[RATE MY TEAM] From the Gates...!

[Marcusube]

What is up everybody! I apologize in advance for the length of this post. All the information is critical. Don't worry, it looks like a lot but it really isn't kappaHD

Once again, I'm back in the lab making new VGC teams and some ideas came to me. First off, I wanted to use Mega Houndoom in VGC. With base 115 speed, 140 special attack and an ability that turns it from a typical special attacker to an all out nuke. Of course, I knew that this goal would be hard to achieve seeing as how Houndoom needs sun to hit hard and the only option for automatic sun is Ninetales, meaning if I lead with both, it would be easy bait for Rock Slides, Muddy Waters and Earthquakes. Secondly, Thundurus-Therian has been a gem to me but I never got to making a team with it. The real cake is its ability, Volt Absorb, which basically allows it to have better matchups against opposing Electric types, primarily Raichu, who is the bane of the Incarnate's forme's existence.

Without further ado, here is the team:

Off the bat I can already see common weaknesses, especially to Rock. This factor, however, hasn't become an issue (yet). The team synergies  well especially with the following lead matchups

Liepard + Thundurus-T

Here I simply Fake Tears the target then OHKO them with Thundurus' overwhelming power.

Houndoom + Liepard

This lead is specifically to bait Japanese sand teams, choice scarfers barring Landorus-T, Mamoswine and any scarfer immune to Thunder Wave and to bait Fairies who love to click Hyper Voice on teams.

Liepard + Ninetales

Simply get up the sun first turn and Fake Out or Thunder Wave off the bat. A funny trick here is Encore/Disable which these two pull off well enough but I've never had openings in my practice to pull it off.

Let's discuss movesets.

Hades Stoop (Houndoom) (F) @ Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Heat Wave
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower

The star of the show! Mega-Houndoom is easily a one trick pony. Well sort of. I have both Heat Wave and Flamethrower because with the ever so common (I kid, it's really not) Wide Guard, I need a way to walk around that and get in an attack. Also, in certain cases, I don't trust Heat Wave's accuracy so when clutch kills are needed, I just Flamethrower. I don't run Solar Beam because rain or any other weather switch in pretty much has Houndoom as a sitting duck, not to mention Solar Beam is too dependent on the sun being up. Sludge Bomb seemed irrelevant seeing as how Flamethrower in the sun hurts all Fairies more than Sludge Bomb does and Azumarill is just one mon. I considered Nasty Plot but then that leaves Houndoom wide open for attacks and with it being so frail, I never see it ever producing better results than just straight out attacking. Other options were Taunt, Sucker Punch, Destiny Bond and Will-o-Wisp but I found these irrelevant to achieve my goal.

Obsidian (Ninetales) (F) @ Eject Button
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Heat Wave/Flamethrower
- Energy Ball/Hidden Power (Ground/Ice/Rock)
- Disable/Will-o-Wisp/Roar
- Protect

This is where the team starts to get a bit shaky. Ninetales HAS to be here to get the sun up. Eject Button is for getting a safe switch into Houndoom or anything I have in the back after the sun gets up then coming back in late game to set it up again. I have different moves listed for each slot because I have yet to finalize a stable set. Energy Ball is for coverage against grass. I explained why I don't run Solar Beam already. The Hidden Powers were because I needed coverage against Heatran, Talonflame, Dragons, etc. Roar is to stop Trick Room teams which hinder my team's fast pace offense.

Flying Raijin (Thundurus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Volt Absorb
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Psychic

The way genie should be done. Seriously, Landorus-Therian.....Thundurus-Incarnate....double genie....ewww. Thundurus with Modest Nature and Choice Scarf makes short work of choiced Landorus unless it is invested to take the hit which is highly unlikely. In conjunction with Liepard, this mon just sweeps teams clean, especially if they have no mons to force Thundurus out.

Offensive Calcs

252+ SpA Thundurus-T Psychic vs. -2 188 HP / 156+ SpD Amoonguss: 222-262 (104.2 - 123%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Thundurus-T Thunderbolt vs. -2 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 183-216 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Thundurus-T Thunderbolt vs. -2 244 HP / 72+ SpD Thundurus: 186-219 (100.5 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

I'd go on further but I think the point has been made kappaHD

Hoooooo (Liepard) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out/Encore
- Fake Tears
- Thunder Wave
- Foul Play

The glue to the core, the MVP of most games, I'm telling you, if you're not using Liepard in VGC, you're missing out on a lot. Anyways, I've pretty much explained how this set works and what it's meant to do. I'm still on the fence between Fake Out and Encore, although Encore seems to be the better option.

Draco's Bae (Milotic) @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Def / 60 SpA / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Icy Wind
- Protect
- Recover

Sigh, why do I even bother. A quick disclaimer. After making the team with the first 4 mons, I just randomly tagged Pokemon on to make the six. I'll at least share the movesets. Espeon and Milotic are subject to change seeing as how during my practice, I never brought these mons to even one battle.

Milotic is solely here for speed control and Water move as an offensive option. There are times where I feel Ice Beam would of changed my mind in not wanting to run this Pokemon for this roll, but oh well.

I did this EV spread off my head so don't use it for future reference.

Espeon @ Expert Belt / Leftovers / Colbur Berry / Twisted Spoon
Ability: Magic Bounce
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Psychic
- Fake Tears
- Dazzling Gleam/Skill Swap

I added Espeon to the team because I needed an extra option for Fake Tears. Espeon has Magic Bounce to avoid those annoying status moves especially Dark Void, has good Psychic STAB and is one of my favourite Psychic types. I really want to use this because I believe that Espeon has potential in this metagame.

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BATTLE VIDEOS

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-255345114
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-255257021
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-255255895
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-255255044
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-255248199

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Thank you to those who read the post all the way through. Don't be afraid to leave a comment or suggestion below. Even a +1 Rep

[MARSxVenom]

(Aug 2, 2015, 07:56 PM)Marcusube Wrote: Draco's Bae (Milotic)

welp, nothing much to say this is already the best team in all existence

No but this team looks pretty good, aside from the rock weakness you mentioned this team is fairly well balanced that manages to cover what it needs. One thing I saw glancing over this team is that perhaps grass knot could work as a replacement over psychic on thundurus. It would help out with things like gastrodon or TR rhyperior, both of which are do pretty well against your team. Other than those two mons i can't really think of any particular mon that shuts you down. Great team overall, and +1 cool points for mega houndoom.

[Pokeventurer]

First of all not too shabby of a team. many people generally hate the idea of drought ninetales but with recently a report on NB shows it has potential.
Some quick views:
1) i also made a pretty solid team with mega houndoom and DD mega altaria in it. i liked redirection support alot with Secret sunny day amoongus as it also brought the auto, TR counters.
2) if milotic is there to icy wind and your team is already faster than any usuals you may wanna consider encore over t-wave on liepard as it is extreme annoyance, also a VGC pro's multibattle team (i think you know it) from nationals side event included a sunny day liepard which used dark void with assist. focus sash is my fav item on mons like liepard.
3) your team has too many frail mons, idk if you are able to play around it but it looks kinda unsafe.

Here is my m-houndoom team: http://pokeventurer.blogspot.com/2015/06...nk-of.html

[Marcusube]

(Aug 2, 2015, 10:01 PM)MARSxVenom Wrote: No but this team looks pretty good, aside from the rock weakness you mentioned this team is fairly well balanced that manages to cover what it needs. One thing I saw glancing over this team is that perhaps grass knot could work as a replacement over psychic on thundurus. It would help out with things like gastrodon or TR rhyperior, both of which are do pretty well against your team. Other than those two mons i can't really think of any particular mon that shuts you down. Great team overall, and +1 cool points for mega houndoom.

I see the point on using Grass Knot over Psychic but then the issue would be if I take out the threat then I would have to switch Thundurus out then bring it back in again which puts me at a bit of a disadvantage. Psychic covers more than Grass Knot in the format which is why I chose it. I'll be running Energy Ball on Ninetales to give me an easier time with bulky waters that are immune to Electric

[Marcusube]

(Aug 2, 2015, 11:34 PM)Pokeventurer Wrote: First of all not too shabby of a team. many people generally hate the idea of drought ninetales but with recently a report on NB shows it has potential.
Some quick views:
1) i also made a pretty solid team with mega houndoom and DD mega altaria in it. i liked redirection support alot with Secret sunny day amoongus as it also brought the auto, TR counters.
2) if milotic is there to icy wind and your team is already faster than any usuals you may wanna consider encore over t-wave on liepard as it is extreme annoyance, also a VGC pro's multibattle team (i think you know it) from nationals side event included a sunny day liepard which used dark void with assist. focus sash is my fav item on mons like liepard.
3) your team has too many frail mons, idk if you are able to play around it but it looks kinda unsafe.

Here is my m-houndoom team: http://pokeventurer.blogspot.com/2015/06...nk-of.html

As I said, in most situations I don't bring Milotic to games. Also, relying on just one form of speed control hinders your game plan especially if its Icy Wind. Opposing Milotic and Bisharp immediately become power houses which is why I opt for both Icy Wind and Thunder Wave.

I switched Fake Out for Encore seeing as how these days people are running faster Fake Out users or love to Protect to stop Fake Out. With Encore I can disable one Pokemon if they decide to use a set up move or Protect and focus on the other.

I know my team is frail. It's a hyper offensive team not balanced offense. How frail these mons are never hindered me once in a game because I am usually able to eliminate the threat before it has a chance to attack. As for dealing with bulky Pokemon, Fake Tears + Attack always comes through in securing the KO. Heck, it OHKOd a Suicune, one of the bulkiest mons in the format and it wasn't even a super effective hit.