RMT: Flying Monotype

[Squirrel]

For the recent monotype tourney I chose to take on Flying types (w/wild card), so without further adieu here's the team I used!

Fatty (Dragonite) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 220 Spd / 252 HP / 36 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Earthquake/Fire Punch (depending on battle)

An obvious choice for a Flying team! EQ and Fire Punch rotate based on the opponents but generally I've found this to be a pretty reliable set up. I have wondered about switching Dragon Claw for Outrage and Leftovers for Lum Berry, but I'm a fan of the ability to regenerate the Multiscale ability whilst out-speeding and sweeping incoming Pokémon for when they eventually do land a hit. Roost has left this set pretty reliable and he's not a Pokémon I've ever had a problem with, but suggestions about Dragon Claw/Outrage would be useful. :)

Dracula (Gliscor) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 184 Def / 252 HP / 72 Spd
Impish Nature
- Earthquake/Stone Edge (depending on battle)
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

One of the weaker links in the team, Gliscor is one who doesn't often find much use in battle. I know it's a very useful Pokémon but with Skarmory being better at setting up and Gliscor's general inability to deal substantial damage, I do often find him a bit redundant. I don't know if I'm using him wrong or too late in the battle or if it's just a bad idea to have two set-up Pokémon on the same team, but Gliscor's the one I'm most considering replacing. He has gotten me out of one or two sticky situations, but I feel like a lot of other Pokémon could do the same. Ideas?

Rainbow Killer (Gyarados) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 204 Spd / 248 Atk / 56 HP
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake/Ice Fang (depending on battle)
- Waterfall

One of the main forces of the team. Gyarados usually sets up easily with sub/DD and uses Moxie to deliver one hell of a pounding to the opponent's team. I swap between EQ and Ice Fang depending on what team I'm facing but usually Waterfall's enough to destroy (or at least severely damage) the majority of non-resistant Pokémon it faces. The only real problem Gyarados tends to face somewhat frequently is when it's halted in setting up, but it's usually not too difficult to swap him back in later once the threat's gone.

Cutiepie (Yanmega) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Rash Nature
- U-turn
- Protect
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash

Despite not being OU (for some reason which I cannot work out), Yanmega is the main force in almost every team I make. She can easily dominate a lot of the Pokémon in OU and her Speed Boost capabilities are to die for. I sometimes alternate Life Orb with Leftovers but generally Yanmega's always been a very reliable Pokémon for me as anyone who's come up against it will probably tell you. It's not one I'm considering replacing even though the general consensus will probably be that I should haha. It's just an incredibly reliable Pokémon for me and I'd hate not having it. Obviously it's a frail Pokémon and Stealth Rock completely cripples it, but when you can get him in one a clean switch and set up well he's unstoppable. (Or at least quite hard to stop!)

Nathan (Skarmory) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 232 Def / 252 HP / 24 Spd
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind

Another obvious choice for a Flying team, Skarmory does exactly what you'd expect. Skarmory's strategies are far too well-known to be worth going into and I find him to be an incredible help against most teams. The only thing I'm really wondering here is whether Spikes or Stealth Rock is a better route to take whilst setting up, but stacking Spikes seems a fair amount more reliable than rocks. However the 3 turns vs 1 turn of setting up can be a bit of an annoyance!

Sophie (Metagross) @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 156 HP / 100 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Rock Polish

The wildcard of the team. Metagross is a very reliable Pokémon once he's sped himself up with Rock Polish and he can decimate a lot of opponents, but there are certain typings that leave him crippled. He's great for soaking up some hits to spare Yanmega/Gyarados a bit of grief and he's usually a pretty reliable sweeper but problems do tend to arise especially when he's up against bulkier Water types or generally bulkier things in general. I'll usually start off the battle with him or Gyarados and take out one or two Pokémon with either so he's been a great choice so far, but I am considering finding a new wildcard for a bit of variety.

Honestly this team is good enough for use as a standard team and wins me a lot of the OU battles I do with it regardless of being monotype, but I'm always looking for ways to improve so any thoughts/advice would be wonderful! :)

 

[BLOOOD-La-ti-]

nice team! :)
how about this:
(name)Dragonite (M/F) @ lum berry
Trait: Multiscale
Evs: 252 atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant
Dragon Dance
Extremespeed
Fire Punch/Earthquake
Outrage

Use that when you're going offensive.
People mostly use that Dragonite since it has 404 atk while in adamant nature and 252 atk.
Cool Metagross btw

 

[Miss Doronjo]

The team isn't bad at all~! Although, may I give you a few quick suggestions to think about?

For instance, you can try Thundurus-T, because Volt Absorb is quite valuable on Flying mono-type teams, at least from my experience using them! Using a Mixed-Salamence can also give you a great offensive combo with your Dragon Dance Dragonite, because Salamence can remove counters and checks for your Dragonite to Dragon Dance up safely.

But yeah, hope this helps you in any way!!

 

[PlatinumDude]

You should get with the B2/W2 changes, man.

Anyway, Dragonite should be using max Atk/max Spe, as it's not very fast to begin with.

Also, Gliscor really needs Earthquake as its main STAB move, as switching to Stone Edge would really hurt, considering the lack of STAB on it. This applies to all battles it partakes in.:
-Substitute
-Toxic
-Protect/Taunt/Roost
-Earthquake
Nature: Impish
EVs: 244 HP/28 Def/236 Spe
Item: Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal

or
-Earthquake
-Taunt/Toxic
-Toxic/Ice Fang/Stealth Rock
-Roost/Protect
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP/240 Def/16 Spe
Item: Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal

Bounce is now Gyarados' better option over Earthquake or Ice Fang, as Water/Flying have good coverage together. Sure, Bounce's charge-up turn sucks, but that shouldn't matter once you've accumulated a Moxie boost or two. As with Gliscor, this should apply to all battles Gyarados partakes in.

U-turn is a bit of a waste on Yanmega, considering the lack of Tinted Lens to boost its resisted damage. The last slot should to go Hidden Power Fire/Ground for Steels; the former for Skarmory, Scizor and Forretress and the latter for Heatran. Change the nature to Modest if you opt for that.

For the sake of convenience, use Agility over Rock Polish on Metagross. While both moves have the same effect, Metagross learns Agility by level-up and Rock Polish by TM. Also, what's the point of using Agility/Rock Polish when you're not investing in Speed at all? Use max Atk/max Spe to outspeed more threats, and change the item to Life Orb (to compensate for the lack of power), Air Balloon (to avoid Ground moves for a while) or Lum Berry (to cure a status once).

 

[Squirrel]

nice team! :)
how about this:
(name)Dragonite (M/F) @ lum berry
Trait: Multiscale
Evs: 252 atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant
Dragon Dance
Extremespeed
Fire Punch/Earthquake
Outrage

Use that when you're going offensive.
People mostly use that Dragonite since it has 404 atk while in adamant nature and 252 atk.
Cool Metagross btw

I don't want to give up Roost since that move is utterly invaluable for me, but Extremespeed would be very useful. I just think the ability to restore half health and the Multiscale bonus would be a fair sight more useful in the long run, but I may try out Extremespeed some time out of curiosity! The main problem I'm having with d'nite is the Outrage vs Dragon Claw issue... Being locked into Outrage can be a huge disadvantage and the bonus of Leftovers from using Dragon Claw is great, but Outrage's huge power is tempting... I think I'll have to play around with a few sets here haha.

The team isn't bad at all~! Although, may I give you a few quick suggestions to think about?

For instance, you can try Thundurus-T, because Volt Absorb is quite valuable on Flying mono-type teams, at least from my experience using them! Using a Mixed-Salamence can also give you a great offensive combo with your Dragon Dance Dragonite, because Salamence can remove counters and checks for your Dragonite to Dragon Dance up safely.

But yeah, hope this helps you in any way!!

I usually use Gliscor to soak up the Electric moves but after looking at Thundurus-T it's seeming like an interesting replacement. I may well try him out with an Expert Belt set, he seems like a bit of an unexpected silent killer there. Thanks for the tip! With Salamence though I'm worried about having another 4x Ice weakness; that's the typing which at the moment is completely decimating the team. I've been dealing with Electric/Rock types no problem so far but Ice types are being a big pain in the butt. I'll definitely take a look at some of Salamence's set-ups but ideally I'd rather not have another 4x Ice weakness on the team if there's something better to do the job haha.

Anyway, Dragonite should be using max Atk/max Spe, as it's not very fast to begin with.

After setting up it seems to out-speed 90% of things and the rest aren't usually strong enough to stop it due to the increased HP letting it get another DD in or two, but I have wondered about swapping his EVs round a bit. I just feel like the super-speedy D'nite is expected so people will attack it expecting it to die, but instead it uses the health EVs to hang on and get another boots in before hitting them right back for a huge amount of damage. I've not had any trouble with him so far other than against those pesky Ice type but it can't hurt to try out a battle or two with the speedy option. I'll certainly give it a try!

Also, Gliscor really needs Earthquake as its main STAB move, as switching to Stone Edge would really hurt, considering the lack of STAB on it. This applies to all battles it partakes in.:
-Substitute
-Toxic
-Protect/Taunt/Roost
-Earthquake
Nature: Impish
EVs: 244 HP/28 Def/236 Spe
Item: Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal

or
-Earthquake
-Taunt/Toxic
-Toxic/Ice Fang/Stealth Rock
-Roost/Protect
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP/240 Def/16 Spe
Item: Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal

I think to be honest I'll just get rid of Gliscor altogether and replace it for Thundurus-T as per Doronjo's recommendation. Gliscor's one of those Pokémon that I just can't be bothered to work out lmao. It's not really interesting to me so it's unlikely I'll find myself using it effectively if I don't want it on the team. But if I decide to keep it I'll take your advice with the Sub set I think, at least then it won't be conflicting with Skarmory like it is at the moment.

Bounce is now Gyarados' better option over Earthquake or Ice Fang, as Water/Flying have good coverage together. Sure, Bounce's charge-up turn sucks, but that shouldn't matter once you've accumulated a Moxie boost or two. As with Gliscor, this should apply to all battles Gyarados partakes in.

Bounce? Odd, I never even considered that being a viable move to use lol. I assumed the charge-up turn would be a complete "no"! I guess it can't hurt to try it out... I just think I'll be too careful about using it to make good use of it lmao. I'll give it a go but definitely no promises here!

U-turn is a bit of a waste on Yanmega, considering the lack of Tinted Lens to boost its resisted damage. The last slot should to go Hidden Power Fire/Ground for Steels; the former for Skarmory, Scizor and Forretress and the latter for Heatran. Change the nature to Modest if you opt for that.

On the contrary I love U-Turn since it lets me get a clean switch out due to Yanmega's speed boosts rather than trying to kill something that it simply won't be able to due to being outclassed by half the tier. I don't have any trouble killing things like Scizor/Forretress since Air Slash can usually take care of them somewhat easily (he normally bests an un-boosted Scizor at least), and honestly I'd just switch out with U-Turn on a Skarmory or Heatran since Yanmega's just not the right Pokémon to fight them lol. I'd rather not use up a move slot to fight one or two (albeit very common) Pokémon when instead I can keep him safer in the long run.

For the sake of convenience, use Agility over Rock Polish on Metagross. While both moves have the same effect, Metagross learns Agility by level-up and Rock Polish by TM. Also, what's the point of using Agility/Rock Polish when you're not investing in Speed at all? Use max Atk/max Spe to outspeed more threats, and change the item to Life Orb (to compensate for the lack of power), Air Balloon (to avoid Ground moves for a while) or Lum Berry (to cure a status once).

This is on the battle server so convenience isn't an issue and Rock Polish sounds cooler :) I haven't invested in Speed since he's still able to outspeed a decent amount of the tier without the Speed EVs after a Rock Polish and he uses the bulk to (usually very easily) survive the hits thrown at him whilst boosting and/or occasionally being outsped. I'll give the speedy set a go but honestly I don't think it's really necessary for something like a Metagross. Can't hurt to try though!

Thanks for the advice so far guys! I'm definitely going to have a proper look at Thundurus-T now as a replacement for Gliscor, I'll update soon with the set.