Weird Team I made that actually kinda works...

[norm13]

Hey there,

First of all you should note that I am normally a 3. Gen player, so don't be too harsh ;D So a few weeks ago I actually had an idea for a 5th Gen team for once. I wanted to try controlling hazards via Espeon and Magnezone. Curious if it would work I went from there building a team. It developed into a little bit of a Baton Pass team, relying on Espeon to pass CM-boosts to other team members who then could sweep. Initially I did not plan on using this team for long, but it actually works way better than it should, so I decided that it is worth posting here to see how i can improve it.
So without further rambling lets get into the team members.

Espeon (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 76 SDef / 176 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Morning Sun
- Calm Mind
- Baton Pass

This is basically the heart of the team. It is the only way for the team to set up hazards and prevent the other team from getting in to many of their own hazards. Also the CM boost can be very useful for the rest of the team.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

This Magnezone in my opinion packs about the right mix of speed and power and helps a lot taking out steel pokes...obviously. With one or two CM boosts it can also just clean up later in the game.

Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Substitute
- Protect

At this point I just put the best physical wall I knew on the team. The team just really needs an answer to the big number of physical threats in the metagame and Gliscor covers quite a few.

Hydreigon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Dark Pulse
- Roost
- Substitute

Hydreigon I initially just put on the team because it was horribly weak to dark and gost type attacks, but it quickly turned into my main sweeper too. Now the goal of the team is just to get +2 Hydreigon behind a sub. That beats pretty much everything, even some steel types that should actually be taken out beforehand.

Jellicent (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Scald
- Shadow Ball
- Recover
- Substitute

Now the team, even though it is already pretty specially heavy needed a special wall. It also is my secondary sweeper as it also can put CM to very good use. On top of that it has very good defensive synergy with Hydreigon. Sub was actually pretty random on this, but has come in handy against status moves many times.

Celebi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Energy Ball
- Perish Song
- Heal Bell
- Trick

Now it came to my mind that a lot of the team members are realy screwed when they are toxiced.(That was even worse on earlier versions of the team) So I wanted a cleric and I also needed a phazer of some sort. So as a 3.Gen player Celebi was the first thing to come to mind. I made it physically bulky, as the team is already very bulky on the special side. Initially I had trick on it just for fun, but then I tried recover and found that the set was not nearly as effective. Trick can really cripple some teams and also helps the team to deal with some set up pokes.

So thats that. As I said it works pretty well, but the team is far from perfect. The biggest problems I faced so far are Mamoswine and Weavile. Both have a dual STAB that can hit most of my team for super effective damage. More often than not I do find a way to beat them but it almost always takes sacrifices i am not happy to make and I really have a hard time beating teams that carry either of them.

I would be very grateful if you take the time to look over the team and give me some advice. Feel free to use it for some battles too.
I am anxious to hear from you :D
Merry Christmas
norm

 

[Kidogo]

Hey norm, this is a very cool team concept. The first thing to come to mind is the fact that, even with morning sun, espeon will get worn down very quickly, and being pursuit weak and weak to all forms of hazards doesn't help. Given this, I feel like you should have at least one other potential passer in case espeon goes down.
For example, celebi is a great pokemon to pass BP boosts. A set of Heal Bell / Perish Song / Calm Mind / Baton Pass would work well, with max HP and Def. You don't really need trickscarf, especially when you can phase with psong, and this set will really help the team. Also, even if you opt to keep your current celebi set, you should run giga drain > energy ball, as it's only 5 BP lower but heals you in the process.

One problem you may run into as you try to sweep with BPed CMs is that you will still be pretty slow. Perhaps instead of having a second CM-passer, you could try running something like shell smash gorebyss, which can pass +2 SpA and Spe with one boost! An ideal set would look like:
Gorebyss @ White Herb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 24 SpA or SpD / 232 Spd
Modest or Calm Nature (+SpA, -Atk or +SpD, -Atk)
- Shell Smash
- Baton Pass
- Surf
- Ice Beam
With white herb, this thing gets to +2 / +2 / +2 with one turn of set-up. It can then proceed to BP to something like hydreigon or even go for a sweep itself. Which spread you go with depends on whether you prefer that extra bit of survivability or some more power if it needs to attempt a sweep itself--your choice. Ice beam > substitute for you since you have a ton of sub users. I personally would suggest trying this set out before making a decision about it: it works for some people but not for others, so get a feel of whether or not you like playing with it.

In terms of mamo & weavile, one option would be to use skarmory > gliscor. He fills a similar role while not being ice weak, and is one of the few pokes that can reliably switch into mamo. Maybe try that out if you're finding those two to be big problems.

Hope my comments helped, and very nice and original team you have there!
Oh, and merry christmas to you too! :)

 

[WujiKyurem]

So, just as this is probrably your first Gen 5 RMT, this is also my first time rating a team. Overall, I really like the approach that your team has and is pretty solid for a first team in a new gen. I took a liking to your Celebi set too. But, there are a few weaknesses that jump out at me. Hydreigon seems a little too dependent on getting CM boosts from Espeon, which won't happen as often as it needs too, considering Espeon's frailty even with the defensive EV investments you put on it. You could play around that with proper use of Magnezone, but there are still some other Scarf users that could potentially rip open your team's foundations. Such Pokemon include Salamence, Keldeo, and to a lesser extent, Terrakion and Latios. And there's one more thing that really sticks out: with proper support from the opposing team, your team is very weak to Volcarona. But other than that, it's very good and can counter many threats.

 

[norm13]

Hey guys,
thanks for the feedback so far :D

@Kidogo: You are right about Skarmory. I already tried it in a few games and it has been doing very well. I even encountered some Weaviles and a Mamo and it had no problems checking either of them.
As for Celebi, I think I will use the Giga drain set. Having some recovery is really nice. I am sceptical about the secound passer. It wasn't as good as it looks on paper when I tried it. I am going to keep testing it for a bit, but in the end I think I need the attacking move...
For Gorebyss: I know the set, but I don't really see a spot for it on the team. If I take out Espeon the team will get wrecked by hazards, especially toxic spikes. If I put it in Jellis place I will probably have some holes defensively again and I need Celebi for the cleric support. I will still try it but I don't have very high expectations. Maybe it is something for a future team^^

@Kyurem: You found quite a few things I did not have problems with so far. Hydreigon actually also works without CM boosts. I have sweept quite a few games with it using only sub for set up. As for the scarfers: true they can be a problem in the right hands. For now I have to deal with them by predicting correctly I guess^^ You are very right about Volcarona though. Right now I normally try to check it with Jellicent, but that doesn't really work, especially since I can't change the weather in any way. So what could I do about this? Any ideas?

 

[Tadpole Hunter]

OK I am liking the pokemon you have chosen, but I am confused about why your Jellicent has cursed body instead of water absorb. If you put on water absorb it makes Jellicent immune to 3 things! Even though water wont do much i find it very useful to switch it in on a pokemon about to use a water move because it can heal you and give you a free safe switch in. Also I like the substitute idea because with full HP he has 101 substitute, but seismic toss isn't a problem because he is a ghost type and also he has no moves to set up with so it seems a little wasted. That's my two cents.

 

[norm13]

Yea my Jellicent is a little weird. I was thinking that Water isn't really a problem for it and the team for that matter. But other moves could be. Like that I can try to disable moves that are difficult to deal with. I could for example try to disable a fire move that is bugging my new skarmory. It has come in handy many times whereas I never really missed being immune to water. The substitute is more for status moves. Many teams like to deal with jellicent with toxic. That is not longer possible. And of course there is always nightshade for the 101 HP subs^^ Also Jellicent is intended to be another CM target so it doesn't really need to set up itself.

Thanks anyway :D I think I am going to try water absorb too. Maybe it turns out to be better than I thought.

 

[Prinz]

Yo there,

I will rate your team without changing any your pokèmon but only improving your current ones, let's start!

First, I suggest to use HP Fire, replacing Morning Sun on Espeon, it doesn't need at all. However Espeon has a low defensive statistics so it can't take a lots of damages anyway. Hidden Power Fire allows to hit steel-types which block your current set like Ferrothorn and Skarmory. Then, on Hydreigon I suggest you to change Dark Pulse into Fire Blast. Arrangement between Dragon Pulse and Fire Blast hits everything except Heatran which you can hit with Jellicent and Gliscor so it isn't a big problem for this team. Dark Pulse hits the same things than Dragon Pulse so it isn't a useful move for Hydreigon. Next, on Jellicent, if you hate the status, I suggest you to change Substitute into Taunt. Taunt allows to avoid the status and it's also useful against many defensive pokèmon like Skarmory, Hippowdon, Blissey, Chansey and so on. Finally, on Celebi I'd change Energy Ball into Leaf Storm because it's simply a better move than Energy Ball and I'd change Heal Bell into Hidden Power Ice. Arrangement between Choice Scarf and Heal Bell isn't very good because when you will use Heal Bell you will give to your opponent chances to setup, Hidden Power Ice otherwise can be useful to revenge-kill dragon types which can be problematics for your current team. Hope I helped, good luck and Happy Holidays!

 

[green gadgets]

I would run Wish on Espeon instead of Morning Sun with Baton Pass you can heal your mates. Then I would run a Spinner on your team. When Espeon is knocked out you haven't anything to solve the entry hazards.

Hydreigon, Celebi and Gliscor have a weakness against Kyurem-B. So Magnezone is the only Pokemon on your team to handle it.

Scizor is the most used Pokemon in play. He defeat Espeon, Celebi and Hydreigon with SD + LO + Bug Bite and Stab or with LO + U-Turn and Stab to switch in a threat of your. Magnezone can be simply OHKO with Superpower. Maybe Gliscor can handle it, but there are other dangerous Threats.

 

[TheStriker]

Hi norm13.

Choice ScarfMagnezone is really bad in today's metagame and if you still like Choice Scarf use Magneton. I would prefer Choice Specs. With that you wont be OHKOed by Bronzong's Earthquakes because you will OHKO standard. Ferrothorn will also be dealt with easier so you can also avoid Thunder Wave. Stall teams mostly pack 3 steels so the Choice Specs will be greatly appreciated to get past there defenses. Scizor is a big threat to this team and Magnezone will crumple down to the end if it uses Superpower so the power of Choice Specs is what you need. Your SpA will boost to This team is solid but I would like to make a very good key suggestion. Scizor is a big threat.

 

[King of Blades]

Hello, and welcome to smogon!

This is actually a solid team, but I see some key problems. The first is that scizor rampages through your team. Gliscor is the only thing stopping it. The thing is that you easily have a check (notice check, definitely not counter) in choice scarf celebi if you change the set around. I would recommend switching celebi to the following set.

Celebi @Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP | Timid | Natural Cure
~Leaf Storm
~Psychic
~Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Ice
~Giga Drain

Here's the thing about your celebi: your confused melding of the choice scarf and cleric sets isn't very effective at all. You lack a revenge killer, and this is probably the best you can do with your current team. Leaf Storm is very powerful, and it actually hits quite hard. Psychic is for fighting types, and is a decent secondary STAB. The third slot is the most important, as it determines what big threats to your team you can revenge kill. Hidden Power Fire is for scizor and steel types, a big weakness for your team. Hidden Power Ice can be used for dragons, another big weakness for your team, as they can easily plow through magnezone with their coverage moves. Giga drain is used in the 4th slot for recovery purposes. This celebi serves as an acceptable revenge killer while still absorbing status for your team with natural cure.

With magnezone, I would recommend changing his item to choice specs, as it gives him the power to punch through many notable steel types. It also makes those thunderbolts hurt much, much more.

Hope this helps, and good luck with the team!
~KoB