Introduction
Hi there, new here.
With sun and moon coming out, I decided now was the time to dip my toes and try and make a team of my own. The goal here for me was to try and build a team me(or someone else if they really wanted) could start building today in game, without bank (althhough bank could still help even this current setup). I have been testing it in showdown when i could over the last few days but would appreciate some advice on improvement.
The team itself I believe would be classed as a Balance team or an bulky offense team... or somewhere in between.
The idea of my team is pretty basic, Pivot around to create opening, typically going tapu to clean hazards and cut the opponents health or A-Persian to taunt and lower stats, then switch to one of the others to start taking em down. Pivot when needed to try and get favourable matchups.
Introduction
The Team
I decided to start by looking through some of the discussions going on about sun and moon pokemon and decided to start with a Old/New favourite of mine and who I chose as my starting point...
Alolan Marowak @ Thick club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Atk / 124 SpD
Nature
- Shadow Bone
- Flare Blitz
- Bonemarang
- Will-O-Wisp
I read up on marowak and was suprised about how Viable it is with it's resistances(Fire, Grass, Bug, Ice, Fairy, Poison, Steel) and immunities (Normal, Fighting and Electric with light lightning rod)and it's ability to check pokemon such as Pheromosa, Genesect, Tapu Koko, Xurkitree, Kartana and Mega Mawile to name the ones listed on his discussion page ( added bonus is it can't be arena trapped)
the Ev spread i've chosen is something i've been trying out, the 248 hp is taken from the offensive tank set (http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/alola-marowak.3587366/) but put more stock into attack and special defense to help it live longer and OHKO threats like Celesteela with flare blitz, (should) 2HKO Toxapex with Bonemarang and can beat hetran if it switches in. Shadow bone is good coverage and Will-O-Wisp is also good for switch ins.
He kinda works on his own i've found so far, in the sense that depending on the opponest team he really dgoes in when he can to take out threats, be it at the start middle or end. He just pops out whenever he can.
Rain's an obvious problem as it nerfs Flare blitz, and Landorus T proved to be a problem in showdown, as well as mixed and special attackers
I would like advice on whether the ev spread is viable, as I wasn't sure if there was a point to adding into speed or whether a different ev spread is truly more viable.
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for the next slot marowak needed something to help get rid of hazards, stat boosts and live through it.
after looking at his discussion page I landed on
Tapue-Fini @ Leftovers
Ability:
EVs: 252HP / 196Def / 64Spe
Nature Timid
- Toxic,
- Haze/protect/ calm mind
- Nature's Madness
- Defog
The Idea with this Fini is to go full Utility,
-using defog in order to clean hazards for marowak and the others
-use Nature's Madness and
-Toxic to help it Ko Pokemon
-use protect or calm mind help Tapu last longer or haze if status is a problem( i'm on the fence between them, i'm not sure which way's best right now).
the ev spread is to maximize bulk whiilst outspeeding certain Maro checks like Unscarfed tyranitar(although i'm considering as of writing this putting the speed into defense or special defense and seeing if it makes a real difference).
biggest weakness to this are Steel and poison, and immunity Snorlax can cause problems for it as it cuts the damage strat.
basically it comes in to either defod hazards or use poison and nature power to try and hurt or cut down bulky and lost lasting pokemon.
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I noticed at this point i'd probably need a special attacker and preferebly something fast so the team has something that can hit mons hard and be faster than a lot of them( this was what started the search anyway). the 3rd pick a landed on...
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Focus Blast/ Hidden Power ice
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball
There's not really much to say about this it's a Special attacker and the Moves are for pure coverage.
-Dazzling gleam with it's speed it can outrun Most Dragons(unscarfed) and hits guzzlord and hydregidon especially hard.
-energy ball hits water( and water/fairy) types hard which with tapu fini's utility, is also needed for rock and ground coverage.
-I'm currently using Focus Blast with this set but HP-Ice could be used to cover flying types.
-Psychic is self explanatory, Good psychic stab hit's poison and fighting types hard and hit's other things decently enough.
Ev spread standard and is on his current smogon page.
Checks are the same too, dark if they live through focus blast or dazzling gleam, pursuit,faster mons and priority attackers can all be a problem.
some issues can be minimized somewhat by using M-zam but i'm currently using another mega, but it could be switched.
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This pokemon was chosen as It seemed to cover a lot of the checkpoint withing the ORAS teambuilding guide( i'm assuming those old threats iwill still be relevant). so a chose
Garchomp@Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Nature Naive
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw/ Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast
This was a hard choice as this team would benefit(but can manage without with smart switching) from tank or offensive stealth rock chomp, but considering those aren't an option till jan(and life orbs on zam), I put this together. The setup is basically offensive stealth chomp replacing SR with SD.
-Use SD when I can and the rest are coverage.
-Eathquake is stab and can help get what marowaks bonemerang's too slow to get.
-dragon claws for another coverage stab or you could use Dragon tail to force out some unfavourable matchups(it's helped a few even without SR).
-the last slot is fireblast for greater special coverage and suprise low SPdef pokemon.
I'm using focus sash to help survivability as I've had some suprise pokemon 1 shot it before it had the chance to do anything.
I think this is one of the pokemon I most need advice for right now.
When bank comes out this should likely be switced out for one of the SR sets(probably tank chomps), but I wanted chomps(from what i currently understand) decent coverage of checks listed in the ORAS teambuilding guide for this team.
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For the 5th I decided I needed a good Pivot, and decided that these pokemon needed recovery help surviving. this ultimately led me to...
Persian-Alola @ Darkinium-Z
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 228 HP / 28 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Taunt
- Parting Shot
- Toxic/ thunderbolt/Roar
This is the Live Long and Pawsper (Z-Persian) found on it's discussion thread.
-taunt to stall setups
- faoul play to hurt pysical attackers slower than persian
- parting shot for pivoting and the Z variant is great for healing Marowak, Fini and Garchomp when they take to muchdamage over the match allowing them to safely go back in and get thier jobs done( Zam generally is a little too glassy i've found to use it on it often)
-the last slot is kind of whatever, toxic has helped tag some pokemon but it can also find it hard to get in with certain steel and poison typed I keep seeming to face.
thunderbolt came in suprisingly handy once or twice, shocking some damaged mons and delevering the last blow in a pinch.
Roar isn't bad but i've found myself using parting shot to switch persian out, rather than switching out the opponent.
persians not a bad starting choice as taunt-parting shot can make setup pokemon or offensive threats start on a real bad note, generally I switch persian in when i can to create some breathing room/ patch up other members.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------now leading to the final pick of my current team...
Scizor @ Scizorite (life orb or choice band maybe)
Ability: Light Metal/ Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
Now originally I had golisopod as an attaking pivot believing emergency exit would allow an extra attack. then I noticed my team was getting consistently beaten or hurt by fairy's( paticularly subsword mimikyu)(also m-zam was my mega then).
I realised I needed a strong Steel type who could hit fairy's fast and hard and decided (M) Scizor was the best option, acting as an early game pivot/check, and a past mid/late game finisher.
I went with bulky swords dance and it does essentially what it says on it's page but sent out more on fairy's, darks, and rocks that cause problems
-swords dance to up it's attack and try and pressure.
-roost to keep it healthy and hopefully not need to use parting shot on it
-bullet punch for priority over fairy's like mimikyu and other aformetioned types.
-Uturn or boosted U turn can hurt and provides a good switching point.
Conclusion
Whilst this team seems to do alright i've noticed some problems that i never found a workaround to beating, for example this team struggles hard with ferrethorn if marowak ends up going down early, as well as other steel types, same thing happens with fairy's if Scizor gets hit by rouge fire attacks. also special sweepers can cause issue's for marowak and garchomp.
Zygrade 10% with it's speed ans attacks for some reason tends to hurt me a lot, I haven't figured out why but it's worth noting that it's been casuing problems. So has landorus/ T if not dealt with early.
Also worth nothing bulky Ice(or is it the ground part?)Pokemon like Mamoswine have caused me issues(maybe just bad playing but i'm still working that out).
As said around garchomp I also went through the ORAS teambuilder checkpoint and I know it doesn't check some things on that (though tornadus and I think Landrors is the only one i'm sure It doesn't. completely check)
The team also misses having hazards set up to help garuntee some OHKO. I've considered having toxapex with toxic spikes for hazard(replacing tapu fini) and using scizor for defog
I don't really know how this is, as a first attempt ,but i'd really appreciate advice about this and where I could improve. Whether it's worth switching some pokemon for others or changing current setups, i'd love any input I could be given.