I'll talk about Hippowdon, Empoleon and Sylveon together as they compose my defensive core. Hippowdon comes in on electric, ground and fighting moves that Empoleon hates. Empoleon tanks poison and steel attacks for Sylveon while Sylveon pases wishes to either of the other two. Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Sand Stream EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk) - Slack Off - Stealth Rock - Earthquake - Roar Probably the best physical wall in the tier. Roar lets me phaze through until something comes out that I can't tank. The biggest downside over Donphan is the lack of rapid spin which my team could probably really use. Empoleon (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Torrent EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef Sassy Nature - Defog - Knock Off - Scald - Roar Knock off is not often expected and really helps my team. Since I am delaying the game, it is a huge long term advantage to remove leftovers or choice items. If a sticky web gets by my Crobat's taunt, Defiant makes Knock Off hurt really bad for the enemy considering the lack of offensive investment. Sylveon (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Pixilate EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 Spd Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Wish - Protect - Yawn - Hyper Voice By the time the opponent has seen my stall core, and then this comes out, they are not expecting Specs. Not a unique set, and I'm not sure I like how it plays. It either completely dismantles the opponent or fizzles. Megaman (Thundurus-T) (M) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Volt Absorb EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Thunderbolt - Volt Switch - Dark Pulse - Sludge Wave I'm digging this Thundurus-T on my team a lot. This spot was originally M-Manectric, but the much higher speed off the bat is helpful when coming in on something boosted or fast. Similar moveset, but my team misses M-Manectric's flamethrower coverage. Deoxys-D @ Leftovers Trait: Pressure EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk) - Knock Off - Spikes - Recover - Toxic This guy is just too imba. It is almost impossible to stop him without him doing one of his jobs (knocking the item off multiple pokes, setting up multiple layers of spikes, spreading toxic, etc). This guy is a monster of a wall and his utility is unmatched. I am thinking of running taunt on him but I cant decide what i would drop and if it is worth it Staraptor (F) @ Choice Band Trait: Intimidate EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Brave Bird - Close Combat - U-turn - Pursuit Wow, the power that this thing has. It will smash some serious holes in your opponent with its sky high attack stat. This thing has wallbreaker and late sweeper written all over it. When my stall core starts to weaken I usually will try to end the game once I get a clean switch in on Staraptor. I'd appreciate ratings, and help refining this team. Here is a threatlist of pokes that I struggle against: -Crawdaunt -M-Blastoise -Clawitzer -Terrakion -Suicune -Strong ice beam users -Hazards. Typically I can avoid them with taunt but when they get past me it can be ruinous Importable Spoiler Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Sand Stream EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk) - Slack Off - Stealth Rock - Earthquake - Roar Empoleon (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Torrent EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd) - Defog - Knock Off - Scald - Roar Sylveon (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Pixilate EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Wish - Protect - Yawn - Hyper Voice Thundurus-T (M) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Volt Absorb EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Thunderbolt - Volt Switch - Dark Pulse - Sludge Wave Deoxys-D @ Leftovers Trait: Pressure EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk) - Knock Off - Spikes - Recover - Toxic Staraptor (F) @ Choice Band Trait: Intimidate EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Brave Bird - Close Combat - U-turn - Pursuit Changelog: 1/26 -Swapped Whirlwind for Rock Tomb on hippowdon -Switched to Sassy empoleon -Changed back to physically defensive Sylveon (used to run this before original post) -Swapped poison fang for Defog 1/29 -Switched out M-Manectric for Thundurus-T -Switched out Crobat for Staraptor -Swapped whirlwind out for Roar on hippowdon -Moved defog to empoleon and stealth rock hippowdon
You need an importable and 3 lines of description for every pokemon. I will give you 24 hours to make the changes before I lock this thread.
Use Calm Nature on Empoleon, Hardy doesn't boost anything. I also prefer Defog over Knock Off because you can easily defog off the hazards on your side and immediately set up your own SR. I don't see what Crobat can do that Scarf Chandelure does better, considering the fact that you aren't even using Defog on Crobat. Chandelure can also serve as a Spin-blocker as your team is running both SR+Spikes, but you have no spin-blocker to block the hazards.
Whirlwind over Rock Tomb on Hippo, Sassy nature on Empoleon to preserve Knock Off's power, shift the Speed EVs to defense on Sylveon, consider max Speed Timid on Deo, and run Super Fang over Poison Fang on Crobat. Your team is also weak to NP Thundurus-T and strong Fire types. Using something like CroCune or Gastrodon will help you take on Fire types and Water types.
I am back to actually do my Team rater jobs. (Please don't fire me yet Draco and fitzy :p) First, I recommend using a Wish passing Physically Defensive Sylveon instead of the specs set. The reason for this is that Empoleon, while being bulky, does not have an access to a healing move. Empoleon's steel typing and Sylveon's Fairy typing has an excellent synergy as well so it can pass more wishes on things that would swap into Sylveon such as JiraHax. Using it will help you check Crawdaunts more easier too. Second, try using a Physically Defensive Jellicent over Crobat. Access to Recover, Taunt, and capability to knock Spinners like Starmie senseless with a specially defensive set+Shadow ball is definately a plus. Not many spinners can get past Jellicent. Third, you may try swapping Knock Off on Empoleon for Defog, as hazards will wear down your stall core and Deo-D has Knock off anyways. Or you can get rid of Roar on Empoleon while swapping Deo-D's Knock off for Taunt. Then you can ignore my Jellicent suggestion and go with Draco's Chandelure. Finally, I'm pretty sure Sandstorm does not boost Empoleon's spdef :o Only for rock types iirc. Hope I helped :) Edit: I am disappointed by the lack of megaman things when the title said megaman :(( Roll? Rock? X? Zero? anyone?
Updated OP to reflect the changes that I made today (changelog at bottom). I'll do some play testing and report back today or tomorrow. Still thinking about cutting Crobat for Chandelure (as per draconinja's suggestion) but I figured I'd give defog a try on Crobat first since I don't like Poison Fang very much. I am less tempted to swap to chandelure because then I'd have to run Defog on Empoleon meaning he wouldn't be able to run the Defiant ability. My defiant empoleon has ripped holes in teams before when the opponent sets up a sticky web or if I switch in on a predicted Defog. edit: Oh yeah, now featuring 100% more megaman edit2: Forgot to explain my reasoning on Yawn over Toxic on Sylveon. When I used to run defensive sylveon I ran toxic and often it was a wasted move because a steel or poison switch in blocked it. I run toxic on multiple other pokes on my team and I don't have room for a spore/powder user, so I'm gonna give Yawn a try. It may turn into Heal Bell, but status doesn't particularly trouble my team. Yawn+Protect is awesome at shutting down counters to sylveon. Basically I yawn a switch in and try to predict if they will attack and eat the sleep or switch. If I predict switch correctly I get a free Wish that I can easily pass while leaving sylveon healthy. If I predict an attack correctly I can protect and they take the sleep.
Hello, cool team. I have a few ideas that'll restructure and refine the team, hear me out if you'd like. First off, I am going to advise changing Mega-Manetric to a Scarf Thundurus-T. It can outpace many more, boosted, threats and revenge kill well. Secondly, I recommend using CB Staraptor over Crobat as it can break through walls while remaining a good speed stat and overwhelming power that nothing else in the tier can boast. Next off, you are going to need to use Defog>Knock off on Empoleon to rid the field of hazards - Deo-D has knock off already, so you'll be alright w/out it. Finally, Roar should be the forth move on Hippo because it can phase through protects of Sylveon, Florges, Chansey, and others while Whirlwind cannot, thanks to gen 6 mechanics. An alternative to the changes I listed is sticking with everything, but moving SR > Toxic on Hippo and just putting Defog in SRs spot and keeping Knock Off on Empoleon. Gl, cool team
First off, thanks for the compliment and for the advice. I find a lot of this very interesting. -I will definitely playtest Thundurus-T over M-manectric. Not having to work around the lower speed of pre-evo Manectric on the first turn sounds preferrable. -I will consider and probably try CB Staraptor, but what Crobat really does for my team revolves around his taunt coming off 394spd. He also walls out roserade, OHKO's m-heracross, medicham, meinshao, etc. Infiltrator is very useful as well. But the raw power of staraptor might be better than all of those things -I have grown to love knock off on empoleon. I am tempted, though, to move SR to hippowdon to run both on empoleon. -Thank you for this info, I didn't know that Whirlwind mechanics had changed Again, thanks. I'll be tinkering with these changes