dragon Dance Roost Mega Salamence aka the most broken thing in singles. Well in certain matches, DD Mega Salamence can easily break through physical based teams thanks to its natural typing and ridiculous defensive stats enough so the rest of my mons here can just have fun. To be honest, a redirection users might have made the team significantly better but I felt having overall typing synergy and bulk was the better approach for DD Mega Salamence in drawn out battles. The only Pokemon that somewhat gave this team an issue are Milotic (especially Scarfed), Ghost types (no resistence whatsoever), as well as full Trick Room teams.
12) Tail-Room Mega Kangaskhan Team (Trick Switch No. 1)
To be honest, this is as close to a "test team" as all the others featured here, but it was an important step to utilize the fame "Trick Switch" strategy. Basically the team here is comprised of moderately mid speed Pokemon like Suicune, Heatran, and Kangaskhan paired up with Trick Room Pokemon such as Sylveon, Cresselia, and Conkeldurr. As we all know, Mega Kangaskhan is an absolute monster if left unaccounted for so I'm just gonna leave at that. Probably the only notable thing is that this Mega Kangaskhan is fast enough to outspeed Bisharp and be utilized well in Trick Room. Sylveon is Mega Kangaskhan's partner and crime as she's able to deal with nearly everything that the Kangaroo monster fears like Fighting types. Cresselia and Heatran were added to the team and fulfills the full Trick Room mode of the team other than Conkeldurr. Cresselia is practically the nucleus of the team as she offers Helping Hand support to Sylveon, Heatran, Kangaskhan, and Conk, Sunny Day for Heatran (also to screw Rain teams), and Mental Herb so she can get off Trick Room almost guaranteed. Heatran, as you might have notice, is basically the main special sweeper of the team other than Sylveon. With Sunny Day, Helping Hand Support from Cresselia/Sylveon and the ability to make Substitutes, Heatran can basically win games by itself if my opponents lets me setup. Life Orb Iron Fist Conkeldurr is one of the most fun Pokemon to try out quite honestly. With a Helping Hand boost, Conkeldurr is able to knock out 4 HP Hydreigon and Mega Kangaskhan at full health...I'm not lying...just do the calc itself. Practically I can eliminate some of the strongest Pokemon in the format (bar Aegislash) with the combination of Hammer Arm, Ice Punch, Mach Punch, or even Helping Hand boosted attacks from either of these three. Suicune rounds out the last Pokemon team-member who offers nessesary Tailwind support from either Sylveon, Heatran, or Mega Kangaskhan, though surprisingly Suicune is my least used Pokemon on this team.
13) Tail-Room Mega Gardevoir Team (Trick Switch No.2)
After getting over how badly I lost to this particular Mega Evolution (JK), I finally decided on building a Mega Gardevoir team based on the Tailwind-Trick Room archetype. First off I notice a rise in Mega Gardevoir Trick Room + Fast Mode along with other popular archetypes in the higher ladder of Battle Spot. Most of these teams generally have a Trick Room core with Mega Gardevoir and Amoonguss so I decided to test out some other partners for the two. Almost immediately I added Heatran and Scrafty since both benefited from the Trick Room and fulfulls their respective roles to protect Mega Gardevoir. Av Scrafty was rather fun to use, especially when pairing it up with Trick Room Mega Gardevoir as it can deal with Aegislash, provided intimidate support, handle Sand teams, and even Super Fang targets for Gardevoir and friends can beat. Heatran was the team's secondary special attacker and Mega Gardevoir's main switch out in case there's a Talonflame, Salamence, or Ferrothorn of the field. Next up I added two Tailwind based Pokemon: Suicune and Zapdos who can help support the team with additional speed control. Suicune was rather a unorthodox choice for a Mega Gardevoir team atm since it only dealt with Landorus-T and Heatran reasonably well. Suicune, Heatran, and Amoonguss fulfilled the FWG core and basically helped support each other based on type match ups. Zapdos was added as my team's main answer to Talonflame, Salamence and bulky Water type Pokemon. To me, Zapdos is a bulkier Thundurus who can stay in the battlefield as long as possible thanks to its typing, natural bulk, and access to recovery in Roost. Zapdos, alongside Suicune help form my speec control core with Mega Gardevoir as both can provide Tailwind support while Gardevoir can Trick Room to regain offensive momentum.
As you can see, most Mega Gardevoir teams like this won revolves around having bulk to support our random Disney princess mon from screaming her way thru the competition. Basically I wanted to build a team with the added bonus of being able to support each other, in case Mega Gardevior goes down easily.
POST REGIONALS META/PRE-US META TEAMS: Current Teams
14) Solo Mega Charizard Y Team
Probably my last ditch effort to try out Mega Charizard Y before admitting that I suck at using it. I mean c'mon the fact that thie Mega is weak to some of the most common attacks in the game like Rock Slide (geez just throw a pebble at Charizard Y), heavily rain teams, and most strong physical attackers like Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Salamence. Honesty if it wasn't for Charizard's ability in Drought, this thing would probably get little to no usage. Now I've added Aegislash immediately to combat Charizard Y's main weakness to rock (aka Rock Slide) with the move Wide Guard and has a pretty decent match up against both Kangaskhan and Salamence. Honestly the rest of the Pokemon I filled with "good stuff" mons like the double genie combo (which honestly pairs well. Landorus-T can now Earthquake without thought and provides Intimidate support to bolster the team's artificial defense. Thundurus provides the team with Prankster T-Wave, Taunt and Swagger...so god. Suicune acts as a defensive wall of the team with both Tailwind support and even Icy Wind since 1) I can easily threaten Milotic/Bisharp with Charizard Y and 2) deal with opposing double genies. For my last mon...I added Terrakion since it can deal with Kang and Mence moderately well and be my primary answer alongside Thundurus to Dark Void.
15) Mega Metagross Safe-Swagger Team ( Got 3rd in July Sub Tourney )
After failing to build a decent Mega Charizard Y team, I started testing out Mega Metagross again and it was surprisingly rather decent in its run. Now I'm going to be honest and say this is the same Metagross + Double Genie + Fighting + Dark + Fairy/Water team archetype that desperately needs to reinvent itself. First off, Mega Metagross has its duel STAB options further boosted by Tough Claws ability as it can already 2HKO most of the meta. Hammer Arm is probably the most used attack on Mega Metagross as it allows me to significantly damage opposing Ferrothorns, Hydreigon, Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Gyarados, Tyranitar, Excadrill, and Bisharp. Honestly these are all Pokemon that my opponents usually leave on the field against Mega Metagross and realize a turn later it was a terrible misplay as I finish them off with a Tough Claws Hammer Arm. Tailwind Hydreigon was a tech I started using to improve my matchup against weather teams/opposing Tailwind teams and its has worked out great. This not only remedies Mega Metagross speed drops, but give this team a surprise form of speed control as my opponent usually expect Thundurus to be the only one with speed control. Double Genies were added to team given how poweful both Landorus-T and Thundurus are when paired together. Landorus-T was the team's "special tank" thanks to the Assault Vest item as it can pratically take most of the strongest special attacks in VGC and survive Water and even Ice type attacks. Thanks to both Thundurus's Prankster Thunder Wave and Hydreigon's Tailwind, Landorus-T doesn't miss holding a Choice Scarf. Sylveon supports the team with Light Screen/Helping Hand and fires off Pixie Plate Hyper Voices to combat common Fighting, Dragon, and Dark types who can break this team. Finally Terrakion was added to provided the team with an immediate Mega Kangaskhan/Charizard Y check as well as improve my matchup with Dark Void thanks to Safeguard.
The team did have a great run with a 20-4 record on the higher Battle Spot Ladder peaking at 1865 before I started getting some unlucky calls several matches in a roll. There is one thing that this team has in storeand that is the infamous Safe-Swagger combination. Basically I lead with my common Thundurus and Terrakion lead and see if the situation calls for a "quick sweep" against my opponent. If nothing threatens my team, then I could just easily Safeguard, then follow up with a Swagger on Terrakion, Landorus-T, or Metagross at any point between the four turns Safeguard is setup. If either of these physical attackers get the Swagger boost without getting seriously hurt, well they can all effectively wall break and sweep my opponents team from there.
16) American Sand Team (Given to other people including Flynn)
Let me start off by saying using Landorus-I does not make anyone as cool as Cybertron or Angel Miranda. Well basically I was only intrigued about Landorus-I since Sand Force Earth Power hits just as hard as Sheer Force, though times is a factor against Landorus-I. Now I paired the team with three distinct "modes" being my sand core (T-Tar and Lando), Dragon-Steel core (Mega Salamence and Aegislash), and finally the Water Fire/Electric pair with Rotom-H and Milotic. The sand core is basically the wallbreaking core consisting of Landorus-I and Scarf Tyranitar with some fun attacks. One fun gimmick I've devised is to use the move Smack Down to hit either Rotom-W, Thundurus, or Zapdos and follow it up with a Sand Force boosted Earth Power from Landorus-I. Now the ground genie doesn't have to be paired up with Tyranitar all the time since its honestly a great Pokemon to deal with threats like Charizard Y, Terrakion, Aegislash, Arcanine, Heatran, and other prominent Fire/Steel/Electric/Rock Pokemon. Mega Salamence and Aegislash is probably the best core atm how well Salamence and Aegislash pair up from both an offensive and defensive synergy perspective. For this team, Mega Salamence was built as a special attacker to get intimidate Pokemon like Landorus-T into a false sense of security. Aerilate Flying Hyper Voice can effectively 2HKO most Pokemon in the format as only Rock and Electric type resist Flying attacks. Aegislash's job is mainly to protect the team from powerful spread damage like from Pixilate Hyper Voice from Sylveon and Mega Gardevoir and hope that something triggers its Weakness Policy. Rotom-H and Milotic are probably the two most underrated Pokemon from typing wise back then and here's why. Unlike Rotom-W, Heat Rotom is capable of dealing with Grass types and resist Electric type attacks from the likes of Thundurus and Zapdos without these Electric titans having a good response to Easy Bake. Milotic on the other-hand wasn't used as much until I think Alex Ogloza started using it (alongside Rotom-H) in his F4F series. As you may know, Milotic's Competitive ability allows it to serve as the team's main stat deter against things like Snarl, Icy Wind, and Intimidates from Landorus-T and Salamence. If positioned correctly, Milotic can be a massive pain to deal with for my opponent as they're force not to bring out Salamence or Landorus-T, or else they both suffer from a quad +2 boosted Icy Wind attack.
17) Mega Metagross - Ogloza Milotic Heat - Team
18) Japanese Mega Gengar Team (Peaked 1905 at the Ladder)
If there was any particular team that basically fits my playstyle, its definitely this one and here's why. First off, I like to control the battlefield, know what my opponent is going to bring and try to counteract with whatever mon I have on this team... (but let's be clear this team isn't perfect). The main core of the team is somewhat centered around semi stall and harassing the opposing team enough so any one of these guys can safely knock them out. Let's start off with Mega Gengar. First thing is first I maxed out the speed in case Mega Gengar has to burn Terrakion (before Mega Evolving) and beat opposing Mega Gengars on the Battle Spot ladder. I'm going to bluntly say this... don't lose Mega Gengar too early or else the entire team falls apart. With Shadow Tag, Mega Gengar is able to trap whatever opponent I can trap and harass it with status moves, stat drops, and etc from my supporting cast. Basically all Mega Gengar has to do is stay alive long enough so my Mons can effectively snipe out whatever Mega Gengar catches. Now lets go on to the rest of team itself.
AV Raikou was an idea I was looking into back in early April but never got the time to test it out. Basically Raikou is the special wall of the team who's task is to Snarl special attackers enough times that they are rendered useless. Defensive Gyarados....probably the most annoying and most diabolical Pokemon I've seen and tested out...literally. Ok enough stalling from me. Basically Gyarados's main role it to be the team's hard rain check and Mega Kangaskhan buffer (with Will-o-Wisp support from Mega Gengar). If any of you haven't notice, Raikou/Gyarados shuts down rain....hard with Mega Gengar's Shadow Tag as I can paralyze common rain swift swimmers (Kingdra/Ludicolo) as well as shut down these special attacker with repeated Snarls. Hydreigon was probably the most necessary component to the team as it deals with Sun teams (Tailwind) alongside AV Raikou and deals with the problematic Pokemon that Mega Gengar cannot handle by itself like Metagross, Aegislash, Bisharp, Heatran, Cresselia, etc. Mamoswine is an underrated Pokemon atm but its only goal for this team is to kill the infamous double genie (Lando+Thundy) combo who can easily kill/neuter Mega Gengar. Finally Breloom kinda wraps of the team as he can just spore things as Mega Gengar traps these sleeping targets.
Now let me be clear and say this isn't my team, rather from a Japanese player I fought named Myan. I battle this player three times, two of which he/she brought this team and won/lost against him. The first time I called his bluff so Mega Metagross knocked out Mega Gengar turn 1 and basically it was game from then. The second time, well the above happen and I realized how powerful their team can be at the right hands. Unfortunately I don't know his sets so I was kinda force to built a team based off of what I knew from those two battles and the results were shocking to say the least. From 1700 from the Battle Spot ladder, I went 22-2 (discounting 2 winning disconnections from my end so 24-2) and shot up to 1905, the highest record I ever got on BS. This score was enough to get 7th place in the US ladder which is an achievement in of itself. To be honest, there were games in which if my opponent were to crit me, make a ridiculous read, or if Will-O-Wisp misses, then I'd effective lose the match. This was the case in 2 of my loses where Mega Gengar missed Will-O-Wisp consecutive times on either key targets like Mega Kangaskhan/Mence and the opponent sweeps my team. Other than that I guess there's not much else to say about this team. ( Do note I'll plan on making an RMT soon).
19) Japanese Mega Metagross-Moth Team (Battle Spot Special 11)
20) Mega Garde Trick Switch with T-Tar.
21) Japanese Mega Chomp Team with Trick Room (by Myan)
Ok this team has a story to it. When I was using an unaccounted Mega Gardevoir team I was testing out at Battle Spot, I found myself matched up with a familiar player, Myan. From team preview I'd assumed he was running Mega T-Tar and felt all I had to do was setup Tailwind and sweep with Hyper Voice. Everything went according to plan, except Garchomp Mega Evolves, knocks out Mega Gardevoir with an Sand Force Iron Head (thanks to their T-Tar), goes to Cresselia and immediately setups up Trick Room as I go for Tailwind from Suicune. A couple Helping Hand Sand Force boost Earthquake later... I lost 4-0 but I was super intrigued.
