4x Weak to Stealth Rock kills anything not named Zapdos. End of story.
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The Legendary Birds and YOU
- Thread starter kanak0
- Start date
the main reason why GrowthTran was popular was because Tangrowth and Heatran both mutually benefitted from the set-up that was occuring. none of your "protector" sets are actually creating a set-up for the birds. sure, there are pokes that work well together, but it's not exactly "the Articuno strategy" to use a Donphan on the same team...
How about Poliwrath for a partner for Moltres? It gets Water Absorb, and its Fighting type hinders any Rock attacks thrown Moltres's way. It also has respectable base defensive stats (90 HP, 95 Defense, 90 Special Defense). Here's what I'm thinking:
Poliwrath
EVs: 252 HP, 170 Attack, 88 Special Defense
Nature: Jolly
Item: Salac Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
1. Hypnosis/Stone Edge
2. Bulk Up
3. Brick Break
4. Earthquake
I realize that they both share an Electric weakness, but before you start throwing full wine bottles at your monitor, check out these calculations.
Timid Magnezone's Thunderbolt against Poliwrath with 252 HP and 88 Sp. Defense EVs: 81.25% - 95.57%
Timid Jolteon's Thunderbolt against Poliwrath with 252 HP and 88 Sp. Defense EVs: 72.40% - 85.16%
Jolly Electivire's Expert Belt-boosted Thunderpunch against Poliwrath with 252 HP and zero Defense EVs: 77.86% - 91.67%
And these are all assuming you haven't used Bulk Up at all yet or don't correctly predict their switch-ins. These damage ranges comfortably allow Poliwrath to activate its Salac Berry and use Bulk Up on the same turn (or Hypnosis, then Bulk Up [or Hypnosis when they come in!]), then proceed to pwn 'em all (except Jolteon, unless you predict his switch-in correctly). You'll have dashingly countered their Electric-type, and as a plus, Blissey can't come in on this thing without being massively crippled. Of course, Claydol, Azelf, and Starmie totally still destroy you, but that's what they make Mirror Coat Gastrodon for, right?
Poliwrath
EVs: 252 HP, 170 Attack, 88 Special Defense
Nature: Jolly
Item: Salac Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
1. Hypnosis/Stone Edge
2. Bulk Up
3. Brick Break
4. Earthquake
I realize that they both share an Electric weakness, but before you start throwing full wine bottles at your monitor, check out these calculations.
Timid Magnezone's Thunderbolt against Poliwrath with 252 HP and 88 Sp. Defense EVs: 81.25% - 95.57%
Timid Jolteon's Thunderbolt against Poliwrath with 252 HP and 88 Sp. Defense EVs: 72.40% - 85.16%
Jolly Electivire's Expert Belt-boosted Thunderpunch against Poliwrath with 252 HP and zero Defense EVs: 77.86% - 91.67%
And these are all assuming you haven't used Bulk Up at all yet or don't correctly predict their switch-ins. These damage ranges comfortably allow Poliwrath to activate its Salac Berry and use Bulk Up on the same turn (or Hypnosis, then Bulk Up [or Hypnosis when they come in!]), then proceed to pwn 'em all (except Jolteon, unless you predict his switch-in correctly). You'll have dashingly countered their Electric-type, and as a plus, Blissey can't come in on this thing without being massively crippled. Of course, Claydol, Azelf, and Starmie totally still destroy you, but that's what they make Mirror Coat Gastrodon for, right?
Heatran showed them, didn't he?
This is a interesting idea. Any water type without Thunderbolt will switch out when they see Poliwrath which gives you time to Bulk up. I will gives this a try on Shoddy later on. May I edit this into the original post?
Donphan sets up the Stealth Rock so Articuno can shuffle the opponents the team fairly effectively. He also spins away spikes on your side of the field, one of which can deal 50% to Articuno as soon as it switches in. It's certainly a well-thought out combination, at least as good as "Salamence and Jirachi" or "Gyarados and Rhyperior".
If protecting a Pokemon from something that can murder it (Stealth Rock) and from an attack type that is x4 effective isn't "protecting", I don't know what is.
Well said. This is the point that I have been trying to make. I hope more people can think of sets that work like Donphan/Articuno and possibly Poliwrath/Moltres.
Agreed. I'm reading smogon while trying to catch a decent Moltres but I keep getting ones with either crap stats or the wrong nature. I'm using a master ball - it must be even worse if you've just got ultras.
People are forgetting something key about Articuno - it knows tailwind - which is one of the best (and rarest) moves in the game. In a 2vs2 team with Abomasnow - for 100% Blizzard accuracy - there's real potential there.
Does Tailwind boost the speed of both pokemon in 2v2?
Hey at least you're not trying to get a certain Hidden Power with the right nature =/
But Articuno can do more then die...
Ice Shard/Tailwind/Reflect/U-Turn can be used to set up a sweeper with weak defenses. Ice Shard something weak. Throw up a reflect or Tailwind then U-Turn out.
I think Mesprit and Articuno work well together. Mesprit uses Thunder Wave to paralyze things and then switches to bring in Articuno. Articuno can reflect/roar it out and the paralyzed pokemon won't be able to do much. Mesprit also helps Donphan/Skarmory to set up spikes more reliably for Articuno. My advice is to have more than one pokemon paralyzed of course. I would have suggested Togekiss but she is a flying type and it's never good to have that many flying types on a team.
Ack, totally forgot about this thread. Yes, you may.
I know Cuno can do more than just die. But lets face it. With Stone edge and Stealth rock being so prevalent, thats what he'll be doing most. So why not go out with a bang? And Cuno's crap attack can't really support Ice Shard.