With the arrival of X and Y to Pokemon Online days away, I will introduce to you friends one of my favorite teams I have ever built. My personality of getting bored of a team very quickly, whether its a good team or a bad team, did not apply to this special one I made. What makes this team so fun is how it is designed to counter most of the offensive teams Gen 5 OU players love to use while not abusing the most powerful OU threats. This unusual looking team works especially well against good players who do not expect some of the sets I use and get caught off guard. Unfortunately, I have only reached 1500 once with this team, due to my poor laddering skills and the general bad quality of the ladder. However, I also reached the 1450's more than six times with more than six alts, showing that it is a very effective team to this meta when played the way it is designed to be played. Spoiler [/HIDE] Here is a brief brief description on how the team works before the details: Two Sashers with amazing coverage on the special side and physical side respectively lures and eliminates threats to the team. Both has access to priority that eliminates weakened opponents, which this team is remarkably good at doing (you'll see). Xatu counters Breloom and CustapSkarm Offense and checks stall while Starmie provides secondary hazard removal as well as hit fast and hard. The prevention of hazards is very very crucial for this team to succeed. A Scarfed Metagross to switch in on Draco's and ShadowBalls and Pursuit Trap. Also has a very very nice 'surprise bitch' factor, as scarf Metagross is not a thing. 4 Attacks Arcanine takes the fire moves for the team and fires back with a a well covered move-pool of strong attacks and priority. To effectively use the team, save the Sashers for the big threats to the team that you see during the preview, while preventing hazards as best as you can (not too hard). Lure/Weaken the opponent's unsuspecting Pokemon with Scarf Metagross. Wear the opponent's Pokemon down using Rocky Helmet, Hail, Priority, and Prediction! Abomasnow, Mamoswine, and Arcanine especially have amazing coverage moves that you can have fun predicting the opponent with. ONTO THE DETAILS MIKASA (Abomasnow) (F) @ Focus Sash Trait: Snow Warning EVs: 144 Atk / 252 SAtk / 112 Spd IVS: 31 31 30 30 31 30 Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def) - Blizzard - Ice Shard - Giga Drain - Hidden Power [Fire] This Abomasnow is the most fun thing ever. After seeing an old BW user called HOH use it, I noticed how remarkably well it takes down a big threat to the team and prevents the team from getting swept. This is what this Abomasnow's role on this team is: Lure and/or kill a big threat to the team. Such threats includes Dragons that has set up, Scizor, Keldeo, Terrakion, Latios, and many more. Not many people expect Abomasnow to be sashed, because why would anyone sash their valuable weather starter, right? Max Special Attack allows Abomasnow to OHKO Dragonite through Multiscale, do enough to Max HP Scizor where hail finishes it off if HPFire gets a minimum roll, and hit Keldeo and Terrakion for around 79% with Giga Drain. 183 speed allows speed creeps on Band Scizors foolish enough to go for U-turn as well as defensive Politoed and Skarmory and their SpeedCreepers. Ice Shard, while weak on this set, still hits Pokemon weak to Ice relatively hard for good damage as well as give Abomasnow a small role as revenge killer. Priority Ice Shard STAB is always a good move to carry. As said, this Pokemon's Sash is best saved for threats. Don't do stuff like foolishly fire off HPFires on a full health Ferrothorn when you have a Xatu. However, sometimes Abomasnow's Sash has to be broken due to my team's slight annoyance to bulky water types and needs a switch-in (will get to that later in the post). MIKASA (Metagross) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Clear Body EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Meteor Mash - Zen Headbutt - Trick - Pursuit Now this particular set happens to niche fit onto my team. Metagross with Scarf serves a variety of roles that contributes to the success to this team. The main reason to use this set is to have a Steel Type that can switch into DracoMeteors from Latios and proceed to pursuit trap. Since Choice Scarf Metagross isn't even seen in UU, the surprise factor this Pokemon has is astounding. Scarfed Meteor Mashes and Zen Headbutts from 405 Attack is very powerful, and it results in dead Terrakions, Keldeos, and more. Trick is a bonus that I changed over Earthquake recently to help cripple bulky waters that my team has trouble with such as Jellicent, Gastrodon, Defensive Rotom-W. These niche roles Metagross has for this team is why I looked past Scarf Scizor: Metagross has the Bulk, Power, Surprise Factor, and Trick. Normally, a Jolly nature is needed for a slow scarfer such as this one. But after looking at my team, I decided a Jolly nature is not needed at all! As far as I see, Jolly Scarf allows Metagross to outspeed +1 Dragonite and Starmie. My two sash Ice Types are meant to deal with Dragonite already, and Metagross can't hit Starmie hard even with Pursuit anyway. Adamant is therefore chosen to boost Metagross' power while still outspeeding anything non-scarfed lower than base 113 speed. Getting guaranteed damage on threats such as Latios with Pursuit and surprise factor is very valuable later on where priority from three of my other Pokemon or Starmie can finish the threat off and maintain the Sashes for later. MIKASA (Arcanine) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Flash Fire/Intimidate EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Flare Blitz - Wild Charge - Close Combat - ExtremeSpeed Having an Arcanine on a hail team and not a Heatran makes it so much more fun to use. This pokemon has great coverage as well as priority and is generally very easy to predict with. EVs are standard 252/252 Adamant to maximize offense. Arcanine likes to Close Combat Tyranitars and Wild Charge water Pokemon switch ins for some solid damage. With all the Hail, Sashers, RockyHelmets, Random Scarfer, ExtremeSpeed is a very useful tool for outspeeding and killing weakened pokemon that are worn down from all the residual my team has to offer. As for ability, Intimidate works really well, but for me, I chose Flash Fire. I found that it seems whenever I take off Flash Fire, I face a sun team. Without Flash Fire, Sun teams will become much more harder to deal with. I can usually play around not having Intimidate unless I face a Jirachi that flinches Arcanine to death. MIKASA (Xatu) (F) @ Rocky Helmet Trait: Magic Bounce EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 SDef IVS: 0 Speed Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd) - Roost - Heat Wave - U-turn - Toxic I love this Pokemon a lot because I am a player who really dislikes having Stealth Rocks on my side of the field. Xatu provides an excellent answer to many defensive Stealth Rockers in the tier. Xatu not only prevents hazards, but also stops Breloom cold, and is a valid check for stall teams. Toxic allows Xatu to not get 'outstalled' and it allows it to poison something on the large amount of switches it forces. Heat Wave speeds things up against Steel Types and U-turn brings momentum to the game. The EVs are Max Max in HP and Defense with no speed at all so Xatu can pull off slow U-turns on Skarmory to ease prediction as well as lower the power of Gyro Balls. RockyHelmet, in conjunction with Hail, is very useful for wearing the opponent down so priority or Metagross/Starmie can kill. Xatu, with its max max investment, lives a +1 outrage from Dragonite and U-turns to Mamoswine for an easy revenge kill because of the helmet. Xatu can also be a valuable death fodder mid to late game when it is no longer useful (such as when the opponent's Stealth Rocker is weakened or dead, or Breloom is eliminated). Poor Xatu. It provides such great support to the team but it gets sacked first most of the time. MIKASA (Mamoswine) (F) @ Focus Sash Trait: Thick Fat EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Earthquake - Ice Shard - Superpower - Stealth Rock Now this may be the standard suicide lead Mamoswine, but seriously, don't play it like that! Play this Mamoswine the same way you do for Abomasnow: Save the Sash for a big threat. Sometimes, I don't even set up rocks just so Sash wont be broken. Otherwise, its just a standard Mamoswine, great for revenge killing Dragons and rocking the opponent's team with Earthquake. Great Anti-Meta Sash Pokemon to have because no weather can damage it. MIKASA (Starmie) @ Life Orb Trait: Natural Cure EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Recover - Rapid Spin - Hydro Pump - Psyshock Offensive Starmie provides the team a 'secondary' spinner in case Xatu cannot do its job. It also checks Keldeo and fulfills the role of a sweeper. Starmie is so good nowadays because of its offensive spinning abilities. Recover is used as well as Natural Cure because I want this to take Scalds and not Abomasnow. Hydro Pump and Psyshock provides DualSTAB to hurt the opponent. Having the best spinner in the game as well as Xatu makes my team very anti-hazard. MAJOR ANNOYANCES TO THE TEAM ARE BULKY WATER TYPES! As you can tell, Gastrodon, Jellicent, and especially Rotom-W gives this team trouble, since only Abomasnow can deal with them. They can easily break the sash and switch out. Rotom-W is especially fearsome because it can VoltSwitch on me and give the opponent momentum. When the opponent gets momentum on this wierd team, disasters occur ... so try not to let that happen. Ways to deal with these bulkywaters is to bait and Trick them a scarf with Metagross, Toxic them with Xatu, or eliminate their teammates so Abomasnow can come in and drain their blooood. In Conclusion, I really really enjoy using this team. This team wears down the opponent very quickly by getting rid of their top threats using Sashers while keeping Stealth Rocks off the field. The unusual sets present on this team catches a lot of good players off guard, and that can be used to my advantage to gain an upper hand. If played well, the last Pokemons alive on the team should be the Sashers, and they usually beat whatever the opponent has left 1v1. IMPORTABLE: Spoiler MIKASA (Abomasnow) (F) @ Focus Sash Trait: Snow Warning EVs: 144 Atk / 252 SAtk / 112 Spd Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def) - Blizzard - Ice Shard - Giga Drain - Hidden Power [Fire] MIKASA (Metagross) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Clear Body EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Meteor Mash - Zen Headbutt - Trick - Pursuit MIKASA (Arcanine) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Flare Blitz - Wild Charge - Close Combat - ExtremeSpeed MIKASA (Xatu) (F) @ Rocky Helmet Trait: Magic Bounce EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 SDef Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd) - Roost - Heat Wave - U-turn - Toxic MIKASA (Mamoswine) (F) @ Focus Sash Trait: Thick Fat EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Earthquake - Ice Shard - Superpower - Stealth Rock MIKASA (Starmie) @ Life Orb Trait: Natural Cure EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Recover - Rapid Spin - Hydro Pump - Psyshock[/HIDE] Irrelevant gifs of my favorite character makes this RMT much more fun to make Here is a link to watch the anime where she is from! http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/shingeki-no-kyojin-episode-1-online
Ahhhhhhhh I remember this team. Looked soo fun to use. The only thing i could really suggest is that since you waned starmie to take on waters instead of abomasnow, why not run thunderbolt on it. When I looked over your moveset for it it might be a good idea to get rid of rapid spin considering that when you do go for rapid spin you will mostilkely have to take a hit then recover. Coupled with the fact that you are using life orb instead of leftovers, you are gonna be in the constant recover cycle, really not getting anywhere. So it might be a good idea just to end the rapid recover cycle by just putting on another attack in place of that. Or it could be just me ;~;. Overall looks very solid and looks very fun to use. (aka i am stealing it ;])
Wow this is a really really solid hail team! I would like like to make a small recommendation for you. Weather Ball Raikou. Yeah, under hail conditions you are having a powered-up pseudo Bolt-beam coverage. Pretty sad that Raikou can only run Rash nature but a Volt Switch/Thunderbolt/Weather Ball/Aura Sphere set should suffice. I would think this set would be better over Arcanine, as it still gets the job done. Hope I helped, and good luck~
lol, everything is named "MIKASA" (SnK <3) Anyway, I don't have much to offer since I'm not very good at OU but maybe a secondary STAB (Icicle Crash or Spear?) for Mamo over Superpower?
Love the fact you want to bring Hail back but considering you have no Glaceon makes me sad :( but But anyways moving on to a rate The team looks solid and able to do what you want it to do you say you have problems with gastrodon but it mostly just seems like a matter of baiting him out with prediction, You have Arcanine but why not try Heatran to as well give you a Steel type for Defesnive coverage giving it HP Grass makes it catch gastrodon off guard Its Sp attack stat with Modest nature hits 394 making it a Power house it gets flash fire to help with Obama -Im not going to stop making this joke- Give it air ballon and it makes it a pokemon that can dodge a EQ on switchs Make it a Specs set and you blow Holes in anything it hits for neutral or Super effective damage other then that its a viable team and i hope they don't make hail 5 turns only like they did sun and rain For the heatran sets Heatran (M) @ Air Balloon Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk) - Substitute - Fire Blast - Earth Power - Hidden Power [Grass] Heatran (M) @ Choice Specs Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk) - Fire Blast - Earth Power - Dragon Pulse - Hidden Power [Grass] Both have their own uses and niches You had 2 Ice shard users so Prio lost from Arcanine wans't to big.
A+ team. I don't have much to say rate-wise. I could see you pulling Analytic > Natural Cure in Starmie. Xatu can tank moves like Spore, Toxic, or TWave which makes natural cure borderline useless bar taking scalds, which it still takes easily 70% of the time. Analytic Starmie is really good in the current meta. Also, I could see you using Reuniclus over Starmie. OTR or CM, both could fit. However, Starmie gives you another spinner / bouncer (alongside Xatu) and hard hitting hydro pump / water resist. (Latias could work if you are desperate for a water resist that is tanky, too.) Nice team
A suggestion I have is ThunderBolt>Recover. Starmie is offensive, but not groundbreakingly offensive. Recover sounds weird when it can't do to much overall, and does not help against Physically Defensive Jellicent(main problem if it carries shadow ball) which will come in to spinblock. Tbolt will 2shot that beast easily, so why not use that? It can also reliably take down Skarms without the chance to miss like HPump. I still maintain my point that Levi>Mikasa! She's cool too tho. Slightly too devoted to Eren :l
Love this team, I'd only have thunderbolt on starmie's set to help deal with bulky waters. Seems like good stuff though Edit: + Love the title, A7X <3 They're new stuff's pretty good ;) Like Coming Home a lot. Like how ya used the name with relevance to your weather, but now you have the song in my head xD
Thanks Daybreak c: . Starmie is chosen JUST because it has rapid spin, because my team must must have entry hazards out of my way in order for it to work. Sometimes I sack Starmie entirely just so it can get a rapid spin off xD. Recover is used so starmie can take defensive scalds from pokemon like on defensive rain teams. DracoNinja, that set looks really fun and I might have made another team with it if X and Y didnt come out! For this team however, Arcanine is crucial because of its ability to take fire moves. E-speed also contributes to the way this team is played alot too. Argentum, fuuuuck yeaaaaa SnK :] :] :] Cloud, Arcanine is what made this team funner over Heatran! Dont you think Heatran hail is the most standard thing ever? Anyway, Arcanine's faster speed and priority is very very useful and thankfully Gastrodon isnt as popular as it was in BW1. Thanks Finch!! Yea, having an extra spinner is very nice, doesnt pressure Xatu that much. The reason I chose Natural Cure is because i need that thing to take status in case something happens, especially Scalds. MewtwoHidden, I used to have ThunderWave but then I wanted more residual so priority can finish them off without breaking Sashes :/ Toxic also gives Xatu a better way to checking Stall, which this team can't really touch. Ramiel, I have thought long and hard about thunderbolt on starmie before and it is a legit option to go for. But I do like Recover because starmie needs to take multipul scalds before against defensive rain teams. and Ofc Levi is stronger than Mikasa, they made him slightly too OP tho l0l Piexplode, thanks :D A7x is friggin amazing :] :] Thanks for posting erryone