Staff Post Example RMT: Crappy Heracross

~CRAPPY HERACROSS~​

-Introduction:​

So I felt like writing a rate my team since I saw that most of the RMT threads in the forum where just a team export copied and pasted over, and so I might as well do a proper one. This type of RMT not only gives your team the credit it needs, it also makes it easier for the raters to give it a proper rate since they'll have a greater insight of it.
About the team itself, I wanted to build a team around M-Heracross since Aegislash and Mega Mawile had been banned from the OU metagame meaning that it is now a pretty useful wallbreaker. It no longer is as effective since the Mega Manectric + Landorus-T Scarf core has been increasing in popularity but it still has a pretty nice niche if you know what teams are weak to it and how to properly use it.

-Teambuilding Process:​

So I obviously knew I wanted to have Mega Heracross, and I wanted to use it as a wallbreaker. I also knew I didn't want to use the standard Close Combat / Pin Missile / Rock Blast / Swords Dance Set, since I was using Heracross as a wallbreaker I decided to put Substitute over Swords Dance since I wasn't going to need the extra attack, I just wanted to punch holes into teams to then sweep with other things. Now I wanted something that would get walled by things that can't take on M-Heracross.

Talonflame was the first thing that came to my mind, since LandoT- Manectric wasn't that common, it looked pretty good, Talonflame's most common counters where Tyranitar, Heatran, Rotom-W and Thundurus-I, the first two got nuked by Close Combat, the Substitute allowed Heracross to get a free Pin Missile on Rotom-W without getting burnt which made it no longer capable of taking a Brave Bird to the face, Heracross could also take a hit from the standard non HP Flying Thundurus-I and knock it out with Rock Blast, if Heracross had a Substitute it didn't even need to worry about HP Flying. I was using the Swords Dance dual stab Roost set.

So I needed a Stealth Rock setter and I wanted to try out Garchomp, who also appreciated Heracross' support since it took out Ferrothorns and Rotom-Ws and Talonflame took care of Keldeo and other checks of Garchomp. At this point my team was looking pretty offensive so I decided to keep it that way, now I needed something to remove Stealth Rocks since they were an annoyance to Talonflame.

Offensive deffoger Latias. Latias was chosen over Latios because Heracross and Talonflame could both use the Healing Wish support, just to lessen the damage from Substitutes and recoil. Latias could also Psyshock Keldeo which was helpful. At this point I was seen that I didn't really care about defensive synergy too much in this team since it was heavily offensive so the fact that I didn't have a solid switch in to Draco Meteors didn't scare me too much, I did need a way to speed control since scarfers where an issue.

Greatest form of offensive speed control in the game. It also gave me something to T-Bolt Azumarill with. I decided to ran the Thunder Wave +3 attacks set since it was the one that suited this team the best. Now for the final slot I saw that I was lacking in the priority department having only 1 priority user and since I had Thundurus-I which was one of the staples to any offensive team out there I decided to add the second one, Bisharp.

Bisharp seemed like a good glue, priority, Knock Off and something to take on fairies and Defoggers! It also worked pretty well with Thundurus-I since, welp, offensive staples are meant to work well together. Just the standard Sucker Punch / Knock Off / Low Kick / Iron Head set.

This team was great and was a lot of fun to use. It wasn't particularly weak to any of the most common offensive threats as well as deal with most walls fairly easily due to it's offensive presence.
Then Mega Manectric + Landorus-T teams started to pop up. The only thing that didn't lose to that core was Bisharp, but only a terrible player would run Manectric-Lando without an answer to +2 Bisharp. Even though I won from time to time by outplaying my opponent, getting rid of their answer to Bisharp, and removing Low Kick in favor of Swords Dance, I thought it wasn't going to be a great idea to run a team weak to such a common core so I decided that, before retiring the Team, I could at least change it a bit to see what I could come up with. I also changed the name of the team from "Heracross Offense" to "Crappy Heracross".

REBUILDING:

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FINAL TEAM:

Changes:
~Heracross stayed the same. I modified the EV spread a bit so it could take more U-Turns.
~Talonflame lost Swords Dance and gained U-Turn.
~Garchomp was changed by a somewhat customized Tyranitar.
~Latias' EV spread didn't change. I changed Psyshock for Thunderbolt.
~Thundurus-I's EV spread was changed drastically into a bulkier spread(outdated). I switched Focus Blast in favor of Taunt.
~Bisharp was replaced by Belly Drum Azumarill to take defeat the VolTurn core by clicking Aqua Jet after Belly Drum on expected Landorus-T U-Turns.
~Azumarill was replaced by Slowbro since I wanted something defensive to take on Landorus as well as a bulkier 'mons in general.

-A Closer Look:​

Heracross:

Heracross @ Heracronite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 56 HP / 216 Atk / 8 SpD / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Pin Missile
- Rock Blast
- Substitute
~The wallbreaker of the team. The set is pretty simple, three standard attacks + Substitute to allow me to take on defensive Pokémon much easier, and if my opponent doesn't have a counter to this thing it can wreck 1 Pokémon and then hit something else behind the Substitute, giving a lot of opportunities to close the game to Talonflame as well as give an easier time to the rest of my Team to pick on offensive threats without being walled.
56 HP EVs + 8 SpD EV's give it enough bulk for the Substitute to take on resisted hits with ease while allowing Heracross to do 4 Substitutes instead of 3. 228 speed EVs are used to outspeed +Speed 252 Base 70 Pokémon, mainly Bisharp. The rest is dumped into attack to deal as much damage as possible.

Talonflame:

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Def / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Roost
~This thing still worked well with Heracross, since everyone started using gr8astard's team which featurs M-Manectric, Landorus-T, Crawdaunt, Azumarill, Gengar, and Garchomp, a lot of people started using M-Venusaur again which had a great match up against that team (and Heracross). Talonflame helped Heracross break walls for the rest of the team by taking out M-Venusaur. U-Turn replaced Swords Dance since I needed to U-Turn myself to keep up with that core's Volturn. Plus the metagame had kind of an offensive shift meaning that Swords Dance was no longer that necessary to break teams after Mega Heracross punched a few holes.
252 Attack give Talonflame as much Attack as I could give it. Jolly Nature alongside 168 Speed Ev's allow Talonflame to outspeed Raikou, which is the fastest Pokémon Talonflame can outspeed who I would rather hit with a Flare Blitz. I don't care about other Talonflames since they dropped a bit in usage and I had Slowbro, Tyranitar, and Thundurus-I to take care of them. 72 HP EV's give Talonflame an odd HP number to take less damage from Stealth Rocks and the 16 Defense EV's allow it to take on plenty U-Turns as well as deal better with Scizor.

Tyranitar:

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Atk / 248 Def / 4 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Ice Beam
~This thing can take on the VolTurn Core with ease if played right, it's pretty simple, get it to face Mega Manectric, Click Ice Beam, profit. This thing wrecks Landorus-T on the switch in (as well as take it on 1v1 if it doesn't have Superpower) and then walls M-Manectric thanks to Sandstorm + Sassy Nature. I still needed Stealth Rocks, I also wanted a Pursuit trapper to trap Latios and Latias which could be trouble to the rest of the team. Stone Edge to have a strong Stab option that deals with Talonflame and Ice Beam to defeat the VolTurn core.
It's been quite a long time since I did that EV Spread but it's not too different from the Standard, I just gave it 240 HP Evs instead of 252 to hit 401 HP to yield as much HP from Leftovers as possible while still having an odd HP Number to take less from residual damage. The rest was just dumped into Defense with 4 EV's replaced into SDef to give me better chances against M-Manectric and the rest is dumped into Atk.

Latias:

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Thunderbolt
- Defog
- Healing Wish
~Standard Latias is standard, I still wanted Stealth Rocks to be out of sight for Talonflame to put in work. Draco Meteor allows me to hit as hard as possible, Thunderbolt smacks Azumarill, Defog obviously to clear entry hazards, and Healing Wish because Talonflame, Thundurus-I, and Heracross appreciate it A LOT, a lot of my games were won by Healing Wishing a key Pokémon back.
For the ones who are unfamiliar with this EV Spread 72 HP EVs allow Latias to take 2 Hidden Power Ice from Life Orb Thundurus. Max Speed is to abuse that 110 Base Speed and then the rest is dumped into attack.

Thundurus-I:

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 152 HP / 36 Def / 68 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Taunt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
~Well, this EV Spread needs a new rundown, I designed this EV Spread back in the days of Aegislash where it was designed to check it (kinda) as well as just be a bulkier form of Speed Control in general.
T-Wave gives me the Speed Control I want, Paralyzing threats like Greninja and Terrakion stuff I'd appreciate to be able to click Close Combat or Pin Missile against). Thunderbolt is to have a strong STAB Attack and also to hit Azumarill, Taunt stops walls and Stealth Rock setters and Hidden Power Ice allows me to take on Garchomp, players who want to get fancy with Landorus-T, and give me nice overall coverage.
Again the EV Spread needs a new adjustment to adapt to the Metagame. 152 HP Evs give me a high odd HP Number that if I recall is 1 point above a Leftover Number to gain as much Recovery as I can while not taking as much damage from Stealth Rocks.
The Defensive EV's helped it check Aegislash. I wanted Max Speed to outrun Base 110s like the Lati Twins and Gengar and the rest is just dumped into Special Attack.

Slowbro:

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Slack Off
- Ice Beam
~Defensive pivots are always nice, and Slowbro is one of the best! Slowbro glues the team together pretty well, first off it gives me an immediate plan of action against users of Gr8astard's team by handing Garchomp sufficiently(Stealth Rocks → Ice Beam KO[Focus Sash: Earthquake → Scald/Toxic KO]). Not only that it also scores burns and Toxics all over the place while pivoting and regaining HP from Regenerator. It also gives me something else to take on Landorus-T and just physical attackers in general.
It also helps me take on Latios and Latias that don't carry Thunderbolt, as well as gives me a nice 30% chance to burn Azumarills.

-Biggest Common Threats:​

Mega Gardevoir: While I can check it with Talonflame easily, it's not a thing to mess around with, and can deal with a huge portion of my team. If I can play aggressively enough and not give it too much wiggle room to Mega Evolve it's not too threatening.
+ The VolTurn Core: This team was originally super weak to Mega Manectric and Landorus-T, and it still is, just not as badly. Tyranitar + Latias help a lot but it's still 50~50s a lot of the time and getting Intimidated over and over cripples Talonflame and M-Heracross's damage potential.
Belly Drum Azumarill: The rest of the sets are not too bad since they are easily revengekilled or just walled by Slowbro. The Belly Drum set in the other hand can destroy my Team if I haven't done a good job to maintain my answers for it. Sometimes I will just hit it hard before letting it Belly Drum so I can Pick it off 100% of the Time. Stealth Rocks help me with Damage Roles.
Life Orb Taunt + 3 Attacks Gengar: Only Talonflame checks it, the rest of the team gets hit pretty hard.
Swords Dance Crawdaunt: And this is why I'm still weak to that team (thankfully most of the rippers of it are kinda terrible) Thundurus-I can't take a Life Orb Aqua Jet at +2 after Stealth Rocks, so I'm once again left with Talonflame as my best check and Latias as my second one, no switch ins though.
Greninja: Again, Talonflame checks it, I need Thundurus-I to paralyze it so I can ko it with Heracross.

-Final Thoughts:​

I really didn't feel like doing a rebuilding of this Team again with OR/AS on the horizon so I decided to retire this team. The first version was definitely the most successful, skyrocketing my rank to #5 on the Showdown! Ladder where it fluctuated between 8th and 13th for the most part , but once the format evolved and the team became overrun with offensive Volturning it hasn't done as well. Its revival helped a bit but the idea behind the team just isn't as good anymore.
With that said I'm pretty happy I got to use this team when it was great.

-One Last Look At The Team:​

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Final Note:
This is how a proper RMT is done, you don't need to do all of this but you should always put pictures of the Pokémon you use so it's not a mess of words and numbers as well as put descriptions of every Pokémon and their role in the team, a minimum of 2 lines should be enough for us to rate it.
The two most important things are obviously the Introduction which presents the main idea behind the Team and the Closer Look but everything in between helps us know what you already know you're weak to as well as how you came up with the team, this prevents pointless points.
One last thing: "If X and Y are weakened you are weak to Z" is not an argument to say a Team is weak to something, if the Team is weak to Z without X and Y, the role of X and Y is to stop Z.

 

Thanks! i like how a well written RMT looks like a story, is kinda neat.