As it may so appear, Castform is my favorite pokemon. His weather mechanics are unique, and very interesting. So I was using him haphazardly, which did not really bring out his great qualities. So I set out to make a team that aids him as best I can. So the idea of a multiple weather team came to mind, allowing him to "shine" when the sun shines, and when it rains.
I do wish to emphasize, I have no plans of doing competitive battling, this is merely for doing the E4, battle subway, and occasional battles with my friends.
Team at a glance:
In more detail,
Castform, the original inspiration
Modest (+ SpA and Spd EV's)
Ability: Forecast
Item: Wise glasses
Moves:
Weather ball
Thunder
Rain dance
Sunny day
Notes: I have the weather moves on him in case he's out and the effects wear off from my other teammates. With an easy 150 power water and fire attack, and a 120 power electric attack he should have really good coverage. I preferred thunder over hail because the ice typing is only good against dragons, since thunder can hit flying types, but also hit water types. Which will pretty much destroy his sunny form, while his sunny form can destroy grass types against his rain form, though he would be doomed against a physical electric type like electross.
, the sunny power house
Modest (+ SpA and Spd EV's)
Ability: Flower Gift
Item: heat rock
Moves:
Solar beam
leech seed
morning sun
sunny day
notes: She's my main sunny user, with her massive 180 power solar beam each turn, and great healing with her constant sun shine, she should be able to last a while while dealing massive damage. Her huge weakness of fire types is harsh because of the sun though, so I have to watch for that. Though her ability will lessen the effects of any other special attacks. She provides great support, and can back up Castform quite well.
, the rainy days
Adamant (+ Att and Spd EV's)
Ability: water absorb
Item: damp rock
Moves:
Waterfall
Brick Break
Rain Dance
Circle Throw
notes: rain dance supporter, and huge physical damage with waterfall boosted by it. His last move I'm not so sure about, I like his ability to throw out defenders I don't like, but without good defense, any good attacker could just kill him before he gets a chance to do it. So I would only be able to use it against walls. The idea of forcing a switch into something I can super effective hit is very appealing though. Brick break also helps me deal with rock, and steel types, which both have a great potential to destroy little Castform. His ability also helps a bunch, since he can switch in on any water type and shut it down, mostly anyway.
, clouds of dust and debris
Calm (+ 1/2 SpA, 1/2 SpD and Spd EV's)
Ability: tinted lens
Item: black sludge
Moves:
bug buzz
quiver dance
toxic
baton pass
notes: I was very intrigued by this moth, his quiver dance baton pass can sway the battle immensely in my favor if I can get it off. Toxic forces walls down, which I know can easily shut down Castform's attempt at sweeping. He provides coverage for psychic types as well, which can really hurt poliwrath, and a lot of them have very high SpD, really hampering my ability to kill them without poliwrath. He's main focus is the quiver pass, so I don't have much invested in his attacks because of that, but he can still benefit from his own dance before passing.
, the stalagmite
Impish (+ Att and Def EV's)
Ability: sturdy
Item: rocky helmet (zoom lens?)
Moves:
Stone edge
EQ
iron defense
stealth rock
notes: I really like him, he big a beafy allowing him to tank any physical attack with easy, barring fighting types because of his typing. D: He wrecks fire, flying, and bug types with stone edge STAB, and can put a good hurting on other rock types, electric and steel types like bronzong that poliwrath can't handle. His stealth rock is also quite helpful, but I have been debating on whether or not to use the zoom lens because of his really low speed, and I've also considered using explosion instead of iron defense. I stuck with iron defense because I don't have trick room support to allow him to go first and use explosion before dying, so he'd never be able to explode unless I could predict exactly when I needed it, which I can't do very well. Over all I use him for his great power, and decent enough physical walling.
, enjoy-er of gifts
adamant (+ Att and Spd EV's)
Ability: super luck
Item: black glasses (razor claw?)
Moves:
night slash
fly
tail wind
taunt
notes: I use him for my out in the world flying, so fly would be required for any convenience in play. With his ability and night slash's bonus crit chance he has quite a good crit rate already, but the razor claw can boost that even more. He deals with the psychic and ghost types, and helping with bug and fighting types, as Castform has grass types down and out. His taunt cna lock down supports, and tailwind helps his, and anyone after him, speed. I had to think quite a while to figure out which flying type I wanted to use on the team, since none of the ones I could ponder for had any direct support for Castform, so I figured the extra type coverage, and the ability to bypass stat changers with his high crit would be worth a slot.
Over all notes:
The first 4 on this team are my main focus of critique, and the battle subway only allows 4 pokemon at a time in doubles, and only 3 in singles, and in friend battles we battle by choosing 4 out of out total 6 team. So my main goal was to insure Castform's great type coverage on his own could deal with most threats provided he had the support to do it. Hopefully this is a decent enough team? As a final note, I do wish to say again this is a non-competitive team, so I'm more looking how to improve the existing theme's, rather than just saying "hydregon is a better special sweeper, and ferrothorn is the best physical wall, why not use them?" I really like the under used, and the never used, they're not so bad with a little love. (:
Also, I don't have a dw vulpix/poliwag, and would prefer not to use them because I don't wish to be trapped in the rain with gigalith out, or sun shine with venomoth out, as they would most surely not see the end of the turn.
I do wish to emphasize, I have no plans of doing competitive battling, this is merely for doing the E4, battle subway, and occasional battles with my friends.
Team at a glance:
In more detail,
Modest (+ SpA and Spd EV's)
Ability: Forecast
Item: Wise glasses
Moves:
Weather ball
Thunder
Rain dance
Sunny day
Notes: I have the weather moves on him in case he's out and the effects wear off from my other teammates. With an easy 150 power water and fire attack, and a 120 power electric attack he should have really good coverage. I preferred thunder over hail because the ice typing is only good against dragons, since thunder can hit flying types, but also hit water types. Which will pretty much destroy his sunny form, while his sunny form can destroy grass types against his rain form, though he would be doomed against a physical electric type like electross.
Modest (+ SpA and Spd EV's)
Ability: Flower Gift
Item: heat rock
Moves:
Solar beam
leech seed
morning sun
sunny day
notes: She's my main sunny user, with her massive 180 power solar beam each turn, and great healing with her constant sun shine, she should be able to last a while while dealing massive damage. Her huge weakness of fire types is harsh because of the sun though, so I have to watch for that. Though her ability will lessen the effects of any other special attacks. She provides great support, and can back up Castform quite well.
Adamant (+ Att and Spd EV's)
Ability: water absorb
Item: damp rock
Moves:
Waterfall
Brick Break
Rain Dance
Circle Throw
notes: rain dance supporter, and huge physical damage with waterfall boosted by it. His last move I'm not so sure about, I like his ability to throw out defenders I don't like, but without good defense, any good attacker could just kill him before he gets a chance to do it. So I would only be able to use it against walls. The idea of forcing a switch into something I can super effective hit is very appealing though. Brick break also helps me deal with rock, and steel types, which both have a great potential to destroy little Castform. His ability also helps a bunch, since he can switch in on any water type and shut it down, mostly anyway.
Calm (+ 1/2 SpA, 1/2 SpD and Spd EV's)
Ability: tinted lens
Item: black sludge
Moves:
bug buzz
quiver dance
toxic
baton pass
notes: I was very intrigued by this moth, his quiver dance baton pass can sway the battle immensely in my favor if I can get it off. Toxic forces walls down, which I know can easily shut down Castform's attempt at sweeping. He provides coverage for psychic types as well, which can really hurt poliwrath, and a lot of them have very high SpD, really hampering my ability to kill them without poliwrath. He's main focus is the quiver pass, so I don't have much invested in his attacks because of that, but he can still benefit from his own dance before passing.
Impish (+ Att and Def EV's)
Ability: sturdy
Item: rocky helmet (zoom lens?)
Moves:
Stone edge
EQ
iron defense
stealth rock
notes: I really like him, he big a beafy allowing him to tank any physical attack with easy, barring fighting types because of his typing. D: He wrecks fire, flying, and bug types with stone edge STAB, and can put a good hurting on other rock types, electric and steel types like bronzong that poliwrath can't handle. His stealth rock is also quite helpful, but I have been debating on whether or not to use the zoom lens because of his really low speed, and I've also considered using explosion instead of iron defense. I stuck with iron defense because I don't have trick room support to allow him to go first and use explosion before dying, so he'd never be able to explode unless I could predict exactly when I needed it, which I can't do very well. Over all I use him for his great power, and decent enough physical walling.
adamant (+ Att and Spd EV's)
Ability: super luck
Item: black glasses (razor claw?)
Moves:
night slash
fly
tail wind
taunt
notes: I use him for my out in the world flying, so fly would be required for any convenience in play. With his ability and night slash's bonus crit chance he has quite a good crit rate already, but the razor claw can boost that even more. He deals with the psychic and ghost types, and helping with bug and fighting types, as Castform has grass types down and out. His taunt cna lock down supports, and tailwind helps his, and anyone after him, speed. I had to think quite a while to figure out which flying type I wanted to use on the team, since none of the ones I could ponder for had any direct support for Castform, so I figured the extra type coverage, and the ability to bypass stat changers with his high crit would be worth a slot.
Over all notes:
The first 4 on this team are my main focus of critique, and the battle subway only allows 4 pokemon at a time in doubles, and only 3 in singles, and in friend battles we battle by choosing 4 out of out total 6 team. So my main goal was to insure Castform's great type coverage on his own could deal with most threats provided he had the support to do it. Hopefully this is a decent enough team? As a final note, I do wish to say again this is a non-competitive team, so I'm more looking how to improve the existing theme's, rather than just saying "hydregon is a better special sweeper, and ferrothorn is the best physical wall, why not use them?" I really like the under used, and the never used, they're not so bad with a little love. (:
Also, I don't have a dw vulpix/poliwag, and would prefer not to use them because I don't wish to be trapped in the rain with gigalith out, or sun shine with venomoth out, as they would most surely not see the end of the turn.
