For those of you wondering about the POTW, it will be posted tomorrow at latest. Midterms suck and I've just now gotten around to it.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
In today's lesson, I'm going to teach all you little chitlins how to build your very own theme team by demonstrating how I did it in one of mine.
Step 1-
Pick a pokemon that you are absolutely in love with. It doesn't matter if it's an OU or a BL or a UU, I've made Butterfree teams that absolutely rap3. Within reason- Luvdisc and company are excluded for the obvious reasons.
I started with one of my favorites (but not my all-time; that position is saved for Arcanine), Ampharos.
Step 2-
Analyze its movepool, ability, and stats. Going back to Ampharos:
Base Stats
90 HP
75 ATK
75 DEF
115 SPATK
90 SPDEF
55 SPD
Okay, so we now know that he's got pretty good spatk, good hp, decent attack, and crappy speed. Keep that in mind as we move along.
The single ability is Static.
On to the Movepool- excluding crappy moves like Tackle, Thundershock, etc.
Physical Attacks
Focus Punch
Thunderpunch
Iron Tail
Facade*
Giga Impact
Take Down
Body Slam
*if you're ever using this, make sure it's on something with Guts and a Toxic/Flame orb equipped to maximize damage. You won't last long, though.
Okay, so not quite the broadest spectrum of physical attacks. On to special:
Special Attacks
Discharge
Signal Beam
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power
Focus Blast
Charge Beam
Power Gem
Thunder
Status Attacks
Safeguard
Screech
Reflect
Light Screen
Toxic
Rain Dance
Rest
Attract
Thunder Wave
Cotton Spore
Substitute
Sleep Talk
Okay, so a rather limited movepool, a pretty decent selection of status attacks.
So working from here:
Ampharos*SubTeacher (i.e. Substitute Teacher ^-^) @ Leftovers (or Expert Belt, doesn't really matter)
Static
Brave (+ Atk - Spd)
252 spatk/176 atk/80 spd
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Thunderbolt
-HP Grass/Ice/Power Gem
So since poor Amphy has next to no speed at this point, we're going to give him a buddy that's kind enough to lend him an Agility or two.
Step 3-
Choose a pokemon that will complement him.
Since we need to get Ampharos some speed up in heah, we're going to use a AgiliPassing Jolteon. Ninjask or anyone else works just as well, it's up to personal preference.
Jolteon**iFastur @ Leftovers
Volt Absorb
Timid (+ Spd -Atk)
100 spatk/252 spd/156 hp
-Substitute
-Baton Pass
-Agility
-Thunderbolt
Step 4-
Redo step 2. Cutting to the chase, I chose Starmie. Coss it's purty. n_n
Starmie**H4XStar
Natural Cure
Timid (+ Spd - Atk)
-Ice Beam
-Surf
-Recover
-Rapid Spin
Doubles as a rapid spinner as well as a pretty potent RSpinner for those pesky Spikez.
Step 5-
Fill in the rest of your party with pokemon that cover weaknesses. You'll also probably want a Spiker of some type.
Dugtrio**GoinUnder (evanescence, anybody? 0_0) @ Life Orb
Arena Trap
Jolly (+Spd -Spatk)
-Earthquake
-Sucker Punch
-Stone Edge
-Stealth Rock
You may be saying-
"But wait Psycho! Arena Trap makes it so that you can't switch out- I thought the point was to make them switch to take damage?"
Well you'd be right, except for the fact that this particular Dugtrio is meant as a glass cannon- get in there then get the fk out.
Articuno**BrrCold @ Leftovers
Pressure
Calm (+Spdef -Atk)
-Ice Beam
-Roost
-Roar
-Reflect
Here's the Dugtrio switch- a Roarer. Ensures Stealth Rock damage as well as pulling out any potential Ice weaknesses to pick off. If freeze h4x occurs, Reflect.
Leafeon**TooSexseh @ Leftovers
Leaf Guard
Jolly (+Spd -Spatk)
-Leaf Blade
-Swords Dance
-Baton Pass
-Grasswhistle
A defensive wall/SDPasser with a Jolly nature? Oh, the blasphemy!
Make sure that your team has no glaring weaknesses to certain types or particular OU threats (You Are Hera Weak), otherwise when you play really really good players, you will get wiped out.
Hope I helped you guys out- if you have any questions, post 'em here.
PoTW- Octillery
Ah, good old Octillery! This kid's one of my favorite pokemon of all time. In the good old GSC days, he was a must-have on ANY team I put together. The red octopus has one of the largest movepools in the game and halfway decent stats, but he's not quite up to snuff to today's metagame.
Receiver Octillery
@Expert Belt / Life Orb
Suction Cups
Timid
24 HP / 252 SpAtk / 232 Speed
Surf
Energy Ball / Hidden Power Ground
Flamethrower
Ice Beam
The name of this set may leave you scratching your head, but 'Reciever' basically means it's the best choice for Baton Pass'd stat boosed (I.E. Nasty Plot, etc.) since it can't be forcibly switched out by a Skarmory or other Roarer (not that this thing should be up against a skarmory anyway). All of the moves in this set cover each type, leaving no blind spot uncovered. I myself prefer Energy Ball over HP Ground since it's much more easy to come by, and you need not go through that entire fiasco with IV breeding and battling random Kecleons. :P The EVs give him 404 speed after two Ninjask Speed Boosts, but dont go thinking you can use it in OU. If you absolutely must, make sure you take out your opponent's special wall- it'll put Octillery into a dead halt.
Special Sweeper
@Choice Specs / Choice Scarf
Sniper
Modest / Timid
4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Surf
Ice Beam
Energy Ball / Hidden Power Ground
Fire Blast
Somewhat different than the Reciever Octillery, it sacrifices its non-Roar-ability to be deadly as a special sweeper. Choice Specs also increases its damage output and is probably best used on the little octopus, since he's the very essence of a glass cannon- one shot and it's done. In contrast, you can use the Choice Scarf to let the normally slow poke outspeed things with a base speed of 91- the major threats in UU being Venomoth and company.
Physical Sweeper
Choice Band
Sniper
Brave
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpAtk
Waterfall
Return
Rock Blast / Gunk Shot
Hidden Power Ground
Octillery's ATK stat is somewhat workable for UU (Notice I said workable, ha-ha) but has a pretty limited movepool for a Physical sweeper. Not much resists both Water and Normal besides Empoleon; use HP Ground to take him out (or, maybe Thunderbolt since you have all that spare SATK.)
Other Options:
Octazooka is a wonderful move, and despite its low power it has what I like to call a mud-slap effect, reducing the opponent's accuracy 50% of the time. Octillery can also learn other fun special moves, like Sludge Bomb, Wring Out, Psychic, Brine, Flash Cannon and Charge Beam (which is particularly fun to use on Recievers and SpSweepers).
Coming next week: Whats covered in slime, blue, and has a monstrous attack stat? No, it's not your mom...
Keep it doublethink,
Psycho
So I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but I havent gotten around to it yet and seeing as Jet hasn't updated his in a month....
Every week I'll choose a random pokemon (using a RNG) and will review it, giving ideal movesets, ideas, and strategies to use the pokemon with.
As well as some other interesting tidbits.
I hope you guys will stay interested.
:P
So the Pokemon of the Week for Saturday September 22nd is...
Infernape
Fire/Fighting
87.5% Male 12.5% Female
Flame Pokemon
3'11" 121 lbs
76/104/71/104/71/108
No Capture Rate (Starter)
Infernape was one of the most underrated starters before D/P came out, with many angling for Torterra and Empoleon (myself included :P), calling him a cheap ripoff of Blaziken. But once he entered the metagame, he quickly surpassed his bird counterpart straight into OU status.
set 1- Physical Sweeper
@Expert Belt/Life Orb
24hp/252atk/232spd
Jolly
Blaze
Swords Dance
Flare Blitz
Close CombatThunderpunch / Stone Edge
This is by far the most commonly used Infernape due to its prejudice towards Physical moves in the movepool. However, it can be somewhat tricky to use if you use Life Orb- during a Sandstorm or Hail, Flare Blitz can cause you to OHKO yourself. Not fun.
set 2- Mixed Sweeper
@ Life Orb
Naive
24atk/232spd/252spatk
Nasty Plot
Flamethrower / Fire Blast
Grass Knot
Close Combat
At first glance, this looks like a Special Sweeping set with a CC thrown in for good measure against Rocks- you couldn't be more wrong. Infernape makes an excellent special sweeper, having a higher-than-average Sp Atk stat (After one nasty plot, it can take out many of its walls with Grass Knot such as Milotic and Swampert). It's better to have Flamethrower for pure accuracy, but Fire Blast allows you to onehit KO walls like Bronzong, Regice, and Cresselia (!). I prefer this one over the previous and the next set.
set 3- Special Attacker
@ Life Orb
24hp/232spd/252spatk
Timid
Blaze
Nasty Plot
Flamethrower / Fire Blast
Grass Knot
Hidden Power Ice
Almost identical to the mixed set, giving up its ability to knock off Blissey with relative ease for the ability to put Salamence and Garchomp into an ICU.
Other Options: You can try a Choice Band and go for an all-physical Infernape, but this requires some predicting power. You can also try Blaze Kick if you're not a fan of Flare Blitz's recoil.
'Kay, so that's the first week. Please feel free to reply with things you think should be added/removed or with comments.
Hope I helped!
Stay tuned next week...
Moch luff,
Psycho
