Legendary Pokémon

Team Metasweep!

Introduction


Hello everyone ! This is my first Rate My Team ever containing the team I used in the Spring U.E.P.C 2011 Wi-Fi Tournament.It is a team based on a FGW core as I love this kind of offensive teams.This is the best team I’ve ever had and it had quite good results until I lost in the round of 16 by Seafunks (because I forgot to add vacuum wave to Infernape and lost from Lucario's vaccuum wave -.-).I have also peaked at #4 on Pokebattle Center with this team.This is my favourite team by far so I decided to make this RMT.Enjoy!

Team Overview







Team In Depth


Azelf @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Flamethrower
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion



EVs/Item/Nature: I think the ev's are self-explanatory.252 Speed Ev's to have a speed tie with other Azelf leads and Starmie leads.252 SpA ev's are here to make Flamethrower hit harder since Explosion doesn't really need a power boost.

Moveset: Stealth rock is here so that I can turn some 2HKO to OHKO.Taunt prevents opponents with lower speed to set up their entry hazards which cause problems to Gyarados and Infernape.Flamethrower is here because Psychic is resisted by many leads and because I wanted the accuracy that Fire Blast doesn’t provide to me.Explosion can be very useful if I predict right and kill an opponent’s pokemon with it.

Team Role: Azelf’s role to this team is very simple.The only thing I want from Azelf is to set up stealth rock and kill as many pokemon it can before it dies.

Opinion:I believe that Azelf is one of the best suicide leads if not the best.It sets up stealth rock most times and can prevent the opponent’s lead from getting its own stealth rock.Really useful for offensive teams.

Teambuilding Process: When I chose Azelf I had in mind that I wanted a lead that would suit with my team’s style.This means that I needed a lead which could easily set up stealth rock and prevent slower leads from setting up.Furthermore,most times,it doesn’t need team support so that makes it even better as a lead for my team as I don’t have to sacrifie/reveal any of my pokemon so that Azelf can set up(unless the opponent's lead is called Crobat/Jirachi/Aerodactyl).




Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP / 72 Atk / 84 Def / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Taunt
- Dragon Dance
- Stone Edge



Ev’s/Item/Nature: This is the classic spread for the Bulky Dragon Dance Gyarados which allows me to outspeed Starmie after just 1 Dragon Dance and KO it with Stone Edge if it has taken any prior damage.

Moveset:The moveset is self-explanatory.Waterfall is its powerfull stab,Taunt prevents the opponents from using stat moves on it which would just ruin Gyarados.Dragon Dance is … Dragon Dance in a Bulky Dragon Dance set and Stone Edge is here so that it can hit other Gyarados,Zapdos,Togekiss e.t.c

Team Role: Its role in the team is quite important as it provides a very useful ground immunity and can deal with important threats such as Heatran and Scizor which cause problems to infernape and metagross;in other words,its job is to beat any pokemon that can stop my main sweepers(infernape,metagross).What is more is that under circumstances Gyarados can be a very powerful sweepers itself and wreck teams.

Opinion:I really like this Gyarados as it’s powerfull,bulky and …. very cool.It can easily set up on many scarfed pokemon such as Heatran and Flygon and then hit hard.

Teambuilding Process: I wanted a water pokemon for my offensive FGW core which would provide me with useful resistances and immunities and which would cooperate well with celebi and infernape checking many of the threats that the opponent pose to them such as Scizor and scarfed Heatran.




Celebi @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 228 HP / 236 SAtk / 44 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Recover



Ev’s/Item/Nature: This is the classic spread for the offensive supporter celebi.HP ev’s are here to make it bulky;Sp.Atk ev’s make it hitting quite hard and 44 Speed Evs allow it outspeed some important threats such as Suicune,Brelloom,Tyranitar etc and deal a big amount of damage or make them useless using thunder wave.

Moveset: Leaf Storm is its main powerful STAB making it able OHKO many pokemon such as offensive CM Suicune.Psychic deals with annoying fight pokemon such as Machamp and Brelloom.Thunder Wave is very useful as it can ruin incoming faster pokemon such as Heatran if I predict correctly while recover allows it recover itself.

Team Role: Its role is to deal with annoying bulky water like Vaporeon and Suicune and other pokemon which otherwise would pose a big problem to my team such as Tyranitar and Brelloom.It can also help the its teammates by spreading status and absorbing status because of its excellent ability,natural cure.

Opinion: I really like this thing because it’s like a joker;you can never know what it is.Personally I think it’s the best grass pokemon in the current metagame being able to run viarious roles in a team.It can be a supporter,a wall,a sweeper,a renenge killer,a scarfer and even a lead.

Teambuilding process: I wanted a grass type for my core that could support the team in a variety of ways.Shaymin was another viable option too but I’ve chosen Celebi for its better movepool and its versatility,not to mention the Psychic resistance which really helps Infernape.Then I had to choose which set I would use.There are many sets for celebi but I think that’s the most balanced and the one that suits better to my team,being able to support and sweep at the same moment.




Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 60 Atk / 252 SAtk / 196 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Close Combat
- Fire Blast
- Grass Knot
- Vacuum Wave


Ev’s/Item/Nature: This is a spread for a mixed sweeper Infernape,based on the smogon one with a minor change.I gave +4 ev’s to speed so that I can outspeed every other mixed Infernape which will try to beat mine with close combat.I know it’s a bit strange thought but it’s still effective xD

Moveset: Close Combat and Fire Blast are its powerfull stabs which OHKO many annoying pokemon and walls such as Skarmory,Foretress and Blissey.Grass Knot is here to deal with bulky waters such as Swampert and weakened Suicune and also kill walls like Hippowdon.Last but not least Vaccuum wave is here ,instead of hidden power ice, to provide my team with the valuable priority which my team doesn’t have.

Team Role: Its role is to clean late game and break defencive cores such as Skarmbliss which otherwise get on my nerves.Very simple and important at the same moment,especially if I face stall.

Opinion: The Ape is my favourite mixed sweeper as it can easily break defensive cores and is a decent late game cleaner.The only problems it has is its low defenses which doesn’t allow it switch in easily.Plus I wish this thing had a little higher speed so that it could outspeed gengar which easily KOes Infernape with Shadow Ball.

Team Building Process: When I’ve started building my core I really wanted to have infernape included in it.I had made many FGW teams in the past and all of them had the same problem: Stall,which could easily beat my teams due to the absence of a mixed sweeper.So I’ve chosen not to use Heatran,which has better typing and more power as a special sweeper, and use infernape so that I could beat stall.


Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- ThunderPunch
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Outrage


Ev’s/Item/Nature: It’s jolly because I don’t want to be outsped by other scarfed Flygon,its ev’s are self-explanatory for a physical choice scarfer.

Moveset: Earthquake and Outrage are its powerful STABs,u-turn helps me get out when I predict that the opponent will switch and thunderpunch is here to hit Gyarados with 2 DD or less and other pokemon like Skarmory(although it will never win this pokemon).

Team Role:Its role is to deal with the dragons that threaten my team and also make Metagross’ and Infernape’s sweep much more easy by killing their main threats.Plus it provides my team with useful resistances and completes the core’s synergy.

Opinion: In my opinion flygon is one of the better scarfers in the current metagame if not the best.It can easily beat every other scarfer but starmie and Gengar with HP ice,easily.Plus its excellent typing enables it to have easy switch in’s.Of course,it’s not perfect; it’s main disadvantage is the fact that other pokemon can easily set up on it if the opponent predicts correctly.

Team Building Process: When I finished building my core I had to find a nice scarfer that could beat dragons and also provide useful resistances to my team.So I came up with flygon which easily fulfils this role and is also one of the best scarfers in the current OU metagame.




Metagross @ Life Orb
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 196 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Agility
- Ice Punch
- Meteor Mash



Ev’s/Item/Nature : I've chosen a jolly nature and 196 Speed Ev's so that i can outspeed scarfed flygon just after one agility.252 Atk ev's are here along with Life Orb to make up for the loss of power due to Jolly Nature.All the other Evs are just to make it a bit bulkier.

Moveset: Agility is here to give it the speed which needs to sweep; meteor mash is its powerfull STAB which sometimes give me a nive +1 to Atk; earthquake is here to hit opposing heatran which I outspeed after 1 agility and last but not least ice punch which gives me some nice coverage and also hits gliscor and dragons who otherwise put problems to my team(especially dragons).

Team Role:Its role to the team is pretty simple: finish matches.And it usually sweeps in the late game when its threats are weakened or killed.Usually when I manage to get an agility late game, I win but that doesn’t happen always.

Opinion: This thing is just a beast after 1 agility since it outspeeds every non scarfer and scarfers which are slower that flygon.It is much better when facing offensive orientied team but under circumstances it does well facing stall(physical walls removed).When facing stall its role changes because it can't sweep a stall team easily so it just has to deal with some threats that threaten infernape (which is my main sweeper when facing stall).

Team Building Process: I had 5 pokemon ready for my team and I had to choose the last member of the team which would also be my main sweeper.I wanted a powerful sweeper which would allow me finish matches against weakened teams.At first I had chosen tyranitar but it didn’t work well so I had to find a new one.While we were talking with Cool Ivysaur I’ve asked for his opinion and suggested this pokemon.I’ve tried it and worked really well so I kept it.



Main Team Threats
Red indicates big and difficult to face threat while Orange is for Medium and possible to face threats.


Offensive Dragon Dance Dragonite : This guy can easily destroy my team if Flygon is killed.Otherwise Flygon revenge kills it and Gyarados can intimidate it and then KO it with Stone Edge.Also Metagross wins it but only with an agility boost.

Scarfed Flygon : It can be annoying as hell but i can kill it with my own Flygon hoping that i win the speed tie,Gyarados can intimidate it and set up on it if locked in a move but thunderpunch and last Metagross kills it at +2.

Scarfed Gengar : Probably the biggest thread to my team and if Flygon is gone my only hope is Metagross.Luckily people prefer to use Gengar in other roles.

Agility Metagross : This is another problematic pokemon to face.However depending on it's moveset i counter it.If it goes with ThunderPunch/Zen Headbutt Celebi Counters it as well as Flygon kills it(hoping it doesn't have the same spread with my own Metagross xD).If it runs ice punch then Gyarados can set up on it.

Starmie : Generally this pokemon gets on my nerves and in order to kill it must sacrifie something most times to be able to kill it with either Celebi or Flygon.

Stall : This playstyle is the most difficult to face due to face at least in PO due to Rotom Forms which are impossible to encounter in wi-fi without hacking.The only ways i have to win it is good prediction,Infernape and ...... Taunt : P

Importable:

Credits to Cool Ivysaur that helped me improve this team.

Do you accept challenges in pokemon online? I would love to test my team.

Yes,pm me when you want to battle.

Can you make a threat list plz?

I think there is no reason to make one.Personally,i think that threat lists are not usefull at all because they talk about a pokemon like the opponent is completely stupid and just stays in regardless what am i doing.Not to mention that i am bored to write one

P.S: I may add one if i have time.
P.S.1 : I can add which pokemon cause problems to my team which is more useful IMO.

Sorry about the spam, but I'd like to add that the post above is totally wrong .
On a more related note (hope this is grammatically correct xD), you could try this:

Azelf
Jolly@Colbur Berry
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- U-turn
- Explosion
29 SpA IV
8 HP / 140 Atk / 144 SpD / 216 Spe EVs

Helps you play 6vs6 instead of 5vs6 on some occasions.

After a really long time and considering some of the rates i got from smogon ,i've made several corrections to the team but i think it can still be improved.So i edited the text to correct any spelling and grammatical mistakes and to add the changes.I've also included a mini threat list and also a video i had uploaded to help you rate the team.I hope i'll get some more rates now;it can't be that bad and difficult to rate