Old School

[Trakyan]

As the tittle could imply im going to use pokes from older gens, specifically 1-3, nothing from four or five. If i post a weird set you think is.. well... weird, i have tested it and it does well for me. I custom make my sets to fit around my team and sometimes the metagame. Now, without further ado, my first actual smogon team (i normally play PO but they lack originality and have stupid tier lists >.>)

This team is meant to take hits decently well and stall or wall to an extent, it doesnt hit hard but it does ok, i need to get some more experience in smogon to make it do well though. I realize there may be a few weaknesses and any help covering them would be great.

Aipom @ Eviolite
Ability: Pick Up
EVs: Spd 236 / 196 Atk / 76 HP
Nature: Jolly
- Fake Out
- U Turn
- Shadow Claw
- Return

Now you see it, now you dont. Behold, 'tis be aipom, the greatest lead EVER! Why not mienfoo? Mienfoo sucks, mienfoo is to slow, and its movepool is terrible, the best it could do to a ghost type is knock off. Why not meowth? Meowth has technician which is good (and i dont see why aipom doesn't given that ambipom does.) but lacks some attack power and the movepool aipom does, if u turn had 60 base power sure i would use it. Over to aipom, hits 19 speed which is the higher speed of any fake out user and fake out i good for reasons we all know, u turn to scout and get me the momentum with the switching, shadow claw for missy and the likes, return is the STAB of choice but I'm considering ice punch for gligar. Eviolite is to give it acceptable 18 defenses so it can switch in and help me move around my team with u turn more, thats basically its main purpose. There used to be a normal gem there but it wasnt consistent enough, maybe silk scarf? Part of my voltturn core, i send in one of them(normaly aipom but maybe elekid if it has better coverage) after one of my pokemon faints and i often find myself having fun by switching natu and aipom repeatedly into ground and ghost type attacks respectively.

Elekid @ Expert Belt
Ability: Static
EVs: Spd 236 / 240 SAtk / 12 Atk
Nature: Hasty
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Quick Attack

One of the fastest pokemon there is, i considered diglett for the fun of trapping a scaflocked electric attack, setting up +6 with hone claws and sweeping but that was far to situational and elekid hit harder off the bat. Speaking of bats HP ice is for hitting the omnipresent purple bat we all know as gligar and other ground or grass switch ins hard, volt switch to scout around and keep momentum, thunderbolt as STAB and quick attack becuase... well i had no better idea and people used to say every team needs priority, that seems to have changed. Maybe cross chop or brick break for scraggy? Expert belt is just to hit harder, i dont want LO because i want this at optimal health so i can switch around and between my team using this as a pivot point, like aipom. Suggestions welcome. My other main voltturn core pokemon, send this in after one of my pokemon has fainted, volt switch if they lack an obvious ground type (HP ice if i think its comming in) or t bolt to knock out things like shelder who plan on setting up. Otherwise volt switching to something to wall or stall the respective pokemon, or KO it of course and volt switch prevents people double switching me.

Natu @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: SDef 236 / 156 Def / 116 HP
Nature: Bold
- U Turn
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Roost

You might notice no hazards on this team, or no status. You would be right, thats bronzor's job. Where is bronzor to set up hazards for me? Why on the oponents team of course! This thing has become a sort of must or staple on my teams, bouncing back status and hazards like the pro it is. Its decently bulky, it can survive sucker punches and pursuits off stunky at full HP and even shadow ball off abra. Over on PO I give it max speed to tie with max sped mienfoo, here that would be rather dumb considering the main speed tier is two points higher so i decided to opt for the more defensive spread. The spread and nature give it 14 (even numbers are good with eviolite) in booth defenses, giving it a decent amount of bulk with 22/21/21 HP and defenses, i also have a general rule when running eviolite always max out defenses before HP. U Turn is purely to switch while dealing damage, and hopefully get outsped by stunky so pursuit is only half as effective, Psychic is STAB, HP fire for ferrothorn and roost for recovery. I didnt run screens because to make them last i would need to lose eviolite and having to set them up all the time gives my oponent free turns, one of them could replaces HP fire though, perhaps to escape stunky more safely if i get trapped or to weaken missys shadow balls. Suggestions welcome. This is also one of the four pokemon i use in my 'defensive' core, though its not the bulkiest of them.

Murkrow @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: Def 180 / 180 SDef / 116 HP / 32 Spd
Nature: Bold
- Substitute
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Dark/Flying]
- Calm Mind

Meet the best dark type in LC and the reason i play on smogon, thats right, stuff you scraggy and go sulk in a corner pawniard. This is not standard as far as i am away and is part of my 'defensive' core(providing a good psychic immunity and a ground immunity as a bonus), based off my UU team. This guy fulfills the role as a bulky dark type even though he is not, but he is the bulkiest dark type in LC, scraggy (assuming its for some reason running max defenses and HP has one less HP point and two more defense points in each stat, but murkrow has priority instant healing and priority sub and priority stat boosting moves so get lost scraggy(murkrow also has awesomeness factor). Sub is to block status, roost to heal damage and loose that flying typing when needed, calm mind to boost special defense and special attack and HP dark or flying as STAB moves, dark hits missy super effectively but is x4 resisted by scraggy which is rather common, HP flying hits scraggy super effectively and missy neutrally as well as hitting other stuff neutrally too, overall HP flying seems to better option (given that only bronzor would resist it and it couldnt touch murkrow) but booth would be great, sadly murkrow lacks a fifth moveslot and multiple IV meter thingies for the same stat. I might ditch calm mind for another attack but it seems to good to pass up. This is loosely based off my curse umbreon from UU which uses curse/heal bell(for status just like sub is on this set)/moonlight(roost equivalent)/payback. Suggestions as to what HP type are welcome.

Porygon @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 236 SDef / 196 Def / 76 HP
Nature: Bold
-Recover
-Ice Beam
-Tri Attack
-Shadow Ball

This think is very bulky, it even takes fighting attacks pretty well. Recover is instant and reliable recovery, tri attack is a good STAB with very welcome side effects, ice beam is to warmly welcome gligar and shadow ball is there to say hello to missy. This thing gets solid defensive stats sitting at 24/25/25 with eviolite. Trace is nice for getting things like levitate from bronzor or water absorb and cursed body with which to completely wall frillish. This provides a usefull ghost immunity and is part of my 'defensive' core. Suggestions for the set, the poke is far to useful to give up.

Duskull @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 236 SDef / 196 Def / 76 HP
Nature: Bold
-Pain Split
-Will-O-Wisp
-Shadow Sneak
-Body Slam

The greatest ghost type in LC(Get lost missy.), what is there to say? Its bulkier than missy in booth sides of the spectrum, more notably defense, has at least some form of recover which actually pairs up quite nicely as a damage dealing method with his lower than average HP. WoW is for passive damage and halving attack, one of the many reasons duskull often floats over a fainted stunky in order to pain split and wreak more havock. Body slam is for doing damage with a paralysis rate which never works when i want it to and always works when i dont want it to. Duskull is slower than timbur so its payback will be stuck with 50 BP. Overall a great poke that has pulled through for me more often than not, its only downfall is the fact it seems to be a hax magnet, every time my opponent sends in a meowth against this thing i manage to WoW it at most(most of the the time WoW misses the first time or even twice in a row, it has a habbit of never hitting the first time i use it) then meowth uses bite and flinches me to death, about three flinches in a row is what it does, ALWAYS, and i actually mean always(never has bite not flinched me to death >.>, bar that time it double crited, once when i WoWed then just after that).

Well thats about it, im aware i have two flying types but it seems to be doing ok. This team has no real offensive prowess outside of elekid and aipom who are just pivots though porygon hits rather hard despite no investment and even natu's u turn accounts for its fare share of damage from time to time. Any suggestions are welcome. I prefer a more defensive style of battling so I will probably only replace elekid for an attacker though elekid seems good at that, natu and aipom are my musts, natu for basically being a hazard keeper offer and aipom for being the best lead and pivot i have ever used, duskull is also going to hard to pry off me despite its bad record with hax.

So please rate and give me some tips please, half of the sets may seem weird because im basing them around what i learned in PO and what is effective there.

EDIT: missed out a few pictures

 

[IronJustice]

Very cool team, well done. I love the old school theme and will always think the first two gens had, overall, better designed Pokemon than the rest. This was probably because this was their original ideas, the ones they knew they wanted to do first.

As for your team, I like your balance and diversity. I'm not going to say much more since you prefaced that basically you knew it was perfect.

 

[Superpowerdude]

Yeah this team looks really cool it seems cool to have a somewhat stall team in LC

also i am thinking about posting my own little cup team where would i do it? would i just click new thread under rate my team? sorry i got off topic i am new to smogon forums and your help would be much apriecated

 

[Trakyan]

Thanks, i have considered and am testing nosepass and mankey in the place of porygon and murkrow for better synergy, tell me what you think of those suggestions. Thanks for the postive feedback too, and yes this is sorta semi stall but stall is hard in LC with the leftovers recovery being useless and eviolite being needed to counter the fact that defenses are lower while the base power of moves isnt.

and yes super power dude just click new thread when on the LC RMT page.

 

[Superpowerdude]

Hey i battled you today on PO you were using this team! i was the one with the rain dance team! this team was awesome congrats on reaching 17 on the ladder from experience i can say the nosepass was great and was a huge annoyance with rest. was your Mankey Scarfed? i kind off forgot a bit of the battle so i forgot what your mankey was like. i was the guy who didnt make my turn for like half an hour :)

 

[spuds4ever]

Solid overall team. Something interesting I would suggest that I did a lot with my aipom a couple of rounds back is use flight gem acrobatics over return as it guarentees a OHKO on all fighting types that think they can force you out. I see your team is very scraggy weak as he will destroy everything on your team at a mere +1. I think your team would greatly benefit from a scarfer, I would suggest giving elekid a choice scarf. Elekid makes a great counterscarfer and revenge killer, tying even with scraggy at +2 and outspeeding all other scarfers. For the set, I would use cross chop over quick attack to effectively smash scraggy.

I would run the standard sub roost krow as your team needs priority as aipom's fake out is never quite enough to kill those pesky shell smashers (I speak from experience) so I would go for the standard max attack set, though you may not want to take loads of speed as all his moves are priority except brave bird. You already have a solid enough defensive core in porygon natu, porygon and duskull anyway.

 

[Trakyan]

Thanks for the tips spuds and from experience aipom survives icicle spear from shelder and KOes back with return, and i play this team on PO mainly with nosepass and mankey where porygon and murkrow are so scraggy isnt there, i'll fix up the scraggy issue and i changed the HP type on murkrow to flying for scraggy. And i ran a similar aipom to what you were describing except it was normal gem fake out with acrobatics back when meinfoo was the only lead to would ever see, they became less common after that so i put in shadow claw for ghosts.

duskull also now runs sub>body slam to escape pursuit and stuff. Thanks for the feedback though all of you. I'm probably going to rework this team since it seems a little out dated but i cant post another RMT yet.

I also considered the counter scarfer thing with a digglet for those scarfed chinchou since they caused some problems once porygon was down. I dont want to scarf elekid though since the freedom of switching attacks is priceless for me, scarf locking myself into something doesnt appeal. I'm considering a physical set of thunder punch/volt switch(purely for switching)/fire punch/quick attack or cross chop. I'm thinking quick attack is rather useless since it has been doing sub par damage with no STAB and eviolite all around so probably ice punch will go over fire punch and brick break over cross chop since im not that good with the accuracy. So what do you think of mankey and nosepass where porygon and murkrow are, mankey to hit scraggy and nosepass running a strange set i made consisting of rest/sleep talk/volt switch/power gem which misses earth power but rest gives it a second wind and sleep talk gives it something to do. I find the 5/6 pokemon having volturn very usefull in battle.