Really Trolling the Meta (A team of little used threats)

[HabibsHotDogs]

Hi everyone, this is my first RMT so please be gentle, I think you'll enjoy this team! It peaked at 1885 (and was climbing thanks to the plethora of high rated rain teams) just before the ladder reset. Now that the ladder has reset I've decided to use a new team and don't mind giving this one away.

Building the Team!

Ok so the first thing I wanted to do was to use some unique sets, I have had a lot of success with taunt keldeo recently and decided to open with her, she is remarkably difficult to check and I thought she'd make the perfect first pokemon.

Ok so we all know about tyranitars capacity to pursuit most of Keldeo's checks and counters but I didn't want to use Tyranitar as I had already done a lot of work with it. I then thought of weavile, an amazing threat in OU that is probably the best UU pokemon at cleaning up the late game in a meta where people typically save threats like salamence and breloom to the end

When I thought about how the only Keldeo counters Weavile can reliably check were starmie and CM latias, i decided to get a pokemon that could easily check the various draco meteors/drain punches/thunderwaves/psyshocks/hurricanes/Uturns/toxics from latios, celebi, toxicroak and friends. Skarmory fit the bill perfectly and I initially went specially defensive albeit I quickly found that boring and you will soon see what set I decided to go with!

So my first three Pokemon core would clearly struggle with electric attacks and obviously had issues with Jolteon and Thundurus-T, Latias was my next choice as an electric resist that could handle ALL electric types that pop up in OU, from Lanturn to Jolteon to Electivire, she also made a convenient fighting resist and a Keldeo counter and a viable threat to sun teams, something my team desperately needed

So my team could really use a wallbreaker by this stage not called Keldeo and I decided to go with a lure Haxorus as it was a unique set that really worked for me, it also doubled as another electric resistance, I really didn't want Magnezone on my team though and you'll see why this became an issue later :)

I couldn't think of a suitable stealth rock user to unlock spikes on Skarmory and so... My final pokemon turned out to be Toxicroak, it was my Terrakion check and could blindly check Politoed, Keldeo and Tentacruel. With rain teams relying on stereotypical pokemon like Jirachi, Ferrothorn and Tentacruel, most teams only had a Tornadus-T that could check my Toxicroak, which made it rather enjoyable to use.​

In hindsight I wondered why I needed two Keldeo counters and anti rain threats and I probably could have come up with a better final draft however it's simply quite amazing how this team ended up panning out. Definitely a team that was better in practice then on paper, and you'll see why!

Importable​

Hide

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 HP / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Weavile @ Expert Belt
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit
- Night Slash
- Low Kick

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Taunt

Keldeo @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Secret Sword
- Taunt
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Surf

Haxorus @ Dragon Gem
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch

The Team in Detail​

Keldeo @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Secret Sword
- Taunt
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Surf

Keldeo is a real monster for so many teams! After some experimentation with other teams I fell in love with LO taunt keldeo and her ability to shut down recovery and status attempts and slowly ko some of the most durable "checks" keldeo has. Jellicent, Gastrodon, Tentacruel, Politoed, bulky Latias and Gyarados all fell to the sheer power of this Keldeo variant, offensive Celebi and Latios can not survive more than two hits! Breloom would swiftly be koed with minimal hazard damage and if I was against a rain team.. Only resists and immunities can even switch into surf. Taunt also helped me prevent Toxicroak, Dragonite and Amoonguss from doing work on my teammates if they tried :).

This Keldeo was often my lead of choice against teams where I expected a hazard user to lead, another niche this Keldeo excels at. Deoxys-D couldn't do anything to Keldeo without psycho boost or magic coat and It first had to predict correctly! Due to the desperation of some players to get SR on the field, they would switch out their Deo-D into another Pokemon which was often swiftly 2hkoed with one of the offensive moves. If they brought back in a Deo-D then I would know it had magic coat and simple surf before taunting again.

Other perks this Keldeo has are due to the life orb boost and it's quite remarkable how many teams simply struggled to deal with this MVP of my team.

Weavile @ Expert Belt
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit
- Night Slash
- Low Kick

Weavile is really an underrated threat in this meta. She is a classical example of a high risk high reward pokemon with her fragile defensive typing and useless ability but access to a very respectable movepool that is never quite outdone by another pokemon in OU. With stab pursuit and base 125 speed she really threatens every fast psychic with more than 100 base speed. I decided to go with expert belt as her item as life orb really did mean too much residual damages, especially with stealth rock being the most common move in the game.

Expert belt also had other perks such as being able to surprise steels coming in after a pursuit KO trying to set-up or scout such as Lucario and Magnezone expecting a banded pursuit. This variant of weavile also single handedly mauled many hail teams for me thanks to it's ability to ohko or 2hko most hail staples such as Abomasnow, Heatran, Kyurem, Frosslass, Terrakion, Alakazam, Reuniclus, Cloyster, Magnezone and Mamoswine.

A lot of sand staples absolutely hate weavile as well, the most obvious ones being Tyranitar, Heatran, Celebi, Terrakion and Landorus and so Weavile is a lot more useful then people give it credit for, especially late game as the most common late game sweepers do not enjoy having to go toe to toe with Weavile.

The biggest headache by far for weavile are the bulky steels, particulary Skarmory, Forretress, Ferrothorn, Scizor and Jirachi, all of who tend to stack hazards and/or indirectly damage Weavile and her team. It turns out that said pokemon ended up giving my team the most trouble, even more then sun teams, but you will see how i ended up dealing with them :).

Rain teams could predominately play around Weavile rather easily but there was one MAJOR rain threat Weavile could really scare, that obviously being Tornadus-T. Usually I would try my best to either pursuit trap it or just ice shard/night slash if I expected them to stay in predicting the pursuit.

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Taunt

Ahh Skarmory, perhaps one of the most rage inducing hazard stackers since generation 2. This set was my favourite set to deal with a multitude of threats that started giving my specially defensive variant trouble. Rocky helmet trolled scizor, especially if stealth rocks were already up. Taunt combined with rocky helmet meant I beat other Skarmory, Forretress, Ferrothorn, Gliscor, Hippodown and some other threats one on one. The maximum speed with a jolly nature helped me troll my way past some critical threats, the most notable one being Breloom who was surprise ohkoed unless it won a speed tie (which unfortunately often happened). The speed tier also let it surprise ko bulky celebi's with a little hp left trying to hp fire and allowed me to taunt jirachi out of healing before she body slammed me after she had already taken damage. I also often 2hkoed various tentacruel/starmie on the switch if they had lost health earlier and well.. if they went for the rapid spin.. that just made it easier for me.

Skarmory turned out to work a lot better then I expected, it really was a shame I had to run stealth rock and not spikes on it as with spikes, I could set up to 3 layers against a magnezone switch in! No whirlwind is on this Skarmory as it is counter-intuitive to use it with maximum speed and brave bird did what I wanted most of the time. By far the most controversial aspect of this Skarmory is its lack of bulk on either the special or physical side however thanks to rocky helmet, a naturally high defense and important resistances, it did what I wanted when I wanted and still made a great counter and residual damage dealer to things such as Scizor, Garchomp, Toxicroak and even Gyarados.

Skarmory turned out to be my lead when I expected a slower hazard setter to lead such as Hippodown or Forretress, which was rather common. Between Skarmory and Keldeo, I found a lot of teams couldn't even get a single hazard up thanks to the pressure of the teammates and taunt and as such I appreciated the fact that Weavile would often be able to begin to come in with 100% hp

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 HP / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Latias was a natural choice on my team as it made a suitable wall to threats my tricore had trouble with, most notably special attackers such as Jolteon, Keldeo, Alakazam and landorus, but also non special threats like Terrakion (sometimes), Infernape and Gyarados. The set I chose was a standard calm mind set and I absolutely had to go with HP fire as I knew my team would love to eliminate Scizor's, Ferrothorns and Forretresses. Thanks to Rocky helmet and stealth rock residuals, I could usually weaken Scizor into ko range of HP fire which really was a big thing for my team. Unfortunately Tyranitar is a rock hard counter for Latias and I often had to double switch to play around it.

I ran max speed primarily because I wanted to sweep with this set whenever I got the chance rather then wall things and burn out usefulness by late game, as you can see my team was rather offensive and having a purely defensive Latias seemed counter-intuitive to what was a rather high pressure high momentum team. I couldn't afford to give away too many free turns if I had the chance and so Latias often turned out to be just a temporary check before double switching as it had trouble dealing significant damage to threats such as Jirachi.

Haxorus @ Dragon Gem
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake

Haxorus has always been a favourite of mine due to it's ability to demolish 1 or 2 pokemon per match. It really is one of a kind when it comes to busting holes but I took a big risk by using this particular set without a Magnezone, although all within good reason. After a swords dance, a dragon gem boosted outrage ohkos every physical non steel wall! Interestingly, it also ko's some bulky steels such as all Scizor and all balloon Heatran! After a single dragon dance the list of non steels that survive outrage is rather limited to Donphan, Tangrowth and Hippodown.. as even the great Slowbro and pesky Gliscor fall with their respective defensive sets. Interestingly, offensive balloon Heatran has a chance to be ohkoed after SR and 248/0 Scizor cannot take a +1 Dragon gem outrage after SR and expect to come back in again!

At +1 speed, revenging Haxorus is no easy feat and the most common revengers were often dealt with by using Weavile or another teammate. If I didn't see myself having a chance to set up a respective dance, I usually bluffed a choice set with earthquake and/or just smashed something with a pseudo choice banded outrage. Haxorus is very fun to use and it's incredibly euphoric seeing it taking down threats the other player would never have expected such as a 252/252+ Hippodown or a 248/0 Scizor or a 33% Jirachi > Tornadus-T "clever" switch in :D.

The fact that haxorus usually went 1 for 1 or 1 for 2 really did help out my offensive team however the aforementioned bulky steels that gave my team so much trouble could carelessly switch in on Haxorus with no repercussions, this combined with the fact that they could also easily check Weavile is what made them so problematic, especially without a Magnezone! I rather enjoyed the luring this Haxorus was capable of however as apart from the hazards these bulky steels laid, they couldn't actually threaten my team and I would often end up dealing with them with Keldeo or Skarmory.

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch

Toxicroak was the MVP against EVERY rain team as not a single "common" rain pokemon enjoyed switching in on it. Substitute vs drain punch was a tossup but I eventually decided to go substitute and well... the rest of the moves were what made switching into this Toxicroak close to impossible. Focus punch is an incredibly fun move to use and I suggest anybody who hasn't tried to, to give it a go. This Toxicroak wasn't entirely useless against non rain teams as few people expect such a set and focus punching switches and setting up subs as Keldeo's and Terrakion's switch out is incredibly fun! I may be swapping out substitute for drain punch in future sets as it doesn't really need sub except to ease prediction and prevent Amoonguss giving it status.

Perhaps the most fun aspect of this Toxicroak was the ability to freely focus punch every bulky Politoed with no repurcussions, it was hilarious watching a 252/252+ Politoed using perish song only to take around 65-80% from a LO focus punch and then protect as I subbed and then switching out into a pokemon that was forced to take heavy damage from focus punch. I could also blindly switch in this Toxicroak on Tentacruels, Vaporeons and Keldeo's without even needing to think and spam focus punch or click substitute if I expected a focus punch resist like Landorus. Even the great Skarmory was 2hkoed by focus punch unless it was a 252/252+ and even then, such a Skarmory couldn't switch in! Usually after giving away my set even a measly Ferrothorn could beat Toxicroak 1 on 1 assuming it wasn't behind a sub but that didn't stop this Toxicroak often taking out 2-3 threats on a rain team.

The fact that Toxicroak x4 resists U turn made this all the more appealing as Landorus and Tornadus-T are forced to take an ice punch and Scizor is forced to take a focus punch if they want to break the substitute. Clever players would often double switch out their Politoed when they saw Toxicroak in team preview however that most often just meant I got a free sucker punch on their Tornadus-T and then revenged with Weavile (or just sacked another pokemon if Toxicroak was important). This pokemon is a very fun one to use to combat rain however it only added to my sun weakness

Closing Comments

I hope you enjoyed my team, the Skarmory set was particularly unique and good for me and I am considering using it on a hazard team with Jellicent and Weavile. I considered reverting Skarmory to a specially defensive set and replacing Toxicroak and Haxorus with pokemon that don't mind Forretress and Ferrothorn although I had too much fun with those pokemon. Despite having a lot of headache against sun teams, I did not lose to a single one thanks to double switching and making sure Keldeo never got a final ko if Venusaur was in team preview (this often meant sacking Keldeo for nothing or double switching to Latias) although the aforementioned sun teams were a massive headache. If Venusaur checked a Keldeo move.. then I usually had to switch in Latias although most of the time I could double switch. In any case sun teams weren't common especially when I versed people that were 1900+, that said the only way these rain infested 1900+ teams would beat me would be through very meticulous double switching and I would often beat these players when I was match made with them a second time (they're 1900+ for a reason!!). I had around a 75% win rate against these 1900+ teams which surprised me! The current addition I am considering when I return to using a similar team to this would be a rain dance or tailwind Tornadus-I to deal with sun better.

I'd appreciate your comments, thoughts and opinions on any aspect of my team and thank you all for reading my RMT. :D

I also used this RMT as an example for layout: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3476527 (thanks Mr. Author)​

 

[High Impulse]

Hey there, that a nice team so I just wanted to congratulate you on that!

Anyway on to the rate.

So, looking at your team, I notice Pokemon such as DD Salamence could really give your team some trouble; with no scarfer, it will be harder for you to revenge kill Pokemon, and just relying on Weavile is not very good as Weavile is very frail. So may I suggest that you use Choice Scarf Keldeo > your current set, Scarf Keldeo is one of the best revenge killers in the game, and also, it provides you with a B plan for taking out Pokemon such as Dragonite and Salamence after +1.

May I suggest a Choice Banded Terrakion > Haxorus, in my opinon, Terrakion is a much better wallbreaker than Haxorus, it's fast, doesn't have to set up when it has the Choice Band and not only that but it has really good offensive synergy with Keldeo, so I think that it could work really well!

Sets

Hide

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Secret Sword

Terrakion @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Quick Attack

Anyway, nice team. Hope I helped!

 

[nygerman]

I suggest want to show you a bunch of threats that your team might have troubles with.

Tornadus T: It pretty much destroys you team. You can only revenge it with Weevile. I suggest making either Haxorus or keldeo scarfed.

Watch out for Dragmag teams. Once your skarmory is down, your whole team is dead. I recommend either scarfing something or putting shed shell.

 

[HabibsHotDogs]

So, looking at your team, I notice Pokemon such as DD Salamence could really give your team some trouble; with no scarfer, it will be harder for you to revenge kill Pokemon, and just relying on Weavile is not very good as Weavile is very frail. So may I suggest that you use Choice Scarf Keldeo > your current set, Scarf Keldeo is one of the best revenge killers in the game, and also, it provides you with a B plan for taking out Pokemon such as Dragonite and Salamence after +1.

May I suggest a Choice Banded Terrakion > Haxorus, in my opinon, Terrakion is a much better wallbreaker than Haxorus, it's fast, doesn't have to set up when it has the Choice Band and not only that but it has really good offensive synergy with Keldeo, so I think that it could work really well!

Thanks High Impulse, appreciate that. It's ironic that you say that dragon dance Salamence gives me trouble as it is one of the few threats this team has no trouble with dealing with as it is difficult for it to set up on any of my team members. LO wall breaker Salamence IS a problem albeit I can usually make a good guess as to which set Salamence is running based on their team and what comes out in what order. I liked the idea of banded Terrakion which would help with Forretress as a wall breaker and even perhaps a LO Terrakion with stealth rock and taunt to allow Skarmory to use spikes however a scarfed Keldeo would give me more trouble against sun teams then I already have!

I suggest want to show you a bunch of threats that your team might have troubles with.

Tornadus T: It pretty much destroys you team. You can only revenge it with Weevile. I suggest making either Haxorus or keldeo scarfed.

Watch out for Dragmag teams. Once your skarmory is down, your whole team is dead. I recommend either scarfing something or putting shed shell.

Thanks Nygerman, You're definitely right about Tornadus-T being a threat to my team and I often do have issues with it. Part of the reason my team is better in practice then on paper though is because of how hard it is for Tornadus-T to get a turn to wreck! You have to remember that my Keldeo + Toxicroak combination is a massive threat to the other members of EVERY rain team and the fact that these pokemon removes or switch in on weavile's checks and counters (not to mention can often KO Tornadus-T for me) really makes it harder and harder for Tornadus-T to switch out of Weavile until eventually it's in catch-22. Drag mag teams have never been a problem for me as with SR and Weavile.. I can easily dominate most staples of drag mag teams. Weavile beats most/all of: Dragonite/Salamence/Latios/Magnezone/Mamoswine/Haxorus/Latias/Heatran/Garchomp. The exception is of course Dragonite that carry extremespeed however Skarmory often can check that and it's fun watching how useful rocky helmet can be (almost as fun as baiting outrages with Keldeo etc)

 

[Souf]

Hey there,

Nice unorthodox team you have. You have quite the interesting sets. Hopefully my rate won't tarnish too much of the uniqueness your team beholds. First off, while your Skarmory is rather creative, I can't see it being very effective with max Speed and no investment in either defenses. A specially defensive set will help you with any problems that a Tornadus-T can inflict upon you. Whirlwind is a must on this set as you can blow away a boosting sweeper or to help rack up hazard damage; in your case, Stealth Rock. Next, I think you should give your Keldeo a Choice Scarf. With a Scarf, Keldeo outspeeds, let's say, 98% of the current metagame. The only things, really, that you outspeed are Timid Venusaur and Scarf Latios. Also, you speed tie with user Choice Scarf Terrakion and other Scarf Keldeo.

Sets

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Surf

With those changes said. Good team and good luck!

 

[Prinz]

Yo there,

Nice team you have here, so props for it, anyway let's start with the rate! Speaking about your team, it has a big weakness to dragon types like Dragonite, Salamence and Haxorus, to Tornadus-T and to a lots of setuppers like Volcarona because you haven't a revenge killer. To solve this weakness, I'd change your current Skarmory's set into a special defensive one. Special defensive Skarmory allows to tank better dragon types' attacks and Tornadus-T's attacks so it's fine in your team. Then, to solve the weakness to setuppers I suggest you to change Keldeo's current set into Choice Scarf one. Choice Scarf allows to outspeed a lots of threats at +1 (Dragonite and Volcarona for example) and to revenge-kill it. Finally, I suggest you to use Substitute Rock Gem Terrakion, replacing your Haxorus. Rock Gem Terrakion is a wall breaker better than Haxorus to destroy the physical wall like Skarmory, Gliscor and Slowbro, and to support Toxicroak in its job.

Hope this helped, good luck!

Sets:

Hide

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Whirlwind

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Hydro Pump

Terrakion @ Rock Gem
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Stone Edge

 

[BlankZero]

I remember when you posted these sets! I'm very glad to see they worked out so well for you too!

I do see a weakness here to good HO teams since you don't have a Scarfer. Weaville is amazing, but almost every normal Scarfer (Salamence, Terrakion, other Keldeo) just run through you, especially since you lack a spinner, and Deo D teams using Mental Herb taunt you back and start setting hazards on you.

For this, I wan't to suggest using ScarfMie with Trick, psyshock, surf, and thunderbolt, Timid, max speed and Special attack, as it checks every other usual Scarfer barring Dragons (Weaville does that) and can ruin Deo D, rendering it useless. You can also check Alakzam who tries to outspeed and kill with Shadow Ball. You could even run rapid spin over surf

I want to suggest that, but I have no idea where to fit it in to your team without losing something like Keldeo, and if you put Taunt on Weaville, it might work out nicely.

Otherwise, great team! I really like how the sets work and was trying a team if my own with them, but it didn't turn out nearly as well.

ScarfMie Set

Starmie @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Trick
-Psyshock
-Thunderbolt/Rapid Spin
-Surf/Hydro Pump/Rapid Spin

 

[HabibsHotDogs]

Hey there,

Nice unorthodox team you have. You have quite the interesting sets. Hopefully my rate won't tarnish too much of the uniqueness your team beholds. First off, while your Skarmory is rather creative, I can't see it being very effective with max Speed and no investment in either defenses. A specially defensive set will help you with any problems that a Tornadus-T can inflict upon you. Whirlwind is a must on this set as you can blow away a boosting sweeper or to help rack up hazard damage; in your case, Stealth Rock. Next, I think you should give your Keldeo a Choice Scarf. With a Scarf, Keldeo outspeeds, let's say, 98% of the current metagame. The only things, really, that you outspeed are Timid Venusaur and Scarf Latios. Also, you speed tie with user Choice Scarf Terrakion and other Scarf Keldeo.

With those changes said. Good team and good luck!

I did try scarf Keldeo earlier and believe it to be remarkably overrated especially as when you begin playing higher ranked teams, tentacruel, celebi and jellicent are VERY common and well.. they are often paired with ghost resists like Lucario who can just set up on your locked hp ghost. My wall breaker Keldeo is very very difficult to check and thats part of the reason I had so much success with this team. As far as specially defensive Skarmory that actually worked very well with my team, especially with its ability to actually take a few hurricanes from Tornadus-T, but then the problem became dealing with a plethora of steels like Ferrothorn and Forretress, who were quite frankly a MAJOR weakness of the team earlier. When I revert to this team I'll probably be changing Skarmory back to specially defensive and switching out haxorus and changing toxicroak. Thanks for the rate :D

Yo there,

Nice team you have here, so props for it, anyway let's start with the rate! Speaking about your team, it has a big weakness to dragon types like Dragonite, Salamence and Haxorus, to Tornadus-T and to a lots of setuppers like Volcarona because you haven't a revenge killer. To solve this weakness, I'd change your current Skarmory's set into a special defensive one. Special defensive Skarmory allows to tank better dragon types' attacks and Tornadus-T's attacks so it's fine in your team. Then, to solve the weakness to setuppers I suggest you to change Keldeo's current set into Choice Scarf one. Choice Scarf allows to outspeed a lots of threats at +1 (Dragonite and Volcarona for example) and to revenge-kill it. Finally, I suggest you to use Substitute Rock Gem Terrakion, replacing your Haxorus. Rock Gem Terrakion is a wall breaker better than Haxorus to destroy the physical wall like Skarmory, Gliscor and Slowbro, and to support Toxicroak in its job.

Hope this helped, good luck!

Yep, Terrakion really appeals to me, will try it! As for Skarmory I will be incorporating a specially defensive set later although this one does its job, which was really just to wear out scizor, beat hazard setters, beat breloom and check contact moves.

I remember when you posted these sets! I'm very glad to see they worked out so well for you too!

I do see a weakness here to good HO teams since you don't have a Scarfer. Weaville is amazing, but almost every normal Scarfer (Salamence, Terrakion, other Keldeo) just run through you, especially since you lack a spinner, and Deo D teams using Mental Herb taunt you back and start setting hazards on you.

For this, I wan't to suggest using ScarfMie with Trick, psyshock, surf, and thunderbolt, Timid, max speed and Special attack, as it checks every other usual Scarfer barring Dragons (Weaville does that) and can ruin Deo D, rendering it useless. You can also check Alakzam who tries to outspeed and kill with Shadow Ball. You could even run rapid spin over surf

I want to suggest that, but I have no idea where to fit it in to your team without losing something like Keldeo, and if you put Taunt on Weaville, it might work out nicely.

Otherwise, great team! I really like how the sets work and was trying a team if my own with them, but it didn't turn out nearly as well.

I like the idea of a trick Starmie as Alakazam currently gives me serious issues. For some reason every body tells me I will have issues with scarfers but as of yet.. that is yet to occur. With this team the biggest issues by far were sun teams and Alakazam (yes alakazam... despite weavile!). Because Torn-T was always with a rain team, I rarely had major issues with those!

I'm glad to see you tried out a similar team, I'd suggest starting with taunt Keldeo only as it is my MVP and it doesn't require much clever play to use her properly. Just remember if you see a jellicent or similar in team preview to hit her with the appropriate move on the switch!

 

[BlankZero]

The thing about Trick Starmie is that, even though it is on site as a standard set, almost no one expects it, so it goes along with the theme of your team. I was running bulky ChestoRest Volcarona on my version though.

 

[Zesty]

Hey your team looks nearly as good as it can except, I feel that once Weavile is dead you're susceptible to DD sweepers. To solve that I think you might want to make your Skarmory into a more defensive set with Whirlwind instead of Taunt especially since you have a Taunter in Keldeo. I know this is generic and may not work for you as you stated, but I think it's a good precaution to DD sweepers.

 

[Trainer Au]

Ooo running Toxicroak without rain, risky lol, not really. Anyways you already know sun teams are a giant threat, and I think most things needed to be said have already been said except your EV spread on Weavile, change it to 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe this allows you to still outspeed Torn-T while giving you a few more hitpoints. You don't speed-tie with other Weavile anymore, but it's a pretty uncommon pokemon. Anyways, nothing is lost by doing this, so why not?

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

Hey HabibsHotDogs. Mr. Author here. I'm glad that The Shooting Star Project, my RMT that you linked to, has helped when it came to the layout of this team. Now, onto the substance of my rate.

Your team is pretty cool, and it has that spark of creativity that I think many teams that top the ladder lack these days. However, just like most weatherless teams, I think you have serious issues against sun teams, which can easily break apart your team with either bolstered Fire-type attacks or blazingly swift Chlorophyll sweepers, or maybe even a combination of both. To help against the latter, I'd recommend using a Life Orb Latias over your current CM Latias. This gives you more insurance against the latter type of sweeper, thanks to Latias's incredible bulk, as well as insurance against Sheer Force Landorus, a threat which could probably run through your team after one boost once Weavile is knocked out, a task which shouldn't be too hard for any competent offensive team to accomplish. This change also keeps Double Dance Thundurus-T, one of the most potent threats in today's metagame, as well as Specs Keldeo, from ripping apart your team at the seams.

Now, I think a few nitpicks can be made to streamline your team and make it more efficient. For one, I'd recommend going through with Trainer Au's suggestion of using an EV spread of 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe on Weavile over your current EV spread. Now, since you mentioned that Alakazam was a problem, despite the use of Weavile, I'd recommend using either Funkasaurus's SubSalac Terrakion or Scarf Haxorus over your current Haxorus. Using the former gives you with a powerful sweeper that can clean house in the end-game, and using the latter supplies you with a powerful revenge killer that isn't stopped by Focus Sash.

Sets:

Latias @ Life Orb | Levitate
Timid | 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe | 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
Draco Meteor | Psyshock | Hidden Power | Roost

Terrakion @ Salac Berry | Justified
Jolly | 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Substitute | Swords Dance | Close Combat | Stone Edge

Haxorus @ Choice Scarf | Mold Breaker
Jolly | 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Outrage | Earthquake | Superpower | Dual Chop

No nitpicks section this time because I don't feel like formatting multiple list tags. Anyways, hope this helps. Good luck with your team.