Dancing in the Drought! : Teambuild VGC15!

Hi guys so today I am back with another team that I built a while ago, as some may have suspected from the obvious, or not the most obvious title, that the sun was included in with it with probably the move dragon dance, you would be right to say so however not in the way’s you’d expect them to be in. also a major point to note this team is written on 22 of august so don’t expect it to function well in the meta, especially how drastically it would change during and after the worlds, it is considered to be my last pre-worlds successful VGC 15 format team, which is quite a sad and amazing accomplishment in the way it would be the last from a time ;(. Anyway enough of me loafing around with my words, Let’s get started:

Teambuilding Though and Process:

So i was lately interested in using some of the following ideas in my new teams:

. Ninetales with drought to support in some manner just like how toler webb played his politoed.

. Mega –Salamence interested me.

. Wanted to test CM mega-audino (which worked for a bit and for a lot), but just let’s forget that.

. Salamence’s pairing especially with clefable and their coverage over threats interested me.

Soon after picking up these few ideas I started to work and build around them. I started with t-wave clefable and the “old is gold” DD salamence which was total destruction in my opinion and these two were best friends, then I added on a ninetales and soon realized how well it actually synergized with mega salamence *I’ll be explaining that, don’t get me wrong here* and then took notes which came out lando-t and milotic for me then I slapped on a venusaur which synergized greatly and formed quite nice quartz core. I literally slap on lando-t because flinch hax can get very real and clutch plus it helped me with some weaknesses. Last slot would have to be m-audino which worked great in the first few tests when it came out to be the MVP but then dropped and and got something much more useful which if I tell now you’ll skip the post if you haven’t already after hearing about name of ninetales and DD m-salamence.

The Team:

Salamence @ Salamencite  
Ability: Intimidate  
EVs: 100 HP / 196 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 204 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Dragon Claw  
- Dragon Dance  
- Double-Edge  
- Protect

So let us start with the person that started the team. Salamence is a great mega evolution especially for the fact that it is put over the 100 speed benchmark and outspeed basically the whole metagame if non-scarfed like landorus and etc. I hate and love the design as I got used to seeing it often, but seriously gamefreak could’ve done better doing this mega. Funnily enough normal type moves prove to be the best in the meta, something I took note of was that kang, Sylvie, garde and even salamence the beast itself takes advantage from them. Let’s head into the salamence I used.

Salamence is and will be the most used mega evolution probably this whole season. Salamence’s DD potential soon lost for idk what reasons and I hate the ultra-frail naïve one’s who acquire mixed attacks I never played around it and probably never ever will, but DD salamence was something I wanted to use for the whole season. The EV spread is stolen by which I mean copied sorry borrowed is the word, from Black 17’s recent team report from pokemonforever.com’s forums, that I just read while working on the team in practice and then it was destined to meet me, the set didn’t had many attack EV’s but was quite bulky one it even survives HP-ice from 252 sp.atk thundurus and lando’s RS 3HKO’es it. but after a single DD it is now faster and stronger than any opposition, the spread and set is simple to deal damage. I originally ran double edge on this mon over return and thought of replacing clefable’s protect for heal pulse to help the cause but that didn’t worked out in the way intended. Hence after a suggestion from a friend I replaced it for return to still be able to do the damage while not getting unnecessary recoil, in some practice games which hindered me and turned soon into my losing condition forcefully.

Clefable @ Rocky Helmet  
Ability: Magic Guard  
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 SpD  
Calm Nature  
- Follow Me  
- Moonblast  
- Protect  
- Thunder Wave

Next thing i put on was clefable for the reasons that how well it handled other dragon moves ,probably to be ore true it was immune to the type and covered quite well in the sense for mega salamence. Clefable knows what to do the best for itself and the team members with follow me redirection. This simple yet deadly lead combination interested me as you probably have read . Clefable I gave thunder wave over icy wind for the reason that how well it handled ludicolo which is how mostly bait salamence with and it can paralyze back so that I can OHKO the next turn, the fact it quite amazing that thunder wave can single handedly take care of most rain teams, especially if ran with scarf and swift wim poli and ludi respectively, moonblast waves good bye’s to any left hydreigon on the fields as well as the annoyance of scrafty.

Now comes the EV spread’s why and why not’s. I was quite confused B/w two things one being the physical EV’s despite I have 2x intimidaters on the team and W-o-W and about the thought of running heal pulse over protect as for the sake of double edge salamence. (don’t kill me for the reasons that the EV’s were just spilled on it as to go for practice) but everything I said myself proved me wrong and the perfect spread pops up into the mind for a specially bulky clefable, but how and why even was it any good? My team naturally had a awesome tendency to punish any physical attacks *psst except bisharp* but ninetales further handles it though. And then I though most teams had ways of countering fairies through flash cannon with the ever so popular aegislash and heatran on almost every teams they had built. This special spread can take advantage of salamence and lando, further not to mention the W-o-W from ninetales while tanked special hits extremely well. The reason that I had a rocky helmet explained how well were these physical teams handled by my side.

Ninetales @ Expert Belt  
Ability: Drought  
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 12 SpA / 12 SpD / 20 Spe  
Modest Nature  
- Overheat  
- Will-O-Wisp  
- Protect  
- Disable

Ninetales was the third member of the team so let’s just get to the reasons that I put it here: first of all I was trying to try out this mon badly, secondly it provided coverage options against rain for m-salamence because both the weathers including sand and rain are the most common and can give salamence a though challenge when fighting in their weather of choice, but ninetales disrupts that thing. The third reason comes in as for the type synergy value of it, it can take any ice beams for salamence whenever needed and steel type attacks for clefable and then handled both these type fairly well.

This is the most EV efficient Ninetales spread you ever saw, yet I’ll explain it, I always though ninetales can never have a good spread with a number of goals but with this team there’ all fulfilled. With the speed investment it can outspeed any bisharps which are a great threat to the team considering double intimidates and then bash back with a overheat or burn them, depending on the situation and item they have. Most of it went to Physical bulk to make it survive rock and ground attacks after intimidate or two*psst! landorus intended*, the sp.atk investment with modest nature and expert belt allows it to OHKO standard 252/252/4 aegislash with an overheat that can be an annoyance for my first two pokemons, and without expert belt this would take around 108 EV’s. Don’t take me wrong but disable is the best move and the one of win condition: e.g I am left in a 2 on 1 vs a ludiculo in rain, ludiculo tries to ice beam my salamence to OHKO it followed by the next turn scalding ninetales, this fails because when I protect salamence or say anything else in their cases to disable the ‘threat move’, it turns into my win condition very soon.

Venusaur @ Weakness Policy  
Ability: Chlorophyll  
EVs: 100 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 148 Spe  
Modest Nature  
- Sludge Bomb  
- Giga Drain  
- Protect  
- Hidden Power [Ice]

This wasn’t ever yet intended to be a sun team nor I took it as, but soon on note taking made me realize lando-t was one of the biggest threats to the team, hence I thought of needing an ice type move that goes before it and OHKO’es it, yes chlorophyll venu then came to mind! Though you still may think it wouldn’t ever work but the fact that most venu’s carry a 3^rd status move after sludge bomb and giga drain baits in everything and swipes off threats like m-salamence and landorus. Though ninetales’ turn one sun gives it an advantage to boost up the speed without wasting the turn one on protect.

 With the investments made in speed and sp.atk it surely does so and the remainder got tossed into the bulk, it also takes out any salamence who it baits and they don’t expect it either. Weakness policy is an item I choose that came to great use, especially when I ran into opposing milotics 100% from team preview considering 2x intimidaters and then into a blind icy wind that activated the policy and also after consequently getting hit by cress’ weak psychic attacks. Venu was the last member of the overall core with which I wanted to complete the full team. If milotic is played into intimidate venusaur is a really clutch counter to milotic’s usual icy wind and saves big games. Next I wanted to cover up what the core left out.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf  
Ability: Intimidate  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Rock Slide  
- Earthquake  
- Knock Off  
- U-turn

Lando-t was just slapped on the team I won’t lie about it, after I tempted to want a spread move in many matches, yes now here comes the best move in the game, rock slide from this mon can help me win with luck sometimes which is worth it, plus it’s only job regarding the overall team was to provide intimidate and OHKO charizard and heatran’s both that kinda walled/semi walled the core. It takes great cover from the drought from weaker/bulkier water types while wearing them off with rock slides. I choose a simple spread to maximize my chances of getting flinch haxes against others plus I didn’t wanted to spread the EV’s all over for any reason nor did I tempted in any game, as far as bisharp sucker punches are considered, ninetales takes very well care for it and it’s switch in synergy with the overall team for defensive purposes isn’t the worst. I choose stone edge over super power/knock off at first to counter wide guard with fire type shenanigans it saved me against a quiver dance volc and wide guard aegi lead once, phew! It was relieving! But then the theory was proven wrong with taunt from sawk I was able to handle such situations fairly well enough and cress and goth, intending to say bulky psychic types sat around chipping e off in most of the games which did gave me issues in some of my games, so knock off was replaced for stone edge soon, + all that, knock off on such faster mons, removes bands, specs to lower damage output from opposing pokemons, plus reveals the item info in early game, if I ever need to tempt for getting through my opponent’s team, especially in the Bo3 formats.

Sawk @ White Herb  
Ability: Inner Focus  
Level: 50  
EVs: 108 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 140 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Close Combat  
- Quick Guard  
- Taunt  
- Protect

So this was the time of serious note taking, soon after dropping the very idea of a CM sweeper audino i came up to the following conclusions from the extensive practice notes I took in common:

. Team needed a better way to best m-kangaskhan.

. Team had no defense against trick room.

Then I found the world’s best pokemon to do both the jobs perfectly.  Yup by which I mean sawk, with the amazing-amazing inner focus ability it was able to easily counter m-kangaskhan’s fake out + taunt any trick room lead thingie with it’s taunt which would be 100% guaranteed, agin to prove how big of an idiot was I, I ran double kick while having the best ways to counter bisharp and terrakion, this move wasn’t getting used at all but the fact that a well played thundurus can cut through his team completely made quick guard the ideal choice. Because of such a picky moveset for the specified meta, sawk isn’t brought to deal heavy damage to oppositions as others do but it shines in the games where others don’t. sawk makes an important slot on the team despite the lack of it’s usage in most battles.

 The speed EV’s were simply invested to outspeed jolly breloom by one point and maximized attack for kang purposes the remainder tossed into defensive things for considering the fact that it can take atleast one or two hits, surprisingly to notice sawk isn’t ever supposed to be a forced sash variant either, it is a decent mon with which such bulk investments it can tank weaker hits. White herb is an extremely interesting item I choose over the thought of constant intimidates incoming from extremely common stuff like salamence and landorus-t and also the recovery of the terrible things like it’s own close combat +icy wind speed control move, white herb surely shone out in the matches it is brought and pays off as an sawk-ish item choice.

Overall points on the team:

. The team can abuse physical attackers to their fullest with 2x intimidates, rocky helmet redirection and even that W-o-W from ninetales.

. The team overall had many lead combinations to pull against different teams.

. The team’s strats included many switching in to put itself in a better position, it was often played quiet conservatively.

. The team proved to be anti-meta completely and abused many things that came around it.

Conclusion:

I don’t have much to conclude with but make sure this team won’t function as well when the post goes up as this post was written and all locked up on the date : 8/22/15. It was an awesome team to work with and play especially considering the things like ninetales and salamence that I included in their for fun and was able to build an extremely good team around the ideas interesting me. Anyways hoped you guys liked such an idea for the team and enjoyed going through the post. Bye for now!