*Changes are in red
Intro
I saw the Mix-Tar set on Smogon while browsing OU Pokemon, and I was pretty surprised by how good it is at completely wrecking defensive cores and destroying typical T-tar counters. It's basically the Pokemon version of a wrecking ball, hence the title of the post. So I set out to make a team for it, one that had Pokemon that could wreak havoc on enemy teams while covering each other's weaknesses.
The Team
Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- U-Turn/Roost
- Earthquake
I lead with Gliscor. It’s a very capable lead and functions similarly to Aerodactyl, except it is slower and much bulkier with, in my opinion, significantly better typing. STAB Earthquake is a nice move to have, but sadly does not hit many common leads such as the previously mentioned Aerodactyl or Azelf. The general idea is to taunt slower leads, then set up rocks and proceed from there. The relative slowness of it compared to other leads means it is taunted by enemy leads before it can taunt them itself. Usually I don’t even waste a turn attempting to Taunt/Stealth Rock, and just switch to the Pokemon best capable of dealing with them. If I’m up against an obviously slower lead, or a lead that I know doesn’t run Taunt, I Taunt then set up rocks, then either attack or switch to the Pokemon I think is up to the task of dealing with whatever comes in (and usually something does switch in because of Taunt). I use U-Turn instead of Roost since Leftovers more than enough covers for recovery and U-Turn has much more use. It allows me to at least do something to common Azelf/Uxie leads and switch to Tyranitar, or scout in general, or get a more capable attacker in. I’ll still consider Roost though, if a lot of RMTers recommend it over U-Turn.
Weaknesses: Ice – Starmie/Infernape
Water –Starmie/Breloom
Tyranitar (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 48 Atk/208 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Superpower
Mixed Tyranitar is a wrecking ball. It’s capable of completely smashing through teams. Sadly, unless I Superpower first, the surprise value is lost, but still, it’s something a lot of people are completely unprepared for. Switching into an Azelf and scaring it out only to have a Skarmory come into a Flamethrower and then a Blissey coming into a Superpower (which 2HKO’s it usually) is pretty funny. Or forcing out a Azelf lead only for a Rotom form to come in and attempt to Will-o-wisp while being smacked with a Dark Pulse really just shows how versatile this guy is. He even takes care of Scizor with half decent prediction. Expert Belt provides a nice power boost to SE moves, many of which he gets because of the very nice coverage he gets, and doesn't have the recoil of Life Orb which is a very good thing for a Pokemon like this (a heavy hitter that often has to do a lot of hitting). Tyranitar is also nice because its auto-Sandstorm activates Gliscor’s ability and makes it pretty annoying.
Weaknesses: Fighting – Gliscor/Starmie
Ground – Gliscor/Breloom
Grass – Breloom/Infernape
Steel – Infernape/Starmie
Bug – Infernape/Gliscor/Rotom-H
Breloom (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 12 HP/252 Atk/244 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Seed Bomb
Of course, we get to the bane of many teams, Breloom. It is a complete monster, despite it's rather lackluster stats (non-Attack ones at least) and it's silly appearance. Spore is in my opinion the best move in the game. It almost ALWAYS takes an enemy Pokemon out of the game. This either prompts the enemy to switch, or stay in, and either way I get my sub up. From there, I just shoot off Focus Punches or Seed Bomb whatever I can’t punch. Poison Heal is a fantastic ability and helps me keep subbing, and also blocks status even when I don’t have a sub up. He really just tears through teams, and many times forces rage quits. He also scares off Swamperts which otherwise could really do some considerable damage to many other members of my team.
Weaknesses: Fire – Tyranitar/Infernape/Starmie
Ice – Infernape/Starmie
Poison – Gliscor/Tyranitar
Flying – Tyranitar
Psychic – Tyranitar/Starmie
Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 64 SAtk/252 Atk/192 Spd
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Close Combat
- Overheat
- Stone Edge
- U-Turn
Next up is Infernape. He carries some nice resistances in regards to the rest of the team (he's resists at least one weakness of EVERY other Pokemon on the team) and he’s a very dangerous mixed sweeper (unlike the defensive core wrecker that mixed Tyranitar is). Close Combat is Infernape’s main STAB attacking move and completely tears enemy Pokemon apart. Overheat is his other STAB, and also does major damage (also, it's main drawback is not as bad is because it only affects the attacking power of Overheat and not any other moves). Stone Edge maims Gyarados many and other Flying types.
Weaknesses: Water – Breloom/Starmie
Ground – Gliscor/Breloom
Flying – Tyranitar
Psychic – Tyranitar/Starmie
Rotom-W (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
This is my take on Rotom-H. I was talking to my friend SwiiK on Shoddy trying to think of the very last slot on this team (up til then, I had only been able to come up with the other 5 and this slot was constantly changing) and I suggested Rotom-H. He said Rotom forms are too predictable. He also mentioned how it’s too easy for a Pokemon like Tyranitar or Weavile to switch in and Pursuit it to death. That immediately meant no choice item, since it was basically an invitation for a Pursuiter to come in and revenge kill it. So I went with an all-out attacking set I made up (this has likely been used before but there’s no set like this on Smogon’s analysis of Rotom-H). Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, and Overheat are all standard moves on the H form. Pain Split is on this set to help recover from Life Orb recoil. Now, this guy can't really do much to a T-tar attempting to Pursuit since not even a Spec'd HP Fighting will kill it, but at least it will get smacked pretty hard, and Weavile is frail so a bit of luck would take care of it. Like I said, this slot was the hardest to come up with, and I'm still open to changing it (for like the 10th time...).
Starmie and Rotom got their roles switched thanks to the suggestions of RMTers. Rotom also had the extra change of going from H form to W form because of the abundance of Heatran and Infernape. The change was extremely easy since they both have access to Trick which I thought was pretty important on a Scarfed revenge killer in order to make it more useful in late game situations or cripple boosters that my team could have trouble with, like say, Calm Mind Suicune or DD Kingdra.
Weaknesses: Ghost – Tyranitar
Dark – Tyranitar/Infernape/Breloom
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Recover
Scarfed Starmie is one heck of a revenge killer. It outspeeds TONS of common threats, hell even tons of common revenge killers, and can OHKO with its powerful attacks that get pretty good coverage. I used to use Grass Knot, but Trick really helps out more later in matches. It leaves Starmie completely messed up by Swampert, but it’s not like I don’t have other and better options on the team. Trick helps by ridding Starmie of its Scarf when the ability to use whatever move I want is more important than being able to outspeed things (like say, late game, where the chances of getting a Life Orb or Leftovers is pretty high), and by crippling things like Blissey.
I've switched Starmie and Rotom's roles. Now this is the Life Orber, and Rotom is the Scarfed revenge killer. Starmie with a Life Orb is pretty devastating. It has access to instant recovery, and 3 *excellent* moves. I considered Surf since I was getting the Orb boost, but Hydro Pump is wonderfully devastating with an Orb. This guy is still insanely fast, even with no Scarf. All in all, an excellent sweeper. Because of Machamp really threatens my team and I have no good options, I switched Thunderbolt to Psychic in order to better deal with it. The lack of Thunderbolt on Starmie isn't that important since Psychic still does a good bit of damage to bulky Water types and Rotom-W uses it much better anyways.
Weaknesses: Electric – Gliscor/Rotom-H/Breloom
Grass – Breloom/Infernape
Bug – Infernape/Gliscor/Rotom-H
Ghost – Tyranitar
Dark – Tyranitar/Infernape/Breloom
Conclusion
This team has had some surprising success on Shoddy. So far, I've had 39 wins and 15 losses, which is the best W/L ratio for any team I've ever had. I even did surprisingly well against an Ubers team. I lost 1-0 in that battle and notably, he had a scarfed Palkia, so I thought the team performed admirably. Perhaps he was just bad at Ubers though, but I'll go with the more optimistic option :nerd:. This team has also had 2 6-0 wins. I really wanted to run this team by the Smogon community to see if I could find some good improvements to make to it, since it isn't perfect no matter how much I would like to think that. Thanks for reading!
With the new changes, I haven't lost yet (out of the 5 matches I've had so far). I'm still looking for more input though!
Intro
I saw the Mix-Tar set on Smogon while browsing OU Pokemon, and I was pretty surprised by how good it is at completely wrecking defensive cores and destroying typical T-tar counters. It's basically the Pokemon version of a wrecking ball, hence the title of the post. So I set out to make a team for it, one that had Pokemon that could wreak havoc on enemy teams while covering each other's weaknesses.
The Team
Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- U-Turn/Roost
- Earthquake
I lead with Gliscor. It’s a very capable lead and functions similarly to Aerodactyl, except it is slower and much bulkier with, in my opinion, significantly better typing. STAB Earthquake is a nice move to have, but sadly does not hit many common leads such as the previously mentioned Aerodactyl or Azelf. The general idea is to taunt slower leads, then set up rocks and proceed from there. The relative slowness of it compared to other leads means it is taunted by enemy leads before it can taunt them itself. Usually I don’t even waste a turn attempting to Taunt/Stealth Rock, and just switch to the Pokemon best capable of dealing with them. If I’m up against an obviously slower lead, or a lead that I know doesn’t run Taunt, I Taunt then set up rocks, then either attack or switch to the Pokemon I think is up to the task of dealing with whatever comes in (and usually something does switch in because of Taunt). I use U-Turn instead of Roost since Leftovers more than enough covers for recovery and U-Turn has much more use. It allows me to at least do something to common Azelf/Uxie leads and switch to Tyranitar, or scout in general, or get a more capable attacker in. I’ll still consider Roost though, if a lot of RMTers recommend it over U-Turn.
Weaknesses: Ice – Starmie/Infernape
Water –Starmie/Breloom
Tyranitar (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 48 Atk/208 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Superpower
Mixed Tyranitar is a wrecking ball. It’s capable of completely smashing through teams. Sadly, unless I Superpower first, the surprise value is lost, but still, it’s something a lot of people are completely unprepared for. Switching into an Azelf and scaring it out only to have a Skarmory come into a Flamethrower and then a Blissey coming into a Superpower (which 2HKO’s it usually) is pretty funny. Or forcing out a Azelf lead only for a Rotom form to come in and attempt to Will-o-wisp while being smacked with a Dark Pulse really just shows how versatile this guy is. He even takes care of Scizor with half decent prediction. Expert Belt provides a nice power boost to SE moves, many of which he gets because of the very nice coverage he gets, and doesn't have the recoil of Life Orb which is a very good thing for a Pokemon like this (a heavy hitter that often has to do a lot of hitting). Tyranitar is also nice because its auto-Sandstorm activates Gliscor’s ability and makes it pretty annoying.
Weaknesses: Fighting – Gliscor/Starmie
Ground – Gliscor/Breloom
Grass – Breloom/Infernape
Steel – Infernape/Starmie
Bug – Infernape/Gliscor/Rotom-H
Breloom (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 12 HP/252 Atk/244 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Seed Bomb
Of course, we get to the bane of many teams, Breloom. It is a complete monster, despite it's rather lackluster stats (non-Attack ones at least) and it's silly appearance. Spore is in my opinion the best move in the game. It almost ALWAYS takes an enemy Pokemon out of the game. This either prompts the enemy to switch, or stay in, and either way I get my sub up. From there, I just shoot off Focus Punches or Seed Bomb whatever I can’t punch. Poison Heal is a fantastic ability and helps me keep subbing, and also blocks status even when I don’t have a sub up. He really just tears through teams, and many times forces rage quits. He also scares off Swamperts which otherwise could really do some considerable damage to many other members of my team.
Weaknesses: Fire – Tyranitar/Infernape/Starmie
Ice – Infernape/Starmie
Poison – Gliscor/Tyranitar
Flying – Tyranitar
Psychic – Tyranitar/Starmie
Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 64 SAtk/252 Atk/192 Spd
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Close Combat
- Overheat
- Stone Edge
- U-Turn
Next up is Infernape. He carries some nice resistances in regards to the rest of the team (he's resists at least one weakness of EVERY other Pokemon on the team) and he’s a very dangerous mixed sweeper (unlike the defensive core wrecker that mixed Tyranitar is). Close Combat is Infernape’s main STAB attacking move and completely tears enemy Pokemon apart. Overheat is his other STAB, and also does major damage (also, it's main drawback is not as bad is because it only affects the attacking power of Overheat and not any other moves). Stone Edge maims Gyarados many and other Flying types.
Weaknesses: Water – Breloom/Starmie
Ground – Gliscor/Breloom
Flying – Tyranitar
Psychic – Tyranitar/Starmie
Rotom-W (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
This is my take on Rotom-H. I was talking to my friend SwiiK on Shoddy trying to think of the very last slot on this team (up til then, I had only been able to come up with the other 5 and this slot was constantly changing) and I suggested Rotom-H. He said Rotom forms are too predictable. He also mentioned how it’s too easy for a Pokemon like Tyranitar or Weavile to switch in and Pursuit it to death. That immediately meant no choice item, since it was basically an invitation for a Pursuiter to come in and revenge kill it. So I went with an all-out attacking set I made up (this has likely been used before but there’s no set like this on Smogon’s analysis of Rotom-H). Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, and Overheat are all standard moves on the H form. Pain Split is on this set to help recover from Life Orb recoil. Now, this guy can't really do much to a T-tar attempting to Pursuit since not even a Spec'd HP Fighting will kill it, but at least it will get smacked pretty hard, and Weavile is frail so a bit of luck would take care of it. Like I said, this slot was the hardest to come up with, and I'm still open to changing it (for like the 10th time...).
Starmie and Rotom got their roles switched thanks to the suggestions of RMTers. Rotom also had the extra change of going from H form to W form because of the abundance of Heatran and Infernape. The change was extremely easy since they both have access to Trick which I thought was pretty important on a Scarfed revenge killer in order to make it more useful in late game situations or cripple boosters that my team could have trouble with, like say, Calm Mind Suicune or DD Kingdra.
Weaknesses: Ghost – Tyranitar
Dark – Tyranitar/Infernape/Breloom
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Recover
Scarfed Starmie is one heck of a revenge killer. It outspeeds TONS of common threats, hell even tons of common revenge killers, and can OHKO with its powerful attacks that get pretty good coverage. I used to use Grass Knot, but Trick really helps out more later in matches. It leaves Starmie completely messed up by Swampert, but it’s not like I don’t have other and better options on the team. Trick helps by ridding Starmie of its Scarf when the ability to use whatever move I want is more important than being able to outspeed things (like say, late game, where the chances of getting a Life Orb or Leftovers is pretty high), and by crippling things like Blissey.
I've switched Starmie and Rotom's roles. Now this is the Life Orber, and Rotom is the Scarfed revenge killer. Starmie with a Life Orb is pretty devastating. It has access to instant recovery, and 3 *excellent* moves. I considered Surf since I was getting the Orb boost, but Hydro Pump is wonderfully devastating with an Orb. This guy is still insanely fast, even with no Scarf. All in all, an excellent sweeper. Because of Machamp really threatens my team and I have no good options, I switched Thunderbolt to Psychic in order to better deal with it. The lack of Thunderbolt on Starmie isn't that important since Psychic still does a good bit of damage to bulky Water types and Rotom-W uses it much better anyways.
Weaknesses: Electric – Gliscor/Rotom-H/Breloom
Grass – Breloom/Infernape
Bug – Infernape/Gliscor/Rotom-H
Ghost – Tyranitar
Dark – Tyranitar/Infernape/Breloom
Conclusion
This team has had some surprising success on Shoddy. So far, I've had 39 wins and 15 losses, which is the best W/L ratio for any team I've ever had. I even did surprisingly well against an Ubers team. I lost 1-0 in that battle and notably, he had a scarfed Palkia, so I thought the team performed admirably. Perhaps he was just bad at Ubers though, but I'll go with the more optimistic option :nerd:. This team has also had 2 6-0 wins. I really wanted to run this team by the Smogon community to see if I could find some good improvements to make to it, since it isn't perfect no matter how much I would like to think that. Thanks for reading!
With the new changes, I haven't lost yet (out of the 5 matches I've had so far). I'm still looking for more input though!
