Other Metagames Skarmory is overrated - Mono Steel

[Trichotomy]

Hello all, Trichotomy here, although many of you know me as Contort. As I was toying around on the forums one day, I found a core challenge that I liked, which was Cobalion + Heatran. Heatran is a staple on all steel teams, so the challenge was trying to fit in Cobalion on a Steel team. I ended up peaking 1762 with this team, which I believe is the highest for a cc.

A look at the team:

Teambuilding Process

So obviously I needed to start with Heatran and Cobalion.

I then added on the best mega available to steel atm, which is Scizor.

As with all of my steel teams, I like to use a Magnezone for bird spam and/or water.

Originally, I had Skarmory and Excadrill, but getting higher on ladder meant more fighting and flying spam, so I changed it to Doublade and Bisharp.

Moving on to the actual team

Cobalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Stealth Rock/Taunt/Thunder Wave/Volt Switch

Cobalion acts as a nice lead, preventing all but the fastest leads from being able to get up hazards and also being able to set up Stealth Rocks itself. Thunder Wave is to cripple offensive mons (and it's the best move in the game) and Volt Switch acts as a nice pivot.

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Fire Blast/Earth Power/Hidden Power [Ice]/Taunt

The second required mon in the core, Heatran acts as a nice blanket for fire moves and also acts as the lone ground immunity (before balloon is popped). Fire Blast hits quite hard, Earth Power is for opposing Heatran and other Fire Types, and HP Ice is for everything that is x4 weak to Ice (Lando, Garchomp, etc.). Taunt helps me keep my hazards on the floor while also stopping walls such as Zapdos and Mandibuzz from recovering. Max Speed helps it outspeed Breloom and other 262 speeds.

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Swords Dance/Bug Bite/Bullet Punch/Superpower

Standard offensive Scizor. SD to boost attack, Bug Bite to hit hard and does more damage than any other physical bug moves thanks to STAB. Bullet Punch is great priority and Superpower picks up some nice ohkos (ttar, heatran). Note that you can also give Scizor a bit of bulk and put Roost in the last moveslot over Superpower.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Volt Switch/Thunderbolt/Hidden Power [Ice]/Flash Cannon

Magnezone acts as a nice Water/Flying counter with Thunderbolt and HP Ice. Volt Switch is good for pivoting, while Thunderbolt is used for more damage. HP Ice is used to outspeed and ohko lando and bring Garchomp down to about 85%, although it can be replaced with HP Grass. Flash Cannon acts as the only special Steel STAB on this team, since Heatran is running Taunt.

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Swords Dance/Knock Off/Sucker Punch/Iron Head

Bisharp acts as my primary switchin to Defoggers such as Skarmory and Mandibuzz. SD helps boost attack, Knock Off and Sucker Punch to beat Psychic, and Iron Head for STAB. Life Orb can be changed to Lum Berry is Mega Sableye is a problem.

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
Swords Dance/Shadow Sneak/Sacred Sword/Shadow Claw

Doublade acts as a fighting blanket, giving you a good chance against fighting. SD is to boost attack, Shadow Sneak is for priority and Shadow Claw is for STAB. Sacred Sword is to hit things like Bisharp, Weavile, Tyranitar, and also walls such as Skarmory on the Roost.

Threatlist

This monster is capable of singlehandedly taking down this whole team. Against Fighting, sack Bisharp to determine its item and then revenge kill appropiately, while against water send out Heatran.

If it's an mixed offensive variant, it can act as an even bigger threat than Keldeo; luckily, most are used as leads. Magnezone is able to outspeed and is guaranteed to pick up the kill at 74%, and if it is low enough can be taken out by Doublade or Scizor. If Doublade, Scizor, and Mag have fainted, might as well forfeit.
SS Water: Without Ferrothorn, SS water is basically an autolose, especially if they have Keldeo. If it doesn't carry Keldeo, however, you have a small chance of winning with Bisharp provided the team is weakened enough.
Ground Teams: Click x
Many more: Anything with moves that cover two of Steel's weaknesses can dismantle this team; try to revenge kill with priority or scarfers.

Replays

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-335519460 - vs Psychic
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-335700274 - vs Dark
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-333777696 - vs Flying
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-333781613 - vs Dragon
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-333677952 - vs Water
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-336630040 - vs Cancer Flying

Importable

Cobalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flash Cannon

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Superpower

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Knock Off

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Claw

Final look:

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Tagging scpinion to put this in Team Showcase

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[Isza]

Hi! Nice team you got there. it's a really solid team overall and I don't see many holes, so the changes I have are short:

I would Recommend Lum Berry>Life orb on Bisharp. The reason why I suggested this is because Mega Sableye is a massive threat if it's calm mind, seeing as you don't have Lava Plume on Heatran to burn it and wear it down.

I also would go Close Combat>Thunder Wave on Cobalion. Because of the Hyper Offensive nature of the team, Thunder wave isn't really as needed because you are applying pressure with rocks+taunt Tran+ Defiant Bisharp anyways. Of course this is optional but Close Combat puts you in a better position vs say, other sash leads, Bisharps, ect.

I noticed on the threatlist is says you should click X against Ground types. Running Roost>Super Power can solve this. With roost, you are able to preserve Scizor longer, and it gets to put in late game work against Ground teams after most of the Pokemon are weakened. Bug Bite, as well as Bullet Punch both kill Tyranitar anyways, and heatran as well as Cobalion help you vs steels anyways, so it's not that much of a letdown.

Sets

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Swords Dance/Bug Bite/Bullet Punch/Roost

Bisharp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Swords Dance/Knock Off/Sucker Punch/Iron Head

Cobalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Stealth Rock/Taunt/Close Combat/Volt Switch

Hope this helped!

 

[lax]

Hey dude, sick team! Love the coba>skarm especially, we can be diverse I swear! Anyways, here's my rate:

First of all, I'd definitely change Magnezone to Magnet Pull. Magnet pull allows you to handle matchups vs steel and flying quite well as skarm walls most of your team and the flying core is really annoying for your team. Skarm dies because it easily gets trapped allowing you to break the core. Also, Hazards will also most likely go up and since you do not have hazard removal, sturdy is rendered useless. Magnet Pull definitely seems more beneficial in matchups.

Second thing is the Heatran set. Although HP Ice is useful can be useful, tran isn't fast enough to revenge things like lando because it's naturally slower and OHKO'd. You already have a mag with scarf which abuses HP ice more efficiently as it can outspeed and ohko. I noticed that you are completely destroyed by QD 3 attacks Volc which sets up and breaks tran's balloon and kills it with HP Ground, a common move. What'd I'd recommend is to add Ancient Power to tran because it is able to damage volc immensely even at +1 SpD and allows you to revenge it after.​

That's all I really have so here are the sets:

Sets

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flash Cannon

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power
- Taunt

Gl!

 

[Dece1t]

Hey man, great team, and grats on the peak! Just wanna ask, have you considered trying am Offensive Cobalion set? It's a great answer against bulky normal teams thanks to Close Combat, Stone Edge allows it to check both Mega Charizard Y and Volcarona (before boosting), and with a few special attack evs, you can also check Landorus-I and Garchomp. Otherwise, great team, and very innovative. I'll update Top Finishers when I get a free moment. Grats again! :)

Edit: This may sound a bit silly if anything, but have you considered trying Modest Scarf Magneton? It'd actually more powerful than Magnezone, and its only 1 point slower.