Monotype Electric

[Pterosauria]

I've recently returned to competitive battling, and in particular the Monotype metagame. I wanted to build an electric-type team, since... well, I quite like electric types, and what I've got works reasonably well, but I seem to have hit a wall on what I can improve with it through trial and error alone, so some help would be much appreciated.

I'm using Mega Manectric primarily as a scout, although he is pretty good at sweeping, too. Volt Switch and Thunderbolt should be fairly self explanatory, Overheat is for things that resist electric, and Hidden Power Ice is for those pesky dragons.

Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Zapdos is for Toxic Stalling, with Thunderbolt as a pretty decent STAB move, and with Roar as a counter to opponents trying to set up. Also birds can roar. Huh./I]

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Roost
- Roar
- Toxic
- Thunderbolt

Magnezone is the check to physically based attackers, since he's pretty bulky. I've got Leftovers over a balloon on him purely because I use him a lot, and he tends to get beaten by several opponents chipping away. Move-wise, he has Flash Cannon and Thunderbolt for STABs, and Signal Beam and Hidden Power Ice for coverage.

Magnezone @ Air Balloon
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Signal Beam
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Thundurus is a pretty strong special sweeper (although is admittedly rather frail). Taunt works pretty well to mess with people trying to set up, Hidden Power Grass checks ground types nicely, and Focus Blast... er, blasts through normal types.

Thundurus @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Focus Blast

I ditched Eelektross in favour of Raikou, and so far it's working out quite well - he's kind of the same as Manectric, but has a little bit of extra bulk, which is nice when an opponent survives by just a liiittle bit.

Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

Rotom-Wash is still just fine. He's a little sturdier now with Pain Split, and Will-O-Wisp is pretty useful in foiling attempted sweeps.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp​

 

[Nah]

If you're finding Thunder Wave to not be useful most of the time on on Thundurus, there's Taunt as an alternative. It still benefits from Prankster and lets you cripple walls and other 'mons that rely on set up moves/status moves to do their job.

You're also gonna wanna squeeze Hidden Power Grass onto one of them, maybe in place of HP Fire on Rotom or HP Flying on Thundurus, because as it stands now your team is walled by Gastrodon, Quagsire, and Seismitoad ( especially with cleric support and/or if Rotom/Zapdos are dead) and I'm pretty sure those aren't uncommon in the Monotype meta.

I do get why you wanted to squeeze Roar into the team, but I don't think that Manectric is the best one for that. It's frail and the negative priority kinda goes against its high speed. Zapdos can learn Roar too and makes better use of it because it's not super fast and has decent bulk, though it's kinda strapped for moveslots atm and idk what you'd wanna give up to make room for that.

And idk, maybe Will-o-Wisp on Rotom?

 

[PlatinumDude]

Roar's negative priority doesn't gel well with Mega Manectric's frailty and high Speed. Sure, Intimidate can compensate for the frailty, but Mega Manectric really needs its Speed to do its job effectively. Bulky Pokemon are better Roar abusers because they can actually afford to take a hit. Hidden Power (Ice) is also the ideal, and mandatory, coverage move because it lets Manectric hit Gliscor and Garchomp hard. Overheat also packs more power than Flamethrower; for example, it OHKOs Excadrill, while Flamethrower can't. While the Special Attack drop is detrimental, it can be solved by switching out. Mega Manectric is a straightforward and one-dimensional Pokemon because of this:
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-Overheat
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 Def/252 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod

Why is Zapdos using a physical move when its Special Attack is clearly better than its physical Attack? This isn't R/B/Y anymore, when Zapdos would use Drill Peck to bypass special walls; that, and 90 Attack isn't the best attacking stat to use, especially when you're using a -Attack nature. As Nah already said, Zapdos is a better Roar user, since it can actually afford to invest in bulk:
-Thunderbolt/Volt Switch
-Hidden Power (Ice)/Defog/Roar
-Heat Wave/Toxic
-Roost
Nature: Bold
EVs: 248 HP/176 Def/68 SAtk/20 Spe
Item: Leftovers

or
-Thunderbolt/Volt Switch
-Hidden Power (Ice)/Roar
-Heat Wave/Defog/Roar
-Roost
Nature: Calm
EVs: 248 HP/64 Def/180 SDef/16 Spe
Item: Leftovers

Magnezone's biggest niche is trapping and eliminating Steel Pokemon with Magnet Pull. While Sturdy itself is a good ability, it's not worth giving up the aforementioned niche. What does Signal Beam hit aside from Hoopa Unbound and Celebi, really? Volt Switch gives Magnezone better utility, to be honest:
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Flash Cannon
-Hidden Power (Fire)
Nature: Timid/Modest
EVs: 4 Def/252 SAtk/252 Spe (Timid) or 172 HP/252 SAtk/84 Spe (Modest)
Item: Choice Scarf (Timid)/Choice Specs (Modest)
Ability: Magnet Pull

or
-Magnet Rise
-Thunderbolt
-Flash Cannon
-Hidden Power (Fire)
Nature: Modest
EVs: 128 HP/252 SAtk/128 Spe
Item: Air Balloon
Ability: Magnet Pull

(note that while Air Balloon and Magnet Rise seem redundant together, this combination serves a crucial purpose vs. Excadrill. As Excadrill breaks the Air Balloon with a coverage attack, Magnezone uses Magnet Rise to maintain the Ground immunity for 5 turns, which is enough to let it KO Excadrill)

While Eelektross' Speed problems can be fixed with Thundurus' Thunder Wave, and while it has a wide move pool, it's not worth using. It's outclassed by other offensive Electric Pokemon (like Raikou) because of its meagre bulk, even with Assault Vest, and that bulk doesn't really mesh well with its Speed. Raikou is a better Assault Vest user because of its better special bulk:
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-Signal Beam/Shadow Ball
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SAtk/4 SDef/252 Spe
Item: Assault Vest

And if you really need a physical Electric Pokemon, you can even have Thundurus go mixed if you don't mind the worse matchup against Mega Venusaur:
-Thunderbolt
-Knock Off
-Superpower
-Hidden Power (Ice)/Grass Knot
Nature: Naive
EVs: 68 Atk/188 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Defiant

Will-o-Wisp is the preferred status move on Wash Rotom over Toxic, as it has excellent utility in crippling physical attackers. Pain Split or Rest should be used over HP Fire, as Wash Rotom needs recovery, no matter how unreliable it is:
-Volt Switch
-Hydro Pump
-Will-o-Wisp
-Pain Split/Rest
Nature: Bold
EVs: 248 HP/252 Def/8 Spe
Item: Leftovers/Chesto Berry

 

[Pterosauria]

So, I updated my team somewhat - I tried to take on board as much of you guys' advice as possible, some of which worked very well, and some of which worked less than well. Of course, it is still very much a work in progress, so further advice is always welcomed ^-^

 

[PlatinumDude]

So, I updated my team somewhat - I tried to take on board as much of you guys' advice as possible, some of which worked very well, and some of which worked less than well. Of course, it is still very much a work in progress, so further advice is always welcomed ^-^

Extreme Speed isn't worth using on Raikou. It runs off of its lower Attack and forces Raikou to use a Rash nature, which undermines its good Special Defense and makes it fail to outspeed the base 110 Speed tier, which is a very important Speed tier to outspeed. Timid is the better nature to go for to consistently outspeed these threats without having to resort to Extreme Speed.

HP Fire is the better Hidden Power type for Magnezone because it hits Ferrothorn and Scizor a lot harder.

Wash Rotom should use a Bold nature and max defensive investment so that it can take hits from Talonflame better. Volt Switch is also preferred over Thunderbolt so it can get a frail teammate in safely in conjunction with Wash Rotom's average Speed.