My Team Magma line-up

[Ichida]

I'm going to be cosplaying a Team Magma member for Anime North next May, so I decided to build a team loosely themed around Team Magma. Please provide commentary and suggestions.

Forretress
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
- Explosion

I'm pretty sure you all know what this one does. :P Wall and spiker operations, and kamikaze itself when low on health.

Arcanine
Adamant Nature
- Extremespeed
- Howl
- Overheat
- Crunch

Essentially a physical sweeper, with Crunch and Overheat to cover different elements.

Shuckle
Sassy Nature
- Toxic
- Rest
- Double Team
- Earthquake

A lot of people underestimate Shuckle. 614 Max Defense and Special Defense? Is there any non-legendary with better defense than that? Poisoning the opponent, Shuckle's designed to laugh and take hits effortlessly as the enemy slowly dies off, spamming Double Team to further frustrate opponents. Kyahah.

Umbreon
Bold Nature
- Toxic
- Mean Look
- Wish
- Baton Pass

Both a cleric and a Burndown. Wish and Baton Pass to heal either itself or another Pokemon, and Mean Look with Toxic to slowly kill off the opponent. Switch into one of my walls after using ML/T as a safety measure.

Alakazam
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Fire Punch

Fire Punch is mainly for things like Heracross and Metagross. As you've prolly seen before, spam Calm Mind until 50% or less on HP, then Recover and let loose Psychic.

Metagross
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Agility
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Physical sweeper, mostly. Explosion is the same idea as Forretress. If Umbreon's dead, might as well make Metagross a bomb. Agility to cover its speed weaknesses.

 

[Alter Ego]

I'm going to be cosplaying a Team Magma member for Anime North next May, so I decided to build a team loosely themed around Team Magma. Please provide commentary and suggestions.

Forretress
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
- Explosion

I'm pretty sure you all know what this one does. :P Wall and spiker operations, and kamikaze itself when low on health.

Arcanine
Adamant Nature
- Extremespeed
- Howl
- Overheat
- Crunch Iron Tail

Essentially a physical sweeper, with Crunch and Overheat to cover different elements.

If it only has one physical move, it's not a physical sweeper, ya' know. Iron Tail over Crunch to give it a bit more benefit from Howl and reduce the problem of lowered Sp.Attack after Overheat.

Shuckle
Sassy Nature
- Toxic
- Rest
- Double Team Wrap
- Earthquake Encore

A lot of people underestimate Shuckle. 614 Max Defense and Special Defense? Is there any non-legendary with better defense than that? Poisoning the opponent, Shuckle's designed to laugh and take hits effortlessly as the enemy slowly dies off, spamming Double Team to further frustrate opponents. Kyahah.

It's base HP on the other hand is a breathtaking 20, which, unless I'm much mistaken, is the second lowest in the game (Right after Sheddy) and when it comes to defensive presence, that kind of HP severly limits its capabilites. Anyways, Double Team is for hopeless N00Bs and usually fails, as do direct damaging attacks with Shuckle's powers. Wrap to keep opponents in until Toxic has powered up nicely (and for some minor extra damage) and Encore to mess up your opponent's strategies. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Shuckle will not take hits "effortlessly" (Metagross and most bulky water types will either 2-hit or 3-hit KO it, as will anything with Night Shade or Seismic Toss and a high enough level), besides, it's helpless against Steel types and anything with Substitute.

Umbreon
Bold Nature
- Toxic/Taunt
- Mean Look
- Wish
- Baton Pass

Both a cleric and a Burndown. Wish and Baton Pass to heal either itself or another Pokemon, and Mean Look with Toxic to slowly kill off the opponent. Switch into one of my walls after using ML/T as a safety measure.

Could really use Taunt over Toxic to prevent eventual phazing from your opponents. You've got Shuckle for toxistalling anyway, and Chaosbreon is a generally cooler build. *Shrug* Depends on your opponents, though.

Alakazam
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Fire Punch

Fire Punch is mainly for things like Heracross and Metagross. As you've prolly seen before, spam Calm Mind until 50% or less on HP, then Recover and let loose Psychic.

Metagross
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Agility
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Physical sweeper, mostly. Explosion is the same idea as Forretress. If Umbreon's dead, might as well make Metagross a bomb. Agility to cover its speed weaknesses.

Meh, this is really a very loose interpretation of Magma's pokémon choices (Seriously, I was expecting to at least see a Houndoom in there. xP) and you've got two weak links on the team in the form of Shuckle and Arcanine. Meh, CB Crobat for physical sweeping and maybe something a bit more adept at sponging to replace Shuckle. (Snorlax would be the best, although that might hurt the theme a bit) Your call, though.

 

[Ichida]

Thanks for the tips. Houndoom is alright, but doesn't really serve a purpose for me. I prefer function over style. And I did say it was loosely derivative. :P

 

[Alter Ego]

You want to talk functionality? *Laughs* I assure you, Houndoom is usually way more useful than Arcanine. Think about it, set a layer of spikes with forry, switch in Houndoom when your opponent attempts to sweep through with fire, thus triggering the Flash Fire trait and probably prompting a switch which you can shamelessly exploit with Pursuit. Of course the team would suffer in the way of physical power, but you could compensate for that by switcing Shuckle for another physical sweeper like Flygon. But it's your call of course. ^^

 

[Ichida]

That's pretty good. My Arcanine has the Flash Fire ability already, though I'll probably take you up on the suggestion.

 

[Vitality]

I think you should take away Shuckle. My experience with him is that his HP is too low to complement his Defenses, and since he can't do much else than just sit there...well, you get the picture.

 

[Ichida]

Yeah, I'm thinking of plugging in the Spike-Roaring Skarmory instead. Spike ops is Forretress's main job, though. Which should I use? And what should I replace the other with?

And just wondering if Marowak w/ Thick Club would be a good bet as a physical sweeper, since its weapon supposedly doubles its attack power.

 

[aragornbird]

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Keep Forretress. Get a good Water Pokémon (Milotic, Suicune, Vaporeon, Ludicolo etc.) This team has such a big Swampert weakness.

Marowak is good, but it works best with speed boosts from Ninjask/Jolteon. I see no need for it, you already have a Metagross who can Agility.

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[n3croart]

Also a Dragon type can help to. A good water type could be Gyarados or Ludicolo. Swampert's noly weakness is Grass so...

 

[Ash&pikachuarethebest]

I think your team is good but there was one pokemon i didn't see in there that team magma always has on there team is Mightyena but good team houndoom would be better because it is dark and fire so you get both types into one pokemon cause you have fire from arcanine and dark from mightyena