Frostbite - An LC RMT

[Black Buddha]

So, now that LC is a part of Smogon, here's a team I made recently to get back in to the metagame, while incorporating one of HGSS's biggest additions: Dragon Dance Extremespeed Tini.

This team also uses Hail and Protect, a combination that helps wear down so many pokemon, helping to get vital KOs. Hail is also sometimes my only defence against boosted LO Sweepers, where Protect + Priority move help take down sweepers already weakened by previous Hail and possibly LO and Burn.

So, here's the team!

At a Glance

At first glance, this seems to be a fairly defensive team, something often deemed as infeasible in LC. However, this more relies on Hail for a bit of minor damage to weaken opponents. Then two formidable sweepers, Choice Scarf Machop and DDTini are used to do a quick clean up. If any survive, they are swiftly KOd by more Hail + Priority Attacks. Everyone but Munchlax on this team packs a priority move, which is of utmost utility in LC.

In Depth

Snover (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 36 HP/180 Atk/36 Def/196 Spd/36 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Ice Shard

Snover starts off the match with an annoying combination of Hail and SubSeeding. Against faster FO leads, I start off with Protect and then follow to Leech Seed. Switches are ideal opportunities for Substitute. Ice Shard is for when Hail + Leech Seed gets the opponent into KO range. Also helps to pick off weakened sweepers lategame.

Leftovers is usually a bad item in LC, but with Leech Seed it provides good recovery.

Snover has problems with Houndour leads, but I have something to take care of them.

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Munchlax (M) @ Oran Berry
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 236 HP/196 Def/76 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Return
- Earthquake
- Pursuit

Munchlax provides me with both a special wall and a powerful hitter. Protect is for mainly scouting purposes, and allows for more residual damage on the opponent. Return + Earthquake gives me decent coverage, while Pursuit is for hitting the omnipresent Misdreavus, amongst other weakened pokemon that may wish to switch out. EV's are for maximum durability, and a 16 attack stat is good enough anyways

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Duskull (M) @ Oran Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 196 HP/196 Def/116 SDef
Brave nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Blizzard
- Will-o-wisp
- Protect
- Shadow Sneak

Duskull is a solid mixed wall, and its low HP helps it utilize Oran Berry more effectively. Blizzard gets 100% accuracy in hail, and is a sure OHKO on Gligar, while doing tons to Phanpy. Will-o-Wisp spreads even more residual damage around, and also allows me to safely switch out of standard Munchlax's pursuit, as it does around 24% with a non switching pursuit when burned. Protect allows for scouting and racking up damage with Hail and Burn, while Shadow Sneak provides the priority, allowing to finish off weakened pokemon.

Currently Testing:
Misdreavus @ Oran Berry
Levitate
EVs: 196 HP / 36 Atk / 196 Def / 76 SDef
Relaxed Nature
-HP Ice
-W-o-W
-Protect
-Shadow Sneak

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Kabuto (M) @ Oran Berry
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 196 HP/196 Atk/36 Def/76 SAtk
Testing: 196 HP / 116 Atk / 116 Def / 76 SAtk
Brave nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Aqua Jet
- Earth Power
- Rock Slide

Kabuto is a sturdy tank, and when EVd defensively, it takes most non boosted EQs with ease. Kabuto also sets up Stealth Rock for me, which is a must on every team. Aqua Jet is another form of priority, and deals a decent chunk to most frail sweepers. Rock Slide is for Physical STAB, hitting Munchlax super hard. Earth Power is used for Omanyte and the like, as it hits them on their weaker side, while providing decent coverage.

---

Dratini (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 244 Atk/196 Spd/36 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
Testing: Adamant
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Extremespeed

DD ES Tini, one of the most anticipated additions in HGSS. Dratini was fairly rare in the past, but now its one of the most threatening lategame sweepers. Dragon Dance gets Dratini to 24 Attack and 22 Speed, allowing me to outspeed most scarfers which sit happy at 21 speed. Waterfall and Outrage provide perfect coverage, while dealing good damage. Extremespeed is the centerpeice, being one of the most powerful priority moves, preventing revenge killing by scarfers. Dratini performs in almost everymatch, and is perhaps the focus of the team. A perfect example of how HGSS has changed our metagame drastically.

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Machop (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 36 HP/196 Atk/36 Def/236 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Ice Punch
- Payback
- Bullet Punch

Choice Scarf Machop is potentially capable of sweeping whole teams once their ghost is down. Dynamic Punch is for coverage, Ice Punch for Gligar. Payback hits Misdreavus and Gastly on the switchin, and Bullet Punch for priority, if I need it.
Machop has always been broken, and will always be just as threatening even in the new HGSS. I cant really say much about him, except that he always ends up doing so much everymatch

Currently Testing

Mankey @ Choice Scarf
Vital Spirit
EV's: 116 HP / 196 Atk / 116 Spe
Adamant
-Close COmbat
-Ice Punch
-Punishment
-U-Turn
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About the changes:
Misdreavus when EV'd properly falls 2 Def short of Duskull, but makes it up by being superior in every other stat. Also has a stronger SSneak, Higher Speed and higher Special Defense

Kabuto needs a bit more bulk, as it is taking heavy damage from things that it tries to set up on

Adamant over Jolly gets more OHKOes and 2HKOes, however now I tie with all 21 Speed Scarfers. HYU insists though that they are taken out by an Extreme Speed, so Im giving it a shot

Without Mankey, I usually have to rely on hail and prioirity to revenge kill Machop. Mankey allows me to revenge kill Machop easily with a quick CC. Also, it has more power, more speed, and gets the wonderful scouting move, U-turn.

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So there's my team, Ill add threat lists and other stuff soon, but until then please rate a away

​

 

[Lord Blood]

Two small tid bits. Scarf Machop loses to Max speed + nature Gligar. So, to help that, I suggest replacing Machop with Priority LO Croagunk. It just helps to deal with Gligar since you have Aqua Jet and E-Speed as your only priorities. Like Objection said, why run Snover when it's ability hurts all the rest of your team, there's not one Pokemon that benefits from it. None the less, you should also put SR first, that way, you won't have to worry about it later on in the game. Maybe replace Snover with a Gligar of your own and put Kabuto first? Just my two cents.

- LB -

 

[Black Buddha]

Erm, I frankly dont get what you are going on about
Max Speed + nature gligar reaches 19 speed. Choice Scarf machop reaches 21.

My priority moves are Ice Shard on Snover, AJ on Kabuto, Bullet Punch on Machop, SSneak on Duskull and ESpeed on Tini.

Please read the team carefully before posting, thanks very much.

As for the LO Gunk suggestion, CSChop and Gunk work in different ways. Gunk is mainly a revenge killer with FO + Vwave/Sucker Punch. Machop creates havoc with a powerful 100% DynamicPunch, which is more of a general weakener and a sweeper late game

Also, about Snover: Although each pokemon in my team takes damage from it, you must consider that the opponent takes this damage as well. If you play LC often, you'll know the each hit point makes a big difference. Add stuff like wasting turns with Protect, and you find that your opponent's sweepers gradually break down, and then a re susceptible to a quick priority KO

The hail is the main factor in this whole thing, really

 

[Lord Blood]

The only problem with your priority is that only one of those (Ice Shard) has a chance to even do a lot of damage on Gligar. AJ, BP, SS, and E-Speed are trash compared to Gligar's defense. Unless you can show me calcs that prove otherwise, I would recommend you moving Kabuto to first, so you can get up SR first.

 

[Black Buddha]

I honestly do not see where you are going with this
But if you want calcs, here you go

Gligar in question has max def, with no nature. No max HP because it runs all 236 Speed EVs.

Kabuto AJ: 34.78% - 52.17%
2HKO with Rocks and the two turns of Hail that come with it.

Same Gligars EQ does OHKO.

But I have never said that I am, relying on Aqua Jet to take care of Gligar. Honestly, ScarfChop, Snover and DUSKULL, widely accepted as the closest thing to a Gligar counter, are all more than enough to handle Gligar.

Please, you are making Gligar seem much more of an issue than it actually is

 

[Heysup]

The only problem with your priority is that only one of those (Ice Shard) has a chance to even do a lot of damage on Gligar. AJ, BP, SS, and E-Speed are trash compared to Gligar's defense. Unless you can show me calcs that prove otherwise, I would recommend you moving Kabuto to first, so you can get up SR first.

To be blunt, this is pretty silly reasoning. For starters, Gligar is useless versus this team. Flat out useless, except for making a decent initial switch-in to Machop once. Think about it. Duskull with 100% accurate Blizzard vs Gligar.....who can only 3HKO it no matter what it tries to do, and that means it'll get OHKOed before it has a chance. Second, AJ/XSpeed are very much not "trash" compared to Gligar.

Kabuto's AJ vs Gligar: 18 Atk vs 17 Def & 23 HP (40 Base Power): 14 - 20 (60.87% - 86.96%)

Dratini's X-Speed vs Gligar: 16 Atk vs 17 Def & 23 HP (80 Base Power): 12 - 15 (52.17% - 65.22%)

Those will deal a huge amount to Gligar if it comes down to needing priority. So Gligar is a non-issue for this team, or pretty much any other hail team....

Anyways, on to my rate:

The first thing I see is the lack of reliably taking down opposing Machop. For example, if it predicts the ghost switch and takes down Duskull, then you're pretty much toast since Machop can live through 3 of your priority attacks. The simplest solution, imo, would be to use Mankey. Mankey allows you to revenge kill Machop, and basically do what Machop did as well (without the bonus of confusion, but I think it's worth patching up the weakness).

The second is a minor change, but I really dislike Jolly DDtini. Getting a DD off with Adamant dratini is instant win 9/10 times, Extremespeed and Waterfall hit THAT much harder (like KOing Gligar harder), while Jolly doesn't really do anything important since you're not outspeeding anything that you don't KO with Extremespeed with that extra point. So imo Adamant is better, but it's really up to you.

Also, I might even recommend using (fully defensive) Missy over Duskull for the sheer fact that it lures out Munchlax. With a burned Munchlax, you get an easy set up from Dratini (you get two DD's if you use Oran).

 

[Black Buddha]

Thanks for the rate

Yeah, opposing Machop do give me trouble, when Duskull goes down really I have to realy on trying to stall out turns with Protect and then using all my prioirty to take it down. Which is a bad plan

Ill definately give Mankey a try, I do like him much more than machop

TBH the only reason Im using Jolly is to get 22 Speed, outspeeding 21 Speed scarfers. However, if you say that E Speed does deal with them, then I will test out Adamant. Jolly doesnt hit that hard, I agree.

As for misdreavus: Well yeah its proven to be better defensively, but Duskull gets a 100% Blizzard, ever so useful for taking out Gligar. However Missy with Protect SSneak HP Ice W-o-W could work. And yeah, I love to set up DD on burnt Lax

Ill try some changes out, and compare stats between Missy and Duskull, while trying Mankey

Thanks again

 

[Black Buddha]

BUMP

Cmon, this team needs much more help

Now testing:

Mankey > Machop
Adamant > Jolly on Dratini
116 Def EVs > 36 Def EVs
116 Atk EVs > 196 Atk EVs
Bulky Misdreavus > Duskull

 

[franky]

Aron might trouble you a bit with Polish and Head Smash. I`d give Croagunk a try over Machop with the movesets Fake Out, Vacumm Wave, Ice Punch, and Gunk Shot to check it. This adds more priority but more flexibility on your moves. Its a resist to Fighting-type hits, but overall its sole purpose is to check Aron as well as add more priority to the team. Good luck.

 

[Black Buddha]

Yeah, RP Aron is a total bitch. Usually Kabuto's AJ does around 60 %, and then what I do is try and Protect stall, then finish with a priority. needless to say, that isnt a great way to play.

Well, I can honestly not replace Machop / Mankey, but Id like a Gunk as well. I was thikning over Kabuto, but then I need a poke to set up SR. Now, best I can think of, is to get a SR user that takes Special Hits well, and kinda checks Missy.

Im having a sever case of 6 Team Slot syndrome :S