How can I protect this team against sweepers like Aegislash? What does it need?

[ThePlatinumTaco]

So, I have a team that always, /always/ is destroyed by Aegislash. Religiously this team it murdered, by Aegislash (And other pokemon with typing that makes it hard to attack). Now, the first thing I did with this team was make it offensive. I decided that I actually really liked it, so now I don't know which team I should keep. So, there are two questions here: Which of these teams should I use, and what does that team need?

Defensive:
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 248 Def / 24 Spe
Impish nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Focus Punch
- Spore

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 184 SpD / 76 Spe
Timid nature (+Spe, -Atk)
-Thunderbolt
-Roost
-Defog
-Heat Wave

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 SpD
-Aqua Jet
-Play Rough
-Power-Up Punch
-Waterfall

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Ability: Pixilate
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Heal Bell

Offensive:
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature (+Atk / -SpD)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
- Crunch (Was Bullet Punch, I'm hoping that this may solve some of my problems)

Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+SpA / -Spe)
- Hydro Pump / Surf
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn / Hidden Power Fire

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 SpD
-Aqua Jet
-Play Rough
-Power-Up Punch
-Waterfall

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Ability: Pixilate
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Heal Bell

 

[PlatinumDude]

For Skarmory, Sturdy >>> Keen Eye. It guarantees that Skarmory does something by preventing an OHKO from full health.

For Sylveon, Hyper Voice >>>>> Moonblast. Pixilate only changes Normal moves to Fairy; it doesn't affect moves that are already Fairy in the first place.

As for an Aegislash check/counter, try Therian Landorus; while it won't like taking Shadow Balls, it can soften the physical blows it takes from it with Intimidate. This can go over Breloom on both teams, since Breloom can't do anything to Aegislash currently:
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-U-turn
-Stone Edge/Knock Off/Hidden Power (Ice)
Nature: Adamant/Naughty
EVs: 248 HP/16 Atk/244 Def
Item: Leftovers

or
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-U-turn
-Knock Off/Superpower/Hidden Power (Ice)
Nature: Jolly/Naive
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Item: Choice Scarf

Zapdos needs to be physically defensive to better check/counter Mega Pinsir and Bisharp: 252 HP/168 Def/68 SAtk/20 Spe with Bold is the spread to use in this case.

 

[Pillodox]

Incidentally, I have a Level 76 Aegislash so I know how to easily beat them. You may want to consider a quick dark or fire type and try powerful supereffective moves like Fire Blast or Dark Pulse and equip them with speed boosting items/moves (like Quick Claw and Agility). I did it with this method to take out Aegislash in the Elite 4. Maybe try it with your Greninja? (Since it already knows dark pulse)

 

[Dark Azelf]

Yeah using Greninja would help with Aegislash.

Sylveon and Blissey are beyond redundant imo. They do the same thing.

Mandibuzz might work over Zapdos who is the best Aegi counter arguably in the game, he can also Defog.

Since you have no ghost to block rapid spin and Defog, Stealth Rock> Spikes on Skarm would be better as it hits everything and takes less time to keep setting up.

 

[WingedDragon]

This might be the case where a tag team of some sort could be needed, but maybe predictable tag team of somepoke having Dark pulse and another having flamethrower/fire blast

 

[Griffinbane]

Adrian, this is a singles team. VGC sets don't work here.

 

[WingedDragon]

Adrian, this is a singles team. VGC sets don't work here.

ohhhhh Lol. That would make sense.

 

[ThePlatinumTaco]

NOTE - I'm posting this before reading the posts above it: Sorry, but I need to get this out there. I made some modifications to the offensive version of the team. Really, it's just the same as the defensive version, but I replaced that Azumarill with Lucario

 

[ThePlatinumTaco]

Ok, I read through them. Thanks guys! This is my takeaway (And after this post I may just make a generic, team improvement thread. It seems like this needs a lot of work): The modification I just made is worthless, and it may be smarter to replace Lucario with Greninja, replace zapdos with mandibuzz or another aegi counter, and do something with the whole skarmbliss thing. My reply to that is that Greninja sounds great, but I really like Zapdos's special attack and speed. I think that Sableye would be a great counter here, and might incorporate him. Finally, SkarmBliss. I have exactly 0% of an idea as to what I should do with this. What do you guys think?

 

[ThePlatinumTaco]

What if I were to replace Skarmory with Sableye and Lucario with Greninja? No switch traps, so I guess it needs some work.

 

[PlatinumDude]

What if I were to replace Skarmory with Sableye and Lucario with Greninja? No switch traps, so I guess it needs some work.

I'd rather have Skarmory for the hazards and better ability to take physical hits.

I'd still use Greninja because Lucario isn't that good with Lucarionite banned to Ubers (though it's still viable).

 

[ThePlatinumTaco]

Is there a way I could have both? Aegi is popular and spells doom with a capital D for my team... Meanwhile, sableye can 1 hit sweepers if he can get in there, which is nice. Good priority as well. What should I take out? Maybe breloom?

 

[Anti]

Aegislash is difficult because it's actually pretty diverse, fast Aeg (SB/Sneak/Sword/Steel move@LO) can mess up a lot of "counters," as can SubToxic (SB/Sub/Toxic/KS). I've found Mega Gyarados to be tremendous against it. If you just need to kill it, you can EQ it without fear of KS halving your Attack, while you can also use it as set-fodder--only LO Sacred Swords are going to be doing much at all, and people usually don't predict your mega evolution very well.

Your real problem is that Pokemon like Breloom, Blissey, Skarmory, and Sylveon give it VERY easy opportunities to come in. Aegislash is very very good against slower teams once their counter dies, and this is no exception.

As D_A said, more traditional checks include Mandy (watch out for Toxic), Hippowdon (ditto), SDef Heatran (watch out for Sword), and Bisharp (ditto).

If all else fails, just play around it. For example, if you have something that can force it out but not switch in, sac something that's about to die if possible, and then if you send in Skarmory or something like that, double switch to a Pokemon that can actually take it on to keep momentum. Aeg can only take so many hits as well. It's an amazing Pokemon, easily top five in OU IMO.

Good luck.

 

[ThePlatinumTaco]

Alright, thanks, I added a mandibuzz which worked out well