D/P/Pt RMT: Some Switches

[Exo-Raikou]

So I've somewhat edited my old team, and I'd like some critique on it

Held Item: Wide Lens
Trait: Flash Fire
Nature: Naive
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed
Moves:
Stealth Rock
Earth Power
Magma Storm
Explosion

Meet my newest edition to my crew. Wide Lens is a placeholder until I can find a Focus Sash. once I have said sash, it will guarantee him (barring hail) one turn to set up Stealth Rock. If I have an opportunity, I'll size up the opponent with Earth Power and/or Magma Storm, in order to see if they're "blast worthy." Should they appear to be a big enough threat, I'll set up stealth rock on turn 1 and ram them with Explosion on turn 2.

Held Item: Yache Berry
Trait: Sand Veil
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed
Moves:
Fire Fang
Earthquake
Swords Dance
Dragon Claw

I've been up and down with the Dragon Claw vs. Outrage bit. Both are good STAB moves, but one has a slight drawback that could cost me dearly, and the other is an average Dragon Attack. Either way, I'm sticking with the Yache Berry

Held Item: Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
Nature: Bold
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Defense, 252 Special Defense
Moves:
Ice beam
Thunder Wave
Softboiled
Seismic Toss

Even with maxed out Defense IVs her defense is abysmal. That's why I'm considering protect for her, but I'm not entirely sure

Held Item: Expert Belt
Trait: bad Dreams
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed
Moves:
Dark Void
Dark Pulse
Spacial Rend
Thunder

Still can't find (or rather, motivate myself enough to find) a Heart Scale for Nasty Plot. Much like Heatran, Thunder is merely a placeholder

Held Item: Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP, 4 Special Defense, 252 Defense
Moves:
Thunder Wave
Refelct
Moonlight
Ice Beam

No changes for her. I haven't played in a while, so I'm going up and down with the idea of Calm mind

Held Item: Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
Nature: Modest
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Speical Attack, 252 Speed
Moves:
Surf
Water Spout
Thunder
Ice beam

Two words: Pure Evil. I'll almost always lead off with a Water Spout (unless I switch into spikes/stealth rock.) And said Water Spout, at maximum power, one-shots most enemies. The other moves are for coverage, or for using when he's running low.

And that's that. I have a lot to think on with this team, and I know it needs some adjusting. So what new suggestions would there be?

 

[blazheirio889]

Blissey isn't meant to be a physical waller - that's what your Cresselia's for, amiright? I'd advise you stick all those defense IVs into HP.

Why does Darkrai have Expert Belt? I don't see it scoring many super-effective hits, especially when you replace Thunder with Nasty Plot.

Heatran looks pretty fine to me, I'd say. Though I'm not necessarily very experienced with this stuff.

Oh yes, and I'm sorta iffy about the Choice Scarf on Kyogre. If you get locked into Water Spout and your HP goes dangerously low, you'd switch out - but to what? Most of your team is incredibly damage-oriented, with a bias to special sweeping. So I'd advise you put a physical tank, or something?

I'm not sure how well this team will perform in the uber metagame, actually. A physical sweeper would probably be capable of taking down most of your team - a Groudon, say, after your Kyogre has been sent out and locked into a less-than-full-power Water Spout. And because I am lazy and I don't know all too much about ubers, I'll stop now.

 

[J.T.]

Okay, before I rate this team, I'd like to correct a few of Blazheirio's suggestions.

Blissey isn't meant to be a physical waller - that's what your Cresselia's for, amiright? I'd advise you stick all those defense IVs into HP.

NOnonono. Defense is all but required on Blissey. Yes, she should avoid physical hits if at all possible, but mixed sets will rip her apart if she doesn't have any sort of defense boost. Groudon, Rayquaza, mixed Dialga and Palkia, Bulk Up Mewtwo, and Pursuit users like Scizor and Metagross come to mind as things that will obliterate Blissey without Defense EVs. Blissey's HP is flat-out absurd already, and she has no real need to boost it when it's at over 600 with no investment.

I would, however, switch the nature from Bold to Calm. Ubers has more powerful special attackers than OU, and many of them can whittle even Blissey down. She needs a bit of an extra boost.

Oh yes, and I'm sorta iffy about the Choice Scarf on Kyogre. If you get locked into Water Spout and your HP goes dangerously low, you'd switch out - but to what? Most of your team is incredibly damage-oriented, with a bias to special sweeping. So I'd advise you put a physical tank, or something?

Blissey and Cresselia work well in tandem if Cress takes physical hits, so he has plenty of possible switches. As well, letting go of Water Spout Kyogre because you'll get stuck into it is a bad idea. Kyogre's full-health Water Spout is hands-down the most powerful special attack in the game. It has 150 base power, 225 with STAB taken into account, and (assuming I got the math right) 337.5 base power with Drizzle taken into account. This then comes off a colossal 150 base SpA stat with a beneficial nature. So we have a 337.5 power attack coming off of 438 SpA. Even Blissey has to fear coming in on that; it takes off up to 47% on the standard Blissey. After Stealth Rock damage, that's a chance of a 2HKO. A special attacker being capable of getting a 2HKO on Blissey is a huge deal.

As a note, you should have your team listed as what it'll look like when it's finished, not what it looks like now with a comment along the lines of "oh I can't find a Focus Sash". Honestly, it doesn't help us any.

Now on to the actual rating.

Heatran's Magma Storm has unreliable accuracy, and trapping opponents isn't exactly necessary, since it's usually easier to just kill them with Fire Blast. As an additional note, I'd suggest getting a faster lead. I don't play Ubers very frequently, so I don't know what would and wouldn't work, but Heatran's speed lets it down too much.

Garchomp would get more use out of Stone Edge than Fire Fang, since it still hits Ice-types while providing some nice additional coverage for Flying-types and such. I'd also suggest a revenge killer set; replace the Yache Berry with a Choice Scarf and Swords Dance with Outrage. However, the Yache set looks like it could work too.

Blissey should probably run Wish over Softboiled, Protect over Ice Beam, and Toxic over Thunder Wave. This combination is deadly; Wish allows her to pass recovery to other teammates, while Toxic basically ruins other walls and tanks while hitting most of what Seismic Toss doesn't. Protect is a great option as well. It serves as a multi-purpose move - it can scout for Choice moves, rack up Leftovers recovery, give you a turn to get Wish recovery, and stall for one more turn of additional Toxic damage. I already mentioned going for Calm over Bold, so.

Darkrai needs Nasty Plot, but you already knew that. Go for Life Orb over Expert Belt, because Darkrai doesn't get very good super-effective coverage. Spacial Rend could work against non-Scarf Palkia and maybe get a surprise hit on other incoming Dragons, but other than that it could probably be better replaced by (shudder) Focus Blast for the great neutral coverage provided by Dark/Fighting. Or you could be like me and steadfastly refuse to use low-accuracy moves like this because you have horrid luck. Seriously, I have had Head Smash miss 5 times in a row on my old Aggron.

Cresselia looks okay. Calm Mind is definitely a useful option on her, especially in Ubers where things will be lining up to hit her where it hurts (yours runs a physically defensive set, meaning it'll deal with Groudon and such but get obliterated by Kyogre and, hell, most special threats). If you do use it, I'd suggest replacing either Reflect or Thunder Wave.

And Kyogre looks good.

 

[blazheirio889]

Erf, I'm not very good with Blisseys, actually. The only one I've seen in action is one with... maxed out HP EVs, and something else? I forget.

I wasn't saying that he should kick off Water Spout; just saying that maybe Choice Scarf isn't the best idea, with the setup he has right now. Actually, at some point that paragraph strayed to something like, "You might wanna stick a tank in there, but meh."

Well, I don't have much to say after J.T., but lack of any physical moves other than on Garchomp is sorta gratiing on me, though this is just a sort of a nitpicky issue on my part, probably.

 

[Exo-Raikou]

What would be a faster lead that could go Stealth Rock and Explosion? That's what I've debated over for a long time; Smogon is mostly where I've found good suggestions for the initial product, but in terms of leads that would benefit this team, all i can seem to come across is either Mew (which I cannot procure) or Aerodactyl (which I tried and failed with.)

As for Blissey's nature, wouldn't it make more sense to stay with Bold for that slight defense boost?

 

[blazheirio889]

Well, Azelf is the only Pokemon I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm not sure how well that'll work.

 

[J.T.]

Well, Azelf is the only Pokemon I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm not sure how well that'll work.

Better, for starters. Azelf is much faster than Heatran, has higher Attack to kill more things with Explosion, is immune to Earthquake, and has a better movepool (I think?). Its special attack is admittedly lower than Heatran's, but not by a large margin.

I wasn't saying that he should kick off Water Spout; just saying that maybe Choice Scarf isn't the best idea, with the setup he has right now. Actually, at some point that paragraph strayed to something like, "You might wanna stick a tank in there, but meh."

Choice Scarf is pretty much the only way Kyogre will outrun a lot. An alternative is to run a Timid Choice Specs set for bigger power but lower speed, or you could be really ballsy and try a Timid Sub-Calm Mind set (although you'd need to drop Water Spout). He also has Blissey and Cresselia for walls, he doesn't particularly need a tank. Garchomp's pretty bulky as is, especially with Yache Berry. Maybe not as bulky as most Swampert, but eh.

Now as for Blissey's nature. Having a Bold nature doesn't change much, since all she really needs to take are weaker physical hits like Pursuit, and she can do that with a Calm nature as well. In addition, you need to remember how powerful the special attackers in Ubers are. Blissey needs to be able to take some hits with opponents like Kyogre, Latios, and Darkrai around. Look at it this way - Bold gives you 11 extra points of Defense, while Calm gives you 36 extra points of SpD. Which is going to be more significant?