A Legend's Thunder

[Salvation]

Introduction
Hello, this is Thoughts and I'm here with another RMT, my third one for those who want to know. So for those who haven't met me yet, this is the beginning of my second year of competitive battling and I'm just starting to get use to the playing style of 'Offense'. Usually, I'm the kind of person who plays slowly, taking hits, and moving slowly through a match. When I came here, I had Dark Azelf to show me everything and helping me with my Elf Stall Teams.

After awhile, I got bored of stall teams because they all seem like Elf Stall Rip-offs =(. My last team got me very high (for me) and I was excited by its performance. But then school got in the way and my previous skills slowly diminished. I was idle in Competitive Battling for awhile until a Joint Rmt by Dark Azelf and Bedlam Beldum was posted. With the tools that the team 'Toxic Termination' used, I decided to build a team around another special sweeper that I personally, have struggled through my competitive life, Raikou (I'll do Breloom some other time xD).

Team Production
So after pursuing this team, I first consulted with Dark Azelf (who immediately rebuked the idea >:/). Obvious threats to my Raikou sweep was the ever-so-obvious Blissey. Another blob by the name of Snorlax also threatened my attempts.
Other threats that threatened to end my sweep attempt were ground-types, more notably Swampert and Gliscor.

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So Raikou was first on the team seeing he was the one I was going to centre it around. I was thinking a Calm Mind set will do, so I settled for Calm Mind + Three Attacks.

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Next in line was Roserade. Obviously chosen for her ability to set-up Toxic Spikes which help counter ground- types which is crucial in my attempt to start a Raikou Sweep. The ability to send something to sleep was also a very good addition to this team letting me cripple 1 Pokemon which I could later set-up on.

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After Roserade was the matter of getting past big blobs, male or female. In the RMT Toxic Termination, Bedlam and D_A got past these roadblocks by using TrapTran. This allowed me to destroy blobs of special walling which further helped Raikou.

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I chose Scizor next simply because of his utility in combat. He let me come in on predicted Outrages and Bullet Punch mences which helped a lot in my success. U-Turn helped scout and bring in certain members of my team in unscathed.

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My next choice was obviously a ground immunity or resist and since Rotom-W is on every team, I used him. I chose Rotom-W because Rotom-H was too obvious these days and even slightly scaring off Heatran and friends with the threat of scarf Hydro Pump was nice.

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My last choice, was Gyarados. I remember choosing him for his Ground- immunity but he fits nicely into the rest of his team. I think that's it... other than the fact he weakens everything before Raikou comes into play...if he ever enters play, lol.

The Team [At a Glance]
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What does what? Take a Look!

Roserade @ Focus Sash
Ability : Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Speed / 252 Special Attack
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
> Sleep Powder
> Toxic Spikes
> Leaf Storm
> Hidden Power [Fire] / Hidden Power [Ground]

Why This Member:-
So I chose Roserade for her ability to lay down Toxic Spikes. This helps me against bulky grounds that Raikou can't get past unless they're weakened. It also helps me overall as it has a powerful Leaf Storm and Sleep Powder, which both can help me in very useful ways.

Raikou @ Life Orb
Ability : Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Speed / 252 Special Attack
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
> Calm Mind
> Thunderbolt
> Hidden Power [Fighting]
> Shadow Ball

Why This Member:-
As said somewhere in the introduction above, Raikou has been a pokemon where it has swept me when I was unprepared, I chose him as my centre for many reasons. For starters, what I noticed first were his base stats. 115 Base Speed and Special Attack is nothing to laugh at offensively as it outspeeds the 110 speed tier, which is a nice because this is where Latias and Gengar lurk. Its also a given it outspeed Salamence as well. Taking a look at its defenses, Raikou possess 90/75/100 defenses, which aren't necessarily bad but good enough to take neutral hits and get in a Calm Mind or two (which I've almost never have). And secondly, I like its typing, I don't know why though >:... lol.

Heatran @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Speed / 252 Special Attack
Hasty nature (+Spd, -Def)
> Magma Storm
> Stealth Rock
> Earth Power
> Explosion

Why This Member:-
Heatran is one of my key members for this team to function properly. His ability to Trap Blissey and Snorlax is very valuable as they both stop Raikou. I will now quote from Team 'Toxic Termination'.

Heatran is easily one of the most effective bulky Water, Latias, and Blissey lures in the game. When constructing this team, it was obvious the mentioned Pokemon were going to be troublesome since they pretty much stopped Empoleon's sweep if they focused on Special Defense. Thanks to Explosion and the Hasty nature, Explosion can KO the likes of Blissey and Latias and pretty much cripple all the bulky Waters, especially those that do not invest in Special Defense. However, the major problem would be ensuring they die, since it takes near perfect prediction to expect a bulky Water to come in and to use Explosion. So how could I find a way to eliminate these threats soundly without incident? With Magma Storm of course! "Trap Tran" is ridiculously effective, being able to pretty much guarantee an opponent's Blissey or Latias dies. Since Heatran will be setting up rocks and hitting stuff with Life Orb boosted hits anyway, we might as well abuse the best move in the game; Explosion.

This pretty much says it all, just replace all Empoleons with Raikou, k? =)

Gyarados @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
> Substitute
> Dragon Dance
> Bounce
> Waterfall

Why This Member:-
Gyarados' position was very flexible as long as they share the key role of having a Ground Immunity / Resist. I settled with Gyarados because of his ability to strike back with lots of power. His resistances to Fire and Ground made him my first switch-in to Heatran. He helps weaken the other team before Raikou comes out for the final sweep.

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Defense / 88 Speed
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
> Rest
> Sleep Talk
> Reflect
> Thunderbolt

Why This Member:-
Rotom-W is also my other Ground-Immunity that plagues my team. I made him a Restalk variant to absorb status while spreading it though Reflect is perfectly viable over WoW as they both soften Physical hits. Rotom-W provides a Hydro Pump feint as well as a real team supporter with Reflect / WoW.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 176 HP / 252 Attack / 80 Defense
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
> Bullet Punch
> U-turn
> Superpower
> Pursuit

Why This Member:-
Obviously the most used Pokemon in the current metagame, a whopping 32% in the September Statistics and a huge support to my team not to mention a powerful force. I use Bullet Punch for picking off anything with low health and I basically Pursuit anything early in the game. I tend to Pursuit or Superpower early in the game and then Bullet Punch late-game. I use U-turn at a bare minimum. The EVs are weird but whatever, I basically took D_A's bulky Scizor spread, put max attack, and then leftovers into defense.

So this is my team and I would like all your considerations, so point out anything you notice. A major weak or a grammar error, tell me (as long as it follows this forum's rules, lol).

Have a nice day! ^^

 

[Alternative]

The team fits nicely together. The one thing I don't get is:

Gyarados. Why the heck does it have Bounce on it? You obviously have your reasons, but I'd seriously try replacing it with Ice Fang. Then you have a check for some other nasty pokemon Like Gliscor and Salamence.

That's just my opinion though, I may be wrong.

 

[luke]

Use Reflect as Will o Wisp on Rotom as it conflicts with Toxic Spikes.

If you know Waterfall is better than Aqua Tail, then why not use it? Bounce isn't already 100% accurate so having Waterfall to rely on in situations where you can't miss is vital.

 

[Salvation]

Gyarados. Why the heck does it have Bounce on it? You obviously have your reasons, but I'd seriously try replacing it with Ice Fang. Then you have a check for some other nasty pokemon Like Gliscor and Salamence.

BounceDos simply appealed to me. It helped rack damage in conjunction with T-Spikes while having the paralysis helps me as well if the target isn't poisoned (like Gliscor and Salamence).

Use Reflect as Will o Wisp on Rotom as it conflicts with Toxic Spikes.

If you know Waterfall is better than Aqua Tail, then why not use it? Bounce isn't already 100% accurate so having Waterfall to rely on in situations where you can't miss is vital.

I've changed it to reflect and for all intents and purposes, I've replaced with Aqua Tail with Waterfall, thanks for your rate! ^^

 

[HappyEmoKid]

I, personally dont know very much about competitive battles, so im gonna ask now, why pursuit? it's i really bad move IMO (if it isn't, then please say why =D ) and also why not turn one of scizor's attacks (maybe pursuit) to swords dance? then bullet punch will rack up STAB and a boosted attack from swords dance =D

Plz correct me if im wrong =D