[RATE MY TEAM] 2015 VGC Team - Mega Lucario

[z2porygon]

I wanted to run Mega-Lucario because I thought it became more powerful with the rise of Sylveon, Bisharp, Terrakion and Heatran. In 2014 VGC it was just a counter to Mega-Kangaskhan. Mega-Lucario made it to 2014 world's but I think it was a weakness of Jeudy's team.

Team Building:
Mega-Lucario
Clefairy
Landorus-T
Rotom-Wash
Cloyster
Talonflame
I first needed bulk and redirection to keep Mega-Lucario around and a way to counter spread move like Wide Guard or something so I decide Friend Guard Clefairy was the answer to both redirection and spread moves. I ran Special Mega-Lucario with Calm Mind so that after a +1 sdef boost it could survive Choice Specs Hyper Voice from Sylveon. Landorus-T helped Lucario survive Earthquakes. Cloyster was there for ice-coverage and to test choice scarf Cloyster because it was on the vgc speed tiers and I was like wtf why not. Rotom-Wash and Talonflame provided support to the team.

This team was ok but it didn't seem to have synergy in which I had Choice Scarf Lando-T which didn't work so I ended up doing calcs and some more testing and end with the following team.

Mega-Lucario
Clefable
Staraptor
Garchomp
Milotic
Thundurus
This team improved but Staraptor and Thundurus were weak to Ice and Rock and Icy wind was a problem on the team and also I had 5 special attacks and 1 physical with was a problem because I got walled by Special walls like Rotom. I changed Clefairy to Clefable because of the Satk increase. So I ended up swapping some pokemon for the team that I ended up making the following.


Lucario @ Lucarionite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Aura Sphere
- Flash Cannon
- Extreme Speed
- Protect

I used Special Mega-Lucario because of my team it looks Physical and surprises my oppenents. Plus, Lucario has a decent special movepool. I thought Close combat and Bullet Punch were not the best moves for Lucario to stay around. Extreme Speed is +2 and can get past Priority which is “extremely” good  .


Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Icy Wind
- Sludge Bomb
- Taunt
Cybertron’s set except Will-o-wisp for Shadow Ball because Stab Shadow Ball is super powerful. Gengar swapped with Thundurus to have taunt. Icy wind coverage because Milotic was replaced and I needed the ice coverage. It is a simple Gengar.


Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Protect
Lum Berry is a necessity for every VGC team because burn, sleep, paralysis, and the occasional freeze. Garchomp has Physical Rock Slide and can freely Earthquake, and Dragon coverage is extremely good. It is an average set


Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
My favorite pokemon. I use this to take Intimidates and Snarls from opponents. Bisharp covers Gengar and it hits hards. This is the only spread to use Bisharp effectively.


Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 28 SpA / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Thunder wave
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
Rotom-Wash is bulk and is ev'ed that way. I put it back on to replace Thundurus and remove some of the Rock and Ice Weaknesses. It is a simple Rotom-Wash. I decided Thunder Wave instead of Will-o-Wisp because Tailwind is a pain to fight.


Togekiss @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Sdef
Calm Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Air Slash
- Follow Me
- Protect
Togekiss replaced Clefable as a Follow Me. Togekiss can take fighting, dark and dragon attacks with means that Togekiss can Follow Me with pretty much my entire team. The max defense is for Physical Meta game and Togekiss has decent special bulk. The set is a typical troll set with the addition of follow me.

Leads:
Gengar and Bisharp – this lead one of the most common because of how offensive it is
Bisharp and Mega-Lucario- this lead works only if my opponent has no access to Earthquake and Heat wave
Togekiss and Mega-Lucario – this lead lets Mega-Lucario rekt stuff
Garchomp and Togekiss – this lead lets Garchomp have a hey day
Rotom-Wash and Bisharp – this lead has great coverage
Rotom-Wash and Mega-Lucario – this lead works to get opponent Ground/Fire/Flying types and then Mega-Lucario can hit the other opponent.
Gengar and Garchomp – this lead is hype-offensive and works to give off immediate pressure
Togekiss and Bisharp- this lead lets fighting moves not hit Bisharp plus Bisharp can hit harder without the worry of being OHKO

Thanks and sorry for the length

[Black117]

If only vacuum wave were legal in VGC 2015 oh I would abuse special Lucario myself. That's really a solid redirection team you have their. The thing is Mega Lucario needs a ton of direction support considering its still a frail pokemon. What I like about this team is the synergy as Lucario can knock out steel type pokemon which normals ruin Togekiss. Your team easily takes advantage of Garchomp firing off earthquake while the rest either protects or are simply immune.

Some of the few problematic pokemon I see for this team are strong fire-water-grass cores with mega Venusaur, Suicune, Rotom-H, Heatran, etc. Thunder wave/icy wind support is crucial for this team's success, however I'm not so sure about thunder wave on Rotom-W. Yes is provides additional countermeasures against tailwind but I still think having another will-o-wisper could prove vital against physical attackers. Bulky attackers like Conkeldurr can give this team problems of Togekiss is out of the battle.  

One final note is if you can describe which "problematic pokemon" Rotom-W's ev spread covers since I think you can still tweak it a bit. To be honest, having 252/252 is ok on a pokemon like Bisharp but I think you try optimizing it better especially for Garchomp,  Togekiss, or even Mega Lucario. Here's a website to help you look over the synergy of the team called teammagma.net. There they host a type coverages of your team and picks out potential types you need needs coverage. Awesome team btw!

[z2porygon]

(Feb 13, 2015, 10:04 PM)Black117 Wrote: If only vacuum wave were legal in VGC 2015 oh I would abuse special Lucario myself. That's really a solid redirection team you have their. The thing is Mega Lucario needs a ton of direction support considering its still a frail pokemon. What I like about this team is the synergy as Lucario can knock out steel type pokemon which normals ruin Togekiss. Your team easily takes advantage of Garchomp firing off earthquake while the rest either protects or are simply immune.

Some of the few problematic pokemon I see for this team are strong fire-water-grass cores with mega Venusaur, Suicune, Rotom-H, Heatran, etc. Thunder wave/icy wind support is crucial for this team's success, however I'm not so sure about thunder wave on Rotom-W. Yes is provides additional countermeasures against tailwind but I still think having another will-o-wisper could prove vital against physical attackers. Bulky attackers like Conkeldurr can give this team problems of Togekiss is out of the battle.

One final note is if you can describe the fears that Rotom-W's ev spread covers since I think you can still tweak it a bit. To be honest, having 252/252 is ok on a pokemon like Bisharp but I think you try optimizing it better especially for Garchomp, Togekiss, or even Mega Lucario. Here's a website to help you look over the synergy of the team called teammagma.net. There they host a type coverages of your team and picks out potential types you need needs coverage. Awesome team btw!

I used team magma builder all the time. I used 252/252 for Togekiss because Sejun Park used it for his Pachirisu in Worlds and Cybertorn used 252/252 Amoonguss in his premier challenge and it works because of physical meta. Plus this calc : 252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 248 HP / 252 Def Togekiss: 313-370 (83.9 - 99.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery O_o (This actually happened and I was so surprise until I did some damage calcs)

For the Rotom-Wash I made it so it can damage most Earthquake users and survive they other attacks. I like balancing Rotom's Defense and Special Defense for some reason :p

Garchomp job is to outspeed and deal damage (having 102 base speed is so useful) plus Garchomp with the 4sdef sometimes gives it like 10 hp after ice beam from most suicunes and non-stab Hidden Power ice from Thundurus

I plan on ditching this team but it was fun to build