Battle Spot Blaziken doesn't think Kangaskhan is even good

[Gay Bird]

I've been wanting to play some pokemon on my actual 3ds so I decided to put together a battle spot singles team. Knowing Hoenn better than my own hometown is what led me to choose Blaziken as my Mega, and so I went from there.

Blaziken @ Blazikenite
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Protect
- Baton Pass

What's this about Mega Kangaskhan? Was it supposed to be a threat or something? Honestly, that's one of the main reasons I chose this over my fave Mega Metagross (also the fact that the entire meta destroys it). I thought about life orb so I could mega evolve Gengar in order to trap blaziken's checks, but I really didn't need to. Destiny Bond alone is more than enough, and if I play it right, there's really not that much that can actually check this thing. Full attack and speed for maximum sweeping capability with 4 hp for the recoil. I might even consider lowering the speed for more HP depending on speed tiers. Adamant to maximize raw power. Flare blitz is the main stab move, Superpower over low kick to hit more than just kangaskhan. Protect helps me scout while getting free speed boosts, and baton pass lets me pivot into garchomp or something and keeping the speed boosts.

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Rock Tomb
- Swords Dance

Is there a team that this pokemon doesn't fit on? Probably not. Lum berry absorbs status, not that blaziken has to worry about burn, but it helps. Rough Skin helps me wear down Kangaskhan if I don't have a safe switch-in for blaziken and generally punishes physical attackers. Same ev spread as blaziken, with jolly over adamant to outspeed opposing adamant garchomp. Earthquake is the definition of strong reliable stab. Outrage might be a little more dangerous in OU but due to the speed of this metagame it's almost without faults. Rock tomb ohkos talonflame and charizard without worrying about missing, and offers speed control in some situations. Swords dance to make locking into outrage a lot more powerful.

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave

This is here for two reasons, speed control and hidden power ice. Life orb lets it hit garchomp as hard as possible. Prankster lets thunder wave hit first. SpA and speed maxed to hit garchomp. Timid helps it outspeed as much as possible. Thunderbolt and volt switch are mostly there as strong stab moves and a bit of utility, and they definitely don't go unused, but Hidden Power Ice is the answer to garchomp and thunder wave definitely helps against pokemon that outspeed blaziken even after one speed boost, as well as opposing blaziken.

Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Disable
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb

Sub Disable set designed to take out Cress and Salamence. Gengarite can trap as well as give it that boost in SpA to guarantee the 2hko against salamence. Levitate gives it immunity to earthquake, so after disabling double edge from salamence, it's home free. Special Attack and Speed investment for maximum power, timid to help keep sub/disable ahead. Substitute helps scout, absorb status, and generally protect gengar from getting OHKOd. Disable lets gengar spam shadow ball at cress without fear as well as completely reduce physical salamence to nothing. Shadow ball hits cress and sludge bomb hits salamence. Here it is doing its job.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp

Shiny looks kinda gross but everyone else so far is shiny so why the hell not. Sitrus berry over leftovers because of how fast this team runs. Levitate obviously, the only ability it has lol. Max HP and Defense to compliment the defensive typing for checking Talonflame, with Special attack to help it do a bit more damage. Hydro pump is our strong stab move here. Hidden Power Ice helps weaken Salamence since I really don't have too much going for me against it. Volt switch for momentum of course, and will-o-wisp to cripple physical attackers.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Protect

Same shiny boat as rotom, gross but keeping the theme going. Helps with wearing down pokemon that it can effectively wall. Sometimes an all-out-offensive doesn't work, so i bring this along to help longer games. Leftovers to maximize lifespan. Iron barbs to maximize punishment of physical attackers. HP and Defense maxed for Ultimate Bulk™, the rest tossed in SpD. Relaxed and 0 speed iv to maximize power of Gyro Ball and bulk. Gyro ball is something for it to do while it leeches foes' health between protects. Leech seed does its job and does it well. Stealth Rock is easy to set up too, and discourages switching out of leech seed.

That's the team so far. It's been incredibly strong so far, only having issues with cresselia. Maybe I'm just not playing around it well enough, maybe I need to make some adjustments, idk. Let me know what y'all think, I'm open to any feedback! Thanks!

Changes: Superpower over Low Kick on Blaziken
Swords dance over Stealth Rock on Garchomp
New gengar set (old one in spoiler)

Hide

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Will-O-Wisp
- Destiny Bond

hp ice over thunderbolt on rotom
leftovers over rocky helmet on ferrothorn

 

[Omastar68]

Well this looks good. Cress is usually a bother. To better that match up you could run Hex + Hypnosis on Gengar, or TriockScarf on Rotom-W. I'm sure you'd create new problems with those, but maybe. SD over Stealth Rock on Chomp(or Ferro) would help a bit. Two Stealth Rockers seems excessive wen you consider rocks never get removed in this meta(pretty much.)

Only other thing is Ferro really looks like it could use Lefties. Protect is a free turn of those, and with LS healing it stays pretty helthy. Yer fine against Kang ofc, and that's the biggest target of Helmet.

 

[cant say]

Ferrothorn walls Cresselia pretty hard. If you're going to use Protect then Leftovers will improve your matchup even better as you won't have to rely on Leech Seed. However waiting for Leech Seed to take Cres down will probably expire the timer, so using Toxic over Stealth Rock or Protect will help with that. Protect without Lefties or Toxic is kind of a wasted moveslot (yes even with Leech Seed) so you have a few things to try there.

Gengar can also beat Cresselia since Shadow Ball usually 2HKOes. You could try SubDisable instead which gets a free Sub on either a switch or Thunder Wave, or scouts for a Psychic move which it Disables. Sash is also fine but it could be something to think about. You don't have a second mega which works quite well in Battle Spot since you only bring 3 mons, and Mega Gengar works well in matchups where you might not want to bring Blaziken, so that's also an option.

I can see the benefits of Low Kick, but either Superpower or High Jump Kick on Blaziken is way better. You'll find yourself wishing you could pick off a Rotom-W/H, Porygon2, Chansey, opposing Blaziken, and Politoed way more than being hampered by the Atk/Def drop or losing because you missed. HJK is best with Baton Pass so you aren't passing debuffs to Garchomp, but I really like Superpower personally.

Mega Salamence looks scary to face for you, since fast Thundurus can't stomach a boosted hit (even though just getting a t wave off before dying is sometimes enough). Dropping an Electric move for Hidden Power Ice on Rotom-W, running a bulkier Thundurus, or Focus Sash on Garchomp (if you stop using it on Gengar) are all good options.

Other than that this team is super standard and should give you a good feel for the meta before trying some of your own creations out. Since it is so standard though, you may find your opponents well-prepared for you. The BSS meta is quite varied (certainly not as centralised as, say, VGC16) but any competent player starts off with checks to all 6 of your Pokemon as the starting core of their team, seeings how they're 6 of the 10 most-popular threats running around. So be careful!

 

[Gay Bird]

Well this looks good. Cress is usually a bother. To better that match up you could run Hex + Hypnosis on Gengar, or TriockScarf on Rotom-W. I'm sure you'd create new problems with those, but maybe. SD over Stealth Rock on Chomp(or Ferro) would help a bit. Two Stealth Rockers seems excessive wen you consider rocks never get removed in this meta(pretty much.)

Only other thing is Ferro really looks like it could use Lefties. Protect is a free turn of those, and with LS healing it stays pretty helthy. Yer fine against Kang ofc, and that's the biggest target of Helmet.

I think hex gengar might actually be a lot better, since its stab moves don't really put in any work. Definitely going to do that. SD on garchomp too. Also, you're probably right about ferro, rocky helmet is really 50/50 about doing anything at all.

 

[Gay Bird]

Ferrothorn walls Cresselia pretty hard. If you're going to use Protect then Leftovers will improve your matchup even better as you won't have to rely on Leech Seed. However waiting for Leech Seed to take Cres down will probably expire the timer, so using Toxic over Stealth Rock or Protect will help with that. Protect without Lefties or Toxic is kind of a wasted moveslot (yes even with Leech Seed) so you have a few things to try there.

Gengar can also beat Cresselia since Shadow Ball usually 2HKOes. You could try SubDisable instead which gets a free Sub on either a switch or Thunder Wave, or scouts for a Psychic move which it Disables. Sash is also fine but it could be something to think about. You don't have a second mega which works quite well in Battle Spot since you only bring 3 mons, and Mega Gengar works well in matchups where you might not want to bring Blaziken, so that's also an option.

I can see the benefits of Low Kick, but either Superpower or High Jump Kick on Blaziken is way better. You'll find yourself wishing you could pick off a Rotom-W/H, Porygon2, Chansey, opposing Blaziken, and Politoed way more than being hampered by the Atk/Def drop or losing because you missed. HJK is best with Baton Pass so you aren't passing debuffs to Garchomp, but I really like Superpower personally.

Mega Salamence looks scary to face for you, since fast Thundurus can't stomach a boosted hit (even though just getting a t wave off before dying is sometimes enough). Dropping an Electric move for Hidden Power Ice on Rotom-W, running a bulkier Thundurus, or Focus Sash on Garchomp (if you stop using it on Gengar) are all good options.

Other than that this team is super standard and should give you a good feel for the meta before trying some of your own creations out. Since it is so standard though, you may find your opponents well-prepared for you. The BSS meta is quite varied (certainly not as centralised as, say, VGC16) but any competent player starts off with checks to all 6 of your Pokemon as the starting core of their team, seeings how they're 6 of the 10 most-popular threats running around. So be careful!

Toxic is definitely a good idea on ferro. I'll be replacing stealth rock, it's really not that useful. As far as gengar, I'm definitely going to be trying different sets on it since it's not really doing much of anything for the team right now, I like the sub disable idea. As with blaziken, I'm really hesitant to use high jump kick, but superpower is definitely worth trying. I don't usually baton pass after attacking though, it's usually to pass on the free speed boost to something that appreciates it, so I don't think the disadvantage is that bad. I'll go for it.

as for mega salamence, you're right, it's a bit scary. I'll do some damage calculations to decide what I'm going to do with it.

edit: decided to go with sub-disable gengar against cress and salamence. Levitate makes it immune to earthquake, it can take all of mixed salamence's moves after disabling double edge, and can 2hko with sludge bomb, not mega evolving until the second attack to avoid earthquake. Sure it'll give salamence a chance to switch but it will probably catch people off guard, never know.

 

[cant say]

SubDisable Gengar will almost never beat Salamence unless you both lead with them so you actually outspeed, otherwise they're more than likely to have already used Dragon Dance so you can't do anything to it. Sash with Icy Wind is the only reliable Salamence check