Rate-My-Team: A Shocking Discovery!

[Pikachu Belle]

Welcome to the Thread!

The name's Tammie and this is my team I shall be using at the VGC Tournament I'm going to in October. For you guys who know nothing about VGC, it's basically: Bring 6 Pokemon and use 4, Kalos dex only, doubles format, every Pokemon to level 50 and no duplicate items and such. I am a huge fan of doubles battles so this suits me quite well ^-^

Anyway, onto a little information on the team. I was previously going to have two megas but realized that I wanted to focus the whole team around one amazing Pokemon. Mega Manectric. So with that little info I'm gonna start listing my team.

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Manectric -> Mega Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod -> Intimidate
Nature: Timid
EV Spread: 6 HP, 252 Sp.Atk, 252 Spd
Moves
Thunderbolt
Flamethrower
Snarl
Protect
The core of my team. Timid was the obvious nature here as speed is key in VGC. Which is why there are max EVs in Speed. I chose Lightning Rod over Static as I wanted Manectric to be okay to switch in if there was a Rotom or fellow Manectric on the opposing team. A nice stat boost is always appreciated. Intimidate is for the physical attackers of course. Now onto the moves. Thunderbolt is for STAB. I opted for Flamethrower and Snarl over Overheat and HP Ice. I wasn't keen on the huge Sp. Atk decrease with Overheat and HP Ice didn't appeal to me. Snarl is for Aegislash and other special attacking Pokemon. Protect is obviously there to protect from my own earthquakes or the opponents. The EVs give Manectric massive hitting power and speed.

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Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Calm
EV Spread: 252 HP, 12 Def, 92 Sp.Atk, 148 Sp.Def, 4 Spd
Moves
Thunderbolt
Hydro Pump
Thunder Wave
Protect
Oh look.. Another washing machine. Anyway I've been meaning to train one of these guys for ages. They have rather good bulk and pretty good offense too. I opted for the Sitrus Berry to keep it alive for longer. I went for Calm as I wanted to most bulk against Solar Beams from Mega Charizard Y. With the EVs I went for max HP, 12 Def and 148 Sp.Def to make it quite bulky. As I wanted a bit more offense I went for 92 Sp.Atk EVs. The Speed EVs are to beat 0 Speed EV Rotoms. The moves are pretty standard. Two STAB moves, a status move and Protect. I went for Thunder Wave as I thought I don't really need WoW as I already have an Intimidater.

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Tyranitar @ ?
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Timid
EV Spread: 6 HP, 252 Sp.Atk, 252 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
Moves
Rock Slide
Dark Pulse
Fire Blast/Ice Beam
Protect
I bet ya'll are like.. She's mad but in reality this does actually exist. With this you can actually attack without being hindered by a burn. However I'm a little stumped on two things.. Item and the choice between two powerful moves. I'm already using a Life Orb on another Pokemon. So I was thinking maybe an Assault Vest or getting rid of Protect and giving it a Choice Scarf. Or maybe even a Smooth Rock to annoy people with the weather. Anyway the EVs are for maximum special offense and speed. The IVs are so that Rock Slide still does a decent amount of damage and gets the STAB like Dark Pulse. Plus both are flinching moves. Fire Blast is for Mega Mawile and Ferrothorn and Ice Beam is for Garchomp.

Okay these are the first 3 Pokemon. I'll be shortly adding the other 3 after this.

[CANDO]

its a good team overall, that move snarl is pretty good too

[Pikachu Belle]

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Talonflame @ Charti Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Adamant
EV Spread: 252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 Spd
Moves
Brave Bird
Tailwind
Quick Guard/Roost
Protect
Ah a Talonflame.. But this is slightly different. A supporting Talonflame :0 How different. Gale Wings is obviously the ability to choose. Dat priority Tailwind, BB and Roost though. Quick Guard is for annoying Mega Kangaskhan and other Talons. However Roost would be good for some decent recovery. Protect is self explanatory. I maxed EVs in HP and Atk as I believe Speed EVs are kind of pointless on a Talonflame that doesn't have Flare Blitz. Charti Berry is to weaken Garchomp's Rock Slide. Ouch.

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Mamoswine @ Focus Sash
Ability: Thick Fat
Nature: Adamant
EV Spread: 196 HP, 252 Atk, 60 Spd
Moves
Ice Shard
Earthquake
Icicle Crash
Protect
Standard bulky offensive Mamoswine. Thick Fat to resist Char Y's Heat Wave/Flamethrower. Adamant for all da power. Pretty self explanatory EVs. Decent bulkiness and max offense. The Speed EVs outspeed 4 Speed Rotom-Wash, which is a big threat to Mamoswine. The Focus Sash allows Mamoswine to survive a little bit longer. Ice Shard gives nice priority and STAB. Earthquake and Icicle Crash are there for big offense. And yet again Protect is there to allow Mamoswine to survive longer.

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Mienshao @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus (Back away Mega Kang and yo Fake Out)
Nature: Jolly
EV Spread: 252 Atk, 6 Def, 252 Spd
Moves
High Jump Kick
Fake Out
Stone Edge
Wide Guard/Quick Guard
I just love Mienshao. Like gurl you look fab. Anyway.. I chose Inner Focus mainly cause I absolutely hate flinches. Like.. I call hax when I get a flinch u.u Jolly for the maximum speed along with that maxed out Spd EVs. Speedy. Mienshao is my Fake Out support. Like I love dat. I love inflicting flinches but hate getting them.. huh. Anyway I chose High Jump Kick and Stone Edge for great power. Now the last move depends on how I feel.. See I hate Char Y's Heat Wave and Garchomp's Rock Slide so I'm leaning more to Wide Guard. I added Quick Guard just in case Talonflame died.

Anyway that's my team! Hope ya'll like it and I would love feedback :)

[Velocity]

Hey Tammie,

Before I begin the team analysis, I just want to say these are my opinions based on my experience with team building and VGC battling. Some people may disagree with them, but they are my personal opinions, so you can feel free to leave them if you don't like them or take the ones you do and sorry it's so long

The team is based around Mega Manectric, one of my favorite megas. Its ability, stats, and moveset are great and allow for a lot of creativity. I run the classic Overheat, Volt Switch, and HP ice on mine because I can switch out of the special attack drop, fire off more intimidates, and OHKO things that have the 4x ice weakness, but like you said, you like t-bolt, flamethrower, and snarl better. This allows mega manectric to stay in and continue attacking, as well as different coverage with snarl. This is also a less predictable set, so it should surprise opponents. In VGC, most people expect a standard moveset, so straying from that is definitely good to throw opponents off guard. The EVs and nature look good as well, outspeeding and hitting hard is crucial for manectric. A great choice to base your team around.

Rotom-W: The EVs and moveset are well thought out for this Pokemon. Being able to survive that charizard y solarbeam is huge. However, rotom doesn't have anything that can KO it after the solarbeam. Volt switch is a 2HKO and hydro pump is a 3hko in the sun that charizard y will induce, so I would just be sure something else is on the field that can finish off charizard. Also, another tip is in the speed EVs. I like the thought of outspeeding other rotoms, but many other people run this set as well. I've learned to give 12 in speed. That way you will outspeed other 4 speed EV rotoms. (8 wont work, it has to be 12). You can take these EVs out of defense as the defense boost isn't much.

Tyranitar: Special T-Tar!!! I love this because most people will expect physical T-tar and they can waste a turn WoWing you. Assault vest would be a good choice. I personally don't like choicing pokemon because I like the freedom, but assault vest in the sand can help you survive a lot attacks. This way you could get rid of protect, and put on ice beam for that extra coverage. All of the speed EVs may not be necessary however, and here's why: It outspeeds quite a few threats right now such as politoed and bisharp. But it can't OKHO a politoed and you have plenty of other counters for politoed and bisharp on your team. Also, bisharp isn't too terribly common. You may want to add some more bulk to it. What I would do is take away some speed Evs and put them into SpDef. I would go with 160 in speed, this allows you outspeed the next greatest threat, which is scrafty. The rest you can put into spdef to get even more bulk and take more advantage of the assault vest.

The reasoning behind the speed thing is because 252 speed and timid is is the max for ttar but some of this speed may be wasted. It might not need all that speed. What I did was looked at the pokemon it could outspeed with these stats, and scaled it down to what it needed to just outspeed those pokemon by 1 speed stat point. If you go to Nugget Bridge Speed Tiers you'll know what I mean.

Talonflame: I really like the set. Quick guard is great . I would definitely use that over roost because roost definitely provides them with a turn to set up or get some more damage off. Tailwind is a great choice to get that extra speed off. A solid choice.

Mamoswine: The EV spread looks good, and this really fits on your team to counter some of those big threats. The moveset is great as well. Not too much advice here, another good choice.

Mienshao: This is a good choice. I might get rid of the inner focus ability for regenerator. The reason for this is there is not a lot of stuff that can pose a huge flinch threat to mienshao. The main flinching moves are fake out, quick guard handles that, dark pulse, which is not very effective, and rock slide, which is also not very effective and wide guard takes care of. With the amount of switching done in the VGC format and competitive battling as a whole, regenerator will help and make up for some life orb recoil. This pokemon is a glass cannon though. High jump kick can be very predictable and with almost everything in VGC running protect, you may want to switch it out for a safer move. Stone edge has not very reliable accuracy but still a good choice nonetheless. The set I might run is drain punch for some hard hitting stab and recovery, stone edge, fake out, and wide guard because of those weaknesses to heat wave, rock slide, eq, etc, and talonflame already has quick guard.

Overall comments:
My first thought is the team is pretty frail. Rotom and ttar can tank some hits nicely and intimidate can stop some of those physical attackers pretty well, just something to think about.

Trick room is a big threat as the team is mainly speed oriented. I would run taunt on a pokemon somewhere (probably talonflame) to stop trick room and many other strategies.

The team has a major weakness to water, grass, and ground. The set that comes to mind is mega gyarados. Sure, you have the electriciy to stop it, but with many running a variant of Sejun Park's team, the electricity could be nullified. You do have counters to these types, but that counter may faint earlier in the match or it might not be on the field when needed.

My last bit of advice is to PRACTICE. Many strategies may work perfectly on paper, but one move or item can stop that strategy in its tracks. Battle spot doubles is the best way. It's not all VGC, but still... it really helps you see what people will try to run and you can think of ways to stop them. Also, take note of the Pokemon you bring to these battles. Many people find themselves bringing the same 4 or 5 pokemon to each battle, always leaving one behind. If you find yourself doing this and almost never bringing one of your pokemon to a battle, you could switch it out for something that covers your team's weaknesses better.

These are just some basic ideas of mine for your team. Everything looks great and is very well thought out! I wish you luck in your tournament and in VGC in the future. Hope this helped some.

[ThePreachingOcelot]

Hey, my bother is doing VGC this year

He's bringing a Samurott, so you'll know its him if you see a fishy feind in VGC

He's also bringing a Hawlucha.

You will do very well, the only common weaknesses I see are in the manetric and the tyranitar. But, you have plenty of EQ-Counters, and the Tyranitar could easily tank EQ's and Earth Power due to Tyranitars amazing defenses.

I think you could do really well. Use the "Special" battles section on Rated Battles on Battle Spot, as they use VGC battling styles there.


Best of luck, that team looks really threatening to any battler. Have lots of fun and destroy those in your path!

[Pikachu Belle]

Hey, my bother is doing VGC this year

He's bringing a Samurott, so you'll know its him if you see a fishy feind in VGC

He's also bringing a Hawlucha.

You will do very well, the only common weaknesses I see are in the manetric and the tyranitar. But, you have plenty of EQ-Counters, and the Tyranitar could easily tank EQ's and Earth Power due to Tyranitars amazing defenses.

I think you could do really well. Use the "Special" battles section on Rated Battles on Battle Spot, as they use VGC battling styles there.


Best of luck, that team looks really threatening to any battler. Have lots of fun and destroy those in your path!

Just so your brother knows, Samurott isn't allowed in VGC 14 style battles.

[The Kiwi Dragon]

I'll do a rundown of this team when I get five minutes or so.

[Pikachu Belle]

I'll do a rundown of this team when I get five minutes or so.

No need to Nick, kinda gave up with VGC.

[The Kiwi Dragon]

No need to Nick, kinda gave up with VGC.

Oh... Why's that?

[ThePreachingOcelot]

Just so your brother knows, Samurott isn't allowed in VGC 14 style battles.

Sorry bout' that! I meant a Relicanth!

I don't know why I said Samurott, but I was using one on a battle on a passerby during the time of me posting that. How awkward!