Team Draco Superat

Team Draco Superat

This team may seem bog-standard and oh-so-boring at first glance, and it probably is. I created the team as a nice balanced team, based around a Dragon Dance Salamence sweep - hence the name, which is Latin for "The Dragon Pwns". It's a basic balanced team, removing Mence's checks to set up and sweep with DDMence. Since I am not at all a fan of Stall, Semi-stall, and other defensive playstyles, finding them too slow for my liking, I decided to use revenge killers and Life Orb sweepers to prepare for Salamence's entrance. This team got me to a CRE of 1506 at its peak.

Perks of this team:
Only one SR weakness
Only one TSpikes weak Pokemon - this same Pokemon has Natural Cure.
Resists every type twice except Ghost.
Is only weak to 4 types more than once - Fire, Ice, Dark, Ghost.

With out further ado, the team:




Jirachi @ Leftovers
Jolly Nature (+ Spe, - Atk)
80 HP/252 Atk/176 Spe
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- U-Turn
Jirachi is such an amazing asset to any team, in any role. It's extremely versatile, with a huge movepool and "perfect" 100-all stats. In this case, it's a TrickScarf lead. It defeats all Azelf leads that aren't carrying Fire Blast, providing a resist to Explosion and taking .25% damage from Psychic. It also resists Grass, Rock, Ice, and Dragon, amongst other types. Often considered one of the most annoying Pokemon in the game, Jirachi's Serene Grace ability is used to the advantage of many battlers. For those of you kept in the dark, Serene Grace doubles the chance of secondary effects taking place. For example; Iron head has a 30% flinch rate. With Serene Grace, that rate is doubled, and becomes 60%.

Jirachi's role here is simple - set up Rocks, preferably while crippling and/or taking out an opponent. While Jirachi's speed is often considered mediocre, I can change that with a single move. Thunder Wave is extremely helpful for this set in crippling leads and sweepers belonging to my opponent. After a single Thunder Wave, Jirachi outspeeds you, no matter who you are. The FlinchHax that Jirachi is known for is also made much easier by Thunder Wave paralyzing my opponent. Stealth Rock is practically a must for any team, and this one is no different. It allows me to break sashes, and it really does damage to flyers like Gyarados and Salamence, who can really screw up a team if not dealt with earlier. Iron Head provides solid STAB, and can murder an opponent with flinches, which is always very annoying. U-Turn gets me out of sticky situations, and can be used to scout, and to keep the momentum going with me.

Breloom (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 48 HP/252 Atk/208 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Focus Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Spore
- Substitute
Breloom. The single most annoying Pokemon in the entire metagame. With his unique ability, Poison Heal, which heals 12.5% of his health when he's poisoned, instead of taking away his health, he can make a great Physical Sweeper. He also has a great move, Spore, that only Smeargle (and, of course, Shroomish) can learn. Spore is a sleep move that has 100% accuracy. This move is broken. Combine that with Breloom's great attack stat and offensive typing, and he can be not only hard to take down, but hard to counter as well.

This is the most commonly used Breloom set, and with good reason. When Breloom is brought into something that it scares - say, a Swampert, or something I know I can outspeed, the first thing I do is use Spore. This allows me to set up my substitute on the next turn, and get in at least one Focus Punch or Seed Bomb before losing the substitute, and possibly being forced out. However, once its checks are removed, Breloom has a great time. Unaffected by Leech Seed, Breloom restores twice the health of Leftovers every turn. Why does it do this? It does this because it is poisoned. Breloom's ability, Poison Heal, allows it to restore 12.5% of its health each turn when Poisoned - luckily, the Toxic Orb poisons me instantly. This allows me to, in only two turns, regain any health I lost from a Substitute. Now I come to the attacking moves. Focus Punch and Seed Bomb use Breloom's STABs. Seed Bomb is an 80 base power Grass move. Water-types, most notably Swampert, and Ghost-types or Psychic-types will fall to the might of the Bomb of Seeds. Last but not least, meet Focus Punch! Focus Punch is a great fighting-type move. With an amazing 150 base power, coming from Breloom it'll do as much as Rock Wrecker from Rhydon. However, Breloom doesn't have to recharge. And he has triple the PP. When behind the substitute, Breloom does not lose his focus and therefore is able to move. Breloom used Focus Punch! Opponent fainted!

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spe/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
Starmie! Popular since RBY, Starmie gained more popularity as a rapid spinner when the move Spikes was created in Generation III. When Generation IV came out, Starmie had even more to spin away, with Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes really helping out Stall. Starmie is also great as a sweeper. Its ability, Natural Cure, cures all status upon switching out of the battle, allowing me to remove from it any status which it may have gained while in the battle. It also has decent defenses of 85/85, but is let down by its mere base 60 HP. However, it finds its other niche in Special Attacking. With 115 base Speed allowing it to outrun Gengar and Latias, as well as a decent 100 Special Attack, Starmie is one of the premier Special Attackers of early Diamond and Pearl. Now I bring it back.

Starmie can easily be a great sweeper with Recover and Rapid Spin, but it would then have to drop one of its three primary attacking moves. Seeing as Salamence partially relies on the removal of Stealth Rock for a better sweep, I decided to use Rapid Spin, really helping my team out. On the sweeping side, Starmie's STAB Surf hits for great neutral coverage, and takes good care of Fire-types, which can really screw over my team if I'm not prepared. Ice Beam hits Dragon-types, as well as Grass-types like Celebi who like to come in and harass me. Thunderbolt in the last slot deals with Water-types and Gyarados, pretty much, and Starmie opens up some pretty big holes in my opponent's team.

Rotom @ Choice Scarf
Timid Nature (+ Spe, - Atk)
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spe/252 SAtk
- Shadow Ball
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
Rotom has great defensive typing. Ghost/Electric allow him to have resistances to key types, including Steel and Bug, the two STAB types of Scizor, the biggest offensive threat in the game. It also takes no damage whatsoever from Fighting and Normal, because of its typing. It's ability, Levitate, is one of the best defensive abilities in the game. It allows Rotom to be immune to Ground moves, a type that would cause trouble otherwise. In its Heat Forme, Rotom provides the ultimate Scizor Counter. It gets access to an amazing Fire move in Overheat, which can fry Scizor easily. Its base Defenses, at 107 each, more than make up for its mere 50 HP, allowing the Scarf set even to be reasonably Bulky.

The EVs are sexy. Timid nature gives me max speed without reducing a necessary stat. I also give him 252 EVs in said Speed stat, so he has very high speed, which is good. With the Scarf included, Rotom-h hits an amazing 447 Speed, enough to outspeed lesser Scarfers such as Heracross with Rotom's unique 86 Base Speed. 252 EVs in Rotom's excellent 105 base Special Attack allow it to reach a total of 309, which is very good. The last four lonely EVs go to HP. Rotom-h has a good movepool, and two great offensive STABs. Shadow Ball hits Celebi, Cresselia, Azelf, Gengar, and other Psychic and Ghost type Pokémon that annoy a lot of people a lot. The next sexy STAB move for 'Tom is Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt hits all non-ground Water-types, and all non-ground Flying types for at least neutral, if not super effective, damage. Overheat hits Steel, Grass, and Bug types very hard, allowing me to truly counter Scizor and Heracross, along with Metagross and many other powerful metagame threats.

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 HP/216 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Magnet Rise
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
Magnezone is an absolute beast. With 115 Base Defense to go with 70 base HP, as well as the not-altogether-horrible 90 Base Special Defense, he can be extremely bulky. Magnezone's single worst stat is hit speed, which has a base of 60. He has a good secondary typing in Electric, allowing him to net himself some powerful super effectivenesses in Water and Flying. He is amazingly powerful, with the scary prospect of his 130 base Special Attack looming over all those who would see him removed from the battlefield.

Zone here appears in the standard "Steel Killer" set, with a few changes. I'm running Modest > Timid, and therefore I want a better EV spread, someone please give me one. I'm also running Hidden Power Ice instead of the recommended Grass/Fire. Thanks to Snorlaxe for this stuff. Magnezone comes in and can easily trap and destroy a Steel-type like Scizor, even setting up my Substitute on him. With a Substitute up, I can use Magnet Rise, enabling me to not be weak to Ground moves. As soon as this has happened, I go ahead and sweep. With the impressive BoltBeam combo, i can defeat my Steel-type, then remove Salamence or Flygon or whoever comes in to revenge kill me, because I'm still behind the sub. It's awesome.

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Naive Nature (+ Spe, - Sdef)
EVs: 232 Atk/24 SpA/252 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Outrage
Ever since it came along in Generation III, Salamence has been a huge driving force behind every single team in the metagame, as they all have to consider Salamence, they all have to reckon with Salamence, they all have to find a way to deal with Salamence. Salamence has been considered for Uber in the past, and I can assure you, it will be in the future. Remarkably bulky as well for something so fast and powerful, Mence boasts 95/80/80 defensive stats. It's 100 base Speed is respectable, and allows it to outspeed much, including its rival Dragonite. 110 base Special Attack is equal to that of Latias, and makes Salamence a force to be reckoned with already. Add in that 135 base Special Attack, and I do not want to face this in a battle.

Salamence's best set has always been the Dragon Dance set. This set is so overwhelmingly powerful that it hardly requires an entire team to remove its counters - a single Pokémon will usually suffice. As such, my team based on Salamence can and will devastate the current metagame. A +1 Outrage from Mence will OHKO or 2HKO every Pokémon in the metagame, with the exception of certain Steel-types. Those Steel-types, which include Metagross, Heatran, and Skarmory, are dealt with using Mence's two other moves. Earthquake removes the Steel-types that are ground-weak, such as Metagross and Heatran, while Fire Blast gets rid of 252/0 Impish Skarmory, as well as Forretress, Scizor, and more. Naive allows me to tie with other base 100s, but sacrifices the ability to have a 20% chance of OHKOing standard MixPert after SR.