Drops of Love

[Zentrius]

Drops of Love

♪

TEAMBUILDING

Hide

I wanted to make this team around SubRoost Kyurem. Stall is my favourite playstyle in BW2, and it's viable. Kyurem forces a huge amount of switches with this set, racking up tremendous residual damage. Kyurem also packs quite the punch with this set, limiting some counters capabilities through the mach.

The first partner I had in mind for Kyurem was Tentacruel. Kyurem LOVES Toxic Spikes, and not only Tentacruel gets them, but it also can spin! Since Tentacruel's job is great on rain, why the hell not go for Politoed? But not a normal one, a RestTalk Politoed! With this three team member I had one thing in my mind: RAIN STALL!

Now let's just advance to wall as much things as possible. Sp Def. Zapdos mainly job is to wall Sheer Force Landorus, something that every team has to prepare first and foremost. Also, it gives me a nice way to beat bulky Water-Types unless you are named Gastrodon or Quagsire.

Let's just add Skarmory to the mix then. Walling 90% of the Physicall tier, Skarmory is a fantastic addition to the team. Not only it walls every physicall atacker but Kyurem and maybe Victini under rain, but also provides the invaluable Spike hazard and phazing, doing wonders againts Baton Pass teams.

Ok, you might think that Jirachi completely outclasses Bronzong as a special wall, but to be honest, I only picked Bronzong for that invaluable Ground immunite. Yeah, I know I have Skarmory, but if Skarmory goes down, Gliscor is a pain in the ass to handle, and Bronzong completely walls it. Also, it's hard for Jirachi to find a slot for Stealth Rock, and Bronzong can actually find a place for it.

In the end, Zapdos was just not cutting it. Unfortunately for Zapdos, having a Water-Type neutrality was incredibly annoying, specially since Specs Keldeo 2HKO's my entire team with Hydro Pump. Not only Celebi counters Keldeo, but it also gives me a way to beat Breloom, Toxicroak and CONKELDURR without having to rely on Skarmory.

A Closer Look

• Politoed @ Leftovers
  Trait: Drizzle
  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
  Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
  - Scald
  - Toxic
  - Rest
  - Sleep Talk

A stellar status absorber. With this set, not only Politoed gladly takes a Spore from Lead Breloom, it just straight up counters mons that need status to wall it. For this set to work, it needs as much as physicall bulk as possible to function properly. With all of the investment going into Defense, it's important to notice that at full HP, Politoed survives even a +252 SpAtk Sheer Force Earth Power from Landorus.

Scald is for STAB, and we all love that 30% Burn, well, everybody but the opponent. The burn renders many physicall sweepers useless, unless you are Conkeldurr (Fuck you Conkeldurr) or Toxicroak. Toxic is for Blissey and Gastrodon switch ins, trying to take my Scald lol. It's also a great utility move to Toxic the Lati twins, Mandibuzz, and another flying walls. Rest is not a great way to fully recover yourself, but with Sleep Talk, it kind of works. Politoed is such an amazing user of RestTalk because it has the bulk to take hits, unlike Ninetales and Abomasnow, and Tyranitar has that horrible Fighting Weakness. Politoed also has great resistances. Having an Ice-Type resistance is very useful, having a lot of opportunities to switch in.

The frog is here to stay, because well, what is this team without the frog lol.

• 
  Celebi @ Leftovers
  Trait: Natural Cure
  Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
  EVs: 252 HP / 232 SDef / 20 Spd
  - Psychic
  - Baton Pass
  - Recover
  - Leaf Storm

My favorite poke this metagame. Celebi is such an stellar force this metagame and everybody has to know it. Walling the newcomer Keldeo, former veteran Breloom with Technician and the raising threat Sheer Force Landorus, Celebi is so fucking good. Having a mon that gets a pitiful damage of 30-40% from Special Landorus is no joke, recovering off the damage output. Celebi is also so cute that I could write a bible about it, but let's not talk about it here.

Psychic is the main STAB, hitting the Fighting-Types for SE damage, and doing a bunch to Tentacruel. Psychic is for some reason really uncommon on Sp Def. Celebi, and people need to use it more. How are you supposed to counter Breloom with no way to hit it? lol. Baton Pass is to avoid getting trapped by Pursuit users, and it provides me great momentum going to the proper mon/counter and set up. Recover is for that precious reliable recovery, effectively prolonging Celebi's life. This might seem weird, but I find Giga Drain to be such a redundant move with Recover and Leftovers, so I picked Leaf Storm over it because it's just stronger and it packs quite the punch. A -2 Baton Pass sucks though.

Celebi also has great synergy with Politoed, tanking most pokes Politoed can't handle, like Venusaur under rain.

• 
  Skarmory @ Leftovers
  Trait: Sturdy
  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
  Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
  - Spikes
  - Roost
  - Brave Bird
  - Whirlwind

Love this motherfucker. Look at it. He's just badass. Skarmory's primary job is to wall physical attackers as much as possible, setting up on them with ease. Dragonite won't even 2HKO Skarmory with Fire Punch @ +2 under rain. Yeah, not walling me. Neither does Garchomp with Fire @ +2. Yeah, not happening neither. However, Skarmory's job just gets harder and harder as the time passes by, with the newcomer Terrakion, Skarmory's primary job just became very slim. Terrakion potentially 2HKOs Skarmory with Choice Band, something that is VERY problematic for me to face.

Spikes is for that lovely entry hazard, racking up residual damage every time a grounded enemy comes in on the battle scene. Roost is for reliable recovery and mitigating that Electric weakness and Ice neutrality, though getting owned by Earthquake sucks. Skarmory really needs Roost if you want it to wall Terrakion and some random Dragon-Types.Brave Bird is for STAB, even with no investment, Brave Bird KOs Toxicroak and 2HKOs Conkeldurr unboosted. Pretty good, actually. Whirlwin is a fantastic utility move, phazing set-up sweepers away, and racking up even more entry hazard damage, and is specially useful if I know a counter, like Heatran, is coming in, racking up MORE residual damage.

Skarmory forms a semi SkarmBliss combo with Celebi (I call it CeleMory), Skarmory tanking physical attacks and Celebi tanking the special ones.

• 
  Bronzong @ Leftovers
  Trait: Levitate
  EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
  Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
  - Stealth Rock
  - Gyro Ball
  - Earthquake
  - Hidden Power [Ice]

Many people think that Jirachi completely outclasses Bronzong as a special wall, but I disagree. You might think "Jirachi walls MUCH betters the offensive Psychic-Types yo", but Jirachi can't switch in on one of the biggest threats to the team: Mamoswine. Bronzong actually resists Mamoswine's STAB attacks and either severely damages it, or Bronzong con set up Stealth Rocks, which are very important for Kyurem. Bronzong can't wall the Lati twins as well as Jirachi does, but still does a great amount of damage to them before going down. Gyro Ball is for a physicall STAB, pretty much OHKOing every scarfer in the metagame, bar the obvious resists. Earthquake is to hit Magnezone and Heatran, and doing a bug chunk to Jirachi and Tentacruel, and Hidden Power [Ice] is for the dragons, and most importantly, Gliscor.

Playing with Bronzong is very hard to do because you need to be careful, because unfortunately it lacks reliable recovery outside of Rest. You need to play it very little if you see a Lati@s, Alakazam and Gengar on the opponent's team, because if you constantly switch Bronzong in some random attacks you are not going to have a nice time for the rest of the mach. Bronzong needs Wish Passing if you want it to function properly, but to be honest, I don't find myself looking for a slot for a wish passer. It's much better to replace Jirachi with Bronzong lol.

• 
  Kyurem @ Leftovers
  Trait: Pressure
  EVs: 56 HP / 220 SAtk / 236 Spd
  Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
  - Substitute
  - Roost
  - Ice Beam
  - Earth Power

Yup, just like the gif says, everything is done for the opponent when Kyurem shows it's gorgeous in the battle. Stalling out of PP basically everything in the game besides revenge killers, Kyurem is super annoying to face offensively and deffensively. Kyurem has pretty good resistances for a Rain Stall team, having key resistances like Grass, Water and Electric attacks. Unfortunately, it has crippling weaknesses to Fighting, Steel and Dragon, but all of those are easily covered between Bronzong/Skarmory and Tentacruel/Celebi.

This set is all about stall. Blissey and Chansey die to it, Heatran dies to it, Amoonguss dies to it, even Celebi dies to it, Gliscor dies to it. EVERYTHING DIES! But not really. Substitute is to avoid statusing and it's a great utility move, and Kyurem is really bulky, so it can take a lot of resisted attacks before breaking it's sub, and with that spread, Kyurem formes 101 HP Substitute, just great. Roost is an incredible move for Kyurem, and in conjunction with Substitute and Pressure, everything gets out of PPs and the stalling machine begins. Ice Beam is the main STAB move of Choice, having stellar offensive coverage, and hitting really hard fro the get go. Earth Power is for superb coverage along with Ice Beam, and beating Steel-Types and some Poison-Types that remove the Spikes that Tentacruel happily sets up.

• 
  Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
  Trait: Rain Dish
  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
  Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
  - Scald
  - Rapid Spin
  - Toxic Spikes
  - Protect

This thing just doesn't die under rain. It just doesn't. Tentacruel cant set up on so many pokes is ridiculous. I just laugh when people switch their Ferrothorn in as a "counter" to Tentacruel, and then BAM get burned by Scald in the face, and then Tentacruel becomes the counter. The Ground weakness sucks, but with Tentacruel's bulk, I can survive some weak Earthquakes, and some strong unSTABed ones, like Terrakion.

Scald is for STAB and for that lovely 30% chance of burning the opponent, which is precious. Scald also packs great power under rain, since Tentacruel has usable special attack to begin with. Rapid Spin is to spin away the fucking hazards that I fucking hate. Toxic Spikes is mainly to make Kyurem's stalling job much, much better and faster, and Protect is an amazing utility move, scouting choice users to know if I stay in and set-up Toxic Spikes or I go in the proper counter. Tentacruel also "semi counters" the Lati twins locked on everything but Psyshock, and Latias is a huge ass problem to take on if it's the Sub Calm Mind version.

One last look

Threats?

Special set-up Sweepers

These two can destroy me with the Calm Mind set. Latias fucks me up in the ass if it manages to get a sub up, and then just starts to set-up on my face. Fuck Gyro Ball with 8 PPs, man. Fuck that shit, seriously. I HOPE that I predict the Latias switch-in correctly with Politoed and toxic it, and let just pray that it's the Substitute version and not the Refresh version. If it's poisoned, then is much easier to handle, since Bronzong walls it.

However, Reuniclus straight up 6-0s me. No matter how you see it, I just cannot touch it. I can realy on Kyurem's Ice Beam, but after at least one boost, I just need to rely on a crit to eliminate it from the map. The only solution that kind of "fix" both weakness to Latias and Reuniclus is Perish Song > Toxic on Politoed, but to be honest I find Toxic way better, because I can cripple both Latias and Latios, but I don't know lol.

IMPORTABLE;

Hide

Politoed (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Kyurem @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 52 HP / 220 SAtk / 236 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Roost
- Substitute

Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SDef / 20 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Baton Pass
- Recover
- Psychic

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Whirlwind

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

Tentacruel (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Protect
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald

 

[Prinz]

Hey!

This is not a bad team. First of all, as you already said, I see that bulky Calm Mind users, such as Reuniclus and Latias can destroy your whole team after a setup and you can't do anything to eliminate them (you can only crit them but yeah you know that this isn't the best thing to deal with one threat since you can't always crit and you can't crit when you need it...), they can also setup easily on Politoed, Tentacruel, Bronzong and Celebi so they setups pretty easily on your team members and that's pretty bad too because if you're weak to a specific threat but you don't leave that it setups, it isn't a problem of course; but in this chance, as I already said you leave many chances to setup to Reuniclus and to Latias which can smash your team without any problem easily, so you should fix this weakness. To solve it without chance any Pokemon of your current team I suggest you to use Perish Song on your Celebi instead of Psychic which would allow you to block both Latias and Reuniclus and to force them to switch when they want to setup; with Perish Song Latias and Reuniclus aren't yet a big problem for your team but you should use Perish Song only when you really need it because it has only 8 PPs so your opponent can force you to use Perish Song, to finish all its PPs and then it can sweep you with Reuniclus/Latias. For this reason, you may try Perish Song also your Politoed probably instead of Toxic; I know that it's a very useful move because it allows you to poison badly a lots of thing such as Latios, Tyranitar, Ninetales and so on but since your team is REALLY weak to Latias, Reuniclus and in general against bulky setupper, you should try it too and see what happens. As last thing, I think you can try Giga Drain instead of Leaf Storm on your Celebi because it's simple better than Leaf Storm on any Specially Defensive Celebi as yours (and in general on a Defensive Celebi) since it hasn't an annoying drop and since it's a pseudo-recovery move as well which is useful to hit and to recover some HP at the same time.

Good luck.

 

[megacyber]

Hello there. I like the team overall, but why use baton pass over U-Turn on Celebi?
It has the same function that Baton Pass does, but it allows you to deal a bit of extra damage on Tyranitar.

 

[Honus]

Hey there, not a bad team.

Anyways I'm gonna start off by suggesting that you use Perish Song on Celebi over Psychic because of the threats you listed, latias and Reuniclus, Specially Defensive Celebi can tank their hits pretty easily and stall out with perish song; Bronzong's able to take boosted hits from Latias as well to help count down with Perish. Perish Song SpDef Celebi still beats Breloom if something's already slept and also allows it to counter SubCM Jirachi, which could prove really annoying for this team if it gets a Sub/CM under its belt and can batter down Bronzong. Celebi was also 100% setup bait for it in the past so that mitigates that a lot and really only makes Tenta or Politoed the only ones it could set up on, and only in a risk/reward situation, and you also have a hard counter to fall back on. I'd also consider changing Politoed to a Scarfed Version. It seems like teams that stack up sweepers like Terrakion/Luke/Scizor could also be kind of annoying and could maybe break through your core of steels; I think it would really benefit this team to have a revenge killer, and you wouldn't lose as much with Toed since Tenta is doing a very similar role. Additionally, it gives you a check to Nasty Plot Thundurus-T, who can prove to be a huge problem for this team, since he outspeeds Kyurem and can hit the whole team pretty hard across Thunder/Focus Blast/HP Ice, it could probably pull off a sweep pretty easily. Scarf Politoed gives you a check againt this Pokemon so you have a bit more definite answer to it if it gets loose. Finally I'd adjust some speed EVs. I'd run 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe on Skarmory which gets you to 180, a benchmark that Pokemon like CB Tar, Politoed and some stuff like Jellicent like to be at. I'd also change Tentacruel's spread to 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spe, so that you can outspeed stuff like Jirachi, Celebi and standard defensive Gliscor. That's pretty much it, gl!

Change Summary:

Celebi:
Psychic->Perish Song

Skarmory:
Current EVs->252 HP/240 Def/16 Spe

Tentacruel:
Current EVs->252 HP/212 Def/44 Spe

Politoed (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk) [modest works too]
- Surf / Hydro Pump
- Focus Blast
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]

 

[Blinder]

Wow, this is a pretty good team! Honestyl, without taking ideas from other people, the only thing that I can say is that Keldeo could do a number to your team between Hydro Pump and Secret Sword. Other than that, you're pretty good!
Also, to whoever said U-turn over Baton Pass, I believe that Baton Pass avoids Pursuit, while U-turn does not. I might be wrong though.

 

[Virtuous Vice]

See, Mamoswine can't fully slaughter you. You have great recovery and lefties so mamo can go die in a hole. You have spikes that you can also set up on him and Whirl Wind to do residual damage on the side. if you really want my suggestion, I would say that you should replace your Bronzong with Amoongus. Amoongus supports everything you need. It has good mixed defenses to best suit your team, Clear Smog support for a psuedo phazer, and has Regenorator. I am going to say that Bronzong is good for countering a Mamoswine, but you already have Skarmory. To make a believer out of you... here is some damage calcs (all use physically defensive skarmory and Jolly Mamoswine):

21% - 26.9% damage for Icicle Spear (all 5 hitting) from Choice Band Mamoswine
18% - 24% damage from Icicle Spear (all 5 hitting) from Life Orb Mamoswine
33.5% - 39.5% damage from Superpower from Choice Band Mamoswine
28.7% - 34.1% damage from Superpower from Life Orb Mamoswine
27.5% - 32.9% damage from StoneEdge from Choice Band Mamoswine
24% - 28.7% damage from StoneEdge from Life Orb Mamoswine
Ice Shard (at max) can only do 21.6% damage from the harder hitting Choice Band Mamoswine with an Adamant nature.
Superpower can only do 43.4% damage from the harder hitting CB Mamoswine with an Adamant nature. Not to mention since Superpower lowers your attack each use, so you can easily set up Roost the following turn where a) your opponent will switch out, or b) max do 29% with Adamant CB mamo.

Besides this, I have to say that there isn't much I can pick on you for. Set up sweepers won't give you too hard of a time now since you can put them to sleep and Clear Smog, or Whirl Wind. Have fun on the ladder and don't forget about the mamoswine calcs.

Amoongus Set

Amoongus @ Black Sludge
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 28 SpA / 228 SpD
Calm Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Clear Smog
- Spore

 

[SoulRed12]

Also, to whoever said U-turn over Baton Pass, I believe that Baton Pass avoids Pursuit, while U-turn does not. I might be wrong though.

This is right. Well, sort of. For either move, if you're slower than the opponent, they will use pursuit, and hit you for normal (40 BP) damage. But, if you're faster, then if you use baton pass, you'll be able to switch out and pursuit will hit the incoming pokemon for 40 BP, whereas if you use u-turn, pursuit will activate when you try to switch out for 80 BP. But, if you're going to use baton pass, I strongly recommend you switch to giga drain on Celebi, because baton pass will pass the stat drops from leaf storm. I wouldn't consider it redundant; I think it's much better to have as much recovery as possible when you're using a tank. Leaf storm should be reserved for sweepers or, better yet, revenge killers/choice users, since they generally switch out after hitting once anyway.

Your RestTalk Politoed isn't doing you any favors. You suggest it can absorb status, which is true, but aside from sleep the only reason it "absorbs status" is because it's functionally useless outside of drizzle so it doesn't matter what the opponent does to it. Even with sleep, though, it's still not very helpful. You mention Breloom. Imagine this scenario: Breloom uses spore, you use sleep talk. You have a 33% chance to do nothing (rest), 33% chance to activate his poison heal for him (toxic) and 33% chance to deal a maximum of 40% damage in the rain (scald). Scald's burn chance is 30% but since it's only a 1/3 chance of selecting that move, the chance goes down to 10%. When you consider that Breloom only needs to stall a single turn, which he can accomplish with the turn he uses to spore, realistically the burn chance is 0. At that point, Toed's really set-up bait for Loom, who will simply set up a sub and/or a swords dance and bullet seed him into oblivion:

252Atk Technician Breloom (+Atk) Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs 252HP/252Def Leftovers Politoed (+Def): 90% - 107% (348 - 414 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO. 45% chance to OHKO. [100% after stealth rocks]

252Atk +2 Technician Breloom (+Atk) Bullet Seed vs 252HP/252Def Leftovers Politoed (+Def): 119% - 141% (460 - 544 HP). Guaranteed OHKO.

I'd suggest replacing rest and sleep talk with other moves, so Toed can actually be of more use when it's awake (since when it's asleep it'll be useless either way). For example, ice beam to hit more things, perish song to force out set-up sweepers after a few turns, or protect to stall toxic or perish song. (or to troll Mienshao using hi jump kick, mwahahaha)

Just a note about Skarmory:

Roost is for reliable recovery and mitigating that Electric weakness and Ice neutrality

FYI, most of the pokemon who threaten Skarm with electric moves (E.g. Thundurus, Magnezone/ton, Jolteon, Rotom-W) will move much faster than Skarm, meaning you shouldn't rely on roost to protect yourself from them--just switch out. Protip: If Magnezone/ton comes in on you, use whirlwind, since the only way you're living (let alone getting a move off) is if they get cocky and try to set up a sub.

I <3 Bronzong and I think he's a no-brainer on a rain team. His entire weakness is negated in the rain. You might consider, however, giving him rain dance somewhere in case you lose a weather war. A lot of times people will suddenly stop protecting their weather inducer once they think they've won the weather war, so once you KO it, you can switch to Bronzong and set up your rain again. At the very least it'll remove THEIR weather.

I'm liking the SubRoost Kyurem. I've never seen it before.

Tentacruel's fine, too.

You might consider throwing a specially bulky swords-dance-Scizor in there somewhere if you're afraid of Latias or Reuniclus. Latias can only really hit with HP fire which is both weak and halved in the rain (though he might have surf if you're really unlucky) and Reuniclus can't do anything outside of focus blast which you can basically roost stall for a miss. And, Calm Minding won't do squat to protect either of them from a nice +2 bug bite. :)

 

[Zentrius]

Thanks for the rates guys!

@Alexander: Yup, just replaced Toxic with Perish Song on Politoed, it provides more utility. And yeah, Leaf Storm is redundant with Baton Pass. Went back with Gigadrain.

@Honus: Testing out the Tentacruel spread and that Politoed set (never thought of it's Choice Scarf set, looks like a great addition). However, I'm not so sure about Perish Song->Psychic on Celebi, since without it, I fail to damage Breloom at all if Skarmory is down.

@Virtuous Vice: Honestly, Amoonguss would be great, but that would make even more weak to Reuniclus in general. If I replace Bronzong, TR Reuniclus rapes me, and having another Psychic weakness does not help at all. Also, Skarmory can tank Mamoswine, but the real reason I have to resort on Bronzong is Icicle Crash and it's goddamn flinch rate, and also it does a huge amount of amage with a LO or CB.

@SouldRed12: Scizor could be amazing. Killing basically both Latias and Reuniclus unboosted with Bug Bite means a lot for me. The problem is to find a slot for it. I could replace Bronzong, but that means no SR, and I need to find a room for them on Celebi.

Thanks everybody on the suggestions! I'm definetely testing out Bulky SD Scizor and Honus' Choice Scarf set. Thanks a lot!