Washing Machines Rule Supreme - An RMT

[Zaroas]

My interest in Pokemon has renewed with the release of Pokemon Black and White, and along with it has come competitive battling. Thus, after Grabbing both games from my local Gamestop I was quick to go on PO to try out some of my old teams and see if the metagame has changed at all. Besides a couple bans, it really hasn't - Reuniclus, Excadrill, and Cokeldurr pretty much dominate the OU, weather is a major strategy, and Whimsicott is an absolute pain. But my team was a bit outdated. Thus came this one. Just one problem - I need a lot of help with it. After a lot of playtesting with battles ranging from domination to pathetic playing, I've found that my team has trouble with bulky waters, Gliscor, and physical walls in general. That's where you guys come in.

Here's a team building process -

Spoiler:

So, I was to base a team off of Rotom-W. It's a fantastic Pokemon - One weakness, a pretty good movepool, and great stats so it has great offensive and defensive prowess. It does have its drawbacks - Latios, Blissey, Latias, and Evolite Chancey are the big four that stop it. Thus, I decided to put Scizor on the team. Scizor resists grass, and can scare away those behemoths in Sp.Def. My team at this point may have trouble with Fighting types, especially things like Breloom, who can Spore Scizor and Seed Bomb Rotom-W. I decided I would add in Reiniclus to fend off these Pokemon. It also lures in Dark types for Scizor to potentially set up on. Now I notcied that my team could make great use of Stealth Rock for that extra damage on enemies. I could also make use of Reinicluses ability to lure in Ghost types, which Scizor can't take care of sometimes. A great Pokemon for this would be Tyranitar. Gliscor could be dealt with by Rotm-W, so that wasn't a huge problem. So at this point I seemingly have something pretty solid looking, although it does have some weaknesses to Grass, Ground, and Bug. I figured I could take advantage of Tyranitar's Sand Stream ability while also adding in something that can revenge kill one of my Pokemon. Scarfed Garchomp it is, then. Then I noticed how enormously huge my Excadrill weakness was. Tyranitar could just set up Sandstorm for it, and then the horror unfolds as Excadrill switches in and starts sweeping. I figured Conkeldurr could be pretty useful at this point. Mach Punch could either defeat or weaken Excadrill to the point that Scizor could Bullet Punch it. Ghost types are also taken care of be Tyranitar, while Flying types could possibly be dealt with by Rotom-W. At was after some testing that I came to a dilemma - Reuniclus may be banned after this testing period. I decided to try out Latias, as it can lure in those Ghost and Dark types, support the team with Roar, and switch in on those Fighting types. Now that the suspect test is over, I decided to go back to Reuniclus.

So, here's the team...

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
252 HP/252 Sp.Def/4 Atk
Careful nature
-Crunch
-Pursuit
-Stealth Rock
-Superpower

Tyranitar is my lead, able to set up Sandstorm for Garchomp to take advantage of and also set up Stealth Rock for my offensive Pokemon to take advantage of. Crunch and Pursuit are up there to take out those Ghosts that could otherwise trouble my team. Superpower is for enemy Tyranitars and also Terakion. I'm using the Specially Defensive set instead of Mixtar simply because it's worked better for me and, with that Sp.Def boost Sandstorm gives, Tyranitar can survive the onslaught of Ghosts using Focus Blast and retaliate with Crunch. Fighting types are dealt with by Reuniclus, and physical walls can be defeated with Rotom-W and Reuniclus.

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
128 HP/252 Sp.A/128 Spe
Modest nature
-Thunderbolt
-Hydro Pump
-Pain Split
-Hidden Power Fire

Rotom-W is my main special attacker. Its combination of bulk and power makes it great this generation. Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt make great STABs, while Hidden Power Fire can deal with stuff like Ferrothorn who can easily set up or KO this thing. Pain Split can heal when needed. The four big walls that devastate Rotom-W's usability are dealt with on this team by Scizor, who covers Rotom's lone Grass weakness.

Scizor @ Leftovers
152 HP/40 Atk/216 Sp.Def
Adamant nature
Technician
-Roost
-Bullet Punch
-Swords Dance
-Bug Bite

Scizor is once again a beast this generation, and this set makes it great. Once again, bulk and power combine to create this set. Scizor can set up on a potential switch from a Grass type using Swords Dance and then start to sweep. Both Bullet Punch and Bug Bite are boosted to great power with Technician, and Bullet Punch is a great priority move for Scizor. Roost is great for healing, because Scizor may just take damage from Stealth Rock multiple times. Fire types are no problem thanks to Rotom-H's powerful Hydro Pump and Tyranitar's great Sp.Def and typing. Latias and Garchomp can also help with that.

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
252 Hp/252 Def/4 Sp.Def
Bold nature
Magic Guard
-Calm Mind
-Psychic
-Focus Blast
-Recover

Reuniclus is one of those Pokemon that is omnipresent and extremely annoying this generation. Magic Guard means it takes no damage from things like weather and status, so it isn't affected by Tyranitar's Sandstorm and takes no recoil from Life Orb. Usually, Reuniclus will switch in on a Fighting move lured in by Tyranitar and start setting up Calm Minds. From there, we know what it can do - Fire off massively powerful Psychics and Focus Blasts. Blissey and Chansey? Pfft. I have Scizor, Conkeldurr, and Tyranitar. Metagross, Jirachi, and Scizor can all be beaten by Rotom-W.

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Jolly nature
-Outrage
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge

Garchomp functions as a revenge killer and does its job very well. With a Choice Scarf, Garchomp is ridiculously fast, and Sand Veil makes sure that it is harder to hit. Outrage and Dragon Claw along with Earthquake have great coverage, as only a couple Pokemon such as Bronzong and Steel types with Balloons resist it. Stone Edge is to nail Flying types that could otherwise prove troublesome hard. Latias appreciates the presence of Garchomp, as he can outspeed and defeat Dragon types such as Hydreigon that Latias can have trouble with.

Conkeldurr @ Leftovers
120 HP/252 Atk/136 Sp.Def
Brave nature
Guts
-Bulk Up
-Drain Punch
-Mach Punch
-Payback

Conkeldurr works well on this team, able to eliminate Dark types lured in by Latias. It can also deal with Excadrill. Bulk Up boosts its already massive Attack and Defense, making it a monster. Drain Punch is great for healing and also hitting hard, while Mach Punch provides needed priority, especially against Excadrill. Payback is for Ghosts that decide to ruin Conkeldurr's sweep. Guts is for annoying status spreaders that annoy the heck out of this team.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Even though you already have Rotom-W as a way of dealing with Ferrothorn, you can consider Fire Fang (or Fire Blast) so Garchomp can deal with it.

 

[Zaroas]

Thank you for the tip Platinum, although I think I have good enough coverage against Ferrothorn through Rotom-W's HP Fire and Conkeldurr.

Alright, since the suspect test is over and Reuniclus was not banned, I will be adding him back in the team.

 

[Zaroas]

Sorry for the double post, but bump.

I need more rates, seriously. If the team is good at least say so.

 

[Vrai]

Hey Zaroas,

Solid team! I honestly found it difficult at first to mention anything at all that you might struggle with at a first glance. There's no wonder that people didn't rate/change much of anything, haha. But as I played through some matches with it, I found a couple of potential problems.

First and foremost, +1 Volcarona clean-sweeps your team if it gets in without you having SR up and if Garchomp is dead or if Stone Edge misses (and that is the cause of one of my very few losses so far working with this team). Secondly, you really lack a reliable Scizor counter. Yes, Rotom-W takes Bullet Punches with ease... but U-turns maul him, and if he gets smacked by an incoming +2 Bug Bite on a mispredict you're done for. I have yet to face a Gliscor in my ~15ish matches so idk, but if you say you're having trouble with it you must be having trouble with it. I think a good addition to your team would be to include a bulky Gyarados. It gets in for free on Gliscor, it walls non-HP Rock Volcarona and crushes with Waterfall, and it stops Scizor who imo is your team's biggest weakness right now. However, who to put it over gives you a lot of trouble; I placed it over Rotom-W (yeah, I know, that's what this team is built around but putting Gyarados there kept most of the synergy you had rather than corrupting it) and I found I was utterly walled by Skarmory. Rain teams also seemed to have their way with me, even with Rotom-W. Hell, other Rotom-W's were hard to outmaneuver, especially when your only Electric-resist is neutral to Water. One thing you could do to help with the Skarmory problem is you could run MixTar (even though you dislike it) because honestly the only thing that T-Tar does in the match for me ever is neutralize Latias, where you could still run Crunch or Pursuit to get rid of her. I think your biggest problem is the lack of being able to hit the physical walls hard before they phaze you away or just straight-up stop you. You could probably solve this by trying out a mixed attacker to break down walls, but I'm not really sure what you could try or why right now. I'm surprised I got all this down and at the risk of sounding stupid I'm feeling like I should go to bed right now. I'll edit this/repost if I find anything later on.

 

[Zaroas]

Wow, thanks for such a great rate, Vrai. Glad to hear that the team did well in your hands.

I'll fix the Tyranitar set and add in Gyarados. Quite honestly I should have gone with Mixtar from the start. Anyhow, I'm going to start playtesting using a bunch of different Pokemon over Reuniclus.