Introduction
The pressure this monster puts on the teambuilding process made me think "what if I built a team specifically to remove every possible set i can find and see how well it does?" guess I should introduce the team.
The Team
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Toxic
Whats the best way to beat a suicune? Force it to rest, the easiest way to do that? Set up sand turn 1. This was actually the last mon I decided on a set for, but the 1st one I decided to be on the team. I chose pursuittar when i saw that forretress was probably superior to skarmory with this team since 6 mon slot syndrome hit me. crunch pursuit fire blast are standard to hit skarmory and gengar. I really dont know what i would speed creep with it outside of maybe min speed skarm so I put everything into bulk and spatk. Toxic is here because its a good click against both flygon and swampert where fire blast is good against the steels. more fringe rock resists like rhydon and donphan do give tar some trouble however but swampert helps against those.
Lapras @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 48 SpA / 208 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Perish Song
- Heal Bell
- Ice Beam/Surf
- Thunderbolt/Toxic/Roar
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Fire]
I tried Skarmory in this slot but found I really needed both spin, and something that doesnt instantly fold to magneton. Hidden power fire is for the forretress mirror because this team doesnt have too much trouble pressuring skarm but struggles to pressure forretress. Earthquake is primarily for magneton but just a generally useful click. this is my primary switch in to a lot of metagross sets and a secondary for ttar and the number of times people bring those mons in on forretress just gives high value. you could run explosion or zap cannon over hp fire and the slot was originally explosion further improving the suicune matchup but other forretress teams gave me a lot of trouble.
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Counter
- Wish
- Soft-Boiled
Ahh yes, the annoying blob. I tried a lot of sets here as well but found this to be extremely efficient for what i need from this slot. This is a good check to mixed mence/mixed tar, a decent pivot into almost all special attackers, and just genuinely brings value. Wish is very useful because forretress does lack the defensive profile of skarmory and swampert, mence also enjoy the additional support. This is also a great emergency check to things such as +1 snorlax, last mon aerodactyl etc that blissey can survive 1 hit and unless you get crit or flinched ko with counter.
Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic/HP flying
I chose bold wish salamence because I needed 3 things, the 1st being an answer to the fighting types, the second another way to support forretress, and the 3rd something immune to earthquake. I have tried both toxic and hp flying on the set changing the nature to brave with hp flying and i found toxic just kind of fit better because the primary target heracross doesnt tend to stay in on mence often. this is a genuinely good pivot, it 2hkos most offensive metagross sets takes neutral hits and non stab super effective hits well. tends to stick around for long periods of time. I tested speed creeping hera at 270 but found the bulk loss made his job more difficult. This slot was originally a bold zapdos which was great against heracross and suicune but felt a lot more threatened by their coverage moves and did not like taking hits from medicham.
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Protect
- Surf
- Roar
So this was the slot that went through the most changes when trying to find a way to make this team work. it was initially an offensive swampert which improved the matchup against cm jirachi and celebi switch ins but didn't really fill the role i needed it to of sturdy rock resist that comes in 10000 times in a battle shrugs off a hit and spreads toxic and spikes damage. I tried rhydon, metagross, Jirachi, and Claydol here the 1st 3 just didnt make it because I needed something that was at a minimum not weak to ground. Claydol was being used when skarmory was still on the team but it just didn't stick around long enough. I also thought of using flygon here to further improve my matchup against things like dugtrio but I also found it just weakened me against random ice beam tars. You could run earthquake over toxic to help against jirachi but I felt like toxic was more useful against many of the common swampert switch ins like celebi, bulky waters, etc. also, it hurts suicune more.
Thank you for your time, This is the 1st time in 10 years I have committed to a team I built for any amount of time and really enjoyed the challenge of finding things. Major threats to this team are sub cm jirachi, offensive celebi, a well played mix mence, hp ice blaziken, and beatup mons primarily charizard and dugtrio.
https://pokepast.es/5ff3dfd5d23766ec heres the team if youd like to try it for yourself, and again thank you for your time
