Team Syndrome V.3 (or was it 4 @____@)

[Detox]

So I recently made (or tried to make) a team around an Alakazam Sweep. Excuse me if it sucks but its my first team in months.

Without further ado, the Team.

At a Glance...

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In Depth



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Metagross @ Occa Berry
Adamant Nature
Trait: Clear Body
252 HP | 236 Attack | 12 Defense | 8 Speed
-Stealth Rock
-Meteor Mash
-Bullet Punch
-Explosion
---
My favorite lead. Meta is very reliable at setting up rocks and getting rid of leads. If I know its something faster that will taunt me(Azelf, Aero), ill just MM it , which usually leaves a chunk in it, and pick it off with Bullet Punch. If he doesnt explode early on, he can come back late game to lol at things like outrages from Salamence and Ice punches from things like Weavile.




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Alakazam @ Life Orb | Choice Specs
Timid Nature
Trait: Synchronize
252 Special Attack | 252 Speed | 4 Special Defense
-Psychic
-Hidden Power Fire
-Focus Blast
-Signal Beam
---
The man of the hour. Alakazam is my main sweeper. The only thing bothering me about him is the item...I could use a LO for the freedom to pick more than one move, or Specs to raise my special attack through the roof. HP fire loves hitting things like Scizor and other steels, and Psychic punched a hole in anything that does not resist or is immune to it. Signa beam hits dark and rival psychics, and focus blast smacks around normals and darks aswell.




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Machamp @ Leftovers
Adamant Nature
Trait: No Gaurd
252 HP | 252 Attack | 4 Speed
-DynamicPunch
-Stone Edge
-Rest
-Sleep Talk
---
I love this thing. Resttalk annoys my opponents to death, while champ simply runs through their team. He also plays a vital role here: Clearing the field of threats to Alakazam. He LOLs at thinkgs that could wall/KO zam like Blissey, Snorlax, and Weavile. He also can dish out some major damage to the likes of Gyarados and Salamence with stone edge.




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Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Timid Nature
Trait: Levitate
252 Special Attack | 252 Speed | 4 Defense
-Will-O-Wisp
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Focus Blast
---
Lol, D_A made BurnGar and I fell in love with it. Its quite useful actually.If Maham for any reason gets OHKO'd by Mence/Gyara/Anything else, Gar comes in, lols at it and burns it. It can also still paly the role ofrevenge killer for Mence and Gyara, so I dont always need to burn them. Focus Blast also destroys Tyranitar, Rhyperior, Waevile, Mamoswine---all things that can hinder Zams sweep.




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Zapdos @ Life Orb
Timid Nature
Trait: Pressure
252 Special Attack | 252 Speed | 4 HP
-Thunderbolt
-Heat Wave
-Hidden Power Grass
-Roost
---
Zaapy likes to lol at Sczior and other things of the like. He destroys it with Heat Wave, massacres waters with thunderbolt, eats swampert with Hidden Power, and after all that can roost off any un needed damage.




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Heatran @ Leftovers
Niave Nature
Trait: Flash Fire
252 Special Attack | 252 Speed | 4 HP
-Substitute
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Toxic
---
Wit the most used Heatran being the scarfed one, it has no problem forcing switched and setting up a sub. Toxic is there for crippling his common counter, and Fire blast is for STAB, and earth power is for coverage.


So there you guys go, fresh meat to rip apart.



​

 

[altaria221]

Just a small technical error, earth power doesnt get stab from Heatran,
Anyways, nice team

 

[Detox]

Sorry, it was a typo.


Now anyone got a rate?

 

[Ooka]

Heatran hurts this team badly, thus I suggest a bulky water over Zam or Gar, as two Pokemon weak to both Pursuit and Sucker Punch, as well as 1 - 2 HKOd by Bullet Punch.

Vaporeon@Choice Specs
Nature: Modest
EVs: 188 Def / 252 SpA / 68 Spe
~ Surf
~ Ice Beam
~ Hidden Power Electric
~ Wish

It also helps out Heatran when it's getting hit with Grass or a non-Spec'd Thunderbolt.

 

[Detox]

^ Actually ive had no problems with heaty, I can easily out predict it. Zappy is immune to earth power, Meta lols at HP ice and Explosion, and my own heaty can absorb fire blasts.

Though, I will test it of course and see if it helps any ^___^

 

[Ooka]

Well, even if you are able to take care of it, I suggest removing one of your two sweepers, as something like Spiritomb can rape both of the single handedly. :/

 

[Anti]

This team is sort of like a balanced team in disguise. I mean I guess it fills the bill for an offensive team, but bar Zapdos and Machamp, this has no kind of survivability at all (and honestly Zapdos can't just randomly Roost all day since the opponent can attack too, lol). If you don't have survivability, you sure better be good against stall, so let's see how it looks against that...

Blissey weak is a problem. I know you have Machamp which makes you not weak against Blissey on paper, but the whole point of stall is wearing down opposing teams. Blissey can just wall all of your sweepers (since they're all special attackers and you lack a Blissey lure, which is kind of a problem), and eventually things like Alakazam and Gengar are going to fall apart. The nifty tricks you have like WoW on Gengar and Explosion on Metagross are honestly much more useful against physical walls, but you have nothing to take advantage of that, so again, you're at a disadvantage. I just really doubt this team's ability to do any kind of damage against stall teams.

Before I continue to solutions for the problem with stall teams, Timid >>> Naive on Heatran for obvious reasons. Also, I'm really not liking the idea of Specs Vaporeon. for one thing, SubTran is a significant problem for it. Also, stall crushes it and it doesn't really add to what special sweepers you have already besides providing a Heatran check...which is shaky as I mentioned, plus LO/Specs Tran can easily overpower it.

I do agree that Alakazam or Gengar (preferably the former since your only way to hit like, half of the metagame is gone without Gengar). You could put in Latias which sort of beats Heatran and can TrickSpecs Blissey, which is your only realistic chance of getting past stall. Of course, Trick doesn't simply kill Blissey, so you'll probably need more support. The problem probably isn't with your Pokemon themselves but more with how they all seem to do kind of the same thing and are stopped by the same things. Since this team is pretty poor defensively, I would replace whatever you have to (probably Alakazam and Machamp) to be able to lure and kill Blissey and anything else that threatens your special attackers. Otherwise, you're just going to get walled to hell. You have to beat stall pretty quickly or it will set up, which means you lose. To beat stall quickly, you need to overpower it, which lures plus a ton of sweepers can do. Your team's problems actually aren't hard to fix; you'll just need to think it through really well.

My one suggestions for a Machamp replacement is Dugtrio. It wipes CBTar out right away (and you have Gengar for DDTar if a Pursuit doesn't wring its neck first), and most importantly, it traps and kills Blissey as well as the dreaded non-Scarf Heatran.

You have a lot of options so just play around with stuff and see what works. That's more effective than any theorymoning I can do so...

 

[Syaoran]

I don't see how this team prepares for "an Alakazam sweep". First of all, it's choiced, so it is easily revenge killed by Scizor, TTar, or any steel with Pursuit. Gengar is also choiced and Pursuit weak, so you already lose 2 members of your team.

I suggest adding scarfed Magnezone to this team for a few reasons:
- You have no way of dealing with SD Lucario. Even Zapdos becomes a shaky counter due to SR and LO damage. ScarfZone makes a surefire check.
- Gengar and Alakazam are both easily killed by Bullet Punch or Pursuit from Scizor. You can use them to lure Scizor and switch to Magnezone to trap and kill. It requires smart play since both of them are choiced (which I don't recommend, LO is better if you wanna get a chance at sweeping), if you had Substitute it would make prediction fairly easier.

I'm not a fan of OccaGross without EQ, it's quite dumb to waste an item and half of your HP just to set up rocks.

 

[Dark Azelf]

k, locking this on request of OP.

~Locked~