Nov 26, 2015, 04:27 AM
Hey there, Ryu. First of all, thanks for adhering to the posting rules. Not a lot of people follow them and they run into problems getting their teams rated.
Firstly, I want to show you a Mega-Gallade team I've been using on Battle Spot and the PS VGC 2015 ladder.
Now, I'm not saying you have to copy it but I feel it would help bring across my suggestions.
Firstly, I would suggest going all out 252/252 with Gallade's EV spread. The mere fact that Intimidate is so common in this metagame, all these calcs you do with Gallade may come off short and cost you some games. Imagine Close Combating into a Kangaskhan, only to find it not KOing then Kangaskhan retaliates with Return/Double Edge which OHKOs you at -1 Defense.
I honestly recommend running Life Orb Bisharp because unlike the sashed variant, Sucker Punch is a guaranteed OHKO on Landorus-T at +1 attack. Also, the damage output from LO Bisharp is significantly higher
252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 216 HP / 60 Def Cresselia: 187-221 (84.2 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Shield: 164-195 (98.2 - 116.7%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
Now, I want you to observe why I used Gyarados as my bulky water type. Unlike Milotic, Gyarados has access to a more permanent form of speed control, that being Thunder Wave. It also has access to Taunt to stop the constant spam of Follow Me/Rage Powder or Spore. Intimidate keeps Gallade and the rest of the team around longer and reduces the damage from physical attackers to a great extent and Waterfall is obviously for STAB but also to snipe those Ground types (except Gastrodon) who are immune to Thunder Wave. Gyarados possess these unique traits that other bulky water types such as Gastrodon, Rotom-W, Empoleon, Suicune and Swampert don't have.
So yeah, try Gyarados as your bulky water type.
I, for one, hate to have to result to legendary Pokemon, however, I've been able to appreciate this core I built to support the first three mons.
Now, you said you have issues as it relates to Follow Me/Rage Powder uses. Well, did you know that Grass types actually ignore Rage Powder? If Taunting the opponent isn't effective enough, you can always try to use a Grass type to cripple Kangaskhan. Here you see I chose Virizion. I did this because it has Close Combat which OHKOs Kang, making redirection plus Kang less of an issue.
Safety Goggles also stops Rage Powder as well so maybe you can consider running that on one of your mons.
Now that I've given you an idea of how to work around redirection, maybe you could try to implement something like this.
The team you have here now isn't bad at all and can still function good in this format. Just use the first six Pokemon you listed (not Empoleon).
I'd say, change Gallade's EV spread to max attack and max speed with a Jolly Nature, replace Focus Sash with Life Orb on Bisharp to net more KOs, run Expert Belt on Greninja with moves Ice Beam, HP Ground, Low Kick/Grass Knot and Protect.
Note: - HP Ground changes Greninja to a Ground type which allows it to be immune to Electric attacks. Also Hydro Pump may be a strong move but what is it really hitting for much damage? Gunk Shot is a waste here. You have enough mons to easily check Fairies and Gunk Shot as a move itself is very bad, mainly because of accuracy and it being resisted by 4 common types in the meta.
252 SpA Expert Belt Protean Greninja Helping Hand Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 236 HP / 12 SpD Milotic: 216-254 (108 - 127%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Expert Belt Protean Greninja Helping Hand Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Suicune: 223-266 (107.7 - 128.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
As you can see, Grass Knot does a number on bulky Water types with Helping Hand support. Guess who learns Helping Hand? That's right, Sylveon does.
Pixie Plate Sylveon with Hyper Voice, Shadow Ball, Helping Hand and Protect is the way to go! Also note that Helping Hand allows you to pick up KOs on bulky Kangaskhan, Landorus-T, almost Mega Metagross, among other Pokemon.
Choice Scarf Garchomp may not be the best choice seeing as how its damage input isn't all that great in comparison to the LO variant and how locking yourself into one move can backfire (especially Earthquake). I agree with Red here. Aegislash would be a good option for this team. Aegislash resists everything Gallade is weak to (other than Ghost), everything Sylveon is weak to and almost everything Bisharp is weak to. Of course you want to run it defensively with Substitute/Flash Cannon, King's Shield, Wide Guard/Flash Cannon and Shadow Ball. I put Flash Cannon as an alternative just in case you find yourself needing it more than Substitute or Wide Guard.
Lastly, Rotom-H does Zapdos' job a bit better in this scenario. Rotom resists Fire which rarely of the mons on your current team does, is immune to Ground attacks, immune to paralysis AND burns, possess two very useful STABs, more resistances, you name it! What I like about Rotom-H is its stronger offensive impact than Zapdos on the field. It also wipes out Amoonguss, bulky Water types and pokemon weak to Ice relatively easy with this set.
Rotom-Heat @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 72 SpA / 108 SpD / 228 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch
EVs survive Suicune's Scald at 100 SpA EVs with a quarter HP remaining, outspeed Jolly max speed Breloom by one point and the rest of EVs were dumped into Special Attack. Guaranteed OHKOs on Aegislash, Metagross, Salamence, Landorus-T, Breloom, Amoonguss, almost Kang, etc.
I hope this helps
Firstly, I want to show you a Mega-Gallade team I've been using on Battle Spot and the PS VGC 2015 ladder.
Now, I'm not saying you have to copy it but I feel it would help bring across my suggestions.
Firstly, I would suggest going all out 252/252 with Gallade's EV spread. The mere fact that Intimidate is so common in this metagame, all these calcs you do with Gallade may come off short and cost you some games. Imagine Close Combating into a Kangaskhan, only to find it not KOing then Kangaskhan retaliates with Return/Double Edge which OHKOs you at -1 Defense.
I honestly recommend running Life Orb Bisharp because unlike the sashed variant, Sucker Punch is a guaranteed OHKO on Landorus-T at +1 attack. Also, the damage output from LO Bisharp is significantly higher
252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 216 HP / 60 Def Cresselia: 187-221 (84.2 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Shield: 164-195 (98.2 - 116.7%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
Now, I want you to observe why I used Gyarados as my bulky water type. Unlike Milotic, Gyarados has access to a more permanent form of speed control, that being Thunder Wave. It also has access to Taunt to stop the constant spam of Follow Me/Rage Powder or Spore. Intimidate keeps Gallade and the rest of the team around longer and reduces the damage from physical attackers to a great extent and Waterfall is obviously for STAB but also to snipe those Ground types (except Gastrodon) who are immune to Thunder Wave. Gyarados possess these unique traits that other bulky water types such as Gastrodon, Rotom-W, Empoleon, Suicune and Swampert don't have.
So yeah, try Gyarados as your bulky water type.
I, for one, hate to have to result to legendary Pokemon, however, I've been able to appreciate this core I built to support the first three mons.
Now, you said you have issues as it relates to Follow Me/Rage Powder uses. Well, did you know that Grass types actually ignore Rage Powder? If Taunting the opponent isn't effective enough, you can always try to use a Grass type to cripple Kangaskhan. Here you see I chose Virizion. I did this because it has Close Combat which OHKOs Kang, making redirection plus Kang less of an issue.
Safety Goggles also stops Rage Powder as well so maybe you can consider running that on one of your mons.
Now that I've given you an idea of how to work around redirection, maybe you could try to implement something like this.
The team you have here now isn't bad at all and can still function good in this format. Just use the first six Pokemon you listed (not Empoleon).
I'd say, change Gallade's EV spread to max attack and max speed with a Jolly Nature, replace Focus Sash with Life Orb on Bisharp to net more KOs, run Expert Belt on Greninja with moves Ice Beam, HP Ground, Low Kick/Grass Knot and Protect.
Note: - HP Ground changes Greninja to a Ground type which allows it to be immune to Electric attacks. Also Hydro Pump may be a strong move but what is it really hitting for much damage? Gunk Shot is a waste here. You have enough mons to easily check Fairies and Gunk Shot as a move itself is very bad, mainly because of accuracy and it being resisted by 4 common types in the meta.
252 SpA Expert Belt Protean Greninja Helping Hand Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 236 HP / 12 SpD Milotic: 216-254 (108 - 127%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Expert Belt Protean Greninja Helping Hand Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Suicune: 223-266 (107.7 - 128.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
As you can see, Grass Knot does a number on bulky Water types with Helping Hand support. Guess who learns Helping Hand? That's right, Sylveon does.
Pixie Plate Sylveon with Hyper Voice, Shadow Ball, Helping Hand and Protect is the way to go! Also note that Helping Hand allows you to pick up KOs on bulky Kangaskhan, Landorus-T, almost Mega Metagross, among other Pokemon.
Choice Scarf Garchomp may not be the best choice seeing as how its damage input isn't all that great in comparison to the LO variant and how locking yourself into one move can backfire (especially Earthquake). I agree with Red here. Aegislash would be a good option for this team. Aegislash resists everything Gallade is weak to (other than Ghost), everything Sylveon is weak to and almost everything Bisharp is weak to. Of course you want to run it defensively with Substitute/Flash Cannon, King's Shield, Wide Guard/Flash Cannon and Shadow Ball. I put Flash Cannon as an alternative just in case you find yourself needing it more than Substitute or Wide Guard.
Lastly, Rotom-H does Zapdos' job a bit better in this scenario. Rotom resists Fire which rarely of the mons on your current team does, is immune to Ground attacks, immune to paralysis AND burns, possess two very useful STABs, more resistances, you name it! What I like about Rotom-H is its stronger offensive impact than Zapdos on the field. It also wipes out Amoonguss, bulky Water types and pokemon weak to Ice relatively easy with this set.
Rotom-Heat @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 72 SpA / 108 SpD / 228 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch
EVs survive Suicune's Scald at 100 SpA EVs with a quarter HP remaining, outspeed Jolly max speed Breloom by one point and the rest of EVs were dumped into Special Attack. Guaranteed OHKOs on Aegislash, Metagross, Salamence, Landorus-T, Breloom, Amoonguss, almost Kang, etc.
I hope this helps
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