Welp, I’ve beaten the game once and I’m gonna do it again on Normal difficulty with a different team, just for the heck of it. What do you think of the team in the attached image? (Please note I should have also listed Eviolite as an item for Eevee,and I do apologize if the image is too small)
It’s alright if you get lucky, although it’s not too good since there isn’t really a defensive core, so if you let someone get a couple of boosts up first, that could be GG right then and there. Your team is also weak to smeargle sets, as you do not carry taunt, a berry for waking up, a sleep-immunity ability, or substitute; so getting spored could easily ruin whatever strategy you are going for, which seems to either be “get a couple boosts up,” or “hit it until it stops moving.”
This team could work alright throughout the main story, I’m sure; and if you’re just doing this for fun: power to you; I love creativity. However, this team gets probably can’t deal with the elite 4 without getting lucky with flinching/critical hits, since something that has a focus sash, mainly a smeargle can just spore you and go to town on your team with stat boosts, so you will have to flinch them in order to waste their sash, or let the sandstorm take them out when they remain on 1HP.
Here’s my try at making this team viable for competitive/the main story, I hope that you like it! :>
Mega Eevee’s moves are good the way they are, however I highly getting giga drain over hydro pump so that you may avoid getting spored by a smeargle; you already have aqua tail on D. Haxorus for water type coverage. The recommended Nature would be Timid (-Attack +Speed), so you can outspeed more things and transform into the Eeveelution you need. The EVs should Heavily invest into Special Attack, put a good chunk into speed, and maybe put some into health or Special/Physical Defense, for extra longetivity, but if you just want to go for max special attack and speed: it should be fine, but you need something bulky on your team to make up for the lack of a defensive core.
Delta Haxorus is a great physical sweeper, just remember to give it max Attack and Speed EVs since it already has a fairly decent defensive typing, so you can probably tank a hit or two if you get the right switch in, allowing you to set up with swords dance. The best nature for it would be Jolly (-Special Attack, +Speed), just to give it a better chance at outspeeding its opponents, but if you want to run Dragon Dance over Swords dance, run Adamant (+Attack, -Special Attack).
What you really need to change about this set is the ability. Strong jaw is good for biting moves, which helps out a little with crunch; but having an ability which only helps out slightly with one attacking move, it’s just not worth it.
Use Water Veil; it makes it so that you can not be burned. Being burned halves your attack stat and takes off a bit of HP every turn, so running is much better than strong jaw, since it can stop you from making Haxorus crippled for the rest of the battle.
Volcarona really shouldn’t have a rocky helmet, since most contact moves are physical, and Quiver Dance only helps out with Special Defense in the case of getting hurt, so getting a tiny bit of chip damage on an opponent that could potentially use a rock type move on you, which is nearly guaranteed to kill you; it’s just not worth it. The best item to run on it would either be leftovers, since if you’re facing a special attacker, you will be healing a little bit of health every turn which is likely to be pretty useful if your opponent’s special attacks aren’t doing anything to begin with.
Instead of Flamethrower, run Fiery Dance or Fire Blast.
I personally prefer Fiery Dance, since you have a 50% chance of getting a special attack boost every time you use the move, so if you pair it with one Quiver Dance boost, you only become more and more threatening with every time you use the move, if you have decent luck. Fire blast has okay accuracy but it misses from time to time which can do you over if you have a lot of stat boosts and end up betting OHKO’d by an aqua tail from a Delta Haxorus because of an unlucky turn.
Just use Fiery Dance.
You can also give Volcarona a life orb, but I’m sure that giving it that will be extremely annoying since you lose a chunk of your health every time you use an attack, so having to use it in several trainer battles and wild encounters in between towns can be really annoying and cost you a lot of healing items.
If you don’t use Mega Eevee, use Mega Metagross. Hone claws doesn’t really do much for you, since your attack stat is already ridiculously high. Mega Metagross is also bulky and very fast, so giving it Hammer Arm would ruin that. The best moveset for Mega Metagorss would be Meteor Mash, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, and Pursuit/Earthquake. Thunder Punch lets you take care of flying types which could be used to switch in on a predicted earthquake; Ice punch is for ground types which could earthquake you; Meteor Mash is for taking out most other things, and can boost your attack even further, which lets you obliterate most opponents in one or two hits. Pursuit is for taking out ghost types which can hit you super effectively with STAB and for punishing people for switching out, since its power is doubled if your foe switches out on the same turn that it is used. Tough Claws boosts all of these moves, except earthquake, so just pick and choose which of the moves suit you. The best nature is also Jolly or Adamant.
Mega Tyranitar in this case is just not worth it, using the armored variant is just a lot better, since Mega Metagross/Eevee are better for type coverage with what you already have with the rest of your team, so giving it some extra bulk could help out greatly.
If you wish to use armor, the best moves would be Dragon Dance (You’ll need to chain breed for this egg move), Fire Punch, Stone Edge/Rock Slide, Earthquake (If you use Mega Metagross, use Crunch instead).
You can also use a choice band set with Fire Punch, Earthquake, Rock Slide/Stone Edge, and Crunch.
Give it an Adamant Nature.
Delta Scizor is more of a “Do a bit of damage before getting destroyed” pokemon, due to it being pretty frail, so giving it a focus sash would be pretty good, if you really want to use it.
You should probably replace it with a ferrothron, since it’s extremely bulky, your team can easily take out any fire-attackers with Tyranitar and D. Haxorus, so it should be fairly safe. Tyranitar’s Sand Stream also gives all Steel/Rock/Ground Types a slight Special Defense boost, so that gives it move longetivity. Ferrothorn is also immune to spore, so it can easily switch in on a smeargle that hasn’t set up yet.
Give it Max HP and split the remaining EVs between Defense and Special Defense however you see fit. Its ability should be iron barbs, and if you want to get extra chip damage, give it a rocky helmet.
Its moves should be Leech Seed, Thunder Wave, Stealth Rock, and Vine Whip/Gyro Ball.
Ferrothorn would be able to beat a smeargle set, which relies on you falling asleep. Gyro ball does monstrous damage against fast opponents, vine whip is good for getting off some damage, Leech Seed is to let Ferrothorn and its teammates recover some HP, Thunder Wave halves the opponent’s speed and can make it so that they don’t move at all, if you get lucky (since the whole paralysis status), and Stealth Rock is extremely useful for shutting down focus sash strats, and do decent damage against most pokemon that switch in. On top of all that, if a pokemon is weak to Rock attacks, stealth rock will take away 25% of their health when they switch in, and if they have a double weakness, it deals 50% of their health, so they can only switch in once, since if they switch out and come back in they will just faint in most cases.
This ‘Improved’ team still lacks some things, such as Taunt, Substitute, and other entry hazard; but I’m sure that it will work okay. Have fun with your next run!
P.S. I am sorry for any typos.
Thanks for all the input. My teams for the core series games are usually hyper-offense, and as you put it, “hit it until it stops moving”. After reading your comments, though, this isn’t going to cut it for Insurgence.
I should definitely invest in a Ferrothorn, having a defensive core on my team would definitely shake things up. Also, I’ll definitely keep in mind the move/ability changes you requested. Maybe I won’t have to rely on pure luck this time for the Elite Four.
Thanks for all the input, I really appreciate it!
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